$4000 Budget +/- 200 Need help

EVGA x3 SLI board doesn't really offer you anything the EVGA LE doesn't. Indilinx SSDs (like the one you have selected) suck, go with a 80GB or 160GB Intel SSD. How badly do you need/want the Blu-Ray player? Drop it if it isn't needed. How badly do you need/want a sound card? Drop it if it isn't needed. A single GTX 480 will max all but 2-3 games at 1920x1200 resolution, drop the second one. Upgraded case fans are very loud, that will be up to you if you can live with it, they do look very nice. Drop the surge protector, buy your own somewhere else for cheaper.

Ticket #404410, Price in cart: $3208
Chassis Model: Digital Storm HailStorm (Black OPS Edition)
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1200W Digital Storm Certified (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Highly Recommended)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (80GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Extreme Performance) (Model: SSDSA2MH080G2R5)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Seagate/Hitachi/Western Digital (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 22x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 1x NVIDIA EVGA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 3: FrostChill Cooling System: CPU Only
H20 Tube Color:White Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive)
Chassis Airflow: Upgrade Chassis With LED Performance Fans (Blue) (Up to 6 Fans)
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (UV) (Creates Glowing Effect for H20 Tubes)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Requires Air Cooling Upgrade)
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: Memory Fan Kit Only (Does not include memory overclocking service)
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: FREE: Please include a free copy of a hot-selling game
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Large)
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

If you can live without the Hailstorm case and pretty white tubes of the liquid cooling, you can get the same computer and performance for $379 cheaper in the Special Deals section. Personally I like the look of the HAF 932 better than the Hailstorm and I think $379 looks sexier than white tubes, but that's just me.

Ticket #404415, Price in cart: $2829
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Not Available
Trim Accents: - Not Available
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1200W Digital Storm Certified (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Highly Recommended)
Expansion Bay: - Not Available
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (80GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Extreme Performance) (Model: SSDSA2MH080G2R5)
Set 1 Raid Options: - Not Available
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Seagate/Hitachi/Western Digital (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 22x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 1x NVIDIA EVGA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler (Compatible With ONLY i7 Processors)
H20 Tube Color:- Not Available
Chassis Airflow: Upgrade Chassis With LED Performance Fans (Blue) (Up to 6 Fans)
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Blue)
Enhancements: - Not Available
Chassis Mods: - Not Available
Noise Reduction: - Not Available
Boost Processor: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Requires Air Cooling Upgrade)
Boost Video Card: - Not Available
Boost Memory: - Not Available
Boost OS: - Not Available
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - Not Available
Office: - Not Available
Benchmarking: - Not Available
Install/Test Game: FREE: Please include a free copy of a hot-selling game
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Large)
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

but doesn't the LE have  horrible locked PCIe bandwidth??

So isn't still he losing 2% sli performance by default for choosing the LE. Much better to choose a different mobo than to chose one which is automatically nerfed to begin with.


Edited by sirsiddius - 08 May 2010 at 2:34pm

for your monitor it may be alittle out of ur range... but it is great and one of the best on the market. get a dell u2410 monitor

Originally posted by Dragoonseal Originally posted by sirsiddius So isn't still he losing 2% sli performance by default for choosing the LE. Much better to choose a different mobo than to chose one which is automatically nerfed to begin with. Other boards are "nerfed" in other ways, it is a balancing act. The EVGA x3 SLI can do x16/x16 or x16/x8/x8 but it costs more and you lose the ability to use bigger CPU coolers like the Noctua NH-D14. The EVGA Micro is a little cheaper, can use bigger CPU coolers like the Noctua NH-D14, and can do x16/x16 but then you're out of PCIe lanes completely, no more add on cards. The EVGA Classified has all the bells and whistles, PCIe lanes and fits big CPU coolers, but is very expensive. The LE is just an ideal compromise for most people. It is basically x3 SLI board that gives up 2% SLI performance to be much cheaper and is even able to use larger CPU coolers. The Noctua NU-D14 rocks, I rarely recommend giving that up. I personally favor the Micro, I don't use any add on cards so its lack of PCIe lanes is not a problem for me, but I'm not in the majority in that regard, most would rather take that 2% SLI hit for a bunch of extra lanes.

True...True, well Gpaint does claim to have a 4000USD budget so I suppose an extra 44 bucks to upgrade to an evga sli won't mean that much to him, especially since he's already dropping huge wads of money on sli'ed gtx 480s to begin with, he might as well get the most out of his monster gpus.

BTW you know whats a great board: the asus p6x58d-e. Has a great rep, oc's brilliantly and has usb 3 and sata 3 support, and its great value for the money. This one is the board I'll be getting for my summer build.


Edited by sirsiddius - 08 May 2010 at 6:27pm

Thanks for the replies so far:) @dragoonseal I appreciate you showing me how and where I can lower the costs. I have trouble visualizing what Im getting when I make my configs so I tend to assume the available upgrades are practically needed to have it be a halfway decent machine.

Its a bit out of my understanding what your discussing with the motherboards but, I would just get the motherboard that wouldn't cause any performance loss. I would never be in the territory of using more than a dual GPU setup however.

So here are some further questions to help me understand for making choices.

I see many configs using the i7920+ overclock...the price diff between the 930+overclock is small...is there a reason to go with one vs the other?

If im using headphones and a simpler speaker setup is the money spent on a sound card worth it? And is it a simple process to add later on?

The area I'm having the most trouble on is the cooling options, it is easy to select options and jump that price way up. I want to be safe with my temps but I dont want a very loud machine either. If I dont have a fancy sub zero I would still have the case lit up in a color of my choice right? Oh and the front panel temp controls...how nice is this to have? Very useful or more a novelty?

So basically I like what dragoon did but cutting out the unneeded ( one GPU is good for now I agree) Just trying to learn a little more about what my machine will look like/sound like with the less expensive options. And I will be using the DELL ultra sharp 24

ty again

Ive been doing alot of research on video cards and I just cant seem to find two sites that agree but overall I seem to find more evidense that the ati 5970 is the better choice over the 480? Seems in part due to it having had more time to be updated. I know the 5970 is essentially 2 GPUS with 1gb ram. I will be a gamer on the pc i purchase from here but i will do alot of graphical work, which is better from a gaming + proffesional perspective? Eveyone here seems to always tell it how it is....

Thanks for the fast Reply:0