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$4500, Spec out my system

Post Date: 2008-07-06
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TDSS02 View Drop Down
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Posts: 3 		  Quote TDSS02 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: $4500, Spec out my system
    Posted: 06 Jul 2008 at 2:47am
This computer is going to used strictly for gaming. I DO NOT need a monitor, keyboard or a mouse. I'm curious what everyone would build.
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skyR View Drop Down
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Posts: 2220 		  Quote skyR Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Jul 2008 at 2:59am
That's a lot of money =o

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=164435
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!ender_ View Drop Down
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Jul 2008 at 6:36am
yea, seriously...
 
 
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TDSS02 View Drop Down
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Posts: 3 		  Quote TDSS02 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Jul 2008 at 10:53am
Hey its been 8 years, its about time to get a new one and i want it to last another 8 years. Big%20smile
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Jul 2008 at 11:10am
sorry, no amount of money will buy you thatSmile
 
honestly, youd be better off to drop 2.6-3k into a system now and then buy again in 4ish years. im sure the computer you have now served you well but the industry is changing exponentially faster now
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Tyler Lowe View Drop Down
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Posts: 0 		  Quote Tyler Lowe Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Jul 2008 at 1:17pm
$4497
 
I normally recommend an air cooled system for ease of upgrade in the future, but at this budget range, my expectation would be different in terms of the overall experience. At $4500 I would want a quiet computing experience, so there is no noisy 10k or 15k RPM HDD in this build, and I dropped stage 3 air cooling in favor of a dual loop cooling option. If $4500 is not too strict, but more of a ballpark figure, I would have gone with 4GB of Dominator 1066 RAM, a 500GB 7200RPM HDD, and Vista Ultimate, which includes it's own backup image software.
 
I do not believe that the additional bandwidth of DDR3 merits the additional expense with this generation of CPU. DDR3 is best used in extreme overclocking of dual cores. The quad is much more likely to give you an extended life over a dual core, so I selected the Q9450, which should overclock nicely and provide performance on par with much more expensive CPU's allowing for more $$$ to be used in other aspects of the build. This being the case, and understanding that DDR2 will get you past 4.2GHz potential for overclocking (CPU and motherboard allowing naturally), I decided to use an X48 , DDR2 based motherboard.
 
The next generation of CPU will not use the LGA 775, so it is not like you will see any future proofing benefit from the new DDR3 RAM. Should you desire to upgrade to the Nehalem processors when they are released, you would need a new motherboard as well, and a couple of sticks of RAM would be the least of your expenses.
 
The GPU choice at this budget was slightly more difficult. It was tempting to sacrifice on other areas of this build to use a pair of GTX280's. In the end, I decided that if you want to try and use this system over an extended duartion, the GPU was the component that was most likely to be replaced several times, so the mild reduction in performance of the HD4870 as compared with the GTX280 (they will both breeze through just about anything out now, even in single card configuration) seemed a reasonable trade off.
 
The one thing about this build I will say, is that if you are not comfortable with the idea of upgrading components in a watercooled setup, you would be better served to just go with the stage 3 air cooling.


Edited by Tyler Lowe - 06 Jul 2008 at 8:43pm
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Doc View Drop Down
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Posts: 355 		  Quote Doc Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Jul 2008 at 7:15pm
Originally posted by Tyler Lowe

$4497
 
"The next generation of CPU will not use the LGA 775, so it is not like you will see any future proofing benefit from the new DDR3 RAM. Should you desire to upgrade to the Nehalem processors when they are released, you would need a new motherboard as well, and a couple of sticks of RAM would be the least of your expenses."
 
 
Is there a current motherboard that will be compatible with future CPU's? I would assume they wouldn't put out new CPU's without an appropriate MB being available.


Edited by Doc - 06 Jul 2008 at 7:17pm
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skyR View Drop Down
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Posts: 2220 		  Quote skyR Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Jul 2008 at 7:24pm
Originally posted by Doc

Is there a current motherboard that will be compatible with future CPU's? I would assume they wouldn't put out new CPU's without an appropriate MB being available.


The current socket Intel CPUs use are LGA775 and LGA771. Nehalem uses a socket LGA 1366 and LGA ??. THEY ARE NOT BACKWARD COMPATIBLE.

The first Nehalem motherboards will be the X58 and P55.
The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star.
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Kliebor2 View Drop Down
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Posts: 659 		  Quote Kliebor2 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Jul 2008 at 1:20pm
From everything I am reading, the reviews and tests that have been done (darn few I might add) all were done with engineering samples/early release chips that may or may not show the same performance as the real thing.

Everything points to Nehalem being a huge jump in performance but I would think we will not see a settling to normal prices and good predictable performance until 2009.

Just too many variables right now to say much about it. I mean, for my money, I would say waiting only results in you not having a system. Blowing a huge sum when something new is right around the corner, is always a risk you are going to take, because there is always something new right around the corner.

You have to look at the precipice, decide if you like the look of the fall, and take the leap of faith. Star

Dave
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TDSS02 View Drop Down
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Posts: 3 		  Quote TDSS02 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Jul 2008 at 5:17pm
I have had my Cyberpower for 8 years, only thing i have done to it was update the GFX to a 7600. I still play top shelf games like COD4, Mass Effect etc... I tried ordering another from Cyberpower but it was TERRIBLE. It was so unstable it was a mess. It would lock up all the time, even locked up on the boot sequence i few times, it was bad so i had to send it back for a refund. Decided to go with someone else and im looking at either Digital Storm or AVA Direct cause i believe they will be able to build me something that will last several years.

Originally posted by !ender_

sorry, no amount of money will buy you thatSmile
 
honestly, youd be better off to drop 2.6-3k into a system now and then buy again in 4ish years. im sure the computer you have now served you well but the industry is changing exponentially faster now
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