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Advice on 4k setup

Post Date: 2008-07-01
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Ratbreath View Drop Down
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Posts: 24 		  Quote Ratbreath Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: Advice on 4k setup
    Posted: 01 Jul 2008 at 5:02pm
Hi all. From some pretty intensive research this seems the place to buy if you want someone else to build your system.

I'd like input. I'm looking for best gaming performance for 4k. I already have decent surge protection and plan to get a creative G550 system from newegg for the sound. I may get another 2 gigs of RAM later and I may even go dual SLI. This build is at $3,932.
Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos S Edition 
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Power Supply: 750W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz (1333MHz FSB) (12MB Cache) 
Motherboard: nVidia 790i Ultra Core 2 Quad (nForce 790i Ultra SLI) (DDR3 Only)
System Memory: 2GB DDR3 Corsair at 1600MHz Dominator DHX (High-Performance)
Card Reader: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 1: 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (Extreme Speed) 
Hard Drive 2: - No Thanks
Raid Option: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) (LightScribe Edition) 
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks 
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB 
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi FPS Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O Unit) 
Extreme Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 3 WindTunnel (Copper Heatpipe Heatsink & Zalman Case Fans) 
Internal Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Red Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes) 
Modifications: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my processor
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Tweak Windows: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system 
Windows OS: Dual Boot (Windows XP Home & Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) 
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: Acer 22 inch (Widescreen) (Black) (High-Performance Gaming Display) 
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Desktop 2.0 (Multimedia Keyboard + Optical Wheel Mouse)
Mouse: - No Thanks my keyboard comes with a mouse
External Storage: - No Thanks
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty
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Ratbreath View Drop Down
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Posts: 24 		  Quote Ratbreath Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 01 Jul 2008 at 6:05pm
Thanks!

First, the dual boot is important to me. My experience with vista has shown me that a lot of older games just won't work properly. I like some pretty old games, too. I even still play stuff like Master of Magic, though you need dosbox for that.

I've heard a lot of good things about the xi-fi soundcard. If I'm spending big bucks on my speakers wouldn't it be worth it?

Why is a second drive needed if you're not doing raid? If it's just in case one fails I can back up data more cheaply.
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SunfighterLC View Drop Down
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Posts: 1527 		  Quote SunfighterLC Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 01 Jul 2008 at 7:25pm

Id recommend you got to a local best buy or other electronics dealer and check out their monitors there, that way you can get an idea of what you would like, the monitor selection at DS is somewhat limited and im not a huge fan of acer displays.

 
The Cosmos S is a good sleek looking case, Ive enjoyed mine greatly. The side panels are somewhat tricky to get back on once you get off. Plus make sure you are there to catch them when they pop off, the left side has that fan that is plugged in, and you can very easy rip the cord right off if you arnt there to catch it or you forget and try to pull the panel away to set aside. I also have stage 3 air cooling, I still believe its worth getting it, but if you look in my thread I flipped my top fans or something like that in general, youll notice that with the top 3 fans in my computer are basically useless as my temps of both my CPU and GPU do not change whether they are blowing in or out or off for that matter. They do glow a pretty blue though, so ill leave them in though i plan to upgrade them to slightly higher air pushing fans, the side effect being even louder noise, and it is pretty noisy, youll notice the sound, but after a while you learn to drown it out.
 
 
The GTX 260 is the best bang for the buck on the Nvidia side of things, its only about 10-15% slower then the 280, but about 40% less. Though if you have the bones and you are spending quite a lot on a computer at 4K you may want to consider trying to eek out to a 280 to top you off, but thats just gravy both cards are decent. Though if you plan to SLI either of those cards, id recommend a 1000W Corsair, it is an extremely well built and high quality PS.
 
The velicraptor is a good drive, though i dont have any experence with it. im considering adding one though, but thatd be well down the road after my hard drives are full. You can see on my sig i have a regular 80 and 250, I use the 80 as an operating system drive, and the 250 as a gaming drive. There is no real need for two hard drives like that, but its nice to have a protective messure should i have to reinstall the OS i wont be losing all my game data. Chances of a OS reinstall are super low though, to be honest the real reason i got it is im just an organization freak, I like having things in their own drives. The only down side is everything I install tries to default install into the 80GB drive and i have to manually change that. But thats a minor inconvience.
 
If heard the X-FI sound cards by creative have lots of problems with Vista still, creating very loud poping and crackling sounds and random times, scaring the crap out of you. Personally, I am fairly good at computers, so i figured id give onboard sound a shot, i mean if its terrible, then Ill just buy a sound card i want and install it. If its good enough for me, then i just saved a good amount of bones. if youre pretty good at computers, id recommend this too. Its win-win either way, either you save money or put it back in your computer, or you get to pick a sound card you want from like..newegg....
 
My onboard sound was good enough for me, but out of bordom, ive ordered an asus xonar sound card just to see what its like.
 
Im assuming that with no overclocking options you plan to do that yourself yes? if not youre pretty much not getting much use out of that high speed DDR3.
 
 
Edit: Oh i forgot to add, if you do get stage 3 air cooling, chances are fairly good that all your top fans in your computer will be LED cooler master fans, I didnt know this till i got my computer, Mine glow blue. I didnt choose a light, and this thing still glows brighter then a supernova. You dont really need that 10 buck light because of this, but if you still want it then okie. The front case fan that comes with the computer glows Red just FYI, so my computer with top fans blue, front fan red, makes kind of a weird color war going on in the middle.
 
 


Edited by SunfighterLC - 01 Jul 2008 at 7:32pm
E8500@ 4.03Ghz
XFX 790i Ultra
1000W Corsair HX
2 280 GTX EVGA FTW
4GB OCZ Reaper 1800Mhz
250-80-300GB VR HD
Logitech Z-2300 2.1 Speakers
Asus Xonar 7.1
Hanns-G HG 281D 28" HDMI Monitor
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Tyler Lowe View Drop Down
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Posts: 0 		  Quote Tyler Lowe Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 02 Jul 2008 at 12:39am
If I had four thousand dollars to spend and wanted the maximum performance that could buy me for gaming, my build would look like this:
 
 
If you dropped the monitor, you would have almost $300 to play with to find a monitor on your own. $300 is getting mightly close to entry level 24" displays.
 
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!ender_ View Drop Down
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 02 Jul 2008 at 1:35am
while its very unlike me to disagree with tyler, id make some substantial changes to this pick
 
 
keep your monitor at or below 24" and youll have a maximum settings at full fps on most games currently released(crysis is dumb at max settings, it ruins the curve)
 
if you need a mouse, kb, and monitor and it all has to be below 4k, just drop the raptor drive to a standard 500gb 7200, and remove 1 lightscribe drive. boom 500 bucks.
 


Edited by !ender_ - 02 Jul 2008 at 1:37am
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Tyler Lowe View Drop Down
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Posts: 0 		  Quote Tyler Lowe Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 02 Jul 2008 at 4:45am
I can understand the case upgrade... I think the 900 is up to the task, but that I can understand. The DDR3 I can understand, even if I think DDR2 at 1066 will be enough to hit 4+ GHz (hardware allowing) and can't imagine that won't be a fast enough overclock on the CPU. The Raptor drives are not something I would opt for, but again, at least I can see where you're coming from !ender.
 
Where you lose me entirely is that cheap sound card in a system with a 790i motherboard... is that a misentry by chance?
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!ender_ View Drop Down
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 02 Jul 2008 at 8:40am
oh it was acually supposed to be no soundcard, although, i mean either way i dont think it would matter too much. an overclocked 9450 w/ stage 3 in that case would never need the backup of an offboard APU, *edit * to the barracude, but if you *had* to stay under 4k leave it out.
 
the raptor isnt something id typically go for either, but i also dont have 4k to drop on a CPU (acually used about 1/2 that) if i were trying to save money, id stick with 500gb, but i was going for as close to the 4k as i could get. hell id make a LOT of changes if it were about a budget build, but your wording of "If I had four thousand dollars to spend and wanted the maximum performance that could buy me for gaming" sparked my interest in trying to get as much power as i could under a 4k roof


Edited by !ender_ - 02 Jul 2008 at 8:41am
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Kliebor2 View Drop Down
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Posts: 659 		  Quote Kliebor2 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 02 Jul 2008 at 10:52am
I don't know, I tweaked around with 4 grand and came up with my dream system using the configurator, and I think it would be really slick as well, especially fast on the start up and load with a solid state OS drive...

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=163154

Dual 260s and a nice over clock and this beast should do everything except mix a dry martini Big%20smile
Digital Storm 950Si - Q9450 Quad Core @ 3 Ghz
Dual PNY OC2 GTX 560Ti
8 Gigabytes DDR2/800
2 Western Digital 500 GB SATAII 7200 RPM HD
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Ratbreath View Drop Down
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Posts: 24 		  Quote Ratbreath Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 02 Jul 2008 at 1:07pm
My reason for not overclocking was that I wanted to be sure everything was totally under warranty for years, but a sales rep told me that if an overclocked CPU or something goes belly-up in 60 days it's still covered. Sort of makes me wonder what point the '30 day warranty' has. So: overclocking it is!

Thanks for the heads-up about the lighting, Sunfighter. I don't want to blow this much money on something that clashes! Call me shallow. Really, I've read some other stuff about it being a bit loud, problems with the on button, paint, and annoying side-panel and stuff. I may go with the 950 case.

I may go with a different monitor, but I do want to stick with a 22" for now. If I go bigger I want to go substantially bigger, like 30". That would be when I'd want to SLI.

How many games really benefit from 4 megs of RAM right now?

I noticed most people's ideas go with the 2.66 processor. Is going up to 2.83 not worth the 200ish dollars you think?

I'm thinking of holding off on my purchase another month or so (paycheck). That gives me more 'just in case' money. And time to plan. It also might raise my comp building budget a little. :D

Oh, and Kliebor2, the 4k limit includes some sort of monitor.


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Kliebor2 View Drop Down
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Posts: 659 		  Quote Kliebor2 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 02 Jul 2008 at 2:00pm
the 9450 overclocks well and I see no reason to put 200 into a processor barely faster than the 9450 :)

and losing some money for a monitor... I guess that does kinda blow my idea out of the water, I still think slipping in a solid state drive is well worth the price for the performance gain in your dollar ballpark.

Just you may have to play with the configurator to get the best options for you :)
Digital Storm 950Si - Q9450 Quad Core @ 3 Ghz
Dual PNY OC2 GTX 560Ti
8 Gigabytes DDR2/800
2 Western Digital 500 GB SATAII 7200 RPM HD
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skyR View Drop Down
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Posts: 2220 		  Quote skyR Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 02 Jul 2008 at 2:09pm
Sort of makes me wonder what point the '30 day warranty' has
It's there so you can get a refund if you aren't satisfied with the product or you changed your mind.

How many games really benefit from 4 megs of RAM right now?
I hope you mean 4GB =p Crysis and Age of Conan are both ram whores.
The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star.
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Ratbreath View Drop Down
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Posts: 24 		  Quote Ratbreath Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 02 Jul 2008 at 2:19pm
I haven't done much research on solid state drives--the little I saw indicated they wouldn't be worth it.

I'm sort of paranoid about warranties right now. My gateway laptop just decided to die within a couple of weeks of the 1 year warranty expiring. Grrr.

And yeah, 4 gigs. D'oh!
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Kliebor2 View Drop Down
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Posts: 659 		  Quote Kliebor2 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 02 Jul 2008 at 2:20pm
As Sky said, virtually every modern game will take any memory you throw at it.

I can speak from experience that when I load up Conan my memory usage on my 8 GB beast goes from 20% to 80%... so it tweaks more than 4 gigs of system resources while loaded on my computer :)
Digital Storm 950Si - Q9450 Quad Core @ 3 Ghz
Dual PNY OC2 GTX 560Ti
8 Gigabytes DDR2/800
2 Western Digital 500 GB SATAII 7200 RPM HD
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Ratbreath View Drop Down
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Posts: 24 		  Quote Ratbreath Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 10:47am
UPDATE

I will likely purchase within the next couple of days. I've made a few revisions and included liquid cooling for the CPU. The whole system should run pretty quietly and I like that idea. Plus, honestly, I've always wanted to do liquid cooling because it's cool looking.

For the GPU I'm having them install one of these.

Apparently they work pretty well and it makes for easier upgrading when and if I want to. I want them to do it at DSO so it's factored in when they play with the overclocking.

The speakers.

THX surround sound and 130 subwoofer. Sweeeet.

I'll likely buy this monitor.

Good contrast ratio and response time, good reviews everywhere I read about it. 

Chassis: Digital Storm 850Si
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Power Supply: 750W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz (1333MHz FSB) (12MB Cache)
Motherboard: nVidia 790i Ultra Core 2 Quad (nForce 790i Ultra SLI) (DDR3 Only)
System Memory: 4GB DDR3 Corsair at 1333MHz
Card Reader: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 1: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Hard Drive 2: - No Thanks
Raid Option: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVDฑR/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) (LightScribe Edition)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi FPS Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O Unit)
Extreme Cooling: Liquid Chilled FrostBite CPU Only
Internal Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Blue Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
Modifications: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Yes, Overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability
Boost Video Card: Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability
Boost Memory: Yes, Overclock memory timings (Includes Memory Fan Kit Installed)
Tweak Windows: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system
Windows OS: Dual Boot (Windows XP Home & Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: Crysis (Pre-Install, apply updates, and test gameplay with my system)
LCD Display: - No Thanks 
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Desktop 2.0 (Multimedia Keyboard + Optical Wheel Mouse)
Mouse: - No Thanks my keyboard comes with a mouse
External Storage: - No Thanks
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

I went ahead and sprung for pre-installing a game because I think it's worth avoiding the headaches of figuring out potential quirks and conflicts that might appear, and Crysis seems most likely to make them appear.
The system is $3,555.00, plus 55 for the GPU fan and 25 for installation = 3635, add $215 for the speakers and $290 for the monitor (not counting mail in rebate) gives a grand inclusive total of  $4139.98. 
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Bismark View Drop Down
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Posts: 120 		  Quote Bismark Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 3:04pm
Looks pretty decent man, personally Ide drop the stock keyboard and pick up a real nice one, go with a GTX 280 instead of the 260, and up the power to 1000w just because I like overkill on a psu.
Asus Rampage Formula
Core 2 Quad Q9550
2 ATI Radeon HD4870 Crossfire
4GB Corsair DHX 1066
1000W Corsair HX
DS 850Si

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Ratbreath View Drop Down
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Posts: 24 		  Quote Ratbreath Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 4:05pm
Well, the 280 would cost me $300 more dollars though. This is already kinda expensive and I don't think the gain would be worth it.

I'm dual booting largely because I like a lot of older games. Plus I still don't quite have faith in Vista.

Hah. And after I pay for this there won't be enough $ in my account to buy another one. Tongue


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Ratbreath View Drop Down
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Posts: 24 		  Quote Ratbreath Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 5:53pm
After thinking about it I might should go ahead and get a 1000W PS though. Anyone know how much noise that would add? It's about 100 more and would make me feel more comfortable about the SLI option later (especially after overclocking and cooling them). 
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Posts: 1527 		  Quote SunfighterLC Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 6:09pm

I highly recommend the corsair version of 1000W, it sounds very quiet in my system (though i have stage 3 air cooling, it might be drown out haha). And its built to last. Very high quality. I almost wonder if it could tri sli a 280..itd be very close.
E8500@ 4.03Ghz
XFX 790i Ultra
1000W Corsair HX
2 280 GTX EVGA FTW
4GB OCZ Reaper 1800Mhz
250-80-300GB VR HD
Logitech Z-2300 2.1 Speakers
Asus Xonar 7.1
Hanns-G HG 281D 28" HDMI Monitor
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Bismark View Drop Down
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Posts: 120 		  Quote Bismark Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 12 Jul 2008 at 6:22pm
your right about the price difference for a marginal gain 260-280 I just think about things like this in an odd way in a 4k system 300 bucks more makes me cutting edge... probably why I spend too damn much money. The sytem looks good man, 1000w psu is a great upgrade and saves piece of mind. Go with your heart on the video card, its gonna be a great sytem.
Asus Rampage Formula
Core 2 Quad Q9550
2 ATI Radeon HD4870 Crossfire
4GB Corsair DHX 1066
1000W Corsair HX
DS 850Si

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