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   I am about 2 months away from ordering a new gaming rig.  I will be ordering from DS.  I am looking for help with the build, and have some questions.  Budget for compter is around $5000.

1.  I will be going with a 24" Monitor at 1920 x 1200 resolution.  I almost decided to go with a 22" as the prices for monitors with the view angle 170H/170V or greater (as recommended by DST4ME) are significantly higher at 24".  I was looking at monitors at Newegg.  I actually haven't decided on a particular monitor.  I orginally wanted to keep the monitor under $500.  Monitor budget up to $1000.  Any suggestions?

2.  I curently run Windows XP Pro.  I have a number of games that I have and will continue to play with the new rig.  Is there a version of Windows 7 that supports XP and will run these games, or should I use a hot swap bay and continue running current games under XP Pro?

3.  If I use a hot swap bay, should I then go with the Hailstorm case with built in hot swap bays or go with the Haf 932 and have an optional hot swap bay installed?   

4.  I really like the EVGA Clasified Motherboard.  I now see DS has 2 versions, one that supports 3 way and another that supports 4 way crossfire/sli.  Is it worth going with 4 way for future upgradablility (in which case the case question above is mute), or just stick with the 3 way?

5.  I am looking for really good sound also.  I have read a number of reviews of sound cards and all have said that the X-FI Titanium Fatal Professional series is the best for gaming.  I have heard,but can't seem to find anything on the web,that says Creative Labs is have driver problems with these cards.  I would think the reviewers would have stumbled upon this problem if it does exit.  Does anyone know about this and if they are having problems point me to a source?

6.  Speakers - Geez.  I haven't even started looking at speakers yet.  Any recommendations? 

7.  I have been trying to search the Web to see when the new NVIDIA graphics cards are coming out but I can't find that either.  I must be terrible at searches.

Those are my current questions.  Considering the questions above, what would you recommend for this build?

Thanks in advance.  Everybody here is great.

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Asangard Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS Veteran Joined: 21 Aug 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2209	Quote Reply Topic: Back for another look Posted: 26 Dec 2009 at 10:30pm
	I am about 2 months away from ordering a new gaming rig. I will be ordering from DS. I am looking for help with the build, and have some questions. Budget for compter is around $5000. 1. I will be going with a 24" Monitor at 1920 x 1200 resolution. I almost decided to go with a 22" as the prices for monitors with the view angle 170H/170V or greater (as recommended by DST4ME) are significantly higher at 24". I was looking at monitors at Newegg. I actually haven't decided on a particular monitor. I orginally wanted to keep the monitor under $500. Monitor budget up to $1000. Any suggestions? 2. I curently run Windows XP Pro. I have a number of games that I have and will continue to play with the new rig. Is there a version of Windows 7 that supports XP and will run these games, or should I use a hot swap bay and continue running current games under XP Pro? 3. If I use a hot swap bay, should I then go with the Hailstorm case with built in hot swap bays or go with the Haf 932 and have an optional hot swap bay installed? 4. I really like the EVGA Clasified Motherboard. I now see DS has 2 versions, one that supports 3 way and another that supports 4 way crossfire/sli. Is it worth going with 4 way for future upgradablility (in which case the case question above is mute), or just stick with the 3 way? 5. I am looking for really good sound also. I have read a number of reviews of sound cards and all have said that the X-FI Titanium Fatal Professional series is the best for gaming. I have heard,but can't seem to find anything on the web,that says Creative Labs is have driver problems with these cards. I would think the reviewers would have stumbled upon this problem if it does exit. Does anyone know about this and if they are having problems point me to a source? 6. Speakers - Geez. I haven't even started looking at speakers yet. Any recommendations? 7. I have been trying to search the Web to see when the new NVIDIA graphics cards are coming out but I can't find that either. I must be terrible at searches. Those are my current questions. Considering the questions above, what would you recommend for this build? Thanks in advance. Everybody here is great.
	All evil comes from within, Not from Without, Therefore, the 1st step on the Holy Warrior path, Is to recognize thyself as thy 1st enemy.

DST4ME Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS ELITE Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758	Quote Reply Posted: 26 Dec 2009 at 11:33pm
	1. I learned that info from justin.kerr who is a member here and found out that he was right after doing my own research, the better the panel quality the higher the viewing angle and the same for both V and H, and the better the quality of the panel the better the quality of the picture you get from that monitor. I'm not a big monitor expert but I have seen Dell UltraSharp U2410 be talked about in a good way and it has a good viewing angle and the price is decent, but definatly do your own research. justin can probably point to a few good ones. 2. win7 pro has xp support, that is the one I recommend to everybody anyways due to its xp support, but its upto you, with hotswap, switching os is supper easy, to me its no different then changing dvds. 3. this was one of the reason I went with hailstorm but one thing I wish it had is that I wish it was tool less, I'm gonna have to figure out how to swap drives with the least amount of screws or not any if possible. 4. go with 3 way, with the res you want to run and the power of todays gpus, I really don't see any regular user needing more then dual sli/cf, in short I don't even thing you will ever need 3 gpus. 5. we have had people here on the forum and other places have problem with creative, and then we have people that never had problems, each system is different due to the different softwares we all install, so one system will be fine with some thing while the other won't. I'm not a big sound person either, so I'm sure other good members that have good facts will share them with you. 6. lol again sound is not my thing so speaker somebody else can recommend also, keep in mind for monitor and speakers and etc, always check prices on newegg and make sure you are getting the best deals. 7. well we were hopeing for end of jan but now looks more like feb or march. Air system: Here you go Ticket# 367999 --- Price: $3663 (To see this build click here) Price after current promotion $3363 Copy of Specifications: Chassis Model: Cooler Master HAF 932 (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 Classified 3X SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports Triple SLI or CrossFire) System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) Power Supply: 1000W Digital Storm Certified (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Highly Recommended) Expansion Bay: Dual Solid State Hard Drive Hot Swap Bay Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (120GB Solid State (OCZ Vertex Series Extream Speed) Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks 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 ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O) (PCI-Express Slot Based) Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler (Compatible With ONLY i7 Processors) H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red) 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 5-10 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty --------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------- Liquid system: Here you go Ticket# 368002 --- Price: $4419 (To see this build click here) Price after current promotion $4069 Copy of Specifications: 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 Classified 3X SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports Triple SLI or CrossFire) System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) Power Supply: 1000W Digital Storm Certified (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Highly Recommended) Expansion Bay: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (120GB Solid State (OCZ Vertex Series Extream Speed) Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks 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 ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O) (PCI-Express Slot Based) Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 6: Sub-Zero LCS Dual Loop: CPU & Single Video Card H20 Tube Color:Blue Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive) Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis 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 5-10 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty make sure you request and wait for the corsair 1000w psu. I did add a sound card you can add those once you figured out which you want.
	Nvidia Drivers----AMD Drivers

madmaligor Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 25 Dec 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 41	Quote Reply Posted: 27 Dec 2009 at 9:52pm
	5. I can help you a bit with the sound thing. There is a noticable quality difference with the CL cards vs an on board card, but it takes a good ear. Todays on board cards are pretty decent. That said, there are some issues like headphone/mic usb recognition for plug and play. Some on board cards require a reboot to recognize them (edit I forgot to mention some will pick up the plug in but require a reboot to go back to the speakers when you unplug them...I have a buddy who has that issue with an ASUS board and his usb headset). Titanium does not, or at least I have never heard of someone who has that issue. Titanium also has a fantastic auto recognition system that changes the setting for gaming, music, etc... Here is the kicker though...I love CL's cards, always have. But it looks like they seriously dropped the ball with Windows 7, and still has issues with some of their drivers. Tech support at CL is lagging bad for things like 64 bit ASIO (they have a 32 bit driver, not a 64). I have read that letting windows update instal the driver rather than using a download from creative is the current workaround. If your going the 64 bit route what I would recommend is you hold off on the card and wait to see if they update the driver problem, as well as look into another issue I am currently trying to find more info about, that is a few people who have mentioned that there is no dolby or DTS decode on the spdif input (a couple of reviews on newegg mention it). That may not be something you are worried about though. 6. Its a toss up between Logitech and Creative, and it really depends on the setup you want (2.0, 2.1, 5.1). Razer makes a decent set if cost is not an issue for you, and you like their odd ball shapes, though they do have some bass issues. My recommendations... 2.1 - Logitech Z-2300 5.1 - Logitech Z-5500 7.1 - Gigaworks 7.1 S750 (if you want complete overkill...hehehe) Edited by madmaligor - 27 Dec 2009 at 10:09pm

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