I'm going to be buying a computer for mostly gaming and my school work. I want to be able to run games at high to max settings.

I will not be pulling the trigger on this computer for a few months so a higher cost PC would just mean I have to wait a little longer to purchase it. I don't want to throw money down the drain but I want a powerful and upgradeable machine that will last me for a long time.

Resolution: I will be purchasing a new monitor as well; I have read multiple posts claiming that the Dell U2410 is an excellent monitor so I was leaning towards getting one of those unless there are other suggestions from people on a good mid-priced monitor I should look at.  1900x1200

Here is the current build I came up with and some questions, confusions and reasons for my choices.

Ticket Number: 421137
Total Price with Instant Savings: $3,752.00

Direct Load URL: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=421137

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Black OPS HailStorm Edition
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz (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: 1000W Corsair (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Extreme Performance) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX  (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / 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 GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
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:White Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive)
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
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 (Cooling Upgrade Recommended)
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition)

Forum did something weird and only posted half of my post....

Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: FREE: Hot-selling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card
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: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 1 Year Hassle-free Hardware Service

QUESTIONS

Motherboard: I was pretty confused on the motherboard selections mainly due to me not being up with the new hardware and knowing the differences between the EVGA boards. I want the one I picked to be big enough to support dual graphics cards (if I so choose in the future) and my sound card.

Power Supply: I picked the 1000W because I want to have the option of going dual GPU in the future. Is this large enough or should I get the 1250W one? I dont know the power usage of the GTX 480 if I were to get a second one down the road or wait for a new series.

Graphics Card: I know nothing about graphics cards about the little I have read on this and other forums. I am not a ATI or NVIDIA fanboy; I just want a graphics card that I can utilize now and for some time in the future before I have to double up or replace it all together.

Sound Card and Liquid Cooling: I know these are not at all necessary I just wanted them as a splurge to myself. However is there a better sound card i could purchase myself and add later that would be better that the options Digital Storm has to offer.

Headset / Speakers: Forgive me for asking this before I search your forums abit more but does anyone have suggestions on good gaming/music listening headphones and speakers. Budget wise probly $200 or so for the headphones and around $150 or less for the speakers. Also is a sound card even worth it if I dont go all out on my audio output? For the headsets I want  quality more than having a connected mic. I can always go purchase a microphone that is not connected.

Thats it for now thank you in advance for any help / tips. I'll probly have more questions later since I wont be purchasing for some months.

the LE, ftw and classified all can do what you want,(dual sli and pci card/s.)

the ftw offers sata 3.0 and usb 3.0, tho its not true, cause its gonna be only couple of lanes and they will not support certain features, but for single intel ssd for example, you won't notice the difference.

the classified is the top of the line board for evga but its a bit older then ftw so it does not offer the sata 3.0 and usb 3.0, but its a great board still.

so in short LE, ftw and classified all can do dual sli with pci card, the LE will have like a 4% performance loss, which is very little.

for dual sli 480 you want the 1250w enermax here.

its best to match your gpu to your res, so if you gonna buy a monitor soon then take its res to consideration, or if you gonna stick with what you got so far then let us know the res is, most times if you are at 1900 x 1200 then you want the 5870/480, for lower you want the 5850/470, for higher you want dual sli/cf.

LC is nice to have, I'm no sound expert, I will somebody else answer that.

Ty for your advice Dragoonseal for knocking me out of LC'ing it would not serve me very well at all and now with a smaller budget I can buy my computer sooner.

Does anyone have any advice on sound cards and speakers? That was my one last "splurge". I'm wondering now if I should be talked out of it aswell or keep it in my build.

My build looks like this as of now.

Ticket Number: 421595
Total Price with Instant Savings: $3,011.00

Direct Load URL: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=421595

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz (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: 1250W Enermax Galaxy EVO (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Recommended)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Extreme Performance) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Seagate/Hitachi (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 24x / 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 GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
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 2: Noctua NH-D14 Extreme Performance (Does NOT fit on the regular EVGA X58 3X SLI)
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 (Cooling Upgrade Recommended)
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
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: Hot-selling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card
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: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 2 Year Hassle-free Hardware Service

my personal exp with trying to go with onboard sound.. did not go well.

Aye I will probably be using headsets much more often than speakers so my question was misguided. I have looked into Sennheiser headsets before but they were...as you said a little too pricey. I want a headset that can do both gaming and music/video not one that is specifically designed for one or the other.

I'll do some more research on headsets thank you for the suggestions and for the finalization of my build.

Now its just waiting for some funds to come in before I can purchase my DS machine.


Edited by Baby_Bobo - 14 Jul 2010 at 6:44pm

dude those Klipsch speakers kick ass. i've had them for over 3 years and they are still going strong, great range of sound. i'll probably buy another set of klipsch once i get a new set of speakers because i was so impressed with them.

Hello going to order next month some time I hope.

Few Last questions/comments.

Dropped processor down to 920 with the promo since overclock will do me well anyways.

Dropped PS down to 750W. Should I get DS certified or the Corsair one I have chosen? (Figured I might as well do this since I dont plan on getting a huge screen that would need 480 SLI and just upgrading that one video card a few years down the road will do me better than going SLI anyways.)

Cooling? My last build had the D14 Noctua was that so I got a higher overclock from DS on my processor? Didn't know if I should stick with that or go to Stage 1?

Dropped the Windows 7 from Pro back down to Prem.

Kept the SDD and soundcard and am going to use the money I saved from my first post, almost 1,000 to buy some Sennheiser headphones. <---That seems like a better splurge than liquid cooling or a huge case which I didnt really need in the first place.

Ticket Number: 423259
Total Price with Instant Savings: $2,598.00

Direct Load URL: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=423259

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: !PROMOTION: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series  (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W Corsair TX (Dual SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Hitachi/Seagate (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / 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 GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
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: - No Thanks
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 (Cooling Upgrade Recommended)
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (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: Hot-selling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card
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: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

Originally posted by Baby_Bobo Dropped PS down to 750W. Should I get DS certified or the Corsair one I have chosen?

Alex from the Digital Storm team says good things about DS's brand of PSUs (TechNPS), in that they are manufactured by the same companies that make PSUs for all the top PSU brands, so I have no qualms with suggesting the DS Certified PSUs.

Cooling? My last build had the D14 Noctua was that so I got a higher overclock from DS on my processor? Didn't know if I should stick with that or go to Stage 1?

With their stock fans both the bigger and smaller Noctua cool very similarly, within a few degrees of each other so you will do very well with either of them, and it makes the smaller Noctua the better bang for the buck selection.