Looking for $3000 system, looking at Digital Storm

Let me know what you think is possible in this price range.

I can meet these requirements and then some at this price range from newegg (No Liquid cooling on newegg but still same price on other sites for the rig)

Budget:
$3,000

Expectations:
i7 2600k
Z68 Asus Mobo
Dual Nvidia GPUs (GTX 570/580)
16GB of Ram, 16000(4x4gb)
1200W Power supply
Liquid CPU Cooling
60GB SSD or larger comparable to Crucial M4

Usage:
Heavy gaming and video editing

Special Needs:
800d Preferable, low maintenance

Edited by SecretCobraz - 15 Sep 2011 at 10:55pm

Originally posted by Zieno Are you sure you really need 16gb of ram?

Positive, when it's cheap. It's called future proofing and why not spend an extra $20 or $40, would cost more to upgrade later.   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145347

"you couldn't find ram with worst timing? the timing on those are not great at all. " I have o idea what you mean by that. The 16GB if Ram and the 1200PSU is for video editing and external devices.

Couldn't tell you the resolution, will be at 1920 x 1080 or lower.

Now Digital Storms parts are not more expensive vs newegg they are the same, difference is Digital Storms Mark-ups or premiums. Also all parts have OEM warrentys.

"Digital storm doesn't charge massive premiums" Depends on what you would call massive, such as $700-$1,200+

Also about LC systems, the newegg custom has Dual GTX 580 Hydro Copper 2s http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130601

I need a computer that will last more than 5 years with or without upgrades in terms of being able to run any game on the market at any setting.

Edited by SecretCobraz - 16 Sep 2011 at 12:30am

To answer your original question of " Looking for $3000 system, Let me know what you think is possible in this price range."

you can get sli 570, 4.7Ghz oc with good temps, 120GB intel ssd, 1TB black caviar (for its speeds), 1050Hx psu, haf x case, deluxe mobo, 16Gb of ram.

now keep in mind if you want to compare newegg to DS you need to find exact parts and match them, you will find the difference around $400 or less and that will be for building/testing/warranty.

I hope you understand I'm just trying to get you the correct info so you know what you are really dealing with as far as what you need, before you make a purchase.

Edited by DST4ME - 16 Sep 2011 at 12:53am

your mobo,sdd are wrong, you have no use for that mobo and that is not the best ssd, you want a 320, c300 or m4.

as I said before I can't tell you what gpu power you need wihtout knowing teh native res of your monitor.

if you want lc go with stage 4 it has the good parts.

Originally posted by DST4ME for a air cooled system you gonna want a case with great airflow, 800d is not it, that case (my case) is really for systems with full lc.

you only have the lc on cpu, your gpus are air cooled, you need a case with better airflow for that.

the fan upgrade is pointless and loud, that case takes only 3 fans, and they are 140mm fans, the fan upgrade at DS are 120mm fans, if you want fan upgrade go and find good 140mm led fans and then ask DS to use those.

drop the oc on gpus, its very mild here and you will not notice teh difference in performance but you will in heat.

os boost is pointless too as it will make zero difference in app and games speeds, the os boost was for the days when we had 1GB ram with xp, now in days with a quad core cpu, 6GB or more ram, you are not going to notice anything from os boost, but if you use an app that needs one of those services then you got problems.

I would make a config for you but I don't know the native res of your monitor.


Edited by DST4ME - 16 Sep 2011 at 1:51pm

Ok you are not contradicting yourself and condusing us/me, let me explain:

you say you dont' want to waste money but you want a system that can handle any res, well that is contradictory, to give you gpus setup that can handle any res (2560 x 1600 to 1200 x 1000) I would have to load you up with tri sli , and all kinds of stuff that will exceed your budget, and will very well endup wasting your money since that setup for 1900 x 1200 res is going to be pure waste of money.

I'm a affraid you are getting bad info and going on them:

1. if you want to lc, are you looking to say you have lc or are you looking to get real lc performance? just because something is refered to as lc or has a waterblock on it, it does not mean you are getting your money's worth.

yes those evga 580's have a waterblock but I can easily beat their cooling performance with proper block/rad.(look at my avatar I'm a big fan of evga, but I'm not gonna say their wb are good when they are not.)

2. if stage 3 cooling is the same as stage 4, why don't they cost the same?

you asked why stage 3 is offered? same reason many parts are offered, so you have options to match your budget, but that does not mean you are getting the same performance.

A lc system's performance is mainly dependent on what rad you use and what water blocks. the block on the 580 that comes from evga is very inferior, so ya it works just fine, but don't be surprised when somebody comes by with sli 570 with better waterblocks and beats you in cooling and performance(depending on your res).

3. when I say your hardware is wrong, that means if you wanted to get the most performance for your money, that part is the wrong choice, thus that part is wrong.

4. so now you need to tell us if you want to get your money's worth or you want a system that will handle any res, even tho some of the res it can handle you won't even be using, thus wasting your money, also a system that can handle any res, and have lc on cpu and gpu, will be out of your budget.

5. you need to tell me what lc parts you are looking at newegg that you think will cost less then DS, cause again all lc systems are not the same, I can't see how you found lc parts that DS uses on newegg without knowing what parts are used, and again rad all perform different, waterblocks all perform different.

6. no matter if you buy from DS or newegg, I'm trying to help you get the most performance for your money.

7. if your room temp is at or below 75f, then you have no use for lc to begin with, all you need is a good case with great airflow like the haf.

Edited by DST4ME - 16 Sep 2011 at 4:27pm

Very good, now I'm getting info I need, few more questions and some info:

are you planing on gaming on both monitors (extended) or one monitor will be gaming while the other will be doing something else (surfing, other work)? I ask because gpu needs are different for each.

now some info:

ram brand is not really important as they are all the same things really, brand name does not mean more performance, timing would mean more performance but that will not mount to much to being with anyways.

no matter what you use, air or lc, they both use fans to blow air on parts to cool them down, in air cooling you got the fan blowing air on heatsink to help with temps, in lc you got fans blowing air on rad to help with temps, now if your room temp is at 80f or higher, lc is nto gonna be help, reason is that blowing 80f air on heatsink or rad is not gonna help cool things down, you need cool air to do that.

you also need to take into account other parts like the psu can overheat if room temp is warm.

I can tell you right now, to run bf3 on one monitor of 1900 x 1200 you need dual sli 570, for a system with that, good mobo, air cooled, 16GB of DS ram, 120GB intel 320 ssd, win7 ultimate and stage 2 oc you looking at around $3000 here, to put the cpu/cpu under lc you looking at another $1000 or so on top of that.


if you want to do it an newegg, for lc you need some info:

1. type of size of rad are very important, if the rad is a good one the the bigger the rad the better it cools.

2. its important to match your rad with fans that it works best with.

so for rad at newegg find xspc "Rx" series rad, best results are triple rad for cpu and triple rad for gpus, ( you want a dual loop setup if doing both cpu and gpus), of course that means one rad goes inside the case and anther triple rad goes outside the case.

if you dont' want to do that, then you can go with single rad for cpu and at least dual rads for gpus, again they need to be xspc "rx" series rads, for cpu you want the swiftech xt wb, for gpus you can go with xspc gpu wb, those rads work best with low cfm fans so you want the Scythe gentle typhoon fans on the rad, then you wan the tubes, pump, res, fittings and etc.

Edited by DST4ME - 16 Sep 2011 at 5:13pm

I thought you wanted teh gpus lced also.

again in case you missed it:

no matter what you use, air or lc, they both use fans to blow air on parts to cool them down, in air cooling you got the fan blowing air on heatsink to help with temps, in lc you got fans blowing air on rad to help with temps, now if your room temp is at 80f or higher, lc is nto gonna be help, reason is that blowing 80f air on heatsink or rad is not gonna help cool things down, you need cool air to do that.

so if your room temp is above 75f, even with lc, expect to be around the high side of temps or even higher.

this will run bf3 at your res:

Here you go Ticket# 597402 --- $3,219 (To see this build click here)

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master 942 HAF X
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Deluxe (Intel P67 Chipset) (New & Improved B3 Revision Without SATA 3G Issue)
System Memory: 16GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1050W Corsair Pro Silver 1050HX (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (120GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: 320 Series)
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 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 4: Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System: CPU Only
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: Stage 2: Overclock CPU 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz (Requires Pro or Deluxe Series Motherboard)
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 Ultimate (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
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

not sure if I got everything or missed something, if I did let me know so we can discuss it.

if you missed my edits of my last post, please go back and have a look.

Edited by DST4ME - 16 Sep 2011 at 5:31pm

but the the 800d will not give the airflow you need to keep good temps, specially when you said your room temp is hot.

I have the 800d as you call tell from my sig. also I'm already over your budget by $200, to make a config with 800d the cost is gonna go even higher, not sure but it could be another $200.

its a great case, but not for air cooled systems.

Edited by DST4ME - 16 Sep 2011 at 5:42pm

depending on what size fans it uses, at best it will match haf x's air flow.

as I said all parts have to be the same, I'm not sure what "semi-comparable" really means, what is different?

the lc will take a good $300 to $400 of that $700 difference, the block is and rad will make about $200 of that $400.

can you show me your newegg order?

build looks ok, I don't see any reason to get the maximus over the deluxe, you will have better performance/reliability from 320, c300, m4 ssds, the oc on gpus might give you 2fps extra but they will bring more heat, keep in mind the 800d is not gonna give you good temps with your room temp and sli 570.

you don't want stage 3 oc, at those vcore and 24/7 use your cpu will die within a year.

since I don't know your config for newegg I can't comment on it, but in all fairness to DS, all parts have to exact to compare, "similar" depending on the part can be very different in price.

Edited by DST4ME - 16 Sep 2011 at 6:33pm

I do appreciate all your help but I am pretty sure I will just build it myself, I will always end up spending over $3,000 for a DS system. I was able to get my Rig with Liquid cooling just under $3,000, with great hardware.

Might have to get a quote for comparison.

Dream Machine as of components available now or soon;

CM Cosmos 2 (Ferrari Gloss Red Paint) or 800D
i7 2600K
ASUS ROG Z68 Mobo
Dual-SLI GTX 570, EVGA Fermi
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 16GB (4 x 4GB)
CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200
2X Crucial M4 64GB RAID 0 (CT064M4SSD2)
WIN7ULT64

Top that off with my Custom LC setup at $320
or DS Stage 3 ($242) or Stage 4 LCS ($392)

Anything extra includes Red UV Danger Den Tubing, DS Logo Machining, and UV cathode if 800d. The Auto Body shops in my area are dying for work, so I could do the paint local on the custom.

Nvidia Keplar/600 Series, Ivory Bridge/Sandy Bridge-E, and Windows 8 are all supposed to be coming out by early 2012. Will have to see what is available in the future.

Edited by SecretCobraz - 16 Sep 2011 at 7:48pm

Originally posted by DST4ME LOL you are killing me, forget the 1200w there is nothing you can do on a p67/68 platform to need a 1200w psu. only for a tri sli capable system you would need that psu, p67/68 is not it. go with stage 4 lc, it has teh good wb and other stuff, remember what I said about a lc being only as good as its rad/fan and wb. forget dd tubing, dd does not make great products. waiting for x79 is a good idea.

The 1200PSU is for External Video Equipment that will make good use of it, don't worry. Waiting to see what chipsets will support Tri/Quad-SLI.

Danger Den tubing is what DS uses lol
http://i.imgur.com/T8ZsE.jpg

Everyone's help is greatly appreciated :D

Edited by SecretCobraz - 16 Sep 2011 at 9:00pm

Originally posted by DST4ME I would not use dd tube to be honest. there is nothing external you gonna add to your system that will draw enough power to need the 1200w psu, you can't possibly pull that much power from usb ports, anything over 1050hx is a waste.

DD tube has great reviews and is used by many cough* DS cough*.

More along the lines of multiple USB, Firewire, Esata, ect. As well as upgrades done the line depending on the chipset.

I don't see it as a waste for my industry and my line of work.

Good Point The price with the stage 4 is still just killing me.

What would help is a quote for this system with 2X 64GB M4s in RAID 0

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=597480

Edited by SecretCobraz - 16 Sep 2011 at 10:01pm

How does Kingston HyperX RAM match up? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104169

Or would I be better off spending an extra $100 for 2 pairs of Corsair Dominator?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145313

Both are running at 1600.


Edited by SecretCobraz - 17 Sep 2011 at 4:20am