need help with custom system

i've been looking at these digital storms for other a month now. i can't even believe that i considered alienware computers

im trying to stick as close as possible to $2500. for this computer, i'll mainly be gaming. modern warfare 2, crysis, fallout 3, stuff like that. would this computer be good for running these games maxed out?

ticket number: 385090

Storm Sniper
Intel i7 920 2.66Ghz
EVGA x58 3X SLI
6GB DDR3 1600MHz
1000w Digital Storm Certified Power Supply
1x 500GB Western Digital
1x 500GB Western Digital
DVD R/W/CD R/W Optical Drive
High Speed Network Port (going to upgrade to killer xeno pro if needed)
1x Radeon 5870 Video Card (going to upgrade to a second card if needed)
Integrated Motherboard Audio
Asetek 240mm Liquid Cooler
Led Performance Fans (Green)
Internal Lighting System (Green)
Touch 2000 Aerocool Temperature Display and Fan Controller
Yes, overclock my processor between 3.3Ghz and 3.9Ghz
Yes, overclock my video cards as much as possible with complete stability.
Yes, tweak my OS.
Microsoft Windows Ultimate
Free Digital Storm T-Shirt
3 Year Warranty

so...thoughts?

so would you suggest getting the Noctua NH-D14 Extreme Performance Air Cooler over the Asetek 240mm cooler?

i may or may not keep the led fans, but i'm definitely going to delete the aerocool display thing. i'm not sure what resolution i'll be playing on, but probably higher then 1280x1024.

Edited by rogueunicorn - 17 Feb 2010 at 12:59am

^ i decided to drop the leds.

make sure you choose green as your internal chassis lighting color .. DST4ME's configuration has blue set.  

Edited by philiporphillip - 17 Feb 2010 at 2:10am

thank you guys soo much. i'm going to go with DST's configuration, but adding the 1000w corsair and using the 5870. also, do sound cards make much of a difference? or will the onboard audio be fine.

why go with a 5870 if you will never notice a differnce from 5850? 5870 is for 1900 x 1200 res, but you can oc a 5850 to match its performance if you get to 1900 x 1200, you first need a monitor that can do 1900 x 1200 res, do you have one?

for our use 1000w and 5870 is pure waste of money, since you can do the exact same thing with a 5850 and 750w.

Edited by DST4ME - 17 Feb 2010 at 5:14pm

Looks like I have to repeat myself:

I think that is a horrible idea, taking into account that you can't upgrade the cpu with the p55 platform, its basically a dead platform.

plus the i5 sucks at multi gpu. look below, that is with an 870 which is much better then the 750:



in short the gaming performance is not the same, not if you want multi gpu ability.

so lets recap, bad idea for multi gpu, can't upgrade the cpu, don't sound good to me.

also does anybody know why it is that every benchmark with i5 vs i7 done between 750 and 920, is done with the 920 having only 3GB of ram or 4GB vs the 6GB it should have, its at its best when using 3Gb increments, where the i5 has 4GB of ram, which is how its setup to be used, also every test is done at 1600 x 1200, why don't they do 1900 x 1200 and 2560 x 1600 so we can see the real difference, and lastly whey don't they oc the i5 and lets see how it hands with the 920 and then lets test them so we can see the real world use of the chip not just why they decided to do, most of us have 6GB ram, game at 1600 x 1200 and 1900 x 1200.

all the benchmarks I have seen so far were setup to favor the i5.

wow man just because you don't see how big the value is in just being able to upgrade your cpu, does not mean it has no value to everybody else.

if you gonna point all of that stuff out then point out the negatives also, let them know that the p55 platform is a dead platform, does not do well with cf at all, in the long run you will save money with a x58 platform cause you can upgrade the cpu, with the p55 you are left with its crappy performance or buying a new pc or paying more and buying a new mobo, installing it, then buying a new cpu and installing that, all of that equals to more money.

if you were building yourself the price difference might have been worth it but here the price difference is only a 100 or 200 and that can't justify all the negatives and lower performance in everything else other then games.

you need to take into account that everybody here is not buying a pc just for gaming alone, they do many other things, burning cds, archiving, encoding, media editing and etc, the 750 will suck at that vs a 920 when both oced, and with win7 HT makes even a bigger difference.

show me a benchmark with both the 750 and 920 having 3GB of ram both and both at 1600MHz or atleast 1333MHz, and at 1200 x 1000 and 1900 x 1200 and I will show you how different the 920 is.

I also like to point out to everybody that all of these benchmarks, even if they were equal in specs, the results won't matter for crap here, simply because all those benchmarks are at 2.66Ghz and not oced, there is no guarantee that a 750 will endup with the same oc as a 920, and that will change everything also.

also how does it make sense to spend money on the more expensive gpu that will make no difference and then get stingy on the brain of the cpu and the ability to upgrade it?

what bells and whisles are you talking about?

farcry2 highest settings and 8x aa and 16x af, notice at 1600 x 1200 the 5850 gets you 55 fps and that is smooth gaming, the 5870 gets you only 6 more fps to 61 fps, you won't notice the difference and the bells and whistels are on:





I can show as many of these as you like

Call of Duty 5: World at War again highest settings, 8x aa and 16x af:






this time 59 vs 71, again you won't be able to tell teh difference.

if you sli a 5870 on these machines you will be at 80% capacity of your psu, as I said you will be pushing it and not a good idea, and on an i5 platform you will have even less to gain.








Edited by DST4ME - 17 Feb 2010 at 10:26pm

excuse me if I take other people's money seriously.

you tell him that he will see a difference between 5870 and 5850 with bells and whistles and I just showed you that you were wrong.

we don't care for opinoins here when it comes to other's moeny, facts are more important, and fact is that 5870 will not make a difference you can see vs the 5850 at 1600 x 1200 with the bells and whistles, you will excuse me if I don't like the members getting opinions that are false and then spending money based on that false advise.

you say there is no conspiracy going on, OK show me, show me a benchmark with the 920 with the same exact amount of ram as the 750 and the same exact speed of ram, also show me the difference in both 1200 x 1000 and 1900 x 1200.

how can you expect anybody to take any benchmark seriously that is not even, where the i5 has either more amount of ram and/or faster ram speed, and why aer all the benchmarks at 1600 x 1200? lollllllllllllll

ok so prove me wrong, show me a even benchmark.

rogueunicorn go look at the benchmarks but keep in mind that things are not level, so of course if the i5 has more ram or faster ram, its does not take a genius to figure out that the i5 numbers should be better.

rogueunicorn as yourself this, is this machine only for gaming? cause in everhing else the i5 is very inferior.

also let me ask you this:

in 3 years if I said would you like to upgrade your cpu to a 6core newer cpu, would you say yes or no? if you say yes then you can't do that with the i5.

personally if I'm spending this much money, I feel stupid putting myself in a system that can't do cf if I need it, all of that for what? $100 or so dollars?

stop the arguing lol. i'm going to get the 5850 with the 1000w, just in case i decide to go crossfire. i'm sticking with everything else i chose.

I appologise if I its sounds like I'm fighting, I just get all excited, I just want users to know teh facts and not my opinion or anybody else's, its the facts that matters, who cares what I or anybody else thinks, if during the daytime I think its nightime, does it mean its nightime?

I think in 3 years you will see its was a smart choice you made.



I think being able to upgrade your cpu is a very big deal, so I don't think its just a matter multi gpu, also justin you yourself have said many time how much difference those 8 threads make with win7, so we have to take that into account also right?

Edited by DST4ME - 17 Feb 2010 at 11:16pm

ya but the win7 itself you said its own performance with ht is much snappier and noticeable.

plus lots of people here can't afford to buy a new pc every 2 or 3 years so being able to upgrade to a newer cpu and 6 core is huge deal.

Edited by DST4ME - 17 Feb 2010 at 11:32pm

I don't understand, why would you recommend such an inferior and dead socket system to save less than $200?

Go head, try configuring some yourself. Here are two, same parts used in both of these except one is Core i7 920, 6GB RAM, EVGA X58 3X motherboard, the other is Core i5 750, 4GB RAM, EVGA P55 SLI motherboard.

Ticket Number: 385884
Total Price with Instant Savings: $1,736.00
Direct Load URL: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=385884

Ticket Number: 385779
Total Price with Instant Savings: $1,930.00
Direct Load URL: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=385779

Price difference? $194. That is pathetic, you have to give up so much for it. You give up hyper threading (which does make quite the difference in Windows 7), the ability to SLI or Crossfire without the CPU totally crapping out (!!!), 2GB of RAM (4GB is no longer the sweet spot for today's needs), lots of motherboard functionality, and the ability to upgrade your PC in the future. What's the thinking?

The only situation I could see it ever being worth going for is if you are skimping on every part possible in an attempt to skim the price down on a computer and you just have absolutely nothing left sacrifice other than the CPU and motherboard and you don't mind having a dead system with no upgradability. But if you don't mind a dead system and have to cut the price down that badly why not just go with a cheaper AMD Phenom system? And think carefully about the answer to that last question, because the answer will also be why you would want to go with a X58 socket 1366 Core i7 system instead of the dead P55 socket 1156.

@DST4ME. thank you SOOO much for all of your help, im sticking with the i7.

curses! i have received word that the noctua dh-14 wont fit my mobo. should i get the asus p6x58 or change my cooler? also, is the corsair dominator any better then the digital storm ram?


Edited by rogueunicorn - 26 Feb 2010 at 2:09am

is the u12 just the dual 120mm fans? or is it blackops exclusive? because i really want to keep the evga 3x sli mobo.

so would recommend the evga 3x sli with the noctua 120mms? also, do you think digital storm could replace the blue led a green led? and paint the inside black?

is the silverstone raven case any good? i've been looking at that one