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Frit0z

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Well guys im gonna be at my 2 year mark this summer to rebuild my PC. I was think of getting a laptop instead since im working constantly however i HATE laptops. spend more for mobility than power. So if i go with a laptop i was gonna take the plunge and go alienware top end one. Always wanted to own an alienware i know its owned by dell now which sucks and i know that i could get the same specs for alot cheaper.

Which brings me to my next point. Price tag for this build will by $5,000. About the cost of a nice alienware laptop. But i would really prefer a PC. Just need the tower obviously but browsing around newegg i have these parts in mind so far.

the Case: Newegg.com - LOGISYS Computer CS8009BK Black ATX Full Tower Extreme Automobile Technology Water Cooling Serve / Gaming Case
The Mobo: Newegg.com - ASUS Rampage III Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
The CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition Nehalem 3.46GHz 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 12MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80613I7990X
The RAM: Newegg.com - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 24GB (6 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory with DHX Pro Connector and Airflow II Fan Model CMP24GX3M6A1600C9
The GPU: 2 of these in SLI. Newegg.com - EVGA 015-P3-1589-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) FTW Hydro Copper 2 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Total thus far is about $3,700 from newegg. still need a Power supply but not sure how big i should get. The case supports a 2x PS setup. so i can set 1 for my opticals and hard drives and the other for the gpu/cpu

So i need PS, a nice SSD and what else? im not really up to date on the tech so dont beat me up to much :D
 
Keeping in mind that this is coming from a guy that just spent roughly $2,800 on a new notebook this month but I would suggest you stick with a desktop if you're serious about gaming. Don't get me wrong I love my new notebook and it does just fine gaming but it's no substitute for my desktop. In my opinion desktops are much better performance wise for gaming not to mention they are much easier to maintain, repair and upgrade than a notebook and your right your paying for mobility vs. power.

I don't know about Alienware warranty but I do know your overpaying for the name. The reason I mention the warranty is because laptops by their nature are much more likely to break, be damaged or stolen, and with HP I was able to purchase a 3 year onsite protection plan that covers all that and I would suggest you look in to doing the same with Alienware or dell if you plan on dropping 5K on a notebook.
 
First and foremost, don't bother with that chassis. What are your goals for this computer? I can assure you now that, unless you're planning to run three 2560x1600 monitors, you don't need a pair of GTX580's. Also, you almost surely don't need 24GB RAM (12GB is plenty). As for the motherboard and CPU, I'd suggest against a top-end mobo (that might give you a +3% OC) or Extreme-Edition processor.

Here's my build idea...

Core i7-970 Gulftown (6C/12T) - $600
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R - $200
Patriot 3x4GB DDR3-1600 - $170
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 580 [1.5GB] "Black Ops Edition" - $530 (Though I'd personally go with a Radeon HD 6950 [2GB] and flash it to HD 6970)
1 x Sparkle GeForce GTX 460 [768MB] - $130 (For PhysX)

====

2 x Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB - $530
2 x Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB - $340
2 x Pioneer Blu-Ray Burners - $244
nMEDIAPC PRO-LCD-B (Programmable LCD) - $35
4 x Blue SATA cables (180° to 90°) - $16
2 x Blue SATA cables (180° to 180°) - $8

====

Corsair Professional AX1200 (80 PLUS Gold) - $280
Lian-Li PC-7FN Aluminum ATX Mid-Tower - $100
Corsair Hydro H70 CPU cooler - $110
AeroCool Shark 140mm (if you don't like blue LEDs--and I don't) - $15
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 - $180

On a side-note, if you're for some reason not willing to build it yourself, I live in Providence, at least for the next 3 months (more like 6). I do builds for commission.
 
Yah a better question would be what EXACTLY do you plan on doing with this machine. Specifically gaming, photoshop, overclocking, CAD, video encoding, Video editing, etc

Also realize there ARE other laptop companies out there for gaming. Mind you I dont know much about them but you also have Sager, Ibuypower, falcon NW, Among others.
 
Nice specs; I would wait on the GPU; Nivida releasing the dual GPU; one of those is probably equal to the 580's in sli. My buddy had an Asus laptop & was running UT3 with no problems. Problem with laptop only thing you can upgrade is HD's & memory...other than that your stuck + smaller screen. I'm very pleased with my i7-980x, it runs like a champ & really stable. If you go with the new GPU you could upgrade to a great SSD if you choose that path. Thats not a bad price for the case for whats included:
 
ok well my plans with this setup is buying 2 more 40 inch monitors. Going to be used for gaming, photo/video editing mostly. Big majority of this will be for gaming though.

1st thing i will be building this myself.
2nd i only use nvidia.
3rd i dont need much HD space i have around 2TB already i just want some nice SSD's for my main programs to run off of.
4th i want to try to max this build out without going over 5k.

im limiting my self to $5,000 ive always cut corners to save money on prior builds and since i have the money i want to see what i can do with out cutting corners.
 
balls2dawall said:
Nice specs; I would wait on the GPU; Nivida releasing the dual GPU; one of those is probably equal to the 580's in sli. My buddy had an Asus laptop & was running UT3 with no problems. Problem with laptop only thing you can upgrade is HD's & memory...other than that your stuck + smaller screen. I'm very pleased with my i7-980x, it runs like a champ & really stable. If you go with the new GPU you could upgrade to a great SSD if you choose that path. Thats not a bad price for the case for whats included:
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yea i might do that. this build isnt going to happen until prly mid summertime. so i have time to make up my mind.
 
Frit0z said:
ok well my plans with this setup is buying 2 more 40 inch monitors. Going to be used for gaming, photo/video editing mostly. Big majority of this will be for gaming though.

1st thing i will be building this myself.
2nd i only use nvidia.
3rd i dont need much HD space i have around 2TB already i just want some nice SSD's for my main programs to run off of.
4th i want to try to max this build out without going over 5k.

im limiting my self to $5,000 ive always cut corners to save money on prior builds and since i have the money i want to see what i can do with out cutting corners.
Click to expand...

Unless youre working as a magazine photo editor or a special fx movie video editor then you shoulnd't need more than 8-12 gig. Anything more than 4 is useless for gaming and is only really important for graphics, video editing, and CAD(of course there are other random obscure things that need tons of ram). I currently have 6 gigs and i do a lot of photoshopping, gaming, and multi tasking. I typically have 100-200 tabs open in firefox or chrome as well as photoshop and various other programs including gaming. I rarely hit my 6 gig max and thats only because of the browsers i have open.
 
i have 8 gigs currently and i generally use about 7 of it. depending on what im doing with our admin tool i might use all 8. i have hit low memory a few times already.
 
I would wait it out for about another 6 months. If you get an x58 system now the z68 systems are coming out in the Fall and new GPU's pop up around that time too. If you need a system now, I say go ahead, but if it's just a matter of wanting to upgrade I'd definitely wait.

Oh, Intel just released new SATA III SSD drives that are better than the Crucial ones you listed.

Also, if you're building a gaming rig stay away from LIan LI. They make great cases, probably the best designs out there, but not for gaming since they have restricted air flow-unless you're doing a custom water cooling set up for the entire rig.
 
Intel's SSDs are good but I think overpriced. They use Marvell controllers, too. I actually find the new ones underwhelming and prefer the older SATA-II SSD's.
 
Bobsama said:
Intel's SSDs are good but I think overpriced. They use Marvell controllers, too. I actually find the new ones underwhelming and prefer the older SATA-II SSD's.
Click to expand...


And how old are those and still near the tops of the performance charts?
I know Sandforce is a the rage for SSD controllers right now, but they have a major downside in performance. These are the first SSDs I've seen that do have performance drops, and I mean half the original speed, with time and use. The only solution-wipe the drive and re-image it. You don't have to do that with Intel's drives. I'm not a fanboy, but their SSDs have been top notch so far and if he's looking for the best and not cutting corners then this is where I'd go for a SSD.

Edit: When it comes to SSDs I rate consistency just as high as speed. Here's a good example of what I mean.

http://www.storagereview.com/intel_ssd_510_review_250gb
 
Oh, I lied! The Z68 chipsets are launching in May. Definitely wait until then or later in the year for the X68 chipset with the 2011 pin processors.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-began-z68-chipset-production-launch-in-may/11339.html
Judging from the specs, it seems Intel has catered Z68 specially for enthusiasts which allows better processor overclocking, discrete graphics support and SSD caching capability. With these enhancements, Intel has priced the Z68 chipset some US$8 higher than the P67 counterpart. The launch for the Z68 chipset is slated for first week of May.
Click to expand...

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$5000? - Here you go - it'll be sweet

Get it with the dual sockets - 2 xeon 5650 hexa-cores (16core total) + 3 way sli = speedy

9.jpg
 
Oh, before I forget the X68 chipsets will have PCIE 3.0 with increased bandwidth over today's gpus and chipsets.
 
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