For $8,900 I would get: Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D X58 CPU: 3.3Ghz (at stock) Intel Core i7 980x RAM: 24GB DDR3-1600 (at stock speed) GPU: 3 x EVGA GeForce GTX480 1536MB GDDR5 Storage: 2 x Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB SATA III in RAID 0, 4 x OCZ Vertex 2 200GB in RAID 5 PSU: Silverstone ST1200 1200W Modular Audio: ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Optical Drives: Pioneer Blu-Ray Burner, ASUS 24x DVD Burner Cooling: CoolIT SYSTEMS Advanced CPU Liquid Cooling, 4 x 120mm LED 90CFM Fans, NZXT SEN-001LX Fan Controller I don't know anything about overclocking so I only stated the stock speeds. What would you change in this theoretical build? All in good fun.
Would probably go for the EVGA SR-2 board with two Xeon's, ditch the CoolIT loop and go for a full custom loop for both CPU's and GPU's. And throw in a fourth GTX 480 (Physx) for good measure.
ohh nice, a godbuild, haven't done one of these in a while. BBL Oh and just to be clear: i pretty much disagree with ALL of your choices
Find this man. Give him the money. Then keep whatever hardwares inside updated a generation behind current ( lifes much cheaper that way ).
After careful deliberation, i came to these conclusions: Code: CPU : Intel 980X 1000 RAM : G.Skill Ripjaw 24GB kit DDR3-1600 CL9 950 MOBO : Asus Rampage III Extreme 380 GPU : 2x Asus Ares 2200 BOOT : OCZ RevoDrive 240GB 700 RAID : Areca ARC1210 300 HDD : 4x Seagate ST32000542AS 2TB 440 PSU : Antec TPQ-1200 1200W 240 Case : Mountain mods custom 1000 + =================================================================== Total 7310 This leaves me with 1400 dollars for cooling. I suppose that is enough to buy me a phase-changer for the CPU and a nice quad-rad system for the HDDs and GPUs, plus some bells & whisles like an aqaero and/or an mCubed Tbalancer. A blueray drive and soundcard also fit in this budget. Some explanations: - I went with so many RAM so there is place to setup a ramdisk, which will give you lightning speed on anything you install there. - I stayed in the ATI camp because tree-monitor gaming isn't supported on 3Way-SLI. - I tried not to over-spend on storage, instead i chose a comparatively modest solution. - Mountain mods lets you customise their cases to an obscene amount. I allowed for 1000 dollars to be spent there, but realistically i won't spend more then 600-700. The rest is for some modding
Your build is really weak for a true god computer. Get an EVGA Classified SR-2, two 980X processors, 48GB RAM, four GTX 480 video cards, and a phase change cooling system. Put that all in a custom case designed by you and built by MountainMods - custom cases from them can reach $1000 and up, especially for a big or complicated case which doesn't use their drive bays and stuff. Consider a quality hardware RAID card and maybe, say, 16 high-quality SSDs in RAID 10 or something. Now we're talking. Quick edit: There's a Gigabyte X58 motherboard that's $700, but it's only single processor. Huh.
This isn't a true godbuild, it's one on a budget. You are WELL past the 10k mark with yours. Plus, good luck getting 980X cpus to work on an SR2 board, they only have one QPI link. You need the 5-series Xeons.
Eh, then replace the 980X with the appropriate top-end Xeon. I feel like an SR-2 build could still fit comfortably under $8900 though, I'm just too lazy to actually look up the build.
This could go in so many direction as there are so many options. Dual CPU's is pointless as no game will use it, so only as a heavy render engine would work. You need to define a use first. Plus 4 x 480s + dual CPUs need more than 1400W!!!
Screw budgets, I'd make an ESX (or Hyper-V maybe) beast - Quad socket w/Nehalem-EX, 192GB Ram, a handful of GTX480s for some folding giggles. Maybe a pair of servers for good measure. I'd sod internal storage and get some entry/mid range SAN kit - 2x QLogic dual port 8Gb HBAs and a Hitachi AMS2500, 32GB cache and one dense tray of 48x 200GB SSDs. Use some imagination people, a mere 5 figures is pathetic!
Have to be more realistic than just buying the most expensive stuff. Duo Xenons isn't going to give you a better game, nor does 24GB of memory. Also you would need dual power supplies or a server power supply for 4 GTX 480s and a AC unit to cool that, otherwise the room would be lit on fire.
I beg to differ on the 24 GB of memory... have you even read my comment on the ramdisk? Have you ever launched or played a game located on a ramdisk? ALL load times are just eliminated, it's really an insane experience.
