Don't ask why, but I am designing my DREAM computer. Whats that? Well, the best computer money can by. But I am a little hardware-nooby, and computer hardware is definently not noob-friendly. So, I ask, help me out! Here's what I've got so far. - Motherboard* (Must be Nvidia + Intel-based) - Central Processing Unit (CPU)* (Must be Intel-based) - Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)* (Must be Nvidia-based) - Random Access Memory (RAM) - Operating System* - PSU - Hardrive/s - Case - Watercooling System - Soundcard - Physics Card My Ideas so far = - Motherboard = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131074 - CPU = One of these two: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115027 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115026 - GPU = Two of either of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130093 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814122030 - RAM = (x2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145165 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227184 - OS = Windows Vista Ultimate - PSU = Clueless on theses as well ... - Hardrive/s = (x2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822136011 - Case and Watercooling = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133171 - Soundcard = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16829102191 Post your thoughts, and what I should put on the Dream Machine List
Not enough storage, add some large hard-drives to store data on, like 1TB drives they sell now on newegg, get a few of those. Also, if your building the best money can buy, might as well get 8GB of ram, so two sets of this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227199 I suppose if you are going SLI you can't get more then 4 CPU cores since there are no SLI supporting dual-Xeon boards, so the Striker and QX6850 will have to do.
Large hard drives aren't important, you want performance Stick 4 Raptor 150GB on RAID-5, use the remaining two SATA for storage. Since you have a watercooled-based case, you should opt for watercooled video cards. EVGA have cards prepared for watercooling as found here. You need two of these on SLI.
I was talking about adding some large drives, not ditching raptors for them. A good dream machine has at least a terabyte of storage. Get a secondary PCI-E x8 raid card and get some more 10K drives going. Or get some 15K SCSIs because you can!
RAM : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145165 Corsair Dominator, its fast as ****, buy 2 sets of them and get 4 gig, alot of cash money, but fast, i wish i had the cash to buy Also the mobo you picked only handles DDR2 800, so remember u need to meet that AND since you have money to spend buy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115026 for sure
please, just say what product you're looking at. i would help you, but i don't have time to click 10+ newegg links.
For the most part, I just want to focus on these foir things now: - Motherboard* (Intel-Nvidia Compatible) - Central Processing Unit (CPU)* (Intel) - Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)* (Nvidia) - Random Access Memory (RAM) For the motherboard, the ASUS Striker Extreme LGA 775 NVIDIA seems to be the winner, but I could be wrong, I'm clueless on MoBos - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131074 For the CPU, the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Kentsfield 3.0GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor seems to be the winner by far. - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115026 For the GPU, 2x of the EVGA 768-P2-N887-AR GeForce 8800Ultra 768MB seems to be the winner. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130093 And for RAM, 4GB of one of these four ... I am still having trouble pinpointing which of these 4 seems to be the best ... - mushkin 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146688 - CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145033 - CORSAIR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145182 - CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145165 And finally, will my MoBo support 4GB of RAM as well as that CPU? Does the DDR2/3 make a difference between what that MoBo can handle?
At present there are no SLI mobo's that support DDR3 ram. Yes the mobo, and the cpu will support 4gb of ram.. but if your using a 32bit OS, then it will not, only 64bit OS will be able to address that 4gb. please see the 2nd post for further details... http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=136392
I've got everything settled, but one last thing: OS. See, I'm so confused, some people are saying you need 64 bit for 4GB. Some people are saying you are OK with 32 bit for 4GB... which is true?!
Vista or XP 64 bit editions? Vista 64 seems to have better support than the XP 64, and all the new games should support it as well.
Again, your mobo standard of the Striker is DDR2 800, so it wont be able to use 1066, anyways go with the corsiar dominator, its fast and its very good
It depends on the version of Vista! Windows Vista maximum supported RAM... I'd suggest Vista (Home Premium) will be the better choice for such an up-to-date system Which version (32bit/64bit) you buy is not quite so important, because you can send for the 'alternative' version from Microsoft. IIRC... it costs £7.88 - to cover postage (and presumably "administration") costs? That is to say... if you bought a retail 32bit version, you can send for the 64bit version - and vice versa. I can't say for sure... but I assume the licence key you get with the retail product, will subsequently work with either version? I haven't installed Vista yet, which is why I'm just guessing at this stage... but I bought a retail version of Vista Home Premium 32bit, and sent/paid for the 64bit version from Microsoft. I wasn't sent a new licence key. I think it's fair to assume, that if the alternative version required its own/separate licence key... they'd have included it with the (OEM) DVD they sent If you buy an OEM version... you don't get the option of sending for the 'alternative' - so decide which of the two is going to be the best version, before you order it! (I'd suggest the 64bit in your case)
I know this is a "dream system" but whats with the physics card? I have a friend who really does have money to burn, and his description of it is that its a very nice radiator to my room; it takes up space, makes noise and throws out heat. I'm sure with such bulky graphics cards there are better uses for expansion bays in a dream PC ... And what about periperals? If youre going crazy, for those fantastic photolab-quality prints, why not get an industrial fuji printer that prints a 6x4 per second, like you would find in any good photolab? Theyre only £XXX,XXX and all you need is the space of a small car and a free firewire port!
