Could someone please help me update my component list for the system that I plan on building. I haven't kept abreast of any hardware advancements since I compiled the list back in summer and thus require some help updating the list. The list consisted of the best components available at the time so I need to update the list with the best components available now, thanks. Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Corsair Dominator TW3X4G1800C8DF Western Digital VelociRaptor LG GDRH20N LG GSAH54L EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI EVGA GeForce GTX 280 Cheesecake (X 3) Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium - Fatal1ty Champion Series PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1200 Thermalright TRUE Black 120 Scythe SLIP STREAM SY1225SL12SH (X 2) OCZ Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound
Damn, that's a big e-peen you got there... If you got the money for a core 2 extreme, spend the money and grab an x58 board and a newer intel i7, Also, creative sound cards don't work very well with vista in most cases, so maybe a asus xonar Dx or DX2, or other brand that is not somehow linked to creative just to be on the safe side. Also, are 3x 280 GTX's needed? Why not just grab 1x 4870 X2 and see how it goes, if it isn't enough power, just grab a second... Could also go with 1 280 GTX, and if its a bit sluggish for you, throw in a second... Everything else looks good. May want a raid set-up for some wicked speed. Any fixed amount you have to spend?
Hehe, it's just the F-T-W version, but the swearing filter on this forum makes F-T-W cheesecake... test if yourself. Cheesecake
QX9770? You'd be better off going with an i7 920/940 and an X58 board, and getting a good overclock. It'll be about the same price (if not cheaper), and give better performance, with more futureproofing. I'd also go with 4870X2s in CF rather than GTX280 Cheesecake. Edit, wow - it actually does change f t w into cheesecake
dude, you are planning on spending a massive amount of money, and from what i can see all you are doing is buying the best of the best, so just go to overclockers or scan, click sort by price and start adding to the basket. there is no need for extra input on this thread, and creative cards didnt originally work well with vista, i think you'll find that since creative updated their drivers that things work fine. end this thread now peace fatman
I second that. Get a 920 and overclock it, or a 940 and overclock it slightly more (higher multiplier I think) Or if you have ridiculous amounts of cash the one above (965?) has an unlocked multiplier for insane overclocking Start with one 4870X2, then if that's not enough get a second. You can get one PCI slot versions of these (watercooled) at serious expense if you're desperate for 3, see here. Also, an X58 board and 1366 socket will futureproof it for (hopefully) a fair while.
As much as we all like the 4870X2 (and I count myself among them), ATI's had interesting driver issues on the Core i7 platform. It's actually so hit and miss - especially the more GPUs you add - that the highest-performing platform today is actually a Core i7 965 with 3x GTX280s. So if you're looking for the highest-performing (air-cooled) configuration possible: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit Intel Core i7 965 Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1866C9DF (3x2GB @ DDR3-1866, or two sets for 12GB total) Intel X25-E 32GB SLC SSD (up to 12 of these in a RAID 0 setup) Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB (up to 12 of these in a RAID 10 setup) 2x Areca ARC-1231ML-2GB (one RAID card for each RAID setup to prevent bottlenecks) LG GGW-H20L ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution 3x XFX GeForce GTX 280 XXX ASUS Xonar D2X PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1200W Thermalright TRUE Black 120 Scythe SLIP STREAM SY1225SL12SH (however many you want) OCZ Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound Antec 1200 (especially for an air-cooled case. This or the HAF932). But if you're looking to save a few thousand dollars (and really, you'd only be losing ~10% or less of your performance), try this: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit Intel Core i7 940 Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D (3x2GB @ DDR3-1600) Intel X25-M 80GB MLC SSD (and really, you only need one) Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB (up to 12 of these in a RAID 10 setup) Areca ARC-1231ML-2GB LG GGC-H20L ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution 2x ZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 ZT-X28E3LA-FCP, pick up a third later if you find you actually need the extra performance ASUS Xonar DX PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1200W Thermalright Ultra 120 Scythe SLIP STREAM SY1225SL12SH (however many you want) OCZ Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound Antec 1200 - Diosjenin -
Nope, the P6T model that you've got in that list has six DDR3 slots, so you can get 12GB in there for sure.
Actually, I don't think I've seen any X58 board with less than 6 slots other than the Intel reference board, which isn't that good anyway (as is so often the case). 12GB is good to go. And for the record, the P6T6 is different than the P6T. Remember seeing that one black and blue and white ASUS concept motherboard a few months back that had a grand total of six full-length PCI-E slots? They finally released it. The three blue slots are x16 (graphics cards), the two black slots are x8 (for the RAID cards), and the white slot is x4 (sound card)... OHHH YEAH... CRAP! @EX3CUT1ON: So I forgot to mention this in that super-high-end build list... all those cards won't fit unless you have single-slot GPU coolers. Which basically means liquid cooled. If you're comfortable with a liquid-cooling setup, you can either purchase your own aftermarket GPU blocks (and single-slot GeForce brackets from Koolance) or just buy the ones from Newegg that have Danger Den blocks on them already. If not... well, that's an even stronger case to go with the cheaper route, I guess. But you're limited to one of three choices: 1) Three liquid-cooled GPUs and the full assortment of RAID cards/sound card/etc., 2) Three air-cooled GPUs and none of the other cards (which also means RAID via the onboard chipsets, which takes up CPU time), or 3) Two air-cooled GPUs, a sound card, and a RAID card. Or I guess you could try to find a motherboard that has an extra PCI-Ex1 slot up top without heatsink or RAM conflicts and try to jam a sound card in there. My bad for forgetting to mention that earlier. EEW. NO. You remember what happened to the 9800 GX2, don't you? Two of them in SLI were fine for a while, but they never got the drivers quite right and now they have virtually no driver support at all. They were a soft launch to secure the performance crown for a single card for the span of a few months and then were left out in the cold, and that will be exactly the case with the GTX 295. Just watch. - Diosjenin -
