So I decided to return my Dell XPS laptop...and get this instead

S

suryad

Veteran
Stacker 830 case + 200 gig hdd for backup $259
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811119103

COOLER MASTER Real Power RS-A00-EMBA ATX12V / EPS12V 1000W Power Supply - $330
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817171022

EVGA 768-P2-N881-AR GeForce 8800Ultra 768MB - 2 x $700
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130090

ASUS Striker Extreme LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI - $329
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131074

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 2.93 GHz Processor (LGA775) - $TBD

Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM - 2 x $199
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136012

mushkin 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit - $685
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820146688

Samsung 305T Widescreen LCD Monitor - 1 x 30" - LCD - 0.25mm - Black - $1339
http://www.buy.com/prod/samsung-305t-wides.../204106063.html

Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard - $169
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...615&CatId=9

Logitech G7 Laser Gaming Mouse - $70
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...p?EdpNo=1543156

Philips DVD/CD burner - 2 x $34
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827248006

MITSUMI Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal USB 2.0 digital card reader with Floppy Drive - $19
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....cription=floppy

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - $5.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835100007

Total damage = $6043.10
Thoughts? Comments? Recommendations?
 
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Strongly recommend you not go with the branded Stacker. Get the normal one, it appears you could afford to get it painted somewhere anyway. The Nvidia branding is simply trashy, why do you want your case to be a ad for a company you bought it from? They pay money for bill boards, not the other way around.
 
Good point. I kinda like the paintjob though. And I am using nvidia cards for SLI after all. And an nvidia mobo chipset. And believe me after I am spending this much I wont be spending anymore on a computer for a very long time. So that means no custom paintjob for me. :( Anyone can afford this the only holding them back would be can I justify spending this much on a computer? To me the answer is yes becuase I dont upgrade often.
 
Here's what you should get in place of the branded Stacker 830 from Nvidia -- a combo from NewEgg for the Stacker 830 with free 200GB Hard Drive for $259. You save $40 and get a 200GB hard drive!

Also as for CPUs, go with a Quad-Core (Q6600 @ $535)to save a bit of money and get better performance on multi-core optimized games such as Supreme Commander.

As for memory, I'd opt to go for at least a 4Gb kit (2 2Gb sticks).
 
Hey BRit nice one! I will do that. Thanks for the info.

As for the memory you are saying go with that memory but 4 gig? Would it be better to go with 2 x 2 gb or 4 x 1 gb?
 
suryad said:
Hey BRit nice one! I will do that. Thanks for the info.

As for the memory you are saying go with that memory but 4 gig? Would it be better to go with 2 x 2 gb or 4 x 1 gb?
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2x 2GB would the better choice. Also it is a really good suggestion since you plan on not upgrading for awhile, same goes for the quad core.
 
Thanks Skyring. I will do just that. I was just reading somewhere that it is a good idea to populate all the memory slots or something...but anyway what kind of speed RAM should I get since i dont intend to oclock. I understand the mobo I am intending on getting supports 1066 FSB and the processor is at that FSB. Does that mean I should get RAM running at that speed as well for optimal performance?
 
I am not a big fan of oclocking actually. I build my machines for them to last me a looong time. I dont want to oclock especially if I have them babies in SLI.
 
suryad said:
I am not a big fan of oclocking actually. I build my machines for them to last me a looong time. I dont want to oclock especially if I have them babies in SLI.
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Well water's good for quiet too...that's a LOT of fans you got there!
 
If you want something a bit quieter, you might want to switch out that 1KWatt PCP PSU for some other brand. Perhaps the Silverstone Strider 1000 for $249. It's a consumer version made to be quieter by using a 135mm fan than their Olympia OP1000 unit. The NewEgg Reviews say it's fairly quiet, and the PC Power and Cooling unit is known to be very loud since it only has an 80mm fan.
 
you're throwing money away on the Ultra's without question. If you want to have the fastest for the cheapest i'd just go for something like the eVGA Superclocked GTX, you will not be able to tell the difference. Even smarter still would be to just get a couple regular GTXs which would end up saving you close to $300 with minimal performance loss. By the time a GTX starts to show its age, a Ultra will too. The clock difference is not going to afford you a whole lot of extra life if any at all. Dont forget you're essentially buying cards that are damn near 7 months old and you know how fast things get replaced so thats further reason why i'd stay away from spending that kinda cash.

I dont like 680i motherboards but thats me. I dont think they're stable enough, nor do i think the price is justifiable over a 975x or 965 intel based motherboard.

Im also not a fan of the 1x2gb sticks after my little playtest a couple month ago. They had terrible lattency and had basically no room at all to overclock, even having trouble running at the rated speed. Mushkin is good though, but personally i'd have to stick with 1Gb sticks if it was me.

Raptors are overrated, you'll gain more if you simply spent less on larger perpendicular seagate drives or something. If you do end up going with the raptors i'd also totally recommend against doing RAID 0. You gain nothing and double the chance of failure and total data loss.

Im with Brit on the Q6600 as well.

Also i think its worth mentioning we're not too far out now from Intels chipset/processor refresh, but thats of course going to depend on how badly you need a new computer.

Lastly, you do indeed seem to be aware that what you posted is very expensive, yet you seem to also against throwing money away, so i think its worth pointing out the obvious that you've easily got about $500 you're wasting for either a brand name or bragging rights and very little real world pay off. Its your money, you'll spend it as you like, but if money does indeed matter to you i dont exactly understand some of your choices like those i brought up above. Anyway, good luck!
 
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Thanks SugarCoat.

As per your suggestions with the 680i...I read they are unstable but then there are a few people I have known who are using the mobo I selected and they dont have any problems after a BIOS flash. I really want to have SLI because I belive that will extend the life of my system in terms of upgradability. I usually dont upgrade every year. I wait 3 years at least. And I dont think the Intel mobos allow for SLI.

Also the Intel refresh, yes I was looking at the P35 that has the new DDR2/3 memory controller and it is very promising this early in the game. But once again it does not have SLI. Now I read talk of Nvidia and Intel in doing SLI for Intel boards but that is rumor and I do not know when that will materialize.

The latest I need to have a machine by is mid June. Or maybe June end at the worst case cause my gf is gonna need a machine and she is taking my old laptop. And me without a machine to do my studying with besides work is kind of impossible since I need a machine to code! :(

As for the Ultra grphx cards if I am to understand they are not really overclocked but from the best speed bin Nvidia had. I could be misunderstanding that but like I said I am not a big fan of oclocking at all or else I would have got the cheapest quad core and wrung the heck out of it. Also I read that the stream processors besides the higher core and memory speeds are also cranked on this bad boy so I would guess 10-15% increase in performance depending on the situation. I am sure you have seen the following benches but I would like to take the liberty of posting them...: http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/428/10/

And then the Raptors...I have heard of owners swearing by it and how fast it is. Its nothing other than an enterprise SCSI drive without the SCSI connectivity. And the RAID 0 yes that is true that I am increasing my chances of catastrophic hard drive failure but believe me I backup my stuff on a regular basis and everything is imaged so failure will do nothing to me other than the hassle of setting it all up again getting new drives etc. I also have that 200 gig hdd extra that will be my backup for everything. Sort of like a manual mirror of hard drives if you will. Like the Windows folder, the Program Files folder and the My Documents folder.

The memory thing you pointed out that is out of my realm of knowledge but I agree with you. Latencies go up with 2 gig sticks thought Mushkin seems to be guaranteeing their stuff. I would much rather prefer to get 4 x 1 gb Muskin sticks instead but I was told to go 2 x 2...so I am still up in the air about this.

Those are my justifications...feel free to convince me out of it ;) I will prob end up saving a bunch of cash!
 
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Wasnt really thinking about the SLI factor in my motherboard comment i must admit. Wish they'd get their shit together. What ever they were working on deal wise may of fell through, but i know that Abit certainly saw SLI on Intel chipsets as a real possability since they actually shipped a few intel motherboards with SLI connectors months ago. But obviously if you're going to SLI that limits you right now. Still, any reason why you picked the extremely expensive Asus Striker? Especially if you arent going to OC?

Ultras arent anything but G80s on 1.35V, thats it. The GTXs are 1.30V and normally hit a clock wall without volt modding right around where the Ultra clocks start. What i was suggesting is if you absolutly must have damn near the fastest clocks i'd personally go for the eVGA superclocked cards which are out of the box OC (621/2000, shader clocks at 1450 or so) and of course have a lifetime warranty so you dont need to touch anything yourself. The huge plus by doing that is you also save over $200 compared to going for the Ultras. Again though theres no real reason why a couple normal, stock, GTX wont work fine for ya unless you want to squeeze 3Dmarks or something and it would be even further savings.

Owners of the Raptors 150 can swear by it all they want, i just hope those owners arent just the people who post newegg comments. I'd suggest you check out a few reviews, the performance gain really isnt anything to write home about. I'd know, i have 2 myself a long with a 500gb/250gb perp drive. Its your money, buy what you like, but understand that you're paying for a consumer drive with one of the worst gb per dollar ratios you can get with little to no noticable performance benefit.

As far as RAID 0, again your choice, but especially with the Raptor 150s there is practically NO performance benefit for putting them in RAID 0. So in my opinion theres no way the reason for putting them in RAID0 is better than the result of doing such a thing. Its good you back up your data, but theres still really no good reason to RAID 0 those drives in the first place as opposed to running them seperate other then cosmetics (seeing only 1 drive in your OS).

Memory, just from my experience, the 2gb sticks arent mature enough. They reacted horribly to minor voltage increases, obviously the latency isnt great, and they have hardly any headroom, again i even had troubles hitting rated speed and it wasnt no-name stuff which leads me to believe its just too early. If you're running vista, or playing games with horrible memory leaks/using programs for school/work that require/can benefit from that much memory, i can see the 4gb benefit so by all means, but if you're going to continue running XP and just do enthusiast gaming and general computer stuff i'd almost suggest starting out with some decent 2x1gb sticks and giving the 2gb ones time to mature and come down in price.
 
Thanks for your post again SugarCoat. I went with the striker mobo as it seemed to be getting the best reviews. They were saying the layout was great esp for sticking in 2 geforce 8800s and left adequate space for cooling.

So would you recommend 4 x 1 gb and fill up all 4 slots?
 
suryad said:
Thanks for your post again SugarCoat. I went with the striker mobo as it seemed to be getting the best reviews. They were saying the layout was great esp for sticking in 2 geforce 8800s and left adequate space for cooling.

So would you recommend 4 x 1 gb and fill up all 4 slots?
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As long as you have your heart set on the 680i boards and are aware of all the problems that may follow with the chipset i'd personally just assume save some money and get the Abit IN9. A few things are really neat about their boards, two of which are related to bios and debugging. Abit has a bios reset switch on the back of the board which you can access without needing to take off the side of the case (big plus for those of us that play with bios settings) also theres the Uguru LED on the board itself which can be used in the event of a failure to boot, where the board will display a POST failure code.

Aside from that the they look pretty similar with the exception of the IDE connector on ABIT which i think is in a much better place compared to Asus which has it placed right next to the 24-pin atx plug.

I wouldnt do 4x sticks no. Either 2x1gb or 2x2gb depending on your current needs.
 
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