Building my Gaming PC (finally)
 

So far I got myself

Motherboard: msi 790gx-g65
http://i1.lelong.com.my/UserImages/I...wuiti82@15.jpg

Processor: AMD Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition
http://i.pricerunner.com/prod/5_8_13...55FBGIBOX.jpeg

Video Cards: Two Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 1GB
http://www.thg.ru/technews/images/sa...b_1-040708.jpg

Power Supply: Xilence 600W Gaming Edition
http://www.quietpc.com/files/images/products/x-750w.jpg

Thats all for now, going to get more parts next weekend, any reccomendations?

Yeah, get a mobo with the ATI 790FX Chipset and two Radeon HD 4870 X2 (with crossfire cable of course). Then change out that wussy power source for a 1200 - 1600 watt. Optionally, do what I did and get two 900 watt power sources. I also suggest 8GB of ram with a 64-bit OS to accompany it. Well, that's my opinion on a power computer, rather, that's my current monster.

Those parts pictured are the ones I already purchased. I am not going for a $10,000 top of the line beast like you but more of a good performance gaming rig with good prices. (That I can overclock)

On the RAM side of things, you can't go wrong with Corsair or Kingston. My preference is Corsair, and their RAM comes with a lifetime warranty, so if you do get a dud stick, send it in and they'll replace it for you.

What type of cooling are you thinking about (it will obviously impact on the case)?

Most likely water cooling, I dont want a ton of fans in my case. Also I just ordered two 80 gig solid state drives instead of getting a 10,000 rpm hard drive. Cost me a pretty penny but I think SSD will really enhance overall computer performance. Also ordered the monitor, 22 in lcd 10,000 - 1 Dynamic-Contrast Ratio, 5 millisecond screen response.
The Hard drive:
http://www.computerworld.com/common/...X25M_large.jpg

The Display:
http://www.itechnews.net/wp-content/...d-displays.jpg

So now I just need:
Sound Card

DVD/CD/BlueRay

Keyboard/Mouse

Speakers

And finally the computer case

I'm very impressed with your choice of monitor - not only is it a sexy looking piece of hardware, but it's also Samsung.

If you go for a Blu-ray drive, definitely get one with which you can burn.

Keyboard/mouse - I'm a massive fan of Logitech's peripherals. Sure, Razer are billed as the gaming peripherals, but I think that the build quality and design of the Logitech products is better. I know a lot of people who have converted from Razer to Logitech, too.

You'll want a big case. If money's no problem, go for one of the high quality aluminium cases. My preference is Cooler Master, but most of it is down to your taste.

Looks good to me.

Just picked out my OS and ordered it via amazon ;)

Microsoft Windows XP Pro x64 Edition SP2C for System Builders

You'll want to dual boot that with a x86(32-bit) version of Windows XP if you want to play certain things like Diablo and Diablo II. Or if you buy a PhysX card from nVidia so you can play games like Mirrors Edge properly (which is stupid), you can only have both drivers in the 32-bit version of Win XP without the BSOD bug in the x64 version. Oh, and Windows 7 runs faster on my machine than XP does. You might want to give the Windows 7 RC a try.

Yea I got my regular xp copy already (infinite use, no cd key copy courtesy of the army)

I was looking at the Windows 7 RC today, and reading some articles and benchmarks and alot of them said it only increased performance a tiny bit and not in every area. I think I am going to just go with the tried and true winxp until 2010 or whenever windows 7 gets officially released.


What physics are in that game lol. I beaten the game multiple times and I don't remember ever seeing any part of that uses realistic non scripted physics except for when you kill and enemy and they fall down. And some windows shattering. Thats it. So yes if anyone buy's a physX card just to play Mirror's Edge they are stupid.

Somewhat off-topic: Have you tried the latest version of Ubuntu? As I mentioned in another thread, it supposedly has excellent, native support for 32-bit Windows applications now. I've heard from a number of sources that Wine is useless in comparison. I haven't tried the former myself though. Setting up Debian on my Q6600 system was sufficiently annoying since my HD4870 was not supported by default by Debian-based systems. As a consequence, I'll probably wait for a while until giving Ubuntu another run for its money.


On topic: Your system looks great so far, SYG! As for Mirror's Edge, I recall from the PhysX demonstration videos that the most impressive "feature" was that in-game drapery would move in reasonably realistic ways when interacted with. That is a significant feature, according to the developers.

I have not tried the latest Ubuntu version yet, sill on 8.04. I have honestly did not hear anything about it that. I'll check it out later though.

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As for the PhysX thing, I don't think you understood me SYG.

The game Mirrors Edge for the PC will keep slowing down until it is unplayable if you don't have a video card with PhysX on it. In order to use the PhysX card in conjunction with your 3xxx or 4xxx Radeon HD series video card, you need Windows XP 32-bit because it will allow you to install the drivers from the PhysX card and the ATI card together. If you try it on the 64-bit version it will BSOD you. What I was saying was stupid is that you have to pay money for a video card to play the game because of the PhysX crap. I have a PhysX card with mine right now, and I'm not stupid. So be careful, it's the developers of the game who were stupid in their decisions.

In my personal opinion, AMD < Intel

Other then that, very sexy.

Intel == Tons of money
AMD == Way less money (And still great quality)

So how much is this gonna run you? I think I just broke my laptop (my only computer).

Apparently Fedora 11 is similar to the newest Ubuntu.

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You need to try Windows 7 to see the differences yourself - it's definitely a lot faster than both Vista and XP.

As for release, RTM is supposed to be July, I think, and it should be on shelves by October.

Motherboard, cpu, and 4 gigs of DDR3 as a package. $500. New

Radeon HD 4850 1GB video card. $152.99 each. Times two. $305.98. New

Powersupply. $89. New

Monitor. $157.69. Factory Refurbished

SSD Intel 80gig hard drive. $314 each. Times two. $628

Operating System. $149.99

I still need the case, sound card, dvd/blueray drive, and keyboardmouse. I will most likely be getting all of those this Saturday.

Grand total as of right now: $1830.66

So after the getting the rest of the stuff I need it will most likely be around $2100-$2200

edit: you can take off about $500 - $580 and get a normal 7,200 or 10,000 rpm hard drive which are fine. So about $1600 if you do that for a pretty good gaming computer. Maybe even nix one of the video cards too.

EDIT: I did not read your edit. You can continue anyways.

$2100 - $2200. That's too bad. I bought my monster months ago for $2300 and it is way the hell more powerful than yours.

My stats
CPU: AMD 950 Overclocked to 3.5GHz (All Cores)
RAM: 8GB Kingstron HyperX
Cooling: Water Cooling
Case: Gigantic Full Case
Mobo: ASUS AM2 CPU Socket, 790FX Chipset, and Quad PCIe
HDD: 1TB at 7200 RPM
Video Card: Two ATi Radeon HD 4870 X2 with Crossfire, nVidia GeForce 8400 (Has PhysX)
Sound Card: I'm not going to bother to check
PSU: Two 800 watt power supplies
Extra: 16-fans (10 pulling in | 6 pulling out), Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

Except for the fact that I get 4 seconds or less windows fully loaded from turning on my computer. The harddrives are the biggest money eater in my system but they will remove that one major bottleneck most computer and your computer have. What about your monitor? You mentioned nothing about that.