Want to build a gaming rig

[Grutzvalt]

So, I went to Newegg and looked around...Here's my list, and tell me if I am being stupid in my choices:

1x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM SATA
1x Diamond Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0
1x Corsair 750Watt Crossfire Ready
1x Corsair XMS3 (3x2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
1x Intel X58 ATX MoBo
1x Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz
1x Vista 64-bit
1x Cool Master Mid Tower
1x Asus Xonar Essence STX 7.1 Channels 24-bit

What kind of cooling should I do? Any specific case?

Its not going to be on display for many people, but it will be kicking ass in Crysis and COD4 on high settings. I also plan to get into 3D modeling and whatnot within a year or two, which means I need a powerful graphics card...Did I mention I want a lot of bragging rights?

All help is appreciated!

 

[Fire2box]

Get water cooling. Just look it up on youtube and you will see how easy it is to do.

As for the rest of it the rig looks perfectly fine. However much is it going to cost so far?

 

[Bryce]

So, I went to Newegg and looked around...Here's my list, and tell me if I am being stupid in my choices:

1x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM SATA
1x Diamond Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0
1x Corsair 750Watt Crossfire Ready
1x Corsair XMS3 (3x2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
1x Intel X58 ATX MoBo
1x Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz
1x Vista 64-bit
1x Cool Master Mid Tower
1x Asus Xonar Essence STX 7.1 Channels 24-bit

What kind of cooling should I do? Any specific case?

Its not going to be on display for many people, but it will be kicking ass in Crysis and COD4 on high settings. I also plan to get into 3D modeling and whatnot within a year or two, which means I need a powerful graphics card...Did I mention I want a lot of bragging rights?

All help is appreciated!

I would get a smaller drive for less money so you could get more and then RAID them. I'm a big anti-radeon fan, so I would say get the nVidia GeForce GTX260 or better. Corsair is ok for RAM, but I would go with G.Skill as it's better in my opinion and I've always used it, but tiple channel is good. I've got 8gb RAM though XD. I would get this motherboard, Newegg.com - ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards. So, that also means if you want you can get another 3x 2gb of RAM for a total of 12gb!!! You'll need Vista Ultimate x64 or XP Pro SP3 x64 (don't get anything other than Vista Ultimate, it's a waste) and right now Newegg has OEM Vista Ultimate x64 for like $180 or something. The processer is good. As for a case, I HIGHLY suggest you get an Antec 1200 Full Tower. It may be more expensive, but the airflow in that thing is just awesome, not to mention there's a lot of room if you want to go water cooling. That motherboard I mentioned has onboard 7.1 surround sound, so you could skip that and use the money on more RAM or hard drives or something.

Now, for water cooling, I highly suggest you go to ocforums.com and post in the water cooling section there. There very experienced people there that are willing to help you, also re-post your list of hardware with links to them in the hardware forum and they'll help you get the most bang for your buck. Good luck!

 

[mm3]

Its not going to be on display for many people, but it will be kicking ass in Crysis and COD4 on high settings.

Hit me up. .

Everything there looks good, although personally I still am waiting until the revised i7 chip is released before I go into it. It's still a really new type of CPU and I don't feel that it's all quite there yet. Especially if Intel releases one rather soon, the chip you have now would be outdated (not easily comparable, but look at Core vs Core 2). I'd go for a top notch Core 2 Quad or even a Core 2 Extreme for the money you'd get for an i7. With that, you'd have to pick out a different 775 motherboard etc etc as well as RAM, but overclocability would be sweet. Saves you some cash in the long run and will keep you in the loop for a few years.

Everyone goes for the 4870. Honestly, it isn't great. 4 of my clanmates tried it, even the X2 model, and it's been anything but satisfactory. For that money I'd either SLI two GTS250s, or get a GTX260/285.

 

[Bryce]

My C2D is only getting a small OC for now, just a mere .8ghz increase from 3ghz. I say go with what mm3 said but still post on the ocforums though as they know their stuff to.

And mm3 is going to hate me for this, but I just started ordering new computer parts today =).

 

[mm3]

Man I wish you could see my UPS status for what I ordered .

 

[Bryce]

What you order? Screenshot it and post it now!

Well, my items are on the way. $488.99 was the total cost of my new server. I'm starting with 2tb in RAID 1 and my motherboard has 6 sata ports so I'll have room for 4 more 1tb drives within a month after the build. No cd drive. Why does a server need one anyways =).

It'll be my server for the following:

Web, FTP, DNS, Mail, DHCP, Storage, Firewall, IRC, and whatever else I want it to be. When I say IRC, I mean a IRC Client not Server. I can be able to literally be online 24/7/365 except for server reboots/maintaince =). Gotta love Screen and IRSSI =)

 

[Mink]

Meh, I'd go with OCz ram personally, in my experience it's performed the best overall...

 

[CrazyCanuck]

No vista, no vista!

Kevin

PS sorry, didn't realise how old this topic was...too late prolly

 

[ajsco]

No vista, no vista!

Why no Vista, it runs DX10, while XP, does not. Why go to the bother of spending all that money on a gaming setup when your OS is restricting the systems full potential?

 

[CrazyCanuck]

vista is too resource heavy to use if your trying to get the full potential out of your hardware though. Something like 20 percent of a computers resources is sucked up by vista. Windows 7, the next OS, will be much more stable, will require less resources (less then XP apparently) and will still have DX10. I think it's worth the wait.

...Then again, with core i7 and 3x2gb ddr3 I think that rig would have enough left over power after vista to spare haha

Kevin

 

[diaperedwolfcub]

I am waiting to build mine for Windows 7, so hopefully septemberish. Also if it was me I would get the full tower, not mid. But that is completely preference.

diaperedwolfcub

 

[timmahtherebel]

Don't buy the I7 it is a waste, get a Core 2 Quad.

 

[Fire2box]

and will still have DX10.

Try DX11..