New Computer

[Fate's Decision]

The motherboard on my 4-year-old computer has gone bad. I'm sick of fixing this thing, and now its so outdated that I'm pretty much done with it. What should I get as an optimal gaming machine?

[darth_nevus]

oh thanks the gods.... what type of budget do you have? what parts can you reuse?

[juneau]

oh thanks the gods.... what type of budget do you have? what parts can you reuse?

+1 We really need to know this first. And please please please don't say your a AMD fanboy.

[Duke{CLR}]

This is good I am getting tired of drilling holes in my case for excitement. :P

[Fate's Decision]

Everything in my computer other than my 2 hard drives is crap. Pretty good 4 years ago, but now it's crap.
Right now I would consider anything from $2-$3K, I sold my old one for $500 (pretty damn good seeing that it was broken). I would prefer desktop.

[darth_nevus]

2-3k eh? this is a great budget. god i love spending other peoples money. i'm no expert, but with 3k? this is what i'd buy, with a few modifications of course, but starting here.....


Base: with a 3k budget, this is just a general, base, list of parts.
LITE-ON 20X DVD?R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06 - Retail
Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
2x Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
2x EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Black) EPS12V 750W Power Supply - Retail
mushkin 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996593-REDLINE - Retail
ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Yorkfield 3.0GHz LGA 775 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569QX9650 - Retail
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM


booyah!

[WalkinTarget]

$500 for a broken PC ??? Holy .....
I was thinking of selling a WORKING one for less than that, and it STILL does a very good job. And no, it isn't a garden variety beige box:



2k pretty much buys you whatever you want .. that makes for a very nice rig once its all assembled.

[juneau]

Nice spec there Darth. I would however make a few changes.

DVDRW dropped for a pionner one.
Antec p182 dropped for a Silverstone TJ07.
Drop one of the 8800GT's. I mean come on, SLI and XFire is pretty much useless. :P
Asus MAXIMUS FORMULA. I know of a ton of people with problems with this board. Abit IP35Pro.
Intel C2 QX9650 dropped for a Intel C2D E8400. Even the Q6600 didn't max out in Crysis.
Seagate 7200.10 dropped for a WD 500GB AAKS. I would rather have less warranty than risk getting a drive with Seagates .10 dodgy AAK firmware. Maybe even get a Seagate .11 instead.

Save the rest of the money. Just because you have a big budget doesn't mean the extra spent is worth it.

[WalkinTarget]

Juneau makes some valid points, and as far as the video card, I will do you both one better and say to order the (not out yet) 9800GX2. One slot, two cards ... best of both worlds.

As far as the Abit board, that board has some horrendous vdroop issues, so if you plan on overclocking, check out a pencil mod at the least to keep things from crapping out when shooting for 4ghz from an e8400. This is assuming you want a very nice OC rather than an easy 3.6ghz with less voltage (and vdroop).

LoL .. Juneau really hates Seagate drives, doesn't he ?? I checked on my pair of NIB Seagate retail 320s and both sport the 'good' firmware, so I can't complain at least, but Seagate apparently offered to swap out the AAKs for other drives ... 'cept ... nobody wanted to send in their main drives with no backups to tide them over !!

[juneau]

Juneau makes some valid points, and as far as the video card, I will do you both one better and say to order the (not out yet) 9800GX2. One slot, two cards ... best of both worlds.

As far as the Abit board, that board has some horrendous vdroop issues, so if you plan on overclocking, check out a pencil mod at the least to keep things from crapping out when shooting for 4ghz from an e8400. This is assuming you want a very nice OC rather than an easy 3.6ghz with less voltage (and vdroop).

LoL .. Juneau really hates Seagate drives, doesn't he ?? I checked on my pair of NIB Seagate retail 320s and both sport the 'good' firmware, so I can't complain at least, but Seagate apparently offered to swap out the AAKs for other drives ... 'cept ... nobody wanted to send in their main drives with no backups to tide them over !!

The thing that bugged me the most with Seagate is that everybody let them know that the AAK firmware was crap and an update was needed. Yet Seagate released a statement saying that the firmware was fine even though it stunted the drives performance, and that a updated firmware was out of the question.

I would have been so peeved if i had bought one of those drives.

Good point on the GX2. JKust depends how long Fate can wait till he upgrades.

[darth_nevus]

I was really thinking more future proof, hence the QX, vs the E. SLI can be a waste, but come a year or to, instead of upgrading the vid card, you still have 2. dukes rig ran great forever with his 2x 6 series cards, and would still be too. but it is indeed a valid point.

What have you heard on the Formula board? i honestly hadn't seen any real quips about it that i didn't chalk up to super stupid inexperienced users, but then again, thats all that you really see. real world people make a far better difference.

With WD's QC going down the crapper, and their warrenties to boot, i find it hard, even inlight of seagate's muck up with the aaks firmware, to use them. seagates 5year warrenty makes up for it, considering i'd never use the drive for anything short of storage & backups.

DVD drives are a dime a dozen, so anyone really isn't too bad off, i'll ride the boat with you on the poineer model though.

Whats special about the tj07, though? the price tag is really up there.

[juneau]

I was really thinking more future proof, hence the QX, vs the E. SLI can be a waste, but come a year or to, instead of upgrading the vid card, you still have 2. dukes rig ran great forever with his 2x 6 series cards, and would still be too. but it is indeed a valid point.

What have you heard on the Formula board? i honestly hadn't seen any real quips about it that i didn't chalk up to super stupid inexperienced users, but then again, thats all that you really see. real world people make a far better difference.

With WD's QC going down the crapper, and their warrenties to boot, i find it hard, even inlight of seagate's muck up with the aaks firmware, to use them. seagates 5year warrenty makes up for it, considering i'd never use the drive for anything short of storage & backups.

DVD drives are a dime a dozen, so anyone really isn't too bad off, i'll ride the boat with you on the poineer model though.

Whats special about the tj07, though? the price tag is really up there.

You know something i don't about the WD's?

The TJ07 is a modders dream. Huge in size, great cooling and acoustics and probably the best quality manufactured case out.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IDSkubfWaPM
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=131626 (Great mod thread)

Some thing i've heard with the Formula board is cold boot issues and general instability.

I chose the poineer drive due to how quiet they are. Samsung are the quietest but they aren't very reliable.

[Devilguns]

$500 for a broken PC ??? Holy .....
I was thinking of selling a WORKING one for less than that, and it STILL does a very good job. And no, it isn't a garden variety beige box:

Oh man, ditto that WT.

[Fate's Decision]

Hey thanks for taking the time to customize my computer. I thought I would get a few standard box suggestions, but this is great.
Methinks OEM products = yuck. I can reuse my hard drives, so not much problem there.
How does vista compare to XP gaming-wise? I've heard it has performance issues, but XP isn't perfect either.
I'm clueless as to graphics cards. My first Radeon overheated and fried itself, and I wasn't particularly impressed with its replacement, so switching to GEFORCE may be a good idea.
TJ07 - Holy crap juneau that thing is HUGE. I don't know if it would fit under my desk . Its really organized, though, which is a quality I really need as my old tower is filled with such a jumble of cords that it makes it very difficult to check on my components, especially for connection issues.
Abit vs. Asus? I pretty much disregarded the motherboard but seeing as its the main reason I have to get a new computer...
Any comments on the mushkin redline? That's probably my biggest factor IMO.

[CHOPS123]

I have the asus Formula maximus and have had no problems with it. If you go with that board you going to either go with crossfire cards or just one nvidia card because it does not support SLI. I also have the Antec 900 case which is pretty sweet.....But you do have to dust it pretty often. Thats really the only con with this case.....It has a pretty nice fan setup