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Gonna be building a new box soon...
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:26 am
by Burrito
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:31 am
by shiznatix
Mr. Moneybags. Looking quite fancy I must say. How much is that piece going to run you? 400 gig hard drive though...I don't see how you could possibly need that much space, but then again...I don't know your addictions

(i'm just joshin jaa)
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:32 am
by John Cartwright
$955.65
$299.99
$379.99
$749.60 x2
$331.00
$187.11
$123.99
Total ~ $3775
Wewt!! Get it!
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:55 am
by Burrito
Maybe pricegrabber knows that you're canadian JCart...for me, this is what I come up with:
$786.28
$210.19
$299.83
$757.30 x2
$219.00
$89.99
$100.89
-----------------
$3219.79 USD
which falls within my $3500.00 budget
I'm not gonna pull the trigger now, just starting to put some ideas together
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:56 am
by John Cartwright
Man that new video card is hot! I want one in my laptop...

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:57 am
by Burrito
heh...I'm hoping to get two of them.
that's over 1gb of video ram, all working in sli goodness!
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:03 pm
by Grim...
How that going to improve the watching of pr0n?
<edit>Seriously, though - what about VDU's?
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:03 pm
by josh
those western digital 400GBs run pretty hot, i had to cut a hole in the side of my case with a dremel and install a fan to keep them under their recommended temps (60C)... (i have 4 of them in one box)
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:32 pm
by jayshields
lmao. your getting 7800GTX 512mb in SLI?
You wont be able to find a game to run it to its potential until abour 4 years time, by then the price will have dropped considerably and some new technology will probably have come out which makes SLi obsolete.
seriously, if you want SLi, you may aswell get 6600GT 128mb cards or if you want to push the boat out, 6800(GT) 128mb.
2 x 6800GT in SLi performs better than a single 7800GTX.
In my honest opinion, if you have money to burn (looks like it by your spec...), then a single 7800GTX would be a sensible option. A single 7800GTX is capable of running pretty much every game on full settings at a decent resolution with no problems. Only F.E.A.R. in near max resolution and full settings gives it a bit of trouble. So from my POV one of those cards will suffice, if in a few years the same technology is a still about and your card is lagging behind, buy another one, it will be alot cheaper then, and your system might actually get used to its full potential by games.
I also think 2GB of RAM is OTT, 1GB will suffice for pretty much anything. Same with the processor, dual core 64 bit processors wont be properly used for a couple of years yet...
Also with the hard drive, 400GB??! What stuff do you put on your PC?! But anyway, take a look at Maxtor HDD's, I think they are better than Western Digital. Only opinion.
ATM my spec is about 5 years old, but it runs fine, I'm spending £300 on it after Christmas and it will be the most ive spent since i bought it, im getting a 6600GT 128mb, Asus A8N-E, AMD 64 3200+ skt939. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to play any game at near full settings on a reasonable resolution with those components along with my 1GB ram. Current HDD's are 40gb and 60gb Maxtors, via IDE.
Nice motherboard choice though, Asus is the best motherboard brand IMO, maybe take a look at the other versions of your chosen motherboard though, the deluxe one includes some probably unneeded features and adds extra money onto the price because of it (not like I think your bothered!).
I forgot to mention, I'm judging that your going to use this rig for gaming and work, not rocket science or anything silly.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:50 pm
by Burrito
I will actually almost fill a 400 gb drive as soon as I configure my machine.
as for the video card points you made...those are all very valid points and I will most definltely consider them when / if I make this purchase. Here's the deal though....I love eye candy. I believe eye candy was put into games for a purpose and I want to reward those who spent the time putting it in by actually watching it. I have a 1920x1200 monitor so playing games at that resolution with all of the candy turned up as high as it can go can be pretty taxing (as you can surely imagine). Perhaps you're right in that one card could handle it and I will heed that "warning" and give it a go with just one....however you've already mentioned a game (FEAR) that the card can't handle with everything juiced. So if we're to that point at present day, where will we be in six months? Yes, I could wait and buy the card six months down the road (at a cheaper price no doubt), so as I said, your point was well taken on that.
thanks for the input.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:18 pm
by jayshields
Well, I wasn't taking into consideration that you would be wanting to play games at 1900x1200 resolution. I don't even know of a monitor that goes up to that resolution. If you are wanting to play games at that resolution (I don't know any that support it) then you will probably need what you put forward first, which was the best money can buy. I know a single 7800GTX 512mb struggles with FEAR on upwards of 1280x1024 with anti aliasing on full.
After all that, you're probably right.
How much did your VDU cost you and how big is it?!
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:30 pm
by Burrito
I actually already have 2 24" widescreen dell flat panels:
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getp ... h=2405+fpw
I have two games already too that will support that resolution (HL2 (CSS) and Call of Duty 2).
because that is the native res on those monitors, games obviously look their best at that resolution. Unfortunately playing at ~15 FPS kinda sucks
anyway, I do think I'll take your advice (when I do step up to the plate) and just buy one and see where that gets me....
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:59 pm
by hawleyjr
400g of space is right around the amount of space I have. I have a handful of partitions which I rotate backups of code, financial information, photos and music/videos. On top of that, I'm running dual boot drives. Why not? Hard drives are at an all time high for space and an all time low for price. As for the monitors go, once you go dual LCD (or even 3) you'll never go back. Programming is so much simpler when you can have your code on one monitor and output on the other.
GO for it Burrito...
Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 6:39 am
by jayshields
I look at it this way.
I've got plenty of money spare in the bank (enough to buy 2 of those spec computers you suggested originally...), but I cannot see the point in having an uber computer.
I have:
AMD Athlonx XP 2200+ Barton core
768mb DDR333 (mixed up cheap clocked down RAM)
17" CRT Monitor (about 6 years old)
XFX FX5900XT 128mb Graphics
Pioneer DVR-109 DVD-RW
Cheap DVD-ROM
40gb + 60gb Maxtor IDE HDD's
Cheap motherboard (I forgot the model number)
It's a poor spec, and I'm still thinking about even bothering to spend that £300 on my upgrades, I think it's too much.
Sometimes I just think to myself, why the heck am I wanting to spend loads of money on a silly computer. Spending £300 just to be able to play a game on a good details is a bit stupid, but then I look at it as, if I'm going to spend my money on anything, I may aswell spend it on something I use all the time, which is the computer. So it's a bit of a catch 22 situation to me.
About the HD space. I've got 100gb total, my 40gb is full, but whenever I want to install something new, I will find something to delete from it. My 60gb is just for backing up work and other important stuff, so I've got about 40gb left on it still. My music collection is just short of 5gb now, so it still fits on my 5gb mp3 player, but when I fill it, I'll just compress my full collection, format my mp3 player, and re-add all the newly compressed stuff. That's the way I go about thinking about stuff. I suppose you would buy a new Hard Drive everytime you fill it, and then go to buy a bigger capacity mp3 player.
Oh, and I'll probably never have 2 monitors, unless I win the lottery...
Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 6:54 am
by JayBird
For hard drive, i would have a separate boot drive and storage drive.
For storage, i would just get a huge bog standard IDE
For my boot drive i would get Western Digital WD740GD 74GD "Raptor" 10,000RPM SATA/150 8MB Cache -
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products ... _uid=55454
Or two of the smaller ones and run a RAID config.
My mate has this setup and PC boots soooooo quick
FYI, i have 1.2 terrabytes of storgae space....and still looking to add another half terrabyte in the new year.
As for memory, fill yer boots...the more the better.
Also, why the exteranl DVD writer? go internal...much cheaper. And id go with pioneer