Building my Dream Machine over the course of the next year..

[aperrigo]

The new system I am building is : https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=8759008&WishListTitle=Dream+Desktop+2008
what I linked!
I guess I will have to start with the Graphic Cards which will kill me over the next few months...got save up for one of them at a time.

[Cab]

I would really consider a 8800GT you can always add a second down the road and the performance is very close to a GTX and if your adventurous they overclock fairly well. The price is give or take 200.00 been bouncing around some lately

[pch.shot]

Have a look at this:http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=717&p=0

[aperrigo]

I actually was talking to the the techs at NVidia and EVGA...the 9800GTX while only using 256 bit processing when compared to dual 8800 GTX/Ultras is not quite noticable.. What they did say to me which hasn't been put out much is that once the re-design the drivers for the 9800. 1 x 9800 GTX will equal the raw power of 3 SLI 8800 GTXs. Dual 9800 GTXs will blow every gamer out of the water? Of course, I kid around about it.. My goal is to get all necessary components and buy the Graphics Cards and Solid State Drives last. If anyone is interested in power of SSD go to my friends at http://www.dvnation.com/. Their an American company based in Texas.
And I would like to know who in this forum has successfully built a Liquid Cooled system...I have only worked on them while in the military and at the Dell Factory. I have never built one at home. So I was just wondering how everyone felt about them versus my setup wishlist at Newegg.com.

If I can't get hired locally in TN as a Tech type...as I stated in another section " I might have to sell myself to Geeksquad". But besides that the military pays me 1k a month to go to school. My tuition is 1500 a semester..if their is 3-4 months in there I gross 1500-2k a semester...Unfortunately, I have to hold myself back as I just bought a brand new laptop and I have the urge to completely overhaul a new system.
I am sure some of you agree with me when I say I wish I had 20k to blow on a system that is unmatched.
Here imagine having one of these systems :
If you are playing with their configs ..max out everything and then look at the price..
Yes...you have to be a freaking millionaire to have one of those systems.

[DaddyX3]

I have never done a liquid cooled system before, but a friend of mine has done it a few times. Heres a tip for you..... do your research on hoses!!!! Water kills boards and RAM and CPU!!!! You don't want a leak. I really see no point in liquid cooled (IMHO) unless you are going to be doing some serious OC'ing. If your not an OC'er then why waste your time and money? Yes it has a "bling" factor, but quite the pain in the ass if you ask me.

[Baphomet]

Water-cooling, from what I can tell, is one of those situations where you either "get it" or you do not "get it". Personally, I fall squarely into the do NOT "get it" category. If you're pushing your hardware sooooo hard you actually NEED water cooling, wouldn't you be better off investing in a more powerful hardware profile? And if you've maxed out the hardware profile and still "need" to water cool, I'd have to ask what it is you're actually doing with your PC (besides benching it I suppose). If it's a bling-factor thing, well, then, I'm absolutely hopeless because I don't build for bling-factor.

[LeadFingers]

A curiosity, Why 2 blue ray's?

Have you ever used a 30" screen?
Ya bigger seems better, but two 30" screens is kind of "in your face, to much".
Even if you got the acreage for 2 of them, you have to give yourself more distance than usual,
which can be a pain unless you're working from a "Lazy-boy".
For the price of just one of those you could buy a HD projector & screen.
If you want "in your face" nothing like a 97" picture!
If you decide you need two 30" screens,
get HD tv's (not monitors) and use the Dvi.
That will save you a bundle right there.

4 Tb raid 0+1, OMG! You shouldn't run short on disk space for a while.
You could prolly cut that back to 2 Tb, save some $ and never notice the difference.

I like the idea of Raid 0 solid state drives.
Should be a few boards down the line before you can see their true potential,
But your system Won't be bottlenecked around those drives.
Should make your OS just zip!

You're shooting yourself in the foot by going with the Skulltrail.
They are known to overheat the memory, fried memory = not good.
Intel's first attempt at Sli and they don't have Pci-e 2.0 support.
Kind of defeating the purpose of Sli if your cards are stuck in Pci-e 1.0 land.
Major video bottleneck
1600 Mhz FSB is no longer king, but that is all you are going to get with this board.
Ya 2 quad cores is major kewl, But at the price of slowed FSB and half the video benchmarks,
You won't see any difference in overall system speed, Not worth it !

You're on the right track but if it was me...
Newegg & a bit more research would kick the tail off that system, for way less $$$

Ps: not water cooled but heat pipes is the way to go.

[aperrigo]

Guys and Gals,
Let me add that the Skull Trail pic I posted was not me buying it...It was me making fun of the people, usually rich bastards who don't know better, who actually buy this kind of product.
Seriously, My original link from newegg is what I intend to build...but after researching the graphics cards I will probably hold off till Q3 2008 for the 9900X2's to be released. It will all depend on the price. If you ask why the 9900's..well the will finally be instituting the DDR4 memory in their cards..and I know ATI has already done so with there cards. But I also take into account the mobo, cpu, memory...user error. I tend to stick with NVIDIA more then ATI. This will be my first INTEL desktop since '95.
I was also wondering if I should give my parents my dated desktop when I finish building my new one or if I should just try and sell it?

Going back to the Skulltrail pic! I was goofing around on the site and wanted to know if I had unlimited money/budget what I could spend it on!...If I wanted to spend 25k I would buy a BMW or Mercedes with the Hydrogen fuel option.

[aperrigo]

forgot to add that my newegg has paid off...I am within my budget of 3k ...at $2910.
here's the link again for those interested.
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=8759008&WishListTitle=Dream+Desktop+2008

[aperrigo]

Oh the things I find out about technology.
OCZ is coming out with an updated Solid State Drive 32GB SATA II. When it is released the will sell it for 499.
almost 150 dollars cheaper then mine and about the same specs.
Here's a Link:
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_sata_ii_2_5-ssd
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36441/135/
Well, Hopefully I wont randomly remember something tonite and post again...