Ultimate Gaming System

[Vicious38]

Yeah.... I'm building my Gaming System right now which I've been planning on for months. I ordered most of my pieces yesturday.

Athlon? 64 FX-53 Socket 939 - Purchased from Newegg for $843.00
Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 - Purchased from Newegg for $215.00
2 GB of OCZ DDR PC-3200/400MHz Platinum Enhanced Bandwidth Dual Channel - Purchased from ComputerHQ for $610.00
2 x Western Digital Raptor Serial ATA Hard Drive 74.0 GB @ 10000 RPMS - Purchased from Fry's Electronic for $149.99 Each
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Sound Card - Purchased from Fry's Electronic 249.99
nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme Edition - Can't find one for a reasonable price... $749.99 is not reasonable...
NEC/Mitsubishi DP2070SB-BK 22" SuperBright Diamondtron CRT Monitor - Purchasing it at the end of this month.
Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling 510W ATX-Deluxe - Purchased for 199.99 from FrozenCPU

Now... My question is... Is there a big difference between Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Sound Card and Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card? Just $50.00 Dollars or something more specific?

Has anyone found nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme Edition at MSRP thats available to buy?

About the monitor... I'm having concerns that this montior may be to big for my Table, heck just in general 19 x 19 at 70 Pounds, Although I heard the quality is unmatched. I'm willing to go 200 Dollars more for a good monitor that has the same quality though it should be LCD Flat Panal, is this even possible? Or atleast one that comes close.

My Original plan about the memory was to get 2 GB of OCZ DDR PC-3700/466MHz Platinum Enhanced Bandwidth Dual Channel (4x 512 MB) But I was so impatient to find it because I only found one place and it was on backorder that I settled for the memory I bought yesturday? Will there be a major difference in performance?

Last Question... What do you think of this setup? I saved money for a couple of months for this and I'm planning to have this last for atleast 2 Years.

Sorry for the long post, any awnsers will be much appreciated.

 

[Mik3y]

holy beautiful setup batman, i'm about to cry. dude, that is such a great setup. i wouldnt change any of it. what case will you be using?

 

[Vicious38]

The case is actually a flop, thats why I didn't list it Only reason I use it is because I'm putting 7 Fans in my computer, I used my computer like crazy and leave it on for days at a time. My last computer had a heating problem, caused some of my wires to melt... So I put 7 Silent Fans in there so there wouldn't be an excuse, I don't care about noise that much. The case is unfortunatly a Raidmax Scorpio 868... Cheesy? Definitly, but its durable and it has enough space for as many 80mm fans as I want.. Otherwise I would of went Lian-Li. Its black, with a car paint finish. I sleeved everything black and stuck in a Dual Cold Cathode Kit - Blue. The Fans are 6x Aerocool X-Static Fans, 21.8 dba and 1 Aluminum Blue Neon Aerocool Fan, 20.8 dba on the side. I don't want to spend another 400 for a great Lian-Li case, fans, and sleeving.. Also wasting my own fans and all the time I spent sleeving everything :\

 

[imported_Computer MAn]

Nice rig

And I think the only way you are going to get an Ultra Extreme at MSRP is to get in that weekly drawing at EVga. Or you could look for an X800 XTPE. I think it has similar performance to the Ultra Extreme.

 

[Vicious38]

Well, all of my computer have had ATI Cards in them in the past. But everyone told me how nVIDIA is better for gaming, so I figured I'd try them out.

 

[gururu]

that is nearly 4000 dollars fro a computer!!! Ouch! Certainly a dream machine.

 

[imported_Computer MAn]

Im not sure exactly but I think the X800 XT PE beats out the Ultra and Ultra Exteme in every game but Doom 3. The only thing the 6800's have is PS 3.0. Im not sure how much of advantage this will give them in future game. But either way they will both be great cards.

 

[Vicious38]

Well, I've been buying parts little by little over the past few months, I don't like doing this because I always think tomorrow theres going to be something better if I just wait and buy everything all at once. But I did spend a little over 3000 already. Only the monitor and video card to go... Thank God. I can't wait for it to end. But everytime I think I'm getting close something else is added, I have to buy a keyboard and a decent headset for gaming. Also need to buy Windows XP Professional and an Anti-Virus :\

 

[kd2777]

Originally posted by: Computer MAn
Im not sure exactly but I think the X800 XT PE beats out the Ultra and Ultra Exteme in every game but Doom 3. The only thing the 6800's have is PS 3.0. Im not sure how much of advantage this will give them in future game. But either way they will both be great cards.

This is true, the only reason you are hearing so much about the nVidia is because DOOM3 is the big game right now. If you play FarCry or in a few weeks when Half Life2 comes out you will be needing a 800XT PE.

By the way, love your setup; especially the PSU, I hesitated but finally bought one of those for myself, I got it direct from PC P&C and paid 20 more bucks, wish I knew froozenCPU had it :frown:.

And great deal on those Raptors, on my way to frys.com now!!!!!!

KD

 

[Vicious38]

Well, that may change my views a bit... I don't even play Doom 3, I like Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and RPG - FPS Games (Heavy Counter-Strike Player) so I may just change to ATI again.. I'm still not so sure though, but hey a few more opinions would be great. Unfortunatly... The Western Digital Raptors won't be at that price :\ I bought them when they have a $30.00 Instant Rebate bringing it down to 179.99 and then it had another $30.00 Dollar Mail in Rebate (Pure Luck on my Part)

 

[imported_Computer MAn]

Here is just one review I found. I found that the X800 really outperformes the 6800 when AA and AF are enabled at higher resolutionsLink

 

[masshass81]

Wow, I'm in envy! VERY nice setup you got there. For the vid card between X800Pro and 6800GT - pick the GT (just because ATI cuts X800Pro's pipelines to 12 so can't really OC it to a real XT).

But in your case, between the 6800U EE and X800XT PE, you can't go wrong with either one. :thumbsup:

 

[Mik3y]

i hope it's not too much to ask for pics and benchies once it's all done?

 

[masshass81]

Originally posted by: Mik3y
i hope it's not too much to ask for pics and benchies once it's all done?

 

[jpeyton]

Last Question... What do you think of this setup? I saved money for a couple of months for this and I'm planning to have this last for atleast 2 Years.

I'll give you an interesting perspective. You spent $4000 on the system above. I browsed Hot Deals, Fatwallet, etc., and put together the following:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ S754 $275
Chaintech VNF3-250 $80
1GB Corsair Value Select $120
X800 Pro VIVO ---> X800XT PE $399
Antec Sonata $90
Chaintech AV710 $25
2X Maxtor 160GB 7200RPM 8MB $130

I paid ~$1100 for the computer (w/o monitor). Now, granted, I did have a LOT of money saved up this summer, and I could have spent 4x as much on something with bragging rights. However, if you put your box and mine behind a curtain, hooked them up to the same kind of monitor, ran the same timedemo, unless you had FRAPS running you wouldn't be able to tell whose machine was running what.

But here's the kicker. The $2900 I didn't spend is kept, so that 12-16 months from now, when both of our machines are getting a little long in the tooth and the new generation GPUs are out, I can easily upgrade to something more current while still keeping my budget below yours. As time goes on, my machine will get faster with LESS money than your machine which consumed MORE money from the onset.

 

[Corporate Thug]

you are going with a FX 53 and 2 GB of ram and worried about the price of the GFX card?

seriously, for half as much you can get a rig that performs within 10%

 

[jst0ney]

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Last Question... What do you think of this setup? I saved money for a couple of months for this and I'm planning to have this last for atleast 2 Years.

I'll give you an interesting perspective. You spent $4000 on the system above. I browsed Hot Deals, Fatwallet, etc., and put together the following:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ S754 $275
Chaintech VNF3-250 $80
1GB Corsair Value Select $120
X800 Pro VIVO ---> X800XT PE $399
Antec Sonata $90
Chaintech AV710 $25
2X Maxtor 160GB 7200RPM 8MB $130

I paid ~$1100 for the computer (w/o monitor). Now, granted, I did have a LOT of money saved up this summer, and I could have spent 4x as much on something with bragging rights. However, if you put your box and mine behind a curtain, hooked them up to the same kind of monitor, ran the same timedemo, unless you had FRAPS running you wouldn't be able to tell whose machine was running what.

But here's the kicker. The $2900 I didn't spend is kept, so that 12-16 months from now, when both of our machines are getting a little long in the tooth and the new generation GPUs are out, I can easily upgrade to something more current while still keeping my budget below yours. As time goes on, my machine will get faster with LESS money than your machine which consumed MORE money from the onset.

May I be the first.

pwned

 

[thegimp03]

lol...nice rig, but slightly excessive unless money is just flying out of your ears.

 

[Acanthus]

Nforce 4 + A64 3800+ + Dual Geforce 6800s (not even GTs) = system owned in 2 months.

Its just not worth the enormous price tag when its outdated so fast.

I would say cutting edge is ok, but bleeding edge is just insane (unless of course you hit the lotto or something).

 

[effee]

Gee, If I spent all my money upgrading to the latest hardware just to get the highest FPS possible in my games, I'd be living on the street under a hut made of my gfx card boxes.

 

[tphss]

for all that I would get a high end Powersupply like Antec or OCZ, 450W+ range.
And about the sound card, I bought the Platinum Pro, the benefits it has over the rgular Platinum is that the drive with all the extra connectors and IR sensor for the remote is EXTERNAL and not INTERNAL, it has also a few added connctions if i'm not mistaken.

 

[fanboi]

And unless you're a hardcore audiophile and listen/mix/record music all day long, as well as have a set of $200+ 5.1 speakers, a high-end sound card won't yield much better results than the standard on-board audio chip found on most good boards these days.

Seriously, I have an Audigy 2, and I plugged my Logitech Z-560's on my on-board card just for kicks. For some games, the EAX from Creative makes a difference. But for those games that don't use EAX, I couldn't really tell the difference.

Now, if you're a serious audiophile, maybe the difference is obvious to you. To me, I just realize that the quality of the on-board audio chip nowadays makes purchasing an expensive sound card less worthwile than it once was.

Keep the money you woulda spent on the sound card and buy a better CPU/vid card is my recommendation.

 

[effee]

make that mine as well, but with the build you are getting, doesnt leave much room for getting anything higher =)

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: fanboi
And unless you're a hardcore audiophile and listen/mix/record music all day long, as well as have a set of $200+ 5.1 speakers, a high-end sound card won't yield much better results than the standard on-board audio chip found on most good boards these days.

Seriously, I have an Audigy 2, and I plugged my Logitech Z-560's on my on-board card just for kicks. For some games, the EAX from Creative makes a difference. But for those games that don't use EAX, I couldn't really tell the difference.

Now, if you're a serious audiophile, maybe the difference is obvious to you. To me, I just realize that the quality of the on-board audio chip nowadays makes purchasing an expensive sound card less worthwile than it once was.

Keep the money you woulda spent on the sound card and buy a better CPU/vid card is my recommendation.

you also take the load of audio off the cpu by going with a dedicated card, altho on a high end system like this it wouldn't make as much of a difference i guess. at the very least get an audigy 2 zs card, how high you want to go up that chain depends on what you want to spend.

i wish people would stop misusing the word audiophile. a true audiophile would laugh at the idea of having an audigy anything.

 

[masshass81]

I would hate to be an audiophile - I would have to spend a$$ loads of money for decent sound. I'm glad I can't hear the diff between onboard sound and a seperate audio card. But its funny how my friend sees no big difference between 800x600 and 1280x1024..