[help]boss wants a new gaming rig

[The_Yoyo]

So I am a bit out of touch with the new tech and new toys out for pcs. I built my rig nearly 2 years ago made a few minor touch ups and all but just basically would be easier if you geniuses gave me some recommendations.

i was given a budget of 3500

i already have a case...a cooler master cm stacker case so that doesnt need to figure into the 3500 price

he told me his requirements are:
beefy proccessor (duh!)
great (but doesnt need to be the best) gpu
and 4 gigs of ram


so lay your knowledge on me folks

thanks in advance

[fps justin]

suggestion one:
Q6600
X38 mobo
4 x 1 crucial ballistix
8800GTX
corsair 620HX
2 raptors in raid 0 and get a 7200.11 drive for storage.

suggestion 2:
Q6600
680i mobo
4 x 1 ddr2 crucial ballistix
2x 8800GTX
bigger 750watt psu. ex. PCPC 750watt, silverstone 750watt.
2 raptors in raid 0 and get a 7200.11 drive for storage.

cooling: water? If not, silence would be a big issue i'm sure, so make sure all teh fans are some nice yateloons and my other HSF choice would be the ultra-120x.

of course there are other things... ex. wait a little bit longer for barcelona and penryn coming in november etc.

By then, you could possibly get dual quadcore setup with 4 gigs of ram and sli or crossfire.

[Capper]

I'll post my recommendation tomorrow, I'm busy working tonight. I will say that theres no real sense matching a Q6600 with an X38 motherboard.......you'd be better served either matching that 1066 FSB processor with a P35 motherboard, or going with a 1333FSB processor with that X38.

Please give us an idea how its going to be used. How much space he has? What he does (Gaming or work)? Fill in the blanks a little bit and we'll get it all set up

[Tech Geek Deluxe]

GIGABYTE GA-X38-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz

CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit

Thermaltake W0116RU 750W Power Supply

(4ea)Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive Raid 5 and use one external for E-sata Backup

Beyond Micro BMMD3CS 3.5" USB 2.0 & eSATA External Enclosure

(2ea) SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner

SAPPHIRE 100201SR Radeon HD 2900XT 512MB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready

Dual 22" Monitors or single 27" monitor.

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 1129 Dual tuner PCI Express NTSC/ATSC/QAM Tuner Card

[RA1D]

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 $278
GPU: EVGA 8800GTX $550
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB DDR2-1066 $280
Mobo: EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 680i $210
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB $335
Soundcard: Creative X-Fi 7.1 $81
PSU: PC Power & Cooling 750w Silencer Quad $180
DVD: Lite On 20x Burner $36
HSF: Zalman CNPS 9700NT $60
OS: MS Vista Ultimate x64 $180

Total ~ $2,400 with tax and shipping

This is basically HL's recommended enthusiast system (except for the power supply). I have a similar set up and I think it would work out great for your boss, Yoyo. With the Zalman, you 'should' be able to hit 3Ghz stable and put it right there with the extreme chips. You didn't mention anything about peripherals or a monitor but there is plenty of budget left over for that if needed.

Something already mentioned though is the impending release of the new chips next month. If the boss man wants the latest/greatest and bragging rights, you might want to hold off just a little bit and see what the stork brings us in November.

[Yellowhello]

I like what RAID suggested, but I would get an X38 board and the new E/QXxx50 CPU's with the new 1333FSB. If it's a pure gaming rig, I'd get a dual core, as most games don't take full advantage of a quad-core. Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

[Reloadron]

If there will be 4 GB of RAM there should be a 64 Bit OS that can use it.

Ron

[fps justin]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

I like what RAID suggested, but I would get an X38 board and the new E/QXxx50 CPU's with the new 1333FSB. If it's a pure gaming rig, I'd get a dual core, as most games don't take full advantage of a quad-core. Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

there is no real advantage to having the 1333mhz fsb when its clock per clock. At clock for clock, 1333mhz fsb is only 1~2% better than 1066mhz. Also, it doesn't sound like he likes to upgrade as often as us enthusiasts, so i believe the quadcore will be the best bang for buck for him. Especially since all the new games that WILL utilize quads are coming out so soon.

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by fps justin

there is no real advantage to having the 1333mhz fsb when its clock per clock. At clock for clock, 1333mhz fsb is only 1~2% better than 1066mhz. Also, it doesn't sound like he likes to upgrade as often as us enthusiasts, so i believe the quadcore will be the best bang for buck for him. Especially since all the new games that WILL utilize quads are coming out so soon.

That's a good point but with $3500 to get rid of, I think we can do better than a puny Q6600 (): Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Kentsfield 3.0GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

...So if we were going with RAID's suggestion, that would be about $3150 + tax and shipping. Within your budget, and a KICKASS CPU!

[The_Yoyo]

dang thanks for all the info guys this shouldn't be too bad to put together

i am looking at RAIDs set up and that looks good and for the price i may just go and put in a blu-ray or hd-dvd rom as the optical drive. my boss already has gotten a nice 1080p lcd display that he plans to use for his home "office"

any recommendation on a BD/HD-rom? i know some are supposed to be pricing around 400 now? i dont care if its a writer just a reader is fine.

also any good 5.1 or more speakers to be had?