34 replies to this topic

[NerfLad78]

It will set me back my life savings (literally) at $3,028
I'm So stoked to play Crysis though

But it is gonna be sooo Über 1337 [/noobspeak]. lemme give you some specs:

Customized Dell XPS 720 (!)

Windows XP Media Center 32 Bit

Hardware

7 Slot Dell Motherboard

3.7 Gigahertz (yes, you read that correctly) Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU at 45nm!

2 GeForce 8800 GT's (at 512 MB)



Media Drives

2 CD/DVD Burners/Drives (dual layer burning compatible)

Blu-Ray Drive (!)

6 USB 2.0 Ports

2 ps/2 Ports

Dell 13-in-1 reader



Memory

500 Gig SATA hdd at 3 GB/second

4 gb of DDR2 RAM at 800 Mhz



Audio
SoundBlaster HD Audio Card (X-Fi)
7.1 support >_>



Peripherals
Logitech G11 keyboard and Razor Copperhead Gaming Mouse (both Neon lit)

Maybe a pre packaged monitor (still deciding because they cost alot)

BlueTooth Support



Cooling

2 Front Mounted 120 x 38 Rotary Fans

Two Step Liquid Cooling (internal)



Apart from costing me an arm, a leg, and my firstborn:

It will unfortunately, get really hot and weigh about 60 pounds, but I'm still excited to be getting it, despite having to custom mount and cool it (for some reason the stock fans never work).

Anyone think I should include the PhysX Accelerator?


EDIT: Realized How boring the post looked, added a few tags

Edited by NerfLad78, 15 March 2008 - 09:42 PM.

[jwasko]

...I thought it was going to be about a Powerclip.

No, offense, though...it does sound awesome and I wish my PC had at least a half decent memory card. I have to turn the settings way down even for older games like Halo and Star Wars Battlefront (the original).

Edited by jwasko, 15 March 2008 - 09:47 PM.

[NerfLad78]

...I thought it was going to be about a Powerclip.

No, offense, though...it does sound awesome and I wish my PC had at least a half decent memory card. I have to turn the settings way down even for older games like Halo and Star Wars Battlefront (the original).

My current laptop is like that, somewhere around 1.4 ghz with a graphics card made for windows 98. it blue screens about every 2 hours, and my other computer is shared with my mom, but it's a little better.

This is gonna be my work horse though,
I'm hoping to begin recording seriously with my band on it

[Lynx]

I can build you one like that for half that.

BUILD YOUR PC's.

It's not all that hard and if you have a geek that you can talk into building a computer do it for like $100 you still save about 40%.

Get a geek and say what you need. Go to circuit city, buy the stuff, have him or her (yes there ARE girl geeks) build it in 1 day for $100 and then you have a bitching computer for at least half of the retail cost.

[nerfsharpie6]

That PC sounds uber 1337 indeed. But I'm interested in why you went with 500 GB when you could have just gone with a 1 TB HD. Yes 1 Terra Byte, you would have enough memory for about 250,000 raw images, around 200,000 songs, or an ass load of games, or several dozen audio recording programs. As for cooling I'm sure you can get outrageous fans some where. I hear the whisper fans are good, but I haven't messed with them before so I don't really know about that. And don't worry 3,028 dollars isn't that bad, I've seen custom built gaming PCs go for around 5,000.

[NerfLad78]

I can build you one like that for half that.

BUILD YOUR PC's.

It's not all that hard and if you have a geek that you can talk into building a computer do it for like $100 you still save about 40%.

Get a geek and say what you need. Go to circuit city, buy the stuff, have him or her (yes there ARE girl geeks) build it in 1 day for $100 and then you have a bitching computer for at least half of the retail cost.

Considered. I've never put together a computer by myself, and I don't really know anyone in my area

That PC sounds uber 1337 indeed. But I'm interested in why you went with 500 GB when you could have just gone with a 1 TB HD.

they had a 2tb one also, but the fact that it was 900 dollars turned me away with my tail between my legs

[bogboogalars]

Um here's a great link for buying cheap computer parts it's were i get all mine from...
LINKAGE

[NerfLad78]

lol I knew about NewEgg but thanks.

Building it myself is starting is starting to look friendlier.

Edited by NerfLad78, 15 March 2008 - 10:33 PM.

[bogboogalars]

Ya alot of people do i just didn't want you to make the same mistake i did, I bought mine from dell for about 1200 but little did I know i could have built it for about 400 or so i got screwed over on that deal...just hoping somebody else can learn from my mistakes...i wish i could have.

[Carbon]

If you intend to do recording on this computer, you'll want to record to a second drive to increase performance. A second 500 gb drive would do nicely.

And as long as you're at it, get a third drive for backups.

[NerfLad78]

So self-build it is I presume.

I'm terrified though, I've always gotten pre built computers and don't want to fuck anything up trying to put it together

[bogboogalars]

Thats why you've got the internet and people here on the haven who are your friends/fellow nerds that like to tinker with things and some even know how to do it right. But ya that would be a good reason to use the off topic forum if you get stuck i'm sure somebody would help out.

[Lynx]

Go to Circuit City, Staples, or Best Buy and ask a tech service person when their next off day is and then ask if they want to make $100.

They should say ______day and FUCK YEAH!

The person should be competent and really helpful but, since you do not know the person, stay and watch what they do and track your cash and parts. Why wouldn't they want to earn $100 on a fairly easy job?

[Thom]

I'm with jwasko; that's one expensive PowerClip…

With water cooling you might as well just get a Conroe E6750 and OC it to 3.7 GHz. Save a ton of money, plus it's almost sacreligious to keep the warranty intact.

Ditch the Blu-Ray drive unless you're dead set on overpaying for it.

For 3 grand you can sure as hell afford a Raptor, RAID, and 8 gigs of RAM.

Don't even think about PhysX unless you get a game that uses it.

Insert Linux plug here.

[NerfLad78]

Well, for a processor I'm either looking for something extremely good right out of the box or something relatively easy to overclock (considering how I've never done it).


I'll stay away from the Blu Ray Drive I guess, I wanted to get it in advance, for the looming defeat of DVD's as general data storage discs, but I can wait (I have a ps3).


Also, I heard the GeForce 9 Series does physics calculations now as well? Also that they're patching the 8's to do it, though I'm not sure when.

I'm considering FreeBSD or Ubuntu.


Thanks for your help guys, I forgot how cool the NIC was is

[Philote]

Apart from costing me an arm, a leg, and my firstborn:

Don't forget your soul, but thats nice, i've wanted a new computer ever since I found out I cant play The Orange Box on a Mac. Oh and all that crap still won't be enough to run Crysis
Well, maybe, if it's the only game on your computer.

Edited by Philote, 16 March 2008 - 07:41 AM.

[TAiLsChaser]

Building your own computer is pretty simple. You don't need to pay anyone to do it. The best thing about building your computer is that you can build it in parts and salvage old hardware until you have the money to upgrade. I built my computer for about..... $1000 and I got top of the line stuff (at the time --- one year ago). I bought a motherboard first thing. The motherboard allows you to know what exactly you can do. It dictates what processor you can use, RAM limitations, PCI/PCI Exp. slots and whether or not you can use SATA (which is becoming a norm).

I held on to my MB for about a month before I could buy the processor, RAM, HD and power supply. What's a starving college going to do to get money ?

I never got my 8800 until summer so I was using my hallmate's VC until his pieces came.

Newegg is extremely useful.

My suggestions:

GO BIG! If you get top of the line now, you won't have to upgrade for a good two or so years. That's how I built mine.

There's no excuse for not getting a Dual-core or better (unless 1000 dollars for a quad is out of reach...).

Figure out what kind of processor you want to use (Athlon or Intel).
- I hear low to midgrade athlon's are better than intel on performance but when you get to high, intel ftw.

SATA on a RAID (Striping is awesome).

Piece it together. That way if you find that you don't need something, you don't have to buy it.

Edited by TAiLsChaser, 16 March 2008 - 09:10 AM.

[penguin807]

...I thought it was going to be about a Powerclip.

Thanks for mocking me withut realizing...


But back on topic; I'm cool with your new computer as long as it's not alienware. Other than that, nice PC.

[NerfLad78]

Thanks for the advice, I'm glad I checked here instead of deciding to spend more than I have to.

I'm cool with your new computer as long as it's not alienware. Other than that, nice PC.

AlienWare FTL

[SirTofu]

I built a mid- system at the time for around 600$. Of course I reuse:
Monitor
Drives
Soundcard

The things I replace are mobo, videocard, memory, and case (occasionally). My computer is going on 2 years. If you are paying 1000+ dollars for a computer, you are really losing. Of course, it's understandable if one can't build their own computer, but once you figure out how to it's one of the easiest tasks in the world. But my advice: go for mid range parts, don't buy the latest and greatest. It will only mean you spending more money than necessary to play games.

[NerfLad78]

I built a mid- system at the time for around 600$. Of course I reuse:
Monitor
Drives
Soundcard
The things I replace are mobo, videocard, memory, and case (occasionally). My computer is going on 2 years. If you are paying 1000+ dollars for a computer, you are really losing. Of course, it's understandable if one can't build their own computer, but once you figure out how to it's one of the easiest tasks in the world. But my advice: go for mid range parts, don't buy the latest and greatest. It will only mean you spending more money than necessary to play games.

I see what you mean but I'm somewhat of a poweruser.
That is,

-audio editing/recording/sampling

-web content creation

-mapping for doom and counter strike (one monitor for editor, one for game both running on the same pc)

-next-gen gaming (the inevitable half life 3 will probably only run at medium settings on 2 8800's)

-running servers for said games



You may consider it a Splurge, but you're probably more of a casual user.

My life consists of Computers and Drums

Edited by NerfLad78, 16 March 2008 - 02:22 PM.

[Blasphemy]

Hah... this sounds a lot like the current setup I have Crysis installed on. Mine is a Dell XPS600 with dual Nvidia GeForce 8800s, 500 GB SATA, an Ageia PhysX processor, DVD/CD RW, 2GB RAM, Intel Centrino Dual Core Processor, 7.1 speaker system, 24" LCD monitor, wireless Microsoft Entertainment Keyboard 7000, and a wireless mouse.Once I get a decent flight simulator installed on there I'm definitely hooking up my Saitek X52 Joystick and Throttle, along with my Saitek footpads.

Crysis is a pretty awesome game too, despite the fact it was a little too obvious they set it up for a sequel, hope I'll see you in multiplayer sometime.

[NerfLad78]

Hah... this sounds a lot like the current setup I have Crysis installed on. Mine is a Dell XPS600 with dual Nvidia GeForce 8800s, 500 GB SATA, an Ageia PhysX processor, DVD/CD RW, 2GB RAM, Intel Centrino Dual Core Processor, 7.1 speaker system, 24" LCD monitor, wireless Microsoft Entertainment Keyboard 7000, and a wireless mouse.Once I get a decent flight simulator installed on there I'm definitely hooking up my Saitek X52 Joystick and Throttle, along with my Saitek footpads.

Crysis is a pretty awesome game too, despite the fact it was a little too obvious they set it up for a sequel, hope I'll see you in multiplayer sometime.

How do you keep it from overheating? ive heard there's issues with this

[TAiLsChaser]

I got the best because I put forth the effort to do so. My case and hardware all together has about 9 fans and heat distribution pipes.


By TAiLsChaser

You only get out of your computer what you put in. I don't use that PhysX thing. I never found it necessary to get but go with what you want. If you knew what I had before this computer you'd probably laugh. I'd say this is the first real computer I've ever had.

It's a real multimedia hardpoint. It's not called Omega for nothing. There's not much more I could throw into this thing to make it anymore amazing. I could SLI the 8800 but.... I do fine without it. There's only so good something can look; however... I have been itching to see Doom 3 in Ultra High with perfect streaming.

And yes, I did recycle some parts.

Oh yeah... I built this pre-Nerf.

Edited by TAiLsChaser, 16 March 2008 - 07:20 PM.

[Omega]

http://www.penny-arc...omic/2008/03/12

Reminds me of that.

"DO YOU DENY THAT THIS SHIT BE BANGIN'?"
"THE PROSECUTION ASSERTS THAT THIS SHIT BE OFF THE HOOK."

@ Philote: Duh, you can't play the Orange Box on a Mac. Macs suck the fat ones anyhow.

Edited by Omega, 16 March 2008 - 07:41 PM.