cuse
10-17-2007, 09:03 PM
Hi Everyone,
With your assistance (this community), in May of 2006, I built the following system:
Case: NZXT LEXA-NP
PSU: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550
Mombo: MSI K8N Diamond Plus
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
Memory: CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB
HD(s): 2x 160GB (RAID-1) Seagate Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 7900GTX 512MB
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Optical Drive: LITE-ON Combo
Monitor: ViewSonic 20.1" 8ms Widescreen 300 cd/m2 800:1
I am currently planning on selling this machine to my brother, and building a new computer. It served me well, but I am actually looking to go even higher end. I want a computer that will literally give me an advantage while gaming, and will be able to handle everything I throw out it throughout the day (I work about 12 hours per day on my computer--it's how I make a living). Your advice helped me build a solid machine last time around... so here I am again :).
With that being said, this is what I had in mind:
CPU: Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (about $950.00 on New Egg)
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM ($140.00 - $380.00 NE)
PSU: I figured a 1 kilowatt Antec (~$300.00 on NE)
Mombo: Not sure, something that could handle all of this :)
HD(s): 150GB WD Raptor SATA ($180.00 on NW)
Video Card: Dual 768MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra ($630.00 x 2 on NE)
Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer ($80.00 on NE)
Optical Drive: Blu-ray Disc Drive? (~$460.00 on NE?)
Case: No idea, open to suggestions - built to cool!
Monitor: Not sure yet, but going with something BIG :)
Am I missing anything? Is the AGEIA PhysX accelerator any good/worthwhile? It's only about $140.00.
Also, will I need a special cooling unit? Probably right... can you guys recommend a quality/relatively easy to install water cooling unit (or something else if there is something better)?
See, the thing is, while I love games like Oblivion, I mainly play first-person shooters. I want this machine to give me an actual advantage over the competition when playing a game like Counter Strike Source. Do you think I'd see a noticeable boost in performance over my old rig (because that's what I'm hoping for!)?
Your advice is appreciated tremendously. Please shoot my ideas down if they're unrealistic, and provide advice/suggestions wherever. Thanks so much for your help!
With your assistance (this community), in May of 2006, I built the following system:
Case: NZXT LEXA-NP
PSU: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550
Mombo: MSI K8N Diamond Plus
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
Memory: CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB
HD(s): 2x 160GB (RAID-1) Seagate Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 7900GTX 512MB
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Optical Drive: LITE-ON Combo
Monitor: ViewSonic 20.1" 8ms Widescreen 300 cd/m2 800:1
I am currently planning on selling this machine to my brother, and building a new computer. It served me well, but I am actually looking to go even higher end. I want a computer that will literally give me an advantage while gaming, and will be able to handle everything I throw out it throughout the day (I work about 12 hours per day on my computer--it's how I make a living). Your advice helped me build a solid machine last time around... so here I am again :).
With that being said, this is what I had in mind:
CPU: Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (about $950.00 on New Egg)
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM ($140.00 - $380.00 NE)
PSU: I figured a 1 kilowatt Antec (~$300.00 on NE)
Mombo: Not sure, something that could handle all of this :)
HD(s): 150GB WD Raptor SATA ($180.00 on NW)
Video Card: Dual 768MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra ($630.00 x 2 on NE)
Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer ($80.00 on NE)
Optical Drive: Blu-ray Disc Drive? (~$460.00 on NE?)
Case: No idea, open to suggestions - built to cool!
Monitor: Not sure yet, but going with something BIG :)
Am I missing anything? Is the AGEIA PhysX accelerator any good/worthwhile? It's only about $140.00.
Also, will I need a special cooling unit? Probably right... can you guys recommend a quality/relatively easy to install water cooling unit (or something else if there is something better)?
See, the thing is, while I love games like Oblivion, I mainly play first-person shooters. I want this machine to give me an actual advantage over the competition when playing a game like Counter Strike Source. Do you think I'd see a noticeable boost in performance over my old rig (because that's what I'm hoping for!)?
Your advice is appreciated tremendously. Please shoot my ideas down if they're unrealistic, and provide advice/suggestions wherever. Thanks so much for your help!