My dream machine

[damien]

Sometime during the summer i might actually build this thing.

We start with the base, we dont need something that looks all lights and fancy blue fans which light up the room like a christmas tree, we want to save power for its internal parts so a bog standard full tower (which were going to mount on the side)

now we power it with this little beauty: Coolermaster 850w Real Power Pro V2.91 w/PFC - Powersupply YOYO Code : 88418
Next we get the currently sold out motherboard: Fatal1ty, add only 4GB ram to it. Next a raptor, 74GB is ample on sata, and 2 250GB sata drives.
That gives me 74GB for the os, and 500GB (raid) Now i have 1 sata connector left so i find a sata DVD RW, drop in 2 sli 768mb cards, use the nice card connector provided, and then drop in the Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 Extreme Edition, S775, 2.93Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe XE Core, 4M Cache CPU - Retail
And an external floppy - remember the raptor 74gb is going to hold the os - well I know im gonna be holding F6 during install and needing sata drivers on floppy. ( I could slipstream them, but seems little or no point as the time saved is minimal.
Then i put a 21" flatscreen on it.
And finally drop in the top of the range creative card, then link that to an external amp and 2 monitor speakers, and use the rest with some gigaworks T20's
Finally add everything to watercooling - and some cool customisations, add a copper block to the raptor, and feed that into its own housing for water cooling (now you know why the case is on its side, the other 2 drives wont actually need cooling, they wont be used much.

Its on the high-end of machines and with xp pro should last 5 - 6 years before it bites the dust.

for best perfomance im going to use a "kit" for the ram 2x2x1GB filling all 4 slots, but thats more stable than 2x2gb or mismatched ram.
he cards also will be "kits"

And finally braise a bar onto the north bridge, and feed that under the outflow 120mm fan with a dove tail, (heat rises, so taking it from the board more effectively and efficiently)

[arthurleung]

You'll be wasting your machine's potential using a 21" monitor. If you use a high end machine, get a PROPER 30" screen to make use of it.

If you got too much money to spend, get a QX6800. Otherwise I would suggest get a E6600 and overclock it up.

74G raptor is not as fast as the 150G one, so you may as well buy the 150G. I don't see much point getting 250G SATA drives as you can easily buy 320/400/500 for only a bit more money.

I would expect that machine to last 3 years before it struggle to play the newest games of that time. Moore's law always apply and you'll probably get more out of your machine if you buy one that cost HALF of your "Dream machine" then buy another one for the same price 2 years later.

[damien]

Yea i am using the QX6800 in that project over the summer, if yoyo have some in stock, many of the parts listed are currently out of stock.

Yea i agree It could be bigger drives, but I think with a sub £3000 price tag will fly as it is.

Obviously if i was a gamer i would go with amd and then max out the drives to 500x4 using raid 1, and then up the power supply for the extra drives 850w will power it (cards are all hungry critters) but for 4 drives you need 1000w

[bathuu]

U got really big money m8, if u spend wisely u could build same power machine for half of that money, if i wish i had that money

[damien]

I only buy a machine every 5 years then save for the next one, plus work pays a percentage. I think last time i was down yoyotech they were called antechdirect and across the road (prices are estimated may be slightly more or less)
Chip £600 (cpu)
graphics £500 each
Ram £350 x 2
drives around £250
cables, custom braising, fans, case, psu, dvd, custom mounting ice-bar around £200, and liquid cooling another £140+

AMD would out perform it, but my preference is intel.

[arthurleung]

Yea i am using the QX6800 in that project over the summer, if yoyo have some in stock, many of the parts listed are currently out of stock.

Yea i agree It could be bigger drives, but I think with a sub £3000 price tag will fly as it is.

Obviously if i was a gamer i would go with amd and then max out the drives to 500x4 using raid 1, and then up the power supply for the extra drives 850w will power it (cards are all hungry critters) but for 4 drives you need 1000w

4 Drives doesn't use 150W extra. My 480W Hiper does not sweat a bit loading 12 HDDs at full load. If harddrives use that much power they would all have needed a huge heatsink on it.

In fact I doubt my whole system use more than 200W loaded. 850W is more than enough for your setup and HDDs only take up tiny fraction of your power usage.

[damien]

think i was drunk when i wrote that last bit - it should read:
Obviously if i was a gamer i would go with amd and then max out the drives to 500x4 using raid 1, and then up the power supply for the extra drives 850w will power it. (cards are all hungry critters and use the avail leads) but for 4 drives you need 1000w as it has 2 extra sets of power connections (creative and the 2 cards both take power in, as does the 2 hdd on eide, the sata ones of course have sata power connectors, thats 5 ( 850w spec Connectors 1 x Main connector (24-pin) 1 x 12V(4+4pin) 1 x 12V(8pin) 8 x peripheral
6 x SATA 1 x Floppy 4 x PCI-E)
But the 1000w has Connectors 1 x Main connector (24-pin) 1 x 12V(4+4pin)1 x 12V(8pin)8 x peripheral6 x SATA1 x Floppy6 x PCI-E
( 3 used by the cards 3 by the drives )

Purely to avoid messy wiring, as stated 850 would easily power it, using a power splitter but thats messy

[bathuu]

I think u r still drunk

[Andrzej]

...obviously if i was a gamer i would go with AMD...

[computerman]

i think hes drunk too spend half the money overclock it and then get a new one in around 2-3 yrs. maybe direct x 11 will be out in 3-4 yrs.

[damien]

@ Bania the top AMD processor is faster than the intel mentioned, but as stated the machines built for stability and in no way am i saying amd are not stable, im saying in that setup in particular with those parts, then intel is better in tests its slower but more stable.

[Cozwin]

i wouldnt even think about buying amd until at least k10 if i was you unless you already had a am2 socket mb.

[arthurleung]

Get some molex splitter and molex -> sata power adapters, if you can only use the PSU's cable, why would I be able to connect 12 SATA HDDs?

Intel chips are cooler and faster at the moment (not true back in P4/PD)

[damien]

@arthur yea i agree you can add connections to power more devices, but with so many devices its going to look like mechano inside the case, even with the number 1 invention cable ties lol. Which would make monthly inspections for swollen caps etc irksome.

[Kurayamino]

Exactly what I was thinking. I thought everyone knew C2D FTW

[Blitzen]

@ Bania the top AMD processor is faster than the intel mentioned, but as stated the machines built for stability and in no way am i saying amd are not stable, im saying in that setup in particular with those parts, then intel is better in tests its slower but more stable.

No they arent.
Intel wipe the floor with ANYTHING AMD have to offer atm.

Even a E6600 slightly clocked is faster than any AMD