50 replies to this topic

[Dismayed]

I've been managing on a low budget Compaq laptop for two years now. Needless to say I've had to make some sacrifices, mainly gaming, but until now that was ok with me. It saved me money and countless wasted hours gaming, but with Diablo III just around the corner that no longer concerns me. There's more important things at stake now, like killing Hell's minions.

My budget is up to $4,000 USD not including shipping. All items will be ordered through Newegg this Monday (04/16/12). If you guys want, I'll keep the thread updated and show the final result.

For the monitor I don't want to skimp. A 30" is a must, and I'm loving the Dell UltraSharp U3011... even with the hefty price tag and slower response. I've seen them in person and the display is just beautiful.

For the case simplicity is key. I'm bent on either the R3 or XL from Fractal Design, unless there are others that follow the same modest design philosophies that you would recommend.

Everything else is up in the air and why I'm creating this thread. As for a mouse and keyboard, I'll probably be grabbing these from RAZER but that's still to be decided and not really important.

What is important is speed. I want this computer to be stupid fast, be able to play whatever game I throw at it on high settings (along with my other day to day computing needs), and last me for the next year or two before needing any major upgrades. I'm not a heavy downloader so a large HDD isn't really needed. A single, adequately sized, fast and stable SSD for installing Windows and other software would be more appropriate. So knowing all this, what would you guys suggest?

[Lyric]

$4,000 is overkill....visit overclock.net and post your question, they will make good use of your money by spending it for you.

[tsupersonic]

You don't need to spend that much to get a powerful rig. I would stick with Intel and Nvidia. If you can wait, get the Ivy Bridge processors coming out. If you can't wait, then either get a i7 2700k or you can get an i7 3930k. For GPU, get a GTX 680 SLI setup. Motherboard, optical drives, case are all personal perference. Any decent SSD from Crucial, Corsair, or Intel will do.

[Dismayed]

I'm looking for specifics. Motherboard, CPU, etc. tsupersonic's post was the most helpful so far.

[Albert]

a macbook air. a thundebolt display. some games. and one hell of a nice partay.

[Boxster17]

ShMaunder, on 13 April 2012 - 02:33, said:

Instead, I would spend $1200 on the PC, then use the $1800 to buy everyone in this thread a beer

You still have a grand to spend there

[watchthisspace]

Albert, on 13 April 2012 - 02:33, said:

a macbook air. a thundebolt display. some games. and one hell of a nice partay.

lol a Macbook air couldn't play s***t.

Just wait until Ivy Bridge is out and get an I7 3770K
a nice Z77 mobo
one or two 680's in SLI
A corsair 1000watt PSU
Whatever case you like
8gb DDR3 ram, or however much you want.
That Dell 30" display
Samsung 830 128 or 256gb SSD OR an OCZ Vertex 4 in whatever size.

[TokiToki]

watchthisspace, on 13 April 2012 - 02:50, said:

That Dell 30" display

or 3 Dell 30" Displays ... except that'll be over budget haha
http://www.nvidia.co...technology.html

[DirtyLarry]

If I had this budget, I would pre-order this New EVGA Z77 Motherboard (I just got the announce email earlier today), and build around it.
Hell, I can build out the rest of the comp for you, keep it well under $4000, if you feel like preordering 2 of them and sending one to me.
Seriously though, yeah I am serious. I would build around that Motherboard, as the specs on it are insane. Would get a Core i7, the best DDR3 ram possible (I tend to like Corsair myself), a damn good PSU (I lean towards Thermaltake) and if money is no option, one of the higher end Nvidia cards out right now (I personally like Nvidia's drivers).

[DirtyLarry]

watchthisspace, on 13 April 2012 - 02:50, said:

lol a Macbook air couldn't play s***t.

Just wait until Ivy Bridge is out and get an I7 3770K
a nice Z77 mobo
one or two 680's in SLI
A corsair 1000watt PSU
Whatever case you like
8gb DDR3 ram, or however much you want.
That Dell 30" display
Samsung 830 128 or 256gb SSD OR an OCZ Vertex 4 in whatever size.

Yep, this is all pretty much spot on.

[TokiToki]

DirtyLarry, on 13 April 2012 - 02:52, said:

one of the higher end Nvidia cards out right now (I personally like Nvidia's drivers).

Particularly the new Kepler cards. TXAA seems to be the new technology that could "future proof" video cards.

[+ShMaunder]

Boxster17, on 13 April 2012 - 02:40, said:

You still have a grand to spend there

woops

[Dismayed]

@DirtyLarry: You don't happen to know the release date on that motherboard do you? I didn't see it on their page. Maybe I missed it.

I'm signing off, I'll check back tomorrow for any other serious recommendations. Thanks.

[DirtyLarry]

Dismayed, on 13 April 2012 - 03:02, said:

@DirtyLarry: You don't happen to know the release date on that motherboard do you? I didn't see it on their page. Maybe I missed it.

I'm signing off, I'll check back tomorrow for any other serious recommendations. Thanks.

Nope I did not see one either, but generally speaking I have noticed EVGA tends to announce their new products a few weeks before they are actually released, so it should not be all that long. And I put it in the cart, went to purchase it, and no release date listed, they are willing to take the credit card info, so I think that means it should actually be pretty soon

[Krome]

I am also building a PC and the parts are already ordered. Here's my PC

CPU
Intel Core i7-980 Gulftown 3.33GHz LGA 1366 130W Six-Core

Motherboard
P6T Deluxe

Case
COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1

PSU
Rosewill RBR1000-M 1000W

SSD
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2BAA 2.5" 128GB

HDD (Storage)
Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

2x GPUs (SLI)
ZOTAC ZT-40508-10L GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3

8GB RAM

All total to about 1,500 USD... The most expensive item here is the CPU... Almost 600$