Best Gaming PC (Built)

[Ferdiad]

I'm looking for a new PC but I don't know what to get, so can anyone give me the specs for the best possible combo of parts.Price is no object.

[Jaketh]

i wish i had limitless money, alrighty then let me begin

CPU-i7 extreme(if price really is no object) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115212

Motherboard-ASUS Supercomputer Motherboard- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813131390R

Crucial Ram 6gb DDR3- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148279

Video-Radeon 5870(get two or 3 for Crossfire) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150443

Western Digital Cavier Black 750Gb(get 4 in Raid for massive space with good performance) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136283

that is a insane computer, but if you wait a little bit longer you cant the new Nvidia cards which will probably be alot better then the ATI 5000 series

[Roman_Man#3]

Wait for Intels 6 core gulftown to come out, and for Fermi to come out. If money is no object then getting a harddrive as a boot drive makes no sense, get an SSD, but wait for the ones with Jetstream and sandforce controllers to come out. Right now would be the worst time to buy the best system you can afford because all the best parts will soon be replaced in a couple months.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

Wait for Intels 6 core gulftown to come out, and for Fermi to come out. If money is no object then getting a harddrive as a boot drive makes no sense, get an SSD, but wait for the ones with Jetstream and sandforce controllers to come out. Right now would be the worst time to buy the best system you can afford because all the best parts will soon be replaced in a couple months.

Remember, money is no object, therefore he can build a new computer in another 2 months in addition to the one he's building right now.

[Ferdiad]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Remember, money is no object, therefore he can build a new computer in another 2 months in addition to the one he's building right now.

No another six months will be about upgrade time.

[Freddie]

Thanks for the advice guys.



No another six months will be about upgrade time.

Are you into overclocking? Since your a frequent upgrader I would advice you buy a retail copy of Windows 7 Home Premium (not the OEM copy).

[CDMan477]

Are you into overclocking? Since your a frequent upgrader I would advice you buy a retail copy of Windows 7 Home Premium (not the OEM copy).

If I may ask, what difference does it make between a retail and OEM copy of windows? Are there any other concerns beyond just upgrading when purchasing an OEM copy?

[S-te-Fan]

Are you into overclocking? Since your a frequent upgrader I would advice you buy a retail copy of Windows 7 Home Premium (not the OEM copy).

"Buying"

[Karklos]

I am also planning to buy/ build a new computer.

I am happy to wait a few months though - that being the case are there any other important milestones this year that are worth waiting for?

(also - aside from asking in this thread how should I learn this kind of info- is there any magazines or websites you would reccomend)

[mrcrusty]

I am also planning to buy/ build a new computer.

I am happy to wait a few months though - that being the case are there any other important milestones this year that are worth waiting for?

(also - aside from asking in this thread how should I learn this kind of info- is there any magazines or websites you would reccomend)

Actually I think it's going to be a big year. It would probably be worth waiting until the end of the year before you buy a new computer (or at least later in the year).

I believe that both AMD and Intel will release their new Hex Core desktop processors later this year (Phenom II x6 and Core i9/i7-980X respectively).

There was also talk about Nvidia finally releasing their new Fermi series video cards to compete with Radeon's 5xxx series (there's a thread about it here somewhere, the GTX 470/480 thread).

So if you want to buy a top of the line supremo computer, it probably would be best to wait until later. Even if you don't, then the prices of older products (despite still being very good) will be going down and you'll be able to buy very good parts for a lower price.

For example, I can imagine that both AMD and Intel will be lowering prices of their Quad Core (Athlon II x4 and Phenom II x4/Core i7 and Core i5) processors once the Hex Cores come out and I'm pretty confident that ATI will lower the prices on their 57xx and 58xx cards in particular to try and keep people away from the Fermi cards and the GTX 260/GTS 250 will probably follow suit.

As for news, it's not so much news as it is reviews, but generally I just go to Guru3d.com.

[Ferdiad]

No I'm actually on a laptop now.This willl be my first gaming rig and I do plan to overclock so I'll be getting Win 7.

[Strelok]

Western Digital Cavier Black 750Gb(get 4 in Raid for massive space with good performance) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136283

Putting a lot of hard disks in a raid array doesn't solve the latency between the head moving to the correct location on the platter when reading and writing. If a large file is unfragmented (not always the case) on a specific place on the platter, and the disk is reading said large file on that patch of allocated space, the improvement in the RAID array, in terms read speed in terms of megabytes per second, will benefit. However, the average user will not reap such benefits from the increase in read speed at this point in time, as such an excess burst of disk reads are rarely performed in casual user or gaming usage. The main benefit for normal users is the improvement in write speeds.

For example, if an application requires two individual files which are seperated accross the disk (usually the case, as this is not fragmentation but free space fragmentation), the head will have to move to the correct location on the spinning disk, and then move again for the next file. Unless the two files are already in memory, but they have to be read from the disk, at first. The same logic applies to a single fragmented file.

The above explanation applies to FAT/NTFS file systems on Windows. Linux file systems like EXT3 attempt to allocate blocks of data as close as possible to each other to reduce single file fragmentation and free space fragmentaiton. Source. Although that doesn't account for the logic of disk optimization that some defragmenters induce, such as placing files in priority from beginning of the disk (which is located in the outer-rim, being the fatest in terms of overall read/write speeds). For example, lets say every file is unfragmented, but by chance, under a cerain directory, one file is located at 1% into the used space of the disk, where the other file is at 80%. Lets say both files have to read from the disk within a short period of time between each other, the latency from going to 1% into the disk and to 80% of the data into the disk (very close in the inner-rim) could be quite disbeneficial.

You get a lot of free space, but he was asking for the best PC. If money is truly not a factor, you could look into expensive write-friendly solid-state disks (they have no moving parts), or faster hard disk(s).

[Jaketh]

Putting a lot of hard disks in a raid array doesn't solve the latency between the head moving to the correct location on the platter when reading and writing. If a large file is unfragmented (not always the case) on a specific place on the platter, and the disk is reading said large file on that patch of allocated space, the improvement in the RAID array, in terms read speed in terms of megabytes per second, will benefit. However, the average user will not reap such benefits from the increase in read speed at this point in time, as such an excess burst of disk reads are rarely performed in casual user or gaming usage. The main benefit for normal users is the improvement in write speeds.

For example, if an application requires two individual files which are seperated accross the disk (usually the case, as this is not fragmentation but free space fragmentation), the head will have to move to the correct location on the spinning disk, and then move again for the next file. Unless the two files are already in memory, but they have to be read from the disk, at first. The same logic applies to a single fragmented file.

The above explanation applies to FAT/NTFS file systems on Windows. Linux file systems like EXT3 attempt to allocate blocks of data as close as possible to each other to reduce single file fragmentation and free space fragmentaiton. Source. Although that doesn't account for the logic of disk optimization that some defragmenters induce, such as placing files in priority from beginning of the disk (which is located in the outer-rim, being the fatest in terms of overall read/write speeds). For example, lets say every file is unfragmented, but by chance, under a cerain directory, one file is located at 1% into the used space of the disk, where the other file is at 80%. Lets say both files have to read from the disk within a short period of time between each other, the latency from going to 1% into the disk and to 80% of the data into the disk (very close in the inner-rim) could be quite disbeneficial.

You get a lot of free space, but he was asking for the best PC. If money is truly not a factor, you could look into expensive write-friendly solid-state disks (they have no moving parts), or faster hard disk(s).

i dont care? my friend has two of them in RAID so it acts as one big harddrive, 4 doing that would be badass

[Freddie]

i dont care? my friend has two of them in RAID so it acts as one big harddrive, 4 doing that would be badass

Hold your horses a second how long did you friend set up this RAID with those drives? The best 7200RPM hard drives to get at the moment aren't WD 750Gb's but rather the 2 platter design Samsung Spinpoint F3 1Tb, those WD 750 drives may have been good at the time of purchase but I can tell you now they have been super seeded.


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Back on topic now I know what you want and I can forward an idea. Now this build would be my personal choice build so you change what you want.

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D
since you spending a large amount of case you might as well get a large case that can handle anything, the Antec 1200 is another case to consider but it doesn't have depth of space that the Corsair enjoys.
Alternative: LIAN LI PC-P80
It's a Lian Li case I don't need to say anything more. Although this is more expensive then the Corsair I do think this a better looking case and it's made from Aluminium rather then steal so it's a lot lighter and has more hard drive bays then you shack a stick at. If you want check out this product overview video.

CPU: Intel Core i7-920
Most folk that I know can push this bad boy to 4ghz and some as high as 4.4Ghz on air, there's no point getting anything more expensive then this as this has everything you need.
Alternative: Core i7 860
If you don't fancy overclocking I suggest you get this chip which has a wicked turbo mode which will automatically push the CPU past it's default clock speeds. Manual overclocking on this chip is just as good as the 920. The draw back with this CPU is the P55 only gives you x8/x8 PCI-E for multiple video card setups which will be an issue when you replace your cards next time around.

Motherboard: ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58
Perhaps the most popular X58 board in the market place, it has everything you need.
Alternative: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5
You can never go wrong with Gigabyte, the UD5 is pretty much Gigabytes answer to the Asus p6T, you won't go wrong with either of these boards, both companies have been making high end consumer motherboards for years and now what it takes to deliver to a good product.

Ram: 6gb if you go the X58 route and 8gb if you go the P55 route, make sure you 1600mhz DDR3 and do some reviews on any model you pick out. Crucial and Corsair are good makes to start out with but there's so many choices I leave this up to you.

Video card: 2x XFX Radeon HD5870 1Gb
Get two for Crossfire performance. Excellent cards and scale really well in Crossfire and don't eat up to much in the way of wattage and run sliently even with the stock fan by all accounts.
Alternative: The above but in a tri Crossfire configuration but frankly that's silly no game needs more then 2 of these. If you want to save a bit of money consider the Radeon HD5970 which is in rather short supply at the moment.

PSU: SeaSonic S12D 850 Silver 850W
I swear by Seasonic, if god made PSU's he would make Seasonic PSU's they are simply unmatched in terms of efficiency, build quality and most importantly of all stability. If you go the 2x Crossfire route get this PSU if not get something more powerful
Alternative: CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W
- Tri Crossfire configurations will require you to invest in more powerful PSU's and it pains me that Seasonic doesn't do anything more powerful then 850watts and I don't like to PC's close to their PSU's maximum output as it makes them noisy and less efficiently but this Corsair should serve you well.

Hard Drives: Look at the top part, Samsung Spinpoint F3 1Tb's get 4 and put them in a Raid 5 configuration for a balance of speed and data backup security.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

I know what you want...

you change what you want.

Oh, the irony!

If price is not object, you can look into solid-state disks (SSD), SSD's that have good write-endurance (meaning they don't wear out fast from a lot of disk writes) are more expensive, but also have no moving parts, hence the benefit in latency and overall read speeds is what people go far. You can get a fair-size SSD like this one that has great write-endurance and performance, and then get one of the big hard drives that Freddie mentioned for other things, like huge games/applications and media, if price is no object.

I agree, this option gives the best possible performance, disregarding price.

[Ferdiad]

Really great advice Freddie.

[Strelok]

Hard Drives: Look at the top part, Samsung Spinpoint F3 1Tb's get 4 and put them in a Raid 5 configuration for a balance of speed and data backup security.

You get a lot of disk space, but hardly the best performance. You get a performance for dollar type of thing, but it's been explained why the benefits of RAID are limited for the casual user/gamer. Save for write speeds, going from a RAID 0 to a RAID 5 array is still quite limited in terms of benefit for the average user.

For read speeds to benefit, you'd have to be reading a very large file in a huge burst rate in mb/s, and said files would have to be unfragmented on one part of the disk, for the massive burst rate and overall mb/s read speed increase to actually have benefit. Otherwise, if you have multiple files on the disk (which most people have), it still doesnt' solve the latency of the head moving to the correct location.

I'd say gettng a giant drive like that, plus a faster drive for the OS and some other smaller applications and games would be a better idea, if money is not limited, of course.

I swear by Seasonic

I concur

If price is not object, you can look into solid-state disks (SSD), SSD's that have good write-endurance (meaning they don't wear out fast from a lot of disk writes) are more expensive, but also have no moving parts, hence the benefit in latency and overall read speeds is what people go far. You can get a fair-size SSD like this one (or even more expensive you can look at the Intel X-25 series, though that might be extreme) that has great write-endurance and performance, and then get one of the big hard drives that Freddie mentioned for other things, like huge games/applications and media, if price is no object. You still get a lot of storage this way.

[Roman_Man#3]

If price is not object, you can look into solid-state disks (SSD), SSD's that have good write-endurance (meaning they don't wear out fast from a lot of disk writes) are more expensive, but also have no moving parts, hence the benefit in latency and overall read speeds is what people go far. You can get a fair-size SSD like this one (or even more expensive you can look at the Intel X-25 series, though that might be extreme) that has great write-endurance and performance, and then get one of the big hard drives that Freddie mentioned for other things, like huge games/applications and media, if price is no object. You still get a lot of storage this way.

I don't think the OP has to worry about write-endurance, he seems to want to upgrade soonish and by then the new 32nm Jetstream and Sandforce based SSDs will be out, so he should upgrade to one of those. Also, I don't know why you'd recommend the X25-E server SSD, there's a mainstream version that works just as well: X25-M. If you want to RAID though, you could get 2 OCZ Vertex 60Gb, put them in RAID 0, and get more space than an X25-M and better performance. Could even do the same with two agilities. TRIM won't work in RAID, but OCZ's ITGC 1.4.1 should, so don't have to worry about that.

[Edelward]

Gulftown is 6-core how would it be with compability ?

[Doono]

I don't think the OP has to worry about write-endurance, he seems to want to upgrade soonish and by then the new 32nm Jetstream and Sandforce based SSDs will be out, so he should upgrade to one of those. Also, I don't know why you'd recommend the X25-E server SSD, there's a mainstream version that works just as well: X25-M. If you want to RAID though, you could get 2 OCZ Vertex 60Gb, put them in RAID 0, and get more space than an X25-M and better performance. Could even do the same with two agilities. TRIM won't work in RAID, but OCZ's ITGC 1.4.1 should, so don't have to worry about that.

I would imagine it's because that version uses SLC NAND memory as apposed to the more common MLC NAND memory, SLC will do something like 100k writes to each block where mlc will do maybe 10k. On the other hand for a normal user 10k writes would still last several years so paying about 5 times as much for the same ammount of storage space seems excessive.