I am in need of some hard core advice please. I have a once in a lifetime opportunity to build my dream machine. My wife is re-enlisting in the air force for another 4 years and part of her bonus money will go to this project. So, my budget cap will be around $12,000. Only problem is that it will have to wait until December or January (I may die of a heart attack waiting with utter excitement by then) I have been an Intel fan forever, but AMD is really kicking in the heat. So… so far I have a few things set in stone
1. RADEON X1900 XTX 512MB x2
2. Turbo-Cool 1KW Power Supply
3. PC-V2100 plus/PC-V2100B plus case (maybe)
4. 2 Lightscribe DVD+rw drives
5. Soundblaster X-Fi

The rest is still up for debate. Do I go with scsi 15k 147 gb drives in raid 0. Or try the sata route instead? Which is really the fastest. Western Digital is sooo damn close in closing the performance gap that I just don’t know anymore.

I also want to use phase cooling. Is asetek the best? Or is Prometeia Mach II GT ?

Also what about peltier air conditioning for the case? Melcor makes some wicked AC units that can bring the PC to almost 0. Melcor AC Unit

And what of condensation inside the pc? I have never dabbled in water or sub zero cooling before, this is the scariest part of this venture…

Now that the cpu is cooled what about water cooling for the video cards and the hard drives….possibly the ram as well? (Ram will be OCZ…loyalty there)


Worst of all…how the heck am I going to fit all this inside a Lian Li PC-V2100 plus case??? Is there bigger that still looks cool?

And will there be a decent Crossfire mobo by then? I do not like asus that much, been burned by them too many times in the past….abit falls in a close second too.

My monitor debate is the easiest. Dell 30” or Apple 30” or Samsung 32” LCD displays?
My wife told me I can do this almost 2 months ago, the research is killing me…a true dream come true for me..heck for anyone for that matter. But it is a real pain in the butt to try to figure out what really would make the fastest home pc in the world for a moment. Having sacrificed my career to be a stay at home dad for the next 5 years has given me an opportunity to really seek these things out, and explore new levels of boredom, trust me changing diapers is not as fun as closing car deals, although it is much more rewarding. But I need to build this to keep my sanity and give me a sense of accomplishment in something other than being a dad, and housekeeper, cook, laundry slave, and dishwasher. So please I need your best advice in which direction to go for some of this stuff. I am goin nutz. Please help an old computer geek.

Want the best advice anybody can give? Don't blow $12k on 1 computer, that's extremely stupid. If you MUST spend $12k, build a $3k Gaming System, and a Home Server or 2, and you'd have some cash left over to upgrade to the next AMD-Intel CPU's down the road.

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

I hear ya brother, but I already have a server. And a gaming rig, and my son has a gaming pc, and the wife has her Mac. I just want to do this .. just once. I want to take it on the road to a few lan parties and a few shows if possible. I know it's crazy to do so, but why not just once in life build the best you can? Trust me I will be using it to it's potential. I do a lot of video editing. and have been an avid gamer for 15 years, and an mp3 collector junkie. My current rig will become the family entertainment center once this thing is built. Gonna play scrabble, monopoly, life, and pogo games on the HDTV, that way there are no game pieces for the baby to eat. lol

Maybe there's a motorcycle you'd like to restore? Maybe a hobbie to throw cash @? No? Okay then....

1) Go to www.Newegg.com

2) Go under each section (CPU's, Memory, Case, etc.)

3) Click "Add To Cart" on the most expensive item in each category

4) Click "Submit"

5) Feel proud that $12k was just taken away from you for many many pieces of PCB and Silicon

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

If you're going to have to wait until the end of the year anyway, there's no point in planning anything. By then DX10 will be out, as well as socket AM2. The landscape will be completely different.

I think the only way you could possible blow $12000 on a computer would be something with quad GPU, maybe two opty 2xx, or eight 8xx. Maybe get a 34" LCD to boot.

If you have 12grand for a pc then go for some 7800 duals in SLi. If someone already mentioned this sorry, but ^that^ is just way too much to read. Holy crap, mad mod mike is right , that is still way too much money for a pc.

Also wait for Conroe, conroe may be the way to go later on this year.

Planning a PC you're gonna buy in 9 months based on hardware available today :?

Just take a valium and sit down before you hurt yourself in your excitement.

Me, I'd buy a car. I still haven't found a sane person who's spent more than $1500 (that's AUD so like USD$1000) on a single PC... if you do you've been ripped off

I'm sane, I think...

I'm buying a $6000 Australian PC

I'm with Mike. Build a $3000 PC and put the rest in an account for your kids college or something. Or go buy a beat up classic muscle car to start restoring. Don't spend $12,000 on something thats going to be worth $500 in 3 years.

Ok, here's my idea. The most I've spent on a single computer is about $5000. But still, I've done som research.

If you were to buy in a near future. Most of these will be "outdated" in a year... perhaps...

Hd: Get like 5 147Gb Raptors in Raid 5 or similar. Security + performance. Take the rest of space you want in external Hds'.

Proc: like 2 - 8 850 (4 - 16 cores) Optys

Vid card: 2 7900 GTX factory overclocked (preferably in a single card that will come with quad sli). And add one PhysX card when it gets available

Ram: Aim for 4 - 16 Gb, 1 Gig per core minimum.

Sound: Audigy2 - X-fi (I have both and I don't feel any difference), complete with Z-5500 or similar, perhaps even greater sound if you like.

Other periferals such as Screen and stuff is up to you. I can recomend G7 and microsoft Ergo 4000.

Cooling: Go with some of aseteks stuff. Either you could go with Lightspeed for extreme overclockability or you could go for a couple of water cooling loops with high performance that's quiet. If you want all of this to be really cool, you should get a custom case. Build it in wood or metal for your exact specs. You have to decide between sound and extreme performance though.

Good luck

Hi Steamroller,

Don't mind my saying this. But reading the last part of your message about giving up a career to do housework, then blowing $12K on a PC.

It really sounds to me a little like you're blowing the $12K to console yourself for agreeing to take up the role of a house husband.

Hope I didn't offend you or anyone, it's just that if someone insists on spending $12K on a gaming PC, he's either too rich or just doggone crazy.

The condensation issue is real for subambient cooling but there are workarounds if you want to put a big chunk of your budget there. Depends in part on where you live and how high the humidity is.

WRT Peltier, they can work, but the efficiency is very low, meaning that you will add a huge quantity of heat to the surroundings. In winter, this may be welcome but in summer, you will probably need to address the extra heat load to the computer's immediate environment.

Invest that money, otherwise... read on:

Don't bother looking too closely, as in 9 months tech is going to change considerably.

Beware of companies building $6,000 machines and asking $12,000

Noise will be an issue, so consider Xeon LV (wait until Woodcrest varient is available) or Opteron HE/EE (for the new Socket F, which is not out yet):
eg: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processor [...] 06,00.html

VMware - Start here:
http://www.vmware.com

Consider systems such as:

Tyan - Start here:
http://www.tyan.com

Get a decent EPS12V PSU (forget ATX12V), possibly redundant.

Consider a 3RU or 4RU tall 'case'.

Check out:
http://www.tyan.com/products/html/typhoon_b2881.html
http://www.tyan.com/products/html/typhoon_b5160.html

Boards:
http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8sre.html
http://www.tyan.com/products/html/tomcati7230a.html

- $12,000 on ONE workstation is a total waste of money, MadModMike is right.

Also note that MadModMike and myself are not always in aggreement.

Perhaps you'll find something you like over at Tyan, perhaps not.

US$12,000 is a significant amount to spend on just one workstation - Too much IMHO.

The video performance will not scale in a linear manner on those systems though, assuming it is even possible to populate each board.

Evans & Sutherland - Start here:
http://www.es.com - They have a 784 Gpixel/sec 3D video subsystem I am sure it out of your price range (read: 50x more powerful than the fastest stuff listed in 3DMark ORB), so perhaps they have something that will run x86 applications using smaller arrays of GPUs.

Sun Microsystems: (?)
http://www.sun.com


Disclaimer: Anything more than $5,000 for a 'workstation' and you're starting to rip yourself off.

"So, my budget cap will be around $12,000."

Give her back $10,000 of it, and build a nice rig for about $2000....

No reason to blow $10k too much for 5% improvement in framerates...

That about says it. A top of the line computer with awesome components can be had for about $2000-2500 max. Add $1000 for a kick ass monitor, $500 for kickass speakers, $100 for great gaming mouse and keyboard, and you're at $4000 tops.

Anything more is just maybe a tiny percent faster that you won't even see. Remember, anything over 60 FPS you can't even notice with the human eye. 5000 FPS looks the same as 60. Granted with ultra hardcore rigs you start to increase your minimum frames per second but with a $2500 system you can have that. Only way to spend $12,000 on a system building it yourself is to be in gross excess. I priced a kickass dream computer with the best available hardware once (except processor because paying $1000 for a CPU is retarded) and it came to $3000 but that was with 8 hard drives and a 19" LCD(I don't need bigger than that).

"If you're going to have to wait until the end of the year anyway, there's no point in planning anything. By then DX10 will be out, as well as socket AM2."

Agreed....!

Conroe will be out as well, likely a larger performance step than any AM2 rig anyway....

I still think blowing $12k on a computer borders on being ludicrous...

(Although a 30" Dell 3007 monitor with 2560x1600 resolution would be nice at $2200!)

Arent we forgetting about conroe and future intel releases. for all we know AM2 could be the worst flop in history(example)

if you want to build this "dream machine", go for it. dont let these other users tell you how to spend the money, or how to invest.