School Tech Department Showcase PC

Hey, I was just asked to design a high-end showcase PC for my school's tech department (budget of ~$5,500 for this project). The money is left over from what they didn't spend it on this year (just extra cash laying around). It will be given to the top fundraiser of the class of 2006 (for all four years of high school, who happened to earn something like $7,000 over four years). Here is what I've come up with so far:

Lian Li PC-65 Case
Silverstone Zeus 650 watt Power Supply
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 FX60 Processor
2x1GB OCZ Titanium DDR400 memory @ 2-3-2-5
Dual eVGA GeForce 7900 GTs in SLI (500/1500 MHz)
Dual Raptor X 150 GB SATA Hard Drives in Raid-0
Dual Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300 GB SATA 3.0GB/sec Hard Drives in Raid-0
Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro Sound Card
Wireless Card, DVD-Rom Drive, DVD-RW Drive, Floppy Drive, Dell 2005fpw 20" widescreen monitor, and Logitech Z-5500 5.1 THX speakers

Woops, I forgot to put that on the list, but don't worry.

Yeah, it was sort of a surprise because they just had money left over. Now I wish I had fundraised a... bit more (fundraised at all for starters).

Oh, and if you are looking for a case with a window, just add one yourself, or hire someone to do it for you...it's very cheap to do, and looks good... Add tons of mods hehe

everything else looks good

Ok, whatever....SLi, isn't that good, but neither is Crossfire...OMG!! 9 frames/sec more! Wow! Let's rejoice!! Seriously, both Crossfire and SLi are really good performance boosters. I've looked at other websites such as the gamepc.com and other reviews. Sometimes Crossfire wins by a lot and sometimes SLI wins by a lot. (they were comparing the 1900XTX vs the 7800GTX for some reason) Other review sites come out about the same. So either way, you're getting the top of the line, and that's all that matters
Are the 7900GTX's cooler and quieter than the X1900XTX's? I'm not sure... they might be better at OC'ing than the XTX....I heard the GTs are loud though...

An acrylic case is the perfect way to show off the PC! A good view from any angle 8)

As for the KB/Mouse, get a Logitech...high quality, or a Microsoft ergonomics one....the Logitech is better though...

good luck with the system! It really kicks arse

EXACTLY!! That's what the case is for too

Yes, the Iceberqs are good....which monitor are you getting? A Dell? Sony? Samsung? Viewsonic? Those all are good, but the Dell is the cheapest (in terms of price and quality). Just take your pick

I've never used a Cooler Master Wavemaster, so I don't know what the interiors like

Ok, so overclock a Pentium D to 5Ghz+ then Yes you can OC FX's

LOL... AMD's FX series is meant for overclocking... that's really what seperates it from their X2 series (that and a lot of $) Sure, you can overclock an X2, but the FX is definitely more friendly in this regard.

A better question would be... why overclock a $1000 processor... especially when it's essentially a gift for someone else... that should be up to the owner.

I'll be doing absolutely no overclocking on my own, though I will offer to overclock it to a safe amount after explaining the pros and cons of overclocking. For example, I might offer to OC the cpu by a very safe 400 MHz, but I will ask before I do so. However, on this system that is just a bit overkill. I'm also purchasing a 20" Dell widescreen monitor. That's what I have, and it is very, very nice. Don't listen to the morons that have never owned one - Dell monitors are absolutely fantastic (unlike the desktops). In fact they're about the only good things Dell sells (perhaps the notebooks are ok as well).

I think all AMD64 processors are fantastic for overclocking. I've seen Semprons, FX, X2, and Athlon 64's all overclocked a lot.

For a school prize maybe a LAN-party-tastic Aspire X-Qpack could be a good choice. Will need to go mATX, of course.