New computer!

[Silvermink]

Just ordered my new computer. I'm stupidly excited about it and just had to say that. :)

If anyone's curious about the config I can post it, I just didn't want to be all "look at what I have!"

*vibrates a bit*

[Vanilla Skunk]

Post the stats! Post the stats!

[Silvermink]

Well, okay:

1 x Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI 2x Mini DisplayPort Video Card
1 x Intel Core i7 950 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 3.06GHZ Bloomfield 8MB LGA1366 4.8GT/S
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Edition 64BIT DVD OEM
2 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
1 x Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5IN Solid State Disk Flash Drive SATA3 6Gbps
1 x Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366 LGA775 LGA1156 120MM
1 x LG GH24LS50 24X Super Multi Lightscribe SATA DVD Writer OEM Black
1 x ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA1366 DDR3 CrossFireX SLI 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 PCI USB 3.0 Motherboard
1 x Corsair XMS3 Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 8-8-8-24 Core i7 Memory Kit
1 x Antec Nine Hundred Two Mid Tower Gamer Case 902 ATX 9 Drive Bay No PS Top USB2.0 eSATA Audio
1 x Corsair Professional HX750W 750W ATX 12V 62A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan
2 x ASUS VE247H 23.6IN Widescreen LED LCD Monitor 1920X1080 2MS 10M1DC HDMI DVI-D VGA Speakers

It should be a bit of a monster. I got it from NCIX - I've never been impressed with their in-store service, but the builder who responded to my email asking for advice on my config was great.

[zenia]

New computers are exciting. :)

[snazzy101]

Now that's a Sexy rig you've got there.  :thumbs:

[Tony Greyfox]

I got my new machine through NCIX too, it went really well and I'm really happy with the machine. After looking at your configuration, my box just whined and tried to crawl away and hide, though... nice box!

[Zen]

I could look it up, but what did that rig cost you?  Just the box, not the monitors.

Also, once you get it, you'd better post some benchmark results!  :P

[Silvermink]

I could look it up, but what did that rig cost you?  Just the box, not the monitors.

Also, once you get it, you'd better post some benchmark results!  :P

It was about $1900 before tax. And sure, I'll do that.

[Zen]

$1900 with monitors?  I've got about 1/2 a machine to update so I'm looking for good just-under-high-end parts for decent prices.  I have a weird mish-mash box, and want to get a new Mobo, but that requires a whole new set of ram and CPU.  Trying to figure out what to get that will last ...

[Silvermink]

$1900 with monitors?  I've got about 1/2 a machine to update so I'm looking for good just-under-high-end parts for decent prices.  I have a weird mish-mash box, and want to get a new Mobo, but that requires a whole new set of ram and CPU.  Trying to figure out what to get that will last ...

No, without. The monitors were about $200 each for a total of $2300.

I think the i7 is about as futureproof as you're going to get at the moment. I went for the i7-950 (~$350) as it was only about $20 more than the i7-930 in their default config - anything above the 950 gets expensive REALLY quickly (the i7-960 is $650 - ouch) and probably isn't worth it at this point. The Sabertooth mobo was $220ish - $200-250 seems to be about the going rate for the decently-priced LGA 1366 boards.

The 6GB triple-channel Corsair RAM kit I got was about $135, though they have a more basic version of same for more like $85. The Dominator will probably support OCing better, but I think all of Corsair's stuff is pretty good.

So the total for that if you wanted to get the mobo and CPU that I did and the basic Corsair triple-channel kit would be ~$650. I dunno, there may be equivalent options out there for less money (I've been told the AMD Phenom II X6 has a nice price/performance ratio). I'm not really a hardware expert and don't really follow industry trends, I just get out there and do a bunch of research when I buy a computer. :)

[Zen]

I'm a former tech, still do it part time, and I've been doing my research off and on over the past few weeks.  I prefer to run things stock, rather than OC, but that's definitely good to know.  I was already leading towards an Intel Quad, I much prefer them over AMD, and was thinking i7, but anything over $350 is far too much for a CPU for me.

RAM is always cheap, regardless.  I am so looking forward to DDR3 instead of the DDR1 I run right now!

[snazzy101]

My PC has a triple core, but I reactivated the Fourth core and tested it. It actually works fine so now I've for 4 cores!

[Silvermink]

The other thing is that Intel's new Sandy Bridge architecture is coming out pretty soon, though it looks like the high-end/"enthusiast" processors won't be out until Q3 or so (though that may be the Extreme Edition type stuff which is always up there in the stratosphere price-wise).

I hadn't known that when I bought my computer but I'm not sure I would've waited in any case, since things tend to take a while for their prices to drop down to a reasonable level and there's always some "next big thing" in the pipe - I feel like if you're always waiting for the next big thing you'll never actually buy anything. :)

Apparently the Marvell 9128 6Gb/s SATA controller on the Sabertooth is pretty so-so (or, at least, the drivers are) and a RAID 0 with it actually runs slower than a single drive, which is ridiculous. I think I'm going to hook my SSD up through 6Gb/s but my two WD drives through 3Gb/s, since the Intel ICH10R appears to do a lot better in that respect. I'm glad to have bought a board that gives me both options, now...

[Superfoxy]

Pretty good rig there  ;) I see you went with the LG GH24LS50. Good pick; I have one in my box and I'll round it out with a second one.

I'm in the process of building my new computer in stages. I plan on building a heavy duty machine that'll last a long time with only needing a few minor upgrades. I'm willing to spend more even if it takes me a long time to save for it. So far I've gotten 3 new parts for it: an Antec Truepower Quattro 850w PSU, an Antec DF-85 case, and a Razer Deathadder mouse. I love all three, but the first one doesn't really get much notice from me, lol, just keeps chugging along.

I pastebinned a parts list a while ago: http://pastebin.com/mn3uMQFH

Next batch of parts I'm buying will be the Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Heatsink, Side fan, and Thermal Compound.
Tax included that bunch comes to $1284.10.

After that I'll be buying the SSD and the 2 2tb drives for RAID 1. Past that I'll top it off with a new monitor, a copy of Windows 7 professional edition 64-bit, and maybe a twin of the video card for Crossfire. After that I'll just buy more HD's and put them in RAID 5, then transfer the data over. If I had the cash to burn I'd buy 9 3tb internal drives for it, and maybe even the best i7.

But still, a Thuban 1100T OC'ed to about 4.5 Ghz with 16 gb of memory is nothing to sneeze at, hehehe.

[Silvermink]

Pretty good rig there  ;) I see you went with the LG GH24LS50. Good pick; I have one in my box and I'll round it out with a second one.

Yeah, the default was a lesser LG burner - 22x and no LightScribe - but the upgrade was only $4, so what the heck.

I'm in the process of building my new computer in stages. I plan on building a heavy duty machine that'll last a long time with only needing a few minor upgrades. I'm willing to spend more even if it takes me a long time to save for it. So far I've gotten 3 new parts for it: an Antec Truepower Quattro 850w PSU, an Antec DF-85 case, and a Razer Deathadder mouse. I love all three, but the first one doesn't really get much notice from me, lol, just keeps chugging along.

Yeah, I mulled over the 850W power supply, and think I would've gone with it if I'd ended up getting an NVIDIA graphics card since they're a lot more power-hungry than the ATI equivalents. The 750W will support CrossFireX with 6950s and still have some expansion room, though, which is nice. I probably would've gone for the 850W if it'd been, like, a $20 upgrade instead of a $50 upgrade (though I suppose I could've bumped down from the whizbang Corsair HX PSU).

How do you feel about the Antec DF-85? I like how the Dark Fleet cases look and was considering the DF-35 for mine, but it ended up being a moot point since they got the 902 in and wouldn't let me change it.

I have a Razer Mamba mouse, which is basically the wireless version of the DeathAdder, if I'm not mistaken. I can't really recommend it, though, because I'm on my second one already and for that price I don't think that kind of QC slippage is acceptable (I didn't pay full price for mine, mind, and don't think I could ever have brought myself to pay $160 for a freakin' mouse).

I pastebinned a parts list a while ago: http://pastebin.com/mn3uMQFH

Next batch of parts I'm buying will be the Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Heatsink, Side fan, and Thermal Compound.
Tax included that bunch comes to $1284.10.

Holy RAM, Batman! I decided to go with 6GB for mine but might upgrade to 12GB in the future if I feel like it's warranted. After a year or two I'll probably do a bit of analysis and see if I can figure out where the bottlenecks are.

After that I'll be buying the SSD and the 2 2tb drives for RAID 1. Past that I'll top it off with a new monitor, a copy of Windows 7 professional edition 64-bit, and maybe a twin of the video card for Crossfire. After that I'll just buy more HD's and put them in RAID 5, then transfer the data over. If I had the cash to burn I'd buy 9 3tb internal drives for it, and maybe even the best i7.

But still, a Thuban 1100T OC'ed to about 4.5 Ghz with 16 gb of memory is nothing to sneeze at, hehehe.

I've got all my data on a RAID 1 NAS so I didn't worry about having drives for data, but if I were I'd probably do RAID 1 or RAID 5 as well. After a hard drive crash a few years back that resulted in me losing several years' worth of irreplaceable stuff, I've been very paranoid about my data. I don't really download videos or anything to any great extent and so don't really need a ton of space (our NAS is only 300GB and it's only half full).

I usually buy my processors at the base of the curve where the price really starts shooting up, because after that you really start paying more and more for less and less. I considered the Thuban but decided to stick with Intel since I've been doing well with them lately (though I admit the fact that the top-end Thuban is still $70 less than the i7 I chose did give me pause).