The Beast

Case:
Newegg.com - SILVERSTONE TJ09-BW Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681 1163073)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/11-163-073-02.jpg

Power supply:
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 620W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681 7139002)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/17-139-002-14.jpg

Motherboard:
Newegg.com - ASUS P5B Premium Vista Edition LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681 3131164)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/13-131-164-10.jpg

Processor:
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681 9115002)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/19-115-002-01.jpg

Memory:
Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1682 0146565)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/20-146-565-04.jpg

Video Card:
Newegg.com - EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681 4130072)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/14-130-072-17.jpg

Harddrive:
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1682 2148136)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/22-148-136-01.jpg

CD / DVD:
Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner with Replaceable White Front Panel - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1682 7106046)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/27-106-046-07.jpg

CPU Cooling:
Newegg.com - ZALMAN CNPS 9700 NT 110mm 2 Ball Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1683 5118020)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/35-118-020-02.jpg

3x Case Cooling:
Newegg.com - Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E 120mm Case Fan - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1683 5185005)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/35-185-005-02.jpg

Monitor:
Newegg.com - Westinghouse Silver/Black 37" 8ms 1080p HD-Ready LCD TV Model LVM-37W3 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1688 9234001)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/89-234-001-14.jpg

Operating System:
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate DVD - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1683 2116140)
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll20 0/32-116-140-01.jpg


Total:
$3,356.87


Discuss.

it'll be worth half that by the time you put it together

oh and lol at buying vista

it'll be worth half that by the time you put it together

oh and lol at buying vista

I havn't bought it yet. Waiting on some things. It's always funny to watch the total price listed in the wish list to drop like a rock over time.

Oh, and lol at buying windows, period.

An impressive system. I'd suggest reading about perpendicular recording hard drives before settling on purchasing one.

Also if you're going to build this with a "beastly" concept then you'd do well to buy two 2gb sticks and make it worthy of that title.

heard 4gb was a waste because vista only recognizes 3gb (i could be wrong tho).

64-bit vista SHOULD be able to use 4+GB

IMO if you're already splurging, get two hard drives and RAID0 them. 2x320GB wouldn't be much more expensive and you'd get more space and better performance

E6700 is for suckers, you can overclock lower end Intel chips beyond the 2.66Ghz range without any trouble at all.

new motherboards using the P35 chipset are showing up now, same performance as the P965 at stock but early reports seems to show that the P35 can be overclocked a little more.

HotHardware.com (http://www.hothardware.com/News/Asus_P35_Bearlake_Motherb oard_Sneak_Peek/)

3rd party heatsink, research Termalright Ultra-120 / Extreme.

That case would run your gear too hot, look at either Antec 900 or some other case with dual 120mm front intake fans.

Being a hotshot developer for Xbox development tools doesn't give you access to deep discounts on Windows? I don't believe it. It's $45 or so through employee pricing for Ultimate - everyone else gets to sit and spin.

Can't say enough good things about having a 37" monitor for your computer, just wish mine ran at that res, main complaint about that one though is lack of inputs, only one HDMI.

64-bit vista SHOULD be able to use 4+GB

IMO if you're already splurging, get two hard drives and RAID0 them. 2x320GB wouldn't be much more expensive and you'd get more space and better performance

I've already got a NAS raid setup with 2TB storage so the hard drive storage I was going to put in the system was not a concern. I was in fact, considering a smaller hard drive.

I wasn't planning on using the 64-bit version of Vista, but I suppose it is an option. I'm a little worried about the driver support though considering people with the 32-bit version are complaining I doubt the 64-bit version would be in much better shape.



That case would run your gear too hot, look at either Antec 900 or some other case with dual 120mm front intake fans.


I'm curious about where you've read this?

That Silverstone case has 5 120mm fan slots, 1 in the back, 2 at the top above cpu, 1 between the two hard drive cages, and 1 in the middle blowing right at the GPU section (utilizing the side air intake to bypass the harddrive cages).

From what I've read it is more than adequate at cooling. In fact, in some places people are reporting as much as 10 degree drops in idle temp. moving from their old case to the Silverstone. That is a huge drop!

I see, the front of the case didn't look like it had any air flow to it (other than the side intake). Probably wouldn't take much to block that bottom intake vent, seems like an odd place to suck in air from.

Upgrading and then installing Vista is counterintuitive.

Edit: Also, for the record, RAID 0 gives very little real world benefit.

Aw Vista isn't so bad, you just have to set your system for dual booting along with XP Pro :lol:

INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6600 2.40GHz 4MB 1066MHz $224.90 (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=80860)
ASUS P5K DELUXE P35/ICH9R $233.75 (http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/simprod.asp?ad=fg&pid=17560)
THERMALRIGHT ULTRA 120 EXTREME $57.99 (http://www.crazypc.com/products/ultra-120_extreme-50983.html)
FOXCONN FV-N88XMAD2-ONOC HDCP DL DVI GDDR3 768MB [384-bit] [128SP 24RP] [630MHz|1350MHz|2000MHz] PCI-E $519.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 14186021)
WESTERN DIGITAL WD5000AAKS CAVIAR SE16 500GB [160Gb/platter] SATA 3Gb/s NCQ 7200RPM 16MB $116.90 (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=101259)
SHARKOON SILENT EAGLE 2000 SK-SE2000-120 120MM 36.1dBA 2000RPM 76.4CFM $18.95 (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=produ ct_info&cPath=36_49&products_id=20832) - REVIEW (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=137832)
LIAN LI PC-A16 ALUMINIUM SILVER MIDI TOWER CASE $137.80 (http://www.futurepowerpc.com/scripts/product.asp?PRDCODE=CSLI-A16&REFID=FR)
WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE RETAIL $311.90 (http://www.royaldiscount.com/miwiviulfuve.html) - ADDITIONAL VISTA HOME PREMIUM UPGRADE OFFER $49.99 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/familydiscount.mspx)

Upgrading and then installing Vista is counterintuitive.

Edit: Also, for the record, RAID 0 gives very little real world benefit.

1) I don't care.

2) I'm not using RAID 0.

INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6600 2.40GHz 4MB 1066MHz $224.90 (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=80860)
ASUS P5K DELUXE P35/ICH9R $233.75 (http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/simprod.asp?ad=fg&pid=17560)
THERMALRIGHT ULTRA 120 EXTREME $57.99 (http://www.crazypc.com/products/ultra-120_extreme-50983.html)
FOXCONN FV-N88XMAD2-ONOC HDCP DL DVI GDDR3 768MB [384-bit] [128SP 24RP] [630MHz|1350MHz|2000MHz] PCI-E $519.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 14186021)
WESTERN DIGITAL WD5000AAKS CAVIAR SE16 500GB [160Gb/platter] SATA 3Gb/s NCQ 7200RPM 16MB $116.90 (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=101259)
SHARKOON SILENT EAGLE 2000 SK-SE2000-120 120MM 36.1dBA 2000RPM 76.4CFM $18.95 (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=produ ct_info&cPath=36_49&products_id=20832) - REVIEW (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=137832)
LIAN LI PC-A16 ALUMINIUM SILVER MIDI TOWER CASE $137.80 (http://www.futurepowerpc.com/scripts/product.asp?PRDCODE=CSLI-A16&REFID=FR)
WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE RETAIL $311.90 (http://www.royaldiscount.com/miwiviulfuve.html) - ADDITIONAL VISTA HOME PREMIUM UPGRADE OFFER $49.99 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/familydiscount.mspx)


First thing to clear out of the way. I'm not interested in overclocking. Hence my mobo and ram decisions. I would have opted for much more aggressive products otherwise. Now, depending on how long it takes me to finally hit the check out button I may upgrade to the a P35 based mobo. The only other issue is:


P35 based motherboards with DDR3 slots will allow for memory speeds in excess of 1333MHz data rate - although this extra memory bandwidth comes at the cost of increased latencies; initial DDR3 memory modules will have a 6-6-6 or even 7-7-7-26 latencies. Frankly, we are about to go through a transition period like the start of the DDR to DDR2 switch; where the early generations of DDR2 were clearly outperformed by optimized DDR modules.

Now a few notes about your list.

1) That Thermalright is fucking insane. But I think I'll stick with the Zalman, because at least with the Zalman I know the worst that could happen is I cut my fingers on the damn thing. With that Thermalright I could break a bone or two in my foot if I dropped it, lol.

2) I like that video card offering, but I've never heard of that company. I will investigate this further.

3) I made a mistake on my links for case fans. These are the ones I'm getting:
Newegg.com - Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm Case Fan - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168 35185006)

They're a little expensive, but with 3+ they drop in price for bulk ordering fairly nicely. They're also move almost as much air as your listed fan at a lower noise level.

The Intel P35 northbridge chipset supports DDR2 and DDR3. The Asus P5K Deluxe motherboard that I have recommended is the DDR2 version; the Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard is the DDR3 version. The P35 motherboards also support the Intel Penryn processors that will be released, whereas the P965 motherboards do not support the Intel Penryn processors. The Intel E6600 processor has been selected due to its performance with respect to the Intel E6700 processor, therefore the increase in cost of the Intel E6700 is unjustified.

The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme is the highest performing heatsink, therefore the weight of the heatsink is irrelevant for a stationary system. The Scythe S-Flex SFF21F is a high quality fan that I have previously recommended; therefore your component selection is approved. Foxconn is one of the largest manufactures of electronics and computer components. They provide graphics cards and motherboards for many OEMs, although recently they have began to offer their graphics cards and motherboards on the retail market. The Foxconn FV-N88XMAD2-ONOC 8800 GTX graphics card contains very high core and memory frequencies that is comparable to the latest 8800 Ultra graphics card, therefore for the price it is extremely good value.

1) I don't care.

2) I'm not using RAID 0.

Hence why I said "for the record." Someone did suggest it.

get the e6600 and clock it to run like a 6700.

Thermaltake Black Armor Full-Tower ATX Case with 11 External Drive Bays, Clear Side, Front USB, Firewire and Audio Ports VA8000BWS at TigerDirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1389579&sku=T925-2068)

OCZ GameXStream 700-Watt ATX 120mm Fan SATA Ready SLI Ready EPS Active PFC Power Supply OCZ700GXSSLI at TigerDirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2235424&sku=O261-2005)

Lite-On LH-20A1S SuperAllwrite 20x DVD±R Burn 16x DVD±R Read 8x DVD+RW 6x DVD-RW 8x DVD±R DL 12x DVD-RAM 48x32x CD-RRW SATA DVD Burner LH-20A1S-12 at TigerDirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2911683&sku=L12-1132)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB 7200 16MB Serial ATA-300 OEM Hard Drive ST3500630AS at TigerDirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2273393&sku=TSD-500AS2)

Crucial Ballistix Dual Channel 2048MB PC8000 DDR2 1000MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB) BL2KIT12864AA1005 at TigerDirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1558750&sku=C19-4092) (x2)

AMD Athlon 64 FX-74 3.0GHz 2MB Cache 1000MHz (2000 MTs) FSB Windsor Socket F (4 x 4) Processor with Fan ADAFX74DIBOX at TigerDirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2859198&sku=CP1-A64-FX74)

EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB DDR3 SLI Ready PCI Express Dual Link Dual DVI HDTV Video Card 768-P2-N881-AR at TigerDirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3094833&sku=E145-8800)

Asus L1N64-SLI WS NVIDIA Dual Socket CEB Motherboard Audio PCI Express SLI Ready Dual Gigabit LAN SPDIF USB 2.0 Serial ATA eSATA RAID at TigerDirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2853609&sku=A455-2323)

Newegg.com - SHARP Black 32" 16:9 6ms 1080p LCD HDTV w/ ATSC Tuner Model LC32D62U - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1688 9101108)


Total- $3394.90 - $95 mail-in rebates = $3299.90

you're not interested in overclocking and yet you're getting ddr-2 800 memory? you have no idea what you're doing if that's the case.

They must be paying you well at GarageGames