7 replies to this topic

[pencil0ttlb]

nfdafdsa

[dlutz]

Hi there does anyone know of a good local custom gaming pc builder in the sacrament0, folsom, roseville area with good customer support and warranty? I was looking for a 2.66 ghz quad core, 280gtx triple sli, with 8 gigs of ram.

I'd say build your own, you'll save a ton of money. Also why the 8 gigs of RAM, what OS are you going to run? XP and vista 32bit versions really only allow you to effectively use only 3GB.

[mylo]

Absolutely build your own. Online prices are drastically lower, and putting it all together is easy!

[Solartide]

If yer a gamer, you need to know how to build your own anyway, the costs of repairs for those hefty parts...

[Toadster]

I agree - building your own PC is very rewarding, but does have it's share of challenges...
http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/ <-- check this site out to see if you're up to it

I've built many PC's - it's fun, but it's something you have to support as well

[CaptainSpaulding71]

go to newegg.com

get:

• intel QX9650 or greater CPU. if you are running nvidia tri-sli, you need a good quad core to keep feeding those gfx cards, otherwise you will be bottlenecked at CPU and won't get much by tri-sli'ing.
• LG SATA blu-ray burner
• Western Digital Raptor HD (get a few in case you want to go RAID for speed)
• silverstone cosmos-s case or similar case. check out also mountainmods.com for an interesting alternative case
• thermaltake toughpower 1200W power supply or better (need this for triple sli with gtx280s)
• 3 EVGA gtx280 vid cards
• EVGA 790i mobo
• Zalman CNSP9700 CPU cooler/heatsink
• 8GB DDR3 RAM (check out corsair dominators)
• soundblaster xfi fatal1ty sound card
• razer lachesis mouse
• razer tarantula gaming keyboard
• razer barracuda gaming headset
• vista 64bit OS to take advantage
  of > 3GB RAM

if you want to go watercooled, DangerDen makes some nice stuff as does swiftech

i'd bet you'd be spending at least 4k on this system. assembling it is a piece of cake. plus you can take your time and make it the way you want it.

here's some pictures of my rig:

http://i297.photobuc...8may2008172.jpg
http://i297.photobuc...8may2008173.jpg
http://i297.photobuc...8may2008174.jpg
http://i297.photobuc...8may2008175.jpg

i'm using a mountainmods U2:UFO case. also i have a Matrix Orbital LCD display that displays out temps, HD usage, CPU load, etc. it's a cool hobby!

let me know if you need more help.

[dlutz]

Captain,

great job on your rig and as an old school PC gamer and IT guy, fully appreciate the hobby aspect of it.

But 4K for a gaming machine compared to $400.00 for a console unit, I have to ask do you really get that much performance boost for the price. I had to take a few months to get rid of my keyboard/mouse navigation habit, but now I love my 360.

[CaptainSpaulding71]

Captain,

great job on your rig and as an old school PC gamer and IT guy, fully appreciate the hobby aspect of it.

But 4K for a gaming machine compared to $400.00 for a console unit, I have to ask do you really get that much performance boost for the price. I had to take a few months to get rid of my keyboard/mouse navigation habit, but now I love my 360.

thanks! i spent about 2 months planning and building that thing. pretty much most of the time was spent sourcing the parts and waiting for them to get shipped out to me. the one good thing about the build is that it heightened my appreciation on good cable management and air flow. i have another case where i spent about an hour with tie wraps and so on tucking all the wires away as much as i can - looks much better and has improved air flow.

i have to agree with you on the console bit in that with a console, things 'just work'. you don't have to worry about drivers, OS problems with vista, dimming folsom's lights when you power up your rig, etc. however, i just could never get used to the controller thing - i'm a die hard mouse/keyboard gamer and FPS are my kind of game so i really need them to be effective. Also, i do some amount of video editing and multimedia creation so i need a processor that can do that well (adobe products can make use of multi-cores). lastly, i get a sweet discount on intel products, so i'm kind of partial to that vendor.

oh, i'm also overclocking - which is kind of a neat hobby in itself. i can boost my cpu freq from 2.66 stock to 3.58 without any heat problems. also i can boost my gtx280 gfx card from 602 stock to 650 reliably. my benchmarks are not so hot since i'm cpu bound as i have an older quad core with lower FSB speed (1066 base and will only do 1100). i bet with a QX9650, i'd blow those benchmarks.

check out these sites for more cpu building tips:

http://bit-tech.net
http://gruntville.com

both have some forums where you can see build logs. there are some extremely talented people out there using acrylic and building completely custom rigs. i drool when i see these guys' work. amazing!

thanks again for the kudos, dlutz