A $2500 gaming computer that laughs at Crysis!

You forgot to add the $200ish for a copy of Vista Ultimate 64bit...

That is a great system if you want to throw money out the window :). The power consumption can not be even close to 1200W and you do not need a 100$ case to play video games.
I noticed also that you picked a raid system. A piece of advice: the usual boards have lame raid controllers. I really do not think that having 2 hard disks (in raid) will improve performance on gaming experience (considering here the controller on the mother board). Just think about it: you have enough ram to cash the whole game... the loading of the game is not so important... .

Happy gaming!

After looking at the specs of this, and looking at reviews on like toms hardware, this is actually a ridiculously good price for what you get, talk about bang for you buck! Given that computer a good water-cooling kit, how much could you actually overclock the cpu? and should you even bother overclocking the gpu's?

Can I run The Sims on this?

I really, really wish I had $2,500 to spend right now.

Nice article - I've been looking to build a computer lately and this is a great help. Just one question...

"What if I have a small 17″ or 19″ minitor"

What if your minitor ran a spell-check just once?

I don't get this article....anyone can just grab top of the line hardware throw it together and pump out the fps with a little pc sense. Gimme an article where I can limit price and still achieve top end fps results, other words the best bang for your buck but still keeping up with high end rigs. Just seems rather pointless article. I mean at 2500$ I better be able to play all games smoothly or you got ripped off!

Not a bad article, but it is dimmed by lack of a final attentive read-through.

Everything was good until:

Power consumption : 1/10 With integrated audio, only one hard drive but a powerful video card , power consumption will be average. The video card will be the part which will consume the most energy.
Value for the money: 9.5/10 This system will offer you outstanding performance for a very low price tag. Being able to fit a Radeon 4850 in a 500$ budget is simply amazing! Gaming FTW!

You probably edited the build to include a second hard-drive for the first error, and the Value for money was probably copy and pasted from another article.

With the edits I'd give you 2 thumbs up.

P.

I think it's been proven that Raid 0 doesn't improve performance.

RAID 0 if you want to lose everything. RAID 1 or 5 for your OS. RAID 0 for things you can afford to lose.

Great setup! I love the Antec nine hundred, good looking case without being epic tryhard.

Blow off one of the hard drives, and upgrade the CPU to a Q6600. Lower clockspeed (2.4ghz) but 4 cores in total, means Crysis has a lot more power to play with to handle physics etc.... Crysis DOES take advantage of quad-core CPUs.

That should keep it under $2,500.

One thing you did leave out is the OS..... would be a good time to mention that you don't wanna bother with Windows XP (never thought I'd say that) because XP can only address a *total* 4GB of memory (and that includes address space reserved by expansion cards and onboard hardware, so there's your 4GB of video RAM right there).

Nice rig. I played Crysis at 1680x1050 with everything maxed out and 2x AA, with more than playable framerates, but my system only cost around $AU1000.

AMD Dual core at 3ghz,
3gb DDR2
Geforce 9800gtx
Vista Ultimate

22" Viewsonic LCD

For an extra $1,500 I could play it on your rig at higher resolution and more AA. Somehow I don't think the extra money is going to improve the game experience any. But hey I admire your enthusiasm :-)

Not quite as future proof as I would want an investment that hefty to be, with intel planning to change the next core (Nehalem) to a different socket and triple channel (up to 6 channel supported by on-chip mem controller) DDR3.
At least a DDR3 platform is really a better option without waiting for a socket LGA715 board.

Richard,
The Q6600 is not better than the E8600 he posted. The c2d is a 45nm = less power, more performance; the c2q is not. The c2d is more refined in how it operates, the 3.0ghz E6800 (i think, not sure... but its 3.0ghz and not 45nm), operates faster and more efficiently than the Q6600. More cores doesn't always mean better.

Forgot to ad to above comment;
it has been proven that w/o modding or 3rd party programs, Crysis will NOT take advantage of all 4 cores, it will use half of all 4, or max out on 2.

No Blu-Ray? HahAHahAHAHahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Why not a W.D. Raptor 10,000 RPM HDD instead??

Lots of things are overkill. I'd rather stick with Velociraptor than Raid-0. Anyone with any vast experience with Raid-0 will know how unstable it is, and the array just dies too often.

Casing however isn't that important, unless you're going to be overclocking. Lots of people won't even know what's overclocking.

Since you're spending $2.5k on a computer rig, why invest on a not-so-great motherboard? There are better ones out there, and why DDR2?

I'd rather go Quad-Core than Dual-Core, go for the Q8xxx series ... great value for money ...

I'd suggest you guys who are interested in getting the best rig, and not wasting too much money, go visit computer hardware forums, such as Tomshardware/HardOCP/etc. just look around, and you'll find a bunch of those ... there are geeks around that have tried all kinds of set up, including myself ... and would make much better recommendations ...

"Sorry but this article is seriously flawed when you start out by saying “at resolutions for: 17″ 19″ 22″ 24″ 30″ “. Sorry, 30″ is the exact same resolution as 24″ and simply has stretched pixels to make it appear larger. You can’t go larger than 1920×1200 without multiple monitors."

Fucking EPIC fail bro.

See: Dell ultrasharp 3007wfp or Apple 30"

2,560 x 1,600 pixel resolution.

It's called dual link dvi, son.




As/400 out

Um, I can run crysis on highest everything at 1920X1200 and I'm only using an 8800GT + QX6600. The part where the game gets really slow is when the world freezes over and the snow starts falling. I doubt in this review the player got that far.

Quoted from #9 "You can’t go larger than 1920×1200 without multiple monitors.

Something tells me you grew up with the chan sites and various other related sites which makes you think you know everything, yet don’t."

No, obviously you don't either...



30" --> 2560x1600

@NT - Don't tell Samsung. They obviously botched the specs of this 30" monitor. 2560X1600 must've been a hilarious typo.
http://www.samsung.com/ca/consumer/detail/spec....
Also, I didn't realize AMD's K8 architecture was around for 15 years. K5 certainly was no beast. Ignoring that, there's no reason not to pair an Intel CPU with AMD GPUs. Fastest processor, fastes GPUs. Basically the point of this excercise.

I like how NT says a 30" inch is the same as all the other similar monitors.. but they DO go beyond 1920x1200 like the DELL 3007WFP which goes to 2560 x 1600 (If only I could afford a quad setup of those) ... though some cards do not work with them unless its supports dual-link dvi.

tinel: Having more power than you need also means in the PSU will run cooler. And the good ones are 80% of their rating. Cheap ones are as low as 50%.. I have 200 watts PSU that can run what a cheap 400 watt can not. It also creates more stable voltages as video cards and CPU ramp up and down depending on how they are being used at the moment. also ATI recommends 1000 watt for 2 of those cards.

Now if I could only remember that company that had those case fans I saw at CES that had no bearings but spun on a magnetic cushion.

I guess thats enough of my rants... back to coding or was it debugging.... or maybe a poptart

Re: NT's comment

You state that no monitor can handle greater than 1920x1200, but this is completely false.I'm using a 30" Dell flat panel right now (3007WFP-HC) and it's native resolution is 2560x1600. Not only is this significantly larger than 1920x1200 (More than twice as many pixels). Most PCs can't even handle running games at that resolution as anything more than a slideshow, let alone with any speed. If you're going to criticize something, you should check you facts first.

damn! the video card is 50% of the total cost of the computer

any benchmarks on this setup?

@ 1. Don:

You can't download a video card...

@ As/400:

Easy there fkn uber h4x0r guru... The guy made a good piece about shit most people not even capable of understanding... And he clearly explains to just contact him if you have better ideas...

And wtf is "epic fail." for dude? Too much World of Warcraft kiddo!

Stop wasting your time Ass/400...

you just arbitrarily picked hardware and said it would be the fastest thing ever...where are the tests? have you run crysis on this setup?

"Something tells me you grew up with the chan sites and various other related sites which makes you think you know everything, yet don’t." +1

NT, regarding your #9 message, at first I was confused how anyone could post such obviously false claims, then I noticed your “then again the then CEO was a latino” comment and I suddenly realized that you’re a stupid fucking bigot, so it all suddenly made sense.

Ehh, RAID 0 is asking for trouble and not really worth it in my opinion. HDD speed is really only needed when loading a game or loading a level. Once you're playing it's not holding you up.

Just wow. 19 comments as I'm starting to type this and they keep coming! Alright, give me a chance to answer to you all. Pretty please? Haha

@Dom: I never include the cost of the OS for any of my computer systems, as some people already own an OS, some just use a pirated version, etc.

@Tinel: 4 gpus, 2 hard drives, 8 gb of ram, etc. All that hardware, especially the two Radeon 4870 X2, will use a considerable ammount of power. Trust me, that power supply is not overkill here. True, the $100 case is not required. It's just that considering how much the system is worth and much heat will come out of it, the airflow will greatly help out.

I agree that on-board RAID controllers are not as good as a dedicated one, but they have improved with the newest chipsets. I use RAID 0 on a 965 chipset and performance is superior compared to JBOD. Although from what I hear, RAID on Nvidia's chipsets is a pain in the ... Also, you still need to load all that data into the RAM, which will be loaded from the hard drives.

@ Nick: Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate! That wolfdale cpu can easily hit 4.0 ghz on air, so a good 4.2-4.4GHz under water. Could less or more though, as not all chips are created equal.

@ Dan: Hmmm, yes? =P

@ Nick: Who doesn't?

@AyeRoxor: Thanks for pointing that out, woah.

@Jimbo: Of course, this system is far from cheap, as it's designed to run one of the, if not the most demanding game on the market right now. You would probably be interested in other, cheaper computer systems. Check this out: http://www.hardware-revolution.com/computer-sys...

@Nub: *shakes in head in shame* Wow, I can't believe I didn't see that. What actually happened is that I wrote the post then copied the ratings from a previous one. I unfortunately forgot to change the two last ones. Thanks for pointing that out!

@NT: I think that other people already answered for me there. Please double-check your "facts" mate ;)

@me: Proof please? I use RAID 0 in my own computer and I saw a good performance increase when I changed from JBOD to RAID 0

@diebels: True, RAID 0 is more likely to fail than a single hard drive. RAID 1 won't increase performance though. Raid 5 will, but then you need an extra hard drive. For an extra $100, it's worth it if you like the extra insurance that you won't lose any data in case of an hard drive failure.

@Richard: Last time that I checked, Crysis uses MAINLY 2 cores. Sure, the additionnal cores might help with Windows and background programs, but the 933 Mhz loss vs the E8600 will hurt the performance way more than extra cores will help.

I always leave the OS to my readers, as some may already own it, may have a pirated copy, etc. Yes, if you intends to use the 8GB of RAM, you will need a 64 bit OS (aka Vista 64 bit).

@Jono: I'm glad to hear so. Of course, money value depends of who you're talking with ;)

@Brian: True, Intel is coming up with Nehalem. However, for those who want to play Crysis right now and don't want to wait for Nehalem, this is the way to go.

I agree that DDR3, at 1800MHz and higher speeds, will edge DDR2. However, if you seen the price of 8GB of DDR3 1800MHz? In one word: Ouch. If you wonder, $700. Going for 2000MHz? $800. Will you see a noticable improvement in your fps? I doubt it.

@Sam: Well said. The E8600 is based on the newer Wolfdale core, unlike the Q6600. Also, do you have the link from where you read that? I'm sure that many here want to or should read it.

@indoflaven: I haven't seen any games on Blu-Ray yet, have you? This is a gaming computer, if YOU want a Blu-Ray, go ahead and get it, but that's not something that the majority of people want right now.

@Frank: Cost and performance. One Raptor would be more expensive than the two hard drives here. $200 1.5TB faster RAID 0 array or $285 slower 300GB Raptor? You choose =)

@GeekSquad: Really? From my experience, RAID 0 arrays or any hard drive for that matter, will run fine as long as they are properly cooled. Which is something taken care of by the Antec 900 in this build.
Of course, let's not include various DOA or drives that fail within a few days/weeks due to a rough shipping.

What's wrong with that motherboard? From a performance point of view and considering what's needed for this system, it's perfect. Sure, if I was going for DDR3, I would change it.

Gaming wise, I rather stick with a faster dual-core for now.

Agreed with forums. http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/index.php? and http://www.overclock.net/ are two other excellent forums that you should visit if you need help building your computer. Or any help in general for that matter.

Also, it's been proven the GTX280 smokes the Radeon 4870X2 in Crysis. I'd go with two of those in SLI. Yes, you'd have to switch to a 780 or 790i board, but who cares? And $2500 is a ton of money for the average person to drop on a PC. Should have shot for $1500 for a more interesting (and realistic) article. :)

It's apparent that you haven't built this machine yourself.

Why? Because then you would realize a few things.....

1st) On a 30", at 2560x1600, you would still run into limitations, even if you claim that you wouldn't. Even at 1920x, if you run very high on dual 4870x2, you hit the limits.

2nd) The raid 0 performance you would get with those 2 hard drives is actually slower for gaming load times than having them single.

3rd) If anything, buying a professional system builder, on a $2500 setup, putting a little extra money on a non-stock CPU cooler would be a wise investment. Not to mention, the 'real' ideal gaming system would have that e8600 overclocked to a stable 4Ghz (at least), which is easily attainable using a decent heatsink.

4) As many people noticed, there is no Windows OS (and I mention Windows, because games only run on Windows) but... we can assume people already have the software.

5) If you were actually using that setup on a 30" screen running at 2560, you would notice some micro-stuttering which could make it far from the ideal gaming solution.

- Ok, so the case pick is a decent one, even though things are going to be tight.
- Good job on recommending that power supply... because anything less will have difficulties running 2 4870x2 cards.
- I understand the concept of this site, and I think it's a good idea, just keep in mind that you're going to get a lot of readers that will find some serious flaws in your build. Especially the readers that build & use these types of systems on a regular basis.

Mathieu... your advice is horrible. Please learn a thing or two about actually building computers before you throw out pointless recommendations like a 1200 watt power supply. But hey, I guess you did get a digg crew to get this one the front page, so more power to you.

@Mathieu

you said "@Frank: Cost and performance. One Raptor would be more expensive than the two hard drives here. $200 1.5TB faster RAID 0 array or $285 slower 300GB Raptor? You choose =)"

sorry but the veloci-raptor is faster than pretty much any raid-0 array out there. go read benchies if you dont believe me. i have one myself, and it stomps my 2x deskstar raid-0 with nvraid. not to mention raid is unstable as hell, i've had it corrupt a few times in the last two years.

man these posts are full of fail. like the idiot who said 24" runs at the same reso as 30", WRONG. i have a 24", it runs 1920x1200. 30"ers run at 2560x1600 (apple cinema display for example)

and i very very highly doubt this system runs crysis at "ANY" resolution. the tip top most ridiculous 5 digit cost computer on aots (triple sli) only ran crysis at 45fps. you take 1920x1200, run 8xAA and verticle sync and crysis would bring that system down to its knees, post benchies or it didn't happen.

Here, lets compare, i just found the specs for the aots gadget pr0n system they tested with crysis. I'll post link for citation at the end of thise post.

Specs:

3.2 gigahertz Core 2 Extreme with Asetek Liquid cooling system (overclocked, mind you)
Dual thermaltake 1,000 watt power supplies (TWO MEGAWATTS)
4GB of Corsair DDR3 RAM
Two 32GB solid state drives
Three NVIDIA GTX 280 1GB video cards (THREE, in Sli)

Now here's what's funny, that system blows the one YOU linked out of the water, and they tested crysis at a lower resolution. 1280x1024 with 8x AA and it ran crysis at 42-50 frames per second.

human eye can't tell anything lower than 30fps but you want a minimum of 45fps AVERAGE because heavy action will spike it below that 30 threshold. that beastly setup only ran it at about 45fps, you said your "setup" can run it at *quote* ANY resolution... i'd love to see how badly it throws up when you run it at 2560x1600 with 8xAA 32xaf and vert sync enabled... GG

seriously dont lead people into this crap, you could say "Decently priced rig that can run crysis at mild settings." and it would be more accurate.

@ 28 Matt:

I previously thought that World of Warcarft n00bz made up those words too! However, upon further review, they can be found in the dictionary. (try dictionary.com)

Epic: (4) of unusually great size or extent: a crime wave of epic proportions.

Fail: (1) to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved: The experiment failed because of poor planning.

In laymans terms I think that he was trying to express how unsuccessful the person was at making a point as he didn't know about those two monitors that prove him wrong.

Alright, round 2 in replying to all the comments. Keep them coming!

@ AS/400: Indeed, 30" screens run on 2560 x 1600, with dual link that is. "Why so angry" though? =)

@ Adrian: Sure...Especially with that Q-X-6600 ;)

@wags: Hahaha, well said. As for K8 being a beast for the last 15 years...=P
I want to point out to everyone though, I'm a HUGE fanboy!
Of whatever company offers the best product at a given price. Intel, AMD, NVIDIA and ATI are all great companies, who come out with amazing products, at an amazing rate. Kudos to all of them.

@NT 3.1: That's an excellent point that you bring up about power supplies. cCase fans that spun on a magnetic cushion!? That sounds really nice, I imagine that the noise level must be much lower right?

@Krazd: I'd love to run some benchmarks on that system. Do you have $2500 to lend me? It's for a good cause, I promise =)

@Matt: As/400 was actually quoting NT(#9) ;)

@manrep: I picked up the parts by doing an intensive research on what choices would make the best gaming computer out of a $2500 budget. I picked up the best parts at a given price, to the best of my knowledge.

I do not pretend to know everything, I'm still very young and have much to learn. To know everything is to know nothing and to know nothing is to know everything =)

As I mentionned at the end of the post, if anyone have any suggestions to improve this system, you are welcome to comment and suggest what you would change. If it makes sense, I'm sure that people here and myself will agree with you.

I wish I had $2500 to drop on this to build it. I would go ahead and overclock the heck out of it as well, while modding as many things as I could(v-mods, custom paint job, etc)

@LJM: I see your point, but remember that not everyone will agree with everybody. Please keep your language slightly more appropriate, for everyone one and also for yourself, you'll look more educated =)

@Jon: Game loading times improvement is certainly worth it for me ;)

@cryogenicnd: Really? Would you mind giving me the url of at least two benchmarks from independant websites that proves your point? From various sources that I read, the Radeon 4870 X2 has the edge.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/08/13/amd...
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-c...

@Computer Builder #2: Agreed, the system will reach its limit at 2560x1600. It will still be easily playable though.

I highly doubt that loading times would be slower on a RAID 0 setup. Perhaps in such particular scenarios, but in the majority of cases, I believe that loading times will be faster on the RAID 0 array.

You have to keep in mind that not everyone know how to or want to overclock. My builds are designed while considering a broad audience. I use a water-cooling cooler on my own cpu, to overclock it to its limit, because I want to and because I've learned how to. Not everyone are there. I agree with you though, if I was building this computer for myself, I would definately use an after-market cooler and overclock at least the cpu.

As I already said, I don't include Windows, as many people already own it or just use pirated version.
Micro-shuttering is something subjective, not everyone notice it. I've read about it and of course, on a graph with the avg. fps on such, it's visible. I've to agree to it might be a problem at 2560x1600 for some people. Then again, there are no solution at that resolution, that wouldn't use multiple gpus.

Thanks for having good words on my build as well, it's good to see that you are not just on a rent here, but you're making points. I appreciate that, the discussion with everyone, their opinion on the systems that I suggest.

It's the point of this blog. I like to help out people with their computer systems, I like to suggest what I believe are the best parts at a given price. Of course, I'm human and I will do mistakes every so often. That's why you can comment and let me know what you think =)

When I'll have the budget, hopefully soon, I'll start building my builds and make custom jobs on them at the same time, so I'll be able to benchmark them as well for you all. I'll probably start with the lower-end of the gamings computers and go up a notch every so often.

@Tony: Your comment is senseless, I wonder why I approved it. As pointed out by Computer Builder #2 and myself already, the 1200 Watts power supply is not overkill for the two Radeon 4870 X2 and the rest of the system.

A digg crew to get this to the front page? Someone submitted this post of mine, and one of my friend pointed it out to me. I was interested in the convo and engaged in the conversation with fellow diggers. Is there any wrong in that? =)

first off ATI = fail, get a nvidia gtx 280
second, 1200w psu is pointless, it would work fine on a 800
third $100 on a case ? lol

I wouldn't spend cash on a new pc right now - wait a week or three and get the new Intel i7. Preliminary leaks indicate (and has been confirmed by Intel techs) that is overclocks like a beauty - 4GHz on stock air.

Not to mention it'll run circles around that dual-core as similar speeds due to architectural improvements. If you have the cash to spend, hold onto it and get a whole lot more power in a few weeks' time.

Trying to be constructive here. But it's hard not to flame. Here's a link to a system that is considerably better than the one you listed in this blog, and it runs crysis dx10 at 1920x1200 8xAA at 40 fps.

Your title: "A gaming computer that laughs at Crysis!"
Reality: "Superior computers run crysis at 40fps, this one can't!"

Here's the link:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8Orsk65ib5c

So... that system is better than the one you listed, and it runs at 40fps. That's just barerly into the smooth playing range.

Now that means your system would likely run it at 35 AT BEST. That, I might add, would spike low enough you would get lag/studdering. That's at 1920x1200. Now you said it can run it at "ANY" resolution. So, crank it up to 2560x1600 and your system would be flashing a pretty slideshow for your disappointed blog subscribers.

As for you saying raid-0 outperforms a velociraptor, you're wrong. Here's some reading material for ya, lots of benchmarks.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1313337

Not only does the single raptor outperform raid-0 arrays, it's stable and reliable! To have a faster setup, you'd need to run raid-5 with enough drives to push the cost way beyond what the velociraptor costs, and you'd still lose 1 drive to parity! I could go on but I need some sleep, build the system you listed for yourself, exactly the way you listed it, run crysis at 2560x1600 with everything max'd settings and 8xAA, vert sync, etc etc, and post some benchmarks, else I'm sticking with my word. So many superior systems getting barely playable framerates in that game at mid-range resolutions, I don't see how the system YOU posted could do better. Logic > Your blog post. No offense, I just see a ton of people being misinformed.

What about that Crysis PC I read some articles on Digg recently? It was said to cost $699 I believe (but correct me if I am wrong). It was created with the help of the game designers and it promised to be able to handle the new game at max settings. Since I am too lazy to find the article in question, I have to say that you can get away with a lot less and still be able to play at max. When the Core 2 Duos came out, I invested in a top of the line full system (OS, Monitor...the lot) and I spent $2.4k. The only upgrade I have made, since almost 2 years ago, was an 8800 Ultra and my friend was able to play Crysis at max settings (I don't play FPS games) with very little lag. My system at this time is:
- E6600
- 2 Gigs of OCZ XTC
- WD 320 SATA II
- 8800 Ultra
- Asus P5E (it wasn't the most expensive version, but the one below)
- Cooler Master 750W PSU
- Vista Home Premium
About $700 were spent on a good monitor - 2ms, which was somewhat expensive at the time, a high end gaming keyboard and mouse, and a THX certified 2.1set of speakers. $2.4k CDN and still running new games at max settings with very little lag at times. No offense to the writer of the article, but you can get away with a lot less, run Crysis, and still be able to make the system last for 2-3 years. The 8 Gigs is a total overkill and I would also run a Raptor as a main disk and a 750 for data storage. Forget the Raid. I did some tests on Raid configs for home servers and gaming machines when I worked for a small PC store in high school and we got an 8% improvement with 2 WD drives in Raid 0, using a Gigabyte motherboard controller, in writing, reading, etc. It wasn't a visible change. Motherboard Raid is still not good and a Raid card with memory will add to the cost. Raid 0 was better when we used Raptor drives, but the cost was much higher. 4 gigs of video memory? Don't need that much. Use a single card, get a less than 1k PSU, and save tons of money. Also, when I was living in an older rented house, the breaker used to go off when I was using a space heater or fan or electric kettle when my PC was running...yep. Think about that if you are living in an older house.

What, the, heck, is with all, the seemingly, random, and totally misplaced commas, in this, article??

And I quote:
"Overclocking : 8/10 While the video games will be hardly overclockable as, they already will run hot, with the Crossfire X setup, the cpu will be a pleasure to overclock, as it’s based on the new Wolfdale core, and the E8600 is based on its latest stepping! I’d recommend to upgrade from stock cooling to this after-market cooler and this thermal paste if you intend on overclocking the cpu, to maximize your results."

Editor's FAIL.

(Oh, and I think you meant "Video CARDS", not games. As far as I know you can't yet overclock games)

I forgot to mention that my friend ran it at 1280x1024. I have a 19" monitor, but I am looking to upgrade to a 24" or 30" in the next month. So if you have any suggestions post them and I will be periodically checking this page.

Well interesting choice of parts. While I kinda agree I also kinda disagree. Would I tell a friend that bought this computer that they wasted $2500? No. Would I tell them they wasted $500? Maybe.

1.) I like the choice of the E8600. I do not like that you left out the after market cooler. The retail Intel cooler isn't worth the metal it comes with. The choice of the Antec900 will help keep the CPU a touch cooler but on load at 4.0 GHz this thing will be pushing 60C, maybe even more.

2.) While I personally would not buy a 4870 x2, I also cannot say it is a bad card. My problems with it are 400W+ under load and its not eVGA (if eVGA did make a 4870 x2 I might buy it). CrossfireX is still buggy and the performance you get for going to it is not worth the $500-$560 you paid for it. Maybe if better profiles come out I might agree its worth it, but as of now a single 4870 x2 will run all those games at max everything.

3.) The motherboard is a decent choice. Many will knock it for not having DDR3, where they will be wrong because all the benchmarks I've seen the difference from 1066 DDR2 to 1800 DDR3 does not equal $600-$700 more money.

4.) I likes the RAM. After looking around for a bit it does seem though that you will not be able to run the RAM at stock settings at 2 4x2GB kits. Either you will have to lower it to 800 or loosen the timings.

5.) Can the Antec900 fit the 4870 x2? I know that its probably close, being a mid tower. But I cannot seem to on quick review find a answer that it is a for certain yes.

6.) 2 x 7200 RPM HD in Raid0 get about the same performance as a single Rator at 10,000 RPM. Raid0 is faster by a slight margin and you get to have 1.5 TB instead of 75/150/300 GB, for a lot less money. I like this choice. Good value/performance buy.

7.) Good cheap reliable drive. I've loaded many of these into friends computers. They take a beating and keep on ticking. Though I'd have bought a Blu-Ray drive with the money I saved from buying one 4870 x2 :)

8.) The power supply is a must. Under load a 4870 x2 is a beast as far as straight W draw. Min req of 1000W and a recommend req of 1200 W for anyone considering CrossfireX 4870 x2.

Overall I must say you made some good well informed choices. While I don think all of them are the best choice, this is just slightly differing opinions. I give it an A- for a build.

interesting build, but i am a gamer and wouldnt play on this. heres why:

lets start with your base: the mobo. asus makes real nice stuff, way nicer then what you picked. go with somethin with more punch and an nvidia chipset. i prefer stuff made by evga over asus, but i use both.

video cards: i dont think its is necessary to sli cards @$1000. never in my life would i spend 1G on cards made by ATI either. nvidia has had the edge on them for awhile now, and you could sli GTX cards for less $$ then that

the HDD: spinpoints are nice, RAID 0 is what i use, but if i wanted true performance, velociraptors in RAID 0 would be much better (also ultizing another HDD for data backup, since raid will crap out on u eventually). if not, seagate 7200.11 series makes all sizes using 2nd gen perpendicular recording tecgnology which (i think) is the closest thing to raptors without spinning at 10,000rpm, as well as being wayyyy cheaper.

also, as any gamer will tell you, heat is a big problem. i use the antec 900 and i love it, but i also have a damn nice arctic cooling heatsink on my CPU. that should be taken into account...

Mathieu,

I enjoy reading your site. I'm interested in building a new computer, I want to use ddr2 instead of ddr3 because I don't think ddr3 is that much of an improvement. I'm thinking of using just one GPU instead of 2, because I don't really need to game at the ultra-highest resolution. I want a quad-core processor, and am willing to overclock it on an air-cooled platform (I don't want to mess with liquid cooled, I'm not familiar with them). Assuming I want to game (I will primarily be using the computer to do work in Adobe CS3 using Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator) as much as humanly possible on a single video card and use 8 gigs of ram in an overclock on a quad core, but at the same price point... what should I do?

If you can't answer all that, what if you chucked off one vid card and had to deal with a quad core overclock and were constrained to the same budget, what would you do? Would you use a different motherboard? You could obviously go to a lesser power supply.... I'm curious because that's the kind of build I'm looking for. For my monitor I'm leaning towards the Dell 24 inch monitor (I think the 2408wfp or something. Its an IPS-C monitor because I need accurate color reproduction at high resolutions, but can't really afford more than 800 bucks on a monitor if I'm going to go crazy on the gaming end)

Any suggestions would be awesome.

Luigi

it can be made even faster: add: RAID 10!

i had to build my own after reading this, and this is what i came up with. almost $1000 less, way more powerful. *price is without shopping around, all from newegg.com **baised view towards nvidia and evga from experience ***overclocking expected, but not necessary

HP 20X DVD Burner - 20
Antec 900 Case - 105
2 X Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB in RAID 0 - 140
Corsair 1000HX 1000W - 240
GSKILL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 - 260
EVGA nForce 790i SLI - 295
Intel core2duo E8400 3.0ghz - 170
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - 32
2 x EVGA GTX 260 - 480

total price - 1742
time to make the build - less then 1 hour
overclockability on air - roughly 30% running prime95 for 24 hours
expandability - that board will be good for years and takes 775 socket, which isnt going anywhere
odds of running crysis better then original build - 100%

Nice system, but you have an overpriced gpu. You can play crysis very well using a gtx260 or a 4870. The new crysis warhead can be played on high settings @ 30fps with a 9800GT. There is no need for a 500 dollar graphics card. Besides why would you want a leaf bowler of a cooler howling at you each time you play a game?

I am an Nvidia guy myself and bought a 2000 dollar gaming pc on newegg. It runs all games on HIGH settings and kicks the crap out of crysis.

Specs:
Mobo: evga 780i
GPU: 2 gtx 260's
CPU: Q6600
RAM: 4gb of gaming ram
Case: CM 690 (moded)
Zalman CPU cooler, 5 green fans, a 21" screen and i had HDD's already and the CD drives. Plus vista home 64bit.

That's a pretty nice setup, although I would add another few hundred dollars for a 24 inch Dell monitor.

...And here i was expecting to see something worthy...
Wheres the 30+ FPS with Crysis running 1920x1200, 16Qx Antialiasing with every setting maxxed out? build that and you will have your crysis laughing machine

"Mathieu is a young man, who's passionated about everything related to computers. He enjoys overclocking, water-cooling, modding and getting the most performance from any computer. He's the man to ask if you have any hardware related question!"

"Mathieu is a young man, who's passionated about everything related to computers."

"passionated"

Indeed some of the features in that rig are not required for playing.
However, I cannot say the same about the case (among others). This case is a state of the art case in terms of cooling. It looks conservative, but it will cool the hardware like a champion, without any advanced cooling systems like water or freon.
I have the same case and I tested it for a year now. With a Q6600 and a GTX 8800, I can throw anything at it. Stays extremely cool.

Sorry, Mathieu. 1200W is an insanely absurd PSU requirement. Get a good brand (Corsair, Antec, SeaSonic, PCP&C), and you can build that rig on a 600W with room to spare. Doubt me? PUT IT ON A KILL-A-WATT.

It costs ATI *nothing* to overspec their PSU requirements, but saves them thousands of dollars in support calls when people blow up their "Hychao-min Happy Fun Power Suppry" by burning the poor thing up. No, your 236W TDP video card did not burn out a 600W psu, it burned out a 200W PSU with a 600W sticker on it.

Please stop spreading this crap around, and bring back properly-sized and high-quality PSUs.

Sorry NT, the max resolution is NOT 1920x because 30 inch monitors do not "Stretch" the image, at least not all of them do. The 30 inch monitors from samsung, dell, and apple all run at 2560x pixels wide and even this rig might not be able to handle that with all the bells and whistles. should be fun to try though.

Sorry but where is the FPS? Where are the benches? And why didn't you reply to skizzle?

NT, read your own post in front of the mirror, specially the part that reads "Your one-sided, biased viewpoints are laughable and ignorant at the very least." After your comment about the CEO being Latino you have no shame in ending your post with that line.

Jackass

Good job, couple comments though:

- BENCHMARKS. It's fine to flash high-end stuff, but without even basic benchmarks it's hard to know what "laughing at Crysis" looks like. The fact that many gamers can play fine at 30fps and many won't play anything under 60fps is a HUGE difference in hardware to produce those framerates. Run a test with Crysis running Very High with 2x AA at 2560 x 1600 resolution, then your claims can actually be verified.

- CPU. The 8600 is a nice dual core but even at 3.33Ghz it's not a really good for futureproofing. Although quad cores today have slower clock speeds, they are far better not only because the computer in general runs more smoothly with more cores but more importantly because future games (like Alan Wake) and applications will take advantage of all the cores. The Core 2 Quad Q9400, at 2.66Ghz is a good alternative for gamers who aren't so focused on Crysis that they forget about preparing for future games.

- GPU. Since you're focusing on Crysis, the double 4870X2's are the best choice. It's true, as other commentors have said, that the Geforce GTX 280 beats the 4870X2 in many games, but 4870 has a distinct advantage in Crysis because it has far more stream processors than the 280 and in a game like Crysis that is very shader heavy, more stream processors (with the 4870) beats out a higher clock speed (as with the 280).

- MOTHEBOARD. The board is good but there are quite a few reports of the board failing to fully support DDR2 1066 RAM, and clocking the RAM lower.

- HARD DRIVES. While Raid 0 will increase hard drive speeds, would you really want to base the entire $2500 system on storage that's twice as likely to fail? Hard drives today are rarely bottlenecks in gameplay and the gain versus the risk is definitely not worth it. The Samsung Terabyte drive has some formidable benchmarks too. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/samsung_hd103u...

- WINDOWS. Leaving off a copy of windows because most people either own one or pirate one? Might as well leave off that case then, since most people either already own a case they can use, or can just go out and steal a case from Fry's.

Looks like a nice rig! I would be really curious to see exactly what it can do... It seems like a system with graphics cards with that much power would be really cpu limited. Would you mind posting some benchmarks. I would love to see AOC and Crysis in some benchmarks with this system. I've never seen a system that could play Crysis 2560 x 1600 everything on max with decent fps and doubt this system could, which would make this articles title a lie, unless you can prove otherwise. Also I would just love to see how AOC managed the double 4870 x2's.

Thanks!

Sorry I just noticed you don't even own the system and have no way to test to actually see if it can play Crysis max res max settings. You wouldn't happen to have a link to benchmarks a similar system? Sorry for posting, wish I could delete my last post.

Just because a 280 out performs a 4870 in crysis doesn't mean shit, its a poorly optimised game.

God damn nvidia fan boys, hell you don't even call yourself fan boys because you are in denial

Ati has won this generation accept it and move on.

pff my mac pro / 8800gt runs crysis at high settings 1920/1200

i dont get all the fuss

you know that you can probably get by with much faster transfer/data rates using a single 2.5" 15krpm SAS drives rather than two 3.5" 7.2krpm or even 15krpm SATA drive in RAID0.

Do yourself a favor: go SAS.

You kids today, and your expensive systems... If you would all be practical for a few minutes, you would realize that even with a downgraded system, you would save money and still be able to play at or around 60FPS; for about half the price.

Keyboard/mouse? (Don't expect people to keep their MS Comfort curve with this rig).

Monitor? (You mentioned it. Bigger monitor. But what if *gasp* they don't have one (or at all)?)

Operating System? (May as well pay for a new OS, and a good one, instead of relying on an old-ass copy of XP).

Sound Card? (Low end sound on a high-end system? No way)

Speakers? (Yeah, you'll need those. Better ones. Great ones. You don't want great video with crap audio.)

HSF for CPU? (Because don't tell me you aren't going to overclock components like those.)

Still awaiting a reply...

Dom:

"You forgot to add the $200ish for a copy of Vista Ultimate 64bit…"

Dom man what is wrong with you bro? First of all vista sux, period.

i thought wen u crossfired cards together it only used the vram of one?

The Quad-Fire setup may not 'laugh at Crysis', because from what I know there is horrible scaling with the Inferno in Crysis.

Though however once they fix it Falcon Northwest claims that it'll be up to two or three times faster then a similar tri-GTX280 setup.

Anyway, I have a question - can you partition RAID0 setups?

MrTeriyaki - When CrossFiring cards, both cards access their own personal RAM banks.
However, if you were to pair a 1024MB card with, say, a 512MB card, the 1024MB card would only succesfully address 512MB.

pff my mac pro / 8800gt runs crysis at high settings 1920/1200

i dont get all the fuss

Wow, [insert extreme sarcastic tone] I'm glad to see how nearly everyone that posted here, who had a problem with the build was able to give good constructive criticism. I am also glad to see that almost everyone posted links to the benchmarks that proves their claims. [end sarcastic and disgusted tone]

Honestly, what a bunch of prepubescent whiners. the author has clearly stated numerous times to post suggestions of how the build can be improved. he clearly is not out to trick us, nor does it seem like he has any tone of arrogance. be nice guys..

* Wrong way (and seemingly the popular way) to do it: Your build SUks, everyone knows that ati cards are crap, cause once I heard of a guy whos comuter exploded! your dum, wheras I am cleerly smart.
EX: @ John - first off ATI = fail, get a nvidia gtx 280 second, 1200w psu is pointless, it would work fine on a 800 third $100 on a case ? lol

NO!! these comments look like the creation of a pack of window licking mongoloids. I can feel myself becoming stupider as I read them

* Right way: Good article, But I read Here - Insert link to benchmarks or article - that a raptor will outperform a raid seup for the price.

See that took less effort, he will respond constructively and maybe even change the article and thank you for your constructive comments. as an added bonus, you wont look like most of the previous posts that make most of us want to stab something.

Good article man, keep them coming, I can tell you do your homework : )

Ok, I do not claim to be Mr. Computer Guru or anything. Just wanted to post this here and let you all know of the build I just ordered:

ASUS Striker II Extreme LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI DDR3 ATX Intel Motherboard $399.99

SILVERSTONE OP1200 1200W ATX 12V 2.3 & EPS 12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC
Power Supply $369.99

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD for System Builders $174.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500
$189.99

LG Black 6X Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive SATA Model GGW-H20LK $219.99

ASUS VB171D Black 17" 5ms LCD Monitor $134.99

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EACS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive $139.99

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model iHAS220-08 $29.99

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $129.99

OCZ Special Ops 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit
Desktop Memory Model OCZ3SOE10664GK $157.99

BFG Tech BFGEGTX2801024E GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
Ready SLI Supported Video Card $419.99

Subtotal $2,242.89
Tax $0.00
UPS Ground $25.27
Rush Processing (Preferred Account) -$2.99
Rush Processing $2.99
Order Total $2,268.16


As you can see, there is an operating system included (if you want to call it that) and a monitor. The monitor is to give away with the system I am replacing so no fragging there. I only went with 4GB of RAM to start because the Qualified Vendors List sucked so I am taking a chance there. If it holds up I will go for the full 8. I also only started with a single videocard due to price considerations. All said and done this should be a decent system for (after you subtract the monitor) about $2135.00. As soon as I get it built I will post the benchmarks to let you all know.

@WOW

Dude... he posted a rig that supposedly "laughs" at crysis, but he's never actually built, owned, or benchmarked crysis. The best of the best top end machines barely run crysis at playable framerates, what makes you think this one will? Does he have proof that it can? No. So STFU. I already posted links. I cite my statements, SCROLL UP. I'm 24. I'm not prepubescent. I've built over 20 computers. I have a hefty gaming rig myself. It's faily close to the one the OP posted, and guess what, 1920x1200 with 16x AA and vert sync, i get a nearly single digit framerate slideshow. Why are you wrong for complaining about all of these posts, like mine? Because you're supporting a guy with a false claim, and no proof. Nothing more, nothing less.

Buy and build the rig exactly to spec. Benchmark crysis. Post screenshots. THEN everyone has the right to STFU, but at this point, it's fair game, argue on my friends, I call BS.

Skizzle buddy

calm yourself, I clearly wasn't referring to you as you DID post links, you DID make valid points. You might have the tone of an angry, angry teen, making your post not suggestions but flames, but other than that you don't fit the mold of what I was talking about. Just take a deep breath, relax : )

This is hilarious.
I paid 2500 dollars for the following.
My custom gaming rig
20inch widescreen tv/monitor
Gaming keyboard
Gaming mouse
6.1 audio system
And a gaming headset.

And my pc can run crysis perfectly.

Do not spend 2500 dollars on JUST the rig alone, that's ridiculous.
About 1900 of that 2500 I spent went to my rig.

WoooHooo Guys! This machine will be a monster 3 years from now! Overkill is fun, but middle of the road, affordable components are what the majority of us can afford. Nice having something to aspire to though!

Wow, just...wow.

I cannot believe you are blowing that much money on that much crap...

AND DECIDE TO GO WITH ONBOARD SOUND?

*WARNING! WARNING! RANT ALERT!*

You want every ounce of performance out of a machine, you give it a card that processes sounds independently, not something that says, "Hey CPU, I know you're busy and all figuring out all the physics of these battles, but would you mind processing some really good explosion sounds to mix nicely with the music and the bullets wizzing by?"

What the hell are you thinking?

And INTEL???!?!?!?!?

Save yourself the time, money and headache, get AMD.

ATI? Good god, just shoot yourself in the foot.

nVidia - Cheaper, similar performance.

Would you notice a difference?

No.

Would your wallet?

YES.

Good discussion. I think some people need learn to not take things so personally though. Reading through some of the comments, it seems like some of you feel Mathieu may have ran over your dog. :)

quote samsung global rma info "Please contact and request the RMA(Return Material Authorization) service to your dealer(supplier). Your dealer(supplier) has the RMA responsibility. "
as I found out they will not do any rma's directly with any end user. (I have a 120gb that I could never get replaced ~3 years ago as after 4 months it died with a 30 day warranty from newegg)
seagate, western digital, hitachi. all will work with you directly for a replacement.

here is some newegg reviews on samsung 750gb warranty problems (one egg reviews)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.asp...

" NO!! these comments look like the creation of a pack of window licking mongoloids. I can feel myself becoming stupider as I read them "

Pissed myself laughing. The truth is guys its still a Box that light comes out of There is actually a REAL world out there ! ! LMFAO

Awesome comment WOW made me laugh ! !

It would have helped to stop some of the flaming with a few benchmarks at different resolutions. I really don't understand why you have stated that it can run Crysis at 1920 x 1200 with full details when you have no way of telling if it does. (what is full details? Very high with 16xAA etc?)

That said I actually don't mind the build...bit extravagant for my budget however.

I have just made a gaming comp for $1400.00 (all components) that runs Crysis on the native resolution of a 22" monitor (1680 x 1050)...
Its a Q8200 cpu OC (stock cooler still) to 3.15ghz, 4 gig ram , Vista home premium 32bit, custom made case for better cooling, 9800GT etc and I get 39 fps average with all settings on High with no AA's.
Mathieu, next time maybe quantify some of your statements.
Crysis is one of those unique games that we will all play again two years down the track and say damn that game was good for its time, glad I can play it finally with all settings maxed out!

Hmmm, mine's just a wee bit better (but I use this for video editing and 3d design).
I have 2 Nvidia GTX280s in SLi, Intel Core i7 Extreme, 6 Gigs of XMS3 (DDR3), custom water cooling (from various different kits).
I'm not gonna lie, it was expensive. But I can have almost any amount of objects and particle effects on the screen in CryEngine2 (crysis sandbox) with 400-600 FPS on the Very High Spec. (again, this build was specific for Maya, 3DS and Adobe After Effects)

I would like to comment that this is insane, i bought one for 700$and it runs crysis very high, AA, 40-50 fps
NO OVERCLOCK
no antivirus
no additional programs on
CPU: Intel Core Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz
Nvidia GeForce 285 GTX (it was very cheap then, its double price now) :(


sound and monitor (42") did cost about 900$ together but i didnt include that
thats a very powerful monitor, very powerful computer, very powerful sound.

yea your wrong, there are 30 inch monitors with higher resolution ( WQUXGA 3840×2400 ) that with anti aliasing all the way up won't work. The tech doesn't exist yet.

I have a $600 computer that will laugh at crysis as we speak.
60FPS with 8xAA

E5200 @4.0
BFT92 cooler
4gb DDR2 PC28000 OCZ
2 EAH 4870s from the egg open box.
Corsair 700w
everything including my sick ass case. Before I added the 2nd card I have pics if you google sub $400 pc. $600 is including my cooler and new video card. $400 was before that and it still played crysis on max.

I THINK THAT INSTEAD OF USING THAT POWER STUPIDITY (1200W!!!!) WE SHOULD BETTER BUY SOMETHING LESS. THE ARTICLE REACHED THE MAIN POINT. HOW TO RUN CRYSIS WITH OUTSTANDING RESULTS. ALL CRITICS ARE GOOD, BUT THEY DONT KNOW THAT THE MAIN IDEA WAS TO RUN THAT GAME BETTER. AS FAR AS I KNOW CRYSIS CAN BE RUN EVEN AT A 7600GS. ANYWAY I AM SHOWING HERE MY COMPUTER SPECS:

MOTHERBOARD: NF4G-SATA2 ASROCK
CPU: VICTORIA 2600+ SOCKET 754
GPU: 7600GS 256 DDR3
RAM: 1GB DDR 400MHZ
POWER SUPLY: 550W

CAN ANYONE TELL ME IF IT IS GOOD TO REPLACE MY 7600GS WITH A 9600GT AND IF I CAN REPLACE IT??? PLS HELP ME...

dude replace it with a GTX 260 or Ati 4870 both are sub $150 now.

heres my system

Antec 1200
amd x264 athlon 3.26400+ B.E (soon to be upgrading to a phenom)
Asus M4n82 board
4 gig of ocz Fa1tailty
1 Evga gtx 260
thermalright 120 extreme hsf
1 wd 500gb hdd
24 inch acer lcd
g15 gaming keyboard
mx518 mouse
sound blaster x-Fi Fa1tailty
and plain cd rom
just fried last mobo was a DfI lanparty ut NF590

crysis I have no problems playing
Gta4 thats a different story but not because of system
because of poorly coded game
far cry 2 no problems
I have built several rig's and my fav is the enermax Chakra
which I gave to my Fiance to use and thats just has a 3200+ for a cpu

HEY MAN, JUST RIGHT-CLICK THE ICON OF GTA IV AND CHOOSE PROPERTIES - UNDER COMPATIBILITY TAB CHOOSE: RUN THIS PROGRAM IN COMPATIBILITY MODE FOR - CHOOSE WINDOWS 2000

why what will that do

Good Gaming System.
Intel G31PR Motherboard
Intel Quad Core 8400 3GHz
2*2GB 800 Mhz Transcend RAM
Segate 500 GB Hardisk
ANtec Cabinet
Coolmaster 600W power supply
XFX ATI 4890 1GB graphics Card