My New Computer?

Your spec is very very high!!!!
Few things:
- Why buy a SLI motherboard then buy a ATI Crossfire card? Buy SLI and Nvidia, or ATI and Crossfire motherboard as you can add a second card at a later date. If you go Crossfire (better as more flexible in my view) then wait for the new 580 chipset. Don't mix and match
- that's a lot of hardware to get in one case. Make sure you have space, espec with the water cooling before you buy the bits and pieces. One of the probs I had my my new rig I built last month is I didn't even have space for a decent soundcard.
Here's my rig if anyone is interested. I'm not much of a PC gamer so I saved cash on the video card.

Very nice. I have been considering upgrading mine for a while.

A really heavy-duty machine you have there. Notice it has Windows XP, not Apple's OSX. That's why so far an Intel Macintosh seems very unappealing to me at the moment. The customization is just not there.

Sorry about that puddle of drool, I'll mop it up later.

Holy overkill Batman. Do you honestly need to be running something that should be called HARDAC or something?

Chris is really getting prepared for Vista.

Hello,
Have you considered using SeaSonic's S12-600 or one of PC Power & Cooling's Turbo-Cool 510 Watt PSUs? I have used power supplies from both companies and found them satisfactory.
Also, have you considered a tape drive or some other form of storage for data backup? While ~9GB per DL-DVD disc isn't bad, backing and restoring up large amounts of data could become tiresome. Tape formats like DAT72 and VXA offer backup capabilities in the range of tens to hundreds of GB per cartridge.
I am assuming the two 150GB WD Raptor SATA drives are for building the RAID-0 array. is that correct? While that does increase read speed, a failure of either hard disk drive means the files stored across both drives are gone until the failed drive is replaced and the information reloaded from back ups. It might be better to add additional 150GB hard disk drives in place of the 400GB and build a RAID-5 array to provide some protection in the event of a failure in one of the hard disk drives.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky

Hi Chris,
I heard you mention this configuration on the Chris Parillo Show and it prompted me to be a first-time poster. I concur with all of your choices but one with regard to this dream system.
It would mean sticking with NVidia SLI for a graphics card, but have you considered a dual 16X SLI such as the ASUS A8N32SLI Deluxe http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=744&modelmenu=1 or the MSI K8N Diamond Plus http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=710 ?
These are the only two boards I know of that run both cards in an SLI configuration at 16X. Others use the 16X lane for the firts card (when only one is present) but drop the pipe to 8X for each card when dual cards are used.
The aforementioned have an upgraded chipset (nVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16) which allows for this. I, too am about to build a new rig and was interested in the A8NSLI Premium, but this newer version just seems to make more sense to me. I admit, I can't afford to compliment this board with a components list such as the one you posted, but with an ear toward future expansion, I think the $30 - $40 extra dollars spent to upgrade to the SLI X16 chipset is justified.
Keep up the good work, I've been a fan since the Tech TV days and my commute would not be the same without the podcast.
Thank you for efforts.

have to update this post after Ponzi picks up the video camera to film my graphical giddiness. Thank you, Dell, for supporting our cause! dvi, lcd, monitor Related Content: I Love Geeking Out Alienware PC for Me? World’s Coolest Desktop Wallpapers My New Computer? LCD Monitor Reviews and Opinions Blu-ray vs. HD DVD High Definition DVD Wars Unfortunately Clipboard Freeware Dual-core CPU Duels [IMG]

He got his computer from Falcon Northwest (www.falcon-nw.com), a VERY nice choice in brand as rated by CPU Magazine (www.computerpoweruser.com). I’ve been eyeing a $5,000 setup for a while from Falcon until my $25,000 contract completes. Considering the date of the post, why didn’t he just wait until Vista releasted the next day and get the Ultimate Edition? XP truely sucks in a lot of places - especially in networking…

i am going to build my own computer i’m not a big gamer and just surf the web have about 10GB of music and a few videos on there and this is what i have picked out for my rig…

MCRD GENERIC PCI 10/100/1000 NETWORK CARD

MBRD ASUS PSK-VM DESKTOP BOARD

CPU INTEL CORE 2 DUO E8400 3.00GHz

CASE TT MATRIX 430W BLACK

SCRD CREATIVE AUDIGY VALUE 7.1

HDD WD 1.0TB 7200RPM SATA2 16MB GP QUIET

TWO:PIONEER DVD RW 20X BK +/-/DL/SATA

RAM:CORSAIR PC5300 VS 2GB DDR2

VC XFX 8400GS PCIe /256MB/TV/DVI

so thats what i’m going to have in my pc dont think i have forgotten any thing if i have or if you can suggest something different for my PC e-mail me at

me_isthebest@westnet.com.au