The Ultimate Dream Computer

Technically almost any monitor should be vista ready, but what about HD ready?

 

Not all, but the 22" Acer for about $300 US does the job and won't force a person into debtor's court. Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP support 300 cd/m2 700:1

The best price I found was $288.53 (delivered).
http://www.securemart.com/cgi-bin/future/ACB28426.html?pcode=1

There doesn't appear to be a lot of the HDCP monitors currently available. At least they're not being listed as such.

 

Wow, things really have got cheaper in the HDCP arena. OK, so now it's just the optical drives! lol

 

That's about it. I don't think they'll leave those too high for long. They can make more mass producing them and selling cheaper. Plus the entertainment industry wants to cash in on the new HD DVD market.

 

i would get a 64mb graphics card as these are the ones that are owning at the moment. also i would get a processor arond 600MHz cuz these are fast as hell.
i get thrills thinking about a 20gb hard drive in my computer, that's the sort of space you need!
OOH i get giggley just thinking about the power!

 

Umm, ok. Was that a joke?

 

Sounds more like the ultimate nightmare computer to me.

 

Well, if you want slow, you can do far better than that. My first ever PC would be lightning-fast compared to most of the other people's first PCs here - a P3 450, 128MB RAM, 13GB hard disk.

 

p1 mmx 133mhz it pwnd

 

Yes i did do this to play a little joke on you guys, but only because there hasnt been a post for a while and to see what your responses would be!
Anyway, someone should recommend this as a new thread in this section!
hope it made you laugh anyways! lol

 

Heh I think ddp wins!

 

Hi all,
I dreamed this up and just completed it today. The cost for these parts and a couple others was about $2600.00. Don't know if it's a dream machine or not but here it is. >>>>>

Case: Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570
Mobo: Evga 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6700
CPU cooler: Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme
2 GB RAM: Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D
Two Video cards for SLI: Asus EN8800GTS/HTDP/640M GeForce 8800GTS
Two HDDs: WD150 Raptors
PSU: Coolmax CUG-700B

I used the onboard sound because there is not much room for anything else with the two SLI video cards.
Also added a couple of DVD drives I already had as well as a floppy and a Scythe 12cm fan for the heatsink.


The parts arrive from Newegg!:



The asssmbled board:



Motherboard installed and the two 8800GTS cards installed:


This Gigabyte full tower has lots of room!



I ran Orthos for a couple of hours before and after the benchmarking.
I eventually ended with the OC at FSB 1470 for a CPU speed of 3.66 Ghz, unlinked memory at 1000Mhz. I didn't change much else, I just followed some 680i overclocking guides I found.
The highest temp during Orthos was 52°C while at 1480 FSB, The Thermalright 120 Extreme HS is excellent. The EVGA 680i board is awesome.

Newbie overclocking and benchmarking with 3DMark06.... Note the Advanced Air Cooling technology:


First benchmark results, 14342:


A bit more tweaking and I ended up with this, which is good enough for a newbie overclocker and computer builder.



$2600.00 and about 18 hours later=


Cheers,
Frank

 

Pretty impressive, what part about the process caused it to take 18 hours?

 

Thanks Sam,
I'll break down the build a bit.
The first evening:
Getting everything unboxed. Once that was done I assembled the motherboard and installed it in the case along with the power supply. That took about five hours or so.

The next day:
I installed the floppy drive, a DVD drive and one of the video cards. Checked all the wiring. I plugged in the keyboard, mouse and monitor and then powered up for the first time. BSOD! ... I had fans and lights but no display. I checked everything and then reset the bios jumper which worked. I spent a few minutes in the bios just looking at the layout and seeing that the drives were recognized.
About two hours.

After that I loaded Windows and the drivers. I installed the second video card, second DVD drive and the SLI connector.
I took the unit into the house and connected it to my LCD monitor and my modem. Once that was done, I loaded the firewall and Anti-Virus. I registered Windows and did a Windows update. I loaded E-mail, Orthos, CoreTemp, CPU-Z, 3D Mark06 and a few other programs.
About 3 hours.

Caution, Clueless Newbie Overclocker at work....

I started overclocking in small steps, running Orthos for several minutes after each step. Basically what I did here was to leave the multiplier at 10, the RAM unlinked at 1000 Mhz and timing set to "optimal". I increased the FSB about 50 Mhz at a time and increased the Vcore when it froze.
About four hours.

The next morning:
Continued with overclocking.
I ended up at 1.65 Vcore, 2.2 Vdimm at FSB 1470 Mhz and the CPU at 3.66 Ghz. The highest CoreTemp temperature I saw was 51°C, the idle temperature is about 20-22°C.

Vcore seems a bit excessive. I don't know what's up with that.
I started running 3DMark06 and overclocking the video cards a bit. I don't know the correct procedure for overclocking video cards either so I stopped before I damaged them.
About four hours.

I guess you could say it was done before overclocking but my opinion is that PC's like this one need to be overclocked a bit. Otherwise it's a waste to buy an "enthusiast" board, a big heatsink, and a case full of fans.

 

@fasfrank

good lord! even running on water (on my other eVGA 680i mobo before i swapped the E6600 for the Q6600) my Vcore isn't/wasn't that high!, but you have lower idle temps than i do! if i may ask, what's ur ambient room temps? it's a bit warm here in s. california, but those temps are excellent considering your vcore is so high LOL.

my own C2D (E6600) is now on my original eVGA (AR revision) board also using the Thermalright Ultra- Extreme with a very high CFM fan, but my vcore is rock steady @1.45v, daily running @ 3.9ghz, my own idle temps on AIR is in the mid-high 20s and on warmer days low 30s, full load temps are right where urs are everything is in a Gigabyte Poseidon case that i got brand new from a friend for less than a benjamin franklin

very nice build you got there, i'm especially impressed with your temps more than anything else considering your voltages...should you need any "tips" in overclocking on the eVGA 680i, you know who to PM

 

Frank
That would be a dream machine for most people. We've got members OCing the new quad cores though (DocTy). By the time a man gets a good system built there's someone already upstaging him. LOL I doubt your system being outdated any time soon. You did right in taking the cautious approach.

People who have built a few PCs put things together and then start running any necessary diagnostics. I don't hook the power cords up til I have the system assembled and the monitor, mouse, and keyboard hooked up. Once the OS is installed and I'm comfortable everything is functioning okay, I'll do an 8 hour burn in. If everything checks out, then I'll start the OCing. Actual build time isn't much. But counting the OS setup, burn in time and OCing, it can easily run an additional 10 hours or so. I usually just say the build took a couple hours and then I do the setup and tweaking.

If I were you, I would take DocTy up on the offer for help with tweaking your OC. I hear he's done one or two (or more) with good success.

Sammorris
I can see where Frank's time comes in if counting all the PC run time til the initial OC is complete. Couple hours build (moving cautiously), burn in time, and then going through the OCing. Frank had the additional fun of working and getting to know his BIOS. Looking at it from that point of view, the time wasn't too bad for a novice OCer.

 

Hi pacman!

Excellent advice on the burn in. I'm going to do that on the next one.
I build after work and on my days off so there's always that time it takes to get started up again. I spend a lot of time on the little things too, like cleaning the heatsink and processor. Plus I double or triple check everything like all the front panel connectors and USB/Firewire/audio connectors.

Another thing is that I really like the building process. I want it to be a long, fulfilling experience, kinda like what my ex-girlfriend wanted from me. Wohoo!

Anyhow.... I did manage a 15586 3DMark06 a few minutes ago which put me at #12 for similar systems. That's enough for now.

Doc is the one who mentioned this board after I told him about the limits I was reaching with my quad core and the Asus, so it wasn't a hard decision to get it.
I think the next step will be to get another QX6700 and liquid cooling. I kinda had future upgrades in mind when I picked out the parts. I did screw up on the PSU though. I imagine the 700W CoolMax is about at it's limits with SLI 8800 gts cards.
So I'll add that to the list.

Cheers,
Frank