It’s been about 5 years since I built my gaming machine. Yup, it’s about time to build a new one and I thought I would share some specs. This system is not built yet, but I am already starting to get pieces in. The total cost minus the toys and monitor will be slightly over $1,000. I will buy almost every piece from NewEgg.
The system I want should stand up to about 3+ years of upgrading. For now, I skimp on some parts that are easily upgradable, and splurge on things that are not. I stick to a nice motherboard that no doubt has at least 2-3 good years of high/middle-end gaming in it. It will support most any Intel dual or quad core CPU that will be on the market this year. I can go up to 8GB DDR2-1200 RAM and plop in 2 ATI Radeons in Crossfire mode (basically use dual graphics cards instead of 1). I doubt I will ever do dual graphics or that much RAM, but the options exists! I like a decent case that I can show off, so I don’t go cheap there either.
I normally would not have gotten a high-end PSU like I have listed below, but I picked up the Antec 850Watt PSU from a closing CompUSA for under $100. I couldn’t pass that up.
This will all be cooled with a water cooling system I’ll build. I’ll most likely get all of the water cooling parts from PetrasTechShop or maybe a few from FrozenCPU.com. I’ve used FrozenCPU for my last system, but I’ve not tried Petras yet. The parts are individually listed below. I choose water cooling because it keeps the system far quieter than if I relied entirely on air cooling. That and it looks cool!
Logitech G15 keyboard
Antec TPQ-850 850watt PSU
LG L226WTY-BF Black 22″ 2ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor x2
Lian-Li PC-60BPLUSII W Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower
Asus P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard – up to DDR2-1200 1333/1600 FSB
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz 1333 FSB
Corsair XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 – 4s cas latency
Diamond Viper 3870PE4512SB Radeon HD 3870 512MB PCI-E 2.0
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA-300 Hard Drive
Lite-On Black SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe
Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1
AeroCool FP-01 55-in-1 Card Reader w/Flip-up LCD Screen
Okgear 18″ SATA II data and power combo cable-UV blue model OK105
some cable coils just to make the cables pretty?
dual 12″ cold-cathode tube UV lights from petrastechshop
water cooling parts
D-TEK Fuzion universal waterblock
Swiftech MCR-320 resevoir
Swiftech MCP635 pump (aka Laing 55 Inline 12V pump)
Swiftech MCRES-micro resevoir
Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal
some 7/16 tubing, clear
some 120mm fans (x4?)
some coolant/dye additive
Well dude, what do u think about this rig?
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2GHZ OC’d @ 4.2GHZ $1420.00
2x Patriot Viper 4GB(2 x 2GB) kit 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) (8GB) $704.00
3x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive $420.00
2x ASUS EN9800GX2 GeForce 9800GX2 1GB in SLI Mode $1180.00
Asus Striker II Extreme N790i SLI Motherboard $470.00
AGEIA PhysX card $130.00
Thermaltake Toughpower W0133RU ATX12V / EPS12V 1200W Power Supply $390.00
Thermaltake ArmorPlus(Armor+) VH6000BWS Black Aluminum $200.00
COOLER MASTER RL-EUL-GBU1-GP Liquid Cooler $75.00
LG Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive Black SATA Model GGW-H20L $280.00
Lite-on LH-20A1H DVD-RW $36.00
SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader w/ USB 2.0 Port $14.00
BELKIN F5U700-BLK Hi-Speed USB 2.0 7-Port Lighted Hub $18.00
LINKSYS WEC600N IEEE 802.11a/b/g, IEEE802.11n Draft ExpressCard $80.00
TRENDnet TBW-105UB USB 2.0 Compact Bluetooth Adapter $13.00
ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo PCI Express $90.00
Gateway FHD2400 Black-Silver 24″ 3ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 1920 x 1200 $550.00
Logitech G15 Gaming keyboard $90.00
Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse $50.00
eDimensional AudioFX Pro 5+1 USB Connector Gaming Headset $55.00
Microsoft Xbox 360 Wired Controller $35.00
HP Deskjet F4180 CB584A All-In-One Color Printer $50.00
No, i’m not gonna build that monster lol, my uncle works in a PC shop and he’s gonna build that monster for a PC gaming tournament that is gonna be made in mexico, the winner will win this baby
Prices gathered from newegg
Haha! That’s just sick dude! Over a grand for graphics cards with a physics card on top? Yeouch.