The Ultimate Gamester ! PC Spec ~ $6,000 - $7,000 USD

UPDATE: Spec to be revised once the Socket-2011 processors & motherboards have been released.


The Ultimate Gamester!

GOAL: To build the ultimate gaming machine for around the $ 6,000 - $7,000 USD price tag.

RRP Total (So Far): $6653

Motherboard, Processor, Video & Sound Card

Motherboard: Asus P6T WS Professional
Link - http://www.asus.com.au/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1366/P6T_WS_Professional/#specifications
Price: $518 USD

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-990X Processor Extreme Edition (12M Cache, 3.46 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI)
Link: http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52585
Price: $1160 USD

Video Card: ASUS GTX 590 dual-GPU graphics card with 3GB GDDR5
Link - http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/ENGTX5903DIS3GD5/#specifications
Price: $1072 USD

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium - HD, PCI-Ex1, 122dB, 24-bit, 192kHz Digital
Link - http://au.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=875&product=19749
Price: $234 USD

Sub-Total: $2984 USD

Memory, RAM-Disk, SSD & SAS HDD

Memory: 2 x 12Gb (24Gb) Dominator® GT Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Kit (CMT12GX3M3A2000C9)
Link - http://www.corsair.com/memory/intel...el-triple-channel-kits/cmt12gx3m3a2000c9.html
Price: 2 x $218 USD ($436 USD)

RAM-Disk Software: 18Gb (Out of 24Gb system memory) for Entropia - SuperSpeed RamDisk 11 for Desktop Systems
Link - http://superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php
Price: $100 USD

Win7 OS Boot & RAM-Disk Image Drive: Corsair Performance 3 Series™ P3-256Gb Solid-State Hard Drive
Link - http://www.corsair.com/solid-state-...e-3-series-p3-256-solid-state-hard-drive.html
Price: $720 USD

Data Drive: Seagate 3000GB (3TB) 7200rpm SAS 6Gb/s HDD w. 64MB Cache (ST33000650SS) Constellation ES.2
Price: $499 USD

Sub-Total: $1755 USD

The goal is to create a virtual drive in RAM (18gb out of 24Gb system memory) to be used as drive E: for Entropia using the RAM-Disk software from SuperSpeed Inc (See above) - http://superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php

It is a native x64 bit application (32-Bit available also) which will run nicely on Windows 7 x64.

Having tested the RAM-Disk software ($100 USD for the professional version), it produces read/write speeds roughly 50 time faster than what a 7,200 RMP 6Gb/sec SATA-3 drive can produce.

Tested using: CrystalDiskMark
Link - http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html

The way it works:
The virtual memory drive is created in system memory and mounted as a local drive on your system. An image file of the memory drive is also saved to your HDD which is loaded and saved on system startup and shutdown.

Case, Power Supply, LED Monitor

Case: ThermalTake Level 10 Extreme Gaming Tower Case
Link - http://www.thermaltake.com.au/Products/Chassis/VN10001W2N/Level10GT.aspx
Price: $933 USD

Power Supply: Corsair 1200W AX-1200 - ATX 12V v2.2, EPS 12V, 140mm Fan, Modular Cables
Link - http://www.corsair.com/power-supplies/modular-psus/professional-series-gold-2/ax1200.html
Price: $413 USD

LED Monitor: ASUS VE278Q - 27"LED, Widescreen, 2ms, 1920x1080, 10,000,000;1, 300cd/m2, VGA+DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
Link - http://www.asus.com.au/Display/LCD_Monitors/VE278Q/
Price: $568 USD

Sub-Total: $1914 USD

Viperstrike

 

Hi MS9,

Thanks, it is good to be here.
Yes, this is the system I intend to build, I have a maximum 7k USD budget for it.
Though I am hoping I can manage to build it for 6k USD if I buy the components myself.

You will love the case I am going to use, it is designed by BMW :D

 

I have been waiting a long time to put together a spec which I would really like to invest into.
This system spec is very flexible and I can see it lasting a good 3 years
(Second video adapter when needed at a later time for Quad GPUs in SLI)

Spending 2k usd a year imo is not too bad on maintaining a computer system,
5 bucks a day in savings (Coffee + Newspaper per day) ;)

I looked at my local supplier and it seems I can get all the components purchased for just under $ 5700

I will build it in stages over the next 3 - 4 months.

 

Hi All,

I am looking to order the first stage of components in the next few days.
If there are any suggestions on changes to the configuration you have, I would love to hear them.

Thanks,
Viperstrike

 

Hi Admin,

*Hands over components* :D

I have been playing around with that SuperSpeed RAM-Disk more today and found that it dynamically updates the image file so shutting down is really quick as it only saves what has been changed on shutdown.

I am limited to making a 5Gb drive on my current PC which I filled up and tested today.
It took an additional 1 min 20 seconds to load Windows 7 on startup using a ATA-3 7,200 RPM drive as the image store point.

That is around 45Mb/sec sustained read from the full 5gb image file back to memory.

I calculated that the SSD with a 480Mb/sec sustained read should take no more than 30 - 40 seconds to load a full 15Gb partition image file at startup.

At the moment my install sits at 4.10Gb for Calypso, Calypso Gateway and the newbie creation zone so load time should be no more than 10 seconds for 4.10Gb at startup.

Viper

 

Hey guys,

Thanks for the input so far, I placed an order for the first of the components this morning. Case, PSU & Monitor to start with as I feel the pricing on the other components may drop a bit over the coming few months.

Hi Kaos,
I considered AMD & ATI however for most compatibility with microsoft products and games for microsoft windows it was recommended to stick with Intel and Nvidia.

Hi Razor,
The memory and RAM-Disk product are very cheap in the config, and super fast too. I am really looking forward to see how Entropia runs with it. (Hopefully without load glitches when running around)

Heya Madseend,
Good to see you around mate. This is one of things I have been saving for on my break for the last 3 odd months.
I am looking forward to playing EU, I made a lot of progress on the 20 USD first deposit.
I am just waiting for my bank to process the payment so I can extend my deposit limit

The life of a reborn newbie in EU, what a challenge, at the same time it is a lot of fun :D

Viper

 

I will look further into considering this card from ATI, however the price seems a little overkill in comparison to the Nvidia:

Video: ATI FirePro™ V8750 2Gb DDR5
Link - http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphics/ati-firepro-3d/v8750/Pages/v8750-specs.aspx
Price: $1633 USD RRP

The next step up puts me out of budget for what I am willing to spend.

Video: ATI FirePro™ V8800 Professional Graphics 2Gb DDR5
Link - http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphics/ati-firepro-3d/v8800/Pages/v8800.aspx
Price: $2475 USD RRP

Cheers,
Viper

 

Thanks guys, I will look further at the ATI 6990 card :)

 

System build on hold until the end of the year.

I have confirmed new processors are to be released by intel, new SDD Hdds and a new chipset for high end motherboards.

I also found this also about the new processors and SDDs from intel - http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/intels-2011-leaked-roadmap-unveils-19-new-processors-20100816/ & http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/intels-x79-chipset-details-leak-2011041/

 

Hi Razer,

That is very true. I already have the case, monitor and PSU on order.

Waiting for new motherboards & processors to be released should only add an additional 3 months to the build project.

I am hoping the PSU will be compatible with the new motherboards using the X79 chipset.