Budget: My budget is as much as it costs to buy the parts to build a great gaming desktop. Because it's my first time building a computer, I do not want to try to overclock the finished product. I am willing to spend the extra money to buy the parts that perform best without overclocking.

Your Location: U.S.

Main Purpose: Gaming

Multitasking: Medium to a lot

Games: New releases

Resolution: Undecided yet

Overclocking: Not at all

Recycled parts: None

Case: I'm going to decide on a case after I decide on the other parts.

RAM: As much as I need to run the latest games, and then a little more just to be safe. =]

Hard Disk Drive: Same as RAM. As much as I need to run the latest games, and then a little more just to be safe. If RAID improves performance, then yes (even if it costs much more).

Here is what I have already chosen:

• Processor: Intel Core i7-965 Processor Extreme Edition
• Motherboard: EVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI
• Memory: Mushkin 998731 Blackline (mushkin.com newegg.com)
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 (nvidia.com newegg.com)
• Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black (wdc.com newegg.com)

Besides opinions on optical drives and power supplies, I have several questions.

1.1) I heard the Xeon processors are the i7 processors under a different name. Is that true? If so, why would the same processor be sold at a different price?

1.2) For a gaming desktop, which processor should I choose: i7 or Xeon? Remember money is not an issue. I am willing to spend more money for even a nominal performance increase.

2) I heard the EVGA X58 motherboards are as good as (if not better than) the Intel DX58SO for Intel i7 processors. Wouldn't the Intel motherboard work best with their own processor?

3) Out of two memory modules offered by Mushkin, the only difference is the heatsink. What exactly is the difference between the heatsinks, which are Ascent and Frostbyte?

4) Is the hard drive I already chose a good choice with which to implement RAID 10 'The Striped Mirror'? If not, then what is a good hard drive with which to do so.

Please excuse me if any of those questions were stupid. Thank you for your help. =]

Alright:

Processor: You're not overclocking so you don't need an Extreme Edition Chip. Also having a super powerful processor isn't going to improve your gaming rig all that much. You can save a ton of money by going with a 920, an AM3 chip, or an i5.

Motherboard: Why would you need the 4-Way board if you're only getting one GPU? Also you don't need a classified board if you're not overclocking. Some cheap little X58 board would suffice your setup.

Also if you go with an i5 you'll need a P55 board.

Memory: With X58 6GB is more then enough. With everything else 4GB is good.

GPU: Ok that's a good card. You should also look into a 5870 as it performs just slightly worse and is DX 11 compatible.

1.1: The XEON processors are for servers. You don't need one basically. You really don't even need the 975 you want. I'd go with an i5 or an AM3 chip.

1.2: For a gaming desktop that is strictly for gaming, both are pretty much overkill.

2: Just about every board is better then the Intel boards. eVGA boards aren't the best, and sometimes get outperformed by ECS boards. You don't need an expensive board because you won't be overclocking. For instance a FlamingBlade (Foxconn) would work fine for you.

3: Mushkin memory modules have varying speeds and timings, so I'm not sure what you mean here. The differences between the two heatspreaders are nill. The FrostByte cools slightly better if I'm not mistaken, but they are just for looks.

4: You need two HDD's to set up a Raid array. You don't need a Raid array. Raid 0 doesn't offer any noticeable real world performance. Unless you have any extremely important data you don't need the redundancy of Raid 1.

Thanks a lot. Your reply was very helpful. I only have two questions now:

1) Even if it doesn't improve it by much (or isn't worth the improvement compared to the price) does an i7 offer better performance than an i5? If so, I am willing to spend the extra money (even if it is disproportionate to the cost).

2) If I were to get 4 GPUs, then would I see a graphical improvement?

depends. an i7 860 will be better than an i5, but an i7 920 wont be much of an improvement.

quote

2) If I were to get 4 GPUs, then would I see a graphical improvement?

you will but adding a fourth video card will only give you about 5% improvement, and a third card will give you 10%. thats why theres no point in going past two cards.

regarding your chosen motherboard, dont get it for the sake of its name, or its SLI capabilities. you wont use them, youll waste your money, and no one likes a show off

If i were you i would go with the i7 860

it beats an i5, it has hyperthreading, and it won't leave your wallet empty.

your better off spending more money on the graphics

you know, i started making a build, but those dam 5870s are still freaking out of stock. its really pissing me off now, because when i see that, i just stop gathering parts and do something else. notice that i have never suggested a proper build with a 58xx card yet?

quote hiigaran

notice that i have never suggested a proper build with a 58xx card yet?

yea thats because they are never in stock

but he could crossfire two 5870's and take down any game for at least a few years.

actually, when are they going to release some 5890s?

and a few years? two 5870s will kill anything for 5 to 10 years.

The power of the 5870 is more than games need

the games will catch up sometime

but yea you're right more like 5 or more years

yeah so think what two of those babies would do. they will mow down anything in their path.

right you are

i wish i had the money to pick one up

quote hiigaran

two 5870s will kill anything for 5 to 10 years.

LOL No!

Games get more demanding about as fast as new cards are released. In a year or two a 5870 will perform on the bottom of the charts. (If it even makes it to the charts)

quote Player1

Games get more demanding about as fast as new cards are released. In a year or two a 5870 will perform on the bottom of the charts. (If it even makes it to the charts)

that was what i was thinking, but right now games still have some catching up to do. I think 2 crossfired 5870's will keep up for a while, but no way 10 years

Thanks for the replies; they are very helpful. I'm not trying to get the most expensive parts to show off or anything like that. I just take personal satisfaction in knowing the parts I have are the best in terms of performance and aren't going to need to be updated for a while.

If anyone could write up a list of parts for a build on an unlimited budget, I would appreciate it greatly. Again, I'm not trying to show off but I am willing to spend a disproportionate amount of money for a slight performance increase so go wild with the build. =]

Thanks a lot in advance. You have been nothing but helpful to a person building their first computer.

Unlimited budget build sounds fun

im down to configure a parts list