Building a new PC -- suggestions?

WillTech105

Hi all,

I am currently in the process of updating my PC to a newer system. I was eyeing the Intel Core i7 with the Intel Desktop Board DX58SO motherboard.

My style of building PCs is usually making a monster PC that will last me at least 4,5 years before it shows it age. The last PC I built back in 2003 is finally starting to show its age.

My question is -- I simply plan to get a super video card PCI-E but is there anything else I should consider (audio cards, second video card for monitor, HD TV hookup, ect)? Thanks!

sagewalkinthere

You should build an IBM Roadrunner style pc:

• 6,562 dual-core AMD Opteron® chips
• 10,000 connections – both Infiniband and Gigabit Ethernet
• Petaflop speed

wd40

to my knowledge you can not overclock with intel motherboards ..
+
you will need a huge system case and a full tower "or extended tower" case if you are going to get a suuuuuuuuper video card + an even bigger power supply
+
do not forget to get a decent heat sink for the CPU.

vCole

wd40 wrote: »

to my knowledge you can not overclock with intel motherboards ..
+
you will need a huge system case and a full tower "or extended tower" case if you are going to get a suuuuuuuuper video card + an even bigger power supply
+
do not forget to get a decent heat sink for the CPU.

Intel brand boards? or boards that are made for Intel procs?

Tyrant1919

It all depends on what you want. If you like good audio throw in an audio card. Although I heard onboard is decent nowadays.

CoreI7 is nice. I'm waiting for their six core processors before I upgrade my FX-60 from early 06. And luckily that'll be around the time Windows 7 hits the market.

maumercado

FadeToBright wrote: »

Intel brand boards? or boards that are made for Intel procs?

Intel Brand Boards

wd40

maumercado wrote: »

Intel Brand Boards

Intel Brand Boards, You can overclock intel processors on other mother board brands "ASUS , GIGABYTE etc"

Kaminsky

Put a serial port on it !! .. mebee two !! <pet peev>

Even a decent graphics card now will show age well before 4-5 years. 2-3 at best so don't throw too much money at it. Great chipset with as much on board processing as possible (not just memory size) If you do have cash to spend, one with dual monitor capabilities would be real nice.

Get the mummy board that has the most memory you can stick on it right off the bat. 4 at least. 8 or more if there are such things out. Bear in mind that modern memory will also be outdated in 4-5 years so you need to fill it up at the start.

Sound card is not that big a deal really. Decent sound card with same main processor offloading as the graphics card above. Good surround and bass AND support it with decent speakers. (cheaping out on speakers makes it not worth the effort) Maybe some enthusiasts can but most can't really tell the difference in quality in everyday produced sound from a mid range to top of the range sound card so again, no real need to throw a ton of money at it.

Processor.... no clue. multi's as long as your choice of OS arn't going to argue with each other. Something powerfull but OS friendly.

One thing very, very often overlooked... Cooling ! Get a decent fan ... not a cheap one! Powerfull and quiet is the order of the day.

Same can be said of mouse and keyboard. Don't go cheap. A decent keyboard is a thing of beauty as is a mouse.

Most important of all.... A decent desk to work from. With work laptop, split screen and other PCs, I have 4 screens side by side covering my little study alcove with plenty of space in front for flat book reading and writing (nice little side area for beer cans too) and underneath I have my 16u skele lab which fits perfectly (once I raised the desk height by a foot) It looks tastefull and comfortable. It doesn't look like I took the blue pill and woke up at the console of the knebekanesser !

enjoy! Remember when you fire it up and it beeps at you ... your work is not done !

wd40

^^

with new triple channel "for the i7" mobos you can get 6 * 2 GB DDR3 sticks.
example:
Amazon.com: ASUS Rampage II Extreme LGA1366 Intel X58 DDR3-1600 ATX Motherboard: Electronics

Paperclip

Multiple monitors is the best thing ever. At least one video card with dual outputs, more if you can stand it. I wish I had like six monitors.

Lee H

Ide love 4 X 22" monitors, currently have 1 X 19" Flatcreen and 1 X 17" CRT, it does me for now but monitors are that cheap nowadays £90 for 22" Widescreen from my main supplier, aweseom price!!!!!!!!!

Kaminsky

Lee H wrote: »

Ide love 4 X 22" monitors, currently have 1 X 19" Flatcreen and 1 X 17" CRT, it does me for now but monitors are that cheap nowadays £90 for 22" Widescreen from my main supplier, aweseom price!!!!!!!!!

Wow! Where from ?

Thing I like best about dual screen is freeking my young kids out by dragging an app from one screen to the other. They put their hand in the gap in between and try to figure out how the magic works... My eldest swears blind he can feela little tingle in his hands as the app passes from one to the other

vCole

Lee H wrote: »

Ide love 4 X 22" monitors, currently have 1 X 19" Flatcreen and 1 X 17" CRT, it does me for now but monitors are that cheap nowadays £90 for 22" Widescreen from my main supplier, aweseom price!!!!!!!!!

I have dual 22"'s right now. I may add a 24" or 30" for the middle and have the 22"'s vertical on both sides.

bertieb

Kaminsky wrote:

Thing I like best about dual screen is freeking my young kids out by dragging an app from one screen to the other. They put their hand in the gap in between and try to figure out how the magic works... My eldest swears blind he can feela little tingle in his hands as the app passes from one to the other

hehehe. My (old and retired) dad would probably swear the same

jryantech

I recently built a Core i7 system with 6 GB of DDR3 triple channel and a X58 Intel Motherboard. It's pretty ridiculous.

My Graphics card is the NVIDIA GTX 260 896MB 448-bit

I have a handful of hard drives I plan to create a RAID with...
First XCILIO case and I am loving it.

You will enjoy and have much respect for Vista 64 bit with a Core i7 :]