Looking for ideas on parts. Been outa the loop for a long while!

[Black_Ice-Dragon]

Im looking to build a new pc and im looking for some suggestions on what to get. Im looking at either 3 levels of price point and depending on the timing will tell me what I want to spend. I am looking to build this and have it running by the end of the year but the parts will be bought this september.

My pricing will be either $2000, $5000, or if I really want to $10,000.

The system will primarily be for gaming, but I need alot space setup and backup. I like to have at least 2 terabytes of space for storage. Depending on the price point I may go for watercooling again.

For cases I still havent found something that works for me. I would like to get possibly a mountain mods case, but I need something that can hold 2 triple 120mm rads. But fit an Eatx and watercooling setup comfotably with like 8 HD's.

I want to get something that is easily upgradable, will have about 8-16-32GB of ram possibly as I am looking to do some very intensive work as I multitask alot.

For monitors I am looking into a multi-monitor setup. I want to do a primary 30" in the ceter with possibly 2 20"-24" monitors on the side.

I am not a fanboy of any particular company. My tastes are simple. "I like the best" lol.

[bojangles]

Well there are tons of threads here for your needs. I would look at them to see what you can get for the money. Choose whatever monitors you'd like. I can't help ya there. A computer will never cost over $3k, otherwise you're just wasting money.

[Realityshift]

Well when it comes to storage thats likely the cheap part of the build as 1 tb of HDD space is roughly 100-125 CND right now which is not bad at all. Im not to sure I know of any normal form factor cases that fit 2 tripple rads and a large amount of hard drives without to much modding but there is a mountain mods case for sale in the forums right now if you look around. I think there may be more then one actually. As for price point you might be able to skim by on $2000 but $5000 would be alot more comfortable especially since your gaming. An I7 setup with a 920/940 would work well especially if your water cooling, then maybe a couple to 3 GTX 285s will offer alot of performance while gaming on full graphic settings on that 30" monitor and will work a bit better then ATIs cards if you decide to use the tripplehead type connector for the monitors.

[Bones]

Originally Posted by bojangles

A computer will never cost over $3k, otherwise you're just wasting money.

What he said ...

[geokilla]

You do realize that a computer costing $1000 can run games pretty well already. Bump it up to around $1500 for 2 monitors, add another $500 for Core i7. So basically, assuming you're starting from scratch and you need a new LCD, computer system, and speakers, mouse, etc., $2000 should do the trick. You could always give $5000 to the poor.

If you're going to spend $10 000 on a complete computer system, you might as well build a folding farm.

[Mr. Gruntsworthy]

Yeah, OP, you can build something that fits your needs easily under $3000.

As for storage... since you're willing to shell out a pretty penny, why don't you splurge on WD's 2TB Green drives? Get two, and bam! 4TB of storage.

As well, even with multitasking, I doubt you'll use more than even six gigs of RAM, but if you wanna splurge, by all means get 12GB of RAM...

just keep in mind though, that 32 (x86) bit operating systems can only recognize a combined total of roughly 4GB of RAM (including allotment for graphics cards, and expansion cards).

As for monitors, I just got myself a sexy Acer H213H, which is 21.5" @ 1920 x 1080 res. It's an Acer, so it's definitely good quality. I jizzed myself when I bought mine the other day :P

Two of these suckers tacked on to the sides of your 30" and you got yourself a wicked setup.

With three monitors, my opinion is that the best card for that kind of setup is the Radeon HD 4850 X2. Mind you, ATI cards don't perform as well as NVidia cards in games, this card is no slouch either; and no doubt drivers for this card will get better as time goes on. The card has 2GB of onboard VRAM, and 4 DVI ports for you to use (it's a dual-slot sized card, but all crammed onto one single gfx card ).

[Realityshift]

the 3 monitors he wants alone is close to $1500 you guys get real, then a good core i7 build is $1200 or so without a decent video card... Anyways core i7 doesnt come in 8/16/32 gb ram selections its 6/12/18/24 but anything over 12 and your looking at server based motherboard as they dont make anything more then a 3x2 gb ram kit that ive seen. you dont need 8 hdds to get 2tb you could easily run 2 to get that space and 1 640gb WD black for your games and os or 2 if you want to raid 0 them. It would be more helpful if you could tell us what kind of multitasking/intensive programs your going to be running here though as gaming will not use up more then $2000 if your smart.

If you're going to spend $10 000 on a complete computer system, you might as well build a folding farm.

$10k could buy u one of those nvidia Tesla supercomputers which would probubly rock @ folding.

I have seen way to many $4000 builds in the last month to really care what anyone does with their money, thats for them to decide but we can guide them towards the best performance options I guess. I would have loved to have had $3000 budget last build I could have not skimped on alot of stuff that im slapping myself for now but I doubt the full $3000 would ever have gone to the PC, My computer does everything from video encoding, 3d rendering, photoshop and lots of gaming and I still couldnt justify spending that much on a PC.

[Realityshift]

With three monitors, my opinion is that the best card for that kind of setup is the Radeon HD 4850 X2. Mind you, ATI cards don't perform as well as NVidia cards in games, this card is no slouch either; and no doubt drivers for this card will get better as time goes on. The card has 2GB of onboard VRAM, and 4 DVI ports for you to use (it's a dual-slot sized card, but all crammed onto one single gfx card ).

ATI cards fail @ multimonitor setups.

[Mr. Gruntsworthy]

Really? :o why?

[Chilly]

Originally Posted by bojangles

A computer will never cost over $3k, otherwise you're just wasting money.

Originally Posted by Bones

What he said ...

This, even my upcoming build, http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...aos-1-0-a.html , will end up costing WAY less than $3k, even if you factor in the cost of the parts I already have/own. Might come close but...

Seriously unless you like wasting money or have a PURPOSE to spend more than $3k on a build, computers above that range are either silly(i7 965, dual gold plated GTX 295's, etc etc) or branded(Voodoo PC, Falcon, Maingear, etc).