Legit Reviews

Well guys..I've finally made a decision on my new rig..some might laugh on one part but figured the sky is the limit right now(tax man was very good to me this year since i was good to him) I thought id see what you guys thought..should be put together hopefully by the end of the month depending on when the deposit has been made..everythign is coming from newegg so ill just put the names lol

Intel Core I7 920
Asus Rampage Extreme II
6GB Corsair Dominator 1600 ram
WD Velociraptor 300GB
CoolerMaster Haf 932 Full Tower
2 Corsair Tx-750 Power supplies(including the one already in use)
GeForce GTX280 Tri-SLI

I might go with the 285s tho..either way it will not be more expensive for me..Tri-SLI with 285 would use less power in a way, plus a few other minor annoyances of mine with the 280 would be gone..regardless its gonna be a 28- video card..I know i might get flak for thinking of the 285 but hey..like said I was good to the tax man and he was good to me so its the same either way for me price wise...I still haven't thought of a name for this monster

Daymn dude, that's some seriously specced parts right there

Sure you don't want to go the whole hog and go SSD while you are at it?

Dan

DMB2000uk wrote:Daymn dude, that's some seriously specced parts right there

Sure you don't want to go the whole hog and go SSD while you are at it?

Dan

You know, I really did consider getting one..but when I saw the 300 GB VR at $229 and a 256 GB SSD at around $600-$700, I thought I should wait a bit on those SSD's Would really like around that amount of storage(74 GB i have now is just kindergarten, can't do too much lol)..did consider a 7200rpm 500GB or 1TB but thought I didn't really need that since I could get an external of that amount for almost the same price if needed..

Ditch the VelociRaptor and get a 1TB drive? I'm a cheapo. Besides, you won't notice a big difference in performance.

Why 2 Corsair TX750? Get a Corsair HX1000 and call it a day. Heck you can probably get away with a TX850.

Why Tri-SLI? Don't forget that some games don't scale well with more than 2 GPUs, let alone 3.

geokilla wrote:Ditch the VelociRaptor and get a 1TB drive? I'm a cheapo. Besides, you won't notice a big difference in performance.

Why 2 Corsair TX750? Get a Corsair HX1000 and call it a day. Heck you can probably get away with a TX850.

Why Tri-SLI? Don't forget that some games don't scale well with more than 2 GPUs, let alone 3.

I already have 1 TX750 so in also being a cheapo i decided to spend $119 on another 750 instead of $260 on the 1000 watt..might even still go for the 850 for $139 just to cover things...besides..id have 1500 watts then instead 1000 for same price ..also i already have a 650 watt laying around so id like to use that on the other rig instead of let it sit after only being used for 5 months..the case will handle the wiring very nicely so i have no worries on that either

Thought about a 1TB but I won't be filling all that up completely..therefore that amount is more of an external option for me..300 GB VR is a nice amount for the speed it goes..the faster loading is nice..

TRI-SLI -I game alot, and lately ive been abusing the AA a bit and got spoiled since the performance wasn't bad, but I'd rather have nothing but buttery smooth gameplay if possible so TRI SLI will be it..its only some games that don't scale right, not all.. so its all good

my only small gripe is that im gonna have to leave my X-fi sound card in the C2D rig since there wont be any pci slots for it on the i7 once the video cards are in..Another reason why im splurgin on the Rampage since it already comes with an pci-e X-fi ..small gripe but i wont have that damn floppy cable running from the card to the front panel any more

that raptor is a good choice, my friend showed me his computer at work which has 2 of them in raid 0...WOW is pretty much all i can say. The response times and speeds of every application was just insane. Cant help but cringe at tri sli, even with games coming out with physic x that 3rd gpu just doesnt do much rendering at all. I think you'll be very happy with 2, even with all the aa cranked up to the eyeballs. And how much are u paying for your ram? Unless you're getting a good price a 3g kit should be more than sufficient really, mostly only get an extra 10 fps or less with the 6. The same friend as above is also testing the beta of windows 7 (on his home pc) and isnt really seeing that much performance with the extra 3gs. Strangely enough he's had pretty much no driver issues with the 64bit version which is good to hear but even with the latencies on the better kits youll find that second half of the kit not really doing much. Is this demon creature you call a computer for ultimate gaming or you plan to do some hard crunching on it as well?

haaaam wrote:that raptor is a good choice, my friend showed me his computer at work which has 2 of them in raid 0...WOW is pretty much all i can say. The response times and speeds of every application was just insane. Cant help but cringe at tri sli, even with games coming out with physic x that 3rd gpu just doesnt do much rendering at all. I think you'll be very happy with 2, even with all the aa cranked up to the eyeballs. And how much are u paying for your ram? Unless you're getting a good price a 3g kit should be more than sufficient really, mostly only get an extra 10 fps or less with the 6. The same friend as above is also testing the beta of windows 7 (on his home pc) and isnt really seeing that much performance with the extra 3gs. Strangely enough he's had pretty much no driver issues with the 64bit version which is good to hear but even with the latencies on the better kits youll find that second half of the kit not really doing much. Is this demon creature you call a computer for ultimate gaming or you plan to do some hard crunching on it as well?

It's going to do whatever I tell it to do ..Ram is good price so ..plus i already have 4 GB right now and I would question myself for stepping back....Drivers for video cards in SLI have improved since tri-sli first became possible so performance wise, it's getting there..its in a spot where I would actually splurge on it and it will only get better in time..I do gaming, HD movies, folding, tv, anything a computer can do, it will do..besides, with the 8800gtx im throwing in this rig once the new one is done in the other rig, this thing will fold like none other(another goal of mine)

Overall good selections, but like others before have said, I think Tri-SLI is a huge waste of money. But hey, do your thing if it makes you happy.

ibleet wrote:Overall good selections, but like others before have said, I think Tri-SLI is a huge waste of money. But hey, do your thing if it makes you happy.

It should make me pretty darn happy I think it's understandable about the money issues with TRI-SLI but in my position, it is cheaper (and IMO just as good if not better) than going for Quad SLI which was my original thought...Plus I already have the funds for it..I did think about it for awhile, and thought since I've never done SLI before, I might as well go apesh*t on it..besides, if it isn't worth it then I can always sell one off and add something different to the mix..


I am wondering whether or not to keep the red LED fan thats already in the case and add more red or just go all blue again with a lil lighting..I already have blue going in my current machine..I did think of a geek thing and possibly make one be a Jedi machine(Blue led) and the new rig be with the Darkside(Red led)..

lol the jedi thing sounds awesome, and when your finished putting it together remember t post some pics to bask in the glory that is "THE SITH!!!"

hehe just wish i could mod my disc drive a bit with a red light instead of the blue one it already has..oh well..spose Darth Vader still had a little bit of Jedi left in him in the movie anyway so a lil blue with red wont hurt i guess ..pics will be posted though for sure when it is finished..

sold my 280..got the new rig ordered...now the impatience kicks in

Well I got the rig up..Right now its only one video card but in the coming weeks 1 or 2 more will be added. I also found out that 2 power supplies wont physically allow TRI_SLI in this case, either the case was made weird or somethin.even the hole for the cpu mounting on the mobo tray isnt lined up so I still have to take it out to put a new cooler in..somethin i didn't expect but at least I didn't open the 2nd psu yet so I can return that and get the 1000w.. if they just moved up the mouting holes all would have fit..other issue is that the "sound card" that came with the motherboard is more of an extension to the onboard sound than a real sound card.its labeled X-FI but in reality it's only certified to use X-FI software..I can't even adjust the treble or bass on my sound in windows!.I would hook up my current X-FI sound card but that thing uses a floppy cable to connect the front panel, plus its PCI only, guess im gonna need a new one(good thing is i just need a $100 sound card to do my dirty work)..so besides the psu hiccup and the sounds..It's a kick ass machine..I am editing the pictures a lil bit since some were too dark..(that and the assistant I had help hasn't sent me the pics he took yet)...damn this thing is cool..thr air flow is top notch..and the motherboard has lights on it like one wouldn't believe..I didn't expect that many lights. I could do blue or red on the lighting..but im gonna go with red since the stock led fan looks pimp..anyhow..this thing kicks major ass..more than I thought it would..The only game that doesn't run flawless is Crysis(go figure) but that what the multi-gpu's come in for pics are coming but Im not sure if i should wait till all video cards are in or just show the cleanest case I've ever seen(wirejob wise)

Sounds awesome! People are really loving that new HAF case. It seems like every other rig I read is either in a HAF or 1200.

Yea I heavily considered the antec 1200..but since the original plan called for 2 psu's it didn't fit the plan. I don't think it would have fit 3 cards anyway with a bottom mounted psu..never know though..But yea this HAF case totally rules supreme..surpassed every thought I had of it..not to mention it's monstrous..I was even stopped by some guy at Fry's sayin i'm gonna love it when I grabbed the last one on the shelf. every thing about this new setup has surpassed my expectations by far..with the exception of the sound lol..least they put a blue light on the daughter card lol..