No budget multimedia/gaming rig build.

Viceroy · Rated PG Joined: 21 Oct 2009 Posts: 4

This build's ultimate purpose is to be used for mainly for gaming and multimedia downloading/burning/ripping/playback. I have stated that this build has no budget restrictions. This is true, however that is not to say that I am willing to spend excess amounts of money for hugely diminished returns on bleeding-edge merchandise. I am satisfied with the product that is currently at a great value but is not underpowered. For instance, my GPU of choice is the Radeon 5850. It is less powerful than the 5870, but also much less expensive. It is also slightly more expensive than a 4890, or 2x4870 CF'd, but also a much more solid and versatile performer. The perfect balance of power-pricing for me is the Radeon 5850.

---Potential purchases---

RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
$97 taxed/shipped
Low latency and low voltage make up for its low speed, which can be easily overclocked. I will consider purchasing a second set if 4gb seems insufficient.

GPU - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5850
$265 taxed/shipped

ODD - HP Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA 24X Multiformat DVD Writer
$35 taxed/shipped
This one does everything but Blu-ray. If you can find me a better one or a cheaper one, chime in.

$397 total

---Recently completed purchases---

***New*** Case - XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower Computer Case
$98 taxed/shipped

PSU - ENERMAX ERV1050EWT Revolution85+ 1050W SLI/CrossFire Active PFC Modular 85 Plus Silver Certified Power Supply
$150 taxed/shipped

HDD - Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 32 MB Cache
$75 taxed/shipped

CPU - Intel Core i7 Processor i7-860 2.80GHz 8MB LGA1156 + Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 Socket 1156/ Intel P55/ DDR3/ CrossFireX/ A&GbE
$335 taxed/shipped

VDU - Dell UltraSharp U2410 24 inch 1920x1200 6ms 1000:1 HDMI/DVI/VGA/DisplayPort Widescreen LCD Monitor
$524 taxed/shipped
Really phat screen with badass features and picture. Demands high-power GPU so I can take advantage of its awesomeness.

Audio A - Altec Lansing BXR1121
$20.00 taxed/shipped
If you haven't heard these before then you are missing out. For the quality of sound I can't believe they only retail for about 25 dollars.

Moose - Razer Salmosa
$27.00 taxed/shipped

$1229 total

***New*** ---Optional purchases---

***New*** Mouse - My current mouse, the Razer Salmosa, is somewhat unsatisfactory to me. I bought it on the prerequisite that it would be ideal for fingertip gripping, when in fact the dynamics of the mouse seem more befitting a claw grip or even a palm, and this is just not what I wanted at all. If held with fingertips, the Salmosa buttons are too difficult to depress (due to being nearer to the butt end), the chassis shows marks very easily, and the mouse itself is just much too long to be effectively maneuvered like a fingertip mouse should be.

If you have any suggestions for mice that you think I would like, please let me know.

***New*** Keys - Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard
$50 taxed/shipped
Keyboard needs to have backlighting, or whatever it is called where a light comes on beneath the keys so they can be seen easier in a dark room. The keys must have space between them and must have noticeable depression (so no laptop keys). It absolutely must NOT have all the noobish bling like a dumb little LCD screen or 50 programmable buttons I'll never use. If you have any suggestions for boards you think I would like, or if you think the G11 is perfect for me, let me know.

***New*** HDD - I already have a 1tb drive listed in my completed purchases, but I am considering several options that would involve different/additional HDDs.

One would be purchasing a 10k RPM drive, particularly the Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive. Newegg is running a combo deal right now where they are throwing in a power supply along with the VR, and giving you 2 bucks just to take it off their hands. I have no use for that PSU on my machine, so I figure I could sell it on Ebay for about $70, thus bringing the practical price of a 300 GB WD VR down to $150. Another option would be to take identical drives and run them in RAID, but this would practically necessitate that I sell my current drive and buy faster ones (I am going for speed here, after all). Yet another option would be the one included in the following quote:

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:55:45 Post Subject:

Hi!

I like the setup in general... I was expecting some insane system by the title, but it looks reasonable. I might throw a second set of 4GB of memory at it, just because it isn't that expensive and it might help. What I would probably change is to get at least 1600MHz stuff instead of 1333MHz. Even if you stick with the G.Skill Rip Jaw stuff, the price doesn't really change.

I might pick a full ATX motherboard over a mATX.

And my last comment might be to keep that 1TB drive for now... Maybe get a SSD if the budget allows, or hold off and get one later. The prices are dropping, and the speed is nice! Perhaps you could create two partitions on the 1TB if you run that for now. Make one smaller just for the OS and programs, with all files on the larger one. If you move to a SSD, you could just copy the smaller partition over rather easily.

I have a G15 keyboard, and I think I'd actually like the G11 better for the same reasons you gave.

mrweasel · Posted: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:14:18 Post Subject:

I just picked up that same board for an i5 720. You are aware that the 2nd PCIe slot only runs @ 4x so if you go Xfire in the future, it will be slightly crippled.

Viceroy · Rated PG Joined: 21 Oct 2009 Posts: 4

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:32:03 Post Subject:

I don't necessarily agree with your response on the memory. If you intend to overclock, why not take the stuff already rated for a higher speed right out of the box... Especially since it is the same price? As you overclock the timings will surely loosen and the voltage will go up, and G.Skill does have 1600 stuff at 7-8-7-24 1.6V for about the same price or 7-7-7-24 1.6V for a bit more $$... With 7-7-7-21 and 1.5V at 1333MHz, you'd probably be at those settings once overclocked anyway... with no guarantee to hit the speeds you might want. Just might be easier...

Viceroy · Rated PG Joined: 21 Oct 2009 Posts: 4

Perhaps you are right.