Maximum PC

I am in this situation and want to buy a monster machine that will be viable for about 5 years. Finally in life, I have a good job and I won't have to make many compromises this time building my PC.

But I've been out of the game for some time; I've been researching and learning though, and this is the best $2500 build I've been able to put together so far:

[NOTE: This only includes the BASIC components of the PC, NOT the monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, OS, etc. I've planned an extra $800 on top of the $2500 for Windows Home Premium, a good 1920x1200 lcd, some Creative Gigaworks speakers, and a gaming mouse and keyboard]

So here's the best I can do:

Case: * AZZA Solano 1000 Full-Tower Advance Cooling Case w/ Dual 230mm Fan + Extra 3 Fans [+56]
Neon Light Upgrade: 12in (Blue Color) Cold Cathode Neon Light [+10]
Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Default case fans
Noise Reduction Technology: Sound Absorbing Foam on Side, Top And Bottom panels [+29]
Power Supply Gasket [+5]
Anti-Vibration Fan Mounts [+9]
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme Edition 3.33 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1366 [+306]
Venom Boost Fast And Efficient Factory Overclocking: Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more) [+49]
Cooling Fan: Asetek 550LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Advanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) [+18]
Motherboard: (3-Way SLI Support) Asus P6X58D Premium Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3 FCLGA1366 ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X1, & 2 PCI [+150]
Memory: 12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module [+293] (Kingston HyperX)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB 16X PCIe Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] [+517] (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA [+5])
Video Card 2: None
Video Card 3: None
Dedicated PHYSX Card: None
Multiple Video Card Settings: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
Power Supply Upgrade: 850 Watts Power Supplies [+138] (* CoolerMaster Silent Pro)
Hard Drive: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+35] (Single Hard Drive)
Data Hard Drive: None
Hard Drive Cooling Fan: None
Optical Drive: Sony 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive [+2] (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: Sony 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive [+32] (BLACK COLOR)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

So notes: No blu-ray to save $$$; I won't be watching movies on it anyway. I would have liked a pimped out sound card, but not when there's already good sound in the premium motherboard I opted for. One Nvidia 480 should be enough without any SLI stuff; and yes, I have paid someone to overclock my system for me; I don't want to fool with all the settings. If you know what you're doing maybe you can save $50 in this area. I would have liked to have more $$$ for a second hard drive though or maybe one of those tasty raptors....
Well you'll also notice the beefy power supply so a couple of years from now I can add a second GTX 480 when they're outclassed by newer offerings.

...so can you improve on this build?[/b]

americanpegasus, Welcome to the Max PC forums!

My first reaction is, no matter how much you spend and whatever you get right now, in five years it is guaranteed to be a creaky and slow old dinosaur

My second reaction, at that price point, $2500 not including monitor etc, why no SSD drive for boot combined with a big magnetic drive for storage? You can get one hella machine for that money.

That build looks decent enough (can't go wrong with an i7-975 and that motherboard looks sweet), but it can absolutely be improved on (that case is supposedly louder than most, and right now IMO you get more bang for your buck from ATI video cards), especially for the money you're spending--but maybe not if you're set on paying to have a company put it together for you. Other people here are very, very good at tossing off complete builds and I'm sure someone will post soon with more detailed suggestions.

I think it's fair to say that most people here tend not to use the boutique system assembly companies like you've chosen, for a number of reasons. One, because the MaxPC philosophy is definitely slanted towards do-it-yourself so that's the kind of person who tends to haunt the forums. Two, you will save considerable money if you shop it all out on your own, and the savings can then be put into more awesome expensive parts in your computer for example an SSD boot drive Three, your parts selection is artificially limited to what they offer you and if you do the research (for example by posting here!) you'll have a much wider selection to choose from. Fourth, and IMO most important, doing it yourself is the absolute best way to learn and become an expert in how YOUR computer works so you can get the absolute maximum out of it.

On the other hand I can understand wanting to just unwrap your shiny new machine like it's christmas morning and use it right away without any hassles, as well as get a warranty if that's what you want. So there's nothing wrong with it, it's just in the minority here.

Why does it have to be cyberpower?





Ted

If I had $2500 to spend at CyberPower, I wouldn't. I would build my own PC. If that's out of the question, I would get a PC from Digital Storm or Ballistic PC. CyberPower is pretty sketchy.

Alright, thanks threephi for the post; maybe you and the others are right. I should at least price what I can save by building it myself.

I chose CyberPower because unlike most other boutique dealers they didn't seem to hide the parts so much from me, and it seems like I have more control over exactly what goes into my PC.

I really hated how unnecessary and limited the Falcon systems were, and iBuyPower just annoyed me. Alienware systems seem like a steaming pile of ..... these days and probably always have been. I looked at a couple others like Ballastic Gaming and whatnot, but again, too limited. Very few of them even offer SATA 3/USB3 stuff and that's necessary for future proofing.

You're right in that I'm torn between the Christmas morning experience and the satisfaction of building it myself and saving $$$. I'll get back to you once I've done some numbers, but I can see myself paying $200 overhead for them to build it, but if I can save more... then it gets tempting.

And you recommend a SSD boot.... Well fine, but should I have a SSD boot drive or a 600 gig raptor primary (remember it would be SATA3, but not raid).

Thanks for the input. I'll be back with some more research.

Also, if not that case, then what full tower case? Maybe the Storm Sniper series?

Sata 6gb/s isn't useful right now and will never be useful with standard hard drives which pretty much only use 1-2gb/s max (burst speed) so if you are sticking with standard hard drives even in raid all you need is sata 3gb/s which is standard in every pc. USB 3.0 can be had by adding a $30 expansion card. But anyway if you want control over what is your pc building it is the way to go and sata 6gb/s + usb 3 are found in a lot of motherboards now.

Also building it is a lot better than getting a pc in a box plus you get higher end parts for the same amount of money so instead of some random power supply or random motherboard you get a quality part. You also get to select brands for everything else too. Also I would recommend an aftermarket heatsink don't even mess with the stock Intel one pita to install.


http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=11033851

I promise not to go into my Pro-DIY speech. But As you look around, here are some things I see with this build that you should be aware of.

1 Concerning their super duper factory OC'g. After a few hours of reading and a couple of trips to the forums here, you can easily do it yourself for a total cost of $0.00. That is Assuming that Cyberpower does not equip their machines with a crippled/stripped BIOS, which is not uncommon in prebuilt machines. That processor is easily capable of more than a 20% OC.

2. If you find a vendor that does NOT cripple/strip down the BIOS, then the i7 975 is overspending. The i7 930 is a third the cost and OC's every bit as well. The folks here routinely take the i7 920 and 930 to 3.8-4.2 GHz.
With 3.8 the sweet spot for year round stability for such as folding at home or gaming/office duties.

3. The cooler I am somewhat suspect of. While the Corsair H50 is a Branded copy of a Asetec unit, it is about $70 where as the unit you specd is $18. That's a hell of a markdown. By the way that H50 is a really good unit. But be aware that if you have no intention of OC'g or going past 3.2 or 3.4GHz then you would be fine with the stock air cooler. You can always add on a cooler later when the DIY bug bites you in the butt.

4. Personally I prefer the X58 based mobo's you have chosen for the better PCIe bandwidth issues. Especially if you are going to get down on gaming and want to run dual graphics cards. And add in sound card or other card later, such as a tv tuner or raid card.

4. I acknowledge everyone's opinions on SSD's. However, be aware they're still occasionally having firmware issues (See AnandTec's site concerning Crucial SSD prob's for example). Also consider the cost. If you want to put a little snap in your system use a couple of Samsung Spinpoint F3's at $55 each in raid 0 with another 1TB model for about $90 as your data drive. Yes I know that I fall into the "if you've never had steak hotdogs are just fine" catagory. I just can't see the cost plus dealing with a small OS drive that barely handles the OS and a couple of programs. Every time you need to leave the SSD to get info from the HDD you get a slow down.

4.a. By the way the Samsungs are, in most areas every bit as good as the Raptors performance wise at a fraction of the cost. The above mentioned setup runs about $200 for very good performance and plenty of storage.

5. I second the above comments concerning ATI video cards. Though my reasons may differ. If you might decide to use multi monitors then ATI is much more flexible. the 5970 for example is equal to or better (according to various review sites) than the nVidia GT 480. It uses less power generates less heat to remove from your case with less noise. It also will handle 3 monitors just fine.

Anyway just my $0.02.

Never pay to have someone overclock your system for you. Ever. Besides assisting with builds, we do overclocking for free as well. Anyone that takes money to overclock computers is shady at best.
Yes, SSD. Even the 600G 10K RPM vRaptor gets owned where it counts by the 1TB 7.2K RPM Samsung F3 drive; and it only costs $90. So with that said, an 80G Intel X-25M for $200 and an F3 makes a mean 1-2 punch.

A GTX470 or a 5850 is more than enough for most screens out there. The GTX480 has issues and will hit 100C just benching the thing. I crashed out benching one as it crossed 110C and the fans didn't spin up. Drivers should fix that, but the fans are loud above 60%; a speed that keeps it from chunking guts. I chose the 5850 to drive the primary and 4th screen, with a 5770 to drive the side pair (3x23" + 19") and does great. If I had it to do over, I'd do a 58xx for the other, but the xx50 was still high priced and the xx30 wasn't out yet.

The 850 is just enough to run an i7 and a GTX480. Maybe you'll never load the i7 up and just the cards, so it doesn't matter. Or does it? Just opt for the i7 930 and screw the overclocking the extreme offers us for a $600 mark up. The 1366 socket isn't here for very much longer anyway, so skimp here when ya can. But if ya think you'll add another GTX 480 for your +2600px screen, you'll want a 1.2KW or more watt unit. They pull incredible loads (for what a 5870 does without speeding up the electric meter and airconditioning). Besides, the CoolerMaster PSU's aren't high quality...they're average.

HD audio onboard doesn't offer EAX. Since you game (by the pick of the high end video card), you'll want EAX ability and some good speakers. I like the Asus Xonar, but if you just game then the Xfi Xtremem audio is needed. Even the old Xfi Plats made the gamer really enveloping; headphones or not. Asus will do EAX5, just not onboard. But with an octal-core CPU, that's not an issue. You can give up a couple percents of one core to do the EAX coding.

Sound coupled with SSD: Xfi sucks with Win7 and an SSD. With 6G or more physical memory, you'll disable virtual memory cause you don't need it. But AudioDG.exe then robs it and will take every spare bit until you restart Windows Audio Service; just to start over the cycle. Even with 12G, they have issues

Their drivers are to blame, not the hardware itself. Asus and AuzenTech have handled it beautifully though (not the Xfi chipped AuzenTech though, same problem).

But please consider sound. If you have the room for 5.1, do it. If you have headphones, still do it. Games aren't just about the eyes or how fast your mouse reacts...sound helps just as much. Before jumping onboard, tanks or footsteps that were [virtually] 50ft away sounded like they were around the corner. Now, I can tell distance based on sound. With onboard, I can hear people screaming from the other side of 2Fort, and that ain't right.

Alright, so in my continuing research I have put together a build of approximately the following at several different sites:

Case: * CoolerMaster Storm Sniper Mid-Tower Gaming Case [+95] (Original Color)
Neon Light Upgrade: 12in (Blue Color) Cold Cathode Neon Light [+10]
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-930 2.80 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1366
Cooling Fan: Varies, but about a $80 air cooling option
Motherboard: (3-Way SLI Support) Asus P6X58D Premium Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3 FCLGA1366 ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X1, & 2 PCI [+150]
Motherboard Expansion Card: None
Memory: 12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module [+293] (Kingston HyperX)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB 16X PCIe Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] [+517] (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA [+5])
Video Card 2: None
Video Card 3: None
Dedicated PHYSX Card: None
Power Supply: 1000 Watt name brand power supply (sometimes Antec, sometimes Corsair, sometimes Coolermaster)
Hard Drive: 600GB Gaming Western Digital VelociRaptor 10,000RPM SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache WD6000HLHX [+263] (Single Hard Drive)
Data Hard Drive: 2TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+149] (Single Hard Drive)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B083L 8X Blu-Ray Player & DVDRW Combo [+80]
Optical Drive 2: LG 22X DVD±/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive [+30] (BLACK COLOR)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)
Fan Controller: $70 option installed

Obviously, I couldn't get the exact same system at four different sites, but I got close. The cost?

eCollegePC: $2799
CyberPowerPC: $2812
BallisticGaming: $3060
DigitalStorm: $2965

Pretty similar prices, but I still haven't priced building it myself. But for the slightly extra cost, I'll take DigitalStorm's reptuation I guess.... more research is to be done. Thanks for your comments so far.

Do you have a monitor? If it's 1440px or below (20" and below typically), the card is overkill. A $200 23" that puts out 1920x1080 is served quite well with a $300 ATI 5850. The 5870 and GTX480 trade blows with larger screens, but I don't have a game I can't play with the mid-range card. I'm not the elite gamer, but "pwn" others that think they need 100FPS instead of a very good 58FPS with all pretties on.

If you look back in history and take our viewpoint on hardware, you'd note that we see the top end hardware always wasted. Middle has always been fine, and when it's not...we're on to the next gen of hardware. So $500 now is overkill, when $300 works for two years, and when it doesn't it's replaced by another $300 part. That's 3 years for $500, or 6 years for $600 from my perspective. And that "Old" kick ass card is just handed down so it's not a wash. Look back three years. Is the 8800 ultra really someone is happy about investing in? Not one. The 55nm version of the 9800GTX+ is now $130 in the GTS250. The 480 is in this same boat...overkill for fat wallets. I have fat wallets and won't buy one myself.

Screen. The card MUST match the screen.

Do you do constant 3D renderingins of CAD or huge movies you make? If not, 12G is nuts too. I use 12G only because I fold using 4G of memory, 1.8G of common usage, no VM, and that's pushing the line. If you don't fold for the cure, you can cut down $350 of the price by doing 6G and never finding it's limits. Gamers don't use 4G, let alone 6G, and even less twice that.

I love spending other's money, but some of this is crazy. You still list the 600G vRaptor. No SSD as boot, and some random 2TB drive for storage. And then go back to BluRay ROM and won't watch movies on it? And the motherboard has a fan controller for free. Still don't want to build your own? Just being devil's advocate....build it better, and make it your own.

But if THEY build it, keep it real and save some dough dude. 12G?

If you haven't already, have a look at this thread:

MPC Forums: Very first build, ever.


But keep in mind there was no actual intent to badger the OP. Unlike his circumstances, you have come right out and said that you were looking for help with boutique builds. That's ok. But please read the comments concerning warranty and support and parts quality. They are extremely important when you are talking serious money.

Just for comparison look at what Superchip offered as alternatives and the prices he came up with with just a quick look around.

One caveat here is take chumly's comments above seriously. He makes some serious points especially about sound cards. I had no idea about the memory usage issues.

Just use the thread to give you some serious food for thought. There are many other threads just as germane in various price ranges. I mean you're already looking at $3000. There are full blown workstation builds lurking in these forums for less.

Truth!

Just for comparison, here is what a similar build from Newegg will cost you:

COOLER MASTER Storm Sniper SGC-6000-KXN1-GP Black Steel, ABS Plastic, Mesh bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor $288.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-G1 120mm "heatpipe direct contact" Long life sleeve CPU Cooler $26.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835103065

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $209.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128423

OCZ Gold 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV12GS $360.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227422

GIGABYTE GV-N480D5-15I-B GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $499.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139006

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152185

LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Internal 4X Blu-ray Reader Model iHOS104-06 - OEM $58.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827106325

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - OEM $18.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827151192

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6832116754

NZXT Sentry-2 5.25" Touch Screen fan controller $36.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Total: $2020.88

You will be saving from $800 to over $1000 if you build it yourself.

So let me take a moment and respond to some of the comments left...

First, from tugboat:

1 Concerning their super duper factory OC'g. After a few hours of reading and a couple of trips to the forums here, you can easily do it yourself for a total cost of $0.00.

Noted. Will plan on it.


2. If you find a vendor that does NOT cripple/strip down the BIOS, then the i7 975 is overspending. The i7 930 is a third the cost and OC's every bit as well. The folks here routinely take the i7 920 and 930 to 3.8-4.2 GHz.

Also noted.

5. I second the above comments concerning ATI video cards. Though my reasons may differ.

I, unfortunately, am an Nvidia fanboy. I don't know why... sometimes these things just choose you, you don't choose them. I therefore will pay a premium for the Nvidia name, and in some cases, even put up with slightly less/different features.

And then, for chumly's comments:

Yes, SSD. Even the 600G 10K RPM vRaptor gets owned where it counts by the 1TB 7.2K RPM Samsung F3 drive

Alright, so there's that Samsung F3 mentioned again; I will look into it; it sounds great.

The GTX480 has issues and will hit 100C just benching the thing.

It hurts, I'm slowly having to face that the GTX480, while a beast, makes noise like a beast, and I don't know how I feel about that. Maybe I would be better served by the 5970 solution... (that's the dual ATI card, right)... I *am* willing to wait a few months; I wonder if there will be any price drops/new hardware that will emerge before the end of the year to affect my decision.

The 850 is just enough to run an i7 and a GTX480.

Noted; I will plan on a 1000w power supply from now on.

Also chumly, I hear you about the sound card issue. I guess it doesn't take much prodding; I've always wanted one of those sexy $200 Fatality Xi sound cards sticking out of both ends of my rig, so I'll try to budget for it. And about the SSD & Xfi issue.... I guess that cements my decision NOT to go with SSD at this time.

I will go with (at most) a very fast boot/program drive (the samsung mebee; raid mebee) and have a 2 TB data drive.

but you know, the more I read, the more I'm convinced that hard drive speed is not going to be a huge factor, especially if I'm not going with SSD. maybe I should just crank a couple of huge drives in and be done with it. ssds too expensive, and no one's impressed with the raptors anymore. i'd consider a raid 0, but then it feels like I'm just doubling my risk of data failure.

Also, here's another issue I'm catching a lot of flak about: 12g of memory.

You know, back in 2005, if you had built a killer rig, 2 gigs/4 gigs might have seemed excessive, but now it's just standard.

I'm married (and married guys maybe can understand this), but it kind of goes like this: I'm going to be able to get away with spending $3000 on a computer now in one blow, BUT I won't be able to get away with spending $1500 this year on a computer, only to spend another $1500 a couple of years down the line.

I know that doesn't make mathematical sense but that's just how it works, that the two purchases will push me over the line.

So I will still be on this system in four or five years, come what may, even if it isn't close to being top of the line anymore. And then on the fifth year I'll be able to upgrade again.

As far as a monitor, I initially really wanted a 1920x1200 lcd, but it seems like the whole world is going towards 1920x1080 now unfortunately, so to get a decent monitor, I'll need to get like a 26" 16:9 display. I'm thinking one of the Asus displays.

Then again, if you look here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wd6 ... 600-7.html

You'll see that the new 600gb Raptors blow others out of the water, including the samsung f3s.

Also, I'm looking into watercooled gtx 480's: they say the load temperature is as low as 49C instead of a blistering 80C.

Synthetic benchmarks need to be taken with a HUGE grain of salt. They almost never reflect real-world results at all. The access times of the VelociRaptor are far better than any 7200RPM HDD, but in most tests the SpinPoint F3 stays right within the 5% mark of the VRaptor, which is well within the range of being unnoticeable (usually around 12-15% is when an average user starts to notice the difference. Even a hardcore enthusiast isn't going to notice a difference above 8% outside of benchmarks). The Raptor is optimized to look good in theoretical benchmarks such as IOPS. While high IOPS is great, it doesn't necessarily translate into real-world performance. In the tests that count, real-world transferring of files, it is only barely able to maintain a lead over the SpinPoint F3.

i think 12GB of RAM is overkill. i run 6GB in my PC, but i can't seem to use it all up. Programs move faster a bit, but i also have an SSD Boot drive with Windows on it. i used to think 4 was overkill, but it probably still is, because i do game a lot, but i find that graphics are more of a priority, i think, nowadays.

if you decide to go through the [random CustomPC place], i suggest maybe taking that custom PC list and try to search for the parts on the web like @ newegg or take the list to the local fry's or micro center, to compare prices. if you can actually get the parts for cheaper, due to a sale or what-not, then it may be in your best interest to go that route. since you have the list, you know exactly what you want, and it's not like they cant tell you otherwise at the store.

if in fact there's no extra stuff added like monitor/keyboard/etc, then maybe going to the local parts store, and for half a day shop around and get a good deal there would allow you to but a fancy new monitor. i don't mind going to custom pc places, i just dont like having my pc unavailable for x weeks because i sent it back to get fixed. having a DIY PC is nice cause you know what would be wrong, thus being able to fix it right away. no "sending it back, gets fixed sent back home, and maybe something else broke so you have to send it out again".

i like fixing my own pcs, so i just build my own i guess.

raptors are a waste of money buy a solid state and a spinpoint for data a good ssd is faster than 2 raptors in raid 0. If you want 12gb fine but it isn't needed for any game. And nvidia regardless of how much of a fan you are isn't that good of a choice you should get a 5970, I actually think they are releasing them with 4gb of video ram now and that card with 2 chips produces less heat and noise than the 480. A name is no reason to buy something, quality and value is.

Note that the 5970 does use more power than the 480 though. It's very nearly out of the PCIe spec in fact. It is considerably faster, and its FPS-Watt ratio is better than the 480, and FPS-$ ratio about the same so its still a good deal if you're got the cash (which he does).