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The Guiding Principles and New Rules
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About to spend 5000 dollars on a computer.
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If you want to be totally awesome, rotate two of them 90 degrees so they are longer top-to-bottom. It's a much better way to read web pages, write code, work in most Office docs, etc. Then use the third as a normally configured monitor for games or movies or whatever.
Two 30s is good. Don't mess with SLI, though - just have each video card driving its own monitor and the performance will be better.
Or, you could get one of these babies for a cool $2500 if you're looking to blow the rest of that money real fast.
You're missing the point: putting each monitor on its own card will better improve game performance than SLI. If you must, just do a dual SLI on the gaming monitor or whatever.
You don't get a 100% improvement in games using SLI by adding another GPU. As you add GPUs, performance doesn't scale in a linear fashion. Thus, you'd be better off having two of the cards driving one monitor and one or two cards driving other monitors, since it would take the load of the other monitor(s) off of the SLI/gaming cards.
Feel free to throw money into the pit of quad SLI if you'd like, I won't stop you. I just think it's exceptionally silly, especially when you can't have more than one monitor with SLI enabled, so you'd be kind of stuck in that regard.
Sure, you could try for the shotgun approach by just throwing more money at it and getting bigger numbers, but if you don't want to regret a crazyhuge purchase like this in a couple years, buying smarter > buying bigger.
IMO, follow others' advice and invest in something that will last you through to your next computer when this one goes obsolete (because, remember, it will.) If I had your budget, I'd get two insane monitors. 30".
big professional grade wacom tablet
*drool*
oh and of course optimus maximus keyboard (~$1500 US)
Yeah, unless they fixed that, when you turn on Sli, it only outputs through monitor 1. Also, if you want to game on it, don't get a Mac. Even though they have decent hardware, their video card options are very limited, and need more expensive versions for the same type of card.
My understanding is that it's OSX that has the problem, not the hardware. He could just run Vista/XP on it and it would be fine.
Doc is 100% correct.
Boot camp into XP/Vista and away you go.
? The Sli Problem is in Windows, I didn't even know macs supported it
EDIT: yeah, checking the ways you can configure mac pros on their websites, they only offer multiple video cards for Ati cards, and the max they have for that is the 2600 (highest nvidia card is a single 8800GT). Way less power than you'd need to power a single 30" for games
Satans..... hints.....
Just asking as I work in high-end 3D graphics and the computer i'd buy for work is radically different than the one I'd use at home.
A Solid State disc for booting up the thing.
That could run you anywhere up to $3,000, though the cheaper ones will work perfect as just a boot drive.
Anyways, I would personally go for 3 24' monitors over 2 30's. Considering how close you sit to the screen I think 30' would be almost too big for games. The biggest monitor I've used is 21' and that was more than big enough for me. Also, you get overall more realestate with 3.
As far as the machine goes, I'd get something rackmountable and with redundant power supplies, but I don't know how applicable such a machine would be for gaming. Hard drives and power supplies are what I'm always replacing. Hard drive is no big deal cause everything is on insane backup schedules, but when a PS goes it usually takes something down with it.
Those processors are $500 a pop on Newegg. I just priced a comparable machine (and I was using good brands and rounding up) on NewEgg for under $2k (including a couple hundred on a case, though you can get a perfectly decent one for under $100), vs the $2800 for the Mac. That's a big savings, whatever year it is. If you buy a Mac, you are paying at least several hundred dollars for the privilege of having a little apple emblem on your machine. Again, if you have the money, that's not a bad thing. Buying a Mac is sort of like buying Alienware - you pay a premium for name brand and pizazz. (A comparable Alienware machine will run you about $2500, it looks like.)
But if you think Macs are not more expensive than PC equivalents, you're fucking high. Just saying.
Pro Video cards like FXQuadros are craptastic for games.
course any 5000 dollar computer is a total fucking waste for gaming anyway. You'd have to throw in a mountain of doodads jsut to hit the 5000 prcie point. There's a heavy diminishing return there and most of those expesnive extras wi;; be overdated in a year anyway
I got the case for my computer for free from Newegg during a crazy deal of the day.
And it's one of those fancy open-window cases.
Just throwing it out there.
Dell makes excellent widescreen flat panels (their UltraSharp models, anyway). Their 24 and 30 are both quite good. (I have their 24, it has all the features you could want in a monitor, and the picture quality is excellent). Keep in mind that once you go larger than 22", the price climbs exponentially.
Looks like Dell's got a $100 instant rebate on the 24" right now, so it's a nice price at $599. (Model - UltraSharp 2408WFP 24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor with Height Adjustable Stand)
I don't believe it - I'm on my THIRD PS3, and my FIRST XBOX360. What the heck?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117143
$724 per quad-core processor that's in the baseline Mac Pro.
Apple machines are about as expensive as a high-end PC put together for you by any other company, so they aren't "overpriced" any more than, say, a Dell. I don't know why people still are all over Apple in this regard considering that they are more or less middle of the pack in terms of charging you for the logo on their PCs. They sell premium hardware at a price that's very competitive for that market.
Quite frankly, with the niche status of such large monitors, there really isn't such a thing as a good bang for buck, but conversely, all of the 30" monitors are going to be pretty darn good quality. Personally, while I don't have any experience working with them (so take my advice with a bucket of salt) I've used some of the smaller Dell Ultrasharp monitors, and they have the best color reproduction I've ever seen, though the refresh rate could be a bit better
proc: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 minimum that you will overclock, or any model higher than that if you have money to burn and want to make overclocking easier (higher multiplier all the way up to unlocked multiplier)
cpu heatsink: there are a few choices like the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme (paired with a great fan like the Scythe S-Flex SFF21F) or the Noctua NH-U12P
mobo: Depends what your brand is, but ASUS, Intel and Gigabyte boards are all pretty good. You'll want an X38 or X48 based board if you're not doing SLI, OR an Nvidia 790i board if you're doing SLI
memory: You'll want at least 2GB of ram, more likely 4GB with the money you have, at least DDR2 6400 if a DDR2 board, and the one of the Micron Z9 based sticks if using DDR3
HDD: Raptors are only winning in seek times nowadays - you'll instead want the new 320ish per platter density drives, like the 3200 AAKS (not sure on exact model # there) or 6400AAKS (640GB) drives from Western Digital. They are FASTER than the Raptor.
back up HDD: something with as much space as you can afford. You could RAID 2 of the 320's together in RAID 0, but you HAVE TO COMMIT to a regular backup plan to a 3rd internal drive.
Video: a tough one depending on the resolutions you'll be pushing. An 8800 GTX/Ultra is still the best for really high resolutions, but the G92 based cards (8800GTS 512/9800GTX) are better in every other regard. Ideally you'd get something cheap now (Galaxy 8800 GTS 512) and get a 9900 GTX when they come out - which will be the first truly new architecture in a long while
audio: onboard or for gaming - Creative X-Fi - or for discerning audio - there are a couple other brands
optical - fastest DVDRW from Samsung, LG, whatever
power: lots of options here, depends on whether you'll be doing SLI or not. I personally love the modular Corsairs but you can check out HardOCP for reviews of lots of beefier wattage PSUs
case: Antec P182, or CM Stacker 830, or a Lian Li
display: either a 30" like the Dell WFP 3007-HC, or a good 24" like the Dell 2407, or BenQ FPW241W (sept 07 firmware or later)
speakers: for 5.1 Logitech Z-5500d or Klipsch ProMedia, same goes for 2.1 (Logi Z 2300 or Klipsch ProMedia)
Mouse: for gaming: Logitech G5 2007 w/ a steelpad or Logi G9, or G7 if you like wireless. MX Revolution for non gaming
keyboard: Logitech G15 Keyboard Revision 1 or 2 on your preference
webcam: Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000
floppy: they're all the same
controller: Microsoft XBOX 360 Wireless PC Controller w/ wireless reciever
external HDD: Western Digital MyBook Home or get your own external enclosure with eSATA and slap another WD or something in it, at LEAST as big as your system drive
thumbdrive: Corsair GT for speed, at least 4GB, otherwise get the biggest one you can afford with a design you like
surge protector: you might even want a UPS to prevent corruption or component wear in the event of a blackout or voltage fluctuation
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2 /OEM AND/OR Windows Vista SP1 OEM. Kinda your preference, but can only get DX10 on the latter.
Note, This is with 3.5", perhaps its possible to get 5.25 but I kinda doubt it.
I actually worked at work on Saturday. Also I went out on a date with a real life girl.
Can you like, permanently break the forums?
no scratch that he wants two blue rays
I would like to second this suggestion. They're ridiculously expensive still, but with that kind of budget, I'd totally have to go for the near-zero access times that flash drives provide.
The super-duper expensive ones are super-duper fast, too.
"raptors beware"