Max Builds a PC Series

Posted By: Max Zuckerman | Dec 2nd, 2007 @ 1:59 PM | 3,448 Views | 47 Comments

Formats:

To kick off my joining the Channel 8 team, I wanted to show you something interesting, something you could learn from, aaand give you something cool.

So here's the plan:

In this series, I will present my point of view about a certain computer component (like a graphics card or motherboard)
YOU comment and tell me your point of view and why
Once we have all the components discussed and chosen, I'll build it and post video to show exactly how I did it
Here's the fun part... when I'm done, one of you clever community commentators will WIN the new PC!

Now it may not look like an HP Blackbird--my favorite looking PC on the market today--but I am sure together we can make this thing fly and maybe even find a slick case to put it in?

Before I get started, this is your chance to make any suggestions if you think I should go about this differently. So get commenting and keep me on track!

The Rules:

Anyone can comment, only a student enrolled in a higher education institution can win (US undergraduate/graduate university level or international equivalent).
While I encourage you to discuss your ideas as much as possible, you will only be allowed one contest entry per post in the series (meaning if you leave 3 comments in the graphics card post and 6 comments in the hard disk post, you have 2 total entries in the contest).
Despite my leaning towards choosing a winner based on the best thought out contribution... that may be too subjective and therefore the winner will be chosen at random (but of course as in part 2, more entries increases your chances)
Posts will be open to discussion for 3 days each (unless more time is deemed necessary). Once a component decision has been made, no more entries for that post will be counted (but you will still be able to comment).
Try to keep this civil--that means a comment purely to insult someone else probably isn't in the best taste.
I may have to modify these rules as necessary. While it probably won't happen, I just want you to know it is possible.

Series Status (as of 12/12/07): discussing the CPU
Part I: The Case
Part II: The CPU

Tags: building a pc, computers, do it yourself, max builds a pc series

Rating:

sriram
hello world

So does this project have a price limit? or is MAX the limit? Big Smile

how about a c2e QX9650 - that's a real beauty
add up a 4* 8800Ultra (quad sli)
16 gb of ram
some 64gb SSD for primary hard drive
1 TB secondary hard drive
liquid cooled for over-clockability
creative x-fi pro for sound
dual 24" lcd for displays
add a snazy cpu to house all of this + may be a vista sideshow option

ohh did i forget something?? send us all one for christmas Big Smile

littleguru
(microsoft student partnering)++

I would go with a

- Intel Core 2 Quad QX9650
- two ASUS (Retail) EN8800 ULTRA
HTDP 768MB 2xDVI/TV - in SLI (we wanna save the man some money!)
- 4 GB DDR3 RAM
- one 3.5" Hitachi 1000GB HDS721010KLA330 7200U/m 32MB
- an x-fi pro sound card would be nice, yes!
- 24" Samsung SyncMaster
244T 1920x1200 ana/dig (man this one is expensive)
- a nice modding case

There you go. That would be my PC, but you know - costs like A LOT! Smiley

littleguru
(microsoft student partnering)++

In reply to sriram

#Dec 3rd, 2007 @ 5:22 AM

Sriram, you wanna get Microsoft bankrupty? Big Smile

sriram
hello world

Microsoft and bankruptcy?? no way man..
the only way i can see that possible is when you reach their banks numerical data type limit and the system cycles back to -2,425,858,054,433... Big Smile

sometimes just to amuse myself, i go to alienware's website and build my own completely spec'd system... of course i just stop short of the part where they ask you for ur credit card details... i think i've built an alienware for some 15k $ or something if i remember correctly.

Max
Spaceman Spiff!

In reply to sriram

#Dec 3rd, 2007 @ 5:22 AM

I'm not going to say there's a price limit, but I will make you convince me that a Core 2 Extreme Edition is really necessary... Wink

littleguru
(microsoft student partnering)++

In reply to Max

#Dec 3rd, 2007 @ 8:53 AM

it IS required. Look at the specs for Crysis. THE DX10 game for Windows Vista. You need the best CPU and GPU (and that in SLI mode) that you can find! Therefore you really need to get the best thing in there! It's a must - both in CPU and GPU. And 4 GB of RAM. Really required. Crysis needs it and we want to play that on the dream machine.

Max
Spaceman Spiff!

In reply to littleguru

#Dec 3rd, 2007 @ 9:52 AM

This is where things get interesting... do you believe the processor is the most limiting factor in a PC??

littleguru
(microsoft student partnering)++

In reply to Max

#Dec 3rd, 2007 @ 8:53 AM

Well ... if you think that Crysis has a physic engine running in the game. They don't rely on physic hardware (there are a few around, but quite nobody has them build in their system and quite no vendor supports them), but do all the calculations on the CPU. So I think that the CPU is important - at least for that game.

The new Unreal Tournament supports PhysX - if I remember correctly - which would be an external physic card, but still, if you don't own one they do all the calcs on the CPU. No GPU involved here.

But if you say that you only want to work in Word or Excel (and who of us students does that) then you would probably only go with a low-end CPU Wink

sriram
hello world

Lets just say that C2E is : 75% costlier for about maybe 30-40% performance increase as compared to its nearest rival.
that said, since there is 'technically' no price limit involved - why would you not want the best ?
for ur question as to: is the processor the limiting factor: answer in one word No.
sure you need a lot of things + good programming to get the best out of your hardware.
lets just say that a processor performs operations on operands (data) - so ur data bus/channels need to be just as fast and u need a lot of memory at each level...
the C2E has 12 MB cache - which i'd say should suffice the processors requirement. get some exorbitant amount of ram (16gb) with low latency and high bus speeds - i'm guessing that the basic bottle necks are taken care off.
beyond that on secondary storage -get a good SSD+HDD over a SATA + fiber channel ; thats good stuff! Big Smile

these are good spec's if you are into the whole virtualization thing and want to run your guest systems at break neck speeds.