I need a SUPER Computer

[heretic marine]

So I am looking to buy a really, really, really, good computer. a computer that can run game engines and game servers. my spending budget 700 to 1000$ I am not one for making a computer but I am wondering what is a good computer to buy, I found one for 750$ its a quad-core (I will get the name of it soon, I forgot it)

so thanks

[jgebi]

well your man thing will be your prosseser so get a good one along with everything elas but if you want a real super computer save up to about 2K and then get a pure server

[Aenir]

Check out pcgamer.com

they have an article about building your own PC if you are interested

also, they usually have good PCs for a budget!

[Wolfshade]

Not really a super computer unless it's a cray...
But I second teh PCgamer comment, they have a gaming rig for about $1k

http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/category/tech/pc-gamer-rig/

[Psychosplodge]

Never buy off the shelf, build it.

[eldargal]

Will that budget be enough? I had my brothers build me a computer and I specified 'make it godly' and it costed more than one thousand dollars for the parts.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Oh my. O_O

[Wolfshade]

A lot depends what you want, triple sli cards, huge ssds, water cooling for individual components it all adds up

[Psychosplodge]

Huge SSDs ftw...

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Too easy.

[Psychosplodge]

Too easy.

I was thinking along the lines of huge tracts of land, what do you mean? O_o

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Nope.

[eldargal]

Come to think of it I think the triple SLI Nvidia somenumbersandletters probably added to the cost.

[Psychosplodge]

probably.

triple 690's?

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Heh. 69.

[eldargal]

Sounds about right.

[Psychosplodge]

well that would be at least $3k there...

You don't really need three, if you'd like to donate one....:D

[Wolfshade]

Oh not forgetting the 1kW+ modular power that you'd need with such a beasty...

[Psychosplodge]

At least, possibly much more depending on other stuffs attached.

[eldargal]

Oh not forgetting the 1kW+ modular power that you'd need with such a beasty...
That's a lot then I assume?

[Wolfshade]

Imagine Doc from back to the future shouting 1.21 Jiga[sic]Watts

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Giga*

[eldargal]

I don't think my computer uses that much power.:p

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Would you notice if it did?

[eldargal]

I don't know? How does one notice such things?

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

By noticing that their electric bill is suddenly astronomical. :p

[Wolfshade]

Giga*


What is this?

The Doc pronounces it with a J hence the [sic]

[heretic marine]

so if I were to make my own computer what would I need? and how would I go about getting it and putting it together? you can point me in the right direction or tell me almost everything I need to know.

thanks all for your input so far.

[Psychosplodge]

case appropriate for the size of motherboard
motherboard
compatible cpu
graphics card
hdd
dvd/rw
psu
and a copy of windows 7 before they all sell out.

[Wolfshade]

Also ram

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah that probably helps, doh

[Wolfshade]

As for the CPU I'd be looking at a quad core from the i7 range, probably the 3.6GHz, but for that you are probably looking at about 1/3rd of your budget :/

[Psychosplodge]

Nah An I7 is overpowered for what it'll be used for, one of the faster ivybridge i5 will do everything necessary...

[Wolfshade]

Nah An I7 is overpowered for what it'll be used for, one of the faster ivybridge i5 will do everything necessary...

You are correct here, alot depends on how future proof you want it to be, which as it is a budget rig I suppose that is the case and the i5 performance is equal to any demands made of it with current games. Probably best to save here to spend extra on the Gfx

[Psychosplodge]

That would be my plan

[Wolfshade]

The next question would be graphics cards, do you prefer ATI or Nvidia, I would say top end really is Radeon HD 6990 but that is stupidly expensive. Being more of an ATI fan I would say possibly something along the lines of the 6870

[Psychosplodge]

I think to keep the powerdraw down go down the gtx660ti route?

[eldargal]

I can't stand ATI, every time I've had an ATI card it has never run as well as my Nvidia cards and I've had to replace them much earlier than intended.

[Psychosplodge]

I prefer the ATI route from past experiance, but I've been told you generally get better performance if you pair them with a AMD CPU rather than an intel one.

[Wolfshade]

660 or perhaps the 560 if you want it slightly cheaper, they benchmark very similiarly though the 660 is much more efficient with textures...

All my cards have been ATIs until my 560 that I've got at the moment, it was a freebe and gave a slight improvement over that ati I was running, did I mention it was free?

I've never had any problems with ATIs though.

[Psychosplodge]

I'm currently running a 6850, and can't complain, but the upgrade will be coming...
before that I had a temperamental ati that I got cheap as half a pair, that crashed under 70% loading, but a quick service and good as new...

[Wolfshade]

So what is next we have
CPU: i5 3470 3.2Ghz?
Graphics: 660Ti or HD7970

Next up mobo?

[Psychosplodge]

a p8z77 series was what I had recommended me as a good budget chipset, with an 1155 socket...

[Wolfshade]

...and made by Asus...

[Psychosplodge]

So should be reasonable.

[Wolfshade]

If you are feeling lazy : http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd?oc=dpcwxv3&model_id=alienware-x51

[Psychosplodge]

But it's really a dell... although essentially what we were designing lol

[Wolfshade]

I have no problems with dell, when friends and family have wanted machines I have got them dells and none of those have had any issues. Though I hear of some people have had tremendous issues with

[Psychosplodge]

I think I'd swap out the PSU for a bigger branded model if I got that one, at the minimum. I've heard bad things about dells but had little experience with them myself.

[Wolfshade]

Yeah and more ram.
I think it is a nice little box that to be honest and can be upgraded as the budget allows and at least it skirts round the issue of ensuring compatability

[Wolfshade]

To be honest I am thinking of getting this: http://www.ebuyer.com/395309-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-1075 as a barebones system chuck in a couple of 660s slab of ram ssd for the os to sit on add some cooling and hey presto!

[Psychosplodge]

I'm not sure you'd fit two in, the powersupply is pitiful too. You'd probably be better getting a cpu/mb/ram bundle from somewhere and adding the case psu etc yourself...

Also there's no OS

[Wolfshade]

A friend has plenty of legal licenses floating about...

It's got two pci-e ports, but it depends how close they are together.

I always want to build a machine and spread the purchases across the year, unfortunately, by the time it would be done it was out of date, though I guess that is the problem with most kits to be honest.

[Psychosplodge]

Aye, I think my new machine when it gets built will be starting off with my existing graphics card...

[Wolfshade]

Along the lines of the mobo deals, found this which looks interesting http://www.ebuyer.com/390716-intel-enthusiast-gamer-bundle-including-asus-p8z77-v-motherboard-intel-i7-intel-enthusiast-v2

[Psychosplodge]

looks interesting, I'd check out the reviews of the cooler as when I was looking through watercooling stuff there was something about some of those all in one kits having motor/pump issues.

Have you seen anything on overclockers.co.uk?

[Wolfshade]

I've only breifly check, I'll pop on tomorrow and highlight anything that jumps out at me.

I thought the cooler was an air cooler :o have to double check

[Psychosplodge]

No it's a self contained water system, they're apparently good, but some models have reliability issues. Cooler wise from review sites noctua seem to consistently give the best results for aircoolers.

[Wolfshade]

Hmm, interesting. I didnt even realise they existed, I wouldn't have thought that the thermal gradient would have been sufficient

[Psychosplodge]

I would have agreed, but when I was looking at some watercooling vids on youtube I'm sure one said the temperature throughout the system will be about the same at anyone point. it's the entire thing moving that keeps it cool...

[Wolfshade]

I suppose that as long as the fluid is cooler than the temperature of the cpu then thermodynamics dictates that it must heat up the cooler water, and so cool the processor. I would imagine then the water heats up to a maximum temperature and stabilises at that. Bigger radiator more air flow can drop that, fins!

[Psychosplodge]

bigger fans - more power...though defeats the quieter nature of watercooling O_o

[Wolfshade]

Yeah, one of my mates has a realy nice silent box, all done through efficient airflow and passive cooling, very neatly done

[Psychosplodge]

Cool, mine is noisey as owt but it rarely goes over 38c though it's hardly the most advanced piece of kit laying around...

[Wolfshade]

Mine is terribly noisy, I have a huge 24" fan on the side of the case and floor isn't level and causes vibrations throughout

[Wolfshade]

Oh that OC bundles look nice, thanks for the top tip

[Psychosplodge]

I think if you email/ring them they'll give you a price for more ram/different cooler etc...

I know I've picked up a few good deals before, usually go to the trade counter though...

[Wolfshade]

I like this one:http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-115-OE&groupid=43&catid=2384&subcat=2288

but it is a bit pricey... I suppose I could opt for an i5 on a Z77 board and then upgrade later

[Psychosplodge]

not bad, If you can get a Windows 7 ultimate freebie key you can get it with 32mb of ram...

[heretic marine]

I have found a few things
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3487656&CatId=333
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7347775&CatId=333
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7366246&CatId=333
are they any good?

[Psychosplodge]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7366246&CatId=333
is using an older sandybridge cpu

either the other two look ok, but I honestly couldn't help you with where they stand price wise in terms of value for US pricing.
Also windows 8 is meant to be really really bad.

[heretic marine]

Also windows 8 is meant to be really really bad.

I am planning on getting a Linux OS

also 1 USD is .625 of a GBP, so 749 USD is = to 468 GBP and 619 USD is = to 386

[Capt Forsythe]

You will find building a great rig is much more satisfying and will offer you way less headaches in the long run. I cannot reccommend a computer in a box for you, but I can offer you insight on a build.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139010 --- Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131830 --- Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504 --- CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167088 --- SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186 --- Ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185 --- HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204 --- DVD Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986 --- Windows 7 OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835288001 --- CPU Cooler (Air)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604 --- GPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010 --- PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186038 --- Thermal Paste

Sorry, but you aren't getting an awesome rig for 1k, can you get a real decent one? Absolutely. These part above are everything you need to build an awesome rig. This is the exact rig I just built for a friend. It's a beast. it overclocked to 4.6 ghz on 1.34 volts and on that air cooler and under full load with prime95 it maxxed temps at 89 degrees on a single core, all other cores were lower. TJmax for that chip is 105 degrees and under full load I like to keep the temps under 95 degrees. There just isn't a need for watercooling on these Ivy Bridge chips so don't bother unless you are an actual exteme enthusiast. It's also very reasonably quiet.

The Superclock EVGA cooler hangs over the A1 DIMM slot but not the A2 slot, and this was my first build on a micro-ATX board so that's why I went with the low profile RAM, this is unnecessary I found out, so feel free to get ram with a heat-spreader.

Are all of those parts premium? Yes. Do you need to purchase those exact specs? No. Think of it as a jumping off point. But most importantly: Do your research!

[Wolfshade]

Also, one of the most overlooked issues, if you have tidy cable management throughout your rig then you can achieve better airflow and more efficient air cooling, it doesn't take long and can be done with simple cable ties.

[Psychosplodge]

I am planning on getting a Linux OS

also 1 USD is .625 of a GBP, so 749 USD is = to 468 GBP and 619 USD is = to 386

I meant in terms of I don't know if those prices represent good value in the US, sorry if that didn't come across.

[heretic marine]

I meant in terms of I don't know if those prices represent good value in the US, sorry if that didn't come across.
oh, sorry. I kinda had a brain fart there lol

@Capt Forsythe I am will gonna keep in mind your rig (maybe I will be able to do extra work and get enough)

with with an extra $250 (or 156.325 GBP) what could I do or should I do with this rig
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3487656&CatId=333

I guess with my budget I am looking more for a really good computer then a super computer, my gaming Computer is a one of those pre-built home/office computers but I added better rams and a graphics card.

[Learn2Eel]

Ah, a SUPER computer?
I can help you there;

http://cdn.pocket-lint.com/images/2TBm/superman-notebook-desktop-pc-computer-1.jpg?20110712-094522

[Wolfshade]

One thing I would say is SDD for boot, os and applications, with traditional platters for storage