[Updated] For people without a limit on their budget and aren't afraid of spending $12,000, I have the perfect gaming rig for you. I will also post the best rig you can build for a budget of $1,000. Go here if you are looking for a build for around $1,000 http://www.hardwareforums.com/threads/low-budget-high-end-gaming.28901/ For the wealthy technologically impaired. I will not be adding the feature of overclocking the CPU, RAM, or GPU into this walk-through, and will not add in the advanced cooling methods. First you will want the best current processor for gaming that will match your motherboards socket, currently this is Intel's third best gaming processor, but in about April of 2012, this socket type will be compatible with the fastest of gaming processors, so this is the considered socket for an up gradable build. CPU-Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz Quad-Core $315 You want to keep you processor cool if you were to overclock it, which is available with the i7-2600K. Even if you don't wish to overclock it, keeping it cool help it last longer, and work better. Your system will thank you. CPU Cooler-CORSAIR H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler $130 Then you need two of the best video cards SLI'ed together, the Mars II has two full power GTX 580s on one PCB and is factory clocked 22% faster than the GTX 590 which is currently the fastest reference card. It allows for overclocking and SLI for ungodly speeds. Along with that you will want a single overclocked GTX 580 for dedicated PhysX so the Mars II cards can run faster. The single GTX 580 card must have good cooling. Video Card-Tow Asus ROG Mars II Gtx 580. One MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition $3580 Then you need the best motherboard with two PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots far enough apart to fit both cards, hold the fastest type of RAM and can be continuously upgraded after 2012 when most RAM and CPU's of 2011 will be obsolete, and can support 16Gb of RAM. Motherboard-GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 LGA ATX $350 Next you need RAM with the same max speed as the motherboard allows, you will want to use all available channels for maximum bit rate. RAM-G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 2133Mhz $240 Next you will want a main hard drive to boot from and give your computer the highest speed, and using a RAID 1 setup will offer the highest possible speeds with less than a 10 second boot speed. HDD-Two Solid State OCZ Vertex 2 Pro 2.5" 100Gb $1280 You will also want a secondary hard drive, because 100Gb is not enough for many games, but you don't want one too big that it has low transfer speed.. Second HDD-Seagate Barracuda Xt 3TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6Gb/s $175 Disk drive comes last when talking about performance, but a fast one doesn't hurt. Blue-Ray is everywhere, and burning onto a HD disk with large amount of space and being able to light scribe designs on the cover is nice to have. Optical Drive-LITE-ON 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache $100 To carry the heavy load of all of that immense hardware, you need a power supply that won't overheat or stop working due to lack of Volts. Power Supply-SILVERSTONE ST1200 1200W ATX12V $250 You can pick your own computer case aslong as everything fits in it, the look of the case is up to you. Prices can range from $300-$2,000. I chose the AZZA Hurrican 2000 CSAZ-2000 Black for $150 for the increased amount of fans and liquid cooling radiator slots. Now we can start with more eye-friendly and pleasant to use necessities. First you need to be able to see the game to play it, and who doesn't want to be able to 'YouTube' and do other things while gaming at the same time. A three monitor setup is perfect. And these have the highest resolution for the best possible look. Monitor-Three HP ZR30w Black 30in. 3000:1 $3,600 You all want a wireless mouse, but need one that is as fast and responsive as a wired one made for gaming, and a good looking one is all the better. This is the world's only wireless mouse for extreme gaming. Mouse-Razer Mamba $130 You need the fastest acting keyboard with the most ghost keys for those key mashing situations that also looks good, and has lights to see it in the dark. Keyboard-Razer Lycosa Mirror Edition $80 Now down to what you don't need, but would be nice to have. The right speakers for a gaming rig can make your experience next to orgasmic. Speakers-Logitech Z906 500W 5.1 $340 A headset will make communication in-game so much easier. Headset-Jabra BIZ 2400 2499-829-105 $125 Buying LED lights for inside of your case to shine through a little window or fan holes you have on your case can increase the look of your rig and make it seem so much better for only about $50 more. Finally, you do not want all of that money and work burning up in a power surge or outage, you want a good surge suppressor. Suppressor-Tripp Lite DRS-1215 $50 I will be buying this setup by the start of 2012 when I get my return taxes in for around $12,000. It will not be that much of an upgrade compared to my system which already has the everything here other than the video cards, plus more RAM, except for the motherboard and processor, as I am using a 990X extreme with a Gigabyte G1. Sniper motherboard currently. The only reason I am going with a system that has 8% less computing power is because no one will notice the 8% decrease, and it will be extremely up gradable when Ivy Bridge comes out, which will more than make up that 8%. There is nothing it will not be able to do with settings all the way up for at least 10 years, and this set up is extremely up gradable with the new hardware coming out in the near future. The overall gaming power will see a boost of over 500%. I am not here to advertise these products, just to give information to those who wan't to have the best.
Nice build other than the mobo, processor and ram. Triple channel ram was a flop, LGA 1366 is a discontinued socket and the 990x only out performs a Core i7 2600k in audio/video creation and a few other heavily multi-threaded applications. For most task, including gaming, this $300 processor has equal and in some instances better performance than your $1000 one. Also with a 1155 board you would be able to upgrade to an ivy bridge processor when they are released. One of the best features of your set up is the money you save on tanning salon memberships. Sitting in front of three 30" IPS Panels will give you all the tan you could ever need. I have just one Dell U3011 and the heat it puts off is insane. Of course the image quality makes it seem like a fair trade off. I also have a nice gamming rig, fairly similar to what you have listed here. Being realistic, at the rate tech is advancing we will get three years tops out of our systems, being able to play the latest and greatest games and use the most advanced applications. It’s highly unlikely your system will even be operational in 20 years and it will most definitely not meet the minimum requirements of the latest software.
When going for a gaming rig, the GPU will do almost all of the work, but having a CPU that can outperform any other CPU in video and audio creation will increase PhysX by taking a small load off of the video cards with the simple grid rendering. With the dual SLI GTX 590 workload is not something to be worried about, but I am a performance freak. I want more than I will need for more that 10 years. And the LGA 1366 is still a widely used socket in most professional gaming motherboards, and like I siad, this build is for people with a bottomless budget, nothing but the very best. And If someone really did have a budget like this, they could afford a motherboard compatible with an Ivy bridge processor and faster RAM with a lower CAS latency when they do come out. I appreciate your opinion on my build, but for now the 990X extreme has not been out performed on any benchmark when it come to just plain 3D and 2D grid rendering and in-game physics. I did update my build by deciding to go with a RAID 1 set up with OCZ 100Gb SSD for more speed than ever necessary, but then again, only the best.
