Top Notch

[RickyTick]

I found the High End build to be more difficult than I thought. As we may all mostly agree that the P35 chipset is the best way to go, I can't ignore the fact that the Nvidia 750i is just as good and possibly even better. I still haven't convinced myself that SLI is a worthwhile platform for a moderate gamer and everyday pc user, but the 750i can still be a viable candidate for this setup. As with the other two builds, its open for debate.

Since cases are so subjective, I've simply listed a few that are very popular and very highly rated, just to give the builder something to go on.


Cases

Antec 900 $100
Antec P182 $170
Thermaltake Tsunami VA300 BWA $115
Cooler Master Cosmos S $250


Power Supply

Corsair 520HX $110
Corsair 620HX $145
Antec TruePower Quatro 1000 $250


Motherboard

Asus P5K Pro $140
Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R $150
Abit IP35 Pro $150
EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 750i FTW $200


Video Card

EVGA Nvidia 8800GTS 512mb $225
EVGA Nvidia 9800GTX 512mb $300


Ram

G.Skill 6400CL5D-2GBNQ $45
A-Data ADQVE1A16K $44
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 $48


Processor

Intel Core2Quad Q9300 $280
Intel Core2Quad Q9450 $380
Intel Core2Duo E8400 $200
Intel Core2Duo E8500 $280

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar SE16 640gb $115
Western Digital VelociRaptor VR150 $300

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S203B $30
LiteOn LH-20A1L-06 w/LightScribe $33
Asus DRW-2014L1T w/LightScribe $42

[The Wise Monkey]

Good job - I'll create the threads in the BYOC section. :)

[shyster]

I dunno if you or someone else was going to build a more specified one for like heavy video rendering or not.

But in case you are not, is it worth listing a motherboard that has dual CPU slots with just a footnote saying this would be for Video rendering computers and autocad softwares.

As well as listing kind of the key differences in such a machine, like using the FB DDR RAM, or using Xeons instead of normal processors.

Just a thought, I only know what I saw WM post from the questions I asked so I would not be a resource to talk to about it, but it seems like some people might find it useful

[RickyTick]

Why don't you put something together like I did and post it here.

[shyster]

Pretty much because I know nothing about it.

Like I mentioned I only know the things I know because I read WM's posts. I did not even realize that different RAM was used for Xeon boards.

However if I get some time to research the boards and that type of computer I may, it just depends how much time I chance upon.

[The Wise Monkey]

Insanely top of the range rig for video editing/trading (dual CPU):

Case: whatever, needs good cooling though
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182101
CPUs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117149
RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134327
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341002 - $90 after rebate atm, which is a real bargain
GFX card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133165
HDs: 2x WD Raptor 150GB in RAID 1, 2x WD 500GB in RAID 0

This comes to about $2000, but you could save money by dropping the RAID setups and getting a different GFX card.

[The Wise Monkey]

Thinking about a couple of updates to this list:

- ATI 4850 instead of the 8800GTS 512, and GTX280 instead of the 9800GTX
- Few newer chipset motherboards e.g. 790i, X48
- Some DDR3 RAM alternatives

Any ideas?

[RickyTick]

Funny you mention that. I was thinking over the past weekend that it was time to update our list. Especially motherboard, video card, and processor. Seems like the P45 motherboard has become mainstream now. Lets give it some thought and put together a new list.

Stay tuned...

[The Wise Monkey]

The 4870X2 is now the most powerful GPU on the market, so we should probably include that, as well as the GTX280 and, say, the GTX260 and the 4870 as slightly cheaper alternatives.

CPU wise, everything is pretty much the same. I wouldn't recommend anything more expensive than the 9450 at the moment. Maybe change the motherboards to P45 and 790 chipsets, with X48 options thrown in too.

As for the PSU, I think that the Corsair 750TX is probably one of the best available at the moment.