First a couple of rules:
I've built every desktop I've owned, besides my current one, which I heavily modified. This time I want to experience buying pre-built from a company.
No, I'm not using *(&@#*(!!!-ing bootcamp to play games on a Mac. Yes, I own a iPhone, an iPad and even a Mac Book Pro. But dammit my desk and its dusty underside still belongs toWindows 7.
I'm trying to keep the price for a meaty gaming desktop that I can upgrade for years to under $3,000.
Now that that is out of the way. I've been looking at Origin (though their customization tool keeps crapping out on me), Falcon Northwest, even Dell, as possible places to build my PC for me.
Right now, I'm sort of leaning toward Falcon, mostly because I love the design of their Icon2 chassis. Here's what I have speced out. What do you think?
System Details
Chassis
ICON2 - Black Anodized
Chassis Logo Insert
White Light
Chassis Fan Kit
Performance Fan Pack
Power Supply
1000 Watt Modular
Motherboard
Rampage III Extreme
Processor
Core i7 950 3.06GHz
Processor Cooler
Mach V Liquid Cooling
Processor Overclock
Mach V Processor Overclock
Memory
12GB (3x4GB) 1333MHz DDR3
Video Card
GeForce GTX 580 (1536MB)
Sound Card
On-Board Audio
Networking
On-Board Ethernet
Hard Drive
500GB - 7200RPM - 3GB/s
Optical Drive
24x DVD Writer
Media Reader
Internal Media Reader
64-Bit Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium
Warranty
3 Year Warranty - Parts and Service
A couple of notes:
I'm skipping a sound card because I'm certain I can pick up a decent one and add it later at a much better deal. Besides they only sell Fatality cards and I know zero about them.
I keep going back and forth between the GeForce GTX 580 I have selected here and the slightly slower, slightly cheaper Radeon 6970 HD.
I skimped a bit on the CPU to to keep this at about $20 shy of $3,000. I'm slightly worried that's going to bite me in the ass.
I figure a 1000W modular power supply is a good way to save money and should last me a year or so before I need to start thinking about a 1200W one.
Oh, had to add this. I've got quite a few HDD sitting in this desktop, which I will be transferring over. So I don't need to buy much in the way of space. I'm thinking of switching this to a single smaller SDD for the operating system, and then using my RAID for storage.
So, what do you think? Any specs you'd change? Should I go with a different builder? I eagerly anticipate your advice.
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