asking for a huge favor here guys.

[F9thRet]

As you know, Tornadoes came through OK, and I have had some damage. All the work I did on the new system, the home theater, etc. is all for naught now. I am insured, and all, But with the damage to the home, the barns, Chasing cows, Replacing freezers of food, Rebuilding everything for Multi boxing, and TV I just don't have time for.

I know it's a huge favor to ask of my friends here, But could I just get like a new egg list, of what I need, so I can just order and forget, while I concentrate on small issues like a roof, repairing walls, floors, stuff like that.

Budget between 5-10k average about 7.

I need one good PC and 3 monitors for Multiboxing, and 4 TV's 2 for the bedrooms, one for the living room, and one for the old/new theater. I know this is a huge imposition, But I just don't trust that many other people, and I've always been done right by you all.

If this is too much to ask, I understand, and there will never be any hard feelings. I know It seems I'm passing it off, and in many ways I am. It's just my plate is so full, and they keep adding more and more to it.

Thanks ahead of time guys.

Stephen

[Lyonheart]

Wow man! Im sorry you went through that, but glad your ok!

[F9thRet]

Thanks man, It is def. not something I want to go through again. Have FEMA coming out today actually.

[FiveXFun]

Wow, I am so sorry to hear about your loss. As long as family is OK, it is nothing you can't rebuild from, but I can't imagine all the work it will be to reconstruct your life. I'm far from knowledgable about hardware - last time I looked at things was about three years ago when I bought a couple of systems and tried to understand enough to be a somewhat informed buyer and I haven't thought about HW since. However, there are a lot of knowledgable folks that frequent this site. I'm betting someone will be able to help you out.

I know this is pretty serious, but it made me chuckle when I looked at your location. I'm guessing that is pretty similar to the conditions you are living in now. Hopefully you can get back into normal conditions soon!

[Ualaa]

Sorry to hear about that, F9thRet.



As far as a system, you have two basic choices.

If you go with an i7-3930K based system, you get six physical cores each with its corresponding logical core.
The chips are one generation back from the current (i7-3770K), but with the increased ram bandwidth are basically equal for single games.
However, if you box enough accounts, having six physical cores is going to be an advantage over having four physical cores.
The 3930K is basically twice the price of a 3770K.

A 3930K motherboard will support 64GB of ram (quad-channel), while a 3770K will support only 32GB (dual-channel).
Chances are, unless you want to play around with a ramdrive, 32GB will be plenty for just about anything.

If you're not likely to box a large number accounts (say 5-6 max), the 4770K is scheduled for release in June.
It is basically a 10-15% more powerful 3770K, and will probably retail for what the 3770K is going for now.
If there's a decent chance you'll want to 10-box (or the equivalent in another game), the 6 core might be the way to go.

Additional components are basically going to be the same across either platform.
Whatever video card you pick for one, could go into the other.
Same for hard disks (storage) or an SSD etc.

For most games boxed, the upper limit (bottleneck) in terms of maximum accounts, is going to be video ram.
Depending on the game, processor and/or video card is going to determine smoothness and level of eye-candy.





Last summer, I personally went with:

OS: Win7 Professional, 64-bit.
Case: Antex 1100 Gamer
Processor: i7-3930K
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth X79
Ram: Corsair Vengeance CL 8, 32GB DDR3 1600MHz (low profile)
Video: EVGA GTX 670, 4GB Superclocked
SSD: 2x OCZ Vertex 3, 120GB, striped into a Raid0 format.
Storage: 2x Seagate 3TB 7200rpm drives.
PSU: Corsair Modular, 1050 watt.

I'm using a pair of Samsung 27" LED widescreen monitors (SyncMaster SA350s).
If you wanted three monitors, you might want an ATI card instead of an Nvidia as they can have more monitor plug-ins.

OCZ is experiencing some financial issues.
I'd personally go with Samsung 840s, if I were getting SSDs today.

[F9thRet]

Thanks so much Ualaa. That is exactly what Kind of info I was needing man. I will def. go the 3930k route, as I'll just use the one pc now for everything, From controlling solar panels I'm having brought in, To home temps, to Media center, and of course Multiboxing . 64 GB ram is overkill, but I'm damn tired of building PC's LOL. Thanks for the heads up also on OCZ

@FiceXfun, LOL, I had to pause for a second over location then realized I had put in Van , down by the River. an old Chris Farley skit on SNL. But yeah, IT feels like that sometimes bro.

Stephen

[F9thRet]

Cliff notes version...

FEMA said, You have damage.

Then asked, do you want to move, and we said no.

Then he said, do you want to rebuild? we said yes.

It may come down to a new home, or the funds to replace the roof, walls, etc. etc.

He took Pictures, and stuff, and said we will have something for ya in 3 days.

Now mind you, also, I'm the guy who hates asking for help, I was a damn Fire Chief for 5 years out here, and probably helped to rebuild 80 or so homes and barns. this is so new to me , to be on the receiving end of charity.

[thefunk]

Cliff notes version...

FEMA said, You have damage.

Then asked, do you want to move, and we said no.

Then he said, do you want to rebuild? we said yes.

It may come down to a new home, or the funds to replace the roof, walls, etc. etc.

He took Pictures, and stuff, and said we will have something for ya in 3 days.

Now mind you, also, I'm the guy who hates asking for help, I was a damn Fire Chief for 5 years out here, and probably helped to rebuild 80 or so homes and barns. this is so new to me , to be on the receiving end of charity.

Its hard if it clashes with your beliefs, however its more idiotic to be prideful in these situations (as I have learned). At least something in society is working eh ;)

[F9thRet]

Wise words thefunk. Wise words. I know this isn't the place for it, But I am so reminded of the book of Job, the lord givith, he taketh away. In so many ways, My family is damned lucky, we have our lives.

Stephen

[luxlunae]

Just wanted to say that I too am sorry this happened to you. Losing your home theater must have been especially heart wrenching! Did you lose any livestock?

[F9thRet]

I wound up selling what cows I had just before all of this started, cause I knew with the drought (haha) Hay, Grass, and alfalfa prices would be through the roof. I do know that candlebox, who lives over in chandler, has an appaloosa he is trying to find a home for.

[JohnGabriel]

If you have something on your list under a couple hundred, I can help. I prefer Amazon over other stores if you have a wish list there.

[candlebox]

Horse shit stephen, using your fema money for games.

I am just glad we got power back as fast as we did.

[F9thRet]

LOL, actually, I'm not using the Fema money for this. Fema doesn't cover items in the home. This is from Insurance LOL.

Nah, every dime with FEMA will go into replacing parts of a roof, Floors, and holes I'm discovering in the outer walls. So much rain damage even after the Tornado.

I micro manage everything. The ranch stuff, I still have a few bucks, but I keep it separate from the housing expenses.

[Ualaa]

If you're going an 3930K route.

For a motherboard, one of these, depending on your needs:
Asus P9X79 Deluxe (or Pro).
Asus Sabertooth, X79.
Gigabyte G1 Assassin 2.
Asus Rampage IV Extreme.

The board doesn't have to be Asus, but that was personally my choice.
The Deluxe or Pro versions are both good, and that seemed to be the most common/popular choice for the 3930K chips.
The Sabertooth has military grade parts (not sure if that is hype, or makes any difference) and the board is layout gets very nice cooling.
The Gigabyte was a special order, but had a lot of extra features onboard... blue tooth, killer nic, Xi-Fi audio, etc.
The Rampage IV Extreme can be overclocked further than the others, with more tools in that direction.



I generally take a look a the Tom's Hardware for video cards: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

My biggest caveats would be to avoid the dual-chips on one card route... GTX 590, GTX 690, 4870 X2, etc, and go with a single card over pair of cards that are both underclocked and then put onto the same chip.

The video memory on the card is going to be a larger limiting factor, than which card you go with, assuming you go with an upper end card.
I liked the GTX 670 4GB.
A 680 is going to be stronger, but I didn't think the increased 10-15% benchmarks was worth the 40-50% price increase.
The Titan has since come out, and that has 6GB of video ram... which is more than the 4GB you can get on a 670/680/690 (I wouldn't go with the 690 types)... but it is basically a thousand.




If you might go with a ramdrive, higher speed ram is a good consideration.

From links MiRai shared with me, outside of benchmarks there isn't a lot of difference between higher MHz ram (with looser timings) and lower MHz ram (with tighter timings).
I went with 32GB of DDR3 1600MHz with 8-8-8-24 timings (CL 8 ram).
1866 CL 10 ram, was basically the same price and the same performance.
2133 CL 12 ram wasn't that much of a difference, but cost more.

There were a few threads (Sam Deathwalker bait, and maybe another) where some people were talking of free/paid ramdrive software.
The higher MHz ram seemed to noticeably perform better than the slower ram.
So if you're going (or might go with) a ramdrive at some point, then the faster ram is a consideration.

I'm not sure if the benefit of a ramdrive is going to be that much, compared with a fast SSD for the gaming folder.
There was a certain level of hassle, transferring the game onto the ramdrive and then transferring it off each time you powered up or shut off the PC.

[spher0boom]

I'm very sorry to hear that you have to go through this.


If you have something on your list under a couple hundred, I can help. I prefer Amazon over other stores if you have a wish list there.
I would agree with John. Everything I've bought lately has been cheaper from Amazon than from Newegg.

Also, you'll be spending a lot of money shortly. Make sure you have a good rewards credit card ... If you do one of those bedroom tvs will be free (or clse to it) given what you will be spending. If you don't currently have a card the amazon card offers 3% for anything bought on Amazon, so it would be an easy way for you to get a little extra from your insurance/fema money.

[candlebox]

Stephen got screwed by FEMA according to FB. Shit luck.

Not sure if he lost his PC or what but I can fork up a donor for the time being. If anything he can use the chassis for his own build.

[eternaldrk]

Hey, a couple of things to note about gfx cards if you haven't bought your parts already:

- NVidia's card scale better in SLI/XFire still and generally provide more consistent frame rates. Tom's Hardware has new tests that check for dropped and runt frames that aren't reflected in frames per second but to the human eye looks like stuttering or lag.
- The GTX 770 has just been released and generally outperforms the AMD HD 7970, its about 10 to 20% faster than the GTX 680, and comes close to the GTX 780/Titan in some games. It comes in 2GB and 4GB flavors, but so far only the 2GB are for sale.
- WoW still runs a little faster on NVidia cards than AMD.
- AMD gfx cards have FAR better general compute capabilities that NVidia, so something to consider if you want to do any video transcoding.

That being the case, there aren't many new NVidia offerings with more than 2 or 3GB of video RAM, which is pretty annoying. There is a 7970 with 6GB of RAM available on newegg that would be nice for boxing:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202005

This would be my choice if I were putting a system together right now. You get the 6GB of RAM, 70% to 80% of the performance of a Titan at almost half the price. You also get AMD's far superior general compute capabilities.