Overview
There was a time many years ago that I loved to tether myself to a computer and start ripping it up. As of late, I have limited this activity to the occasional addition / replacement or basic items (hard drive, memory, fan, etc). After over a decade of dealing with pre-built computers, I decided it was time to get my hands dirty and build a rig from scratch.
The itch started after I went looking for 64-bit Windows 7 drivers for a laptop that was a little over a year old. Since the laptop came with 32-bit Windows Vista, it seems the manufacturer <cough>DELL</cough> decided to give up on releasing any drivers at all several months ago. Of course, all of the components in the laptop are proprietary OEM stuff, so I am really at the OEM's mercy for getting drivers unless I rip it up and pull model numbers off components. Then, I flashed back to my pre-OEM computer days; when I knew every component in the machine and had complete control over the upgrading.
Let's face it, retail components have a much longer shelf life. I can still get modern drivers for components I bought years ago. The norm seems to be about 5 years or two OS versions (depending on how much the driver architecture changes). I was getting tired of OEM components with little to no support once the manufacturer felt the product was too old after a year.
The new machines (yes, I built 2) needed to support two roles. The first was as a development workstation. This meant solid support for VPCs and plenty of RAM to keep them running smoothly. The second was for rock solid gaming that would keep me from having to look at specs for at least a year. I did have a budget to keep in mind, so I couldn't just get the top-end components from every category. However, this meant the rig would have some wiggle room future upgrades.
Let's face it, 10+ years is a long time to be out of the BYOPC game. This meant I needed an extensive upgrade of my knowledge to the "newer" standards. Luckily, it's like riding a bicycle; even though the standards have changed the underlying issues are the same (insert tab A into slot A and not slot B...rinse...repeat). Thankfully, setting IRQ/DMA jumpers are a thing of the past. To make things easier, I limited myself choices to items that received high customer ratings on NewEgg. This gave me a starting point from which I could review the validity of the negative reviews and expand to other sources via Google for additional details on the item.
Processor
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920
Multiple components revolve around the choice of processor, so naturally that is where I started. It was a no-brainer when choosing between dual core or quad core. While a quad core brings very little benefit to games (and in some cases negative impact) they are a HUGE plus to VPC development. Dual core would have made for a cheaper setup and most stuff isn't even leveraging dual core moreorless quad core, but I didn't want slap together a system on outgoing technology.
I have to admit I don't get into the whole Intel vs AMD debate, nor do I really care. I went with Intel because I've pretty much always used Intel and the i7-920 was being touted by many for its ability to handle overclocking very well. It also seems that at current Intel chips are doing better than AMD. That might change in 6 months, but for now the i7 appears to be king.
Motherboard
ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
The choice of the i7 lead me to this motherboard. NewEgg reviews coupled with the ASUS reputation for overclocking aided my decision. ASUS boards have a great deal of support across the net, and a majority of overclocking walkthroughs used their BIOS details as the defacto standard.
The P6T has a few model variations, but I went with the basic because other models seemed to add features I didn't need: such as enhanced audio and additional network jacks. The performance enhancing qualities just didn't swing with the system I was trying to build. In retrospect, I probably should have gotten the best possible board, since the board is the most difficult piece to replace (except the case).
I liked that the board supported up to 12GB of RAM across 6 slots. This meant that putting in 6GB now means I could add 6GB in the future if needed without replacing my existing memory. I always hated when upgrading memory that I had to pay for memory I already had in order to add more.
While the triple SLI option was intriguing, I could only afford to build a dual SLI system. Also, the 3rd SLI channel is on an PCIe x4 channel, which is probably fine for a 3rd card but means it would be choked compared to the other 2 cards running on x16 channels. Also, with 3 modern video cards in the machine all the other expansion slots would be blocked. As it stands, my setup now only has 1 extra slot available with 2 video cards installed.
Memory
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D
Almost every forum I visted where someone complained about memory issues there would be someone replying to just buy some Corsair RAM. Couple that with the reviews on NewEgg and I had a brand I felt I could trust. These are by no means the biggest and baddest on the market, but they would suit my needs and 6GB would give me plenty of RAM for VPCs.
Video Cards
EVGA 896-P3-1171-AR GeForce GTX 275 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
With video cards it all comes down to ATI vs NVIDIA. I prefer NVIDIA because it is the chipset and software with which I am most familiar. The choice of the 275 came down to various reviews and weighing the pros and cons (cost vs performance). In hindsight I should have saved a little money by getting the standard model rather than the superclocked edition and overclocking them myself.
Sound Card
Creative 70SB088000004 7.1 Channels PCI Express 1x Interface PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Like it or not, Creative is the difinitive place to go for sound cards. Many games incorporate EAX effects that are only available on a SoundBlaster card (with some arm wrestling of the OS thanks to ALchemy). I have fond memories of that Christmas my first year of college some some <ahem>15 years</ahem> ago when I exchanged the crappy, battery guzzling Sega Game Gear for a SoundBlaster 16. The X-Fi Titanium was a solid choice as the current forerunner of their catalog. I was intrigued by the Fatal1ty version, but couldn't justify the cost for a name as the performance enhancements were minimal.
Hard Drives
Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
When it comes to hard drives, I go with the best reviewed ones in the size I need. I originally wanted to go with 5-6 drives each (a 2 drive mirror for the system and 3-4 drive stripe for games), but the budget wouldn't allow it. I didn't need the drives to be much larger, since I have a file server at home to hold much of the big stuff. So 500GB was the best bang for my buck at the time. Sadly, since they are merely 7200RPM drives, and thus are the largest bottle-neck in the final assembly according to the Microsoft Rating system.
Optical Drive
LG Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Combo LG Blu-ray Reader & 16X LightScribe DVD±R DVD Burner
While I wasn't building these machines for video entertainment, I figured I might as well go with a blu-ray drive should I get a hankering to watch a movie. It also gave me the opportunity to feel out the blu-ray drives for when I upgrade my media center PC. Couple that with how cheap this drive is compared to a blu-ray player and I had a winner. I've never had a burner with LightScribe, but then again I don't burn very many CDs/DVDs.
Multi-reader
Rosewill RCR-IM5001 USB2.0 75 in 1 internal Card Reader w/ 3 ports USB2.0 Hub / eSATA port
Being a bit of a gadget freak means I have memory cards of every flavor, so I needed a reader that could do it all (including handle a Memory Stick Duo without the blasted adapter). The eSATA port and 5v power source were a plus for those pesky external drives, because the case has no front-facing eSATA port. The USB is nice, but unneccessary as the case already has 2 front-facing ports.
Power Supply
CORSAIR CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
No build is complete without a solid power supply. The 850HX had great ratings, plenty of power, and the Corsair reputation to back it up. Modular cabling is a must so that I don't have to deal with cheap adapters that add just another point of failure.
Case
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Gaming cases are all about 1 thing...lots and lots of air, and Antec seems to have a pretty good handle on that. The 900 has 4 stock fans and slots for 2 more fans (1 side-blowing and 1 internal attached to back of the hard drive cage) so I wasn't worried about air. I do recommend buying a case from a local retailer, because if things don't fit right you don't want to wait around a week or more for the RMA.
I've got a pretty dusty house (pet dander), but filters do not come stock on this case. However, they do come on the 902. So why did I get the 900? Honestly, it was because I bought the wrong one. In the end I decided not to swap out for the 902 because I was afraid the filters would get clogged way too fast and would just mess up my cleaning schedule (I already have 4 other computers I have to clean on a regular basis).
Had I gone with more than 3 hard drives I would have needed to upgrade to the 1200 (full-tower) case. Only 3 drives fit in this case because the graphics cards block the other drive bays. The internal fan assembly that attaches to the back of drive cage also had to be removed with more than one video card installed.
Cooling Upgrades
Processor
ZALMAN CNPS9900ALED 120mm 2 Ball Low-noise Blue LED CPU Cooler
Stock processor cooling is fine for the average layperson, but I had every intention of overclocking these puppies to eek as much out of them as I could till either they just had to be upgraded or melted themselves (I'm hopping for the former). The Zalman had excellent reviews and just looked slick (yes, presentation counts for something).
Case
Antec 761345-75024-0 120mm Blue LED Case Fan
This is merely the extra fan for the side-panel to blow some air on the toasty graphics cards that were causing the motherboard temps to actually clock higher than the proccessor (who'dve thunk it?). I attached it to the motherboard fan control so it would fluxuate speed based on need.
Monitor
Hannspree HG-281DPB Black 28" 3ms Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor
I needed a monitor that supported full 1600x1200 resolution, because trying to develop on anything less is just painful and my I didn't want to step back in resolution from my laptop. I looked at the "baby" 24" ones, but when I set eyes on this 28" monster I knew I had to have it on my desk. Now I have to actually turn my head a little when scanning for things.
Additional Components
NETGEAR XAVB1004-100NAS Up to 200Mbps Powerline AV Adapter Kit With Ethernet Switch
My home office is not hard wired to my network. My older systems were using my horrible wireless-g network, which is slow and spotty (especially when the microwave is on). I really didn't want to upgrade to wireless-n, because I am really not fond of wireless. Powerline networking has some a long way, so I figured I'd give this a shot. So far it has worked like a champ.