Willravel

Let's say you just hit the lottery twice and you want to buy or put together your perfect computer. What direction would you go? Would you get the HP ENVY 15 with the dual SSDs? Would you go Alienware and get the Area 51? How about an iMac with the new 27" screen? Or would you build something entirely custom?

Go ahead, indulge!

For me, I'd probably want to build a PC because I've already got a Mac to fart around on.

I'd probably start with the brand new Thermaltake Level 10 computer case.
This is easily the sexiest computer case ever made. It's also massive and can hold anything you want.

After that, I'd want a mobo that could handle all of the insane crap I'm going to stick to it, so I'd probably go with something like the EVGA E758-A1. The thing has 10 SATA II ports, handles up to 24GB of triple-channel DDR3 1600+ memory, and of course it's made for the Intel Core i7 Quad core.

Speaking of which, I'd totally get the Intel i7-975 3.3GHz quad core processor. This processor is the devil.

So I'm going to need some decent RAM to keep up. I'm thinking I'll go Ripjaw with 16GB of DDR3 1600 RAM. I could go up to 24GB, but why bother? This RAM can probably travel through time.

I plan on playing Crysis, out of curiosity, so I'm going to need some graphics to back up the already insane numbers. Lasereth mentioned the Radeon HD 5870 in his awesome thread, so that's a good direction to go. The SAPPHIRE incarnation of the 5870 with 1GB dedicated RAM should easily handle any game in existence. It'd be fun to play Crysis in full HD at a maddening frame rate.

I'll need some hard drives to keep all my crap on, so I'm thinking the Western Digital RE3 1TB 7200rpm. Six of them. Why bother with external hard drives?

I'll have a Blu-Ray burner, of course (shoot, make it two), plus a powerful CORSAIR 750W power supply specifically intended for the i7.

I feel like I'm missing som....OH. All of this crap has to get to my face! I love the Acer S243HL 24" LED LCD display. 8 million to 1 contrast ratio, 2ms g2g, white LED backlit.

Finally, to complete the experience, the Bose Companion 5 speakers. I know that there are probably better speaker systems out there for PC, but I've always really loved Bose (except for their outlandish prices). The Companion 5 2.1 virtual surround speakers are insane. Also, you don't need to worry about rear speakers, which are a pain.

So what would your dream computer be?

Frosstbyte

Price being no object, I'd call Falcon Northwest and say "Price is no object. Build me the most powerful system currently available."

Then I would find some ridiculous fantasy geek porn with crazy swords and cool dragons breathing fire and a scantily clad chick in absurd bikini armor and have them paint the monitor and the case and the mouse and the keyboard and the n52te (my new favoritest gaming accessory) in matching fashion.

And then I'd get a second one for my wife.

XD

I built a computer once for the joy of doing it and I would think I'll build another, but if I could pay someone else to do it (and, no bones about it, do it better), I definitely would. I've had experience with Falcon NW, Voodoo and Alienware, and my experience with Falcon was 10000000x better than the other two companies combined (no hard feelings with Alienware, but I'm glad Voodoo is an empty, corporate whore husk of what it was-those guys really fucked me on a $4k machine). So if I ever have cash to blow on a system that I don't want to build myself, it's going to Falcon. And it just takes a quick browse through their gallery to see the kinds of amazing things they get their artists to do.

The case you linked just kind of makes me scratch my head, will. I mean, I kinda get it? But I feel like it'd be a real pain to actually work in, and I'm very skeptical of its cooling capabilities. If I'm building my own, I'd much rather have a more traditional build environment, but that's just me. I see the art there, though.

Glory's Sun

+1 to Falcon Northwest

sexy stuff as far as PCs go..

Baraka_Guru

Mac Pro "duo-quad-core system"

• Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors (8 cores, ftw!)
• 32GB (8x4GB) RAM (1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM)
• Mac Pro RAID Card
• Four 2TB (8TB) 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s HDs
• ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
• One 18x SuperDrive
• Two Apple Cinema HD Displays (30" flat panel, 2560 x 1600 resolution, anodized aluminum enclosure) for dual-screen mode
  
  and, of course,
  
• AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro

At a price tag of US$11,399.00, damn straight I'm getting AppleCare...and, of course, I would have to win the lottery twice. I would use this machine for multiple purposes, but it would generally be the central computer unit for my home. Maybe something like the computer on the U.S.S. Enterprise.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Glory's Sun

BG: I've been to production houses that have about 12 of those

Baraka_Guru

Ah, the sweet, sweet plains of the Promised Land.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Glory's Sun

one exception..they had better vid cards than the one you listed.. not all had the huge apple cinema displays but I've been to some houses that had massive Mac Pros .. it was boner land.

TMI??

Baraka_Guru

No...no....

That much is assumed.


Seriously, though. I didn't want to go too overboard with this machine. That video card I selected should suffice.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Shauk

Star Trek Holodeck.

nuff said.

Willravel

I've never liked the idea of towers, for whatever reason. This seems like an elegant solution to wanting more power without a traditional tower.

The motherboard compartment has a 14cm intake fan and a 12cm exhaust fan, as far as I know, and everything else is well vented:


---------- Post added at 11:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 AM ----------

Apple just upgraded her! You can now get the 3.33GHz quad core i7 processors. Insane!

kutulu

I'd mostly go with wil's but I'd wait a couple more months for the new 6 core i9. That case is awesome.

Baraka_Guru

Oh, nice. I'll hit that instead.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Embic

I couldn't just have one computer I would need at least 3.

Top of the line gaming rig over clocked to the max , File server with 10+ Tb of storage, and a Mac Book Pro for my mobile needs.

Shauk

Embic, thats what I have only, um.. not.

gaming pc is also my media server (it's basically a gaming computer with lots of storage, like 2 TB, it's enough for me atm) and 17" Laptop.

bout to add a netbook to my collection.

gotta take a side by side picture of my collection of devices

Cell phone screen Alias2, (like a 2 inch screen I dunno) next to netbook (10 inch) next to laptop (17") next to desktop (28") next to media center tv (46")

passthru

I'm opposed to consumer level products, to put it nicely, and Thermaltake highlights that market. Constructing a system in that case is like putting a huge spoiler, speed lines, and a CD-sized exhaust on an old Honda. It looks totally baller, dawg, but it's cheap shine that serves no logical purpose.
For reference, it will hold any consumer level motherboard but more powerful boards in the ATX form-factor are a rarity and limited in comparison to larger designs.

Remember, it's not an ATX full tower, it's an "ATX Super Full Tower".

Oh, and Shauk, holodeck wins this thread