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FastFord58 said:
Grampy said:

@ Squilliam , SlimeBeast, FastFord58 and terislb

Some great ideas. You sent me back to the drawing boards one last time. Instead of matching the Gateway I went for improving on it, at least for my own purposes. And while I was at it, to compare custom built vs. scratch built. In selecting components, I used NewEgg feedback and prices to select individual parts.  FastFord 58, I picked a case with six 120mm fans, and a high rated CPU cooler. No heat problems for me. Number in ( ) is the NewEgg part price followed by the user rating (***** is tops).

I think this is shaping up into a hell of a system, thanks to all the help.

CASE: Sigma Gaming Windstorm Mid-Tower  Case (Blue Color with Side-Window)  w/ 6 x120mm fans (80)*****

POWER SUPPLY 635 Watts Power Supplies Sigma Shark SP-635W PSU - SLI Ready) (80)*****

CPU: Intel® CoreTM i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366 (290)*****

COOLING FAN : Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX Gaming CPU Cooling Fan (Excellent Overclocking + Silent Proof 16dBA) (55) ****

MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI Support) GigaByte GA-EX58-UD4P Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Ultra DurableTM3 Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA, Dual GbLAN, USB2.0, IEEE1394a, & 7.1Audio (259) ****

MEMORY: 12GB CORSAIR XMS3 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel  (328)*****

VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX285 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card EVGA 01G-P3-1287-AR GeForce GTX 285 SSC Edition 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card (410)*****

HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (65) ****  

Optical Drive: Sony Sony Optiarc 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model (23)*****

Optical Drive 2: Sony Optiarc Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO (17) ***

SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers  (49) ****

NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 NETWORK CARD

MODEM: NONE

KEYBOARD: Logitech Deluxe 250 USB Keyboard (Black Color)(9) *****

MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse (9) ****

Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR) (21) ****

Cable Wiring: Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU (20) NA

Rounded Cable: Round Cable Upgrade for Optical Drive (30) NA

IEEE CARD: Built in

USB PORT:  * Built-in USB 2.0 Ports

OS: NONE - FORMAT HARD DRIVE ONLY

Cyberpower PC - $1625 
Build from Scratch - $1455 (save $170)

Compared to the Gateway, this would have twice the RAM and a better GPU although a smaller HD (plan to have networked RAID). 

What does everyone think?

 

Just a quick note about that particular RAM. The advertised speed is an overclocked speed. It actually runs native at 1333mhz or something like that. I still haven't figured out how to get it to run stable on my machine at 1600mhz, but I'm fairly noob when it comes to overclocking.

Personally, I would ditch 6 GB of ram and use that money to go upgrade to the Asus Rampage II extreme Mobo.

RAM is an issue. According to NewEgg the best RAM for the X58 chipset is the Corsair Dominator 240pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 (PC3 12800) triple channel - $219 for 6GB. That opinion is supported by a perfect 5 egg score by 70 users and a customer choice award. But someone here posted that it wasn't any better than the regular Corsair memory. ???????

Asus makes great MOBOs but the X58 Rampsge is almost $400 and has less than sterling reviews. Is there any real advantage if you're not going to overclock?