$1100 to spend (has to be tigerdirect.com)

[yawumpus]

Budget the dessert first: there isn't much difference in basic computing where DDO is concerned:

Third LG 22" monitor (ok, actually a random match) $160
1G 6850 $165
64G SSD $127
4 Core unlocked CPU $160
AMD motherboard with 2 x16 PCI-e sockets (needed to keep the video boards fed) $120
8G DDR3 ram $70
1.5T 7200rpm hard drive $80
750W power supply $80
windows 7 (although I recommend linux for any non-DDO computing ) $100

total = $1160 Note that this also includes rebates, which judging by your "must spend x at y vendor" require more money out of your pocket (at least as a loan).

The point here was to point out that dumping $1100 into a CPU + motherboard seems like a waste of money. On the other hand, viewing DDO at 5760x1080 (3*1920x1080) might be worth it. Also loading screens and booting should be a thing of the past with an SSD. No matter how powerful the CPU, you won't get this.

Actual items were just chosen roughly to fit the budget. No reviews were checked nor products endorsed. I would like to point out that while most of the Intel based solutions will be "faster", almost all of the time they (and any other CPU you could consider at the $1100 mark) will be waiting on either the hard drive to give data, or the graphics board to push it to the monitor, and not actually speeding up your life.

PS. Originally, this included two video cards. After adding everything up and removing one of them, it is still $60 over. My guess is that it still will want two, possibly two Nvidia 460s to manage the huge expanse of pixels. Spent too much time, hitting post.

[dragonhighlord1]

I got a rig as a gift, it glitches on ddo and lotr, but not on other more graphic intense games, (no idea why, long story short, it got sent back to tigerdirect, so I have credit there) This seems to be the best option so far

Not sure what I am missing?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=C283-1138
CM Elite 330 Case

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...9&Sku=C13-2503
Corsair Builder 750W Power Supply

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...696&CatId=4070
Gigabyte UD3 Socket 1366 mobo

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...384&CatId=4072
Intel i7 950

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...847&CatId=4093
6GB Corsair XMS3 memory

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...450&CatId=3585
EVGA GTX 560 ti

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...139&CatId=2459
WD Caviar Black 1TB

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...2&sku=M17-7302
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

[Big_Russ]

I got a rig as a gift, it glitches on ddo and lotr, but not on other more graphic intense games, (no idea why, long story short, it got sent back to tigerdirect, so I have credit there) This seems to be the best option so far

Not sure what I am missing?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=C283-1138
CM Elite 330 Case

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...9&Sku=C13-2503
Corsair Builder 750W Power Supply

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...696&CatId=4070
Gigabyte UD3 Socket 1366 mobo

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...384&CatId=4072
Intel i7 950

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...847&CatId=4093
6GB Corsair XMS3 memory

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...450&CatId=3585
EVGA GTX 560 ti

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...139&CatId=2459
WD Caviar Black 1TB

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...2&sku=M17-7302
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Your links aren't working for me, so I can not comment on price easily. But nobody can argue with the decisions.

One word about the mobo. It's a very good board--I am running a UD3. HOWEVER, don't freak out when you first turn the power on. It takes about 5 seconds for the screen to show the Gigabyte logo and start the POST tests. A lot of people believe that they got a bad board because it takes so long. Just have patience. It will POST.

[Tumarek]

I have $1100 to spend at Tigerdirect for my tower, I already have 2 monitors(lg 22", cyborg keyboard, naga mouse, bose speakers and headset, so i think I just need the tower part, it seems build your own is much better then one of their pre-builts. So what would you get?
__________________
Less is More, and Perfect is good enough

If you just want to work and play DDO on the machine i wouldnt spend more then 600$... more then enough. 2 Graphics cards is overkill most of the time and a waste of money if you dont insist playing crysis to on max settings.
The graphics card should be able to do direct x 11, the nvidias have the physics chip which newer games use but the ati normally are a little more cost efficient. ~100$ will do for ddo and most other games. If you use linux better go nvidia... drivers are better.

Important things are a good mainboard ~100$+ and great Memory... 4 gig are minimum but rather 4 gig fast ram then 8 gig of crappy parts.

If you want want secure and fast memory you could go for 3 conventional hard drives in Raid 3 or if your a speed junky 2 SSD's in raid 0. Or just one good vonventional if you are not into hardcore gaming (like WD back caviar?).

CPU... Intels i7 are great but overkill normally. AMD's chips like the phenom series will do most everyting you will ever want and cost half the money... Really check out level 3 cash if you are gaming... at least 4 mb or you cpu will be weaker then one with half the cores.

Cooling is one thing people save money on... don't! Either your machine will catch fire or everytime you turn it on you will get the feeling your room is gonna lift off in a few sec. Good cooling isnt to that expensive and you wont hear a sound.


Finished customized systems normally are much more expensive then the ones you creat yourself... it just depends if the money you save making your own is more then the money you could have earned in that time.

[PopeJual]

One thing that I would also mention is to make sure that the monitor can actually display more than 1280x1024 at one time. My video card can do way more than 1280x1024, but that's all it's set for because my monitor won't diplay more than that.

I'd have a lot more hotbars on my screen if each one at less of the real estate.

[aldan]

2nd Gen i7 2600k
Antec 900 case
4GB RAM minimum
Asus P6P67 Pro
Nvidia GTX 460 (or GTX 570 if you have the extra cash)
Antec Gamer 900 power supply
Arctic cool Freezer pro 13

[yawumpus]

If you just want to work and play DDO on the machine i wouldnt spend more then 600$... more then enough. 2 Graphics cards is overkill most of the time and a waste of money if you dont insist playing crysis to on max settings.
Don't overdo the graphics card unless you know that it will show up on the monitors. My suggestion included a third monitor with the assumption that you would use all three at once. That either requires a reasonably current (6000 series) AMD card or two current Nvidia (for the ports, I can't guarantee the AMD will provide the framerate using three screens). If you don't spring for the extra screen, check the monitors you already have. I suspect that a Nvidia 460 (1G) will drive one of your monitors as high as it can go.
The graphics card should be able to do direct x 11, the nvidias have the physics chip which newer games use but the ati normally are a little more cost efficient. ~100$ will do for ddo and most other games. If you use linux better go nvidia... drivers are better.

Important things are a good mainboard ~100$+ and great Memory... 4 gig are minimum but rather 4 gig fast ram then 8 gig of crappy parts.

If you want want secure and fast memory you could go for 3 conventional hard drives in Raid 3 or if your a speed junky 2 SSD's in raid 0. Or just one good vonventional if you are not into hardcore gaming (like WD back caviar?).
Another vote for raid. Just make sure that your motherboard supports raid 5 or you will have problems with windows. Also, I wouldn't bother with more than one SSD. Get a modern one and be happy. I'm pretty sure trim doesn't work with SSD raids anyway.

CPU... Intels i7 are great but overkill normally. AMD's chips like the phenom series will do most everyting you will ever want and cost half the money... Really check out level 3 cash if you are gaming... at least 4 mb or you cpu will be weaker then one with half the cores.
Gaming really begins and ends in the video cards (although memory sometimes matters). The phenon II 4 core CPU should be more than enough for almost any task you have. If you were doing something wierdly CPU bound, I'm sure you would have mentioned it by now.


Cooling is one thing people save money on... don't! Either your machine will catch fire or everytime you turn it on you will get the feeling your room is gonna lift off in a few sec. Good cooling isnt to that expensive and you wont hear a sound.
Heat kills electronics. Keep your chips cool and they will last.

Finished customized systems normally are much more expensive then the ones you creat yourself... it just depends if the money you save making your own is more then the money you could have earned in that time.

I included a post earlier that tried to build the $600 base box with multiple monitors and a SSD. While I couldn't get it to fit, I still would like to point out that you will see very little improvement by spending money on a faster CPU (I also think more than ~1333DDR3 won't help enough either). The same with a killer video card on a 1920x1080 monitor. Check the reviews, they don't bother to test it on such a monitor as you can't see the improvement. More screen space, more storage, faster SSDs are the way to go.

Whatever you do, don't skip the SSD. That is the one thing that will make this rig scream, and should easily fit in your budget.

[KristovK]

I have $1100 to spend at Tigerdirect for my tower, I already have 2 monitors(lg 22", cyborg keyboard, naga mouse, bose speakers and headset, so i think I just need the tower part, it seems build your own is much better then one of their pre-builts. So what would you get?
__________________
Less is More, and Perfect is good enough

I've built my own systems for years..until THIS system I'm using now. After pricing out all the parts, literally every single thing, I found my best deal was using Cyberpowerpc.com for what I wanted. i7 950, 6g ram, 1T hdd, nVidia 470 OC'd at factory, liquid cooling, case with 8 fans, Asus Sabertooth mb, and a 23" Asus 120hz monitor that supports 3d(with free nVidia 3d glasses setup!). Alienware wanted 2x the price I paid for a SIMILIAR setup(as already stated, they are at least 9 months behind on tech for the new tech prices). NewEgg and others were close to what I paid, but they were all higher by a 300-600 USD if I bought parts and built myself or 500-700 USD if I bought one of their pre-built specials. I spent 2x what you have, but I also bought every single part of a complete system EXCEPT a joystick(even got a new mousepad!), and I built my system to be able to run games for some years into the future(DX11, 6g ram, mb can handle SLI, etc).

I highly recommend the i5 or i7 cpus, and the Asus or Gigabyte mbs that are MilSpec certified(you can't hurt em without really trying!), the i5s are pretty cheap and are more then capable of running ALMOST any game currently out(Crysis..seriously..can anything run that full bore without sweating?). The i7s are more powerful/faster and much better if you use your PC like I do, a complete entertainment system, not just a way to acess the net and play online games. IF all you use it for is gaming/net, then you could go with the AMD cpus, which are great if gaming is all you really do, and they'll run you less money. And Asus/Gigabyte make mbs for either chipset that are MilSpec. I'd suggest an nVidia video card if you want speed over pretty, ATI if you want pretty over speed..but with games like DDO, you really won't notice any difference either way, save some money and go ATI(I only went nVidia for the 3d, which came free with my monitor, the only 120hz hd monitor with good reviews). I've been using ATI cards for years until this one, always preferred the better visual quality they have, but always hated the driver issues, ATI sucks with drivers, so beware if you go that route. The 3d stuff I don't use in gaming, I use it for movies, got a BluRay reader/writer combo and it just rocks(it's just awesome that I can literally make a backup of the entire DDO/LOTRO install set on a single bluray!).

I'd suggest 3g of ram at the least, 4 is better, 6+ best. The rest is up to your personal tastes.

Oh..and definately make sure they include the OS as part of the package, and have a good store warranty AS WELL as honoring the OEM warranties!

[Hambo]

I included a post earlier that tried to build the $600 base box with multiple monitors and a SSD. While I couldn't get it to fit, I still would like to point out that you will see very little improvement by spending money on a faster CPU (I also think more than ~1333DDR3 won't help enough either). The same with a killer video card on a 1920x1080 monitor. Check the reviews, they don't bother to test it on such a monitor as you can't see the improvement. More screen space, more storage, faster SSDs are the way to go.

Whatever you do, don't skip the SSD. That is the one thing that will make this rig scream, and should easily fit in your budget.

One caveat about an SSD... They have a limited read/write lifecycle... You do not want to have constantly changing files on a SSD like a swap file or email/database file, as rewriting a file is a "double-hit" against the total lifespan of the device (changing and deleting files counts as 2 R/WR cycles).

I would use a SSD for my boot/OS drive but I would configure the system to put everything except static OS files on a normal Hard drive (Application installations, swap file and any other constantly changing data). I've recently seen a 64GB SSD go for about $80, and a 1.5 TB SATA drive for $99... cheap enough to do both if you buy smart.