1x BN Noiseblocker CoolScraper120 aktiv V3.0 So.775 44.33€
1x MS Windows VISTA Ultimate 64bit OEM 173.63€
1x 700W SuperFlower Aurora Lightning Power 103.06€
1x Plextor PlexWriter (Bulk) PX-B920SA SATA schwarz LS 236.48€
1x EVGA nForce790i Ultra SLI 323.88€
2x 4096MB Corsair PC3-1600 CL9 KIT DHX 211.16€
1x 3.5" WD Black 1000GB WD1001FALS 7200U/m 32MB 121.93€
1x Intel Core2 Quad Q9650 4x3.0GHz BOX 327.86€
2x 3.5" WD VelociRaptor 74GB WD740HLFS 10kU/m 16M 249.46€
1x EVGA (Retail) GTX295 1792MB 2xDVI/HDMI 493.73€
---------------------------------------------------------------
2285,52 €
2896,66 $
U$-Price has been calculated by taking the €-Price and applying the multiplier google told me to use for conversion to $ on March 19th 2009
anybody mind giving me some feedback on this?
any tips/tricks i could use to maybe make it a little cheaper or get more power out of it for the same price?
or generally comments?

For that price, you can get a 52" LCD, a sound system, and an xbox 360 with a few games.

PC gaming is dead. I wouldn't invest in it.

But then, tastes do differ, and it's not remotely dead, especially over here in Germany . .
i am getting my copy of DOW2 in some hours, when will that come for console?
also, i am building this system for the Mechwarrior Living Legends Mod for Crysis, and that one will need serious power . .
and i can use the system to do something aside from playing things with, which i actually find myself doing more and more
since i got my job with techsupport <.< . . more than i like too ._.

PC Gaming isn't dead in the US either.

Sounds like you are aiming at the bleeding edge of technology there. Back off the gas pedal just a bit and you probably can cut the price in half. But it is interesting that you can crank everything to 11 and come out under $3K US.

Here are some things I would suggest:
If I read that right, that RAM is 8GB total. See how much real performance you might lose by dropping that to 4gig total.
I like having a media drive and a system drive too, but those velociraptors might be overkill. A regular 7200rpm like the WD3200AAJS 320GB ($50 US on Newegg) will probably do fine.
I would try to re-use my XP license on the new PC, unless there is a _convincing_ reason to do so.
Make sure you need the 3gHz intel CPU. The 2.5 gHz CPU is roughly 40% cheaper.
Do you really need a Blu-ray burner? You can get very nice DVD burners for under $50 US.
Check and see if you really have to have that particular video card. There are some very nice, very powerful, cards in the $250 US range now.

It is rarely a bad idea to spend a little more on your motherboard and power supply. Those two components will probably be in use longer than any other components.

A few questions:
Why not a corei7 CPU and Mobo at that price? (could be the prices across the pond are more, so I am just asking)
I do not know that brand name for PSU. Do they make their own or outsource? Do y ou know who they outsource too.

As for the 8GB, stick with it. On Vista 64, you dont want to even run with less than 4.

As for PC gaming being dead, it all depends on what you play. I like that I get my Team Fortress Updates. If there was a console without a proprietary purchasing/update platform, that may attract me.

I laugh when one of my friends gives me a lengthy lecture on why he won't use an iPhone but then buys games for his Xbox through the M$ marketplace. Both are monopolies.

They're closed markets. They're not monopolies, not in any meaningful sense of the word. Not that that isn't still something that might be worth steering clear of, but it's a materially different concern.

The PS3 technically has non-proprietary avenues for obtaining software (Install Other OS, then anything that compiles for that OS on the Cell will run), but the fact that they block access to the GPU makes it not terribly practical.

~J

if you haven't bought yet, I'd lose the velociraptors. you can get much more storage, far less price, and no noticeable loss in performance. your "load level" screens may be a few seconds longer.

*shrugs*
the Velociraptors are the least of my problems right now . .
somehow, they can'T get the 1TB HDD or the Graphics Card in under one week . .
i ordered the parts, and i did so on the 21. and still the 1TB HDD and the Grapics Adapter are missing . .
and the Operating System seems to take longer too, because i actually cut prices there . . only 140€ instead of 180€ . .
i COULD have halved the price . . but for frigging once in my life i want to actually have the best computer in my group of people damn it!
i have read some very good tests on the velociraptors, especially on the 300gig version . . but i won't be spending 250e on 300Gig HDD . .
and the load level screens not being there for too long is actually pretty important to me, as i can be very impatient with my tech/games <.<


as for why not a corei7?
'cause i ain't really convinced by them yet . . they are not that much better in most tests . .
hell, one or two of the corei7 are actually worse than the q9650 and they are more expansive!
and there are no boards that meet my requirements out for that processor either. if i had found a board i like that uses DDR2 RAM i would still have gone with DDR3 RAM, but i chose DDR3 because i wanted THIS BOARD!!
And as i am building this one for a certain game/mod, i don't think going with 8Gigs of RAM is all that much overkill, because the vanilla crysis runs at about 3Gigs of RAM Usage on my laptop(which is, right now, much better than my desktop <.<), and the mod is probably going to double that to 6 gigs, if the frustrated postings of the developers are any indication *snickers*
yeah, i COULD have gont with the q9550 for about 40% less and gotten a budy of mine to over-clock it to about 3,2 GHz . . but this way, i can get my buddy to overclock the q9650 to 3.6 GHz without problem . .
as for the XP-License . . i don't think i have one legal XP in my whole group of people *snickers*
the blue ray bruner? yeah, okay, i will give you that one, i threw out money on that, but it's a PLEXTOR BLUE RAY WITH LIGHT-SCRIBE!
that's to me what a mercedes is to americans somehow ^^
once had the cousin of a buddy come over from north america somewhere, and you should have seen his eyes when he realized that we use them as cabs over here O.o
and the PSU?
i bought that because it's pretty and shiney . . i like some pretty and shiney ._.
i have an 800 watt be quiet dark power in this case right now, if needed be i will swap those out, as i am planning on downgrading the graphics adapter in here too . .
gonna underclock cpu too and just throw in 8 to 11 TB HDD's and use it as a file-server or something . . maybe dedicated megamek server or office work/surfing the web and going to boards, stuff like that . . the other one will be purely gaming dedicated for as long as i can hold myself back ^^

ok, little update:
having now waitet 2.5 weeks for the GTX295 and having been told that i would have to wait for another 2.5 weeks, i decided to nix that card and instead use an 4870x2 from sapphire . .
anybody see any problems with using an ATI Crossfire Card on an Board with tripple/quad SLI ability?
and i have heard about people using their old 8800 Cards for pure Physix Capabilities with their new cards . . can i do that with the ATI Card in there too?

Unless things have changed in the last, IIRC, year or so, SLI and similar are poor choices for bang-for-buck; last I looked they scale very sub-linearly.

~J

yeah, they don't give 100% more, SLI gives about 70% more power, while crossfire seems to be better off giving about 80% more power . .
and of course, they are easier to do than the classic two cards system and cheaper mostly too. and they don't take up two x16 slots.
hmm, if my board only has one such slot, does it still work? or does the boards chipset really have to support SLI/Crossfire to use that, even if it's a two in one card?

ok, figure little update is in order here.
computer is now up and . . no, not running, limping is more like it <.< . .
i spent 16 hours on this piece of shit and it's STILL not working completely how i want it to work -.-
i finally got to the point where the isntallation of vista ultimate 64 completed(third try, had to reformat and re-establish the raid0 in between) . . only to have it download ALL of the updates in one single fell swoop. first timne, the partition was 20 gigs big. says HDD is full. hangs up, doesn't boot anymore.
so i redo the partition to go up to 28 gigs. reinstall. let him load patches and updates. ok, hangs up while shutting down, doesn't boot up again. insert much cursing and tantrum here. so i redo the whole fucking stuff again. pull the network plug, disable auto update, and do the updates manually, with a shutdown after every ten updates . . lo and behold, it works . . but:
windows vista ultimate, after installation, took up 8 gigs of HDD-space . . after having installed ONLY patches and SP1 it's up to 25 Gigs . .
at least, i have gotten to the point where it will boot up with 6 Gigs of RAM, which it did not want to do even with 4 gigs, untill after i manually changed the RAM timings in the bios to those specified on the RAM. but as soon as i put in the whole 8 Gigs i get the C1 error-code again.
My Video and Sound-Card suddenly show up as USB-devices after i had installed SP1 (WHAT THE FUCK?) completely with the little icon to kick hardware out of the system . . and it frigging does work too . . just for shits and giggles i kicked out the 4870x2 . . and yes, the screen went black and did not come back untill i rebooted and then the card was back in the USB-Kick-Section . .
And the system runs frigging hot, i can tell that much just by holding my hand ABOVE THE FRIGGING CASE!
anybody got a recommendation for a good utility/tool that i can run under vista ultimate 64 to show me CPU, RAM and VGA-Temperature inside windows?

but one good thing: all my components constantly score a 5,9 on the vista performance rating, FarCry 2 runs smooth with DX10 and all options on maximum.
Seem to have lost my Crysis DVD, will download and install with the key of the legally bought crysis version and give it a test-run in one or two days . .

Your mobo provider should have a tool to monitor the mobo temp.

However, after a few days of intensive testing... turn it off. Don't become obsessed with temp monitoring. Spend your time playing the games.

The parts you listed run HOT. Its no surprise to me that you can feel heat. Your case is not one I have worked with but if it has room for more fans, by some of the liquid bearing fans that are out there. They are wonderfully quiet.

i will keep that in mind.
if i find the time and strength of will, i will continue to work at this stupid fuck untill i am satisfied . . maybe even wire up the 5 fans in the case *snicker*