4. How much money did you spend on the rig as it is right now?

This rig has cost me about 3500 Euro.

5. How often do you update/buy a new rig?

I had three systems in 1 year (2008) but this one (started building it in Dec 2008) I will keep until the new Gulftown core i9 (6 core from Intel socket 1366) is out , then I also while upgrade to windows 7 and the new DX11 GPU from NVIDIA (GT300/NF100).

6. What components are used?

• MSI Eclipse motherboard
• Cpu cooler , Scythe Mugen2
• Core i7 940.(running at 3923MHz, Turbo 4106MHz 1.39V)
• Corsair Triple3X 12GB DDR3-1333 Cl9 (Running at 1428MHz 8-8-8-22-1T 1.55V)
• 2x MSI N280GTX-T2D1G-Super oc (Running at Core 718MHz , Shader 1486MHz ,Memory 1271)
• Power Corsair HX1000W
• HDD Samsung spinpoint F1 500GB SATA2 & Samsung spinpoint F1 1TB SATA2.
• Optical drive Samsung SH-203D Black OEM
• Soundcard , Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme Audio.Monitor ,Samsung Syncmaster T260HD
• Logitech G19 Gaming Keyboard
• Logitech G5 Gaming Laser Mouse.
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64Bit
• Case fans 6x Antec Tricool Bleu Led.120mm
• 3x Antec Tricool Red Led.120mm
• 3x Scyhte S-Flex 1600RPM 120mm
• 1x Antec BIG BOY 200
• Cooler Master Cosmos S.

7. Why ATI or NVIDIA, why Intel/AMD?

I'm a NVIDIA fanboy , I started out with a 780i Asus Formula motherboard and I liked SLI. Now I believe NVIDIA has better support with there drivers and the 280 in SLI runs like hell (that fast).

Don't get me wrong , ATI brings out great GPU's but for now my heart is with NVIDIA. I also use Badaboom for video Transcoding and that goes fast man , something ATI doesn't have. (Hilbert -- really ? .. Try CyberLink Espresso). Intel , well the Core i7 speaks for it self , it's not cheap but it got real horsepower and is so easy to overclock.