Guru3D Rig of the Month - September 2010

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

I easily have $14K USD in the build as it is! Now that includes some re-work on it and such to get it perfect...but $14K nonetheless. I know that may seem out of bounds for most, but we aren't talking investment potential, we are talking total 100% going all out to build the best of the best.

Guru3D.com Rig of the Month

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

I update almost monthly on some things, major upgrades usually come around every 6-8 months or so. I started out in February with dual ATI HD5970s and eventually migrated back to nVidia for GTX480s.

Guru3D.com Rig of the Month

6. What components are used?

My current rig specs are the following:

  • Dual Intel Xeon X5680 CPUs with Koolance CPU-360 CPU Waterblocks (Hexa-core processors @ 4.5GHz - 12 cores / 24 threads)
  • EVGA SR-2 Classified HPTX Motherboard
  • 4-Way EVGA GTX480 GPUs with Koolance VID-NX480 waterblocks with custom green LEDs
  • Galaxy low profile GT240 1GB GPU for physX
  • 12GB of Mushkin Redline DDR3-2000 (8-8-7-24) Memory
  • Creative Labs X-Fi Fatal1ty Titanium Series Sound Card
  • Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB SATA III SSD for the OS
  • Western Digital 300GB 10000RPM Velociraptor HDD for Storage
  • Dual ASUS DVD-RW Optical Drives
  • Xigmatek Black Fans w/ white LEDs all around (120mm x 4 + 140mm x 2)
  • Dual Mushkin Joule 1200W Power Supplies
  • Scythe KAZE Master PRO Fan Controller
  • All cooled by the Koolance ERM-2K3U External Cooling System

 

Guru3D.com Rig of the Month

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

 I honestly like ATI and NVIDIA about the same. Ever since ATI came out with their 5XXX series GPUs they have been a force to reckon with. In actuality they are very well 'finished' hardware as they are very powerful when loaded and very good at power savings when at idle. I am very pleased with all the 5XXX series ATI GPUs that I have owned. The reason I chose NVIDIA is because they are pure unadulterated power!!!

There is no equal to the power they can unleash, and having (4) GTX480s in 4-Way SLI is unmatched! The negatives are they use a lot of power and get very, very hot! Hence, the reason I went with NVIDIA is due to their better driver support for games. That is what it came down to, plus I like physX support.

Intel or AMD, honestly??? There is no reason to buy an AMD rig right now unless you are very, very budget conscience. I went with Intel because they have no equal right now!
 

Guru3D.com Rig of the Month

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