Welcome to Thunderdome

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:48 pm**

Customized by Falcon Northwest

Talon 3.0
1000W PS
Asus P9X79 Pro - X79
Intel Core I7 3960X 3.3Ghz 6C w/HT 15M
Liquid cooling
Crucial 16GB 1866Mhz DDR3
GEFORCE GTX580 3GB 2xDVI 1xMHDMI
Crucial M4 512GB SSD SATA3 (Operating drive)
WD 2TB 7200RPM SATA3 (Storage drive)
LG BD12LS38 BD-Writer
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

This is an experiment to see how they compare with the Dell XPSs we've bought over the past 6 years. I don't have a high opinion of them...Dell makes good business machines, but their home systems suck. Since Dell bought Alienware, we skipped them, and went Falcon Northwest.

Arrival time is in about 2 weeks.

Edited By Leisher on 1327096157

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:49 pm**

You're missing out on all the fun of building it yourself, and of RMAing broken parts.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:58 pm**

I've done all that. I want something built by people who make PCs for gamers.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 5:02 pm**

Sooo how much does something like that cost?

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:04 pm**

Here's my upgrades from Monday:

mobo: ASUS M5A99X Evo AM3+
cpu: AMD FX 8120 8-Core Processor 3.1GHz
video: EVGA GeForce 560 2GBs OC-edition
ram: Patriot 2x8GB DDR3 1866MHz
hdd: Samsung 64Gb 830 series ATA 600 SSD

So much faster.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 8:55 pm**

Why the AMD? And how much $ for that?

I'm tempted to upgrade my Q6600 server... but I also dont want to touch the damned thing.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 9:15 pm**

Mine is expensive, but thankfully, my company is picking up the tab.

It's not just a machine for me, but also a work machine.

So let's say north of $4K, but less than $5K.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 1:44 am**

I'm pondering a big sexy gaming laptop for my work road trips. Anyone got any suggestions?

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:42 am**

Nice! I need such an accommodating work place.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:54 am**

Troy wrote:I'm pondering a big sexy gaming laptop for my work road trips. Anyone got any suggestions?

I bought this for my son for Christmas. It's a monster. In size, weight and capabilities. I got it on sale for $1100 shipped. I think it was a price mistake because it wasn't priced like that for long and it went back up to $1700 until it wasn't available any more. I kept an eye on it because if it had gone below what I paid for it, Newegg would price match as part of their pre-Christmas buying special thing.

Anyway, like I said, it's a beast. It's REALLY nice. I wish I had bought two more (one for me and one for my wife to replace hers) because you can't touch that kind of hardware for even close to $1100. But even at a higher, price, you are getting what you are paying for. It's nice. Looks bad ass too.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:55 am**

Leisher, do you realize you could build TWO PCs like that for that kind of bank?! You should turn in the expense report for that much money, but build it your self and pocket the other half!

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:56 am**

Link?

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:03 pm**

I honestly didn't even know you could spend over $3.5k building a high end PC.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:08 pm**

Cakedaddy wrote:
Troy wrote:I'm pondering a big sexy gaming laptop for my work road trips. Anyone got any suggestions?
I bought this for my son for Christmas. It's a monster. In size, weight and capabilities. I got it on sale for $1100 shipped. I think it was a price mistake because it wasn't priced like that for long and it went back up to $1700 until it wasn't available any more. I kept an eye on it because if it had gone below what I paid for it, Newegg would price match as part of their pre-Christmas buying special thing.

Anyway, like I said, it's a beast. It's REALLY nice. I wish I had bought two more (one for me and one for my wife to replace hers) because you can't touch that kind of hardware for even close to $1100. But even at a higher, price, you are getting what you are paying for. It's nice. Looks bad ass too.

Oops. I would have edited and added it. But.......

Laptop

One think he really likes is there are no cooling ports on the bottom, so, you don't have to worry about covering them.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:15 pm**

At HP the other day, I configured the following:
HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition customizable Notebook PC
2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz
1GB AMD Radeon™ HD 7470M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics™ [HDMI, VGA]
8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
750GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive with HP
9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
17.3" HD+ HP BrightView LED (1600 x 900)
FREE UPGRADE to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner

For $925 (with taxes). Not sure how good the graphics are, but the rest of the build was pretty tempting. Coupon NBQE3876 is good til tomorrow.

Granted, it's an HP...

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:25 pm**

Leisher, do you realize you could build TWO PCs like that for that kind of bank?! You should turn in the expense report for that much money, but build it your self and pocket the other half!

Yes I know that. I've built PCs before. In fact, one of the ones I use at my office is one I built. I literally built it just because I found a see through case, and wanted to build a computer to put inside of it.

This, as stated, is an experiment. I want to see what the difference is between one I build myself, one mass produced by Dell, and one customized by a specialty computer maker.

When's the last time you had $5K that you could do an experiment like this with?

As for the pocketing thing...that's not me. I have no problem boosting a piece of work equipment for my home (I should also point out: with permission), but blatantly lying just to pocket some cash? No thanks.

I honestly didn't even know you could spend over $3.5k building a high end PC.

You're kidding right? My build isn't even "the best of the best".

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:35 pm**

And it's not a gamer. You can't game with that graphics card, fyi. I've always been annoyed by the companies who will put high end everything else in the laptop, but put shitty graphics cards in them.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:37 pm**

It just occurred to me that I'm a specialty computer maker. Can I submit a competitive bid?

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 1:39 pm**

Leisher wrote:
I honestly didn't even know you could spend over $3.5k building a high end PC.
You're kidding right? My build isn't even "the best of the best".

Nope, not kidding. I just paid about $1300 to build a (low end of the) high range computer, and I can't imagine what kind of performance gain you would get spending 350% more than I did. Surely not a 350% gain in performance. I would guess 20%, at best.

And yeah, I called you surely.

I think you paid a premium for the name on the side of the case.

Granted, they do tweaks and overclocking and shit that I never want to touch, so I guess you are paying for a little bit of labor, there. But will it give you blowjobs? Will it cook you a steak? Will it make you be not bi-curious any more? I would say no, so you still have that problem.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 2:27 pm**

GORDON wrote: Nope, not kidding. I just paid about $1300 to build a (low end of the) high range computer, and I can't imagine what kind of performance gain you would get spending 350% more than I did. Surely not a 350% gain in performance. I would guess 20%, at best.

And yeah, I called you surely.

I think you paid a premium for the name on the side of the case.

Granted, they do tweaks and overclocking and shit that I never want to touch, so I guess you are paying for a little bit of labor, there. But will it give you blowjobs? Will it cook you a steak? Will it make you be not bi-curious any more? I would say no, so you still have that problem.

I think the big thing is that most of us buy personal computers at the bet price point, more bang for your buck. $1,000 built me a rig that still cranks through any game I throw at it.

Now if work were paying for it.... I would blow the fuck out of that budget, even for a 50% increase in computing/gaming ability.

Thanks for the link by the way, HERE IS THIS SWEET LAPTOP I GOT FOR CHEAP THAT ISN'T MANUFACTURED ANYMORE!" jerk

Edited By Troy on 1327174093

Welcome to Thunderdome

My new PC 2012