PC games, if you didn’t have to pay for it, what would be your ultimate gaming box? You can choose any hardware, software and OS that you like. Go nuts…build a gaming box that is powerful, scalable, quiet…whatever you desire. Tower, mini-tower, laptop, you decide.
-XT
I’d probably go with the Antec Skeleton for starters with an 80-PLUS certified 1200W power supply. Next I’d add a Core i7-975 and for the necessary X58 MOBO, I’d go with a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7. I chose this board in particular because it’s fairly future proof (for at least the next 6 months at any rate) with support for 6gbps SATA and USB 3.0 as well as support for the Core i9’s when released. I also went the Socket 1366 route since apparently the i5’s can’t really accomodate more than 16 PCI express lanes at a time for SLI/Crossfire.
I’d three-way crossfire on that board with 3 Radeon 5870s. I’d go with 6GB of whatever the best rated overclocking RAM was that I could find. For hard drives, to fit the skeleton’s two internal 3.5" drives, I’d go with two 256GB SSDs in 3.5" mounts and RAID-0 those bad boys. Finally, I’d throw in a 12X Blu-ray burner for playback of Bluray movies.
I’d probably also go with 2 30" monitors, add in a dedicated home theater system with support for the new HDMI audio tracks (TrueHD, LPCM 7.1, MA 7.1, etc), and a 7.1 setup since the 5000 series Radeons support passthrough of bitstreamed audio.
For software, I’d run Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate as my OS (for the DX11 support) and whatever the best rated Blu-ray playback suite was (probably PowerDVD) movie playback.
Grand total, without the sound system or powerdvd software, shipped from newegg, $6681.
Of course, in reality, that’s probably overkill and there’s no way I’d drop that on a computer that will be half the price in 6 months. 
Very cool. Why RAID-0 though? You don’t want fault tolerance? If any of your drives fails the whole array goes tits up.
Other than that, sounds good to me. I would probably add a physical accelerator to the mix as well, and possibly a NAS for digital video storage and a distribution system for the house, but those are beyond the scope of the question.
As for the price…pfffle! 
It’s not OUR money we are spending here.
=XT
Oops, forgot to update the quantities on the Radeons to 3 before. Total price actually is $7472.
I chose Raid-0 because, for myself, I already have 4.5TB on 4 hard drives. I’d just set one of those up in my external e-sata enclosure for backup, so I wouldn’t need the redundancy of RAID-1 and the case in question can’t really do RAID-5 easily as it only has spots for 2 3.5" drives. Raid-0 may not give a huge performance boost, but every little bit helps. I could change the case, I suppose, but I like the look of the Skeleton.
Gotcha. If you use something like Acronis you’ll be able to image your system and pretty much get it back up and going quickly if one of the drives does go TU, so it makes sense.
Thanks for the response!
-XT
I’d go for a Antec 193, not a Skeleton.
The middle hard drive bay can be pulled out to create plenty of header space for a video card. The three-layer anechoic coating is very nice, and the layout is gorgeous. Plus, no freaking blue lights blinking in the front. Very stealthy case. I like stealth.
3-Way Crossfire or SLI… surprisingly, it’s not supported on many games. Sometimes it’s actually a performance negative.
For hard drives, I’d put the OS on a SSD, and the games on a series of WD Blacks.
Blech, I hate cases with doors on the front. Once upon a time, I had a Pentium II Toshiba that had a door on the front. I ended up ripping it off, so obnoxious was it.
If money was no object, my case preference would be an Antec Twelve Hundred: Antec Twelve Hundred Black Computer Case Gaming - Newegg.com I did recently build a new rig, but money, of course, was an object, so I got a Rosewill Destroyer instead: Rosewill DESTROYER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 120mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, option Fans-2x Side 120mm Fan, 1x Top 120mm Fan, 1x - Newegg.com Highly recommended, for the record.
The 1200 is a wonderful case. Love it, mostly. Mostly because to clean the fan screens on the front fans means taking the thing apart. And I have long hair cats.
Out of curiosity, why go for 6 GB Ram when you can get at 8 these days?
Mostly because the board I picked is triple channel/six slotted. Whether that ultimately matters, or not, I don’t know. RAM is one of the few areas of PC building I haven’t refreshed my knowledge on lately (as I’m getting ready to actually build a gaming PC, I probably ought to).
I have this case and really like it too. I also got annoyed at taking it apart (2 cats and a dog) so i simply left the side screws out of the bays. No one messes with it and I simply pull it out a little to get the screen out and hit it with some compressed air.
Yes it matters, you don’t get the benefit of triple channel, unless you use all three channels (why would you ever have empty memory slots?). But why 6gb instead of 12? (Then again, I also use RAID10 because anything else is for people who don’t spend 80% of their entertainment budget on computers/games).
This reminds of why I love the top fan so much (besides the cooling, I mean): the cats won’t sit on the box because the fan blows on them They still will push it about when rubbing on things to get my attention.
I dunno, I never really thought about the amount of RAM. 6GB is more than enough for most games out now, or so I’m told. I suppose I could use the extra ram for other things running in the background, but it honestly just never crossed my mind to get more.
It might be impossible to fit three 5870s on that motherboard because they are too wide and the slot in the middle will be half covered by the first card. Only two if you use the first and last slot. Also if you want to use the last slot you’ll need a full tower. There’s not enough space at the bottom of a mid-tower to accomodate the card.
All good graphics cards nowadays are too wide so the only way to do triple Crossfire is to use the older narrow cards, which kinda defeats the purpose.
Go all out. Get 24.
I like doors after a few knee-to-power button incidents. My computer tends to reside under my desk, rather than atop it.
Also, I can not stand glowy fans.
I’d spec out a 10k Dell/Alienware box with top of the line parts and be done with it. If price isn’t an object, I’m definitely paying someone else to put it together, pack all the cables away, and (especially) get an nice extended warranty on everything since I’m spending the money anyways.
I like building computers and all but I might as well get to the gaming already!
… you spent 10k on an Alienware, you may not like what you get. Cards inserted wrongly, two cards plugged in but not set up as SLI, water cooling run backwards…
Their build quality has gone to hell since Dell bought 'em. Oh, and always, incompatible or out of date drivers.
The power outlet that my computer is plugged into is right under my desk, where my feet usually go. I’ve kicked the chord out of the outlet during the last 10% of two different finals. I had no redo option and I had to email the professor to explain the situation. Oh and both classes were taught by the same professor!