There is a chance I"ll be asked to put together the nicest computer possible... fastest, highest storage, quietest. Money is no object.

What would y'all recommend?

The only limitations is that it must all be contained in a mid-tower enclosure.

Fastest at what? Games? Is 1 750GB hd enough or do you want 4 of them? The faster you go the louder you get. A Core 2 Duo extreme overclocked to 3.8Ghz and 2 overclocked Crossfire X1950XT cards would be fast but would start to get loud.

IMVHO once you go past mid-level dual-core processors currently offered, there is no improvement to be gained unless you're a hardcore gamer and play multi-threaded games or run scientific simulations.

I'd say that a X2 ~4400+ with two gigs of RAM just in case, say geforce 7900 and the quiet 500 GB Western Digital fits the bill. I honestly wouldn't know what to do with a faster computer. (Well, you can run folding or whatever, but 1) google will outfold you anyway 2) I consider buying faster than I need just to scrounge up some points weird and bordering on immoral.)

The word "nicest" covers a lot of ground. How about looks, ease of maintenance, upgradability, cleanest running, energy efficient.....and so on.

Many things that cover "nice", conflict with each other. Fastest and quietest for instance......many choices need to be spelled out.

To some extent the first two requirements are at odds with the third; normally the more performance and storage capacity a PC has, the noisier it is.

To eliminate hard drive noise, you will need a hard drive silencer (SmartDrive2002C or similar).

For the case, maybe a Zalman TNN-500AF? Or is that too bulky?

For the CPU, C2D is kicking butt and taking names at the moment.

rather depending on 'money no object' or 'money no object, within reason'...

i'd get a TNN, fill it full of iRAMs maxed out, a 30" apple cinema display, connect to a gigE [if possible] (or FW800) NAS, maxed with raptor 150s, cloned (samsung t133s would probably be most cost effective). +BT mouse/kybd, and an HDTV tuner, + (2x?) 200w DC-DC psus, + 200W brick(s).. but everything else the same. if u can't get gigE, then a couple of those 500gb WDs (or maybe 4 at a stretch?), i'd have to say cloned.. put them in 'alleycat' style enclosures. and a UPS. and a C2D, max out the ram (2GB sensibly) and whatever the fastest graphics card(s) u could fit in efficiently.

Re: Quiet vs. Fast
I have no rules. I'm fully aware that certain "nice" features are at odds with one another, but I'm just asking y'all's opinion of nice. You strike the balance where you think it fits best. Goals: fast, quiet, storage, video

@mb2: That sounds like what I'm looking for, but you lost me a little on all the acronyms and tech-lingo. Could you spell that specific computer out for me in a little more "buyable" format? Thing is, I might actually do it, and I want to be able to order all the parts.

The nicest computer that I could build? Here it is:

Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 Processor
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D Memory
Areca ARC-1220 RAID Controller
4x 150GB Western Digital Raptors in a RAID 0+1 Configuration and AAM enabled
eVGA GeForce 7950 GTX2 Graphics Card
Nvidia DualTV MCE Analog Dual TV Tuner
Windows Media Center 2005 Edition
Antec P180 Case
Antec Phantom 350 PSU
Water Cooling for 2x GPUs and 1x CPU with a Swiftech pump encased in foam

Edit: The storage setup suggested by mb2 is probably a better idea than what I had in mind. It should allow for a second GeForce 7950 GTX2 graphics card to be used, instead of the Areca RAID controller.

Intel C2E X6800
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
Corsair XMS2 2x1GB DDR2-800
2x ATI X1950XTX
Auzentech X-Purity 7.1 DTS Connect (if a multimedia PC)
M-Systems mSSD SATA 2.5" 128GB
Lian-Li PC-V1100 (maybe)

Infrant ReadyNAS NV /w 4 500GB drives or similar NAS

Swiftech Storm, MCW60x2 (or whatever's currently the best GPU waterblock)
Koolance CHC-250-L06 VRM waterblocks or DIY (custom-made, if you will)
Laing D5 pump through 1/2" ID Tygon tube
RealBig^tm heater core in noise-suppressing custom (again) S-baffle, 120mm Nexus fans
Thermalright HR-05 SLI

Nothing to do with speed or silence though - It's just that the nicest thing a PC could do would be to make me coffee in the morning.

yes, true.. bit of over-use of acronyms i think.. i was trying to make it brief.. but feel free to use google and u'll probably figure it out..
i wasn't so specific on certain things because i don't spend a lot of time looking up specific components for stuff that i would never dream of spending so much money on... u never said if it was 'money no object' or 'money no object, within reason'...

Zalman TNN 500AF. basically its a giantic heatsink masquerading as a case. is that small/pretty enough? if u want a high perf 0 noise solution then its the only way to go.

according to the compatible VGA cards list, the X800 XT/GeForce 6800 are the max it supports officially.
it says it supports upto 100W CPUs fanlessly, so pretty much anything sensible there (c2D- the X6800 is the 'extreme' version, ie lots more expensive, a little faster (fastest)). i'd undervolt it to save a little heat.
i don't know whether u can put a slightly more powerful vid card in if ur CPU is under-specced. but, as far as i can tell, SLI is out of the question. it also may be a little out of date, so u'll have to do a little more research here perhaps.

iRAM.
I can't remember whether they take 4x1GB or 4x2GB max. anyway, fill as many of them as u can fit, in 2s. i'd use corsair value ram. (the speed is really not an issue)

The limitations on how many are: SATA ports, PCI slots.
so u'd be advised to get a mobo with loads of native SATA connectors.
it only takes power from the PCI slot, so u can use flexible riser cards (daisy chain several?) to plug them into.
..then raid0 them (assuming it gives u a performance increase, research urself.. or maybe someone will say), or whatever that raid is that gets several drives to appear as one.

an alternative would be a few samsung 32GB solid state drives, but i'm not sure of their retail availability, and they aren't as fast as iRAMs by a significant way.

Now this thing is going to be fairly baking hot in the middle (just the quantity of ram will be very hot), so i definately wouldn't want to put any hard drives in it.

NAS. This would require u to have a wire between the PC and NAS device in another room. link also has list of NAS devices <$1k, u want one with gigE = gigabit ethernet, ie LAN. (note: get a motherboard with one, or two.) and SATA. You could build a PC with loads of SATA ports to act as a NAS device, but u'd really need (significant) linux knowledge, and i'm guessing u don't by the way u come accross. i have no idea which is 'best'. research. If you go for an NAS then u probably want 4 of Seagates 750GB drives. not the quietest (it doesn't matter; the NAS will be in another room), but they are the biggest, and seagate are very reliable traditionally. i would definately raid1 them (which would mean it'd 'only' have 1.5TB capacity); as if i was spending this amount of money, i definately wouldn't want to lose all my data if i had a hard drive failure. i suppose u could use raid 5 with 5 drives to give u a bigger capacity.

motherboard: dunno, but lottts of native sata ports, and gigE. passive chipset. extensive voltage options.
system ram: i don't think windows (XP) likes more than 4GB of ram or something. So 4x whatever 'the fastest ram' is, see overclocking sites.
soundcard: ? might not need one if motherboard has SPDIF..
PSU: hm, not sure if i'd use the default PSU, or just one or two PW200Ms along with a 200W powerbrick each. i think it states the efficiency as 72 or 78%.. which means that atleast 22% of the heat that is produced by all the components is then re-added to the case heat- not a problem with the PW200M as all the heat is on one of the power bricks outside the case.

mine system is

AMD Athlon X2 4800+, ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Mobo, Geforce 7900 GTX, 2x Corsair DIMM XMS Kit 1024MB PC3200 DDR CL2-3-3-6-1T (PC400), 200 MB Samsung Spinpoint SATA2, DVD LG GSA-4167B, Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro, Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition, NZXT "Trinity" -Case


with a 2 new 7950 gtx2 coming friday

Nicest...

1. Would you be building this machine yourself? If so, is assembly time an issue? Is maintainability an issue?

2. Is appearance important, or are you mostly worried about performance, storage, and noise?

3. How will the machine be used? This is very important, as many of us would base our definition of nicest, on our answer to this question.

4. Keeping in mind the tradeoffs between performance and noise, is a quiet computer:
-- not very important (performance is much more important)
-- a little important (performance is more important, low noise is nice)
-- important (evenly balance between performance and noise)
-- very important (low noise is more important, performance is nice)
-- critical (low noise is the primary consideration)

5. What is your tolerance for balancing lower noise against running at higher temperatures (which can potentially lead to earlier component failure)?

6. What is your budget (excluding monitor)?
-- $1,000 - 2,000
-- $2,000 - $3,000
-- $3,000 - $5,000
-- $5,000 - $10,000
-- $10,000+ Money is really not an issue

@mb2: That's what I'm talking about. Thanks for the help.

@Big A: You make the call on all that. Let's say this is "nice" according to Big A's standards of nice. And, money is no object.

@Neil: Thanks for the fuschia welcome.

We're basically saying that this exercise has multiple correct answers, depending on our individual personal preferences. Ok... I'll play.


1. Would you be building this machine yourself? If so, is assembly time an issue? Is maintainability an issue?

Building my own machine gives me the satisfaction of completing the job and understanding exactly what my machine will do. I'd build the machine myself. However, assembly time, maintainability, and expandability are definitely issues.



2. Is appearance important, or are you mostly worried about performance, storage, and noise?

If I had lots of time (or lots of money to pay someone), I might build (or commission) a custom-designed case made of wood. Examples of such cases exist on SPCR.



3. How will the machine be used? This is very important, as many of us would base our definition of nicest, on our answer to this question.

Let's say this is a general-purpose machine, expected to handle light gaming, and some moderately CPU-intensive taks.



4. Keeping in mind the tradeoffs between performance and noise, is a quiet computer:
-- not very important (performance is much more important)
-- a little important (performance is more important, low noise is nice)
-- important (evenly balance between performance and noise)
-- very important (low noise is more important, performance is nice)
-- critical (low noise is the primary consideration)

Since high-end performance is not a requirement, I would go with "very important" and focus on building a low-noise system, without running too far down the road of diminishing returns with respect to noise vs. cost/assembly/maintainability.



5. What is your tolerance for balancing lower noise against running at higher temperatures (which can potentially lead to earlier component failure)?

Somewhere in between...



6. What is your budget (excluding monitor)?
-- $1,000 - 2,000
-- $2,000 - $3,000
-- $3,000 - $5,000
-- $5,000 - $10,000
-- $10,000+ Money is really not an issue

Even if money is not an issue, I would not feel obliged to spend a large amount of money on a computer just because I had it.


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Given all of this, what would I actually build?

If the system would run multiple applications at the same time, it would probably make sense to build two computers and connect them to a KVM switch. This would allow the first computer to run background applications while the second computer was doing important things like gaming. Dual core processor technology notwithstanding, machines still seem to crash when they are loaded with too many background apps running simultaneously.

If I was not going for a custom wooden case, I'd build my system around a case like the Antec Solo, SLK3000B, or black P180. If portability is a requirement, the second machine in the above configuration could be a laptop.

An AM2 motherboard would provide more future upgrade options. Processor-wise, a low-end dual-core CPU would be more than adequate to meet these requirements. For graphics, lower-power cards which are passively cooled in the $100 - $200 price range would provide more than adequate gaming performance for most games. 2GB (or perhaps 4 GB) of RAM would extend the useful life of the machine at a relatively modest cost. A quality low-noise PSU such as the Seasonic S12-380 would have more than enough power to keep this machine running.

Storage is a hard requirement, since so many options exist, but a RAID array is a good solution. If money is not an issue, investments in peace of mind would be wise expenditures. It would make sense to carefully evaluate the onboard RAID controller vs. 3rd party RAID controllers, as well as looking at external RAID solutions which might possibly be placed in a separate room.

For a monitor, the new 30" LCD monitors which are coming out would be worth looking at. As these monitors take up a lot of space, a KVM switch would be a big help in saving desktop space (instead of having two physical monitors).

If we're looking at the total user experience, it would also be a good idea to look at other environmental factors such as workstation ergonomics, seating, etc. At the moment, my favorite upgrade would be a new chair.

P180b with Acoustipack treatment and as many Nexus 120's as you need
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Core 2 Extreme X6800
Scythe Ninja with Nexus 120 or watercooling (compressor cooling if you feel brave)
2x 2GB Corsair pc8500 5-5-5-15
2x X1950XTX (one master) with vf900's or watercooling
2x WD5000KS 500GB's with your favourite silencing solution
Seasonic S12+ 650w
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty
2x Dell 3007WFP 30"

For production:
Need to replace the case with that horrible Zalman TNN500AF
Mbox2 Factory (For the bundle)
K&H O300D's (Three way studio monitors, oh-so-expensive but oh-so-pretty)

This ins't the most high-end setup, but it will be compatible and reasonably easy to setup.

@Big A: That's a wonderful response. Thoughtful and very helpful for what actually might happen with me. I think you struck the balances about where I actually would in the land of "nice." As a matter of fact, two separate computers had just become an option, and the KVM switch is something to learn about (I know little about that). Thanks alot.

@RPost: That's almost exactly the hypothetical computer I had built. Those K&H monitors are $6000 for the pair... that's awesome. You're the winner on the "nicest" for sure. mBox2 is sweet too. A friend of mine has that setup in his studio.

Do you have any speaker recommendations down in the sub-$1000 range? I'm thinking a 2.1 system.

Being biased towards production I would say go for a pair of Mackie HR824's. These days they're probably about US$800. Their bass response is very good, so you probably won't need a sub. Of course, this means you'll have to get a decent I/O like the Mbox2 (US$500).
If you'd rather get something that you can run from a Fatal1ty, maybe one of the high end Logitech or Creative 7.1 sets? I don't really know.

It's very interesting to see the normal people's "high end system" looks like. Most of the components besides CPU and grahpics card listed in this thread are nowhere close to high end systems. :p

1. CPU. If you want an highest performance single CPU system, AMD is totally out of the question. Core 2 Extreme will be your only choice.

2. Memory. DDR2 800 is the highest you should get since everything marked "faster" won't be utilized much even if you overclock.

3. SLi or Cross fire all the way.

4. Don't get a noobish gamer's motherboard. Get some real workstation boards such as the P5WDG2-WS Pro or M2N32-WS Pro. You can't live without PCI-X slot if you want to burn a big hole on your wallet.

5. Forget about Raptors. They are slower than even the 15k.3 Cheetah. Get 15k.5 Cheetah. Raptors looks like ducklings compare to those. RAID5 using some real RAID cards instead of the NF4/NF5 ghetto embedded software RAID.

6. Forget about 30" Dells. Get 50" Sony LCD TV with 1920x1080 resolution, 1:10000, 7ms response time. That's the best image quality you can probably buy at the moment at that kind of resolution. Anything higher will result in some upsampling problems.

7. Don't even go into speakers because those will be more expensive than a Porsche if you go all out...

Never use onboard RAID controllers. The performance and stablity loss isnt worth it. Why use embedded software RAID when you can get the hardware RAID and huge buffer at the same time.

Don't think theres any KVM switch that let you swap HDMI or DVI-D and USB. Correct me if I am wrong tho.

Is the P5WDG2-WS Pro better than the P5W DH-Deluxe?

It's targeted at a different audience due to its PCI-X slots setup.

The motherbaord itself are slightly more stable at overclocking compare to P5W-DH, but it's probably not worth it ($50-100 higher price tag) if you are not using the PCI-X slots.

The upcoming P5W64-WS is a even better choice if you don't have too many legacy PCI cards (XiFi, Physics, Tuners). It will have 4 PCIe 16 slots for all of your SLi/crossfire and new RAID needs.

take a look at the MPC build i did for a guy over at maximumpc forums. of course, if money was no issue, i'd buy two KICKASS computers. BTW, to everyone that put a 30" display on their lists, scratch that. a 30" is no good at playing games.

RPost, you paired it with dual X1950XTX's, why? unless you aren't gaming, the dual X1950XTX is useless, because the 30" monitor has crappy specs.

vitaminc, i like your list. most of them have little experience building gaming computers (hence the 30' display), however, there ar several things i'd drop.

1. the SCSI Cheetah drives because they're too noisy. unless you're trying to run a server, SCSI's aren't worth it. they aren't natively supported on the mobo either-you have to get a seperate RAID card. i second the choice of the P5W64-WS, however (as you said), it doesn't have many PCI slots. i would add the new dual TV tuner from Nvidia to it.

without further adieu, here's the list:



as you can see, i'm cyberspyder at MPC too. some modifications to the above list is needed. drop the E6700 for the X6800, then replace the Intel 'BadAxe' with the P5W64-WS. next, add two Dell 24" displays. finally, add another Blu-Ray burner, and drop the DVD burner. BTW, wait for the DX10 cards to come out. we haven't talked about speakers yet, but as vitaminc said, nice ones will cost you some mad $$$$. something from m-audio is good. regarding the mouse, i would get the newly released Logitech MX Revolution, because it is the best mouse (even better than their G7). pair that up with the Steelpad S&S mousepad and the Microsoft Natural 4000 ergonomic keyboard.

as i was saying above, you CAN do SLI OR Crossfire with the 975X Intel boards. PM Chumly on MPC forums, or ask me to do it. most are from performance-pc's, while the rest's from newegg.

Brendan

LINK TO POST AT MPC FORUMS: http://maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46790

@cyberspider and rpost: i'm probably about to buy this thing, and i was wondering if either of you would be willing to help me a little more through email/im/phone. i've got a pretty solid list built up, but i just want to make sure that i don't screw it up. y'all seem to be the masters.

reply here and let me know if y'all would like to help out.

Hm... the last requirement is a difficultly. I was going to suggest a phase-change refrigerent cooling system, but a large semi-passive radiator won't fit well in a mid-tower.

What do you want fast? Pretty much 99% of all single applications run fastest on a high clockspeed single core processor. But you may very well want speed up of one of those 1% of highly multithreaded applications.

A single overclocked dual-core CPU is not ideal for either type of application, but that may be what most people suggest.

Anandtech just did an article today showing that quad core Xeons work fine in the Mac Pros. There is no way what others have suggested will compete with an 8 cores in multithreaded apps. Of course, the Mac Pros suck at Windows gaming--even with a normal PC RadeonX1900XTX installed.

I also don't think stuffing two seperate PCs in a Mid-tower chasis is a good idea. Maybe you weren't serious about that requirement?

For me I'd like a decent high resolution gaming system.

A few basic options:

Dual 7900GTX's SLI or X1950XTX Crossfire
--both individual cards are nice in the stock noise category
Core 2 Duo E6700 (best performance/Watt in the Intel camp)

Also realize this system will not be faster than a much cheaper overclocked system. (Say Dual 7900GS SLI + Core 2 Duo E6300). And if I ever did want substantial multithreaded performance I'd look for something with at least two cpu sockets.

For display I'd like something really big, really high-resolution (CRT front projector) + a portable LCD (20"/24") for the occasional LAN party.

This is the nicest computer I can build

Total with all options = $17089

you're not building it, Apple is. besides, they are overcharging for many things. 16GB of ram for $5700??? even IF it was registered ram, it shouldn't cost this much. the same could be said for the videocard(s) and the HD's.

Brendan

I think you missed the posters name.

my bad