I have a school project where we need to build a complete, from scratch, computer system(on paper) according to our needs. I need some tips on what hardware to use. If you guys could list any quality material I could use to build this system it would be helpfull. Any suggestions would be helpfull.

First deside weather or not you want to us AMD or Intel.

For AMD, I recommend the AMD 64, with an Asus KV8 mother board.
For Intel, I would look at a 3.4 Ghz and maybe even there extreme edition, the extra cache would help out on multimedia apps.

Either way, you want 1 gig of RAM. and RAIDed SATA HD's.

I don't have time right now, but I'll reply again later with some video card recomendations.

First, define "Gaming and Multimedia System". To me, that means you not only want to game, you also want to edit video, work on Flash and Photoshop and do some Maya 5 on the side.

This comp will be mostly for gaming; and by "multimedia" I mean, like working on photos, videos, cd/dvd material like burning & playing videos. So in essence it would also include a digital camera,camcorder,quality photo printer,scanner, etc..etc.. Any suggestions would be great. You could suggest scsi, raid, sas, sata....whatever as long as it fits with my needs for this type of system cause I have to give a reason as to why I picked these items and how they fit my needs.

Okay, then my next question - why am I (or we) doing your school work for you? You can't reseach this yourself?

I guess I'd be more inclined to offer help if I saw initiative from you to do the work and ask specifics about what you've found.

this is what i would go for...


ASUS A8N-SLi Deluxe Motherboard (A8N-LA)

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Cooling Compound

Zalman Quiet Aggressive CPU Cooler

1 Gig Crucial Ballistix DDR-400 Kit

LiteOn 16-48 DVD & CD Reader

LiteOn 16x DVD+/-RW

80 GiG HGST Sata 7200 RPM

nVidia Geforce 6600 GT SLi X 2

Windows XP Professional

SOUND: the Asus baord provides nice 8channel out put, and Coaxial Digital output
LAN: on board 2 1 gb connections


Well if PCI express is not your thing then

Chance Mobo to a A8V Deluxe (asus) very similar, not SLI, or nvidia chipset.. it uses the VIA set.

you can stick with 1 of the Geforece 6600 GT cards or swap it out for a Radeon 9800Pro 256 or better.

Other things I like
PSU: NeoPower 480 (Antec)
Mouse: Razer Diamondback Salamander Red 1600 DPI Mouse (gaming)
Keyboard: choice

I'd probably go overboard, way overboard. Something like a 20 node amd 64 cluster with a fiber network and a shitload of RAM on each node. Multiple nVidia cards running SLI for killer graphics. Lets not forget the IMAX screen/theater/sound system. Not just any IMAX theather, it would have to have the hydraulic seating connected to the "rumblepad" output of the game so when you get fragged you get thrown 20 ft to the floor.

lol

Thnx for your ideas Boss. I was originally going to use the P5ad2 mobo & a LGA775 Prescott Extreme Edition, Neo Power 480 & Corsair xms2. For the mouse I was going to use a trackball but I liked that 1600dpi mouse better & the A8n sli was a much better gaming & video board. Here is what ive ended up with for the hardware:

Asus A8N-Sli Deluxe
Crucial Ballistix DDR400 1Gig 2.2.2.6
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
Artic Silver 5
Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu CPU Fan
Lian Li PC-V1100 Silver Aluminum Case
Thermaltake A1214 Thermal Control Case Fan @ 2
Thermaltake 680w Silent PurePower ATX 12V 2.01 +EPS
Western Digital Raptor 74Gig 10,000rpm SATA @ 1 (Primary)
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300Gig 7200rpm SATA @ 2 (Storage)
Vantec Vortex HD Cooling "Sliver" (For Raptor)
Liteon SOHW-1653S All in One Drive
Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro
Creative GigaWorks S750 7.1
XFX GeForce 6800 256DDR3 GT SLI @ 2
Razor Diamondback Salamander Red 1600dpi Mouse
Logitech diNovo Cordless Desktop Keyboard
HP Photosmart 8450 Printer
Visioneer OneTouch 9320 Scanner
Nikon CoolPix 8800 Digital Camera
Samsung 1100DF 21" Flat CRT Monitor
APC Smart-UPS 750VA XL
Netgear Double 108 Mbps Router WGU624
Netgear Double 108 Mbps NIC WG511U
Motorola SB5100 Cable Modem

Why all that cooling hardware - just get this: http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showdetl.cfm..._ID=121&CATID=9

And that video card's a wuss. How about this one: http://www.3dlabs.com/products/product.asp?prod=293

The Audigy 4 is all right - but if you want professional quality audio, you need to look here:
Output: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audi...le192-main.html
Input: http://www.zzounds.com/item--DGDMX002

Creative GigaWorks??? You need these: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/1029LSE/

And I know you can do better on the Digital Camera: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...u=266188&is=REG

Well if your going to go that overboard!

Main Components
4 900MHz Pentium III Xeons with 2MB L2 cache apiece ($3,692 ea.) $14,768.00
2 re-engineered Kryotech Renegades, 2 copper heatsinks (approx.) $2,000.00
SuperMicro S2QR6 motherboard $2,600.00
16 1GB PC133 ECC SDRAM DIMMs from Crucial ($1,800 ea.) $28,800.00
Amtrade 3200 Twin Server Chassis with PC Power and Cooling TwinPower 850Watt power supply $1,950.00

2 Mylex ExtremeRAID 2000 with 64MB of cache ($1,950 ea.) $3,900.00

12 Quantum Rushmore Ultra 5320 3.2Gig solid state drives($28,000 ea.)

8 - 73Gig Seagate Cheetah Ultra160/M-SCSI drives($1,300 ea.)

6 Plextor 17/40X UltraPlex Wide Ultra - SCSI drives ($90 ea.) $540.00
3 Plextor Plexwriter 12/10/32S drives ($265ea.) $795.00
Creative Labs internal DVD-RAM SCSI drive $355
SuperDisk (120MB / standard floppy) $40.00
Tape Backup Quantum DLT 8000 $6,000.00

4 G200 MMS Matrox PCI cards with quad-monitor support $2,800
16 Pioneer 50" gas-plasma PDP-502MX screens ($20,000ea. )
HP Color LaserJet 8550GN $9,000.00
Turtle Beach Pinnacle Project Studio $400.00
6 - Martin Logan Statement speakers
1 - Martin Logan Logo speaker
1 - Martin Logan Cinema speaker
4 - NAD 218THX 2 channel amps $217,200.00

3Com 3C985B SX Gigabit Ethernet card $600.00
GyroMouse Presenter $190.00
Wireless Computing Wireless Surfboard keyboard $350.00

Power - UPS APC Symmetra 16kVA Power Array $13,000.00
Multiboot configuration with FreeBSD, Linux and Windows 2000 $2,000.00

Total US $973,688.00




also, the 3dlabs Video card. As nice as it is, the driver support for games is not there. The drivers are geared towards applications and such with workstations. not Games.

Monitor speakers are great but the speakers are active monitoring speakers and need special hook up, setup and reallly a practical app. I mean I am no audio genious.. for shame me even entering the ground of Audioyoda, but in my understanding, monitor speakers may be geared for highs , lows, and things in beteen but the range at times is limited where other speakers are not.

I also understand that the use of a Sound Pressure meter can make all the difference for speaker systems, from mismatched pairs, and out of the box home theatre to full blown theatre application like bi amp, pre amp, sub amps and digital decoder units with no use of a "reciever"

Some nice ideas there, but explaining to the class why I need need them is another thing in itself. The project will be presented to the class & teachers of the school, "which will be a simulation as if I were presenting it to my employer" so I have to give an account as to why I need those specific items, how will they help achieve the task, and why so much money..... but if I had money to blow, I sure as hell would buy those goodies for myself

Anyone have any comments about the Alienware computers. Specifically the ARX