Help Me Build My X7200 Please

So after a couple of months of thinking about what my next computer should be, I have decided I might as well take the jump and replace my dead 5760 with the x7200. I am trying to keep prices down but without sacrificing power and performance while keeping in mind i can upgrade some things in the future. I will be using it for work (autocad, 3d max, etc) and for gaming and personal use. My budget would be a little less then 3,000

here is what i have speced out so far


Video Card - GPU

I haven't decided which card would be best, and if dual 460's would be better then one 480?

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M 1.5GB GDDR5 Standard
DUAL nVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M 192bit 1.5GB GDDR5 in SLi$ 200.00
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 480M 256bit 2GB GDDR5 - Sold out till Mid-November$355.00

Intel® Core™ i7-950 Processor (3.06GHz) 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8 GT/sec QPI, LGA 1366 Standard

(i dont think the 970 would be worth the 660 price tag, am i missing out on anything?)

IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU$40.00

System Memory (i dont know if 6gb would be sufficient for now, or it if would be better to start off with the 12gb)

6GB (3 SODIMMS) DDR3/1066 Triple Channel Memory Standard

12GB (3 SODIMMS) DDR3/1066 Triple Channel Memory$230.00

Hard Drive

500GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200RPM Hard Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)$20.00

Second Hard Drive
500GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)$85.00

Hard Drives in RAID
RAID Disabled Standard

6x Blu-Ray Burner/Reader/8x Super Multi Combo Drive$195.00 ( I would want to use it as a blue-ray player and hook it up to my tv)

Built-in Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 Wireless Card$35.00

Operating System
Windows 7 Ultimate - (64-Bit installed - 64 and 32-bit CD included)$200.00
(I am planning on dual booting with windows xp)

3-Year Labor 1-Year Parts (Year 2 & 3 Labor by PNB)-Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Support Standard (a little worried about the limited warranty but i am trying to keep prices down)

the other alternative was to get a dell xps 9100, but it seems this one for about the same money can out perform it.

any replies are appreciated thanks!

 

About graphic cards, if your budget is 3000 (which I assume is USD), you will have enough money for 480M SLI. 6GB RAM should be enough as long as you don't do extreme coding/rendering/etc. You can always add RAM to it. Harddrive is the same; you can add more space later if you need it. About CPU, if you choose to use 480M SLI then you obviously can't afford i7 970, but 950 should be enough imo.

 

^^ My thoughts exactly

 

so you guys are saying the following:

Intel® Core™ i7-950 (3.06-3.33GHz) 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8 GT/sec QPI, LGA 1366

nVidia GeForce GTX 480M 2,048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 (User Upgradeable) ( + 355 )

~ 6,144MB DDR3 1066MHz Memory (3 SODIMMS)


would it be worth it too do:

Intel® Core™ i7-950 (3.06-3.33GHz) 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8 GT/sec QPI, LGA 1366

1 nVidia GeForce GTX 480M 2,048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 + 1 nVidia GeForce GTX 460M 1,536MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 for Dedicated Physx (User Upgradeable) ( + 560 )

~ 6,144MB DDR3 1066MHz Memory (3 SODIMMS)

or would i get more benefit from:

Intel® Core™ i7-950 (3.06-3.33GHz) 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8 GT/sec QPI, LGA 1366

nVidia GeForce GTX 480M 2,048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 (User Upgradeable) ( + 355 )

~ 12,288MB DDR3 1066MHz Memory (3 SODIMMS)

thanks again!

 

That's what we are saying

 

that unfortunately puts me over budget. tear.....

 

Keep in mind that the 460 is MASSIVE overkill for physx and will not work in Sli with the 480. I.E. essentially a waste of money. Any GPU option BUT that would be a better bet.

 

The question is what performance do you really need/want?

But the bottom line is - go for the max GPU option you can afford (those are expensive to upgrade) , - the rest can be easily bumped later on.
Big IMHO, of course.

 

well i want a couple of years of good performance out of it.

It seems dual cards would put me 500 over budget. but i do understand your point that it is more expensive to do it later.

500 dollars hmmmmmm
is either this or a dell xps 9100

decisions decisions

 

Isn't XPS 9100 a desktop? Comparing a desktop with a laptop is not fair.
If you really want performance, it will be worth to get dual 480M. Or if you really want to save money, at least go for dual 460M or dual 470M.

 

yea i know im sorry i am all over the place. My train of thought was either get a really good desktop or get a really good laptop. but i have always been leary of dell, in their "performance" line anyway. and specing an alienware desktop is turning out to be about the same price as it would be to get the x7200. I dont know why i figured it would be much cheaper to buy a powerful desktop, but it doesn't seem to be that way.

 

Well if you can choose between a desktop and a laptop then definitely go for a desktop. Try to build one yourself.. $3000 can net you a REALLY good desktop.

 

If you need at least a little mobility the x7200 is pretty easy to move around and even on occasional trips in the car or air travel. Also down the road if you ever want to sell it, the x7200 will generally have a better resale value over a desktop system...

____

 

Please keep in mind the 480m SLI are equivalent to 450 desktop SLI as perfomance and the cost of 2x450 is about 300 dollars while the 2x480 mare more than 1000 dollars. The really powerfull laptop is not so powerful compared to a cheaper desktop solution. The cpu ofcourse costs the same, I have no ideea about the ram, but I suspect it is as well cheaper.

The really powerfull desktop vs really powerful laptop is not fair since the laptop is not performance can be obtained with a not so powerful desktop.