The price I got on Dell was 2289 with their 250 coupon. I want to use this desktop basically for everything and never want to have to deal with any performance issues. This includes video/music/aim/4 poker clients/holdem manager/hud/chrome/ etc. any input? thanks


Software & Services
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Intel® Core™ i7-960 processor(8MB L3 Cache, 3.2GHz)
Microsoft® Works 9
1 Year Basic Service Plan
McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
12GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs
1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
No Monitor
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Desktop Cordless S520 Keyboard with LX5 Laser Mouse
Mouse included in Wireless, Laser or Bluetooth Package
No Modem Option
Dell 1525 Wireless-N PCIe Car

I would suggest you to use monitor for viewing things.

I already have one. thanks though bud.

It seems like a pretty bangin' system. However, you WILL have to deal with performance issues a couple years down the road for sure. No matter how good your computer is, without proper maintenance, it will run way slower. For example, spyware, viruses, bloatware, too many progs at startup, defrag, etc. The only thing that seems like it might be a bottleneck is your hard drive.

Shelling that much cash out expecting performance and not going with SSDs over HDDs is a mistake. Buying the parts off newegg/etc. and putting it together yourself or even paying a shop to do it will shave a decent chunk of that sticker.

there's no reason to pay the premium for the 960 over the 920. You should spend that money on an SSD instead.

Microsoft Works 9?

I could be wrong, but that's like total system failure to me.

I am a huge fan of the MS Office.

Go to Newegg and build it from scratch. I probably won't ever buy another premade computer after building my current desktop.

Agree with both these points.

And the overclocking ability of the 960 isn't very good where as the 920 has great oc potential.

Agree completely with these.

Paying that much for a computer and only using 1 drive that is a 7200rpm HDD is a HUUUUGE bottle neck. You want to at least use a 10,000rpm drive but if you're spending money this way theres no need not to get SSD's in there. Get a big storage HDD and a fast OS SSD.

Also a great idea. You're getting raped for these parts by buying directly from Dell. If you're not computer savvy get a shop to make it for you. Just because you're willing to spend a bunch of money on the desktop doesn't mean you can't be smart with it

Dell systems are so overpriced... I suggest building yourself. If you aren't comfortable with that go to cyberpowerpc.com or ibuypower.com and use their custom build system. The i7 960 is overkill and overpriced. Core i7 920 is better; and honestly unless you are a hardcore PC gamer, you can go with the core i5 750 or core i7 860, which use much cheaper motherboards and RAM. That video card is also overkill if you aren't a PC gamer. the ATI Radeon 5750 is $150 cheaper and will do everything you've listed with ease.

Ram is not as fast as it could be for a new triple channel system
Harddrive is going to be a bottleneck
Get it without works/productivity software and antivirus installed and pick your own instead. Run the decrapifier program when you get it to remove the dell crap.

basically some things are too much for you (12GB, vid card, 960) when compared to the other aspects of the system (7200RPM HDD, 1066 mem).

If you're set at that price save money on the proc (920 vs 960), and vid card and put it into SSD and faster memory

Thanks for all of the suggestions. With help from another 2+2 member I built another computer on cyberpowerpc.com. I'm going to buy it this week but he suggested I let you guys take a look at it before I pull the trigger. Thanks again. I tried to clean it up to make it as easily readable as possible. Thanks.



CD:LG 22X DVD±/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive (BLACK COLOR)

CAS:Apevia X-Dreamer 3 Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ Side-Panel Window & Temperature Display (Black Color with Black Ring & Blue LED Fan)

CASUPGRADE:None

CS_FANefault case fans

CPU:Intel® CoreT i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366

FAN:Asetek LCLC 120 Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)


FA_HDD:None

FLASHMEDIA:INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)

FLOPPY:None

HDD:Single Hard Drive (80 GB Intel X25-M 2.5 inch SATA Gaming MLC Solid State Disk (Nearly Instant Data Access Technology) [+166])

HDD2:Extreme Performance (RAID-0) with 2 Identical Hard Drives [+88] (1TB (500GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+26])

IEEE_CARD:None

KEYBOARD:Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard

MOUSE:Logitech MX1100 Cordless Laser Mouse [+61]

MODEM:None

MULTIVIEW:Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors

MOTHERBOARD:*Asus P6T SE Intel X58 Chipset CrossFireX Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA

MEMORY:12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module [+209] (Corsair or Major Brand)

NETWORK:Onboard Gigabit LAN Network

OVERCLOCK:No Overclocking

OS:Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)

POWERSUPPLY:600 Watts Power Supplies (XtremeGear SLI/CrossFireX Ready Power Supply)


SERVICE:STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT

SOUND:Creative Labs SB Audigy SE [+30]


USB:Built-in USB 2.0 Ports


VIDEO:ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB DDR5 16X PCIe Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] [+22] (Major Brand Powered by ATI)


_PRICE+1715)

I was helping him.

The 80 GB Intel SSD was the same price as the 128GB Kingston SSD. I quickly looked at reviews, and thought the Intel looked better, but it was a very quick glance. I know some of you guys are obsessed with those things though.

I think the X25 is better

Make sure you are aware that any data on the RAID is subject to complete loss if EITHER of the two RAID drives fails. You are getting somewhat faster speed at risk of total loss of data. Plan accordingly and backup often

Build looks great otherwise. Pretty much the same components I would/have used

With the inclusion of a SSD why would you raid your storage drive? Do you really need the performance here? To store/copy movies or music you don't need the performance of raid. I'm assuming you're gonna use your SSD for your OS and poker db. And possibly a few other programs?
The cost isn't significant but if you want the extra space just add 2 drives don't RAID in that config. Backing up 1 TB worth of data is not a fast task so if you have that much stuff for that amount of space I'd say going raid 1 is better or spring for the 3rd drive and go raid 5

Oh also, if you have a choice, the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB drives are pretty much the fastest large drive on the market. I have heard they match velociraptor 10kRPM drives in sustained read (but like 14ms seek)

The power supply looks pretty crappy. Get Corsair, Seasonic, or PC Power & Cooling instead. Antec (except for Basiq series), OCZ (ModXStream Pro) and higher-end Thermaltake and Enermax models are also acceptable.

The case is meh. Hard disk +1 to what Freaking said.

The rest looks excellent.

Thanks everyone for all of your help! I upgraded the power supply and changed the hard-drive, I really appreciate the input. Just ordered last night!

for that kind of $$, i suggest looking into getting a motherboard with USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0... i believe these will be the standard in a few years.

This looks solid...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=240276

commonly referred to as Sata 6 in tech specs

Hey. I just got my system! Thanks for everyones help. I was wondering if someone could help me really quick on where to install HEM/stars/full tilt. do those go on the SSD drive? how do i go about this i'm not too good w computers. thanks.

HEM definitely on SSD, Stars and tilt can be anywhere but will likely perform better on the SSD. If you don't place them on the SSD you might at least want the hand histories on the SSD. (Not actually speaking from experience though).

Should I just fill the SSD with the programs that I use the most often?

Depending the on size of your SSD, you should likely install all programs on it.

Typically best setup is

Windows, programs, etc on C (SSD)
User folder (My docs, desktop, misc storage) on D (Storage harddrive)

Many drives now will spin themselves down when not in use, so installing a program on a secondary drive will produce noticeable lag when you try to start it after not using the drive at all.

Your poker client & HEM on the SSD means that your handhistories and database are running at the fastest possible seek time, so there is little to no waiting for database lookups/imports compared to a mechanical drive.