I want to build a system worthy of Xtreme 3d team

[dorokhin]

hey guys. my goal is to have a system that will make it to the 3dmark hall of fame :banana:. What do i need?

Proccessor: intel says 3GHZ by year's end. AMD says Barton. Which one will be faster? Depending on which route I take, I will run for a couple months on either a 1.6GHZ northwood or an XP 1800+....This choice affects:

motherboard: AGP 8x is a must; easy overclocking features are good too...What else?

Video Card: Will currently use an ATI Radeon 8500 LE 128MB. Will upgrade to R300 once its out.

Hard Drive: Is 7200 RPM good enough for a system like this?

RAM: I like the Corsair XMS series of DDR RAM

Cooling: Water cooling...Is a home made one easy to setup and is it as good as retail. I don't mind paying the 300-400 bucks for a retail water cooling system as long as it delivers top notch cooling...

OS: Windows 2000

I'd like to start buying the parts soon. upgradeability is a must for this project...My preffered vendor is newegg.com. They don't scam people!! My budget range max for this project is about $2,500 (USD). I'd appreciate some recommendations.

[Chong345]

well, I'm hoping that the barton will let me get to the top. No matter what system you get just be sure to get cooling that will go towards future cpu's vid cards etc. I wish I had done that. I blew all my cash on aircooling. What a waste.

[dorokhin]

Yeah. I know what you're saying about the cooling. A friend of mine just blew 1,700 bucks for a P4 2.0 GHZ with Rambus) system which can't even get to 10,000. His 1st mistake was not getting a Northwood but, even then, some good cooling would have let him overclock it and make up a little for his mistake.

Do you know any details about the Barton?

[Chong345]

I haven't heard much but rumors of the p ratings. Seems that they will be really fast although I dunno. There are a couple of threads here about the barton.

[dorokhin]

Do you think that the Barton will be able to compete with the overclocked Northwood (3GHZ by year's end). Since i'm water cooling, OC'ing will be very important.

What about HD and RAM?

When are 8x AGP mobo's coming? Or are some already out? Recommendations please...

[2xD]

Asus just yesterday announced their first mainboards carrying AGP8x and Serial ATA.

From what I've read, and from what my feeling tells me :), I think the Hammer is the one to go for.
Whether it be Claw or SledgeHammer, they're gonna kick some serious ass anyhow.
Only problem are those rumours saying you won't be able to OC a Hammer... :(
If that turns out ot be true, I suggest you just wait for the first tests of the Barton coming out. Also, keep in mind that a P4 at stock speeds of 3GHz, will most likely not overclock _that_ good, as the core is almost celebrating it first anniversary, it's almost time for Intel to adjust the production process a bit.

And if you really want a rig that will make it to the hall of fame, I think your best bet would be an EVA3, not watercooling :)

lol, just realize I'm posting quite a lot over here, eh well, have to do something eh :D