Custom PC

[Airstrike92]

I'm looking to get a new computer, but not just any computer, a custom computer. I want it to be able to play any any new game and upcoming game on the highest graphics settings without lag. I also want it to be able to play older games like StarCraft, Diablo, Diablo II, Warcraft II: BNE, SWAT 3, and other games from the 1990s and early 2000s. However, I don't know how to do this sort of thing, like order a custom PC and tell them what I want and what-not. But here's pretty much what I want for it:



Specifications
-Windows 7 (I'll multi-boot it with XP)
-Several hundred GB of hard-drive space
-God-like amount of RAM (like anywhere from 15-30 thousand RAM)
-2 DVD-RW drives
-USB ports
-A fantastic HD monitor
-A fantastic video card
-A fantastic sound card
-3½-inch floppy drive
-Everything else being extremely great and high quality


Here are some examples of new and upcoming games that I'd like it to be able to run on their highest graphical and audio settings without the game lagging:
Examples of Games
-Company of Heroes Online
-StarCraft II
-Call of Duty: Black Ops
-Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online
-Final Fantasy XIV
-Aion: Tower of Eternity
-Call of Duty: Black Ops
-Medal of Honor 2010
-MechWarrior 2010
-Descent IV
-Diablo III
-Torchlight MMO
-Torchlight II
-Guild Wars 2
-Genesis A.D
-KARMA: Operation Barbarossa
-Civilization V
-Twilight MMO
-Shattered Horizon
-Duke Nukem Forever
-Jumpgate Evolution
-Star Wars: The Old Republic
-Stargate Worlds
-Black Prophecy
-Earthrise
-World of Warcraft w/Cataclysm
-Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X 2
-Firefly MMO
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer MMO
-Dungeon Siege III
-Lego Universe
-The Agency
-DC Universe Online
-Halo 2: Vista
-Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
-Aliens vs. Predator 3
-Aliens: Colonial Marines
-Aliens RPG
-Tactical Intervention
-The Crossing
-PlanetSide NEXT
-EverQuest NEXT
-APB: All Points Bulletin
-Doom 4
-Lineage III
-Battlestar Galactica Online
-Diaspora
-Battlestar Galactica: Beyond the Red Line
-Blue Mars
-Mirror's Edge
-Dark Sun Online: The Age of Heroes
-Fallout Online

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Wow, thats a high order. Do you want a 32-bit or 64-bit OS? 32-bit is a bit more compatible (esp. on older games) but only has a limit of 4 GB (although I found I never ran out of memory on that setting, even playing Giant Earth Map and such on Civ4 )

As for the hard drive space you might want to go into the terabytes range .. IIRC the largest consumer hard drive to date is 3 TB.

What do you want the floppy drive for? There are ways to transfer them to CDs. If you insist, you can get external USB floppy drives.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Okay, first things first, you do not need more than 4GB of RAM. 6GB at most if you do some light graphics work.

For hard drives, you will want to go with an SSD as your primary boot drive and a pair of 1TB's for storage (Im guessing here because I dont know what kind of space requirements you have). If you want faster secondary storage, you can hook the two drives up in RAID and near double their performance.

DVD drives -- one is plenty, believe me. There's no point over the last decade where I have needed to have two drives. There have been times when it was handy, but never when it was absolutely needed. This is even more important now that most of the drives are on SATA, not IDE. This means having 2 drives uses up two of your onboard SATA ports which means less storage upgrades later.

USB ports -- pretty much every motherboard now comes with 6-12 of them. If thats not enough, just buy a powered USB hub.

Monitor -- uhh, this is a big one. The monitor is what you will spend all your time staring at. The stuff in the case is all fine, but if your eyes hurt after an hour of looking at the monitor, then its all for naught. You need to give us more info on what you will be using the computer for as this can dictate how color-accurate of a monitor you need.

Video card -- again, more info, especially budget. I can point you to the fastest current card pretty easily, but it costs about 750$

Sound card -- unless you're an audiophile, the onboard sound will work just fine.

Floppy drive -- really now? Most motherboards dont even come with a floppy port anymore.


In other words, your post is pretty much entirely pointless. You need to figure out a budget, figure out approximately where you want to be with this system. Just saying "Derp, I want a nice pc" gets nowhere.

PS -- APB? lol

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Okay, first things first, you do not need more than 4GB of RAM. 6GB at most if you do some light graphics work.

I mean I can run Giant Earth Map on high graphics setting in the Modern Era with minimum lag.

 

[Fëanor]

For gaming 4GB is the sweetspot, more than 6 GB is useless even if you run a lot of junk in the background. "24 thousand ram" (24 GB) is the limit for non-server motherboards, you can get something like the EVGA Classified SR-2 (Super Record 2) and fill it with 48 GB of ram but that would be pretty pointless for gaming. Also getting all those games running on a dual CPU server board requires a good deal of expertise.

As for the floppy drive, if you really need one get a USB floppy drive.

You might want to consider keeping your current rig to play older (pre XP) era games, even if you become an expert with programs like Dosbox in the end virtualization has its limits.

In other words, your post is pretty much entirely pointless. You need to figure out a budget, figure out approximately where you want to be with this system. Just saying "Derp, I want a nice pc" gets nowhere.

Very true, we could easily suggest components costing over $20.000 for that rig but its rather useless if you are can only spend $800.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Some older Windows programs I found also work well in a virtual machine ... though not all of them, Im not sure what the difference is. I think someone here once mentioned DirectX but I dont quite remember

 

[Pacioli]

Video card -- again, more info, especially budget. I can point you to the fastest current card pretty easily, but it costs about 750$

Old proverb: Curiosity killed the cat. Which video card are you referring to?

 

[tokala]

Probably some monstrosity like this one

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Probably some monstrosity like this one

Good guess, but thats not the one I meant. Its too limited-edition to even consider.

I was talking about the HD 5970.

 

[civ_king]

Maingear.com
They do it right (they also custom build)