The Results of the $3500 question...

I asked the question in another thread http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1318777 if you had $3500 where (which boutique) you would spend it and what would you put in the machine they built for you.

Well I did my research based on a lot of what was offered there and decided to score them based on well, a lot of things. Here is what I came up with.

The rigs had to have at the minimum, the following:
- Could not exceed $3500 w/shipping ($2000+ & Crossfire rigs could not exceed $2600)
- 1000w Power Supply’s or better (750w or better for $2k+ & Crossfire rigs)
- Q9450’s or better(Quad or better for $2k+ and Crossfire rigs)
- DUAL GTX 280’s or better (260’s or better for $2k+ rigs)(4850’s or better for Crossfire rigs)
- 4GB at 800mhz or better (2gb 667MHz or better for $2k+ and Crossfire rigs)
- No integrated sound (integrated sound and better for $2k+ & Xfire rigs)
- Dual DVD Drives (1 DVD Drive for $2k+ and Crossfire rigs)
- 780i mobos or better (680i or 750i or better for $2k+ rigs)(x48 or better for Crossfire)
- Dual Hard Drives equaling 1TB with RAID 0 (750gb or better for $2k+ and Crossfire rigs)
- Vista Premium 64 bit for all

Keep in mind my scoring is rudimentary and unsophisticated. For example:
$2000+ Machines:
Vigor GPU’s- Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 SCORED a 1
Maingear GPU’s – Dual XFX GeForce 9800GTX SCORED a .5
Velocity Micro GPU’s – Dual EVGA GeForce 8800GT SCORED a 0

Vigor had the best GPU (along with a few others) and Velocity Micro had the lowest rated. Now are Dual 8800GT’s pieces of steamy? No, not by any means but I'm scoring what the company is offering in a certain price range compared to other companies, not the video cards themselves.

All the machines I built through the online configurators are awesome and I would take any one of them. However, they are being scored against each other and if one company can fit a Q9550 into a machine for a certain price and another company can't then they get graded accordingly.

Also, as someone so kindly pointed out, I am not technical so look upon these scores while keeping that in mind.

These are the companies that were researched and graded and some notes I jotted down while perusing each of their sites:

CyberPower PC – So cheap which kinda scares me / tons of case offerings / always offering lots of free stuff / bad reviews from (H) back in 2006 when they did evaluations

Digital Storm – lack of case options / loved the options to overclock everything: proc, gpu, memory and to boost your OS / relatively good prices / they, like Puget, have someone who come online to chat with you while your are configuring

Velocity Micro – Their $3000+ rigs with min specs came in at $4000! Scaled down to get to budget / no customization of power supplies(850w or 1200w) / Ugly cases in my opinion / very little options / no crossfire capability whatsoever that I could find

Maingear – options seem kind of limited, but they have them / prices are good / you only get ONE case to choose from / never heard a bad word about them

IbuyPower – Extreme customization / was able to top out on every detail / lots of freebies

Vigor – not a lot of choices on their cases / great looking “see through” case for low end machine not an option for the high end comps I’m building / kinda expensive / lots of choices on memory and gpu’s / liked that they give you choice between $100 discount and free shipping

Puget – love that sales rep comes online to chat and help with your builds while configuring / amazing community avtivity / sooo expensive / great PRE-customer interaction / lots of customization

YaGear – offer Xfire but not the HD 4800 cards / don’t offer the GTX 200 cards either / Q9450 processor not even an option / site made me add a data hard drive / very little options equals customer frustration

Alienware – offer Xfire but not the latest xfire compatible cards / no customization / don’t offer the GTX 280 in SLI / if you want the Q9450 processor you HAVE to get the 790i mobo /

AVA Direct – in love with the amount of customization you can do on the site / prices are great / almost TOO many options / I like the things I have heard about their willingness to make your rig to your specs
__________________________________________________________________________
I priced $3000+ / $2000+ / and Crossfire capable machines(which always fell into the $2000+ range)

I assigned scores (0,.5 and 1 w/ 1 being the highest and 0 being the lowest) for:
Processor
Motherboard
Video Card
Memory
Sound Card
Hard Drive

I assigned scores (0,1,2 w/2 being the highest and 0 being the lowest) for:
Misc = PSU size, length and quality of warranty and support, free shipping, dual DVD drives, etc, etc...
Price = This I based on what I'm getting for my money. Did their scores in the other fields relative to their asking price show good value?

For the $3000+ Desktops here are the scores:
Puget – 9.5 ($3383.33)
AVA Direct - 9.5 ($3478.58)
Vigor - 9.5 ($3487.00)
IbuyPower - 8.5 ($3363.00)
Digital Storm - 8 ($3498.00)
CyberPower PC - 7.5 ($3148.00)
Velocity Micro - 6.5 ($3469.00)
YaGear - 6.5 ($3287.00)
Maingear - 6 ($3350.22)
Alienware - 4.5 ($3515.08)

A three way tie! If I you put a gun to my head and said I had to pick an absolute #1 I’d tell you to pull the trigger.

I’ll give you Vigors specs (as they met every minimum grading requirement) and tell you where the other two scored differently:
Vigor:
- $100 Instant Rebate
- Intel® Core™2 Quad-Core Processor Q9450 at 2.66GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 12M Cache
- Vigor ALPHA FORCE Screwless Chassis w/TyphoonTM Air Ventilation System
- Metal Mesh Side Window for Improved Ventilation
- Vigor Whisper Cool Powered by Asus Cooling System
- Cooler Master Real Power Pro nVidia-SLI Certified 1000Watt Power Supply
- MSI P7N Diamond NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Intel Quad Core Ready
- 4GB Kingston HyperX KHX9200D2K2/2G CL5 X 2 DDR2 1150MHz Memory (4 X 1024MB)
- 500GB S-ATA II 7200 RPM Hard Drive
- 500GB S-ATA II 7200 RPM Hard Drive
- RAID 0 Performance - Striped Drives (2 or More Identical Hard Drives Only)
- nVidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB DDR3 @600MHz, DVI and TV Out
- nVidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB DDR3 @600MHz, DVI and TV Out
- SONY/NEC Internal SATA AD7191S 20X Dual Layer DVD+/- RW + CDRW Rewritable Drive
- Samsung Internal SATA SH203NB 20X LIGHTSCRIBE DVD+/- RW + CDRW Rewritable Drive
- Bundled DVD/CDRW Software
- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 24-Bit 7.1
- Onboard Gigabit (10/100/1000Mbps) PCI Network Card
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit w/Original DVD
- Standard 3 Year Limited Parts and Life-Time Labor Warranty

- All three had the same Processor only AVA’s was overclocked giving them a slightly higher score.

- Both Vigor and AVA had dual GTX 280’s while Puget had dual GTX 260’s bringing Puget down a notch.

- Vigor had slightly better RAM with the 1150MHz.

- The real difference came in the Misc department. Puget’s attention to their customer really shined here. Puget and Vigor both offered Lifetime Labor and Tech Support while AVA “only” offered Lifetime tech support. The only 1 of the three not able to get 1000w power supply in the rig was Puget.


The last place rig was from Alienware. Here are the specs:

[1] Area-51®
- Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz 6MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
- Alienware P2 Chassis: Alienware® P2 Chassis with AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling - Conspiracy Blue
- System Lighting: Alienware® Standard System Lighting - Astral Blue
- System Cooling: Alienware® Standard System Cooling
- Power Supply: Alienware® 1000 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
- Graphics Processor: Dual Graphics Cards - Dual 896MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260
- Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 2 x 2048MB
- Motherboard: Alienware® Approved NVIDIA® nForce® 790i Ultra SLI™ Motherboard
Includes PCI-Express 2.0, DDR3 Memory, and Support for Intel 1600 FSB
- Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1 – DirectX 10 Ready!
- System Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 1TB (2 x 500GB) SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 2 x 16MB Cache
- Optical Drives : Single Drive Configuration - 20X Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW) w/ LightScribe
- Enthusiast Essentials: Dual High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Ports
- Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer High Definition 7.1 Audio
- Keyboard: Standard Keyboard - Standard Keyboard
- Mouse: Standard Mouse - Standard Optical 3-Button Mouse with Scroll Wheel
- Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
- AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista® Edition
- Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
- Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mousepad
- Alienware Extras: Alienware® Desktop Binder
- Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card
- Alienware Extras: Internal Wire Management

- Now as you can see, Alienware met the minimum requirements in almost all areas except the processor which was a Duo and not a Quad. They got no points in that regard.

- Their Misc got no points either and that’s 2 points gone! Why? Because they offered no Lifetime tech support and only a one year parts and labor. There was no way of taking out the keyboard and mouse as an option. I wonder what they are charging you for those? The only thing that sticks out is that it’s an Alienware. For being the most expensive machine on the list you should be able to sneak a Quad core processor in there…nine other companies were able to.

For $3000 you can get A LOT into a machine! 3 year warranty w/lifetime tech support on a rig with a 2.66ghz quad processor with dual GTX 280’s, 4gb of memory and 1tb of hard drive space. Knowing that the companies that scored the highest are very highly regarded boutiques is comfortable knowledge to have. You know there are professionals building it and you know they will take care of you if worst comes to worst.

Personally, I would have NO problem plunking down that kind of change with Puget, AVA Direct or Vigor.


NOTE: I saved each configuration from each company but going back to those links now, most of them are gone. A few of the companies I had to cut and paste the builds and I have those here. I also have them on an Excel spreadsheet. If you want to take a look at individual builds for any of the categories, let me know and I can PM them to you or post them later in the thread.They are builds in their most basic form stating just what was graded. I do not have the type of power supply, nor the type of case for example.

_________________________________________________________________________
After reading some of the helpful hints in the aforementioned thread I decided to see where I could trim the fat on these machines. So I went back through each company and rebuilt the $3000+ rigs and then started cutting.
I tried to get all of them within the $2500 range.

For the $2000+ Desktops here are the scores:
CyberPower PC - 9.5 ($2391.00)
AVA Direct - 8 ($2559.81)
IBuyPower - 8 ($2532.00)
Digital Storm - 7.5 ($2536.00)
Puget - 7.5 ($2535.57)
YaGear - 7.5 ($2381.00)
Maingear - 6 ($2504.98)
Vigor - 5.5 ($2582.00)
Velocity Micro - 4.5 ($2579.00)
Alienware - 2 ($2561.96)

CyberPower PC killed the competition here with IBuyPower and AVA Direct right on their heels. I’ll give you CyberPower PC’s specs as they met and exceeded all minimum specs and then I’ll compare to what the others in the top three offered:

- BASE_PRICE: [+655]
- CASE: ($20 off Mail-in Rebate) Apevia X-Cruiser Mid-Tower 420W Case W/ WINDOW, MultiMeter Display & Control (Silver Color)
- CS_FAN: Default case fans
- CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9450 @ 2.66GHz 1333FSB 12MB L2 Cache 64-bit [+130]
- CD: (Special Price) LG 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
- CD2: LG 20X Double Layer DVD+-RW Super Allwrite + Lightscribe Technology [+41] (Silver Color [+9])
- FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
- FREEBIE_CU1: FREE! 4GB USB Pen Drive
- FREEBIE_CU2: FREE! CyberPower Multi-Purpose Carrying Briefcase ($19.99 Value)
- FREEBIE_CU3: FREE! Cyberpower Unleash The Power T-Shirt ($19 Value)
- FAN: CoolerMaster Hyper TX2 Gaming CPU Cooling Fan (Extreme Silent Operation at only 22dBA + Overclock Proof) [+19]
- FREEBIE_VC: FREE! (Age of Conan) Game
- FREEBIE_OS: FREE! (Halo 2) Game
- GEAR: Sunbeamtech LAN Party Strap Bag [+15]
- HDD: Extreme Performance (RAID-0) with 2 Identical Hard Drives [-7] (1TB (500GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+102])
- MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI & QX9650/9770 Support) Asus P5N-T Deluxe nForce 780i SLI Mainboard FSB1333 DDR2 3 x PCIe x16 SATA RAID w/ USB2.0,IEEE1394,&7.1Audio [+127]
- MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory [+100] (Corsair or Major Brand)
- NETWORK: Intel Pro Gigabite 10/100/1000 Network Card [+34]
- OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 [+104] (64-bit Edition [+19])
- PRO_WIRING: Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance -Thermal Compound on CPU [+19]
- POWERSUPPLY: 750 Watts Power Supplies [+79] (($40 off Mail-in Rebate) **Recommended** Thermaltake ToughPower 750W - Quad SLI Ready [+90])
- SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS 24/7 LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
- SOUND: Creative Labs SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-BIT PCI Sound Card [+64]
- SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers
- TEMP: THERMAL TEMPERATURE LCD DISPLAY WITH 3X FAN CONTROLLER [+12] (SILVER COLOR)
- USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
- VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 896MB 16X PCI Express [+354] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
- VIDEO2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 896MB 16X PCI Express [+439] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

- AVA had a slightly inferior sound card compared to the other two and so lost half a point.

- CyberPower were able to offer 1TB in RAID while the other two were only able to squeeze in 750GB HD’s.

- In the Misc department AVA was able to get an 850w power supply into the build and an obviously better reputation than CyberPower PC but the sheer amount of free things you get from the latter is a little overwhelming. A free copy of Age of Conan? That’s nice, no matter who you are. Whats that, a $50 value?


NOTE: IbuyPower were offering a Vista Bonus Pack which consisted of a Maxtor 80GB mini HD and a 108g Gaming Router among other things but do not as of 2 July. They were marked down accordingly under Misc.

The lowest scoring $2000+ rig was <dun dun dun> Alienware. Here are their woeful specs:

[1] Area-51® 7500
- Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 8MB Cache 1066MHz FSB
- Alienware P2 Chassis: Alienware® P2 Chassis with AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling - Conspiracy Blue
- System Lighting: Alienware® Standard System Lighting - Astral Blue
- System Cooling: Alienware® Standard System Cooling
- Power Supply: Alienware® 1000 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
- Graphics Processor: Dual 896MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260
- Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 x 1024MB
- Motherboard: Alienware® Approved NVIDIA® nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
- Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1 – DirectX 10 Ready!
- System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 750GB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 16MB Cache
- Optical Drives : Single Drive Configuration - 20X Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW) w/ LightScribe
- Enthusiast Essentials: Dual High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Ports
- Sound Card: High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
- Keyboard: Standard Keyboard - Standard Keyboard
- Mouse: Standard Mouse - Standard Optical 3-Button Mouse with Scroll Wheel
- Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
- AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista® Edition
- Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
- Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mousepad
- Alienware Extras: Alienware® Desktop Binder
- Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card
- Alienware Extras: Internal Wire Management

- They were able to supply a Quad but it was much reduced from the Q9450 that’s in most of the other machines.

- They could not get the 780i mobo into the price range and so had to “settle” for the 680i.

- They managed to get the dual GTX 260’s in but came up short in the memory department with only 2GB.

- On board sound….

- Again with no points for Misc. 1 year parts and labor and that’s it. Although they did manage to squeeze a 1000w power supply in there it was only because you HAD to. Dual vid cards require 1000w according to Alienware’s configurator.

- It was the 3rd highest priced rig out of the 10. They are charging insane premiums for their logo basically. Almost every other company in my list can give you better mileage out of your $2600 so we know its possible.


Alienware is showing a negative trend here and in my view can no longer compete with the other boutiques proliferating the web. At this point they are names who don’t cater to the discerning customers who wish to have a lot of choices and whom buy on a budget. If you have $5000 laying around by all means, get the brand that people recognize. But with that kind of money I could buy two AMAZING computers and let my kids play on this old Alienware laptop I am using right now.
This hurts my heart cause I used to be in love with Alienware but all good (read: expensive) things must come to an end.
On the flipside, I think my wandering eye is beginning to settle on the new hot girl in town. I hear her name is AVA...or is it Puget? They must be French.

________________________________________________________________________
Another thing that was suggested in these forums was the use of Crossfire, as they most assuredly are a cheaper option. After a lot of research I was just beginning to get used to the NVIDIA/Intel offerings and then the GTX 200 series cards came out and I was hooked.

When it was suggested I go the Radeon route I was hesitant. I did no research on them whatsoever and I was scrapper-locked onto the GTX 200's.

But I bounced through these forums and read what all the fuss was about,

I then visited all the above listed companies, AGAIN, to see what they had to offer.
Maybe I am looking in the wrong places but on several of these sites most of them don't even offer the 4850's in Crossfire mode: some not at all.

I know that they are in demand and some won't be in stock until the end of the month but I would have thought some of these companies would have them on offer with an available date.

Regardless, here are the boutiques that did have them and their scores:

AVA Direct - 9 ($2560.98)
Maingear - 9 ($2433.46)
Puget - 8.5 ($2493.22)
Vigor - 8 ($2538.00)
IbuyPower - 8 ($2446.00)
Digital Storm - 7.5 ($2576.00)
CyberPower PC - 7 ($2330.00)

Well, well, well…AVA Direct is in the top three yet again. Let me give you both Maingears and AVA’s specs as they were able to hit all minimum requirements and then some:

AVA Direct
- INTEL, Core™ 2 Quad Q9450 Quad-Core 2.66GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB (2 x 6MB) L2 Cache, 45nm, 95W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
- XIGMATEK, HDT-S1283 CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink, Socket 775/754/939/940/AM2, 120mm Fan, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
- ARCTIC COOLING, MX-2 High-Performance Thermal Compound, Non-Electrical Conductive
- SERVICE, Overclocking, Dual-Core CPU, 20-30% Performance Increase
- GIGABYTE, GA-X48-DS4, LGA775, Intel X48, 1600MHz FSB, DDR2-1200 8GB /4, PCIe x16 CF /2, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /3, ATX, Retail
- G.SKILL, 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz CL5 (5-5-5-15) SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
- VISIONTEK, Radeon® HD 4850 625MHz, 512MB GDDR3 993MHz, PCIe x16 CrossFire, DVI /2, Retail
- VISIONTEK, Radeon® HD 4850 625MHz, 512MB GDDR3 993MHz, PCIe x16 CrossFire, DVI /2, Retail
- SERVICE, Overclocking, Dual GPU, Optimal and Stable Performance
- AUZENTECH, Auzen X-Plosion 7.1, 7.1 channels, 24-bit 96KHz, S/PDIF In/Out, PCI
- WESTERN DIGITAL, 500GB WD Caviar® SE16 (WD5000AAKS), SATA II 300MB/s, 7200-RPM, 16MB cache
- WESTERN DIGITAL, 500GB WD Caviar® SE16 (WD5000AAKS), SATA II 300MB/s, 7200-RPM, 16MB cache
- RAID, RAID 0 (striping), min 2 hard drives required
- ROSEWILL, RCR-102 Black 52-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive, 3.5" Bay, USB 2.0
- SONY, DDU1615/B2S Black 16x DVD-ROM Drive, IDE, OEM
- SAMSUNG, Super-WriteMaster™ SH-S203B Black 20x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, w/ Software, OEM
- NZXT, Apollo Blue NP Mid-Tower Case w/ Window, ATX, No PSU, SECC Steel
- CUSTOM WIRING, Standard Wiring with Round Cables
- CORSAIR, CMPSU-1000HX HX Series Power Supply w/ Modularized Cable Management, 1000W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Multi-GPU Ready
- MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
- SERVICE, OEM System Recovery (bootable CD/DVD only)
- SERVICE, System Binder
- GAMING PC, Gold Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts & Lifetime Labor Warranty, Express/Priority Service)
- SERVICE, Standard Shipping (UPS, DHL, or Fedex)

Maingear:
- Exterior Automotive Color: Black Brushed Aluminum Finish
- Power Supply: 750W MAINGEAR Ultra Quiet Power Supply
- Motherboard: MSI K9A2 Platinum AMD 790FX™ Chipset
- Processor: AMD Phenom™ X4 9850 BLACK EDITION (2.5GHz x 4)
- CPU Cooling: Thermaltake CL-P0075 Heatpipe Cooler
- Memory: 4GB Kingston HyperX 6400 DDR2-800 (2x2GB)
- Do you want us to Redline™ your CPU?: YES
- Hard Drive One: Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II
- Hard Drive Two: Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II
- RAID: RAID 0 - Increase and speed up your storage array (requires 2 or more HDDs)
- Optical Drive One: 16X DVD-ROM - Black
- Optical Drive Two: 16X DVD-ROM - Black
- Video Card: 2x Visiontek ATI Radeon™ HD 4850's 1GB GDDR3 in CrossFireX™
- Do you want us to Redline™ your GPU?: YES
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series
- Network and On-Line Gaming Accelerator: Bigfoot Networks Killer NIC K1
- Network Card: Integrated Gigabit Network Card
- Game: Yes, Give me 3 FREE Games!
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit) SP1
- The Final Finesse: Flawless Hand-crafted Wiring and Cable Management
- Warranty: 14 Month Standard Maingear Warranty

- Maingear has just as good a rep as AVA but they only offered the 14 month parts and labor and if I had to go with a definite #1 it would be AVA. Strictly because they have the lifetime tech support, which is awesome.

To call the CyberPower PC Crossfire rig the loser is doing it a great injustice. Check out the specs and tell me if you wouldn’t want this machine:

BASE_PRICE: [+655]
- CAS: ($20 off Mail-in Rebate) Apevia X-Cruiser Mid-Tower 420W Case W/ WINDOW, MultiMeter Display & Control (Silver Color)
- CASUPGRADE: NONE
- CS_FAN: Default case fans
- CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHz 1333FSB 12MB L2 Cache 64-bit [+364]
- CD: LG 20X Double Layer DVD+-RW Super Allwrite + Lightscribe Technology [+6] (Silver Color [+9])
- FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (SILVER COLOR)
- FREEBIE_CU1: FREE! 4GB USB Pen Drive
- FREEBIE_CU2: FREE! CyberPower Multi-Purpose Carrying Briefcase ($19.99 Value)
- FREEBIE_CU3: FREE! Cyberpower Unleash The Power T-Shirt ($19 Value)
- FAN: CoolerMaster Hyper TX2 Gaming CPU Cooling Fan (Extreme Silent Operation at only 22dBA + Overclock Proof) [+19]
- GEAR: Sunbeamtech LAN Party Strap Bag [+15]
- HDD: Extreme Performance (RAID-0) with 2 Identical Hard Drives [-7] (1TB (500GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+102])
- MOTHERBOARD: (QX9650/9770 Support) Asus Rampage Formula Intel X48 Chipset CrossFire FSB1600 DDR2/1066Mhz Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0,IEEE1394,&7.1Audio [+209]
- MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory [+100] (Mushkin Xtreme w/ Heat Spreader [+120])
- NETWORK: Intel Pro Gigabite 10/100/1000 Network Card [+34]
- OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 [+104] (64-bit Edition [+19])
- POWERSUPPLY: 1,100 Watts Power Supplies [+183] (Apevia Warlock Series)
- SOFT: Free 60 Days Microsoft® Office® 2007 (Words, Excel, Access, Power Point, Outlook + More) - Windows Vista™ Required
- SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS 24/7 LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
- SOUND: Creative Labs X-Fi 24-BIT PCI Sound Card [+79]
- SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers
- USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
- VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 4850 PCI-E x16 512MB Video Card [+124] (Major Brand Powered by ATI)
- VIDEO2: ATI Radeon HD 4850 PCI-E x16 512MB Video Card [+209] (Major Brand Powered by ATI)

- Hardly a machine that brings to mind “last place”.

- The processor was the best out of the bunch with the Q9550 at 2.83MHz but I am sure there are people that think highly of the AMD Phenom 9850’S as well.

- The Rampage mobo is a monster from what I hear and they got a full point for that.

- The only thing holding CyberPower PC back is the stigma of bad tech support. It’s the proverbial monkey on their back and this monkey is holding tight. They had an alright score with resellerratings.com but 1st impressions are important for a reason.

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After all that, it’s a toss up between getting the dual GTX 260’s and the dual HD 4850’s. In my research, I can get almost the same value by going the dual GTX 260 route as I could with the more affordable 4850's. However, going crossfire allows me to get a couple nice little extras like overclocking or the Bigfoot Networks Online Gaming Accelerator which I couldn’t squeeze into any of the NVIDIA/Intel offerings. The dual GTX 280's are the things that push the machines into the $3000+ range.

Just using my new girlfriend AVA as an example:

The Crossfire, $3000 and $2000 systems are all extremely similar and the fat trimming GTX 260 offering clocked in at $2559.81 and the Crossfire came in at $2560.98.

With the Crossfire I managed to get the Auzentech sound card (over the Creative Audigy), the full 1TB in RAID 0 (over just the 750GB hard drive) and both the GPU’s and CPU overclocked as well as a 1000w power supply.

This brings me to the conclusion that I won't be spending $3000+ just to get the dual GTX280's, which is pretty much the only difference in the 3 different evaluations.

That and I won't have bigger than a 22" so I won't be looking at 1920x1200 unless I can convince my wife bigger is better but Feng Shui is inhibiting this notion. Damn Feng Shui!

So as someone said having dual GTX 280's is a bit overkill if your not looking at high resolutions. You could say that about the GTX 260's or HD 4850's as well but I am enthralled with having dual video cards. Damn you Joneses!

_________________________________________________________________________
In conclusion, having to pick which company to go with is like picking between Betty and Veronica. If you like blondes then you know. But if you're like me and you have no preference, then this is a hard decision. And of course there is always the red head to consider and thats CyberPower PC. Just based on their prices I would have went with them, and in fact, I had intended to do that from the very beginning but that monkey really scares me.

If you based it on scores, then AVA Direct is the winner. They came in the top three on each rig tying for 1st place in two of the three categories. That’s impressive.

Puget Custom Computers was in the top three in two of the categories and still in the top 5 in the other. They tied with AVA for 1st in one of those categories and were half a point from doing so in the crossfire eval. Also very impressive.

The surprise here though is IBuyPower which placed in the top 5 in all three categories and tying with AVA in the $2000+ eval. That’s impressive company. However, most of their high ratings came from the Misc category and with them taking the “Vista Bonus Pack” off their site a lot of the freebies that made them attractive are gone.

My gut is to go with Puget but AVA Direct is also amazingly attractive. I have about a month before I realize my cash from my collection and have to decide. Put that gun to my head and I will go with Puget. They will overclock your system and as Heather has pointed out will special order the case I find most appealing.

This going out of the way to work with a PRE-customer is above and beyond in my book and to top it off it doesn’t come across as a hard sell by any measure. It’s a company willing to work with you to gain your business. I think they know once you get with them you won’t be looking at the other pretty girls trying to give you their digits. You’ll only have eyes for them.

I hope this helps those of you considering getting rid of that Pentium 4 you’re still using and lets you skip a months worth of research. However, it sure is a lot of fun messing around with those configurators.

One last note: I just looked at Maingears site one last time and prices have dropped. Where I couldn’t fit the GTX 280’s in the $3000+ system just a few days ago, tonight I can. So be vigilant.
I will revisit the scores once the new tech comes out and see where that pushes prices. Looking forward to it.

I could build you a better box for $2500, and save you a lot of hassles. OK, OK, $3250, but that's my final offer. hehe

Lot of research there, I do hope you get a lot of good use with whatever you finally get your hands on.

Believe me,CyberPower and IBuyPower have earned their bad reputations,save yourself some trouble and just cross them off your list altogether.Pesonally I'm going with AVA,mainly because of the combination of low prices,good ratings,and wide selection of options.Your budget is considerbly higher than mine,it's the one factor that made me eliminate Puget,as they're the highest priced in your list,but the quality of their work and customer support can't be questioned.

lol u shouldn't be complaining about a wide selection of parts. That's a big positive for true enthusiasts. AVA tests their gaming systems extenssively so you don't have to worry about incompatibility.
A warning about VigorGaming systems though...all of the are LOUD AS HELL, but the good thing is that's the only complaint about them.

Shawnasee said:

To call the CyberPower PC Crossfire rig the loser is doing it a great injustice. Check out the specs and tell me if you wouldn’t want this machine:
....
- CAS: ($20 off Mail-in Rebate) Apevia X-Cruiser Mid-Tower 420W Case W/ WINDOW, MultiMeter Display & Control (Silver Color)
....
- FAN: CoolerMaster Hyper TX2 Gaming CPU Cooling Fan (Extreme Silent Operation at only 22dBA + Overclock Proof) [+19]
...
- POWERSUPPLY: 1,100 Watts Power Supplies [+183] (Apevia Warlock Series)

- The only thing holding CyberPower PC back is the stigma of bad tech support. It’s the proverbial monkey on their back and this monkey is holding tight. They had an alright score with resellerratings.com but 1st impressions are important for a reason.

Click to expand...

Those three options I highlighted are the reasons why Cyberpower is the worst option:
- Cheap case
- Cheap and poor choice of a HSF considering that the AVA and Maingear came with significantly better HSF for quad-core CPUs
- And the BIGGEST strike against them: An Apevia PSU. Apevia is well-known for making shitty over-speced PSUs that are more than capable of killing your PC. Anyone who uses Apevia PSUs are either newbies attracted by the flashiness of Apevia PSUs or don't know jack shit about power supplies. The fact that an Apevia PSU is part of Cyberpower's lineup should tell you just how much thought they put into their PCs. If you look at the other PC boutiques, NONE of the quality ones has an Apevia PSU.

So not only does Cyberpower offer poorly built and maintained rigs, they're recommending shitty possibly destructive parts to their customers. Jeez, how crappy can the company be?

If a PC boutique has Apevia as part of their PSU lineup or even their case lineup, just drop them altogether. They're either A) not smart or B) are major cost cutters at the expense of quality. Neither of which should be characteristics of a PC boutique.

Danny Bui said:

Those three options I highlighted are the reasons why Cyberpower is the worst option:
- Cheap case
- Cheap and poor choice of a HSF considering that the AVA and Maingear came with significantly better HSF for quad-core CPUs
- And the BIGGEST strike against them: An Apevia PSU. Apevia is well-known for making shitty over-speced PSUs that are more than capable of killing your PC. Anyone who uses Apevia PSUs are either newbies attracted by the flashiness of Apevia PSUs or don't know jack shit about power supplies. The fact that an Apevia PSU is part of Cyberpower's lineup should tell you just how much thought they put into their PCs. If you look at the other PC boutiques, NONE of the quality ones has an Apevia PSU.

So not only does Cyberpower offer poorly built and maintained rigs, they're recommending shitty possibly destructive parts to their customers. Jeez, how crappy can the company be?

If a PC boutique has Apevia as part of their PSU lineup or even their case lineup, just drop them altogether. They're either A) not smart or B) are major cost cutters at the expense of quality. Neither of which should be characteristics of a PC boutique.

Click to expand...

I may sound like a CyberPower PC loyalist but to be fair, their PSU selection was amazing. I'm the newbie because I chose that PSU because of the cost. Obviously, noting your utter distaste for Apevia power supply's, I will make sure to not add them into any of my rig builds.

Thanks!

u might want to look at maingear again. They just lowered the price of the F131 intel-ati and added cheaper ddr3 mem for this month

Shawn, I'm pretty much sold that Puget offers the best customer service and buying experience. I was noodling around on their configurator last night and the chat window popped up. The person answered all of my questions, was friendly and knowledgeable and put me at ease.

At the end, I asked their name, saying if I ever encountered Jon (Puget’s CEO) online I wanted to pass along some good feedback regarding their service. The answer was “My name is Jon =)”. It’s good to know that the CEO of the company is willing to take a turn in direct customer interaction.

That being said, they *are* expensive. Very expensive. You can configure a machine with equal or better components at Maingear, who also has a great rep, for 15% less cash. The warranty won’t be as good and the service is not as good either. I posted a config on their board asking for feedback and then e-mailed their sales team the same questions. 4 days on the post and counting and it’s now been 30 some-odd hours since my e-mail was sent. If a company won’t be attentive when you are flashing your money at them, I have concerns about how attentive they will be after they have that money in their pocket.

So, if I could convince myself that Puget is worth at 15-20% markup just for customer service, my decision would already be made. As it stands, I keep looking at my money and whispering “I love you” to it and not wanting to let it go that easy for what could just amount to “warm fuzzies” and not equate to real-world payoff.

Ava direct has the Free CPU overclocking for the month of July, but you have to call in your order, you cannot get the offer online. It is actually better to call because they can actually give you options / allow you to remove options that are not available on web site.

I ordered my system from AVA a few months ago and have been VERY pleased.

Kaolinchemist said:

Ava direct has the Free CPU overclocking for the month of July, but you have to call in your order, you cannot get the offer online. It is actually better to call because they can actually give you options / allow you to remove options that are not available on web site.

I ordered my system from AVA a few months ago and have been VERY pleased.

Click to expand...

Free overclocking saves you about $99 for the CPU and around $50 for GPU's if you go dual...a little less for a single card, so thats a good deal. Being able to overclock on the builds would definitely push their scores higher.

I'll take another look after the new x2 cards come out.

Was there any surprises for anyone?

flurp said:

So, if I could convince myself that Puget is worth at 15-20% markup just for customer service, my decision would already be made. As it stands, I keep looking at my money and whispering “I love you” to it and not wanting to let it go that easy for what could just amount to “warm fuzzies” and not equate to real-world payoff.

Click to expand...

If you're buying a computer similar to OP, value for your money clearly isn't too much of a concern, just go with Puget and enjoy a painless computer purchase experience.

You've really done your homework...and we're very flattered to be in contention.

280's are in stock now.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.

Shawnasee said:

I may sound like a CyberPower PC loyalist but to be fair, their PSU selection was amazing. I'm the newbie because I chose that PSU because of the cost. Obviously, noting your utter distaste for Apevia power supply's, I will make sure to not add them into any of my rig builds.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I say Cyberpower PC has a dumb selection of PSUs. I see Sigma and Nzxt as well as the stupid choice of Apevia PSUs in their "Gamer Xtreme XI" rig. However they do have good PSUs such as Corsair and Thermaltake Toughpower PSUs. But the mere fact that they have Apevia already tells me just how bad of a boutique this is.

And my distaste, otherwise known as hatred, for Apevia for PSUs is backed up by personal experience with those POS PSUs and from reviews like these:
http://jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=92
http://jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=78
http://jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=79

Hopefully someone else read this thread and learns just how bad Apevia really is.

Shawnasee said:

Was there any surprises for anyone?

Click to expand...

Not really. I did similar, although not as exhaustive, research before buying, and that's why I bought from AVA Direct. My new computer review, if anyone is interested. Joe was very helpful in helping me configure what I wanted, and Misha was very nice in letting me change the video card after I had already ordered, to the eVGA brand so I could use eVGA's Step-Up program.

While I wouldn't hesitate to buy from Puget, I couldn't justify the increase in cost. Heather really is the best customer service person I've ever seen online They are my second choice.

Third and fourth, in no particular order, would be Maingear and Velocity Micro. They are more expensive than AVA Direct, and have fewer options, but they have good support.

CyberPower and IBuyPower have terrible support. I don't care how low their prices are, I would never purchase from them. Alienware is way overpriced.

Danny Bui said:

And my distaste, otherwise known as hatred, for Apevia for PSUs is backed up by personal experience with those POS PSUs and from reviews like these:
http://jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=92
http://jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=78
http://jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=79

Hopefully someone else read this thread and learns just how bad Apevia really is.

Click to expand...

I laughed out loud.
Read, heeded and duly noted.

I'm not trying to sound like an asshole but you should really build your own computer and save yourself some money. You'll learn some useful shit in the process too. I know you don't want to, but isn't saving money the most important priority here. Just spending money because you have it is plain foolish. You can easily build a top of the line computer that will prolly run cooler, OC higher, look better, and again, save yourself a lot of money.

Just trying to push you in my biased direction. You can ignore me now.

I'd build it myself if I had the money, period.

...Let alone $3500. And since when does a sizeable system NEED a 1000W PSU? That's yet ANOTHER waste.

AncientTechno said:

I'm not trying to sound like an asshole but you should really build your own computer and save yourself some money. You'll learn some useful shit in the process too. I know you don't want to, but isn't saving money the most important priority here. Just spending money because you have it is plain foolish. You can easily build a top of the line computer that will prolly run cooler, OC higher, look better, and again, save yourself a lot of money.

Just trying to push you in my biased direction. You can ignore me now.

Click to expand...

I haven't priced it yet but I am also looking into buying the parts and having a friend build it. It still doesn't appeal to me in the least even at the expense of saving money.

Security is something you can't really put a price on and I feel secure having a reputable boutique put my machine together for me. Where I can call and ask questions.

I know this doesn't make sense to those of you who put these things together and I'm sorry about that.


As far as the power supply's go, in each of the three confifurations what is a safe wattage to have? If you have dual 280's or dual 260's or dual 4850's what is a wattage you can have and be more than comfortable? Not what you can get away with but what won't worry you?

You really don't have to apologize for wanting to have a boutique build your system,it's a totally valid option for those who don't have the expertise or time to do it themselves.Actually,this particular sub-forum is supposed to be for questions about having a system built,and the FAQ discourages "build it yourself" responses.Yes,you can save money building it,but you don't get the complete warranty and technical support a good boutique gives you.

http://www.corsairmemory.com/psufinder/default.aspx

I would imagine a 750w PSU would be sufficient. The tool, plugging in 2 HDD, 2 4870s and an OC quad says so anyway.

I think too many people go for mega-wattage but it's more expensive and certainly not as efficient (or environmentally friendly)

michael.pa2 said:

You really don't have to apologize for wanting to have a boutique build your system,it's a totally valid option for those who don't have the expertise or time to do it themselves.Actually,this particular sub-forum is supposed to be for questions about having a system built,and the FAQ discourages "build it yourself" responses.Yes,you can save money building it,but you don't get the complete warranty and technical support a good boutique gives you.

Click to expand...

Warranty and tech support are valid reasons, I don't think the "expertise and time" are though. If you can put a lego set together you can build your own PC, and if you don't have a spare 2 hours once every year or two you've got some serious time management issues.

Warranty and tech support are the exact things I mentioned when I asked about which boutique to buy from if you had $3500.

Nicolaskl said:

Warranty and tech support are valid reasons, I don't think the "expertise and time" are though. If you can put a lego set together you can build your own PC, and if you don't have a spare 2 hours once every year or two you've got some serious time management issues.

Click to expand...

How much is an hour of your time worth? I wouldn't hesitate to say that many people here probably have time that is worth a lot of money, and that is where the expertise and time savings can be a great benefit.

Hehe...it's the eternal struggle between those who want to buy pre-built and those who want to build their own. There's room in the world for both. ;-)

Belgain Roffles said:

How much is an hour of your time worth? I wouldn't hesitate to say that many people here probably have time that is worth a lot of money, and that is where the expertise and time savings can be a great benefit.

Click to expand...

I hear you. I enjoy building computers so I don't buy pre-built. However I can change the oil in my truck and car, but I choose to pay for someone else to do it because I don't want to screw with it.

Dan_D said:

I hear you. I enjoy building computers so I don't buy pre-built. However I can change the oil in my truck and car, but I choose to pay for someone else to do it because I don't want to screw with it.

Click to expand...

lol

Dan_D said:

I hear you. I enjoy building computers so I don't buy pre-built. However I can change the oil in my truck and car, but I choose to pay for someone else to do it because I don't want to screw with it.

Click to expand...

I'm in the same category.


If I had the cash, I'd love one these custom botique builds.. For the main fact, they look awesome, work awesome, and you get awesome support.

So taking into account the price difference, the difference in performance, and who is making it, which of the three machines is most appealing to everyone?

Would you rather have the $3000 machine with dual GTX 280's?

Would you rather have the $2500 rig with dual GTX 260's?

Would you rather have the $2500 rig with dual HD 4850's?

Heather Taylor said:

Hehe...it's the eternal struggle between those who want to buy pre-built and those who want to build their own. There's room in the world for both. ;-)

Click to expand...

hahaha, I think so too. Well I hope there is because I'm one of those who wants it pre-built. Much to the chagrin of many here.

For a dual card setup,I'd go with the Crossfire rig,since the 4000 series cards have proven so competitive with the 200 series for less money,and most importantly,any SLI setup requires a Nvidia motherboard,and I don't need that headache!

Shawnasee said:

So taking into account the price difference, the difference in performance, and who is making it, which of the three machines is most appealing to everyone?

Would you rather have the $3000 machine with dual GTX 280's?

Would you rather have the $2500 rig with dual GTX 260's?

Would you rather have the $2500 rig with dual HD 4850's?

Click to expand...

I think most people here would say the 4850's, because the Intel chipsets work better than the nVidia chipsets. However, if you do decide to go with SLI, I really recommend getting the eVGA 750i SLI FTW motherboard. It's the top performing nVidia chipset motherboard with great overclocking ability. It's the motherboard I have, and I haven't had any problems at all, except for needing to update the BIOS to fix an audio CD problem on a SATA optical disk drive (and the update process was a simple matter of downloading and running an executable file).

There really is another choice, though, depending on how long you want to wait. The ATI HD 4870x2 will be out in August. Rumors say that ATI has altered the architecture so that it will use memory sharing to communicate, and not CrossFire. Which means there won't be any microstuttering (which happens with both SLI and CrossFire).

*EDIT: I forgot to mention that AVA Direct is running some specials for the month of July, including free CPU overclocking. You can read about their specials in their web site forum.

AndonSage said:

There really is another choice, though, depending on how long you want to wait. The ATI HD 4870x2 will be out in August. Rumors say that ATI has altered the architecture so that it will use memory sharing to communicate, and not CrossFire. Which means there won't be any microstuttering (which happens with both SLI and CrossFire).

*EDIT: I forgot to mention that AVA Direct is running some specials for the month of July, including free CPU overclocking. You can read about their specials in their web site forum.

Click to expand...

I can barely stand to wait right now!

I get home, fire up my Alien and immediately forego all other preplanned activities(City of, Full Tilt, web chatting with the wife, cleaning, laundry, feeding myself...) and head straight to AVA, Puget or Maingear and start building and tweaking and salivating.

The good news is the potential buyer has turned into the man who is going to fund my dream machine! Books will be heading to another state within the month.

I gotta tell everyone thanks for all the advice. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

I'm pretty enthused about the Crossfire, myself, but then I've always been a closet ATI fangrrl.

Shawnasee said:

Would you rather have the $3000 machine with dual GTX 280's?

Would you rather have the $2500 rig with dual GTX 260's?

Would you rather have the $2500 rig with dual HD 4850's?

Click to expand...

Definitely the $2500 rig with dual HD4850s hands down. Like AndonSage has said, Intel chipsets are more stable, reliable, and cooler running than their Nvidia counterparts.

Shawnasee said:

I can barely stand to wait right now!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I understand. I had been planning on waiting for the new nVidia and ATI video cards, and Intel CPU price drops, but I just couldn't play Age of Conan at only 8 to 13 FPS on my old computer. So what I did was get the 8800 GTS 512MB OC from eVGA with my computer, and after the HD 4870x2 comes out, I can decide either to get that, or Step-Up to the eVGA GTX 280 (which will be much more reasonably priced then )

Shawnasee said:

I gotta tell everyone thanks for all the advice. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Click to expand...

You're welcome We do it because we enjoy it

Well it's decided, the $3000 machines are out.

The one reason the machines reach these prices, in my builds anyway, is the dual GTX 280's.
As has been said, if you're not getting bigger than a 22" then there really is no point.

I'm also striking RAID 0 from my want list.

This leaves me with the dual GTX 260's option or the dual HD 4850's crossfire option.

For the price and everything you can add on, the crossfire option seems to make the most sense.

So any offerings on what the best mobo would be for Crossfire config?
- Asus Rampagex48
- Asus M3A32 MVP (AMD 790FX)
- MSI K9A2 Platinum
- Gigabyte GA X48
Any others that are good that aren't on this list?

What processor is more to your liking in combination with the above boards?
- Q9450 2.66GHz
- AMD Phenom x4 9850 Black Edition 2.5GHz

Intel or AMD?

Also would a 750w power supply be plenty enough for an overclocked Q9450, HD 4850 in crossfire, one of the above mobos, 4gb of mem, and a 640g hd or more machine?
<<edit: nvm...flurp answered that question earlier in this thread...and yes was that answer>>

Intel, period. From stem to stern, as it should be.

Geez, you haven't bought this thing yet? I could have built 50 boxes in this time frame... good lord man, just do it.

Joe Average said:

Intel, period. From stem to stern, as it should be.

Geez, you haven't bought this thing yet? I could have built 50 boxes in this time frame... good lord man, just do it.

Click to expand...

Believe me if I had cash in hand it would be bought.

Just yankin' yer chain, so to speak. I can honestly say I've never seen anyone around here or the multitude of other forums I've been a member of for well over a decade now (this nick is just another one here, been around much longer than the 4 month thing would lead people to believe) ever put so much time and effort into building a box.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not.

Anywho... I sincerely hope that when you finally make the decision and do the deed that you do get a shitload of lifespan from it and enjoyment.

Intel hands down. Thought your research would turn up the answer that question?

Anyway which Gigabyte X48 motherboard are you talking about? There's quite a few Gigabyte X48 motherboards out there. In any case, I recommend the Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4. IT's the right balance of features, quality and performance and is more than enough for Crossfire.

Also I want to point out that a good quality 750W PSU will handle that load. So make sure you choose a good quality PSU.