What Would You Do With The Contest Prize? (New Specs Oct. 5)

NEW SPECS!!! (Oct. 5)

-Intel® Core™ i7 870 @ 2.93 GHz LGA 1156 45nm 8MB L3 Cache
-Intel P55 Chipset Mainboard
        - 3x PCI-e 16x
        - 4x DIMM DDR3 Memory Slots
        - 2x PCI-e 1x
        - 2x PCI
        - 10 USB (8 x rear, 2 x front)
        - GB LAN
- 6x SATA, 2x IDE
- I/O: 2x PS2, 8x USB, 1x IEEE1394a, Optical S/PDIF Out Port, Coaxial S/PDIF          
  Out Port,2x RJ-45, Audio
-8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 1333 Memory(Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
-1TB SATA-II 3.0 Gb/s 7200RPM HDD
-Nvidia Geforce GTX 285 PCI Express Video Card
-Blu-Ray Player Drive
-22x DVD±R/±RW DUAL LAYER DRIVE
-Flash Card Reader Drive
-Viewsonice VA2226W 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor
-Xtreme Gear USB Keyboard
-Xtreme Gear USB Mouse
-Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-Bit
(With Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon)
-CoolerMaster Sniper Storm Gaming Case With Side Window and 800W Power Supply
-Shipping weight : 42Lbs.
-Shipping Dimension : 28 ¼” (L) x 21 5/8” (W) x 11 7/8” (H)
-1 Year Warranty and Lifetime Toll Free Tech Support Services

Old Specs:
-Intel® Core™ i7 870 @ 2.93 GHz LGA 1156 45nm 8MB L3 Cache
-Intel P55 Chipset Mainboard
        - 3x PCI-e 16x
        - 4x DIMM DDR3 Memory Slots
        - 2x PCI-e 1x
        - 2x PCI
        - 10 USB (8 x rear, 2 x front)
        - GB LAN
- 6x SATA, 2x IDE
- I/O: 2x PS2, 8x USB, 1x IEEE1394a, Optical S/PDIF Out Port, Coaxial S/PDIF          
  Out Port,2x RJ-45, Audio
-8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 1333 Memory(Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
-1TB SATA-II 3.0 Gb/s 7200RPM HDD
-Nvidia Geforce GTX295 1792MB PCI Express Video Card
-Blu-Ray Player Drive
-22x DVD±R/±RW DUAL LAYER DRIVE
-Xtreme Gear USB Keyboard
-Xtreme Gear USB Mouse
-Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-Bit
(With Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon)
-NZXT Beta Gaming Case With Side Window and 800W Power Supply
-Shipping weight : 42Lbs.
-Shipping Dimension : 28 ¼” (L) x 21 5/8” (W) x 11 7/8” (H)
-1 Year Warranty and Lifetime Toll Free Tech Support Services

Are there any weak links here?  We're speculating the mobo will be an ASUS P7P55D Deluxe, pretty solid from what's available now.  Big name PSU?  Blu-Ray burner?  Faster RAM?  Even the case is pretty awesome.

For me I'd pretty much buy one or two 24" 1920X1080 monitors and a serious sound card, that's it.

Edit for new specs Oct. 5 - Slight downgrade of video card but still smokin'.  Tossed in a 22" monitor and CM Storm Sniper.  I think I like this case even better, integrated fan controller?

Oh.  RAIDed SSDs? 

Also:  Seeing as its a dream rig, and the video card can handle it, would you prefer one 30" 2560X1600 monitor to two 24" and why?

I would display it proudly on my desk. Maybe upgrade the ram and possibly get a second GTX 295 for some quad SLI goodness

eunoia:

RAIDed SSDs? 

That would be good, but only if it had a window,......

More RAM & dual graphics cards would be nice. It wouldn't need an upgrade for a long, long time.

screens: Two 24's would definitely trump one 30.

Give my rig to my girl and sell hers and pick up another monitor and a 5870.

Definately a nice new HDMI cinema monitor and a 5870.

Play WoW until my fingers bled.

I'd stick with my existing monitor, though, a Dell SP2008WFP. If you ignore the horrid, horrid built-in webcam, this is a really good monitor. And with my vision, I couldn't use a much larger one, let alone two.

Honestly, that system is so far ahead of the one I was planning that I'd hate to mess with it! Though I would drop a SSD in, which I just now ordered from TigerDirect thanks to advice from Soupstyle and SuperDave.

I don't see what this has to do with Tech Support....although its an interesting topic...

My bad.  I was looking for something along the lines of "new builds" or "modding".  It's probably the best forum to get the tech-heads to come out and give their critique of the contest system, and what they would get to work on first, though I'm guessing it's like Vietnam, they won't talk much to the new guys. 

Just noticed The Workshop - Help For Complete System Builds three doors down.  Newbies get a pass the first month, right?

>> What would you do

I currently have two kids, using one PC.  I'd build a bigger desk in the play room and set it up so that they could both be doing homework or gaming at the same time.

3vi1:

>> What would you do

I currently have two kids, using one PC.  I'd build a bigger desk in the play room and set it up so that they could both be doing homework or gaming at the same time.

Good man.

I would give my current rig to my girlfriend.

mentaldisorder:

I would give my current rig to my girlfriend.

Well mental hopefully your GF will be getting your rig this time around and your will have a new monster to play with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Good luck to all on the win does anyone know the date of the drawing?

I think the 12th.

Replace the gtx 295 :P

Well they just did (see new specs in originating post) but I don't think that's what you meant.    GTX 285 is still an awesome upgrade from my mighty GeForce 4 MX 420!

mentaldisorder:

I would give my current rig to my girlfriend.

Give her something less sentimental, like an engagement ring.  Hehe

I'd rub it in the face of my Intel/Nvidia only friend.  As an AMD fan it would be quite a shock for me to have this Core i7 GTX 285 beast.  And it's faster than his Core 2 Quad, 8800GTX system.

With this rig, I would be able to play all the games I have put off playing due to my underpowered Toshiba laptop. And will promptly flunk out of school!

So realneil bro, whatcha' gonna do with this beast?