SLI PC Rig of the Month - October 2007 Winner

Full Name: Shane Alleman
Country: USA
City/State: ELY, Nevada
Handle: Mr. Death

Shane enjoys building and customizing computers for fun and ultimately for playing games. His rig has two EVGA NVIDIA 8800 GTX video cards, an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz processor (overclocked to 3.2 Ghz), and two OCZ SLI memory sticks adding up to 2 GB of ram. For sound, he has installed a Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi FATAL1TY Edition and he has powered his rig with a 1000 W Enermax Galaxy PSU. Seven fans and a Zalman CPU cooler keeps everything cool. And as the final touch and to add some extra color, he has installed four green and red lights to brighten everything up.”

We asked few questions, here is what he had to say:

What’s the main reason for building such a powerful system?
I enjoying playing games from time to time and I enjoy building computers for fun; I do it just for the games and I enjoy it.

Aside from installing memory sticks, what was the easiest component you had to upgrade?
The easiest components to upgrade were the CPU and the hard drives. I enjoy modding and building PCs so nothing was really too hard for me.

What game are you currently playing? Why?
The game I am currently playing is Quake 4. Actually, I just finished it about a week ago, I really enjoy first person shooters, in addition, I have been playing the demos for Crysis, TimeShift and Hellgate: London, I'm just waiting for these games to come out so I can put my rig to some abuse...lol. I love the Crysis demo; the graphics are stunning, and the water detail is what really draws me into the game more. I just love how the Video Cards render the water; it’s stunning! I am running windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition.

What would you recommend a novice system builder to avoid when building their first computer from scratch?
If you are a novice builder, start small. I would start with an SLI motherboard, but just one video card and 2 GB of RAM. Stick with a standard heat sink for the CPU. Once that is set up and working, you can research information on how to mod it. If you really want to build a great computer, research different motherboards, CPUs, memory, video cards, and read different people’s opinion, reviews, etc. to find what will best work for you.

THE SPECS:

Motherboard: EVGA Nvidia 680i SLI
Graphics cards: (2) EVGA Nvidia 8800GTX ACS3 Edition
Case: Silverstone TJ07
PSU: 1000w Enermax Galaxy
RAM: 2 OCZ SLI Memory 2 GB
CPU: Intel E6600 2.4 dual core (overclocked to 3.2 GHz)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9700NT
HDDs: 3 Seagate 320GB (raid 0)

See all October submissions

September 2007

August 2007

July 2007

June 2007

May 2007

April 2007

March 2007

February 2007

December 2006

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December 2005

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April 2005

Have you created your own smoking-fast SLI system? Have you pimped it out with the latest mods? Is EVERYTHING in your machine UV-reactive? Do you have seventeen 120mm fans adorning your dual-GPU benchmark-shattering monster of a machine? Do you have what it takes to make the "SLI Rig of the Month?”

Find out – submit your machine for a chance to win glory (and get featured on NVIDIA’s web site!).

To submit your SLI rig for consideration, send an email to us with the information below. You MUST have the phrase "SLI Rig of the Month" in the subject line of your email. Emails without this will not be considered.

In your submission email, you must include the following information:

Full Name
Gaming Handle
Country
City and State or province
CPU brand and model (For example: Intel QX9650)
Motherboard brand and model (For example: EVGA 790 SLI)
Number of graphics cards, brand, and model (For example: 3x EVGA GTX 285’s)
Memory amount/configuration, brand, and type. (For example: 2x2gb Corsair Dominator DDR2 8500)
Power Supply brand, model, and wattage. (For example: PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1200W)
Hard drive brand, size, and raid configuration (if applicable) (For example: 2x Western Digital Raptor 150GB, RAID 0)
Case brand and model (For example: Cooler Master Cosmos S)
Lighting: Please describe any lighting that you have added to the case
Cooling: Please describe you cooling system whether its air, water, or etc.
Overclocking: Please list any overclocking you have done with the parts, clock speeds, and overclocked speeds.
Photos of your machine! Please provide photos of both the inside and outside of your machine. Keep in mind, the more photos you have the better look we get of your machine.

– PLEASE USE ONLY ".JPG" FILES, AND DO NOT SEND ".ZIP" FILES). Please limit your total photo attachments to 9 MB or less in your email.

Also, please answer the following questions:

What games are you currently playing and why?
What games are you looking forward to and why?
What was the biggest challenge you faced when building your machine and how did you over come it?
What advice would you give a first time system builder?
When do you plan on building you next system and what are you plans for that system?

You may also write a short description of your machine, and what you’ve done to it to make it stand above the rest but please keep it less than 150 words.

Submit your rig today!