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Some of you guys might be readers of Maximium PC or have atleast heard about the crazy monster of a computer they build every year, the Dream Machine. For those of you that aren’t accustomed to computer customization the Dream Machine includes only bleeding edge technology with no regards to price, hence the appropriate name Dream Machine. This September I was the specifications for the 2006 Dream Machine and then I had this brilliant idea, why not build a Dream Machine for myself?

Mulling over the idea a bit and realizing I haven’t got anywhere near the budget that Maximium PC has I decided that I should play to my strengths and that naturally means a healthy dose of overclocking will be in order. Maximum PC has set the bar very high this year and unfortunately that means I will have to dig deep into my bag of tricks to pull this off.

The Dream Machine

The Dream Machine contains nearly every product that was barely attainable at its creation. With such featueres like a dual core processor, raid arrays, and dual video cards, it seems like all good things were coming in pairs. Here is the part by part breakdown of the Dream Machine components and the prices listed by Maximum PC.

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 $1000
• Motherboard: nForce 590 Intel Edition $250
• Video: 2x XFX 7900GTX $1000
• Memory: 2x Corsair 1GB DDR2-800 $195
• HDD Array 1: 2x Western Digital Raptor X 150GB $500
• HDD Array 2: 3x Seagate Barracuda 750GB $1500
• Optical Drive 1: Pioneer BDR-101A $1000
• Optical Drive 2: Plextor PX-750UF $140
• Cooling: Zalman CNPS9500 LED $60
• Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 $200
• Sound: Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro $395
• Case: Silverstone TJ09 Prototype $250
• Paint Job: Smooth Creations $800
• Screens: 2x Dell 2407WFP $1700
• Speakers: M-Audio Studiophile LX4 $550
• Keyboard: Microsoft Ergonomic 4000 $60
• Mouse: Logitech G5 $50
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional $200

Total Cost: $9850

The parts list is very intense and the final cost may make you double take but this machine is real. It isn’t called a Dream Machine for no reason, there is some serious money stashed inside and around its beautiful case and I can only imagine how much pride its creators must feel when they fire it up. This is what I have to beat or atleast make a fair show at it, so with that said, here is the competition.

The Lean Machine

The parts that will be put into this box have one primary focus, attain the highest possible overclocks possible with the least amount of money spent. This naturally leaves all high end processors and videocards out of the race but after digging around a bit I found some suitable competition. Explanations will follow.

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 $224
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 $145
• Video: eVGA 7900GTO $250
• Memory: 2x OCZ 1GB DDR2-800 Gold $225/li>
• HDD Array: 2x Seagate Barracuda 300GB $160
• Optical Drive 1: LITE-ON SHC-52S7K-05 $30
• Optical Drive 2: Plextor PX-755SA $105
• Cooling: Custom Phase Cooling $220
• Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700w $130
• Sound: Integrated Sound
• Case: Antec SOHO Server $40 used
• Paint Job: Custom Laguna Seca Blue $80
• Screens: 2x Samsung 205BW $580
• Speakers: Logitech Z-680 $220
• Keyboard: Logitech G15 $70
• Mouse: Logitech MX Revolution $90
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional and Vista RC1 $200

Total Cost: $2769

With a price of less than a third of the cost of the Dream Machine, the Lean Machine weighs in at what I consider to be an acceptable $2769. Some areas I was forced to drastically cut back such as the monitors and hard drive arrays however I have used both dual 24″ and 20″ setups and I find the 24″ setups to be a bit overwhelming. Due to the fact that for the majority of the parts I am footing the bill on this I was not able to include a quad drive raid setup or a multi-GPU solution. Perhaps in a future installement of this possible tradition I will be able to snag some sponsorships and really let me take this to the edge. All in all I believe any user would be blown away by the hardware I have mapped out and once I’m done tweaking it, I might just have a Dream Machine slayer on my hands.

The Timeline

I have already started construction on the phase cooler that will keep my beast contained at a chilly -50 celsius and I am currently looking for a place to strip and spray my SOHO case a lovely shade of Laguna Seca blue. I have contacted Maximum PC in hopes to get some form of cooperation from their part in possible benchmark numbers and pictures of the Dream Machine so that the Lean Machine will have a chance at thrashing a supercomputer. Let’s hope that Maximum PC will come through and make this challenge possible. Part 2 will be released once I have collected all the necessary parts, look for this to happen sometime in early November.