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My new rig!

S

Stallion

Sea Dog
Public Relations
http://pc.ncix.com/n...301EFB7-2507722

What can I say? I want something that eats other machines for breakfast. :cheeky

Does anybody see something I ought to change? This'll be the first computer I get custom-built for me. :woot

I plan on filling up those other video card slots in the motherboard down the road when the prices drop, by the way. Sadly, I ain't made of money. xD:

And why am I going for the GTX 285 rather than the 295? Well, framerate-wise, there's not much difference between the two.
 
Stallion said:
What can I say? I want something that eats other machines for breakfast. :cheeky
Click to expand...
suggest a major change
car%20crusher.jpg


but about your computer

is AMD above Intel this week in performance? (for MANY months it lagged heavily)

note about water cooled systems---
YOU must change the water every year and painfully check for leaks.
(indicated by choice of cooler)

IF you really want a PC eating machine - Why no SSD?
And on the same subject, Get the Velociraptor WD1500HLFS hard drive, if only for the seek time. [storage on the big drives, main programs and critical games on the Velociraptor]

What monitor are you using, and what resolution does it have (native) [to justify the Vid card]
 
I agree with rupert Stallion, you should go with an SSD( Solid State Drive) they are a bit expensive right now, but they are lightning fast! Plus no moving parts and they put out very little heat! Overall, the system you have selected is pretty good, good job mate! That system would give ya several years of butt kicking! However, I would caution against liquid cooling, especially if you have never had any experience with a liquid cooled system. It can reduce the overall heat of your system, and if you are planning on doing major overclocking, then it might be worth it. In my opinion though, the risks far outway the rewards, just one leak and your new system could end up in Davy Jones Locker quick! Trust me, once you see a quad core in action, there is really no need to overclock it! Unless you are just hell bent on squeezing out every last CPU cycle for that extra bit of frame rate. A tube of Arctic Silver, a good heat sink, and a case with good airflow will keep your CPU and case temps pretty reasonable, even in the most demanding games. Overclocking can also reduce the life of your CPU and other components.

I'm not sure just what your tech experience level is mate, but if you think your up to the challenge, I would also highly recommend ya build your new system yourself! Nothing is more satisfying then spending a couple of hours piecing a system together and turning it on and watching it come to life for the first time! Of course, there is always the possibility of releasing the special blue smoke and turning your new $1500 dollar system into an expensive door stop! But what fun would it be without a bit of risk! :woot

This stuff is second nature to me though as I grew up around HAM radios and early computer equipment. You can really save yourself a good deal of money parting a system and building it yourself as well. It really is not all that hard if you follow the directions and do some reading and research before hand. Just to give you a bit of a comparison, I spent a few minutes on NewEgg and parted out a bare bones system, it is pretty comparable to the pre-built system you posted.

18433992.jpg


There are some things I skipped over, but that gives you a pretty good idea anyway. Just me two doubloons worth mate! Feel free to PM me if ya think you might want to try and build one yourself, I would be happy to offer what advice I can.
 
let's look at a different vendor

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Mega_Special_IV/
upgrade:

the CPU
get faster memory (BTW 6 gig is nice)
Stick with one vid card - but select one you like
you already know about the hard drive choices - SSD or 10k RPM as primary disk

GET a sound card !!!!
Creative Labs SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-BIT PCI Sound Card [+48] (maybe) or
Creative Labs X-FI XtremeGamer 24-BIT PCI Sound Card [+89]
(But not the SE)


or for Canada vendors:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/
http://www.canadacomputers.com/
http://sohodiffusion.com/
http://www.directcanada.com/
http://www.newegg.ca/
 
4 gigs of DDR3 would be enough, and you should put a GTX 295, because it has 2x 285 cores and SSD drives are more expensive than normal HDD's but it's faster and quiter and if you want real good sound quality get a sound card.
 
Well, after reading through everybody's suggestions, I changed a couple things:

-Got rid of the liquid cooling, since I was leery of that myself anyways, and I've got no intention of overclocking anything

-Switched to Windows 7 Ultimate, since that XP Mode sounds like it might come in handy

@rupert:

Intel seems to be in the lead right now, but I've always had better luck with AMD for some reason. That, and the Intel computers my old school had were always in for repairs, while those with AMD were not. Maybe not a good thing to base my pick on, but AMD's price was a big factor too. xD:

I'd go for Solid State, but price, sadly, is playing a big role in the parts I go with.

I have a 19 inch Samsung monitor with a 1280x1024 native resolution.

I'd try another vendor but, even though I know the price with NCIX is a little steep, I've bought from them before and have had nothing but good experiences. That, and I wasn't planning on a new machine now, but rather mid-2010 or later, so I was going to start looking around in the new year. This damn thing knows it's about to be recycled, so apparently it decided to return the favour. :slap

@Thagarr:

As for the hard drive(s), well, I'm stuck with traditional due to shortage of funds. :modding

I agree, liquid cooling is definitely out - I was thinking about it, but I still don't think you should put liquids and sensitive electronics anywhere near each other. I also have no intention of overclocking - I used to have a factory-overclocked graphics card from BFG, and that was just one long headache! :yes

Building the computer myself is out, since I need the new one right away. I've been taking night courses that use AutoCAD, Blender, Photoshop, and a bunch of other freaky programs. xD: If I knew this one was going to keep working, I'd go for building it myself, but this one takes longer and longer to start up every morning. That, and the fan on the heatsink plus the front exhaust fan are dead. Talk about system failure. :facepalm The current exhaust fan is the old leaf blower I bought at a hardware store a few years back running in reverse. :cheeky Look, Ma! No duct tape! :woot

As for tech level, well, I installed a new graphics card and added another 512MB stick of RAM to this machine about a year and a half ago. Was filling my drawers the whole time I was in the tower, but, well, everything still works. :rolleyes: xD: The second time I went in there, it was actually (dare I say it) kinda fun. :shock

Thanks for the offer of help! :onya I may take you up on that whenever the new one gets replaced years from now. :yes

@skyliner:

A sound card is out for me - I never did see much difference between having one and just sticking with what's on the MOBO. I don't think they're worth the money, but that's just me. :yes
 
Stallion said:
The second time I went in there, it was actually (dare I say it) kinda fun. :shock
Click to expand...

That's how it starts mate, next thing ya know your pulling out your Dremel to cut an extra fan mount for your GPU and gluing heat sinks to your RAM modules! xD:

BTW, the XP mode is really quite impressive. It's actually a Virtual Machine that runs inside Windows 7. I haven't done a lot of playing with it yet, just downloaded and installed it to make sure it was working. I don't think it will run games though, it's mainly just intended for apps. You will love Windows 7 Stallion, it kicks much butt!
 
I went to the nearest Staples about a week ago to have a look at Windows 7 - I definitely agree, Thagarr! Was just the Home version, but from what I've read of Ultimate, it sounds worth the extra money! :yes

There's only one more thing stopping me from ordering it: should I get a floppy drive put in too? I've got piles of floppies that still work (200+), and I'd rather not toss them, even knowing that compared to a CD, they hold almost nothing. xD:

I plan on keeping my old machine then, a few months from now, time permitting, I'd like to completely take it apart, then not go near it for a week. After the week's up, I'll try and put it back together and see if it works. That way, if I fry it, well, no big deal. If I can fix what's wrong with it, I'll keep it as a backup. :yes
 
In my opinion, you can never have to many drive options! I have a 3.5 floppy in mine and I do use it occasionally. If you have that many disks, I would definitely recommend adding one Stallion. They are pretty cheap. Some new motherboards however don't even include a floppy controller anymore, I checked btw, yours does.

Taking apart an old system like that is a great way to learn just how things work! What are the specs of your old system, and what kind of problems are you having with it? That old system could be used for a lot of things. It would make a great Linux box, and if it has Ethernet ports, you could set it up as hardware firewall. Or set it up as a MAME box and you can play all those old arcade games. One of these days when I have a spare $1000 or so, I am gonna build a MAME cabinet with all the old arcade controls as well. It's just not the same with a keyboard! xD:
 
I added a floppy drive. :onya

My old system:

AMD Athlon 2.1Ghz
GeForce 6200
1 GB of RAM
160 GB Samsung HD

It originally came with 512 MB of RAM and a GeForce 4 MX 440, so I thought I'd see if I could squeeze a bit more out of it a couple years ago.

The hard drive is on its way out, and gets louder by the day. Also, the front exhaust fan is dead - no amount of cleaning brings it back anymore. xD: The fan on the CPU seemed to be toast, but wandering on the net brought me to a bunch of people who use graphite powder as lubricant on their computer fans ( http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic52936.html ) , so I thought what the heck? Low and behold, it worked! :woot I'd try it on the exhaust fan, but I can't get it apart.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind an actual MAME cabinet - there was this one game that used to get all my quarters years ago in this old, scuzzy laundromat in a town I used to live in. Can't for the life of me remember the name of it, though. I just remember it involved flying a jet towards unending waves of enemies both airborne and on the ground, and it had a warning from the FBI either at the beginning or end of the game. xD:
 
Cool mate! Did ya get it ordered yet? Sounds like a perfect system to do some experimenting on after ya get your new one Stallion. I have heard about using graphite powder, but I never bothered to try it, I usually always have a spare fan or 4 lying around! I have 3 old cases in various states of dismantlement sitting behind me on the floor as I type. One can never have to many spare parts! xD:

You shouldn't have to take the exhaust fan apart, just peel back the sticker and put some oil and graphite powder in there, of course if there is no sticker that would be a problem! If it's completely sealed, it would probably be a lot easier just to buy a new fan, they are pretty cheap.

My two favorite Arcade games of all time were the original Spy Hunter, and Elevator Action! I probably put enough quarters in both those machines to actually buy one of my own! :facepalm But it was worth it, that probably kept me from doing other various stupid things when I was a kid ... :wp
 
well, any recomendations i could give you are already done... all i can say by personal experience is "DON'T GET WD"... i have 1.5 teras dead @ home, and i dont mean one huge disk, i mean many regular (80/160/250) ones...
About the phenom, just make sure its rev.C or above, i kinda lost track on them, but C had somewhat fixed the bottleneck issue...
 
Thagarr said:
Cool mate! Did ya get it ordered yet? Sounds like a perfect system to do some experimenting on after ya get your new one Stallion. I have heard about using graphite powder, but I never bothered to try it, I usually always have a spare fan or 4 lying around! I have 3 old cases in various states of dismantlement sitting behind me on the floor as I type. One can never have to many spare parts! xD:

You shouldn't have to take the exhaust fan apart, just peel back the sticker and put some oil and graphite powder in there, of course if there is no sticker that would be a problem! If it's completely sealed, it would probably be a lot easier just to buy a new fan, they are pretty cheap.

My two favorite Arcade games of all time were the original Spy Hunter, and Elevator Action! I probably put enough quarters in both those machines to actually buy one of my own! :facepalm But it was worth it, that probably kept me from doing other various stupid things when I was a kid ... :wp
Click to expand...

Yep - ordered it a few days ago. They've already started building it. :woot

That buggered exhaust fan is a sealed unit, but it's also sealed in this weird cage-like thing in the computer's case. Very odd. Oh well - when I get around to it, I'll see if I can get it apart. :yes

Sadly, the loss of my quarters never kept me from doing many stupid things when I was younger. :cheeky
 
SuperChango said:
well, any recomendations i could give you are already done... all i can say by personal experience is "DON'T GET WD"... i have 1.5 teras dead @ home, and i dont mean one huge disk, i mean many regular (80/160/250) ones...
About the phenom, just make sure its rev.C or above, i kinda lost track on them, but C had somewhat fixed the bottleneck issue...
Click to expand...

I had planned on going with Seagate since I've had one of their 500 gig external HDs for more than three years and love it, but many of my friends who used to be loyal to Seagate have had nothing but problems with all the drives they've bought from them for the past two years, and the company's legendary 5-year warranty is no more - it was reduced to a 3-year a while back. They claim that brings them in line with industry standards, but I'm betting it's because they're getting their products made cheaper now, and they know they won't last more than three years. I always assume the worst of any company. xD: If they ever get out of whatever funk they're in, I intend to fill the other two HD slots with drives from them sometime down the road.

I think the Phenom is rev. C - not sure, though. :yes
 
Stallion said:
Sadly, the loss of my quarters never kept me from doing many stupid things when I was younger. :cheeky
Click to expand...

I was only able to do stupid things that didn't cost much money ...it's amazing how many of those I was able to find! :cheeky

Glad ya got it ordered mate! You won't know what to do with all that horsepower! As far as hard drives, anymore I don't think it really matters what manufacturer ya choose, as far as the big names go anyway, it's pretty much a crap shoot. I have seen good and bad drives from all of em. Most will last 3 years and then begin to fail. They all manufacture them pretty much the same way, as cheaply and as quickly as possible. Most of the new SSD drives I have looked at also come with just a 3 year warranty, which I find interesting because there are no moving parts to fail. I'm curious to see what the real world lifespan of these drives are. I guess it doesn't really matter, after 3 years, hard drives sizes will probably have tripled and you will need to by a new one anyway. Gotta love the computer industry!

I have seen those cages before Stallion, they can be a real pain, especially when they are riveted to the case! You can use a Dremel, or a small drill bit to drill out the rivets. Then you can mount the replacement fan with small nuts and bolts if small screws wont grab the case after drilling. Some case manufacturers just don't undeerstand the term user friendly. If you do decide to try and build a new System in a few years, check out the cases from Lian Li, they are a bit more expensive, but well worth it! They are completely toolless and there is not a sharp edge anywhere on the case, I didn't even need a screw driver when I put my system together. THIS is the case I have, I don't have the side window though.
 
It was nice going into a game store the other day, and seeing that my system is equal to or far better than the recommended requirements of all the games in there. :cheeky I can't wait until it gets here. :woot

I was also leery of SSD because of how new on the market they are - I know they've been around for a while, but not long enough for me. xD:

There's one big problem with the cage in this tower - it's not riveted in. It's - believe it or not - welded onto the front wall of the case. I don't know about HP - they load their computers with garbage trial software, then make sure you can't fix it by the time you finally get all their silly programs uninstalled. Correction - forcibly removed with an ice pick. Especially Norton. BAH! :modding

Whoa - NICE case, Thagarr! :onya I was picking between the one I got and one from Coolermaster, but heard theirs had serious dust-buildup problems after only a couple weeks' use. Lian Li just wasn't an option, sadly. :urgh Just didn't have enough funds.
 
Nice new siggy Stallion! Looks great! I am working on a couple of ideas for my new sig, I just keep changing it ...xD:

Coolermaster makes nice cases, I almost got one of those instead. I just happened to run across this Lian LI PC-61 on sale and got it for $79! The design of the case was several years old(came out in 01 i think) when I found it, probably why I was able to get it so cheap. There is nothing really fancy about it on the outside, just simple black anodized aluminum and a couple of extremely bright LED's! The Coolermaster I was thinking about getting was around $180 if I recall correctly, it had all the fancy stuff like a side window, LED 120 MM fans and a few other bells and whistles. The only real drawback to my Lian Li case is that because it is a few years old in design, it only uses 80 MM fans. So it's a little more noisy than the newer 120's, and doesn't move quite the amount of air that the bigger fans do. That Temjin TJ10B-W care your getting looks pretty sweet too! Tool-less removable motherboard trays are damn handy! It looks like great build quality, and appears to have more than enough airflow to keep your PC running nice and cool.

I don't believe I have ever seen one welded like that, apparently HP was under the impression computer fans last forever! Luckily, Dremels come with one of the handyist gadgets ever invented, the cutting wheel! :onya What's the model number on your HP Stallion? I'll look it up online, I'd like to get a look at that cage.
 
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