My new rig (56k= NO YUO!!1)

[ZenPirate]

A few random shots in "not quite complete" mode.

AMD 3800+ X2
2gb Corsair ram
Evga Geforce 7800GT
Abit KN8 Ultra mobo
Audigy 2 zs
250gb Seagate 7200.9 SATA II HDD
NEC 3550 DVD-RW
Enermax Liberty 500watt PS
19" 8ms BenQ LCD Display (DVI) (pimpin' the iPod and iPod nano in the foreground ;) )

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/2730/dscn10231ph.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/4130/dscn10249px.jpg
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/2705/dscn10276pd.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2605/dscn10250lo.jpg
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/8234/dscn10285xq.jpg
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/5861/dscn10317ko.jpg

[BobCobb]

Damn, thats pretty sexy. I like the case.

[thewalkingman]

Where is the Zalman cpu cooler?

[ilkman]

Your wiring is pretty clean. I like it.

I'm building a new pc as well. I better at tie-binds to the list of items to get.

[ZenPirate]

I've since finished the build. I was waiting for the floppy drive to show up. I'll take a new pic of the completed cable routing tomorrow, along with a better shot of the case.

[pwnghetti & leetballs]

Looks good, how do you like the display?

I'm thinking of getting the BenQ FP93GX 2ms which JUST came out.

[ZenPirate]

It's pretty damn good. No dead pixels, no ghosting, dvi cable included, and it was under $300. Only caveat is that it ships waaaay too bright. i had to dim it quite a bit to be acceptable.

[Big-Al]

are you sure you've put the ram in the right slots?

dual channel should be: populated, unpopulated, populated, unpopulated

check the booklet that comes with the mother board?

[Airmoran]

It could depend on the mobo.

Check the pic of the mobo. It's color coded, as it should. Two purple-ish slots next to each other, and then two blue slots, instead of purple-blue-purple-blue alternating.

btw, nice case indeed.

[Big-Al]

the purple ones are pretty :p


humm... just looked at my asus motherboard, and yeas, the colors altenat on mine. so ZenPirate has put them in right :D

thanks Airmoron :)

[edhe]

Benches? :p

[sid]

How about some F.E.A.R statistics

[GotBeer?]

What only a 3800? And only one video card? A floppy drive? pshaww.

<jealous> :mad:

[Big-Al]

schools still use floppy drives ffs

[The_Head]

Floppy drives are damn handy if you plan on installing any mobo drivers since the still mostly come on floppy discs.....

How is the Enermax psu to keep clean with the wires, have been looking at getting one.

[Cap'n Beeb]

Nice one, although I'm not crazy about the PSU location. I guess I'm just still in love with my Lian Li and it's bottom mounted PSU 8)

[SlayerDragon]

Nice one, although I'm not crazy about the PSU location. I guess I'm just still in love with my Lian Li and it's bottom mounted PSU 8)

The Antec P180 I am looking at has the same bottom-mounted PSU.

I just hope the power supply I want will have long enough cables.

[Cap'n Beeb]

You can always get extenders. The Antec Neopower 480w PSU I've got has got some damn long cables, but they're easy to manage and route.

[MrSmiles]

i had a lian li case but the psu compartment was too small i needed 9" minimum

[GotBeer?]

schools still use floppy drives ffs
:rolleyes:


Beeb - how's the bottom-mounted PSU for heat? I'd think you'd want it up top to help keep the case cooler.

[SlayerDragon]

:rolleyes:


Beeb - how's the bottom-mounted PSU for heat? I'd think you'd want it up top to help keep the case cooler.

Well, on the bottom it's in a separate compartment from the motherboard. Up top it is blowing its hot air right onto the CPU. That's the big difference.

You can always get extenders. The Antec Neopower 480w PSU I've got has got some damn long cables, but they're easy to manage and route.

True. I am looking at the Antec True Power 2.0 550W (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817103932) What's the difference between the NeoPower and the TruePower?

[Kantham]

Yeah no Random shappy/crappy looking Case. Just something very decent.
And that don't look like a ATX mobo, at all.

[Syri]

Well, on the bottom it's in a separate compartment from the motherboard. Up top it is blowing its hot air right onto the CPU. That's the big difference.
nope, they blow the air out the back. or at least, every psu i've had does... hot air rises, seperate compartment or not, btw.

[Cap'n Beeb]

Heat isn't an issue for me. But if you want more PSU cooling with this case, you can install a pair of 80mm exhausts right above the PSU.

http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/S_V_S_PC-V2100.htm

I love it so <3

[GotBeer?]

http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/S_V_S_PC-V2100.htmDaammmmnnnn! I can see why heat wouldn't be an issue. I think my last apartment was smaller. How many of those bays are you actually using, by the way?

[SlayerDragon]

nope, they blow the air out the back. or at least, every psu i've had does... hot air rises, seperate compartment or not, btw.
Yeah, sorry, that was a lapse in brain activity. As for hot air rising, yeah, but if you've got a set of fans blowing that air in another direction it's not going to have the same effect.

[pwnghetti & leetballs]

My Lian Li PC-V1100B+ has the smallest PSU compartment ever, there is barely an inch for the fan on the Antec Neopower 480 to suck in air. In fact I had to invert the PSU because putting it in right side up gave it about a centimeter of room between the fan and top of the compartment. :mad:

[ilkman]

Hey Zen, did you do anything to the PSU power cables in the first picture? The black 'tape' around them just before the netting makes it look like they were shortened or 'tampered' with.

I've read somewhere that some people shorten them to help organize the wires better.

[ZenPirate]

How is the Enermax psu to keep clean with the wires, have been looking at getting one.


It's pretty slick, but they decided to put multiple connectors on the end of each cable, so when you plug in your SATA HDD you have a molex and floppy power connector hanging out in line.

[BeMyMonkey]

Nice rig, specs are almost exactly the same as mine lol. How's that BenQ treating you? I'm thinking of adding a 19" LCD to my rig as a second display for surfing and videos (CRT+Gaming=<3)...

[Hunter]

nice work, what was the total cost?

[ZenPirate]

The system came to $1300 USD, including Windows Home OEM version. The monitor was $235 after rebate.

[Zaccix]

Nice rig, although I'm not sure about the case badges. ;)

Those Enermax cables look a bit like my Tagan's cables, i.e. as if they just stepped off the set of a sci-fi show. Nice cabling job, though. :)

[BeMyMonkey]

The system came to $1300 USD, including Windows Home OEM version. The monitor was $235 after rebate.

daaaaaamn, a 19" BenQ with decent specs for $235? I soooooo wish I lived in the US :(

[Hunter]

I'm picking up a 19" TFT for £153 from ebuyer when I upgrade :D

[Big-Al]

^you BOURGHT xp home???????

oh man! .... if you have to buy anything, at least get the pro... but still... i've paid for a Win Me and an office 200 licence in the past. i got an XP home licence with my laptop. bt to go out and BUY an OEM licence :/ and a HOME one...

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

(you shouldn't have.)

I have linux (ubuntu) on 1 tower, xp pro on another (was on win 2000 for a while) and xp pro on my laptop. even though have the other licences...

I feel ripped off.

[BeMyMonkey]

^you BOURGHT xp home???????

oh man! .... if you have to buy anything, at least get the pro... but still... i've paid for a Win Me and an office 200 licence in the past. i got an XP home licence with my laptop. bt to go out and BUY an OEM licence :/ and a HOME one...

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

(you shouldn't have.)

I have linux (ubuntu) on 1 tower, xp pro on another (was on win 2000 for a while) and xp pro on my laptop. even though have the other licences...

I feel ripped off.


I don't get it. :rolleyes:

[ZenPirate]

I don't get it. :rolleyes:


Some folks actually think they *need* XP Pro.


BTW- I'll be buying Vista Home edition as well :P

[rex]

What no über leet watercooling with illuminated water? No cool casemodded case with fancy sprinkling bright lights out of every hole? No cool RAM with heatspreaders and indicator lights? No fancy front LCD display on case? No super cool 30" Dell LCD monitor?

Baah humbug...

;)

All you need now is 2x150GB Western Digital Raptor SATA disks in RAID0 and I'll be impressed.

Oh and on a side note, how does it perform?

EDIT:: Don't go buy Vista. I wouldn't even get near that sheit. It needs your hardware to be HDCV(or whatever it's called) compliant though no GFX cards "really" have that. Only if you go to some other than ATi and nVIDIA. So if you go and get yourself a HDTV DVD/something the size will be reduced about 75% because your hardware doesn't have HDCV support, but supports the display sizes/format.

[ZenPirate]

I'm fairly impressed so far. Coming from a 2.4 northwood it's a big jump. I haven't run synthetic benchmarks yet, but it's much faster on all levels of use.

[BeMyMonkey]

Some folks actually think they *need* XP Pro.


BTW- I'll be buying Vista Home edition as well :P

I'm staying the hell away from Vista for as long as possible... HDCP required (there isn't a single HDCP compliant graphics card on the market right now, so if you're planning on watching HD-video content with your current hardware... forget it lol. All you'll get is a quarter of the original resolution), huge system requirements and a bunch of crap you'll never use (game tuning utilities... wtf?)...

[rex]

I'd just like to back up me and BeMyMonkey's statements about Vista and HDCP with a little article.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_nvidia_hdcp_support/

[Big-Al]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060103-5891.html
^for win xp HOME users.

the pro versions actuarly always have a longer life span anyway... look how long win NT and 2000 were being used in comparison with 95,98 & Me.


Pro IS better because it isn't designed for n00b (as microsoft sees them), end users.

[pwnghetti & leetballs]

All you need now is 2x150GB Western Digital Raptor SATA disks in RAID0 and I'll be impressed.


That's what I have :D

Though RAID 0 is kinda pointless and I've heard you can get better performance by keeping the HD's seperate and using a "smart install strategy" when installing games and whatnot. But I did RAID 0 anyway because it was easier I think. ;)

[BeMyMonkey]

Pro IS better because it isn't designed for n00b (as microsoft sees them), end users.

LOL... right. What exactly is the difference between Windows XP Home Ed. and Pro? Last I checked, absolutely none ;)...

That's what I have :D

Though RAID 0 is kinda pointless and I've heard you can get better performance by keeping the HD's seperate and using a "smart install strategy" when installing games and whatnot. But I did RAID 0 anyway because it was easier I think. ;)

You used RAID 0 because it's EASIER? Not only is it a pain to set up, but you're twice as likely to have data corruption, lol... As for performance in games - the only difference with RAID is faster loading...

[Cap'n Beeb]

I don't get it. :rolleyes:

He's a retard, what's there to get?

[ZenPirate]

I'm skipping HDCP. From what I understand, HD content will be scaled down a bit on regular hardware, not that I even watch DVD's on my PC. I'm interested in Vista for the security features, and performance boosts(that none of the review sites are pimping).

[Enfyrneaux]

Nice motherboard selection :tup:

Some folks actually think they *need* XP Pro.
I use an NT domain, something that is explicitly not supported in XP Home.

[Big-Al]

LOL... right. What exactly is the difference between Windows XP Home Ed. and Pro? Last I checked, absolutely none ;)...

- http://agamemnon.ucs.ed.ac.uk/faq/homevspro.html

-Windows XP Professional gives you all the benefits of Windows XP Home Edition, plus additional remote access, security, performance, manageability and multi-lingual features that make it the operating system of choice for businesses of all sizes and people who demand the most out of their computing experience. (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx)

-5 official versions of XP (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/evaluation/compare.mspx)





He's a retard, what's there to get?@hole, that's you're problem. ...sound like the kinda guy who'd be running XP on fat16.

[DeeperShade]

Shut it.
Stop trying to appear intelligent and get back to admiring Zen's leet rig.

[Enfyrneaux]

I forgot to add that the IS department at my old job builds all of their office machines on Abit motherboards :)

@hole, that's you're problem. ...sound like the kinda guy who'd be running XP on fat16.
:lol:

[Big-Al]

Shut it.
Stop trying to appear intelligent and get back to admiring Zen's leet rig.
xp home is for AOL users
http://www.overclock.net/windows/74175-win-xp-home-vs-win-xp.html





spelling mistakes happen... want me to go back and edit my post Enfyrneaux?

[Cap'n Beeb]

- @hole, that's you're problem. ...sound like the kinda guy who'd be running XP on fat16.

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/9884/bigalisacocksmokingfaggot2tx.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bigalisacocksmokingfaggot2tx.jpg)

Oh hello. You can shut up now.

[ilkman]

I'm skipping HDCP. From what I understand, HD content will be scaled down a bit on regular hardware, not that I even watch DVD's on my PC. I'm interested in Vista for the security features, and performance boosts(that none of the review sites are pimping).


I'm interested in Vista as well.

For now Im still running the archaic win2k on an IDE hard drive. I recently redid my computer but kept my IDE drive for now. Once Vista comes out I'll be switching to twin WD 150gb Raptors...unless something better is out by then.

[Big-Al]

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/9884/bigalisacocksmokingfaggot2tx.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bigalisacocksmokingfaggot2tx.jpg)

Oh hello. You can shut up now.
:lol: i didn't mean to hurt your feelings fella :)

AOL user? :p

[BeMyMonkey]

He's a retard, what's there to get?

Great, very intelligent post. I'm sure people like you make this forum a better place to visit... What Big-Al posted was not only fairly strange on the grammatical side but also didn't quite make sense - why the hell shouldn't you buy XP home if you'd rather save some money and don't need better remote access and some network security features you'll never notice or use anyway?


http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/9884/bigalisacocksmokingfaggot2tx.th.jpg (http://img119.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bigalisacocksmokingfaggot2tx.jpg)

Oh hello. You can shut up now.

Ummm... you have hard drives. I'm amazed...

And I'm not so sure bigalisacocksmokingfaggot2tx.jpg is quite appropriate for posting on forums, however hidden it may be...


- http://agamemnon.ucs.ed.ac.uk/faq/homevspro.html

-Windows XP Professional gives you all the benefits of Windows XP Home Edition, plus additional remote access, security, performance, manageability and multi-lingual features that make it the operating system of choice for businesses of all sizes and people who demand the most out of their computing experience. (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx)

-5 official versions of XP (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/evaluation/compare.mspx)

Maybe I should've phrased my question more like - Which average PC user can tell the difference? I hardly can and I consider myself to be a bit more knowledgeable than the average user... OK, we're not hooked up to a 500+ PC network using Novell client software or whatever else was mentioned in those links, but my roommate's laptop with XP home shows no difference when accessing network resources to my XP pro...

Not to mention since SP2 most of those differences hardly exist any more - Home's been patched up quite a bit and they've added a lot of the features that separated it from Pro edition...

:lol: i didn't mean to hurt your feelings fella :)

AOL user? :p

LOOOOOOOOOL :D

[Big-Al]

Ummm... you have hard drives. I'm amazed...

Cap'n Beeb's proving that they aren't on fat16 :) lol

[BeMyMonkey]

he's proving that they aren't on fat16 :)

I got it, don't worry ;)... lol.

[DeeperShade]

^
Personally I think you're both idiots, and should shut up before you infect more users with your benign stupidity and instead you should get back to admiring Zen's rig, which is the purpose of this thread.

[Big-Al]

mm... sure...

yesterday i got an extra gig of RAM:D

so i now have 4x 512mb

[Cap'n Beeb]

A bunch of crybaby rubbish

Welcome to Planet Internet.

[BeMyMonkey]

Welcome to Planet Internet.

Meh, you're starting to annoy me...

[Cap'n Beeb]

Oh dear.

Edit:

Zen, have you benchmarked yet?

[ZenPirate]

No benchmarking yet. Anything specific you folks want to see?

BTW, folks.... it's never wise to crap in a Moderator's thread ;)

[SlayerDragon]

I am now considering actually coughing up the extra money for that X2.

[pwnghetti & leetballs]

You used RAID 0 because it's EASIER? Not only is it a pain to set up, but you're twice as likely to have data corruption, lol...

lol, well I meant easier than having two seperate drives and having to be careful where you install things to(in order to have best performance)... It's just less work to only have to worry about one drive(even though it is technically two) than it is to worry about two seperate ones.

I can't remember the last time a hard drive failed on me, I doubt a brand new Raptor is going to fail any time soon... So I'm not really worried about a higher failure rate.

And RAID 0 is simple to set up. All you need to do is enable it in the BIOS and F10 menu, then install the drivers from the floppy during Windows setup. How is that hard?

[pwnghetti & leetballs]

No benchmarking yet. Anything specific you folks want to see?

I'd recommend 3DMark06 if you've never used it or '05 before, it's quite an impressive display of graphics.

[sid]

Anything specific you folks want to see?
I asked you before but I think you missed it out nevermind :) Ill ask again "how about some F.E.A.R statistics?"

[BeMyMonkey]

No benchmarking yet. Anything specific you folks want to see?

BTW, folks.... it's never wise to crap in a Moderator's thread ;)

Ummm... will an "oops" suffice? ;)... although I feel in my case we're talking more a fart than a crap... LOL

As for benches, how about... some good old 3DMark... and maybe a 10-hour test of UT2004 at 1600x1200 with 4xAA :D...

[ZenPirate]

I don't own FEAR, so no benches from that . I'm downloading 3dmark now.

[Cap'n Beeb]

Try Aquamark 3. It's the best use of actual stuff you'd see in game, rather than a bunch of OMG XXXXTREME crap that 3DMark loves to spooge over.

[hal]

Looks real nice, ZenPirate! I've been real happy with my Enermax PSUs so far. I was looking at those Liberty's (have a Noisetaker now)... what's the biggest difference? Modular cables?

Looking forward to seeing the final pics of your wiring. Mine's a friggin' mess. :D

[ZenPirate]

Aquamark bench:
General:
Name: Benchmark 2006-02-26 16-41-35

Processor:
Vendor: AuthenticAMD
Name: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
SpeedMHz: 2009
Type: 0
Family: 15
Model: 11
Stepping: 1
Flags: 0xE3D3FBFF
Number: 2
HyperThreading: n/a
MemoryOS: 2145824768

Graphics:
Description: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT
Vendor: 4318
Device: 146
SubSys: 3306633282
Revision: 161
CoreClock: 0
MemoryClock: 0
Driver: nv4_disp.dll
DriverVersion: 6.14.10.8212
VideoMemory: 263192576
TextureMemory: 513802240

OperatingSystem:
Version: Microsoft Windows XP
Type:
Build: Service Pack 2 2600

Run0:
DisplayWidth: 1024
DisplayHeight: 768
DisplayDepth: 32
AntialiasingMode: 0
AntialiasingQuality: 0
AnisotropicFiltering: 4
DetailLevel: 4
AvgFPS: 79.610435
MinFPS: 42.000000
MaxFPS: 140.000000
AvgFPSRender: 140.373444
AvgFPSSimulation: 183.873535
AvgTrianglesPerSecond: 23965300
MinTrianglesPerSecond: 3086546
MaxTrianglesPerSecond: 66082960
AquamarkScoreRender: 14037
AquamarkScoreSimulation: 9193
AquamarkScore: 79610

[ZenPirate]

3dmark 2006 (@1280x1024)

4077 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score: 1659
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 1650
CPU Score 1509

[BeMyMonkey]

3dmark 2006 (@1280x1024)

4077 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score: 1659
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 1650
CPU Score 1509

Those're some pretty damn nice scores Zen! Is that at stock settings? Or is some of your stuff overclocked? My scores are barely better and i'm pretty highly overclocked :P...

[ZenPirate]

That's completely stock. So far I was able to bump the processor to 2.2ghz just by bumping bus, but I really haven't had the need to keep it there, or try further.

[hal]

Oh man, you can get that bad-boy overclocking a pretty good bit and not even break a sweat. Those parts are just built for speed. :)

Completely stock I got 68,000 on the Aquamark and 3333 on 3DMark'06. It seemed pretty good until I started looking at the compare scores. Keep in mind I just have an AMD 64 3200 and a 7800 GT OC. All of that overclocking can be done right from your desktop with no additional cooling.

I need a higher rated PSU because I think it's slightly underpowering the GPU and effecting my benchmarking. Might have to look at that Liberty again.

[BeMyMonkey]

That's completely stock. So far I was able to bump the processor to 2.2ghz just by bumping bus, but I really haven't had the need to keep it there, or try further.

Daaaaamn overclock that stuff a bit, that score is awesome for stock settings - see how high you can get it with a bit of OC'ing :D


Oh man, you can get that bad-boy overclocking a pretty good bit and not even break a sweat. Those parts are just built for speed. :)

Completely stock I got 68,000 on the Aquamark and 3333 on 3DMark'06. It seemed pretty good until I started looking at the compare scores. Keep in mind I just have an AMD 64 3200 and a 7800 GT OC. All of that overclocking can be done right from your desktop with no additional cooling.

I need a higher rated PSU because I think it's slightly underpowering the GPU and effecting my benchmarking. Might have to look at that Liberty again.

That 3DMark score actually sounds about right - dual core CPUs get a massive boost in '06...

[Daedalus]

how is your evga 7800 treating you? I love mine and it's quite easy to overclock well.

Quite a nice setup there Zen but I fear the stock AMD heatsink will cry if you continue.

[pwnghetti & leetballs]

I get 6727 stock in 3DMark06, with the help of dual video cards of course. ;)

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=153163