Topic: New PC parts on the way!

Well, I finally blew some $$$ and bought a new system from Newegg.
The parts should be here in a week or two.
For those interested, I ordered:
Case: Antec P180
Mobo:  GIGABYTE GA-EX38-DS4
CPU:   Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz (I really wanted the Q9450 Penryn but nobody has stock)
CPU cooler: Scythe SCINF-1000 120mm CPU Cooler (ducted to rear exhaust fan for silence)
RAM: 8 GB GeIL 4GB(2 x 2GB) plus OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
Video: EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB (Finally get to test out my G_A nvidia DP!)
PSU: SeaSonic M12II SS-500GM ATX12V 2.2 /EPS12V 2.91 500W Power Supply
DVD: SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S203B (I'll still keep my trusty Plextor Edit: it diedsad )
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (new one with 32mb cache)

Also grabbed a copy of Vista Ultimate 64-bit (Go legit or go home!)
$1500 shipped.

I'll post some pics once I get the beast up and running.  I may buy a water cooling kit this summer, we'll see how the Scythe holds up first.

Of course, I bought all of this with YOU GUYS in mind.  I mean, I owe it to you to have a decent "testing" rig...right? smile

Pictures (1024x768 png-24 1.5Mb each):
Parts
Heatsink
mounted 1
mounted 2

More to follow.

*Edit
Installed OCZ 4GB DDR2 kit (2x 2GB DDR2 800, 5-4-4-12)
Got ASUS Xonar sound card

Accidentally killed my trusty Plextor PX-760A DVD-DL burner. sad
It reads discs OK, but gives "Power calibration error" whenever you try to burn anything.

Last edited by mr_smartepants (2008-03-05 07:09:52)

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

sounds nice!!!!

i was condsidering buying one too... but since intel always releases their new chips in June i was going to wait till then so i can save a few bucks on the "old" stuff (well it will be "old" stuff then)

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

Just built myself an E6850 box with a genuine Intel mobo, nice and speedy.

Re: New PC parts on the way!

Nice rig!

Also, looks like a fair price to me.

Are you going with dual-boot or how were you planning on testing DriverPack Graphics A? wink

Anyway, bold move getting Vista now when SP1 is so close to public release...
Personally, I would have waited until they ship slipstreamed DVDs seeing as it's quite cumbersome doing that yourself (at least compared to XP - took me well over 3 hours to accomplish that!).
Whatever, if you want links to SP1, I can supply you with the info wink

Re: New PC parts on the way!

I was going to dual-boot XP for gaming, Vista for everything else.  Not that I have much time for gaming, but hey.
I'll still run XP on my notebook.  Vista beta 2 choked it into nothingness!

The word is that SP1 for x64 Vista is already on MU as of yesterday.  Just my luck, if I had held out for another few weeks, I'd get the integrated SP1 DVD. sad
Oh well, vLite to the rescue!
I don't have the sp1 link on my connect.ms login though.  It's only a matter of time til they release a standalone installer.

I hear they released SP1 integrated DVD OEM iso's on TechNet.  I ordered an OEM system builder DVD from newegg...OEM disc...OEM license...:)

I have a nagging suspicion that 8800GTS fan is going to be the loudest component in the rig.  Nothing a water cooling setup can't handle.

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

mr_smartepants wrote:

I was going to dual-boot XP for gaming, Vista for everything else.  Not that I have much time for gaming, but hey.
I'll still run XP on my notebook.  Vista beta 2 choked it into nothingness!

Hah, and I thought the main reason for a gamer to get a new OS was Vista and its DX10 support! wink

Do the old games not work on Vst or do you want to keep the OS clean (for instance of nasty copy protection that gets installed along with the games...).

The word is that SP1 for x64 Vista is already on MU as of yesterday.

Yeah, just read about that, too.

Just my luck, if I had held out for another few weeks, I'd get the integrated SP1 DVD. sad
Oh well, vLite to the rescue!

As I said initially, vLite might not be such an easy solution to the problem as it is with nLite seeing as it cannot directly slipstream the SP1 into the source.
Still involves a lot of manual steps but I do hope and am confident, nuhi will find a way around that, too! smile

I hear they released SP1 integrated DVD OEM iso's on TechNet.  I ordered an OEM system builder DVD from newegg...OEM disc...OEM license...:)

Although there's nothing like having the properer slipstreamed original press DVD, seeing as you and me both probably customize a lot on the discs (hence including the need to burn it again anyway), getting an ISO is more than a fair trade-off.
At least they do hand them out (if only to subscribers).
Still would have preferred a proper slipstream installer switch, heh.

I have a nagging suspicion that 8800GTS fan is going to be the loudest component in the rig.  Nothing a water cooling setup can't handle.

Didn't take a look at that case and its fans specifically, but you may be right.
If you don't favour the idea of having water circulate in your case, and also do not mind louder fan noise while gaming (eg because you use a headset for that anyway or turn up your speakers anyway), using ATiTool (despite its name also works with nVidia cards) to throttle the fan speed can be a great idea to silence it during 2D (desktop) usage.

You may need to check out the latest beta version for compliance with your card, btw.

Re: New PC parts on the way!

Helmi wrote:

Do the old games not work on Vst or do you want to keep the OS clean (for instance of nasty copy protection that gets installed along with the games...).

No, it's just a known fact that's been proved over and over again that XP is about 10-20% faster in gaming than Vista.  Besides, I can have an XP build that's stripped down and lean for gaming, then later boot into Vista that's cluttered and functional for everything else.

Helmi wrote:

I hear they released SP1 integrated DVD OEM iso's on TechNet.  I ordered an OEM system builder DVD from newegg...OEM disc...OEM license...:)

Although there's nothing like having the properer slipstreamed original press DVD, seeing as you and me both probably customize a lot on the discs (hence including the need to burn it again anyway), getting an ISO is more than a fair trade-off.
At least they do hand them out (if only to subscribers).

I'm actually quite upset about that.  I was part of the testing for both the beta and RC of Vista and I never did receive my promised Ultimate DVD for contributing.  I'm tempted to return my OEM DVD back to newegg unopened and use my RTM copy until the SP1 integrated discs show up.  I figure M$ owes me one friggin' ISO!

The original fans in that case aren't going to last long.  I already have a boxload of Yate Loons (same as Nexus) waiting in my attic.  I'm really going to enjoy this build!

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

mr_smartepants wrote:
Helmi wrote:

Do the old games not work on Vst or do you want to keep the OS clean (for instance of nasty copy protection that gets installed along with the games...).

No, it's just a known fact that's been proved over and over again that XP is about 10-20% faster in gaming than Vista.  Besides, I can have an XP build that's stripped down and lean for gaming, then later boot into Vista that's cluttered and functional for everything else.

True dat.

I have been trying Vst on my main rig (dunno if it was still beta or already RC) with a "mere" 1GB of RAM and it was utterly slow.
While I did not really notice (that is not to say there weren't any, I did not run any benchmarks/FRAPS for hard figures, just from what the game feels like) any slowdown, the loading times of games definately increased.
Also, getting back to the Desktop after a game session was horribly slow, thanks to paging the Kernel, I guess (OTOH, this probabaly did make the game run ok).

I'm actually quite upset about that.  I was part of the testing for both the beta and RC of Vista and I never did receive my promised Ultimate DVD for contributing.  I'm tempted to return my OEM DVD back to newegg unopened and use my RTM copy until the SP1 integrated discs show up.  I figure M$ owes me one friggin' ISO!

Heh, didn't even know testers were entitled to a licence (I take, the disc alone is not that useful wink)!

Well, I did order myself a disc through the (now shutdown...) Anytime Upgrade service and since you can test it for 30 days (120 if you know how), I think that's a fair price for the ~€4 it cost me.
Didn't really convince me to put it on and keep it, though (won't be going Vst if at all with less than 2GB of RAM again).

I was hoping to be able to order another DVD with SP1 included that way but alas, as I said, they discontinued the service...

I'm really going to enjoy this build!

Now, ain't that always the best about it! :>

(just like LEGO in the old days, assembling the stuff was great fun, playing with it afterwards just ok... wink)

Re: New PC parts on the way!

mr_smartepants wrote:

Well, I finally blew some $$$ and bought a new system from Newegg.
The parts should be here in a week or two.
For those interested, I ordered:
Case: Antec P180
Mobo:  GIGABYTE GA-EX38-DS4
CPU:   Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz (I really wanted the Q9450 Penryn but nobody has stock)
CPU cooler: Scythe SCINF-1000 120mm CPU Cooler (ducted to rear exhaust fan for silence)
RAM: GeIL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
Video: EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB (Finally get to test out my G_A nvidia DP!)
PSU: SeaSonic M12II SS-500GM ATX12V 2.2 /EPS12V 2.91 500W Power Supply
DVD: SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S203B (I'll still keep my trusty Plextor)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (new one with 32mb cache)

Also grabbed a copy of Vista Ultimate 64-bit (Go legit or go home!)
$1500 shipped.

I'll post some pics once I get the beast up and running.  I may buy a water cooling kit this summer, we'll see how the Scythe holds up first.

Of course, I bought all of this with YOU GUYS in mind.  I mean, I owe it to you to have a decent "testing" rig...right? smile

That is one nice rig, glad you choose GigaByte, nice motherboards.

My only question is: why Vista !!!  -   Just asking, don't bite.

Stu

Re: New PC parts on the way!

BigBrit wrote:

That is one nice rig, glad you choose GigaByte, nice motherboards.

My only question is: why Vista !!!

My choice was between gigabyte and MSI, I like the idea of the dual-bios on the gigabyte (nuked too many boards during bios-flash).

As to the XP/Vista debate...
I've read that XP pro doesn't utilize multiple cores all that well.  It's just a kludge-job at multi-threading at best.  Vista was designed to take advantage of multiple cores at the OS level, sending OS-threads to different cores.
Games for the most part are single threaded, hence the XP partition.  I do a lot of video transcoding (home server/NAS in the works) which use every available core, hence the Vista partition.
We'll see.

Besides, I'm going through a mid-life crisis, and this was cheaper than a Ferrari...or a blonde.  big_smile

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

mr_smartepants wrote:

My choice was between gigabyte and MSI, I like the idea of the dual-bios on the gigabyte (nuked too many boards during bios-flash).

Yeah, got that on my board, too, though I haven't had to make any use of that, yet wink

As to the XP/Vista debate...
I've read that XP pro doesn't utilize multiple cores all that well.  It's just a kludge-job at multi-threading at best.  Vista was designed to take advantage of multiple cores at the OS level, sending OS-threads to different cores.

That might be, never really heared about it, though.
You could have went with Win 2003, though, if you wanted a more modern kernel than the one in XP.
Anyhow, the question remains whether even if Vista provides better multi-core support on an system-based level, you are actually experiencing any performance gains compared to XP because of the overall more resource-hungry OS.
Some real-life benchmarks would be nice.

Games for the most part are single threaded, hence the XP partition.  I do a lot of video transcoding (home server/NAS in the works) which use every available core, hence the Vista partition.

Doing that myself, and it works great under XP (at least what I can tell from the task manager's core utilization).
Doubt there would be any noticeable difference, really (as said above, those optimization, if present, probably only affect system-level processes, not end-user software).

BTW: SMP-optimized games are coming out more and more.
I doubt, though, that the use of XP would help much (apart from the fact that XP is faster than Vista in general) for non-SMP games.
That's what you'd need Reversed HyperThreading (making one core out of two) for, unfortunately, that is just still a theory.

Re: New PC parts on the way!

Been reading several articles saying Server 2008 suitably modified not hacked is WAY better than Vista, not to cheap though.

Like Helmi, I had not given any thought to the dual core thing, I will have to test that as I have Vantec SATA removeable drive cages.
Handy for changing HD and if a drive partition blows up it does not take the other one down.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6817122105
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6817122108

Just an idea.

You can also buy the inserts to hold an extra HD on it's own.


Guess I will not be able to test Vista with SP1 as they pulled it !!!

Hope you enjoy your new rig. For me, the building of it is the best part.

p.s. Brunettes are expensive too, I married one 24 years ago.

Stu

Last edited by BigBrit (2008-02-25 06:06:19)

Re: New PC parts on the way!

I've been using Lian Li makes for some years now.
(alu, fanned, it is a lookalike to VANTEC MRK-300ST-BK EZ Black Swap)

The answer was 42?
Kind regards, Jaak.

Re: New PC parts on the way!

Jaak wrote:

I've been using Lian Li makes for some years now.
(alu, fanned, it is a lookalike to VANTEC MRK-300ST-BK EZ Black Swap)

They probably make them for Vantec as they make very little, cheaper to buy a product and resell it.

Stu

Re: New PC parts on the way!

Jaak wrote:

I've been using Lian Li makes for some years now.

Same here.
Am really fond of the cases (both looks - stylish and simple - as well as funtionality).

Re: New PC parts on the way!

installed four such monsters yesterday/today.. http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.c … cleID=2045
TIP, they are a very good upgrade, but one should install these when you build the machine from scratch.. because you have to take the mobo out to put these on. I havent seen over 32C yet, with fan on LOW rpm.

edit; aha, 7zip is a good cruncher... uniextracted a zillion 7zipped files and see 40C at LOW rpm.. pleased.
still better; 7zip that zillion I unzipped, and it will go up to 46.. and no higher.. uniextract paused between windows? 7zip has been running for 7 minutes now? still hovering at 45.
Very pleased.

Last edited by Jaak (2008-02-27 09:26:53)

The answer was 42?
Kind regards, Jaak.

Re: New PC parts on the way!

Yes, those Zalmans are the best when it comes to active cooling.  But I'm going towards silence (well, quiet anyway).  Since I already have two 120mm fans (one will be disconnected) in that quadrant of the case, I'm going to build a duct to link the fan openings to the CPU heatsink so all the exhausted air has to go through the heatsink first. Kinda like what Dell does in their GX series.

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

built this thing last week for a hair under U$ 900-:

Intel DG33TL mATX mobo
2 Gb Kingston ram (2x 1 Gb sticks)
E6850 C2D CPU
2x Seagate 200 Gb SATA drives running in RAID 1
1x Samsung DVD+-RW ATA drive
Ultra Products BX9 mATX case with 600w PS
OCZ 'Vendetta' all-copper CPU heatsink/fan

The Intel MCH and ICH9R have 40mm fans added by me.  These fans keep the bridge chips cooled below the threshold for actually reading temps.  Without the fans the MCH would run at 90c and the ICH would run at 70c.

The CPU is cooled to approx 45c with 100% load on both cores and to 30c with no load.  The stock Intel cooler (junk) would let the temps creep up to about 65c at full load.

Anyway, I'm physically 'downsizing' the home machines (making them smaller) and won't buy anything larger than a mATX board and a SFF case again.

Besides, Intel puts so damned much I/O on all their boards these days you don't really need more than one PCI and one PCIe x16 slot.

5x 3 Gb SATA
1x 3 Gb eSATA (or a 6th internal SATA, my choice)
12x USB 2
2x 1394
1x GigE
CIR, Consumer Infrared remote control for HTPC stuff
GMA X3100 IGP, VGA and DVI-I connectors, can run both
7+1 HD Audio, direct speaker hookup as well as SP-DIF optical
1x PCI (for whatever)
1x PCIe x16 (for future video)
4x DDR2 ram slots, dual/quad channel capable, the BIOS can run up to 1333 mz memory

I'll be adding an ATI 3850 video card in a month or so.  But for now the Intel IGP is more than 'good enough'.

The mobo is capable of running the latest 'extreme' quad cores as well as any of the 45nm chips so there is a bit of mid-term future proofing there.

Everything got picked up by the latest driverpacks without trouble.  And yes, I will post the HWIDs Real Soon Now.

Last edited by newsposter (2008-03-01 02:01:40)

Re: New PC parts on the way!

Well, the CPU and the RAM arrived yesterday...in separate boxes. hmm
At least the q6600 is the SLACR G0 stepping, that's the one that overclocks to 3 GHz on stock air cooling! big_smile
Too bad the rest of the parts didn't arrive in time for the weekend.

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

you guys are killing me... I'm drooling wink

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

Woohoo!
Parts are here!

Wow, that heatsink is HUGE!  I've taken some pictures before and during the build.  I'll fire it up today for some shakedown testing (CPU has a 15-day return window).

The heatsink nearly touches the top fan and the case side panel!  Do NOT underestimate how FREAKIN' HUGE this thing is!
It's bigger than four 120mm fans stacked on top of each other!  Yes, it's that big.

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

Fired it up for the first time this morning.
Used the standard Antec Tri-cool fans set to low.  Didn't load anything, HDD isn't connected yet, just played around in the BIOS making sure everything was set correctly.

Wow this thing is quiet!  I have quieter fans in a box (Yate Loon & Scythe) but I don't know if I'll need them.  The 8800GTS fan cranks up to maximum on power-up, then fades into nothingness.
And the CPU temp...That can't possibly be correct. hmm
The BIOS is reporting idle CPU temp as 29C which is about 85F (ambient is 19C/68F).  That's too low!
Of course, that was in the BIOS, load testing will come later. big_smile

Last edited by mr_smartepants (2008-03-02 20:48:58)

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

make sure that mobo has the latest BIOS loaded.

Re: New PC parts on the way!

newsposter wrote:

make sure that mobo has the latest BIOS loaded.

Oh believe me I will!  Trouble is, I haven't figured out where they hide the BIOS version number yet.  The boot screen flies by so damn fast!
Besides, I only had it on for about 15 min.  It's Mother's Day here in the UK, I'm already treading thin-ice as it is. 
The PC's will remain off for the rest of the day.

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Re: New PC parts on the way!

Is there an option in the BIOS for 'Quick Power On Self Test'?

If so, disable it and maybe the memory counting will now be slow enough for you to check the BIOS version on the boot screen.

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