DPM77's New Bragging Rights... PC Gaming Rig ; )

[ace]

Dang it, I didn't realize the second didn't support quad core. I wouldn't use one now anyways, but I have learned my lesson using a 939 socket, and better future upgrades is a must for me. I think I might choose the first one. It's funny that I didn't even look at your mobo while I was looking at the time, maybe great minds think alike? Anyways I might go with that mobo for this summer. I'm going to keep looking though, but I like the fact that, that board took out the com port (maybe it would be useful? if that was the case I have 2 other computers my parents use that have serial ports so that wouldn't be a problem for me), and instead it has 2 e-sata ports. Excellent opportunity to connect my 360's hd easily to my comp. Besides, 10 more dollars (I guess 20, if the mail rebate actually worked) more, I guess is worth it for my likes. I really like the color scheme soooo much better, and I plan to have a side window anyways :p

I think I will cough up the extra 10/20 bucks for it, unless I find something better by the end of May.
Time to submit for parts for review.

What kind of RAM anyone suggests? I saw a guy say he used some DDR2-1000 but it says the standard is DDR2-800? I don't know anything about RAM other then whats considered good timings. If I picked up some DDR2 1k would I have to change anything in CMOS, like lower the speed to 800mhz or something?

[DarkPacMan77]

I noticed the e-sata instead of the com port. Neither are helpful to me personally, but hey, if you need to throw the 360 hdd on there, for $10 more, and if you want a window, I guess that's really the way to go.

For a DDR2 800 board, just get DDR2 800 RAM that is known for overclocking well. My Wintec AmpX DDR2 800 ram can run at 800mhz speeds with 4-4-4-12 timings (running like that right now), so I'm sure it can push DDR2 1066 at POSSIBLY those same timings, but for sure at more relaxed timings, like 5-5-5-15. My A770 A2+ has the ability to run at DDR2 1066 speeds, but apparently that only works if you have a Phenom processor. However, in my BIOS, I see the option to set my RAM to 1066mhz... I haven't toyed with it yet, because my system is so fast that I don't need to lol, but keeping that in mind, I wouldn't buy DDR2 1066 RAM unless you know for sure that you could "OC" the RAM to those timings. If the BIOS has a feature to change it to DDR2 1066, then it will work perfectly if you "OC" it, because the RAM would naturally use that speed on a compatible motherboard in the first place. You feel me?... like... you wouldn't ACTUALLY be overclocking the RAM if you bought 1066 RAM, even if the BIOS had it listed under an OC option.

Other than that though, I'd just get DDR2 800 simply because the price is much lower, and you can hit DDR2 1066 speeds on most sticks that are rated/ advertised at DDR2 800mhz @ 4-4-4-12 timings.

I think I should also throw out there that, oddly enough, and as ugly as I thought my motherboard was when I purchased it, it's actually quite nice looking inside the case, though I still just don't want a side window in the first place, no matter how "nice" it would look to other people. I like the "mysterious" box look rather than the tweaked "enthusiast" box look. That's just personal preference though.

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

I think I'll go with ddr2 800 then Wink
I might just get a 1gb stick for the time being. It seems that I have went from trying to buy just basic parts, to going pretty far and building a whole computer XD. But whatever, I'l buy the parts one at a time until i get them and build the sucker. I'll look for more parts tomorrow.

I think that mobo you have does look good for well mobo's, but I just loves things looking good. Don't get me wrong, specs are very importante, but gota make it look good too. But whatever, as long as it works better then what I have :p

One day I hope to have some water cooling going on, and see how much I could OC a quad core...
What do yall think of this case?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811148029

Edit: I also found out that buying 2 packages of the 1gb stick of ram you have dpm, is cheaper then buying the dual channel kit XD. It's like $2 cheaper, but I'm just putting that out there lol.

[DarkPacMan77]

Sometimes the sticks individually cost less than the kits of 2 or more etc. but it would have costed more with shipping x2 at $5 a piece, rather than only paying that once. Either way you look at it, RAM is so cheap now that it really doesn't matter lol. But that case you picked out is good. It has enough room and all, but the lights can actually be very bright. You might find yourself disconnecting them. Also, I'd look into that power supply more. Sure, it's 480W, which should be fine, but not only wattage is important. You need to make sure it has dual +12V rails and enough amperage on them to power a graphics card and processor effectively, as well as checking to see how stable the power is. If you don't know about power supplies, I could look up the info for you, I suppose.

Anyways, here's the delayed pics.

Graphics card


RAM


Beautiful case... best one I've ever seen


LCD temperature readout display.


Internals fully assembled and ready to game!!


You may notice some unconnected wires in the bottom of the case. I didn't bundle those up yet in that picture. They are incompatible with the mobo, and not needed. I need to see what kind of 3DMark06 scores I can get on this thing...

Also, I've easily overclocked to 3.0ghz on the processor and overclocked the graphics card to the "superclocked" version's specs. No need to pay $30 more when you can just make it run at those specs yourself! I ended up returning to stock settings though, because I have no need to overclock. I only have the graphics card fan speed tweaked to run at 55% fan speed instead of the default 29% (which isn't fast enough if gaming over an hour). Overall, it's completely 1337, to say the least. Furthermore, I FIXED MY GAMING LAPTOP TOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

PROOF



I fixed it the morning before I built the gaming rig! mwuhahaha!

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

Dude, that is sexy. So you got your laptop working and that brand new beast you just built? Someones lucky.

I decided to look at the comments, and it seems everyone likes it. I didn't get to a single bad or neutral comment on the psu until some dude that was pissed because it arrived DOA some time like july of last year. I also saw a couple comments where people were using 8800GT's with it and said it is perfect, but one guy did mention you shouldn't plan on using it for an SLI setup, which I won't. One graphics card is enough for me, it would be nice, but I won't be playing Crysis on max settings.

I will look more into it though later. If anything I will just buy another PSU. O and what in the world is up with that cooling device on the bottom right corner of your case??? lol, I was going to see how much it cost you but it's deactivated now

Heres some other stuff, I'm really just trying to make a "budget computer", nothing special. Something that'll be upgradeable in the future and is somewhat updated.
Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227139
HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148261

Arctic Silver 5, 2-120mm fans, 1-80mm fan, and an athlon x2 4400+ for right now- possibly until quad cores get better/cheaper.

The reason I'm only getting a 250gb hd is because I have a 200gb IDE drive I plan to stick in there too You know, cheap stuff. That and use some pci gfx card I have laying around as a "place holder" until I get a card with a 8800GT core.

[DarkPacMan77]

That'd be my air conditioner in the bottom

Look up ICS 8200 anywhere on the internet and you'll see that I got a steal on the case. It's hard to find that case lower than $200. I got mine for $99.99 even - no tax/ free shipping and handling. I mean, click around.

You can buy it right now here @ $239.99

Review 2005 (when product launched) @ $360. Keep in mind, it's STILL the same product. In fact, mine even came with a 5.25-3.5 drive bay adapter to store another hard drive.

In fact, the cheapest I have been able to find it now is $180 with a $30 rebate, but still $50 more than mine, and compUSA, where I found it "cheapest", charges tax and shipping, I believe. Keeping in mind that it ships at 41 lbs, it's no lightweight by ANY means. It's the heaviest case I know of lol. So the "rebate" only helps curb tax and shipping, and that's only if you GET the rebate.

Did DPM pick up a steal of a deal? You f**kin' bet he did... and yes, he's talking in third person.

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

Dude that's a beast deal. Now I remember reading the comment you left :p Maybe the reason it is deactivated now is because there was a few left and they were selling them cheap so they could deactivate it?

[DarkPacMan77]

Yea I bet that's exactly what they did. They probably found a few in the back and were like... "crap... these are taking up space" lol. Kudos to me. I mean, that just means I get a $300 product for 1/3 the price. I mean, look at it this way. Gas hit $4 a gallon today. Terrible. But it did. Now imagine if it was $10 a gallon... that's a 140% increase. So, I paid $99.99 for my case. I found it at $240. That's a 140% increase as well. That's an astronomical deal considering how high of a quality it is.

On another note. That ram you selected is very good. It can overclock well. Nearly picked up a few sticks for myself, but I wanted to give Wintec a shot since nobody trusts them and I am personally a believer - or WAS, until I purchased them. Now I'm a Wintec fanboy.

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

Well I'm really willing to try anything. I bought a 1gb stick of some brand I think like PQI or something ( it might not have been pqi, all I know is the ram I bought is deactivated now) for like $30 shipped a while ago (pc3200). I was reluctant to try the brand out as there was like 1 comment for the ram. But come to find out it's great ram if you ask me. It's running 200mhz 3-3-3-8. I was tempted to get the Wintec but like 3 more dollars and I could have some awesome OCZ ram? Of course :p

Also, sadly enough I looked up the PSU in that case. I think I'm going to cry.. O well. Looks like I have to add a PSU to the list now, along with 8800GT by the end of the summer. It's not that bad, but I could definitely do better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817170016

Haha, found a PSU to get :p
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817148003

Also, when you applied your thermal grease did you just put a small grain of rice sized dot on it in the middle of the processor and then stick the heatsink on or did you even it out with a credit card first to about the shape of a quarter then put the heatsink on?

[DarkPacMan77]

I didn't apply the arctic silver 5 yet. I was waiting to see how temperatures would be. There are many videos on how to install thermal paste though, if you need to learn how.

As for the power supplies. The stock one definitely can't run a 8800gt. The second one is not a charmer either. Don't go with Apevia.

Normally it isn't good to stick with the bundled power supply because they are cheap junk. In cases like mine, the PSU is very good quality though. You can save a lot of money by finding an adequate case with a good power supply. Read up on the PSU first (always) before buying though. I think the power supplies bundled in all of these cases are pretty decent Orion units that should serve just fine for an 8800gt.

I was going to buy this case for my build. It has a 450W power supply that can run a 8800gt and is very ... "plain" black. Maybe not going to win your heart over, but it has free shipping and has both a case and PSU that will work fine. Essentially, items like that are saving double the money on shipping (which in my case, i used to spend extra money on the case itself ).

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

Well I've looked up videos and they all are different. That's why I asked. Also I was just kidding about the Apevia psu. It looks quite...different...then most psu's. I think I'll just buy a separate Rosewill psu, as in the end it would cost the same for a good case with a good psu, as it would buying the case I want with a bad psu, and buying another psu separate. I'm going to look for another psu and see what I come up with.

And I've always hated that style of the internal 3.50" drives, how it's turned around. Probably because I'm using regular large IDE cables in my case, and it's pretty cramped. It looks like it would be better but I hate them, the cables are always a hassle.

How you like this psu? It's one I picked immediately, I will do more research on them later though I just wanted a modular psu so yea.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6817152028

[DarkPacMan77]

You can buy all round cables. SATA cables will be slim by design. Fat cables will cause poor air flow - something you definitely don't want. If you want to carry over an IDE drive, make sure to spend around $8-10 and get a round IDE-SATA converter cable or something.

This is a high quality PSU at an affordable price.

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

That psu looks pretty nice. I'll definitely make a note of it. About the round cables, well yea of course I plan on buying some round cables, but I'm just saying the one I have now (custom made round cables with a pocket knife pwn) really piss me off.

Do you know of any good modular psu's like the one I linked to? I really like the piperock style connectors like the ABS Tagan PSU's use. Those things are sooooo flippin awesome.

[DarkPacMan77]

I'd buy ePower over Raidmax and save a few pennies. Modular, in many situations, has less stable power than a non-modular PSU. If modular is your ticket, don't buy a budget modular supply. Spend around $80 for a good modular one. I don't think that's quite in the "budget" build price-wise, though, so for right now, on Newegg, that ePower is the best choice to power a system like you are planning to build.

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

Alright well birthday is this coming Monday, so I'll see what happens. If I can't buy all the parts now I have the whole summer anyways. I plan on submitting an application for a few places (geeksquad, firedog w/e pays more then a flippin job at carowinds working minimum wage), and well yea. Thanks for the help.