My new rig *squee!*
So last week I decided to finally pull the trigger and build a new gaming rig. My old machine had served me well, but it's four years old now. I newegg'd some of the parts and spent a sickening amount of time yesterday driving around to a couple local shops that had decent deals on some parts, but I finally got it assembled last night.
Old Machine:
3.2 Ghz P4 w/ stock heatsink & fan
Geforce 5900
1GB DDR1
SB Audigy
21" NEC Multisync CRT
Thermaltake case (can't remember the model offhand)
New Beast:
Intel Q9450 CPU
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Heatsink w/ Scythe 1200 fan
Foxconn X38A Mobo
4GB Patriot Viper DDR2 1066
PCP&C Silencer 750
EVGA Geforce 9800 GTX
Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB HDD
Samsung 20x DVD+-R w/ lightscribe (mostly for the wife. She thinks lightscribe is the bee's knees.)
Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 (holy crap is that case HUGE!)
Samsung 2693HM LCD
Windows Vista Ultimate
Just wanted to share my joy at getting a new rig. Let me know what you guys think!
I'll try to post pictures this weekend if anyone is interested.
Oh yeah, anyone know any good tricks for routing cables? I futzed around with all the crazy wiring in there, but the power supply located at the bottom makes things weird and the PS has a ton of extraneous power connections. Eventually I had to give up and get some sleep before work today.
Hoi, chummers!
It's a beast. Congrats
Your case is ugly though
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
It's also HEAVY. Thank god I got free shipping from eWiz because the shipping info said it was 43.5 pounds. It feels about that heavy too.
I don't know about ugly though. I think I like it. It has a nice kind of space-shippy feel to it. I need to find a new place for it though since it's too big to go under my desk.
Hoi, chummers!
Man, I'm glad you like it. The new rig feeling is hard to beat and cases are very much a "to each their own" type thing.
But I can't help myself. I have to poke fun at everyone that gets the Cosmos. And that hideous SMILODON thing that Legion bought too.
And Zalman coolers. Those earn some derision as well.
My hardware snobbery knows no bounds
How about some impressions on that X38 board? Oh, and to pictures: Yes please! Shots of the internals, specifically. I likes my mobo porn.
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
Sounds awsome bighoppa, how much that beast set you back? And you can't go wrong with a heavy, sound-dampening, filtered air-input case like that. It'll resist vibration from the desk/floor, keep the volume down, and not clog with dust. Maybe it's just because my wife's got a chinchilla but that last one, yeah, it's a dealbreaker for me.
Good job, now get those pics up!
"What exactly is a squirrel licking beta grabbing frump digger?" ~trichy
"Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and brudda.... I hurt people"
Nice! I'm not component savvy, so is it better to build your own than to buy something like a dell?
My PC sucks.
Taste the Freshness!
Depends on if you want customizable power or the pre-fab ease of a dell. If you aren't component savvy I'd recommend not building your own. The main advantage of building is that you can pick the parts... doesn't do you a lot of good if you don't know what to buy
"What exactly is a squirrel licking beta grabbing frump digger?" ~trichy
"Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and brudda.... I hurt people"
Even if you don't know much about exact parts. "Oh this Mobo has a super extra awesome flux capacitor but that one has the new atomic biotic doodad".
To me, building your own machine is preferable because most of the pre-fabs are not built for gaming. IF you want a gaming machine, you're usually better off building it. It can be difficult to find a machine with an 8800GT and 3-4 gig of RAM without paying $250 for RAM that should cost $100ish.
Although you do get an OS with those pre-fabs. Your uber just in your budget gaming rig is useless without an Operating System.
Fletcher wrote:
I need new pants.
I do think the cosmos is kinda dorky. I'm a case whore as well as thin_J.
Now zalman's on the other hand.....
*Legion* wrote:
They're so overpriced!
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
I just like simple, clean lines. Nothing garish with fifty different colored LEDs saying "get it here" or laser etched jiggamawhatsits and cut-outs that look like alien intestines. I was thinking of going for a HTPC form factor but changed my mind at the last minute. The cosmos is also whisper quiet compared to my old rig, though that is probaly due more to the 120MM fans all over the place.
As for Zalman...well, Thin_J, you steered me towards the thermalright in the $2000 PC thread. It is MASSIVE but I like it a lot. Just out of curiousity, what is your favorite case?
Raven - My original budget was $2100 but i think I came in closer to $2350 in the end. I added a Razer keyboard and mouse combo for about $160, stepped up from a q6600 processor to the Q9450 and stepped up from a 8800GTS to the 9800 GTX. I know the performance difference isn't that much, but 9 is more than 8 so
. I may add water cooling in the future, but I couildn't do it right off the bat. It was just too expensive to get chipset and GPU blocks, etc.
kid - If you don't know a lot about the components and you don't have the time or the inclination to scour hardware sites and forums for reviews and such, you're better off going with a pre-fab system. You get a decent rig and warranty, whereas when you build your own you are solely responsible for anything that screws up. You're usually stuck with whatever the manufacturer warranty on the individual part is, so it can be a headache trying to get a replacement part. If you're enough of a gearhead to not mind all that, you can get way more bang for your buck. OEMs always skimp somewhere unless you're paying top dollar for one of their uber systems. Frankly I would put my box up against any of those XPS or whatever machines any day. I may not beat them in all areas of performance, but it would be close and I know I spent at least two grand less on my whole setup than they charge just for the PC.
Edit: I'll post some impressions on the X38 board when I get some time to play with it. Maybe tomorrow. Last night I just fell into bed happy that it POSTed. I will say this: When I got up this morning I tossed the Vista Ultimate DVD in the drive to get it working while I got ready for work. I went back in 20 minutes later and it was DONE. 8O
Hoi, chummers!
I have to pick just one?
Big fan of the Silverstone TJ07 and TJ09. The Lian-Li V2000B and G70 are awesome too.
I think of the four I'd pick the TJ07 as far as looks go. It's just so pretty.
I have the TJ09 myself because it was cheaper and I couldn't bring myself to spend the extra on the 07 at the time.
I've got a stacker 830 sitting empty that I keep thinking about using to build an extra rig, along with an Antec TX1050B that was pretty nice when it was new but seems pretty primitive/outdate now.
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
But they look cool.
Stackers are sweet. Basically all Lian-Li's and most antecs are great too.
*Legion* wrote:
Yeah, I looked at the stackers but they were way more than I wanted to spend on a case this time. Lian-Li does have some nice cases. I used one a couple of builds ago and ended up giving that machine to my father-in-law a couple years ago so he could look at old people pr0n.
Hoi, chummers!
The Smilodon roxorz Thin_J's boxers! Your hatred can't stop my sabretoothed beauty!
Gaming / PC Tech Blog: Blast Processing - www.blastprocessing.net
Xbox Live: Legion SB | PSN: Legion_SB
"Damn, your comedic timing is awesome." -- Spaz, *Legion* Fan #1437
Changing DIRK_TOOTH to sabretooth doesn't make your case any less silly
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
Don't listen to the Cosmos hate man...its definitely one of the best cases on the market right now.
I think these guys just miss GG
Xbox Live: pol024
Hunter Ghorin
The Antec P182 is an extraordinarily good case if low noise is important to you.
I have no problem with running a little bit behind the curve--My current machine is running with a Pentium 4, 3 gig processor with 1 gig ram, and an ATI 9600 (256mg) video card. TF2 doesn't look all that great, and I can't play Bioshock, or Portal, or Company of Heroes, or Call of Duty 4, or any of those other nice fancy new games, but I can run stuff from 2003 like a dream. Could I get away with spending around $1,000 just for the rig, and get something pretty sweet? And is it feasible to just do some web research and figure things out? I've replaced a CPU fan and an exhaust fan on this current machine, and that is the extent of my knowledge
Taste the Freshness!
My boy, you've come to the right place! For my AMAZING $750 CHEAPO PC build will get you rocking for less than a G!
Testimonials for *Legion*'s AMAZING $750 CHEAPO PC:
"... will cure the heartbreak of psoriasis." -- Malor
"... will instantly double the value of your DOLLAR! It's $1500 of change!" --kilroy0097
"... will make your pixels more vibrant!" -- Irongut
"... you can get an online pet dog, you can make your e-penis larger and more fulfilling and you can contribute online to charitable causes with the money you save." -- kilroy0097, um, again
"Heh, Legion won't stop until he has converted all of GWJ to his cheapo build!" -- fangblackbone
Grandstanding aside, that $750 build will easily play all of the games you listed, and play them well.
Gaming / PC Tech Blog: Blast Processing - www.blastprocessing.net
Xbox Live: Legion SB | PSN: Legion_SB
"Damn, your comedic timing is awesome." -- Spaz, *Legion* Fan #1437
You sir, are an angel.
My biggest fear is crushing the processor while installing the heat sink. When the cpu fan on my current rig went sour, I just replaced the fan and not the whole thing, (even though I had to buy the whole thing) cuz I was chicken. If this is really that easy, I will follow your recipe.
Taste the Freshness!
BTW, what does "overclocking" mean, and how does one do that? Could I get more out of my current machine by doing this?
Taste the Freshness!
*Legion* wrote:
No, you probably can't get any more speed out of your present system by overclocking; the Pentium 4 doesn't do that at all well. The Core2 series, on the other hand, tends to overclock wildly, especially when you buy a chip on a slow bus with a high multiplier, and then raise the bus speed.
And yes, those quotes are all accurate.... but in all seriousness, his $750 PC is an amazing value, and should run virtually any game that's out very well. There's one exception: it won't play Crysis at high detail/high res, but then again, nothing will.
Just remember that anytime you're overclocking, you're doing something with the chip that Intel says isn't possible. In exchange for less money, you're running the risk of getting it wrong, and blowing something up, or finding that your particular chip isn't stable at very high speeds. Overclocking usually works, but it's not a guarantee. If you want a guarantee, you'll have to spend more money.
I'd suggest being somewhat conservative and not driving it too far.
My new rig cost me just under $700 all told. And it was the first time I ever attempted to build a computer myself. So have faith it's totally do-able.
I hate you soo much Phil Collins!
something about the frank, unprovoked admission of assault with a deadly weapon tickles my funny bone
I hate you...
The only thing wrong with your rig is windows vista ultimate. It looks like you wanted to go all out, but the only difference between home premium and ultimate is file encryption. Vista Ultimate runs loads more background services than xp or even premium. You'd get a much better 3dmark score if you ran vista premium.
*Legion* wrote:
I strongly considered using XP for my build, but in the end two things assisted in making my decision.
1.) The University I work for no longer sells copies of XP.
B.) They do sell Vista Ultimate for crazy cheap.
iii.) I've been running Vista Ultimate for about a year on my laptop now and haven't had a noticable drop in performance. You can show me a five-hundred-point difference in 3dMark but I don't see a real world tangible difference in how the machine runs. I can run Crysis with all the settings on high and get 30+ fps which is enough for me.
Sorry for the delay in posting pics and impressions. I've been spending a lot of free time enjoying the machine instead of nitpicking it
Hoi, chummers!
Legion any chance you'll be doing a "stimulous special edition" of the cheapo PC for $600? Give the gamer community at large a chance to buy soem more Chinese goods with Chinas money
"Also, I have four legs and am covered in wool. Baa!" *Legion* reveals his inner furry.
I've already been writing a $500 build for this month, which after tax & shipping would be closer to $600 in real money, so there we go.
Basically, I'm going to update the $750 build each month, and do another build once a month too, until I get tired of it or everyone just stops reading.
Gaming / PC Tech Blog: Blast Processing - www.blastprocessing.net
Xbox Live: Legion SB | PSN: Legion_SB
"Damn, your comedic timing is awesome." -- Spaz, *Legion* Fan #1437
Good right up Legion but I don't know why you include the monitor into the cost of the PC. I would drop the monitor and up the processor get a low end Quad or a good mid-ranged dual.
I'm looking into refreshing my computer around November of this year with a new vid card and new processor. Also Big Hoppa you should have stuck with the newer GTS 512 it is faster than the die shrink 9800gtx if you over clock for cheaper. That card is nothing more than a die-shrink for the 8800gtx. That is my only complaint but if you gave me the computer I wouldn't be complaining..
Enjoy the games. 
Xfire: Pharacon
Tempest says: "A team hat doe snot communicate and talk to each other about what the next move will be is going to lose."