Post your PC Builds!

[Top Shelf]

What great timing for this thread, the parts for my new build are currently in transit and are hopefully here in the next week or so. Everything except the video card was ordered from ncix.com, with free ground shipping on the entire order. I also price matched pretty much everything on the list using pricecanada.com. Allthe price matches were approved by NCIX.

Here we go:

- Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower Gamer Case 900 ATX 9 Drive Bay No PS Top USB2.0 1394 Audio
- Antec Truepower Trio 650W Power Supply ATX12V V2.0 Active PFC SLI Certified 120MM Fan
- Samsung SH-S223F/BEBN 22X Speedplus DVD+-RW SATA DVD Writer OEM
- Gigabyte EP45-UD3R ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 1366+ 1PCI-E SATA2 RAID HD Sound GLAN 1394A Motherboard
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro LGA775 2500RPM 45CFM
- G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ PC2-8000 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1000 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor LGA775 3.0GHZ Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB Retail
- Yate Loon D12BL-12-UB 120MM UV Blue LED Fan 1200RPM 45CFM 24DB 3/4PIN Ball Bearing Sleeved Retail
- Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200RPM 32MB Dual Proc 3.5IN SATA Hard Drive OEM 5YR Mfg Warranty
- SPARKLE SFPX96GT512D3 GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card


A few tough choices here, namely between the Q6600 and the E8400. I dare you to google q6600 vs. e8400. More opinions then you could shake a stick at. In the end I decided to go with the two cores as this chip runs a lot cooler then the 65nm.

As far as price goes, all the above for about 900 bucks. Still looking for a monitor (preferably 24"), and a nice keyboard and mouse.

Can't wait to get it all here and put it together. I've been in the IT support field for years, but this is my first time buidling from scratch. Tons of fun, wish I would have done it years ago!

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Top Shelf

What great timing for this thread, the parts for my new build are currently in transit and are hopefully here in the next week or so. Everything except the video card was ordered from ncix.com, with free ground shipping on the entire order. I also price matched pretty much everything on the list using pricecanada.com. Allthe price matches were approved by NCIX.

Here we go:

- Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower Gamer Case 900 ATX 9 Drive Bay No PS Top USB2.0 1394 Audio
- Antec Truepower Trio 650W Power Supply ATX12V V2.0 Active PFC SLI Certified 120MM Fan
- Samsung SH-S223F/BEBN 22X Speedplus DVD+-RW SATA DVD Writer OEM
- Gigabyte EP45-UD3R ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 1366+ 1PCI-E SATA2 RAID HD Sound GLAN 1394A Motherboard
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro LGA775 2500RPM 45CFM
- G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ PC2-8000 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1000 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor LGA775 3.0GHZ Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB Retail
- Yate Loon D12BL-12-UB 120MM UV Blue LED Fan 1200RPM 45CFM 24DB 3/4PIN Ball Bearing Sleeved Retail
- Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200RPM 32MB Dual Proc 3.5IN SATA Hard Drive OEM 5YR Mfg Warranty
- SPARKLE SFPX96GT512D3 GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card


A few tough choices here, namely between the Q6600 and the E8400. I dare you to google q6600 vs. e8400. More opinions then you could shake a stick at. In the end I decided to go with the two cores as this chip runs a lot cooler then the 65nm.

As far as price goes, all the above for about 900 bucks. Still looking for a monitor (preferably 24"), and a nice keyboard and mouse.

Can't wait to get it all here and put it together. I've been in the IT support field for years, but this is my first time buidling from scratch. Tons of fun, wish I would have done it years ago!

I built a nearly identical setup to this for my roommate about a month ago. Came out to ~ $925 at memex.

Expect Aquamark3 scores at ~195,000, 3dMark06 scores at 13,000-14,000, and 3dMark Vantage scores at around 3,500-4,000

Pretty damn decent.

EDIT: With that cooler, you should be able to crank the e8400 up to around 3.8-4 GHz with no trouble, which should kick the scores up as well

[REDVAN]

AMD Athalon 3700+
1GB of RAM
Antec tx640b Case
gigabyte ga-k8n-sli
eVGA e-Ge-Force 7600GTS
Enermax 420W NoisetakerII
HDs: Seagate Freeagent 250gb, maxtor 200gb, maxtor 300gb

Ok so here is a question for all you computer guys... can I do a simple upgrade of a better motherboard and a chunk more ram and make this computer half decent again? I don't play games anymore so I don't need to go crazy. I just want to be able to do photo stuff, and usual internet/email/homework. I have noticed that it has slowed down a lot in the last little while, and it's starting to get annoying.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

AMD Athalon 3700+
1GB of RAM
Antec tx640b Case
gigabyte ga-k8n-sli
eVGA e-Ge-Force 7600GTS
Enermax 420W NoisetakerII
HDs: Seagate Freeagent 250gb, maxtor 200gb, maxtor 300gb

Ok so here is a question for all you computer guys... can I do a simple upgrade of a better motherboard and a chunk more ram and make this computer half decent again? I don't play games anymore so I don't need to go crazy. I just want to be able to do photo stuff, and usual internet/email/homework. I have noticed that it has slowed down a lot in the last little while, and it's starting to get annoying.

The HDD, PSU, VC, and case likely can be salvaged. The ram and cpu would have to be replaced (unless it's DDR2 ram).

But fear not! RAM is mad cheap in DDR2 form.

[PsYcNeT]

As an addenum to the above as well, if none of your drives are SATA or SATA II, then you may have to lose one. Most modern motherboards only accomodate 2 IDE (PATA) devices, but usually about 6-10 SATA devices.

[Deegee]

2 Computers

1st
nForce 4 Mobo
AMD 3000+
1 GIG DDR Ram
Sound Blaster Audigy OEM
Antec 450W PSU
GeForce 7600 GT
19 inch widescreen monitor
Black LG DVD Burner I forget what speed

2nd Setup
Old 2.8Ghz P4
Onboard video
Onboard sound
Garbage HP mobo

2nd one is hooked up to my 48 inch TV and is used to play NES, SNES and other old systems through emulation.

[bomber317]

Originally Posted by photon

HDD: 300GB Raptor & 750GB Seagate

How is that Raptor? I'm assuming it's the new VelociRaptor. I was thinking of doing 150GB x 2 in RAID 0.

From what I read though, I may need a RAID controller card to see the full effects of it instead of the built on ones.

[photon]

Yeah built in RAID cards are pretty useless, though with RAID 0 you can still see benefits.

It's a nice drive, definitely fast, but it is louder than other drives, enough so that if I had the chance again I probably wouldn't buy it again and just wait a bit more for an SSD.

[bomber317]

Originally Posted by photon

It's a nice drive, definitely fast, but it is louder than other drives, enough so that if I had the chance again I probably wouldn't buy it again and just wait a bit more for an SSD.

Did you take it out of the casing it came with (ice pack)? Apparently the casing is the cause of a lot of the noise.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article844-page3.html

The only problem is I need to figure out a way to fit that into my case as a 2.5" device without it making more noise then if it was in that Ice pack casing

[PsYcNeT]

Pff noise.

In my quest to create as low temperatures as possible without water cooling (I'm cheap) my computer sounds like aircraft taking off.

But damn are those temps low ;D

[photon]

Wow, thanks! I don't visit SPCR much since I got my quiet enough for me PC built, but the drive noise has been bugging me I should have looked. That's so weird that the icepack would cause so much noise.

Yeah I don't have a 2.5" bay to put it in in my case, I'll have to think about it or check their forums to see what others have done.

[bomber317]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Pff noise.

In my quest to create as low temperatures as possible without water cooling (I'm cheap) my computer sounds like aircraft taking off.

But damn are those temps low ;D

haha, yeah, i'm the exact opposite. I can't stand noise.

I got that beast of a case the Antec P180 for cooling and keeping noise down. Put some low flow 120mm fans in and it's been pretty silent except for the Video card.

Was running SLI, but made the mistake of getting single slot cards, which equates to tiny fans on the video card that annoy the hell out of me.

[PsYcNeT]

I would love to measure the dBs of my PC when running. It would make some quiet-pc types cry.

I game with a headset, and I use my laptop for HDTV stuff, so the noise doesn't bother me. Also, it's the perfect white-noise machine when my roomates are loud at night!

[Esoteric]

My PC has a bit of noise from the fans, but it sure keeps it cool. I have 3 200 mm fans in the case, plus a 120 mm fan connected to my heatsink (which keeps my CPU between 11-37 degrees).

I don't want to temp fates with a water cooling setup, and can deal with a bit of noise. I think I'm going to order a pair of Sennheiser headphones, to add to my gaming experience.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

My PC has a bit of noise from the fans, but it sure keeps it cool. I have 3 200 mm fans in the case, plus a 120 mm fan connected to my heatsink (which keeps my CPU between 11-37 degrees).

I don't want to temp fates with a water cooling setup, and can deal with a bit of noise. I think I'm going to order a pair of Sennheiser headphones, to add to my gaming experience.

If you really want something special, get these:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...4&sku=T26-1090

They are wonderful for gaming, and they work on all 5.1 style outputs (Optical, Coax, and 3 plug analog).

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

My PC has a bit of noise from the fans, but it sure keeps it cool. I have 3 200 mm fans in the case, plus a 120 mm fan connected to my heatsink (which keeps my CPU between 11-37 degrees).

I don't want to temp fates with a water cooling setup, and can deal with a bit of noise. I think I'm going to order a pair of Sennheiser headphones, to add to my gaming experience.

11?

Do you keep your box refrigerated?

And one other point of clarification re:IDE - motherboards usually support up to 4 IDE devices (2 channels with Master/Slave on each)

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

11?

Do you keep your box refrigerated?

And one other point of clarification re:IDE - motherboards usually support up to 4 IDE devices (2 channels with Master/Slave on each)

I dunno, every 775 or i7 based board I've seen or worked with only support 1 IDE cable (master/slave). Theres not as much demand for it as everything is turning over to SATA

[photon]

Actually most motherboards I've worked with recently have only one IDE channel. EDIT: BLAST!

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

I dunno, every 775 or i7 based board I've seen or worked with only support 1 IDE cable (master/slave). Theres not as much demand for it as everything is turning over to SATA

Now that I think about it, my new one is the same. I gotta quit living in the past. *sigh*

[Esoteric]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

11?

Do you keep your box refrigerated?

And one other point of clarification re:IDE - motherboards usually support up to 4 IDE devices (2 channels with Master/Slave on each)

Yeah, 11 definitely doesn't sound right. I think my monitoring program is off for the i7.