Any custom computer builders out there?

[ggiese]

You are absolutely right about how the peltier works however after doing a little research on that particular model and reading som reviews, i found out that they built that into the cooler. Supposedly the cooler will draw moisture or sweat if the amount of heat being "pumped" is not sufficient. So what vigor gaming did was program the cooler to kick in when the temps get high enough. That is why you don't see the temps drop much until you reach 40C or so.

And for those who don't like me, i really don't care. Im just here to enjoy cigars and in this case, enjoy talking about one of my other favorite past times. Computers and electronics.

Dreadog!!! Dadgummit! I missed you!!! Welcome back!!!

Who doesn't like you? You're likeable enough... And (more importantly) why would someone not like you? What's not to like!!! You're one of the best things to happen to this board in a LONG time. I don't know about others, but I certainly missed your witty insight - you're incredible wealth of knowledge - and you're innovative thinking that is just bound to eventually turn this place on its ear!!!

You gotta be around more often! I desperately want you to get up to that magical 100 post count. I'm dying to be the one that's right there when it's your turn to send out some cigars in the FREE CIGARS thread! Thinking about the contents of your humidor makes me drool like an inronworker in a gin mill on payday...

[daredog4]

lol...well thanks ggiese, i know a lot of things have been strewn out of proportion but i applaud your sense of humor about it all. And yes, i do look forward to being able to contribute more here. I don't know that my humidor holds anything that great, but most of them i thoroughly enjoy or have been wanting to try. I did get to try a lot of new ones in my time away, some great, some not so great. But it is fun to sample new cigars and add to my rotation.

As far as this thread is concerned i apologize that my statements about the Vigor Gaming peltier cooler have been missunderstood. Although i think that if certain people would have done a little research on it they would understand what i mean about the temps. That particualar cooler sandwiches the peltier between two plates that are both connected to cooling fins via copper heat pipes. The plate on the bottom is always on and acts as a usual heat pipe cooler. When the temps get high enough the controller turns the peltier on and moves the heat away from the processor and bottom plate into the top plate. That is why I made the statement that you don't see a large amount of cooling until the core temps build high enough.

I have also seen some cases where a peltier is used with water cooling. Personally i shy away from water cooling because i don't like fluids in my case, but i do see how a peltier would work really well with that setup.

[MarineOne]

Oh where to begin?

First thing first .... I've been building/rebuilding computers since the early 1990's. Some of the computers I've worked on are the Zenith Z-248, Kaypro 8086/8088, ALR, AST, Packard-Bell, Banyan CNS, and of course today's mainstream stuff like Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway, etc. My first custom build was a Pentium 120 MHz white box I used for playing StarCraft. I have a Zenith 300 baud modem, a Pentium 60 motherboard and chip, and a Compaq "Lunchbox" 386/16 running Windows 3.1 on an amber screen that I use as memento's from my early days in IT.

Second, I don't like your "indirect" statement that I haven't done my research on this cooler. I already know about it because one of my hobbies is online gaming. I either create parts lists or will hands on build a system for my friends that are gamers and are members of either of the two gaming guilds that I've been a member of for almost 10 years now.

Third, this TEC cooler turns itself on to provide additional cooling once the CPU hits 50% of it's operating temps. Intel CPU's run hot because of how they're built, which means it will always be running at 50% of its operating temp, so the Peltier will always be on because the CPU will always be running hot.

[ashauler]

Ping..........pong.........ping.........pong...... .

[ggiese]

Oh where to begin?

First thing first .... I've been building/rebuilding computers since the early 1990's. Some of the computers I've worked on are the Zenith Z-248, Kaypro 8086/8088, ALR, AST, Packard-Bell, Banyan CNS, and of course today's mainstream stuff like Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway, etc. My first custom build was a Pentium 120 MHz white box I used for playing StarCraft. I have a Zenith 300 baud modem, a Pentium 60 motherboard and chip, and a Compaq "Lunchbox" 386/16 running Windows 3.1 on an amber screen that I use as memento's from my early days in IT.

Second, I don't like your "indirect" statement that I haven't done my research on this cooler. I already know about it because one of my hobbies is online gaming. I either create parts lists or will hands on build a system for my friends that are gamers and are members of either of the two gaming guilds that I've been a member of for almost 10 years now.

Third, this TEC cooler turns itself on to provide additional cooling once the CPU hits 50% of it's operating temps. Intel CPU's run hot because of how they're built, which means it will always be running at 50% of its operating temp, so the Peltier will always be on because the CPU will always be running hot.

OMG - a trip down memory lane!!! Windows 3.1 on an amber screen - 300 baud modem (although mine was a Radio Shack - which is still in one of my closets because it's an antique now) - Kaypro!!! Holy crap!!! CPM stuff!!! eight inch floppies!!! Optical drives!!! It's all coming back!!! I don't know if I have it in any of my junk piles, but at one time I was in possession of the first production memory boards - carbon rings wrapped with copper wires. I don't quite remember all of the mechanics of it, but it was revolutionary at the time!

I forgot all about those, but it certainly brings back memories! Thanks for trip down memory lane!!!

Dreadog - you're in the presence of the trailblazers. Take your due place in that lineage, but don't forget from whence you came...

[MarineOne]

LMAO !!!

You know, I've got an 8 inch floppy from a Telex 274 mainframe controller.



-K

[daredog4]

Well im taking on a new build for my brother. He asked me to put a price on an entire new setup with all the hardware including the monitor, speakers, and mouse/keyboard and the OS and software all priced together. I managed to come up with (what i think) is a fairly decent system for around 1000. Since I have not done an entire system recently (just upgraded mine when it was needed) I didn't realize how much a good system costs these days. It also makes me wonder how the name brands like Dell, Compaq, HP, and others get their prices so low. They must be putting the cheapest components they can in theirs. It would be nice if most people would realize that the only thing they are buying that is Dell, HP, etc.....is the case. Everything else is cheapo crap for the most part.

I figure since you guys have been doing this way longer than me you could give me some pointers on the hardware. Here is a list of the parts I have been considering. My only real requirement is that it has to be close to or less than 1000.

Case CoolerMaster Centurion 5 CAC-T05 Black with side window $59.99

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX $119.99

Power Supply Corsair CMPSU-550VX 550 Watt ATX 12v $99.99

CPU Intel E7400 Wolfdale 2.8Ghz LGA775
$119.99

Memory G-Skill 2GB (2x1 GB) 240 Pin DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) $34.99

Graphics Card HIS H467QT512P Radeon HD4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB$74.99

Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar SE 320GB 8mb Cache 7200RPM SATA 3.0$49.99

DVD Drive Sony Optiarc Black DVDR/RW 24x/8x/12x
$26.99

Keyboard/Mouse Logitech LX 710 Laser Black USB
$64.99

Monitor Acer X223Wbd Black 22" Widescreen 5ms
$149.99

Speakers Creative Inspire T3100 2-Way with Subwoofer
$49.99

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 OEM $89.99

Virus/Firewall ESET Smart Security 1 year subscription $59.99
Total
$1,001.87

[badwhale]

Well im taking on a new build for my brother. He asked me to put a price on an entire new setup with all the hardware including the monitor, speakers, and mouse/keyboard and the OS and software all priced together. I managed to come up with (what i think) is a fairly decent system for around 1000. Since I have not done an entire system recently (just upgraded mine when it was needed) I didn't realize how much a good system costs these days. It also makes me wonder how the name brands like Dell, Compaq, HP, and others get their prices so low. They must be putting the cheapest components they can in theirs. It would be nice if most people would realize that the only thing they are buying that is Dell, HP, etc.....is the case. Everything else is cheapo crap for the most part.

I figure since you guys have been doing this way longer than me you could give me some pointers on the hardware. Here is a list of the parts I have been considering. My only real requirement is that it has to be close to or less than 1000.

snip

Maybe its the difference of you buying, let's say, 1 MoBo at 160 bucks, and Dell buying 40,000 @ 60 bucks? I believe its called retail vs. wholesale.

I'll be interested to see if anyone comments on your build list, as I think you can build something pretty kickass for 1grand.

Will

[MarineOne]

I figure since you guys have been doing this way longer than me you could give me some pointers on the hardware. Here is a list of the parts I have been considering. My only real requirement is that it has to be close to or less than 1000.

Case CoolerMaster Centurion 5 CAC-T05 Black with side window $59.99

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX $119.99

Power Supply Corsair CMPSU-550VX 550 Watt ATX 12v $99.99

CPU Intel E7400 Wolfdale 2.8Ghz LGA775
$119.99

Memory G-Skill 2GB (2x1 GB) 240 Pin DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) $34.99

Graphics Card HIS H467QT512P Radeon HD4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB$74.99

Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar SE 320GB 8mb Cache 7200RPM SATA 3.0$49.99

DVD Drive Sony Optiarc Black DVDR/RW 24x/8x/12x
$26.99

Keyboard/Mouse Logitech LX 710 Laser Black USB
$64.99

Monitor Acer X223Wbd Black 22" Widescreen 5ms
$149.99

Speakers Creative Inspire T3100 2-Way with Subwoofer
$49.99

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 OEM $89.99

Virus/Firewall ESET Smart Security 1 year subscription $59.99
Total
$1,001.87

You did really good for someone that's never done a build before. Let me make a couple of recommendations that will help make this rig a bit better.

Lose the CoolerMaster case in favor of the Antec Three Hundred. It's a dollar or two less, plus free shipping. The other plus is you get more cooling options with the Antec case and it's 3 fans versus the CoolerMaster and it's one "okay" fan. Oh, and sell or give away the power supply that comes with this case .... you won't need it.

Skip the Gigabyte board in favor of an Asus. If you'd like I can give you a couple good model numbers. I'd also lose the G-Skill RAM in favor of some Corsair XMS for about the same price.

For an LCD, the Acer is okay .... I would go with a Samsung. I've got the 206BW and it's about a year old, but it's an incredible LCD.

For the Logitech mouse, try the G5 wired mouse as its weight adjustable, cheaper than the 710, and it's still a laser.

For the power supply, replace the Corsair with one from PC Power and Cooling, like the 650 watt version. This is where alot of people will go cheap and ruin a decent computer with a sub-par PSU. I used to be a fan of cheap power supplies until I had one let go and took a motherboard, CPU, 2 optical drives and a hard drive with it when it exited the building. Your power requirements will run the Corsair 550 watt near it's max so you'll need to bump it up.

Lastly, get AVG for your anti-virus. It's lighter (uses less resources) and you can get updates hourly, daily, or weekly.

I didn't look at the CPU, but make sure you get a "retail" processor instead of an "OEM". The big difference here is the "OEM" version doesn't come with a heatsink so you'll need to drop another 30 to 50 bucks for a good quality heatsink fan combo.

I'd also get a small tube of Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound and use it instead of the stuff that comes on the heatsink. I've had more than a few heatsinks fuse themselves to a CPU .... I've even got some good scars from using a razor knife trying to separate them.



If you need help or advice, just ask. The only stupid question is the one you won't/don't ask.





Kris