Any custom computer builders out there?

[daredog4]

Just wanting to know if I have any "go to" guys on here that have also built there own PC. I just finished replacing an Antec power supply in mine that crashed. Looking to the future I put in a Corsair 850 watt that is working flawlessly. Has anyone upgraded to the new Intel i7 chipset, and if so do you think it is a good investment? I am currently running a Pentium D that still works great but the 800mhz frontside bus and 667 mhz memory are really my limiting factors at this point. I really noticed how outdated it was when i tried to play Crysis. I cringe when i have to start putting my graphics settings on med-low and turn off anti-aliasing......grr. So im thinking a new mobo, cpu, and memory are going to be my next upgrades....and possibly add another graphics card to run in crossfire. Current rig is:

Case: Coolermaster Praetorian ATX Mid Tower
PSU: Corsair TX850W 850 watt (single 12v rail)
Mobo: Intel D955XBK LGA775 chipset
CPU: Pentium D 3Ghz (coolermaster cpu cooler with 120mm fan)
Mem: 2GB Kingston DDR2 667Mhz
GPU: Sapphire HD3870 Toxic edition
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Pro
Hard Drive: 2 Western Digital 500GB (1TB total)
DVD Drive: 2 LightScribe DVD+R drives

[CatalystOfChaos]

Just wanting to know if I have any "go to" guys on here that have also built there own PC. I just finished replacing an Antec power supply in mine that crashed. Looking to the future I put in a Corsair 850 watt that is working flawlessly. Has anyone upgraded to the new Intel i7 chipset, and if so do you think it is a good investment? I am currently running a Pentium D that still works great but the 800mhz frontside bus and 667 mhz memory are really my limiting factors at this point. I really noticed how outdated it was when i tried to play Crysis. I cringe when i have to start putting my graphics settings on med-low and turn off anti-aliasing......grr. So im thinking a new mobo, cpu, and memory are going to be my next upgrades....and possibly add another graphics card to run in crossfire. Current rig is:

Case: Coolermaster Praetorian ATX Mid Tower
PSU: Corsair TX850W 850 watt (single 12v rail)
Mobo: Intel D955XBK LGA775 chipset
CPU: Pentium D 3Ghz (coolermaster cpu cooler with 120mm fan)
Mem: 2GB Kingston DDR2 667Mhz
GPU: Sapphire HD3870 Toxic edition
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Pro
Hard Drive: 2 Western Digital 500GB (1TB total)
DVD Drive: 2 LightScribe DVD+R drives

Sounds to me like your logic is sound.

I assume you're running XP so you're bottlenecked at 2gb of ram, otherwise that'd be an upgrade.

What speed PCI-X are you running? I assume 16x? Many times, the speed and spec's of your video card make a huge difference, too. I'm also not a fan of stock mobo's, they tend to not overclock well.

I didn't look up your board/card specs cuz I'm a little lazy and haven't been in the computer rig game for like 2 years, but FSB is definitely a HUGE factor when you're streaming such massive amounts of data.

[Silencei2]

Crysis is an unrealistic game to benchmark most computers on. If that is your favorite game and one of the only ones you play then by all means, upgrade your computer to run it better. But for the most part you need a real super computer to be able to play Crysis smoothly.

The i7 offers a lot of great perks but I don't think it justifies the amount of $$$ you will be throwing into revamping your whole computer if you are running a Centrino processor. Most Centrinos would be a Core 2 Duo/Quad with DDR2/3 RAM.

The Pentium D on the other hand is a black sheep processor IMHO. I think you're better off getting a new processor, some RAM and maybe crossfiring that 3870 of yours with a twin. I think you got the right idea going and I would say go for it. If you want an extra kick I would recommend running a Velociraptor from Western Digital. It'll cut your load times in half, if not more.

If you want to get crazy, you can watercool your system. I've had a watercooled system for 6 years now and its a lot better than having your GPU fan going nuts.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions.

[daredog4]

I would like to stick with XP for a little longer because according to my sources they havn't worked all the kinks out yet and I have a few programs and older games that i want to be able to use on Vista that won't currently work. Plus I am very good at navigating XP and Vista is a whole new ball game. About the Mobo and overclocking....I have not done much before now because I havn't really ever experimented much with it. I was scared that my power supply wouldn't handle it for one, plus the Pentium D already runs hot so i didn't want to push it. But any help or suggestions would be appreciated. As you said I have a plain Intel board and the bios doesn't let me do much so if i got a more overclocking friendly board i might try it. I play many different games and most of them i don't have trouble with, but besides Crysis I can tell that many of the other newer games demand a lot more. Dead Space, Fallout 3, and Gears of War 2 are some of my latest favorites and i can't run them on really high settings. I think one factor is my screen. I have a 24" Samsung that I can run at 1920x1200. Most of these newer games I can't set that high because it bogs down, but that is another reason i want to upgrade because the detail and realism and that high of resolution is awesome. I have heard a lot of great things about the WD raptors and i am really considering on of those also. Seems like they keep making them bigger too. I think now they make a 500GB model. 300 used to the be the biggest. However with all the other storage i have i might not need such a big one....just to run games. Thanks for the input guys. Do you have a Mobo's to reccomend. I have heard that Asus has some great boards to overclock....but that the customer support is crappy. I was also thinking about a Gigabyte.

[daredog4]

Oh yeah, about watercooling. I don't know if i want to go there. Some of the premade/sealed units look alright but if that sucker were to ever spring a leak........you would be SOL. I guess im just scared. My case is vented very well and although its not completely quiet, i don't notice it at all when playing games.

[Silencei2]

Oh yeah, about watercooling. I don't know if i want to go there. Some of the premade/sealed units look alright but if that sucker were to ever spring a leak........you would be SOL. I guess im just scared. My case is vented very well and although its not completely quiet, i don't notice it at all when playing games.

Thats why I use non-conductive fluid. I've spilled fluid on the motherboard several times and never shorted anything. I think I started getting into the watercooling after I got bored building normal computers. Its something to look into if you ever walk down the same path.

I posted pics of my latest build on the "pictures of desk/pc" thread if you want to check em out.

[daredog4]

That is a very nice rig you got there. Im just wondering but what do your temps run under load.

Im thinking about sticking with air cooling at least for now. If i decide to get a new case there are now several manufacturers that make cases that come with bigger fans (120mm) and some of them come with 4 and can have more added (like the CM Stacker and Antec 900/1200 series). But if i ever decide to water cool.....I will know who to talk to first.

Oh and also, what are the main differences between the 32bit and 64 bit besides the ram allocation? Will all 32 bit programs run on 64?

[Silencei2]

That is a very nice rig you got there. Im just wondering but what do your temps run under load.

Im thinking about sticking with air cooling at least for now. If i decide to get a new case there are now several manufacturers that make cases that come with bigger fans (120mm) and some of them come with 4 and can have more added (like the CM Stacker and Antec 900/1200 series). But if i ever decide to water cool.....I will know who to talk to first.

Oh and also, what are the main differences between the 32bit and 64 bit besides the ram allocation? Will all 32 bit programs run on 64?

Thanks!

Once you start getting into the newer processor/graphics card/motherboards you'll start seeing certain components hit 60+ degrees celsius. For example, my friend built the exact same computer with a QX6850, 4gb of RAM, same motherboard and a 4870 for graphics. On load, his graphics card would hit close to 90 degrees celsius. The mobo and CPU all end up around 60+. On load in my computer I rarely see it hit more than 50 degrees celsius. I also keep my graphics cards overclocked and they run stable whenever I play any 3d intensive games. You'll notice when you're playing a game on a newer graphics card that the fan will usually kick in and you'll start getting a wind tunnel noise in your computer. Same thing goes for the chipset fan and CPU fan.

As far as differences between 32bit and 64bit, there are a huge amount of changes under the skin. If you take a close look you'll see you have a 32bit and a 64bit Program Files folder, the registry has different paths and the way the OS works is a little different. I can't guarantee that all your 32bit programs will work, especially really old programs, but there is more and more support for 64bit processing since it is what's up and coming.

[MarineOne]

I'm an avid gamer and I build all my own systems. I guess after being in Information Technology for 18 years I'm picky about my computers.

The new Intel i7 is a really high end chip made for gaming, multi-tasking, etc., I can't see spending what Intel wants for it. When I build a system I look at two things: 1.) Can it be upgraded easily?, and 2.) How long will I be using it for?

Here's my systems specs and what I'm playing:

Asus M3A79-T Deluxe
(Note: this is a CrossFire board; SLI cards can't be supported due to limited power here in Iraq and I wasn't concerned about it.)
AMD Athlon X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2 GHz dual core with stock heatsink and fan
EVGA GTX-285 1GB PCI-Express x16 video card
2x 2GB Corsair Dominator DDR2-1066 (4GB total running at DDR2-800 due to CPU limitation)
2x Hitachi DeskStar 750GB 7K1000 SATA HDD
2x Samsung 20x DVD+/-R SATA DVD drive
SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1
XP Pro 64-bit
PC Power and Cooling 750 watt Active PFC PSU
CoolerMaster Centurion 5 case


Currently I'm playing Crysis, COD4, COD:World At War, and STALKER all at max game settings on a Samsung 206BW 20 inch widescreen. I haven't tweaked the nVidia drivers yet for better frame rates because I haven't needed to ..... I haven't seen anything below 40 FPS and the game play is really smooth.

I can't run SLI here because I would need at least a 1200 watt PSU for running two of the GTX-285 cards and I would melt the power distribution block in my living quarters. This single card is insane with a 1GB buffer and I highly recommend it.

I noticed you're running a single Sapphire (ATI) HD3870 video card. For Crysis, COD4, or any other new release you should be running something with more power, or running two of them. This is more of a entry level to mid-range card so you're gonna have some issues with game play. You really should look at the 4870 or switch to an nVidia card.


Kris

[Silencei2]

I used to like ASUS a lot but for my latest computer build I used eVGA just because it had what I was looking for. The new i7 Asus boards are supposed to be pretty good. I usually check reviews on HardOCP and AnandTech before I make a major electronics purchase. They usually have good reviews and comparisons you can use for reference.

As far as overclocking goes, I would rather not hassle with it. It takes a lot of time and patience to find where your computer is stable at. Another thing to consider is that Intel mobos are not to friendly towards overclocking either. A great overclocking mobo manufacturer to look at is DFI but if you were to go with a new mobo and cpu there would be no need.

Just checked in on Western Digitals website and they only have the 300gb model. I know on certain sites you can find OEM 150gb Velociraptors but I'd probably stick with the retail for the 5 year warranty.

If you like XP and you plan on getting more than 2gb of RAM go with the x64 version. I've been running it for a couple of years and haven't had too many troubles with it. Before that I was running Vista Ultimate x64 and had some problems here and there. There are pros and cons to both but overall I still like XP Pro x64 more.

[Kenyth]

Current rig is:

Case: Coolermaster Praetorian ATX Mid Tower
PSU: Corsair TX850W 850 watt (single 12v rail)
Mobo: Intel D955XBK LGA775 chipset
CPU: Pentium D 3Ghz (coolermaster cpu cooler with 120mm fan)
Mem: 2GB Kingston DDR2 667Mhz
GPU: Sapphire HD3870 Toxic edition
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Pro
Hard Drive: 2 Western Digital 500GB (1TB total)
DVD Drive: 2 LightScribe DVD+R drives

Don't over-invest in a power supply. This is a component where you need "enough". Excess capacity will do you no good.

CPU technology has finally outran the software. Multi-core is the future computing standard, but most current software doesn't take advantage of it. Anything running at 2.5Ghz or above should work fine.

If you're using Vista, might as well choke it up and buy 4GB of RAM. IT's cheap, and the processes will use it.

ATI makes a good GFX card. The 3800 is a bit dated though. The Nvidia GEforce seems to be the standard these days, so that's what I buy. IMHO, dual GFX cards have minimal bang for the buck on a standard size monitor. If you run a huge, high res. display monitor with dual inputs though, you need it. I don't know what you're using.

HDD arrays are one of the places you can get the biggest increase in overall speed peformance. Mechanical HDDs are slow, and the bigger they are, the slower they are. For maximum performance, use a SATA3 RAID array. Run your OS on a single small drive off the built in MOBO interface. Run your games/apps off four fast drives in a RAID 0+1 array (Mirrored striped sets). Striping doubles your potential Read/Write speed. Mirroring the striped sets doubles your read speed again in theory. Five drives is a lot and will take a big power supply, but quadrupling your drive read speed will really increase performance.

The sound card all depends on your sound system. Once again, don't buy an expensive sound card and run it to PC speakers. Link into a surround sound system or it's wasted functionality.

[pmp]

I just ditched my liquid cooling system and went air cooled again. I have a lian li aluminum chassis with 4 120 mm vantec stealth fans(my personal favorite for the level of quiet the provide).

The guts are outdated Asus mobo core 2 duo, nvidia 9800GT, 360gb SATA 2 RAID 0 and 4 gb Corsair DDR 667.

I run vista ultimate with all the bells and whistles as well as a local sql server instance, IIS, and a visual studio 2005 with infragistics, and 10 or 15 various debugging programs without a hiccup.

[daredog4]

I really hate that word. As i said in another post, my 3870 was the Top Of The Line card that ATI offered when i bought it six months ago. Now it is already outdated.....grrrr. I don't mind not having the latest and greatest but with the new software and games out there these days you just about have to have one of the best systems to get them to perform smoothly.

In a couple of months i will spend another 200 to 300 bucks on a Top Of The Line card, which will then be outdated in another six months.

I am starting to side with the guys that still have their computers from the stone age of computing. They were simple and you didn't have to upgrade every few months....lol

[MarineOne]

I prefer to use the term "legacy hardware" over outdated. It's not outdated hardware since it's really not that old, and to be honest for the purpose the hardware was designed for it's a great card. It's like trying to run a high end workstation or entry level server with a 300 watt power supply. Of course you can do it, but don't bitch and complain when you release the magic smoke.


-K

[mrtr33]

I haven't bought a new computer since May of 1998. It's not that I don't use them - obviously - I do jobs for people and pick up spare parts here and there. I don't have a super-pimped out system, but I get done what I need to get done.

I really want one of those new netbooks, though.

Now, if only I could fix cars the same way........

[Kenyth]

I really hate that word. As i said in another post, my 3870 was the Top Of The Line card that ATI offered when i bought it six months ago. Now it is already outdated.....grrrr. I don't mind not having the latest and greatest but with the new software and games out there these days you just about have to have one of the best systems to get them to perform smoothly.

In a couple of months i will spend another 200 to 300 bucks on a Top Of The Line card, which will then be outdated in another six months.

I am starting to side with the guys that still have their computers from the stone age of computing. They were simple and you didn't have to upgrade every few months....lol

I know what you mean. Video cards are the fast moving hardware bit these days. Back in the day, it was the processor that changed every six months. Before that, it was the memory (measured in MB or even KB) and software's ability to use it. You didn't even give the video card much thought until the Pentium era.

[ggiese]

Has anyone found a decent USB device that is a combined cigar cutter and lighting device? I've scoured eBay and it's a no go...

I would like the USB fan, though - it looks like it would do a wonderful job of keeping the smoke from hanging in front of my face while I'm surfing the net!!!

...is there an expansion for my RS Model I expansion interface that gives me a USB port?

[ggiese]

I know what you mean. Video cards are the fast moving hardware bit these days. Back in the day, it was the processor that changed every six months. Before that, it was the memory (measured in MB or even KB) and software's ability to use it. You didn't even give the video card much thought until the Pentium era.

I just did the upgrade on my RS Model I that allows for descending lower case letters. MAN - what a DIFFERENCE!!!

[fubulrup]

I'm very interested! I would love to find out more inforamtion related to this topic. Thanks in advance.
me too, I need more detailed info

[badwhale]

I'm very interested! I would love to find out more inforamtion related to this topic. Thanks in advance.
me too, I need more detailed info

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