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The (new) Official PC building thread!
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He_Man
Senior Member
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3. December 2007 @ 18:03 |
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Originally posted by sammorris: Interestingly enough, the HD3870 already performs about the same in Crysis. The benchmarks only show otherwise because the drivers for the 8800GT can recognise Crysis.exe and force down the quality of the output, giving an artificually higher frame rate. Rename Crysis.exe to anything else and the fps will go down, but the image quality will go up.
O RLY?
I really just want the 3870 to pump out on Gears, Crysis.
The newest drivers will help.
P.S - Hoping to get my mum to purchase the case,psu tommorow.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 3. December 2007 @ 18:04
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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3. December 2007 @ 19:35 |
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YAH RLY.
Crysis you'll still have to settle for a few settings turned down, but I wouldn't be surprised if the HD3870 could max out UT3 at at least 2048x1536, if not 2560x1600.
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AfterDawn Addict
2 product reviews
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3. December 2007 @ 19:40 |
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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3. December 2007 @ 20:24 |
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Haha nice, but it's not the original. That was an owl, for reasons unknown to me.
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AfterDawn Addict
2 product reviews
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3. December 2007 @ 20:35 |
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I know, but it's overused.
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kita24
Newbie
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4. December 2007 @ 00:04 |
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Hello everyone! I wonder if I could pick your brains for a bit?
I have been building pcs by cannibalising parts from other machines and building from ground up for just over a decade now.
My current deck is made from the bits I brought over to blighty from my machine in Japan, when Pentium 4 was all the rage, back in January 2003.
I rebuilt it in a Lian Li case (whose build quality I thought was crap) and a cheap and nasty (£50) generic power supply were the bits I sourced in the UK as I was broke at the time.
Well, the case has gone all rattly, the fans are giving out, the PSU gives off a disturbing click sometimes, occasionally resulting in the deck shutting down..
So I splashed out today on this PSU:
Corsair 620W HX Series Modular SLi Powersupply, ATX, EPS 12V, whisper quiet
And a Coolermaster Cosmos case.
Both had good reviews both in online and printed reviews, plus the PSU does come with a 5 year guarantee which is reassuring. I chose the case as there's lots of space in there, liked the idea of it being tidy: http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5851/dsc00486lq2.jpg and the overall design. Plus it looks strong enough that if we move to Japan again I think it will survive the journey in one piece!
My questions are, if someone could be kind enough to help...
My CPU is still a Pentium 4 2.4 gig and I really want to update the cooler on it, could someone please make some suggestions on what is available in the UK and the best one to get?
Also Windows XP pro could not see my 200 gig hard discs and so I bought a Promise ATA 100 controller card, and Windows saw the full size. I would like to get some 500 Gig Seagate drives, but am not sure if either the controller or Windows would be able to see their full size, could anyone offer some advice on this?
I know you can get dual or quad cores for under £200 or so, but all I cannot afford anything else, I thought the PSU and case were most important so bought ones I reckoned would last me a good 5 years or so then upgrade if some spare cash becomes available in the future..
This machine is used for running emule almost all of the time, and I plan to use it for converting some home movies from a NTSC analogue camcorder soon, that's why I want a couple of bigger hard discs, one for p2p and a separate one for the videos cos I know p2p really chews up the platters!
Thanks for reading, and greets to Creaky who helped me out a year or more ago in choosing the right media, I really appreciate that!
I hope my post wasn't too long or boring... -=^..^=-
Becoming maniacs is the idea - Takeda Yuzo
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AfterDawn Addict
2 product reviews
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4. December 2007 @ 00:23 |
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Nice PSU, and case.
I think your P4 is a LGA 775, so an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro will work fine for you.
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AfterDawn Addict
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4. December 2007 @ 00:40 |
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That Cosmos is very nice.... and I would just love to work inside one after working on three smallish midtowers.
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kita24
Newbie
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4. December 2007 @ 00:40 |
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Hi Abuzar1, thanks for the reply!
According to hardware monitor, the cpu is:
Intel Pentium 4 Northwood and its on an AX4G pro motherboard, does that help any?
I tried to get the best I could on my modest budget ; ]
Becoming maniacs is the idea - Takeda Yuzo
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AfterDawn Addict
2 product reviews
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4. December 2007 @ 00:43 |
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kita24
Newbie
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4. December 2007 @ 00:46 |
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Fasfrank, yeah it really is a beast! I did see some reviewers saying the HDS weren't as cool as they expected, but I plan on putting the extra fans in the case Coolermaster say you can which I reckon should solve that problem.
Abuzar1, cheers for that link, I am in the United Kingdom so hopefully that cooler is on sale here, much appreciated!
Becoming maniacs is the idea - Takeda Yuzo
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Senior Member
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4. December 2007 @ 00:50 |
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Quote: My current deck is made from the bits I brought over to blighty from my machine in Japan, when Pentium 4 was all the rage, back in January 2003
2003...That would be a little early for a 775...LOL..:) It should be a socket 478...
Look at these...The Zalman Flower Design's are what I would look at...It's not worth investing to much in this old of a system...
http://www.svc.com/penivcool.html
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kita24
Newbie
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4. December 2007 @ 00:51 |
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Hmmm no results from Google, hopefully some kind soul in the UK could make some suggestions?
Becoming maniacs is the idea - Takeda Yuzo
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kita24
Newbie
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4. December 2007 @ 00:58 |
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Hmm several UK sites say the Zalman flower doesn't do such a good job of keeping CPU temperature down...
My typical temperatures are: Case 26-8 CPU 29-32 neither of them ever seem to go over 40 unless I`m ripping a full dvd then the max seems to be 39-42 for the CPU....
I want to replace the CPU fan as it's been in use for 4 years now and I can't afford to replace the motherboard/CPU and RAM...
Becoming maniacs is the idea - Takeda Yuzo
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AfterDawn Addict
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4. December 2007 @ 01:08 |
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Those temps are fine. A clean stock cooler is all you need unless you are overclocking.
I cleaned out a 2002 HP Celeron 1.2 PC yesterday. I made the mistake of blowing out the CPU cooler with some canned air. It made a small mushroom cloud of toxic dirt and dog hair in the middle of my office. I still have a layer over my monitors other PCs and everything else.
It was running a bit hot before, up around 60C or so. Now it's about the same as yours.
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AfterDawn Addict
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4. December 2007 @ 01:09 |
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Originally posted by kita24: Hmmm no results from Google, hopefully some kind soul in the UK could make some suggestions?
NOT from the UK but maybe this will help. :) link....
...gm
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Senior Member
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4. December 2007 @ 02:46 |
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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4. December 2007 @ 04:50 |
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Hehe, Emule, I remember that. Still going strong is it?
You did well in getting a decent PSU and case first, not many people are that sensible, they buy all their parts and then run out of money for the PSU, think 'a cheap one will do' and then the whole lot gets toasted, leaving them broke.
Windows should recognise the full size of any hard disk as long as you have the service packs installed.
As for the cooler, I used one of these for a SKT939 dual core AMD, it cooled quite well.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/91815
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He_Man
Senior Member
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4. December 2007 @ 08:12 |
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My mum was getting a loan to buy a car and i thought id ask her to scale down on the cars specs and let me get a better PC, unfortunately the bank was not so cooperative,

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 4. December 2007 @ 08:12
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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4. December 2007 @ 08:56 |
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Oh dear lord, Caturday has found its way onto afterdawn! I thought these two things were at pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum!
Since we're in the PC building thread...

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AfterDawn Addict
2 product reviews
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4. December 2007 @ 09:22 |
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Wait I'll post one with chicks soon. They are much cuter anyway.
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He_Man
Senior Member
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4. December 2007 @ 12:04 |
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Just confirmation, that Antec Ultimate gamers case means that my 3870 will occupy 2 ports at the back?
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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4. December 2007 @ 12:10 |
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That's true of any case.
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He_Man
Senior Member
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4. December 2007 @ 12:18 |
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Originally posted by sammorris: That's true of any case.

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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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4. December 2007 @ 12:35 |
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Well, hat's off that's probably the biggest Owl medley I've ever seen. Not exactly on topic though, eh?
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