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The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition
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Any Flaming Results in a Temp Ban or Worse. Your Choice!!!
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 18:02 |
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Originally posted by eparker89:
LOL, that's the one I was thinking of using after a bit of research, but figured I should ask anyway since I know next to nothing about defraging. Thanks for the advice oman7.
No prob buddy :)
@redice, Yah...people who come over literally drop their jaw LOL! The HAF is money WELL spent!!! I must admit, Before it showed up, I was wondering if I made a mistake! I dont regret it in the slightest!!!
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 18:47 |
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I was considering getting a HAF but I don't really like the lettering and pattern on the side. If it weren't so expensive I'd love to have one anodised. That said it has stacks of options regarding cooling, the side fan (and by the looks of it, the front one as well) can be replaced with four 120mm fans instead, which I think will do a better job, as the 230mm fans actually only have 190mm fins, which means at 700rpm they're limited to about 80-90CFM at best, not the 150 CM claim (and with almost dead silence, four S-Flexes at 1100-1200rpm could push that 150CFM).
The big bonus is that it's one of the cheapest full towers out there, certainly the cheapest high-end full tower I can see. Very tempted to click the buy button, but know I shouldn't...
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redice
Senior Member
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14. March 2009 @ 19:29 |
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omegaman7
lol well i am sure that i will have some jaw droppers as well
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kita24
Newbie
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14. March 2009 @ 19:50 |
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eparker, the motherboard is right out of the box, so fingers crossed all will be fine ; ] thanks for the advice!
Am hoping I can now run Azureus and Emule at the same time, both downloading to their dedicated 1 Terrabyte HDs, should be enough to fire and forget for a month at a time...
Becoming maniacs is the idea - Takeda Yuzo
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 21:48 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
I was considering getting a HAF but I don't really like the lettering and pattern on the side. If it weren't so expensive I'd love to have one anodised. That said it has stacks of options regarding cooling, the side fan (and by the looks of it, the front one as well) can be replaced with four 120mm fans instead, which I think will do a better job, as the 230mm fans actually only have 190mm fins, which means at 700rpm they're limited to about 80-90CFM at best, not the 150 CM claim (and with almost dead silence, four S-Flexes at 1100-1200rpm could push that 150CFM).
The big bonus is that it's one of the cheapest full towers out there, certainly the cheapest high-end full tower I can see. Very tempted to click the buy button, but know I shouldn't...
Yah...I was STRONGLY considering that myself. Noise is of no consequence to me :) The computer does ALOT for me, so I dont mind giving it the, "Royal Treatment!" Besides, more than anything, I LOVE experimentation!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14. March 2009 @ 21:48
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 23:13 |
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OMG!!!I may appear somewhat silly to some of you, but my computer just blew my mind!!! I just installed Grand theft auto: San Andreas(paid for it), via backed up ISO image, from My Raptor Drive to my Sata WD 500GB AAKS drive in under 3 min! The two drives seem to keep up well with each other(The FALS is about the same). I was also running nero Showtime!!! Though showtime only averages 1% cpu usage! The install only used one core! Both my drives and processor just blew my mind away :D And the i7 is even quicker? Man o man!!! I imagine GTA IV will require a little more however! I'll be picking that one up REAL soon!
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 23:16 |
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GTA 4 whores CPUs like you wouldn't believe, because unlike most games the CPU renders the majority of the graphics effects, not the graphics card.
Just took the plunge and ordered a HAF, should be here tuesday. I refuse to abandon my old case though, eventually I intend to try and build a silent main system to use for desktop, light games (the ones that don't really work with crossfire, or remotely need it) to cut the power consumption, and to have a system to drag around more easily than the 15kg heffalump that is the HAF. That will have to wait until I've sold my remaining surplus stuff though. I'm dirt broke at the moment, as I have a 1KW Corsair HX, an X38-DS4 and X48-DS5 I will need to get shot of!
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14. March 2009 @ 23:20
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 23:20 |
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Yah...thats what I heard. I heard about something called securerom on it as well! And that it installs very undesirable...Garbage!!! Its almost tempting to wait for...eh hem, a different version!
Mmmm, I think the install was soo quick because there really wasnt that much decompression to do.
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14. March 2009 @ 23:22
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 23:20 |
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A different version?
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 23:23 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
A different version?
Ummm...eh hem, a better version ;)
I updated post above
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14. March 2009 @ 23:23
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 23:25 |
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If you mean pirated version, the game was cracked the day it was released with good success.
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 23:26 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
If you mean pirated version, the game was cracked the day it was released with good success.
Well...I wouldnt have put it that way but...:O
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 23:31 |
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Is that the flame symbol from Speedfan in your sig?
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 23:37 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
Is that the flame symbol from Speedfan in your sig?
As a matter a fact. I thought I would spice up the sig a little! :D Thats not some form of infringement is it. If so, I shall have to find a new flame!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
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redice
Senior Member
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14. March 2009 @ 23:45 |
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OM7 and Sam
well it looks like we are trying start a small HAF club
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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14. March 2009 @ 23:49 |
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Originally posted by redice:
OM7 and Sam
well it looks like we are trying start a small HAF club
I see nothing wrong with that :D The HAF is nothing short of amazing!!!
Sam, if you have the money, and the painting skills? LOL BUY IT! But then, I believe your several steps ahead of me in the computer realm! So im sure you have something in mind :)
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
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redice
Senior Member
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15. March 2009 @ 00:00 |
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OM7
if you were telling sam to buy it he already has. see below.
Originally posted by sammorris:
Just took the plunge and ordered a HAF, should be here tuesday.
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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15. March 2009 @ 00:09 |
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He wont regret it. Atleast in its performance. The looks may be a different story. Myself I love its Gothic appeal LOL. Though I think i'll give the front fan an ultraviolet look :D
I love speedfan alot. I will not insult them by steeling their flame. I found a new one, and sized it appropriately!
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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15. March 2009 @ 04:42 |
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Hey guys, omegaman and sam. I never come over here - but just this one time ......
MY NEW LAPTOP
I'm on my new laptop from Microcenter. Unbelievable value - $275 for a refurbished laptop that sold originally for $1900. No Vista bloatware - XP Professional just like on all my desktops, and 1.6 ghz - fast enough for my business applications and internet surfing.
SAM'S NEW HAF
Anyway, on the laptop, I just upgraded it to IE7 with tabs, but I don't have my bookmarks and I can't find the official graphics card thread - well it's late and I'm tired (and freezing in the house - not in my toasty warm heated trailer-office, lol). But I see that here on the builder thread - or is this the overclocking thread - you guys are talking cases - and Sam is looking at a HAF, but is DEAD BROKE, having gone through two months of dual 4870x2 hell.
The dead broke part is kind of funny, but the 4870x2 hell is not - tremendous tenacity trying to get the thing to run stable. Maddening frustration!
MY NEW SPEDO!!
Anyway, this post is about the case trade I just made today at Microcenter. I took my Antec 1200 back and traded for a Thermaltake Spedo. Don't laugh! - it's the only case they had at the Tustin store, other than the Antec 900 2, that had more than 7 expansion slots, and I was 35 days into my 1200 case and when I read the receipt for the first time last night I saw that they don't allow exchanges after 30 days.
So I told myself, after staying up doing research following Sam's earthshaking news, that I would just have to sell the thing on ebay. But I took a chance this afternoon - dressed up a bit - and the guy was sympathetic when I told him I had to do a case trade.
And then when I went back inside later to look around, I told them that I had been looking for a while at their refurbished Dell 610s, except that the specs show no wireless. The one salesman there said - "Oh it's got it for sure" - and they dug deeper past the public specs and came up with a G built-in wireless card.
And now I'm as broke as Sam!! And eating peanut butter and jelly - that was my grocery money, hahaha.
Anyway, Sam, after that shocking news yesterday about your temporary retreat from dual 4870x2, I went around the web until 4:00 this morning, and found only a couple of people who were running it stable. From what I could tell, it seemed that every one of them was on the Rampage II Extreme x58 (also several dual 295s on the same mobo) - and in one case where the guy posted pictures it is obvious that he was running the second sapphire in the 7th slot (which is 8x by the way, not 16x, I read the manual to be sure.) (Speaking of that picture - all of a sudden I am seeing A LOT of copper - LOOK AT IT - where the hell did all that goddamn copper come from? There is so much copper there it is waking me up!! The Rampage Extreme II x58 Motherboard has muted, cool, stylish, blue and gray, race car, Republic of Gamers ROG colors. Right? But just look at all those sinks that crazy canuck plastered all over the board! WTF!!! I guess he wasn't taking any chances on chipset overheating!! So I guess I'll have to do the same damn thing lol. Also, I see he's using Patriot memory - I better do the same.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 
I HAD been happily thinking about the Asus P6T Deluxe, beautiful solid $300 board, $100 cheaper. But nothing succeeds like success. Virtually all of the dual 4870x2 stable systems that I came across were using that Rampage Extreme board. So the more I thought about it, after the frustration you went through, Sam, the more I started telling myself I had to get a case that would let me use slot 7 of that motherboard, if that's the only way to make those damn 4870x2 cards run stable!
On my former Antec 1200 case, putting a card in slot 7, there'd be some holes that would have to be drilled, otherwise the Radeon is trying to exhale through solid metal! I wasn't put off by the idea of doing some drilling, but it looked like it would really be ugly - the slots are set back into the case a bit - I didn't think it would turn out as well as some of the case drilling fan mods I have done.
(I think they really messed up on that 1200 - on the little 900 version 2 - they DO have the 8 expansion slots! I was also tempted to buy that, but researching it on newegg a guy said that to get to one of the front fan filters, you had to remove both side panels, and one of the hard drive bays - about 20 screws. To hell with that!)
The spedo design talk really plays up your compartmentalization ideas, Sam. Also the only spedo they had was not the advanced version with the huge 230mm fans, it was the basic version with the 120/140mm fans, so I was interested in seeing you say, Sam, a couple posts up, that you would just as soon work with 120mm fans rather than those 200/230mm monsters. It's funny but I started telling myself the same thing - does one really need those giant fans - is it really just more of a marketing gimmick than anything else, epeen as the late shaff would say? "Look at this big ol f**king fan!" LOL
Anyway, that's where I am with the new build - I have a Spedo case that can take a Rampage and I can run a second 4870x2 card in slot 7 for stability (even if I lose some scaling). I can add fans all I want and tune the airflow for the graphics compartment, and for the cpu compartment.
I told the guy at Microcenter about the 8x limitation of slot 7. He agreed with me - "Sure, run the second card in slot 7, then after you make sure the system is stable - you can play for hours with no crashes, then one day slip the card in slot 5 for full 16x bandwidth, and see if the crysis benchmark shows better numbers."
If, as suspected, the 8x is a bottleneck and the numbers really improve with the cards right next to each other in slots 3 and 5, then, since probably not even the arctic coolers would work with no spacing at all, that might mean a water cooling gpu solution.
Which is interesting, because over at Microcenter, I wandered by a big aisle end-cap labelled DD Den - and there was large big box with a "4870x2" on it, a nice waterblock - reminded me of permanently banned Shaffaaf, and of our old friend Waymon. The nice guy who saw me handling that 4870x2 waterblock box, and who asked if he could help me, turned out to know even less about watercooling than I do, lol, but he was helpful at taking me over to the system department and getting me sold on this laptop, hahaha.
Well, good night you guys - I'll be back over on the graphics thread tomorrow or the next day Sam - see you Omegaman (and Russ and Greeny.)
Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
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15. March 2009 @ 06:04 |
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harvrdguy,
Quote:
But just look at all those sinks that crazy canuck plastered all over the board! WTF!!! I guess he wasn't taking any chances on chipset overheating!!
I can't say I much care for all that continuous copper like that. It looks cool, but the best thing I've found yet is these from Enzotech! They will do a much better job, believe me! The others look pretty, but they have so little sticking up into any airflow, that they run hotter!
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/memandvidcar.html
Made of Pure Forged Copper, with all round edges, there's very little decrease in airflow through them. Check out that link and you will see what I mean.
BTW, did you notice in your pic the cooler to the R of the CPU cooler? I don't think I've ever seen a memory cooler so big in my life! LOL!! It's larger than some CPU coolers! ROFL!!
Best Regards,
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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15. March 2009 @ 09:13 |
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The heatsinks on the Rampage and Rampage II are beef. The Maximus II I'm grabbing off Shaff (I got hold of him eventually) isn't quite so large in the middle, but has more heatsink in other places, hopefully enough to do the job. Even if it doesn't, Thermalright stuff works with the M2F where it wouldn't with the DS5. though I say works, it's still not ideal, one of the MOSFET sets requires a modification to the HR-09, and the PCIe chip normally covered by the slab of an SB cooler isn't touched, but hey, I'll figure that out later. We'll see if the stock cooling works first. If all else, it's big enough to attach a fan in various places.
So you say there are people using Quad CF in a board where the second slot runs at 8x? Interesting. I will have to let you know how the dual X2s perform with an 8x pair. I couldn't say how much the performance changes.
The big fans, with the exception of the Antec Big Boy, are all gimmicks. They all either spin at a pointlessly low speed, such that a 140mm fan would do the job just as well and just as quietly, or they're flawed in design, much like the HAF fans, with their 230mm frame and 190mm blades. At 700rpm, that means they put out a lot less air than a big boy, and more importantly, less than a pair of quiet 120s, let alone four. I'll try them out as the overall airflow and pressure will probably be better with a single 230mm fan at low noise, but when you turn the speed up a bit on a block of 120s, I'm fairly certain the big fan will be flattened.
Russ, I think that's a Thermalright HR-05 and it's awesome. Mind you, 'biggest memory cooler I've ever seen' is what I get just for having Dominators, so there's not much of a precedent in that field...
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redice
Senior Member
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15. March 2009 @ 14:13 |
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Sam
did Shaff build his new computer a couple months back. can i ask why is he now parting it out? Is he going to build a i7 build or something?
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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15. March 2009 @ 17:38 |
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Basically, he came to his senses after the novelty wore off, he has a really expensive PC for no good reason, and wants more portability, so he's going to go for a laptop instead.
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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15. March 2009 @ 17:55 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
Basically, he came to his senses after the novelty wore off, he has a really expensive PC for no good reason, and wants more portability, so he's going to go for a laptop instead.
Its a shame laptops are not as customizable as towers. Perhaps building one custom, has been figured to be more expensive than buying one built by, HP, Dell, $ony, Etc. Beats me! LOL
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redice
Senior Member
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15. March 2009 @ 19:13 |
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sam
o ok i understand now.
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