Just Built New rig, give me oppinions before I cant return anything after first 30dys

jdc0589 · Aug 17, 2007, 09:34 PM

Alright, I just put a new rig together, it was my first build and everything went very smoothly. I am very happy with all the components, but want to make sure everything looks good to people with more experiance than myself.

The goal here is for the system to be pretty future proof, the only component I Can see myself switching out within a year or so is the ram and maybe gaphics gard if the next gen units are smaller, better, and cheaper like they the rumors suggest (doubtful).

I am thinking about upgrading all the case fans. Thinking about these artic cooling units, 120mm and 80mm; let me know what you think, I dont want really loud fans, but I dont want to sacrafice all functionality. If there is anything that flows better but isnt really loud, im open to suggestions.

Here are the full specs:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 @ 3.0Ghz with Artic Silver CMQ-22G
CPU Cooler:Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
GPU: EVGA 8800GTX
HDD's: Western Digital Caviar SE16 250gb 7200rpm ( two drives in RAID 0), and an old 250gb single drive from my old dell system as a backup/storage drive.
Case: Lian-Li PC60 PlusII (black)
PSU: Silverstone SST-ST60F 600w (modular)
RAM: 2GB Patriot Extreme DDR2 800 (may get an extra 1-2gb)
Optical Drive: Lite-On SATA dvd-rw drive (lightscribe)
Cooling: Case has 1x120mm intake in the front (right in front of HDD cage), 1x120mm intake on the side right next to card slots on mobo, and an 80mm intake that lines up with the intake side of my CPU Cooler, 1x80mm exhaust on top of the case at the rear of the PSU, and Im using an antec exhaust fan that takes up two pci bays, similar to this, but flows 38cfm.

**ChaosMinionX** · Aug 17, 2007, 09:47 PM

Looks like a solid build, but I would have gone quad since your only doing that 6850 at 3ghz

jdc0589 · Aug 17, 2007, 10:48 PM

It was a really hard decision between the 6850 and the q6600. In the end, the 6600 produces alot more heat, and is only going to really offer better performance in one application I use alot, photoshop. Games are only starting to fully take advantage of dual core processors, much less quads (yes I know alan awake is supposed to be optimized for quad cores). Maybe I made a mistake, but the ONLY quad core I was thinking about was the 6600. Concidering prices will only come down, I will have no problem stepping up to a quad in a year or two if its necessar; $300 for a new processor beats the hell out of upgrading the GPU

On a side note, how do you like the hd2900xt? I ran a 9800xt for three years and was really happy with it. From what I have heard, it does pretty well but is surpassed by the gtx and ultra. I may just be imagining it, but when I turned all the settings up to the max on a few games with the 9800xt obviously it looked great and was unplayable, and while the gtx runs flawlessly, I feel like the 3d quality isnt as good with dx9 games (especially in cs;source, but I have heard about some problem with the drivers for the source engine). On the other hand, the dx10 demo for lost planet looks AMAZING on the 8800gtx, so I have a feeling its just driver issues that will be resolved. Has anyone else experianced this?

MrSpock2002 · Aug 28, 2007, 01:35 PM

That build looks great. It was wise to upgrade the CPU cooling fan from the stock Intel one. The 8800 is a good card, but I would have stuck with ATI, as their drivers are the best, some may say otherwise, but most will agree. Up until a month or two ago, Nvids drivers were over a year old and still in beta (drivers for a 7900GS). Infact MS had to change some of the DX10 coding to help Nvid make a compatible DX10 card, where as ATI had already achieved it.

It looks like a solid machine though.

jdc0589 · Aug 28, 2007, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSpock2002

That build looks great. It was wise to upgrade the CPU cooling fan from the stock Intel one. The 8800 is a good card, but I would have stuck with ATI, as their drivers are the best, some may say otherwise, but most will agree. Up until a month or two ago, Nvids drivers were over a year old and still in beta (drivers for a 7900GS). Infact MS had to change some of the DX10 coding to help Nvid make a compatible DX10 card, where as ATI had already achieved it.

It looks like a solid machine though.

Thanks. I have been running a 9800xt in my old machine for about 3 years. I kind of which I had gone with the 2900xt, but decided on the 8800 due to the lower power consumption, more efficient/quieter fan, and slightly better performance. But, I agree they are not the greatest with drivers, will take a good bit before getting a driver that optimizes the card.

CDsDontBurn · Aug 28, 2007, 05:33 PM

looks like an awesome build. you've made me jealous!

MrSpock2002 · Aug 28, 2007, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

looks like an awesome build. you've made me jealous!

Your Prescott core makes me Jealous... I miss mine. The EE was damn nice in it's day.

CDsDontBurn · Aug 28, 2007, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSpock2002

Your Prescott core makes me Jealous... I miss mine. The EE was damn nice in it's day.

why man? i'm still on socket 478! lol. i'm sure you can probably put in at least an 800 series CPU in your HP MoBo. even your 600 series CPU is a much more efficient and powerful processor than my s478 scottie.

MrSpock2002 · Aug 28, 2007, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

why man? i'm still on socket 478! lol. i'm sure you can probably put in at least an 800 series CPU in your HP MoBo. even your 600 series CPU is a much more efficient and powerful processor than my s478 scottie.

Yeah I thought about upgrading it.. Then said fuck it. I loved my s478 back in the day - before I parted it out to move to Norway...