I finally built a new system!

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited January 2009 in Hardware
After the recent problems with my older Abit NF-7 system when I put in a 3850 GPU, I finally had enough. It's been a great PC for over 5-1/2 years, but it's time to upgrade!

:celebrate

So after about 4 hours on Newegg and Tiger Direct, and reading reviews here and elsewhere about the parts, I assembled a new computer.

Parts list:

Coolermaster Centurion 5 blue trim mid-tower case
OCZ GameXStream 700 watt power supply
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R motherboard
Intel C2D E7300 2.66 Ghz cpu
4 GB (2GB x 2) of Corsair XMS2 PC8500 RAM
Samsung DVD burner (SATA, to keep the IDE channel free for my 2nd hard drive)
Visiontek / Radeon 4870 graphics card
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 500 GB hard drive
Noctua NH-U9B cpu cooler

I'll add in my older 7200.10 250 GB Seagate hard drive as a secondary, it'll use the IDE channel.

And it's getting XP Home loaded up right now!

I'm making a 30 GB operating system partition on the 500 GB hard drive. I was thinking of trying the Windows 7 64 bit beta on it, but I think finding drivers would be tough.

I'd like to OC the cpu to around 2.8 to 3.0 . Nothing huge, just warm it up a little.

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    It won't be hard. Use Vista 64 drivers.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Welcome to the future Tim! That system should serve you well for quite a while. Good choices on the hardware.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    I ran the new PC through benchmarks of 3DMark05 and 06 last night.

    3DMark05:

    16243 3d marks
    8829 cpu marks

    3DMark06:

    11497 3dmarks
    sm 2.0 5100
    sm 3.0 6039
    cpu 2314

    A lot better than the old computer!:vimp:
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited January 2009
    How does it feel compared to your old system? Does everything seem snappier?
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Oh yes, it feels a bit quicker, and the graphics in WoW are WAY better.:rockon: I was able to crank the shader effects all the way up (from being all the way down), and can still get frame rates in the 20's even when running around in Dalaran, which lags worse than Shattrath City ever did.

    Only real quirk so far is that the screen will just turn black all over now and then. It'll blink to black and return to what I was looking at seemingly at random. It happens in WoW, while on the internet, even when nothing is being done.

    I think it's a driver issue, I started with the 4870's 8.6 driver CD, then went to the 8.12 drivers, now I'm on the 8.10's with no differences.

    I read somewhere it's a hardware issue, some monitors are not on the approved compatibility list or some BS like that. Mine is a Syncmaster 204B.

    I was looking in the ATI CCC wizard for the 4870, and saw it idling at 76* C when doing nothing! The fan was set to run at 18% speed from the factory!

    I turned it up to 33% and the temps dropped to around 52* C. When playing WoW, I'd alt-tab out and see temps in the mid 50's. I tried it at higher speeds but they didn't show much temperature drop, and at anything over 33% the fan starts to get louder.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    That's a smart, well-balanced hardware configuration. You'll enjoy that machine for a long time to come.
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