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It's almost done!
Sanfam
I like clocks.
in Zocalo v2.0
Yes, yes. The computer is almost complete. Everything is so close to being complete.
Here's the final tally of components:
[ul]
[LIST]
[*]Antec P182 w/ Seasonic PSU of sufficient (but not memorable) wattage
[*]Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P
[*]Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
[*]Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B w/ SCURK1 backplate
[*]2gb GeiL DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 RAM
[*]MSI 8800GT, 512MB
[*]Hitachi Ultrastar 750gb (It was a better deal)
[*]USB External DVD Burner for installation and most near-term use.
[/LIST]
A short term into the future, I'm going to be adding a SATA DVD burner and both a modern keyboard (Logitech G15 Rev.2) and modern mouse (Logitech G5). Once I receive the remainder of the pile of parts, I'll have a selection of three operating systems to choose from. My minimum requirement is having both Windows XP SP2 and MacOS 10.5.2 in a dual-boot configuration. I may also soon acquire an X-Fi from a friend and, upon the release of the conversion software, an 8500GT or 8600GT for use as a physics accelerator.
Total cost as configured in the list, just under $1200. Not too bad, but I think I probably could have saved a bit more by shopping with more care. With future components factored in, I'm probably looking at just about $1450 in total expenses to compete the package. I'll post pictures up once everything arrives and assembly begins.
I also need to go out and get some alternative LEDs to swap into the P182. the power LED, to my disappointment, is blue. White seems like it would look classy and given the size, be more than sufficient without being stupidly bright.
I do find it amusing that I have purchased a fairly large case with a good number of 5.25" drive bays but have nothing in them. :p I'll eventually acquire a 3.5" card reader of some sort, but I wish to find a model which allows for MicroSD without adapters (Suggestions?). And if I like it, I may get a breakout box for the X-Fi.
Once the system has proven itself stable for a while, I plan to expand its capabilities through overclocking. Likely a parent is going to inherit the memory as I upgrade to 4gb of DDR2 1066 and bump up the bus speeds a little bit. Bare minimum I hope to get is 3.0ghz per core, but depending on my success I may push as high as 3.2ghz.
So why did I build this? Supreme Commander! And probably some other games, too. But mostly to rock at supreme commander in massive 4v4 games on 80km maps. And maybe some Crysis.
Pics soon.
Here's the final tally of components:
[ul]
[LIST]
[*]Antec P182 w/ Seasonic PSU of sufficient (but not memorable) wattage
[*]Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P
[*]Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
[*]Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B w/ SCURK1 backplate
[*]2gb GeiL DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 RAM
[*]MSI 8800GT, 512MB
[*]Hitachi Ultrastar 750gb (It was a better deal)
[*]USB External DVD Burner for installation and most near-term use.
[/LIST]
A short term into the future, I'm going to be adding a SATA DVD burner and both a modern keyboard (Logitech G15 Rev.2) and modern mouse (Logitech G5). Once I receive the remainder of the pile of parts, I'll have a selection of three operating systems to choose from. My minimum requirement is having both Windows XP SP2 and MacOS 10.5.2 in a dual-boot configuration. I may also soon acquire an X-Fi from a friend and, upon the release of the conversion software, an 8500GT or 8600GT for use as a physics accelerator.
Total cost as configured in the list, just under $1200. Not too bad, but I think I probably could have saved a bit more by shopping with more care. With future components factored in, I'm probably looking at just about $1450 in total expenses to compete the package. I'll post pictures up once everything arrives and assembly begins.
I also need to go out and get some alternative LEDs to swap into the P182. the power LED, to my disappointment, is blue. White seems like it would look classy and given the size, be more than sufficient without being stupidly bright.
I do find it amusing that I have purchased a fairly large case with a good number of 5.25" drive bays but have nothing in them. :p I'll eventually acquire a 3.5" card reader of some sort, but I wish to find a model which allows for MicroSD without adapters (Suggestions?). And if I like it, I may get a breakout box for the X-Fi.
Once the system has proven itself stable for a while, I plan to expand its capabilities through overclocking. Likely a parent is going to inherit the memory as I upgrade to 4gb of DDR2 1066 and bump up the bus speeds a little bit. Bare minimum I hope to get is 3.0ghz per core, but depending on my success I may push as high as 3.2ghz.
So why did I build this? Supreme Commander! And probably some other games, too. But mostly to rock at supreme commander in massive 4v4 games on 80km maps. And maybe some Crysis.
Pics soon.
Comments
$44 shipped doesn't leave much room for genuine negatives when it comes to two gigs of memory. :p Also was the reason I was leaning toward 800. Most of my games aren't terribly memory intensive (beyond utilizing huge chunks, that is). I doubted I'd notice much of any performance gained by choosing a faster speed given that 800 appears to be a relatively good price/performance region.
I'd also like to clarify that in the upgrade path, I had mentioned a plan to get DDR2 1066 for the future. This is mainly for offering a slightly greater range of overclocking potential if the current pair doesn't hold up well to my performance enhancements ;) shouldn't be a huge issue, though. mmm...asynchronous memory clock...
I intend to adapt some smaller bits of plastic to form ducts for the p182 case fans to pull air through while running the CPU [I]technically[/I] fanless before I overclock.
Heh heh! :D
Also, a sad note: My PSU has intense PFC/coil whine. It's a bit of a bummer and may lead to me returning and exchanging it for something else in the next few days. Corsair 520HX, here I come?
Also, it does seem as if I do need to re-apply my TIM. It's getting a little more toasty than it should, so I suspect an air pocket formed between one of the two different layers.
Gave it a good couple rounds of short-term testing and a quick overclock to 3.0ghz and properly set the timings on the memory. Currently running as stable as ever at 1.280v and idles cool. Load temps are within safe limits, but I'd prefer lower and will re-apply if the burn-in process will allow me. first cycle was completed earlier and I'm beginning to see some evening of the core temps (which I suspect is as much as I'll ever see). One week and I'll determine if I need/want to re-apply.
I'm pulling in 13,810 3DMarks right now (Up from 12,600ish at factory clock and timings), which I honestly don't know who or what to compare against, so it's fairly arbitrary to me.
True, in screen shots that looks like "ZOMG TEH EVILS VISTA IS USING 2 GIGZORZ AT IDLE!" when in actuality, the memory is a cache which can be overwritten at a moment's notice if an intensive process (such as a game) requires it.
[URL="http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMwNiw3LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA=="]The current prime example of the problem[/URL]. And here's [URL="http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/page4.html#3d_games"]another wonderful example[/URL] of trouble. (Yes, I do understand that some of these were done with earlier drivers that werent' properly optimized for Vista, but the latest benchmarks don't show much improvement)
And SuperFetch hasn't had too many benchmarks show it is actually performing a beneficial task. Superfetch aside, In almost every single case, Vista chimes in with lower synthetic and real-world scores.
And regarding 4gb of memory, given that a 32-bit OS won't register more than 3.25gb (per addressing limitations), it doesn't matter much. The biggest reason why I'd like that much memory is to enable me to not only game, but perform other background tasks as well. I do not want to stop everything I am doing and close down each and every task just so I can free up enough memory to play a game. (I am, however, only running 2GB at present)
The bloat is there, but not entirely in memory consumption. It's in the complete waste of system resources that is Aero. It's the massive UI elements, it's the incredible number of services running and the minimum requirements to prevent a system from being sluggish. Even Windows XP could run on a system that wasn't necessarily fast. I have it (admittedly, barely, due to insufficient RAM) functioning on a Crusoe 5600-based machine with 112mb of memory and it is suited for the basic tasks I tend to use it for. Keep in mind that this is barely even enough for 2000 and just enough for 98. Vista is a whale of an OS with *nothing* in it that even remotely tempts me.
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7270757.stm[/url]