New Computer

[Duck Man]

My new computer is taking shape! I spent almost 1500 bucks on new egg on a new cpu, mobo, sound card, heatsink, headset, and memory. Waiting on the memory and fans. They are being slow in the mail. Anyways here are the specs:

• Intel Core i7 950 3.06 ghz quad core with HT
• Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R with SATA3 and USB3
• PCI-E Creative Sounblaster X-Fi Extreme thing (black one with the front panel thing)
• Thermalright TRUE Black 120Rev.C CPU Cooler (and 2 fans for it, might only use 1)
• CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W (I could have gone bigger but I think this will work fine)
• Creative Fatal1ty Professional Series Gaming Headset MKII
• 6gig Memory

I'm going to use the case Jason gave me. I seem to be missing a riser for the mobo (the things the mobo sits on), and I think im missing the rails the drives use to slide in. I think I can make it work though. I might replace the fans as well.

Anyways, when its done I will post an update and maybe pictures.

[bundan329]

Grats dude, I just got a new desktop too but it's nowhere near as awesome.

[Duck Man]

So I haven't taken pictures yet... but the thing is fun. I still can't handle too many eve clients open. I think I can run 4 with no problem and after the 5th things get pretty unplayable. I think this i a gfx card issue though. That will be a future upgrade for sure. Probably going to wait till they come out with the next gen.

Anyways, I successfully setup a hardware raid. the OS harddrive is on its own then I have 2, 1 TB HDs with raid 0 for running games off of. Pretty sweet . Took me a bit to figure it out. I thought I had all the drivers installed I needed. I mean I had 3 different raid controller drivers installed. Ohh wait I have 4! So I had find some reg edit thing to let me even install the intel one, but now everything is good. I am going to turn off the other 3 controllers too because I am not using them right now and don't know if I am going to. It is interesting though. At most I can have 6 HDs raided together, out of the like 10 or 12 SATA ports I have, because of the different controllers being used, and that includes the SATA 6.0 gig ones. That isn't a problem for me but its bazar they would do that at all.

Another interesting thing I have found out is my HT is barely used. Pretty much there aren't any games that run enough threads to use 8 threads . What I have been reading, most people turn the HT off so they can overclock the thing even more. Theoretically I can get this thing to like 4.5 ghz. I don't plan on it though, its already running faster than it needs to .

[Duck Man]

A little update. I am having trouble running Shattered Horizon, and through my reading of trying to fix it (I need to downgrade gfx drivers which I dont want to do), I came across them recommending letting your CPU handle PhysX. I at first my head told me, "WTF are they talking about? GPU is ment to handle that!" Then I thought about it some more and my CPU is screaming fast and has at least 4 threads doing nothing. I assume the PhysX is handled in a separate thread so why wouldn't my CPU be able to handle it just fine. Should handle it better than my gfx card really and that leave my gfx card only handling gfx. So really it makes sense. Something to think about .

[juan_donde]

i too have unused threads...

[Duck Man]

So I thought I would update this thread with the changes I have made and will be making. First, the releas of the nVidia 460 got me really excited, excited enough to buy 2 . I decided to get a new case at the same time because the one I was using seems to get pretty warm.

The cards came a day before the case, and well i wasn't going to wait for the case to try them out. Turns out the one has a hard time staying cool enough because of restricted air flow. I tried different things but ended up just removing one of them. QQ Ohh well my epic case would be in the next day!

Fuck the case has a HUGE dent in it. Fucking UPS... I RMAed it back and had to wait for its replacement, which came yesterday. Took me 2 hours to move everything over, and its amazing. This is the one I got. I didn't buy any extra fans because I didn't want to over do it like I have done in the past. Right off the bat I noticed a difference in heat from the gfx cards. But it was still a little higher than I wanted. So I took a 120mm from the old case, and made it blow right onto the gfx cards. And what do you know, everything is pretty sweet.

Still a little hot though so today I ordered 2x140mm fans. One will replace the 120mm on the door and the other will be a second one at the top. I will also put the 120mm (maybe a second one too) on the bottom. This should reduce the ambiant temps in the case making it easier on the gfx cards.

I will post an update next week when the fans come in.

[juan_donde]

I like how you went from "I didn't buy any extra fans because I didn't want to over do it like i have done in the past" to "I ordered 2x140mm fans. One will replace the 120mm on the door and the other will be a second one at the top. I will also put the 120mm (maybe a second one too) on the bottom."

Next thing you know you will be buying $80 worth of lights and make it bright enough to light up a living room =D.

[thesi]

Dude, my old case was bright enough to light up my room and I didn't even want lights on my case. Just one led light and a clear front was all it took.

[Duck Man]

I need better cooling. SC2 is working fine, its only going to full utilization while im in the ship and durring cinematic. In the actual game its like 30% on each card . But I am afraid to play any other games (except eve, i'm sure it uses nothing... :-p). I don't like watching the temp at 83c.

[Duck Man]

So the 140mm fan isn't cutting it. It's better than before, but not good enough. It's plugged into the mobo right now and it isn't even spinning it at full speed so plugging it into the PSU would help for sure. But I feel like going overboard again. That is why one of these will be arriving today .

The thing to look at are the CFMs. The 140mm ones covering my case are only 60 CFM. The 240 this bad boy puts out should be enough . It is going to go right over my gfx cards, blowing onto them. The 3 Exhaust fans should be able to handle removing the hot air, but I might try having this super fan blow out too to see if there is a difference.

Anyways, since I doubt I will want it blowing full blast all the time (maybe never...) I am also picking up a fan controller. I'll tie it and the 3 exhaust fans to it and plug the front and bottom fan right into the PSU. This feels like the ideal thing to do to me.

[juan_donde]

LOL, next thing you know you are going to get an old fridge compressor fill it with freon and have that cool your card...


oh wait...
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/ ... 8-1_5.html

[Duck Man]

I have thought about it... Jake is A/C certified so he would be able to make sure I don't do anything stupid... Then again, he would think the idea it self is stupid...

[Duck Man]

Grr son of a bitch!

So a new problem! Yay! (sarcastic) So I moved all the fans to plug strait into the power supply yo make sure they were going at full speed, except the new monster fan of course. When I play a game or run a benchmark (Far Cry 2) after a few minutes things freak out a bit and most the programs on the computer crash. This is really bad .

I have come to the conclusion my 750 PSU isn't cutting it. I just have too much stuff plugged into it. I came to this conclusion because the fan controller I got for the new fan actually has a LED on it to indicate what voltage it is running at (Red = 0-7 volts, Blue = 7-12 volts). When thing start getting weird, the light starts changing color over and over. Basically my power is freaking out...

So an Antec 1000W PSU is on its way...

[juan_donde]

Next thing you know the 460 isn't cutting it and you'll break down and get the 480...

[Duck Man]

My two 460s out perform a single 480 and im not about to go buy 2 480s...