Computer is dead- maybe...

[S77th-konkussion]

Which is going to make both me and some of you cry. Me- because this ain't the best $$ month and replacing a computer was not on my short wave radar screen... :crash::cry:

 

and some of you because if I do have to replace this P.O.S. -I'm gonna get me one helluva serious bit of kit. :weight_lift_2:

 

 

In case it comes to this- anyone wanna buy a Sapphire Radeon X850XT Platinum (AGP)? Pretty bad ass card for those of you still on AGP.

 

PM...

[3Sqn_Fudd]

Whatcha gonna get?

 

Quad Core Q6600 GO stepping (Go to NCIX US)

Asus P5K-D (use 311 or 501 Bios)

PC-8500 Rams

Thermalright Ultra-120x and Lap it

2900xt or 8800gts

[Brit_Radar_Dude]

Sorry to hear about your problems Konny. I can partially understand how you feel. Had a PS go bad and fry my mobo and 2 replacements. Finally (I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box) figured it was the PS, replaced it and fitted a 3rd mobo.

Be interested in what you get. I'm thinking new machine myself probably before the end of the year ready for BS.

[S77th-konkussion]

Basically I lost the hard drive- It failed to boot-even from the CD. After trying to run Xp repair, and eventually just tried to reinstall Xp. I waited about 5 hours for the formatting, but got another error (cannot format because... the moon is not purple tonight) Rebooted- and got "cannot locate operating system"..

 

** whips out pistol**

 

So- hopefully I'll know today if it will live or not. I know I could just replace the drive, etc.. y'know keep it alive and save some money. But I'm not really keen on spending much money on this thing (4+ yrs old) There's not much I can upgrade on it easily or sensibly (dude...it's a &*^%$& DELL) Those of you who have tried to buy anything other than memory for a Dell know what I mean.

 

Here's my replacement plan if it comes to it...

 

 

Case: LXe Silver Pure Aluminum with side window, easily removable front door (extended depth)

 

 

Power Supply 1200 Watt Velocity Micro® Power Supply - Nvidia® SLI™ Certified

 

 

Case Lights Single Blue Cold Cathode Chassis Light Kit

 

 

Motherboard: Intel® D975XBX2LKR Bad Axe II Motherboard with DDR2, PCI-E

 

 

Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor QX6700, quad 2.66GHz cores, 8MB L2 Cache

 

 

CPU Cooling: Arctic Cooling® Freezer 7 Pro Heatsink, Ultra Quiet Fan, Copper Heat Pipes, plus Arctic Silver™ 5 Thermal Compound

 

 

DDR2 Memory 2048MB Corsair Dominator DDR2-800 Twin2X2048-6400 with Dual-path Heat Xchange (2x1024)

 

 

Tuning: Advanced 3D Video Performance Tuning, Optimization, and Overclocking

 

Audio: Creative Labs SoundBlaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer

 

Hard Drive 1: 150GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm SATA/150, 16MB Cache, NCQ

 

Optical Drive 1: 20x Lite On® DVD+/-RW/CD-RW Dual Layer, Black Bezel

 

Optical Drive 2: 16x DVD/48x CD-RW Lite On® Combo Drive, Black Bezel

 

Floppy Drive & Media Reader: 8-in-1 Floppy Drive & Media Reader Combo

 

FireWire: 2 Integrated IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports, 1 front & 1 rear

 

USB: 2.0 Ports 8 USB 2.0 Ports, 2 front & 6 rear

 

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Premium 32-bit (I have the option for XP pro)

 

Benchmark Software: NEW - FutureMark® 3DMark06® Velocity Micro Basic Edition - gaming performance benchmark software

 

Internal Cables Rounded Silver Braided IDE and Floppy Cables

 

Keyboard & Mouse Keyboard with Lighted Palm Rest - Black,Ultimate Laser Mouse with 2400 dpi Resolution, both USB (maybe not- hate to use up 2 USB for these)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PCX Video 2 x 512MB Diamond Radeon HD 2900XT in CrossFire (1GB version available in X-fire too, LOL )

[Fjordmonkey]

All in all the setup looks very very nice indeed. When it comes to your notes, here's some considerations I would consider. Mind you, this post is also based on you buying and building the computer yourself, and not on a system bought complete.

 

In regards of CPU: I know that at least here in Norway, the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 is about $600 or so cheaper than the Extreme, without all that much difference in speed. Plus that it overclocks easier as well (as far as I've been able to find out), if this is of interest to you. I'd look at the difference in overall price vs the difference in the overall performance of the CPU's, plus read up on reviews of both chips. Litte use in paying the white out of your eyes for little gain :)

 

RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. There's a myriad of ways you can create this array, but I'd say that the one most useful to gamers is RAID 1. This basically uses two identical disks and mirrors them, so that both disks contains the same data (the data is written to both disks at the same time). If one disk fails, you still have the system running because the other disk in the RAID-set contains the same data, thus adding data-security to the setup. Swap out the failed drive, plug in a new one and boot back up, and the system will rebuild the data in most cases without you having to do anything more. Pros: increased data-security, a disk-failure usually won't mean a lenghty reinstall and/or lost data. Cons: The logical drive (the harddrive the operating system sees) will only be as large as ONE of the two disks, and the cost involved. In other words, if you put two 250gb disks into a RAID-1, you'll only have 250gb of space available.

 

There's also RAID 0, which seamlessly blends the two disks together into one large disk. In the case of the two 250gb disks, making them into a RAID-0-set would give you a disk-size of approximately 500gb when the system was up and running. The bad thing with RAID-0 is that it's not fault-tolerant. Yes, you'll have approximately twice the diskspace, but you'll also loose your data in the case of one of the disks failing. It's marginally faster than RAID-1, if memory serves me, though. Not that such things matter much when you've got 10k RPM drives...

 

About the Killer NIC: I'm not all that conviced that it'll give what it promises and thus be worth the $260 it costs, but other might disagree. I've read quite a few reviews of the cards, and none seem to be conclusive enough to give me a big enough decrease in latency, ping-times and outright speed/lessend CPU-load when compared to the price. Most motherboards today have at least a Gigabit-networking-card built in, and I've yet to see an online game that will even BEGIN to put a dent in the bandwith-capabilities of those cards, even though they don't run at full speed (most networking-devices for home-use are 100mbit only). Poor network performance and high latencies are dependent on so much more than just the networking card (Type of internet-connection, cable-quality used in all parts of the network (both in your home and between your house and the DSLAM/ISP), electronic interference, internet-connection on the servers you play on, etc). It might help a bit, but enough to warrant the $260 pricetag?

 

USB-ports: If you find that you're running out of USB-ports, a USB 2.0-hub doesn't cost all that much. And unless I'm wrong, you can have up to 256 USB-ports addressed in your system, which gives you a lot of possibilities :D

 

One thing I've also noticed, and this again could just be my personal opinion: The LX-W-case. Built, as far as I can find on the web, by Lian Li and then licenced to others, I fear that for this type of setup there could be temperature-issues depending on the fan-size and type installed, and the amount of air flowing through the case. This is especially something to think about when using the full-length x2900, and even more so if you choose to go for a Crossfire-setup. The 2900's gets hot, to say the least. Maybe I'm just being picky here after I got my Thermaltake Kandalf LCS (which is simply a monstrously big case), but when going for a high-powered system, don't skimp on the case it's going into, especially not when it comes to the size and flow of air. I know that if the LX-W is about the same size of the CoolerMaster Centurion 534, there will be VERY little room between the edge of the videocards and the main drivebays, regardless or not on the placement of the graphics-card powerplugs. If it doesn't have a very good solution for airflow/cooling, there WILL be temp-problems and associated problems. Too often have I seen the result of a high-power system stuffed into too small a case without adequate airflow to cool the components. We're talking system slowdowns (the Core2-family will start to automatically lower their speed when they get too hot), crashes/system instability, broken components, video-anomalies/artifacts, cracked chips on the vidcards, broken CPU's, degraded harddrive-performance/disk-crashes etc. Heat is the number two killer of computers, only surpassed by the sometimes stupidity of their users :lol: Remember also that for the $260 of the Killer NIC, you can get a very good case with lots of space and cooling. The Kandalf LCS is about 270ish USD when I last checked on Tigerdirect, plus it's a liquid-cooled system which also happens to be easy to build. There's also the fan-cooled Antec P180/P182 and the Nine Hundred-cases, which all have very good solutions when it comes to heat-management and airflow. Might be worth it to check these, too.

 

Have so far been unable to find any really good pics of the LX-W with hardware mounted, so I might be way out in the fields yelling for moose again :D If you have some images of the case and more info about it, I'd love to see them.

 

About the RAM: For maximum speed and efficiency of the system, make sure that you get as fast RAM as your motherboard can support. Little use of having an insane CPU, Graphics-cards and such things when your RAM is about as slow as a stunned snail glued to a mountain.

[S77th-konkussion]

Roger on the NIC enhancement- I think I will skip it. The computer is hand built by a company here in my town- Richmond, Va. By a company called Velocity Micro. I am lucky enough to know the President/ CEO personally. He's been a longtime customer of mine- even before VM was started.

 

I'll trust them with the case. You're quite correct- I can also choose an extended depth- and I likely will. Besides the cooling described above-VM goes into terrific detail & effort to maximize airflow- right down to the way they fold/place/secure the internal cables.

 

Based on what I read- I think I'll lean towards the 10k rpm single drive.

 

Here's what I have on the case (LXe)

 

http://www.velocitymicro.com/images/upload/lxe_silver.html

 

 

Roger on the RAM- far as I know this is the fastest stick he has..

[Fjordmonkey]

Ah, nice =)

 

Besides, IF the case should prove to be too restrictive in terms of heat-dissipation, there's nothing wrong in upgrading later :D

[3Sqn_Fudd]

Ya overclocking at all?

[S77th-konkussion]

Ya overclocking at all?

 

Comes with it! :thumbup: The factory does it for you unless you tell them not to.

[3Sqn_Fudd]

Comes with it! :thumbup: The factory does it for you unless you tell them not to.

 

Cool stuff... What are they taking the chip too? 3.0Ghz?

 

The only thing I'm seeing is the CPU options down the line. You'll be golden for 2+ years but it would be nice if the Bad Axe 2 will support Penryn and Wolfdale CPU's when they come out... confirm that.

 

and ditto on the Killer Nic Card... I have seen a couple of reviews that slam it.

 

I would go Vista... and everyone I have been talking to says 2 Gigs of Ram is enough to run it.

 

One last thing, im suspicious of the Velocity Micro Brand 1200w power supply... Not by an account of its awefulness... It's just I have never heard of it... Try to grab the underwriters limited (UL) number and we can see who the OEM maker is for Velocity Micro PSU's... not that thats a sure fire indicator of its quality but it's a good starting point.

 

Another thing, 1200w is a HUGE amount of power. Not that you'll be drawing that from the wall... but the thing with PSU's is that you want to match your PSU to a sweet spot of efficiency for what your system will be drawing through it. A 1200w power supply could be 77% efficient in your system, while a 750w PSU could be 85% efficient... That difference can add up in utility bills and your green psyche ...lol

 

Here's an example of what I am talking about...

 

http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=107&page_num=3

[S77th-konkussion]

Cool stuff... What are they taking the chip too? 3.0Ghz?

 

Dunno exactly. Guess I should find out...

 

The only thing I'm seeing is the CPU options down the line. You'll be golden for 2+ years but it would be nice if the Bad Axe 2 will support Penryn and Wolfdale CPU's when they come out... confirm that.

 

roger that..

 

and ditto on the Killer Nic Card... I have seen a couple of reviews that slam it.

 

shit-canned :D

 

I would go Vista... and everyone I have been talking to says 2 Gigs of Ram is enough to run it.

 

yeah.. I know I'm such a chicken....

 

One last thing, im suspicious of the Velocity Micro Brand 1200w power supply... Not by an account of its awefulness... It's just I have never heard of it... Try to grab the underwriters limited (UL) number and we can see who the OEM maker is for Velocity Micro PSU's... not that thats a sure fire indicator of its quality but it's a good starting point.

 

Antec

 

Another thing, 1200w is a HUGE amount of power. Not that you'll be drawing that from the wall... but the thing with PSU's is that you want to match your PSU to a sweet spot of efficiency for what your system will be drawing through it. A 1200w power supply could be 77% efficient in your system, while a 750w PSU could be 85% efficient... That difference can add up in utility bills and your green psyche ...lol

 

roger-VM requires it for Xfire. I remember reading a head to head comparo that went not-so-good for VM. (crashed/ video problems) Turned out a 800w PSU was the culprit behind the sub-par performance. (note- that article was about a rig set up in SLI) They ran it again- and came out on top.

[S77th-GOYA]

Looks great, Kon.

 

Can anyone offer any reason to be using Vista right now? 6 months from now? 1 year from now?

 

Maybe improved FSX performance is all I've ever really heard that is an improvement over XP. But I've heard a lot of people say how Vista is a resource hog.

[S77th-konkussion]

OK it's a done deal. Should have it by the 19th or so.

 

I got Vista.. yikes... I hope it works.... I figured it's going to happen at some point- might as well dig into it now...:unsure::suspect:

[3Sqn_Fudd]

roger-VM requires it for Xfire. I remember reading a head to head comparo that went not-so-good for VM. (crashed/ video problems) Turned out a 800w PSU was the culprit behind the sub-par performance. (note- that article was about a rig set up in SLI) They ran it again- and came out on top.

 

Hrmmm ... Antec is still not the source... Antec usually OEM

s through Enhance... Still ok though, you've already ordered it so just roll with it.

 

About the 800w culprit... There are no comparisons on pure wattage alone, there 850w PSU's that are crap and 850w PSU's that are awesome. All has to do with Capacitors used, PCB finish, Design of course... blah blah blah

 

Enjoy that new rig.... will be awesome!

[emenance]

one thing to note here is that as a gamer I love my RAID 0 I use symantec exec back up that will back up my entire c:\ drive and do incremental back ups automatically while computer is running.

 

I just ran a chkdsk /f /r and got a CLEAN DISK hell ya not bad for a 3 months install. I do take care of my computer. Anyway dont worry if its dirty minor things can complain. Its usually nothing to worry about M$ says so!!

 

SO raid 1 is great for the lazy people. Ill stick with a raid o and the ability to restore my image to a raid array or a single disk whatever I chose.

 

personally I chose to back up the entire c drive once a month. The paronoid can do that every two weeks with minor back ups twice a week.

 

Protect your files and run chkdsk /f /r sometimes!

[Pilotasso]

Here's my replacement plan if it comes to it...

 

 

Case: LXe Silver Pure Aluminum with side window, easily removable front door (extended depth)

 

 

Power Supply 1200 Watt Velocity Micro® Power Supply - Nvidia® SLI™ Certified

 

 

Case Lights Single Blue Cold Cathode Chassis Light Kit

 

 

Motherboard: Intel® D975XBX2LKR Bad Axe II Motherboard with DDR2, PCI-E

 

 

Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor QX6700, quad 2.66GHz cores, 8MB L2 Cache

 

 

CPU Cooling: Arctic Cooling® Freezer 7 Pro Heatsink, Ultra Quiet Fan, Copper Heat Pipes, plus Arctic Silver™ 5 Thermal Compound

 

 

DDR2 Memory 2048MB Corsair Dominator DDR2-800 Twin2X2048-6400 with Dual-path Heat Xchange (2x1024)

 

 

Tuning: Advanced 3D Video Performance Tuning, Optimization, and Overclocking

 

Audio: Creative Labs SoundBlaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer

 

Hard Drive 1: 150GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm SATA/150, 16MB Cache, NCQ

 

Optical Drive 1: 20x Lite On® DVD+/-RW/CD-RW Dual Layer, Black Bezel

 

Optical Drive 2: 16x DVD/48x CD-RW Lite On® Combo Drive, Black Bezel

 

Floppy Drive & Media Reader: 8-in-1 Floppy Drive & Media Reader Combo

 

FireWire: 2 Integrated IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports, 1 front & 1 rear

 

USB: 2.0 Ports 8 USB 2.0 Ports, 2 front & 6 rear

 

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Premium 32-bit (I have the option for XP pro)

 

Benchmark Software: NEW - FutureMark® 3DMark06® Velocity Micro Basic Edition - gaming performance benchmark software

 

Internal Cables Rounded Silver Braided IDE and Floppy Cables

 

Keyboard & Mouse Keyboard with Lighted Palm Rest - Black,Ultimate Laser Mouse with 2400 dpi Resolution, both USB (maybe not- hate to use up 2 USB for these)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PCX Video 2 x 512MB Diamond Radeon HD 2900XT in CrossFire (1GB version available in X-fire too, LOL )

 

Ditch the QX6700. The Q6600 is half the price and goes above 3GHz (or higher) on P35 Chipset easely by puting 1333FSB. With the savings you make with this, you can get such a motherboard as well (much better for the new CPU's later this year). Your hard drive is a little on the light side, I got 2 400MB drives and beleive me I dont have excess of space. Also you dont realy need such a bad ass PSU. With 1 or 2 GFX's you can get away with 750-850W PSU.

 

Other than that your system is a killer. LOMAC is realy going to take off. CHeers.

[kyborgs]

Audio: Creative Labs SoundBlaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer

 

 

If you realy want X-Fi then take X-Fi Xtreme Music or better, you will overpay for same card, since X-Fi Xtreme Audio and X-Fi Xtreme Gamer have same crap PCB. Only changes software.