The Rig That Rob Built

[Rob Williams]

Geez, it is amazing how much time has flown by since I built this thing. For the most part, it's almost identical to the original configuration, except I replaced the CPU (because it ran way, way too hot), upgraded to 8GB of RAM, took out one of the 500GB hard drives and put in the 750GB I had before and also a 1TB (and wouldn't mind expanding that even further). I also had to replace the ODD a couple of times (I am due again, my top ODD just died the other day).

Oh, I also downgraded from the 8800 GT to the 9600 GT because it runs far cooler. I am not sure what was up with the 8800 GT card, but it would idle at 80C, which is completely unnecessary. The 9600 GT is a downgrade, but really, I don't game on this PC anyway. It idles at 60C, which is still freaking high, but it's better.

I'd like to soon upgrade to a larger chassis, because the heat in the P182 isn't doing much to please me. I'd like a case with better airflow and then probably upgrade both the storage and the graphics card (having a faster card that runs cooler wouldn't be a bad deal).

Sadly, that PC isn't clean as it once was (dust!), but it's still pretty good. I'd love to "upgrade" though... this PC runs far too hot even when it's not doing much of anything. That's what you get with an ATX chassis, I guess.

[Merlin]

A good chasis IMO is the Colermaster HAF, I'm going to get another one for the 9450 quad system, it just runs cooler than any other case I have seen.

[Rob Williams]

I'm cheap, so I'll just wait for a full-tower to fall into my lap. I'm still incredibly fussy though, and really don't care at all for the HAF. I like clean-looking cases, and aside from SilverStone and Lian Li, it's hard to find that.

[Rob Williams]

Well, I ended up acquiring a CM Storm Sniper, and I couldn't be happier. It has a far better layout than the Antec, although I believe it's also a little bit larger. Can now fit a bigger GPU in though, and temps are great, so I'm pleased.

[madmat]

Pics or it didn't happen!

okay, I'm joking but I'd like to see it.

[Rob Williams]

I can upload one or two later. Problem is, I didn't take any sort of pride in the wiring, so it looks like crap. I also found out another huge limitation of the motherboard I'm using, and I didn't realize it until I wanted to upgrade the GPU. The six SATA ports on the board are towards the end of the board, but are inline with the top two slots. So, with a big GPU installed, it hovers over these SATA ports, which sucks, given I have five of them in use.

Long story short, I literally had to slam the card in, and even now, some of the contacts in the slot are still showing, but that really shouldn't affect performance any. I do feel bad for the SATA connectors though, as they're having the life squashed out of em.

[madmat]

Get some SATA cables with 90 degree ends. They work great for that, the M2N32-SLI Deluxe has that issue and actually came with 90's on four of the cables.

[Rob Williams]

Originally Posted by madmat

Get some SATA cables with 90 degree ends. They work great for that, the M2N32-SLI Deluxe has that issue and actually came with 90's on four of the cables.

The problem there is that you can't use the 90° cables on all of the ports, because they'd block the way or plugging in another drive. Most flat cables like that aren't designed to go "backwards", so it'd be the back ports that'd get in the way. There's no way I could get around this, except to get another motherboard, which I might just do soon enough. I'm having issues in my OS where the video flickers, and I'm assuming it's because the card isn't pushed in 100%.

[madmat]

That sucks. The M2N has a gap between 3/4 ports and 5/6 ports specifically to give room for four 90's to be used. The ports for 1 & 2 don't get in the way and can use standard cables.