For those unaware, I've been chuggling along for a while with a rather old computer to help me get work done. The main PC I use for work is just that... for work, so demands have never been that high. However, earlier this year I felt that slowdown was beginning to become apparent, so I knew an upgrade would be in order. Here's the old computer specs:
AMD 2600+ Single-Core Venice overclocked to 2.7GHz, 2GB PC2-3500 Corsair RAM overclocked to DDR-520, eVGA 7800GT 256MB, Samsung 16x DVD, Chaintech AV-710, Seagate 750GB 7200.10, Corsair N500 water-cooling, Thermaltake 400W Truepower and NZXT Lexa
I built that machine in May 2004, and have to say that its lasted me quite well. Considering it had a 35% overclock on the CPU and RAM and ran 24/7 without a single hardware incident... it might be one of the most impressive computers I've owned. However, a Quad-Core was in the cards, so about six months after the original plans to upgrade (I am beyond lazy), I had these parts ready to go:
I chose the Antec P182 for obvious reasons... it's a kick-ass case. I fell in love with it when I reviewed it a few months ago, so I knew that my new PC had to have it. Here are the full system specs:
Intel X3210 Xeon Quad-Core OC'd to 2.66GHz
ASUS P5K Premium Black Pearl Edition
eVGA 8800GT 512MB
OCZ 2x2GB Platinum
2x 500GB Seagate 7200.11
2x Samsung 20x DVD-RW
OCZ 720W ModXStream
Thermalright eXtreme Ultra-120
Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM
Antec P182
Primary OS: Gentoo 64-Bit (With 2.6.23 Kernel)
Secondary OS: Windows XP Professional (For in-house MP gaming!)
The idea was to RAID the two hard-drives, but that fell through when I came to the realization that software RAID with Linux (at least the distro I use) is a complete pain in the ass - especially if you plan on having Windows on the same drive. So I scrapped that idea and decided to use the second drive for storage. I am considering using a hardware RAID card in the future (I believe that bypasses the need for a software driver, am I wrong?), but that's not important right now. Even if the computer crashes, I have nightly backups to two different locations.
While I'm in the typing mood here... does anyone else find something wrong with ASUS' packaging for their GPUs?
The 3850 has nothing to do with the build, but when I picked up the 8800GT box, I realized just how asinine ASUS is with their packaging. I'm no environmental nut, but damn that's needless! Kudos to eVGA for being modest with their packaging.
So how about the beast that this new computer will be replacing? Word of warning: After a while, this PC became a computer that I could just care less about. I've had so much stuff spill on it in the past and so much dust accumulate... I just didn't care anymore. But regardless, this is still embarrassing:
To further explain how ridiculous this computer is... here is another photo.
Really, it doesn't look too bad, but don't be fooled. This was a ridiculous mess to deal with. Sometime earlier this year, or it might have been late last, I picked up a fresh glass of soda and had the bottom fall right off. Yes... the bottom of the glass just fell off, as if it were just poorly glued there. That aside, what happened was that soda went EVERYWHERE, including inside the computer. When I say that, I am not kidding. It didn't help that the NZXT Lexa has a blow hole as well, and yes, a fair amount of soda went in while the machine was on.
How nothing died... I have no idea. The bottom of the case had a few pop stains... and even the GPU had stains ( I don't think directly on the PCB though... just the brace ). The only piece of hardware that died was my keyboard. Go figure.
Here is the final result. I didn't do a front view of the case because everyone already knows what this case is.
Thanks to the recommendations of folks on this forum, I picked up three Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM fans to use throughout the case. I threw one onto the CPU cooler, another to replace the fan underneath behind the PSU and another behind the mid-drive-bay to help keep both of those hard-drives cool (they never go above 31°C).
I had a fair amount of cable routing issues, but they were all my own fault. Right now, there is not much to block airflow, which is the obvious goal of this chassis. All of the hard-drives are S-ATA based, as are the DVD-RW drives, so that helps even further. As you can see in the picture, I included a hard-drive underneath which was not originally listed above... it's the 750GB from the previous machine. I also recycled the Chaintech AV-710 (I love this card!), so that I have a dedicated sound card to both the 2.1 Logitech speakers and 5.1 Turtle Beach headphones.
The build took place on Wednesday, Thursday was spent installing both Windows and Linux, Friday and Saturday were spent installing all applications and syncing folders from the previous PC (all my documents/music/etc) and Sunday was spent wrapping things up and placing the machine in the precise spot where the NZXT Lexa once sat. For such a long build, For as long as the build took in planning and execution, I probably could have created an actual mod, but since I lack ambition and have no modding skills whatsoever, I will stick to replacing case fans so that I can rightfully post in this forum.
Ok... back to work I go now that the build is done wasting my time.
AMD 2600+ Single-Core Venice overclocked to 2.7GHz, 2GB PC2-3500 Corsair RAM overclocked to DDR-520, eVGA 7800GT 256MB, Samsung 16x DVD, Chaintech AV-710, Seagate 750GB 7200.10, Corsair N500 water-cooling, Thermaltake 400W Truepower and NZXT Lexa
I built that machine in May 2004, and have to say that its lasted me quite well. Considering it had a 35% overclock on the CPU and RAM and ran 24/7 without a single hardware incident... it might be one of the most impressive computers I've owned. However, a Quad-Core was in the cards, so about six months after the original plans to upgrade (I am beyond lazy), I had these parts ready to go:
I chose the Antec P182 for obvious reasons... it's a kick-ass case. I fell in love with it when I reviewed it a few months ago, so I knew that my new PC had to have it. Here are the full system specs:
Intel X3210 Xeon Quad-Core OC'd to 2.66GHz
ASUS P5K Premium Black Pearl Edition
eVGA 8800GT 512MB
OCZ 2x2GB Platinum
2x 500GB Seagate 7200.11
2x Samsung 20x DVD-RW
OCZ 720W ModXStream
Thermalright eXtreme Ultra-120
Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM
Antec P182
Primary OS: Gentoo 64-Bit (With 2.6.23 Kernel)
Secondary OS: Windows XP Professional (For in-house MP gaming!)
The idea was to RAID the two hard-drives, but that fell through when I came to the realization that software RAID with Linux (at least the distro I use) is a complete pain in the ass - especially if you plan on having Windows on the same drive. So I scrapped that idea and decided to use the second drive for storage. I am considering using a hardware RAID card in the future (I believe that bypasses the need for a software driver, am I wrong?), but that's not important right now. Even if the computer crashes, I have nightly backups to two different locations.
While I'm in the typing mood here... does anyone else find something wrong with ASUS' packaging for their GPUs?
The 3850 has nothing to do with the build, but when I picked up the 8800GT box, I realized just how asinine ASUS is with their packaging. I'm no environmental nut, but damn that's needless! Kudos to eVGA for being modest with their packaging.
So how about the beast that this new computer will be replacing? Word of warning: After a while, this PC became a computer that I could just care less about. I've had so much stuff spill on it in the past and so much dust accumulate... I just didn't care anymore. But regardless, this is still embarrassing:
To further explain how ridiculous this computer is... here is another photo.
Really, it doesn't look too bad, but don't be fooled. This was a ridiculous mess to deal with. Sometime earlier this year, or it might have been late last, I picked up a fresh glass of soda and had the bottom fall right off. Yes... the bottom of the glass just fell off, as if it were just poorly glued there. That aside, what happened was that soda went EVERYWHERE, including inside the computer. When I say that, I am not kidding. It didn't help that the NZXT Lexa has a blow hole as well, and yes, a fair amount of soda went in while the machine was on.
How nothing died... I have no idea. The bottom of the case had a few pop stains... and even the GPU had stains ( I don't think directly on the PCB though... just the brace ). The only piece of hardware that died was my keyboard. Go figure.
Here is the final result. I didn't do a front view of the case because everyone already knows what this case is.
Thanks to the recommendations of folks on this forum, I picked up three Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM fans to use throughout the case. I threw one onto the CPU cooler, another to replace the fan underneath behind the PSU and another behind the mid-drive-bay to help keep both of those hard-drives cool (they never go above 31°C).
I had a fair amount of cable routing issues, but they were all my own fault. Right now, there is not much to block airflow, which is the obvious goal of this chassis. All of the hard-drives are S-ATA based, as are the DVD-RW drives, so that helps even further. As you can see in the picture, I included a hard-drive underneath which was not originally listed above... it's the 750GB from the previous machine. I also recycled the Chaintech AV-710 (I love this card!), so that I have a dedicated sound card to both the 2.1 Logitech speakers and 5.1 Turtle Beach headphones.
The build took place on Wednesday, Thursday was spent installing both Windows and Linux, Friday and Saturday were spent installing all applications and syncing folders from the previous PC (all my documents/music/etc) and Sunday was spent wrapping things up and placing the machine in the precise spot where the NZXT Lexa once sat. For such a long build, For as long as the build took in planning and execution, I probably could have created an actual mod, but since I lack ambition and have no modding skills whatsoever, I will stick to replacing case fans so that I can rightfully post in this forum.
Ok... back to work I go now that the build is done wasting my time.
