This 3800+ screams in WinXP like I've never screamed before. (and I do scream like a schoolgirl when I'm excited! )
Furthermore this absolutely stunning and classy Aspire X-Infinity case makes the whole system look like a dream car coming with all the luxury features inside.
It lights up the whole freakin' room too with its headlights.
The one thing about the X850XT PE that I must mention though is that it DOES do like some said and the FX5800 did, with that startup loud fan noise. In fact, when you turn it on, it's probably as bad as the FX5800 was, except this one's like a hotel hair dryer, ya know, those weak ones with the loud noise? Well it does that for about 5 seconds on a fresh bootup, and then suddenly turns silent. Amazingly as they said too, you never hear that loud noise ever in games, so I am left wondering what the heck is that hyper speed spinning for? It's not bad though, I don't mind it at all, it's actually funny to reboot often and hear a blow dryer that turns on and back to normal speed in 2 seconds.
One thing I did NOT expect btw, was that the Newcastle 0.13m chip would run so cool. My 3800+ is running, with the stock cooler (aluminum HS with an 80mm fan I believe) and 2 case fans from the Aspire case, at around 40-43º idle, but I have even seen it as low as 34º today. It is truly amazing to see such cool running CPU versus my old Palomino who ran at 50º idle.
The games are running awesome too. 6x AA and 16xAF is amazing and completely smooth.
I've tried 3dM05 standard and got 5518 3dmarks. I haven't compared yet though I think it's inline with current X850XT PE benches no? I'll also boost my RAM to CAS2 soon, as it was certified for it (Kingston HyperX CAS2 PC3200).
The HIS Platinum Pack is amazing too, tons of CDs, a lot of the ATi tech demos are in there, including screensavers. I've seen one of the X800 demos and it is amazing. (the statue in a temple one, that shows subsurface scattering effects)
The card also has a lot of connections included, not excluding 2 VGA adapters for the dual DVI card.
Including my USB hub, the whole system now has about 14 USB ports, of them 10 USB2! (although in actuality, 13 because of the hub using one port for itself, therefore making it 9 USB2 ports free for any USB2 device use)
Gigabyte includes a very nice suite of software and features on its mobo and I am most impressed by EasyTune 5's ease of use for monitoring and OCing inside Windows.
I admit I went overboard with the video card, it cost me a serious lot. Almost all the people I know that I told them about its cost were ready to pass judgement. But damn, I don't regret this one at all. I fully knew if I wanted the best, I'd have to shell out a lot this generation around, because of its current market issues. I was ready for that anyways.
Finally, I thought I would show yall some pics for the fun of it, and to perhaps get some interested in the case:
<A HREF="http://www.scamtron.com/Temp/Picture 021_1_1.jpg" target="_new">Stacking up the hardware and prepping for the build. Can you just resist from opening them boxes?</A>
<A HREF="http://www.scamtron.com/Temp/Picture 024_2_1.jpg" target="_new">Opening the Gigabyte mobo box (the mobo side box), full of freakin' SATA cables.</A>
<A HREF="http://www.scamtron.com/Temp/Picture 025_3_1.jpg" target="_new"> *drools* *Homer gargle*</A>
<A HREF="http://www.scamtron.com/Temp/Picture 028_4_1.jpg" target="_new">Colorful mobo with CPU installed with HSF.</A>
<A HREF="http://www.scamtron.com/Temp/Picture 031_5_1.jpg" target="_new">A LOT of goodies in that small HIS box! Note: PSU not included. (You can also spot my old PC case over there, wow quite archaic looking huh?) </A>
<A HREF="http://www.scamtron.com/Temp/Picture 033_6_1.jpg" target="_new">Inside the case.</A>
<A HREF="http://www.scamtron.com/Temp/Picture 034_7_1.jpg" target="_new">And now for the coup de grace: my baby!</A>
<A HREF="http://www.scamtron.com/Temp/Picture 040_8_1.jpg" target="_new">ALMOST the final result. There's the case. Anybody guessed what that front top reminds you of? (PS: Temperature LED was not working at the time)</A>
<A HREF="http://www.scamtron.com/Temp/Picture 042_9_1.jpg" target="_new">And now for the trophy shot, a nighttime pose of the elegant case.</A> PS: Beige? What's beige?
Well there you have it folks. Hope this was cool to see!
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The <b><A HREF="http://snipurl.com/blsb" target="_new"><font color=red>THGC Photo Album</font color=red></A></b>, send in your pics, get your own webpage and view other members' sites.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Eden on 03/08/05 02:34 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
Nothing like having a fresh new system with fresh new install.
Maybe some benchies later after you've burned it in?
Just a question, isn't the memory supposed to be staggered? In <A HREF="http://www.scamtron.com/Temp/Picture 033_6_1.jpg" target="_new">your setup</A> isn't that running single channel? Or maybe I'm missing the colour coding (also make more sense to stagger them for heat concerns IMO).
Anywhoo, Cool Dude, enjoy!
- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK
i am soo insanely jealous right now, it's not even funny. and the really suckey part is that that prob cost you about what i paid for my system... grrr..
Awesome dude, I'm glad you finally got to put it all together. It really does look sweet. I know how all those shiny new boxes were driving you nuts before I can't wait to be as satisfied as you are right now, when I am finally able to put my rig together. Game on
<font color=green> Woohoo!! I am officially an <b> Enthusiast </b>!! </font color=green>
<i> <font color=red> One new Firefox fan </font color=red> </i>
You know, I been wondering about that dual channel thing at the time I installed the RAM. Me and my uncle were checking the manual, and we just couldn't get an appropriate answer from it. Are they really supposed to be in the different color codes? If so, my god there's even more performance to get out of this thing! We must rush and find out!
I gotta say though, it's funny how we tried booting it for fun with the current partition of the old system, as we wanted to test if it would boot up and work. Blue screen right at the splash screen lmao. Not even safe mode can enter. No frets, had backed it up anyways, so we do a thorough CHKDSK to eliminate any bad sectors and then format. Hehhe, no nVidia system with a VIA chipset likes a brand new ATi killer one with an nV chipset!
Dunno if you can answer this, but I have Smart Fan enabled in the BIOS for the Gigabyte, but the EasyTune software shows it as unavailable. Any ideas? I also wonder if Cool n' Quiet is even installed.
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Yeah ribbon cables clog up too much. I wonder if I can't get me an SATA adapter for the HDD and optical drives I have?
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Ok wait a darn minute here, I just found out my card is supposed to get almost 6000 points in 3dM 05! THG shows that a 4000+ system gets over 6000, which means mine shouldn't be farther at all. Somethin's up here. Dual Channel not working maybe?
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I wonder if I can't get me an SATA adapter for the HDD and optical drives I have?
For the HDDs, yes, but I think the Optical drives aren't supported by SATA (apart from SATA-native ones obviously).
I did try an adapter when putting my Bro's PC together, but couldn't get it to work for some reason, so I'm probably not really the person to ask though!
Very nice setup. I'm sitting here looking at all my goodies wrapped up in plastic. I'm waiting on my mother board... its gunna be the longest 48 hours of my life I think.
On a side note, I BOUGHT (lol) the AMD 64 3800+ also and I'm glad to see you like it. What processor did you have before? I'm jumping for a 1900+ to this 3800+, hope I like it.
thanks for the pics , I'm drooling all over my keyboard.
)
(You can also spot my old PC case over there, wow quite archaic looking huh?) </A>
, I'm drooling all over my keyboard.