Last message on previous page: The plastic side rails! That makes sense!!!
One mystery out of the way. Now how about that purple octagonal slot thing?
As for the case being good or no good, it filled all my requirements:
- It's big.
- It's cheap. (I paid $20 because the PSU had been scavanged)
If you're referring to the airflow in the case, sure, the 80 mm fan vents are insufficient, but just wait and see what a monster airflow windtunnel it's going to be once I'm done modding it!
One mystery out of the way. Now how about that purple octagonal slot thing?
As for the case being good or no good, it filled all my requirements:
- It's big.
- It's cheap. (I paid $20 because the PSU had been scavanged)
If you're referring to the airflow in the case, sure, the 80 mm fan vents are insufficient, but just wait and see what a monster airflow windtunnel it's going to be once I'm done modding it!
No all the plastic **** breaks like nothing, the workmanship of the product is sub par, there is sharp edges inside and I suppose the air flow sucks can’t do much with that volume and those fan sizes. As for the octagon deal, they are for use on the heavy video cards kind of support deal or stabilizer for multiple cards.
Thanks for the info on the octagons, although they'd likely have to be massive cards to reach that far! As for the case, your points are well taken, but for twenty bucks I couldn't have built a box out of plywood, so as long as I take care not to slice my wrist on those edges while I'm installing stuff in there, I'm sure it will be fine. And the size is just perfect for the killer air cooling system I'm going to be installing in there!
For no gaming system 1 at resolution 1920X1200 is OK for Q9450 with 8800GT as you don't need to wait for screen refresh; I bet you will be force to wait the screen come out at 1920X1200 if you use display card poorer than HD3870. Simply use GA-P35-DS3L or MSI P35 NEO2-FR P35 is fine for overclock the Q9450 to 3GHZ with Vcore rest on normal 1.25V.
For OS Use Vista ultimate 64Bit instead of Windows XP 64 Bit as XP 64 bit is terrible on compatibility.
Message edited by Crazy-PC on 05-19-2008 at 05:43:54 PM
I hadn't been looking at any mobos other than Asus and Giga so the MSI P35 NEO2-FR P35 is a new one to me. But if I can get the Q9450 to 3 GHz without changing the Vcore, that's great! However, it's about $30 more expensive than the Giga so if they're both roughly equivalent, I think I'll go with the cheaper. Unfortunately, the price of the Q9450 seems to be going up instead of down so I've got to keep watching my budget and shouldn't just go celebrate my big savings on the case just yet.
Come on Intel! Let's see those rumored June price drops!!!
Yeah, I've been leaning towards Vista 64 rather than XP 64 especially given that I might want to just bite the bullet and go with 2GB sticks for the full 8GB and Ramdisk a bit of it.
The performance-level Core 2 Quad Q9650 with a core frequency of 3GHz will launch priced at US$530 in thousand-unit tray quantities, while the Core 2 Quad Q9550 will drop around 40% from its original price of US$530 to US$316.
The Core 2 Quad 9450, currently priced at US$316, will be phased out of the market to be replaced by the Core 2 Quad 9400 at 2.66GHz and a price of US$266. The Core 2 Quad Q9300 and Q6700 will both be phased out at the same time too, leaving the Q6600 as the only 65nm quad-core CPU left in Intel's lineup, and which will drop from US$224 to US$203.
For dual-core CPUs, Intel will launch the Core 2 Duo E8600 at 3.33GHz and US$266, and will phase out the Core 2 Duo E8300. The company will also drop pricing for the Core 2 Duo E8500 and E8400 from US$266 and US$183 to US$183 and US$163, respectively.
Intel will also add the Core 2 Duo E7300 at 2.66GHz and US$133 to its entry-level line and to drop the price of its Core 2 Duo E7200 from US$133 to US$113.
Thanks for the info on the octagons, although they'd likely have to be massive cards to reach that far! As for the case, your points are well taken, but for twenty bucks I couldn't have built a box out of plywood, so as long as I take care not to slice my wrist on those edges while I'm installing stuff in there, I'm sure it will be fine. And the size is just perfect for the killer air cooling system I'm going to be installing in there!
You could file/dremel the edges. But if you do make sure you give it a through cleaning before installing anything.
Actually, I've just gone through the entire case very carefully and I can only see a couple of places where the edges are sharp to the point that they could cut you. I think that with a little caution it will be just fine.
Well, now that I'm in a holding pattern for the Intel price drops, might as well clear up a few questions about the rest of the build. Any suggestions and advice very welcome!
1) Will any DDR2-800 work? Do I need to concern myself overly with latencies, or should I just pick up the least expensive bunch I can find? I'm seriously thinking about going with 4x2GB so I really need to be able to save some $$$ here.
2) I've just found that the "cheapo" system and not the good one (Q9550 after the price drop) will have to run the TV. I need to make absolutely certain that the video card on the "cheapo" system can TV out to the triple RCA connectors for the 32" tube TV. What is the least expensive card that can provide 1440x900 for the 19 LCD as well as run that TV just for playing standard video?
3) Is the GA-P35-DS3L still a good bargain bet for a fairly mild OC of the Q9550 to about 3.4-3.5 GHz?
4) How critical is cooling now that I'm going with the Q9550? Do I really need to go with a U120eX and a complete wind tunnel in there (2x300mm fans)?
5) I need a corded optical mouse that has a fairly large left side thumb button that can be programmed to be a left-click. I spend way too much time on the PC and my index finger going to fall off. I need to left-click with my thumb.
6) Is there anywhere that has a left handed keyboard that doesn't cost close to $100? All I need is the numeric pad on the left rather than the right.
7) I only need a DVD/CD to install software in the good system. Once that's done, I have no further use for it. Should I just use the one from the "cheapo" and then just put it back? If I ever need to install something new, I can always pull it out again. There isn't any kind of BIOS requirement to run a DVD/CD, is there?
8) What's the final judgement on ReadyBoost? A complete waste of time or?
1. Yes any brand name DDR2 800 will work (ie Corsair,Crucial, G.Skill). Unless you are in to benchmarking insanely the latency will not matter 99.5% of the time in real life. If going above 4GB you will need a x64 version of Windows to use all RAM.
2. No idea, sorry.
3. Yes. Imo, the DS3L is the best board under $95 for OCing.
4. You should get a good HSF, but nothing too ridiculous or Water cooling. I recommend the Xigmatek HDT-S1283.
5. I personally like the G5. One of the best ever created.
6. No idea. But there are USB numeric key pads that can cost $10-30.
7. Good idea to always have a DVD burner in a system imo. There are no BIOS requirements to install a DVD drive. Also consider a External DVD drive.
8. May or may not help depending on what you do.
Message edited by Shadow703793 on 05-22-2008 at 01:09:40 AM
Thanks for the info, Shadow. That Xigmatek HDT-S1283 looks like a nice cooler and in the Canadian outlets it's selling as low as $33 with the fan which places it less than half the cost of a U120eX. The side button on the G5 is a little small, but if it can be programmed for left click it should do fine. My uses are mostly websurfing, with some Office apps and fairly heavy duty Photoshop. Would ReadyBoost help me at all or is it just a gimmick?
Thanks for the link, Shadow. It does seem that the advantages with ReadyBoost seem to diminish the more RAM you have and I'm fairly certain I'm going with 8GB in this build, so it seems like I might as well skip it.
Yeah, also makesure with 8GB you have a x64 OS and that you set up the pagefile correctly. (Imo, you need to do this for RAM over 4GB. You can notice quite a bit of difference between the automatic pagefile created vs. the custom ones you create.)
Yeah, I could never really figure out why with with the more advanced versions of Vista 64 out there there isn't an automatic pagefile adjustment. I guess that there are some elements to justify why so many people whine about Vista. I can hardly wait until Windows Seven. If MS screws it up as bad as they have Vista then I'm going to give up on them. The only problem is that I've tried Ubuntu and wasn't very happy. I love the size of the OS and the quick load, etc. but I don't want to run Photoshop under WINE and Gimp compared to Photoshop is like running a skateboard against a Ferrari.
The thing that gets me about Ubuntu is how roughly grained it is. It seems like all the icons, etc. are larger than they should be and I'm getting flashbacks to 640x480. I tried different themes and they were all the same. It has a lot to recommend to a great number of users, but I've pretty well determined that it's not for me.
