Help me Choose my prizes

[Knipex]

First a big THANK YOU to all at custom PC.

To continue in the tradition started by PUG I have decided to start a thread to ask you to help me choose my prizes. I get to pick 6
from a list of 12 below.

Before I start I will share some of my requirements and prejudice's.

I am an AMD fanboy ! :wub:
My main use for the PC is gaming.
I water cool so have no requirement for heatsinks or fans.

My current setup is

Epox 8rda+ (which I cannot get beyond 184 fsb :rant: )
2600+
9700 pro
onboard sound and lan.

I had never really considered it but AMD 64 would be nice (seems to be gaming nirvana)


Bearing that in mind help me choose.

(also note that if there is anything on the list someone would like I would be willing to get it and either trade it on for something
else or sell it (obviously at a discount from list price)

OK now that you have all the information here are my choices.


Coolermaster centurian case with Aero 7+ cooler, Aerogate fan controller, hiper 470W PSU and purple cold cathodes.
Acrylic case and 405W PSU
Hercules 3D prophet all in Wonder 9800SE
Antec Super lan boy with with 350W smart blue PSU, UV 80mm fan, Round eide cables and light tube
Samgsung SP1614C 140 gig sata hardrive
Epox 8rda+3
PNY secure digital memory card
MSI KT8 NEO -FISR2
Hightech radeon 9800 pro ICEQ
DFI Lanparty Pro 875B
1Gig Corsair twinX 3200 LLpro
FSP Silent solution Kit

Let the selections begin.

PS Custom PC want my choices soo so as to ensure prompt delivery.

*Rewards to be presented on Mars, Recipient responsible for there own travel arrangements

[Edd]

Seems like you have a good graphics card and proc. Personally an extra gig of RAM seems nice, or the 9800 Pro if you really need more than that 9700 :D

Personally though, I would take the hard drive. Can never have enough storage.

Saw you in Custom PC :D. I knew the case but couldn't place it to the username.

[furious trout]

I'd go with the ram, the Hightech 9800 The lanboy the HDD the MSI and the memory card i suppose..... ^_^
Or you could see what you'd get for them all on eBay and pick the best stuff to sell :p

[Knipex]

Ok I have been thinking.

This is a great oppertunity to make the jump to AMD64 without breaking the bank.

The MSI board looks good so I will keep that.
Seeing as the AMD64 aint a great overclocker the gig of ram will fit quiet nicely on the board.
9800pro will add gameing potential (and I allready have a mate just waiting to inherit my 9700 pro so I will donate that to him.)
The harddrive is nice but I have less than half filled my 60 gig baracuda which is silent. Anyone have any idea how loud the Samgsung SP1614C is ?? 160gig is not worth a huge noise increase.
The lan boy will be handy.
The 8rda+3 would be a handy upgrade for my current rig so I can up the overclock but then again if I upgrade to 64bit I wont really be using it for games anymore..

Nothing else on the list appeals to me so I will probably take the all in wonder and try to sell it to pay for the AMD64 CPU.

Also probably get the DFI Lanparty Pro 875B instead of the Epox and sell that as well to help pay for my new waterblocks. :D

Unless someone here would like something in particular from the list. ??

Must say though that this is really a bit of good luck when i need it.

I changed jobs recently and my old employer screwed me on my paycheck for the last month and he still owes me almost 2K in expences which i dont think i will ever get. On top of that I got an unexpected letter from the tax man on Wednesday looking for a big fat cheque :( .

[Pug]

The RAM and 9800 seem like a foregone conclusion but I'd get the HDD too personally, even if it sat unused for a while. It's great to have extra storage when you need it and if you're geting a mobo, chip, ram & Gfx; you're not that far off building up a second machine with the bits left over afterwards.


Shame the AiW is an SE but makes for a nice card for the second box if you do build one (seing as your mate's lined up for your 9700).

The Lanboy is a much better choice than the Centurion (hence the extra bling chucked in to make amends). I think CM compromised themselves a bit with such a budget offering when they released that... bit like an SGi eMachine, y'know? :wacko:

*Reads original post again*

hmm, new blocks eh? Mebbe we could do something on that hdd after all... ;)

[adwhitworth]

[cheeky git]
Don't bother too much but if the hard drive is just sitting around doing nothing then I'll have it...
[/cheeky git]

:D

[Knipex]

I have had a look at selling some of the components but fram what I can see I would not get much for them.

My other option is to get a case and transfer my existing machine into that and sell it as a complete system. The 9700pro was modifd to take a waterblock so thats would have to come out and the 9800 all-in-wonder put in.

If I go this route the coolermaster bundle would be my best bet as I get heatsink, case fans, round cables and lights thrown in.

To keep both options open I think I will get the following.

Hercules 3D Prophet All-in-Wonder 9800SE
Samsung SP1614C 160gig Serial ATA Harddrive.
Hightech Radeon 9800 Pro IceQ
1GB Corsair TwinX 3200 LLPro
Coolermaster prize bundle.
MSI K8T NEO - FIS2R

Then its wait untill pug starts shipping and get new waterblocks :D and build an athlon64 based system B) Looks like I will get a complete upgrade and make a few quid at the same time.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

Nice one! :wub:

You should stick a DVD burner in their too for all those essential backups... :h34r:

[Knipex]

God but they are fast.

9:30am call from Custom PC to say they have the all in wonder in the post to me as Hercules donated the prize to them directly.

2pm Call from MSI to confirm my address and to let me know the board will be shipped tomorrow.

Lets see which marketing departments are fastest.

Custompc rules.....

[Starbuck3733T]

Man I wish I was a UK'r so I could enter this reader's contest!

[Knipex]

Starbuck

Im not in the U.K. either but they made an exception.

One exception means they can make 2. Go for it man.

[fillip]

hmmmm....

UK ----> Ireland

UK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> U.S.

In all fairness, since CustomPC would have to include N. Ireland in their comp, they could hardly say no to crossing the border.

But he's right, don't get anything unless you try.

[Starbuck3733T]

yeah, but do you think goliath (when done, which is taking a while) is worthy?

[Grand Monkey]

goliath is a very cool project so i don't see why not! maybe you could start a trend and we could have international readers section, its cool to see whats going on all over as far as i'm concerned.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

I'll pretend its my project and you can have the glory and i'll take the prizes! :D

[fillip]

lol @ da_rude_baboon

Yeah go for it Star PCExtreme showcases work from around the world so theres no reason why custompc shouldnt too and you're more than capable of producing a case to win reader's drives.

INFACT... I'm laying down a challenge to everyone @ WizD!!! how many modders from these forums can get their work into CustomPc? Imagine if the next 12 mnths were just full of work from people from here??

Total wizD domination....


of 2 pages in a random monthly publication anyway. ;)

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

Its funny you should say that Fillip as i have a project planned specifically to try and get into readers drives lol. Its based around a mATX case i salvaged which has loads of modding potential. I'm house buying just now though, so when i've found a place, hopefully with some workspace, i'll go for it. :)

On the Beat The Office PC i wrote them a letter about that but they never published it or replied. Its a great idea but there should be a decent weighting or handicap system. As it stands at the moment the only people who have a chance of winning would already have a top of the range pc.

It would be better IMO to reward people who achieved an impressive overclock, or performance boost from more modest hardware as opposed to someone who took their 3.2 P4 to 3.6.

[Pug]

I've split this topic to here - http://www.wizdforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=235 to preserve the new sub-discussion on the BTO PC.

Didn't know whether to move the last post, so sorry if the continuity went... :mellow:


Back with Readers' Drives - I'm tempted to enter again with another different project in future. Not for a fair while, mind. ;)
Are there any other UK compos like this one?

[toby]

how long did it take for you guys to get your prizes? I requested my prizes the day i got my copy and am desperate to get my hands on them!

[Pug]

Mine took a while but it was a little complicated with me moving house in the middle of it.
I think Knipex's was sorted in a matter of a couple of weeks but I'm sure he'll confirm this. :)

[toby]

the ram was delivered today but i was out when the delivery man came, i missed the ups guy by three minutes which obviously infuriated me and the lady at ups i spoke to when i phoned up was not very nice:rant: But i got an email today from catherine at custom saying that my prizes should be delivered soon:)

[Knipex]

One prize came direct from custom pC so I had that in 2 days.

Coolermaster were on the ball and got that the day after.

Then it took a call to Catherine and the ram and Harddrive arrived last week.

Still waiting on the 9800Pro......:mad:

[toby]

i love free stuff so i cant wait for my prizes!