My build

[PrinzII]

I want to get your opinions of the machine I am currently building.

Case: Supercase ATX case that originally housed a Socket 370 mobo. Bought from a friend of mine for $50.

Power Supply: Antec TP2 550*
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931)

Motherboard: ABIT KN8*
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127221 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127221)

Case Fans: 2 COOLER MASTER TLF-S82-EW 80mm Sleeve White LED Light Case Cooling Fans*
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999068 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999068)

Top Blowhole: mnpctech's 92 mm blowhole kit
http://www.mnpctech.com/mnpctechblowhole.html (http://www.mnpctech.com/mnpctechblowhole.html)
Fan: Still searching for silent White LED fan. Aerocool Silver Lightning 92 mm is 29db.

Side Blowhole: 120 mm (I want a kit similar to the mnpctech 92 mm)
Fan: Aerocool Turbine 120 mm
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835129242


Processor: AMD Opteron 165

Hard Drive #1: Seagate 300 GB SATA Hard Drive
Hard Drive #2: Seagate 500 GB SATA Hard Drive
Hard Drive #3: Seagate 200 GB PATA Hard Drive (Moving from current PII 350)

All drives are the 7200.9 series.

Video Card: BFG Tech BFGW68256GTOCXV Geforce 6800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143029

DVD Burner: Lite-On SHM-165H6S BG
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106023

Combo Drive: Lite-On SOHC-5236V
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106993

2 GB OCZ, Kingston, or Crucial DDR 400 RAM

Firewire Card: StarTech 2 Port FireWire 800 & 1 Port + 1 Internal Firewire 400 PCI Express Card Model PEXFW800_3 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16815158037

Hauppage TV Tuner Card

Mitsumi Floppy Drive

US Robotics 56K modem (Faxing only)

Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum (Buying off of a friend of mine)

I am also planning on round IDE cables and sleeving for the other cables in the system to make things neater and enhance airflow.

Let me know what you guys think of it.

[Reitau]

Some more detail on the case would be cool, personally I would prefer a 120MM inlet fan and another for output at the rear, so a bit of modding might be needed :dremel:


Hard Drive #3: Seagate 200 GB PATA Hard Drive (Moving from current PII 350)


A P2 ran that??

[cobalt6700]

i would suggest the first card in this list: clicky (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010380048+1069609641+1305520548 +50001669+1067920129&Submit=ENE&Manufactory=1669&SubCategory=48)
as its only $30 more, and the 7900gt is one mutha of a card.

plus XFX seem to be a better perfomer, and they use quality components (my BFG 7900gt crapped out after 3 day, no reason what so)

plus for that extra $30 you get 24 pixel pipesm, and a rather good bump on the clocks. it runs a lot cooler as well.

the rest looks ok, seagate is a good choice! :D

gaz

edit -- even the third card down looks good, and is the same price! super!

[jaguarking11]

I second gaz on this. 7900gt is one hell of a card. And easly kills the 6800gt in performance.

[bobvillain]

++ on the 7900gt

[PrinzII]

Some more detail on the case would be cool, personally I would prefer a 120MM inlet fan and another for output at the rear, so a bit of modding might be needed :dremel:



A P2 ran that??

Yep. A PII 350 ran that drive without much incident. The PII had W2K and 384 MB RAM.

I'll have to wait until I get home to get you guys more detail on the case in question.

The key things I can tell you about it are:

7 drive bays (4 5.25, 3 3.5)
2 mounting points for 80 mm fans (1 exhaust, 1 intake)
Has 7 expansion slots.
Color: White/Putty with purple stripe on front.

In addition, I have changed video cards. There's a guy on a forum that is selling a 7800 GT NIB. I am talking with him about it now.

[PrinzII]

BTW, I am considering purchasing a SATA 250 GB HD to replace the 200 IDE. I may put the 200 IDE into my Dell GX 110.

[PrinzII]

Considering that Seagate is coming out with 750 GB hard drives, I am changing the drives. I am going to install a 500 GB and then two 750s.

[2JSC]

Looks like a monster setup, especially the HDD's... I have that Lite-On Combo drive(in black), and its nice. Quite, and super fast, have yet to make a coster out of 50 or so burns.

++ to the 7900GT referance as well.

[PrinzII]

I think I'll look at the 7900s because I am getting fed up with waiting for someone to give me specs on a 7800 that he has.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

I would also consider a different PSU as the Antecs have not been testing well recently.

[PrinzII]

Really? What's been happening to them?

[PrinzII]

Update:

Got my optical drives in and my gf liked my DVD burner to the point she's absconded it for her computer. She did tell me that she's going to replace the one she absconded.

This week is the BIG week. I am ordering the processor and the RAM. I have changed the RAM to G.Skill since I am interested in slightly overclocking it.

Also, the hard drives have changed. I am looking at a 500 GB HD as the primary and one of the Seagate 750s as a secondary. Down the line, I will add a second 750.

The video card is now a XFX GeForce 7900 GT based card.

Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming!

[cobalt6700]

ahh good choice on the GFX.

nice HDD's as well. i like seagates. :D

have fun!

[CandyKid]

Antec's quality has been going downhill for some time now and I don't reccommend using their PSU's anymore.

As always: PC Power & Cooling > Tagan > Fortron/FSP/Sparkle > OCZ (IMHO)

PLUR
CK

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

I am running G.Skill in my PC and have been very impressed with it after some intial worries about its stability. Turned out to be my motherbaord in the end.

[PrinzII]

Update:

I got my replacement DVD burner in last night and threw it in there. After that, I removed the thermal pad of the stock heatsink with Goo Gone. After the Goo Gone, I polished the heatsink using 3M light cut rubbing compound (designed to take out 1200 grit scratches) and followed up with Klasse All In One polish.

I read about the rubbing compound for lapping and it works pretty well. Next up will be the video card and the hard drive.

I am also entertaining the 500 GB Western Digital.

[fivecheebs]

Make sure you take off all of that polish with some IPA, or you could seriously inhibit the thermal conenction.

[PrinzII]

I am going to pick up some denatured alcohol to clean it.

[Fibbles]

I didn't see this before, but nice mobo choice, have got one myself :thumb:

Have also got a 530 watt Tagan Easy conn, but if I had the money I'd have gone with a PCP&C 510 Express or SLI made modular by Performance-PC's (or it would take me forever to DIY).

I wish I'd gone with a more overclocking friendly RAM (using 2 gigs of 2-3-2-5 OCZ DDR400).

[PrinzII]

Fibbles: I may consider something stronger PS wise for the F/C build I am planning. I have some friends who have built and G.Skill came highly recommend as OC friendly.

[Fibbles]

Fibbles: I may consider something stronger PS wise for the F/C build I am planning. I have some friends who have built and G.Skill came highly recommend as OC friendly.

Well, PC Power & Cooling have set the bar for PSU advancement lately and back in the day/the late 90's.

Thier Turbo Cool performance line goes all the way up to 1000 watts with versions for CrossFire, quad SLI and a basic model. Underneath that is the 850, then the 510 in 3 flavors as well.

The only downside are their noise levels and that's been an issue for years. They do have very quiet Silencer models, but they max out at 470 watts.

Another PSU I like are OCZ's Powerstream series (I don't think Fillip likes em though :huh: ).

Hrmm, Mushkin has a 650 watt PSU out. Funky!

[PrinzII]

That's the thing I am leery of when it comes to the PS for the Scelzi build. I want the computer to be powerful, not make the same noise levels as an actual funny car.

[fivecheebs]

^^ Tagan fits the bill perfectly then :thumb:

[PrinzII]

five: I looked at the Tagan. Pretty decent units. May also consider the PC Power & cooling 1Kw.

[ỒĊBłůē]

May also consider the PC Power & cooling 1Kw.
That's physically a damn big PSU - good luck mounting it.

[PrinzII]

The Opty system is up and running without a hitch....:toast:

I have been playing with it all evening.

[PrinzII]

Now, for the fun stuff. For the moment, I am running everything on a 40 GB Seagate. I am already loading my software and once completed, I intend to make a "ghost" copy of the current image and then load it on my 500 GB.

[PrinzII]

Case Mod Time:

I am a tad concerned about the airflow in my current case. I want to put a 92 mm blowhole up top (can fit between PSU and Optical Drives). Also, I want to get mnpctech's 92mm blowhole kit.

Also, cable management is a slight concern as well.

[fivecheebs]

Pug wrote a good guide to cable management somewhere, i'm sure the search will come up with something.

[PrinzII]

I'll check that out. Thanks, Cheebs. :D

[fivecheebs]

No probs..

Just incase you didnt find it, Here is the link (http://www.wizdforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=638&highlight=cable) :thumb:

[PrinzII]

BTW, Guys. I managed to get it overclocked to 2.16 GHz. I am working on extracting a little more out of it.

[PrinzII]

Well, gang, things are a changin'....

a) The Abit board recently bit the dust on me. PCIe x16 went bye-bye. Currently RMAed to Abit.
b) I got another computer that I am currently gutting out and modifying. I am taking the 550w PS out of this machine and putting it in the other. Replacing it with a modular 600-650 w PS.
c) While case is bare, the thought of adding the blowhole has resurfaced.