Upgraded PC running like a dream

dualmeister

dualmeister

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So I finally got around to upgrading my PC after more than 2 years. Not normal for me since I used to upgrade every 4 months :o

Old rig that served me well:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
MSI Platinum P965 Platinum
2 GIGS Team Xtreem DDR2 800 MHZ
Gecube Radeon X1900XT
IDE DVD Writer
a few hard drives
1000WATT CoolerMaster PSU
24" Dell LCD screen

New specs:

Intel Nehalem Core i7 920
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php/photo/7942/size/big/cat//ppuser/11624
ASUS P6T Deluxe
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php/photo/7946/size/big/cat//ppuser/11624
6 GIGS GSkill DDR3 1600MHZ
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php/photo/7989/size/big/cat//ppuser/11624
Gecube Radeon HD4850 1GIG OC version
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php/photo/8021/ppuser/11624
Samsung SATA DVD-RW
2 x Seagate 1.5TB hard drives
1 x Seagate 1TB hard drive
1 x Hitachi 1TB hard drive
1 x Hitachi 500GIG hard drive
1 x 320GIG hard drive
1000WATT CoolerMaster PSU
24" Dell LCD screen

Assembled.
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php/photo/8032/size/big/cat//ppuser/11624

The timing did not help with the exchange rate being what it is at the moment. :(

But, stuff it. It was well worth some people not getting presents this year :D

Was going to go with 3 GIGS of RAM until I realized I could import 6 GIGs for the same price (even at current exchange rate)! The memory and ASUS's BIOS both support Intel's XMP profiles so once enabled the timings are optimized for best performance.

Decided to finally move over to Vista Ultimate 64 Bit due to the amount of RAM. The installation turned out to be quiet a headache. Could not get Vista to see my HDD properly even after trying to load the ICH10 chipset drivers. Turns out it does not like my SATA DVDRW. Switched to my USB DVDRW and Vista installed quickly and smoothly.

Being a Quad Core CPU with "Hyperthreading" windows sees 8 cores which looks really sweet.

http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php/photo/8018/size/big/cat//ppuser/11624

Decided to rather go with a HD4850 1GIG instead of a HD4870, because I want to add a VelociRaptor or SAS drive still (ASUS P6T Deluxe has 2 x SAS ports). My current HDD is the reason Vista is scoring only 5.7 in that benchmark.

The ASUS P6T Deluxe is an awesome board with tons of features. The triple channel memory at 1600MHZ produces tons of memory bandwidth. Even Windows Vista feels quick and responsive for a change.

This now feels like an UPGRADE and was well worth it :D
 
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Dude if your interested i am selling my 300gb velociraptor for 1.9k :)

Looks like a decent enough pc just need a better windows hdd to be honest :). People forget about hard drives when they have a top end pc but have a top end hard drive is as awesome as having a top end cpu :).
 
Wow, nice setup you got there now. Would also like to know what you paid for everything. Nice job on the inside though, all neat and tidy!
 
killadoob said:
Dude if your interested i am selling my 300gb velociraptor for 1.9k :)
Click to expand...

Tempting, but it will have to wait till January for now :D

Would also like to know what you paid for everything.
Click to expand...

The mobo, CPU, RAM and GFX cost me about R9000 after selling my old PC's components. The rest I've had for a while already and some of the stuff was donated :p

I'm interested as to why you don't get one of the Solid state drives? those things are not just quick, but ultra responsive!
Click to expand...

I did consider one. The 74 GIG Seagate 15.5K rpm 4.5ms access time SAS drive is still very competative though when you compare the speed and storage space. But, who knows still ........
 
That graphics card seem a bit too "slow" for the rest of the system. Do you game a lot at 24" res?

In any case awesome PC, I'd rather not know the cost really. :(
 
Well raptors and SAS drive performs about the same if you ask me.

SSD hard drives for the win :). 0.1 access time :p, they make SAs and raptor look old.
 
I think I should become your friend for when you upgrade again and decide to donate :p
j/k
 
Wow nice rig.. i`m going to wait and see what the deal is with intel's Larrabee before i upgrade
 
cerebus said:
So did you sell the old rig?
Click to expand...

Most of it yes.

Well, I decided to run some synthetic benchmarks last night and when I compare them to some online results they don't look too shabby at all :)

My 3DMark06 score was about 13500.

Not bad when an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 + HD4870x2 is scoring 13231 here.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2304&page=6

My 3DMark Vantage score is 7999.

Not too bad when a standard HD4850 + Core 2 Extreme QX9770 is scoring 6162 over here.
http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/hardware/1788_10.html

So yeah happy with my HD4850 1GIG. :D
 
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