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FunkyBacon
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Post by FunkyBacon » Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:03 am

Finally convinced my wife to let me build a new PC. I'm stoked, just ordered all the parts tonight!

The machine I'm on right now I built in 2003... I remember boasting on the FFA boards about it after i turned it on for the first time, a nice home made machine that has served me well for 4 years.

It's actually still pretty decent, P4 2.9ghz (2.66 overclocked really) with a gig of ram and a GeForce 6800 GS. But when it comes to some of the newer games coming out this year, she's showing her age, so FBE1 will be retiring hopefully this weekend.

Her successor? Core2 Duo E6550 (2.33 mhz with the 1333 mhz FSB) 2 gigs DDR2 800mhz, GeForce 8500 GT PCIe GPU, and a 500 gig hard drive.

Price tag? $900 for everything including the shipping. I just have to build it. It ends up being about the same price my current machine cost me in 2003

Man I can't wait.
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Xanien
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Post by Xanien » Tue Aug 07, 2007 7:07 am

Freaking sweet . . . pics when you finish? :D
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Chewi
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Post by Chewi » Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:59 am

Heh I actually remember you going on about that last machine. Despite what you might expect, that stuff usually sends me to sleep though. Okay, so your machine is fast, do you want a medal? It'll be shit in two months time anyway. :P I'm more interested in squeezing every last drop out of old machines. *pats his Amiga 1200*
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FunkyBacon
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Post by FunkyBacon » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:09 pm

Chewi wrote:Heh I actually remember you going on about that last machine. Despite what you might expect, that stuff usually sends me to sleep though. Okay, so your machine is fast, do you want a medal? It'll be shit in two months time anyway. :P I'm more interested in squeezing every last drop out of old machines. *pats his Amiga 1200*
It's more about the fact that new games are starting to play like shit on my old machine. Take Company of Heroes for example, my present favorite game. I have to play it on mid settings, and even then it only runs half decent in a 1v1 skirmish on a smaller map, getting a decent frame rate (and by decent I mean a very modest 25fps or higher) on larger maps with 2v2 or greater is nigh impossible. I tried playing Vanguard on this beast and it was a slideshow.

I'm not one of those guys who is like "ZOMG 120FPS EAT IT!" But I don't think I'm asking for much when I'd like to play new games at 30 with the details turned up enough that they don't look like they're being rendered by an old PS1. This new machine should fit the bill nicely.

As much as I applaud you trying to get the most out of your amiga, I doubt it could even touch Coy.
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Matt
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Post by Matt » Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:34 am

I've just got myself a new PC. Duo 6600 2x2.4 and 2GB 800mhz RAm, but only a 7300GT. I'm thinking of getting another of those and using the SLI capability, because even though it's 512mb GDDR2, it still won't run that smoothly.
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FunkyBacon
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Post by FunkyBacon » Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:38 pm

Matt wrote:I've just got myself a new PC. Duo 6600 2x2.4 and 2GB 800mhz RAm, but only a 7300GT. I'm thinking of getting another of those and using the SLI capability, because even though it's 512mb GDDR2, it still won't run that smoothly.
Ohhh, that's nearly identical to mine, I went with the E6550 over the 6600 though because even though it's 2.33ghz compared to 2.4, it's got the faster 1333 FSB instead of the 1066 or whatever the 6600 has, which in my limited PC knowledge I think means less bottlenecking in the memory and faster overall response time between the processor and components... I think.
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FunkyBacon
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Post by FunkyBacon » Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:47 pm

It's ALIVE! As of this morning new PC codenamed FBE2 is alive and kicking... now begins the tedium of installing new software, ugh. It took over an hour just to transfer my document, photo and music files from the old machine... and several problems getting this thing off the ground...

Windows XP prior to SP2 didn't support Dual Core Processors didja know? Yeah well headaches ensued, but I figured it out because I'm smart like that. Damn this thing is a beast compared to the old one though.
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Matt
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Post by Matt » Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:21 pm

FunkyBacon wrote:Ohhh, that's nearly identical to mine, I went with the E6550 over the 6600 though because even though it's 2.33ghz compared to 2.4, it's got the faster 1333 FSB instead of the 1066 or whatever the 6600 has, which in my limited PC knowledge I think means less bottlenecking in the memory and faster overall response time between the processor and components... I think.

As far as I can tell that leaves less room for overclocking. If you had a 1333FSB motherboard and my 6600, you could overclock the 2.4 to a 3.0 without risking damaging the motherboard. Currently I switch mine between 1460 (3.4) and the factory set. Usually when I'm playing games :D

You could probably get yours to about 3.6, safely, though :D
Last edited by Matt on Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Stephanie
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Post by Stephanie » Sun Aug 12, 2007 1:31 am

Woah..yeah brain damage trying to read this convo. wooo
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FunkyBacon
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Post by FunkyBacon » Sun Aug 12, 2007 2:07 am

Matt wrote:As far as I can tell that leaves less room for overclocking. If you had a 1333FSB motherboard and my 6600, you could overclock the 2.4 to a 3.0 without risking damaging the motherboard. Currently I switch mine between 1460 (3.4) and the factory set. Usually when I'm playing games :D

You could probably get yours to about 3.6, safely, though :D
Mmm... I seem to bve having heat issues though. My temp just running windows right now on the processor is 46 C, but playing a game it can get up into the 85-90 C range. I'm not a huge fan of the CPU fan and the way it attaches to the MB, I had to REALLY press those plastic snapper things in there and I still don't think they're holdong the heat sink down tight enough... and I think that is the problem. It's not coming off, and is on there snug enough that it's not moving, but if I press them in much harder I'm afraid I'll crack the MB. I did manually apply a little more pressure to the sink and the temp came down quite a bit... not sure what to do.

Any ideas?
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Chewi
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Post by Chewi » Sun Aug 12, 2007 9:15 am

The thermal paste can make a big difference. Applying it well is very important.
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FunkyBacon
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Post by FunkyBacon » Sun Aug 12, 2007 4:18 pm

Chewi wrote:The thermal paste can make a big difference. Applying it well is very important.
Mmm, I'm thinking of ordering some extra. Now the fan unit came with a sort of grey squish on it already, in three rather precise looking shapes. After attaching the fan they squished to cover most of the contact between the fan and CPU... maybe it just needs more.
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Xanien
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Post by Xanien » Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:12 pm

I stopped by the Apple Store today and checked out their new iMacs with the super thin screens . . . the smallest is a 20inch (huge freaking size compared to my 12 inch iBook), but it's got lots of goodies. I wonder if I should buy it at the 175,000 yen price though. I could get a teacher's discount down to 158,000 though I think (that's with 2GB ram, 250 GB storage space, dual core processor, DVD burner/player, built in mic and camera, iLife software, etc etc). It's so expensive but damn sexy.

Anybody seen them yet? And besides the price, what do you think about the design and all that?
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FunkyBacon
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Post by FunkyBacon » Tue Aug 14, 2007 1:17 pm

Well 2 questions. First how is it for gaming, and second... what does that translate roughly to in $$?
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Matt
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Post by Matt » Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:20 pm

Using the stock fan on my machine. The ambient temp was about 36C, 39 if I overclocked. Then I put my massive heatsink onto it and had the fans go full whack, that made it about 32C, even overclocked.

But 45 seems way high. Are you in a warm room? Is the case in a well ventilated place? Have you considered buying some extra fans? An exhaust fan would help a lot. Usually at the top end of the case (heat rises)

The thermal paste that came with the stock fan was just fine for me.
Last edited by Matt on Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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