The (new) Official PC building thread!

I used to think that I am uniquely talented for pulling a thread off topic with just a few choice words, but suddenly I feel displaced, insignificant, and totally outdone.


Now back to cases. In my view a lot of people overspend on cases. Sometimes it's simply because they like the looks of a case which is a perfect legitimate reason since we all like to personalize our builds. Where things go are not so clear is when over thinking airflow. It is certainly important but over the years I haven't seen any great advantage of expensive fan laden cases over a properly ventilated inexpensive case. Some of the most experienced builders that I know rarely spend over $100 on a case without power, and many spend closer to about $70. They've all had successful and well thought out and effective builds just the same.

 

lmao
i hear that. well i'll try and do my part to make it easier for ya mods.lol

im on the old HP system right now. got the big red machine down right now. gonna take it to work with me and clean it up some and move some fans around maybe take a couple out and see what i get for air flow and temps. plus they got T1 connection there. gotta love some 1.2Mbs DLing...lol

Man is this thing slow.....the wife will see it now. she has been useing my puter for the last 3 weeks or so once she see's how slow this moves she will leave me alone about doing this build...

whats the advantage of a sound card?
Russ,Sam you have or had my same board would it be a good idea for a sound card with it???

 

I couldn't stand it any longer. newegg has the Q9450 on sale for $319.00 + free shipping with the use of a promo code. plus they give you 2 free games as a combo deal. I got em coming.

 

IMO i go for a case based on cable management, and ease of use.

 

you dog you....lol you gonna make me a copy of those games...lol

i wont lie i went the one that looked the best and the CHEAPEST...
plus i got lucky ang got a great case.

 

great Mort that will make two of us with the Q9450
mines built and there tweaking it out as i speak ,i should have it tomorrow

 

Soph,

did you see where they had your air conditioned case on sale for under $100 a while back. I'd like to buy just the a/c unit to install into another case, with some modifications of course.

the main reason I bought my CM stacker 830 evo case was the price. $110 after MIR + free shipping. I just couldn't pass that deal up. although they are a nice case (big) I would never pay the regular $250 retail price less shipping for one.

 

I bought a Sony Nec Optiarc drive from the GM too to replace my old and ailing litey. never tried a sony nec. better be good or I'll hunt the GM down (I know where he lives) I bought it on his recomendation even tho I've had good luck with liteys.

I can install the improvements/repairs all at the same time. that is as long as the GM has as good of shipping policy as newegg

 

I'm sure this is a dumb question for most of you but can a person save the same type of files on a SD card as they can on a usb thumb drive. my external hdd is full and I want to back up all my music/tunes. too much to fit on my 4gb thumb drives. off topic.....sorry.

 

Rob: I have no real problem with the onboard audio of the P35 board except for when playing games. Russ will also tell you how good it is for music and video etc.
Mort: To my knowledge, yes you can, I've had all sorts of things on there. Obviously as they're FAT, no 4GB+ files, but no problem if it's only 4 gigs to start with...
LOCO: lol, what did you do?

 

Yes I saw it someone on hounds pointed it out to me. I guess it never really caught on. To make one your self you just need to get your hands on to a decent peltier. ai've considered seeing if one will improve my water cooling. In my view the case was more novelty than anything else, but if you know me I just had to try it. I live in Florida and the choice is cranking out the central air or cooling the case I keep my thermostat at about 80 (27C)which seems to be enough to keep my case temps down without running the peltier. If I decide to do some serious batch encodes then I run it while I sleep. It can cool the inside of my case by as much as 6 to 10C depending on ambient room temp, but in the end I really didn't need it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...07&ih=010&category=42910&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1

I have a couple of NEC drives and they've been reliable.

 

Rob, and I thought it was just fine for playing games as well.

Of course, I don't have amazing speakers like you guys.

 

I had an ND-4570, getting on a bit now, worked fine until it was Starforced. Very noisy though...
Abuzar: The sound quality is fine, but it can't render many sounds at once, so sound-rich games like FEAR sound wrong, things like guns not making any noise when they fire, that sort of stuff.

 

onboard audio has come a long ways and is far superior to what it used to be. I tried a SB audigy in my asus P5W DH Deluxe and was quite disappointed as I couldn't tell/hear any difference. some mobo's now come with a sound card, supreme II audio with my rampage formula for example.

one difference between the two however is that onboard and even my supreme II audio card requires/robs resources/power from the system cpu where as an audio card has it's own cpu.

 

Do they all? Certainly the X-Fi Extreme Audio / Extreme Gamer series have their own CPUs, but cheap cards like the Audigy SE and X-Fi standard are pretty basic. To my knowledge they do still have CPUs, but I'm not sure on this, anyone know for cert?