The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Thanks Russ!

Andrew

 

Well creaky...what ever the problem was with the last board, this one just broke the 2TB threshold!!! VERY pleased! Tell me this isnt a beautiful site/Picture!

 

OMG!!! Yup. The phenom is a genuine FREAK!!! Its showing to be OVER twice as fast as the 5200 via dvd shrink bitrate! From Raptor to FALS drive went EXTREMELY QUICK. Where I believe it would have taken the 5200 atleast 10-15 minutes(8-10 MAYBE), the phenom just did it in 4 min 8sec!!! Whats more, it only used 75% of the cpu according to Task manager!!!

Hey russ, Have you ever seen the HAF in person? Its blue led's on top of the case could be considered Night lights, LOL! Serious, I had to block the power on indicator last night. Yes, even with my eyes closed, it was too bright! BELIEVE IT!!! Ive been toying with the notion of finding a thin Red plastic Film, to run inside there. That way theoretically it would yield a purple indicator! What do you think? LOL, think im obsessed!

 

Oman7,
I think a lot of cases are like that now. Between the Power light and when my HDD light tics, every few minutes, it's like a flash went off! LOL I block it with one of the speakers if I leave it on all night, otherwise it wakes me up!

Glad you like the Phenom II! I want one! LOL!! I can't wait to see what mine looks like with my monitor at the right resolution. I just hope they shipped the MB today!

Russ

 

Man...your gonna LOVE it! I ran rebuilder before work. CCE 3 Pass. The full process took only 43 min! The encode only took 30 minutes! If my drives were even quicker...OH MAN!!! I dont even think that 3 pass is really needed! So rebuilder just became a relatively quick process!!! Reduction for dvd was roughly 60% of orginal. Thoroughly IMPRESSED!!! I must admit, I was not prepared for that capability! Its almost as though it SHINES to encoding abilities. Like it was built with it in mind!

@eparker89, By the way. Out of the blue, it just gave me the option for DUALVIEW mode which allows me to configure each monitor separately! Most unusual that it should MAGICALLY appear, LOL!

 

Oman7,
Wait until you overclock it! LOL!! Here's some reading for you! LOL!! Trust me, it's a very interesting test and will teach you a bit about overclocking your CPU, if you so desire!
http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/cpu/phenom-2-overclocking-p1.html
It also includes Our motherboard with the 940 in it! Excellent reading!

Russ

 

Yes, it is pretty interesting reading. If im reading it correctly, 4.0GHZ should be fairly easily achieved! And at no considerable temperature increase! WOW, a 33% increase is rather phenomenal with no voltage increase? I dont believe they mentioned upping the Vcore. Except that the Red OCCT image at the bottom of the page shows 1.51! Is that the voltage they used for all the testing? I sure dont wanna Bump the voltage to its Maximum recommended limit.

 

Haha, 4Ghz on stock voltage? Impossible, even for a Phenom II. 1.51V sounds a bit more likely, and that will have coolers like the Ultra-120 Extreme running burning hot to the touch. 200mV increase on 100W chips makes them put out up to 200W of heat at full load.

 

I was asking

 

Oman7,
I think you are a little over optimistic there! LOL!! I think more like around 3.7GHz. More like 26% or so! Now with water cooling, 4GHz or more is possible! Because water cools better, the CPU voltage can be reduced as there's less heat to cause the problems, the higher voltage overcomes!

Check the voltage with CPUZ. occt is not always correct. In fact check it with Everest. With mine, I found the voltage in Everest and the voltage in the setup matched perfectly! I've noticed that the voltage regulation on this motherboard, is superior to any motherboard I've ever owned! Vdroop, is virtually non existent! We experienced a short Brow-Out the other day, and I was surprised that the VRMs were able to handle it without a re-set, but they did! That's a first, BTW! We get a fair number of brownouts here in So Cal, usually when they are shifting power around on the grid. Most usually last just a few seconds, but always re-set the computers. This one lasted about 8 seconds and dimmed the lights pretty good! LOL!! I hit post reply to save my post. Wonder of Wonders, it didn't reset, saved the reply, and I was able to continue, using edit! To anybody who saw that post last week, no I'm not losing it! LOL!! Besides, what can you say about a guy who's Window's Start sound is the "Looney Toons" Themesong! ROFLMAO.

I'm also impressed with the Power Supply that came with the Centurion Case. I though it not as good as the Thermaltake I had before, but maybe I was wrong! The Thermaltake had Passive PFC, while this 460w dual rail has none. But the Cooler Master is totally superior because the voltage supplied from the PSU varies + or - .01mv! That's It! Remarkably solid voltages for a $39-$49 PSU! The friend who bought it from me, said the same thing! I bought the Cooler Master 500w one to replace it! Same design, but electrically more Heavy Duty, with 40w more power. Cost me nothing but time, and I took a step forward! Forward is Good! ROFLMSOAO!!

Russ

 

LOL. I think I was referring to the following:

Perhaps I am being overly optimistic LOL. But hey, its ok to dream right? LOL

 

You'd be surprised how much a PSU can handle in a brownout, a lot more than most electrics in a house!

 

Sam,
I know that, but 99.9% of the time, just a few seconds is enough to reboot it! This was a good 8 seconds and the computer never flinched. Oxi rebooted, but mine didn't The screen got a little weird, like it was on some psychedelic drugs, but it came back up as soon as the power came back up! Needless to say I was both surprised and very impressed! That tells me that the PSU's Capacitors are darn good and very heavy duty! Remember too that I have a Boost Transformer on the line because of the low voltages here. I built a voltage regulator for it and it maintains 113v to 115v down to about a 92-93v input! Below that it just shuts down so it doesn't damage what it's connected to! Once the voltage is right, the voltage regulator will reset itself after 5 seconds. At least that was the plan when I designed it last year! Now I know it all works and can handle a moderate load, even in a decent brownout! LOL!!

Oh! Say hello to my little Friend! If you move side to side, you can just see it's eyes flash Red!

Russ

 

I would hate to live in an area with power problems like that. As for the PC's resilience, the capacitors are certainly very large value, it doesn't necessarily mean they're heavy duty... Of all three of the 850W+ units I tried for Quad CF, the BeQuiet was the only unit not up to the task, but it was also the unit that stayed on in standby by far the longest after I pulled the plug...

 

omegaman7, yeah three passes aren't really nessesary using DVD Rebuilder,also a 10,000 RPM HDD will help you're times. thats the only thing i didn't do on this machine that i wished i did. i will be adding a 10,000 RPM HDD soon though

 

LOL. I have a 74GB raptor, But I dont trust it anymore! Its caused lockups, slowdowns...its coming out. I had to be sure. I installed XP on it the other day, it didnt last long. Besides, i'd like to try a Veloci as soon as possible

 

Hmm, unlucky. So far so good with both my 37s...

 

So in your opinion, luck is not on my side LOL. You can say it.
1. im a WD fan for life!
2. im open minded

Seriously though. This is my first Raptor drive. I bought it used on ebay though. Not the way I should have gone im sure! In my opinion, 10,000 rpm's runs a drive to death. What do you think of that? Regardless, I want a veloci BAD!!! give it to me straight

 

Both my 37s are getting on a bit now, and they have lived longer than a lot of 7200s do...

 

I wish WD would produce a Solid state disk. LOL, They probably already are. It doesnt take a genius to realize that mechanical drives days are numbered. I would hate to see a GREAT company like WD fall.

I think I may just bite the bullet and give one a shot. Maybe two!