The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Well, that's always been the case. There have been $1000 extreme edition CPUs since the start. Go back far enough and they just weren't called such. At one stage a P3 500mhz would set you back £600.

 

LOL! It isn't worth a red cent now though

 

Hey now, don't be saying that! I just spent Big Bucks for a 1.0GHz Coppermine P-III for a backup computer I made out of that server I had! Cost me all of $10.81 including shipping! LOL!! It even works quite well! ROFLMSOAO!!

Russ

 

Ok, perhaps that was a bit harsh. Even a 500Mhz processor has some use left

 

My iPod Touch has a 532MHz processor

 

anybody perfer these here?

Silent Pro
or ever used them?

http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/CoolerMaster_SilentPro-M_600w/index.shtml

 

I only have results for the 700W to go on, but the Silent Pro is better than anything Coolermaster have made before. It's more efficient, rivalling the top brands, it's geninely quiet - no competition for the best of the best, but quieter than the majority of PSUs, and as quiet as even the best units (Zalman, Nexus) up to 150W load, which should be idle for most systems. Electrically, it performs much better than Coolermasters of old.
Downside is it's quite pricey, at $105 for the 600W unit, and the 12V rail capacity is more in keeping with a 525W PSU. Generally, trying to get more than 400-450W out of this unit on a regular basis would be unwise due to this and the 55ºC+ temperatures the unit exhibits.
Ultimately, it's quiet, it's electrically solid, but at the end of it all it's still a Coolermaster, there are still better brands to buy from.

 

You know...we're never happy are we? I got a program running faster than its ever ran before, and im still saying COME ON!!! LOL! Apollo Divx to dvd. It is much quicker than it used to be. Before this quad, I was happy to see an hour long encode, maybe an hour and a half. Now im seeing 20 - 30 minutes, and im still jumping up and down for it to hurry LOL! Could you imagine, 4 phenom II's on one ATX board. WOW WOW WOW!!! Thats all I've got to say about that.

 

20-30mins to convert xvid to dvd? normal time for me is 11-14 mins. thats with a C2D. maybe you should try convertXtodvd. awsome program

 

LOL! Ive been looking into that, and another called Xilisoft video converter. Thanks!

 

Which HDD and motherboard manufacturers offers the best/longest warranty?

Also, if anyone is familiar, advice and/or opinions on this DVR card or others like it (not sure yet which brand is best) would be appreciated.

Considering this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100030

 

ha ha! I just bought another WD FALS 1Tb drive. You may be right creaky. And with the price being down on the drive, it gave me the right nudge

 

Hey dru3692 that looks like a business class video capture card that can use many cameras! I am no expert at all, but I have helped my friends at the local liquor store with their surveillance hardware when they were looking to upgrade.
Oman---Had to bring up hard drives didntcha...a few weeks ago I started experimenting with setting up Win7 on a new 30 GB OCZ Vertex SSD and compared it to a freshly format 30GB partition of a new Samsung Spinpoint (HD103UJ) I had laying around. I had to post the results since builds with SSD's havent been discussed...

SAMSUNG


Vertex


There are a few tweaks you need to do to keep your OS from excessive writes to your disc (XP, Vista, not so much other resource hungry OS) because writes slow these things down quicker than a regular hard drive. You cant do continual benchmarks, you will see a noticable speed degradation due to the writing of the different size chucks it then reads. firmware updates are fixing that and there is a program a "wiper" of sorts that you can manually run until firmware+win7 makes it seamless.

 

Hey dru3692 that looks like a business class video capture card that can use many cameras! I am no expert at all, but I have helped my friends at the local liquor store with their surveillance hardware when they were looking to upgrade.
O-man---Had to bring up hard drives didntcha...a few weeks ago I started experimenting with setting up Win7 on a new 30 GB OCZ Vertex SSD and compared it to a freshly format 30GB partition of a new Samsung Spinpoint (HD103UJ) I had laying around. I had to post the results since builds with SSD's havent been discussed...

SAMSUNG


Vertex


There are a few tweaks you need to do to keep your OS from excessive writes to your disc (XP, Vista, not so much other resource hungry OS) because writes slow these things down quicker than a regular hard drive. You cant do continual benchmarks, you will see a noticable speed degradation due to the writing of the different size chucks it then reads. firmware updates are fixing that and there is a program a "wiper" of sorts that you can manually run until firmware+win7 makes it seamless.

 

Hey, I've been wanting to build my own PC for a while now, Can anyone tell me if these parts will work well together?

DVD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136144
CASE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119188&Tpk=coolermaster 331
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145233
Video: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125269
Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171028
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104073
MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128382&Tpk=ud3h
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471

All good?

 

OK. My thoughts are, you have a pretty cheap build going on there. But know this. You get what you pay for. I don't mean to insult, TOTALLY not insulting you. Fact of the matter is ive been there.

In my opinion, you can get a better hard drive for a few more dollars. Larger cache, and longer warranty. for only 15$ more. The Western Digital FALS 1Tb drive. If you've had trouble with Western digital in the past, im sorry to hear that. It is fairly rare after all. Seagate on the other hand, I hear nasty things about all the time.

The motherboard: I think your processor would fair better with a 790 northbridge. Help me out guys??? Your board may only BARELY handle the PhenomII. I dont know myself.

The Power Supply: I would spend more on that component. Its arguably the heart of a computer. And Cooler masters are not praised for there skills in manufacturing a power supply LOL! Stick with Corsair, or PC Power And Cooling. They appear to Know how to make quality PSU's!

Everything else looks good though

 

Tap_paT,
I agree with Omegaman7 as far as the hard drive goes. The Hitachi's are a bit on the noisy side. The Warranty on the WDs and the Seagates is better.
Power Supply. If you are going to go that inexpensive for a PSU, get the 500w one. It's a newer and better design. It's what I'm using at the moment. That particular 460 is and older design, and what they used to include with their cases that came with PSUs.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171031
Case. Form vs Function. This one is along the same style, but has better airflow than the one you chose! It comes with 2 120mm fans, instead of one, and the drive cooling is superior in every way! The sideways HDD drive bays expose a wider cross section to the airflow, and cool much better. I also have this case and love it!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119106

What I did with mine, is move the Rear Fan to the front as an intake to cool the HDDs and replaced the rear with one of these to compliment the front blue lights.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220031
I also added a Scythe Kama Bay fan to the front which takes up my lower three 5.25" bays! Leave out the filter as it's a major chore to clean, and not worth the effort of having to remove the whole thing evey time it needs cleaning!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185020

It all has made for a cool and very quiet computer!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Just a quick note of thanks to omegaman7 for his help with my new desktop Wallpaper. it's perfect!
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/8140/dragonwafer25603.jpg

Thanks again Oman7!

Russ

 

No prob russ. I LOVE the graphics programs, and Im happy that your happy as well. Probably one of my favorite things about computers. You don't have to be a Picasso to create a work of art

 

Oman7,
Here's where I show my age! I got started with graphics back in 1985 on an Atari ST-1024, using a program called Degas that came bundled with the computer! LOL!!

Thanks again,
Russ