The Official PC building thread!

As for the Asus utility problem, turns out (According to Asus Tech Support) their ftp sites are continually flooded with download attempts thereby making them a rare catch...Convenient, eh?

 

Yeah. Can you not just HTTP it?

 

BigDK has been notable by his absence???
Hope he hasn't drowned his new comp!!!

 

Mmm, yeah.

 

sorry off topic i know.

bigdks pc is now in the cooling thread and it looks quite dry.

 

So that's where he's been!!
That's a nice looking setup he has there.Definitely no leaks !!!LOL!!!

 

looks quality to me.

it could be the best way to go if your thinking of water cooling your rig. getting all the part seperate not in a one kit fits all boxset.

 

Hi again to all!
I've obviously been busy, and have been taking my time, as I was determined to make the install as smooth as possible without getting wet.
I'm more than happy with results, and will post some more photos on a separate thread, so interested parties can either look deliberately or not, and avoid loading pictures they have no interest in from this thread, it will at least show exactly how I mounted it all without causing any real case damage, which was one of the starting objectives.
Also about to start another round of test today to see how far the system can be pushed and what benches I can get.
I'm more than happy to leave the system at its current overclock for the daily running of the system, as it doesn't seem to be putting any strain on anything.
I'm determined to crack the 4.0GHz barrier over the next few days, I can post the 4.0GHz, and boot to windows, but any major testing causes crashes.
Now I have the vmch mod, I'll start to crank up the NB voltage and see if that increases stability, as further increases of the CPU voltage are now shown as ineffective.

 

im going to start building a gaming pc when directx10 & vista comes out & would appreciate any ideas, opinions, advice & suggestions.. im a little unsure of whether these parts will be compatible with each other, but as far as i know they should be fine.. im going to get either the [bold]thermaltake armor va80003 bws case or the zalman zm-fc-ze1 fatal1ty champion series aluminium case, but am swaying towards the armor case..[/bold] i dont know whether to get the [bold]core 2 duo e6600 or amd athlon 64 x2 4600+ or an fx-60/62[/bold], a [bold]gigabyte ga-m59sli-s5 nforce 590 mobo(or the gigabyte 6 quad ga-965p-dq6 if i was to go with the core 2), 4gb a-data vitesta ddr2 1000+ or 4gb patriot pc2 6400 ram, 2x150gb wd raptorx sataII, 1x 750gb seagate barracuda hdd, tagan turbojet tg1100-495 1.1kw or the enermax galaxy ega 1000ewl 1kw psu, directx10 graphics card, 2x dvd writer capable of dual layer, aerocool powerwatch 4 channel fan controller with 25 in 1 card reader, thermaltake circlefire speaker & audio meter, & the creative soundblaster x-fi xtreme music sound card with front panel & remote (if they ship with the panel & remote)[/bold].. i was going to add my [bold]2gb corsair twinx xms matching pair ddr400 pc3200[/bold] ram until i found out id need [bold]ddr2 for the am2 motherboard..[/bold] i will add my [bold]harman/kardon soundsticks II[/bold] speakers as they are amazing & dont see anything better on the market just now & i like the way they look.. i was going to add [bold]liquid cooling[/bold], but am unsure of 3 things.. if ill have enough connectors for everything, if the parts will fit together & if im missing anything out. these are the parts:- [bold]zalman zm-wb3 or zm-wb4 gold cpu waterblock, danger den maze 4 chipset waterblock, thermaltake aquabay m4 hdd waterblock cl-w0082, thermaltake aquabay m1 liquid level & flow indicator cl-w0032, thermochill pa120.3 or thermaltake aquabay m1 1200mm cl-w0021 radiators, swiftech mcp-350 in line 12v dc pump, thermaltake aquabay m3 liquid tank cl-w0031, & x-treme h20 coolant 2oz or crazypc uv plasma blue reactive dye 2oz..[/bold] i would [bold]REALLY[/bold] appreciate any help at all, [bold]THANKS[/bold]

 

I'll take a look tomorrow if no one else has responded.
In the mean time, you need to make sure you post in one thread only, as it appears you are multi-posting the same questions in at least 3 threads (thats a no no!!).

 

ok, thanks creaky

 

I won't tell you what parts to buy, but I would as seen in sig go with the Intel chip and chipset board.
The Gigabyte GA 965P DQ6 is a top board.
You seem to list of lot of unrequired parts on your list, which will just sap power, add to the build time, and restrict airflow.
The Enermax is the best PSU available, but is far larger than normal PSUs so make sure any case you get will take it.
2 burners is overkill, and a rom drive will be faster for reading than a burner.

On the water cooling, then make sure any parts you get are compatible with the board you intend to fit them on, and avoid buying all the extra bits that don't actually help with the cooling such as gauges etc...
Thers no need to ensure the water is running beofre system power up, as the micro seconds involved will never cause any overheat, as the metal has to heat up and so does the water.
Go for as few parts as possible to avoid pressure drops in the system, and go for 1/2" fittings and tube.
Cooling chipsets and hdds is a waste of time and will make the main components (cpu and GPU suffer as a result).
Make sure the pump you get has a good flow rate and that it is quiet.
There are plenty of forum dedicated to extreme cooling and there are loads of reviews from proper end users that show what kit performs best.

 

ok thanks for the info.. looks like ill be getting the core 2 duo e6600, gigabyte 6 quad motherboard, the enermax psu, 1x burner, 1x rom drive, so you dont reccommend cooling the chipsets or hdds?? what ram do you reccommend & how well can the e6600 be overclocked? also, how can i find out if the liquid cooling parts i have picked out will fit onto the gigabyte 6 quad mobo? im getting the thermaltake armor va8003 bws case or the zalman zm-fc-ze1 fatal1ty champion seies all aluminium gaming case.. what case would you say is best? i noticed the armor case is set up for liquid cooling & has all the holes, parts etc.. so im swaying towards that... i was also thinking of getting another one of these cases & cutting the bottom half & welding the 2 cases together, as i seen it in this months custom pc magazine & it looks well smart.. the guy only had 2x geforce 6800gt, & an amd athlon fx-60, with liquid cooling.. he holds uk records for geforce 6800gt in 3dmark01, 3dmark03, 3dmark05, & 3dmark06.. any ideas, help or advice is always appreciated.... thanks

 

My 6600 is overclocked to 3.6 and is running very stable, passes all tests and is idling at 33/34`C.(best overclocking cpu I've ever had, but not all batches are the same).
I've had it to 4.1GHz but the system does not stay stable, it could be the board or the cpu, not sure yet.
I can run most bench tests at 3.9GHz and recorded my 13.11 sec superpi time with it at that.
Chances are any 6600 you get will easily clock well over 3.0GHz.
I had an FX60 before this setup and this just blows it away on everything I do, even with the overclocking I managed on the FX60.
Here is a list of PC setups and results, but it is quite out of date, the DQ6 should perform better with later BIOS releases.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1075792

I would always recommend Corsair memory, and if money was no object then it would be the Dominator series, obviously the better you can clock the memory the better you'll push the cpu.
Avoiding memory dividers is a must for serious clocking as systems don't perform as well using memory dividers.

You have to remember that the E6600 cpu only has a max multiplier of x9, so you need to work out the maths for the max clock speed you'll be happy with.
I run mine at FSB 400x9 giving me the 3.6GHz, and my memory is using a 1:1 divider so it runs at 400x2 (ddr) giving me ddr800, so I would recommend ddr800 at least.
Its then a matter of how tight the timings are on the memory at that speed, the tighter you want them to go the more costly the memory will be.
The Geil memory I'm using is proven to clock to 1100mhz, and starts off with low latencies, so even after they are loosened to allow the higher clock speeds, they are still very good.
I've seen people using Geil on Gigabyte boards, but you need to Google around to see if there are any issues with the memory you decide on being used in that board.
General opinion is that the Storm4 cpu block is about as good as it gets, although the finish is not as mirrored as I would have liked, so I lapped it myself to 1500 grit finish, its very easy to fit and quite heavy duty.
The parts I would recommend you concentrate on are the CPU block, GPU block, pump, radiator & fans, reservoir, hose and coolant.
I'm writing an overview on how mine was put together which I'll post later today if I get time, it will list all the parts and fittings.

PSU Dimensions are 150 x 86 x 220 mm, but I haven’t got a clue if the cases you want will take it without being modded.

 

My aim before this latest upgrade was to try and crack the PCMark05 10K barrier.
Have now cracked the 10K mark in PCMark05 with some room to spare, next is the 11K mark.
This PC is now at number 149 out of all 69092 PCs posted scores on the site, would like to make the top 100, but see that as some way off at the moment, if not totally unrealistic.

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...urner&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1140392418231

is this a good dvd burner for things such as backing up and burning ps2 games, Note: i didnt know which forum to put this in so sorry in advance for a possible mix up

edit: which is better for the price this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...t&productCategoryId=cat01041&id=1155071080809
or the one above

 

so stick with the pioneer?