[Stealth]

So I went to Austin the other day... visit some friends in UT.  i brought this POS Pentium M 1.6 ghz, 512MB RAM laptop, which sucks.  after 6 hours of trying to install WoW, and then giving up and trying to play Wc3 instead, i realized i'd wasted all my time, because the computer was too slow.

That said, i got home 6 AM Saturday morning (left Austin at 3).  Woke up at 3 PM Saturday afternoon, and decided it was high time I got another computer.  Started buying yesterday, and today i've got most of the parts. 

This is the most powerful computer i've built to date, and i'm betting is the most powerful anyone on this forum has.  Pictures posted are of the actual item i bought.  What think:

-- Processor Fan
Zalman CNPS9500 LED
http://www.ccsolutionz.com/ebayimages/CPUs/Fans/Zelman.jpg

-- Motherboard
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
http://usa.asus.com//100/images/products/744/744_l.jpg

-- RAM
2 GB (2x1GB)PC-3500 Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPro (RAM is designed for highest performance with the A8n32-sli deluxe, and vice-versa)
http://corsair.com/corsair/products/specs/TWINX2048-3500LLPRO.pdf

-- Video Card (DO NOT HAVE YET)
nVidia 7800GTX

-- Processor (DO NOT HAVE YET)
Athlon 64FX -55

-- OS
Windows XP Professional

-- Optical Media
2x SONY Black DVD-R (16x DVD-R, 16x DVD-ROM, 48x CD-ROM, 48x CD-R, 24x CD-RW)
http://i15.ebayimg.com/02/i/05/71/db/d5_1_b.JPG

-- Hard Drives
2x Maxtor 300 GB SATA drives in RAID 1 configuration (striped)
http://i10.ebayimg.com/03/i/05/81/78/a2_1.JPG

-- Case and Power Supply
Mid-ATX case with 600W SATA ready power supply
http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sell/SSProfiles/30058001/Images/CA328BK.jpg

-- Mouse and Mouse Pad
Razer Diamondback Plasma LIMITED edition with Razer Exactmat pad
http://www.razerzone.com/store/images/plasma/plasma6.jpg?zenid=1eedd7f417d3469b26781e6f73d9584b
http://i10.ebayimg.com/03/i/05/7d/5d/01_1_b.JPG

...FTW.

[CP5670]

I'll be owning that in three weeks.

[Stealth]

that's what they all say

Without spending a couple thousand more, i think this is probably the most powerful computer an end-user can build to date

[CP5670]

At least as far as games are concerned, you can change around quite a few things and make it faster for less money.

[Stealth]

as far as overclocking?  yeah both the GPU and CPU are easily overclockable, but for now i'm just going to keep them both stock

Actually i was going to go with a state of the art watercooling system, but i realized the motherboard's "Alcool" or whatever, that 'pipe' that goes from the chipset to next to the processor, relies on the processor fan to dissipate heat, so it's going to have to be fan-cooled, at least for now.

[FireCrack]

Ummm.. is that a single core processor?

[CP5670]

as far as overclocking? yeah both the GPU and CPU are easily overclockable, but for now i'm just going to keep them both stock

Actually i was going to go with a state of the art watercooling system, but i realized the motherboard's "Alcool" or whatever, that 'pipe' that goes from the chipset to next to the processor, relies on the processor fan to dissipate heat, so it's going to have to be fan-cooled, at least for now.

I guess you could always just replace it with a northbridge waterblock. That passive cooler is actually one of the main attractions of that board though.

Although even if you don't want to overclock, the expensive memory and FX55 aren't good choices. If you haven't already bought those things, replace them with value memory and a 3800 or 4000/150 and use the money saved to buy a second GTX.

[Thor]

IFRC the FXs are single core, but seeing how stealth is going for a gaming rig anyways, he won't notice any performance gains by moving to dual core anyway, so for that application the pure raw speed of a high end single core proc is better then any dual core.

An abundence of ram never hurt anyone, and i myself am looking on jumping up tp 2gig.  as for going SLI...for a pure gaming rig...do it.  if the budget is hurting wait a bit, but make that an ultimate goal.

Me, i want a nice high end dual core for my edtiting purposes.

[Jetmech Jr.]

Your rig can compete with mine...but thats about it. .

[Fineus]

So much penis envy in so little space. Fantastic.

[NGTM-1R]

So much penis compensation in so little space. Fantastic.

Fixed it for you.

[Taristin]

*is quite happy with his pentium-m 1.6Ghz, 512Mb laptop*

[Descenterace]

My new rig isn't quite the powerhouse that one is, Stealth, but it certainly pumps a lot of frames per second. I myself decided to go for dual-core goodness and you would be amazed at the difference it makes in games, since many newer ones are multithreaded.

Athlon X2 4200
Abit AN8 Ultra mainboard (not the best that money can buy, but close)
TwinX 1024MB PC4400 RAM
80GB ATA disk
200GB SATA disk
XFX GeForce 7800GTX @ approx. 450MHz, since I haven't gotten around to overclocking it yet
Antec TruPower 550W PSU
SB Live 5.1 sound
DVD+/-RW drive

The only new components are the CPU, graphics card and mainboard.  I bought the RAM some months ago and it's recently turned out to be faulty, so I'm currently running 1GB single-channel PC2700.
My main reasons for upgrading from my already-pretty-damn-fast machine were noise and creativity. I wanted to build a computer than was more than a dull beige box concealing the computing equivalent of a Mercedes, and I wanted it to be relatively quiet. Note 'relatively', since the old machine had a Delta fan on the CPU pumping about 120CFM at 55dB.

About three months ago I stated my intention to build a Freespace 2-themed computer. That idea died when I actually started work on the machine, because I'm not much of an artist. Not only that, but the structural design of the new machine took up enough time. The case ended up being gloss black, and even that took 3 coats to get right.

As for the structural design...

The case is a CM Stacker. I need this monster to ensure that a) everything fits inside, b) there's room for upgrades, improvements and insane projects, and c) there was no realistic chance of it getting stolen at LAN parties. 'Insane projects' includes an upgrade from castors to tank tracks, since wheeling the thing around is somewhat difficult at the moment.
Truth be told, I've made no major structural alterations to the case. The only change I made was to add a radiator to the top. But it's not just any radiator; it's a Black Ice III Extreme.
I think these things are conventionally placed inside the front of the case, beneath the optical drives and in front of the hard drives. This is not particularly practical with the Stacker because of the armour-plated drive bay mounts, which are too tough to actually cut away to make room for the radiator.
So I bolted the radiator onto the top of the case, on its side with the three fans on the inside surface. The case's top exhaust fan was removed to allow the 1/2" tubes and fan wires to enter the case. The most time-consuming part of this was drilling the holes for the bolts in the top of the Stacker, ie. through 1mm hardened steel, with a Dremel (bought specially for the project). This is pretty much the first time I've played with any type of power tool and definitely the first time I've embarked on a major DIY project, and despite not actually planning anything it all turned out rather well. All the measurements were by eye (the case never saw a ruler) but everything fitted together perfectly. The radiator is secured so firmly it is actually possible to lift the case by it.

So now I've got a big black Stacker with a radiator on top like an off-centre fin. What else does it need? Lights. Two UV and one green. I did actually have a second green neon, but I was working on soldering the pump's power leads and I didn't notice I was leaning on the tube until it broke. After that I decided not to add the lights until everything else was working...

The fan controller from my last machine has one dead channel (I tried running that Delta at full power once, ie. 20W), but I've only got two sets of controllable fans in this one anyway. I cut the switches off the neon power supplies and wired the neons into the controller's power switches, then cut two holes in a drive bay faceplate for the orphaned switches. The two fan groups are wired into the fan controller through these switches, because most of the time I don't need the fans and the controller rheostats don't have an 'off' setting.
The fan groups are:
1) The radiator fans, usually off unless the rad is getting warm,
2) The internal fans (1 on the hard drive bays, 1 on the rear, and 1 Stacker crossflow fan), usually running at low power for the safety of the southbridge,
and the PSU has two fans in it as well. Eight fans on a watercooled machine. It's fairly correct to call this 'hybrid air/water cooling' because it's not a normal example of either.

So yes, Stealth's new machine is undoubtedly faster than mine, but I bet his CPU won't run at room temperature. I've only seen this baby exceed 30 degrees C once (while playing FEAR) but then I turned on the fans...

... which, in case you're wondering, are actually very quiet indeed. Not more than 30dB at full speed.

My housemates estimate I'll be able to push the FSB as high as 275MHz without touching the CPU multiplier and without losing any stability. Further stability is ensured by running Gentoo Linux as my primary OS from now on.

[FireCrack]

IFRC the FXs are single core, but seeing how stealth is going for a gaming rig anyways, he won't notice any performance gains by moving to dual core anyway,

...until games that take big advantage of multi-threading start coming out, and otherwise it's helpfull to be able to have a dedicated core for the game, but whatever floats your boat...

[phatosealpha]

Actually, since his vid card is a 7800 and nvidia's 80 series drivers have dual core optimizations in them, he'd see some benefits right away.

Doesn't mention what he's planning on using as a display though, arguably the most important part of a gaming rig.

[CP5670]

Descenterace: Put up a picture of the finished product here. That sounds quite cool.

I don't think you will be able to get an X2 to 275x11 though without some big vcore bumps. There are some guys on Xtremesystems who have gotten X2s over 3ghz, but they are all on vapor condensors.

For my part, I'm basically upgrading stuff for a new video card. My existing one, a 6800 GT at a little above ultra speeds, is now struggling in a lot of modern games. I can still turn down the resolution and other settings to get smooth gameplay, but I got a much better monitor since I got that card (that's the one thing I can safely say I still have the best of around here ) and I want to be able to take full advantage of it.

Everything except for the 7800 cards takes an inordinately large hit in performance beyond 1600x1200, which is a big plus in favor of those cards (out of the modern stuff the 6800 cards are the worst, but the X800s and X1800s are only slightly better). The X1800 XT has significantly better AF quality and a couple of nice features like the 10-bit HDR output, but has an inferior price/performance ratio compared to the 7800 solutions. The 512MB 7800GTX was my original choice overall but the current street prices on those cards are absurd, well over $700, and as things stand two 7800GTs give better performance for less money. I'm going to wait until my college semester ends to see if the prices on that card come down any, as I won't have a lot of time for games until then anyway, and just get the GTs if things stay the way they are. The only thing with the GTs is that the stock coolers are somewhat noisy and buying two aftermarket coolers would cost another $50 or so.

Since I need a new motherboard with PCIE anyway, I figured I might as well get a cheap but decent CPU to go with it (my current A64 was free but it's a very poor overclocker), so I recently picked up a new Opteron 146 for $200 off ebay (in order to get a particular stepping/week/batch). 2.9ghz is pretty much a certainty on these on good air cooling and an appropriate motherboard, with about a 80% chance of 3ghz. I decided not to get a dual core since I don't really use anything that would benefit from them and I didn't want to spend a lot on a CPU at this point given the impending move to M2 next year. I also wasn't really comfortable with the compatibility issues I have heard about with the X2s, as I play a lot of older games quite often.

I was going to get 2GB of memory but decided against that due to M2 coming up and the fact that I don't have/play the two or three current games that can make any use of it. My existing 512MB sticks should work well enough, as long as I can get them to work correctly on the motherboard I've decided on.

Actually, since his vid card is a 7800 and nvidia's 80 series drivers have dual core optimizations in them, he'd see some benefits right away.

Doesn't mention what he's planning on using as a display though, arguably the most important part of a gaming rig.

Those are actually quite overrated. For some reason a lot of people are measuring the benefits of those drivers by how much CPU utilization on the second core they create, rather than the actual performance increases over a single core with the same drivers, which are only around 3%.

[Stealth]

not going X2... sorry, paying $600+ on a processor is enough for me.  plus i probably wouldn't notice ANY difference in ANY game.  also remember this computer's not going to get slowed down with any other junk.  it's strictly gaming.  i have this computer for AIM, etc.

i think it'll be pretty decent

Someone said the Athlon FX only takes Registered RAM.  that's not true.........right?

Either way, i'll post screenshots and such as everything starts coming in

Kalfireth:  a lot of penis envy, isn't it

[Fineus]

Indeed, but not from me. I'm comfortable having something perfectly functional for a fraction of the cost

[Nix]

Exactly how I feel.  My system is 64-bit ready, and with an increase in ram and a videocard upgrade and I'm set till Dual cores fall through the floor.  I'd only be persuaded with a combo of pci-x, newer sata revision, better chipset, etc, before I'd upgrade from my current system.
Every problewith the K8T800 has been worked out, so I'm not inclined to upg.

[redsniper]

Ooooh you got the same mouse as me. It's been pretty awesome so far, however the coolest thing about it isn't the blue glowiness or the high precision, it's the fact that since it uses an infrared sensor it leaves a little warm spot on the mousepad.