Unwashed Village
General Discussion => Unwashed Village => Topic started by: Brugdor on June 26, 2009, 06:28:00 PM
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Been saving up for quite a while and got a nice Christmas gift from my Aunt to help out. The sudden price drop at Digital Storm helped too. I assume there's some new tech on the way that caused the drop in price which makes me really glad I waited a bit. I had targeted a system that wasn't nearly this good for about $150 more before the prices were cut.
Specs -
System Configuration:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Antec Nine Hundred Two
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: Intel X58 Chipset (Features: 6 Memory Slots, Firewire, eSATA, Gigabit LAN)
System Memory: 3GB DDR3 1333MHz Digital Storm Certified by mushkin enhanced (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W PC Power & Cooling (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silencer Edition)
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Video Card(s): 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 896MB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Sound Card: 7.1 24-bit / 192kHz Decoding High Definition Integrated Audio
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) With Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon
The only thing I'll have to upgrade fairly soon is the amount of memory. I should be golden for any games released in the next 2-3 years now. 8)
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Not bad at all - I love my i7 920. Not enough difference between it and the 940 to justify going higher given the price difference.
You should go for the extra RAM and get to 6GB as soon as possible - just need to be careful with the BIOS settings as the i7 needs it to run at lower voltages. Anything over 1.65 and you risk frying something.
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Not bad at all - I love my i7 920. Not enough difference between it and the 940 to justify going higher given the price difference.
You should go for the extra RAM and get to 6GB as soon as possible - just need to be careful with the BIOS settings as the i7 needs it to run at lower voltages. Anything over 1.65 and you risk frying something.
Thanks for the heads up on that. I don't OC really though so it shouldn't be an issue.
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Very nice. At least I think so... I'm still fuzzy on some of the tech. But the descriptions suggest power!
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Nice rig. Hardware has become really cheap lately, as I recently got a surprisingly nice, albeit Gateway, Laptop at best buy for around $500 ;D
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Typing this on my new system. Well...actually I'm typing it on a keyboard that's attached to my new system but you get the point. :P
Everything is going great so far. I'll post some pics of it later as the case is kind of...er...air flowrific. Only odd thing is that the PSU is at the bottom of the case which is a new thing for me. I can see how dust buildup will be more of an issue with that design. Other than that it looks very promising. First game I installed was FO3. Do I get a cookie for that? ;D
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PIcs -
http://pics.livejournal.com/brugdor/pic/00066yhd/g28
http://pics.livejournal.com/brugdor/pic/00067edx/g28
http://pics.livejournal.com/brugdor/pic/00068f8t/g28
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I love the tower, but I gotta admit, the fans (except top fan) were too noisy for me, so I got the low-noise fans and repalced. Plus, the alck of LED's on my new fans lets me keep it running while I sleep. Grats with the sytem either way, though!
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I love the tower, but I gotta admit, the fans (except top fan) were too noisy for me, so I got the low-noise fans and repalced. Plus, the alck of LED's on my new fans lets me keep it running while I sleep. Grats with the sytem either way, though!
Mine is pretty quiet compared to what I'm used to with my old system. Either way I can't hear them over my air purifier which is almost always running. The PSU is a low noise version so that helps. :)
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I'm finally upgrading from my 2.4k single core with a crappy vid card and 1 gigs of memory (screamer for sure), I'm looking at an i7 myself, I'll post specs once I have it ordered and here (still being picky with components, playing with price a bit...never satisfied lol)
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Just an update on the system performance. Every game I've thrown at it I can play at full resolution (1920x1080) with all the bells and whistles on. Lack of ram doesn't seem to be an issue at all.
I'm playing through FO3 again and I've played COD4, Empire: TW, L4D, TF2, and Bloodbowl. L4D in particular looks awesome with all that detail turned up. 8)
I might load up Bioshock again too at some point.
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Just an update on the system performance. Every game I've thrown at it I can play at full resolution (1920x1080) with all the bells and whistles on. Lack of ram doesn't seem to be an issue at all.
I'm playing through FO3 again and I've played COD4, Empire: TW, L4D, TF2, and Bloodbowl. L4D in particular looks awesome with all that detail turned up. 8)
I might load up Bioshock again too at some point.
L4D looks SO awesome. On a side note, there was this Guy who got out of prison after 10 years. Most of the article was about the changes in just 10 years and part of that section was related to computers, social networks, internet speed.
But he was raving about L4D. It looks almost real! It's like I'm really there!
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Glad to see you're enjoying Fallout at the full shabang. I have to turn SLI off when I run it (otherwise the HDR doesn't work correctly) but that doesn't seem to hold it back at all.
Just as a word to Sandru as well, stick with the i7 920. As I've mentioned above the 940 simply isn't worth the extra money.
I shall end on a screenshot (http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1739/youkilledyogi.jpg), which being 1980x1200 res, is too big to link in without my getting shouted at.
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Glad to see you're enjoying Fallout at the full shabang. I have to turn SLI off when I run it (otherwise the HDR doesn't work correctly) but that doesn't seem to hold it back at all.
Just as a word to Sandru as well, stick with the i7 920. As I've mentioned above the 940 simply isn't worth the extra money.
I shall end on a screenshot (http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1739/youkilledyogi.jpg), which being 1980x1200 res, is too big to link in without my getting shouted at.
I was actually going to come ask a question about processors, was wondering if the difference between a 920, 950 and 975 was anything really big, I can afford going with the 975 without really worrying about it....just wasn't sure if it was worth it. I've also never overclocked a system, but the site I'm going through offers to do it if I get the upgraded air cooling (which I'm doing anyway, OC or not.) sorry for being a tech noob :P
going to hijack my brothers Fo3 Cd when I end up ordering (still researching parts right now, I've missed alot since I last bought a system) and play it into the ground
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Well, the 975 is top of the line so you'll see an increase over the rest of course, though they weren't available when I built my system so I can't say exactly how good they are.
It's the price that's the killer - it's a staggering amount of money, £800 which works out at $1300. The question you need to ask is do you really need it that much?
Personally, I wouldn't be prepared to hand over that sort of money for it - if you have that much to spend, I'd still go with the 920 and put the saved money towards the graphics card, throw in a 24" widescreen monitor and a nice set of speakers to go with it. You'd probably still have change after that too.
Word of warning as well - overclocking an i7 is ill-advised if you're not up to speed on the whole scene.
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Well, the 975 is top of the line so you'll see an increase over the rest of course, though they weren't available when I built my system so I can't say exactly how good they are.
It's the price that's the killer - it's a staggering amount of money, £800 which works out at $1300. The question you need to ask is do you really need it that much?
Personally, I wouldn't be prepared to hand over that sort of money for it - if you have that much to spend, I'd still go with the 920 and put the saved money towards the graphics card, throw in a 24" widescreen monitor and a nice set of speakers to go with it. You'd probably still have change after that too.
Word of warning as well - overclocking an i7 is ill-advised if you're not up to speed on the whole scene.
Thanks, wasn't really comfortable overclocking, I game and everything but I'm not that concerned with squeezing that much speed out of it. I'll probably end up going with the added monitor, as I'm getting two Nvidia GTX 295s....need to be able to see the difference better then my crappy 18 inch dell thats on the verge of dying. Always want to get the best, but alot of times it just isn't worth it, thanks for the help :)
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Wouldn't get 2 295's either - that'll make it a quad SLI setup and frankly it's not worth it. A single 295 will destroy pretty much anything you can throw at it.
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I'm glad I decided to ask around here as well as the other sites I was reading and looking for answers on, been trying to lower the cost while maintaining a great configuration...tried of using my brother's laptop when I want to play anything new (and both can't play at the same time if we wanted to multiplayer.)
Going to mess around so more later after I go fishing with my nephew, thanks for all the help Petrarch
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The latest I7 920 stepping, D0, is quite an overclocker so I'd definately go for one of those. It's also worth considering going for one or possibly two GTX 275 cards, they perform a hair under the GTX 285 and when the 295 is set to single GPU rendering I think that the 275 would be faster and far far cheaper. If you have a monitor under 24" you wouldn't really see the benefit of multi GPU rendering.
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Finally did some work and research, and with all the help I've gotten on the Digital Storm site, and you guys this is what I'm going to end up with. Getting a free 22'' monitor from my father, cause he's gunna upgrade to something larger hehe
Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Cooler Master HAF 932
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 3X SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports Triple SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1333MHz Digital Storm Certified by mushkin enhanced (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1200W PC Power & Cooling (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Recommended)
Card Reader: 1.44MB Floppy (Black Edition)
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (Extreme Speed)
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 1.792GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Noctua NH-U12P High Performance Cooler (Compatible With ONLY i7 Processors)
Chassis Airflow: Upgrade Chassis With LED Performance Fans (Blue)
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Blue)
Boost Processor: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Requires Air Cooling Upgrade)
Boost Memory: Memory Fan Kit Only (Does not include memory overclocking service)
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) With Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-10 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty
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Finally did some work and research, and with all the help I've gotten on the Digital Storm site, and you guys this is what I'm going to end up with. Getting a free 22'' monitor from my father, cause he's gunna upgrade to something larger hehe
Good luck with them. So far my machine has been great. Only one minor software glitch that I don't think has anything to do with them. The new Firefox for some reason sometimes doesn't shut all the way down and Vista won't end the process from inside the Task Manager. It keeps me from even shutting down my machine. :beadyeyes:
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Finally did some work and research, and with all the help I've gotten on the Digital Storm site, and you guys this is what I'm going to end up with. Getting a free 22'' monitor from my father, cause he's gunna upgrade to something larger hehe
Good luck with them. So far my machine has been great. Only one minor software glitch that I don't think has anything to do with them. The new Firefox for some reason sometimes doesn't shut all the way down and Vista won't end the process from inside the Task Manager. It keeps me from even shutting down my machine. :beadyeyes:
Going to try to help with that, a temporary solution anyway. I don't have much use in Vista so bear with me on this. Do you know how to end processes through windows task manager? Go in, find the firefox.exe, and "end process." Should shut down...doens't fix your main problem but at least it's something
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Finally did some work and research, and with all the help I've gotten on the Digital Storm site, and you guys this is what I'm going to end up with. Getting a free 22'' monitor from my father, cause he's gunna upgrade to something larger hehe
Good luck with them. So far my machine has been great. Only one minor software glitch that I don't think has anything to do with them. The new Firefox for some reason sometimes doesn't shut all the way down and Vista won't end the process from inside the Task Manager. It keeps me from even shutting down my machine. :beadyeyes:
Going to try to help with that, a temporary solution anyway. I don't have much use in Vista so bear with me on this. Do you know how to end processes through windows task manager? Go in, find the firefox.exe, and "end process." Should shut down...doens't fix your main problem but at least it's something
Addressed it here http://www.unwashed.eu/forum/index.php?topic=2051.0
Problem was that it wouldn't shut down that way either. Nor could I reset or turn off my machine through the menu. I appear to have figured out the source as it hasn't happened again today since I removed Zonealarm.