Why I haven't been photoshopping-aka my ultimate gaming machine

[Freak]

OK...last month I was addicted to the photoshop contests, but lately I haven't been doing a lot of that. Here is why...

I am putting together a new gaming machine. (the one below is in pieces!) I hope to review some of the parts, show some pics, and maybe a benchmark or two. I figure there are movie reviews here, so why not computer stuff? Besides, one of the moderators can shut this thread down if they see fit!:)

Currently I my system is configured as follows:
-Athlon 1.4Ghz
-512Mb PC2100
-Giga-Byte GA-7dxr MoBo
-MSI GeForce4 Ti4600
-SB Audugy 5.1 platinum
-Plextor 16/10/40A Burner
-Toshiba SDM-1502 DVD
-About 53GB of IBM hard drives
-Viewsonic GS-790 19" monitor
-Win 2000 pro
-MS optical mouse, internet keyboard, yadda yadda yadda

Do I need to upgrade? No. But since my wife gets my hand me down computers, she is ready for a faster one. (she has an Athlon 700, 256Mb, etc) Which means, I get the new toy! Plus, I only have a couple hobbies really. Computer gaming and...well...porn. Half-life has got to be my fav game, as dated as it is. As for the porn, well, video editing and "backing up" DVD movies always could use more power.

So what am I getting? Well, the first box came in today, and the next box is due tomorrow. I'll show a few pics of what came in today after this post.

This time, I bought from two companies. Newegg and Googlegear. I have bought personal stuff from Newegg as well as components for other people's systems (which I build for them). Total, I guess I have spent close to $10,000 at Newegg. I NEVER had a problem with them, and highly recommend them. They have great prices, and shipping is usually pretty cheap. Their website is www.newegg.com

This time I also bought some stuff from Googlegear. I ordered friday, and their order already came in today. The order was well packaged, and everything looks sound. Shipping can get you, but The stuff I bought from them had specials on shipping. It was $2.50 total. They can be found at www.googlegear.com

Well, the next few posts will showcase what I bought, and what arrived today.

[Freak]

OK...here is the heart of the system. It is an ASUS A7N8X MoBo. Out of the 15+ systems I have built, only one of them has been a non-Asus system. This board has a ton of features, I will admit, I will not use many of them. I wanted the nForce2 chipset. Haven't heard anything bad about it.

Tom's Hardware at www.tomshardware.com and Anandtech at www.anandtech.com has some good reviews of this board. It was about $145.

[Freak]

I decided to go with 2 sticks of CMX512-2700C2, for a total of 1 Gb of DDR RAM. I will run it at 333Mhz at first. Benchmarks don't show a lot of performance gain with 400MHZ yet.

[Freak]

What to cool this 'puter with? That was one of the Biggest question I had. I read a few reviews on the Volcano 9, so I went with that. Thermaltake's website says this will cool up to 2800+. We'll see. I didn't go for the "cool mod" version (with led lights) as I don't have nor intend to have a window on my system.

When I opened the box, I saw this HSF was huge! It is basically an 80mm case fan on a HS. I think it is rated at about 75cfm on full speed! The chrome fan grill is pretty sweet, although I have a feeling it will be changed someday.

[Freak]

Last one for tonight...
I am keeping my existing CD burner, DVD drive, and soundcard. The MoBo has decent integrated sound, but i have gotten used to the Audigy. Someday I might match the front sides of these to my case, which is a bright yellow.

[Dave]

Freak, I can barley turn this thing on sometimes and you are constructing one....good job!!!

Doesn't look like you left much for Santa to bring you......and enough of the pics of your hardware....show something from your other hobbie lol

[Freak]

Dave, when I get it all together I will post some in the grotto! I thought about the pics of the hardware this morning. I was under the influence of :beer: and I thought it was a cool idea at the time. Now I realize how dumb it was. So no more pics...just some info on the stuff I am putting together. should be up and running tonight, if FedEx comes.

[Freak]

well, after surfing the old threads, I found this wonderful piece of crap that I started while drinking a good number of beers. My system is all built now, and I am in the process of doing some overclocking. Running at stock speeds, everything works pretty good. I don't run any game less than 1024x768 (generally it's higher), and highest graphics detail. I would highly recommend the A78NX mobo. It does have some nice features. There is a bnios rev coming out that will unlock the processor via bios, rather than doing the solder trick. All in all, I am pretty happy with the system, although, ATI announced a 9700 pro all in wonder card that cought my eye.

Here is my 3dmark2001se results. It is a pretty good benchmarking program, many magazines and websites use it.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5362228