CPU Upgrade

Have the G15.

Took some time to adjust to it. Love it. It's just so comfy to use and type, even if I don't use the macro capability (I have that on the n52).

And yes, it's a good 3"+ wider than your average keyboard...3.5" wider than my old vanilla Microsoft one.

Continuum wrote:

DFI makes a motherboard for the FX-74? I thought Asus was the only manufacture with a motherboard for it so far.

ASUS and MSI currently has motherboards for the FX74, which I have had good luck with but they are harder to overclock. DFI is currently working on a board for the Socket F. AMD is also supposed to bring out quad core processors for the AM2 setup.

My problem is that the FX74 is not a true quad like Intel's Kentsfield, thus the current mismatch of processor and board. Since I'm planning to buy the processor and board last, it will give me time to watch and fine tune my planning with the available selection.

Moof, I thought real hard about the 4400+ and it is still a viable alternative, depending on what happens later this year with AMD's quad core setup.

The reason for the "bleeding edge" attempt is this will probably be that last gaming computer that I will be able to afford to build since my wife will be retiring in 3 years. Using the current mis-matched processor and motherboard, the total parts cost exceeds $4K.

Too bad that I've already bought the new wireless keyboard and mouse, but your recommended mouse is way too big for my keyboard/mouse tray

Ask and thou shall receive....

As anyone, I have my opinion about most thing from being in the industry...

I'm not a fan of DFI. (always thought they made junk, but they could have improved) I have a friend in Ca. who used to work for them and he says he doesnt like them either. I do trust ASUS most of all.

I'm not an AMD fan either. Beyond that personal item, I would not go with their quad set up. For one, it's temperary. They will have a single die quad in the not too distant future. So any F designs now will be obsolete within the year. No other line of AMD works in this design except what it's designed for. Now, they my be working on a CPU/GPU setup that may use this socket, but right now, that's speculation.

I personally dont see a reason to go SLI with an 8800 at this time. It's super fast by itself and will handle anything you throw at it evern in years to come. That's just extra money that can be used elsewhere. I mean, how many FPS is enuf? If you cant tell, then....

4GB is also overkill unless you plan on doing professional HD video editing.

PSU....well PC Power and Cooling is my brand of choice. They make a 1kw unit. Nothing wrong with what you have. PCPnC has a 5 year warrenty...if that makes any difference to ya. They know all the ins and outs of what makes a good PSU and they stand behind their products.

2 Raptors? 1 up front to handle speed of execution. I dont know about a second unless your running a RAID. Better to have Raptor up front with a WD Caviar SE16 500 GB in the back. Very fast 7200 rpm drive with plenty of storage. Just 1 is more than I'm running myself (of course my system is about 2 years old now. Got a Raptor 76 up front with a caviar 40 for just storage in the back end)

Good choice on the audio, no complaints there....

Speakers: Well, I would either go with the Gigaworks 7.1 or the M-Audio Stuidiophile LX4 5.1 (if you can find one. They recently were discontinued and are getting harder to find)

DVD drives....well, I'm a Plextor flan, (I loved my Toshiba drives back in the day) But no real input about what you have either.

KB/Mouse is such a personal item these days. You really have to try 'em nowadays to find out what fees/works well for you. My only thing is I do not like laser mice or wireless. I dont like feeding batteries to my computer perifrials. I experianced jumpiness with lazer mice before, but then it was a Dell, so I guess I cant go off of that. Another brand I'm not a fan of.

Case is fine, most of Lian Li cases are quite nice. I love my WaveMaster except the weight and a place for a 120mm fan.

I know your thought about this system, and there is nothing wrong with it. You want to make it future proof and be done with it. No upgrades needed for at least 5 years. And that's fine. But unless you can use this system to it's full potential within those 5 years, it's money not spent well. I dont know your plans for the system beyond games....

Oh, the OS.... XP or Vista? (shivers...hoping you say XP)

I just envy the fact you are able to buy such a system, what I could do with $4k system....mine was $2k+ when I was done and that was with "bling" I moded it slightly as a Harley Davidson 100th Anniv tribute. And it's still not done yet.

Not dissing your thoughts on your selections. We all have our feelings of different items and brand names. What we beleive in and all that. And I'm sure it will be a dream to 'drive'. Be the envy of the DC community.
I think afterwords everyone will think you have an unfair advantage and will complain and szlat will have to come over and nerf it along with the vamp gnats...

Ok, next thing...
I looked at the case you have selected. It is nice looking, some decent cooling features. Very clean... But that's where it leaves me..
I do not know how your taste in cases are or what you look for in one, but from a tech friendly point of view, it needs a few things.

Toolless drives and exp. slots. This aint got it.
Options for easy transfer from air cooling to liquid ( if you so are inclined)
Front access to USB/Firewire ports. Their might be a few, but they didnt jump out at me.

I have seen some real slick tooless cases in the not so distant past. Mine aint one of them, but have built a few for friends which had a good wow factor on the design of toolless accessories.

And, it just so happens that the latest issue of the magazine I subscribe to had a case review. They gave top honors to Gigabyte and their 3D Aurora 570. It may not be your style, but is feature rich.
I'm rather choosy myself. It has to be appealing to me first of all, then I go by how it's built, features and so forth.

This is just an FYI, something to think about is all...

Flak Monkey wrote:

Speakers: Well, I would either go with the Gigaworks 7.1 or the M-Audio Stuidiophile LX4 5.1 (if you can find one. They recently were discontinued and are getting harder to find)

Oh, the OS.... XP or Vista? (shivers...hoping you say XP)

Thanks Flak

As to the speakers, remember that I am profoundly hearing impaired, so anything more than the Inspire is wasted on me. However, I am familiar with Gigawork and M-Audio both and love them............

OS---let's face it, there is no Microsoft support for XP 64, I've already tried............SOOOOOOOOOOOO Vista, Here I come.

By the way, I'm also looking at the Intel QX6700 processor as well. PC cases are open territory as well. I'm also looking at a Demon 11-bay Black & Red ATX Case on ebay--
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=020&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=300088243125&rd=1&rd=1

as I'm tired of plain jane cases. If you have any suggestions, please pm me with links.

As to Szlat, I have a pot of boiling oil and some stretcher items for him. 2 maps tonite, we lost big time due to those pesky gnats.

Did not know about your hearing issues....so, with that in mind, you are correct.

I also didnt know you planned on the 64bit journey.... I wish you luck with Vista. The price tag alone will keep me from it, if not for all the other things I've read about it. Even tho there are appealing aspects of it, there or other apps to add to the existing system that will do the same things as they have implimented in this version.

Seeing where you are going, then perhaps the 4Gb of ram is warrented.

I will keep a look out for a case for ya. Send ya some links. I have a few ideas....just dont want you to buy a cheap hunk of plastic molding on a recycled tin can frame. Need something robust, friendly, easy to work with and down right sexy.

Flak Monkey wrote:

I also didnt know you planned on the 64bit journey.... I wish you luck with Vista. The price tag alone will keep me from it, if not for all the other things I've read about it. Even tho there are appealing aspects of it, there or other apps to add to the existing system that will do the same things as they have implimented in this version.

Seeing where you are going, then perhaps the 4Gb of ram is warrented.

I can get Vista Ultimate for $188.00 plus shipping!!!!!!!

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

Flak Monkey wrote:

I also didnt know you planned on the 64bit journey.... I wish you luck with Vista. The price tag alone will keep me from it, if not for all the other things I've read about it. Even tho there are appealing aspects of it, there or other apps to add to the existing system that will do the same things as they have implimented in this version.

Seeing where you are going, then perhaps the 4Gb of ram is warrented.

I can get Vista Ultimate for $188.00 plus shipping!!!!!!!

You know, with Ultimate you can have a video as your desktop backround... that's pretty neat!

$188? SWEEET! Upgrade or student discount?
I have a friend here at work that bought the open licence copy of XP pro with sp2 for $80. But after a warning with the new valid copy thing that poppled up recently on every machine I have installed it to, including his own, we are thinking it is a chinese dupe ( a very good one at that). We found a fix for it but it was an eye opener.

Wouldnt a movie as your wallpaper become distracting? You theoredicaly can do that now with active desktop being able to display web pages, have a Quicktime or flash thing play on it....well, I think it could work. Never tried it as I usually turn active desktop off.

Just be warned, if it's an upgrade, you must have a valid copy of windows INSTALLED. No more just having a blank drive and a copy on CD to validate the upgrade. MS "fixed" that this time. AND, only certain copies of windows can be upgraded with certain copies of Vista. Cant upgrade XP home with Ultimate of vista.... There is a list of what copies of Vista will upgrade which copy of XP, 2000 and so forth. Gates descided if you were too cheep to get XP Pro at home, that you dont get the upgrade discount for Vista Ultimate or Business....

I'm running Vista Business on my laptop which I got for free through my school, but I'm still a bit timid to upgrade my desktop

... and the movie background would really distract me, but can you imagine having a waterfall being run as your desktop... or a beach with active waves? I'd so love that lol.

Flak Monkey wrote:

only certain copies of windows can be upgraded with certain copies of Vista. Cant upgrade XP home with Ultimate of vista.... There is a list of what copies of Vista will upgrade which copy of XP, 2000 and so forth. Gates descided if you were too cheep to get XP Pro at home, that you dont get the upgrade discount for Vista Ultimate or Business....

According to their site, XP Home lets you upgrade to the home editions, business, and ultimate. With XP Pro you can't upgrade to any of the home editions, just the other two.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradepaths.mspx
cooler picture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vista_Upgrade_Paths.png

Flak Monkey wrote:

$188? SWEEET! Upgrade or student discount?
I have a friend here at work that bought the open licence copy of XP pro with sp2 for $80. But after a warning with the new valid copy thing that poppled up recently on every machine I have installed it to, including his own, we are thinking it is a chinese dupe ( a very good one at that). We found a fix for it but it was an eye opener.

Look on e-bay--here an offer:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Microsoft-Windows-Vista-Ultimate-64-Bit-DVD-FULL-VERS_W0QQitemZ250091699027QQcategoryZ11229QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

As to the open license---no way!!!!!!

Forgot about that option, it's an OEM copy. So, you will get a DVD and maybe a thin users manual. Wont be the prety box, but who needs that anyway.

Nice flow chart for the vista upgrade path.....somebody had some time to figure it all out and make it visual...

ok, update on the new pc:

I've gotten the following items already......all drives and power supply installed

Raidmax Sirius-black case
Powertek 750w power supply
WD Raptor 740GD (2 drives)
Samsung Dual Layer Lightscribe 18X (2 drives)
Mitsumi Multidrive 7 FDD (Floppy/Flash card drive)
SB Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro 7.1
Microsoft Wireless keyboard and optical mouse
Creative Labs Inspire P7800 7.1 speakers

I've pretty much settled on the Intel QX6700 quad core (gonna try Intel again for the first time in over 10 years) and trying to decide between the Asus Striker Extreme LGA and the Intel 975 Bad Axe 2 motherboards. If you'all have any suggestions regarding the Socket 775 SLI motherboards-let me have them.

In case you're wondering, I had to bribe my wife, so this pc is costing me double....................

As long as both of you enjoy it, shouldnt be a comprimise, unless your letting her do some "shopping" too....
Women love shoes and "bling"

It's a beutiful rig!