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Harrison
9th March 2009, 16:48
I'm in the process of building a new PC as mine is now getting a bit old to run the latest games at full speed in the higher resolutions. That is mainly down to the 7800GT I'm stlll using, but I think it is time to finally upgrade to a multicore CPU as well.

So what spec is your current main PC system?

My new PC will consist of the following:


Q6600 CPU
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler
Asus P5Q Deluxe Motherboard
8GB DDR2 Ram.
ATi 4870 1GB Graphics card
Creative XFi soundcard
2.5TB SATA HDD space (existing drives)
SATA DVD-RW (existing drive)
630W Coolermaster Realpower modular PSU

And this will be housed in my existing Thermaltake Tsunami case, with my current main system being moved to a Thermaltake Saprano case I also already have (which does have an older system currently in it, but that is being dismantled).

Tiago
9th March 2009, 17:37
My current PC:

Laptop
Asus A6VA
1700 Mhz
2 GM RAM 533
80 GB HD
ATI Radeon x700

The laptop chip set is Intel but AMD bought ATI, so since then drivers for my ATI dont work as they worked before, i think they prepare the video drivers for AMD machines but my laptop has intel chipset so....

Stephen Coates
9th March 2009, 20:00
Do you really need reminding?

rayzorblue
9th March 2009, 20:44
I have two pc's but I guess my main one is the one I play games on so.

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum MS-7025 Motherboard
AMD Athalon 64 3700+
4x512mb GIEL dual channel RAM
PNY GeForce 7800 GS GPU
I think I have a 150gb HD and a 120gb HD IDE drives and a 750gb SATA
Razer Krait mouse
USB Drum kit
JBL Creature II speakers
Cheap nasty joypad
Cheaper nastier keyboard
Windows XP sp3

I love this PC even though it is old and well out of date it will have to run games till I can afford a new one, but it has not failed me yet even on assassins creed (it was expensive once over).

Harrison
9th March 2009, 22:31
@Rayzorblue

Your current setup isn't that far from my existing main system spec.

Athlon 64 4000+
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
GeForce 7800GT
3GB Ram
etc..

And that does still run all current games, but not at 1280x1024 or higher resolutions. For most games released recently such as Far Cry 2 I've had to drop them down to 1024x768 to play with smooth framerates over 30fps with the nicer texture and shadow settings switched on.

Assassins Creed and even Crysis ran very well which was quite a surprise when i tried them. Assassins Creed ran especially well at 1280x1024 with most of the graphics settings quite high up. Crysis had to be dropped to 1024x768 to run with higher settings, but it ran higher with medium settings quite well. However with falling hardware prices I thought it was time to upgrade as the core bits of my existing system (motherboard, CPU, GPU) has just reached 3 years old, and the games now being released beefit a lot from a multicore CPU finally.

Puni/Void
10th March 2009, 09:30
My current PC specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Asus VW192 LCD
Asus M2A-VM
nVidia GeForce 8600GT
2GB of RAM

Running Windows XP.

Buleste
10th March 2009, 12:57
P4 2.6 (overclocked to 3.0)
2GB RAM
Radeon 9550 256MB
XP SP3

taunusanden
10th March 2009, 19:56
WOW :blink:
My PC seems hopeless outdated, compared to yours.

But why are we talking PC gear on this forum? Sorry to ask.

Chewieshmoo
10th March 2009, 21:01
> Mainboard : Asus P5K-E

> Chipset : Intel P31/P35

> Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2666 MHz

> Physical Memory : 2048 MB (2 x 1024 DDR2-SDRAM )

> Video Card : Nvidia Corp NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

> Hard Disk : WDC (500 GB)

> DVD-Rom Drive : BENQ DVD DD DW1625

> DVD-Rom Drive : TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203B

> DVD-Rom Drive : SCSIVAX DVD/CD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device

> Monitor Type : Samsung SyncMaster - 19 inches

> Network Card : Marvell Semiconductor (Was: Galileo Technology Ltd) Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller

> Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.01.2600 Service Pack 2

> DirectX : Version 9.0c (November 2007)


WOW :blink:
My PC seems hopeless outdated, compared to yours.

But why are we talking PC gear on this forum? Sorry to ask.

Because it's in the PC Gaming and general chat (http://forum.classicamiga.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=36) section? ;)

Harrison
10th March 2009, 22:56
WOW :blink:
My PC seems hopeless outdated, compared to yours.

But why are we talking PC gear on this forum? Sorry to ask.


Because it's in the PC Gaming and general chat (http://forum.classicamiga.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=36) section? ;)

Exactly. ;)

We might mainly be an Amiga site, but we all also like all things computer, console and retro related so like to chat about everything.

Buleste
10th March 2009, 23:29
Looking at everyone's Core duo and Quads etc I think mine seems like retro. God I need some money. The only spare cash I have at the moment is going to go on my Amiga (Repairs to PPC etc). At least I have my priorities correct:p.

Stephen Coates
10th March 2009, 23:36
I've spent more money on Amigas than I have on PCs.

Buleste
10th March 2009, 23:44
If I totalled up how much I've spent on Amiga's over the years I'd weep in despair. The first expansion I got was a Blizzard 1220 with 8MB and then I had 1230 MKIV, 1240, 1260, PPC, ZIV, CV64/3D,Tower, Prelude 1200, various HDD, in all probably at least £2,000 not including software.:boohoo:

StuKeith
11th March 2009, 09:43
After a recent upgrade I have the following spec machines.

Gaming/Main

Intel Q6600 2.6ghz (slight OC)
4GB Kingston HyperZ DDR2 Ram
250GB Main system drive
500GB Data Drive
G9600GT 512MB GFX
Duel DVDRW Drives
Asus P5QC Motherboard
Vista Ultimate


HTPC

AMD64 3000xp
1.5GB RAM
1TB Raid
Windows XP with MediaPortal

Main pc is sweet, fast booting and runs like a dream!

Buleste
11th March 2009, 09:55
I think you need to change your christmas avatar StuKeith. It's March.;)

304

taunusanden
11th March 2009, 11:58
I apologize, I did'nt notice!

StuKeith
11th March 2009, 18:07
I think you need to change your christmas avatar StuKeith. It's March.;)

304

lol yea, not been on since xmas! :p

Harrison
11th March 2009, 22:33
Got all the bits for the new PC now. A few minor chanrges to the final components as they had some better parts for less money. :)

So the final PC setup will now be as follows:

Q6600 CPU
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler
Asus P5Q Deluxe Motherboard
8GB Corsair DDR2 Ram.
XFX Radeon HD 4870 XXX Edition 1GB Graphics card (factory over clocked!)
Creative XFi soundcard
2.5TB SATA HDD space (existing drives)
SATA DVD-RW (existing drive)
750W Thermaltake Toughpower modular PSU (seems to be a firm favourite among gaming pros).

And I'm biting the bullet and installing Vista 64-bit on it!

Harrison
12th March 2009, 11:54
The new PC is now all setup and running. :)

I've not installed an OS on it yet. In fact I've not put the drive cage in the case yet. However I'm posting this from the new PC! ;) How you might ask? The new Asus motherboard has a version of Linux built into the motherboard on a small solid state drive, and this system is called "Express Gate". It includes a browser that looks like it is based on the same core as Firefox and it works really well. It also has a photo album viewer to look through the photos on the HDDs, Live Chat using MSN, and Skype. Quite cool to quickly get online and access various things, especially if the main OS has a problem such as not booting properly. You can quickly go online and troubleshoot something, or you could use it to download a BIOS update for the same system. :)

And Express Gate worked first time, without a single setting asked for. Just booted into the OS in about 5 seconds, clicked the browser icon, and it was loaded and online in about 2 seconds! And it just works. Now this is how to utilise Linux! And how an OS should work. Not hours of installing gigs of files, then reboots, then more installing, then lots of setup configuration before you can even use the OS, let alone get online.

And overall I love this new setup. Very quiet indeed, even with all the fans. However they are all very large and slower spinning as a result. 140mm fan on the PSU can't be heard. 120mm case fans are silent, and the CPU cooler fan is very quiet. The gaphics card fan is noisy when it first fires up, but quickly slows down to near silent.

I've just finished going through all of the BIOS settings and now am going to install the HD drive cage back in the case and install the OS.

One problem I do need to work out is that the two 6pin PCI-E power connectors plugged into the back of the graphics card are currently going right across where the drive cage slots in. I might be able to band the cables enough to allow it to go in OK. Otherwise I'm going to have to try and get some 90 degree right angle adapters for the power connectors. I want to know why the graphics card makers don't mount the power connectors vertically anyway. Would be so much easier.

Buleste
12th March 2009, 12:04
One problem I do need to work out is that the two 6pin PCI-E power connectors plugged into the back of the graphics card are currently going right across where the drive cage slots in. I might be able to band the cables enough to allow it to go in OK. Otherwise I'm going to have to try and get some 90 degree right angle adapters for the power connectors. I want to know why the graphics card makers don't mount the power connectors vertically anyway. Would be so much easier.

Yes but then you wouldn't have the opportunity to make a mistake and completely screw up you're brand new system:evil:.

Glad to hear your new PC is working...........For now.:evil:

StuKeith
14th March 2009, 17:29
I couldnt seem to get expressgate working, was telling me its not installed! :dry:

Buleste
23rd March 2009, 14:28
Just upgraded my CPU to a P4 HT 3.4 GHz Prescott. No real speed gain but it should mean I don't have to upgrade again for another few years.

Harrison
23rd March 2009, 16:44
Yeah, that should see you good for some time, especially with HT enabled as it will be able to help most newer dual core capable software to run better.

What graphics card do you have? Some of the latest cards are now falling in price recently. An ATI Radeon HT 4850 can be found for around £100 can can run most stuff at very nice framerates. Unless you are still using AGP, then you are a bit stuck.

Harrison
23rd March 2009, 16:46
I couldnt seem to get expressgate working, was telling me its not installed! :dry:

What motherboard do you have?

Express Gate isn't part of every Asus motherboard. But there is a setting in the BIOS to enable and disable it, as well as some more settings for it. Plus there is an Express Gate installer included on the driver CD to install and update the software.

To make sure your motherboard has it, look between the expansion slots. On the P5Q Deluxe motherboard it is between the last PCI and the second PCI-E slot, and is a lottle curcuit board sticking out from the main motherboard. Basically a USB flash drive without a case.

rayzorblue
23rd March 2009, 22:30
I got new main PC specs now, my old mobo died and since it was a 939 agp board it is not easy to get hold of another so I bought this mobo/cpu/ram/gpu instead.

Foxconn M61PMV nForce 430 Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ 2.40GHz overclocked to 2.6GHz
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual CH Platinum
Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR3
Akasa AK-862 CPU Cooler
same old case
same 750gb sata HD
same Razer krait mouse
same sh**ty keyboard

You may be wondering why I didn't buy a quad core, well simple fact is I couldn't afford such luxuries it was just by pure chance that my old mobo died the same week I got a bonus from work, although this cost me £189.15 including delivery (£9.50!) it came overclocked because I am not too confident about overclocking my own cpu and I used the software with the graphics card to overclock that (it did it automatically at the touch of a button) and I have to say its pretty sweet my games have never looked better I am very impressed. Another added bonus is when I do upgrade this can all go in a HTPC as the mobo is an mATX and the graphics card runs nice and quiet.
So if anyone needs a good agp graphics card and some good DDR ram then give me a shout and I might just sell it to you instead of putting it on e-bay I also have a socket 939 3700+ if anyone can use it.

Harrison
24th March 2009, 00:15
Was it a motherboard kit you bought? There are some quite good ones around at the moment when I looked. Although when I built my new system I opted to build it myself as I wanted to use an after maket CPU cooler and pick my own ram etc, but getting it pre-overclocked it quite nice, and I assume they cover it in the warranty with that setup?

And I agree about the ATI software OC. It is a cool feature of the software that you can just click a button and it tests the card and sets the OC settings up for you. However it is worth knowing that to be safe the software throttles the maximum limit of the overclocking back by about 20% to be safe, so you could push it even further if you wanted.

How much would you want for the 3700+? On ebay they don't seem to be selling for much at all any more. Seems people only want dual core CPUs now in general. I might be interested in the CPU to get an older system back up and running.

woody.cool
25th March 2009, 11:18
My current PC specs:

Intel Dual Core processor E1200 @ 1.6ghz
2GB RAM
GeForce 8500 GT
40GB IDE Primary Hard Drive (used to be a 120GB, but the drive failed and I couldn't afford a replacement)
750GB SATA Hard Drive (with all my data & other stuff on)
22" ViewSonic TFT Monitor
Epson SX200 all-in-one printer
Dymo Label Printer :lol:
and Windows Vista

Not much to shout about, is it!?!

Harrison
25th March 2009, 15:11
I've just finished putting together the remains of my old PC, along with some parts from a couple of other older systems, plus a new motherboard, and it's turned out to be quite a nice second system, which I will be using for emulation mainly, but also for some encoding and rendering work.

The specs are:

Athlon 64 3700+ (overclocked to 2.4GHz)
3GB Ram
GeForce 7800GT 256MB
ASRock 939N68PV-GLAN Motherboard (quite a nice MoBo for the price)
120GB SATA boot drive
2 8x NEC DVD-RWs
1TB SATA second drive
Thermaltake Soprano case.

rayzorblue
27th March 2009, 19:13
If you want the 3700+ you can certainly buy it, just name your price because I know they are worthless pretty much (which is a shame because they are good cpu's). It is a socket 939 and it has the stock fan and heatsink if you want it. Just pm me if your interested and I will hold back from putting it on ebay.