Building a new computer

Cereb Daithi · Post by **Cereb Daithi** » Tue May 20, 2008 3:22 pm

Most of you guys know I've been using Macs for a while now. I have a Mac Book Air on the way and the G5 is still a blast. However I decided it was time to build a new windows rig since my current one is going on something like 6 years old......and is a dell........

I've been out of the game for so long I'm not entirely sure what's in and what's out so I figured I'd run my new potential build past you guys. I'm trying to keep it around $1k and I think I have it pegged down pretty well. The final price tag was a bit more but here it is:

Mobo: ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP ATX Intel Motherboard - I've always had a respect for Asus and this seems to be a great board for the money. 7.1 audio out seems nice.
Proc: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Processor - Cost and the fact that I plan to run XP made me choose dual core over quad. Correct me if I'm wrong but I just wont get the full potential out of a quad core with XP
RAM:Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Nothing special. Just the standard 4GB of RAM
GPU: EVGA GeForce 9600GT 512-P3-N861-AR Video Card - Great price ($150) for a good card.
DIsc Drive 1: ASUS Blu-Ray Combo Black SATA Model BC-1205PT - Now that bluray won I guess it's time to bite the bullet and just get ready for it. Just sticking with ROM for now though. At something like $25 a disc for bluray or something like that I say nuts to burning my own
Disc Drive 2: LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DH-20A4P-04 - Nothing special
Case: Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Computer Case - I love these things
PSU: Thermaltake W0158RU 650W VGA Power Supply - I figure 650 should be sufficient for my needs
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - This is one of the things I questioned. I've heard mixed review about 500GB drives. I'm going to take a chance on this I think.
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2C - Need to upgrade to SP3... but I refuse to get vista for now

and because we all get things we really don't NEED....

Mouse: Logitech MX Revolution Black RF Wireless Laser Mouse - Cool. As. Hell.

It's going to be hooked up to a 32" 1080p Sharp LCD. And have a 7.1 Onkyo sound system keeping the audiophile in me content.

That should satisfy me for a bit I think. Any of you guys see any major faults?

chicken n waffles · Post by **chicken n waffles** » Tue May 20, 2008 4:19 pm

whenever i look at pc specs, i look at them with a gamer's eye. with that said, the video card will be your weak link, but for the price it ain't bad.

a few things i noticed based on a quick scan of your specs:

-your computer won't recognize the full 4 gigs of ram if it's a 32-bit processor and o.s. it'll get close. maybe somewhere around the 3.3 mark.

-why spec out a juicy system and not look into a good soundcard? i hope you're looking at a 7.1 speaker system to compliment the channels. personally, i think 7.1 is useless on a pc unless you are fine with wrapping speakers all around your desk. onboard audio sucks regardless of the # of channels. look into the creative soundblaster line for a relatively inexpensive (but worlds better) audio solution.

-not only would you not get the full benefit of a quad core processor with xp, you wouldn't get it with any commercial-grade o.s. better to do what you did and get a beefy dual core.

-single physical hard drive = single point of failure if the hardware goes tits up. get 2 250GB SATA drives and use 1 as a ghost drive or just RAID them both.

Cereb Daithi · Post by **Cereb Daithi** » Tue May 20, 2008 4:53 pm

thanks for the quick response.

The single harddrive still has me wary. I've always had multiple so I might go the multiple route.

The 7.1 system isn't just for the PC. The room this rig is going in is also where all my music composition, graphics work, and movie/gaming is done. I'd say somewhere around 50 sq. ft. of space to fill with sound. I will definitely look into a sound card though.

chicken n waffles · Post by **chicken n waffles** » Tue May 20, 2008 4:59 pm

western digital drives scare me these days. ask colin about how many wd drives we had fail on us at our previous place of employment.

if i were you, i'd look into multiple seagate barracuda sata drives. they're quiet, and tough.

Post by **complacent** » Tue May 20, 2008 5:06 pm

chicken n waffles wrote: if i were you, i'd look into multiple seagate barracuda sata drives. they're quiet, and tough.

And they're named after reeeeely mean fishes!!!

<---- Askeerd of teh WD.

Libra Monkee · Post by **Libra Monkee** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:57 am

complacent wrote:And they're named after reeeeely mean fishes!!!

^^^ or a really cool song by Heart.

+3 for staying away from the WD drives. I usually stick with Seagates or Maxtors.

Cereb Daithi · Post by **Cereb Daithi** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:48 am

The computer is on order and will be shipping soon. I did end up sticking with the 500GB drive for now. I'll see how it turns out. Ironically enough the guy that advised me to get WD said he's had no less than 4 Seagate Barracuda drives fail on him while his WD 500GB still runs strong. I'm still on the fence but thankfully HDDs aren't terribly expensive anymore so if I feel I have made a wrong decision I can simply just buy different drives.

I decided to get one of the X-Fi Fatal1ty soundcards with the interface in the front w the remote. As most of you know I do a lot of audio work so it'll be nice to use the other computer as another workhorse for my music. I can MIDI sync them together to help share the workload of some of my new tracks which actually are starting to stress the mac out. I've already gotten a few errors because the G5 can't handle all the sequencers and samples at the same time. Now with my combined system specs it should run totally smooth.

I'm considering ordering a second 9600GT to SLi the rig next month as well as a 2nd HDD. That's all dependent on how it runs once I get it all built and put together. 1.24GB of graphical goodness with the help of 1TB of drivespace outputting the latest games to a 32" HD screen and 7.1 sorroundsound just seems appealing to me.... crysis anyone?

avriette · Post by **avriette** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:29 pm

chicken n waffles wrote: -your computer won't recognize the full 4 gigs of ram if it's a 32-bit processor and o.s. it'll get close. maybe somewhere around the 3.3 mark.

Not strictly true. the Core chips are 64-bit clean, but they need a 64-bit clean bios/mobo. I suspect this is how some manufacturers are getting to 4gb: using a hybrid MMU. I know you don't really care, but all the new Macs will accept 4gb on a 32-bit OS.

However, a 32-bit application cannot grok 4gb, so you're not going to get ZOWTASTIC results out of Photoshop, but it might not take a week for Safari to come up.

sirwilliam · Post by **sirwilliam** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:32 pm

avriette wrote:ZOWTASTIC

Added to list of sweet words to use.

chicken n waffles · Post by **chicken n waffles** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:54 pm

avriette wrote:words

i can't and don't speak to the mac world, just us lowly pc users.

Cereb Daithi · Post by **Cereb Daithi** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 1:01 pm

Almost fully together. Here are a few crappy cell phone pics to tease. Sorroundsound should be here monday.

sirwilliam · Post by **sirwilliam** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:11 pm

Looks nice!

Cereb Daithi · Post by **Cereb Daithi** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 5:52 pm

Thanks! I'm still working out some kinks with the display. I originally had it going from DVI -> HDMI into the TV but the sharp tv spazes out and basically gives me a message every half minute or so saying something about audio. Basically I think the GPU is outputting noise through the audio of the HDMI end and causing all sorts of crazy stuff to happen. I went out and bought a 10ft DVI-DVI cable tonight (damn it was expensive) and hooked it up. No more "audio" problem but now things are ... "too sharp" imagine if you cranked the sharpness of the display. That is sort of what I'm getting. I've been fiddling with the sharpness settings on the tv and have it at 75% of where I want it but I think I'll have to monkey around with the PC some more.

I have to say the 32" display is amazing. I'm typing this on the 20" cinema display on my mac and the screen just seems so small. The other big thing I notice is the amazing color depth. The blacks are true black, the whites are brilliant and everything just seems "richer". Overall I'm very impressed. Can't wait to play some more games on here!

I'll post more later.

Mr Kleen · Post by **Mr Kleen** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 10:09 am

Cereb Daithi wrote:I went out and bought a 10ft DVI-DVI cable tonight (damn it was expensive) and hooked it up.

Monoprice has good prices on cables of all types.

chicken n waffles · Post by **chicken n waffles** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 5:33 pm

i don't think your monitor is big enough

Cereb Daithi · Post by **Cereb Daithi** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:40 am

Mr Kleen wrote:
Cereb Daithi wrote:I went out and bought a 10ft DVI-DVI cable tonight (damn it was expensive) and hooked it up.
Monoprice has good prices on cables of all types.

Sweet. I'll have to check that out. This is getting very annoying. Everything is messed up and no amount of adjustment on the tv can help. Looks like I have to return this beast. the HDMI connection looked great, if only that worked.... It's a GeForce9600GT hooked up to a Sharp Aquos via a DVI-D cable. I figured I should get digital but was I incorrect in that assumption? LIke I said before the edges of things are pixely and images seem "blotchy" and discolored. I've checked the cable and it seems fully fastened on each end. The graphics drivers are installed as well. Anyone know anything that would be causing this or would an analog DVI cable make a difference?

Apart from that the computer is running great!

avriette · Post by **avriette** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:18 pm

Cereb Daithi wrote: Apart from that the computer is running great!

I has to ask. Did you decide to get the computer instead of that used STI?

Cereb Daithi · Post by **Cereb Daithi** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:13 pm

are you thinking of that WRX? That deal is on hold until at the very least late this year due to the fact that my coworker that is selling it is getting married and buying a house. He doesn't want to sell it until after he gets the place and knows what kind of money he'll have to work with.

Also an update on the video issue... I'm going to try s-video -> HDTV and see if that works better.

Cereb Daithi · Post by **Cereb Daithi** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:01 am

Video problem solved. After more tinkering I got the original HDMI cable to work. Just had to tweak somethings on both the GPU and the TV.

Newest problem is hooking up my audio to the surround sound. I cannot get 7.1 to work. The sound-card outputs the surround sound to 3 3.5mm ports. The receiver requires RCA jacks to hook up to the part I need to. I went out and bought 3 cables with a 3.5mm end and a split RCA end, but that didn't work. I think since the ports output more than 2 signals the RCA just can't handle all of it going through. Right now all I have is the front channels working off the digital output but no 7.1. Very sad. Anyone ever come across this problem?

EDIT:

Here's what I have to work with. Screenshot of the desktop and control panel. I'll see if I can get a diagram of the back of the receiver

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/3905/desktopst2.jpg

Cereb Daithi · Post by **Cereb Daithi** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:22 pm

Still pulling my hair out over audio. Anyone out there a guru of 7.1 sorroundsound troubleshooting?

pics of where I put the front speakers. It's not the best setup for the person sitting at the computer, but this is meant to fill the whole room with sound. I have it optimized for someone sitting in the middle of the room on the couch.

hey at least it looks pretty at night

DCAWD.com

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