My Wife is Awesome...

[LA_MERC_Maverick]

She said OK to me buying a new computer !!

Here it is (I spent more that I should have, but I'm hoping it will last more than 2 days)

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202)
Cooler: COOLER MASTER V8 120mm Rifle (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055&Tpk=cooler%20master%20v8)
MB: EVGA Intel X58 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039&Tpk=evga%20x58)
Mem: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224)
Vid: EVGA GeForce GTX 285 SC Edition 1GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130446)
HD: Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319)
DVDRW: LG 22X DVD±R DVD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152) x2
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009&Tpk=corsair%20850w)
Case: COOLER MASTER RC-690 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137)

Total Price: $1600 (It was actually more, but with combo discounts and MIR)

I'm currently running:

AMD 3400+
2 GB Ram
6800 GT

Hoping to see a big improvement...LOL!

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

Looks good Mav!

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

As I said in Frag's thread, New Build = Saawweeet!

Sounds like you are going to have an awesome system to go along with that awesome wife.

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

P.S. (and just ribbing you Jason) - we'll have to do some benchmarks to see if it's really <strike>"$700 faster"</strike> (forgot I already had my RAM) "$600 faster" than my AMD Phenom II rig I just built...

:stick

...and you know I'm kidding ya!

BTW - what size monitor are you running? My main reason for not going w/ more Vid card is I'm on a 22" LCD @1680x1050 - all I play besides CS:Source (i.e., only "newish" game I play) is UT 3 and I have it maxed out and I'm still over 100fps...

I do wanna know what your 3DMark 06 is. Also - from what I've been seeing on places like Tom's Hardware, etc. is you might wanna turn off the Hyperthreading to optimize for gaming - esp. w/ a Nvidia GPU - so you might wanna run some benchmarks both ways.

Let me know though when your stuff gets here - I wanna see it once you get it built.

[LA_MERC_Maverick]

running same size monitor and rez as you, which is why i didnt go for an sli or xfire rig, but didnt want to be gpu limited either

there are some new games coming up (or already out) that I am dying to play (FEAR 2 and Dawn of War 2) that my current vid card would bust a capacitor to try to play

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

Well - I don't think you'll be GPU *or* CPU limited for quite a while :-P

I was really just giving you a hard time - I never intended mine to be a "Gaming System" - I just wanted it to play UT 3 as good as it could possibly be played at my resolution...'cause anything will play CS:Source decently. I'm just surprised at how much better the ATI 4830 is (even though it's overclocked) than the Nvidia 9600GT that is in my Core2Duo...



I do want to compare notes on the Hard Drives though - I was torn between the AAKS I got and the AALS that you got - some sites/reviews were saying the AAKS was faster (even w/ the smaller cache), some were saying it was the Black that was faster - in any event all the stuff I saw was too close to call really. I had decided on the black, but the day I placed my order it was out-of-stock, so I got the AAKS instead...

The hard drive is really the only thing in my system I would "do-over". When I first started out planning a system, I was going to get a Raptor - I'd always wanted a 10,000RPM system drive, and I ended up talking myself out of it - if I could do it over again, I would have gotten that instead of the 640 (especially since I have a recent 320 in here too), but I have the 640 now, and I doubt it's *that* much slower than a Raptor would have been.

BTW - I just realized that you changed cases from what you originally posted - that case is actually what I had decided on after I decided against the Antec P182 - but right before I finally ordered, they put the Antec 300 on sale for $49 - so that was just too good of a deal to pass up for sure.

Anyway - congrats again on the new rig - I know you've been wanting it for a heck of a long time!

[LA_MERC_Maverick]

Yea, I thought about getting a velociraptor, but to be honest, I've got a 36gb regular raptor and I really can't see any benefit in the stuff I do. I've also got a 640gb AAKS as well and I really like it, it swaps files just as good as my raptor. I needed another hard drive to have more dedicated to downloading movies and such (which is the other reason I wanted new computer, this one takes hours to convert dvds, I wanted to speed that up). I went with the AALS because it had a larger cache, so I'm going to put it as the main drive for OS and games, I've got another WD 200gb sata drive laying around that I'm going to use for apps, and then dedicate the AAKS as a storage drive.

I thought about going with a 1TB drive, but later this year, or next, I'm going to play with setting up a NAS at the house in order to stream media to my XBOX 360 in order to play movies over the network on my tv. But thats a project for later.

On the case, I was really gung ho about getting the full tower HAF, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I just did not need that behemoth. So I started looking around, and found a forum dedicated to the 690, and I fell in love with it, especially since it fit all of the peripherals I wanted so well. It's also a really nice looking case. The only thing that may bug me about it is the power button location, but I think I can handle that.

[LA_MERC_Maverick]

I might hollar at you and M@l when the system comes in (hopefully Wed) to come by and play with it (and help me put it together!). If it doesn't come in until Thursday, then we will have to wait until next week, since I will be out of town Thursday night through Saturday night (going on a weekend getaway with the wife to the beach...aka no kids!).

[LA_MERC_Maverick]

Well - I don't think you'll be GPU *or* CPU limited for quite a while :-P

I think that is what aggravated me about the current system I have, a year after I built it, the thing was obsolete and I couldn't upgrade it, because all of the parts were "last generation". (Read AGP slot and no PCI-e slots)

Thing I like about this is I should be able to upgrade this for awhile since its "new generation" and I don't have to worry about it going obsolete so fast.

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

Sounds awesome Mav. I love the GTX285, and I haven't got to play with the settings much. I have never overclocked, but I am going to on this rig. I just need to find the time and some literature to read on overclocking.

[LA_MERC_Spark]

awesome man! nothing like building a new system.

[LA_MERC_Shadow]

I just got that exact same video card. It's HUGE! takes up 2 bays and takes 2 6 pins power connections or 4 4 pins. Runs great tho! I though I must have made a mistake when it came in the mail because it was so big, like I had ordered the mobo I wanted instead.

[LA_MERC_Maverick]

Well, the case made it here today, but everything else is set to get here tomorrow (figures, since I won't have time to mess with it tomorrow since I'm leaving for vacation as soon as I get off work).

Oh well, maybe I will get to put it all together on Monday. M@l, Max, guy night at my house Monday!? (hehehe :D) I'll throw some pizzas in the oven!

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

Sounds good to me Jason!