I Have Become A Geek, My New Computer Set-Up....

[The Architect]

My Computer Finally Crapped out just over a week ago,
Since then I received my new custom Computer parts from Newegg and Have assembled (most of) it all

(I ordered more just tonight so Ill update when i install them)

What I had was a P4 3.0GHZ HT CPU with 3GIGS RAM and a PCI Slot 256mb Video Card.

I was running Vista Ultimate x86 and it ran aero smoothly.....it was a fairly nice computer and worked fairly well.

BUT....all good things must come to an end and make way for new great things.


NEW SET-UP
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 x86
ASUS V2-P5G43 Barebones PC w/ Intel P45 Express Chipset
Intel C2D E7300 Wolfdale 2.66GHZ OverClocked to 3.2GHZ (For Now)
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
WD Caviar 250GB HDD SATA 3.0GBS 7200RPM
4GB DDR2800 240 Pin RAM w/HeatSinks (1 2GB Transcend, 1 Geil 2GB)



Plenty more upgrading to come (Video Card, Sound Card, etc etc etc)



PICS WILL BE ADDED ONCE I RECEIVE THE FINAL COMPONENTS

[id3379]

too bad you can't use over your 2 gig's since your only running your system 32 bit.

This is what 64bit is for :D

[The Architect]

vista x86 recognizes and uses 3.12 max so i just bought 4gb anyways

[BailOut]

Real geeks do not use Windows. Minor geeks may use Windows but certainly not Vista.

[The Architect]

im not really into the linux thing and possibly having to create my own drivers should something decide to not work.

maybe a mod. should change the thread title to minor geek indeed.


sorry if i offend any true geeks.

[TEHxFALLEN V1.2]

*sniff*

no harm done!

[kuyachris84]

I don't think building a computer is geeky... lol

It's just a set of skillz to be able to do so. :biggrin:

Hope you pick a good case for airflow.

[Gideon]

Just 3.2? C'mon push that sucker! :burnrubber:

[id3379]

well yah...but u have to tweak stuff in vista to get it to work properly for that 3.12

[The Architect]

yea its only 3.2 for right now, i didnt get my cpu cooler and ram heatsinks yet, the e7300 has been pushed to 4.4 but im not even gonna touch that.

[eTiMaGo]

not bad not bad... ex-geek here I suppose, tinkering with PCs kinda grew old, gimme a good, stable laptop now :biggrin:

You really could have gotten a bigger hard drive though, they're so cheap now...

[Phaeton]

I used Vista for over a year.
For the everyday average user it's ok, IF you have a fast machine.
For gamers Vista is crap. I just went back to Xp, I noticed a huge performance gain in Crisis, Call of Duty etc.

[lita_g]

Real geeks do not use Windows. Minor geeks may use Windows but certainly not Vista.

Ditto. With 4gb of ram you're definitely better off with a 64 bit OS, and you can get an additional HD of at least 500GB really cheap nowadays. The pc I bought a year ago came with vista on it, and even though it's a pretty darn fast computer, Vista still made it chug along, that's what made me move to Linux, much more fun and efficient, and I'm a newbie when it comes to linux so I haven't tweaked it as much as others have.

Vista sucks.

[bdc87]

Not bad,
My setup is as follows:
Q6600 - ASUS P5N-D - XFX 9600GT 700/2000 - Buffalo Firestix DDR2 800 2GB (1GBx2) - 250GB Seagate SATA2 - CLSB X-Fi FATAL1TY PRO - Antec TP 500W - Antec 900 - Thermalright Ultra 120

[ChinoCharles]

You guys are wimps. I'm running 6 gigs of ram. :laugh:

[bdc87]

For me only 2GIGS are needed, I'm running XP PRO SP3.
Why so much RAM?

[The Architect]

very nice, the q6600 is basically overclocked by everyone Ive seen with it, any chance your doing any oc'ing?

I intend on getting a nice video card when possible will probably spend 150-250 on it.
I think im on limited by my mobo's PCIE 6 pin powers plugs though.

any chance you have a picture of what that 6 pin plug looks like (im semi-new to video cards etc.)

[Gideon]

I've used Vista forever practically, and I haven't had any problems. A few incompatibility warnings, but nothing serious. It's really not that bad, and certainly NOT comparable to Windows ME in problems. :rolleyes:

My setup:

e6850 @ 4.0 GHz - Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme - eVGA 680i 122-CK-NF63-TR - OCZ DDR2 4GB - BFG GeForce 8800 GT - WD Raptor 74GB - WD 2x750GB - Antec P190.

(sniff, so much new stuff out I need to upgrade)

[id3379]

i'll be xp till i die.

[bdc87]

http://owltech.co.jp/products/power/Seasonic/S12E/c-pcie.jpg

[engelm_]

vista=fail IMO....

=p

[The Architect]

and if my mobo (or psu?) doesnt have that 6 pin plug?

[TheRealEnth]

yeah that setup isnt that hardcore. =D. its almost matching mine and mine is old. You gotta buy that top of the line beast machine !

[Gideon]

and if my mobo (or psu?) doesnt have that 6 pin plug?

You can use adapters.

You should be worried about the power supply though. That barebones comes with a 300w power supply, which isn't going to be enough if you're going to be putting any sort of OC on the processor and run a video card that requires power other than from the PCI-E slot. IIRC even an older Nvidia 7950 requires a 350w minimum power supply.

[The Architect]

Well I only got a new computer because my old one died in a sense So i made the best budget one i could given my limit.

Ill be definitely upgrading the psu but the space limitations in my case are pretty strict, basically i need one thats the same size but outputs more. I was thinking a 500-600 watt psu would work ok.

[The Architect]

How do i know what kind of psu I have/need. (atx etc etc...)

[Tiddlygoose]

im not really into the linux thing and possibly having to create my own drivers should something decide to not work.

maybe a mod. should change the thread title to minor geek indeed.


sorry if i offend any true geeks.

Not offended at all! Still, Give Ubuntu a try sometime, maybe on that old PC of yours. You'll be surprised at how easy the install is, and how much faster that PC will be then when it had Vista.

I've been running Ubuntu now for a year, and I have yet to have to build a driver, or even compile anything, for normal day to day stuff.

I still have my Laptop that run XP Pro for the Tivo and AutoCAD LT, but I use Ubuntu for most everything else.

[The Architect]

i noticed on newegg that the psu's dont have a dimension specifications, does this mean that theyll all just kind of fit where the old one did lol, seems unlikely.

anyways would this psu work? it has alll the connectors i need (i think)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817342015

[TinyGiant]

i used to build all my computers and make sick gaming machines... once i stopped gaming and doing more graphic design and audio recording it was time to get a real computer. :)

i first bought an imac 17" 2.0gz... then i sold that and now have the 17" macbook pro 2.5ghz.. i'll never go back to a PC after going mac. :)

[TinyGiant]

i used to buy all my stuff from zipzoomfly.com, tigerdirect.com or newegg.com

[The Architect]

ive had to use macs for photoshop, premiere pro, final cut etc.

theyre nice...but idk.

just too...ehh. to each their own though.

Maybe Windows 7 wont suck :)
ha...i kid myself.

[id3379]

Maybe Windows 7 wont suck :)


Funniest thing ive heard all year.

[The Architect]

maybe by windows...11..12 itll be nice?

assuming theyre still somewhat in business.


anyways who wants to answer my psu question a few posts back.

[bdc87]

I have Vista on my laptop and no problems whatsoever, I kinda like it works good for multimedia stuff.

[The Architect]

I like vista as well..no problems, everything's compatible, runs fast (for me)

[id3379]

I like vista as well..no problems, everything's compatible, runs fast (for me)

just pisses me off that it takes over 600mb of ram to just run the dam OS and background services.

[id3379]

maybe by windows...11..12 itll be nice?

assuming theyre still somewhat in business.


anyways who wants to answer my psu question a few posts back.



you have high hopes.

[The Architect]

oh well thats why ram is so cheap now.

[id3379]

oh well thats why ram is so cheap now.

This is true!!

[BailOut]

It always freaks me out how much hardware power one has to throw at Windows just to get it to do things like play games. My self-assembled setup is low end compared to everything that has been mentioned in this thread:

350W Antec PSU
ASUS K8N mainboard
AMD Athlon XP 2200, 64-bit
1.5 GB Crucial DDR memory
Nvidia GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, AGP
Soundblaster Live! Value
Ubuntu Linux 8.10

For years I ran only 1GB of RAM but when the mainboard in my wife's old setup died I had to migrate her to DDR2 and inherited the older stick.

With this setup I do everything. Compile, render, burn, compress and game. Over the last few years I have played everything from UT2004 to Guild Wars, WoW, Eve Online and BioShock. In each game I could not run all settings to their fullest but I kept the resolution high, shadows on, antialiasing and anisotropic filtering at 4x - even in large PvP events. It has performed wonderfully.

In the Windows world my hardware is not good for anything beyond The SIMS and Solitaire.

[Phaeton]

Get a 500w psu then you can add a better vid card down the road if you want.
You don't need any more than that with the machine you've got.
If you have a full, or mid tower then you can use the standard size power supply.

I'm running a shuttle glamour xpc
Amd Phenom 9960 2.6 ghz
4 gigs of crucial ballistix
2 500 gig Seagate Barracudas in raid 0
evga gforce 8800 gt
all with a 250w psu.

[id3379]

you still run AGP ? i didn't even know those type of mobo's still were made.

[BailOut]

you still run AGP ? i didn't even know those type of mobo's still were made.
They are not made anymore, and have not been for several years. My equipment is all 5 to 11 years old.

As I mentioned, though, because Linux is so much more efficient than Windows I can still play modern game titles at high resolution and with post processing effects.

[Gideon]

i noticed on newegg that the psu's dont have a dimension specifications, does this mean that theyll all just kind of fit where the old one did lol, seems unlikely.

anyways would this psu work? it has alll the connectors i need (i think)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817342015

Yeah that's fine. Dunno if that case is ATX or BTX, but it works for either so you should be safe.

They are not made anymore, and have not been for several years. My equipment is all 5 to 11 years old.

As I mentioned, though, because Linux is so much more efficient than Windows I can still play modern game titles at high resolution and with post processing effects.


Please don't turn this thread into a Linux vs. Windows pissing match. The only game that's remotely "modern" in the pc gaming area that you mentioned is BioShock, (There's also Prey!) but for anyone who enjoys playing PC games when they come out, Linux is not a viable option. (Although it IS a very good operating system. :P) Even with using Wine there's only so far you can get, and Linux's gaming efficiency drops because of the emulation.