my new build scratch pad thread

[Caliga]

[Scipio]

Scip, thanks.  That case looks promising.  I bookmarked it (i.e. saved it to a newegg wishlist) for future reference.

Hey, are there USB ports on the front top of this case?  It looks like there are from the newegg pics.  I would really like those as my current case has them off to the side and getting to them is a pain in the ass with my desk the way it is.  I noticed alot of the hardcore cases have those.

Two USB on top, microphone and headset on top, Firewire and eSATA on top.  It is a badass case, with great airflow.

[Barrister]

Cases:
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1416&ID=1897

USD : $799.99

Now that looks like a nice case, and while I could be convinced to spend $100-$200 on a premium case, that's just insane.

[Barrister]

I have the following case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137

together with a few scythe fans, and Zalman copper coolers for CPU and GPU, I am very satisfied with the cooling performance.  House temp right now is 74 degrees F; CPU's hottest core is 48 C, HD is 42 C, GPU is 53 C.

The question for Cal is - does he value noise reduction or not?  He claimed he did.

From what I understand big holes on the side will indeed give great cooling.  They will do fuck all in terms of noise reduction.

Here's an alternate Coolermaster case:

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2875

[viper37]

viper, some are now down to $2/Gb.  That's still pricey, but it's getting down to the range that I think is reasonable.  My brother bought an SSD in December for his PC and he said he felt like his performance flat out doubled.  He said he installed Win 7 on it in like ten minutes and power-on to usable desktop is like 20 seconds.

Win 7 with 8gb ram is less than 30 seconds from power on to usable desktop, and I have no SSDs.  Make it 25 seconds, say.  Is it really worth that much to you?  Leave it on sleep if you want even faster

Imho, your money is better spent on something else, but it's your money, hey

The only thing with that is it's something I've thought about doing before and then never actually done, for whatever reason.

If you change the CPU yourself, you just need to have some thermal paste lying around.  It's not really difficult if you have some dexterity

Ironically, the new PC will most certainly have onboard video.

I think they don't do that anymore, but Nvidia had that design where you could switch between your on-board video card and your real video card, as a way to save power when you're not playing.

I have a 22" LCD monitor right now and can't expand much without building a new desk, but also a nice suggestion if I decide to rearrange furniture.

oh, 22" is nice

I tend to get good power supplies, and I have a recent object lesson into why that's a good idea: when I moved down here my mainstream Antec PSU somehow died on the way.  I ran out to CompUSA and like an idiot picked up another overpriced mainstream PSU.  Eventually, Princesca inherited that PSU when I used it + case for a rebuild for her.  About three months ago the PSU's fan died and somehow it blew out her video card (though it seemed to still power on the PC sporadically).

Yeah, nowadays, mainstream PSU don't seem to be really good.  Too much Chinese crap, I think.

[viper37]

Scip, thanks.  That case looks promising.  I bookmarked it (i.e. saved it to a newegg wishlist) for future reference.

Hey, are there USB ports on the front top of this case?  It looks like there are from the newegg pics.  I would really like those as my current case has them off to the side and getting to them is a pain in the ass with my desk the way it is.  I noticed alot of the hardcore cases have those.

the Thermaltake case i recommended to you has USB ports on top.  4 USB ports, IRRC + 1 external SATA.

[viper37]

Cases:
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1416&ID=1897

USD : $799.99

Now that looks like a nice case, and while I could be convinced to spend $100-$200 on a premium case, that's just insane.

I didn't check the price tag  :embarass:

The one I have (Armor+) is around 200$ and it's a very nice case.

[viper37]

Cal, if you value noise reduction, don't you want to go with a liquid cooling case?

[Caliga]

The question is how much I value it, of course.

Also, I am very comfortable putting CPUs in and imagine I would be comfortable taking them out, though I've never done it before... but my comfort with doing it isn't an issue.

[Caliga]

Anand's review of the AMB Thuban cores:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3674/amds-sixcore-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-1055t-reviewed

Having read this review, I'm most likely going to stick with a quad core--probably the AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition.

[Caliga]

On the other hand...

TigerDirect Offers $50 MIR on Phenom II X6 CPUs
by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/27/2010 11:25:00 AM
Posted in CPUs , AMD , Phenom II X6

Early this morning AMD officially launched its first six-core Thuban processors: the Phenom II X6 1090T and 1055T. The last thing we would dream of doing is complain about pricing on these parts. AMD is selling you almost a billion transistors for $199 or $285 depending on what clock speed you want.

AMD just sent us word that the pricing story gets even better. TigerDirect is running a $50 mail in rebate on the new X6 processors dropping the price down to $149.99 and $249.99 for the 1055T and 1090T, respectively. While we're not huge fans of mail in rebates, if you're fine with getting a check in the mail sometime later then you honestly can't beat these deals. At $149.99 there simply is no answer to AMD's Phenom II X6 1055T.

[Grey Fox]

Woha. Might consider buying one & let it rot in my closet until I can afford a mobo.

[Caliga]

The problem here is that I don't know if any existing AM3 motherboards actually will recognize the x6 chips, and I have no spare AMD CPU lying around with which to get the board to boot up and flash.

What I might do is buy the 1090T this week so I can get the rebate and then wait till boards start being released that support x6 out of the box.... assuming there are no boards that support the x6 now, that is.

[Grey Fox]

There is some also those chips also support AM2+.

[Caliga]

I don't have any AMD chips at all.  Well, actually, I have an ancient one from a circa 2002 build, but I doubt it would fit... can't remember the model even.