PC Specifications

User comments

by abuzar1 @ 17 Sep 2007 5:09

haha you namd them? lol
by abuzar1 @ 17 Sep 2007 5:10

I mean "named", stupid school keyboards...
by Estuansis @ 18 Sep 2007 19:47

I named my AMD "Eh Frau" which means "My Wife"

And my Intel goes nameless :,(
by andmill11 @ 24 Sep 2007 15:02

Wow the power supplier alone for the first one is 160$..
by sammorris @ 28 Sep 2007 6:03

Specifications Updated 28/09/2007.
by EWOcelot @ 18 Oct 2007 8:12

I noticed that the intel core 2 duo is 3.00Ghz. My Pentium 4 is also running at 3.00Ghz, can you tell me the difference?
by sammorris @ 18 Oct 2007 16:01

Yep, firstly the Core 2 Duo is dual core, which means that you can effectively run two things at once with the same speed as a 3Ghz single core. Plus, it has a much better architecture inside, so despitebeing the same clock speed, each core is infact around 80% faster.
by Waymon3X6 @ 09 Dec 2007 14:54

Why cant you ever take pictures that arent blurry sam? lol
by sammorris @ 11 Dec 2007 12:35

because I don't own an expensive camera. So sue me.
by eirvine @ 14 Dec 2007 22:49

how much did that first one cost to build?
by sammorris @ 19 Dec 2007 16:25

First PC was pre-built with the Athlon64 X2 and RAM from my main PC (and obviously a different motherboard that has since been removed), at a cost of �1250.
The CPU, motherbord and RAM combo in it cost �300 (although the RAM is now worth �100 less after the recent price drops).
The PSU was changed at a cost of �90, the modification to the cooling and hard drives runs about �260.
Because of all the mods and swapped parts I can't say exactly how much either PC has cost, but the first two builds cost about �2300.
by greensman @ 26 Jan 2008 12:44

Geez!!!! sammyboy where do you get your CASH??? lol. A lowly university student doesn't have that kinda �� ($$$$) laying around!!! :P You're a male gigolo aren't you!!! hehehehe.....
by GTR35 @ 08 Feb 2008 15:19

holy mother! Yeah like greensman said, where the hell do you get your cash?
by Estuansis @ 12 Feb 2008 16:13

Nice to see you finally upgraded your video card lol :P
by cincyrob @ 15 Feb 2008 18:35

duece bigalow EUROPEAN gigolo!!!!!!!!!!!!
by sammorris @ 25 Feb 2008 21:41

You what?
by JYP666 @ 11 Mar 2008 19:43

WOW!!! My brain just exploded! That is some X-TREME PC Building going on. Cant wait until i get to the newage of computing. Your pc makes my pc and laptop look like MS-DOS Systems lol :)
by tripplite @ 09 Apr 2008 21:53

honestly sammy how the hell does a kid like you get all the money 4 this?
by sammorris @ 16 Apr 2008 16:44

By not spending it on anything else...
by theonejrs @ 29 Apr 2008 3:45

Good to see you coming up Roses Sam. I'm considering a Q6700 for mine in the distant future. I'm a bunch like you! I rarely drink and I spend my money carefully. My motto is The more you save, the less you spend, until something comes along that you want or need for your build at the right price. I shop sales and often take a couple of months to get all the parts I need, but I get them at the right price. Keep up the good work Sam! I like your new machine. Good luck with it! GigaByte Rocks!
by Estuansis @ 11 May 2008 14:56

Finally you went crossfire with your Radeon 3870s. I bet that it's way faster than the single card solution. I'm sorry to see the P35 go, but you got an even better board to replace it! Epic PC man!

Tell me. How does she run Crysis and what settings/cvars are you using?

I might be upgrading to a 9800GTX/HD4870 if all goes well for the next few months. It'll be a big upgrade from my 8800GTS 320MB. It's actually overkill for every game I own except Crysis(yup, finally broke down and bought it) :P

If the previews of HD4870 performance are actually real, I might go back to ATi. 57FPS in DX10 very high is for me :D
by Estuansis @ 11 May 2008 15:19

I would also like to add that I am glad you put the X1900XT back into the AMD build. That is a very capable gaming machine in its own right :P

The X1000 series' high-end cards were fantastic. Way more than enough for most games even today. That X1800XT 512 is all my parents are gonna need for years. My dad loves it and says he's not letting men have it back. lol
by sammorris @ 12 May 2008 11:29

The X1900 in the AMD came in useful at a LAN last week as one of my housemate's friends used it as his gaming PC for the event - worked like a charm, even if it did mean a lot of faff getting it back in use as a file server afterwards. it's pleasing to see it still score decent frame rates in all the games we play. Or is it? Kind of makes me wonder why I spent all the money. In all fairness though this is why my housemate and a few other people I know haven't upgraded. It's games that are almost exclusively played singleplayer that seem to command all the power - Assassins Creed, Crysis and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for example. We don't really play Crysis multiplayer, COD4 usually wins out instead, and for good reason! Supreme Commander:Forged Alliance is only not played multiplayer because nobody's PC is fast enough to keep up! (Well, almost nobody's wink wink) - It's one of the games I bought crossfire for, so you can imagine I was disappointed when crossfire didn't work with it at first. Fortunately 8.4 seems to have solved that, and it now runs about as well as the original Supcom ran on my X1900, so I'm pretty pleased (yes, you read that right, the expansion is much more demanding than the original game).
It's a shame ATI hardware isn't of the same quality as the X1x00 series as they really were excellent cards for reliability and solid performance. Noisy, but the HR-03 solved that. Sometime I need to grab one for at least one of my 3870s. Probably won't for both, as it's going to be a pain to keep putting the stock coolers back for when they break - most 3870s only seem to last a few months. My cousin's has failed already, my first card is on its way out, and the second card has already been RMA'ed.

Crysis runs average 35fps @ 1680x1050 max, and 40fps @ 2560x1600 low shadows & shaders - the latter looks better since Crysis' shadows can be a bit suspect in certain areas.

With regard to the graphics upgrade, given your financial status I'd recommend going with a 1 gig 8800GT if you can find one cheap - it'll help out with the high res, and they're a lot less expensive than the 9800s, not much slower either.

I had no idea the previews of the 4870s were out, but as with all previews, I'll believe it when I see it.
Quad core CPU was on the horizon, but after the boost I got in FA with the right drivers, it's been benched again, too little gain for the cost - plus, I'm thinking of trying to run my CPU passively soon.
by Estuansis @ 20 May 2008 13:32

You can keep your passive cooling. Aggressive all the way for me :)

I am definitely moving away from the 8800 series. The 8800GT is impressive but far from what I'm looking for. The 4870 looks promising but I'll also believe it when I see it.

I might go SLI with 8800GTs if it's in my budget, but I think I'll keep a single card solution for now. I'm thinking the 9800GT looks nice, but if AMD/ATI can pull it together I'm definitely going back to the superior image quality.

Same with the Quads. There are massive gains going from single core to dual core, but not from dual to quad. I have no programs that need 4 cores, so my E6750 at 3.4GHz will stay with me for a long time.
by sammorris @ 21 May 2008 12:04

Indeedy. Running my case fans back at their silent level has unfortunately meant my CPU temps have risen, not to excessive levels by any means, but it could be problematic for when I use a Quad core. If I do get one, I'll be playing more with the voltage to keep the heat down. I'm hoping I can get to 3Ghz or so and stick to the stock Vcore, or very close to it.

Given the reduced issues with crossfire and the ATI cards of late with 8.4, I think I'm going to stick back with ATI again for image quality reasons.