Computers & Software

I guess my home system deserves separate page, considering all the use it gets and the joy it brings :) And I don't mean only gaming here. I do quite a bit of work and most the site development on it. Plus a lot of multimedia editing. For last few years I was still using P3 500mhz, which became increasingly painful. Finally I've upgraded and most likely I won't be keeping the system w/o mods and upgrades for more than 1 a year. Well, 6 months passed, Doom III came out, and I've upgraded the rig with new Video card and more RAM.
One major upgrade was new 24 inch wide screen Dell LCD. Next major upgrade came in 07/2005. Which is, I went with water cooling. WC rocks! Because of WC I've upgraded the case as well. Went with Thermaltake Armour aluminum case. Much lighter and better heat dissapating characteristics. Meanwhile I ditched Soundcard, mobo has built in one and I doubt it'll drop gaming performance. Not that I can see it so far.

Current Rig:

• CPU - Intel Pentium 4 3.2c Ghz; Overclocked @ 3.712 Ghz. FSB 200mhz, overclocked 232Mhz.
• Motherboard - Abit IC-7 Max3 (to be honest this MoBo sucks big time. First north bridge fan died, not OTEC fan making rattling noise, Raptor drives won't work with it, no wonder it got discontinued). Still hoping for mobo upgrade
• DDRAM - Dual Channel Kingston HyperX PC4000 CL3, 1.5 Gb. 2x512 Mb plus 2x256mb Sticks.
• Video - ATI Radeon X800XT 256 MB(Originally X800 PRO VIVO, softmodded with XT BIOS. Overclocked quiet a bit, 560mhz core speed, 565mhz memory speed).
• Monitor Primary - Dell 2405FPW 24 inch widescreen LCD
• Monitor Seconday - Dell 2001FP 20 inch LCD
• Hard drives - 2 Maxtor 120Gb SATA drives.
• DVD RW - Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD write. 40X CD write.
• DVD RW DL - Nec ND 3540A. Finally I got DL DVD writer. Now if those DL DVDs weren't so expensive...
• Speakers - Klipsch Promedia GMX A-2.1. Subwoofer 50 watts + 2 satellite speakers, total 78 watts. Very nice.
• Case - Thermaltake Armor aluminum case, with 2x120 mm papst fans 1 intake, 1 exhaust plus 1 nexus real silent fan 90mm, as top exhaust fan.
• PSU - Antec TruePower 430 watt.
• CPU Waterblock - Swiftech MCW6002-P, solid performer for Socket 478 and AMDs.
• GPU Waterblock - Danger Den Maze 4 Acetal.
• Water Pump - Swiftech MCP-650.
• Reservoir - Swiftech MCRES-525 5.25 Inch Bay.
• Heatercore - D-Tek Pro-120 Combo Silver 1/2 + Shroud, all that sitting on Swiftech MCB-120 Radbox.
• Fan controller - Nexus 201
• Floppy - 1.44mb.

Last Air Cooleed config:

• CPU - Intel Pentium 4 3.2c Ghz; Overclocked @ 3.712 Ghz. FSB 200mhz, overclocked 232Mhz.
• Motherboard - Abit IC-7 Max3 (to be honest this MoBo sucks big time. First north bridge fan died, not OTEC fan making rattling noise, Raptor drives won't work with it...).
• DDRAM - Dual Channel Kingston HyperX PC4000 CL3, 1.5 Gb. 2x512 Mb plus 2x256mb Sticks.
• Video - ATI Radeon X800XT 256 MB(Originally X800 PRO VIVO, softmodded with XT BIOS. Slightly OCed, 526mhz core speed).
• Monitor - Dell 2001FP 20 inch LCD.
• Hard drives - 2 Maxtor 120Gb SATA drives.
• DVD RW - Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD write. 40X CD write.
• CD RW - Lite On LTC 4812H. 48x CD write, 24x CD Rewrite.
• Speakers - Klipsch Promedia GMX A-2.1. Subwoofer 50 watts + 2 satellite speakers, total 78 watts. Very nice.
• Sounds Card - Creative Labs Audigy 2.
• Case - Antec Performance Plus 1080AMG SOHO Filer Server with 4 case fans. 2 intake, 2 exhaust.
• PSU - Antec TruePower 430 watt.
• Heatsink - Thermaltake SP-94 (half a kilo of pure copper ;).
• GPU Cooler - Zalman ZM80D-HP with ZM-OP1 slim fan.
• CPU Fan - Vantec Tornado 92x38mm fan 119 cf/ps. Sounds like a turbojet during takeoff.
• GPU Fan - Vantec Blue Spectrum Fan Card(Actually dropped GPU temps by 7-10 C).
• Fan controller - Nexus 201.
• Floppy - 1.44mb.

Building Your Own Custom Rig - If you are up to the challenge, have time and nerves for it, then it is well worth it. Especially once you are done with all that. It will save you the money, and you'll have exactly what you wanted, most likely outperforming comparable systems from vendors such as Dell, IBM, Gateway, etc. However during the build... Few advices from my own experience.
    First of all go and check on the internet how to build the system if you haven't done so. I've had considerable hardware experience, nevertheless I needed help few times. On the net you'll find everything, instructions how to build the system from the scratch, all sorts of reviews what's good and what's not, overclocking guides if you decide to go that way, cheaper prices, incorrect info, and so on. Therefore, do your homework, or it'll cost you moer and probably will not work or won't work as it should.
    Next, you order parts. Try to get things from the same online store. Don't jump on something just because it's cheaper @ another store by few $, most likely shipping will be extra anyways. Read on the net about the online store you're gonna deal with. I've had bad experience with parts bought from compuplus.com. So did my friend few days later. Could've been avoided had I spent more time researching the sellers.
    Be prepared that some parts may be defective and you have to return them, wait for the replacement, etc... Good luck.
    There are a bunch of the hardware forums to help you out with building your system, installing soft, configuring hardware and software. I prefer SharkyForums, but there's a lot more out there, just look.

To overclock or not to - That is the question. In short, just like with building your system from the scratch, if you have time and nerves, go for it. You'll get faster system once you figure out the right parameters. It took me around a week to tweak and test my system until I got it stable. For now it's running 500+ mhz faster than the stock speed - 3.712Ghz vs. 3.2. Pretty good result, considering that my previous system ran @ 500Mhz ;) Difference is noticeable not only in various benchmarks but also while I am working with the programs I use every day. Especially multimedia editing. One thing is if you have problems with noise then overclocking is a questionable option. Overclocked hardware generates more heat, hence the need of extra, more powerful fans, and those are real noisy as usual. Vantec Tornado that I used was comparable to small industrial vacuum cleaner at 5000 rpm :) Of course you can spend more money and go water cooling, which is more effective and more silent, but not completely. Anyway, read on the net, and decide for yourself.