After 2yr 3m I finally pull the trigger on a new rig

[jaymind]

Took me awhile to save and scrimp for this, and it all damn well better go together well...

C2D E6600
Gigabyte DS3
2GB G.Skill DD2 6400 (4-4-4-12)
320GB Seagate Perp 7200.10 Drive
Lian Li A10a Case
750W Silverstone Strider Modular PS
EVGA 8800GTS (this should be good for 1680x1050 for awhile I hope)
X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
Lite On Sata DVD Burner
Tuniq Tower
Windows Media Center w/Vista upgrade
Lian Li Thermal and Fan Controller Module

Should all be here sometime this coming week. Got everything on sale or with rebates so it wasn't as expensive as I budgeted for so I splurged a bit on the Lian Li A10 case.

With the Tuniq I should be able to easily hit 3.4 with E6600, but I'll be happy with anything over 3.0.

I really, really hope the build goes well, my last one was a bit of a nightmare.

[Dick Blonov]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

What monitor are you going to be using with this killer rig ?

DB

[jmaker]

Nice rig there dude. Hope it all fits well together. I hope your X-Fi doesn't snap, crackle or pop like so many others'.

[jaymind]

Originally Posted by Dick Blonov

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

What monitor are you going to be using with this killer rig ?

DB

I've got the Dell 20" Widescreen I picked up last year so 1680x1050 is my native resolution. I figured that right now, the 8800GTX is a bit of overkill for that res and if I need it later I can use the EVGA step up program.

[jaymind]

Originally Posted by jmaker

Nice rig there dude. Hope it all fits well together. I hope your X-Fi doesn't snap, crackle or pop like so many others'.

I'm hoping the same thing, cause if it does I'm switching off creative for ever. I still remember the hell I went through with my original SB Live back in the day and the damn IRQ conflicts.

[Rick_the_new_guy]

Awsome.

Will you be playing Armed Assault?

We could use some good N.C.O.s

[Chappie]

Looks good Jaymind!!

congrats on the new rig and good luck!!!

Chappie

[TG_Bubba]

Nice rig, but will it help you with your shooting abilities?

Let me know what you think of the EVGA 8800GTS. I may pick up the BFG PCI-e version.

[BHack]

You shouldn't have any problems with the processor, RAM, or motherboard working well together. This system I'm typing on has all three of those exact components.

Here's a tip though, the DS3 mobo defaults RAM voltage to 1.8v. The G.SKill stuff operates at a minimum of 1.9v according to its specs. Mine booted ok, but I'd suggest the first thing you do is up the ram voltage .1v for stability reasons.

[BHack]

Oh and another thing. Every single time you change a setting or remove/add a component your motherboard forces a poweroff, then powers itself back on instantly on your next reboot.

The first time you press the power button it will turn on, turn off, then turn back on again. I didn't know this was standard operating procedure for the mobo and it worried me at first.

[=Sarc=]

I think the DS3 does a power off, power on after a BIOS change to do a backup of the previous settings. If the new settings fail, it will power off again and restore the settings that did allow the system to boot.

[jaymind]

Originally Posted by BHack

You shouldn't have any problems with the processor, RAM, or motherboard working well together. This system I'm typing on has all three of those exact components.

Here's a tip though, the DS3 mobo defaults RAM voltage to 1.8v. The G.SKill stuff operates at a minimum of 1.9v according to its specs. Mine booted ok, but I'd suggest the first thing you do is up the ram voltage .1v for stability reasons.

This is one of the things I read about already, but thanks for the tip. I'll probably up the RAM to 2.0 and tighten timings a tad since I'm not going to be running it anywhere near it's rated speed of 400mhz.

What BIOS are you using on the DS3? The new F10 just came out which is supposed to be quite nice, but other than that everyone says go with the F7 bios.

[jaymind]

Well, everything is together and working quite well except for a few snags that still need to be worked out.

I had some rough times with the mobo until I upgraded the bios to the new F10 version -the F4 version kept giving me memtest errors left and right with (effectively) underclocked RAM at 1.9v. The F10 bios took care of that and a few other quirks.

I have a minor oc on the processor to 3ghz (333 FSB) at stock voltage. I did up the MCH voltage by 0.1 since that is supposed to help with the cold boot issue if you push your fsb past 350.

The board also wanted to run my ram timings at 5-5-5-15, which is wrong, so I had to manually change them to 4-4-4-12 which is working fine.

The Lian Li A10A case I have is nothing short of spectacular. The only minor bitch I have is that because of my Tuniq Tower I had to remove the top 120mm fan, it was to big by a few mm.

Speaking on that, does anyone know of anyplace selling 120x20mm fans? I can only find 120x25mm around and I would like to get that top case fan back in.

I'm still waiting on my fan module before I straigten out the mess of wires in the case, but that's all that is left to go.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering how a Tuniq does with a slightly OC E6600 in this case - 100% CPU load (using TAT) never pushes my proc (either core) past 53C.