A my new PC thread.

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:12 pm

All the info is here

Havn't started overclocking it yet.
But I have high hopes. And I'm extremely happy with the choice to watercool.
Stock temps on both cores are 30-35°C idle, never go over 40 @ load. GPU is ~45/50°C (idle/load).

:icon26: :icon14:

Post by **obsidian** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:57 pm

Ooo... envious. How much extra does a watercooling rig set you back these days?

Post by **Kills On Site** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:59 pm

Nice setup you have there Watson. How do you like the Abit AB9?

Post by **vileliquid1026** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:08 pm

Very nice, awesome job!

Post by **Captain** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:14 pm

olo @ the Federer pic

Dr. Watson, the ultimate PC customizer

Killer rig, cool project :icon14:

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 5:28 pm

obsidian wrote:Ooo... envious. How much extra does a watercooling rig set you back these days?

~$350

the video block was $120 though... without a full-cover special block it's quite affordable now-a-days.
though I did spent a few weeks pondering if a quiet and cool GTS320 was better than a loud and hot GTX.
I'm happy with my choice though.

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 5:38 pm

Kills On Site wrote:Nice setup you have there Watson. How do you like the Abit AB9?

the bios that came on it was interestingly buggy (wouldn't boot if a USB drive was plugged in; it would POST and then *beep* restart). but that's nothing flashing up to the current version didn't fix.
speaking of buggy, unfortunately all the uGuru/flashmenu windows tools are totally fucked in Vista... so I have to use everest for temp monitoring, and a boot-cd for bios flashing; minor annoyance.
So far, i have my hopes up that it's going to be as rock-solid kick-ass as the Ic-7 was for the p4. (which is still running happily)
They added a nice pile of features that i've not seen before.
1. next to the Optical audio out is a switch to reset the CMOS jumperless.
2. their famous LED Post-Code readout is back, + it has two little buttons next to it that will to power and reset. so you don't have to have it in a case to test it.
3. the space around the CPU socket is fantastic... its the roomiest aftermarket Heat-Sink install i've ever done.

I'll see how well she overclocks in a few days, but the word on the street is that it will do 400+ FSB without batting an eye.

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 5:40 pm

Captain Mazda wrote:olo @ the Federer pic

those chaps at EK do a fine job of machining copper. :icon26:

Post by **Kills On Site** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:02 pm

Yea according to I think it was Anandtech they said the BIOS was "premature" and I checked Abit's site and they are on 1.3 now, there 1.1 update was long as hell, so I assume that was all fixed.

I have an AN7 and two IC7s at the office, all very awesome boards.

What RAM would you recommend, something that overclocks and is stable as hell? Corsair, Kingston or Crucial?

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:26 pm

Kills On Site wrote:
What RAM would you recommend, something that overclocks and is stable as hell? Corsair, Kingston or Crucial?

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory ... 2-800.html

that^ + other reviews is why i picked up the corsair 6400C4 sticks.
bang-for-the-buck++

Also helps that the only Corsair chip i've ever had go bad was a PC150 stick that ran trouble-free for 8 years.
i've also never had any problems with Crucial (mainly budget applications) or OCZ for overclocking.

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:24 pm

christ... i don't know if i'm even going to bother overclocking for a while, now that i've run some benchmarks.

[lvlshot]http://www.rit.edu/~tjf6635/q3wshit/base-3dmark.jpg[/lvlshot]

Direct 3d: F.E.A.R.
Quality: Maximum
Resolution: 1024x768
Min: 56 FPS
Avg: 117 FPS
Max: 284 FPS

OpenGL: Quake4
Quality: High
Resolution: 1280x1024
demo1 (Hallways - light fighting): 113.6 FPS
demo2 (confined space + heavy fire): 96.6 FPS
demo3 (open / exterior spaces + heavy fire): 87.4 FPS
Avg: 99.2 FPS

i'm happy with that performance... mind as well save wear'n'tear + electricity until I'll get a payoff that isn't just pure overkill gravy.

Post by **obsidian** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 3:17 am

Hmm... that's still quite a lot for water cooling. Though I am having problems with my current GPU fan. It sounds like a motorcycle revving up so I think I may need to replace it with a nice Zalman cooler.

Water cooling maybe on my next rig in a year's time.

Post by **Nightshade** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:03 am

Jesus Watson, that's some ace work there. :icon14:

By the way, your el-cheapo deburring tool is called a 'ridge reamer' if anyone is looking for one at the hardware store.

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:23 am

Nightshade wrote:a 'ridge reamer' if anyone is looking for one at the hardware store.

and it even has a most excellent name. though it may be hard to keep a straight face when you walk up to a guy at home depot and ask "You look like someone who can give me a ridge reamer."