New user and new build.

[MarcusG]

I've been involved with xtremesystems for a while now, but i've never made an account here. I just upgraded my system completely so I figured I'd be worthy enough for an account to post It would be cool if xtremesystems had an introduction forum so new ones can introduce themselves. There's so many forum subtitles I almost got lost. I probably posted this thread in the wrong forum, so mods! move it where it should if needed. thanks.


Okay, so I just upgraded to a new system and i'll see if I can get some pics up later. I went down to my local microcenter and purchased the following.

I have an I7 920 which I happened to get 4.3Ghz stable enough. 4.5Ghz was nice while I had it for a while, but it's hard to make it as stable as 4.3. My temps were fine because I have what is called a "hydrocooling" method. In my living room I have a nice big door to my garage right next to the kitchen. My monitor and desk is all in the living room, while I came up with a bright idea one day, and figured out how to get my tower in the garage with the cables running through a hole (a good lookin' hole ) to my living room! Now, the idea of this was to keep my PC extremely cold which, in fact it's so cold at times I almost have to take a coat just to go in and operate on my computer hardware. It's about 8c in that garage! while in the house it's a nice and cosey smogley 70c I imagined what my OC's would be like if I not only let my tower stay in the freezing cold garage, but also, if i purchased a 2ft ultra high velocity fan and mounted it to the side of my tower with the side taken off. The garage would not only keep temps extremely low, but the 2FT UHVF would actually increase the velocity of airflow so quickly that temps would drop more due to cold air friction. My temps? Well, if I had my vcore at 1.6v (yes very high, but follow me) along with a very high voltage on my QPI/VTT my temps would not go over 85c maximum prime! Of course, I don't need that many volts, so my overclocking is not restricted by temperature at all right now, it's primarily with memory and hardware. Those are my stumbling blocks.

Here's the exciting part Next I got me a really nice pair of Quad SLI GTX 295's both @ 741/1661/1250 XOC. Now, I did patch the EVGA Voltage Tuner so I capped past what was possible. I'm at 1.200V on my video cards, high yes! However, since my system is so cold, my video cards idel at 28-31c idle, and at full stress they hit 58-64c! Now keep in mind the GTX 295 shaders are very heat limited, but since my cooling is so consistent and fresh that 1.2v doesn't run the temps high enough to clog the video card. It's stable because of what I have. I can probably go higher than 731, but I'm all about performance. I purchased Dual Visiontek HD 4870X2's but in order to overclock them to the xtreme I have to take the video cards apart and create a hard volt mod using my saudering iron and a good pair of wires, but I dismissed that so I don't use the dual 4870X2's anymore.

As i mentioned earlier in my post, my CPU OC is limited by memory. I went out and baught 2 pairs of 6GB Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz 1.65v memory which was awesome, but now that I think of it, I should have gone with the Corsair dominator but so expensive they are! I still would have baught them, but that doesn't mean the mem i have now is bad. It's actually really good memory. Since my OC on my CPU was so high, I was actually only able to install 6GB of that mem, wasting a good $200 in cash for the extra pair of memory. I would rather have a faster CPU than 12GB of memory. I've discorved that even 6GB is enough. At least I have extra for the future My mem is at 2:8 1600Mhz 9-8-8-26-1T.

I absolutely love my EVGA X58 Mobo! They keep updating the bios with even more OC options... in fact, I just leave many of them on auto lol

As far as cooling, well thats done said! But along with the whole 9 yards I baught me a V8 Cooler Master, which in itself was good enough for a 4Ghz OC, but now it's almost like I don't need it lol

I purchased the Antec Twelve Hundred case, very big and it has more fans than it can blow lol 7 or 8 I think. In fact, the Nine Hundred Case I wasn't able to fit my V8 cooler lol that cooler is so big compared to other coolers, it looks like a mini viper engine with red eyes that glow in the dark lol very cool.

My power supply I was able to get on clearance.. .very very good power supply imho. I've found it to be far more attractive than any other power supply including the HX1000W ATX modular supply. It was the 1200W Toughpower ATX Modular Power Supply... more than enough power.


I got 64-bit vista as I was told it operates better with games, which obviously I do.


And here's one of my best additions. The soundcard! I wanted to have the best experience in sound, as I make music and create sound archives. It was a bit pricey, but worth it for my needs. It was the Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series PCI-E soundcard. EAX5 the best it gets as far as i'm aware. It has two hardware parts to install. Controllers in the front of the case and the card installed on the mobo. Best sound card i've found.

I would still like to have waterblocks for my dual 295's however my method of cooling now is quite attractive already, so i'm holding off on those. It would be nice to have them on the dual 4870x2's though. The funny thing is the 295's actually run hotter no matter the voltage lol.. strange.

I could have done better on my harddrives. I have 2.5TB in storage currently seagate 7200RPM. I'll go for the velociraptor (did I spell it right?) later.

I have dual monitors as well, but only one is hooked up, who needs dual monitors? I can't watch blu-ray movies on my sony blu-ray drive with dual monitor so I just disconnected the 2nd monitor.

I'll get to some benchies when I have time, my job and wife wears me down lol... well not in a bad way, you need a job to support your family and your wife as a complimentary

Out of all this... I upgraded from a dell 530 inspiron dual core processor at 2ghz and THE WORST hardware possible... The memory, the video was years old..... sad.. I won't get into how sorry that computer was. The jump I made was skyrocket. I'll get some screens later.

[perkam]

Welcome to XtremeSystems...but

*facepalm*

Is there a question coming here or is this more of a rig showroom?

Also, irrespective of what it is, you can easily shorten that post to a third if you don't tell us about the stuff that you DON'T use.

Perkam

[MarcusG]

Welcome to XtremeSystems...but

*facepalm*

Is there a question coming here or is this more of a rig showroom?

Also, irrespective of what it is, you can easily shorten that post to a third if you don't tell us about the stuff that you DON'T use.

Perkam

lol take your hand off your face. I could have made it shorter To make you feel better next time I will. Thanks for your reply

The only things I added in that I don't have were the ATI cards, but they were part of my "story"

And where else would I post something like this? Is there a rig showroom?

Seriously though, thanks for your greeting.