Customized computer?

[itadakimasu]

I've never had an asus board but they have a good reputation.

If no overclocking, are you going to run crossfire? have you picked out ram? 4gb should be your minimum since ddr2 is dirt cheap.

my last 3 boards have been gigabyte and despite my current boards quirks ( weird ddr3 ram voltage issues ) i'm going to stick w\ them.

as far as cases, maybe you can get a good deal on a 900 ? they had them for $50 a while ago @ frys but idk. i got my 3d aurora off craigslist for $50 and it was still in its box w\ plastic ( yes.. im notoriously cheap and thrifty )
I like the cosmos but its a huge case.

[Animeniax]

I've always used Asus motherboards but never tried their highest-end motherboards. Recently I've read reviews on some of their top motherboards and there are a lot of complaints. Something like 1 in 4 are DOA, particularly with their Striker series. This could be chalked up to inexperienced users who are too-aggressively overclocking or improperly installing the board or using incompatible components, but it could also be a quality control issue since Asus has grown so much and tried to do everything in the PC world, which usually results in loss of quality for their less high-profile components.

I think Lian-Li cases are overpriced. Antec rules.

[Buffalobiian]

No, there's no intention of running crossfire on it. Maybe the next one we get, but not this one.

The impression I'm getting with Asus and Gigabyte from everyone is mixed. They both seem good, but imperfect, with the occasional bad product.

No particular board to recommend? In that case, I guess I'll have a look around. We'll be using the 3GB DDR2 667 RAM from our old machine. I know RAM is cheap these days too, but 32-bit systems can't enjoy the full advantage . Actually, I've never had to use more than 2GB myself...

As for the Cosmos...yeah, I like it too. I'm not concerned that it's big and heavy, just more about the price and how quiet it actually is. The P182 seems to focus on that more, and I can't find a review of it (cosmos) on silentpcreview.com neither. Hexus did one, but it doesn't say much.

It's the first time I've heard of Lian-Li. I checked out their website, the the most memorable thing about it was how they spelt Valume.

[Board of Command]

Lian-Li is a premium brand. You will find that their cheapest and simplest cases cost a fortune compared to similar-looking products on the market.

As for motherboard, I would recommend Asus over Gigabyte. Their BIOSes are much nicer. Every Asus BIOS from the past five or so years has the exact same layout and labels. I love working with Asus motherboards because every model has the same BIOS layout and I know exactly where everything is even if I've never used that particular board before.

All of my desktops at home have Asus motherboards (P5K-E, P5KPL-VM, 2x M2A-VM) and regardless of platform, they all have the same BIOS layout as well as physical board layout. Consistency is a major plus with Asus.

[Animeniax]

If you've been out of the game for a while like me, you can check magazines like PC Gamer or Maximum PC. Towards the back of every issue they list their favorite parts in each category. I haven't checked MaximumPC lately, but PC Gamer even lists a high-end, mid-ge, and low-end parts list. Mixing and matching (they advise dual-video cards in the mid-range scenario while not opting for a Raptor harddrive) will yield a good system in your price range.

[Buffalobiian]

On a different note, how important is thermal paste? I've seen some PC builder guides (It's the first time I've built one from scratch, though I've taken things apart), and all of the ones I've read don't actually mention it. I know it's only necessary when the cpu and mobo contact is crap, so how do I tell? I think I'm competent to build it myself rather than dishing out $70.

[Kraco]

The guides I've read mention it's important you don't have too much of it, but you have to use it. Apparently the thermal paste isn't that great a heat conductor itself, so only the very minimum of it, so that no air space is left, is optimal. I've tried to follow that advice.

Air is the core element of any insulation material, aside from vacuum in vacuum bottles, so I've always thought it's a nobrainer whether it's good to leave air between the processor and the cooling element. Although I don't remember if I've read any reviews on how big a temperature difference with or without caused.

[itadakimasu]

the thermal paste that comes w\ some zalman 9500, 9700's is great because its got a brush to apply it.

arctic silver has a good reputation though. and like the others said, not too much. don't want any running down onto the mobo or getting into the cpu socket.

[salmonman78]

Arctic Silver is good, I added some to my computer after I got it and it does help a bit to keep it a tad cooler. A nice even layer, be careful not to slather it on.

As for cases I have the Logisys Area 51-W case, has the side window, the imitation alien eyes and good circulation room.

As for whats in it:
ALiveNF7G-HDReady Board
AMD Athlon 64x2 5200+
3Gb Ram(2 G.Skill 1Gb sticks with heatsinks, 1 generic)
160Gb Seagate HD
Nvidia 7300 LE
Basic CD-rom
HP DVD burner

granted I still need a better card for video(looking at the ATi 4670 just released) it runs excellently as is and only cost about $300. I can help ya out with some good shoppin links.

[itadakimasu]

Salmonman : I found this one the other day. I was pricing out a budget build :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161252 -$90

i liked it because my 3870 gets so hot and this doesn't take external power and still has good stats on paper, low point being 128 bit but i'm guessing it would still be alot better than the 7 series you have now. also have a 1gb model for $20-30 more.

[salmonman78]

Yup, all i have is a 480watt supply and don't want to have to invest right now so the low power usage yet the power it provides graphics-wise is excellent for the money. I was actually thinking of the Saphirre 1Gb model for $90 so I don't lose a slot.

gotta love newegg, might get a 1Tb drive from them for my birthday, filling up both my 160Gb now lol

[Board of Command]

On a different note, how important is thermal paste? I've seen some PC builder guides (It's the first time I've built one from scratch, though I've taken things apart), and all of the ones I've read don't actually mention it. I know it's only necessary when the cpu and mobo contact is crap, so how do I tell? I think I'm competent to build it myself rather than dishing out $70.

Thermal paste is the most overrated and overblown aspect of any custom system. You can even get away with no thermal paste for chips that have heatspreaders on them. For naked chips (e.g. mobile CPUs and most GPUs), thermal paste acts like a cushion between the heatsink and the silicon so that you don't have direct contact which can lead to scratches (which leads to defective chips).

It really doesn't matter which thermal paste you use and how you apply it. Forget all those "guides" on the internet telling you how important it is to spread it evenly over the chip with a credit card. It really doesn't matter. The only thing you need to do is make sure not to put too much paste on. That's it. That's the only concern you have when you apply thermal paste. Just get it on there and make sure you don't use too much.

I've mounted enough heatsinks at ATI to realize how silly it is when some self-proclaimed hardcore system builder on the internet tells you to put on a latex glove and spread the thermal paste with your finger. It really makes no difference. At the ATI benchmark lab where we mount up to a hundred CPU heatsinks a month, we use the cheapest white silicone thermal paste and spread it with a broken toothpick. That's now little thermal paste matters. If thermal paste is the difference between cool-running and overheating in your system, then you have much bigger issues to worry about.

To put things in perspective, the difference between the best thermal interface compound spread the most ideal way and the worst thermal interface compound simply dumped on the chip is like... 3-4 degrees Celsius.

[Board of Command]

Phenom II launched today. I got myself a Phenom II 920 with Gigabyte 790GX motherboard. This replaced my Phenom 9500 and Asus 690G. I'm actually fairly impressed with this system. At stock settings, Vista Business runs surprisingly smooth with just 1 GB of memory. I'm running a video encode test to see how much faster it is than my old system for x264. So far, encoding is WAY faster. 1st-pass is almost 50% faster. 2nd-pass has yet to start.

[darkshadow]

whats with that extreme throttling? powersaver mode or something?

[Board of Command]

Yeah, with Cool n' Quiet it goes all the way down to 4x multiplier. Idle power is fairly impressive as shown in several review sites (e.g. Anandtech).

Also, before someone picks up that I got a Gigabyte motherboard even though I don't like Gigabyte: I had no "choice" I still stand by my opinion regarding Gigabyte's motherboards. This board was no different.

[Buffalobiian]

Installed the CPU today. It's an Intel E8400 3.0GHz dual core. It's 28C ambient here, and BIOS shows:

System temp: 49C
CPU temp: 50C
CPU FAN RPM: ~2000

It's on stock cooling. The heat sink came with some paste on it already, so I just slapped it on top like I'm supposed to and secured it. I had a bit of trouble doing the "pushing" on the fans, but I didn't remove the heat sink from the processor during the process.

But yeah, 50C at idle isn't good. my dusty 2.4 C2D idles at 39 on hot days. Any help?

[itadakimasu]

from what i know, intel stock coolers aren't really great. I like the zalman 9500 or 9700's, they're worked great for me before. For some reason I sold the extra one I had that i'd got for $20 and now i'm thinking of switching my water cooling to that but dont want to blow $60.

BOC, was the gigabyte board a combo? or a gimme?

[Buffalobiian]

Yeah. I did some googling, and the E8x00 series are meant to run fairly warm, with an operation temp of 70C. The E6x00, which was what I was comparing to, has a lower thermal profile.

I guess as long as it works and ain't throttled I'm fine with it. Thanks for the help guys.

[Board of Command]

BOC, was the gigabyte board a combo? or a gimme?

It was self serve.

[Animeniax]

Yeah. I did some googling, and the E8x00 series are meant to run fairly warm, with an operation temp of 70C. The E6x00, which was what I was comparing to, has a lower thermal profile.

I guess as long as it works and ain't throttled I'm fine with it. Thanks for the help guys.

Time to upgrade the HSF or go to water-cooling maybe?

So does the new phenom chip make AMD a viable alternative to Core2Quad?