DescentBB

As promised here are the pics from the new system build. Had a huge headache getting the CPU HSF mounted but after that it was smooth sailing.

Specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz, 4MB Cache)
Albatron GF 7950GT PCI-x16 (HDCP, 256MB GDDR3)
2GB Mushkin DDR2 800 (2x1GB Kit)
MSI P6N SLI-FI nVidia nForce 650i Mobo
Fortron Source 600w Quad SLi Power Supply
320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2

what no SLI?

Only thing I would have changed is the brand of PSU you used, but looks nice. Hows it run?

/me points to viewtopic.php?t=11660

And where's your 3Dmark06 score ?

AceCombat wrote:what no SLI?

No. I broke the bank enough, but the option is there for the future.

Capm wrote:Only thing I would have changed is the brand of PSU you used, but looks nice. Hows it run?

I like Fortron Source, I have one of their Power sups in all 4 of my rigs at home and I've had zero probs with em.

It runs great... The windows logo fades in at start up and isn't even on the screen 3 seconds before its in Windows prompting for password. Oblivion runs silky smooth at Full Detail/Bloom/1280x1024. A huge increase over the old AMD 64 3700+/GF6800.

FFXI stutters a bit in crowded player areas, not sure what's up with that... the old system didn't do that.

Grendel wrote:/me points to viewtopic.php?t=11660

And where's your 3Dmark06 score ?

I'll download 3DM'06 tonight and post em. And the rig in that post is now in another Lian Li case but with purple Cathodes for the girlfriend. In the second to last pic you can see the corner of her screen as she enjoys WoW on full detail/1280x1024. Her old Dell laptop could barely run it with all shaders off and 800x600.

My first Intel rig since my old Pentium III 800MHz back in the day.

3DMark 06!

One thing I am quickly realizing is... the onboard audio sucks complete ass. I've been messing with the equalizer for 2 days and it sounds like crap.

Any sound card recomendations?

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/R ... -main.html

We use these at the radio station. Real nice cards, virtually no crosstalk even running super hot.

Auzentech or M-Audio are good cards. If you don't play a lot games, almost anything works fine except Creative Labs..

Here is a particular Auzentech, if you want some hardware-encoded DTS and Dobly Digital Love lovin' then this card may be good for you:

http://guru3d.com/article/sound/399/

I play a lot of games... Why does creative suck?

The main thing about the onboard audio is the crappy MSI utility... how do you get Nvidia's audio utility to take over?

On my NF4 board the forceware drivers installed it.

CL cards are the only ones w/ EAX support > 2.0. CL drivers & driver support sucks dockey balls tho (just check out thier forums.) I got an X-Fi Elite Pro w/o problems on my particular setup. Unfortunately you'll have a 50/50 chance if a X-Fi card works in your setup (less than that if you got a nVidia chipset), so you could buy one locally and return it if it doesn't work. If it works it's pretty good, just make sure you get a X-Fi Gamer or Fatal1ty (here's a sample review.)

BTW, here's my score (same CPU w/ EIST on, 975X chipset, RAM at 333 4/5)



Here's a good laught

fps.txt wrote:715.12 Descent3 v1.4
396 Min
919 Max
919 Second 1
839 Second 2
678 Second 3
737 Second 4

What video card is that with Grendel? If you are going to laugh @ Descent3 benchmarks...get one that is funny:

821.73 Descent3 v1.4
167 Min
1183 Max
1183 Second 1
1019 Second 2
892 Second 3

:P

BTW JM, your 3dmark score looks right in line with what it should be, I got 5384 in 3dmark 06 on this system.

Nice.

The main thing about the onboard audio is the crappy MSI utility... how do you get Nvidia's audio utility to take over?

Try uninstalling the MSI drivers completely, and reinstalling the latest Nvidia audio drivers if they are the drivers you need.

Krom wrote:Try uninstalling the MSI drivers completely, and reinstalling the latest Nvidia audio drivers if they are the drivers you need.

I can't seem to find anything on Nvidia's site... only stuff from 04 or chaintech boards.

Unfortunately, you can't use the Nvidia mixer on that motherboard, the best you can do is the latest version Realtek HD Audio driver direct from the Realtek site: here

Thanks Krom, I'll give that a shot. The SoundCard severly distorts sounds in Games (I'm guessing its an EAX clone, but it says its turned off)

Krom wrote:What video card is that with Grendel? If you are going to laugh @ Descent3 benchmarks...get one that is funny:

Hehe, it is funny. I'm running a 8800 GTS, settings for D3 where 1280x1024, 4xAA, 16xAF, HQ texture filtering.

Same res, but no AA nor AF and Q TF:

fps.txt wrote:820.27 Descent3 v1.4
525 Min
1317 Max
1317 Second 1
675 Second 2
790 Second 3

Looks like CPU limit

My 3Dmark06 score w/ a 7900 GTX was 6223 BTW.

Hah! I'm still 1 FPS average higher.

So that 1 fps noticable at 1000+ FPS?
Someone please make that quote a sig...
Nice setup JMEaT.

Krom;
[q]Hah! I'm still 1 FPS average higher.[/q]

<----- 9000+ score on the 3dmark 06

Admiral Thrawn wrote:<----- 9000+ score on the 3dmark 06

/cookie

I intend to beat everyone's as soon as I put my new system together.

Hehe, man, I don't know what it is about us guys and comparing. Damn testosterone hehe.

Top! Bring it on hehe

I was gonna say \"isn't this thread quite old already?\" but it was only started in March. I remember JM talking about how much of a pain he had installing the HSF and thought it was ages ago.

JMeat, I do have a question for you though. I noticed your cable management is VERY clean. Looking at the case, I see that the cables seem to be folded into the empty space within the bays.

I've been trying to get this thing cleaned up before I take pictures, but I have to admit, it's an absolute pain. Any tips?

It probably helps that he has a pretty big case and not a lot of drives, so there is a lot of extra room to stuff cables out of the way. By comparison I have a computer with 3 HDDs and 2 optical drives plus a water cooler in a smaller case, so mine looks way more crammed and cluttered.

Yes, all cables are zip tied and routed into the empty drive bays and the open space at the top of the case.

I don't have any pics at work, but I can post some for you when I get home. It's a Lian-Li PC-6x case, probably about 6 years old now, but I'm really happy with it.

Sorry for the delay. Things were hectic and I forgot.

Here are the pics of my cable management in my main rig:

you and that Reese's Coffee Mug

Dude, that would be an awesome idea for a latte. You could make a flavoring syrup out of peanut oil and liquid chocolate.

Heh. The mug never leaves my desk (unless it's the once a month washing ) It's at least 15 years old.

You may want to replace the cooler on that GF/X card BTW -- this one works very nice and is easy to install.

Grendel wrote:You may want to replace the cooler on that GF/X card BTW -- this one works very nice and is easy to install.

Is there a problem with the stock cooler?

Crappy fan -- underpowered, noisy and has a very short half-life. Just replaced one after one month on a 7600 GT (same cooler) that whined like crazy.. Took another one of a 7600 GS (same fan, Al cooler) before even plugging it in. That Zalman will give you a lot lower temps, on the GT they went from 50dC idle to 39dC idle w/ 49dC load.

Hmm, my fan is very quiet and temps are right on. If I begin having problems with it, I will give that cooler a look. Thanks.

what no SLI?

heh

J, you should have bought an 8800 GTX. ^_~ or GTS if you are trying to save money

Neo wrote:

what no SLI?

heh

J, you should have bought an 8800 GTX. ^_~ or GTS if you are trying to save money

Not interested in a DX10 part at the moment. Not going Vista, and if for some reason I ever do, better cards will be out then. For the gaming I do the single 7950 tears up.

I'm not interested in Vista and I got a 8800 Anyway, try running this little gem and watch your GPU temp.