Finished my new computer system...

[L32Projekt]

It ain't as easy as it used to be. Blah. Well, started installing the DVD+RW this morning and then the OS. What FUN! Not.

After the first section of XP would install, the drives were formatted and it was time to go to the GUI portion of the XP install, it would say "Disk Read Error, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to reboot" Well feck! Kept happening, no matter how I configured things. Turns out the MSI MB I'm using shares IDE channel 1 with the SATA controllers.. so, after bumping my IDE devices to IDE channel 2, it booted into the GUI and then I noted my USB components weren't working... CRAP!

Turns out the headers on the MB aren't "standardized" and conflicted with the cable for the front panel of my Antec Sonata case. Disconnected the frontpanel connector and the USB ports started working. Damn nForce3 chipset's becoming a biatch! After some minor other problems, everything's installed and working. Well, kinda lol. Windows XP SP2 is causing problems with my Mrs' online game. Crud. Gotta fix that somehow.

Here's the final system specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (Clawhammer Core, 1MB L2 Cache)
MSI K8N Neo-FSR (nForce3 250GB chipset)
1GB Corsair PC-3200 DDR-RAM (2.5 CAS)
2x 80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 8MB Cache in RAID-0 configuration (Striped)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro AGP 128MB
Hewlett Packard 300n DVD+RW Drive

Pretty quick, and well worth the hassle/wait. With just the latest drivers and DX9.0c, 3DMark2003 posted a score of very close to 6000 3DMarks. Doom3 at 1024x768 32bpp, Medium Detail and VSync ON was 50FPS. When I had it set to 800x600, 32bpp, High Detail and Vsync OFF it was posting 64FPS. Remember, this is a very basic setup and not optimized AT ALL. Fresh install of WinXP Pro SP2 and basic BIOS settings. Can't wait to see what it does when I optimize the OS and BIOS. :D

[Flowbee V6]

how much did it cost in the end?

[L32Projekt]

Let's see...

CPU - Free, gift from my Parents ($220 otherwise, due to the core type, hard to find)
RAM - $156
HDD's - $142
Case (Antec Sonata) - $98
Motherboard - Free, gift from parents (still going to pay them, figure $120 tops)
DVD+RW - Carryover from my old system, can't remember what it cost exactly. It was a refurb, I think $70 from ecost.com
Video Card - $150

Total: $960 (including cost of gift parts and carryovers)

Actual cost: $550

Not too shabby.

[Flowbee V6]

Wow gatta love the price of computers these days. Now with all your savings, you can get a nice monitor http://www.elit3.com/upload.php?file=monitor.JPG

[ December 02, 2004, 05:37 AM: Message edited by: Flowbee V6 ]

[Everglades W68]

Originally posted by Flowbee V6:
Wow gatta love the price of computers these days. Now with all your savings, you can get a nice monitor http://www.elit3.com/upload.php?file=monitor.JPG

:D

[L32Projekt]

Haha, be nice and don't tease with technology! :D Mmmmm, more screen for *censored*..... [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

[95Batmobile]

Originally posted by L32Projekt:
Haha, be nice and don't tease with technology! :D Mmmmm, more screen for *censored*..... [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

You'd have to move your neck to go from one boob to the other on that monitor! LOL

Nice system you have there. Why only 160 gigs tho? Piracy requires so much more these days! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

Originally posted by 95Batmobile:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by L32Projekt:
Haha, be nice and don't tease with technology! :D Mmmmm, more screen for *censored*..... [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

You'd have to move your neck to go from one boob to the other on that monitor! LOL

Nice system you have there. Why only 160 gigs tho? Piracy requires so much more these days! [img]tongue.gif[/img] </font>[/QUOTE][img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

oh bring on GR 2 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and H2 [img]graemlins/banana.gif[/img]

[Question]

Im sorry, but the only word I reckonized in there was headers. You put headers on your computer?

[epic]

Looks good for the price. New computers are always fun. :D

I want a terabyte drive for Christmas. Feel free to donate, PM me for more information. Thanks. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[L32Projekt]

Yeah, I got longtube headers with nitrous in my AMD, I'm thinking about titling it the "AMD WRX Si" [img]tongue.gif[/img] :D

160 gigs will work just fine, if I need more space I'll just get bigger drives and backup my data. These were cheap, had a good reputation, fast, reliable with a great warranty, not to mention whisper quiet. Oh, did I mention cheap? :D

[BiH]

what no stickers :D

[L32Projekt]

Originally posted by BiH:
what no stickers :D

Well, does a case badge saying "ANTEC" qualify? Then yes! An extra 10RWHP for that mod! :D

[95Batmobile]

Originally posted by L32Projekt:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by BiH:
what no stickers :D

Well, does a case badge saying "ANTEC" qualify? Then yes! An extra 10RWHP for that mod! :D </font>[/QUOTE]THATS why you got a 6000..
I wonder what my Batman case badge will give me :eek:

[ka50]

I have nforce3 250, too.

It took me around 5 days of staying up to get it all working.

First, drivers wouldn't work for windows 98... so I couldn't get NIC chip to work, so I had to signup for AOL and go for dial up while I was making everything work and of course at that time I needed my comp, too.

Basically ended up installing windows XP total of about 5 times, cuz there were all kinds of issues, drivers not working, and other bullcrap.

Now I got it all working, overclocked it to 2.2 (athlon 2800+). It's insanely fast. Even with DDR2100 ram (broke right now, so I had to use my old memory). Tried 3dmax (the one of later ones), with 8xAA and 8xAF the fps were ok in the plane scene, but in ogre cave they dropped to like 5. If you turn down AA and AF a little bit, it gets a LOT better.

I got geforce fx5900xt