MedicSN6 Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 (edited) Okay so this stimulus check ($600) got me thinking pretty hard about rebuilding my old machine. But I couldn't justify spending it all, so I spent a couple of weeks looking for the best bang for the buck (kind how our politicians do over here.) The four items that I kept from my old rig are the case, Power supply, IDE DVD Burner, and the Video card. Which are a Sunbeam Transformer case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811166004 and a Coolmax CT-550. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817159006 HP IDE DVD Burner nothing special about it. And my EVGA 8600 GTS card. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130084 (When I bought it, it was $250 not $99. LOL) Now, for the new items I have purchased. Which include a mobo, CPU, RAM, CPU fan, and HDD. ASUS P5K PRO LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131275 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115037 ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835118019 CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820145043 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3320613AS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148316 This is phase one! Phase two will consist of two new optical drives, a new video card, and a new power supply. Phase three (if need be) will consist of a new case if and when I get bored looking at this one. I am running Windows XP 32 bit with SP3. It boots to desktop from OFF and is finished loading running in about 28 to 25. I am sure it will slow down as the registry gets bigger. Also, and as a side note, this thing is LOUD. It has two 120mm fans, one in front and one in back, 3 80mm fans, two in the side panel and one on top. The PSU has three fans which are selector switch speed controlled. The Video card has a small fan and the CPU has a Zalman 9700. That's TEN fans running on this beast. My desk is a mess and a partridge in a pear tree. Pictures in following reply. Now all I have to do is tidy up the cables and find a place to put the box itself. EDIT***: Added two new drives. 2 x LITEON iHAS220 LightScribe Multidrives http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827106265 Edited August 5, 2008 by Medic~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicSN6 Posted July 4, 2008 Author Share Posted July 4, 2008 (edited) Edited July 4, 2008 by Medic~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoScream~SPARTA~ Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Nice ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custard~SPARTA~ Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 good job bud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halli~SPARTA~ Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Oh lord now your gonna be unstopable!!! Hey I bought a 250gb drive but using XP it only reads 150 so if you have an old Operating System like mine be prepared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicSN6 Posted July 4, 2008 Author Share Posted July 4, 2008 My XP recognizes mine as a 320 Gig drive just fine. Micro$oft sold you short buddy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoScream~SPARTA~ Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Oh lord now your gonna be unstopable!!! Hey I bought a 250gb drive but using XP it only reads 150 so if you have an old Operating System like mine be prepared. My XP recognizes mine as a 320 Gig drive just fine. Micro$oft sold you short buddy. Pre Service pack one (SP1) on XP only sees drives to 128Gb max for Boot, after SP1 128Gb>boot (formatted) 137GB then that was the limit of pre SP1 version of Windows XP, you need then to enable 48bitLBA for old bios and/or install the latest service pack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adder360~SPARTA~ Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 looks cool man. was gonna say the SP1 stuff but vipper put it better than i would of. so what he said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punisher~SPARTA~ Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Looks awesome Medic. Congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krambo Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 it'll do ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd~SPARTA~ Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicSN6 Posted August 5, 2008 Author Share Posted August 5, 2008 Okay so, I added two brand new SATA DVD Burners in addition to a kinda old EIDE DVD burner I had laying around. The old one doesnt burn DVD-R or DVD-RW for some reason. It only does the +R discs. whatever. I am testing the new ones out today/now. They are both the LITE ON iHAS220 Lightscribe Multi-Drives. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827106265 They installed easily using the no-screws rail system provided with my case. I will say that the SATA cable could be another inch longer. I could not use a standard straight SATA cable to connect the new drive in the top slot. Luckily I had one with the 90 degree angled end laying around. It gave me enough leeway to fit it without having and pressure or it being a "tight" fit. All is good. The retail versions also came with Nero7 Essentials for free. Its a good enough program to burn generic stuff. Other than this, a DVD Burner is a DVD Burner. Next upgrade will be a new video card, but it will be a few months till this happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoBoL~SPARTA~ Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Looking good dude, same cooler as me. Get some OC going, and lets see what that baby can really do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrester~SPARTA~ Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Nice rig, I just upgraded mine with a 8400 too they seem to be very good overclockers, though I never see the need.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicSN6 Posted August 6, 2008 Author Share Posted August 6, 2008 (edited) Yeah I havent OC'ed it yet either.I just figured out the other day (with some SPARTAN help) how to turn the ASUS SpeedStep option off. Now it runs constantly at 9x multiplier. Before, it was switching between 6x and 9x. This thing is a DVD monster now. It will rip a Dual Layer DVD in about 15 minutes and a single layer in about 8 minutes. It encoded an XVID to MPEG2, 68 Generation Kill Episode, in 20 minutes and then burned it in four minutes. Its a beast. My old machine would take 20-25 min to rip a sigle layer DVD and over two hours to encode and burn the disc for an hours worth of xvid to mpeg2. Edited August 6, 2008 by Medic~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athlon64~SPARTA~ Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 progress is great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicSN6 Posted August 6, 2008 Author Share Posted August 6, 2008 The last major purchase is the video card and I am really looking hard at the nVidia e-GeForce 9800 GX2. Anyone have one or know enough about them to give a thumbs up or down? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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