Um.. holy crap! (Warning: computer nerd content inside!)

[sperry]

So I *finally* got my new computer up and running. I started building it last Thursday after the meet, and I've been having all kinds of problems with it. A hard-core memory test finally showed me that one of my RAM sticks was bad.

So anyway, I was able to get the system up and running on half the memory, and DAAAAAMMMM!! This thing is a beast! Think EGJ22T with a disco-potato running 1.8bar of boost!

Here's the specs for anyone nerdy enough to care/understand:

AMD Athlon64 3500+ (2.2GHz)
ASUS A8V Motherboard
1GB DDR400 2-2-2-5 RAM (2x512 dual channel... once I get them replaced)
Seagate Barracuda 160GB SATA Hard Drive
Plextor DVD+-RW Optical Drive
GeForce 6800 GT 256MB (Factory Overclocked)
Antec Sonata Quiet Case (and it really is quiet!!)

I spent way more money than I really should have... but g-damn this rig screams! I finally installed Half-Life 2... cranked it to high detail everything at 1280x1024 and I'm getting ~160 fps indoors, and ~70 fps outdoors, with only occational spikes down around 30 to 40 fps during really intense action. Pretty impressive! And I can't believe the image quality of that game with the textures cranked up!

I can't wait to get home and get all my drivers installed for my Logitech wheel and get Richard Burns Rally running!

Only one last thing is to get in touch with NewEgg and see if they'll cross-ship me some new RAM. I'd hate to have to be down another few days doing an RMA exchange... I gots me some video games to play!!

[MikeSTI]

sounds like a nice system

[MattR]

Originally Posted by sperry

... but g-damn this rig screams! !!

Rig

[sti deede]

Yep definately a geek.
Congratulations with getting your computer working. All your cursing, grumbling and anger finally paid off. Now you get to enjoy it.

[Kevin M]

I can't believe you didn't melt that thing down. Good job dude.

[sperry]

Well, figuring out the issue required finding a linux based boot disk w/ a memory test tool built in to it. Then I had to run the test over 1GB of RAM... it took a long ass time. Finally after about 20 minutes of testing the memory, it started throwing errors for one of the chips on one of the RAM sticks. I was able to narrow down the test and get the errors totally repeatable.

I tried bumping up the voltage to the RAM and it reduced the problem from about 11,000 errors down to like 12 per test... but it still wasn't stable. I called newegg.com and got an RMA number, so I'll be sending the bad RAM back today. Luckily my roommate Matt's got some spare RAM that he's not yet using for a secondary computer he's building, so my system will still be useable while I wait for the RMA shipping to be handled.

[Nick Koan]

It'll be outdated in 6 months

god damn you (and HL2) making me update my computer for newer games

[ScottyS]

AMD strikes again!!! That is a sweet setup, Scott. What power supply you running? I had RAM problems once, and had to run some utility off of a 3.5" that took like all night to complete the tests. I forget the name, now --- I suppose I still have the floppy somewhere.

No RAID 0????



Almost as cool as duallies.......

[sperry]

Originally Posted by ScottyS

AMD strikes again!!! That is a sweet setup, Scott. What power supply you running? I had RAM problems once, and had to run some utility off of a 3.5" that took like all night to complete the tests. I forget the name, now --- I suppose I still have the floppy somewhere.

No RAID 0????



Almost as cool as duallies.......

The PSU I've got is the 380W one that comes in the Antec case. It's got a single fan for noise reduction. Plus, it's got "fan only" power headers that are controlled by the PSU to automatically throttle down when power usage (and therefore heat generation) is low. There's a single 120mm case fan that's controlled by the PSU. When the system is idle, the case fan and the PSU fan are damn near silent.

The CPU cooler is a heat-pipe with a GIANT cooling tower. It's got a big fan (which means lower RPMs, which means quieter operation) and the fan speed is controlled by the motherboard. Since the Athlon64 is a "Cool-n-Quiet" processor it steps down voltage when it's not being taxed to run cooler. This all means the CPU cooler can also run at very low noise levels when you're not taxing the system.

All in all, this system is actually quieter than my old P100! And it'd be twice as quiet if I could replace the two little bastard fans on the GeForce card! those things aren't throttleable, and they're tiny, which means high rpms. I'm thinking about pulling the fans off and putting my own large, low rpm fan on there and letting it throttle off the PSU. When the vid-card draws a lot of power for rendering, the PSU should throttle up all the fans, providing the necessary cooling. And since the video card monitors it's own heat, it will shut down before damaging itself if my cooling isn't adiquate.

I'll bet the RAM test you ran is the same one (or the old version) I just used: MemTest86+. It's a bootable floppy that goes right into the test application. I believe it's based on a small Linux distro.

And no RAID... 160GB is plenty of space (considering my server's got 260GB of space on it), and SATA is plenty fast. RAID 0 won't actually make the drive twice as fast... Plus I've run RAID drives in the past on servers and it's really a hassle to manage all those drives. Not to mention the heat and noise of more drives.

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Originally Posted by sperry

AMD Athlon64 3500+ (2.2GHz)
ASUS A8V Motherboard
1GB DDR400 2-2-2-5 RAM (2x512 dual channel... once I get them replaced)
Seagate Barracuda 160GB SATA Hard Drive
Plextor DVD+-RW Optical Drive
GeForce 6800 GT 256MB (Factory Overclocked)
Antec Sonata Quiet Case (and it really is quiet!!)

Dizam... that must have left a smoking hole in your wallet. I am jealous...

[sperry]

Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey

Dizam... that must have left a smoking hole in your wallet. I am jealous...

Well, I figured I'd spend about $700 to $800 on the system... I was just gonna get a new MB, CPU and RAM. Then I decided I wanted a quiet case. And the GeForce4 I was going to borrow from Matt was only DX8.0, so I picket up the DX9.0 card... and I figured since I was out of drive space in the server, I should grab some hard drives.... and pretty soon I spent about $1200! :shock: Thank god we just had cash sharing... course I probably should have put that money towards my credit cards... oh well, money's going to be useless once the New Civil War starts next year. All I need is enough to buy some guns before the shit hits the fan, right?

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Originally Posted by sperry

oh well, money's going to be useless once the New Civil War starts next year. All I need is enough to buy some guns before the shit hits the fan, right?

Well, you're in the right state to do it - be sure to pick up a couple of AR-15's for me while you're at it since I can't get them here.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey

Well, you're in the right state to do it - be sure to pick up a couple of AR-15's for me while you're at it since I can't get them here.

Guns may be more legal here... but that doesn't make them much cheaper.

[JC]

Hardly any activity, then boom someone posts about there computer. What a bunch of nerds. Sounds like a sweet setup though Scott.

[Kevin M]

Hey, cut some slack- they're talking about guns now.

[JC]

Originally Posted by BAN SUVS

Hey, cut some slack- they're talking about guns now.

It'll come back to something nerdy, just wait.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by JC

It'll come back to something nerdy, just wait.

Um, I picked up some round ribbon cables at lunch. That's pretty nerdy.

[dknv]

I thought ribbon cables were flat? (more nerdiness)

[sperry]

Originally Posted by dknv

I thought ribbon cables were flat? (more nerdiness)

Not if they're round.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by sperry

Not if they're round.

Ends are flat, cable between ends is round, and often shielded.

I beleive they start out flat to make sure all the conductors are the same length, and then they "frray" the ends so the ribon will roll and then put them in shrink wrap to keep them round.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

Ends are flat, cable between ends is round, and often shielded.

I beleive they start out flat to make sure all the conductors are the same length, and then they "frray" the ends so the ribon will roll and then put them in shrink wrap to keep them round.

I think that's the deal. They're much nicer than the flat cables for airflow... something that's pretty important when you're trying to do what I'm doing... have a very quiet, high-power machine. You need to flow a lot of air at low speeds, and having all those wide obstructions in there sucks for cooling.

[MattR]

FAST AND FURIOUS (in sperry's world..)

Id be surprised if the extra 2 gig shot of porn didnt blow the weld on the hard drive

You almost had that download? You never had the download, you never had 1487KB

Alt-Tabbing, not double clicking or matching the interface like you should..

Now me and the mad scientist have to rip apart the tower and replace the memory stick and ecu fan you fried.

From now on, you go to the net cafe down the street faggot and get cable for $2.50 an hour... I like the dial up here......b***sh*t, no one likes the dial up here!

Its not how you stand by your PC, its how you use the keyboard over the net

Cordless mouse, flat screen LCD screen and a stand alone keyboard management system, not a bad way to spend 10g's

Whoa, P4 ECU running XP, no shit, you know, this thing would download all with 15-20g's thrown at it if we had too, overnight parts from DELL...

I got that XP, ME something.... There's somthing about the internet that calms me down...

I live my life one mpeg. at a time... For those 5 minutes of download, Im free.

Virus came through my firewall, someone narked me out, disrespected my harddrive, it was YOU!

Amateurs dont use XP, Ive seen the way you reboot.

[Dean]

Matt, did you come up with this? It's golden...

[JC]

First off

Secondly, see back to nerdness.

[tysonK]

I'd like to take a listen to your case, I hate how loud mine is. my low power system "should" be able to get much quieter.