Monday, October 15, 2012

10 Months Later…

So I have a new main box, The Old girl has been substantially revamped, my Netbook is humming along nicely, and I found a vendor for a replacement PSU for the server, should I need it.

The New Hotness:
-WEI 7.0, runs decently fast and quiet, was (relatively) cheap.
AMD A8-3870K O/C’d to 3.5Ghz
-PITA dialling in the OC, until I discovered about the thermal lock if you try to OC both the CPU and iGPU at the same time. Stills runs kinda high on the voltage side, but I can live with it.
Asus F1A75-M Pro
G.Skills Ripjaws F3-14900CL9-4GBXL (4Gb DDR3-1866) x4
Sapphire Ultimate HD6670 1GB GDDR5
-Fanless, Dual Graphics’d with the 3870.
Intel 520 180Gb
Seasonic X-560
-Overkill, but provides me with upgradeability.
Silverstone PS-07B
-Solid, easy to work in and with, quiet, with decent thermals.Noctua NH-D14
Asus DRW-24B1ST
Razer Nostromo
Microsoft USB Wheel Mouse Optical
Microsoft USB Digital Media Pro Keyboard
Windows 7-64 Home Premium

The (Revised) Old Girl:
Intel Pentium D 945
-It’d be fun to stick a 965EE in here, but I can’t justify a 150-250$ price.Abit AW-8B Max
-Yeah…I’ve blown a couple of the fan headers, but the old girl keeps ticking.
OCZ 2Gb DD2-533 x4
-Could go up to 1066, but…the cost.Sapphire Ultimate HD6450 1GB DDR3
-She doesn’t do much more the web-surfing anymore.Western Digital Velociraptor 300Gb
-Chirps a lot, but can’t  justify the expense of an SSD.
Enlight(Delta) 450w
-Ancient, loud, inefficient. Would love a Seasonic G360 or Antec Platinum 450 to replace it.Thermal Master TC-102
-Cheap, well ventilated, small. Nexus Real Silent 120mm x3
Scythe Mugen 3
-Overkill. The fan never gets above 900RPM, staying quiet.Logitech K400
Windows 7-64 Home Premium

The Netbook:
Sony VAIO VPCY15
Intel 320 160Gb
-Awesome performance boost, lower temps, no noise.
Windows 7-64 Home Premium

The (Old) Laptop and The Server haven’t changed since I last posted about them.

I’m still looking at going even further up the performance ladder, maybe a “Piledriver”, IVB i5+, or (funds permitting) something in LGA2011. Top it off with a 7850/660Ti or better. Maybe a 240mm AIO W/C. drool But that’s the future. When Money grows on trees.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Heavy Metal. Rock and Roll.

Some builds I’ve been looking at recently.
(Prices as of 16/01/11, Newegg.ca, rounded)

Super-Duper 3k Beastly Machine: (Actually, $2969)
-Asus P8Z68 Deluxe/Gen3
--LGA1155, Z68, USB 3.0, PCIe 3.0, UEFI Bios, ATX 260$
-Intel Core i7-2600K
--3.4Ghz (3.8Ghz Turbo Boost), Unlocked 330$
-2xMushkin Enhanced Redline 8GB (2x4Gb) 240-Pin DDR3 2133 RAM
--CL9 (9-11-10-28) 102$
-2xSapphire Radeon HD 7970 3Gb
--PCIe 3.0, CrossfireX, GDDR5 550$
-Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120Gb SSD
--SATAIII, 2.5” 175$
-Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 HDD
--2Tb, 7200RPM, SATAIII, 3.5” 220$
-Seasonic Platinum-860
--80 Plus Platinum, 860W, Modular, ATX 240$
-Fractal Design Arc Midi
--ATX Case, 3x120mm Fan, 20.28”x9.06”x18.11” 110$
-5xNoctua NF-P14 FLX 140mm Case Fan
--3/4 Pin connector 30
-Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO Heatsink & Fan
--160mm Height 100$
-Lite-On Blu-Ray Burner
--Blu-Ray 3D, SATA, Black 80$

Bad-Ass 2k Beast: ($1977)
-As above, with the following changes
-Intel Core i5-2500k 230$
-2xSapphire Radeon HD 6950 2Gb 265$
-drop the HDD and 1 pair of RAM.

Cheap and Cheerful 1k Ma-Chine: ($1026, okay I went over....sue me)
-ASRock Z68M-ITX/HT Mini ITX 140$
-i5-2500k 230$
-G.Skill Ripjaws 8Gb DDR3 1600 (2x4GB) 48$
-Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 1GB 180$
-Seasonic SS-560KM 124$
-Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120GB SSD 175$
-Lian-Li PC-Q08B Black 110$
-LG 22X Super-Multi DVD Burner 19$

Obviously, none of these builds include an OS, so figure an extra 150-200 for your favourite flavour of Windows, and if you aren't going to build it yourself, you are looking at 75-150 build cost. Oh...and shipping and taxes. Can't forget those.

Alternate sources: Canada Computers, NCIX and Tiger Direct

Sunday, January 1, 2012

‘Cause that’s how I roll. Bitches.

Welcome to The Darqsyde of…

This is mostly about my computer stuff. Mostly. Might be about gaming, might be about automobiles. Might be about other shit. But mostly, mostly, about my computer stuff.

So… to start.
My rigs are (as of writing) as follows:
Desktop PC-The Beast:Pentium D 945 3.4Ghz w/Stock HSF (OC’d 3.52Ghz) CPU
A-Bit AW-8Max Motherboard
4x2Gb OCZ PC2-5300 DDR2 667Mhz (OC’d 678Mhz) RAM
Intel 320 160Gb SSD
Asus DVD-RW
2x80mm Arctic Cool F8 Pro PWM fans (1 Intake, 1 Exhaust)
Seasonic X-560 PSU
Sapphire Ultimate HD6670 1Gb GDDR5 GFX
Silverstone SST-CFP52B 5.25 to 3.5/2.5 Bay Insert w/120mm Fan
Enlight EN-7250-Black-Chassis
Windows 7 Home Premium-64bit
(slated for Ivy Bridge Core i7 CPU, Z77 MoBo, and RAM upgrade)
Old NoteBook-Make Me An Offer:Compaq CQ50-228CA-15.6"
AMD QL-60
2x2Gb DDR2 SoDIMM
NVidia 8200M GFX
250Gb HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium-64bit
(slated for 500Gb HDD, and possible 8Gb RAM)

New Notebook-The Sexy:
Sony VAIO YB15-11.6”
AMD E-350
2x2Gb DDR3 SoDIMM
500Gb Western Digital HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium-32bit
(slated for Intel 320 120Gb SSD, Win7-64, and possibly 8Gb RAM)
Server:
HP EX475 MediaSmart Server
1Gb OCZ PC2-5400 DDR2 667Mhz
2x500Gb HDD
2x2Tb Hitachi Deskstar HDD
Windows Home Server v1.0 (PP3)
(slated for possible upgrade to 4Gb RAM)

Spare Parts:
450W Silent Engine PSU
Sapphire Ultimate HD6450 1Gb DDR3 PCIe 2.0 GFX
Sapphire HD2600XT 512Mb GFX
Sapphire X850XT 256Mb GFX
Western Digital Velociraptor 300Gb HDD
Western Digital Raptor 74Gb HDD
Western Digital 250Gb 7200RPM HDD
Pentium 4 HT 660 3.6Ghz w/Stock HSF (last OC’d 3.67)
Rockwell 56k PCI Modem
Mitsumi 3.5” FDD and Card Reader
HP IDE DVD-RW
Sony IDE DVD-ROM
also a handful of DIMMs, SoDIMMs

Car:
2008 Chevrolet Cobalt LS-5 Speed Standard-Black

And that’s how I roll. Bitches.