Tanthalas Posted January 23, 2007 Posted January 23, 2007 Just built my new "Beast 2" machine. (The successor to a machine that got nicknamed "Beast" about 7 years ago, 'cos it was rather shiny for the time.)Coolermaster Stacker 830 case - black, of courseHP-modified Tyan Thunder K8WE motherboard, with onboard U320 SCSI and dual 16x PCI-E slotsTwo dual-core AMD Opteron 270s @ 2Ghz/core4GB DDR RAM2 Fujitsu U-320 15000rpm 140GB SCSI hard drives2 nVidia 7900GTX graphics cards in SLI and overclocked (going to upgrade to 8800GTXs later this year when I get Vista)SLI output split across 3 19" TFT monitors with a Matrox Triplehead2Go adaptorCard reader, DVD drive, writer, etc, etc.Logitech G15 gaming keyboard(Logitech G5 mouse to come and replace my Raptor M2)Lots and lots of 12cm Thunderblade fans - 9 or so (red ones - gives a very sexy diffused red glow through the Stacker's black grills). Loud as hell.Bought some cathodes to go in it, but even with that big a case, they just won't fit! If the I-RAM 2 ever makes it to market, I'm going to get one or two of those and use it as a system drive.It's a rather nice system, and it outputs games superbly. Nothing quite like F.E.A.R. at 3840x1024. Fantastic for my development work, too. Apologies for scaling/compression on the attachments. Straight up screenshots came out at 2.2MB each.
Tanthalas Posted January 28, 2007 Posted January 28, 2007 Nice rig!!!!!!!!!!!Cheers. Cost a fair bit, mind. Still reckon I saved thousands over buying it retail.
bonestonne Posted January 28, 2007 Posted January 28, 2007 have a picture?also, those thunderblade fans, what are the RPMs on those?
Tanthalas Posted February 9, 2007 Posted February 9, 2007 have a picture?Not any good ones, yet. Just the screenies. Going to a LAN match in a few weeks. I'll get some better ones then.also, those thunderblade fans, what are the RPMs on those?http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/custom...?productid=27832000RPM (+/- 10%)78CFM21dBThey're pretty good, but when you've got 9 of them in a case, it sounds like an aircraft taking off. I think I may have to eventually go water cooled. They do look very cool through the Stacker's grill, though.
bonestonne Posted April 10, 2007 Posted April 10, 2007 ooh, i need to update...i've played musical cases/computers so i have 2 rigs down here.The dual Pentium II/III server has been revamped with a few new fun toys, the Pentium 4 tower was given a new case.i'll start with the server.Dual Pentium III Xeon processors 700Mhz 100mhz FSB 2Mb L2 cache1152MB of SD RAMHitachi Deskstar 41.1GB right now just one, but the other one i have will go in when i have to part with my first AMD system.Matrox G450 Millenium Dual head AGP graphics card, slot is only 2x, so its a little restricted, but its not performance based, so no biggie.Soundblaster Live soundcard, better than the ISA Soundblaster, but not permanent in the setup.Benq 16x DVD+/-RW "Superdrive" [this is an old drive too, surprisingly]PCI USB2.0 cardIts housed in the Coolermaster Elite 330, no lighted fans or cathodes, just a simple setup.Pics:^the whole setup, this pic is probably from before i got the G450^troubleshooting^fancy duct idea i came up withthe other rig:Pentium 4 1.4Ghz [socket 423]256MB RD RAM [this stuff is impossible to find around here]52x CD-RW16x DVD driveGeForce MX/MX 400 32Mb graphics cardLinksys WMP11 WiFi card80GB Hitachi DeskstarApevia X-Dreamer with side windowPics:^general exterior shot^ghetto GPU HSF setup^ghetto'd up CPU HSF^this is a very weird angle, thats looking up to the top of the case.-------------other than the fact that the servers got this weird thing about giving me bad audio no matter what i do, it runs fine.the P4 rig is effectively silent except for a hint of turbulance that you hear.my other system is this 1.4Ghz AMD rig that i threw together, 512mb of RAM, my other 40gb hitachi...it'll be getting my old maxtor drive and going back to my friend. my other other system is a linux box, 1.1ghz celeron, 256mb of RAM, 20gb Barracuda, onboard everything but LAN, which is covered by a trendnet PCI LAN controller.and the final system that i'm having issues with is:ECS K7S5A Pro board, AMD Athlon XP 2200+, right now 128MB SD RAM [to get it working] and my old ATi Rage 2C for basic graphics. to date, the system has not ever reached post for me. i have no DDR to try with it.
_Erik Posted April 11, 2007 Posted April 11, 2007 (edited) and the final system that i'm having issues with is:ECS K7S5A Pro board, AMD Athlon XP 2200+, right now 128MB SD RAM [to get it working] and my old ATi Rage 2C for basic graphics. to date, the system has not ever reached post for me. i have no DDR to try with it.An Athlon XP 2200+ is newer then my 2000+ Polamino, shouldn't you be able to put that one on a motherboard that supports DDR RAM? A 2200+ is a Thoroughbred, right?EDIT. didn't read carefull enough, sorry. Edited April 11, 2007 by _Erik
bonestonne Posted April 11, 2007 Posted April 11, 2007 i'm trying to throw the system together so it replaces the P4, but it might need DDR for it, in which case i'll need to get enough money to buy some....if i get DDR, i'll be getting a pair of 512s, as i'm sure thats the most that the K7S5A can handle...it'll then be my editing computer...my server handles editing ok, but theres seems to be this issue with sound, during playback in winamp, or anything that plays audio, it seems to give this strange crackly effect, it bugs me beyond belief because it happens with any soundcard i put it, and however i play with the BIOS, it doesn't go away.
ripken204 Posted April 11, 2007 Author Posted April 11, 2007 i really need to get 2 monitors, does anyone else feel that way? i do soo much website coding, it would just make it so much easier. not to mentiion how sweet games will be
bonestonne Posted April 11, 2007 Posted April 11, 2007 yea, i feel that way...i have a dual head graphics card on one of my computers that i would totally move around just to use dual....at my schools radio station i was using two dell 17" LCDs while doing some recording/editing, you have no idea how nice it was...then i came home.i have a big CRT upstairs, but its too much to bring down here and use....i wish i had it...audio editing on two monitors is amazing, stretching out the waveform so much that you see the entire thing...gah..oh well...all in due time...i either save up for two monitors or i save up for a new computer..i'm split.
betamax Posted April 11, 2007 Posted April 11, 2007 No pics, there's nothing pretty about it as it's just a closed case. Here are the specs:ASUS P5N32-E SLI SoundMax HD sound card onboard Supports DTS, Array Mic, 5.1, etc. Dual Gigabit Ethernet adapters. Nifty little heat pipes. and all the other stuff the board has.Core2 Duo 6600 (2.4GHz)2x 1GB sticks of Kingston DDR2-533 in dual channel mode.WD Raptor SATA drive. 150GB, 10,000rpm.SATA DVD Burner/reader combo drive.eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS (640MB DDR3 RAM. Not sure of the GPU specs).This was a huge upgrade from my very old 6+ year old AMD system (A7V266 with a 1.4GHz Athlon XP first generation). I went from playing new games at 20FPS with a low of 5-10FPS during heavy chaos, to 60+FPS with a low of 40FPS during heavy chaos. I don't care about overclocking... I'm just stoked I can play games with eyecandy AND performance! It was a long overdue upgrade.
glocK_94 Posted May 6, 2007 Posted May 6, 2007 a 8800? I want one !!Anyway, here's my (main) buddy:I used to have plain grey boxes and...I got fed up of it! So, when I had to buy a new case, I took great care of all the outside of the PC. And in the same time, I tried to reduce the noise to the lowest level. - Superflower SF-561T2BL Case (impossible to find now...must have bought the very last one in europe)- Led Coolermaster fans (8cm -front- / 12cm -back-)- Led Zalman fans (GPU+CPU)- Forton 400watt power supply- Akasa Fan monitor- Special silver pannel for my DVD-writer- Special led lights for molex plugs- Round IDE cables that glow in the darkThe inside is quite complicated...The goal was to be able to use Win98 (for everyday use and older games) + WinXP (for newer games), so, I took a mobo with both AGP and PCI-e ports to enjoy the latest graphic cards on PCI-e and keep backward compatibility with 98.- Asrock 939Dual-Vsta- GeForce 6200 AGP (used by Win98)- x800GT PCI-e (used by XP) (maybe a nice little 7900 or even 8800 soon...)- Athlon 64 3800+- Creative 5.1 soundcard- Lots of hard disks...I'm satisfied. It's quiet, I can use both 98 and XP, play latest games and...I can finally show my PC in the room. No need to hide it anymore!
bonestonne Posted May 7, 2007 Posted May 7, 2007 No pics yet, but my specs will be [as soon as the CPU comes]MSI P965 Neo-F MoboPentium D 925 [3.0Ghz]1Gb DDR2 667Mhz G-Skill dual channel kit [2x 512mb]250GB SATA WD driveLG CD-RW [52x32x52x]DVD drive [read only]Apevia X-Dreamer with Side windowCPU hasn't arrived yet due to shipping f-up...the claim better fix it...there was a small price drop i took advantage of...price is now $86, it started at $100, dropped to $84 [when i went for it].build will definately run Ubuntu SE, possible dual boot with Vista Ultimate, windows XP will be emulated in Linux, maybe a third boot on Mac OS-X. depends.
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