New Computer spec ...

A

Allanon

Moderator
Well, its been almost two years since I got a new box so I figured it was time once again to go shopping. As many who have know me, knows I prefer custom build over pre-fab. There are many reasons for that but most of them are boring so I'll just skip over them and post my new specs. A quick overview, I have choose the AMD/Nforce combo again plus Nvidia's vid card. I should state that I use this box for all my virtualization projects and testing of new OSes and the like. In fact I run several complex infrastructure projects via VMWare and most recently Virtual Server 2003 R2 so my hardware requirements are "slightly" above the norm. You won't see any disk as I have plenty of drives already (I use the Raptor 10K SATA drives as my preferred storage).


AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 Windsor 2.2GHZ 2000FSB 2X1MB 90NM Retail Box
MSI K9N SLI Platinum ATX AM2 Nforce 570 SLI 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI SATA2 Dual GBLAN 1394 Motherboard

Corsair PC2-5300 1GB 4X1GB DDR2-667 200PIN SODIMM Memory

BFG GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual GPU Video Card 1GB GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out

Antec Sonata II Black ATX 16IN Mid Tower Quiet Case 3X5.25 2X3.5 4X3.5IN 450W Air Duct 120MM Fan

Viewsonic VX2025WM 20IN LCD Monitor BLACK/SILVER Widescreen 1680X1050 8MS 800:1 VGA DVI W/ Cable

BenQ DW1655 Lightscribe DVD+RW16X16X8 DVD-RW16X16X4 CDRW48X48X32 OEM DVD Burner Black W/ SW

Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Keyboard & Mouse USB PS2 Black OEM
 
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Largely BenQ is cheap and reliable, I have gone thru 2 generations of BenQ stuff now and cost vs price/performance, I have not found an equal. The other issue is, its not a vital component to me so I care "less" about it. As for the keyboard, some might ask why not another g15 from Logitech. Well, when I first decided on the current g15, I really struggled between it and the MS one. So I figured now I can actually try the other and make a more educated decision regarding which keyboard to use.
 
I've got the LiteOn DVD drive and like it. Nice and cheap. I still have my original M$ ergo keyboard, i never want to give it up.
 
Speaking computer items, I have a question. Anyone running WoW on Win XP Pro 64? Just wondering if there are any issues with it.
 
Ok, order is in, I settled on the following:

Monitor:
Samsung SyncMaster 205BW 20IN Widescreen LCD 1680X1050 6MS 700:1 DVI-D HDCP Black HAS W/ DVI Cable

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 Windsor 2.6GHZ 2X512KB 89W 90NM Retail Box

Memory:
OCZ Gold EL PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL5-5-5-10 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit W/ Ramsink

Video Card:
BFG GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual GPU Video Card 1GB GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out

Motherboard:
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe ATX AM2 Nforce 590 SLI 2PCI-E16 1PCI-E4 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 1394 Moth *IR-$22*

Case:
Antec Sonata II Black ATX 16IN Mid Tower Quiet Case 3X5.25 2X3.5 4X3.5IN 450W Air Duct 120MM Fan

Extras:
BenQ DW1655 Lightscribe DVD+RW16X16X8 DVD-RW16X16X4 CDRW48X48X32 DVD Burner
 
I figured I would give an update so you may all laugh at me and feel better about yourselves ;) After much pain and gnashing of the teeth I have *most* of my box up and running. I had choicen to run Vista Ultimate (build 5474) on this bleeding edge gear and let me tell you, I bled. I am certain I required many blood transfusions during this past week.

It came to light that the new PC2 6400 aka DDR2 800 memory is not an official JEDEC standard and many motherboard manufacturers and memory manufacturers have not yet reached full agreement on the implementation. This has meant my new Asus M2N-SLI and the OCZ Gold EL PC2-6400 2GB kit are not quite seeing eye to eye. I have to currently run with only one stick. The other issue I have run into is my 7950 vid card is not fully supported even though on Nvidia's Vista page this is their flagship product. While it "works", I was not able to install Vista with this card in plus after the installation, it recognizes only one gpu. WoW under Vista can not detect wide screen so my WoW experience is rather gimped. The Direct 9 emulation under Vista is buggy as DirectSound keeps dropping. This has meant my Teamspeak and sound in WoW will suddenly cease to work. While I have a work around on TS (once I know I lose the sound), I have no workaround for WoW. Add on top, the instability of a beta OS, even the meds won't make the voices go away.

On the upside, I am reading again :) I'm working my way thru the Robert Jordan's series again, I'm on book 2.
 
Hey Robert Jordan rocks man. I've read the series 2 or 3 times but have yet to read the last book. Waiting on the paperback, plus I was a little disappointed in book 10 :(
 
book 11 is much better (just finished it a couple mths ago). I found that it actually progressed the plot, characters and action and wasn't more of the same old same old :)
 
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