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Computer Upgrade funtimes!
Sci-Fi Wasabi
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright, so I got $620 bucks in a winning settlement against Circuit City this morning. Apparently some guy in bumfuck, idontknow decided he hated CC and sued the shit out of them. Like, four years later, I fill out a claims form and bam, looks like I got my overtime money. Throw 400 of it in the bank, and the other 220 bucks is going straight into my computer. Man, do I need it, too. This hunk of shit is about to fall apart.
First up is the case. The blue lights on mine are slowly dimming to a quiet death. The floppy drive ports (empty) are entombed in clear packing tape. The optical drive covers are all a different color and don't fit properly. The side of the case is bent outwards a little where my drunk friend caught his coat on. I think a family of spiders live in it. It is loud. It sucks.
So I'm looking for a case that is both elegant, efficient, and quiet. I'm thinking of one of two cases.
The first?
The Antec Performance One P180B.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129017
It looks really nice. I've never had a case with a front cover before. It looks like it's on sale at newegg this weekend for about $99.99 after rebates and shipping. That is great as it allows me to spend more of my budget on further upgrades.
My other choice is the Antec 900.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021&Tpk=antec%2b900
Holy crap that thing looks like a fortress. I like the look a lot (but hope the blue can be turned off as an option) and the inside of the case looks fucking fantastic. However, it's a significant chunk of my budget at $140 dollars. Ouch. Is this one quiet? Is it worth 40 more dollars? It seems like a popular gaming pc case.
Now as far as specs go:
I'm running an ABIT AN7 NFORCE2 UGURU Socket A motherboard
One 6600gt agp video card
One 300 gb hard drive
I'm not very happy with my current power supply, as it is a bit old, not to mention I think it's only about 350 watts.
Lastly, I have a pretty horrible pair of mismatched 512mb ram sticks. In fact, I'd say ram is high on my upgrade list. The deal is that I want some ram compatible with my current motherboard, but flexible enough for an upgrade in about a years time.
Some possible ram picks...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161030
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
I don't know shit about ram timings, but what the hell.
So there you go folks! Scrutinize my noobish picks and have at me. You know you want to.
First up is the case. The blue lights on mine are slowly dimming to a quiet death. The floppy drive ports (empty) are entombed in clear packing tape. The optical drive covers are all a different color and don't fit properly. The side of the case is bent outwards a little where my drunk friend caught his coat on. I think a family of spiders live in it. It is loud. It sucks.
So I'm looking for a case that is both elegant, efficient, and quiet. I'm thinking of one of two cases.
The first?
The Antec Performance One P180B.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129017
It looks really nice. I've never had a case with a front cover before. It looks like it's on sale at newegg this weekend for about $99.99 after rebates and shipping. That is great as it allows me to spend more of my budget on further upgrades.
My other choice is the Antec 900.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021&Tpk=antec%2b900
Holy crap that thing looks like a fortress. I like the look a lot (but hope the blue can be turned off as an option) and the inside of the case looks fucking fantastic. However, it's a significant chunk of my budget at $140 dollars. Ouch. Is this one quiet? Is it worth 40 more dollars? It seems like a popular gaming pc case.
Now as far as specs go:
I'm running an ABIT AN7 NFORCE2 UGURU Socket A motherboard
One 6600gt agp video card
One 300 gb hard drive
I'm not very happy with my current power supply, as it is a bit old, not to mention I think it's only about 350 watts.
Lastly, I have a pretty horrible pair of mismatched 512mb ram sticks. In fact, I'd say ram is high on my upgrade list. The deal is that I want some ram compatible with my current motherboard, but flexible enough for an upgrade in about a years time.
Some possible ram picks...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161030
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
I don't know shit about ram timings, but what the hell.
So there you go folks! Scrutinize my noobish picks and have at me. You know you want to.
Sci-Fi Wasabi on
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The Nine Hundred was available at Micro-Center for $99. It's now back up to $129
It's an excellent case though, I bought it specifically for the summer heat.
The fan whirring sound is noticeable on a medium setting (All fans on the case come with speed switches so you can just plug them directly to the PSU, nice) Haven't tried it on Low, or High yet.
running dual core and an SLI system (dont ask, not my choice) it is fucking freezing.
Im not kidding, the outside is cold to the touch. Very cold. And inside it is like a fridge. I am not exaggerating at all, it keeps things super fucking cold.
Edit: Also, as for the noise, completely silent, unless you turn the case fans up a few speeds, then it is about as loud as, say, a PS3.
Trust me, buy that case. It is without a doubt the best case I have ever owned. By a mile.
Heheh. Are you referring to the 900 or the Performance P180b?
I'd say you need to get a new processor, mobo and graffax card. And a PSU.
The first one. The cheaper one.
Completely awesome and huge.
That one was actually my second choice. When I went to Micro-Center I saw both the Nine Hundred and one of the P series cases (Seems like there's a few different models out there). It was indeed huge.
The only thing that made me go for the Nine Hundred was because I specifically needed a case that cooled exceptionally well. And the Nine Hundred looked like it was a monster of a system cooler.
So your hard drives stay really cool with that case? Mine are at 28C right now.
Also, all optical drives and HDDs are mounted onto these racks that can be removed. So no more fiddling around inside the case to upgrade memory and such, it all slides out.
As I said, the outside of the case is cold to the touch, really cold. It has a huge exhaust fan on the top too and space for 5 other fans. Insanity.
If cooling is your main case need (it was for me, running basically top of the top end hardware) it is brilliant. and cheap.
GPU temp is at 58C (That's in the normal range for the 7600GT).
Idle.
Full load, the Case temp probably only raises to 33-34C max at 75F weather.
The video card goes up to around 65-67C. 69C on a really hot day.
Those are normal temps for the 7600GT (580Mhz core).
It's pretty hueg though (I can't believe that it's still referred to as a "mid-tower") and heavy. Bringing that bitch to LANs is a recipe for insta-hernia.
EDIT: took this from a website.
Memory Type DDR SDRAM
Number of Memory Slots 3 x 184 Pin DIMMs
Supported RAM speeds 400 MHz • 333 MHz • 266 MHz
Max Supported RAM 3 GB
You can still find DDR ram here and there though, but it might not be worth it as you will probably uppgrade to DDR2 or 3 later.
It depends on how long you intend to keep the computer.
Fuck. Well, I don't know how long it will be until I upgrade my mobo/processor and video card. Nevermind that then, I guess.
Can anyone recommend a good fan/heatsink replacement for an Athlon 64 processor? Or a power supply for that case?
but you want the P182 anyways if you're going to be doing any on going work on your PC. it is far FAR better to work in and has several other improvements over the P180
both are good cases. P180 is aimed a little higher, with lots more little features for the enthusiast. 900 is more of a gamer's mainstream case. the blue led's would have be broken or something or switch out the fans
Get one of the corsair power supplies.
Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro would be a good inexpensive cooler
you dont know what you're talking about.
the P180 line is squarely aimed at the high end enthusiast market, and the 900 is more mainstream for "gamers" especially with looks like that and a case window and blue leds.
looks are entirely subjective but that wasnt the purpose of my post.
the P180 line has numerous features over the 900
3 ply panel construction for less noise
lack of dual front mounted fans for less noise
lower chamber for seperation of noise and heat
better contruction / attention to detail
external fan switches on rear
removable and washable air filters on front
11 drive bays to the 900's 9
cable ties, raised mobo for cable routing - better looking and less restrictive for air movement
optional front door with lock
watercooling tubing ports
i could go on
The 900 also supposedly runs 3-5 C cooler internally than the p182. It is a bit quieter than the 900, but thats really the only absolutely great thing it has going for it over the 900.
edit: just to clarify, i'm not saying the 182 is a bad case, or even that the 900 is better than it, just that its not a hands down choice, well..if you want something really silent the 182 IS the hands down choice, but other than that
I guess if it wouldn't make sense to upgrade my ram if I'm getting a new Motherboard in 4 months anyways, a new monitor would be nice. I've noticed on newegg that "Hanns-G", a company I've never heard of before, is very reputable. I'm tired of this huge CRT from 1995. Help me pick out a nice LCD monitor for under $170 bucks!
My finds:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254005
Alright...so this one is widescreen. It's very similar to this other one in both price and features, however, this other one is not widescreen.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254009
I have no idea which one is preferred.
EDIT:
This one looks nice and is by a company I've actually heard of before.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009108
The original P180 with a PSU with stiffer/non modular cables is a pain yes
The most ideal situation with be a P182 with a modular setup, but at least one or the other is a better system that the 900 which gives you no real options to rout things.
The better construction is something you just noticed if you work on both. It's how you can tell something like the Sonatas are low-end. Thinner material, sharper edges, etc etc.
The locking front door keeps anyone other than the key owner from turning on the PC unless they want to break the door off. Family members/roommates/whatever
Take the door off if you use your optical drives that much (who does in the age of content delivery?)
Or swing it open and swing it shut. At least you have the OPTION which is the point.
Which is just another nice touch with the fan controller. The 900 you have to open the whole case up to change the fan speeds.
You're just dead set against admitting the P180 is a superior case and hence why it carries a regular price that is superior as well.
The only thing I will give the 900 over the P180 line is that is has potentially greater cooling power, depending on what settings you run the fans at/etc. (ie, at the cost of noise) Some MIGHT appreciate the case window and other "aesthetics".
And that's the point of the Nine Hundred. It's a case made for cooling.
But that wasn't the point of the conversation.
All I can really afford is the Antec P180. Am I really missing out on the P182? The thing is quite nearly 60 dollars more.
hell, you should only be getting it on your budget since its on for a good sale.
otherwise Id say get like an Antec Sonata III (case and power supply for < $100)... depending on whether or not you need a new PSU
Anything wrong with this, deus?
24-bit color is the most any monitor not made specifically for graphic design will display, the other 6 bits in typical 32-bit color are used for the z-buffer (depth) in 3D applications and games. Each pixel on an LCD is made up of 3 sub-pixels. A monitor that can display 24-bit color (16.7 million colors) has 8-bit subpixels, each capable of 256 shades of red, green, or blue. 256 x 256 x 256 = 16,777,216 colors. Some panels cheat on colors to lower the response time. These panels have 6-bit subpixels, each able to display only 64 shades. 64 x 64 x 64 = 262,144 colors. The image on screen is then dithered, so that they won't have to publish that abyssmally small number since it will then look kinda like 16.2 million colors if you don't know what you're looking at.
Also, having experience with Acer's customer service after one of thier LCDs crapped out on me, I gotta say that they really come up lacking. The people who work the call center are all very polite and did thier best to resolve my problems. But the repair center that actually fixes your broken hardware needs to collectively get thier heads out of thier asses, and there needs to be better communication between them and the people who take your calls. I had an LCD that one day about a month after I got it, wouldn't turn on any more. I call up CS and get an RMA for the thing. The person I'm talking to says to ship the monitor without its cables or its base, just the panel as I received it in it's retail box. The email I get after the call reiterates that. So I send it in, and about two weeks later it comes back missing the neck that connects to the stand. The neck was attached in its retail box. I call up CS again, the person on the other end agrees that it should have come back with the neck, looks up the part # for it, and promises to send me the part I need. Four days later, I get it, without the metal parts that connect to the panel itself. Call up again, and they send me another neck, this time it's the wrong part for my monitor. So I call again. The guy helping me does some digging on his workstation and talks to his supervisor. He finds out that these screw-ups are because the repair depot shouldn't actually be sending me these parts, and they're neglecting to tell the call center guys about that. The monitor should have gone in to the repair depot again so they could fix it. I thank the guy helping me while politely voicing my displeasure with the repair monkeys, and get a fed-ex pick-up of the monitor from my house. After another two weeks, I get the monitor back intact this time, and it works... for about a day. I get another home pick-up, and this time they send me a new monitor 2" bigger than the one I bought as a way of saying sorry for jerking me around so much. While the end result was fine, getting there was a royal pain in the ass that's left me very leery of the Acer brand.
also i've never dealt with acer support..so i cant really comment on that, i bought a 1 year direct exchange warranty on it from the seller for 9.99 and if it craps out after that really for the price i paid i'd probably just buy another one rather than jumping through RMA hoops and paying out the ass for shipping
I don't think anyone is even vaguely talking about it, so I don't imagine they'll be around this year. At the moment there's really no rush for them, their cards currently dominate the field, there's nothing really pushing them until DX10 gets more established, and even then I think there's still a lot of work left on the 8000 series drivers.
The relative failure of ATI to produce a top end card means there's a lot of breathing room left for nVidia at the moment. I'm sure they're quite happy to carry on with the the 8800s as they are and just try and push for more mainstream integration of their midrange cards. Especially if they can start putting more of their profits into TWIMTBP (and seriously, when was the last time you saw an ATi logo before a game booted?) and carrying on working with developers to optimise games for their platform.
edit: of course this could be complete crap and they're coming out next week. But really, they've only just released the full lineup of the 8000 series.
Tribes Vengeance.
And nVidia is almost certainly going to release a 89** bunch of cards before their next major new series.
Man, I hope one or the other company starts getting off their asses and making a decent midrange card. As it is, the 8600GTS isn't worth buying, and the 8800 starts at $300.