Foo - Computer Nerd Alert: Photos of my newly finished computer. Post yours too!

As some Foosters might remember I posted a while back about upgrading my old (3 years+) main PC, asking for suggestions and recommendations and a little help catching up on 3 years of hardware advancements. Out of that came a rather large order from Newegg.com that I installed into my old (really old, like 10 years) Antec SX1040 case that I had been using since before computers were using Ghz to say how fast they were.

The original plan was to take all my old hardware and sell it off to help finance the cost of this upgrade. A coworker offered to give me a case he had, and to my surprise it came with a good power supply, motherboard and processor already installed. This allowed me to put together a machine to sell and still have plenty of spare parts laying around. As with bicycles, having spare computer parts laying around my house is a dangerous thing to my pocket book. So I present to you, new computer 2.0. New case, new DVD-R drive, and a second new Hard drive.

Case is a Cooler Master 690, a very recently released model by the company. And inside I now have the following:
CoolMax 700W Power Supply (SLI certified)
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe nForce 590 SLI MCP motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane (2.5Ghz) - OC'ed to 2.7 Ghz plan to go higher with new cooler soon
2GB CORSAIR XMS2 DDR 800 (PC2 6400)
MSI GeForce 8600GTS factory OC to 700Mhz
Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Lite-On SATA DVD-RW with LightScribe

http://jonpfischer.com/UploadPhotos/tn_P9202507.JPG
Empy case fresh out of the box

http://jonpfischer.com/UploadPhotos/tn_P9202509.JPG
Side-by-side with my SX1040. the Antec is sitting further back, height difference is more than it appears.

http://jonpfischer.com/UploadPhotos/tn_P9212510.JPG
All the hardware moved over and powered back up. Cool air is being supplied and hot air removed from 5 120mm case fans, and one 80mm fan.

http://jonpfischer.com/UploadPhotos/tn_P9212511.JPG
The SX1040 had less than half an inch clearance to the keyboard/mouse tray. Here I have 2+ inches.

http://jonpfischer.com/UploadPhotos/tn_P9212517.JPG
Not the best cable management job, but best job I cared to do this evening. I'll likely go back in and work on the SATA cables a bit more later.

ASUS M2N32-Deluxe, AMD X2 4800+ Brisbane, MSI 8600GTS, 2GB Corsair XMS2 800, 250 & 320 GB SATA drives, etc etc.

The old Antec SX1040 was put back together with most of my old hardware for its new job as a file/print/game server. AMD 2800+ on an Epox nForce2 board, gig of ram, 120, 200 and 200 GB drives, and my old nVidia Geforce2 GTS 64mb vid card for those rare times I need direct video in instead of remote desktop.

Campy or Shimano drives?

Flip it.

I just bought this sweet baby:
http://oldcomputers.net/pics/pet2001-black.jpg

The guy told me it was brand new, top of the line.

Me and my posse are puttin the finishing touches on this baby tomorrow.
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r162/jsharr/UNIVAC-1-FullView-B.jpg

I'm saving up for one of these:
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/numbers/machine/abacus.jpg

It's going to increase my computational power by at least....well I don't actually know by how much, I need to get it first to figure that out.

Cool, but how many FPS does it get on Doom 3? Far Cry?

dipy911

http://gallery.rhapsody.st/albums/ironfist_blandat/boxes.jpg

The Antec Sonata towers house a Intel Core duo 6600 CPU each, 2 and 4 Gb of RAM and a few hundred Gb of HDD. They are built for silence over speed. Noctua NH-12 UF CPU coolers, Zalman GPU coolers and passively cooled mobos. The tower in the background is empty but I might build a htpc in it someday.

Sweet! :D

I finished mine afew weeks ago and have been putting it through the paces with gaming and benchmarks. I'll try to take some pictures when i get home if i remember.

The only upgrades i'll do in the near future are getting a new monitor, DVD burner, and a second hard drive. While i was dreaming of having a RAID setup, i'll pass on that for now and use the second hard drive for storing, um, videos. Yeah. Videos. :lol:

I'm saving up for one of these:
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/numbers/machine/abacus.jpg

It's going to increase my computational power by at least....well I don't actually know by how much, I need to get it first to figure that out.

is that thing wireless? awesome!!!!!!

http://www.mystique.net/images/laptop.jpg

My Amish Laptop

I'm saving up for one of these:


It's going to increase my computational power by at least....well I don't actually know by how much, I need to get it first to figure that out.


Here Squegeeboo, you can practice on mine (http://www.themathlab.com/alltreasure/chinesecalculation/elecabacus.htm).

http://gallery.rhapsody.st/albums/ironfist_blandat/boxes.jpg

The Antec Sonata towers house a Intel Core duo 6600 CPU each, 2 and 4 Gb of RAM and a few hundred Gb of HDD. They are built for silence over speed. Noctua NH-12 UF CPU coolers, Zalman GPU coolers and passively cooled mobos. The tower in the background is empty but I might build a htpc in it someday.

That sucka is humongous. I might get this one day:

http://a248.e.akamai.net/7/248/2041/1318/store.apple.com/Catalog/regional/amr/macmini/img/overview-byodkm.gif

* 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB memory
* 120GB hard drive1

+ it doesn't need a fan to cool it so no noise...

http://gallery.rhapsody.st/albums/ironfist_blandat/boxes.jpg

The Antec Sonata towers house a Intel Core duo 6600 CPU each, 2 and 4 Gb of RAM and a few hundred Gb of HDD. They are built for silence over speed. Noctua NH-12 UF CPU coolers, Zalman GPU coolers and passively cooled mobos. The tower in the background is empty but I might build a htpc in it someday.


Nice cases

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/jerseysbest/IMG_1521.jpg

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz
Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
ASUS P5B Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
ASUS EAX1300/TD/128M Radeon X1300 128MB 64-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Low Profile Video Card
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA
LITE-ON 18X DVD±R DVD Burner
LITE-ON Beige ATAPI/E-IDE DVD-ROM Drive
and a bunch of really quiet fans

+ it doesn't need a fan to cool it so no noise...

Just to let you know, they let our a horrible high-pitched whine that cut through just about anything.

Here Squegeeboo, you can practice on mine (http://www.themathlab.com/alltreasure/chinesecalculation/elecabacus.htm).

Booooo (urns)
It doesn't work in FF. And it's implementation is shoddy at best. They must have used my Commodore to program it.

Better cable management then I tend to do. Enjoy the new pc.

I always liked Antec cases, but the Sonta III was out of my price range and I think too tall for the space I had. The SX1040 required me to remove the feet from the bottom to give me the needed half inch clearance to my keyboard tray on the desk I have. The rotated HHD bays are really nice. The clearance between video card and HDDs was the big issue I was having with my old Antec. The new build in that box has a much smaller video card now so no worries about that any more.

Cable management is a breeze with this case. Between the opening right in front of the PSU to run cables behind the mobo tray, and the including cable routing guides it really wasn't a problem at all. Any and all spare cable is hidden behind the tray out of sight, plus the PSU has a modular cable setup where I only install the cables I need.

Ohhh, BLUE! :love:

I think I still have the first computer I ever built. :o

Well, here is my newest. He has a big, silver brother too.

You know what they say, "once you go Mac, ..."

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/8941/img00137aw8.jpg
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6759/img00138iz5.jpg

I just bought this sweet baby:
http://oldcomputers.net/pics/pet2001-black.jpg

The guy told me it was brand new, top of the line.

Dude, is that a built-in tape drive? State of the art!! Back in my junior high days, we used to program on a PET, but not even the instructor had one with a built-in tape.

Well, here is my newest. He has a big, silver brother too.

You know what they say, "once you go Mac, ..."

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/8941/img00137aw8.jpg
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6759/img00138iz5.jpg

You then go black?

And I've heard there is more to that one as well...

Well, here is my newest. He has a big, silver brother too.

You know what they say, "once you go Mac, ..."



You want your dignity back!

My new laptop:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EMN6JZ80L._AA280_.jpg

You want your dignity back!

No that's when you find your dignity ...

http://computershopper.com/DellD830.jpg

I'm using the above and I love it.

http://computershopper.com/DellD830.jpg

I'm using the above and I love it.

We use a good number of Dell laptops for the Real Estate guys around the office here, but most of the developers on HP's right now. I really looked at the Dells when I was looking for a new laptop myself back in Feburary, but they were just priced outside my budget for what I wanted.

We use a good number of Dell laptops for the Real Estate guys around the office here, but most of the developers on HP's right now. I really looked at the Dells when I was looking for a new laptop myself back in Feburary, but they were just priced outside my budget for what I wanted.

Interesting, when I went looking for a laptop this was of the best buy out there. I also got 9% off the 'sale' price listed on their website.

For my laptop I picked up a Toshiba A105 for around $800 right before Vista hit the market. All the retailers were trying to clear out their XP loaded machines at deep discounts. Think I ended up getting a Cannon Printer and some crap anti-virus program for free.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41X05ZKBNGL._SS500_.jpg
Intel Core 2 Duo Centrino (1.83Ghz I think), 120GB HDD, DVD-RW, 1GB DDR2, 15.4" screen, 6lbs, good battery life, and now that I"m out of school about all I do on it is browse BF's in the evening while watching TV and playing a few older games on it.

Status update, got the drives swapped around on my server and now have that up and running. Spent a good part of the evening going through the 7.4 GB of photos I have (a large part being cycling related) and trying to trim the fat down some. Also have Remote Desktop working so I can run the server headless and just log into it from my laptop or main desktop as needed.

Whats the point of paying a premium for SLI motherboard if you aren't going to SLI immediately. If you're going to wait a couple months to SLI, waste of money.

I've got about 8GB of photos from my last vacation alone. How do you back up your pictures?

Gigabyte Aurora 3D case (so i can say i've got my own Aurora Unit... you Metroid Prime 3 fans should get it):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/psydotek/Computer/th_P1010109.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/psydotek/Computer/P1010109.jpg)

Purty LEDs (i didn't plan it that way, the fans just came that way):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/psydotek/Computer/th_P1010111.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/psydotek/Computer/P1010111.jpg)

Overall layout showing wiring arrangement (it's not uber neat but it's not sloppy as the picture makes it look, there's alot of room for airflow and excess unused wires are tucked under the DVD drive):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/psydotek/Computer/th_P1010112.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/psydotek/Computer/P1010112.jpg)

4GB of RAM <insert happy dance here>:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/psydotek/Computer/th_P1010115.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/psydotek/Computer/P1010115.jpg)

And yes, those are two videocards and i'm always happy to see you. ;) EVGA 8800GTS 360MB superclocked (factory overclocked from 500mhz to 576mhz). And if you look really really hard you still probably can't see the Creative Labs X-Fi soundcard stuffed underneath (it just bearly fit):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/psydotek/Computer/th_P1010116.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/psydotek/Computer/P1010116.jpg)

Other specs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 Motherboard (nForce 570SLI chipset)
Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 - 4GB
Western Digital 7kRPM 16MB cache 500GB Hard Drive
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad PSU
Windows Vista Ultimate in 64-bit mode (and yes, i was a sucker to actually pay for it but i don't care) :p

Future plans:

2nd hard drive
DVD burner
19" or 21" LCD monitor (i've got an awesome 17" monitor right now but i'd like to get a second monitor so i can get the old computer running again)

Another upgrade i'll probably consider in 2 or 3 years is the videocards. I'll see what's avaliable at what price and if i really need it or not. I was kinda forced to buy a new videocard halfway through the lifespan of my old computer since i bought a videocard which was only slightly above the minimum recommended specs for games at that time (geforce 3 ti200, used it for almost 2 years and upgraded to an ATI Radeon 9700pro which was totally awesome).

Whats the point of paying a premium for SLI motherboard if you aren't going to SLI immediately. If you're going to wait a couple months to SLI, waste of money.

Not really....it gives you the flexibility to upgrade to SLI later, when your high-end videocard is no longer cutting it.

SLI is it's own pain in the ass, requiring a solid power supply with enough 12v current capability to keep the whole shebang running, then you need to buy two cards of whatever is being used. That is NOT cheap.

...then you have the software fun of a mobo swap....no matter what tactic you do, a reinstall is the optimal operation in that case.....while if you already had the SLI mobo, it would be a PSU swap (if needed) and that second videocard......possibly a updated video card driver, but that's it. It's just less hassle.

http://www.mystique.net/images/laptop.jpg

My Amish Laptop


Take it to P&R Bub. :D

Gigabyte Aurora 3D case (so i can say i've got my own Aurora Unit... you Metroid Prime 3 fans should get it):

Other specs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 Motherboard (nForce 570SLI chipset)
Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 - 4GB
Western Digital 7kRPM 16MB cache 500GB Hard Drive
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad PSU
Windows Vista Ultimate in 64-bit mode (and yes, i was a sucker to actually pay for it but i don't care) :p



Nice rig. :) THe Gigabyte Aurora 3D and a couple other Gigabyte cases were on my list when I was shopping for cases, but in the end the deal I got on the Cooler Master sealed the deal. I do plan to step up to SLI in the future, and my power supply is SLI certified so I should be good there. I'll probably wait till the next generation nVidia cards come out. And the 590 chipset had other features that were appealing to me as well.

The AOL laptop... http://www.etchy.org/

We use a good number of Dell laptops for the Real Estate guys around the office here, but most of the developers on HP's right now. I really looked at the Dells when I was looking for a new laptop myself back in Feburary, but they were just priced outside my budget for what I wanted.

I just got a new tower from the Dell outlet. AMD Athlon 64, 2gb RAM, 320gb hdd, cd-rw, dvd-rw for $300 with a one year onsite warranty for $300. I can't buy the parts separately for that much!

Ugh that case is so expensive, no self respecting computer nerd would pay that much for so minimal nerdyness.

Ugh that case is so expensive, no self respecting computer nerd would pay that much for so minimal nerdyness.

Which case are you referring? The Gigabyte? Certainly couldn't mean the Cooler Master 690??

http://www.draddy.org/mbp/mbpglamor1.jpg

Here's what I use to browse BF at home:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e346/DannoXYZ/ComputerTech/DellOSX.jpg

And my station at the office:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e346/DannoXYZ/ComputerTech/good1b.jpg

oh! investor... I want your job.

Hmm, so the "XYZ" does have something to do with graphs, it seems. ;)

(Or at least the XY...)

Just for the heck of it, what program are you running to mask windows to look like a Mac? I remember trying way back when before I got my macbook pro...

oh! investor... I want your job.Commodities trader actually. :) Although I focus on options strategies.

The Dell laptop is actually running native OSX 10.4 Tiger . No skins, and not emulating a PowerPC chip with VMware or any such. Tonnes of people have been doing this for about 2-years now. You can use cheap PC hardware with the rock-hard UNIX stability of OSX. Read all about it here: OSx86 Project (http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page).

I was about to say, that's a pretty darn good mask ;)