New System Set Up

[ElRavager]

Ok I have my new system set up.

P4 2.8c CPU
Vantec Aeroflow HS/Fan
Abit IC7 Max3 motherboard
2x512m Kingston Hyperx pc3500 ram
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
Maxtor 160gig SATA hard drive
Antec Sonata case
Func1030 mousing surface! :)

// --- old stuff moved to new machine
creative audigy2 soundcard
Klipsch 5.1 400watt speakers
logitech mx700 mouse
mitsubishi 21" monitor
Wingman cordless rumblepad

Putting on the Aeroflow was next to impossible, due to the northbridge heatsink/fan. Risking crushing the CPU and/or popping off the northbridge heatsink/fan, I forced the clips in place like a real ninja. Be warned if you are considering this fan/mobo combination!

The rest of the setup went smoothly. I overclocked the CPU to 3.3Ghz at stock voltages. I overclocked the radeon 9800 to 391/384. Ran Prime95 overnight, great! Temperatures are nice and low despite the overclocking, and the Sonata case combined with the Max3 fan controls makes this case sooo quiet (as advertised here).

Ran 3dmark2003, 6030, nice! Everything went smoothly once I got the components. Everything (except the aeroflow incident) went so smoothly that I felt cheated.

I ordered all this stuff (except the mousepad) from Newegg, great service (2-day delivery) as always.

This upgrade cost me $1300. I figure that I could have gone significantly cheaper by sticking with AMD (I have 2 other XP 1800 machines, an HTPC and a server), but I was enticed by the alleged stability and performance (as well as this hyperthreading thingy) of the P4c.

I'm quite happy, I don't mind spending a few extra $100's for a machine that I will be using over the next couple of years. My wife is happy too as she gets my old PC. I can't wait to load up some games and take this puppy for a spin!

If anyone is considering an upgrade and has any questions about my setup, let me know!

[DavidCPA]

Nice rig.

-DavidCPA

[ElRavager]

Nice rig.

-DavidCPA

Thanks, I'm having fun loading up all my old games to see how they look in hi-res w/ anti-aliasing on...

:D :D :D