What OS do you run: XP, Vista, Linux, Mac?
Jul 31, 2007 at 7:13 AM Post #197 of 360
I’m using Windows XP Pro on my rig. I’ll probably get Vista soon.
blink.gif
maybe..
 
Jul 31, 2007 at 1:08 PM Post #198 of 360
Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhynri /img/forum/go_quote.gif
[size=xx-small]@theVinylRipper - My best time from start to finish building an ATX machine is 10 minutes. (it was a gaming rig, so no cheating there). But I did PC repair for 3 years when I was in HS, so that is an advantage.*wink* My tower PC is a GigaByte Aurora Case, with 5 of the 5" (.3?" something like that...) drive bays and no less than 10 HDD drive bays, 4 of which are directly cooled by the front 120mm fan. Addionally, it has 2x120mm fans in the rear of the case, one above the other, and the PSU contains a 130mm fan. It's virtually silent when Running (the CPU heatsink is another 120mm fan that blows towards the two rear fans.) It contains 2tb of space internally, and the OS runs off a pair of WD Raptor 150gb 10kRPM drives. it has 3 external drives (2x320gb - 1x250gb) via a firewire daisy chain. It runs 4gb of DDR2-1066 in 4 sticks. Average internal temperature (ambient 80F) is 110F as measured at the cpu, which is an E6600 OC'd to 3.2ghz from 2.4ghz stock. It runs an Elite Pro Xfi card for sound and a[/size] 7950 GX2 Nvidia GeForce card (technically, it's two cards feeding one PCI-e slot). It feeds into that Dell 24" screen and Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 (which sound great for the price)... I'd recommend the Case to anyone, for it's superior cooling properties... just replace the stock fans (mine are Scythe X-Flex... 67cfm at 1200rpm & 27db) for aural silence. the PSU is a 620watt Corsair unit that has extraordinary specs for the price. Very quiet stable unit. You can no longer purchase the video card (it was very limited run) but it is roughly equivalent to a 8800GTX in terms of raw power. [size=xx-small]This rig has both XP and a distro of gentoo Linux called Sabayon, which is faster than Ubuntu as it is gentoo based, but slightly less compatible (however, it worked fine on my pc, when ubuntu refused to even boot off the cd.)

In all honesty, this pc is possible today at under 3000$. It's blazingly fast and makes for an amazing gaming machine and media server (it stores my massive audio (over 100gb) and video (the rest of that 2tb space *hehe*) collections.[/size]



actually the card is more like an 8800gts 640 or 320 oc; the gtx is in a different league but ymmv.
 
Jul 31, 2007 at 2:21 PM Post #199 of 360
Quote:

Originally Posted by sleven /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I’ll probably get Vista soon.
blink.gif
maybe..



Dude, at least wait for v. SP2.
 
Jul 31, 2007 at 2:49 PM Post #200 of 360
I run '95 :p. Along with that, I have XP. Dual booting comp!
 
Jul 31, 2007 at 3:26 PM Post #201 of 360
Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhynri /img/forum/go_quote.gif
If you need an explanation for anything, list it and I'll be happy to provide.


Thanks, but I think I got the gist of it.

I just had to read v e r y s l o w l y
wink.gif


Seriously it sounds like an amazing system but the only thing approaching gaming that I do is the occasional spin on the flight sim with my force feedback joystick.
 
Jul 31, 2007 at 4:55 PM Post #202 of 360
Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderman /img/forum/go_quote.gif
actually the card is more like an 8800gts 640 or 320 oc; the gtx is in a but ymmv.


I respectfully disagree. In everything I play on my computer, and the ways in which i play it, the 640 and 320 would both be downgrades. Even the 2900 XT HD often would lose to my current card. I predominately play at 1920x1200 if possible (game engine allows it) and 8xAS. No AA. I just don't see a marked difference with it on. Whether this is due to the density of my display, or some aspect of the slightly slower LCD response time, I am unsure. I'm also aware that high levels of AA is what is most troubling to my card, as the 8 gen cards have special optimizations that cheapen the cost of it to the card.

To quote the Hardware Secrets reviewer. "Also, we can’t help thinking about GeForce 7950 GX2. This video card was released one year ago and when we maxed out image quality settings it achieved a superior performance on several games – this video card isn’t DirectX 10 and its HDR capability is really limited compared to newer products, though." Which I think sums up the major good points of the card while acknoledging it's shortcomings.


Aside from that, I still often play Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. It has a better and more diverse online community than many of the newer games (FEAR... just to give an example.) In this case, my card is ridiculous overkill. (Heck, my laptop's 6800 Ultra is ridiculous overkill). For me, the 7950 GX2 will be retired to a lovely home in a friend's pc the day a game comes out that I really want to play and the card doesn't support a feature required for optimal visual quality. (likely when Crysis comes out.) Until then, I continue to believe I made a good choice in cards, as I did with my x800xt pe, to have chosen a card with miraculously long lifespan in today's fast paced graphics market.

@VinylRipper - i don't game as much as I used to either... the advantage of this system is then in all the storage and the great sound... for watching my Anime... :p
 
Jul 31, 2007 at 5:10 PM Post #203 of 360
i use windows xp, but im really debating on forgeting about xp and using linux, my friend uses it and says its awesome...well see once i get my other hard drives to back up my ****(crap) that i want.

Edit: didnt know swears were censored, im still a nubby
 
Jul 31, 2007 at 7:46 PM Post #204 of 360
At the moment:
Server: ubuntu 5.10
Laptop: Damm small linux, Free Dos
Desktop: windows xp (aka. satan)

Have lots of other pcs with various weird operating systems (vector linux version 1.* some weird distributed OS prototype and another weird os wrote totally in assembler) But I don't use those.

the xp system is a big pain, it can't be allowed to auto update as I am unable to trust the updates. It gets many viral infections and needs reinstalling for inexplicable reasons every half year (for example I need to reinstall now as my usb has started misbehaving). The only reason I run it is that ati have rubbish graphics drivers for linux.
 
Aug 1, 2007 at 3:00 AM Post #205 of 360
Rhynri,

I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question or two.

I used to keep up with PC hardware pretty well, but for the last eight years or so I have concentrated more on finding and testing software to do what I wish to do.

I have a PCI RAID IDE card and an 80 gig Barracuda UDMA drive. I would like to add another drive for more storage and speed in RAID 0.

The drive I have is a 7200 rpm unit with 8 megs of buffer.

Do I have to add a drive which is exactly the same model as the one I have or can I go with another 80 gig 7200 rpm 8 meg drive of a different model from the same manufacturer?

You seem to be the most knowledgeable PC person here so I thought I would get your advice.

Thanks,

Jon
 
Aug 1, 2007 at 8:56 PM Post #208 of 360
if you're thinking about getting vista: dont. i wouldnt even pirate it. it has nothing a copy of xp has. (nothing worth upgrading for at least). xp shows its age, but is solid enough for the average consumer.

that said, i'd be running ubuntu on my desktop right now if it wasnt for a lack of linux drivers for the emu 0404 usb. as a result, i only use my desktop for listening to music and mild surfing now, and do everything else on my laptop running feisty fawn.
 
Aug 2, 2007 at 2:58 AM Post #209 of 360
Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhynri /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I respectfully disagree. In everything I play on my computer, and the ways in which i play it, the 640 and 320 would both be downgrades. Even the 2900 XT HD often would lose to my current card. I predominately play at 1920x1200 if possible (game engine allows it) and 8xAS. No AA. I just don't see a marked difference with it on. Whether this is due to the density of my display, or some aspect of the slightly slower LCD response time, I am unsure. I'm also aware that high levels of AA is what is most troubling to my card, as the 8 gen cards have special optimizations that cheapen the cost of it to the card.

To quote the Hardware Secrets reviewer. "Also, we can’t help thinking about GeForce 7950 GX2. This video card was released one year ago and when we maxed out image quality settings it achieved a superior performance on several games – this video card isn’t DirectX 10 and its HDR capability is really limited compared to newer products, though." Which I think sums up the major good points of the card while acknoledging it's shortcomings.



I do hear ya but alot of benches that I have seen (synthetic and real world) state otherwise, but for older generation games the 7950 is infact superior. The 2900xt's loose to the 8800gts is pretty much every direct comparison.

@vinyl ripper: the drives don't even have to be the same size (JBOD) but for best performance matched drives would be the best. Does your mobo support sata?
 
Aug 2, 2007 at 3:24 AM Post #210 of 360
Quote:

Originally Posted by iliketuna /img/forum/go_quote.gif
if you're thinking about getting vista: dont. i wouldnt even pirate it. it has nothing a copy of xp has. (nothing worth upgrading for at least). xp shows its age, but is solid enough for the average consumer.

that said, i'd be running ubuntu on my desktop right now if it wasnt for a lack of linux drivers for the emu 0404 usb. as a result, i only use my desktop for listening to music and mild surfing now, and do everything else on my laptop running feisty fawn.



Have you tried using a separate SPDIF transport to get the sound to the EMU 0404USB from Linux? You could either use your onboard optical out (if available) or get something that has USB in, SPDIF (either coax or optical) out.
 

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