Finally pulled the trigger

[railmeat]

i would have got a q6600 for $260 all day long,in the next few months(if not already)quadcore will be considerd mainstream thanks to the $260 quad from intel.on memory,4 gigs of ram is def mainstream and for a measly $110 u cant go wrong.newegg has 4 gigs of ddr2 800 from every brand for under $125 now,not sure why u went with 2 gigs?as far as powersupplys go there mostly made and rebranded by 1 or 2 companies.eg fsp make ocz powersupplys just rebadged.past expiernces with ultra were pulling out dead ultra powersupplys out of ppls boxes to replace with something better,good luck with that 1.and video card option,the 8800gt is simply a monster flat out and single card solution stacking up to a 8800gtx is amazing for a mere $270.on the other hand most new mobos including the x38 mobo u got coming runs crossfire so u might have made a wise decesion there.

 

quad core + 4 gigs of ram for the win in 2008.plus vista would def love to see a quad and 4 gigs installed(not to mention quad core coded call of duty 4).im selling my 1-2 year old and running strong e6600 at 3.6 for a q6600 im picking up tommorow for $150(off buddy who bought q9650) just to futureproff things for little money upgrade while i still can.good luck with your build and btw that case owns with green fans you got coming.

[Branjo]

That Zalman case is beautiful bro, I drooled over it myself when building my rig but it was a bit out of my price range infact wayyy out of my price range lol.

[fariss]

That Zalman case is beautiful bro, I drooled over it myself when building my rig but it was a bit out of my price range infact wayyy out of my price range lol.

 

It was out of my range too. This was supposed to be a spring build but I waited & socked the funds away to splurge. Waiting actually helped a little too. Got the case, the X38 board & additional memory.

I actually looked for ways to mod the case but it's awesome as is. The thickness of the aluminum is really something. I worried about airflow but reviews say it cools well. It's probably a giant heatsink. I would like a top blowhole though. Hmmm.......gonna be hard to cut that thick stuff though. And some handles on top. I can't say enough about the HDD cage. And the additional HDD mounts on the bottom are cool too. Wish the board had more SATA connections. I'm using them all up. I'd like 2 more HDDs. I wish SATA cables allowed for 2 devices like the IDE drives do.

[Branjo]

I love the way the small side panel door covers the drives and with the other open you just see all the pretty parts. As for modding it, the thought of wielding a dremel near it would make me nervous lol.

[jaz]

I love my Mushkins. Even though they are only the 6400 version, they are the extreme dual channel and the first thing i did was put one stick in, fire it up, let it run a minute, shut it down, unplug the psu, put the other stick in, plug the psu back in and fired it up right into bios to set timings manually in my sig. They run great. Can't beat them Micron d9's!

Enjoy your new rig...nice case too! Tek support is just as good as ocz. Lifetime warranty too.

[fariss]

The P5E is actually a Maximus Formula board!

The P5E brand is on a piece of black tape between the PCI slots.

If you peel it off you'll see the board is a Maximus Formula.

Same components. Much cheaper too.

[slick2500]

Should have read this before you made your purchase. http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/r600-2-page1.html

Idk if the newer drivers help the card better utilize the 1GB of ram or not but still an interesting read.

[fariss]

Should have read this before you made your purchase. http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/r600-2-page1.html

Idk if the newer drivers help the card better utilize the 1GB of ram or not but still an interesting read.

 

Somewhere there's review that says AMD has used the drivers to address the weakness. I'm hoping that the price drops after new cards are out so I can Crossfire them. If it doesn't work out then I go the other route.

BTW AMD is currently building a plant a half hour south of here. I met & spoke with an engineer that is moving here. He told me about the card, the disappointments & the steps AMD has taken to address them (drivers).

On a side note I've told him about this forum & when he gets moved he said he might check it out.

He also said he gets AMD products for testing before they go retail. I REALLY want to keep in touch with him.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6087530.html

[dr_bowtie]

How is the cpu utilization on the Philips burners? Lite-On's is terrible and I've been looking at Asus' since I read a review showing their utilization at around 20% at full speed while Lite-On's was over 60%.

 

 

I dont see where Lite-On's burners use that much CPU utilization...?

 

I have both Sata and IDE burners and they never even hit 10% most of the time they hover at 4% while burning....?

 

reviewer must have issues....I have both Asus and Lite-On and NEC burners...

 

the fastest burner I have had has been the Asus...