New Desktop Build, Revisited

[Canelek]

Putting together shopping cart now...

Couple things:

Blu-Ray Player
DVD Burner

Recommendations? I see some HD-DVD/BRD/DVD Burner combo drives out there, but I am a bit leary of the 'overload' options and may be better off with 1 DVD Burner and 1 BRD player.

[Canelek]

Think I have decided on:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811163073

For the case.

[Kluden]

Nice looking layout, but I'll put down $20 that says you won't be able to use that internal 120mm fan with 9800GTX, 9900GTX, 9800GX2...or whatever high end uber long card you buy.

But that's probably not an issue at all...those internal fans sometimes hurt laminar flow across components.

[Canelek]

arg! The case is supposed to be extra long though? Apparently, it is a pain in the balls to remove fan as well. Hrmmmm

[Canelek]

Updated original post. Anything glaring?

[masteen]

Can you post a unified potential build? You're all over the place itt.

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

Again, Canno: What's your purpose, soundwise? I'd stay away from Creative unless you have a specific need...

[Aslanna]

I concur. Boycott Creative.

[Canelek]

Sound - Movies/games.....

I can ditch the creative card easy enough. Any suggestions in same price range?

[Winnow]

http://www.diamondmm.com/XS71DDL.php

Diamond Xtreme Sound - 7.1/24 bit Sound Card with Dolby Digital Live

These are good and inexpensive. Dolby Digital Live converts all audio your PC outputs into Dolby Digital (on the fly) so your Home Theater can take advantage of it.

Somewhere I posted a review (my own and someone elses review with lots of tests) of this card (I won it) showing it compared favorably to the stuff Creative Offers and better in some categories.

Edit:

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technolog ... _live.html

For a description of what DDL is. Creative cards don't have DDL.


Also, this card doesn't have official drivers for Vista : ) (got to find third party ones)

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

*IF* you can get a 5.1 card of the same quality cheaper, do it. 7.1 is 99% useless for home theatres anyway.

Will you be doing any recording on the machine? If so...look here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6829121122

There's a 7.1 version but you don't need it!

[Canelek]

Recording - Not likely at this time. My music creativity is in a valley so it may be some time before I get the spark again. Just want something that sounds awesome for gaming/movies. Blu-Ray + HDMI + current 24" Samsung.

Thanks guys, I will check out those sound card links!

How is the rest of the build? It is pretty much the same as Trias, but I went G-Skill for the RAM.

[Canelek]

Hrmmm, looks like m-audio does not have a Vista x64 driver.

However, I was able to track down a Vista 64-bit driver for the Diamond...I'll give that a shot--I like the Digi-out and those that were able to find a working driver seemed to rave about the sound.

[masteen]

Very nice! How much?

[Kluden]

Movies and Games? Onboard sound


Buy this 9800GTX as fast as you can! no rebates, and only $270: EVGA 9800GTX

[Canelek]

I will post pics while I am building it....should be in next week!

[Spang]

Make a documentary and post it on YouTube.

[Aslanna]

I'd sorta agree on the sound. Go with the on-board initially and if it doesn't suit your needs then look at replacing it with a third-party soundcard. For most standard uses on-board sound will get the average user by.

[Canelek]

Found a Diamond card that Winnow had mentioned from Amazon for around $45. It seems solid, and cheap!

[Canelek]

Holy fuck, it is geek christmas! I have about 120lb worth of stuff to assemble.

[Truant]

Holy fuck, it is geek christmas! I have about 120lb worth of stuff to assemble.

haha. I always enjoyed setting all the boxes around me like I was the xmas tree.

[Canelek]

Ouch! Problem #1, and I have not even tried a post....

My Zalman 9500a CPU cooler will not fit on the EVGA 790i board due to the heatsinks/fins surrounding the socket. I tried it all different ways to no avail! I will call Zalman to see if they have a different mounting adapter. Not sure if I want to mount the INTEL stock shit in meantime, but I may have to! =(


What a gorgeous MB though!

[Aardor]

I think you'll be fine with the stock heatsink, unless you wanted to overclock right when you finished building the computer. Anyways, this gives you a chance to go to an auto parts store and get a bunch of grits of sandpaper and lap whatever heatsink you decide to get instead!

[Aslanna]

Not sure if I want to mount the INTEL stock shit in meantime, but I may have to! =(

The stock Intel fan is just fine. That's what I've used on mine and have never had a problem with heat and that's even with overclocking from 2.4 to 3.0. The newer chips don't run nearly as hot as the P4s. Not sure why people even think they need a huge 5 pound fan in systems these days.

[Canelek]

Well, the Zalman is rather pretty (even though it is quite useless on my motherboard)!


EDIT: Is it ok to route cables directly under motherboard? It has been a long time so I am forgetting some shit, apparently. As an example, I wanted to run my rear exhaust case fan (120mm) power cable directly under the board to connect to the power outlet on other side.

[Kluden]

I've done that and never had a problem. As long as you don't go crazy...your motherboard "vents" a lot of heat out of the back, so just be aware of what your doing there.

On the fan, what is it hitting? if you can bend the fins on the zalman, do it. Don't bend or cut anything on the motherboard, that will affect any warranty they will give you if that thing bunks up. CPU's fans are made for modding

[Winnow]

Stock fan and heat sink on the new core duos are fine as mentioned above. Zalman fans are great though.

I'm also running e6600 2.4 @ 3Ghz with no issues, stock cooling.

[Ashur]

I picked my new PC up at the store and plugged it in. While I held a beer in my non-case/component scraped hand, I sat back and reflected on what a pain in the ass it was debugging all the problems the last time I put one together myself, and smiled.

This one's for you Canno!

P.S. Didn't make it on last night because I fell asleep. :/

[Canelek]

New rig runs fantastic! Had little/no issues with Vista 64. My only issue is hardware...the Zalman CPU fan would not work with the evga 790i motherboard due to all the heatsinks around the socket area. I can't believe mfgs are still using those retarded clip-on brackets!!

Zalman tech support is worthless--they had emailed me telling me that their product does indeed fit the 790i board as long as I remove the "Crazy Cool" heatsinks from my motherboard...uh no! I am guessing that "Crazy Cool" was a babelfish translation? Who knows.... 50 bucks in the toilet!

Stock fan is fine for now though, until I start OCing things. I need to get a couple molex -> 4-pin fan connectors for the side fans and I will be all set.

EDIT: Have not tried Blu Ray yet, but HD-DVDs work great in the LG player once I found older version of PowerDVD. The new version only does Blu Ray. I like having an all-in-one player...and it burns DVDs as well (regular).

Oh, on the case, I had to cur the plug on the power LED... it was one of those that had the wires on pins 1 and 3 on a 3 pin connector...just cut it in half and shaved off excess plastic to get it to work with standard motherboard pins. Also, I removed wires for HD activity LED as it was threatening to give me a seizure. The all aluminum case design makes things super cool, which is nice.

I bought Crysis today to test video card limits.

[Canelek]

Added a fan controller, some wire sleeving (UV) and a couple cold cathodes. Also, I tossed the Zalman unfittable CPU fan and added a Aerocool Silverwing or somesuch. It looks VERY bitchin!

However, I still cannot figure out how to get my fucking monitor to stop auto-adjusting gamma!

[Aslanna]

So how is it holding up!

Zalman tech support is worthless--they had emailed me telling me that their product does indeed fit the 790i board as long as I remove the "Crazy Cool" heatsinks from my motherboard...uh no! I am guessing that "Crazy Cool" was a babelfish translation? Who knows.... 50 bucks in the toilet!

Stock fan is fine for now though

If you would have took my original advice you would have skipped the third-party heatsink and saved $50 and a headache or two. Next time just send the $50 to me. Will be less of a hassle!