New System is up and Running (finally)

[MadDog]

Been tweaking this new build over the last week and a half...had a couple of road trips for work in between.

It runs pretty sweet now, so I should be on WAW more often now.

AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition
ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe/HDMI
BFG 9800GT OC+
XFX 8600 GT XXX (Running Physx...Old Card)
4GB OCZ PC6400 RAM SLI
2 x 160 GB RAID 0 (System)
2 x 250 GB RAID 1 (Data)
1 x 320 GB (Spare/backup)
Corsair 750W PSU
SB Audigy 7.1
Belkin n52te
Logitech G9 Gaming mouse
Asus Triton 77 CPU Cooler

It's no Intel i7, but that's a little out of my reach right now.

[WalkinTarget]

Interesting to see the effect Physx will have on games. I haven't read any in depth reviews on the issue, so if someone has something, link us up.

You listed all the hardware, so what OS did you settle on ?

[{CLR}geneSW]

Curious, that motherbord have Nvidia chipset on it?

[Skud]

sounds good, MadDog

Let me know how the phenom runs...starting to get the itch for a new build (tax time, you know )

[Ghost_Rain]

The Reason it A nvida Chipset is beacause the Asus Amd Board are still using them because Amd Have not mate a board for DDR3 and a lot of the DDR2 boards still use the Nvida Chip set.

[MadDog]

Interesting to see the effect Physx will have on games. I haven't read any in depth reviews on the issue, so if someone has something, link us up.

You listed all the hardware, so what OS did you settle on ?

I haven't!

I'm still dual booting between XP and Vista, I was able to get XP going again since the new motherboard recognized my RAID arrays from my old board. However, it's been a little glitchy. So I'm using Vista more now for Call of Duty. Asked a friend that works at Dell to track down a 64 bit version for me, so I'm hoping to score one that way since the 32 bit version I have won't utilize all of the RAM. Now that I have the horsepower I'll probably move to Vista, even COD4 ran a lot slower on that hardware in comparison to XP.

I decided to try the PhysX, since my old board was an M2N4-SLI and I had two 8600 GT XXX's in it. I'll use the old system for my wife, but she didn't need the video horsepower, so I thought I would give it a try. Just have to load up Crysis or something else that uses the PhysX engine.

[MadDog]

Let me know how the phenom runs...starting to get the itch for a new build (tax time, you know )

I like the Phenom so far, kind of settled on it over the Intel just based on pricing. Was looking at a quad core Q6600 to Q6800, but the price just kept climbing so much more than with the AMD. The benchmarks that I've checked out didn't show significant difference between them and the Phenom. Just make sure you get a board that can handle up to 140W, the 9850 is 125W. And get a good cooler it runs pretty hot with the stock cooler, and that's without and overclocking. The other reason I chose the Black Edition, it's meant for overclocking and the board has support to do it from Windows.

Nice part about the board was the support for AM3, so I can go to the Phenom II, when I get the itch again, and support DDR2 1066 RAM.

[MadDog]

Curious, that motherbord have Nvidia chipset on it?

It's the Nvidia 780a chipset.

[Caddys83]

Neat you have the same Asus board and PSU like mine . I bought mine back in August.


Yeah its a little dusty but its in construction. I didn't bother to install the MB heatsink for the memories.




What bios do you have? I currently have 1301. When I bought this MB, I had to get a AMD sempron CPU to update the bios for the Phenom 9950 (oh yeah mines 140w Black Edition) I read on newegg.com and other sites that there were issues with this board coming out the factory not able to run the phenom's chips with out muli-reboots. There were 2 options, send the board to ASUS or get a old CPU and update the bios by USB thumb drive.


I now notice there is a 1701 bios update. I tweek mine like forever. I had issues in the beginning cause when I install the Nvidia 280, I would lag and after a min of gameplay it would shut down... After trouble shooting it, did mem test (had one bad memory) it turns out the Ultra X3 ULT40064 1000-Watt was defective and I went with Corsair 750 I almost thought my graphics card GTX 280 was defective. whew....

I have a question for you if you don't mind. Why did you go with DDr2 800? (6400) I went with Kingston HyperX DDR2 PC8500 (1066). When I install these 3 DDR2 ram (1 GIG per memory slot) I can't get them over 800Mhz. The bios memory setting is too confusing for me to figure it out.

The ASUS forum for M3N-HT DELUXE was my best friend for 2 months lol

I hope I can post the url here, if not then please edit.
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum-

[Caddys83]

Oh yeah, for the record, the hard drive is not sitting bare on the bottom of the case, there is a stack of bank deposit envelopes under it

[WalkinTarget]

there is a stack of bank deposit envelopes under it

WHEWWW, for a minute there, I thought it wasn't bolted down to the floor of the case and was just riding the envelopes like a surfer on a Maui wave !!!

Don't tilt or tip it when you go to move it or pick it up.
Might I interest you in a cable management thread that I find useful ??

[juneau]

Might in interest you in a cable management thread that I find useful ??

That was my first thoughts too.

Enjoy your new build MadDog.

[MadDog]

Oh yeah, for the record, the hard drive is not sitting bare on the bottom of the case, there is a stack of bank deposit envelopes under it

If you've got a free 5.25 slot get the kit and mount it there....That's what I did with the fifth slot..

As for Bios, steady now with 1701, few problems with hanging with the factory bios...

I went with the RAM really based on price...not sure what gains I would get for 20 to 30 dollars per gig, as opposed to $10 per gig..

Thanks for the pic, when I get a chance I send one of mine.

[Duke{CLR}]

I would zip tie the drive under the cage that is just to the right of your video card.

[Caddys83]

If you've got a free 5.25 slot get the kit and mount it there....That's what I did with the fifth slot..

As for Bios, steady now with 1701, few problems with hanging with the factory bios...

I went with the RAM really based on price...not sure what gains I would get for 20 to 30 dollars per gig, as opposed to $10 per gig..

Thanks for the pic, when I get a chance I send one of mine.

Thanks for the responds and tip on the slot kit. I almost bought the ram like yours cause I like the Nvidia SLi logo.




The only that stoped me was I didn't know OCZ Technology brand background. I took a chance with the Utra PSU 1000w and the thing didn't work with GTX 280. It work with the old 8800 GT I had.

Enjoy your Build


Everyone else, I see what I can do with my messy cables.