New PC yay

[Exar Kun]

With the car being written off and no replacement in the foreseeable future, I decided to put some of the insurance money towards a new PC. Have only got as far as installing the OS so far but I'm just glad that it all works!

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D
Extra Case Cooling: 2x Noctua NF-P14 FLX 140mm
PSU: Enermax Revolution85+ SLI 1250W
CPU: Intel i7 930
CPU Cooling: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev. B & 2x Noctua NF-P12 120mm
RAM: 12GB Corsair TR3X6G1600C8
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7
Graphics: 2x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 Edition in Crossfire
Storage1: Intel X25-M 80GB 34nm MLC G2 SSD
Storage2: 3x Seagate Barracude 7200.12 1TB in RAID5
Optical1: LG BD-ROM Combo Drive
Optical2: LG DVDRW
Monitors: 1x Dell 2407 AND 2x Dell U2410 AND Nanovision 7inch MIMO UM-710 USB2.0 Monitor
Keyboard: Logitech Illuminated Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech M950

The U2410s are still in the post and I'll upgrade the 2407 to match in the near future. The USB monitor is so I can run timing & messenger apps whilst I'm Eyefinity iRacing on the other three screens. Haven't begun to overclock yet - it took a surprisingly long time to put together but at least the end result is pretty neat. I don't like blinged out computers so this one suits me fine. Nice and quiet too although it's a shame the 5870s have to sit so close together - they should keep me warm in winter at least.

I'm looking forward to those two extra screens turning up! Will post more pics when it's all set up.

[AstrO]

Nice

[Santaria]

Jealous My Core2 Duo + HD3870 needs an upgrade... Now I'm all depressed, THANKS EK! *pout*

It's a pretty awesome system mate. Where'd you get the gear from?

[Exar Kun]

It's a pretty awesome system mate. Where'd you get the gear from?

Mostly PCCaseGear. The little USB monitor I found at AusPCMarket and I got a couple of odds and ends (hard drives and optical) from the local computer market. Not cheap but hopefully worth it. It'll be doing a bit of CAD work and Studio Max stuff too so that's why so much RAM. The overclocking looks a bit daunting. My old PC is a Q6600 running at 3.0ghz and that was a piece of piss to get to there - there's a whole lot of different settings on the i7!

[ysu]

nice setup ffs...how much did that hurt?

One thing I don't get; why didn't you buy a higher-end mobo as well? (eg Asus) You've spent enough anyway...
Crossfire 5870...now that's good for "working", yeah.

O/C is actually better than on the machines of old

A couple of guides:
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overcloc ... nners.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.overclockers.com/3-step-guid ... -i3-i5-i7/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


But it's basically the same; reduce the multiplier, the ram & pci bus clocks, set the voltages, increase the base clock.
Once you found the sweet spot, increase the ram clock and the pci clock to see what you can do.

You don't really need to set more than 1.2V on the core, by the way, it'll only generate heat.

I'm running a 920 @ 4GHz


But the thing is; there's no need. These CPUs are so powerful, that your bottlenecks will be everywhere, but on the CPU.
The only place where it might help is with games which refuse to use more than 1 core. Yep, there's still a few...

[w00dsy]

what frame rate do you get at the back of the grid at Monaco in GPL?

[AstrO]

One thing I don't get; why didn't you buy a higher-end mobo as well? (eg Asus) You've spent enough anyway...

[AstrO]

what frame rate do you get at the back of the grid at Monaco in GPL?

I assume it will be 5 or 6 thousand

[Exar Kun]

An Asus Rampage II would have only been about $30 more and the Gigabyte got some pretty good reviews. The only issue I have with it is how close the two cards sit together but the Asus looks like it would have the same issue. I'd have to spring for an EVGA Classified or something to get around that it seems. The UD7 also has a bunch of extra SATA controllers and lots of nice features - my first Gigabyte system, all others have been Asus but like I said, all seems good at this early stage.

what frame rate do you get at the back of the grid at Monaco in GPL?

36

[pab]

what frame rate do you get at the back of the grid at Monaco in GPL?

36

Wow, impressive, I never thought we'd ever see a system capable of giving a solid 36 frames at Monaco!

[AstrO]

An Asus Rampage II would have only been about $30 more and the Gigabyte got some pretty good reviews.

Nothing wrong with a UD7, I'd be getting one if I upgraded.

[Vilante]

Looks amazing Mick!! Jealous

[DexterPunk]

:o

And I was so happy with my new PC too. An i5 with only 4GB of ram suddenly feels so primative. How did u even find 12GB of ram? I've never seen 6GB sticks, or is it 3 x 4GB sticks?

How much did that set u back?

[r8response]

6 2gig sticks by the looks of it

[DexterPunk]

[Gizmo]

HOLY SHITBALLS!

[Exar Kun]

Woohoo - the monitors just turned up. Now I've got to survive the rest of the day at work before I can get home and try them out!

[NeilPearson]

you wont need that usb monitor for timing apps in iracing exar, i do believe next build will have split times built into it!

[AstrO]

you wont need that usb monitor for timing apps in iracing exar, i do believe next build will have split times built into it!

Then all they'll need to add is a racing mode where you can't gain or lose iRating or SR, the servers run 24/7 and you can vote to restart. But then I guess I must be crazy for asking to make the "game" more fun...

[pab]

you wont need that usb monitor for timing apps in iracing exar, i do believe next build will have split times built into it!

Then all they'll need to add is a racing mode where you can't gain or lose iRating or SR, the servers run 24/7 and you can vote to restart. But then I guess I must be crazy for asking to make the "game" more fun...

Don't we already have that game though? Now we have the best of both worlds.

[Exar Kun]

you wont need that usb monitor for timing apps in iracing exar, i do believe next build will have split times built into it!

Yup I realise that but having a look at how much work is going into iSpeed now, it looks really good. And to have that on a separate screen that I can sit below my monitors should be a bit easier to read. I'm interested to see how that built in timing works out. Steve mentioned being unhappy with how the UI was looking for a bit and that they were still working on getting something nice to look at. In any case, it'll be like having my own little MoTeC on the desk - awesome

[DarrenM]

That corsair case looks the business. Love the cabling system. I've been looking for a new one lately, but full tower would be overkill for me.

[Exar Kun]

Awesomesauce!

[w00dsy]

i assume your not using the shifter cos that'd be an awkward angle

[Exar Kun]

Nah, I don't bother with it - it feels rubbish on the G25 anyway. I think i've still got an actlabs shifter about but I'm happy enough just running paddles these days. The shifter does have all the buttons on it though so it still needs to be close at hand.