[jcarle]

puntoMX, on Oct 30 2006, 01:35 PM, said:

I like the Antec case too, recommended it to a few people before, but the door is a bit flimsy.

The one i suggested doesn't even have a door!

[puntoMX]

Zxian was talking about the P180, and I was talking about the door from the P180 .

[jcarle]

puntoMX, on Oct 31 2006, 01:46 AM, said:

Zxian was talking about the P180, and I was talking about the door from the P180 .

I ain't got no problem with that door mind you, it's usually open and it's on my desk. I did read that there were a lot of complaints about it, though Antec has fixed those previous issues and the P180 and P180B are on revision 3.

I personally adore my P180 since I can shove ANYTHING I want in it and it fits, plus it's a nice bonus to have the power supply at the bottom.

[Zxian]

puntoMX, on Oct 30 2006, 11:46 PM, said:

Zxian was talking about the P180, and I was talking about the door from the P180 .

Granted - the door from the original P180 was flimsy and suffered from poor hinges, but that's been fixed with the P180B and it's new silver counter part. I guess the only remaining gripe some people have about the door is that it's not hard-latched shut (the magnet might be a little weak for some people's feel).

[ripken204]

talking about magnet and p180... yesterday one of the magnets on my door fell off... i guess that they glue just gave away somehow

[RJM]

Oops, a little mistake on my part, it seems XP home does not support dual core. Upgade to XP MCE $20.
And video cards it's down to 7900GTO or X1900XT 256M both are getting harder to find In-Stock.
Has anyone here bought anything from:
http://thenerds.net/ ?

This post has been edited by RJM: 02 November 2006 - 09:12 AM

[Zxian]

RJM, on Nov 2 2006, 08:11 AM, said:

Oops, a little mistake on my part, it seems XP home does not support dual core. Upgade to XP MCE $20.
And video cards it's down to 7900GTO or X1900XT 256M both are getting harder to find In-Stock.
Has anyone here bought anything from:
http://thenerds.net/ ?

XP Home does support dual core. What it does not support is dual processor. All single (physical) CPU systems are supported by XP Home.

I'd take the nVidia card over the ATI. The Catalyst drivers are just getting more and more annoying.

[RJM]

Well, I finally got the system on Thursday, assembled it and turned it on. I was amazed it
Asked for an operating system and XP installed with no hitches!
The only problems that I had were one of the front fans on the case is
Very noisy and will have to be replaced and the DVD burner died on Sunday.
First 3Dmark 05 score, no overclocking 11457. Temperature CPU idle 33C
Load 47C GPU idle 53C load 75C. I will start to overclock on the weekend.
1 CPU Intel CD2 E6600 2.4g $308.00__
1 Keyboard Benq X800 $12.99
1 Graphics card VGA Sapphire X1950XT $269.99
2 Seagate HD250G SATA2 hard drives $74.99ea $149.98
1 Motherboard Asus P5W DH Deluxe $227.99
1 Computer case LL/PC61USB BLK RT $89.99
1 Memory 1GX2/G.SK F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK R $199.99
1 DVD Burner Samsung/SH-S182D RAM BK $29.99
1 Power Supply Goodpower 500W RT $49.99
1 Mouse Logitech/optical BLK PS2/USB RT $12.99
1 Operating System Win XP HM SP2B OEM $89.99
1 hard disk controller Rosewill/RC-209 SATA PCI $22.99
1 CPU COOLER ARTIC P4/ACFZ7-PRO-R $29.99
1 Modem Creative/7000000003079 V.92R $34.99
1 Monitor PHILIPS/19” CRT 109B65/27 $198.99
Total $1728.85

[ripken204]

you are one lucky SOB nice to hear that almost all is well with it. now give us some more benchmarks. you going to overclock it?

[puntoMX]

"I will start to overclock on the weekend."

Always cool too see overclockings

[ripken204]

ah, didnt see it, text is just hard to read when its unformated

[RJM]

My new DVD writer will be here Tuesday but here iare my original benchmarks and my first
overclocking attempt. The stock x1950xt 256 looks like it was a good choice.

Original Bench Marks

3dmark05
http://img97.imagesh...mark2005pa1.jpg

memory latency
http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...encyorigqo6.jpg

memory reads
http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...eadsorigby3.jpg

memory writes
http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...itesorigyg0.jpg

superPI
http://img184.images...rpio0rigrj5.jpg

Overclocked to 3.00GHZ (25%), stock voltages. Vidio card stock timings.

3dmark05
http://img226.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3...0051stocns7.jpg

memory latency
http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...ncy1stocbh7.jpg

memory reads
http://img431.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...ads1stocme3.jpg

memory writes
http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...tes1stocwf5.jpg

superPI
http://img155.images...rpi1stocip5.jpg

I will see how far that I can go on stock voltages later in the week after I instal a fan on
the southbridge. I have already instaled a 40mm fan on top of the northbridge heatsink.

[DysfunktinaL]

With regards to the age old nVidia vrs. ATI debate, I have an x1600XT, and I play FEAR wonderfuly on it. It's not quite the 1900, but it still kicks some a**. And when saying the nVidia card is faster than the ATI card on a few games, it's hardly noticable. For me, when I pick my hardware, I look at the company's history.

nVidia likes to send out WHACKED out drivers.
ATI does it less often.

I'll take the ATI, thanks.

[puntoMX]

I see X850XT cards for fewer than 150 bucks so I will get one of them soon.

nVidia isn’t bad and neither is ATI, but both have problems with drivers and so witch make me think that good drivers for video cards are hard to make.

The only nVidia card that had a small problem was the first GeForce3, and that was a hardware bug. ATI is known for the overheating GPUs but when you keep that in mind then you should take prediction to it.

Not all people know how to install hardware .

[RJM]

Final overclock 3.400GHZ. It was stable at 3.425GHZ but the benchmarks started to go down due to heat problems so I backed it off to 3.400.The best overclock that I could achive at stock voltages was 3.270GHZ.
Here are my final benchmarks.

3dmark05 3400mhz
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/267/3dm...53400mhzux2.jpg

memory reads 3400mhz
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5602/me...s3400mhznt3.jpg

memory writes 3400mhz
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/7585/me...s3400mhzhy6.jpg

memory latency 3400mhz
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6275/me...y3400mhzov1.jpg

super pi 3400mhz
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6275/me...y3400mhzov1.jpg

And here are my Bios settings

Advanced, JumperFree Configuration

AI Overclock set to Manual
CPU Frequency set to 377
DRAM Frequency DDR2-754 (automaticaly changes with CPU frequency)
Performance Mode set to Standard
PCI Express Frequency set to 100
PCI Clock synchronization mode set to 33.33
Memory Voltage set to 2.15V ( I started having memory errors at 3.3Ghz with 4-4-4-12-4 timings at 2.1V)
CPU Core Voltage set to 1.3875V ( crashed in 3DMARK05 above 3.33 Ghz at 1.30V)
FSB Termination Voltage set to 1.40V
MCH Chipset Voltage set to 1.55V
ICH Chipset Voltage set to Auto
Digital Home Mode set to Disable

Advanced, Chipset

Configure DRAM Timing by SPD set to Disable
DRAM CAS# Latency set to 4
DRAM RAS# Precharge set to 4
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay set to 4
DRAM Activate to Precharge set to 12
DRAM Write time recovery set to 4
Hyper Path 3 set to Disable
DRAM Throttling Threshold set to Auto
Memory Remap Feature set to Disable
Boot Graphic Adaptor Priority set to PCI Express/PCI

All others under Advanced, Chipset set to Auto

Advanced, CPU-Configuration

Modify Ratio Support set to Disable
Microcode Updation set to Enabled
Max CPU ID Value Limit set to Disable
Execute Disable Function set to Disable
Enhance C1 Control set to Disable
CPU Internal Thermal Control set to Auto
Virtualization Technology set to Disable
Intel Speedstep Technology set to Disable


Power, Hardware Monitor

CPU Q-fan Control set to Disable

Nothing else changed

RJM