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Hello friends. I would like to share the story of my last build with you all. I think I'll start with the system specs.
Processor: Intel P4c ES 2.4ghz
Motherboard: Asus P4P800 Delux
Ram: 4x 256MB Patriot and Corsair DDR
Video: PNY GeForce6800 128MB
HDD, Had 6 at one time, lost a few due to age
This has been my only PC since I built it, in 2003.
This engineering sample processor allowed an easy, stable, overclock to 3.3ghz and that's how this system ran until 2010. Alas, due to a number of odd circumstances I have put off building a new rig until about 2 weeks ago! I fell completely out of PC gaming (last game I played was Black & White 2) so this really was all you would need to surf the web, create some documents, or modify photos.
About 4 years ago I started the laborious project of converting my 700+ CD collection to lossless..... and that's when I realized how slow this thing was! I converted about 200 albums and took a few months break, then the Crash happened. Apparently with the 3 installs of windows I had on here overlapped (all due to crashes at one time or another) the boot partition was not actually on the same drive windows was installed on? (no idea how that works) So the 20GB Seagate drive with the boot partition on it complete failed at the ripe age of 9 years. Well between moving back from college, getting the boot from my parents house when I got a job and moving..... I had lost my Windows CD. Hey Vista is coming next year, I might as well spend the $ on it then instead of blowing my cash on XP again.
Fast forward to Vista's release and the growing pains. I figured, well I might as well wait until they get all the drivers situated...... but then I had already heard the rumblings of Win7! So I wait and buy Win7 in early 2010.
Apparently the PC world doesn't look kindly upon 7yr old computers. Intel officially canceled driver updates for the 865 chipset so Win7 was prone to random freezing. Then my no-name power supply started acting up. For the past year, I had to unplug the power supply, flip the power switch off/on, plug the cord back in THEN press the power button to boot my PC. I tried several other combos..... this was the ONLY way I could get it to boot!
Well here I was, needing a new part, but needing a complete upgrade even more. So I decided to wait for an affordable Gulftown setup......but Intel never decided to make a $400-500 Gulftown processor......and then Sandy comes out and kicks ass. So I decide to wait for Sandy-E......which is delayed a little it seems
....but my friends, as you may notice I am quite patient, and my PC savings account is really bloated now. So I will be able to get a pretty sweet setup come spring I think.
Now you may ask, what happened a few weeks ago? Well I built my parents an i7-2600 PC a few months ago and I was able to steal their old Dell with Pentium D processor. I have wanted to make a HTPC with a small form factor case for a while. With a budget of $200 and free parts I thought I might have a little fun building,
So then I find a Presler 955 for $59, and figure thet'll make for more O/C fun at a nominal fee so I bought that..... kind of a mistake. It is REALLY REALLY hard to find a m-atx board that is listed (I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to buy non-compatible) as compatible with the 955EE processor. Eventually I gave up and bought an Asus p5k for $60. I figure i can buy an ATX HTPC case down the road and I won't want my Cooler Master case for my upcomming build anyway.
So now I have gone from a 8yr old DDR/AGP build to a 5yr old DDR2/PCI-E build. Am I crazy? Probably. Maybe I just wanted to see what I missed. I can tell you it's been fun and I don't have buyer's remorse at all. I might finally dip my toes into water cooling with this build next summer! It'll make a good test bed, Preslers are toasty you know!
I have pics!
Trusty 'ol P4
P4P, she's an ugly one if you ask me!
Ram and SSD (what do you guys do with old ram? seems a waste to toss it )
6800...128MB of PowAr!! That's an 802.11b card....yes b.
Soundcard is TerraTec, it's German and sounds fantastic, glad the P5k still has PCI. A few HDD. The 40GB Maxtor is 10yr old and making a weird noise, it has been retired.
Cooler Master Centurion, All metal, remember those?
TDk burner was easily the most consistent of the 5(!) that I have had. DVD is classic Pioneer DVD115 (amazing I know that model numeber off the top of my head?).
The rat's nest.... looked good for the first few months...I promise!
I thought this was fun, 3 generations of HS. P4, Dell Smithfield, Spire Eclipse II
Smithfield 820
...and the Presler sorry it;s blurry
Processor: Intel P4c ES 2.4ghz
Motherboard: Asus P4P800 Delux
Ram: 4x 256MB Patriot and Corsair DDR
Video: PNY GeForce6800 128MB
HDD, Had 6 at one time, lost a few due to age
This has been my only PC since I built it, in 2003.
This engineering sample processor allowed an easy, stable, overclock to 3.3ghz and that's how this system ran until 2010. Alas, due to a number of odd circumstances I have put off building a new rig until about 2 weeks ago! I fell completely out of PC gaming (last game I played was Black & White 2) so this really was all you would need to surf the web, create some documents, or modify photos.
About 4 years ago I started the laborious project of converting my 700+ CD collection to lossless..... and that's when I realized how slow this thing was! I converted about 200 albums and took a few months break, then the Crash happened. Apparently with the 3 installs of windows I had on here overlapped (all due to crashes at one time or another) the boot partition was not actually on the same drive windows was installed on? (no idea how that works) So the 20GB Seagate drive with the boot partition on it complete failed at the ripe age of 9 years. Well between moving back from college, getting the boot from my parents house when I got a job and moving..... I had lost my Windows CD. Hey Vista is coming next year, I might as well spend the $ on it then instead of blowing my cash on XP again.
Fast forward to Vista's release and the growing pains. I figured, well I might as well wait until they get all the drivers situated...... but then I had already heard the rumblings of Win7! So I wait and buy Win7 in early 2010.
Apparently the PC world doesn't look kindly upon 7yr old computers. Intel officially canceled driver updates for the 865 chipset so Win7 was prone to random freezing. Then my no-name power supply started acting up. For the past year, I had to unplug the power supply, flip the power switch off/on, plug the cord back in THEN press the power button to boot my PC. I tried several other combos..... this was the ONLY way I could get it to boot!
Well here I was, needing a new part, but needing a complete upgrade even more. So I decided to wait for an affordable Gulftown setup......but Intel never decided to make a $400-500 Gulftown processor......and then Sandy comes out and kicks ass. So I decide to wait for Sandy-E......which is delayed a little it seems
....but my friends, as you may notice I am quite patient, and my PC savings account is really bloated now. So I will be able to get a pretty sweet setup come spring I think.
Now you may ask, what happened a few weeks ago? Well I built my parents an i7-2600 PC a few months ago and I was able to steal their old Dell with Pentium D processor. I have wanted to make a HTPC with a small form factor case for a while. With a budget of $200 and free parts I thought I might have a little fun building,
So then I find a Presler 955 for $59, and figure thet'll make for more O/C fun at a nominal fee so I bought that..... kind of a mistake. It is REALLY REALLY hard to find a m-atx board that is listed (I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to buy non-compatible) as compatible with the 955EE processor. Eventually I gave up and bought an Asus p5k for $60. I figure i can buy an ATX HTPC case down the road and I won't want my Cooler Master case for my upcomming build anyway.
So now I have gone from a 8yr old DDR/AGP build to a 5yr old DDR2/PCI-E build. Am I crazy? Probably. Maybe I just wanted to see what I missed.
I can tell you it's been fun and I don't have buyer's remorse at all. I might finally dip my toes into water cooling with this build next summer! It'll make a good test bed, Preslers are toasty you know!I have pics!
Trusty 'ol P4
P4P, she's an ugly one if you ask me!
Ram and SSD (what do you guys do with old ram? seems a waste to toss it
)
6800...128MB of PowAr!! That's an 802.11b card....yes b.
Soundcard is TerraTec, it's German and sounds fantastic, glad the P5k still has PCI. A few HDD. The 40GB Maxtor is 10yr old and making a weird noise, it has been retired.
Cooler Master Centurion, All metal, remember those?
TDk burner was easily the most consistent of the 5(!) that I have had. DVD is classic Pioneer DVD115 (amazing I know that model numeber off the top of my head?).
The rat's nest.... looked good for the first few months...I promise!
I thought this was fun, 3 generations of HS. P4, Dell Smithfield, Spire Eclipse II
Smithfield 820
...and the Presler sorry it;s blurry
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