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Hello!
So a while ago I decided on getting a new system, and ordered the parts. Due to my location and shipping, etc, they took a while to come, but alas, finally arrived.
The specs are,
Case: Thermaltake Lanbox - Silver
CPU: E6600
Motherboard: Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD
RAM: 2x1GB Corsair XMS2
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake BlueOrb 2
Graphics Card: 8800GTX
Sound Card: X-Fi Xtreme Gamer OEM
PSU: Corsair HW520
Hard drive: Samsung Spinpoint T 320GB, Samsung Spinpoint P 250GB
Optical: Optiarc (Sony/NEC) AD-7170S-0B
WiFi: PCI-E Abit AirPace
Now, I apologise for the lack of pictures regarding the build, but this was mostly because I had recieved everything a day before I got the actual case, which lead me to set it all up outside of the box just to test it was all working. Taking pictures left my mind over the giddyness of setting it up inside of the box. In any case, I took two pictures of it set up outside of the box, they aren't the best quality and I apologise, but here goes -
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/55/nekkienyxob9.jpg - This one is just to include the monitor which I ordered along with the system, as well as my ripping off a front panel to test that the pins worked on the board.
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/8198/nekkienyxrh8.jpg - A close up, but bad quality I'm afraid, it allows you to see the bulk of the system though.
Everything was easy to set up, and I'm pleased to report that I've had very issues so far. I'm running Vista 64-bit, and everything is peachy. The WiFi card had some issues, and I had to allow unsigned drivers to be installed, but now it works great.
The only two problems I've had so far are,
1) Screen corruption / freezing - This has only happened twice. Once when I was starting up City of Heroes, and again when start up a screensaver preview. Both times are similar, but a little variance. The system seemed to freeze in that I wasn't able to alt-tab or CAD, etc, but I didn't have any sound running at the time so can't report if it was a whole system crash or simply the visuals. However, in both cases it was very similar. The screen switched to blocks of yellow (for City of Heroes) / purple (Screensaver) and black blocks overlaying each other and taking up the entire screen. A reboot fixed this on both occasions, and it hasn't happened since, neither with the screensaver or City of Heroes.
2) Hard Drice access freezing / Possible audio 'popping' - This one seems to be a problem with the motherboard, but I'm not too sure. As you can see in the pictures above, I only have one hard drive plugged in. This is the primary HDD, and is the Spinpoint T. This is the new hard drive I ordered along with the rest of the system, and the Spingpoint P was added later, once the system was set up, to provide additional space. Now, as I already had the primary drive and optical drive installed in SATA1 and SATA2, I installed the additional HDD in to SATA4 (Easier access than 3 due to the GTX.), in Vista this wasn't straight away a problem. Files would copy and such fine. I formatted the disc however, and problems arose.
The formatting would not complete, and it seemed that only one action could be acarried out on the HDD per-reboot. So it took several reboots for me to get the HDD formatted to NTFS. I assumed this could be a problem with Vista, so didn't think much of it. However, attempting to copy files to it, install games, etc, would meet with the first file being copied, and then nothing else. While this was going on, I would hear a constant skipping in any music or sounds that happened, it was consistent and happened every minute. I tried a few more reboots, before swapping the DVD drive and HDD around on the SATA ports. This resolved both the audio and file transfering problems. The DVD drive also works perfectly. I'm not entirely sure if this is a problem with Vista or the motherboard, but everything is working fine at the moment.
As for installing the system in to the LANBOX, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the instalation was easy due to the modular design, and I encountered very few problems. The case was spacious and of good build quality, and the handle is fantastic for lifting. The front panel cables are long and easy to install.
I had a few problems with the PSU - Simply because the attachted cables to it are rather thick, so it made things a little annoying when I was trying to feed ther board inside. Apart from that, it was mostly painless.
The only thing I dislike is that it would be a lot easier to manage cables inside of the box if the side panels were removeable. As it is, there's a large space which is nice to pull the cables up inside of, and it leaves lots of room for the air to flow around the case which is great, but it was a real pain reaching in to the case to try and move cables around while being careful not to pull any of them out. (This was difficult when I was swapping the optical and HDD cables around.)
And so, the final product -
In the light - http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5057/nyxcornerim4.jpg
In the dark - http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/2403/nyxdarkev7.jpg
Closing comments,
The system is solid so far. Despite the two crashes I've had, nothing has phased it. So far I've not given it a huge play through due to exams and such at the moment, but it's played WoW for several hours, Spiderman 3 for a long time (My little brother plays it using a 360 Crossfire, and due to my habit of leaving the Games Explorer open, he likes to sneak in when I'm not at the computer, launch Spiderman and start playing before I can stop him. Sneaky 5 year olds!), nVidia demos, Rainbox 6, HL2: Lost Coast and other Steam games. Everything canked to the max, and lots of AA applied via the control panel. It's all gorgeous.
The system is also very quiet. Barely a hum comes from it most of the time, and it sounds like a small fan if anything, it's great. The handle is fantastic for carrying it around, and well, I'm loving it so far.
Vista is great as well. Performance is fantatic in every game, and no programs not working or messing up. It's quite awesome. (Desktop - http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5623/desktopzw4.jpg ) Not much more to say other than that, just that the BlueOrb gives a small squeek when it shuts off, which I'm guessing is the bearings of the fan, and it sounds very cute.
So a while ago I decided on getting a new system, and ordered the parts. Due to my location and shipping, etc, they took a while to come, but alas, finally arrived.
The specs are,
Case: Thermaltake Lanbox - Silver
CPU: E6600
Motherboard: Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD
RAM: 2x1GB Corsair XMS2
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake BlueOrb 2
Graphics Card: 8800GTX
Sound Card: X-Fi Xtreme Gamer OEM
PSU: Corsair HW520
Hard drive: Samsung Spinpoint T 320GB, Samsung Spinpoint P 250GB
Optical: Optiarc (Sony/NEC) AD-7170S-0B
WiFi: PCI-E Abit AirPace
Now, I apologise for the lack of pictures regarding the build, but this was mostly because I had recieved everything a day before I got the actual case, which lead me to set it all up outside of the box just to test it was all working. Taking pictures left my mind over the giddyness of setting it up inside of the box. In any case, I took two pictures of it set up outside of the box, they aren't the best quality and I apologise, but here goes -
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/55/nekkienyxob9.jpg - This one is just to include the monitor which I ordered along with the system, as well as my ripping off a front panel to test that the pins worked on the board.
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/8198/nekkienyxrh8.jpg - A close up, but bad quality I'm afraid, it allows you to see the bulk of the system though.
Everything was easy to set up, and I'm pleased to report that I've had very issues so far. I'm running Vista 64-bit, and everything is peachy. The WiFi card had some issues, and I had to allow unsigned drivers to be installed, but now it works great.
The only two problems I've had so far are,
1) Screen corruption / freezing - This has only happened twice. Once when I was starting up City of Heroes, and again when start up a screensaver preview. Both times are similar, but a little variance. The system seemed to freeze in that I wasn't able to alt-tab or CAD, etc, but I didn't have any sound running at the time so can't report if it was a whole system crash or simply the visuals. However, in both cases it was very similar. The screen switched to blocks of yellow (for City of Heroes) / purple (Screensaver) and black blocks overlaying each other and taking up the entire screen. A reboot fixed this on both occasions, and it hasn't happened since, neither with the screensaver or City of Heroes.
2) Hard Drice access freezing / Possible audio 'popping' - This one seems to be a problem with the motherboard, but I'm not too sure. As you can see in the pictures above, I only have one hard drive plugged in. This is the primary HDD, and is the Spinpoint T. This is the new hard drive I ordered along with the rest of the system, and the Spingpoint P was added later, once the system was set up, to provide additional space. Now, as I already had the primary drive and optical drive installed in SATA1 and SATA2, I installed the additional HDD in to SATA4 (Easier access than 3 due to the GTX.), in Vista this wasn't straight away a problem. Files would copy and such fine. I formatted the disc however, and problems arose.
The formatting would not complete, and it seemed that only one action could be acarried out on the HDD per-reboot. So it took several reboots for me to get the HDD formatted to NTFS. I assumed this could be a problem with Vista, so didn't think much of it. However, attempting to copy files to it, install games, etc, would meet with the first file being copied, and then nothing else. While this was going on, I would hear a constant skipping in any music or sounds that happened, it was consistent and happened every minute. I tried a few more reboots, before swapping the DVD drive and HDD around on the SATA ports. This resolved both the audio and file transfering problems. The DVD drive also works perfectly. I'm not entirely sure if this is a problem with Vista or the motherboard, but everything is working fine at the moment.
As for installing the system in to the LANBOX, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the instalation was easy due to the modular design, and I encountered very few problems. The case was spacious and of good build quality, and the handle is fantastic for lifting. The front panel cables are long and easy to install.
I had a few problems with the PSU - Simply because the attachted cables to it are rather thick, so it made things a little annoying when I was trying to feed ther board inside. Apart from that, it was mostly painless.
The only thing I dislike is that it would be a lot easier to manage cables inside of the box if the side panels were removeable. As it is, there's a large space which is nice to pull the cables up inside of, and it leaves lots of room for the air to flow around the case which is great, but it was a real pain reaching in to the case to try and move cables around while being careful not to pull any of them out. (This was difficult when I was swapping the optical and HDD cables around.)
And so, the final product -
In the light - http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5057/nyxcornerim4.jpg
In the dark - http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/2403/nyxdarkev7.jpg
Closing comments,
The system is solid so far. Despite the two crashes I've had, nothing has phased it. So far I've not given it a huge play through due to exams and such at the moment, but it's played WoW for several hours, Spiderman 3 for a long time (My little brother plays it using a 360 Crossfire, and due to my habit of leaving the Games Explorer open, he likes to sneak in when I'm not at the computer, launch Spiderman and start playing before I can stop him. Sneaky 5 year olds!), nVidia demos, Rainbox 6, HL2: Lost Coast and other Steam games. Everything canked to the max, and lots of AA applied via the control panel. It's all gorgeous.
The system is also very quiet. Barely a hum comes from it most of the time, and it sounds like a small fan if anything, it's great. The handle is fantastic for carrying it around, and well, I'm loving it so far.
Vista is great as well. Performance is fantatic in every game, and no programs not working or messing up. It's quite awesome. (Desktop - http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5623/desktopzw4.jpg ) Not much more to say other than that, just that the BlueOrb gives a small squeek when it shuts off, which I'm guessing is the bearings of the fan, and it sounds very cute.
