Author Topic: New gaming rig (Read 23458 times)

EHM-0654 Murray · « **on:** November 13, 2010, 04:42:39 pm »

For those of you that don't know, my current gaming rig is an Intel Q6600 in a Shuttle case, with an ATI HD 4850 (with the CPU and GPU water cooled). I don't care very much that the Q6600 isn't bleeding-edge (at all, let alone any more), my "big problem" is I'm stuck with a small graphics card (physically speaking) by the Shuttle case, and my 4850 is showing it's age in X-Plane 9; I dread to think how it'll be in XP10.

Getting a new GPU also means a new mobo, case and PSU. So, what with the global recession and all, my new gaming rig will have to be a re-hashing of many of the parts I already have, but the first piece of the puzzle just fell into my possession: an Asus Striker II Extreme motherboard, via eBay (a little minor cosmetic damage, but otherwise the full kit that this mobo shipped with two years ago when it was new).

Now I just need new memory (the Striker takes DDR3, my Shuttle is DDR2), a new case, a new PSU and (eventually...) a new GPU.

EHM-1997 Alexander · « **Reply #1 on:** November 13, 2010, 05:21:32 pm »

Flight sims rely more on CPU than GPU.

That said, the current bunch do better with a few cores and a high clock speed, than many cores and a lower clock speed. This will no doubt change over time, possibly with xp10.

My advice is this - don't upgrade until after xp10 is out - that way you have a better idea of what you need.

That said the nvidia GTX 580 has come out recently, if you want to spend over £400 on a GPU.

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #2 on:** November 13, 2010, 05:59:03 pm »

Well, yes and no... XP9 complains about the render settings any time I get near a town currently. A bigger GPU would help with that.

Also, the OC opportunities are better on a Striker than in my Shuttle, plus...

A bigger case, slightly bigger PSU will all let me keep up with the new stuff that little bit easier.

EHM-1997 Alexander · « **Reply #3 on:** November 13, 2010, 06:11:33 pm »

Oh aye. Lian-Li have been my favourite case manufacturer for many builds now. If you can stretch.

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #4 on:** November 26, 2010, 12:46:42 pm »

Thanks to a bit of back-handed luck, I now have most of my "new" gaming rig either ordered or in my possession.

4GB of OCZ Gold DDR3 because it was on eBuyer deals.
OCZ Modular 700W PSU because Aria finally gave me a credit note on my dead SSD.
Zalman Z7 case for under £50 on eBay.
New Zalman CPU water block on the way from QuietPC.

Once it's all arrived, I can begin trying to slot it all together. Real fun will begin next year when I look to get a new GPU into it...

EHM-2381 Ted · « **Reply #5 on:** November 29, 2010, 10:47:06 pm »

Given I just had my rather elderly e4400 Dual Core rig blow up last week (right as I re-activate...go figure) I have bit the bullet and will have a nice new Quad-core spec machine up and running towards the end of this week. I was going to build it myself but my local computer shop who have looked after some other gear for me over the last couple years tempted me with a rather nice setup and a pretty reasonable price given it's the Christmas season so I thought I would give them the trade.

While not looking forward to a couple days re-installing and tweaking everything it will be fun seeing how much of an improvement I get in FSX (and a couple other sims....finally I can get DCS: Black Shark and DCS: A-10

.

I've also ordered REX and GEX Europe....and been preparing to fly on VATSIM so quite looking forward to next weekend and flying the SU-80 and PC-12 in style!

EHM-2381 Ted · « **Reply #6 on:** December 02, 2010, 06:43:24 pm »

Well after a couple interesting days I finally got FSX up and running on the new system. I have a couple bugs to iron out (namely the occasional gfx glitch...usual video tearing type stuff) as I get used to new capablities and limitations.

New system:

ASUS P5P41TD Mobo
Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.5GHz (not yet OC'd....I'll get to that eventually).
4Gb DDR3 RAM (3.5 actual as I still use WINXP Pro)
Nvidia GeForce GT430 1GB

While not a monster screamer system I have noticed a huge increase in overall image quality and smoothness so far doing test flights. Shame I cannot run Nhancer as my drivers are way past that so having to tweak it by trial and error.

Once I get rid of the last little gfx errors and the occasional "2-sec freeze" I'll be all set to go...should be able to fly using Flogger this weekend and might even give VATSIM a go too.

Good luck with your new build.

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #7 on:** December 14, 2010, 12:14:51 pm »

Apart from the tear-down of my Shuttle, I'm good to go on my new rig. The last bit that's been stopping me moving ahead with the rebuild (the Feser One liquid to replace what's currently in my Reserator XT) arrived this morning. I'll be doing the tear-down this weekend (early Saturday morning, so I get the rest of Saturday to debug/install all the new drivers), may get some pictures of the tear-down and rebuild in the new case.

EHM-1997 Alexander · « **Reply #8 on:** December 14, 2010, 12:54:11 pm »

I had a dream a few weeks back where I was round your house Murray and you showed me a system that ran FSX at x-plane-smooth frame rates.

Heh. Pure fantasy.

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #9 on:** January 05, 2011, 12:09:36 pm »

OK, time for a quick update. New rig is built, WC piped and filled, and I can get into the BIOS happily enough. I had (vainly) hoped that just moving the HD's over and turning on RAID in the BIOS would have worked, but the "new" RAID wants to format the drives before allowing them to be used, so I've got a couple of new drives sitting in a ShittyLink depot near me waiting to be delivered. Getting the old rig running again so I can Acronis the data across from it will be annoying (will need to buy cheap GPU and WC kit to make my Shuttle work, but I'm OK enough with that idea. I want another WC kit for when I get my properly new GPU(s) later this year... Will parallel the GPU(s) with the CPU/NB so I can get a reasonable OC on the CPU)

EHM-1997 Alexander · « **Reply #10 on:** January 05, 2011, 03:50:51 pm »

So I caved in just now and ordered a GTX 570.

I was tempted by the 580, but since I got the 570 for £270 and the jump to the 580 was another £170, I figured I could hold onto the cash and just replace the card sooner.

Should be a decent enough upgrade from my 4870x2 especially in games that don't support crossfire *cough* fsx and x-plane *cough*.

That said, there's nothing the 4870x2 can't run with high graphics at 1920x1200 at the moment, so it was somewhat of a pure indulgence buy.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?cpu=GeForce+GTX+570

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #11 on:** January 05, 2011, 04:17:18 pm »

Funnily enough, I'm looking at the 460 GTX [either Palit Sonic or Gainward GS, there's an EK full-coverage block for them] (pair of, most probably... I know, I know; SLI/Crossfire is useless, etc, but I have high hopes for the future, and X-P/FSX aren't the only games I play) as being (a) a definite upgrade from the 4850 I currently have, and (b) really very cheap in these times of austerity.

FSX runs far better on NVidia cards (no starting flamewars please ATI fans, it's a fact... Has something to do with few fast running cores compared to many slow running cores and the way FSX builds the viewport...)

Oh, and but that I were an investment banker with sheds full of money - http://rebelgadgets.com/product/448/evga-geforce-gtx-580-ftw-hydro-copper-2-graphics-card.html

EHM-1997 Alexander · « **Reply #12 on:** January 05, 2011, 04:59:10 pm »

Another decent contender at the moment is the 6850 (which can be bios flashed to a 6870 as they didn't make a physical cut).

I'd recommend not getting to 400 series - the 500 isn't really a leap forward to a new architecture, it's a refinement. the 500s are what the 400s (i'm really talking the 470/480) should have been.

I went nvidia this time as I tend to flit between the two. ATI cards appear to be more efficient, have better output (drive 3 displays off 1 card) and give more ram so can perform better at high resolutions (2560x 1600) at the same price point and typically, just as the drivers for my 4870x2 have settled down, I hear the nvidias are playing up in x-plane

However I want to try Physx and Cuda and want to get a single GPU card and move on from the multi-GPU mess I've had with the last card.

Nvidias drivers have traditionally been stronger than amd's.

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #13 on:** January 10, 2011, 12:04:42 pm »

Slings and arrows... I'm in talks with Asus to get the mobo tested and (hopefully) warranty repaired - and the quicker that happens the quicker I can get eBay onto the seller for the cost of the memory I bought which is now dead.

I'm also in the process of changing my mind about the water cooling; rather than the Reserator XT, I'm going to make a mostly internal WC rig from parts so I can have two loops fairly easily (already got an EK dual-res spin bay on the way from eBay)

That'll let me sell my old rig a little easier and I can use the proceeds to get my first new GPU a little quicker.

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #14 on:** January 13, 2011, 12:00:40 pm »

W00t! Mobo is still in warranty. It's costing me £21 because I can't get the original VAR to send it for warranty repair, and I've got a colleague at work testing my Corsair memory (I'm certain it's dead, but an independant memtest86+ is worth it's weight), then I just need to talk to the eBay vendor about getting some compensation for the memory.

After that though, I should be able to sell my Shuttle and Reserator (got a guy at work interested already).

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #15 on:** March 05, 2011, 08:15:13 am »

Well, since no word from Asus on my "new" mobo yet, I've gotten my old rig mostly running again (have left my FSX SSD out, so no FSX...). 20-odd updates for Win 7 (including display drivers), then maybe I'll be able to get into Steam and get all the updates waiting there...

EHM-1997 Alexander · « **Reply #16 on:** March 05, 2011, 08:40:57 am »

that is a disgusting wait time Murray

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #17 on:** March 05, 2011, 09:33:32 am »

Yes, well... such is life (I just realised it's a month since I sent it, perhaps I should enquire

)

Any how, you know as well as anyone that I have more important stuff to do right now

.

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #18 on:** March 15, 2011, 04:09:33 pm »

I believe my repaired Striker II Extreme was delivered back to my home today (ukmail.com SMSed me saying I signed for it, but I've been at work all day

)

More news if I have it later.

EHM-1997 Alexander · « **Reply #19 on:** March 15, 2011, 07:01:37 pm »

Who's at home? Wife? Flatmate? Thieves??

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #20 on:** March 16, 2011, 07:17:48 am »

I believe it was one of our two dog walkers (so infinite luck came into play...)

Any how, silly Asus sent it back unfixed with a "customer induced damage" sticker on it, so I'm no better off than when the d**n thing was with them. Can't afford a new Striker II Extreme just yet (nor the rest of the WC loop), so it may all have to wait for some months...

EHM-1997 Alexander · « **Reply #21 on:** March 16, 2011, 07:55:28 am »

How did you break it?

Or was it sent to you broken by te ebay seller all the way back in november?

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #22 on:** March 16, 2011, 09:27:39 am »

I trusted the vendor and his "cosmetic damage, works fine", but Asus were kind enough to put some little arrow stickers marking all the damaged components, and I'm long beyond eBay's complaints period now. Chalk it up to experience, move on, start saving the £200 for a new one. It might not all be terrible, I have an ISA that I haven't touched in 5+ years, so once I get my statement next month I'll look at withdrawing enough money from it to get the new mobo.

EHM-1997 Alexander · « **Reply #23 on:** March 16, 2011, 11:02:09 am »

Aye,

I would never buy electronics from ebay myself.

EHM-0654 Murray · « **Reply #24 on:** March 16, 2011, 03:19:18 pm »

Now I'm freed from the Striker II, I'm giving serious thought to getting a Rampage III Extreme instead of a new Striker II. Would let me run a Core processor, nice properly new chipset and so forth. Only problem is the CPUs for Socket 1366 aren't dirt cheap.

News:

Author Topic: New gaming rig (Read 23458 times)