Bryan's new KICK BUTT Computer

[BigMike]

So let's see the specs on this bad mamojama

[BryanH]

It's a secret!

Ok no, not really. :)  I build a new system about once every three years.  Got started on this one a little early.  I had been used to running iRacing with all the graphics goodies cranked up but as the sim got more and more demanding my framerates started to dip a little low at the start of races with full fields.  I hated to turn down some of the graphics options so I built a new computer instead.  Went for speed on a budget here, hence the i5-based system instead of i7.  The processor I got is value priced but will overclock to 4GHz on air cooling.

Details:
Intel Core i5-750 at 2.66GHz (not for long)
Scythe Mugen-2 Rev. B cpu cooler (for 1337 overclocking headroom)
Antec Three Hundred Illusion case (for t3h awesome air flow)
Gigabyte P55A-UD3P motherboard
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz
ASUS ATi Radeon HD 5870
Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB (10,000rpm system drive)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (storage drive)
Corsair VX550W power supply
Windows 7 64-bit
And soon an ASUS Xonar DX sound card (the onboard sound from my new motherboard is el sucko)

Photos of the build process: http://www.pbase.com/bryanh/pcbuild2010

It was a fun build. The first one where I've taken care to route cables for improved airflow.  It's quick, even at 2.66GHz.  This should hold me over for a while. :)

If you guys know anyone who might want some of my old parts, I'll sell them cheap.  Would rather not ship them somewhere.  They'd make a great start for a shoestring budget build that still performs really well on all but the most demanding games.  Intel E8400 at 3.0GHz, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, Gigabyte EP35-DS3P, 4GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2, my old case in piano black, maybe a couple other bits. 

Found a great new use for BGBs...



[Backstory: the Scythe CPU cooler (aka Borg Cube) is a monster at a low price. Now I know where they skimped - the mounting solution.  Instead of securing it from the top, the last step was to attach the beefy backing plate to the back of the motherboard and insert long screws up through the backing plate and motherboard into the brackets on the CPU cooler.  Thankfully my case had a cutout for just such an occasion.  But I still had to use gravity to keep the cooler in place while using one hand to hold the backing plate up in place, one hand to insert the screws, and one hand to screw them down.  I grew an extra hand for this task.]

[BigMike]

Thanks for sharing man, that sounds REALLY AWESOME. Can you really get a stable 4 GHZ? W-O-W

I pretty much got out of desktops as my laptop is just so dang convenient, but of course for games there is no alternative but to go with a desktop

My old desktop was a P4 2.0 Ghz with 2GB RAM and a GeForce 6800GT. It did great in its day. I replaced it with my Core2 Duo T9400 (2.53 GHz) Laptop with 4 GB RAM and a GeForce 9600M GT. It's now 2 years old :) but with the dedicated GPU it holds it's own for a laptop. The few games I play are Race Driver GRID and EVE Online. I've got room to upgrade to the T9900 (3.06 GHz) but it's still like $300 which doesn't justify itself at that price.

The i-processors are quad core, correct?

[BryanH]

Not all of them.  All the desktop i7s are quad core (some of the mobile processors are dual-core).  Most of the i5s are dual core except for the 750.  Not sure on the i3s.

There should be a six core Intel processor out soon if not already.

I really need a new laptop myself.  Mine is so old I forget most of the specs.  It can barely run XP.  And the screen doesn't stay up anymore.  WiFi no longer works outside of home.  So it's simply a media PC for now, hooked up to my tv.

[BigMike]

hahaha man that laptop is a trooper

[BryanH]

For about the first 7 years, it was the most reliable computer I ever had.  That's when things started to go south...

[BigMike]

I've got room to upgrade to the T9900 (3.06 GHz) but it's still like $300 which doesn't justify itself at that price.

So this weekend while searching on Craig's List, I found a Dell laptop with the T9900 for $450. So I am thinking about just buying a laptop like this, swapping out the T9900 for my T9400, and then immediately put it up for sale. I bet I could sell it for the same price if I find the right buyer or at the most take a $50 cut. :)

For about the first 7 years, it was the most reliable computer I ever had.

What brand is it?

[BryanH]

It's an HP, zv6000 I think.

[BigMike]

I've got room to upgrade to the T9900 (3.06 GHz) but it's still like $300 which doesn't justify itself at that price.

So this weekend while searching on Craig's List, I found a Dell laptop with the T9900 for $450. So I am thinking about just buying a laptop like this, swapping out the T9900 for my T9400, and then immediately put it up for sale. I bet I could sell it for the same price if I find the right buyer or at the most take a $50 cut. :)

OKAY! Guess what!? I GOT IT and it's installed and running my laptop right now!! Actually, my sister really needs a new Laptop so I told her how I was going to buy a laptop on CraigsList and swap my processor with it, and she said she really wanted to buy it from me once I was done! So last night I picked it up for $450, and no more than 15 mins ago I swapped the Intel T9900 3.06 GHz processor in for my old Intel T9400 2.53 GHz processor. I can already tell its much faster! Benchmark scores show 13-17% higher processor scores now :D

Here are my benchmark scores using the very small & simple HWiNFO32:

	Old T9400	New T9900	% change
CPU Benchmark	51083	59186	+13.7%
FPU Benchmark	39771	48144	+17.4%
MMX Benchmark	74822	88403	+15.4%
Memory Transfer	3471 MB/s	3519	+1.4%

So basically, I've got this laptop maxed out now. There are no more upgrades for it, short of using a solid state hard drive.

1st pic is the old T9400
2nd pic is the new T9900

[BigMike]

Ok,

So I am working on a new full page Ad for Marlin Crawler and while using the Lasso tool in Adobe Photoshop CS3, with the T9400 it would max out the processor at 100% until you finished the lasso. But get this, with the T9900, the processor holds at 50% while making the Lasso selection. Man it's crazy, it only benches at about 15% faster on the MMX, but it feels much faster than that while working on stuff.

1st pic is the old T9400
2nd pic is the new T9900 installed
3rd pic: the newer HP laptop (donor) on the left, and my 2 year old Compal JHL90 on the right