Hey guys, thought I'd post some pics of my new PC, which I picked up today. I'm so stoked to finally have a decent PC! It's an average system imo, but it's a beast when you compared it to my previous Celeron 633. ;)

Spec-wise, it reads;

• INTEL - Pentium 4 540 - Prescott - 3.2GHz - 800MHz FSB - 1024KB Cache - Skt 775
• MSI Intel i865 PE Neo 3 Intel P4 Skt 775 8x AGP
• Mushkin 512MB DDR 400 (PC-3200) (1GB Total RAM)
• Seagate 160GB 8MB SATA - Barracuda 7200.7, ST3160021AS, 7200.7 RPM
• Eagle NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256M AGP Video Card
• Pioneer 109D DVD +/- RW / DL 16x Burner OEM w/software
• Top Warrior Case (Blue)

A few pictures as I was setting it up tonight;




So far everything is working great, except for that front headphone jack... <_<
I want to buy a 2.1 speaker system for it as I'm sick of my old pair of 15watt POS! The motherboard supports 7.1DD, but that's a bit much.

So what do you guys recommend I do first? What games/software should I get to test the system out?

The 3DMark programs are a good way to benchmark your PC. (I'll post my 3DMark03 score and PC Specs for reference soon).

Edit:

Specs:
AMD 64 3000+
Asus A8V-E Deluxe
512MB of RAM
Albatron 6600GT

With rthdribl you will get to see the pretty things your new PC can do. ;o~

Then buy Half-Life 2. (If you haven't done so yet)

I'm jelous.

;) I'm a prick. :D

Yeah. That's a reasonable reference...only not!

Well you posted your score damnit!

*sniff* :P

PWWWWWN!



P4 2.8AGHz
MSI nVidia FX5700LE

Damn! I'm tempted to buy a Warrior case now and get rid of my Antec Plusview 1000 and then put in a couple of carbon rods. Only $145 too?! It looks like something made by Alienware

Wait, isn't that what Alienware uses?

The Warrior cases look similar to the Alienware ones, but the difference is that the alien on the Warrior cases have a "V" on their forehead. ;)
I was thinking of getting a either a black & white or yellow & white Alienware case, but the lights and neon on the Warrior won me over. I'd originally chosen this Xion silver case, but there were none left.

Anyway, I'll download 3DMark and rthdribl to test this thing out.

Sounds pretty beastly to me. Enjoy your new machine, although that PC case looks schisenhausen next to you piddly white monitor...

Thats a very nice computer you got yourself there Civic, now we can't joke about your ancient PC. :P Do you have two HDD? You obviously have plenty of storage space, but it is often wise to have two seperate HDD's. Also are you going to invest in a new monitor to compliment the beast? I think that now you can successfully play PC games now, it may be wise to invest in a new mouse (and/or keyboard). I'd recommend the Logitech MX series, I myself have a Logitech MX500 and I swear by it, it glides effortlessly over the optical mouse pad which came complimentory with my computer and is great for gaming. A game which you should get is either Doom 3 for its amazing visuals or Half Life 2 which needs no introduction.

Whats with all the 3DMark03's? I tested mine with 3DMark05 a while ago and I believe I got around 7000 but back then my graphics card was still only running at 50% capacity, now that its fixed, and if I clean up my PC a bit (its been quite sluggish lately, just need my admin rights back :( ) I'll see if I can't give it a go with 03.

EDIT: Seems most suitable to put it in here, but Steam did a survey of its customers hardware specs and here are the results.

Why? No point in buying one now when he can get one later(when he needs it) at a cheaper price?

I've tried pitching that to him already, but he still wants to keep his old Simpsons ball mouse...
Once he's started playing some mouse-intensive games, I'm sure he'll cave. :P

More people can use 03, as 05 is very intensive on systems that have a video card below a 9800.

Wow, my PC is above average. :S

Just make sure that when Civ does go to the land of optical that he avoids the MX1000... other than that the rest of the MX series is perfect for gaming.

Those lights look distracting >_>

That's so edited :D.

Yeah, he could have made it at least above my actual score! :P

Smartarse :P My computer isn't that great, but it isn't bad either. And 3dMark seems to not run, lol.

I've only got 1 HDD, but I've got 2 "drives" on it. A C: and an E: - C: houses programs and E: keeps data like MP3s, movie files, etc.

And funny you should mention getting a new keyboard and mouse. Picked up a Logitech keyboard and optical wireless mouse today. Both for $50 @ EB's sale.

As for a game to get - I'll either get Half Life 2 or Far Cry. I'm leaning towards FC as it's only $45. ;)

Oh and I tried 3DMark 05 on it and only managed a score of 2010.

My constant nagging regarding Far Cry isn't helping either... :P

The Far Cry engine is so sweet. Can't wait for Instincts.

You'd be stupid not to buy Half-Life 2.


That is all.

Get both dude! HL2 is way better as a game (IMO.. and everyone elses too). I just finished it last night. Now I'm going to go out and buy it because... um... Piracy is bad mmkay (it's so I can play online and also so when I play through again I don't have a billion annoying bugs, plus now that I've got a 1.5 mb/s connection that whole steam thing won't be a massive mind killing hastle).

But Farcry is good too. Well it certainly looks good!

With that Steam Survey thing, my PC is so bad, that they didn't even mention my Graphics card!

I installed the HL2 demo tonight, along with Steam (<_<), and I enjoyed it way more than Far Cry. Runs super smooth on my PC so I'm happy about that. ;)
As for Steam... argh! Took ages to download a new update for the demo and it kept saying "10 seconds left" to get it, but an hour later I was still waiting. And now when I turn on the PC and I'm not online, Steam lets me know and I can't launch the demo! Just stupid!

If you tell it to remember your password you can play when you are offline. I remember I played Far Cry when my graphics card first started dieing, first time I played it I got max fps on full settings, then eventually it became graphics comparable to Pac-Man to run it smoothly, I think it killed my card...

Can I play too my recent lil' friend.


The Shiny Guts.

The dreaded windows install.


The mess of the table after about a month.


My sexy moniter displaying doom 3.

The tech details:

• Antec P160 Anodized Aluminum Super Midi Case
• Antec ATX TrueBlue 480w power supply
• ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI
• 1 gig GEIL ram
• Pioneer DVR-109BK 16x DVD-/+R/RW dual layer
• Albatron 128MB 6600GT
• Western Digital 200gig SATA
• AMD Athlon 64 3200+(2.0GHz)
• Samsung LCD 17inch 172x TFT
• Panasonic 1.444 Floppy

Looks cool, quartz_donkey. :) Your cables seem to be nicely organised when compared to mine. ;)

That is practically my computer lol.

And congrats on getting your new PC Civ.

I need to test out HL2 soon on this comp...

Damn I wish my PC was so neat on the inside...



:o

I'm neat. My mobo temp is always at 33'C but my CPU is at 42'C!! Oh no! I need some thermal cream!!







The only two things glow on my PC:





:(

I hope you were being sarcastic, cause those temperatures are normal. :P

In the Intel CPU manual is sez normal temp should be 38'C. Thats a massive 4 degrees over the threshold!!! :o OMG!

And you didn't comment on my neatness.

Well my Mobo(ASUS P4800S) manual says that the Mobo should be 36c, and the CPU should be 44c.

When gets to 70 is when you should be worried. :P

Yeh man my CPU runs at 50~ degrees idling... When I play Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 it goes up to like 65!!! Argh.

DZ you're computer's got some problem. Does 3DMark03 even actually run smooth?

Also Metallix, you've got a Quadro right? Have you got that fixed YET?

I got my new PC in December... Athlon 64 3500, 1GB RAM, Radeon X800XT




My score's not as high as ElPres's or DZ's... But DZ's score's not supposed to be that high... As he said in the video card thread he only has a 5700 and it doesn't even run Doom 3 properly on 2XAA... What's up with that DZ???

By the way I haven't run 3DMark for quite a while now I might run it again later.

I might download that rthdribl thingo soon as well...

And congrats on getting your new compy Civ... It's a good feeling going from a dodgy thing like you had to a semi-BeaST00000rRRR!!!!!111!!!1!!

Oh it is. ;)

Speaking of 3DMark 03 - I ran it and only managed a measly 4700-something points. Is that shitty for my card? (Geforce 6600)

I finally built my P.C!

It's a shithole but cost me nothing! (Dad owns a computer buisness and said I could use anything I could find) (Unfortunately he only buys stuff when people order so I got a crummy pc) BUT IT RUNS CS 1.6 FINE!!! And that's all thats important for me!

I put a blue neon in plus a 120mm Thermal Take 'Smart Case Fan' which is also blue!

It's just a start and now that I've got a case I can start upgrading once I work (I'm only 13).

It was fun to build as Dad was away and I had no help!

Will post pics soon!