Post & Discuss Your PC Stats!

I recently built myself a new PC. It's not the fastest computer there is, it didn't cost me a fortune to make, but it runs the new games fast enough that I don't need to turn every setting down to 'Low' just so it will stop being a slideshow! That's a big improvement over my old junkheap, which was flawed by design, due to having a motherboard with a horribly buggy chipset.

I'm sure the there are plenty of people on GFF who own better computers than the one I own, but this thread isn't about me trying to brag... I just would like to see some discussion. We can talk about what we like about the parts we have, and get advice about what might be a good upgrade path in the future.

Even though I bought my PC from a UK supplier, I'm linking all my parts on Newegg.com because everyone shops there except me. If we all do that, then anyone who wants to know more about a build can click through and read up.

Case: Antec 300
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
CPU Cooler: ThermalTake Blue Orb II
RAM: OCZ Platinum 2GB Dual Channel Kit
Graphics Card: ASUS GeForce 9800GT (512MB)
Additional Cooling: Sycthe "Slipstream" 120mm fan x 3

Build Notes:

The case is simply superb. All the drives are held in by thumbscrews for ease of installation, there's a ton of space, and everything is easy to get to. The front panel is a grille for air intake, with mountings for two 120mm fans to blow across the hard drives. There's a side 120mm intake vent to blow cool air on the GPU, and the exhausts are mounted top and back. Those two fans come pre-fitted, and they are a 120mm rear mounted Antec Tricool, and a 140mm top mounted Antec Tricool.

The reason I selected the E8400 is because it has more L2 cache when compared with other CPUs in a similar price range. This has performance implications for some of the things I want to run. With regards to most of the other parts, I just picked whatever was brand named and looked good. I'm no expert.

The Blue Orb II is huge, and barely fits on the motherboard. I couldn't possibly have mounted that myself, thank God I didn't have to! Taken as a whole the rig runs smooth and quiet. I had a bit of a scare the first time I installed Windows though, as everything ran at a snail's pace, especially my internet. I did some reading online (using another PC) and it turns out that the newest BIOS revisions for the P5Q ain't so great. I flashed back to an earlier revision, nuked the installation and replaced it with an nLite installation, complete with lots of slipstreamed hotfixes and drivers.

Can't say for sure what caused it or what fixed it. It works like a dream now though, and runs Crysis on 'High' with only minimal difficulty. I'm pleased with it.

So that's me. I'm running four different SATA drives, all relatively new bought bought separately. I'm thinking of buying a new and much faster drive for the system partition though. Would that yield much of an improvement? So now it's your turn. Tell me your specs, and what you think is good, bad, or in need of eventual upgrade in my rig.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Hmmm.... "runs Crysis on 'High' with only minimal difficulty." What kind of FPS are you getting? Not dissin' your rig, just curious about the performance.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Salient Worm

Hmmm.... "runs Crysis on 'High' with only minimal difficulty." What kind of FPS are you getting? Not dissin' your rig, just curious about the performance.

No idea. XD

How do you bring that information up?

I won't lie, there have already been a couple of minor stutters. Mainly in the cutscenes, of all things. I'll find out my FPS when you tell me how. Now you post your stats. Oh and diss away if you can tell me how to fix it up better for a reasonable cost... I'll keep it in mind next time I'm feeling wealthy.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Mine is an old relic:

• Motherboard - EpoX - 8K9A-I
• CPU - AMD Athlon XP 2800+
• Graphics Card - HIS Radeon X1650 PRO (agp)
• Memory - 2x 256mb Crucial
• Power supply - 350W noname brand

All else is just more junk, original fans and some really cheap case.
Built it myself back in 06~ but as soon as I'm getting some money I'm building a new, up-to-date machine.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Soluzar

How do you bring that information up?

I feel bad for even mentioning it, now. If you're fine with not knowing, don't start down that dark path. The more people point out the differences in frame rate, the more you'll notice them and start to care. I personally get annoyed when I'm not playing something at constant 60+ frames.

(enter "r_DisplayInfo = 1" in the console, or download FRAPS)

And oh, why not:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53 GHz
RAM: OCZ 2 x 2GB
Graphics Card: ZOTAC GeForce 8800GTS (512MB)

I'd have to look up the rest. Nothing terribly impressive, and the RAM's a bit of a waste with 32-bit Vista, but I mostly play old games anyway. I'm not that knowledgable about hardware; I just check a lot of benchmarks and take the word of other experts. In my experience, though, it's rarely worth it to try and "juice up" your current system. Better to just wait a few years, then get a new mobo + CPU + RAM + GPU all at once. Never felt confident enough to experiment with overclocking, either.

I was speaking idiomatically.

CPU: Intel Core2 Quad Q6660 (2.4)
RAM: G Skill 4GB
Mobo: Gigabyte g31sml
Gfx: Radeon MSI HD 4800
HD: Two SATA Seagate 500GB Internals
Case: RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB

Love the case and the pc is pretty solid,
if I could rethink it, I might have bought one less HD, gone for a 3.2/3.4 Dual core, gone for a Nvidia 8900 or + and invested in some solid fans.

As it is I'm pretty happen with Radeon for gfx I think my only problem comes in when games are not optimized for dual or quad cores so I rely on 2.4.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?