Because I'm a nerd.
 

I just built a new computer on Friday and figured I'd post it up.

Specs:

- Cooler Master CM680 II Advanced Case
- Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard
- AMD Phenom II 550 X2 CPU
- 4GB G.Skill Riptide DDR3 Memory Kit
- CoolIt ECO Water CPU Cooler
- Two ATI 5770 1GB DDR5 Video cars in Crossfire Mode
- Western Digital Black 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive
- OCZ ModXStream 700Watt SLI Power Supply
- Samsung DVDRW Lightscribe Drive

I have unlocked the 2 cores on the CPU so it is now a 4 core cpu, and I have overclocked it from 3.1GHZ to 3.73GHZ. The video cards are set to 875MHZ on the GPU and 1300MHZ on the memory.

Ninja cat in stealth mode:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._3964216_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1333805_n.jpg

Ninja cat out of stealth mode:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._4726978_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6346390_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7848304_n.jpg

Very nice. I'd not historically been of big fan of "fancy" cases, I usually just bought big, heavy, robust steel ones that look like they belong next to a CAD workstation in the 1980s. But my last one was a Coolermaster, and I am very happy with it. Fully perforated front, a massive 120mm fan in the back in addition to the PS with its own 120mm fan, one of those fancy stand-off heatpipe CPU coolers with another fan, and a fanless video card. The thing is just astoundingly quiet even when doing video transcoding. With my last machine, you could tell how hard the CPU was working by whether the CPU fan sounded like a A-319 at cruise or a 747 at takeoff. I had to use a nibbler and dremel to remove the perforations over the rear fan area (replaced with a simple wire grille) and I removed the chimney and blocked off the air inlet above the CPU, but those were the only mod that I had to do to it.

I like taht case, cool master makes some nice simple looking stuff.
Im jealous of your modular power supply

That's sweet, how much does it cost to build something like this?

I have been building comps all my life. Couple of years ago I got into modding cases. This was my last one I did back in '03 but never quite finished. That is nerdy :)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1283799706
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1283799706
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1283799706
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1283799706

Thanks for the feedback folks :)

I've been collecting parts over the past couple of months - just waiting for them to go on sale. Here's the breakdown:

Case: $90
Mobo: $250
CPU: $80
Ram: $100
Power Supply: $60
Water CPU Cooler: $70
Video Cards: $150 for one, $140 for the other
Hard Drive: $80
DVD Drive: $25

So basically just shy of $1000. I had one of the video cards in my old computer, so I just bought another one to crossfire them. The computer rips.

Wow, that's great...I may have to have someone build me a computer rather than buy one from Best Buy or something for the same price. The computer looks so bad ass

This particular motherboard is awesome for the beginner too. There are buttons directly on the motherboard for unlocking the hidden CPU cores and auto overclocking.

Looks sweet. What kind of temps are you running on the CPU and GPU during heavy use? I've been kicking around the idea of going with a watercooled setup for a while now.

will post picks when i get home.

Brand - TOSHIBA
Series - Qosmio
Model - X505-Q875
CPU Type - Intel Core i7 720QM(1.6GHz)
Screen - 18.4"
Memory Size - 6GB DDR3
Memory Spec - 4GB x 1+2GB x 1
Memory Type - 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM
Hard Disk - 500gb 7200rpm x2
Optical Drive - BD Combo
Graphics Card - NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M
Video Memory - 1GB GDDR5
HDMI - 1
Dimensions - 17.40" x 11.60" x 1.63"
Weight - 9.70 lbs.
CPU Type - Intel Core i7
CPU Speed - 720QM(1.60GHz)
Chipset - Intel PM55
Resolution - 1920 x 1080
Keyboard - Premium US LED backlit keyboard (black)
AC Adapter - 120W (19V x 6.32A) Auto-sensing ,100-240V/50-60Hz AC Adapter
Battery - 12 cell (8000 mAh) Lithium Ion battery pack

I've been overclocking since '02 and actually owned a company that sold overclocking parts (called Overclock Central) and I can tell you that those 2 cores that you have unlocked were locked for a reason. The only reason AMD locked them is because they are defective. This processor is basically a defective or factory rejected quad core CPU with bad cores locked and marketed as a different CPU.

I remember reading the same thing back in the day about locked CPUs. Overclock Central sounds really familiar.

I still got my Celery 300a running 450mhz (464 actually) for emulation purposes. Badass old school processor.

I haven't done much monitoring, but I did a reboot after heavy gaming and went into the bios and it was reporting just over 40 degree cpu temp. I haven't had the fans come on full load yet either.

As for the cores, I have read conflicting reports. Some are turned off for being defective, and I have heard that others were just made to fill supply. So far I have had zero errors, and the cores have been unlocked right from the beginning (o/s install, game install, data copying, etc). All the major board manufacturers are now building a core unlocker right into the motherboard, and I wouldn't see that happening if everyone only getting a broken cpu out of the deal.

I've wondered about this since I started reading about the whole unlocking concept. It reminds me a great deal of when we first stated knocking a second write-enable hole in single-sided 5.25" floppies and turning them over in 1541s, or drilling out 3.25" 720k floppies to use in 1.44 MB drives.

Generally speaking, it tended to work. And of course, back then, single-sided disks were supposedly the double-sided platters that failed QC on one side, and ditto 720s.

I have absolutely no idea what AMD's typical yields are, nor what their QC thresholds for calling a core failed are.

Interesting stuff, though...

I've started looking for a potential replacement for my current laptop, which is a Vaio VGN-TXN15P. One of the first of the 11" class machines, roughly 2.8 lbs and a 1.2 Ghz U1400 (Core Solo) processor.

It's by no means dead yet, but it's getting a tad long in the tooth. Maybe another year or so. I'm not really enthuzed about the current generation of Netbooks- I like small & light, but I also need a "real" CPU to run a couple of the apps I use for work. I was really excited about the new Vaio X (1.6 lbs, 1/2" thick) until I found out that they'd decided to go with an Atom Z550 CPU. Granted, it's a very new CPU and it might be awesome, I just can't quite get over the stigma attached to the Atom name...

Damn you, Sony, for not using the i3 on this otherwise most awesome of laptops...

I use a program called CPUID that tells me the temps of my system in real-time. Try it out. Another good one is SpeedFan.

And yes, unlocking the CPU can be risky. Usually they are locked for a reason (aka they're defective).

Although if you've had it unlocked this long and it's stable I'd say you got a good one to unlock.

Very nice. I bet that thing is quick. I give my rig another 6 months before I feel the need to overhaul it.

My computer is a Dell and it's 8 years old. It handles my Free Cell and Command And Conquer like a champ. That's a really cool looking case and wire inside. Very organized.

Awesome deal! Nice job! I love the case. Looks like you can fit long videocards in there. It will look cleaner if you can you route the 9 pin mobo power cable under the video cards.

So after about 4 hours of Dragons Age Origins on maximum settings at 1680x1050, my cpu temperature was 40 degrees celcius. GPU was at 58. Thanks for the tip on CPUID program.

Another cool program is motherboard monitor. It's configurable so you can put the readouts in the taskbar or on the desktop.