Updated System Specifications

[LazerFX]

Hey all. I've updated my system somewhat recently, so I'm just dropping through a bit more information on what I've currently got in there, how it's running and the like. I'm only including my main machine, as the laptop has been co-opted by my parents (And I never use it anyway now :P).

Any way, without further ado, and since I can't go back to the old forum and update the page there, the full specification of my machine.

Mesh Elite Fire X1950
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6700
CPU Cooling: Stock Intel
Motherboard: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
RAM: 2GB OCZ 900Mhz Matched Pair (Currently running at PC-7100, default timings)
Graphics: ATI X1950XTX 512MB (Connect3D)
Sound: X-Fi Xtreme Music / Game

Hard Drives:

Western Digital Raptor (WD1500ADFD) 150GB

Western Digital Caviar (WD5000AAKS) 500GB

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (ST3320620AS) 320GB

DVD Writer: Sony 18x DVD+-R/RW/RAM
DVD Drive: Sony 16x DVD
Monitor: V7 Video Seven 20.1" 1400x1050 8ms

Input:

Logitech Wireless Keyboard (Deluxe 650)

WolfClaw Devour II

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick

Razer Diamondback 1600dpi Chameleon ('TVR' paint style)

Microsoft XBox 360 Wired pad

Speakers: Speedlink Medusa 5.1 Surround Sound Headphones
Power Supply: 550W (I think it's an Antec, not sure)
Case: Mesh Coolermaster

Comments: Well, I've upgraded again, this time to put in a Western Digital Caviar WD5000AAKS 500GB hard disk. It's replacing the old 250GB I had in there. My one disappointment at the minute is that I'll be on 970GB of storage... so I won't quite be hitting the Terrabyte. The good news is that it only cost £71, inc delivery, from eBuyer thanks to a £10 discount because I purchased it through Google Checkout. I've sold the old disk for £20 to a mate... so effectively I got 500GB for about £50 - how's that for £ per GB?

Still an awesome machine, still does everything I want it to do really, really fast. Only major upgrades I'm thinking about (Other than another 500GB hard disk at some point) is to get a 45nm Intel Quad Core when they come out, and a DX10 graphics card.

I'm going to be installing Vista as a second OS on the new hard disk. I have a friend who, due to the extreme slowness of the Express Upgrade system, managed to get two copies of Vista Home Premium; and he gave me one of them (One was a bound-to-hardware copy, the other was just a standard upgrade copy). So that'll be going in at some point, and I'll try it out. Until everything has settled down with Vista, I don't think I'll be using it as a primary OS (Then again, you don't know...) but it'll be fun to play with it for a while.

[framaris]

Looking good m8, my system spec. are a little under yours so I know how it feels.
I'm also thinking to update to Quad core and DX10 video card, but I doubt about my need for a Quad core.

Vista is working fine on that system, I also have it as second OS. I'm going to install Linux too, but the ATI card could be a problem.

Enjoy!

[LazerFX]

Yeah, I'd love to run Ubuntu with XGL, but again - the drivers (From what I've heard) for *nix systems are not quite as mature as nVidia's.

Plus there's no proper DirectX support for Linux, so my main reason for having this system (Gaming) would be gone :P

[Whizzer]

Would you recommend me to get a Core 2 Quad now (Q6600 is what I'm looking at for €480) or an E6600 (only €200) and then upgrade to a Bearlake 45nm quad core later? I mean, the Q6600 is quite cheap now, compared to a month back, but still costs me nearly 500 bucks, but Bearlake might just be a lot faster then AMD's Barcelona even and might just cost about the same too. Current C2D are better overclockers for sure, so it will do just fine for now. I'm not too sure if I can lose the Core 2 Duo though, they're really cheap now. But with Crysis, UE3 and the Source engine all supporting Quad-Core, I thought quad core might be a decent choice, at least prepared for the future, if multithreading support set forth quicker than dual core support did, and that seems likely.

Really nice system by the way. Way faster than mine, and it still serves me quite well. You did mean an E6700, correct?

[LazerFX]

Originally Posted by Whizzer

Would you recommend me to get a Core 2 Quad now (Q6600 is what I'm looking at for €480) or an E6600 (only €200) and then upgrade to a Bearlake 45nm quad core later? I mean, the Q6600 is quite cheap now, compared to a month back, but still costs me nearly 500 bucks, but Bearlake might just be a lot faster then AMD's Barcelona even and might just cost about the same too. Current C2D are better overclockers for sure, so it will do just fine for now. I'm not too sure if I can lose the Core 2 Duo though, they're really cheap now. But with Crysis, UE3 and the Source engine all supporting Quad-Core, I thought quad core might be a decent choice, at least prepared for the future, if multithreading support set forth quicker than dual core support did, and that seems likely.

Uhm.... To be honest, I don't know. Personally, I'd try and find out if the new CPU will use the same motherboards - if it does, then I'd be tempted to go for an E6600 (Or, possibly, one of the lesser ones), and then upgrade to the new CPU... if it doesn't, then I'd probably wait.

Originally Posted by Whizzer

Really nice system by the way. Way faster than mine, and it still serves me quite well. You did mean an E6700, correct?

*whistles innocently*

*makes Jedi Mind Control gesture* This is not the Typo you're looking for.

[Whizzer]

Thx for the reply. I meant Penryn of course. Bearlake is the name for Intels new chipset (P35 or whatever). Anyway, the mobo I'm looking at has full support for FSB1333 CPU's so that should work just fine. Your thoughts make a lot of sense though, I hadn't thought in that direction. I think I'll just head for an E6600 then and upgrade to a newer CPU later, if necessary, because with or without a decent overclock, Core 2 Duo's are still very fast. That will also save me €280 so I can get my DX10 GPU much earlier. Again, thanks for the advice. I'll post my plans for my PC today, if possible.

What did you mean by 'This is not the Typo you're looking for'? As far as I know, there's 3 Core 2 Extreme's at the moment, X6800, QX6700 and QX6800 (although a shop near my home actually boasts about having a QX6600). I know, Intel and AMD are confusing about their CPU's.

[LazerFX]

Uh.. that was a 'You didn't see it, It wasn't there' moment - I've changed it in the original post, you see

[Whizzer]

Ah, gotcha there. Now I totally understand what you meant.

[LazerFX]

OK, I've got my nice new 500GB drive in place, and have performed an install (on a 100GB partition on this drive) of Vista Home Platinum...

However, I've an annoying problem. If I've had something running at full screen, it sometimes locks the system if I shut it down. That could be a game, a DVD running via Media Center, or even (Once only) Internet Explorer.

What occurs is: I close the application (Which, previously, I've been able to Alt+Tab and Win+Tab out of fine), the desktop appears for a fraction of a second, the monitor turns off, and nothing happens.

Pushing the power button doesn't initiate a shut-down, so it's indicative (to me) that there is an actual software problem behind it. I've reverted to earlier ATI drivers to see if it was a problem with that - no dice.

Anyone else got any ideas or has come across this? It's of minor puzzlement to me at the minute, as I've not planned to run on Vista all the time, but it's a nice OS to play around in and I'd like to be able to play around on it without it shutting down on me at apparently random times :P

[Koroush Ghazi]

That actually sounds very odd, since in Vista if the system locks up, after about 10-20 seconds it will automatically force shutdown the offending application anyway (i.e. it detects and shuts down non-responsive apps).

I believe you may be right in pointing to a driver problem. Fortunately Catalyst 7.5s should be out any day now, and in the meanwhile have you made sure to turn off 'VPU Recover', as ATI acknowledged that this could cause a crash (at least in Cat 7.2s) I believe.

Also do you press and hold down the power button for 5 seconds? That should force a shutdown no matter what.