Hahn's *NEW* Computer - Pics

(dcervenka) · (dcervenka) **Join Date: Sep 2002** 12-11-2007, 12:21 AM

STEP 1: Getting the parts ready. Is it x-mas yet?

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STEP 2: Opening the case to do some open-heart surgery

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STEP 3: QUIET TIME! A Look inside after I installed the Sound Dampening material. I also replaced the 120mm case fans with the Noctua 800 rpm super-silent fans. You can see that I already replaced the front fan in this picture.

~ Take a mental picture of ALL those loose wires. ;-)

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STEP 4 Starting to put the mobo together - Running the Quad-Core Intel so Hahn can edit photos, encode DVDs, watch TV, burn MP3s, and play music all at the same time.. HA! Look at the size of the CPU heatsink fan! Also you gotta love the Driving Ms. Daisy gloves.. yeah.. yeah!

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STEP 6: Swapping out the stock cooler on the Video Card.. It was kinda annoying and the *new* Zalman cooler is going to be MUCH quieter!

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Here's the new VGA Cooler:

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STEP 7: I routed the extra Power Supply cables to the back of the case to keep things nice a tidy up front..

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STEP 8: Here's the final build

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This build is not 100% yet as I've decided to replace the North & South bridge coolers since the stock ones are LOUD.

(dakid) · (dakid) **Join Date: Feb 2001** 12-11-2007, 12:26 AM

what does he need quad-core for? pr0n doesn't need all that!

think he'll wanna trade w/ me?

at least he took my advice on having a desktop built rather than buying one from dell.

if he only took my advice on buying 2 - 22" lcd monitors on black friday, he'd be golden.

(scott_a) · (scott_a) **Join Date: Dec 2002** 12-11-2007, 12:48 AM

Any plans to add more than 150gig of internal storage?

(pierce_bronkite)

Im curious to know how much money you saved versus buying it pre built for somewhere? What OS are you loading?

(solo) · (solo) **Join Date: Oct 2001** 12-11-2007, 7:09 AM

I should have taken Joe's advice. I ended up only buying one monitor on black Friday and going back to buy the second monitor last weekend. I felt like I dropped $150 on the ground somewhere.

Matt, My sister works for Microsoft and I got Vista and Office Pro for $65! It looks sick! Can't wait to get started on it!

Scott, I have over 1000 gigs of external storage. I was trying to save a little money with a smaller Hard Drive. DPC keeps calling me and spending more money! He's breaking me.

Thanks again Dave for all the help.

(wakeworld) · (wakeworld) **Join Date: Jan 1997** 12-11-2007, 7:47 AM

Nerd alert!

(cali_rider) · (cali_rider) **Join Date: Feb 2004** 12-12-2007, 12:04 PM

how about a sweet Sonnet Sata II card 4x port 3gb a sec per port. Got one for sale......wait its probably PCIe right? if its PCIx then i got one.

(rson) · (rson) **Join Date: Jun 2002** 12-12-2007, 1:33 PM

Sure you want to use Vista? It looks slick but it will drive you nuts with all the bugs. Also, it is a performance hog.

(solo) · (solo) **Join Date: Oct 2001** 12-12-2007, 5:09 PM

Yeah I know the OS is rather bloated but for the price I paid, I'm happy. I'm sure Microsoft will provide updates and work out the bugs. My sister has been with them since 1991. So if they come out with something better I'll just upgrade.

It does take up over 500 megs of Ram. How does your machine perform when Vista uses over 25% of your memory?

(wakeboardertj) · (wakeboardertj) **Join Date: May 2005** 12-12-2007, 7:46 PM

wow, that heatsink is massive, the zalman fans/heatsinks are top notch though, although my computer sounds like an airplane

, at least it keeps the cpu at a stable 32 degrees C.

the raptor drives are nice, and for the most part really reliable, no wonder you only got 150, paying a dollar or more per gigabyte is rediculous, but worth it IMO.

(rson) · (rson) **Join Date: Jun 2002** 12-13-2007, 7:17 AM

Something better is XP Pro.

I had a gig of ram and I was at 60% utilization just buy turning the computer on. I since added another gig.

I have had some many issues with Vista and so far no fixes. MY COPY WAS FREE!!!

(rson) · (rson) **Join Date: Jun 2002** 12-13-2007, 7:21 AM

Also, Why did you get 800MHZ ram when your FSB of the processor is 1066MHZ?

You are limiting yourself.

Killer system though.

(antbug) · (antbug) **Join Date: Jul 2004** 12-13-2007, 12:27 PM

Wow Dave, that looks sick. Now I see why Joe keeps telling me to have you build a system for me.

It looks like I need to start saving some cash.

(pierce_bronkite)

I still would like to know the amount you saved building it yourself verses buying it pre-built. To me it seems that it would be cheaper to buy from a manufacturer then to build.

I agree XP Pro is better, seems like you cant go wrong either way with your Microsoft hookup.

(rson) · (rson) **Join Date: Jun 2002** 12-13-2007, 1:13 PM

To answer Matt's question. It is hard to gauge the actual amount saved because the parts are not exactly the same for comparison. Ie. you can't get the same MOBO and Case, they use their own and software is often included.

From my past of building, you same about 3-400$ doing it yourself on a killer machine. If you bought a lesser machine, the cost differential drops significantly

(dcervenka) · (dcervenka) **Join Date: Sep 2002** 12-13-2007, 11:17 PM

Rich is correct. I tried to price this system out at DELL, but they did not offer some of the same components (like the HD, memory), so I can't post a direct comparison.

Plain and simple.. unless you know what you are doing then it's not worth the headache..

"Also, Why did you get 800MHZ ram when your FSB of the processor is 1066MHZ?" My first specs had the faster (1066) memory, but Hahn wanted the econo version.

I rock the Ultra 120E cooler.. yeah I'm a dork!

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