Wolverines

Here’s the rig that I’m getting made.

 Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP support 300 cd/m2 700:1 – Retail  (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009094) x 1

 Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075) x 3 with RAID 5 setup

 SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Model SFD321B/LBL1 – OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821103203) x 1

 COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119077) x 1

 ENERMAX UC-8EB 80mm Case Fan – Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999199) x 1

 AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor – Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103228) x 1

 Logitech G11 Silver & Black 104 Normal Keys 29 Function Keys USB Standard Gaming Keyboard – Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126009) x 1

 Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DVR-115DBK - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129018) x 2

 Scythe S-FLEX SFF21D 120mm Case Fan – Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185004) x 1

ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131013) x 1

 BFG Tech BFGR88768GTXOCE GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143080) x 1

 COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro RS-650-ACAA-A1 ATX Form Factor 12V V2.3 / SSI Standard EPS 12V V2.91 650W Power Supply – Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171023) x 1

 Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory – Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565) x 2

I already have a good Logitech mouse that I'll be keeping, along with 2 HP Printers and my speaker system.

Edit: new mobo: ASUS CROSSHAIR AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131593) x 1

i'll take one too. the army is paying right?

If it were me I would get a stronger PSU. that 8800GTX is a beast and with that CPU if you and anything else you might have problems. Already spending a billion dollars, get  a stronger one.

Well, the stuff has already been shipped. Marc (Veadric) is the one building it for me (Yay for Bro-in-law that knows computer stuff). And no, the Army is not paying for it. I'm using my tax return to pay for this. This is me "stimulating" the American economy.

I ran it through Newegg's PS calculator and it recommended 610W, so I figured I'd save him a few bucks and get the 650 instead of a 700 or more.  It should work fine, plus have a bit more if he wants to add a drive or two to his RAID.

Yea it should be good, I just always go a little higher to be safe.

Well, if I do need to go higher while I'm still here in Germany, there is a computer hardware store about 10 minutes away from my home that sells dual-voltage silent power sources. I think they are something like Panther or Jaguar or something sneaky and cat-like.

The whole Panther/Jaguar thing made me think of this: (Red vs. Blue ftw)

Sarge: May I introduce the our new light reconnaissance vehicle! It has four-inch armour plating, mag bumper suspension, a mounted machine gunner position, and total seating for three. Gentlemen, this is the M12LRV! I like to call it the Warthog.
Simmons: Why Warthog, sir?
Sarge: Because "M12LRV' is too hard to say in conversation, son.
Grif: No, but... Why Warthog? I mean, it doesn't really look like a pig.
Sarge: Say that again.
Grif: I think it looks more like a puma.
Sarge: What in Sam Hell is a puma?
Simmons: You mean like the shoe company?
Grif: No. Like a puma. It's a big cat. Like a lion.
Sarge: You're makin' that up.
Grif: I'm telling you, it's a real animal.
Sarge: Simmons, I want you to poison Grif's next meal.
Simmons: Yes, sir!
Sarge: [Points at front of the Warthog] Look, see these two tailhooks? They look like tusks. And what kind of animal has tusks?
Grif: A walrus.
Sarge: Didn't I just tell you to stop makin' up animals?

LOL, now thats good.

I live life on the edge.

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i always liked Red vs blue and the tank is just as funny.

CHUPATHINGY how about that?

I like it... its got a ring to it..

:P

Well, the motherboard was being a pain, so I upgraded to ASUS CROSSHAIR AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131593)

never liked Asus should have gone gigabyte

ASUS is fine.  They use good components, pretty much the same ones as Gigabyte, MSI, ABIT, et al.  I've used just about every major brand of motherboard and I can assure you that an ASUS board is no worse than any of the others.

good for you JT ive had 2 of them and both have gone back and the 3rd one i ended up stuck with as it was a replacement it now gathers dust in a box somewhere , and before you ask they were different models and were bought in different years for different systems

I have a gigabyte thats temperamental. It works, but sometimes it forgets the BIOS settings (brand new battery), and sometimes doesn't detect the videocard (while its actually putting information on my display...)

Sounds like you've had a good run of bad luck.  I don't doubt that you have had bad experiences with ASUS, I was simply saying that hardware fails regardless of brand.  It's just the nature of the beast.  The best we can do is buy a brand that is no more likely to fail than the others (IE: better design, better components, better warranty :P).  My point was, to that end, that ASUS fits into that "no more likely to fail" category.  I would also recommend MSI, Gigabyte, Abit, and BioStar.  I have had at least average,  if not good, experiences with all of these brands. 

I personally don't have a brand preference yet, as I have not built my own computer. I'm not quite to that level of techiness. That's what I have friends and family for. I have seen a few ASUS reviews that show DOA or RMA sfter a month, but they usually follow up with saying the board works after that and it's just a luck thing.

yeah, sometimes you get a lemon, sometimes you get a streak of lemons.  buying hardware is always a crap shoot.

i wasnt saying gigabyte was perfect was just saying that i myself had found it better than Asus in my experience.
but yeah all brands are crap just get one with a good warrenty. also Never buy a Dell

I have been using Asus boards for the past 5 or 6 years at least and swear by them.   Not that I'm crazy in to hardware or anything. 

ASUS FTW.

Tom is a Asus surporter  anyone want to rethink there stand on hardware now

My builds are solid as a rock.  Plus they don't involve balance, so its ok.

Ok this post got longer than I thought...here's the Clif notes version:  Dell isn't so bad; get over the build-your-own-system phase and just buy a computer already.  Everyone should build at least one computer, but it loses the novelty after 15+ years, trust me.

Feel free to read on if you're bored:

We support almost 1000 machines in our labs and classrooms (in addition to walk-ins) and the brand we have the least amount of trouble with is Dell, even though they account for the majority of our machines.  Sure we have failures, but with Dell the overall process is so well streamlined that it's not a big deal.  We swap the machines out and have the faulty part replaced in a day...that system goes on the shelf as a hot spare.  Gateway, Lenovo, and Apple are a much bigger hassle all around.  We don't have HP yet (we soon will though), so the jury's out on them still.

On a personal note, I've owned a wide array of self-built machines in the past that included motherboards by ASUS, Abit, Gigabyte, and Intel.  Out of all of them the Intel (actual Intel boxed) boards were by far the most stable and problem free, but the Gigabyte I had was awesome.  Now that I've become old and wise, I don't feel the need to build my own uber-leet-hawkes edition PC's anymore, and I recently purchased a Dell XPS with my military discount.  It cost me the same amount it would have to build my own, plus I can get warranty parts for it next-day through work if need be (Dell Certified Technician program).  Best PC I've ever owned.  Only problem I had with with my SoundBlaster X-Fi, but I got that replaced next-day.

I do like dells, but I am still able to build a machine myself that is the dell equivalent for less money. Until that can't be done I'll still build my own.  Now if I needed several machines for a business or what have you, I'd go with Dell in a heartbeat. They are a decent company.

I do heart Dell machines, like the gr0n said, they are solid machines. All I can say is F Gateway and I will give Lenovo/IBM some props they do have good solid laptops

if anything goes wrong with a Dell you need the Dell Certified Technician program because everything in a Dell is non-standard now this in fine if you live in a big US city but if you dont that one day service can turn into a week. i didnt say they weren't solid i just said dont get one because they can be a nightmare to upgrade or repair

My current machine is a Dell, and I've had it for 4 years now. I don't have a major problem with Dell, I just wanted to get more machine for less money. Plus, with my experience with Dells, they are less customizable if you want to upgrade certain parts.

The Army uses pretty much all Dell computers from what I've seen, so I have used a LOT of Dells in these past 5 1/2 years.

I'd get a Dell if I needed a whole bunch of machines or had to support more that 2 or 3, but for home purposes I just like the customizability of home-built.  We'll see after I've been in it for 8 more years if you're right Volnar.

As it is, after reading about the issues with the board I was using, I figured it'd be best to just switch to a different board.  2 of the RAM slots caused lockups, plus it would lock up when I was playing around in the BIOS a lot, both before and after I flashed it.

Yeah, I used to be in the "less money, more upgradeable" camp as well, but over the years I found that about the only thing I could keep when I did a major upgrade every 3 or 4 years was the case (if that).  These days the biggest part of the machine that needs upgraded more frequently (for games) is the video card, which I buy separately anyway, and it doesn't matter if you plug it into a Dell or a home-brew.  Tweaking/customizing the base system accounts for a much smaller percentage of realized performance increase while gaming these days, whereas GPU tweaking seems to be where it's at.  Not too long ago that wasn't so much the case (Celeron 300a, 667 FTW!!!).  Also, The XPS machines are just about as upgradeable as a custom built machine too (not including mobo/psu).

With various discounts and whatnot I can get a similarly spec'd Dell (XPS, etc) machine for the same price that I could build a system for, and while I used to get a huge amount of satisfaction from building my own, I really don't have the time/energy/enthusiasm I once had to do all the research necessary to make a system that is 100% stable.  I'll let Dell do that R&D.

I'm actually kind of jealous of you guys who are still building systems...or maybe nostalgic is the more appropriate term.  Keep on rockin' the home-brew!

I built the very first PC I ever owned (around 99.) I am a late bloomer to the tech game since my parents are ludites.  I bought my last one and will probably never build again.  The cost is about the same at this point and the made to order pc's manufactures don't load your comp down with a bunch of software you'll never use like some of the big box manufactures tend to.

I'll keep building them so long as the money isn't more than a prebuilt (of the same quality/power) and I enjoy doing it. I can see myself being in gr0n's shoes one day though. At some point it just won't be worth the hassle.

Exactly.  It's more satisfying to me, like a hobby.  Since I don't have to build 'em at work, it's part of the fun of computing for me.  Now, if I had to do this all day every day...

I was the same way for a long time.  So I completely understand.  More power to you guys!!!

I hate computers.

It's just a fad.

Well, I now know the Army also uses a lot of HP computers, both laptop and towers. I'm in a computer lab right now that has 16 HPs in the one room, and there are 2 more rooms with just as many. They are a little slow at times, but that might also be the military internet connection. For some reason we were connected from Germany to Ft. Sam Huston as our hub, when we have another hub 4 hours drive away. Oh well.

I'll probably do home-made compouters for the next couple times, but I don't plan on upgrading the whole system anytime soon, maybe in a few years. I need to save for a second vehicle first.

I think I might add this to my rig as well. It's pretty affordable. PC EZBake Oven (http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/ezbake.shtml)

Alright, this is crazy.  So I swapped out mobos on Volk's new machine because the original one was a piece of shit.  When I went to set up the RAID, I must've connected the hard drives just right.  The damn thing booted off of the RAID array before I made any changes and went into the Vista installation I had set up using the old mobo.  That's fucked up right there.

So, is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

It's an interesting thing.  It means everything's working well so far.  Just gotta wipe and reinstall to avoid driver issues and then add the other 2 GB of RAM.  If that works, next step is to send it to you.

YAY!!!!!!!

I mean, um, that's great. Good job, yeah.

If the RAID controller is smart enough, it will import the orphaned disks and ask you to accept the new configuration.  Or maybe yours just did that automatically...hehe.

Is it the same chipset?  If the RAID array is the same chipset then everything should be transparent.

Well, computer is here, all hooked up, and I'm typing on it right now. Gonna have to use the weekend to set everything up to how I want it, though, and to reinstall all my games.