The computer room

[barnez]

I've always liked Asus myself, until one production series turned out to be a black sheep of the family (M2N2-SLI Deluxe, naturally it was the one I bought), so I started using Gigabyte.

I've used Gigabyte motherboards for over 10 years in various rigs and have never had an issue with any of them. Love 'em.

I'm a Kingston fan myself.

Likewise.

Hoping to make a few upgrades myself coming up, not sure if I can swing it - the wife has $$$ reserved for work needs (new tool cart)

-barnez

[harryadkins]

Would someone please recommend a good guide for assembling a gaming computer, especially one that will maximize Railworks?

[PapaXpress]

Bit-tech (UK) has monthly guides for various level of machine (that doesn't sound right...). This is the only site I keep up with these days.
www.bit-tech.net/

I was once a hard core Anditech groupie, but they have changed their format over the past couple years and do less hardware round ups (they are still an awesome tech site)
http://www.anandtech.com

Then there is Tom's Hardware. They have changed format as larger companies bought and spun them off, and I eventual stopped reading them. Some people swear by them... sometimes.

Other sites I use to visit are (to name a few):
http://www.xbitlabs.com/
http://www.extremetech.com/
http://www.hardocp.com/
http://www.motherboards.org/
http://www.endpcnoise.com/
http://www.silentpcreview.com/

I use to build computers as a side job (with two boys and a third on the way I no longer have the time) so I would read, and read and read up on all the latest reviews.

[Kali]

1200 Watts? Dude, I hope you live near a substation!

I think with RW 3 coming, we all got upgrade fever!

Ware-wise, IMHO, you can't go wrong with an Asus motherboard and Intel Procs. I was going through the mothers quit frequently until I hit on an Asus, it's never given me problems and has infinite upgrades. I actually liked the Pentium 4 processor. It kept my room nice and toasty in the winter and gave me a great excuse to install and elaborate water cooling system.

I notice you've got a Corsair radiator, and that reminds me to tell you folks to beware of Corsair memory. Usually I stick (pun intended) with Kingston, but Fry's was having a good deal on Corsair XMS2's, so I bought 8 gig. 1 stick was dead out of the box. Sent it back, got a replacement - also dead. Finally got one that worked, and all is fine now, but it still didn't make a very good impression.

1200W doesn't mean it actually draws 1200W all the time, thankfully! I've used asus mobos for over 10 years, don't think I'll quit anytime soon. And likewise any dead item is going to leave bad impressions; I've burned out three Nvidia graphics cards inside 6 months each over the years & I probably won't ever get another, given my last two ATi ones have been absolutely trouble free ( although let's not go near driver features... ). The Corsair sticks I have have been perfect. At some previous job we had twelve bad WD drives in a row, that won't put me off recommending WD drives.

The first lot of Athlons definitely doubled as heaters :P nice for keeping the air under the desk hot.

[styckx]

Yep, I was burned by OCZ RAM awhile back. Was rated at 1600mhz but no matter the clock, multiplier, voltage, timings etc it just would never, ever run stable at 1600mhz. BIOS spd menu read its Max speed at 1333mhz. Quick Google search and I found out I wasn't the only person having this issue. Long story short, the sticks and packaging were all accidently "mislabeled". Ever since I stopped buying cheap RAM. Been more than happy with my Mushkin sticks I have now. As far as mobos, Asus and MSI are my favorites. Although I did have the mono Hawk mentioned. The M2N-SLI. What junk. I assumed SLI ready meant it ran the PCI-E slots at 8x/8x in sli / crossfire. Nope. 4x/4x. What a joke that was.

[MJBrinegar]

Built my Sandy Bridge a few months back. Its been very nice running at 4.7ghz.

[arizonachris]

This is my AMD box:



Video card is now an EVGA GTX470SSC. Easiest build I have ever done. That HAF 922 is one sweet case. Nice thing about the Biostar socket AM3 board is I can drop almost any AMD CPU into it, even Bulldozer as far as I know. Intel likes to change sockets like I change underwear. (OK, fine, I do change underwear more often)

For RAM, the G Skill seems to be my favorite. Fast (1066) stable and it just works.

[SMMDigital]

Wow! This is like being in High School and making comparisons in the locker room after PE! Here be my rig...

smm_rig.jpg

Asus P5KC, Intel Q6600 OC-to 2.8GHZ, 8GB Corsair XMS PC6400, 4TB of storage (prefer Western Digital myself - have 3 dead Seagates on the shelf), standard graphics and audio running dual monitors. It ain't the latest or greatest, but it handles all of the chores i've thrown at it, so i'm going to keep it until catastrophic failure. And yes, that is a Home Depot-bought shed handle installed on top so I can carry it down to the woodshed for maintenance when it gets to dusty inside.

Speaking of memory and such, I upgrade quite a bit and even take in old computers who have no home, so if you are looking for a bit of an upgrade for your rig before RW3, i've got a few RAM modules lying around that might help you. I've got 4GB of Kingston Value Ram (DDR2 PC6400, 800, 1GB each module), 2GB of OCZ RAM (DDR2 PC6400, 800, 1GB each module), 2 gigs of assorted laptop RAM, and a bunch of older stuff, dating all the way back to EDO RAM. If you need any, let me know via PM or e-mail, i'll let it go cheap.

[MJBrinegar]

I want a HAF 922 case. That might be my next purchase and I need a new video card.

[Hawk]

I like that HAF case. And $90. ain't a bad deal on it either.

[styckx]

Woohoo. New Forum! Safe to assume this is good to discuss other games too? It's a nice little off topic section when we've talked all we can talk about Railworks for the day. :) Thanks Hawk!!

[arizonachris]

I like that HAF case. And $90. ain't a bad deal on it either.

And free shipping from New Egg!
It's a beast! But I really like it:

[Hawk]

And free shipping from New Egg!

That's where I saw that 90 buck price tag.
I like it because of all the room in it. I've got an Antec P-180 and it's too small (and it's not a small tower - 21.3"(H) x 8.1"(W) x 19.9"(D)) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129154.

I had a video card I wanted to put in it and it wouldn't fit, plus there's not enough room for the wiring to fit comfortably.

[Importz2k1]

Here's my first build, comments (possitive or negative) are welcome.




All the goodies.






I realised after the build that everbody else's CPU fan is mounted the opposite of mine and got a little worried, but decided to run it and it's working fine.


Not the greatest wiring job, but this case doesn't have alot of room to hide them.

[barnez]

Here's my first build, comments (possitive or negative) are welcome.

Your motherboard appears to be the exact model I'm looking at getting - I'd love to hear how it works out for you.

Everything looks quite nice on your setup, should be a good one.

-barnez