Post your gaming setup!

[Selgar]

i7 950 stock speed and cooling (3.07ghz)
Asus Sabertooth X58
EVGA GTX 470 (factory superclocked 625 GPU 1250 CPU 1700 Mem )
12g RAM Gskill 1600 (tri-channel)
3x C300 SSD 64g in Raid 1 (at SATA II since the SATA III drivers still suck)
Corsair TX750 PSU

Im thinking of upgrading the Video Card. Anyone have suggestions for around $200-$300 I am not opposed to an SLI/Xfire setup as the MB is 16x/16x?

[infuz3d]

Don't laugh.

[Xuvial]

so this cpu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115070 would be very good from what im seeing in the links you posted? And is around my price range.

Well yes and no. As you've probably noticed the i5 2500K and i7 2600K perform almost identically in most games, so does it justify the i7 costing $90 more? Up to you. The i7 features hyperthreading which is useful if you do a lot of audio/video/photo encoding/converting/editing. For gaming it is almost pointless.

[IMG]http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7632/011512205700.jpg[IMG]

Don't laugh.

*HAHAHA-mgfffffffhnggg*
Did you recently move into that room/house? I feel bad why don't you have a desk and a chair atleast? And how do you sit, crosslegged or with your legs around the laptop?

[DeltrusDisc]

[IMG]http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7632/011512205700.jpg[IMG]

Don't laugh.

That looks... bloody painful. >_<

[Skesh]

Don't laugh.

I like this, barely moved in but the computers set up so he can raid

[Xuvial]

This is my first ever custom build. Im very pleased how it came out. One problem is the CPU power cable was too short

Case: NZXT Phantom
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth
CPU: AMD 8120 FX 8-core 3.1 Ghz (Overclock Incoming)
GPU: Gigabyte AMD Radeon 6950 HD
Heatsink: Cooler Master 212 Plus
Ram: GSkill Sniper series 2x 4GB DDR3 1866
Blu-ray burner/ DVD combo drive
Seagate 1TB HDD
PSU: OCZ 750W Fully Modular
Mouse: Logitech G5
Keyboard: Alienware TactX
Mouse Pad: Razer Vespula
Monitor: Asus VH238H Black 23"
TV: Toshiba 32 inch (Mainly for Xbox and Blu-rays)

[IMG]http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/6052/mg8584.th.jpg[IMG]

[IMG]http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/7895/mg8582.th.jpg[IMG]

[IMG]http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5591/mg8581.th.jpg[IMG]

[IMG]http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/9868/mg8557x.th.jpg[IMG]

Here is a video of me putting it together.

[video=youtube;kUVMoydA9OQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUVMoydA9OQ[video]

Hey man that's really good stuff. Thought it would be another slideshow video of "hurr look at mah photos" but I was pleasantly surprised when you video'd the whole thing in great quality . I feel you for the CPU power cable being too short, that sucks. Hope you attached a fan to your heatsink, I wouldn't let it run passively for too long.

Spreading the TIM with a guitar pick isn't something I would've done, but hey to each their own :P many people still spread it using paintbrushes or credit cards. TIM is best left to spread on its own via the pressure from the heatsink, this video has an excellent demonstration (leave captions on):


And here's a great article showing the best method for Hyper212+:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...1&limitstart=5

I'm just getting picky here I guess, great work overall!

[Ganador]

I didn't show this in my video but I did apply two, very very thin, lines of thermal compound on the heat sink itself. Plus there was some residual compound left over from when I first assembled it with the dead Motherboard, but it looked really thin and patchy. I assume i didn't use enough on my first application.

I am sure i did everything correct because it idles at near room temp and has never gone over 35c while encoding HD videos.

[infuz3d]

Didn't just move in, we were having hardwood flooring put in so we had to move a lot of the furniture. But now we had a lot of issues with the people home depot sent, including the wood that was sent over not being the right type, the contractors expecting us to remove all the carpetting as well so we have to wait a couple weeks for our private contractor.

So I needed to enhance my setup a little bit... with state of the art cooling and a chair!

[sizzlinsauce]

This is my first ever custom build. Im very pleased how it came out. One problem is the CPU power cable was too short

Case: NZXT Phantom
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth
CPU: AMD 8120 FX 8-core 3.1 Ghz (Overclock Incoming)
GPU: Gigabyte AMD Radeon 6950 HD
Heatsink: Cooler Master 212 Plus
Ram: GSkill Sniper series 2x 4GB DDR3 1866
Blu-ray burner/ DVD combo drive
Seagate 1TB HDD
PSU: OCZ 750W Fully Modular
Mouse: Logitech G5
Keyboard: Alienware TactX
Mouse Pad: Razer Vespula
Monitor: Asus VH238H Black 23"
TV: Toshiba 32 inch (Mainly for Xbox and Blu-rays)

did you not get a 8 pin CPU power extendor with your NZXT? i got one with my red NZXT phantom.

[Drunkenvalley]

Have you looked at http://www.aquatuning.no/index.php/cPath/22_835 or http://indomo.se/index.php?show=57&m...de=list&id=132 ?

Notice the watermark on the picture says aquatuning...

Yeah, I did look, if that wasn't obvious. But among those that perform well the most reliable stock as far as my opinion would go was the Swiftech HD... Limited Edition.

[Cyanotical]

So you've been out of the building scene - fair enough. When you've been out that long it's a good idea NOT to draw conclusions about things, like assuming you need a $1k intel chip to compete with AMD's $270 chip. Nobody buys a 990X or 3960X for gaming/regular use (I'm assuming that's where you got your Intel prices from lol). Just ask questions and we'll point you in the right direction, we're mostly unbiased here

So you want to do some gaming eh? I shall point you in the right direction:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/t...x8150-tested/8
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...-8150-review/9
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-fx...ssor-review/19
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...x,3043-20.html

FYI, an i5 2500K is $230. NOW you can draw some conclusions

actually, microcenter sells 2500k's for $180, so they are even cheaper

---------- Post added 2012-01-20 at 03:26 AM ----------

also:

[Xuvial]

-5 points for the white power cable.
+1000 points for the sweet godly jesus of a build that is.

Did you really rip everything out of your 800D and put it into a Cosmos? Whatever for??
Or did I miss something o_O

Also links to super-high-res pics please <3

[Drunkenvalley]

Is it just me, or did you use a lot of excess tubing, Cyanotical? o.o

[inux94]

-5 points for the white power cable.
+1000 points for the sweet godly jesus of a build that is.

Did you really rip everything out of your 800D and put it into a Cosmos? Whatever for??
Or did I miss something o_O

Also links to super-high-res pics please <3

800D doesn't have the best airflow for GPU, making me want to swap it out with something with fan(s) on the side.

[Asera]

-5 points for the white power cable.
+1000 points for the sweet godly jesus of a build that is.

Did you really rip everything out of your 800D and put it into a Cosmos? Whatever for??
Or did I miss something o_O

Also links to super-high-res pics please <3

I think the only thing he's moving from the old system is the 590s, if his signature is any indication.

[Fuzzykins]

Didn't just move in, we were having hardwood flooring put in so we had to move a lot of the furniture. But now we had a lot of issues with the people home depot sent, including the wood that was sent over not being the right type, the contractors expecting us to remove all the carpetting as well so we have to wait a couple weeks for our private contractor.

So I needed to enhance my setup a little bit... with state of the art cooling and a chair!

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6...1712215500.jpg

On a really obscure note, we have the same chair. o.o

[Shadowfoxx]

I believe I have that chair too

[aisatsana]

@ Cyna

Can you fit a RX in the top of the cosmos? And the build looks ok imo, nothing special to be honest I don't know if you plan on adding some colour. If you add some dye and some custom sleeving it would look great!

[DeltrusDisc]

Did you really rip everything out of your 800D and put it into a Cosmos? Whatever for??
Or did I miss something o_O

Yeah his signature will tell you he got Sandy Bridge extreme. ;p Moving his 590s over though I think he said he may up to the 6xx/7xx series if it is a big enough improvement. You should get in Mumble more often, he was telling me about this build a couple weeks ago.

[Cyanotical]

-5 points for the white power cable.
+1000 points for the sweet godly jesus of a build that is.

Did you really rip everything out of your 800D and put it into a Cosmos? Whatever for??
Or did I miss something o_O

Also links to super-high-res pics please <3

the white ones where the only molex extensions i have on hand that dont look like the red/yellow/black variety
i'll get black ones when i get around to it

and yes i ripped everything out of my 800D, the GPUs, soundcard, hard drives, and some of the cooling system went into the new build, everything else is in a pile on my kitchen table

Is it just me, or did you use a lot of excess tubing, Cyanotical? o.o

there is a small amount of excess to allow me to pull the reservior/pump block out to fill and maintain the water loop, but otherwise mostly direct runs, about 2.5m worth

@ Cyna

Can you fit a RX in the top of the cosmos? And the build looks ok imo, nothing special to be honest I don't know if you plan on adding some colour. If you add some dye and some custom sleeving it would look great!

yes and no, there is room for a 360mm rad on the top, but you are very limited on size, i ended up dropping down to two radiators in order make everything fit, as well as using some creativity for the top rad, the screw holes dont exactly line up with a radiator, also, you really need a low profile rad for the top, my koolance 360 had serious fitment issues (i dont' have an optical drive)

also, dont put dye in a cooling system, it stains components, and stains everything it touches when draining, if you want a color use colored tubing, but always water and clear additives for the fluid


here are some more pics from my phone, i'll take better ones next week after i redo my computer desk