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The Magic Conch
Case: Lian Li Memorial 20th Anniversary PC-777A Silver Aluminum ATX Tower
Power Supply ASPIRE ATX-AS500-GN ATX Daul12V (V2.03) / SLI compliant 500W Power Supply
Motherboard: JetWay 939GT4-SLI-G Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor
Memory: CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWINX1024-3200C2PT
Video Card: eVGA 256-P2-N389-AX Geforce 6800GS CO SE 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 36.7GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive: NEC Silver 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner
Operating System: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (32 Bit Edition)
3.5” Floppy Drive: ALPS Silver 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Model DF354H168F
Mouse: Logitech MX1000 1600DPI Laser Cordless Gaming Mouse
Keyboard: Belkin Natural Keyboard (Black)
Monitor: Samsung 19” LCD SyncMaster 915N with 8 MilliSecond response time.
Speakers: Logitech Gaming Headset with Microphone
Extras:
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* Professional assembly and customization
Notes and comments:
All hail the magic conch, if you’ve seen the cartoon Sponge Bob Square Pants, you know what I mean. If not, just trust me, it is funny. :) I’m building this one just for me, and I’m excited. It will be built in 3 parts to keep costs in line. First a usable system, then we’ll be adding more memory, a second hard drive in RAID 0 (striping) for speed, and then a 2nd 6800 GS video card to utilize the SLI capabilities of the Jetway SLI motherboard. In final phase, I’ll be cranking up the processor to a dual core and playing with more overclocking. I may also swap out the memory for even higher speed memory if necessary.
Diary
- 2/21/2006: All the parts came for the initial build. Tonight I:
* Played with the case a bit, it isn’t the easiest assembly, but all aluminum makes it worthwhile.
* Took lots of pictures.
* Carefully Installed the floppy drive behind the bezel.
* Carefully installed the DVD writer behind the bezel.
* Installed the PSU.
* Setup the motherboard tray with the copper hex head nuts to receive the motherboard.
* Put the sides back on the case...a bit of a feat in itself. :)
* “FINALLY” updated my website.
- 2/22/2006: D’Oh! No time to work on the PC today, barely enough time to correct a typographical error and upload this comment. OK, so I”m uploading the comment on the 23rd...yeah, the 22nd was that busy. :)
- 2/25/2006: Oh, so much has happened.
* On the Thursday the 23rd, I completed the build with the help from my friend who owns the Blue Beast. Of course, many pictures were taken. :) We then proceeded to play DOOM 3 over the Internet after he went home until after 11:00 PM.
* On the Friday 24th I began really using the PC and doing testing. Unfortunately, I found out the 2nd DIMM of 512MB memory was bad, so I’ve got to RMA the whole set back to NewEgg. Not to worry, the exact same memory was on sale for $98.00 with no shipping, so not only will I get more memory before I send this back, but when all is said and done, I’ll have 2GB of memory to play with. On a side note here, I was getting an error Event ID - 51 - An error was detected on device \device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation. Thanks to some research and getting to www.hardwareanalysis.com I found I wasn’t the only one. This issue can cause PC lockups and crashes. It's caused by having NCQ (Native Command Queuing) enabled. To fix it, go to the "Primary Channel" for the "IDE/ATAPI controller" in "Device Manager" and remove the checkmark from "Enable Command Queuing". Well, that’s it for now, more later! :)
- 2/27/2006: Spent the weekend overclocking, here’s the results:
* CPU & Memory O/C’d from 2.0 GHz to 2.5GHz with CPU voltage stock and RAM voltage upped from 2.65 to 2.75
* Video card O/C’d from 400/1000 to 513/1170
* Fine tunes pushed 3DMark05 from I would guess around 5100 (I never ran a first attempt on stock system) to 5957 with ONE video card. :)
I also played DOOM3 online with my friend, and I’m no longer “just” a target, I’m getting better. A little more time in and working on remembering the levels, and I’ll be a lot better...maybe even come close to a 50/50 kill rate against him. We’ll see.
I also ordered my Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Gaming Mouse last week, it should be here by Wednesday! :)
- 3/1/2006: Well, the last few days have been fun, I got my new memory in and have my system running back at 2.5GHz with the following specs on the Jetway SLI motherboard:
* DRAM Timings
* CAS Latency CL=2.5
* RAS Active Time 8T
* RAS Precharge Time 3T
* RAS to CAS Delay 3T
* DRAM Bank Interleaving Enabled
* DRAM Commant Rate 1T
* MTRR Mapping Mode Continuous
* Overclock Settings
* PCIE Clock 100MHz
* CPU 250 MHz
* DRAM 250 MHz
* CPU Ration Default
* CUP Vcore 1.500v
* Vcore 7-Shift Normal(default)
* OverVoltage Enabled
* VRAM Output 3.05V
* NB Voltage 1.5V(default)
* LDT Voltage 1.25V
This allowed me to break my current PCMark04 and 3DMark05 scores as well:
* PCMark04: 4,991 (started at 3,872)
* 3DMark05: 5,965 (started at about 5,100)
AND...I got my Logitech cordless MX1000 gaming mouse. VERY SWEET! I’m now looking forward to my gaming pad so that I can hopefully annihalate the First Person Shooter (FPS) competition! :) Alright, so that’s just dreaming, I only want to stop being everyone else’s target. We’ll see how that goes. A quick side note, I’ll be sending in my RMA’d memory to NewEgg today (we’ll see how fast I get the replacement) and I’m also sending in my rebates on the Jetway motherboard and the eVGA 6800 GS video card as well. Here’s hoping the money comes quickly. My current plans for next week when I get paid are to order the 2nd eVGA 6800 GS video card and start playing with SLI. That’s it for right now.
- 3/3/2006: Played DOOM 3 with my friend who owns the BlueBeast last night. With all of his FPS experience, he is GOOD. I at least am starting to give him a little bit more of a run for his money with the new MX1000 mouse. I can’t wait until the Belkin N52 gaming pad gets here. Programmable keys should be just what the geek ordered for putting in a little freak out action when I get into battle. :) I also wanted to post my video card settings today, they are:
* Beginning Clock Speeds: **********Coming Soon**********
* Current O/C Speeds: **********Coming Soon**********
I also completed my RMA send in yesterday, so my 2nd 2GB of Memory should be here within 2 weeks. :)
Today I will send in my rebate information and see if I get some money back in the upcoming months. Well, that’s it for now. GAME ON!
- 3/11/2006: Not much has happened since my last writing :
* New Belkin n52 gaming pad came in, lots of fun
* Much more play time on the system
* About 5 more hours worth of tuning to create a rock solid system.
* Now waiting on 2 more 512MB sticks of memory to make a total of 2 GB of memory! :)
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