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Yep. My 9 year old computer has finally developed a problem. LOL

Actually its a software issue, I have already ran Memtest and drive tests. Looks like Windows has up and taken a crap. I last loaded this thing back in 07, when I rebuilt it with larger HDDs and more RAM, and a new HD Radeon card. Well new then.

Odd part is, its fine till it sits for more than a couple hours, then it gets squirrelly. But it has slowed down lately too. Tried to run a backup today, 11 hours later it failed with only 4GB to go. (It was backing up nearly 400GB and around 230k files) And for those wondering why so long, its Windows XP Pro, MS Backup, and a USB 2.0 2TB external dock. Basically it went goofy again before it was done and interrupted itself.. LOL

So I'm in the middle of backing up things manually, which I don't ever like to do. Always afraid I will forget something. Funny part is, this is only with my stuff. Give me a customer computer and I can migrate/backup/reload and never lose any of their stuff! Will probably put it in safe mode later, and force it to run the backup one more time. Then wipe and reload. Its been coming anyway. Sad part is, I know its an old tower, but damn its been solid, hardware wise, especially for being overclocked pretty hard since I built it in 03?

Sure, I could replace it with a newer one, use Vista or 7 or something, but not in the position to build what I want, and this will be cheaper. LOL It needs blown out anyway, its full of dust bunnies.

Kinda like the mechanic and their work.... the mechanics car leaks everything and often looks like hell, but the customers cars are always leaving in tip top shape.

You know... I owe you some money if you're still willing to sell that little laptop... Put it towards a new machine!

Works for me! I need to reload it for you yet but can do that this weekend. Will let you know soon!

Updates:




















I'm loving this thing.

Its running right now actually, these are prior assembly pics. Still waiting for 4 fans to show up, and a few other things I have to put in, but its mostly assembled. Running Memtest 4.2 right now.


My first 1155 build for ME:

Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3P.
i5 2400 processor.
Asus nVidia GTX550TI 1GB 192Bit (yuck, but it will do)
16GB of DDR3 1600.
500GB WD Blue for OS.
500GB Seagate.
2TB Seagate.
500GB Black WD to be added.
Asus BluRay Burner/DVD-RW/CD-RW.
75 in 1 card reader for USB 3.0.
PC Power & Cooling 600W Modular PSU.
Eventually 5 fans in total (4 arrive tomorrow - Red LED style) - 3x120mm, 2x140mm.
Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit.
Nero Platinum 10. (I hate 11)
AnyDVDHD. (I actually bought this)
Alcohol 120%. (Have to buy this yet, been using it for years on the XP machine though)
Diablo 3 of course. HA.

And tons and tons of other things I will have to have. PS CS4, and various other software. Most of what I use I actually have bought though.

The case is completely badass. This is a Fractal Design Define Micro ATX tower. Heavy SOB. Nearly 25lbs BY ITSELF! I figure it weighs in with all the parts as it sits right now, around 35-40 lbs. its heavy as hell.

Case is solid. I have YET to see a case like this. I could use this for a footstool, its that sturdy. It is covered internally with sound absorbing/deadening foam panels. Even the door has foam in it. There are dust filters over the main fan entrances, etc. PSU is bottom located, even has its own filter on the bottom of the case. As you can see from the pics, I did some custom work, actually painted all the installable panels so they match the case's basic stark look with white parts on black metal. I think it sets it off. Not like that's a hard to do mod anyway.

Edit: The original case slot covers and hard drive trays were already white. The PSU I picked out came white, so I just went ahead and painted the I/O panel and the video card panel to match, along with grills for 3 of the fans. I didn't do all the other white stuff you see, it came with those. Even the original fans had white blades. (it came with 2) The rear fan that is in the pics above though, that thing is a beast. NMB fans are solid, though I'm going to have to resistor this one and slow it down some. Needs to be turning around 1200-1500, and its doing nearly 2100. Too loud. The ones I have coming are BitFenix, at about 15 bucks a pop and they are slower/quieter. Plus I don't like cheap fans.

And get this, I built a nearly identical system for one of my customers. The only difference is, his has an Asus board, 8GB of DDR3 1600, an Asus GTX560 w/256bit, 1TB Black WD, and an LG BD-ROM. And I didn't paint his panels special. Don't want to be voiding my customer's hardware warranty. lol His has only 3 fans though, and its really quiet. Pretty nice setup.

Anyways, more once its completely finished.

Oh, here are a few more shots:









Shots while it was running and doing Memtest.

Well, its mostly done. Installed the new fans tonight, and working to setup the stuff I need on it. Typing this from it actually. I love this thing, works like a dream and its way quieter than my last system. But its also still here. Going to be using less and less till I get everything moved over.

Will have some pics with lit fans installed later. Wait till you see what they shipped in the boxes for the 120mm fans....

Ok, some times people ask me, what does it cost to build something like this?

Well I will answer. But its steep.

OK.

Two BitFenix 120mm fans @ $15.99 Each. ($31.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835345033
Two BitFenix 140mm fans @ $15.99 Each. ($31.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835345010
Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz @ $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115074
Rosewill 74-in-1 USB 3.0 Card Reader @ $29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820223119
Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit OEM @ $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6832116992
PC Power and Cooling Silencer MKIII 600W Modular PSU @ $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817703036
Fractal Design Define Micro ATX Case @ 99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811352011
Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3P @ $94.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128556
Team Vulcan 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600 @ $75.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820313283
Western Digital Blue 500GB SATA 6GB @64.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136769
Asus 12xBD-BE 8MB Burner @ $84.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827135252
Asus GTX550 TI 1GB 192BIT @ $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121435
Seagate Barracuda 500GB Sata 3 @ $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148221
Seagate Barracude Green 2TB @ $119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148681
Western Digital Black 500GB Sata @ $84.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136795
Rexus NMB Panaflo (~75CFM) 120mm Fan @ $18.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835705002
AnyDVDHD @ $146.99 (current market, their price is in Euro)
http://www.slysoft.com/en/purchase.html
Alcohol 120% @ $54.42 (current market)
http://shop.alcohol-soft.com/en/buynow.php
Nero Platinum 10 @ $26.99
http://www.amazon.com/Nero-10-Multimedi ... latinum+10

Lord knows what else I plan to buy and add. But these are things that I have bought to go with this particular system. Shipping for the most part was probably around $30 bucks for everything.

SO. Total?

Hardware: $1218.45
Software: $368.39
Shipping: $30.00
Total: $1616.84.

Now, if I did my markup for time spent, research, assembly, data transfer, delivery etc for a customer that system would be just over 2k.

Keep in mind, a few items I already had purchased prior to this past week, but only the drives, and AnyDVD. Everything else I bought in the past week. Yikes. And that doesn't include the digital sound system, 23" LCD, or the Eclipse II backlit keyboard and Logitech rechargeable mouse. LOL
Not to mention, the hard drive assortment for a customer would be more uniform, and probably less actual drives, may get built with single or dual 1TBs or similar. Mine is more of a collage, and the Seagate is not a brand I sell my customers. lol

My last computer that has lasted 9 years cost me over 2200 to build in parts alone. So... Not bad.

with all that a solid state hard drive would have been better for your main OS super fast speeds

I don't trust SSD yet. My brother had a nightmare with his, and quite frankly once I go RAID 0, not going to be affected that bad. Hell its pretty decent just running the single blue drive. I like how Windows 7 scores will never will go above 5.9 for ANY mechanical drives. LOL

When my brother first built his i7, we built a raid setup, using 2 western digital black 640GB drives (64MB Sata 3.0) using mode 0. The read and write speeds were almost identical to the SSD he had on the same drive controller (also 3.0), which was a high end model too (I don't recall what brand it was offhand). It may have been a touch faster, but both drive setups were posting between 200-300MB per sec speeds. And yet 7 scores the blistering RAID 0 a 5.9 and the SSD an 7.9. I can understand a single drive with a 5400 RPM platter, as they actually can rate around 5.8, but seriously? Idiots. I hate that scoring thing. Makes a computer look lamer than it is, but the benchmarks showed the truth. Even he was impressed, and you could see that both would boot about the same, run about the same, etc.

Raid 0 is just as risky as a SSD... and no where near as fast trust me, I tired both and I'm currently using a OCZ SSD on my system and I love it. Amy has an Intel one in her HP laptop and a OCZ one in her tablet. I've yet to have any issues with them.

I did some tests and I got a true 6gbs benchmark on my SSD, Sata 3 should be around 550-600MBs and I was able to reach those speeds on my system.

Well, guess I'm just stuck in the past still HA. lol

We will see. Who knows maybe I will switch it up later. I'm pretty happy with how its running anyway, it boots up plenty quick and runs really good as it is. For what I do, its fine. Price vs storage matters with this setup. Sure, I could use mechanical to store data and SSD for the OS. But I also install a lot of programs, and even the OS drive needs plenty of space. Anyway, who knows what will happen down the road.

This thing sure can play the games well. Probably will switch the video card up later on though.

Computer porn!

Yeah well, its a sexy bitch. Now that its more or less up and running, I am enjoying the red led coolness that is my tower. LOL

Once I get a few minutes, will have to take some more pics.

Here, managed to take a really nice interior shot:



And some others:







Enjoy!