who has a budget?

[hainer36]

well, short story here, but i will tell you a tale.

Once there were 5 friends. These 5 friends all enjoyed computers, but only 1 of these friends really enjoyed computers enough that he wanted to have his own computer shop one day. The 4 friends decided, after years of doubting this 1 friend, that they should trust him with thier hard earned money, and let him build them amazing computers. Now, the 1 friend told them all to wait for Nehalem, and has been since early 2005. But these friends all wanted new computers now. They all have AMD (Opty 165, 3700+ SD, 3500+ and 3000+ Venice), Asus mobos (A8N32-SLI, A8N-SLI Deluxe, A8N-SLI Premium), Nvidia (2x7800GTX, 2x7900GT, 2x6600GT, 7600GT...twas replaced from a 6800GT).
These friends all said, that money was no object, we all have full-ish time jobs, and we want the computers to be the baddest SOB's in Ontario, and the best of anyone in the Niagara Region.
So after that little story (I am no writer, and will stick with my day..err night job) here is a little prelude to what my friends are getting. I will later update with OC's benchmarks, and of course...alot of pictures

Jimmy
Mobo: MSI P7N SLI Diamond
CPU: X3350
RAM: 2 x 1GB Firestix
GPU: 2 x Galaxy 8800GT (round cooler, voltage jumper )
HDD: 2 x 500GB 7200.11 Seagates (no raid )
PSU: PCP&C 610W Silencer
Case: Antec 900
Cooling: SI-128, and alot of 120MM fans

Harlan
Mobo: MSI P7N SLI Diamond
CPU: X3350 or Q9450
RAM: 2 x 1GB Balistix (D9's)
GPU: 2 x 7900GT (1 MSI, 1 XFX)
HDD: 500GB 7200.11 Seagate
PSU: OCZ 520W Powerstream SLI
Case: Antec 900 w/Custom black powdercoating on interior
Cooling: Watercooled , and alot of 120MM fans

Tim
Mobo: MSI P7N SLI Diamond
CPU: X3350 or Q9450
RAM: 2 x 1GB Corsair XMS2 (Giant Heatspreaders )
GPU: 2 x 8800GT (Prolly Galaxy's)
HDD: 500GB 7200.11 Seagate
PSU: PCP&C 610W Silencer
Case: Antec Sonata III (tight squeeze)
Cooling: SI-128, and a fair amount of 120MM fans

Thomas
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
CPU: X3350 or Q9450
RAM: 2 x 1GB Corsair XMS2
GPU: Palit 8800GT
HDD: 500GB 7200.11 Seagate
PSU: PCP&C 610W Silencer
Case: NZXT Hush
Cooling: SI-128, and a fair amount of 120MM fans

Now, in order to get these systems all at once, I had to raise my Visa limit to $5000. I can't wait to get these...and have some fun. Almost all of the parts are in my possession right now. I am only lacking the 4 8800GT's (got 1 Galaxy), the motherboards (2 en route, 2 more ordered tomorrow), and the CPU's (X3350 from tank-guys, and waiting to see the possibility of a brokerage fee).

I will take some pics of the stuff I have tomorrow, as to keep some of you that are reading intrested in the mean time

 

[Pandam00nium]

lol okay... Enjoy building them. ^^

 

[attack]

Whats Harlan waiting for? 2 7900GT's?

 

[CGR]

Lets hope your friends dont stiff you on the bill

 

[LilBuddy]

Good looking stuff there.

 

[nasvemos671]

Awesome looking gear, hope everything works out for ya!

 

[masakabassist]

Can't wait to see how this turns out! If theres going to be pics I'm subscribing

 

[hainer36]

Whats Harlan waiting for? 2 7900GT's?

he already had 1 7900GT, then we found another for 100 bucks, so for a cheap SLI update he went with that. gonna watercool em both and see how they stack up compaired to 1 8800GT (will be worse for sure, but how much for the price)

Lets hope your friends dont stiff you on the bill

dont worry, i know where they live

Can't wait to see how this turns out! If theres going to be pics I'm subscribing

pics today ...just unwrapping my 5 free Blu-Rays, then hunting for a camera begins

 

[hainer36]

well, i got some bad news, Tank Guys cancelled my order of the X3350...BS! and it wouldnt have even been able to be shipped to Canada...BS!
but i do have some pictures for those intrested
i firstly want to appologize for the crappy pictures, taken via a RAZR2 (dont buy this phone, it sucks)

2TB of advertised space (Tim has his HDD with him currently, would be 2.5TB)

All 3 of the cases, in their respected boxes

This Antec PSU came with the Sonata III, it was replaced before it showed up.

And one of these babies replaced it

Another look at it

And all 3 of them

The 3 SI-128's that will be used (and a compairison to a 500GB)

Another shot of a SI-128

Here are just a few of the fans in my collection, the guys have some fans of their own currently, and some fans that come with the cases, but they maybe swapped out for some more powerful/quieter fans

 

[hainer36]

This is the first 8800GT ordered. Galaxy 8800GT with the awesome voltage jumper

And as we open the box we see....wait, thats my old 7900GTO...why yes it is

Thomas- "You jerk, you're using my card"
Me- "Hey, you haven't paid for it yet, besides, Crysis looks so good"
Here is the first picture I took of the 8800GT before it went into my system as a loaner

The nice Double Sided Balistix, for those that still love D9 chips

The Firestix, they were shotgunned by Jimmy because he is a ginger...and Firebush was his nickname for a long time, and I really hope you all have nightmares about that now.

Tim and Thomas' ram...I love the heatspreaders on em.

and thats it for now.....

 

[hainer36]

Cases

Did you honestly expect me to take pictures of all of that stuff, and leave the cases in their boxes?
Come on now.

The Antec Sonata III (Tim). I like this case. Not my favourite, but it is fairly sleek.

Did a little cable management on it already. Not all hidden, but nothing is in there yet to give you a feel of "management"

Jimmy's Antec 900. Nice case, gonna be hard as hell to get cables under control, which is why there is no interior shot. He also has the added bonus of a MX212, the USB cables for it is routed behind mobo tray and out through the back.

Harlans case has been powdercoated, but it is sitting at his house unassembled. I'm trying to get him to assemble it, but he's lazy, much like me.

And here is Thomas' case. Not my favourite, not even in my top 100. But he likes it, and he is paying for it, so what can I do really?

They chose a terrible place for the "front panel" connectors

And there is some sound dampening in this case stock. However, my shoe has a thicker sole. And a little wire management will be needed, but nowhere near as bad as the 900

This concludes the picture part of the log thus far. When the CPU's, Motherboards, and GPU's start showing, there will be more, ALOT more

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Oh wow, I did not even know there was a Sonata III. Thanks for all the pics, have fun with the build!

 

[hainer36]

More Pics

Since the Purolator guy decided not to ring my doorbell or knock on the door with any strength of more than a 5 year old. I had to wait and pick up the Palit 8800GT today and the GA-P35-DS3L from the office

Palit 8800GT "Sonic"

At first glance, Palit loves shiny things. And they give you a fair amount of accessories. I will be putting this into my rig to test it, until the X3350 ships next week

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L

They really went chincey on the accessories, but thats what ya get for getting the 'L' model (aka Light). Will be waiting for CPU for this setup to even open the wrapping on the board. Unless i have to get a Bios update to make the CPU run, then i will be using my 930 on it.

 

[Sam__]

WOW... im so jealous. hope you have a lot of fun putting 'em together.

 

[hainer36]

1 MSI P7N SLI Diamond came in, 1 X3350 came in, 3 galaxy 8800GT's came in

but sadly i have no pictures of them, jimmy wanted it right away so i couldnt snap any. i did however get a new digital camera for 72.14 . and i do have a few pics to intrest anyone that was still watchin this.

SuperPi Which is now a new personal best

3DMARK06