A couple of my new builds....

[MaxRat]

Every year I try to do a little upgrade just to keep me busy in my spare time.

Last year it was upgrading my rig to the MSI 890GXM-G65 and 1075t 6-core CPU and the XFX 5830 video card. Although the rig is super quiet I am less than happy with the performance from the MSI board... beings I cant find a nice 890 board in mATX factor at the moment (Asus nor Biostar) I am focusing my attention elsewhere and upgrading my "tool-box" PC and a couple of my kids rigs...

Now I will say, as most of you know already, I have a few children at home yet. 6 to be honest. I also have 2 sons from a previous relation that come on the weekends. Being younger boys with the younger being 6 and the oldest 12 it has always been fitting to allow gaming time for them especially during the winter months.

Shortly before winter I built some metal frame tables to be used in the basement as workstation tables or a mini-LAN if you will... Each table is 9 foot long and 36inches wide and houses 2 PCs per table. Right now its in the basement which is unfinished (old house basement) but has rooms divided off that we use.

I have one of the tables set up and I have 3 PCs on it now that the boys and girls use to either do school work or game on the weekends after their school work is done of coarse...

One of the PCs was a mATX case and a AM2/DDR2 rig that the CPU died in as it had a 5400X2 BE Brisbane that had less than a years use and is currently limping along with a 3200 single core CPU...

I am moving that rig in favor of this one...

Raidmax Aluminum Case (10 year old Original Astro)
Asus M4A89GTDpro/USB3
AM3 910e CPU (got on a deal from a trade NIB)
Gigabyte GTX460 Dual Fan Cooler (scored 2 of these for 150.00 a while back)
Maxtor 320gb Hard Drive
G-Skill 2x4gb DDR3-1600
OCZ- 550 Watt Modular PSU
EVGA Cooler

Pretty decent rig for them and more on par to match the other two....

Other 2 rig specs.
Raidmax Aluminum (original Astro)
Asus M4N-HT SLI
AMD 940 Black Edition CPU
G-Skill 2x2gb ram
Gigabyte GTX460 (same dual fan cooler)
Maxtor 320gb Hard Drive
OCZ 550 watt Modular PSU

Asus 785-EVO
AM3 720X3 tripple core
Cooler Master Hyper Cooler
G-Skill ddr3 2x2gb 1600
Asus DK-GTS450
WD 250gb drive

Should be good for them but they spend more time than the girls on them so now the girls want their own...

I got rid of my Abit X38/Q6700 and aquired a 980BE in the trade so its being replaced with....

Asus M4A89GTDpro/USB3
AM3 980 Black Edition Phenom II
Noctua NH-C12P-SE14 Cooler
Palit Sonic 4850 cards in Crossfire (these are from the build prior)
WD Black 640gb HD
G-Skill ddr3-1600 2x4gb
Corsair 750 watt PSU

Need 1 more rig and the kids will be set....


for the "Tool-Box"

I currently had a FIC Ice Cube thats a mini-itx with a AMD Socket 754/ 3400 CPU and 2x1gb ram running XP...

I have that to my 4 year old duaghter for her "Dora" games LOL

I got this in return....

Zotac FM1 mini-itx board
Newegg.com - ZOTAC A75ITX-A-E FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX AMD Motherboard

AMD FM1 3850

and it is in this case...

Black / Silver Ark Mini-ITX Computer Case, w/ 300W Power Supply and 80mm Blue LED Fan, Model: PI-01-SB, Front USB 2.0 and; Audio-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com

Using the stock AMD Heatpipe heatsink...

I havent decided on ram yet but I have a kit of Mushkin Silverline thats propably going to make it in there... or a set of G-Skill Sniper series...


thats just whats been in the works for about a year now... thanks to a sluggish economy

[MaxRat]

I also got on a trade...

A gigabyte A75-FM1 mATX board.....

A ASRock A55-FM1 ATX board.... UEFI BIOS

I managed to snag 2 A3870 Black Edition CPUs while on sale at Newegg....

I havent done any more than booted both boards but my first impressions arent really great... I am not sure if it's the boards or CPU as both boards really Struggled to POST...

The Gigabyte POST Looped and I got 2 different screen about POST errors and finally it POST's normal and I loaded Optimized Defaults...

The ASRock POSTED but I got a DOS screen with something about Shell Extension and a Cursor... rebooted and I got it again... rebooted and it POST's normal...

I asked the reviewer I got the boards from and he said he got the Watchdog screen on a Sapphire and then the CPU went wonky... so I am going to be playing and see how they do... prolly going to pop an Asus and Biostar FM1 mATX boards and just use those and off these and see what happens....

not sure what to do with these set up and I'll prolly end up offing them somewhere...

Also scored a ECS-E350 mini-itx board that will make me a new HTPC for something...dont know yet but it will... maybe the Monster-in-Laws x-mas present for next year... who knows...


All I know is that my buddy suggested yesterday we need a PC-o-holics Support group and I agreed... I'd be the 2nd member, him being the 1st

[MaxRat]

kids rig is DONE....

finished loading windows this morning and only had a minor issue... loaded windows 7 Home Premium and it didnt install the Realtec NIC driver... so I loaded the latest AMD chipset driver and the NIC driver to flash drive and installed it...

worked well but still needed the video card driver of for the GTX460...windows didnt install that either... As soon as I opened IE-8 it would freeze IE and then the rig all but mouse... I ended up upping the vcore from the default 1.15v and adding .0125v offset... this fixed the issues until the rest of the drivers were loaded... once the video card driver was loaded the issue disspeared...

I also popped a PSU in my mini-itx case that has a mATX PSU... hooked it up and as soon as I flipped the switch on the PSU it popped and a BIG white flash... it workes via the jumper trick but I aint trusting it...

[jdeb]

I have not had any issues that you describe with the FM1 boards or CPU's using Biostar or Asus and 1.5V Corsair, Kingston, AData or Crucial RAM. May double check the RAM. You seem to have a lot of funky ram in them rigs. Funky RAM = Funky problems. It don't get any funkier than Muskin and GSkill...

Not surprised on ASRock board as it is real picky on RAM. Gigabyte is usually tolerates it better. the Corsair Vengeance is the best RAM I have used in a long time, very consistent and stable. Much in the same as Kingston or Crucial 1.5V.

[MaxRat]

I've never had an issue with G-Skill or Mushkin...as long as you know what to get and if you get something other then it just takes a little tweaking to get right...

The M4A89GTD is very solid right now.... amazing actually

oh and by the way... that Samsung 30nm 2x4gb thats also amazing ram is on sale at microcenter... 39.00 and its 99.00 everywhere else

Micro Center - Samsung 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL11 UDIMM Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 4GB Memory Modules) MV-3V4G3D/US

still not sure on the mATX PSU... took it apart and I cant find anything wrong with it... booted up an old Socket A rig just fine with it and nary a problem... just not sure what sparked when i flipped the switch...oh on the shelf it goes...

[MaxRat]

and a few shots of the rig....

http://angrygames.com/bowtie/pics/ki.../DSCF5398a.jpg

On the bench in action.... looks nice and is quiet....

http://angrygames.com/bowtie/pics/ki.../DSCF5400a.jpg

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by MaxRat I've never had an issue with G-Skill or Mushkin...as long as you know what to get and if you get something other then it just takes a little tweaking to get right... The M4A89GTD is very solid right now.... amazing actually oh and by the way... that Samsung 30nm 2x4gb thats also amazing ram is on sale at microcenter... 39.00 and its 99.00 everywhere else Micro Center - Samsung 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL11 UDIMM Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 4GB Memory Modules) MV-3V4G3D/US still not sure on the mATX PSU... took it apart and I cant find anything wrong with it... booted up an old Socket A rig just fine with it and nary a problem... just not sure what sparked when i flipped the switch...oh on the shelf it goes...

Right on with the Samsung. I bought some when I was over there and it is good but I do not know about long term though. Right, great board. Where the motherboards new?

Nice looking setup down the basement. Kids are lucky to have a great Dad.

[MaxRat]

the one M4A89GTDpro/USB3 was NIB I bought on release for 124.99 try and get it now for that LOL...

the other is slightly used thats only been used for stock benching a few times from a reviewer buddy... both act the exact same way...

the other will be going in the old X38 rig with the Palit Sonic 4850s in crossfire... and back on the shelf till later....

[rwest]

Originally Posted by MaxRat and a few shots of the rig.... http://angrygames.com/bowtie/pics/ki.../DSCF5398a.jpg On the bench in action.... looks nice and is quiet.... http://angrygames.com/bowtie/pics/ki.../DSCF5400a.jpg

Nice. I really like the cases, except the windows. Is that brushed aluminum?

[MaxRat]

yes they are... I cut the fans in there and they work very well...video card stays very cool and so does the CPU... and its quiet.

Here is the "Before" pic of the one I'll be changing this morning...
(warning LARGE picture)
Abit X38 / Q6700 and 4850X2-2gb and then changed to Palit Sonic 4850s in crossfire...win7
http://angrygames.com/bowtie/pics/48...s/4850X2_2.JPG

and here are the AFTER pictures.....
Asus M4A89GTDpro/USB3 / Phenom II 980 Black Edition Noctua Heatsink and 4850s
http://angrygames.com/bowtie/pics/ki.../DSCF5401a.jpg
http://angrygames.com/bowtie/pics/ki.../DSCF5403a.jpg

I dont have the 2nd Palit installed but its there.. and I did booted it with the As Loaded Hard drive from the X38 install.... no issue what so ever.. it loaded the AMD drivers and booted right to the desktop and re-sync'd the ATI driver... I love win7