Build Advice Are you content with your build?

I Hate my motherboard (ABIT AB9 Pro). In conjunction with a P182 it really sucks ass. Infact i hate the P182 enough just on its own. (Yes, I Hate bit-techs favourite case. Bite me - it really sucks)Fiddly bummer, I want a more open-plan case pronto.

I want 3x Dell 2410M as well.

I want a 2500k, SSD and 7850 aswell.

I HATE being a student. SO POOR. So ill have to stick with my current build for a while yet before i can even do anyything at all.

 

Just changed my Intel X-25M 80gb to a crucial M4 120 gb. Glad to have the extra space. Also getting my GTX 670 soon so am sure things will be looking rosier when I get that too.

 

Past couple of days, I've wanted to put a bullet through the system until I figured out the random freezes/resets. At first thought it was Video drivers, then motherboard bios, finally updated my M4 firmware and all fixed.

 

I hate the non modularness of my PSU, hate my GPU it literally (by god I literally mean LITERALLY) sounds like a hair-dryer when my custom Rivatuner fan profile isn't loaded. I love my mobo but it is quite old. CPU is too old, RAM is too old. I want a mechanical keyboard but my current one is perfect apart from that (I love the backlight, it is a good one), love my mouse, love my case, LOVE my SSD (newest part), love my HDDs (moar storage), I do like my monitor but I want a 1920x1200 IPS when I get the money, Could do with some nicer speakers but never really been bothered.

Overall I like it but I want to upgrade the older parts.

 

^ What do you put in that 4TB of storage??

 

I would like a SSD and two IPS monitors and maybe a second graphic card but I'm happy with everything else lol

LOVING the case

 

I am generally happy with my build although there are a couple of areas which need attention:

1) Bigger SSD - I really want to plonk a single 512GB SSD in there now that prices have dropped a bit. Unfortunately I would have to choose between that and:

2) A Second GTX680 - A mixture of running Surround and Crysis 1 with CCC Level 6 and lots of texture mods has brought my overclocked 680 to its knees- quite literally. The game looks absolutely stunning especially with a mixture of FXAA and 2xMSAA but my framerate has taken an absolute beating - peaks and troughs range between 18 and 30 FPS. Adding a second 680 should at least bring this up to 30 or so on average (so 25-45 most of the time) which in Crysis at least is perfectly playable.

3) New Keyboard - I have been running a Microsoft wired keyboard for a few years now and it is just time for a change.

I am planning a full re-build once the next gerenation "Tock" hits next year (?) so everything else should last quite nicely until then.

 

I doubt any of us are truly happy with our builds. But with what I got all I would add is the following.
Self made case ( made out of aluminum )
GTX680 gfx card
One 264gb SSD
One 600gb velicroraptor HDD.
Dell 24inch monitor

So I am not that far away.

 

At the moment I am happy with my build but I will want to upgrade to trinity when the desktop CPUs are shipping. Also my Crossover arrived and gaming at 2560x1440 is awesome, much better than the Samsung T27 I had. If I had more room I would buy 2 more for trip goodness.

I think the only other things I need to improve is to get 1 4x set of RAM and maybe get a NAS drive & Gigabit router but those are not 100% needed atm.

 

Now that it's all functional; I'd still love a new set of GPUs, I can push these two 550's to the limit, but otherwise; it's all good.

A new HDD, my 1TB has an alarmingly large number of failed sectors, so I've got everything back up in triplicate just in case that fails.

3D vision/1440P, my little G2222HD is a wonderful screen, but it's still feeling a little cramped to work with, and the white-banding at the bottom of the screen is a pain in the ass, although I don't notice it too much of the time. It's a good monitor besides that. I'd love to either try 3D vision (now I know i'm alright with stereoscopic content) or just an absolutely giant (In comparison) 27" 2560x1440 monitor. This also ties in with new GPUs, my 550's just about manage, at either a bigger res or 3D: They'd just be outright overtaxed to run at the same settings.

 

I might as well explain the history of my storage. It was a bit of an evolution.

Originally I just had the F1 but my ever increasing game and media collection proved it to be too small. Then I got the F3 which became my OS, programs, games, documents and downloads drive and the F1 became the dedicated media drive (movies, pics, installs, books, ISOs, TV Shows etc). Eventually the media drive was getting full so I got the 2TB for media, F1 became documents, downloads, video encoding drive (uncompressed rips etc) and virtual machine storage (started developing on GNU/Linux for uni). F3 was for OS, programs, games.

Current setup is SSD for OS and programs, F3 dedicated to games (500GB steamapps folder linked to the SSD using a symbolic link), F1 is still dedicated to documents, downloads, video encoding and virtual machines, 2TB is still the media drive.

Every now and then a new hobby comes up that uses a lot of storage. Especially the video encoding. I'm a bit of a collector.

 

I'm mostly satisfied, but not happy with my build. I can do most things I ask of it, especailly with regards to games, but feels slow when I'm working in Cinema 4D or Mudbox.

I'd like:
-Revamped water cooling setup to include the graphics card(s), preferably SLI GTX680s.
-Different reservoir.
-X79 upgrade. the i5 2500K feels slow.
-More RAM, I'm hitting the limit ocassionally.
-Pair of U2711s or U3011s for more screen real estate.

I'm perfectly happy with:
-Storage
-Sound
-Peripherals(aside from screen)
-Power supply
-Case

 

Im really happy with my sig mainly because its my first propper gaming machine I have had! Only had little desktops or a laptop until now so this is my first real machine. Things I would like however are:
1) A better/newer GPU looking at you 670!
2) A 24+ IPS monitor, looking for a U2411H etc
3) Upgrade to Z77 and then IVY Bridge

 

Hm, coming up to a bit of a change I think.

1) Swap out the PSU for a modular Corsair with braided cables. It's a style thing.
2) Replace the 580 with a 680, dropping my temperatures, power usage and noise whilst increasing performance
3) Somewhere down the line replace with a Z77 mATX board with Thunderbolt, allowing me to...
4) Ditch the 23" 1920x1200 monitor and hook in to the Thunderbolt port on a 27" iMac. Bigger screen, but also reducing the number of monitors on my desk.
5) Query upgrade to an IB CPU for PCIe 3.0

 

im pissed of at mine... I broke the GPU and im down to using my 3 year-old laptop till summer....

 

How'd you do that?

 

I don't think I will ever be happy with my setup, I keep chopping and changing, the longest running item for me currently is my graphics card, which I have had for a year now, everything else seems to change on a 6 month basis...(not top end stuff mind)

 

Bricked GPU? Is that a bad BIOS flash, because you know you can totally reflash it so long as you have a compatible BIOS image, right?

 

I hate spending money on hardware, I like to spend it all on keyboards

 

I don't think I will be totally satisfied with my build until I have it under water with some customization/personalization to whatever case that ends up being housed in.

In the mean time I am happy to tinker on, after all my build is new and excels where I need it, unfortunatly moving house will be the death of my PC fetish for a while !