Lian-Li PC-7B Plus in black

The computer upgrade that’s coming to a desk near me, first hinted at here, is beginning to take shape—and it’s looking more like a totally new machine than an upgrade. Since in my traditional geeky fashion I’ll probably be posting about it several times between now and completion, I’ve decided to give an equally geeky “code name” to the project: XRP, for Xerxes Replacement Plan. Xerxes is the name I gave my current rig, a christening which dates itself when you realize where it came from—the Von Braun’s central computer in System Shock 2. Aww, yeah baby.

That moniker is gonna get carried over to my new rig, despite the fact that it looks like this will be a complete system replacement for me, right down to the case. Typically, whenever I got in the mode of building a new PC, I always used Oddball as a vehicle to ramble on about its features, keep notes to myself about customizations or alternate parts choices and things like that. Even though this Oddball Update is live, I figure: what the heck. Feel free to skip this post if you don’t care.

Before you leave, however, I wanted to mention something cool (and computer-related) that happened yesterday. I was working on a software project with a bunch of guys from the office (we’re building an application on the side), and during the session I happened to see one of the other guys had a pretty beefy video card sitting on his desk, so I asked if I could look at it. He says, “You want to take it and put it in your box? I bought it for my four-monitor workstation but the damn thing’s too hot and draws too much power; my system couldn’t handle it. It’s been sitting there for weeks.” It was a Chaintech Geforce 6800GT with 256 MB of RAM! So I said, “Hell yeah!” w00tness! I’m installing that bitch tonight. (I hope my system can handle it, hee hee.) This’ll be a great “mini upgrade” while I wait to build my new system (after which this 6800 won’t work, since it’s an AGP board, so I can give it back to the owner.)

Anyway, here’s the deal with The New Xerxes™. AMD is in the process of releasing a wide variety of new processors right now, so it looks like I’ll be getting one of the new cores. I’m not going to hold out (and pay extra for) one of their new dual-core CPUs, however, because I just don’t see there being a huge value in that, not for my application.

So here’s the parts breakdown as it stands today (it’s subject to change, in other words).

CORE COMPONENTS

• Lian-Li PC-7B Plus aluminum case in black finish, custom model from CoolerGuys with 120mm intake, 120mm exhaust and 80mm top blow-hole
• MSI K8N NEO4 Platinum nForce4 motherboard with PCI-Express, onboard Sound Blaster audio, USB, Firewire, SATA, DDR
• AMD Athlon 64 3700+ “San Diego” core with 1 MB L2 cache, 90nm, Socket 939, retail box with manufacturer warranty
• Thermaltake A1838 “Silent Boost” heatsink w/fan
• 1 GB (2×512 MB) Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PT matched memory modules with platinum heat spreaders
• Round cable kit including IDE, FDD and SATA cables in green

SUPPLEMENTARY COMPONENTS

• eVGA nVidia Geforce 6800GT PCI-E with 256 MB DDR3 RAM
• Antec NeoPower 480-watt power supply, ATX 12v rev2.0, 120mm fan, Active PFC
• Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000 RPM SATA hard drive
• Seagate 7200.8 300GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive with Native Command Queuing, 5-year warranty
• Plextor 16X DVD+/-R SATA Dual-Layer DVD Burner, retail box with black and beige bezels included
• New printer (haven’t really investigated this yet; I like the Epson R200, but I think I want an HP printer this time)

I’ve been changing my mind on this stuff a lot in the last few days, as I get back into the hardware scene and learn more about the options that are out there, what’s good and what sucks. Originally I was going for a case with more goodies and flash, but have changed my mind—that stuff is just distracting anyway, and I like the construction of the Lian-Li that I have now. I absolutely want to get the noise level down a bit from my current machine, so I’m going for a 120mm cooling solution, the larger size of which will move more air at less RPMs (and therefore less noise). The heatsink I chose is also renowned for being quiet yet effective.

The most exciting bit is the new batch of AMD CPUs—the 3700+ and 4000+ San Diego processors are actually based on a detuned FX-55 core if I read correctly, meaning a full 1 MB of L2 cache which is a big bonus. MSI seems to make a nice and complete nForce4 motherboard solution with plenty of ports and headers for front panel jacks, and I’m ditching IDE entirely by going with two SATA hard drives and an SATA optical drive. I have a trio of optical drives now and really don’t see why I need all the repetition, really.

The video card is going to be the same model I actually have on extended loan from that guy right now, a 6800GT 256 MB, but will use the PCI-E bus. When I get mine, I’m going to pick up an aftermarket cooling solution that will radically improve cooling performance (by routing hot air out the back of the case, instead of recirculating it back into the case) as well as reducing noise significantly. Also, I decided I’m not going to go SLI, or even pay the extra 50 bucks for an SLI-capable motherboard. Since SLI requires that both video cards be the same model, I don’t see how I’m ever going to be affording two $400 graphics cards or the heat they would generate, so forget that.

All of this is gonna cost a fair amount of coin, which I am still in the process of building up. I have just billed for a number of freelance jobs which should cover most of this, but I’m still a few hundred short, so I’m pushing to take on a couple additional jobs that are small to medium in size. Additionally I’ve cut way back on spending each month so I can pocket an additional $150 per month toward the computer project. It should all be ready to go, hopefully, by June. At that point, I’ll at least be able to order all of the major components, save for maybe one or two of the drives or other things that can be easily installed later.

In the meantime, with this new 6800GT I’ve got on hand, I think I’ll try giving Half-Life 2 a shot again! Of course, I figure that the rampant crashes I experienced before will be worse if anything, due to the extra power draw on the system, but who knows—it’ll at least look good for a few minutes between bombs.