[X] My Assistant

[Stahlseele]

*nods*
i just bought a 2.5" 2TB HDD for a buddy as a birthday present . . might buy one for me myself too . .

[Ryu]

I`d still go with the Intel line. Don´t worry too much about the PSU load, once that is "high enough" efficiency does not vary much.

[_Pax._]

Okay, I just have to say this: the people at Puget Systems are Awesome Incarnate.

See, with the first OEM - iBuyPower - communication was nearly zero, and progress was indistinguishable from zero. It took them eight calendar days from teh moment they had all $3.5K of my money, to even start "gathering materials". Then, after thirteen more days of no progress at all, I finally cancelled the order entirely. I mean, I get that it's not an instantaneous process, I get that they had a holiday rush to work through, but still ... enough was in fact more than enough.

So, the moment the refund processed (thankfully, with more alacrity than the actual order had shown), I went to my #2 choice, Puget systems.

Night. And. Day.

They promise to answer emails within 24 hours "except weekends and holidays"; I sent them a query yesterday ... yep, a weekend. I didn't expect an answer before Monday evening or Tuesday lunchtime, here on the East Coast. I got an answer only a few hours later. After a brief back-and-forth, things were completely set up this morning, and I made the payments.

And by "completely set up", by the way, I mean "better than I'd ever expected". Not only did he give me the split-payment I needed (curse those daily limits), but he went over my build, and realised I really really want the computer ASAP. So instead of overnight-air delivery, he suggested second-day air ... saving enough money to overnight in the two parts they didn't have in stock, and then gave me Rush Service as pretty much a courtesy - explaining that doing so would shave 3 days off the build time, and in net, get the computer in my hands 2 days faster.

And finally, in response to my "hey, thanks for being so awesome" email? The last sentence of his answer to that, was: "That will have a link where you can follow along as we build the system, and then we'll send you pictures and tracking info once it is done and ships out."

Follow along? Pictures ...?

Okay. Unless the machine itself is somehow pure junk, that's it .... customer loyalty, secured. It will hopefully be eight or nine years before I want to buy a ground-up new PC again, but Puget has now moved to #1 position on my list of vendors to get it from.

[_Pax._]

... their Order Status page is awesome. It tracks the status of each component, hardware and software alike. So, at a glance, I know that the computer is completely assembled physically, awaiting only the OS and a few other software installs I asked for. There is a very real possibility I will have my computer here, set up and operating, by Friday evening! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) If not then, I should have it by Monday or Tuesday of next week - barring any unforseen difficulties, like a component failure during testing.

[Stahlseele]

good luck

[Mach_Ten]

Been reading this with interest for a few days now,

first off : all the bests with that beautiful machine , Intel would blaze but AMD is good for the top of budget.

If I wasn't so bloody minded and tedious, I'd always pay someone to build my machines rather than buy branded

the choice of components makes it much more "My Machine" than some Compaq I bought from PC World, and it's still under warranty.

for example here is the beauty I built a couple years back, completely outdated now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif) dammit I wanna spend cash for an upgrade

[img]http://a.imageshack.us/img830/1159/img0269sq.jpg[/img]

the build log is here if you're interested in WHY TO NEVER DO THIS EVER!
cause it can go horribly horribly wrong (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Overclockers UK - build log

[Stahlseele]

No embedding Pictures on Dumpshock

[Mach_Ten]

No embedding Pictures on Dumpshock

wondered why it didn't work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/twirl.gif)

[Stahlseele]

i posted soemthing when they had it activated accidentally, shortly thereafter it was shut off again ^^
also:
way too much work in that project of yours . .
and 2 GPU's more than i want in mine . .
but i am thinking of going full corsair as far as possible with my next one . .
So, Corsair 800D, Corsair PSU semi active cooling, Corsair RAM, Corsair AIO Water-Cooler, Corsair Link, Corsair SSD . .
Only MB, CPU and GPU won't be Corsair . .
Maybe one or two HDD's and Optical drive too . .

[Mach_Ten]

i posted soemthing when they had it activated accidentally, shortly thereafter it was shut off again ^^
also:
way too much work in that project of yours . .
and 2 GPU's more than i want in mine . .
but i am thinking of going full corsair as far as possible with my next one . .
So, Corsair 800D, Corsair PSU semi active cooling, Corsair RAM, Corsair AIO Water-Cooler, Corsair Link, Corsair SSD . .
Only MB, CPU and GPU won't be Corsair . .
Maybe one or two HDD's and Optical drive too . .

Corsair makes GOOD stuff !

Multi GPU at the time was the best way for me, I only wish I had gotten the 2GB RAM GPU's though as they would have scaled better.

My next build will be Intel & Nvidia, the mix just seems to be more supported in modern gaming, no political reasons for one over the other

and I think I'll stay Air cooled (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Water has been fun, but it's high maintenance .. unless I get an AIO.

and for info ... if you guys have played MWO and didn't like it .. are any of you on MW Living Legends ? it is AWESOME !

[Stahlseele]

Yes, i have been with MWLL from 0.1.0
If you search around, you will notice me having opened the MWLL Thread here some years back.
And now MWO killed it off these bastards <.<
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=29288

if i can get a GPU with pre-installed for warranty AIO water-cooling, i will go to both GPU water cooling and CPU water cooling.

[_Pax._]

Puget also takes pictures, and posts them for their customers to see (and download). I've put all of them in their own Photobucket album.

On the topic of cooling, or not, though, the two Thermal images are of expecial relevance.

This is the system at Idle;

This is the system under full load.

In the Load image, you can actually see the RAM sticks warming up (thin greenish lines to the right of the water-block). You can also see that teh GPU is pretty much the only appreciable heat source still inside the case.

So, yeah. A nice upgrade for me, would be to go with an AIO liquid cooled video card. Probably have to shift the CPU radiator to teh top vent (there IS a fan there, already), and put the video-card radiator where the CPU one is now.

...

And, I caved in to my impatience. I'll be upgrading to overnight shipping, with Saturday delivery. Tomorrow, my shiny new Prreciousss *gollum* will arrive! ~_^

[_Pax._]

and 2 GPU's more than i want in mine . .

Keep in mind, both NVidia and AMD offer two-GPU-on-one-card versions of their current top-end processors. GTX 690 for NVidia, Radeon HD 7990 for AMD.

And the NVidia one, at least, I've seen with pre-installed AIO liquid cooling.

[Stahlseele]

show me one please?
and i don't want more than one GPU in my case.
especially now that the titan card has been announced.

[_Pax._]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon...70-x2,3329.html


Not AIO, but it is a liquid-cooled GTX 690: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130803

[Stahlseele]

1. Link:
Which one of these is AIO Water-Cooled?

2. Link:
No AIO, no Water-Cool for me.
I don't want more than one GPU in my System, but if the only card i can get with an AIO-Water-Cooling Solution is a Double GPU Card, then yes, i'd probably buy one just because . .

[_Pax._]

1. Link:
Which one of these is AIO Water-Cooled?

Neither. I wasn't sure what exactly you wanted to be shown. I can't find any video cards with an AIO system pre-installed, but then, I'm not exactly searchign high and low for them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) You got two google searches out of me. That's the limit, without delivery of chocolate or some such. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Possibly you'd have to mount the AIO to the GPU yourself. I wouldn't even know where to BEGIN looking for compatible AIO kits to do that with, however.

I don't want more than one GPU in my System,

Out of curiousity ... why not? I mean, I can understand (and agree) if it's "they're too expensive", but that will probably change in a year or two. OTOH, if there's a reason other than cost, I'd be interested to hear it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Stahlseele]

1st
they are too expensive
2nd
they don't scale as well as people believe, if you are really unlucky, you get 50% more power out of a 2nd GPU . .
3rd
you need profiles for games and in some cases even normal programs to make use of the 2nd GPU. without such profiles, the performance can actually be below 100% of a single GPU, because the computer has to do extra work to not make th game crash by keeping the 2nd GPU out of things . .
4th
they get way hotter than a single GPU and thus require more and louder cooling, which is a no no for me in terms of performance rating and i don't want a complete water cooling solution . . AIO is the closest i am willing to go to water cooled components.
5th
in addition and related to this is the need for more power from the PSU/wall socket/outlet, which means i need a bigger and more expensive and hotter PSU and thus more cooling needed on the PSU too.
6th
even if it DOES, indeed, work as perfect as it can work, i am sensitive enough to notice the micro-stuttering . . yes, i have tried it both with an SLI-System with 2x8800GTX and with one ATI Radeon 4870x2 Card.
So it's a complete waste of money in my eyes, because i tend to have more problems for more money spent . .

[Ryu]

That cooling system looks sweet. How much noise reduction do you get from that setup?

[_Pax._]

1-5 I chalk up to personal taste. 6, however, makes the aversion completely understandable.

IOW, "aha, NOW I grok."

[Lionhearted]

How's 1-5 personal taste?
More cumbersome, expensive and power hungry seem like legit concerns to me...

[_Pax._]

They're not rooted in a medical / physiological cause.

Obviously, if those things were universally inferior, they simply wouldn't still be on the market. Someone out there must think that double-GPU setups are worth the weight, heat, power consumption, price, and so forth.

Choosing to favor lower-heat, lower-power-needs, lower price over however much or little performance boost the setup gives you, is just that, a choice.

Whereas, being able to perceive (and be put off by) levels of microstutter, that most people can't? There's no choice with that. Either you're born with the nerve clusters needed to do so, or you're not.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

It's like, for me? The old-style red/blue 3D gave me splitting headaches - a fact I unhappily discovered when I was at Disney World, as a fourteen year old boy. Thus, if that was the only 3D option out there, I would pass on 3D altogether.

Luckily - and I have NFC why - but polarisation style 3D doesn't do teh same thing. Oh, my eyes are a bit more tired after a 2-3 horu stint than normal (much more pronouncedly so if I don't wear my normal glasses underneath the 3D glasses). But, no headaches ... thank the gods.

But, see ... my preference for Polarisation-based 3D, over red/blue filter based 3D? Is not a matter of personal taste ... it's a medical and physiological imperative: one costs me pain, the other doesn't, and thank you but I'll pass on the pain.

Hence why I grok Stahl's #6: one causes him discomfort, the other doesn't, and thank you but he'll pass on that discomfort.

[Lionhearted]

See, that's why I don't get. Why isn't things like resource conservation and environmental thinking part of the equation?
A higher power demand does not only mean a higher electrical bill, it also means that the power demand increases, sure there is excess energy today... But if everyone share the same line of thinking, that excess won't be enough.
I bit off colour maybe, but that kind of thinking gets poisonous very quickly, it's not just personal taste.
Especially when the gain is quite negligible and ridden with it's own issues.

[_Pax._]

See, that's why I don't get. Why isn't things like resource conservation and environmental thinking part of the equation?

I didn't say they weren't.

Some people prefer to conserve resources, protect the environment, and so on.

Some people prefer to have the most bleeding-edge powerful computer possible.

Which side of that you fall on, is personal preference. Getting the super-powerful components, or, getting the "Greener" components, is a choice.

Whereas, headaches from red/blue filter 3D, or discomfort from microstutter ... those are physiological things. There's no choice involved at all.

See how that works?

[Lionhearted]

Don't want to start an enviromental debate... Yes, green thinking is a choice... Right now, it won't be for much longer. I personally think that attitude stinks, but let's just leave it at that. Not the time or place.