Nvidia GTX 480 & 3D Vision Surround Demo

For you Nvidia fans out there, there's been an official video release of the Fermi cards. This GTX 480 gets benchmarked against the ATI 5870. Although it shows a difference in the benchmark, it was not the mega-gap many hoped for. On the good side, prices of the 5870 and 5850 may drop soon, although chances are the GTX 480 will cost more than the 5870 right now. Also, note that the GTX 480 needs a massive power supply and space.

Please note, this benchmark was made for Nvidia's tessellation infrastructure, so better results should have been expected. Now, how many games will be optimized for tessellation in the future? We'll have to wait and see.

And now, here's the video.

Click on the image for a larger pic.

ATI Radeon 5830 Announced

Yay for all gamers, the gap from 5770 and 5850 is here. The ~$120 gap has a filler, though slightly expensive right now. The 5830 has the 2.15billion transistors, with less stream processors. More good news, this isn't an announcement only, it is a release. Currently Powercolor and Sapphire have started selling on Newegg! Read more at Engadget.

Computer Build Part 4c: The Build

Welcome Back! There's a slideshow at the end of this post.

The build was very exciting, and went much smoother than I imagined. I started the build almost right after I received my last component, the HAF 922. I should note, that along with all my pieces, I did also use an anti-static mat and an anti-static wrist strap. Chances of burning the equipment with static are small (make sure you never work on carpet!), and touching the metal of the case occasionally should do the trick, but I went for the safe route and used a mat and wrist strap, both manufactured by Cables Unlimited.

Starting off, I unpacked the case. Unfortunately, one of the side panels was not built in too well and was stuck. Both sides can be taken off, but I had to use some real force to take off one side. I even tried to lightly hammer the edges and use a chisel, but no luck. Finally, I managed to slide it a little by basically pulling against it, like in a tug-o-war.
After that, I opened the motherboard, and wow, Asus has a great design, in both hardware, and the blue-black color scheme. The first thing I installed was the CPU. As I previously mentioned, I decided to go with the default fan and heatsink. Following the little triangle...I put in the CPU without dificulties. As I partially expected, the metal bar that locks the cpu in place in very tight, you do need to push it pretty hard. The fan/heatsink has the usual four push-pin lock design, but one of the locks didn't work the first time I tried. It doesn't matter how you rotate the fan in, usually people just put it so the wire is closest to the power output. After a second the try the push pins clicked in.

After that I placed the motherboard into the case, and it was relatively easy to screw in. Make sure you have your I/O tray placed first, otherwise you'll need to take the motherboard out again later (which I had to do). The power box in placed on the bottom in the HAF 922, and I decided to have the fan placed on the bottom. Now I know many people suggest facing the fan towards the inside of the box, but the HAF 922 made holes for ventilation, and the legs create enough space for the air to flow upright. Plus, the way air flows in the box, the PSU fan would interfere a bit.

The hard drive is really easy to build in, as the case has a screwless HDD design. The tray just slides out with a push, and there are rubber 'screws' on the pastic tray to lock the hard drive. This may not be as secure as the traditional way, but it is still secure enough that I didn't worry about it breaking or falling. The CD/DVD slots are just as easy. Push the metal mesh/grill out the front, and slide the drive in. Once in, push the two side buttons and it's locked.

The memory is very easy to put in (as with almost all motherboards), and the P7P55D Pro has only the usual clip on one end of the slots. So instead of opening both ends and pushing down, I just opened the one end, slid the memory into the other small end, and then pushed it down on the opened end.

The video card was also easy to install. There's a metal plate that covers the PCI slots, and only requires a little unscrewing to remove. The P7P55D Pro requires the card to be in the first PCI Express slot, as it won't work in the second.

Wiring was not very hard, and because of the generous space in the HAF 922, I was able to tie most of the wiring to the back. The P7P55D only has 2 case fan controllers, but that was fine because I stuck the 120mm fan from the back to the power fan slot, next to the CPU fan slot. The motherboard has a Q-Connector to plug all the extra case stuff onto, including the LEDs, the Power/Reset buttons, etc. The only thing I would've liked would be to have the 4-pin wire for the motherboard power be about an inch longer. I really had to pull the wire to the max; I seriously think if it were half a centimeter shorter I wouldn't have been able to reach around the back. Wiring through the front is okay, but the power cables for the motherboard are always so thick, and it would make it look ugly from the outside.

Installing Windows 7 was very simple, no issues. I installed and updated all my drivers as soon as I could, and I have to say, Asus includes a lot of software. I don't recommend using their TProbe Evo, the auto-tuning overclocked it enough that the computer would start, but I faced a few BSODs from it. Everything else included is fine, I especially like the AI suite, which ajusts the fan speed depending on the CPU temperature.

As a final note, here's my Windows Experience Index, non-overclocked from 1.0 to 7.9

-Processor	7.5
-Memory	7.5
-Graphics	6.7
-Gaming Graphics	6.7
-Primary Hard Disk	5.9

Thanks for Reading, and please post a comment!

Computer Build Part 4b: WOW!

Just a small update, I have finished the build (actually awhile back), but I haven't gotten around to a full write-up. Expect it to come soon!

Part 4c

Computer Build Part 4a: The Parts are Arriving...

Lets all give a hand to Newegg, and to UPS. All my items from Newegg were delivered in 3 days (4 including Sunday). I'll be preparing to build this weekend!
Thanks so far for reading, And watch out for Part 4b (when everything arrives)!

Computer Build Part 3: Buy and Wait

After I chose all my parts, I had to find where to buy them.

Except for the Intel i7 860 (read Part 2a), everything I bought was ordered online.

If you haven't heard of Newegg, well now you have. Newegg is a online company based in California that stocks electronics (full built computers/laptops, cameras, computer components, TVs, etc.) and boasts always low prices with great customer support/warranty.

I also took advantage of Bing Cashback. I'm normally a Google user, but Bing Shopping has a great cashback program. Just search an item, or locate your online store in Bing Shopping, and Wahlah! You get cashback. Newegg rarely has Cashback from Bing, but I got to take advantage of its 2% cashback.

I also bought a few items from TigerDirect, as sometimes they were cheaper since I live in CA and have to pay sales tax for Newegg. Tigerdirect (owned by Systemax with CompUSA and Circuit City) has a great 6-8% cashback, which results in lower prices once in awhile.

I bought everything last Saturday and Sunday, but UPS unfortunately does not ship on Saturday (for most). On Monday my orders from Newegg were shipping, just as with my TigerDirect orders.

Today, my Newegg items are already at my nearest UPS warehouse. I will hopefully get it tomorrow. My TigerDirect items should come before the weekend, so that's fine.

And now, I wait.

Part 4a

Computer Build Part 2j: Misc

Ah, the last sub-section of Part 2. There are lots of extras that people can buy, like a sound card, or a network card (there already is one built in), a LCD fan speed display, etc. All of those I listed, I did not buy. The sound that comes with my P7P55D Pro is very good already, and my network speed is adequate for gaming already. LCD touchscreen fan speed adjusters are not really necessary, but they do look cool. Similarly, people with windowed cases often like to add neon lights and such to the inside.
For mice, keyboard, and monitor, it really is personal choice. 5-button mice and keyboards with media keys are sometimes useful, esp mouse key 4&5 for gaming. Any monitor will work, but a good graphics card should support 2 monitors (the 5000 series support 3). I don't need built in speakers, as I have a nice gaming headset.

Part 3

Computer Build Part 2i: Operating System

There are a few OS systems out there, but I plan to do some gaming. And only one OS truly has gaming power, Windows. Macs can game, but often they are ported over. I am currently typing this on Windows XP, which has served me great. Now I skipped the Windows Vista upgrade (and seems like a good choice), and now have decided to move to Windows 7. Windows 7 is pretty expensive, taking up around 20% of my budget. Now there's a version for system builders (what people like Dell use), that costs about 60% of the normal price. The only restrictions are that I can't change motherboards, but everything else I can. What a great deal. So I decided to go with Windows 7 Home Premium. Now the choice between 32bit and 64bit. With 2010 here, there is no question. The 32bit should be removed in Windows 8. With 4gb of ram, the only way to use it all is with 64bit. Many programs, especially 3D modeling programs and such, really benefit from 64bit.

Part 2j

Computer Build Part 2h: CD/DVD Drive

A CD/DVD drive is almost completely necessary, as a lot of information is still transferred by disks. Besides, I'm planning to install my OS using the CD/DVD drive. I am not a user of Blu-Ray, so I did not need a read/write drive with Blu-Ray support. With not too much thought, I decided with LITE-ON's i-HAS424, which is a 24x CD/DVD sata drive. It reads everything I need it too, and it is made by a company I've worked with before.

Part 2i

Computer Build Part 2g: Video Card

Being a gamer and 3d modeler (of the computer, of course), a semi-well performing graphic card is necessary. For example, even work in Photoshop CS4 now requires a good graphics card. There are specifications for video cards, but fortunately ATI and NVIDIA (the 2 main competiting companies) have made it easy. Now I have personally been a fan of ATI, so I immediately choose their cards for my build. They have recently started selling their new Radeon 5000 series for mostly gamers (with the exception of maybe the 5670). Most run with 1GB of memory (or more) and all the 5000 cards support DirectX11. Originally I was going to buy a 5850, as the 5770 (next card down until the 5830 is released) has a rather large 128bit choke. But seeing that its got a $300 tag attached, I took a second thought. The computer I returned from IBUYPOWER had a Radeon HD4670, which, while not being the best in performance, worked flawlessly on my relatievely small screen.

As NVIDIA does not yet have a competitor for the ATI 5000 Series, the prices not what I would like them to be, so I'm deciding to wait. NVIDIA should be announcing their new Fermi series to compete with the 5000 Series in Q1 2010, so I shouldn't have to wait too long until ATI is forced to compete.

When buying a card the manufacturers often put their own adjustments to the card. A few well known companies are...XFX, Sapphire, MSI, HIS, Asus, etc. When I was looking I kept having to restrain from looking at the cheapest one, which usually was because the manufacturer took out or limited something. In the end, I went with a SAPPHIRE HD4670 1GB, with intentions of switching it out in the future.

Part 2h

Computer Build Part 2f: Hard Drive

When it comes to storage, I thought of 2 things. One, amount of storage. Two, speed of writing. Currently we are in the mist of the growing popularity of faster, and more secure hard drives.  There's always the option of using RAID (either to split information across 2 disks for faster access, or mirrored to keep a backup [Yes there are more, just these are the most common]). One type that is becoming more popular are SSDs, which are very secure and survive accidents better, as there are no moving parts (Note:Make sure your case supports it if you are buying one). Another, is the super fast 10000rpm and the 15000rpm. Both these options are still very expensive though, so I choose not to go with it (I have an external drive for my more important information).

Again, my choices came down to 2 companies, Western Digital (which also has a really good series of 10000rpm VelociRaptor drives), and Seagate. I've worked with Western Digital with good results before, so I decided to go with them. They have 3 main series, Caviar Green, Caviar Blue, and Caviar Black. Green focuses on quietness and low-energy use, while Blue focuses on attracting the mainstream. Black is for maximum performace, with less vibration harm and dual processors. Since I decided against a faster 10000rpm drive, I went with Western Digital's Caviar Black 750GB.

Part 2g

Computer Build Part 2e: Memory/RAM

Just like a lot of the previous parts, RAM was not too hard to choose. As the P7P55D Pro supports DDR3 memory at many speeds, I decided to go with 1600, as there is basically no price difference between 1333 and 1600. Looking through the current sticks, I decided should stick with 4GB, as the P55 boards run on dual channel. So 2GBx2 would be good enough. If I need to, I can buy more sticks for 8GB in the future. Again, I was stuck between a few sticks. These were...Corsair XMS3, A-Data Gaming Series, and G.Skill Ripjaws Series. I eventually chose the G.Skill Ripjaws for its low price and it's low voltage requirement of 1.5v (versus the 1.65 on the other 2).

Part 2f

Computer Build Part 2d: Power Supply

When it comes it power supply, there are not too many things I needed to consider. First of all, I realized a mid-range power supply should be enough, as I don't plan on having many DVD drives or graphics cards. I was aiming for a 550-750w PSU. Another thing I wanted, was a PSU with modular cabling, which allows you to disconnect wires that are unused. The final thing I considered, was brand name. Now I know most of the time any generic component will work. But when power supplies break, often the generic ones will take the rest of your computer with it. So I made sure it was a reliable PSU maker.


I looked into quite a few PSUs, and was stuck choosing between the Corsair 650w and the Fatal1ty (named after a pro gamer who started his own products) 550w. I was going to decide when the OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w appeared at $99.99 with $25 off and $25 mail in rebate. I know mail-in rebates can be tricky to get sometimes, but this was a good power supply, so I went with it. It's modular and has a 80PLUS certification, which means more energy efficient.


Part 2e

Computer Build Part 2c: Case

There are TONS of cases out there to choose from. Obviously, people want it to look cool; But that is not what matter most. What should be taken into consideration first, it how usable it is. Some questions I asked myself were...Do I need a full size case, or will a mid-size work? Should it have lots of fans (could be noisy, but it would be cold and not overheat)? Do I need a lot of external bays for CD/DVD or more HDD space?

I looked through quite a few cases, and finally decided to go with either the Antec 900 or the Coolermaster HAF 922. I figured since I'm not going for a super computer, a mid size case would be fine. The HAF is especially good in space, as it's not very tall but it gives me a lot of space to work with. It also has 3 fans, 2 of which are 200mm. As a result, I went with the HAF 922.

Part 2d

Computer Build Part 2b: Motherboard

Now, for a CPU to work, it needs to be put onto a motherboard. As previously mentioned, the i7 860 is compatible with the LGA 1156 socket, so I need to go with a motherboard that supports it.

There are many manufacturers that make motherboards, including Intel, Gigabyte, MSI, Biostar, etc. The one I chose, is the Asus P7P55D Pro. Asus' new P7P55D series has many boards, and each also has multiple competitors by the other previously mentioned companies.

There are a few things (besides the socket 1156) that I looked at. Most boards nowadays (ATX size, which is mainly standard for tower desktops) have many many slots for expansion. The P7P55D Pro has a few notable features, including 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16, 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots, 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1, and 2 x PCI slots. Along with that, the Pro includings 4 memory slots, supporting 1600/1333/1066 speeds (and 2200). A very nice MemOK! button is added, which will do a memory test on bootup. Asus has also upgraded to a new sound system, this one for sub-professional level. If you're the type who likes to overclock, many nice built-in features for OCing are available. For more info, check out the board on Asus' site.

At $170, this board is a nicely priced board with adequate features for any build.

Part 2c

Computer Build Part 2a: CPU

Now the CPU that I decided to go with is the Intel Core i7 860. This CPU is part of Intel's new i7 lineup, now compatible with all price budgets. They basically have split it into 3 main sections.

• i3, for the budget priced and beginners
• i5, for the mainstream users
• i7, for the high-end professionals and gamers

Now my reasoning for going with the i7 is pretty simple. I originally wanted a new computer to speed up my old Pentium 4 3.0GHz for 3D modeling work, like my often-used open source program Blender. I also do some gaming, but i5 CPUs will work fine with games.
The i7 860 is one of the best CPUs you can get for an LGA1156 socket motherboard (more on that later). The i7 CPUs have a technique that allows the 4 cores to be masked into 8, versus the i5 which have 2 masked into 4.

Besides the functional aspect of the CPU, I also found a really good deal on Microcenter. The average price is about US $270-280, and Microcenter was having a sale for $230 (as of 01/23/10). The i7 920 is also on sale for $220. Please note it is in-store pickup only. Here's the link if your interested.

Part 2b

Computer Build Part 2: Pick and Choose

Welcome back to the Computer Build series.

The computer I returned had basically what I was looking for in a computer. Naturally, I wanted to make a computer similar to it, and in the process save some money.

In the next few sub-posts I will go through a brief analysis of why I chose the part I chose.

Part 2a

Computer Build Part 1: Background and History

The first series to be introduced here, is the Computer Build series.

Around 2-3 weeks ago, I bought a computer from TigerDirect, made by IBUYPOWER (link to the buy page). It would have been a great computer, except it had many problems. Starting off, the Windows Autentication number expired so I had to contact Microsoft. That, was expected though as it was mentioned by every buyer in the comments.
What was not expected though, was the multiple Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) that I had. Along with that, was a selection of other errors like a Disk Controller Error!

By the time I called TigerDirect/IBUYPOWER for help (with warranty), they had already sold out of this computer, which was premade unlike most IBUYPOWER computers. They offered to try to fix it, but I don't want the same people who caused the problem to try to fix it. Because they didn't have any more, I just went for the refund route.

There's 2 weeks wasted. Anyhow, because of that, I've decided to not try again with any other companies, notably Dell or Cyberpower. Instead, I'm going to build my own computer.

And with that, welcome to this series.

Part 2