Here We Go!

Blog in Progress - Keep Refreshing for updates.

11:20 - OK, gonna have breakfast now. Main PC is on the floor, still assembled. All the new stuff is sitting around still boxed.



12:05 - Old stuff all disembowled from the case. TONS of dust, I'm scratched all over again.





12:30 - Unpacking. PX9650 processor. The box was HUGE, no wonder why, damn intel are copying the old Zalman Flower design ;)




This 1500w ToughPower is HUGE! Compare it to the "small" 700W.






Because of the HUGE ToughPower, gonna have to remove the case's top USB/Firewire ports. Not used much anyway, since the monitor has it's own USB hub.



13:05 - The best thing about this new stuff is the beautiful RAM. These things are works of art, with their awesome yellowness and form factor. I couldn't resist taking the EOS out and snapping a proper picture of them :) Can't wait to install Lightroom in the new PC and edit this picture properly. Let's start installing.



14:45 - Major fitting issues. Damn these geforces are huge. Am wondering if I should've bought a Full Tower Armor.

15:35 - Mobo + most drives are in. Trying to connect modules to PSU. My hands are too sore to take pictures.

16:14 - I think everything is in there. Try to spot the soundblaster! The RaptorX literally squeezed in on display there.

16:42 - Ok the thing turns on, everything seems to be on too (judging by the noise, the GeForces are definitely on!). Not sure how to set the RAM to 2000mhz. Setting EPP2.0 on and auto still gives me 1333mhz

16:50 - Installing Vista Ultimate. Here we go. I'll try to read around regarding memory frequency settings.

17:25 - Am typing this from Vista!! Still running at 320x200 I think LOL. Time to update BIOS and drivers. Still not any wiser regarding FSB and DDR

17:43 - nForce and GeForce drivers installed. The system has suddenly become VERY QUIET! where as before the drivers it sounded like an aeroplane taking off, now it's just a nice, well-behaved, computer.

18:12 - Admittedly, I really like the nForce control panel. It lets me do something that sounds really cool, though might be useless: combine the two ethernet cards on the mobo, to "team up" for better bandwidth. WTF?
SLI is enabled now, and soundblaster drivers installed. Need to update windows then it's on to benchmarking time!

18:19 - Turns out SLI wasn't enabled. It's on now. Fingers crossed!

19:10 - updating. Dinner + swimming pool time. BBL

21:10 - vista updating everything now. I need to find where to download BIOS updates from. Tried COD4, it crashed (well, first crash of the evening).

22:20 - Quick 3dmark06 benchmark: used the free version, so can't change any settings. No overclocking and DDR still at 1333mhz only. Score = 15020

23:20 - Vista, as usual, is grinding away at the hard drives like there's no tomorrow. This does eventually settle, after a few days. A quick test on Quake Wars at 2560x1600xall high was awesome, average FPS 40-60. BUT I don't care about AF/AA so will test tomorrow with them off. Jericho on the other hand, looks FUCKING AWESOME! again 2560x1600xhigh, it ran at 80-120fps and the motion blur just rocked!

Time to stop this madness tonight. XFX site is down so no bios update yet, tomorrow I'll try to figure out the DDR3 2000mhz thing and install some more games to play around with. NN.