Rig as in a new computer. Pretty mean one too. For pictures, see Part II, Part III and Part IV Here are its guts:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (that means it runs at 1.86GHz)*
- Gigabyte 965P-S3 motherboard
- Palit NVIDIA 7900GS**
- 512MB x 2 800MHz Corsair DDR 2
- Maxtor 160GB Serial ATA hard drive***
- 16x NEC DVD writer
- Cooler Master 380Watt PSU
And these are its external components
- Cooler Master ATX case
- SD/MMC/CF/MS card reader
- 19″ Acer widescreen LCD
- Microsoft mouse and keyboard
- 2.1 Sonic Gear BlueThunder II speakers
- Aztech USB 802.11 b/g
- 800KV voltage regulator****
The speakers and NEC DVD writer were recycled from previous computers. I’m very satisfied with my Sonic Gear speakers, they’re still pumping out great sound after 2 years! The DVD writer is still top notch but that’s because it’s seldom used. Everything else is new. Spent the weekend assembling components purchased from different shops in Low Yat Plaza (de facto place to shop for geeks) and installing software. Also set up a new workplace for myself in the process. Except for some slight hiccups, everything was OK. The motherboard had some serious issues with an earlier BIOS that it came with (version F3, F6 is the latest). Apparently it overclocks the PCIe bus if I increase its FSB no matter what I set. Flashing it to the newest BIOS solved the issue. I also risked burning the Intel CPU because of a lose heatsink. My first experience installing a C2Duo heatsink. Then there’s the issue of missing items from my motherboard’s bundle - the ATX back bracket and driver CD. The seller also gave me a PATA hard drive instead of a SATA one. Both of these meant I had to make an extra trip back to Low Yat. Note to self: check and re-check your components before leaving!
I’m gonna post pics later on. Pics uploaded - see Part II, Part III and Part IV.
* The E6300 is running at an impressive 2.8GHz! If you’re interested, it’s running at 400MHz FSB, x7 clock multiplier, 1.35v (up from 1.325v), PCIe @100MHz, memory at 400MHz x 2. Its temperature is 48 C when the air-conditioning is on, 60 C otherwise.
** The 7900GS from Palit is a decent card. It comes with 256MB RAM running at 1400MHz and sports a 20-pipe 500MHz GPU. Awesome beast. This thing runs Battlefield 2142 @ 1440×900 AF/2xFSAA with good framerates 
***Why the puny hard drive? Well cause I still have an external 250GB HD for backups and a 40GB portable HD. I reckon I won’t need so much for this PC. It’s just for games anyway
****Never underestimate the need for one. It’s a cheap investment to protect very expensive equipments
[...] My new rig [...]
[...] My new rig [...]
[...] My new rig [...]
[...] RAM is so cheap nowadays (but that might not last) that I had to resist splurging a bit on an extra stick of 1 GB of DDR2 6400 RAM. Got a gig of memory for RM 200 without taking into account the credit card surcharge of RM 4. I had to pay close to RM 500 a few months back. In the end I decided against fitting my desktop with 3 GB of RAM. Partly because I know my memory usage is just slightly above 1 gig so 2 gigs should be more than enough for now, and I was right. Performance went up a notch with much less drive swapping. Also, S.T.A.L.K.E.R now runs smoothly with no drive access at all. Overall the system feels snappier and I can keep more programs running at the same time - Eclipse and NetBeans can run concurrently with an application server of choice. Way cool. [...]
[...] Dual core CPUs, gigs of RAM and tons of hard drive space. What a sweet combination. Even working from home I can run Weblogic 9.1 on a 64-bit Solaris 10 and Oracle. All while keeping my native OS (that would be Windows XP Pro) chugging at a healthy pace. The Solaris 10 was running on VMWare Server while Oracle ran natively in Windows. To allow both my native and virtual OS to run smoothly, I allocated 1GB of RAM to each. This allowed Windows XP to function well, provided not too many applications open. I can manage to run Oracle, Firefox, VMWare, VNC viewer, Filezilla client and Trillian. Not bad, eh? Of course, I don’t actually run these because it’s fun but rather I was testing out an environment that I need to use for work. [...]
[...] I assembled my current PC on Oct 30th 2006. That’s more than a year ago. I was looking at the possibility of upgrading my processor to a newer one, considering Intel just announced a new affordable CPU - the Core 2 E7200. However, reading through the article, I notice its specs were much lower than my CPU (2.55GHz, 3MB of cache, 1067MHz bus, VT disabled vs 2.8GHz, 4MB of cache, 1600MHz bus, VT enabled). [...]