The Tale of Two Builds

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

In this thread I am going to showcase two builds I am in the middle of right now. One I have been working on for awhile and has taken a totally different turn from where i was going with it. The other has been floating around my brain but I really didn't get serious with it until I got a lead on the case. So here we go my Win 98 se and Liquid cooled win xp builds.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

The Win 98 Build. Well I have been toying around with doing a win 98 build for awhile. I had everything in stone and started building the rig when I found out my Slot A Athlon board was bad. In came the back up which is in the build now A Lucky Star Slot 1 board with a 600 Mhz Pent 3. I am just going to highlight some things in the build for now and then go into detail later.

Mobo, proc, Gpu, soundcard

Ati Rage Fury Pro

Aureal Vortex 2 SQ 2500

Gpu and Soundcard installed

Build together

More to come!!!!!

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Win xp Build

Well This build is actually about 80% done or so. I have been running the main parts of the rig under Ubuntu and crunching for awhile now. I recently came across the case and put it to work so I could test it. All is good so far and the real build is getting ready to begin. Motherboard is already set in case with cpu and memory.

Here is a interior shot.

Exterior

Specs on this rig are

Asus A8n-Sli Premium
Athlon 64 x2 4400+
3 gb pc3200 mem
Creative Sb Audigy 2 platnium
Vid cards will be announced as soon as I have sealed the deal on them. Yes Them there will be 2 cards in sli.

 

[Radical_Edward]

Excited to see how this goes.

 

[[Ion]]

Cool--subscribed

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Excited to see how this goes.

I used the case from you for the win 98 build as it fits perfectly for the theme

 

[t_ski]

I miss ISA cards

 

[Norton]

sub'd

Really liking how that SLI board looks in that case!

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

I miss ISA cards

LOL I don't. Win 98 with it's crappy IRQ assignments is bad enough. I have the win 98 rig up and running and all hardware installed. Had to play with irq assignment in the bios for the sound card to get rid of the conflict with it and the ide channels. But all that is worked out and I played a little of MYST earlier. Will install some heavier games in the next couple days and get some screen shots.

sub'd

Really liking how that SLI board looks in that case!

It does look cool. I am going to tidy up the inside more when I get the other vid cards. I also got to install Xp on it.



Here's a couple more shots.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Update:

The win 98 build is running and I have installed MYST and played around with it for a few.



The Win xp build will be put totally together within the next couple weeks. I am awaiting the 2 gpus for it.


More pic to come with some screen shots of some old favorite games.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Would love to see your scores http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88575

 

[JrRacinFan]

That Koolance p3 is looking real nice. Where the heck did you get a near mint p3 at anyways?

 

[stinger608]

The Win xp build will be put totally together within the next couple weeks. I am awaiting the 2 gpus for it.

That is going to happen before a "couple weeks."

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Would love to see your scores http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88575

Which system do you want to see the numbers on?

That Koolance p3 is looking real nice. Where the heck did you get a near mint p3 at anyways?

Are you talking the Koolance rig or the Pent III rig? They are 2 separate rigs.

That is going to happen before a "couple weeks."

It wouldn't have happened at all if it wasn't for you buddy as most of the interior of that rig has come from you You are making a distant dream come true.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Are you talking the Koolance rig or the Pent III rig? They are 2 separate rigs.

Case bro. Those things were beasts and still are. Very very RARE nowadays. Careful the pump in them likes to fail so If I were you I would use a secondary pump inline (only due to age).

 

[lemonadesoda]

Which system do you want to see the numbers on?

Both! I'd love to see how far a modern processor has come on since those early build days!

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Case bro. Those things were beasts and still are. Very very RARE nowadays. Careful the pump in them likes to fail so If I were you I would use a secondary pump inline (only due to age).

I got the case from a member on here. I mentioned I would love to find one and within a couple days we sealed a deal on it. The thing runs like new. I was actually thinking of running a second pump for safe measures. Is there one you would recommend? Also it will not be a 24/7 rig.

Both! I'd love to see how far a modern processor has come on since those early build days!

I will do it man. Now the Xp system might fair ok as it is a Athlon 64 x2 proc. The Pent III system is just going to kill it with at that raw power.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Update:


I got a chance today to play with the Winxp project. I have Win xp installed. I only have one of the 2 8800 gtx's in it right now due to needing to pick up another psu powerful enough to power both cards and the water cooling system. Only hitch so far is the soundcard. I am planning on running a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum. Problem I have right now is the only drivers I can find are very basic drivers. Creative only offers the basic driver and updates to the original software. So if anyone out there has the original install discs hit me up. I will pay you for a copy of the discs.

I will post some updated pics soon of both rigs.

The win 98 rig is just about done. I did make a change to it's hardware. I was finally able to get my Slot A board going with another cpu. I was then able to flash the bios so it can run my original 800 mhz proc.

Anyone have a game suggestions ?





Screenshot from the xp rig

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Another small update for the Sli rig. I bought a new psu unit for it. Well one of my crunchers decided to eats it's psu. So I had to tkae the psu back out of this rig and run it in the crunching rig while I bought a replacement. Well the replacement came in and the brand new psu I got for the sli rig decided it didn't want's it's sata line to function anymore. So off to RMA that one goes. I sent it out today and also bought yet another PSU. So in the past 2 weeks I bought a total of 3 PSUs. The crunching rig should be good now since i jammed a 650 watt Corsair Tx in it which should actually be overkill for it. So when I get the one psu back from RMA and get it installed I will be doing some test and then on to some gaming fun.

Enough of that stuff and on to some pics with the twin 8800 gtx's installed.

More to come.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Win xp rigs in game shots More to come as I am digging into Quake
4 now.

Unreal Tournament

Unreal Tournament 2004

 

[Norton]

Sweet!!!

What other games will you be trying out?

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

I just played a couple hours of Quake 4.

Anyone have any other suggestions of what i can throw at it?

I am going to fire the win 98 rig up next weekend and try out some other things. I have to install my joystick on it.

 

[McSteel]

Interesting idea, and I'm glad it's working out so far; however...

I just saw this thread and I've spotted and highlighted a potential problem (service/electronics tech by profession, sorry couldn't help it) with your WinXP machine: bulging caps in the CPU VRM-out. They're most likely '03 or '04 Nichicon HM or HN series, 6.3V x 3300uF (can't really tell for sure from the pics). It's good that Asus have used such beefy chokes on the output and good caps (NCC and Ruby) on the VRM-in, that your output caps aren't critical to system/voltage stability. I would look into re-capping the board nonetheless, and with something good too. Especially if you plan on overclocking/overvolting that Athlon of yours...

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Interesting idea, and I'm glad it's working out so far; however...

I just saw this thread and I've spotted and highlighted a potential problem (service/electronics tech by profession, sorry couldn't help it) with your WinXP machine: bulging caps in the CPU VRM-out. They're most likely '03 or '04 Nichicon HM or HN series, 6.3V x 3300uF (can't really tell for sure from the pics). It's good that Asus have used such beefy chokes on the output and good caps (NCC and Ruby) on the VRM-in, that your output caps aren't critical to system/voltage stability. I would look into re-capping the board nonetheless, and with something good too. Especially if you plan on overclocking/overvolting that Athlon of yours...

I see what your saying and I looked at the pics closely. I also just took a peek at the board and the caps that looked bulged in the pic aren't bulged on the board. Guess it must have been the camera angle or something that makes them 4 look that way. Why the other in the pic doesn't looked bulged is beyond me. Thanks for concern though.

 

[McSteel]

Must be the reflection of the board's MOSFET heatsink on the cap tops playing light tricks... Well, for once I'm glad I was wrong about something

Those are nichicons though, right?