Dream Computer – Take II
Why have I been conspicuously absent for the past week (minus the unnecessary xkcd links)? I was too busy playing with my new toy!
I left off with my last substantive post explaning my quest to find my “ideal” desktop gaming PC. Ivan was introduced to me on the Hardware Zone Forums. After calling him on Thursday evening I explained to him my requirements and my approximate price range. Together we came up with a set of specifications that suited my needs best and he agreed to come to my house on Saturday (13 Feb 2010) morning to build my PC. Unless I went to a shop and bought a pre-built model, I cannot imagine any other outlet that would have a built to order PC ready in such a short period. Through Friday I badgered Ivan and changed around a few specifications. As always he was eminently polite and gracefully handled my queries.
He arrived on Saturday morning with boxed parts of each of the following components:
There was a slight hiccup as it appeared that the WD 1TB Caviar Black was DOA. However, Ivan immediately drove back home and was back within the hour with not one but two replacements (in case the first did not work). Again great service!
Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of him actually building the PC. However, scroll below for some shots of the completed rig.
The full thing (excluding the monitor) cost S$3,175.
I have spent the last week playing (and completing) the following games:
I left off with my last substantive post explaning my quest to find my “ideal” desktop gaming PC. Ivan was introduced to me on the Hardware Zone Forums. After calling him on Thursday evening I explained to him my requirements and my approximate price range. Together we came up with a set of specifications that suited my needs best and he agreed to come to my house on Saturday (13 Feb 2010) morning to build my PC. Unless I went to a shop and bought a pre-built model, I cannot imagine any other outlet that would have a built to order PC ready in such a short period. Through Friday I badgered Ivan and changed around a few specifications. As always he was eminently polite and gracefully handled my queries.
He arrived on Saturday morning with boxed parts of each of the following components:
- Processor - Intel Core i7-920 2.66Ghz Quad Core
- Motherboard - Gigabyte X58A UD3R
- RAM – Team Elite 6GB DDR3 1333Mhz CL9
- Graphics Card – Sapphire Radeaon HD5870 1GB Vapor-X PCI-E
- Hard Drive – Intel X25-M MLC 80GB SSD and Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black SATA II
- DVD – Samsung S223 SATA DVD Rewriter
- PSU – Seasonic M12-II 620W
- Case – Lancool K62-WB
- Sound Card – Asus Xonar Essence STX
- Cooling – Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
- Wireless Adaptor – TP-Link TL-WN851N Wireless N PCI Adaptor
- Operating System – Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
There was a slight hiccup as it appeared that the WD 1TB Caviar Black was DOA. However, Ivan immediately drove back home and was back within the hour with not one but two replacements (in case the first did not work). Again great service!
Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of him actually building the PC. However, scroll below for some shots of the completed rig.
The full thing (excluding the monitor) cost S$3,175.
I have spent the last week playing (and completing) the following games:
- Modern Warfare 2 – what can I say this is my second favourite game, playing on max settings without any problem is like a dream come true.
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – my favourite game of all time. Again an absolute gem on full settings. Unfortunately, I don’t have my new 24” Dell monitor so I can’t wait to play it AGAIN on 1920x1080 resolution!
- Red Alert 3 – the only RTS that I actually enjoyed so it was nice to watch the explosions on max settings.
- F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin – playing it now. The lighting effects are very lifelike which creates an eerie atmosphere, creating an ideal setting for this game.
Anonymous
February 21, 2010 at 3:45 AM
meh nothing great..