Nick! Need your expertise!

[Jay29]

I will definitely do that SubZero! I'm hoping all these items stay available on new egg cause I'm gonna be ordering piece by piece as i can't afford to do it all in one shot. Thank you again for all the help!

[cause88]

Andy,
After reading several pages of reviews on Newegg about the GTX 260. They all say that it does fit in the Antec 900 case without modification, barely.
Look forward to hearing your experiences with this system.
Dennis

[NickN]

When it comes to cases I consider them just as important as the rest of the parts

I only use towers that have wire frame fan grills and never perf metal

Perf metal rear fan ports BLOCK up to 50% of the airflow and create a huge amount of noise

Unfortunately the only solution is to eith cut the perf metal out and install the RIGHT fan grill

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811999204

or buy a tower that has the space, the fans and the right type of grill in the back as shown

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ ... 092-09.jpg


Thats one of the reasons I will spend 250 bucks on a tower and I usually buy Silverstone TJ09 and TJ10 towers and add a few extra fans

[SubZer0]

Andy,
After reading several pages of reviews on Newegg about the GTX 260. They all say that it does fit in the Antec 900 case without modification, barely.
Look forward to hearing your experiences with this system.
Dennis

thanks for clearing that up Dennis. the only reviews I read on it were on the intake fans and how to keep dust out of the case as that is a huge problem I have always had with my X-Navigator case. that is a huge relief to know that the card will fit just fine!

I've been looking at several different fan air filters to see if I can do anything about the dust, but apparently it's hard to find ones that actually fit the Antec 900

the RAM I ordered was from the Mushkin site; they didn't have it on Newegg yet. Mushkin hasn't given me a tracking number or any other information as to when scheduled delivery is. the heatsink for the CPU I know is scheduled to arrive this Friday, so I'm hoping the memory gets here in time!

When it comes to cases I consider them just as important as the rest of the parts

I only use towers that have wire frame fan grills and never perf metal

Perf metal rear fan ports BLOCK up to 50% of the airflow and create a huge amount of noise

Unfortunately the only solution is to eith cut the perf metal out and install the RIGHT fan grill

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811999204

or buy a tower that has the space, the fans and the right type of grill in the back as shown

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ ... 092-09.jpg


Thats one of the reasons I will spend 250 bucks on a tower and I usually buy Silverstone TJ09 and TJ10 towers and add a few extra fans

Nick,
I will make it a project to get the most airflow out of that case in the long run. I will definitely be replacing the perf metal with those fan grills you suggested. I've also been thinking about adding fans, but I don't know how big or especially where I should put them in that specific case to get the best airflow.

another question I have for you is what is the best way to keep dust out of your system? will fan filters restrict airflow or is there anything else one can do to prevent the dust from eating the components up?

[Jay29]

Hey I'm back with another question. Yes I still plan on building my own system in the near future BUT I found this system recently as i could use as a temp to tide me over, its made by ZT systems which is a little known company here in the U.S. Granted it will need a video card cause it has integrated video but tell me what ya think besides that.

   *  2.44GHz Intel 2 Quad Q6600 processor
   * 19" diagonal widescreen LCD monitor
   * 4GB DDR2 memory
   * 500GB SATA hard drive
   * SuperMulti DVD burner
   * NVIDIA GeForce 7050 GPU graphics
   * ALC662 six-channel audio CODEC
   * 56K modem
   * 10/100 ethernet
   * ZT 104-key desktop keyboard
   * Optical mouse
   * 19-in-1 memory card reader
   * Six USB 2.0 ports
   * VGA port
   * COM port
   * Parallel port
   * RJ-45 LAN port
   * Six-channel audio inputs/outputs
   * Two PS/2 connectors
   * Two PCI slots
   * Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
   * ZT System Recovery Solutions software
   * Measures approximately 13-7/8"H x 7-1/8"W x 16-7/8"D
   * UL listed; 2-year Limited Manufacturer's Warranty
   * Made in USA
Comes with Vista 64 Bit as well

[SubZer0]

why not just wait until you're able to buy the real computer? is it going to be too long until then?

edit: these systems that come pre-built really don't have a lot of options for overclocking from what I've seen. I'm running on a Q6700 which is 2.66ghz with 2gb ddr2 800mhz ram and a 7950gt gpu and it's not so good.. if I were you I would just wait.. but then again I can't really speak much because you're probably on a higher budget than me  ;D

[Jay29]

haha No my budget is very very low, I'm on a fixed  low income. The only reason I'm looking at pre built is its gonna take me quite awhile to get all the parts for that system I wanna build. I mean months and months, possibly over a year. In teh mean time I have this Dell p.o.s. and its falling apart on me.

Thats why I thought maybe that pre built I listed with a new video card might tide me over till I can do the build.

[SubZer0]

ah I see

in that case.. if you can afford to get this temporary system and still be able to upgrade to i7 in the future, then go ahead and do it.. it's all up to you. however, in order to get use of that q66 then you need to clock it real high meaning you need a good cooler for it as well as a video card.

this should hold off your temps for the OC on the q66:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835118003

also, I don't know if you'll need a better power supply to feed that clocked cpu and a good video card.. Nick would have to help you with that

what I recommend doing instead of buying the parts for the new system one by one is just saving up the money until you can buy all the parts at once and that would be much better and much much cheaper..

another thing is I don't know what motherboard that cpu will be on.. so I can't guarantee you'll be able to clock it as you hope to.. the best thing you can do if you're getting a temporary system is to just build a simple one yourself instead of buying a pre-built one.. that way you know what your limits will be and what you can or can't do with the cpu/board/memory... once again it's all up to you, but if you can't clock the q66 it's worthless

[Jay29]

How do you over clock a cpu?

[SubZer0]

it's not a process that I can explain or anyone really... read other threads that Nick has written here in the Computer Hardware & Software forums. he has posted links to other sites that explain the overclocking of the i7 processors

[Jay29]

it's not a process that I can explain or anyone really... read other threads that Nick has written here in the Computer Hardware & Software forums. he has posted links to other sites that explain the overclocking of the i7 processors

Ahh ok. Hey let me ask you this, now I'm not too big on AMD processors and I know most of you guys aren't either but are there any that are somewhat decent?

[NickN]

Lets just nip in the butt now

Your trying to go cheap

read this very carefully....

FSX + CHEAP = CRAP RESULT


That being said there is nothing in AMD which will overcome Intel in FSX

and the cheaper you go in Intel the worse the result

OK, so if you do not intend to overclock you have 2 choices

1. You buy the fastest default speed processor you can get on the lowest default speed timing memory and a decent video card like the 8800GT

2. You put up with the limits of what you can afford



I am not telling you that you must overclock and I am not suggesting that you should. Overclocking is something that requires expereience and although its not hard to accomplish it does require you learn how... no one is going to post a 1-2-3 list that will work for your hardware.

[Jay29]

Lets just nip in the butt now

Your trying to go cheap

read this very carefully....

FSX + CHEAP = CRAP RESULT


That being said there is nothing in AMD which will overcome Intel in FSX

and the cheaper you go in Intel the worse the result

OK, so if you do not intend to overclock you have 2 choices

1. You buy the fastest default speed processor you can get on the lowest default speed timing memory and a decent video card like the 8800GT

2. You put up with the limits of what you can afford



I am not telling you that you must overclock and I am not suggesting that you should. Overclocking is something that requires expereience and although its not hard to accomplish it does require you learn how... no one is going to post a 1-2-3 list that will work for your hardware.

I understand that Nick, I'm pretty poor thats my problem, My goal is to eventually build my own system problem is the stuff i listed runs about $1,400 I can't do all that at once, over time yes. Second issue is my current pc is about to die on me so I have to get something an something soon, I use this to go to school on, in the mean time I would still like to play fsx my current system is a Dell Inspiron 530 s

Intel Duo Core 2.0 ghz which I know is slow, An I believe the vid card is a ATI Radeon 2400 HD pro, probably a bad combo! I am lucky if i can squeeze 9 fps outa this thing on a good day.

So in the mean time trying to find a system that can tide me over until I can get all the parts for my own build is either the one i listed in an earlier post or I jus found a gateway that has a AMD Quad Core 2.2 ghz with ah ATI Radeon 3200 HD Pro. Im no fan of AMD, I know most of you guys aren't I'm just kinda stuck at this point cause i need something until I can do the build but at the same time, i would like to atleast squeeze 20 or 30 fps outa fsx.

Thats why I asked is there any processor AMD makes that is somewhat decent. anyway thats my dilemma as far as what to get for the time being with the intent to build my own, over time.