Page 1
Username?
MikeMK
Age/Occupation/Location?
I am 25, and work for Unilever ICF. I live and work just south of London.
How long have you been a member of Guru3D forums?
Since September 2003, so just over 18 months now and what a great 18 months Ive had. I have learnt a lot from my fellow gurus and am now pleased I can give some knowledge back. Oh, and for those of you who dont know, I am also one of the Guru3d resident games reviewers.
What did you first come here for?
Videocard reviews. I wanted to upgrade my Geforce 3 Ti200. Initially I was going to grab a Geforce 4 Ti4600, but thanks to the great reviews here, and reading some threads, I got myself a Hercules ATI Radeon 9700pro and I didnt regret it!
What do you mainly use the system for?
Well, as you can guess, gaming is a big priority, particularly FPS and RPGs, although I do like the odd RTS too. I also use it for watching DVDs listening to music and any work I have to do. Basically, I use it as a complete entertainment centre, as I have quite a small room so cant fit stereos and large TVs in here.
How much did you spend on the rig?
A scary amount! Probably around £2500ish if you include monitor and peripherals, although obviously not all in one go. Generally I just keep adding to my rigs I dont think Ive ever just gone out and bought a complete system in one go since my first rig (a PII 233 with Voodoo 2) when I was about 17.
How often do you update/buy a new rig?
Well a PC is never truly finished, thats the nature of this addiction! There is always something Im looking to add that might improve my system in one way or another, whether thats performance, functionality or just aesthetics.
What components are used?
Well, the centre piece of my rig has to be the 2x6800Ultras from XFX. They totally kick ass. Gaming is a real pleasure on them. Just putting up the detail settings in any game and not having to worry about slow downs is really great. I remember when I first benchmarked them, and my jaw just dropped at the performance! My objective when I started this rig was to build an Uber gaming rig, so naturally a top of the line CPU was required to drive the 6800ultras. The FX-55 is great, really fast in gaming, and pretty much everything else I use it for. I have a feeling that it still bottlenecks my Ultras though! All this sits in a DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR which is a great board once you get to grips with it. It took a bit of fiddling and a couple of bios flashes to get everything working as I wanted, but now it works great. The options in bios are a dream for any overclocker! To go with this I brought my OCZ Enhanced bandwidth PC3700 ram over from my old PC as it clocks really well, especially when its in a board like the DFI. Along with that I used my old HDDs 2x Western Digital Raptors, and a 200GB Western Digital Caviar for general storage such as MP3s and documents as well as my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro.
Obviously all this hardware needs a small generator to power it, and there were few PSUs around at the time capable of supporting 2 Ultras and an FX-55. I settled on a 600watt Enermax Noisetaker which has been rock stable so far.
Ive been a bit hesitant about overclocking this rig for a couple of reasons. Firstly its damn fast without it, and your really dont notice overclocks in games so its only really for prestige scores! Secondly, it gets very hot with 2 Ultras and an FX-55 on air, although I hope to solve this soon. However, as always I couldnt resist tinkering a little, so I have my FX-55 running at 2,820ghz (1:1 with my memory @ DDR470Mhz) and my cards at 451/1070. This really does put performance through the roof, and im sure that with some patience I can get it even higher!
Why ATI or NVIDIA, why Intel/AMD?
Well, I wouldnt regard myself as a fan boy, but with each new gen of technology I try and pick what I think is the best. As I said earlier I had a 9700pro (and a 9800pro actually) in the last gen. I initially went to Nvidia this time round with a 6800GT as it offered better performance with 16pipes and SM3.0 than the comparably priced X800pro. When moving to NForce 4 SLI I obviously went for Nvidia as only they support SLI right now.
With the CPU, AMD 64s have proven to be formidable gaming chips, and the FX-55 is the fastest chip on the market for most things, and was about £150 cheaper than a P4 EE its Intel equivalent which makes it a bit of a no brainer. Not to mention that only AMD supported SLI at the time.
Does the system work as expected?
I am really happy with my system. I went all out this time for the ultimate setup and it works great. The performance still amazes me at times! Despite a few minor niggles its all gone together really well.
What's the best part of your rig?
Well, that has to be my pair of 6800Ultras. They are just show stoppers really. Its just mad having all that power locked up inside my case!
Is there anything you're not happy with?
Well I honestly dont think there is anything im not happy with right now. I guess it would be wrong to complain about this setup! However I really need to look into getting a new monitor. My Samsung TFT is great for gaming, but only supporting 1280x1024 is a pain with so much power at your disposal. 20 TFTs really are still very expensive, but a CRT would feel like a step back in terms of image quality, not to mention the space it would take up! I have a spare CRT to use for benching but the IQ is terrible compared to my Samsung, so I guess Im sticking with that for the time being.
Any modifications?
Not too much is modded at the moment. In the past I have been known to add custom cooling to video cards etc flash BIOS, do softmods and so on, but with SLI being a bit touchy in this area I havent wanted to risk it. (boring eh?). I did recently mod my TT Xaser III to take 2 120mm fans though. As I said, my rig gets pretty toasty at times so I thought it might help out a bit. Oh, and Ive also added a couple of etchings to the side window and a few lights as well, if that counts!
3DMark scores?
Well looking pretty impressive right now:
Aquamark 3: 95,430 - http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=8916215303dmark2005: 10,900 - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=762068
3dmark2003: 23,279 (On Asus A8N) - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3828178
3dmark2001: 31,324 - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8529002
I think I can get these higher, although again, heat is my worst enemy!
Future upgrades?
My big aim is to get this all on water. I am going to need a pretty decent kit to get my cards and FX-55 cooled, but I think it will be worth it. I have to give my wallet a bit of a rest first though, but hopefully sometime in the summer Ill be able to invest!
