The new beast awakes!

[dslartoo]

So I recently pulled the trigger on a newly-built custom PC which would last me for another couple of years. (The last PC, if you're curious, can be read about here; at more than 5 years old, it was time to retire it, although I'd upgraded the video card once).

The new PC was custom built by Puget Systems, and I can't say enough good things about them. Marvelous build quality; excellent website; top-notch components; plenty of testing and benchmarking on the new system; all cables, manuals, and drivers included; speedy response to my frequent questions while configuring the system and learning about the company. Not to mention the fact that their packing of the thing was so extreme that it arrived on my end without so much as a single screw loose.

Here are the specs:

Motherboard: Asus P7P55D Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7 QUAD CORE 860 (Lynnfield) 2.8GHz 8MB 95W (Socket 1156 45nm)
RAM: 4 x Kingston ValueRAM DDR3-1333 2048MB, 8 GB total
Video card: EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX 295 1792MB CO-OP Edition, dual GPU
Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB
CD / DVD: Pioneer 22X DVD-RW SATA (black), DVR-218L model with LabelFlash
Case: Antec P183 (Gunmetal Finish with Window)
Power Supply: Corsair HX 1000W
CPU cooling: Cooler Master V8
Additional cooling: Tuniq TX-2 Thermal Compound
Case mods: Case Mod Package - Blue Cabling w/ Blue Lights
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OEM

I've bought the following locally to finish up the package:
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 2494 24" widescreen, 1920x1080 native resolution
Keyboard: Logitech Illuminated Keyboard (razor-thin, backlit, laptop-style keys)
Mouse: another Microsoft Intellimouse Optical

Pics of the beast are here on this set at Flickr. They include a batch that the folks at Puget Systems took for me as a preview before shipping the system, plus pics I took myself once it arrived.

This thing SCREAMS. Looking forward to keeping it for a long time.

-- END OF LINE --

[[The Oracle would like to know if you had a good Thanksgiving.]]

Comments

[sylphon.livejournal.com]

I look forward to your views on Win7! Machine seems sweet.

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

I like the Win7 layout so far and it has indeed made a few things more intuitive, but I miss the quicklaunch bar from XP and the constant whingeing about permissions on frequent operations is getting old.

On the plus side, it's horribly fast to boot up, file copying speed is improved, and I do rather like the Aero interface.

I'll get used to it eventually. I just used XP for so long that I didn't want to give it up. :)

cheers,
Phil

[marared.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure there's an option to turn off the permissions; there is in Vista, but I don't remember offhand how to access it, as I'm still on XP.

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

Oh, there are plenty of options related to permissions, user access control, and the like, but till I'm used to the system and its operation I'm reluctant to turn any of that stuff completely off just yet. :)

cheers,
Phil

[bradhicks.livejournal.com]

That EVGA card is a hell of a beast, but I hope you have better luck with them than I did. I ran an EVGA 7800 for a bit under a year when it up and died, and they flatly refused to honor their warranty, tried to pass off a far-inferior card instead. I only buy XFX now.

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

I've had one EVGA card in the past and it seemed to work OK. According to
Puget, this particular card is basically Nvidia's reference card with an EVGA label on it. :) They have had good performance from the company in the past.

This is actually the second iteration of the card; the previous version had dual PCBs connected by a small internal SLI bridge that was easy to dislodge (http://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2009/04/05/nvidia-gtx-295-bad-choice-for-liquid-cooling/). The single PCB improves the card immeasurably and Puget's review of the new version was impressive.

cheers,
Phil

[mpceccato.livejournal.com]

I like the "what is all this stuff?" box. A lot more companies should learn from this company's example.

Tell the Oracle our Thanksgiving was good but very busy with a wedding. The wedding was so busy I went off the grid for a few days (read: didn't go on Facebook).

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

Haha! No Facebook? You were TRULY off the grid. :)

cheers,
Phil

[ytsemaddy.livejournal.com]

Dude, that's total nerdpr0n. DO WANT.

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

I know, isn't it? I'm having an absolute BALL with this thing so far. It's above the line denoting "extremely powerful computers" in 3DMark Vantage scores. :)

-- PB