“Quest nice computer....i'm drooling just looking at it now..

Internal image for you.

PS:Image is off the net so i am not sure what is in this one or if you'll get all that but if you do mate then you have been beamed up by God.”

Quest: I’m going to tell you what I ordered here and thanks for that picture.

ICM:

“Wow, Congrats Quest!! time to Rock-n-Roll.........we'll have to start a new thread seeing there have been a lot of recent upgrades....”

Quest: Thank you! Your post is the reason for this new thread…thank you ICM.

Ang25:

“OH I'm still having issues with the mental picture I've got of Quest in pig tails looking like a giddy schoolgirl.  Hurry up and get that new PC so you can go back to looking like a man!”

Quest: Girl, you don’t know what you’re asking for!

As promised in IO4’s thread I would have to take the topic to a new and different thread regarding hardware upgrades. Please, all those purchasing new hardware feel free to post here and let us know what you got and what is new.

Well, after experiencing the initial shock of watching my piggy bank go nuclear and seeing and hearing nothing but white noise for 2 days afterwards, the excitement of finally upgrading is starting to set in. I’m now in the troughs of getting the crib ready for when the baby comes home to daddy.

With the dual core and quad core controversy still going strong and since applications are slowly coming up to snuff with dual core and subsequently much slower with quad core, it stands to reason that quad core will have to stand aside at least for a couple more years until everything else (64bit as apposed to 32bit bus architecture, applications, peripheral components, point of diminishing returns and the like) catches up with…well…everything else.

This is what I had them put in the box: intel core 2 Duo processor (4MB L2 cache, 2.66GHz, 1333 FSB),

4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz-4 DIMMs (OS is still 32 bits so 3GB would have sufficed but DIMMs come in pairs and I’d be set if OS upgrades to 64bits),

500GB Seagate 7200RPM, SATA 3.0 Gb/s, 16 MB cache as my primary,

750GB Seagate 7200RPM, SATA 3.0 Gb/s, 16 MB cache as my secondary (1.25TB total),

Dual Drives 48x combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable,

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card,

Dell 30 watt 2.1 stereo speakers w/ subwoofer,

Seitek Eclipse 2 illuminated keyboard,

nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB,

24 inch widescreen Digital Flat Panel monitor, optical USB mouse,

it’s coming with Windows XP Media Center, Photoshop CS3 v10, 36 months Trend Micro internet security, Acrobat 8.1, Microsoft Office 2007 Home and student, Spysweeper.

In the image above, the system on the left is the XPS 720 H2C and is the gamer’s choice and is water-cooled (H2C). The system on the right is the regular XPS 720. The RED is what I ordered and it differs from the BLACK because the power supply of RED is 1kwatts whereas BLACK is 750watts. Both RED & BLACK is not water-cooled but have several fans distributed throughout the casing to disperse heat. By the way, that side panel with the "X" on it is an optional side panel and it would add an extra $200 on your bill! Guess it's for showmanship.

I’m hoping to tie it all together with a network broadband router for the Internet and to my printer, scanner, second computer (Pentium III 1.3MHz) for file sharing and to my Xbox360 which is attached to my HD 42 inch Panasonic Plasma TV with 5.1 Dolby surround sound home theater in my living room. I’m running pneumatic IV feeding lines from the kitchen to my computer room. I will never have to leave the house…ever…LOL! Who wants to get adopted? There will be a small fee to cover charges.

So Ang25, I take it you like seeing me as the man I am, well, in that case you can hold onto my pigtails while I zip through cyberspace bare chested with fluffs of woolly like hair hanging from my chest…bring the razor. ;-D

Quest

Fantastic!!

LOL, maybe not leave the house, though you might have to spend some time on phone explaining why all your neighbors are experiencing brown-outs!!

Enjoy Pal!

Quest: That's a nice little entry-level machine you have there.

ring the alarm quest found his 1st chest hair! oh and he has a new comp...

congratulations Quest....  awesome machine......  I wish I could play  games on this baby...

Congratulations Quest!!!!

Should we get some Benchmarks done with all this new hardware??  I havent quite put my ThinkPad to rendering yet.

You went huge! and it looks cool too. 

*So Ang25, I take it you like seeing me as the man I am, well, in that case you can hold onto my pigtails while I zip through cyberspace bare chested with fluffs of woolly like hair hanging from my chest…bring the razor. ;-D

*hmmm ya know that isn't helping the mental image. Now I see pigtails and fluffy-hairy boobs. Oh ok, I take the razor and dispose of the fluffs of wool and pigtails too. :)

So when do we sign the adoption papers?

On a serious note, I hope that Dell has the cooling thing figured out. If I'm not mistaken your place can get pretty hot. My tower sometimes goes into overheat mode and starts sounding the most obnoxious alarm. I then turn on my window fan which I have propped up to the side of the tower. So much for keeping bugs and dust out, lol.

Sigh... If you never leave your apartment, you'll never come visit me again sniff

Hugs,
Ang

As a  precaution to overheated Processors I went with for the dual 252's = 2.66 processors was to upgrade the fans.
X2 Thermaltake TMG A2 CPU Coolers.

From a specialty site for accessories. Xioxide.

Now after my new Video card upgrade, I have to step up the power supply. Grossly under powered.

550 watt PS
Old card:
ATI FireGL V7100 PCIE 256MB

New card: requires at least 750 watts
Diamond Viper ATI Radeon™ HD 2900XT PCIE 1024MB GDDR4 Video Card
(won this one)

".........your place can get pretty hot."

Oh yeah? mmm? and what have our little love-birds been upto to make it so hot?

Need more fans, more fans!!

Everyone here is your fan, Rod! No need to get all paranoid.

I'm not talking  :b_funny:

Talking about fans, I have an AMD 6000 dualcore, and the fan is so bloody noisy. Anyone know of a fan that would suit this chip; AM2. It has to be ultra quiet, if not silent..... if thats possible.

Check the link above for Xioxide, they list all compatabilities. The Dual Thermaltake TMG's I have are real quiet. (Dual AMD Opteron 252's=2.66) Super cool, nice'n quiet.

I'm using Y.S. TMD Fans in my system for CPU and Chassis Cooling.

Dunno why, but for some reason something Ang said makes me think of the background dancers in the video to Schfifty Five...

Quote - Check the link above for Xioxide, they list all compatabilities. The Dual Thermaltake TMG's I have are real quiet. (Dual AMD Opteron 252's=2.66) Super cool, nice'n quiet.

Cool (pun) thanks ICM, My other half will be so pleased, the current fan drums out some decibels when both cores ar hard at work renderin'.

Update: after looking, i'll probably go for the Thermaltake V1 Blue LED CPU Cooler. Thanks again.

Thermaltake  can't go wrong there - I hear they can be a little hard to install though.

*Thermaltake  can't go wrong there - I hear they can be a little hard to install though.

*Agreed, because of the stand off design. You need to have a clear space to work & take your time.

along the same lines, a friend gave me a temperature sensor/display which fits in a five inch bay that reads up to 8 different places and keeps an eye on the 5 and 12 voltages. Kind of neat if you're really worried about voltages and temperature which would be a wise investment if you're pushing the limit, but if you set the warning levels too low it beeps all the time which can be annoying especially if you're trying to sleep... Right now I'm only pushing 97 degrees F, but when I get that new 512M nvidea card 2 gigs memory and some real disk space (dual sata 512s) i might find more use for it.