Unfortunately I did the PCMark benchmark only with the new PC but the other benchmarks were quite impressive for me. The biggest difference between the old and the new system is graphic power: A modern graphic card like the Gainwad 8800 GTS is such a big jump compared to the four years old Radeon.

The overclocking doesn’t give much advantage at the 3DMark benchmark but as expected at the CPU heavy Cinebench.
The 25% overclock leads to a 24,76% better performance with one core, a 24,33% better performance with all four cores but only to a 3,91% better 3DMark performance.

More important than the synthetic benchmarks is the subjective impression – and that is that i absolutely love the new machine.

Do you know of any usefull benchmarks or have a comparison between your old and new machines?

Read part 1 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 2 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 3 of the building a new computer series here.

I carefully took out the mainboard and placed it on top of my kitchen table an removed the socket plate.

The insertion of the CPU wasn’t complicated at all, it only fits in one direction.

Same situation for the RAM. The retention and backplate for the cooler was more complicated. They didn’t fit the holes in the board 100%, so it was difficult to get four screws in at the same time.

But it got worse. I read at different places that installation of the Zalman 9700LED is a piece of cake compared to other coolers. Well, don’t let me try the others then. The basic installation and application of the paste worked well but I couldn’t get the clip screwed to the board. It took a while and more pressure than I thought would be good for the board, but finally the monster sat firmly on the socket.

Huge.

Now it was time to prepare the case. The PSU, the board and the additional fan were installed with ease.

A closer look.

The also huge graphics card found its way to the system and power was brought to the board.

An old monitor was prepared…

… and hey: We have a boot!

Euphoric I installed the HDD and all missing cables…

… and the DVD drive…

… closed the side door and began installing Windows.

Here it was glowing already…

… and Ms. computhomas benchmarked the system with spider solitaire.

I cleaned up my office for the admission of the new system. Unfortunately most of the glowing disappeared under the desk, but so far it looked really cool and worked.

In the next part I will benchmark the system and eventually overclock it a bit.

Read part 1 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 2 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 4 of the building a new computer series here.

Although I was tempted to start building right away, I tried to document everything for you. The Enermax case is really huge but it was lighter than I thought it would be. I expected the build quality being better for the price – the case only gets an OK on my internal checklist.

Nothing special on the backside.

Something special on the left side. A huge 250mm fan. I know already that the fan won’t help much for the CPU cooling, but maybe it is a way to keep board and graphics card cool. I’ll test this later.

Yes, it is indeed huge.

The inside of the case.

The mainboard comes in a typical box.

Nothing special in the inside. All you expect from an Asus board: Manual, drivers, cables, slot bracket and hopefully a board.

Ah, there is everything.

Finally, the board is there.

An eyecather is the heatpipe transporting the northbridge heat to the rear fan.

The socket – protected from abuse.

Get connected.

The CPU. It’s an Intel Q6600 with G0-stepping. This can be verified by looking at the code on the processor, SLACR. Basically the G0 consumes less power and is allowed to get a bit hotter then the old stepping, B3. Although in practice the difference isn’t significant, I wanted a new one.

The Zalman 9700LED is really huge …

… but it looks great …

… and the polished plate is really nice.

Memory looking as expected …

… just like the HDD.

For the biggest price of a component at least you get the biggest package.

Gainward really likes ladies.

Two slots for the card.

Is it a clown?

The Soundblaster X-Fi Music …

… has a shiny golden slot bracket.

Oh, look A keyboard.

The Pioneer DVR-212 SATA in his bulk plainness.

Power!

You get the modular cables delivered in a nice black bag.

Laser, yeah.

The additional back fan.

Well everything is here now

In the next part I’ll try to assemble the parts and create new life … or so.

What do you think of the components?

Read part 1 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 3 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 4 of the building a new computer series here.

The current pc was purchased at a discount supermarket, cause at that time I couldn’t find anything better for the same money. It was the first pc that i did not build personally and i didn’t regret it. I also said to myself, that I won’t build one myself ever again. But here I am, three years later, with a rising desire for putting the parts together – bringing a new monster to life …

Jeff Atwood made the desire even stronger by documenting his build for Scott Hanselman. The last few month I spend investigating for the best hardware i could get while keeping the total price reasonable.

That is the final list i came up with:

• Case

ENERMAX Uber Chakra ECA5001B Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower


+ Scythe S-Flex 800 120×25 8.7dBA
The case is mostly a matter of taste. I want something not to boring, still it should be quiet and cool. In the past I would have decided on the inside components first and then bought a cheap case and PSU – now I know how important these things are.

• PSU

CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520 Watt Power Supply


Corsair get their PSU from Seasonic, which is known for good and silent units. I wanted something with cable management and trust the Corsair brand, so I decided fast on this.

• Mainboard

Asus P5K


The only question here was: Asus or Gigabyte. I decided for Asus, because of good experience with their boards. I don’t need WLAN, VGA on board or any other specials, so i decided for the basic board, which is amazing cheap.

• CPU

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor – G0 Stepping (SLACR)


I decided on this one already in June, knowing that the price will drop immense. When they started to bring out a second revision, with lower power consumption, i decided to wait for it.

• CPU-Cooling

Zalman CNPS9700LED

This was a difficult decision. A lot of people prefer Scythe or Thermalright coolers but they won’t fit into the big chakra case, cause of the side fan. Some say that the Zalman is to loud but reviews show that it ist quiet at slowly rotation and still has good temperatures.

• RAM

2048MB(2×1024MB) DDR2 FSB800 Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Performance TwinX Matched | PC2-6400 | CL5 | 1.9 V


Wow, RAM is cheap.

• Graphics

Gainward BLISS 8800GTS PCX TV Dual DVI | Grafikadapter | GF 8800 GTS | PCI Express x16 | 640 MB GDDR3
The most expensive part of the new build. Gainward is normally silent, else there is almost no difference between the cards of the manufacturers.

• HDD

SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA


Storage is cheap also. I didn’t want to pay the premium for a faster spinning disk, so it had to be 7200 for now.

• Burner

Pioneer (Bulk) DVR-212 SATA black
I don’t want IDE cables in my case.

• Sound

Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Music Bulk
Since my birthday I have a Teufel 5.1 system under my desk, which is insulted by stereo sound at the moment.

• Mouse

Microsoft USB Wired Laser Habu Gaming Mouse


I need a new mouse also. I have a loyal friendship with my IntelliMouse for years, so I decided to go with Microsoft again. The razer precision isn’t bad as well – and it glows blue – like my case

• Keyboard

Microsoft USB Wired Ergonomics Reclusa Gaming Keyboard


Blue also.

This will sum up to around 1300 Euro. I will write again when the hardware arrives – I can’t wait much longer!

Read part 2 of the building a new computer series.

Read part 3 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 4 of the building a new computer series here.