The New Hardware Thread

[Hudson]

Post any new hardware you get and your impressions here!

I just picked up a WD "Green" 1TB SATA HDD. Overall I love it, checking the benchmarks showed it's not as fast as some of the other ones on the market but since this is just going to be for storage it doesn't bother me much.

It's low on power and heat, switching from 5400 to 7200 rpms depending if it's in use or not.

Not much else I can say really, finally I have some good massive storage!

[Water12356]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130433

As most of you know already I got a GTX 260 Core 216 (OC). Im pretty happy with the preformance increases I got. And I will see further improvements when I upgrade the rest of my rig.

[peoplessi]

Bought 2 new fans to replace the old ones. Xilence Red Wing 2x 120mm x 120mm. Silent, fluid bearing, and move air as much as the old ones if not more. No more screetching sounds!

[Bludd]

Bought a Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 for my Core i7 and it almost halved my temperatures.

[8IronBob]

Decided that my Samsung SyncMaster T240 was getting a little dull in PQ and doesn't really give off as much of a good display as once thought. Right now I have the Dell 2408WFP on its way, now THAT'S a monitor. Glad Dell had it on sale for south of the $500 price tag, or otherwise it'd still be a dream display. So far as I'm aware, I dunno if Dell announced any 2009 replacement to the UltraSharp line yet, so I may be good to go with this.

[Phayzon]

Got myself an Antec 900 and a 530W Rosewill Green (>80% efficient) PSU about 2 weeks ago. Yesterday I ordered a Zalman 9700NT cooler and some AS5. Load temps are just a bit too high on my OC'd E8400 for my liking.

[KO Gilligan]

Bought this washable wheel-less scroll mouse for the kids...

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=375887


it's totally water resistant because it's sealed and uses touch pads. It was a woot type deal on 1saleaday.com so I got it for under $10 including shipping.
Just arrived and seems to work nicely.

Seems like a rather cool looking solution for sticky stuff on the mouse. Probably won't replace the MX518 I plan on getting

[Phayzon]

Heheh thats pretty neat

[Wamplet]

Originally Posted by Hudson

Post any new hardware you get and your impressions here!

I just picked up a WD "Green" 1TB SATA HDD. Overall I love it, checking the benchmarks showed it's not as fast as some of the other ones on the market but since this is just going to be for storage it doesn't bother me much.

It's low on power and heat, switching from 5400 to 7200 rpms depending if it's in use or not.

Not much else I can say really, finally I have some good massive storage!

Hudson, we are on the same wavelength! o/\o

I had been wanting to get a new hard drive for a long time, but unlike you, I still have my old system still like the one you had before your new one. Sadly, it's also configured with IDE drives right now.

I just needed a data/storage drive and figured i would get the 1TB WD green drive as well. Welp, Newegg just happened to send me a hard drive coupon the other day for 10% off on any drive, so i decided to go ahead and use it.

Instead of the 1TB, I went ahead and got the 1.5TB drive. I thought my old system didnt support SATA, but it actually did. I had already bought a SATA controller card and a power adapter cable for it with the drive before realizing. I tried to get it to work off the mainboard, but it was having a problem detecting it in the BIOS, which i honestly expected. I think if i put a jumper on it, it might correct that issue, but since i didnt need to boot off the drive, I figured i would just go along with my original plan of installing the controller card.

Got it going right now and Windows had no problem with it.


I also bought a ton of replacement case fans and a drive bay fan set for my mom's computer to replace all of her old ones. Other than that, I am just biding my time for Windows 7, before i buy my next computer.

[FireFly]

Just bought a SteelSeries Ikari to replace my dead G5. Really happy with the purchase so far; it's the most comfortable mouse I've used, and glides super smoothly. The only downside is it's pretty big, so it's harder to pick it up and move it around than my old G5.

[peoplessi]

That only sound better in my opinion G5 feels a bit too small for me.

[FireFly]

I guess if I had bigger hands I would feel differently.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by FireFly

Just bought a SteelSeries Ikari to replace my dead G5. Really happy with the purchase so far; it's the most comfortable mouse I've used, and glides super smoothly. The only downside is it's pretty big, so it's harder to pick it up and move it around than my old G5.

Even bigger then a G5? I don't know about your G5, but mine is already quite large. I'm curious if it support Win XP Pro x64 too. (The G5 doesn't, although it works without any special drivers)

[FireFly]

I don't see the G5 as being especially large for a 'palm grip' mouse. In any case, the Ikari is about the same length, but the base is wider due to the supports on each side for your thumb and ring finger (which make it so comfortable to use).

And to my knowledge the G5 is fully supported under Windows XP x64:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/42...eid=671&osid=1
http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/...p?p_faqid=2816

The Ikari doesn't require any drivers of its own so should work fine as well (although I haven't seen any confirmation of this).

[Rider]

I got me a 15 Metre UTP Cable!

This oughta be enough to hook my homebrew server up to my, somewhat oddly placed, ADSL modem.

[Water12356]

I got my G11 keyboard in the mail on tuesday, and I say im quite happy with it so far. I havent done any macros quite yet. I am loving the quiet keys, the backlight for night use, and the media keys! I dont have to shrink my game anymore to switch tracks! (Although it orginaly wouldnt work with itunes because itunes had selected in order for the media keys to work. But, a little google action found me a work-around.)

[Dave-ros]

Got a second-hand GTX 280 the other day (having seen it the previous day and not bought it then), and it's doing extremely well -- I can have AA turned on in games at last! It idles cooler than my old card, but heats up like hell in games, and the fan's a bit noisy, so if anyone could recommend an alternate cooling solution (not liquid as I don't have that already), please feel free to comment

My 8800GTS 640MB (BFG overclocked) has performed well, and I will commend it to whoever buys it -- or maybe hang on to it until such time as I get a motherboard with two PCI-E slots, and then use it for PhysX

[Wamplet]

Originally Posted by Dave-ros

Got a second-hand GTX 280 the other day

but this is the NEW hardware thread.

[Dave-ros]

It is new! It only came out last year!!!

[Lethe]

I got myself new Razer mouse. Couldn't wait for Mamba (and its too pricey) so I gone for Lachesis. This is like the best mouse I ever used. Wonderful thing!

[8IronBob]

Logitech Z-2300 THX 2.1 Speakers. Replacing my X-240 speakers, all they do now is "snap, crackle, and pop." At first, I thought that it was because of my sound card that it did this, but I made sure that the drivers were the latest. However, I hooked up another source to the X-240s in the cable box through my monitor via HDMI and audio out to the aux port of the remote, and lo and behold, it still snap, crackle and popped, so...yeah. That would be an upgrade that I would NOT regret making.

[Tekedon]

Well, I ordered a XFX GTX285 Black Edition, hopefully I'll receive it wednesday latest.

[Dave-ros]

Black edition? Does that mean it's twice as large as the normal kind?

/tumbleweed

[Tekedon]

Ofcourse

I received it today! I'm going to try it out tomorrow!

[Dave-ros]

No, try it today, so we know whether you'll never go back now you've tried black!

As an aside, my GTX 280 runs a few degrees (Celsius) over 40 when idle, and gets close to 80 under load (Assassin's Creed). I imagine yours will be similar...

[Phayzon]

Salvaged a 500GB Seagate SATA drive out of a computer at work the other day. Great timing since my 1TB drive is nearing full and I was looking into buying another.

[Tekedon]

Originally Posted by Dave-ros

No, try it today, so we know whether you'll never go back now you've tried black!

As an aside, my GTX 280 runs a few degrees (Celsius) over 40 when idle, and gets close to 80 under load (Assassin's Creed). I imagine yours will be similar...

Damn The card really IS big!

New card and old card together:
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4262/black001.jpg

Side view of both cards:
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3697/black002.jpg

Black Edition and matchbox:
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/9176/black003b.jpg

[Dave-ros]

In my case I went up from an 8800GTS, which is also two slots high, so it wasn't as jarring a change -- but the length increase was enormous, and I'm surprised I can fit it into the box. There, is that enough phallic jokes in one sentence? Oh, all right then -- it's thrusting, vibrant new technology

In other news, not so much new hardware as the same, only more so: I'm off to a remote DHL depot tomorrow, to pick up my replacement hard drive. Unless the bloke's half-inched it, of course

[8IronBob]

Originally Posted by Tekedon

Damn The card really IS big!

New card and old card together:
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4262/black001.jpg

Side view of both cards:
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3697/black002.jpg

Black Edition and matchbox:
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/9176/black003b.jpg

Kinda looks like the same size as the 9800GTX+, I'm assuming.

[Mr. Gruntsworthy]

Just picked up myself an Acer H213H 21.5" widescreen LCD monitor the other day. Up until now, I was using a 17" CRT monitor from the stone age... an HP 7500 to be exact.

Sure feels awesome going from 1024 by 768 to 1920 x 1080 res!

[KO Gilligan]

I purchased one of these today. A cheap 22" monitor, but you really can't beat it for $110 after rebate with free shipping.

http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop...il?Sku=8978695

[8IronBob]

Bah, Soyo, never really trusted any brands that don't ring any bells... Can't tell what their reliability is like.

[KO Gilligan]

Never heard of SOYO?

Does this ring a bell: Basically dominated the cheap mainboard market for several years by selling in major retailers like Frys. I remember Frys selling more SOYO mainboards than just about any other single product in the whole store. But you could find SOYO Boards everywhere, they were the MSI of the 90s.

But PCConnection must have local distribution. I selected free ground, and it arrived at 3PM today, like 20 hours from when I ordered it.

It's actually a nice monitor, it's probably the same piece of imported crap as one I would pay two and a half times for with a name brand stuck on it.

[8IronBob]

It's not that I never heard of Soyo, but I've never really cared to own a brand that I feel may get some bad raps.

After all, there are name brands that do their own panel manufacturing, like LG, Samsung, and Sharp.

[peoplessi]

That makes them better how?

Soyo was big in late 90s to early 2000. Made some good motherboards, very good quality, and those boards were considered to be among the best.

[KO Gilligan]

If the rebate was for more than one, I'd grab one or two more in a second. Watched HULU on it last night and really loved it. It's not on the main gaming rig... but it's got an x1950 powering it. I should load up HL2 and test it

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

This is what I am planning to buy shortly.

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
COOLER MASTER V8 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail
Foxconn Renaissance LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
OCZ XMP Ready Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM


I plan on using my existing video card / power supply and transplanting it over, current vid card is the ATI x1900XT.

Right now my computer takes to long to build panoramic / hdr photos in photoshop cs3... sometimes several minutes per photo. I believe it is both a memory and processor issue. The computer also lags quite a bit when viewing /editing large photos.

I have a 4200+ and 2gigs of ram.

[peoplessi]

Not bad at all. I'd dive in with a SSD drive, but that's me.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Well SSD's are still a bit too pricey and frankly I am fed up with having a small "C" drive.

After having 74gig WD raptors for as my main drive(s) for so long the small size is a hassle.

(I used to have the 2 raptors in raid0, but then my array failed. Currently, both drives work individually so I am not sure if one or both of the drives are going bad... or if something went wrong with my raid controller.

Regardless, the raptors will not be in my new build.
I have a wd 750gig that will also be in the new build. I also have a 750gig external as a redundant backup.


My next upgrade will probably be a second samsung 1tb drive or another 6 gigs of memory.

[Da_Lurker]

Yays! My new HD WD 300 GB 7200 RMP works like a dream.



I'm so happy with so much space, specially when I was using an 80 GB HD for years, that's my second drive right now.

(And in case you are wondering why didn't I buy a better disk, I'm from Argentina, the prices of computers is freaking high.)