Worst and Best Computer buys of 2006

L31mr0d

As another year passes i'm just wondering what purchases people have made for their computer, and which they believe where the worst (i.e. expensive, broken, useless) and best (i.e. usefull, a deal) buys of the past year.

For me 2006 was the first year that I got seriously into computer building, modding and tweaking. Before this I ran a computer society in college which afforded me the freedom to get paid by the college to build and overclock computers without the worry of having to pay for any damages incurred. Since graduating, I needed to fill that OC'in urge and i've built and rebuilt about 5 machines for various purposes.

Here are my best and worst buys from these:

BEST:

• DFI Lanparty Expert: Single handedly the best mobo i've ever worked with
• WD 250GB Mybook: Finally had somewhere to store my files instead of juggling them between drives while I formatted.
• XFI Fatal1ty: Technically it was bought for me, but I don't know how I lived without the CMSS-3D before it.
• BFG OC 7900GTX: Got a great deal on it from some guy in the states looking to pay off his G80 debts
• Opteron 165: Another great deal from a guy who needed to pay off his C2D upgrade
• Lapping kits from easypckits: Changed the way I view air cooling in my computer.

WORST:

• Saitek Gamers Keyboard: The backlight is rubbish as you can't see the actually letters when its dark, plus I got it off ebay and teh layout is german *schoolboy sheesh*
• ASUS M2N-MX mobo: DOA from komplett :mad:
• Medusa 5.1 Headset: Absolutely rubbish imo, sound was tinny, they where to heavy and the amp was subceptable to interference from any wireless device.
• 7900GT: Paid way too much for it just before the G80's came out, live and learn Had it only a few months and i'm already making a ridiculous loss selling it.
• Liquid Pro: DO NOT USE THE STUFF!!! Had to reseat me HS's and found the stuff had eaten into the surfaces of my IHS. Had to resand to remove it :mad:
• NorthQ 400w PSU: Blew a brand new 6800Ultra. Infact anything i've ever bought from NorthQ has always been below my expectations

TonyM.

I picked up a Dell outlet computer for work 3800+ semperon 80gb disk and XP PRO. got it for €201.00 plus €30 delivery works great wish i could overclock it.

Anti

Best buys:

evga 680i motherboard. Great overclockers, just liek the dfi i have.
e6600. What can i say ?
8800gts. Simply amazing performance.
x1950pro pelt cooled with heatpipes. Has doubled my PPD in fodling at home.
Hr-05 sli. Brought my NB temps down by 15C under load, And silent.
x-fi. sImply amazing sounds.
Mx518 / razer diamonback. Best mice in the world.

Worst buys.

Dominator ram cooler. This has dropped ram temps by 1c.
Tuniq tower. What a waste of money.
Enermax galaxy 850w psu. Didnt work on arrival.
150gb raptor, Way to loud for its own good, performance is good though.
Saitek gaming keyboard. Same as the OP, but not in german

L31mr0d

anti wrote:

Worst buys.

Dominator ram cooler. This has dropped ram temps by 1c.
Tuniq tower. What a waste of money.
....
Saitek gaming keyboard. Same as the OP, but not in german

Hey how are you monitoring your RAM temps? Do DDR2 sticks have temp sensors? Also what don't you like about the Tuniq, i'm idling at around 26'c with mine on full rpm with the stock fan, can't complain about that.

Also, the german layout doesn't bother me that much because, like I said, in the dark I can't tell which key is which anyway, all the backlight does is show you where the keys are, not WHAT they are :mad: Oh, have you ever used the control pad... great idea but completely useless

B00MSTICK

Best Buys
The rig in my sig, got it for slightly over €1k when the 165 was just released.
Going for the 165 over the 144 was a good decision too.
All the prizes won @ LANs (the price of entering was a good buy)
The 2400+ T-Bird Socket A CPU going at 2800+ which has given my shuttle a new lease of life


Bad Buys
Buying too many fans, the inside of my case is covered in a couple of mm of dust

dr.bollocko

Im desperately searching for a new PC now. Restricted to about 1300/1400 euro. Wants: Dual core processor, High spec graphics card, (This is my real problem area, never had a Gamer spec PC before and not too knowledgeable on the graphics card) 2gb ddr2, Sata HDD, 19" TFT, TV Tuner card. So I kinda need to Buy rather than build, which is pissing me off, because I really wanted my own build. I have built for my brother and mother in the past few months, and its really whetted my apettite for my own kick ass machine.
Played with the Crucial ddr2 Tenth anniv. pc5300, 1gb cl3 667mhz 240pin. that kicked ass. Also the NZXT apollo case, I liked it anyway. and motherboard a gig 965p-dq6, but as a n00b to building, i dont really know how to compromise to get something that will run games, but also give me the sound card, tv card, and tft i want.
Anyone any suggestions?

Anti

L31mr0d wrote:

Hey how are you monitoring your RAM temps? Do DDR2 sticks have temp sensors? Also what don't you like about the Tuniq, i'm idling at around 26'c with mine on full rpm with the stock fan, can't complain about that.

Also, the german layout doesn't bother me that much because, like I said, in the dark I can't tell which key is which anyway, all the backlight does is show you where the keys are, not WHAT they are :mad: Oh, have you ever used the control pad... great idea but completely useless

I just find the temps with the tuniq less then impressive. My coolermaster vortex did almost as good as a job.

ATM the dominator cooling is on my opty rig. And i used a thermal probe gun from work to check. They really just push out enough air

Anti

dr.bollocko wrote:

Im desperately searching for a new PC now. Restricted to about 1300/1400 euro. Wants: Dual core processor, High spec graphics card, (This is my real problem area, never had a Gamer spec PC before and not too knowledgeable on the graphics card) 2gb ddr2, Sata HDD, 19" TFT, TV Tuner card. So I kinda need to Buy rather than build, which is pissing me off, because I really wanted my own build. I have built for my brother and mother in the past few months, and its really whetted my apettite for my own kick ass machine.
Played with the Crucial ddr2 Tenth anniv. pc5300, 1gb cl3 667mhz 240pin. that kicked ass. Also the NZXT apollo case, I liked it anyway. and motherboard a gig 965p-dq6, but as a n00b to building, i dont really know how to compromise to get something that will run games, but also give me the sound card, tv card, and tft i want.
Anyone any suggestions?

buy a xps from dell. or just get one from ankermann.

dr.bollocko

anti wrote:

buy a xps from dell. or just get one from ankermann.

Yeah I guess. Was hoping to avoid the great satan, but I guess I can just buy a nice case and mod post purchase.

awhir

BEST:
seagate 7200.9 and 7200.10 these are nice hdds very silent and good performecnce.will allways support seagate now

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy4got this for about 25euro and for 1/3 the price of a x-fi its great

Akasa Mirage 62great case you can basically take apart the whole thing so easy to build in also.

amd 3800+ x2this has been great for me got upto 2600 stable and can probly do a good but more

ati x1900xtxgot this for 250e few weeks ago off ebay great deal and a nice card.

WORST:
dfi cfx 3200was a impulse buy but gota say this mobo is a pice of ****.

water cooling kitok it was good for cooling but its a ****ing bitch when ya gota change 1 thing in your pc and you have to drain you wc kit .it drove me around the bend.

Stephen

Best:
Intel E6600, awesome piece of electronics. Overclocks like a beast, I just need better cooling/case to keep it less-than-scorching hot when o/c'd.

nVidia 7800GTX, used, from adverts.ie

Worst:
My nasty generic ATX case with crap airflow and not much room in it. But it was cheap.

hopeful

Best:
ASrock 939 DualSATAII mainboard. Rock solid, OC's well and has AGP and PCIe slots.
AMD64 X2 3800...as mentioned above overclocks well. Mine runs 24/7 @2.55 with a CPU and GPU folding client.
WD My Book external drive.
Loads of SKt 939 stuff very cheap as everyone rushed out on the Conroe trail

Worst:
Tagan PSU. Great PSU but was 2cm too long for my project so had to spend a week reworking my watercooling setup :mad:
Flowmeter from Alphacool that started leaking AFTER a 24 hour leak test and blew up aforementioned Tagan PSU.

Hendrix89

I greatly regret buying a 480eu (LG) 19'' LCD monitor a year ago (from komplett)... Still have it now. I shoulda got a 21'' for cheaper!!! Now im stuck with 1280x1024 res for the next half year at least:( Definately a bad and stupid buy.

L31mr0d

Stephen wrote:

Worst:
My nasty generic ATX case with crap airflow and not much room in it. But it was cheap.

That sounds like a modding case to me, put a window in it, a few blowholes, and LEDs for a start

Hendrix, jeez 480 yoyos for a 19" monitor??? :eek: I got mine a year ago for 230", does yours have built in speakers and a 1ms response time or something?

awhir

lmord why are yu on stock why not overclock ??

L31mr0d

I'll probably overclock it next week. I'm going to be changing a few fans in my system next week, and I don't have windows fully set up yet on the raptors yet. Plus i'm allowing a bit of time for the AS5 to settle on the heatsinks.

B00MSTICK

I didnt even use AS5 an mines running nicely

Anti

i used the stuff that came with the tuniq, Maybe thats why my temps arnt that great.

irlrobins

Stay on topic please, no random chats/discussions on systems. Start a new thread for that.

Blazer

Best: Dell 9150 with P4 D 3.6GHz + 2 GB DDR2 + 7950GX2+500GB HD +DVD Rewriter for €930. Mate had just bought it about a month and decided to upgrade to Flaccus's monster €6000 system. Worked out well for me
: Dell Precision 390 -C2D 6600 + 2GB DDR2 667MHz +DVDRW+750 GB HD. €1300
Another mate bought this off Dell as they have made a mistake on the pricing. He upgraded it and total cost was €650. Flogged it to me for €1300 so it was a 100% profit for him and because the real system cost was €2400 it saved me €1100. It's a real sweet system especially as I sold the one above for €1300 to pay for it.
Logitech G5 gaming mouse: Simply put,the best gaming mouse there is bar none.
Dell 2007WFP: Got this for €330 euros off a mate as he was upgrading. Monitor was only 2 months old. Sweet deal:D

Worst: Razer Copperhead - Most uncomfortable mouse I ever used, side buttons are a waste of time especially on the right hand side. Back to the G5 for me. :mad:
X-Box 360 Premium: Bought it just for the video streaming capability with MCE. Did a fantastic job and was very pleased with it till I spent €50 on a Aldi DivX player with USB support. Saves me a load of hassle with cd's and dvd's. So now the 360 is sitting unused in a corner as I only game on the pc.

Snake Plisken

Hey Anti,

On the "Are Raptors worth it" Thread you said that they were worth it and on this thread they are one of your worst buys of the year I'm confused?? Should I invest in one or should I raid a couple of Seagate 7200.10's ?

Snake

awhir

raid doesnt pefrom as well as raptors in games.

irlrobins

Are my warnings invisible?

Snake, three day ban for OTness. PM to get unbanned.

Edit: and awhir too.

KdjaCL

Best:

DFI SLI DR deadly board gonna go DFI again.
1gb OCZ pc 4000 great ram great timings also worst buy.
Fx57 weeeeeeeeeeeeeee got it to 3.2 on Air leaving it at 3 with massive fan on it 25c
Mx518 mouse awww pointy goodness.
2 6800s SLI great when they worked, have CRT so 1600 was excellent.

Worst
SLI pain in the hole endless heating problems cluminating in smoke and black marks.
OCZ ram impossible to buy another 1gb eventually did but jesus its expensive when not bought on boards.


kdjac

Cuddlesworth

Best buys

E6600- God how I love dual core at insane speeds(adverts)
1800xt 512megs with full cover waterblock- Served me so very well this entire year(adverts)
Hopefulls modded case- Not a lot of case's that can take 9 hard-drives, 2 psus and a triple rad and still provide comfort room.(adverts)
Cathar G5 Wc block- So very pretty(adverts)

Worst buys

None that I can think of, learned all my lessons from years before. Plus noise is not a factor for me(10*160cfm fans going off in the background)

Edit: Come to think of it, this stupid Abit Aw9 max has been a right pain in the hole. Constant Cmos resets and random error codes on startup for perfect oc settings. Even at stock.

Cuddlesworth

KdjaCL wrote:

Best:

1gb OCZ pc 4000 great ram great timings also worst buy.



OCZ ram impossible to buy another 1gb eventually did but jesus its expensive when not bought on boards.

That the Gold Vx pc4000 ram? Funny I have had a gig sitting around for the last year doing nothing. Got it to 267mhz at 1.5-2-2-6 timings at 3.5volts then moved onto some 320Mhz plus Dfi special Ocz ram.

irlrobins

Right krazy_8s, 3 day ban.

I'll put it simply, you post your worst and best buys and explain why. Anyone starting a discussion of "have you tried this?", or "I had that and it worked fine" gets a ban. Got it?

Any probs/questions, PM me!

KdjaCL

irlrobins wrote:

Right krazy_8s, 3 day ban.

I'll put it simply, you post your worst and best buys and explain why. Anyone starting a discussion of "have you tried this?", or "I had that and it worked fine" gets a ban. Got it?

Any probs/questions, PM me!

Jesus relax, ffs he made a comment about an others best and worst. hardly going off topic is he.


kdjac

Anti

Christ, someone has got pmt...

Anyway onto the raptors. They are great, But the noise and the heat they produce is un-natural.

Go for some wd or samsung 250gb's in raid for some decent performance, without sounding like hairdryers.

irlrobins

Right enough of people ignoring what I say. Closed.