My new SFF PC ... just put together 1

[SiM]

Oh well that explains it...
Its a very nice build mate, I am jealous... let us know how well it overclocks and what temps you are getting

ps: mike, I will try to keep beating my lows for you... although its getting harder, I think I am approaching the turning point... sorry, bad maths joke

[Cov]

Hows the noise then? Was the HSF any good in the end?

... are you overclocking the E8400? Still thinking the quad would have been nice.

The noise is certainly lower than my old NEC - Powermate VL4 from 2003.
I figured out that the main noise came from the PSU fan. And the operation noise of the 100GB WD HDD is louder than the WD 1TB one.

The CPU cooler is alright. It feels even cold at all times when I use the PC only for Word and Internet. I believe passive cooling with this 45nm CPU would be possible.
Having played demanding games on it, it does get hot ... but not very.
Regarding the temperature values ... I get contradicting information from BIOS, Everest and Vista's System Diagnosis. Even the frequency is given as 3GHz from one and as 2GHz from another tool.

Haven't looked into it deeper yet ... will do later.
And the question wether to overclock ... it's very interesting to see that so many people are getting excited by this subject. I have to say that as long as I don't have any slow downs in my games, why would I heat the CPU extra ? If I come to the point, and I suspect that Crysis and FS X are going to force me, of course I will go higher ... but I'm not a overclocker, but ... stock *cough cough*

Yeah, the Q9450 ... sighs ... maybe later.
Then I will drill a hole into the Wolfdale and hang it around my neck as a lucky charm

[staffsMike]

When it comes to overclockiing you have the right idea imo. Overclock it when it needs it not because you can. It will speed up things like video encoding and other cpu intesive tasks you might do but games doesn't need much over 2.2 .. 2.4 maybe unless they are particularly heavy on the CPU and even then they will cope.

The difference in reported frequnecy is almost certainly stepspeed kicking in where at idle it will automatically underclock the CPU to save power and lower temps. You can turn it off and would be best advised to when overclocking but at stock I can't see a problem with that running.

[Cov]

The Keyboard has three modes: bright / half-bright / off

this is bright



and this is half bright



Please note that the digital camera from my mobile phone is not able to capture the pictures properly. It does look better in reality than on those pictures.

[BigGlenn]

Hey Cov,

Nice looking machine you got yourself there

What made you decide on the Eclipse? Could you not get the Eclipse II?
I got the II and it is certainly a nice keyboard, either for general work use (which I should be doing now....) and gaming as well

Enjoy it

[Cov]

Oh man, Glenn ... I think I will get the Saitek Eclipse II for my second PC. Scan have it now in stock for £ 29.25 ...

Thanks for the idea !!

[Cov]

I am so happy with my current system.

Have received Crysis via eBay yesterday ... well, this is a Monster of PC game - for a Monster of PC equipment. (have ordered and waiting now for CoD4 to arrive)

If you are into FPS games and haven't played Crysis yet ... go'n get it !!

[piranha]

Have the same sugo case but after installing an 8800gtx into it and moving the hdd to a 5.25 bay with an adaptor am begining to thing the cooling is'nt enough.

May have to move to a more cooling case which I don't really want to as do like the sugo.

[aidanjt]

Have the same sugo case but after installing an 8800gtx into it and moving the hdd to a 5.25 bay with an adaptor am begining to thing the cooling is'nt enough.

May have to move to a more cooling case which I don't really want to as do like the sugo.

The SG02 is much better designed to accommodate big power hungry cards.

[staffsMike]

The SG02 is much better designed to accommodate big power hungry cards.

The SG02-F I think is the improved case. I was under the impression that the SG02 was exactly the same inside the SG01.

[aidanjt]

The SG02-F I think is the improved case. I was under the impression that the SG02 was exactly the same inside the SG01.

Sorry, yes it's the 'f' variant I was thinking about which supports 12" cards, but the SG01 and SG02 are still different in many ways internally.

[staffsMike]

Look the same to me :S

[aidanjt]

The little bracket thing on the back of the PCI coverplates on the SG01 gets in the way. The 5.25" slots on the SG02 doesn't have that annoying flap in the middle, and other little things here and there.. But anyway, SG02-F ftw..