More pics
Shipping out tonight, Ill get that product added now Andy.
Cheers
More pics
Shipping out tonight, Ill get that product added now Andy.
Cheers
Got it and now in the process of setting it up. Thanks!
Unfortuately Valentine's Day, friends coming over and the need to completely trash and rebuild my desk are making things a bit slower than I'd like.
Should have everything ready tomorrow though by the end of the morning.
Glad to hear it all arrived OK, Andy. I hope you'll do another post in a day or three with your impressions of the new beast and perhaps a note of how you got on with the Win 7 beta.
Have fun!!
20k in 3D mark, bloody L!
It's a very cool looking case Andy.. you're going to post us a sexy desktop picture of it later?
Afternoon guys. Just a quick update to start with. (as I've read back it's got longer...)
First and by far the most important is that the new system is fully functional, arrived spot on time and is under my desk whiring away.
Next observation is noise. This system is very quiet ! Really chuffed with this as it is far quieter than my old system and exhibits none of the disk whiring / clicking. A bearly audible whoosh of air is all that's perceptable. You can't hear anything if there is a TV on, music playing, etc...
I ran 3dmark06 and the number back was 20,700+. Of course I can only run this on the default "low" settings as to run anything else means paying for it.
I copied WoW over and with Vsync on and everything set to high it either sync's itself into 30 or 60 fps. Generally 30 only occurs in town's where there are loads of people around. It looks good but to be honest WoW looks pretty much the same on low or high settings. Will have to take Vsync off and monitor the numbers over the coming days.
Windows 7
Very first impressions.
I installed from DVD as I wanted to test ISO burning on the new Scan PC. It burned 1st time, the image verified correctly (would not on my old PC) and worked superbly.
For installing from USB though, simply press F8 during boot and you can choose the boot device for that boot. Job done.
Even from DVD the install was fast. Much faster than previous Vista / XP installs.
Once in everything is slightly different. Like being somewhere you know, yet there's something odd. Right now I'm just getting over this "odd" feeling and hopefully soon will see if I like it or not.
It's fast to load and close right now. But then I have very few "extras" loaded.
I'm also confused as to whether all my Vista64 software will work on Windows 7. Especially my virus checker (norton 09).
Word of warning on the Graphics drivers. Nvidia say they will be in the Upgrade Center, but they were not. However if you download the latest appropriate Vista drivers they work perfectly.
KVM Switch
Here unfortunately things are not so rosey.
The basic functionality works, however the keyboard (logitech G15) feels sluggish and occasionally a key just repeats for no reason. In order to write anything over a line / two you have to bypass the switch (as I've done now). Also all the extra functions of the G15 don't work. Programmeable keys, LCD display, etc.
This is a shame because otherwise the switch is excellent. Video quality is uneffected, the unit is very well made and the overall functionality superb. It's also very fast.
You can't update it though without a SERIAL port (OMG!) and there don't seem to be any recent updates anyway.
I've logged a ticket on their website and hopefully they will reply tomorrow with an answer to my woes.
Any qustions, just ask, I'll add more in a day / two I'm sure.
It all sounds great, Andy, and I'm pleased to hear you have had almost zero problems (apart from the KVM switch thingy). The Win 7 install is what interests me as I'm thinking of giving that a whirl too (perhaps as a dual boot job), so thanks for that feedback, it all sounds relatively trouble free and easy.
I'm also interested to read your comments about how quiet the system is - you have a different case to the one I'm planning on buying but just out of curiosity, how many system case fans do you have installed?
Thanks for the update - it's been fun to follow your story, from the inital spec'ing up through to delivery and use. Congratulations, I think you and your beast will be very happy together! Hehe.
Good to know that this semi-blog is of interest NightOwl. Always good to not feel I'm not speaking to myself - lol.
The case is obviously well soundproofed, the sides of the case are more of a thick (but light) composite material that straight away tell a story of sound deadening properties. Phil always said he loved this case and now I can see why.
The case looks amazing too, but in a sensibly sized and modest way. Unlike my previous 900 case it has no pretentious windows and neon shouty lights. It just looks solid, classly and (with the front door) very fuss free.
I've just installed and run again the 3dMark06 test, this time under Windows 7. It appears a fraction slower but I am using the certified Nvidia drivers and have not installed any sound card / other drivers yet.
Here also are the Windows 7 performance stats.
First experience with Explorer 8 crashing too. Was dismayed to see ALL the windows close, then was delighted to see them all appear again with all the tabs / pages open where they were beforehand.
Last edited by Andy14; 15-02-2009 at 03:36 PM.
Hehe, no, I'm reading. Dunno about anyone else.
I really like the case you've chosen - uncluttered and very smart, and I bet it looks even better in real life. I'm not a great fan of side windows or lights either though I do have two thin strips of blue light on the front of my present Lian Li brushed aluminium case, behind a blue perspex door. It should have had a side window in it too but I persuaded the shop I bought it from to give me a plain aluminium panel for it instead - I'm sure they thought I was soft in the head for wanting such a "downgrade".
Not good that Explorer crashed but at least it had the good grace to get back on its feet. Well, it is a beta, after all, some problems like this are probably to be expected, let's hope nothing more serious occurs!
Oh dear - 2 days in and it's dead !
Left on for a few hours it just failed and now on boot-up I get "Overclocking failed" errors.
Oh dear indeed. Doesn't sound like it was stress tested for 24 hours?
When ever I'm OCing, I always run P95 and IBT for 24 hours. Any fails and I go back to the drawing board.
I'm not sure why the error occured after a forced reboot. However after going through with Ben I'm pretty sure that the cause was Windows 7 putting the system into hibernation after 30 minutes of non-use.
That setting is now changed. System back up and running again.
Thanks Ben for the help !
TBH this problem is ancient and must be a combination of drivers, software and hardware as "hibernation" has never worked properly. It's not unique to Windows 7.
My old machine would also never recover from an invokation of "sleep" by mistake, but it didn't throw up and "overclock" error afterwards.
=-=-=-=-=-
As an aside... When you Alt-Tab between applications in Windows 7 it shows you a live small image of the apps running. This is VERY cool when switching between games !
Hi Andy, I like your spec and the photos go a long way to demonstrate Scan's work. Can you tell me if, by "single card" do you mean the 1GB XFX GTX 285 Black occupies one slot space (so it does not block one of the PCI slots). From the photo it looks like it occupies two slot spaces. Also, does the Antec P182 have a flat top - pictures I've seen elsewhere look like there's something like an ugly vent sticking up at the back. Yours looks flat from the pictures.
Ta
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