SoulBot-IV

After months of saying I want to build a new gaming machine (home computer) to replace the current temperamental one, I finally did it yesterday. Thanks to the recent bonus that made this possible, else I would still be waiting for the fund to slowly build up from monthly saving.

For my fourth computer, I decided not to reuse any old parts and went with brand new stuff besides the monitor, keyboard and mouse. Actually I am thinking of getting a new gaming mouse as well since the current one is iffy after my son dropped it a few times too many, but that will have to wait.


SoulBot-IV in Rambo casing. Don't mess with it!

So, spanking new motherboard for the QuadCore, 2GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory (mobo only supports up to 1333MHz), 500GB SATA hard disk, my first ever DVD-rewriter (been recycling my CD-rewriter), new casing, CPU heatsink, 510W power supply, and the graphic card that made up the lion's share of the total cost: my prized GeForce GTS250 256bit 1GB DDR3.


There you go, RM1518 worth of stuff

All that without the QuadCore processor summed up to slightly over RM1.5k, purchased and assembled at Accom Technology in Bukit Jambul Complex, Penang.

I am giving Accom Technology a free advertisement for the customer service I received, and for deducting the price when I informed them I found cheaper price of the same motherboard and graphic card listed online, and because instead of selling me two 2GB DDR3 memory like I wanted to, adviced me to just get one and wait till the end of March to get the other since DDR3 price will drop then (but DDR2's will rise).

I was thinking of putting the box together myself but Accom has kindly did that for me, saving me the effort.

The graphic card is a beast, it took up two back panel slots while its heatpipe cooling system covered the neighbour PCI slot. It requires dedicated power hence the 510W power supply.


GeForce GTS250, my precioussssss...

I am going to turn all my game graphic settings to max now, muahahahahaha!

Initially I wanted to install the old SoundBlaster audio card I got since SoulBot-II but the onboard audio seems to be good enough. I did installed an old 40GB IDE hard disk and made a 10GB paging file on it. Read on gaming forum that having the paging file on another hard drive instead of the system hard drive can give a performance boost.

For the other geeks that would like to do this, this is where to do it on Windows XP: Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance - Settings > Advanced > Virtual memory - Change

Oh, my new gaming machine is called SoulBot-IV. And yes, it's for GAMING. =)




This entry is written and posted using my new gaming machine, which still has no game installed thus far, so I am going to fix that! =P