Josh's Main Workstation/Gaming Rig Specs & Worklog

Mobo: Asus P5N32-E SLI (NVIDIA 680i Chipset)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3GHz 1.25v w/ Lapped Tuniq Tower + SilverStone FM121

RAM: 4x1GB XP2-6400 Mushkin eXtreme @ 800MHz 4-4-3-10 2T 2.0v

GPU: EVGA 8800 Ultra Superclocked @ 655/1500/2250 (Stock) & 675/1675/2300 (OC) (Attached is a ZEROtherm Hurricane HC92 8800 Cooler)

Storage: RAID0 4x80GB Western Digital Raptors (WD800GD) & RAID5 4x320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ( All are on a Dell Perc 5i Integrated SAS Controller)

Optical: ASUS DRW-1814BL

Case: Cooler Master Stacker 832 Case

Power: Mushkin 550100 650w "Rail Fusion" Quad 12v Rail

Cooling: Cooling: 9x120mm Cooler Master (TLF-S12-EB) | Zalman MFC1 Plus-B Fan Controller

Notes:

The computer is overclocked from 2.4GHz to 3.0GHz. Under volting from 1.325v stock to 1.25v and is stable on ORTHOS under full load. I also bumped up my EVGA 8800 ULTRA SC to the same speeds as the "XFX 8800 ULTRA XXX" edition @ 675/1675/2300 from 655/1665/2250 stock. Got a score of ***** on 3DMark06.

[new 3dmark06 score pending]

For cooling I have 9x120mm Cooler Master TLF-S12-EB blue LED fans, 1x120mm SilverStone FM121 fan, a ZEROtherm HC92 8800 cooler on my 8800 ULTRA, and a Zalman MFC1 Plus-B fan controller. The case is very quiet, minus the 8800 cooler & FM121 when turned up of course. I used some sound dampening foam mats so that helps cut down on noise. Also take note of my use of tons of zip ties on the wires; without them the case would be such a mess.

Finally... the Images (scroll down, down, down):

Product shot courtesy of Cooler Master.

Don't mess with this.

The beast.

The front, no floppy drive, no card reader, just the essentials.

That Audigy drive is a little white for my tastes, the new X-Fi ones are much better looking but this works, although that Zalman controller is so sleek it makes up for it.

I like my stickers, I still need one to sport my WD Raptor drives though.

Rear view, note the SilverStone power supply silencer. Also if you are wondering the battery strapped to the back is for my raid card which you will see later.

Close up of it.

Another angle, you can see its kind of hard to get at the power cable...

Check out all that sound dampening foam, it really helps. Also see my Tuniq Tower taking up the spot where a side fan should have gone.

Glory shot.

Ta-Da! (Yea, my flashlights are cool too...)

My Tuniq Tower was almost too big, it sticks out so far, its only a few mm away from hitting the fan door when it is closed.

Take note of the sheer amount of cables and how they still stay out of the way and are for the most part, very clean. I need to ditch the flat ribbon for the Audigy drive and need to get a SATA DVD-RW though.

Gotta love the power of 4GB high performance Mushkin.

Check out the new raid card, $700 value for $150 on Ebay!

Check out all those hard drives! 8 in total, I have a Dell Perc 5i run my 4 Raptors in RAID0 and my 4 Barracudas in RAID5. (FYI, Ignore the stock 8800 cooler...)

As you can see, my Ultra has lots of heatsink to help it out. That new cooler is so good, 20c cooler than the stock one. I'm planning to strap a quiet Cooler Master 80mm fan to the backside heatsink eventually.

Speaking of the ULTRA, I replaced my "old" GTX, and here is a comparison between the two top dogs on the market. That ULTRA is a beast!

ZEROtherm CU92 8800 Cooler, even when overclocked I don't go above 60c.

Fortunately the backside cooler from EVGA still fits without the stock cooler!

Side note, I just have to say... I love Cable internet, I also love the massive speed boost I got from getting a Linksys Cable Modem & flashing a version of DD-WRT on my WRT54GL Linksys Router.

Click to see my computer's power usage when maxing out everything. (CPU/GPU