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Loading ...XFXScorpio911 - The New Toys…
xfxscorpio911
Hi All
I’ve been annoyed for some time that my 8800 GTS 320 was not powerful enough to run my 22″ screen, it would regularly lag in games like Crysis, Dirt and Grid, and would pause for several seconds in games like TDU and again Crysis (due to lack of Ram)
So i have decided against my wallets better judgement to get myself a new toy
an XFX GTX 260 XXX Edition 896MB GDDR3 Graphics Card
Now I will start by saying that WOW!!!!
its amazing (huge, but i worked with 9800GX2’s on my work experience so i was expecting it)
It sort of gives me a comfortable level of power for the first time at 1680*1050, really the only choice i have to make is how many levels of AA i want to apply, starting at 8x and working up lol
Crysis (as an exception) is running at 4x AA, Havent even tried 8X because 4x is just so incredible compared to none
TDU is running 8XCSAA w HDR and looks great
X3 is running forced 16XCSAA and looks unbelievable
Assassins creed is full settings and AA, haven’t bothered trying to force it anything more its not a great game imho.
3DMark06 didn’t care about it, it just raises its finger when it finds out i have an Athlon
There really is no need for any more power (at this res) its an excellent card (fairly overclockable too) and my CPU is plenty to play games with (i’ll wait for Nehalem thanks) If your Umming and Ahhing between your next graphics card then it really doesnt matter, either a 4870 or a GTX 260 are both so good (and overkill tbh) just get whichever you can and you’ll love it
Been Folding at a rate of knots, have yet to try Physx or The Blu-Ray stuff, now i want a bluray drive
anyway I replaced my Psu (A 600W OCZ GameXStream PSU) with a Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650w Modular PSU, A) because its modular and i have a window, and B) because my friend has decided to build a new pc with SLI 8800 GT’s and he had his eye on my PSU. Sell it to him, i thought, and upgrade to a modular one. The Fan control features are really good too, they’ve really brought the noise levels of my pc down at idle.
My new headphones are RAZER protone m100’s and they are excellent £18~ and they are really loud, really comfortable and have excellent audio reproduction, would recommend them to anyone
Also relocated my CPU fans and Applied some Arctic Cooling MX-2 Paste. The combination of the two and the fact i hadn’t put enough paste on previously, meant i’ve seen load temp drops of ~7C
So Some Pics
The Bits In Place
All Switched On
The XFX GTX 260 XXX
The Whole System
Anyone considering buying a new card this gen?
based on the performance of this card i don’t care what ATI release (4870X2) I dont need any more performance, there isn’t really anything to use it, it can play all games at great settings. The prices are falling
I cannot believe you can pick up a 4870 for £176 and a 260 for £211
Rated: 86.67% (3 votes)
Loading ...XFXScorpio911 - Home and Shots
xfxscorpio911
Hi all some pics here for you
This is The boat
1926 Dutch barge,
Squeezing out of Camden middle lock
Moored on the wall in limehouse marina
Now
XFXScorpio911 Itself
XFXScorpio911, also Subwoofer, Lacie drive and Netgear Gigabit router
The Rear Glow
My Desk
Another shot there
The Laptop on my desk is the excellent (and tiny) Sony C1
And finally, Some Glow
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Loading ...XFXSCORPIO911 Repaired
xfxscorpio911
hi all
I have just finished repairing XFXScorpio911 and am very pleased with the results
I have replaced
The motherboard
Asrock 939Dual-Sata2
with a
Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3
The Graphics card
XFX 7800 GS Extreme Edition 256Mb AGP
with an
XFX 8800 GTS XXX Edition 320Mb PCI-E Gfx Card
The Reference Cooler with a Scythe Infinity
A Broken DVD-RW drive with a Lite-On 20x DVD/RW SATA Drive
And increased the no. of USB Ports from 10 to 14
Massive Performance increase 
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=3664604
Rated: 80% (1 votes)
Loading ...XFXScorpio911 - Ablaze
xfxscorpio911
XFXScorpio911 was pronounced dead at approximately 1:20pm on The 13th of October 2007
The computer had been exhibiting bizarre behaviour for some time
In an Attempt to locate the source the problem the Mobo expansion card was removed and examined
When it was replaced, plugged in, and powered up
It burst ablaze
A regulator failed and a smell of burning silicon filled the room
A full damage report is expected later this week
All components presumed over-volted (dead)
Not yet rated
Loading ...Development
xfxscorpio911
My Machine started out as the Following,
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Nvidia Prophet 3d Geforce 2 GTS 64Mb
512Mb DDR Ram
DVD/RW Drive
TARGA 15″ CRT Monitor
Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939 Mobo
200Gb Maxtor HDD
XP Pro
I spent £462 on everything and bought some of the bits from Maplin (not wise). The graphics card and monitor came from my old machine. I didn’t replace them as i couldn’t afford it.I originally intended to build a skt 754 machine but i was sent a skt 939 Athlon 3200 chip. So i decided to build a 939 machine. This left me with a spare Skt 754 Motherboard. I worked out what to buy and how to build it by reading little guides that came with computer shopper, but when i got more into hardware i jumped to custom pc.
I build it and it worked perfectly first time. It wasn’t the most powerful machine in the world but it was mine. I remember when i’d connected all the jumpers, pluged in all the cards and pushed the power switch. The Computer Hummed into life. And I got into the arduous task of installing Windows.
I left the machine as it was for a while but when my GeForce 2 GTS Died I was forced to buy a cheap replacement. I couldn’t afford a good replacement so for about £20 i got my hands on a Palit Geforce FX5200 AGP Card, which was actually quite a bit better than the Geforce 2. So i decided that year around Novmber to do a revamp of the older components and give my PC a little more umph. I bought:
Another 512Mb of Ram (unmatched so not in dual channel mode)
A 19″ LCD Monitor (Samsung 1280×1024)
And An XFX 7800 GS Extreme Edition
By the time i had finished this upgrade i realised i had spent nearly £1000 on my PC!!!
More recently this year i was once again contemplating upgrading some components
as some of the components were getting out of date, the Athlon 64 3200+ for example
I was quite excited about the Idea of an 8800 GTS, although i realised that the other components in my PC would bottleneck performance. I am a member of the Egosoft Forum (Madness 3d) and was advised to buy an ASRock 939-DualSata2 motherboard as it has a 939 slot and through the use of an Expansion Card Supports AM2 CPU’s and DDR2 Ram. It also has both An AGP and PCI-E Slot. So I could upgrade to an 8800 without changing the motherboard
The Full story is here
and continued here
So I’ve ended up
since then
with an Athlon X2 6000+
2Gb of DDR2 Ram
And an OCZ GameXStream 600W PSU
suppling 4, 18A, 12v rails
So The PC in its current state - Full Specs are in a Previous Post
Main Shot
Close up of CPU
my lovely cabely mess
Which allows good airflow down the bottom
Graphics Card and Expansion Card
And there it is
Im looking into getting an XFX 8800 GTS 320Mb FATAL1TY edition graphics card towards the beginning of november
Along with an Antec 900 case, an X-Fi Extreme gamer soundcard and a copy of Windows Vista
Big thanks To shifty_powers for all his help
and everyone else on the egosoft forum
Rated: 100% (2 votes)
Loading ...Specifications
xfxscorpio911
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ skt AM2 Processor
XFX GTX 260 XXX Edition 896Mb PCI-E Gfx Card
2048Mb DDR2 800 RAM (Akasa HS cooled)
Samsung SyncMaster 226BW Display
Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3 Motherboard
Scythe Infinity HS w/ Dual 120mm Fans
5.1 channel. Surround Sound Speakers
Wireless PlayStation 2 Controller
LiteOn 20x DVD-RW Drive
200Gb Maxtor Hard Disk Drive
250gb and 80gb external Lacie Firewire Drives
I-case. Black. Dual Fans
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650w (4x 20A 12v rails)
Bluetooth Wireless Enabled w Bluetooth Headphones
Hauppauge Win-TV Tuner Card
15 Enhanced USB ports (12 rear / 2 front/ 1 internal)
Windows XP Professional Edition
Twin-touch 16e Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Benchmarking
12673 – 3D Mark 06