This has to be the most amazing compilation of hardware I have EVER set my hands or eyes on. Each and every piece that I had purchased surprised me in a pleasant way....
CPU: Obviously not much surprise here, except the heatsink bundled with the processor is different from what I remember. The last AMD I had, which was a 3500+, had a lower-end heatsink. The 4400+ comes with a real heavy duty stock unit, and I was very impressed. I have to say, AMD heatsinks are also MUCH easier to apply than Intel units, especially over the LGA775, ick! (I'm not saying I can't, or that they are hard, I just think the springs are more of a pain with Intel vs. AMD). I have a nice AMD Athalon 64 X2 sticker to pimp on my rig, which I may copy and get a tatoo of it :smoker:
RAM: The RAM was a nice surprise for me since it actually worked. Each review I read on the particular RAM that I picked out, said most BIOS's won't detect the timings correctly. One of the first things I looked at when I jumped into the BIOS was my memory timings. I was prepared to do some tinkering, but I didn't have to as everything was peachy from the start
Video Card: Wow, this thing is sweet. I have never used or seen up close a video card that requires it's own power supply. That just goes to show the fps-pumping quality I can potentially get out of this card. Most people know, and those who don't, do now, that I don't really game. After installing the video card, I now wonder just how much juice I can get out of this thing, and will definitely start seeing how much I can tax it. This card is H-U-G-E. It is a very snug fit over the chipset fan on the motherboard itself, but all and all no complaints. I didn't end up using the bundled power adapter, but I'll get to more of that in a moment
This also comes with a sticker to put on my case!
Sound Card: This I haven't really gotten to yet. I did put the system together about 95% (still need 2 fans and to put the last HD in). The sound card is installed, but I have yet to install the drivers. Cool thing about this so far, is I got a neat sticker to put on the front of my case
Hard Drives: Only the 250GB is in, because of my cat I had things VERY scattered, and put the hard drive in a place I couldn't find it before I closed the case up
(insert dumb joke here) I expected the drive to be fast, and so far it screams. The big idea behind this purchase was for the 16MB cache, which I won't really benefit from until I install the second hard drive. I hope that to be tomorrow, but I might not be able to touch the new baby at all tomorrow
Dual Burners: Not only are these black, which I dig, but they are slot-loaded. I never really was a fan of these drives before I had the plextors, but I REALLY like these. The eject mechanism is sharp, crisp and puts the disc out to a comfortable range so you can grab it with a nice grip. The installs are BLAZING fast from CD-ROM, which is where I really notice the 100ms access time
Motherboard: Wow. Let me catch my breath for a minute. OK, still Wow! I found this motherboard really amazing. What was my favorite feature, I bet you'll never guess. I thought it was really cool that the onboard audio, actually comes as a seperate component. Even better, it's not installed by default. This has always been something that has bothered me, if you can get boards without onboard video, why not without onboard audio? Granted, you can always install one and disalbe in the BIOS, but that was a VERY welcomed feature that I did not realize when I was "shopping".
The motherboard came with great documentation, and hooking up the case wires as well as my other equipment was a breeze. I am VERY happy with that choice
PSU: My first impression of this piece was - HEAVY. This is a very heavy PSU, which if nothing else, indicates quality. The reason why I picked it is because I really wanted to have a tight grip around cable management within this system. The modular supply was a nice touch, and the extra cables have their own velcro-strap case to keep them in - very cool.
It's funny when you see how much cabling you don't even use, which is a testament for how much you would just have to bundle or tie somewhere else. My only grip with this is they should offer cables of variable length, for optical devices for example, which are usually very close. Other than that, very nice piece of hardware as well.
Case: Most people save the best for last, and this is no exception. I was up in the air, and the case was my last decision that I made. I saw
Sazar's Review, as well as a nice review over at
TweakNews (I promised I would say hello to Mr. Bones), and I was sold. I saw a lot of features I tentatively would have liked, and man was I NOT disappointed. Back to weight impressions, I have to say I was surprised with how
light this case was. That usually means it's really low-end material, but this was not the case here. After reading the guides and getting the 411 on how to take it apart, I was ready to go. I took the Windows side-panel off first, and then the front bezel and the left side. This case came apart very easily, and I thought the removeable trays for the motherboard, FDD, and fan for the front of the case were very great ideas. This case truly is 100% tool-less, and that is awesome to be able to pull off and still maintain high quality.
I am very impressed, and plan to post some benchmarks as soon as I get a chance.
Price was a bit high for the rig, but seems to be worth every penny, if not in shock and awe value alone
