The Geek Crew - Bobulator VII

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Bobulator VII
Nov 30^th, 2007 at 5:06pm

A friend at work is interested in building their own PC, so I thought I would keep a pictorial log of my own PC-building experience to help them out. Where better to host it than right here on the forum? The primary build will probably occur in early March, but I'm going to be doing some research ahead of time so I figured I'd start the thread now.

Since I'm completely bored off my butt at work today (shhh!), I thought I'd start this project by posting my desired specifications for the Bobulator VII. In case you guys are interested, here is a list of the previous Bobulators...

Bobulator I - My first home-built PC, a Pentium 100MHz with 8MB of RAM and an Intel motherboard with integrated graphics and sound. My uncle helped me assemble this beast! I later upgraded the system to a whopping 16MB of RAM, which was my first solo PC mod experience.
Bobulator II - An "upgrade" of the previous system, the Bobulator II was a Pentium II 233MHz system with 32MB of RAM. I reused the case, modem, and power supply.
Bobulator III - This was a complete rebuild and no old components were reused. I built this system at the age of 15 after getting my first non-seasonal job at Wendy's, and I bought top-shelf components. The case was a freebie craptastic Dell case that I got free from a friend of mine. The Bobulator III was a 700Mhz Pentium III Coppermine, the last Intel processor I ever used in my main rig. I built it with a whopping 256MB of SDRAM, although I later maxed out the motherboard with 768MB. I installed a massive 33GB hard drive (the biggest available), a CD-Burner (4X!), a CD-ROM drive, and the first-ever hardware GPU, an nVidia GeForce 256 with 32MB of SDR SDRAM. It took me three years to pay off that system! I am still using the mouse and monitor I bought with this system, although the monitor will be replaced sometime between Christmas and the end of January.

Here's a picture of the last moments of the Bobulator III. When I disassembled it, I found a ton of dust that had gathered over the three years I was using it.
Bobulator IV - This was probably my most ambitious (and expensive!) project ever, and the one that you guys are the most familiar with. In our junior year of high school I rebuilt the Bobulator from scratch with all new components, including the now-infamous case. I bought the case from 3DCool, a company that is now mostly-defunct and no longer sells cases. I paid an exorbitant amount of money for the ultimate case, which included eight layers of custom baked-on automotive paint. I also custom ordered a window on the side that is installed with weather-stripping designed for an automobile. Windows were pretty revolutionary at the time.

I finished off the case with a 431w Enermax power supply (one watt more than Briney!) that is still in the Bobulator today. Other hardware included a GeForce 3 Ti500 with 128MB of RAM, an Athlon XP 1700+, and 1,536MB of PC2100 SDRAM. I also installed a new 16X burner and kept the old burner from the Bobulator III. Here's a picture of the brand-spankin' new Bobulator IV...

At some point, Spanky and I both bought GeForce 4 Ti-4600's with 128MB RAM. When I pre-ordered the card at Best Buy, the retarded cashier let me keep the box. I posted a picture on the craptastic forum we had at the time, bragging that my new card was better than Briney's. You can see the pre-order label on the right-hand side.
Bobulator V - This was more of a refresh than a complete rebuild. I upgraded to a GeForce 5600 256MB, an Athlon 2200+, and two 160GB hard drives in RAID 1. I also upgraded the fans in the system to dual-ball bearing Panaflo Highs and added two 5½" hard-drive coolers to my open drive bays.
Bobulator VI - My current rig. It's an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ with 3GB of PC2400. I later upgraded the system by swapping out the PC2400 with 2GB of PC3200 and by replacing the Soundblaster Audigy Platinum with a Soundblaster X-Fi Fatal1ty (with 64mb of X-RAM!). It's running four 80GB WD SATA150's on a Promise FastTrak RAID controller in RAID 5 with 128MB of ECC SDRAM. Yeah, I still have more cache than Briney, even if he's got three times the storage space!

The Bobulator VII will be a big change. Due to AMD's current lackluster performance, I'll be going back to Intel for the first time in nearly nine years. My last Intel processor was a 700MHz Pentium III Coppermine. Wow, those were the good ol' days! I remember playing Unreal Tournament for the first time ever on that machine!

-b0b
(...remembers the good times.)

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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #1 - Nov 30^th, 2007 at 5:13pm Well, AMD just released their new quad-core phenom. Rumors are they are not terrible. Though they are going to have 3 versions, and only 1 is actually out...
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b0b

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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #2 - Nov 30^th, 2007 at 5:16pm

I made my first two purchases toward the Bobulator VII today. NewEgg had an excellent deal on Western Digital 500GB SATA-3 drives, so I jumped one the deal and bought one. I'll eventually add three more identical drives and put them in a RAID-5 array, giving me 1.5TB of storage with redundancy in case of a drive failure. I bought the RAID Edition with 16MB cache, which offers a 100,000 hour operational life and can take the additional heat typically found in a RAID array.

I also bought a copy of Vista Ultimate - Signature Edition. I found a brand new unopened copy from a PC reseller on eBay for half of the retail price, so I jumped on it. He's from Chicago, so I can drive over there and strangle him if he tries to screw me over. Here's a link to an Amazon page for the same product...

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Ultimate-Numbered-Signature/dp/B000M2WPI...

-b0b
(...may install Vista on his current rig just for the heck of it.)

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b0b

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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #3 - Nov 30^th, 2007 at 5:19pm

spanky wrote on Nov 30^th, 2007 at 5:13pm:

Well, AMD just released their new quad-core phenom. Rumors are they are not terrible. Though they are going to have 3 versions, and only 1 is actually out...

Well, I can't comment on the two unreleased versions, but the current Phenom core sucks. It's supposed to be part of the new Spider system architecture, which combines and ATI GPU (now owned by AMD) with an AMD chipset motherboard and an AMD Phenom processor. HardOCP and several other sites have reviewed the Phenoms and they aren't too pleased with them.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQyMiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

I read the review a few days ago and was very displeased with HardOCP's findings. The chipset is slowwwww. The only thing AMD has going for them is a decent overclocking utility and cheap unlocked processors.

-b0b
(...can post more reviews, too.)

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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #4 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 8:38am

Here's the next component in the lineup. I just ordered this on Monday and it expect it to arrive today.

My 431w Enermax has served me faithfully over the years, but I think it is finally time to upgrade to a slightly larger power supply with SATA power and 6-pin PCIe connectors. This unit, an Enermax 550w PSU, uses modular connectors to eliminate unnecessary cabling. That should help improve airflow through the case.

It's also got a 120mm cooling fan with green LED's built in. I'm not real sure that I'm going to be real keen on a green glow inside my case, but we'll see how it pans out. If all else fails, I'll just do a little bit of surgery to remove it.

-b0b
(...paid a little less than $100 for it.)

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X Post Whore FTP Server Offline Truth Is Treason, In The Empire Of Lies Posts: 3903 Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #5 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 10:50am What do the modular cable connectors do? X
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MediaMaster GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline Holy Xenu! Posts: 1884 Detroit Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #6 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 10:57am prolly so he can pick and choose what power connectors he wants plugged in so he doesnt have 10 extra useless wires clogging airflow in his case.
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b0b

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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #7 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 11:13am

Yeah, Briney hit it on the head. The motherboard power cable is integrated, but all other power cables (4-pin molex, SATA, 4-pin floppy, 6-pin PCIe, etc) are modular. In other words, these cables are not built in to the PSU, so I can pick and choose which wires I need and attach them to the PSU.

Like Briney noted, this allows me to use the cables I need and leave the rest of them in the closet, creating a tidier system and increasing airflow.

-b0b
(...still thinks the Bobulator isn't very tidy.)

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MediaMaster GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline Holy Xenu! Posts: 1884 Detroit Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #8 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 11:26am yea that is pretty sweet, but i wonder, just how many connectors are there on that one? looks like 10? I've got a lot of cables clogging things up, i need to twist-tie them.
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X Post Whore FTP Server Offline Truth Is Treason, In The Empire Of Lies Posts: 3903 Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #9 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 11:29am I always get scared when Briney says he wants to organize things...it's like a sign of the End Times or something. X (Shivers)
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computerjuvenile GeekCrew Luser Offline Posts: 154 Houghton, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #10 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 1:31pm I got my copy of Ultimate for 45 dollars. hehe
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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #11 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 1:54pm Consumer whore! If you keep buying Vista microsoft is just going to keep pushing it and playing like nothing is wrong!
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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #12 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 2:15pm

computerjuvenile wrote on Dec 5^th, 2007 at 1:31pm:

I got my copy of Ultimate for 45 dollars. hehe

Yeah, but my copy of Vista has Bill Gate's signature digitally imprinted on the front cover, so blow me.

Quote:

yea that is pretty sweet, but i wonder, just how many connectors are there on that one? looks like 10?

There are eight modular ports total. If you need more than that, may I suggest the following power supply...

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM4MywsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0

Any power supply that requires you to rewire your house gets a thumbs up in my book.

-b0b
(...some day!)

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computerjuvenile GeekCrew Luser Offline Posts: 154 Houghton, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #13 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 7:25pm Are you going with something other than fans this time. Perhaps water cooling?
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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #14 - Dec 5^th, 2007 at 9:38pm

My case is heavy enough as it is without adding a gallon of water. Besides, I've worked with computers long enough to see every single type of component fail multiple times, so I'm really not going to tempt fate by running water in and through a couple thousand dollars in hardware.

I usually only overclock by 10-15% on my hardware, so there is no need for water cooling.

-b0b
(...has considered it, though.)

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b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #15 - Dec 20^th, 2007 at 8:15pm Last post from my behemoth monitor! Meredith bought me the 22" Samsung LCD for my birthday! YAY, birthday! I'll post pictures either tonight or tomorrow (or next year). -b0b (...bets his wife monitor is cooler than Briney's.)
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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #16 - Dec 20^th, 2007 at 11:32pm

Wooooow! This screen is massive! Not only do I have more screen real estate than I know what to do with, but I've also reclaimed three square feet of my actual desk! This is incredible!

It's also nice to see black colors that are... well... black! My CRT has had a green tint for so long that I'm completely blown away by seeing dark colors again!

The only downside is that my current rig really chugs when I try to run Vista at 1680x1050. I'm running at 1280x720 at the moment to keep things running relatively smoothly. Now I'm more desperate than ever to upgrade my system! Two more months!

-b0b
(...hurry up, tax season!)

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« Last Edit: Dec 21^st, 2007 at 8:41am by b0b »

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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #17 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 8:11am Sweet, grats bob! ummm, jim's gay!
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Stick Wootzor von Leetenhaxor FTP Server Offline Stick is back Posts: 501 Michgan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #18 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 9:06am wtf, a serious post from spanky? No way. Screenshot!
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b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #19 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 9:22am Yeah, that was entirely unexpected. I also got The Orange Box. Portal rocks your face. I can't wait to get home for some more gaming goodness! Episode 2 is also looking excellent, so I can't wait to play it. -b0b (...bam!)
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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #20 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 9:44am pfft, fine I fixed it, you happy now you dirty joos?
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X Post Whore FTP Server Offline Truth Is Treason, In The Empire Of Lies Posts: 3903 Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #21 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 10:29am Aww but it was so sweet.... So when's the wedding you two? X
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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #22 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 10:33am I don't think bob's wife would like me marrying him...
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b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #23 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 10:54am Nah, we had a pre-wedding agreement. If it's Craig, it's not cheating. -b0b (...or Wes's mom.)
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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #24 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 11:16am One of my coworkers a couple days ago, "It isn't cheating if my wife does it with another woman, as long as I am there, get to video tape it, and join in."
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b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #25 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 11:38am spanky wrote on Dec 21^st, 2007 at 11:16am: I isn't cheating Haha, typo! -b0b (...bahahaha!)
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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #26 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 11:59am I hate you so much, I'm going to go tell bush you have the WMDs! Also, you are an...
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b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #27 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 12:06pm That's it, I'm sending you to the Grammar Crisis Room. -b0b (...pronto!)
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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #28 - Dec 21^st, 2007 at 4:05pm

Alright guys, tell me about TV tuners!

I haven't had a TV tuner in my system in years, and I'm hoping to add one back in to the Bobulator VII if I've got a spare slot for one. I would prefer to get an internal card as opposed to a USB/FireWire solution, but I won't completely rule out those types of tuners.

I've been checking out the TV tuners on NewEgg and they all look like crap. All of them have horrible reviews. Some cards don't work in Vista, others don't have 64-bit drivers, and many don't work in Windows Media Center.

So, what (if any) TV tuners are you guys using, and how are they working for you? I'm more interested in displaying content from game consoles on my PC than watching television, and I only want to record the occasional gaming session, so I don't need anything seriously hardcore. I just want the thing to work when I buy it. Here's what I'm looking for...

Must Have:

Vista 64-bit support
Composite Video Input (PS2, VCR, etc)

Would Like:

Windows Media Center support
Coaxial video input (For future cable TV support)
PCIe would be excellent, too, since I will have an x1 and an x16 slot available.

I'm sure Briney and Stewie must have some advice!

-b0b
(...needs some help with this one.)

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Ordered!
Reply #29 - Dec 26^th, 2007 at 12:39pm

OMGZORZZZZZZ!

I placed the order for the Bobulator VII (well, most of it anyway) a few minutes ago! The transaction has been processed and the stuff should be getting shipped within the next couple of hours!

I overnighted the package (ouch!) and added rush shipping, so it should be here tomorrow - and it will be, if FedEx knows what's good for them! That means I'll have all weekend to get the rig put together and get the OS installed and tweaked, so hopefully the Bobulator VII will be ready for pure pwnage at the New Year's LAN.

Here are the final specs:

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 512MB Video Card (the new one!)
Asus Maximus Extreme Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor
OCZ Gold 2x1GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler

I also added an 80mm dual-ball bearing fan to replace one that crapped out a few weeks ago. I wanted to dress up my case a bit and replace the ugly white hard drive coolers and floppy drive, so I picked up two Vantec Vortex drive coolers and a black Sony floppy drive. Who says floppy drives aren't still useful?

I wanted to order two new SATA DVD burners, but the only decent 20x SATA burner with LightScribe was backordered, so I decided to hold off until they come back in stock next week.

NewEgg for the win!

-b0b
(...isn't going to be able to do anything productive for the rest of the week.)

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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #30 - Dec 26^th, 2007 at 12:43pm Quote: EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 512MB Video Card (the new one!) You bastard. GOGO 90-day step-up program.
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b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #31 - Dec 26^th, 2007 at 1:06pm Yeah, but do you want to have a system without a video card for two weeks? If I had a spare PCIe card, I'd consider "stepping up" to a 9800 when they're finally released. I can't wait to see DX10 performance with one of those bad boys... -b0b (...9800Ultra, FTW!)
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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #32 - Dec 26^th, 2007 at 2:03pm Quote: Yeah, but do you want to have a system without a video card for two weeks? hmm, ok I have an idea. You buy two of them, give me one, then I use the step up on mine, and when I get my other one back I run SLI. Everyone wins.
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b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #33 - Dec 26^th, 2007 at 3:09pm Something sounds a little fishy about that plan, but I can't quite place it... -b0b (...hmm.)
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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #34 - Dec 26^th, 2007 at 4:19pm Come on bob, this plan seems legit. Don't be a pussy!
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b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #35 - Dec 27^th, 2007 at 5:47pm Last post from the Bobulator VI! -b0b (...faints.)
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b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #36 - Dec 28^th, 2007 at 6:55pm First post from the Bobulator VII! Video at 11! -b0b (...well, maybe not!)
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X Post Whore FTP Server Offline Truth Is Treason, In The Empire Of Lies Posts: 3903 Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #37 - Dec 28^th, 2007 at 7:16pm 4 hours...and counting eeeeee X
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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #38 - Jan 4^th, 2008 at 12:43pm And bob...doesn't deliver. Surprised? This does though! What's that? 1GB VRAM, 256 stream procs, dual GPUs, and I'm spent.
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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #39 - Jan 4^th, 2008 at 3:49pm

Wow, that's... uh... mildly disappointing. They just took an 8000 series GPU, beefed it up a bit, and threw two of them on a PCB.

Unless the 9800 GTX/Ultra line is a significant improvement (which I highly doubt), I'm guessing the 9800 series will be much like the FX/5000 series - a dismal failure. Like that series, I'll probably skip over the 9800's and wait for the 10800 (or whatever they call it) to hit the market in a couple years.

We can probably thank AMD/ATI for this. This is the result of Nvidia not having any competition. They're holding their best stuff in reserve and relying on a two-year old design to carry them through the next generation.

-b0b
(...grumblecakes.)

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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #40 - Jan 4^th, 2008 at 7:40pm Yeah I pulled a bob and only read the highlights. But the 65nm GPUs have only been around (well able to buy) since mid december. It isn't that old of technology.
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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #41 - Jan 4^th, 2008 at 11:13pm

I've got a 65nm GPU sitting in my case right now. I just think it's misleading to slap together two 8800 series GPU's on two different PCB's, glue it all together on a single megaboard, and call it a 9800 series. The real 9800's won't be available until this summer or early fall, so why confuse consumers by marketing this crap as a 9800?

If the earlier GX2's are any indication, nVidia will never release a stable driver for this thing and will drop support for it in three or four months. Read up on the 7800GX2 debacle to see what I'm talking about.

-b0b
(...nods sagely.)

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Re: Bobulator VII
Reply #42 - Jan 11^th, 2008 at 4:28pm

I just bought the collector's edition of World in Conflict today. I can't wait to try it out.

I normally don't buy "collector's editions" of anything unless the additional content is really worthwhile. When it comes to World in Conflict, I think the extra $10.00 was really well spent because it comes with this...

In case you can't tell, it's a fragment of this...

Is it just me, or is that the coolest collector's edition add-in ever?

-b0b
(...will take pictures once he gets home.)

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spanky Post Whore FTP Server Offline Posts: 1540 Detroit-ish Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #43 - Jan 11^th, 2008 at 4:56pm Look at the size of that crack rock!
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b0b GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline The revolution will not be televised. Posts: 7464 Battle Creek, Michigan Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #44 - Jan 11^th, 2008 at 5:03pm Here's some screenshots I stole from the Interweb... This game is just dying for some LANnage! -b0b (...drools.)
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MediaMaster GeekCrew Administrator FTP Server Offline Holy Xenu! Posts: 1884 Detroit Gender:	Re: Bobulator VII Reply #45 - Jan 11^th, 2008 at 5:52pm yea it really is!
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