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Here at TechIslands.com we have a pretty straight forward test PC that we
use for our testing and other uses. A few have asked, so I thought I would
post the specifications of the PC so you get an idea of what we are using.
First, here is a summary:
- 3.4GHZ Intel P4
- NVIDIA BFG 6800OC
- 2gb DDR400 Memory
- 160gb SATA + 80GB IDE HDDs
- Dual 15" Monitors
- G15 Keyboard
- Liquid Cooled
Click on "Click here for details" next to the following headlines to see the
information on the PC. (Hint: Click on the link again to hide the section)
Logos (Click here for details.)
Processor/Mainboard (Click here for details.)
Currently the machine is running a
Pentium 4 3.4GHZ Processor. This is a socket LGA775 so it performs a bit
faster than a normal socket 478 P4 processor. It is also referred to as the
550 Processor.
The processor is cooled by the standard Intel heat sink and seems to be
working pretty well. It performs well, is quiet, and has quite a good amount of
performance for your money. Of course no system is complete without the
main board. In this machine is a PC Chips 957G Mini ATX keyboard based on a
VIA chipset. This is a cheaper board, but it was used as I had the 6800oc
AGP before and this was one of very few boards that supports LGA775 AND AGP.
The board works good and has a good audio system built in, plus it has most
of your standard features (lots of USB ports, 5.1CH audio, AGP Slot, etc.) Video Card (Click here for details.)
The system is
currently powered by a AGP8x BFG Technologies Geforce 6800 OC video
card.
This video card plays almost all the games I have tried on either all
high settings, or medium settings. It looks amazing and is again in my
mind a very good purchase for the money. It is not PCIe (PCI Express),
but it out performs a lot of the PCIe cards just because of its great
performance.
The BFG version of this card is also very neat as it carries a
lifetime warranty, is pre-overclocked out of the box, and it features
the custom heat sink/fan setup that works very well.
Another thing to make you happy is that you receive a free game and a
50$ rebate with the card if you send in your old card. PSU (Power Supply Unit) (Click here for details.)
Well, most would not
even think to put this down, but this is one pride of this PC. In this
PC I run a Cooler Master RealPower 450 ACLY PSU that not only looks
great, it performs great.
Another great thing is that this power supply is extremely quiet
while still delivering 450watts. It also has dual 12v rails and lots of
other safety and performance features. And as an added bonus, there also
is a meter that comes with the power supply that shows you your current
power usage.
To prove how good this thing is, I had a short circuit that occurred
outside of my rig and flipped all the breakers plus blew up my first
RealPower 450 ACLY. The short killed the RealPower, but the RealPower
saved my rig and stopped the power corruption in its tracks so it did
not hurt one piece of my hardware! Optical Drives (Click here for details.)
For Optical Drives, it
is a simple dual setup (it used to have a triple setup, but I took that
out because of space and needs). The main drive used is a Sony DVD
Burning Drive that is used as my CD/CDRW/DVD/DVDRW burner and is the
main drive for reading discs. I do not know the exact model number, but
it has all the features and good speed (it is a 4x DVD Burner). The only
thing it lacks is Dual Layer burning support. The second drive is a
simple DVD/CD Reader drive from Lite-On. I love Lite-On drives and they
never seem to fail me. This one is not the fastest at reading CDs, but
it is a 16x DVD Reader drive. Again I do not know the exact model
number, but it is similar to the one pictured below (except the one I
use is white)
Hard Drives (Click here for details.)
For speed and
simplicity, the main drive is a Seagate 160gb SATA drive. This drive is
amazing and has outlasted many of the other hard drives in my machine.
It is also very fast and loads things much faster than a normal IDE hard
drive. 
To supplement the Seagate, also installed is a 80gb Western Digital
IDE Hard Drive. This is great for putting home movies on and larger
downloaded files on (game demos, etc.). It is a bit slower to access,
but it works well for storage and backup. Memory (Click here for details.)
Since the main
board does not support dual channel (weird), 2gb of Corsair
ValueSelect DDR400 Ram. It is broken up into 2x1gb sticks.
 Monitors (Click here for details.)
Of course any good
setup needs a good monitor. Well, again there is nothing name brand
here, but there are two of them :-).
Setup with this PC are two 15" LCD Monitors. Both are similar,
yet not the same brand, but both work well for gaming and even
though they are not the best on the market, they do not show any
ghosting or other problems in games or video.
Not Actual Monitor Pictured Input Devices (Click here for details.)
For input devices on
this PC, currently in use is a Logitech G15 Gaming keyboard with LCD and
a standard Microsoft Optical Wired Mouse. The Logitech G15 USB
keyboard is a great keyboard that is like the Rolls Royce of keyboards.
It features a flip up LCD screen for information (fully customizable),
Programmable "G" keys on the left hand side, Multimedia Keys under the
LCD, and the whole keyboard is backlit!
In use is a simple USB Microsoft Wired Optical Mouse. It features no
lag as it is wired, plus it is very precise and is great to use.
Personally I prefer it over gaming mice and other more expensive mice on
the market.
Extras (Click here for details.)
There are a few things
that do not fall under normal specs categories that I also would like to
mention. First is the Silver Case. This is a cheaper case and yet it
still delivers 4x 5.25" Bays, 2x 3.5" Bays, silver finish, acrylic
inserts on front, and a side panel window with 2x 80mm fans below it.
The power supply and fans have been replaced so the only thing being
used is the raw case itself.
For cooling of the processor, a Kinwin Aquastar AS3000 liquid cooling
kit is installed. It is installed externally as there was no room in the
case for it, and it just cools the processor even though you can cool
the video card as well. It was setup like this as the video card has a
special heat sink on it from BFG that works very well, and there would
be no advantage to adding it to the liquid cooling loop. This unit is
amazing and reduced the CPU temp by 20F!
A big feature is the CrystalFontz 635 LCD. On this machine there is a
635 mounted in one of the 5.25" drive bays. It has a silver surround and
the LCD is the Yellow and Black model. It works well and is a very cool
wow factor type add-on.
Click Here to see the review.
Another item on the front is the Cooler Master Musketeer. This is the
original model Silver version. I love the look of the gauges and it
gives a sort of retro feel to the PC. It does not have a ton of usage,
but it does work well to monitor the temperature in the PC.
For digital memory there is the Atech Flash Pro card reader. This is
the black item under the floppy drive in the above picture. It reads
just about any format I can think of, plus it is removable so you can
take the main part of it out and use it with other items.
For lighting inside the case, there are two 12" Mad Dog Cold Cathode
lights above and below the side panel window. These lights are blue
fitting in with the blue theme of the PC, plus they feature a control
switch in one of the PCI slots on the back of the PC. They seem to be
very bright and work very well.
As an upgrade from the standard side case fans, installed are two
replacement Cooler Master LED Blue 80mm Quiet fans. They are very quiet
and also give a very nice blue glow. Amazingly, they do push a lot of
air for their low noise level.
Pictures of the Actual PC (Click here for details.)
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