Age/Occupation/Location?
20 years old, work as a PC tech in a local computer store, Silver City, NM, USA

How long have you been a member of Guru3D forums?
Hmmm been a member since… November 2003, that’s what it says on my profile at least. =)

What did you first come here for?
I think I came to ask some questions on the first rig I built, but I could be wrong, lol.

What do you mainly use the system for?
The system is mainly used for gaming.

How much did you spend on the rig?
In total I believe it was around 850$-900$

How often do you update/buy a new rig?
Whenever I have to =)

What components are used? (Including any overclocks)

• Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 motherboard w/ BFG alum ramsink on southbridge chip (fit perfectly)
• AMD Athlon XP-Mobile 2500+ Barton at 2236MHz 213x10.5 cooled by a Thermalright SI-97 heatsink w/ Thermaltake Silentcat 92mm fan
• Kingmax PC4000 DDR500 @ 426MHz 2-3-3-11
• ATI Sapphire Radeon 9600XT Fireblade w/VGA Silencer Rev 3 and BFG alum ramsinks @ 540/702
• 2x Thermaltake Thunderblade Blue LED 120mm case fans, 2x stock 60 or 80mm Blue LED case fans, Vantec Spectrum PCI Slot fan card 2x70MM
• 80GB Seagate IDE hard drive
• CD-RW drive
• Floppy drive
• Logitech MX 510 mouse and Ratpadz GS mousepad

Why ATI or NVIDIA, why Intel/AMD?
I’ve always liked ATI, my first system had one and I’ve loved them ever since. Something about nVidia just pushes me away from them, although I have used their cards quite a bit. AMD, I just prefer over Intel, since the Athlon came out that is, beforehand I was an Intel guy.

Does the system work as expected?
Not as well as I’d hoped, I was expecting much more from the Asus A7N8X board.

What's the best part of your rig?
The killer 9600XT that I got, pulls some great scores for a 9600 series card. And I can’t leave out the Logitech MX 510 mouse, wow I love this thing =)

What sucks and should not have been bought?
The Asus A7N8X motherboard, that thing is a piece. It would be a GREAT board for a normal PC user not doing any overclocking, but the lack of voltage controls and extremely poor overclockability kill the overall wowness of it.

Modified cases/video cards/other? Did you do it yourself? Walk us through it.
No custom mods really, just the VGA silencer and ramsinks. The VGA silencer is SUPER easy, just take off your old heatsink put some Arctic Silver 5, and tighten, not too tight, but snug. The ramsinks.. gotta love thermal tape, very easy to put on.

3DMark scores?
3D Mark 2001=14775
3D Mark 2003=540/702-4693  570/800-4992
3D Mark 2005=540/702-2040  565/780-2158

Future upgrades?
None for this system. I am going to build a new one eventually but my driving passion has been really giving me a push and I’m focusing on buying parts for my car right now.