Willoughby

Age/Occupation/Location?

I’m 19 years old. Currently live in South Amherst, Ohio. A suburb of Cleveland. I work at a turnpike plaza (blah, needs to be with computers soon).

How long have you been a member of Guru3D forums?

I've been a member of Guru3D forums since January 2005.

What did you first come here for?

I had a problem with my video card, a friend linked me here. Posted a topic on the forums. Bam!!! 2 hours later, problem fixed.

What do you mainly use the system for?

I use this system mainly for gaming, which includes: (Counter Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Battlefield 2, F.E.A.R, and many others. And occasionally homework and surfing the net.

How much did you spend on the rig?

Total cost is around $1,500 give or take.

How often do you update/buy a new rig?

Well I buy a new rig every 1 1/2 to 2 years. I try to buy stuff that will still be good 2 years down the road. I've gotten 1 year out of this one and am currently planning on building a new one in a few months.

What components are used?

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+

Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)

Mobo: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum nForce3 Ultra

RAM: Corsair 512x2 PC3200 ValueRam

Video: BFG NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 GT

Storage: 2 Western Digital 80 GB 7200RPM SATA in Raid 0

Audio: Realtek AC'97 Audio

Why ATI or NVIDIA, why Intel/AMD?

Well every video card I've ever had has been NVIDIA. Never had a problem with them what so ever. Drivers are always easy to install.

AMD is always cool and quiet so I chose them over Intel. Never really used Intel though, may need to try it out sometime.

Does the system work as expected?

System works beyond what I would've imagined. Plays all my games full quality with the video options cranked with ridiculous FPS's.

What's the best part of your rig?

I love the case. I like how it’s clear and you can see everything in it. Shows off everything inside that would be hidden by a regular case. Just a pain to keep clean, but when it is, it's the sweetest case I've ever owned.

What sucks and should not have been bought?

I wished I would’ve got a different motherboard. This motherboard doesn’t OC as much as other ones I've seen. Crappy Bios updates and the Realtek Boot Agent gives me problems.

Modified cases/video cards/other? Did you do it yourself? Walk us through it.

Case is acrylic, had to put it all together by myself. I try to go with a blue theme with this case. All the fans, neon’s, etc. are all blue. All stock coolers are replaced with aftermarket ones. I’m happy to say I did 100% of all work on this system.

3DMark scores?

_All Stock Scores_

3DMark05 6,506

Aquamark03 68,763

Future upgrades?

Would like to run a dual core processor, and 7800's is SLI. Also would like to run two Raptors in Raid 0.