My New Personal (Super) Computer (PsC)

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As you know my laptop is broken. That was a Dell XPS M1330 with 2.6Hz Core 2 Duo Processor (6MB), 4GB RAM and nvidia 9400GS AGP. Unlikely the AGP is broken. As that was purchased from USA so I have to send it back to USA to claim my warranty. I have 3years of warranty with accidental care. After this disaster I had purchased a Low-End Desktop (celeron) and that was bad choice. So again I have to change it. I love to work with my photos and videos so a high-end computer was required. To meet my tech-hunger I have purchased this machine. Here is the summary:

System Board: Intel® Desktop Board DG45ID

Processor: Intel Core2 Quad Q6600: 2.4GHz with 8MB Cache Memory

RAM: 8GB, Transend 800MHz FSB

HDD: 320GB, Hitachi 7200RPM with 3Gbps data transfer.

Optical Drive: BenQ Super Wrier DVD3

Monitor: BenQ T221W, 22inch WideScreen

Case: Delux Black Macpro Tower, I have modified the power supply. I simply integrated a Server power system 700W in it with extra Two Fans.

Here goes the details:

As I live in Bangladesh, high-end accessories are not available here. The main problem here is a good casing with good power supply. So first I chose a case which armor is heavy and good looking then I simply changed the built-in power supply with a 700W Server power system. I can’t trust other power supplies. Then I integrate my system board. Here is the feature of my board:

Features and benefits

Form factor
MicroATX (9.60 inches by 9.60 inches [243.84 millimeters by 243.84 millimeters])

Four 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) sockets

• Support for DDR2 800/667 MHz DIMMs
• Support for up to 8 GB? of system memory

Chipset

• Intel® G45 Express Chipset

Audio

Intel® High Definition Audio subsystem in the following configuration:

• 8-channel (7.1) audio subsystem with five analog audio outputs and one optical S/PDIF digital audio output using the IDT 92HD73E audio codec

Video
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD onboard graphics subsystem with integrated HDMI + DVI-I display ports

LAN support
Gigabit (10/100/1000 Mbits/sec) LAN subsystem using the Intel® 82567LF Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Peripheral interfaces

• Up to 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 back ports and 6 via headers)
• Six Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s ports, including 1 eSATA back port with RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support
• Two IEEE-1394a ports (1 external port, 1 internal header)
• Consumer IR receiver and emitter (via internal headers)
• One serial port via header

Expansion capabilities

• One PCI Express* x16 bus add-in card connector
• Two PCI Express* x1 bus add-in card connectors
• One PCI Conventional* bus add-in card connector

The G45 Express and GMA X4500 HD

The G45 Express chipset is a step up from older Intel-based budget chipsets. It supports front-side bus speeds up to 1333 MHz, PCIe 2.0, DDR2 800 or DDR3 1066, and a whole mess of SATA ports through the ICH10 controller hub. The DG45ID in particular is a DDR2 motherboard, so that somewhat limits our memory bandwidth. It’s pretty small as MicroATX boards go.

There are six SATA ports and no IDE ports at all, so you’ll need to make sure you use a SATA optical drive. There is one PCIe x16 graphics slot, two x1 PCIe expansion slots, and a single PCI slot. Note that this motherboard does not support the really high-wattage Intel processors; the fastest supported chips are the quad-core Q9550 or the dual-core E8500.

Looking at the back plane, we see a whopping six USB ports, firewire, eSATA, five analog audio jacks, a TOSLINK optical audio output, and gigabit Ethernet. There are two digital video outputs—dual-link DVI and HDMI. 7.1 audio is supported through the IDT 92HD73E audio codec.

The GMA X4500 HD graphics in the G45 chipset is a relatively minor upgrade to the old GMA 3100/3500 in previous boards. It’s a very similar part, only with 10 unified shader processors instead of 8, running at a higher clock speed. Intel says it’s 2–3 times as fast as the GMA 3100 and as much as 70% faster than the GMA 3500 found on G35-based motherboards.

The X4500 HD is built on a 65nm manufacturing process, as opposed to the 90nm technology used to build the GMA 3xxx. The process shrink is what enabled the extra shader processors and higher clock speed.

Intel claims that the GMA X4500 HD supports DirectX 10, as the GMA 3500 did (with the right driver update). We tried it and it only "sort of" works. It’s far too slow to be usable even in the most forgiving of DX10 titles, and even with all the details turned way down. It’s also a little buggy—the Parallax Occlusion Map test in 3DMark Vantage crashes the system, and we saw little white dots all over the place when running Crysis in DX10 mode (at low settings).



click on image for full view

So while DX10 may be a "bullet point" for Intel here, you might as well ignore the fact that it exists. No DX10 title runs well enough to even enable DX10 mode, even if they all ran perfectly (which they don’t).

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The IEE-1394a port is an advantage for me. I can work with my HDCAM h
ere directly. And also the eSATA port is fine. I love it.In Bangladesh all general users use the SATA controller as IDE bridge. They don’t know about the AHCI. The Intel Matrix Storage Device driver can solve this problem on OS Loading time. I did it.As I am using 8GB of RAM so 32bit OS can’t use it all so I am using Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit.I am enjoying the built-in sound card. It is fantastic. Here is a screen shot!

Screen clipping taken: 10/17/2008, 2:14 PM

I am still not connected any Extra AGP or SoundCard. I am more than happy with the Built-In things.

And the view, My 22inch Wide Screen LCD Monitor. I can see two A4 size paper at same time on it. And I am really enjoying Adobe Photoshop and Camera RAW 4.5 with it. I calibrated it. Thanks goes to intel Gamma.

But there is some problem, intel should add more technical description in the bios setup area. So that user can customize the system comfortably.

Can anyone suggest me how can I build a machine which rating will be 7+? I am still curious on that. Dear Microsoft can you please tell me what is the standard of a 10rated machine? Please don’t suggest I have to purchase a Latest Super Computer.