Grassroots home-built-pc-sports?: Off-topic discussion forum: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

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June 22, 2011 1:31 p.m. coll9947 Reader

Build your own rigs? Post 'em up!

Gigabyte P55-USB3 motherboard

Intel Core i5 oc'd to 3.6ghz aircooled

8gb G.Skill DDR3 1333mhz RAM oc'd to 1600mhz

eVGA GTX 460+ factory OC, 1gb

Lian-Li Lancool PC-K7B case

Corsair 650w 52amp single 12v rail power supply

dual Sony DVD burners

320gb sata-2 HDD for now

Best rig I've assembled so far. Still need faster/better hard drives and some silent cooling but I'm happy. No lights, no LEDs, I like my PCs and cars to be sleepers. Destroys $3000+ Dells, Alienwares, and Apples all for about $1000 at the time of build.

And my Grassroots Audio-sports prized possession: Cambridge Soundworks Megaworks 250D THX 2.1 stereo system. Overbuilt and overpowered, but 8 years later it is still the most thunderous 2.1 setup I've ever experienced. The Logitech Z2300 and it's successor come close, but the Megaworks bass simply embarrasses the Logitechs in quality and volume.
June 22, 2011 1:45 p.m. dogbreath Reader

I put my PC together for about $400 and except for the 4G of RAM going bad and currently limping along on a 1G stick I had in the closet it will do anything I ask of it, including steady 60 FPS on iRacing :)
June 22, 2011 1:51 p.m. JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor

CORSAIR XMS3 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model AD-7260S-0B - OEM

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

GIGABYTE GV-N285UD-1GH GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX90G 3.5" 90GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

3 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Runs OSX 10.6.5 currently using a chameleon bootlader.

Stupid, stupid fast and stable.

jg
June 22, 2011 2:22 p.m. ultraclyde Reader

AMD Phenom II quad core, 4GB corsair DDR2 memory, on an MSI mobo with built in Nvidia graphics and HDMI out, huge CPU Cooler from BestBuy, 1TB Seagate HD. All the internal structure and fiddly bits were sourced from scrapped cases, the HD was from a NAS drive I had on hand, and the "case" cost $10 at a yardsale. Built to be a surf-and-show cable box replacement as well as a data storage unit.

The drawer fronts now hinge out left to right to access the DVD and power buttons. In the future I'll rework the hinges and move the power buttons to be accessible w/o opening the drawer fronts.
June 22, 2011 4:14 p.m. HiTempguy Dork
I feel so lame

I buy my compies during boxing day sales, usually the best of the last generation for around $200. I then add a bitchin' gpu and ram and call it a day. This year, I splurged and got a 60gb SSD (one without issues that Anandtech loved) for only $120.

So basically:
- take one $200 compaq compy
- throw out dual core 3800+ dual core processor
- replace with 5200+ bought for $50 shipped since AM2 is no longer supported
- crank up the jam with another whopping gig of ram (kingston economy ram, a total of 2 gigs for $30!)
- add 500w sparkle power power supply $50
- season with nvidia 9800gt for $90
- top off with $120 OCZ Vertex 2 pro (or whatever its called) SSD
Game for 3+ years on it :D Rinse and repeat.