New F131 Coming Soon

[Tenebrae]

So after much research and hearing so many good things about Maingear, I decided to order my F131 a couple of days ago. The experience was very pleasant, with the staff I talked to being both friendly and helpful, as well as being knowledgeable. Here's my new system's specs.

Exterior Automotive Color: Black Brushed Aluminum Finish

Side Window: Translucent Window Side Panel w/ Blue LED Lighting Bundle

Power Supply: 1000W Silverstone Strider Power Supply

Motherboard: NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Motherboard

Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9450 (2.66GHz x 4) 45nm 12MB L2 Cache

CPU Cooling: Zalman Ultra Quiet CNPS9500 LED 92mm CPU Cooler w/ Copper Base

Memory: 8GB Kingston HyperX 6400 DDR2-800

Do you want us to Redline™ your CPU?: YES

Hard Drive One: Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II

Flash Card Reader: All-in-One Internal USB 2.0 Flash Card Reader & Writer

Optical Drive One: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology - black

Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 260 896MB GDDR3

Do you want us to Redline™ your GPU?: NO

Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series

Network Card: Integrated Gigabit Network Card

Game: FREE! Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (64-Bit) SP1



Anyone have any gaming experiences with a similar system or suggestions for games to try out on it once I get it? All comments are welcome. Reading them will help the wait go a bit faster.:P Thanks!

[golfman560]

I love what you got, I just wish I could have been able to get a GTX 260 like you got

[Killazys]

Wow that is a nice system. Nope. I have no similar systems like that O_O

But you know what I found interesting? I can run Counter-Strike: Source on MAX settings (16x QSCAA [or something], 16x AA, High on Everything, Reflect All) on my laptop's nVidia GeForce 8600M GT...

[rcb]

As for what games you should play; "Whatever the heck you want!" comes to mind with that system. :D

[RottynDawg]

Should run games pretty well :) Nice system...and welcome aboard!

[Tenebrae]

After some thought I went ahead and upgraded the graphics card to the GTX 280. No firm word yet on when the computer will get to me, but the wait is killing me.:)

Tenebrae

[golfman560]

Well usually the wait isn't long (like 2-3 weeks) but sometimes it can get longer if something goes wrong or if you get a special part (which you aren't), but there's always that chance something is broken/breaks when putting everything together.

Just think, the wait won't be that bad because you won't have to wait on those load screens once you get the computer :D

[OneTen]

I ordered my system beginning of last month. still no word yet on when it will be built. I just had a quick question about your set up.

i went with almost the same except the NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 280 1GB GDDR3 wasn't available so i went with the 2x NVIDIA® GeForce™ 9800 GTX's 1GB GDDR3 in SLI. Is getting the SLI even worth it now? should i try and see if they will switch my order to the gtx280 or will i definitely see a gaming performance boost having an SLI running most games at 1600x1200? I am just worried about the power/cooling/noise factor of the SLI vs the GTX280 and the benchmark differences. (does that even make sense?)

I dont know if they would even switch my order if i tried. i was already charged and they probably already ordered/received the parts by now.

[golfman560]

Well as long as the computer hasn't been packaged up you can switch the order, but it will take longer.

Also I think sticking to the SLI would be better as they can process more at once (to my knowledge) However its your choice and you've seen the benchmarks

[jeff23]

Should run games pretty well :) Nice system...and welcome aboard!
I don't think it should, IT MUST... Don't you think so too?

[Tenebrae]

As far as the waiting goes, I keep checking the order status, but no changes yet.:) Anyone know how long it takes before there's an update and what kind of update it is (building, shipping,etc).

As far as GTX 280 vs a 9800 SLI configuration, my thought is this: Based upon my research, the GTX 280 is sometimes (but not always) slower than 2 9800 GTX in SLI. That being said, even when it is slower, the difference is usually marginal, and I see several advantages to the GTX 280:

1) The initial 280 benchmarks are usually based upon beta drivers or prototype cards, and hopefully performance will increase with newer drivers.

2) The single-gpu 280 avoids the SLI compatability/recognition problems that can crop up with some games, etc.

3) I believe that generally 9800 SLI is going to be a bigger heat/power issue than a single 280

Now, all of that being said, I'm not at all against SLI, which brings me to my 4th reason: If, down the line, I want to upgrade my graphics card setup further, I'll have the option of just adding a second 280 card rather than starting from scratch. Depending on card progression, I might want to start from scratch by then anyway, but at least i'd have the option of SLI with a more powerful card.

As far as performance, I really hope that this machine laughs at anything I throw at it (Crysis included) for a good while. While I know it's not the super-duper king of the world best computer in the entire world, I think it should be a very powerful computer relative to my current comp and my budget.:)

Keep in mind that while I'm moderately knowledgeable about computers, I'm by no means an expert, and my opinions may be way off base. In the same vein, any thoughts or suggestions are very welcome.

Tanarius

[golfman560]

Order status doesn't change until it ships, but you can call in and check how its going if you want, just ask for your technician

As for the reasons, they're all great thinking and if you told me those when I was thinking about it you would have gotten me to go with the 280 XD

However I'm not so sure about reason 3, you never know how well they designed the 280, it could be a heat magnet