Duke's FACEware
Aurora w/ 7900 GTX <-not a Link
FACEware? Aurora2? Well, instead of buying a new case, which would be foolish when you look at how big the Aurora case is, I gutted my Aurora and added some brand new parts that are really kick @$$. And I added the FACE in because…well…I can.Aurora w/ 7900 GTX <-not a Link
In light of being “half” lazy… for a fifth time, I re-re-re-re-borrowed Craig’s format and used it as my template for my review(s). Hopefully you guys find it simple. The following is a review of my FACEware Aurora 2, which is NOT bought by the vendor Alienware, but instead my original Aurora was gutted to create the ultimate gaming machine... again.
(Notes: All underlined text are hyperlinks to websites...If you
are having problems reading certain colors against the background, scroll
to the bottom left hand side of this screen and select the "NOTEBOOKFORUMS"
template...A very special ULTRA MEGA thanks to the crew at PCTorque for
hosting these forums!!)
System Specs:
CPU - AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+
CPU Cooler - Thermaltake big Typhoon CL-P0114 120mm Cooling Fan with Heatsink
Motherboard – DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert
PSU – TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W
RAM - 1GB DDR Dual Channel SDRAM
Video Card - NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7900 GTX 512MB DDR3 @ 600MHz Stock
Hard Drive(1) – 80 GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM System Drive
Hard Drive(2)160GB Seagate® Barracuda 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(3)200GB Western Digital® Barracuda 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(4)200GB Maxtor® 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(5)200GB Western Digital® 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(6)200GB Western Digital® 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Optical Drive - NEC® ND-3500 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Ordering Process:
I was experiencing some system performance issues while playing Painkiller and Starship Troopers, two games that do not require nearly as much resources as CS:S were giving me this effect:
I decided to do some serious upgrading.
I ordered the NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7900 GTX, Thermaltake big Typhoon CPU cooler, and 550 watt TRUEPOWERII and DFI LANPARTY UT Expert from www.newegg.com
The X2 4400+ was ordered from www.zipzoomfly.com
Shipping and Packaging:
Everything arrived fairly quickly as you can see by the order time and delivery time and everything was packaged properly with no DOA.
Item:---------------------------Order Date:------------Arrival Date:
DFI LANPARTY UT Expert-------3/10/2006 12:20:40----03/13/2006 18:16:00
NVIDIA® GeForce 7900 GTX----3/10/2006 3:34:18-----03/15/2006 17:38:00
TRUEPOWERII-----------------3/17/2006 10:01:01-----03/21/2006 11:26:00
Thermaltake big Typhoon------3/17/2006 8:00:55------03/20/2006 14:42:00
X2 4400+---------------------03/17/06---------------03/22/06 11:30:00
Prices: (including shipping)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7900 GTX $564.09
X2 4400+ $461.99
DFI LANPARTY UT Expert $195.24
550 watt TRUEPOWERII $112.18
Thermaltake big Typhoon $60.98
Total: $1,394.48
note: the price for the 4400 actually went up to $480.00 since I bought it.
Benchmarks:
All results are with stock hardware settings with only system 16 system processes running:
Synthetic
Benchmarks
Benchmarks
24412
29337
22307
10755
6974
7123
Gaming Benchmarks
140.32 FPS @ 1360x768 Resolution
Default Core & Memory and GPU
Memory
Memory
190.54 FPS @ 1360x768 Resolution
Oc'ed Core and Stock GPU
Memory
Memory
Assembly:
I had already received my motherboard and graphics card before my CPU, so I decided to install them, so I could benchmark the 7900 with my current AMD 64 3500+ CPU, and compare the results with my X2 4400+.
There were a few obstacles to overcome before the basic assembly. The first obstacle was removing the stock CPU fan and heat sink from the CPU. Alienware covered the entire top of the CPU with thermal compound, and when I tried loosening the heat sink, the compound was so sticky that it actually pulled the CPU directly out of the socket without even lifting up the set bar.
This was very disheartening because it caused two pins to bend on the bottom of my CPU. Luckily I’m so incredibly badass that I was able to fix the bent pins by using a set of needle nose pliers. I straightened them out and stuck the CPU back in the socket. Here is a pic of me being badass.
The rest of the setup was a breeze. Throw the motherboard inside the Predator case, attach the correct power connections and cables, install the 7900 and reinstall windows. After getting the basic drivers installed, I ran 3dmark06 and received a score of:
Not bad, but certainly not great. This score is the result of an outdated CPU, bottlenecking the performance of the latest graphic card.
When my other three parts arrived, PSU, CPU and CPU cooler, now I could get to business. I first removed my current AW PSU and motherboard. I needed to remove the motherboard again because the CPU cooler needs to have an attachment on the backside.
I unscrewed the current front retention module and according to the directions, I had two options.
I could 1) leave the backside plastic stock retention module and just throw the Typhoon on top of the CPU,
or 2) use the Thermaltake parts and create my own backside CPU retention module, which i did. You need to understand what model motherboard you have to make this decision. i.e. K8, K7, Intel P4 etc. The producers and align holes are different for each model.
First you must flip your motherboard over, peel off one side of tape from the sponge, and adhere the sponge to the back of the motherboard. Make sure the sponge’s mounts are aligned to the motherboards.
Peel off the other side of tape from the sponge.
Adhere the Mylar to the sponge making sure the mounting holes are aligned. Peel the tape off of the Mylar and place the “H” clip onto the Mylar.
Once you have this done, you can lay down a set of washers on the front side of the motherboard.
Use the screws provided to align your retention module with the “H” clip and screw the standoff screws onto the screws. Put the second “H” clip on the heatsink, align the mounting holes with the screws and place the heatsink + “H” clip onto the CPU. (but not before adding some thermal compound or artic silver grease)
Then you simply screw the nuts over the screws and you are finished.
Make sure you tighten the nuts securely enough that the Typhoon does not slide over the CPU. This is critical because a loose connection may resulting the CPU not getting enough cooling.
Oh yeh, don't touch the CPU fan while its moving.
-Duke
This concludes the review portion of this post...thanks for hanging in
there and please feel free to PM or IM me with any questions or comments.
Meets Duke Approval
CONCLUSION
A quick little side note for that PSU unit. When I was installing my PSU, I noticed two FAN power modules that say "FAN ONLY" printer on the side. So I'm like: "Awesome, I need this for my two fans". But when I go to hook them up, some moron wired them wrong and it doesn't align with my FAN module.
I'm not sure who f'ed up, the PSU manufacturer or the fan manufacture, but this bothered me because now I have a useless wire taking up space. I'm guessing it was the PSU manufacture because it was wired correctly with my last PSU.
As a last little summary: I love the value of the 7900. Another member on the forums Hunt3r had bought a 1900 XT and was pushing for me to buy one as well. I’ve owned Ati in the past, have nothing against them, they continue to prove to out bench nVidia, but working part time and being in college it is difficult to justify the extra dough. So I went with the 7900. The results were very satisfying.
Comparable to hunter’s 3dMark06 benchmarks with the 1900, where is getting in the range of 7400-7500, , but also keep in mind he has this to play around with. Hunt3r has the same CPU as I do only the Opteron version and an extra GB of RAM (I also have another GB of RAM in the mail and will be benching it again when it arrives, be sure to check back) I am very curious to see what he would be getting if he was running stock.
As for the big Typhoon CPU fan, although very large and sleek, the fan is optimal at 1300 rpm which turns out to be a little noisy. But who’s complaining when my 4400 is running at the speed of a 4800?
The following is a direct comparison to my system before and after the upgrades.(aka if you didn’t want to read everything)
Duke’s System Specs and Bench before CPU and RAM upgrade
:
Case - Predator in Conspiracy Blue (matches my WRX) w00t!
CPU - AMD Athlon64 3500+
CPU Cooler - stock
Motherboard – DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert
PSU – Alienware 480 watt stock
RAM - 1GB DDR Dual Channel SDRAM
Video Card - NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7900 GTX 512MB DDR3 @ 600MHz Stock
Hard Drive(1) – 80 GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM System Drive
Hard Drive(2)160GB Seagate® Barracuda 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(3)200GB Western Digital® Barracuda 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(4)200GB Maxtor® 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Optical Drive - NEC® ND-3500 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
3DMark06 5342
HL 1360x768 144.44 FPS
Duke’s System Specs and Bench AFTER CPU and RAM upgrade and even UPGRADED AGAIN!!!
:
Case - Predator in Conspiracy Blue (matches my WRX) w00t!
CPU - AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+ OC'ed @ 4800
CPU Cooler - Thermaltake big Typhoon CL-P0114 120mm Cooling Fan with Heatsink
Motherboard – DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert
PSU – TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W
RAM - 1GB DDR Dual Channel SDRAM
Video Card - NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7900 GTX 512MB DDR3 @ 600MHz Stock
Hard Drive(1) – 80 GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM System Drive
Hard Drive(2)160GB Seagate® Barracuda 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(3)350GB Western Digital® Barracuda 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(4)500GB Maxtor® 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Optical Drive - NEC® ND-3500 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
3DMark2000 24,412
3DMark2001 29.337
3DMark03 22,307
3DMark05 10,755
3DMark06 6974
3DMark06 - Overclocked 7123
HL 1360x768 190.54
With a jump in performance of over 1000 3dmark06 points, you can clearly see how the CPU directly affects performance. This should be a reminder to all you upgraders who are lookin’ at the 7900, make sure you have a CPU powerful enough to support that kind of new technology, otherwise you’ll be very disappointed with the results.
check out Duke's SENTIA review here
Koolance Review here
Original Aurora Review here
Duke’s Setup V1.0 here
-Duke one big a@@ mother fu*ker … (as Roided would say)
