Well, I have had my new rig for about 2 weeks now and I guess I'll post a fargin review. Originally I ordered an Area 51 on 11/8 and then changed configs due to back orders and the fact that I wanted to get an AMD64 instead. You see the config and phases in my sig.
Initial Impression:
THIS THING IS ****IN HUGE!!!! Like a million other people have stated, you don't realize how big this mofo is until you throw your back out getting it out of the box. I got my t-shirt, my mouse pad and the BIG ASS SILVER TOWER. I read the instructions throughly on how to plug in my mouse/keyboard and power cord
. Oh wait, no I didn't I plugged that bitch in and started installing 3dMark05/AquaMark/CPU-z/Doom3/HL2/Starwars Battlefront and WoW.
Build Quality:
I opened the side panel to check all the wiring. Tight. Everything was tucked away and there was plenty of room to get in there and screw with stuff. They also put a ton of extra screws in the case for later use which is nice.
It's suprisingly quite for how many fans it has.
Benchmarks:
HL2 StressTest: 152 FPS
DOOM3 78.1 FPS 1280x1024 HighQuality
3DMark05 - 5338
AquaMark - 67,554
I'm not a big believer in the whole benchmark BS; I will say that all the games I installed run flawlessly with pretty much maxed out settings (with the exception of WoW which I will get to). No hesitation just pure gaming goodness.
The WoW Incedient (AW support rules):
OK. I load up WoW and start playing. Now WoW isn't that graphically intense so the thing flew on this system yet I would BSOD or get repeated/dreaded 131/132 errors. Blizzard suggested to uninstall, check harddrive, check memory blah blah blah. So I go through the routine thinking yah right its a brand new rig. I make sure all drivers where up to date, they were. I run an HD scan, no problem. I run Windows mem diagnostic, no problem. I run Memtest +86, 1 memory modules fails. I'm like you got to be ****ing kidding me. I immediately call AW support. I explian I ran all the tests, 1 DIMM at a time and the problem that was occuring. AW was concerned since it passed Windows mem diagnostic. I told him that if I remove the bad module, the BSODs stopped. They 2nd day'd me a new module. End of problem
Tweaks/Mods/Misc:
I OC'd my vid card to 420/1125 and I didn't have any problem running at the speed. I haven't screwed with OC'ing the CPU yet. PowerStrip and AbitGuru are nice little utilities to OC the vid card and cpu. The AbitGuru app actually allows you to configure Auto-Drive, which gives you the option to run any app at user defined OC settings. Haven't really screwed with it that much yet.
I picked up a Logitech MX1000 laser mouse. This thing kicks ass. Battery life for days and smooth as a babies ass. I definately recommend picking one up.
Overall Impressions:
This computer chews through pretty much anything I throw at it. Despite the memory incident, everything else has worked flawlessly. I'm glad to be an owner.
Initial Impression:
THIS THING IS ****IN HUGE!!!! Like a million other people have stated, you don't realize how big this mofo is until you throw your back out getting it out of the box. I got my t-shirt, my mouse pad and the BIG ASS SILVER TOWER. I read the instructions throughly on how to plug in my mouse/keyboard and power cord
. Oh wait, no I didn't I plugged that bitch in and started installing 3dMark05/AquaMark/CPU-z/Doom3/HL2/Starwars Battlefront and WoW.Build Quality:
I opened the side panel to check all the wiring. Tight. Everything was tucked away and there was plenty of room to get in there and screw with stuff. They also put a ton of extra screws in the case for later use which is nice.
It's suprisingly quite for how many fans it has.
Benchmarks:
HL2 StressTest: 152 FPS
DOOM3 78.1 FPS 1280x1024 HighQuality
3DMark05 - 5338
AquaMark - 67,554
I'm not a big believer in the whole benchmark BS; I will say that all the games I installed run flawlessly with pretty much maxed out settings (with the exception of WoW which I will get to). No hesitation just pure gaming goodness.
The WoW Incedient (AW support rules):
OK. I load up WoW and start playing. Now WoW isn't that graphically intense so the thing flew on this system yet I would BSOD or get repeated/dreaded 131/132 errors. Blizzard suggested to uninstall, check harddrive, check memory blah blah blah. So I go through the routine thinking yah right its a brand new rig. I make sure all drivers where up to date, they were. I run an HD scan, no problem. I run Windows mem diagnostic, no problem. I run Memtest +86, 1 memory modules fails. I'm like you got to be ****ing kidding me. I immediately call AW support. I explian I ran all the tests, 1 DIMM at a time and the problem that was occuring. AW was concerned since it passed Windows mem diagnostic. I told him that if I remove the bad module, the BSODs stopped. They 2nd day'd me a new module. End of problem
Tweaks/Mods/Misc:
I OC'd my vid card to 420/1125 and I didn't have any problem running at the speed. I haven't screwed with OC'ing the CPU yet. PowerStrip and AbitGuru are nice little utilities to OC the vid card and cpu. The AbitGuru app actually allows you to configure Auto-Drive, which gives you the option to run any app at user defined OC settings. Haven't really screwed with it that much yet.
I picked up a Logitech MX1000 laser mouse. This thing kicks ass. Battery life for days and smooth as a babies ass. I definately recommend picking one up.
Overall Impressions:
This computer chews through pretty much anything I throw at it. Despite the memory incident, everything else has worked flawlessly. I'm glad to be an owner.
Glad that the machine is kicking pants!
you're one of the few who has talked about a GOOD tech support experience. Too many here just focus on the bad ones.
