WoooHooo

[theDano]

All i can say is "WOW"! I totally completed my rig last night and played my 1st game on it and i was totally blown away by the details that were being thrown at my eyes. Not once did it chug to think or bog down because of too many things being thrown at it to process. I had every option set at the highest possible setting and I was amazed to say the least. And it can process quicken transactions like no buddy's business ;) .

I just left a donation to this site for offering such an abundance of information for people to research, learn, and build.

I saw a PC in a magazine that cost well over double the amount for what I payed for mine and the components were not as good or fast.

This forum also allowed me to wait one extra day before ordering all of my components to get the newest intel processor (E8400) for only an extra $35 but for alot more bang for the $$!

To be quite honest....it was very easy to put this together and very fun. One of the best weekends I have spent on a project in quite a long time.

My Rig:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - 3Ghz Processor
Asus P5KC Motherboard
XFX GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-Bit 670Mhz Core clock
2 GB Kingston HyperX RAM DDR2 800Mhz
Antec 900 case
Light-On DVD Burner
320GB Western Digital HD - SATA
120GB Western Digital HD - IDE (old)
Logitech G11 Keyboard
Logitech MX518 Mouse
Logitech Z-4 Speakers + sub-woofer
XP Home Edition

1 Day to build
1 Day to load all software
Years of fun :D

Thanks MySuperPC!!

[BobaFettK]

I just built my machine this weekend using the exact same mobo, processor, and case. I used an evga 8800gt video card. I get no video signal when I turn on the machine, no matter what I try (you can read all about my weekend saga of one attempt after another in the "First Boot Problems" board). Did you have any issues like this? Did you have to try anything unusual or veer from the directions that came with the Antec 900 and the P5KC? I'm pretty sure I got a bad motherboard, but I want to be certain before I RMA. Were all the parts brand new? Had you previously used any other processors on the P5KC before installing the E8400? Thanks!

[theDano]

Sorry to hear about yur problems.

Everything was brand new and never used on anything else before. I had 2 small issues:

I had to update the bios to 903 to get the motherboard to recognize the E8400 processors true capabilities. Everything fired up but it issued a warning that I needed to update the bios b/c the processor was very new. I got the bios from Asus website and followed the directions per the manual to update the bios. After that I had to reload the drivers for the motherboard as there was a problem with the motherboard recognizing the ethernet controller. That cost me about an hour of brain power.

The other issue I had with my video card (XFX) was that the drivers on the CD from them would throw some error/warning about the software was not compliant or something like that and warned me about things not working properly but would allow you to load anyway. I chose NOT to load and I went to Nvidia's website and downloaded the lastest drivers from them and after reloading then I could take advantage of the XFX graphics card's true capabilities. I could obviously see things on the screen to debug. Sounds like you cannot even get that far. That cost me another hour of brain power.

I just took everything slow and steady and didn't rush and tested the 1st boot with no HD connected. Then assembled everything and fired it up and loaded XP and it worked.

Good Luck

Dano

[shyster]

Hey Dano,

Can I ask what country you are from, and where you got your parts from? Specifically the motherboard and cpu?

Just wondering because all I have seen says that the p5kc from england works, but the american one seems to be having issues, or possibly just the ones that come from newegg; bad batch perhaps?

[theDano]

I am from the USA and I got all of my parts from Newegg. I didn't have a one problem....well not major ones. My issues were just "no biggies".

Good Luck

Dano