The New Machine

My new PC has finally arrived and has now been fully configured and is purring like a kitten. Well, actually, it really does. The new case, the Antec p180 (as seen above) is a sick case with an extra fan located ON TOP of the case blowing down. The main features include having the power supply and the hard drives in the base of the unit using the fan from the PS to cool the hard drives as well. They are both insulated from the rest of the chamber to keep heat away from the CPU and thus keeping the system quiet and cool.

While hardly the silent predator I was hoping for, the machine covers up for its low frequency growl by producing enormous computing horsepower with freezer cool efficiency. This case also uses an advanced plastic-alloy for the covers which serve to reduce rattle and internal noise by a huge amount. How huge? I can barely hear the cd spin when the door is closed but can clearly hear it when its open. That's big enough to make me look twice. The door is also capable of opening to 270 degrees which makes long usage of the drive space less prone to running into the door while its open.

The graphics card is a BFG GeForce 6600 GT which has amazed me with its flawless setup and excellent performance. The mother board is the nVidia based DFI Lanparty Ultra-D nForce 4 model. I have never had the pleasure of a more stable, solid and easy to use mobo. The drivers are a breeze to install and the board even comes with a pre-made floppy with the required SATA drivers. Are you listening ASUS?

Windows XP was up and running inside of an hour with most major apps and devices installed later in the day. I managed to port over my complete 200 gig HD from my previous system and even fooled my iPod into thinking it was sync'ing with the same system.

I can't say enough about nVidia right now. With their unified driver system updating to the latest version of their drivers is a snap. Just go to the website, download, uninstall the old one (2 clicks), then install the new ones (2 more clicks). Infinitely easier than ASUS and VIA which caused me so many headaches. Different versions of the same driver located everywhere and some of them were prone to fatal errors! I'm never going back now after experiencing the joy of nVidia.

**** DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT HAVE STOCK IN NVIDIA NOR HAVE BETS ON WHEN ATI WILL GO BANKRUPT ****

:-D