Pro wiring... or, my attempt at it anyway

I've always built pretty clean systems, as you can see if you visit my gallery blog. But I'm always looking to improve, and after seeing some awesome interiors from OverdrivePC (see previous post) and Maingear (whose Ephex system uses the Silverstone TJ10 case, which is basically just my TJ09 case with a door on the front) I decided to spiff up the interior of my own case.

Okay... I'm maybe not on the level of some system builders who take the hours to clip all their wiring to custom length; I'm using the stock cables that came with my components. Having said that, I'm really proud of this wiring job. Not just because it's really clean, but because I did some clever things (well, I thought they were clever) and I didn't resort to any "cheap" tactics, like stuffing cables into drive bays (a bad idea, since that can hinder future expansion).

What I did:
- Tied down power cable along side the motherboard, and routed the front intake fan cable along side it
- Routed all power and SATA cables behind the fan apparatus, bundled them together and secured them
- Routed the excess slack from the PCI-E cables behind the power supply and secured it, then tied the rest of the cabling in a bundle with the front panel cables (which themselves are sleeved and routed along the bottom of the motherboard)
- Secured the 4-pin connectors cable behind the drive cages and routed it along side the back of the intake fan apparatus
- Secured the power cable, the two SATA cables and the 4-pin cable with a clamp so they run neatly along the back edge of the floor of the case

Check the pics (click for high-res) and let me know what you think...

The improved wiring


I enhanced the contrast with this pic to give you a better idea


Up and running!


Just for kicks, here's a TJ09 system I saw on the [H]ardOCP forums... a "rats nest" like this makes me that much more proud of the work I put into my rig!

OverdrivePC

In case you haven't heard of them, or you haven't been reading my blog since the beginning when I was looking at boutiques instead of becoming a hobbyist builder myself, take a look at the guys over at OverdrivePC.

OPC was actually one of the original builders that inspired me to take on PC building for myself. I had never seen such clean interiors or such impressive overclocks using simple air-cooling. These guys were cranking old AMD 939 chips to the limit with a tiny air cooler while competitors were using exotic liquid systems for a fraction of the overclock. Their systems are famous for being clean on the inside, exceptionally quiet for air-cooled rigs, and very very fast. I admire OPC because these guys are legit. They are enthusiasts in the truest sense. The guys there are all gamers (CTO Mario Cifaldi is known for being a Quake III god), and the attention to detail in their systems is truly exceptional. Every time I see the inside of one of their systems I want to go back and re-wire mine!

With some of the growing pains they went through during their merger with Velocity Micro, I was hesitant to recommend them; their customer support seemed to be lacking the organization and personal touch that had made them such an exceptional company. This week, they introduced their "new" case, which is basically a lot like their old case, which is the Lian-Li PC-6070 that I used to use (they are the reason why I chose that particular case for my first build). It's another Lian-Li, but with an extended chassis and larger fans for better cooling. It's a bit of a landmark, because word from customers and staff alike indicates that they are back in full swing, building first-rate PCs and supporting them with industry-leading customer service. I wish I could say I was a customer (their systems are a bit out of my price range, unfortunately... and besides, I love building my own!), but given that their PCs inspired me to begin a hobby that's become a huge part of my life, it's great to see them back on track.

Click here to see some pics of the new case, and if you are in the market for a PC from a boutique builder, look no further than OPC.

The GeForce 9 series

Despite the fact that most games perform exceptionally on my system, I'm always looking for better performance. There is Crysis, of course....

I was hoping the Geforce 9 series would provide a nice upgrade path from my 8800GTX, but after the reviews have hit, I have to say I'm quite disappointed and frankly unsure just what the hell nVidia is thinking.

nVidia improved the efficiency of the core, made G80-level performance affordable and less power-hungry, and... uh... that's about it. The big problem is that nVidia crippled the memory bus. While the 8800GTX has a 384-bit bus and 768mb of VRAM, the 9800GTX has a 256-bit bus and 512mb of VRAM. So what happens is that the 9 series performs great at lower resolutions and with no anti-aliasing, but at higher resolutions and/or anti-aliasing, the 8800GTX is still the king of the hill. Right now the 8800GTX looks to still be the most powerful card on the market, the 9800GX2 not withstanding (as that is actually two cards running in SLI). The funny thing is that even the 9800GX2 can be bested by the 8800GTX when anti-aliasing is cranked up due to its crippled memory bus.

Perhaps the best incentive against upgrading though is the fact that really, Crysis is the only game that really conquers an 8800GTX. Every other game I own can be easily played at maximum settings. And I've already played Crysis through, many times. Between some .cfg tweaking and the latest patch, it's quite playable at very high settings. What's more, even the 9800GX2 or an SLI system can't play the game with 4xAA or at high frame rates; at most I'd be looking at a 5-10 fps boost; kind of hard to justify spending hundreds for such a small nudge. I don't foresee any other games coming out that will stress my system in the same manner until the Fall, and by then nVidia and ATI will have their next-generation cards on the table.

So it looks like a true, next-generation upgrade for the 8800GTX will just have to wait. On one hand, I'm glad; the 8800GTX is by far the best single investment I've made in my PC. On the other hand, I'm a bit disappointed... I really want to see Crysis maxed out, running smooth as butter!

A little carelessness goes a long way

What a saga I've been through.

A few weeks back, my PC randomly (and quite suddenly) shut off. I wasn't doing any gaming, just watching an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It was blustery outside like a storm was brewing, so my immediate reaction was that there'd been a brown out. But looking at my clocks, they were working fine. I pressed power on the PC, which turned out to be a mistake for reasons I'll explain later. The PC sputtered, but didn't boot. I pressed again... sputter... again... and then, nothing.

The last thing I'd noticed on the motherboard was an error code suggesting a problem with the PSU. I certainly couldn't think of what else it could be. It wasn't until I opened my PC that I realize the horror... I had a leak... a big leak. Fluid had trickled down from one of the processor connectors and pooled on my graphics card.

I'll spare the details for brevity, so basically this is what happened: A surge in my graphics card fried the power supply; both components were toast. Fluid also had dripped over the North Bridge of the motherboard, rendering the board inoperable as well. I had to RMA one component at a time until I figured out the whole picture.

So now I have a new board, new card, and new power supply. Fortunately I was able to simply RMA everything (hint: do not tell them that you fried it!), but it still ran me some cash in shipping expenses, and of course a prolonged period without my PC, which was not as agonizing as I'd expected, but it still sucked!

There's a big moral to be learned, which is CLAMP YOUR TUBES! When I built my last PC for a customer, I made sure to clamp the tubes lest they slide around during shipping. But since my PC is sitting in one spot, I figured (foolishly) that it wasn't a big deal. It was. Needless to say, my tubing is now fully clamped.

I've been back in working order for about a week now. I've got a new Seagate 7200.11 500GB hard drive. On the side of the weird, my sound card decided to act weird. It would only boot sporadically with Windows, and then Windows decided that it needed drivers. But when I went to install the drivers, it said they were already there. I tried uninstalling and re-installing, but it was to no avail. Right now I'm using onboard sound until I find a fix. Gone are the days when onboard sound was a cheap solution; modern high definition onboard audio sounds very good, and sound cards are really a luxury more than anything.

I've been working on my system wiring, and I expect to be doing a bit more surgery over the next few days. I've been looking at those anal boutique builders for ideas, and I think I can clean it up nicely. It's already well improved over its previous state. I'll post plenty of pics when it's pro-caliber.