Gear Photoshoot

Greetings all,

So while I'm still waiting for fans, I needed to log all the serials and such for things anyway. As such I did a small photoshoot of the compy gear before it gets put into that case. Surprisingly it took far longer than expected to set it all up and shoot away. For just being parts though, I'm happy with how things turned out.

#1

#2 The power of two!

#4 1366 crazy little pin contacts. Crazy.

#5 Basic Blu-Ray burner. Why not?

#7 With two CPUs comes a need for two coolers. I really felt these were amongst the best overall. Will put 2x120mm push/pull fan combos on them once the fans come in.

#10 These look awesome on top as they're nickel plated. Not to mention they have that particular robotic feel ;)

#11 It's hard to make a heatsink look like a tower but one of the shots that shows it well IMO.

#12 Was going to buy the 480s but I'm glad I waited.

#13 I think the duality of this system is pretty evident by now ;). No that's the last of it. I did not buy 2 PSUs! lol.

#14 This card might reach ~80c under load. That's not really that bad compared to the 480s' temp I read of being near 100c. I'll probably put after-market cooling on these anyway once I know the solution will fit.

#15 If there was a such a thing as a sexy graphics card, I think EVGA did a good job here.

#16 It's truly amazing how complex the PCBs have gotten over the years.

#17 Pulled out my "old" 9800 GTX+ for comparison.

#18 Surprisingly, the 580 isn't really that much larger at all. It is *very clear* however that the 580 is heavier - nearly double the weight I'd guess.

#19 580 on top, 9800 on bottom.

#20 The whole enchilada.

#21

#22 Up to maybe 6 or 7 months ago, having a dual-socket board that also could use full graphics power was as far as I understood it, unheard of. This board has support so far for 12 cores / 24 threads, 48GB of RAM, and 4-x16 PCIe lanes for Quad-SLI. Depends on how far the Westmere architecture will go though and I didn't want to wait a year for enthusiast Sandy Bridge. Oh well, even if it tapped out at only 12 cores once hex cores come down in price, I think I'll be darned happy lol.

#23 Blue ports are USB 3. Red ports on the lower right in the shot above are SATA 3 / 600 MB/s.

#24

#25

#26

#27 It may not look like it but these are big cards. They just look scaled well because this is a BIG board!

#28

#29 Two cards these days can SLI scale to nearly 90% or higher - a worthwhile investment. 3+ though start tanking usually and are prohibitably expensive.

#30 Heavy.

#31

#32 That giant mess is just the hard-wired cables. Crazy. Cables are as heavy as the PSU.

#33

#34 More cables!

#35

#36 Mamma-Jamma Fricken Heavy. No really, I think the 15KG note on the box is wrong. You guys know I carry other heavy stuff fine yet this seems to be hard for me to move.

#37

#38 Here, carry a box of lead basically... It's not a big unit at all. Maybe like 4 boxes of Kraft Velveta put in a square.

#39 The case and box overshot my photoshoot table ;p

#40 Reminds me of well, a skyscraper.

#41 Now I know why so many people like Lian-Li. The texture on this case is beautiful.

#42 E-SATA, Firewire, 4x USB2, Mic / Headphone jacks. Nifty.

#43 A shot that was harder to get than it seemed!

#44 Certainly a bold and powerful looking case. Fitting for a Magi ;)

#45 Oh gosh look at all those screws!

#46

#47

#48 MB Tray is removable. Nice.

#49 Though I don't think any kind of lock will keep the determined out of the case, the lock however still does serve a good purpose in securing the front hinge door. It's reinforced / heavy enough to make this case incredibly counter-weighted to the front when picked up. This way door is locked and it won't swing open on ya.