Lets make a list and check it twice.

[vicaphit]

its easy to make an cheapo anti static mat, just get some tinfoil, wrap it around a placemat, solder a wire to the tinfoil, and run it to the ground of an electrical outlet. its gehto but it works

I'm kinda slow when it comes to circuits. I would probably manager to make a circuit and plug it into the 120v line and fry everything.

I will stick to putting it all together in the case.

I did receive the case today. I ordered it on the 6th, received it on the 8th. That is 2 day shipping on a rather large item, and Newegg shipped it for free. The Q6600 is here as well, and the cooler is larger than I expected. I am sure it will work for me for now. I called in sick for work for tomorrow so I can put this thing together and take it to a friends house and get all of my windows updates.

I have pictures of the case, and the large NAIL sticking out of the side of the case's box.

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This is weird because it is the second time that a shipment has come from Newegg with a puncture to the box. My 7600GT a year ago had a large gash in the side. Luckily the nail didn't damage the side of the case, though I don't know how I dodged that bullet because I checked the length of the nail with the packaging and it definitely should have done some damage. This may be Newegg, or it may be UPS, but I will stop using neither because both companies are awesome.

[Methious]

Congrats on the Q6600 I think your gonna like it! I love mine, I might only get the full of 2 cores right now but at 3.2 it's still an awesome speed. Enjoy!

[martini161]

if you put it to gether in the case then you should put the power supply in first and keep it plugged in but switched off. that way you still have a ground going

[vicaphit]

I wanted to give you guys an update.

The build is complete, posted on the first time being fired up.

Vista installed fine, basically everything is awesome. I will post pictures sometime this week.

[vicaphit]

Sorry for the double post, but here is my 3dMark score: 10962 3DMarks

[smack323]

what a great feeling - when the first time you fire it up and it posts.

[vicaphit]

Haha, yeah, I was really scared at that point because I pushed the button on the front and nothing happened. I switched the PSU on, then hit the button again, and still nothing. Finally I figured out that the surge protector was plugged in but not turned on... Turned that on and BEEP.

Phew...

[smack323]

I cant just see the sweat building up on your forehead as you attempt to power up the PC and nothing is happening. My last build I forgot to connect the power cable to the HD. Took me 30 minutes to figure out why the damn machine couldnt find the hard drive. I was going nuts.

[DMB2000uk]

Its sod's law that something isn't connected right first time. It's the way with computers

Dan

[vicaphit]

Yeah, I was nervous!

I overclocked last night. First time I have ever used the bios to do anything other than changing auto startup times.

I achieved 3.0ghz, and my temps under Crysis Ultra High settings for about an hour are sub 60c.

I even ran 3dMark and got 12963. Not bad for putting less than $600 into a new machine (Not including recycled parts)

[vicaphit]

Sorry for another double post, but I have some pictures for you guys. They are low res because even this size is taking forever to upload.

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[martini161]

ultra should be shot for putting those hideous and hard to hide cables on such an otherwise nice psu

[DaIceMan]

Looking good. I'll be building 3 new machines this week (2 from recycled parts and a few pickups) and a new gaming beast for a buddy of mine at work. Hope I have the luck of first press post as well.

[vicaphit]

I'll send you some good vibes. I don't know what I would have done if it didn't post immediately.

[tekgek]

Great machine, man. I would have gone for Quad core were it not for the price. Please let us know how it all works. Just one question, though: With the quade core proc and th 8800 gpu, don't you think that a little more cooling would be good? Sorry if this is more than a little late, but I just thought it might be good to bring up.

[vicaphit]

There are plenty of fans in the machine, though I have thought about an aftermarket cooler for the CPU. I know I won't be going to water cooling. That's a bit above my skill level.

I am running HL2 games at Max with over 60FPS, I even tried 1600x1200 res and it still ran without a hiccup.

Crysis runs at around 25FPS with most settings on ultra high, I turned down object quality, shadows, and textures to high, and medium for object quality (I don't miss the few extra rocks here and there).

I can finally run World in Conflict well enough to play through. I am in the first few levels still.