Phantom Stalker II/Trouncer II project

[Kevin P]

Since my original Phantom Stalker PC was damaged in a house fire, I am now beginning the rebuilding project.

The Phantom Stalker II (aka Trevor Trouncer II) will be quite similar to its predecessor but with a couple of upgraded components for even more performance.

Here's the parts roster so far:

Links are to, and images are from, newegg.com.

Case: Antec P160 Silver Aluminum Mid-Tower w/120mm fan. This is the same type case I used in the original Stalker. I ordered a new one.



Motherboard: ASUS A8V DELUXE Socket 939 VIA K8T800 Pro ATX AMD Motherboard This is the same mobo I had in the original Stalker. The old mobo won't POST so I have a new one coming.



CPU: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ SledgeHammer 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor (This is an upgrade from the A64 3500+ in the original Stalker)



RAM: Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 1G(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 New sticks are on order, but if the old sticks are still good I'll put both sets in for 2 GB total.



CPU HSF: Thermaltake SilentTower 4 in 1 CPU Cooler with Heatpipe Cooling, Model CL-P0025 (New, but same piece I used in the original Stalker)



PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 470 ATX (upgraded from Silencer 410 ATX in original Stalker)

Hard Drives: (2) SAMSUNG 160GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model SP1614C (Same model hard drives as original Stalker. I ordered new ones, but the old ones still work and I'll use as removable backup drives).



Optical Drive 1: Lite-On Black 52X32X52X16 Combo DVD/CD-RW Drive, Model SOHC-5236K



Optical Drive 2: LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 4X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner



Video Card: SAPPHIRE 581PE Radeon X800XTPE 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO AGP 4X/8X Video Card (a nice upgrade from the X800PRO I had before, and outperforms Trev's NV6800)

[Trevor Schell]

Very Nice Kevin!
However, you know you need the ATI 850 graphics card.
That one is the speed demon.

[Patt]

Never have I seen the inside of a computer before......those are some strange looking but well made parts. Being able to build your own I would think, has some definite advantages over store bought.
Makes me think that is the way to go when we upgrade, having one custom made a guy could pick and choose and leave out the un-needed costly stuff.

Thanks for the pictures.......

[Kevin P]

Very Nice Kevin!
However, you know you need the ATI 850 graphics card.
That one is the speed demon.

I looked at the 850 but it's only available in PCI-E. I had to go AGP since I'm not replacing my motherboard.

Of course, if the old Trouncer's motherboard turns out to be toast and I have to get a new one... then I could really go crazy! :-y

[aud19]

Looking good Kev :T If ya don't mind me asking, how much for the CPU heatsink and is it pretty quiet?

[Kevin P]

The Silent Tower HSF is around 40 clams (USD) if you shop around. It has a 90mm fan on it and it's a lot quieter than the little jet turbine fans you find on more "average" heatsinks. And it keeps the cpu cool. I was running in the mid-upper 30s on the old machine with SETI running, with the fan throttled back to around 1900 RPM (full speed is 2500).

The Zalman like the one Trevor uses is quieter but doesn't cool as well as the Silent Tower.

[Chris D]

Good luck to you, Kev!

[Kevin P]

Here's the parts I've gathered up so far for the Stalker II:



Note that the motherboard and RAM in the picture are from the old Stalker. The old mobo is dead; I have a new one on order. I also have new RAM on order, but if the old RAM is still good I'll use it as well to get a total of 2 GB RAM.

I shouldn't have ordered the video card before testing the motherboard; had I known I could have gone the PCI-E or SLI route. Ah well, I ain't no gamer anyway.

With the possible exception of recycling the RAM, the Stalker II will be built from 100% new parts. I accidentally omitted the floppy drive and some round cables from the pic, but who cares.

The hard drives from the old Stalker still work, but due to the possibility of heat exposure during the fire, I'll only run them to copy the data over, and then use them as backup drives.

[Kevin P]

I just ran SuperPI on it, and got the following results:

1M: 0:39
2M: 1:33
4M: 3:24
CPU temp topped out at 37C (98.6F), not bad for a 4000+ CPU.

What's interesting is the faster CPU shaved 4 seconds off the 1M time but only 1 second off the 4M time. I'm thinking that this is because the larger number of digits exceeds the L2 cache so it's hitting the slower RAM more.

3DMark2003 Score: 12227 :-y :-y By comparison, my old Trouncer got 10075.

[Trevor Schell]

Nice Scores Kevin!!
Also the temp is great.
Mine still runs around 56C.

[Trevor Schell]

My best 3DMark score was 11393 3DMark03
I think PI was 47s
Doom3 was 67.2 fps on the timedemo

These are on my sucky Silver Stealth XP 3200+

[Kevin P]

56C? Me thinks you need a Silent Tower on your CPU.

3DMark2005 Score: 5765

[ekkoville]

Kev, you use any audio apps with this beast. I don't see any sound card. You could burn some great DVD's with this thing.

[Chris D]

Kev, that's a nice looking case. Does it cool sufficiently with just one fan? And is it loud?

[Kevin P]

Ekkoville, the Asus A8V has on-board audio with 7 channels, plus an optical SPDIF output. This suits me fine, and I only have a cheap pair of speakers hooked up to it. I don't use it for any serious audio at this point.

Chris, when I built my first Stalker, I used the exact same case and when I bought it, I got the optional 2nd fan for the front. The front fan was loud and didn't appear to make any difference with the temps so I ended up removing it. 2nd time around, I just got it with the standard rear fan which is quiet, and my case temps stay within a couple degrees of room temp.

With SETI running, I see CPU temps in the 39-41C range, a couple degrees higher than my old Stalker which had the 3500+ CPU instead of the 4000+.

[Kevin P]

I found a setting in the Sapphire ATI driver that overclocks the video card. I turned that on and got 12290 in 3DMark03! :-y

Haven't tried 3DMark05 with the overclocked card, yet. Probably won't until tomorrow as we're going away for the weekend.

[Trevor Schell]

Kev, some people can get over 16,000 in 3DMark03!
Lookslike your going to have to upgrade your video card already!

Anyways, those are treuly impressive scores,,especially your SETI #'s
Those are astonishing!
I can only do 7 or 8 with my one PC. You are at double that! :T

[Kevin P]

16,000 8O They must be SLIing two $1K+ video cards to get a score like that. I'm just happy I finally created a Trevor Trouncer that trounces Trevor. I'm not into gaming so I figure I'm set for now.

At under 2 hours per SETI unit, that allows for 12-13 per day, if I run the box 24/7. Now that summer is starting to appear, I tend to use the laptop more than the desktop, as I don't have A/C and keeping the desktop on makes the room hotter than normal (especially now that we're in a 2nd floor apartment). Friday night it was 85F/30C in there and the CPU was up to 48C/119F.

[Chris D]

I just downloaded 3DMark 05 tonight. Haven't tried it out yet on my 3+ year old Dell, but we'll see.

[Kevin P]

Scores in 3DMark05 are lower than in 3DMark03, as the tests are more demanding.

As a totally lopsided comparison, my Stalker II got 12290 (with video card overclocked), while the eMachines POS I was using before I rebuilt the Stalker got 75. 8O I'd be curious as to what your Dell scores.

[Claude D D]

My Gateway 700GR with a Sapphire X800Pro VIVO LTD EDITION PCI-E slightly overclocked scored 11762 in 3dmk03 and 5456 in 3dmk05.
Compared to 7420 in 03 and 3448 in 05 with a X700Pro and 3752 in 03 and 1432 in 05 with the stock X300.
Huge improvement!!!
I can crank up all the settings in NFS Porsche Unleashed and get nice high frame rates.Awesome vid card for the money.(Only $339 Cdn for the PCI-E version vs $269 for the ATI X700Pro I bought one month earlier-sent back with defective DVI out) :T

[Kevin P]

Nice video card Claude! I had the AGP version of that card in the original Stalker. I have the Sapphire X800 XT PE AGP in the Stalker II.

I got a ViewSonic 19" LCD monitor and a 4-piece Altec Lansing speaker set for the Stalker II. The speakers are a dipole design that combines the fronts and surrounds into 2 speakers, thus making for a 5.1 setup with 4 boxes. Working great so far!