Thanks, Richard. For what it's worth, I agree with you. Differences between human beings is what makes the world an interesting place. It's how we approach those differences that determines whether respect or animosity develops.

I plan on having a blast with my new configuration. It's one of the primary reasons for dropping such a wad of cash for a seemingly illogical upgrade. :D

Nothing all that special. I just usually buy Arctic Silver but actually the application is at least as important as the material. It's purpose is to fill in pockets since air is an insulator so it needs to be very thin. The compound is not a great thermal conductor. It is just better than air. The lapping/polishing process is far more important. It is a lot of work and we have little choice in the CPU spreader quality (and it is thin so be conservative) but only in the heatsink can we choose brands that provide a reasonably flat surface requiring very little extra effort.

@mattallmill _ I completely understand your enthusiasm for Quake. Until just last year I spent many hours each day playing Quake III Arena. I just love the physics of the game and I went so far as to buy a monitor with 120Hz refresh and capped the FPS in the q3config at 120fps which created an unimaginably smooth performance and made possible mid-air feats impossible otherwise. In addition to the physics of the game, especially jump pads, rocket jumping, and high speed "bunny hopping" it seems that a large majority of the players left are the extreme hardcore with just incredible skills. I even got to play one against F8tality and didn't die for over 4 minutes LOL. I know players who researched hit box size by the pixel to advantage and created or used training maps for honing skills. Originally Q3 capped running speed at somewhere around 6 pixels per second iirc but by proper bunny hopping, and a long enough straight stretch, one can reach 1000 pixels per second!!

There are very few stretches that long but by honing one's skill it is possible to get the most acceleration from each step so that even 2 or 3 steps can provide sufficient speed to greatly increase jumping distance making otherwise impossible locations possible or even just avoiding being hit. These training maps when first viewed even by a long time player look impossible and it takes a huge investment of time to complete them and even then some are only possible with extreme video cards and tuned settings. There are numerous videos on YouTube that are simply jaw-dropping at the level of expertise and thinking on ones feet, though some others are painstakingly rehearsed, especially team tricks.

Quake 3 has updated texture pixmaps that make it look modern so I suppose this has made it's way into Quake I as well. Check this out for what has been accomplished in Q3 graphics for a 20+ year old game Q3 New School

For an example of team trick jumping (by no means the best just a quick example) see this Team Trick Jumping

There is a mod available that allows one to switch between Quake1, Quake 2, and Quake 3 models, weapons and abilities. I forget it's name nor do I know if any community servers are still available as it has been over 2 years since I played but I can find out if you have any interest.

Anyway I have every confidence that you will find ways to get the most out of your SLI rig and enjoy yourself thoroughly in the process. Game on, Brother!

Edit: FOUND IT! It is still available as a mod called Generations Quake and creates a folder inside your existing Quake install so it is selectable without altering anything you have already. I have yet to check what the server scene now is like but it is looking promising.

Quake I just excites me like no modern game has ever done. Perhaps it is because I was there when this granddaddy of all FPS games came out, and it inspired me to drop the first wad of cash on the then-hot new thing called a 3D accelerator, the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics card. Remember those? Then its successor came out, the Voodoo 2, and it sported the SLI concept that I so lusted after, but so could not afford. This present configuration has been the better part of 20 years in the making, you could say. And to be able to play my favorite game of all time on a rig that's more powerful than anything I've owned previously? I don't think I have to say what an almost orgasmic pleasure that gives me.

This rig was specifically designed for longevity. Every component is of very high quality. I was raised to believe that you spend money to save money. When I graduate from college, those lovely debts will come due. So I'll be paying those off for quite some time, I should think. There'll be no luxury of upgrades. So I build the rig to be overkill now, so it'll still give good value for money years down the road.

This is the reason I overbuild my rig now. Not only is it a personal indulgence for me, but it'll remain so for some time to come.

Regards,

Matt

In that vein, I have decided to order a 2K monitor to further future-proof my rig. I think 2560x1440 should last me awhile. :D

Was fishing around the net and found this if it's of any relevance to the topic:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...rop-glamor-max

Looks like Maxwell DDX support in Nouveau is no-more and EGL and Glamor support are now done via the xf86-video-modesetting driver. Looks like from this patch set they tore the whole Glamor structure out completely:

http://lists.freedesktop.org/archive...ly/021596.html

http://lists.freedesktop.org/archive...ly/021597.html

No sure how well xf86-video-modesetting works for 2D and 3D rendering through for Maxwell based cards.

The author only made this comment:

Using Maxwell with nouveau is a no-go anyways (with exception of the GTX750), since the GTX9xx cards need a signed firmware and despite their promises to deliver such signed firmware to nouveau developers Nvidia has so far not done that.

Latest Long Lived Branch version: 352.79 released today.

Running an AMD 8350 here for the same reason, although sufficient RAM is also required for the multiple VMs. No special cooling required on my system, I am running the factory CPU fan and whatever fans came with the low-end Lancool case...

Could you possibly display some output with at least CPU and GPU temps? I think it is pretty important for people to know what you consider acceptable running temps when you say things like "No special cooling required".

Sure:

Idling away with a few browser windows open, checking the mail:

In addition to the above compiling FFmpeg with make -j 8, this runs the 8 cores at 98 each:

Gets a little toasty there but drops rapidly. I am running an NVidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti which idles at 32-35C, I don't have anything installed at the moment to rev it up a lot. More than happy to run a specific test...

Edit: Hmmm.... looks like glmark2 might push the GPU a bit....

Unfortunately Maxwell's nouveau support was broken and was removed by the developers. They have suggested that people try using Modesetting driver as it will still load the egl stack for 3D rendering, but as far as how well it works, your guess is as good as mine. The OEM drivers should support Maxwell just fine.

I can attest to one thing, the CPU is often to blame for 90 percent of video lag issues and frame rate problems. After I upgraded from an AMD Athlon X2 2.5Ghz to an AMD FX-4300 3.8Ghz, one Windows based MMORPG I play literally has never lagged since. Nothing really can help ot if you have slow RAM and a bargain bin CPU. And I've been using the same GeForce 9800 GT 1GB OC Edition for nearly 5 years now.

In PC hardware you do get what you pay for. No joke.

@ Andrew 46 - Those are some very curious numbers. Unless you keep your home (or computer room) at 60F I find it rather unlikely that your CPU idles at what is for most, ambient 70F or 21.4C. On the flip side 63.4C is above the threshold of human pain and from a simple compile for 8 cores. Ouch! However, Graphics temps seem quite stable and normal.

The reason I asked is because (and with no slight to AMD) AMD tends to allow their CPUs to run a little hotter than Intel does. Your CPU is running within spec, assuming no jobs work it heavier than compiling ffmpeg, but personally I would never allow a CPU of mine to exceed 55C and that would be a rarity. IMHO The cost of after market coolers is a bargain in insurance and beats any warranty value for dollar in longevity and peace of mind in clean data. Heat is the mortal enemy of electronics. Stock coolers have improved some from say 10 years ago but the after market in cooling exists for a reason - max performance/least damage. If hard work is rare and if your idle temp is anywhere near accurate you can probably ignore all this but it would nag me.

Apologies to OP for the tangent but it may even be of interest to OP given he has invested in a high performance system.

While I agree somewhat with this, I've never run into issues with stock coolers not providing adequate enough cooling... unless someone is overclocking or has poor ventilation in their case (which is usually due to clogged vents or improperly installed fans). If your case is venting normally and you aren't overclocking, I've never seen an instance (with all the computers I've built and tested) where there was a need for an aftermarket cooling setup to stay within a decent temperature range.

That being said, I installed an aftermarket cooler on my system. But I only did it for the looks and the quieter operation of the fan. I actually ran the stock HSF for years with 3 blades missing (I stupidly broke one off working in the case with the computer running -- it gave me quite the gash in my finger -- and to keep the fan balanced, I had to remove two other blades), doing all sorts of CPU intensive stuff, and I never ran into any cooling issues. Usually my processor would peak at 45C with the stock HSF(this is a 125W AMD Athlon64 X2 6400+... a beast in its prime). Now, with the aftermarket HSF, I rarely see it go above 40C (it's 35C now with kio_file maxing out one core during a massive file transfer with small files).