I still need an everyday system to work on so I choose the next best thing: LGA 775.
Why LGA 775? Because all my collection is based on Abit boards and Abit last manufactured boards are for LGA 775. Also it is fully compatible with XP which is an important consideration for me.
I choose an IX38 quadgt, Q9650, 8gb of DDR2 from Corsair and the rest of the components left over from the Sandy bridge system: Kingston 120gb SSD; Kingston 1.000gb SSD; WD 2.000gb HDD; WD 4.000gb HDD; GTX 560Ti; Corsair RM650; DVD-rw; cooler master 212X and cooler master haf xb case. I assembled everything and installed Windows 8.1 for the first time - yes I know, it's the most hated version of Windows but I had to try it 😀! I installed Classic shell and all my programs and started to work as I was late on many projects.
To my amazement the system is very responsive and multitasking is not slowing it down: can open a dozen or so web pages in Firefox, some really large excel files, play some movie on the TV and so on, all at the same time! I sincerely did not expect this from a 15 years old platform, it exceeded my expectations!
The only real problem is the copy speed which is really low because of the SATA 2.0 and USB 2.0: what took 3-4 minutes before now takes 10 minutes or more!

nd22 wrote on 2023-08-18, 05:37:

I still need an everyday system to work on so I choose the next best thing: LGA 775.
cooler master haf xb case.

I have that case for my daily driver too, it's really nice!

I had to google the case.. and it is indeed an amazing looking case.

appiah4 wrote on 2023-08-18, 12:35:

I had to google the case.. and it is indeed an amazing looking case.

And I bought it second hand for less than US$30 😁

Nice case but biggest issue is physical size is so large especially height and footprint. I have no place to put it like this. I preferred towers and even 92mm fan, the PSU also have 92mm internally, on back of the tower is sufficient. This is HP Z220 and HP Z420. Future is to get Z440, since I already got 16 core CPU awhile ago. For the windows 11, I go with Z4 G5 or something similar in future around mid 2024 or so.

One, can't be put on the floor but would work with a small table beside a desk, or a large desk to handle that. I have none. No space for any of those.

Cheers,

appiah4 wrote on 2023-08-18, 12:35:

I had to google the case.. and it is indeed an amazing looking case.

Yes, it is!
It has some very nice features:
- very good cooling including a 200 mm top fan!
- is stack-able: you can put one on top of other
- very easy to work on: you can remove hard drives without opening the case
- can be used as a workbench
- accepts all kind of oddities like using PATA cd-roms and hard drives despite being a modern case!
- removable motherboard tray!!!

During system assembly I took some pictures and despite being 15 years old the setup looks modern with all SATA drives and with my one and only DirectX 11 video card!

And here is the finished build; I should really replace those red cables with some black ones!

And here is one of the corners where I do most of the work:

Sorry for OT; but have you used the hot-swap front bays for HDDs? I've just tried mine a couple of days ago, and can't seem to get the disks in them online. I suspect the power cable adapter, being molded in hot melt glue not having adequate connection? Or should there be some kind of driver for some hot-swap interface?

Yes, I got 1 SSD and 1 HDD in the hot swap bays and are working just fine! In fact this is one of the strength of this case - I switch the drives between different HAF XB's for large file transfers. Check if the drives are properly installed - maybe they do not make proper connection!

nd22 wrote on 2023-08-23, 15:05:

Yes, I got 1 SSD and 1 HDD in the hot swap bays and are working just fine! In fact this is one of the strength of this case - I switch the drives between different HAF XB's for large file transfers. Check if the drives are properly installed - maybe they do not make proper connection!

Thanks, I'll take a look at it. The one i tried first actually got slightly warm, so probably powered. I might as well check the sata cables, and the power cable looks flimsy to me ...

H3nrik V! wrote on 2023-08-23, 20:48:

nd22 wrote on 2023-08-23, 15:05:

Yes, I got 1 SSD and 1 HDD in the hot swap bays and are working just fine! In fact this is one of the strength of this case - I switch the drives between different HAF XB's for large file transfers. Check if the drives are properly installed - maybe they do not make proper connection!

Thanks, I'll take a look at it. The one i tried first actually got slightly warm, so probably powered. I might as well check the sata cables, and the power cable looks flimsy to me ...

Wish I'd checked my BIOS for hot swap of sata being disabled before disassembling the case to remove my power supply with way too short cables, to get the interface out to check connectivity 🤣 well, now it works 😁

Glad I could help!
Now the performance under Windows 8.1 is simply equal to that under Windows 7. I did 3d mark 2006, Crysis and Battlefield bad company 2 and the scores and frame rates are identical to those under 7. It does not consume more RAM which makes 8gb enough for modern tasks such as web browsing and office work.
GTX 560TI helps a lot with video decoding; it is doubtful an older Direct X 9.0c video card could help the processor on YouTube or with DVD movies. In games the video card is NOT bottlenecked by the processor at 1080P; in fact Q9650 with 8gb of RAM seems to be a perfect match for GTX 560TI in all the games I tested - I should mention that I do not have anything newer than Bad company 2.
The Windows 8.1 GUI is strange but I did used classic shell and other third party programs to make it more usable and more like 7 which I used up until 2 weeks ago. I am still working on the finishing touches but I am amazed at what LGA 775 can still do in 2023.
The big minus are the read/copy rates which never exceed 250 MB/s even if the SATA 2 limit is 300MB/s.

I did some benchmarks so here are the results:
First the windows experience index which looks pretty good, there is no sub score which differs a lot from the rest to indicate a serious bottleneck:

In 3dmark 2005 & 2006 the performance is very good, the system will have no problem whatsoever with any DirectX 9.0C game even at 1080p widescreen or 1600p 4:3 resolution with max settings:

In DirectX 10 I only tested 3dmark vantage and the performance is acceptable:

nd22 wrote on 2023-08-27, 04:20:

In DirectX 10 I only tested 3dmark vantage and the performance is acceptable:

However Crysis seems to think otherwise as even without AA the average framerate is pretty low:

27/08/2023 09:49:30 - Vista 64
Beginning Run #1 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX10 1920x1080, AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 64 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=3, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: VeryHigh
==============================================================
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 55.01s, Average FPS: 36.36
Min FPS: 22.69 at frame 137, Max FPS: 46.48 at frame 994
Average Tri/Sec: -11128925, Tri/Frame: -306083
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -2.99
!TimeDemo Run 1 Finished.
Play Time: 50.69s, Average FPS: 39.46
Min FPS: 22.69 at frame 137, Max FPS: 46.48 at frame 994
Average Tri/Sec: -11503705, Tri/Frame: -291562
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -3.14
!TimeDemo Run 2 Finished.
Play Time: 50.73s, Average FPS: 39.42
Min FPS: 22.69 at frame 137, Max FPS: 46.48 at frame 994
Average Tri/Sec: -11385959, Tri/Frame: -288831
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -3.17
TimeDemo Play Ended, (3 Runs Performed)
==============================================================

Completed All Tests

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>>--SUMMARY--<<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

27/08/2023 09:49:30 - Vista 64

Run #1- DX10 1920x1080 AA=No AA, 64 bit test, Quality: VeryHigh ~~ Overall Average FPS: 39.44

For comparison this is the same benchmark done 12 years ago on 2600K/16gb DDR3/Asus P67 deluxe:

9/24/2011 8:48:58 PM - Vista 64
Beginning Run #1 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX10 1920x1080, AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 64 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=3, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: VeryHigh
==============================================================
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 50.98s, Average FPS: 39.23
Min FPS: 27.73 at frame 143, Max FPS: 46.43 at frame 980
Average Tri/Sec: -11961267, Tri/Frame: -304867
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -3.01
!TimeDemo Run 1 Finished.
Play Time: 47.89s, Average FPS: 41.76
Min FPS: 27.73 at frame 143, Max FPS: 46.92 at frame 1014
Average Tri/Sec: -12171893, Tri/Frame: -291482
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -3.14
!TimeDemo Run 2 Finished.
Play Time: 47.91s, Average FPS: 41.74
Min FPS: 27.73 at frame 143, Max FPS: 47.24 at frame 992
Average Tri/Sec: -12081928, Tri/Frame: -289435
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -3.17
TimeDemo Play Ended, (3 Runs Performed)
==============================================================

Completed All Tests

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>>--SUMMARY--<<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

9/24/2011 8:48:58 PM - Vista 64

Run #1- DX10 1920x1080 AA=No AA, 64 bit test, Quality: VeryHigh ~~ Overall Average FPS: 41.75

There is a 5.5% advantage for Sandy bridge which is absolutely insignificant considering this is not maximum settings because AA is disabled!