WhiteWulfe

The past week and a half or so has been a rather interesting one, thanks to a combination of weather as well as two of our delivery drivers being sick. Oh, and a short week too, because of Thanksgiving. Needless to say, it's made for a few interesting times at work. Oh, right, and because of that I spent all my free time trying to clear a few levels in various games, so pretty much neglected the whole "write up my full fledged opinions on the OpenBenchTable" thing. Regarding the nick and scratch... I think the biggest reason why I was so frustrated about it is such was pretty much the first thing I saw when I lifted it out of the packaging, since it's on the handle side. Once the bench table is set up it's only visible if you're looking for it, but having such be the second thing you see is probably what got me so wound up initially. Anyways, moving onto the bench itself. I'd post pictures of the packaging but others have already done that with an SLR camera, and I only have my phone combined with low lighting in our entire place, so I'll just skip ahead to what I used to be using While the ArmaFlex on top of a motherboard box is practical, at least for insulating things, it does bring about with it several problems for me. First and foremost, while it's stable "enough" for what I do, I'm not quite a fan of how things readily shift every time you have to push something down, even if it's just plugging in a fan. Secondly, it takes up a decent amount of space with no real options for cable management. And third, it was just plainly an eye sore in my living room in comparison. Originally I had planned on picking up something from Dimastech, specifically the EasyXL (or an Easy v3.0 with a Hard 2.5), but after looking further into things decided that three main things ruled them out - poor availability, they're insanely large, and arguably the most important their lack of customer service. CaseLab's BH7 was also a contender, especially given the absolutely wonderful berry colour. What, were you expecting me to say black or orange? It's the wrong shade of orange for me Anyways, as gorgeous as their Bullet lineup is, and even with Jim's assurance that it would be able to handle the weight of full cooling pots without issue due to how they're designed, one big thing changed my mind as to the solution I was going to go with - teaser shots of the new OpenBenchTable were released. When the original prototype came out for the OpenBenchTable, I liked the thoughts and ideas behind it, but didn't see it as a contender. In fact, in some areas I was fairly vocal about what I saw as the prototype's shortcomings, with my biggest complaint having centered around the acrylic pieces holding all the hardware inside. Thankfully, the OpenBenchTable team listened to a lot of advice and opinions of benchers that were a lot more sensible about things than I was and pretty much all of the concerns I previously had have been rectified with the production version. So, just how do things look and feel now that I've picked up the OpenBenchTable? Well, to state it in a short manner, despite not having actually benched on it just yet (something about not having a monitor over there anymore, which will be fixed this week), I'm quite happy with it. After a short while (10-15 minutes, I didn't really time myself because I was having too much fun looking at various different things) I had it all put together. Picking it up to move it around brought one thing immediately to mind - this table is LIGHT, like barely noticeable when being carried around. While light in weight, it's still strong and durable. Yup, I tried somewhat to try and flex it, and didn't get all that far with such... Before installing all of my main hardware onto the table, I wanted to check on something that a number of people have inquired about - just how stable is the OpenBenchTable? Well, without any hardware on it, including the power supply, it seems it wouldn't be that hard to tip IF you gave a good enough bump. However, once you install the power supply underneath the OpenBenchTable casual attempts to tip it using a similar amount of force as before the power supply resulted in somewhat sore fingers for a moment because it didn't budge at all. I didn't hit it with a sledgehammer, but at the same time my biggest worry is just bumping things - I won't be benching in a construction zone! Anyways, while I've written a lot and even rambled somewhat, just what are my thoughts on the OpenBenchTable in the end? In short, I find it a rather versatile benching setup that has enough space for most setups, having the ability to put an ITX, mATX, and ATX motherboards as well as a power supply and two hard drives. It's rather simple to put together, and once you've done such once or twice I wouldn't doubt it if one could get it sorted out in two minutes or less. It's strength lies in the fact that it can easily be used as a portable setup as well as a sexy semi-permanent setup in one's living room that won't stick out like the motherboard box setup sure did. Do I have any issues with it? Arguably there's the lack of a power and reset button, or even space to put them, but at the same time most people who are benching have a habit of using boards with power and reset buttons built onto the motherboard, so it isn't really an actual issue in the long run. Also.... What hardware am I running on it right now? Motherboard: Asus P5E (with a Rampage Formula bios) CPU: Intel Core2Duo E8500 CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Friio Advanced with Cougar fans RAM: OCZ Reaper DDR2 1200MHz Solid State: Kingston 64GB SSDNow Power supply: Corsair GS700 (will be replaced with an EVGA 1000 watt G2 at some point) Video Card: EVGA 9500 GT Shiny screen thingy in a PCI slot is a bios code reader.

Oh right, you guys have that insanely high VAT issue... Thankfully, for me it was $240.xx CAD (forgot how many cents it was) at the time plus another $23.99 CAD at the door.

Apologies for the delayed replies, I'll have more of a proper write-up in the near future as I haven't had much of a chance to spend time around my benching area the past few days (Tuesday inadvertently dropped the lip of a can of Coke onto my right foot while refilling the fridge after thiefing the last one, and kind of couldn't walk or stand most of that night without excruciating pain, and Wednesday hubby acquired Alorak in Starcraft II and pretty much stole for into that for the evening). Tonight's pretty much reserved for cleaning up my benching area (it's somewhat of a disaster area as it also became the collection point of various things due to my gaming rig moving from that desk back to my Obutto R3volution), and if I run out of time to do a proper write-up (aka "wall of text" as my teammates like to call my "short posts", lol!) with better pictures (living room has lighting more for effect, than flooding the place with light - gotta love being light sensitive) I hope to be posting them sometime tomorrow evening (evening for me, anwyays ). Initial impressions are that it's rather easy to assemble, and once the power supply is installed it's rather stable..... As for the number, 47 may not be as epic as 42, but on the flip side it is Hitman's agent designation (Agent 47) in the Hitman series of games that I rather enjoyed playing (at least Absolution... Yeah yeah, I know, it isn't one of the so called classics but it was a ton of fun) Anyways, back to cleaning up my benching area so I can actually take those pictures and whatnot.... Won't have any subzero stuff to report on for a while though, due to finances being focused in other areas (and.... uhm.... Currently no monitor for the benching rig. Should be fixed before Country Cup I hope ;;;; )

Do it, they're definitely worth it! Only reason I haven't updated my thread is I haven't had much of a chance to work on my benching area the past few days due to various things >.>;;;;;;

I didn't know it was DHL until they called me... Only link I was provided was some 4PX one that was upwards of 24 hours behind on tracking info.

Bumping this because if you pull up our team's page.... it still doesn't show Apprentice members in the count. There's Elite, Extreme, Enthusiast, Novice, and Rookie.... But no count at all for Amateur. Overclock.net @ HWBOT as the link where it's not showing things.

So I've been pretty excited about getting mine in, doubly so given the number my order had as I'm somewhat of a Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan.... Before I write anything else though, I'm rather curious about two things.... - Why does the number of the table I was sent (47/200) NOT match my order number (1042)? - Why is there a fairly large scratch as well as a chip on a new product, and blatantly obvious ones at that? Actual review and proper pics to come later on once I've calmed down, as I'm kind of rather livid right now.

That's the hope. Tracking is showing Cincinnati, OH now so... Hopefully this week.

Mine is still sitting in Hong Kong according to the tracking info o_O

Anyone else notice there are also THREE Canadians in the top eight? One of them is an Edmontonian too!

Wouldn't that count more like a combination of extreme and custom watercooling given it was a typhoon?

What if he moved to be, especially the Vancouver area? They have no idea what cold actually means

My biggest curiosity is if it really does double as a pillow!

I haven't, but if it's anything like acid etching there is one MAJOR rule to follow.... Don't do it in the kitchen, do it outside. Not just because the outdoors usually has significantly better ventilation, but also because of the simple fact your spouse, roommates, and/or landlord will probably want to kill you afterwards if you do it in the kitchen

Cheapest quote for LN2 I received was $4 CAD per liter before DG fees, and to pick it up they wanted me to drive twenty minutes out of town, which is kind of hard to do when you don't have a vehicle, and while I do have a work vehicle I'm not risking losing my job by going that far out of my delivery area (GPS tracked work vehicle). It's why I've remained with dry ice, as I can usually get a weekend's worth of cpu only fun for $26.25 CAD ($25 CAD with GST), and work doesn't mind at all because it's rather safe to transport, AND our service techs love playing with the stuff. Man, the face of wonder one of our inside service techs had as he'd never seen or played with the stuff before - he occasionally asks me if I have more in the truck

People are also going to assume that since it's a benchmark by the same company, and that it's part of the same package as Firestrike and the rest that the rules will remain the same, doubly so if it isn't expressedly mentioned in the bench rules as well as stage rules. If it isn't mentioned, people will assume the status quo from before will remain.

So why the sudden change to the rules, especially with such little time left? I was under the impression that rules weren't going to be changed in the middle of a stage once it started? All the other 3DMark benches are allowed to have LOD tweaking, and when Future mark did the changes for Hall of Fame we were assured by the HWBot staff that such a tweak would still be allowed for submissions here on the 'bot. Is there going to suddenly be a change out of nowhere that affects all the other benches too?

These next couple of weeks waiting are going to be painfully long. On the flipside, maybe I can actually get my benching area all sorted and tidied up by that point ...On the other hand, I'll finally have something to tell my customers that keep asking about what latest hardware I've purchased (edit: not to mention I've already had three ask for me to bring it in and show it off... /edit) ;;;;

What about AIO CLC's such as Corsair's H110/115 series, which are 280mm?

Good to know. I'll be more than happy with it in silver, even if I do prefer black as a colour Wooohooo, I look forward to such

I'll playfully say nuooooooo, no black... I'd have to buy a second one because the black Streacom uses for their chassis are just too darn gorgeous! If there was an option to upgrade my current one on order to black though.... Oh I'd definitely be interested.

Looks rather lovely! Any chance it'll support a 360mm radiator?

Glad to hear! Suprisingly, it went live right when I was supposed to be going to work, so I had to delay putting in my order, but it's in there now. Now comes the (hopefully not too long) wait for my setup to become tidier!

Any word on when the site will be back up? It's been down for 24 hours now, either ending as unresolved or server error 502.

Might want to let whoever sent out the reminder emails that the Team Competition ends Sept 30th, not August 31st.