Charlie Chaos

Well So far ive got the Asus a8n Sli board with a 3800+ Amd 64 x2 manchester core staring me in the face and they seem sad because they dont have any ram psu or a graphics card to play with.

the power supply i looked at the OCZ modstream wanted to know if anyone owns it and how good it is first hand I never trust reviews from other sites people say stupid stuff like I run my opteron and 4 gigs of ram its all over clocked with a 300w psu its great!!! ANYWAY =) if anyone has a goos PSU that wont fry anything give me a yell =)

Ram Once again was looking at some OCZ im gonna start small and go with either 1-2 gigs to start and add more alittle later. if there is a better brand i should be using feel free to throw out the best bang for the buck

Graphics Not sure what I want to do with DX10 on its way dont know if I want to buy a great card or stick with a lower end one until dx10 what do you guys think??

The new windows 64 OS thing I read up on it and it doesnt seem to be worth it at all I dont do a ton of video editing or anything crazy.I figure Im probly fine with win xp until i learn linuix

Feel free to throw out anything that goes good with the mobo processor combo I have. Im looking to OC alittle bit and will be investing into high end air cooling as im not doing crazy OC with this system and It seems watercooling is only going to give me a few degrees difference and I dont believe its cost effective

__________________

Gzim

Well, you have the right idea about not trusting site's reviews if they are selling it (Newegg), just type the full product name and "review" into google and you should find some reputable ones (it's how I do it).

It is hard to recommend anything without a price range, care to throw one out?

__________________

eascarface

Ive used the OCZ Modstream and I have to say its pretty nice. Its quiet and its got no problem powering 2x 6800GTs,1GB RAM,AMD 4000+, tv tuner, 2x 74GB Raptors, tv tuner, and dvd drive. However the cables are fairly hard to work with especially in a small case like a Lanboy. You might also try looking at the Hiper Type R which got excellent reviews here and many people are happy with.

But as said before its really hard to help you with everything unless we've got a price range.

P.S If it were me I would pick up the Media Center Edition but then its really only useful if you want your computer to function as a tivo.

Also here are some good sites you can check for reviews::
www.pcapex.com
www.anandtech.com
www.tomshardware.com
www.bit-tech.net

Thats all I can think of at the moment.

__________________

Charlie Chaos

As for price range i mean im not looking to spend a small fortune on 1 item but I am looking to build a quality system that will last me for a good amount of time.

I work full time and am getting a 2nd job soon (moving accross the world literally) And want to get it all built by the time I move So I have a high end system. From what Ive seen and heard there is no reason for me to go higher then a 3800+ right now since most games dont even utilize duel core yet.

As for room in my case I am getting the Thermaltake armor case so a full tower lots of room

__________________

$SOLID$ Necro

Quote: Originally Posted by Charlie Chaos Well So far ive got the Asus a8n Sli board with a 3800+ Amd 64 x2 manchester core staring me in the face and they seem sad because they dont have any ram psu or a graphics card to play with. the power supply i looked at the OCZ modstream wanted to know if anyone owns it and how good it is first hand I never trust reviews from other sites people say stupid stuff like I run my opteron and 4 gigs of ram its all over clocked with a 300w psu its great!!! ANYWAY =) if anyone has a goos PSU that wont fry anything give me a yell =) Ram Once again was looking at some OCZ im gonna start small and go with either 1-2 gigs to start and add more alittle later. if there is a better brand i should be using feel free to throw out the best bang for the buck Graphics Not sure what I want to do with DX10 on its way dont know if I want to buy a great card or stick with a lower end one until dx10 what do you guys think?? The new windows 64 OS thing I read up on it and it doesnt seem to be worth it at all I dont do a ton of video editing or anything crazy.I figure Im probly fine with win xp until i learn linuix Feel free to throw out anything that goes good with the mobo processor combo I have. Im looking to OC alittle bit and will be investing into high end air cooling as im not doing crazy OC with this system and It seems watercooling is only going to give me a few degrees difference and I dont believe its cost effective

Your CPU should be able to reach 2.4ghz with stock voltage and stock cooler. A Big Typhoon (50$) or similar will get you to around 2.5~2.6GHZ without much fuss with a slight bump in voltage.

Water cooling might get you to around 2.8GHZ, so yeah it's not real cost effective (200$)

I have the OCZ 520 SLI and it has adjustable voltage rails..I love it!

I never have too look at the rails and see one on the low side again (It always made me wonder if I was unstable because I was at 11.9v on the 12 or 3.2v on the 3.3 for example)

Just don't go crazy, the specs call for +or-.1v (12.1~11.9, 5.1~4.9 and 3.4~3.2) I set mine all to the upper limits under full load during bench testing...

On sale for 109$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817711002

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817711002

With RAM it is best not to use 4 sticks with AMD 64, the memory controller canot handle using 1T (Command Per Clock ON) and will loose a bit of performance, you will have to use 2T (Command Per Clock OFF)

It will still work, it's just not quite as "Optimal" compared to 2 larger sticks of RAM at 1T. My friend did it that way to have the 2GB that games like Battlefield 2 craves.


The games that will truely benefit from DX-10 are still a ways off, it will only enable some "Eye Candy" within the menu's of Windows Vista at first.

I would not expect to see Vista shipping in 2006, XP 64 Bit Edition is a waste of time, just get the regular XP OS for now.

This time next year DX-10 hardware and Vista will be finally worth the upgrade, don't sweat it till next summer!

Till then a sub 200$ card like 7600GT or X-1800GTO should do well, or at most, the 240$ 7900GT should get the job done nicely.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150144

EDIT: Anything over 2GB with Windows XP is Overkill for almost any game /app, it will not fully recognize 4GB from what I understand, you end up with like 3.5GB or so.

__________________

Charlie Chaos

Thanks alot for the info Solid very helpful thats why I love these boards.

Do you think I should go higher then a 3800+ or with OC is it not even worth it. From what Ive seen with most setups it seems the 3800+ manchester core is the best bng for the buck right now

__________________

$SOLID$ Necro

The 3800+ is a great bang for the buck CPU, the only one that is slightly better is the 939 pin Dual Core Opteron (1.8GHZ) and that's because it has 1MB of on die "Cache" vs 512k on yours... They will both OC and cost about the same.

Think of it as having a stick of Ram bult into the CPU, so more is better (As long as the app can use it!)

It's a nice boost in some games, but not worth the hassle considering what you have, it just wouldn't be worth it financialy.

__________________

eascarface

A couple of guys over at anantech have managed to get an x1800xl to turn into an x1800xt with a bios flash. It seems like an incredibly good deal and would save you a hundred or so bucks.

Forum link
Video Card(P.S for this to work you have to check and make sure your memory is 1.2ns.

__________________

Charlie Chaos

I was looking into these 2 ram stick bundle Once again Ive seen reviews on some of the sites listed but I never trust anything other then these forums. Is there a more price effective ram I should be looking at other then OCZ or do I about have the right sticks.

Im going to be running

A8n Sli
64x2 3800+ manchester Core
thinking the 7900GT since dx10 isnt going to launch till next summer

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Platinum System Memory Model OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K - Retail

__________________