What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know

TheOutcast · 27-November-06, 06:03 PM

What I know:

My computer is old, tired, and dying (fans on old GFX card, Mobo, etc etc...)

Current specs:

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton @ ~2.4ghz (Zalman Cu7k cooler)
Asus NF7-S nForce2 board
1GB Mushkin PC3200
Radeon X1300 256MB (See above, old 9500's fan died and it started givin' me hell)
74GB Raptor / 200GB WD HD's
OCZ Powerstream 520W PSU

other misc crap (clickly my sig for case, for those that don't remember / know)

What I forgot:

What high graphics quality in a game looks like at a playable framerate.

What I'd like to know:

How much PC do you think I could get for $1500 bucks MAX (less, preferably but w/e), just the tower (don't need keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers)

Looking for heavy gaming use, wanting eye candies back (I play a lot of BF2142, and currently have to dial everything but view range down to low, at 800x600, just to play it at a decent framerate)

What I've come up with so far:

Asus P5W DW - $228
eVGA 8800GTS 640MB - $470
PCP&C Silencer 750W - $220
Intel E6600 2.4Ghz Conroe - $308
2GB Corsair Value DDR2 667 - $200
150GB WD Raptor - $225

Total: $1641 - before shipping

So... I'm a little high, but mainly I'm wondering if I'm looking at good parts, and is the PSU upgrade really necessary, given what I have?

Also, picked the CPU because it has 4MB cache.. as opposed to the 2MB ones, but really... considering what I'm coming from, would you call it worth the price difference?

Probably going to just shred my current rig up, as much as I wanted to play around with a new case... given the dying hardware ATM, pretty case can come later.

If I forgot any needed info, lemme know ^^;

$SOLID$ Necro · 27-November-06, 08:55 PM

CPU and Vid card choice is great, I would say the HD is optional given that you allready have a Raptor that should be plenty large enough, the new one is quicker yes, but not that much!

I would consider getting a less expensive storage drive in the 250+GB range if you need more room.

The ram: Value select has alwasy been some of the WORST for Overclocking, I think if you sort ram at New Egg by DDR-2/2GB/ you will find plenty of kits in the 200-230$ range that will make you MUCH happier!

Infact, for the same money or less, I saw several kits that would kick it's butt!

Newegg.com - Once You Know, You Newegg

I prefer the OCZ brand myself...Corsair is definately a top pick too if you skip the Value ram!

I have tested the older Gold 667 at 900+ speeds, the reviews of alot of DDR-2 say you might have to bump the voltage to 2v from the stock 1.8v to get them to boot and run at the rated speeds and timings, so be aware of that!

Most kits will run at much higher speeds than they are rated for...read the customer reviews!

Mushkin,Patriot, Geil, ADATA and GSKILL are also good choices.

The motherboard you chose is great, but has a few very minor issues, it is limited to around 450FSB, wich is enough for 4GHZ...but I cannot get it to run over DDR1050 with ram that ran DDR1200 in another board!

The Bios options for memory are pretty limited, there is one setting I cannot get too that is holding back the ram from what I can tell.

It is also crossfire board, and you are going NVIDIA, so you are going to be stuck with a single card upgrade wise unless you go ATI.

I would look at the other ASUS 965/975 SLI boards, or any of the new i680 SLI based boards...they are kicking major but in the OC dept at well over 500FSB!

Dropping the multiplier on the CPU from 9 to 8, and running the ram 1to1 at DDR900+ speeds will give you a nice little gain in performance...if you choose the right board and ram, keeping in mind that most 533, 667 and 800 kits will reach those speeds!

Power supply is a toss up... for a single card, the PSU you have now should be fine, but something beefier will probably be needed if you add a second card down the road, the one you chose got a good review here at Apex!

Joe88 · 27-November-06, 09:00 PM

everything looks good

just 2 things

that board is a ATI crossfire board , since your getting an nvidia card it might be worth while to pick a SLi board
I think the ASUS stiker is supposed to be good , theres some other good ones too

also you should get DDR2-800 , seems like a pretty high end rig but the DDR-667 surprised me

EDIT nvm
$SOLID$ Necro beat me too it

$SOLID$ Necro · 27-November-06, 09:05 PM

LOL..thats OK Joe88, I cannot tell you how many "Novel length" posts I have written to find someone said what I had to say in 2 or 3 lines and got it posted 1 minute before me!

It's good too see you pretty much were thinking along the same lines I was, having a second or third opinion along the same lines just makes the case stronger!

TheOutcast · 27-November-06, 10:14 PM

Picked the RAM off of somethin I read on Anandtech, lookin at it again - skimping in the wrong area.

I'd probably be waiting on upgrading to SLI when Blizzard finally recodes World of Warcraft to actually run it... odds are, I'll quit the game before then <_< ... but it'd be good to have the options open..

....and I guess I figured there really wasn't a difference between crossfire and SLI, since they do pretty much the same thing - glad I learned now, than found out later on down the road!

s1ugh34d · 27-November-06, 10:30 PM

First off you may not need that much power, its a great PSU, but a little over the limits, even if you end up getting a sli board and buy two of those 8800's youprobally wont need that, just a sugestion, and that powerstream is a wonderful PSU if your goingto get rid of it though, PM me i'd gladdfully buy it.

Te card is amazing, andif you indeed buy it, post some scores here man, i'd like to see a first hand view of how weel they bench (especially OCed).

Other wise the crossfire element was mentioned, and the RAM isnt that great, but it was also covered too, Necro has that in him, he quick to the draw.

But ifyou indeeed get rid of your old system, or at least the stuff you arent using, make a FS thread, cause i'd like a few of those parts.

TheOutcast · 28-November-06, 08:27 AM

So after last night's conference call, so to speak, here's what I'm looking at now, at least initially:

Asus P5B P965 - $210
eVGA 8800GTS - $480
Intel E6600 Conroe - $308
2GB OCZ S.O.E. DDR2 800 - $260

About the ram (why paying for the camo heatspreaders...) ... its going to end up fitting into the next mod's theme rather well. New anime show, very much love... (sig / av) ... I'll try and fraps the opening credits for the project thread, cause it really captures the theme of the show well (1984-ish)

Edit 2:

Or perhaps I should get the case first and start working on it, and wait for more 680i boards to be available (not out of stock)... prices might go down a bit after christmas, too. Hrm.. hate this time of year for buying things <.<

$SOLID$ Necro · 28-November-06, 05:39 PM

Since you have waited this long what another month or so? I am sure by January sometime the boards will be in stock, and the prices of ram and CPU's may drop a bit too.

The i680 board will be worth the weight, the board you have picked now will not allow for SLI down the raod if you should choose, Ya never know when you might feel the need for some extra graphics horsepower once the 8800GTS has a big price drop in the next year or so, then you would be kicking yourself in the butt for it!

Again on the power supply, what you have now will work fine, and may even be enough for SLI, but if you try and OC the CPU and vid cards a bunch, you will be running it at the redline all the time, so if you grab a second card down the road, that is when I would consider the upgrade for it.

TheOutcast · 28-November-06, 05:58 PM

That's true, and I'd much prefer having a case ready to go to put parts into, rather than pulling parts out of my current, then working on the case, and then putting the two rigs back together...

Keeping options open for SLI would be nice as well.

Also, I guess... since I'm on this anime kick, I'd rather tackle the case while its all still fresh in my mind - hell, I've already penned up some prelim stuff for it (was a dull day in class today)

Guess I'll pick up a tower this next week and rediscover my dremel <_<;;;

Joe88 · 28-November-06, 10:35 PM

Newegg.com - Once You Know, You Newegg

the evga one is still in stock

Master Yunk · 28-November-06, 11:03 PM

If you do buy a PSU, remember we're powered by Ultra!

They're always reliable, wish I bought one myself

27-November-06, 06:03 PM	#1 (permalink)
TheOutcast Minnes-hoe-tan Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Moorhead, Minnes-Hoe-ta Posts: 2,803	What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know What I know: My computer is old, tired, and dying (fans on old GFX card, Mobo, etc etc...) Current specs: Athlon XP 2500+ Barton @ ~2.4ghz (Zalman Cu7k cooler) Asus NF7-S nForce2 board 1GB Mushkin PC3200 Radeon X1300 256MB (See above, old 9500's fan died and it started givin' me hell) 74GB Raptor / 200GB WD HD's OCZ Powerstream 520W PSU other misc crap (clickly my sig for case, for those that don't remember / know) What I forgot: What high graphics quality in a game looks like at a playable framerate. What I'd like to know: How much PC do you think I could get for $1500 bucks MAX (less, preferably but w/e), just the tower (don't need keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers) Looking for heavy gaming use, wanting eye candies back (I play a lot of BF2142, and currently have to dial everything but view range down to low, at 800x600, just to play it at a decent framerate) What I've come up with so far: Asus P5W DW - $228 eVGA 8800GTS 640MB - $470 PCP&C Silencer 750W - $220 Intel E6600 2.4Ghz Conroe - $308 2GB Corsair Value DDR2 667 - $200 150GB WD Raptor - $225 Total: $1641 - before shipping So... I'm a little high, but mainly I'm wondering if I'm looking at good parts, and is the PSU upgrade really necessary, given what I have? Also, picked the CPU because it has 4MB cache.. as opposed to the 2MB ones, but really... considering what I'm coming from, would you call it worth the price difference? Probably going to just shred my current rig up, as much as I wanted to play around with a new case... given the dying hardware ATM, pretty case can come later. If I forgot any needed info, lemme know ^^; __________________ Last edited by TheOutcast; 27-November-06 at 06:29 PM.

27-November-06, 08:55 PM	#2 (permalink)
$SOLID$ Necro Mastah Overclocker Join Date: May 2003 Location: Lima, Ohio Posts: 7,217	Re: What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know CPU and Vid card choice is great, I would say the HD is optional given that you allready have a Raptor that should be plenty large enough, the new one is quicker yes, but not that much! I would consider getting a less expensive storage drive in the 250+GB range if you need more room. The ram: Value select has alwasy been some of the WORST for Overclocking, I think if you sort ram at New Egg by DDR-2/2GB/ you will find plenty of kits in the 200-230$ range that will make you MUCH happier! Infact, for the same money or less, I saw several kits that would kick it's butt! Newegg.com - Once You Know, You Newegg I prefer the OCZ brand myself...Corsair is definately a top pick too if you skip the Value ram! I have tested the older Gold 667 at 900+ speeds, the reviews of alot of DDR-2 say you might have to bump the voltage to 2v from the stock 1.8v to get them to boot and run at the rated speeds and timings, so be aware of that! Most kits will run at much higher speeds than they are rated for...read the customer reviews! Mushkin,Patriot, Geil, ADATA and GSKILL are also good choices. The motherboard you chose is great, but has a few very minor issues, it is limited to around 450FSB, wich is enough for 4GHZ...but I cannot get it to run over DDR1050 with ram that ran DDR1200 in another board! The Bios options for memory are pretty limited, there is one setting I cannot get too that is holding back the ram from what I can tell. It is also crossfire board, and you are going NVIDIA, so you are going to be stuck with a single card upgrade wise unless you go ATI. I would look at the other ASUS 965/975 SLI boards, or any of the new i680 SLI based boards...they are kicking major but in the OC dept at well over 500FSB! Dropping the multiplier on the CPU from 9 to 8, and running the ram 1to1 at DDR900+ speeds will give you a nice little gain in performance...if you choose the right board and ram, keeping in mind that most 533, 667 and 800 kits will reach those speeds! Power supply is a toss up... for a single card, the PSU you have now should be fine, but something beefier will probably be needed if you add a second card down the road, the one you chose got a good review here at Apex! __________________ Join the PC Apex "Overclock and Benchmark" team today! Click Here! Necro's "Ultimate Links" Collection Click Here! Last edited by $SOLID$ Necro; 27-November-06 at 09:02 PM.

27-November-06, 09:00 PM	#3 (permalink)
Joe88 Apex Master Tech Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: NYC Posts: 497	Re: What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know everything looks good just 2 things that board is a ATI crossfire board , since your getting an nvidia card it might be worth while to pick a SLi board I think the ASUS stiker is supposed to be good , theres some other good ones too also you should get DDR2-800 , seems like a pretty high end rig but the DDR-667 surprised me EDIT nvm $SOLID$ Necro beat me too it __________________ [λ] "Though I walk through the vally of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil as every man whom has died before me in the defense of freedom shall protect me" [λ] [λ] HλLF-LIFE > HALO [λ]

27-November-06, 09:05 PM	#4 (permalink)
$SOLID$ Necro Mastah Overclocker Join Date: May 2003 Location: Lima, Ohio Posts: 7,217	Re: What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know LOL..thats OK Joe88, I cannot tell you how many "Novel length" posts I have written to find someone said what I had to say in 2 or 3 lines and got it posted 1 minute before me! It's good too see you pretty much were thinking along the same lines I was, having a second or third opinion along the same lines just makes the case stronger! __________________ Join the PC Apex "Overclock and Benchmark" team today! Click Here! Necro's "Ultimate Links" Collection Click Here!

27-November-06, 10:14 PM	#5 (permalink)
TheOutcast Minnes-hoe-tan Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Moorhead, Minnes-Hoe-ta Posts: 2,803	Re: What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know Picked the RAM off of somethin I read on Anandtech, lookin at it again - skimping in the wrong area. I'd probably be waiting on upgrading to SLI when Blizzard finally recodes World of Warcraft to actually run it... odds are, I'll quit the game before then <_< ... but it'd be good to have the options open.. ....and I guess I figured there really wasn't a difference between crossfire and SLI, since they do pretty much the same thing - glad I learned now, than found out later on down the road! __________________

27-November-06, 10:30 PM	#6 (permalink)
s1ugh34d Apex Tech God Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Somewhere out there Posts: 3,196	Re: What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know First off you may not need that much power, its a great PSU, but a little over the limits, even if you end up getting a sli board and buy two of those 8800's youprobally wont need that, just a sugestion, and that powerstream is a wonderful PSU if your goingto get rid of it though, PM me i'd gladdfully buy it. Te card is amazing, andif you indeed buy it, post some scores here man, i'd like to see a first hand view of how weel they bench (especially OCed). Other wise the crossfire element was mentioned, and the RAM isnt that great, but it was also covered too, Necro has that in him, he quick to the draw. But ifyou indeeed get rid of your old system, or at least the stuff you arent using, make a FS thread, cause i'd like a few of those parts. __________________ http://www.distrowatch.com/ - http://www.tuxdistro.com Failure is not an option, it comes bundled with Windows. Finally Upgrading (and again) Intel Core 2 Duo E5200 (45nm) DFI Lanparty (still undecided) OCZ FleXLC DDR2 1150 EVGA 8800GT PCP&C 610w Silencer

28-November-06, 08:27 AM	#7 (permalink)
TheOutcast Minnes-hoe-tan Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Moorhead, Minnes-Hoe-ta Posts: 2,803	Re: What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know So after last night's conference call, so to speak, here's what I'm looking at now, at least initially: Asus P5B P965 - $210 eVGA 8800GTS - $480 Intel E6600 Conroe - $308 2GB OCZ S.O.E. DDR2 800 - $260 About the ram (why paying for the camo heatspreaders...) ... its going to end up fitting into the next mod's theme rather well. New anime show, very much love... (sig / av) ... I'll try and fraps the opening credits for the project thread, cause it really captures the theme of the show well (1984-ish) Edit 2: Or perhaps I should get the case first and start working on it, and wait for more 680i boards to be available (not out of stock)... prices might go down a bit after christmas, too. Hrm.. hate this time of year for buying things <.< __________________ Last edited by TheOutcast; 28-November-06 at 10:40 AM. Reason: Extra thoughts aren't worth extra posts, when no one's replied yet.

28-November-06, 05:39 PM	#8 (permalink)
$SOLID$ Necro Mastah Overclocker Join Date: May 2003 Location: Lima, Ohio Posts: 7,217	Re: What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know Since you have waited this long what another month or so? I am sure by January sometime the boards will be in stock, and the prices of ram and CPU's may drop a bit too. The i680 board will be worth the weight, the board you have picked now will not allow for SLI down the raod if you should choose, Ya never know when you might feel the need for some extra graphics horsepower once the 8800GTS has a big price drop in the next year or so, then you would be kicking yourself in the butt for it! Again on the power supply, what you have now will work fine, and may even be enough for SLI, but if you try and OC the CPU and vid cards a bunch, you will be running it at the redline all the time, so if you grab a second card down the road, that is when I would consider the upgrade for it. __________________ Join the PC Apex "Overclock and Benchmark" team today! Click Here! Necro's "Ultimate Links" Collection Click Here!

28-November-06, 05:58 PM	#9 (permalink)
TheOutcast Minnes-hoe-tan Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Moorhead, Minnes-Hoe-ta Posts: 2,803	Re: What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know That's true, and I'd much prefer having a case ready to go to put parts into, rather than pulling parts out of my current, then working on the case, and then putting the two rigs back together... Keeping options open for SLI would be nice as well. Also, I guess... since I'm on this anime kick, I'd rather tackle the case while its all still fresh in my mind - hell, I've already penned up some prelim stuff for it (was a dull day in class today) Guess I'll pick up a tower this next week and rediscover my dremel <_<;;; __________________

28-November-06, 10:35 PM	#10 (permalink)
Joe88 Apex Master Tech Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: NYC Posts: 497	Re: What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know Newegg.com - Once You Know, You Newegg the evga one is still in stock __________________ [λ] "Though I walk through the vally of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil as every man whom has died before me in the defense of freedom shall protect me" [λ] [λ] HλLF-LIFE > HALO [λ]

28-November-06, 11:03 PM	#11 (permalink)
Master Yunk D.O.A. Tournament Champion Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: O-H-I-O Posts: 2,019	Re: What I know, what I forgot, and what I'd like to know If you do buy a PSU, remember we're powered by Ultra! They're always reliable, wish I bought one myself __________________ Aspire to be what people want most so that you man have the pleasure of denying them of it. - Me

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