Clock Plans
Re:Hi again… um, here's where I'm at now.
I realize I can go budget and cut corners on things but I really want top performance – I DO WANT TO SAVE MONEY!
The Opteron 170 so I can reach that 3Ghz …there I'm not sure.
Say I get the 165 and it's one that wont OC well, keep in mind I can only afford defered payments (in any case) so Newegg is perfect for me, can I expect even 2.8Ghz on air with my Thermalright SI-97a CPU cooler?
See thats another reason to just go with a 170 I think… your thoughts?
The DFI for mobo was a no brainer after discovering thier customer service and support plus the OCing ability.
This Kingston RAM is a little bit of a gamble for OCing ….I'm still looking for reviews. It sells out like mad at Newegg.
Here's where I'm at:
http://fapomatic.com/show.php?loc=20&f=my_bag_.bmp
Stopping the Clock
Re:I was in a similar boat a while back, with a Athlon XP and a slower 6600GT. I upgraded to the parts in my sig. and sold off my old parts, so the overall upgrade was only $180, and I have a much faster system.
Since you have a 1900 x 1200 monitor, you really need to focus on the video card as the bottleneck for gaming, so the 7900GTX is a good idea – you still may even need to game at 1600 x 1200, though. Too bad the 7900GTX is priced so high at the moment.
I would opt for an Opteron 144, as it's $53 less and will easily overclock to 2.4 Ghz and higher. That $53 is better spent towards the 7900GTX.
Your current RAM is good stuff, with great timings, and may even overclock better than new 1 GB sticks. You don't have to get new RAM, since your existing sticks will work. You have the option to upgrade later at any time.
For reference, this review shows the 7900GT and the 7800GTX. The 7800GTX is already quite a bit faster than the 7900GT. The 7900GTX is about 10% faster than the 7800GTX (and runs cooler).
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce7900gt_6.html
So, for Battlefield 2 at 1600 x 1200 with eye candy, the frame rates are from the review show:
7900 GT = 66.5
7800 GTX = 88.4
7900 GTX = 97 (projected)
Murray Clock Craft.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Originally posted by: guy
EPoX EP-9NPA3ULTRA Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail
$85.00
AMD Opteron 146 Venus 1000MHz HT 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor – Retail
$223.00
No New PSU needed. A PCIe molex adapter and my PC Power &Cooling unit.
$12.00
GeForce 7900GTX (512MB)
$270.00 *see explanation above
An omg!! A $590.00 platform change over.
That's cheap for a platform change ..but with a kicker being I have nice gear to sell and what I'll ask will be competitive and reasonable.
$230.00 saved so far from original anticipations! thank you
Two reasons why I don?t like that board.
Active cooling on the chipset bad; loud and prone to failure.
Horrible location of the ATX power connector; why dose Epox dose this?
guy:
I read that the placements of connectors was a bit different but that better than some of the bugs in the other major brands (major bugs right) …hope it wont be an issue.
And can I OC with it well enough ..another thing to research. As for the northbridge and south I'd just use a cheap Zalman chipset cooling kit. Not too big a deal either.
Updated –
EPoX EP-9NPA3ULTRA Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail
$85.00
AMD Opteron 146 Venus 1000MHz HT 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor – Retail
$223.00
No New PSU needed. A PCIe molex adapter and my PC Power &Cooling unit.
$12.00
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory – Retail
$219.00
GeForce 7900GTX (512MB)
$270.00 *see explanation above
$890.00 upgrade cost.
ALOT more for about $50.00 more than I had originally post.
This should make it a very competitive computer again for games.
That RAM is supposed to be excellent to OC with.
Overclocking Your Cpu to the Extreme Plus $57 upsell!
Re:Originally posted by: guy
EPoX EP-9NPA3ULTRA Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail
$85.00
AMD Opteron 146 Venus 1000MHz HT 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor – Retail
$223.00
No New PSU needed. A PCIe molex adapter and my PC Power &Cooling unit.
$12.00
GeForce 7900GTX (512MB)
$270.00 *see explanation above
An omg!! A $590.00 platform change over.
That's cheap for a platform change ..but with a kicker being I have nice gear to sell and what I'll ask will be competitive and reasonable.
$230.00 saved so far from original anticipations! thank you
Two reasons why I don?t like that board.
Active cooling on the chipset bad; loud and prone to failure.
Horrible location of the ATX power connector; why dose Epox dose this?
LionClock
Re:I ghit it.
And the new 2Gig DIM packs (1Gig x2 anyway) are almost as good as my current RAM.
http://www.{$MySite}/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2676&p=17
To benefit anyone else finding help here (who've used the d*** search engine or otherwise) have a look here also for more info on RAM.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/03/24/navigating_the_memory_upgrade_jungle/
Facial Gymnastics: Complete Facelift In 7 Days Without Surgery.
Re:Ah… I thought it was more complicated than that… the fact that the dual channel wont work with another stick in a bank tells me everything. You should definately go help someone else now.
Thought your wise ass had something more technical to say …
Dual Channel gone with another stick added. Okay.
Patience? I'd really rather you help someone else now since youre having an episode or whatever. I don't know man … just F-off then.
edit: …spelling
Autopilot Profits
Re:Best performance is with fast low latency RAM in dual channel, but only 2 sticks of RAM.
There's a whole load of information on it around if you've got the patience (and skill) to find it with the search engine, but due to the idiocy of a conspiraloon on another site my will to live has disapeared entirely. As such i'm going to wimp out on finding the threads myself.
How To Play The Guitar – A Beginners Guide
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Originally posted by: guy
Mainboard – EPoX EP-9NPA3ULTRA for $85.00 looks good.
1 PCIe x16 slot freeing up more space. No SLI needed for me. I could have missread those graphics card charts.
Very very nice customer support from what I'm reading.
I'm talking to myself now so I'll check this post in a day or so to give people a chance to read all this (if they want to ) and respond.
That's the one i meant, i can never remember it's full name though 
If you can afford it then a 7900GTX is excellent, the X1900XTX is the other one you should be considering in that price range, if you're not a low noise fanatic then i'd just pick whichever is cheaper. (If you want to save a few $ then the X1900XT is a wonderful card)
Opterons are 939 chips, the epox board should support them, for more info hop over to the motherboards forum and you can read up about people's experiences with them.
The reason i advised 2 new sticks of RAM is that the performance increase you get from your fast RAM would be negated by running the RAM in 2T command rate (which all A64 chips do with 4 sticks of RAM). It's a bit 6 of one half a dozen of the other, but you should consider selling your current stuff and getting some decent low latency stuff (there are some nice rebates around).
guy I don't know alot about 2T command rate …what specs should I look for for good overclockign and gaming? I havent overclocked and tinkered with those RAM settings much since the 90's.
I do like OCZ and Mushkin but there's alot to choose from these days.
Any examples of 1Gb x 2 ?
Mobile Monopoly – The Biggest Opportunity For Affiliates Ever
Re:EPoX EP-9NPA3ULTRA Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail
$85.00
AMD Opteron 146 Venus 1000MHz HT 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor – Retail
$223.00
No New PSU needed. A PCIe molex adapter and my PC Power &Cooling unit.
$12.00
GeForce 7900GTX (512MB)
$270.00 *see explanation above
An omg!! A $590.00 platform change over.
That's cheap for a platform change ..but with a kicker being I have nice gear to sell and what I'll ask will be competitive and reasonable.
$230.00 saved so far from original anticipations! thank you
Cell Phone Magic!
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Mainboard – EPoX EP-9NPA3ULTRA for $85.00 looks good.
1 PCIe x16 slot freeing up more space. No SLI needed for me. I could have missread those graphics card charts.
Very very nice customer support from what I'm reading.
I'm talking to myself now so I'll check this post in a day or so to give people a chance to read all this (if they want to ) and respond.
That's the one i meant, i can never remember it's full name though
If you can afford it then a 7900GTX is excellent, the X1900XTX is the other one you should be considering in that price range, if you're not a low noise fanatic then i'd just pick whichever is cheaper. (If you want to save a few $ then the X1900XT is a wonderful card)
Opterons are 939 chips, the epox board should support them, for more info hop over to the motherboards forum and you can read up about people's experiences with them.
The reason i advised 2 new sticks of RAM is that the performance increase you get from your fast RAM would be negated by running the RAM in 2T command rate (which all A64 chips do with 4 sticks of RAM). It's a bit 6 of one half a dozen of the other, but you should consider selling your current stuff and getting some decent low latency stuff (there are some nice rebates around).
Re:I was in your same shoes about going pci-e but decided to wait for late summer to see how the Conroe chip shapes up.
I was also looking at the Epox, Asus and MSI MB's since I will prob not be going SLI.
Re:Mainboard – EPoX EP-9NPA3ULTRA for $85.00 looks good.
1 PCIe x16 slot freeing up more space. No SLI needed for me. I could have missread those graphics card charts.
Very very nice customer support from what I'm reading.
I'm talking to myself now so I'll check this post in a day or so to give people a chance to read all this (if they want to ) and respond.
Re:What CPU type would my Opteron be considered when choosing a mobo? I know it's 939 but as with Newegg and thier descipts none say "Opteron" only "Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64/Sempron" or "Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64/Athlon X2" etc. …I just don't know. I'm behind on my tech reading seriously.
Re:Very good suggestions BobTL!
On the video card youre absolutely right… as far as I understand youre message. I probably won't go SLI but my god the performance increase is astounding (by the benchies).
What were you going to suggest on video card? X1800 with 512MB? Does that exist?
I'll have a look at that mobo – Epox 9? A series I take it but what model?
How about that brand though? Any experience with Epox? I heard they were pretty good all-in-all with good warranty and customer support.
edit: EPoX EP-8NPA SLI Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail ?
$89.99
The processor. I'll go with your recommendation. I'd like "at least" 2.4Ghz but would love 3Ghz …I could be happy with 2.6Ghz easy I bet so 146 then.
edit: The RAM is a problem now though. I shouldnt change RAM ..the stuff I have is very high end and I'd like to just add another 2×512 and save a little I'll buy more of the same RAM I have. I'll need 4 slots available. Suggestions on motherboards again?
Re:You're wasting a fair bit of money there, first of all if you're not getting SLI now, are you sure you will in the future? Unless you plan to get another 7900GTX (remember the prices will not fall much, the stocks will simply run out) then it is a waste, plain and simple. If you are definitly going to buy a second 7900GTX then stick with your current choice.
Motherboard:
Epox 9: Saves you $70
CPU:
146: You're underestimating the OC, you'll be able to push that to 2.6Ghz+ with a little overvolt if not at stock: Saves you $40 To be frank if you're only going for 2.4Ghz just get a 144 or a 3200. They'll hit that with ease.
RAM: Insufficent, you want 2GB for that sort of system, get another 2×512 if you're strapped for cash, or better yet just 2×1GB of value stuff.
0 Comments.