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Official 2008 "I Need A New PC" Thread

K

kruskev

Member
for those of you looking for E8400, I just ordered one from tigerdirect.com for 229$.
Also can someone recommend a good fan to overclock this?
 
M

Momar

aka Ryder
Why do people keep asking about PPU's? Aren't they being made obsolete by software solutions after the Nvidia acquisition of Ageia, or did I misunderstand somewhere along the line?
 
P

Pachael

Member
Slo said:
Well shit. I was hoping to get 3.0+ Ghz out of my e2180, but the system wouldn't boot @ 2.8. Backed it back down to 2.7 which it seemed to be stable at, but froze after about 15 minutes. Down to 2.6 and dropping. :(
Click to expand...

I'm assuming you've tried adding voltage? Have you checked your FSB:RAM speeds? Sometimes the OC won't work as you're keeping the FSB:RAM speeds the same when they should be adjusted according to the rating of the RAM (assuming that the RAM is generic)

So for instance, trying to run 3Ghz on a e2180, is 300Mhz x 10 (multiplier). If you have DDR2-800 RAM, try setting it to 3:4 - so that the RAM going at 400 Mhz x 3/4 is also 300Mhz - you'd ideally want to match the FSB:RAM to be 1:1 after the adjustment.

Another tip is try overclocking from the opposite direction, eg start at 2.2 G, then 2.4G if successful etc. Useful to see what works and what doesn't w/o potentially damaging the chip.
 
S

SRG01

Member
oo Kosma oo said:
Get this instead. Yes it has less MB but with this card you won't be running games in the highest res so you don't need that extra RAM and you will benefit greatly from the DDR3 memory instead of DDR2 on the 512MB version. The 8600GT 256mb DDR3 always scores higher then the 512 DDR2 version in Benchmarks.
Click to expand...

As a general rule, you don't need above 512MB for midrange cards anyway since you'll never be able to use the whole page size at once. I hear that it actually hurt performance in the older generations.

If you have a midrange card, you are very much correct; any GDDR3 version will overwhelmingly beat the GDDR2 version even with more RAM.
 
B

Borys

Banned
Ariexv said:
So I'm Looking to get a New Laptop for > $1200, The only real gaming I would plan to do on it would be World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3, and Probably Warhammer Online and Starcraft 2 when they come out, besides that it would be mainly used for school. Any Suggestions? I was looking at xoticpc custom built ones so far but I don't really know the prices for Laptops like I do Desktops.

A 15.4" or lower would be better, and I have MSDNAA access through my college so I think I can just get windows Xp or vista off of there If i need to.

A friend pointed me towards the Dell Vostro and heres what I ended up with for $1188

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Business edit
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™ edit
MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM edit
HARD DRIVE 250GB 5400RPM Hard Drive edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability, w/ Roxio Creator edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT edit
MEDIA DIRECT Dell Exclusive MediaDirect™ Instant Play Software Application edit
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card edit
BLUETOOTH WIRELESS Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate), Vista edit
BLUETOOTH WIRELESS Dell Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Bundle edit
WEBCAM No Webcam Option edit
Click to expand...

Will excellently play WoW, War3 and probably SC2. Get it.
 
K

Kosma

Banned
Is there anyone here who knows some OC basics? Would be really nice to have a section about that and I know absolutely nothing about OC'ing the CPU.

Pachael said:
I'm assuming you've tried adding voltage? Have you checked your FSB:RAM speeds? Sometimes the OC won't work as you're keeping the FSB:RAM speeds the same when they should be adjusted according to the rating of the RAM (assuming that the RAM is generic)

So for instance, trying to run 3Ghz on a e2180, is 300Mhz x 10 (multiplier). If you have DDR2-800 RAM, try setting it to 3:4 - so that the RAM going at 400 Mhz x 3/4 is also 300Mhz - you'd ideally want to match the FSB:RAM to be 1:1 after the adjustment.

Another tip is try overclocking from the opposite direction, eg start at 2.2 G, then 2.4G if successful etc. Useful to see what works and what doesn't w/o potentially damaging the chip.
Click to expand...

Well hallo there good sir. Care to write a small piece on OC'ing and maybe provide a link a or two?
 
M

MeowMeow

Banned
Hey you guys, when are PC's gonna fully incorporate blu-ray disk R/RW drives in PC's? Didnt sony say that they are making new cheaper diodes?


Also, does anyone use some sort of PPU card (physics processing unit) i heard that makes games run smoother...
 
B

Borys

Banned
MeowMeow said:
Hey you guys, when are PC's gonna fully incorporate blu-ray disk R/RW drives in PC's? Didnt sony say that they are making new cheaper diodes?


Also, does anyone use some sort of PPU card (physics processing unit) i heard that makes games run smoother...
Click to expand...

THERE ARE ALREADY BLU-RAY DRIVES AND BURNERS ON THE PC MARKET

PPU'S ARE THINGS OF THE PAST GPUS WILL TAKE ON CALCULATING PHYSICS FROM NOW ON
 
R

R0nn

Member
oo Kosma oo said:
Is there anyone here who knows some OC basics? Would be really nice to have a section about that and I know absolutely nothing about OC'ing the CPU.

Well hallo there good sir. Care to write a small piece on OC'ing and maybe provide a link a or two?
Click to expand...

/Signed

I'm looking into OCing my E6600 atm. Not really hardcore by upgrading the cooling solution and all that, just stock based. How far would I probably be able to go when tweaking the clockspeed through the BIOS?

BTW, a couple weeks ago I patched CoH after which DX10 effects could be switched on. Turns out performance takes a big hit though, by as much as 20 fps! I have a 8800 GTS 320 MB.
 
M

McBradders

NeoGAF: my new HOME
Is this a sucky laptop?

XPS M1710
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 4 MB L2-cache), Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/xps_m1710?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

The one on the right.

Basically I'm moving from a desktop to a laptop that's going to run the kind of games I play on my PC for a good few years. I play CoH/CoV, Sam and Max and probably will be playing Starcraft 2 and Champions Online.
 
B

Borys

Banned
McBradders said:
Is this a sucky laptop?

XPS M1710
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 4 MB L2-cache), Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/xps_m1710?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

The one on the right.

Basically I'm moving from a desktop to a laptop that's going to run the kind of games I play on my PC for a good few years. I play CoH/CoV, Sam and Max and probably will be playing Starcraft 2 and Champions Online.
Click to expand...

Sucky laptop?

Dude, If I'm seeing right it has a Geforce 7950 GTX and that thing is a motherfucking BEAST.

10 000 in 3DMark 05, 5500 in 3DMark 06.

It's the 5th best laptop GPU a money can buy!
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

GET IT GET IT GET IT

512MB DDR3 nVidia® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX graphics card
Click to expand...

Holy shit this is fast.
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
Borys said:
Will excellently play WoW, War3 and probably SC2. Get it.
Click to expand...

800 zerglings might disagree with the SC2 part, but if anyone can make a game of that scale run at 30+ fps (which anything less is suicide in an RTS) on an average machine, it's Blizzard. I don't expect to be able to run it well myself, and my current card is a little better than that, so I'll likely end up with a new PC around the time SC2 is released.
 
M

McBradders

NeoGAF: my new HOME
S

Slo

Member
Pachael said:
I'm assuming you've tried adding voltage? Have you checked your FSB:RAM speeds? Sometimes the OC won't work as you're keeping the FSB:RAM speeds the same when they should be adjusted according to the rating of the RAM (assuming that the RAM is generic)

So for instance, trying to run 3Ghz on a e2180, is 300Mhz x 10 (multiplier). If you have DDR2-800 RAM, try setting it to 3:4 - so that the RAM going at 400 Mhz x 3/4 is also 300Mhz - you'd ideally want to match the FSB:RAM to be 1:1 after the adjustment.

Another tip is try overclocking from the opposite direction, eg start at 2.2 G, then 2.4G if successful etc. Useful to see what works and what doesn't w/o potentially damaging the chip.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips. Last night at the suggestion of friend
MrBob, that dirty f'ing 'sconi
I upped the voltage from 1.325 to 1.375 and now I'm running at 2.8 like a champ. I'm going to try to push it to 3.0 or 3.2 tonight.

I'm not sure I understood the bit about the ram multipliers. I'll poke around in the bios to see if your advice makes more sense. And yes, I walked the frequency up from 2.0 -> 2.2 -> 2.4 etc.

Thanks again.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Borys said:
Sucky laptop?

Dude, If I'm seeing right it has a Geforce 7950 GTX and that thing is a motherfucking BEAST.

10 000 in 3DMark 05, 5500 in 3DMark 06.


Holy shit this is fast.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've got the 7950 SLI, regularly pulls in 8500+ on 3dmark06. Had no idea the 8800 sli was such a beast though: 13500+ is WOW. I'm going to get a desktop next though so I'll stick with the 7950s even though I could swap out to the 8800s--portable GPUs are damn expensive.

I would buy this notebook if I were getting one now though:

np9262
Q6700 (2.66, quad) (even i think extreme's not worth the big price bump)
8800gtx sli
4gb ram
 
C

Cheeto

Member
AstroLad said:
I would buy this notebook if I were getting one now though:

np9262
Q6700 (2.66, quad) (even i think extreme's not worth the big price bump)
8800gtx sli
4gb ram
Click to expand...
Oh wow. How much does that cost?
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
WhatRuOn said:
Oh wow. How much does that cost?
Click to expand...

That configuration is about 3 grand (17" monitor). It's basically the x.2 version of the notebook I have. Of course my notebook weighs God knows how many pounds. I'm not going to be busting it out at a coffee shop or on the subway, but damn if it isn't great to be able to throw desktop power into a laptop bag and carry around with me wherever I go.
 
Z

zoku88

Member
AstroLad said:
That configuration is about 3 grand (17" monitor). It's basically the x.2 version of the notebook I have. Of course my notebook weighs God knows how many pounds. I'm not going to be busting it out at a coffee shop or on the subway, but damn if it isn't great to be able to throw desktop power into a laptop bag and carry around with me wherever I go.
Click to expand...
I guess you care not for battery life. I'd be surprised if that thing even lasted an hour :lol
 
C

Cheeto

Member
zoku88 said:
I guess you care not for battery life. I'd be surprised if that thing even lasted an hour :lol
Click to expand...
Well, the cheap ass laptop that my company bought me sports a Celeron M and integrated graphics doesn't last more then 30 minutes.
 
K

Kosma

Banned
WhatRuOn said:
Well, the cheap ass laptop that my company bought me sports a Celeron M and integrated graphics doesn't last more then 30 minutes.
Click to expand...

How is that even possible. 30 minutes with a Celeron M :/
 
O

Oldschoolgamer

The physical form of blasphemy
I posted this a while back in another thread, but, since this is the thread to post in, here is what I'm looking to get:

Case: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811119077
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813131225
Gpu: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16814130318
Psu: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817341001
Cpu: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16819115017
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820145034
Card reader: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820223095
HD: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16822136040
Keyboard: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16823109030
Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16824009131
Mouse: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16826105148
Disc Drive: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16827106072
OS: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16832116202
Speakers: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16836121127

Subtotal: $1,441.87

I need to adjust this as much as possible, so that I can lower the price a bit. So, any help would be appreciated. This is what I'm looking towards to get, but, I need to drop the price bit. I need/want to be able to get a tuner card, but, that ain't happening anytime soon if I stick with this total. lulz

Also, mail in rebates suck. Why can't they just take the price off at checkout? :(
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
zoku88 said:
I guess you care not for battery life. I'd be surprised if that thing even lasted an hour :lol
Click to expand...

Yeah, like I said the laptop is not for bringing to Starbucks or watching movies on the train (I wouldn't do either regardless anyway), the battery life is far from the only limiting factor in that regard. I have it because I travel a lot and having what is essentially a powerful desktop PC that I can that I can easily bring with me wherever I go provides a huge benefit to me. It's a niche market, but I'm glad someone satisfies the niche.
 
M

Mrbob

Member
Finally finished my PC build late last night and installed Windows XP SP2 before work this morning. Have all the basics up and running and should be able to get down and dirty with the extras tonight! It has been so long since I built a PC I wondered if I still had it in me. Once I got going though it was just like remembering how to ride a bike! When I go quad core in my system next year I'll probably end up buying a new power supply as well. The Antec Earthwatts 500 is a great PSU for money (55 bucks at the egg), but I really want modular cabling. So many cables in my face I tied most of them out of the way but still have some tweaking to do. Can't wait to get home so I can start pushing this thing and seeing how far it goes! Oh and with all the fans in this Antec 900 case I don't even think I'll turn on the AC in the summer at all. I'll just sit by my computer and let these fans keep me cool.

Slo said:
Thanks for the tips. Last night at the suggestion of friend
MrBob, that dirty f'ing 'sconi
I upped the voltage from 1.325 to 1.375 and now I'm running at 2.8 like a champ. I'm going to try to push it to 3.0 or 3.2 tonight.

I'm not sure I understood the bit about the ram multipliers. I'll poke around in the bios to see if your advice makes more sense. And yes, I walked the frequency up from 2.0 -> 2.2 -> 2.4 etc.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

4.2 ghz or bust!
 
A

Ariexv

Member
Minsc said:
800 zerglings might disagree with the SC2 part, but if anyone can make a game of that scale run at 30+ fps (which anything less is suicide in an RTS) on an average machine, it's Blizzard. I don't expect to be able to run it well myself, and my current card is a little better than that, so I'll likely end up with a new PC around the time SC2 is released.
Click to expand...
Well I'm really hoping to build a Decent gaming PC by then(laptop is mainly for school/work) It would be nice to be able to play SC2 between classes or when I'm not at home, I figured if Blizz can have War3 work on my shitty old Compaq I got when I was like 10(I always got yelled at for loading times though:() then a halfway decent laptop should be able to run Sc2.
 
B

Borys

Banned
Ariexv said:
Well I'm really hoping to build a Decent gaming PC by then(laptop is mainly for school/work) It would be nice to be able to play SC2 between classes or when I'm not at home, I figured if Blizz can have War3 work on my shitty old Compaq I got when I was like 10(I always got yelled at for loading times though:() then a halfway decent laptop should be able to run Sc2.
Click to expand...

You will be able to. Blizzard ain't going the Crytek route. They know 80% of their sales are from medium powered PCs owners.
 
S

Slo

Member
mr stroke

mr stroke

Member
Oldschoolgamer said:
I posted this a while back in another thread, but, since this is the thread to post in, here is what I'm looking to get:

Case: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811119077
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813131225
Gpu: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16814130318
Psu: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817341001
Cpu: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16819115017
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820145034
Card reader: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820223095
HD: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16822136040
Keyboard: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16823109030
Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16824009131
Mouse: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16826105148
Disc Drive: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16827106072
OS: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16832116202
Speakers: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16836121127

Subtotal: $1,441.87

I need to adjust this as much as possible, so that I can lower the price a bit. So, any help would be appreciated. This is what I'm looking towards to get, but, I need to drop the price bit. I need/want to be able to get a tuner card, but, that ain't happening anytime soon if I stick with this total. lulz

Also, mail in rebates suck. Why can't they just take the price off at checkout? :(
Click to expand...


looks solid, but if it were me(web use and gaming) I would drop the cpu down to this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029
Intel C2D E6750

and use the extra 100$ twards a 8800GTX (359$ AR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130072

I don't have any personal experience with quad cores yet, but if your going to be gaming on the PC I think you would get more benifit from the better GPU than CPU.
 
F

Finguo

Member
Just a quick OT-ish question: Why is every link you US guys post from newegg? Is that the only cheap and reliable shop in the US? Are those price comparison sites not popular on your side of the pond?
 
D

Davidion

Member
Finguo said:
Just a quick OT-ish question: Why is every link you US guys post from newegg? Is that the only cheap and reliable shop in the US? Are those price comparison sites not popular on your side of the pond?
Click to expand...

Consistently solid/below par pricing, excellent customer service, constant deals, and their product reviews tend to be very reliable and given by knowledgeable people. They even have warehouses across the country for faster delivery (this last point may not be appreciated by people in some other countries but it's related to the sheer physical size of the US and the impact it has on standard shipping times).

No surprise that it's a mainstay for a lot of tech shoppers. Hell, I even relied on it for market research when I was learning about building PCs.
 
M

Mrbob

Member
Finguo said:
Just a quick OT-ish question: Why is every link you US guys post from newegg? Is that the only cheap and reliable shop in the US? Are those price comparison sites not popular on your side of the pond?
Click to expand...

They have good prices and are very reliable.

Having said this, I ordered most of my components from CLUBIT as they have a rating as good as newegg and cheaper prices.
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
Borys said:
You will be able to. Blizzard ain't going the Crytek route. They know 80% of their sales are from medium powered PCs owners.
Click to expand...

I guess part of my skepticism comes from watching those blizzcon videos, and hearing them say numerous times how proud they were of all the new effects (physics even) going on with the engine.

I just don't see middle range PCs, as being defined as the card in that laptop (which is a low-medium to me personally) being able to run it with the options all on and at a very smooth frame rate, sorry.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see, so enough of this debate for me.

Edit: I don't consider "running the game" playing it under 30 fps, with lots of options set to low or disabled at 1024x768. So yes, it will scale to hell and back, but not the way I'd want play it.
 
mr stroke

mr stroke

Member
Minsc said:
Edit: I don't consider "running the game" playing it under 30 fps, with lots of options set to low or disabled at 1024x768. So yes, it will scale to hell and back, but not the way I'd want play it.
Click to expand...

+1000000000000000000000

I know all of us are not rich, but I just don't understand the people that are willing to accept PC gaming at 800x600 with everything turned down to low, and choppy fps. PC gaming IMO is doing what cosoles can't--crazy high res, maxed out graphics and fps, and of course mouse and keyboard.
 
B

Borys

Banned
Minsc said:
I guess part of my skepticism comes from watching those blizzcon videos, and hearing them say numerous times how proud they were of all the new effects (physics even) going on with the engine.

I just don't see middle range PCs, as being defined as the card in that laptop (which is a low-medium to me personally) being able to run it with the options all on and at a very smooth frame rate, sorry.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see, so enough of this debate for me.

Edit: I don't consider "running the game" playing it under 30 fps, with lots of options set to low or disabled at 1024x768. So yes, it will scale to hell and back, but not the way I'd want play it.
Click to expand...

100% agree on the bolded part but...

...not everybody has or is willing to spend $1000+ on a new PC. Some simply have to settle down for what they can buy at the moment.
 
A

Ariexv

Member
Minsc said:
I guess part of my skepticism comes from watching those blizzcon videos, and hearing them say numerous times how proud they were of all the new effects (physics even) going on with the engine.

I just don't see middle range PCs, as being defined as the card in that laptop (which is a low-medium to me personally) being able to run it with the options all on and at a very smooth frame rate, sorry.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see, so enough of this debate for me.

Edit: I don't consider "running the game" playing it under 30 fps, with lots of options set to low or disabled at 1024x768. So yes, it will scale to hell and back, but not the way I'd want play it.
Click to expand...
Well my main gaming PC by that time should hopefully be one that can run Sc2 on high w/ all the bells and whistles, but for my laptop in-between classes I'm fine w/ lower settings and the higher end options turned off.
 
mr stroke

mr stroke

Member
Any opinions on sound cards? I have heard that most on board sound cards will work just fine for gaming and will still put out good 5.1 sound. Is it worth it to spend the 80-100$ on a sound card just for gaming or better to put that money some place else?
 
M

MeowMeow

Banned
How do you know if a graphic card has some sort of co-processor that helps in game physics? As oppose to buying a seperate physics processing card?
 
O

Opus Angelorum

Member
My XFX 9600GT XXX Edition arrived today. I upgraded from a Powercolor X800XL.

First impressions : Excellent

I've only been playing Company of Heroes for a few hours, but it runs beautifully (1360 x 768, 2 x AA, all options set to High). Great texture detail, amazing particle effects and sublime lighting.

The card is very quiet, more so than the X800XL which had a very good cooler on it.
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
mr stroke said:
Any opinions on sound cards? I have heard that most on board sound cards will work just fine for gaming and will still put out good 5.1 sound. Is it worth it to spend the 80-100$ on a sound card just for gaming or better to put that money some place else?
Click to expand...

I think Vista is supremely fucked when it comes to sound cards drivers, what's the story again? Isn't the expensive sound blaster card from Creative the only one to get the drivers working properly? I forget what I read, it was something about Vista, failure, and sound cards.
 
C

Cheeto

Member
MeowMeow said:
How do you know if a graphic card has some sort of co-processor that helps in game physics? As oppose to buying a seperate physics processing card?
Click to expand...
It's pretty simple, you don't worry about it.
 
K

Kosma

Banned
Blizz won't bring out SC2 if it doesn't run smoothly on Korean internet cafe PC's on some setting at least. That's for sure.

Those videos look mighty impressive yeah, but I have 100% faith in Blizzard, if their art design from WC3 and WoW is anything to go by SC2 will even look nice on Low Settings.

Opus Angelorum said:
The card is very quiet, more so than the X800XL which had a very good cooler on it.
Click to expand...

What are the temps when playing?
 
Z

zoku88

Member
mr stroke said:
Any opinions on sound cards? I have heard that most on board sound cards will work just fine for gaming and will still put out good 5.1 sound. Is it worth it to spend the 80-100$ on a sound card just for gaming or better to put that money some place else?
Click to expand...
If you're running XP: Maaaybe splurge for a sound card if you're an audiophile or something or if you're worried about lost CPU cycles.

If you're running Vista: Don't bother. There is no hardware acceleration yet since MS moved the sound drivers from kernel space to user space.
 
I

Insertia

Member
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106073

Antec Performance One P180 Silver
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129154

Western Digital Caviar SE WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136178

Thermaltake W0093RU ATX 12V 2.0 Version 500W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153028

OCZ Gold 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227199

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3P LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Dynamic Energy Saver Ultra Durable II Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128083

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029

Think that covers everything minus the video card. WTF did the 9600gt come from? Is it the card to get now?

I plan on using this rig for gaming along with HD video/graphic editing applications and AutoCad later in the fall. Hear the E6750 is very stable and easy to OC so I plan to OC it immediately.
 
P

Pachael

Member
Slo said:
Thanks for the tips. Last night at the suggestion of friend
MrBob, that dirty f'ing 'sconi
I upped the voltage from 1.325 to 1.375 and now I'm running at 2.8 like a champ. I'm going to try to push it to 3.0 or 3.2 tonight.

I'm not sure I understood the bit about the ram multipliers. I'll poke around in the bios to see if your advice makes more sense. And yes, I walked the frequency up from 2.0 -> 2.2 -> 2.4 etc.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Perhaps that's confusing, but something like CPU-Z might help: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

It helps to explain the bus speeds as well as the FSB:CPU ratio, where 1:1 is ideal but not achieveable most of the time. What you'd want is to try and overclock the memory as well but scale it back if there are hangups. Eg. below:

At stock speeds, the CPU bus speed for a E2180 is 200 Mhz while the bus speed for the DDR2-800 RAM is 400 Mhz. Which gives the FSB:RAM ratio of 1:2.

Increasing the CPU bus speed (small overclock) to say, 233 Mhz will give you 2.3 Ghz (as the multiplier is x10), and if you keep the FSB:RAM ratio as 1:2 you're also overclocking your RAM to 466 Mhz.

At this point you may find that the PC doesn't POST or boot properly. The major reasons this could happen are below:
1. Too low CPU voltage. Increase CPU voltage
2. Too low RAM voltage. Check RAM voltage
3. Check RAM latencies. Try putting them to the manufacturers latencies, eg. set it back to 5-5-5-15 rather than going for 5-5-4-8)
4. RAM cannot be overclocked to that level. Change the frequency of the RAM back down to 400Mhz, or lower if required. This can also be achieved by changing the FSB:RAM ratio. In this case you might try 3:5 (so RAM frequency is 388 Mhz)
5. If all else fails, maybe you can't overclock the CPU :(

Of course, if the overclock's OK, carry on with faster settings, eg. 2.6 Ghz, 3.0Ghz etc. When you get to a point where you're comfortable with the CPU speed (and temperatures at load), you can tweak and refine the RAM settings and if you want, overclock the graphics card as well. Tom's Hardware has some easy to read overclocking guides:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/11/overclocking-guide-part-1/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/04/overclocking_guide_part_2/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/18/overclocking-guide-part-1/

Hope this helps!

EDIT: I think I did the FSB:RAM ratio incorrectly - I've corrected it.
 
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