upgrade time

[mr-white]

following on from my price check thread, here's my initial upgrade plan.

lian li v1000 - £120
Asus A8N SLI Premium - £120
AMD 4200 x2 64 2.2ghz - £250
2 x 1gb memory - £120
seagate 300gb - £90
XFX 6800 GS extreme 256mb - £155
total - £855

not sure about the memory, that price is for standard memory i.e not generic nor corsair so its something like samsung. might be tempted to pay a little more for better quality tho. the gfx well £240 for a bottom end 7800 is a bit much for me as i dont play as many games as i used to :(



MW

[Jimmyboy]

as for the gfx, u could get a powercolor version x850 xt for roughly the same price new (bout 150) :) pretty sure it would outperform the 6800gs but then u wouldnt have shader3

a good system there though should be rock solid stable:)

[mr-white]

the mobo is SLI so ATI would mean no SLI in the future, although i like ATI as they have the atitude of we have the speed lets go for quality.

MW

[Wurzel]

I've got that mobo, it kicks arse :D

I've seen some offers for 7800gt's for £200 inc, so i might save a little more for one if I where you... got 2gig's of ram meself, makes a fair bit of difference one some of the newer games like fear, think the cpu's a little overkill though...

[Arok]

Nice setup, but I would go for 7800GT. If a 7800GT is too much power what will you need that proc and all that ram for? I guess you have a need for it. The only motivation I have to upgrade my pc is video games.

[mr-white]

coz later i can add another 6800 for SLI ;)

been doing a lot of multi-tasking lately so quite CPU and memory intensive.

MW

[Wurzel]

coz later i can add another 6800 for SLI ;)

If you bought one 7800gt now, you can still buy a second one later :tongue1:

[mr-white]

yeah but id also have the bank manager and his goons banging on my door wanting my shins as payment :trrg_1:

MW

[mr-white]

might be able to get even more discount than that :D

so either....

upgrade to 7800
better memory
2nd 300gb hdd for RAID 0

MW

[Wurzel]

If yer planning to do any amount of games I'd go for the 7800 :)

What else do you run that needs that sort of grunt anyway :confused: ?

[mr-white]

future proofing ;)

if l'm lucky could get that all above for about £750, which means that extra £100 could line my wallet or.....1 on the above upgrades :D

MW

[Beerbaron]

I got one of these for £225.50 inc p&p through mr-white corp :D

link (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=92167)

[mr-white]

any recommendations on a 939 heatsink ?

currently looking at a ThermalRight XP-90c (http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_xp90C.htm) because its the best ThermalRight do and uses a 90mm fan :). Review here (http://www.systemcooling.com/thermalright_xp-90c-05.html)

MW

[Arok]

not the thermaltake beetle, I have one, it's ridiculous. For some reason when I go from full load to idle it takes about half a second to go back to idle temps. It's full load preformance is not that great. I may get something else before I try to OC, I'm thinking XP90 for myself too.

[mr-white]

gonna get some nice memory me thinks

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400 TwinX (2x1GB) :)

MW

[Arok]

I don't understand, doesn't the asus take 184 pin DDR?

[Wurzel]

I don't understand, doesn't the asus take 184 pin DDR?

Yup :)

[Wurzel]

any recommendations on a 939 heatsink ?

currently looking at a ThermalRight XP-90c (http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_xp90C.htm) because its the best ThermalRight do and uses a 90mm fan :). Review here (http://www.systemcooling.com/thermalright_xp-90c-05.html)

MW

I've got an xp-120, it's the 12cm, alluminium version of that. It's amusingly huge, dead quiet with a decent fan, and actually really light (about 400g i believe) so i don't have to worry about it ripping me mobo in half like some of the other coolers :)

Keeps everything pretty cool to, got an amd 64 at 2.1gig, 55c at full load with a silenx 12dba fan at 7v :)

[mr-white]

was initially looking at the xp-120 coz it takes 120mm fans, just the reviews saying the xp-90c was slightly better being copper.

eep didnt see it was ddr2, recalulations are in order :)

MW

[Arok]

That's not as bad as me MW, I actually ordered 2GB(2x1GB) DDR2 for my abit an8 SLI, the next day I realized just in time to cancel the order. It was such a good deal I didn't notice.

[mr-white]

AMD dont support DDR2 until their new socket is released next month. i was blissfully unaware there was any difference :o

so ....Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3500LL Pro TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 :)

MW

[Arok]

dude, get some pc4000(DDR500) so you can OC about as much as you want. The price shouldn't be too different. But you won't get cas2 in that speed. I guess with that proc you won't need to OC as bad as me.

[mr-white]

theres always a need for more power

MW

[mr-white]

new problem, the V1000 case turns the mobo upside down, the mobo has a heatpipe going from chipset to the voltage regulators. turning the mobo round causes the heat to travel the wrong way causing the chipset to get very hot and kill overclocking :(

MW

[Arok]

I just ordered one of the seagate 300GB sataII, it was on sale. I'm about to get some DDR500 so I can OC but right now my temps are 55C under full load. I think I may need a different cooler, but I'll try and add a second fan to the one I've got now. 55C is about as hot as I like anything in my pc to run.

[mr-white]

i'm gonna wait 2/3 weeks then start ordering up.

lian li v1000
Asus A8N SLI Premium
AMD 4200 x2 64 2.2ghz
2 x Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3500LL Pro TwinX
2x seagate 300gb
XFX 6800 GS extreme 256mb
thermalright XP-90C
92mm vantec tornado (volt modded of cause ;))

might have to replace that heatpipe though, but depends on how much of it the gfx covers and whether or not i can get another chipset cooler under it.

one Q. are chipsets all standard size, will i be able to use north/southbridge coolers on newer mobos or are the holes different distances apart ?

MW

[Wurzel]

92mm vantec tornado (volt modded of cause ;)) ...

..
one Q. are chipsets all standard size, will i be able to use north/southbridge coolers on newer mobos or are the holes different distances apart ?

MW

Hehehe, I though the vantec stealth fans where too noisy :hehe:

I think so, but i'm not sure, but your mobo comes with an excellent one anyway, so I don't see why you want to change it :)

[mr-white]

read a few posts up ;)

MW

[mr-white]

good heatsink comparison :)

http://www.behardware.com/medias/photos_news/00/12/IMG0012863.gif

MW

[mr-white]

slight alteration :)

2 x 1GB OCZ PC4000 Dual Channel Platinum Series EB-DDR CAS3
XFX GeForce 7800 GT 256mb

got paid today, time to spend some money :hehe:

MW

[mr-white]

woohoo its all on its way :)

my bank managers gonna be banging on my door tomorrow :hehe:

MW

[mr-white]

got the vantec fan and the memory tonday :)

this fan is seriously powerful

Model: TD9238H
Dimension: 92X92X38 mm
Weight: 187 g
Rated Voltage: 12V
Rated Power: 12.5 W
Rated Current: 1.0 Amp
Fan Speed: 4800 RPM
Air Flow: 119 CFM
Noise: 56.4 dB(A)
Bearing System: Double Ball Bearing

took a few vids on me phone listen to it - 12v here (www.mrwhite.fast24.co.uk/vantec tornado 12v.3gp), 7v here (www.mrwhite.fast24.co.uk/vantec tornado 7v.3gp)

MW

[Wurzel]

Gah, that sort of racket would piss me right off :hehe: ...

[Arok]

a friend got one for his rig, he ordered a watercoooled setup the next day because the thing was soooo loud, and that was as cool he could get with air.

[mr-white]

gonna get some sound proofing foam from work to help dampen the noise

im running an 80mm delta @ 7v now

MW

[mr-white]

heatsink and fan

pic 1 (http://www.mrwhite.fast24.co.uk/pics/other/vantec%20tornado%20&%20XP90c.jpg)
pic 2 (http://www.mrwhite.fast24.co.uk/pics/other/vantec%20tornado%20&%20XP90c 2.jpg)

finger crossed ill be picking the rest up tomorrow :)

MW

[BroadbandPlacey]

depth of field is all wrong in those photos MW

your camera cant focus on something that close - if you dont have macro mode on your cam take the shot from further out and crop it

anyway it looks like a good HSF but then again i know nothing!

[Arok]

is it all setup, what temps are you getting, tried to OC yet?

[mr-white]

lol the reason the pics so pants is it was taken on my phone

no as i said im hoping to pick the rest up from work tomorrow. i ordered all i could through work as it was cheaper but what i couldnt i ordered on line and thats whats turned up so far

MW

[mr-white]

all came into stock yesterday apart from one hard disk so cant install anything till it arrives. resorted to installing the hardware and cabling up as much as i can but a few parts like PSU are coming from this machine. :(

MW

[mr-white]

found out they only ordered me 1 hard disk so the second one is coming in on tuesday. systems all built apart from the PSU from this machine. just ordered an artic cooling gfx cooler :)

MW

[Arok]

I hear those are great, a buddy said his peak temps went from 65C to 53-54C on a 7800GTX. Another friend is buying my 6800LE which runs hot as fuck, so I'm trying to talk him into getting one for it.

[mr-white]

took bloody ages cable tying everything up and this case dont help, everything is upside down.

it was running about 30'c @ stock speed so im hoping theres gonna be good overclocking to come.

MW

[mr-white]

running @ stock speeds i got 3997 in 3dmark06

MW

[Arok]

That's very respectable. I score just over 3600. What was your cpu score, mine was 853 IIRC. I've intended to use (but haven't) task manager to documnet memory and cpu usage during a 3d06 run so I can tell if I'm even using all the memory I have, 2x512. stock speeds on my card are 450/1050 but I run it at 440/1070 and the scores are about the same. The gpu is underclocked because it has tears/artifacts at 450.

[mr-white]

SM2.0 1599
HDR/SM3.0 1588
CPU 1629

need to remove my mobo coz i need to alter that chipset heatpipe coz its getting hotter than the CPU running idle. Although it with stood 3dmark and a good hammering of FEAR last night i dont think its gonna stand up to much overclocking. ALso got an artic cooling gfx cooler to fit :)

MW

[mr-white]

after some tweaking...

gfx
stock 450/1050
overclocked 500/1150

CPU
stock 2.2ghz
overclocked 2.575ghz

thats gives a 3dmark06 score of 4436, the gfx temp only hits 54'c and the CPU 34'c so there could still be more to come :)

MW

[Arok]

awesome, I still haven't the funds to get faster ram. Until then My socre won't go up. Doesn't bother me though, I play every game on the highest setting my monitor allows(1280x1024), everything plays and looks great.

[mr-white]

it only allows me to select 400/433/466/500 etc memory speeds which increases 2.2ghz/2.38/2.56/2.75. have tried running 2.75ghz, the cpu temp is around 47 but it locked up benchmarking. so now having to lower the memory timings. its good quality memory so it should lower a fair bit :)

MW

[mr-white]

my new rig :)

http://www.mrwhite.fast24.co.uk/pics/other/lian%20li.jpg

MW

[Trog]

They are really nice cases, I got the silver version of that size for the Mrs, and I have one of the taller V2000 cases myself. The biggest problem I had with mine was that none of the leads to the front sockets would reach the motherboard so I had to lengthen them all. Which I thought was a bit unimpressive in an otherwise top notch case.

[Slamdog]

funny you say that trog... i didn't have a problem with the front panel stuff in the v2000b but i did have trouble getting long enough sata cables in mine.

i also didn't fit in the cpu guide thing because I have a tt silent tower fitted instead. I was thinking of cutting the back a bit to open stuff up but couldn't be arsed in the end.

[mr-white]

was initially going to get the v2000 but then decided there was no real point to having a huge case coz its gotta fit in my room so i downgraded and got the v1000B plus and it only cost £98 too :)

MW

[Arok]

I like the lian li's and some other high end cases but I can't justify spending that much on aesthetics. I know they provide more benefits than good looks but that is the most drastic difference between them and cheap cases. I've only had one case, but I've had 3 different mobos/cpu's and gpu's through it.

I really like the way my Tt beetle looks but it doesn't cool worth a shit. wether the fan is on it's lowest or highest setting there is only a 1 or 2 degree difference. I think I'll get something else when I order my ram. I only had the stock cooler on for a day before the Tt got here and I hadn't done any full load temp readings, only the ones in the bios to make sure it wasn't gonna fry. So I have no reference for how the chip would have been with an average cooler.

[mr-white]

my cases usually last me years, my cheiftec scorpio lasted about 3 years so i thought that warranted me getting a nice case plus i got it cheap. i never even used my stock cooler because i bought another one thinking i was getting an OEM chip but it came retail.

MW

[mr-white]

ive pretty much reached the comps limits

2.2@2.575ghz mem timings 3,8,3,3
gfx cpu 450 @501
gfx mem 1050@1201

temps
gfx - idle = 40'c maxed out = 54'c
cpu - idle = 30'c maxed out = 40'c

total 3dmark06 score = 4503 :)

MW

[mr-white]

i'm an idiot...just found how to manually configure the fsb :slap:

dual 2.6ghz (237x11) :slayer:

MW

[Arok]

I thought it odd that the asus everyone gets for OCing would only allow fractional changes like that.

[mr-white]

ive heard people have had probs o/cing with this mobo, prob the passive chipset cooling on the premium version.

had to nudge up the core voltage by 0.15v to stabalise the o/c :)

MW

[borich]

wicked, i remember my yearly comp upgrades.. looks like a good system you have there.

Borich