Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
He may have picked the RC-830 Evo from Cooler Master since it is only one of two daul-8800GTX certified cases. It isn't that bad; he could've picked something from Therm*ltake. 
My new system
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Well not the most hideous, but certainly up there...
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
ddrueding
Fixture
c'mon, it's a RAID-0 array of WD drives...that should be enough for spontaneous combustion...
Adcadet
Storage Freak
Damn. I about fell out of my chair. That thing is one ugly mutha. Who designed it, a 4-year old?
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
You could always use Intel and go the Crossfire route with ATI! <hides>
Sol
Storage is cool
Surely he wants water cooling and a 1000watt PSU just for the purposes of over clocking... It seems such a shame to disappoint, especially when the video cards he wants can be obtained factory fitted with water blocks... Add say 4GB of low latency OCZ or similar RAM and you'd be onto a winner... Of sorts...
It may sound elitist but if you can't build a system like that by yourself I don't like the chances that your going to make the most of it...
It may sound elitist but if you can't build a system like that by yourself I don't like the chances that your going to make the most of it...
ddrueding
Fixture
Don't forget the water cooled RAM!
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
My first experiments with the BFGTech 8800GTSes are a bust. I either don't have a power supply that's beefy enough to power one on, or I have two broken cards.
I'm using an Antec 550W SLI Certified PSU and an X2/4600 at the moment. 1 hard disk and 1 stick of DDR2 - a pretty minimal system. An X1650 works fine, as does the onboard video. I'm only trying one card at the moment, not SLI.
Typical nVidia quality.
I'm using an Antec 550W SLI Certified PSU and an X2/4600 at the moment. 1 hard disk and 1 stick of DDR2 - a pretty minimal system. An X1650 works fine, as does the onboard video. I'm only trying one card at the moment, not SLI.
Typical nVidia quality.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Er, GTXes...
And I will say, in their defense (y'all might want to write this down), that the cooling solution on those cards is a lot nicer than the 7900GTSes I handled. The fan in those things, at full bore - as they are at boot time - is audible but not disagreeable.
8800-series cards look similar to tip-magnetic fans.
And I will say, in their defense (y'all might want to write this down), that the cooling solution on those cards is a lot nicer than the 7900GTSes I handled. The fan in those things, at full bore - as they are at boot time - is audible but not disagreeable.
8800-series cards look similar to tip-magnetic fans.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Try #2:
My gaming PC has a GA-K8N Pro-SLI and is installed in a P180 enclosure with a 700W Enermax SLI certified PSU.
I find that an 8800GTX collides with even a low-profile SATA cable on port #2, preventing the card's installation.
When I removed that cable, I still couldn't get either card to initialize and actually display something.
My gaming PC has a GA-K8N Pro-SLI and is installed in a P180 enclosure with a 700W Enermax SLI certified PSU.
I find that an 8800GTX collides with even a low-profile SATA cable on port #2, preventing the card's installation.
When I removed that cable, I still couldn't get either card to initialize and actually display something.
ddrueding
Fixture
Definatly sounds like bad cards Merc. I have that same motherboard in the same case with a larger gaming card installed (X1800 IceQ). I switched to SATA cables with right-angle ends on them.
Adcadet
Storage Freak
Anyone see a problem with this PS? The gang atSPCR thinks highly of it. My current PS is flaking out on me, and I need a new PS for my next build anyway so I thought I'd give the 300W model a shot. Does anybody have concerns about using a good 300W PS for a typical system? My current computer is:
- Athlon 64 3000+
- 1 stick RAM, may eventually go to 2
- separate sound car, separate video card
- two HDs currently
- one DVD burner, one DVD reader
Using this power supply calculator it looks like my they recommend about 290W, and 330W if I add in 2 HDs. For the sytem I'm building (Core 2 Duo, two sticks of RAM) I'm guessing my power requirements will be slightly less.
- Athlon 64 3000+
- 1 stick RAM, may eventually go to 2
- separate sound car, separate video card
- two HDs currently
- one DVD burner, one DVD reader
Using this power supply calculator it looks like my they recommend about 290W, and 330W if I add in 2 HDs. For the sytem I'm building (Core 2 Duo, two sticks of RAM) I'm guessing my power requirements will be slightly less.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
As has been said before by several people, Fortran Source makes quality power supplies; they used to be a bit noiser, but if SPCR is recommending them they've probably addressed the noise issue. I would not buy a 300W in this day and age; you don't want to be borderline maxed out. A 400W or 450W would have enough headroom.
ddrueding
Fixture
A 300W good power supply is good enough for most users. I'm sure it's more than I need. I'm running a 380W in my current system, and that is more than enough. Unless you are putting more than one video card or more than 4 hard drives, I can't imagine needing more than a 300W PS.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Turns out my issue with the 8800s was the power supplies. A 700W Seasonic has both cards running fine in SLI. Maybe the umpty-billion 12V rails help a bit. The cards I use are evidently picky about these things.
Also, I think I hate modular PSUs. Stuff sticks out more.
And it is quiet, even with stock cooling on everything, even with the video cards doing Quake 4 at 1920x1280.
All in all, it was pretty much the biggest PITA build I've done since the first time I assembled a P180. But now I just have to figure how much money I spent so I can charge him for it all.
Also, I think I hate modular PSUs. Stuff sticks out more.
And it is quiet, even with stock cooling on everything, even with the video cards doing Quake 4 at 1920x1280.
All in all, it was pretty much the biggest PITA build I've done since the first time I assembled a P180. But now I just have to figure how much money I spent so I can charge him for it all.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Oh yeah...
Remember how nVidia used to have a really nice unified driver?
That was the thing the pro-nVidia camp used to point to whenever they started their rambling and incoherent bitching about ATI.
8800s need a non-standard driver which is NOT the same one as the driver used by discrete 7x00-series cards, which is also not the same one as is used in 61x0 integrated graphics. I need three different graphics drivers to make my display go nowadays.
I'll take Catalysts any day.
Remember how nVidia used to have a really nice unified driver?
That was the thing the pro-nVidia camp used to point to whenever they started their rambling and incoherent bitching about ATI.
8800s need a non-standard driver which is NOT the same one as the driver used by discrete 7x00-series cards, which is also not the same one as is used in 61x0 integrated graphics. I need three different graphics drivers to make my display go nowadays.
I'll take Catalysts any day.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
I wonder how well the XFX cards from Pine would work for a similar setup.
Sol
Storage is cool
Much the same I imagine, last I heard nVidia were still making most of the 8800 cards for their supply partners, so there's a fairly good chance they came out of the same factory and had (slightly) different heat sinks stuck on them...
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Does anyone know of a good, cheap overclocking board for a Core 2 Duo? All I buy are Gigabyte and Intel, and neither of those really let me play.
In my experience, every E6300 and E4300 I've tried seem to be able to do 50% overclocking without issue, even more reliably than the old Celeron 300As. I really wonder how far I could go with one.
In my experience, every E6300 and E4300 I've tried seem to be able to do 50% overclocking without issue, even more reliably than the old Celeron 300As. I really wonder how far I could go with one.
Adcadet
Storage Freak
I hear the Biostar TForce something-or-other 965 mentioned as a solid overclocker at a reasonable price.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
I noticed that our junior California boy has upgraded its home system. Now with a 6000+ Athlon 64 X2 and (yuck!) Windows Vista Ultimate. I vaguely remember Ddrueding mentionning the unfortunate move to Vista, but I missed the CPU upgrade news.
ddrueding
Fixture
Good catch Coug! The CPU swap was done 2 days ago; I couldn't resist after the prices went down. My old 4200+ 65W will likely end up in a 1U server somewhere, unless someone here is interested...
ddrueding
Fixture
....and I actually do like Vista. With a system such as mine, sluggish performance isn't really an issue.
ddrueding
Fixture
Something that does annoy me. In Vista's "experience index", every component of my system scores a 5.9 (the maximum) except for my 6000+ CPU! (5.4) My old 4200+ scored a 5.0. The only AMD system I have heard of that got a 5.9 was a 4x4 quad-core system. I wonder how Merc's super-overclocked C2D is performing on that scale?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'd have to install Vista to find out.
I have it on one machine too many as it is.
I have it on one machine too many as it is.
ddrueding
Fixture
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
OK, new record:
GA-P965-DS3 + E6320 (1.5V) + 2GB OCZ DDR2/1066 RAM + Coolermaster Gemini II + 2x 1200rpm SilenX fans = 4112MHz.
It wasn't stable but it got all the way through a Windows install before it crapped out.
Just never saw a four in the thousands place before.
GA-P965-DS3 + E6320 (1.5V) + 2GB OCZ DDR2/1066 RAM + Coolermaster Gemini II + 2x 1200rpm SilenX fans = 4112MHz.
It wasn't stable but it got all the way through a Windows install before it crapped out.
Just never saw a four in the thousands place before.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
What BIOS revision have you installed for the GigaByte GA-965P-DS3? F9, F10, later?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
F10.
ddrueding
Fixture
Good numbers Merc. Were you able to keep it over 4Ghz stable?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
No.
Temps are good OK-ish. I'm guessing it's memory that's the issue, but the DS3 links RAM and FSB speeds so I can't do much more about that.
However, it's been stable @ 3.8 so I don't really have any reason to complain.
Temps are good OK-ish. I'm guessing it's memory that's the issue, but the DS3 links RAM and FSB speeds so I can't do much more about that.
However, it's been stable @ 3.8 so I don't really have any reason to complain.
ddrueding
Fixture
I guess not...I couldn't complain with a 104% overclock. Well I could, and I probably would; but it would really be bragging, wouldn't it
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Do these Core2 Duo systems suffer from speed degradation if 4 sticks of RAM are used?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Generally they don't boot with 4 sticks while you're overclocking.
ddrueding
Fixture
Has anyone here thought of OC'ing the cheapest quad-core CPU around?