Time to upgrade. Need some input.

Post by **Neophyte** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:30 am

M4v3r1ck wrote:What would be faster?

Two of these: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... 85&CatId=0

Or one of these:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... 65&CatId=0

The second card. The 7900 GT would be faster. The first card has a 128 bit memory interface. Great for Windows, sucks for games. You will want a higher-end monitor for that DVI input. (Better, digital, picture quality.) But fear not, you'll get 2 DVI to VGA adapters in case you don't get a higher-end monitor.

Post by **D.A.R.K.[CotC]** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:55 pm

Speaking of upgrading... wow my internet rules. My old download rate back home was capped at 48 KB/s... now it's this!!!

WOOT!!!

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:22 pm

Son of a .... trying to pick a motherboard is like trying to decide between a ford f150 and a chevy 1500 truck.

So I think I have narrowed it down to 2 motherboards,

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... 39&CatId=0

or this one with a geforce 7900 GS KO

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... 77&CatId=0

The main difference from the two is the chipsets.

Anyone own any of these two boards or know of anyone that owns them? Unless anyone highly recommends another board.

Oh ya,.... what is the difference with memory that has a timing of 4-4-4-12 and another that has 5-5-5-15?

Post by **Baron[CotC]** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:30 pm

I love those new Asus boards... I have the AMD version, but the one thing the same between the two is the fanless design! Instead of fans on the motherboard that make too much noise, they use a heatpipe... very awesome.

Hmm then again the Intel board doesnt appear to have any fans either.

Oh well.

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:06 pm

Here is the updated version of the computer I am ordering. There are some rebate offers on the memory and the case/ps so I have to get the order in before the 15th. Comments are welcomed and in fact encouraged.

Intel D975XBXLKR Socket 775 board
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13 ghz OEM processor
EVGA GeForce 7900 GS KO 256mb GDDR3
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 4
OCZ Dual Channel Special Ops XTC 2gb PC 5400 DDR2 667mhz
WD 150gb Raptor 10K SATA-150 OEM
Ultra Blue Aluminus ATX Mid-Tower Case
Ultra X2 550-watt ps
19" viewsonic VX922 LCD 1280x1024 650:1 2MS VGA DVI-D

I am guessing that because the processor is OEM that I will need to get a fan and heatsink for it? What are some of the better heatsinks/fans?

Post by **Neophyte** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:46 am

Mav, tough choices there bro.

Asus will open every aspect of the chipset for you to tune the performance. This makes your computer a tweaker's paradice and allows you to eek out a few more FPS in those games. Intel is shy about that and doesn't give you the fine level of control. Intel will remove some of that control to ensure application compatibility. By locking you out of the areas that may get you into trouble Intel might end up working better with most games, but you might get more speed out of those games if you go with Asus. Hard choices here...

And again, you do it with the graphics cards! No clear winner here either. The GS is pinch slower than the GT. It has the same GPU chip, but reduces the number of vertex and shader pipelines. Which may be an acceptable performance hit because it gains better power consumption, fan speed control, and Blu-ray/HD DVD support through HDCP. You can still SLI the card if the performance isn't good enough.

I suppose the decision comes between what you want. Performance and features; Asus and 7900 GT. Stability and multimedia; Intel and 7900 GS.

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:53 pm

I need to get some sort of cooling for the cpu. Is this overkill? I am not going to be doing any overclocking.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... 39&CatId=0

Death_Dealer[CotC] · Post by **Death_Dealer[CotC]** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:13 pm

M4v3r1ck wrote:I need to get some sort of cooling for the cpu. Is this overkill? I am not going to be doing any overclocking.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... 39&CatId=0

That is basically the same fan as my stock fan on my AMD X2 4800+.
My CPU is overclocked and it still keeps it cool.

Post by BD » Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:44 pm

I can't recall exactly, but I think i have 2 256MB GS or GT 7600 cards SLI. went with these instead of 7900 because I wanted to save $700 I have ZERO regrets... awesome performance now limited only by my monitor... lol

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 7:21 pm

Ordered this thing today. After doing some research and running across a site at anandtech, I found that the E6400 was able to be oc'ed to speeds faster than a stock E6700. So I changed the mobo to an Asus one because they (as was mentioned I believe) are more friendly when it comes to overclocking compared to the intel board. I probably will not do any overclocking for the first while anyways, but still, if the option is there then great. Here are the specs.

Core 2 E6400
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
(2) Seagate 7200.9 320gb HD
2 gb OCZ Dual Channel Spec Ops XTC pc 5400 ddr2
EVGA GeForce 7900 GS KO
CL Sound Blaster XFi Xtreme Music
Windows XP Pro
19" Viewsonic VX922

Plus some other little things. Should be here in about a week or so. Was thinking that I'd set the hds up in a raid array. Itll be my first stab at playing with raid, so I'll probably need some pointers when it comes to it.

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 7:22 pm

BD wrote:I can't recall exactly, but I think i have 2 256MB GS or GT 7600 cards SLI. went with these instead of 7900 because I wanted to save $700 I have ZERO regrets... awesome performance now limited only by my monitor... lol

I think I picked one of the better monitors, so I hope it doesnt limit me.

dragonf1r3[Camper] · Post by **dragonf1r3[Camper]** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 11:17 am

Both companies now are starting to roll out dual core CPU's. There is more single core CPU's on the market than dual core at the moment. AMD's dual core CPU earns the 'X2" label. Where you have to be careful with Intel, but I think the '2' in the name describes the dual core CPU. (I.E. Core Duo T2400 vs. Core Duo 2 E6400 is a single core vs. a dual core respectively.)

The 2 in Core 2 refers to the chip architecture. aka. whatever the Core was vs. the Conroe. That's why there's the Core Duo (dual core), Core 2 Duo (dual core), and soon to be the Core 2 Quadro (quad (4) core).

I really really really want to upgrade the the AMD quad core's when they come out (rumored around Christmas, same as Intel's Kentsfield, their quad core), but my budget says otherwise.