Topic: My new rig...

[ScaryTooth]

So, it's about time for me to upgrade. My comp is starting to bog down, and I want to be able to run new stuff decently. I've been researching for a few days, and this is what I have so far.

Newegg.com wishlist

I'm looking at different things, trying to cut corners, but I keep coming back to this configuration.

[beo]

nice.

2 gigs of ram, shit! well, i guess it's becoming more of a standard now, but it still seems like a hell of a lot.

[scottws]

Wow, I can't believe how expensive that motherboard is, and how cheap the processor and the RAM are.  My how things have changed since I built my rig.

In any case, it sounds like a great rig, especially at that price!

[Quemaqua]

Mine isn't even that old and I can't believe how much has changed.  I paid like $350 for a much inferior video card.  Looking at that just makes me want to hit somebody in the face.

[iPPi]

That's a really nice price for that video card.  My 7900 GTX cost me like $550 or something like that when I got it last April.

[Jedi]

Interesting that's the same CPU and GPU I would have gone for. I guess you know there's lots of head room for over clocking that CPU - with the stock fan you can get it up to the same profromance as the intel extreme chips - which costs boat loads more.

[ren]

That's a direct x 9 card, right? Doesn't matter now but it probably will this time next year with Vista coming out. but at that point you can probably just do a cheap video card upgrade and have a kickass system again.

[Pugnate]

Yea when I was building my system I was thinking wtf... why does my mobo cost more than my processor? 

2Gigs of RAM aren't an advantage games yet, but I too decided to go for it so that I'd be safe. Anyway my ISP is having major issues, so I can't see the system.

[Ace_O_Spades]

Mine isn't even that old and I can't believe how much has changed.  I paid like $350 for a much inferior video card.  Looking at that just makes me want to hit somebody in the face.

your rage consistently surprises me

I don't know why

But I can relate

[Quemaqua]

I would think one would find it old hat by now.

[Ace_O_Spades]

I would think one would find it old hat by now.

Yeah, but there is something different about your rage

I've never seen such rage over (purely from my point of view) such insignificant things

This also assumes your rage is transmitting to me on the same frequency as you're putting it in writing.

This is way off topic... I feel the need to at least comment on the rig, because I really really want that computer hahaha

[ScaryTooth]

That's a direct x 9 card, right? Doesn't matter now but it probably will this time next year with Vista coming out. but at that point you can probably just do a cheap video card upgrade and have a kickass system again.

Yeah, it's a DX9 card. DX10 cards are just to expensive at the moment. This should be great for quite some time, then when the DX10 cards come down, I'll hit that up.

[Pugnate]

My ISP was acting up and I had written this response but it wasn't going through. Anyway I forgot all about it till now, so here it is:

OK I can see the system now. I have the same processor, and it needs DDR2 800 RAM to overclock well, but you've picked excellent RAM.

I am very stable at 2.84

Also if you need any help with overclocking let me know. There are a few programs that are excellent for checking up on system status. The motherboard you picked is great, and was recommended by Tom's Hardware.

There is another I'd recommend, which is the new nforce series. The 680i is the deluxe version and the 650i is the budget version. Both are apparently easily the best for overclocking, and I would have gone for them had they been released at the time. But the Asus P5WDH Deluxe is pretty awesome as well.

Anyway check out the 680i/650i and see what you think. It seems to be the fan fav. at the moment. The one you picked is pretty sweet as well though.

The video card is pretty good, but if you aren't in a hurry I urge you to wait a few weeks.

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37047

WE HEAR that the Geforce 8800 GTS is about to get another brother. Nvidia plans to introduce cards based on the design with 320MB memory, due to its 320MB memory controller. The card will run at similar clocks and is due to be released in February.

Nvidia is set to have its complete DirectX 10 generation range out over the next few months and ATI won't be able to pull that one off. DAMMIT is delayed in every market segment but the delay of DirectX 10 games suits it pretty well.

Nvidia also has plans for a G84 mainstream card in March time and will follow up with G86 entry-level card in late Q2. µ

Basically this baby will be pretty fast, and DX10 which is a bonus.

Here is more:

OUR friends in the Far East managed to get all the dirty details about G83 and G86. The first to come is Geforce 8600 and it will have Ultra and GT version. The ultra brand is back in business. Both chips are made at a 80 nanometre process and Nvidia managed to shrink them down.

The Geforce 8600 Ultra supports 64 Stream processors and works at 500 MHz core and 1400 MHz memory. It has 256 Mbit memory controller and 256 or 512 MBs of memory. This depends of the Vendor specific designs. Its estimated retail price is suppose to settle around $179 but we recon it will sell for 20 more.

Geforce 8600 GT - again a mainstream chip - will end up with 48 stream processors and 350 MHz core clock. The memory will work at 1200 MHz and the card will have 256 bit memory controller and 128MB or 256 MB of ram. It should sell for $149 and this is a good price for DirectX10 part.

This card will replace 7900GTs and GS and 7600 cards. These cards are scheduled for February announcement if not March but the chips are already sampled.

[ScaryTooth]

Thanks, Pug. Those mobos are nice, but really expensive.

I placed my order. I may upgrade the video card in a few months, but I'll have to stick with the 7950GT for the time being. I'm still using the good old 9800 pro. But it's starting to die. It overheats easily, and graphics tear and get all wonky. But man, the 9800 pro is easily the best video card I've ever owned. It pretty much held it's own for like 6 years. Up until about the time Half-Life 2 came out it was running pretty much everything I threw at it on high detail.

[ScaryTooth]

So, I got the gear today, and I built it. Just got it up and running about two hours ago. Man, this thing is quick. Loving it, I can multi-task like crazy. Reinstalled WoW, and it runs blazingly fast. I mean, it ran pretty fast before on my old rig. But now, with outlands, and such, I;m getting like 80 fps everywhere I go. Going to put some more graphically intense games on here tomorrow or so, just to see what it can do. So far it's great. Very stable, no problems as of yet.

[Pugnate]

hehe this was my first dual core as well, so I was impressed by the multitasking as well. Have you tried over clocking yet?

[scottws]

Geez, Pug.  Mr. Overclock.

I'm done with overclocking forever.  I spent $1200 on a system that was supposed to be a premier overclocker.  I made sure to get a real nice heatsink and fan combo, an over-clocking friendly motherboard, PC2700 RAM instead of PC2100, and a bunch of fans to keep it all cool.

Well, my processor came locked and not unlockable.  They started doing this during the 52nd week of production.  Guess which week mine was made?

I was never able to overclock more than 6 Mhz without getting unstable.  Now I just have a really noisy system running at stock speeds.

Needless to say, I think overclocking is just not worth the trouble because you aren't guaranteed anything.

[Pugnate]

Hey Scottws,

I had the exact same attitude as you my friend. You might remember me bitching a few months ago about overclocking being overrated. Here read this article:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802

Just with a little bit of sensible tweaking, I have a processor performing at the level of the AMD counterpart that is priced at $800 more. Plus with that RAM he has, he must overclock.

Just like you I was skeptical about the whole overclocking thing, but these E6400s and E6300s are different. I urge you to read that article.

With these processors there is a 100% success rate.

Both Scary and I have the same processor and it was factory clocked at 2.14. Every person I know has easily hit at least 2.8 speeds at stock cooling.

Needless to say, I think overclocking is just not worth the trouble because you aren't guaranteed anything.

This is exactly what I used to think until the Core Duo came around. Again check that Anandtech article out.

[iPPi]

I've never tried overclocking myself but I was always interested in its potential.

[Pugnate]

OK I just made a thread at anand.

You can see how just about everyone has overclocked their E6400s quite successfully.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1999016&enterthread=y

[Cobra951]

Interesting . . .  So the game of easy and expected OC has spread from video cards to CPUs?  Is Intel not being anal about locking their clocks anymore then?

[Pugnate]

It seems like you guys are the last people on the net to hear about this... but the E6400s and the E6300s are brilliant brilliant overclockers. That is the only reason to purchase them, and that is why there is so much hype surrounding those two processors. It is actually the main reason those two have gotten editor's choice awards everywhere.

Search on google for E6400...

[ScaryTooth]

Question: I'm using my new 250gb HDD, but I'd like to install my old one as well. It still has Windows XP on it from my previous system. Do I just plug it up, boot into the new windows partition on my new drive, and format the old disk through windows? Or do i have to do something special?

[Pugnate]

I was in a similar situation and when I reconnected the old harddrive with the OS on it, it would give me odd issues at boot time. So what  I did was that I loaded up Windows and then connected the harddrive. As soon as the connection was made, Windows detected the HD and then I proceeded to format.

The only thing is you have to be careful you don't get shocked heh.

[ScaryTooth]

So, I think I may need a new power supply. I get random reboots every once in a while. It's happened 3 times so far. I have all this stuff in here, and a 400watt PSU. Think I should go for a 500watt?

[Cobra951]

The first thing you want to do is disable the rebooting on crash, and get a real BSOD instead.  You may get some useful info on the blue screen.  Also, check your event log.  Not always, but sometimes the reason for the crash will get logged.

[iPPi]

Well that's kind of strange scary.  JacksRage was getting the same problems after he got his new machine as well.

[Cobra951]

It's the bugaboo of building your own system.  From what I've seen over time, it's too likely to happen for comfort.  Doesn't mean it's a bad idea, but there must be real reasons prefab systems are so much more expensive for comparable specs (and this I think is one of them--mating components together in harmony).

[ScaryTooth]

So, I reseated my ram, and I think that cleared it up. One of the sticks were slightly ajar, and I think thats what it was. Not sure though, But I haven't had a crash since last night.

[scottws]

Yeah, like I said in hoob's thread, reseating did the trick for me.

[ScaryTooth]

It crashed again. But this time, I got an "E10KX2K.sys" error. And I found out that thats my sound card driver. Hopefully after reinstalling it, it stops.

[gpw11]

bugaboo

That's an actual word?  I always thought it was just a bad song.

[Cobra951]

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source

bug·a·boo       (bŭg'ə-bōō')  Pronunciation Key
n.   pl. bug·a·boos

   1. An object of obsessive, usually exaggerated fear or anxiety: "Boredom, laziness and failure . . . These bugaboos, magnified by imagination, keep [the workaholic] running" (Dun's Review).
   2. A recurring or persistent problem: "the bugaboos that have plagued vision systems: high price and slow throughput" (Lawrence A. Goshorn).

dictionary.com

To be honest, I didn't know if it ever got promoted past slang either.   

[JacksRag(e)]

I finally got my computer up and running.  And now it seems like I've finally jumped the hurdle.  No more crashes and no more problems.  So, now I just gotta wait and see over the next couple days. 

Earlier on, I had much of the same specs that Scary had.  Then I just downgraded to the Asus P5N-SLI board and went with 2 gb of PC5400 ram at 667 mhz.  After using the PC5400 ram, all my problems seemed to go away.  Seems there's some compatibilty issues still with some mobos and the PC 6400.

But now it's running like a dream, and the only thing I'm looking at is if I wanna return my X1300 Pro for the 7900 GS.  I don't know if I should or not yet.