What to buy, what to buy?

[racerboyf1]

So I won some kick azz memory from OCIA and have no board to run it in. My wife gave me the OK to spend some dough so what should I buy? I was thinking P4C-800E Deluxe, P4 2.4C with and overclock the mess out of it and a AIW 9800 pro. Any other ideas?

[siq]

Abit IC7-Max 3

[racerboyf1]

I was looking that way as well. What about CPU choice? I'm going Intel and the 2.4C seems to be a great value for the overclocking dollar. Let me know and thanks.

[silenze]

Seen as high as 3,600Mhz out of a 2.4C on the retail sink... a Lot of people get good results with them, but I wouldn't recommend sticking with the retail cooler..

[racerboyf1]

Yeah, I had read about 3.4 stable with stock cooling. I probably wouldn't push it that far, but who knows. The Abit seems to be the better overclocker. How about pricing? About the same as the Asus?

[silenze]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-152&depa=0

$135 there..

[silenze]

and http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-158&depa=0 $176... supports prescott's (E's) but you want a C *shrug* hehe

[custommadename]

Why not an AMD?
With a mobile Athlon, you have a CPU that doesn't produce as much heat.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-401&depa=1
It's SocketA, so you can pretty much overclock it a whole lot and go up to really high voltages.

I love Albatron! Their motherboards are awesome!
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-170-113&depa=1
This one is perfect! It's highly recommended on another forum, which I will not mention in respect for OCIA. Anyway, Albatron boards, as I've heard, have a 1% or so RMA rate. Beautiful!

[racerboyf1]

I think the Abit Max 3 is the way I am going to go. As for video, is it worth the extra money for the X800 or will the 9800 pro be more than enough?

[silenze]

He'd decided on Intel... but yeah, there's some to be had from mobile 2500+'s and good cooling. But if you want to shell out the dough... I would definitely recommend an Athlon 64... I *love* mine.

No comment on the ATI card... the Geforce 6800 GT is about the best bang for the buck in the higher end Nvidia cards.. at $400.00, the Gigabyte version (overclocked out of the box, and goes even higher in reviews..) is only about 15% slower than a 6800 Ultra......

[siq]

No comment on the ATI card... the Geforce 6800 GT is about the best bang for the buck in the higher end Nvidia cards.. at $400.00, the Gigabyte version (overclocked out of the box, and goes even higher in reviews..) is only about 15% slower than a 6800 Ultra......

I agree 100% here. ATi might be good but with the 6800 coming out there's no way ATi can top it. Go with nvidia.

[KryoNexus]

actually, the X800 GT will be out very shortly.

[TenaciousPD]

400 bucks for a video card, and thats the best bang for your buck? I guess its just me, but Im not willing to drain that kind of cash into a vid card at this point

[undergroundtech]

Back to the 5900 :)

[KryoNexus]

yeh, i wouldn't drain that kinda cash into one either, which is why i don't own one. personally, if i had to buy a video card right now, i'd buy a 5900

[silenze]

Heh... Note that I mentioned, HIGH END cards....

But, I would...

But yeah fx5900's can be made fast... I get about 56,000 with mine in Aquamark3, 6500 or so in 3dmark2003... 21k about in 3dmark2001...

[racerboyf1]

Yeah, but I can get a AIW 9800 pro for around 240 bucks.

[racerboyf1]

I started making some purchases, finally. I tried to get my hands on the Abit, but could not get it fast enough. Nobody I tried had it in stock so I called my friends at Autumn Information Systems in San Jose, CA yesterday and will have a P4C-800-E Deluxe ($200.00 shipped with tax) at my door sometime today.

So here is my temporary setup:
Asus P4C-800-E Deluxe
P4 2.4B (for now)
Radeon 9500 Pro (for now)
WD2000JD 200GB SATA HDD
2X 512MB Corsair 3200XLPRO (Free from OCIA-Kickass!)

I've had very poor luck OC'ing the 2.4B, but I think it's because of crappy memory (512mb kingston value ram) and a crappy soyo mobo. Anything over 2.48 and it was unstable. I'm going to buy a new CPU in a month or so, but want to try my luck with what I have. Any ideas?

[silenze]

Well have you tried overclocking it at all?

Could most likely get some more out of it with that new board, although a C model with the 800fsb and hyperthreading would be faster..

[racerboyf1]

Yeah I tried OC'ing it, but it would not go past 2.48 stable. I plan on buying a C model next month.

[silenze]

Durrr I read that, too... too early in the morning *downs more coffee*.

What speed was the Kingston valueram?

[racerboyf1]

pc2700. After I bought the Soyo board I started reading more and more about it's limitations with OC'ing, but gave it a try anyway. I'm sure the ram didn't help any.

[silenze]

Well that cpu operates on a 133mhz x 4 - 533mhz fsb, that ram should do 166mhz fsb... in theory with the new board and ram, you should be able to overclock that thing a lot.. I've been seeing up to 3.1Ghz out of them, turning the fsb up to 172mhz..

[racerboyf1]

Thanks, I'll post my results when I get it up and running.

[silenze]

Good luck! :D

[racerboyf1]

OK-new system is up and running-

Asus P4C-800-E Deluxe
P4 2.4B @ 2.88 160 FSB with 1:1 divider
Radeon 9500 Pro (for now) no OC
WD2000JD 200GB SATA HDD
2X 512MB Corsair 3200XLPRO (Free from OCIA-Kickass!)
XP pro sp1

I haven't tried messing with voltages yet. I did get it up to 3.1, but it would not get past post. 2.88 is really stable and runs at 38C to 40C full load with stock cooling. When I did get it up to 3.1 temps ran up to about 48C.

Any ideas or help-I really am pretty new to OCing and could use all the help you guys can offer.


Thanks

[silenze]

You can try incrementing the voltage to the cpu up by 1/10th at a time and running something cpu intensive -- may get it stable at 3.1 with enough voltage -- assuming it doesn't get too hot.

[racerboyf1]

what is too hot? I noticed tonight that it runs around 38C at idle, but when playing wolfenstein temps went up to around 57C. Is that too hot?

[silenze]

yeah that's pretty hot.. I like my load temps to be 50° C or less..

[Beemer]

Most air cooled pentiums I have seen run mid to upper 50's under load. I dont think its anything to worry about, but cooler is better.