The (new) Official PC building thread!

Yeah it seems to be a more recent trend, but not an uncommon one though, so 'benefit of the doubt' doesn't seem very wise.

 

sammorris,

Mort and I have had no trouble with the PC28500 Dominator's running at 1066!

I may well have to go to a higher caliber cooler, but I think the results show very good cooling given the higher ambient temperature. Without my invention in place the difference is 6-7C at idle and low to mid 40s just doing normal work, the only difference being my new toy! LOL!!

As far as a Quad for me I'm thinking 9450 or above! It's probably going to be my last or next to last computer anyway so I'm gonna take a bigger step this time and go with the 45nm!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I was looking at 4GB of memory...if I upgrade to the 8800GT card...

This is the memory I was looking at...
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $67.99($27.99 after $40.00 Mail-In Rebate)Free 3 Business Day Shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148069

or this:

OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $125.99($100.99 after $25.00 Mail-In Rebate)3 Business Day Shipping $5.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227289
I know the OCZ 8500 used Micron 9 chips...

Hey Russ,

We were talking about the recent rash of problems with the Crucial PC8500 memory...so...you went with Corsair...Not Crucial...as originally planned...

 

LP531,

The Ballistix Tracers, the black ones are the favored memory at the moment if you want Crucial! The quality of the gold 2 x 2GB ones has gone steadily downhill for at least the last 6 months.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148070

A bit more money, but it's also much better memory!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

creaky,

Yeah, last year the black ones with the lights were absolute crap! Now it seems the good chips go to them. Like you, that's what I've been hearing lately too!

Russ

 

creaky, no Off T


On T, my 7800GT is seeing its last days. i have £180 right now, ready for the 4870 (which i will get to about £220) in the 2nd weeks of july, BUT the card has started artifacting, and once has BSODed in cod4, (due to the memory, on the gfx card)

Should i get a smallish (3850) upgrade right now, and then wait even longer for the gfx card, or do you think it will last a month?

 

I wouldn't risk it, buy something cheap to get you by now, even if it's a dirt cheap ebay job (I wouldnt fork out for a 3850 right now, you might not make the cost back) then go for the 4870 when it's out.

 

Lp, I was sleeping.

The 8800GT was GREAT. It overclocked like crazy and the BIG ASS cooler on it did a good job.

 

LP531
please do not get those sticks of mem. those are the same ones i had. this straight from crucial. these stick are not 100% compatible with the P35 chipset.no matter what manufacture of the mobo. they have knowing problems with ASUS,DFI,GIGABYTE P35 boards. as you said they are single sided 8 chip mem sticks. they replaced my 1066 with 800 double sided 16chip sticks. from whati have read. the tracer rounds are the ones that are now 16 chip double sided sticks

but the ones you are looking at are crap. that was my problem the whole time with my build, but now 4 months later i got it right..lol

the corsair 1066 dominator i think are the cream of the crop right now. but i have heard the OCZ 1066 sticks are pretty reliable also
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227239

heres a shot of my temps this morning. bout the best i have seen on my 3.6ghz OC.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i196/Cincrob/everest-10.png

 

Rob, your "emps" huh?

Alright logging off now. If I am fortunate enough to get internet this night, I might be back. Later!

 

took the route Russ just did.
TEMPS with Dvd-Rebuild running

guess if 57c is as high as it gets whille running Rebuilder im happy.

plus only 45mins to do a 7.43gb movie...i now remeber why i liked this 3.6ghz OC...lol

ill post the scan of this movie burnt and the dvd-rebuilder log over in the nero scan thread.

and to all you dads out there HAPPY FATHERS DAY.
Enjoy yourselves

 

That's really quite impressive, for that overclock, using DVDRB, good job!

 

This is the memory I am looking at...with a X48 based board...ASUS...DFI...or GIGABYTE...most likely...

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $149.00($109.00 after $40.00 Mail-In Rebate)Free 3 Business Day Shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145197

 

i clocked my 800MHz ram over 1066 (around 1100) why nto get that instead

(i have corsair xms C4, so all i did was loosen the timing form 444 12 to 555 15) (same 2.1V)

 

LP531 i have to agree with shaffaaf on the memory anyway people are having problems with the 1066 stuff

 

shaffaaf,

Mainly because you can't count on that to happen. They might be very overclockable and they might not! I've had memory that overclocked well and purchased more only to find the the newer modules wouldn't OC for spit! As I stated before, Morty and I have had no problems with our Dominator2 1066 memory running at 1066MHz. They run cool at 2.1v and need no additional voltage to run at 1066!

Russ

 

i never said not to buy the 1066, not once did i hint they were rubish either. just stating what i did with mine.

 

shaffaaf,

No, you didn't say anything bad about the 1066s or not to buy them. All I was trying to say is no pair is alike. I know people who have gotten 1200+ out of last years Gold Crucial Ballistix. Abuzar did! Nobody is doing that with them this year though! In fact, right now it's about the worst memory you can buy Ya just never know. The only really good thing about 1066 memory is that it's guaranteed to run at 1066 MHz, so if it doesn't you have a legitimate complaint, and some recourse!

Russ

 

As far as I see, if there's any problem with 1066mhz units, then buying 800mhz stuff and expecting to get it to 1066 is even less likely. There aren't any reported problems with the Dominator 1066 stuff, at least I don't think there are, so it seems like it's still a relatively safe bet. Of course for a lot of situations you have to consider whether you actually need 1066mhz RAM.

In other news,
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUxOSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==


You may have spotted the impact of this recently - to us it isn't that big a deal, we tend to stick to a few 'good' GPU brands, but to the end user, it must be an absolute pain in the proverbial. The means under which this is enforced is another example of nvidia's rather odd corporate attitude.

Oh, and somewhat bigger news:
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/14/complete-gtx280-scores-here


Season as you like. If this is how the card truly performs (and given the number of previews out there now and proximity to launch date, that seems quite likely) this card is big news. Sadly it sits in the 'monster' category meaning it won't be able to use a quiet third party cooler or be remotely affordable, but it will mean that a solo card will rewrite the books on what is and isn't playable.


Crysis, for example is now pretty smooth at 1600x1200 with 4xAF, even in DX10 mode, and even with 16xAF at 1920x1200 remains playable at 28fps, versus the 9800GTX's 11. Willing to settle for Medium Quality? The GTX280 pulls nearly 50fps set to this at 2560x1600.

Hellgate London is essentially a maxable game - in the more demanding Streets area, 2560x1600 with 8xAF in DX10 mode sees more than 40fps.

The Same goes for UT3 too, 2560x1600 with 8xAF in the more demanding map 'Suspense' the card achieves an impressive 49fps - it's worth mentioning that due to lack of memory, the 9800GTX only makes 2fps here. Realistically though, the actual difference between the cards for all other scenarios is about 55%, when CPU limits aren't involved.

Call of Duty 4, somewhat unsurprisingly is a maxable game as well - at 1920x1200 with 4xAA and 16xAF the frame rate is barely below 100 - With the 1GB of memory available, 2560x1600 with these settings should also be silk.

As ridiculously demanding as Call of Juarez gets, as long as you stick to 1920x1200, you can keep above 20fps even with 4xAA and 16xAF. The improvement here compared to other cards seems relatively minor until 2560x1600, suggesting that whilst the game is graphically demanding (the 9800GTX drops to 9fps even without AA at this res), the CPU is just as important - and these tests were taken with a QX9650.

Stalker is also maxable - 50fps plus at 2560x1600. AA or AF aren't used, because they're basically broken for the game, no matter which card you use.

Lost Planet is also smooth at 2560x1600 with AF in DX9 mode. DX10 however is a massive hit, and knocks the frame rate back to 12 in the Snow zone. Stick to 1920x1200 though and you'll get 60 frames, even with AA - perhaps even 1GB of memory isn't enough?

World in Conflict, being an RTS game, is perfectly playable at any setting. Unless it supports DX10.1 so you can turn on AA in DX10, the game is not going to lag with this card. Company of Heroes sits in the exact same position.

Battlefield 2142 and Quake Wars: Enemy Territory are completely maxable, as are Half Life 2 Episode Two, and Team Fortress 2.

FEAR, when you turn everything up to maximum and add the AA is so demanding that even the GTX280 can't keep up... :O


Bottom line, unless you use a 30" monitor and like your AA, the GTX280 will be so fast, there's very little reason to want two of them even if you could afford it.

According to this bench list the GTX280 scores X4800 in 3dmark vantage extreme. Supposedly the HD4870X2 is pulling around 5500. As to whether this is reflected in real world titles though, uncertain. Question is, do you go with blue screens, reboots and graphical corruption, or a huge noisy cooler you can't replace without water cooling? Decisions decisions.