The (new) Official PC building thread!

In other news, HOLY EXPLETIVES!





4800s in crossfire are absolutely MINDBLOWING!

 

in whitcher and bioshock xfire 4870s are beating SLI GTX280s.

in COD4 4850s and 4870s are have 100% gains. thats jsut mind blowing.

can wait for my 4850 to come.

next a 24" PVA £200 Yakura monitor. antec 1200 and then an X38/X48 with a 4870 or 4850 and then a C2Q.

maybe before the extra gfx ill get a HX620 or HX1000.. depends on funds.

 

Why would you get an HX1000, realistically?

 

you dont need that much power. here are some power consumption tests for single card and crossfire 4870.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1481/13/page_13_power_consumption_tests/index.html

 

well i wanna try tri-sli for some 3dmarking.

 

shaffaaf,

I understand perfectly, I just don't agree with you because of my experiences in the real world. I've been in the position where I expected my memory to perform better than it did because it had performed much better in my previous rig, and then they didn't perform near as well in this one! Look at it this way, with good 1066 memory like I have now, I've got a guaranteed 1066MHz to play with. If it won't do 1066, I can send it back and get some that does. It also gives me a guaranteed 266MHz or more to play with. My PC-6400 G.Skill wouldn't OC past 880-890MHz in this rig, where it was OC'd to 966 in the old one. Same memory, just a much higher fsb with the 8X multi of the E6750 compared to the 9X of the E4300! Fortunately I didn't lose anything as I had the eMachine to put it in, so it all worked out OK. The price difference for Quality 1066 memory is very small, and I look at it as good insurance! I've found that good high speed memory seems to handle the higher fsb speeds better than slower ram does. Not only that, it almost always takes more than stock voltage to get there, so there's more heat and shorter life for the memory. My Dominators run at 1066 at stock 2.1V and barely get warm to the touch. The 800MHz memory I had before took 2.3V to do 100MHz less than 1066 and ran fairly warm doing it! Good Quality 1066 memory is the only way to go IMO, for those reasons!

Respectfully,
Russ

 

fair enough for $15, but here its £15, which would be much better used on other things.

if you have a set budget and 1066 will take you over your budget, or force you to use a lesser CPU/mobo/GPU/PSU etc, then its not worth it.

unlucky with your ram.

i have sitting here PC6400 CAS4 XMS2 ram. its rated to run at 4 4 4 12 at 2.1V

so i loosened the timings to 5 5 5 15 and its running at 2.1V at

3:4 with FBS beig 375 and Ram sped then being 500


so i loosened the timings up and reached 1000mhz no sweat. i havent bothered trying for more yet though.

i will though. next time i boot up , ill try push it more.

 

shaffaaf,

Not really. It overclocked well with a 1500MHz or so fsb. It just wouldn't do the same at 1765MHz. I was also able to run the memory as high as 966MHz with timings of 5-4-4-12 with the E4300. 880 to 890MHz was it with the 1750 fsb. I didn't buy 1066 memory to begin with because I figured it would perform the same. I figured wrong! LOL!!

It could well be the control chip on the Dimms themselves though, as they are different between the 800 and the 1066MHz memory. Same memory chips and all but still, just not quite as good.

I see your point though, with 15 Pounds being right at $30 here! Throw in the VAT and it's not near as attractive a deal there, as it is on this side of the pond!

I've been over there a couple of times in the late 70s and then again in the late 80s, and it was expensive to live there then. I remember checking the posted salaries at the Labour Exchange, and wondering how the hell the people there made ends meet! What with Worldwide inflation, I can't imagine what the costs are like today. Still, I would love to live there and I much prefer Europe to the US. I like the people and I'm not your typical big mouthed American Tourist that's rude as hell and thinks that they are better than everyone else and that they are somehow owed everything, giving nothing in return! Those kind of jackasses made me embarrassed to be an American! It was a very strange feeling!

Russ

 

Ok, done.

 

damn it boozer, i wanted to

 

lol

I was hoping no one beat me to it!

 

What's the best way to remove thermal compound?
I put the stock intel fan on top of the CPU (didn't install it, just placed it on top), and it rubbed on some thermal compound that was on the bottom of the heatsink. Should I remove before putting the arctic silver on or just apply the arctic silver over it??

 

Remove it for best performance. It's REALLY easy to do. Just get a CLEAN(yes clean lol) coffee filter and some rubbing alcohol(70% isopropyl or more) and just clean it up. It's really simple.

 

Thanks. Coffee filter...never heard that before lol.

 

you can scrape most of it off with a credit card. then clean it with high grade isopropl alcohol and a lint free cloth. I use inividually sealed alcohol prep pads (1" x 1"). it's very important that you get it clean. even oil from your fingers will hurt performance.

 

Yup works great! It doesn't leave residue like tissue paper. Just make sure you don't over use ONE part of the filter and it starts breaking, because that will leave residue. Just be careful about it, it's not overly complicated and about a 1 min job.

 

Oh, well I'll just use the prep pads, didn't know those were good to use. They seem like they contain too much alcohol that might spill onto the board.

 

It doesn't matter because Alcohol dries up pretty fast anyway. I am not comfortable with credit cards because I am always afraid i will scratch the surface.

 

Hey Loco,
Isn't hijacking a thread a Ban-able Offense...}
When I looked back at this thread...I'm pretty sure it was boozer who dragged this one off course..

@sam
Damn those crossfire number look impressive...maybe I should go ahead and get another 4850...What are the prices people are hearing for the 4870's...are they still expected at the $330 mark..

@theonejrs & shaffaaf
Even at a $30 diffrence...the PC-8500 is just the way to go...I paid $98 for 4GB of Corsair Dominators...and the fan...I would save my $$$ some where else...not on the Ram...Your memory is where you get your biggest bang for the buck right now...