The Official Budget-Conscious Dream Machine!

he is talking about the cpu and ram ratio 5:6/4:5...don't know what he is talking about.

 

Look right now it's my Ram holding me back from 4Ghz. I'm running at a 1:1 ratio but I still can't get it there. If I increase the FSB then the Ram has to go faster and once my Ram can't go any faster then I can't increase the FSB, meaning I can't increase the CPU speed.

That's what I was talking about, that's how Ram holds you back.

 

RAM typically holds you back more with lower multiplier CPUs, for obvious reasons - higher FSB needed to get the same speed, and therefore higher RAM speed.

 

so having a pair of 1066 is better then 800 when it comes to OCing?

Radeon HD 4000 series specifications surfaces:
http://www.nordichardware.com/news,7356.html

 

HD FOUR thousand? GDDR FIVE? This sounds like somebody going a bit loopy with the numbers. As soon as Q2 I wouldn't expect anything groundbreaking. I smell BS.

 

lol, it's just a rumor, i don't believe it too.

9600GT Tested!
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1293/nvidia_geforce_9600gt_512mb_g94_tested/index.html

and check this ridiculous pricing in SA!
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/8962/geforce_9600gt_for_sale_in_south_africa/index.html

 

So this is what i came up with for my new PC. To the nooby eye everything looks ok. I just need to know if you can tell right away that something will not be compatible here.
with this pc i want to backup my xbox360 and dvd's. maybe play some games

custom pc $1,752
PC Case-
RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black SECC STEEL ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply $93
newegg.com

Multi Card Reader-
Rosewill RCR-102 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Black Card Reader $12
newegg.com

Floppy Disk Drive-
NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - OEM $7
newegg.com
SILVERSTONE SST-FP32-B Aluminum USB/1394/Audio Panel $15
newegg.com

Hard Drive-
74GB Serial ATA 10,000 RPM - Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD $155
pcsforeveryone.com

CD-ROM Drive-
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-05 - OEM
$32
newegg.com
Plextor PX-OE100E DVD±RW Dual Layer Burner $247 (external)
amazon.com
BenQ DW2010 DVDRW 20X

Processor-
AMD Athlon 64 FX-74 Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket F (1207 FX) 125W Dual-Core Processor $180
newegg.com

Processor Cooling Fan-
arctic cooling silencer 64 ultra tc led hs/fan athlon 64/fx $30
http://www.nanosys1.com/fan-ac-s64utcl.html

Motherboard-
GIGABYTE GA-MA790FX-DS5 ATX Ultra Durable II AMD Motherboard $200

Memory Modules-
Kingston HyperX 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory $120

Video Card-
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE SB0570LPVP Low-Profile Sound Card $27

Keyboard & Mouse-
Logitech MX3200 Cordless Desktop: Keyboard and Laser Mouse Combo $75


monitor-
SCEPTRE X24WG-1080P Black 24" 2ms Widescreen LCD Monitor Built in Speakers $370
FLOWMASTER XT 0105
Complete High Performance Watercooling Kit $189???????(dont know if its compatible with the mother board/chip)
www.dtekcustoms.com

 

CPU: Q9450
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
Memory: 2GB Crucial Ballistic 1066 Mhz
Video Card: 8800GT
PSU: Corsair 650TX
HDD: Seagate 7200RPM(16 or 32MB cache)
DVD Burner: Just get a good one
Case: Try for a better company. Raidmax cases, I've heard, are poorly built.

There is no need for watercooling. Just get a 40mm fan for your Northbridge heatsink and get a Thermalright Ultra 20 for your CPU. You don't really need a sound card.

 

Getting a proper PSU is crucial, that Raidmax one will go up in flames within weeks. Get the Corsair TX as Abuzar suggested, and forget the watercooling.

 

Yes, get the system abuzar1 put up. That one will be much faster and better quality.

If you want a good case, get Thermaltake, Cooler Master, Lian Li, or even Sunbeam. But DON'T get a Raidmax. Raidmax has serious quality control issues. Not only will the case be very flimsy and brittle, the PSU will literally go to flames within minutes of turning on the PC.

NEVER get a PSU/Case combo. The PSU will be CRAP.

 

Sorry for the double but it's been a while.

Well, I said that I was keeping my X1800XT for a while. But my Grampa made me an offer that I couldn't refuse He got me an 8800GTS 320MB to match his own. He got it in an "SLI deal" with a 30% discount on the second card. Figured he'd get me a birthday gift and beef up his new build too A big leap in performance from my X1800XT but still not even close to my old 8800GTX(oh well, waiting for next gen anyway).

The X1800XT went into my parents' computer. My dad still can't get past the first few levels of FEAR on easy settings but he says the graphics are even more amazing now XD

This is the system my Grampa put together for himself(so proud)

E6550 /w stock cooler
ASUS P5N-E SLI
2 x 1GB Mushkin DDR2-800
Evga 8800GTS 320MB
Seagate Barracuda 320GB
Lite-On DVD-RW
Corsair HX520

Upgraded from a D930 Presler with 1GB of RAM and my old X850XT.

Kept his old Cooler Master Centurion. I don't blame him. One of the best cases ever made and excellent airflow!

The PC is mostly for video work and CAD. Encoding, decoding, whatever. He plays games, but the newest ones he has are maybe Rome: Total War or Prince of Persia.

The 8800GTS DOES handle Crysis in all high settings in DX9(the demo anyway). 1024 x 768 w/ 2xAA gives passable image quality and high 30's performance. Very happy with the card.

Noticed drastically increased performance across the board. Half Life 2 Episode 2 went from max settings @ 1650 x 1080 to max settings @ 1920 x 1200 w/ 4xAA and 8xAF. Now getting a 60FPS or so average versus about 40~ with the X1800XT and 90+ with the 8800GTX at the same settings.

I have noticed though, in some games the X1800XT plays smoother with higher resolutions(just barely smoother). Most noticeable effect is a higher minimum FPS. I attribute this to the higher onboard memory of the X1800XT.

Maybe more performance updates once I test with my new OC 600/1800 vs stock speeds of 500/1600.

 

I don't need to tell you that the 8800GTS 320 is pretty crap compared to a lot of cards out there now, so I hope he got it really cheap. Having less RAM than your old graphics card means you will suffer at higher resolutions, but apart from that you should notice significantly improved performance.
The system he made is a relatively high quality build - EVGA graphics cards seem to be slowly migrating themselves towards the "cheap crud" bin given a load of recent failures, but I'm hoping that's an isolated QC issue that will go away in time. The rest of the components are great except for the motherboard, which could well be the worst motherboard ever made. Best of luck with that one, they're heaps of poop. There's no light way to tell you that.
The Coolermaster Centurion is a very nice case, having recently built a PC with one I'd have no hesitation recommending one.

 

From what I've heard the P5N-E SLI was decent. He didn't need anything special, so I think it was a good pick on his part.

And might I bring up the fact that the 8800GTS sometimes performs near equal to your HD3870? They trade blows but the 8800GTS can keep up in most games. I am aware that it isn't the best now, but it's still better than most and qualifies as a high-end card in my eyes.

I score a 10,900 3D mark06 score with the OC. My 8800GTX got about 12,000 with the processor at 3.6GHz. So apart from high resolutions in newer games, I am still getting 8800 series performance. Sure, the newer cards may have the edge but the 8800GTS is by no means crap. It is near as satisfying to use as the 8800GTX.

EDIT:

He knows the guy who owns the shop in our town. He got one for $180 and the other for $130. Seems the guy came into them for CHEAP.

 

I thought that an 8800GTS was about the same as my Overclocked 3850.

I get about 11,700 in 3Dmark, with my CPU at 3.4.

 

the P5N-E SLI was decent on paper, and spec-wise it was fine. The reviews of the board are mostly good since when it came out it was actually half-decent. However, shortly after production began Asus started doing something differently, and ever since the boards have been really dire. They often BSOD (as theone found out), they randomly don't POST, they often go wrong completely. I would have normally had mine replaced with the same, but given how many people had the same issues as me, I went for a proper board.

As for the 8800GTS, it's not like the HD3870, more like the HD3850. I can achieve that sort of score with my lower end CPU at 3.15Ghz and my HD3870 stock. Still at 3.15Ghz with the GPU overclocked I can get 11,500, and at that speed, it'd be very close to 12,000. The GTS is as I say by no means crap, but the 320MB hasn't got the grunt to run a lot of top titles with decent detail - even 512MB is proving a bit thin quite often nowadays. The GTX's 768 helps a fair bit, but realistically we need 1GB of video RAM to max out modern games.

 

The Radeon HD3850 gets awesome 3d mark 06 scores but it games about equal to or less than the 8800GTS. The 8800 is capable of getting that score at maybe 680/2000. I don't know for sure, and I won't be OC'ing it any further on stock cooling.

A stock HD3850 will get maybe a 10,500(what I've been seeing) while a stock 8800GTS will get about 10,000.

The 8800GTS 320MB is a very good video card. About equal performance to the 8800GTS 640MB in most games; Crysis being an exception. It really benefits from 512MB or higher.

 

I don't like using 3dmark that much for benches because it isn't accurate, but I typically find the reverse. nvidia cards bench higher than ATi ones in 3dmark compared to how they perform in real life - this stems back to the Geforce FX issue, and hasn't really been changed since. All the realistic benchmarks I've seen have put the 3870 ahead of the GTS. Not by loads, but by a reasonable amount. The 512MB GTS of course, is way ahead of the 3870, which is to be expected.

 

Well, I really regret getting the 256MB version. Stupid idea really.

 

Yes, that's they way it is.

The 8800GTS 320MB is truely more of a challenge for the HD3850 but it can easily match the HD3870 in some benchmarks. Crysis is one of the titles where the 8800GTS can adequately keep up with an HD3870. But only in lower resolutions. And the new G92 8800GTS is almost as fast as an 8800GTX in some games, and faster than an 8800 Ultra in others.

Not stupid. It is still a more than adequate card for most high-end games. Crysis being the one exception where it chokes a bit. It performs roughly the same as an X1950TX if not faster(tomshardware vga charts). The 8800GTS 320MB is only a bit faster. You still have a nice system, you just can't play higher resolutions.

 

Oh well, I might end up with a 8800GT.

Also I don't trust tom's hardware charts. They have a 7900GTX beating out my card, and that's bullshit. I know that from personal experience.