which video card manufacturer

When did you get that CPU?

Didn't you have that other thread where we recommended Intel CPUs for a while?

 

i really didnt want an intel computer, ive been only ever had intel computers. also i was looking around alot at AMD vs Intel and it all seems to be a matter of personal preference. i dont regret going with AMD either, its a great cpu

 

I'll be honest with you, at that sort of level, it isn't really personal preference. AMD CPUs just don't hold up in the middle end of the market, only the cheap ones are worth having. The 6400+ is fine, but unless you paid a pretty low price for it, an intel option would have been better.

 

Well, I sure am glad that you like your new CPU. Just go around telling other people it's not a big difference, okay?

There really is a big difference. Considering that a 70 dollar Intel will OC to 3ghz easily, even on the stock cooler, it will blow any AMD out of the water.

 

Let's not focus too much on the overclocking though. Even without it, in this country anyway, a 6400+ BE is £106. An E6750 which is superior at stock is similarly priced, and an E8200 which is vastly superior, is only £114. That's before you overclock them, and even the mediocre overclocking 8000 series will overclock miles further than the Athlons.

 

Yeah but overclocking is FREE extra performance. Remember how you said AMDs are still good in the low range. Well if you OC the Intel low range they can beat out the mid range AMDs.

Let's not forget how easy overclocking the C2Ds is.

 

Well indeed, I witnessed an overclock on an Athlon X2 the other day, it's not quite as simple as I've come to expect overclocking to be!
I think I'm a good case example. An E2160 is practically the same CPU now, it's the same price as the cheapest of the Athlon X2s, and overclocked (which was still dead easy) it runs faster than even a watercooled 6400+ Black edition...

 

dont worry, i do tell ppl the actual difference and that the core 2 duo is better then AMDs Athlon 64 x2 6400+ BE. im not even planning on overclocking anytime soon, if at all. but anyways back to the main subject, its shipping from NJ and im in PA so i usually get it tuesdays or mondays so ill update again when i get it to tell how it works. also wat exactly is this Riva Tuner? on alot of the reviews on the video card it talks about pretty much needing to use this

 

RivaTuner is a graphics card overclocking program, it's primarily used to overcome limits on the fan speeds with stock coolers for graphics cards. Unless you overclock them, the defaults are fine, but for a cooling boost you can raise the fan speed in rivatuner.
DO NOT leave the fan speed at 100% all the time, even if you can stand the noise, as the fans are not capable of running at full speed for that many hours.

 

ok so i wont need it then? unless i find it running too hot that is

*edit* also what temperature ranges on it for idle, medicore gaming, hardcore gaming, and at what point should i just stop and let it kool down

*another edit* also right now i have 32 bit version of windows XP SP2 and was thinking about upgrading to 64-bit would it help at all with gaming???

 

No, it would do the reverse. Stick with 32-bit XP, always.
The HD3870 doesn't get too hot by default unless your case is poorly ventilated. I can run all my case fans well under 1000rpm and have no heat issues with my card. It gets up to around 85C full load, which is typical of these graphics cards. If it exceeds about 92C then you should look into ramping up the fan speed. Don't worry, those temperatures seem ludicrous for a CPU, but they're fine for graphics cards. GPUs just take more heat!

 

well i was recently having case fans problems, for some reason they would randomly go to their slowest speed and turn off the fan's LEDs. it made my mobo temp go up to about 60c+ but it lowered my cpu temp by like 2-3c lol. i orginally hooked it up the way the computer case manual told me to do but this time i hooked it up a different way and it works but i cant use my fan speed controller anymore. would it be bad having those fans run 100% speed all the time?

o yea newegg just sent me my shipping info and im getting it tomorrow, not today =/

 

That only applies to graphics fans, you'll be fine running your case fans at full speed as long as you like.

 

o another question i have is that im using 2.1v RAM on my motherboard which runs 1.8v some1 was telling me before i could go into the BIOS and changed a setting to +.3 but i cant seem to find that anywhere.

i THINK it might be under the "PC Health" category but im not too sure. i cant select the DDR2 1.8v section anyways. heres a pic of what the screen looks like

http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i263/PhunnyJesta/?action=view&current=PCHealth.jpg

and here is the mobo that i have

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2579

 

It's in the "MOTHERBOARD INTELLIGENT TWEAKER (M.I.T.)" section.

 

im not seeing this anywhere, do i need to update my BIOS? i was told if its working fine its recommened not to upgrade the BIOS

 

Hmm, that's a basic board, it might not have an MIT section. You can access an advanced settings page by pressing Ctrl+F1, but I'm not sure whether you can change the memory voltage there.
The RAM you have will work fine even at 1.8V, it's only if you overclock you'll need this.

 

Actually man you kinda got a cheapo board and it has no overclocking options at all. So you won't be able to change your voltage or anything like that.

 

i never wanted to do any overclocking, i just wanted something basic

 

Yeah, but you don't need to adjust the voltage of your memory unless you overclock.