Any advice on this system?

C

CannibalTrout

Gawd
Joined
Sep 24, 2001
Messages
696
So just wanted to toss an update out here cause I figured if people put their time into answering my questions I should atleast let them know what I ended up going with. If you read my org post below you can see what kind of setup I had and what I wanted to get out of the new system.

The new setup

SeaSonic S12-500 - Got it for free from a friend.

Dual-Core E2160 - $82.99 "I know enginurd suggested the e4500 but I wanted cheap CPU"
ABIT IP35-E - $89.99
**Both from from Newegg (Not always the cheapest but they happend to have free shipping

Super Talent DDR2-800 (2x1GB) CL4 - $51.50
**For the price this stuff is outstanding

EVGA 8800GT - $100 (did a step-up from a 7800gs)

From my old system I saved the following:
Sound Blaster Audigy
WD Raptor 74gb
Seagate 250gb
Nec DVD burner
Lian-Li PC-7


Overclock:
I am without internet at home right now so I'll have some screenies of cpu-z and stuff up hopefully later tonight.

Basically I just wanted a nice cheap upgrade from my old setup. I'm just using the stock intel heatsink and managed to pull 3Ghz by just changing the memory divider to 1:1.20 (Memory is @ 800mhz) and setting the FSB to 333Mhz. I have not touched the voltage or memory timings yet. (The super talent stuff will by default read in at higher timings to make sure everything boots up good) I haven't tightend those down to the rated 4,4,4,etc timings yet.

Played Oblivion for 2hrs or so without a hitch (Once I have internet again I'll run some orthos (or whatever it's called) and do some %100 load testing and watch for temps and such.

Like I said I'll throw some screenies up later and a picture of the new setup.

Thanks all!



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Just looking for any suggestions about this basic system. I am still running an oc'd socket 754 3200+ (@2.3ghz) and an AGP 7800gt and have sorta been out of the loop as far as the new stuff goes. I still do peruse these forums and the main page daily at work though.

I'm not looking for any huge quad core mega ultra extreme system. I play on a 1440x900 screen and just want to play the newer games at decent speeds with some eye candy. I'm not worried about future "proofness" because I've lasted long enough on my 3200+ and I'm guessing the stuff below will tide me over until I'm ready to drop some large bills on a whole new setup a few gens from now.

CPU: Intel E2160 - I heard they OC well enough?
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 2GB DDR2-800
M/B: Gigabyte DS3L P35 board
P/S: CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W

My 7800gt is still eligible for a step-up through evga so I was planning on trying to snag an 8800gt if the step-up thing works.

I still have a 74gb raptor and the rest of the components from my old setup.

Thanks for your input!
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You bought the 7800GT less than 3 months ago?!?!?

Yes, the E2160 OC's very well.

Those are great parts.

What is your budget?
 
Yeah, I found it for a good deal from tigerdirect which is on the good list from evga so I can do the step-up thing. As cheap as possible is my goal. I have a wii and a 360 that I play a bit too so I don't need anything hard-core pc wise. Just enough to play some newer games like cod4 and stuff at my 1440x900 res.

I actually got my hands on a seasonic 500w psu from my buddy that seems to have good enough specs to handle the 8800gt. Not too familiar with that brand though. so I guess without having to drop that cash on the corsair I could get a diff proc or something if you think it's worth it?

hoping to just spend about $300 on the M/B, Memory, CPU.
 
Seasonic is a very well-known manufacturer of PSUs. In fact, they make the Corsair HX line of PSUs. You've got a good PSU in your hands. ;)

Go with the E4500 for $119 @ mwave.com, bundled with the DS3L for $86. Then you won't need the Ballistix and can just pickup some even cheaper RAM without rebates.
 
Updated!


Is there a way to change the title of the thread? I changed it in the edit mode but on the actuall forum it still shows the old thread title.
 
looks good, only thing I'd change would be to find a decent 2gb ram kit for around $30 (check out hot deals I'm sure you can find some good ram for cheaper than $50) or I'd go for 4gb, you can get 4gb of pc 6400 for around $70-80 :D Since you aren't going to have to go past 400fsb the fact that the ram won't oc very well won't matter.
 
I think he got all the parts already.

You can only change the thread title up to a certain time past the original post date/time. So no, now, the only way to change it is to ask a mod. You can leave the title, no big deal.

The E2160 was a great choice. I would have suggested it if I knew you wanted to go cheaper.

You won't notice a difference between CL4 and CL5, unless you're running benchmarks (and even then, the difference is negligible), so don't spend too much time trying to tighten the timings.
 
Awesome! thx for the info. I'll prolly just run prime or orthos (I thought that's what it is called) and make sure it runs stable at the current setup then and not worry about the timings much. Overall I am totally happy with the setup. I was able to run oblivion maxed (no aa though with HDR enabled?) but dang does that game run smooth now. As a bonus too the step-up evga card also came bundled with Quake Wars (also runs really good at my low rez :) )

I thought that 2gb supertalent pack was pretty good after comparing it to the price of the crucial balistix stuff. I didn't really see the need for more than 2gb of ram at this point. I used to run 2gb in my old system and then sold those sticks and ended up with 1.5gb (3x512mb sticks I had laying around) and didn't notice the diff. Plus to run 4gb wouldn't I need xp64 or vista64? I'm totally happy with the way xp32 runs at this point
 
Yes, to utilize all 4GB on windows, you'd need a 64-bit version of xp or vista, or server 2k3. Even if you have 4GB and xp 32-bit, its not a huge loss to put up with the "missing" ram, though.
 
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