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Hardware advice...

D

digital_exhaust

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - May 2008
Joined
Aug 14, 2006
Messages
6,903
The MaxPC thread has inspired to contribute more power to the Horde, and I need some advice here...

Normally I would ask in GenHardware, but I'll ask here instead. I've got a boxen almost ready to fold, but I need a PCIe video card and a PSU. Here's the specs...

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon X2 4400+
Scythe AC Freezer 64 Pro
4 x 512 PQI3200 2.5-3-3-7
DVD RW
120g WD Cavair

I had originally bought these parts from a member here for my son, but he had his good times with them and has now upgraded to basically a new system, minus the video card and PSU he bought for it.

So, give me some advice guys... I need the least expensive (aka most affordable, or cheapest:p) parts I can stuff in this box to get it up and folding asap.....

 
I had this card on my main rig for months (128MB 7300LE):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127273

And I have this card in my file server (128MB X300SE):

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ATI-RADEON-...ARD-10795_W0QQitemZ220178459234QQcmdZViewItem

Both are fanless have worked marvelously. I've since swapped out the 7300LE for an 8800GT, but it's my backup card now.

If you're on Newegg's mailing list, you can get an Earthwatts 380W for $29.99 shipped:

http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemai...mc=EMC-IGNEFL121307-_-email-_-top-_-Moredeals

It's 80 PLUS Certified and plenty of power for that rig.

 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
aldamon said:
If you're on Newegg's mailing list, you can get an Earthwatts 380W for $29.99 shipped:

Click to expand...

Thanks for that... perfect.

Linux is the only option as far as the OS for this machine is concerned (now that I finally figured out how to get my *nix machines to fold:rolleyes:) so nvidia is the only option as far as the video card is concerned... but I want to be sure that it will support dual 22's.... thanks for the advice..

 
i've been running an ati x800 in my linux box just fine, so just get whatever is on sale for the lowest price at the local computer store....if it's something like best buy/circuit city, find some coupons before leaving, and you can probably get something like an ati x1300 or a geforce 6200 or something for next to nothing

 
If you aren't going to be gaming on it, why not put in an old PCI video card; surely a local store has a cheapo sitting around for $5-10.
 
Bill Clo said:
If you aren't going to be gaming on it, why not put in an old PCI video card; surely a local store has a cheapo sitting around for $5-10.
Click to expand...

Yep, and in fact I have one, but I would like to be able to play around with some of the eye candy goodness known as CF.... although it's not really a priority on this machine, so I think you may have just solved that problem for me..... Wouldn't have thought of that had you not brought it up.... thanks..

Alright, I'll be adding this machine to my little garden soon:)

 
Post on the FS/FT forums for a X300 pcie card (around $15shipped ). I have picked up one out of a dell and I use the Asus X300se drivers. Not bad for boxen :D
 
digital_exhaust said:
Yep, and in fact I have one, but I would like to be able to play around with some of the eye candy goodness known as CF.... although it's not really a priority on this machine, so I think you may have just solved that problem for me..... Wouldn't have thought of that had you not brought it up.... thanks..

Alright, I'll be adding this machine to my little garden soon:)

Click to expand...

Glad to have been of help. :)
 
digital_exhaust said:
. but I want to be sure that it will support dual 22's.... thanks for the advice..
Click to expand...

The GeForce 7300LE I linked will handle dual 22" easily but one of the headers will be VGA. That seems to bother some people but maybe one of your monitors is analog anyway? I don't know many cheap cards with dual DVI.

I doubt a spare PCI card has any chance of handling dual 22". Depending on its age, it might not even drive one of them.

 
If you can find one, I'm sure someone has a spare 7600GT laying around. That's what I'm running in my main rig and it works great. Dual DVI out (which I use the converters for Dsub in my case) and should have no trouble under Linux once the nVidia drivers are installed and you have the nVidia Control Panel. Plus, they are relatively cheap, especially if you can find one used. Besides, they are still a decent gaming card. There are a couple of models lower that should also work well.

The 6600GT should also work just fine as long as you can find one with the correct outputs that you need. They should be able to be found for a dime a dozen used. They won't be as good for gaming as the 7600GT but should still do a reasonable job for that as well as anything else. nVidia had some damn good mainstream cards for those two generations at pretty decent prices.

Although, if you're looking for AGP, the 7600GT may be a bit tougher to find but I'm thinking since you're rig is socket 939 it should be PCI-e. There are plenty of them out there which should fit the bill.

 
Sorry for bumping this, but I have another question.... Should I run the SMP client on this machine? Probably a stupid question, but I don't know anything about the SMP client other than it cranks out the points, and I'd really like to increase my production with this boxen....

 
on your AMD 4400+ dual core?

yes

run the SMP for the win!
 
Easy answer is YES.

You should get 160-200 PpD per Ghz running the SMP client depending on which protiens you pull down.
That total Ghz, not just one core.
Look at around 700-900 PpD under Windoze.

But the box will be a lot less responsize if you leave it running on both core while you are running mid-high end games.
I find the trick then is to use "SMP Seesaw Pro" to lock the game onto one core while every thing else runs on the other core.
Also the SMP client is not quite so good at releasing memory back as the standard Client.
But apart from that, the SMP client will give you a good PpD boost.

Luck ............. :D
 
Thanks guys... that's what I needed to know. And I will be running Ubuntu on this machine, so hopefully that will help a bit as well.

 
In that case under linux the range is 150-250 PpD per Ghz.
Its mostly p2605's which run around 250 PpDpG or ~1,100 PpD but very rarely you'll get p2608 which only runs ~150 PpDpG or ~650 PpD.
So even better PpD.

Luck ........... :D
 
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