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Rebuilding after 5 years

F

fury

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 22, 2002
Messages
352
TL;DR: read the Q/A list in orange; I've got a parts list in mind below it if you'd like to offer criticism or suggestions on it.



Alright, so, I've not built a PC since 2005 or 2006 or so, back when all this cost me roughly $2k...

Athlon X2 3800+
Gigabyte K8N-SLI Socket 939
2 gigs of OCZ PC3200
WD Raptor 74 and a pair of WD Raptor 150's (non-RAID, used as dual- or triple-boot over the years)
BFG Geforce 7800 GT OC
Antec NeoHE 500 modular PSU
Antec SX1200
Pioneer 16x DVD+/-RW DL

Bitchin', eh?

Now I'm looking to get back into the swing of things. That board and one of the drives died, I sold the processor and PSU, so I'm starting from what I still have and intending on building/upgrading slowly.

What I'm looking to do is add about $250-300 worth of components in and get it back up and running, maybe play around with overclocking to see if I can beat some saved benchmarks I had from back in the day, etc. and then slowly build it back into another bitchin' machine.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Probably mostly as a hobby machine -- I got another computer and an iPhone for general tasks like web browsing and casual gaming, so I'll probably be using this to play around with hardware, game a little bit maybe once I can upgrade the video card, and mostly upgrade it and run benchmarks for giggles.​

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Up to $300 in parts. Flexible in the sense that I make enough money so that $5 over, or tax, or a shipping charge won't stop me, but I'd like to keep pre-tax/pre-ship parts cost around there so that I can keep paying my bills.​

3) Where do you live?
Louisville, Kentucky​

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, power supply, motherboard, RAM now. I'm setting myself about a $250 monthly budget for future upgrades to replace older/slower parts.​

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Antec SX1200 case
Pioneer 16x DVD burner
BFG Geforce 7800 GT OC
WD Raptor 74 gig​

6) Will you be overclocking?
Probably. I won't be terribly disappointed if I can't, though.​

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Currently have a 10 year old 19" KDS CRT that can go up to 1600x1200 at 75 Hz or 2048x1536 at zomgmyeyes Hz. Might upgrade to a 27" in the future, but when I do, I'll plan a video card upgrade as well, because in order to afford that 27" I will have won the lottery.​

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Buying within a few days if I can. Building as time permits.​

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Honestly, I have been out of the loop for so long I don't know that I need any of the new stuff for my starting point. A simple motherboard with a single PCI express slot would be just fine for me right now. Like I said, I will have a monthly upgrade budget, so I can always upgrade the board if I decide I do need that newfangled 6 gigglebits and USB 3.​

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, XP Pro and x64, 32-bit Vista Ultimate, and a Win7 Home Premium upgrade (comes with both 32 and x64 if I remember correctly). Hell, I've even got Win95, Win98 and Win2k boxes and keys still laying around here somewhere...maybe for giggles, I'll install Win98 for a few minutes​


So, I've done a lot of thinking, tweaking my cart at newegg, looking around for reviews on budget building, and I think mulling over this for 2-3 weeks is long enough and I'm ready to pull the trigger within a week or so. Just want to see if I've still got good instincts for a decent build or if I'm way off. I'll list a couple reasons why I picked such, so if anybody has a better idea for the intended outcome, I'd appreciate it.

Power Supply
$39.98 RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W (there is a promo code I can use for another $10 off if I order by the 31st, plus there is a $10 MIR)
  • Two 12v rails
  • All those buzzwords mean it's surely a good power supply, amirite? Nah, just kidding.. Actually, my system is probably going to be around the same power draw as it was before, so around 500 seems like a good place to start. Since it's a budget power supply I couldn't readily find real reviews, but this forum post and the generally positive aggregate rating on amazon and newegg seems good enough to go on
  • If I get the mail-in rebate, it ends up only being $20. On one hand, that gives me pause (anything that really only costs $20 shouldn't go anywhere near my hardware?), but on the other hand, some sites (CNET, Amazon) are saying it's simply been discontinued and that may be why they're trying to clear out stock
Other option:
$44.99 CORSAIR Builder Series CX430
(is this enough for the existing parts and what I have planned below?)

Motherboard
$49.99 BIOSTAR TH55B (open box item)
  • Fifty bucks; I'm willing to risk open box for a $40 discount on a board that seems solid
  • Ability to fall back to integrated graphics if my video card dies (it's as old as the machine I started with at the top, and I have overclocked it past the factory overclock, so it might)
  • Slightly overclockable

CPU
$114.99 Intel Core i3-540 Clarkdale 3.06GHz
  • It's only a buck more than the i3-530, I get an extra .133 gigglehurtz
  • Integrated graphics safety net, as per notes in Motherboard
  • Overclockable
Should I drop the CPU down to the Clarkdale Pentium ($100) to afford a better power supply right now? (I am probably going to upgrade/tweak this thing monthly, so a better power supply later on down the line is a given, but I do want to start off with something that can beat the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ I had before)

Memory
$72.99 OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333
  • I've had good experience with OCZ memory in the past
  • If I get the mail-in rebate, I get $20 back so it's basically the cheapest DDR3 I can find, and it's from a good brand to boot

-------------

So, that's what I've got in my cart so far. It's $278 with the Raidmax 530w power supply or $283 with the Corsair 430w.

I have a little leg room still from my $300 pre-shipping max, and might change it up based on the response

Thanks for any and all criticism/comments/what-the-fuck-are-you-thinkings :D
 
Ditch both PSUs. Neither are good for the money. I recommend this higher quality PSU instead:
$50 - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W PSU

Unlike the Raidmax, that above Antec PSU can actually provide its rated power at normal operating temps whereas that Raidmax is more than likely not capable of 400W, let alone 530W of power. In addition, it has a longer warranty than the Corsair 430CX, more amperage on the +12V rail than the Corsair, has better efficiency, and is rated at a higher temperature than the 430CX. So definitely go with the above Antec.

OCZ RAM have dropped in quality in the past few years IMO. Frankly put, I generally don't recommend OCZ RAM anymore since they tend to be more fickle than other sets of RAM. I recommend this RAM instead:
$62 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM

$10 cheaper but exactly the same real world performance. Yes, G.Skill is a trusted brand.

If you can buy before October 31st, you can take advantage of this Newegg combo deaL:
$175 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 CPU + Biostar A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard Combo

That combo deal will get you a faster CPU
 
fury said:
TL;DR: read the Q/A list in orange; I've got a parts list in mind below it if you'd like to offer criticism or suggestions on it.



Alright, so, I've not built a PC since 2005 or 2006 or so, back when all this cost me roughly $2k...

Athlon X2 3800+
Gigabyte K8N-SLI Socket 939
2 gigs of OCZ PC3200
WD Raptor 74 and a pair of WD Raptor 150's (non-RAID, used as dual- or triple-boot over the years)
BFG Geforce 7800 GT OC
Antec NeoHE 500 modular PSU
Antec SX1200
Pioneer 16x DVD+/-RW DL

Bitchin', eh?

Now I'm looking to get back into the swing of things. That board and one of the drives died, I sold the processor and PSU, so I'm starting from what I still have and intending on building/upgrading slowly.

What I'm looking to do is add about $250-300 worth of components in and get it back up and running, maybe play around with overclocking to see if I can beat some saved benchmarks I had from back in the day, etc. and then slowly build it back into another bitchin' machine.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Probably mostly as a hobby machine -- I got another computer and an iPhone for general tasks like web browsing and casual gaming, so I'll probably be using this to play around with hardware, game a little bit maybe once I can upgrade the video card, and mostly upgrade it and run benchmarks for giggles.​

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Up to $300 in parts. Flexible in the sense that I make enough money so that $5 over, or tax, or a shipping charge won't stop me, but I'd like to keep pre-tax/pre-ship parts cost around there so that I can keep paying my bills.​

3) Where do you live?
Louisville, Kentucky​

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, power supply, motherboard, RAM now. I'm setting myself about a $250 monthly budget for future upgrades to replace older/slower parts.​

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Antec SX1200 case
Pioneer 16x DVD burner
BFG Geforce 7800 GT OC
WD Raptor 74 gig​

6) Will you be overclocking?
Probably. I won't be terribly disappointed if I can't, though.​

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Currently have a 10 year old 19" KDS CRT that can go up to 1600x1200 at 75 Hz or 2048x1536 at zomgmyeyes Hz. Might upgrade to a 27" in the future, but when I do, I'll plan a video card upgrade as well, because in order to afford that 27" I will have won the lottery.​

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Buying within a few days if I can. Building as time permits.​

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Honestly, I have been out of the loop for so long I don't know that I need any of the new stuff for my starting point. A simple motherboard with a single PCI express slot would be just fine for me right now. Like I said, I will have a monthly upgrade budget, so I can always upgrade the board if I decide I do need that newfangled 6 gigglebits and USB 3.​

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, XP Pro and x64, 32-bit Vista Ultimate, and a Win7 Home Premium upgrade (comes with both 32 and x64 if I remember correctly). Hell, I've even got Win95, Win98 and Win2k boxes and keys still laying around here somewhere...maybe for giggles, I'll install Win98 for a few minutes​


So, I've done a lot of thinking, tweaking my cart at newegg, looking around for reviews on budget building, and I think mulling over this for 2-3 weeks is long enough and I'm ready to pull the trigger within a week or so. Just want to see if I've still got good instincts for a decent build or if I'm way off. I'll list a couple reasons why I picked such, so if anybody has a better idea for the intended outcome, I'd appreciate it.

Power Supply
$39.98 RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W (there is a promo code I can use for another $10 off if I order by the 31st, plus there is a $10 MIR)
  • Two 12v rails
  • All those buzzwords mean it's surely a good power supply, amirite? Nah, just kidding.. Actually, my system is probably going to be around the same power draw as it was before, so around 500 seems like a good place to start. Since it's a budget power supply I couldn't readily find real reviews, but this forum post and the generally positive aggregate rating on amazon and newegg seems good enough to go on
  • If I get the mail-in rebate, it ends up only being $20. On one hand, that gives me pause (anything that really only costs $20 shouldn't go anywhere near my hardware?), but on the other hand, some sites (CNET, Amazon) are saying it's simply been discontinued and that may be why they're trying to clear out stock
Other option:
$44.99 CORSAIR Builder Series CX430
(is this enough for the existing parts and what I have planned below?)

Motherboard
$49.99 BIOSTAR TH55B (open box item)
  • Fifty bucks; I'm willing to risk open box for a $40 discount on a board that seems solid
  • Ability to fall back to integrated graphics if my video card dies (it's as old as the machine I started with at the top, and I have overclocked it past the factory overclock, so it might)
  • Slightly overclockable

CPU
$114.99 Intel Core i3-540 Clarkdale 3.06GHz
  • It's only a buck more than the i3-530, I get an extra .133 gigglehurtz
  • Integrated graphics safety net, as per notes in Motherboard
  • Overclockable
Should I drop the CPU down to the Clarkdale Pentium ($100) to afford a better power supply right now? (I am probably going to upgrade/tweak this thing monthly, so a better power supply later on down the line is a given, but I do want to start off with something that can beat the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ I had before)

Memory
$72.99 OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333
  • I've had good experience with OCZ memory in the past
  • If I get the mail-in rebate, I get $20 back so it's basically the cheapest DDR3 I can find, and it's from a good brand to boot

-------------

So, that's what I've got in my cart so far. It's $278 with the Raidmax 530w power supply or $283 with the Corsair 430w.

I have a little leg room still from my $300 pre-shipping max, and might change it up based on the response

Thanks for any and all criticism/comments/what-the-fuck-are-you-thinkings :D
Click to expand...

I agree with Danny. Neither of those two PSUs are good values. Plus, your choice of an i3 is a fairly expensive choice for only a dual-core CPU. Newer mainstream CPUs are now quad-core.

Third, I cannot recommend that particular OCZ memory since it requires a high 1.65V to as high as 1.9V just to even run at normal stock speed. Plus, that particular model was deactivated, which means that either OCZ has discontinued that particular model of RAM or Newegg decided to no longer carry it. OCZ has decided to exit the commodity RAM business and concentrate on its SSD business.

In other words, I am with the "what-the-<bleep>-are-you-thinking" crowd.
 
Danny Bui said:
Ditch both PSUs. Neither are good for the money. I recommend this higher quality PSU instead:
$50 - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W PSU

Unlike the Raidmax, that above Antec PSU can actually provide its rated power at normal operating temps whereas that Raidmax is more than likely not capable of 400W, let alone 530W of power. In addition, it has a longer warranty than the Corsair 430CX, more amperage on the +12V rail than the Corsair, has better efficiency, and is rated at a higher temperature than the 430CX. So definitely go with the above Antec.

OCZ RAM have dropped in quality in the past few years IMO. Frankly put, I generally don't recommend OCZ RAM anymore since they tend to be more fickle than other sets of RAM. I recommend this RAM instead:
$62 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM

$10 cheaper but exactly the same real world performance. Yes, G.Skill is a trusted brand.

If you can buy before October 31st, you can take advantage of this Newegg combo deaL:
$175 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 CPU + Biostar A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard Combo

That combo deal will get you a faster CPU
Click to expand...
Thanks!

I took a look at the combo deal, and it's tempting. I have one question, though, regarding the x4 955 vs i3-540. I've seen as many reviews where one wins as I've seen reviews where the other wins. What about overclocking? Because if I take a dual core i3 to say 4.5-4.8 or the x4 to 4.2, aren't games and such still going to be faster on the i3 due to higher clock speed and higher IPC? Or am I gonna be GPU bound anyway and it won't matter for games?

I may go ahead and pull the trigger tonight with the updated PSU and memory. I don't really want to wait much longer, and it's not like I can really go wrong with either one--it'll be faster than what I had, and I'll upgrade something next month anyway

Much appreciated!
 
Depends on the game actually. A lot of games don't scale at all with quad-cores and thus will benefit from the Core i3 more. But a lot of newer games are scaling with quad-cores and won't really see that much of an increase from a highly clocked CPU. Also, even if the game doesn't scale well with quad-cores, the game is still gonna run fairly fast on that quad-core. In addition, having those extra cores will help out a lot if you tend to leave apps running in the background while gaming. I.e Teamspeak, Ventrilo, web browsers, chat programs, music players, etc, etc.

Oh and you have 9 hours to decide to jump on that combo.
 
Actually, about the mobo, just remembered I have an Asus M2N32-SLI which needs a bios reflash because it was flashed while it had bad RAM and gets a checksum error and goes to the BootBlock bios. I understand it needs a new bios in order to support an AM3 processor anyway. I don't have an AM2 processor with which to do so, but would it be worth trying to do that, or no?
 
Reusing that mobo will only save you like $35. In addition, that Asus mobo isn't compatible with most of the cost-effective or even available socket AM3 CPUs on the market.

So not really worth doing IMO. You're gonna have to buy an AM2 CPU in order to flash the BIOs which effectively negates the costs savings by reusing that mobo in the first place.
 
OK, I've just harvested the parts out of the computer my dad gave me. The mobo is dead, the RAM is DDR, the processor is a 1.46ghz Athlon XP, video card is AGP, hard drives are IDE, power supply is Antec PP-412X 400w... doesn't have a 24-pin connector, so I probably can't reuse that. Ah well...

I see that that board also has a combo deal for a 1055T 6-core. I might be able to squeeze that in there instead. Would the 400w still be sufficient for it?
 
fury said:
I see that that board also has a combo deal for a 1055T 6-core. I might be able to squeeze that in there instead. Would the 400w still be sufficient for it?
Click to expand...

It is but you wouldn't have much upgrade room left.
 
Alrighty. Pulled the trigger on it last night.

$54.99 - BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

$199.99 - AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz

$61.99 - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333

$49.99 - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W

-$25 combo discount (board and CPU)

-$11 promo code discount (got code from PSU product page)

Grand total $330.96. Not too bad.

The next logical step (well, the next step I wanna take anyway) for this month's upgrade (in 2-4 weeks) is video card. Given that I shouldn't raise the power requirement much past the 7800 GT OC's (about 50-90W if the internet is to be believed) until I can upgrade the power supply, is the Radeon HD 5770 a sensible buy?

$130 - POWERCOLOR Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 (price with $15 promo code, though I'd have to buy it by the 10th)

Also, the aging hard drive could stand to get lost...

$125 - Corsair Force F60 2.5" 60gb SSD

Total: $255

Sound good?
 
The HD 5770 is the highest-end card that I recommend for your setup with that PSU.

Not too sure on SSDs. I mainly stick with Intel and OCZ's Vertex 2 SSDs since they're more popular.
 
I thought so, too, on choosing Intel or OCZ vs. the others, but StorageReview gave it good props vs. the previous SSD champs. Maybe by the time I can do this next upgrade, something newer and better will come out.

I got the shipment :) that was fast. Already put the CPU, heatsink, and memory in and boxed it back up. Can't wait til the end of the day to take it home. I'm all giddy. I'll be gutted if my 7800 GT OC is dead already, though it didn't seem to be when I was trying it out in an old S939 board when trying to get that machine going. (guy sold me a computer a while back but it had a dead mobo, trying to rattle a working mobo out of him)

One last minute question... Out of the parts I harvested from my dad's computer, I have a Silicon Image PCI ATA raid card (not SATA), and 3 WD 1200JBs. Would three of these in RAID 0 be faster than my one WD Raptor 740GD 74gb?
 
fury said:
One last minute question... Out of the parts I harvested from my dad's computer, I have a Silicon Image PCI ATA raid card (not SATA), and 3 WD 1200JBs. Would three of these in RAID 0 be faster than my one WD Raptor 740GD 74gb?
Click to expand...

Not worth the trouble, IMHO. Since that is an old card, it might not have any Windows 7 drivers available for it, leaving it totally unusable under that OS.
 
E4g1e said:
Not worth the trouble, IMHO. Since that is an old card, it might not have any Windows 7 drivers available for it, leaving it totally unusable under that OS.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. Though, if I recall correctly, when I was first building him that computer, it didn't have drivers in XP; I had to find and install a floppy drive (!) to give it the drivers on setup.
 
I know your on a budget but I would grab either a gigabyte, asus, Sapphire or XFX for the video card. Powercolors warranty is complete garbage.
 
$140 - Gigabyte GV-R577UD-1GD Radeon HD 5770

It's only $10 more, and I don't need to buy it before I'm ready, since the Powercolor is only cheaper due to a promo code that expires on the 10th. Sounds good to me, assuming the 5770 is still going to be the best choice 3 weeks from now when I am...
 
Danny Bui said:
Ditch both PSUs. Neither are good for the money. I recommend this higher quality PSU instead:
$50 - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W PSU

Unlike the Raidmax, that above Antec PSU can actually provide its rated power at normal operating temps whereas that Raidmax is more than likely not capable of 400W, let alone 530W of power. In addition, it has a longer warranty than the Corsair 430CX, more amperage on the +12V rail than the Corsair, has better efficiency, and is rated at a higher temperature than the 430CX. So definitely go with the above Antec.

OCZ RAM have dropped in quality in the past few years IMO. Frankly put, I generally don't recommend OCZ RAM anymore since they tend to be more fickle than other sets of RAM. I recommend this RAM instead:
$62 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM

$10 cheaper but exactly the same real world performance. Yes, G.Skill is a trusted brand.

If you can buy before October 31st, you can take advantage of this Newegg combo deaL:
$175 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 CPU + Biostar A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard Combo

That combo deal will get you a faster CPU
Click to expand...


+1. Raidmax PSUs are not known for quality. My first Raidmax PSU died moments after plugging it in and turning it on.
 
fury said:
Makes sense. Though, if I recall correctly, when I was first building him that computer, it didn't have drivers in XP; I had to find and install a floppy drive (!) to give it the drivers on setup.
Click to expand...
Or you could have slipstreamed them into the ISO. You can try it in Win7, as it should have generic drivers that could control it, but even if it did, the raid array wouldn't beat the raptor in seek times (and i doubt it would do much more in total throughput) - so I agree with eagle, not worth the trouble. Besides, a $55 HD502HJ would outperform either setup.
fury said:
$140 - Gigabyte GV-R577UD-1GD Radeon HD 5770

It's only $10 more, and I don't need to buy it before I'm ready, since the Powercolor is only cheaper due to a promo code that expires on the 10th. Sounds good to me, assuming the 5770 is still going to be the best choice 3 weeks from now when I am...
Click to expand...

When I used to browse the FS/T forum here and at AT, I regularly saw brand new XFX 5770's going for $130. You might want to check out the FS/T forum whenever you're ready to buy.
 
Well, the moment of truth came last night and I installed Win7. It passed with flying colors. Well, as far as booting up, downloading Windows Updates, installing Geforce drivers, and downloading 3dmark06 goes. This morning before I left for work, I ran a quick test and at stock it almost beat my old fully-overclocked setup right off the bat! This warms the cockles of my heart. :p of course, I wasn't expecting much since the card is an old clunker, but it was fun anyway.

Old: X2 3800+ 2.0ghz @ 2.5ghz, BFG Geforce 7800 GTOC @ 487mhz/1200mhz
SM 2.0: 1727, SM 3.0: 1701, CPU: 1904, 3dmarks: 4349

New: X6 1055T stock (2.8ghz), BFG Geforce 7800 GTOC stock @ 425mhz/1050mhz
SM 2.0: 1535, SM 3.0: 1528, CPU: 5177, 3dmarks: 4281

I giggled like a little school girl at everything from how fast Windows installed to seeing the CPU score difference. I can hardly wait to get back to it and crank everything up to 11.
 
Started cranking things up. I've almost hit 5k. Bitchin'!

I think I may have busted my 7800 some years ago though. I get artifacts on the last 3dmark 06 test even at stock speeds, with a box fan blowing on the PC. Though, it's only on that test. I'm up to my old overclock now and nothing else exhibits artifacts. Could it just be that test?

I'm up to 240mhz FSB and it's rock solid so far.
 
Yeah, I've been running it all night every time I raise another 10 mhz on the FSB or few MHz on the GPU. Went down to stock speeds to double-check a few times. They're noticeable, but not severe, almost as if, on the snow, two layers/textures were trying to draw in the exact same space. If I could take a screenshot of it I would...
 
Tried to use the Image Quality render tool to capture it but apparently it runs things slowly enough that the video card won't get those artifacts when using it. At any speed. I did, however, find out how high I could push the card before getting artifacts elsewhere...490mhz core and 1215mhz memory.

I dusted off my old folding username and put the SMP client on both this and my Mac (for the [H]orde of course). Weird though, the tracker said I'm supposed to be getting 9k PPD on the X6 machine, yet based on the completed WUs so far it seems more like about 1400 PPD. Three WUs, each took 8 hours and were about 481 points. Am I doing it wrong?
 
Not sure, I don't fold for the Horde.

Might want to ask in the Distributed Computing subforum we have.
 
Found out it's because my bonus points don't kick in yet, I need to return more work units.

Thanks a lot for all your advice :) payday is coming up, almost time to buy the SSD and Radeon!

I've found the system to be rock solid at 3.36 ghz (240x14) with no voltage increase whatsoever. Once I get up to 3.5 it's a little iffy. With no voltage increase, Prime95 sometimes runs for a while without a hitch, sometimes it gets a rounding error right off the bat. I'm not quite sure which voltage value to bump up at that point -- if I bump up the CPU voltage, it bumps it up by .05v and then the stock cooler won't hang--the temperatures keep getting hotter (CPU cores report 56c, ACPI sensor reports 60c) and then the system goes "blank". Leaving that alone, none of the other overvolting options seem to do it (I have CPU, CPU NB, Chipset, HT, and DDR voltage options).

By "blank", I mean the USB ports shut off, video goes blank, my GPU fan spins up to saw blade mode and neither the power nor reset buttons do anything. I have to switch off the PSU, switch it on, and then hit the power button and everything comes back up.

It's been so long, I've forgotten what the various answers are to the various symptoms. Is it lack of voltage that causes a rounding error, or is it too hot to run at that clock speed?

If I'm pushing the PSU too hard then I might as well upgrade the PSU and skip the Radeon 5770, go for a GTX 460. If that's the case, then do I need a power supply with 6-pin PEGs (GTX 460 uses two) or are 8-pin PEGs backward-compatible? (like the 24-pin connectors with the detachable 4 pins)
 
Nah, you're not pushing the PSU that hard.

It's generally heat and voltage issues that causes a rounding error IIRC. Are you using the stock HSF?
 
Yeah. I guess that answers my question. Is there a good universal heatsink out there?

By universal, I mean I would like, if at all possible, to be able to reuse it if and when I upgrade to an LGA 1156 or 1366 board. (or *gasp* dual 1366 :eek: )
 
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
 
Sweet. I think I'll have to expand my budget slightly so I can sneak that in this week..
 
Something is going wonky with it. Sometimes, momentarily, my mouse will shut off and my monitor will go blank. No indication from Windows that anything went wrong, it just gives me the hardware disconnect/reconnect beep and it comes back up. Every now and then it'll sit there doing that repeatedly. Sometimes I can stop it by unplugging and replugging the mouse, other times I have to just restart the thing or close whatever I'm running (Prime95, PCmark, 3dmark, folding, etc). Is that a lack of power, or is my mouse sending a feedback loop that causes it to reset something?
 
The Gigabyte Radeon 5770 that I had picked out went out of stock when I went to buy, so at the last minute I switched to an HIS. Hope that wasn't a bad idea.

$140 HIS Radeon 5770 1gb
$32 Coolermaster 212 plus
$130 Corsair Force F60
Total $302, and after rebate, $272. Not a bad upgrade to my old WD Raptor and Geforce 7800 GT OC, eh?

Now, if only I could figure out that weird thing with my USB mouse going wonky and causing my screen to blank...
 
If you can, try a different mouse. If the issue still occurs with a different mouse, then it could be a mobo issue.
 
Bah. So I hooked up a different mouse to it and it wasn't happening, so I put the other one back into it (Intellimouse Explorer 3.0) and it's still not happening. *sigh* I hate intermittent problems. :p

So, the goodies arrived today. :)

Before I go nuts on the SSD, is this the kind of thing where I will want to minimize the number of writes to the drive, or will it last me a few years or so no matter what I put it through?

e.g. should I turn off indexing, disable the swap file, use a mechanical hard drive for downloads and whatnot?

Also, since the copy of Windows that I have is retail, it has both a 32 bit and a 64 bit disk. I've only got 4 gigs of RAM. Does 64-bit actually matter beyond the RAM size in any way, e.g. speed, gaming, etc? I see an even split when googling for this for myself, and in my own tests, the only thing I've seen about 64 bit is that it's got fewer stability issues and gets about 800 more marks on PCMark Vantage x64.
 
Nah, no need to do any sort of hacks or customization of any sort with the SSD. Just do a fresh install of Windows 7 and you'll be fine. As for 64bit, besides letting you use more RAM, no other real benefits AFAIK. Considering that compatibility issues with Windows 7 64bit is getting smaller and smaller every day, I say go for 64bit.
 
Cool. Thanks :) I can't wait to get home and try it out.

That heatsink is massive! :D
 
So, I finally found out what those damned artifacts were on that last game test in 3dmark06

Snowflakes.

My old 7800 was rendering the scene too slow for it to look like smooth snowflake blur, and thus they looked like intermittent artifacts. I ran the test with my new 5770 and I see the smooth animation now, realizing they are snowflakes...

lol

Preliminary opinions of the SSD & new video card & new heatsink installation:

BITCHIN'

I've never seen Windows install so fast in my life.

Or start up.

Right now the longest part of waiting is the fact that it has to wait for my Raptor to initialize while the Windows logo is glowing.

It's already gotten over 3x the 3dmarks in 06, and 50% more PCmarks just by running stock, and I'm comparing to my old overclocked setup...

Another 2.6k marks in 06 from conservative overclocking already
 
mmm... I love the smell of burning in new electronics.

Apparently that wasn't so conservative an overclock. 3DMark Vantage definitely getting some artifacts with the 940mhz core & 1400mhz memory I pushed it to :p

edit: seems to like 960 x 1385 more. :) 2,000 more marks in vantage
 
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