The King's upgrade thread

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The King of Pants

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 7, 2004
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Edit: finally got back in here, fixed the text color and fleshed things out some.

Ok, so now that my cash flow is stabilized it's time to do the final upgrade on my 939 system. Here's how things stand now:

939 3200 A64 Venice at stock speed
Neo4 Plat. Rev. 1
2 Gigs of mid grade PDP RAM
X800xl at stock speed
74gb Raptor boot drive
~1Tb of storage in a mix of 250s and 300s
Forton Blue Storm 500w PS
19" samsung 995DF CRT - failing fast

So the point I'm at now is I've decided I'm not going to upgrade to Vista probably till '08. I want to do a final upgrade to this box that will keep me playing the best of DX9 at 1680x1050 (20.1" wide LCD), with as much eye-candy as i can get.
Parts to be upgraded:

CPU to a dual-core 939 chip, best bang for the buck without requiring major overclocking and cooling.
Monitor is going to be a 20.1" widescreen, I'm having trouble settling on a model though.
Video card is gonna need a boost too, but I can't decide if i want to go with a 1950xtx or a nVidia solution.

Budget is:
$490-550 for the NEC 20WMGX2
 $400 or less for the GPU
~ $160 for an Opty165
$40ish in slush

I have two main concerns at this point. 1. Will I need to snag a new PS to run a 1950 and a Dual-core proc?

And 2. Which damn 20" do i go with? I've tried reading the threads in the display section about gaming on a LCD but they devolve so fast with the CRT die hards bickering on and on. I know CRT is "the best" for gaming, but there are no high quality ones still available brand new, and I'm not comfortable dropping $350-600 on ebay for a used (no mater how lightly) display.

I've settled on the 20" size because it offers a fairly high res while still not demanding a bleeding edge graphics card to pump out the killer visuals. I'm up in the air between the NEC 20WMGX2 and the LG L204WT. The only absolutes are i need a quality, game-able display with no noticible ghosting for under $600. Black levels aren't as important to me.
 
I can't tell what chip you have decided to buy, or did I miss that part? You wrote your post in black so it's kind of hard to read.
 
no he didnt say which duo core he is buying. I think you should be fine with that psu but a more powerful one is not a bad idea.
 
The King of Pants said:
Ok, so now that my cash flow is stablized it's time to do the final upgrade on my 939 system. Here's how things stand now:

939 3200 A64 Venice at stock speed
Neo4 Plat. Rev. 1
2 Gigs of mid grade PDP RAM
X800xl at stock speed
74gb Raptor boot drive
~1Tb of storage in a mix of 250s and 300s
Forton Blue Storm 500w PS
19" samsung 995DF CRT - failing fast

So the point I'm at now is i've decided i'm not going to upgrade to Vista probably till '08. I want to do a final upgrade to this box that will keep me playing the best of DX9 at 1680x1050 (20.1" wide LCD), with as much eye-candy as i can get.
Parts to be upgraded:

CPU to a dual-core 939 chip, best bang for the buck without requiring major overclocking and cooling.
Monitor is going to be a 20.1" widescreen, i'm having trouble settling on a model though.
Video card is gonna need a boost too, but I can't decide if i want to go with a 1950xtx or a nVidia solution.

I have two main concerns at this point. 1. Will I need to snag a new PS to run a 1950 and a Dual-core proc? And 2. Which damn 20" do i go with? I've tried reading the threads in the display section about gaming on a LCD but they devolve so fast with the CRT diehards bikering on and on.

Crap, gotta go, i''ll update and finish the post when i'm home in 40min.
Click to expand...
Quoted so its easier to read. Gotta love ctrl+h.

1) No, you're should be fine
2) I'd go with the Samsung or Dell

What's your budget (will help immensely for product recommendations)? And, what do you consider "major" overclocking? 'cuz the Opteron 165 is your best bang for buck dual core 939 cpu. The rig in my sig is oc'd nicely, and I think its a mild OC. When I, personally, think of "major oc'ing," watercooling comes to my mind.
 
I finally got back in here an fixed the OP. The girl wanted attention when i got home and i wasn't gonna say no to that :D.

Budget is:
$600 or less for the display
$400 or less for the GPU
$210 or less for CPU

As far as OC'ing, if a proposed part is going to require after market cooling to run like it should, that's probably too much. I'm planning to gradually ramp up the OC as the hardware ages like i usually do.
 
The King of Pants said:
...if a proposed part is going to require after market cooling to run like it should, that's probably too much. I'm planning to gradually ramp up the OC as the hardware ages like i usually do.
Click to expand...
Haha, good thing opterons come with a pretty good heatpipe hsf! I'm running at 2.6Ghz on stock cooling, idling at 32°C and reaching 55°C on load (room temp is 72°F). Gradual OC? nice. So yah, I'd definately go with the Opteron 165, but since you're budget is $210, you could get the Opteron 170 instead.

If you go with the 165, that free's up about $50 that you could put towards a GPU. In which case, I'm inclined to recommend the 8800GTS. Though, you're goal isnt a DX10 capable setup, so you could get the X1950XT instead. A good 20" LCD will be much cheaper than your allocated budget, so you'll save some cash there, too. Maybe you could get some faster ram (DDR500) with that saved cash, and sell your old sticks.

On the flipside, you could get a very capable conroe system with your budget, but I won't get into that now (gotta go).
 
For the display you can get 22" Chimei 221D for $300 and here's a REVIEW of it. Which should give you plenty of money for other components or you could go for a dual monitor setup :)
 
Seriously, $600 is a bit much for a 20" LCD monitor:

SAMSUNG 204BW Widescreen LCD Monitor - $289.99

If you go with either tisb0b or my suggestion, you'd still have about $300 left over that you can use toward the computer.

But with a budget of $910 (CPU budget + Video card budget + LCD leftover), you'd can get a very decent Core 2 Duo setup like this one:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 - $181.00
Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express - $99.00
G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 800 RAM - $209.99
BFG Tech GeForce 7900GS 256MB PCI-Express - $184.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s - $57.99
LG Black DVD Burner - $31.49
XClio 450BL ATX 450W Power Supply - $39.99
-----
Total: $805.44 without tax and shipping.

Just a suggestion.
 
Lot of good info so far gang. And thank you for the tips on how to best upgrade to a Core 2 Duo platform, but i'm sticking with what i have now strictly because i know it works for what i'm using it for.

So the Opty 165 is a go.

Aside from DX10 compatability is there any reason not to grab the 1950xtx? From what i can tell, at 1680x1050 it should be able to handle even Oblivion and FEAR just fine with all the goodies turned on. One argument I've heard for the nVidia cards is that they have a feature to force 1:1 res letterboxed in games that don't have wide screen support is your monitor isn't capable. Has ATI implemented anything like that yet?
 
The King of Pants said:
Lot of good info so far gang. And thank you for the tips on how to best upgrade to a Core 2 Duo platform, but i'm sticking with what i have now strictly because i know it works for what i'm using it for.

So the Opty 165 is a go.

Aside from DX10 compatability is there any reason not to grab the 1950xtx? From what i can tell, at 1680x1050 it should be able to handle even Oblivion and FEAR just fine with all the goodies turned on. One argument I've heard for the nVidia cards is that they have a feature to force 1:1 res letterboxed in games that don't have wide screen support is your monitor isn't capable. Has ATI implemented anything like that yet?
Click to expand...

You can force wide screen from the shortcut for most, if not all games.

My opty runs 2.750 on water. On the stock heatsink with pipes, I ran 2.7 Dual Prime95 stable.
This is my rig:
DFI Lan Party Nforce4 Expert
AMD Opteron 165 Dual Core - CCBWE 0551 VPMW
Evga 7900 GT KO SuperClock - Maze4 - Swiftech MC-14
G. Skill Extreme Series 2x1gb DDR500
2x SeaGate 80gb 7200 RPM SATA2
Ocz GameXstream 700watt PSU
RaidMax 868w Black ATX Mid Tower Case
custom watercooling loop

And it runs and does everything I want perfect
 
Shortcut hacks are fine and all, but i am wondering if the NEC 20WMGX2 is capable of 1:1 pixel mapping with an ATI card.
 
nope but more often then not it scales beautifully and stuff doesn't look stretched :)
 
you dont seem to be listening to the incredible advice youve been given... a core2 setup will demolish a "comparable" X2 setup (Opty's are a WASTE of money now. seriously. ) and you can get one for the cost of youre upgrade, and pay a slight notch out of youre graphics card budget :S

Mobo -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012
CPU -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115005
Video -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130071
Memory -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231081
Monitor -- http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16824001087

comes in at 50 over budget, but blows anything you ever hoped for out of the water.
 
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