[n_w95482]

A few weeks ago, I decided to build a new system . It was going pretty well because I had a basic idea of what to get (A64 Venice/San Diego, 2 GB of high performance memory, nForce 3 board, my current video card, etc.) but there has been some changes recently. The same person who bought my Radeon 9500 Pro off of me is interested in buying my 6800 GT when I get a new system, which means I can jump straight to PCI-E.

That leads me to two problems: What motherboard and video card should I buy? I was looking at getting the DFI LAN Party NF4 Ultra-D motherboard but is there another one I should be considering? And as for the video card, I have no idea. Should I go with another 6800 GT or should I get a 7800 GTX or even go back to ATi? Should I wait and see what the R520 has to offer?

My focus with this computer is quiet power. My current computer is still pretty strong but unfortunately it makes quite a bit of noise, bothering other people in my house. Because of this, I'm ruling out getting a case that doesn't accept 120mm fans. I preferably want one in front of the case as well in the back, with a hard drive cage positioned in the path of the fan's air so it can cool whatever hard drives I stick in the computer. My current case allows me to do that and I've liked the cool temperatures it allows both of my hard drives to operate at. The case I've picked out fulfills all of those requirements, but is there another one I should look at that does those but is better/cheaper? I picked out the heatsink because it's done well in every test I've seen and hushypushy's said good things about his 7000B . My friend recently got an A64+7000B and the only time you can hear any noise from the heatsink is when it's running at maximum speed, and even then it's almost silent. The 7700 should be either a little quieter or the same and perform even better.

I may mod the board later on and do SLi so I've picked a decently powerful power supply to compensate for this (I don't think I'll need 550+ watts ). I've added the mouse pad because my current one is getting worn and dirty and I wanted to get a nice one. As for the mouse, my current one (M$ Intellimouse Explorer 3, bought sometime around the end of 2002/beginning of 2003 I think) is starting to get worn out so I want to replace it with a nice gaming mouse. If I sell my current computer with all of the stuff in it, then I'll add an additional hard drive, DVD burner, and sound card but I won't know about that for a little while. If I end up keeping it, then I'll just take those parts out of it and stick it in the new computer.

Any advice, opinions, or constructive criticism on any part of the computer is welcomed . I've added a picture of my current wish list. I plan on hitting at least 2.8 GHz with the CPU I've picked out, anything higher would be nice of course .

 

[toplerone]

Hmmm.....quite good all-round PC. If you don't mind. I'd like to change something to that shopping list.

Dunno bout Forton PSU but i'd look for OCZ or Zippy's products if you plan on overclocking much. OCZ has adjustable rails so it's really good thing to have that option too.

For mem if you want 2gig I'd prefer more to 2x1Gig kits. 4x512 Stress so much the memorycontroller and you have to use 2T timings. I've heard Crucial ballstix 2x1Gig kits
hitting 2.5-3-3-x-1T about 260-270! Or you can take a risk and get 4x512 Mushkin redline or Twinmos Speed premium BH5 and goin' for 2-2-2-5-2T since G-skill tccd is darn slow at relaxed latencies and 2T.

3700+ diego is good choice for OC.

DFI is best choice for the board on nf4 market. If you want to wait about couple months, ATI gets it's crossfire boards to the market and also DFI is one of the first making em.

R520 will definitely be more powerful than 7800. It should also come in about month or two to the markets. But I'd still stick to ATI cards. If you want, you could now buy one x850 and then other when crossfire comes. It's your choice but i'd wait for R520 or take x850.

Well thats all for now. Don't listen to me if you don't want. I just wanted to help and clear some of things

 

[n_w95482]

I was looking at the OCZ Powerstream 520 and it looked quite nice but from the pictures I saw, it looked like it had LEDs on the fans. Considering I will have the computer in my bedroom and will probably be running it during the night, I can't have a light show in my computer . I was told by someone else that the Fortron PSU was pretty good. I think the 2T issue was with Winchester and older cores, I think it was fixed with the Venice/San Diego cores. I'll look for some 2x1 GB kits though, but they seem to be harder to find in high speed/low latency configurations than 512 MB sticks.

 

[toplerone]

I was looking at the OCZ Powerstream 520 and it looked quite nice but from the pictures I saw, it looked like it had LEDs on the fans. Considering I will have the computer in my bedroom and will probably be running it during the night, I can't have a light show in my computer . I was told by someone else that the Fortron PSU was pretty good. I think the 2T issue was with Winchester and older cores, I think it was fixed with the Venice/San Diego cores. I'll look for some 2x1 GB kits though, but they seem to be harder to find in high speed/low latency configurations than 512 MB sticks.

Yea OCZ has 3 leds above on rail trimmers and also on the fans

2T still bugs with Venice and san diego cores if lookin for higher clocks. At stock clocks it may work i think but haven't seen any 4x512 setups running 1T.

Look for OCZ and Crucial 2x1Gb kits, they should hold best overclockability on 2gig kits.

 

[GeneralClaymore]

A few weeks ago, I decided to build a new system . It was going pretty well because I had a basic idea of what to get (A64 Venice/San Diego, 2 GB of high performance memory, nForce 3 board, my current video card, etc.) but there has been some changes recently. The same person who bought my Radeon 9500 Pro off of me is interested in buying my 6800 GT when I get a new system, which means I can jump straight to PCI-E.

That leads me to two problems: What motherboard and video card should I buy? I was looking at getting the DFI LAN Party NF4 Ultra-D motherboard but is there another one I should be considering? And as for the video card, I have no idea. Should I go with another 6800 GT or should I get a 7800 GTX or even go back to ATi? Should I wait and see what the R520 has to offer?

My focus with this computer is quiet power. My current computer is still pretty strong but unfortunately it makes quite a bit of noise, bothering other people in my house. Because of this, I'm ruling out getting a case that doesn't accept 120mm fans. I preferably want one in front of the case as well in the back, with a hard drive cage positioned in the path of the fan's air so it can cool whatever hard drives I stick in the computer. My current case allows me to do that and I've liked the cool temperatures it allows both of my hard drives to operate at. The case I've picked out fulfills all of those requirements, but is there another one I should look at that does those but is better/cheaper? I picked out the heatsink because it's done well in every test I've seen and hushypushy's said good things about his 7000B . My friend recently got an A64+7000B and the only time you can hear any noise from the heatsink is when it's running at maximum speed, and even then it's almost silent. The 7700 should be either a little quieter or the same and perform even better.

I may mod the board later on and do SLi so I've picked a decently powerful power supply to compensate for this (I don't think I'll need 550+ watts ). I've added the mouse pad because my current one is getting worn and dirty and I wanted to get a nice one. As for the mouse, my current one (M$ Intellimouse Explorer 3, bought sometime around the end of 2002/beginning of 2003 I think) is starting to get worn out so I want to replace it with a nice gaming mouse. If I sell my current computer with all of the stuff in it, then I'll add an additional hard drive, DVD burner, and sound card but I won't know about that for a little while. If I end up keeping it, then I'll just take those parts out of it and stick it in the new computer.

Any advice, opinions, or constructive criticism on any part of the computer is welcomed . I've added a picture of my current wish list. I plan on hitting at least 2.8 GHz with the CPU I've picked out, anything higher would be nice of course .

for PSU i would suggest the forton 500Watt Atx blue storm i have it and it works great.

for the mobo i recommand the DFI LPUT NF4 Ultra-D its the best OCing mobo that u can get for the PCIE 939.



on newegg.com X800XL pCIE is 289 6800GT PCIE was 340-350. i would suggest the X800XL PCIE cuz of its price . both are great cards and they match each other.

but if you perfer nvidia then go for the 6800GT if not then go for the X800XL go with who YOU PERFER.

some games the X800XL edge out and some games the 6800GT Edge out.

 

[dukenukem]

hey nw you should ask this over at extremeoverclocking.com as alot of people there have the sandiego and venice cores,they would definatley know alot more especially if you could run that 2gigs of ram at 1t.

 

[GeneralClaymore]

it will work with 2x 1GB double side sticks at T1 but not 4x512mb Double side at T1, it would do T2 for 4x double side sticks.

 

[n_w95482]

The only high capacity/high speed memory I found on Newegg was this. Do you think it could go above PC4000 speeds? For the video card, I might stick with the 6800 GT just because the 4096x4096 texture size support benefits PSX emulation and SM3 is a nice addition. I've had my current card for about 7 months now and I love it. Who knows though, maybe I will go with the X800 XL...

 

[toplerone]

Check from here
about those crucials. Seems like they perform pretty well.

 

[GeneralClaymore]

it should beable to, but i dont know, i was gonna get that ram but didnt. it should go past pc4000 speeds if not then you will have to use the ram divier if your trying to a more cpu overclock , but it will cost you some ram bandwidth.

 

[toplerone]

Well look at that thread what i posted. Guys runnin those rams at 300MHz @ 3-3-3-x-1T benchable. So i THINK it should quite easily go past 250.

 

[n_w95482]

OK, I went ahead and swapped out the G-Skill for the Crucial memory . It also dropped the price a bit . Now I just have to pick out a video card. I've been thinking about getting a 7800 GTX but I'm not sure how loud the stock cooler is. Maybe ChrisRay could answer that question . Is the 7800 GTX only useful in a SLi configuration?

 

[felinusz]

Oh no, the 7800 is a monster of a card by itself, or in SLI .

The stock cooler is apparantly somewhat loud. But an ATi Silencer, or a non-reference 7800 model with a better cooler will fix that. I have heard excellent things about eVGA - they also have a trade-up program that'll net you a 7800 Ultra for a marginal expense if/when it is released.

 

[toplerone]

Im thinking too getting 7800GTX

Upgrading to DFI nf4 SLI-D or DR, 7800GTX, 4x512 mushkin redline xp4000 or Twinmos speed premium BH5 (much cheaper than mushkin). Only problem is finding decent waterbock fro 7800. It seems there are not any blocks "officially" made for that card. So I need to mod my Magnum block to fit nice and tight, sad thing is i can't run SLI then cause this is so huge block

Need to wait and think for few weeks before i decide anything...