Quote:
Originally Posted by Evil Genius
A nice system you have there. How are you finding that monitor? Its 6 bit, but the contrast ratio and viewing angles are at 8-bit level according to the specs...Just interested in how it actually performs.
The ASUS Rampage Formula (DDR2) has 8phase PWM for the CPU and 2 phase PWM for the RAM.
The ASUS Rampage Extreme (DDR3) has 11phase PWM for the CPU and 2 phase PWM for the RAM.
The Gigabyte X48-DQ6 and X48T-DQ6 actually only have 6 phases for the CPU. Don't believe their "12 virtual phases" marketing bullshit.
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Everything about the monitor is perfect image quality wise, but the only drawback as you have pointed out is its vertical viewing angle which sucks donkey balls if you want to watch a film from anywhere other then your chair. While playing and using the monitor from the chair though, all the colours, viewing angles, contrast and bightness are perfect, and everywhere is saying it is the best TN+Film monitor available, and you cant actually find a better one without spending an extra £100.
The other problem is that Acer only provide a 2 year warranty, when most monitor manufacturers these days provide 3 years. More warranty cover is always good, as I lknow from having my SE k850i and a Samsung T166 bugger up in the space of two weeks (o.O how unlucky could I get?). I also want to take more pictures of my new keyboard and mouse and put up my amateurish reviews on them somewhere, but my K800i fails at taking pictures in the dark. I will post them off for RMA once I sell my old ram (only need to make one journey to the post office then).
Thanks for the info on the motherboards - Asus have announced that they will have 16 phases on their X58 board, and I looked at the pictures and counted them, and yup, it has 16, but it will be much too expensive. MSI is sticking to their efficient, and no lies 6 phases, I think that the cheapest X58 board - MSI X58 platinum will be fine, the reason why my sytem gets unstable between 1700 and 1720 Mhz ram is likely because of the extra latency caused by it being a combo motherboard and having to use Ram selector cards. A native DDR3 motherboard from MSI should be fine. Gigabybe have been showing off their ultra durable III, and a 2 oz copper layer, which sounded very tempting, but, and I seriously cannot understand why, they have ditched using copper heatsinks and have made their X58's all Aluminium
. A step forward with the motherboard design, and a step backwards for air overclockers. I will likely just get the MSI X58 Platinum, I dont think anyone else will have an X58 at that price, and I only need 2 PCI-E slots, not 3 or 4.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief
Ah yes Crucial. Micron set fabs are so yummy for OCing. Although, I hate to admit this. Crucial's latest DDR2 offers have been horrid and they should be ashamed of them. However, their DDR3 offers are amazing, as are GSkill's. GSkill is my top company right now though, as they seem to be moving into a purest movement with Micron fabs, and they implementing those fabs beautifully. <3
So the new eVGA x58 board is just plain sexy... Their digital power managment of vDROOP systems are AWESOME. The board to get if you ask me. Of course, that is if you ignore the fact that AMD's new Deneb CPU is a beast, and can hit 1.7v (I know, scary right?) 4.3GHz on air confirmed (Scythe cooler)
PS: bhavv, careful bud.... putting an AMD sticker with a Core2Duo inside may cause your PC to become possessed by demons and spontaneously combust. At one point, as a joke, I put an Apple sticker as a joke on one of my older systems... about 3 days after that, I went to start it up, and nada. Went to find out that overvoltage protection on my 5v rail had failed... poof went hardware... That hurt.
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G.Skill are my favorite too. I used a 2x1 Gb DDR1 set in my S939 system (that is what I built first in my current case, hence the AMD sticker), and I could get it to 550 Mhz. I cant remember the name of the ram now, but it was a popular model, 2-3-2-5 400 Mhz kit that reached 500 Mhz @ 2.5-3-2-5 on just about everysingle kit, 550 Mhz @ 3-3-3-6 for me =D.
I then got 4x1 Gb of G.Skill HK, rated for 4-4-3-5 @ 800 Mhz along with an MSI P35 Neo 2 and my E8400 in february, not realising that 4 sticks wouldnt overclock as well as two. Each pair tested individually did 1000 Mhz @ 4-4-4-5 timings (Best thing possible for 1000 Mhz), but when 4 skicks were used together, they only reached 900 Mhz
They ended up selling out fast, and when they were out of stock, I managed to sell them for £40 per pair (Only paid £45 per pair when I bought them), and got some OCZ 2x2 Gb 800 Mhz for £70 which hit 1110 Mhz fully stable (great for the money). I then spotted some OCZ Flex II's for £99, and bought them along with the X48c and 2x overclocked ATI 3850's which I found for just £72 each. The OCZ 800 Mhz ram sold for about £50 (£20 loss), but I sold my P35 Neo 2 for £65, bought for £55 so made some profit on that board =D. The only thing I actually wish is that I had waited for a P45 Neo 2 - FR instead of the X48 because I just wanted better crossfire performance, and this was the true budget successor to the P35-Neo 2.
But having bought an X48c Platinum, that gives me more money towards my next upgrade when I choose to sell it, hoping of course that I can minimise any loss by making an appealing advert and relying on my good feedback. Also, compared to my Athlon 4400+ - Bought for £320, sold several years later for £80, I should make a decent amout back for my E8400 without losing as much as what I paid for it. I am also an MSI fan now because of how well they deliver for a lower price then Asus / Gigabyte. I havnt used EVGA yet because they only make Nvidia boards, and I havnt had any Nvidia cards since my SLI 6800's on an Asus A8N-SLI (That was my first build from my student loan lol)
I just upraded my ram because I found those Crucial sticks - a pair for £96 from crucial, but they were out of stock and I paid £110 for a pair from the next cheapest place I could find. I did this because my OCZ Flex-II is not going to be worth £99 for much longer, and I could sell and upgrade the ram again without losing much money. I will start off trying to sell my Flex II for £97.50 as fortune has struck me and OCUK are out of stock with their £99 price and the next cheapest is £117 (originally I was going to try sell them for £90). If they sell for tat much then whoopie =D.
Oh, my 3850's - I bought for £72 each when they were actually retailing for £120 (this is the only reason I bought two) but only managed to sell them for £50 because of how mush they have now depreciated. I splashed out like crazy on my 4850's and Monitor though, but I like them and I dont think I will need to upgrade my graphics again for at least another 2 years.
I think I will stick to the MSI X58 Platinum for my next motherboard, because it has exactly what I want and I dont end up paying extra for more PCI-E lanes (These make higher end motherboards unneccessarilly more expensive). I also need a layout which allows me to use a PCI-E slot for my X-Fi Elite Pro along with dual graphics cards - I'm not too keen on ditching a £250 sound card, especially when I want to try and attempt composing again soon. I got it purely for my minor in music, and then completely stopped playing and writing after graduating last April - not a good thing to do. I'm one of those people that are too lazy for the brain they have inside them, all I ever cared about was passing and nothing more then spending minimal effort on all my work at the last minute, but still passing with decent grades somehow. Having to learn to use Cubase will be tricky since I used Pro Tools on my course and was surrounded everyday by Mac lovers (I had so many epic Mac vs PC debates while there among other things, damn that was the best time ever being sat in a music lecture surrounded by other geeks =D). I wish I could go back to Uni now, there arent any more geeks in real life
(I actually found two people that played PNP D+D, and I was shocked at being out geeked). Everyone always used to tell me I was on the wrong course and I should have done something computer based instead, and I did agree, but I failed at maths and cant do programming to save my life, so stuck to sitting in front of Pro Tools and clicking random buttons.
Dammit, I just entered my Nostalgia mode for university again
hehe 
I really didn't know that lol. Thought it was only one year... But thanks for all the info sofar man \m/(>_<)\m/
