I feel the need to upgrade x_x

Memory (OCZ Platinum sticks) and PSU ordered, at the very least. Gave up, decided to get a PowerStream. I'm blaming you, Rez, if I end up having to RMA this =\

That's exactly what I'm using, and I think it's a piece of crap. I mentioned I was going to be doing heavy multitasking.

I try not to do the ATI thing. Don't ask why, I don't know either. Besides, $290 for a card is still too much. I don't know what to get anymore since I'm so confused now (7600GT? No idea if the VF-700Cu fits. 7800/7900? Too expensive. ATI? Eh...) so I'm just going to reread all the previous suggestions. Who knows, I may end up picking up the cheapest (7600GT) or make an impulse buy (x1800XT).

So basically, by not splurging on stuff, I'm turning my lousy-box into...a mildly better piece-of-junk-compared-to-others. Joy.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3008799

Might want to take a look at that thread, if your willing to try it.

Also, I think I failed to mention that the first powerstream I bought, when i plugged it in, had smoke fuming out of it. Heheheh

Don't Worry, it'll be fine....... I think.... + hope

Edit-Oh I did mention it went BOOM. Well hopefully you read that before you ordered

I don't necessarily recommend doing upgrades piecemeal like that. What you end up with is bottlenecks. I personally would say go for your planned upgrades but wait until you can get everything at once.

I've got an Opteron 165 and it's a beast.
Right now... I'm running it at 2.7GHz on air @ 1.45V.

Opteron 165 is the best bang for the buck CPU.

I would suggest getting a eVGa 6800GS till the 8xxx series comes out.

You have no idea what you're talking about.
DFI boards are the best overclocking motherboard on the market. Period.
MSI? are you kidding. I had an MSI with my Opteron 165 and the MSI board was completely limiting my overclock. I could only get the HTT to get up to 245 before it would crash.

Asus boards are reliable, but DFI is the way to go. I've got a DFI Lanparty UT SLI-DR Expert and it's amazing. The BIOS features are endless.

No it's not. You have no idea what you're talking about.

1MB L2 Cache Opteron 165 > 512 L2 Cache X2 3800/4200

Opterons have greater potetional for 2.7+ overclocks because they come stock with a pretty nice HSF and they're tested for stability, etc., before they leave the factory, unlike the X2 models.

Before you post any nonsense like this again...
I'd suggest you go here:
http://www.ocforums.com
http://www.tech-forums.net

Opteron > X2

Before you waste your money on an X2... I'd suggest you read these results, etc.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=427461

Fortron 450watt PSU will power that, if you plan on ever doing SLI, pick up a 500watt Fortron.

Onearmed Scissor. First of all. Why did you TRIPLE post.... jesus christ, there is something called the edit button.

Quote of Serafita- "I am a full-time system builder and computer technician. More passes through my hands in a week than some people could use in a lifetime. There's a dual core in the house, all my PCs are PCI-E, I have watercooling, I'm building a phase-change rig in the back yard and I design custom cases.

Even further down that road, I test and develop some of the very parts that you guys use, so I know the technical specifications inside and out. I have my own ATI, AMD and MicroSoft representative."

Onearmed also. Your comparison is wrong. x2 run 512kb cache from EACH processor that makes 1mb L2. Thats why x2 4400+ and x2 4800+ have 2mb cache in all. Also, you do not see a profound difference even between those 2 in gaming, or then Intel with their 2mb Cache on 775 would dominate AMD's regular 512kb cache venice/winchester cores. That's why the 165 denmark does 2mb cache.

Also, the 6800gs was a great card around christmas, but now easily you can get the x800gto2 unlock, or even x1800 unlock to x1800xl. And simply with more and more games that will come out such at UT2k7 and Crysis coming out, your going to need more than 12 pixelpipes

Lastly, another DFI board for his purposes will SUCK. Have you even looked at what he's buying? Jesus christ man, OCZ platinum 2gb sticks will not go up 10mhz without crashing, they are built for stability and low latencies at 2-3-2-5. Even if he doesn't buy that he woulda choosen the performance, which doesn't go up 20mhz, at timing of 3-3-3-8. Unless he wants to run on a divider (Which seriously does not help, it just gives u a higher core clock, but lower ram speed which still balances around to stock performance.

Also, please don't offer crap in upgradeability, as with AMD coming closer and closer to their new AMD m2 socket, they are considering using ddr2 which will render RAM on ddr useless on newer boards. Koneko needs a simple dual core solution, and from the looks of it a non overclocking machine.

The Amdx2 3800+ is also 30$ cheaper.

So please, One armed before you go triple post again, how about you do some research.

Lastly, Alias_X I do not reccomend Forton Powersupplies, because their psus have a PEAK wattage at 500Watts, that's why this powersupply also failed at Tom's review

BTW your results only cover overclocking results

If you look at ANY forum, you will see that EVERYONE posted says amd x2 3800 is better if you are not overclocking. Personally I don't count 5 mhz an overclock

Recieved memory, one stick failed in Memtest86+ after a few passes (yes, I set the correct timings, I'm not a total idiot). Shipped back to Newegg. Haven't touched the PSU yet.

I'm going to wait for the eVGA 7900GT to get back in stock...eventually. I decided against picking up anything from ATI (from what I remember, ATI Linux drivers still semi-suck, but that was a long time ago, and I really want to get back to using it). The idea was that I might do some very mild overclocking in the future, but, whatever.

Sense this thread is just gonna go downhill from here, so, I'm just going to lock it =\ Thanks everyone. I'll figure the rest out by myself...

(last upgrade-related questions for a while, I swear. I'm fairly sure I know the answers to these, I'd just like to make sure...)

I decided to pick up an eVGA 7900GT CO as soon as it popped back onto Newegg as being "in stock." $320 wasted, yay, a lot more than I wanted to spend on a card. I've read in many places (Anandtech forums, eVGA support boards, even the Newegg reviews) that the fan is "noisy." That's a no-no. So, I've decided to replace the stock HSF - naturally, I decided to go check what Arctic Cooling had to offer since I liked the NV Silencer I used on my 6600GT.

The problem: Arctic Cooling doesn't make a HSF for the 7900GT. Yet. So I'm wondering about what I should do:

• Buy a "NV Silencer 5 rev. 3" and hope it fits (did this with the 6600GT, annoying)
• Wait for the "Accelero S" product from Arctic Cooling (months away)
• Buy a Zalman VF700-CU and copper ramsinks (ease of installation? large, requires external power? airflow?)
• Zalman VF900-CU (this thing scares me, it's expensive also, airflow?)

Second question: if you take a look at this image, you can see that the card seems to come with a 6-pin PCI-e/2-pin molex adaptor - do I really need to use this, or can I just do the logical thing and plug in a 6-pin PCI-e <--> PSU cable?

Last item: apparently, a bunch of the factory-overclocked 7900GTs (CO, CO Superclocked) from eVGA have had some issues (random lockups). As long as the card shows up as 500/1500 in Coolbits, that means that I picked up one that was fixed and should be okay...right?

Zalman vf700 gets my vote, hell go get the LED version lol..... Accelero looks good, however, don't bother for the wait for months. vf900 scares me too oO.

The adapter 2 molex--->1 PCI-E, is if your powersupply does not have a 6 pin connector. OCZ powerstream 520w has it, so no worries.

Yes, underclocking to stock settings or if it already is at regular stock settings, then it should be fine

So I picked up a NV Silencer 5 rev. 3 since the Zalman products looked intimidating. Of course, the silly cooler didn't fit (designed for 6800/7800, not 7900), so I ended up spending a good part of the afternoon cutting away at the case to make it fit. Cleaned off the paste that was pre-applied and the goop on the 7900GT, slapped on some AS5 and it was good to go.

It's dead silent. My Panaflo that cools the 3200+ is louder than this thing. Barely hit 45C load, idles around 40C. Amazing.

Newegg gave me a full refund on the PowerStream and the 2GB kit, so I've still quite a bit to upgrade. Soon enough, soon enough.

I'd suggest a G.Skill kit and a Hiper Type-R PSU. You'd probably still have cash and headroom for OCs.

Also, if you look at Xtreme, 06 3800 X2s are clocking higher than opty 165 ATM. Nice news for the budget set.

I'll keep that in mind. I'm still getting a SeaSonic PSU though (OCZ died, refunded)

This made me go "wtf lawl" earlier.

Almost at 7900GT CO SuperClocked levels ._. Too bad RivaTuner doesn't work on the 7900 cards, otherwise I would.


So either I broke something or it really is that cold. Sheesh...

Edit: Never mind, it jumped to 39C after I opened up GW D; Sensor isn't unresponsive, I think, since loading up rthdribl made temps jump.

35 Degrees is the standard degree measurement in Celsius if the Probe is unresponsive.

My RAM from G.Skill, can run 2.7v 3-3-2-5 250mhz 2gb kit. Good buy

BTW G.Skill stands for God Skill :P

Yeah, I think that newegg still stocks a very miniscule number of Rev 4 Cores, just because they are left over. They will not give u a rev 6, if you ask for one.

Rev 6 also fixes all problems that the AMD Dual Core Cpu fix fixes

If you need aspecific stepping, order from TankGuys. Pay a few bucks more, ask for anything out there.

Really nice, the 7900GT runs cool and doesn't draw much power from the PSU.

Good choices all around, and I hope you enjoy that gaming machine of yours!

Oh btw, Toms Hardware is a really bias website. They make a profit, and get payed off by companies. Many people have said that their benchmarks are incorrect, and they lean towards certain manufacturers.

For better reviews of stuff, go to
www.anandtech.com

Tom's Hardware is a bunch of crap.

Alias is correct, I got into it with Tom when I wrote for PimpRig before they got bought out and became elitist.

Bit-Tech is good, the Inquirer is good, Anandtech is good, and [Hard]OCP is good. Kyle really turned that around.