Rig just bit the dust - help and recommendations required.

[britgliderpilot]

I'll spare you the rant about why, but basically I now need a new PC, prontissimo, for not too much money. More power would be good too :-P

 

Currently on a 3700+ that could be carried over, but I need a completely new software setup now so I might as well change the motherboard; hence CPU as well.

 

Radeon X800XL is dead, but want something better this time.

 

Had two SATA2 hard drives already sitting there, still untouched, intend to carry them over.

 

 

So the new:

 

Am thinking a Core 2 Duo - probably an E6400 for cost/performance grounds.

 

Mobo recomendations?

 

I've not been paying attention - what are all the new RAM speeds about?

 

And what's a decent graphics card for less than £200?

PCI-E is virtually taken for granted, think up to 7950GT or X1900XT are within my reach.

 

Yeah. Help!

[WhiskeyRomeo]

Ouch!:badmood:

E6400 is a good start. Add a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 motherboard and some DDR2 800 or DDR 667 RAM. The 256MB version of the 7950GT would be fine. That should be a very nice bump up in overall performance. The E6400/Gigabyte 965P-DS3 is very good for overclocking - you could have that E6400 running @ X6800 speeds with very little effort.

 

DDR2 is double pumped DDR. While DDR could send 2 data blocks per clock cycle DDR2 handles 4 data blocks per clock. This means higher memory bandwidth but also has the disadvantage of higher latency. If you check the fine print of DDR2 800 you'll find it actually runs at 400Mhz (DDR2 667=333Mhz). DDR latency was in the 2-3 range DDR2 is usually in the 4-5. The bottom line is the RAM won't make as much difference in performance as a good video card or good CPU.

[britgliderpilot]

Ouch!:badmood:

E6400 is a good start. Add a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 motherboard and some DDR2 800 or DDR 667 RAM. The 256MB version of the 7950GT would be fine. That should be a very nice bump up in overall performance. The E6400/Gigabyte 965P-DS3 is very good for overclocking - you could have that E6400 running @ X6800 speeds with very little effort.

 

DDR2 is double pumped DDR. While DDR could send 2 data blocks per clock cycle DDR2 handles 4 data blocks per clock. This means higher memory bandwidth but also has the disadvantage of higher latency. If you check the fine print of DDR2 800 you'll find it actually runs at 400Mhz (DDR2 667=333Mhz). DDR latency was in the 2-3 range DDR2 is usually in the 4-5. The bottom line is the RAM won't make as much difference in performance as a good video card or good CPU.

 

 

Cheers, much appreciated :)

 

The DS-3 is out of stock with my supplier (figures), and I could probably do with shaving the price a fraction from the DS-4 to make me feel better . . . . . having a look to see what I can do, if you've got an alternative then let me know.

[Pilotasso]

I also would like to share a litle story I have.

 

In the space of 1 month my Sisters and my PC had their respective PSU's explodicated. On both machines we verified some bizarre issues with the machines some time before the unit blew. Mine was 350W and for the config I had I though I had a very safe margin. I was wrong.

I also had a previous similar experience with my AMD T-bird1200. Thats just too many incidents to keep on ignoring the PSU.

 

Grab yourself a decent branded PSU. The one I got is now on my sig as well, and it cost me 40€.

 

They dont make PSU's like they used to, and OEM PSU's seem to be very popcorn friendly after just 1 or 2 years. Its not worth the money you save with an OEM unit when branded prosucts not only bring stability but silence and better case cooling as well. My new PSU has a silent 120mm fan and a grid at the back for making it easy cleaning dust with air jet cans.

[Stealth_HR]

Regarding PSUs, as Pilotasso said today's PSUs do tend to flame out prematurely. However, the selection of good PSU brands is pretty wide. If you're going to pick a brand, go withe either of the following: Fortron/FSP, Coolermaster, Chieftec, Enermax, Sharkoon, LC Power, Tagan, OCZ or Seasonic - I've seen all of these perform very well for a long time, right now I'm a Fortron user switching to a Chieftec because of a new HDD and cooling system that'll need more juice.

[WhiskeyRomeo]

Nothing wrong with the DS4.

If you have a short list of available motherboards, or the URL of a website where you shop we'll be happy to look over whats available. If they happen to have any Asus P5B-E rev 1.02 (also known as Asus P5B-E Plus) that would also be a good choice.

[britgliderpilot]

Ended up going for the Abit AB9 - budget was too restrictive for the DS4, which I may regret later.

 

 

It's occurred to me that having broken two graphics cards, I haven't changed the PSU in my machine.

And my brother's graphics card has gone wonky, and the PSU he's been using is on at least one "whoo-err" list. Mmmn.

 

Was rather more careful about PSU selection here . . . . .

 

 

Even leaving overclocking out of it entirely, I'm rather hoping an E6400, 2GB DDR2 RAM, and a 7950GT should prod some significant amount of buttock ;)

 

Took me a while to twig that I get PS3.0 now, too. Ohhhh, Pacific Fighters Waves . . . . . yum.

[Vekkinho]

Which is better SLi or Crossfire in terms of LO series ?!

[WhiskeyRomeo]

Which is better SLi or Crossfire in terms of LO series ?!

Crossfire or SLI it always seems to be that you're better off with 1 more powerful video card than 2 lesser cards in CF/SLI.

So if you have $200-250 you're better off getting 1 7900GS or 1 X1950Pro than getting 2x$125 CF/SLI video cards.

[britgliderpilot]

Bummer - the "decent" 450W PSU that arrived with the other components didn't actually provide enough power to boot the system. AND for some reason the cable kept electrocuting me every time I tried to connect or disconnect it.

 

 

It's running temporarily on an unbranded 550W that I just happened to have lying around, and I'm just crossing my fingers that it doesn't break anything before I order a proper replacement!

 

 

However - it DID double my FPS in the BS Beta ;)

 

And it seems to handle stressful situations well - this afternoon I left a mate playing HL2 Episode One on it, all the way through, graphics maxed out, not a hiccup, perfectly smooth . . . .

 

I quite like this whole "power" thing ;)

[Pilotasso]

Bummer - the "decent" 450W PSU that arrived with the other components didn't actually provide enough power to boot the system. AND for some reason the cable kept electrocuting me every time I tried to connect or disconnect it.

 

 

It's running temporarily on an unbranded 550W that I just happened to have lying around, and I'm just crossing my fingers that it doesn't break anything before I order a proper replacement!

 

 

However - it DID double my FPS in the BS Beta ;)

 

And it seems to handle stressful situations well - this afternoon I left a mate playing HL2 Episode One on it, all the way through, graphics maxed out, not a hiccup, perfectly smooth . . . .

 

I quite like this whole "power" thing ;)

 

Why is your system taking up so much juice?

 

AFAIK 1 dual core CPU (because theres a quad, based on 2 duals) and a single GFX card shouldnt press your system beyond 350W

 

I got 2 hard drives as well and I ran this on a 350W PSU untill it burned out (old age). I never had power starvations with it.

 

Your electrocutions could be comming from the case instead, its realy odd than any electricity is crosssing through the cables rubber insolation. You may want to see if your machine properly grounded. Indeed swich your PSU as fast as you can, get one 550W or above. The brand of my new PSU has very good prices.

[britgliderpilot]

Why is your system taking up so much juice?

 

AFAIK 1 dual core CPU (because theres a quad, based on 2 duals) and a single GFX card shouldnt press your system beyond 350W

 

I got 2 hard drives as well and I ran this on a 350W PSU untill it burned out (old age). I never had power starvations with it.

 

Your electrocutions could be comming from the case instead, its realy odd than any electricity is crosssing through the cables rubber insolation. You may want to see if your machine properly grounded. Indeed swich your PSU as fast as you can, get one 550W or above. The brand of my new PSU has very good prices.

 

Yeah, even for everything installed an PSU calculator reckoned I shouldn't be using more than 400W, and I had everything pulled and it still shut down with the "trying to get the blasted PSU online" message on the POST LEDs. Weird.

 

The shocks were to the fingers I was holding the cable with - got it three or four times, decided that was enough, went back to a standard kettle lead . . . . and that stopped it.

 

 

All in all . . . I don't think I'm entirely happy with the power for this system!

[Pilotasso]

What is your colling sytem?

 

I have 1 90mm fan at front, 2 80mm at back, plus another 90mm for my Modded Thermaltake Silent tower (I swaped the stock fan for another with more RPM from the same brand).

 

The 2 hard drives wont certainly account for much wattage, but alot of fans would, or watter cooling.