Need some more advice

[candle_86]

if your gonna get a vid card and save money get the 7600GT if not get the 7900GT from evga, it looks like a nice ocer, should be able to do 7900GTX speed no problem. I can't wait for the G71 Ultra, the ghost in the drivers, that card should pwn, guess Nvidia is waiting for the xtx Pe

[luke]

Do,nt know about "SE" but look at the mobo first, if the chipset has fan on it, forget it.

They actually gave me another with different fan, so called improved, which failed on the ssecond startup.

Luckily, when I returned it to the shop, they had 5 - 10 scraped mobos on the desk, they threw mine too on the pile in disgust, and gave me the a8n-32-sli deluxe as replacement.

Go back a few post & read about a8n-sly deluxe

[congo]

It may be an improved version, hopefully it just hasn't got a better fan and they quietly took something out to make it cheaper, though I doubt this with an Asus NF4 board.

The fan is not a worry as long as you are aware of it and get a replacement fitted before build time.

I was following this thread and until you said you were getting a 7800GT, I really couldn't see the point upgrading from what you have now, a 6800GS on your proposed rig would have been very disappointing methinks, because the graphics card would bottleneck the rig at about 10-20% more performance than you have now, assuming you do have your present rig running properly.

I suspect that what you have now will run a lot better if it was tweaked.

By tweaked, I mean you need to first get the hardware configured correctly and then try to de-automate everything and just run the sim. From scratch, it takes me a full day or more to clean up a rig to make it a suitable gaming system. Fanaticism born of desperation.

I've installed a 7800GT on a rig very similar to mine and the difference is quite dramatic.

[Jimbo]

It may be an improved version, hopefully it just hasn't got a better fan and they quietly took something out to make it cheaper, though I doubt this with an Asus NF4 board.

The fan is not a worry as long as you are aware of it and get a replacement fitted before build time.

I was following this thread and until you said you were getting a 7800GT, I really couldn't see the point upgrading from what you have now, a 6800GS on your proposed rig would have been very disappointing methinks, because the graphics card would bottleneck the rig at about 10-20% more performance than you have now, assuming you do have your present rig running properly.

I suspect that what you have now will run a lot better if it was tweaked.

By tweaked, I mean you need to first get the hardware configured correctly and then try to de-automate everything and just run the sim. From scratch, it takes me a full day or more to clean up a rig to make it a suitable gaming system. Fanaticism born of desperation.

I've installed a 7800GT on a rig very similar to mine and the difference is quite dramatic.

Hi Congo. (Sorry i havent replyed, ive been away for the week)

Well this is going to be quite a long reply LOL, so dont get bored with me!

Anyway... I didn't understand you there Congo..

.... You Said " I was following this thread and until you said you were getting a 7800GT, I really couldn't see the point upgrading from what you have now.."

I was ONLY thinking of the getting the 7800GT on my new proposed system (3700 AMD 64, 1 gig RAM, new mobo) NOT with the one i have now.

Sorry if i confused you.  ;D

-----------------------

Well folllowing all your reccomendations, i have made adjustments to my proposed system.

I have listed below the adjustments i have made:

Motherboard

I listed in my original post that i was interested in the: Asus A8N-SLI SE, but some people have mentioned things about fan problems etc. So i have decided to go with a different motherboard, which doesn't have a fan. I have decided to go with the : Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro - SLI

This looks like a good motherboard to me, and i feel this will be a good choice for me to use. Any comments reccomendations?

CPU

I have also made adjustments to the CPU. In my original post i said i was interested in getting the AMD 63 3700+, but i think i will get a AMD 64 4000+, its a bit faster, and i feel it will go nicely in my system.

Again, any reccomendations would be greatly appreciated.

Graphics card

In my proposed system i said i was interested in the 7800GT, but i have seen the new 7900GT..

.. Is the 7900GT, Faster than the 7800GTX?...?

Because the 7900GT prices are pretty good.

So i thought i may aswell go with the 7900GT..


Again any suggestions here would be greatly appreciated.

-------

As you can see i have made quite a few adjustments, PLEASE tell me what you think of them.

Hopefully, i will be looking to buy my new system at the end of April - Begining of May 2006!

So what kind of performance increase am i looking at compared to my current system? Especially with FS.

I will mainly use my system for FS.

------

ANY suggestions?

Thanks ALOT Guys, your help is greatly appreciated.

James

[ctjoyce]

Everything looks amazing, and I am jelous of the system you are building.

So stuck on the vid card are you? Well the 7900GT does outpreform the 7800GTX, and is about $100 cheaper. So If I were you I would go with the 7900GT.

Hope you enjoy your new system, and poast a pic or two of it.

Cheers
Cameron

[Jimbo]

Everything looks amazing, and I am jelous of the system you are building.

So stuck on the vid card are you? Well the 7900GT does outpreform the 7800GTX, and is about $100 cheaper. So If I were you I would go with the 7900GT.

Hope you enjoy your new system, and poast a pic or two of it.

Cheers
Cameron

Thanks.

I'm very interested in the 7900GT..

Dont be jelous!

I have spent the past 5 years wanting a perfect computer, but i have never managed to get one.
So for the first time i get to have a good computer, which will serve me well.

Thanks All.  8)

[ctjoyce]

Well the 7900GT is quite the little card that packs one hell of a punch for the price. Outpreforms the 7800GTX in all areas. The only fault with it I can see is the heatsink. If I were you I would put Zalman coolers on all of your Cores

A Zalman CNPS-7000Cu (the copper one) for your CPU (cools better than anything in its class), and a Zalman VPS-700Cu (again the copper one) for your GPU. That is by far the best cooler for a GPU on the market. Keeps my card a cool 34C with a 15% overclock on the Core.

Cheers
Cameron

[congo]

The gigabyte board appears good on the surface, I liked them before NF4, but they lack advanced BIOS support and the SLI boards they came out with had the PCIe SLI slots so close together that major overheating issues occured, beware.

I'll double check the model you are interested in.

Also, don't discount the Asus on the bad fan reports. Those problems have been sorted out on the latest boards.

I think you should do more research on the mainboard before you choose because you are making some bad assumptions based on incomplete information.

I also question your motives for buying an SLI board in the first place. I use an SLI board, but that is only because a suitable NF4 Ultra was not available at the time. The 7900GT and other video card releases are showing everyone what a complete waste of time SLI is, and considering the cost of two high end video cards, the price of a new SLI mainboard pales into insignificance should one ever be required.

In other words, don't choose an SLI board just because it sounds cool or you think you might need 2 video cards one day. The extra slot uses space on the mainboard that other expansion slots can occupy on a Ultra board, also, most SLI mainboards are badly implemented, meaning that the SLI mode change requires opening the PC's case and switching cards and things around inside, not good at all........ there is much to learn about as you can see.

Another thing you are going to hear about is the new NF4 SLI x16 chipset mainboards. Everyone is on the bandwagon about how great they are, but they have a serious flaw/limitation built into their architecture and are best avoided.



The 3700+ and the 4000+ San Diego CPU's are essentially the exact same thing. You are going to spend more on a 4000+. The only difference is that the top lock cpu multiplier is 12x on the 4000 and the top lock on the 3700+ is 11x multiplier. This can easily be overcome with a slight front side bus speed increase in BIOS if your mainboard supports it, and indeed, you can actually run a 3700+ much faster than a 4000+ anyway. If you want to blow cash on a better CPU, consider the Toledo cored X2 4400+ which, like the situation with the San Diego single cored cpu's, should easily run as fast as an X2 4800+.

The best price/performance CPU's on the market today are the 3700+ and the X2 4400+, but the real advantage in those cpu's lies with their ability to easily overclock like or in excess of their big sisters, the XP4000+ and the X2 4800+ respectively.

If you have reservations about the overclocking, don't worry, start a thread of inquiry about it in the appropriate forum and PM me that it's there in case I miss it. If you want to spend the extra on the 4000+ or the 4800+ because you are freaking out about the overclocking, that's fine too, it's your money!

[Jimbo]

[quote]The gigabyte board appears good on the surface, I liked them before NF4, but they lack advanced BIOS support and the SLI boards they came out with had the PCIe SLI slots so close together that major overheating issues occured, beware.

I'll double check the model you are interested in.

Also, don't discount the Asus on the bad fan reports. Those problems have been sorted out on the latest boards.

I think you should do more research on the mainboard before you choose because you are making some bad assumptions based on incomplete information.

I also question your motives for buying an SLI board in the first place. I use an SLI board, but that is only because a suitable NF4 Ultra was not available at the time. The 7900GT and other video card releases are showing everyone what a complete waste of time SLI is, and considering the cost of two high end video cards, the price of a new SLI mainboard pales into insignificance should one ever be required.

In other words, don't choose an SLI board just because it sounds cool or you think you might need 2 video cards one day. The extra slot uses space on the mainboard that other expansion slots can occupy on a Ultra board, also, most SLI mainboards are badly implemented, meaning that the SLI mode change requires opening the PC's case and switching cards and things around inside, not good at all........ there is much to learn about as you can see.

Another thing you are going to hear about is the new NF4 SLI x16 chipset mainboards. Everyone is on the bandwagon about how great they are, but they have a serious flaw/limitation built into their architecture and are best avoided.



The 3700+ and the 4000+ San Diego CPU's are essentially the exact same thing. You are going to spend more on a 4000+. The only difference is that the top lock cpu multiplier is 12x on the 4000 and the top lock on the 3700+ is 11x multiplier. This can easily be overcome with a slight front side bus speed increase in BIOS if your mainboard supports it, and indeed, you can actually run a 3700+ much faster than a 4000+ anyway. If you want to blow cash on a better CPU, consider the Toledo cored X2 4400+ which, like the situation with the San Diego single cored cpu's, should easily run as fast as an X2 4800+.

The best price/performance CPU's on the market today are the 3700+ and the X2 4400+, but the real advantage in those cpu's lies with their ability to easily overclock like or in excess of their big sisters, the XP4000+ and the X2 4800+ respectively.

If you have reservations about the overclocking, don't worry, start a thread of inquiry about it in the appropriate forum and PM me that it's there in case I miss it. If you want to spend the extra on the 4000+ or the 4800+ because you are freaking out about the overclocking, that's fine too, it's your money!

[Jimbo]

Well the 7900GT is quite the little card that packs one hell of a punch for the price. Outpreforms the 7800GTX in all areas. The only fault with it I can see is the heatsink. If I were you I would put Zalman coolers on all of your Cores

A Zalman CNPS-7000Cu (the copper one) for your CPU (cools better than anything in its class), and a Zalman VPS-700Cu (again the copper one) for your GPU. That is by far the best cooler for a GPU on the market. Keeps my card a cool 34C with a 15% overclock on the Core.

Cheers
Cameron

Hi Cameron.

This is the card im interested in the most:

XFX GeForce 7900 GT Extreme Edition

Do XFX cards have any cooling issues? And also what is the warranty on XFX cards.

Thanks again.

James

[ctjoyce]

Not a bad card. XFX cards seem to overclock well, and the warrenty isnt all that bad ithor. As for customer support I know not how well they do.

As far as the cooling goes, I was refering to the cooling on all the 7900GT cards. I don't like the fact that they put such a small cooler on it and that there are no memory heatsinks leaving memory O/Cing very limited.

Cheers
Cameron

[Gunny04]

Bad time to be building a computer in my opinion! Cheers, Gunny  ;D

[ctjoyce]

Its kinda mixed. If you go intel with a 955X or 975X chip our fine, but AMD with AM2 comeing out, ya your gonna run into some issues. Also with the GPU market you can never really win. So buying whenever is alawaies a good time to buy. But the tech required to run FSX at max isnt out for another year at least, so building now isnt that bad.

Cheers
Cameron

[Delta_]

The Zalman ZM-NB47J Northbridge Cooler is an excellent fanless cooler.  If you buy a motherboard that is known to have a faulty fan get one of these.

[congo]

Don't do it Jimbo, you aren't brave enough to up your front side bus speed, messing with the default cooler on a new high end video card is about one hundred times more risky IMHO.
Why would you even consider such a radical mod to the most expensive component on your new PC and still be too shy to set a cpu's speed in bios. I'm flabberghasted!