Upgrade time - £350

[Wolfsbane2k]

Hey,

Realised i've spend so much time wondering what i should get i've probably used a month or so of my time!

Looking at a gaming machine for 1600x1200 (CRT)
Currently have -

535W Enermax PSU
2x SATA drives
2 x Sata DVD writers
2 x ATA133 HDs
Coolermaster Centurion 5 Case.
2 x 120cm fans.

32bit XP Pro.
Windows 7 64bit Beta.

GFX - ATI 4830 ( willing to trade up)

Ideally i'd like to walk into Novatech (www.novatech.co.uk) today and pick stuff up, giving me about 2 hours left to order...

Been looking at :
Phenom II 720
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 AMD 790X (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Ram - OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit

Total - £320.

I could probably save myself £10-15 by shopping around, but the ability to pick it up today to build this evening is worth that much money to me.

I'm really torn between getting AM2+ and hoping to unlock the forth core ( can check before i buy for a 0904 x3) or going AM3. Since i only upgrade every three years ( except HD's) i'm quite ok buying "old" tech.

Thoughts?

Ps - that 4830 will do till i get a 4870 1GB.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would go for a 790GX motherboard instead of a 790X:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/d...tml?s=790gx&d=

[Wolfsbane2k]

I would go for a 790GX motherboard instead of a 790X:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/d...tml?s=790gx&d=

Wow, just in time, went for the GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H instead. Expensive, but the overclocking reviews seem good!

Will let you know this evening if i'm lucky!

[Wolfsbane2k]

Just gone and picked it all up.

Processor is :
HD2720WIK3DGI
CACZC 0904CPMW

Will have to rip this machine apart to try start the build, will see you all the other side!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would personally overclock the X3 720 to at least 3.2ghz. At this speed it should do fine IMHO. It might useful also investing in an aftermarket heatsink if the included one is not sufficient. If it is like the one the quad cores have it looks pretty good though. Also since you have a CRT the HD4830 should do fine for the time being as you can drop the resolution for some games. Also most HD4830 cards are good overclockers too. You should be able to get between 650mhz to 700mhz on the core alone as long as the core and VRMs are well cooled. You can try overclocking the graphics RAM too but I would not exceed the rated maximum RAM speed for the modules used.

[Wolfsbane2k]

It might useful also investing in an aftermarket heatsink if the included one is not sufficient.

Realised i'd better ensure i ran a recent backup of all my drives before i upgrade, and boy does 2TB take a long time to re-organise/streamline and backup.

I can't believe how shoddy the heatsink with the CPU looks, not a heat pipe in sight. I've got a Zalman 7700 CU sat on my server pc which i'd rather use but i don't think it will fit an AM2 board :/

[Wolfsbane2k]

Quick status updates. Built the machine, seems quite happy with an unlocked forth core under a linux live CD without any additional voltage on the chip. Currently trying to find a floppy drive and disk so that I can start the windows installation.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Quick status updates. Built the machine, seems quite happy with an unlocked forth core under a linux live CD without any additional voltage on the chip. Currently trying to find a floppy drive and disk so that I can start the windows installation.

Glad to hear that!! I would try some stability tests on all the cores under Windows though to make sure that the fourth core is fully functional!!

[PwnDirect]

Post back with clocking results, temps cooling etc

[Wolfsbane2k]

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=529832

Nice

Temps are a little high, currently starting 5 instances of Prime to check it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Have you tried unlocking it to see if you can use the fourth core??

http://icrontic.com/news/update-phen...unlock-is-real

[Wolfsbane2k]

Have you tried unlocking it to see if you can use the fourth core??

http://icrontic.com/news/update-phen...unlock-is-real

Aye, if you take a look at that CPU-Z Validation, number of Cores is 4 . Had to up the voltage by 0.05 v though to get it to boot into Windows.

Seems quite happy with 4 cores running at 3.2 GHz with 4 SuperPi's running calculating 32M values, max temp is 57 deg C, a little high for my liking but that is one stock heatsink.

Seems i can either have 4 cores at 3.2Ghz or 3 cores at 3.4Ghz. Hmm

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I wish I was not so skint now with all this new tech coming out like the Phenom II,40nm graphics cards and SSDs!!

Looks like I will have to stick with my Q6600 and HD4830 for as long as possible. I definitely have NO budget for hardware upgrades this year!!!

At least I can play Crysis Warhead on enthusiast settings at 1280x800 smoothly!!

Definitely waiting for Bioshock 2 when it comes out!!

[Pob255]

57c is not bad for load esp with a stock cooler, heck your gpu is probably running hotter.

Nice resaults

[Wolfsbane2k]

Bumping to +0.75v gives me a stable 3.4Ghz 4 core processor prime 95 stable for 8 hours , max temp of 63*c.

However, with the Gigabyte MA790GX-DS4H board i got, i have a cold boot problem, where i need to hit the reset button after i turn it on, which is fing annoying. Seems it's a known problem with Gigabyte boards with ACC enabled :/

[MrMyst]

the problem is not with all their mobos. see the list of models supporting 4-th core by ACC enabling: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,180.0.html