Does This Spec Look Ok?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The XFX HD4830 will do the job for £76 delivered:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?XFX-4830

[hamd01]

Many thanks for all your help guys....you truely are fantastic. After taking advice above I'm now looking at;

AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition, Sok AM3, 2.8GHz, 7.5MB Total Cache, 95W, Retail £119

J&W JW-790GX-Extreme, AMD 790GX, S AM2+, PCI-E, DDR2 1066/ 800 MHz, SATA RAID, ATX, OnBoard Graphics £90

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, DHX £50.19

750 GB Samsung HD753LJ Spinpoint F1, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £62

HD-483X-YDFC - 512MB XFX HD 4830, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1800MHz GDDR3, GPU 575MHz, 640 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP £80

These are all in stock at SCAN, and comes to just over £400

Do you reccon this will allow me to play the likes of Fifa 09 and Empire Total War and get good results? I've dropped the graphics card down as per suggestions.

Thanks again

[scaryjim]

If you're going back to AM2+ and you're happy with a full ATX board you could do a lot worse than the Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4 which is the 790X chipset with the SB750 southbridge - it may be able to unlock the fourth core on your 720!!! Just make sure you source the UD4 version, rather than the DS4 which has the old SB600 southbridge.

EDIT: we cross posted! There's certainly nothing wrong with that set up as long as you have a decent case, PSU and optical drive to go with it...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The HD4830 is a good overclocker too BTW. Just check the reviews!! My one overclocks from 575mhz to 700mhz!!

Even a game like Crysis should be playable with an HD4830 at 1440x900 at reasonable settings.

[hamd01]

Just wanted to make a quick Monday morning post to say thankyou to everyone who assisted in this thread. I picked up the following from Scan this weekend;

AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition

J&W JW-790GX-Extreme

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800)

DEF 750 GB Samsung HD753LJ Spinpoint F1

XFS HD-483X-YDFC - 512MB XFX HD 4830

I set everything up yesturday and so far I'm very happy. Havent overcloked either GPU or CPU yet, but from the looks of the J&W motherboard it should overclock quite well.

Only problem I'm having is transfering my existing Vista installation onto the new spinpoint drive... but that should keep me busy this week.

Thanks again for everyones help!

[Sputnik]

Do keep us posted on how the overclocking goes, I have not done mine yet. It's done in the K10 settings of the BIOS and it is in Hex.
Neil at J&W is hinting that they may adjust the new BIOS version to support unlocking the 4th core of the 720.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It maybe possible to unlock the fourth core too:

http://www.jwele.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=554

[hamd01]

I'll be overclocking tonight;

From what I have read it is dead simple to get 3.7Ghz by changing the Vcore to 1.536V and the multiplier to 18.5

I'll probably run with that for a day or two to test stability. Then I'll be unlocking the 4th core, which is also very simple. You just enable ACC in the BIOS for the 4th Core to be enabled. As long as you have the J&W mobo with latest BIOS ver.

I'll report back with findings.... cant imagine I'll look to clock above what I've mentioned here, but I will have a look at ocing the GPU once Ive sorted the CPU.

[Badbonji]

Not all can be unlocked mind you, and many are not even stable at stock speeds with it on.
As for 3.7Ghz, that vcore is very high and could cause rapid degradation, and also produce quite alot of heat. It also varies to each CPU, some may not make it, others may do it at less!

Good luck and report back!
My advice is to work your overclock up slowly, and not take the vcore over 1.45V, more is usually dangerous and could damage the cpu.

[hamd01]

Thanks for the advice...I'll certainly be taking it. I'll take it slowly, and do some extensive testing using 3dmark between clocks. Maybe the odd game of Empire Total War too!

I'll report back...

[hamd01]

Ok as I mentioned previously....I'm new to overclocking.

I've been totally unable to find the multipier in the BIOS....I'd like to up it to 14..... but I cant find mention of it anywhere.

Ive searched the J&W forums, and realised that the multiplier is actually set in hex on this mobo...fair enough...but I still cannot fins any reference to multipier.

Anyone any experience with the J&W 790GX-Extreme?

[Sputnik]

I said in post #22 that it is done in Hex!

The 720's normal multiplier is 14x (0C in hex).

you need to go to 'Just woot' in bios then highlight 'AMD overclocking configuration' Press enter > then highlight 'AMD overclocking configuration' Press enter(again) > then highlight 'Custom P-states' press enter and use arrow keys to select 'Enabled' press enter.

Now you will have all the current settings at the top (greyed out) and you can adjust the setting below. A good starting point is to copy the settings from the top and just adjust the core FID multiplier gradually say from 0c (each hex number is x0.5 mulitplier so 0e =15x(3ghz)

The Core VID (voltage) is 1.325v when set at 12(in hex) I'm not sure what the increments are as I've not bothered changing mine........Note the AMD stated voltage range is 1.425v max for the 720.

[scaryjim]

That sounds like one complicated motherboard settings system! I was considering a J&W board for my next build, but if the BIOS is that odd then I might change my mind

[Sputnik]

That sounds like one complicated motherboard settings system! I was considering a J&W board for my next build, but if the BIOS is that odd then I might change my mind

It is really not that hard to do. Look in the photo above. (just added)

[scaryjim]

It is really not that hard to do. Look in the photo above. (just added)

Ah, of course. It's perfectly clear now

I take it there is a manual somewhere that tells you what each of those Hex numbers represents in the real world, right? Please tell me that's right...

[hamd01]

Ah, of course. It's perfectly clear now

I take it there is a manual somewhere that tells you what each of those Hex numbers represents in the real world, right? Please tell me that's right...

Sputnik, firstly thank you for your brilliant reply. The manual was no help at all, and hopefully you can see why I couldnt find what I was looking for.

From what you have said would I be right in thinking that "CORE FID" is the multiplier, I'd just like to fully understand what I am doing. Most guides talk about the multiplier, where this board has a NB FID and CORE FID... it would be great to understand what they are.

scaryjim, with regards HEX, the easiest way is to go to google and type "15 in hex" which will come back with the result.