System upgrade

Well it's been sometime since my last upgrade.. and I'm tired of crashing 4 times a day trying to play WoW :) (pretty sure it's the graphics overheating.. even with it's brand new, rather expensive, cooler).

Currently have Epox 8RDA+, XP2500 @ 3200, 1 gig Geil Value, Radeon9800pro.

I'm looking at the MSI K8N NEO4 Platinum, A64 3200 (Venice core), keeping the old ram, ATI X850XT PE (PCI-E).
Any advice? .. will the MSI need a bios flash before I can use the venice on it (I've heard something about that)?
Is it worth the extra £40ish for PE on the graphics?

Oh and also: is it really the best time to buy (ATI price drop? - is there a new card out soon?) - I've been glancing at the price of the X850 for a while doesn't seem to have changed much :| although the venice is fairly cheap thankfully :D

Lots of questions.. I hate spending lots of money heh.
Thanks.

if you're going for a 3200+ venice, might as well be getting a 3000+ venice, 30 quids cheaper... OC just as far as your Neo4 can take you. I did stability test on a 3000+ not long ago on 285MHz HTT... Also.. You might want to wait a tad bit, AMD's probably b having a pricecut soon.

Ati... well, I'm sure they'll figure something out when 7800 GTX comes out. Might just grab that cash for another few weeks...

why do you think amd are having a price cut? I havnt seen much of a price cut since the X2 chips.

heard it off Rave... ehehehe...

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Originally Posted by sawyen

if you're going for a 3200+ venice, might as well be getting a 3000+ venice, 30 quids cheaper... OC just as far as your Neo4 can take you. I did stability test on a 3000+ not long ago on 285MHz HTT... Also.. You might want to wait a tad bit, AMD's probably b having a pricecut soon.

Ati... well, I'm sure they'll figure something out when 7800 GTX comes out. Might just grab that cash for another few weeks...

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thing is.. how far will the Geil Value DDR400 be able to go? ;) .. I doubt it'll push 1mhz over.. no idea how the A64s work but if it's the same as the XP's it's FSB OC'ing? .. so it'll be memory dependant too? - thus I won't be able to overclock without forking out an extra £100-150 for decent memory (which I really don't want to do considering I only bought this RAM about a month ago..).

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Originally Posted by Starburn

no idea how the A64s work but if it's the same as the XP's it's FSB OC'ing? .. so it'll be memory dependant too? .

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Run a divider - there is no penalty on A64.

yeap... dividers usually work fine.. you could run ur system front side at 200MHz while ur memory bus retains at 133 (DDR266) or 166Mhz (DDR333)... thus when overclocked, your memory will only increment from 333MHz or 266MHz onwards... plenty of space... Geil value should do fine... but don't expect lightning fast timings at DDR400... Excess OC wouldnt go far as well... my guess would be roughly 5~10 Mhz off 200MHz FSB..

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Originally Posted by sawyen

yeap... dividers usually work fine.. you could run ur system front side at 200MHz while ur memory bus retains at 133 (DDR266) or 166Mhz (DDR333)... thus when overclocked, your memory will only increment from 333MHz or 266MHz onwards... plenty of space... Geil value should do fine... but don't expect lightning fast timings at DDR400... Excess OC wouldnt go far as well... my guess would be roughly 5~10 Mhz off 200MHz FSB..

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My Geil Value is DDR400 though.. and runs fine at 2.5-3-3-6 :)
which isn't exactly tight; but the performance difference between my £55 Geil Value at these timings and one of my housemates Corsair XMS LED fancy whatsit £200 odd stuff at 2-2-2-3 or whatever it does is so small it made me happy :)

edit: with my XP2500 it seems to give up at 206mhz .. though that could be the passively cooled NB and no cooling on the SB :) (when the 8RDA+ isn't actually quoted for DDR400 in the first place.. good little mobo tho).

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Originally Posted by Starburn

My Geil Value is DDR400 though.. and runs fine at 2.5-3-3-6 :)
which isn't exactly tight; but the performance difference between my £55 Geil Value at these timings and one of my housemates Corsair XMS LED fancy whatsit £200 odd stuff at 2-2-2-3 or whatever it does is so small it made me happy :)

edit: with my XP2500 it seems to give up at 206mhz .. though that could be the passively cooled NB and no cooling on the SB :) (when the 8RDA+ isn't actually quoted for DDR400 in the first place.. good little mobo tho).

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You won't see much difference during gaming and benchies.. probably able to squeeze about 5fps if you were able to go 2-2-2-5.. However, the system will generally feel more nimble, starts program faster... generate articles faster... simulate process faster (if you're using stuff like HYSYS or ChemCAD)... 2-2-2-5 timings shaved off a whole 15 minutes on my 1 hour long reactive distillation column profile simulation... compared to my current 2.5-3-3-8... I'm leaning back a lil as my RAM does get a little hot to the touch on 2-2-2-5 at 2.85V

Have you tested you memory? I hate to play into what Blizz says, but I had 2 errors in over 13 hours when I checked. I also crashed olot each night. I upgraded from 512 to 1 gig on the mem, replacing the original completely. This solved my crashing prob. If you hate to spend money, try that first.

Of course, now I am pricing out a new rig completly, now that I am running well!