*sigh* New PC or motherboard atleast......urgent

[GingerNinja.net]

Some of you have been very kind in assisting me with my recent adventure in overclocking which appears to have culminated in the partial destruction of my just over year old Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard as it no longer recognises my XFX Revo 64 RAID 3 card and will not power down except my switching off the mains!

So now I have to get either a new motherboard to hold my existing AGP card and kit (an XFX GeForce 6800 GT Dual-DVI is still blooming good!) or sell everything and get some new stuff geared towards overclocking. At first this totally put me off of overclocking again, but now I am thinking, why should it?

I can either look for a new motherboard such as the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (£25-£65) to replace my Asus or sell all of the following and one of processors to fund a new PCI-E based rig.

My existing kit is as follows and the prices are all current or recently ended items on eBay:

• XFX GeForce 6800 GT Dual-DVI with DOOM 3 (Sell via eBay/Hexus for approx. £190)
• 2Gb of RAM made up of two pairs of 1Gb (2 x 512Mb) Corsair TwinX-XL, DDR, PC3200 XLPRO 2-2-2-5 (Sell via eBay/Hexus for approx. £130 each)
• Athlon 64 3800+ (Sell via eBay/Hexus for approx. £??)
  or
• AMD Opteron 144 CABNE 0545 (Sell via eBay/Hexus for approx. £??)

My new kit is likely to comprise:

• XFX GeForce 7800 GT from Scan for £230
• 2GB Corsair TWINX2048-4000PT (2x 1GB DDR500/PC4000 3-4-4-8) from Scan for £157
• DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-D ** from EBuyer (Quickfind code: 92675) for £114 delivered

** I chose the Lanparty UT SLI-D over the more common Lanparty SLI-DR as I don't need the Front-X panel, braiding kit and extra Slilicon Images RAID controller on the board as I have a Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty sound card and XFX Revo 64 RAID3 card already providing me with those functions.

If I go for the new kit and manage to sell everything for the price I want (ignoring the processor), I should be only £51 down but with a more future proof system.

Thoughts? I need to make a decision my tomorrow night....

[Clunk]

hi mate,

if you arent too strapped for cash then i would heartily recommend new motherboard and graphics card.

if you arent planning on going SLI right away, you can get the Ultra-D board that is identical, and can me easily modded to enable the SLI.

avoid the XFX 7800 gt *extreme* edition. head over to their forums and youll see why.

i can recommend the g.skill HZ series memory as excellent, mine will go to 275, some are seeing 280+. have a look here for some great info on ram for the DFI boards. http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/index.php

hope this was of use

[GingerNinja.net]

if you arent too strapped for cash then i would heartily recommend new motherboard and graphics card.

Thanks - was starting to think that.

if you arent planning on going SLI right away, you can get the Ultra-D board that is identical, and can me easily modded to enable the SLI.

I'm not, but according to the DFI website and board specs, the Ultra-D uses DFI's own version of SLI which allows you to run cards in tandem i.e. for two or more displays, rather than together for SLI. Is that the only difference as I have seen the Ultra-D for about £80 which is obviously £30 cheaper.

avoid the XFX 7800 gt *extreme* edition. head over to their forums and youll see why.

Ooo, will do, but what is wrong with them?

i can recommend the g.skill HZ series memory as excellent, mine will go to 275, some are seeing 280+. have a look here for some great info on ram for the DFI boards. http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/index.php

Just googled the G.Skill HZ memory and found a link to this review over at the MadShrimps website, where I appear to have spent most of the past few days reading the reviews on the various components I have been looking at as part of this project. They appear to be on par or better than the Corsair TWINX2048-4000PT.
Overclockers UK have these in stock on a special this week for £152.99 delivered, which is the cheapest I could find doing a quick search with PCMU coming in at £170 and Kustom PCs (my preffered supplier after Scan) at £187.

hope this was of use

Thanks - it was!

[Clunk]

on the ultra d, the sli is disabled. apart from that, its the same board have a look in this thread http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10736 you will also need an sli bridge, about a fiver from scan (thats if you decide to get another card).

mainly fan problems with the xfx cards, but there are other issues too, such as not running at the factory overclocked speed. on my own card, the fan failed after about 10 days. it went from pretty quiet to ridiculously loud and then stopped altogether. xfx deny that there is any problem. it also has the 4 pin molex connector as opposed to 6 pin pci-e connector. why? i dunno, but it seems to be only these models that have the problems.

ive not used the corsair on a dfi, but from reading over at dfi street, it seems that its not the one to get at the moment.

this is where i got my g.skill from, great service and the cheapest i could find. they are based in ireland. and they are now 170 quid, droped 30 quid since december. bugger!
http://www.memory-configurator.com/b...SU2_2GBHZ.html

good luck mate

[jimborae]

If you're new to overclocking I'd recomend staying away from a DFI board until you know what you're doing. They can be a real pain in the arse to get set up & running right and have known quirks and issues.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes they run great out of the box and last for ages, but other times they don't and never run right.

[BUFF]

if you arent planning on going SLI right away, you can get the Ultra-D board that is identical, and can me easily modded to enable the SLI.

I wouldn't count on it - nVidia supposedly changed the chip packaging on later production to preclude that .

[Clunk]

they just covered the points in epoxy resin. you just scrape it off. its all in the link

[GingerNinja.net]

on the ultra d, the sli is disabled. apart from that, its the same board have a look in this thread http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10736 you will also need an sli bridge, about a fiver from scan (thats if you decide to get another card).

Hmmm - certainly food for thought based on the saving and, to be honest, how likely is it that I will be looking for a second 7800GT in two years time on my existing system.

mainly fan problems with the xfx cards, but there are other issues too, such as not running at the factory overclocked speed. on my own card, the fan failed after about 10 days. it went from pretty quiet to ridiculously loud and then stopped altogether. xfx deny that there is any problem. it also has the 4 pin molex connector as opposed to 6 pin pci-e connector. why? i dunno, but it seems to be only these models that have the problems.

My brother ordered the Extreme Edition and got one that was overclocked etc but in the generic heatsink/fan shell as oppossed to the colourful black & green shell. His had PCI-E connections.

On the subject of that, can you get 4-pin moles to 6-pin PCI-E converters?

ive not used the corsair on a dfi, but from reading over at dfi street, it seems that its not the one to get at the moment.

this is where i got my g.skill from, great service and the cheapest i could find. they are based in ireland. and they are now 170 quid, droped 30 quid since december. bugger!
http://www.memory-configurator.com/b...SU2_2GBHZ.html

Yes - looked at them. The URL is actually PCMU in disguise. £170 is still £17 more expensive than OCUK.

good luck mate

Thanks - based on past performance I need it!

[GingerNinja.net]

If you're new to overclocking I'd recomend staying away from a DFI board until you know what you're doing. They can be a real pain in the arse to get set up & running right and have known quirks and issues.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes they run great out of the box and last for ages, but other times they don't and never run right.

Oooo - fly in my ointment there. My issue is that I want to get a board that will cope with whatever limits I throw at it and not require me to look at getting another one in six months to a years time.

I was originally going to go for the Asus A8N Premium, but decided on the DFI as I know that they have a good reputation and all the highly OC'ed Opty 144 and 146's that I have come across on AIR have been done on DFI NF4 boards.

[BUFF]

Abit AN8 & KN8 series can run Optis high on air too you know
You can ask jimborae ...
Of course you need a good cpu as part of the equation, mine does 2.8GHz on stock voltage.

[jimborae]

Abit AN8 & KN8 series can run Optis high on air too you know
You can ask jimborae ...
Of course you need a good cpu as part of the equation, mine does 2.8GHz on stock voltage.

Hehe I was gonna say you would recommend an Abit till the cows come home but I didn't want to wee on your bonfire.

Seriously though I would also recommend an Abit AN8 Ultra or KN8 Ultra over a DFI unless you really know what you're doing. Ok I'm biased in that my AN8 Ultra was great & would run a 355fsb no problem & my DFI SLI-DR Expert is a turkey giving me no end of hassle but it only proves my point. I wish I'd never sold my Abit board.

[BUFF]

my DFI SLI-DR Expert is a turkey giving me no end of hassle

Sorry to hear that.
I promised myself that I wsn't going to get a DFI nF4 & then I got offered a deal on a SLI-DR that was too good to pass up - haven't really spent much time on it though.

I'll take a stable 98% overclock over a flaky 100% anyday ...

[GingerNinja.net]

Buff/Jimborae

Let me flip this on its head. I want a faster system than I have i.e. faster than 2.4Ghz for less bucks as the only budget I have is based on what I can sell plus about £60.

I am looking to ditch my 4x512MB Corsair 3200XLPRO RAM and replace it with 2x1024MB of G.Skill HZ PC4000 RAM - I should actually make money on this.

I have an Opty 144 CABNE and a Athlon 64 3800+.
I am willing to sell both the Opty 144 and 3800 in order to purchase an Opty 146 CACJE (if this is any good).

I currently have a Thermalright XP-90 with a 92mm AC Ryan Blackfire fan. The reason I have this is that the XP-120 wouldn't fit next to Corsair PRO memory as they are too tall - another reason to sell them on!
I am willing to purchase a better cooler. I have been read (Custom PC) that the Gigabyte Power Cooler cools an FX-55/7 to 24 degrees cooler than a Ref HSF under load, so wonder if this will be a better option.

I looked at DFI boards purely for the reasons already mentioned.
I was willing to be persuaded to go for the Asus as it is currently on the Custom PC Elite list and I have been using Asus boards since I built my first PC.
I am willing to go for an Abit board as I have heard nothing but good things about them.

If I go for a PCI-E system, I need to get a card and sell my AGP 6800GT.
I am therefore looking at a 7800GT. OcUK are selling a reference version "OcUK GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) & Call of Duty 2 Bundle - Retail (GX-032-OK)" for £205.57 inc VAT on this week only. This is £35 cheaper than the XFX Extreme Edition and, indeed, many reference boards from branded manufacturers.

Fill me with your knowledge!

Thanks in advance

[jimborae]

OK well my thoughts are

AN8 SLI or KN8Sli (KN8 sli is £10 cheaper but has less feature) or if you dont need sli in the future get the none sli versions which are even cheaper. The Abit boards are proven stable good clockers & have good manufacturers support *cough*unlike DFI*cough*

Sell the Corsair ram & get the G-Skill 2 x 1gb sticks of ram, thats seems to be a good price. G-Skill have great manufacturer support on xtremesystems forums.

Keep the XP-90 it's good enough for your needs, if you need better cooling then strap a faster fan to it.

Sell the 6800gt & get the cheapest 7800gt you can find. I got my Gigabyte ones from Scan for £205 each. Use Scan rather than Overclockers.co.uk as you'll appreciate their support on these forums should anything go wrong.

As for the cpu I'd sell the 3800 & keep the Opty 144, its a good stepping. If after you've overclocked it to it's limit, it's still not fast enough for then sell it.

There that my tu'pence, it's a fairly cheap upgrade and i think you'll be pleasantly surprised by it's speed & overclocking ability.

[loki]

As long as you don't go near an a8v again you should be fine. Those boards are just plain garbage. Had to return mine 3 times before i just gave up. I'd be tempted to steer clear of DFI for the same reason, had quite a few mates have to return them.

Abit would be my recommendation, any of the motherboards based on the n-force 4 chipsets are fairly solid and will last you a while.

[GingerNinja.net]

As long as you don't go near an a8v again you should be fine. Those boards are just plain garbage. Had to return mine 3 times before i just gave up. I'd be tempted to steer clear of DFI for the same reason, had quite a few mates have to return them.

Abit would be my recommendation, any of the motherboards based on the n-force 4 chipsets are fairly solid and will last you a while.

OK well my thoughts are

AN8 SLI or KN8Sli (KN8 sli is £10 cheaper but has less feature) or if you dont need sli in the future get the none sli versions which are even cheaper. The Abit boards are proven stable good clockers & have good manufacturers support *cough*unlike DFI*cough*

Right, time to swallow my ego and actually listen to people when I ask for advise on here as last time I ignored it, it all went a bit Pete.

Abit it is then!

Regarding boards, I think I will go for the SLI variant over the Ultra as I believe it has a better layour regardless of whether I will actually use SLI or not and here's why - I will be filling two PCI slots with a XFX Revo 64 RAID 3 controller and a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty edition sound card.

On the Ultra boards, my graphics card would either be next to my PCI cards (in the case of a double-slot card) or would need the first PCI slot for increased ventilation as Abit have put all the 1x PCI-E slots above the 16x PCI-E graphics card slot.

On the SLI boards I only have two PCI slots, but that is all I really need. The first 16x slot is so far up the board that plenty of cool air will get to it regardless of whether I have a single or double slot graphics card.

In terms of AN8 SLI or KN8 SLI, looking at the Abit website the KN8 has all the features that I want with the AN8 SLI only offering ABIT µGuru™, ABIT Silent OTES and AudioMAX™ as extra features - one of which I don't need as I already have a better sound card.
Considering that the DFI board I was looking at was £114 and the Abit KN8 SLI is £82, I am already saving £32 - thanks Jim!

The only other Abit board that would tempt me would be the Fatal1ty AN8 SLI (KN8 features plus ABIT µGuru™ 2003, ABIT Silent OTES, AudioMAX™ & Guru Panel) and this is primarily due to the fact that the features it gives on the Guru Front Panel (e-mail alert, fan speed, temperatures, time) are the only things that I have bothered setting up on my CrystalFontz 635 20x4 LCD display and CrystalFontz SCAB control panel. The front audio connections are already covered by the Creative Fata1ty front panel. (I sound like a Wendel biatch, don't I?)
If I went for the Fatalty board, it would be £8 more expensive than the DFI and £40 more than the KN8 but this would be far outweighed by the money I could make back on the CrystalFontz panel & SCAB (or so I would hope!).

Sell the Corsair ram & get the G-Skill 2 x 1gb sticks of ram, thats seems to be a good price. G-Skill have great manufacturer support on xtremesystems forums.

I have been steered away from the Corsair memory to the G.Skill memory by many on here, so I will go for it. I assume that your reservations about OcUK below do not count in terms of the memory considering that I will be saving £20 on them. I'll order them tomorrow.

Keep the XP-90 it's good enough for your needs, if you need better cooling then strap a faster fan to it.

I think that is the problem. I am using an ACRyan Blackfire 92mm UV fan, which looks gorgeous, but only shifts something like 43cfm, which may mean I need a faster fan.

Sell the 6800gt & get the cheapest 7800gt you can find. I got my Gigabyte ones from Scan for £205 each. Use Scan rather than Overclockers.co.uk as you'll appreciate their support on these forums should anything go wrong.

I wanted to ask about that. I was going to do that, but there is a rumour that Scan are going to do their Scan/Dell OEM 7800GTX 256MB card (which has the same double-slot HSF as the 512MB reference card) for around £270 again real soon. If that is the case, would that be a better card to go for?

As for the cpu I'd sell the 3800 & keep the Opty 144, its a good stepping. If after you've overclocked it to it's limit, it's still not fast enough for then sell it.

Good idea. Ideally I would like to get the 144 upto FX-55 or FX-57 speeds, but it only has a 9 multipier. Still obtainable I guess as this would need around 300Mhz at 9x to be achievable which should be possible on air.

There that my tu'pence, it's a fairly cheap upgrade and i think you'll be pleasantly surprised by it's speed & overclocking ability.

Jim, mate, you have been more help than you know!