new system (quick answers appreciated)

georgeblunt

georgeblunt

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heyho

my pc died a few days ago and i gonna buy some new components tonight(!), so a quick evaluation would be much appreciated. :)

i am planning to buy the following things:

- Motherboard S-939 nF4 Gigabyte K8NF-9
- CPU AMD K8 S-939 A64 3200+ Venice Box
- V PCIe NV PCX6600GT 128mb GW U1960PCX GS PowerPack
- 2x DIMM 512MB PC-400 Kingston
- power supply: 420W be quiet! Blackline 24pin

my budget is about 600€.. at the moment i am at about 700 (which isn't that much of a problem).

any tips, hints, complaints?
it is a lot of money for me, especially as it came by surprise, so i don't wanna buy anything stupid. ^^

thanks in advance for all your replies :D
 
holydeadpenguins said:
The 6600 wont last you too long, so save up later.
Click to expand...

thank you for your reply.. well.. i thought about a 6800 but i am afraid my budget won't allow that.
my actual graphic card is a 4600 so it is at least a nice jump upwards for me ^^
the 6600gt has "golden sample" so it is a little better than a regular 6600gt. :)
is the greater performance really worth the price for e.g. a 6800?
 
Looks good and it is upgradable when you get more cash or it starts to become slow when new games are released.

I would say go with 1 stick of 1GB of ram and then upgrade to 2GB when you get the cash. Most new games will eat up lots of ram and you dont have much vram so it would help reduce stuttering plus why put 2 sticks of 512 in now when a new game comes out and then your 2 sticks are worthless (you cant use them in dual channel if you put more ram in).http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1473363&postcount=9

It would also be better to have a 6800gt as it is more future proof but you could just sell the 6600gt and buy something better (like a 7800gtx when the price drops or the new ati cards when they are released).
 
DrDevin said:
I would say go with 1 stick of 1GB of ram and then upgrade to 2GB when you get the cash. [...]
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sounds like a good plan!
thank you for the tip. :D

DrDevin said:
It would also be better to have a 6800gt as it is more future proof but you could just sell the 6600gt and buy something better (like a 7800gtx when the price drops or the new ati cards when they are released).
Click to expand...
yeah.. i guess that's what i am going to do. i want an nvidia though because of the excellent linux drivers they provide.

thank you for your quick reply. much appreciated :)
 
I'd say that looks good. Upgradable too. Good choice.
 
DrDevin said:
Looks good and it is upgradable when you get more cash or it starts to become slow when new games are released.

I would say go with 1 stick of 1GB of ram and then upgrade to 2GB
Click to expand...

I'd say stick with 1gig. 2gigs can actually slow down your pc.

EDIT: Wait, so you mean to say that this PC will be running Linux? In that case, there really is no point in getting all this awesome hardware. Linux just doesn't agree with games, not without some Windows emulation software, which allot of the time is unreliable and doesn't work with specific games.
 
sinkoman said:
Wait, so you mean to say that this PC will be running Linux? In that case, there really is no point in getting all this awesome hardware. Linux just doesn't agree with games, not without some Windows emulation software, which allot of the time is unreliable and doesn't work with specific games.
Click to expand...

it will run both. :D
 
ok.. bought the parts yesterday and put it together.. damn! what a monster! :D
doom3, all settings to "ultra", 1024x768 -> 50-55fps .. that's more than i've expected.

thank you all for your tips and quick answers. ^^

@DrDevin: i took your advice and bought one stick of 1gb.. gonna upgrade to 2gb in the near future.

@sinkoman: my board supports dual channel.. i don't think that a second stick will slow it down.. it'll be even faster :)
 
georgeblunt said:
ok.. bought the parts yesterday and put it together.. damn! what a monster! :D
doom3, all settings to "ultra", 1024x768 -> 50-55fps .. that's more than i've expected.

thank you all for your tips and quick answers. ^^

@DrDevin: i took your advice and bought one stick of 1gb.. gonna upgrade to 2gb in the near future.

@sinkoman: my board supports dual channel.. i don't think that a second stick will slow it down.. it'll be even faster :)
Click to expand...

No, I know your board supports dual channel, but what i'm saying is 1 GIGABYTE of ram could slow it down. I would reccomend that you buy a 1 GIGABYTE dual chanell kit over just a 1 GIGABYTE kit.

Duall channel only works with 2 or more sticks of ram, not with 2 or more GIGABYTES of ram.

Over 1 GIGABYTE of ram can slow down your computer. Even if you have the sticks running dual channel.
 
sinkoman said:
Duall channel only works with 2 or more sticks of ram, not with 2 or more GIGABYTES of ram.
Click to expand...
afaik it only works with excactly 2 sticks that are built the same way.

sinkoman said:
Over 1 GIGABYTE of ram can slow down your computer. Even if you have the sticks running dual channel.
Click to expand...
that's new to me.. but i get what you are saying.. gotta find out more about that ^^
 
georgeblunt said:
afaik it only works with excactly 2 sticks that are built the same way.[/qoute]

Correct. That's why I would advise buying a 1 GIGABYTE dual channel KIT. A dual channel kit is two sticks that are exactly the same, manufactured the same day (kit i'm running, both were manufactured on christmas day of 1999) and are basically, the same. Hehe.

A dual channel kit would run faster than 1 stick equaling the same capacity as the kit.
Click to expand...
 
Which graphics card did you buy in the end mate ? just curious,

:)

Plus, in doom 3, no point in running settings at ultra, v. little improvement over high, and ultra was designed to be used on cards with 512mb of ram, so i would recommend putting to high, as i doubt you'll notice any change in graphical quality, plus you will probably get a few more additional fps, and maybe be able to knock the resolution up a notch, just my few cents anyways.

:)
 
3ssence said:
Which graphics card did you buy in the end mate ? just curious,
Click to expand...
i bought the nvidia geforce 6600GT with "golden sample"
http://www.arlt.com/shop/warenkorb....Arlt_Session=5621e5597336dfbd453dc5be33e648a8

3ssence said:
Plus, in doom 3, no point in running settings at ultra, v. little improvement over high, and ultra was designed to be used on cards with 512mb of ram, so i would recommend putting to high, as i doubt you'll notice any change in graphical quality, plus you will probably get a few more additional fps, and maybe be able to knock the resolution up a notch, just my few cents anyways.
:)
Click to expand...
ah.. good info! tnx :D
 
Oh and good choice on the graphics card mate, that's a quality piece of kit. Have you enabled the golden sample settings ? Just checking, because they give the factory overclock which gives it the edge over most 6600GT's. I would also imagine that you would be good for 1280 x 1024 gaming in most games with that card, so wherever possible make the most of it i.e. don't play on 1024 x 768 unless you have to

:D
 
3ssence said:
Oh and good choice on the graphics card mate, that's a quality piece of kit. Have you enabled the golden sample settings ? Just checking, because they give the factory overclock which gives it the edge over most 6600GT's. I would also imagine that you would be good for 1280 x 1024 gaming in most games with that card, so wherever possible make the most of it i.e. don't play on 1024 x 768 unless you have to
Click to expand...

<danger to sound really stupid>i have to enable the gs-setting?!? never heard of that! if so, how should i do this? i really have the impression, that it's already enabled... (can't check at the moment. i am sitting in the office right now)</danger to sound really stupid> :D

1280x1024 would be very nice indeed, cause it's the physical resolution of my tft-screen (or every tft-screen that is.. heh)..
 
i may be wrong, i have never owned a gs card myself, but i had gotten the impression that you had to enable the "golden sample" settings, but i may be wrong, i shall go see if i can find anything to do with it on the net
 
ok, well according to custompc magazine (my fave mag !) you have to install the expertool utility that comes with the card in order to have the card running at golden sample speeds
 
3ssence said:
ok, well according to custompc magazine (my fave mag !) you have to install the expertool utility that comes with the card in order to have the card running at golden sample speeds
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ah! well.. i've installed this tool but haven't had the time to have a closer look at it. will do so when i come home. thanks for looking that up! great info :D
 
cool, well make sure that is providing the golden sample settings, because it gives a good speed boost over stock 6600GT's, and don't forget to try out some of your games at 1280 x 1024

:D
 
3ssence said:
cool, well make sure that is providing the golden sample settings, because it gives a good speed boost over stock 6600GT's, and don't forget to try out some of your games at 1280 x 1024

:D
Click to expand...

hehe.. that's why i chose "golden sample" .. it would be a shame not to use it.. *g*
i gonna report the results in this thread :)
 
3ssence said:
Which graphics card did you buy in the end mate ? just curious,

:)

Plus, in doom 3, no point in running settings at ultra, v. little improvement over high, and ultra was designed to be used on cards with 512mb of ram, so i would recommend putting to high, as i doubt you'll notice any change in graphical quality, plus you will probably get a few more additional fps, and maybe be able to knock the resolution up a notch, just my few cents anyways.

:)
Click to expand...
I believe they ran benchmarks on 512MB cards vs 256MB cards on Doom 3, and both cards performed equally well. so 512MB cards at this point in time are pointless.
 
I agree, they are idd pointless. But that is what they designed the ultra setting on doom 3 for, and having tried both settings myself i can say that imo the ultra settings have no real visible difference that is worth having for the loss in fps.
 
512 MB cards do perform the same but just reduce stuttering caused by too much texture space D3 uses 500MB for uncompressed everything when set to ultra. The only other game that shows a benefit right now is everquest 2 which requires a 512MB card (and 2GB+ of ram) to run at max texture settings without a lot of swapping.

I completely agree they are pointless for now but soon (U3 and such) they will be worth it.
 
@3ssence: results! :D

i've found the setting in the expertool and "golden sample" seems to be activated by default. there is the possibility to reduce the performance to "standart" or to push it even higher by hand..
it also has a fan-speed control where it states that my gpu is at about 55°C in 2d mode.. isn't that a little too much? i've expected something around 47.. am i a little too un-knowing or the gpu a little too hot? ^^
 
Good stuff mate, leave the settings at "golden sample", don't change those yourself, keep your warranty lol.

57 sounds a touch high, my 6800 ultra runs at 50 ish in 2d mode, maybe turn the fan up a little, but it's nothing to worry about mate, will run just fine

:D
 
sounds good. i am sedated now. i guess i will just leave the fan setting at "auto-adjust" and add an additional case fan (i have planned this anyway). :)
 
if someone is still reading this thread:
yesterday i found out that one fan in my system keeps rotating when i switch off the pc.. i don't know which one it is (it was too late in the night) but i guess it's the cpu fan.. can it be, that the fan is cooling down the cpu until it reaches a certain temperature even if the pc is switched off?
 
or the PSU hasn't let all its power out.
 
15357 said:
or the PSU hasn't let all its power out.
Click to expand...

I'd put my money on that. Sometimes my keyboard lights don't go off (I have one of those Saitek Eclipse boards).
 
other possibility is the PSU staying running for a little longer afterwards to cool down, some do that, but otherwise......... what they said lol
 
3ssence was right.. i had the brilliant idea to have a look at the user's manual.. quite informative.. lol
 
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