CobraKai

Equal speed to 7800GTX, anything below the flagship x1800XT is a waste of money when Nvidia counterparts is faster, lower priced and a lot more available then ATI products have been since the x800 series launch ATI has shown they can

Why do you need an SLI compatible card but for the best bang for the buck ATM if your willing to unlock a few pipelines the Sapphire x800GT02 would be the best choice almost guaranteed to unlock the 4 extra pipelines and it can overclock to x850XT-PE speeds either way

I have the same board and I have 4 all Identical sticks of 512mb and they are running in dual channel so I can vouche for that but I don't know anything about running 4 separate sized sticks in dual channel I have no experience with that but I don

I still think 414-3 and 310P are the better BIOS versions to date but 510-X still have their advantages like X2 support and using high voltage ram in the yellow slots. You should try new 615 Final Bios they just came out Im testing them right now http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14344

510-X are good especially since they support the new upcoming X2 cores [Manchester and Toledo] and also support the yellow slots for high voltage ram but for me 414-3 and 310P are still the better bios versions to date. You should give the new 615 a try they just came out, Im testing them right now. http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14342

Like the others have stated Bios and software can be misleading in Bios my 12v was 11.96 through it was SmartGuard [most recent version] it was 11.77 but MBM 5 for me anyway was the closest to my actual +12 and 5v rails [after using a multimeter] showing it at 12.13 which was pretty much accurate. Here is soundx98 guide to MBM use on nf4 http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread...8&highlight=MBM

Like the others have stated Bios and software can be misleading in Bios my 12v was 11.96 through it was SmartGuard [most recent version] it was 11.77 but MBM 5 for me anyway was the closest to my actual +12 and 5v rails [after using a multimeter] showing it at 12.13 which was pretty much accurate. Here is soundx98 guide to MBM use on nf4 http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/sho...8&highlight=MBM

Like the others have stated Bios and software can be misleading in Bios my 12v was 11.96 through it was SmartGuard [most recent version] it was 11.77 but MBM 5 for me anyway was the closest to my actual +12 and 5v rails showing it at 12.13 which was pretty much accurate. Here is soundx98 guide to MBM use on nf4 http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread...8&highlight=MBM

First since you haven't purchased this components yet I would suggest going to Monarch if you buy the CPU and Motherboard together they can setup and pretest your computer and CPU to make sure your Bios support Rev.E fully. http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/m...duct_Code=80152 You can still qualify for the combo even if you just order the CPU and Motherboard. Since your going with a 4000 with the 12x multiplier you can go with pretty much any ram and still have 1:1 support like with Winbond BH/CH-X memory without using a divider. Video Card is pretty much down to preference [if your an ATI guy or Nvidia] and If you want to run SLI any brand like CPUZ referred to eVGA are great I personally like Asus, HIS [HighTech], Gainward, Leadtek, and MSI for video cards manufactors [Point of View is very good I hear too]. Also make sure if you want to run SLI that the VGAs you buy are SLI compatible.

I have a few of these you can find places that sell the fan bracket w/o fan and you can probably find a better price on another site this is just a reference http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetai...item=35-118-204

Like my original post stated, the ethernet drives included in the nF4 drives that came on the Utility CD [Ver .003] with DFI nF4 motherboard didnt work...saying it couldnt find my network adapter which I also said I dont have since I connect right to the modem. I tried 2 methods of installing them except the method of just installing the ethernet drives by themselves. It wasnt a problem since I downloaded a few other versions of nF4 drives to a cd, I cant say what nF4 drives are on the Ver .003 Utility CD but im now using 6.53 drives and they work great. It was just a warning to other who dont have another computer to fall back on with internet acccess like those sell their computer parts to upgrade to anothers.

Again, I cant confirm or denie that Mushkin Redline is BH-5 these speculations have been said since they were introduced, and unless Duonger or any other Mushkin rep has confirmed that it is BH-5 its still up for speculation http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=61037 I personally think its CH-5 like OCZ VX just by comparsion with new BH-5 vs CH-5 timings and Redline falls right in line with CH-5 timings. G.Skill BH-5 timings example http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=62858

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From others experiences with 850 ETX SSI is that not ALL of them can handle a heavily overclocked machine [sLI or not] and some have the same problem as the Zippy PSU and other PSU with stablity on the 5v rail from the peoples experiences they were all using extreme cooling [Cascade or SS or Chiller] and when they went back to their PCPC 510 or OCZ 600/520 it was completely stable...personally I think the faults with the 850 lie with not having VR pots support until 2006 and the 4 - 17a 12v rail [which actually was suppost to be a good feature] having 1 big 12v rail is a lot better then 4 smaller ones.

I would say yes if you want more head room then the Rev.2 has potential to give you higher memory speeds then the Ballsitix could. Well Rev.2 is TCC5 "F" or TCCD, Ballistix is Micron 46V32M8 -5B G they both overclock quite well to DDR500 but the Balllistix will hold tighter timings [2.5-2-2-x] at 3.xv but most likely it will stop at around 250-260FSB [at least my pair did] where as the Rev.2 can keep going to around DDR600 or even more at less volts [2.7-3.0v] with looser timings [2.5-x-x-x] as TCC5 and TCCD are know for. Depending on what you consider a "little OC" they are both good up to DDR500 which from default of DDR400 i consider a "Mild OC"