nvmyz28

Ya I hope I dont regret the case. I'm not worried about it in terms of functionality, I'm worried about it in terms of noise. It may be loud.... but my existing case / fans are loud so we'll see. I agree on the power supply concerns. I think 850w will run this system as is, but I'll definitely upgrade the PSU when I add a second card down the road. The reason I didnt go with a more expensive / more wattage PSU now was due to limited selection from ibuypower. I'll get the PSU I want from newegg when I add the second card.

I'm a longtime lurker (I search around but rarely post). I'm curious what you all think about this build. Its probably over the top for todays games, and I'm probably spending more than I need for todays games.... but thats OK, I want to be able to run everything that comes out for the next few years. If I have to, I'll add a second GTX 590 later down the road. I also want to be able to toy with virtual machines etc on this rig and likely some ripping as well (I'll add a 2TB or 3TB drive later, after the hard drive shortage is over / when I need it): Case: Antec LanBoy Air Gaming Case - Yellow Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 3930K Processor (6x 3.20GHz/12MB L3 Cache) - liquid cooled Motherboard: Gigabyte X79-UD3 -- 3 way SLI, 4x PCI-E x16, 6x SATA 6Gb/s, On-Board Bluetooth Memory: 16 GB [4 GB X4] DDR3-1600 - Corsair Vengeance Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 - 3GB - Single Card Power Supply: CoolerMaster Silent Pro 850W Power Supply - SLI Ready Hard Drive: 2x 120 GB ADATA S510 SSD - RAID 0 Optical Drive: 24X Sony Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Sound: Onboard I plan on toying with overclocking, but it wont be anything crazy. There are probably better components out there but im not going 100% nuts just close to it My budget was 3k (including 2 monitors, speakers, and a new wireless router) and this puts me right there at the 3k mark with everything. For those wondering why I picked certain components, this is an "ibuypower" built machine that I customized which parts I wanted, so I had a bit of limited selection but I'm fine with it. I think its a decent deal considering they had a few free upgrades, and 50% off on these 120gb SSDs (which is why I went RAID 0 w/ SSDs). I considered building my own again, but decided I would let them deal with the headaches this time around, plus I ordered up their full wiring upgrade service ($60) where they really take the time to clean up everything inside. I've built in the past, but for the deals they had going and the headaches I wont have to deal with - I think I came out just right. What do you all think? Their holiday sale ends today if you're interested in putting together a system. I thought the 50% off 120gb SSDs was *Awesome*. This machine will replace my last build I posted here years ago (incase you're curious), a Single core AMD AGP system (LOL!) w/ 4GB of ram, a AGP ATI Radeon HD 3850 w/ 512 DDR3 ram, RAID 0 raptor drives. I've *barely* been limping by with this system for games I've been playing. With SWTOR and BF3 coming out (and Tribes Ascend and a few others) I felt its time to finally upgrade This machine really served me well, it hasnt been a high FPS rig by any means, but I've been able to play most everything up to this point on medium settings without much hassle. I absolutely cannot wait to fire the new rig up and see the difference Edit: Here is my old 2005 build if anyone cares heh http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=56466&st=0 The motherboard and video card have changed since then, but the rest remains the same. Still AGP as well (ATI Radeon HD 3850 w/ 512 DDR3).

Next question - anyone have a reputable shop that I can pick one up at? Doesnt look like newegg has any AGP versions, and ZZF is out of stock. These guys have it for 258 shipped, but I have never heard of them before http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.as...g&pid=16749

Thanks - I think I will get it. When I "end of life" the computer - it will be passed over to my wife to game on, and then I will build a new system from scratch - so I consider this its final upgrade. So Im really not throwing away money, "Im spending it on her" right?

Besides putting that money towards another rig, would you say upgrading to the X1950 Pro over the current 6800 ultra is worth it?

Yes, yes, I know AGP is dead. Trust me, I would love to be able to afford an upgrade to a PCIE setup in the future, but for now - I am sticking with my current rig. Please do not bring up the fact that I can upgrade to a PCIE system... I already know this. My question is, what is the best AGP card on the market today. Ive seen a few people recommend the Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro AGP, is this the best one available? I have only used nvidia cards in the past, whatever card I get will be replacing my 6800 ultra - that 6800 ultra will then slide into my wifes PC..... How big of a performance increase can I expect to see going from a 6800 ultra 256mb to a X1950 512mb (or another card). Again, I realize AGP is dead - but this will be my final upgrade for this system - in the future I will build a new setup and this system will become my wifes - so even if its old, it needs to run good. Thanks for any help.

Another vote for the Zalman. Just installed mine, 45 C is the max I am seeing out of my 939 at full load. It never budges above 45, where before with the stock cooler, I was seeing about 54-56 C underload. I could probably do a bit better than 45 C, I think I messed up my paste (arctic silver) a bit installing the thing - so I could probably even squeeze another 1 - 2 C out of it!

Edit: Hah. Well, I decided to reinstall the OS in an attempt to correct this issues. Again using the MSI drivers that came with the motherboard. I did that, and got the same results. Then I was about to use the downloaded nvidia chipset drivers to give them a try, when I looked at the drivers I noticed they were for nforce4 chipset. DING the light comes on! SOOOOOOOOOO I go to nvidia's site and downloads the nforce3 drivers, run them, install the 78.01 video drivers, and the problem seems to be fixed. My last 3dmark05 score was a 3300 HOWEVER the CPU test portion was 5000+ (up from 700). I had a few lockups during the graphics test that I need to iron out. Once I do, I have no doubt she will be reaching 5,000+ on the graphics side as well. Its interesting that the MSI supplied drivers performed so horribly in benchmarks. Its also interesting that the nforce4 drivers even worked at all for me. Everything seemed fine to me, even playing World of Warcraft, Battlefield 2 etc - just the benchmark score was way off - I knew something was up. Hard to tell if its working right from just using it (only thing I can compare it to is my old P4 2.0 Dell). Anyhow - I got it figured out after hours of pulling my hair out wondering "WTF!" Soon as I get the rest ironed out etc, Ill post up some better scores Thanks again for the support. (Yes, I know im a nub )

Is the work around for the "issue" with 6800 series cards and this Mobo just to shut off fast writes in the Bios? Or is there something else? I have tried everything bios settings wise - and I am having no luck. What are my options? I dont really want to spend another 400+ $ on a video card when I only bought this 6800u about 6 months ago or so. Any advice? I will worry about over clocking it once I can figure out whats wrong......

Well, I have the thing put together, and I really like how it runs - gaming etc is a dream. HOWEVER, I am a bit surprised by my 3DMark scores. Any ideas? Again, the hardware consists of: MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINUM Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce3 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard Antec NeoPower 480W Power Supply AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory 2x Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive EVGA NVidia 6800 Ultra 256mb 8x AGP nvidia 7777 video drivers Windows XP Pro w/ SP2 No overclocking yet on video or CPU. My scores were: 3DMarks 2001SE: 17455 3D marks 3DMarks 2005 (Free Edition) 2875 3D marks With this setup I was expecting 25000+ on 2001SE and 5000+ on 2005. Is this unreasonable? Any ideas? Also - this is my first time running 3dmarks 2005. It runs the indoor space battle test, then the blimp test - they both run smooth. Then it replays the blimp test, followed by the indoor space battle - both of these are choppy as HELL. Any ideas here? All of 2001SE runs smooth as can be, and I have no problems with games. Just disapointed in the benchmark results I guess. Edit: Duuuur Im sure its something I am doing wrong in the Bios settings, but I am not sure what it could be. I did just find out that my HTT modifier was set at 4x and it should be 5x (200 x 5 = 1000 fsb). After setting it to 5x, I scored 3031 3DMarks w/ 2005. Still really choppy on the second set of blimp / indoor space battle tests

ack - i knew i was forgetting something. Forgot to order a floppy drive. Thats ok - I will just ninja one from the old system sitting in the garage, and remove it when the install is complete. I never use a floppy these days anyway

If I am not mistaken, the PSP memory sticks have to be a "Duo" I would get: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820191234

Thanks for all of your feedback guys - its was MOST helpful. Im glad I took the time to post here and get some feedback from you all. Else, I would have ended up with a slower system for the same $ spent Hopefully this all shows up Tuesday or Wednesday. I should have it put together fairly quickly once it arrives - assuming all goes well. Hopefully I dont have any troubles =P I have never used a 64 bit CPU or a RAID 0 before, so it might be a little tricky, but I am sure I can work it out (stay tuned for more HELP! posts from me ). Im excited to get it put together and fire it up! If you have any advice for me on the build or "optimization" etc. - Id love to hear it Thanks again - seriously.