Upgrading the computer

Just got finished installing a 550 watt 1coolpc power supply a little bit ago and am doing the "smoke test" right now. Next step is to install a Verto GeForce 6800 Ultra video board. Then I have a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS sound board on order.

Something is going to blow, for sure.....

So far, so good. I had to update the driver for the Verto card, and a few problems I had with the nVidia demos crashing went away.

I put the Audigy 2 ZS board in today, but honestly don't hear much difference from what my SoundBlaster LIVE! could do. So, I guess there is only one thing to do...... Buy one of those snazy 7.1 speaker systems to go with it! Yeah, that's the ticket.....

Oh, one interesting thing about that Verto GeForce Ultra card.... That thing must really suck down the juice when it kicks into graphics mode. My UPS system was about peaking out (700 watts), so I had to do some rearranging of power cords so I would be topping out the power source.

I have been reading on some of the overclockers forums about the power usage of the 6800. Some of the poor guys didn't read the instructions and failed to use a dedicated power line. They're not getting the overclocking speeds out of the card that they were expecting though. Kind of a shame.

Hmmm.... I hear the sound of plastic being used, which speakers are you going to order?

I am going to try to build my own system, I am tired of this computer I have now. I haven't done my speaker research yet. I've got to order a Logitech MX 510 mouse next. I am getting pieces for my system a few at a time.

Good luck, have fun!

The Creative GigaWorks S750 caught my eye. It has gotten rave reviews everywhere I looked, and Creative was offering it as a special sale item to purchasers of their sound cards. How could I refuse? Of course, it seems slightly insane to have a 700 watt speaker system on a PC....

700 watts!!!! Connie is going to let you use those in the house?
Geez, my current system only has 350 watts and I can't even begin to survive turning the speakers up too loudly! My problem is I like the speakers I have now and hate to waste them when I upgrade.

What type of processor are you using? I'm just curious. I must have missed out on that part of your postings.

Candy

The processor is a Pentium IV at 2.8 gHz. It's about 2 years old now, and I think (unless I have missed something) that processors have just about reached some sort of upper limit on clock speed. Used to be I was buying a new computer about every 2 years that had at least double the clock speed of the previous one I had.

I am buying a decoder as well, so I might try putting that speaker system on the DVD player on the family room. I don't think Connie is going to go for wires running across the floor though. If I like it I may have to drill through the floor and run the wires under the house.

If I REALLY like them, then I might get another set for the computer. The Logitech THX speakers I now have do a pretty nice job, but this is only a 4 speaker plus subwoofer system.

All the wiring is another issue that bugs me with the 7.1. I was reading about that again yesterday. I don't know that I want to deal with all of it. I am thinking I will stick with the speakers I have already.

My next problem is deciding on the processor I want to buy. I can't decide between the Prescott 3.2G or go ahead and bite on the Prescott 3.4. There's about $70 difference in them. I want my new system to be socket 775 so it might last me a while. This PCI expess looks like exciting new technology. Of course, whatever CPU I buy, will be outdated in about three months!

Alienware is selling a 4G machine now. I haven't even bothered to look at the price!

How is Far Cry running now? I am still doing research on the graphics card I will buy, but I can't afford a 6800.

Hmm, every computer I have ever bought was during a period when better technology was "right around the corner". That is not to imply that I picked bad times to buy computers, but instead there is ALWAYS going to be new technology "right around the corner". Best you can do is to get the absolute top dog that is available NOW. That will keep the obsolesence point as far away from you as you can.

As for Far Cry, I think I had some setting on there that something in my system didn't like. I still had problems with it after replacing the video card, the sound card, and upgrading WinXP to SP2. So I just reset the game to the defaults and it ran fine. So I am going to enable one option at a time until I figure out which one is the culprit.

But one thing I did notice immediately with the 6800 Ultra, is that I can see details in the graphics I never noticed the first time through. And the scrolling and panning is VERY smooth. If I try to run a game with choppy or lagging movement, it gives me a headache in very short order.

Anyway, it doesn't look like I will be buying a new computer this year. The technology increase just isn't there to warrant it. But I think when I finally do, it will be to a multi-processor AND multi-threading system. The servers that I have are using dual Xeon processors, so depending on what is out there next year or two, that is the technology I will be looking for. I think that if games are written in multi-threading code, they would be take quite a leap in capability. Heck, maybe they are already for all I know. But I think that is the direction things will be going.....

I've dropped my idea to jump into Nvidias SLI, PCI Extress and, AMD64 this year. Knowing that what I want is going to cost an arm and both legs, and also that I'll have to pay a lot more for the PCI-E video cards because they're scarce, I changed to a simpler and more money friendly plan. Step one is completed, as I bought a Gigabyte 6800GT from Newegg. It has a heatpipe style heatsink with a fan on the backside of the card, and it is pretty loud, but I'm running it at faster than stock ultra speeds with zero problems. The core/memory speeds are: 440/1250 (stock GT is 350/1000). I can't wait to see how far I can get it with my water block. Step 2 will be upgrading my 3.0 to a 3.4 Northwood. I might add another gig of RAM (Mushkin lvl1 3500) in the next couple months or not. I ordered a Yeon Yang server cube, and am ging to mod it so I can fit my water cooling setup inside easily. I also bought a passive radiator, and I'll couple it with a single 120mm active (fan-cooled) radiator for extra cooling.

I do plan to buy an AMD64 based computer next year though. Hopefully when I have lots more money, I'll buy a dual Opteron server setup with SLI (wow!). Here's a link to some Tyan boards with the Nforce 4 motherboard chipset: http://my.so-net.net.tw/brandon640410/NF41/004.JPG

Also, here's some info on Nvidias chipsets: http://www.nforcershq.com/

Far Cry had a few graphical glitches, like blank black areas and super intense brightness, but the 1.3 patch made the game look so nice. UT2004 ran well with my Radeon 9800XT, but I had the fog on to make the draw distance more bearable, with it off on this card, it looks so much nicer, while constantly staying at the 180-200 fps mark at 1280x1024 on max (that's my LCD's highest resolution). I've tried a lot of my games (I have too many, I've kept them since 1992) and the only one I have a wierd problem with is Need For Speed Underground. On random points on the track I get a slight stutter. It happens very randomly and at random spots, but I think it has to do with the AA setting being on 8x. I'll try at 4 or lower and sees if it's fixed.

Originally posted by mycurlylocks
All the wiring is another issue that bugs me with the 7.1. I was reading about that again yesterday. I don't know that I want to deal with all of it. I am thinking I will stick with the speakers I have already.

My next problem is deciding on the processor I want to buy. I can't decide between the Prescott 3.2G or go ahead and bite on the Prescott 3.4. There's about $70 difference in them. I want my new system to be socket 775 so it might last me a while. This PCI expess looks like exciting new technology. Of course, whatever CPU I buy, will be outdated in about three months!

Alienware is selling a 4G machine now. I haven't even bothered to look at the price!

How is Far Cry running now? I am still doing research on the graphics card I will buy, but I can't afford a 6800.

I hate the wiring too, I use 4.1 speakers and prefer them to 5.1's. I hate how the center channel drowns out the front two speakers sound (of course it could just be my perception). Maybe after I move the desk into my closet I will set it up for a 6 or 7.1 setup.

Take the 3.4 is you don't plan on juming onto the 775's anytime soon. The 3.2 is slightly slower, and if you're going to upgrade in a few month, you'll have saved a few bucks. The Prescott CPU's get A LOT hotter than their Northwood counterparts ([H]ard OCP even reccomends water cooling as a minumum if upgrading to the prescott core). Intel has said it is going to re-think its strategy from clock ratings to model #'s and "optimizations". AMD doesn't have a clock rating, and quite a few of their CPU's will outperform Intels best at lower clock speeds. AMD is posing a serious threat to Intel, and for gaming, AMD is really on top.

The Alienware machine is a huge rip off. They're using water cooling, but it's Koolance, and they are calling it "proprietary", then jacking up the price. In water cooling, Silver is the ticket if you want the ultimate performace and "bling", Alienware is pushing its' stuff as "Gold Plated", which won't really give a huge improvement over copper for cooling, but sure looks nicer I suppose. If you want a 4GHz system now, look into water or phase change cooling and you can have it (I run my 3.0 at 3.6). When PCI-E is more tried and true, I'll buy into it. SATA is new, exciting and fast, but how many people still use IDE? I have a serial ATA drive, but I haven't messed with it yet. AGP may be on its way out, but it's still quite popular.

What's you limit on buying a GPU? Could you afford a basic 6800? Those go for under $300. Chaintech and BFG make two versions that are factory overclocked and are in the $282 mark. If you do go for PCI-E, the Nvidia 6600GT looks nice, and can be SLI'd with very good results (often as fast or faster than a 6800GT). I'd skip the faster cards of last generation, like the GeForce FX5950 or the ATI Radeon 9800XT because they are too expensive right now. The mid range older cards still have good bang for the buck. Those are the 5700Ultra, the GeForceFX 5900XT or SE and the aATI Radeon 9600XT and even the 9800Pro for under $200.