boiler

Same problem again, 2/7/06 Been stuck for upwards of 20 minutes.

I see your point, but IF I were to do this upgrade, I would be getting most of the money to purchase the AMD set-up from the sale of my current hardware. That would leave me with $60-80 out of pocket, which is more doable than $120-140 for the 3700+... Plus I hear the 3200+ is a pretty good OCer which can increase it's value for its price.

Alright, since the forum's title includes "casualware", and no one has posted something regarding this topic that I have found (in my not-so-extensive-search), I'm starting a completely pointless thread on your "casualware" of choice while gaming... Personally, I rock teh AE "washed out" jeans and a harley-davidson t-shirt from a location of my choice, complemented by a stylish yet classic Purdue hooded sweatshirt for those chilly Indiana months. Corporate world be darned, I'm gonna wear what I wanna when I'm gaming. Ok, keep it clean guys and gals... if you game in your birthday suits, I REALLY don't wanna know about it...

I have heard something to that effect myself, however I am not the type that lives on the "bleeding edge" of technology, cause it costs a freakin arm and a leg to do so. I am also not a serious enthusiast that is willing to drop tons of money into a system to have the latest and greatest. I figure a 3200+ that has OCing ability would last me several years until I could afford a more serious mobo/cpu/ram upgrade. In the meantime, I could even go X2 if i felt the need to upgrade my 3200+ (still socket 939). At this point, my offer to sell my current cpu/mobo/ram still stands.... I still have all original packaging and documentation (including newegg shipping info if desired).

I think I have settled on the 3200+, the $60+ jump to the 3700 is just not worth it/financially feasible considering what I would be expecting to get for my current cpu/mobo/ram setup. Basically I'm trying to see if I can spend about what I did on the components I currently have and get better performance for going AMD... You guys seem to be giving positive reviews on the mobo/cpu (I know ASUS mobos are great, I've built another comp with one), so I think I'm headed in the right direction on that. As far as the RAM is concerned, I am not as much of an enthusiast as some people are and don't see a need to go with really expensive RAM. I am certainly considering getting 2 GB, but I think I'm going to go with 1 GB for now then get a second when I have more money. At this point, I spose I'm looking to see if there are any serious takers for my current equip listed above. As I stated before, those components are virtually new (only 3 months old) and have not been abused whatsoever. The P4 was OCed to 3.4 for about two days, then I put it back to stock, but it was running perfectly fine at that speed and never got above 59C (even on stock cooling). Since its all still relevant and not outdated stuff, I don't think I will part with them for significantly less than what I paid. I'd prefer to sell as a bundle. If there are any interested parties, you can send me a personal message or post here.

I'm not in a huge rush... I'd like to not take a huge hit when doing this switch out if possible, so I guess the cicumstances will determine whether or not I actually do this. From a performance standpoint, I think that I would like to do this, but I'll wait for some more input from people. Let me know what you're up to with that.

I'm considering getting an AMD setup and replacing my current P4-based system. I previously did not know anything about AMD, so I read up a little, checked the forums, and I think this is a possible setup I would look at: Mobo: ASUS A8N-E Processor: Athlon 64 3200+ RAM: Corsair 1 GB (2x512) First of all, how would this setup compare to my current cpu/mobo/ram: ECS 945P-A P4 630 3.0GHz Corsair 1 GB DDR2 533 My graphics is a eVGA 7800GT. This potential purchase would obviously only come if I could find someone to buy those three items I currently have (they are only 3 months old). Let me know what you guys think about this. Would I see much of a performance increase from what I have now? If not, then I'll just stick with what I have. Thanks!

I agree... doesn't make much sense to buy new mobo and cpu then stay with agp. If you're savin money anyway, save another couple hundred and get a pci-ex16 gfx card to go with it. Even a "cheaper" or "older" pci-ex16 gfx card would give you similar or better performance than what you might have now and give you flexibility for the future!

Dang, I think all of you just got TOLD.

You hear taht, Peckles? We're comin for ya!!

I got my woman a diamond ring for christmas, so that got me off teh hook for valentine's day I must not know what I'm getting myself in to...

17:18 sax:pecks ...... FREE KILL MY A... BUTT!! Just gimme one more clear shot Ahaha NEVER!!!! Update: 20:20 sax v pecks Not only have I evened teh score, but you are at the top of my "most killed"

what gfx settings do you use, laz? mine occasionnaly dips into 30s w/ P43.0, 1 gb ddr2 533 and 7800gt, but i have everything maxed out and i need to be in a heavy firefight!

HILLARY TO CANADA, EH!!!! btw NOFX, thats SOOOOOOOOO WRONG

17:18 sax:pecks ...... FREE KILL MY A... BUTT!! Just gimme one more clear shot

Noooooooo!!! I've only been a registered member of teh forum for three days, and you guys already got me puttin a stinkin egg in my sig, eh? kruten, how's bunny's quest for world domination going?

Hey k-wix, if you want I can record an entire map for you to use as a "blooper" reel! Bask in teh glory taht is my suckness!

From what I understand, vsync is a setting that will try to match your framerates to your monitor's refresh rate (60Hz for most lcds i think). I had it turned on too, and when I turned it off I was getting framerates 15-20 fps higher. V-Sync is probably one of the culprits holding you back. Cujo's the man though, listen to him!

Unfortunately, my motherboard is slightly limited in that I do not have direct control over my ram timings. I think I can select "400, 533, or 667 MHz, or Auto" on the speed, but I don't know how these translate to the fsb timings that I'm using when OCing my cpu. From what I can tell by reading other posts, I can't screw up my ram by trying diff timings, worst case is my system will be unstable. I'm not sure it's worth screwing around with. I got a pretty significant boost in performance for my 3.0-3.4 OC, and thats with ram timing set at "auto". The auto setting will always keep the 3:4 ratio (fsb:ram) timing. Gee, I'm learnin something new everyday about this stuff

that sounds about right. I checked by un-OCing my CPU, and the ram stayed at 3:4. I think my mobo bumps up the ram to keep the ratio the same, perhaps? Last word on the PSU - I found an Antec smartpower 2.0 500W for $63 at newegg, but I'm not gonna drop that much money just yet. I'll give my current crappy psu a couple weeks to redeem itself first... then I'll replace it with an antec Antec Smart Power 2.0 500W

I know this topic has been dead for 10+ days, but I just felt like throwing my 2 cents in. I love my eVGA 7800GT CO. Gives me kick-butt performance even with my "bottleneck" of a CPU. (Yes, I have an intel... its a 630 3.0GHz OCed to 3.41GHz). Cujo has already scolded me a couple times about my cpu (among other things ), so no need to pile on Just ran CS:S stress test w/ everything maxed at 1280x1024, and got average of 140fps. Spose thats decent for my inferior cpu!

Thanks for the input vovik. I understand what you were saying about the PSU, but I'm 90% sure it is the cause of my random shutdowns/restarts after talking to a couple other folks. besides, even though the replacement is not really expensive, from what I've read it will be better than "el cheapo" that came with my case. (NM, SEE BELOW) I will try that program to check my ram for sure, but I believe my bios has the timings for the RAM set at something to effect of "automatic" or "with cpu" or something, thanks for the heads up i'll look into that. In the mean time, is not having them 1:1 going to cause major problems, as in I need to put my cpu right back where it was till I get it figured out? As you can tell I jumped into this whole "hey build your own computer, it could be fun" thing without knowing every little in and out. I'm learning though! EDIT: *I just ran cpu-z, says my memory is at 301.6MHz, and my FSB is at 226.1MHz, thats 3:4. According to cpu-z, I think my ram's max bandwidth is 266MHz (box calls it ddr2 533)... does this mean it got OCed too? If this is a prob, them I need to un-OC my cpu cause I can't change memory timings beyond the stock "400, 533, 667MHz" settings in my BIOS. I am so confused.... my newbness is really showing through on this crap, sorry for bothering you pros with this.* Yeah, I have turned off V-sync. I'm an idiot for not realizing that myself. Surprisingly, turning HDR off didnt make much difference either, even on milita. CUJO: Ok, I cancelled it. I hadn't heard anything negative about that PSU yet, and I'm glad you caught me when you did. Thank you. I read as many reviews as I could and hadn't found anyone saying much bad about it, but then again most have only had it for a couple months at the most when they write glowing reviews. I'll look into antec, I know they're the shiznit in PSUs, if I have to I'll tolerate the random shutdowns/instability until I can afford it. Thanks for savin me a few bucks in the short run... I didnt mean to pull the trigger so fast, I really had been looking at PSUs for much longer than I have been posting here so I thought I might have found a decent one. I just want my instability to go away and be done with "el cheapo"

Here's my baby (first-ever build!) - Please don't laugh, I cheaped it up a couple places cause I bought it all at once (in Nov. '05): P4 630 3.0GHz w/ HT, 2MB L2 Cache, currently running at 3.41Ghz on stock cooling (56C max under load) ECS 945P-A 1.1 (cheap, I know, but good features and OC, and stable) 1GB (2x512) Corsair DDR2 @ 533MHz RAM 200GB WD Caviar SATA-II eVGA 7800GT CO Lite-On DVD +/- R/RW EDIT: *thanks cujo, no NEW "el cheapo" on the horizon, saving for antec 500w beaut to replace my current "el cheapo" that came w/ case* Just ran 3DMark05, got 7133 for your reference

Ok, I just ordered this PSU to hopefully ease some of my troubles: Aspire 500W Hopefully this will end my "random shutdown/restart" issues , and make sure my 7800gt is gettin all the power it needs. I'm hoping to see a difference in gfx performance, but we'll see. CPU update: I got my 630 OCed to 3.41GHz now, idling as we speak 38-41C and peaking at 56C while running 3DMark05 (free version). Thinkin I might consider a better heatsink/fan in the near future when I get this PSU paid off and get some more money. Scored a 7133 on 3DMark05 versus the 6700ish before I overclocked. I'll play a little CS:S to see how things are goin. Thanks a lot for everyone's help! Maybe in a couple years I'll convert to AMD and join the cult...

Ok, my ECS mobo overclocks pretty darn well as it turns out. American Megatrends BIOS (same as in more expensive Asus boards I have installed) does it. Upped my bus speed up from 212 to 224 and am getting 3.37GHz at around 38-40C idle and 50-55C load (with stock cooling, mind you). I hopped in militia w/ 6 ppl playin, and I was gettin at least 15 fps better. I turned off HDR, but it didnt give much of an improvement (maybe 3 fps max). V-sync settings only netted another few fps. Changing AA from 6X to 4X didnt make a noticable difference. I am willing to bet that my gfx card might not be getting all the power it needs... my "el cheapo" does have 2 12V rails, but total amperage is slightly less than recommended by evga as minimum for my card. I spose if this were the case, I would be getting decreased performance (duh). I'm lookin at an Aspire 500W deal on newegg for $40 (can't drop $90 on an antec). That might be the way I need to go.