Last year's summer build

[Tek-Almighty]

Well, I finally upgraded this past week...And following the power outage, a hurt back, a shotgun blast to my TV (more to come on that...), and the loss of my band equipment (sold most of it)...I have finally completed a terror-strewn jaunt through the heretofore unfamiliar territory of Core2Duo land, with a side order of SLI and DDR2. Stuff in italics is new.

 

EVGA 780i SLI mobo

OCZ 2 x 2GB platinum ddr2 8000 (5-5-5-18)

2 x EVGA 8800 GT OC (650mhz, 1000mhz)

Core2Duo E8400 wolfdale 6mb L2 cache (stock @3.0ghz for now)

X-Fi extreme gamer

WD Raptor 150 GB

WD SATA2 500GB

OCZ GameXstream 600W PSU

Zalman cnps9500

Win XP sp2a

Logitech keyboard and G7 cordless mouse

Acer 22" ws LCD

 

 

 

I did the install 4 times (thanks Windows XP SP3)...which was fun...

 

System kept locking up after install of up Windows update 3.1 and SP3.

 

Finally eschewed that *&$^*$ piece of *&^! and stuck with SP2a. Stable now. Will bench soon after installing some games.

 

Hopefully the addition of a new(er) MOBO and good CPU will get me some playable fps in Farcry2 and Crysis, not to mention others.

 

oh...and anyone with experience with the Northbridge nForce chip on the 780i...is yours extremely hot? (70c plus)

[Cujo]

with a 22" monitor you should be just fine running up the details and aa.

[aldan]

As for the heat you're getting, I don't have one, but with the setup you're sporting, I'd look into setting up a VERY good cooling system for your new baby, since you do NOT want that melting down!!

[Tek-Almighty]

As for the heat you're getting, I don't have one, but with the setup you're sporting, I'd look into setting up a VERY good cooling system for your new baby, since you do NOT want that melting down!!

 

 

CPU is running pretty cool, granted it is 80degrees in my house. CPU idle is about 34 degrees C, and about 55C under load. The northbridge is what i'm worried about. Specially if I start to OC...

[bushwack]

Wow nice upgrade Tek! Sweet mobo. I dunno about your problem though. Since SP3 I've had to reinstall my kids XP twice in just a couple weeks. I thought it was a hardware problem but it wouldn't go away until I reinstalled. First time it would update but then say it couldn't apply the update and never game a reason. Then next time right before the desktop would show up I'd get a bluescreen then the the comp would reboot, no way around it. Been running fine with SP3 for a week now but I'm not holding my breath.

 

What case are you running? The northbridge on that mobo has a fan on it right?

[Tek-Almighty]

It happened on my mother's new intel based machine too. I was installing sp3 and it borked it...I should have known better than to try it on mine 2 weeks later.

 

[Cujo]

that's just ms breaking xp so people will think vista is better, which it is. with that system there is really no need to avoid vista unless you have some outdated game or hardware you're worried about. make sure you go 64bit right off the bat so you can take advantage of that ram.

 

 

edit - just to take the above a step further. i'm finally at the point where i can change drivers, add hardware, etc. with confidence in vista not to crash or bluescreen on next boot. performance wise there are still some quirks and the windows explorer view changing randomly is annoying but the advantages really outweigh these issues.

Edited August 7, 2008 by Cujo

[Preacher]

xp had the same issues vista did on release with driver and other issues. I was really sad I could no longer play thief 2 and system shock 2 but all in all the advantages outweigh the bad. There are more than likely a few progs that will not function under vista but they are most likely not life and death programs they are prolly just comfortable to have around so you don't have to learn a new one.

[Tek-Almighty]

i'm finally at the point where i can change drivers, add hardware, etc. with confidence in vista not to crash or bluescreen on next boot. performance wise there are still some quirks and the windows explorer view changing randomly is annoying but the advantages really outweigh these issues.

 

 

Well, the fact that you have to qualify the statement that Vista is better 18 months after launch and still offer the above, is proof enough for me, that I can do without.

 

MS had 4+ years of dev time to get vista right, and they farked it. There are still major companies that cannot get their drivers play well in the Vista environment, because of consistency issues. The fact that it is widely discussed that Vista (esp 64 bit) will BSOD with the wrong combo of hardware drivers-like an old man having a heart attack at a strip club-is testament enough.

 

Then there is the performance issue, using DX9 or DX10 modes, of performance loss in games. That was the reason I liked XP, even better than 2000 or NT, was the fact that my games ran like butter...

 

 

I respect your POV and experience, but I am dead set against using VISTA as my only OS.

 

Will I dual boot in the near future?...prolly. But I am not gonna make the change until they pry my cold dead fingers off of XP's corpse.

 

[Cujo]

i bet you vista 64 would install and run with no bsod's on your system. better yet if i installed it without you knowing and then fired up a game you'd never notice the difference.

[bushwack]

i bet you vista 64 would install and run with no bsod's on your system. better yet if i installed it without you knowing and then fired up a game you'd never notice the difference.

Maybe it might fix his problem, maybe not but with a setup like that any game should run wonders even with Vista, except maybe Crysis lol. Really there should be no problem running his system under XP. Ever thought about seeing how the system reacts with just one 8800 GT in it?

 

That's a crazy mobo again Tek, where's the third GT? From what I've read not much is to be gained by adding third but after spending that much on a mobo it isnt gonna hurt to buy another GT is it?

[Tek-Almighty]

i bet you vista 64 would install and run with no bsod's on your system. better yet if i installed it without you knowing and then fired up a game you'd never notice the difference.

 

 

Oh snap!

 

 

[Tek-Almighty]

i bet you vista 64 would install and run with no bsod's on your system. better yet if i installed it without you knowing and then fired up a game you'd never notice the difference.

Maybe it might fix his problem, maybe not but with a setup like that any game should run wonders even with Vista, except maybe Crysis lol. Really there should be no problem running his system under XP. Ever thought about seeing how the system reacts with just one 8800 GT in it?

 

That's a crazy mobo again Tek, where's the third GT? From what I've read not much is to be gained by adding third but after spending that much on a mobo it isnt gonna hurt to buy another GT is it?

 

 

GT does not have second SLI tab to do triple...only the GTX does now, I believe.

 

Good mobo makes all the difference...IMHO. I've been able to pull off ~20% OC on all my systems so far with nothing other than stock...and that really wasn't even trying too hard. I mean, I'm not that well-versed in the OC realm. So...mobo is key, as well as good ram.

 

The single GT is about 30% slower in crysis, but I am still finding myself CPU limited in that game. I can't wait to OC and give it a go.

 

My perf. in most games now is above 60fps @ 1680 x 1050 now matter what I do with AA or AF or textures, etc...so you're right about that Bush. I am running COD4 with everything at max and 4x AA + 16x AF at or above 60 fps for most levels...so, I'm liking it.

 

Now, I need to find a good, used Dell 2407 LCD.