Whatcha think?

[Lasrix]

Well as time goes on and my knowledge of computer grows by reading mags, building, and just general learning it makes me wanna go bigger and badder. Of course with that in mind a person who wants to go bigger and badder with computers generally wants to get into overclocking and more testing. Maybe for the bragging rights or just to have it if they ever need that little bit of speed to access something or do something in a split second.

Well getting to the point, my dad has been going on for about a month on how he wants to get a new computer. He would of course buy the parts and i would do the assembling but of course theres a priority list in play with adults and he found the need to buy a new truck and now a new guitar... ANYWAY! i was sittin here thinkin about an AMD machine and ways to OC my computer and i think it comes down to one thing when im stuck with the 2 storys. I think im gonna fork my computer over to my dad and build an AMD machine.

As much as i love Intel i think its time to move on. maybe for good or just for now. Who knows.
Well as for giving up my computer of course im not gonna give up my FULL machine. Mainly just the cpu, motherboard, 80GB HD, My extra 350W PSU, and the Radeon 8500 GPU i have sitting around. Well, as for the GPU i have to think for a bit because of my new comp... ill get back to that.

As for my new machine im going to go with an AMD mahine with a PCI-E MOBO so i can SLI 2x6800's or 2X6600's. Thats where i come back to give away my video card too. As you all know Video cards are a bit pricey and i dont know if i should jump to SLI just yet..

This is where you guys may help me out:
1) i need to know whats the tree of AMD CPUs. Like from 3000- latest and what each are in Ghz? as well as whats a 64 bit... just a little help on sorting out AMD's.
2) i need a PCI-E MOBO that supports AMD chips
3) which should i SLI, 6600 or 6800?
4)What kind of ram is best for OCing?

Well sorry about the ranting and thanx for reading

Cheers-

 

[Trifid]

The 3000 is (on 939) 1.8ghz, 3200 2ghz 3500 is 2.2ghz, 4000 is 2.4ghz and FX55 is 2.6ghz, not that the ghz matters on AMD, so don't think it is weedy being so low, as it cuts corners at other places to increase speed.

Get the DFI lanparty boards - best ones out for overclocking.

2 6600gt's don't go well in sli, beter to have 1 6800gt, so either get a evga 6600gt, and when you have the money to get another 6600gt, use the step up program from evga, to get the 6800gt, or just get the 6800gt from the start.


http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231008

 

[Raekwon]

with ram, its almost entirely about the IC's (Integrated Circuits). you may have heard people talking about TCCD or BH-5, UTT etc. they are refering to the IC's used on ram modules. there are a few really good ram IC's like winbond BH-5 and UTT, samsung TCCD (there are lots of other decent ones as well, but they are the cream).

the other major contributing factor to the performance of ram modules, is the PCB they use. the best PCB is manufactured by a company called "BrainPower".

there are many good sets of modules to buy, sometimes its hard to know what you should get. you should work out what is more important to you, higher HTT (fsb) or really tight latencies. BH-5 is capable of reaching high speeds with 2-2-2-5 timings, (granted, it takes a lot of volts to get there). TCCD is capable of higher speeds, but with more relaxed timings, also the TCCD does not need or even like much more than 2.9vdimm.

theres heaps more that could be said here, but the best way to learn this stuff is to read articles, reviews, benchmarks. take a look at the Xtremesystems forums, you are sure to learn a lot from them.

 

[Elbatrop1]

1) A 64-bit CPU means that you can use a 64-bit operating system, as compare to previous ones being 32-bit like 2000 and XP.

If you really like OCing and want more to play with, get an FX-series CPU. Their multipliers are unlocked, and therefore make it a bit easier to overclock. If you dont want to spend a huge amount of money on an FX chip, then get a winchester core CPU.

2) The DFI ones like Trifid said are pretty good. The ASUS ones are good except for the Chipset fan dying. I also hear the Abit ones are pretty good too. Everyone has their preference, I like ASUS.

3) Naturally you should get some 6800GTs to SLI, but 2 6600GTs will SLI nicely. MSI makes good ones that are inexpensive, but some eVGA or Leadtek will benchmark a little higher due to being overclocked out of the box.

4) Corsair XMS series with heatspreaders.

 

[Raekwon]

Corsair XMS series with heatspreaders.

ok, so thats a generalisation, how do the XMS series do overclocking? obviously, not every module used BH-5. so where is the evidence that they are consistently good overclockers? (you did say it like the entire series is good for it).

 

[Lasrix]

what i read earlier today is that heatspreaders dont do much =\. According to the mag i read they are more for looks then anything.

anyone agree?

 

[Raekwon]

yeah, i agree with you there, my modules are running at about a third of what i have seen them do, and they still get quite warm. so i'd hate to think how hot they were with 2.9v

but i honestly think they look nice, a silver HS that is so shiney it reflects stuff like a mirror

 

[Trifid]

Heatspreaders are there just for the looks really, as they don't help cooling.

For the graphics, found a bench test (it was hiding, I couldn't find it before)

(these are 2 different bench tests done on different systems, so there will be some differences, but you get a rough idea that 2 6600gt's are not worth the money over 1 6800gt.)