Time to make a huge upgrade

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Grimulus

New Member
things that are broken and need to be upgraded

my motherboard: soyo dragon 2 kt-880
video card: leadtek 6800 GT AGP, this is my 2nd card, and both have died.

now i'm left with a dilemma,

buying a new motherboard for my barton is sort of like shooting a dead dog, in the fact that i would be buying an obsolete product. so i'm thinking that upgrading to a 64 bit system would be a good option, so i'm thinking of doing this:

AMD 3500+ newcastle (I think that's the best out of clawhammer and winchester, someone enlighten me?)
MSI neo 2(possibly 4 depending on VC) platinum

so now that i will be getting a new video card because more than likely i won't be able to get a return on the VC, I'm thinking I might as well make th jump to PCI-E. They are the same price, i'm not sure about the actual boost in gaming as of now, but from what i hear it won't be a bad thing to have PCI-E later on.

the setup I am looking at is this

AMD 3500+
MSI Neo 4 Platinum
Evga 6800 GT PCI-E

here's a couple of questions:
1)because of cost, is 256mb truly a performance booster over 128mb on the VC?
2) is there a 6800 GT PCI-E with 128mb? I haven't seen one.
3)winchester, newcastle, or clawhammer? or does it matter?

thanks
Grimmy
 
G

Grimulus

New Member
not a very interesting post? :p i'm just trying to keep it on the new post thing for a while, and i guess if no one replies i just take my best guess. :p
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
because of cost, is 256mb truly a performance booster over 128mb on the VC?
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AFAIK theres only 1 6800GT with 128MB -- and its crap.

is there a 6800 GT PCI-E with 128mb? I haven't seen one.
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I know theres a AGP one but its crap (and costs more than most 256s)

winchester, newcastle, or clawhammer? or does it matter?
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Winchester would be the newest and least power hungry of the bunch

Btw you dont need to bump after half an hour...
 
randruff

randruff

New Member
First of all, I highly recommend an Asus board. They are loaded with features and have a stellar repuation in the industry. As for the cpu, yes Winchester is the least power hungry but they are all good cpus. At 3500+ minor indifferences will not be a factor as that chip is very powerful. For the vid card, i would say go with a 256mb card, the more the merrier! :)
 
G

Grimulus

New Member
that's a pretty sweet deal preator. :) winchester it is.

Just from reviews i've read and hearsay, the MSI board is superior in performance to that of Asus. I will never doubt asus being a good company, but I think you have to give credit where credit is due.

i'm debating between BFG, XFX, EVGA, or MSI for the VC. any rec for specific reasons other than what looks the coolest? lol.
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Just from reviews i've read and hearsay, the MSI board is superior in performance to that of Asus. I will never doubt asus being a good company, but I think you have to give credit where credit is due.
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Thats too broad of a statement. Not many companies will ever match ASUS for their work on the Intel side of things (MSI certainly wont, Abit really is one of the only makes that will ever come close to ASUS on the Intel side of things). It just so happens that ASUS's job on the K8 side of things hasnt been "as expected" (they were definitely up there for their stuff with K7s). For S939 K8s your best bets are the MSI and DFI boards: between the two, if you really think you can overclock pas the threshold of the MSI board (at which point you prolly wouldnt have made such a post), the DFI is definitely for you.
 
G

Grimulus

New Member
Praetor said:
Thats too broad of a statement.
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I was referring to the S939 K8 stuff. :) Asus is a great company.

Praetor said:
For S939 K8s your best bets are the MSI and DFI boards: between the two, if you really think you can overclock pas the threshold of the MSI board (at which point you prolly wouldnt have made such a post), the DFI is definitely for you.
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If i OC, it won't be an extreme amount so....

This may be a stupid question, but what you are saying is the DFI is the best choice since I won't OC the heck out of the MSI? or did i misunderstand?
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
I was referring to the S939 K8 stuff.
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I know. And their K8 boards arent that great (relative to the other makes). ASUS has always excelled on Intel and K7 boards. Taking into perspective the P4P/P4C, A7N and P5 series their A8 and K8 series dont exemplify what ASUS is really capable of

If I OC, it won't be an extreme amount so....
This may be a stupid question, but what you are saying is the DFI is the best choice since I won't OC the heck out of the MSI? or did I misunderstand?
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DFI (specially their NF4 Lanparty) should/will OC clear past the MSI board (K8N Neo4) however are are a few points worth noting
  • The MSI Neo4 will OC pretty damn well (second IMO to the DFI) -- if you really think you're going to (or be able to) OC past the capabilities of the MSI board -- then most likely you wont be asking for advice
  • Unlike when you OC a K7 or P4 setup, K8s, with their ondie memory controllers dont have a discrete memory clock but rather work on memory dividers.... which means, if you intend to push your system hard -- your RAM is gonna have to go with you (assuming 1:1 of course but also to a degree the other ratios). Now OCers know that when you start OCing crap too far, bumping Vcore/Vdimm is used to maintain stability and with OCing memory devices like the OCZ DDR booster can be used to serious crank the Vdimm ... but that doesnt work so well if you have 4 memory slots all filled up ... regardless of that, the DFI board gives you the convenience/ability to crank the Vdimm to stupidly high values straight from BIOS as if it were a normal setting
  • So far it would seem that the DFI would be the premier board but three things stop it (IMO) from taking a clean victory (1) Most people wont be able to OC that high so the OC advantage isnt really significant and (2) MSI board comes with 24bit hardware audio onboard, the DFI doesnt and to a lesser point (3) the MSI comes with all SATA-II connections, the DFI is half-and-half
 
G

Grimulus

New Member
alright, a sorta new plan. i CAN get my video card replaced for the brand of my choice. i have chaintech, PNY, XFX, EVGA, and MSI. are any of these any better than the other for one reason or another? they all appear to be the same as the reference board, so i shouldn't have a weight problem like i did with the leadtek. :)
 
G

Grimulus

New Member
i forgot to mention that because of the replacement, PCI-E is completely out of the picture mostly because of monetary issues. :) so i'm looking at NF2, i suppose.
 
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