Im Clueless.....

panthro

panthro

panthro

Soldato
Joined
19 Nov 2004
Posts
12,630
Location
Wokingham
My current specs are:

AMD X2 3800+ @ stock
Asus A8N5X (I think!) - Standard 939 nforce4 board
2 x 512 Mb Samsung PC3200 RAM @ stock
Sapphire X800 GTO @ stock

It runs FEAR okish in 1280x1024 with medium/high setttings
Ive tried to OC in the past but it wasnt very successful...according to a friend of mine my motherboard is the problem (I dont know why it would be).

Im considering upgrading but I am not sure how to proceed. I think the main problem is the RAM and the GFX card. I wanted to add another GB of RAM and upgrade to a DX10 card. However, after going through some threads, it seems that my processor may be a bottleneck to the GFX card, especially if Im having trouble OCing it.

So my question is, what shall I do?

A) Sell all my existing stuff and buy a bundle to upgrade to C2D - then buy a new GFX card? (this would obviously be the best suggestion but I am constrained by money).

B) Upgrade the RAM to matched 2GB modules and upgrade to a DX10 card? (this would be the cheaper and easier option for me).

C) any other suggestions?

I really want to enjoy the next wave of games such as STALKER (if it ever appears) UT2007, etc.
 
I don't know that card so cannot comment but a matching 2Gig of ram would help lots.
I can't see why you cannot clock the CPU either my 3500 clocks well but then i have extreme cooling.
Personally if cash is limited i would get the 2gig kit and a decent CPU cooler and improve your case ventilation/cooling.
Then try clocking it again, if that fails then i still reckon the system will last you a fair while yet. It would at least last you until proven fairly priced DX10 compatible systems are available.
 
i have a 3800x2 and it clocks to 2.3 just by upping the fsb and i have it at 2.6 at 1.45v stable with temp of 35 -45C at most so you should be ok wih that cpu for a bit
 
doran1801 said:
i have a 3800x2 and it clocks to 2.3 just by upping the fsb and i have it at 2.6 at 1.45v stable with temp of 35 -45C at most so you should be ok wih that cpu for a bit
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Whats settings are you using? It clocks fine in the BIOS, but in (cant remember the name of the program that gives you system stats) it says it is still running stock.
 
panthro said:
Any recommendations on some coolers and an OCUK link to the cheap 8800 GTS's? Are they just an 8800GTS with a smaller amount of memory?
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The 320mb 8800GTS haven't been released yet but they are slated for release very soon, they have half the Ram of a standard 8800GTS to cut costs but otherwise should perform about the same I believe.

The OcUK PC3200 Ram would be fine, as would the Geil that malc30 recommends but you couldn't take it to a Core2Duo system since they use DDR2. Well you can but you'd need an ASRock Dual-VSTA motherboard and they aren't very good for overclocking apparantly which sort of defeats the raison d'etre of a Core2Duo I feel. :)
 
Thanks for the posts.

Definitely interested in cooling and OCing the CPU. As my system was prebuilt, I think I will buy an Artic Cooler and some good thermal paste (recommendations?) as well as the RAM, and then wait for the cheaper 8800's to be reviewed before I decide on the GFX. Would love to clock the CPU to somewhere in the region of 2.6 GHz, maybe a bit more.
 
panthro said:
and some good thermal paste (recommendations?)
Click to expand...

Arctic Silver 5 (a.k.a. AS5) ...unless of course your cooler already comes with perfectly good thermal compound in which case there is no point. :D
 
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