Am I stupid?

[Psykobob]

Ok I'd like to have your advice about this setup (it will be used for heavy gaming).

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
<!--<td vAlign=middle width="20%" class="line" align="left">MBDF000297</td>--> <table x:str="" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 333pt;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="444"> <col style="width: 333pt;" width="444"><tbody></tbody></table> DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert nVidia nForce
Western Digital Raptor 74Gb S-ATA [10K]
RAM: I don't know I need your advices.
Graphic card: I don't know I need your advices (NVIDIA).
Cooling: Need to read more about overclocking

I have all the other parts I need. If you keep in mind the fact that I want to overclock (I'll keep it to a reasonable level with aircooling) are those components a good idea? (On a performance and bang-for-your-buck point of view)

[BURTON88]

Re: Am I stupid?

well your video card is worthless get a new one like a 6800gs or a 7800gtx or something good. make sure you have atleast 1gb or more ram for gheavey gaming. Like BF2 needs 2gbs of ram to run perfectly on high video settings.

[matm347]

Re: Am I stupid?

You should be able to OC over 2.6 with that CPU quite easily.

For OC, check out OCZ VX Gold RAM, it can handle high overclocks with very tight timings, a good thing for gaming.

7800GTs are getting some good overclocks, I've seen over 550 with software volt mods.

I suggest getting a good watercooling setup since you will be overclocking. I don't normally suggest an over the counter kit as most are way underpowered and can be worse than air cooling. But Corsair just released their Nautilus 500 kit and has some impressive specs, 350LPH, 13ft head, 12 volt pump. 3/8" hose and copper CPU block which kept an overclocked (2.7) 4000+(130nm, which is hotter than the 90nm 4200+) under 50C under full load. Not bad considering the ~150 MSRP.

Raptors are the fastest SATA drives, and I recommend them(I've got 5)..but I also suggest having a larger drive for storage and backup.

[Amd_Lover2004]

Re: Am I stupid?

Yes the VX RAM is very nice, though it is not available in 1GB modules.

If you are looking for Overclocking the CPU try to go for a dual core Opteron, I have been trying for a few weeks to get my X2 3800 over 2.3, I have managed to get it to 2.5 stable, but the the voltage required is fairly high, I think the primary core of my X2 is not as good as the secondary, as I can get the second core to [email protected], but I have to use 1.65V to get the first core to 2.5, and the temps are a bit high.

I really love the SLI-DR Expert, though make sure you flash to the newest bios as soon as you can, as there are some issues that other users have noticed, mainly the very rare chance that it may fry your CPU on boot. Another thing to note is the CPU temperature reported in bios is ~8-10C to low, so make sure you add 10C to your CPU temp when overclocking or you could run into heat problems. For example, when I first booted up my machine the temp in bios read 23C, in reality it was running about 31-32 so watch out for that. One last thing on the motherboard, if you use a temp monitoring program like MBM5 or Speedfan, make sure you disable the option to scan the SMbus as it will turn off the computer as soon as it scans it.

I would get a 6800GS or two if you plan on running SLI, if not get a 7800GT from eVGA.

Oh and make sure you get a GOOD 500W+ powersupply too, I like OCZ PSU's, but Antec, Fortron, and Enermax are great. Thermaltake is alright, though I would choose the others over it.

[RemixPinoY]

Re: Am I stupid?

Well lets see, I myself would rather get an opteron 170, but that might be out of your budget, not sure, so a opteron 165 would probably be better. You have indeed 400mhz slower than the 4200+, but you have more cach to make up. Also opterons overclock better, they are made of better material, and also run with lower voltage thus making them run cooler and can overclock farther. And AMD's have a ceiling of max speed, most cores max out at about 2.7ghz, while a few more can hit even higher. But the most you can expect to get on air with a good opteron is about 2.7ghz, and if your lucky as a handful are, 2.8ghz and even higher. I myself have a x2 3800+ at 2.6ghz, I didn't get an opteron because they were not availble yet. Also two gig ram kits are getting cheaper, there are ones out now for about 160 dollars, look for companies such as corsair or ocz. Also if your into overclocking, get ddr500 ram, if not I'd suggest just sticking with your 4200+ and getting low timmings of 2 gig ram kits. As for graphic cards, Nvidia is about to release a new line of graphic cards, so I'd wait if I were you for three more days. ATI is also dropping the price of their new cards, I'd try and get a x1900xt for 450 now, I have a 750 dollar gtx 512, and the x1900xtx at 500 dollars outperforms my card, and I think the even cheaper xt does too. Also if your on a budget for under 300, a 7800gt might be nice, and if the new 7900gt falls in price to under 300, that would be a nice buy. Also look out for ati's x1800xt's that are falling in price.


Also your Not STUPID =]