Customized computer?

[Phoenix20578]

My next upgrade aside from a good heatsink is going to be a better motherbaord... i'm running on a decent gigabyte -s2 series board w\ 4gb (4 x 1gb) Xtreme Patriot -800, a X1950 XT, and I really need to clean up my hard drives ( 2x 250, 1x 200) and have it in a Gigabyte Poseidon full case w\ ePower 520 watt psu.

Gigabyte makes horrible boards. They tend not to last long, thou they might have fixed that issue since I last dealt with them. I tend to stick with Asus for boards. I've been using them for so long they got my brand loyalty. I will always recommend an Asus board to replace another brand. Just make sure that the new board you get is compatible with the RAM you have.

As for the harddrives, you might want to switch into SATA if you havent already. The new SATA WD's arent bad on the pocket, and run well.

[Buffalobiian]

Gigabyte makes horrible boards. They tend not to last long, thou they might have fixed that issue since I last dealt with them. I tend to stick with Asus for boards. I've been using them for so long they got my brand loyalty. I will always recommend an Asus board to replace another brand. Just make sure that the new board you get is compatible with the RAM you have.

As for the harddrives, you might want to switch into SATA if you havent already. The new SATA WD's arent bad on the pocket, and run well.

Hmmm??? I've been told that Gigabyte motherboards last longer and that Asus boards get higher performance because they often overclock their stuff and hence don't last that long. This was a friend's opinion in 2006 though, so I wouldn't say it's a very technical source, though he does know much on the topic. When was the last time you last dealth with them Pheonix? Just wanting to know the dates of our opinions.

Maybe it's a back and forth thing. A few years ago, AMD X2s were owning Pentium Ds in things like power consumption and performance on par, and a similar thing was happening in the single core market (save for video encoding performance, P4s always kicked in that one). When C2D came though, the tables turned, for now at least. It might be a bad comparison though, since the former was more of a quality issue, and the later more a technology/performance one.

btw, all our computers at home have Gigabyte boards and graphics. I'll let you know if my samples end up being unreliable.

[darkshadow]

lol gigabyte, asus, msi, rofl
just get DFI and love it ;P

[Phoenix20578]

Hmmm??? I've been told that Gigabyte motherboards last longer and that Asus boards get higher performance because they often overclock their stuff and hence don't last that long. This was a friend's opinion in 2006 though, so I wouldn't say it's a very technical source, though he does know much on the topic. When was the last time you last dealth with them Phoenix? Just wanting to know the dates of our opinions.

The last time I dealt with Gigabyte boards was when I was still a Tech back in early to mid '06. They tended to have issues like the socket for the possessor not responding, or the PCI's not working out of no where, or the memory slots burning out. Before I left, the store I worked at refused to carry them, beside special order, because we go so many complaints about them. Like I said before, I have no clue if they fixed the issues the boards had in the past 2 years or so because after dealing with so many bad ones, I refuse to use them. I guess its more of an opinion thing than anything else. As for Asus, the boards do tend to have overheating issues when the memory and possessors get over-clocked, hence whythey sometimes dont last long. Quick fix for that is a well ventilated case, so if your ballzy enough to overclock you hardware, you should be smart enough to get a well ventilated case so it doesnt burn out. I havent changed my Asus board in 4 years since I got it. The only reason the system crapped out was because my HD's went bad and stopped reading.

BTW, were the italics really that necessary?

[Buffalobiian]

BTW, were the italics really that necessary?

lol, no, just something I did on the fly. I'd imagine both manufacturers have similar warranty periods. Where does this overheating occur usually? Nth bridge? My brother fried his motherboard once. Apparently from "resetting too much." I'm thinking it's more the overheating that resulted in his resetting.

[itadakimasu]

got a zalman cnps9500 today, dropped my cpus max load temp to around 40c from 60+c w\ stock amd cooling. Woot...

also, ordered dvi to hdmi cord so i can hook up to the huge 50'' i bought a few days ago to go into my new apartment!

[Board of Command]

lol gigabyte, asus, msi, rofl
just get DFI and love it ;P

DFI doesn't have enough selection. It's either $250 or nothing. They had plenty of selection back in the nForce4 days (I had an Ultra-D) but I don't know what happened to them. Now they're only selling one product at a time...

I use an Asus P5K-E right now and it's definitely a more user-friendly board than the Gigabyte 965P-DS3 I had 3 months ago. A lot of people recommend the DS3L right now, but I say stay away from Gigabyte if you can buy Asus or Abit at a similar price. It's a newer product than my DS3 but it's still based on the same reference design and the BIOS still works the same way...which is a bad thing.

[darkshadow]

DFI is def cheaper then you think, the LP UT ICFX3200-T2R i have is now only 140$ on newegg, and the newest p35 version of that one is now 200$.

Oh and about physics, someone on another forum told me its possible to use any x1000 card and up for physics calculations, even if the gfx card is different, which rox ofcourse.

[itadakimasu]

I put together a system a couple weeks ago and put a 2600 XT in it, when i loaded all the drivers i saw it installing audio drivers too... i sold that computer, but now that i'm about to have my computer hooked up w\ my tv (50'' sony grand-wega) wondering if it is possible to push audio through the video card via DVI to HDMI cable?

[Board of Command]

Yes, they have an audio processor onboard for HDMI output.

[itadakimasu]

i got it hooked up w\ rca audio and it works fine... but i only have one hdmi port on my tv so i have to choose between computer or dvd player... errrg

[Board of Command]

Go for HDMI through computer. HDMI with a DVD player is pointless since it's only playing low resolution videos, even if you're upscaling.

[Animeniax]

Is SLI really worth it? I have an 8800GTX superclocked in my system, and was wondering if it would be worth it to get another for SLI. I play all the big titles on high settings and 1680x1050 resolution and it's amazing. How much better would it be with SLI?

[darkshadow]

SLI and Xfire are a waste of money

[itadakimasu]

The current setup



took the picture while testing the netflix online option...its good but they need a better selection that you can play instantly. One drawback... i found it very hard to play TF2 on a 50'' lcd

[Phoenix20578]

The current setup



took the picture while testing the netflix online option...its good but they need a better selection that you can play instantly. One drawback... i found it very hard to play TF2 on a 50'' lcd

Hey...that desk on the left....I couldve sworn I threw it out a few months ago.....

Nice setup dude. I'm hoping to have the same S-video layout when I get a nicer TV

[itadakimasu]

www.newegg.com

amd x2 6400+ = $149.99 promo code : emcacafbj

thought i'd share... i bought mine for $179.99 and thought that was a good deal.

[Phoenix20578]

Yea, I got the e-mail also. That is a great deal. The board they show with it isnt bad ether. Here it is for all of you not on the Newegg mail list.

[Board of Command]

If you're getting a motherboard, then you're probably building a new system. If you're building a new system, then you should be looking at Intel, not AMD.

[itadakimasu]

maybe my next system will be intel... don't think im going to build another for a while though... idk.

unless DDR3 drops in price or I start making alot more money. I barely even game anymore though... mostly am just using my computer as media center.