Card hunt with a significant hurdle.

[DemocritusJr]

Greetings,

I'm trying to get my pre-built to a place where looking at it doesn't make me feel like I've been had, and one of those steps is installing a respectable graphics card. I'd been leaning toward the Sapphire X1950xt, but with the 8800 320mb within an acceptable range of variation these days, my decision isn't as easily made.

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
WINXp Pro SP2

Now the hurdles:

Motherboard: Foxconn C51G+MCP51
BIOS: Phoenix Tech. 6.0
PSU Ultra XFinity 600W
Gateway uBTX case

For speed, the 8800 should be the obvious pick of the two. I plan to avoid Vista as long as I possibly can, but figure the 8800 will still be an acceptable bit of hardware when I eventually cross over and have the DirectX10 option available to me. The real question to me has been whether or not it's worth trying to adequately run it in this particular box, or even if it would fit.

Opinions?

 

[JrRacinFan]

Hmmmmm ......


I say X1950 + New Proc.

 

[trt740]

First off the 8800gts 320 would be better than the x1950xt. It's faster and has more shader for future shader heavy game plus it's DX10. Second if your chip is 939 you can always upgrade it as prices go down but your system is fine as is. Also 8800gts 320 could later be used in a future rig by buying a second one if needed for SLI and it's resale will be higher because it is DX10 and someone else might buy it for their sli rig if you sold it. The x1950xt cannot hold the same resale value. The x1950xt was a great in it's day but Ati screwed up by not making it Dx10. Three things you always do and in this order, you buy the best video card you can afford, then cpu, then motherboard. At really high resolutions it more about the GPU than the CPU. Also of all the computer parts graphics cards hold their resale the best. Also oc that 4200 to 2.7ghz or higher that will help un bottle neck your GPU.

 

[Namslas90]

Now the hurdles:

Motherboard: Foxconn C51G+MCP51
Gateway uBTX case

The real question to me has been whether or not it's worth trying to adequately run it in this particular box, or even if it would fit.
Opinions?

Pic of his mobo;(remember its BTX so the card is upside down!)Components face up not down.

http://www.fic.com.tw/product/motherboard/images/ktbc51g.jpg

As mentioned earlier(other thread), I put an X1900XTX on a similar board, had to mod GPU card just to get past that row of caps toward the back of PCI-E slot.

Will a 8800 even fit??

 

[trt740]

Pic of his mobo;(remember its BTX so the card is upside down!)Components face up not down.

http://www.fic.com.tw/product/motherboard/images/ktbc51g.jpg

As mentioned earlier(other thread), I put an X1900XTX on a similar board, had to mod GPU card just to get past that row of caps toward the back of PCI-E slot.

Will a 8800 even fit??

forget what I said if it won't fit buy a new motherboard or forget it and get a smaller video card like 7600gt or 8600gt

 

[DemocritusJr]

Namslas, any chance of getting a pic of your modded interior?

I believe the 8800 is slightly longer than the 1950xtx, but might be a bit thinner, too. I'll try and dig up specs later today, if any are available.

Getting a new mb is an option, but it'll still be limited to the uBTX Gateway box, which I think might be difficult to match with a non-Gateway-specific board, which would mean buying a new case.

TRT, you really think the 7600gt or 8600gt are better choices than a 1950xt? I could even pick up a 1950xtx 512 for about $330, which to me seems a better grab than an 8600gt. Or were you talking specifically on card measurements?

 

[DemocritusJr]

While I'm at it, what are people oc-ing their Gateway boards with? Just software, or is there a way to successfully unlock the BIOS on the mb?

 

[Namslas90]

While I'm at it, what are people oc-ing their Gateway boards with? Just software, or is there a way to successfully unlock the BIOS on the mb?

Gateway mobo's do not have locked BIOS, althought the stock Bios may not be much good, The Gateway GT series Mobo's have several versions of Bios available, and they can be "flashed" into mobo(CMOS) allowing for more overclocking options. You still end up using software like ATITOOL to overclock all options.

I will work on some pics, but don't realy want to take the thing apart(but probably will as I need to clean it out).

 

[Machetty]

Yeah I have a crappy gateway with a btx casing and same chipsets(C51G+MCP51'0....however the board is made by F.I.C. ...I recently installed an nvidia 8800 GT. It fits alright. This was my first time installing a component. Kinda felt good.......feel better if I had a decent mobo. Ah well ....you live you learn.

By the way I have a 939 athlon 64 x2 4200+, 2 Gb RAM, the FIC board can support 4200+ to 4800+.....does this mean I could overclock to 4800+ with my current cpu with adequate cooling? ......Right now I'm running Crysis at medium.....and I can manually put it into high .....the image is fine but a little choppy ,especially when alot of stuff is going on.(At times will freeze and unfreeze or freeze and go pixely with lots of red...thats at high though) Any tips anyone on pushing this machine a little further.....I tried overclocking the cpu but no luck....Bios(pheonix workstation 6.0 pg) don't seem to give me the option. I tried one version of clockgen (or whatever its called) but seemed a little iffy....in other words did'nt seem to work. Update Bios? What to do? Or just be content I got crysis running at medium...but now that I know that I can put into very high setting with xp and dx9, I 'd like to. haha

 

[trog100]

Or just be content I got crysis running at medium

yep.. u wont get it to run acceptable frame rates at high whatever u do..

trog

 

[sneekypeet]

Yeah I have a crappy gateway with a btx casing and same chipsets(C51G+MCP51'0....however the board is made by F.I.C. ...I recently installed an nvidia 8800 GT. It fits alright. This was my first time installing a component. Kinda felt good.......feel better if I had a decent mobo. Ah well ....you live you learn.

By the way I have a 939 athlon 64 x2 4200+, 2 Gb RAM, the FIC board can support 4200+ to 4800+.....does this mean I could overclock to 4800+ with my current cpu with adequate cooling? ......Right now I'm running Crysis at medium.....and I can manually put it into high .....the image is fine but a little choppy ,especially when alot of stuff is going on.(At times will freeze and unfreeze or freeze and go pixely with lots of red...thats at high though) Any tips anyone on pushing this machine a little further.....I tried overclocking the cpu but no luck....Bios(pheonix workstation 6.0 pg) don't seem to give me the option. I tried one version of clockgen (or whatever its called) but seemed a little iffy....in other words did'nt seem to work. Update Bios? What to do? Or just be content I got crysis running at medium...but now that I know that I can put into very high setting with xp and dx9, I 'd like to. haha

SYSTOOL found in the download section here clocked my old 939 pretty well, has RAM and voltage options as well!!!!!

http://www.techpowerup.com/systool/

 

[trog100]

your computer is doing all right.. tweaking is fun if u like doing it but it wont help u much in crysis..

trog

 

[Machetty]

Thanks... The systool prgram doesn't detect my mobo....so I'm guessing thats a dead end.
As a beginner I'm not familiar with the do's and dont's so I''l take it easy with the programs... upgrades@esupport.com offered me a bios upgrade for 30$. I basically told them what I wanted to accomplish....minor fsb and divider tweaks @ current voltage settings....they said they had an available upgrade .... I haven't spoke to them yet, just received an e-mail...I have a few questions to ask them before I jump on the upgrade. This is probably the ultimate upgrade for cheap....unless I can upgrade Bios for cheaper else where.

your probably right tweaking my cpu won't help much for Crysis...but the physics...isn't Crysis driven by physics that are in turn processed by the cpu ? or the kinematics and dynamics of the game should I say ...I read something about this ealier. The question is: is this even a concern for amd 64 x2 4200+.

As anyone else I'll just end up buying a new pc at somepoint .........but this time a decent barebone gaming platform(...guessing this is where the gaming functionality is easier to deal with) ......not a gateway media center.

 

[trog100]

The question is: is this even a concern for amd 64 x2 4200+

nope even thow a few intel owners might tell u it is..

its pretty much down to grafix card power..

trog

 

[kwchang007]

Why not get a 8800gt? It's more powerful than both, cheaper than the gts and takes up less space, and uses less power. Win, win.