Tatty's New System Upgrade

[Tatty_Two]

Hi all,

Am just about to order a couple of items for an upgrade, I have pretty much made up my mind taking performance and value (here in the UK) into consideration as well as importantly, a little bit of future proofing (Not going Quad today as it seems silly with Yorkfield just a few weeks away) so I wont upgrade my CPU which currently is an E6850 until January, the rest of it is listed below, please feel free to comment, I am not interested in the fastest system, just fast will do! Current specs are of course to the left:

Gigabyte GA-x38 DQ6

2GB Kit Crucial Ballistix PC8500 (love this stuff so just upgrading for the faster speed and/or tighter timings)

Western Digital Caviar 250GB S300 16mb 7200rpm SATA2 HDD

Antec 900 Ultimate Gaming Case (I like the cooling solution on this, my current case is decent but the 900 is better)

HIS Radeon (gulp....darkside ) HD3870XT 512MB (I like the low power, call me old fashioned but I like the dual slot cooler and I am hoping that the next couple of driver releases get this flying like it did with the 2900). Gettin the x38 board as it's 16 x 16 as I want to get a 2nd 3870 in the spring for XFire or maybe if I am skint by then, a 3850 to go with the 3870.

Please no fanboi....ism on the Graphics, I DO know the strengths of both camps, had half a dozen of each, just constructive thoughts would be nice or at least agreement that this with the 6850 for now will hopefully give me a well balanced system.

Thanks!

 

[d44ve]

How do you feel about cable management?

If you are real particular about it... I would NOT get the 900. I had one and its a great case for cooling. However, the way they have the PSU mounted (on the bottom) it is near impossible to get a clean setup.

I ended up having to cut holes and run the wires both underneath and behind the motherboard and motherboard tray.

 

[Tatty_Two]

How do you feel about cable management?

If you are real particular about it... I would NOT get the 900. I had one and its a great case for cooling. However, the way they have the PSU mounted (on the bottom) it is near impossible to get a clean setup.

I ended up having to cut holes and run the wires both underneath and behind the motherboard and motherboard tray.

Thanks, I have heard the same, I do have some cable extenders, I am not a mad cable tidy person as long as it is not really bad with crap lying everywhere, cables catching fan blades etc.

 

[mandelore]

grats on the ram! Ive got the BallistiX Tracer 8500 sitting in its box infront of me, just gotta wait for delivery of the Asus M3A32 board.

should be a sweet system, ur waiting till Jan for your cpu upgrade like me

 

[panchoman]

looks good to me, but as d44ve said, the 900 is notorious for the cable management problems.

 

[Grings]

looks good, i've been thinking of getting a similar setup, but with the abit x38 (i was thinking p35, but am now tempted by 3870 in crossfire)

and crucial really cant be beaten on price at the moment (did you see this?)

 

[theonetruewill]

looks good, i've been thinking of getting a similar setup, but with the abit x38 (i was thinking p35, but am now tempted by 3870 in crossfire)

and crucial really cant be beaten on price at the moment (did you see this?)

As always Grings, you find a ridiculously good deal

 

[Grings]

im a cheapskate

 

[Tatty_Two]

looks good, i've been thinking of getting a similar setup, but with the abit x38 (i was thinking p35, but am now tempted by 3870 in crossfire)

and crucial really cant be beaten on price at the moment (did you see this?)

Yup, I am payin 4 pence less! I was looking at the dominator PC8500's.....similar on performance i think but almost £40 more expensive! Them x38's aint cheap but I think for the 16 x 16 as opposed to 16 x 4 of the P35 as well as the native 1600FSb it will be worth it in the longer term. Slot a Yorkfield 45nm Quad in there along with another 3870 come springtime and then it'll be racing. Was really finding it hard to decide between the 8800GT and the 3870 but availability has won the day and I do think that with the driver releases that ATi managed with the 2900's it should get quicker and quicker although there is no doubting the 8800GT is the quicker at present. I am not even going to open the box of the 3870 until catalyst 7.11's have been released, there is no proper support for the card in 7.10.

 

[theonetruewill]

Yup, I am payin 4 pence less! I was looking at the dominator PC8500's.....similar on performance i think but almost £40 more expensive!

Well we can't criticize the Dominators for not being the same price. the cooling is far better. Although I would always prefer the Crucial sticks.

 

[Chewy]

a bit of futureproofing , Tattys always upgrading

looks good, I havent looked up on the HD3870XT 512MB but is therea bigger model? the 8800gt 512mb runs out of ram with max detail @ 1680 x 1050 in some games from what Ive read.. theres no sign of a 1gb HD3870XT? I should really find out more about this card since Im in the market for a new card.

 

[Tatty_Two]

a bit of futureproofing , Tattys always upgrading

looks good, I havent looked up on the HD3870XT 512MB but is therea bigger model? the 8800gt 512mb runs out of ram with max detail @ 1680 x 1050 in some games from what Ive read.. theres no sign of a 1gb HD3870XT? I should really find out more about this card since Im in the market for a new card.

Not sure....but I cant wait.....U Know me On another topic, whats the best.....Corsair Dominator or OCZ Reaper....both rated at PC8500???

 

[Silverel]

by TUngsten (November 15th - 4:25 PM) - Reply

by: WarEagleAU;534071
BTW, the Reapers cooling technology, I believe it to be superior to that of Corsairs Dominator lineup

I think the Dominator lineup stinks. I've never had to RMA ram before I tried the Dominators....

by HookeyStreet (November 15th - 4:54 PM) - Reply

by: WarEagleAU;534071What ICs are these using, micron D9s?

BTW, the Reapers cooling technology, I believe it to be superior to that of Corsairs Dominator lineup

I agree, Corsair Dominator is crap :shadedshu

fyi...

 

[panchoman]

dominators recently haven't been so good to their owners seems like. and ocz reapers have super bad reviews on newegg for some reason and i never liked em for some reason...

you're fine with crucial or gskill, etc.

 

[Ripper3]

Really cannot remember where I found this, I think it was a thread on another forum, about which RAM companioes, and RAM models were definately running D9s, but the Dominators supposedly use some of the worst DDR2 around, I think I remember Elpida being thrown about. Not sure though, but either way, the Crucials are too cheap to ignore.
If anything, get some of the RAM coolers by Thermalright.

Great upgrade choices though, especially since, as you said, if you're skint by spring, you can still get the 3850 and Crossfire it.

 

[panchoman]

some crucial ram with the corsair ram cooler will really perform awesome for you. dominators are mudbloods now, no longer are they all crucial, other chips are mixed in and thats why the price of dominators came crashing down.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Slight change in plan, I have ditched the Antec and am going to keep my current case and the Crucials were out of stock So I have ordered Patriot "Extreme Performance" 9200's which apparently will do near to 1300Mhz .....1200Mhz would have done me.....I aint greedy.....ohhhh and they were cheaper

 

[erocker]

I will get you some pics of my 900. I didn't cut any holes and it looks pretty clean. So... What are you doing with your GTS?!

 

[Scrizz]

sounds good, I'm gonna be upgrading in spring.... hehe....

 

[Hawk1]

Really cannot remember where I found this, I think it was a thread on another forum, about which RAM companioes, and RAM models were definately running D9s, but the Dominators supposedly use some of the worst DDR2 around, I think I remember Elpida being thrown about. Not sure though, but either way, the Crucials are too cheap to ignore.

I use This list to check who's using what chips.

Oh, and nice build(in progress) Tatty.

 

[nflesher87]

though I love Patriot, quite honestly bro, just stick with your current Ballistix and spend the money elsewhere
with the performance you get out of those Ballistix, the gain in performance you'll get will be quite negligible compared to the cost and the fact that you could put that cash into other components
my opininion, save the cash on the memory so that you can get a second 3870 sooner
that will yield a much greater cost/performace gain

 

[Sovereign]

Hmm, your worried about Intel's Yorkfield when the Phenom is only a few short weeks away as well!? Personal preference, I suppose so to each his own.

Also, I found it a bit ironic that a brit such as yourself is now going with memory (Patriot) that is "made in america!" The only memory in the world that is made in america, might I add!

Anyhow, don't mind me, just wanted to add my 2 cents and random incoherent thoughts!

EDIT - Damnit, nflesher87! You have this uncanny habbit of beating me to the post (points above)!

 

[B1gg3stN00b]

Ewwww America.


*is American*

 

[Tatty_Two]

though I love Patriot, quite honestly bro, just stick with your current Ballistix and spend the money elsewhere
with the performance you get out of those Ballistix, the gain in performance you'll get will be quite negligible compared to the cost and the fact that you could put that cash into other components
my opininion, save the cash on the memory so that you can get a second 3870 sooner
that will yield a much greater cost/performace gain

I hear what you are saying but I will get at least 130mhz extra speed outta them, but the real selling point is.............1110mhz @ 4-4-4-10 My 5300 Crucials just wont get near that, I am on 5-5-5-15 for those speeds and these Patriots were really cheap, I can probably sell my crucials for what I paid for them, they were only the equivilent to $15 more than OCZ Gold DDR800 that stocked at 5-4-4-18!!

 

[Chewy]

Ewwww America.


*is American*

and your point would be with this useless unthoughtful post? good people live-in and come from all parts of the world.. no-one (place) is better than the nexted, we'll thats how I try and look at the world.. dont paint a whole country with the same brush.