Upgraded... Intel, Asus, OCZ, ATI, Dell...

CJLMTLCA · Nov 17, 2006, 02:20 AM

So i made the jump to Dual-Core, PCI-E, DDR2.
Here is my old system:
Asus P4C800 Deluxe
Intel Pentium4C 3.0GHz
Vantec Ion2 460W
OCZ Platinum PC-3200 DDR400 2-3-2-5 2GB
HIS Excalibur X800XTPE ICEQII VIVO
Creative SoundBlaster XFI Fatal1ty
ATI TV Wonder Elite
2 Maxtor DiamondMax10 300GB SATA
Plextor PX-716A
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream
Zalman Reserator1 cooling CPU, GPU and NB
2 SilenX 120mm
Viewsonic A90f+ 19" CRT

Kept the case, HDs, OD, cooling, tv, audio and... the floppy!
Here is what i got : Intel E6600, Asus P5W DH Deluxe, OCZ Platinum PC2-6400 R2 2GB, ATI X1950XTX:

I had my Tsunami Acousti-Padded and along with the Reserator the only fans spinning were from the Vantec Ion2 and 2 SilenX 120mm case fans, my computer was dead silent. The Vantec is silent even under load and with the Hardcano i was able to lower the speed of the case fans.

Everything installed:

Front and rear, if you care:

Finally, even though it pains me to remove a perfectly good CRT, i made the jump to LCD with Michael "dude-you're-getting-a" Dell's 2407WFP and 1907FP. Other contenders were Steve iJobs' 30" (overkill), BenQ FP241W, Viewsonic VP2330WB, Samsung 244T, but i liked the Dell's features:

The Dell put up a good fight, but Zalman gets the gold. By just .5 inches, but a wins a win right? Fill and 1:1 features of the 2407WFP:

FarCry Instincts Predator on XBox360 using VGA connector running at 1280x720. Along with the Aspect setting of the monitor, this config gives the best results using a 720p game, IMO:

Finally, desktop with DVD running Picture In Picture. And Picture By Picture so i can play 3 FarCry games at once. Still getting used to the controls:

So, with Windows XP Pro installed as well as all my apps and games, i just have to find the best ram setting and memtest them, try some overclocking and then do some burning-in and stress testing.
Even with all the new hardware news and reviews going on around here, i'm sure i can last a while with this setup. Will wait to see how Vista matures, wait for DX10 cards to mature, see how physics will be handled, wait for 'real' quad-cores to be available that don't cost 1500$, see what becomes of AMD/ATI (or should we just say AMD now?)...
In the meantime: Game On!

Happy computing!

Drakon · Nov 17, 2006, 02:51 AM

What PSU did u get? And nice job on the tidy wiring

CJLMTLCA · Nov 17, 2006, 03:19 AM

I didn't change the power supply, Vantec Ion2 460W, hopeing it would be enough. I did a quick Extreme PSU Calculator and barely made it, so far no problems, but who knows later on as i push the system. I might get a bigger one, don't know. Wouldn't want to damage my new hardware.

Wiring could be tighter, but i don't feel like hiding every inch of wire, as long as the bulk of it out of the way of airflow, it's ok.

Speaking of airflow, Asus PCProbeII is giving me 55C idle. I heard this board runs hotter, but i've seen some people report as low as 40C, so i'll have to look into better cooling a little more. Maybe do what some have done and remove the heatsink covers and lay down some AS5, or water the NB, SB and VR.

CDsDontBurn · Nov 17, 2006, 03:32 AM

looks good

Necrosis · Nov 17, 2006, 03:40 AM

Did you remember to take the film off the mosfet & north bridge heat sinks?

BTW, I'm running a really similar setup..just no water cooling.

CJLMTLCA · Nov 17, 2006, 12:23 PM

Yes, i removed those. And what about you, what temps are you getting?

H3X4D3C1M4L · Nov 17, 2006, 05:29 PM

Lucky man! I like that "Steve iJobs" thing

Nice on the Reserator... must be nice to be able to afford all that stuff eh?

And I second the nice wiring too... very clean!

Where 'bouts in Montreal are you... may have to pay you a visit, mon nouveau ami

Necrosis · Nov 17, 2006, 05:39 PM

Hmonitor 23 Idle 27 Load MB 43
Core Temp 41 Idle 45 Load

Running at stock

dipstick · Nov 17, 2006, 06:13 PM

Sweet setup!!

CJLMTLCA · Nov 19, 2006, 12:33 AM

So Hmonitor is showing 52C mainboard, 30C cpu at idle.
I was benchmarking with Sandra Lite 2007 and in the Tips section at the bottom, it tells me "vcore is higher than rated maximum". Core is 1.30V - 1.32V according to Hmonitor, which in fact are the same readings i get from PCProbeII.

If i enable SPD in bios, my OCZ Platinum PC-6400, is running 333mhz 4:5 @ 5-5-5-13. I tried 889mhz. From Auto to 2.0V computer wouldn't boot. From 2.05V to 2.10V computer booted but Memtest86+ got buggy round test #5.
I then tried 800mhz @ 5-5-5-15, voltage to Auto, Turbo Mode on and got no errors for 3 passes.
However, Aquamark3 gave me an "access violation" near the end and got a "had to exit" error in 3DM05. Will try those 2 apps @ 333mhz again.

I did manage to run Sandra @ 800mhz 4-5-5-15, Turbo, no HP3, 2.0V DRAM with these results:
Arithmetic Dry 22235 Whet 15245
Multimedia Int 132168 Float 71623
Mem Bandwidth Int 5584 Float 5595
Mem Latency 76ns 60.4
Cache & Mem 25380 42.2

H3X: Sure... it's nice to afford things, don't smoke, don't drink, don't do drugs, don't gamble, don't have a wife, don't have kids, don't have a car and don't have any debts. What i do have is a full time job, get paid every 2 weeks, pocket some money after essentials are paid, and since i haven't really bought anything lately, besides the 360, saved up... until now.

I'm off the 40 highway, near the 13. If you want to come. no problem, just have to pass the 2 security guards at the vila entrance, endure photo and video cameras, get by 3 dobermans that haven't eaten in a week, 2 pitbulls that have eaten all week, 1 ED-209 by the parking space, 1 retinal scanner, 1 anal scanner, 2 bouncers checking ID, SIN, Passport, Driver's License all to be ran through the FBI, Interpol, MI5, RCMP and resellerratings.com, 1 Norton Anti-Human scanner (i'm a beta tester), 2 metal detectors, 1 mental detector, 1 airport security agent (recently hired, still in training) and when you finaly reach my apartment... my dumb-ass rabbit.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Nov 19, 2006, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CJLMTLCA

H3X: Sure... it's nice to afford things, don't smoke, don't drink, don't do drugs, don't gamble, don't have a wife, don't have kids, don't have a car and don't have any debts. What i do have is a full time job, get paid every 2 weeks, pocket some money after essentials are paid, and since i haven't really bought anything lately, besides the 360, saved up... until now.

I'm off the 40 highway, near the 13. If you want to come. no problem, just have to pass the 2 security guards at the vila entrance, endure photo and video cameras, get by 3 dobermans that haven't eaten in a week, 2 pitbulls that have eaten all week, 1 ED-209 by the parking space, 1 retinal scanner, 1 anal scanner, 2 bouncers checking ID, SIN, Passport, Driver's License all to be ran through the FBI, Interpol, MI5, RCMP and resellerratings.com, 1 Norton Anti-Human scanner (i'm a beta tester), 2 metal detectors, 1 mental detector, 1 airport security agent (recently hired, still in training) and when you finaly reach my apartment... my dumb-ass rabbit.

I agree drinking is expensive.

And I'll be seeing you as soon as diesel goes below $0.75c/litre

Doesn't sound like I'd have much of a problem getting in

riles9262 · Nov 19, 2006, 10:34 PM

Beauty setup there

CJLMTLCA · Nov 26, 2006, 04:28 PM

So i removed the H/S covers on the NB and the SB and added a 40mm fan on the SB. Mobo temp hovers around 41C. Don't know if i'll take it further and water the sb and nb. If it wasn't for that heatpipe, i would have done it by now. Although i saw some nice VR waterblocks at frozencpu.com.

I pushed the fsb to 333MHz which comes to a cpu speed of 3GHz and 666MHz ram (DDR667). So i'm running 1:1 now. OCZ is running 4-4-4-15 and i did 2 passes in memtest without any errors.
Aquamark3: errors out at the end.
3DM05: 13134
3DM06: 6688
Sandra 2007 Arithmetic Dhry: 27625 Whet: 19052
Sandra 2007 Multimedia Int: 165094 Float: 89484
Sandra 2007 Mem Bandwidth Int: 6457 Float: 6462 61%
Sandra 2007 Latency: 71ns SpeedFactor: 70.4
Sandra 2007 Cache&Memory: 28812 SpeedFactor: 53.4
2x Prime95 Large: 4Hrs no errors

At this point my system seems stable. Once i find the absolute limit, i will stress for longer periods. CPU temp was around 52C at the peek of the P95 testing.

I tried 400 fsb and DDR800, to maintain 1:1, after all that's what my OCZ is, but computer wouldn't boot. At 345, it booted but memtest froze. So i guess my limit at auto voltages is between 333 and 340.

Will post back when i get new results...

Rawr · Nov 28, 2006, 02:47 AM

Pretty kick ass setup..

I'd like to try another Intel CPU..last one was in the first computer our family got (Dell) since then I've put together 3 AMD based computers. I don't think I'd be able to decide between nvidia 680i or the ati chipset.

Anyway nice setup and wiring.

Nov 17, 2006, 02:20 AM	#1
CJLMTLCA 14X Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 633 Rep Power: 63 System Specs	Upgraded... Intel, Asus, OCZ, ATI, Dell... So i made the jump to Dual-Core, PCI-E, DDR2. Here is my old system: Asus P4C800 Deluxe Intel Pentium4C 3.0GHz Vantec Ion2 460W OCZ Platinum PC-3200 DDR400 2-3-2-5 2GB HIS Excalibur X800XTPE ICEQII VIVO Creative SoundBlaster XFI Fatal1ty ATI TV Wonder Elite 2 Maxtor DiamondMax10 300GB SATA Plextor PX-716A Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Zalman Reserator1 cooling CPU, GPU and NB 2 SilenX 120mm Viewsonic A90f+ 19" CRT Kept the case, HDs, OD, cooling, tv, audio and... the floppy! Here is what i got : Intel E6600, Asus P5W DH Deluxe, OCZ Platinum PC2-6400 R2 2GB, ATI X1950XTX: I had my Tsunami Acousti-Padded and along with the Reserator the only fans spinning were from the Vantec Ion2 and 2 SilenX 120mm case fans, my computer was dead silent. The Vantec is silent even under load and with the Hardcano i was able to lower the speed of the case fans. Everything installed: Front and rear, if you care: Finally, even though it pains me to remove a perfectly good CRT, i made the jump to LCD with Michael "dude-you're-getting-a" Dell's 2407WFP and 1907FP. Other contenders were Steve iJobs' 30" (overkill), BenQ FP241W, Viewsonic VP2330WB, Samsung 244T, but i liked the Dell's features: The Dell put up a good fight, but Zalman gets the gold. By just .5 inches, but a wins a win right? Fill and 1:1 features of the 2407WFP: FarCry Instincts Predator on XBox360 using VGA connector running at 1280x720. Along with the Aspect setting of the monitor, this config gives the best results using a 720p game, IMO: Finally, desktop with DVD running Picture In Picture. And Picture By Picture so i can play 3 FarCry games at once. Still getting used to the controls: So, with Windows XP Pro installed as well as all my apps and games, i just have to find the best ram setting and memtest them, try some overclocking and then do some burning-in and stress testing. Even with all the new hardware news and reviews going on around here, i'm sure i can last a while with this setup. Will wait to see how Vista matures, wait for DX10 cards to mature, see how physics will be handled, wait for 'real' quad-cores to be available that don't cost 1500$, see what becomes of AMD/ATI (or should we just say AMD now?)... In the meantime: Game On! Happy computing! __________________ Last edited by CJLMTLCA; Nov 26, 2006 at 03:58 PM.

Nov 17, 2006, 03:19 AM	Thread Starter #3
CJLMTLCA 14X Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 633 Rep Power: 63 System Specs	I didn't change the power supply, Vantec Ion2 460W, hopeing it would be enough. I did a quick Extreme PSU Calculator and barely made it, so far no problems, but who knows later on as i push the system. I might get a bigger one, don't know. Wouldn't want to damage my new hardware. Wiring could be tighter, but i don't feel like hiding every inch of wire, as long as the bulk of it out of the way of airflow, it's ok. Speaking of airflow, Asus PCProbeII is giving me 55C idle. I heard this board runs hotter, but i've seen some people report as low as 40C, so i'll have to look into better cooling a little more. Maybe do what some have done and remove the heatsink covers and lay down some AS5, or water the NB, SB and VR. __________________

Nov 17, 2006, 03:32 AM	#4
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	looks good __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Nov 17, 2006, 12:23 PM	Thread Starter #6
CJLMTLCA 14X Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 633 Rep Power: 63 System Specs	Yes, i removed those. And what about you, what temps are you getting? __________________

Nov 19, 2006, 12:33 AM	Thread Starter #10
CJLMTLCA 14X Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 633 Rep Power: 63 System Specs	Captain, sensors indicate... So Hmonitor is showing 52C mainboard, 30C cpu at idle. I was benchmarking with Sandra Lite 2007 and in the Tips section at the bottom, it tells me "vcore is higher than rated maximum". Core is 1.30V - 1.32V according to Hmonitor, which in fact are the same readings i get from PCProbeII. If i enable SPD in bios, my OCZ Platinum PC-6400, is running 333mhz 4:5 @ 5-5-5-13. I tried 889mhz. From Auto to 2.0V computer wouldn't boot. From 2.05V to 2.10V computer booted but Memtest86+ got buggy round test #5. I then tried 800mhz @ 5-5-5-15, voltage to Auto, Turbo Mode on and got no errors for 3 passes. However, Aquamark3 gave me an "access violation" near the end and got a "had to exit" error in 3DM05. Will try those 2 apps @ 333mhz again. I did manage to run Sandra @ 800mhz 4-5-5-15, Turbo, no HP3, 2.0V DRAM with these results: Arithmetic Dry 22235 Whet 15245 Multimedia Int 132168 Float 71623 Mem Bandwidth Int 5584 Float 5595 Mem Latency 76ns 60.4 Cache & Mem 25380 42.2 H3X: Sure... it's nice to afford things, don't smoke, don't drink, don't do drugs, don't gamble, don't have a wife, don't have kids, don't have a car and don't have any debts. What i do have is a full time job, get paid every 2 weeks, pocket some money after essentials are paid, and since i haven't really bought anything lately, besides the 360, saved up... until now. I'm off the 40 highway, near the 13. If you want to come. no problem, just have to pass the 2 security guards at the vila entrance, endure photo and video cameras, get by 3 dobermans that haven't eaten in a week, 2 pitbulls that have eaten all week, 1 ED-209 by the parking space, 1 retinal scanner, 1 anal scanner, 2 bouncers checking ID, SIN, Passport, Driver's License all to be ran through the FBI, Interpol, MI5, RCMP and resellerratings.com, 1 Norton Anti-Human scanner (i'm a beta tester), 2 metal detectors, 1 mental detector, 1 airport security agent (recently hired, still in training) and when you finaly reach my apartment... my dumb-ass rabbit. __________________

Nov 17, 2006, 02:51 AM	#2
Drakon DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Floatin'... Posts: 4,957 Rep Power: 0	What PSU did u get? And nice job on the tidy wiring

Nov 17, 2006, 03:40 AM	#5
Necrosis HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 8,838 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	Did you remember to take the film off the mosfet & north bridge heat sinks? BTW, I'm running a really similar setup..just no water cooling.

Nov 17, 2006, 05:29 PM	#7
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Lucky man! I like that "Steve iJobs" thing Nice on the Reserator... must be nice to be able to afford all that stuff eh? And I second the nice wiring too... very clean! Where 'bouts in Montreal are you... may have to pay you a visit, mon nouveau ami

Nov 17, 2006, 05:39 PM	#8
Necrosis HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 8,838 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	Hmonitor 23 Idle 27 Load MB 43 Core Temp 41 Idle 45 Load Running at stock

Nov 17, 2006, 06:13 PM	#9
dipstick HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: USA Posts: 3,609 Rep Power: 71 System Specs	Sweet setup!!

Nov 19, 2006, 10:34 PM	#12
riles9262 Driverheaven brewmaster Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: British Columbia, Canada Posts: 4,842 Rep Power: 72 System Specs	Beauty setup there __________________ A beer a day keeps the doctor away.

Nov 26, 2006, 04:28 PM	Thread Starter #13
CJLMTLCA 14X Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 633 Rep Power: 63 System Specs	OC to the OCZ on the PC, G... Peace! So i removed the H/S covers on the NB and the SB and added a 40mm fan on the SB. Mobo temp hovers around 41C. Don't know if i'll take it further and water the sb and nb. If it wasn't for that heatpipe, i would have done it by now. Although i saw some nice VR waterblocks at frozencpu.com. I pushed the fsb to 333MHz which comes to a cpu speed of 3GHz and 666MHz ram (DDR667). So i'm running 1:1 now. OCZ is running 4-4-4-15 and i did 2 passes in memtest without any errors. Aquamark3: errors out at the end. 3DM05: 13134 3DM06: 6688 Sandra 2007 Arithmetic Dhry: 27625 Whet: 19052 Sandra 2007 Multimedia Int: 165094 Float: 89484 Sandra 2007 Mem Bandwidth Int: 6457 Float: 6462 61% Sandra 2007 Latency: 71ns SpeedFactor: 70.4 Sandra 2007 Cache&Memory: 28812 SpeedFactor: 53.4 2x Prime95 Large: 4Hrs no errors At this point my system seems stable. Once i find the absolute limit, i will stress for longer periods. CPU temp was around 52C at the peek of the P95 testing. I tried 400 fsb and DDR800, to maintain 1:1, after all that's what my OCZ is, but computer wouldn't boot. At 345, it booted but memtest froze. So i guess my limit at auto voltages is between 333 and 340. Will post back when i get new results... __________________ Last edited by CJLMTLCA; Nov 28, 2006 at 11:51 PM.

Nov 28, 2006, 02:47 AM	#14
Rawr DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 97 Rep Power: 0	Pretty kick ass setup.. I'd like to try another Intel CPU..last one was in the first computer our family got (Dell) since then I've put together 3 AMD based computers. I don't think I'd be able to decide between nvidia 680i or the ati chipset. Anyway nice setup and wiring. __________________ Aspire Silver Turbo Case w/ 6 80mm fans 650w BFG Tech PSU MSi K9A2 Platinum Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0Ghz WD 80Gig 8MB Cache (Windows / Games) WD 200Gig 8MB Cache (Media Drive) Sapphire Toxic HD4850 675 mhz / 1100 mhz 4 Gig Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5 DDR2