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God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

I was originally expecting to use my pair of 6600GT cards in SLI configuration, but to tell the truth using SLI on my duel monitor setup was a PIA, it was only ever used on rare occasions for games as it shuts down one monitor. So I am thinking of ebaying the pair of them and getting a single card dual head card, which means I no longer need a SLI mobo.
The board I like the look of is the gigabyte GA P35 DS3R. seems *slightly* future proof (most unusual if such a thing exists)due to the fact that socket 775 is here for a while and the board accepts both DDR2&3 ram. The only fly in the ointment is that as well as my two Eide optical drives I have 4 hard drives, only two of which are Sata, so I guess I will have to get some Eide/Sata adapters as I will need the Eide channel for the DVD drives.
So this is the kit I am looking at:
Mobo http://tinyurl.com/yqb5x3
CPU http://tinyurl.com/245j97
Ram http://tinyurl.com/22o5jq
Video Card http://tinyurl.com/2dptjm
PSU http://tinyurl.com/youdtd

Could any of you hardware types tell me if I have made any compatibility mistakes here?
14 REPLIES 14
MikeWhitehead
Grafter
Posts: 748
Registered: ‎19-08-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Having a quick glance over it seems everything is compatible.
Although, if I were to be picky (and probably more just user-preference) I'd put down another £20 and get an EVGA 8600 GT as apposed to the Gigabyte one.
I have TWO upgrades coming up, and it's like Christmas all over again. Except, I can't really justify £5000 on two systems to the missus Sad Back to the drawing board!
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Two points - that PSU doesn't give any information as to the 12v rails (capacity, number) and Dabs won't say who they get them from.
Have a look at this thread and perhaps consider a better PSU http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=136602
With respect to the Gigabyte board it is a good quality board but the voltage reporting is poor in the bios which can be a real problem for diagnosis
I did wonder about DDR3 capability on my next motherboard but decided there wasn't much point as I would probably be changing the motherboard and processor by the time that was needed.
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Thanks gents I will take a look at both of your suggestions
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

That board has 4 DDR2 slots and 2 DDR3 slots making 6 slots in total although you can only use one or the other.
As far as I know only Asrock have a board which will accept DDR2 (4 slots) and DDR (2 slots)
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

yup the DDR3 goes in the green slots. Mind you having looked at the price of 2gig of DDR3 today I can safely say mine will be populated with DDR2 for some time to come!
All arriving tomorrow, yippe do!
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Hmmm... shiney!
First phase of the build is done (running with one hd). It’s only when you get a new PC that you realise how things have moved on!
Socket 775 – So easy to fit the processor and standard fan/heat sink, what’s more the round design seems a lot more efficient than my old AMD square dust catcher.
The Gigabyte board has an excellent build quality. A nice touch on the supplied accessories is a back plate with two sata connectors and a power connector to drive any external sata drives you might have.
It’s quite freaky turning a pc on and the CPU fan not starting immediately! The video card is fan-less, "heatpipe II" which is of course silent but has a lattice heat sink the size of the card, a pleasant change to gaudy pictures slapped on the side of a noisy fan casing.
I had two minor frights during the build the first was when I tried to fire it up for the first time and nothing happened, it turned out that I had the power switch line the wrong way around on the front panel pins.
The front panel connections have to be one of the worst standards on motherboards and cases. The mobo manual will always tell you that red is the positive connector and any other colour is the negative. Then you look at the case connectors and find half of them don’t have black or red wires mostly white and green/blue/orange.
The second fright was when after about 10 minutes of use the alarms (that I had turned on for CPU temp and fan failure) started jangling. This happened about 3 times but I was fairly confident that the CPU couldn't be getting to 60 degrees without being under load unless I had really screwed its installation up.
Lateral thinking led to the solution, it was the CPU fan warning not the CPU warning. As the CPU idled and cooled the mobo reduced the speed of the fan to where it was occasionally dropping below the 1000 rpm warning mark.
Right better start slapping in the other hard drives and the rest of my software. TTFN!
MikeWhitehead
Grafter
Posts: 748
Registered: ‎19-08-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Glad to hear it's only minor hiccups!
I'll be upgrading in the coming months - two systems, two times the worry.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

As you are using the standard cpu cooler can you advise temperatures when under load as I am trying to decide whether to port my Zalman 7000A across (with a special adapter) and if I don't do it during the initial build I will need remove the motherboard to fit a non standard backplate to do it later.
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Hi Jim
I will have it running under load over the weekend and advise, at idle it seems to sit at 24 degrees but I will confirm this as well, rebuilding another machine at the moment!
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Hi Jim
I ran 'Go-Orthos Beta' by Johnny Lee. Allegedly a Vista duel core version of Prime 95
For all tests idle temp for CPU was 22/24 degrees and under stress the CPU topped out at 50/51 degrees.
'System Temperature' remained a solid 49/50 degrees regardless of idle or stress conditions.
Cooling information for test PC: Intel dual core standard 'round' fan/heatsink. Video card fanless heat pipe heatsink.
Case fans: (80mm) 2 rear exhaust, one front inbound, 1 hd drive bay (4 drives total) inbound, 1 side case inbound.
If anything I was slightly surprised at the system temperature, but then I guess it depends on how close the sensor is to the video pipe and I have a lot of drives in there.
I am assuming 50 degrees for the CPU is fine under load, but I am sure folks here will let me know if it is too hot.

Edit: One day I will learn how to spell temperature.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Thanks,
That shows that the cooler is coping very well but like you I am surprised at the system temperature but this appears to be relatively normal for this board - other reports are of 50 - 55deg C. There is some debate about what is being measured but it may well be down near the ICH9R chip (south bridge) which tucked nicely under the graphics card and doesn't use a heat pipe to transfer the heat away. One report put a fan near that and dropped the system temperature by over 10 degrees
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Ooops forgot to mention one thing. When I was fitting the fan/heatsink I smeared some of the thermal compound that is included on the base of the item; so I added a squirt of my own, not that I think it would have made much difference.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Now that is surprising - previously the standard heatsinks came with a thermal pad - that is an improvement although I will probably stay with Arctic Silver (the small tube does last along time)
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: God needs divine computer upgrade advice.

Yup it was sort of 'printed' on the contact plate in three stripes but of course once I was busy admiring the heat sink I forgot that I was holding the bottom and my finger 'melted' some of it. Luckily I have had my little artic silver syringe hanging around for ages and it seemed like a good idea to top it up.