Overclocking an Asus 9800xt

ViperVenoM

..is it just me or are these crap

seriously rubbish @ overclocking i mean its what 412/365 stock im getting artifacts and stuff on 3dmark01 at like....419/375 which to be honest isnt even worth it all these x800s out now make me and my card feel slow and rubbish so i wanted a bit of a boost but i cant is it just me, are there asus owners out there getting good speeds or are they all rubbish, im not really looking into taking the heatsink off because i dont really want to (i still have my warranty if they could be bothered to reply) i looked into a vantec spectrum card as that seems to be the only other solution for asus cards but i saw you need it full to get it down to 52 degrees or so and thats about 36dB or something ..but aint they safe up to ..well over 100 ..if so why do i get artifacts at 60-70! im sick of this damn card ive had nothing but hassle since i got it..march time

17200..on 3dmark01..aint that pretty crap :rolleyes:

any suggestions please? *set-up in sig*

BloodBath

No it seems the Asus cooler is worse than the standard cooler. Your not the first person i've seen with this trouble.

My Sapphire is a bit better. I can get up to 440/393 without artifacts using ati tool. This is combined with a vantec pci fan card on low speed blowing underneath.

A nice memory overclock but i've seen the core a lot higher. A better cooler seems to be the only solution.

3dmark2001 is more of an all round system benchmark. What do you get in2003?

You should get about 6500-7000.


BloodBath

Stephen

Get yourself an arctic silencer. They cost about €15.

Sleipnir

They're still not compatible with the 9800xt.

ViperVenoM

ok just turned my pc on today and i think hes stable at 415/370 (wow :rolleyes: )

that gets me 17850 on 01 and 6556 on 03

is there anything else except the vantec spectrum card out there??

Azza

Yeah I had the same problem at first with that card. Its to do with the memory rather than the core. Try pushing the core up and leave the memory only slight overclocked or at stock. I could overclock the core well. Then I did a bios flash on the card using the asus pal bios and it overclocked far better. The memory still only overclocked slightly better but I could throw the core really high. I think I got the whole thing to something like this 465/385 and I reckon I could of gone higher with the core but did not want to risk it. This was using the ATI tool as well no artifacts appearing at all. The only cooling I was using was the vantec spectrum card.

As for stock cooling I have read 2 reviews which said the cooling was excellent but if memory won't overclock its a indication that card is overheating. Otherwise memory may be inferior quality which is unlikely.

What spec machine you running in it in.
On a AMD 64 3400 at 2.45Ghz
It was getting me over 20,000 stock.
I got 22,660 in 3d mark 2001
got something like 7,354 in 2003
and over 52,000 in aquamark.
I reckon I probably could squeeze more if I wanted plus the drives I was using where not great for benchmarking.

Azza

Actually looking at your sig your cpu and memory are the drawback not the card which even if you did overclock it might only give you an extra 1,000 marks. Your CPU is roughly the same as a p4 2.8ghz maybe slightly less. Myseld and Bloodbath for example have rougly similar preforming cpu's the equivlent of p4 3.6.

I think he was further back at stock speed but he was able to overclock his system overall better than mine to narrow the gap to next to nothing. Really overclocking is not the answer to your performance issues. You will either want a new cpu or a new graphics card.

ViperVenoM

well the only bios flash ive done is to remove the black screen at the beginning when u turn the pc on and it switches the monitor off before booting cant remember what flash that was but i did that a while back and it didnt seem to do anything, ive been using powerstrip to overclock but i guess i can try ati tool see if that helps at all

my systems in my sig but ill do it here too:

Barton 2500 @ 2310mhz (not sure how far i can get it its about 43-46 idle now)
the fact i have 2 diff brands of memory could be doing something i dont know since 1 is only 166mhz but ive got that running at 210 with no crashes so i dont know
all on a A7N8X non deluxe in a thermaltake XaserV case and a coolermaster Aero7+ not gonna bother with water cooling in this machine

7354 on 03 damn :eek: ive got a long way to go, ill put the memory to default and see what i can do with the core

ViperVenoM

heh must have posted at same time :rolleyes:

well i cant really go any further with my cpu, well i can overclock but i guess all i could do now is going into the 64bit ones ...which involves a new motherboard too..aw man this hobby is getting expensive

btw..i cant afford a new vid card! only got it 6 months back im only a student may be able to sell my barton...motherboard and ram and get kitted out with some new stuff..maybe, then just leave the vid card for now...not sure

Azza

Thats overclocked that 3D Mark 2001 score I got. Go to the asus website and then download section for the 9800 and download the bios flash if you want to update it might help you. If you break the 6,000 mark your doing very well with your rig you got.

The memory by the way only runs at the slowest speed. I have got fairly excellent all round components which are bringing my mark up.

Azza

LOL AMD 64 is the way to go for gaming.

I would recommend if you consider it AMD 64 3000 and the MSI K8N Neo platinum nforce 250gb. Cost around €300 euro for the two.

Watch in the gaming benchmarks as the AMD 64 3000 crushes the mighty 3.4 P4 and P4 3.2 Extreme edition in Doom III benchmarks. At stock speed my cpu is suppose to be 20fps faster than a P4 3.2 in Doom III.

ViperVenoM

sigh...ok how much do you think i could get for my cpu motherboard and ram

Col_Loki

For a comparison i was getting 17.5k with a 9700pro and a 2500+ @ 2365mhz . FSB around 215mhz , memory timings 2-3-3-7. (overclocked 9700pro ~385 / 320 i think)

Did you install the latest omega drivers? Try overclocking the core of the 9800XT (as the guys said memory can cause artifacts very early on)? What are your memory timings - prob really slow?

Im thinkin new drivers should be a help, also crappy memory timings can have an effect........

ViperVenoM

at the moment ive got the beta 4.9 cats dont like asus ones..too far behind, havent tried the omegas for a while tbh...guess i could give them a go

as for the memory timings i really have no idea all i know is ive got my cpu at 210 fsb and the mem at 100% as for the timings..is that the next 4 numbers in the bios...well in my bios i know theres 4 numbers infact ill post this and reboot to get them (dont know what they are) then edit the post...17500 on a 9700pro :eek: summats up with me pc


ok if these are right they the only things i found these were adjustable but i didnt bother i dont know too much about ram timings

active precharge delay - 9
ras to cas delay - 4
precharge delay - 4
cas latency - 3t

so is that 9-4-4-3...thought the lower the better...damn anyways ill try just overclocking the core and leave the ram at default see what happens

stock mem and core @ 425 is..ok 427 i get white dots in the water in mother nature in 03 would have scored me 6681 that...still crappy though :rolleyes:

Col_Loki

Those memory timings are pretty damm loose and are prob having an effect. With an 9800XT you should be getting 18-19k ish, judging from 3dmark'03 the card is performing ok, the Xp2500+ @ 2.3ghz and 210mhz FSB is simular to what i had, you have the newest drivers, memory timings are the difference.

Did you try 4.7 cats? I dont have the 9700pro anymore so i cant check to see how much timings effect the 3dmark01 ..........

ViperVenoM

yes ive been using the 4.7's for quite a while i only scored about 6300 on 03 with them :rolleyes:

so my memory sucks eh?

Col_Loki

Would be nice for someone with simular specs to change there timings from tight to 3-4-4-9 and see what effect it has on 3dmark. Im using a crappy 9200se at the min (had to sell the 9700pro to fund a dual CPU system) so im not much use.

It looks alot like the memory is at fault from here. Mabye try the Pc3200 stuff on its own @ 2.5-3-3-7 and see if theres any change? 17.5k still isint that bad TBH............

ViperVenoM

changed my cpu to 200x11.5 and took the pc2700 out, running the pc3200 also at 200 and i think it was 2.5-4-4-8

17341 :eek: i hate my computer!

Azza

Well the asus default drivers will give you the best benchmark scores plus doing benchmarks on a fresh install of windows will give you the best score. You would get over 1800 3d marks.

I orginally got 18500 with my machine before I replaced my kingmax pc 3200 ram with ocz enhanced bandwidth. Even with it only running at 3200 speeds it imporved my score by almost 2,000marks.

ViperVenoM

new ram it is then...

suppose ill try the Asus ones...i want to take this card back...gimme an x800 ..not Asus! i hate the thing i might try and sell it :rolleyes:

Col_Loki

New Ram is only going to get you over the 18k mark in 3dmark. What are you aiming for?

You cant really compare your system to some of the other peoples around here (like Azza's for example) and hope to get the same scores. The AMD64's are excellent for gaming, much better than the XP's. Hes also got OCZ EB which IMO is some of the best Ram on the market especially with an AMD64 machine.

You'd be very hard pushed to break 20k with an XP and a 9800pro/xt TBH.

What are you expecting from your PC? Your '03 score is pretty decenet. Are you looking to do well in benchmarks?

Overclocking is a gamble sometimes your lucky sometimes your not.

PS try your timings at 2.5-3-3-7 like i said and move up the Vdimm (ram voltage) to 2.7v - totally safe.

ViperVenoM

im not sure what im aiming for really i just ...like speed :rolleyes: and if i can get anything else out of my pc then ill go for it

im thinking of spending a bit on it the end of this month and i dont know if im gonna be better getting some new ram..a new case (with less wires ) and a watercooling kit

or! an AMD64 new motherboard and new ram im trying to weigh up whats gonna help me the most because im sick of the noise from this pc with all the fans

it aint just for benchmarking no..ill play any game going and i like ones that seem to push my pc ..doom, farcry...ut2004 so more speed the better just a quiter overclocked watercooled kit or a new 64 bit system im skeptical about changing to 64bit though because of how future proof its gonna be i mean is it all gonna be useless when all these PCI-E and BTX stuff comes out?

Col_Loki

Well being honest water cooling might lower the noise level but its not going to push your Xp2500+ much more than it already is. Your prob talkin 2.5ghz limit, mabye 2.4ghz on silent. Its more the chips fault than the watercooling generally (have had a few 2500's).

Ohh and another thing a cheap water cooling kit prob wont even match up to high end air cooling....... thats a real kick sometimes.

If its performance and speed your looking for then think about mabye an AMD64 . There prices have came down in the last 2wks or so. They run cooler than the P4's and XP's so its easier to cool them quietly.
TBH you can have a very quiet system with just well picked Air cooling.

If your not that happy with how your system is performing at the min then theres no point at all in spending money on the XP as your pretty close to the limit of how well it performs TBH.

Theres loads of stuff always comming out, its a pain. To name a few more DDRII , SATA2, Dual Core CPU's....... theres always a reason to upgrade.

Whats your thinkin so far? Are you going to do like ive done in the past and spend money on the XP only to be piss*d off that it doesent perform as well as you would have hoped. 2.5ghz is a wall for the alot of the XP chips, it doesent take much for an AMD64 to beat that.

Azza

AMD 64 is the future eventually. BTX is purely an intel ploy on designing a motherboard to help cool there hotter cpu's. AMD will be in no rush to switch to BTX anyway. PCI-E is not going be common place for a while no matter what cpu and motherboard combo you go for.

Thing to watch for is AMD 64 motherboards.

Socket 754 which has been relegated to buget status. Its cheaper but only supports single channel memory (dual channel will work just at reduced speed) difference is minimal. It will support the following AMD 64.

AMD 64 2800
AMD 64 3000
AMD 64 3200
AMD 64 3400
AMD 64 3700

It will also support the 32bit buget semperon chips. The AMD 64 3700 is the last in the lin of socket 754 amd 64 socket chips

Then there is socket 939 which is more expensive but by christmas will support PCI-E. The thing about socket 939 is they support dual channel memory which is sligthly better than 754. The catch is the cpu's are way more expensive and the entry level 3500 costs alot more than a 3400 and preforms worse.
Following chips are support
AMD 64 3500
AMD 64 3800
AMD FX 53
All feature amd chips.

Socket 754 is better value but less of a future. I would personal stick to socket 754. Cost you less. Otherwise you can wait for PCI-E to appear on socket 939....might be a while though.

Azza

Well a alturnative to AMD 64 is the mobile Athlon XP with a water cooling you might reach above 2.5ghz. Its been known to reach 2.7ghz on good aircooling with a good motherboard....the mobile chips are unlocked there the best overclockers.

ViperVenoM

ok how much would a decent 754 1 set me back thats gonna out perform my poor old barton

and does this mean i cant use dual channel memory? wots that gonna be like performance wise im not sure on all this new stuff, how long is PCI-E expected to be anyway?

i mean i can buy some stuff the end of this month but thats gonna have to tie me over barring little bits here and there for a good year i would say (even though i wont be able to help myself) i have my pc in my room and its right next to the tv and with 5 thermaltake fans all going flat out a coolermaster aero7+ full and the mass clump of wires (which probably aint helping my air flow) i have to turn my tv up rather loud which isnt reall an option at 2am round here

i see your point about wasting the money on watercooling to help my barton and then..for it to be worse and thats gonna hurt a lot since it will have set me back a fair bit thats another problem with this damn 9800xt its got the huge copper heatsink on and im not adventurous enough to pull it off and water cool that too so id only be able to get a cpu water block ive contacted Asus who refuse to do anything with my 3 year warranty even though im sure its got an overheating problem i ran atitool to find the max core and mem and its underclocked it ive also lost the blaaady reciept from the people who i bought it off..its not looking good

but with this 754 you say its not that futureproof..is it really gonna be worth it, i mean how long would it last me till say i didnt upgrade till...pci-e is pretty mainstream, dual core cpus and aint they doing dual vid cards like they did in an alienware

sorry for going on..but im only a student ive gotta be careful ive gotta live off this money too so i cant just buy everything :rolleyes:

my parents are charging more rent than i expected

Col_Loki

16671 MB ATX S754 Chaintech VNF3-250 nForce3 93.99 EUR
17335 CPU AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 512kB Tray 202.89 EUR
13543 Kühler S478/S754 ZALMAN CNPS-7000-AlCu 26.99 EUR
14549 DDR PC433 512MB Mushkin CL2 Level One 156.59 EUR

Sub-Total: 480.46 EUR

Sell your existing parts.....

Xp2500+ €60
Motherboard €50
Ram €130-140
Cooler €20

Total - €260 ...........upgrade to AMD64 €200-240 Roughly.

The Zalman cooler would make the CPU cooling part very very quiet, you could afford to run the fans you have at a much slower rate (i think your case has a fan controller doesent it?) and mabye even run 3/4 of them at the slower rate (turn the others off). An overclock of 10-20% shouldnt be much of a problem.

Your prob talkin roughly 20k 3dmark with that system on stock.

Mabye you'd have enough left over to sell your 9800XT and upgrade to an X800pro or 6800GT......... im not sure what your budget is but thats just an indication.

ViperVenoM

didnt know this was in euros lol im from uk just worked it out...£172 thats good dunno if i wanna sell my 9800xt it was a present and i dont think they would apprciate me selling it after so little..however i need to find out what i can do with it in terms of replacing it or whatever first

prob with my fans is they hardly sound any different low or high im tempted to just take the hardcano unit out and remove some of the fans as i do actually like the case and would rather not sell it

i was thinking around £300ish in total i could stretch to..but well ive have to see what i can do about the video card we still havent found the reciept and i dont even know where i can sell all my bits anyway except ebay and then i guess theres no certainty that they will even sell, do you know of someone else...actually i guess thats a pretty dumb question as you aint from the uk :rolleyes:
unless you do know of somewhere, or anyone else

thanks for the help btw

Col_Loki

Those are the prices you would prob get here on Boards. Im afraid i dont know where in the UK (do they have a Buy and Sell?).

As reguard the noise , does your PSU have a "fan only" connection? I know the Antecs and be-quiets have them. This allows your PSU to run your fans according to load which generally makes them almost silent........

What about another fan controller? (one that would go down to 5v).......

Your gaming will still be pretty decent on your current machine, if it looks like alot of hassle why not hold onto it for another while and see what happens with the market? It means you will get more tech for your £300. The Socket939 might even be in your price range?

I have almost the same case BTW (Xaser II) which has 5 "silent" fans, big ammount of noise. I removed 2 and left 3 running on slow speeds, id also reduce the speed of your CPU fan if possible........ whats more important 100mhz or your ears?

What voltage are you at? You might be able to increase this and still run 2.3ghz with slower fans.

ViperVenoM

well 1 of the forums im registered to, to get a buy and sell you need 100 posts and im on 14 lol :rolleyes:

theres another 1 but its not too popular tbh

my psu well its only 19dB or so the box says im not sure what features..just reading the box ..temp speed control fans thats the only thing to mention about them really dont think its that making the sound, im not sure how loud this vid card is, and ive got a cheap hard drive rack but i could probably get 2 silent vantec ones if needed instead of selling the case as for another fan controller im not sure what my options are on that front this is er, hardcano 11 i think blue LED screen showing the temp and rpm and 4 speed adjusters with the option of switching through the 3 temp sensors if changing fans and getting some better hard drive racks and a new controller will make this a lot queiter than ill go for that..should cost me about £100 though not sure what fans there are though gotta be blue and can u get uv reactive ones because my psu has uv reactive sleaving round all the wires and ..well they aint very blue at the moment lol so i dont think these fans are so good i just wanna reduce wires too because this had loooads and its damn untidy and prob doesnt make my temps too nice especially the vid card

my Vcore is at 1.725 but the the asus probe claims 1.76 ive just turned all my fans down and its at 50 at the moment and the rooms getting quite cool now so i guess more like 53-54 in thr afternoon AND the bios usually claims about 5 degrees higher so it might be near 60 idle :eek:

what do you suggest?

btw im not really into 512 of ram anymore i quite like my gb so i guess if i do upgrade its gonna be better waiting for a 939 then i can get some pc3500 ocz and dual channel them..i hope but i think thats a bit out my price range :rolleyes:

Azza

Well the vast majority of posters are based in Ireland but anyway.

There is always going be a major new technology around the corner. If your where to go for socket 939 AMD 64 you would be paying more for you motherboard than a socket 754 but if you wanted to go PCI-X later you would still have to change it and in the end it would cost you more money. Than going for socket 754 now.

The fact that socket 754 does not support dual channel memory should not put you off (remember dual channel memory still works in socket 754 just not at full speed). The performance gap is a mere 1-2%.

Any AMD 64 is going out preform your overclocked athlon xp. Your cpu overclocked is roughly on par with a 2.8Ghz Intel P4. While the AMD 2800 would start off a little bit higher than 2.8Ghz.

I would recommend shopping for the following English website.
www.overclock.co.uk
As a motherboard the MSI K8N Neo Platinum is the popular motherboard of choice for socket 754. It comes with with a working pci lock which is helpfull for overclocking. Its costs about £83.46 sterling from that site.

This means you can afford any AMD 64 cpu up to 3400 on socket 754 which includes a heatskin/fan. The AMD 64 3400 costs £203.19
Check the site for the prices of all the AMD 64's I reckon for €10 pounds more than the 3200 the 3400 is the best.

It comes at a stock speed of 2.2Ghz and 1MB l2 cache. Using the full copper version of the above recommend heatskin (its slightly dearer) I achieved stable overclock of 2.45Ghz. With a Thermlright heatskin and tornado fan overclocks of above 2.5Ghz are obtainable. Thermalright are loud and offer excllent preformance Zalman are quiet and good preformers. However good ram is required so if your upgrading that. I would recommend the OCZ EB 3500.

Col_Loki

Yea id definetly agree with Azza there. The motherboard i picked out was the budget choice. The MSI board is better and prob the one id choose.
Mushkin Level1 memory is also an very good choice and a little cheaper.

The majour thing is if you put more money into cooling your XP , or add more memory, or get a new chip / motherboard etc your still going to lag behind an AMD64 .

The question is do you want the extra power right now or are you happy with what you have.

Azza

I would not knock the chaintech motherboard either cheap and its an uber overclocker. FSB max of 400 (only 300 on the MSI) but not working pci lock but it still overclocks great. If money is an issue I would get an AMD 64 3000 and save £40 pounds. Remember if you but those cpu oem your going save £10 as well. If you get the above motherboard and zalman heatskin for example you should be able to overclock to 3200 speeds anyway.

As for dual channel as I said preformance is minimal improved. But the choice is yours.

ViperVenoM

oh god the decisions lol

do i need the extra power..probably not lol but i dont know wot half life 2 is gonna be like or whatever else they are bringing out i mean doom 3 was playable on ultra detail 1024x768 but i still got slow down at times, i know the only thing i can do there is get a new vid card im just curious as to 64bit and if its gonna be worth it even more when 64bit windows is out final and everything

i could get the new mobo the cpu and ..well dunno about the ram yet but then ive gotta hope i can sell my other stuff or thats gonna cost me like £400 :eek:
and even then ive still got to address the problem of noise ....and this fan controller, what other options do i have there?

Ciaran500

I think an upgrade for you is a waste at the moment. You should wait another while before a big upgrade. HL2 will require less power to Doom and should run perfectly on your setup at max detail.


BTW: Playing Doom3 on Ultra is a bit pointless as it only uses some uncompressed textures. You will not notice the difference during play, but it will be a big hit on FPS.

ViperVenoM

tbh im only losing about 2fps on ultra mode

and you saying its waste..lol i dont know what to dooooooooooooooo soo many opinions each with valid points...god my pc will be ancient before i can make my mind up :eek:

Azza

Hehe I will throw in more confusion for you as well.

People have many different views on graphics cards. Some people turn every in game detail full blast and run the game at 1024x768 (something I consider perfect playable) and consider that perfect and getting any newer graphics card is a waste of time. Other people will want the same from higher resolution like 1600x1200. For something like that you will want at least a 9800xt powering your machine. Anything lower than that they will wanta new graphics card. Others want to play at higher resolution and want AA and AF switch on full blast only that do they consider perfect. For that you will need a good cpu and X800XT or Geforce 6800 Ultra. Its matter of viewpoint some people will play max settings at low resolutions others want the "grand prix" of graphics cards. The two groupd may consider the othter to be wasting money in the former case or squandering the experience in the latter.

Most people would consider any game running above 30fps as playable. You don't want to dip much lower. Otherwise people normally consider dropping resolution.

Half Life 2 will not be as much as a system hog as DOOM III. But 256MB will be the morm in the future but only DOOM III really needs it now. Bearing in mind that the makers of the Unreal 3 Engine said they expect people to be playing on lowest detail setting with 256MB when there engine starts appearing in games and that at least 1GB cards will be required to run them max. But thats a least well over a year away. At the moment Doom III for example runs better on the Geforce 6800 cards better than any else.

Here is a unique example of the power of AMD 64 which has a slight advantage over Intel in the gaming stakes but in Doom III the gap is alot bigger. You will notice how much your chip lacks in punch.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2149&p=7

Finally you will run most games reasonable well for the next year at least with your current rig. Your graphics card is not a bottle neck its the cpu and ram.

ViperVenoM

ohhhh smeg lol

well i play most games at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 ( same as my desktop then)

with NO AA or AF i dont feel i need it tbh not for the framerate loss i will get i play less powerful games like GTA VC and stuff like that in 1600x1200 just because i can :rolleyes: lol but doesnt really make any difference to me i dont expect to play anything like farcry at 1600x1200...even though i had about 28fps so i nearly could i tried it once

ill never play anything with AA and AF unless it auto puts it on so thats not a worry although i do like the details at high

as for that chart..i see what you mean lol

i dont know!!!!! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

ViperVenoM

interesting...Asus drivers
got both my sticks of ram in at 2.5-3-3-7
put my barton back down to 3200 speeds so i could run it quieter
(the speed adjuster for the back fan had bust and was stuck at 100% ive unplugged that fan and its running a hell of a lot quieter now...even though its hotter..till i get that fixed :rolleyes: )

buttt i just ran 3dmark01 16700!

seriously seriously seriously think this card is playing up though artifacts in doom now without it being overclocked and according to the probe its only at 61 degrees :eek:

but im thinking...(hoping) get the people who i bought the card off to replace it with another 9800xt ..not asus ive emailed them..pushed for a few things im never gonna get but hey u dont know if u dont ask well ask them to swap it to a normal shaped 9800xt...stick an artic cooler on it

then replace my motherboard ram and cpu for well not sure about the motherboard yet but im looking at a s754 (3400+) for £192 ive spotted, get a pair of OCZ ram..pc3200 or pc3500 and a thermalright heatsink and whatever fan hopefully this little lot will last me not only till pci-e is pretty mainstream but even longer so pci-e will be nice and cheap..and then probably a dual core cpu will be ..affordable then at this time ill switch to pci-e and get a new vid card that supports this too

what do you think?

obviously im thinking of changing now as although sticking with my set up will last me into next year probably ..it will get to a point (before PCI-E is mainstream) that im probably gonna start struggling..in which case ill have to switch to..well either a s939 or expensive! pci-e which seems pointless to me if the s754 will last me till pci-e has gone down then i can switch the lot..in 12-18month

Ciaran500

I still think its a bit early to upgrade from your current computer.

Azza

Well ciaran has a point. With your 2500 overclock to 3200 speeds and a 9800xt you should be able to play most games at high settings. If you get it sorted you could postpone upgraded cpu and motherboard. But what I would do at the very minmum is get a matching pc 3200 kingston 512 stick of ram.

finally if you do decide to upgrade your to socket 754 that will hold the fort down till socket 939 and all the other new technologys like pci-X and btx format become established bug free and less expensive most of which will happen probably in the latter half of next year. You may get away with you cpu until those become established as well. Its hard to tell.

ViperVenoM

well whatever i do..the main priority this month is 2 hard drive racks..a 12 speed dvd rewriter (my 4 speed is..well weak at times) ..but ill keep em both in anddd probably ram even if i dont upgrade the motherboard and cpu i can get some new ram with tighter timings, more stable whatever and even if i get say pc3500 and cant run it max hopefully that will changed when i make the final jump into s754 or s939

i think....

Figment

A slightly related question. Is it possible to use the ATI multimedia centre and DVD software with the Asus ati cards?

ViperVenoM

think you can use any ati software on an asus card...ive been using ati tool and im about to go back to ati drivers coz these are crap dont see why other ati things wouldnt work

Azza

Well AMD 64 what ever format you go for by default can run speeds up to pc 3200 in the ram rather like the old AMD Athlon XP's. Tighter timings are more important on AMD 64 than Athlon's and Intel P4's.

So what bother with the PC 3500 or 3700. Well its gives you the most flexibilty. You can tighten timings or overclocking to make more use out of it. The OCZ PC3700 EB overclock from 466mhz to 512mhz on an intel board and a wopping 550mhz on AMD 64 board.

ViperVenoM

probably a whoppppping price too

looking at 2 coolermaster cooldrive 3's = £19 each
not sure about another dvd writer..prob about £70-£90
and then whatever this ram is gonna cost...im still gonna be near £300 and ive practically not even improved my set up

christ sake..i should have taken sewing up..much cheaper
:rolleyes:

Venom

Might be an idea to hold off on the 12xDVD writer as there are a few about to be released and the couple that are out already kinda suck.

Also check the newer AMD boards will take DDR ram as I think they may use the faster DDRII ram chip.

Azza

How you finding service pack 2 viper. want to get it but my connection is 2 slow.

Ciaran500

If you wait a while Microsoft will be sending out cd's with SP2 on it for free.

ViperVenoM

i got SP2 for like..IT professionals it was 272mb hehe its meant for installing it on a network but i had nothing to download 1 night so i just got only took 30min with a 1mb line ..but it says dont download it for single pcs as i think ..within a week they are bringing out a much smaller pack just for single users

dont know what else it does but my windows folders are 2.25gb now and it kicks off when u disable the firewall but....well im up to date i guess, if you dont wanna download 272mb i think youve only got a few days to wait or like ciaran said, wait for a cd..whichever is sooner im not sure :rolleyes:

.ak

my abit 9800xt overclocks very little too. Putting money aside for 6800gt