loads of questions for ye lads!

dazftw

Right I have more questions regarding the PC im building!

Money really isnt an issuse anymore but if I go more expensive its going take longer to save!

So far im rounding it all off to €2000!

Question 1. The EVGA 680i motherboards has anyone used them to overclock?

Also you ntune(something like that) with it to overclock without the need to go into bios any one use this? I tried it on my old pc didnt do anything for me no choice for cpu overclock or anything!

Question 2.

If you have used it does it overclock everything? cpu ram graphics to the highest it can go? Theres an option that was on the one I downloaded to leave it go for several hours and do tests.. I let it go and it did nothing!

Question 3.

This ram:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=329156

Ive been reading up on it and its supposed to go really well with the EVGA motherboard! Is it a waste or would I be better of getting this ram:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=331922

and overclocking it.. Remember money isn't really an issue I dont mind spending it, I was already going to then a friend said I should get the latter choice of ram and overclock it!

Im not really knowlegble on overclocking and I know it takes awhile to learn and actually do but its something im going to learn!

Question 4.

Would buying an EVGA 8800 GTX be anyway better with an EVGA Mobo? I dont think it will just said id ask cause im curious...

Its not loadsa questions but I plan on asking more depending the answers I get here especially with the Ntune thing!

dazftw

I just went on the Ntune website and got a little overview the the thing and its does overclock everything with approved boards which mine is!

I might aswell ask the question now anyways..

I have a core2duo 6600 on stock cooler and one on Zalman 9500 its going to overclock better in Ntune with the zalman over the stock cooler?

Im guessing it does!?

awhir

ok dont overclock with Ntune use bois i would not trust any windows "overclocking apps" if i was you.read some guides and have fun with overclocking (be the fastested nerd of them all).dont really know much about ddr2 ram !

oh why did u go for the 9500 there are way better coolers out there like the new thermaltakes and the sysythes and the tuinqi tower.

dazftw

Baiscally casue I love how it looks and it does a grand job... Unless theres more coolers that look pretty much like it ill probably stick with it! Its not on komplett though which is very annoying!

papu

Would buying an EVGA 8800 GTX be anyway better with an EVGA Mobo? I dont think it will just said id ask cause im curious.

i wouldnt think so , there all pretty much the same and any difference would be unnoticeable expecially on a 8800gtx

DirkVoodoo

1) As mentioned, always use the BIOS to overclock. It's more reliable and gives you better control.

2) Go with the 6400, it should overclock fine. OCZ is known for its ability to push the MHz envelope.

Remember, just because you have money, doesn't mean you need to spend it. The goal of overclocking has always been to take lower tier components and push them to the level of the "rolls-royce" variety.

Also, don't waste money on a machine that will never fulfill its potential. Far too often you see people buy top drawer hardware only to use it to surf the net and play the odd game of solitaire.

If you are a novice to O'Cing, as am I, buy decent, affordable hardware that will overlcock well to get started. No point learning to drive in a Bugatti Veyron and then wrapping it around a lamppost!

Best of luck with the build.

Cassiel

Have the 680i and the first thing you do is uninstall ntune its completely sh*t :mad:
And also don't install the nvidia network manager its sh*t :mad: (You will lose the nvidia software firewall, teaming and firstpacket features).

Most underrated RAM for this board is the Crucial Ballistix DDr2-667 2Gb kit.

It will do DDR2-1066 @ 5-5-5-15 2T. I prefer running it in sync with the FSB and keeping the timings tighter though. and was an awesome buy at the time at €300 when the dominators were €600. Maybe its because of their popularity but most of the ram burnout issues with this board is with high speed corsairs.

The SLI enhanced profiles are a gimmick also because you will be tinkering with the settings in the BIOS anyway.

You could save yourself a few quid also and go with the 650i boards, its been tested with sli'd 8800gtx's (which supposedly require 16 PCIe lanes each) with only 2-3% loss in performance even though the board cuts back to 8x lanes per gfx card when they are run in SLI. Anyway its a contender. The zalman 9500 looks nice but not what you want if you're going to get the best overclock.

pick the latest review for a cooler from anandtech.com. For all the coolers in their performance graph, they have consistently used a x6800 and a 680i. Its a very good reference to help decide what cooler you should be getting.

No performance advantage in using an evga 8800gtx with an evga board. tThere was a feature called linkboost but that has been disabled with the latest bios - there was no actual gain from using it.

dazftw

They dont have this ram in 2gigs on komplett..

https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311292

would it be ok to get two 1 gigs? seeming there the same ram?

DirkVoodoo

Get the CL4 2GB kit, its €205.

Or some Geil PC6400 of OCUK, that stuff is meant to overclock quite nicely with conroes.

dazftw

http://www.komplett.ie/k/shoplist.asp?mode=receive&si=447273&su=CC0791C2-EA13-467F-874D-30D3074188C7

I already have the psu and case and vista.. they all came today in the post theres the rest... opinions?

DirkVoodoo

the rest looks good. I would nearly buy the GTS over the GTX. I don;t think the extra 75Mhz core clock frequency boost justifies an extra 160 euro.

Possibly get more than 250GB, if you plan to store lots of music/videos. Even most new games seem to be eating up space (sup com, oblivion, medieval 2, etc.)

Rest looks very nice though.

P.S. What screen are you running all this on?

dazftw

See thats the thing.... its a 19"... I bought it a month ago.. I didnt have a job then... and I was going for all cheaper stuff... The GTS...

Now I have a job and want a bigger one... after I get the pc outa the way! So the GTX is kinda there for when I get a new monitor!

If I got 2 250GB drives and put them in raid 0 that be better than one 500GB one?

DirkVoodoo

Yeah, Raid0 is "striping" as far as i know. I think u marginally increase the risk of drive failure, but it is very small. A decent Raid0 is better than a Raptor setup.

If you prefer the GTX, go for it. Generally it will only show its class from the GTS at very high resolutions, unusable for general desktop stuff and not much of an improvement in games.

I'm guessing you're going LCD, so the max resolution you will be going for is a native 1920x1200.

In which case please read this: Anandtech GTS roundup GTS Again

These are nearly all at 1920x1200 with max settings. Wow, look at the GTX pull ahead. In most games, your monitor is not going to display more than 65/75 frames a second due to physical limitations (how quickly the image is refreshed). But hey, if u have the money then go for it! I know I would like one.

d_advocatus

I have this RAm and I tell you it's amazing. I have it now at 900MHz with 4-4-4-12. Absolutely brilliant timings for that speed considering the price. Even most DDR2-800MHz have looser timings than that.

I would most definately recommend this RAM.

dazftw

If I bought pc-5300 and overclocked it to 800MHZ it would be classed as 6400? Same as like 800MHz to 900MHz would be 7200?

See I dont really have a clue about overclocking I kinda want to make sure I can actually do it before buying cheaper to overclock! If you get me?

DirkVoodoo

Is Ballistix not more prone to dying an earlier death than other RAM? I seem to remember people having issues with the DDR variety.

DirkVoodoo

If you overclock the RAM, you will generally have to loosen the timings. Its a balancing act to achieve an overall increase in system speed.

The corsair is rated 4-4-4-12 at 800MHz and at 2.1V. I haven't pushed it further than this though.

d_advocatus

DeafVision wrote:

If I bought pc-5300 and overclocked it to 800MHZ it would be classed as 6400? Same as like 800MHz to 900MHz would be 7200?

See I dont really have a clue about overclocking I kinda want to make sure I can actually do it before buying cheaper to overclock! If you get me?

TBH, nevermind the PC-**** crap. It's pretty much meaningless. The speed in MHz is the most important thing.

d_advocatus

DirkVoodoo wrote:

Is Ballistix not more prone to dying an earlier death than other RAM? I seem to remember people having issues with the DDR variety.

First I've heard of it... How much earlier?

DirkVoodoo

just remember reading around that there were a lot of RMAs over failing modules.

I guess how much you overclock and overvolt would depend, but I seem to recall they were rather tempermental.

EDIT: This was with the DDR modules, I dont know much about the PC-6400 (DDR2-800, if ya prefer that notation). What I do know is the corsair modules are rock solid, not a days trouble and they are reported to overclock well.

dazftw

So would not going for the nividia ram(I started with in the beginning of the thread) be a better choice if I dont plan to overclock it? Its 1066MHz I know its alot of money but would it be a better choice for not overclocking?

DirkVoodoo

DDR2-800 will run synchronous up to FSB of 400 MHz. Since this is probably the most you are going to be running at, even DDR2-800 is too fast for you, as you will be running a multiple of it at stock to get the rated timings.

I dont know much more about overclocking RAM, just that unless you plan to run that stuff at 1066 MHz, you will see little performance if any above DDR2-800 unless you overclock.

Just more money spent.

dazftw

Am confused now sorry lol! Are you saying I wont see much of a difference between 800Mhz ram and 1066MHz ram?

DirkVoodoo

If you aren't overclocking then not really. Unless your computer makes use of the extra bandwith.

Simplistically, the difference between DDR2-800 and 1066 is that 1066 has been designed and factory rated to run certain memory timings (speed of read/write) ay a certain speed. So, if you want to run your system very fast (driverheaven did a review where they pushed the FSB of the system up to 560MHz).

So, the simple response would be: stick with PC6400 or PC5400 if you don't plan on overclocking a core2duo.

dazftw

I do plan on overclocking though... I know that makes my previous question pointless but I do plan on doing it when I learn about it!

DirkVoodoo

Ok, well like i said a while back, dont learn with top of the line components. This is more ofa long term thing, once u get bitten by the computer bug (excuse poor pun) you want to build another system after the first one. DDR2-800 will be fine for performance and some overclocking. 1066 is more enthusiast level, as in the people who have multiple rigs, that seem to change daily, posted in their sigs.

dazftw

Would it be quite possible to clock the 6600 to 3GHz with the zalman?

DirkVoodoo

u can clock to 3GHz on stock, quite easily, its just temps rise dramatically (i went from 33 idle to 43 idle).

I have a zalman on an athlon 64 and its great, only problem is its running at stock (22/23 idle and 42/43 load).

I like anandtech, you may have guessed. This is the cooler im waiting for (end of april apparently). This is an X6800 they use, but its handy for seeing how performance scales with increasing speed. The zalman should easily cope with 3 GHz, keep pushing it until load temps pass above 60/65C.

dazftw

I think I might make a post in the tweaking/modding forum.. about overclocking.. I feel I could learn more by someone explaining it a couple of steps other than reading throngs of material.. Even though the material would be important I might get a good foudation.. from some lads here!

I have kinda a basic knowledge.. actually I wouldnt call it basic... :rolleyes:

Ill do it when I get home... Im in work now 15 minute break