bye bye x2 and AGP.....

[Mainframeguy]

Ok - I think I have to accept what was my primary desktop has died....

It began with a failed HD write, went to unmountable boot volume, then there were POST failures and zero output to the AGP when POST did complete normally....

This could be dying Mobo (Neo Platinum) or it could be the old Radeon 9800 finally gave up the ghost - anyway both of those are headed to my hardware graveyard now.

So I see it is time I got with the current situation again - and as soon as I have time I am feeling ready to spend some money - though at the same time I think I'll be wanting to stick with all the remaining hardware (SATA and ATA drives, 500W Tagan PSU, couple of GB of 133 DDR, and significantly a NEXUS case which I am hoping to run fully closed and quiet on the upgrade)....

So i think I'll be getting to PCIx and maybe an SLI board - I am tempted to move all the way to the Nforce six series boards that are out now, moving to an Intel duo and maybe to go mad and take a quad core (though I expect I will balk at the prices there)....

My primary movers here? Well I have a VISTA coupon - think I'll redeem that for the OS - like I said I want to get the case closed down and nice and quiet - so this needs to run not too hot because I know it does not vent so well - or if it does get hot needs to tolerate that well.... I am not a big gamer - so that should be secondary....

As to budget - I guess I feel comfortable up to the £800 or so mark and could stretch that a little - given I dropped £1200 for the T7200 laptop which is now my top grade rig and need to better that for my desktop that gievs me a bottom level benchmark.

Anyone care to chip in here with any ideas based on current technology - I have been and am busy with other priorities in life lately and so any and all information and tips greatly appreciated.

I'll get back here with what results - probably have something up and running for Easter I hope.

 

[David_L6]

You can forget about salvaging your DDR RAM. You'll need to buy DDR2. Good news is that price has dropped recently (or everyone ran memory on sale at the same time!).

From what I've read it appears that Intel quad cores run hot. Buy a Core 2 Duo.

Actually you're building at a good time. Intel is supposed to lower the price of the Core 2 Duo CPU's in April (if you can wait that long). nVidia just released the 8800GTS 320mb card at a fairly decent price. Since you aren't heavily into gaming that should be more than enough video card.

I like the Intel D975XBX2 motherboard.

I also have a DG965WH. I've had no problems with it. Haven't run it a lot yet. Built the computer that it's in for Vista. I still use one of my XP machines the most. If it matters to you there are no overclocking options in the BIOS.

 

[LordOfLA]

You're better off with a radeon x1950xt over anything less then an 8800gts 640mb.

Best spec at the moment is thus:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600,
2GB DDR2,
evga nforce 680iSLI
Radeon X1950XT (or XTX check prices not far out I don't think)
1 or more 320Gb SATA 2 disks from Seagate.
Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 soundcard

Adapt inline with what you want to keep and budget.

Edit: oh and get rid of the nexus case 🙂 scan.co.uk have an akasa eclipse 82 that is simply awesome in terms of space, cooling and quietness (with the right fans which are also on sale at scan.co.uk)

 

[LeeJend]

Ditto on the DDR. Even if it was 200 Mhz instead of 333 keeping it would be marginal with a hot new system. The DDR MB's and Processors are end of life. Their price will sky rocket within a year just like AGP video cards have.

Don't waste money on anything that isn't DX 10. If the 8800 GTS is too pricey, even in it's -340 MB version wait for the budget 8xxx cards that have been leaked. The ultra at $179 is agood deal mid-range and you can always SLI it if you need a boost later. Considering your "not to hot" requirement the Ultra may be an optimum choice when it is released.

Forget Vista. People are either "having no problems" or they can't get it to work. It's too soon to burden yourself with an immature release. Enjoy the new system with XP on it for a while.

If you really want a quiet system think about using one of the dual core mobile processors on the MB. Check socket compatibility so you have an upgrade path.

Stay with Intel. AMD has already dead ended the AM2 socket. This forced MB cycle AMD has slunk into is just not acceptable.

 

[LordOfLA]

considering DX10 titles aren't due till 2H07 don't waste money on DX10 cards.

 

[LeeJend]

2H07 starts in 14 short weeks. I recommended mainframe go DX10 becasue he keeps his systems for a long time.

His best bet is one of the budget nvidia 8xxx versions due out shortly. I don't expect ATI to have anything that offers DX10 and has decent bang for the buck. Some "suit, a VP I think" at AMD mentioned in a press conference something that implied they could care less about supporting DX10 this year since it won't be much of a mainstream market.

 

[LordOfLA]

yeah but since the DX10 cards are bound to go through revision by then end of Q4 it'd be better to hang fire. Most DX10 games should gracefully degrade to DX9 for a long enough period.