post-holiday PC upgrade question

ElementalDragon

The One and Only
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8 Aug 2002
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Ok.... i'm kinda thinkin about maybe doing a rather nice upgrade to my PC after x-mas (maybe a SLI mobo.... Athlon 64 3200+..... maybe a 7800GT) hopefully with the money i get for x-mas. the one question i was kinda wondering...... some of the 7800's (and probably other PCI-Express cards) come with what looks like a 4-pin to 6-pin power adapter. is that actually what it is? would i need to have a PCI-Express-ready power supply, or do i just plug one of the normal power plugs into the adapter that comes with the card? in case you're unsure what adapter i'm talkin about, it's the one in the accessories pic in the link below. looks kinda like the plugs they have for like..... cathode lights and stuff, where it goes from the male power plug, down to the PCI-Express male power plug, then back out to a regular female power plug.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI...6MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
 
is this one going in your desk? Or are you buying a case too? :p
 
That should work for providing power to your card. My 7800GT came with the same thing, which I am using. My power supply has a PCI-E cable but it is modular and by using the adapter instead I can avoid having yet another power cable running from the PSU.
 
think i'm gonna stick wit the same case for now. kinda gave up on the in-desk mod for the moment...... a) due to the fact that i don't have money to buy stuff that i need at the moment, and it sounds like my video card fan isn't doing so hot..... b) due to the fact that i don't know how i woulda went about installing case fans in a wooden case yet, and would rather try to do more research on custom wooden cases before i screw around with my own stuff.

thx for the input jpom. least now i know that it'll work with a PSU that doesn't have a PCI-express power plug. now i have another question, and i hope somebody knows. would using such an adapter be ok for long-term use... or is it kinda like those motherboards with both an AGP and PCI-Express slot say.... that you CAN use the AGP slot..... but it's not recommended for long periods of time? lol. in this case would it be.... i COULD use the adapter, but it's not recommended for long-term use? i'm assuming it won't cause any harm.... otherwise they probably wouldn't give it to you assuming you might use it.
 
What are some good brands of mobo's to look at? i kinda like my GigaByte.... i know that Asus and DFI are also talked about quite a lot..... FoxConn seems to also make some good mobo's.
 
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I think to make any sense here you need to talk chipsets... then there are general build quality issues, btu they are not always manufacturer specific.... I perceived MSI as cheapish until I got my Neo2, which has been good to me....

hope that helps - I'd tend to avoid the VIA chipsets, from experience they can be high maintenance.
 
Ok..... how about these items? any opinions as to good/bad, buy/don't buy, something better for same price/something cheaper but pretty much the same? if you can find a good set of stuff for relatively cheap, by all means post it...... and maybe say why you would choose it over what i've linked, unless what i linked is pretty damn good for the price.... then just say so. also kinda curious as to the manufacturer's.... since i'm not to familiar with eVGA.

eVGA GeForce 7800 GT 256MB PCIe Video Card w/ Free eVGA 133-K8-NF41 Motherboard
and i'm not quite sure between either of these two CPU's......
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ / 512KB Cache / 2000MHz FSB / Socket 939 / Venice Core / Processor with Fan
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ / 512KB Cache / 2000 MHz FSB / Socket 939 / Processor with Fan
is there any real difference between the two processors besides the clock speed? i also might look around for possibly better prices. was originally gonna look on Newegg, but it wasn't working at the moment...
 
......anybody? could really use some input here. don't wanna buy something from a manufacturer who's parts are relatively known to die after a few months (if that be the case..... which i'd hope not)
 
I don't anything about eVGA so can help there.

As for the cpus jsut from what Tigerdirect says the first one as
Additional Technologies HyperTransport
128-bit Memory Controller

instead of just HyperTransport. Now I don't what if anything that differnce makes as I've had bad luck with every AMD chip I've owned so I tend to go with Intel myself
 
I would stick to ASUS or MSI, I prefer ASUS...

ANy of the OC'd name brands are fine, I prefer BFG...

as for the proc, Im no help... but go with COrsair XMS or OCZ Platinum for your memory if you upgrade that as well...
 
i got the gigabyte k8n pro sli and it is working out great so far. plenty of options and a good price.
 
so...... basically what you're telling me is that it'd be kinda hard to get the upgrades that i want..... from good manufacturer's..... on about a $500-550 budget?
 
i would upgrade your psu if you plan to add a 7800gt. the use a lot of power and adding a athlon 64 will use even more. i just did an upgrade of all my components and stayed under $700 but i changed my case, cpu, videocard, HD, ram, dvd drive, mobo and psu.

cpu - athlon 64 3200
mobo - gigabyte k8n pro sli
ram - geil 1gb pc 3200
videocard - x800 gto
hd - sata maxtor 200gb
psu - enermax 460watt


i got it all from newegg, which i highly recommend.
 
hmm....... and the eVGA 7800GT got some pretty hefty reviews on Newegg...... 5 stars still after 196 voters.... and the one person that put his review up said it already comes OC'd a bit.... just not the quietest fan in the world, since it uses the usual 1-slot fan.. would say the XFX one, but that's not even available right now. probably not gonna be ordering anything for a while, but....
 
EVGA is pretty popular around here, they seem to be a pretty big player in the video card industry here. IIRC they were the first manufaturer, at least available here, to carry the geforce 7 series cards. I perfer BFG because I find their OC'd cards a mite cheaper. Either way I've never had nor heard of any serious problems with evga.
 
yeah.... well i found the BFG cards.... but i haven't found them cheaper. they're more mid-range when it comes to price. was also kinda thinkin about maybe getting the Albatron 7800GT. i liked my Albatron GeForce FX 5700.
 
That power supply probably won't work.

You will need dual 12V rails ()ATX 2.0 standard) with at least 17A each, preferably more. You power supply only has one 12V rail. And if you intend to run a pair of 7800's make sure the power supply is SLI certified. They are 12V power pigs and so is any newer CPU.

What to look for in a power supply (this year) is:
ATX 2.0
Dual 12V rails 18-20 Amps each.
SLI certified

My new Antec is too wimpy on 12V already and I bought it this summer. The standards changed again. All the parts are moving from heavy use of 5V to heavy use of 12V and you need isolation between the CPU and GPU loads that's why they went to 2 independnt 12V power rails.
 
....... well that's freakin gay....... guess i can probably toss the upgrade idea out the freakin window then, since a new, good power supply'll probably cost another $100 or more.
 
ED I may have misunderstood. If you only want to run one 7800GT for a while before adding the 2nd SLI vid card then your present power supply should be ok. Figure 17Amps for the CPU and drives and 17Amps for 1 7800GT. Then when the 7800 GT prices come down you can get the second one and a power supply that is SLI certified.


PS I feel your pain. 2 months ago I started with an AMD 64 w/MB and dual video for $220. Then the new fan ran me another $30, Then I found out the AGP video is a fake agp and dead slow so my vid card is useless. So I had to drop $260 on a PCI-e X800XL because it was all my new power supply bought this summer can support (6800/7800/X850 are power pigs). And now it looks like my power supply is not stiff enough to OC the video and the CPU both at the same time. S H I T !
 
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