Views on new case and mobo.

pedro ferio-vti

Looking at buying the following, like the case as it comes with a fairly decent PSU and it's reasonably priced.


http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338137

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=339002

I've heard good reports about Asus striker extreme board but what is the current view on these? Is there a new range of stuff around the corner due to come out or will I get a decent amount of time from this when I build it?

RoyalMarine

gorgeous case
and 500w psu is good. maybe not enough if your putting 2 9 series cards in there.
that upgrade bundle isnt bad at all!
q6600 is top notch
and the striker extreme is a great board.
im using one myself and love it.

leimrod has one aswel and im sure he can give you some good info on it too.

pedro ferio-vti

sorry i've just realised that this thread should probably be in the building and upgrading section lol.

Thanks for the info though, sounds positive so far so i'll probably be buying this kit tomorrow morning.

PogMoThoin

Same items with better ram from Hardwareversand.de, all in stock unlike komplett. Don't heed when komplett tell you items will be back in stock, from my experience they sometimes tell fibs. Shipping is €30 from HWV.de

pedro ferio-vti

Was going to order from Komplett as the price was the same but they are out of stock so I went and ordered from that german site. Should be delivered this week.

Just as a side note, i've noticed that quite a few people are clocking their C2 Quad CPU's to run above the factory 2.33 up to 3.0ghz. Is that safe or recommended and can it be done on the factory cooler? Is there a big difference noticed between the two clock speeds? Would prefer reliability myself so if it is a bit risky or a negligible performance difference I might leave it.

PogMoThoin

The idea of overclocking is to buy an affordable middle of the range cpu & make it go faster than the highest in the range. To overclock you must increase voltage to the chip, therefore create heat. As long as you can get rid of that heat quickly there no risk to the cpu, but you must monitor temperatures as there are limits.

Not advisable to overclock on the stock cooler, but invest in a good one and 3.4Ghz is very possible. I've my quad running at 3.2Ghz all the time, thats 35% faster than stock speeds.

pedro ferio-vti

Cheers for the info. Reason I ask is I dabbled about OC'ing an Athlon machine long ago and didn't see too much of a benefit for the hassle it caused and having to monitor temps and the like all the time.

I know the clock speed is 35% faster but the point i'm making is are you seeing a ~35% processor performance increase or anything close to it?

PogMoThoin

pedro ferio-vti wrote: »

I know the clock speed is 35% faster but the point i'm making is are you seeing a ~35% processor performance increase or anything close to it?

Depends on what your doing. Just browsing or music listening there's absolutely no difference but for dvd encoding or cpu intensive tasks etc theres a big difference. And yes the pc does feel faster, a lot faster. The fans are on low when I'm idling, browsing or just listening to music. I don't monitor temps, I've got a fan controller.

pedro ferio-vti

Well, machine arrived on Friday afternoon and I finished building it that evening. VERY happy with it and the service from hardwareversand also Went together really nicely and I really can't fault it in any way. Ordered Age of Conan which will be the only game I have capable of challenging it really so we'll see how it goes!

Haven't overcloked it or anything like that as it's on the stock cooler but using the integrated Mobo software you get you can activate a NOS feature which intelligently (or so it says) overclocks on demand by up to 5%. It seems to run at a solid 41 degrees while browsing and arsing around and about 48 degrees max when gaming.

PogMoThoin

Overclocking is best done in the bios. Forget about this Asus Nos software, buy a good cooler and google for a good overclocking guide

pedro ferio-vti

Just bought this:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=320110

Going to search for a good overclocking guid now. Will probably uninstall the NOS software and keep the Asus monitoring software in place as it seems to be nice.

Any suggestions for initial BIOS settings ? This cooler i've bought seems to be regarded highly but it's hard to see how it works so much better than the stock cooler. I mean the design doesn't appear to be a million miles away from the stock one?

PogMoThoin

Cancel that order for the Zalman cooler, its definitely not up to the job of overclocking a quad, had one myself before. Its highly recommended as a very quiet cooler, but these quads produce alot more heat than dual cores.

I highly recommend the Tuniq Tower, make sure it fits in your case.

pedro ferio-vti

Done, and done.... thanks for the tip mate

PogMoThoin

Like I said, make sure it fits in your case cos its fcukin massive I have same cooler, its great, very silent 2 when on low rpm