New PC but...

[PK|Cerro]

Finally got the money together and the right parts available to get my new PC. I'm going to be doing some pretty heavy overclocking because im using an E4300 and an ASUS Striker - which pretty much means an FSB of 500Mhz is obtainable. I won't be going that far though because I want the PC to last, processor will be replaced later but the mobo & ram won't be! I've got alot of faith in the heatpipes for the bridges and an artic cooler 7 for the cpu but the ram im not sure about... I could by an airflow cooler for them but is it worth it? Anyone done enough OCing to warrant the need for ram air coolers?

Other question is, has anyone tried SATA Optical drives? The Nforce 6 chipset still supports IDE (unlike most new chipsets appearing) but its going the way of the dodo. I've spoted some SATA Liteons that would make perfect replacements to my aging optical drives.

PC Spec:

CPU: Intel Core 2 E4300 2Mb L2 Cache 800FSB (1.8Ghz - OC'd to 2.8/3Ghz)
Mobo: ASUS Striker Extreme 680i SLi
Ram: 2x1Gb Corsair Dominator XMS DDR2 PC8500 (1066Mhz)
GPU: Gigabyte 7900GS 256MB (1440Mhz)
System HDD: 1x SATA Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10000RPM 16Mb
HHD Raid 5: 3x SATA Samsung Spinpoint 500Gb T166 7,600RPM 16Mb
PSU: Silverstone 750W ST75F
Case: Gigabyte Aurora 570 Black
CPU heatsink: Artic Cooler 7 Freezer

Later Possible Additions:
2x LiteON Dual Layer 16x DVD SATA writers
Quad Core CPU
2x DX10 Gfx Cards (SLi)
2nd LCD Monitor
Corsair Airflow Ram Cooler

[PK|Colonel Ames]

Im pretty damn sure you could pick up a 512kb GPU for the same price of the 7900GS u want.

[PK|Cerro]

hmmm its only £112 for the card and its slightly faster than most other 7900GS cards. 1440Mhz instead of 1300-1400 plus it OC's quite well. There aren't many 512Mb cards in that range and at that model. Its only a halfway card until DX10 cards come out proper then it will be SLI style (no need for Quad though, might go with a physics card later as well)

[PK|Colonel Ames]

I dont they are going to make games compatible with the physix cards for ages

[PK|Cerro]

Physics cards don't even exist yet, they are just a concept. Dual PCI express x16 lanes for SLI and a x8 PCI express lane for the physics card... crossfire will do the same - assuming physics cards become a reality. Point is i'd rather take that route than the Quad SLI route - which is where some seem to be going (god knows, more money than sense).

I checked out some 512Mb cards in the 7900GS/GT range and they're all 160-190 range. Only ATI X1950's come at that sort of price range with 512Mb memory and since I've got a SLI board, Nvidia cards get a boost from the mobo, ATI cards don't. And the X1950's don't overclock at all really.

[PK|Colonel Ames]

they do exist fool
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-023-BG

[PK|Cerro]

first one i've seen for sale. Not that i'm in a rush to buy one, not even got my Dx10 cards yet!

However getting this damn thing to boot would be nice. Seems the BIOS is still beta for my board and the ram requires more volts to boot (fixed in newer bios - but i can't flash it without booting first now can I!?!) So i'm in the process of just endlessly clearing the cmos until i get lucky enough for it to boot, then up the Voltage then flash to latest bios... *sigh* nothing is ever simple these days!

I could just buy lower rated DDR2 which is cheap just to boot and flash it but it might not be just that which causes the problem. does look very nice though lol

[PK|Lemming]

so are they going back to the old days of the Voodoo accelrator + pci card

or is it an accelerator that is ALSO a graphocs card

im feeling all old & extra confused today :(

[PK|Cerro]

W00t got my PC working! Asus's older Bios seems to set auto voltage for ram too low - resulting in no boot. The other cause seems to be my cases firewire front ports (or could just be the board doesn't like it). Whatever... i don't use firewire in any event.

Now to update, benchmark, overclock and benchmark again!

[PK|Colonel Ames]

I don't know any1 that does use firewire. the speed isn't so grate that you can actually notice a vast difference from USB2 anywhos.

Just to let you know.... Overclockers have had the Physix cards on sale for about a year now. plus they used to have ones from Asus..... dunno why they only got the one now tho?

[PK|Cerro]

New generation of physics cards - those are old(er) ones which seem to be engine specific and not supported by much. Plus that card looks like its just PCI where as the new ones will definitely be PCI express which will have a bridge link to the other graphics cards which are already in SLI mode (provided your board can handle 2x16 + 1x8 PCI Express lanes or 1x16, 1x8 and 1x1).

[PK|Colonel Ames]

I'm pretty sure they are going to stay Simply PCI. if they do dicide to move to PCIX it wont be for some time.

[PK|Cerro]

that's what I was saying before... the rumoured coming physics cards will be PCI Express and can be bridged with an SLI or Crossfire setup. They will probably need a x8 or x1 lane so you will need 3 PCI express slots at least to run them. Or perhaps 2 with only 1 gfx card.