[mgarvey]

hehe, I'm a PC nerd too.

I first starting building PCs with a 286 processor, moving through various boxes to my current rig - a dual-core (overclocked) AMD Opteron.

In the past I've even gone as far as attacking my motherboard with a soldering iron to remove a dodgy chip when a cache memory chip stopped working and as a poor student I couldn't afford a new one. It worked too!

I've currently got 3 laptops, a desktop and a colour laserjet printer attached to my wireless network. I also play about with various operating systems (Linux, Vista etc).

All good fun really.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by 330cdsport

Holy crap, I thought I was the only PC nerd on here - lol

Good choice of comonents there needfordpeed - but surely a E6750 would have been a better choice (cheaper and faster)
The 8800GTS is a great performer for the money though. It will run nearly all newer games at max detail.

I last did a machine overhaul about a year ago.
I have:

Core2 Duo E6400 overclocked to 2.5GHz with a good Arctic Freezer air cooler;
2Gb PC8500 Crucial Ballistix;
Gigabyte P965-DQ6 Motherboard - Great overclocker;
NVidia 7900GS graphics card. (slow by todays standards but overclocked to 550/800);

The Gfx card is the weakest link now and I am hoping to upgrade it to a 8800GTS (best bang for your buck) as Colin McRae DiRT is a greedy bugger!!!

I wanted to get the e6850 (around £160 on ebuyer), but the E6750 and E6850 are only supported by the P35 or latest nvidia chipsets. I couldn't find a motherboard with that chipset with micro-atx form factor.

In hindsight .. I should have gone for an atx case and had the bits I wanted, but then my better half would have questioned why I was throwing away a 'nearly new' PC.

Recommend requirements for DIRT are 8800 GTS and E6600

I might download it when I get a chance

The 8800 is a BIG card though .. about twice the size of the 7600gt it replaced.

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by ShereKhan

I've heard that Server 2008 will support upto 4Tb of RAM.

Maybe we'll all be running Server 2008 with VMware ESX running a VMWare ACE client for each user. If virtual machines get their way.....

E92Fan prob knows what I mean but most of you are probably going eh?
So i'll switch off my geek mode.....

Hahahaha... yeah, maybe that's what I'll do for my render farm when I get round to expanding it... Have thought about a six-machine dual quad-core Xeon farm, parallel processing renders from final cut and apple shake...


ooooh, i sound like a geek.. must stop... CARS.. talk about CARS...

[London320d]

Originally Posted by mgarvey

hehe, I'm a PC nerd too.

I first starting building PCs with a 286 processor, moving through various boxes to my current rig - a dual-core (overclocked) AMD Opteron.
....

Well I started when Microprocessors had only four bits, and was designing at component level shortly after

When people talk about overclocking, I cringe as I see all of the carefully designed timing of the system going to pot. How successful you'll be depends upon the individual tolerances of the components, the particular mix of parts used, and the quality of the physical design of the boards.

One important thing that I've not seen mentioned above is the power supply. The newer processor/motherboard combinations and particularly graphics cards use a LOT of juice. It's worth investing in a decent PSU as well, if your existing system does not have one. Do NOT skimp on the method of connecting to the ATX12V connector if you have an 8 pin one. Do not use a splitter cable even if one is supplied with the mobo.....(Get a PSU with an 8 pin ATX12V cable fitted)

I'd also advise against skimping on the cooling. Cooling helps in two ways. Chips take longer to do things when hot (particularly important as it eats up the margin that you hope to overclock into) and the thermal stress of the chips heating up/cooling down shortens their life.

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by London320d

Well I started when Microprocessors had only four bits, and was designing at component level shortly after

When people talk about overclocking, I cringe as I see all of the carefully designed timing of the system going to pot. How successful you'll be depends upon the individual tolerances of the components, the particular mix of parts used, and the quality of the physical design of the boards.

One important thing that I've not seen mentioned above is the power supply. The newer processor/motherboard combinations and particularly graphics cards use a LOT of juice. It's worth investing in a decent PSU as well, if your existing system does not have one. Do NOT skimp on the method of connecting to the ATX12V connector if you have an 8 pin one. Do not use a splitter cable even if one is supplied with the mobo.....(Get a PSU with an 8 pin ATX12V cable fitted)

I'd also advise against skimping on the cooling. Cooling helps in two ways. Chips take longer to do things when hot (particularly important as it eats up the margin that you hope to overclock into) and the thermal stress of the chips heating up/cooling down shortens their life.

I agree - if you really want to overclock a CPU, then better to get a specialist cooling case. Or buy a faster chip!! I remember in the old days overclocking a 25Mhz 486DX chip to 30Mhz, and wondering why Windows 3.1 would always crash. Funny how things, and how fast, move on. A 200W PSU used to be absolutely fine for 95% of computers. Now, we need a minimum of 350W or even better something like an Enermax 430W PSU just to run our Tb SATA drives, multiple DVD-Roms, and jumbo super-duper graphics cards with in-built thermal cooling and jet-powered fans...

[NFS]

Originally Posted by E92Fan

I agree - if you really want to overclock a CPU, then better to get a specialist cooling case. Or buy a faster chip!! I remember in the old days overclocking a 25Mhz 486DX chip to 30Mhz, and wondering why Windows 3.1 would always crash. Funny how things, and how fast, move on. A 200W PSU used to be absolutely fine for 95% of computers. Now, we need a minimum of 350W or even better something like an Enermax 430W PSU just to run our Tb SATA drives, multiple DVD-Roms, and jumbo super-duper graphics cards with in-built thermal cooling and jet-powered fans...

I forgot to mention that I did also upgrade the PSU - as I only had 350w - which was nowhere near enough for the 8800 GTS video card.

I bought a 650w dabs value one for £32.53:

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...ey=11259,50010

It's a really nicely made piece of kit and has way more connectors than I could ever need (still have 4 x 4 pin connectors spare).

[330cdsport]

Originally Posted by needforspeed

I wanted to get the e6850 (around £160 on ebuyer), but the E6750 and E6850 are only supported by the P35 or latest nvidia chipsets. I couldn't find a motherboard with that chipset with micro-atx form factor.

In hindsight .. I should have gone for an atx case and had the bits I wanted, but then my better half would have questioned why I was throwing away a 'nearly new' PC.

Recommend requirements for DIRT are 8800 GTS and E6600

I might download it when I get a chance

The 8800 is a BIG card though .. about twice the size of the 7600gt it replaced.

Yep, I have the older 965 chipset too and officially it does not support the 1333 FSB - so not worth the gamble of running it overclocked to match the new processors.

The Core2 Duo is a great overclocker though. I am overclocking mine without even raising the core voltage, and it never goes over 50 degrees during a night of burn-in tests using SiSoft Sandra.

I... ahem... liberated a copy of DiRT thru BT recently and it works perfectly without using any elaborate image mounting or drive cloaking.
It is a bugger to perfect though - definitely not as easy to master as the older series of CMR.
The first night I played it for about 4 hours with the Logitech G25 and I could feel my arms sore the next day (Beats going to the gym though)

[mgarvey]

Originally Posted by London320d

Well I started when Microprocessors had only four bits, and was designing at component level shortly after

When people talk about overclocking, I cringe as I see all of the carefully designed timing of the system going to pot. How successful you'll be depends upon the individual tolerances of the components, the particular mix of parts used, and the quality of the physical design of the boards.

One important thing that I've not seen mentioned above is the power supply. The newer processor/motherboard combinations and particularly graphics cards use a LOT of juice. It's worth investing in a decent PSU as well, if your existing system does not have one. Do NOT skimp on the method of connecting to the ATX12V connector if you have an 8 pin one. Do not use a splitter cable even if one is supplied with the mobo.....(Get a PSU with an 8 pin ATX12V cable fitted)

I'd also advise against skimping on the cooling. Cooling helps in two ways. Chips take longer to do things when hot (particularly important as it eats up the margin that you hope to overclock into) and the thermal stress of the chips heating up/cooling down shortens their life.

Good advice - my box has a massive Zalman 9000 copper heatsink and a rather expensive PSU with about 600W and extra features for quiet running and turning its cooling up or down.

BTW my Opteron isn't clocked that high, as like you say you can mess up memory timings etc and wipe out a lot of the potential speed improvements. Besides, for me quiet running is actually more important than the speed gain.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by mgarvey

Good advice - my box has a massive Zalman 9000 copper heatsink and a rather expensive PSU with about 600W and extra features for quiet running and turning its cooling up or down.

BTW my Opteron isn't clocked that high, as like you say you can mess up memory timings etc and wipe out a lot of the potential speed improvements. Besides, for me quiet running is actually more important than the speed gain.

On the subject of cooling ... I just ordered a replacement case:

http://www.3dxtreme.org/index.php?id=aerocoolaeplus1

My original OEM case has no cooling, just a 'thermally advantaged' type funnel connecting the CPU fan to a vent grille on the side.

Everything is running fairly well and the temps don't seem to bad:

CPU - 30-35 deg C
Power - 49 deg C
Mobo - 45 deg C
Graphics - 63 deg C

It smells hot though .. so I reckon a couple of big fans won't hurt.

Plus I can fit another Hard Drive in now, so I also bought a 500gig one.

[- Paul -]

If you're into quiet computing, this site is great - I've bought loads of stuff off them - the latest being a silent VGA cooler.

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/home

[NFS]

Originally Posted by 1stnewcar

If you're into quiet computing, this site is great - I've bought loads of stuff off them - the latest being a silent VGA cooler.

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/home

I'm working on the following principle:

Large fan = more airflow at lower rpm = less noise

The CPU fan originally fitted to the Advent T12 that I started with was like a jet engine taking off.

By comparison the stock fan that came with my new dual core processor is very quiet indeed.

[- Paul -]

Yep - thats my approach too - big 12cm fans with temp controllers on them. Hardly hear them when in Windows, hear them more when gaming (but game noise blocks it anyway)

[NFS]

Originally Posted by 1stnewcar

Yep - thats my approach too - big 12cm fans with temp controllers on them. Hardly hear them when in Windows, hear them more when gaming (but game noise blocks it anyway)

I only ever play games for an hour or so in the evening when the kids are in bed and my missus is watching some nonsense on TV. So I always use heaphones anyway ...

Otherwise the kids would get a bit tense about the explosions in "f.e.a.r" and the constant shouts of 'die m*therf*cker', 'no f*cking way' and 'sh*t he's too fast'.

BTW ... I'm now on the Arcadia level of Bioshock

[Serjames]

I really enjoyed Galactic Civilisations II that i played the other day..

really good game, turn based, but very political and quite addictive.

Managed a 24 hour straight session by "accident"

SJ

[NFS]

Originally Posted by 330cdsport

I... ahem... liberated a copy of DiRT thru BT recently and it works perfectly without using any elaborate image mounting or drive cloaking.
It is a bugger to perfect though - definitely not as easy to master as the older series of CMR.
The first night I played it for about 4 hours with the Logitech G25 and I could feel my arms sore the next day (Beats going to the gym though)

I can't get into the handling on 'dirt'. It just feels a bit vague and wobbly using the G25 with very little feedback.

What settings do you use?

[330cdsport]

Originally Posted by needforspeed

I can't get into the handling on 'dirt'. It just feels a bit vague and wobbly using the G25 with very little feedback.

What settings do you use?

Yep I find it very hard to get on with too, but I was partly blaming my 'old' graphics card (Nvidia 7900GS) so I have just got a new one at the weekend (BFG 8800 GTS OC 320Mb) and hopefully will get a play tonite.
I will probably not be playing DiRT though as I am kinda hooked on Bioshock at the moment. Looking forward to playing it at 1600x1200 at MAX settings

The missus and wee man are away until Wednesday, so I can now turn the vol up too

Originally Posted by needforspeed

I only ever play games for an hour or so in the evening when the kids are in bed and my missus is watching some nonsense on TV. So I always use heaphones anyway ...

Otherwise the kids would get a bit tense about the explosions in "f.e.a.r" and the constant shouts of 'die m*therf*cker', 'no f*cking way' and 'sh*t he's too fast'.

BTW ... I'm now on the Arcadia level of Bioshock

I am not that far into it as I have held off waiting for the new gfx card. May as well play it with max eye candy.

Do you play the DX10 version in Vista or the DX9 version in WinXP??

It is a very good game I think, quite hair-raising at times too

[NFS]

Originally Posted by 330cdsport

Yep I find it very hard to get on with too, but I was partly blaming my 'old' graphics card (Nvidia 7900GS) so I have just got a new one at the weekend (BFG 8800 GTS OC 320Mb) and hopefully will get a play tonite.
I will probably not be playing DiRT though as I am kinda hooked on Bioshock at the moment. Looking forward to playing it at 1600x1200 at MAX settings

The missus and wee man are away until Wednesday, so I can now turn the vol up too

I am not that far into it as I have held off waiting for the new gfx card. May as well play it with max eye candy.

Do you play the DX10 version in Vista or the DX9 version in WinXP??

It is a very good game I think, quite hair-raising at times too

Good choice on the graphics card ... I also bought the BFG 8800 GTS OC

You'll have no problems playing bioshock on max settings. It's a great game .. an unusually believable alternate reality.

I'm playing in XP ... haven't taken the plunge to go with vista yet. I'd rather wait until all the third party drivers catch up.

[mgarvey]

Originally Posted by 1stnewcar

If you're into quiet computing, this site is great - I've bought loads of stuff off them - the latest being a silent VGA cooler.

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/home

I've bought loads of cooling kit from them, including my PSU, heat sink, hard drive coolers and so on. My PC sounded like a hairdryer when I bought it off my boss (it was too loud for him), and it is now almost silent.

[NFS]

Fitted my new case last night - quite easy really.

My Advent T12 is no more ...

I now have the following specification:

Aerocool AE Plus case with 18 cm side fan and 14 cm front fan (£50)
650w power supply (£30)
E6600 Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz (£120)
MSI G965M motherboard (£80)
2gigs of Corsair 'heat sinked' 6400 800mhz DDR2 RAM (£50)
BFG 8800 GTS OC graphics card (£170)
2 x 500 gig and 1 x 250 gig internal hard drives (£100)
Samsung Syncmaster (£200)

Basically, the only part of the advent still left is the 250gig hard drive and the OEM version of XP that game with it. I had to create a boot disc using the pre-installed version of XP then re-install after I swapped the motherboard. The microsoft activation system asked if I have changed the motherboard and if so why. I selected the option that I had replaced it because it was broken and it allowed me to activate.

I reckon I spent around £800 in total.

I'll upgrade the processor and motherboard again when I'm ready to get Vista.

[330cdsport]

Very similar to my spec. I need a bigger HDD though. Only have a 36Gb WD Raptor for the OS and 320Gb main drive.

Bittorent must have done wonders for HDD sales

Getting in to Colin McRae DiRT now since I got the new 8800GTS and the game has been transformed. It is now absolutely brilliant with the G25 wheel, wheras before I could not handle the car at all with the old GFX card.
I am now able to win races at the pro-amatuer level wheras before I struggled to not come last!!

Very addictive - wife is giving out loads to me at the mo

[NFS]

Originally Posted by 330cdsport

Very similar to my spec. I need a bigger HDD though. Only have a 36Gb WD Raptor for the OS and 320Gb main drive.

Bittorent must have done wonders for HDD sales

Getting in to Colin McRae DiRT now since I got the new 8800GTS and the game has been transformed. It is now absolutely brilliant with the G25 wheel, wheras before I could not handle the car at all with the old GFX card.

Very addictive - wife is giving out loads to me at the mo

500 gig internal drives are cheap as chips on ebuyer or dabs right now.

How are you doing with bioshock?

[330cdsport]

Originally Posted by needforspeed

500 gig internal drives are cheap as chips on ebuyer or dabs right now.

How are you doing with bioshock?

Am completely hooked on DiRT at the moment. Have not played Bioshock since I got the new card.
I also tried the new Sega Rally. Tis a blast from the past with good arcade style fun. (bounce off all roadsides and no damage)
You can also race online which is cool.