[alapic]

Hi everyone
I'm upgrading my system and would like different oppinions on the next Items I will be purchasing.
I intend to oveclock my Cpu up to 3.5 but will be happy with 3.3

I've already ordered those 5 Items

1. BFG GeForce GTX 285 OCX
2. ASUS VK266H 25.5" Widescreen 1080P 2ms
3. XClio Windtunnel Advanced Super Tower Case
4. G.SKILL F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15(2 kits, total of 8gigs)
5. V8 air cooler

The following is my next order for friday.

1. Corsair TX Series CMPSU-850TX 850W
2. Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS)15TB SATA 32MB 7200RPM Storrage
3. WD Caviar Black (WD5001AALS) 500GB SATA 7200RPM 32MB X2 for raid0
4. Logitech (970115) Z-5500 Digital 5.1 Speaker System
5. Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 retail
6. Logitech (920-000383) Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution

Should I just have my gtx285 as a single or in sli-physx whith my BFG 9800GTX+ OC 512? would there be any noticeable performance for gaming?

Also, are there any freeware that will display my Northbridge, Cpu NB and Ht Voltage under vista?

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You

 

[cky2k6]

I would suggest upgrading to these drives http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136218 for your raid 0, they're competitive with a raptor x setup in many benches, for a bargain. As for for those voltages, asus probe should've come on your mobo cd, it will read all the voltage and temp values from your bios. Oh and you should probably just run the 285, physx isn't worth it yet, only mirrors edge and a few other games even support it.

 

[alapic]

Thanx for your reply
Much appreciated

Quote:

Originally Posted by cky2k6 I would suggest upgrading to these drives http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136218 for your raid 0, they're competitive with a raptor x setup in many benches, for a bargain.

Wouldn't the cache size (16MB) on that HD be slower than the one with 32MB? I'm I missing something else that would make them perform better?
(Edit) Ok I did a little search and it seems that most people agree that 32MB has a lot of unused space... So the 640 AAKS is better but what about the other AAKS? I can get the 320GB, would be plenty of space for my OS and Programs. But Do they perform as well as the 640GB version?

Quote:

Originally Posted by cky2k6 As for for those voltages, asus probe should've come on your mobo cd, it will read all the voltage and temp values from your bios. Oh and you should probably just run the 285, physx isn't worth it yet, only mirrors edge and a few other games even support it.

I have Asus Probe II and it's only giving me the vcore and the 12, 5 and 3.3 volts(

I assume those last 3 are from my power suply).

Quote:

Originally Posted by cky2k6 Oh and you should probably just run the 285, physx isn't worth it yet, only mirrors edge and a few other games even support it.

I plan to get Mirror's edge eventually. Wonder what extra eye candy I would get with sli physx.
Right now I own Crysys WH, Assasins Creed and GTAIV. would you Have any idea if SLIing in PHYSX would negatively affect Performance on those games?

 

[alapic]

Thanx for the suggestions CK

I did find out that the akk's had bigger platters on the 320GB and 640GB. I tried for the 320's but only one was available. So I now have 2 640s, like you suggested.
Still waiting for the Z-5500 and MX 5500, wich means I can start building soon

.
I will stick with just the 285 and sell my other while there is some $value$ left on it. Now all I need is some time to start setting up.

 

[coonsaa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alapic I will stick with just the 285 and sell my other while there is some $value$ left on it. Now all I need is some time to start setting up.

Is that the 9800+ in your sig which I presume is a 9800GTX+ if so what price are we looking at?

 

[alapic]

Finally got all my parts together and just need to tune it up a bit(Takes a long time whith two toddlers in the house).

I want to eventually test my ram to see if i'm better off with 4gig instead of 8... does anyone have any suggestion on how I can verify performance @ 4 vs 8? I was thinking of using 3DMark06 but woundering if those score alone will do it, or if I need to use other benchmark to get more definite result for the ram.

Quote:

Originally Posted by coonsaa Is that the 9800+ in your sig which I presume is a 9800GTX+ if so what price are we looking at?

Yes it was, but i already sold it.

 

[gerikoh]

nice.

hmm superpi

 

[alapic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerikoh nice. hmm superpi

Ty. just can't wait to get it all setup and ovclckd, Thats when the gaming will start

 

[alapic]

Ok this one is not complete yet.
My m3n72-d MOBO

doesn't allow to set individual sata port appart from the other ones(raid/ide/ahci)... it's either all at raid or all at ide. That was no good for my back up drives. And one more thing that is no good is that the NB gets really hot.

I still had to try, since there is 2 dedicated ports (5 and 6) for raid only, but no indication if they are set to raid appart from the first 4 ports.

If you have the same board and wondering about this, the answer is... you have to set them to raid in the bios along with the other 4 @ the same mode.

So I purchassed a new board, a Foxconn Destroyer

with the 780a chipset

will set it up over the week-end and post some pics.

I have a modified driver pack for the chipset (Fernandos_Vista_64bit_NF4-7_RAID_Performance_Pack_v5.0) that i will use ... if anyone can point me to a better NForce driver, I whould much appreciate it and gladly give it shot.
Cheers

 

[mocha989]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alapic Thanx for your reply Much appreciated Wouldn't the cache size (16MB) on that HD be slower than the one with 32MB? I'm I missing something else that would make them perform better? (Edit) Ok I did a little search and it seems that most people agree that 32MB has a lot of unused space... So the 640 AAKS is better but what about the other AAKS? I can get the 320GB, would be plenty of space for my OS and Programs. But Do they perform as well as the 640GB version? I have Asus Probe II and it's only giving me the vcore and the 12, 5 and 3.3 volts( I assume those last 3 are from my power suply). I plan to get Mirror's edge eventually. Wonder what extra eye candy I would get with sli physx. Right now I own Crysys WH, Assasins Creed and GTAIV. would you Have any idea if SLIing in PHYSX would negatively affect Performance on those games?

the AALS are better then the AAKS. AALS have 32mb cache and the AAKS has 16mb which is wrse

 

[alapic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mocha989 the AALS are better then the AAKS. AALS have 32mb cache and the AAKS has 16mb which is wrse

That's what I always thought... and now I'm not so sure....after getting CKY's suggestion for the aaks, I eventually did some more googling and found several reviews.
Apparently the cache size won't give much noticeable improvement from 16 to 32. The access speed is apparently slow but the overall performance in the real world is supposed to be pretty good. I didn't keep any links but this is what I remember and decided to go for the aaks 640gb.
My storage drives that I use mainly for larger media files have the 32 MB cache. I'm not sure if this help in streaming my audio and video files though.

I found out why CKY suggested the 640, it is based on 320gb platters as opposed to the 200gb platters. the 320 platters are also quietter
I use to have the 500gb aaks in IDE mode and Vista's perfomance index score was 5.8
And with my new 640gb aaks in IDE mode the Vista's perfomance index score is 5.9(highest possible). I know this isn't the best for bench mark but still gives me an Idea.

I did a lot of research before buying my parts and I was also hoping to get more feedback from this post. I guess I was on the right track

 

[alapic]

Alright finnaly got it all done and OCed.
I still have the feeling that its not fast enough.... If you have any questions about pros and cons, feel free to ask.

Anyways here are some pics of the system...