Thai3g_Eclipse

The requirement's a bit overbearing. The game will run on older video cards fine, such as a Radeon 9800 Pro. Just turn down the details.

The game's already been released guys, where's all the discussions and thoughts?

I'd like to see a 512MB GDDR3 GeForce 7800GTX benchmark with the X1800XT better, because all those benchmarks are putting quite a heavy hit on video memory, and many of the newer games such as Call of Duty 2 requires more than 256MB of video memory in high resolution modes.

ClockGen is the most reliable Windows-based overclocking tool as of now. http://www.cpuid.org/download/CG/CG-NVNF4.zip Other than that, it's really easier to set everything through the BIOS.

Guy, this is an IT related discussion, not about religion or your beliefs in war.

Ripken assumes that everyone will overclock, that's why he recommended that CPU. My opinion is to hang on to the Radeon and wait until next year for AMD's new Socket M2 interface to come out. It will use DDR2 RAM and obviously a 1002 CPU pin configuration. It's going to replace socket 939 so I would advise you to hang on to get the most out of your money.

A gaming PC will also emphasize on cooling ability, so I recommend this case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16811112212 It's plain and simple, and will go with your black DVD burner well. Lian Li cases have exceptional ventilation and the design is well thought out, and with addition to some Silverstone fans it'll keep the components cool. For the hard drives, I recommend picking up a SATA drive to be used for Windows Partition and installed games (Preferably something like Maxtor's Maxline III 250GB for speed and space), so your older ATA drives will not be a bottleneck for the rest of your system.

You want the E4 stepping. The SH-E4 has a revised memory controller that doesn't seem to overclock as well. If you can find a place that still has an Opteron 144 before the end of the year, there's a good chance you'll get one with the E4 stepping.

It's quite obvious that you do not realize that AMD processors are not designed to operate more than 60C over an extended period of time. Due to the processor's different method of obtaining their speed, the AMD cannot take as much heat as Intel processors because the Athlon CPUs get their performance from heavy reliance on their memory controllers, whereas the Intel CPUs are not dependent on the RAM or any special HyperTransport type multipliers. Intel's forté has always been the raw processing power, which makes them the preferred processor for heavy duty 'number crunching' and obviously arid operating conditions. By the way, I'm not sure if this holds true in Europe or not, but Betamax tapes was phased by VHS by the end of the 1980's, which proves my point that if AMD does develop a different processing unit, it would have met its fate like Betamax tapes as it will not compete with a company that has been around longer.

From what I've read, DFI seems to have vastly improved in their products, so I'm not saying that they're bad. I was just giving Ripken an example that sometimes personal experience should be taken into account instead of what was read or heard from everyone.

A lot of fanboy comments in this thread. maxamoto, do you ever consider the reason that AMD adapted Intel's x86 process is due to having a direct competition? If AMD developed a different method, it would severely hinder its sales because then consumers would have to deal with compatibility problems and support. This would have made the processor feud even worse than the current Intel Vs. AMD battle, where it is just a brand preference, to having two total different processing architectures, as in the Windows and Macintosh rivalry. As for your claim of AMD producing 'inferior' processors, have you ever owned an AMD processor powered product yourself? I would also like to see some reputatable claims backing up your statement. For an 'inferior' processor company, I'm quite surprised my 8 year old AMD K6 266 MHz system is still up and running. Am I favoring AMD or Intel? Nope. My desktop is an AMD system, and my laptop is harnessing a Pentium III processor. As far as I'm concerned, both companies make great products, but unfortunately fanboys failed to comprehend that. Before you go around flaming others about living in a trailer and buying Wal-Mart clothes, perhaps you should inquire yourself.

The worst thing you can do with motherboard is attempting to state the 'best'. Arguably the DFI makes great overclockers, but no motherboard is the best. The correct word to use would be 'recommended'. Some people have good experience with Asus, some with DFI, and some with EpoX. Unless any of them perform exceptionally better than the rest (Which in this case none of them does, in terms of memory bandwidth, Overclocking potential and stability), there really is no top dog. I would have to disagree with MSI being considered a recommended motherboard. I had a K8N Neo4-F and I was somewhat dissatisfied with it. Attempting to run dual channel RAM in one turn command rate is nearly impossible, and it seems to enjoy locking up occasionally, and I had to RMA 2 boards before I got one with a working on-board ethernet. I had a DFI KT600-AL board back in the days when I had an Athlon XP system, and it was the worst motherboard I've ever had. The Gigabyte GA-7N400 board I replaced it with was night and day in terms of performance.

That's quite a series of inquisitions. Here's how everything breaks down: -The X800GT is essentially a regular X800 with 4 of its pixel pipelines disabled. Theoretically it's slower than a regular X800, but also considerable cheaper. This card is the direct competitor to Nvidia's GeForce 6600GT. -The X800GTO/GTO2 is ATi's attempt to get rid of their overstocked X800 GPUs (The R420, R423, R430). Connect3D's X800GTO has been confirmed to be able to BIOS-mod'd into a X800XT, but the other brands such as MSI and whatever else seems to be using a mix of all three, so it's not a guaranteed success. The Sapphire X800GTO2 is essentially an X850XT (R480) using an X800 BIOS. This card so far has a 100% successful conversion rate into an X850XT. -The only two All-In-Wonder cards ATi has released for the PCI Express format is the AIW X600 Pro and the AIW X800XL. The reason for a AIW X850XT not existing is simply due to the facts that the cost will be too unreasonable. If I had to guess, an AIW X850XT would have cost as much as a Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX. -If you are a heavy oriented gamer, 512MB of video memory is not necessary. Many new games such as Call of Duty 2, F.E.A.R. and a select few others proved that 512MB video memory is becoming necessary, but for a occasional gamer it's not needed.

I already have 4 sticks of DDR400 RAM of 512 MB each, But I want to get four sticks with 1 GB each. any recommendations? What do you think of this gfx card? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...%2509%26fvi%3D1 I'm kinda on a tight budget here, you know................. p.s. I like the CPU you've recommended! it has some impressive values of overclocking! I have just got on from ebay.de Hope that by 1.11 I will have finished my "project" Thanks! The 6600GT is a fine choice indeed. As for the RAM, remember that is soon as you use all 4 DIMM slots, you will be forced to have to run the RAM @ a 2 turn command rate and the front bus speed will be dropped down to 166MHz. 1GB sticks are also more difficult to overclock than their 512MB counterparts. If price is not an issue, go with the Crucial Ballistix Tracers or the OCZ Platinum series. Otherwise, the Corsair 1GB Value series and anything under $200 may not overclock well.

This particular model is the newly released Socket 939 models and does not require ECC RAM like its Socket 940 brethren.

I would highly recommend this CPU if you want the most of your money: http://www.tritechcoa.com/product/562343.html Yes, that is a server CPU, but don't be fooled by the name and core speed; that's an Athlon64 San Diego in disguise. If you want to overclock, I would get this. Considering it's for servers, it'll tolerate high overclocking and 24/7 operation a lot better. I've seen some of these overclocked as high as 2.9-3 GHz with air cooling.

I was afraid of that. My old MSI did the exact same thing -- it will froze up on me if I try modifying the timings with A64Tweaker. After I got this Abit motherboard I had no problems whatsoever. In this case, I'm betting that your motherboard is not allowing you to edit the BIOS settings within Windows. Write down the settings, reboot, and try it within the BIOS itself.

Ah, nice to see a fellow San Diego CPU around here. I have the same core and RAM, so give this settings a shot: If it won't boot up to Windows, loosen the timings to 3-3-3-8 and that should work. Of all the settings I've played with, this is the best results I've gotten. Also bump up the Memory voltage by 0.1 if you can.

Hopefully for about 2-3 months. In addition to constantly tooling around with my PC, I also make a little money on the side by letting students around the campus order the parts and bring 'em to me so I can assemble it for a small fee.

I'm going to keep the 5.9's for now. ATi's 5.11 is supposed to have some 'miracle' performance boost in OpenGL games, so I'm somewhat looking toward to that. Of course, the benchmark was with a X1800XT, so we don't even know if the OpenGL boost will even apply to the older generation cards.

If anyone is planning on stocking up on Arctic Silver 5's, SVC's got 'em for $4.99 for a 3.5G syringe, free shipping: http://www.svc.com/as5-3g.html I already ordered 10 of them.

Vista is going to run slow on that spec. There are some people that has P4/AMD64 processors in excess of 3 GHz, 1GB of Ram and good video cards and are complaining about how slow the beta OS runs. I would not bother with it unless you really have to see what is so hip and cool about it. Even then, I'd wait for Beta 2 to come out.

Not quite but close. The X800GTO2 from Sapphire is actually a X850XT with a different BIOS. Currently it is the best "Bang for your Buck" out of ATi's house right now, as it has a 100% conversion success and some people are even able to overclock it further and will run exactly like a 'real' X850XT.

I'm going to have to correct you on that. While it is true that the X800XL is the only X800 series that carries the 512MB video memory, it was first released as a 256 MB variant. It is designed to fall between the X800Pro and the X800XT/X850 series, which is for people that are on a more strict budget. It is basically a X800 GPU (R430 core) running on a X850 PCB and has 16 pipes. The card however, is not preferred among the hardcore enthusiasts because the GPU is an extremely weak overclocker. For those who just wants a great video card and not planning to overclock, the X800XL is for you. Unfortunately I fall in the overclockers group, and made the mistake of purchasing one.