Info On SLI

[lavery]

Hi i just need to know if i buy a mobo which has sli do i need to buy two Gcards are can it be used with just one?? :roll: And if so would you be able to tell me a good mobo for a PD 805

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

Nope, you can use one card with SLI, it just won't run in SLI mode. That's the beauty of the system.

The Asus P5ND2-SLI is pretty good. $90 from newegg.

Since you're getting the 805, I'm assuming you plan to overclock?

Hope you're getting a better cooling system...and not just trying to emulate THG's 805 4 GHz rig...

 

[lavery]

Yip was thinking of overclocking it once i learn how to over clock lol i dont no much.

What you mean about a better cooling system as in water cooling???

Thanx for the help

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

OK, if you don't overclock, then don't get an 805.

If you don't do H20 then don't get an 805 and overclock it.

Everyone thinks that the 805 is a great budget overclocker - and it is a great budget overclocker...if you have expensive OC-capable parts...because if you intend to hit OC heights, you'll need a really good PSU, a really good OCer's motherboard, expensive RAM to get the proper divider ratio, and not to mention an effective cooling system, which will be very complicated.

What is your budget, by the way? I think OC'ing an 805 may be more expensive than you think, and a lot less reliable than you would like.

 

[lavery]

Bit late i have the cpu and all .

Well since i have the cpu i might as well get a good board welling to spend about £100 on the board an other £100 on the ram looking 2GB of DDR2 the fastest the board can do.

Looking for a Asus Extreme X850 XT PE or a ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition will work with the SLI board cause they are ATI cards.

Might as well learn how to overclock once its all up and running.
Have been wanting a water cooling rig for a while much would i have to spend on one? thanx

 

[Heyyou27]

You should have gone with the Pentium D 930. :? And yes you can use an ATI card in an SLI motherboard.

 

[rambuswolf]

What is with you people!?

Why are some of you so compelled to flex and posture about overclocking, and alienate would-be overclockers?

If you take your 805 and your p5nd2 and get some good ddr2-800 memory, install a decent aftermarket fan/heatsink, and put some Arctic Silver 5 on it according to the instructions, you should have no problem getting 3.5-3.6ghz on stock voltage. Shoot, if you lap your processor and heatsink and do it correctly (something I have not much seen discussed on these forums), you can probably easily hit 3.8ghz on air.

Perhaps if you are not going to overclock you should not buy an 805, but for the less than $200 USD you will pay for the motherboard and processor, you're getting a dual core, 64-bit processor and a motherboard that supports SLI, albeit not true dual 16x SLI.

And what do people mean by overclock? Just because you plan to overclock does not mean you have to break 4ghz for it to be a successful overclock. I wish people would qualify some of these open-ended imperatives that they issue, like "oh, if you're gonna overclock with the big dogs, you can't just emulate the THG article, or you're gonna get took out the game, son!"

And what is the rationale behind the notion that if you are going to overclock, you have to water cool??

Some basic stuff:


1) Get a good power supply. Look on Newegg for a solid 500-600 watt power supply, though 500 watts should be PLENTY. I personally have had good experiences with Thermaltake power supplies, but if I was in your shoes I would look for an inexpensive 500 watt power supply that has a lot of customer reviews of 4 or more stars/eggs.


2) Get a good motherboard. The Asus P5ND2-SLI that yourmotherisanastronaut recommended is a good choice because it has 8-phase power regulation (something I have so far only seen of Asus boards), and it can be had for under $100USD.


3) Get a good heatsink/fan combo and good thermal paste (you can't go wrong with Arctic Silver 5). You don't need watercooling to get a great overclock, and in ways, you are preserving more of the essence of what makes the 805 D overclock so attractive by not watercooling - namely, price-performance ratio, and ease of implementation (and when time is viewed as money, time saved becomes money saved, which further enhances the price-performance ratio.)

As for heatsink/fan combos a lot of people like the Zalman CNPS9500, but there are other good ones. Look for a 2 or "dual" ball bearing fan design.

If you want to take a little extra time and get the most out of your system, do a Google search for: lapping heatsink cpu

In a nutshell, lapping your heatsink (and your CPU, in the case of processors without an exposed CPU die - such as P4 or Athlon 64 chips)
consists of sanding the surface of your heatsink until it has a mirror finish - in other words, until you can clearly see your reflection in it. I have done this half-as*ed, and I have done this properly; when done properly, it has dropped my CPU temp by 40 degrees fahrenheit! Forty degrees!!!! Your results may vary. Anyway, look for a guide on the web or PM me if you want to learn more about it.


4) Get memory that can support your target clock. DDR2-800 of any stable variety should fit the bill in this case. If you really have your eye on performance, shell out a little extra for lower-latency memory.


5) Good airflow through your case. Whether you take a standard case and intelligently cool it or buy a case that looks like it has a turbine in the side of it is up to you. A good side fan and good rear case fan should do the trick, but make sure your cables are placed in such a way as to allow for the most airflow possible.


Good luck with you new rig, lavery.

-Rambuswolf/khennsu/bok_bok

 

[lavery]

Just by luck i got the motherboard that you said.

Going to get some of that Arctic Silver 5.

Going to get a Hiper Type R 580W power supply.

Zalman CNPS9500 fan is a bit high priced for me and i dont think it does 755 cpu's, so i dont no what fan im going to go for but would like to no more about lapping.

Going for DDRII 667 its the best the board can do going to get 2 GB of it.

Thanx for the help no any good G cards for around 100 to 130 pound thanx again man

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

Lapping is when you use sandpaper to put a better finish on the bottom of the heatsink. Some people swear by it, but I've never bothered - it takes a lot of tedious work, which is why rambuswolf says he's seen it done half-as*ed. Lapping is usually only effective on watercooling waterblocks, not too many people do it on regular HSFs.

And I highly doubt that the temperature dropped by 40 degrees. To it, maybe, but not by it. The only way you could drop temperatures by 40 degrees is with a phase change cooler, which takes the CPU to sub-zero temperatures.

Good PSU choice, that's what I'm using - terrific power supply, too bad my case hides its finish, though :?.

 

[foshizzle]

If you are really interested in overclocking then I would definitely recommend getting ddr2-800. Even though the board only supports ddr2-667, you have more headroom to overclock with ddr2-800. That just means that the RAM is capable of going up to ddr2-800 speeds (or maybe higher) but it can run at ddr2-667 as well.

Sorry if that doesn't make sense. This stuff is confusing as heck at first. Well, at least it was for me

 

[rambuswolf]

Lapping is when you use sandpaper to put a better finish on the bottom of the heatsink. Some people swear by it, but I've never bothered - it takes a lot of tedious work, which is why rambuswolf says he's seen it done half-as*ed. Lapping is usually only effective on watercooling waterblocks, not too many people do it on regular HSFs.

And I highly doubt that the temperature dropped by 40 degrees. To it, maybe, but not by it. The only way you could drop temperatures by 40 degrees is with a phase change cooler, which takes the CPU to sub-zero temperatures.

Good PSU choice, that's what I'm using - terrific power supply, too bad my case hides its finish, though :?.

OK, let's start from the top.

With respect to yourmothersanastronaut's reply on lapping a heatsink:

1) Read my post. I never said I've "seen it done half-as*ed", I said,

I have done this half-as*ed, and I have done this properly; when done properly, it has dropped my CPU temp by 40 degrees fahrenheit!

2) How can you even speak on lapping a heatsink when you say that while some people swear by it, you have never bothered with it?

3) How do you know how tedious or time consuming it is when you have never bothered with it? And how does any of this lead to you misquoting me about it?

Is it too tedious and time consuming to read a post properly? Is it too tedious to back up the advice you give people with experience or research?

4)

And I highly doubt that the temperature dropped by 40 degrees. To it, maybe, but not by it.

I don't even know what wtf you mean by this. We're talking about degrees fahrenheit, and I dropped the temp of an Athlon XP 2400+ from 145F to roughly 102F by properly lapping the heatsink and applying Arctic Silver 5.

5)

Lapping is usually only effective on watercooling waterblocks, not too many people do it on regular HSFs

Perhaps not many people do it, but I don't know where you get this crap about it only being effective on watercooling waterblocks. The principle of maximizing the surface contact between your CPU and your cooling device is the same whether you are using a waterblock or a copper heatsink and fan. In fact, before the advent of reliable, commercially available watercooling, techniques like lapping were in use by plenty of determined overclockers.

To be fair, it is somewhat time consuming, but compared to what? Installing a watercooling solution? Constanly opening your case to clear the CMOS? Tweaking your memory latency and memory clock and CPU FSB then running Super Pi or Prime95, then doing it fifty more times until you find that maximum stable clock and latency? For the results it yields, lapping is worth the effort.

If you have never done it, it may take an hour or two to properly lap a heatsink. Once you get the hang of it (and know what the result is supposed to look like), you can do it in a half hour or less.

In any event, congrats on and good luck with your new rig, lavery.


-rambuswolf