Buying this weekend, final thoughts

[pokemon]

I've got my system chosen finally:
DFI LanParty SLI-DR 939 MOBO
San Diego 3700+ 939 CPU
EVGA GF6800GT PCIe GPU
OCZ PC3200 Plat Ed. EL Revision 2 RAM
Antec TruePowerII 550W PSU
Hitachi 80GB SATAII HDD

I've already got the moniter and case, but I had a question with the graphics card. I'm kind of a Half Life 2 Fanboy, but I wasn't sure if the X800XL might be a better choice with this particular game. I do a load of gaming but also am an avid mapper/modeller/coder/renderer so I'm not sure how well the card would apply in that aspect. Any direction would be great.

850mhz... How fast are you?

 

[Vapor]

I'd go with the 6800GT if I were you...little faster. But if you can find the X800XL for >$50 or so less, I'd go for that.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

 

[dunklegend]

You could drop the SLI mobo and get a 7800 video card. It will be better than 2 6800s and cheaper.

<font color=red>Left to themselves, all things go from bad to worse</font color=red>

 

[pokemon]

I'm not going to be doing SLI but I still need a top notch overclocking board. And I know I can get the XL for about $260-$270. I guess I'm already on a budget as it is, about $1600.

850mhz... How fast are you?

 

[dunklegend]

Yeah but you could get the DFI without SLI or even an Epox board.
You'll have the OCing features but with a better price, and then that saved money can be put towards the video card.

&#22

<font color=red>Left to themselves, all things go from bad to worse</font color=red>

 

[pokemon]

Like most people, I would love to get a 7800gtx but trading in a $350 card and reducing the mobo down about $80 only leaves me with $430. The only other open options would be with the ram and cpu. Even with reductions in those, I won't be able to reach $600.

850mhz... How fast are you?

 

[KCjoker]

If you want to go SLI in the future I'd get the 6800GT. If not I'd suggest the X800XL since they're usually cheaper and you say HL2 is your game of choice.

 

[pokemon]

I forgot to mention that I was going to be doing some serious overclocking with swiftech's peltier kit later on, so i'm not sure how well the x800xl or ATI in general holds up to serious overclocks. And I don't plan on going SLI just because it doesn't give the best price to performance I'm looking for.

850mhz... How fast are you?

 

[KCjoker]

I don't have a X800XL but from what I've read they don't OC well at all. If you want to OC you should go for the 6800GT IMO.

 

[shawnlizzle =]]

umm x800pro would do well as far as OCs goes, but if your gonna OC the cpu, buy a 3200 venice, save more money on mobo by using the ultra-d not sli. and you save a lil here, you save a lil there... and sooner or later, u can buy a 7800 gtx =P. but then of course, 6800gt, x800xl will still do fine for HL2.

<font color=red>gforce mx100/200 @ 230/440 =]</font color=red>

 

[scottchen]

Like master said, go with the DFI UT ultra mobo, since this is a gaming PC, the 1mb cache really isn't useful for you, so go with the 3500+, if you want the 11x multiplier. If you're doing serious overclocking, then go with the OCZ PC4000 VX ram. Get a better power supply, preferably a Fortron made(Enermax gets my thumbs up).

As for the video card, my vote on the PCI-E side still goes to the x800xl, they may be crap stock overclockers, but with watercooling, and crank up VVPU to 1.7 from the stock 1.3 will get you 500mhz easy, and the ram with good cooling and some voltage tweaking may get to 600(1200DDR)mhz. Brand for overclocking on the X800XL, Powercolor, and Club3d.

 

[pokemon]

Do you know of any places that sell any good Fortron PSUs because Newegg looks like the only ones they have are crap?

And for the RAM, your talking about this stuff right?
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227206" target="_new">I think your suppose to click here</A>

How well does the 6800GT overclock at the same intesity as the XL? Just trying to do a little comparing.

I was actually initally planning on the 3500+ Venice but saw the extra 512MB l2 on the San Diego and thought sure. What does the extra 512mb do anyway?

850mhz... How fast are you?

 

[dunklegend]

I own <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104934" target="_new">this one</A> and it's a solid PSU, very accurate voltages, and no problems with it.

<font color=green>If you work on a thing long enough to improve it, It will break</font color=green>

 

[scottchen]

Yeah those are the ram, Well Fortron does make Enermax, Fortron, Zalman, and Sparkle power supply. Go with a 600watt Enermax if you got cash.

The 6800GT gains more performance per clock compared to the X800XL, if my only goal is to overclock, then 6800GT is the better choice, but the X800XL costs 80-100 dollars less, it's really a good deal.

As for the extra cache, it's useful in some apps, read anand's benchies, the gains in games is too small to justify its extra price, just go with a 3200+ or a 3500+.

 

[Vapor]

If your objective is to get a good OC, the 6800GT is definitely better.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

 

[pokemon]

I think I found a good PSU "<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103437" target="_new">Right Here</A>"
36 on the 12V rail and its an Enermax.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Pokemon on 06/24/05 05:36 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[pokemon]

Then what would you recommend I do lots of gaming and lots of programminig/rendering/modelling/mapping, and want to seriously overclock my whole rig?

850mhz... How fast are you?

 

[pokemon]

What about RAM, do you know of any that can perform great but are a bit cheaper?

850mhz... How fast are you?

 

[pokemon]

Ok, I'm going to see what Newegg's July 4th Sale has when I buy the stuff (only a weeks wait). I've had trouble with figuring out this whole thing, and to let you in on a side note:
[rabble,rabble,rabble]I don't have a credit card so I have to buy through a parent. My parents only want me spending $1000 on it as it is, so I'm buying the rest through a brother who has enough to fit $500 on. I thought I could generalize on how much I've already spent on the case and moniter ($390) but I'm sure I can make it sound only like $300 and try to get another +$100 on the total budget. So that's 800 on one and 500 on the other, plus 80 on cd drive + keyboard through elsewhere. Though I'd admit it would be suspicious if we ordered 3 items and 6 show up.[/rabble,rabble,rabble]

But all in all, I've figured out how to wedge in the 7800 and reduce the 3500+ to a 3200+. I hope that will work out:

2x512 OCZ DDR500 VX
EVGA 7800GTX
DFI LP UT Nforce 4 Ultra-D
AMD 64 3200+ Venice
Seagate 80MB SATA
Still not sure which PSU.

Does that still look right?

850mhz... How fast are you?

 

[mozzartusm]

474/606 is what my X800XL would run at. You have to be somethat lucky to get a card that will go that high. Cooling was not what stopped mine from going up higher it needed a volt mod. That was and may still be the fastest XL in the ORB that was not volt modded and running on Phase cooling.

ASUS P5WD2 Premium
Intel 3.73 EE @ 5.6Ghz
XMS2 DDR2 @ 1180Mhz

<A HREF="http://valid.x86-secret.com/records.php?PHPSESSID=792e8f49d5d9b8a4d1ad6f40ca029756" target="_new">#2 CPUZ</A>
SuperPI 25secs

 

[mozzartusm]

474/606 is what my X800XL would run at. You have to be somethat lucky to get a card that will go that high. Cooling was not what stopped mine from going up higher it needed a volt mod. That was and may still be the fastest XL in the ORB that was not volt modded and running on Phase cooling.

ASUS P5WD2 Premium
Intel 3.73 EE @ 5.6Ghz
XMS2 DDR2 @ 1180Mhz

<A HREF="http://valid.x86-secret.com/records.php?PHPSESSID=792e8f49d5d9b8a4d1ad6f40ca029756" target="_new">#2 CPUZ</A>
SuperPI 25secs

 

[scottchen]

Yeah you're 1 lucky b@stard, the best i got my X800XL without volt mod is 425/550(1100), just measured my VVPU and found out how severely undervolted it is, it's only at 1.22V, i honestly don't know how this card is booting, it's really cool though, i'll bet i can run it with my pump off, ATI's refrence board has the card at 1.3V, some powercolor are at 1.35V by default, Asus i believe also has a 1.35V default.