I'm also going from a 3.0/800/HT Prescott OC'd to 3.6 (20%). But I'm going to a D940. The main problem with the D805 is heat! Slow it down to lower the heat and the performance drops radically. The 3.2 D940 runs stock right up there with the AMD 64x2 4400+ and the Opteron 175. That's pretty good performance without a lot of heat issues. I've been hearing temps of 60C idle and 69C while encoding which is way too hot. Yes, it will run like that, but for how long. I'm sure that the heat won't do the other componants any good either. Room temperature has a lot to do with it as well I actually read a post where some guy claimed temps of 31C to 47C. Yea sure! with a vapochill compressor unit or liquid nitrogen, maybe!
I found an Asus MB that not only has 4x/8/x AGP but uses DDR 400 memory. It was critical to my new build because I only had $375 to spare for a CPU & MB. Check this one out!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131566
It has great overclocking and memory timing abilities and a 16x PCIe slot as wellas the AGP. Be warned, it only runs at 4X. I have AGP anyway (an XFX5200) and 2 Gigs of premium memory so that's why I went that direction. I have everything else I need. It should run great with the D940 Pressler I just ordered. I plan to replace this MB and go to DDR2 and a PCIe 7900GT extreme Edition when my finances improve and use it for a computer to sell, maybe with a D805 in it.
By the way, Ignore the reviews. The people complaining about it couldn't find their behind with both hands let alone no what their doing when building a computer. Read them, some of them are rediculous!
The article explains how to get great performance out of something that is reasonably priced. That does not translate into a budget PC. It gives you more bang for buck, but that savings needs to be invested differently so as not to paint yourself into a corner down the road or immediatley in some cases. (cooling, power, MB, RAM, RAID controller? heh)
Look at it that you saved $800+ on cpu power.
Invest some of that money you saved on a MB that will take care of you well now and for years to come.
The ASUS P5WDG2-WS offers:
1. Possibility to upgrade to Conroe so your next upgrade wont include the motherboard/RAM costs.
2. 8 Phase Regulator since you NEED to OC well to truly save any money/gain performance. Ease of OCing later as well.
3. Not to mention open support of the 805 with the above features is not easy to find.
$320 is waaaay more than I would ever have imagined spending on a MB but in this case it does make sense.
Since the original post asks which MB to use I assume you have already decided to do this. There is never one right answer, and this is one way you can go. There is always risk involved when OCing, EXTREME COOLING, and PURCHASING computer hardware. heh! If you need the comfort of a warrantee or tech support buy a Dell.
I wouldnt worry about power consumption costs. Again, invest some of that savings in a highly efficient PSU and enjoy your new computer.
The beauty of this MB and the D940 for me is that I have a use for it when I upgrade later this year. I'm going to use the MB, Video card and the memory to build a D805 as an inexpensive dual-core to sell. That way if the D805 winds up being the "must have" CPU, I'll have one to sell! If not I'll still have a low cost dual-core someone can clock the hell out of. Plus it get's me into a decent dual-core without having to wait until I can afford some of the top line stuff. It will still be way better than the 3.0 Prescott oc'd to 3.60 I have now. I already have a nice window case and a 480 watt PS, so the prescott remains pretty much intact. Nothing gets wasted!
I just got my 805d with the p5wd2-e and the zalman cooler. Thats all I've bought so far as I'm building this a piece at a time. The main appeal of the chip to me was that it was a very cheap dual core and it overclocks well. This is more of a fun project than anything else, though it's quite an upgrade over my current systems.
As far as power consumtion, I'm sick of hearing about it. I'm not going to run it up past 3.6 or 3.8 ghz. Though it will run 24/7 as my other systems do.(folding). Regardless of your hobby,(rock climbing, bowling, or pc's), you've gotta pay to play. A few extra bucks a year in utilities is easily affordable.
Besides, every house has stuff that uses electricity 24/7, the refrigerator, hot water heater,freezer, etc. How old are your other appliances? How energy efficient are they? If I'm not going to run out and replace that 8 year old fridge on the basis of energy efficiency, (I'll run em till they die like most people do), then you can bet I'll not worry about the juice my newest toy will draw.
Linux 0 posts contain full of lies. It seems that he likes to blow up the numbers so they can favor his closed mind, one side argument.
i.e. at 406 w with an average PSU of 70% efficiency, the total wattage will only be around 580 w, not anywhere near 700-900 like he said.
Plus the 400 watts he pulled from TH site to show the system under full load to try to scare off people; That system also has 1 gig ram, 2 hhds, a geforce 7800gtx, and an optical drive. In my opinion, that's a very good level of power consumtion for a 4ghz dual core to run with all those components. With that set up, it is indeed a very powerful PC to run on a mere 400 watts.
A $130 ( even lesser now) CPU is a $130 CPU. That is a fact. And the best thing about it is that it is a dual cores with almost all the lastest technologies built in. Trying to shoot it down by blaming it on the extra spending on cooling, power etc... is lame. If you were so concern about the power it is going to use, then run it at its stock speed. At stock speed + all that beefy components, it only use 258 watts under full load, geez... that's an amazing number.
If you were going to overclock it to rival $1000 price range CPU, who cares about power consumtion ( eventhough, it is a lot smaller than Linux 0 blew it up to, especially when you are running just 1 pc, not 100s like a business), because you already saved about $900 for buying this wonderful cheap dual core cpu.
Who said you have to buy expensive cooling if you were to buy a D805. Overclock it with its stock HSF untill it hits it ceiling, may I remind you that Intel CPU can not be killed by pushing it too hot. If the CPU started to throttle, it is a good sign that it is near its max OC for that cooling solution, but rest asure, it won't kill your cpu. If you can spend extra moneys on a better cooling solution, that is even better. REMEMBER, the extra moneys spent on the better cooling solution is an one time spending, it does not go away when you remove your D805 and upgrade it to a Core 2 Duo, for example. Hence adding it to the cost of the D805 is ridiculous.
D805 is an excellent choice, IMO, because it is cheap and it can be run on a future proof platform. If you pick the right motherboard, you can upgrade it to future CPUs easily.
About the motherboard, it is known that the Intel D975XBX rev. 304, which I personally have seen it available at Fry's Electronic where I live, will support Core 2 Duo. If you can afford the Asus 975X motherboard, the Intel board doesn't costs much more and it has full OC option. THG just did a review on it:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/0 [...] age28.html
It should be the board to use if you can afford it.
I looked into this board as well but it doesnt openly support the 805. Whether or not it still works is uncertain. It is a very attractive package but Im leary.
I went to Asus site and they have it on the list as an approved CPU for the P5VD1-X. Just do a compatibility check. You just put in the CPU and it will give you a list of compatible MBs, with what bios revision is needed! Depending on the age of the particular CPU, it may need a bios flash, but you can do that by just downloading the latest bios from Asus and flash it using the CD to boot that comes with the MB. I already downloaded it just in case.
There aren't many Mbs available that fit my imediate needs and this one seems to offer the most. It has great overclocking abilities and should do me fine until I replace it with an Asus SLI Premium and some DDR2 memory later this year.
About the motherboard, it is known that the Intel D975XBX rev. 304, which I personally have seen it available at Fry's Electronic where I live, will support Core 2 Duo.
Quote :
I went to Asus site and they have it on the list as an approved CPU for the P5VD1-X
Thanks for the tip, Ive used that function before. I was reffering to the Intel board though. Sorry for the confusion. I wasnt able to find direct support of the D805 on the Intel site for the D975XBX.
I discounted the P5VD1-X due to some of the reviews. Also no crossfire support. But based on stats alone that MB would work nicely.
The 975 chipset suports any dual core.
Doesn't matter by what brand the mobo is maked.
The 975 chipset is maked to suport any dual core manufactured antyl now.
Anyway I prefer Asus not Intel mobo because Asus gives you more ways for OC.
If you read the reviews on Newegg, It's pretty obvious that most of the complainers didn't have a clue as to what they were doing. Some of the reviews weren't even for that particular MB. One wasn't even for a MB! Of course MBs in this price range aren't something most "enthusiasts" bother with. The lack of knowlege among this group was obvious.
I've used Asus Mbs since the early 90s and I've never had a bad one and I've naver had one fail. As I've build around 600 computers since the late 80s with about 400 or so being Asus, my experience with them is far better than average. The few minor problems I have ever had were taken care of in a reasonable (define reasonable) amount of time, usually on line. Yes, their customer service is not what it could be, but I've seen a lot worse.
Asus built their reputation on a base of inexpensive MBs at the start. Since their reputation is very high, I have to assume that inexpensive or not, the quality is there.
For my needs right now, this MB fits the bill. when I can better afford it later in the year, I'll buy an SLI MB, some DDR2 and a 7900GT Extreme video card. Then I'll really be rockin! Nothing will be wasted as I have plans for the P5VD1-X after I get a high end MB to replace it. That and the fact that I can use everything I have now makes it a good choice for me!
Asus, depsite the lack of support is my favorite MB company, hands down.
Neweggs reviewers were novices and you cant value much of the opinions expressed.
The lack of reviews for that model elsewhere was strange, but that happens - perfectly good hardware lost in a sea of advertising.
So now I wait for YOUR review! haha. Im glad you found an affordable solution. This hardware market it cumbersome and I am still leary to make a decision.
The more research I do the more I change my mind the more my wife is assured I have a decision making disorder....
Yea, it's funny about that. I remember when Samsung brought out their first IDE drive. It was reviewed in PC World's annual hard drive review. It had lower than average specs. Funny thing happened in the real world tests. It turned out to be the second best performer. I bought one and it was a very fast drive for it's day. People who see I chose Emprex for my DVDs ask me why? First I've had both drives for more than a year and I've burned a lot of discs since then and they perform very well. Second and most important, they went way out of their way to help me resolve a problem with another manufacturers drive when that manufacturer ignored me, even to the point of e-mailing me to see if I got everything to work properly. Best Customer service I've ever seen. This has caused me to sell a lot of their drives, both DVD Roms and Burners for my customer builds. I've only had problems with one, and it was just a broken front plate that was probably broken when it was assembled. They not only sent me a new one but they sent both colors, just to be sure the color was correct. It's not that I haven't been happy wit NEC, Sony, Plextor or Toshibe but frankly I've had more drive failures or compatability issues with those, with just the one minor problem with the Emprex. And they're cheap too!
It might be a while before I'll have the time to do this build and give reviews. I (very unexpectedly) go back to work tomorrow so we will see how that all works out.
1GB Corsair/Geil PC 3200
3.2Ghz Prescott P4
Asus P4800S
Geforce 6800 OC
Do you guys think the price of $688 is worth the performance boost i'm going to get? I mean the only reason I'd want to upgrade is for UT 2007 and quake wars and I could get a ps3 with that money.
