Hi there, (I swapped round the 2 parts of this post as the explination about the cooked graphics card got really long and i wasn't sure how many of you would read through it all down to my questions at the bottom ) Basically my Leadtek Geforce 6800GT cooked today and its prompted me to build a new system. I'm abit behind with the current round of cpus/mobo's so was looking for abit of advice from all you wise sage's. I'm aiming at a dual core athlon jobby with a 7900GT. My only concern is will my current PC2100 DDR 184pin ram work in new motherboards (I know its not top spec stuff but i just want to get the cpu/mobo/graphics card for now) And secondly whats a good motherboard with on-board sound/lan/etc My current specs are p4 3.2Ghz, Asus P4C800-E Deluxe Mobo, Geforce 4 ti4200, 2gig pc2100, CD/DVD burner, 3xPATA hdd's and 1xSATA hdd. I'm looking to use everything from this current system accept the CPU and Mobo which will go on Ebay. P-ATA controlers are important, I'll need to be able to connect at least 4 devices over them (2xcd/dvd and 2 of the hdd's) So, new specs below, whats your opinions, do the prices look good, and what'd be the best motherboard. New CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200 + Socket 939 , Manchester Core, 2x 2.2GHz , 1MB Cache, Retail £247.24 New Graphics Card: BFG 7900GT OC 256mb GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI £239.98 inc VAT Mobo: No idea, thats my main question Thanks for any help Hez -------------------------- Start of old post. I think i've cooked my Leadtek Winfast Geforce 6800GT. A few days ago i started getting crazy green flickering spots during a game of BF2. So i quit out and a few lingered on the windows background (but not on windows opened over them). Everything seemed fine for a few days until yesterday when i had a long game of BF2 again, during which things got really bad, i quit out to windows and my monitor cut out for 10-15 seconds and then came back with lots of dots/flecks. Computer ran fine all today, but while i was using Maya (3d Graphics program) the green specs came back, and then the monitor cut out completly. On reboot the post screen was all garbled with crazy characters and the windows boot screen has big lines and dots all across it. I took the computer apart and at this point realised i'd turned my in-take and exhaust fans right down when watching a film several nights ago, the problem is that when they're set right low, during boot-up they don't have enough power to spin up so they sit idle. That couple with the fact that the grill over my graphics card fan was matted over with dust, i think the card got a little warm I know its not the comptur, as i'm using it now with a Geforce 4 ti4200. I was intending to do a whole system upgrade in about 6 months time but this has kinda forced my hand, i don't want to spend £150+ on a decent AGP card when i'd be getting rid of it soon enough anyway. ***************************
pc2100 ram should defo work in a new athlon motherboard. as far as recomending a mobo. i have't had any problems with my A8N-E (if your looking for single pci-e 16X)
First, new RAM. Second, wait a bit on motherboards; Bit-tech will be reviewing a new Abit board that sounds to be particularly note worthy
I've just been reading a review of the Asus A8N-SLI Premium and it looks pretty sweet. My only problem would be that its only got 1 PATA socket, which would have to run the cd drives. It'll be abit of a headache to re-organise my hdd's but it desperately needs doing, at the minute i've got 2x80gig PATA (each partitioned in half for 4x40gig), 120gig PATA and a 200gig SATA. I've got a spare 300gig SATA i use for backup that i connect in occsionally. I'll just have to transfer everything off the 5 drives in windows onto the one big 300gig. Gonna be a ******* todo tho. Well the A8N looks like the top contender so far. Hez EDIT: ok i was wrong about the PATA connectors on that board. Well i think thats gonna be the one, itching to order it tonight Gonna have another quick look over the net and then decide.
Just another quick question, does anyone know if the retail Athlon 64 x2 4200+ comes with a fan/heatsink or will i need to buy one seperately? Hez
Rotosequence: I'm affraid the ram will have to do for a couple of months untill i can afford new stuff, i just want to make sure it will actually work. I need a fairly high-spec computer as i'm just finishing up making a 3D graphics showreel to look for a job. At the minute i can't do anything with a Geforce Ti4200. If my graphics card had fully died yesterday i'd have ordered the stuff today to start building the computer on monday. Also i forgot to say earlier, Thanks for the help guys Hez
Bah, insufficient funds Will have to pay some cash in and order tomorrow. It won't make any difference to deleivery date but there's something about knowing the orders gone through Hez
