new setup

[Sid]

woot! the first phase of my new setup arrived this morning. currently sitting on my desk:

DFI SLI-DR Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 San Diego 3700+
2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix

Using g0r's old PCI-E graphics card for the time being. Gotta hand in my essay then I'll be having a play with it tonight.

By christmas I should have:
New PSU - Hiper / Tagan, probably.
New GFX card - 7800GT, probably.

[Fyndir]

Crucial Ballstix any good then?

I've been looking at RAM lately, wanting to get at least one (preferably two) 1GB sticks of the stuff to replace my two 512s. (or replace one of them if I only get one stick) =D

As for the graphics I will probably be joining you in 7800GT goodness through my PCI-E slot by Christmas. =D

I've also been looking at coolant stuff on the basis that if I'm sticking a more powerful graphics card into my machine I might end up wanting it, but you, I think, said (in a thread I made about it) that I wouldn't need it...

I remain unsure, more cooler is more better and more better is more fragging..er..

[Sid]

Well, the Crucial Ballistix should be the best, really. I haven't had the time to power the system up yet. I'll be doing that later tonight. I'll have a play with the memory timings and let you know how I get on.

Hoping to overclock this to somewhere in the region of FX-57 speeds (2.8GHz), although over the next few days I'll be more looking to achieve stability throughout the system.

[YegaDoyai]

good luck with the DFI board, no doubt you'll be on DFI street asking for correct setup advice and bump into the Pixie and maybe Strings while you are there.

I started a thread about recent upgrades a while back, find it post your spec and benchies and hopefully we can help other folk make informed decisions when making thier purchases.

Good luck, should be a beast.

[Sid]

good luck with the DFI board, no doubt you'll be on DFI street asking for correct setup advice and bump into the Pixie and maybe Strings while you are there.

I started a thread about recent upgrades a while back, find it post your spec and benchies and hopefully we can help other folk make informed decisions when making thier purchases.

Good luck, should be a beast.

Cheers. I reckon I shouldn't have too many problems setting it up - I intend to leave most of the settings at auto to begin with. The main thing to play with will be the memory settings. I hear the Ballistix actually runs better at 1.7V rather than the 1.8V that crucial says.

I'm not going to bother posting any benchmarks, though - not until I've got a worthwhile graphics card in here.

[YegaDoyai]

aye, well benchies can wait. DFI on auto is not quite as simple as all that but you'll find out.

[Bluepixie]

Prepair yourself for the "love/hate" relationship of a life time.

[Sid]

I had no real problems getting it set up throughout the night before i-series (lol). Since I got back, I've been playing around with memory settings and the FSB.

At the moment it's sitting at 285MHz x 9 = 2565MHz. Memory's running at 3-3-3-7, although it was working fine at 2.5-3-3-7. Runs nice and stable. I just really need a more powerful PSU now...

[Bluepixie]

Im glad! Maybe this one is one of DFi more stable creations. Admittedly, the nForce 2 boards were all a bit funky, esp with dual channel memory.

Power supply? You decided on a Hiper or a Tagan yet?

[Sid]

Don't get me wrong. There's loads of people having problems with this board even more so than the other DFI boards. In particular many people are having issues with the Crucial Ballistix that I have. Although, I'm not quite sure where they're having problems - it all seemed to go fine for me.

I'll probably go for a Tagan. KustomPCs were at i26 and were selling them a bit cheaper than usual. Was gonna pick one up, but just left it. I'm not sure whether I'll go for the 430W or go for something like the 530/580W. It all depends on whether or not I want to go for SLI in the future, really.

[Strings]

Same board as me yip.

They can be quite humorous on how the RAM works. For example I'm running a BH-5 BIOS despite owning TCCD RAM. DFI is funny like that, it depends on what works for you.

Last thing you want to do with a DFI board is leave it as default. Tis a beaut for overclocking, thats what they be designed for.

Recently upgraded my BIOS which allowed me to somehow get another 100MHZ outta my CPU AND trim the RAM timings a bit.

[Sid]

Last thing you want to do with a DFI board is leave it as default. Tis a beaut for overclocking, thats what they be designed for.

Indeed. I got this motherboard with the intention of overclocking the hell out of my San Diego...

What kind of overclock you got on your X2 so far?

[Strings]

2.7 atm which is an increase of 500MHZ.

Problem is one core likes voltage, the other doesn't. Have the RAM quite tight and on a divider so that side is peachy.

Might try upgrading my BIOS to the most recent (will have to have look on XS forums) to see if it will go a little higher.

When I last upgraded my BIOS it stabilised me enough to get to 2.7, so you never know.

To be honest Im quite happy with 2.7 being prime stable.

[Phizz]

/me doesn't understand a word. (Must learn comp stuff now!!) Any links as PMs would be greatly appreciated.

[Bluepixie]

How is that new setup going? Everything sweet?