suggestions on new setup?

[Shiranai_Baka]

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/6690/upgrades5er.jpg

I'm getting this in a month and a half if I'm actually able to keep my job.

I'm giving the 19" to my brother and I'm using the 19" widescreen. while his 17" is my second monitor for IMing and such.

I might buy 2 1GB sticks of RAM to relieve some of the work that the comp does for managing four sticks of 512s which means I will probably have 2 sticks of 512s for sale. (PC3200 Geil value)

The video card is going to fucking own every game out there for now, it can probably handle (Elder scrolls IV) Oblivion with all settings on the highest and res on 1280x1024.

The processor is definitely a step-up. The opteron is for server boxes only but from the reviews, its pretty awesome considering theres a 1MB lvl 2 cache and its much cheaper than the toledo core thats about $400+.

The case is def. recommended by one of my friends since she has one and says there's loads of room to work around with but lots of wires and shit.

If anyone of you have any better alternatives that are cheaper than what I have there, you're welcome to suggest!

[clocker]

I absolutely detest Thermaltake cases and would use almost anything else if possible.
Why the dual-core chip?

[Shiranai_Baka]

I like to encode movies and such and don't want to wait there for hours to finish cause I want to be able to game also.

[clocker]

A winning answer...go for it.
Your thoughts on 2x1GB are spot on as well.
Presumably you have a healthy PSU and are not counting on some no-name POS to handle the chore of powering this nice collection of parts.

Just make the sign of the cross and banish the TT case from your wish list and all will be well.

[Seedler]

What's wrong with thermaltake cases?

[Shiranai_Baka]

Lol yeah, what's wrong with thermal take cases? (I have a TT PSU as well)

[clocker]

First of all, I'm not dissing the aesthetics....even though I think Stevie Wonder could design a better looking case.
Whatever floats your boat and all.

Specifically, I think that TT cases are poorly engineered and built.
They like to brag about the extensive use of aluminum (which I think is overhyped as a case material anyways) but they fail to account/design for the material's characteristics. Every TT case I've seen is flimsy feeling and prone to racking and poor placement and choice of rivets (rivets used with aluminum should have heads significantly larger than the steel equivilents) results in joints that loosen quickly.
TT slathers their cases with useless plastic geegaws that masquerade as "features", most of which I find useless and irritating. To be fair, I dislike every inplementation of the "tooless design" philosophy that I've ever used and much prefer old school screws to hold things in place.

TT out and out lies about the mechanical aspects of their fans and their watercooling stuff is disgraceful and only serves to discourage beginning enthusiasts.

OK, I'm finished.

[Shiranai_Baka]

LMFAO! then what would you prefer?

[Shiranai_Baka]

Ok.. I got my new setup. Ordered it and everything:

http://img437.imageshack.us/img437/9743/orderedupgrades3pk.jpg

Now.. My mobo doesn't support dual core yet because I have to flash the BIOS so would the mobo only detect as one core until I flash the bios or what?

[clocker]

What motherboard?

[Shiranai_Baka]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123236

[clocker]

It appears that all BIOS revisions after the 6-29-05 release support dual core CPUs.
When you first POST the board you'll know whether you have to flash or not.

[Shiranai_Baka]

I bought it on 8/18/05 so that would mean my mobo supports dual?

[clocker]

Not necessarily.
The motherboard was in the distributor's pipeline and sitting on a shelf for a while before you bought it.

Chances are you'll need to flash.
I saw reference to an on-line flashing procedure from Epox that may be just the ticket.
Google it.

[Shiranai_Baka]

What do I google? Sorry man but I'm always at a loss of what terms to use when googling.

[clocker]

Go here (http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/support.php?ps=335&type=6) and scroll down to "Magic Flash 2.2".

[Shiranai_Baka]

Thanks man. Just flashed it, going to reboot to see what happens.

Well, nothing happened except for the system clock going back a month but all is fine I guess.

[zapjb]

You went cheapo on the PSU. Rosewill :(

[clocker]

Thanks man. Just flashed it, going to reboot to see what happens.

Well, nothing happened except for the system clock going back a month but all is fine I guess.
Does it recognize the second core now?

[Shiranai_Baka]

I'm not getting the dual core till monday (tomorrow). Yeah, well, as long as the rosewill runs fine then its good enough. I don't want it going over 1500.

[clocker]

I'm not getting the dual core till monday (tomorrow).
OK, it's Monday...what happened?

[Shiranai_Baka]

Alright, everything went well. The first time I powered the computer up, nothing happened so I unplugged the atx power and plugged it back in and it booted up normally. The two cores show in task manager but it seems like they both share the same amount of stress when opening programs and such. Is that normal?

Also, I plugged in the front USB ports wrong and the wire got freakin' hot. I eventually found out and plugged it in the right way. Just thought I'd let you know. (Ah, the front port still works fine.)

[lynx]

Both cores sharing the load is quite normal - XP is multithreaded.

This is dual core not hyperthreading. :snooty:

[Shiranai_Baka]

Would you guys think a format would make my windows setup run more efficient for the dual core?

[clocker]

Huh?
Didn't you just format/install just a few days ago?

[lynx]

Reformatting won't have any more effect on a dual-core system than it would have on a single core system.

If the only thing you've changed is the cpu then I wouldn't bother, but if you've changed the mobo too then it may be worthwhile.

[Shiranai_Baka]

Huh?
Didn't you just format/install just a few days ago?

I didn't feel like backing up everything so I didn't format at all.

Well from the list that's on page one, do you guys think I'll need to format?

[lynx]

if you've changed the mobo too then it may be worthwhile.:frusty:

[clocker]

Quoting yourself now?

[lynx]

Only because it didn't seem to take the first time. :rolleyes:

[Shiranai_Baka]

if you've changed the mobo too then it may be worthwhile.:frusty:

Ok, well the reason why I repeated that question was because I was denial. I was really hoping this dual core would be a big step up from my amd 64 3000.

[clocker]

Don't you think it is?

[Shiranai_Baka]

I thought it'd actually load up programs faster or something but oh well.

[clocker]

Your program load time has more to do with the hard drives than the processor.

Get faster drives.;)

[Shiranai_Baka]

O RLY?!

10krpm enough or 15k to see a noticeable difference?

[Virtualbody1234]

RAM drive. :whistling

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Storage/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2180&ProductName=GC-RAMDISK

[clocker]

:naughty:

[Shiranai_Baka]

That's just insanely expensive!

[clocker]

They're better RAIDed.:pinch:

[Shiranai_Baka]

I found out that you can set the program to one core and another program to another core in the task manager. Why didn't you guys tell me that?!

[suprafreak6]

because its considered level 7 classified information in the government

[Virtualbody1234]

Shhhh!!!

[elvik]

i like it