FAO: Larch

[geførce]

Abit IC7-G Max-2 Advance
"Canterwood" (Socket 478)
Motherboard

Intel Pentium 4 'Northwood'
2.4CGHz (800FSB)

Antec Plus 1080AMG Metallic
Gray File Server - 430W

Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 750SB
BK 17" - Black

Hercules 3D Prophet 9800 Pro
128MB DDR

OCZ 512MB (2x256MB) PC3500
Dual Channel Series EL-DDR

Pioneer DVD-120 Slot Load

Cherry G83-6105 PS2 Keyboard Black

Microsoft Explorer Optical

Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB
Serial ATA 10000RPM

Thermaltake Spark 5

Ordered... should arrive tomorrow, what tests you want me to do for you baby? I'll run it at 1Ghz FSB ya?

[Schro]

950mhz T-bird
384mb ram
3d hercules prophet ll MX 32mb
PWNED

[MeTa]

In the kingdom of the geeks, the one with the richest parents is king.

[geførce]

Considering I saved up about £1200 on a paper round to build my first ever PC a decade ago.. no :P

[MeTa]

In the kingdom of the geeks, the one with nothing to spend his money on is king.

Christ weren't you buying bottles of diamond white and 5 bags of draw with your paper round money?

I have to admire the devotion to the geek cause kid.

[geførce]

I have a AMD Duron 800Mhz, which is why I am buying a new PC to last me four years of University. Do I really have to justify my actions to a retard such as yourself? Oh I already did :/

[geførce]

Oh and I would of been buying rolling rock lol

[The Larch]

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=992594

[/sad nolife geek with nothing better to do with his sad little existence]

:rolleyes:

Just modest overclocks... I haven't bothered to find the limits tbh, I kinda lost all enthusiasm as its more than speedy enough as it is.

I was kinda surprised that even at 2.4Ghz stock my 9700 proved to be the bottleneck... I could push it up to the high 300mhz's to bury my score deep in the 5000's, but not too much point really, and I'd like my hardware to last a few years ;). I definately thought the r300 shaders had a lot more headroom tho... ah well, nm.

Your r350 should do you v nicely therefore... still, given the amount of money you seem to be shelling out, I mighta preferred going for a 2.6Ghz Northwood for a relatively small 40quid or so more.

Btw:
2.4Ghz nwood C
IC7 (sans g-lan)
sapphire 9700
2x256mb twinmos DDR400 cl2.5 (5:4 ratio, @250FSB gives 200memory... which is nice :) ain't bothered trying to oc 'em)
stock cooling
uber-unbranded generic 300w psu with really ****ty 3.3v rail voltage and doesn't even have a p4 12v connector... amazed it boots at all tbh, let alone being rock solid stable while oc'ed.

Hyperthreading is nice :)

[edit: I seem to be getting a score in the region of peeps with far higher clocks on their 9700's.... rawwrrrr i'm so l33t, i'm going to tell all my imaginary friends....]

[Murasame]

im looking for a new pc from america, larch can u give me the best machine i get for about £800 (considering it should be cheaper in the US), i would spend £1000 but im saving £200 for my case mods :P

[The Larch]

Just spent this morning working on prices tbh m8, so you're in luck!

is £800 including a case? £200 should cover a thermaltake xaser/that funky globalwin one + a bunch of lighting and gubbins no probs.

so...
P4 2.4ghz Northwood C 800mhz QDR FSB with HT - £150
Abit IC7 - £100
2x256mb Twinmos DDR400 CL2.5 - £65
FDD - £10
WD Raptor 36.7GB 10000rpm - £112
CD-RW/DVD-ROM combi - £60
350W brandname PSU - £35
Sapphire Radeon 9700 - £185
Sb Audigy 2 - £55

Gives you £772 - so keyboard/mouse/speakers/monitor you're still looking for

Basically, you've got a few options... Firstly, how many bits can you scavange from your existing PC?
Now... scrap the audigy2 and the raptor, replace with the IC7 onboard AC97 audio and an 80Gb 7200rpm 8mb cache WD caviar for around £80... that should bring things down to £675ish.

Now, what are you looking for in terms of monitors? Is the one you have now alright? You can pick up decent 17" CRTs for under £100, but I'd say your best choice would be a FLATtron... I think the Hansol 17" ones go for around £120, which brings you up to £800 minus keyboard/mouse.

You can also scrap the p4,IC7 and DDR400, and instead go for an AMD 2500+, an EPOX 8RDA nforce2 SPP mobo and 2x256mb DDR333 (works faster than DDR400 with a 333mhz FSB, so save yourself a fiver). That should work out around £120 cheaper. You can also go for for a 2800+ barton for an extra £60, or even a 2600+ thoroughbred for around £30 more (than the 2500+) which can often outperform the 2800+ barton.

Really all depends on what bits you want to save from your present setup.

[Gokou]

Getting my watercooling kit next week, so should be getting around 21000/6700 ish (2001/2003) :D

something for you to aim for!

[Shagaire]

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=984578

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=992594

Larch !! 25oFSB??? How what where when ?

Any tips on overclocking for me, getting an uber fan tomoz :E

[Shagaire]

Nothing is overclocked yet btw, just done a fresh install tho and its running sweet atm :)

[Murasame]

it doesnt include the case, in terms of screens i would like a black one, how would a black 17" TFT cost? Would it be better to get the p4 2.4 and not overclock or the athlon 2600+?

Also i would like a big hard drive! Have you taken into consideration that im buying from america? Would this lower the price?

[The Larch]

Shagaire - i875P 'Canterwood' comes with a 200mhz FSB (800mhz QDR) and I have yet to see one fail to hit 275mhz with stock cooling, max of 300mhz. 250mhz is pretty damn modest, and I'm sticking with it really because my memory works out nicely at 200mhz with a 5:4 ratio. Ocing tips - buy an 875P!

Goks u can battle it out with geforce as I really doubt my PSU would last the distance, and I don't wanna kill my raddy. My case is a major sauna in any case - 52C cpu temp under load at stock ffs

Mura...
I don't know what prices in the US are, but i'd imagine you'd be ok to knock, say, 15% off the prices over here when you total everythign up.

A 17" LCD will cost you anything between £200 and £500.

The reasons... well, in the past year vast strides have been made with LCDs, and you should avoid the older models like the plague. Anything you should consider buying should have brightness/contrast ratios of well over 350:1

An important consideration is the response time, which is the time it takes a pixel to change colour. You should be looking for a display with a response of 25ms or less. Basically, this means a display that can handle 40fps (1000/25). Unfortunately, a lot of quoted response times are dodgy... they tend to be best-case black-white response times, and the time to change between intermediary colours is often a lot longer... so you may be looking at a display that can actually only handle around 25fps.

Now... what does all this mean exactly? It doesn't mean that you can't play halflife at 60fps or whatever... what it means is that your LCD will appear very blurry in video and games. Just as you'd prefer to run halflife at 60fps rather than 25fps, you'd prefer and LCD that can change picture 60times a second rather than 25.... this reduced blurriness etc... unfortunately its alll highly subjective, and some ppl get used to a blurry picture while others can barely make it out.

If you really want one, check the specs carefully, ask if the response is black-white, and also if it is a combined response time, not just an up or down response. Don't buy cheap, you'll regret it.

Alternatively, go for what I suggested above and get a flattron - these displays don't have the curved screen of conventional CRTs and offer really good image quality. As they're high quality displays, they also tend to do above average resolutions and refresh rates. They are by far the best displays for gaming/videos etc imo.

The p4 systems are pricey, but probably worth it. Tom's posted a bunch of benchies with the Northwood C 2.4ghz consistently outperforming the XP3000+ by some margin. Tom's is an Intel-biased tech site, so take that with a pinch of salt, but it is true that the 2.4ghz Northwood C can outperform AMD's fastest offerings, and is a lot faster than the 2500+ etc

Basically, AMD's PR system is rated against the old P4's of the type that Shagaire has... the new Northwood C's are a lot more efficient clock-for-clock, and are almost on a par with the K7... Hyperthreading is also a v nice benefit that makes things smoother. If you factor in the overclocking headroom (will reach well over 3ghz with stock cooling) of the P4's, they are a v good buy.

Btw, I realise you may not want to oc, but actually the p4's are stable without having to increase the vcore, so you ain't increase hot-electron degradation of the SiO2, ie your cpu lifespan ain't being shortened. Its a nice thing to be able to do a few years down the line anyway when you come to want a bit more 'oomph'.

The 875 boards also feature support for the first batch of 'Prescott' cpus (possibly they'll be called Pentium 5)... while Intel will be moving to socket 775 next year (along with proper S-ATA and PCI-xpress) you will still have the option of popping a 4ghz p4 into your mobo in a year or twos time, wheras with the AMD system, socket A dies in 3 months.

[GreyWolf]

We should give larch his own forum. Would be more used than this probably.

[The Larch]

I got pwned on the hardware forum by norphy a few weeks ago :P

[GreyWolf]

pfft, he's a fag.

[geførce]

We'll see Goks :E, well if it aint here by 5pm I'll have to wait till monday fs! lol

[Smallfoot]

www.watford.co.uk configurator - brill !

[Brizie]

oi goks whereu getting watercool kit?

[Gokou]

http://www.over-clock.co.uk/acatalog/Full_Kits.html

2nd one down, but with the better pump, gpu block and tygon tubing.

expencive, but sold a sh*t load of stuff i aint used for ages and raised quite a bit of £££££ :D

[Gokou]

Originally posted by geførce
We'll see Goks :E, well if it aint here by 5pm I'll have to wait till monday fs! lol Well my watercooling should be in my tuesday as long as i get it monday. dunno when i will have time to volt mod my 9700pro...but hopefully before the weekend.

Then we shall see....oh yes ;)

[geførce]

Well my fans 16 quid :P Shud get 3.0Ghz from the 2.4C 250Mhz fsb... to keep ram timings nice :> I'll do tests before clocking the processor then after..
Try upping core/memory of video card too..


ye we'll see :D