Something new, something old

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 3rd, 2006, 15:17

Well having ordered what looks to be a bargin, I'm now waiting on delivery of my new PC. Spec is as follows:

Athlon 64 3000
Asus A8N-E Motherboard
1 GB DDR2 Kingston RAM 2x512 MB
Geforce 6600 GT 128 DDR3 RAM. PCI-E slot
80 GB Western Digital SATA
Aopen 16x DVD+/- RW
2x 120mm fans
500 Watt PSU

Got the lot for 300 English Pounds which isn't bad going by my book. Since I've read some mixed things about the GFX card, I'm thinking of selling my current 9600XT and the 6600GT above and getting something better like the X800GTO. Would it be worth it or am I missing a trick here?

The other thing I'm curious about is dual channel RAM. I've read a few articles here and there, but they've not done much to enlighten me. Firstly, would the RAM in the new setup above be running in dual-channel, and if so what difference does it make in reality? Secondly, since I already have 2x512MB Samsung PC3200 RAM, if I were to add it in, giving me 2GB total, would it all run in dual-channel or would sticking with 1GB running faster be better?

All of this would still leave me with my old PC which I'm considering selling, so if anyone is interested then PM me or catch me on xfire. Its an Athlon 2200XP with 512MB RAM, 9550 GFX card (although I may leave the 9600XT in instead), 20GB HD and a DVD RW. Very basic, but it runs HL2/CS:S, CoD etc to a playable standard. FEAR is the only thing I've encountered which made it tremble and say no.

Edit: If anyone is interested, then I can deliver it to anywhere around Newcastle for the next week and a half, at which point I have to take the car back to my parents, and so would be able to drop it off anywhere on the A1/M1 corridor and down to Oxford a week on Sat.

Post by **deject** » January 3rd, 2006, 16:09

I'd say upgrading is a good idea eventually, but I'm not sure that a X800GTO is that muchc of a nupgrade over a 6600GT. I think you'd be better off waiting and getting a 7800GT when the prices drop enough.

Too bad you didn't get a SLI capable motherboard because getting another 6600GT would be a good way to go.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 3rd, 2006, 17:00

Well if I was to get a different GFX card, I'd fund it mostly thru selling the 6600 and one of the others, with a bit extra added. 7800GT is a fair bit out of my budget just now! The mobo is the one that came in the PC, which I bought as a whole unit.

How will the setup (with the 6600GT) cope with HDR games like oblivion?

Post by **deject** » January 3rd, 2006, 17:15

Lateralus wrote:Well if I was to get a different GFX card, I'd fund it mostly thru selling the 6600 and one of the others, with a bit extra added. 7800GT is a fair bit out of my budget just now! The mobo is the one that came in the PC, which I bought as a whole unit.

How will the setup (with the 6600GT) cope with HDR games like oblivion?

What I'm suggesting is wait for the 7800GT to fit into your budget before upgrading. IMO, going from a 6600GT to a X800GTO is just not enough of an upgrade to be worth it.

The 6600GT will run Oblivion, but how well it will is anyone's guess at this point. I'd say that you're not going to want to turn on anti-aliasing for sure though...

pixie pie · Post by **pixie pie** » January 3rd, 2006, 17:41

deject wrote:
Lateralus wrote:Well if I was to get a different GFX card, I'd fund it mostly thru selling the 6600 and one of the others, with a bit extra added. 7800GT is a fair bit out of my budget just now! The mobo is the one that came in the PC, which I bought as a whole unit.

How will the setup (with the 6600GT) cope with HDR games like oblivion?
What I'm suggesting is wait for the 7800GT to fit into your budget before upgrading. IMO, going from a 6600GT to a X800GTO is just not enough of an upgrade to be worth it.

Yeah I agree with Deject here (Shit, is that even more agreeing with you?). Keep the 6600GT for a bit, it'll run most of the stuff you want then get something like a 7800 when they drop a bit, you won't get as much for the 6600.. but man you'd have a much nicer card in the end

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 3rd, 2006, 17:46

Fairymuff, cheers.

So what about the dual-channel RAM stuff then?

pixie pie · Post by **pixie pie** » January 3rd, 2006, 17:52

Lateralus wrote:Fairymuff, cheers.

So what about the dual-channel RAM stuff then?

If its got 4 slots, put it all in there. Dual channel is nice.. but its not worth it if you can have 2 gigs of the stuff. (Unless you have 1 gig sticks, then you can have both..).. wait I'm not sure, I remember somewhere about dual channel working on 4 ram sticks.. Check your motherboard manual.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 3rd, 2006, 18:25

From a quick look at the manual, it would appear that I can run 2gigs of RAM in dual channel, providing that its all the same size and speed, which I'm pretty sure it is. Nice!

Fred Woogle · Post by **Fred Woogle** » January 3rd, 2006, 18:35

Lateralus wrote:From a quick look at the manual, it would appear that I can run 2gigs of RAM in dual channel, providing that its all the same size and speed, which I'm pretty sure it is. Nice!

make sure both sticks are in the same channel.

I think you usually have 2 sections of 2 slots, say the slot on the left of each section is channel 1, and the right is channel 2, make sure they are both in chanel 1. although it proberly varies from mobo to mobo. I know in mine & s2b's its liek this.

Im surer I will be corrected if I am wrong.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 3rd, 2006, 18:54

Ty aka Sir Die Aloty wrote:
Lateralus wrote:From a quick look at the manual, it would appear that I can run 2gigs of RAM in dual channel, providing that its all the same size and speed, which I'm pretty sure it is. Nice!
make sure both sticks are in the same channel.

I think you usually have 2 sections of 2 slots, say the slot on the left of each section is channel 1, and the right is channel 2, make sure they are both in chanel 1. although it proberly varies from mobo to mobo. I know in mine & s2b's its liek this.

Im surer I will be corrected if I am wrong.

Yeah, that sounds right from what I read. The slots are laid out like this:

AB AB

so I'd need the two Kingston modules in the A slots and the two Samsung ones in the B slots.

In terms of corrections, you spelt "channel", "probably", "like" and "sure" wrong once each, there were 2 capital letters missed at the beginning of sentences, and you dropped one apostrophe.
B+ overall, assuming you were typing quickly.

Stuk · Post by **Stuk** » January 3rd, 2006, 20:33

Lateralus wrote:In terms of corrections, you spelt "channel", "probably", "like" and "sure" wrong once each, there were 2 capital letters missed at the beginning of sentences, and you dropped one apostrophe.
B+ overall, assuming you were typing quickly.

Ha!

Post by **Dog Pants** » January 3rd, 2006, 21:49

Ty aka Sir Die Aloty wrote:make sure they are both in chanel 1.

How do you know it was channel that was the typo, and not the 1? Could be that your RAM needs to smell nice to work. Didn't think of that did ya? Huh?

Yeah. Didn't think so.

Post by **FatherJack** » January 3rd, 2006, 22:09

Ty aka Sir Die Aloty wrote:make sure they are both drenched in chanel #1.

fixd

pixie pie · Post by **pixie pie** » January 3rd, 2006, 22:11

FatherJack wrote:
Ty aka Sir Die Aloty wrote:make sure they are both drenched in chanel #1.
fixd

It does make them work so much prettier!

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » January 3rd, 2006, 22:55

mmm, the burning smells nice too

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » January 4th, 2006, 8:31

pour homme(sexuals)