Considering new components to upgrade pc

[DRuM]

Cheers guys, it was a lot of fun, good project for me
Mazda, street fighter IV eh? Will check it out.

That's a beast of a system you have there, cooling components looks great.
I've got this waiting to replace the stock cooler on my Radeon supposed to be amazing for bringing load temperatures down.

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/4162/imgp2470n.jpg
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/1783/imgp2464x.jpg

Btw, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think your PC8500 ram speed is actually faster than you stated, shouldn't it be 1066MHz? I've got PC2 6400 and that's 800MHz as far as I know.

[Captain]

Btw, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think your PC8500 ram speed is actually faster than you stated, shouldn't it be 1066MHz? I've got PC2 6400 and that's 800MHz as far as I know.

Yeah you're right, my mistake

That looks like a good cooler for your card. I've been more than happy with the GTX 275, overclocked it quite a bit and still running 40 Celsius idle with the stock cooler.

[DRuM]

Btw, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think your PC8500 ram speed is actually faster than you stated, shouldn't it be 1066MHz? I've got PC2 6400 and that's 800MHz as far as I know.

Yeah you're right, my mistake

That looks like a good cooler for your card. I've been more than happy with the GTX 275, overclocked it quite a bit and still running 40 Celsius idle with the stock cooler.

Wow, overclocked you still get 40C idle? You did a good job of cooling your system then. People have been saying that on stock cooler, their 4870 was reaching 90C on full load, but with the akasa, hitting more like 50's. My gpu is currently idling at 52C so I imagine it might get nearer to 40C like yours with the new cooler.

Btw, here's an unrelated question. Since I've used up my 2 system fan headers, can I safely use the pwr fan header for another case fan, or is it only for a psu connector and anything else could damage the board?

[Captain]

I think you're safe hooking up a fan to it, it's just there to provide rpm speed for your PSU fan anyways.

[DRuM]

I think you're safe hooking up a fan to it, it's just there to provide rpm speed for your PSU fan anyways.

OK, cheers.

[DRuM]

I noticed your ram is 4-4-4-12, which I believe is slightly faster than 5-5-5-12? My ram is specced at 4-4-4-12 timings. This screenshot I took shows various timings, yet in my bios it's auto set to 5-5-5-12. Shall I reduce it 4-4-4-12? If I do, do I need to change any other things like voltages?

Btw, in case you're wondering, and you no doubt know this better than me, where it says 400MHz, apparently that means 800MHz, because DDR means double data rate and so it's 400 x 2, so I was told!

[Captain]

Yes, that is correct, mine shows up as 533 in CPU-z.

Actually the timings I posted were from when I was running 4x1GB OCZ XTC Platinum Rev-2 PC6400 RAM. I had those overclocked to 4-4-4-12, stock was 5-5-5-15.
My current RAM's stock is 7-7-7-18 I think. It's clocked at 5-5-5-15 running 1066MHz and the CPU's running at 3.0GHz.
Voltage is set on 2.0 right now, I guess you could try that if you want. Usually the stock voltage is around 1.8V.

[DRuM]

Yes, that is correct, mine shows up as 533 in CPU-z.

Actually the timings I posted were from when I was running 4x1GB OCZ XTC Platinum Rev-2 PC6400 RAM. I had those overclocked to 4-4-4-12, stock was 5-5-5-15.
My current RAM's stock is 7-7-7-18 I think. It's clocked at 5-5-5-15 running 1066MHz and the CPU's running at 3.0GHz.
Voltage is set on 2.0 right now, I guess you could try that if you want. Usually the stock voltage is around 1.8V.

Cheers matey, might give it a go. Btw, off topic for a moment, what about that follow camera in TR underworld? Shocking! It doesn't know whether to be 1st person or 3rd person, very disorientating isn't it. I just started checking it out, still finishing TRA which I've nearly done. Runs nicely though.

[+JuggerNaut+]

'bout time.

[DRuM]

'bout time.

too right!

[Captain]

Cheers matey, might give it a go. Btw, off topic for a moment, what about that follow camera in TR underworld? Shocking! It doesn't know whether to be 1st person or 3rd person, very disorientating isn't it. I just started checking it out, still finishing TRA which I've nearly done. Runs nicely though.

Meh, it gets a bit annoying in some places and requires somewhat of a leap of faith. The game was a huge disappointment though, I haven't touched it in months.

[obsidian]

I haven't touched it in months.

That bad, huh?

I finished Legend, but never did finish Anniversary. It was good, but I just felt like it was a game I already finished (which is half true).

[Captain]

Anniversary is definitely the best in series. TR1's story + Legend's gameplay = excellent.

Underworld on the other hand was just a sloppy release. Not a fan

[MKJ]

i thought Underworld was pretty fun actually.
my basis of comparison is zilch tho - i still have to get Legend

[Captain]

Sadly Underworld has zero replay value. You beat it once and you're done with it. The fact that it's extremely easy and short doesn't help either

[MKJ]

hmm true. i beat it on hard the first time round, second time i went for all treasures. then it was done. :-x

[DRuM]

From what I've played of underworld, which is only getting as far as when she's on the yacht at the start of the game, the graphics look nice, but her movement looks a little clumsy and less graceful than in anniversary. Also, they seem to have made it easier by leaving out manual grab. I'm used to holding on to ledges in anniversary with the space bar, and prefer that. I'm loving anniversary though, it's excellent, even though I'm having trouble killing the baddies in the sanctuary of the scion

[DRuM]

Going back to ram timings, they're EPP ready, so all I had to do was enable EPP mode and EPP voltage in bios and it did it all for me with a preset profile. Now I have 4-4-4-12 and 2.1v, exactly as it says on the tin.

I flashed my bios today to a version with EC firmware/hybrid mode so that I could unlock the cores. My mobo is fortunately unlock capable. So I gave it a go, set advanced clock calibration to auto, and updated hybrid firmware as per instructions for unlocking, but then couldn't boot into windows. So I reverted the settings. Either I need to do something else like increase voltages, or I'm not one of the lucky ones that has a phenom which will unlock. It's hit and miss.