Opteron 165 Overclocking rig..Need advice please

mahicks

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I'm putting together a system and need some help finishing up my component choices. I'm putting together this system to overclock. I'm not a huge gamer , but I'd like to be able to do so. I do rip DVDs, make home movies, surf the net, etc. I want the system to have maximum upgradability Here is what I have chosen so far. My choices were made on Price/Performance, I've already bought it, or just because I liked it :) Please help me fill in the blanks.

CASE: Sunbeam Silent Storm (Throwing away the including PS)
Power: Sunbeam NUUO 550W-Silver
CPU: Opteron 165
Cooler: Arctic Cooling 64 Pro
DVD Burner: Plextor PX-760A
Sound: Built into Motherboard
Monitor: Samsung 214T-Silver

RAM: 2gig of???? (will spend 200$ give or take)

Hard Drive(s):??? (Am undecided on Raid 0 or Single, but must have serial . Will spend 200$ give or take, total.)

Motherboard: ??? (Must be Nvidia based, have SLI, good overclocking, as futureproof as the socket 939 allows. I've been happy with Asus and Epox in the past. Looking for the best price/performance I can get. Will spend 100-200$)

Graphics: ??? (Will eventually be SLI to help w/ future upgrades. Would like to go with decent single card and get another one later. I want 256MB ram and must be an Nvidia based card. Price range 100-200$ give or take.)

Thank you in advance!! I would just like to make the right decisions on this!
 

luminaris

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Well, I like DFI boards and since you said you want to overclock, I highly recommend them. Here's a board I've heard alot of good about.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

As far as RAM goes, I like corsair. This RAM is DDR500 which means, you'll be able to overclock it as well giving you more memory bandwidth.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145596

I primarily use Seagate drives and have been for years. They hold up well and perform the same.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148111

As far as graphics go, anything 7800GT or GTX will do fine.

Lastly, check out my thread on overclocking the Opteron 165. I think it will provide some useful information for you in getting the BIOS settings cranked up.

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Opteron-165-Overclocking-ftopict177075.html
 

mahicks

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Luminaris, Thank you for the response. I have a few more questions now though....Sorry..

Would you reccomend two of the Seagate drives? Would you run Raid 0?

I don't like that particular DFI board. Is there another one that you would reccomend with more capabilities?

Thank you for your overclocking link!
 

RowdyRob

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As far as graphics go, anything 7800GT or GTX will do fine.
Dont go with the 7800GT if your going to spend that money might as well get the 7900GT instead, same price except slightly higher performance, cant go wrong with that logic. Also the 7900GT is slightly more powerful than a 7800GTX 256 ( http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2717&p=5 )
So theres no point in spending that extra money for less performance.
 

ak47is1337

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Hm, what confounds me is why you want a cheap video card and still want SLi. Uh, I have no recommendations on that one except maybe a 6600gt...
Beware of DFI, their boards are crap. ABIT has supposedly a good 939 oc'ing board if you'd rather want that though.
 

mahicks

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I wanted to go this route because, as my needs arise, couldn't I add another card to help increase performance? Or is a single good video card better than two ok cards running SLI?
 

luminaris

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Well, the seagate drives are quite fast as they are and it's been shown that single drives perform better than RAID in some cases. I tried to find a link really fast but came up with nothing.

As far as another DFI board, I would use the one I'm using which is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136166

It's a truly amazing board. Rock solid, stable and an awesome overclocker.

And yes, I failed to remember that nVidia now has the 7900 series out now. I usually don't keep up as much with graphics as I do other hardware. But yes, those are the cards to get nowadays.
 

TabrisDarkPeace

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Same logic as above.

- 2 x 7600 GT in SLI will be outpaced by 1 x 7900 GTX, and possibly 7900 GT if FSAA is used.

SLI is nice, but it can't scale FSAA performance very well.
 

ak47is1337

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Well, the seagate drives are quite fast as they are and it's been shown that single drives perform better than RAID in some cases. I tried to find a link really fast but came up with nothing.

As far as another DFI board, I would use the one I'm using which is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136166

It's a truly amazing board. Rock solid, stable and an awesome overclocker.

And yes, I failed to remember that nVidia now has the 7900 series out now. I usually don't keep up as much with graphics as I do other hardware. But yes, those are the cards to get nowadays.
Depends what you compare to what. However, comparing two cheaper drives to one Raptor the cheaper drives, provided they are 8mb cache and 7200rpm at least will almost always win.
 

Heyyou27

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A single card will ALWAYS be better than two lesser cards in SLI.

People who bought 2x6600GT regreted when they could've got 6800Ultra for cheaper.
Same goes for 2x6800U vs. 7800GTX 256MB

The only reason to go SLI now is if you want 2x7800GTX/7900GTX/7900GT because the fastest card availiable isn't enough for you.
Actually 6600GTs usually outperformed a 6800Ultra.
 

mahicks

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So what single card could you recommend? Please chose a good price/performance match....Whether thats $100 or $300....Just the most bang for the buck. I will not be playing games that much...I feel games peaked at Rogue Spear :)


And if SLI is not of a concern anymore...I'm still searching for that perfect board.

I'll go without SLI, or w/ it, but this thread has proven to me, I will not use it!

In a board, I want the fastest, stablest, overclockable, tweakable, user friendly, best laid out board, that is very new or at least still heavily supported by the manufacturer. (For bios updates for Vista, etc.)


Also, what does everyone think of the components I've already selected?

Since I will not be using SLI, do I need the NUUO PS? Or will it help w/ overclocking?

I'm still at a loss over RAID 0...

And I'm at a loss for Windows 64 Pro SP2, or Windows Pro SP2....
 

ak47is1337

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So what single card could you recommend? Please chose a good price/performance match....Whether thats $100 or $300....Just the most bang for the buck. I will not be playing games that much...I feel games peaked at Rogue Spear :)


And if SLI is not of a concern anymore...I'm still searching for that perfect board.

I'll go without SLI, or w/ it, but this thread has proven to me, I will not use it!

In a board, I want the fastest, stablest, overclockable, tweakable, user friendly, best laid out board, that is very new or at least still heavily supported by the manufacturer. (For bios updates for Vista, etc.)


Also, what does everyone think of the components I've already selected?

Since I will not be using SLI, do I need the NUUO PS? Or will it help w/ overclocking?

I'm still at a loss over RAID 0...

And I'm at a loss for Windows 64 Pro SP2, or Windows Pro SP2....
Go 64 bit since you're getting Pro anyway (same price, right?) Anyway, 7900gt has the best bang for the buck and is quite overclockable.
You're doing RAID 0! Do it with 2 cheap boards. As for the board, since you used the word "stable" in needs, DONT go DFI...Personal recommendation ~.~
 

admiral25

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go with dfi landparty ultra d, I had asus and msi boards and my dfi landparty ultra d is far better than those (for overclocking and performace).

I have a opty 165 running @ 2.8ghz with 1.45 volts (312x9) with any other board ur lucky if you can hit 300fsb/htt let alone over it :)
 

ak47is1337

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go with dfi landparty ultra d, I had asus and msi boards and my dfi landparty ultra d is far better than those (for overclocking and performace).

I have a opty 165 running @ 2.8ghz with 1.45 volts (312x9) with any other board ur lucky if you can hit 300fsb/htt let alone over it :)
If you're lucky the piece of shit motherboard will turn on.
 
"Graphics: ??? (Will eventually be SLI to help w/ future upgrades. Would like to go with decent single card and get another one later. I want 256MB ram and must be an Nvidia based card. Price range 100-200$ give or take.)"

Up this budget to $299 and get a single 7900GT, and odds are you'd be pleased with any game you tried for the next year or two, and not feel it necessary to even add a 2nd card...

(They are that good!) :)
 
"SLI is nice, but it can't scale FSAA performance very well.
"

Where it is really interesting is when a pair of 7900GT cards worth $600 total frequently defeat a Crossfire rig with dual $500 1900XT cards!
 

zodiacboyscorp

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I'm a first timer.

Opty 165 (2.4 ghz stock voltage) - Standard HSF
OCZ 2GB (2-3-2-5) Platinum
WD Sata 2 - 250GB - 16 mb - 7200 RPM
X850XT - not a huge gamer, but wanted something sufficient.
Lanparty Ultra-D
Antec 550 true power
4 DVDRW drive


I can tell you I had no problem. Didn't need a bios upgrade or anything. Only flaw I had at first was not pressing the on button on the motherboard to turn it on. (I was such a moron, lol)

However the board loaded fine.

I would recommend doing what I did.
Just connect the motherboard/ram/processor/videocard. After that your set. :)


If your going to speend $600 on a card just get the X1900XT anyway.