Quick upgrade recomendations

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im really sorry for all the mutiple questions/post but it still wont let me edit my own posts and im trying to get out of your hair, am i getting annoying yet? if i am or have been for a while my apologies..

less important right now but i thought id ask. Just say if i wanted to get a new gfx card at no more than about $300au and a hdd (or 2 for raid0) for OS (storages can stay, plus the 2x80gb drives i have now can shift over to more storage if they are replaced.)
 
omg ok i am going to bed now so this is the absolute last thing i will post, i sware, the ram i got was the ram you posted earlier it is the PQ $85 but he charged me for the PI which is $101. should i stick with the PQ and get a the difference back or just change over to the PI?
im truly sorry for all this mess i have posted and all the questions i'm throwing at you.. ill leave you to it
Thank you for all your help and patients. much appreciated.

post #4
 
You can always get more performance by spending more money :) The E8500 will get you a bit more. I think you'll be suprised by how fast either CPU is, especially with moderate overclocks.

Stepping is not as important on the Wolfdales. This is because they don't accumulate as much heat as quad core CPUs.

"PI" is not enough data, as G.skill makes several. If you got the "Black" version that runs at 4-4-4-12 and 1.8-1.9V, that's as good as it gets. Keep it.

If you got the version that runs at those timings but 2.1V, take it back.

Then, there is a version that's 5-5-5-15 and 1.9V... that's OK I suppose, but you shouldn't pay more for it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2118.html
Best card for about $300au?
Well, for about $330 there is the 4870
For about $210 there is the 4850




 
Other than the heat spreaders, there's not really much difference in the two. Possibly if you have heat issues where the computer will be, or you really like the looks of the PI, you could get that. Otherwise get the $16 bucks back.
 
yea i just kept the cheaper ones..
to be honest i hate the look of the pi's heat spreaders.. another guy in another forum said to get em because they will make for an easier oc and are at least 40% faster at stock. he replied too late. but i don't really mind..

i think i will get a graphics card tomorrow, if i can afford it.
options:
1GB 4850 Gigabyte $301
512M 4870 ASUS $365
thats really all i can find local and thats at msy
 
hey im a bit confused with directX, these new cards support directX 10.1 so shouldn't there be a directx 10.1 installation? the card came with 9.0 and i can't find 10.1 at microsoft.com
 
yea found out its included with vista and sp1 upgrades to 10.1 something like that, i have vista ultimate 64bit anyway.
but yeah that's about it i think, soon as the cooler gets here im gonna slap it all together.

thanks for all your help yeah..much appreciated
 
thanks, your a legend!..
just had a quick look at some pictures of the xigmatek cooler and i noticed the way it meets the cpu, the heatpipes directly contact the cpu, now what would this mean in terms of applying the AS5 thermal grease?
apply it to the cpu as per usual?
 
also, is the command rate for the ram set in bios in these boards? or does it depend on the slots? eg. on my current dfi board, to enable 1T timings you have to insert the ram sticks on the orange slots which are 2 & 4 the 1 & 3 slots (yellow) would mean it would be 2T.
 
yea i read your guide on it, im scared now, my friend has a similar setup to mine, same cpu same cooler, ill practice on his first ..hehe
 
ok. its all put together, i am having a problem though, i finally managed to boot vista dvd(when it wants to), i get to the point where i choose the drive to install, i am trying install raid drivers but am getting a few errors, i open the MSM64 off the driver cd and extract it all to my usb drive, but now its saying it cannot find hardware or something (im guessing the raid disks)..i will give specifics tomorrow i know i haven't given you much.
the hdds are on the Intel chip (the orange connectors), i have gone through the raid utility thing and created the raid0 array,
everything seems fine, i even loaded optimized and fail safe bios settings..
and this copy of vista is fine (installed on a very similar system)

i have been trying a few things but maybe i am missing something, if you can't comment due to lack of info i will post exactly what is going on tomorrow after work..
thanks
 
yea checked bios settings, ram voltage is 1.8v & timings are normal, i deleted the raid raid array and created a fresh one and still no luck,
i get to the point where it says load driver, so i load the "iaStor.inf" from extracted msm64 files on usb stick and it says: "No new devices could be found. Make sure the driver files are correct and located on the driver installation media."

 



Based on the parts in red, it sounds to me as if you are having general problems, not just RAID driver problems?
 
oh i forgot that i did manage to get past that load driver section once before but i can't remember how but when i was at the stage just after it where it asks where you want to install it it was giving me another error(cant remember what it said exactly) i tried the format,new,delete buttons but it wouldn't work for some reason.

it also says the array is healthy and it is set to boot whenever i start the system..
got me stumped..but i got a feeling it's something simple and stupid or the hdd's are pharked??

never had an annoying problem like this before, not being able to even install windows..just wanna get it going..
thanks..
 



nah it seems to be booting every time now, think it was just a bios setting, that's all fine..

and i also just tried getting the latest drivers from the intel website and updating to latest bios..
 
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