New PC

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HavocXphere

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I know that there have been a lot of these questions lately, but I'd appreciate it if you guys had a look at this nonetheless.

E4500 - 1083
Asus P5K - 1414
Gecube 3850 256mb - 1750
1GB DDR800 X2 - 544
AOpen 450W - 383
Vantec 80mm Stealth

Works out to about R5200. My budget allows for maybe another R800 if necessary.

Some Questions:
1) The RAM seems to be no-name brand. Would this be a problem for a slight OC? Say another 200-400mhz.

2) What are the chances of the cheap AOpen frying the mobo?

3) Would it be worth going for the 512mb instead of 256mb version of the 3850? (R250 difference)

4) Which of these thermal compounds is provides decent band-for-buck? Would I use the thermal pad that comes with the CPU or is it a better idea to get rid of it and use something third-party?

5) Should I fork out some extra cash for an E6550? Would I have to change anything else to accommodate the E6550?

6) Using the previous case is not gonna be a problem, right?

Thanks guys
 
HavocXphere said:
I know that there have been a lot of these questions lately, but I'd appreciate it if you guys had a look at this nonetheless.

E4500 - 1083
Asus P5K - 1414
Gecube 3850 256mb - 1750
1GB DDR800 X2 - 544
AOpen 450W - 383
Vantec 80mm Stealth

Works out to about R5200. My budget allows for maybe another R800 if necessary.

Some Questions:
1) The RAM seems to be no-name brand. Would this be a problem for a slight OC? Say another 200-400mhz.

2) What are the chances of the cheap AOpen frying the mobo?

3) Would it be worth going for the 512mb instead of 256mb version of the 3850? (R250 difference)

4) Which of these thermal compounds is provides decent band-for-buck? Would I use the thermal pad that comes with the CPU or is it a better idea to get rid of it and use something third-party?

5) Should I fork out some extra cash for an E6550? Would I have to change anything else to accommodate the E6550?

6) Using the previous case is not gonna be a problem, right?

Thanks guys
Click to expand...

1)LOL @ slight 400mhz OC. No OC will be very minimal AFAIK.
2)Aopen are ok. Don't think it will fry your mobo.Maybe you can look at the isonic PSU's?
3)Depends on your screen res?
4) ArticSilver-5 is one of the best. But only sybaritic stock them.
 
HavocXphere said:
Some Questions:
1) The RAM seems to be no-name brand. Would this be a problem for a slight OC? Say another 200-400mhz.

2) What are the chances of the cheap AOpen frying the mobo?

3) Would it be worth going for the 512mb instead of 256mb version of the 3850? (R250 difference)

4) Which of these thermal compounds is provides decent band-for-buck? Would I use the thermal pad that comes with the CPU or is it a better idea to get rid of it and use something third-party?

5) Should I fork out some extra cash for an E6550? Would I have to change anything else to accommodate the E6550?

6) Using the previous case is not gonna be a problem, right?

Thanks guys
Click to expand...

1) I hope you mean an OC to the CPU :p I'd imagine it would be fine.

2) Almost zero, but I'd go for the iSonic Megapower 500Watt from prophecy, it's cheaper too.

3) Yes, it's slightly higher clocked too.

4) Don't bother.

5) I'd say yes, mobo is perfect. But you can also look at the XFX 650i Ultra board. I like the chipset features on there and also cheaper.
 
Heard from Chaos Computers and Rectron Cpt that it was the most returned brand of PSU. As a result, Rectron replaced the AOpen line with Gigabyte.
 
Never had any issues with my previous aopen 400 watt and haven't had an issue with my 700 watt aopen either.
 
HavocXphere said:
Some Questions:
1) The RAM seems to be no-name brand. Would this be a problem for a slight OC? Say another 200-400mhz.

2) What are the chances of the cheap AOpen frying the mobo?

3) Would it be worth going for the 512mb instead of 256mb version of the 3850? (R250 difference)

4) Which of these thermal compounds is provides decent band-for-buck? Would I use the thermal pad that comes with the CPU or is it a better idea to get rid of it and use something third-party?

5) Should I fork out some extra cash for an E6550? Would I have to change anything else to accommodate the E6550?

6) Using the previous case is not gonna be a problem, right?

Thanks guys
Click to expand...

1) You're going to want pretty expensive ram for those kind of OC's. (alt. unlink / run the ram asynchronously / separate to CPU freq.)

2)AOpen is probably fine, but the Isonic 500W-600-W Modular PSU's are awesome, and cheap!! (I must admit that I have had noisey AOpens in the past, but maybe just my bad luck)

3)What size is your monitor? if bigger than 1280x1024 then yes.

4)Yes third party, I always use Antec Silver Formula, just as good as the much quoted AS5.

5)Well if you want the extra 2mb cache. But if you're going to OC, then 200-400MHz will make up for the cache deficit on a similarly clocked CPU with more. (With that board and CPU it'd be a crime not to tap the available power)

6)Naw, why would it? How old is it?
 
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Thanks for the responses I appreciate it.

PostmanPot said:
Rectron Cpt that it (AOpen) was the most returned brand of PSU
Click to expand...
Good to know.

boramk said:
Get a cheaper motherboard
Click to expand...
I could go for the cheaper one, but the P5K has 45nm support & seems to be favored by most people here.

MrE said:
You're going to want pretty expensive ram for those kind of OC's. (alt. unlink / run the ram asynchronously / separate to CPU freq.)
Click to expand...
Hopefully I've got this right: The setup(without OC) given would run in synch/1:1 ratio, correct? And to maintain 1:1 while overclocked I would need more expensive RAM. Something like this kingston kit? Damn, thats like 2.5 times as expensive, just to maintain synchronous mode. The async you mentioned is starting to sound good.

Zenbaas said:
1)LOL @ slight 400mhz OC. No OC will be very minimal AFAIK.
Click to expand...
Well, people are reporting 1.2GHz OCs on air with this CPU, so I figured 0.2-0.4GHz on stock air is not too ambitious.:o

Forgot 2 questions yesterday:
7) Is it really necessary to buy a RAM kit or will buying two sticks without the word "kit" also have the same effect dual-channel wise?

8) Could I run an OS of the two large-ish IDE drives I have from the previous PC, or will the mobo have issues because there are no SATA drives present?

OK, so
ISonic 500W

So revised:
E4500 1083
Asus P5K 1413
Isonic 500W 403
Gecube 3850 512mb 1999
1gb ddr 800 272
1gb ddr 800 272
Vantec Stealth 62
Antec Silver 86

I'm still a bit lost on the RAM.

Thanks for the help.
 
LOL...no Havok was referring to the Ram being OC'ed, not the CPU. Im sure you would get a nice OC out of that CPU. And look for prices on Pcint.co.za, that mobo is going for 1170 excl.from them, and the processor for 980 incl. vat.So bout a R350 saving ;)
 
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HavocXphere said:
Some Questions:
1) The RAM seems to be no-name brand. Would this be a problem for a slight OC? Say another 200-400mhz.

2) What are the chances of the cheap AOpen frying the mobo?

3) Would it be worth going for the 512mb instead of 256mb version of the 3850? (R250 difference)

4) Which of these thermal compounds is provides decent band-for-buck? Would I use the thermal pad that comes with the CPU or is it a better idea to get rid of it and use something third-party?

5) Should I fork out some extra cash for an E6550? Would I have to change anything else to accommodate the E6550?

6) Using the previous case is not gonna be a problem, right?

Thanks guys
Click to expand...

1) No-name RAM seems to have considerably less overclocking headroom, but you might be able to reach an extra 200MHz

2) Not much ;)

3) Depends at which resolution you play at. Anything less than 1280x1024 I wouldn't bother

4) I personally like using the thermal paste that Zalman sells (can't remember the name offhand :o)

5) The E6550 is great, especially if you plan to overclock. Have one running at 3.2GHz 100% stable at the moment :D

6) Shouldn't be a problem

7) I doubt the performance increase (if any) would justify the additional cost

8) I don't really understand the question, do you mean can you load an OS on the IDE drives? If so, yes you can :)
 
I'll do some more reading about OCing over weekend. I'm obviously missing something with the entire ratio/fsb/ram thing.

WKJ?:beanie said:
I don't really understand the question, do you mean can you load an OS on the IDE drives? If so, yes you can
Click to expand...
Thats the answer I was looking for. I just thought that the ATA channels might be watered down things intended for legacy CD/DVD support, so just making sure.

WKJ?:beanie said:
paste that Zalman sells
Click to expand...
Zalman ZM-STG1 Super Thermal Grease - non-curing compound? Might be a better fit than silver since I'm using stock cooling.

WKJ?:beanie said:
The E6550 is great
Click to expand...
You must be a diplomat by profession. I ask "is it worth the cash" and you answer "it is a great CPU".:D Skillfully done...

Zenbaas: Any idea what PCInt charge for shipping?

Thanks
 
HavocXphere said:
I'll do some more reading about OCing over weekend. I'm obviously missing something with the entire ratio/fsb/ram thing.


Thats the answer I was looking for. I just thought that the ATA channels might be watered down things intended for legacy CD/DVD support, so just making sure.


Zalman ZM-STG1 Super Thermal Grease - non-curing compound? Might be a better fit than silver since I'm using stock cooling.


You must be a diplomat by profession. I ask "is it worth the cash" and you answer "it is a great CPU".:D Skillfully done...

Zenbaas: Any idea what PCInt charge for shipping?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I'm personally using the Zalman ZM-STG1 Super Thermal Grease on my CPUs :) And I wouldn't say it's a great CPU and I wouldn't have bought one myself if I didn't think it was worth the cash ;)
 
HavocXphere said:
Zenbaas: Any idea what PCInt charge for shipping?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Not sure at all Havok. You can pick up from them if your in JHB(they're in Randburg if i remember correctly).
I know prophecy ships for free for orders over a R1000,but not sure about Pcint. Maybe WKJ will know?
So what says you Beanie:D
 
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Zenbaas said:
Not sure at all Havok. You can pick up from them if your in JHB(they're in Randburg if i remember correctly).
I know prophecy ships for free for orders over a R1000,but not sure about Pcint. Maybe WKJ will know?
So what says you Beanie:D
Click to expand...

I have no clue, I've never had them ship anything for me :D Phone them and ask, they're phone number is here at the bottom of the page. :)
 
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