11 replies to this topic

[talker]

Hi Everyone,
Well, it has been sometime that I have been running an Intel house instead of an AMD. Some of it was by choice, the rest by necessity. Today, that has changed. Sometime back, a friend bought the makings of a new AMD system. He picked up a 5200 X2 at my suggestion because of the 1MB L2 x 2 cache. Along with it he bought a Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 nForce 4 SLI motherboard. Instead of using the AMD fan and heatsink, he bought a Gigabyte 3D Rocket II cooler. This is a cooler from Hades. It stands 6" above the CPU. I have never had such a cooler. Frankly, I have never had the need. Anyway, he never built the system. Everything is still in the original boxes having never had power hooked to anything. On a whim, I offered him $200.00 USD for the CPU and the MB. He agreed and tossed in the cooler from Hades as well. Now I need to acquire a pair of grapihics cards, at least 2 GB DDR2 800, and a HDD. This will not happen overnite but at least I am on the way to once again having an AMD house and will be my first effort into SLI. I believe I will dual boot XP x64 SP2 and Vista Ultimate x64. Any suggestions that you guys can give me will be very much appreciated. Remember, I don't game so as to the GPUs I will be looking for smoothness in everyday use not just raw speed. I believe I will use multiple SATAII HDD but not sure about using RAID. I will also use SATA optical drives so there will be no PATA (IDE) in the system at all.

It will be good to return to the standard that has sustained my computing since the 486 days. As the system comes together, I will pass on my experiences. I doubt that they will be anything new to all of you but perhpas I can add a little something different...talker.

[banj0]

Sounds good bud. Let us know how it goes.

[m.oreilly]

ah, nothing like a new build! will sli be of use if not in gaming? or is there the posibility of some ati folding power afoot? i haven't kept up with it, so i am curious...sounds cool

[eniparadoxgma]

m.oreilly, on Oct 22 2007, 12:54 AM, said:

will sli be of use if not in gaming?

Tis my question as well. I don't need two for gaming...

Nice buy btw.

[Christopholofigus]

What a deal, sounds great Talker! a couple Seagate 320gb drives and some 8600gt cards (or 8800 if you want to pay the price). As far as ram, i love corsair, but i built a box with abit(if i remember right) and it runs ok.

[talker]

Thanks Guys,
Keep those cards and letters coming. You comments and ideas are great. A couple of you have asked..."Why SLI?" That is simple...because I can. I will probably go with something like the 8600s. If I remember correctly, the 8500 is 64 bit and the 8600 is 128 bit. The 8800 are just too much for solitaire.

OK, I do have a question. Some of the memory places state "SLI Ready" for the RAM. That is a new one on me. Exactly what is that other than perhaps marketiing?

Here is a link to a review for the Cooler from Hades Gigabyte 3D Rocket II and a pic...talker.

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by talker, 22 October 2007 - 12:30 PM.

[m.oreilly]

ah yes, the rockets. i have used a few. the nice thing with these is that they also tend to cool other components, like that there sli certified ram...

[talker]

Hi Everyone,
Its me again. Thanks for clearing up the SLI RAM Mo, I feel so much better. But I do have a real RAM question. I can get 2 GB DDR2-667 for $69.98 USD or get 2 GB DDR2-800 for $119.98 USD. Both are from my local store. Some are of the opinion that the difference in the speed of the RAM is not worth the extra $50.00 USD. I'm tossing this out to the populace here who's opinions that I respect. Any thoughts will help. Thanks...talker.

P.S. I'm still not sure about using that Rocket. I do have the factory HSF...T.

Edited by talker, 26 October 2007 - 12:41 PM.

[m.oreilly]

the stock cooler should be ok. the rockets have a tendency to shake the mobo to death
the ram thing, i dunno. heck, if your board can go w/ 800 w/o issue, i would go the taller stuff for the extra $50, very inexpensive for a higher stable speed (which an AM2 can use, imho).

[Camaro]

I got a rocket cooler, not the II version though, its been good for a few years now. as to the ram I would go with the 800 most times but for an extra $50 its a tough call, try newegg they got some inexpensive stuff right now
very low latency for this speed here and for under $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820313011

[talker]

Thanks Mo and Camaro for the thoughts. I had pretty well made up my mind to go for the 800. I didn't want that "I wish I had..." feeling that I would probably get from going with the 667. That latency is great Camaro. Do you know anything about that brand of RAM? At that price, I could come pretty close to go ahead and get the 4GB that I was planning on. Ah gee, decisions, decisions...talker.

[Camaro]

Heard great things about that brand, only alittle about that particular model though, but that was the first one I came across on newegg there was Geil and G.Skill and Supertalent all for the same aprox price.