Author Topic: Project A64..... upgrading with Trinithemc (Read 6266 times)

TrinireturnofGamez · « **on:** June 20, 2005, 12:09:37 PM »

In order not to be left behind with AGP/ Socket A , and be ready for future uber video cards i have decided to move up to an A64 / PCI-E platform , using the money gained from selling my currant rig it won't cost me a thing , though i will loose audio and a little video performance i will gain CPU performance , i can always upgrade to a better video / sound card , and maybe a dual core next year .
Currant Rig :
Athlon XP 3200
1 GB DDR 400
Geforce 6600gt
Nforce 2 with soundstorm audio .
here is my planned rig :
Athlon 64 3000 Venice with stock cooler : 150 US
nForce4-DAGF from DFI : 100 US
Geforce 6600 256mb ( non gt) : 125 US
400-450 watt dual 12 volt PSU : 65 US
Total : 440 US
Or 2770 TT .

DFI is a solid brand name ,with legendary overclocking performance, this dfi board is a budget Nforce 4 that is know to reach 300mhz HTT , which would put my 1.8ghz a64 at 2.7GHZ !
The Venice series of A64s is known for high overclocks eg. 2.8ghz/3ghz at low voltages , it also supports SSE3 and other optimizations which make it faster than previous A64 models .
the geforce 6600 256mb is no high performing card, but its no slouch either , it will do 5000 3dmarks at stock , 6000-7000 overclocked , great value for money , i realised that some games eg. Battlefield 2 need the 256mb RAM for high resolution textures , else it will swap to your memory which may hurt performance .

I'll keep my currant DDR , hard drive etc. , sell my CPU , mobo , cooler and video card to pay for the new rig .
Any suggestions or recommendations ?

Carigamers · « **on:** June 20, 2005, 12:09:37 PM »

TriniXaeno · « **Reply #1 on:** June 20, 2005, 12:33:47 PM »

I am a bit shocked to see the 6600 (non GT) as your choice?

care to explain?

cdx2k1 · « **Reply #2 on:** June 20, 2005, 12:55:37 PM »

Screw the 6600GT.Get the 6800 NU.Check the week and stepping of the Venice you getting...not all Venice's hitting the clocks you stating there.

TrinireturnofGamez · « **Reply #3 on:** June 20, 2005, 02:54:47 PM »

i can't afford a 200 dollar video card :p talk done , plus the 6600 can overclock pretty good , some will reach 6600gt speeds . and the 6600gt has a small handicap with its 128mb of RAM... Bf2 AND mopha can't play @ high texture settings cause of it , i plan to upgrade to a new card and cpu in 2006... and hand the 6600 and a64 3000 to my brother ( not prowl , another one ) ,makes no sense spending 70 US more now when i can save that much toward a card twice as fast as a 6600gt or 6800 nu in 2006 .

platinum006 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 20, 2005, 03:13:29 PM »

parts really expensive...stick within yuh budget.......

Carigamers · « **Reply #4 on:** June 20, 2005, 03:13:29 PM »

TrinireturnofGamez · « **Reply #5 on:** June 20, 2005, 08:40:07 PM »

i'm contemplating an X700 256mb too.... faster than the 6600 , same price , 6100 3dmark 2003 vs 5000 ish .

W1nTry · « **Reply #6 on:** June 20, 2005, 10:04:31 PM »

Last set of benchies I saw the X700 wasn't doing all that well in comparison to the 6600GT... so how bout sticking with ur choice or just biting the bullet and getting a 6800NU.

TrinireturnofGamez · « **Reply #7 on:** June 21, 2005, 01:04:36 AM »

this is X700 vs 6600 NON GT .. the 6600 is clocked at 300mhz core , 500mhz ram vs 400mhz core , 700mhz ram of the X700 . I'm Definately getting an X700 , and definately not taking anothe panadol non drowsy , i'm up at 1am with a cold thanks to it !

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040921/ati_x700-08.html#3dmark_2003

TriniXaeno · « **Reply #8 on:** June 21, 2005, 09:37:20 AM »

what confuses me, is that you already have a 6600GT.

Higher quality textures can't be all that important.

Bf2 + 1280x960 + AA + AF is pretty enough.

Going for a 6600 plain vanilla just for the sake of PCI-E and A64 is gonna hurt your 3d performance.

What is the price delta between the two?

6600 is what ? US$100? vs 6600GT at us$ 150?

W1nTry · « **Reply #9 on:** June 21, 2005, 10:12:16 AM »

Well baego if he replaces the stock cooling on the card use some AS5 he should get a decent OC outta the card and the extra mem will come in handy. Thats IF he gonna do that, otherwise I have to agree with you, just for the sake of PCIe u giving up better performance not to mention adding cost. Cost on a PCIe mobo will prolly drop with time so later on changing the mobo (which is prolly not necessary since they go have a 1200+ pin dual core by next year, which will be PCIe inherently) is a bit of a waste in my estimate. I chose the intermediate path which was nforce3 ultra or AGP so u can keep ur current card. The only benefit to nforce 4 right now to me is SATA II which i just read the review on is not enough of a reason to upgrade. did u even consider an AGP board? I say Baego on de money just pay the diff and get a 6600GT.

TrinireturnofGamez · « **Reply #10 on:** June 21, 2005, 03:02:14 PM »

I realise that the 6600 is noticably slower than my GT, i clocked my GT down to the 6600 specs , the frame rate in War3 was 20-25 FPS lower , and i got only 4500 3dmarks .
And i'm not getting a 6600 , i'm going for a 120 dollar x700 256mb , alot faster than the 6600 non GT and it actually beats my 6600gt in some games , and i miss ATI features..... i can't even get the nvidia dvd decoder to work properly , i can't set application specific settings as easily , i don't have truform , i only bought the 6600gt for SM3 and its speed, and the fact that ATI had no cards in my price range , but now they do :p .
I know i'm going to loose 3d and sound performance anyhow i take it , but i will be gaining cpu performance and be set for future upgrades much cheaper , plus its costing me NOTHING !

Beomagi · « **Reply #11 on:** June 21, 2005, 03:18:13 PM »

you plan to move from a 3200xp, to a 3000+ hammer 939, with slower card, and dont have money for an upgrade afterwards. just dont bother. either wait till the next socket (M2) or for dual core prices to fall/new lower clocked line to appear. you'll be future proof, but by the time you're ready to upgrade, your system wont be anymore! why not wait until then?

The 400MHz fsb of the 3200+ lets it perform decent. I'm using both the xp and hammer, and i continue to use the xp as my main because it's fast enough. And with a 6800 unlocked in there, it is doing nicely compared to my a64 with a 6800gt. if you want a little more oomph, crank the speeds up a bit and go water

afraid of leaks? cooler master aquagate mini

if you upgrade to 939 later, that would work on it too.

W1nTry · « **Reply #12 on:** June 21, 2005, 03:26:16 PM »

Hmm as u mention that beo, is it worth going for the 6800GT? or a 6800 Vanilla? cause I seriously looking to upgrade but I eh have the cash for the GT without selling a kidney or 2. The 6800 Vanilla with that sub 200USD pricetag looking real nice, esp with the idea of unlocking that additional pipes... I wish it had 256MBs though... cause if not I hadda out an additional 100USD to get a GT or X800XL.

Beomagi · « **Reply #13 on:** June 21, 2005, 03:41:55 PM »

i'm running benches using my new and "old" rigs currently and posting them as i go (see game forum)

the 6800 unlocked is good enough for high res gaming and can handle aa at times too.

TrinireturnofGamez · « **Reply #14 on:** June 21, 2005, 04:33:15 PM »

3000 Venice... not as fast as the hammer , but i plan to OVERCLOCK IT to 2.4ghz or 4000 speeds.... most A64s overclock good , and with stock cooling too .
The x700 is slower than my 6600gt , but not by that much , considering that my card is bottlenecked with my cpu and i don't see 10-20% of the frames i should i shouldn't notice a big difference with an unbottlenecked and overclocked x700 , don't forget that this thing is STILL Faster than a 9800xt !
also ati has real nice features , Temporal anti aliasing that doubles the AA quality for free once VSYNC is on , fullstream and shader effects that smoothen out video files , truform .... the Doom III performance is bad but there are tweaks that can double it without loosing image quality :p

TrinireturnofGamez · « **Reply #15 on:** June 22, 2005, 12:50:57 AM »

i forgot about the next generation of video cards.. can't afford them anyhow but they will push down video card prices alot by the time i am ready to get a vid card ,will probably be able to get a 12 pipe X800 256mb instead .

TriniXaeno · « **Reply #16 on:** June 22, 2005, 01:12:16 AM »

in reality, you won't.

look at the current cards on the table.

You can't get a Ti 4600 for cheap even though two generations have come already.

It seems the card manufacturers are playing a game where they dry up the stock of old high performance cards, rather than letting it flood the market as the new "entry level" card.

This is mischievous and goes against the history that saw us getting better and better cards for chump change.

steups

good luck with that plan.

TrinireturnofGamez · « **Reply #17 on:** June 22, 2005, 02:54:43 PM »

the x800 i'm talking about is only 220 US , i don't expect GPU prices to magically halve overnight, but i do expect at least a 30-50 dollar decline in the next 3 months .

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2005q1/sapphire-x800/index.x?pg=8 heres a review, its not much faster than the 6600gt or the x800 but it will do once the price comes down , if it doesn't i'll get an x700 pro .
i also saw a 256mb 6600gt for 220 US ... if it comes down i would definately buy it , unless i can get the x800 for less .

W1nTry · « **Reply #18 on:** June 22, 2005, 08:59:33 PM »

You do realise you can get a 6800 NU for like sub 200USD and if u look at the one I am eyeing which is the leadtek 6800 NU which comes with front and rear Copper heatsinks u may want to re-think that. THe card I am reffering to is 189USD plus shipping. Then u unlock the extra pipes and vertex shader and voila u have a more powerful card for the same price. Now granted not everyone will get lucky and sucessfully unlock the additional 4 pipes, but I gather that in general u at LEAST unlock the additional vertex shader. Plus with the superior cooler u can easily get the clock and ram speeds up a bit (not with the pipes unlocked though I hear only a few are that lucky). Check newegg, though its not in stock currently it will be again soon I am sure.

TrinireturnofGamez · « **Reply #19 on:** June 22, 2005, 09:12:20 PM »

eh wintry... you realise thats the AGP 6800 and the PCI-E 6800 costs 250 US ? Half the point of this upgrade is to get me a PCI-E slot so i can pop in an X900 / Geforce 7700 whenever i have to (which is probably early next year) . the other half is to increase my CPU performance by 50% with an A64 overclocked to 4000 speeds .

Carigamers · « **Reply #19 on:** June 22, 2005, 09:12:20 PM »

Author Topic: Project A64..... upgrading with Trinithemc (Read 6266 times)

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