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Going Back To Intel

Started by Buffalo2102, September 12, 2006, 17:25 hrs

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Buffalo2102

The upgrade bug has been biting me for a long time now and I've resisted for as long as I could.  However, the appeal of the new Intel processors has tipped me over the edge and I've ordered the following.

Gigabyte 965P - DS3 Motherboard
Intel E6300 Allendale processor
Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7
2GB G-Skill DDR2 6400 NR RAM

I am expecting it all tomorrow and will build it while the other half is at work (she works nights at the moment).

I will be keeping my existing drives etc and my 6800GS video card as I am sure I will want a DX10 card when they come out so it seems silly buying one now.  I have also bought a shiny new 19" widescreen TFT.

Hopefully all will go well and I can poast from the "new" machine tomorrow night.

Buff; distinctly poorer than I was!
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

Whizbang

Go for it.  I read yesterday that the drive for more in a processor will not end for some time.  Theoretically, a 32X core is possible.  That would be a 1X2X2X2X2x2.  I would guess that the power supply would need to be at least 600 watts by then, since the current Intel dual cores can consume almost 200 watts.  That X32 might also require a small room air conditioner on the side of the case and have to vent the heat to the outside of the house.  I really see no justification for that much artillery unless someone is doing on-the-fly video editing and must keep ahead of the other news outlets.  But then, I have seen four GM motors hooked in tandem and parallel inside a Buick station wagon that had the front seat removed and the steering wheel and dashboard placed in front of the back seat.  That was cool----and stupid---but cool.   8)

Buffalo2102

Heh!  I'm still wondering what to do with the second core.

Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

Ace

I always try to help when asked, so here I am.  As an AMD guy, and a single one at that, I'm not sure I can relate to the Blue Man Company and dual cores, but here's my thoughts...

"What to do with the second core":

1. Play both sides, in Madden Football.
2. Play Call of Duty while also playing Madden.
3. Realize you will need to reset the depth chart if you shoot the other team's quarterback.
4. Play Diablo forward and backwards, simultaneously.
5. Try to insert clip art into an Excel spreadsheet into a Word doc into a WordPerfect doc while using the typesetting controls.  Also hit "reveal codes" because I think you're going to want to see this.
6. Edit two photographs at once, in real time.
9. Burn a copyrighted DVD.
10. Rip the audio files from a concert DVD, eventually using the "search" button.  Eventually give up and try another.
11. Remove software while you're also (re)installing it.
12. Let Earthlink go ahead and update your stupid taskbar because you're sick and tired of telling the stupid thing not to.
13. While your computer is working on some task in the background, turn your monitor so that it faces the wall and use your mouse and random keystrokes to try to guess what you're now having it do.
14. Put an installation disk in both your DVD and CD drive bays, and install two different software at once while also unplugging and plugging various hardware into your pc.
15. Disable your firewall and antivirus and go online for awhile, then run back in.
16. See what that did.
17. To see what load your dual core can take on at once, install Symantec Norton antivirus and get an AOL dial up account and then download "Beloved" off the web, since that was the longest movie ever made.
18. Do Apples have two cores?  

Ace; they need me here.
Ring bells for service.

Allie-Baba

I think my favorite is Madden football and Call of Duty simultaneously ................

Madden "While Favre drops back to pass over here, we have the entire defensive front line making an assault on the bunker.  Then the 3rd Armored Division comes around the end and              BAM!Favre is hit with 50 Cal and a Sabo round from an M1A1 Abrahms battle tank from two directions at the same time. Now thats what I call a helpful hardware man."

THNX
BRAD
"I had  something to say here, but then I forgot"

Ace

There's always an intel screen before every mission in Call of Duty, too.  There is a section devoted to tank battles, but it's in driving a Russian tank and shooting Panzers.  I do have the game set for "extra blood" so that will help in taking out Favre.  If I set the stadium to high precipitation I should be able to see the tread marks on the field.

Or just play the Bears against the Pack and have them whip his old cheese head that way.  Head cheese.

Heh.

Ace; I wish people would use their real names here.  It is so confusing when they start changing them, too, and you don't even know if this poaster was that poaster or what.  
Ring bells for service.

Bill

#6
We've been down the name deal before :P

Surely you rememeber....

X
Antec 3700 | Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R | Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz | 4 GB (4x1GB) DDR2 PC 5300 Kingston RAM | Antec NeoPower 550W | eVGA GeForce 9500GT 1GB 128 bit PCI Express 2.0 | Intel SSD X25-M 80GB | VelociRaptor 150GB | WD 80GB 7200rpm |Samsung 22x SATA Burner |Windows 7 32-bit

Ace

#7
Oh, you're one to talk "Bill", like that's your real name...

I'm sure there's a cat somewhere named Bill

hold it... hold on just a minute.  Ok, there is a cat named Bill the cat.  Alright, lucky guess.  I guess yours is legitimate.

Ace; my real name.
Ring bells for service.

Buffalo2102

Well, my name's Mud.

I have fallen foul of one of the DS3's many incompatibility problems - I can't get it to post (not poast) with the G-Skill NR RAM.  Despite reports from other users having no trouble, and posts on forums from a G-Skill technician saying that he has successfully tested the NR RAM with the DS3, I have had no  luck with it at all.  I have tried several different BIOS revisions, including the latest Beta.  I have also tried just about every combination of options possible in the BIOS.

Having spent around ?150 on this RAM, I was a little cheesed off when I found that the system would post fine on a 256MB stick of DDR2 from  my local PC World - costing ?11.97!

I am going to try to exchange the RAM for maybe something different.  Meanwhile, my system runs fine on 256MB of PC4300 DDR2.  Who needs 2GB?

Buff; Thanks for the memory......but no thanks.
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

Ace

Well, I need 2GB of RAM.  That's what I got.  Funny thing now is that after going with the Patriot high-octane sticks which were dang pricey enough they then jumped in price, after.  And now they aren't offered at all through Monarch.  Huh, as we say in American.

Having had an old Gigabyte motherboard that failed to recognize memory, I would suggest vacuuming out the slot and spraying it with contact cleaner and blowing it out and then using a small framing hammer to seat the memory stick.

None of that will make any difference whatsoever, but I think the part where you hammer it can at least make you feel better about it.  I mean, I did.

If I lived closer, I'd be glad to come over and do it for you.

Ace; I guess a buffalo in mud is kinda like a pig in slop.  I'd hope they're happy, at least.
Ring bells for service.

Buffalo2102

I bought this memory on Monday this week.  It has gone up by nearly 10% since then.  I think I would be better off selling it second hand than returning it.

That is partly why I upgraded now because I could see the DDR2 prices rocketing.

I know what you mean about hammering the memory in.

Buff; If I had a hammer.............
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

Mark H

I am getting ready to build a new Conroe machine as well. The bug bit and I responded. My current main PC will become a linux machine running Ipcop as a firewall and my current photography PC will become the main machine. I will then build a new photography machine. Why, because Photoshop CS2 will take advantage of dual cores and I could use the speed. I was going to put 4 GB in it, but with prices increasing, it may become 2 GB.

Enjoy!

Mark H
Enjoy the nature that is around you rather than destroying it.

Buffalo2102

Well, I finally managed to get it all working with the G-Skill NR RAM.  The default DIMM voltage of the motherboard is 1.8v and the RAM is rated at 1.9-2.0v.  I had tried feeding it 1.9 and 2.0v but no luck.  I finally got it working by being brave and setting the vDimm in the BIOS to 2.2v.

Now for some tweaking.
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

Ace

Well, Judas Priest, (with Rob, not Ripper) goose that puppy up to 3v or 4 or 8, then.  You know it's gonna love the extra motivation.

Glad you salvaged it.  I'm still stunned by the DDR2 price hop.  It would've cost me over $300 (American) to go with Buffalo memory (hey, you shoulda looked into that) at 533 or 600 some instead of the 800 Patriot I got for $224.  

And I was advised to "wait"...

Scuzzy; what a knucklehead.
Ring bells for service.

scuzzy

Meanwhile the price of flash memory keeps falling at an alarming rate.

I just bought a 1GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive for $24.99 at my local Staples.

Scuzzy; Ace's memory is also falling at an alarming rate
Antec Performance TX640B Case | WinXP Pro SP3 & Win7 64-bit | Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R | Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale LGA 775 3.16GHz Dual-Core | 8GB (4x2GB) PC6400 G-Skill RAM | eVGA 7600GT 256MB PCI-E | 74GB WD Raptor SATA 16MB Cache | 74GB WD Raptor SATA 8MB Cache | 320GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 16MB Cache | External 640GB WD Caviar SATA 32MB Cache | Sony DRU-V200S DVD/RW | PC Power & Cooling Silencer 500W | Samsung SyncMaster 2494 (24") LCD Monitor | LG Flatron W2361V (23") LCD Monitor

Ace

Look, my memory is not falling at an alarming rate, dangit.  It's failing, sure, but it's not falling.

And it's not that dang alarming.  Honestly, I hardly notice it.

I assume flash memory allows you to quickly send something to it to remember, in a flash, and then it forgets it pretty soon after.  Heck, that sounds familiar to my own.

Ace; he better not say my memory is dim, too.  I'll remember that, believe me.  
Ring bells for service.

Buffalo2102

The latest installment -

I can run memtest on either of my 1GB RAM modules with no errors whatsoever.  If I try to run them in dual-channel mode memtest comes up with errors.  I have tried different voltages for the memory and different timings but with no joy.  I am going to try with yet another BIOS version but if that doesn't work then I'm all out of options.

Compatibility problems are sooooooo frustrating.

Buff; single dimm.
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

Whizbang

Are you selecting the BIOS mainboard memory sync option or the  DIMM onboard chip to control syncing?  The mainboard choice turned up errors for me when I tried using more than one DIMM.  Your having to bump the voltage up that much is a bit spooky.

Buffalo2102

There is really no choice in the BIOS - one dimm runs in single channel but put a secong in (in the right slot) and it defaults to dual-channel.  The one thing I haven't tried is using the dimms in different coloured slots which should allow me to use all 2GB in single channel mode.  That kind of makes it pointless having fast DDR2 memory though and would obviously rather get the dual-channel working.

The voltage thing is pretty common with these new 965P chipset boards.  Default voltage for most PC4200/5300 memory is 1.8v but PC6400 and above is usually higher.  Hence the system won't post with the faster memory, unless you can get into the BIOS and up the voltage first.  To do that you need some 1.8v memory - it's a bit chicken & egg really.

Found out last night that Windows Vista RC1 doesn't want to run on the new system, even with one dimm in single channel.  It might be the SATA controller drivers I suppose.
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

Buffalo2102

After a lot of messing about I finally RMA'd the RAM to G-Skill in the Netherlands.  There was nothing wrong with it - it just wouldn't work with my motherboard.  Since one of their technicians had posted on a forum that it would work, and the fact that it would not even post without 2.2v through it (it was rated at 1.9-2.0v) I deemed that it was worth a return.  To be fair to G-Skill, they have replaced the PC6400-NR memeory with PC6400-NQ.  This has the same timings but is rated at a lower voltage.  I have installed it and it posted first time.  There have been no problems with it at all and so I am now a very happy camper.

I have even tried a mild overclock and am now running my 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo at 2.4GHz.  I'm only on air cooling so don't want to push it too far until I have optimised the cooling etc.

Buff; Happy....camping.
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

Carskick

Quote from: Buffalo2102 on November 06, 2006, 18:08 hrs
After a lot of messing about I finally RMA'd the RAM to G-Skill in the Netherlands.  There was nothing wrong with it - it just wouldn't work with my motherboard.  Since one of their technicians had posted on a forum that it would work, and the fact that it would not even post without 2.2v through it (it was rated at 1.9-2.0v) I deemed that it was worth a return.  To be fair to G-Skill, they have replaced the PC6400-NR memeory with PC6400-NQ.  This has the same timings but is rated at a lower voltage.  I have installed it and it posted first time.  There have been no problems with it at all and so I am now a very happy camper.

I have even tried a mild overclock and am now running my 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo at 2.4GHz.  I'm only on air cooling so don't want to push it too far until I have optimised the cooling etc.

Buff; Happy....camping.

That is more than a mild overclock. More like a moderate, and very good one. When I brought my A64 from 1.8Ghz to 2.2Ghz, it made all the difference. And doing this with a dual core should compound the difference, esp in multi tasking. I'll bet that thing flies.

I am glad you got that mem issue sorted out. I'll bet that sucked waiting for your memory with this awesome machine sittingt there.

I have been toying with the idea of upgrading to X2 and or getting 2Gb of DDR memory, but both are getting more expensive, and will be soon outdated anyways. I guess I'll just sit on my machine for now, and wait until the next great thing comes about.
Athlon64 X2 3800+ Machester@2.45Ghz, 4x1GB A-DATA PC3200@204(2.5-3-3-6), XFX 8800GT, ASUS A8N5X NF4, Antec 300 case, Antec EarthWatts 650w, 640GB 16MB and 200GB 8MB 7200RPM SATA WD HDDs, NEC3540, NEC3550, Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate<br />Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/Carskick

Buffalo2102

Thanks Cars.

Sorted my cooling out by cleaning the air filter in the front of my case ::)  There was about a 1mm layer of compressed dust and dog hair on it. :-[  My CPU temperature has dropped by almost 15 degrees C!

I've also added a new DVD Writer (in sig.) with a SATA interface.  The new mobo only has one IDE channel so I thought I'd try a SATA optical drive.  This also helped my cooling as I got rid of the bulky IDE cable.  The new drive performs well and is absolutely silent.  My previous LiteOn optical drive sounded like an aircraft engine test-bed.

Very happy with the system now and just need to sell on the old bits as my good woman reminds me every five minutes.

Buff; not that I've got a bad woman.
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

Buffalo2102

#22
My CPU temps were as follows -

Idle - 44C
Load - 54C

Having read forum posts about the temps that some people were getting (using the same cooler) I decided that I still wasn't happy with mine.  I removed the cooler and cleaned off the gunk that used to be the thermal pad from the cooler and the CPU.  I then applied some Antec Formula 5 Silver Thermal Compound and re-assembled everything.  My new temps are -

Idle - 37C
Load - 48C

So, by cleaning the air filter in my case and re-applying the heatsink I have dropped my CPU temperatures by over 22 degrees Celcius!  And that is using stock speeds, not overclocked.  This is something that I will definitely keep my eye on in the future.

Buff; Cooool
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.

Buffalo2102

I'm now overclocking at 2.8GHz (7x400MHz) and it is stable as a rock.  I think I'll leave it there for a while now and not push it any further.  These C2D processors are great - 2.8GHz from a processor rated at 1.86GHz.

Overclocking is not really recommended and it will probably shorten the life of the CPU but then PC technology doesn't last very long these days anyway and gaining the extra speed will probably mean I will hold onto the CPU longer than I would have normally (before upgrading).

Buff; Speed freak.
Vista x64 Home Premium. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Abit IP35, 4 Gig Kingston HyperX PC8500C5 DDR2, GTX260, Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer, Antec 900 Gaming Case.