Budget computer. - Modern Warfare 2 Forum: Free Call of Duty MW2 Community

spearlymatt · 10-21-2009, 08:28 PM

So this time I am building a computer for real! (yes abc, no more hypothetical situations.)

My AP Bio teacher is making science projects mandatory, so I'm building a computer for it (more on the actual project later) and the school is funding it.

The problem is, the maximum the school will give is $500, but I'd may be be willing to use $100 of my own.

The actual question I'm solving is To what percent can you overclock different computer components (and or just processor) before it fails to run?

I'm open to any other questions to "solve," btw.

I'll be able to keep this computer afterword, so I'd prefer not to mess with voltages, and just increase the clock speed.

I'd like to be able to play a few games on this computer (lololol @ cliche) so I'd prefer no integrated graphics.

Another question is, will Ubuntu be OK for my testing (i.e. checking speeds, CPU-Z type stuff) or should I get a Windows OS? And I'm also open to pre-built computers if they're a good deal.

I'm asking you all for suggested builds because I haven't paid much attention to tech news and such for awhile, so I'm kind of out of the loop.

Thanks.

EDIT: Here's what I came up with on a first try...

http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/Sh...ntVersion.aspx

It's at like $650 before shipping, so I'd like to cut around $100 if possible.

**abc** · 10-22-2009, 06:33 AM

EDIT: Ah I get it. so the question is: To what percent(age) can you overclock different computer components (and/or just CPU) before it fails to run? and your biology (LOL?!?!) task is to build a PC and test it.

After writing a big post about $650 not being fantastic and you'd be better off to get an old high end P4 and try to hit 5.0GHz and just have some fun seeing how far it will really go before breaking (i.e. even enthusiasts take it no way near breaking point since they want to actually use it...)

But then I actually went on newegg and found the US is even cheaper than it was last week. Apparantly you need about $300~ in the US for a budget gaming rig. The amount of computer I've speced for $599 is ridiculous...

P.S. linking to shopping carts doesn't work since carts are saved as cookie on individual computers.

LOL. $500 - $650 in the UK gets you a case and some RAM. same amount in the US gets you an amazing system for the price:

Biostar 790GX & Athlon II X4 620 - with good air cooling you have a 3.7+ GHz quad core.
4850 w/ non refference cooling - two of these in crossfire with a nice 20% ~ overclock
G.Skill RipJaw - The RAM "to have" currently. G.Skill overclockability, DDR3 1600MHz and a very good price.
OCZ StealthXstream 700w - THE budget PSU to have. Rebates are very good on the higher wattage models hence a 700w as opposed to a 550w superior quality corsair.
Antec 300 - Again THE perfect budget case. Airflow, build quality and design of a $150 case, - $100 pricetag

$599.90

You'll also need

A good air cooler for the OC. Recommend a Thermalright Ultra 120. should be sub $40 easily. couldn't find any US stockists of thermalright, but then I only know two websites.
An OS - Win 7 RTM? (free. there still seem to be links floating around for it even after the retail SO has been released)
A DVD drive.
A HDD. the worlds' fastest 7.2k RPM drive (Samsung spinpoint F3 500GB) is only $53. you could economise and use an old case in order to afford a new fast SATA HDD instead of recycling an old one.

That is a killer budget PC. Infact what does "budget" mean in US prices? budget in the rest of the world certainly doesn't mean the DDR3 RAM to have, crossfire HD4850s and a higher end mobo that'll get a cheap quad to 3.7GHz...

Obviously you have a lot of decisions on how to measure stuff. for example "fails to run" could be:

"prime stable" (enthusiast's choice - will work 24/7)
"boots into windows" (seeing how high you can OC before PC won't turn on. no chance of doing anythign useful on this OC though...)
"doesn't burn up" (what it says on tin. would be interesting seeing what voltage a modern CPU could take)

Then obviously you have to work out how you will measure OC'ing. do you run a bunch of benchmarks (3dmark06 for gaming, superPi for computing, some vid editting thing for media)

Then obviously decide how to OC. Do you pick one option (or indeed just one component) and see how high the OC goes on basic options alone - or do you employee some patience and cunning and see how high it can really go?

This could be a fairly interesting project. In a perfect world you'd have a great MOBO/RAM etc already and spend $500 on 6 CPU and investigate why some OC better than others (or not as you may find out) then you can look into all the limitations of cooling. Hell why not make yourself a simple custom watercooling system (I'm thinking like an LN2 pot, but instead of dangerous LN2 you use plain old water...) and investigate what heat does to an OC.

MandingoOoO · 10-22-2009, 04:24 PM

Yeah shopping cart doesn't work, but i'm not exactly sure what the question is...
With $650 its not going to be "Fantastic" my friend built a $8,000 computer with $2,000 though so if you know what your doing you could have a pretty good finished product.

**abc** · 10-23-2009, 05:39 PM

oh spearly? wheeeeere are yooouuuuu?

seriously, buy that rig now, it's insane. even on stock cooler you'll have a 3.3GHz Quad core with TWO FOURTY EIGHT F****** FIFTIES IN CROSSFIRE (that's waaay better than a GTX285 in COD games btw)

spearlymatt · 10-23-2009, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abc

oh spearly? wheeeeere are yooouuuuu?

I've been lurking the topic, don't worry :P I was just figureing out what I want to say.

Quote:

Originally Posted by abc

EDIT: Ah I get it. so the question is: To what percent(age) can you overclock different computer components (and/or just CPU) before it fails to run? and your biology (LOL?!?!) task is to build a PC and test it.

Yeah, I should've explained it better, we're basically doing all the work independent as it doesn't apply to Biology, yet still made mandatory by my Bio teacher.

Quote:

After writing a big post about $650 not being fantastic and you'd be better off to get an old high end P4 and try to hit 5.0GHz and just have some fun seeing how far it will really go before breaking (i.e. even enthusiasts take it no way near breaking point since they want to actually use it...)

That might be my failsafe, as I don't know if they'll approve the grant. But I think they will.

Quote:

That is a killer budget PC. Infact what does "budget" mean in US prices? budget in the rest of the world certainly doesn't mean the DDR3 RAM to have, crossfire HD4850s and a higher end mobo that'll get a cheap quad to 3.7GHz...

I consider budget <$500.

Quote:

Obviously you have a lot of decisions on how to measure stuff. for example "fails to run" could be:

"prime stable" (enthusiast's choice - will work 24/7)
"boots into windows" (seeing how high you can OC before PC won't turn on. no chance of doing anythign useful on this OC though...)
"doesn't burn up" (what it says on tin. would be interesting seeing what voltage a modern CPU could take)

"Prime Stable" I'd need an accurate way to measure that.
"Boots into Windows" Is what I had in mind, is that not too harmful to the CPU?
"Doesn't burn up" I don't want to do this unless I do go with the P4 idea.

But I'm going to look at this some more, I'm hoping to have my grant write up for Monday.

EDIT: So after looking more, is there anyway we can decrease the price a bit? $600 is the highest I'll pay (as $500 is the max I'll get out of the school) and that has to include everything.

**abc** · 10-23-2009, 08:55 PM

well you currently have TWO 4850 in crossfire lol (as I keep pointing out) so the obvious thing is to "only" have 1 GFX card, thus saving you $100 yet you still get an awesome PC. I'd actually use some of the money you saved on a good heatsink & fan for the overclocking.

"prime stable" refers to a stability testing program. This would be a very neat way of doing it actually. You do an OC, run the program, if it crashes obviously it crashes and you fail, if it runs for 12 hours you have an OC that will last 4 years. Obviously I do not recommend running for twelve hours due to time constraints of HW. nor do I recommend using any of the "Prime" programs. Use something called OCCT. it's about 4 times faster and would make for nicer screenshots. Plenty of graph outputting potential too.

the "boot into windows" is associated with something called "the suicide run" (lol @ name) where you have used settings you wouldn't dream of using 24/7 but are just trying to see what the chip would do if you had, say watercooling and could cool such a high voltage. So "boot into windows" = well into the 4GHz mark and you just want it work long enough to run 3dmark once and get a nice big score for your 4.5+ GHz CPU.

hang on, in that last comment, you need to be more specific. I mean, everything? I'm assuming you have a mouse & screen etc. do you have an OS, DVD drive and old HDD??? as for an OS could you grab a RTM version of win 7? I seem to recall you're the sort of person who has old IDE stuff laying around all over the place?

things you can do to reduce cost

Get a c*** case. you can save $10 by getting an Antec 200 so that'll still be very high quality.
Only have 1 HD4850 (saves $109.99)
grab an old OS or RTM (saves $109.99)
get 1GB of cheap ass ram just for the project (saves $60) then buy better ram at xmas or w/e when you "adopt" this rig.

and then you begin economising on things that would affect the quality of the computer you adopt later. For example one less core, a lower end non crossfire & DDR2 mobo, a PSU that won't be able to cope when you want to add a 2nd GFX card etc

Cloud · 10-24-2009, 09:54 AM

Your school is giving you $500?.............................. um whut?

spearlymatt · 10-24-2009, 10:11 AM

So after some more thought, I have

Antec 300 case - $70 (after the 31st, now it's $60.)

Scythe KM02-BK Fan Controller - $40 (not that necessary atm)

WD Caviar 640gb HDD - $75

Sapphire Radeon 4850 - $110 (Are there any other options? As I don't know much about GPUs.)

LITE-ON DVD Drive - $20

OCZ StealthXStream 700w PSU - $75

G.Skill Ripjaw RAM, 4gb DDR3 1600 - $80

Zalman 9500a CPU cooler - $50 (Will the stock cooler be adequate, or will I need a separate cooler?)

AMD Athlon II x4 / Biostar TA790GXE - $165

Shipping - $25

Total price (not with the rounding I did) - $691.73

And $45 worth of Mail-in-Rebates.

I guess I'm willing to go to $650, but things like the fan controller aren't necessary yet.

BradTonks · 10-24-2009, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrisakacloud

Your school is giving you $500?.............................. um whut?

exactly what i was thinking lol.

spearlymatt · 10-24-2009, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrisakacloud

Your school is giving you $500?.............................. um whut?

For a science fair project. Science is on our standardized testing, so the school funds it. If we don't have to take a standardized test on a subject, it's not funded. Retarded, but I guess it works out in this situation.

**abc** · 10-24-2009, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spearlymatt

So after some more thought, I have

Antec 300 case - $70 (after the 31st, now it's $60.)
Scythe KM02-BK Fan Controller - $40 (not that necessary atm) why have you added this when you keep complaining the PC is too expensive already?
WD Caviar 640gb HDD - $75 Samsung spinpoint F3. much much faster. 500GB is $20 cheaper. 1TB version is $5 more.
Sapphire Radeon 4850 - $110 (Are there any other options? As I don't know much about GPUs.) what are you thinking? you want something faster/same money or slower/cheaper? either way it's not going to happen.
LITE-ON DVD Drive - $20 don't know what this is. The cheapest lite-on DVD RW I can find is $30. nevertheless...
OCZ StealthXStream 700w PSU - $75
G.Skill Ripjaw RAM, 4gb DDR3 1600 - $80
Zalman 9500a CPU cooler NO!!! lol - $50 (Will the stock cooler be adequate, or will I need a separate cooler?) If your whole project is about overclocking you really should get a good cooler otherwise the anser will be "it will OC 5% then the stock HSF is crap and it crashes," which isn't much fun. I gave up looking for a thermaltake in the US - nevermind though because newegg have Zerotherm Nirvana 120s which are virtually identical in terms of performance to a thermaltake.
AMD Athlon II x4 / Biostar TA790GXE - $165 If this PC is for getting the biggest OC, swap that mobo out for something like a Gigabyte 770 UD3P - much better for your project. If you see this whole thing as a convinet way of you getting a good PC, get the 790GXE as it has crossfire so will be good in the future.

Shipping - $25

Total price (not with the rounding I did) - $691.73

And $45 worth of Mail-in-Rebates.

You still have not mentioned an OS. Do you need one or not? this changes the price by $110, so is kinda significant...

I can't really see how you've managed to alter my suggestions to be more expensive and slower

lol I still stand by my original:

Zerotherm cooler - $50
DVD RW - $30
Antec 300 - $70
Spinpoint F3 500GB - $55
4850 - $110
700w OCZ - $75
Ripjaw - $80

total w/ deliivery w/ rebate = $585!!!

optional Win 7 - $110

spearlymatt · 10-24-2009, 12:39 PM

The fan controller was just in there as something I'd eventually want.

I don't know much about coolers, so I just threw that one in there because it had a lot of good reviews.

And as for an OS, I'm probably going to use Ubuntu at first, then see if our school tech-guy (he's pretty cool) will install Vista or XP on it as that's what the school computers use.

And which mobo do you think would be better? If the overclocking will be significantly better, then I might want the 770 UDP3, but if only marginally, I probably want the 790GXE.

**abc** · 10-24-2009, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spearlymatt

The fan controller was just in there as something I'd eventually want.

I don't know much about coolers, so I just threw that one in there because it had a lot of good reviews.

And as for an OS, I'm probably going to use Ubuntu at first, then see if our school tech-guy (he's pretty cool) will install Vista or XP on it as that's what the school computers use.

And which mobo do you think would be better? If the overclocking will be significantly better, then I might want the 770 UDP3, but if only marginally, I probably want the 790GXE.

all the fans on the antec 300 are variable speed anyway. You may not need a controller.

Yeah the Zalmans (9500/9700/9800/9900 etc) used to be "the cooler" to have but eventually the big blocks of metal with a fan slapped on the side designs not only took over, but obliterated the old-school zalman flower design.

I do not know. That is something you may have to investigate. The "UD3" bit of the gigabytes name is a technology they have been developing and has become renowned for quality overclocking, whereas the 790GXE is just "another" mobo in that respect, i.e. it's not built specifically to OC. So think of it as a tuned-up 770 vs a bog standard 790 (which is susposedly higher quality + more features e.g. raid, CF etc in the first place)

the thing to do with components is type into google "gigabyte 770 ud3p review" and skip to the "overclocking" section. Ignore any customer reviews or forum reviews, just look at reviews on well-known sites. I will have a look for you later (since I know what sites to trust etc)

Since you currently have a locked-multi CPU (for the purpose of your project, but not overall performance later on, it might actually be a very good idea to get a black edition (unlocked multi) CPU as this will give you more variables to change thus giving you more to write/experiment about.

spearlymatt · 11-06-2009, 04:53 PM

My grant was approved

I really didn't expect it to be approved, though.

Anyway, I'm probably going to want to overclock the GPU and RAM as well (if at all possible, not a necessity though)

Any final say on the matter? And/or just a final conformation of this being the ideal computer for my budget?

EDIT: Can someone suggest a new graphics card / PSU as the original ones are deactivated now.

EDIT2: FFFFFFUUUUU- the combo deal for the MOBO / CPU isn't available anymore

Can someone also suggest some other options with that?

**abc** · 11-06-2009, 05:54 PM

Stealthxstream 600w?

2nd cheapest 4850?

buy the CPU seperately and get a diff mobo. maybe an AM3 770 UD3P.

prices of all that have probably changed by now. add it all up, include/dis-include anything else like OS or DVD drives etc

I dunno. I'm too confused. we should start again lol. an exact list of what you need to buy (i.e. do not mention things you will obtain for free or already have)

last few posts still seem a bit confused on what you actually want this for. Is this a pure OC'ing experiment (i.e. buy 4 CPU and compare) or is this your way of getting a free computer and making a project out of it? I mean you can still do a lot of overclocking with it even if you buy it for yourself not in the name of education.

spearlymatt · 11-06-2009, 05:58 PM

Ok, I requested a grant for $500 from the school. The said grant was approved. Next week sometime I will be getting a $500 check. I need an exact list of what I need to buy. It absolutely needs to be under $650, and it preferably needs to be under $600.

I do not need a monitor, mouse / keyboard, or OS atm. But I need EVERYTHING ELSE.

Sorry for the confusion.

**abc** · 11-07-2009, 07:14 AM

and what do you want it for?

Does it need to have a big enough HDD to store all your games music files etc on or does it just need to be big enough to run an OS?

Does it need to be able to game as well as work/OC?

How much does it need to be able to game (screen res + games you want to play + how fussed you are about running stuff on high settings etc)

A cheap mobo with stock coolers and cheap RAM etc will OC, but your answer will be "my stuff OC'd by 10% due to bargain basement electronics used to make each component. I have no idea what it is capable of under half-favourable circustances"

My opinion to the above questions:

I'd go for decent components & after market cooler because it gives you a MASSIVE amount of content. Therefore you can make a really good overview OR a really detailed project about 1 component. With cheaper stuff you may find yourself struggling to write enough words etc because not much happened then it crashed. Then again there is also a MASSIVE amount of - not perfect, but useful - research/info on the web.

Oh and lets face it, since you get to keep this PC (I presume?) you'd want to have more expensive more reliable higher quality parts with more OC headroom more resale value longer warranties etc etc etc

spearlymatt · 11-07-2009, 08:28 AM

Sorry, I forgot to add that. I want to overclock the CPU (most defiantly)and hopefully the GPU and RAM. The question I'm answering is "to what percent can you overclock select components of a computer before they 'fail.'"

The HDD needs to be big enough to store games, the OS, and all of my files. The computer I'm using now has a 40gb HDD, and I'm only using like 25gb including all programs, OS files, and my files. But I'm not sure how much games take up...

I'd like to be able to play most games at a playable setting, but I suppose it's not all too necessary, as I'm probably going to keep my XBOX (due to the minuscule amount I'd get for it.)

And yes, I will be keeping this computer, so I want to overclock it to the point where it's not stable, but I don't want to harm the components, since $100-$150 of this project is mine.

**abc** · 11-07-2009, 04:24 PM

Samsung S.Point F3 Why? for $5 more than a cheapy HDD you may as well get the fastest [non 10k] HDD there is. 500GB also means never run our of space.
HD4850 Why? it will game ok now, for a while, it's cheap. VERY powerful in crossfire if need be. the only other option (mid end 5700 of some variety) is substantially more for not a huge amount faster.
G.Skill Ripjaw 1600MHz Why? fast. cheap. overclockable.
Zerotherm Nirvana 120mm Why? one of the best air coolers. seriously. this is tied with one or two more coolers, after that it's $400 of watercooling.
Antec 300 & Earthwatts 650w bundle Why? case is unrivaled for the price. imo it looks good but more importantly airflow, space, customisation etc is all there. PSU is powerful enough has right connectors etc. good brand. high efficiency. bundle saves $$$
Athlon X4 620 & GigaByte 790GX UD3P Why? since this is kinda a budget build I still think the $99 quad core is the way forward. you have to pay almost $200 to beat it significantly anyway. all modern AMD virtually OC exactly the same anyway.

mobo was chosen as a bundle. It's a "UD3" series mobo so you can assume it'll be very good at OC'ing. has crossfire & features etc. has intergrated GFX so if ya want to save $100 till you actually want to game that's a good idea.

I shall mention now that I catagorically do not currently know what the best mobo for OC'ing modern AMD chips is. you may wish to research, or wait for me to get bored and i'll research it.

a similar bundle to the original IS still available here at $30 less than above bundle if you wanna save cash.

total: $605.00 including rebates.

I don't know how quickly you accumilate money, I don't know if you have a job or how much disposable you're willing to spend on computers. BUT I would go for the better mobo and forget the GFX card.

Then when HD5700/5800 are an ok price, get one of them.

NOTE: It appears the current must-haves for OC'ing AMD Phenom II/Athlon II are the:

GigaByte 790x UD4 - $110 w/ rebate (no intergrated video. could just stick a Geforce 6200 for the time being lol?)
~~MSI 790FX GD70 - $165~~ (price doesn't really make it a contender)

I think the gigabyte just stretches the money a bit too much (closer to $650 than $600) but if you do want the best, that would be it (for the money)

spearlymatt · 11-07-2009, 05:45 PM

Quote:

NOTE: It appears the current must-haves for OC'ing AMD Phenom II/Athlon II are the:

GigaByte 790x UD4 - $110 w/ rebate (no intergrated video. could just stick a Geforce 6200 for the time being lol?)
~~MSI 790FX GD70 - $165~~ (price doesn't really make it a contender)

I think the gigabyte just stretches the money a bit too much (closer to $650 than $600) but if you do want the best, that would be it (for the money)

It all looks great, thanks. Is the UD4 a better board than the one in the combo deal, and will there be a noticeable difference in overclocking potential? And would I just get the same processor?

Not having integrated video isn't that big of a deal, it'd be nice, but not all too important. And ideally I'd want a decent card anyway so I can do a little bit of GPU overclocking, enough to add to my report. And with shipping and everything, it's going to be closer to $650 than $600, so I'm not worried about a few dollars here and there.

And I guess I should've asked this before

How much will my internet speed effect gaming. I only get like 1.4mb DL, but I don't lag on the 360 at all (but I'm sure there's an exterior reason for that.)

And how much will a monitor effect gaming also? Because that's another $200+ I'd have to spend, and if I'm getting that much wrapped into it, I'd rather just build a very basic computer that could play simple games.

**abc** · 11-08-2009, 05:39 AM

a 4850 will play any games on medium settings (or far far higher) at a high res 1680x1050ish for a while yet...

for cod internet is all about registry (which can be... tuned... to go well with your connection) but a sub 100 ping is A-ok. since your in america I suspect your ping will be more like sub 50ms.

The difference between UD3 and UD4. I do not know. I'm sure there is a internet article somewhere which will tell you. We are only going to be talking one or two 100MHz on the CPU. However that could be the difference between 3.8 and 4.0GHz (not on this CPU though. I suspect this CPU will run out of steam at about 3.6GHz+)

If you want to go significantly higher than 3.6GHz you'll need a $200 quad or a $99 dual core (which obviously loses badly in anything that likes a lot of cores) to be honest I'd stick for bang4buck and (assuming you find no horror reviews like "it's awful get the UD4") go for the UD3, the cheap quad, decent memory decent cooler. At the end of the day you'll then have a very highly clocked quad, 1800~ MHz memory and a GFX card that is very cheap but hey you're not too fussed about gaming (?)

If you are fussed about gaming it's worth using intergrated for a month or two till the 5750/5770/5850 become a decent price then get one of them (which will get you some serious benchmark scores...)

spearlymatt · 11-08-2009, 08:44 AM

Ok, so with EVERYTHING suggested, including shipping it comes to 654.53 The rebates effectively cancel out the shipping costs, so then it'll be about $630.

Now, would it be worth overclocking the RAM / Video card? The MOBO specs say that the RAM standard is 1666 O.C., but the RAM I'm ordering is 1600 stock.

And whether I get the GFX card depends on how much a monitor influences gaming, how long the wait will be for a better card at an equivalent (give or take a few dollars) price, and if it's worth O.C'ing.

If I just overclock the CPU, do you think I'll have enough information to have an adequate paper / poster ? While I am doing this mostly to get a free computer, this is going to be a large part of my Bio grade, and my school is really expecting me to place highly in the science fair. I think the whole project is due in April sometime.

Thanks, abc.

**abc** · 11-08-2009, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spearlymatt

Ok, so with EVERYTHING suggested, including shipping it comes to 654.53 The rebates effectively cancel out the shipping costs, so then it'll be about $630.

well then make some of those compromises I mentioned.

Now, would it be worth overclocking the RAM / Video card? The MOBO specs say that the RAM standard is 1666 O.C., but the RAM I'm ordering is 1600 stock.

in the big scheme of FPS ram/vid card won't be noticable (of course it will in benchmark programs though) but on the other hand if you find yourself short of CPU content, RAM & GFX card will triple the amount to write about.

Ah yes. 1666 OC means mobo is rated at 1666 and you'd have to manually set your 1600 at 1600. If I were you i'd get 1333 to eliminate MOBO as a bottlneck should you OC ram.

And whether I get the GFX card depends on how much a monitor influences gaming, how long the wait will be for a better card at an equivalent (give or take a few dollars) price, and if it's worth O.C'ing.

can't you just not get the GFX card now (so the project is well under budget) and use xmas money or w/e to buy a GFX card later.

better card at equiv price will be january - april. I think that is a realistic and safe guess.

resolution effects FPS a lot. highest settings on a 22" on a game like COD4 can be had for $100 whilst medium settings on a 22" can be had for $40

If I just overclock the CPU, do you think I'll have enough information to have an adequate paper / poster ? Once you come up with proper hypothesis etc, yes. At the moment "to what extent can....... be OC'd" provides 3 characters of content: "22%"

Assuming you will write about all the variables and how each one affects OC'ing of the CPU there is plenty, but mentioning RAM etc never hurts for added variety While I am doing this mostly to get a free computer, this is going to be a large part of my Bio grade, and my school is really expecting me to place highly in the science fair. I think the whole project is due in April sometime.

Thanks, abc.

I can sense a lot of "how to" and "what effect does this setting have?" questions when you come to do this project

spearlymatt · 11-08-2009, 06:39 PM

Oh yeah, there's obviously going to be an influx of questions regarding the actual process :P But I'm worrying with getting the actual computer first. And, yeah, I don't really care how much of an FPS increase I'll get from overclocking RAM / GPU, as I'll most likely move them back down to stock speed after the experiment.

And I'll be ordering this midweek, I guess I'll save the GPU for a later date, and see if I need it for my experiment at all, and get my grandmother to get me a monitor for Christmas.

...Though, I have a 32" 720p Plasma T.V.

It'll be $550 at first, including shipping, and not including rebates.

EDIT: Also, will Ubuntu be sufficient, or should I use my friends Windows 7 installer CD and *aquire* a keygen.

EDIT2: And I forgot to include, that I don't know what to do about the RAM. I don't want to purposely get something slower just for the purpose of overclocking, but I also don't want to run out of information.

**abc** · 11-09-2009, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spearlymatt

Oh yeah, there's obviously going to be an influx of questions regarding the actual process :P But I'm worrying with getting the actual computer first. And, yeah, I don't really care how much of an FPS increase I'll get from overclocking RAM / GPU, as I'll most likely move them back down to stock speed after the experiment.

And I'll be ordering this midweek, I guess I'll save the GPU for a later date, and see if I need it for my experiment at all, and get my grandmother to get me a monitor for Christmas.

good plan batman. although make sure the mobo has intergrated or you're stuffed lol...

...Though, I have a 32" 720p Plasma T.V.

It'll be $550 at first, including shipping, and not including rebates.

EDIT: Also, will Ubuntu be sufficient, or should I use my friends Windows 7 installer CD and *aquire* a keygen.

I hear ATI/nivida GFX drivers are horrific on ubuntu/linux/w.e

The best thing to aim for would actually be xp/vista (because drivers have matured etc) but 2nd to that I would place win 7 higher than ubuntu.

Before you decide though see what drivers are like for ubuntu and make sure all the programs you need (coretemp, cpuz, gpuz, hwmonitor, amd overdrive [all I can think of atm]) work on win 7/ubuntu

EDIT2: And I forgot to include, that I don't know what to do about the RAM. I don't want to purposely get something slower just for the purpose of overclocking, but I also don't want to run out of information.

yeaaassss I forgot to address that too. you can always get the 1600MHz ram and then when you OC just say "i suspect the ram OC was limited by the mobo which was only rated at 1666 thus only officialy allowing for a 4% OC yada yada"

look at the UD4. see what RAM that supports.

EDIT: Uh lol. fail.

The UD3 has the RAM issue described above.
The UD4 is one of the boards to have but is DDR2 (which is very pricey now. I bought some high end RAM a month or so ago and it's gone up in price by 60% since) also doesn't have onboard vid.
The Athlon II X4 (will probs hit 3.6GHz can be had for the same price as a 550 BE (will probs hit 4GHz) but obviously the Athlon is a quad...
Oh and scrap ripjaws. Apparantly they are awfully incompatible with AMD rigs.

The asus M4... EVOs are great little OC'ers with a bunch of features but you can't keep adding $20 to the bill each time you find something a little better than the previous suggested mobo etc http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131402

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