Upgrade Time

[moreau]

Well, it is time for my first major hardware upgrade in almost two years.

I've been running an Asus CUV4X-D (via kt133A) with a pair of 1GHz PIII's, and 1GB of PC133.

I finally succumbed to the upgrade itch, for several reasons:
1. there are games that are CPU bound at 1GHz (UT2K3, e.g.)
2. I want to ditch the VIA chipset, in particular because I'm looking at an RT X.10, which isn't qualified to work with the VIA chips.
3. Hardware is fun.


But, what to do with my old rig... I didn't want to upgrade and be left with an orphan. The system was really nice, overall. And dual CPUs is fun (for me).

So, I ordered a couple of tyan S2080 mobos, which I'll use to make a couple of 1GHz/512MB systems out of, for the wife/kids/guests/etc.

Problem solved.

Now for my upgrade:
I chose the Gigabyte PE667 Ultra board, a P4 2.4GHz/512k cache, and 2 512 GB PC2700 DDR DIMMS from Corsair.

That will be coupled with my existing Parhelia, HD's, Santa Cruz, and 400W PCPowerandCooling PS.

Should all be here this week, and then I can decide on a couple of new monitors.

Hope my shameless display of hardware wasn't too offensive. Wish me luck (especially when my wife gets the credit card bill!).

Cheers,
CEM

[dZeus]

good choice!

let us know how you like the motherboard when you've set everything up

[moreau]

thanks for the vote of confidence.

I debated the motherboard for quite awhile. I really looked at the equivalent Tyan board, but it didn't seem to be quite as readily available.

I'm quite excited about getting the X.10 setup running. gotta figure out a couple of monitors to go with all of this...

any suggestions about the whole works are wolcome (wilkomen, if you will. )

cheers, and happy new year...
CEM

[moreau]

BTW, for the record, I got the chipset on the mobo wrong above...

I believe the CUV4X-D had a PRO133A, not a KT133A chipset.

Woulda been a real trick, me running a PIII on an Athlon chipset!

CEM

[Dilitante1]

well the only thing I'd do different is put my name in your will to inherit the hardware for when your wife kills you......just a suggestion

I am so jealous of the upgrade bug going around

[Afronaut]

You must be a very Smart young man. Your hardware choices are tops. I cannot think of a better setup. (cept the video card)

I have the same system:

(Gigabyte PE667 Ultra board, a P4 2.4GHz/512k cache, and 2 512 GB PC2700 DDR DIMMS from Corsair. )

I have the Corsair 3000. The P4 will clock to 2.8 and run stable. Good choice. I have had this rig for a few months now. One of the best yet. The 9700 Pro works well also.

Good Luck with your rig, it should be very stable.

[moreau]

First post from the new rig.

One thing I can say about all the gigabyte boards I've used, they install virtually without a hitch.

THis is my first for personal use, but the ones I've made for work are pretty stable.

I'll keep you posted.

CEM

[moreau]

So far so good...

I've installed UT2K3, and my FPS are way up during gameplay.
I haven't done any benching yet, just playing...

gotta get my software all reinstalled, as well as scanner, printer, etc.

the chip is running quite cool, 29degC at the desktop, 31-33 under load. I assume that is fairly typical for a retail P4 and heatsink?

any suggestions on ways to tax the syste and see how it handles?

CEM

[moreau]

I appear to be talking to myself...

oh well.

For what it is worth, I am scoring 8274 in 3DMark, 1024x768x32, noAA, with all stock settings.


I tried to crank up the BIOS settings for this Gigabyte board by setting the ultimate performance option to enabled, but Windows wouldn't boot.

With this hardware I'm a little surprised.

I'll check some things, but I'm open to suggestions.

CEM

[mutz]

...you might want to play around with the EazyTune4 OC utility that Gigabyte has for it's boards. Best to get the latest version from the Gigabyte site. The one on the mb CD is usually older.

[moreau]

Damn,
I left UT2K3 running for a while, came back quit.

Then, I get a blue screen.

Now, windows won't boot, even in safe mode.

gonna reinstall on a new drive (virgin, fresh format), and scan the old disk, to see if the disk is corrupt.

sigh...

All things shall pass...