My new project

[billyfridge]

That's true Quantum  ......my freestanding speakers were a present off my son, but one of them is broken. If I really want to listen to music I plug my headphones in, they are brilliant.

[texasboy]

Yep, built in monitor speakers  ok for gen use, but if you want to hear  whats really going on, then add the outside speakers depending on your budget .
I only have Advent speakers with sub woofer. Nice BLUE lights.lol Think they are only abt 16-20 watts but ok for moment. They are squeezing power and clarity into very small packets nowadays and if you shop around you can get good prices .Even a simple 50w for £25. http://www.mplex.com/shop/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=1562.
cheers

REF your speakers Quantum, lets hope you dont have the same problems as these guys had.http://forums.logitech.com/logitech/board/message?board.id=stereo_20&message.id=3110.

[Quantum]

REF your speakers Quantum, lets hope you dont have the same problems as these guys had.http://forums.logitech.com/logitech/board/message?board.id=stereo_20&message.id=3110.

Probably a limited manufacturing process fault, never heard this problem from anyone else before.

[texasboy]

A little update on project.
Processor running at 2.7ghz  1,535 FSB. Graphics card 694mhz core 940x2 (1880)mem. Gives 11,551 3D Marks. Seems  bench marks from the pro`s on graphics card are 705 core and 951 mem. I picked figures slightly below these . Temps at moment  36deg for CPU and 32 deg for mobo(on freezer 7 pro).  Quantum, would another card and SLI  Produce better results?
cheers

Another curious thought is that my 8800gt is fanless and bench marks as above are for cards with fan.

[Quantum]

A little update on project.
Processor running at 2.7ghz  1,535 FSB. Graphics card 694mhz core 940x2 (1880)mem. Gives 11,551 3D Marks. Seems  bench marks from the pro`s on graphics card are 705 core and 951 mem. I picked figures slightly below these . Temps at moment  36deg for CPU and 32 deg for mobo(on freezer 7 pro).  Quantum, would another card and SLI  Produce better results?
cheers

Another curious thought is that my 8800gt is fanless and bench marks as above are for cards with fan.

Of course adding another card in SLi would produce better results, but not very cost effective ones as you need to buy the same or near the same card for ~40% the gain. The specs of SLi are always set by the lowest performing card, so you can't just add another cheap one and expect better results, at least not until Hybrid SLi has matured and it's not even been launched yet.

[texasboy]

It would be the exact same card added. Its nice to see that the bridge piece is included with card.Is there much difference between the fanless cards and those with built in fans?
cheers

[Quantum]

It would be the exact same card added. Its nice to see that the bridge piece is included with card.Is there much difference between the fanless cards and those with built in fans?
cheers

Fanless cards obviously produce a lot more heat inside the case, so this is something you need to be very wary of, make sure the case is well aired and that you keep check on the GPU / CPU / Mobo / HDD temperatures.

[texasboy]

My apoligies Quantum. In the light of day I noticed within that huge heatsink on the card "A fan" Nvidia run their fans at default speed 29-33% to keep things as quiet as possible. You can change this using direct fan control in nvidia tune. Did a couple of stress tests with gpu fan set at 52% ,no problems, temp went to 44deg.. Only problem I have found that it does not allow me to load my saved profiles in nvidia folder. There is a program in setup called A1 overclocking which is good up to 15% OC but will not accept the 20%. 15% gives me 2.682ghz on cpu. I will disable in setup and use OC in nvidia tune saving profiles to see if this works any better.
Have nvidia "probe" on screen which shows voltages,fan speeds and temps. seems accurate.
cheers

[Quantum]

GPUs can get to a lot higher temps in the short term than CPUs.

I wouldn't be too worried if a GPU peaked at 85 C for a bit. The GPU itself will be fine, it's stuff like the GPU's memory exposed to long term heat that suggers.

[texasboy]

Seems like 2.765ghz on CPU is close to max using nvidea tune . Upped the graphic card a little and benchmark up with the e8440 core 2 duo boys.
http://service.futuremark.com/home.action;jsessionid=3D6BF220EB92C91CD4030A983E13DA7D.
But just look at the proffessionals with the quads.lol
Temps 42 deg max during test gpu temps 45max.  Got a great airflow through case. Have room to add an 80mm fan on side to blow directly on freezer 7 pro heatsink. Will get another card this week and run the Sli .Quantum  you have been a big help through my learning curves. TKS.
cheers

ps. did you notice that they are mostly on Vista

[Quantum]

Seems like 2.765ghz on CPU is close to max using nvidea tune . Upped the graphic card a little and benchmark up with the e8440 core 2 duo boys.
http://service.futuremark.com/home.action;jsessionid=3D6BF220EB92C91CD4030A983E13DA7D.
But just look at the proffessionals with the quads.lol
Temps 42 deg max during test gpu temps 45max.  Got a great airflow through case. Have room to add an 80mm fan on side to blow directly on freezer 7 pro heatsink. Will get another card this week and run the Sli .Quantum  you have been a big help through my learning curves. TKS.
cheers

ps. did you notice that they are mostly on Vista

Cool, I'm going to save up about £1500 and make something really nice at some point. Funnily enough my old computer still stands up pretty good against modern stuff though. If I'm going with Intel (which unless AMD pull something out of the hat in the next year could be pretty likely), I'm waiting until they've dropped the outdated Front Side Bus concept.

Vista gets all the new drivers and shiny graphics. If you want something low weight, just switch to Linux, Ubuntu 8 is coming out in about a week, it's a really easy install, worth a try. Assuming drivers are sorted out for it o.k you can play a lot of games fine in it after just installing Wine.

[texasboy]

Although this article is slightly old, I was laughing all the way through it. The bench mark figures may be somewhat up the left,but if you go to comments after page 5 its hillarious.
http://en.expreview.com/2007/11/26/hd-3870-crossfire-vs-8800gt-sli/5/.

Have 2nd 8800gt card due tmw or friday. Plus c-rom for Vista 32 bit.
cheers

[Quantum]

So what monitor do you have?

When I next build a computer I'm going for at least a 24 inch 1920 x 1200 monitor.

Also, demand screencaps of some high end game like Crysis from your final set-up!

[texasboy]

Just a simple 20" Acer 1680x1050. Resolution should not have to be reliant on a bigger screen size. Otherwise we will all be sitting in front of a 42" flat screen.lol
My little computer den is built in under the stairs, off the kitchen,and believe you me the 20" screen is more than adequate. Hopefully quality will increase soon along with better resolution for this size.

With Vista 32 bit cd-rom .Can I install directly over the winxp ,or do I have to formatt and start all over again?
cheers

[Quantum]

Just a simple 20" Acer 1680x1050. Resolution should not have to be reliant on a bigger screen size. Otherwise we will all be sitting in front of a 42" flat screen.lol
My little computer den is built in under the stairs, off the kitchen,and believe you me the 20" screen is more than adequate. Hopefully quality will increase soon along with better resolution for this size.

With Vista 32 bit cd-rom .Can I install directly over the winxp ,or do I have to formatt and start all over again?
cheers

There should be an upgrade process if you stick the Vista disk in, it should manage all your programs and settings and import them in to Vista.

I've got a little old 19 inch CRT here with 1600 x 1200. High quality for the win, bring on the ultra clear scalable vector interfaces already! Plus it's about time we got some serious colour depth from our monitors, none of this 6 bit nonsense from TFTs, bring on displayport and a full 10 bit!

Look forward to the day when I can get a much better quality monitor than I have now.