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Motherboard Reccommendations
motherboard for a while now to "unlesh" the overclocking potental of my cpu. I got about £50-60 to spend, so a cpu upgrade is pretty much out of the question. I know that inboard audio isn't the best thing around, and i might well be better off buying a sound card, but a soundcard not gonna help me get to 200mhz fsb(11x200=2.2Ghz!), lol unfortunately. I need the board to have SPDIF in(must be in) Overclockable chipset(ideally nf2) AGP 8x(can't leave the radeon behind!) SATA(with or without raid support) The rest i'm quite open to, thanks a ton, my current hardware is listed below -- "Blu-Ray" 2600+Sempron (O/C @1.924Ghz) 512Mb DDR 400 9600 pro 128 (O/C @ 425/540) Gigabyte 7VT600P-RZ mobo with 400mhz fsb Raidmax cobra case with 420w psu Dual 12" Blue CCFL Blue LED fans "Cheap and very cheerful" On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 11:30:47 GMT, "Veritech"
<avis.dalrym***@ntlworld.com> wrote: Show quoteHide quote >I do quite a fair bit of amatuer audio work. I've been wanting a new -- >motherboard for a while now to "unlesh" the overclocking potental of my cpu. >I got about £50-60 to spend, so a cpu upgrade is pretty much out of the >question. > >I know that inboard audio isn't the best thing around, and i might well be >better off buying a sound card, but a soundcard not gonna help me get to >200mhz fsb(11x200=2.2Ghz!), lol unfortunately. > >I need the board to have >SPDIF in(must be in) >Overclockable chipset(ideally nf2) >AGP 8x(can't leave the radeon behind!) >SATA(with or without raid support) > >The rest i'm quite open to, thanks a ton, my current hardware is listed >below "Blu-Ray" 2600+Sempron (O/C @1.924Ghz) 512Mb DDR 400 9600 pro 128 (O/C @ 425/540) Gigabyte 7VT600P-RZ mobo with 400mhz fsb Raidmax cobra case with 420w psu Dual 12" Blue CCFL Blue LED fans "Cheap and very cheerful" £50-60 to spend is tight. You don't mention your heatsink but getting much further than 1.9GHz may require a better one, else be noisey to provide adequate cooling which is generally quite bad for those engaged in critical audio work. Further, getting that extra few hundred MHz out of the CPU may not be such a great return on the $. It could even be a bad thing to try with that power supply which is known overrated, perhaps closer to a cheaply build 300W in reality. First £50-60 ought to be applied towards power supply, IMO. You don't mention what's holding back your overclocking either, whether it be a multipler, FSB, memory, vcore or other limitation... and I dont' remember the defaults for a Sempron 2600. KT600 is generally stable to at least 220MHz/DDR440, but whether that is a good return or causes need for slower memory timings with current memory, I can't know. Further 512MB is a bit tight for many power users that would gain from further CPU speed, would be yet another area to look at spending $, and in some cases be more of a performance benefit. Regardless, I believe one of the Abit NF7-S variants (maybe just -S, or maybe -S2, I forget the differences but one doesn't o'c well due to lack of adjustments) would fit this bill, or maybe I"m wrong in that only the one that doesn't o'c has the SATA equipped southbridge. Given your propensity towards audio already it seems you already know that ideally a sound card is the better solution for that. It seems a bit like you're trying to squeeze the budget too tight, that if we could have it all for dirt-cheap, of course nobody would spend more. Thanks for the concern, i seem to get that from everyone(psu comment) I
don't blame ya for saying that but although the supply might not actually be a true 420w psu its does its job, the day it doesn't, i'll replace it. Concerning my O/C'ing i failed to do enough researching into o/c'ing before i bought the motherboard, so i ended up with one that didn't have a pci lock. Because of that i can't really take the board above a few mhz before it causes all the system to lock up. I hadn't running fairly stable at 187 but when your working a crash is the last thing you want, so i backed it down to 169 where the pci/agp is at 34/67. Thanks to more fans than i have wads of cash(4x 80mm fans! plus a dual fan psu and cpu cooler!!) i system sounds like a jet, cool jet, but a jet, i sorta like it that way lol. Gives the pc presence! I had planned to initially buy a nice nf7-S2.0 along with a zalman flower copy(from pc cooler i think) But now realize that its better that i spend the cash trying to kill 2 birds with one stone rather than endulge in the glory of pure overclocking. Thanks anyhow Show quoteHide quote "kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message news:ndnb41ho3qgo2dh1iiuofh7vgtm1f3klhp@4ax.com... > On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 11:30:47 GMT, "Veritech" > <avis.dalrym***@ntlworld.com> wrote: > >>I do quite a fair bit of amatuer audio work. I've been wanting a new >>motherboard for a while now to "unlesh" the overclocking potental of my >>cpu. >>I got about £50-60 to spend, so a cpu upgrade is pretty much out of the >>question. >> >>I know that inboard audio isn't the best thing around, and i might well be >>better off buying a sound card, but a soundcard not gonna help me get to >>200mhz fsb(11x200=2.2Ghz!), lol unfortunately. >> >>I need the board to have >>SPDIF in(must be in) >>Overclockable chipset(ideally nf2) >>AGP 8x(can't leave the radeon behind!) >>SATA(with or without raid support) >> >>The rest i'm quite open to, thanks a ton, my current hardware is listed >>below > -- > "Blu-Ray" > 2600+Sempron (O/C @1.924Ghz) > 512Mb DDR 400 > 9600 pro 128 (O/C @ 425/540) > Gigabyte 7VT600P-RZ mobo with 400mhz fsb > Raidmax cobra case with 420w psu > Dual 12" Blue CCFL > Blue LED fans > "Cheap and very cheerful" > > £50-60 to spend is tight. You don't mention your heatsink > but getting much further than 1.9GHz may require a better > one, else be noisey to provide adequate cooling which is > generally quite bad for those engaged in critical audio > work. > > Further, getting that extra few hundred MHz out of the CPU > may not be such a great return on the $. It could even be a > bad thing to try with that power supply which is known > overrated, perhaps closer to a cheaply build 300W in > reality. First £50-60 ought to be applied towards power > supply, IMO. > > You don't mention what's holding back your overclocking > either, whether it be a multipler, FSB, memory, vcore or > other limitation... and I dont' remember the defaults for a > Sempron 2600. KT600 is generally stable to at least > 220MHz/DDR440, but whether that is a good return or causes > need for slower memory timings with current memory, I can't > know. Further 512MB is a bit tight for many power users > that would gain from further CPU speed, would be yet another > area to look at spending $, and in some cases be more of a > performance benefit. > > Regardless, I believe one of the Abit NF7-S variants (maybe > just -S, or maybe -S2, I forget the differences but one > doesn't o'c well due to lack of adjustments) would fit this > bill, or maybe I"m wrong in that only the one that doesn't > o'c has the SATA equipped southbridge. Given your > propensity towards audio already it seems you already know > that ideally a sound card is the better solution for that. > It seems a bit like you're trying to squeeze the budget too > tight, that if we could have it all for dirt-cheap, of > course nobody would spend more. > > > > > > > > On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 00:45:52 GMT, "Veritech"
<avis.dalrym***@ntlworld.com> wrote: >Thanks for the concern, i seem to get that from everyone(psu comment) I So you don't mind it damaging the other parts in the system?>don't blame ya for saying that but although the supply might not actually be >a true 420w psu its does its job, the day it doesn't, i'll replace it. To clarify, it might be holding back overclocking already, and it may already be damaging the system, progressively. > Post specifics.>Concerning my O/C'ing i failed to do enough researching into o/c'ing before >i bought the motherboard, so i ended up with one that didn't have a pci >lock. Because of that i can't really take the board above a few mhz before >it causes all the system to lock up. As I wrote, it's stable up to 220MHz. I mean, STABLE, you do not have a problem with PCI lock if you can't even hit 220 stable, rather you have some other problem which another motherboard most likely will not solve.. >I hadn't running fairly stable at 187 Why? I mean, there was no good reason to even try running>but when your working a crash is the last thing you want, so i backed it >down to 169 where the pci/agp is at 34/67. it at 187 was there? Try 200. Try past 200. It is important to get it to 200 and beyond because that uses a higher PCI divisor. You do realize that within limits, it is a GOOD THING to not have a PCI lock? On pre-PCI Express boards, PCI bus can be one of the largest bottlnecks. If the PCI bus isn't locked, bumping it up to 35MHz is too slight to be a problem for (almost any hardware) but does improve performance of that most bottlenecked bus. > What's the default multiplier on your CPU and is it>Thanks to more fans than i have wads of cash(4x 80mm fans! plus a dual fan >psu and cpu cooler!!) i system sounds like a jet, cool jet, but a jet, i >sorta like it that way lol. Gives the pc presence! I had planned to >initially buy a nice nf7-S2.0 along with a zalman flower copy(from pc cooler >i think) But now realize that its better that i spend the cash trying to >kill 2 birds with one stone rather than endulge in the glory of pure >overclocking. multiplier-locked? Given your PC3200 memory you should aim for 200MHz FSB and forget about the motherboard replacement... unless there are significant other needs it would fulfill. |
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