Gigabyte K8NF-9 ~ or ~ Asus A8n SLI

[IceRaptor]

2.5Ghz...... *drools*
Could i get it up to 2.5Ghz?....and still make it last about 5 years? this is winchester 3000+ were taking about right?

I live in Blackburn....
Its about 45 mins from manchester...
yeh... I could drive to manchester easily... Thanks for that ....you just saved me ££'s on ma delivery.

I'll see if i can find some1 to give me a good price on the motherboard in my area although i've never seen anyone selling DFI boards in Blackburn,

Do you know any shops around lancashire that sell DFI baords?

[IceRaptor]

I just found a review for the asus mobo and the DFI mobo...

however they are both slightly different versions,

http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD0xMDA5

[cadaveca]

only reason to go DFI is the high ram voltage, but there are still issues with the second revision, apparantly.

[GrahamGarside]

Winchesters are good cores, I would think 2.5ghz would be fairly easy, I would be very surprised if it didn't reach at least 2.4ghz. And don't worry about shortening the life span, it's the increase in voltage and thus heat that causes this, but as long as you don't increase it to silly levels it has little effect on the lifespan of a chip, remember at stock a cpu will last over a decade, 5 years won't be a problem even overclocked.

Actually your closer to bolton than manchester, have a look on www.scan.co.uk
I use them and they aren't bad, they're are on middlebrook industrial estate near reebok stadium, just get on the M61 southbound

www.scan.co.uk

[IceRaptor]

Well bolton is no problem for me cause my dad owns a buissness in and chorley, so he goes there everyday. But then again i have cousins in manchester...

hmm...

Just one final question..... There shouldnt be any compatibilty issues should there?

[GrahamGarside]

Compatability with?

If you go to microdirect just look for St Marys hospital, it's near there on Upper Brook Street, it's pretty easy to get to from the motorway.

You could always make a day of it and go to both Just take the M61 to manchester and stop at horwich on the way back

[GrahamGarside]

oh and by the way scan have something called q-collect where you order on line and pick up in person skipping the line and they usually give a free gift with such orders.

[IceRaptor]

Customer Service wise who would you recommend?

And by compatibility issues i meant the motherboard shouldnt reject the ram or something like that should it.

Its just that a friend of mine had to turn there cpu speed very low in order to get the ram to work. He found out that he needed a special type of ram to let his cpu work at full potential.

[GrahamGarside]

Athlon 64's are fussy about ram, but the motherboard isn't really where the problem lies, just running at ddr400 with only up to 2 dimms shouldn't be a problem.

Customer service wise it's hard to say, they are both basically just warehouse fronts where you join a line and ask for the component. I have had a couple of problems with scan where they haven't listened to my order properly and brought me the wrong component, once with a maxtor 10 hard drive, I asked for sata and the guy wasn't listening and selected the sabre drive (pata) and with it being in a sealed bag I didn't notice till I got home, and another time I ordered a dual channel kit for a friend and they brought me a single dimm which took over an hour to go through the refund process, but if you order online and use q-collect then this isn't an issue, otherwise speak very slowly and clearly for them. Oh and they never get my name right, one time they called me mr burgers and another time ms bubridge

[IceRaptor]

Originally Posted by GrahamGarside

called me mr burgers and another time ms bubridge

Lol

oh and what do u think of this:-

http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-armor-case-black.html

[GrahamGarside]

Hmm, I'm not big fan of thermaltake gear, If I had to recomend a case it would be this

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-tj06.htm

[IceRaptor]

Well unfortunately both the boards are out of my budget

Is the PSU imporatant....or can u just choose any? How do i find out whther i want 300W or 600W?

I know....you must be thinkin wot a NOOB

Edit:- i mean cases r out of my budjet,

[GrahamGarside]

Yeah the psu is quite important, you want around 15-20A minimum on the 12V line/lines which usually means 350-400W. I use a 380W psu with my A64 system and it copes well enough. You will never draw more than 200W which may make it sound odd that you need such a high rated unit but it's the 12V line/lines that are important and this means a high rated unit.
The brand is also quite important, enermax are simply the best, in everything from reliability, efficiency, build quality, noise and price, a 485W noisetaker would be a good investment that would cope with any upgrade in the near future, and also save you a fair bit on your electricity bill over a standard unit. Short of going for a cheapo unit which isn't a good idea, theres no reason not to choose an enermax, other than being able to get a seasonic which aren't easily available in the uk.

If those cases are out of your budget take a look at the Antec SLK3700AMB/BQE, go for the one without a psu as even thought the supplied 350W unit is ok, antecs have very poor efficiency and so get quite hot and waste a lot of power.

[IceRaptor]

That case is still £60 *sadly looks into his wallet*

personally i wanted a partially See through case,
something like:-
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=72996
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=56707

Why would you recommend the other one?

Also my moniter, just stopped powering on 2 days ago, replaced the powercable but still nothing, What could be wrong?
The person advertising the following 21" moniter is asking for £85, his shop is close to where i live and i can easily pick it up, -is it worth it?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

[IceRaptor]

This case looks good? Any opinions...
My opinion.... Its cheap and Decent in luks,

http://reviews.pimprig.com/cases/ene...s-527_case.php

From Scan at £34
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=174641

[GrahamGarside]

This one is just under £38

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=83044

it's worth going for a good case because the airflow is an important factor for keeping temps down, plus the cheaper cases use very thin steel, which while great for cutting, isn't too resiliant, allows more sound to escape and vibrates more.

If that monitors in good condition then it's a decent tube.
With your current monitor it's likely the actua power switch thats gone, a tv repair shop will probably be able to fix that, not sure how much that would cost though.

[IceRaptor]

I just got back from scan, I purchased the following:-

AMD skt 939 3000+
Western Digital 160Gb 8 mb cache
2*512 Value select Corsair PC3200 Ram
DVD dual layer+-rewriter

I'm going to order a DFI LanParty UT Ultra-d mobo from dabs on monday,

But i still need the case and PSU,

The enermax PSU costs £68, unfortunately i think thats a little too much.... I was hoping for around the price of £30,

Also if you could recommend me a case from dabs....to save on postage, that would be great,

[GrahamGarside]

I'd recomend either of these

http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/comp...quicklinx=2WG7
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/comp...quicklinx=2QJK

Depends on which colour you prefer.
They come with a 350W PSU that would suffice, though not ideal, I can't really think of any other psu to recomend than enermax, about the best I can think of is an akasa 400W which is still in the region of £45

[IceRaptor]

I'm not really to bothered about the noise or electricity bill...
but will the antec psu^ affect my systems performance or stability?
Will the heat cause any problems?

[GrahamGarside]

Antec's are stable units, the heat may cause a small increase in other component temperatures, though probably not much.

The thing that may affect performance/stability is the lowish output capacity. I think it provides 16A on the 12V line, which is within the lower limits for an athlon64 system, throw a powerful video card in their and theres a chance stability could be affected, though not certain.

I run a newcastle, Geforce 6800 and 2 hard drive system on an antec 380W psu with 18A on the 12V line and theres no problem with stability, the geforce overclocks quite well to.

Overclocking may also be limitted by it but it's impossible to say for sure.