Advice for a bleeding-edge rig.

[OMGWTFBBQ!]

I recently finished my first PC build, a modest gaming rig running an AMD 4600+ sitting atop an ASUS A8n38-SLi Deluxe with 1GB of ram, twin 250GB sata drives, and a 9750gt sitting in PCIe slot number one.

While this rig far surpasses my old HP Media Center, clocking FPS rates in Half Life 2 in the low hundreds at full bore(as opposed to the low thirties on the HP), I wish to build something truly awe inspiring.


Twin AMD Athlon 64 FX-74 procs (with the option to upgrade to twin quads) clocking at 3GHz, sitting atop the ASUS L1N64-SLI WS Dual Socket L (Socket 1207FX) NVIDIA nForce 680a SLI MCP SSI CEB AMD Motherboard, rocking 4 GBs of Corsair Dominator RAM, one terabyte of HD space, and twin BFG Tech water-block 8800GTXs chillin in the PCIe x16 slots. All this powered by the Tagan 1100watt PSU, and chilled by twin Zalman Reserator 1+'s. However, the Reserator CPU blocks are not compatible with the new socket, and I was wondering if there was any easy way to convert them to be compatible, or if waiting for the actual build is my only option. Also, are there any alternatives to the Zalman system, with similar designs, (nothing against Zalman) available on the market? Any advice is appreciated.

~OMGWTFBBQ!

[Silenced_Coyote]

Nice rig. I'm not sure how 2x quads would fare in actual benchmarks. Remember, the 2x dual core AMD setup lost to an Intel Quad core. So 2x quads might not blow Intel out of the water even though it is only a single quad core setup. Just my thoughts. I'm sure someone would either correct me or elaborate on why so and so would happen.

Make your own watercooling setup. Here is a good Beginner's Guide (http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=376&pgno=0). The guide states it, but I'll just say it. Don't use the Zalman watercooling setup because the pump is not powerful enough. You spend all this money on the hardware. You should also spend that money on a quality custom watercooling setup.

[Nagoshi]

Wait till the Quad Cores comes out soon, and get one, with the best mobo available, 4Gb of RAM (Remember that XP only uses 3Gb max), and of course, a SLI compatible motherboard for dual 8800GTXs ^_^ And if you've got all that cash, why dont you get Mushkin RAM? Better timings will be better for your rig, no? :)

[OMGWTFBBQ!]

All of the parts listed above are from New Egg, due to their wonderful shipping. Im completely flexible on actual components. I also intend to run Vista, which should cope with the memory.

[Nagoshi]

Hate to nit-pick, but XP PRO has only ever recognized max of 2gb for me. Maybe that's just my own thing?

-Jeremy

On all the performance/overclocking forums I always heard aobut 3Gbs being recognised. I know that Server 2003 can recognise up to 8 processors and 128Gb of RAM (I think.. and yes, it's 128Gb of RAM :P), and Vista will be able to cope with the additional memory (cause if it doesnt, then Microsoft really have a problem).

[slytherock]

Maybe it's HOME edition that only recognizes 2 gig.. I dunno I only have two dimm slots atm, so i can only do 2gig max anyway..

-Jeremy

Weird, cause XP home is supposed to recogize up to 4G ... :think:

[Airbozo]

I have 4gb in this machine for a customer, running XP pro _not_ x64. I will post a screen shot of the dxdiag output in a few (still running benchmarks but only on 1 card)

[armadilloben]

were are u getting the 5 grand (estimate) to build this thing????

[OMGWTFBBQ!]

$5,175 to be exact.


and ummm.



Ill get a loan, then make the compy calculate the lottery numbers.

[Silenced_Coyote]

The compy won't help you win the lotto. You can calculate the probability without it. You can join the Army, I think they pay off a good portion of your loan.

[jaxspades]

Yeah, so would the Air Force, if my uncle has been trying to recruit me right.....

You could work construction--get about 12-15 bucks an hour, work a 40-60 hour week.....you could have it paid off in a month and a half.

Or, you could take Quagmire's advice:

"You could sell yourself to 5175 fat chicks for a buck each--cuz, hey, fat chicks need love too."

[DaveW]

Maybe it's HOME edition that only recognizes 2 gig.. I dunno I only have two dimm slots atm, so i can only do 2gig max anyway..

Check your motherboard's capabilites and settings.

-Dave

[gaz_the_chav]

Hmmmm I remember I had 512mb of RAM and put another 1gb (in an Abit AN7) which can handle upto 3gb's of RAM but it never recognised the other 1GB of RAM. I still have the stick that did not work any chance it could be the settings on the motherboard?

-gaz

[slytherock]

Hmmmm I remember I had 512mb of RAM and put another 1gb (in an Abit AN7) which can handle upto 3gb's of RAM but it never recognised the other 1GB of RAM. I still have the stick that did not work any chance it could be the settings on the motherboard?

-gaz

Have you tried the faulty stick of RAM alone on the board?
It also can be a compatibility problem 1- with the board 2- With the other stick of RAM

[Airbozo]

Here is what I found out concerning the memory limitations of windows XP (as far as I can tell it is the same for home and pro);

Windows XP can recognize a total of 4gb of memory. This includes the page file. If you have 4gb of memory _and_ have the page file turned on, the system will only use/see 3gb of physical memory. If you turn off the page file, windows will see all 4gb of physical memory and will probably run faster (don't take my word for this one).

http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?ID=69
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555223