Motherboard help...

Hi folks,

I've tried to search the group's archives (Google) but aren't sure what
string to put in. I need advice..

I'm looking at getting a low-cost (i.e. *Not* Striker Extreme. <g>) Asus or
Gigabyte (they're about the only boards that seem to be stocked much here in
NZ) 775 mobo that I'll be able to OC my E4500 in. Any advice appreciated.
Oh, integrated graphics (or an AGP slot) would be good as I won't be able to
purchase a PCI-e card for a while

TYVMIA. :-)
--
Shaun.

(Thinking I might have to go the Asrock way instead...)

"~misfit~" <> wrote in message
news:ffhr47$ihd$...
> Hi folks,
>
> I've tried to search the group's archives (Google) but aren't sure what
> string to put in. I need advice..
>
> I'm looking at getting a low-cost (i.e. *Not* Striker Extreme. <g>) Asus
> or Gigabyte (they're about the only boards that seem to be stocked much
> here in NZ) 775 mobo that I'll be able to OC my E4500 in. Any advice
> appreciated. Oh, integrated graphics (or an AGP slot) would be good as I
> won't be able to purchase a PCI-e card for a while
>
> TYVMIA. :-)
> --
> Shaun.
>
> (Thinking I might have to go the Asrock way instead...)
>

Have a quick look at my observations on 'PC support network' thread. I've
worked out the quirks of said board and well... I'll let you have a look.

Cheers Shaun,

Dr.White.

"Dr.White" <> wrote in message
news:POOdnc5fEr-...
>
> "~misfit~" <> wrote in message
> news:ffhr47$ihd$...
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> I've tried to search the group's archives (Google) but aren't sure what
>> string to put in. I need advice..
>>
>> I'm looking at getting a low-cost (i.e. *Not* Striker Extreme. <g>) Asus
>> or Gigabyte (they're about the only boards that seem to be stocked much
>> here in NZ) 775 mobo that I'll be able to OC my E4500 in. Any advice
>> appreciated. Oh, integrated graphics (or an AGP slot) would be good as I
>> won't be able to purchase a PCI-e card for a while
>>
>> TYVMIA. :-)
>> --
>> Shaun.
>>
>> (Thinking I might have to go the Asrock way instead...)
>>
>
> Have a quick look at my observations on 'PC support network' thread. I've
> worked out the quirks of said board and well... I'll let you have a look.
>
> Cheers Shaun,
>
> Dr.White.

AHA! Further to my earlier post in the "PC support network" thread - After
further experimentation, I have good news regarding that unflinching PC3200
memory of yours. The ASRock's BIOS has a veritable plethora of options for
the memory, but quite simply, I forced it into thinking that my DDR-400 was
indeed DDR-333. Running as I do on a FSB of 285, CPU-Z is now showing an
FSBRAM ratio of 8:5, and shows my memory frequency to be 178.3MHz (*2),
and latency has lowered. Does this impact performance? We shall see...
Sisoft Sandra- Memory banwidth benchmark takes a hit exactly in line with
memory frequency, but all arithmetic, multimedia, etc are unchanged.
Aquamark 3 - Hmmm, took a dive from 92,000 to 84,500. Maybe I should run it
dual channel - the matching stick is in my Dad's machine.
SuperPi - it's taking a hit. For the 1M calculation, it's taking 30.5
seconds instead of 27.
FPS on UT2004 demo is down 5%.
But - all that lost performance can be clawed back by upping the FSB, now
that it's looking like your RAM isn't gonna be such a brick wall hinderance.
When this exact same RAM was in my Athlon XP machine, an increase of 1MHz
caused errors on Prime95, but perhaps something else was the problem.

I'll keep you updated,

Dr.White.

Somewhere on the interweb "Dr.White" typed:
> "Dr.White" <> wrote in message
> news:POOdnc5fEr-...
> >
> > "~misfit~" <> wrote in message
> > news:ffhr47$ihd$...
> > > Hi folks,
> > >
> > > I've tried to search the group's archives (Google) but aren't
> > > sure what string to put in. I need advice..
> > >
> > > I'm looking at getting a low-cost (i.e. *Not* Striker Extreme.
> > > <g>) Asus or Gigabyte (they're about the only boards that seem to
> > > be stocked much here in NZ) 775 mobo that I'll be able to OC my
> > > E4500 in. Any advice appreciated. Oh, integrated graphics (or an
> > > AGP slot) would be good as I won't be able to purchase a PCI-e
> > > card for a while TYVMIA. :-)
> > > --
> > > Shaun.
> > >
> > > (Thinking I might have to go the Asrock way instead...)
> > >
> >
> > Have a quick look at my observations on 'PC support network'
> > thread. I've worked out the quirks of said board and well... I'll
> > let you have a look.

Thanks, read and replied to.

> AHA! Further to my earlier post in the "PC support network" thread -
> After further experimentation, I have good news regarding that
> unflinching PC3200 memory of yours. The ASRock's BIOS has a veritable
> plethora of options for the memory, but quite simply, I forced it
> into thinking that my DDR-400 was indeed DDR-333. Running as I do on
> a FSB of 285, CPU-Z is now showing an FSBRAM ratio of 8:5, and
> shows my memory frequency to be 178.3MHz (*2), and latency has
> lowered. Does this impact performance? We shall see... Sisoft Sandra-
> Memory banwidth benchmark takes a hit exactly in line with memory
> frequency, but all arithmetic, multimedia, etc are unchanged.
> Aquamark 3 - Hmmm, took a dive from 92,000 to 84,500. Maybe I should
> run it dual channel - the matching stick is in my Dad's machine. SuperPi -
> it's taking a hit. For the 1M calculation, it's taking 30.5
> seconds instead of 27.
> FPS on UT2004 demo is down 5%.
> But - all that lost performance can be clawed back by upping the FSB,
> now that it's looking like your RAM isn't gonna be such a brick wall
> hinderance. When this exact same RAM was in my Athlon XP machine, an
> increase of 1MHz caused errors on Prime95, but perhaps something else
> was the problem.

Interesting, thanks Doc. Perhaps my PC3200 RAM will fare better in this
board than it did in the previous board? It too is mid-priced RAM (I never
get the absolute cheapest, despite being financially challenged) but both
1GB modules, while having come from different suppliers at different times
and having different stickers on them appear the same. Both modules use
Hynix chips, look identical and are running happily in dual-channel mode in
my P5PE-VM.

> I'll keep you updated,

Thanks again, and for the 'OC without raising vcore" thread. You are a
gentleman.

Kind regards,
--
Shaun.

On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:40:20 +1300, ~misfit~ <> wrote:
: Hi folks,
:
: I've tried to search the group's archives (Google) but aren't sure what
: string to put in. I need advice..
:
: I'm looking at getting a low-cost (i.e. *Not* Striker Extreme. <g>) Asus or
: Gigabyte (they're about the only boards that seem to be stocked much here in
: NZ) 775 mobo that I'll be able to OC my E4500 in. Any advice appreciated.

Can you get DFI down there? DFI's P35 Blood Iron, $129USD @ newegg. I
have it's bigger brother effortlessly clocking the 6750 from 2.66 to
3.6 with only a bump of vcore (but important caveat, I'm an
overclocking novice, please place more weight on the others here)

The gigabyte GA P35 series is plummeting in price and has had good
reports but separating the cherry picked board reviews from reality is
difficult at best.

: Oh, integrated graphics (or an AGP slot) would be good as I won't be able to
: purchase a PCI-e card for a while

Don't bother buying an AGP card, you'll have nothing to put it in and
never use it again. A PCI (not PCIe) based card based on a 2
generation old nvidia GPU will set you back $30USD with lousy 3d
performance but it'll work in almost anything. Bonus: These are great
to have when moving a windows drive between motherboards since XP
seems to barf when going from !agp->agp or vice versa, at least it
does with 2K (reinstall needed).

Somewhere on the interweb "Howard Goldstein" typed:
> On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:40:20 +1300, ~misfit~
> <> wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > I've tried to search the group's archives (Google) but aren't sure
> > what string to put in. I need advice..
> >
> > I'm looking at getting a low-cost (i.e. *Not* Striker Extreme.
> > <g>) Asus or Gigabyte (they're about the only boards that seem to
> > be stocked much here in NZ) 775 mobo that I'll be able to OC my
> > E4500 in. Any advice appreciated.

Hi Howard,

> Can you get DFI down there? DFI's P35 Blood Iron, $129USD @ newegg. I
> have it's bigger brother effortlessly clocking the 6750 from 2.66 to
> 3.6 with only a bump of vcore (but important caveat, I'm an
> overclocking novice, please place more weight on the others here)

Not so much of a novice I'd say. That's impressive. I've been a serious
overclocker since the Celeron Mendicino days (Actually, my first OC was a
Pentium 90) but am a little out-of-touch with newer tech due to budget
constraints.

> The gigabyte GA P35 series is plummeting in price and has had good
> reports but separating the cherry picked board reviews from reality is
> difficult at best.

Thanks for that. Some shops sell some DFI boards here. Not a lot though. I
see Lanparty boards and INFINITY but not much else.

> > Oh, integrated graphics (or an AGP slot) would be good as I won't
> > be able to purchase a PCI-e card for a while
>
> Don't bother buying an AGP card, you'll have nothing to put it in and
> never use it again.

I'm not considering buying an AGP card, I already have a few. An NS7600GS, a
ti4400 (Golden Sample), two ti4200's, an FX5600, and about four of five
others, most of which are adequate for the games I play.

> A PCI (not PCIe) based card based on a 2
> generation old nvidia GPU will set you back $30USD with lousy 3d
> performance but it'll work in almost anything.

Yeah, I have *one* GF2/MX200/32MB PCI card. Amazingly, PCI cards are dearer
than AGP cards. I have a couple older 'integrated' mobos that don't have AGP
(or PCI-e) slots and thought to improve the graphics but not at the prices
asked for basic PCI graphics cards. They seem to be dearer here. I could
nearly get a new budget Socket 775 mobo for the same price with far superior
integrated graphics.

> Bonus: These are great
> to have when moving a windows drive between motherboards since XP
> seems to barf when going from !agp->agp or vice versa, at least it
> does with 2K (reinstall needed).

Good point. However, I'm a masochist. I always do a clean install on a new
hardware configuration. I've got so that I can do it on auto, using a
slipstreamed CD with most updates. Actually, must organise a new disk, my
last install still downloaded 50+ updates and the disc contains all updates
to June '07 or so.

Cheers,
--
Shaun.