Finally upgraded!

[Goi]

Well, after half a year of procrastination waiting for the next big thing, I finally decided to stop the wait and upgrade my aging Celeron 566@850 system...Here's what I had:

intel Celeron 566@850MHz
Abit BH6
3x128MB PC133 SDRAM
3dfx Voodoo3 3000
WD Expert 7200 20.5GB

And here's what I got:

intel P4 2.4B SL6EF (C1 stepping from Phillipines)
Gigabyte GA-8PE667 i845PE motherboard
2x512MB PC3200 Kingston ValueRAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
WD1200JB HDD

The entire upgrade costed me slightly more than $1100. I actually wanted to get the Gigabyte Granite Bay motherboard since they were the only GB boards listed, but all the boards were sold out from the 1 dealer who has it in the entire country.

The ASUS P4PEs are hot property, and were sold out from most shops who carry it, and seeing how the BE7 has some problems with QC, I took the Gigabyte despite some less than ideal features(no LAN, only 2 IDE, questionable motherboard layout)...

Still, I'm one happy man with a blazing fast system to enjoy for the holidays. Now I'm only waiting for the Swiftech MCX4000 to arrive before I begin overclocking my C1...I'm currently only using the stock intel HSF

 

[Atlantean]

Congrats. Enjoy the holidays.

 

[Wolfsraider]

nice system you have there

merry christmas

 

[DT4K]

That is a killer system.
It's a lot more fun to play Q3 at 200 fps instead of 20. Very nice.
I thought a lot of people were OC'ing just fine with the retail HSF.

 

[Tired of the Bull]

One giant step for Goi

 

[Goi]

Originally posted by: Tired of the Bull
One giant step for Goi

You got THAT right
My old system was practically crawling on everyday tasks...now its flying

Shanti:
Haven't really tried Q3A yet, but I did a quick timedemo at 1280x1024 with the highest in-game graphical settings possible, and with 4XFSAA and 4XAF and I'm getting more than 100FPS, that's good enough for now, heck I used to get like 70 at 800x600 with pretty low graphical settings
I haven't tried overclocking yet...just to be on the safe side first. Maybe after I finish restoring my backup and installing my software, I'll give it a shot. Not sure how much the stock intel HSF will take.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

the stock heatsink is often adequate for overclocking
what are your current temps?

 

[Goi]

I can't get any decent readings from MBM, the sensors are stuck at 25C and 74C for ITE8712F-3 and ITE8712F-1, and ITE8712F-2 shows 0C. When I reboot however, the BIOS tells me that my CPU temp is around 36C. Of course, that's idle temp. I don't really believe its that cool though...

The mobo's BIOS doesn't seem to have case temp readings either, anyone else has this board and managed to get it working in MBM 5.210?

Oh btw I'm at 141.88MHz FSB now for a cool 2.53GHz...not a large overclock but I'm working my way slowly upwards...Memory timings are at their fastest(2-5-2-2)

 

[Goi]

OK, I got the MBM sensors fixed. I'm now running at 2882MHz on a 160MHz quad pumped FSB at default voltage(AGP, memory, core), fastest memory timings available(DDR400@2-5-5-2) and with the stock intel HSF.

Is that normal for a C1 stepping SL6EF P4 2.4B from Phillipines? I haven't tried anything really intensive yet though, and I've barely been up for 15 minutes, but I'm just happy it'll even boot up at this speed with everything stock.

 

[DT4K]

I just made up those fps numbers, but I figured it would be a pretty dramatic difference. lol.
I made the jump from a K6-2 380 and Voodoo 3 to an Athlon XP 1700+ and GF 3 Ti 200 back in February. That was very fun. Of course I've got the upgrade bug again now. Damn technology. My wife just doesn't understand.

And I don't have any personal experience, but I've heard many say the retail Intel hsf works very well.

 

[Telsari]

-----
Playing Q3 at 200 FPS? Your monitor wouldn't be able to refresh fast enough, lol!

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Telsari
-----
Playing Q3 at 200 FPS? Your monitor wouldn't be able to refresh fast enough, lol!

Obviously, nobody needs 200 - 300 fps, but the numbers are still valuable cause you know if you get 200 fps in Q3 you will get at least 60 in BF 1942.

And the real beauty is it means you can crank it to 1600 x 1200, high details, highest AA and AF, and still get enough fps to match your refresh rate.

 

[Goi]

Yeah, if only now I can set my PS/2 rate to 200 instead of the Win2K's max of 100...

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Obviously, nobody needs 200 - 300 fps, but the numbers are still valuable cause you know if you get 200 fps in Q3 you will get at least 60 in BF 1942.

Wow, I'm gonna be in heaven when I upgrade soon. I'll probably get a similar system to this guy's, only cheaper with a 9500 Pro and less RAM at first since I've only got $700 to work with.

PCI video is very, VERY crappy.

 

[microAmp]

That's all you have?




Nice system