X1800 XL 512mb Edition @ X1800 XT $199.99 at Zipzoomfly.com

[Conundrum]

Hey guys, I just read through all of the pages. I found my answers in the pages listed. There was one guy whose name I can't remember now, and I took his instructions and copy/pasted them to a text file for when I look for the best mobo/pro bang for the buck. Right now I'm sitting on the card since I only have an AGP board. I'll need to pick up a mobo/proc/memory combo after the big price drop on the 24'th.

I have a few questions now that I'm hoping people will feel inclined to field for me:

1. Is there a significant difference between using the MSI X1800XT BIOS and this Sapphire XTPE one I heard about? From what I read, it's a little faster, but is the increase in performance worth it versus the increased temps/voltage?

2. How much of an advantage is changing the GPU cooler on the card going to do? I've heard good things about the Arctic-Cooling Accelero X2 and was thinking about picking one up if it's going to make a big difference.

3. Does anyone have any recommendations as far as what would be an ideal upgrade to a PCI-E motherboard and what proc/mem would go well with it? I'm actually hoping I can find something good, and since I have a ton of money in paypal right now I'm HOPING someone suggests something that's going to see a huge price drop and is being sold on ZZF (ZipZoomFly) since they take paypal. I could really use some suggestions. I think we've got ten days left before the price drop.

Thanks in advance to anyone that takes the time to reply!!!

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Conundrum
Hey guys, I just read through all of the pages. I found my answers in the pages listed. There was one guy whose name I can't remember now, and I took his instructions and copy/pasted them to a text file for when I look for the best mobo/pro bang for the buck. Right now I'm sitting on the card since I only have an AGP board. I'll need to pick up a mobo/proc/memory combo after the big price drop on the 24'th.

I have a few questions now that I'm hoping people will feel inclined to field for me:

1. Is there a significant difference between using the MSI X1800XT BIOS and this Sapphire XTPE one I heard about? From what I read, it's a little faster, but is the increase in performance worth it versus the increased temps/voltage?

2. How much of an advantage is changing the GPU cooler on the card going to do? I've heard good things about the Arctic-Cooling Accelero X2 and was thinking about picking one up if it's going to make a big difference.

3. Does anyone have any recommendations as far as what would be an ideal upgrade to a PCI-E motherboard and what proc/mem would go well with it? I'm actually hoping I can find something good, and since I have a ton of money in paypal right now I'm HOPING someone suggests something that's going to see a huge price drop and is being sold on ZZF (ZipZoomFly) since they take paypal. I could really use some suggestions. I think we've got ten days left before the price drop.

Thanks in advance to anyone that takes the time to reply!!!

i would say the extra heat/power needed to get to just slightly higher speeds are not worth it in either cpu or gpu o/cing, there comes a time when the temps/V outweigh the additional worries and pushing the card that hard. and you will usually only see a difference in benchmarks. depending on my cpu/gpu clocks i can go from 8500 to 9600 in 3dmark05 but in bf2 it all looks the same, i may as well as low as possible while still keeping up a frame rate while i game that doesn't create any stutters.

as far as the hsf combo - don't know, i have read that the zalman ones aren't too good for this card because they don't get the heat out of the case, an these cards put off a lot of heat, during the ccc benchmark mine hit 90C, but had no issues. i am going to conatact sapphire and see how i can make the fan run a bit faster as i don't think it goes over 50% atm and i don't mind a little fan noise to keep it quite a bit cooler.

as far as a m/b it really depends on what you are looking for, i like the one i have in sig but it is a pretty barebones board, but it is what i needed and was a decent price, plus it puts the pci-e x16 slot on top so there are still 3 useable pci slots.

 

[NicePants42]

@conundrum

At this point, depending on your budget, I'd recommend trying to go Conroe. Thing is, you'll probably want to either wait a bit until ATI/Nvidia release their own mobo chipsets, or upgrade your mobo at some later date. The E6300 MSRP=$183. Good luck finding one for that on 7/23.

The cheaper way is to get something like the Asrock SATA-Dual and any socket 939 chip you want. The Asrock lets you use either AGP or PCIE (in case you don't want to upgrade everything all at once). Opty 144's can be had for ~$150 on the forums these days, and 165's are getting less expensive also. However, it might be a good idea to wait until Conroe is released because AMD's retail prices are expected to drop.

 

[Derektm]

Does this work ONLY with the MSI card?

 

[NicePants42]

Originally posted by: Derektm
Does this work ONLY with the MSI card?

A lot's been covered in this thread, so I have no idea what you mean by 'this'.

You can overclock any card. You can flash any card's BIOS. You can put a 3rd party heatsink on any card. You can use AtiTool or ATT on any ATI card. You can use Rabit to modify the BIOS for any ATI card, etc. MSI has nothing to do with it.

The only reason we're doing this to MSI cards is that MSI basically took X1800XT 512mb cards and sold them as something crappier. So this thread is specifcially about un-crappifying those cards. Similar processes are used on all video cards on a daily basis.

 

[Thunderbirdaholic]

Looks like I waited too long, anyone know where to get one of these for this price now? Or is there better cards out there for similar prices now?