I may get a new PC Real Soon Now...!

G

Guden Oden

Senior Member
Legend
Much sooner than previously expected in fact.

Dell is having one of its usual drives at the moment, the Dimension 5000 is looking MIGHTY sweet indeed. What I'm looking at is basically:

Dimension 5000 3GHz/1M cache
1GB DDR2 400 RAM (might get 2GB from the '2x upgrade for free' thingy - have to check that with Dell to see if it's true)
19" 1905FP widescreen
160GB SATA harddrive - with my old box with its 320GB as potential filestorage backup
GF6800 Plain-Jane PCIe GFX

NOW... Does anyone think the bridged 6800 is a worthwile alternative to a native PCIe GF6600GT? Can the thing be overclocked/pipes re-enabled easily? I'm planning on getting that Zalman flower cooler for the card, as it'll sit in a BTX case there won't be any problems with legroom for the cooler. Overclocking should therefore be possible if the rest of the hardware is up to the task.
 
Current: Dimension 8100 - Willy P4 @ 1.7, i850 4xAGP/PC800 DRDRAM chipset/512M, R9800Pro, stacked with a buttload of stuff; all expansion slots filled, tons of USB crap attached etc. :p

Main problem with it is: socket 423 = CPU dead-end. DRDRAM = memory dead-end. Custom Dell chassis + PSU = case dead-end. None of that can be upgraded to any significant degree.

Dell sells the Dimension 5000 for just under SKR 8500 with (I believe) 1GB RAM, 3GHz CPU, 17" TFT, 160 SATA, integrated southbridge audio and some other stuff. That's obviously not the system I'm looking at, all the junk I want added or replaced brings it up to about 13.5k. A lot by US standards I'm sure but pretty darn potent by Swedish standards considering the quality of everything. With remote desktop capability in XP Pro, I could easily also use my old box as network storage as well so I wouldn't have to be without all my enterprise episodes! :p
 
The bridge adds a negligible increase to the access time. Yes it will be faster then your 9800 Pro or a 6600 GT by about 20-25%.

As far as overclocking goes, I've heard that people have been having success getting them to 6800 GT speeds after unlocking the pipes but as usual, it doesn't always work.
 
The bridged 6800 (NV45 = NV40 + HSI) has the potential to unlock an extra quad, but the native 6800 (NV41?) is 12 pipes, period. The PCIe 6800 also sports slower RAM than the AGP version, 300MHz DDR vs. 350MHz DDR (I'm guessing it's DDR, as those speeds are too slow for DDR3). Can you just ditch the 6800 and buy a 6600GT or X800XL separately?

2GB would be sweet, and I'm guessing games may actually make use of it this year (well, aside from MMORPGs, which probably already do).
 
Things haven't progressed a lot in the last 12 months have they?
I mean, i bought by A64-3200, 1GB RAM, 160GB SATA in March last year and it was CHEAP. Only thing is the video cards which obviously have progressed like they usually do, but everything else seems to be kinda stalling...
Strangest thing is that the CPU is the part that needed the mostincrease, and things have been kinda stalling lately, after the A64 was released, unless you are willing to pay gazillions for a brand spanking new FX58 or whatever, which are sweet.
 
i never bought pre-made comp... dunno, but i like deciding whats going into my machine....

and those PSUs and stuff.... big no-no for me....i love my Enermax
 
Ok, it's ordered... Will be a pretty damn sweet system, all things considered!

Building everything from scratch is nice, but it's such a hassle locating all the right parts. Cases are way difficult for example, either there's some stupid construction detail that ruins the overall view, or the plastic used is low quality, or the front bezel is ugly, or there's a stupid door covering the drive bays, or this, or that.

Typically, the same is true of mobos also, etc. And buying stuff from many different locations to get the best deal is annoying from a warranty standpoint, things might go out of stock and you sit with a fully configured system except for memory or CPU or something like that...

Now I don't have to worry about any of that shit. I'll get Good Stuff from the get-go. I've seen the system already, I know it's well thought-out. In 7-10 days, I'll be a happy camper again with a brand new fast and silent PC system. Yay! :D
 
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