Just ordered a new monitor.24"

Sherardp

fbm211 wrote: »

Would that asus xonar card be an improvement over my Xfi fatality pro card.

The Asus card is very good, you can do so much with it in the software that makes it really good. The SQ is mind blowing and I came from onboard sound and decided to give the Xonar a shot. If you have some extra coing definitely invest in one.

nguyendot wrote: »

I want to try the xonar card sometime, I hear good things. I just hooked up the E-MU 1212m last night and need to try it out with the new amps I have.

Again highly recommended.

MacLeod

OK, I give up. Where did you find a DVI control?

fbm211

When you open CCC you see the folowing list on the left
(You may not have the DVI option on older drivers.Im using the latest 10.4 driver.)

Welcome
Information center
Displays Manager
Display Options
Digital Panel (DVI) 1
3D Color Video
VPU Recover
ATI Overdrive

MacLeod

Im using the 10.4 driver as well. Hmmmm, thats interesting. I wonder why mine doesnt have that. Im using the DVI input on my GPU. Weird.

Bobsama

What about removing that film?

BTW, I run an Acer X213H (21.5", 1920x1080) and an Acer X193w+ (19.3", 1680x1050) on my desktop. I've only got a Radeon HD 3850 in there right now, but I figure I'll upgrade graphics cards (or more) come summer. Looking at a Radeon HD 5850.

fbm211

I left the film on in case I decided to return it.But I have decided to keep it.The color and sharpness is so much better than my sony 400ps.
I too will be going for a 5000 series.But not till after christmas time.I plan to get a 5870 or 5890 and will need to upgrade the mobo, power supply, cpu, memory and get win 7.The cards should be more reasonable (price) by then.
After I got the SDAs and had my monoblocks repaired Ive sort of spent all my budget on the 2 ch system upgrades and neglected the PC.:eek:
I do need to get a nicer stand for the stereo gear and TV:D

MacLeod

That's why I love PC gaming, the constant upgrades. its perfect for geeks like us cause there is always something better coming out.

My next upgrade will be a 5830, then move up to a Phenom quad core and so on.

Bobsama

I was considering an HD5830 but it's too limited. To be honest, that card should have been sold in another series; I don't particularly like AMD's setup this generation. The HD5550 and HD5570 and HD5670 are all very similar cards, but the HD5750 and HD5770 are too similar to the HD5830; perhaps it should have been named the HD5790? *shrug* I do really like the other HD5800's though.

I'll probably upgrade the graphics card, hold onto the system for another few months, and then replace it when I my overclocked Wolfdale starts to be a noticeable drag.

I have an AM2+/DDR2 rig that just needs the motherboard to be RMA'd, but I'd still have to put forward $100 for an Athlon II X4 quad-core to make it worth running as a main. Even so, an HD5850 still costs $300-320 and I'd probably insist on either an XFX version or the reference heatsink. I, too, have "neglected" my PC; I've spent quite a few pennies on audio but almost nothing on the PC.

I guess this is my upgrade plan...
1) Toslink DAC? Perhaps? ($100-300)
2) Radeon HD 5850 (<$320)
3) Athon II X4 630 ($100)
4) LGA775 barebones for my old Pentium E2140 (<$100)
5) New Lian-Li PC-K56 chassis ($100)
6) More hard drives (ie: WD Green 2TB) (<$140)

fbm211

Do you have the E8400? Thats what I got several years ago and its probably one of the best CPUs ever.IMO. It still holds its own.I have never OCd mine but have been told over at toms hardware I could get at to at least around 4ghz.
I think you will find the XFX 5870 for around that 320 range in a few months.

Sherardp

I'm running a Phenom quad core 965BE C3 stepping. For the life of me I cannot get this thing clocked at 4.0 ghz. I'm running it at 3.9 now stable using a Xigmatek Dark knight. I came from a Phenom X2 920 and was able to get more out of it. I think the biggest improvement out of everything I put in this rig so far has been the Intel SSD, now this thing smokes it's so freaking fast.

Bobsama

I have an E6300 Wolfdale clocked at 4.0GHz. I could get higher, but I don't want to add more voltage. It's currently at 1.45Vcore and, at load, goes to ~50C when room temp's 70F.

@Sher, you mean the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition? And your heatsink's a Xigma S1283? I'd more or less call that heatsinks a "Value Tower"; depending on how lucky you were with the processor, you may be looking towards the thermal capacity of an S1283. An S1284EE would have done better. For a friend, I built a Phenom II X4 940 BE and was able to overclock it to 3.6GHz on a Scythe Kabuto; power draw remained low and so were operating temperatures. Could have gone higher, too, but I didn't have the time to tweak it up to 4+GHz.

MacLeod

Bobsama wrote: »

I was considering an HD5830 but it's too limited. To be honest, that card should have been sold in another series; I don't particularly like AMD's setup this generation. The HD5550 and HD5570 and HD5670 are all very similar cards, but the HD5750 and HD5770 are too similar to the HD5830; perhaps it should have been named the HD5790? *shrug* I do really like the other HD5800's though.

I agree that the lesser 5000's are kinda running all over each other and the 5750 is a rip off cause it performs just like the 4850 but for $30 more. The 5770 is priced about right for its performance.

The 5830, when it first came out at $250 was too high for its performance cause you could have a 5850 for $275-300 at the time. Now that the 5830 is down to close to $200 its a better deal and if it ever gets in the $190 range, itll be just right.

Youll like the Athlon II's. Ive got my 435 cranked up to 3.4 GHz and on the STOCK cooler, my temps are in the low 40's under Prime95. Thats pretty damn impressive! I was wanting to grab one of those Cooler Master Hyper 212's for $30 shipped but with temps like this, I dont see why I would.

fbm211

Hmmm.Im getting temps at 45 and 49 on my E8400.And I have one of those big copper zalman coolers.I think its time to take it apart and clean it.(a-lot of dust had built up in the fins over the years)Then Ill kick the FSB up to 400 and see how it goes.

MacLeod

Check out that Cooler Master if youre just wanting to upgrade something. Its one of the highest rated coolers out there and at $30, well ya cant beat that.

And by the way, I found my video controls. Its in the Desktop Properties tab. It was the gamma that I changed that made a huge improvement. I changed it from 1.0 to .75 and Ive got very nice black levels now.

Sherardp

Bobsama wrote: »

I have an E6300 Wolfdale clocked at 4.0GHz. I could get higher, but I don't want to add more voltage. It's currently at 1.45Vcore and, at load, goes to ~50C when room temp's 70F.

@Sher, you mean the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition? And your heatsink's a Xigma S1283? I'd more or less call that heatsinks a "Value Tower"; depending on how lucky you were with the processor, you may be looking towards the thermal capacity of an S1283. An S1284EE would have done better. For a friend, I built a Phenom II X4 940 BE and was able to overclock it to 3.6GHz on a Scythe Kabuto; power draw remained low and so were operating temperatures. Could have gone higher, too, but I didn't have the time to tweak it up to 4+GHz.

I would agree with you for the most part and yes I have the 965 Black Edition 125w with C3 stepping. This thing is very fast. I would love to go with the Phenom II X6 1090T and see how it performs. As for the S1283, they are the same only the DK comes in black and looks a bit more trick. I run two 120mm fans on it in a push/pull setup.

MacLeod

The new 6 cores from AMD are supposedly overclocking monsters! If youre a gamer though, the benchmarks Ive seen so far dont really show a big advantage. Youre better off sticking with a screaming fast quad core and putting the extra cash towards a better GPU. But if youre into multitasking, video editing and stuff like that then the X6 is a beast!

Bobsama

I am liking the Phenom II X6 1055T; that's a good chip for a great price. I've got plenty of DDR2 RAM, too. I wish I would have bought the RV870Pro at release back in Sept/Nov 2009, so that way I'd have had months of use and spent less. I'll probably wait on Southern Islands, though, as we already know Fermi sucks for perf/$ and especially power consumption (not to mention I abhor Forceware drivers).

fbm211

Tiger direct has a XFX 5770 for 159.99.

Bobsama

For the $160 for a HD5770, I'd pony up an add'l $50 and grab an HD5830. Even if it's quite a bit slower than an HD5850, it's still a decent card and should be a bit faster than an HD5770... and has a double-precision FP and stock 1GB GDDR5.