Opteron 170 Build Help

edenspringedenspring
edited July 2006 in Hardware
I need to build a new PC to last me a few years while I finish out college, and after reading a lot about the Opty 170 I decided that would be my new processor. But after that, I'm essentially lost. I've heard that the Opterons aren't compatible with all motherboards, and I've heard mixed reports as to which mobo OC's the best. And RAM has gotten all sorts of confusing lately, I don't even know what to look for anymore. Which would be best for an overclocking system? I want to run it at 2.4~2.ghz on air, and run two GeForce 7600gts in SLi. I have a price limit of about 1500 USD, and was wondering if I could get some advice for my new build? Well, thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Comments

  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    All sounds well except the 2x 7600's in SLI. In all truth a single 7900GT would run those 2 cards in SLI into the ground and leave a death card in its wake. If you really want power then a 7950 which has 2 cores on one card would reign supreme and you wouldn't need to worry ever again. The 2 boards I would look at are my 2 perrinieal favorites. The DFI Lanparty series (depending on featurees you want) and the Asus A8N SLI Premium. Sure there are other newer boards including the 32 lane PCI Express NF4 but unless you really need the SLI feature, whick I now feel is cash wasted don't OC any better or give better throughput. SLI just makes you need to spend more to upgrade your vid card(s). Get some good high end memory from Corsair or OCZ and you will be set.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    I agree w/ mtgoat ...1 great card > 2 good cards.
    I still think the 7800gt is a great bang for the buck! :buck:
  • edenspringedenspring
    edited July 2006
    OK so I was following your advice when I realized that I still have no idea about the type of ram I should buy. Would pc3200 be good enough for overclocking? Should I look into DDR 433-550? =/
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Here is a head start. Just add a case and drives to this.

    AMD Opteron 170

    Scythe SCNJ-1000P 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink


    ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

    OCZ Platinum Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 500 (PC 4000) Dual Channel Kit System Memory

    XFX PV-T71G-UCF7 Geforce 7900GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card

    FSP Group (Fortron Source) FX600-GLN ATX12V/ EPS12V 600W All-In-One Power Supply

    Total for Items so far = $1,236.95
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Those are good parts at a good price IMO ...
  • edenspringedenspring
    edited July 2006
    Mt_Goat thank you so much for your help! I'll be ordering next friday and I'll let you know how everything goes, or if I need some help getting it running ;)
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    edenspring wrote:
    Mt_Goat thank you so much for your help! I'll be ordering next friday and I'll let you know how everything goes, or if I need some help getting it running ;)
    I seriously doubt you will be disappointed! ;)
  • edenspringedenspring
    edited July 2006
    OK so I got everything and have been building it, and I'm to the point where I want to turn it on and get everything running, install the OS, drivers and whatnot, but I'm having problems, unfortunately. The FSP powersupply that I got has a 20 pin main connector, and the Asus A8V Deluxe needs 24. THe PS comes with a 4 pin addition, and when I plug that in with the 20 pin connector, the computer seems like its booting, but I get no video signal from my card. In the mobo book it says that I must make sure that the +12v ATX plug is in, otherwise the system will not boot. In the book it shows the +12v ATX plug as being a fourpin connector above and to the left of the processor. I tried leaving only the 20 pin main connector in and trying the 4 pin where its supposed to go, but I get no response when I hit the power button. So I went out and bought a 20 to 24 pin converter, slapped in on there and plugged the 4 pin into where it needs to be, but now I get the same thing as when I had only the 20main and the 4pin in. The green light on the mobo comes on, but it won't power up at all. I've been working on it for about the last 6 hours and I'm nearly at my wits end. Any suggestions or thoughts are much appreciated.
  • edenspringedenspring
    edited July 2006
    OK so I went back to it and found out that if I disconnect the 4 pin connector and leave in the 24, I get the same results as the 20 + 4. Still, no video signal. Still baffled. =/
  • edenspringedenspring
    edited July 2006
    And now I'm getting nothing no matter what I do.
  • edenspringedenspring
    edited July 2006
    Wow I'm an idiot... I got it to work. The PS didn't come with instructions or a manual in English so I was a little confused until I looked into it, there's this 8 pin thing on it that splits into two fours. Plugged the 20 and the 4 on the main power into the board, then one of the fours from the 8 pin thing into the 12v atx plug. System booted, and got a video signal into an old CRT monitor that was running on a vga cord through a dvi converter. Now to get everything running.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Yay! :D
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