Asus Rampage III Gene, GTX470 with an H50 cooled i7-950 running at 4Ghz

Yes.

That's an awesome computer, Skouperd. Nice work ;)

I always used to buy budget boards in the mistaken belief that the CPU, GPU, RAM, and drives were still doing the same job. I had some spare cash in 2007 & decided to buy myself an Asus P5n32-E SLI motherboard. It cost R2.5K at wholesale. It changed my whole perspective on motherboards.

Since I bought it I have upgraded my CPU to a Q9300 (I wanted the Q9450 but couldn't get any stock at the time the impulse gripped me) & GPU to a GTX285. My computer loads games plenty quick (beating most newer systems into any game), still has a good solid two years in it, and I'll never under-estimate the value of a solid platform again. My board has 3 x PCI-Express X16 slots, though realistically I couldn't get three GTX285's in there - wouldn't even try since I am so close to an upgrade.

I've never been big on looks, or overclocking - I've done the over-clocking thing, but my system still gives me more than enough to meet my needs, and play any game on the market, so I don't feel the need. I can still pump an extra 20% out of my system - I gained an extra 10% FPS with just a random OC on my GPU a few weeks back. I dropped it back to stock even though the temperature increase was only a few degrees. It's still running cool, even under load.

I can't stress the importance of a good platform - you can have the strongest arms in the world, but without the back muscles to carry the load, you're wasting your time. A PC is only as good as its weakest component.

I'm looking forward to Intel's new range :)

Flatspin... with a 46% cpu overclock and 31% gpu overclock... my minimium fps in BC2 at 1920x1200 with everything on, went from about 30 to 55. Average fps also took a serious jump. The smoothness difference is very noticable in game from my previous setup. Best part is I didn't have to spend a small fortune on the best of the best hardware to achieve similar performance levels. With a mild overclock its hard to notice the difference... but with a serious one you can easily see it.

Yo, Murgs - that's quite an inpressive jump. If I feel like I am suffering at all I'll probably get myself some decent coolers & do just that, give my system a little longer life. Or, just flog my system & buy the new LGA1155, or LGA2011, platform - not sure which direction I'm headed until I see the options.

I'm not generally a fan of OC'ing, even though my board has all the OC'ing settings in the BIOS - I just really CBA to do anything about it unless I was having performance issues & had no money to replace my system at that time.

You need the right motherboard to be able to overclock. I specifically had to get mine shipped over from the states as I could not find it here. But my pc is stable as anything now since I got rid of my previous board which couldn't get anywhere near my current board in terms of overclocking potential.

I'm not looking forward to Sandy Bridge... fsb locked to everything is going to kill fsb overclocking. Intel are going to make us pay more for unlocked cpu's now.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Arti...ges/1459_l.jpg

That's my board.

"Having read other users reports, this board can definitely go up to 500+FSB (with the proper voltage tweaks and the selected CPU/RAM combination)."

They also reckon my Q9300 will comfortably OC to 3.5Ghz from its current 2.5Ghz, thereafter will be subject to mainboard limitations. You can read about my board here: http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Revi...19557&PageId=0

The biggest problem I have is that my GTX 285 pushes insane amounts of heat out at 100% fan speed & I guess I'd need extra cooling for my GPU & CPU fans if I was to try push my system to the limits. I'd rather just put that money towards a new system.


Yeah, I believe Intel is going to be rather schnoop with their multiplier locks. It's probably to stop the trend of OC'ing cheaper chips beyond the stock speeds of more expensive chips & getting more performance for less, effectively hurting their bottom line.

Something else that is quite worrying is Intel's new software hardware upgrade. You pay them to unlock features already on your chip: https://retailupgrades.intel.com/Page.aspx?Name=Upgrade That's just a load of horsecrap if you ask me. Opinion here: http://blog.laptopmag.com/intel-test...ve-performance

If AMD can come up with something that will perform the same as a similarly priced Intel chip by the time I'm ready to upgrade, without the multiplier locks, I'll have no qualms about switching back to them. Someone needs to support the underdogs.

Hi Flatspin, only returned yesterday and catching up on my emails. I use to run that exact same motherboard as my main gaming rig until about a year or so ago. I however paired it up with an extreme edition cpu, the QX6700, and two 8800GTX cards as that was the best that was available when I've bought it. It was a wonderfull system and would have still been up there had my one GPU not explode. That board served me very well for many years and I actually sold it a couple of weeks ago to a friend of mine. He paired it with a Q8300 and a 9600GSO, but the board now at least allow him a reasonable upgrade path for the next 2 years. Most likely, he will get himself the GTX460 in a couple of months time, and then perhaps get a better cpu as well. The Socket 775 cpu's are getting ridiculously cheap and there is not much wrong with them at all.

Anyevent, I always find it fascinating the views on OC'ing. I remember my very first overclock was done on an Pentium 1, 100MHz cpu and I've overclocked it to 120MHz, that was a bliss!

I took an amd 486 133mhz (33fsb) to 150mhz (50fsb). The machine ran non stop for almost year without ever being switched off before I sold it.

If they go with the paid upgrade path it will open the door for AMD. I hope they do, I'd like the market to even out some more.

I *cough* hardware OC'd my XT yes - pre 286 machine by changing the Crystal Oscillator from 8Mhz to 10Mhz - it made a BIG difference in those days, like doubled the speed. Pity the monochorome display didnt have a FPS display so that I could see how much faster SOPWITH ran.
remember SIMCGA.com - CGA Emulation on a Monochrome display?

http://www.sorgonet.com/8086/CGA_emulation/cgacard.jpg