I have the AIW9800Pro..What next?

Like how much do you think the R420 will cost? I'm getting kinda hasty to upgrade. What would you do?

Oh, and I heard this one guy said that you can mod a 9800SE(Power Color only) to get speeds nearly as good as the 9800PRO. However, a quick search on Yahoo did nothing. Also, there is a voltage mod for the 9800 PRO here

 

I don't know how much it'll cost, maybe as much as the 9800XT when it came out, which was $499 I think.

What I'd do is get the 9800 Pro.

 

Yea, it sounds like an awesome card as it is. Plus with the volt mod, someone got it to 475/800!

 

And I think I'll overclock my old GeForce FX 5200 just for the heck of it. And my GeForce 2 MX 400. Any tips on OCing? Ty.

 

You know the 2500+ Barton you guys reccomended me? Once I glue the heatsink on, can I replace it with the $30 copper one for overclocking later?

 

Yes you can change the heatsink.

Why oc the card ? It's already very fast.

 

I think if I'm unhappy with the "sick performance" of my card once the games start to use more technologies in like 6 or 7 months, then I'll overclock it. Also, how do you remove the heatsink once it's glued on? Jeez, do you need like a bunsen burner to melt the thermal paste off? BTW, I'm going to be using Arctic Silver 5 most likely.

 

It's a little tricky prying the stock heatsink off a video card. I've done it many, many times and it still makes me a little nervous with expensive cards. A well-tested method is to chill the video card in your freezer for 30 mins, then carefully pry the HSF up with a flathead screwdriver or a butter knife. The operative word is definitely 'carefully'. Take all precautions available to you, especially time. Here is an old but applicable guide to removing the stock heatsink from a video card. The author suggests using rubbing alcohol to remove the stock thermal gunk from the heatsink, but this only works for certain non-silicone types of thermal paste. For everything else, especially 'that pink stuff', I prefer acetone [read: your girlfriend's nail polish remover]. If it's really, really tough gunk, try drowning it with acetone then brushing it with an old toothbrush.

 

This content really belongs in the Overclocking section. Nevertheless, here's another approach to removing the HSF assembly. This one's the opposite way from the other one really, but the card in question is much more similar to yours. Either way you do it, it's important to avoid growing impatient. That's when $300 video cards get broken... :swt:

BTW, kid halo -- Listen closely to any advice Big B and harrack52 are willing to give. They're both very experienced with this stuff, and can help you avoid some of the typical mistakes we've all made during the tweaking/OC'ing learning phase.

 

You're talking about the cpu heatsink or the video card ?

For the cpu, it comes off easy....once you've applied enough pressure to the clip. You'll have to apply pretty heavy pressure to make it comes off. I personnally use a small flat head screw driver. That way I make sure that it won't slip and slice my board in two pieces.

As for puttign your new heatsink on, go on www.arcticsilver.com , that's where I got my info from and it works for me. Although there's probably a different way for every person.

As for the video card, I use long nose pliers to squeeze the pins into the mounting holes of the card. Be gentle because you can't grab the card like a maniac while doing this. Once I know the only thing holding the heatsink to the gpu is the paste itself, I try to rotate the heatsink gently, but you can also use a credit card if you want and use it as a lever. The hard part is putting your new heatsink on because you don't want the paste on the gpu to be all washed out once you,ve succeeded in clipping the hsf. Because usually, thos hsf are a pain in the *** to put on, except for the thermaltake crystal orb which was suprisingly very easy to put on. The clips or very well designed and are very easy to push and fix in place.

One last thing, I have used Arctic Alumina to glue my ramsinks on the memory. This is permanent, they will never come off the card ever, unless I decide to take out the memory chips as well, so be carefull when using this.

To me, changing heatsinks in a computer is the hardest part. I just don't like to do it.

 

First of all, I was talking about the cpu's heatsink, but now I know what to do when I go to volt mod my vid. card!

Sorry about not starting new threads. Whenever I start one, I just keep on blabbing until it's like 3 pages long



But wait! One last question for harrack32! Someone said to me that "yea think again if you're going to overclock your barton 2500+ to 3200+ speeds. AMD just started locking their cards up(or something like that)" So this means I won't be able to OC my Barton:afs:

 

Possible but personnally, when I buy hardware, I never suppose I'll be able to oc it to a certain speed, that way I never get fuc***.

And nobody should either imo.

 

erm...so I can't overclock it...:stupid:

 

I think what harrack52 is saying is that you never know how much you can overclock your hardware until you do it. There's no magic formula for max clock speeds of hardware. It's a matter of finding the fastest stable speed you can achieve with your hardware through trial and error and *lots* of testing.

My advice to you is to run your system at stock speeds for a while, say a month or more. That way, you have a good feel for the performance and stability of the system for reference when you decide to overclock. Then you'll know what can be considered weird behavior, which requires a lower clock speed. You'll also be able to appreciate your newfound increase in speed.

 

Oh boy, now I need to spend $30 on a heatsink, $60 on fans(they will last forever though right?)...I't's just that everyone is saying to hold onto your cash and get the Athlon64 when the price drops. B/c isn't there supposed to be a 64-bit op. sys. coming out for Windows? I have learned that new parts come out nearly every month, but there are times where if you hold off a lil' longer you can get more bang for your buck*. So do you think I should get the 2500+? B/c jeez, if the 64 comes out I'd have to by a whole new MoBo and CPU, and I don't wanna do that again after I just upgraded.

 

There is plenty of support for 64-bit processors in the Linux world, but the 64-bit Windows platform won't be out for a while. Right now, the Barton core 2500+ is a great chip for the money. It'll run all the current (32-bit) applications such as games just as well as an Athlon64 would, but for a whole lot less. As much as I myself would love to be running an Athlon64-based system right now (and I could, being a non-windows user), the value vs. gain is just too slim to bother with for a while. If I were you, I'd wait a while for the Athlon64's to go down in price and up in value. In other words, when they're more standard the cost will be lower and there will be more application support too. At that point, it'd be a win/win situation

 

Exactly. If you have loads of cash to blow, great. As nice as A64 is, the 64-bit version of Windows available is Server 2003 or Linux. Linux is cheap, but I don't think that'll fill your fragging needs for the most part. Also, a new motherboard formfactor is coming out next year called BTX, and that will require a new PSU, case. Unless you absolutely need the kind of power the Opterons and Athlon 64's provide right now, I'd just as soon wait until the dust settles.

 

Well said.

 

Any reccomendations for an overclockable CPU? b/c I've now been informed that you can't o/c the 2500+.

 

there's the good old 1700+ TBred B DLT3C...if you can find one.

...But just go with the 2500+, I dont understand why you're so worried to be honnest with you.

If you're absolute goal is to get 3200+ speed, then get a 3200+.

In the end you're the one who pays so you will have to make the decision, because you're the one that's gonna' have to live with it.