Will tip BTC for good info/suggestions on the hardware I'm about to buy

[Insuremeplz]

I'd also like to use this as my main computer, light gaming, word processing, school work type stuff. This will be my first computer I've built so I appreciate suggestions on if everything will work together, if things will stay cool enough, better GPU to buy (cant find 5830/50's) or anything else you can think of. I already have windows XP, keyboard, mouse. Do I need anything else? Include BTC address for tip.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151175

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811815006

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157243

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150523  (two of these)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256072

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231253

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103899


I'd also love to cut about $150 off this price, so if there's anywhere I can save costs without reducing performance too much I'd love suggestions. Thanks!

[1714172109]

1714172109

[1714172109]

1714172109

[1714172109]

1714172109

[miningnew]

Why do you need a dvd drive?

and you can buy much cheaper CPU!!
You could boot from a usb disk

[Insuremeplz]

Why do you need a dvd drive?

and you can buy much cheaper CPU!!
You could boot from a usb disk

I'd like to use it as my main computer as well as a miner. Do you have a suggestion for a better priced CPU? I don't want to sacrifice performance too much and would like to be able to do light gaming and day to day uses.

[Meatball]

You can probably drop the CPU down a bit since there's not really a reason for Quad Core with what you're planning on doing.  You can probably go with either one of these, save yourself $80 and be fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103873

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103903

The other thing to be worried about is that case might be a bit too tight with those two cards.  It'll probably fit, but really cram stuff together.  Luckily your vid cards have the power pins on top, so that should be alright.

Those 6950's are pretty good and if you are a gambler, you could always flash them with a bios to unlock some of the extra shaders (don't do the 6970 bios flash, just find the 6950 shader unlock flash..)

[horrorshow]

6950 uses about 200w on its own, and that power supply is very weak, definitely dont recommend it:

Output
    +3.3V@25A, +5V@25A, +12V1@46A, +5VSB@2.5A, -12V@0.3A

Only one 12V rail, at 46Amps max. That is very low. You don't want all that hardware on one rail. Try and find one with at least 4 rails, maybe 18A each, try Antec 850W maybe?

This will keep your cards stable and your rig from blowing out with all that 24/7 load. Very important component.

[willphase]

I went though ebay completed sales and the comparison chart and found the 5870 was the best price/hash for me.  Bought two and mining at around 800Mh/s for 450W total including CPU/HD at the moment.

Good luck!

Will

[Insuremeplz]

You can probably drop the CPU down a bit since there's not really a reason for Quad Core with what you're planning on doing.  You can probably go with either one of these, save yourself $80 and be fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103873

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103903

The other thing to be worried about is that case might be a bit too tight with those two cards.  It'll probably fit, but really cram stuff together.  Luckily your vid cards have the power pins on top, so that should be alright.

Those 6950's are pretty good and if you are a gambler, you could always flash them with a bios to unlock some of the extra shaders (don't do the 6970 bios flash, just find the 6950 shader unlock flash..)

Thank you, switched to the first CPU. I'll also do some research on what the heck "flashing the bios to unlock the extra shaders" even means Tip sent.

[Insuremeplz]

6950 uses about 200w on its own, and that power supply is very weak, definitely dont recommend it:

Output
    +3.3V@25A, +5V@25A, +12V1@46A, +5VSB@2.5A, -12V@0.3A

Only one 12V rail, at 46Amps max. That is very low. You don't want all that hardware on one rail. Try and find one with at least 4 rails, maybe 18A each, try Antec 850W maybe?

This will keep your cards stable and your rig from blowing out with all that 24/7 load. Very important component.

Thanks for the suggestion. This was something I was worried about, so I'm glad I posted this thread. I switched to this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371024

[pokermon919]

You can probably drop the CPU down a bit since there's not really a reason for Quad Core with what you're planning on doing.  You can probably go with either one of these, save yourself $80 and be fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103873

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103903

The other thing to be worried about is that case might be a bit too tight with those two cards.  It'll probably fit, but really cram stuff together.  Luckily your vid cards have the power pins on top, so that should be alright.

Those 6950's are pretty good and if you are a gambler, you could always flash them with a bios to unlock some of the extra shaders (don't do the 6970 bios flash, just find the 6950 shader unlock flash..)

Thank you, switched to the first CPU. I'll also do some research on what the heck "flashing the bios to unlock the extra shaders" even means Tip sent.

if you want to flash the 6950 bios to unlock shaders you will need a reference model. You can tell the reference from non reference since reference models have the fan on 1 side while non reference models usually have the fan near the middle.

like this : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127555&cm_re=radeon_6950-_-14-127-555-_-Product
that is a reference model. Buy fast cause these will be gone too since the 5830's are being eaten up the 6950's that can flash to 6970 will be next to go probably.

[Insuremeplz]

What exactly does it mean to flash the bios? I'm rewriting the software to make it function like a 6970 rather than a 6950?

[Insuremeplz]

also, what are the risks in doing that? Could I possibly fry my card if I do it wrong? Is it something someone relatively non technical could figure out?

[bcpokey]

also, what are the risks in doing that? Could I possibly fry my card if I do it wrong? Is it something someone relatively non technical could figure out?

Yes it involves overwriting the stock bios (voiding warranty) with another bios. Yes you can fry your card by flashing it to 6970 bios.

But there is a safer alternative, you can write a custom 6950 bios to the card which unlocks the extra shaders, but leaves the clock speed and voltage at stock 6950 levels. Then you can manually overclock yourself to safe levels.

You will need to use winflash I believe it is called, to write a downloaded bios over the existing bios (make sure to back up your existing bios) to unlock the extra shaders. This can only be done on reference 2GB 6950s btw.

[LegitBit]

Depending on what you mean by "light gaming" this may work for you and be much cheaper:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151233

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133094

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148701

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102906

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231253

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-130-567

Much cheaper, if you think you need more power, substitute the Fusion motherboard for:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131734

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846
Which you may be able to unlock.

Why a 5770? Because it plays all modern games excellently at standard resolutions, besides, Windows XP cant use DX10 or 11, so there is no reason to purchase anything better especially since the 7000 series should be coming around the bend soon and you will feel foolish for paying so much for something you can't even use fully.

Why only 4GB of ram? there is barely any difference for gaming unless you play at very high resolutions.

Also Windows XP cannot use over 3.5GB of ram unless you modify it heavily anyway.

[tito13kfm]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.668135&nm_mc=AFC-C8JUNCTION&cm_mmc=AFC-C8JUNCTION-_-EMC-060911-Latest-_-Combo-_-Combo668135-LM1A&PID=3668349&AID=10440897

Combo buy on PSU and DVD drive.  Also has a $30 MIR on it.

OCZ isn't as good as Antec, but it's much cheaper, 2 dedicated 12V rails @ 25A, and it's modular so you can more easily route wires.

700W is more than enough for this system.

As far as unlocking shaders.  Yes, if you do it incorrectly, you can fry the card.  Any time you are messing with the firmware of a piece of hardware there is an inherent risk of something going wrong.  These 2 cards do not have a dual bios switch, so you can't just flip a switch to recover.

Having said that, I'd still recommend it.  It's a nice little performance bump, and as long as you follow along with a good guide, there is barely any chance of frying something.  Just unlocking the shaders without touching voltage should give you a decent little bump.  They you can overclock normally.

If you found this information useful you can tip me at 1Cwmb2SftoPABQtqKoGoG68WdqDs4NRcyp

[tito13kfm]

also, what are the risks in doing that? Could I possibly fry my card if I do it wrong? Is it something someone relatively non technical could figure out?

Yes it involves overwriting the stock bios (voiding warranty) with another bios. Yes you can fry your card by flashing it to 6970 bios.

But there is a safer alternative, you can write a custom 6950 bios to the card which unlocks the extra shaders, but leaves the clock speed and voltage at stock 6950 levels. Then you can manually overclock yourself to safe levels.

You will need to use winflash I believe it is called, to write a downloaded bios over the existing bios (make sure to back up your existing bios) to unlock the extra shaders. This can only be done on reference 2GB 6950s btw.

You can unlock the shaders on any 6950 using RBE AFAIK.  Reference 2GB 6950s can just be flashed over with a reference 6970 BIOS, but that's not exactly safe.  Like you said, you should use a custom one that doesn't touch clocks or voltages.

[tunatime]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.668135&nm_mc=AFC-C8JUNCTION&cm_mmc=AFC-C8JUNCTION-_-EMC-060911-Latest-_-Combo-_-Combo668135-LM1A&PID=3668349&AID=10440897

Combo buy on PSU and DVD drive.  Also has a $30 MIR on it.

OCZ isn't as good as Antec, but it's much cheaper, 2 dedicated 12V rails @ 25A, and it's modular so you can more easily route wires.

700W is more than enough for this system.

As far as unlocking shaders.  Yes, if you do it incorrectly, you can fry the card.  Any time you are messing with the firmware of a piece of hardware there is an inherent risk of something going wrong.  These 2 cards do not have a dual bios switch, so you can't just flip a switch to recover.

Having said that, I'd still recommend it.  It's a nice little performance bump, and as long as you follow along with a good guide, there is barely any chance of frying something.  Just unlocking the shaders without touching voltage should give you a decent little bump.  They you can overclock normally.

If you found this information useful you can tip me at 1Cwmb2SftoPABQtqKoGoG68WdqDs4NRcyp

wrong you cant flash a card that's not a stock amd card and its not a stock card whit out the bios switch. if teh card does not have amd by the pcie connector you cant unlock them and whit  a reference card if you brick it you just switch back jsut dotn put a 6970 bois on it unlock yours or dl the asus 6950 whit the volt mod bios

[tunatime]

also, what are the risks in doing that? Could I possibly fry my card if I do it wrong? Is it something someone relatively non technical could figure out?

Yes it involves overwriting the stock bios (voiding warranty) with another bios. Yes you can fry your card by flashing it to 6970 bios.

But there is a safer alternative, you can write a custom 6950 bios to the card which unlocks the extra shaders, but leaves the clock speed and voltage at stock 6950 levels. Then you can manually overclock yourself to safe levels.

You will need to use winflash I believe it is called, to write a downloaded bios over the existing bios (make sure to back up your existing bios) to unlock the extra shaders. This can only be done on reference 2GB 6950s btw.

You can unlock the shaders on any 6950 using RBE AFAIK.  Reference 2GB 6950s can just be flashed over with a reference 6970 BIOS, but that's not exactly safe.  Like you said, you should use a custom one that doesn't touch clocks or voltages.

no you cant if the pcb is not built by amd you cant unlock it

[tito13kfm]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.668135&nm_mc=AFC-C8JUNCTION&cm_mmc=AFC-C8JUNCTION-_-EMC-060911-Latest-_-Combo-_-Combo668135-LM1A&PID=3668349&AID=10440897

Combo buy on PSU and DVD drive.  Also has a $30 MIR on it.

OCZ isn't as good as Antec, but it's much cheaper, 2 dedicated 12V rails @ 25A, and it's modular so you can more easily route wires.

700W is more than enough for this system.

As far as unlocking shaders.  Yes, if you do it incorrectly, you can fry the card.  Any time you are messing with the firmware of a piece of hardware there is an inherent risk of something going wrong.  These 2 cards do not have a dual bios switch, so you can't just flip a switch to recover.

Having said that, I'd still recommend it.  It's a nice little performance bump, and as long as you follow along with a good guide, there is barely any chance of frying something.  Just unlocking the shaders without touching voltage should give you a decent little bump.  They you can overclock normally.

If you found this information useful you can tip me at 1Cwmb2SftoPABQtqKoGoG68WdqDs4NRcyp

wrong you cant flash a card that's not a stock amd card and its not a stock card whit out the bios switch. if teh card does not have amd by the pcie connector you cant unlock them and whit  a reference card if you brick it you just switch back jsut dotn put a 6970 bois on it unlock yours or dl the asus 6950 whit the volt mod bios

Correct, you can't just flash an existing BIOS on to it.  But you CAN unlock the shaders with RBE, then overclock like normal.  It's been discussed a thousand times before, it works.  Reference cards allow you to use the sapphire bios and just flash with that, non reference and 1GB cards require you to use RBE to unlock.

[Meatball]

Here's the general process about flashing your card's bios: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

But that walks you through flashing your 6950 to 6970.  You don't want to do that.  You want to flash it it with the custom 6950 BIOS that unlocks the shaders.  Check out this point for specific info on that.  http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/316974-33-radeon-6950-shader-unlock-instructions

Can you fubar your cards.  Yep...

Is it worth the risk.  I dunno, it's up to you.  Flashing mine jumped my hashing rate about 10-15% on the card. And with 860 GPU clock and stock memory (1250, got wonky with anything else), I'm getting about 369 MH/s

Maybe try it on one and worst case you can always package it back up and return it?  You're call though.

[Insuremeplz]

Depending on what you mean by "light gaming" this may work for you and be much cheaper:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151233

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133094

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148701

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102906

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231253

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-130-567

Much cheaper, if you think you need more power, substitute the Fusion motherboard for:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131734

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846
Which you may be able to unlock.

Why a 5770? Because it plays all modern games excellently at standard resolutions, besides, Windows XP cant use DX10 or 11, so there is no reason to purchase anything better especially since the 7000 series should be coming around the bend soon and you will feel foolish for paying so much for something you can't even use fully.

Why only 4GB of ram? there is barely any difference for gaming unless you play at very high resolutions.

Also Windows XP cannot use over 3.5GB of ram unless you modify it heavily anyway.

This is awesome, and hits the price I was looking for much better. This is what I'm going with. I sent you over something for your help