Questions on multi cored intel processors.

[NoctisReitop]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

I agree with St!x to get the GeminII. But, if you get the GeminII, you'll have to skip the Dominator RAM. This ram: Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail has the exact same chips and can fit under the GeminII. Other than that I agree with all the other recommendations.......... Good Luck!!

Are you sure that it's impossible? I've been quite fond of the dominator. That GeminII is GIGANORMOUS! How does the GeminII compare to a liquid cooling solution?

Also, how does that thing affect airflow throughout the case? That's got to impede the flow. Couldn't it actually increase the temperature of other parts of the case because of the restricted airflow?

[Elysium]

Originally Posted by NoctisReitop

Are you sure that it's impossible? I've been quite fond of the dominator. That GeminII is GIGANORMOUS! How does the GeminII compare to a liquid cooling solution?

Actually, my CPU has been idling at 25C with NVMonitor which is a little bit above (2-3C) a generic liquid cooling solution (to my knowledge).

I would actually say that the Crucial kit I linked you to is the same as the Dominator kit if not better than it. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. And yes, it ois sadly impossible to kit the Dominator kit under the GeminII but no worries!!!!

[gvblake22]

You can read HardwareLogic's review of the GeminII here...
It can't compete with a decent watercooling setup, but it does rank right up there with the best air cooling solutions.

[Elysium]

Also, one of the best things about the GeminII is that it not only cools the CPU, but the motherboard and RAM too.

[NoctisReitop]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

Also, one of the best things about the GeminII is that it not only cools the CPU, but the motherboard and RAM too.

How's the cooling of ram from the GeminII compare to something like the corsair fan, or any other ram fan for that matter? Because if it cools as well as a ram fan, I don't have to bother with that.

[simple_inhibition]

unless your getting into heavy overclocking, voltage increases (anything above 2.2v for DDR2) or watercooling (reason being airflow around the cpu isnt there anymore), you really dont need additional cooling for ram other than good case airflow and all the tidbits that go with it. I.E: cable management.

as to what brand video card, i personally recomend eVGA. both nvidia cards i bought were eVGA (7600GT and 7800GT). eVGA has a lifetime warranty (provided you register within the first 30 days of your purchase) which includes overclocking and adding aftermarket cooling (so long as you dont physically damage the card). they also have a step-up program in which you can trade your current eVGA card (within 90 days of purchase)for a higher model. all you do is pay the difference in price between the two products.

personally if you want to future proof your rig as much as possible, i would scope out the Q6600 next month after the price drop. as more and more applications are multithreaded, youll gain more and more performance down the road.

heres something for you to chew on. i paid $300 for my Opteron 165 last summer, and thats a 1.8ghz dual core amd socket 939 cpu. $300 will get you a faster, more efficient architecture and twice the amount of processors than i did. (not that i regret it! i love my 939 dual cores :) im old school haha)

ultimately its up to you to decide how much money your willing to spend on your system. most of us around here cant afford top of the line everything, so we have to play a balancing act depending on what we do with our systems. hence why everyone has their own opinions on the single core/dual core/quad core debate. all we can do is give you suggestions on the best price to performance ratio. the rest is up to you :) in the end if it makes you happy and does what you want it to do, then it was well worth it.

blake, i noticed a difference from my A64 3700 san diego to my opteron 165 when i made the change. the 3700 has a 400mhz speed advantage over the 165, but the 165 felt much much more responsive and snappier. my A64 3000 only reaffirmed this hence why i went and got an X2 3800. ill never get another single core cpu no matter how many more mhz faster it may be.

[qazwsx]

I agree, the 'ram fan' in my view is just a noisy add-on. theres not much need.

also, eVGA offers the warranty even if you overclock. what if you overclock and break the card? (just wondering)

[Dr. V]

Originally Posted by NoctisReitop

Are you sure that it's impossible? I've been quite fond of the dominator. That GeminII is GIGANORMOUS! How does the GeminII compare to a liquid cooling solution?

Also, how does that thing affect airflow throughout the case? That's got to impede the flow. Couldn't it actually increase the temperature of other parts of the case because of the restricted airflow?

That's part of the reason I'd always recommended the Ballistix set along side the GeminII. Not every kit of RAM will fit under it. And as said, the Ballistix is more or less the exact same memory. Also, the Tracers will look a helluva lot better than any other RAM in a windowed case!

[Elysium]

Haha, you won't be able to see the Tracers under the GeminII!!

The GeminII is one of the best ait coolers on the market. Also, if you get the ASUS P5N32-E SLI (which is on the 680i chipset), those copper heatsinks for the VREGs and NB will benefit TREMENDOUSLY from the GeminII. If you read HL's review of it, chipset temps went down 7C over the Thermaltake Big Typhoon!!

[NoctisReitop]

Also, speaking of multi cored processors, I've heard quite a bit about needing a vista/xp professional edition to take advantage of a multi-core. Anyone have more information on this? If so, is using normal xp/vista with a multi-core pointless?