Dual Core info please

[bloodforthebaron]

So I just had a go on my mate's new dual core PC and man, it flies! I need one!

Thing is I JUST bought a Sapphire X1950 Pro graphics card. Is there a dual core board available with an AGP slot, please? Preferably with 2 IDE ports and 3 PCI.

Then I may finally be able to max out my army on Supreme Commander...

[Jonny2Bad]

Oh Dear shouldve saved your money for the new mobo and pci ex gpu wouldve been cheaper i feel!

[anthonygriff]

I think this one fulfills your criteria http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInf ... ctID=16272 (http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=16272)

but I've no idea how good it is though.

Here's a link to the Asrock site as well http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?M ... eDual-VSTA (http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4CoreDual-VSTA)


There's also a bundle on this page http://www.autdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Int ... ndles.html (http://www.autdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Intel_P4_Bundles.html)

Hope this is of use to you.

[bloodforthebaron]

Thanks Jonny that never occured to me. Had I the power to reorganise time I wouldn't have bothered to post.

Cheers anthony!

[bloodforthebaron]

I've ordered it along with a Intel CPU Core2Duo E6320 processor, I'll let you know how it performs.

Just curious, under memory it has:

- Dual Channel DDR/DDRII memory technology
- 2 x DDRII DIMM slots
- Supports DDRII667/533
- Max. capacity: 2GB
- 2 x DDR DIMM slots
- Supports DDR400/333/266
- Max. capacity: 2GB

Does this mean I can run 4GB of memory (drools)?

[JDowdall]

nope that board is a funny one it lets you run either 2gb of ddr or 2gb of ddr2 not both at the same time

[bloodforthebaron]

The dream crumbles. Thanks for letting me know!

[Jonny2Bad]

could always buy 2 2g sticks though

[bloodforthebaron]

Good call. I didn't know they existed!

[anthonygriff]

Sorry to crumble your dream again, but, it states maximum capacity as 2gbs of memory. That will be 1 gb in each slot operating as dual channel and not 2gbs in each slot. That would be a maximum capacity of 4 gbs.

At least that's how I read the information given by the manufacturer.

[bloodforthebaron]

Ah well. I went on a brief hunt for 2GB sticks but all I could find were 2x 1GB sticks sold as a pair anyway. Tarnation.

[Jonny2Bad]

You can get them but I think they are pretty darned expensive, but 2g is plenty unless your running vista.

[bloodforthebaron]

Right, it's a shame cos I already have 3x 1GB DDR sticks on my current board, suppose I can make up a 2nd PC. As you mention it, how much would I need to run Vista?

[Jonny2Bad]

Well it will run with 512mb but if your really gonna be gaming hard on new games such as crysis the rumour is 4g but we'll have to wait and see, but it would make sense as it takes double the ram that xp needs to function so for all of us running 2g on xp will go for the 4g on vista to get the same performance. We'll soon find out i guess!!

[bloodforthebaron]

Eek!

Just occured to me my mate has DDR2, if it's compatible I'll nab it and test how much I can put through this board.

[teknokid]

it'll be 2gb....

[bloodforthebaron]

Confirmed, has to be a pair of either, but not both. Ah well.

Donning my noob hat and NHS spectacles a moment, what's with the six audio outs? I have side, rear, central/bass, front plus line in and microphone.

Side? Which side?!

[anthonygriff]

You only have side with 8 outputs.

With 6 you have front left/right and centre, bass, and finally rear left/right.

[bloodforthebaron]

Sorry to disagree with you man but I'm quoting from the manual here.

So what kind of sound system options do I have here? I normally run a lead from my sound card direct to my hifi amp. Shall I ditch the standard 5-port sound card in favour of this impressive array of outputs?

[mawbzee]

I have 3 GB of DDR2 667mhz on a BFG 680i mobo and as im looking at this forum my memory useage is at 42 %. I have vista ultimate, and i hate it.

[Taxation]

vista is a weird one, it uses more memory if more memory is available, if running vista on 1GB, then it will use EG 200mb, but on 2GB it would use 400mb (for example)

[bloodforthebaron]

Not quite the answer I was looking for.

[Taxation]

cant remember the question.lol
so what do you want
a motherboard with dual core capability and an AGP slot??

[djgandy]

Sorry to disagree with you man but I'm quoting from the manual here.

So what kind of sound system options do I have here? I normally run a lead from my sound card direct to my hifi amp. Shall I ditch the standard 5-port sound card in favour of this impressive array of outputs?

Just use stereo out.

[bloodforthebaron]

LOL I sussed that, thanks. I phrased it poorly, I meant to ask what the other outputs are for?

I'm nonplussed at mawbzee.

[mawbzee]

nonplussed?

I thourght in an earlier post you wanted to know how much RAM you needed for vista.

I was just passing on my experiance with what i have got.

Sorry if i miss read what you were after. :(

[bloodforthebaron]

The penny drops, sorry man.

Thankyou.

[bloodforthebaron]

Getting back to the RAM issue, I've been informed that using DDR RAM with this board as opposed to DDR2 means that my chip isn't operating as a dual core. Is this true?

[djgandy]

Where did you hear that load of rubbish.

[bloodforthebaron]

LOL a mate.

Thanks.

[bloodforthebaron]

So just to reiterate, in the hopes that it's all a bad dream, a pair of these bad boys with this board would be pointless, right?

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?CSR-VS672 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?CSR-VS672)

[djgandy]

Extremely pointless when you can buy http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... CSR-X642G5 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?CSR-X642G5) for less.

[bloodforthebaron]

Eh?

I have 2x 1GB strips already, I'm on about 2x 2GB strips. The point is that the board specs say it has a max capability of 2GB.

[Jonny2Bad]

no real need for 4 gig, 32bit xp only sees 3g anyway i think. 2g is plenty unless your running vista.

[bloodforthebaron]

Don't worry about it, I was just curious what would happen. I was running 3GB on my old board and really notice the difference now I'm back to 2GB. I'm Running XP Pro.

[bloodforthebaron]

I'm now running Vista on 2Gb and so far all is well. However, back to the audio thing...

My sound card has been messing about for a while now, so I've just ripped it out and am trying to fathom the onboard.

On the back panel are six outputs:

Side Speaker (Gray)
Rear Speaker (Black)
Central / Bass (Orange)
Line In (Light Blue)
Front Speaker (Lime)
Microphone (Pink)

I have a single "headphone" output jack which runs to my hi-fi amp.

The manual says "If you use 2-channel speaker, please connect the speaker's plug into "Front Speaker Jack"." This is as I expected.

But all of my sound is mono, left side only. I'm running it from the frontside headphone jack at the minute, which is stereo but looks UGLY.

I've run the driver disc; no drivers available. Does anybody have any ideas, please?