Skt 939 X2 4200+ w/ 9800GX2 :D (The Test)

Ok guys, so one of my buddies likes my volt-modded G92 8800 GTS 512mb so much that he wants to buy it for $255. This has provoked me to get the 9800GX2 and shove that beast into my ASRock Dual SATA-II and see what she does paired with the old socket 939.

My current beast:





I have a few questions though.

1. Will my PSU be able to handle this monster?

2. I read that all motherboards will support the 9800GX2, it this true?

3. If I upgraded to a C2D Quad how much gain would I see gaming at 1920x1200 over my X2 @ 2.7ghz?

I will be gaming on my BenQ FP241W 24" @ 1920x1200, so even though I only have an X2 4200+ running at 2.7ghz, I feel as though I will use the potential of the GPU at my resolution.

In the end I will only be shelling out around $250 for the 9800GX2, so it's not a bad upgrade at all considering the amazing performance over anything else on the market.

Let's hear it.

 

I have two gts 512's running off an Antec 500w. Odds are you will do fine with the GX2.

By the way, how in depth are the volt mods?

 

let me know what you get in 3dmark06, cos i have a 4200+( OC'd to 2.5Ghz ) with 3850, ASRock 939 dual sata 2 and Vista and it seriously underperforms in my book ~7300 in 3dmark06

 

Volt-Modding the G92 involves soldering two wires onto two points on the PCB. You will also need a potentiometer that is secured to the board to adjust the voltage by these two soldered points.

Basically you need some knowledge in soldering because of how small the points are. If you can solder two points that are tight and involving a $200 GPU then you can volt-mod. Once you are good at it, it is fun and safe. Plus your friends will pay you to do it to theirs I've yet to see one of my volt-modded cards die yet. One is over a year and a half old. (7900GT @ 1.55V) The key is good solders and good cooling.

I've been really impressed with the ASRock Dual SATA-II with my X2 4200+ Given I did have to physically solder the ASRock to get it to all 1.55V (a little too much work imo) I will say it isn't the best overclocker, as it will not go any further than 2.7ghz. I have high hopes for it with the 9800GX2 though, as I hope to see my BenQ 24" pushed to it's max :banana:

On the subject of Vista performance, I am on Business x64 with 4Gb and I feel like she runs smooth as butter. My gaming performance is superb given the resolution I am playing at (1920x1200) and I have very few problems except with my old sound card (Audigy2 ZS).

 

Oh dont get me wrong, i have mega respect for it, ive had 0 problems with that rig( now gf's ), i seriously mean 0, and ive been overclocking it/tinkering with it. Its wayyy more stable than this rig where ive replace the PSU, 2 mobos RMA's, 1 CPU and RMAing my 8800GT because it cant run mem at stock stable

Its just that the ASRock mobo seems to be underperforming( i have it on Vista because when i stuck the 3850 in it it wouldnt boot XP and XP install wouldnt recognise the Sata 2 drive )

 

Well you can't compare your 939 DDR1 Mobo to your C2D DDR2 Mobo and not give the 939 the benefit of the doubt, of course the performance of the 939 will feel "sluggish". I've used many C2D and 939 boards and I feel like the ASRock Dual SATA-II is one of the best 939 performance value boards with awesome capabilities (AGP & PCI-E, Expansion Board w/ DDR2 & AM2). Benchmarks of the board put it in the top of the 939 mobos in terms of performance.

ASRock Review:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASRock/939Dual-SATA2

 

1. Your PSU should handle it fine, but it will be a large load on it. Maybe upwards of 400W at full load.

2. I heard that the GX2 requires a 16x (electrical) PCI-E slot. So something like the asrock dualvsta with its 4x slot probably wouldn't work because of the huge bottleneck.
Most boards, but not every board.

3. Partially depends on the game, since most games aren't quad-core optimized. But you should see a significant improvement with any Core 2 cpu. Anyone have some numbers?

Bear in mind that the 9900GTX is due in less than 3 months. eVGA? BFG? if you want to step-up/trade-up

 

My last 3 GPU's have been eVGA so I'm definitely going with eVGA. Plus they have an eVGA 9800GX2 on NewEgg for $499.99 after rebate right now, so I'd only have to spend $245 to get the card after selling my current. Also the ASRock Dual SATA-II has one PCI Express x16 slot, so that isn't an issue.

I have been reading about the odd power connectors with the 9800GX2, it seems you have to rig up something or buy an adapter for some PSU.

Here is my PSU: http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/cases/Cooler_Master_550W_3.html

# One (1) 8pin EPS +12V
# One (1) 6pin Workstation
# One (1) 6pin PCI Express

So I don't think I'll have a problem right? I think you only face a problem if you have your 8 Pin and 6 Pin on the same cable, which isn't the case with my PSU.

 

Just really hard to compare C3D (quad) with any 939. I have both and run the 939 at 2.8 but the 6600 @3.2 (have had it to 3.6 stable) just blows it away. The 939 was great for it's time and ushered in the dual cores.

But a lot of it depends on what games you are playing too, probally the most important thing to keep in mind.

Lex

 

I mostly play source games like TF2, DOD:S, Portal etc. However I also play games like Crysis, BioShock, UT3, AudioSurf etc.

I just wonder what real world percentage difference in FPS I would see going from a X2 4200+ @2.7ghz to a Q6600 @ 3.8ghz in BioShock @ 1920x1200? I mean am I going to severely limit the 9800GX2 with a 2.7ghz X2?

I have to sell my GTS to my friend in order to get the GX2 so I won't have the option of waiting to get the GX2 after upgrading CPU/RAM/MOBO, it will have to happen in the other order, if at all. However if I am happy with my performance I may stick with DDR1 and 939 for a while longer, imagine what the boys at the LAN Parties are going to say when they see a 939 paired with a 9800GX2

 

ahhh you dont need to convince me , i spent 4 months back in the day trying to find one
tbh im just wondering if its a driver issue with vista or not. Its used as the media rig now, so havnt got the patience to get xp install working on it

youre definately gonna bottleneck

 

dude you know me ...i would not try try steer you wrong.
keep the gts ....f the gx2..its a thrown together card...wait it out for the gt200 or what ever this summer.
most times except when benchmarking i feel one v-modded gts is plenty
save cash to upgrade mb/cpu/ram first if you need a evga 680i and a 6850 for cheap just pm me.
but g/l on w/e you do bro.

 

Considering my non SLI motherboard and the fact that a friend will pay me what my card is worth, you wouldn't pay the $250 or so and get the GX2? Plus I have 90 days (or 120 maybe) to step-up to the GT200 if it is released. My BenQ 24" needs more power than the GTS can deliver, even volt-modded. I just really don't want to deal with a complete system overhaul and dealing with getting a new Vista key. However if my X2 is going to limit the 9800GX2 severely then I wouldn't upgrade, but at this resolution I should see expected performance right?

But I mean cowie the GX2 is beating out the 8800 Ultra by like 65% in many benchmarks. I game at 1920x1200, I need the horsepower. Do you not see my logic with a non-SLI mobo?

(ps cowie, did you notice I got a Vista compatible sound card? Ordered it today off NewEgg, only $154.99 after rebate. Thing is a beast and is fully compatible with Vista x64)

 

well i geuss since you put it that way.....anyways at that high rez.the amdx2 will be doing less bottlencking on the card in fps type games.
i dont think your going to see expected performance gains with out hassles thuo
i nick named my card studdering stanley

 

How will overclocking be affected by using 2 x 6-pin connectors instead of a 6-pin + 8-pin? especially after a volt mod.


Cowie, how are you living with just 1GB?

 

You will NEED to upgrade your PSU to do this. I have 2x 9800GTX and im PULLING 545W from the plug. Amd the GX2 is going to similiar of not more than what i am currently pulling. I know this by hooking up a power meter that measures Amps and Watts. Considering you will be running DDR (which uses more power) and are OCing you are gonna need more power or a 2nd PSU. I would say at least a 700W, probably a 850 to be on the safe side...

 

yes the psu is also a concern


i have 2g of this stuff but ones stick is dead plus i have 2g tracers...not gaming atm

 

I agree with cowie, I don't think it's a good move LedHed. I just upgraded from a A8N SLI Deluxe & a AMD X2 4600 @ 2.7 GHz to the rig in my specs. I upgraded everything except the GPU and PSU and spent a total of $518.00 - it's nothing fancy component wise but it gave me the extra processing power I was looking for.

I had no idea how much my 8800GT was being bottlenecked until I upgraded. The performance difference in games like Crysis, COD4 was huge and I went from 9300 to 14200 in 3DM06.

I realize your gaming at high resolution which helps reduce the cpu bottleneck but I still think you would be better off upgrading the cpu/mobo and keeping your modded 8800 GTS 512mb at this point. Just my opinion....

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lex

 

Ya know, if you're going to go ahead and upgrade to the 9800GX2 anyway, you might as well try it out on the AMD system, then if/when you upgrade you'll know exactly how much of a bottleneck it is/isn't. I'm thinking it won't be that bad at 1920X1200, but I can't speak from personal experience. This almost has me wondering if I'm bottlenecking even my 7800GTX's with my Opty.