A few questions about refit?

[upcoast604]

Yesterday I bought a ma790x-ud4 am2+/3 mobo $132. I will try to run 9800gtx+ primary and 8800gts640MB as dedicated physx card, I've heard it'll work but not sure if it will or any snags that I might run into?

I was thinking of getting 2x2GB gskill Newegg.ca - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
or Newegg.ca - G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 900(PC2 7200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
My concern about the pi blacks is if they would fit under the tuniq tower and that if I was to eventually get a phenomII cpu would the blue pc8500 ram be the better choice?

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Review » Page 9 - Testing: Far Cry 2 - Overclockers Club
At 1680x1050 the cpus start to even out, why would the 940be oc dip below the 9850be stock and the 940 stock speed?

I will be using a 5600 L2 2MB or a 6000 L2 1MB for now untill I can afford a new cpu but what to get? Too many bench marks all get confusing. I play at 1680x1050 x4/x8aa in game setting with x8af bilinear and high quality set in nv cp.

Thanks for any input.

[frontier204]

Is this the motherboard you are thinking of? GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview - GA-MA790X-UD4 (rev. 1.0)
That board has an AMD chipset which does not support SLI (and I wouldn't count on it supporting more than one nVidia card at a time). Use ATI cards or swap out for an nVidia-based motherboard.

Interesting benchmark you show there; if I were to guess it would be beta BIOS or the fact that the HT link on a Phenom 920/940 is clocked lower than that of a 9850BE (1800 vs 2000 IIRC?) You'll be able to make up the gap if you OC the HT link as well (by either changing NB/HT multi or raising the reference clock speed from 200 MHz)

EDIT: Are you choosing between the 6000+ and the 5600+ for now? I'd go with the one that is 65nm, so that's the 1 MB cache (your heat sink with thank you for it).

[ImmaPC]

Yeah I don't think that the board you chose utilizes SLI, you can pick up the eVGA 730a, although I'm not sure how that will play out with your new CPU, I forgot if it's AM2+ or not.

If you want to fit an HSF in your rig, the best and I mean BEST way to go about doing that it to get RAM with not-so-blatantly-high heatsinks. The Pi's are okay, but you'd be better off in terms of peace of mind getting the GSkill DDR2-1066 PC2-8500 ones.

[upcoast604]

No, I wasn't going to run sli just 2 seperate cards only 1 will be for graphics other will be for physx.
Sorry I wasn't clear, I already have a 5600 and 6000 (5600 is in a drawer and 6000 in the comp in sig) what I meant by what to buy or look for was the newer phenom or phenom II cpus.

[ImmaPC]

DEFINITELY get the new Phenom II, especially if you're an AMD faithful. I'm not sure quite why it tops out at 1680x1050, maybe 9850 is just better than the 940 in terms of speed? But if the 940 is OC'ed, perhaps it could be instability? Not quite sure on that, actually that's pretty strange...

[upcoast604]

It all seems to work fine, 9800gtx+ primary and 8800gts operates the physx, tuniq tower has 2 1/4" clearance from top of dimm slot and 1 1/4" from top of ram 6GB ttl. All in all it's a big step up from the nforce 430 chipset that stuttered in games often and badly, new board is almost stutter free and doesn't stutter badly. I tried to add some pics, they uploaded as attachments but don't know how to add them. Basically it's a nice board for 133$ ( would've been better for $110).

The pics did work.