Should I buy a bp6??

RRLedford · Post by **RRLedford** » Mon Dec 09, 2002 2:23 pm

To get decent gaming performance from a BP6 requires too much money be spent. After the M-B cost you have to get at least the (2) Cele1 processors (cheap x2=> still cheap). If you want the dual P-III setup (board mods reqd.), you have to get the (2) Neo370 adapters, plus (2) overpriced P-III CPUs.Then you need (2) good HSFs for overclocking. Then you need an ATA-100 controller to replace the unreliable HPT366 controller. By the time you add all these up you're either close to a basic P4 mainboard with 1.8GHz CPU -OR- you could have a good 2.4GHz setup & money left. Either of these will carry you alot further down the road than any BP6 will.

RRLedford · Post by **RRLedford** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 10:54 am

Well, you might consider using a Nvidia or ATI video card with the TV tuner bundled. That way the PC can also be a TIVO and still maintain its value in the future.

loophole · Post by **loophole** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 8:25 pm

I'd go for it (if I didn't already have a BP6) - $AU200 seems really cheap compared to prices here in Melbourne. Roughly $200 to $300 for the same thing.

I play fairly new games (Hot Pursuit 2, SimCity 4) and they run well on my BP6 (2 x 300A at 495) and I've only got a GeForce 256.

Lycaon · Post by **Lycaon** » Thu Feb 13, 2003 10:29 am

Loophole,

How have you got your 300A's to run at 495?

My comp crashes if I go over 460

Lycaon

RRLedford · Post by **RRLedford** » Thu Feb 13, 2003 10:11 pm

Lycaon, what are you using for CPU cooling? What temps are they running?

loophole · Post by **loophole** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 8:53 pm

Sorry about the late reply, but I've been overseas for the last week.

When the got the two 300A, I bought them guaranteed to do 450 so that was no problem at stock voltage and running at that speed, the temps are about 33, 34, 36 (CPU0, CPU1, SYS) under full load.
But, they came with fairly decent heatsinks but small-fans, so I swapped the fans out with much bigger Panaflo fans that draw double the amount of power compared to the old ones. I also flipped the fans around so that they suck the hot air out away from the CPUs and to a duct that leads directly outside my case.

I had to raise the voltage to 2.1 to get them stable at 495, but it didn't make much of a difference in CPU temperature, but system temperature rose a bit.

Hope that helps you.

RRLedford · Post by **RRLedford** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 6:47 pm

The temps sound OK, but sucking air thru the H-S is not a good way to cool.
Is the H-S material aluminum or copper? Might drop a few degrees with copper and the fans blowing down to the CPU.
Sounds like it was more of a voltage issue than a too hot problem.
110MHz FSB is all your likely to get with air-only cooling - nice work!

loophole · Post by **loophole** » Wed Feb 26, 2003 10:16 pm

Yeah, sucking air through the heatsink is unusual compared to what most HSFs do, but I figured because my system temp was higher than the CPUs (a little odd I know) I shouldn't be blowing the hot air from the CPUs right onto the motherboard (and onto the voltage regulators that get unstable at hot temperatures), but rather, I should suck cool air over the motherboard and through the HSFs from the intake fan at the front. I'm not entirely sure if it's the best way, but it makes me feel better.

There's also a lot of air coming from the duct that leads from the CPUs (enough to blow the curtain against the window - only a light curtain though).