Hmm...prove me wrong...please.

[Mico]

My friend is planning on purchasing a system (the Talon 5.8) falcon Northwest but when compared to a homebuilt system, we found it to be about $400 more expensive even though the homebuilt featured the 9600 pro XT (with 256 mb of ram) and dual 60gig drives in a RAID 0+1.
However, her other friend told her that even with those modification, this homebuilt system would “run like a dell”. This statement was made because “Falcon Northwest modifies their motherboards for gaming”. Now…I know the only real tweaks you can make to a motherboard is to set the FSB to Overclock it, and change the RAM timings, once again to Overclock it. So, if you would, please tell me exactly what you do to the motherboard in order to make it “modified for gaming”.

P.S. I don't mean this in an "I'm right" manner....I really would like to know so I could do it myself!

 

[BalliN]

Do you have a link or somethin with the specs of the Talon? Also what equipment are you using in the build (MB, Proc, Ram)

Peace,

BalliN

 

[Mico]

http://www.falcon-nw.com/talon_58.asp

I am using everything there, except dual 60G drives in a RAID0+1, and instead of the 9600 pro, I'm using a 9600 pro XT with 256 mb of RAM.

 

[Hookj5]

The reason Dell, or HP, or E-machines run the way they do is cuz the use very cheap stuff, At least they did on my E-machine. Every thing was running through the motherboard and the MoBo was junk. It couldn't even run UT. It had a P3 1 GHz and took almost 20 hours to crunch a Seti WU. I took the chip out, put it in an Asus board and started crunching Seti WU in 8 Hrs and playing UT like mad. I look at what those "gaming" companies charge for their systems, and I usually can build the same thing for much cheaper. I would spend the extra money if I didn't know how to insure for myself that I was buying parts that were compatible with each other, or if I didn't know any better, like when I spend money on a system that couldn't even do what I bought it for. I can build cheaper than they can buy, but mine who't have an "Alienware" badge on it. If that means something to you or you don't care about the money, try them. Anyone with some research and time could build the exact system that performs as well as or better than what Falcon or ABC puts out. Sorry about the spelling and the length. Hope I helped.

 

[BalliN]

Man, IMO you could juss get you an NF7-S v2.0 board and a barton 2500+ proc get you some good ram pc3200 ddr 400 and OC the thing to 3200 speed (juss up the fsb from 166x11 to 200x11) and you should be able to out preform that thing and save some cash.


Peace,

BalliN

 

[BalliN]

.........and with the money you save you could upgrade the video card to a 9800pro and it should be a really nice gaming pc.

Peace,

BalliN

 

[Mico]

So basically I was correct in that there is nothing one can change on a stock mobo, aside from overclocking, that could greatly affect a machines ability to game well.

 

[CCW]

So basically I was correct in that there is nothing one can change on a stock mobo, aside from overclocking, that could greatly affect a machines ability to game well.

The difference between a cheap motherboard and a expensive motherboard is the components used to make the board for example when the NF7 came out people were claiming that it had a 1000 point advantage over the 8RDA in 3dMark 01. The only thing this company could do with the board, is overclock. They could bump up the FSB, tighten memory timings but there is nothing else they can actually do to the board. They are trying to catch the average Joe out, "thats PCs better as its modified to be better for gaming, lets get that one!"

Craig

 

[BalliN]

There are other mods that you could do to increase voltages on the board for a higher OC, but in general the most people do is change settings in bios inorder to increase the performance of proc speed, ram speed, fsb. If you look Here seems to me they are saying that they do not oc there systems because it voids warrenties on parts and they leave that up to you.

So if you go with the NF7-S and the barton 2500+, juss slightly oc the thing and you'll be out doing that system for sure.

Anyways juss my $.02


Peace,

BalliN

 

[David]

The Falcon system will also offer tech support, cover the cost of the OS (dont know if you took that into consideration) plus any other software it comes with.

Its cheaper to build them a rig yourself which will perform on par/better than the Falcon rig but remember that if you build it you may get loads of phone calls asking for help with it....

 

[BalliN]

but remember that if you build it you may get loads of phone calls asking for help with it....

Very true

Peace,

BalliN

 

[CCW]

There are other mods that you could do to increase voltages on the board for a higher OC, but in general the most people do is change settings in bios inorder to increase the performance of proc speed, ram speed, fsb.

These are volt mods, basically a low resistance resisitor is added so the voltage can be raised further than the BIOS allows. These are only so people can overclcok higher, raising voltge doesnt increase performance but raising the voltage for a higher overclcok will increase performance due to the higher overclock.

Craig

 

[Mico]

I know about the phone calls...she is a very close friend, and very computer literate. I'm at her house every day (literaly) so service would not be an issure =)

 

[eab]

Would you be doing more then "serviceing" the computer?