o0o, Nice indeed. I baught a second arsonal for my custom case im building. It goe's something like:
AMD AM2 4600+ (2.4GHz AMD 64Bit Processor)
Asus SLi Delux Motherboard
nVidia GeForce 7950GT 512 x1 (Saving for the other one.)
1GB Corsair DDR2 RAM x2
HDA Xplosion DTS 7.1 Surround Sound Card (F*cking amazing card)
Eventualy im going to cluster two of the above systems effectivly utilizing the preformance of both in one machine Baowulf style.
Tyrael:
That sounds like you have something burnt out in your system, it can be incompatability aswell. Like plugging a AGP card into a PCI-Express slot. I nearly fried a system plugging in an old Creative Sound Blaster 5.1 card into a newer Motherboard. I saw what you described (coloured artifacts) it could also be your RAM. Does it do it with no GPU inserted? or if you place your old one in does it do it?
If it does, try removing one RAM stick at a time and booting up to see if the problem stops. if you have installed any other hardware before the Graphics card remove that first and see what happens. if all that fails, is your PC completely inclosed?.
EDIT:
Custom is cheaper if you shop smart. Conserning motherboards I believe the only 3 choices are Gigabyte, Asus and MSI. And is a preference thing, what are you going to use it for? Keep in mind too; this is the heart of your computer, so dont cheap out with your motherboard. (for example Asrock (Ass rock))
If you want it for Gaming, consider SLi/Crossfire(radeons Sli Equivalent). However you dont NEED SLi most of the high end GPU's (Graphics Processing Unit) today run any game off the shelf on maximum settings without a hitch.
And go AMD (Socket 939). Or if your a digital editor go for the latest Intel chips. (AMD will run one application faster than the application can supply resources however Intel will run several at a lower speed but more stable, Good for editors).
And regarding GPU's you just need to pick what suites your tastes.
Radeon: Runs Blazing fast but costs you on cooling especialy if you want to overclock.
nVidia: 90% of the cards run blazing fast aswell if you pick your model and driver right. And cooling is rarely an issue. All you realy require for a top end nVidia card is a decent power supply and your set. Though SLi will indeed start too generate heat, so you may need to splash some cash. However this can be resolved in most cases with just additional and well possitioned fans.
I would recomend;
AMD CPU Pick your poison (socket 939)
Gigabyte motherboard (Socket 939, SLi or standard PCI-Express)
nVidia GeForce 7 Series GPU (I would suggest 7600 +)
And what ever you feel is decent for a sound card. (Keep in mind however, dont buy old Sound cards you could end up with problems)
Edit again:
420, try these nVidia drivers out. I saw a 10 frames boost after installing them. And they also enable Transparent Antianilising on older cards and newer cards : p (nVidia didnt like that)
Windows 32BitWindows 64BitMay I suggest cleaning your old drivers from your system first aswell. Causes some people problems after a while:
Driver CleanerXen.
