Computer Upgrade Topic 2
  • CheezzypoofCheezzypoof December 2007
    I would also like some advice on what to get. Here is what I had in mind so far.

    CPU
    AMD Phenom 9600
    http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16819103225

    Motherboard
    Gigabyte
    http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16813128070

    Video Card
    ATI HD3870
    http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16814102713

    Hard Drive
    Seagate 500gb 32mb cache
    http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16822148288

    Here were my thoughts, the Phenom 9600 does not perform upto Intel Quad-core processors, but it is priced for performance. I read a review on Tomshardware.com that said it performs like 13% below intels competing quadcore, and is priced 13% below as well. AMD supposedly says their next chipset ~2009 will be compatible on the AM2+ motherboards. So this motherboard would be a ~5-6 yr investment. Im not a heavy downloader, and all I have now is a 200gig HD with 100gig's full. Also that was the only 500gig HD i found with a 32mb cache that was a reasonable price. The video card performs just under the 8800GTX, and is half the price. I plan to put a 2nd video card in once the computer is up and running.

    Feel free to comment on that, here is where I'm having issues.
    RAM- DDR2 1066 is what I need, I'd like to start with 4gb, possibly 8 later if I need it. I would like to do the 4 gigs with 2 sticks, any suggestions anybody?

    I've been using a 550w power supply, not sure if this will be enough.

    I think I want a 64-bit copy of vista, is this a terrible idea?

    I have an old Audigy sound card I have been using, is there a reason for me to buy the X-fi 7.1 sound card? My sound system is http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/review829.html.

    I have NO experience with SATA and RAID. How would I go about installing this hard drive?

    Thanks for any comments and help.
  • cutchinscutchins December 2007
    SATA is not any harder to install than IDE, depending on your motherboard. for mine i had to put drivers on a floppy and put the floppy in the PC during the installation of windows. idk if that's necessary in vista, and i don't think it's always that way with every mobo. i've never used raid so i can't help there but i do know i have a utility that came with my mobo that's supposed to make it all very easy.
  • mfarrmfarr December 2007
    Only thing I can say is that 4 gigs of RAM, especially 8, seems unnecessary at this point. From all of the performance tests I have seen for games(including Crysis) anything above 2 gigs doesn't see any performance gain.
  • CheezzypoofCheezzypoof December 2007
    well i bought the computer.
    Intel Q6600 - Quad core 2.4ghz
    Abit IP35E - Only one PCI x16 but the board is very overclockable
    BFG 8800 GT OC.
    Seagate 500 gig HD w/ 32mb cache 7200 RPM
    Creative X-Fi gaming sound card
    2 gigs DDR2 800 Corsair XMS2
    Rosewill 750w power supply.

    Plan to get the CPU to atleast 3.0ghz if not 3.2.

    Also bought an aftermarket arctic cooling cpu heatsink and fan, and a northbridge heatsink and fan. This system should be solid for quite awhile.
  • cutchinscutchins December 2007
    that is a monster, i hate you
  • maliskmalisk January 2008
    Im planning on upgrading. How do you like your Quad core? Any advice before I get one?
  • TrueBelieverTrueBeliever January 2008
    I heard the Intel Core 2 Quads are better than the AMD true Quads right now
  • maliskmalisk January 2008
    Ya, but I've also read that investing in a quad core isn't worth it due to extra power consumption and only an average of 5% increase in performance (according to Toms Hardware). Some say there will be more multi-threaded programs in the future to take advantage of the extra cores but when I decided to go for a 64 bit CPU I was thinking there were going to be more 64 bit based programs but I'm fairly certain I've never run any on my computer. Now I might just go with a core 2 duo rather than a quad.
  • GachiGachi January 2008
    4gb's of ram is just perfect for Vista, seeing it's graphical interface eats it up hard.
  • CheezzypoofCheezzypoof February 2008
    The computer has been working out great. Your right that there is the extra power consumption, but I believe its something like an extra $50 a year if your running your computer 24/7. Don't quote me on that. I've been playing all my usual games flawlessly, and all other tasks are a breeze as well. My 2.4 ghz chip is overclocked to 3.4 ghz though, so thats a rather large difference.

    And yeah I originally invested in a 64 bit chip, and nothing happened with that.... but programs are starting to actually roll out with multithreading support.
  • TrueBelieverTrueBeliever February 2008
    QUOTE (Cheezzypoof @ Feb 1 2008, 09:55 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    And yeah I originally invested in a 64 bit chip, and nothing happened with that.... but programs are starting to actually roll out with multithreading support.

    How much hotter is the chip running? Big or small difference?
  • maliskmalisk February 2008
    Pretty sure I'm just going to go with a faster Core 2 duo, especially since they just came out with their 45nm cores which means higher overclocking and lower temp.
  • ebolaebola February 2008
    As a warning, the new .11 32mbs have a bad firmware and high rate of failure. If you hear squeaking in two weeks, you'll know what I'm talking about. But if you're the lucky others that get a well-made one, kudos, you now have one of the fastest 7200 rpm drives.
  • CheezzypoofCheezzypoof February 2008
    QUOTE (Tom @ Feb 12 2008, 11:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    As a warning, the new .11 32mbs have a bad firmware and high rate of failure. If you hear squeaking in two weeks, you'll know what I'm talking about. But if you're the lucky others that get a well-made one, kudos, you now have one of the fastest 7200 rpm drives.


    2 months later, I don't even hear my computer run. 250mm fans FTW, unless they die of course.
  • maliskmalisk February 2008
    Anyone know what the performance increase is going from a 7200 RPM HD to a 15000 RPM one?
  • ebolaebola February 2008
    you have scsi on your motherboard? thats ridiculous. its halves the seek/write/latency times
  • maliskmalisk February 2008
    No, but since I'm planning on updating my comp I figure I might as well look into getting the best of everything (within my budget that is, and $140 for a 35 gig 15000RPM HD really doesn't sound too bad to me). My theory is that if I just keep my current HDs for storage and get a High RPM HD for windows and my games to run on, things will run a lot snappier.

    Although...am I mistaken thinking that a MoBo with SCSI will be easy to find?

    EDIT:Hmmm...nevermind. SCSI is only on server boards, and none of which supports core 2 duo.
  • ebolaebola February 2008
    Just overclocked my new stuff and so far no more blue screens.

    ECS KA3 MVP
    AMD 5400+ X2 @ 3.0GHz
    A-Data 1Gb X2 @ 4-4-4-12 1.9v 430MHz dual channel enabled
    ATI Radeon HD 3850 512Mb @ 720MHz Core 880MHz Memory

    Catalyst wouldn't t let me go higher image/sad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad.gif" />
    Runs Crysis @ 12fps in Very High 1280x800, 18fps in High 1280x800, 33fps in High 848x600 47fps in Medium 1024x768 AAx8
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