Recommendations on new build
pigflipper
The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
Ok, the time has come in the next 30-60 days to rebuild the core of my gaming rig: cpu, motherboard, ram, video and psu.
My budget is ~$700 (though I could probably swing another $100 if needed). I do not need: harddrives, cd/dvd drive, keyboard, mouse, or monitor.
I am really quite lost about the current generation of hardware; this build originally dates to 2004 with some of the RAM coming from an xp2500 build. After a partial rebuild in 2006, I stopped paying attention to the hardware world. Also, I do not care about overclocking anymore, doesn't interest me like it used to back in the day.
Right now I am looking at the Phenom X4 as a possible CPU and the new HD5000 series for video.
Current Build:
XP4200 X2
Asus nforce4 SLI mobo
1gig OCZ DDR400 (other gig died on me suddenly, system won't even boot with it in)
2x7900GT in SLI
550w Antec PSU
My budget is ~$700 (though I could probably swing another $100 if needed). I do not need: harddrives, cd/dvd drive, keyboard, mouse, or monitor.
I am really quite lost about the current generation of hardware; this build originally dates to 2004 with some of the RAM coming from an xp2500 build. After a partial rebuild in 2006, I stopped paying attention to the hardware world. Also, I do not care about overclocking anymore, doesn't interest me like it used to back in the day.
Right now I am looking at the Phenom X4 as a possible CPU and the new HD5000 series for video.
Current Build:
XP4200 X2
Asus nforce4 SLI mobo
1gig OCZ DDR400 (other gig died on me suddenly, system won't even boot with it in)
2x7900GT in SLI
550w Antec PSU
0
Comments
AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz $160
DFI LANParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 AM3 AMD 790FX ATX $140
OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $84
SAPPHIRE 100282SR Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported $260
Total Cost before shipping (if any): $644
I really need this below $600 if possible, apparently I was off the mark with the $700 budget. What could be changed out to drop the price? I already, after checking the actual unit, a recent OCZ 700w PSU and going to keep this case I have for the time being (Lian-Li PC1000).
1600x1200, but I run @ 1280x1024 for most things. The monitor is a ViewSonic G90f.
PM me if your interested.
Since you will be targeting 30-60 days purchase window, you can still stay in the $600 budget if you order the parts as you catch deals on the internet. Also, it will help with catching those deals if you have alternative brands for memory, motherboard, and graphics card in mind. For example you can keep GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P as an alternative to your current board. It already saves you $40. You can check Powercolor, ASUS, etc brands for GPU, and Corsair, Gskill, A-Data, etc brands for RAM. Again, I would not go with anything less than X4.
The last one, graphics, is a linear thread which cannot readily be dispatched to idle cores: The whole chunk goes, or none of it goes. It cannot be split and reassembled at the end. This is why CPU makers and GPU makers alike are diving into fine-grained threading to pull the precious few threads that can be parallelized onto other cores or stream processors. These efforts are being met with limited success.
Combine the technological limitations of code execution with a collegiate computer science environment which does not readily teach multi-threading best practices, and the whole industry isn't moving towards quad core all that quickly.
Tips For Multithreaded, Multicore Game Development, from AMD. Especially check the topics on Granularity.
http://developer.amd.com/documentation/articles/pages/222007121.aspx
http://developer.amd.com/documentation/articles/Pages/522007168.aspx
I bought a 720 and couldn't be happier.:tongue2:
/me shrugs.
Brand suggestions should not be about preference. It should be about facts, budget, and usage.
My point exactly.;) My budget was 300.
Otherwise though, I'd agree, you'll be fine running an X3. I do second the Gigabyte board suggestion though. I'm so in love with the Gigabyte UltraDurable boards, it's almost sickening.
Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition
DFI LANParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 motherboard
OCZ Gold AMD Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Having trouble, like most people, finding an HD5850 for sale. I have three of them listed for auto-notify from Newegg, so hopefully sometime in the next week I can get one ordered.
Haven't gotten a HD5850 yet, buggers are hard as hell to find. This is a major step up, even running the 7900GT instead of the HD5850 that I want, badly.
Also, stable now with one 2gig stick @ 8-8-8-24 1.65v 1333mhz. Going to drop the other stick back in next reboot.
To effectively flash a DFI board you need a USB thumb drive and you need to format it with a utility listed on the DFI site, load the files, and set it to boot from USB. Its significantly more trouble than running a utility in windows but it gets the job done.
In my limited experience with DFI boards I would say they are not very user friendly, but they easily have the most tweakable BIOS I have ever seen.
I always flash every board in DOS.