Computer Components CPU
#1
Posted 08 January 2008 - 04:05 PM
#2
Posted 10 January 2008 - 01:42 AM
Personally, I prefer Intel processor's over AMD's. Regardless, a 3.2Ghz dual core processor will have plenty of power.
But, first, tell me if you have a motherboard picked out. If not, tell me your price limit for a processor and I'll look for a good one.
#4
Posted 10 January 2008 - 03:04 AM
Also, you can't pick a CPU just on it's clock speed, or the size of the cache's. You have to look at the FSB speed. You could have a quad core CPU running at 3+Ghz, and it'll suck if it has a FSB speed of say, 100Mhz. Luckily though, no one's been stupid enough to make a processor like that. :P
But the first thing to do, is to find a motherboard with a good chipset, one that has the right amount of PCI/AGP/PCI-E/whatever slots for what you're doing, and one that has a decent FSB speed support.
If you can, give me a link to where you found your motherboard.
[EDIT] I did some looking around, and it looks like that even AMD's new Phenom processor's don't beat Intel's, except for in a few situations. The Intel CPU's outperform in most cases. I'd get an Intel board if I were you.
#5
Posted 10 January 2008 - 07:11 AM
Sure, AMD's parts do not stack up to the current Intel parts, but if you've bought parts and can't return them, then don't worry about it and just keep going. AMD now makes it's own chipsets, and nVidia still makes excellent chipsets for AMD CPUs as well. If you give us your budget and the model number of the CPU you bought (e.g., X2 6000+), then we can probably give you some suggestions.
#6
Posted 10 January 2008 - 03:55 PM
Yeah I got the motherboard with the CPU (I should of said so before) here the info:
Audio Output
Audio Codec
Realtek ALC889A
Compliant Standards
DTS Connect
High Definition Audio
Sound Output Mode
7.1 channel surround
Type
Sound card
Cache Memory
Type
None
Header
Compatibility
PC
Model
GA-MA790X-DS4
Packaged Quantity
1
Product Line
Gigabyte
Key Information
Audio
High Definition Audio (8-channel)
FireWire
FireWire
FireWire Ports Configuration
3 x FireWire
Network
2 x Gigabit Ethernet
Storage
ATA-133
Serial ATA-300 (RAID)
Storage Ports Configuration
1 x ATA, 4 x SATA
USB Ports Configuration
10 x USB
Mainboard
64-bit Processors Compatibility
Built-in
BIOS Type
Award
Chipset Type
AMD 790X
Compatible Processors
Athlon 64
Athlon 64 FX
Athlon 64 X2
Opteron 1000 series
Phenom
Phenom FX
Sempron
Data Bus Speed
2600 MHz
Form Factor
ATX
I/O Controller
ATI SB600
Multi-Core Support
Dual-Core
Power Connectors
24-pin main power connector
4-pin ATX12V connector
8-pin ATX12V connector
Processor Socket
Socket AM2+
Supported RAM Integrity Check
ECC
Supported RAM Speed
PC2-5300
PC2-6400
PC2-8500
Supported RAM Technology
DDR II SDRAM
Mainboard Features
Additional Connectors (Optional)
2 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
4 x Hi-Speed USB
BIOS Features
ACPI 1.0b support
DMI 2.0 support
SMBIOS 2.4 support
Hardware Features
ATI CrossFireX technology support
Chassis intrusion detection
Q-Flash
Quad BIOS
Silent-Pipe
Manual Settings
Chipset voltage
CPU frequency
Processor core voltage
Miscellaneous
Compatibility
AMD LIVE! Ready
Compliant Standards
Plug and Play
RoHS
Modem
Type
None
Networking
Data Link Protocol
Ethernet
Fast Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet
Network Controller
Realtek RTL8111B
Type
Network adapter
RAM
Features
Two DDR channels
Max ram Supported Size
16 GB
Controller Interface Type
Serial ATA II/DMA/ATA-133/ATA-100(Ultra)
ATI crossfire X technology. PCI-e 2.0
dual pci-e 2.0 graphic interface (8x2)
DDR2 1066
One thing I'm never sure of is the chipsets on the box it has: 790X chipsets (also before i start building I bought a guide on how to build PC's since it gives good info on PSU statics and graphics cards since the confuse me most, before I started building but i still don't understand the chipsets). Overall I know RAMS, sound cards and other parts to a pc and osftware is easy to set up in the BIOS so that part is covered.
My budget for certain parts vary my budget for the motherboard and cpu was 200 pounds max (maybe a little higher for motherboard).
The CPU: 3.2 Ghz clocking speed. 2000MHz Hypertransport, 2MB L2 Cache AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core processor 6400 +
#7
Posted 10 January 2008 - 07:56 PM
Anyway, most of my experience is with Intel stuff, but I know a bit about AMD's too, so I might be of some help.
But, from what I've found, you MIGHT have problems using using a RAID configuration on this board, because it's southbridge (SB600) doesn't like RAID that much (apparently. I've only found one refrence to that), but it is supposed to support RAID. Not sure what's going on there. If worse comes to worse, you shouldn't have problems just using a normal configuration though.
The board also has decent overclocking capabilities, with a maximum supported CPU voltage of 2.3 volts. 4 slots for 240 Pin DDR2 SDRAM running at up to 1066Mhz, and a max FSB speed of 2600Mhz. It looks like a pretty good board. It should run pretty quick with 2GB of RAM and that processor you've got.
However, it doesn't look like it supports quad core CPU's, but that might be incorrect, as the Phenom is the first AMD processor to have 4 cores (it also comes in dual core models though), and it just recently came out. It's supposed to fit that socket though.
Anyway, it looks like you need a
- Hard Drive: I'd suggest Seagate as a brand.
- RAM: Kingston has a REALLY nice deal that comes with most of their sticks. As long as they still support the model you're using, they'll replace your RAM free for life ANY time it breaks down. So if a stick dies on you for some reason, no worries.
- Graphics Card: I'm a fan of Nvidia myself, but you should probably go with a Radeon since this board supports Crossfire instead of SLi (Nvidia's version of Crossfire), which is great if you're going to use more than one GPU.
- Power Supply: I don't really have any reccomendations here, and it sounds like your book has you pretty covered. But I'd suggest getting a 1000W power supply or more if you plan on upgradeing in the future.
- CD/DVD Drive: I've got a Sony one that's never had any problems at all.
- Optional: Floppy drive. I'd get this if you have extra space in your case. Floppy's come in handy for a number of things.
#8
Posted 10 January 2008 - 08:35 PM
#9
Posted 10 January 2008 - 08:54 PM
You could make boot disks with CD's, but it's easier to make them with floppy's. But I'd only add a floppy in there if you've got space to spare.
#10
Posted 12 January 2008 - 08:04 AM
All the other suggestions here sound fine. You might want to post your final parts list before you hit checkout.
#11
Posted 12 January 2008 - 04:03 PM
#12
Posted 13 January 2008 - 07:06 AM
#13
Posted 30 January 2008 - 12:25 PM
or this one: cheaper but less powerful: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....&subcat=416
Also helpful if you can find me others because the first one is going to hurt my wallet 0_o
#14
Posted 30 January 2008 - 11:50 PM
#15
Posted 31 January 2008 - 07:07 AM
#16
Posted 31 January 2008 - 07:44 AM
Yeah I thought the same, the more you pay the better I'm guessing.
So now what to pick, also do motherboards limit on what kind of grahpics I use? mines a 16X slot
With ati crossfire support, true it supports it but for the looks of it, it can't use Nvida or can it?
Its PCi-express so I think it could
#17
Posted 31 January 2008 - 10:10 AM
You can use any PCI-Express card with that motherboard, which is basically any card made in the past 2-3 years. Again, if you post your budget, we may be able to give some suggestions.
#18
Posted 31 January 2008 - 10:59 AM
So if you're going with Nvidia, it's either the 8800 GT, or the 8800 Ultra (for a whopping $1000).
I'm still looking at reviews for ATI cards, so I'll probably have something a later today.
[EDIT] I got the 6666th post in the Technology & Computers forum....^_^
[EDIT 2] Alright, here's some results I've found. Thes first ones here are for the Asus ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1024MB you were interested in. Obviously, a higher score is better.
http://www.fpslabs.com/images/stories/reviews/tgribble/r680/shoes_r680_3dmark.jpg
http://www.fpslabs.com/images/stories/reviews/tgribble/r680/shoes_r680_crysis.jpg
http://www.fpslabs.com/images/stories/reviews/tgribble/r680/shoes_r680_bioshock9.jpg
http://www.fpslabs.com/images/stories/reviews/tgribble/r680/shoes_r680_bioshock10.jpg
I included the DirectX 9 and 10 version results so you can see what you'll get if you use XP over Vista.
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 (1024MB)
Core Clock: 825MHz
Memory Clock:1800MHz
Memory Type: GDDR3
Memory interface: 256Bit (x2)
Memory capacity: 1024MB
Manufacture Process: 55nm
Transistor Count: ~1333 Million
Math Processing Rate: 994 GFLOPS
Shaders: 640
Standard Shader Model: 4.1 (Vista Only)
Standard DirectX Version: 10.1 (Vista Only)
128-Bit HDR Lighting
8192x8192 HR Textures
Interface: PCIe 2.0
As you can see, the 8800GTS (512MB) outperforms the Radeon HD 3870 X2 (1024MB) for about the same price. Also, keep in mind, the 8800GTS (512MB) scores higher than the 8800GT in the tests because the 8800GT has half the memory. The standard 8800GTS however, does not outperform the 8800GT as shown in the test.
Also note that the benchmark was done before ATI released drivers that were optomized for Crysis, so that's one reason why the GTS mopped the floor with the X2. However, the GTS (512MB) still outperformed the X2 (1024MB) in everything excpet for 3D Mark '06, which ATI cards usually do better in. But, the GTS (512) still does better in real use applications.
But, as you can see, you'll be getting a lot more bang for your buck by going with the 8800GTS (512MB) over the HD 3870 X2 (1024MB).
Link to the article this information was found in.
I'm too tired to go through and do the other card, but here's a link to a review for it.
#19
Posted 02 February 2008 - 03:21 PM
here the page im buying from: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist....6&subid=927
So does the more I pay the better still work or should I compare because I think thats the best with this website :D
Oh also iv bought a new CPU and sold the other one, iv got is a AMD Phenom Quad Core 9600 Black Edition (Socket AM2) when i bought it it didn't say it does quad core but Phenom is the new quad core, I also think there isn't a duo version of it either so i think its model is just a quad, I also looked around abd found more info about my motherboard and yeah it does quad cores! So now iv got a quad core XD
True Quad-core Desktop Processor
- Unlocked Multiplier for the ultimate overclocking flexibility
- 2.3Ghz clock speed
- 2mb L2 cache
- 2mb L3 cache
- DDR2-1066 support
- 65nm process technology
- Integrated Memory Controller
- Fast Hypertransport 3.0 technology
- Cool & Quiet v2.0
Once I get graphic card out of the way, I think everything come s a little cheaper.
But thank you for the info Toasty, that really did help, graphcis card confuse me very much:) And thank you Max, your both a great help XD next will be RAm i think? any suggestions?
#20
Posted 03 February 2008 - 02:44 AM
As for the graphics card, I'd suggest a factory overclocked 8800GT over the 512MB GTS. It's cheaper and will most likely offer the same performance.
NewEgg has some good offers, they even have an 8800GT with a gig of ram for about $300. Take a look.
But yes, your CPU is a quad core. Specs for it can also be found here.
#21
Posted 03 February 2008 - 07:03 AM
#22
Posted 03 February 2008 - 10:34 AM
.eugine, on Jan 12 2008, 05:03 PM, said:
I was hesitant to buy a floppy drive so I bought a 13-in-1 card reader that has a floppy drive slot. It was 35 bucks and now I have everything I could ever need, input wise.
As for the graphics card, I feel the best value/performance ratio is the 8800GT 512MB. It costs between 250 and 350 and outperforms the 8800GTS. If that doesn't fit your budget, the 8600GT is a good budget card but isn't incredibly powerful, but you get what you pay for, of course.
Personally, I decided a couple years ago, to buy the 7900GS. It performs about the same as the 8600GT but it doesn't have DX10. I was running Windows XP at the time so DX10 wasn't available to me anyways. The 7900 model has been discontinued, AFAIK, but you may consider buying a cheaper card for the now and upgrading to the latest and greatest when you have more money (and not building the whole computer). The 8600GT is a good candidate for this, if you can find it cheaper than $200.
#23
Posted 04 February 2008 - 12:09 AM
The search selections are off to the left. The 8600GT goes for about $100 or less, and the GTS for $210 or less. Though the $210 one is factory superclocked, so you get extra performance, and still get a warranty.