Its that time again.

Lost · 03-28-2010, 09:36 PM

I need to dredge up the help of you techites to find out what is hot and what is not.

Starting with CPU, I'm torn between an i7 and a Phenom II X4. The AMD tech seems to be have dropped the price by a shitload but I don't know if they're comparable. Is the new Phenom shit on par with the i7 or does it match with the older, but still good, Core 2 Quads?

Core i7-920 Bloomfield
Phenom II X4 955 or the 965 version

I've always had encounters with my AMD CPU's running hot so I figure an aftermarket heatsink is mandatory if i go that way.

I've always had good luck with MSI and ASUS motherboards, not worried about that too terribly much. Newegg doesn't have any good deals for mobo/cpu combos right now unless I want to make an Athlon dual core rig. Nope.

That means vid cards, and I see a lot of heated controversy between nVidia and ATI but is there pros and cons for either? Again, I've used both and actually, I've still got the old ass 9200 running in a spare comp that we've had for, uhh, 8 years? or near that.

I've got around $1,000 to play with right now, so I figured I'd nix the separate sound card, go with a single graphics card for the time being and wait a while to replace my aging keyboard to allow me to get the most out of the rest of it.

Lost · 03-28-2010, 11:28 PM

So here's my initial setup based on AMD and ATI. Really, mobo and PSU are my primary concerns, shit changes so fast there that I'm not really sure what's good anymore.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz
GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Antec 1200 full tower
Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3

I'm still on the fence concerning RAM. There's a pretty big price difference between the DDR3 PC3 12800 and the PC3 10666, on average of $20 per stick it looked like, at least with the brands I'm familiar with. Does it make that big of a difference in performance? I also seem to be able to save a little bit by only needing dual channel with the AMD setup rather than triple channel.

If I end up with enough leftover $$$ I'll get GIGABYTE GV-R583UD-1GD Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16. I did notice it doesn't include that it has CrossfiireX support, so does that mean running two of them is not possible? If so, then I'll shop for something else.

Mooga · 03-29-2010, 06:07 AM

For the time being, ATI does seem like the best option. The new nVidia cards are said to be about the same (if not a little worse) then ATI's DX11 cards.

While I'm sure you're smart enough to know this...

If you are going with Windows, INSTALL 64-BIT WINDOWS 7. Some damn script kiddies still think you are better off with 32-bit XP... don't fall for their bullshit. After the hours of hacking together XP to work, you'll end up going up to Win7 so you can actually use your ram.

Lost · 03-29-2010, 02:45 PM

Yep, was going straight for Win7, either home or pro depending on whichever I can buy at my university or through a friend. I know for a fact that TU in Tulsa has Win7 home for $15. I've actually been looking forward to it after reading the beta thread on here on its utility and shit. DX11 is a nice bonus but I fuckin love the fast alt-tabbing. <3

Mooga · 03-29-2010, 05:23 PM

Is this your school? http://msdn07.e-academy.com/elms/Sto...s=tulte_inftec

Lost · 03-29-2010, 05:59 PM

Nope, http://www.nsuba.edu

They don't have their catalog online, unfortunately, so I'll just check next time I'm on campus.

Credge · 03-29-2010, 09:04 PM

I was thinking of upgrading to a DX11 card now that I'm on Windows 7 but I'm going to wait a good bit until the prices drop or enough games support it to warrant a big purchase.

It also might be a good idea to wait just a wee bit to see how those DX11 cards pan out. From my experience with adopting early, it sucks.

Mooga · 03-30-2010, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lost

Nope, http://www.nsuba.edu

They don't have their catalog online, unfortunately, so I'll just check next time I'm on campus.

Check out the MSDNAA website. You can search for your school.

Lost · 03-30-2010, 05:21 AM

Dug through it and it looks like my school is part of that, so that'll save me $100, hopefully.

So, done with most of my researching and this all looks pretty damned compatible. Decided to go with 4GB of DDR3 2000 rather than 6 GB of 1333 or the 1066 stuff. Dunno how big of a performance change that would make but I will add more RAM later on. I did notice that with that board I lose speed with every stick of memory I add over 2 but I imagine getting a mobo that allows 2 GHz for 4x2GB sticks wouldn't be that cheap.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz
GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Antec 1200 full tower
Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3
GIGABYTE GV-R577UD-1GD Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000)
Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA

Mooga · 03-30-2010, 01:23 PM

I LOVE the Antec cases (I got the 900 myself before they released the other gaming models).

I would recomend getting a cheaper 1TB drive and also adding a smaller drive for your OS.

Also, you can fit that in a midtower if you wanted to.

Lost · 03-30-2010, 03:34 PM

I thought I had a few smaller SATA drives stored but they seem to have walked off. I didn't do much digging on HDs really, found one under $100 and picked it.

HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.C $20 cheaper with same disk speed. Can't say I've ever used Hitachi though, always Seagate or WD.

And yah, optimally, I'd like to put the OS on a separate drive but I'd rather put the saved money into other parts at the moment. Is it worth partitioning these big ass drives to increase total available volume? Or does that even help anymore?

Lost · 03-31-2010, 09:35 PM

Phuck me running, my school doesn't participate with the Windows 7 part of the MSDNAA, only Office. I can join the IEEE and buy it cheap that way it seems but I'm not in an engineering program, although I do have to do technical writing specifications for my major and that is an option available when signing up.

Mooga · 04-01-2010, 01:40 AM

Office? Lucky,we only get OS and programing tools.
You can sign up for technet... For a year like this with lots of new software it's a great deal. I think it's about 300 bucks and you get all the OSs, Offices, and Programing Tools that you could ever want.

Lost · 04-01-2010, 02:48 AM

Through the community college here we get Office 2007 free, so paying $150 for it as a student discount is more than shitty.

Since I'll only need Win7 (I don't program), it'd be cheaper for me to just buy an OEM copy from Newegg. I've asked a buddy who is runs his own computer building and repair shop if he can get discounted OS's, so maybe that'll pan out.

Lost · 04-07-2010, 04:51 PM

I found our MSDNAA supervisor but I'm required to be actively enrolled in an IT or CS class to participate in the program. Since I'm needing the software now rather than later, I just purchased the Win7 Pro upgrade from the ultimate steal offer MS is running. Saves me around $50 through retailers, so I guess it's not all a loss. Free would have been better though.

moosh · 04-07-2010, 07:40 PM

The solution was in your signature all along.

Lost · 04-09-2010, 03:43 AM

Yah, it's always been my go-to when I needed it but not this time. I don't usually "borrow" when I can afford it unless the software costs far more than its worth.

I did get a nice system out of this shit though, now I've got to learn the basics of overclocking and RAM timing/voltages so I can get more out of it.

03-28-2010, 09:36 PM	#1
Lost Fear teh crowbar. Retired FF Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oklahoma Gametype: CTF ftw, yeh Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Its that time again. I need to dredge up the help of you techites to find out what is hot and what is not. Starting with CPU, I'm torn between an i7 and a Phenom II X4. The AMD tech seems to be have dropped the price by a shitload but I don't know if they're comparable. Is the new Phenom shit on par with the i7 or does it match with the older, but still good, Core 2 Quads? Core i7-920 Bloomfield Phenom II X4 955 or the 965 version I've always had encounters with my AMD CPU's running hot so I figure an aftermarket heatsink is mandatory if i go that way. I've always had good luck with MSI and ASUS motherboards, not worried about that too terribly much. Newegg doesn't have any good deals for mobo/cpu combos right now unless I want to make an Athlon dual core rig. Nope. That means vid cards, and I see a lot of heated controversy between nVidia and ATI but is there pros and cons for either? Again, I've used both and actually, I've still got the old ass 9200 running in a spare comp that we've had for, uhh, 8 years? or near that. I've got around $1,000 to play with right now, so I figured I'd nix the separate sound card, go with a single graphics card for the time being and wait a while to replace my aging keyboard to allow me to get the most out of the rest of it. __________________ Do what you want cuz a pirate is free! You are a pirate!

03-28-2010, 11:28 PM	#2
Lost Fear teh crowbar. Retired FF Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oklahoma Gametype: CTF ftw, yeh Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	So here's my initial setup based on AMD and ATI. Really, mobo and PSU are my primary concerns, shit changes so fast there that I'm not really sure what's good anymore. AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Antec 1200 full tower Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3 I'm still on the fence concerning RAM. There's a pretty big price difference between the DDR3 PC3 12800 and the PC3 10666, on average of $20 per stick it looked like, at least with the brands I'm familiar with. Does it make that big of a difference in performance? I also seem to be able to save a little bit by only needing dual channel with the AMD setup rather than triple channel. If I end up with enough leftover $$$ I'll get GIGABYTE GV-R583UD-1GD Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16. I did notice it doesn't include that it has CrossfiireX support, so does that mean running two of them is not possible? If so, then I'll shop for something else. __________________ Do what you want cuz a pirate is free! You are a pirate! Last edited by Lost; 03-29-2010 at 02:52 PM.

03-29-2010, 06:07 AM	#3
Mooga Colorless FTW D&A Member Beta Tester Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: A Small Box Affiliations: SRCDS.com Posts Rated Helpful 1 Times	For the time being, ATI does seem like the best option. The new nVidia cards are said to be about the same (if not a little worse) then ATI's DX11 cards. While I'm sure you're smart enough to know this... If you are going with Windows, INSTALL 64-BIT WINDOWS 7. Some damn script kiddies still think you are better off with 32-bit XP... don't fall for their bullshit. After the hours of hacking together XP to work, you'll end up going up to Win7 so you can actually use your ram. __________________ ~ Mooga ...w00t? SRCDS.com \| Twitter

03-29-2010, 02:45 PM	#4
Lost Fear teh crowbar. Retired FF Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oklahoma Gametype: CTF ftw, yeh Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Yep, was going straight for Win7, either home or pro depending on whichever I can buy at my university or through a friend. I know for a fact that TU in Tulsa has Win7 home for $15. I've actually been looking forward to it after reading the beta thread on here on its utility and shit. DX11 is a nice bonus but I fuckin love the fast alt-tabbing. <3 __________________ Do what you want cuz a pirate is free! You are a pirate!

03-29-2010, 05:23 PM	#5
Mooga Colorless FTW D&A Member Beta Tester Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: A Small Box Affiliations: SRCDS.com Posts Rated Helpful 1 Times	Is this your school? http://msdn07.e-academy.com/elms/Sto...s=tulte_inftec __________________ ~ Mooga ...w00t? SRCDS.com \| Twitter

03-29-2010, 05:59 PM	#6
Lost Fear teh crowbar. Retired FF Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oklahoma Gametype: CTF ftw, yeh Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Nope, http://www.nsuba.edu They don't have their catalog online, unfortunately, so I'll just check next time I'm on campus. __________________ Do what you want cuz a pirate is free! You are a pirate!

03-29-2010, 09:04 PM	#7
Credge FF Loremaster Beta Tester Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts Rated Helpful 4 Times	I was thinking of upgrading to a DX11 card now that I'm on Windows 7 but I'm going to wait a good bit until the prices drop or enough games support it to warrant a big purchase. It also might be a good idea to wait just a wee bit to see how those DX11 cards pan out. From my experience with adopting early, it sucks. __________________ "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" Ronald Reagan

03-30-2010, 05:21 AM	#9
Lost Fear teh crowbar. Retired FF Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oklahoma Gametype: CTF ftw, yeh Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Dug through it and it looks like my school is part of that, so that'll save me $100, hopefully. So, done with most of my researching and this all looks pretty damned compatible. Decided to go with 4GB of DDR3 2000 rather than 6 GB of 1333 or the 1066 stuff. Dunno how big of a performance change that would make but I will add more RAM later on. I did notice that with that board I lose speed with every stick of memory I add over 2 but I imagine getting a mobo that allows 2 GHz for 4x2GB sticks wouldn't be that cheap. AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Antec 1200 full tower Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3 GIGABYTE GV-R577UD-1GD Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA __________________ Do what you want cuz a pirate is free! You are a pirate!

03-30-2010, 01:23 PM	#10
Mooga Colorless FTW D&A Member Beta Tester Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: A Small Box Affiliations: SRCDS.com Posts Rated Helpful 1 Times	I LOVE the Antec cases (I got the 900 myself before they released the other gaming models). I would recomend getting a cheaper 1TB drive and also adding a smaller drive for your OS. Also, you can fit that in a midtower if you wanted to. __________________ ~ Mooga ...w00t? SRCDS.com \| Twitter

03-30-2010, 03:34 PM	#11
Lost Fear teh crowbar. Retired FF Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oklahoma Gametype: CTF ftw, yeh Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	I thought I had a few smaller SATA drives stored but they seem to have walked off. I didn't do much digging on HDs really, found one under $100 and picked it. HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.C $20 cheaper with same disk speed. Can't say I've ever used Hitachi though, always Seagate or WD. And yah, optimally, I'd like to put the OS on a separate drive but I'd rather put the saved money into other parts at the moment. Is it worth partitioning these big ass drives to increase total available volume? Or does that even help anymore? __________________ Do what you want cuz a pirate is free! You are a pirate!

03-31-2010, 09:35 PM	#12
Lost Fear teh crowbar. Retired FF Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oklahoma Gametype: CTF ftw, yeh Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Phuck me running, my school doesn't participate with the Windows 7 part of the MSDNAA, only Office. I can join the IEEE and buy it cheap that way it seems but I'm not in an engineering program, although I do have to do technical writing specifications for my major and that is an option available when signing up. __________________ Do what you want cuz a pirate is free! You are a pirate!

04-01-2010, 01:40 AM	#13
Mooga Colorless FTW D&A Member Beta Tester Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: A Small Box Affiliations: SRCDS.com Posts Rated Helpful 1 Times	Office? Lucky,we only get OS and programing tools. You can sign up for technet... For a year like this with lots of new software it's a great deal. I think it's about 300 bucks and you get all the OSs, Offices, and Programing Tools that you could ever want. __________________ ~ Mooga ...w00t? SRCDS.com \| Twitter

04-01-2010, 02:48 AM	#14
Lost Fear teh crowbar. Retired FF Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oklahoma Gametype: CTF ftw, yeh Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Through the community college here we get Office 2007 free, so paying $150 for it as a student discount is more than shitty. Since I'll only need Win7 (I don't program), it'd be cheaper for me to just buy an OEM copy from Newegg. I've asked a buddy who is runs his own computer building and repair shop if he can get discounted OS's, so maybe that'll pan out. __________________ Do what you want cuz a pirate is free! You are a pirate!

04-07-2010, 04:51 PM	#15
Lost Fear teh crowbar. Retired FF Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oklahoma Gametype: CTF ftw, yeh Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	I found our MSDNAA supervisor but I'm required to be actively enrolled in an IT or CS class to participate in the program. Since I'm needing the software now rather than later, I just purchased the Win7 Pro upgrade from the ultimate steal offer MS is running. Saves me around $50 through retailers, so I guess it's not all a loss. Free would have been better though. __________________ Do what you want cuz a pirate is free! You are a pirate!

04-07-2010, 07:40 PM	#16
moosh WhenNailGrenWillOut? Beta Tester Join Date: May 2009 Gametype: mp_prematch Affiliations: [:)] - Frag Happy, babe\| Posts Rated Helpful 29 Times	The solution was in your signature all along. __________________ [[ ff_hotfudge - bhop_theonlyone ]] "As the the new year approaches I await for it like an case of explosive fecalomania otherwise know as diareha or the massive shits. I am gripping the sides of the toilet as my stomach produces the first hollow thud out of the anus of the year to come." DarkeN_HellspawN

04-09-2010, 03:43 AM	#17
Lost Fear teh crowbar. Retired FF Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oklahoma Gametype: CTF ftw, yeh Posts Rated Helpful 6 Times	Yah, it's always been my go-to when I needed it but not this time. I don't usually "borrow" when I can afford it unless the software costs far more than its worth. I did get a nice system out of this shit though, now I've got to learn the basics of overclocking and RAM timing/voltages so I can get more out of it. __________________ Do what you want cuz a pirate is free! You are a pirate!

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