52 replies to this topic

[Seth Deathstalker]

Thanks for the clarification you two. Point taken.
One off the list
So, you could actually toast your bread on one of those Nvidia cards....

[Seth Deathstalker]

Just found that one:
http://www.tomshardw...rk,3120-10.html

Thought I'd toss it in for discussion.

Edited by Seth Deathstalker, 30 January 2012 - 09:44 AM.

[Catamount]

Seth Deathstalker, on 30 January 2012 - 09:22 AM, said:

So, you could actually toast your bread on one of those Nvidia cards....

Well let me put it this way, the word Guru3D used to describe the GTX 480's power consumption was "frightening", and the GTX590 consumes so much power, technically, it's not even a PCI Express compliant device, because it violates the PCIE standard!

Seth Deathstalker, on 30 January 2012 - 09:43 AM, said:

Just found that one:
http://www.tomshardw...rk,3120-10.html

Thought I'd toss it in for discussion.

Yeah, it's like CPUs are actually starting to matter again, which is making it worth one's time to spend more on one if the budget is there. It's still superseced by the GPU(s) in importance, but CPU speed does matter.

At this point, most decent CPUs offer fine performance, and the margins aren't huge so long as you at least have something equivalent to a higher clocked Phenom II x4 (or at least a low-end Sandy Bridge chip, like an i3-2100), but that's basically the minimum to game well. As time goes on, that bar will be raised.


I'm basically expecting serious obsolescence of my Phenom II x4 965 by about 2014. For now, it's not the fastest, but it's okay. When 2014 rolls around, and I hopefully have some money, I'll get either and AMD Excavator chip, or an Intel Haswell chip (If Intel thinks there will be a move 14nm by 2014, they're smoking some REALLY potent stuff!).


Just keep that in mind. Phenom IIs are okay now, but you'll want some kind of upgrade path planned there. That's actually where AMD has an edge; AM3+ will likely be viable for upgrades for some time to come.

Edited by Catamount, 30 January 2012 - 10:56 AM.

[Seth Deathstalker]

Catamount, on 30 January 2012 - 10:38 AM, said:

Well let me put it this way, the word Guru3D used to describe the GTX 480's power consumption was "frightening", and the GTX590 consumes so much power, technically, it's not even a PCI Express compliant device, because it violates the PCIE standard!

Ouch!!!

[Catamount]

Yeah, I loved Nvidia back in the day. From the Geforce 6-9 series they were just great.

These days, I can sum up their whole approach in two words:
MOAR TRANSISTORS

[Seth Deathstalker]

L M A O
And a bit sad, I remember the old days.
Maybe we could send in a 'Mech to straiten up the management....

[Harrow]

How do you intel and amd fanboys always manage to start this debate no matter where you go?

[Seth Deathstalker]

Harrow, on 30 January 2012 - 12:50 PM, said:

How do you intel and amd fanboys always manage to start this debate no matter where you go?

I guess it is with the ease of practise. But I wouldn't know. I am a newbie. Sort of.

[Catamount]

Harrow, on 30 January 2012 - 12:50 PM, said:

How do you intel and amd fanboys always manage to start this debate no matter where you go?

Just so I'm understandng the question, you're asking why, in a thread on what the best hardware is, people are discussing what the best hardware is?

[Will Hung]

INTEL GPUS 4 LYF!!!

[Vincent Vascaul]

Will Hung, on 09 February 2012 - 06:27 AM, said:

INTEL GPUS 4 LYF!!!

F*** uz intel, I Gots myz ATI GTX5770 in SLI!

[Seth Deathstalker]

Thought I give an update of my little project. Adjusted some points.

•Case: LanCool PC-K9X First Knight
•PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Modular
•Case fan (outflow): Rexus Panaflo NMB-MAT 3-Pin 120mm
•Case fan (intake): 2x Silverstone SST-AP121 4-Pin 140mm
•Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 AM3+ SB950
•CPU: one with Piledriver cores probably
•CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS8900 Extreme PWM
•Thermal Compound: Gelid GC Extreme
•RAM: 2 x 4GB G.Skill RipjawsX LV-Series DDR3 1600MHz 1.35V
•GPU: atm would go for the Asus HD7970
•Slot fan (System cooler): Evercool SB-F1 FOX-1
•SSD: Kingston HyperX 2.5" SATA3 120GB
•HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green 3.5" SATA3 750GB
•ODD: Plextor PX-L890SA DVD/CD-Burner SATA
•Keyboard: Speedlink Darsky LED
•Mouse: Logitech G400
•Joystick: Thrustmaster T.16000M
•Monitor: probably Asus 23" LED or such
•Headset: will see

That ASRock mobo fits my needs better than a top-of-the-line board. It has an AM3+ socket, 32gig max, five SATAIII, one PCIe 2 x16, UEFI and some control features. I myself won't need more.

Edited by Seth Deathstalker, 06 March 2012 - 07:18 AM.

[DV McKenna]

I would probably opt to go for a 7870 at this time rather than the 79 series, the 7870 performs very close to the 7950 for a significant reduction in price (and still be more than you need for any game today)

With the spare cash, put it to your CPU if your waiting for piledriver, or get a bigger SSD/HDD.....or monitor/2 monitors.

[Catamount]

DV^McKenna, on 06 March 2012 - 01:18 AM, said:

I would probably opt to go for a 7870 at this time rather than the 79 series, the 7870 performs very close to the 7950 for a significant reduction in price (and still be more than you need for any game today)

With the spare cash, put it to your CPU if your waiting for piledriver, or get a bigger SSD/HDD.....or monitor/2 monitors.

I actually haven't kept up with the 7870 since it hasn't been released yet, but you're right, the series performs amazingly fast. If they get the IQ and stability problems knocked out for release, they'll be very impressive.

[Chas]

Vincent Vascaul, on 09 February 2012 - 07:53 AM, said:

F*** uz intel, I Gots myz ATI GTX5770 in SLI!

Pfft. Matrox or PowerVR or GTFO!

[Seth Deathstalker]

Changed the SSD and HDD in my list. I'm soo waiting for October to get started with this project.

•Case: LanCool PC-K9X First Knight
•PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Modular
•Case fan (intake): 2x Silverstone SST-AP121 4-Pin 140mm
•Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 AM3+ SB950
•CPU: will choose in October
•CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS8900 Extreme PWM
•Thermal Compound: Gelid GC Extreme
•RAM: 2 x 4GB G.Skill RipjawsX LV-Series DDR3 1600MHz 1.35V
•GPU: will choose in October
•Slot fan (System cooler): Evercool SB-F1 FOX-1
•SSD: Samsung 830 Series 2.5" SATA3 120GB
•HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 3.5" SATA3 750GB
•ODD: Plextor PX-L890SA DVD/CD-Burner SATA
•Keyboard: Speedlink Darsky LED
•Mouse: Logitech G400
•Joystick: Thrustmaster T.16000M
•Monitor: probably Asus 23" LED backlight or such
•Headset: will see

How is Closed Beta going?

[Vulpesveritas]

Seth Deathstalker, on 30 June 2012 - 06:25 PM, said:

Changed the SSD and HDD in my list. I'm soo waiting for October to get started with this project.

•Case: LanCool PC-K9X First Knight
•PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Modular
•Case fan (intake): 2x Silverstone SST-AP121 4-Pin 140mm
•Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 AM3+ SB950
•CPU: will choose in October
•CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS8900 Extreme PWM
•Thermal Compound: Gelid GC Extreme
•RAM: 2 x 4GB G.Skill RipjawsX LV-Series DDR3 1600MHz 1.35V
•GPU: will choose in October
•Slot fan (System cooler): Evercool SB-F1 FOX-1
•SSD: Samsung 830 Series 2.5" SATA3 120GB
•HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 3.5" SATA3 750GB
•ODD: Plextor PX-L890SA DVD/CD-Burner SATA
•Keyboard: Speedlink Darsky LED
•Mouse: Logitech G400
•Joystick: Thrustmaster T.16000M
•Monitor: probably Asus 23" LED backlight or such
•Headset: will see

How is Closed Beta going?

If I might recommend, getting a 990fx chipset motherboard for overclocking / more upgradability options down the line. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157266

and heatsink wise this will be a better cooler both for cooling and noise levels: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835226051

[Seth Deathstalker]

Vulpesveritas, on 30 June 2012 - 07:02 PM, said:

If I might recommend, getting a 990fx chipset motherboard for overclocking / more upgradability options down the line. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157266

and heatsink wise this will be a better cooler both for cooling and noise levels: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835226051

Hi Vulpes

Sure, thanks! Will look into it.

Question on the side: do you know when AMD launches its 10xx chipsets? If they come out around October should I get a mobo with the new chipsets?

So, off to bed I go. Gosh, almost morning here.
See ya

[Vulpesveritas]

Seth Deathstalker, on 30 June 2012 - 07:22 PM, said:

Hi Vulpes

Sure, thanks! Will look into it.

Question on the side: do you know when AMD launches its 10xx chipsets? If they come out around October should I get a mobo with the new chipsets?

So, off to bed I go. Gosh, almost morning here.
See ya

They are supposed to be released within the next month but we'll see how good they'll actually be. It is sounding right now like all they're adding is native USB 3.0, though the motherboards themselves may be better. So yeah wait and see as everything else.
Oh, and I do recommend AMD RAM given the low CAS latency and that they are low profile, and the 2nd round of QC they get. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820103008
if you can find it there of course.

[Odins Fist]

--RAM--
With AMD as far as RAM goes, "LOWER" timings are where RAM shines with an AMD CPU, with Intel it is not as important, I have seen an Intel CPU (3820) take a junk kit of RAM, and make it perform like a more expensive kit of RAM..
.
AMD
Back in the day I put this to the test, and had a set of DDR2 800 MHZ Kingstom Hyper-X with timings of (4-4-4-12), and I put it up against stuff with timings of (5-5-5-15) and higher (all dual channel), also against DDR2 1066 (ddr2 1006 is just OC'ed 800MHZ anyway), in the same two motherboards, with the same CPUs (Athlon 64 x2 6000+, and 6400+, and Phenom II 720 Heka triple core), and the results were noticable.. At stock sppeds and voltage, the Kingston Hyper-X at (4-4-4-12) beat everything but my Kit of Corsair Dominator and that was only by a very small margin in testing, BUT, when I did a very small OC to the Kingston, and boosted it to I believe was 980 to 1080 MHZ without touching the timings, guess what won..?? You guessed it (4-4-4-12), after that I did a little OC to the Corsair Dominator (keeping the timings stock) got it around 1280 to 1300MHZ and then it really shined, had stability issues 2 programs not related to games. Normally when overclocking RAM, you have to loosen up the timings (higher), no matter what for stability, but every once in a while you find a GEM of a kit that will let you keep almost stock timmings... On a side note, I have seen the same RAM (on the QVL list) get rejected between one mobo that loved it, and one that spit it back out.. Same PSU... Did I mention ever so little voltage bumps, and not just on the RAM and CPU..?? (NB)
.
Intel
Intel chips however just laugh at RAM in a lot of cases, and make it do what the CPU pleases , and the speed (MHZ) of the RAM is more of a benefit (but low timings are important as well)...
.
Good RAM (with the lowest timings you can get) for AMD motherboard CPU combos is the way to go, and from what I have seen this is the case with Bulldozer as well, not just Denebs or Thubans, so anyone that tells you that whatever RAM kit is no better than the other, then they are incorrect.. With two RAM kits at the same MHZ, the kit (dual channel) with the lower timings will perfom better with AMD.. PERIOD.
I have a set of old DDR3 1333MHZ G-Skill RAM at (7-7-7-21) that was fantastic, and i'm currently running Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz at 1808Mhz at almost stock timings, and I can say without a doubt that i'm performing better than someone I know running 1800Mhz
at (9-9-9-24) timings... Some people say RAM doesn't matter, not true.. Quantity matters to a point, but quality "ALWAYS" matters.
.
Lower timings with higher MHZ is better.(check to see what your memory controller on your CPU can handle) If you can get a CAS-7 kit over a CAS-9 or higher Kit at the same MHZ, that's the way to go. (lower timings)
Your system will be a bit more snappy, some people might say they don't see a difference, but I know better, as long as you have the CPU, GPU, and motherboard to handle the job, you will notice a difference when gaming, maybe not an Earth shaking experience, but just wait until the screen is filled with particles, smoke, fire, exlposions, and lasers (watch here comes a comment about the GPU), you will notice.
If you buy a bidget kit of RAM expect budget performance, that is unless you run an Intel CPU, then it's buyer beware..
.
F.Y.I., 32gb of RAM is overkill at the moment... LOL