Choosing an AMD Processor - HELP!!

I'd rather go for a 4800 X2 or an Opteron(that you'll OC).
The FX 60 is not really worth that huge price tag when compared to a 500 $ cheaper X2 4800.
I'd also get a 1900XTX which
-beats the crap out of 2 7800 GTX 256 mb
-is cheaper
-is a single card,so games that don't take advantage of SLI will still run great
Or since you can save 500$ by getting X2 a 1900XT crossfired.
You're lucky to have that much money to spend. Anyway this sistem will run anything you throw at it.
Killer rig,how much are you willing to spend BTW?
3000$+ is way too much for me.

wait for m2 it should be better but if you wanna build now get the fx-57 i like it better than the 60 it still beats the 60 in most games

Hey man, thanks for the opinion. (And to everyone else in advance...I'm a newbie to custom building and need all the help I can get!!)

About $3K is going to be the limit. It's not that I want to spend that much but I don't want to cut any corners and be sorry later either. I'd rather spend more now and "do it once, do it right" and have it tear anything I can throw at to shreds! (Yes, I want to OC everything to the MAX!)

The fact is, I'm a (now) single programmer (AMX, Java) who wants to venture much deeper into the extreme PC world where my heart really lies (and always has). I'm selling everything I own and working my butt off to build this baby and want to create an absolute masterpiece. (Plus I'd rather drop my cash into my PC than the bartenders pocket )

Therefore, that's why I say that cost isn't a huge issue. I'll drink a few more cups of coffee and jam the overtime to make this happen. 8O


P.S. Any advise on a *good* source of info on building the WC system for this beast?? (How-to, specs, etc.) I know this is the processor section and I'll post my WC questions in that section accordingly but just thought I'd ask...

And there is no need to wait for AM2. It will be the same as 939 with DDR2 and i doubt prices on a X2 4800 that already gives you a great bang for buck will greatly decrease.
If you still decide on waiting i'd rather wait for Conroe or Nvidias new generation of gfx card. Though even then i'd probably recommend ATI (again, those 1900XT/XTX are very good price performance cards despite high cost). After the 7800 GTX 512 mb fiasco i'm sceptical and really have doubts on
-when the new chips will actually be available to normal users,it's impossible to find a 7800 GTX 512 in most european countries
-price,7800 GTX 512 for example is overpriced compared to ATI 1900 XTX which brings more performance
I never thought nvidia would actually face these kind of problems. A lot of credibility lost. ATI on the other hand respected their roadmaps and you can shop for 1900 XT/XTX in most online shops.

There would be one really good reason to wait for AM2: Upgradability. Like I said before, this is the mature-phase, if not the end-phase of Socket 939.

Good point but AM2 will have a short life too so either way the socket won't last long enough to be considered "long lasting".
And waiting for AM2 means waiting 4 more months. That's a lot for a guy that urgently needs a PC.
Linux@ You nvidia fanboy ! 1900XTX as it is now is a much better bang for buck than a 7800 GTX 256/512/SLI. The only nvidia worth buying now are 7800GT/6800GS. But those are "cheap" and "don't perform very well". The author has 2000-3000$ to spend. I think that should have been clear. a 2500$(for example) system with a 300$ graph. card just won't cut it. And i have a Nvidia card so no case of fanboyism here.
ATI all the way for now.

Guys, the original thread says he has an SLI board already!

I would suggest the route of the Opteron 170+ route as they run so cool, and clock so easily. The SLI route is about a year more mature, so that would clearly be the way to, especially with the fact that there's already a SLI board waiting to be filled. It's a cracking board, so there wont be any problems there. A very well evolved board.

Peronally, I'd look for a 512 mb 7800 GTX, one that's been oc'd. You can mix boards now on SLI, so I'd just go for the one, and get the system up and running first.

Hard drives, I'd suggest a singe or if you can afford, raid 0 raptor 150's. I'd then get a second(or 3rd if you go raid 0) SATA drive for storing everything on securely. Just keep the OS on the raid 0/boot disk.

I would also highly recommend the
Thermaltake W0093 TR2 500W PurePower PSU Power Supply as it seems to power my board effortlessly AND IS WHISPER QUIET DOING SO. If anyone else knows of a psu that does so, then feel free to recommend away!

I'd push for a sound card. At least an Audigy 2. The quality of the sound through good 5.1+ speakers is really worth the outlay. I never thought I'd notice it, but it does sound far better. The new Xifi range looks quite the piece.

RAM, I've always gone for corsair as they have always been compatible. Whatever the brand you end up with, try to go for something that runs on a T1 timing. I think the modules I used were the Twinx-1024-3200llpt and they ran at 250mhz, 2-2-2-5 at 2.8v (or if it wasn;t that it was very close. I sold them on ebay, so I cannot check). The low latency stuff can give you an extra 5-10% under high loads, such as gaming.

Finally, get a decent mouse and keyboard. I've not got a gaming keyboard, but I can highly recommend the RAZOR mouse. I think its the diamondback that I got my brother for Xmas. Hmmmm. Yummmy!!!

Ho hum. Time to stop drooping

Mike

Did anyone else notice that TomsHardware originally mis-reported the amount of pipelines as 48? Take a look at their article:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/0 [...] pipelines/

Note that the information in the article has been corrected, but the URL remains incorrect and reflects the article's original title. Heh!

Even with that wrong info... as you can see in games like fear that use smart shader 3.0 ati will kill any 24 pipe 1 to 1 ratio, with there 3 shaders to 1 ratio. and as the results show, 16fps with everything cracked up 1600x1200 with 4x aa and 8x af with softshadows the 7800gtx 512 gets 16fps while the x1900xt gets 30 fps. If u like ur eyecandy get a x1900xt or xtx vs a overclocked 7800gtx 512 (witch has the lable of 7900gtx 512).

yep - no problem - Just not 2 of them. :!:

im running a dfi landparty ultra d nforce 4 ultra board with an ati x1900xtx and yes u can run a single g-card on a sli mobo, if its ati or nvidia

Thanks man, sounds like a great idea to me! I'll probably just wind up being bored next spring and upgrading anyway...

So if I go the Opterion route, am I looking at the 154 2.80GHz?

Is this a dual-core processor? Does it need to be for what I want to achieve?

And to clear up what seems to be a grey area - YES, I want to OC!! I want to crank whatever I get to the MAX!! I can't ever leave anything alone...I want to TWEAK man!

Oops! I meant the 175 2.20GHz.

I see a lot of you guys are using the DFI motherboard and I am hearing that it will allow me the maximum OCing.

In the many, many articles I read before buying the A8N32-SLI it seems like I would actually be able to OC more with the Asus (and with more stability).

What's the deal with DFI and why is it better for this than the Asus??

P.S. Like I've said before, the name means nothing to me...I just want the best performance I can get...that's why the switch to AMD from Intel AND that is a decision that I don't want to even discuss!! lol

I don't think you can get all the stuff you want for $3000 american(i'm assuming that's New Hampshire). Not sure about prices in the states but in canada, $3000 american probably woeks out to $4000 Canadian. The fx-60 is 1500, one x1900xtx is about 700, got motherboard aleady, ummm, not sure if your getting a sound card, a decent one is over 150 up to 400, don't know if you want a monitor, good crt about 300 while lcd up to 1000, speakers, z5500's about 350, 150gig raptor about 300x however many you want, good gaming mouse like logitech g5 about 70-100, assorted dvd floppy whatever drives, 50-100, psu about 100, oh yeah g15 gaming keyboard, 100, and what else,(i'm typing as i think).

so minimum, if you just want core component about 2800-3800, thats with single card-dual card, 2xhd-3xhd, and with all new components, 3800-to just under 6000, and all that's without taxes, shipping, insurance and other stuff. so basically take 3/4 oof those prices and you've got USD

well from what i've heard, the fx-60 is knid of a waste since high end optertons can oc higher. i like the asus a8n sli premium mobo, and again is the money just for core components or total system?

i agree with that and since he wants to oc a lot he should probably go with that dfi, is it ut not sure, anyway i like the asus cause of the feature, heat pipe, connections, layout, and i don't plan on oc'ing "TO THE MAX", but want to overclock using air.

if your getting dual cards then you'd better get the 600w but make sure its a good quality one since the wats are not the only thing that matters. if you only get one card the 520w should do it.

I would definitely go with a dual core processor - hands down.

I have not yet messed around with one of the dual core Opterons that have become very popular for desktop gaming and applications as of late, however I am running the 4400 X2 with 1 MB L2 per core (=2MB). The only thing that would concern me about running an Opteron for gaming and such is I'm not sure if you will get the same performance out of your mobo, memory, and graphics card...I'm not saying you won't, I'm saying that I don't know if you will. Opterons are designed for servers and workstations while the Athlons are designed for desktops, and server and workstation mobos don't always support fast memory (often requiring ECC, causing latency with the parity), or PCI-e, or SLI, ect...just something to think about.

As far as graphics, I have tried ATI and Nvidia back and forth many times and here is what I can share with you from my experience with both of them:
First of all, if you are going to run Linux, go Nvidia hands down, their Linux graphics are friggin awesome!
Now with that out of the way, on a Windows system:
ATI - slightly better graphics
Nvidia - Significantly higher performance, better drivers, more durable

With that being said, if I were going to play games like The Sims or Civilization or something, and not use Linux, I may choose ATI. If I wanted top performance, still great graphics, and possibly use the same card for years, then I would choose Nvidia.
Personally, I like Nvidia better for my needs, but for some people's applications, I would recommend ATI.

If money is not an issue, then I would go with the Nvidia 7800 GTX 512 MB card (x2 - SLI), however I think the best bang for the buck, so-to-speak, would be to go with 2x 7800 GT 256 MB cards (SLI), which I'm sure will handle everything you want to do, for about half the price.

I hope that helps.

For me the ultimate performance amd chip would be the X2 4800 and the FX-60. You can't go wrong with the dual cores.

It's definately worth the read...I'm certainly convinced! (Not that I wasn't before...)

So I'm going with the 170 for the 10x multiplier.

Admiral, you mentioned that there there are certain model numbers etc. to watch for to be able to find a chip that I will be able to get to 3g. I checked over at dfi-street.com (sweet site by the way) but I couldn't find that information...

I'm guessing there is no rhyme or reason to what I get from newegg, tiger, zipzoomfly, etc.?

If I'm watching eBay though, what am I watching for??

I just created an account just to respond to this BS thread. You DONT convince someone who has never build a pc to go DFI, not only do they STILL have issues, they are also damn hard to tweak to perfection, also according to anandtech the asus board he already had is faster stock, atteigns a higher speed ( ok one disadvantage you cant select voltages that 'll blow your equipment up anyway), next the powersupply, which is very important, but you guys exagerate. There was talk about the OCZ520 not beeing sufficient for X2 + SLI or crossfire , bullshit, its called 520, but it peaks a lot higher, more then enough for any amd system.
Third, and this is more personal, ATI might be faster now, but they keep having driver issues in windows, keep lacking good drivers for anything thats not 32bit windows, that alone makes me think that you are best of with keep your motherboard (which is THE best s939 SLIboard on the market), get something or 2 that starts with 7800 (take a good brand, or the cooling will be crappy) , get that opty, but check cpu support list. And indeed get 2 gigs of quality ram.

Now for my own experience: I have that A8N 32SLI , which has brought my 4400+ to just under 3Ghz (11*266 to be exact)prime stable , I have 1 6800GT, but for a few days my pc had 2 borrowed 7800GTX cards and yep I have that OCZ 520 power supply ....

another experience, having a high busspeed when you have to drop your multiplier to atteign it, and/or relax your ram timings to atteign them, may give you bragging rights, it may even shorten the life expectancy of your pc, it does not offer performance benefits. Just get your cpu as high as you can/need/want, while you try to keep your ram as aggressive as possible, anything more is completely useless. The only thing that could make it (+300mhz fsb) useful for me is actually getting that opteron 165, and wanting it to atteign 3ghz... but I don't know wheither that's wise

Did anyone else notice that TomsHardware originally mis-reported the amount of pipelines as 48? Take a look at their article:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/0 [...] pipelines/

Note that the information in the article has been corrected, but the URL remains incorrect and reflects the article's original title. Heh!



The 1900 is a 48 pixelshader device. ATI now uses a combined pixel and vertex shader.