Spider platform?

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jerseygamer

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I have been debating building a Spider platform for kicks over the holiday.

Has anyone put one together? Please if so list your results. I am building this rig as an affordable gaming platform that does not need a total transplant every year.
 
G

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What are you thinking? Phenom 9700 and 4 3870s? Sounds to me like a $2500 computer... no thanks. My $1300 rig works just fine.

That being said, I would like to see one of these setups, although I do feel it is a complete waste of money.
 
elbert

elbert

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Sounds ok but you will have to wait until mid January as the drivers for spider dont fully support 4 GPU's yet. Kind of a waste currently as you need four 3870's which are unavailable and the 3850CF only matches the GTX. 4 3850's should match the 8800GTX in SLI but Im guess you want top end performance.
 
quantumsheep

quantumsheep

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They've only been available a week or so haven't they?

Even so, i'd really like to see results from one as 4 x 3850s is only about £100 more than an 8800gtx.
 
sailer

sailer

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I'm debating building a Spider platform as well, though for somewhat different reasons. Since the Spider mobo can support an AM2 cpu and DDR2 ram, I could use those at the moment, since the 5000+ Black Edition far outperforms the Phenom. Later, when the bugs get worked out of the Phenom and some high performance Phenom CPUs come out, I can put one of those in, change the ram, and I'm set.

A general fear here is that the Phenom may never get repaired or even if repaired, it may not perform very well anyway. After that, the Phenom may disappear. A memory of what happened last year when AMD came out with the QFX makes this possibility all too real. AMD promised great things with the QFX platform, along with a series of CPUs that would make it even better. The QFX flopped, the new CPUs were never introduced, and now the whole QFX of last year is nothing more than an example of everything going wrong.

The only good thing here is that even if Phenom itself fails, the Spider platform may live on with AM2 chips, DDR2 ram, and lots of video cards, so the investment into the mobo wouldn't be a total loss. Of course, that also depends on the mobo being available. So far, I've seen very few actually for sale. Maybe the mobo companies are figuring out that the Spider platform, like that of the QFX, isn't one on which to spend a lot of money for developement.
 
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jerseygamer

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You are all assuming that building a Spider platform requires multiple GPUs. Why would I slap even 2 GPUs in to start out when the outcome is pure speculation at best? The 2,3 and 4 gpu is for upgradability. Single card ATI is a very good option atm.

It would be nice to see someone who actualy has the new MBs with the ATI and a new quad but even a nice X2 on that platform would be interesting to hear about.

Besides its looking like the q6600 is the last intel chip for the 680i boards. All in AMDs favor.
 
sailer

sailer

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Perhpas that's part of the problem. The only real reason for buying the Spider platform is to use three or four video cards. Otherwise, there are other boards out there which don't offer so many GPU slots and are cheaper.
 
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jevon

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I'm also considering doing the 5000+ BE with a solid OC in the 790FX for the time being until the Phenoms (or whatever is next) makes sense. Though like you said, that option could be a bit of a gamble o_O

I've been following some threads on the A64 CPUs and overclocking with the 790FX boards and it seems they like them a lot. Waiting for Anand's review on them before I make up my mind though.
 
rodney_ws

rodney_ws

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How'd they come up with the name spider? Spiders have 8 legs... did they come up with that name because the system supports 4 GPUs and quad core processors? That's all I can come up with.
 
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mike_the_goat

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I'm just getting back into building systems again so maybe I'm still lagging behind, but aren't the cheaper X2 and intel systems outperforming phenom right now? Not much point in having 4 GPUs that cost megabucks if you can have 2 GPUs for a lower price that perform in the same ballpark imo.

I think a Q6600 would be a better starting point, if AMD is your preference I'd go for an X2 6400 before I'd consider a phenom. All the benchmarks show that AMD are dropping the ball with Phenom.
 
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jerseygamer

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They did not creat the spider platforms asuming people would plant 4 GPUs on it right away. The 4 slots are for future upgrades. Sure you can plant 4 cards on it the second a driver releases but that is not AMDs intent. The entire drive for the platform is longevity of your PC and cheap upgrades. Even the crossfire boards are priced in line with other boards with less features. So when it comes to money there is no real reason to build an AMD system without the 790fx chipset atm.

As for the Intel option any Q6600 system you build means a total system overhall for the next upgrade. Not my cup of tea.
 
sailer

sailer

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There are half a dozen AM2 chips that outperform Phenom. The best one for the overclocker is the 5000+ BE, because it overclocks better than the 6400+ BE, which is based on the older, thicker die. Using a Phenom 790 board has its advantages, because the 5000+ Be will fit into it and allow for an upgrade to Phenom without changing the board. By the way, you can get a 790 board without the Spider option. That saves some money and still gives the upgrade possibility for the chip. I think the FX790 Spider board is just a sales gimmick and I seriously doubt anyone will be putting in three or four video cards. After all, how many people even use two cards as it is?

Among Intel machines, I think the Q6600 is a better starting point, though that will end up costing a couple hundred dollars more in the total package price.
 
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Rew017

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I was also planning on purchasing a new spider system for the holidays, but after much research I cannot justify my purchase at this time. I still plan on purchasing a "spider" system, but I am going to wait until the end of Q1 2008. Here are my reasons for this decision (in no paticular order):

1. AMD elected to launch "spider" before the southbridge was finished. All current MB's are running on SB600. SB700 is expected in Q1. This is reason enough for many people.

2. chipset is in short supply. Right now many motherboards are unavailable and the ones that are available are priced in the range of topend intel boards.

3. motherboards and bioses are "rough" at best. While you could argue that bios issues will be fixed and you can update manually, I would rather have a new design MB with effective bios before I toss the cash down.

4. When other concerns are taken care of, it is feasible that the phenom processors will be a smarter purchase than X2 6000/6400. I would rather give the system a few months to mature and be appropriately tested before throwing money away in an underinformed impatient decision.
 
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mike_the_goat

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I understand that you're thinking the phenom platform will be 'future-proof' but technology marches on and I'm guessing that you will get 6 months more from this platform until your next upgrade provided AMD don't walk away from it. If you can afford that hit I'd love to see you benchmarks.

And I'm not saying that you would go ahead and throw 4 GPUs straight in. I just think that AMD is expecting too much. The cost of the whole phenom platform with 1 GPU doesn't make sense to me, they seem to be trying to catch up with Intel but haven't quite managed it.
 
sailer

sailer

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I think Rew017 has a number of good points. I've been the the ASUS website and they have a good looking 790FX in developement. Why aren't there more motherboards available? Why is ASUS holding back on releasing its mobo? Best reason seems to be that AMD hasn't worked out is own codes, so any BIOS offered on the board would cause problems, then updates, and later total board revisions. ASUS got stuck bad years ago when they build the A8N32-SLI Deluxe board, going through a number of BIOS updates and revisions before finally getting a decent model out. I'm guessing that they don't want to ge through that again. Probably other mobo companies don't want to go through it as well.
 
justjc

justjc

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In Denmark we have the ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP comming in 14 days, according to several of our online stores and the MSI K9A2 Platinum is available within 3 days, so it can't be that far away :)
 
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Ken168

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I'm currently on 939 board with Athlon64 3000+ cpu.

I'm TEMPTED to upgrade to 790"X" board (CF ability at half the price of FX board), 5000+BE cpu plus DDR2 memory. Seems to be a pretty cheap upgrade to me, and will upgrade to Phenom if it will "make sense" in the future. If not, i think this is still a decent upgrade compare to if i go with Intel road, say Q6600 where everything is costing more... while atm i have not playing any game in the last 8 months or so.

Thinking of not playing game, i dunno why i need to upgrade at the first place now, lol.

I guess i have been reading too much on cpu/gpu reviews lately.

 
sailer

sailer

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ZOldDude

ZOldDude

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Right.
I only ever use one gfx card as it is anyhow...just that DFI holds the yearly MB overclocking title held in TW each year.

I also never had a Asus MB that lived longer than 3 years.
Still kicking away with 939 Optron 146's clocked to 3Ghz with DFI Experts and all stock volts.
 
J

jerseygamer

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While I love DFI I would never build with one or sell one to anyone. They are the biggest pain in the rear. You have to do just about everything manualy. A brand for the advanced user for sure.
 
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Ken168

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Hi JerseyGamer,

can you pleaes elaborate more on that? I have seen quite a few of that "16x16 and 8x8" being used, but have no idea what they are or the differences.

Thanks.
 
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