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True Spider System (should I wait?)

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Profile: enthusiast
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Alright, I am getting a true spyder system. My question is the AMD Phenoms have been having the cache problem as you all probably know. So, should I wait until they released the revised Phenom? Get one now, and trade in later? or wait until the PhenomFX is released? ...or get a Q6600 lol
Heres a what its gonna be with Spyder-wise:
 
AMD Phenom X4 Agena 9500 (I definately plan to Overclock)
MSI Platinum AMD 790FX socket AM2+
2x CF VisionTek ATI Radeon HD3870's

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Message edited by xpyrofuryx on 12-07-2007 at 09:54:45 PM
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Profile: old hand
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Wait for the 9550 which fould have the errata problem fixed.  Also, I have no idea there is a HD 3900 series coming out soon.


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E6600 (B3)-HD4850 512MB GDDR3-2GB DDR2-800
"You figured it out. All new CPU's are nothing but overclocked Pentium 1's with a few bells and whistles added, ask any ol timer whose been around."

 

Plays with his WEI
Profile: nimble knuckle
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I would recommend waiting a few weeks to see how the AMD side shakes out before spending any money at all - Whether it goes AMD or Intel in the end.  
 
If it were my money, I'd also want to have a deeper understanding of how *exactly* the Spider system works.  The primary question being whether or not it's somehow transparent to the games you are running, or if it requires driver support a'la SLI/Crossfire.  The former case being a gamer's wet dream.  The latter...  well.... dependent on software writers to create/build support in the games we play in order to make it work...


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The more I read the forums, the more I feel that a number of individuals would be well served by skipping their next GPU purchase in favor of a little "Stress relief" from the local 'Working Girls'"
Profile: Forum Resident
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xpyrofuryx wrote :

Alright, I am getting a true spyder system. My question is the AMD Phenoms have been having the cache problem as you all probably know. So, should I wait until they released the revised Phenom? Get one now, and trade in later? or wait until the PhenomFX is released? ...or get a Q6600 lol
Heres a what its gonna be with Spyder-wise:
 
AMD Phenom X4 Agena 9500 (I definately plan to Overclock)
MSI Platinum AMD 790FX socket AM2+
2x CF VisionTek ATI Radeon HD3970's


 
 
It depends on if you are DIY or buying retail. There is a great deal on a retail system at maingear.com or cyberpowerpc.com The CyberPower has water cooling for $1355. With a passive GPU, you will almost have a silent PC.

Profile: enthusiast
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If you have money, just go for Intel. If you prefer AMD (which still has nice price/performance for X2, ATI 3800), then wait for B3 stepping, I wouldnt recommend current tbh, its not worth it. Its either X2 for low price or Intel dual/quad atm IMO.

Profile: addict
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You may be waiting sometime for the 'fixed Phenom's'... the mere fact they released a bugged product in the first place, then lied about it only effecting the 2.4Ghz Phenom, says a lot about AMD's commitment to their customers :(  
 
Q6600 is tried and tested with an affordable price tag ;)

Profile: enthusiast
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I did see about the phenom with B3 stepping, that might be worth waiting for. And what does the Phenom 9550 have special? Will the bug be fixed on either the B3 stepping one or the 9550?  
 
Also I heard the bug only really shows up in lab conditions, not really anything that would inconvienance me too much

Profile: addict
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nothing wrong with the Q6600 and enjoy your system now.

Profile: old hand
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The 9550 will be the B3 revision of the 9500 which should have better performance.  If you have anything that utilizes all 4 cores with a heavy workload, then you would encounter the bug (i.e. virtualization) and higher clock speed would cause the bug to be more prevalent (my guess on why they pulled everything above 2.4ghz off the market).


---------------
E6600 (B3)-HD4850 512MB GDDR3-2GB DDR2-800
"You figured it out. All new CPU's are nothing but overclocked Pentium 1's with a few bells and whistles added, ask any ol timer whose been around."

 

Profile: enthusiast
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so will the 9550 have the cache bug? And how much do you think itll cost?


Profile: enthusiast
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I'm also waiting to he spider because I think it will be a solid system.AMD will be coming out with drivers for  Q Xfire in january,the same drivers for the X2 3870.

Profile: enthusiast
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xpyrofuryx wrote :

so will the 9550 have the cache bug? And how much do you think itll cost?


No, it wont. I dont think AMD would screwup up fixing TLB bug, just maybe introduce new ones (kidding :) )


Message edited by Harrisson on 12-07-2007 at 11:31:26 PM
Profile: nimble knuckle
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I'd stay away from current Phenoms to be honest, just too many problems, and they aren't very overclockable either.
 
I'm sure you've heard it 100s of times already... but... wait for B3.  
 
Or you can just take the 'easy' way out and get a Q6600. ;)


Message edited by epsilon84 on 12-07-2007 at 11:43:29 PM
Profile: enthusiast
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I also heard this somewhere, not sure how true it is. But I heard that Win XP doesnt utilize 4 cores all that well, and Vista does it better, but still not all that well. But AMD is releasing a patch or something that will make the utilization of the four cores in Windows a lot better. this wont change anything like game benchmarks really but in general multi-tasking that will help. i do multi-tasking ALOT, even more then gaming.

Plays with his WEI
Profile: nimble knuckle
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Quote :

I also heard this somewhere, not sure how true it is. But I heard that Win XP doesnt utilize 4 cores all that well, and Vista does it better, but still not all that well.


 
This is a function of the applications running on the OS, and not just the OS itself.  Vista and XP SP2+ utilize 4 cores just fine.  


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The more I read the forums, the more I feel that a number of individuals would be well served by skipping their next GPU purchase in favor of a little "Stress relief" from the local 'Working Girls'"
Profile: nimble knuckle
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Perhaps that is what WinXP SP3 is for... they claim a 10% performance boost, some argue it is due to multithreaded optimizations.
 
AMD is releasing a patch for quad core utilization in Windows? First time I've heard anything like that... do you have a link?

Profile: Eternal Poster
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I'd say just go ahead and buy it, the spider.  Post some pic's and stuff.. Share some bench mark info.  It would be nice to see comparisons from users on this forum.  :D

Profile: Ancient Poster
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If you want a Spider System Get a Spider System.
This is about getting a Spider System, no reason to wait.
 
I would get it ASAP because AMD has stopped shipping more Phenoms due to all of the problems, so I would get them before the limited number they have shipped sell out.
 
It will be 3+ months until more ship.

Resident Jerk
Profile: Faithful Poster
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I would get the spider system with a 5000+ BE for now (over a Phenom) until the B3's ship out.


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Sailing in my Dreams
Profile: Forum Veteran
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xpyrofuryx wrote :

Alright, I am getting a true spyder system. My question is the AMD Phenoms have been having the cache problem as you all probably know. So, should I wait until they released the revised Phenom? Get one now, and trade in later? or wait until the PhenomFX is released? ...or get a Q6600 lol
Heres a what its gonna be with Spyder-wise:
 
AMD Phenom X4 Agena 9500 (I definately plan to Overclock)
MSI Platinum AMD 790FX socket AM2+
2x CF VisionTek ATI Radeon HD3870's


 
Looking back to your original question, partly because I've thought through this matter myself, I'd skip buying a Phenom at all for the moment. Instead, I'd put a 5000+ Black Edition into the board for half the price and get better performance, plus have a good range of overclocking available. I would not plan on the idea of 3 or 4 video cards. No drivers have been released, and it may January or it may be months before they get released. Besides, except for those who have a lot of excess money and the need to get super high 3DMark06 scores, of how much real use would all those cards be?
 
Then there is the gamble involved. A little over a year ago, AMD released the QFX. After the initial bad press, AMD promised a FX76 chip that would address the problems. After a period of time, AMD decided to shelve the FX76. Though I can't say it will happen, AMD might discover there are more problems with Phenom than can be solved and put it on the shelf as well. If that happened, you would have an expensive motherboard with no corresonding, non-recalled cpu to put into it. Oh, maybe you could use 3 or 4 video cards, if the drivers ever come out and you feel a need and have lots of money.
 
For myself, I decided that if I was going to build a machine with an AMD cpu at the moment, I would get an ASUS AM2 Crosshair mobo, a couple gig of ram, and the 5000+ BE for around $450, thus saving about $200. But that's my take on the sirutation and others may have different ideas. Either that, or spend a bit more on an Intel powered machine


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Evil lurks in the databanks as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear. But it was never the streets that were evil.  
 
Over 50. Seen it, done it, can't remember it.
Profile: nimble knuckle
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the 10% boost in SP3 was in one companys benchmark using office 2007.