Building a new AMD rig...

[Grunt76]

Dual socket or not?

If dual socket, Barcelona quad, or FX dual? The Barcelonas are only 2.2ghz on the Socket F...

Does the socket F have a future for gamers?

Kinda lost here...

 

[GuitarDaddy]

For gaming dual socket is pretty useless, games can't yet make use of a quad core much less too of them.

Considered an Intel rig? They pretty much thrash AMD in everything except the ultra budget sector these days.

 

[Grunt76]

Yes I considered an Intel rig, but the difference is not enough that I would decide to support Intel's horrendous management practices. As such, Intel is ruled out unless there is NO WAY I will run the latest games with an AMD rig.

UT3 based engines make good use of a quad core so I hear and more and more games are multi-threaded. They lend themselves quite readily to that, so expect games to do very well in multicore PC's in the future.

I was thinking of perhaps using two 4-core opterons?

Maybe just one phenom would be better?

I just have no clue, and finding benchmarks that compare 2 x 4-cores with alternatives has not been easy. Any links?

 

[The-Noid]

Yes I considered an Intel rig, but the difference is not enough that I would decide to support Intel's horrendous management practices.

You mean like making money for their shareholders quarter after quarter?

4 cores is more than enough.

 

[Grunt76]

I have nothing against making money. Brainwashing people into drones and burning out 10% of your workforce every year, I have something against.

OK so 4 cores are enough. I know. D0h. I'm new HERE, I'm not new at computers. Basically the Phenom's are the same cores as the Opteron Barcelona's so that's your very oblique way of saying if I'll stick to AMD then get a phenom X4?

Are you saying there is no advantage to the 2-socket setup? No potential, future advantage? Or maybe, or probably?

 

[The-Noid]

No future advantage unless you like flight sims. Games are already stretched by creating 4 threads let alone 8.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Grunt76
I have nothing against making money. Brainwashing people into drones and burning out 10% of your workforce every year, I have something against.

Intel has nothing on Samsung's employee practices. How does 13 days on and 1 day off sound to you? (2 days off per month, every other sunday)

And its 12hrs minimum on-site per day when on, not this mamby-pampy 10hr on-site per day Intel's engineers get away with. (everyone's on-call 24hrs/day at any IDM of course)

I'd take working at Intel and at least having a shot at retiring early over working at Samsung where early retirement is an award earned only for those who get out on medical/health issues.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I run a Phenom and am quite happy with it. Do you overclock? If so you may want to wait just a little longer for the improved southbridge boards to start showing up. As mentioned above, I'd stick with a single socket for sure.

 

[Grunt76]

Hm, yeah. I'll keep my job at home, thanks.

At least if work gets boring I can fire a quick game for a couple hours and make my day entertaining. à

It's all relative I guess...

OK so 4 cores will be good enough... Hm, Phenom then I guess...

New AM3 socket coming soon? Any specific point in time I should look at for building my rig?

 

[The-Noid]

Employees (in thousands)
Dec. 29, 2007 Dec. 30, 2006 Dec. 31, 2005 Dec. 25, 2004 Dec. 27, 2003
86.3 94.1 99.9 85.0 79.7

Intel offers some of the best benefits in the industry, also working for Intel assures you that you can have any kind of tech consulting/analyst job upon leaving.

 

[Grunt76]

I don't overclock although it isn't entirely ruled out.

I have a water-cooling setup on my Opteron 185 right now, but I don't OC it.

Last time I OC'd something (A64 3000+ on air) I fried it within 10 minutes... Stupid "safe auto-overclocking" utility on the Neo2 platinum mobo...

 

[Accord99]

The nature of the dual-socket platform means that you'll often see performance decreases on desktop applications, including most games, even if you have the same clock speeds. You can see this behavior with the ill-fated QuadFX platform:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...howdoc.aspx?i=2879&p=6

In many applications that are desktop-like, removing the second processor actually increased performance.

 

[Grunt76]

Originally posted by: Accord99
The nature of the dual-socket platform means that you'll often see performance decreases on desktop applications, including most games, even if you have the same clock speeds. You can see this behavior with the ill-fated QuadFX platform:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...howdoc.aspx?i=2879&p=6

In many applications that are desktop-like, removing the second processor actually increased performance.

OUCH. That thing looks good on paper...

Thanks for the information!!

 

[heyheybooboo]

I'm wondering if AMD has got a new Socket F chipset up its sleeve. It's been a few years and yah gotta think propping up nVidia chipsets is not a long term goal of theirs.

Not a great deal to be gained from a 2p gaming rig. Better to spend your $$$ on the video card(s) / monitor.

I suspect your 'stupid safe auto-overclocking' was that MSI DOT (or whatever they called it). That thing was a piece of crap-lol. That shouldn't stop you from considering a MSI 790fx. They're great boards - - - any will hopefully be better with the SB750.

 

[Markfw]

First, I really don;t care about what a company does, so long as they have a good product, at a good price, and they back it. I was an AMD supporter for my K6-166 all the way until my X2 4800 for those reasons exactly.

Today, AMD has a chip that runs hot, burns out motherboards (even at stock), doesn't OC well, and is not a good value, IMO for all those reasons.

As for overclocking, if you don't overvolt the recommended maximum (you can find it somewhere here for whatever chip you are overclocking) and don't exceed the recommended maximum temps, using good cooling, it is virtually impossible to burn things out. And the Intel chips currently overclock so easy, that its kind of a no-brainer.

I say get a Q6600 pr A9450, overclock to 3.4, and your AMD X4 will be blown away, even on your watercooling setup, and the max OC you can get., and thats with a $30 air HSF on the Intel setup.

 

[aigomorla]

okey so let me get this correct.

You want a dual cpu AMD. Yet you want the fastest gaming machine possible?

Okey dual socket amd systems ARENT cheap. There expensive.

For that money you can easily pick up a QX intel rig, or a Q9650 Intel rig, and overclock tht massive beast to 3.8-4.0ghz.

Now lets see, 8 core barcelona not overclocked, vs a 4.0ghz yorkie.

This is a no brainer. Expecially since people are saying dual core wofldale is better then a quadcore kentsfield.

Same clocked Yorkfield > High clocked wolfdale > Average clocked kentsfield > ALL AMD.

So by reason, a Quadcore 3.8ghz-4.0ghz Yorkfield, would slaughter a 8 core barcelona.

 

[SlowSpyder]

OP, what resolution do you game at? I honestly don't believe that there will be much difference between a highend AMD system or a highend Intel system as far as gaming goes.

 

[Grunt76]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
okey so let me get this correct.

You want a dual cpu AMD. Yet you want the fastest gaming machine possible?

Okey dual socket amd systems ARENT cheap. There expensive.

For that money you can easily pick up a QX intel rig, or a Q9650 Intel rig, and overclock tht massive beast to 3.8-4.0ghz.

Now lets see, 8 core barcelona not overclocked, vs a 4.0ghz yorkie.

This is a no brainer. Expecially since people are saying dual core wofldale is better then a quadcore kentsfield.

Same clocked Yorkfield > High clocked wolfdale > Average clocked kentsfield > ALL AMD.

So by reason, a Quadcore 3.8ghz-4.0ghz Yorkfield, would slaughter a 8 core barcelona.

You seem smart. Yet you show that you cannot comprehend what is written.

I want to build an AMD system. I want it to be as fast as possible for an AMD system. I don't care about Intel at the moment.

The answer has been given: a Phenom X4. Right now it would be the 9950. Possibly some chipset or mobo options need to be considered.

Thanks you guys for your help but not aigomorla who talks about intel whereas the TITLE SAYS "BUILDING A NEW *AMD* RIG"

Jesus, help me.

 

[Grunt76]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
OP, what resolution do you game at? I honestly don't believe that there will be much difference between a highend AMD system or a highend Intel system as far as gaming goes.

Currently at 1280x1024 but that will change. The first thing I will upgrade is my video card and PSU, since they can be used in the current setup before moving on to new CPU, mobo and RAM. I may change my monitor before getting the new rig, or after. I am unsure ATM. If I see a 30" at a big rebate, I might snag it before the new setup or vice-versa. So anyway expect me to game at whatever res my 27" to 30" monitor will then support.

 

[The-Noid]

Grunt you should wait for the new AMD boards using the SB750 Southbridge. They should be out in channel in 2-3 weeks. They overclock significantly better and are quite a bit more stable.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: Grunt76

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
OP, what resolution do you game at? I honestly don't believe that there will be much difference between a highend AMD system or a highend Intel system as far as gaming goes.

Currently at 1280x1024 but that will change. The first thing I will upgrade is my video card and PSU, since they can be used in the current setup before moving on to new CPU, mobo and RAM. I may change my monitor before getting the new rig, or after. I am unsure ATM. If I see a 30" at a big rebate, I might snag it before the new setup or vice-versa. So anyway expect me to game at whatever res my 27" to 30" monitor will then support.

If you are going to game on a 1920x1200 or a 2560x1600 res monitor then I doubt you'd notice much difference between a Phenom and an Intel quad. Be sure to get a beefy video card though. 4870x2 is coming out in a few weeks...

 

[Grunt76]

Thanks, you are helpful.

Going to get me one (or two?) of them HD4870 as well... Is the X2 coming shortly?

 

[perdomot]

I've been using an X3 Phenom 8650 with a 780G mobo and a 3870 vid card for a couple of months now and am very satisfied with the rig. It is very fast and stable. Got the x3 because of the reported issues with 125W cpus and the X3's 95W is well below that.

 

[BLaber]

Grunt just pick up a x4 Black Edition Phenom on a good sb750 MB and you are good to go PAL. If you could wait for a while though 45nm phenom will be out and the new phenom will also work with AM3 MB , so future proofing your purchase lol !

And its a pity that you "SPECIFICALLY" ask for help on building AMD SYSTEM and some people here advise you about how good a company intel is and what ever crap about intel..... (seems someone would even like to work for int-hell , limits of fanboyism , ROFL).

Hope your build rocks bro !~

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Grunt76

Thanks you guys for your help but not aigomorla who talks about intel whereas the TITLE SAYS "BUILDING A NEW *AMD* RIG"

Jesus, help me.

okey well i applogize.

I was just showing you a cost analysis. :T


But if you really want to get with this.

Then, id wait on the asus M3A32-DLX revision which has the SB750.
You really want that SB750. I wouldnt consider an AMD board unless it had the SB750 if i was gonna run phenom on it again.

As for ram, id get 4gigs 2x2gig sticks. Almost any company will do. You wont exceed the max fsb for DDR2 - 800 so id say get some good and cheap DDR2 ram. Thats if the new M3A32 isnt DDR3.

As for the cooler, i really like xigamtek, however if your good with tools, a TRUE aka Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme lapped would be ideal. But you really need to lap that sink.

As for the videocards, grab the best. Go full on spider like i did. However id mix and match on xfire. Reason is catalyst drivers BLOW on some games so Xfire does not work very well.

Get a HD4870X2 as one card and the secon card keep at a HD4870. You can mix match with xfire.

PSU, get ssomething with nice high amperage rails. I like seasonic, corsair, etasis.

Can we know your budget on this as it would help us piece out your system better. And i think only a previous or current spider owner can help a prospecting spider owner.

How much is your budget? and how many monitors you running? if its one, maybe going the nvidia route might not be a bad idea either. However i dont know how nvidia chipsets handle phenoms. :T