Help me get back to AMD: Phenom x6

[Miramonti]

This mobo is great, has my 1090T @ 4.2 1.44V 24/7 - can easily reach 350mhz HTT clock (haven't tried higher) I'm about to sleep but if you interested i can post all CPU-Z everest x26 bench ect. tomorrow.

Very nice. I'd really love to see how the cpumark99 (small, single app., 550k-ish) linked above does on a system like this. It's just for curiosity tho and won't affect my purchasing decisions/timeframe.

 

[Miramonti]

I second the gigabyte recommendation
Ever since abit left the market gigabyte is my new favorite for overclocking and reliability.
I'd recommend spending a little more on the heat sink. Heat sinks are one of the parts that will hold their value best (for the life of the socket). An extra $20 or so for something near the top isn't much.
I like my G.Skill memory. If I were to build a ddr3 system right now i'd try their low voltage offering along with AMD. There can be such a thing as too much intel inside

Good luck!

I could go <$75 for the heatsink, particularly if I can go with the $149 ram mentioned above. You're right, they do hold their value and often last thru upgrade generations. I'm currently using a Scythe Ninja 1100(?) rev. b cooler on my e8600, which I bought 3-4 years ago.

I'd love to get additional thoughts on heatsink coolers in this higher budget. I have a large case so that's not a problem, just need to make sure there is clearance with the ram and preferably a ram fan.

 

[Miramonti]

Your 550W PSU will still be fine, but just remember that when you OC significantly, especially when voltage is also increased, published TDP becomes meaningless since the TDP shoots up. I say this only because you mentioned wanting to OC as well.

6 cores at 3.3 may be at 125W TDP, but at 4.0 or higher, who knows. If I recall correctly, power consumption can reach or exceed 180W-200W for i7's that have been overclocked to 4.0, well beyond the published TDP for their family.

It's nowhere near anything your 550W PSU can't handle, I am sure, but relying on published TDP during OC scenarios is not the best way to go around doing things. This is harmless for your case because you have a card that isn't quite power hungry, but if you happened to pair it with a bigger, faster card, and you OC it as well, any power computations may very well be significantly off if they are based on published TDP.



I vote for a gigabyte board as well. :thumbsup:

Good point, oc'ing will naturally draw more with higher voltage settings. I have killawatt and will measure what I'm using with my current system and measure the new one as soon as it's running to compare the loads for some insight on how much additional output its producing.

And thanks all for the Gigabyte suggestions...it's been years but I enjoyed them before and look forward to getting another one again.

 

[Miramonti]

Bulldozer is not coming in a few months, it will be a year (at best) before you can order one from Newegg.

I'm relieved! If I chose to wait, which was becoming a difficult dilemma, I'd have to be an early adopter of a new generation of processors and motherboards/chipsets, which churns my stomach. Knowing this simplifies everything.


You guys are great. Being removed from Amd specs for so long, and with standard upgrade concerns of upcoming product lines 'right around the corner', motherboard issues, ram issues, compatibility issues, psu issues and so on....I've learned a lot about this upgrade in just one day, all without my head exploding while doing so. :thumbsup:

 

[aigomorla]

Depending on GPU a 400w PSU would run a 1090T all day long no problems, its only a 125w chip.

only applies @ stock.

If your running stock sure.. its actually a 125TDP chip, so its max draw is 125W.

But u dont get a 150 dollar AMD board and NOT overclock it.

Once u overclock and play with vcore, that 125W will climb as far as 200W, and possibly more depending on how much vcore you dump'd into the cpu and @ what OC.

@ Mark, that giggy board looks solid.
The MSI one is also great from what im hearing.

The best board for AMD chips i heard tho is ASUS Crosshair IV.

 

[bryanW1995]

prolimatech megahalems is great and the noctua NH-D14 seem to be the current cream of the crop. megahalems is a bit cheaper depending on how much you want to spend on fans, but figure about $80-90 for them. I skimped on a TRUE and even in push/pull am now heat-limited on my OC. Learn from my horrible mistake!

You guys are great. Being removed from Amd specs for so long, and with standard upgrade concerns of upcoming product lines 'right around the corner', motherboard issues, ram issues, compatibility issues, psu issues and so on....I've learned a lot about this upgrade in just one day, all without my head exploding while doing so.

don't worry, with amd these days even "right around the corner" is 18 months...

 

[ModestGamer]

That is server version, not zambezi the consumer version, and you need to understand the practical difference between a "AMD is shipping for revenue" timeline and a "I can order from Newegg now" timeline.

AMD shipping server bulldozer to system integrators sometime in 1H 2011 is not the same thing as the system integrators selling those systems to end-users let alone you or me being able to order a consumer bulldozer SKU from Newegg.

Also there is a reason AMD is still only saying 1H 2011 instead of narrowing that timeline to 1Q 2011 (in your optimistic view)...

Regardless absolutely none of the "word" has anything to do with zambezi...what was the time delay between Barcelona and Agena? Or Shanghai and Deneb?

Let's not be delusional, there is no value to come from it. Llano will be out 1H 2011.

it taped out almost 2 months ago.samples are or should be delivering in the next few weeks and IF those samples perform upto or better then expecations they will start mass production ASAP. that would mean march for shipping earliest. . but then again. No one knows more then you. I'd buy the best performance per $$$ right now and wiat for the upgrades to high power stuff for next year. Looks like alot of new parts will be on the market and competition will be fierce.


SB vs bulldozer and I'll bet your ass that BD is not going to be a slouch.

that siad bulldozer will be AM3 socket so getting a good mb and a $100 CPU would be easy and getting alot of performance out of the $100 AMD cpu's is a no brainer.

 

[ModestGamer]

I'm relieved! If I chose to wait, which was becoming a difficult dilemma, I'd have to be an early adopter of a new generation of processors and motherboards/chipsets, which churns my stomach. Knowing this simplifies everything.


You guys are great. Being removed from Amd specs for so long, and with standard upgrade concerns of upcoming product lines 'right around the corner', motherboard issues, ram issues, compatibility issues, psu issues and so on....I've learned a lot about this upgrade in just one day, all without my head exploding while doing so. :thumbsup:

890Gfx is the only chipset on the road map right now and its been out for a while.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Newegg has Ripjaw 1600 3x2gb for $149, very budget friendly.

I only caution you against that because the 3x2gb kits are designed for LGA1366 systems. You will not get dual-channel memory operation using three DIMMs. You might want to look into getting a 2x2gb kit and then a matching 2x1gb kit to hit 6 gb and keep in budget.

That brings the question of upgrading to win7...how much more memory this operating system needs than windows xp. I'd also like to use a ramdisk of ~2gb. Fortunately my programs aren't very ram-intensive.

Depends on how much bling/cruft you let Win7 run in the background. I strip it down for daily use (windows classic theme, all visual enhancements deactivated . . . basically it looks and feels like Win95) and I can't really tell the difference in its RAM usage vs. WinXP SP3 with all its widgets deactivated.

If you need a 2 gb RAMdisk then I'd go with 6-8 gb, but that's just me. I do just fine with 4gb RAM and no 2gb RAMdisk.

Maybe some others can affirm or suggest alternatives to a heatsink if I upped to <$75. I'm very unfamiliar with the CoGage Arrow and Baram coolers. (altho not opposed by any stretch.)

Here's just one hint of what the Arrow offers:

http://www.overclock.net/air-cooling/650726-new-cogage-arrow-better-than-nh.html

Most people in the know think the nh-d14 is better, but the Arrow is close, and it has a lower base cost. You'll want to replace the included fan.

The BARAM . . . well here's a good post about it:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=215385

It's roughly comparable to the Ultra 120 extreme without the base flatness/finish issues and at a lower price. The BARAM also fared very well on Frostytech's AMD reference platform, and still holds the #5 spot on their Top 10 list for AMD systems:

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

For the money, it's a pretty good buy, especially if you're looking to pick your own fans for your HSF anyway.

 

[Miramonti]

I only caution you against that because the 3x2gb kits are designed for LGA1366 systems. You will not get dual-channel memory operation using three DIMMs. You might want to look into getting a 2x2gb kit and then a matching 2x1gb kit to hit 6 gb and keep in budget.



Depends on how much bling/cruft you let Win7 run in the background. I strip it down for daily use (windows classic theme, all visual enhancements deactivated . . . basically it looks and feels like Win95) and I can't really tell the difference in its RAM usage vs. WinXP SP3 with all its widgets deactivated.

If you need a 2 gb RAMdisk then I'd go with 6-8 gb, but that's just me. I do just fine with 4gb RAM and no 2gb RAMdisk.



Here's just one hint of what the Arrow offers:

http://www.overclock.net/air-cooling/650726-new-cogage-arrow-better-than-nh.html

Most people in the know think the nh-d14 is better, but the Arrow is close, and it has a lower base cost. You'll want to replace the included fan.

The BARAM . . . well here's a good post about it:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=215385

It's roughly comparable to the Ultra 120 extreme without the base flatness/finish issues and at a lower price. The BARAM also fared very well on Frostytech's AMD reference platform, and still holds the #5 spot on their Top 10 list for AMD systems:

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

For the money, it's a pretty good buy, especially if you're looking to pick your own fans for your HSF anyway.

Thanks for the feedback and links, that's very helpful. :thumbsup:

Instead of 3x2gb, I'm thinking ripjaw 2x4gb 1333 @$175 will work well. At 8gb, it's ramdisk and budget friendly and even leaves room for more dimms later. Maybe not the fastest, but that's ok.

As for the heatsinks and the ones suggested, this is a tough one. I really like the Baram but for the profile and low price, but the Arrow fairs noticably better under load here.

That's just one comparison I found between them tho. I would love to see the prolimatech megahalems vs. the arrow. The prolimatech is #5 in frostytec's *Intel* reviews, but #10 in Amd's. Why would that be...are the faces of the chips that different? While I wouldn't have a problem with the Arrow, it would definitely be at the limits of my case. Air blows back to front, but behind the heatsink is a mounted 120mm fan that might get in the way of the outer fan attached to the Arrow. If needed, I could mount the case fan on the outside.

As for 120mm fans...I'm using yate loon fans in my case...the 120mm high speed 88cfm ones on my current heatsink. I imagine there might be quieter ones out there, but that's probably still an unbeatable value.

 

[Miramonti]

What's the main differences between these two Gigabyte boards?

GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H $140

GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 $180

 

[richierich1212]

What's the main differences between these two Gigabyte boards?

GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H $140

GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 $180

890G has integrated graphics and 2x PCI slots (you can use 2 video cards)
890FX doesn't have integrated graphics and 4x PCI slots (you can use 4 video cards)

 

[busydude]

890G has integrated graphics and 2x PCI slots (you can use 2 video cards) 890FX doesn't have integrated graphics and 4x PCI slots (you can use 4 video cards)

Not always true.

890GX has 16 PCI lanes.
You can crossfire 2 cards at x8/x8(Half speed).

890FX has 32 PCI lanes, which can be used to crossfire 2 cards at Full bandwidth(x16/x16) or 4 cards at x8/x8/x8/x8(Provided you have 4 PCIe slots).

Reference: Each Full speed PCIe slot has 16 PCI lanes.

 

[Miramonti]

890G has integrated graphics and 2x PCI slots (you can use 2 video cards)
890FX doesn't have integrated graphics and 4x PCI slots (you can use 4 video cards)

Cool, I think I'm pretty safe saving $40 with the 890g then.

 

[Miramonti]

n/m

 

[DrMrLordX]

Instead of 3x2gb, I'm thinking ripjaw 2x4gb 1333 @$175 will work well. At 8gb, it's ramdisk and budget friendly and even leaves room for more dimms later. Maybe not the fastest, but that's ok.

That's a good deal there, and from what I understand, the IMC on Thuban handles 4 DIMMs reasonably well.

As for the heatsinks and the ones suggested, this is a tough one. I really like the Baram but for the profile and low price, but the Arrow fairs noticably better under load here.

Yeah, that's a pretty good comparison there. I've seen that bench before. The Arrow is definitely going to outperform the Baram, albeit at a higher cost.

That's just one comparison I found between them tho. I would love to see the prolimatech megahalems vs. the arrow. The prolimatech is #5 in frostytec's *Intel* reviews, but #10 in Amd's. Why would that be...are the faces of the chips that different? While I wouldn't have a problem with the Arrow, it would definitely be at the limits of my case. Air blows back to front, but behind the heatsink is a mounted 120mm fan that might get in the way of the outer fan attached to the Arrow. If needed, I could mount the case fan on the outside.

I think the reason for HSFs faring differently between platforms has to do with mounting hardware, though I could be wrong.

As far as your case fan issue is concerned, you can do like I do: remove your 120mm exhaust fan completely, use some wire cutters to cut out the fan grill, and then let the pull fan on your HSF push air directly out of the case. That way your HSF does double-duty as an exhaust fan. Of course, it pays to have some fairly powerful fans mounted to the HSF in order to make that work.

As for 120mm fans...I'm using yate loon fans in my case...the 120mm high speed 88cfm ones on my current heatsink. I imagine there might be quieter ones out there, but that's probably still an unbeatable value.

Nothing wrong with the Yates. I don't know their static pressure numbers but two of those on the Arrow or Baram ought to do just fine.

 

[Miramonti]

As far as your case fan issue is concerned, you can do like I do: remove your 120mm exhaust fan completely, use some wire cutters to cut out the fan grill, and then let the pull fan on your HSF push air directly out of the case. That way your HSF does double-duty as an exhaust fan. Of course, it pays to have some fairly powerful fans mounted to the HSF in order to make that work.

Its probably even a bit easier than that for my case, which is a custom mountainmods 'duality' case with 2 computers inside and just has fan holes instead of grill holes cut in the case. The 120mm fan holes in the back of each side blows air directly into the heatsink fans (blowing back to front) with about 3/16" clearance between the two fans. If there isn't enough clearance with a fan mounted to the back of an Arrow, I can just remove the inner case fan and screw it to the outside of the case and put the fan screen on the outer side of that. It would be ugly but out of sight. Lately I've kept the top panel of the case up like the hood of a car, giving the heat a direct escape (my psu's are on the bottom) and turned my front fans down, sort of foregoing the whole case-air-pressure approach and just focusing on cool air blowing hard on the heatsink. I keep meaning to compare the temps to see if it's better, lol, but am assuming it is.

 

[DrMrLordX]

With a case like that, you'll be all set. The airflow in my Centurion 5 is a bit more restrictive, and I had an annoying mesh to deal with on the exhaust fan port, but that is no longer a problem.

 

[pmv]

Its probably even a bit easier than that for my case, which is a custom mountainmods 'duality' case with 2 computers inside and just has fan holes instead of grill holes cut in the case.

Two PCs in one case? Just googled it and looks very nice.

Just that I've wondered before whether there was any such thing. I use one low-spec quiet PC for web another better one for gaming and have sometimes thought it would be amusing to have both in the same case - not that I'm ever likely to actually do it, but was curious whether it had been done, and also curious as to whether the concept has any benefits for cooling, say.

If you only have one of them on, does the double case make it cooler, because its got more airspace, or does it mess up the airflow?

 

[Miramonti]

Two PCs in one case? Just googled it and looks very nice.

Just that I've wondered before whether there was any such thing. I use one low-spec quiet PC for web another better one for gaming and have sometimes thought it would be amusing to have both in the same case - not that I'm ever likely to actually do it, but was curious whether it had been done, and also curious as to whether the concept has any benefits for cooling, say.

If you only have one of them on, does the double case make it cooler, because its got more airspace, or does it mess up the airflow?

I love it but I think all mountainmods case owners will have that same 'glow' when talking about them, lol, even after they shell out ~$500-ish for the case, shipping, and all the extra stuff needed for setting it up and personalizing it. But until computer design drastically changes, these are a one-time purchases that will pay dividends for years.

The funny thing is most people get the same size case or the more popular larger rectangular one for only 1 computer. But all that extra space, not to mention removable panels, is such a treat to work with compared to standard cases. I'd guess most use water cooling too which makes the extra space for everything that much more 'glorious' and allows for a very 'clean' setup.

The 'custom' part of mine is that I had them move the psu holes, which are designed to go discretely between the motherboard trays, to be underneath them instead, allowing the trays to sit closer and give more clearance from the side panels for large heatsinks.

If I were to turn one computer off, which I don't really like to do, I'd still run the fans on that side on low so heat doesn't accumulate (the fan controller is connected to the side that I never turn off, my work computer, which I'm currently upgrading.)

Right now I have the top removable panel unscrewed and tilted up to let heat rise and exit naturally, so in this case it wouldn't be a worry. It's also on a rack so I don't have to worry as much about the cat climbing in.