The Eternal Question...

[Wynder]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Wynder why dont you look at my post. I made you a kick ass system with 30 to spare!?

-Kevin

Sorry! Must've missed it. 🙂 Actually, looking at some benchmarks, I'm now considering a straight Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego. I've changed my mind so many times you'd think I was a woman.

I definitely want to get 2 smaller capacity SATA drives to run the RAID 0, though... I'll probably use that to come up with a very similar build, though. 🙂

 

[Wynder]

Okie... Here's the latest version of the build:

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103529
$380

ABIT AN8-ULTRA Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813127212
$119

HITACHI Deskstar 7K80 80GB 3.5" Serial ATA II Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145082
$104 ($52x2)

OCZ Value Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820146841
$195.50

SAPPHIRE 100108-RD Radeon X850PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814102498
$299

XION XION II XON-103 Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811208008
$65.99

AeroCool TURBINE 3000 120mm Sleeve Case Cooling Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835129243
$28.98 ($14.99x2)

Total: 1191.98

Thoughts?

 

[Griffinhart]

Originally posted by: Wynder
Okie... Here's the latest version of the build:

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103529
$380

ABIT AN8-ULTRA Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813127212
$119

HITACHI Deskstar 7K80 80GB 3.5" Serial ATA II Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145082
$104 ($52x2)

OCZ Value Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820146841
$195.50

SAPPHIRE 100108-RD Radeon X850PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814102498
$299

XION XION II XON-103 Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811208008
$65.99

AeroCool TURBINE 3000 120mm Sleeve Case Cooling Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835129243
$28.98 ($14.99x2)

Total: 1191.98

Thoughts?

Lol, Geebus... That is one nice system actually. As far as Processors go, I think the 4000+ is about the best value in single core processors out there. Near FX55 performance at less than half the cost.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Wynder
So, here are the two AMD builds that I've come up with, I'd *really* like to hear some feedback:

Base Components:
($55) Aspire X-Infinity Case/420W power supply
($299) SAPPHIRE X850PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express
($128) 2x 80GB SATA Seagate Barracuda for RAID 0
($196) 2x1GB OCZ Memory
-------
$678

Build 1:
($405) X2 3800+ Manchester
($119) ABIT AN8-ULTRA Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
+ Base
-------
$1202

Build 2:
($279) AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor
($95) REFURBISHED: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX
+ Base
-------
$1052

Keeping in mind my budget is $1200 (wife will have to suffer with me shelling out extra for shipping), which here is the better option?

I still say get the MSI NEO4-F (save $40)and that aspire case does NOT have a good PSU for a dualcore. You need a really good PSU (Antec,seasonic 430watt or better)
Get the dualcore x23800 and a good PSU.

 

[Wynder]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

I still say get the MSI NEO4-F (save $40)and that aspire case does NOT have a good PSU for a dualcore. You need a really good PSU (Antec,seasonic 430watt or better)

Looking at that board I see it doesn't support SATA II which is something I'd like to take advantage of. As for the case and PSU, I'm actually looking at these instead:

SUNBEAM Samurai IC-SA-SI Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811166002
$43.50

ASPIRE ATX-AS520W BLACK ATX 520W Power Supply 115/230 V CB IEC 950/ TUV EN 60950/ UL 1950/ CSA 950
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817148008
$55

 

[Diasper]

Since you're on a tight budget:

- 3700+ (San Diego, 1MB L2 cache) or X2 3800+ - I'd *really* recommend going with the dual-core if you at all can. It's better to spend on a lower cpu and overclock than a higher when your on a very tight budget.
- MSI Neo4 Platinum - you want the on-board sound trust me.
- 2x 1Gb OCZ Value - good choice else go for the Crucial Value as they tend to overclock quite well 235-250mhz at 3-3-3 normally. Mushkin HP3200 1Gb otherwise if cheap as they overclock slightly better.
- Graphics card - X800XL or 6800GT although if you wait prices look set to drop as nvidia release their new 7800GT card.
- Hardrive - I'd recommend Seagate 7200.7 (not 7200.8) for it's speed and silence and 5 year warranty. Otherwise look at Hitachi 250 series for speed. 3year warranty. Otherwise Samsung spinpoint for quietest operation but slightly less performance than the first two. 3yr warranty. I'd personally favour the 7200.7 especially if you are doign RAID. However, I don't see any need for you doing RAID especially where the RAID should oen drive fail mean losing all your data. Because it's a work PC i'd discourage it and encourage you to spend money elsewhere where it'd go further/better.
- Case - try the Sonata series as a quiet, good cooling with included PSU series. (However, please check that the PSU will happy handling all the components including an overclocked X2 3800+ eg enough amps). Alternative try a different cheap case without PSU such as the Antec 3000B and include your own aftermarket high quality PSU.


Still gamingphreak made some very good suggestions.

 

[Wynder]

Originally posted by: Diasper
Since you're on a tight budget:

- 3700+ (San Diego, 1MB L2 cache) or X2 3800+ - I'd *really* recommend going with the dual-core if you at all can. It's better to spend on a lower cpu and overclock than a higher when your on a very tight budget.
- MSI Neo4 Platinum - you want the on-board sound trust me.
- 2x 1Gb OCZ Value - good choice else go for the Crucial Value as they tend to overclock quite well 235-250mhz at 3-3-3 normally. Mushkin HP3200 1Gb otherwise if cheap as they overclock slightly better.
- Graphics card - X800XL or 6800GT although if you wait prices look set to drop as nvidia release their new 7800GT card.
- Hardrive - I'd recommend Seagate 7200.7 (not 7200.8) for it's speed and silence and 5 year warranty. Otherwise look at Hitachi 250 series for speed. 3year warranty. Otherwise Samsung spinpoint for quietest operation but slightly less performance than the first two. 3yr warranty. I'd personally favour the 7200.7 especially if you are doign RAID. However, I don't see any need for you doing RAID especially where the RAID should oen drive fail mean losing all your data. Because it's a work PC i'd discourage it and encourage you to spend money elsewhere where it'd go further/better.
- Case - try the Sonata series as a quiet, good cooling with included PSU series. (However, please check that the PSU will happy handling all the components including an overclocked X2 3800+ eg enough amps). Alternative try a different cheap case without PSU such as the Antec 3000B and include your own aftermarket high quality PSU.


Still gamingphreak made some very good suggestions.

How's this motherboard?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130484

I'm really leaning towards the 4000+ at this point -- with regards to RAID, it's technically a personal machine and I'll be throwing in my old PATA drives for backup storage, but I'm really looking for the performance boost from striping.

I'll check out the drives and RAM tommorow morning.. I appreciate the tips and I'll be asking a few more questions before I buy and, most likely, after with regards to Overclocking!

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Wynder

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Wynder why dont you look at my post. I made you a kick ass system with 30 to spare!?

-Kevin

Sorry! Must've missed it. 🙂 Actually, looking at some benchmarks, I'm now considering a straight Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego. I've changed my mind so many times you'd think I was a woman.

I definitely want to get 2 smaller capacity SATA drives to run the RAID 0, though... I'll probably use that to come up with a very similar build, though. 🙂

Why do you want RAID-0? It will do nothing for you except improve large file transfers slightly. You can save so much money by getting one big drive (which will be faster because of platter density).

Additionally, why spend a crap load of money on a Single Core processor. That 3800+ will eat the 400+ alive. In multi-threaded apps, it will simply slaughter it. In Single Threaded, it will keep up just fine. There is 0 reasons to go with a 4000+ over a DC.

Additionally looking at your build do not under any circumstances get an X850Pro. Like i said 6800GT if you are keeping it for a couple years, XL for all else.

As for the Motherboard. Abit has been having some major problems. I would stay away from their boards for a while.

The system i configured (no offense towards you) will slaughter that system. Not to mention you are running Soundblaster sound as opposed to a crappy Realtek Codec.

-Kevin

 

[Markfw]

I have my X2 4400+@2563 running in a Sonata case (380 watt psu true power) but I only have one HD, and a 9600pro fanless video card (this is a true work computer)

 

[monster64]

Definitely a x800xl or 6800 GT, as both are way better than the x850 pro with its 12 pipes, yet cost about the same.

 

[Wynder]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Why do you want RAID-0? It will do nothing for you except improve large file transfers slightly. You can save so much money by getting one big drive (which will be faster because of platter density).

Because with our development client we're dealing with some pretty massive textures and files until things get closer to release when we start optimizing.

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Additionally, why spend a crap load of money on a Single Core processor. That 3800+ will eat the 400+ alive. In multi-threaded apps, it will simply slaughter it. In Single Threaded, it will keep up just fine. There is 0 reasons to go with a 4000+ over a DC.

Looking at benchmarks, it looked like the 4000+ was outperforming the 3800+ in a lot of areas -- is there something out there I missed that's too the contrary?

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Additionally looking at your build do not under any circumstances get an X850Pro. Like i said 6800GT if you are keeping it for a couple years, XL for all else.

Noted! I'll definitely select from one of those two, then. 🙂


Regarding the motherboard... the one you reccomended (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130484) uses RealTek as well... was there a different board you were refering to?

 

[Gamingphreek]

Because with our development client we're dealing with some pretty massive textures and files until things get closer to release when we start optimizing.

And RAID-0 is going to help you how??

Looking at benchmarks, it looked like the 4000+ was outperforming the 3800+ in a lot of areas -- is there something out there I missed that's too the contrary?

Here is the 4200+ DC that simply slaughters the SC chip in Media Encoding. (So the 3800+ will definitely beat it but not by as much)

Here is the 4200+ that completely massacres the FX-55 (Same as the 4000+) for the next 3 pages. Massacres isn't even strong enough. Performance increased by >100%.

That second link is an indication as to why you want dual core. As soon as games and drivers and what not become multi-threaded expect to see that kind of performance jump in everything.

As for the motherboard, i thought the Platinum had the Creative Audio. No matter this one is barely more expensive Link . Additionally, look at the DFI boards as they have the excellent Karajan Audio module.

-Kevin

 

[Wynder]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

And RAID-0 is going to help you how??

According to you: "It will do nothing for you except improve large file transfers slightly."

We have a unique technology where all updates are done streaming, on the fly and, as I've mentioned, the files can be huge -- so, if what you say is correct, I think I will benefit

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
That second link is an indication as to why you want dual core. As soon as games and drivers and what not become multi-threaded expect to see that kind of performance jump in everything.

Checking out the benchmarks now!

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
As for the motherboard, i thought the Platinum had the Creative Audio. No matter this one is barely more expensive Link . Additionally, look at the DFI boards as they have the excellent Karajan Audio module.

Nice motherboard... alright, alright -- I'm starting to see the light here. I'm honestly thinking going behind the wife's back and putting some extra crap on my credit card... maybe the extra $95 for a 4200+ DC... It's the fact that I'm still so hung up on frequency, I suppose.

I know it's a horrible failing!

 

[Diasper]

If you went with the 3800+ dual-core you could very easily overclock it to faster than the 4200+ no doubt. Save money for other components - seriously!

2.4ghz+ should be quite easy though with overclocking of course nothing is guaranteed!

If you're handle exceptionally large textures I might recommend re-examining the hardrives your getting. If memeory serves me the Hitachi drives typically have quite a low sustained transfer rate.

I'd recommend the Seagate 7200.7 as being better than their successor the 7200.8 - they have good access times and good transfer rates. It is also very quiet and comes with a 5 year warranty.

Also of benefit is that they come at lower sizes and so are cheaper drives.

They don't have NCQ but I'm not sure how much that would be of help given the very mixed results people have reported with that.

Make sure you have a fan blowing across the drives to keep them cool if you are running them in RAID as you'll need all the reliability you can muster.

 

[Wynder]

Originally posted by: Diasper
If you went with the 3800+ dual-core you could very easily overclock it to faster than the 4200+ no doubt.

I may do that, depending on how much trouble I'd be in with the wifey... if I need to scrap $95 or so, I may drop down.

Originally posted by: Diasper
2.4ghz should be quite easy though with overclocking of course nothing is guaranteed!

Then I start imagining how easy it would be to OC the 4200+ even more. ;p

Originally posted by: Diasper
If you're handle exceptionally large textures I might recommend re-examining the hardrives your getting. If memeory serves me the Hitachi drives typically have quite a low sustained transfer rate.

I'd recommend the Seagate 7200.7 as being better than their successor the 7200.8 - they have good access times and good transfer rates. It is also very quiet and comes with a 5 year warranty.

There's a review on the Hitachi drives saying that, if you get the utility, you can bump it up from 1.5 to 3.0. Looking at the Seagates, it looks like all of their gear is SATA150... looking to take advantage of the SATA II drives

 

[Diasper]

SATA II currently does not offer any sort of advantage over SATA I drives as the transfer rates of two drives in RAID come nowhere near to filling up the SATA I bus.

Btw have you consider running in RAID 5 with 3 drives? Slower but will mean your data is backed up in case one drive fails.

 

[Wynder]

Originally posted by: Diasper
SATA II currently does not offer any sort of advantage over SATA I drives as the transfer rates of two drives in RAID come nowhere near to filling up the SATA I bus.

Btw have you consider running in RAID 5 with 3 drives? Slower but will mean your data is backed up in case one drive fails.

All of my backups are stored server-side, so I'm not really worried about backups... though, if that's the case, I'll probably look at picking up the 80G Samsung SpinPoint.

So it looks like I might be going with...

X2 4200+
K8N Neo4/SLI (If it's in stock next week)
2gb OCZ RAM
eVGA 6800GT 256MB
SAMSUNG 80g SpinPoint P
Aspire 520W PSU
Raidmax Case and 4 fans

Completely busting my budget at a bit over $1310. Though, if the board with the onboard sound isn't in stock, if I disable the audio through the board, I shouldn't have to worry about a performance hit, correct?

 

[Visual]

refurbished mobo? you're nuts
if you're trying to save cash, just go with something non-sli
actually you should have the same motherboard choice for both configs. no reason to be different.
wether you should pick abit, asus, msi, dfi or whatever, i can't comment. nor do i think its a whole lot of a difference really. dfi is supposed to be the best overclocker, i've personally tried asus sli and am happy with it, biostar and chaintech offer some cheaper options which should still work fine if you're not name-brand supersticious 😉

about your doubts that the x2 will end up worse than the 3700+ i'd say you'll easily overclock the x2 up to and above 3700 speeds. its 200mhz difference. the 3700 does have double the l2 cache, but that doesnt give much of a boost usually. the benefit of the second core will more likely be bigger in your case, as you might often end up doing several things at once - edit/compile/design one thing while trying out another etc, having both your game client and you development tools running. if you're into coding, compilers also can run several threads for large projects. 3d modelling or graphic design progs can also make use of higher parallelism. depending on your role into the development of your project, you may even try to make your game client itself take advantage of dual cores 🙂

EDIT: yeah, i'm a moron. i replied after only having read the first page. sorry.
most of my points still stand though. in addition, i'd generally recommend against wasting money on high-rating cpus, as you can get the same performance from their cheaper variants by overclocking. i.e. both the 3700+ and 4000+ san-diegos will reach up to the same clockspeed, so i'd advise you to get the cheaper. and maybe even a 3000+ venice because i dont consider the extra cache to be worth it 😛 but its up to you. the dualcores are a really good option, and i'd go for that personally.

 

[Topweasel]

The over Clocking pontential with the 3800+ and 4200+. Do to all of the locks to keep from overclocking any thing else you can easily hit the max for each processor (Max being heavly dependent on particular cooling). Back in the Celeron days of over clocking when guys where running a 300 at 450 and 366 at 550 they where buying the 366 because the could get the bus to 100 MHz which would keep anything alse from running out of spec. As for the Pontential of 3800 and the 4200 they really shouldn't be all that different most CPU's off the line either work at the hoped speed or don't work at all which means they are just binned by demand. In fact you might have better luck with the 3800+ since all of them are Manchester cores while some of he 4200+ and 4600+ are Toledos that have half the cache disabled (which possibly could be normal demand binnning or failure to run with out errors with full cache).

 

[KeepItRed]

I'm a developer for an upcoming MMORPG, so our development client is still very CPU/Memory bound, so I'm definitely looking for the most CPU power here. Secondly, I still want to get the most out of my current online games (WoW, CoH, etc).

Developing: Dual-Core

Gaming - Single Core (So far, until multi-threading will be implemented)

EDIT: IMO I suggest an AMD.

 

[Wynder]

Originally posted by: Visual
refurbished mobo? you're nuts
if you're trying to save cash, just go with something non-sli

This is the motherboard I'm currently considering...

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813130492

Mainly because, as Phreak pointed out, it has onboard Creative as opposed to integrated sound, to help with performance.

Originally posted by: Visual
having both your game client and you development tools running. if you're into coding, compilers also can run several threads for large projects. 3d modelling or graphic design progs can also make use of higher parallelism. depending on your role into the development of your project, you may even try to make your game client itself take advantage of dual cores 🙂

I'm doing in-game coding and design -- the actual design and game clients are done in-house and kept away from my prying eyes. ;p If you can reccomend a less expensive board that would work (with having to worry about the performance hit of integrated sound), please reccomend away. 🙂

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Wynder

Originally posted by: Diasper
SATA II currently does not offer any sort of advantage over SATA I drives as the transfer rates of two drives in RAID come nowhere near to filling up the SATA I bus.

Btw have you consider running in RAID 5 with 3 drives? Slower but will mean your data is backed up in case one drive fails.

All of my backups are stored server-side, so I'm not really worried about backups... though, if that's the case, I'll probably look at picking up the 80G Samsung SpinPoint.

So it looks like I might be going with...

X2 4200+
K8N Neo4/SLI (If it's in stock next week)
2gb OCZ RAM
eVGA 6800GT 256MB
SAMSUNG 80g SpinPoint P
Aspire 520W PSU
Raidmax Case and 4 fans

Completely busting my budget at a bit over $1310. Though, if the board with the onboard sound isn't in stock, if I disable the audio through the board, I shouldn't have to worry about a performance hit, correct?

Woah woah woah time out.

First and foremost, what in the world are you doing with that case and PSU. Yikes. Save the money by getting the 3800+ and OCing. Then spend the left over money (plus a couple bucks more) and get the P180 with the TPII PSU. Infinitely better than the 2 you have now.

As for the RAID. Wrong types of file transfers. I am talking, stuff like defragementing. It will increase (slightly) your write speed. However, IIRC it will decrease your read speed by a decent amount as well. You shouldn't have a problem with drives failing with only 2 drives. If you were going to do this with like 7 drives then that might be an issue. However, be aware, if on the outside chance, that a drive does fail, you lose everything. Dont waste your money. Buying a big drive with larger denser platters and NCQ will negate any performance a RAID-0 might give. Look at Anands review for proof.

Get a big 200gig or so drive. Then in the future if you run out of space, then get another 200gig and stripe it. Dont just start at RAID for some file installations that may be large.

-Kevin

 

[Griffinhart]

On Raid 0.

Benchmarks I've seen on SATA Raid 0 does show minor improvement (A couple of seconds shaved off 30 second load times). I have no idea what that will translate to in SATA II.

If you are working with huge textures, I agree it's not a bad option. Just make sure you keep your important data backed up on another drive/DVD/Tape somewhere since you will be at an increased risk of data loss should anything happen to a hard drive. One HD failure means data loss on both drives on Raid 0. I'm the paranoid type, so I use Raid 1, but I have a friend that uses Raid 0, and he hasn't had any issues. So, just leave yourself with a recovery option incase something should happen.

As for the X2 3800+ vs the 4000+: The 4000+ will out perform the 3800+ by a wide margin on any single threaded App. That X2's cores are, basically, two 3200+ processors. On the other hand, any App that uses two cores, you'll get much better performance with the 3800+ X2. Many image editors and complilers will take advantage of the second core giving a noticable improvement. Also, if you run any debugging tools on top of any game engine you may be developing for, the X2 will better handle the job.

Right now, there are no current MMOGs that use the second core, though. In fact, I have to tell Windows to only use a single core, manually, so I can play EverQuest and EverQuest 2. Then again, I don't think you would notice a difference in game performance between either processor in games like WoW.

It's honestly a tough call. The single threaded performance of the 4000+ is simply awesome, but the multi core of X2 brings a lot to the table as well. Multi-threaded apps and multitasking on the X2 is amazing. And as Games start using the second core, the performance will only get better.

 

[Diasper]

If you're happy to go without sound the world is your oyster.

Reading around some people seem to find MSI boards temperamental/flakey so going with them and attempting a high overclock might be a challenge. However a modest overclock on a dual-core shouldn't be a problem.

However, without sound I'm at a slight loss of which to recommend. Epox I think have a very good overclocking them is meant to be solid from what I hear.

Really do go for the 3800+ for your wallets sake - you should be able to overclock it as well as the 4200+. There's only 200mhz between them so it's not even much when it comes to performance.

I can't remember much about the P80 Spinpoint drives but I don't remember them being spectacular - neither fast access or high transfers just very quiet. The newer larger capacity ones however sport very high trasnfers for 7200 but not very fast access times which matter.
Seagate 7200.7 I'd recommend again.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: KeepItRed

I'm a developer for an upcoming MMORPG, so our development client is still very CPU/Memory bound, so I'm definitely looking for the most CPU power here. Secondly, I still want to get the most out of my current online games (WoW, CoH, etc).

Developing: Dual-Core

Gaming - Single Core (So far, until multi-threading will be implemented)

EDIT: IMO I suggest an AMD.

No reason to go Single Core if you can afford dual core. The SCs are only MARGINALLY faster at gaming, and the dual cores more than make up for this in encoding, and multi-tasking.

This is the motherboard I'm currently considering...

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813130492

Mainly because, as Phreak pointed out, it has onboard Creative as opposed to integrated sound, to help with performance.

The only other board that i know of that has relatively nice onboard is the DFI boards with the Karajan audio module, but those can be more expensive.

Though, if the board with the onboard sound isn't in stock, if I disable the audio through the board, I shouldn't have to worry about a performance hit, correct?

Well if you disable onboard sound and are fine with no sound then, yes there is no performance hit 😛

You SHOULD be fine with onboard sound. Of course it is a lot more taxing, and it will drop your framerate in games. You really shouldn't have to worry about this too much with your system. If you begin to notice it, then save up a couple bucks and buy a Creative card (really the only option for gaming :-\ )

-Kevin