What is a pimp system these days?

[lokni]

Right now I have an XP3000 system with 1 gig of ram and 320 gigs of SATA hard drive space and a 9700 pro for video. My next large commission check is coming in and I figured its nigh time I upgraded my computer. I have been out of the hardware loop for about a year now and I am sure a lot has changed since then. Is AMD still the speed king when it comes to games or should I go P4? How about video, what is tops right now?

 

[Pixle]

Cpu: Amd is winning in just about every bench (excluding encoding).
Vid: GeForce 6800GT Mid Range X800XL Midrange
ATIX850 XT PE High End (Unless you go Sli with 2 6800 Ultras)

Pimp System:

FX 55
DFI SLI nforce 4 MOBO SKt 939
2 6800 Ultra's
1 Gig OCZ Rev 2 Ram
Dell 2405 24" LCD
Ocz Modular PS


Practical System:

Just switch out the FX 55 for a 3000 64 to 3700 64.

And Get a DFI nforce 4 Mobo (Non SLI): Get a X800XL or X850 XT PE

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Well.... I have some systems prepared that I can just paste in here.... so I'll do that so you can get an idea of what's good for a couple different budgets...

$750 system

antec case with 350watt ps

soltek motherboard

athlon64 2800+ cpu

6600gt video card

1 gig corsait pc3200 ram

120 gig wd hard drive

nec dvd burner


$1000 system

antec sonata case

athlon64 3000+ cpu

6800gt video card

DFI lanparty motherboard

Corsair 1 gig pc3200 ram

WD 120gig hard drive

NEC dvd burner


$1200 system

Lian Li case

athlon64 3400+ cpu

6800gt video card

DFI lanparty motherboard

200gig WD hard drive

corsair 1 gig pc3200 ram

fortron 530watt psu

NEC dvd burner

creative audigy 2


You can spend more too... there's nothing stopping you. These would be some good starting points though...

I don't know if I would describe any of these as "Pimp" though... If your budget is huge, then certainly go with a setup like Pixle suggested.

 

[sangyup81]

Forget the OCZ Platinum Rev. 2. The OCZ VX memory kills anything based on Samsung TCCD. And that motherboard will be able to do the high voltages required.

 

[lokni]

That brings up another question, are the FX processors that much faster than the regular AMD-64 cpus? How about the opterons?? And then for video, Nvidia is leading over ATI now? Going back to the CPUs, I am running an XP3000, will the AMD-64 3000 perform better with video games such as HL2, Doom3, etc, etc? Is Microsoft even publishing an OS capable of using the 64 bit instructions yet?

 

[lokni]

Oh, and for budget, I have about $1000 to spend. Jesus, now that I think about it, I think I am going to have to purchase a complete new system outside of hard drives. Yikes!

 

[sangyup81]

ATI is still King. However, at anything other than the absolute best, NVIDIA is at least tied with ATI like with the geforce 6800gt vs. radeon x800xl. For mid-range, the geforce 6600gt pwns the radeon x700 pro.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

This is a nice comparison of the 4000+ vs. the FX-55 (and the rest of the A64 lineup)

Sounds like you're ready to drop some serious cash on this system if you're thinking of going opteron.

Nvidia and ATI both offer some really nice cards now.

If you're going to an ultimate system though, SLI is probably going to be what you want, which means nvidia. A couple 6800gts (or ultras :Q) would be amazing.
Here's some hot SLI reading for you to check out and see what it's all about and what the gains are.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Oh... I was expecting like $3000 or something based on an opteron suggestion

I guess my original configurations there were more appropriate than I thought they were going to be.

Another videocard to look at in this range is the ATI X800XL. I have AGP boards listed above though, so if you want to go that route, you'd need to go pci-e, which isn't a bad thing

 

[lokni]

I do not have a problem with spending money if the performance is worth it. Lets just say I am very well paid. So... going back to the Opteron, are there any articles comparing Opteron with FX performance with games? How about a comparison between the Opteron 848 and FX-51 which are clocked the same at 2.2 ghz? As far as video goes, what is SLI? What is the benefit? I apologize for all of these questions, I used to be well versed in this stuff, but about the same time as I bought the 9700 pro when it first came out I jumped ship out of the computer industry and haven't really paid attention since.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Those articles are comparing the standard Athlon64 with the FX-55.

If your budget is $1000, I don't think you have to even consider the FX line or opterons or SLI.

The article I linked to goes a great job explaining what SLI is and what it does.

I think for a budget around $1000, you're best off getting a middle A64 and a nice single videocard.

EDIT: you're not going to want to do an opteron route unless you're doing dual CPU, and there's no reason for you to do that unless you have a huge budget.

 

[lokni]

Yeah, I was just looking at pricewatch. $800 a pop for a processor, and at least $400 for a mobo. No way I need that much processing power. Ok, so back to the FXs... what is the best motherboard to have? Right now I am running a 21" Viewsonic monitor that I absolutely love. However, I don't have the processing power to run full 1200x1600 with anything higher than 2x AF and AA. I want better than that. The idea of SLI looks really appealing. Does it truly make a difference? Going back to budget, it is looking like I can easily spend $1500.

I would probably go for a A64-3200 at $180, mobo for $200, 2 Nvidia cards for $600, and probably another $300 on memory it looks... well, I guess thats around $1000. When you guys started throwing out numbers, I wasn't too sure about upgrading, but after seeing that article and the performance difference between the A64 CPUs and the XP3200 (I run the 3000), I was amazed and convinced. Hell, the article mentioned several games I play and there was 100% improvement in frame rates between the 3200 and the FX 53 at the top. If I got a 50% improvement, thats good enough for me.

 

[lokni]

yoyoyo, I noticed your dorm home theater link and I checked it out and was suprised to find a folder labeled SVS. I was looking at getting one of those subs to replace the sub I have now. Have you been impressed with yours so far?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

First off, I wouldn't go overboard on getting superfast memory. There's a benchmark around here somewhere that shows that A64s really don't care too much about fast timings. If you get a gig of the memory I suggested for $120 or so, you can funnel that $180 savings towards a better videocard and get a lot more performance than you would have gotten from the faster memory.

You're definately going to want a really serious powersupply if you're going to be doing SLI. There's a lot of options and I'm not an authority for powersupplies since they really don't interest me much and I haven't researched them. OCZ, Antec, and Fortron are some popular ones. Look around for a thread on SLI powersupplies and you'll get plenty of suggestions in there.

What two nvidia cards were you looking at getting?
Two 6600gts will be about the same at a 6800gt I think
Two 6800gts would be really nice. That's going to be close to $800 though... (in my mind that's crazy, but if you're looking for cutting edge, there it is)

If you got an A64 3200+ and SLI mb and then got some cheaper ram like the one I linked to you'd be able to get dual 6800gts and still have enough to get a nice powersupply (and case if you want ) under $1500.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: lokni
yoyoyo, I noticed your dorm home theater link and I checked it out and was suprised to find a folder labeled SVS. I was looking at getting one of those subs to replace the sub I have now. Have you been impressed with yours so far?

Yep. I love it.

It's their lowest model (PB-10 ISD), but it really rocks. I'm in a 11'x12' room, so I can get close to reference levels in here with it.

If you're looking in the $500 to $3000 range and don't want to build your own or do a kit, SVS has a ton of great options. For my "budget" sub, I looked around at a lot of options and thought that HSU and SVS were the two that offered the most bang for your buck in the $400 to $500 range. I got in on the PB-10 ISD with the introductory price of $399 + shipping in October.

Have you checked out AVSforum and hometheaterforum? They have a ton of great people over there that have tried just about everything.

 

[zerocool84]

386, 64KB RAM, 265 colors, thats the pimp system nowadays

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: lokni
What is a pimp system these days?

AMD 64 3500+, MSI SLI, Corsair ValueRam, NEC DVD burners.

If you don't have these items, you are not cool and won't be, until you drop the $$ for them.
:laugh: Just ask anyone here :laugh:

 

[fuzzynavel]

Originally posted by: lokni
Right now I have an XP3000 system with 1 gig of ram and 320 gigs of SATA hard drive space and a 9700 pro for video. My next large commission check is coming in and I figured its nigh time I upgraded my computer. I have been out of the hardware loop for about a year now and I am sure a lot has changed since then. Is AMD still the speed king when it comes to games or should I go P4? How about video, what is tops right now?

Sorry to spoil the party but your system is still more than capable at the moment.....only thing I would change is the 9700 pro as it is 2-3 generations old now....but the rest of the system is still fine....

But is you really have to upgrade then A64 would be best....skt 939 winchester chip 3200+ or 3500+ both are decent overclockers.....Keep the RAM that you have got as A64 isn't too fussed about speed and timings due to onboard mem controller.. Keep the HD drives...
Get yourself a 6800GT card and overclock it a little.....quite a lot of them can be tweaked up to 6800ultra speeds...not too clued up on MOBOs but it would be personal preference due to your individual needs anyway..

So in theory all you NEED is

1. A new MOBO
2. A new Processor
3. A new graphics solution...

Happy shopping

 

[Lonyo]

Some of you people have no idea.How is 1GB of RAM still pimp?
2GB is where it's at fo sho'.

 

[fstime]

Fx-55
DFI NF4 SLI
OCZ VX 2-2-2-5
Zippy 700 watt
ATI x850XT PE

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: Pixle
Cpu: Amd is winning in just about every bench (excluding encoding).
Vid: GeForce 6800GT Mid Range X800XL Midrange
ATIX850 XT PE High End (Unless you go Sli with 2 6800 Ultras)

Pimp System:

FX 55
DFI SLI nforce 4 MOBO SKt 939
2 6800 Ultra's
1 Gig OCZ Rev 2 Ram
Dell 2405 24" LCD
Ocz Modular PS


Practical System:

Just switch out the FX 55 for a 3000 64 to 3700 64.

And Get a DFI nforce 4 Mobo (Non SLI): Get a X800XL or X850 XT PE

nice... but i'd say a 'pimp' system should have at least more than 1gb...

 

[avenqer]

DFI lanparty motherboard

According to DFI street, they strongly recommend a 480W PSU for this board

 

[nycdude]

I read that AMD is about to release the A64 4200. :Q

That would be a pimp cpu with a nice SLI MB and vid card.

 

[lokni]

Yeah, I know that my system isn't that bad right now and I am not complaining but its nice to have a very fast system that will kick some ass when you need it too. IMO the argument between a fast computer and a faster computer is the same argument between a fast car and the same car with a bigger engine. Both cars look the same, but one goes faster... so which one is better? Guess which one I want?!

Going back to the motherboards, is that DFI mobo pretty good? The main features I am looking for are SATA, SLI (does this really work?), socket 939, and stable as hell. How about power supply, with 2 video cards and a faster/larger processor will a 450 watt Enermax work ok?

I think I asked this one already, but what about Operating systems. Is there a 64 bit OS out there from M$ yet? How about for linux?

Thanks everybody for all the info!

Yoyo, yeah, I have been going to AVSforums for awhile now. Thats how I found out about SVS subwoofers, I saw that you owned one so I figured why not get an opinion. I hadn't even heard of the other one you mentioned though.

 

[Cheesetogo]

I don't really think that it's a very good time for you to buy a computer now, with new gpu's and dual core proccessors coming out soon. Your currnet system is already very good.