The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Yeah it's better than others, but I've still yet to find a text to speech program that works properly outside an american accent.

 

Sam,
As I pointed out to omegaman7, You can pay now or maybe pay more later. For a HTPC/Media Center Case, you are going to need something that cools well, and I see this case and the more expensive Fusion 430 both being excellent for cooling and like you say, a good quality PSU is a big plus.

I just laid out my new build!

I'm going to go with the 95w Athlon 7750 2.7GHz AM2+ Dual core w/B3 Stepping, instead of the 45w 5050e because it supports 1066 memory and gives me all the features that are in in an AM2+ 790GX MB. The MB has the Dedicated 1333MHz sideport memory for the HD3300 graphics plus all I'll need once the Phenom II gets sorted out. I could build something cheaper, but I'm looking to the Future. Should be a nice machine. I'll order a pair of AD-7200a Sony/Optiarc burners for $50 and get my Sceptre fixed for $75 and I should be good to go. I already have a 250GB Hitachi HDD!

I know I wanted an HTPC, but this is just too good to turn down!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Hey russ, Whats your personal thoughts on corsair? Ive been pretty kingston/crucial bound for most of my computer History. Though Im running Gskill right now. It was a good buy. And as ive said. I like to give new manufacturers the benefit of the doubt. And often ive got money to play with.

 

omegaman7,
I have to say I've always had good luck with Corsair, both with DDR and DDR2. I added two sticks of Cas 3 Value Select to two sticks of XMS, and was surprised that all 4 ran at 920MHz at Cas 2.5! I've used GSkill a few times and it was good too. Lately I've been using AData for customer builds. I recently bought 2GB DDR2-800 on sale for about $17, and I was happy with it too. For 1066 memory though, I'll stick with the Dominators. They run cool and work as advertised. I used kingston in the Dark Ages, but it wasn't very good back then. I know a lot of problems with memory center around the Chips used. I think sometimes it's an availability thing vs waiting. I know the 1066 Crucial was real good with the Micron D9 Chips, and when they changed to another brand, they were terrible. It makes it difficult not knowing what the chips are.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Wow man, Theres alot more to buying ram than meets the eye. You just gave me something to REALLY think about. THANK YOU!

 

omegaman7,
Like I was saying, I think that they have to buy so many Chips that sometimes they have to take what's available and not necessarily what they want. They sure as hell aren't going to tell us! LOL!!

My new build above wound up surprising me. I saw the 7750BE for only $80 and started doing some research. With the advantages of the AM2+, I get the Advanced clock Calibration (ACC) and The AMD overdrive, so it should OC better with less voltage. It's the only Athlon x2 that is AM2+. That's why I had to go for it. I just found a Cooler master Cavalier case like mine, new for $68 with T&S, so I may pass on the Lexa Blackline. I love my case, and if they have it a few weeks from now, I'll go for it instead. Got to save money where you can! LOL!! These next few weeks are going to go by so slowly! ROFLMSOAO!!

Here's a review from Extreme overclocking. It looks like it's getting mugged until you realize that two of the 3 competitors are Quads.
http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/processors/AMD_Athlon_X2_7750_BE_1.html
It should do very well for my needs. It seems to reach 3.3GHz with ease, and some time spent along with the learning curve for AMDs, it should see 3.4 to 3.5 GHz if I even choose to overclock it. It will give me something fun to play with till the phenom II gets sorted out. Then it just takes a bios flash, and I'll be hitting on all 4 cores! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Never Overclocked myself Want to. But at the same time, overclocking reminds me of slapping a blower/supercharger on an engine. Ive heard that flipping the switch for that added power cuts the life in half on the engine! I suppose it is MUCH safer on the pocket book LOL, to get a BLACK edition, Thats MEANT for it. Thanks for the link. VERY Interesting reading.

 

A Black Edition CPU will be no less affected by overclocking, and overclocking itself doesn't affect the life of a CPU, only changing the voltage. You can still overclock a CPU to a lesser extent without changing the voltage at all, and this will have no impact on the life of it at all. Even if you do need to up the voltage, keep it sensible and you still won't see the CPU's lifetime drop below 10 years.
Overall for that X2 7750 it works out equal to between a 2.1 and 2.6Ghz Core 2 Duo at stock in arithmetic benchmarks, ad a 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo in games (excluding Far Cry 2 and Quake Wars at low settings, where it is 2.8 and 2.6 respectively).
Power consumption wise, on a 22 hour idle, 2 hour load schedule the 2 7750 will cost an extra $30 a year over a 2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo. On a 12 hour idle, 12 hour load schedule the 7750 will cost an extra $65 a year, nearly the cost of the CPU itself. Since the E5200 only costs $4 more than the 7750, and has an overclocking threshold of at least 3.5Ghz versus the AMD's 3.3, the 7750 has still fallen short in a lot of regards. However, at stock speeds for arithmetic tests, the 7750 is slightly ahead of its competitor.
It's worth pointing out that the Core 2 Quad Q6600 costs only an extra $10 a year to run on the 12/12 cycle as the X2 7750. That shows you just how much power the AMD chip uses. On top of this, to get to 3.3Ghz (22%) requires 1.4V, a 150-200mV increase, which will up the power vastly.

 

Rough CPU Performance Chart (Higher score is better, scores are PER MHZ so higher clocked CPU with same score is faster)

Photoshop CS2
Core i7: 1.15-1.19, 1.14 HT Disabled
Core 2 Quad 45nm: 1.04-1.13
Core 2 Quad 65nm: 1.08
Core 2 Duo 45nm: 1.00
Dual Core 2 Quad 45nm: 1.00
Phenom X3: 0.81
Phenom X4: 0.80
Athlon X2 (Pre-Kuma): 0.69


3DS Max
Dual Core 2 Quad 45nm: 1.73
Core i7: 1.51-1.57, 1.34 HT Disabled
Core 2 Quad 45nm: 1.12-1.20
Core 2 Quad 65nm: 1.11
Phenom X4: 1.02
Phenom X3: 0.75
Core 2 Duo 45nm: 0.65
Athlon X2 (Pre-Kuma): 0.54

Crysis Warhead (Score is fps per Ghz)
Core i7: 17.5-19.1, 20.6 HT Disabled
Core 2 Quad 45nm: 17.1-17.9
Core 2 Duo 45nm: 16.5
Core 2 Quad 65nm: 16.2
Phenom X4: 14.0
Phenom X3: 12.2
Athlon X2 (Pre-Kuma): 11.4

 

Interesting comparison. I might just have to give intel a shot some day. Their history with me is not too good though. Though what I am speaking of were single core, perhaps theyve stepped up since then?

 

A long way. A 3Ghz Core 2 Quad is vaguely equivalent to four 7.5Ghz P4s.

 

Sounds like a real freak of technology, LOL. Definetely gonna have to reopen my mind to the intel side of things.

 

Sam,
Would you like a roll of toilet paper, seeings how you crapped all over my build! LOL!! I am buying it to learn with as my knowledge with overclocking AMD's is minimal at best. This is all for the future anyway, because I want the phenom II all sorted out before I buy one. For all the talk about wattage's, how much power does it take to run all those fans that I won't need, or the high wattage PSU needed to run that high end high wattage video card to squeeze every fps out of your games. For my purposes, it will be better than what I have right now. All it is is a phenom 4 with two failed cores anyway, just like the triple. I wasn't expecting a lot, but it gives me an unlocked chip that runs at 2.7GHs stock I can use to learn, for cheap! I don't care about the numbers, I care about what it can do as well or better than what I have now! It's the perfect Interim chip to play with while I wait for the Phenom II to be all sorted out, and the rest of the hardware as well. I wasn't expecting any miracles, as we all know that the current Phenoms aren't all that to begin with. The whole setup leaves me a lot of options for the future, and that's what's important to me right now.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

If you're overclocking a CPU as power-hungry as the X2 7750, you will need as many fans as gamers do, since most graphics cards exhaust outside the case, and my overclocked quad core probably uses slightly less power than your X2 will by the time you reach 3.4Ghz. It's all well and good having a little experiment and I'm glad you've the funds to do so, but for all the effort, AMD still haven't got the X2 remotely right. The Phenom II will certainly be more promising, I'm keen to see how that overclocks, but if the X2 is just an X4 with two cores disabled, why is its overclock so abysmal compared to what we were promised with the Phenom II? It doesn't quite add up to me...

 

Whats everyones thoughts on this bad boy (Linky)
I would love to speed my board up for a measly 66 dolars! From the looks of my bios, I should be able to OC. And I believe this series is supported on my board. Please dont recommend supposed better processors, as my board is limited on wattage, You'll make me jealous, LOL. It appears to handle most processors, provided they dont exceed 89-94watts. Think I need GOOD cooling, Or will the typical fan that came with my 5200 do ok?

 

A 5200+ to a 5400+? Hardly seems worth bothering. What about http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103272 ?

 

Ahh... but see the black over clocks to beyond that. Its a way for me to play around and its cheaper, NOT BY MUCH BUT...
Hey. This is my board (Linky) Do the models have to be EXACTLY as the support says. Because I see models very similar Specifications, SOME IDENTICAL (excluding model#). Is it logical to assume that the board will support any one of the processors provided the wattage doesnt exceed 89-94? Like the 6400 125watt FREAK! Or are their little differences that would make it difficult for my bios to acknowledge and thats why their supported or not?

 

O-man7 it doesn't make any sense to improve by only a few MHz. I would wait for a bit and build another machine with a Quad Phenom II. jm2¢.

...gm