The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

The APUs are a different story, and are fundamentally much better designed CPUs. The latest models, like the latest A10s, show huge potential, yet are still a far cry from the high-end chip we actually need. They're just still too slow.

An FX8320 is $160. What's the price for the equivalent, fully OC'able Intel quad core? The lowest priced K model Intel I can find is well over $200. When you're on a budget, sometimes the immediate cost overrides the relative or long-term cost. So when forsaking performance per dollar in the name of practicality, Intel remains out of reach for a lot of people who can otherwise piece together pretty decent PCs. Myself for example.

If I can squeeze some more speed out of this 1090T, I still have a more powerful CPU than most OC'd PileDrivers/BullDozers anyway. 1090T at 4.0GHz it takes a PileDriver on average of 4.6-4.8 to match it in speed. If I can push 4.2 it would take about 5GHz to reliably match it.

There goes that shiny new $1000 5GHz Vishera out the window with a relatively common OC on a fairly old CPU. Thus my repeated mentioning that a newer motherboard is paramount. I'm still technically on 790X!

 

My peak power usage would have been in 2010, running thus:

Gaming PC (Full load, quad-crossfire enabled in game with 100% GPU utilisation): 810W
Dell 3008WFP (50% brightness): 130W
Logitech Z-5500 Speakers (relatively low volume): 50W - odd spike to 130W with pulse bass activity (e.g. bass drum, explosion in games etc.)
E4300 File Server (with 9 HDDs at the time): 130W
Routers and switches: c. 50W
Xbox 360 Mk I (if being used in other room): 160W
Toshiba 42XV635D HDTV (if being used with console): c. 150W
Philips MC-70 / Logitech Z-2300 homebrew surround setup: c. 80W

So that sums around 1500W total with everything running.
Air conditioner uses 850-1100W with the compressor running, and 40W with just the fan - average power consumption depends on temperature setting, on a very hot day it'd be averaging 900W or so for the first hour, then perhaps 600W thereafter.

There isn't one, because Intel's mentality is that you don't buy cheap CPUs if you overclock. Not a popular position with enthusiasts, but that's how it is.
The closest product to the FX-8320 is probably the i5 4570, priced at $200 (not overclockable). This is the current-gen Haswell 65W part offering performance on par with the old Ivy Bridge 3570K (currently priced at $220), but minus the overclock.

I was going to post another table here, but kind of got lost in the numbers. Long and short, you can't overclock for cheap with Intel any more, but there is a rival product from them at every tier - stuff like the i5 3470/4570 to go up against the lower-end Bulldozer/Piledriver CPUs, Core i3s to compete with the top-end A-series APUs, and Pentiums, and lastly Celerons to compete with the low end. This extends all the way down to the $60 price point, still on the Ivy Bridge architecture. You do of course lose a bit of cache along the way, so performance does get a little weaker per clock.

Not too far-fetched as this is basically how Core 2 came about. A few engineers ditching Netburst which they already knew to be failed concept (the original target for Netburst was 10Ghz), going back to the old P3 architecture and reworking it into something new.

 

The i7 3770K was just on sale in my area for $229.99, pretty darn good deal for Intel.

 

"Putting their funds into a secret project" - "selling things to help with funding" - why does that remind me of Kevin Edison?

Well, Stevo wants Jeff to pick up a 5-7 for Christa (nice picture by the way) so she can put holes in all the body armor wearing enemies around town in Far Up North In the Freezing Cold where she and Jeff live.

Why exactly do we need all that armor-piercing ability? Their names are Jeff and Christa, not Bonnie and Clyde.

On another note, I was so ashamed of having only that one measly high seas screenie, that the last time I ventured out on my favorite side missions, I captured more of the essence of the nautical adventure that is part of Assassins Creed 3. And I even figured out how to aim the cannons.



Here's my first mate - the guy whose ship it was in the first place, before I became Captain, since as the only one who isn't an NPC, they do things like that for me! Not that I ever had any seafaring experience on a cannon ship. But I'm a quick learner - or I get to respawn until I get it right!




Basically there are these boats that need to be blown up, like with armor-piercing 5-7 rounds, known as cannon balls.



And here's what happens when I don't miss.



That was fun.

But this wasn't so much fun.



Just when I sort of figured out how to kill boats, they told me to take out a fort. Do what? After about 8 attempts that had sad consequences, like this one, I began to realize that you don't want to be too close - the cannon balls keep rising - I hadn't realized that before - meaning you can shoot a ship at a much farther distance than I had previously thought.

Here's a better attempt - this might be the one that finished off the other two forts. In this shot we see 3 of the balls flying toward their targets, out of a dozen or so that launch each time I fire. Also I still have more than half my life as shown on the left, and I have pulled all the sails up for a dead stop, as shown on the right, but I am with the wind behind me (as shown on the left) so I'm still probably moving slowly. If I can get off one more good round I can probably finish off both those last two towers.



Well, all is well that ends well, and while we're having such a good time, we'll finish off by cussing out the Brits



.... while secretly wishing we were wandering about Merry Old London trying not to fall into an underground tunnel, or get hit by a wrong-side of road petrol-guzzling coach chauffeured by the likes of Shaffaaf.

Rich

 

Haha she's a bit wary around them, not having grown up with them. Baby steps, yes? I think it's going to be .22s and 9mms for a while

Rich, nationality matters little to me. I still slaughter redcoats by the thousand in Empire Total War though. I always play as the Americans with the British as my primary enemy. I'll teach those dirty Brits to be of a different nationality than myself. How dare they be born in a different country?! The fiendish rogues.

 

:/

 

Sam, if any of us were really that biased we'd have a lot more for you than a few lighthearted jokes

Oh yeah, Psycho and Captain Price are two of my favorite game characters ever. I love when Psycho knocks out the Korean general accusing him of being an American spy and he says "I'm British you muppet!"

 

Haha, nah, I'm not genuinely annoyed by any of it, just playing along

 

*denounces nationality and runs*

 

Personally, am too busy remembering the sacrifices our forefathers made together many times in the name of freedom to worry about petty differences. I consider you guys lifelong friends, fate willing

In further news, I am still obsessed with Crysis 1... and still waiting for something to definitively take the graphics crown. Screenshots from The Witcher 3 previews show that may happen sometime pretty soon. Witcher 2 is a direct rival easily.

Sadly, Battlefield 4 may be taking the graphics crown away too. Battlefield 3 is extremely technically impressive, to the point that any sort of major improvement would put it ahead of Crysis easily. Battlefield 4 will be that improvement. Too bad the community has devolved into twitchers, complainers, and no-lifers in an attempt to mirror the CoD craze.

 

Actually if you now your history it would be Sam that would feel that way, justifiably.

 

Canadians don't count.... LOL Or we all say "What about those Canadians?" Are you French or Brit's??

Here someone has a pretty nice racing rig.

 

I rarely use mine now as I've moved onto a mechanical, but it's hands down the best membrane keyboard I've used. Surprisingly solid for an MS product, the backlighting is good, detachable numpad is really handy, and the keys are fairly nice to use.

 

Good to know but you're probably right I should go back to a mechanical too, they are worth the extreme price tag.

 

Still using an IBM mechanical dated 1983 that works like a charm. Perfect backup keyboard, but weighs about 20lbs. My main is a Saitek Eclipse. Good backlit membrane keyboards with respectable reliability. If one ever dies, they're $35 so 3 or 4 years a piece is fine by me. Have been wanting to invest in a backlit mechanical, but I don't feel comfortable sinking so much money into something I abuse relentlessly.

 

Keytronics have always been my favorite mechanical keyboards. I would like to have a backlit keyboard that is what I wanted when I got this Rosewill but the Rosewill was on sale and seemed to be a good buy, it turns out that it was not. I've almost always had great luck with keyboards they all go a good ten years or better for me but do show wear as I really use them which is why I should go back to mechanical as their feel is much better and worth the hondo plus you spend on them.