|
Moshman
|
I really figured that I needed a computer updrade, since my A64 3000+ is getting a bit rusty, even at 2.4 Ghz. I really want to upgrade my video set up as well, which is currently two G6800's in SLI. I debated and battled in my mind, and I have decided, I am going dual core, because dual core stomps so much ass and because Quake 4 is SMP. I found and awsome dual core for $325. The 1.8GHz, Opteron 165. "But wait, that is only a dual core of my current CPU." Wrong. It sports 1mb of L2 cache (per core), and is so overclockable, you might misake the CPU for some kind of hot porn. MMmmmmmm......... ----- Ahem... People have gotten this baby up to 2.8 Ghz on stock cooling and do you know what is interesting about that? The speed of it is a bit faster than a counterpart of this CPU that costs one healthy liver, $1000. That's right, this baby can go faster than the FX-60, for only $325. With that, you may have sprung a rubbery one. Er.. yeah....  The video set up I am thinking about getting is the soon to be released GeForce 7950 GX2 card which sports two GPU's on board, and a whole 1GB of DDR4 memory. I know, I am nuts and need to be detained ASAP, but the price is great, $600. Yes it's $600, and that is a lot of money for a video card. However that is about how much a decent SLI setup will cost. What's even better about this? This card is SLI, which means; quad SLI. And there is also a Gigabyte mobo that has a quad SLI setup on it, so you can pheasably put four of these cards on it and have oct SLI. 8 GPU's 4GB of GDDR3. Gawd, you could literally take pictures of it and it would be considered hot porn, and then you would be banned from various fourms for it. That's how great it would be. I really don't know about it though, I may just wait for the DirectX 10 cards to come out, I think that would be the smartest move. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Tabun
Pixel Procrastinator
Team Member
Elite (3k+)
   
Posts: 3330
|
Dang, and here I thought, upon reading the thread title, that we finally had established communication with the afterlife (and possibly with biblical characters, too), but alas, it's only about computer hardware.
Nice stuff though. I still something like your "old" setup running here, minus a vidcard, and I think this will be my last game rig. I can't afford a mother like that, so enjoy it for me ;]
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
| Tabun |
?Morituri Nolumus Mori? |
| |
|
|
|
|
Phoenix
|
First, can an Opteron run 32-bit x86 instructions? I'd be concerned with that, I don't know much on the specs but you might want to double check that it can handle Windows properly. You may need to have a 64-bit copy of Windows. I think that's why most people don't run them on their home machines.
Second... isn't there something in the bible about boasting being bad? I'm still running an XP 1800+ 1.53 GHz with a GF4 Ti4600 AGP card. I can't even afford that 3000+ that you're considering obsolete at this point! Where do you get all this money? 
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
  I fly into the night, on wings of fire burning bright...
|
|
|
Lopson
Elite
Posts: 1133
Still Going In Circles
|
I do not believe this is the best time to buy any new component for the PC. I'm waiting for Windows Vista to upgrade my PC. Weather you like it or not, Windows shapes the evolution of most hardware components. Also, why not buy 4 GeForces? The QuadSLI is out and punchin' , and if my predictions are not mistaken, you will have a computer for the future, since in the future programs will use both CPU and GPU for processing data. Either SLI, you will have 1 GF for graphics and 1 GF for physics, an important factor for future games.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Moshman
|
Where do I get all this money? Well you see guys I need to let out a secret, I'm in the mafia posing as a gay prostitute so I can infiltrate the mafia's sworn enemy, the United Peoples of Gay Affiliation.........
Now that I have spoiled your meal you are now probably gagging on I just want to say: JUST KIDDING! Lawl.
No really this money comes from long, long, long, hours at McDonald's, being the grill bitch. Some money management skills, and saving money. Living on romen noodles... (not really)
There is no way I will get an oct SLI setup, I don't want it, and the fact that it would cost about $2,500. (which $2,500 is a synonym for rape) But I may buy one card, then in a few months, buy another. So I will have Quad SLI, because it kicks ass.
As far a Opterons, they can run x86 instructions, so I've heard, but if not, I do own WinXP x64, which I am currently running, the reason why I bought it is so I can run 4GB of RAM instead of only 2GB.
Pho, the 3000+ is only $150, it is quite affordable, unless you are in debt and on a tight budget.
Kruz to comment on the physics, there will be an Ageia PhyX 256MB card comming out soon that plugs right in your PCI slot. I kinda want to check it out, because UT 2k7 will support it.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Tabun
Pixel Procrastinator
Team Member
Elite (3k+)
Posts: 3330
|
spoiled your meal you are now probably gagging I don't get it. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
| Tabun |
?Morituri Nolumus Mori? |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Mink
|
I'm in the mafia posing as a gay prostitute so I can infiltrate the mafia's sworn enemy, the United Peoples of Gay Affiliation......... There's no avoiding it now.. your secret is out, and I can inform my leaders of your dubious plot! I don't get it. I don't either, really. Guess people are disgusted by gay prostitutes. Now some of the crossdressers can be pretty nasty, but that wasn't really mentioned. |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 2006-05-16, 21:11 by ~SpAwN~ »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lopson
Elite
Posts: 1133
Still Going In Circles
|
I know that the physics cards will be coming out shortly, we'll have to see just how useful they will become. Frankly, I think this will be like the 3d acceleration cards. After a while, they will be integrated with the graphic cards.
Waitwaitwait.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
shambler
|
Myself. I put away ?1 a day so when I want (not need, nobody needs) a new comp, I have the money. I got a new PC recently, because my number 2 comp, slot1 800 mgz finally died, otherwise I would not have. seems drastic to upgrade when you have a 3000+. what do you get for the money? better frame rates?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Moshman
|
Aw I'm sorry. *give Pho a pomagrante* <3 Contrary to popular beleif, the 3000+ is not really that good, in fact I only bought it so I have a CPU for the mainboard, and I was planning on getting another one down the road. It's only 1.8 Ghz core and has only 512k of L2 cache. It's mediocore now. I have a friend who bought a server style set up. It was a dual socket 940, with two dual cores on it. He has 6GB of RAM and two G7800GTX's in it. Not to mention a X-Fi sound card. I said he was freaking nuts. But that's his hobby, and that is pretty much all he spends his extra money on. That is still nothing compared to the things people want to buy. The new socket AM2, is going to stomp some ass. It requires DDR2 and supports DDR3 memory. They are talking quad core FX's and opterons coming out, with core clock speeds pushing 3 Ghz, and memory supporting up to 1 Ghz. Not to mention the cache is going to double, and another layer "L3" cache is going to be added. The next gen video cards are being released sometime this year. The entry level cards are going to have 512mb of RAM on board (I'm sure some 256mb budget cards will be released) supporting up to 1GB maybe 2GB per card, in later editions. They will have a core clock of at least 700 Mhz, going up to possibly 2 Ghz. If one had Quad SLI or Quad Crossfire (which ATI is working on ATM) they wouldn't need to upgrade for 10 years. It's crazy, you'd think these computers would be able to cure cancer or land a space probe on mars. What do I get for the money? Better framerates, yes, but realize that this is my hobby as well. I also get better render times in 3d applications. A dual core would enable me to multi-task, and it's an opteron, which means I can overclock it greatly. I can't decide if I want another set of cards, or a nice cooler for the CPU. Honestly I think a cooler might be better because it's cheaper and you get more value. OCZ is releasing a phase change cooler for $300, and that is going to totally knock the socks off of water cooling products which cost just as much. Phase change cooling right now costs around $800! It's so great because you will literally get your CPU's temperature below zero, which makes a lot of room for overclocking. I'm willing to bet that someone can get an Opteron 165 a 100% overclock without any issue. That's almost 4Ghz. Within the next year, people's machines will start taking off into outer space. Edit: I just read some Gamespy fourm posts ( http://www.forumplanet.com/gamespy/pc/topi...649&tid=1882491 ) about the GeForce 8 series. I don't know if they are talking out their ass. Apparently they are working on an architecture for a dual core GPU, and the fact that they want to still implement 2 separate GPU's on one card, so it's Quad SLI on one card. So you can pheasably throw in 4 cards and have 16 cores for video, that is nuts. NUTS! NUTS!   |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 2006-05-17, 14:43 by Little Washu »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Woodsman
|
. You may need to have a 64-bit copy of Windows. I think that's why most people don't run them on their home machines.
i own a dual opteron 244 system (with 8 gigs or ram) and i use the 32bit version of windows just fine. Though im sure it would run even better with the 64bit version. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Mink
|
Friggin people always trying to perfect the wheel. I'm done upgrading my system unless it breaks.
-My daddy was in maintenance and he had a saying, he used to say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."-
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Lopson
Elite
Posts: 1133
Still Going In Circles
|
"If it ain't broke, grab it, study it and upgrade it."
I find this whole up-coming technology amazing, specially in the graphic and CPU departments. Like I have said, the new graphic cards WILL have and integrated PPU on them, on due time. And you are right Phoenix, cooling is and extremely important factor when creating new hardware, but lately everyone only cares about goin' higher and higher. The only visible recent evolution in cooling is the removal of the pins connecting the CPU to the slot. These things free so much heat that they had to remove them, or they would burn the Motherboard. w00t.
My PC is a P III and after a few hours, the whole room where it is goes at least 3 or 4 C? upwards. It's sooooooo hot in here.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
shambler
|
-My daddy was in maintenance and he had a saying, he used to say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."- I mainly agree with this, as far as PC's go. but to each his own. I may do SLI sometime down the line, or get some more ram, but thats probably about it. Mind, guitars are my hobby (and my work at times too) and I own 12 of them. so I simpathise with what you are doing. But it's not the equipment, but what you do with it. good luck to you.  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Mink
|
But it's not the equipment, but what you do with it. My quote was referring to computer hardware (and technology in general) being constantly upgraded and 'perfected' (not just my own). This 'forever expanding technology' crap sucks. It was fun like 10 years ago, now it's just old and more annoying than anything. I can't wait until a 'Matrix' is developed and everyone loses their sense of reality. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Moshman
|
Pho, you can get a 3000+ for a little over $100 if you shop around. It's not really that expensive, so I'd hope anyway.
Kruz, anything that says Intel on it, has about as much architecture, design, and temperature as a freshly laid pile of shit has. The other day I was watching my friend look for a CPU, he was looking at Intel. I said, "Dude, it's Intel. What the H?" He said, "I'm just looking." Then I said, "That's like being busted at looking at gay porn, then you say, 'I'm just looking', then I will question your sexuality." He said, "Good point." Ha! Intel's Marketing Department: 0 Me: 1. I win.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
