The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

Guys... Please. Neither of you need the last word. Lets let this die.

 

That is were we disagree and will continue to obviously with exception to maybe Gaming were you might get more punch for the buck, I haven't tested any gaming but I will down the road. I do know that FPS can get carried away and like Kevin said after a point it just doesn't matter, which is true. It's that old benchmark philosophy or as I like to call it bragging rights. If you can't see the difference what does it matter, the Audio world is plagued with that concept as well, when you get into the high end gear.

I'm not sure either, on the limitations of refresh rates for either cpu manufacture but would guess Intel has the advantage there, which is why I would agree with the gaming performance might be better and worthwhile paying a little extra for the Intel.

Actually I can get the FX-8150 on sale for about the same price as the 2500K, I know they normally run around $300, I haven't priced the 1100T so I'm not sure on that one but for most cases I would go with the AMD and it would be the MAC build or if I was building a gaming platform for someone, it would be the 2500K, or if they were extreme I might even talk them into spending some money and going more current. Gamer's have no problem spending tons of money on their rigs so that wouldn't be and issue.

But enough of this nonsense like I said before, since all we are doing is repeating ourselves which gets real boring!

Stevo

 

Agreed, and that was the reason for my last post. I won't drag this argument up again if you don't.

 

Steve,

Price drop on the FX-8150. $239!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103960

Best Regards,
Russ

 

You're right Russ that was what I was referring too without the link of course, thanks for the link. I sure would like to get that puppy but will have to wait until Kevin gets that temporary job and I can get a lone from him. LOL

Nice to see you're back supporting the thread your power, circuit breaker, must be holding up which is a good thing. Did you move further into Death Valley or did you move to South America Chile, the Valley of the Death? LOL

Thanks Russ,
Stevo

 

LOL! I need a lone myself! I hope things work out really soon. Perhaps hope has nothing to do with it though It depends on the amount of effort I put into it.

 

Stevo,

All I did, was install a new Circuit Breaker. The old one had burned bad enough to melt the spot on the buss bar it latches to. I moved it to an empty spot.

Actually, I'm about 85-95 miles from Death Valley. I'm in San Bernardino proper. about 2 miles from downtown!

Seriously, would you be interested in fixing my Sceptre Monitor? I will be more than happy to UPS it to you. I would fix it myself, but my left hand just won't co-operate.

Warmest Regards,
Russ

 

I certainly would be more than willing to help you out. You should have my address so UPS it to me and I'll rebuild her for you, no problem, and no charge of course! If you don't have my address I can email it to you just let me know.

Take care,
Stevo

 

Stevo,

No, I don't have your address. I'll send you a PM

Thanks,
Russ

 

I couldn't resist this GigaByte video card for $89 ($109 - $20 MIR).

GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125409

It will replace my XFX HD-4670 in my main computer.

Russ

 

The 550Ti's not an enormous upgrade from the HD4670 really, it's a fairly basic card, but it will at least provide a bit more graphics power.

Edit: actually never mind, I'm forgetting how old the HD4670 is

 

Sam,

I know what you mean. It wasn't that many years ago where the HD-46xx series were the cards to have.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

If it works for you Russ, it matters not, what we think

Myself, I'd like to S-L-I my GTX 570. But I'd like to see the price drop another 20% first. But of course with my luck... the price will drop, and customers will clean newegg out! And since GTX 6 series cards are making their way in, the GTX 5 series probably won't be bought too much more by etailers

But at least I'll be able to afford one in about a month or so. I finally made it to the temp agency yesterday. They called me today! I'm beginning the process tomorrow morning. I see jobs opening up all around my area. Times are finally getting better for me. I can feel it!

 

I dunno, it depends how cheap the second GTX570 is. Even though SLI is typically slightly more reliable than crossfire, it's far from perfect, and a single GTX680 is relatively hot on the heels of 570 SLI, especially at 1080p. At $500 the 680s aren't even particularly dear for new geforces.

No worries Russ, I did the calculations based on the HD5670, forgetting the 4670 came from the previous gen. What with rebrands being so commonplace nowadays I mistakenly put the 4670 down as being the same as the 5670, but it isn't.

 

I've never SLI'd before. This would be like an experiment. I'm certainly not spending $500, when I already have a GPU that I'm quite content with. But 200 - $230 would be an agreeable experiment(when it hits that price). Who knows though. Things could change in 30 - 60 days. For one, I'll likely be paying my own rent. But if I have a full time job, and part time... I don't think money will be much of an issue Of course the weekend will be my only play time I think I can see a 30" Dell on the horizon

 

SLi/X-Fire are typically over rated and very expensive to play with. When everything works right they are sweet but you're spending a lot of money for a little more performance and normally a lot more heat if you are running high-end cards. I've used both Crossfire and Sli, SLi is better in my opinion but I haven't played with the newer setups so things may have gotten better with Crossfire.

 

If I'm to game at 2560 x 1600, an SLI configuration would probably be recommended Certainly for more demanding games anyway.

 

Crossfire doesn't technically need to be expensive, but generally speaking the cheaper setups are a waste of time because you can get a single card of equivalent performance, which will always be better, for not too much extra. The only real gains of using it are to attain levels of performance impossible with a single card at the time. My two HD6970s for example will still fairly reliably surpass a single card of the newly released top-end HD7970 or GTX680. You can never keep up the illusion that it works the same as a single card, but things have actually improved quite a lot, there's very little that causes me grief with crossfire these days, which is certainly different to when I first started using the technology 4 years ago. Having watched it mature from the HD3870s, through the HD4870X2, X2x2 QuadCF and onto my HD6970s, it is a remarkable difference. For anyone who will see benefits from having something faster than what a single card can offer, I say go for it. In the case of the GTX570 SLI, that's technically still true, but you will be running very close to the limits of the mediocre 1280MB fitted to each 570.

At 1920x1200 SLI/CF are take or leave, they can be beneficial to run the highest titles for sure, but they aren't often needed for high-end card users. 2560x1600 on the other hand, SLI/CF are almost a necessity if you're going to be playing high-end titles.

 

Are you saying that memory is lost in the pairing?

 

A small amount, yes. But in addition to that, the sort of settings you'll be running when using SLI, coupled with your expectations of smooth performance, mean that you will find that quantity of memory far more noticeable. At 2560x1600 it will be a substantial problem, rendering some games entirely non-functional at high settings.