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[AkIRA_22]

But we won't get benchmarks on what I want to see the most, Dolphin emulator

LOL. With a modest 4.5GHZ overclock and 1 billion+ transistors your Dolphin will probably be sorted. Out of interest, does Dolphin use more than two cores?

 

[McLovin]

Yeah so.. I'm not that good with computers but I'm thinking about building a pc. I decided to get a Radeon 6950 because you can do a BIOS flash and make it a 6970, thus getting me the most bang for my buck. I have a case Cooler Master CM 690 II and I was wondering what was the cheapest Motherboard/CPU combo I could get that wouldn't bottleneck the GPU. I'm also assuming that I have to get a hefty power supply and some kind of cooling system(although the case has lots of fans) Any help would be appreciated.

tl;dr Gonna get a 6950 -turn it to a 6970. What is the cheapest Mobo/cpu combo that wouldn't bottle neck the gpu.

 

[Jin34]

LOL. With a modest 4.5GHZ overclock and 1 billion+ transistors your Dolphin will probably be sorted. Out of interest, does Dolphin use more than two cores?

No, but it needs the 2 it has to be as fast as they can possibly be for some games.

 

[AkIRA_22]

No, but it needs the 2 it has to be as fast as they can possibly be for some games.

It's not hyperbole to say that these Sandy Bridge CPU's will be the fastest Chips, clock for clock, core for core on the market, Full Stop.

 

[Jin34]

It's not hyperbole to say that these Sandy Bridge CPU's will be the fastest Chips, clock for clock, core for core on the market, Full Stop.

I know, but it sure would be nice to see say a benchmark of the most common cpus running a very demanding part of Mario Galaxy to compare.

 

[AkIRA_22]

I know, but it sure would be nice to see say a benchmark of the most common cpus running a very demanding part of Mario Galaxy to compare.

HAHAHA, I think it's funny we are talking about running a brand new, top of the line CPU with a "demanding" part of Mario Galaxy. There will be someone out there that should post results... there's always one.

 

[Kintaco]

I'm planning on buying a video card in the $200 range and I'm wondering if there is anything around the corner I should be waiting for? If not what would be the best bang for the buck card available now?

 

[Jin34]

HAHAHA, I think it's funny we are talking about running a brand new, top of the line CPU with a "demanding" part of Mario Galaxy. There will be someone out there that should post results... there's always one.

Well it's far more demanding than a PC game actually :lol

 

[ZZMitch]

Yo GAF,

I am defragmenting my disk (20% fragmented... sounds like a lot ). How long should I expect this to take?

 

[artist]

I'm planning on buying a video card in the $200 range and I'm wondering if there is anything around the corner I should be waiting for? If not what would be the best bang for the buck card available now?

The only new SKU around the corner is the 560 which is out of that range. Get the 460 and OC and you'll be fine.

 

[scoobs]

So I'm strongly considering upgrading from my old 160gb HDD to a new SSD. I'm sort of new to SSD, just had a few questions for those that know. Where do you keep it in ur case? Is there anywhere for it to be screwed in? Second, the size of any of the affordable SSDs is around 120gb right now... I feel like this is probably not going to hold all my games/music/movies on my current HDD, how are you guys dealing with the storage capacity problems that come w/ SSD right now?

 

[AkIRA_22]

Well it's far more demanding than a PC game actually :lol

True, but that's because PC games use the GPU, while Dolphin uses the CPU. It would be good if the people behind Dolphin could get their head around OpenCL and start dishing some resources off to the GPU, it would eat games for breakfast if they did that.

 

[Petrie]

wrong thread. Sorry.

 

[Sqrt_minus_one]

This is what I have planned for my computer upgrade, what do you guys think?

My current PC has:
CPU - AMD Phenom X4 9600 Black Edition (four 2.3GHz cores)
Ram - 4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz
Motherboard - ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4N82 DELUXE (has AM2/AM2+/AM3 support)
Graphics Card - 896MB GeForce GTX 260
Harddrive - 195GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG SP2004C ATA Device (SATA)

Thinking about upgrading it to:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (four 3.4GHz cores)
Ram: + 4 more gigs
Motherboard: Keeping it, has support for the CPU I want
Graphics Card: Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB (You can get it for $100 off thanks to newegg deals.)
Harddrive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1T

Great choices but personelly i would hold fire on the RAM and see what the system performance is like without, I personally have 4GB in my main machine and cant say I have come across a game which wanted for more, yet. The second reason I say this is I see you are still running DDR2 if you want to upgrade in the future to a new mobo it will probably be DDR3 and so throw out all the old RAM and buy new stuff.

 

[artist]

So I'm strongly considering upgrading from my old 160gb HDD to a new SSD. I'm sort of new to SSD, just had a few questions for those that know. Where do you keep it in ur case? Is there anywhere for it to be screwed in? Second, the size of any of the affordable SSDs is around 120gb right now... I feel like this is probably not going to hold all my games/music/movies on my current HDD, how are you guys dealing with the storage capacity problems that come w/ SSD right now?

This might help;

Link; http://techreport.com/articles.x/20087/10

I was thinking of getting a Momentus XT and hold off on the SSD until the next gen controllers are out but now I'm not so sure. Still reading around ..

 

[Sqrt_minus_one]

True, but that's because PC games use the GPU, while Dolphin uses the CPU. It would be good if the people behind Dolphin could get their head around OpenCL and start dishing some resources off to the GPU, it would eat games for breakfast if they did that.

I think such a proposition is doubly difficult for an emulator as you are coding the software to mimic the executing environment of a whole other computer system so you need the flexibility of a traditional CPU. How fast does Dolphin currently run anyway Sandybridge IMO will not have more than 5% on todays Core i7 clock for clock. Obviously it might be easier to overclock up to 4Ghz so that might ease your burden somewhat.

 

[Ikuu]

So I'm strongly considering upgrading from my old 160gb HDD to a new SSD. I'm sort of new to SSD, just had a few questions for those that know. Where do you keep it in ur case? Is there anywhere for it to be screwed in? Second, the size of any of the affordable SSDs is around 120gb right now... I feel like this is probably not going to hold all my games/music/movies on my current HDD, how are you guys dealing with the storage capacity problems that come w/ SSD right now?

Get a 60-80GB SSD for the OS, apps and a game or two, and stick the rest on a regular HDD.

 

[scoobs]

Get a 60-80GB SSD for the OS, apps and a game or two, and stick the rest on a regular HDD.

So probably a dumb question but can you run a SSD and a regular HDD in raid?

 

[undu]

The only new SKU around the corner is the 560 which is out of that range. Get the 460 and OC and you'll be fine.

Is there any info around about how much is it going to cost and its performance?

 

[TheExodu5]

Is there any info around about how much is it going to cost and its performance?

No but we can guess.

Probably $250 and maybe 20% faster than the current GTX 460 1GB.

 

[scoobs]

So where exactly does an SSD go in the case? Video i watched on youtube the guy just laid it across the bottom of the case lol.

 

[Ikuu]

My case has a holder for an SSD, but it came with a bracket to install it into a normal HDD cage.

 

[TheExodu5]

So where exactly does an SSD go in the case? Video i watched on youtube the guy just laid it across the bottom of the case lol.

Mine didn't come with a bracket (OEM), and my case doesn't have an adapter, so I just screwed it to the fan grate at the bottom of the case. I originally had it suspended with elastics, but one of them was bad and dried out after about a year.

You can definitely purchase an adapter if you so desire.

 

[Metalic Sand]

Does CPU wattage have anything to do with a MOBOs TDP max? So say i have a CPU at 142 watts and my MOBO maxes at 145 TDP CPU. I looked around everywhere...

Also will CPU wattage effect anything besides my PSU? Im at 3.4Ghz and was worried of putting it at 3.6 because of watts :lol

 

[Odrion]

Great choices but personelly i would hold fire on the RAM and see what the system performance is like without, I personally have 4GB in my main machine and cant say I have come across a game which wanted for more, yet. The second reason I say this is I see you are still running DDR2 if you want to upgrade in the future to a new mobo it will probably be DDR3 and so throw out all the old RAM and buy new stuff.

Cool, time to pull the trigger!

ninja edit: The hard drive is now sold out. What's a good alternative?

 

[artist]

Cool, time to pull the trigger!

ninja edit: The hard drive is now sold out. What's a good alternative?

Samsung F3.

 

[Hazaro]

Cool, time to pull the trigger!

ninja edit: The hard drive is now sold out. What's a good alternative?

1TB Samsung F3.
Also if you are overclocking, getting the 955 is fine.

 

[scoobs]

So how exactly do i set up multiple drives w/ both HDDs and SSDs? Tomshardware not currently helping much.

 

[matmanx1]

Yeah so.. I'm not that good with computers but I'm thinking about building a pc. I decided to get a Radeon 6950 because you can do a BIOS flash and make it a 6970, thus getting me the most bang for my buck. I have a case Cooler Master CM 690 II and I was wondering what was the cheapest Motherboard/CPU combo I could get that wouldn't bottleneck the GPU. I'm also assuming that I have to get a hefty power supply and some kind of cooling system(although the case has lots of fans) Any help would be appreciated.

tl;dr Gonna get a 6950 -turn it to a 6970. What is the cheapest Mobo/cpu combo that wouldn't bottle neck the gpu.

I would think the Cpu/Mobo combo in the budget build in the OP would be your baseline at around $170. There's alot of bang for the buck in that combo. In regards to your power supply you will want to look at around 600 watts in a good, solid name brand that is 80 Plus certified.

I'm not very knowledgeable about non stock cooling so someone else may want to field that question but I do know that the CM 690 II is an excellent case for air cooling as is and may serve your needs without any further enhancement.

 

[Angelus Errare]

So how exactly do i set up multiple drives w/ both HDDs and SSDs? Tomshardware not currently helping much.

What do you mean specifically? It's pretty straight forward. I may be off but chances are high you need to go into your bios and change it from PATA emulation to AHCI.

 

[FoxSpirit]

Okay, a quickie:
I currently have a 4850, running off a good 400W PSU no problem. So a 6850 should be no problem, right?

One 12V rail 14A, second rail 15A.

Okay, my research shows that the 6850 should actually drain a few Watts less so everything should be fine. Right?

 

[scoobs]

What do you mean specifically? It's pretty straight forward. I may be off but chances are high you need to go into your bios and change it from PATA emulation to AHCI.

Thats about it, thanks. Guess I'll just lay my ssd down on the bottom of the case :lol Think im gonna put WoW, Bad Company 2, and Win7 on my ssd and see how much space I have left. Might be able to put my itunes on there if I get lucky, however I have a freakin ton of songs.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Thats about it, thanks. Guess I'll just lay my ssd down on the bottom of the case :lol Think im gonna put WoW, Bad Company 2, and Win7 on my ssd and see how much space I have left. Might be able to put my itunes on there if I get lucky, however I have a freakin ton of songs.

Keep your songs on another HDD, putting them on a SSD gains absolutely nothing since music files are small they load nearly instantly on a HDD.

Basically put Windows and a few programs you use constantly on the SSD, everything else on the HDD.

 

[matmanx1]

Okay, my research shows that the 6850 should actually drain a few Watts less so everything should be fine. Right?

Should be, yes, as long as you don't start overclocking or dialing up the voltages on anything.

 

[matmanx1]

Thats about it, thanks. Guess I'll just lay my ssd down on the bottom of the case :lol Think im gonna put WoW, Bad Company 2, and Win7 on my ssd and see how much space I have left. Might be able to put my itunes on there if I get lucky, however I have a freakin ton of songs.

Get an adapter for that SSD. It's only a couple of bucks and it's worth the price to have it properly mounted. Depending on which SSD you buy you may get an adapter with it. I know my Intel came with an adapter to fit it into a normal HDD slot.

 

[AkIRA_22]

This might help;

Link; http://techreport.com/articles.x/20087/10

I was thinking of getting a Momentus XT and hold off on the SSD until the next gen controllers are out but now I'm not so sure. Still reading around ..

Hell yeah Corsair Nova in the house! I've had mine since April '10 and have not looked back, cheap and fast, absolute ripper. It won't stand up to the competition by midway through this year but it's been a trooper. it's still a VERY noticeable leap over a platter HDD.

Other big new for system builders in '11 will be SSD's not only adding even more speed and reliability but becoming consumer price friendly. Expect GOOD 64GB SSDs for well under $100 ~$70. An SSD is the best 'single component solution' to upgrade your older PC to become faster, hands down.

 

[matmanx1]

So here's what I have so far on the new build. I'm very close to where I want to be and just have a couple of question marks left for when Sandy Bridge hits.

CPU - Probably 2500k SB
Mobo - No clue yet
CPU Cooler - No clue yet. Should use one of the good socket 1156 ones?
RAM - G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 4GB
HDD1 - Intel 120GB SSD X25-M
HDD2 - 1TB 7200RPM Seagate Barracuda (got it on the cheap with a combo deal on the SSD)
Optical Drive - Reusing my trusty Sony DVDRW
Case -Silverstone Raven RV-02
PSU - Corsair 650HX
Video - Gigabyte Radeon 6970

Already have a nice KB/Mouse combo I love (Razer BlackWidow Ultimate keyboard with a Razer DeathAdder mouse on a Razer Goliathus speedpad) and will be reusing my existing Windows 7 and LCD screen. I'm almost there!

 

[·feist·]

The way things are looking, the prices for the new CPUs will be at near parity with their current equivalents.

I meant for people looking to buy the current crop of AMD/Intel/Nvidia products.

AMD still seems to be sticking to the same old CPU architecture, which is getting them results in the budget market, but has been leaving them waaaaaaaaay behind elsewhere. From the looks of it, Bulldozer won't change that.

Not sure where you are getting that (apart from the obvious IPC, resource and budget differences), but they only need to get within a certain ballpark of performance. Remember, users will still be able to overclock any BD chip they want, 4-, 6-, and 8-core.

So here's what I have so far on the new build. I'm very close to where I want to be and just have a couple of question marks left for when Sandy Bridge hits.

CPU - Probably 2500k SB
Mobo - No clue yet
CPU Cooler - No clue yet. Should use one of the good socket 1156 ones?
RAM - G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 4GB
HDD1 - Intel 120GB SSD X25-M
HDD2 - 1TB 7200RPM Seagate Barracuda (got it on the cheap with a combo deal on the SSD)
Optical Drive - Reusing my trusty Sony DVDRW
Case -Silverstone Raven RV-02
PSU - Corsair 650HX
Video - Gigabyte Radeon 6970

Already have a nice KB/Mouse combo I love (Razer BlackWidow Ultimate keyboard with a Razer DeathAdder mouse on a Razer Goliathus speedpad) and will be reusing my existing Windows 7 and LCD screen. I'm almost there!

Yes.

Corsair A70 - $31 after rebate
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IT6RE8/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Otherwise...
$25 Hyper 212+
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G1YPH0/?tag=neogaf0e-20
$40 Mugen 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185142&Tpk=scmg-2100

 

[TheExodu5]

Any nice looking blackish heatsink for 1155/1156? Something along the lines of the TRUE. I was going to get the TRUE...but hadn't realized it was only 1366.

 

[AkIRA_22]

Corsair A70 - $31 after rebate
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IT6RE8/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Otherwise...
$25 Hyper 212+
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G1YPH0/?tag=neogaf0e-20
$40 Mugen 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185142&Tpk=scmg-2100

Don't forget the Noctua NH-D14

$89.99 not cheap, but a great. IMO the best air CPU cooler around.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018&Tpk=Noctua%20NH-D14

 

[·feist·]

I was trying to stick to solid coolers that are inexpensive since a Mugen 2 would satisfy most GAF users. While the Noctua is nice, at that price a Thermalright Silver Arrow gets you better performance and sound levels.

Any nice looking blackish heatsink for 1155/1156? Something along the lines of the TRUE. I was going to get the TRUE...but hadn't realized it was only 1366.

Prolimatech Mega Shadow

There are others, though if you're going to pay a premium, it may as well net you something better than the marginal performance you get from some style-focused HSFs.

 

[TheExodu5]

Prolimatech Mega Shadow

There are others, though if you're going to pay a premium, it may as well net you something better than the marginal performance you get from some style-focused HSFs.

Sweet. Black isn't a strict requirement...but since the rest of my system is perfectly black, I want to try to go for it.

 

[AkIRA_22]

Prolimatech Mega Shadow

How do you convey an admiring whistle in an online forum because that's a beauty. though is it a performer, that gap in the middle looks like wasted surface area to me. BUT with Sandy Bridge requiring little cooling, nearly anything below 50 rods with a single 120mm fan will suffice.

 

[TheExodu5]

God damnit. Can't find the Mega Shadow anywhere in Canada.

 

[Sqrt_minus_one]

Sandy Bridge Reviews are GO, GO, GO!

AnandTech

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/intels-2nd-generation-core-processor-family-announced-includes/

 

[Odrion]

One last thing, is there anyway I can check the wattage on my power supply? I remember it getting replaced a while ago and I can't remember if it was a 550W or a 400W.

 

[artist]

One last thing, is there anyway I can check the wattage on my power supply? I remember it getting replaced a while ago and I can't remember if it was a 550W or a 400W.

Your PSU will have a label.

Sandy Bridge Reviews are GO, GO, GO!

AnandTech

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/intels-2nd-generation-core-processor-family-announced-includes/

Thanks, reading ..

 

[AkIRA_22]

Sandy Bridge Reviews are GO, GO, GO!

AnandTech

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/intels-2nd-generation-core-processor-family-announced-includes/

Those that like to watch their reviews OC3D has a good review.

 

[Hazaro]

Any nice looking blackish heatsink for 1155/1156? Something along the lines of the TRUE. I was going to get the TRUE...but hadn't realized it was only 1366.

You can just buy a TRUE and get a socket 1156 adapter, whats what I'm doing.

 

[TheExodu5]

You can just buy a TRUE and get a socket 1156 adapter, whats what I'm doing.

Looks like I'll have to do that, since the Mega Shadow isn't available anymore. Actually, the TRUE looks nicer anyways.

Thanks.

Sandy Bridge is looking awesome. Look at the performance gain the single core enabled SC2 gets. Friggin amazing.