-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Official 2008 "I Need A New PC" Thread
- Thread starter Kosma
- Start date
DarkAngelYuna
Banned
My new Cyberpowerpc just came a few hours ago from Newegg.com. It's an E8400 +2gb ram +8500gt. I just got done setting up Vista Home Prem 64bit and am installing all my programs. So far its very nice and fast. I have an XFX 8800gt coming tomorrow but I'm sorta worried about if I can power it. My PSU is some crappy 420watt junk. Right now the pc is just 1 dvd drive, 1 HD, 2 case fans and the pci sound card I added in. I don't see a 6pin plug from the psu for the video card but cyberpowerpc jammed some of the cords behind the back of the hd\drive bays and they won't come out. So far all I found are the 2 left over 4 pin plugs which I could use with the adapter to transform it into a 6pin I guess. I'm guessing it will work since one customer review says he added a 8800gts just fine. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. =\
For those of you who are deciding which OS to use, there's a new XP SP3 vs Vista SP1 benchmarking article.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2303830,00.asp
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2303830,00.asp
I don't think that's possible. Vista does have slightly better mutlithreading support, though.Cheeto said:
godhandiscen
There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Time to vote. Whats the best watercooler out there? I am seriously considering overclocking my Phenom but judging by how my area has been lately, I am pretty sure I will need water cooling to keep any clock increase. I am looking at this atm:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118032
Else, plz recommend me a kickass watercooler, $430 is the most I'll pay.
Also, if anybody here has used 2 3870X2, how are the performance gains there over only one 3870X2. I was thinking of going Crossfire X soon.
Also, how long will a watercooler last me?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118032
Else, plz recommend me a kickass watercooler, $430 is the most I'll pay.
Also, if anybody here has used 2 3870X2, how are the performance gains there over only one 3870X2. I was thinking of going Crossfire X soon.
Also, how long will a watercooler last me?
mr stroke
Member
godhandiscen said:
from reading Hardforum and Anandtech, I wouldn't spend the money on crossfire right now unless your playing @2400x1600 its not worth it, I can still run everything maxed at 1900x1200. I would wait a couple of months for a 4870x2, if you can crossfire that then you should have a BEAST with 4 gpus going at once:lol
but in the real world I dunno why anyone would spend any money on a new card right now. Considering you have an 8800gt or above I can't see any games in the next 8 months that are card demanding. StarCraft2, Sims3, Spore, Battlefield Heros, WOW expan, etc..should run flawlessly on current cards. I would wait until something hardware demanding comes out(maybe Dawn of War 2 or Far Cry 2?)
godhandiscen
There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
You are right sir. I will just wait until the 4800X2 arrives. No point in wasting money now. I will sell my current 3870X2 when the 4800X2 arrives though. Srsly, I've been so close to click the check out now button on either of those products. Anxiety is gone now... Thanks.mr stroke said:
I really think people need to learn what Quad cores are for because if you are building a gaming rig their is not point in buying a Q9450 or especially a Q9300 or Q6600 over an E8400.
You get the boost for Quad cores when you are doing some heavy multitasking. Multi tasking does not include watching videos while you use your anti virus and browse the Internet. It's stuff like running 3d studio max, while doing texture work in Adobe photoshop, while listening to music on Winamp and having 100 process running.
Most games don't support Quad core and when they do the quad cores of today will be old news. When a game supports two cores or one core the CPU with the best technology and highest clock rate will give better FPS. Those are not the current quad cores. A Q9450 is basically two E8400's taped together. However the two cores on the E8400 are faster then any two on the Q9450. Thus giving you a gaming advantage. Plus you can overclock the E8400 with a decent setup to retarded speeds.
I just want people to know what Quad cores are for, especially the Q9450. You can buy an E8400+Evga 9800GTX for the price it costs you to buy a Q9450 + 8800GT. The E8400 combo easily beats it for gaming.
Make sure if you are going to spend the cash on a Quad core, you can really take advantage of it.
You get the boost for Quad cores when you are doing some heavy multitasking. Multi tasking does not include watching videos while you use your anti virus and browse the Internet. It's stuff like running 3d studio max, while doing texture work in Adobe photoshop, while listening to music on Winamp and having 100 process running.
Most games don't support Quad core and when they do the quad cores of today will be old news. When a game supports two cores or one core the CPU with the best technology and highest clock rate will give better FPS. Those are not the current quad cores. A Q9450 is basically two E8400's taped together. However the two cores on the E8400 are faster then any two on the Q9450. Thus giving you a gaming advantage. Plus you can overclock the E8400 with a decent setup to retarded speeds.
I just want people to know what Quad cores are for, especially the Q9450. You can buy an E8400+Evga 9800GTX for the price it costs you to buy a Q9450 + 8800GT. The E8400 combo easily beats it for gaming.
Make sure if you are going to spend the cash on a Quad core, you can really take advantage of it.
TheHeretic
Banned
The E8400 is an over rated CPU. Quad cores offer far more processing power and its the only direction gaming can move it.
DarkAngelYuna
Banned
By the time gaming gets there every quad core out will already be too old and greatly outdated.TheHeretic said:
TheHeretic
Banned
DarkAngelYuna said:
Thats ridiculous. Games today utilize quad core technology. Dual core processors have hit a point where they simply can't get any better. How is your E8400 better than my Q6600 @ 3.7Ghz in any way? Oh right, it isn't. Clock speed is all dual core processors have and they don't even have that any more.
DarkAngelYuna
Banned
No they dont... And an equally OCed e8400 still kills a OCed Q6600.. I want whatever you've been smoking.TheHeretic said:
TheHeretic
Banned
Cheeto said:
Because the E8400 is SO MUCH CHEAPER than the Q6600.
TheHeretic
Banned
DarkAngelYuna said:
Yes, they do. I'll take my Q6600 over an E8400 at 4ghz any day of the week, pal.
And i'm smoking weed, ask your local black man .
joking, no hate mail please!
Can you see any problems with this spec, or alternative/cheaper recommendations? I don't want Quad Core yet btw (CPU warzzzzzzzzzzz)!
Antec Three Hundred case
Corsair HX520W
Abit IP35
Intel C2D E8400
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) Gold DDR2 PC2-6400
BFG GeForce 8800GT OC 512MB
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit OEM
Thx
Antec Three Hundred case
Corsair HX520W
Abit IP35
Intel C2D E8400
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) Gold DDR2 PC2-6400
BFG GeForce 8800GT OC 512MB
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit OEM
Thx
mambadragon
Banned
TheHeretic said:
Q6600 owner here, and just want to let you know this isn't true at all. Whereas Intel and AMD used to get performance gains through clock speed (and you're right that clock speed means less and less since we've hit a wall), they now come through architecture changes like how operands are scheduled, reorder buffers, and all that great stuff I've forgotten in my year away from grad school. I'd think the majority of the advantages of the E8400 vs. the Q6600 come from these changes.
TheHeretic
Banned
oo Kosma oo said:
I've been fighting for Quad cores since inception. If a few bucks is the only consideration there is legitimacy to going dual core, but that aside with Vista's new capabilities theres no reason to turn down dramatically increased computation power because you have a hard on for slightly higher clock speeds.
njp142 said:
The architecture changes between the two are mostly irrelevant. Clock speed is the main difference (power consumption, heat output and size aside).
TheHeretic
Banned
Cheeto said:
Any game we are both playing would be GPU bound.
TheHeretic
Banned
Cheeto said:
Its not the same performance. Its the same performance with no background applications, and is inferior in plenty of other applications, including simply unzipping a file.
Epix said:
Imagine what your wallet will look like now. :lol
Futureproofing computer hardware must be some kind of joke, because hardware will always be rolling out a new generation every 12-16 months. The best anyone should be going for is to get a cost-effective rig every so often.
Hell, buying the latest chipset/mobo for a future upgrade path makes no sense, as the latest tech now will be grossly outperformed by new tech in the future.
The E8x000 series is a good buy simply because it is a substantial performance increase from the previous generation of dual-core processors at a good price point. The new quads, however, aren't.
TheHeretic said:
No, no, no!! The E8x00 series is faster GHz on GHz because of instruction optimization!! GHz increases give you dimishing returns faster than you realize! AHHHHH :explode:
edit: Core on core too.
TheHeretic
Banned
SRG01 said:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/248327-28-overclocked-q6600-e8400-compared-benchmarks-included
In Crysis there is no difference between the two CPU's on higher settings, and the E8400 gets beaten in UT3 which is a quad core optimised engine. But no man, the E8400 is TOTALLY the gaming CPU of today.
Cheeto said:
Oh be quiet you arrogant twat.
TheHeretic said:
Did you just use Tomshardware as a source....:lol
Thats like quoting a poster on a Gamefaq's board and using his word like gospel.
You might want to look at his test setup and the games he is chooosing.
-Crysis has little to do with the CPU and everything to do with the GPU. It's GPU bottle necked. This means the power of the CPU is wasted. Why? because it's codded like complete garbage. Go add a users settings to Crysis and you will see an improvement in performance by the E8400. Also, the testing program that comes with Crysis doesn't work properly. This is why most users are telling sites not to use it as a benchmarking program any longer.
-98 percent of users won't be overclocking their Q6600 to 3.2 GHZ. Period. You need to be extremely knowledgeable in overclocking, have tons of experience and one hell of a cooler to not break your computer.
-It's convenient he benchmarks A) a GPU bottlenecked game and B) a Quad core optimized game. How about benchmarking the dozens of other games out there.
- Anyone can get an E8400 to 4ghz. Anyone. There are settings you can find on the internet for each motherboard that work with the stock HSF.
-No p5(anything) board has proper drivers to deal with 45nm CPU's, they work but not to their full potential.
TheHeretic
Banned
Trax416 said:
If you can't discredit the numbers, discredit the source! Give me a break.
TheHeretic said:
maybe you missed this.
-Crysis has little to do with the CPU and everything to do with the GPU. It's GPU bottle necked. This means the power of the CPU is wasted. Why? because it's codded like complete garbage. Go add a users settings to Crysis and you will see an improvement in performance by the E8400. Also, the testing program that comes with Crysis doesn't work properly. This is why most users are telling sites not to use it as a benchmarking program any longer.
-98 percent of users won't be overclocking their Q6600 to 3.2 GHZ. Period. You need to be extremely knowledgeable in overclocking, have tons of experience and one hell of a cooler to not break your computer.
-It's convenient he benchmarks A) a GPU bottlenecked game and B) a Quad core optimized game. How about benchmarking the dozens of other games out there.
- Anyone can get an E8400 to 4ghz. Anyone. There are settings you can find on the internet for each motherboard that work with the stock HSF.
-No p5(anything) board has a proper bios to deal with 45nm CPU's, they work but not to their full potential.
- Q6600 was slower in the non quad core game, and he didn't even include the E8400 at stock
-He didn't test high resolutions.
This is why professional sites do benchmarks and not random people. I own a Q6600, Q9450 and an E8400. I use a 1080p Aquos as a monitor. Games run higher, at a better FPS on my E8400. I use my Q9450 for work, and I give my little brother my Q6600. I can run Crysis at 1080p with my E8400 on high. my Q6600 can't run 1680X1050 on high.
You also need to understand that if he used a better video card, or a card in SLI the CPU would not be bottle necked as much, and the extra power in the E8400 would be used, where the Q6600 doesn't have the extra room.
Finding a Q6600 that can even go to 3ghz is super rare, and nobody who reads this thread for computer advice will get it close to that overclocked.
So what people are trying to say is that quad-core processors suck for gaming? Well that just fucking sucks, I just upgraded to a quad-core :lol
But I have a Q6600 that I have OC to 3Ghz and it was pretty easy.
Developers should start programing there games with quads in mind, USE MY FOUR CORES DAMN IT.
But I have a Q6600 that I have OC to 3Ghz and it was pretty easy.
Developers should start programing there games with quads in mind, USE MY FOUR CORES DAMN IT.
JudgeN said:
No they don't suck, they are still good. You still get good frames, it's just on most games you get more frames with an E8400. They still get support frames far higher then our eyes can see.
If you took a good system and benchmarks 20 games using a Q6600 and an E8400 85+ percent of the games would run better on the E8400. However, they would both run at high frames so the difference is more for your wallet and epeen then anything.
DarkAngelYuna
Banned
Yay, my 8800gt came today to complete my new pc. E8400 + 2gb ram, 8800gt XFX, vista home prem 64bit...+TF2= 80-210fps on the highest settings.... so nice compared to my old amd 64 3000+ nvidia 6800 with 15-25fps, lawl.