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General Category => Off the Record => Gaming HQ => Topic started by: Seen on April 06, 2009, 07:53:04 PM

Title: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Seen on April 06, 2009, 07:53:04 PM
Crisis scripish. With my poor P4 hardly hanging on with scuba gear keeping it going the hint was clear, time for a radical update.

After not less than a year of postponing and seriously contemplating upgrading day by day since November (i7) im on my D-day. Almost a year I was leaning for the i7 but with stats showing it only gets massive boosts for video editing. Something i dont do at all so I went 180 and go for 'bang for the buck' Phenom. Before I make the final call Im calling for your expertise :D

Quote#     Product                                                        Price                   
   AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition    € 194,90       
   Cooler Master Centurion 590 Zwart    € 59,-       
   Cooler Master Silent Pro M600    € 84,90       
   Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4    € 96,43
   Kingston HyperX KHX8500D2K2/4G    € 46,95       
   Samsung SH-S223F    € 16,74       
   Samsung Spinpoint F1 DT HD103UJ, 1TB    € 74,75       
   Samsung Syncmaster 2443BW    € 239,-    
   Sapphire HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E    € 212,95    
   Scythe Mugen 2 - SCMG-2000    € 32,25    
   Total    € 1.057,87

Prices are for this date but of course ask and demand. Im still not sure about the power supply and harddrive. But critique on other segments are welcome as well. Im contemplating upgrading to ddr3 and amd3 next year for cheap so I want to have enough power to get crossfire/sli than.

What are the experts thoughts? :)
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Berkut on April 06, 2009, 07:54:06 PM
Anandtech did a test of the Phenom II X3, and found that it performed pretty much identically with the X4 in gaming applications.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Grey Fox on April 06, 2009, 08:01:27 PM
Do I really have to say it?

Apart an extremely important part, it looks fine.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Seen on April 06, 2009, 08:08:00 PM
Quote from: Grey Fox on April 06, 2009, 08:01:27 PM
Do I really have to say it?

Apart an extremely important part, it looks fine.
Say it!

Or do you mean the above mentioned performance issue?

Berkut, do i need to google or are you going to give a link? ;)
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Grey Fox on April 06, 2009, 08:13:43 PM
Quote from: Seen on April 06, 2009, 08:08:00 PM
Quote from: Grey Fox on April 06, 2009, 08:01:27 PM
Do I really have to say it?

Apart an extremely important part, it looks fine.
Say it!

For the love of hod, don't give in and buy an ATI card.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Berkut on April 06, 2009, 08:18:55 PM
Quote from: Seen on April 06, 2009, 08:08:00 PM
Berkut, do i need to google or are you going to give a link? ;)

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3533
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Syt on April 07, 2009, 12:51:52 AM
Quote from: Grey Fox on April 06, 2009, 08:13:43 PM

For the love of hod, don't give in and buy an ATI card.

I had two (old) ATI cards and a couple nVidia ones. I have to say I had plenty trouble with ATI, but everything was fine when I had nVidia.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Berkut on April 07, 2009, 11:39:07 AM
I've used both NVidai and ATI at various times. Some of them had problems, some did not. I hav never seen any indication that one was more likely than the other, and every reputable review site says the same thing.

Buy whichever one offers the best deal at the price point you want to spend.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Barrister on April 07, 2009, 11:49:39 AM
I've had issues with a couple of different ATI cards, but no issues with the couple of NVidia cards I've used.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Berkut on April 07, 2009, 11:54:05 AM
Quote from: Barrister on April 07, 2009, 11:49:39 AM
I've had issues with a couple of different ATI cards, but no issues with the couple of NVidia cards I've used.

You use a Mac though, so your opinion is largely worthless.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Tamas on April 07, 2009, 12:05:08 PM
Do. Not. Buy. An. ATI. Card.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Barrister on April 07, 2009, 01:18:04 PM
Quote from: Berkut on April 07, 2009, 11:54:05 AM
Quote from: Barrister on April 07, 2009, 11:49:39 AM
I've had issues with a couple of different ATI cards, but no issues with the couple of NVidia cards I've used.

You use a Mac though, so your opinion is largely worthless.

:unsure:

All but one of those cards were in PCs.  And the 8800GT in my Mac is made by NVidia just like any other NVidia card.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Berkut on April 07, 2009, 01:32:57 PM
Quote from: Barrister on April 07, 2009, 01:18:04 PM
Quote from: Berkut on April 07, 2009, 11:54:05 AM
Quote from: Barrister on April 07, 2009, 11:49:39 AM
I've had issues with a couple of different ATI cards, but no issues with the couple of NVidia cards I've used.

You use a Mac though, so your opinion is largely worthless.

:unsure:

All but one of those cards were in PCs.  And the 8800GT in my Mac is made by NVidia just like any other NVidia card.

Yeah, but you use a Mac, so your opinion is largely worthless.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: MadBurgerMaker on April 07, 2009, 01:41:39 PM
The only card I've ever had that showed up to my house DOA was an NVidia card made by BFG, but the others I've had have worked fine IIRC, as have all the ATIs.  One thing about that NVidia card was their customer support absolutely blew.  I've never talked to any of the various ATI customer support types, so I can't comment on them, but fuck BFG.

QuoteBuy whichever one offers the best deal at the price point you want to spend.

Do this.  That 4890 is getting good reviews, so I don't see any reason why you shouldn't get one if it fits your needs, and it's the one you want.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Seen on April 07, 2009, 06:37:25 PM
I never had problems with Ati. Where does the big hate come from? Its competitor GeForce GTX 275  will only be out in EU from 14th april onwards and not widespread available even than. Besides I waited long enough so time to decide before that time. The GTX 260 looks interesting (I would get 2 of those than) but I have no clue which motherboard capable AMD will work nicely with full SLI for around a 100e.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Baron von Schtinkenbutt on April 09, 2009, 06:53:02 PM
Quote from: Seen on April 06, 2009, 07:53:04 PM
Almost a year I was leaning for the i7 but with stats showing it only gets massive boosts for video editing. Something i dont do at all so I went 180 and go for 'bang for the buck' Phenom.

Where did you hear this?  The Nehalem microarchitecture is significantly better than its predecessor in multiple areas, the biggest one being memory bandwidth.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Berkut on April 10, 2009, 09:33:22 AM
Anandtech has a new Systems Buyer Guide up for midrange systems.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Berkut on April 10, 2009, 09:34:46 AM
I bought a rahter nice 22" LCD monitor a couple years ago, which I expected to last me a rather long time.

But the new 1900x1200 resolution monitors look really nice. The Anandtech article recommends a 26" model for about $300.
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Syt on April 10, 2009, 09:46:46 AM
I have a 24" version of that resolution, and it's very fine for me. Larger than that and I have problems putting my speakers on my desk.  :blush:
Title: Re: Yet another New PC thread
Post by: Seen on April 10, 2009, 07:00:28 PM
Quote from: vonmoltke on April 09, 2009, 06:53:02 PM
Quote from: Seen on April 06, 2009, 07:53:04 PM
Almost a year I was leaning for the i7 but with stats showing it only gets massive boosts for video editing. Something i dont do at all so I went 180 and go for 'bang for the buck' Phenom.

Where did you hear this?  The Nehalem microarchitecture is significantly better than its predecessor in multiple areas, the biggest one being memory bandwidth.
A dutch nerd forum but do remember a test where i saw the difference myself which made the 200 euro difference between the two systems not worth the performance difference. There was no doubt the i7 was better compared to the phenom just not at  % performance increase compared to price in games (or anything besides video). Ill ask the mod there to give me links to tests he based it on. Forgot mine  :blush: