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[Mikesshunk]

Well, my rig is just about done but I need just a few more parts.

Sometime today or tomorrow, I'll be getting a processor. I'm more or less set on either the Phenom II X4 3.4Ghz Black Edition or the X6 2.8Ghz.
Price isn't really any issue between them, but I'd like to know which one would likely perform better.

Secondly, I'm gonna need a new video card. I'd like to have something powerful enough to handle most any game you throw at it. Eventually, though, I'd like to add another card or two in Crossfire. I'm looking to spend no more than $350 tops. I'm just not thinking my old card will cut it. It's an old PCI NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT with a gig of memory.

Also, will a 750W PSU run it with the specs below and possibly some more video cards?

Just for reference, here's the specs of my to-be rig:
Xion II Case (Black and Green)
Samsung DVD Burner
Lite-On Blu-Ray Drive
MSI 890FXA-GD70 Mobo
8GB OCZ Gold DDR3 (Will expand to 16GB eventually)
Whichever CPU I pick, probably overclocked
2TB SATA HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium
Which ever video card(s) I get
Liquid Cooling eventually

My Current Rig:
Dell Dimension 2350
1.8Ghz P4
1GB DDR
40GB HDD
250GB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT 1GB

Any help?

This post has been edited by Mikesshunk: Jul 2 2010, 03:55 PM

[throwingks]

Nice rig. I don't think that PSU will hack it with crossfire/sli. The card you have now may work as a decent PhysX card, depending on what you upgrade to.

I am partial to nVidia video cards, but I think Ati is winning the race right now. But, nVidia "officially" supports PhysX.

Either CPU will be great for you. 6 cores is more future proof, but not many programs are ready for even the quad core yet.

I am personally running a Phenom II x4 myself, and it works great. I do not think you should get 16GB of RAM. Stay with 8 and gang it to your quad core. Save the money for a decent video card that is not in crossfire/sli. I personally like single cards better than crossfire/sli.

[Mikesshunk]

Thanks for the input. I bought the X4 yesterday.  I don't think I'll ever need the 6 core, at least not for a while.

As for the video cards, any suggestions on a good one? I'm not concerned about brand really, as long as it plays any game I can throw at it and won't need replaced in 6 months. I'm not quite that rich, I work at McDonald's after all.

And will 750W power all of that plus a single, high end video card?

And what do you mean by "The card you have now may work as a decent PhysX card, depending on what you upgrade to."
Do you mean have two cards in the rig, used for different games or something? For reference, this is the card I have at the moment.

And you'll have to explain ganging the ram to the CPU. All sounds new to me.

Oh, and this thing should be operational by the end of the week. It'll just have my old IDE hard drive with XP Pro 32-Bit until a buy a new hard drive and OS.

I'm considering getting a SSD or a Raptor or somthing similar, but are they worth the added cost? I was thinking about just getting a small SSD just for the OS.

Thanks!

This post has been edited by Mikesshunk: Jul 3 2010, 08:42 PM

[throwingks]

QUOTE(Mikesshunk @ Jul 3 2010, 12:39 PM)

Thanks for the input. I bought the X4 yesterday.  I don't think I'll ever need the 6 core, at least not for a while.

It's a nice chip. You will be happy with it.

QUOTE

As for the video cards, any suggestions on a good one? I'm not concerned about brand really, as long as it plays any game I can throw at it and won't need replaced in 6 months. I'm not quite that rich, I work at McDonald's after all.

A single GPU runs better than Crossfire/SLi for about the same price, in my opinion. It can go both ways really, depending on the game, but there no compatibility issues with a single card. Since your MoBo supports Crossfire and not SLi, I would get and Ati GPU, just in case in the future you want Crossfire. There are some good Ati performance/$ cards out right now.

QUOTE

And will 750W power all of that plus a single, high end video card?

I am using a 750W right now with a Phenom II x4, 4GB RAM and an nVidia GT240. You should be ok... keep your fingers crossed. If you run into any instability, check the PSU first.

QUOTE

And what do you mean by "The card you have now may work as a decent PhysX card, depending on what you upgrade to."
Do you mean have two cards in the rig, used for different games or something? For reference, this is the card I have at the moment.

PhysX is nVidia's technology for putting some of the physics on another dedicated GPU. Basically your main card runs the game, but the other card helps out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX

I don't think it is worth buying an extra card specifically for PhysX. But, if you have one already, then it is definitely worth it. There are some hacks out there to get PhysX running on Ati. So, you may have to tweak some things to get it working right with your setup. Not every game supports it though, so it may not even be worth your trouble depending on the games you play. There is a full list in the wiki link above.

QUOTE

And you'll have to explain ganging the ram to the CPU. All sounds new to me.

Ganged RAM basically mean that your CPU and RAM work more efficiently. In theory, your system runs more efficiently. It is just a setting in your BIOS, that will work with your setup. If you are only using 2 sticks, it will still work, and possibly better.

QUOTE

Oh, and this thing should be operational by the end of the week. It'll just have my old IDE hard drive with XP Pro 32-Bit until a buy a new hard drive and OS.

I'm considering getting a SSD or a Raptor or somthing similar, but are they worth the added cost? I was thinking about just getting a small SSD just for the OS.

They will help if the OS is on that drive. In the meantime, a cheap Pata to Sata converter may increase performance a tiny smidgen on the hard drive you have.

QUOTE

Thanks!

No problem.

[Mikesshunk]

So would something like this work well for gaming? As in it'll handle everything I throw at it on max settings. If not, any specific suggestions for one that would? I don't mind shelling out some dough for a good video card.

[throwingks]

While that will work, that particular one isn't the best overclocker. The 5850 costs a little more and gives a nice boost in performance, at stock speeds.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814161330
All of this info is based on reviews I just read. I don't know hardly anything about Ati GPUs.

Make sure to check PSU requirements before you buy any GPU. One 5850 reviewer had issues with a 700W PSU.

This post has been edited by throwingks: Jul 4 2010, 03:49 AM

[Mikesshunk]

Alright, I got this thing up and running today, with the old hard drive and OS until I get my next paycheck. Just a quick question:

My temperature monitor reports 2 core temperatures, 36 and 61. Is that at all high?

[throwingks]

Nice work getting it up and running. That seems weird that 2 sensors would read so drastically different for CPUs. They should be close to the same. Try reseating the one, and possibly use Arctic Silver. Also, use ties and increase air flow.

[Mikesshunk]

What exactly am I reseating? The temp. sensors seem to be in the CPU it's self. I'm not sure, but it may just be the program I'm using because a few things are odd with it. For one, the one core temp and the GPU temp are always the same. And two, the program has two core temperatures yet I have four core, although that might just be all the program supports so I'm not sure on that. And do you have a recommended program for monitoring temps?
As for airflow, I am considering just buying a new case. This one is ok, but it's a bit old. Not to mention, the front fan hardly moves any air with the front grill of this thing and the side fan isn't the greatest. I was thinking about buying a pair of 120mm that have 252cfm airflow but the page says that they're 66.2dB. Seems just a little loud...

[hamwbone]

Check out coretemp or speedfan

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

[Mikesshunk]

Actually, Speedfan is what I'm using, though I think I've run into another problem. Only one of my cores seems to be working. Speedfan, CPU-Z, Everest, etc only recognize one, although four are in it, though PC Wizard recognizes 4 but only shows usage on one. It, along with the BIOS menu show the core temp to be about 40. Device manager recognizes them though. I'm guessing it's since I upgraded from a P4 but still have the same OS and HDD in it.

[throwingks]

Check with task manager --> performance. 100% definitely reinstall the OS, if you didn't.

[Mikesshunk]

Well that too only shows one core. I'm not sure how I'm gonna reinstall XP though. I don't have an install disc (my dad installed a fresh copy before he gave this thing to me)

[throwingks]

If you can get a win 7 upgrade disk, the upgrade from XP to 7 makes you do a full install. So, you get a Full clean installation of 7 for the upgrade price.

There is an upgrade install disk for Win7 on Google price for $80 right now. All you need is Home Premium, but you need 64bit.

College students can grab this for $30:
http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/us/win...ow/default.aspx

This post has been edited by throwingks: Jul 12 2010, 06:05 PM

[Mikesshunk]

I was thinking about just getting a OEM copy and just doing a fresh install on a SSD next paycheck. The old hard drive is slow as hell and I'd like to eventually put it in the old computer and use it to host files or a Quake server or something. I guess I'll just make do with one core until then.