Customized computer?

[David75]

maybe my next system will be intel... don't think im going to build another for a while though... idk.

unless DDR3 drops in price or I start making alot more money. I barely even game anymore though... mostly am just using my computer as media center.

I guess DDR3 will be interresting in only about a year. Then in about 2 they'll be announcing something new again...

So I'd stick with high quality DDR2 instead.

As for the CPU, it seems intel outpaced AMD, this will be for a while. Hope AMD will recover from this so that Intel doesn't trusts all of the consumer market...

As of yet I'd choose an E8500 that seems to accept neat and easy overclocking with a good heatsink. That would be a "reasonable choice" in terms of price/performance ratio.
A quad, except a Q6600 would be to pricey I think. But since I never play the newest games, I guess my choice is not neutral, the quad would not be useful for me.
There's another reason I would go to the E8500: its power consumption/performance ratio is one of the best (perhaps the best?) and performance are very good. That means it's possible to have a very good AND very quiet rig which is also one of my targets.

The thing with AMD having their phenom line being a huge mistake is that intel will not rush into having their prices drop... that's not good news.
However they may not delay any new processor, because that would further extend their domination over AMD.
AMD is in a very bad position I fear.

[Killa-Eyez]

Baught me an Acer Aspire 5920 a week ago for 580,-. Baught me another one with different specs for 600,- yesterday. Swapped some hardware around. Now my specs are:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 @ 2.4 Ghz
• 15.4" WXGA Acer CrystalBrite LCD (8ms/220-nit)
• Up to 1024 MB Nvidia GeForce 8600m GS TurboCache
• 3 GB DDR2
• 320 GB HDD
• DVD-Super Multi DL
• 802.11a/b/g WLAN
• 1 GB of Intel Turbo Memory
• Realtek High Definition Audio Device
• IR Port
• 4 USB 2.0 ports, VGA, S-Video, HDMI, 1394 and Line-In/Mic/Headphone jacks.
• Ricoh 5 in 1 Cardreader

The other specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2 Ghz
• 15.4" WXGA Acer CrystalBrite LCD (8ms/220-nit)
• Up to 358 MB Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
• 2GB DDR2
• 250 GB HDD
• DVD-Super Multi DL
• 802.11a/b/g WLAN
• Realtek High Definition Audio Device
• IR Port
• 4 USB 2.0 ports, VGA, S-Video, 1394 and Line-In/Mic/Headphone jacks.
• Ricoh 5 in 1 Cardreader

Gonna sell the latter for 580,- to a friend, if not, post it on the internet for € 700,-.
Am searching for an internal bluetooth module for my laptop though, anyone?

[Buffalobiian]

Geforce releases their first 9th Generation card: 9600GT
Core Clock (MHz) Shader Clock (MHz) Memory Clock (MHz) Memory Amount Memory Interface Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) Texture Fill Rate

9600 GT 650 1625 900 512MB 256-bit 57.6 20.8

8800 GT 600 1500 900 512MB 256-bit 57.6 33.6

8800 GTS 650 1625 1000 512MB 256-bit 64 41.6

Stream processors are for 9600GT,8800GT and 8800GTS are 64,112,128 respectively.
Prices in AUD in order are around $200~250, $320~370 and $420~450.

Basically speaking, compared to the 9600, 8800GT has almost twice the stream proccessors, lower core and mem clock and a tad higher texture fill rate, for the cost of 100 dollars more(50%).

8800GTS, twice the streams, twice the fill rate, twice the price.

Nvidia says the 9600's the best bang for the buck, what do you think?

[Board of Command]

8800GT is still the best value by far. I don't know where you got those prices from, but in Canada, a decent 8800GT is only around $25 more than a 9600GT.

[Buffalobiian]

It's the price for a SPARKLE 8800GT COOLPIPE 3 512meg GDDR3 PCI-E 2.0 Model: SF-PX88GT512D3-HP Cool-pipe 3. I didn't expect a silent one to cost so much. Other models are like $260.

[Buffalobiian]

So they bring out a 9600GT that's a bit cheaper than the 8800GT, but also a bit less powerful for the middle range market.

And then, you have this for USD599

And to compare everything, link

[Board of Command]

9600GT is old news. It's a decent buy if you can get it for significantly cheaper than the 8800GT. Otherwise, 8800GT is still the best value out there.

[Buffalobiian]

what about the 9800GT2? That looked really good, but probably also really expensive. I haven't found anyone selling it in Australia yet to see exactly how much.

btw, are Quadro FX ones good for games? I don't know what's different between those and GeForce 8XXX ones besides what they say they're for.

[complich8]

QuadroFX cards are "workstation" cards. You can play games on them, but they're really not great at it.

Basically they've got the same core as a comparable geforce, for a higher price, with a different firmware version that'll make gaming worse.

[Board of Command]

QuadroFX cards are "workstation" cards. You can play games on them, but they're really not great at it.

Basically they've got the same core as a comparable geforce, for a higher price, with a different firmware version that'll make gaming worse.

I think it's more of a driver thing for workstation cards. There's only so much you can do with the vBIOS using the same core while still maximizing performance in one way or another.

[itadakimasu]

I ordered 2 150gb Raptor X's yesterday. Going to set them up in raid-0 and install Vista Ultimate x64 when i get them. I want to do a couple other upgrades but $350 is alot of money for one upgrade since i just put a 6400+ in not too long ago.

I was considering getting the new phenom 9850 and 2gb ddr3 ram (129 on newegg) but.... 350 is enough for this week.

[Board of Command]

Why Raptor X? Why not the cheaper one that doesn't have a window?

[itadakimasu]

i dunno...the raptor x looks more beasty and was 173 instead of $170 for the regular one.

anyhow.... i went to do my setup this weekend and it was complete failure.> I wanted to set the raptors up in a raid-0 array and put vista ultimate x64 on it...

one of the install disks i have will let me load the drivers i have and it shows the raid array, but then it wont let me make a new partition or format the array or install to it...

the other install disk i have will not even let me load up the driver and gives me an error that it can only use microsoft signed drivers and thats its..

i ended up installing ultimate x64 on just one of the raptors since it would not install on the raid array which is the whole point of having bought 2 of them. any help would be appreciated. My mobo is a gigabyte ga-ma69vm-s2.

[Board of Command]

What's the difference between your two disks?

[itadakimasu]

they are both the same... brand new 150gb Raptor X.

IDK if it has anything to do w\ the installation media I was using or my hardware....

i mean, with one disk that i had it would let the driver load and show the raid array as a 298gb disk but then it would not let me create a partition, format, or install.

I went into diskpart by pushing shift+f10 at that point and diskpart : list disk shows all the disks and it was showing the raid array as having 0 free space until i ran the clean command and then it showed 298gb free like it should if it has nothing on it. still nothing

the other disk i had gave me an error about needing signed drivers when i try to load the raid driver.... and thats it.

I'm up and running now.... but i wanted to have the 2 raptors in raid i guess I will wait but i'm going to keep them like they are for now.

[Board of Command]

I went into diskpart by pushing shift+f10 at that point and diskpart : list disk shows all the disks and it was showing the raid array as having 0 free space until i ran the clean command and then it showed 298gb free like it should if it has nothing on it. still nothing

You can run clean to make it show 298 GB, so what's the problem? Does it show up as one disk or two disks? Here's a Microsoft article on diskpart and it has a command regarding striped volumes. Maybe that's what you need to do?

Also, after you make your volumes (if you can), did you mark the active one?

[itadakimasu]

thanks, that gave me an idea...

i failed to realize that both disks needed to be dynamic. I will reformat both and then try again...

That idea didnt work... I made both disks dynamic, reconfigured the raid and tried installing again on the raid array....didn't work. When i tried to use diskpart to make the disks dynamic since it said they weren't, it errored out. So i reinstalled on just one disk....

and now a new problem has become clear. I'm running directx 10.... but my x1950xt does not suppot directx 10. I cant run the system assessment vista does because as soon as it tries to test the direct3d, it locks up. as it even locked up on me when i tried to read this weeks bleach chapter...

I tried installing directx 9c but it didn't make a difference. I have fully updated and its still not working. This may force me to buy a 3870.

[itadakimasu]

ok.. so i bought an HD3870 by Diamond 512 GDDR4 core clock @ 775 memory @ 1250 i think...

Got it over-nighted from newegg for $201... cheaper then any stores i could have bought it at !

anyhow... loaded it during my lunch break and it still froze up during the windows performance index.... aero is not enabled and the card shows up as "R670" instead of 3870.

I will have to wait until I have some time and see if there is a new driver for it. It does let me play videos though and hopefully will run everything else fine.

[Board of Command]

That's really odd. You don't need a DX10 card to run the Vista performance test. Did you install the latest DirectX redistributable?

[itadakimasu]

i installed the latest everything, directx10, 2 day old ati driver for the card, vista x64 sp1...

the 3870 still crashes when vista runs the aero test. I've decided to just revert to 32 bit vista for the time being