Within the same price range, yes. Both Phenom II chips are quite comparable to the likes of Q9400 and Q9300. I'd be happy with either one if I were to build a new system right now. Phenom II is a HUGE improvement over the original Phenom.
One thing to note though: I would rather wait for the AM3 version of Phenom II to launch. They are backward compatible with AM2+ motherboards and have even lower power consumption.
I finally received my E8400 today and ended up with this overclock:
My RAM is holding back the overclock. 456 FSB is the highest I can go with this cheap crap, and I'm in no mood of spending another ~$60 just to get a marginally higher overclock. This is the same FSB limit that I hit with my E6300 two years ago because I'm still using the same set of RAM right now.
Here it is running Linpack:
Max temperature on Linpack is only 58 degrees. Orthos/Prime95 only toasts it to 49 degrees. This is using an Ultra-120 Extreme with a fan spinning at about only 500 RPM.
Last edited by Board of Command; Sun, 01-11-2009 at 01:56 AM.
I think I'm going to part out the last system I built. Its basically collecting dust and its hard to justify needing a q9450, 1000w psu, ddr3, etc for general use.
I'm reverting back to an AMD X2 6000+, i got a sapphire pure 690 mobo that has hdmi, i already have 4gb but plan on getting another 4gb kit and i'm going to keep one of my 150gb raptor x's also.
if anybody wants to buy my corsair hx1000 I'll do it for $170 shipped, otherwise I'm ebaying it @ 210-220.
I will post pictures when I'm done. I think I'm going to keep my huge 3d aurora case unless I can trade for an antec 900.
Just wondering, do people actually need 4gb RAM? I've never used more than 2GB when I was encoding and playing a FPS at the same time.
Do you guys run some type of memory intensive applications, or is all that extra memory basically serving as an ultra-fast paging file?
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
People get 4gb of ram because they think they need it, seeing how even crysis and Fallout3 dont use 2gb ( 1-1.5gb), 2gb hould be more then enough, 3gb if you want to play it save. And ofcourse so they can say "Yeah but I got 4gb".
Though for people like me, that run Photoshop, 3dsMax and perhaps some encoding utility at the same time, 2+ gb is really needed.
I only have 2gb and find myself closing and reopening apps a lot when working on a project.
4 GB helps in Vista because Superfetch uses every last drop.
I'm going about making my computer more quiet, planning on replacing some case fans as well as getting a new CPU heatsink.
I've got two on mind, a tower heatsink (blows to back of case) and a top-down heatsink (blows down onto the motherboard). I've read that top-down ones are better in that they create airflow over nearby capacitors, hence cooling them, while tower/sidemount fans only cool the heatsink. Tower h/s, however, allow for a bigger fins & surface area, making them better CPU coolers.
As a CPU cooler, the top-down one I'm looking at is $10 more expensive, and slightly less effective (though the difference is almost negligible) compared to the tower version.
What I want to ask is - how important is it to keep these capacitors/motherboard components cool? My north bridge is passively cooled.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
What is your motherboard?
All the best CPU coolers are tower heatsinks. I have an Ultra-120 Extreme and it cools my E8400 @ 4.1 GHz extremely well. I have an Arctic Cooling 120mm PWM fan on it, and it spins really slow (~500 RPM) so it's virtually silent.
The Xigmatek HDT-S1283 is one of the most popular heatsinks right now and it's cheaper than the Ultra-120 Extreme. The OCZ Vendetta 2 is an even cheaper alternative and performs equally well as the Xigmatek.
My board's a Gigabyte 965P-S3, running E6600 stock (2.4GHz, 1.6GHz when idle)
I was initially looking at the ThermalRight HR-01 PLUS, but then I found the Noctua U12P, which is in stock, $20 cheaper, similar performance and includes a Noctua 120mm fan while the HR Plus came with h/s alone.
I'm mainly looking at making the rig more silent. The Antec Tri-cools are noisy IMO, so I'll be swapping them for a pair of Noctua 120mm. I'm not quite sure if the resonance is due to them or the Intel stock fan though. I'm planning on just replacing the case fans, then maybe get the h/s after that if I feel like making things even quieter/cooler.
Anyone know if replacing the case fans will actually help? I've unplugged the Tri-Cool fans, and it quietens down A LOT, but I don't know how much better the Noctuas will fare.
For reference, Silent PC review rates the Tricools at 25dBA@1m when set on low (what I have), and the Noctua at 16dBA@1m when downvolted to 7V, which is what I'm doing.
--------------------------
Side question: "System temperature" means North Bridge temperature, right? Mine's always been rather high, usually sitting on 50C. How hot does it have to be until I should get a n/b cooler?
It used to be around the same as the CPU, but I think ever since installing a 9800GTX+, it's no longer in the way if direct airflow, leading to the higher temps.
Last edited by Buffalobiian; Sun, 02-15-2009 at 07:57 AM.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
What are good north/southbridge coolers? Mine are running pretty hot.
Your motherboard doesn't really additional cooling on the small components. The passive northbridge heatsink will get very hot, but should be okay for up to mild overclocks.Originally Posted by Buffalobiian
What you need are slow fans. All 1200 RPM fans will be "too loud" regardless of their dBa rating. Get a slow 120mm fan, such as 600-800 RPM, if you want silence. Don't worry, you don't lose much cooling ability.
Thermalright HR-05 or Noctua NC-U6
However, it's much better to just put small fans on your stock heatsinks. I have a tiny fan on my northbridge and it cools it extremely well.
Why's that? Even if I'm undervolting it to run at ~900rpm?
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
900 will be fine. I meant that if you let any 1200 RPM fan spin at 1200 RPM, it will be audible.
Hi, almighty computer gurus. A friend of a friend of mine recently offered to build me a new "TOP OF THE LINE" computer. Of course since I know absolutely nothing about computers and would like some help with you guys to find out if the price is worth for the computer. I asked my friend for the specs but he only remembered the basics. I will get the full specs when the guy is available. Currently it is
Quad Core Processor
GeForce 9800 GTX
4GB Memory
600GB Harddrive
around $800 canadian dollars + tax
ty psj for this sig
You'll really have to see. Quad core is just too broad, it can mean anything from a Quad Extreme to iCore to Phenom II. Judging from your price range, I don't think it'll be the latest gen Quads.
9800GTX....do you game. and what screen resolution are you looking at? The 9800GTX is a good mid-level card, but I won't call it "top of the line". Depending on your gaming resolution/quality, the 512MB DDR3 vRAM won't cut it for the highest resolutions out there.
Ram....speed? DDR2 or 3?
Hard drive....make and specs...7200rpm vs 10k rpm...cache size...
Short answer: Need more specs. Bump when you get them
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Well I think it depends more on his definition of "top of the line"
My system is
3.0ghz core 2 quad
hd 4870 512mb gddr5
4gb 667ddr2
2 7200rpm hdd's
1 10krpm hdd
And I consider it "high end", "top of the line" would be more like:
intel Core i7 920 ( just clock it to 3ghz)
hd 4870x2 2gb gddr5 crossfire
8gb 1600ddr3
hdd... well whatever
So yeah, it depends on what you want to be able to do with your next system.
I just had this conversation with one of my roommates a few minutes ago. For $800, a good value system would be:
Core 2 Duo E8400
Mid-range P45 motherboard
4 GB DDR2-800
Radeon 4870 1 GB or GTX 260 216
Western Digital WD6400AAKS
Rest of budget goes to case, power supply and whatever else.
That's something I'd prefer over Zabuza's system. For general/casual gamer use, it's got too much emphasis on processing power and not enough on graphics, like many Dell/HP premade systems out there - but at a better price.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
A viable alternative would be Phenom II X3 720 with a decent 790GX/FX motherboard. This should cost roughly the same as the Intel solution, but you trade clock speed for an extra core.
Im sry guys, some of the specs i gave out was wrong. The comp is more like this.
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.86Ghz
4Gb DDR II 800MHz
22X DVD±RW
EVGA GeForce 9800GTX 512MB
640GB Harddrive SATA II 7,200 RPM
7.1 Channel Soundcard
10/100/1000Mbps LAN
2.1 Speakers/Mouse/Keyboard Included
$888 canadian total. and also i dont know the exact motherboard as my frd says its some asus motherboard good that will be good lol.
ty psj for this sig
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