62 replies to this topic

[eniparadoxgma]

Eh. I noticed the first Phenom was released, and a couple other soon to follow.

If you were thinking of going quad core, would this round be a good time to do it? I think the top phenom coming out will only be around 300.

What say you peoples?

Edited by eniparadoxgma, 19 February 2008 - 10:52 PM.

[m.oreilly]

i'd wait for the next batch, as there will be a speed increase, though david heavey just couldn't wait...

[Nvyseal]

Im sure you know the Intel/AMD thing, If I were you, I'd buy the best I could afford and not worry about what camp you buy it from, if you have to have it now

[David_Heavey]

m.oreilly, on Nov 29 2007, 04:56 AM, said:

though david heavey just couldn't wait...

Yeah. And it's AMDs own fault!!

I still have my 165 Opty running though :-)

[eniparadoxgma]

Well, I am partial to AMD for sentimental reasons, but I also like the fact that their platforms offer the ability to upgrade in ways that Intel doesn't seem to. Since I have to be a piece-meal upgrader, I was thinking perhaps I could snag a am2+ mobo when the SB700/790FX chipset boards come out, grab some RAM (why is this DDR2 so much cheaper than the DDR i have for my 939?!?!?), and then toss a 5200 in there. That way I could have the clear upgrade path to a phenom when the faster ones come out, and could eventually do some 2 x 16x crossfire later down the road.

I'm thinking the majority of my current PC troubles are related to my motherboard, so I could upgrade to a am2+ mobo (200), 5200 (110), and 4gb ram (110), for less than 450 dollars and have the ability to drop in a Phenom and upgrade my graphics in the future as opposed to going to quad right now when the choices just aren't there.

How bout dat mess?

[Camaro]

Decent plan, I believe the ram prices are just a matter of what is new and getting bought, the DDR is no longer in big supply so they raise the price to increase the profit from it, the DDR2, and soon 3 is getting bought up alot so they can afford to lower the price they still make as much money as there are lots more buyers.

[eniparadoxgma]

Camaro, on Nov 29 2007, 04:54 PM, said:

Decent plan, I believe the ram prices are just a matter of what is new and getting bought, the DDR is no longer in big supply so they raise the price to increase the profit from it, the DDR2, and soon 3 is getting bought up alot so they can afford to lower the price they still make as much money as there are lots more buyers.

That makes sense, but if I remember correctly when I bought my 2 x 1gb of DDR it was still about 200 when I can get 2 x 2gb DDR2 right now for 120ish. (pretty good stuff, btw)

I figure, with the ability to go quad and the ability to go crossfire I will have a lot of room to grow. I mean, I haven't even messed with SLI and my x1900 by itself plays anything I throw at it (Crysis does NOT count) at high or very high settings smoothly. I've still got the single-core (that 170 experiment was a bust hehe) and there's really not much I can't do right now as quickly as I'd like.

However, there is a bug in my system and I think it's my mobo. I refuse to spend any money on another 939 board that has all the capabilities I need, so a nice upgrade to something that would allow a lot of room for growth seems like a good idea. That 5200 @ 2.6 dualie w/1mb L2/core doesn't seem like a slouch either, so my "pre-quad" rig still looks like it would rock the house.

One question: What is the performance of DDR2 compared to DDR? I know the timings are worse, but the speeds better, etc. But how's the real world difference to those of you that have done both?

[m.oreilly]

hey enip, i also agree that you are on the right track (i'm probably going to do the same thing, if and when i can afford it...). as for the ram, you might not notice any (negitave, or positive for that matter) differences (bandwidth vs speed...).

[eniparadoxgma]

m.oreilly, on Nov 29 2007, 07:27 PM, said:

hey enip, i also agree that you are on the right track (i'm probably going to do the same thing, if and when i can afford it...). as for the ram, you might not notice any (negitave, or positive for that matter) differences (bandwidth vs speed...).

So you think the AM2+ with the HyperTransport 3/790FX chipset is a good platform choice for a long lasting upgrade path and what not? How bout them ATI rays? They gettin in yet? The spiders crawling in your brain yet?

[m.oreilly]

the the rv680 might be pretty cool. yeah, the new nvidia chipsets are awesome, and yeah, if you want to go amd, that looks to be a "right now" (or "soon") option...

[eniparadoxgma]

m.oreilly, on Nov 29 2007, 09:47 PM, said:

the the rv680 might be pretty cool. yeah, the new nvidia chipsets are awesome, and yeah, if you want to go amd, that looks to be a "right now" (or "soon") option...

The graphics update will be the last thing on my list, as it's the most volatile and everchanging component in my opinion. For GPUs, even more so than CPUs, it pays to wait in my opinion. Of course that might also have to do with teh fact that my AIW x1900 dropped about 200 in price not but 3-6 months after I bought it.

One thing I found interesting that I hadn't heard of is the Toilman:

Quote

AMD Phenom X3 (Code name: Toliman) will be released sometime during Q1 2008. Phenom X3 is the triple core model positioned between the Phenom X2 and X4 and supports socket AM2+ motherboards. Each core will have its own 512KB L2 cache and share 2MB of L3 cache. Processor speeds at launch are expected to be similar to the X2 and X4 models.

What the bejeesus is a tri-core all about?

[Camaro]

I know what you mean about the price of good ram, I bought my ram for alot more too, however after about 6 months I could have got my ram for almost $100 less and DDR2 was the same way, to get the good stuff you paid dearly, but then after time it was dropped quite abit.

[m.oreilly]

the tri cores might be "quads gone bad", and priced accordingly...

[Nvyseal]

eniparadoxgma, on Nov 29 2007, 07:21 PM, said:

The graphics update will be the last thing on my list, as it's the most volatile and everchanging component in my opinion. For GPUs, even more so than CPUs, it pays to wait in my opinion. Of course that might also have to do with teh fact that my AIW x1900 dropped about 200 in price not but 3-6 months after I bought it.

One thing I found interesting that I hadn't heard of is the Toilman:
What the bejeesus is a tri-core all about?

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