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Thread: Spend my money!

  1. #1
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    Spend my money!

    Hi all

    I'm a bit new here but would appreciate any help people could give. I currently run an AMD 4600 x2 socket 939 with 4gb of gskill memory and a 320mb 8800GTS (early spec, not the revised one) running Vista 32bit.

    I feel the time has come to upgrade and have a system in mind but would like people's thoughts as its a long time since I've been in the upgrade game.

    Am not a big Intel fan and have run AMD's since the 486 DX40 (remember them!?) so am thinking as follows:

    Phenom X4 9950 Black edition
    2 x ATI 4870
    4gb of OCZ HPC Reaper edition (1066 ddr2 2x2gb)
    MSI K9A2 Platinum
    Vista 64 bit

    With around £760 to spend can anyone suggest any improvements and am I being a bit narrow minded in not considering an Intel based solution?

    Any comments would be appreciated.

    Danny B

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    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    Re: Spend my money!

    You are being narrow minded yes lol. I am an AMD fan boi but intel is the way to go at the moment, especially for quad core. The Q6600 represesnts far better value for money and with 140W TDP that phenom is a joke! Though I do hear it overclocks to 3.0GHz quite nicely..the Q6600 will do that in it's sleep anyway.. upwards of 3.6GHz on decent air cooling and it will still use less power.

    What HSF have you got or were you thinking of getting?

    That mated to an Abit IP-35 PRO, ASUS P5K-E/ -C, ASUS P5Q PRO .. will be a very nice system. You could drop the ram back to PC6400 as that is all you would need for up to 3.6GHz

    I would go for a single HD4870 personally but if you do want crossfire then you will want to look at the Abit X38 Quad GT, that will give you full bandwidth xfire and decent overclocking functions.

    What resolution are you trying to game at?
    Last edited by staffsMike; 13-07-2008 at 09:33 PM.

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    Senior Member manwithnoname's Avatar
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    Re: Spend my money!

    You should think long and hard about Intel especially if you intend to overclock. I'm no Intel fan, I'm running a Opteron 165 at the moment, but would buy Intel if I was upgrading today.

    If you are considering 2 x ATI 4870 can you hold out till August? http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/d...ics_Cards.html

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    I R Toff Pandi! TAKTAK's Avatar
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    Re: Spend my money!

    unfortunatly fella, this time around AMD have nothing , i've never had an Intel proccy(nor wanted either)... but my next upgrade is going to have to be... unless AMD pull their pants up sharpish....

    go for a Q6600, ASUS P5Q, 4GB PC2 6400, Corsair HX520w, WD AAKS, Scythe mine, and your onto a winner
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    Salazaar Clone! mediaboy's Avatar
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    Re: Spend my money!

    Ah.. the wonderful thing about Hexus. Always lots of people to help you spend your money.

    And at that amount of money go for Intel. AMD are only useful if you're trying to keep the price down (as they are slightly cheaper at equal stock performance... though for OCing Intel owns I will probably now get the lecture from mike or someone which I got when I said this on my original £350 build post )
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    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    Re: Spend my money!

    I'm sure I would have be more than happy to recommend AMD in that instance since I'm running one myself .. I'm just running two intels as well

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    Senior Member 2Cold Scorpio's Avatar
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    Re: Spend my money!

    I'll be happy to spend your money for ya... Send it to me: I'll buy a GTX 280 and save the rest for one of the Intel "Nahalem" chips and a replacement mobo this fall.

    Seriously, though, Intel does make the best processors right now, particularly for overclocking. The new Nahalem chips coming later this year look to be even more awesome.

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    Re: Spend my money!

    Isn't nahelem predicted to cost just under 1K from release though?

    I mean.. 6 cores may be great, but it's not worth THAT much is it?
    Quote Originally Posted by Fortune117
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    The late but legendary peterb - Onward and Upward peterb's Avatar
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    Re: Spend my money!

    Quote Originally Posted by mediaboy View Post
    Isn't nahelem predicted to cost just under 1K from release though?

    I mean.. 6 cores may be great, but it's not worth THAT much is it?
    It's worth what the market will bear!

    The actual cosrt/per chip is relatively low in terms of raw materials - however the development costs are phenomenal, as are the costs of setting up the manufacturing capability. And at the start of a new technology, rejects of the finished item will tend to be high.

    All thos costs have to be recouped (and a profit made) over the life cycle of the device.

    There are always those who will pay a premium to get the latest 'bleeding edge' technology - as yields rise, and production costs fall, the cost of the device will fall.

    If you want bleeding edge now - it will cost - go for an older chip where most of the costs have been recovered and the majority of the ppurchase price is profit and re-investment, and they are much cheaper.
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    Re: Spend my money!

    Quote Originally Posted by mediaboy View Post
    Isn't nahelem predicted to cost just under 1K from release though?

    I mean.. 6 cores may be great, but it's not worth THAT much is it?
    Not according to this report... (unless you count the 'Extreme' version)

    http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07...es_up_nehalem/
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    Re: Spend my money!

    Quote Originally Posted by Salazaar View Post
    Not according to this report... (unless you count the 'Extreme' version)

    http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07...es_up_nehalem/
    Cool! The pricing looks about right to what I figured it'd be (the mid-range chip is slightly higher than I thought it'd be, but not by much). I wonder how much the slowest (and cheapest) of the three chips will be... about $300, I figure.

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    Re: Spend my money!

    Thanks for all your help. I will look at the Q6600 although I am still tempted by the Phenom (I like supporting the underdog - what can I say?! ). BTW I don't intend overclocking - scares me.

    2 4870's is defintely complete and utter overkill for me at the moment but I am mindful of a few things. Firstly there's a lot of games coming out in the near future which may start pushing a single card - Stalker Clear Skys, both FEAR sequels (or prequels or whatever they are), Farcry 2 etc. Secondly I ain't spending much more money in the forseeable future so want to be safe and finally what money I do spend will be on a new 24" screen.

    As for the Nehalem and the 4870 x2, a wise old sage once told me that there are only ever 2 ideal moments to buy new computer stuff - yesterday and tomorrow.

    Final question for you all - I currently have a Thermaltake Toughpower 700w - will this be sufficient for either system (the Q6600 based or Phenom based both with 2 x 4870)?

    Thanks again.

    Danny B

  13. #13
    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    Re: Spend my money!

    It's a decent enough power supply I believe and it certainly has the required output.

    If you aren't overclocking (seems a shame not to with the q6600 as it's so easy) then AMD can be brought back into the game. But there is still that 140W TDP of the AMD to try and tame. I can see why they wouldn't ship that one with a stock cooler

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    Keep it sexy Zhaoman's Avatar
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    Re: Spend my money!

    If you're not overclocking then the high end Phenoms should serve you well, around the performance of a q6600 which is plenty for games today. The Phenoms are also natively quad core which *may* theoretically bring benefits in the future... Although they don't impress where benchmarks are concerned.

    2 HD4870s? An HD4870 seems powerful enough to run at your resolution, if you need more power maybe you should wait for the 4870X2 or just buy a GTX280 now.

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    Re: Spend my money!

    I've got a Zalman 9700 so not too worried about the heat. Also checked and the MSI K9A2 is one of only 2 boards on the AMD website certified to run the 9950 so should be ok.

    As for the 2 x 4870 - at least I know it'll be quick! I'll let you know how I get on...

    Cheers

    Danny B

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    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    Re: Spend my money!

    It's not just the heat, it's your powerbill but if your considering xfire HD4870's I guess that's not a massive issue lol

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