Which set up would be better?

[Thorsson]

I think it's called the A8N32-SLI, or something similar. It's the one they've been testing the new Corsair RAM with so that they are ultra compatible. Providing you don't need PCI slots (only two and they are between the x16 PCIe slots), and money is no object, then this is going to be one kickass board.

[kalniel]

dude how much is that costing ? and is that an AGP setup or PCI-E?
btw if your looking for gaming id go for somthing AMD and Nvidia gpu
Cheers

The whole setups, including case, psu, m/board etc are all costing around 800ish, bit more maybe. It's a PCIe setup.


It'd help if you guys stuck with the systems mentioned Going single core isn't really an option, nor is going for both an X2 *and* a better gfx card - it goes over budget!

Of course in an ideal world I'd like both the best CPU and best gfx card, but you've got to compromise somewhere, so the question is whether the difference in price is best spent on the processor or the GPU?

I suspect the answer is for games it's GPU and for apps it's CPU, only simulations and encoding often do well on intel perhaps negating some of the difference.

Any further thoughts on which of the three might be better?

[Thorsson]

Are your games FPS? If not then the graphics card isn't such an issue. If it is then you should probably go for the solution that give you the best graphics. But I'd look to get 2Gb RAM more than a faster CPU - this is especially the case with dual core.

[kalniel]

Another two gigs? Surely 4Gb would be overkill

Games would be mix of FPS and RPGs like Oblivion, so pretty intensive graphically.

Does sound like the money is best spent on the D 820 + better gfx card. Thanks

[Dark Horse]

The x2 3800+ is a pretty damn good value chip. I wouldn't discount it right now, check some benchmarks here:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Ha...-3800dc/9.html

http://www.hothardware.com/viewartic...?articleid=710

You could then unlock the x800gto2 to x850xtpe speeds and pipelines with a 100% success rate for £150 for the card!

[kalniel]

You cannot unlock a GTO though.. and that's all I could afford if I went the X2 route.

Yes.. 'only a bit more' would get me better performance.. but that can keep going up and up...

[Dark Horse]

You cannot unlock a GTO though.. and that's all I could afford if I went the X2 route.

Yes.. 'only a bit more' would get me better performance.. but that can keep going up and up...

If you look at the prices it is a £20 difference. When your overall budget is £800 that is only 2.5% more. It would not get you a bit more performance it would get you a massive amount more performance


From http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?o...tid=190&page=3

A standard x800gto will have even less performance than the yellow bar of the x800gto2 so you're looking at getting ~50% performance increases after unlocking and overclocking.

Also a good arcticle on unlocking here:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/827/

[kalniel]

I know, but budget is budget. I can afford either the X2 processor, OR a better gfx card than GTO. Not both, therefore the choice has to be D 820 and a better gfx card I think.

[Dark Horse]

In that case I would still suggest an x2 3800+ over a D 820 but I would get a connect3d x800gto. The connect3d x800gto is £120 and can be modded to x800xtpe speeds

Check this hexus thread for more info:
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=58562

[ajones]

Intresting, can u show me more details Would be grateful

I think the point here is with cache to cache updates.

With Intel dual core, if a change to data in (for instance) CPU0 cache needs to be synchronised with CPU1 cache, then the update is performed via the FSB.

With AMD architecture, there is a crossbar switch resident on the die which sits between the core cahces and the memory controller. Caches of the 2 cores can be synchronised without the update having to leave the chip.