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Hey Guy's and Gal's Ive been away for a while Im still using my Opty and DFI Lanparty MB with SLi twin 7800 gtx's , what is the CPU these days that everyone is going with? AMD only BTW....Mother Board??
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Been Away for a While
- Thread starter RJ
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2008
250-550-720-955 in order of price.
OP
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- Apr 12, 2001
- Location
- Michigan ,USA
- Thread Starter
- #3
MAkes no sense
back btw!
OP
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- Apr 12, 2001
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- Michigan ,USA
- Thread Starter
- #6
Thanks sorry for the sarcastic remark no offense meant
QuietIce
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I won't go into the handful of AM2+ CPU's, instead I'll just stick to the AM3's. All the
9xx series are quads w/6 Mb of L3 cache
8xx are quads with 2 Mb L3
7xx are 3X cores
5xx are dual-cores.
The 3X and 2X are cast as Phenom II quads but have 1 or 2 cores disabled and all have 512 Kb L2 per core.
There are also Athlon dual cores, the 2xx series, that have 1 Mb L2 per core with no L3.
The latest CPU is the 965BE, which seems to OC just a hair better (~100 MHz) on average than the 955BE (BE = Black Edition = unlocked multiplier like the FX's
), but the top end OC seems about the same for both chips.
AMD chipsets seem to be the best right now with the 790FX at the top followed by the 790X. The 790GX is also available and doing a pretty good job even though it's got integrated graphics, which is easily disabled. If you OC heavily you will want to look for 8+2 or 8+1 power on the boards - they seem to allow you more control over components. The 4+1 power systems are just so-so. nVidia has some chipsets that are very good but not what I'd call the best.
Gigabyte has taken a huge step forward with the AMD chipsets and is churning out a slew of good OC'ing boards this time around. Almost all their UD4 and UD5 boards have been clocking very well. High-end ASUS and DFI boards are still very good but only the high-end offerings, each with maybe two 790FX boards that are good. DFI and ASUS both have issues in the mid- and low-end boards - mostly power delivery issues. MSI has a good board they just released, the GD70 (I think?) seems to be doing well but I'd stay away from their other offerings as well. The Foxconn 790FX board also seems to be a very good OC'er now that they've got a good BIOS released for it.
One thing you'll have to decide up front is whether you'll want to run SLI or CrossFire if you're going dual video. AMD chipsets only support CrossFire and nVidia chipsets only support SLI. Either chipset will run one graphics card of any make without issue.
If you can give us some kind of price range and what your usage is (games, encoding, Folding/SETI) we can get you closer to a system that will fit your needs but those are the basics for boards and CPUs ...
Edit:
You'll need to replace your Storm, they just don't cut it with the quads.
I'm using a Fusion v2 water-block for my quad, which is an older block but might work better with your pump and rad. You can still get good deals in the Classified section.
Good SSD's (solid-state drives) are replacing the older 10k RPM HDD's as the best boot drives. Very, very quick random access times blow the HDD's out of the water and they have slightly better mass read/write times but (last time I looked) they lag in file creation/copy times ...
9xx series are quads w/6 Mb of L3 cache
8xx are quads with 2 Mb L3
7xx are 3X cores
5xx are dual-cores.
The 3X and 2X are cast as Phenom II quads but have 1 or 2 cores disabled and all have 512 Kb L2 per core.
There are also Athlon dual cores, the 2xx series, that have 1 Mb L2 per core with no L3.
The latest CPU is the 965BE, which seems to OC just a hair better (~100 MHz) on average than the 955BE (BE = Black Edition = unlocked multiplier like the FX's
), but the top end OC seems about the same for both chips.AMD chipsets seem to be the best right now with the 790FX at the top followed by the 790X. The 790GX is also available and doing a pretty good job even though it's got integrated graphics, which is easily disabled. If you OC heavily you will want to look for 8+2 or 8+1 power on the boards - they seem to allow you more control over components. The 4+1 power systems are just so-so. nVidia has some chipsets that are very good but not what I'd call the best.
Gigabyte has taken a huge step forward with the AMD chipsets and is churning out a slew of good OC'ing boards this time around. Almost all their UD4 and UD5 boards have been clocking very well. High-end ASUS and DFI boards are still very good but only the high-end offerings, each with maybe two 790FX boards that are good. DFI and ASUS both have issues in the mid- and low-end boards - mostly power delivery issues. MSI has a good board they just released, the GD70 (I think?) seems to be doing well but I'd stay away from their other offerings as well. The Foxconn 790FX board also seems to be a very good OC'er now that they've got a good BIOS released for it.
One thing you'll have to decide up front is whether you'll want to run SLI or CrossFire if you're going dual video. AMD chipsets only support CrossFire and nVidia chipsets only support SLI. Either chipset will run one graphics card of any make without issue.
If you can give us some kind of price range and what your usage is (games, encoding, Folding/SETI) we can get you closer to a system that will fit your needs but those are the basics for boards and CPUs ...
Edit:
You'll need to replace your Storm, they just don't cut it with the quads.
I'm using a Fusion v2 water-block for my quad, which is an older block but might work better with your pump and rad. You can still get good deals in the Classified section. Good SSD's (solid-state drives) are replacing the older 10k RPM HDD's as the best boot drives. Very, very quick random access times blow the HDD's out of the water and they have slightly better mass read/write times but (last time I looked) they lag in file creation/copy times ...
Last edited:
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Hey quiet ice, so i take it the 8+1 motherboard is the one with the 8 pin power connector? Not to steal the thread but I have the msi 790fx board which allows for either a 4 pin connector or 8 pin. So I am guessing the 8 pin gives the board more stable voltage?
QuietIce
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- May 7, 2006
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- Anywhere but there
8+2/8+1 has to do with power distribution on the board - not the power connectors from the PSU. 8+ has better power control for the CPU and '1' or '2' is power to the cpuNB.
(above was edited)
Dual 4-pin might provide a more stable supply from the PSU but I've not seen any tests/studies done on whether or not that's true. It might be more a matter of PSU quality than how many 4-pin connections are used.
Edit:
A quick example I found was the DFI 790GX-M2RS. It seems to have the 8-pin 12v connection but only 4+1 power distribution ...
(above was edited)
Dual 4-pin might provide a more stable supply from the PSU but I've not seen any tests/studies done on whether or not that's true. It might be more a matter of PSU quality than how many 4-pin connections are used.
Edit:
A quick example I found was the DFI 790GX-M2RS. It seems to have the 8-pin 12v connection but only 4+1 power distribution ...
Last edited:
QuietIce
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- Anywhere but there
The Power & Thermal Data Sheet (pub. #43375) doesn't show NB power min/max for single-plane, those are marked "N/A". Only the dual-plane spec shows NB min/max. Are you saying 4+1 is dual-plane?
Edit:
Well, I found a power chip spec that shows 4+1 with the '1' going to the NB. Still researching ...
Edit 2:
From everything I can find you're right - the '1' or '2' is NB power ...
Edit:
Well, I found a power chip spec that shows 4+1 with the '1' going to the NB. Still researching ...
Edit 2:
From everything I can find you're right - the '1' or '2' is NB power ...
Last edited:
OP
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- Apr 12, 2001
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- Michigan ,USA
- Thread Starter
- #12
Not a ton of money but I want to only replace the MB and CPU hdd i need to keep i have 6 raptors laying around i don't need to change them PC is a gaming pc and I will most likely keep the 7800 GTX SLi what about the memory can I stick with the memory ? and how's the O/C'ing on any of these AM3 cores? BTW Quiet Ice nice write up...Thanks
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2009
Yep 4+1 is dual plane , and the second plane is for the cpu-NB like been stated .Well Phenom cores 9xx 8xx 7xx and 5xx oc anywhere between 3.6 -3.9 Ghz , 2xx series are more likely to hit 4 GHz from what i observed but still 3.6-3.8 is more realistic for both .
If you are in the market for a quad 945 priced pretty well if you looking for a dual 550 or 250 , i prefer 250 cause they run cooler and are more value but most people will suggest 550 . As for a motherboard Giga has some nice offerings(UD3P, UD4P and UD5P ) but MSI doesn't only have one good board out 770 chipset board from MSI is nice as well and so is 785G but keep in mind none of these boards support SLI , u need NV chipset and they haven't been real good or real popular so i cant make a suggestion there but maybe someone else will . Graphics upgrade might be in order tho dx11 cards out coming out in the end of the year .
If you are in the market for a quad 945 priced pretty well if you looking for a dual 550 or 250 , i prefer 250 cause they run cooler and are more value but most people will suggest 550 . As for a motherboard Giga has some nice offerings(UD3P, UD4P and UD5P ) but MSI doesn't only have one good board out 770 chipset board from MSI is nice as well and so is 785G but keep in mind none of these boards support SLI , u need NV chipset and they haven't been real good or real popular so i cant make a suggestion there but maybe someone else will . Graphics upgrade might be in order tho dx11 cards out coming out in the end of the year .
- Joined
- May 10, 2009
You'll need new memory, AM3 chips only support ddr2 and ddr3.
Which you would rather use will decide whether you want an AM3 only mobo, or an AM2+ mobo that accepts AM3 chips. AM3 only means DDR3, AM2+ means DDR2.
Performance difference is minimal, but if you're looking toward the future i would go AM3/ddr3, personally.
Wanting to keep the 7800's in SLI means an nvidia chipset, which i'm not familiar with at all. Personally i would go with an ATI chipset and buy a new GPU, for $90 you can get something capable of 13k 3dmark06, and for $130 you can get 15k, both those scores assume a 3ghz dual core chip, roughly speaking. Even the $90 option (4830, or a 4850 on sale is even better) will be more then double the FPS of your 7800gtx sli combo.
The AM3 chips all seem to go to just short of 4ghz, generally 3.8 to 3.9, doubles tend to go higher then triples which tend to go higher then quads, but that is just a rule of thumb.
Which you would rather use will decide whether you want an AM3 only mobo, or an AM2+ mobo that accepts AM3 chips. AM3 only means DDR3, AM2+ means DDR2.
Performance difference is minimal, but if you're looking toward the future i would go AM3/ddr3, personally.
Wanting to keep the 7800's in SLI means an nvidia chipset, which i'm not familiar with at all. Personally i would go with an ATI chipset and buy a new GPU, for $90 you can get something capable of 13k 3dmark06, and for $130 you can get 15k, both those scores assume a 3ghz dual core chip, roughly speaking. Even the $90 option (4830, or a 4850 on sale is even better) will be more then double the FPS of your 7800gtx sli combo.
The AM3 chips all seem to go to just short of 4ghz, generally 3.8 to 3.9, doubles tend to go higher then triples which tend to go higher then quads, but that is just a rule of thumb.
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- The Alamo City
my old Opty is getting a bath soon...
OP
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- Apr 12, 2001
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- Michigan ,USA
- Thread Starter
- #16
Ok i know this is the cpu area but threw a v/c model at me dam Ive been away too long all this is new to me I'm still in the opty Nvidea,sli and ddr realm
OP
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- Thread Starter
- #18
ic you hav ethe saphire which i love that mfg are you happy with it? or should i go to something else??
QuietIce
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Sapphire is still good and XFX is also an excellent choice.
I checked for nVidia AM3 chipsets and they're very rare. There are a couple with built-in video (which you don't have to use of course) and one AM3 board I found on Newegg with the 750a chipset. AMD has been walking away with the chipsets starting with AM2+ and it doesn't look like it's going to stop. You could probably sell your 7800's to make up a large part of the cost of a newer card ...
