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Shadowlid

Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2009
I have been reading about building a new computer. But there is so many mixed opinions. :shrug: I want to build a very overclockable computer. This way i can stay in my budget range and still get the performance i need.

So i have some questions.

Hard Drives????


Is a SSD worth the extra money? ( If i got one it would be a low capacity just to play my games off of.)

I keep reading about raid 0? What is this and would it be better to just do this then get a SSD?

Video cards???

So many questions about this back when BF2 just came out. You went by the model numbers. 5200, 6200, etc. I thought that when i build my current rig i thought a 9500gt was better the a 8800 gts. Well i was wrong.
I have been with nvidia for ever i dont think i have ever used a ati card. Not saying i wont. They are the same company as AMD right?

Ok would it be better to buy two cheaper cards and sli them or just buy one better card?

I see ati has crossfire. And i think i read something that nvidia has a similar function. Which brand gives the better performance?

What is PCI-e 2.1??? With this work with a pci-e 2.0 slot? Any performance gain?

MOBOS??


This is a topic i know nothing about. I usually just buy whats cheaper and what has good reviews. I have owned nothing but cheap MOBOs in the past. $55 is probably the most i have spent on one. LOL. Sad i know.

I want something that will make OC easy. I am still a beginner. I would like everything to be placed right on the board so the ram is not 2mm away from the video card, or something like that. I was thinking of a asus. Im going with a full tower size is no factor.


CPU?

Is it better to go with a dual core 3.0 ghz or a triple core 2.0ghz.
In all reality you are getting 6.0ghz of power but which would be better on a game.

This is what confuses me. I know most games are not written for a multiple cores but some are.

What is nm. What does this mean in computing power.

Im thinking about going with a

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition or a AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. Which one will overclock higher? Is it worth the extra $20.

What is the unlock % on this cpu? AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition

I will have more questions soon. Just dont want to over do it.

Shadow
 
CPU:
it doesnt work like that, speed of the core first then the number of cores. meaning that you want a faster clocked cpu with at least 4 cores. each core handles a app or thread as they call it. the app doesnt use or see all the cores as one increasing the clock speed like you think. no matter how you try to explain it, 2ghz is 2ghz... you gonna oc the cpu so why not get the AMD X3, should be able to get around 3.4-3.6ghz or higher. have not spent much time reading about the oc'ing of the newer amd cpus.

Mobo:
$100 can get you a pretty good mobo for oc'ing these days. even though im mainly a intel guy, i spent a $100 on a P55 board that did rather well for a short time.

GPU:
really this is going to come down to the resolution you are gonna play your games with. if you want a middle of the road GPU the ATI 5830 is a solid choice and so is the NV GTX460.

HD:
yes SSD's are worth it since they cut the amount of time it takes to access the data. even with the mechanical drives in raid 0 setup it is not going to cut the access time down. the lower the access time the faster windows/linux or any app for that matter will load. if you really want to get one look at the OCZ Agility 2 drives.
 
The GTX 460 is a good video card. what is your price range?

What is PCI-e 2.1??? With this work with a pci-e 2.0 slot? Any performance gain?
PCI Express 1.0 and 2.1 is backward and forward compatible.

QUOTE: PCI Express 2.1
PCI Express 2.1 supports a large proportion of the management, support, and troubleshooting systems planned to be fully implemented in PCI Express 3.0. However, the speed is the same as PCI Express 2.0. Most motherboards sold currently come with PCI Express 2.0 connectors.
 
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For gaming the SSD is not important; you want to have your core OS installed on the SSD to shorten boot times and speed up general system stuff, and install your games on a traditional mechanical drive (or two in RAID 0).
 
Mk, lets see if I can go through your questions one by one.
Is a SSD worth the extra money? ( If i got one it would be a low capacity just to play my games off of.)
Yes, a SSD, in most people's opinion, is very well worth the money. You can get a OCZ Vertex off Newegg for just over $100, and it's a pretty noticeable gain, from what I've heard. I'm yet to jump on the bandwagon yet.
I keep reading about raid 0? What is this and would it be better to just do this then get a SSD?
Raid 0 takes two hard drives and combines them in software, so in Windows you only see a single drive. This gives increased performance, as the computer can access both at the same time (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not 100% sure about what I'm saying :p ) It's nowhere near as fast as a SSD, but gives slightly better performance then a single hard drive.
I have been with nvidia for ever i dont think i have ever used a ati card. Not saying i wont. They are the same company as AMD right?
They used to be separate, but AMD bought out ATI a couple years ago. So now they're the same company, thought the graphic cards still sell under ATI's name.
Ok would it be better to buy two cheaper cards and sli them or just buy one better card?
This really depends on the card. SLI/Crossfire is not a perfect technique, and no card gives a perfect x2 performance. The highest I've seen is the GTX460, and that's around a 1.8, meaning, you get 1.8x the performance of a single card. Single cards are generally better, but there are a few notable exceptions. For example, the GTX460 scales very well. Two 1GB GTX460's would run you $460 (woah, just realized the coincidence), which provides higher performance then the GTX480, which would run you almost $500 on Newegg for a good card.

But again, generally, a single, higher powered card will beat two lesser cards in SLI/Crossfire
I see ati has crossfire. And i think i read something that nvidia has a similar function. Which brand gives the better performance?
ATI has CrossfireX, and NV has SLI. Both are just ways to combine multiple graphic cards to increase performance. I don't think one is better then the other, as every model card scales differently. Both ATI and NVIDIA have cards that scale well and others that don't.
What is PCI-e 2.1??? With this work with a pci-e 2.0 slot? Any performance gain?
It's just a version update, PCIe is backwards compatible, and I don't think a 2.1 card is any better then a 2.0.

I'm not 100% sure here, but I think that 2.0 cards will work with a 1.0 slot, but a 2.1 card won't. However, barely any new motherboards ship with a 1.0 slot, nothing to worry about.
I want something that will make OC easy. I am still a beginner. I would like everything to be placed right on the board so the ram is not 2mm away from the video card, or something like that.
Based on the CPU section, I'm guessing you need a board that has the AM3 socket. Sorry, but I'm an Intel guy, so I can't really help you there :-/ .
Is it better to go with a dual core 3.0 ghz or a triple core 2.0ghz.
Sorry, this isn't true, at all. Thinking about it this way. Clock speed is how fast a job will get done. The more cores you have, the more jobs you can do at the same time. Therefore, if your running one job, like a game, clock speed has a greater impact. However, I would go quad-core, as it's more future-proof.
What is nm. What does this mean in computing power.
"nm" is the metric symbol for nanometers, which is .0000000001m, or a billionth of a meter. For CPU's, this is the size of the CPU die. A smaller die usually translates to less heat, but some of the new 32nm CPU's are very sensitive to overclocking. Brand new CPU's that just came out are 32nm, while most of the common ones that people still buy are 45nm. It's not anything to worry about if you don't overclock.
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition or a AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. Which one will overclock higher? Is it worth the extra $20.
The 965 will overclock higher, as it's stock voltage is higher and it's stock clock speed is higher. So basically, you'll get a 180-200mhz gain on the 965. It's probably a waste of $20, just go with the 955, you'll never be able to tell the difference.
What is the unlock % on this cpu? AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition
From a simple google search, it looks like you have a decent, 60ish% of unlocking it. There are other factors in unlocking, such as voltage and RAM timings, but I can't give you any personal stories about it. I wouldn't take those chances, AMD quads are cheap anyway.
 
Mk, lets see if I can go through your questions one by one.

Yes, a SSD, in most people's opinion, is very well worth the money. You can get a OCZ Vertex off Newegg for just over $100, and it's a pretty noticeable gain, from what I've heard. I'm yet to jump on the bandwagon yet.

Raid 0 takes two hard drives and combines them in software, so in Windows you only see a single drive. This gives increased performance, as the computer can access both at the same time (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not 100% sure about what I'm saying :p ) It's nowhere near as fast as a SSD, but gives slightly better performance then a single hard drive.

They used to be separate, but AMD bought out ATI a couple years ago. So now they're the same company, thought the graphic cards still sell under ATI's name.

This really depends on the card. SLI/Crossfire is not a perfect technique, and no card gives a perfect x2 performance. The highest I've seen is the GTX460, and that's around a 1.8, meaning, you get 1.8x the performance of a single card. Single cards are generally better, but there are a few notable exceptions. For example, the GTX460 scales very well. Two 1GB GTX460's would run you $460 (woah, just realized the coincidence), which provides higher performance then the GTX480, which would run you almost $500 on Newegg for a good card.

But again, generally, a single, higher powered card will beat two lesser cards in SLI/Crossfire

ATI has CrossfireX, and NV has SLI. Both are just ways to combine multiple graphic cards to increase performance. I don't think one is better then the other, as every model card scales differently. Both ATI and NVIDIA have cards that scale well and others that don't.

It's just a version update, PCIe is backwards compatible, and I don't think a 2.1 card is any better then a 2.0.

I'm not 100% sure here, but I think that 2.0 cards will work with a 1.0 slot, but a 2.1 card won't. However, barely any new motherboards ship with a 1.0 slot, nothing to worry about.

Based on the CPU section, I'm guessing you need a board that has the AM3 socket. Sorry, but I'm an Intel guy, so I can't really help you there :-/ .

Sorry, this isn't true, at all. Thinking about it this way. Clock speed is how fast a job will get done. The more cores you have, the more jobs you can do at the same time. Therefore, if your running one job, like a game, clock speed has a greater impact. However, I would go quad-core, as it's more future-proof.

"nm" is the metric symbol for nanometers, which is .0000000001m, or a billionth of a meter. For CPU's, this is the size of the CPU die. A smaller die usually translates to less heat, but some of the new 32nm CPU's are very sensitive to overclocking. Brand new CPU's that just came out are 32nm, while most of the common ones that people still buy are 45nm. It's not anything to worry about if you don't overclock.

The 965 will overclock higher, as it's stock voltage is higher and it's stock clock speed is higher. So basically, you'll get a 180-200mhz gain on the 965. It's probably a waste of $20, just go with the 955, you'll never be able to tell the difference.

From a simple google search, it looks like you have a decent, 60ish% of unlocking it. There are other factors in unlocking, such as voltage and RAM timings, but I can't give you any personal stories about it. I wouldn't take those chances, AMD quads are cheap anyway.


Thank you very much solved alot of my questions. And i can make some choices now. I just bought me a new monitor and it looks like im gonna be running at 1920x1080@60hz. So i will keep reading about somethings and chose a video card that will run arma 2 at around 40-50fps.

Thanks all for the help.
 
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