Trying to Get ready for GR on a Budget...
By
Bill Z Bubba,
Posted on: 2009-12-13 16:19 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Good grief things are going out of stock fast.
Hopefully they've got most of it back in by the time I go to buy it. the alarming bit is they don't even have an eta on the mobo. hopefully they plan on getting more in. It's got some pretty good reviews.
Stupid holiday season.
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We started off in this branch of the conversation when you looked at what was in front of you and felt there was something "off" about it, so you tell me |
Originally Posted by corridor
Looking up some internal pics of that makes my head hurt slightly. it's as though I walked into a room where people were standing on the ceiling. I'm not sure if I'm standing in the right place or they are.
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Originally Posted by corridor
Good grief things are going out of stock fast.
Hopefully they've got most of it back in by the time I go to buy it. the alarming bit is they don't even have an eta on the mobo. hopefully they plan on getting more in. It's got some pretty good reviews. |
Quote:
I'll buy that. |
Originally Posted by Human_Being
We started off in this branch of the conversation when you looked at what was in front of you and felt there was something "off" about it, so you tell me
. |
Quote:
| It's the economy. Despite network news talking-heads harping about "incipient recovery - any time now", most retailers stocked very little holiday inventory. So what little they have can sell out if there's any demand; as in the case of a popular product model. |
1) Well Gigabyte MBs are known to be a great MB for the money.
2) The UD4P happens to be the least expensive P55 MB that supports SLi and CrossfireX.
3) A number of hardware review sites "what to buy" lists include the UD4P as part of their i5-750/i7-860 builds.
Combine all three with the holiday season and POOF, supply shortages.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
I suppose it's not very odd that the exact things that drew me to that board drew everyone else to it too, yeah.
Another question. Should i be paying more attention to AMD processors? i've disliked the last few I've had as they had exposed chips. No cover over the processor, but I understand that not to be the case anymore. And as always they seem to be running considerably less expensive. For roughly the price of my above i5 lynnfield one could pick (For example)
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 140W Quad-Core Processor
Am I better off sticking with Intel or should I give AMD another try. I saw on his $1200 build that father Xmas liked Intel better for that price point. is there a particular reason?
Is there any merit to the idea that, since ATI is owned my AMD, perhaps they'll play together better?
*EDIT* Hm looking at their respective Futuremark scores the Intel seems to rather blow away the AMD in some areas (gaming in particular). Guess that answers that question...
*MORE EDIT* Ok apparently the i5 is really good on overclocking Read Here. Interestingly enough with the very Mobo I'm hoping to get. They easily got it up to 3.46Ghz without even monkying with the voltage. Very nice. Perhaps I will dabble a bit with that, though i doubt I'll push anything that far.
Intel will get you higher total performance and nifty new power management features in the i5. AMD will cost you fewer dollars per degree of performance and have architectures that are supported for longer. If a given performance level is your main concern and you're comfortable with your budget, go Intel. If conserving price is the over-arcing priority, give some consideration to the AMDs.
With that said, game performance tends to be more dependent on dollars spent in graphics card than in CPU.
If you're okay with spending $200 on the CPU, the quality and capability of the i5-750 can't be beat right now.
There's no definite advantage to having an ATI graphics card running on an AMD motherboard vice an Intel-based one.
Cool. That's reassuring. Frankly the overclockability of that intel is also a big point of interest. In the past one of the primary reasons i HAVEN'T overclocked were my AMD CPU's. My Athlon xp 2700 runs HOT. Looking at them, the voltage used by the new Athlons suggests that they are going to be the same way. Real scorchers.
I remember a video on toms hardware from years ago where they ran a series of AMD and Intel CPU's without fans and heatsinks. the Intels all gradually slowed down and froze up. The AMD's *** quickly fried and one of them even lit on fire and burned a hole in the mobo.
The lesson of that has sort of stuck with me ever since. I suppose it's part of why I wanted to look at Intels this time.
I have read, however, that the i5 suffers a bit in SLI or X-fire modes as compared to the Phenom. Know anything about that?
*EDIT* HA! Found it! Ok it didn't catch fire, but they definitely sizzled... Funny how the memory over dramatizes...
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All processors now have a throttling technology that will just shut themselves down before slagging like that.|
Originally Posted by corridor
Cool. That's reassuring. Frankly the overclockability of that intel is also a big point of interest. In the past one of the primary reasons i HAVEN'T overclocked were my AMD CPU's. My Athlon xp 2700 runs HOT. Looking at them the voltage used by the new Athlons suggests that they are going to be the same way. Real scorchers.
I remember a video on toms hardware from years ago where they ran a series of AMD and Intel CPU's without fans and heatsinks. the Intels all gradually slowed down and froze up. The AMD's *** quickly fried and one of them even light on fire and burned a hole in the mobo. The lesson of that has sort of stuck with me ever since. I suppose it's part of why I wanted to look at Intels this time. I have read, however, that the i5 suffers a bit in SLI or X-fire modes as compared to the Phenom. Know anything about that? |
I expect you already know from your reading, but just in case you missed it: a feature of the Core i5s and i7s is that they will overclock themselves depending on their current heat-load. An unmodified Core i5-750 rated at 2.66 GHz will happily speed itself up to over 3 GHz when using two or fewer cores; without input from the user. When using three or more cores, it will slow down to around its rated 2.66 GHz.
I don't know anything about i5s suffering in Crossfire or SLI, but do you want to go to dual graphics cards in the first place?
Yeah Turbo Mode. Takes that 3.46Ghz OC up to something liek 3.6ish VERY nice.
I'm not starting out with a second GPU, no, but it's likely the first thing I'll do to upgrade. That and DX11 are the two reasons I'm inclined to go ATI. i COULD probably chase down a GTX 260 if I needed to, but what are the odds i'll find one 6-8 months from now? Pretty much nil.
Yeah, I think I'm pretty content with the specific combo I've got now.
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750
GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD4P LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VXL Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-G1 120mm
Also with a monitor, DVD burner (Blu-ray is for later), Mouse, Keyboard, some extra fans, and fan filters.
That's where I stand at this point.
Now to see what's still available in February.
Thank you all VERY much for your help. I really appreciate it!
BTX cases. Somehow those came and went without me even being aware of them. sad though. It seems like a really nice compromise. besides the Open-on-the-left thing with ATX cases was probably originally an arbitrary choice anyway. Why the hell NOT have cases designed both ways and allow the user to pick. Ah well. Maybe someday.