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New Build

Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
63
i am about to build a new system. but think im gona use a opteron 1222 AM2. i know others go with the 6400+ x2. this opty should clock up just as good if not better than the 6400+. getting the asus 790fx board. so i can upgrade latter when the B3's come out.

2x2gb pc8000 mushkin. and 2x3870's crossfired.

what do you all think of that set up.

hard to find any reviews on the opterons. but i have seen a few that got the 1220 to 3.4.

so i think the 1222 should goto 3.6 easy. we will see.


long time reader first time poster.

great site.

posted this in with some thoughts on the 9600. but thought i should repost this part of that post here.

cpu = AMD Opteron 1222 3.0GHz Socket AM2 103W Processor w/ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120
mobo = ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi
ram = mushkin 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000
psu = Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000
case = Antec Nine Hundred
gpu = 2 x DIAMOND Viper Radeon HD 3870 crossfire
hdd = Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB
sound = Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series
lightscribe dvd blah blah sata
and vista 64 ultimate

let me know what you think.

Thanks.
 
Some people will probably take offence at me asking and consider this 'trolling', but is there any reason you aren't considering an Intel setup, especially since you are overclocking? Without going into specifics, overclocked C2Ds significantly outperform AMDs current offerings...
 
Better cooling, maybe? A TR Ultra 120 Extreme is pretty much the same cost as the Zerotherm you've selected..
 
Some people will probably take offence at me asking and consider this 'trolling', but is there any reason you aren't considering an Intel setup, especially since you are overclocking? Without going into specifics, overclocked C2Ds significantly outperform AMDs current offerings...

I think he wants to upgrade to a B3 Agena or possibly a Deneb?
 
I think he wants to upgrade to a B3 Agena or possibly a Deneb?

Does anyone here honestly think a B3 or even Deneb will stand a chance of beating an overclocked Wolfdale/Penryn @ 4GHz? ;)

Look, if the OP replys that he will ONLY consider AMD, fair enough, at least we know what we've got to work with. If he's open to Intel, then there are simply better options available, especially since he intends to overclock and run a CF 3870 setup, which will need a faster CPU to avoid bottlenecking.
 
well lets see ............. intel chipsets and cpu will cost me 500+ more if not 1000+.
and bring what 10 more fps. LMAO anything above 30 fps can not be noticed by the human eye.

so to me the intel option is not at this time not noticeable.


so the gain in benchmarks at this time mean nothing.


and ya im looking at getting B3 3.5+ quad 45nm. :)
 
Does anyone here honestly think a B3 or even Deneb will stand a chance of beating an overclocked Wolfdale/Penryn @ 4GHz? ;)

Hell no.

Look, if the OP replys that he will ONLY consider AMD, fair enough, at least we know what we've got to work with. If he's open to Intel, then there are simply better options available, especially since he intends to overclock and run a CF 3870 setup, which will need a faster CPU to avoid bottlenecking.

Agreed. For a single card config though, a 5000+ BE is probably the best buy for overclocking, and at 3GHz, it is more than competitive with an E6420. My 5400 at it's stock 2.8GHz goes toe-to-toe with a vanilla E6400 in most things.

well lets see ............. intel chipsets and cpu will cost me 500+ more if not 1000+.
and bring what 10 more fps. LMAO anything above 30 fps can not be noticed by the human eye.

so to me the intel option is not at this time not noticeable.


so the gain in benchmarks at this time mean nothing.


and ya im looking at getting a C1 3.5+ quad 45nm. :)

Fixed.

Ummm, the differences are far more profound than that when you overclock. Compared to a 9600 even at 2.6GHz, an overclocked Q6600 at 3.4GHz (an easily obtainable overclock with high-end air) will be over 50% faster. This will improve your scaling dramatically in Crossfire or SLI, and your minimum framerates will be much higher, resulting in much smoother gameplay.

However if you are planning on running stock, the average deficit between Agena B2 and a Kentsfield G0 is about 10-30% per clock depending on the app. The Intel quads are monsters for multimedia, decoding/encoding, and image editing. These have historically been AMD's weakness.

And if you're waiting for 3.4-3.6GHz quads from AMD, you will be waiting well into next year. You may as well get a Nehalem at that point.

Yes, the high end boards (X48) and the Q6700 easily add up to $800, but there are cheaper alternatives if you're not afraid to overclock.
 
well a 1222 opteron is a 3.0ghz dual. it should overclock better than the 6400+.

and is only a few more bucks than the 6400+.
 
i did look on new egg and to get a mobo that has crossfirex. are like 250-350 plus the 350-500 for the cpu.

oh ya and ddr3 only most of them.

please stop sugesting intel. im looking for the best set up on a am2+ 790fx board. thanks. i think what i have chosen to be the best amd set there is. until fater amd quads come out. with this set up i will be able to easly upgrade.
 
I think you are being pretty disrespectful for someone who is trying to make sure your money is spent well and not foolishly.

Most x38 boards on NewEgg are not DDR3, just fyi. Out of about 8 I believe only 3 are DDR3.

You can easily get the gigabyte mobo for 200 dollars (what it looks like you are spending already) and for about 50 dollars more you can get an even better mobo by DFI.

The Intel E6750 (an older 1333mhz core) which can be had at the same price you are spending on a AMD can deliver just as much performance at stock speeds as a Phenom core.

But if you do want to spend your money on an AMD, do so. Just don't act like the advice we are giving you is make believe. Do some research please.

And for the record I am building a Crossfire platform on the 3870x2 on a x38 board


EDIT:

Also your FPS argument... the higher your FPS the less of a noticeable dip you will have when something on the screen happens and causes slowdown. I personally enjoy my games to run at a high fps so that when something like that happens it stays smooth. Not constant 30fps so that when something does happen it is noticeable because I have slowed to 15fps
 
i did look on new egg and to get a mobo that has crossfirex. are like 250-350 plus the 350-500 for the cpu.

oh ya and ddr3 only most of them.

please stop sugesting intel. im looking for the best set up on a am2+ 790fx board. thanks. i think what i have chosen to be the best amd set there is. until fater amd quads come out. with this set up i will be able to easly upgrade.

Not sure what NewEgg you're looking at, but....

$79.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136032
with crossfire and DDR2

$169.99 E6550
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115030
 
well lets see ............. intel chipsets and cpu will cost me 500+ more if not 1000+.
and bring what 10 more fps. LMAO anything above 30 fps can not be noticed by the human eye.

so to me the intel option is not at this time not noticeable.


so the gain in benchmarks at this time mean nothing.


and ya im looking at getting B3 3.5+ quad 45nm. :)

This post was filled with fail from the price point all the way up to the assumption of getting 3.5ghz+ on a die shrink.:mad::mad::mad:
 
oh didnt mean for it to come accross that way at all.

have nothing against intel. i just like amd and ati.

like i said i did research the intel option and found it to be alot more $. even if i go low end intel its still more $ for the same performance. so i have opted for high end amd for less money and still good performance. with the ability to upgrade later when the b3 and other cpu's come out.
 
um have you read the reviews of that board its a POS.


and that cpu is about the same price as the opteron but has to be OC'd to get to 3ghz.

now why would i want to do that so i can spen a grand down the road on an intel upgrade. no.

Proving a point that you were wrong and that there were cheaper priced boards than you stated.

That cpu can be effortlessly OCed beyond 3ghz.

Not sure what upgrade path you're talking about is, but Intel has a lot of cpu's coming out that are less than $1k.... research FTW

I'm done with this thread.
 
We are trying to help, you know. I once thought the same as you, refuting the fact that Intel is the better overall deal if you know how to look for the deals, but with the persistance of fellow [H] members I have seen the light. My next build will be a 750i SLI board and an E8400/8500.

For ten dollars more than a X2 6400, you can get an E6750 that is 15% or faster at stock clocks, and much much faster if you overclock that to an easily obtainable 3.4GHz. In many cases you can go as high as 3.6-3.8GHz without too much effort on high-end air cooling.

In comparison, the best you can do with an AMD X2 or dual core Opteron is 3.3 or 3.4GHz, which is in the same ballpark, but with more power consumption, and since K8 has a lower IPC, you will probably see about 65% of the total performance if the Core 2 system. And that's not even factoring the bar-none overclocking capabilites of Wolfdale and Yorkfield.

As for motherboards, you can find rock solid X38 DDR2 motherboards that will enable you to run Crossfire like this abit in the same price bracket as what you would spend on a comparable AMD 790FX board.

If you are overclocking, you certainly can do no better than Intel right now. Anything else for your uses right now would just be a waste of money.

And that's a fact, Jack. If you don't want our help and are just going to do what you are going to do - just do it and save the keystrokes and our time. We just want to help you get the most out of your money.
 
Guys, I think he's intent on using an AMD/ATi combo. This is, afterall, the AMD cpu board. I think that's a great system. I've heard great things about that case especially. Maybe consider a second hard drive for storage? I never thought I'd use up a 320 but now i've got two 320's nearly full. XP seems to be giving better gaming performance too, maybe a dual boot?
 
I gave up on reading this thread and possibly giving this guy advice when he spouted off the tired old "the human eye cant see more than 30fps"

Everytime I see that tired bit of FUD my eyes glow red and I cannot see the rest of the thread.

One peice of advice to the OP, and if he takes it, thats fine, if not, he's an idiot:

Don't buy AMD at this point in time unless you're adding a Phenom to an existing AM2 motherboard that supports it. Anything else is a waste of time, and money. I am no Intel fanboy either, I've used AMD for years. But your posts in this thread reek of ignorance and an unwillingness to accept help and advice.

Why the fuck do people post here asking for advice if they only want to be told what they want to hear. I swear I get so tired of these threads sometime.
 
Mate seriously, listen to peoples advice , there's a lot of knowledge here, if you still want to support AMD then purchase the 3870's as you planned to do.
 
I gave up on reading this thread and possibly giving this guy advice when he spouted off the tired old "the human eye cant see more than 30fps"
If you truly gave up on this thread then you wouldn't be replying here still trying to give the guy 'advice'.

One peice of advice to the OP, and if he takes it, thats fine, if not, he's an idiot:

One piece of advice to you - don't insult people over their own purchasing decisions. It's their money, not yours.

Don't buy AMD at this point in time unless you're adding a Phenom to an existing AM2 motherboard that supports it. Anything else is a waste of time, and money.

Perhaps a waste of some small amount of money. A waste of time? I don't think so.

But your posts in this thread reek of ignorance and an unwillingness to accept help and advice.

He's the OP. If he doesn't want to accept the advice, so be it. No reason to insult him. Again, if you gave up on the thread don't post and spread vitriol.
 
Looks good!

Nice rebate on the sound card going on to put it in the same price range as the standard X-Fi XtremeGamer.

Some other things to think about, as well:
- Go with the sub-$100 5000+ BE for now to save a lil coin since your long-term goal is a B3.
- Save $100 and go with the TPQ-850. Still enough power capability even for a moderately sized server (more than enough for your build) and should give you years of solid service.
- Ditch Vista for now and stick with XP Pro 64, or at least get and load both.
 
I would ditch the Antec PSU and get the PC Power & Cooling Crossfire edition PSU. Which I believe can be had for less than that Antec PSU. The PC Power & Cooling is designed for Quad Crossfire if you ever want to do that and one of the best brands you can buy.
 
I'll 2nd the vote for PC Power & Cooling. I just installed one after reading reviews and I'm quite happy with it. I measured the voltage with a 5 digit HP meter and it hardly moves whether under load or not which I think is a good thing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341011

That one is "only" 750w but should cover you just fine. Also, it's a single 12v rail instead of 2 rails which is interesting - not sure if it really makes a difference.
 
I gave up on reading this thread and possibly giving this guy advice when he spouted off the tired old "the human eye cant see more than 30fps"

Everytime I see that tired bit of FUD my eyes glow red and I cannot see the rest of the thread.

One peice of advice to the OP, and if he takes it, thats fine, if not, he's an idiot:

Don't buy AMD at this point in time unless you're adding a Phenom to an existing AM2 motherboard that supports it. Anything else is a waste of time, and money. I am no Intel fanboy either, I've used AMD for years. But your posts in this thread reek of ignorance and an unwillingness to accept help and advice.

Why the fuck do people post here asking for advice if they only want to be told what they want to hear. I swear I get so tired of these threads sometime.

Agreed. Buying an AM2 processor only makes sense if you already own the appropriate motherboard.
 
- Ditch Vista for now and stick with XP Pro 64, or at least get and load both.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this comment (not aggressively, I'm just saying I disagree).

Vista 64's teething problems are largely over, and driver support is only getting better while XP 64 will just continue to lose support.

I do agree with you on the 5000+ though; great value proc.
 
I wholeheartedly disagree with this comment (not aggressively, I'm just saying I disagree).

Vista 64's teething problems are largely over, and driver support is only getting better while XP 64 will just continue to lose support.

I do agree with you on the 5000+ though; great value proc.

My system is currently triple booted with XPP, XPP 64, and Vista Ultimate 64 (SP1). There is a noticeable difference in gaming performance favoring XPP over Vista, which is why I suggested that.
 
My system is currently triple booted with XPP, XPP 64, and Vista Ultimate 64 (SP1). There is a noticeable difference in gaming performance favoring XPP over Vista, which is why I suggested that.

Oh certainly, I guessed that's why you mentioned it; I just don't think that the current performance delta (which, again, will continue to improve) is significant enough (I haven't noticed anything I would call noticeable, certainly) to give up future driver and application support.
 
Oh certainly, I guessed that's why you mentioned it; I just don't think that the current performance delta (which, again, will continue to improve) is significant enough (I haven't noticed anything I would call noticeable, certainly) to give up future driver and application support.

Well anyway, it was just a suggestion. It's up to the OP to leverage it. ;)
 
Well anyway, it was just a suggestion. It's up to the OP to leverage it. ;)

Very true.

Ya know, it's funny..when I read back on my posts I realize how easy it is to sound like a dick on [H] simply because you can't portray emotion/inflection with your words.
 
Very true.

Ya know, it's funny..when I read back on my posts I realize how easy it is to sound like a dick on [H] simply because you can't portray emotion/inflection with your words.

It's all good, bro. I took no offense. Hell, I enjoy getting feedback to the very advice I give out.... it helps people make the best choice, imo.
 
He's the OP. If he doesn't want to accept the advice, so be it. No reason to insult him. Again, if you gave up on the thread don't post and spread vitriol.

I'm sorry but deep down I am a caring person. I have managed money for a friend of mine who is terrible with his money for years, so I have a deep-seated need to encourage others to make wise investments (or in this case, take on wise liabilities.)

When I see someone blatantly refusing help after asking for it in the first place, it gets me riled a little bit. I am a man of logic and when I see someone spending more money for less performance I have to at least point out their mistake. There are very few shades of gray in our industry anymore. At any given time a manufacturer is often lightyears ahead of their competition, and it goes back and forth every few years.

I am just trying to help, and as a long time AMD fan, who hopes they can get a new architecture out that whips Intel back into 2nd place again for a while, I still cannot sit by and not voice the facts as well as my opinion on the matter, which is what these forums are about.

As you say, it is his money, but I know how I feel when I make a bad purchasing decision, it bugs me for months. Just trying to prevent my fellow enthusiasts from making the same mistakes I did.
 
...snip...

Agreed. I still stand firmly by my recommendation for the 5000+ BE (and oc'ing the shiznilty out of it) as a stepping stone if the OP is hell bent on building an AMD system only to go with a B3 in the future.
 
i will take all the recomendations into account before i pull the trigger. im not in any hurry.
it will probly be about 2 months before i do anything.

its funny though i see alot recomending things that are not in there signature.
im not looking for the cheapest amd. was looking for the best set up at this time for a
790fx platform. even if it cost more. im sure lots will change in the next 2-3 months.

hopefully B3 will be out by then with some higher clock speeds. i would really like to see what that 1222 opteron would do though.
 
its funny though i see alot recomending things that are not in there signature.

and you wonder why...

I've got a Q9450 preordered and a Rampage Formula on my wishlist. If you're waiting two months, and you have to go AMD, then just grab a B3 Phenom. If you're open to the other side of the fence, then you've got more than enough choice over there.
 
its funny though i see alot recomending things that are not in there signature.
im not looking for the cheapest amd. was looking for the best set up at this time for a
790fx platform. even if it cost more. im sure lots will change in the next 2-3 months.

Who's to say we haven't done our research, though? Quadnad more than I, apparently though about the low end... :p

If you're intent on AMD, I would at least wait for B3 steppings to hit. Core 2 will give you better performance though for not much more cash.
 
Hmm, I was gonna put my 2 cents in on this topic but looking at the state of this thread and the OP's opinions, it's probably not worth my time to do so... there is no need to beat a dead horse. ;)
 
People have been running optys for how many years now over 3gig? About 2 years I think or more ago overclockers have done this. It was the 939 platform and tons oc'd it over 3ghz. There is nothing new to see here really.
 
1. It's funny, though I see a lot recommending things that are not in their signature.

2. I'm not looking for the cheapest AMD. I was looking for the best set up at this time for a 790FX platform. Even if it costs more. I'm sure lots will change in the next 2-3 months.

3. Hopefully B3 will be out by then with some higher clock speeds. I would really like to see what that 1222 Opteron would do, though.

1. I'd recommend the 6400+ BE in a heartbeat if you could get it for the same price as the 5000+ BE.

2. The best setup right now for a 790FX platform would be the native 3.0+ GHz dual core parts or any Phenom, IMO. Unfortunately, they are a severe waste of money right now when there's little to gain over an oc'd 5000+ BE and nothing to gain over the similarly priced competitor's offerings.

3. Why gamble on the 1222 or the B3 (reply to #2 applies here, as well)? If you're going to wait two months, that's a great plan of attack.... as it's always wiser to wait a little bit and see what real reviews will identity the strengths and weaknesses of a fresh to market processor instead of make assumptions. Just have yourself multiple backup plans for best bang for the buck if the results don't satisfy, and that's all we're trying to help you out with. ;)

All in all, any (modern) platform you choose should provide adequate performance for some time to come, especially with that GPU setup. We just want you to get the most return for your investment.


[edit]
grab your 5000+ BE now.... only $90 shipped (use promo code EMCADBBAD, and might have an additional $2 off)
 
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