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AMD CPU + Nvidia Card Upgrade

Discussion in 'Techno-Magic' started by Taluntain, Dec 2, 2008.

Page 2 of 2
  1. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Remove all ads!
    Club 3d is a small brand whit a good reputation. XFX and Asus are rated the top two brands in The Netherlands however. Found a xfx overclocked on a dutch site for 139. The price is good for the gigabyte.
     
    Merlanni, Dec 5, 2008
    #21
  2. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Thanks, all. My final selection was AMD ATHLON X2 6000+ 3.1GHz AM2 BOX and GIGABYTE NV 9800GT 512Mb (GV-N98TOC-512H; overclocked). Alongside I'm also getting a 550W silent PSU, 2GB extra RAM and a 500GB WD hard drive. All of this combined should last me for another 2 years, I hope. ;)
     
    Taluntain, Dec 5, 2008
    #22
  3. joacqin

    joacqin Confused Jerk Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    That is the same processor I have, seems quite good and with nice value for the money.
     
    joacqin, Dec 5, 2008
    #23
  4. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    A third party processor cooler might reduce noise if the amd cooler is noisy.
     
    Merlanni, Dec 6, 2008
    #24

  5. Aces Gems: 19/31
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    So AMD 5000s work well.

    I was looking at a build with a 5500 AMD X2 to run a 1GB 9800GT with Vista 64. Would a Corsair 450W PS be enough? No SLI just the one card.

    :rolleyes:
     
    Aces, Dec 6, 2008
    #25
  6. Ragusa

    Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

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    Aces,
    I'd avoid Vista 64. Stick with XP for the time being, and if you want DirectX 10, go for Vista 32. The extra Ram you won't notice, yet, and in my experience 64bit and/or DirectX 10 just doesn't run well with legacy applications, older games in particular.
     
    Ragusa, Dec 6, 2008
    #26
  7. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    I've seen 450W PSUs listed as required for 9800GT (despite what BTA posted), so I imagine they'd be overtaxed as soon as you had a bit more powerful CPU and a few other drains on power in the system. Going with 550W would probably be a safer bet.
     
    Taluntain, Dec 6, 2008
    #27
  8. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Stated PSU requirements are by necessity conservative.

    How much power the supply can source is not the only constraint, but also how much total current each voltage source can supply, and every supply has a different way of splitting that up to reach its total power rating.

    So when a graphics card supplier quotes a certain wattage requirement, what they're really saying is that there's no way to buy a supply of that power rating and not have enough current no matter how the voltage supplies are split (and probably also no matter how much more crap you have crammed into your box). It doesn't mean that a lower rating is bad or won't work; it just means you'll have to have more understanding and do more work to assure yourself that it will work.

    Also, power supply efficiencies are typically at their peak at around 50% max load, so you'd want to aim for your computer to be near there the largest amount of the total time it is on while being sure that it can handle the maximum load your computer will require. I'd venture to say that for a typical user (one who doesn't just have the thing on when doing high-load activities like playing games and off otherwise) will have near idle loads most of the time the computer is on.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Dec 6, 2008
    #28
  9. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Not exactly on the 50%, but between 50 tot 75%. That gives a bit of room in makes and models.

    If you are doing normal not gaming stuff for the bulk of your time a bit lower in that range is good enough. I do not think that chipmakers can afford to raise power consumptions of their products in the near future.

    ---------- Added 0 hours, 4 minutes and 59 seconds later... ----------

    Windows 7 will be the one to switch to 64 bit, said a Microsoft propaganda person on a dutch highly rated hardware website. Seems logical. As a vista 32 bit user I can say it is ok to use, but just one good service pack away from good.
     
    Merlanni, Dec 7, 2008
    #29

  10. Munchkin Blender Gems: 22/31
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    It depends upon how much more RAM and what are the heavy processing applications and uses are for the PC?

    If you are using the PC for media editing (audio or video) than Vista 64 would be the way to go if you have 6GB or more of RAM. If you are only going to have 3-4GB of RAM don't waste your money on Vista 64.

    As for Window 7 vs. Vista; the biggest difference I hear is that Microsoft is focusing on how Windows 7 will allocate hardware resouces, which is suppose to improve overall performance of a PC when compared to Vista. If that actually happens, than great. If not, no surpise because we all know that when Microsoft releases a new OS the hardware requirements always go up.

    As for the power supplies, check the 12V ampage. That is the most important thing. If you have a single 12V with less than 20AMPs(25 or up is typically preferred) you can forget running any GPU that requires a 6 spin PCI-e power supply.

    Tal - I hope your upgrade makes a big differnce for gaming and general computing. I know it did for me when upgrading from a AMD 939 setup.

    I'm waiting for the Deneb processor to be released. If it fits the AM2+ boards I will be picking one up ASAP because my AMD Phenoem 8450 is only clocked at 2.1GHz.
     
    Munchkin Blender, Dec 11, 2008
    #30
  11. Ragusa

    Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

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    Agreed. I wrote this from a point of view of a user with 4GB of RAM.
     
    Ragusa, Dec 13, 2008
    #31

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    Most users of Vista or XP 32 would be fine with 3GB of RAM and 1GB or less in video memory.

    I am thinking about going back to my 939 setup as I found a Operton 185 and 2GB of high end ram for under $150. I could use my 8800GS as the GPU with a total of 3GB of RAM and have a dual core CPU clocked at 3.0GHz in Windows XP Media Center edition. Hmmmmm..... Would I see any slow down compared to my current setup of AMD Phenoem 8450 2.1GHz with 4GB of DDR2 RAM and the 8800GS in Vista? Maybe the older 939 system would be faster since it would be running XP and not Vista? Hmmm...
     
    Munchkin Blender, Dec 15, 2008
    #32
  13. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    With the new components in for a couple of days, I'm quite pleased with the results. Overall my system is a bit noisier (I think mostly due to the new PSU - supposedly "super silent", but less so than my previous one), but the graphics card cooling when running at max practically doesn't go beyond the overall system noise, which is a huge improvement from before. So the Gigabyte 9800GT really is quite silent.

    There seems to be little noticeable benefit to the extra 2GB RAM in Windows XP (though only a bit more than 3GB are used) or much of a difference due to the processor upgrade. But then again, my system is very much due for a reinstall from scratch where I expect it will be more noticeable.

    It performs very nicely in the one game that I've played since; The Witcher EE. I'm running it at 1680x1050 with all the eye candy at maximum and it's running very smoothly, which is a nice change. The game's graphics are simply stunning.
     
    Taluntain, Dec 18, 2008
    #33

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    You should have waited for the AMD Athlon X2 7000 CPUs to be released. These chips are AMD Phenoem based and run at clock speeds of 2.5 and 2.7 ghz and offer more bang for the buck compared to the older Athalons. It also offers the ability to upgrade your mobo later on without the need to upgrade the CPU.
     
    Munchkin Blender, Dec 26, 2008
    #34
  15. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    I couldn't really wait; I needed the extra power right away. I doubt I'll be upgrading this box again, so it didn't make sense to go for a new motherboard. By the time I'm due for another upgrade, I'll just sell off this box and buy a new one.
     
    Taluntain, Dec 27, 2008
    #35
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