Two new boxes by the end of the year

[Ahhzz]

Identical, for the most part.

I'm going to stop side-barring on theeldests thread and start my own thread for a couple of questions he doesn't have.

I'm an Nvidia guy, so I'm looking at the 580 range of cards, and I'm also trying to decide between the Sabertooth and the Crosshair V.

I love the EVGA's for the lifetime warranty, altho, to prop ASUS, I came home last night to a video display on BIOS with white dots all over it , and my 2 year, 11 month old 9800GT is in the mail today, RMA'd for repair (can we hope for replacement? ). So, they'll definitely get my MB money, while EVGA's got my vid card.

Obviously with those Motherboard choices, I'm aiming at the 'Dozer, not sure which series yet. Any thoughts on one board over the other, or anyone have a specific 580 that they're partial to? Or can I knock $50 off the vid card, and only 5% performance loss with a different card?

Thanks!


*edit*

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB x 2 (with free Deus Ex : Human Revolution )
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 750
Ram: G.Skill Ripjaws 8 GB
Hard Drive : Western Digital Black 2Tb, 6Gb/S
Case (Inadvertant extra ) : Antec Lanboy air Blue Black / Blue

Still waiting on Bulldozer, so not a lot to update for a month or so, unless I catch a steal on Hard drives, or the motherboard.

[INSTG8R]

Been awhile since I have been on AMD(Opty 170) But I will say I am very happy with my Sabertooth. It's a great board. The UEFI Bios is awesome.

[Ahhzz]

Thanks If you'll see my Sig, that's actually what I'm upgrading from to get the new 'Dozer Been happy as hell with mine, but it's time for a new Box, especially with Skyrim and Deus Ex hitting this year

[theeldest]

Hey Ahhzz,

Have you purchased any of this yet?

Did you see Obrovsky's post here: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pyUWXUhTaB...ld_unigine.jpg

Obviously the guy is a nutjob but this was interesting, specifically where AMD had a much better minimum framerate than Intel on this test. I think it'll be interesting to see where it comes out with regards to gaming tests.

Are you doing Eyefinity or single monitor?

[brandonwh64]

6950/70 2gb is one of the best options out there in terms of price and performance.

[theeldest]

This one too: http://lenzfire.com/2011/10/amd-bull...-review-31439/

Looking like it'll give good gaming performance. And the Crosshair V is about $100 less than the Maximus IV Extreme for basically the same feature set.

And the FX8150 will be about $100 less than the 2700k

That's enough to upgrade from 6950s to 570s in SLI which will give a noticeable bump in gaming performance. (unless you're doing eyefinity; AMD graphics scales better at higher resolutions)

[JrRacinFan]

Just wondering if you have maybe been pondering 560ti's as well for another option in the video card dept. Just seems logical to me as they aren't much slower than a 570 and 6950 2gb cards but arent quite as expensive.

[Ahhzz]

Originally Posted by theeldest

Hey Ahhzz,

Have you purchased any of this yet?

Did you see Obrovsky's post here: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pyUWXUhTaB...ld_unigine.jpg

Obviously the guy is a nutjob but this was interesting, specifically where AMD had a much better minimum framerate than Intel on this test. I think it'll be interesting to see where it comes out with regards to gaming tests.

Are you doing Eyefinity or single monitor?

I've already purchased everything but the board/proc, still being hopeful for tomorrow... I'm running two 22" monitors, and I've got a 36" that I may play with, just to see, but mainly the two side-by-side.

The numbers I'm seeing put the 'Dozer pretty solid in the performance area, and making a huge impact in the speed/cost. Mostly, I'm afraid I'm not going to see something tomorrow that screams Yes or No at me, which means I'll be spending a hard time weighing the benefit of saving some cash over the performance drop.... I'm really big on analyzing my ROI, but I'm worried that long-term, I might be better off in the Intel camp for a while... I ran that Opty (still running heheh) to the ground for longer than I should have for enjoyment, but I still paid a bit more to make sure I had something that would run solidly for the longest....

[theeldest]

As far as longevity is concerned one of the big advantages with the AMD system is 32 PCIe lanes. It's not going to make a difference on the current generation of GPUs but a couple years from now upgrading will see a benefit to the full 16 lanes per card whereas Intel's 1155 is 8x per slot for SLI/Crossfire.

AMD gives you good memory bandwidth compared to 1155 (but not socket 2011 obviously).

Intel gives better single threaded performance whereas AMD will be better in the multi-threaded space.


My personal opinion: As the platforms age (1155 vs Bulldozer) Bulldozer is going to do more with future upgrades and future games.

We'll probably get one more processor line out of Intel's 1155 (Ivy Bridge is slated to be compatible but it could change).

And we'll probably get one more processor out of AMD before they finally upgrade sockets.

Tell yourself that by going AMD you can get the dual 2GB 6950s. And if you go Intel you need to drop down to 1GB cards or even 6870s. (or by going AMD you could upgrade to 570s ;-) )


Before deciding one way or the other try to base opinions of performance on a review that tested crossfire with the processors as I think it's going to make a difference when you really give the processor a chance to stretch it's 8 legs.

[theeldest]

[H]ard|OCP - http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...mance_review/1

Tom's Hardware - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...90fx,3043.html


My take away is that gaming performance is generally GPU limited. The games that Tom's tested show that AMD scales better to higher resolutions. The HardOCP review shows about equal performance in the games they tested (though higher numbers from AMD in BF3, actually)

[Ahhzz]

*sigh* .... I'm afraid I'll be crawling into intel's bed...

[theeldest]

Originally Posted by Ahhzz

*sigh* .... I'm afraid I'll be crawling into intel's bed...

Given the choice, that'd be my recommendation. (don't worry, it's pretty warm and comfy here ;-)

I'd still like to see some crossfire/eyefinity action in reviews.

[Ahhzz]

Well eldest, I'll probably go the 2600k, full monty and all that... Any rec's on a motherboard? How do you like yours?

[theeldest]

The Maximus IV is pretty darn good. I think it's smarter than me, though.

I used the Gigabyte UD3H in a friend's build and I really like that board. Easy to overclock and good features. Nice spacing for the dual GPUs too. GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI S...

The main reason I didn't personally go with the UD3H for my build was lack of SATA ports. I needed at least 7 with more being a bonus. And I like the Red & Black of the Maximus.

[Ahhzz]

Ok guys. I've come to a head. I've given up on BD as a "not where I want it" processor. Which puts me at the 2600k. So, given this wish list, any input?

Once You Know, You Newegg

I'm at 4:00 EST, will be home by 5:30 or 6. Will be pulling the trigger before 10:00 tonite. I WANT MY PC!!!!!

[JrRacinFan]

I have a vote-in...

ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI S...

[theeldest]

Originally Posted by Ahhzz

<snip> Which puts me at the 2600k. So, given this wish list, any input?

Once You Know, You Newegg

I'm at 4:00 EST, will be home by 5:30 or 6. Will be pulling the trigger before 10:00 tonite. I WANT MY PC!!!!!

Why the 2600k and not the 2500k?

[theeldest]

Well!? Did you pull the trigger? What'd you get?

[Ahhzz]

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Tu...

ASRock Z68 PROFESSIONAL GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HD...

Done done Thanks for the advice and assist

[theeldest]

Did you make sure to use the promo code on the processor?

[Ahhzz]

yup yup

[theeldest]

Awesome.

That'll be a pretty wicked system when it's all set up. Change your System Specs. NOW! ;-)

Are you going to upgrade the HSF for the CPU?

And are you going to try out the SSD caching that the z68 chipset offers? I'd at least recommend going to Best Buy, Fry's or similar and picking one up to try it out. You can always remove it and return it if you don't like it.

Only thing to remember is to set your hard drives as RAID when you install Windows. Even if you're not running RAID now, you'll need that setting to use the SSD caching down the road.

And if you get an SSD right away for caching, do not install it in your system right away. Install Windows on the 2TB drive you have (with the SSD not plugged in).

After you load windows and the Intel RST drivers then you can add the SSD and turn on acceleration. (took me about 10 installs to figure out that these steps were what I needed).

Have fun!!

[theeldest]

Have you though about something like the h70 or h100 by corsair? With that Lanboy Air it looks like you can fit a 2x120 WC unit on the top.

CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid ...

Exhausting the CPU heat from the case directly without it swirling around will help your GPU overclocking.

Have you unlocked your GPUs? Overclocked? How are they working?

[Ahhzz]

Don't have the motherboards in yet, and will be out of town right after they arrive, so won't be able to play for three weeks. Mainly going to stay stock cooling for now, and see what I can tweak out of them, but I did take a look at the all in one WC units...

[Ahhzz]

Originally Posted by theeldest

Awesome.

That'll be a pretty wicked system when it's all set up. Change your System Specs. NOW! ;-)

Are you going to upgrade the HSF for the CPU?

And are you going to try out the SSD caching that the z68 chipset offers? I'd at least recommend going to Best Buy, Fry's or similar and picking one up to try it out. You can always remove it and return it if you don't like it.

Only thing to remember is to set your hard drives as RAID when you install Windows. Even if you're not running RAID now, you'll need that setting to use the SSD caching down the road.

And if you get an SSD right away for caching, do not install it in your system right away. Install Windows on the 2TB drive you have (with the SSD not plugged in).

After you load windows and the Intel RST drivers then you can add the SSD and turn on acceleration. (took me about 10 installs to figure out that these steps were what I needed).

Have fun!!

Ahhh, to have paid attention at the time I've ordered an OCZ agi 3 60G for cache. However, I did find a reg hack that should let me change to Raid on the fly, and get me up and running without a reload. I'll let you know towards the end of the week, after I've snagged a backup, and the balls to make the change