Post by Janne on Oct 20, 2008 22:45:53 GMT
I've gone mad and bought a brand new system (ok ok, the mobo is not the latest one around)
Here is the former setup:
AMD Sempron 3000+ @ 2,4GHz with 1,9Vcore maximum
Spire Verticool III with slightly modded fastening system
Epox 8RDA3+ motherboard
1,5Gb DDR400
Gigabyte GF 7600GS @ 760/530MHz (400/400 original)
320Gb Maxtor IDE
The story began when I killed my old maxed-out (voltmodded) geForce 7600GS AGP, which was running its lungs out in that ancient rig. It was my fault... the VGA cooler was my own invention and it just wasn't so fancy. I think the contact with the core was not exact enough.
So I wondered, what should I do... to get a new graphics card (that should have been at least powerful as the OC'd 7600GS) or put the whole rig to this date. Then I went mad and got a Radeon HD 3850 AGP, the monster card...
It was really a monster but there was one bad issue: Booting. Booted in Fear, booted in 3DMark03, Arma, even in 3DMark01! Every time the point of boot was almost the same.
I tried like everything, I got another card from the shop to see if the first one was broken or something. I even got a big PSU to power the d**n thing and still the same result. But then I tried the one thing... Underclocking the CPU (Who wants that??) so I dropped the FSB to 133MHz and voila, it worked very well. But knowing that even super OC'd Socket A processor would bottleneck the Graphics card, and with 133MHz the Sempron was running @ 1600MHz... I decided to return the card.
In between all thes phenomenas, I was keen on reading about the AMD Quad cores and the 700-series AMD chipsets. Added with a 3800 or 4000 series Ati HD GPU and there it was... the Spider. I have always owned an AMD CPU and been happy with those and this 9950 Black Edition really got my attention.
Altough I was more than aware of the Intel's powerful 2 core CPU:s and that they could probably cost less and be better for gamig... Why should I take the path that everyone else are going. Ok, its a bargain and overclocks with so little effort...
But still. I have never liked the idea of going with the masses. Thats one of the first things I got myself the B-S S88 and SXG75... They are different. And thats the path I am going. Even if it would / will be more difficult.
Back to the HD3850 AGP. I returned It to the shop and there was the two options: To get my money back or change it to something else... That was the moment of truth. I opened my mouth and there was these words: You probably don't have any AMD 790FX chipset -based motherboards...
Guess what? Well yes they did! And there was the lonely looking Gigabyte motherboard in a clean looking white box with fancy but not so overgoing labels and texts... The GA-MA790FX-DS5, the "S-Series" "Ultra Durable 2" "Solid state capacitors"
I was aware of this product before, but didn't know the exact data and specs for it. I didn't know it doesn't even officially support the 9950, or even the 9850. 9750 is the first on the list when starting at the top. This came guite clear when I returned home and started surfing to get the most info of this new thing.
In between when I went to return the HD3850 and got back home, I visited the IT shop where I used to work a while back. I went there to ask an offer in form of Spider... This was before the Gigabyte was on my hands. On route to home I visited the shop again and now it was time to put an order going for the stuff I needed. This was saturday.
Here are the specs:
AMD Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition
OCZ Vendetta 2
Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5
2Gb Kingston HyperX
Asus EAH4850 with Glaciator Fansink
320Gb Western Digital Caviar
Samsung DVD-RAM
Antec Three Hundred
Nexus NX-8060 600W
I bought the Three hundred a while back when I fell in love with the perforated front panel and the 140mm cooler on the top of it. It was kind a sublime looking... Considering the price.
The Nexus 600W I bought when I was battleing with the 3850.
Today I got the last parts which included the CPU, HDD, Graphics card and Memory DDR2:s.
In fact I got two CPU:s because I was not sure if I could update the bios with the 9950. So I borrowed an Athlon X2 4450e.
I thought that AMD wont supply any cooler with the Blacks but it was nice to see that they actually supplied a copper based cpu cooler with heatpipes(!) for the 9950. 4450e had a normal aluminium type cooler. Of course it doesn't need anything fancy because of its really low power characteristics. Unlike the 9950 which has a TDP value of 140W.
But I was not even considering putting that OEM cooler on top of this brand new performer. It will be better off with the Vendetta 2, considered as one of the best three coolers out there. I did wet sand and polish the bottom to get the most out of it. I didn't take that drastic measures to the cpu heat spreader though. First I needed to see it up and running!
I am now writing form this new beast and waiting to get the partitions (4 of total, 3 formatting now) formatted to NTFS... d**n it takes long in Windows, I should just used some program from the MiniPE CD.
The system isn't even cased yet, it runs on a table now. Just wanted to make sure it runs with no probs.
And now my brains are empty, just with no warning, they stopped responding to my system calls. This is an error message created by my brain, The author is not writing this message, this is system based error message, please reboot now (OK) (Cancel)
(OK)
Rebooting system now, please wait...
*Beeb beeb*
The system has just recovered from extravagant amount of text applied by user (YOU) please do not write anymore or the system has to reboot again.
WHAT WAS THAT??
Ok, few last words before powering off the system. I will post here when I get more expressions with my new system. This is it for now. Good night.
Janne
Here is the former setup:
AMD Sempron 3000+ @ 2,4GHz with 1,9Vcore maximum
Spire Verticool III with slightly modded fastening system
Epox 8RDA3+ motherboard
1,5Gb DDR400
Gigabyte GF 7600GS @ 760/530MHz (400/400 original)
320Gb Maxtor IDE
The story began when I killed my old maxed-out (voltmodded) geForce 7600GS AGP, which was running its lungs out in that ancient rig. It was my fault... the VGA cooler was my own invention and it just wasn't so fancy. I think the contact with the core was not exact enough.
So I wondered, what should I do... to get a new graphics card (that should have been at least powerful as the OC'd 7600GS) or put the whole rig to this date. Then I went mad and got a Radeon HD 3850 AGP, the monster card...
It was really a monster but there was one bad issue: Booting. Booted in Fear, booted in 3DMark03, Arma, even in 3DMark01! Every time the point of boot was almost the same.
I tried like everything, I got another card from the shop to see if the first one was broken or something. I even got a big PSU to power the d**n thing and still the same result. But then I tried the one thing... Underclocking the CPU (Who wants that??) so I dropped the FSB to 133MHz and voila, it worked very well. But knowing that even super OC'd Socket A processor would bottleneck the Graphics card, and with 133MHz the Sempron was running @ 1600MHz... I decided to return the card.
In between all thes phenomenas, I was keen on reading about the AMD Quad cores and the 700-series AMD chipsets. Added with a 3800 or 4000 series Ati HD GPU and there it was... the Spider. I have always owned an AMD CPU and been happy with those and this 9950 Black Edition really got my attention.
Altough I was more than aware of the Intel's powerful 2 core CPU:s and that they could probably cost less and be better for gamig... Why should I take the path that everyone else are going. Ok, its a bargain and overclocks with so little effort...
But still. I have never liked the idea of going with the masses. Thats one of the first things I got myself the B-S S88 and SXG75... They are different. And thats the path I am going. Even if it would / will be more difficult.
Back to the HD3850 AGP. I returned It to the shop and there was the two options: To get my money back or change it to something else... That was the moment of truth. I opened my mouth and there was these words: You probably don't have any AMD 790FX chipset -based motherboards...
Guess what? Well yes they did! And there was the lonely looking Gigabyte motherboard in a clean looking white box with fancy but not so overgoing labels and texts... The GA-MA790FX-DS5, the "S-Series" "Ultra Durable 2" "Solid state capacitors"
I was aware of this product before, but didn't know the exact data and specs for it. I didn't know it doesn't even officially support the 9950, or even the 9850. 9750 is the first on the list when starting at the top. This came guite clear when I returned home and started surfing to get the most info of this new thing.
In between when I went to return the HD3850 and got back home, I visited the IT shop where I used to work a while back. I went there to ask an offer in form of Spider... This was before the Gigabyte was on my hands. On route to home I visited the shop again and now it was time to put an order going for the stuff I needed. This was saturday.
Here are the specs:
AMD Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition
OCZ Vendetta 2
Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5
2Gb Kingston HyperX
Asus EAH4850 with Glaciator Fansink
320Gb Western Digital Caviar
Samsung DVD-RAM
Antec Three Hundred
Nexus NX-8060 600W
I bought the Three hundred a while back when I fell in love with the perforated front panel and the 140mm cooler on the top of it. It was kind a sublime looking... Considering the price.
The Nexus 600W I bought when I was battleing with the 3850.
Today I got the last parts which included the CPU, HDD, Graphics card and Memory DDR2:s.
In fact I got two CPU:s because I was not sure if I could update the bios with the 9950. So I borrowed an Athlon X2 4450e.
I thought that AMD wont supply any cooler with the Blacks but it was nice to see that they actually supplied a copper based cpu cooler with heatpipes(!) for the 9950. 4450e had a normal aluminium type cooler. Of course it doesn't need anything fancy because of its really low power characteristics. Unlike the 9950 which has a TDP value of 140W.
But I was not even considering putting that OEM cooler on top of this brand new performer. It will be better off with the Vendetta 2, considered as one of the best three coolers out there. I did wet sand and polish the bottom to get the most out of it. I didn't take that drastic measures to the cpu heat spreader though. First I needed to see it up and running!
I am now writing form this new beast and waiting to get the partitions (4 of total, 3 formatting now) formatted to NTFS... d**n it takes long in Windows, I should just used some program from the MiniPE CD.
The system isn't even cased yet, it runs on a table now. Just wanted to make sure it runs with no probs.
And now my brains are empty, just with no warning, they stopped responding to my system calls. This is an error message created by my brain, The author is not writing this message, this is system based error message, please reboot now (OK) (Cancel)
(OK)
Rebooting system now, please wait...
*Beeb beeb*
The system has just recovered from extravagant amount of text applied by user (YOU) please do not write anymore or the system has to reboot again.
WHAT WAS THAT??
Ok, few last words before powering off the system. I will post here when I get more expressions with my new system. This is it for now. Good night.
Janne