Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
I just finished getting my $1800 worth of computer parts put together and holy sweet Jesus this thing makes my old PC look like a 386.
CPU: AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition 3.2 Ghz quad core Mobo: ASUS M4A79 deluxe RAM: 4 Gb Corsair GPU: 2 ATI Radeon HD 4890 1 Gb video cards in crossfire. Monitor: BenQ 24 in flat screem HDMI
Plus all the peripherals I salvaged off the old one. I can't wait to put Fallout 3 on this bitch and see how high I can crank the visuals. Oh man, Christmas in October!
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
Why do people insist on having dual graphics cards anyways?
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Um, for performance? Not that I know many people that do it, though, it hasn't been both easy to do and worthwhile in terms of speed increase until the latest slew of cards in 2008/2009.
Da_bang, if you're not already doing it, I'd recommend Windows 7 when it comes out later this month (for real, not just the beta), it's set to deliver better performance and improved resource management over Vista, especially cutting down on the tedious idle-harddrive traffic.
Microsoft did say they aimed for a <15 second startup-time. I don't know if they've succeeded, but it's nice that they try.
Registered: Aug 1999
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
It's still not easy to setup actually, I've been having some issues with the crossfire. I think I should put the second card in a secondary PCIex16 slot. This mobo has four and it could run a quad crossfire setup if I had the money to buy more video cards. I can't though because the two I have are double size and wouldn't fit.
I've got Vista Ultimate on this thing right now, I got it for $20. So I might wait until Christmas to look into 7. But do any of you guys know if there will be separate 32 and 64-bit versions? I was going to toss in another 4 gigs of RAM on this thing but I couldn't find a good deal on any 64-bit OS.
One thing I don't like about Vista is that if it's doing it's updates it'll reboot the computer on you without much warning. Especially if your in the middle of something like transferring files.
But this thing runs TES4 maxed right out and I still get over 100 fps, I just have to get this crossfire thing sorted out.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
Are you sure you don't have a setting somewhere in Automatic Updates that needs to be changed? My laptop has Vista on it, and it's never failed to ask me if I want to restart.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
I just checked the windows update panel and the only thing I've seen is an option to check for updates and notify me instead of installing them automatically.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
quote:I've got Vista Ultimate on this thing right now, I got it for $20. So I might wait until Christmas to look into 7. But do any of you guys know if there will be separate 32 and 64-bit versions?
You're right, with your rig you really have no rush to switch systems for the sake of performance. Windows 7 comes with both 32- and 64-bit mode, you just need to have the hardware for 64-bit (compatible processor, graphics card newer than 2005, 2 Gb RAM) and the system will automatically run it like that, it seems.
Jason:
quote:Overcompensating for having to wear glasses?
7 years and 2 months too late.
Registered: Aug 1999
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I now see you as a blind frankenstein mix of the greatest Star Trek minds ever- created in a secret lab by someone that looks depresingly like Dr. Phil and operating from your secret lair in your mom's basement (but you have a cool Cobra-head throne to post from, so it's not a total loss).
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Please tell me you are not building a C.O.B.R.A throne in lego. The issue at hand was powergaming, not to be confused with nerding. Having a good gaming-rig hasn't been nerdy since around 1996 and the first serious 3d graphics-card wave, as it became attractive to marketers and consumers and by necessity lost its stigma.
Since the general level of computer-savvy has risen greatly in the world population the last ten years, you'd need to have considerable computer knowledge and matching hobbies to be considered a "computer nerd" today. Even networks have become common today, especially in homes with more than one user.
Self-restraint is a virtue, of course. No ordinary gamer could possibly have use for four linked graphics cards of the latest generation, and you are still subject to software bottlenecks that have nothing to do with memory bandwidth or gigaflops.
If SETI could utilize the GPUs and RAM of the current gaming generation, we'd have hot dog stands on Alpha Centauri by 2015.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
For the updates, you have to go to the control settings for Windows Update and select the "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them"; I had to change this on my girlfriend's laptop as it would randomly restart on her with updates.
Also, as of Vista SP1 (they're on SP2 now, looks like) RAM > 2GB is supported with 32-bit.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
Vista 32 bit still only has a max of 4 gb, it'll tell you if you have more, but it won't use it. I noticed that the computers at school all have 8gb of ram, but they're using Vista32. So there's a load of money down the tube for them.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
I built myself a similar gaming rig back in February.
Phenom II X4 940 3GHz (O/C'ed to 3.4GHz) 8GB DDR2 ATI Radeon HD 4870x2 22" W/S LCD monitor (with an old 15" one hooked up to the second DVI slot) Logitech MX Revolution Speedlink Medusa 5.1 Headset Vista Ultimate x64
I was waiting for the AM3 Phenom 9x5's, but decided against it, as the price difference between DDR2 and DDR3 was substantial. I prefer having 8GB of slightly slower RAM with a bit of money left over compared to breaking the bank with 4GB of DDR3. That and the fact I wanted a new PC right away, not a month later, when the AM3 CPU's were going to be released.
Speaking of the CPU, I love the overclockability of the Phenom II's. Was able to crank it up from the stock 3GHz to 3.4GHz with ease. Haven't had much experience or success with overclocking in the past. But seeing the impressive figure's being knocked around, about the overclockability, I tried it and it was perfectly stable.
One thing I was surprised at, was how well Vista was once I'd got everything up an running. All I've heard about Vista was how bad it was, and how it just hogs your resources. The only issue I've had with it, was the whole automatic reboot, whether you want it too or not.
All-in-all, satisfied with the result, it can play Crysis at max settings with a decent FPS. Although WoW, has issues with my GFX card, with an FPS in the 20's.
Registered: Oct 2007
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