Well, I have a couple of decisions I need to make regarding the new computer I'll be building soon. Two very important ones, too: the processor and the motherboard. I want your guys' help, if you can spare it.
The rest of the computer will be as follows, for your reference:
GPU: nVidia 7800GT (XFX, 450/1050)
RAM: 2 GB (OCZ, 2-2-2-5)
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Gamer's Edition
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 250GB (7200 RPM, 8 MB cache, SATA connection)
PSU: Ultra X-2 550 Watt Modular PSU
Case: Thermaltake Armor (Full Tower, Silver, 2 x 120mm fans, 2 x 90 mm fans)
Drives: NEC Silver Multidrive, Sony Black Floppy Drive
Cooling: Zalman 9500 Heatsink/fan, Arctic Silver 5
I am not interested in changing the above components, barring any issues that I have not forseen and that you may have. But if at all possible, I want those components as they are.
So. The processors I am looking at are the following (clickable):
AMD Opteron 175 (2.2 GHz, L1 64k+64k, L2 2 MB)
AMD Opteron 170 (2.0 GHz, L1 64k+64k, L2 2 MB)
AMD X2 4400+ (2.2 GHz, L1 128k+128k, L2 1MB+1MB)
All of them are Socket 939, and all of them are dual core. Now, my main interest is gaming, but I do plenty of other things with my computer, and I want to have a very good rig in general. Now, I understand that the Opterons are actually designed to be server processors, but their silicon is arranged in the same way as the FX series and it is very high quality; therefore they overclock incredibly well. The X2 does not overclock as nicely, I hear, but I have also heard that it benchmarks higher on games than do the Opterons. I have not actually seen any of these benchmarks, and I would be interested in comparing overclocked Opteron benchmarks versus overclocked X2 benchmarks. No such luck so far.
I know that Allen63 just got a dual-core Opty, and I know I'd love to hear from him. Also, if I recall, UzairH and ken007 are both very knowledgeable in computer components, and if either one of you (or both!) could give me advice, I would appreciate it greatly. Normally I wouldn't try to bother many people about hardware questions as I already know a little bit myself, but this particular question will end up costing me up to $500 US, and that's no small sum. Therefore, I'm asking around everywhere for help regarding this.
So, motherboards. I'm only looking around at two (clickable):
Biostar TFORCE4U
ASUS A8N5X
I'm not as curious about these two pieces of harware, though, since they are both not terribly costly, and it seems like they're both very solid boards. But if any of you happen to know anything about either of them, I've got my ears (okay, eyes) open.
So, thanks in advance!
The rest of the computer will be as follows, for your reference:
GPU: nVidia 7800GT (XFX, 450/1050)
RAM: 2 GB (OCZ, 2-2-2-5)
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Gamer's Edition
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 250GB (7200 RPM, 8 MB cache, SATA connection)
PSU: Ultra X-2 550 Watt Modular PSU
Case: Thermaltake Armor (Full Tower, Silver, 2 x 120mm fans, 2 x 90 mm fans)
Drives: NEC Silver Multidrive, Sony Black Floppy Drive
Cooling: Zalman 9500 Heatsink/fan, Arctic Silver 5
I am not interested in changing the above components, barring any issues that I have not forseen and that you may have. But if at all possible, I want those components as they are.
So. The processors I am looking at are the following (clickable):
AMD Opteron 175 (2.2 GHz, L1 64k+64k, L2 2 MB)
AMD Opteron 170 (2.0 GHz, L1 64k+64k, L2 2 MB)
AMD X2 4400+ (2.2 GHz, L1 128k+128k, L2 1MB+1MB)
All of them are Socket 939, and all of them are dual core. Now, my main interest is gaming, but I do plenty of other things with my computer, and I want to have a very good rig in general. Now, I understand that the Opterons are actually designed to be server processors, but their silicon is arranged in the same way as the FX series and it is very high quality; therefore they overclock incredibly well. The X2 does not overclock as nicely, I hear, but I have also heard that it benchmarks higher on games than do the Opterons. I have not actually seen any of these benchmarks, and I would be interested in comparing overclocked Opteron benchmarks versus overclocked X2 benchmarks. No such luck so far.
I know that Allen63 just got a dual-core Opty, and I know I'd love to hear from him. Also, if I recall, UzairH and ken007 are both very knowledgeable in computer components, and if either one of you (or both!) could give me advice, I would appreciate it greatly. Normally I wouldn't try to bother many people about hardware questions as I already know a little bit myself, but this particular question will end up costing me up to $500 US, and that's no small sum. Therefore, I'm asking around everywhere for help regarding this.
So, motherboards. I'm only looking around at two (clickable):
Biostar TFORCE4U
ASUS A8N5X
I'm not as curious about these two pieces of harware, though, since they are both not terribly costly, and it seems like they're both very solid boards. But if any of you happen to know anything about either of them, I've got my ears (okay, eyes) open.
So, thanks in advance!
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