sol740 Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 The quest was to build a respectable gaming PC, and stay within a reasonable budget. Here's where I am so far. AMD 555BE: $70 Asus M4EVO w/ ACC (sb750) feature for core unlocking: $100 500GB HD: $40 + Reuse old 320GB: FREE-ISH Reuse Antec Case from Socket 939 build 8GB OCZ gold DDR3-1333 picked up local:$140 Coolmax 650W PSU $25 from a friend (sold 500W for same price on CL) 22" Viewsonic LCD 1080P monitor $150 (minus $50 for selling my old monitor) Hyper212 HDT Cooler $20 Now for the part that hurts the most. I just ordered an ATI 5850: $290FS(that one hurt but I sold my 9800GT for $60 pending delivery of new card) I then sold my old CPU+MOBO+RAM combo for $60. So taking into account my used stuff sold, I'm netting out to $640.00. So I had to hope that I could unlock the possibly available cores on the 555BE, and find out if I have a stable triple or quad core for cheap. Installed the OS without making an unnecessary changes to the BIOS yet, and running the CPU as a stock dual. Win7 installs smooth enough and soon I'm in the BIOS setting up the ACC feature. I boot into Win7 fine and all four cores are unlocked ! Now to test stability at stock voltages. I run PRIME95 and after 30 secs get a failure on the blend tests. Not so reassuring. I then run the separate tests, and voila ... cores run unfettered for over an hour, memory fails after seconds. Time to go fuck with timings. I loosen up a hair and reboot. Eureka !!! All four cores, + memory stable at 3.2GH per core, and 1333 on the memory after 5+ hours, zero errors. So now I want to push it just a little. Back into the BIOS to use the OC multiplier. We bump to 19X, and up Vcore by .0125. Passes again, and could probably shoot for more but right now I'm happy with my results so far. 3.8GHZ Quad stable 8GB RAM CPU temps under 55C at 100% load, under 40 Idle $640 ... woot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForeverMaker Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 What's your steam name? I need to add some more people from the area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGU Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 needs moar water cooling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRTurbo04 Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 Needs less nerd... All that crap up there was hieroglyphics(sp) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted May 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 needs moar water cooling ... I will probably move to beefier cooler if I ever plan to seriously fuck with vcore, right now I'm pretty happy, and I can't wait to get my 5850 installed and run some benchmarks, or just see how many FPS I can get in Crysis 1080p. What's your steam name? I need to add some more people from the area. I'm pretty sure its sol740 ... I'll verify when I get home. Needs less nerd... All that crap up there was hieroglyphics(sp) Don't you have a neon to be driving ? Or do you still have it ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRTurbo04 Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 Don't you have a neon to be driving ? Or do you still have it ? Meh rode the bike today don't u have a mini van to be shopping for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted May 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 Meh rode the bike today don't u have a mini van to be shopping for ... yes ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Removed Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 evos have 4 door's...no mini van.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally Pat Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 Nice build, not an AMD guy myself though. 5850 is a good card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted May 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 evos have 4 door's...no mini van.. No minivan Rob I has jokes. Nice build, not an AMD guy myself though. 5850 is a good card. Funny thing, I'm not really either, I was wanting to do an i7 build. The more reading about core unlocking I did, the more I thought it could be a fun gamble/experiment, even if I ended up with a dual-core that was plenty OC'able I didn't throw too much down in the first place(though obviously not getting i7 performance). Even my 939 build fell into my lap when I got the 4800+ basically for nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87GT Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 After so many problems with my current AMD build (only amd build since a 486 was the fastest) I will never buy another AMD processor. But congrats on the overclocking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Jones Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 Needs Moar Intel Less AMD.. Needs Moar 5870 and less 5850.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc1647545523 Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 All that crap up there was hieroglyphics(sp) We need some help from the mods here -- It appears that someone has obtained Paul's password. The Paul we know and love could not have possibly taken a guess at the spelling of the word hieroglyphics and gotten it correct. Someone better text Paul and tell him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Jones Posted May 14, 2010 Report Share Posted May 14, 2010 We need some help from the mods here -- It appears that someone has obtained Paul's password. The Paul we know and love could not have possibly taken a guess at the spelling of the word hieroglyphics and gotten it correct. Someone better text Paul and tell him. Can't believe I missed that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitrousbird Posted May 16, 2010 Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 Yeah, it's time to say goodbye to AMD. I loved my 939 4800+, but the days of AMD being worthwhile have long since passed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted May 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 Yeah, it's time to say goodbye to AMD. I loved my 939 4800+, but the days of AMD being worthwhile have long since passed. I would agree with that if you're talking about building an absolute beast. On the low, mid, and even upper-mid ranges AMD's offerings are comparable considering the price difference. Hell with my 9800GT and my current setup I'm getting decent framerates in Crysis at high resolutions and high settings. That's a good enough benchmark for me right now(especially considering I haven't received my GPU yet), the game I'm building the system for (Witcher 2) isn't going to tax the setup quite like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Jones Posted May 16, 2010 Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 On the low, mid, and even upper-mid ranges AMD's offerings are comparable considering the price differences. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html Sadness... AMD's current lineup only competes with Intels last gen Core 2 Quad rigs. You have to buy a six core $3xx.xx AMD chip to begin to hang out with the $199 I7 920. Start overclocking both, the it just gets sad. AMD does have a very decent foothold in corporate rackspace at the moment. They did a number with the original opterons and your ability to keep dropping in new CPU's as will vs Intel. In the consumer market they are dead as a doornail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted May 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html Sadness... AMD's current lineup only competes with Intels last gen Core 2 Quad rigs. You have to buy a six core $3xx.xx AMD chip to begin to hang out with the $199 I7 920. Start overclocking both, the it just gets sad. You can get the hexacore and a mobo for a little over $200 right now. My friend just got one for $140 about a month ago. I'm not saying they're the best, by any means, but for the prices they're leaps and bounds over what most users need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Jones Posted May 16, 2010 Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 You can get the hexacore and a mobo for a little over $200 right now. My friend just got one for $140 about a month ago. I'm not saying they're the best, by any means, but for the prices they're leaps and bounds over what most users need. Link to new amd hexacore & mb for $200 ? Note 1 Note 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unfunnyryan Posted May 16, 2010 Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 Needs Moar Intel Less AMD.. Needs Moar 5870 and less 5850.... +1. Although you should of just gone with a 4870 crossfire. Cheaper and faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Jones Posted May 16, 2010 Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 +1. Although you should of just gone with a 4870 crossfire. Cheaper and faster. Yes, but believe me when I tell you that no matter what generation or driver version, Crossfire & SLI are still buggy at times. Sometimes it's wonderful, other times (especially new games) you have to disable it/ tweak things to get it to work properly. Buy the fastest single GPU card you can buy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted May 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 Link to new amd hexacore & mb for $200 ? Note 1 Note 2 http://www.frys.com/product/6237960 Sold out now though. But these type of deals come up regularly enough. My friend is loving his, and its a good improvement over his old quad when decoding/encoding. +1. Although you should of just gone with a 4870 crossfire. Cheaper and faster. Yes, but believe me when I tell you that no matter what generation or driver version, Crossfire & SLI are still buggy at times. Sometimes it's wonderful, other times (especially new games) you have to disable it/ tweak things to get it to work properly. Buy the fastest single GPU card you can buy... I agree, but more because of power supply tax + heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitrousbird Posted May 16, 2010 Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 You can get the hexacore and a mobo for a little over $200 right now. My friend just got one for $140 about a month ago. I'm not saying they're the best, by any means, but for the prices they're leaps and bounds over what most users need. Can you hit 4.1 GHz per core with a $40 cooler, with safe temps in a hot room? My i7 920 does it with ease, running all cores @ 100% for hours. With comfortable room temps, I think 4.2-4.3 is very easily possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Jones Posted May 16, 2010 Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 Can you hit 4.1 GHz per core with a $40 cooler, with safe temps in a hot room? My i7 920 does it with ease, running all cores @ 100% for hours. With comfortable room temps, I think 4.2-4.3 is very easily possible. D0 Showoff... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted May 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2010 Can you hit 4.1 GHz per core with a $40 cooler, with safe temps in a hot room? My i7 920 does it with ease, running all cores @ 100% for hours. With comfortable room temps, I think 4.2-4.3 is very easily possible. Not sure. Though I'm at 3.8ghz with a $30 cooler, in an warm 2nd floor loft with plenty more room with my temps and voltage . I'll likely shoot for 4GHz and be done with OCing the CPU, and see whats doable on the 5850. Like I said, this was meant to be a decent performing "budget" gaming build. I'm putting all saved cash towards the vette I love the i7 series performance, but for $70 the possibility of a quad unlock (with tons of OC potential) was too easy to pull the trigger on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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