My new socket AM3 system! :-) (Four Images)

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JAB Creations
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My new socket AM3 system! :-) (Four Images)

Post by JAB Creations »

I have been using socket 939 for a while and there were two main reasons I wanted to upgrade...

1.) Since I take code very seriously (even though it's a ton of fun!) I have a dedicated RAID card (HighPoint RocketRAID 2300)...the trouble is that socket 939 parts are impossible to find any more on Newegg which for our friends outside of the United States is the most awesome computer hardware e-tailor ever...at least in my personal opinion. I buy new for the warranty because well...I've had my shares of RMA's! So if my socket 939 board were to die I would not be in the situation to easily replace the motherboard and even less likely to come up with enough money to replace all the parts. With socket AM3 just recently made available (the first two Phenom processors are socket AM2+ only and aren't forward compatible) if something dies I won't have to sweat replacing my entire core system.

2.) I'd say I spend 70% of my time in front of the computer coding and 10% for games (and slacking the rest of the time hahaha!) Any way the most intensive 3D game I play and enjoy is Oblivion however after I replaced my dying 19 inch screen with the 24 inch beauty I now have I started doing everything at 1920x1200...and you know...can't run a game unless it's at max settings right? :twisted: Any way playing Oblivion outside west of Skingrad is where it's most intensive...thus the lowest FPS I've ever seen in the parts of the game I've thus far ventured...and I've played it for about 81 hours (little more then Final Fantasy VII back in high school and only Diablo II, Heroes of Might and Magic III, and World of Warcraft would easily surpass the number of hours of game-play) so this is the part I'm sure is the worst case scenario. So with absolutely everything maxed (including shadows) except anti-aliasing (set to 4X of 8X max) I was getting a solid 30-40 FPS with my single 8800GT (650/950 (1900 memory effective)), 4GB of RAM, and my triple core 720 Black Edition clocked from 2.8 to 3.2 GHz! In other parts of the game...obviously outdoors...I was easily maxing out my LCD's refresh rate which naturally is 60Hz (or 60 FPS (frames per second)).

The new parts are...
AMD Socket AM3 Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 95W Triple-Core
GIGABYTE GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 F3-10666CL9D-4GBNQ

The total include("two_days_shipping.ups") was $447...however I sold my previous parts for $300 so I only ended up having to pay $147 for the upgrade. :mrgreen:

...but most importantly...pictures! :twisted:

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I've tried taking screenshots to post here though even though I've edited Oblivion's ini file it's not working so you guys will just have to trust me that it's sweet. :twisted: Oh and in case anyone is wondering my PSU's CPU auxiliary connector is only a four-pin and it plugs in to the top-half of the motherboard auxiliary connector...works just fine. I was a bit hesitant about having to upgrade my PSU as well though apparently you only need an eight pin if AMD releases a 140 watt processor.
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papa
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Re: My new socket AM3 system! :-) (Four Images)

Post by papa »

Grats man! It finally came :)
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Re: My new socket AM3 system! :-) (Four Images)

Post by jayshields »

Why did you go AMD instead of Intel? The processor you've got is £119 on eBuyer, and you could've paid £155 and got an Intel Core2 Quad.

I think if I was going to buy a new system I definately would go quad core because it seems the best price to performance ratio at the moment.
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Re: My new socket AM3 system! :-) (Four Images)

Post by JAB Creations »

1.) An Intel Core2 Quad is a dual-dual core, not a quad core.

2.) Socket 775 will be phased out later this year and the inventory will disappear in about a year and a half. AM3 just came out and a core i7 system minimally costs $700.

The whole point was to go from a socket I could not replace parts with to a socket that was 1.) Affordable and 2.) Had the greatest shelf-life. Going to a socket that will be replaced later this year is not in my financial best interest.
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Re: My new socket AM3 system! :-) (Four Images)

Post by jayshields »

Dual dual core is quad core...?

Where did you read that socket 775 is getting phased out this year? I know they have brought out socket 1366 now, but didn't think they'd stop producing socket 775 stuff for atleast a couple of years yet.

By the way, there are a couple of socket 939 processors still on eBuyer. Infact, there are more socket 939 processors in stock than there is socket AM3 processors.
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Re: My new socket AM3 system! :-) (Four Images)

Post by JAB Creations »

An Intel Core2 Quad is a dual-dual core meaning it is two dual core dies stuck together, so it's not a quad core but it does have four cores. Intel went with a new socket and if you pay really close attention they will be emulating AMD's socket 754/940 dual socket approach which annoys me to no end. Any way Intel has only delayed introducing it's mainstream socket because companies like Asus have excessive inventory. If you look at the prices even on Newegg of the excessive inventory you'll noticed it's insanely overpriced. So buying overpriced inventory that will not be available in two or three years absolutely does not appeal to me. Additionally while Intel does perform better then AMD I am more then happy with my new system. Really the vast majority of games play will now generate high enough FPS that will exceed my LCD's refresh rate of 60Hz (60FPS). Additionally I'm tired of socket 939 parts, I have had three CPU's total with the Opteron 185 being the ceiling CPU and numerous motherboards, a new socket was necessary any way to improve gaming performance. I've never had a processor die on me though I've had motherboards die on me. This was an awesomely spent $120 and I got everything I needed and wanted.
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Re: My new socket AM3 system! :-) (Four Images)

Post by omniuni »

Personally, I think AMD is a good way to go for web developers anyway. They're energy efficient, supporting the same techniques AMD uses in their laptops, and have a wide FSB allowing for smooth operation when under load. As a Linux user, I can verify that AMD does indeed provide the FSB and core capacity to fully use all four cores at once*. Also, AMD is, and always has been, the stronger of the two companies when it comes to pure math. Zip a file, apply a selective Gaussian blur to an image, these are pure math, and AMD handles such computations beautifully. Years ago I got a Turion in my laptop. This single core has out-performed enough Intels over the years that I have no intention on leaving AMD. I can also rip+encode a DVD on my Phenom desktop at over twice the playback rate... and it's one of the "poorly rated" first generation!

*While encoding the DVD mentioned above, net usage of the processor was 60%-80% between the four cores, the limitation being the read-speed of my DVD drive. During additional operations, usage spiked to 100% indicating full use of all cores, which Linux handles as individual processors courtesy of SMP support.
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Re: My new socket AM3 system! :-) (Four Images)

Post by JAB Creations »

I like the fact that I can own a high-end AMD system without blowing a grand on a processor. In fact even better my Black Box edition CPU didn't break the bank and I have an unlocked multiplier! To get an unlocked multiplier from an Intel chip expect to pay no less then a grand plus shipping and tax! I don't mess with voltage so I can only overclock so far though my upgrade from an Opteron 185 to the X3 720 gave me an average of +40FPS at maximum settings in most scenarios across Oblivion. The nice thing is that if I had gone with Intel I would not be able to easily replace the motherboard through Newegg as socket 775 will be replaced by socket 1156 which I've read itself is only to last for half a year. So I'll be able to easily upgrade for the next couple of years at least if not longer if whatever socket that follows AM3 turns out to have some sort of compatibility. There's just a ton of value with AMD and I don't care about getting 60 FPS at 1920x1200 in Crysis...don't play, don't care about DirectX 10, and eventually I'll switch to Linux. I also love the Gigabyte motherboard I got save with a couple of criticisms. First and foremost firewire is dead and I've never owned a firewire device nor have personally known any one to own one either. So I would have much rather seen the useless firewire ports be on the bracket and have had the eSATA ports in their place. Also while the side-facing SATA ports would be great for most people I use a RAID addon card and my case (while I love it in general) doesn't give me enough clearance so it's really difficult to plug in SATA wires. Still the previous Gigabyte boards I've owned still work whereas I've had not one though two nightmare RMA's with Asus over the same board.

One of my friends wants to upgrade to a socket AM3 with an nVidia SLI chipset on a motherboard that is micro-ATX. Unfortunately there is only one micro-ATX socket AM3 motherboard and it supports Crossfire only. The thing is I don't like how motherboard manufacturers pay more attention to the Intel crowd. Sure Intel has the lead in performance but performance isn't everything especially when you have a budget to work with. The cheapest Core i7 system costs around $600 minimum and my new system does everything I need and want. Plus since AMD is not a monopolistic company I won't have to worry about them trying to pull things like bringing out a socket and killing it after half a year. Technically I've never bought a full system and have been slowly upgrading over the years from the AMD 133MHz CPU and 64MB of EDO memory. The most difficult upgrade was going to a new socket while also having to upgrade from AGP to PCI-E.
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