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Frisky SKeleton

#21 September 11, 2008, 02:45:46 am

aye ess dee eff el cay jay ache
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ok here's my shopping list:

1 x AMD Phenom 8450 X3 Core Processor Socket AM2 2.1GHZ 3.5MB Cache 95W Retail Box
1 x Asustek M3A78-EM MicroATX AM2/AM2+ Phenom FX/Phenom/Athlon/Sempron; Support CPU up to 140W AMD 780G/SB700 FSB HT3 5200/4800 4*DDR2(Dual Channel) 1066/800/667 Max 8.0GECC Unregistered Yes Onboard VGA Shared MEM of 256MB PCIe2.0X16*1 Hybrid Crossfire support ATA133*1 Serial ATA 3Gb/s *6 (RAID 0110) 1394a*2 ESerial ATA HDMI 8-CH(HD) ALC1200 S/PDIF BACK I/O
1 x PQI DDR2 800 2GB (PQI chip) Retail Package
1 x PQI DDR2 800 1GB (PQI chip) Retail Package
1 x Creative Inspire M2600 2.1 Speakers 6 watts RMS per channel 17 watts RMS Sub-woofer. (51MF0340AA003)
1 x TAC 318 Mid TowerATX BLACK/SILVER 400W PSU

and i got a dvd rw and a 500gig sata drive from another company

I USE Q'S INSTEQD OF Q'S

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Jeff

#22 September 11, 2008, 04:10:26 am

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Oh good, I see that motherboard does indeed have Hybrid Crossfire support (meaning you can crossfire your integrated card with a regular card). Once you get the motherboard, give AMD a call and ask them which regular cards are supported for Hybrid Crossfire and when the 4000 series will be available for this, so that you can make adequate purchasing decisions in the future for that.

You could have done without the extra gig of RAM, but oh well, also those Creative speakers are kind of dinky, but remember I am an extreme audiophile who spends huge amounts on speakers and equipment, so I am not a good person to take opinions from on that.

How much did it run altogether in NZ$?

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Frisky SKeleton

#23 September 11, 2008, 05:43:03 am

aye ess dee eff el cay jay ache
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Joined: Jun 24, 2005
Posts: 5149

prices (Click to reveal)

Products------------------------------------------------------
1 x Asustek M3A78-EM MicroATX AM2/AM2+ Phenom FX/Phenom/Athlon/Sempron; Support CPU up to 140W AMD 780G/SB700 FSB HT3 5200/4800 4*DDR2(Dual Channel) 1066/800/667 Max 8.0GECC Unregistered Yes Onboard VGA Shared MEM of 256MB PCIe2.0X16*1 Hybrid Crossfire support ATA133*1 Serial ATA 3Gb/s *6 (RAID 0110) 1394a*2 ESerial ATA HDMI 8-CH(HD) ALC1200 S/PDIF BACK I/O (M0002111) = $138.44
1 x PQI DDR2 800 2GB (PQI chip) Retail Package (R0360006) = $63.12
1 x PQI DDR2 800 1GB (PQI chip) Retail Package (R0360005) = $32.18
1 x AMD Phenom 8450 X3 Core Processor Socket AM2 2.1GHZ 3.5MB Cache 95W Retail Box (52244) = $149.74
1 x Creative Inspire M2600 2.1 Speakers 6 watts RMS per channel 17 watts RMS Sub-woofer. (51MF0340AA003) (S1020083) = $43.73
1 x TAC 318 Mid TowerATX BLACK/SILVER 400W PSU (C0070001) = $53.22
1 x Genius EasyTouch Optical Multimedia keyboard and Optical mouse set.PS/2 (M3020015) = $20.23
------------------------------------------------------
Sub-Total: $500.66
Northisland Rate (Courier): $65.00
Shipping Insurance: $2.00
Total: $567.66

i probably could have saved another $50 by buying parts from different vendors but this way was easy

also i thought those speakers seemed fairly beefy. i'll be using my headphones for most things anyway, it just sucks trying to show someone something that way
shipping really killed me

I USE Q'S INSTEQD OF Q'S

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something bizarre and impractical

#24 September 11, 2008, 05:47:45 am

It's The Only Thing.
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I'm still not sure why you feel a need for 3GB of RAM. You could always run it with 2GB (which will be more than ample, I doubt you'll even hit 2GB under 99% of conditions if at all) and just save the $32. Then if you do need more later pop one in.

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Frisky SKeleton

#25 September 11, 2008, 05:52:53 am

aye ess dee eff el cay jay ache
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yeah i was going to go for 4 gigs originally, but you said 2 was enough so i went with a compromise.
since i've got all that excess ram i might give firefox a go heh heh heh. oh also, can you boot off sata hard-drives yet?
i've got 3 drives, a 40, a 320 and a 500. right now i boot with the 40 and keep all my files, games, movies etc on the other ones (partitioned).

oh, i only mentioned that because i thought it'd be a problem accessing files on the harddrive that windows is using but i guess with 3 gigs of ram i won't even need a pagefile!

I USE Q'S INSTEQD OF Q'S

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Barack Obama

#26 September 11, 2008, 08:25:48 am

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Quote

can you boot off sata hard-drives yet?

Yes

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Frisky SKeleton

#27 September 11, 2008, 08:51:35 am

aye ess dee eff el cay jay ache
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yeah ok, but should i or should i stick with the 40 gig IDE

I USE Q'S INSTEQD OF Q'S

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Barack Obama

#28 September 11, 2008, 09:40:52 am

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Quote from: climbtree on September 11, 2008, 08:51:35 am

yeah ok, but should i or should i stick with the 40 gig IDE

Things would go faster if you did a RAID 0 across two SATA drives, but it looks like that's not an option for you unless you feel like purchasing another HD.
Unless there's something wrong with your IDE drive or you suspect its about to go sometime soon, just keep it.

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Frisky SKeleton

#29 September 11, 2008, 09:54:39 am

aye ess dee eff el cay jay ache
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so there wouldn't be any benifit from booting from a sata, or any disadvantage from sticking with the IDE?

I USE Q'S INSTEQD OF Q'S

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Jeff

#30 September 11, 2008, 01:13:30 pm

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Quote from: climbtree on September 11, 2008, 09:54:39 am

so there wouldn't be any benifit from booting from a sata, or any disadvantage from sticking with the IDE?

SATA is obviously going to give you faster data transfer rates and read speeds but no, there is no major difference other than speed.

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Mama Luigi

#31 September 11, 2008, 06:25:07 pm

Wind of Peace
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SATA allows faster transefer rates and is plug and play. It's newer... PATA (IDE) is being phased out and motherboards typically no longer carry 2 PATA ports on them. You will be doing yourself a favor to ignore any PATA devices and only buy SATA.

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something bizarre and impractical

#32 September 11, 2008, 09:56:21 pm

It's The Only Thing.
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Quote from: Jeff on September 11, 2008, 01:13:30 pm

SATA is obviously going to give you faster data transfer rates and read speeds but no, there is no major difference other than speed.

And the fact that PATA cables are a pain in the ass.

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Barack Obama

#33 September 12, 2008, 07:49:15 am

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Even though there is technically a difference in speeds, I really haven't a difference in everyday use between an SATA drive or one running off of IDE. You should look at how many RPMs your drive runs at and the cache size then boot with the one that has the biggest numbers.

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Frisky SKeleton

#34 September 12, 2008, 11:20:14 pm

aye ess dee eff el cay jay ache
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well that'd be the 500 gig, would it be better to boot off that and have partitions or boot off the 40 gig and run all my games/programs off of the 500 gig?

I USE Q'S INSTEQD OF Q'S

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Barack Obama

#35 September 15, 2008, 11:03:00 am

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Quote from: climbtree on September 12, 2008, 11:20:14 pm

well that'd be the 500 gig, would it be better to boot off that and have partitions or boot off the 40 gig and run all my games/programs off of the 500 gig?

It would be fastest to boot and run everything from the 500GB drive but I don't really understand why you would need to partition anything though.

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zithe

#36 September 19, 2008, 01:49:48 am

Composer, artist, instrument player, writer,
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Quote from: climbtree on September 10, 2008, 08:18:27 pm

is the 3300 much better than the 3200 ($50 better?)

EDIT: it's only the 790gx that has the integrated graphics, and that's near twice the price

looks like it's between the Asustek M3A78-EM 780G, the Asustek M3A78-EMH HDMI AMD 780G mATX and the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G. i think all 3 are micro atx which kinda sucks i guess, but i've only got one PCI cardi want anyway.

will a microatx still fit in an atx case?

Hybrid crossfire. Yes 3300 is better.

Go for 790GX with SB750 South Bridge if you ever plan to overclock your CPU.

Biostar: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138128
Foxconn: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186150 (I've had good experiences with Foxconn so far.)

If you don't want to overclock, your board is great.

You just lost the game.

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