Finally, my new upgrade

[GuntherHanne]

Well, I finally got my new upgrade together and I must say, I'm very happy with it. Crysis, for example, plays like an absolute dream with all setting to maximum and there is absolutely no stuttering, no jerkiness, nothing .............. it runs as smooth and as pretty as one can only dream of (haven't loaded any other games yet, but I'm sure I'll have an equally impressive experience)

My old rig contained the following items which were replaced:

Asus A8N32 SLI-Deluxe motherboard
AMD 4400+ Dual Core CPU (stock fan)
Kingstone HyperX Ram (2 x 1048 MB & 2 x 512 MB)
2 x EVGA 8800 GTX GPU in SLi
2 x Seagate HDD 120 GIG in Raid 0
2 x Seagate HDD 250 GIG
Microsoft Vista Home Premium 32-bit OS
Powercom 1000 KVa UPS

Above was replaced with the following in my new upgraded rig:

Asus Crosshair II Formula motherboard
AMD Phenom X4 9950BE CPU
Zalman CNPS 9300AT CPU fan
OCZ DDR2 PC-2 8500 / 1066 MHz / Reaper HPC Edition / Dual Channel RAM (4 x 2 GIG)
2 x EVGA GTX 280 GPU in SLi
2 x Seagate HDD 80 GIG in raid 0 as main drive
2 x Seagate HDD 500 GIG (one for my games, the other for my documents, pictures, music, etc)
Microsoft Vista Ultimate 64-bit
MGE Nova AVR 1250 UPS with power management system

The following items have been retained and form part of my new upgraded rig:

Antec P180 PC Case
Antec TruePower Quattro 850W PSU
Creative Audigy 2ZS Platinum Pro sound card
Samsung SyncMaster 226BW 22" wide screen monitor
Logitech Z5500 speaker system
Logitech G15 keyboard
Logitech G7 mouse
SteelSeries SX mouse pad
Logitech ClearChat Pro USB headset
Logitech Force 3D Pro joystick

At this point I was actually planning to direct any interested parties to the "For Sale" or "Classifieds" section as I would like to sell most of the items/components that I have replaced (plus one or two others I have which I have upgraded from prior to this current upgrade, eg 2 x 7900 GTX's), but somehow the "For Sale" or "Classifieds" section has dissapeard/vanished - great pity that

Anyway, to continue - .......................

Here are some benchmark results of my new rig compared to my previous system:

Edit - 3DMark Vantage on this page (close to bottom):
http://forums.pcformat.co.za/viewtopic. ... a&start=75

Edit - 3DMark 06 on this page (close to bottom):
http://forums.pcformat.co.za/viewtopic. ... start=1065

Very happy with this setup

[Prime]

http://forums.pcformat.co.za/viewforum.php?f=42

The forsale section

Post your scores or a link to them in the 3dmark thread

[justinufo]

Awsum rig dude.You must be real broke now.lol

[Prime]

Thanks Gunther.

Your Rig looks impressive dude So have you run any games yet?

[GuntherHanne]

http://forums.pcformat.co.za/viewforum.php?f=42

The forsale section

Post your scores or a link to them in the 3dmark thread

Thanks Prime, problem is that somehow I'm not authorised to view that thread

Have posted the scores in the benchmark thread, (but how do I link it from there to here?) Like to edit my post above with links to the various 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 06 posts

Awsum rig dude.You must be real broke now.lol

Actually not too bad, spread the purchases over three months or so

[GuntherHanne]

Thanks Gunther.

Your Rig looks impressive dude So have you run any games yet?

Thanks Prime, only Crysis

Will spend the remainder of my long weekend loading and playing some others, such as Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Call of Duty 5, and many others I haven't had a chance of playing yet (not all this weekend though)

I edited my original post above to link to the scores (hope that's the right way of linking them to here)??

[Prime]

http://forums.pcformat.co.za/viewforum.php?f=42

The forsale section

Post your scores or a link to them in the 3dmark thread

Thanks Prime, problem is that somehow I'm not authorised to view that thread

Have posted the scores in the benchmark thread, (but how do I link it from there to here?) Like to edit my post above with links to the various 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 06 posts

Awsum rig dude.You must be real broke now.lol

Actually not too bad, spread the purchases over three months or so

Maybe the rules for posting and viewing have changed. there have been some problems so measures have been put in place to reduce spam and the risk of buying and selling. I'll look through the posting guidelines for you quickly.

Thanks Gunther.

Your Rig looks impressive dude So have you run any games yet?

Thanks Prime, only Crysis

Will spend the remainder of my long weekend loading and playing some others, such as Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Call of Duty 5, and many others I haven't had a chance of playing yet (not all this weekend though)

I edited my original post above to link to the scores (hope that's the right way of linking them to here)??

nice, enjoy. can't afford to buy some of those yet, well see how much money i have after my 21st

And yes, the way you posted links is fine

[Dustman]

GuntherHanne

I have a similar issue, spoke to some moderators and it seems that they applied some filtering on the Classifieds section.
See
http://forums.pcformat.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33374

You as a user must have posted, I think, a 100 posts.

Currently trying to get my postings up. Good luck man.

Dustman

[chowzen]

awesome rig man, what did that beut cost you?

[Prime]

GuntherHanne

I have a similar issue, spoke to some moderators and it seems that they applied some filtering on the Classifieds section.
See
http://forums.pcformat.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33374

You as a user must have posted, I think, a 100 posts.

Currently trying to get my postings up. Good luck man.

Dustman

Yes because people were joining the forums to use the classifieds and abusing the system

[GuntherHanne]

GuntherHanne

I have a similar issue, spoke to some moderators and it seems that they applied some filtering on the Classifieds section.
See
http://forums.pcformat.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33374

You as a user must have posted, I think, a 100 posts.

Currently trying to get my postings up. Good luck man.

Dustman

Yes because people were joining the forums to use the classifieds and abusing the system

Thanks Dustman and Prime. Will try and get to the required posts. In the meantime I'll try and find other ways of selling my goodies.

[GuntherHanne]

awesome rig man, what did that beut cost you?

Thanks Chowzen

The mobo, cpu, cpu fan, ram, graphic cards and ups about 22k. I spent a lot more earlier this year on upgrading my monitor, psu, the 8800GTX gpu's, the mouse pad and speaker system, and that's not to mention the necessary software and games. I think that my setup is insured for about 55k, but need to look at this now and re-evaluate. I guess I spend a lot of time and money on this hobby

[chowzen]

hectic man, was that i retail prices or do you buy from the supplier?? cause i upgraded like a month ago, and got everything from the suppliers and that reached 14k cost-price...i have the same expensive obesess!***cough** HOBBY..as you...LOl...but it is totally worth it man, but seriously...GTX180 SLI...holy crap...that is creamy! hows the gaming on that?

[GuntherHanne]

hectic man, was that i retail prices or do you buy from the supplier?? cause i upgraded like a month ago, and got everything from the suppliers and that reached 14k cost-price...i have the same expensive obesess!***cough** HOBBY..as you...LOl...but it is totally worth it man, but seriously...GTX180 SLI...holy crap...that is creamy! hows the gaming on that?

Well, not that lucky to always get my goods from the suppliers, so have to make do with where I can get the best prices. Some of the items I get from Corex, others from various internet stores such as Landmarkpc, DigitalSAOnline, etc. The best for me is FoxComp where I get my EVGA and OCZ products from.

As for GTX 280 SLi, that absolutely rocks. Gaming is absolutely superb. At times it feels as if I'm actually watching a movie, it's that crisp, clear and smooth. Rigth now I don't think there's anything out there that is a battle as far as gaming experience is concerned (unless the game is written crappy or is not properly optimised, such as Crysis Warhead - somehow I find that that one is still not properly optimised, so waiting for the first patch - but it nonetheless plays fine). The original Crysis is an absolute dream. It's astounding at how much detail there is in that game, the vegetation, the water, the shimmering of flames and heat, the sparks, etc, it's absolutely mindboggling and mindlowing. As for other games, time is a bit of a battle right now, but then the December builder's break is very close .........................

[chowzen]

man...i need to save some buks...or rob the bank...280 SLI..yummy!!!!! that is sick! really dude...i'm green..

[Prime]

GuntherHanne, Just come chat in the spam thread

[GuntherHanne]

Although I ony did my major upgrade less than 2 moths ago (mid November), I decided that it is a good idea to get the new AMD Phenom II 940 BE and replace the 9950 BE. I must say, it was certainly a good idea. The 940 is a lovely CPU and my 3DMark 06 score improved from 14800 something to nearly 17600

http://forums.pcformat.co.za/viewtopic. ... start=1095

and the 3DMark Vantage score from 19700 something to 21600 something

http://forums.pcformat.co.za/viewtopic. ... 5&start=90

All in all I am very please with this new CPU. I tried to see how far I can push it, but found that somehow I cannot get it over 3.5GHz and still run stable. At 3.7 it was very unstable, but 3.5 is good enough

Now I have to start playing some more games

[justinufo]

Please let me know how real world gaming on the p2 is.Like how much of a diff there is in frames.Im really considering getting a AMD system when i upgrade.

[VoodooProphetII]

Please let me know how real world gaming on the p2 is.Like how much of a diff there is in frames.Im really considering getting a AMD system when i upgrade.

Smooth....very smooth... Seriously, the Phenom II is a winner. I love the processor, and when I compare it to my C2Q rig there isn't any difference when playing games. I can say that the Phenom II feels very smooth and by smooth I mean, no large frame rate fluctuations.

[justinufo]

Ok thanks. .One more thing.I know nothing about AMD proccys .Like the model numbers and so forth.Ive never actually owned an AMD system just played around on a few.Could you perhaps explain to me what the mid and high end P2 names and models are.Ive always used Intel.I dont want to upgrade to an i7 system cause i wont be able to afford one.This is the reason im leaning more towards AMD..Also the Mobo's.Like whats the best chipset for an AMD system and Am2+ mobos that can be upgraded to be compatible with P2's?.Sorry for the thread jack as i dont want to create an unnecessarythread.Thanx for the input.I will be upgrading next month when i have enough money.Thanks for the input.

[VoodooProphetII]

Okay...

First of all you could look at Quad (4) core or Tri (3) core. At present AMD released the Phenom II AM2+ processors the top processors being the 920 (2.8Ghz) locked multiplier and the 940 (3Ghz) unlocked multiplier. Both processors brilliant for gaming. But soon the AM3 versions for these processors should be availible in SA in quad and tri core flavours. The AM3 processor can work on both an AM2+ and AM3 motherboard and thus support DDR3 and DDR2 memory, with the AM2+ processors only supporting DDR2 memory. The AM3 processors will be the 945 (top of the range) 925, 915, 720 and 710, with the last two being the 3 core processors.

Now if you look at a motherboard, the best at present would be a 790GXor 790FX chipset. The 790GX sometimes have onboard Graphics, but it's still a very capable and good motherboard. The thing to look for in the mobo details is for the motherboard to have the SB750 chipset. The SB600 is also good, but the 750 being newer should help when overclocking the phenom II's.

[Bravestarr]

nice pc dude, cough (just think you spent a bit much) im sure youve got some setup problems to get over cos im scoring 17600 in 3d mark 06 and i only spenk 12 k on my machine (incl screen)

[Alpha_1]

Wow, what a crazy upgrade. Right now robbing a bank for that seems pretty good

[GuntherHanne]

nice pc dude, cough (just think you spent a bit much) im sure youve got some setup problems to get over cos im scoring 17600 in 3d mark 06 and i only spenk 12 k on my machine (incl screen)

Wow, what a crazy upgrade. Right now robbing a bank for that seems pretty good

Thanks, Bravestarr & Alpha_1, I'm very pleased with the upgrade and my pc as it stands right now, and yes, I spent a fair amount, but then, that's my hobby and if I cannot spent something on that, well, then why do I have this hobby.

Some people here seem to think however that my 3DMark 06 score of 17600 + seems a bit low for this system, especially with the CPU at 3.5 and the 280's in SLi. I don't know, can't get any higher scores in 06. Possibly driver issues or other settings not optimised? Vantage sits at 21625.

[VoodooProphetII]

GuntherHanne I think you results are pretty decent. At present, similar setup (940 with Asus M3A79-T Deluxe) but with only 1 overclocked GTX280 and the CPU at 3.82Ghz I get around 19.3K which I belief is pretty decent. I think with your it might just be a driver issue with SLI, and obiously the cpu at 3.5Ghz holding you back.