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I just bought an AMD CPU, and I am proud of it !

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    I just bought an AMD CPU, and I am proud of it !

    Well, there .. I said it !!! I bought AMD, and there's nothing you can say to make me feel bad about it.
    :P

    OK, you ask ... why on Earth would you invest in that AMD when an Intel C2D would smoke it in any number of benchmarks ?? Well, you see .. there are methods to WT's madness, and altho they do not appear clear at first, some digging and cold hard facts will show that an AMD purchase was in fact a wise one.


    It all started when I bought an Asrock SATAII 939 board back in '06, and I've been running an Opteron 144 in it (1.8 OC'd to 2.7) with at first an AGP and then a PCIe video card.

    Now if you recall, this was the only board of its kind, capable of supporting both the aged AGP and new PCIe video cards. To be honest, the PCIe was not a full 16x or even an 8x bus implementation, but rather a 4x that somewhat hampered its raw benchmarks.

    Rather than dwell on that 'missing' 6% performance loss, I looked at it as an awesome board to keep running through several hardware upgrades. Not only did the board offer 2 video slot options, but it also had a 'Future CPU slot' that intrigued me when I read about it.

    Fast forward to early November of this year when I decided to take the plunge and buy the CPU adapter card (a riser card that supports the newest AM2 CPUs from AMD) and pair that up with an AMD 5000+ Black Edition CPU, named so as its multiplier was unlocked and you could then bump up the multiplier instead of the FSB !
    Since its based on the 65nm Brisbane core, it runs cooler than its faster (clock speed) 6400+ Black Edition brother based on the 90nm Windsor core.

    So if you're with me so far, we have a $50 budget board that doesn't like a high FSB, and its paired with a CPU that doesn't need to have its FSB raised to overclock much further than any other AMD CPUs. So what did I end up with in 5 minutes of preliminary overclocking ??

    This is a 2.6ghz CPU so I simply bumped the multiplier up to 11.5 and ended up at 3.0ghz. Temps are holding at 31c, so I would like to squeeze 3.4 out of it if I can by the end of the week. I want to let it burn in at 3.0 for a bit tho.

    Compared to an Intel C2D, thats a horrible OC, but keep in mind I have just started to see what this chip will do, and this entire build was done by re-using an aged socket 939 board that nobody wants anymore. I didn't have to buy a new board, altho I did invest good $$ in what I bought, but its something you don't see very often also.

    Anyhoo, I'd be flogged for not posting pics, so here ya go:

    First, the hardware - an AM2CPU card, a CoolerMaster HyperTX HSF, an AMD 5000+ BE, and 4gb of Super Talent DDR2-800 RAM. Total expenditure: $200



    Side view after getting it booted up:



    Big honkin' fan - I had to cut the plastic shroud that hangs off the back of the heatsink due to the riser card mounting sidways on the board:



    And one last hardware shot of the 7950gx2 card that sits up nice and tight against the CPU upgrade riser card - its a rather tight fit there:



    PS - Yes, this is my 'bling' case, with as much green as I could add in there ... and I'm not done yet. I didn't plan this out until just recently, but once you start tweaking, you just can never quit.
    I use this rig primarily as a bench rig, giving me internet access when working on customer PCs, so its quite overkill for that purpose, but for something to do, it was a fun project.
    Oh if a man tried to take his time on Earth and prove before he died what one man's life could be worth, well I wonder what would happen to this world ? - Harry Chapin

    #2
    HEY!!! Where is the card I gave you? WE NEED MORE PICS!!

    Looks good so far!
    We work in the dark, to serve the light. We are Assassins.

    Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

    Comment


      #3
      sweet! and i just pm'd you about pics! lol.

      Comment


        #4
        The riser card that you used to update the socket 939....Can this be used with any 939 board? I would like to update my 939 to a AM2

        Comment


          #5
          Kyler, that card is in the rig and working fine with its standard heatsink, but I did give the 4 bolts (what Zalman calls 'holding bolts' to my Father-in-Law yesterday to grind down so that they do not touch the fan of the card above the lower card.
          Zalman replied to my email (after I had bought the second VF900 !!) stating that SLI with their coolers was not possible.
          Screw them, I'll mod it !!!! After he shaves about half of the heighth down of those four backing bolts, I will then mount it on the card and devote a separate thread to that project.

          I really didn't want to post pics until its done, as it looks hokey now with one monster heatsink towering over the other card with its stock unit, so I will hopefully post that one next weekend after I get it successfully modded.

          One thing that I like is learning something from each project, with that knowledge tucked away for future builds. I do need to stop buying so many hardware toys, as my 'projects' are hardly cheap, so at some point its ridiculous to try and justify why I have six PCs modded and tweaked under one roof.
          Oh if a man tried to take his time on Earth and prove before he died what one man's life could be worth, well I wonder what would happen to this world ? - Harry Chapin

          Comment


            #6
            Well glad to hear everything worked out good!
            We work in the dark, to serve the light. We are Assassins.

            Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

            Comment


              #7
              CHOPS, that riser card is an Asrock exclusive, just like the AGP/PCIe solution that every other board maker said was impossible to design.

              No other maker came out with one, so Asrock had the market all to themselves. I will readily admit that Asrock is not a high end performance brand, and each one of their boards has been notorious for being finicky in one way or another, from brands of RAM to a FSB lock imposed on their boards to keep overclockers from juicing them out of spec, and even a very low number of voltage adjustments to use.

              Even with all of that to contend with, many Asrock owners love the flexibility that the board offers, and I have tweaked it about as far as it can go at this point. I won't rule out dropping a DX10 card in it, but I would not net the performance from an 8800GT that any other board would offer
              Oh if a man tried to take his time on Earth and prove before he died what one man's life could be worth, well I wonder what would happen to this world ? - Harry Chapin

              Comment


                #8
                Have fun with your neww toys WT.

                Comment


                  #9
                  FYI -- ASrock is the BUDGET sector of Asus. a wholely owned subsidiary. personally, i love asrock as well. they have had some rather ingenius solutions. they come at a cost (i.e. the agp/pcie combo board for intel limit the pcie bus to 4x vs the 8x or 16x for pcie only) however in terms of budget upgrading, you can't go wrong. it provides a stable platform for transitioning.

                  the asrock dual 775VSTA board offered intel 775 chip availabilty, while allowing the use of ddr or ddr2, as well as PCIE or AGP. the AMD variants, like what WT has, provided an upgrade path as well.

                  for for something no one is really expecting to perform the hell out of, it REALLY well priced. i think i bought all of the dual 775vsta boards for 50-60$. at the time when other compents were costly, this works well!

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I have the same exact mobo. I was upgrading my proc/mobo when I had a 9800pro AGP, but didn't want to to have to replace the mobo after a gfx upgrade (which was next on the list), so this was the logical choice.

                    I just posted that I'm not sure it's worth it to upgrade my 3500+ w/ another 939 CPU, but maybe this is a route I could go, I'm not sure... Where did you find the converter card? Is it expensive? If not, I might think about going your route.... we'll see.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      L_Mo, the card is found at Ewiz.com for all of $31 .. its a HUGE beast of a card that I was quite shocked at initially, but it in essence is a mini-mainboard housing both the CPU socket (AM2) and the DDR2 slots (4 total) to move up to DDR2.

                      I received the Upgrade card as a gift, but factoring in the AMD 5000+ from TigerDirect for $99, this was a very cheap upgrade. Try this on for size:

                      CPU - $99 (you won't find it for that anymore)
                      RAM - $34 (Super Talent 2gb DDR2-800)
                      AM2CPU card - $30
                      CoolerMaster HyperTX HSF - $2 (22-20 MIR)

                      $165 plus shipping after rebates. I'm currently up to 3.1ghz on that chip, so I plan on pushing it farther if possible. An 8,000+ 3dmark06 score is not bad for a 7x00 series card and an AMD system. Hell, my C2D e6600 OC'd to 3.2 is only netting me a bit under 10k, and that's with an 8800GTS !!
                      Oh if a man tried to take his time on Earth and prove before he died what one man's life could be worth, well I wonder what would happen to this world ? - Harry Chapin

                      Comment


                        #12
                        <Scotty> Well, CAp'n .. I've given 'er all she's got !! </Scotty>

                        Best 3dmark06 score I could net was 8726 .. that ... is all she's got. Of course ... I can O/C the 7950gx2 cards .... hmmmm, be back later ...
                        Oh if a man tried to take his time on Earth and prove before he died what one man's life could be worth, well I wonder what would happen to this world ? - Harry Chapin

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by WalkinTarget
                          <Scotty> Well, CAp'n .. I've given 'er all she's got !! </Scotty>

                          Best 3dmark06 score I could net was 8726 .. that ... is all she's got. Of course ... I can O/C the 7950gx2 cards .... hmmmm, be back later ...
                          Does this mean you will be able to game it up with COD4? Looking forward to seeing you!! Take some pics of your entire computer set up, because we are anxioys to see what it looks like!!
                          We work in the dark, to serve the light. We are Assassins.

                          Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Kyler, I played CoD4 on Tuesday night for all of 2 minutes before a PunkBuster kick ... I had just patched the game to 1.4, but PB itself wasn't updated. I did tha manually, but it was by now after 10PM and I was so bad ingame that all I fired at was a heli circling overhead. Two deaths in two minutes makes for a bad start, so I gave up on it, but with my rig crashing trying to run CoH:OF, I hold out no hope for CoD4 running without crashing either.

                            The 3dMark score from above was my 'Gray Bomber' rig, so I haven't gotten back to the 'Dog Chew Toy' rig yet. Thats my Thermaltake Swing case with your old card in it ... and yes, my dog chewed on the front panel, so I'll include that pic once I get the shaved heatsink bolts back from the shop.

                            If the Vista rig keeps crashing, I will be running the 'Dog Chew Toy' as my main rig rig until the video display crashing is resolved in Vista (and no, SP1 for Vista doesn't solve it either .... dang ..).
                            Oh if a man tried to take his time on Earth and prove before he died what one man's life could be worth, well I wonder what would happen to this world ? - Harry Chapin

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by WalkinTarget
                              Kyler, I played CoD4 on Tuesday night for all of 2 minutes before a PunkBuster kick ... I had just patched the game to 1.4, but PB itself wasn't updated. I did tha manually, but it was by now after 10PM and I was so bad ingame that all I fired at was a heli circling overhead. Two deaths in two minutes makes for a bad start, so I gave up on it, but with my rig crashing trying to run CoH:OF, I hold out no hope for CoD4 running without crashing either.

                              The 3dMark score from above was my 'Gray Bomber' rig, so I haven't gotten back to the 'Dog Chew Toy' rig yet. Thats my Thermaltake Swing case with your old card in it ... and yes, my dog chewed on the front panel, so I'll include that pic once I get the shaved heatsink bolts back from the shop.

                              If the Vista rig keeps crashing, I will be running the 'Dog Chew Toy' as my main rig rig until the video display crashing is resolved in Vista (and no, SP1 for Vista doesn't solve it either .... dang ..).
                              That sucks, but don't give up on COD4 if you no longer have any PB issues. Everyone gets killed a lot in the beginning, and even sometimes later on as well (which is inevitable). Same is true for BF2, BF2142, TF2, ETC...you just got to give it some time and lots of practice!! Tyr single palyer...might help a little. And hopefully, if you do decide to try COD4 again, hopefully it won't crash. Are you running Vista on that computer? If so, I think I found the problem...(enough said). Hope to see you on sometime soon, and I hope you get your computer problems solved!!!
                              We work in the dark, to serve the light. We are Assassins.

                              Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

                              Comment

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