Hardware Discussion Thread

deejer

Solitaire wrote: »

Did you unlock the L3 cache as well?

IMHO you shouldn't need to upgrade to a Phenom so long as you can keep the quad cool; an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev2 should keep it under control but if you have enough room in the case I'd strongly recommend a Xigmatek Gaia, Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus or similar 120mm cooler to keep that beast under better control

I have ordered this to tame the "beast"

Tea_Bag

deejer wrote: »

I have ordered this to tame the "beast"

thats a fanless heatsink. have you read reviews on its cooling capabilities? (i havent)

Solitaire

It used to be the best air cooler available on the market... so long as you remembered to add the fan(s)

Tea_Bag

i assume the best air cooler is now the noctua ndh14?

VenomIreland

Tea_Bag wrote: »

i assume the best air cooler is now the noctua ndh14?

Thermalright's Silver Arrow is better by 2 or 3 degrees, apparently. It can also be had for less than the D14.

deejer

ya i ordered two apache's. Interested to see how this cooler will do without the fans in FT02 case also.

I have seen alot of fortress setups with the noctua cooler and they do a good job. But decided to go with the megahalems.

Great tread for this case on hardform - you could spend a week looking through all the different setups if anyone is interested!

The problem with this case and AMD chipset is getting a cooler that you can have at the correct orientation.

indough

VenomIreland wrote: »

Thermalright's Silver Arrow is better by 2 or 3 degrees, apparently. It can also be had for less than the D14.

do you know of anywhere its possible to buy one of these?

VenomIreland

indough wrote: »

do you know of anywhere its possible to buy one of these?

Scan.co.uk is the only place I know of, but it's not in stock as of now.

EDIT: Overclockers.co.uk have it also but it's more expensive .

indough

it hasnt been any time ive checked over the past months

VenomIreland

overclockers.co.uk also have it, but it's more expensive.

indough

thanks, they didnt have it listed at all the last time i checked. might get it from there if its not in stock on scan within the next week

is there any reason why it isnt being stocked elsewhere?

Overheal

I have a question, power supplies right. People buy Dell PCs with exacting power supplies making upgrades a bitch. But why dont they just make Direct Power Supplies for GPUs? Just you know like a laptop cable, except for a graphics card that you can snake into the back of your graphics card without having to ditch the existing PSU or pay out for a new one. Or even a good way to use an extra El Cheapo PSU to get the extra voltage to a card.

VenomIreland

indough wrote: »

thanks, they didnt have it listed at all the last time i checked. might get it from there if its not in stock on scan within the next week

is there any reason why it isnt being stocked elsewhere?

Probably because of demand, more people are interested in the slightly weaker NH-D14. Can't blame them though, it's been around longer.

cherryghost

Overheal wrote: »

I have a question, power supplies right. People buy Dell PCs with exacting power supplies making upgrades a bitch. But why dont they just make Direct Power Supplies for GPUs? Just you know like a laptop cable, except for a graphics card that you can snake into the back of your graphics card without having to ditch the existing PSU or pay out for a new one. Or even a good way to use an extra El Cheapo PSU to get the extra voltage to a card.

There used to be 350W slimline PCI mounted PSUs that had only SATA and PCIe connectors on it. Of course it needs a second plug coming out the back but it was a decent solution I suppose. Can't remember the manufacturer, but I distinctly remember its impressive reviews.

Solitaire

Bay drive PSUs were a fad for a while a few years back but the lack of adoption killed the trend in its infancy.

marco_polo

A tech insider leak seen by xbitlabs suggests AMD will begin shipping Bulldozer chips from mid June shipping with the first IIlano parts following in early July.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20110307165713_AMD_Finalizes_Shipment_Dates_for_Next_Gen_Chips.html

Advanced Micro Devices has finalized shipments schedules of its future microprocessors, according to industrial sources. The world's second largest designer of x86 microprocessors will begin commercial shipments of its high-end FX-series chips based on Bulldozer micro-architecture in the second half of June and will initiate supplies of A-series code-named Llano accelerated processing units (APUs) in early July.

Shipments of AMD FX-series high-end desktop microprocessors will commence on the week of June 20th, 2011; Supplies of A-series APUs will begin on the week of July 4th, 2011, according to industrial sources. As expected, AMD's Bulldozer central processing units for desktops will become available earlier than Llano APUs. As a result, AMD will be able to create a "halo" effect for its microprocessor lineup with a high-end offering that is projected to outperform existing Phenom II chips by 50%.

Based on a document seen by X-bit labs, AMD plans to release four eight-core AMD FX8000-series chips, two six-core AMD FX6000-series microprocessors and two quad-core AMD FX4000-series central processing units (CPUs) this year; four chips are to be launched in Q2 2011, another four processors will be introduced in Q4 2011. The amount of quad-core and dual-core A-series APUs to be released this calendar year will be eleven, if the plans do not change.

One of the intrigues that remain is the formal launch date of the new CPUs and APUs by AMD. Some expect the company to introduce its desktops chips with Bulldozer micro-architecture at the E3 trade-show.

AlmightyCushion

I like amd's naming convention. Far easier to understand than intel's i series naming convention where an i5 and an i7 can be either a dual core or a quad core. Do we have any pricing for these new processors yet?

Solitaire

Fun to see the resurrection of the old FX moniker instead of Phenom3 - FX was used for their previous dual-CPU-in-a-can attempts. Guessing Llano's gonna be saddled with Athlon3 though Then again, if they really are 3.5GHz Phenom2s on a smaller process with an integrated HD5670 in them...

VenomIreland

I still want benchmarks. Really looking forward to seeing these in action.

Solitaire

I doubt that the GPU would work too well without a glob of sideport though, GDDR5 has moved too far ahead of non-enthusiast DDR3 which would hurt memory bandwidth even on a wee HD5670... then again AMD or its board partners might release semi-budget-gaming chipsets with slowish GDDR5 sideport on, you never know...

How's this idea for a retarded desktop replacement laptop? Given that higher-end laptop CPUs usually have a TDP of 35W and desktop-replacement laptops often sport desktop CPUs that draw nearly four times that... imagine an SMP laptop with four decent-spec mobile Athlon3 APUs Up to sixteen cores and if plugged into the mains all the graphical power of a HD5870... in a laptop!

VenomIreland

Solitaire wrote: »

I doubt that the GPU would work too well without a glob of sideport though, GDDR5 has moved too far ahead of non-enthusiast DDR3 which would hurt memory bandwidth even on a wee HD5670... then again AMD or its board partners might release semi-budget-gaming chipsets with slowish GDDR5 sideport on, you never know...

How's this idea for a retarded desktop replacement laptop? Given that higher-end laptop CPUs usually have a TDP of 35W and desktop-replacement laptops often sport desktop CPUs that draw nearly four times that... imagine an SMP laptop with four decent-spec mobile Athlon3 APUs Up to sixteen cores and if plugged into the mains all the graphical power of a HD5870... in a laptop!

I'm more interested in the CPU's than the APU's, although for laptops and such they are an amazing idea (especially in desktop replacements as you noted).

Solitaire

Yeah, the APUs aren't much use to enthusiasts but could be a godsend to budget-limited multimedia users and light gamers in the desktop space. In the mobile arena... if AMD decide to play with HT the way they were going to in the beginning a multi-APU laptop might not be as unlikely as you think... After all with CF you could glue together several HD5670-class GPUs and make them into something very nasty indeed...

Its gonna be interesting to see how strong that GPU ends up, and if the combination of the 32nm process and the major Stars revision going into the Athlon3s give them both major clock-speed and power-per-cycle boosts over Phenom2...

VenomIreland

Solitaire wrote: »

Yeah, the APUs aren't much use to enthusiasts but could be a godsend to budget-limited multimedia users and light gamers in the desktop space. In the mobile arena... if AMD decide to play with HT the way they were going to in the beginning a multi-APU laptop might not be as unlikely as you think... After all with CF you could glue together several HD5670-class GPUs and make them into something very nasty indeed...

Its gonna be interesting to see how strong that GPU ends up, and if the combination of the 32nm process and the major Stars revision going into the Athlon3s give them both major clock-speed and power-per-cycle boosts over Phenom2...

Should be fun to see the prices of these APU's, hopefully for HTPC and Laptop owners they won't be to expensive. On that point, I'm just hoping the CPU's are around the same price point as Intel's Sandybridge, but more powerful than Sandybridge (I can dream, can't I?).

Solitaire

Its possible that Bulldozer will be just as strong but around the same price - it all depends on how efficient those demux/muxes are in splitting threads up for dual-instruction-core consumption, as it gives Dozer a theoretical <99% boost in processing per cycle, but if the increase ends up less than 40% then its in trouble

It'll be interesting to see how close to Athlon2 that Llano falls regarding pricing, as Intel have utter tripe in this segment - in the ultrabudget range they are still reliant on HT-less dualies, many based on the old Core2 topology, and AMD has been beating them silly outside the OEM markets.

VenomIreland

If it's the same or slightly better performance for the same price I'd still go with AMD. The motherboards would almost certainly be cheaper (although probably not ones that support SLI out of the box, also, no pushpins) and I much prefer AMD.

Tea_Bag

i think i might hold off putting together a HTPC until these arrive. a CPU with a very strong GPU on board for a low (read: AMD) price? yes please.

Trevor451

I am really looking forward to getting battlefeild 3 this summer I was reading that EA were running the game on high settings with a GTX580 gfx card. How well does the 6850 stand up to this card? I dont want to upgrade my rig just for this game

oceanclub

Solitaire wrote: »

First time in a while I've seen someone moan about AMD legacy support nVidia is horrible for legacy support for both hardware and software

Having had a GTX 560 Ti for a month now, I'm regretting my purchase. I'm having huge trouble with display drivers not responding during games, particularly annoying in MW2 and, tonight, Bioshock 2 MP. I'm getting several errors a day at this point. I tried the latest beta driver as well, just in case, but no luck.

EDIT: Just as an experiment, I tried underclocking the card. Hey presto this so far seems to have worked. Before underclocking, I couldn't play more than 5 minutes without a freeze. After lowering it from 900Mhz to 850Mhz, I was able to play for an hour, problem-free.

P.

Tea_Bag

stumbled across a bargain laptop and wonder what ye think of it.

specs as follows:

Genuine Windows® 7 Professional with XP Mode Installed 32 bit
Intel® Core™ I5-480M(2.66GHz)
Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Services, 15-month
Services & Software
1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day
Declined Accidental Damage offer
Also Includes
Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 includes reduced-functionality of Word & Excel w/ advertising
Memory : 4096MB 1333MHz DDR3
17.3” 44 cm High Definition+ (1600x900) Wide LED Anti-Glare Display
LCD Back Cover : Silver WLAN
Hard Drive : 320GB Serial ATA (7,200 Rpm)
Graphics : NVIDIA® Geforce™ GT 330M, 1GB Graphics
Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Wireless : Dell Bluetooth 365 Card
Palmrest : Fingerprint Reader Biometric
Camera : Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Camera
Keyboard : Internal Backlit Keyboard
1M Power Cord
Battery : Primary 6-cell 56W/HR LI-ION
Vostro 3700 BTS : Config FCG43UK3
1 Year Collect and Return
Vostro Laptop V3700 BTS Order - Ireland
Power Cord : 3 Wire 90W AC Adpater
N0337S29
Wireless : ROW Dell Wireless 1501 (802.11n) Half Mini Card

all for €392

will it be any good at gaming, and is 2.7kg @ 17.3" too big to lug around college work?

AlmightyCushion

Tea_Bag wrote: »

stumbled across a bargain laptop and wonder what ye think of it.

specs as follows:



all for €392

will it be any good at gaming, and is 2.7kg @ 17.3" too big to lug around college work?

Having used a 17" laptop before for college, I'd say yes. I wouldn't go any bigger than 15". Oo-er.