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Worf101
01-08-2009, 06:50 AM
And it seems like they got it right this time: Still some 20 percent slower than Intel's top of the line BUT it's also $740 dollars cheaper on average too according to current prices on NewEgg. After the second release of chips I'll build a new rig around June or so. It'll be my first full rebuild in 6 years. I'm looking forward to it. The only real questions are:

1. Go Vista or stick with XP
2. Stick with XP and wait for Windows 7 which is in Beta.
3. Go whole hog for gaming and build one rig or build a couple of mid-level jammies for the household?
4. Keep building them myself or let a mid-level boutique builder take a crack at it.

Da Worfster

Rich-n-Texas
01-08-2009, 07:02 AM
How many cfm's does the fan on top move? My first concern would be power consumption, something AMD has been weak at in the past.

kexodusc
01-08-2009, 07:23 AM
Power consumption and heat is an issue, but for the $700 price diff you can take care of that 10 times over.

Worf101
01-08-2009, 08:08 AM
Toms Hardware says that the Phenom II is:

1. More powerful than it's predecessor.
2. Uses less power.
3. Is cheaper to run
4 Runs cooler.
5. And it's a good enough "price to performance" chip for them to recommend it. Even before boards and ram have been optimized for it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-ii-940,2114.html

Interesting benchies too.

Da Worfster

kexodusc
01-08-2009, 09:33 AM
Toms Hardware says that the Phenom II is:

1. More powerful than it's predecessor.
2. Uses less power.
3. Is cheaper to run
4 Runs cooler.
5. And it's a good enough "price to performance" chip for them to recommend it. Even before boards and ram have been optimized for it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-ii-940,2114.html

Interesting benchies too.

Da Worfster
Lemme know what you decide to do my friend, I'm gonna need a new Linux box this year myself - the ol' Sempron is starting to show her age after years of overclocking the snot outta her.

Rich-n-Texas
01-08-2009, 10:31 AM
So you had to OC the hell outta yer old AMD chip to get it up to snuff huh? :thumbsdown:

:biggrin5:

AncientWalkman
01-08-2009, 11:40 AM
I've always gone intel personally but the dual core isn't cutting it anymore. Luckily, the Asus board I have supports quad core, I'm just not sure up to which chip its compatible with.

Worf I would say build one powerful computer instead of a couple mid levels. As far as XP and Vista, alot of the complaining comes from people who are either using the 32 bit version of Vista or they don't have the RAM to run their background programs along with visual and multimedia heavy applications.

To be perfectly honest I first installed the 64bit Vista 2 years or so ago and I have never ran into an error that wasn't fixable. In fact, this is probably the longest my computer has gone without a reformat.

kexodusc
01-08-2009, 11:42 AM
So you had to OC the hell outta yer old AMD chip to get it up to snuff huh? :thumbsdown:

:biggrin5:
Not really, it blew the hell outta the Celery crap Intel was hawking for more money at the time and its OC capabilities have kept it alive longer than I would have had otherwise...

My wife's laptop has Intel though, we're an equal opportunity household, some years you're the Champ, others you're the challenger...

audio amateur
01-08-2009, 01:23 PM
I'd go with XP and wait for the new Windows. I haven't had much experience with Vista but apart from the 64 bit thing I'd rather steer clear of it. So what's new with the Phenom II spec wise compared to the mark 1?

nightflier
01-08-2009, 02:24 PM
To be perfectly honest I first installed the 64bit Vista 2 years or so ago and I have never ran into an error that wasn't fixable. In fact, this is probably the longest my computer has gone without a reformat.

2 years? Try over 5 w/o even a reboot (aside from needing to power down for outside reasons like power failures). Granted, it's my secondary system and I don't tweak it as much, but even our Windows servers at work get rebooted regularly.

Worf, when you build your new system, keep the old one around and put Linux on it. You'll be amazed how many more years you'll squeeze out of her.

Regarding the CPU, the Phenom2 is actually capable of a lot better performance, but we won't see that until the hardware manufacturers start writing new drivers for it. It's a winner for gamers and home-builders, but they are a dying breed.

Should you build it yourself? Definitely. Doing so makes you intimately familiar with that's inside. That makes you much more independent in maintaining it, upgrading it, and being respectful of it. Can't quite say those things about Mac owners, can you?

Regarding 64 bit Vista, I'm running that at work right now with 6 Gb of RAM. Fast, yes, but only with 64-bit apps and those are few & far between. On 32 bit apps it does as well as the 3 Gb systems we run 32-bit Vista on. The one benefit is that Vista 64-bit can handle oodles more of RAM, while 32-bit Vista is limited to just 3Gb - another one of Microsoft's infinite wisdom decisions.

But the real problem with Windows has nothing to do with bits. It's a kluge of an operating system with numerous memory holes, a complete lack of documentation, an infinite number of undisclosed bugs, and so much bloatware that we are left to wonder if Microsoft isn't wagging the performance tail for the CPU manufacturers. To everyday folks this all translates to an OS that gets progressively slower over time with no real explanation or solution other than another premature hardware upgrade. Where does it say that computers should only be usable for 3-4 years? Do we buy cars, speakers, or appliances with the same expectation? How long will we continue to believe that a computer is a consumable? That's a phenomenon that smacks of excess.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox, now.

Worf101
01-09-2009, 05:43 AM
I'd go with XP and wait for the new Windows. I haven't had much experience with Vista but apart from the 64 bit thing I'd rather steer clear of it. So what's new with the Phenom II spec wise compared to the mark 1?
1. Smaller die 45nm verses 65nm
2. Smaller die, smaller chip, less power.
3. Less power means less heat.
4. Higher clock speeds.
5. New "Dragon" platform will mean faster, easier overclocks and ddr3 Ram.

I think that's enough!!! LOL.

Da Worfster

Feanor
01-09-2009, 09:50 AM
And it seems like they got it right this time: Still some 20 percent slower than Intel's top of the line BUT it's also $740 dollars cheaper on average too according to current prices on NewEgg. After the second release of chips I'll build a new rig around June or so. It'll be my first full rebuild in 6 years. I'm looking forward to it. The only real questions are:

1. Go Vista or stick with XP Stick with XP
2. Stick with XP and wait for Windows 7 which is in Beta. Wait
3. Go whole hog for gaming and build one rig or build a couple of mid-level jammies for the household? Build a couple
4. Keep building them myself or let a mid-level boutique builder take a crack at it. DIY

Da Worfster
... but it depends on your needs and timing.

If you need maximum horsepower for gaming or whatever particular application, then one really butt-kicker might be the way to go, otherwise multiple machines gives more flexibility to more people in your family.

For playing music, a dedicated machine will result in fewer glitches or dropouts on playback. A dedicated music machine doesn't need to be a butt-kicker -- what it needs is to be tweaked to eliminate all unnecessary applications and services, including antivirus. Check out BlackViper (http://www.blackviper.com/) to see which services can be disabled.

XP has got a lot of criticism for music playback, largely on account of its "kmixer" software component, but there are means to bypass kmixer. In my case I use an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sound card that has an ASIO driver that bypasses that infamous component. To use ASIO you need a player that can utilize it: in my case the player is Foobar2000. This way I do get bit-perfect delivery to my DAC, if not necessarily zero jitter.

If you want to keep costs as low as possible, it looks to me like the way to go is a preconfigured machine from HP/Compaq other vendor. Dell and maybe some other verndors give you good configuration options while keep the cost low. What really pisses me off is that these vendors no longer ship with an O/S disk. They will ship you "recovery disks" at your own expense if you specifically ask them to, but these recovery discs hide the actual O/S components and drivers from you.

Buying from a local boutique or "Mom & Pop" vendor tends to be pricier, at least from the ones around where I am. That leaves DIY and it's the option I prefer. You know what you're getting and you get exactly what you want. There is some risk that you will screw up the effort, but if you do the local shop will likely be able to fix it. Just don't wait too long to get an RMA to return defective parts -- and note too that some vendors, such as TigerDirect, demand that you contact manufacturer's support before they let you return.