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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Dark RevenantX on June 26, 2011, 07:49:20 pm

Title: The Ultimate in Price and Performance? (Also: Selling my old but competent rig)
Post by: Dark RevenantX on June 26, 2011, 07:49:20 pm
Edited from my original thread.

So, I got about 15 hundred from donations on my SC2 mod and figured my 2-year-old computer needed some upgrades.  I already could run StarCraft II on ultra pretty well, but I guess I'm a hardware enthusiast.  I bought and upgraded and, before long, realized that I completely replaced everything.  If anyone wants the old (but still quite competent) computer, I'm selling the whole thing for $270 + $50 USD for shipping to the US (lower if in California, lower still if in San Diego).  Monitor and other peripherals, and hard drives, not included.  Takers can PM or email me.  If you want parts, I'll make separate pricing for you, but the best discount is on the computer as a whole.

Old System:
Here's a really terrible picture of it:
(http://www.thecouncilofmages.com/sc2/IMG_0423.png)



And on to the new!

In total: $1,118, not including tax, shipping, and mail-in rebates.  For most people, I would expect the case to be $50, the video cards to cost more around $150 if you get a good sale, the fan filters to be omitted, and for $75-$150 (averaging $100) in hard drives to be bought instead of an SSD.  This comes out to about $1,040 without tax and shipping for most buyers.  Peripherals not included in that price.

Prices in strikethrough are the current best new prices on Newegg.

Honestly, I could have thrown down $100 less on the case and got the i7 2600K instead, but HOT DAMN that's an epic case.  The price is usually $180 but is still marked down to $150 and then to $130 with mail-in rebate, so if you want it, now's the time to buy.  Keep it sheltered from liquids for obvious reasons.  Video here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la5-rDEJJYQ&feature=player_embedded).

Built now!  Pics:
(http://www.thecouncilofmages.com/sc2/IMG_0424.png)
(http://www.thecouncilofmages.com/sc2/IMG_0426.png)


Regardless, for a very reasonable price, a really nice high-end machine can be built.  Thoughts?
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Mongoose on June 26, 2011, 09:21:40 pm
Quote from: Dark RevenantX on June 26, 2011, 07:49:20 pm
1.5TB Seagate External Drive (I'm ****ing scared of this thing...  It constantly sounds like it's going to explode, but generally works perfectly ever since it was given to me a year ago)
Hmm, I wonder if that's the same one I have.  (FreeAgent Desk, with the silver case and white lights?)  Mine started doing something that sounded suspiciously like the Click o' Death only a few months after I started using it, and looking online seemed to bring up a number of other people experiencing the same thing.  I've been meaning to try RMA'ing it for a few months now, though the prospect of getting a refurbished copy of the same model isn't exactly a comforting one.
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Dark RevenantX on June 26, 2011, 09:44:07 pm
Nah, mine is solid black and has a green light.
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Astronomiya on June 27, 2011, 01:25:22 am
I unfortunately can't help on the driver hackery front, but you should know that your system will be heavily CPU-bound if you get it working.  Plus, a good 750 W PSU is plenty for 460 SLI, so save some money - or don't, and get a better quality PSU; $120 for an 850 W is ringing some alarm bells in my head.
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Dark RevenantX on June 27, 2011, 01:36:11 am
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152043
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Klaustrophobia on June 27, 2011, 04:17:56 am
i didn't think driver hacking was even necessary for SLI on an AMD board.  and astro is exactly right.  i've got that exact same CPU at just shy of 3.2 ghz.  bumping my video card from a 4850 to a 6950 unlocked to 6970 saw minimal returns.  i got it as part of a planned total system overhaul, but bulldozer is taking longer than i thought.
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Dark RevenantX on June 27, 2011, 05:14:56 am
I don't see what's wrong with the $120 850W PSU; two dozen reviews averaging at 5/5 seems pretty reliable to me.

The problem is I'm unable to switch boards without dropping up to $600 on the full service CPU, RAM, and a large slab of fiberglass resin with silicon embedded in it.  I'm already using most of my available cash on the video card / PSU replacement (yes, this is an essential change as my old one is effectively on its last couple trillion cycles before it is kaput).

Also, I did my research beforehand and confirmed that a driver hack is needed to get SLi working on my particular chipset.  We're not talking about a terribly advanced product, here.

How did you get the CPU to 3.2ghz?  My system stability hits the ****ter if I raise the FSB even a small amount, even with various adjustments in voltage.  CPU temps are absolutely fine the whole time, though.  Might be my motherboard itself.
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: pecenipicek on June 27, 2011, 05:48:22 am
is this the particularily notorious Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H rev 1.0? With its horrid VRM's, and utterly, utterly braindead placement of chipset heatsinks?


(in short, if its an old mobo, stop dicking around, save up for a new ram, cpu and mobo and buy them.)
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Dark RevenantX on June 27, 2011, 06:07:38 am
Unless I sell my organs, saving up for anything this year won't really be a likely option.  I am very fortunate to have any spending money at all, and the most pressing matter was replacing the about-to-kick-the-bucket video card setup rather than throwing out my old motherboard and selling the cpu and memory for about as much money as it would take to ship them to the buyer.  (I've looked hard for work for a long time and have gotten virtually nothing.  My money is exclusively from donations and to a smaller extent, ad revenue from my SC2 modding ventures.  My last ditch effort is now starting a couple months of mobile application development to try to scrounge up enough money to afford transportation to college.)

In any case, the cards were already shipped by the time I made this thread.  I've got to work with what I've got.

And no, my board is the GA-MA790X-DS4 rev 1.x.  VERY similar to the GA-MA78G-DS3H rev 1.0 in terms of design, though, as you can obviously tell from the model name.
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: newman on June 27, 2011, 06:19:43 am
Raidmax PSUs used to have a bit of a bad reputation for failing. Unless you have already done so, I would recommend doing thorough research on the particular PSU you have in mind - just because it's declared as 850w doesn't mean it can deliver nearly as much stable power. A cursory glance through google didn't reveal any reviews of that particular model from any psu reviewers I trust.
Unless you already closed the deal on those cards you'd be wise to consider ditching one and using the price difference to get a good quality PSU. You can always upgrade with another 460 gtx when your finances start to look up and in the mean time you won't have a power hungry SLI combo hacked together on an AMD board, powered by a PSU brand that has a bad reputation for being unreliable. You might be lucky and it will all turn out fine but from the looks of things that combo is just asking for trouble (as is going SLI if you're on a budget). That SLI setup won't be worth a dime when it all goes up in smoke because money was being saved in the one place of the computer config where it really shouldn't be, especially when going SLI. Just my 5 cents, anyway..
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Dark RevenantX on June 27, 2011, 06:50:26 am
I don't really need a lecture on the importance of PSUs.  I give those.  But the gesture is appreciated.

It turns out not to matter, because I just found a Corsair PSU at 750W (virtually the same price too) which I like better because it has a single 12V rail at 60A rather than the Raidmax's four at 34A.  In any case, getting the cards and PSU is within my budget; replacing the motherboard, CPU, and RAM in addition to this is not.
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Klaustrophobia on June 27, 2011, 01:56:05 pm
Quote from: Dark RevenantX on June 27, 2011, 05:14:56 am
How did you get the CPU to 3.2ghz?  My system stability hits the ****ter if I raise the FSB even a small amount, even with various adjustments in voltage.  CPU temps are absolutely fine the whole time, though.  Might be my motherboard itself.

i have an ABIT AX-78 mobo.  i think it was their last one before they packed it in for good.  shame, one of the most steady mobo manufacturers there was.  here's the CPUZ

(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b345/Klaustrophobia/cpuz.jpg)

if it's not the board limiting you, it could be the RAM.  you might have to relax the timings/increase voltage there.  and don't forget to keep the HT link under (or just barely over) 1000.
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Astronomiya on June 27, 2011, 11:45:25 pm
Quote from: Dark RevenantX on June 27, 2011, 05:14:56 am
I don't see what's wrong with the $120 850W PSU; two dozen reviews averaging at 5/5 seems pretty reliable to me.

The problem is I'm unable to switch boards without dropping up to $600 on the full service CPU, RAM, and a large slab of fiberglass resin with silicon embedded in it.  I'm already using most of my available cash on the video card / PSU replacement (yes, this is an essential change as my old one is effectively on its last couple trillion cycles before it is kaput).
Newegg reviews are not good indicators of PSU quality; go look at [H]ardOCP or Hardware Secrets PSU reviews, since those sites actually use proper equipment and testing regimens.  According to [H]ardOCP, one of the newer 1000 W Raidmax units passed their testing, but not by a whole lot, and the claims of "80 Plus Gold efficiency" were bull****.  They found that there were far better units for the same money.
Title: Re: Dual GTX 460s on a CrossFireX Board
Post by: Zacam on June 29, 2011, 07:15:46 am

Jonny Guru (http://www.jonnyguru.com/), I'd trust him more than a bunch of OC twits, however "mainstream" [H]ardOCP may be these days. No offense meant to any members from there or to anybody that OC's their system, but frankly most of the time you guys make as much sense as people who put large fart cans on their cars.

Good deal on those cards, btw. 560's would have been sweeter, but as already stated, you work with what you've got, and you got some good there. eVGA is a good dedicated nV Card manufacturer to boot.
Title: Re: The Ultimate in Price and Performance? (Also: Selling my old but competent rig)
Post by: Dark RevenantX on July 12, 2011, 01:28:23 am
First post redone, thread retooled.
Title: Re: The Ultimate in Price and Performance? (Also: Selling my old but competent rig)
Post by: achtung on July 12, 2011, 08:39:41 am
I have that same case, I just don't have mine full of rice like that.
Title: Re: The Ultimate in Price and Performance? (Also: Selling my old but competent rig)
Post by: Dark RevenantX on July 14, 2011, 03:59:07 am
P23860 in Vantage without overclocking and with physx disabled, P30534 with physx enabled.  Will post results after an overclock.
Title: Re: The Ultimate in Price and Performance? (Also: Selling my old but competent rig)
Post by: Admiral LSD on July 14, 2011, 04:53:33 am
Quote from: Swantz on July 12, 2011, 08:39:41 am
I have that same case, I just don't have mine full of rice like that.

heh, I hear that. I actually took a pair of sidecutters to my new CPU cooler to kill the LEDs on the fan :P
Title: Re: The Ultimate in Price and Performance? (Also: Selling my old but competent rig)
Post by: Dark RevenantX on July 14, 2011, 08:11:18 am
P23860 at 3.3GHz stock to P26646 (physx off) from OCing to 4.5 GHz at 1.37V (vdroop on high load causes it to go to around 1.30V, temps are around 50-55C at full load).  This is performing very well in PS2 emulations.  On the 5600+ I was able to do software PS2 emulation (NO video card use) at about 7-12fps, and now I get a solid 60fps with only 60-70% CPU load.

With physx enabled, the score goes from P30534 to P32031 with the CPU overclock.  My GTX 460s are stock overclocked but I can push them further; I'll do a final test to see what my best score is.  I won't bother with a 5GHz overclock test because I'll never use that for anything but a quick bench anyway; no long-term stability, and I use my system for hours on end.  My Core3 (fourth core) is not as stable as the others and runs a bit hot compared to the rest, so my best bet for higher clocks is turboboost, which only uses three or fewer cores.

An OC of 830MHz core from ~765MHz core results in P33879 (with aforementioned CPU overclock) with physx enabled (from P32031 with the factory oc, and P28564 with stock).
Title: Re: The Ultimate in Price and Performance? (Also: Selling my old but competent rig)
Post by: Dark RevenantX on July 21, 2011, 07:44:25 pm
Since my old hard drive was showing signs of age and imminent collapse, I figured I should switch boot drives.  Luckily, I had a coupon code and waited for an amazing 1-day deal on a Crucial M4 SSD.  Only 64GB, but it has amazing read times (450MB/s read, but write times are only about 100MB/s, but that's okay since it's a boot drive - read is more important) and cost me a grand total of $97 with tax and 1-day shipping (it's the 3-day shipping, but I've literally seen orders arrive less than 24 hours after I purchase them because I live fairly close to their warehouse).

The SSD sold out about 15 minutes after I bought it.  I don't think I'll see another price like that until Black Friday.  On sale for $100 and with the coupon for $85... wow.