Hottest value AMD-based mobo today?

Ok, I'm looking for the hottest value (price/performance) AMD motherboard/4
gig ram/CPU/Vid card combo today.

But ...... there are limits. I don't want to go over $1000. Less is
better. 4 Gig ram is minimum. USB 3.0 would be very cool. Must be
compatible with 32 bit XP and Linux.

So ... what brands and models do you recommend?



--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

wrote in message
...
Ok, I'm looking for the hottest value (price/performance) AMD
motherboard/4 gig ram/CPU/Vid card combo today.

But ...... there are limits. I don't want to go over $1000. Less is
better. 4 Gig ram is minimum. USB 3.0 would be very cool. Must be
compatible with 32 bit XP and Linux.




I'd like to get as close as possible to 4ghz on the processor.





--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
...179.00

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core
Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX 240.00

G.SKILL ECO 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop
Memory Model F3-10666CL9Q-8GBECO 130.00

XFX HD-687A-ZNBC Radeon HD 6870 Black Edition 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express
2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card with Eyefinity 280.00

total 829.00..............depending upon where in the world you live!!!!


peter





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wrote in message
...
Ok, I'm looking for the hottest value (price/performance) AMD
motherboard/4 gig ram/CPU/Vid card combo today.

But ...... there are limits. I don't want to go over $1000. Less is
better. 4 Gig ram is minimum. USB 3.0 would be very cool. Must be
compatible with 32 bit XP and Linux.




I'd like to get as close as possible to 4ghz on the processor.





--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

peter wrote:
ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD
Motherboard ..179.00

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W
Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX 240.00

G.SKILL ECO 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9Q-8GBECO 130.00

XFX HD-687A-ZNBC Radeon HD 6870 Black Edition 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI
Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card with Eyefinity 280.00

total 829.00..............depending upon where in the world you live!!!!


peter

That ECO RAM product, is for Intel. The qualified motherboard
list here, are specific Intel chipsets. It probably doesn't
hurt to run them with a bit extra voltage, but rather than risk
it, I'd probably shop for something else.

http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=246

Paul

wrote in message
...
Ok, I'm looking for the hottest value (price/performance) AMD
motherboard/4 gig ram/CPU/Vid card combo today.

But ...... there are limits. I don't want to go over $1000. Less is
better. 4 Gig ram is minimum. USB 3.0 would be very cool. Must be
compatible with 32 bit XP and Linux.



I'd like to get as close as possible to 4ghz on the processor.

wrote:
wrote in message
...
Ok, I'm looking for the hottest value (price/performance) AMD
motherboard/4 gig ram/CPU/Vid card combo today.

But ...... there are limits. I don't want to go over $1000. Less is
better. 4 Gig ram is minimum. USB 3.0 would be very cool. Must be
compatible with 32 bit XP and Linux.



I'd like to get as close as possible to 4ghz on the processor.

You should start with some benchmarking web sites,
that have a dollars versus performance chart, if that's
what you really want.

For example, the AMD Athlon II X3 445 is a $74 triple core processor,
that has a high "value" in the chart. So you'd be getting a lot
of performance per dollar. It runs at 3.1GHz.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Searching for the highest clock rate, might not result in the
processor with the highest "value" metric. That's why you
have to search that chart using virtually all the data, to find
a nice compromise choice. People are seldom happy with the CPU that has
the highest "value". They usually take one of lesser value, with
a higher clock.

The motherboard, really isn't a "performance" issue as such. That
is because the RAM connects directly to the AMD processor. The
chipset supports "features", such as build-in graphics, SATA
ports, USB3 (if available), and so on. You have to decide what
features are "must have", to make the decision there. For
example, if you were running a CrossFire or SLI video card
config (two video cards), that would be an "upscale" motherboard.
Spending the extra money, only makes sense if you need those
particular slots.

Also, when buying the motherboard, if your processor is a power
hog, like one of the 140W processors, you need a motherboard
that can power it. Not all the $50 motherboards can do that.
So that's another selection criterion, Vcore power. The
motherboard company CPU compatibility chart, is how you figure
that out. For example, on Asus, you can type in the exact CPU type
you plan to buy, and they'll give you a list of all the motherboards
that support it.

(Try the menu in the middle)
http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusuppor...Language=en-us

RAM is, well, RAM. Look at what the stock setting is on the
motherboard, and buy some RAM for it. Check the Newegg
reviews, for products with good reviews. If lots of the
RAM is coming back in a month with "dead sticks", you don't
want to buy it.

For a video card, are you a gamer, or do you do nothing but web
surf and Microsoft Office ? No sense wasting money if
you're not a gamer. There, a $50 video card (or even the
built-in motherboard video), might be good enough for web
surfing and movie watching. If you plan on using the
video card as a GPGPU compute engine, then that might be
another reason to shop more carefully. In that case, you
have to find out what software does stuff like that first,
to figure out whether you need a good video card for
such a purpose.

$1000 would buy a pretty nice system. But you should list
your real requirements first, so we understand what you
want out of it. Maybe a $100 video card is enough, then
when we hear your gaming requirements, the solution is
a $500 card.

Paul

"Paul" wrote in message
...

$1000 would buy a pretty nice system. But you should list
your real requirements first, so we understand what you
want out of it. Maybe a $100 video card is enough, then
when we hear your gaming requirements, the solution is
a $500 card.

Paul




Great info .... thanks to you both.

Use for the system would be dual boot CAD, multimedia, games, web, office
stuff. Looking for long term use without upgrades. Prefer to not have
integrated video.



--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

wrote:
Ok, I'm looking for the hottest value (price/performance) AMD motherboard/4
gig ram/CPU/Vid card combo today.

But ...... there are limits. I don't want to go over $1000. Less is
better. 4 Gig ram is minimum. USB 3.0 would be very cool. Must be
compatible with 32 bit XP and Linux.

So ... what brands and models do you recommend?



--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

Do you really need 6 cores?

You can easily overclock this 4 core setup to 3.8/3.9 -- some have even
claimed 4.0 ...

Processor:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB
L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
$165.99 Item#: N82E16819103727
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

Cooler:
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible
RR-B10-212P-G1 120mm "heatpipe direct contact" Long life sleeve CPU Cooler
-- also fits socket AM3, what the board & processor listed here are.
$29.99 Item#: N82E16835103065
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

Thermal Compound:
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
$9.99 Item#: N82E16835100007
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007

Arctic Silver ACN-60ML (2-PC-SET) Thermal material Remover & Surface
Purifier - OEM
$9.95 Item#: N82E16835100010
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100010

Board:
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard Xtreme Design w/
CrossFireX, DDR3 1800
$98.99 Item#: N82E16813131402
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-402-_-Product


Memory:
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3
12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM
$77.99 Item#: N82E16820231278
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-279-_-Product


Video Card:
SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
$144.99 Item#: N82E16814102873
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

The thermal compound and compound removal kit is listed because the
processor comes with a stock cooler unsuitable for overclocking.

$537.99 + S&H

John

wrote:
"Paul" wrote in message
...
$1000 would buy a pretty nice system. But you should list
your real requirements first, so we understand what you
want out of it. Maybe a $100 video card is enough, then
when we hear your gaming requirements, the solution is
a $500 card.

Paul


Great info .... thanks to you both.

Use for the system would be dual boot CAD, multimedia, games, web, office
stuff. Looking for long term use without upgrades. Prefer to not have
integrated video.

There are a couple kinds of CAD. One kind uses "certified" drivers
and expensive FireGL cards. Is that the kind of CAD you're doing ?

What are you using at the moment for a video card ?

*******

For a processor, there are quad or hex core ones. On some benchmarks,
the hex core runs like a quad.

This is the highest clock rate on a quad, at 3.5GHz. This is a black
edition, meaning you can do a multiplier-only overclock, to increase
the clock rate. So that's basically "unlocked". You check the reviews
in the feedback tab, to find out how far it could be pushed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103894

It's hard to say, under what conditions the hex core would be faster.
In CPU bound benchmarks, cores * clock is higher, so you know it
will be faster. But in some of the reviews on the hex, certain programs
don't drive the cores to 100% utilization. (And while they don't say
as much, my hypothesis is the hex core is a bit memory starved.) So
under some situations, it stomps the quad. And in others, they're neck
and neck. The hex might be good for a server motherboard, but it's less
clear what kind of a desktop workload you'd need to get your money's worth.

This is a hex at 3.2GHz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103849

The hex core also has a turbo mode.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...6-1090t_3.html

So now perhaps, we're down to overclocking results, as to which
is the better deal.

*******

This doesn't look bad for a motherboard. It's got a couple video
card slots, SATA III, and USB3.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128435

Gigabyte provides architecture diagrams, so you can see how the
hardware is hooked up.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...id=3516#manual

ftp://download.gigabyte.ru/manual/mb...d3h_v2.1_e.pdf

The 890GX and 890FX are some possible chipsets. The 890FX gives
more lanes wired to the video card slots (this only makes
a difference, when you've plugged a PCI Express card into the
second large video slot.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...omparison.aspx

http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/im...ockdiagram.jpg

The reason I'm checking that, is to see how the USB3 chip is
connected. It connects to a PCI Express Rev2 x1 lane on the
890GX, and that means the USB3 chip will run at full speed.
Some motherboards have connected the NEC chip to Rev1 x1 lanes,
which gives lower speed (which you'll only be able to detect
when good peripherals come along next year). Currently, only
a certain BlackMagic USB3 video recorder has an issue with this.

This board has an 890FX, but the reviews suck. Too many broken ones.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131655

This is another 890FX, but it's kinda over the top, with four
PCI Express slots. It all depends on what cards you currently
own, as to whether that is a problem or not. It has one PCI slot,
which would be good for moving over an older PCI sound card
you've already got. So this one doesn't have integrated graphics,
but it has some other stuff you might not use. One
reviewer also claims, this board has ECC support in the
BIOS. I was curious as to whether AMD still offered that
or not. Sometimes, the necessary lanes on the DIMM slots
are wired, but the BIOS support is missing (and then you
can never be sure, before you buy it, that the ECC is
working or not). ECC memory, is for when you need more
visibility of memory errors.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128441

ftp://download.gigabyte.ru/manual/mb...ud5_v2.1_e.pdf

http://media.bestofmicro.com/T/R/248...ck-diagram.png

*******

For RAM, I'd probably try to put a two stick configuration in it.
Maybe 2x2GB. You could search for some ECC sticks if you want,
but if you're going with ordinary memory, this stuff is
pretty cheap. It wasn't that long ago, memory was $30 per
gigabyte. This is below $20 per gigabyte. Coolers are a bit
goofy looking.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231276

*******

So those are pretty easy choices. I don't know what to do about
video though. You probably know the video situation better than
I do.

This is a cheap FireGL board (for certified OpenGL). As video
cards go, this has a small memory, and 128 bit wide memory bus.
You could get a pretty nice gamer card for the same money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814195048

For not much more, a regular gamer card will also support
OpenGL at some level, but not with the same claimed driver
qualities as the other card. This'll dim the room lights, when
it does 3D.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130555

For video cards like that, it helps to get their power numbers,
so you can buy a big enough power supply.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...5_5.html#sect0

A GTX 465 is 224 watts.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video...x465_power.png

It has two auxiliary power connectors, each drawing 8.4 amps from
+12V while running Crysis, while the slot 12V pins provide 1.8 amps.
That's quite a few amps, considering the processor is going to be
drawing 12 amps or more itself. 30.6 amps for processor and video.
2.6 amps more for HDD, ODD, fans.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video...465_plines.png

This would be an example of a power supply to run a single GTX 465. 52 amps max.
It has two 6+2 connectors. You'd need a supply with four connectors
like that, if you ever wanted to run two monster video cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

You won't need quite that much, with a lower end card in place.
I bet that little FireGL card doesn't draw power like that.

*******

You can spend hours on this stuff.

Paul