Halo 1 & 2 for PC
This topic has moved here: Subject: Why do there have to be so many questions?
  • Subject: Why do there have to be so many questions?
Subject: Why do there have to be so many questions?
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Ok, I have some questions about computer hardware I would like answered before I look at specs for a new machine.

1. Is the x700 better or worse than the 6600 gt?
2. What is the differnence in performance, upgradability, and technological compatability terms between the A8N-SLI, the A8N-SLI Deluxe, the A8V Deluxe, and the A8V-E Deluxe besides the A8V deluxe having an AGP slot instead of a PCIe?
3. How much of a difference will I see between 512Mb and 1Gb of RAM?
4. Is it worth the extra money?
5. What is low latency RAM and how will it affect the performance of my machine?
6. Is it worth it?
7. What is dual channel RAM and how will it affect the performance of my machine?
8. Is it worth it?
9. Can I get low latency, dual channel RAM (I am just making sure)?
10. You guessed it, is it worth it?
11. What are some good RAM manufacturers?
12. Would I be better getting an AMD Athlon 64 3000, 3200,or 3400?
13. Would it be better to get a lesser CPU then upgrade when I need it more?
14. Would I be better geting an Intel processor?

I would be using this computer mostly for gaming but I will be surfing the web and doing other normal computer stuff with it. I won't be doing any heavy-duty multimedia editing with it, although I might do a little bit.


  • 04.21.2005 2:59 PM PDT

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Eagerly awaiting answers to 1-11

12& 13) My thinking get the 3000. It will run any game out there and the money you save goes towards better video card which is the most important factor in 3d gaming. Later you can upgrade it if necassary.

14) No way! AMD is better for gaming and equal to Intel in most other respects. Why pay more for Intel?

  • 04.21.2005 3:43 PM PDT
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That was my thinking too but ya never know. I haven't priced things out but if theres only like $50 difference between the 3000 and 3400, I will get the 3400. I won't be able to get all the parts for the computer at once so I can get ones that are alittle more expensive than if I was getting them all at once.

  • 04.21.2005 5:05 PM PDT
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Heres a question: Why do u have to be so annoying by asking all those questions, chewy? nah just kidding.

1. The x700 better than the 6600 gt? Now unless, u happen to think the one that has the bigger numbers is better. the 6600 gt is SOOOOOO much better than the awful, piece of crap, the x700. Do not go to Bad Buy, or JunkUSA to get the 6600 gt. Buy an XFX or Evga 6600 gt.

2. Theres a lot of difference between slots chewy. AGP is SO old these ddays. Get the pci-express mobo. Get this: A8N-E motherboard
I don not suggest u get the a8n-sli unless u have a big budget. The pci-express, come with a onboard firewall, more options, and hyper transport technology, and SATA connections.

3. There is a diffrence between 512 RAM, and 1024 RAM. RAM is where the pc temporarily stores files, like a game. It uses memory space to run a p[rocess there. The more RAM the more faster a game will be cuz it can have more space to store it's data, (ex. When u kill a grunt in halo, it stores the data u killed a grunt in that RAM. Thats why a dead grunt never comes alive again.) So, if you have low RAM, the computer will take time trying to clear and search for RAM to store data. Therefore, that is known as lag. The computer will freeze for a moment to find RAm areas. If u have more RAM, the quicker that process will be and the game won't lag. However, 512 and 1024 are both substancial amounts of RAM, and it doesn't matter (in my opinion how much RAM u get.)

There u happy now Chewy?

  • 04.21.2005 5:31 PM PDT
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1. 6600GT by far

2. A8N SLI allows dual PCI-e graphics card, A8V are AGP. A8N SLI is pretty much the A8N SLI Deluxe. Not much different, but go for PCI-e.

3. Not much. Trust me...I have 2x256MB of high quality, low latency, overclockable RAM, and it runs better than the gig I have in my server. 512MB is enough for 1-2 more years, then when dual cores hit and game physics and such get really demanding - then it's on! You will need a gig then, but that's a ways away. Best, at least in my opinion, to get lower latency and a little less of it now.

4. Depends. If you want to overclock, 512MB may be more than a gig of crap RAM. But if you don't care....at any rate, buying more ram is cheaper per MB than buying less.

5. Low latency RAM...latency is how many clock cycles per second the RAM waits to do something and holds it in its banks. Example: 2 clock cycles to move froms CAS to RAS block banks. Lower latency on an AMD is a lot better than low latency on Intel - AMD seems to rely heavier on it for some reason. 2-2-2-5 is the best out there (PQI makes the cheapest low latency, and really it's better than most of the others), but 2.5-3-3-7 is cool. After that it gets sketchy...

6. For me, I overclock and yes it is worth it. However, if you just want it to run at 200MHz, then get normal latency, CL 2.5 or CL 3 is fine then.

7. There is no dual channel ram, per say, it is the placement. Dual channel means running two identical sticks of memory in dual channel slots (DIMM's 1 and 2 on my board). This doubles the bandwidth of the memory, widening the data transfer, and is really the biggest gain to using socket 939. Companies sell two sticks of identical ram for the most part. For example, I have 2x256 in one pc and 2x512 in another.
8. Yes. There is hardly a point to socket 939 without dual channel ram. Might as well go 754 then, if you don't have it.

9. Since there is no 'dual channel' ram, it's the same as any other DDR...so yes, low latency dual channel setups are possible, in fact they're the norm these days.

10. Ye if you want good ram and like to overclock or have a bit more speed, no if you don't give a crap.

11. Corsair [XMS series], PQI [Turbo series], Crucial [Ballistix series], Patriot, Kingston [Hyper-X], OCZ [VX series]. Which one is the best price to performance ratio? PQI's Turbo series. Which is the best overall? Surprisingly, PQI's Turbo and Crucial Ballistix. PQI Turbo outperforms almost all other brands in benchmarks and is the best overclocker besides OCZ VX, which requires 50% more voltage.

12. Well, 3400 is extremely rare in socket 939, you probably won't find it, and if you do, probably mismarked. 3200 is the best price to performance there and usually overclocks well. Mine has a 25% overclock right now.

13. Depends what you have now, I suppose. I see my 3200 lasting two years before it needs to be replaced by an FX (prices should drop over the years, and also drop a lot when dual cores come out...)

14. Depends. If you're into gaming and normal work, AMD. If you do a lot of audio/video editing and recording, and you are hardcore about it (we're talking encoding dvd-length movies), then Intel is better. However, AMD is much cheaper. I mean, in benchmarks my 179 dollar CPU performs better than an 800 dollar Intel in the gaming department, and performs a lot better, but at the same time gets served in encoding and such. If you can't spend more than 400 for a CPU, AMD is where it's at.

And another note on RAM: The best is Samsung TCCD...OCZ VX and PQI Turbo use that, alnog with a Brainpower-PCB. PCB is the green board stuff on all of your components - Brainpower PCB is faster and runs cooler. The same goes for Samsung TCCD - best overclocker right there.

  • 04.21.2005 6:07 PM PDT
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The A8N-E is basicaly the A8N SLI with only one PCIe slot right? If I go to the asus website I can't find the A8N-E. They only show the socket 939 motherboards I have mentioned. Ah well. Which ever one is cheaper, eh? So I will probably won't see a difference with 1 gig of ram. What about the low latency part? I don't really understand what the 2-2-2-5 means.

[Edited on 4/21/2005]

  • 04.21.2005 6:17 PM PDT
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chewy, ur upgrade'll cost u about 500.00-600.00. Just to let you know.

Anyways, go on pricewatch.com not BadBuy or CrapUSA. They offer great prices there. Buy a athlon 64 3200 or 3000. Then a a8n-e motherboard i showed you in my earlier link. Then, a geforce 6600 gt pci express video card, and aprobably 2 sticks of PQI 256 megabyte RAM.(low latency of course)

  • 04.21.2005 6:35 PM PDT
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That would be what I am thinking right now. I will have to get a hard drive and a power supply because the case I will using has a crappy PSU and the hard drive is only 6Gb and is full. Hell, I might even buy a new case, they aren't that expensive.

  • 04.21.2005 7:02 PM PDT
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Places to compare prices at (MANY NOT LISTED on pircewatch or those others, but go there, too):

zipzoomfly.com
newegg.com (of course)
xpcgear.com
directron.com
xoxide.com and vpyeurmods.com [only sell fans, cases, and other mods]
tigerdirect.com
eWiz.com
monarchcomputer.com
dealsonic.com (just got a package from them today)

I have ordered from the lot of them, and have never had a service issue, not to mention each has had the lowest price on something I've needed at one time or another. Some have better selection but higher prices, like newegg. Others have low prices but a bit tighter, like dealsonic or monarch or xpc. All depends...

Price is 600-750 max, my guess. Always think about shipping costs too. Some like ZZF provide it free.

  • 04.21.2005 7:09 PM PDT
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nah, unless its atx it'll be fine. Get a 80 gb HD with 7200 RPM. I'm drooling at ur new machine chewy.

  • 04.21.2005 7:10 PM PDT
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Well I live in canada and I have been to some of those sites before for other things and I caouldn't tell if they would ship to canada. I know tigerdirect has a canadian side but I don't know about those other ones. Its not my new machine yet, I still have to get my dad to agree but I think he will, sooner or later. Hopefully by the end of may / early june. I have heard about AMD dual cores, is that just basicaly 2 CPUs? When are they coming out cause that will be when prices drop.

  • 04.22.2005 8:58 AM PDT
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Chewy go on monarch computer.com. Go here:
here

customize ur pc, and buy it!

[Edited on 4/22/2005]

  • 04.22.2005 12:45 PM PDT
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Thats a confusing site, and they don't have the A8N-E board or PQI ram. I just kinda made a computer close to what I would get if I wasn't using them and I didn't even know what half the stuff was. Thats the good part about going to an actual store.

  • 04.22.2005 7:11 PM PDT
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don NOT go to Bad Buy, or Dumb USA to get your parts. Instead, buy it on zipzoomfly.com. It has PQI RAM. Also, newegg is very good.

  • 04.22.2005 8:59 PM PDT
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Yes, 512MB is fine for now. In a year or so, maybe a bit more 1 gig will start to be a necessity. Low latency, like I said, is for the OC and benchmark enthusiast. At any rate, the PQI delivers 2-2-2-5 at the price of 3-3-3-7 from other companies. You can get 2x256 3-3-3-7 for about 60 bucks...

Then again, if you're on a budget and do not want to overclock much at all, Corsair value ram is perfectly fine, and you can get 2x512 for under $100.

Hmm, not sure about the shipping. Call up the companies.

[Edited on 4/22/2005]

  • 04.22.2005 9:42 PM PDT
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i can't find RAM at 2-2-2-5, so i'm 2.5-something-something-something.
Corsair value RAMS good, and i might wanna get some too. However, i still might want PQI turbo RAM.

  • 04.23.2005 8:12 AM PDT
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What does the 2-2-2-5 mean? Also, whos core should I look for in he processor? I found a Winchestor, and a Venice one. The other sites I went towere all winchestor or didn't say. How powerfull should my PSU be?

[Edited on 4/23/2005]

  • 04.23.2005 3:44 PM PDT
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Chewy, unless you are rich, get an antec 400 watt power supply. (about 80.00)

2-2-2-5 is a latency. Buy the PQI turbo RAM. BUy 2x256 mb turbo RAM.

I'm not sure waht cores are though..................

  • 04.23.2005 7:06 PM PDT
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Newcastle core runs hot, oldest core.

Winchester is about one year old, runs cooler, very nice, I've got one.

Venice cores are new, not sure but I believe they run even cooler. However, they will be utilizing a better proccess and chip layout, so if you can get one, by all means do.


And anyway, while I'm at it...cores are the actual internal design and package in the processor. It's pretty much the layout of the transistors, caches, etc, plus the process, 130 or 90 nanometer. There are many different cores that exist for AMD, such as winchester, venice, newcastle, hammer, clawhammer, thoroughbred and barton (good old days). They are the sub-class of the processor type, for instance clawhammer, newcastle, venice, and winchester are AMD 64 and FX cores, while hammer is an Opteron core.

Maybe there's an Ultimate CPU Guide in the works...

[Edited on 4/23/2005]

  • 04.23.2005 8:26 PM PDT
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Thanks. Guess how much shipping I would have to pay to get something from ZZF. $64.92 amereican. Thats insane!!!!

  • 04.24.2005 7:20 AM PDT