RLGaming.com

Well folks, I got a wild hair up my ass tonight and decided to do a complete system upgrade/overhaul. My current computer is 3.2 years old and with the recent aqcuisition (today ) of my new 24" WS DELL monitor, I felt I needed to just say fu*k it and go crazy. This is my future system:

-- ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
-- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Manchester 1GHz HT 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail
-- XFX PV-T71F-YDL9 GeForce 7900 GTX (650MHz) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
-- COOLMAX CW-650T EPS12V 650W Aluminum ATX v2.01 APFC Power Supply w/ "SLI" - Retail - Retail
-- (2x) CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail (4GB Total)
-- (2x) SATA II 250G Western Digital HDs

Don't ask how much all of this cost, but I'll just say it wasn't cheap. :shock:

Yup! Very nice. Mine has asked me to price up what I would need to upgrade, so I expect she'll be letting me off the lead sometime soon too. And I was looking at a similar spec, not sure about the X2 Athlon though, I might prefer to go for the FX57.

what is the vertical size of the display area on the monitor? please...

14.5"H x 22"W

Hope that helps.

Is that height inclusive of the shell of the monitor, or is that purely the monitor viewable screen height? My monitor is 21.3" screen size, height of screen (viewable monitor screen height) is approx 13.5"

no bezel included in that measurement, right SB?

The measurement includes the monitor edges, it does NOT include the stand. The actual screen area is 20 1/2" x 12 3/4".

thx...

wow, almost .9 inches of bezel on the outside?

Looking at getting a new system myself. The current machine must be about the same age as your old one SB, so needs a bit of an overhaul. I was thinking of just upgrading and tweaking a few bits and pieces, but decided that i should just go and upgrade the whole lot while i can afford it (and hope that it lasts me another 3 years plus )

Looking at getting an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core, Gigabyte K8N Pro SLLI - 939, a Gig of RAM, a 256MB GeForce 6800GS PCI-e, and all the usual trimmings in terms of drives etc. Not the most powerful one on the market, but the pocket won't stretch that far (but God bless the government for my student loan anyway!! ), but it should do for a while....get me playing BF2 without worrying about any stuttering anyway

guys,
you realize that dual core will not really do you much good - right? if available, you shouold get a higher clocked processor for the same money rather than dual core. it definitely won't help with games, and very little software that we use will take advantage of the two cores. i know SB does some rendering so the software he uses MIGHT... what apps do you use Moose?

0.9" is about right Steel, a somewhat thin border for such a big screen.

Yes, I have some software (ProCoder 2.0, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0) that I use to convert videos with, I'm sure the dual core will help speed up that process. I am more or less getting a dual core system for future use. I am hoping that software programmers will utilize the dual core configuration in games at some point.

I have to find another source for the RAM I ordered, they sent me a message saying that it is back-ordered 2-4 weeks. Lame. I am thinking of just cancelling the order for the RAM and go with Crucial, I have had good experience with them in the past. We'll see, I really want the Corsair XMS stuff if I can find it. I just don't want to pay a fortune for it, I've already paid enough as it is.

[quote="Softball"] I am more or less getting a dual core system for future use. I am hoping that software programmers will utilize the dual core configuration in games at some point.

quote]

Pretty much the same reason

Actually, you may benefit from the dual core stuff. I'd be willing to bet that some of the game engines that are being used (ie Havok physics, EAX, Miles, etc ...) will implicitly benefit from it. Heck, I notice that even simple stuff I write at work spreads across the two cores in my system.

Also, since the OS can utilize the dual cores natively, you WILL benefit since there are many processes running in the background while you game -- even if you are diligent and turn off the big ones like Antivirus, etc.

This would not be true of whatever that pseudo dual core thing that Intel had (hyperthreading?) since that was not really two procs. Dual core is really two procs on the die.

If I am wrong, I hope someone will explain here. It's now the time where many of us will be presented with the question of dual or single core.

i think vista will be the first general os that will do things correctly as you descibe Gator - other than linux/unix. right now what i see is most/all the first cpu gets hit first, then stuff rolls to the second. now, i have not worked on a dual core system myself yet - so dual core may actually work better than dual cpu...and there may be some benefit. i will do some testing at work if i get a chance.

Yes, I read an article that states something similar as to what Steel has explained, the second CPU get used as an overflow in effect. I've noticed also that the same is somewhat true of dual graphics card set-up at the moment. A recent 'heat' experiment on a few systems in one of my PC mags discovered a very biased heat concentration around the main GPU, indicating that it was working harder than the the secondary. This of course, is just one part of the evidence. BUt would lend credence to the theory of 2nd CPU = overflow, in both cases.

SB,
try monarch computer and newegg for your ram...

What is the advantage of buying there, price or something else?

I buy all my stuff from New Egg. Good prices, good shipping and handling. Reliable. My case came in btw, I gotta have my friend install this stuff for me now. I should take a blood and guts course in computers so I wouldn't have to bother folks.

SB: sell your old stuff here on the forum so that guys like me can pick up some newer stuff!

Right, I have alink for Newegg, but Monarch I guess is .com eh? I'll take a look at their stuff too. Kerrie has invited me to look into what I need to update to something more current. I had initially intended only to go for an FX57 chip but Steel mentioned there that 'Vista' will take advantage of dual CPU. Puts me a little in two minds again. But unless it is going to be of decent advantage, it would probably be pointless at the moment, eh?
Anyone care to shed some light on whether it is likely to be of more benefit? Or do you think I'd do better to stay with the FX55/57 CPU?

google search resuylts page for monarch computer...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=monarch+computer

it is a place i have found to be very reasonable. they don't have everything though.