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**Fox Slaughter** · February 16th, 2012, 07:56 PM

Build a 6 core AMD with Cross-Fire setup.

**SoulTerror** · February 16th, 2012, 08:57 PM

Seems like a good price.

**93formulalt1** · February 16th, 2012, 09:59 PM

Originally posted by Fox Slaughter View Post

Build a 6 core AMD with Cross-Fire setup.

I'm sorry to sound stupid, but I don't even know what that means. . . lol

The desktop setup is going to be built "on the cheap", I'm hoping to have less than $1,200 total into the whole setup, including peripherals (2 monitors, cables, keyboard/mouse, printer/scanner/copier, etc.). Just because I'm on a budget though, doesn't mean I'm cutting corners. I'm going to build the best computer I can for the cost. If you have suggestions that could help me build a potent computer, or if you want to help me pick out parts, please shoot me a PM, I would really appreciate the help.

**SoulTerror** · February 17th, 2012, 06:41 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_CrossFireX

**93formulalt1** · February 17th, 2012, 07:12 PM

Originally posted by SoulTerror View Post

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_CrossFireX

Thanks for that. . . I had never heard of that before. I'll look into it, hopefully it doesn't cost too much more than an Intel board. Is it still true that the AMD processors run hotter than their Intel counterparts?

**TrickyTransAm** · February 17th, 2012, 09:00 PM

Yep, and they take more battery power... plus, AMD chipsets commonly use NVidia chipsets, which can be hit or miss.
I have more dead mobo AMD laptops on my bench than Intel. AMD makes good processors that are cheap and fast, but the downfall is the chipsets that they mate them to.
HP has had numerous massive recalls on their units due to using these cheap motherboard/chipset combos.

AMD's are good for the basic home user on a budget, but in my opinion and experience, if you want to use it in the years to come, stick with an Intel.

If you are going to build one, stick with an Intel I5 based setup. I7 if you are really doing intensive work.
Asus, Biostar, FIC, Foxconn, and MSI boards are usually very good.
Gigabyte boards are just trash in my experience and I do not build systems with them anymore due to the high warranty return.
You could build an Intel socket 775 setup for the cheap, but motherboards are becoming obsolete with the big push to the new "I" core processors.
The Core 2 Duo processors with 1333mhz front side bus matched to 1333mhz ram and a 7200rpm spin drive will do just about everything you need it to do, but on a budget, since its not the latest stuff.

LG DVD drives are the way to go - LiteOn drives are crap (I replaced every one under warranty)
Pick your power supply with good solid amperage on the 3.3V, 5V and 12V rails. A cheap power supply will have light amperage ratings.

If you are looking for massive amounts of memory, you'll need to move to a 64 bit operating system in Windows.
Stay away from 250gb hard drives - they have a very high failure rate. Go with a 320gb or 500gb for cheap. Sata II 3.0gb/sec or Sata III if affordable.

Or.... save your money and buy a Dell XPS and be done with it.

Oh.... one word on "rediculous amounts of ram" just remember the more memory you have, the more errors you'll have. If you go with more than 8gb, I'd check into ECC ram to cut down on the amount of errors.

**SoulTerror** · February 17th, 2012, 10:36 PM

I've always felt Intels ran hotter. My old gaming rig had an AMD CPU and it was fine. My current laptop runs AMD as well, but it's not used for gaming.

**93formulalt1** · February 18th, 2012, 01:41 AM

Originally posted by TrickyTransAm View Post

Yep, and they take more battery power... plus, AMD chipsets commonly use NVidia chipsets, which can be hit or miss.
I have more dead mobo AMD laptops on my bench than Intel. AMD makes good processors that are cheap and fast, but the downfall is the chipsets that they mate them to.
HP has had numerous massive recalls on their units due to using these cheap motherboard/chipset combos.

AMD's are good for the basic home user on a budget, but in my opinion and experience, if you want to use it in the years to come, stick with an Intel.

If you are going to build one, stick with an Intel I5 based setup. I7 if you are really doing intensive work.
Asus, Biostar, FIC, Foxconn, and MSI boards are usually very good.
Gigabyte boards are just trash in my experience and I do not build systems with them anymore due to the high warranty return.
You could build an Intel socket 775 setup for the cheap, but motherboards are becoming obsolete with the big push to the new "I" core processors.
The Core 2 Duo processors with 1333mhz front side bus matched to 1333mhz ram and a 7200rpm spin drive will do just about everything you need it to do, but on a budget, since its not the latest stuff.

LG DVD drives are the way to go - LiteOn drives are crap (I replaced every one under warranty)
Pick your power supply with good solid amperage on the 3.3V, 5V and 12V rails. A cheap power supply will have light amperage ratings.

If you are looking for massive amounts of memory, you'll need to move to a 64 bit operating system in Windows.
Stay away from 250gb hard drives - they have a very high failure rate. Go with a 320gb or 500gb for cheap. Sata II 3.0gb/sec or Sata III if affordable.

Or.... save your money and buy a Dell XPS and be done with it.

Oh.... one word on "rediculous amounts of ram" just remember the more memory you have, the more errors you'll have. If you go with more than 8gb, I'd check into ECC ram to cut down on the amount of errors.

I was originally planning an I5 setup with an ASUS mobo, running dual graphics cards (thinking a pair of GeForce GTX 460's, they are available with multiple options as far as monitor hookups, I'll run 2x DVI connections on one, 1x DVI an 1x HDMI connection on the other). I don't need a whole lot of video memory, since I won't be gaming, but I would like to eliminate any lagging when playing movies on the projector and working on the other three monitors. I'm sure I could live with less than three monitors, but I think it would be a nice feature to have, and I know I'd get my mileage out of it. As far as storage space, I want to run the OS and heavy usage program files on a 600mb/s SSD, probably a 128gb, and have a single 1TB HDD to handle file storage and the like. That would seriously decrease load times for all the programs I use, plus reduce issues caused by hard drive failures that I've encountered in the past running a single HDD setup. I may have a second 1TB drive installed inside the unit as well, to use exclusively for file backups, but I may just go with an external drive for that. Still undecided. Audio card will be something compatible with the 7.1 surround receiver that drives my home theater setup. I don't have any specifics in mind for that.

I didn't realize that running more than 8gb of RAM increased failure rates. I'll probably just stick with 8gb then, I don't see myself needing anything more than that anyway. The most demanding software I currently use is AutoCAD and PhotoShop, and they both run fine on my MacBook, so I'm pretty sure that regardless of the amount of RAM, I won't have any issues once I get the desktop built.

Back to the processor thing, I've always run Intel chips in my computers, I don't think I've ever had an AMD computer. Even when I was running Win 3.1 on a 386 machine, it had an Intel chip. haha Never had a processor issue until the heatsink in my last Pentium 4 machine failed and caused the CPU to overheat, but that wasn't Intel's fault, we got a defective heatsink.

**Fox Slaughter** · February 18th, 2012, 01:23 PM

Originally posted by 93formulalt1 View Post

I'm sorry to sound stupid, but I don't even know what that means. . . lol

The desktop setup is going to be built "on the cheap", I'm hoping to have less than $1,200 total into the whole setup, including peripherals (2 monitors, cables, keyboard/mouse, printer/scanner/copier, etc.). Just because I'm on a budget though, doesn't mean I'm cutting corners. I'm going to build the best computer I can for the cost. If you have suggestions that could help me build a potent computer, or if you want to help me pick out parts, please shoot me a PM, I would really appreciate the help.

For 1200 you can build a crazy computer.

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

This processor is sick. I know people that are pushing it to almost 4 ghz a core. Thats without liquid cooling.

Intel 3.2 ghz is like a 2.8 on AMD. AMD processes faster and now that they own ATI, they work awesome together.

**93formulalt1** · February 18th, 2012, 06:04 PM

Originally posted by Fox Slaughter View Post

For 1200 you can build a crazy computer.

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

This processor is sick. I know people that are pushing it to almost 4 ghz a core. Thats without liquid cooling.

Intel 3.2 ghz is like a 2.8 on AMD. AMD processes faster and now that they own ATI, they work awesome together.

You have to keep in mind, however, that I'm not going to be doing too much crazy stuff with this computer. It's going to be used for file storage, maintaining financial records, editing videos and photos, checking email, and maintaining a couple of websites. I really don't need anything too powerful. Heck, I'm thinking at this point that I may be better off buying a used quad-core Intel desktop, upgrading the video card and adding another, and just running things that way. I've never messed with a dual-video card setup before, so I really have no idea what I need to watch out for in a computer, but I'm pretty sure that there are a few options out there as far as an off-the-shelf Dell or Gateway or something that can handle a second video card and still offer respectable performance.

**93formulalt1** · February 20th, 2012, 12:48 PM

Bump

Both computers still for sale

**93formulalt1** · February 20th, 2012, 07:32 PM

Panasonic Toughbook is Pending Sale. Acer is still available.

**93formulalt1** · February 20th, 2012, 10:55 PM

Toughbook is sold. Thanks, Jentry! I'll get it shipped out tomorrow, and you'll get a PM with tracking info as soon as it's ready to go.

**sman** · February 21st, 2012, 08:52 AM

Originally posted by TrickyTransAm View Post

Yep, and they take more battery power... plus, AMD chipsets commonly use NVidia chipsets, which can be hit or miss.
I have more dead mobo AMD laptops on my bench than Intel. AMD makes good processors that are cheap and fast, but the downfall is the chipsets that they mate them to.
HP has had numerous massive recalls on their units due to using these cheap motherboard/chipset combos.

While this was true, you do know Nvidia doesnt make chipsets anymore right? The last one was the 980a. Almost all new AMD stuff uses AMD chipsets. It was also only related to chipsets that had onboard graphics.

AMD's are good for the basic home user on a budget, but in my opinion and experience, if you want to use it in the years to come, stick with an Intel.

If you are going to build one, stick with an Intel I5 based setup. I7 if you are really doing intensive work.
Asus, Biostar, FIC, Foxconn, and MSI boards are usually very good.
Gigabyte boards are just trash in my experience and I do not build systems with them anymore due to the high warranty return.
You could build an Intel socket 775 setup for the cheap, but motherboards are becoming obsolete with the big push to the new "I" core processors.
The Core 2 Duo processors with 1333mhz front side bus matched to 1333mhz ram and a 7200rpm spin drive will do just about everything you need it to do, but on a budget, since its not the latest stuff.
x2, Had great luck with all of the boards listed. And over the last year we RMA'd 100 gigabyte boards, all were within 12 months of purchase.

LG DVD drives are the way to go - LiteOn drives are crap (I replaced every one under warranty)
Pick your power supply with good solid amperage on the 3.3V, 5V and 12V rails. A cheap power supply will have light amperage ratings.

If you are looking for massive amounts of memory, you'll need to move to a 64 bit operating system in Windows.
Stay away from 250gb hard drives - they have a very high failure rate. Go with a 320gb or 500gb for cheap. Sata II 3.0gb/sec or Sata III if affordable.

Or.... save your money and buy a Dell XPS and be done with it.

Oh.... one word on "rediculous amounts of ram" just remember the more memory you have, the more errors you'll have. If you go with more than 8gb, I'd check into ECC ram to cut down on the amount of errors.

I must say though, I wouldnt waste my money with a core 2 setup.

You can pickup a decent MSI, Foxconn, or Asus board for less than a $100. Socket AM3
Athlon II x2 255 3.1Ghz dual core - $62
8GB DDR3 Ram - $45
500GB hard drive - $110
Decent case and power supply - $100
Cd drive - $20

If youve got your own OS your out the door for around $450, with a very capable system. If your gonna play games throw a budget card in and your good to go. If you want to do some serious gaming pickup an AMD 6950 card.

The AMD platform has tons of power, and you could always spend more money and get a 6 core Phenom 1100T for it. Its all the same socket unlike Intels junk, they have 4 sockets for the Core i products?

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