sonicyouth
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« Reply #45 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 12:05:07 » |
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Slight change of topic again but I'm looking at building a new PC and I've specced up the following with a little help from a friend:
[url width=900 height=555]http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a251/jehst/pcspec.jpg[/url]
Any thoughts?
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sheepshagger
Suburban Capitalist........
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« Reply #46 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 13:01:57 » |
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yeah - don't buy an MSI 6950 - buy a Sapphire dual fan edition 6950
They are quieter and can be overclocked up to 6970 speeds as they also have a dual bios to do this....
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Peter Venkman
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« Reply #47 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 13:50:20 » |
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Well Sonic IMO can I offer you a couple of pointers that if I was building a PC fro someone I would advise them to do.....
The Phenom 960T is a poor processor in comparison to the much much better 2500k i5 even though the 2500k is £50 more it would give you about 25-30% better performance, in games it is nearer 50% better performance, I have made builds with the Phenom and they are sluggish in comparison, noticably sluggish.
You wont really need 16gb memory, anything over 8gb is just willy waving exercises and you will probably never ever use that even if you do huge amounts of photoshopping.
If you get a 2500k then you use a much smalled SSD which would be far cheaper and used in conjunction with the Z68 motherboard you can use it as a hybrid hard drive/SSD so you can buy a 60gb SSD and a 1gb HD like a Samsung spinpoint, giving you the best of both worlds for speed and capacity.
The 6950 isnt a bad graphics card but again for a basic gaming PC but you would be beter served by an Nvidia 570 for a similar price but better performance.
PS Sheepshagger....the Sapphire dual bios 6950 cannot now be flashed to a 6970 as they have changed the chips now negating the possibility of flashing them, they are now locked, that is unless you can find one that will work which is as rare as rocking horse shit now cos they have pretty much all been bought already. AMD have stopped producing the upgradable 6950 chipset about 4 months ago and will not ever produce them again so this loophole is no longer available.
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stfcinbmth
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« Reply #48 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 14:31:13 » |
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yeah - don't buy an MSI 6950 - buy a Sapphire dual fan edition 6950
They are quieter and can be overclocked up to 6970 speeds as they also have a dual bios to do this....
http://tinyurl.com/c5zxxqb |
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sheepshagger
Suburban Capitalist........
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« Reply #50 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 15:51:02 » |
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Sorry JJ I know you are somewhat of an expert in the PC field but on this particular point you are wrong.
the newer Sapphire 6950 Dual Fan also has a dual bios and can be easily overclocked to 6970 performance
This is not limited to older parts. AMD didn't stop producing this 4 months ago - they have been supplying ASIC's until around 2 weeks ago - it is now going end of life to be replaced by the new arriving 7k series.
I'm not too sure that the 570 is 25% higher FPS than a 6950 which is overclocked - that would completely depend on the game - certainly some games run better on a 570 and some better on a 6950 although I would concede the 570 is "slightly" quicker overall
However for other things like Eyefinity (3 screen setup) and transcoding video AMD beats Nvidia hands down....
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Peter Venkman
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« Reply #51 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 16:04:27 » |
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You may be correct but I do remember reading in the several computing press association articles that AMD had stopped making the chip, sorry if this is incorrect but I am only stating what I have read, maybe it was put out to stop people trying the flash bios and getting something for free, I am not sure on that.
The comparison of clock speeds was based upon a standard 6950 or even a flashed to 6970 card agaibst a standard 570, e.g. not overclocked as ina ctual fact the 570 overclocks far better than the 6950 but as you say there are a few games that the 6950 does indeed run faster than the 570 but in the main there is a fairly big gap.
I myself run a pair of 5970's and have no problem but £ for £ the 570 is a better single card option than the AMD in most peoples opinions with benchmarks to back this up.
I also personally would not change from my pair of 5970's because they will beat any single card option witht he possible exception of the 590 which is a stupidly expensive option!
I dont know anyone that runs a multi screen set up for home use either so I personally would not use the eyefinity as a selling point.
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« Last Edit: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 16:06:40 by JJEdmunds »
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Peter Venkman
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« Reply #52 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 16:08:14 » |
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Sorry double post wouldnt let me delete one!  |
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sheepshagger
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« Reply #53 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 16:09:28 » |
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I think to be fair the 6950 dual bios was stopped then re-introduced .....
To be honest if someone was prepared to wait - the best option is to wait for the 7xxx series that AMD will launch in January
7970 is first - ridiculously expensive but beats the 590 hands down, and Nvidia will have nothing to come back with for 4-6 months...
There will be cards down in the mainstream based on 7xxx which is why the 6950 and 6970 are going end of life currently
There is definitely going to be more "bang for your buck" coming in the next 4-6 weeks from AMD as they pretty much refresh the complete line up....
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Peter Venkman
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« Reply #54 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 16:28:39 » |
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You are certainly correct there, the new 7 series AMD is worth waiting for but I do think the January release date may be a little optomistic as always with AMD!
There will be a shortage of 7970's and a price that will be huge to start with rumoured to be $549 or £450 which is a bit pricey!
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sheepshagger
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« Reply #55 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 16:40:02 » |
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JJ I have to admit to having a bit of an inside track here - I run Sapphire for Northern Europe  7970 launches Jan 9th (to co-incide with CES Vegas) - I have already shipped 350 pieces and will ship more over the next 2 weeks....There will be more launches but probably later in the month... |
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Peter Venkman
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« Reply #56 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 16:43:48 » |
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A nice job, I have used several Sapphire cards in my time, probably well over 100!
They arent bad cards at all, actually both my 5970's are Sapphire, but they do suffer from microstutter which is noticable to me, but thats a driver issue not a hardware issue.
the main question I do have is why is the US release price so much less than the UK release price? when the exchange rate is fairly good in our direction? always has been and always will be I suspect but why I do not know.
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sheepshagger
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« Reply #57 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 16:55:01 » |
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JJ it's mainly due to the way biz is done in the US - we sell directly to the New Eggs and others, and they have a LOT of mail in rebates which we just don't have in Europe.
The take up is around 6% of people actually sending in their rebates, so in reality it doesn't cost much to offer.
In the UK we sell through distributors who sell onto the likes of Scan, OCUK etc... so they take their cut and the etailers take theirs - etail generally works off 12% in the UK and distribution around 6% - so their is an 18% margin model. In the US the etail companies tend to work off 6%-8% so it makes a big difference....
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Peter Venkman
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« Reply #58 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 16:59:13 » |
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Thanks SS I had long time wondered why and guessed it was something to do with resellers and middle men, shame we cant deal directly with you, the supplier, for certain items which would cut the cost hugely! So if any fall off the back of a lorry please let me know as I can find a good home for a pair of them  sorry couldnt resist that, I bet you get that all the time! |
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stfcinbmth
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« Reply #59 on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 17:03:27 » |
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JJ I have to admit to having a bit of an inside track here - I run Sapphire for Northern Europe 7970 launches Jan 9th (to co-incide with CES Vegas) - I have already shipped 350 pieces and will ship more over the next 2 weeks....There will be more launches but probably later in the month... TEF Discount? |
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