Ripping the guts from my wifes system....

[humble]

Wifeacks system has been showing signs of impending doom for awhile now. Since its an old barton core AMD I figure its not worth the effort to "save". Timing is good to spend a few shillings so the question at hand was/is what makes the most sense overall. Initially I was looking at a new athlon 240 but fry's only stocks the 250 at $78 vs neweggs $67. In the end I went ahead and got the 550 black for $102. This is not a gaming rig but it made sense to me spend a few $$$ extra (of course for just $20 more could get X and $30 would be Y...so I stopped there). I went ahead and popped for a decent MB (GB MA790GP-UD4H) figuring the onboard video and simple OC would be more then enough while giving me an upgrade path for both GPU and CPU if/when needed. I added 4G of PC8500 mem for $55.

Some of this is in consideration of the solid but limited 380W PS. I also added a 1TB seagate sata drive for $99 that was really not required. My thoughts on posting this are more curiosity on how this relatively low end combination handles AH. The MB comes with 128M of discreet DDR3 and my understanding is that the new crossfire allows for 2 additional cards as well.

Once I build it out I'll go ahead and throw AH on it just to see how it does....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128384    MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680  CPU
http://www.frys.com/product/5895573    Mem

So not "cheap" but basically $102 + $109 + $55 = $266 +$99 for the HD...

[AirFlyer]

Could save a bit if you get some RAM off of Newegg likely, in both original cost and S&H.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227298

[Fulmar]

Does your wife plan on using 1tb of storage?  My wife uses about 30gb.  

[humble]

This was a spur of the moment thing, with Frys I can return/exchange anything quickly (15min drive). The pricing on the MB and CPU is the same. I wanted a MB with a 750SB since the 550 apparently can be set to run as a quad core (will update as soon as build is done). The IDE drive in the box is on its 2nd or 3rd build (is an 80G) and I just grabbed a couple of the drives...one for me and the other for her. My intent is to use it for storage of DVD's and similiar stuff.

As for newegg vs Fry's....one of the few times I've seen parity in pricing, normally new egg is much much better.

[TilDeath]

Could save a bit if you get some RAM off of Newegg likely, in both original cost and S&H.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227298

Good find but this is better for less monies.  IT has a 25.00 rebate for a final price of 42.99.  It is PC8500 (1066) but is the Reaper series from OCZ which is a 2 grade stepup to OCZ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227289

[humble]

Thats always the tradeoff between newegg and a retail store. Inevitably you can shave 15% or so off your build. Basically a combination of lets do it now while I've got the time and if something is RMA I can swap it same day. I've always bought my speced out builds from newegg or mwave. To be honest when I get the itch I'll probably just give you a call TD, its not the build...its the tune that takes all the time and effort. For this I figure if I'm +/- $25-$30 I don't really care. I've got the hardware in the box and just need to throw on the OS at this point. 20min total to strip the old stuff, install CPU and memory and pop it in the case. Hardest part of a "build" is connecting the ps etc...most folks think thats it...hard work starts after the OS is loaded.

All 3 are 555-18 so in a stock config I don't know you'll see much difference between them.

[TilDeath]

To be honest when I get the itch I'll probably just give you a call TD, its not the build...its the tune that takes all the time and effort.

Finally someone that admits and states this!    Most folks just go find best price not what will work best together (components), the real speed of any system is in the BIOS and OS tweaking.   Thank you for pointing this out to others to maybe realize.

[humble]

All you need to do is read all the threads since the`upgrade. Guys with "good systems' have issues while others with less powerful ones are fine. As skuzzy always points out systems`with idenical hardware can have big swings in performance. Just looking at this build you've got 8 AMD cpu's (240/250/550 + old black series and the 700 3 core series) all in the $60-120 range + multiple chipsets. My choice was influenced by curiosity about the 750 SB and the new offerings from AMD. For a gaming build I think the older black series chip (as per toms july cpu guide) probably made more sense. However the potential of the SB750 to unlock the other 2 cores on the 550 made the combo of a 750SB MB paired with the 550 a good choice. Realizing that my wife won't need a discreet GPU and that an AH player on a budget might prefer the combination of a "quad core" system and onboard VC IF it ran AH at a`reasonable standard...I went that route...

System is up on a "stock" win 7 build (using default installed drivers)

At default settings with detailed terrain/bumpmap is 32 in tower offline and 33 online with field under mild attack...

Will get some more detail and post then fly a hop or two

[humble]

above readings at 1024 textures....will download hires pack to see if that helps or hurts

[humble]

just adding hires pack seemed to have no impact...moving sliders to max and AA to max dropped FR on runway to 26 offline. Online in tower at filed under attack looking at burning hanger and tracers FR is 20-23...this is at 1024 tex hi-res

[humble]

surprisingly little diff dropping to 256...FR online is 26 at max. Drops to 28 at default. So either the hires pack still impacts stuff or I've got it configured wrong. My goal was to get a feel for what you could expect from an "idiot install" of Win 7...

So basic install without hi-res pack or messing with installing MB/VC drivers etc is 33 FPS plug and play at 1024 tex default settings....I'm going to properly configure the MB and VC and get stock settings and OC settings using the automatic OC features that AMD ships for the "black" series CPU's

[humble]

OK, just flew a hop on line, FR varied between 30 and 60 with detailed terrain and BMT but with detailed local water off...took a screen shot on landing 45FPS looking over the wing (FQ view) at a burning hanger. Dont have FP loaded on this machine so i'll post it later. Zero lag or stutters of any type. Dropped bombs, fired rockets, fought in enemy ack....system very capable of reasonable performance stock out of the box with zero tuning in Win 7 using a totally auto install.