PC General Discussion Thread

[chedabob]

Originally Posted by underzr0

I'm not going to go Quad Core.

but for the motherboard, how do you know if it is good?

From personal experience, a motherboard is a motherboard really. As long as you go with a good brand, that uses branded chipsets, you should be alright. Get a list of all the boards that support which CPU you have chosen, and then select the ones which have all the features you want. In the end, you might have 4 or 5 to go with. Personally, I like Gigabyte or Asus. I've not had any problems with any of the boards by them. If you see any mention of "PC Chips" in the description, steer well clear.

[X51]

Originally Posted by underzr0

I'm not going to go Quad Core.

but for the motherboard, how do you know if it is good?

It really depends on what you want to do. If you're looking at overclocking, then you're going to need to pay attention to what you're getting. If you just want a motherboard that will run well, then most motherboards are gonna work. Foxconn makes good boards, and I personally trust EVGA as a brand. At the moment, I have a Biostar TForce 590 which has been awesome.

[underzr0]

This one seems good: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...prodlist=yahoo


but i don't know if zip zoom fly ships to canada.

[X51]

Originally Posted by underzr0

This one seems good: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...prodlist=yahoo


but i don't know if zip zoom fly ships to canada.

They don't, but http://www.tigerdirect.ca/ will.

[underzr0]

Originally Posted by X51

They don't, but http://www.tigerdirect.ca/ will.

that is actually where i am going to order all my parts from.

and i looked for the same one there and i can't find it.

EDIT: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&Sku=E145-2016
but how do you connect it so you get USB and stuff in the front?

[Dutch guy]

My computer sucks.

[X51]

Originally Posted by underzr0

that is actually where i am going to order all my parts from.

and i looked for the same one there and i can't find it.

EDIT: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&Sku=E145-2016
but how do you connect it so you get USB and stuff in the front?

It should tell you in the manual.

[underzr0]

What is better: amd? or intel?

[Power666]

Ask that question again tomorrow.

[Power666]

OK, tomorrow turned into next week but AMD yesterday released their own quad core processors for servers. AMD pretty much matches Intel now on a per clock basis now. The catch is that Intel has quad processors running at 3.0 Ghz while AMD's new chip sits at 2.0 Ghz. I do expect AMD's quad core at 3.0 Ghz to out run Intel's current quad core at 3.0 Ghz due to a number of factors. AMD has been sending out 2.5 Ghz chips to review sites with the promise that those speeds will be available by the end of the year, if not faster models. So it does look like AMD is back in the performance race.

As far as desktop systems are concerned, things my play out differently. AMD hasn't shown off the Phenom line for desktops yet but it'll be architecturally the same as its server cousins. AMD's chips with an on-die memory controller can make use of the fastest memory on the market, something that is mostly wasted with Intel systems. I do expect a healthy boost in performance with 1200 Mhz DDR2 in a performance desktop compared to server centric 667 Mhz memory.

I do expect AMD based laptops to consume less power overall, all other things considered. AMD's new chip really can power itself down to a level that Intel's can't match. This will have a slight impact on battery life as the largest drains for a laptop are still the hard drive and screen. The clock speed advantage Intel has for server and desktop chips disappears in the laptop market so AMD will do really well in this market.