City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

New COX Rig. All good?

Father Xmas

By Father Xmas,
Posted on: 2010-11-27 08:10 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

Hey folks (Edited for stupid mistakes),

Hope all is well. I have finally scrounged all the pieces for a new COX rig. Just wondering if everything looks good. And thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this.

***Note*** I live in a country with no Newegg or such and I have limited choices. So I am forced to pay severe markup for the few quality parts I can find. However, if you suggest something, I can try to "find" it.

I have also listed parts in "short" and "detailed" lists. Some items in "short" list need to be seen in "detailed" list.

Short List:

1. Mobo--Asus m4a88td-v evo/usb3
2. RAM--see dilemma in "detailed" (4gigs Dual Channel)
3. CPU--Phenom II x4 965 BE (125w) or tad cheaper 955 BE.
4. CPU Cooler--Cooler Master Hyper 212plus
5. GPU--Nvidia GTX 1GB (either MSI Cyclone or Axle Ace)
6. PSU--see two options in "detailed".

  • Toss up-two good choices (750w is cheaper than 650w. Will do mild OC'ing). Father Xmas also mentioned that I would most likely need, in worst case scenario but not likely, 550watts.
7. HDD--Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ (SATA2/7200RPM/32M)
8. ODD--Samsung Super-Writemaster sh-s223c
9. Case--Cooler Master CM690
10. Windows 7 Home OEM 64 bit

Detailed List:

1. Motherboard--Asus m4a88td-v evo/usb3:

(AMD 880g chipset/Supports 140w CPU@45nm. And 4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1333/1066 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory, Dual Channel memory architecture/*AMD AM3 100 and 200 series CPU support up to DDR3 1066MHz).
2. RAM--(This is where I got confused on my own research. Coupled with I have limited purchasing choices). Motherboard says DRR3 2000 (O.C.)/1333/1066 ram type. HOWEVER, Crucial memory website says PC3-10600, PC3-12800.
  • I understand DDR3 ram at 1333 mhz@10600 or 10666 are pretty much the same. But Asus and Crucial don't seem to match each other for 1333mhz or even 1600mhz.
So which speed "really" works with my motherboard: 1333mhz@10600 or 10666 and, even, 1600mhz@12800?

I can choose some ram from G.SKILL's Ripjaws or Eco, Geil, Patriot, OCZ, Corsair. Most of these will be:
  • CL9/CL8 with timings of 999-24/888-24.
  • A lucky few CL7 at 7-8-7-21.
3. CPU--AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE (125w) or tad cheaper 955 BE.

4. CPU cooler--Cooler Master Hyper 212plus
5. GPU--Nvidia GTX 460 1gb either MSI or Axle (much cooler than MSI).
6. PSU--(750w 80plus Silver) Corsair HX750 single 12v rail 62 Amps. Or a pricier (650w) Seasonic X single 12v rail 54 Amps.
7. HDD--Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ (SATA2/7200RPM/32M).
8. ODD--Samsung Super-Writemaster sh-s223c. No reviews available.9. Case--Cooler Master CM690 (comes with two 120mm fans).
10. OS--Windows 7 Home OEM 64 bit.

Thanks in advance.

 

Posted

Looks good.

As for the memory confusion, that's why I prefer using the DDR3-xxxx designation rather than the PC3-yyyyy designation for memory. yyyyy = 8 times xxxx and then truncated, sometimes to the nearest 100 or 10. NewEgg for instance list three different PC3- selections for DDR3-1333 memory, PC3-10600, PC3-10660 and PC3-10666. 1333 is the effective clock speed of the memory in MHz, 10666 is the maximum bandwidth speed of the memory in megabytes per second.

As for memory timings, the "standard" timings for DDR3-1333 is Cas 9. The other three timing numbers tend to relate to the first so I tend to ignore them. Also simply for information sake the standard voltage for DDR3 memory is 1.5 volts. One way, the most common way, to get better timings is to overvolt the memory, which is why you see a lot of memory running at 1.65 volts with Cas 7 or 8 timings.

For memory clocked at the same speed, a lower Cas number means higher memory performance. A poor analogy is Cas timings are to memory as average seek times are to hard drives. However with the rest of the memory subsystem, the memory caches in the CPU, the actual performance improvement isn't all that much in most real world applications, only a couple of percent.

Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components

Tempus unum hominem manet

 

Posted

Father Xmas,

Thank you very, very much for your help. As always, tremendously insightful.