Quad Core Vs. Duo

[Murgos]

It should be okay.  The PSU has a 24-pin Main Power connector and the MOBO has the same... the PSU has both 8 and 4 pin MOBO plugs as well.  It looks like the board can handle either 8 or 4 pins.  Is there something else I should be looking at?

I'm not clear on the difference between EPS and 24 pin ATX.  There used to be 20 pin ATX and then there was 24 pin ATX (though you can plug 20 into 24, all the extra pins did was spread the load).  Is EPS just 24 pin ATX and an extra 4 and 8 pin connector?

edit (brought to you by wiki):

The ATX form factor has had five main power supply designs throughout its lifetime:

    * ATX - 20 pin connector (Used through Pentium III and early Athlon XP)
    * WTX - 24 pin connector (Pentium II and III, Xeon and Athlon MP)
    * AMD GES - 24 pin main connector, 8 pin secondary connector (some dual-processor Athlon)
    * EPS12V - 24 pin main connector, 8 pin secondary connector, optional 4 pin tertiary connector (Xeon and Opteron) defined in SSI specification
    * ATX12V - 20 pin main connector, 4 pin secondary connector, 8 pin tertiary connector (Pentium 4 and mid/late Athlon XP & Athlon 64)
          o ATX12V 1.3 - guidance for the -5 volt feed was removed. This was only used by legacy ISA add-in cards
          o ATX12V 2.0 - 24 pin main connector, 4 pin secondary connector (Pentium 4, Core 2 Duo, and Athlon 64 with PCI Express)
          o ATX12V 2.2 - One 20/24-pin connector, one ATX12V 4 pin connector. Many power supply manufacturers include a 4 plus 4 pin, or 8 to 4 pin secondary connector instead, which can also be used as the secondary EPS12V connector.

[Mortriden]

Dude.  You are my hero.  Thanks.  For some reason I always forget about wiki.

[Hoax]

FYI I'm 90% sure that case runs 120mm case fans, I believe 3 or 4 of them.  I just built a rig using one of these this year...

***

Because I don't want to be wrong twice in the same thread:

Cooling System:
- 1 rear (standard) 120mm TriCool Fan with 3-speed switch control
- 1 top (standard) 120mm TriCool Fan
- 1 lower chamber (standard) 120mm TriCool Fan
- 1 front (optional) 120mm fan
- 1 middle (optional) 120mm fan to cool graphics cards
- Upper drive cage can be used as a duct to provide fresh air to graphics cards

[Trippy]

What's the difference between dx10.1 and dx10?

The main difference is that Microsoft is moving towards standardizing the features a card must support if it says it supports version XXX. In the past a card could be "support" a certain version of DirectX but be missing various features like how you have Pixel Shader 2.0 and 3.0 but both are part of DirectX 9. In theory this should make it easier for the programmers since they don't have to "enumerate" the features of every DX10.1 (and beyond) card and then write all sorts of conditional code to handle all the different feature permutations out there.

[Trippy]

I've got a pile (10 or so) of extra 80mm fans left over from a few builds I did two years ago.  I plan on using a few of them as needed.  I'm curious about the CPU cooler though.  I was under the impression that the one I picked out was fairly decent.  I'll admit, I don't know a whole lot about newer coolers though.  I looked at few from Zalman, but didn't find any reviews (on the ones I looked at) that were very glowing. 

80mm fans are noisy. Get some quiet 120mm ones (the case should come with one already).

For CPU cooling the benchmarks right now (in no particular order) are the Tuinq Tower 120, Thermalright Ultra-120, and the Scythe Ninja (paired a 120mm fan). Zalman used to be one of the benchmarks except that they've been screwing up their coolers recently with crappy noisy fans that are incredibly difficult to replace with quieter ones. If you don't care about noise at all they still work really well but there are other coolers that work as well or better and are quieter (like the above 3). The Ninja is particularly interesting in your case cause in theory with a low power usage CPU and the CPU socket in the right place you could "passively" cool it with just the top rear fan and the top top fan but I wouldn't recommend doing that with your CPU.

[nurtsi]

Are there any games out yet that even support dual cores let alone quad cores? At least I haven't played any (but then again I don't play that much). The only thing I've found where quad cores really shine is compiling.

[Trippy]

Yes there are games that support two cores/CPUs.

[Engels]

I've got a pile (10 or so) of extra 80mm fans left over from a few builds I did two years ago.  I plan on using a few of them as needed. 

Uhm, aren't you getting a Antec Performance One P180B? Those only take 120mm fans.

[Krakrok]

Here are a bunch of actual game benchmarks w/ quad vs. dual core. Not really much difference so far even on the games running Havok physics.

Supreme Commander:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/660-3/supreme-commander-benchmark.html
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2107342,00.asp

Supreme Commander & BioShock:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/13375/5

Other games:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/13375/4
http://techreport.com/articles.x/12210/3
http://techgage.com/article/intel_core_2_quad_q6600/6


And here's the list of Havok games:
http://www.havok.com/content/blogcategory/29/73?platformid=7

[geldonyetich2]

Firsthand, I can say that a quad core makes a big difference in Supreme Commander, once you have over 1000 units or so. 

Aside from that, not too much difference.  It is interesting how close a 2.4 Ghz Quad comes to a much faster base core Dual in single-core games, though.

[Trippy]

The press embargo on AMD's quad-core Phenom CPU has been lifted and reviews are being published at the various hardware review sites for those that are interested. Q&D summary is that they are still not competitive MHz for MHz with the Core 2 but they are priced lower to compenstate and they will work in AM2 motherboards (assuming the BIOS has been updated to support them) so you don't need a socket/chipset upgrade like you often do when moving to newer Intel CPUs.

[Engels]

Jeezus, finally a semi-smart move by AMD. I was honestly worried the company was going to go belly up.

[Mortriden]

I've got a pile (10 or so) of extra 80mm fans left over from a few builds I did two years ago.  I plan on using a few of them as needed. 

Uhm, aren't you getting a Antec Performance One P180B? Those only take 120mm fans.

The case looks to be loaded up on all the Fans it can handle right out of the box.  I've got a pair of 120mm Fans that I still haven't used as well, but I was hoping to use up some of those damn 80's I've got.  If I need to I'll take a dremel to that case (I hope not, cause it's kinda sexy looking) and clear some extra fan spots.

[Engels]

Dude, the case (I have it sitting here in my office, its my work machine now) uses up to 5 120" fans (it comes with 3, I believe). Please, for the love of all that's holey, don't start cutting out holes in the side of the case for a few more fans.

[Sky]

I'll chime in on the side of not mutilating that beautiful case (which I also have) for 80mm fans. Fans are dirt cheap, cases are not. 80mm fans are too noisy, use 120mm (with variable speeds). I also use the revB scythe ninja, it fits in the case decently and keeps things nice and cool with a 120mm fan applied.

Only changes I made were moving the lower chamber fan to the front side to accomadate my long PSU and I took out the upper drive cage to install an intake fan in the front to help keep the 8800 cooler.

[Mortriden]

Dude, the case (I have it sitting here in my office, its my work machine now) uses up to 5 120" fans (it comes with 3, I believe). Please, for the love of all that's holey, don't start cutting out holes in the side of the case for a few more fans.

I don't PLAN on cutting holes in the case.  I'd rather not.  Like I said, it's sexy.  I've got 120's as well.  All should be golden.

Parts are on the way... except for the Vid Card.  Some bastard bought it out from under me while I was finalizing my order.  Shitty fuck, that's no good.  Bob's post build report makes me feel good though. 

[Mortriden]

More Questions.

I haven't bought a mouse in awhile, but what the fuck happened to the ring finger button?  I love that button on my current mouse.  I've been looking at buying a new mouse and everything seems to just have the double-thumb button on the right side, plus that rocker button bullshit.  If I can't map it to a new function... then it's not a fucking button.  Don't count it in your description. 

I'm currently looking at this or this or maybe this...

I haven't used anything other than my MS Optical for close to five years, so I'm really in the dark as to what the feel of a new laser mouse is like.

[schild]

I like my new Sidewinder. Particularly since I have big hands.

Otherwise, get the Razer.

[Mortriden]

Are you refering to this one?

I've got fricken meat hooks for hands.  A larger mouse usually fits me better.  Has the ring finger button really gone away?

[schild]

The third plain mouse button went away years ago duder. Though the sidewinder is big enough that you could probably use the middle finger on the wheel mouse (it clicks really nicely) and the ring finger on the right click.

[Mortriden]

Fuck balls. The ring finger button is perfect for push to talk in FPS games. 

[schild]

Fuck balls. The ring finger button is perfect for push to talk in FPS games. 

On the sidewinder, I use one of the perfectly placed metal buttons on the side.

[Trippy]

The "ring finger button" is the right mouse button. What's gone away is a proper middle button, now replaced by a scroll wheel which you can click but doesn't have the responsiveness as a proper button as it takes way too much force to push down on and you tend to scroll it at the same time. I miss the days of proper 3 button mice having spent a lot of time working in X-Windows-like environments in my youth. Using the keyboard to copy and paste is so inefficient. I can "fake" it right now by using a mouse with a scroll wheel that "tilts" left and right and mapping the tilts to the middle mouse button but that still doesn't feel the same as having three proper buttons.

[Salamok]

Dude I had almost forgotten about proper 3 button mice, thanks for friggen reminding me!  I would have been far happier if they had placed the scroll wheel mechanics in the thumb position and left the middle button alone.  Usually when I am scrolling I am not doing any other button clicking so the distraction of having to move my thumb from it's natural rest position wouldn't be as noticable.  Not sure about the rest of you but when I am gaming the thumb tends to play a critical role in moving/positioning the mouse quickly & accurately as such I don't use the current buttons available to it for anything that requires even the tiniest bit of twitch.

That aside I use a logitech MX1000 and love it but I think it has been discontinued and the replacement model doesn't seem as sturdily built.  This is a larger mouse and good for big hands.

should patent the thumb activated scroll wheel + return of the center button!

[Sky]

I loved my 3-button logitech back when I was playing UO in the late 90s. Set the middle button to dbl-click. Win.

[Mortriden]

All the parts for my new system finally arrived.  Case requires no modification, it's a sexy beast and performs like a champ; side note, my rig is heavy as fuck now.  Much heavier than any of my previous systems.  I went with the Tuniq for the cooler and it also does an amazing job. Thanks for all the help everyone.

CoD4 = Digital sex for me right now.