# Recommendations please - new rig



## Wulfgar (Aug 12, 2010)

Hello everyone, I just created an account to ask for some feeback on a new rig.
I live in Canada so I'm going to purchase all the parts from http://ncix.com/index.php

My budget is 1,700$ without the monitor.

What I'm positive about:

Processor: Core I7 930
Gfx card: GTX 480 

Aside these 2 components I'm pretty much in the dark so can you please recommend me:

-a good manufacturer for 6GB of memory
-a motherboard (preferably Asus)
-a hard-drive (500GB minimum)
-a case (I prefer noise reduction and good ventilation over looks)
-a reliable power source (for at least 2-3 years)
-a soundcard (is this really necessary ?)
-anything else you think it's missing

I don't want the most expensive thing out there but not the cheapest either. I'm going to do a minor overclock on air and that's it (from 2.8 Ghz to 3.4 maybe). SLI is also out of the question. I'll probably buy another HDD in the future but I intend to keep this system for at least 2-3 years without upgrading. When the moment comes I'll buy a new one from scratch.


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## 1nf3rn0x (Aug 12, 2010)

i7 and GTX 480 are good. The website is a tad confusing and does not have sections as all the items are in on group, so 775 boards are with 1156. I'll use a better website for surfing around. Sorry for Australia links, but you should be able to find them on a Canadian website and it will be cheaper since things in Australia are a bit more expensive.

Motherboard: Asus Asus P6X58D-E :http://ijk.com.au/branch/ijk/product_info.php?cPath=51_504&products_id=126321    It supports 3 way SLi- and Xfire etc.

RAM: Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9  : http://ijk.com.au/branch/ijk/product_info.php?cPath=478_512&products_id=125494

WesternDigital Caviar Black 500gb: http://ijk.com.au/branch/ijk/product_info.php?cPath=27_44&products_id=121372   Three of these will be nice and you can add RAID for better performance, or catering to your needs

Case: Antec 1200   : http://ijk.com.au/branch/ijk/product_info.php?cPath=23_492_103&products_id=114667        Very quiet when you need it to be and all the fans have speed controllers, once turned up there still very quiet and move plenty of air. It has 5x120mm fans and one large 200mm fan at the top

Power Supply: Corsair TX950w : http://ijk.com.au/branch/ijk/product_info.php?cPath=23_41&products_id=123520     Very good psu, reliable and extremely powerful. Will last more than a couple of years and will easily handle two GTX 480's.

Sound card..no point..On board is good enough..

In Australian dollars build is roughly $2000 which equates to about $1600-1700 US/CAN dollars. This is a very nice rig.


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## Valenciente (Aug 12, 2010)

Hi there, and welcome to TPU 

Memory: G.SKILL F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ

I hear good stuff about G.Skills, however I'm not quite sure on the timings, as I'm more to the AMD side currently. These are also not meant to be overclocked, according to the review I read.

Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD4P

HDD: Seagate or Western Digital in my opinion. If you want the new SATA3, which that motherboard supports, go with the WD Caviar Black 1TB; or if you can settle with bit older, the Seagate Barracua 1,5TB is currently on sale this week on ncix.com.

Power Supply: I use an OCZ myself, but Corsair makes some excellent ones as well. I'm not totally much into the newest at the moment, so I'm not sure how much wattage you will need.

A soundcard is not really needed, as the motherboard have that on-board. If you are an audiophile, and really need that extra bit of better sound, then you can get one of course.


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## BarbaricSoul (Aug 12, 2010)

Valenciente said:


> Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD4P



dont get that motherboard for your build, the is not a socket 1356 motherboad


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## Wulfgar (Aug 12, 2010)

OK so based on your comments I've settled on a few things:

CPU: Core I7 930 - 300$
Mobo: Asus P6X58D-E (I read good reviews about this board so thanks to 1nf3rn0x for the recommendation) - 250$
GPU: EVGA GTX 480 - 500$
Memory: Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 or the G-Skill (same price) - 150$
Price up to now: 1200$

HDD: what's the advantage of Sata 3.0 vs Sata 2.0 ?
PSU: Corsair TX950W - 180$

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=43101&vpn=CMPSU-950TX&manufacture=Corsair

I must say it's quite expensive, maybe the 650W model would be enough since I won't buy another video card ? 

Case: Antec 1200 - 160$

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=29853&vpn=TWELVE HUNDRED&manufacture=Antec&promoid=1008

The problem with this case is lack of USB 3.0 ports and the reviews say that it's pretty loud. Any other recommendations ?


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## claylomax (Aug 12, 2010)

You can save a few quid if you go with another brand for your GTX480, unless it has to be EVGA.


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## JATownes (Aug 12, 2010)

This is the case I would choose.  

 Fractal Design R3


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## AltecV1 (Aug 12, 2010)

why no X6 build?


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## Wulfgar (Aug 12, 2010)

claylomax said:


> You can save a few quid if you go with another brand for your GTX480, unless it has to be EVGA.



I went for the cheapest card on NCIX. In Canada they rarely go under 500$.



AltecV1 said:


> why no X6 build?



I thought about it but based on the benchmarks out there the 1050T is behind the 930, expecially in gaming.


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## Dent1 (Aug 12, 2010)

Wulfgar said:


> I went for the cheapest card on NCIX. In Canada they rarely go under 500$.



Have you tried http://www.newegg.ca they tend to be cheap too.



Wulfgar said:


> I thought about it but based on the benchmarks out there the 1050T is behind the 930, expecially in gaming.



Think longevity, the i7 930 lead will be shorter than the 1050T lead when the time comes.


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## Valenciente (Aug 12, 2010)

BarbaricSoul said:


> dont get that motherboard for your build, the is not a socket 1356 motherboad



Yikes, messed up there. Sorry!


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## 1nf3rn0x (Aug 12, 2010)

IMHO opinion stay with the i7 930, it gets something like 20-30fps over the 1050T in games and it doesn't go so far back in compressing etc, sometimes the i7 beats it. In some tests the i7 920 gets over 50fps higher than the 1050T. So you'd be better off with the i7 930, and it has hyper threading so it should be fast for years to come


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## Wulfgar (Aug 12, 2010)

I'll stay with the 930. Even if the socket changes next year I don't see the point in upgrading since games are poorly optimized for multi-core CPUS anyway.

So how about the PSU ? Will 650W be enough ?

I've been looking for cases and I came across this one:

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=54852&vpn=VM20001W2Z&manufacture=Thermaltake

Not sure if it's a good choice though. I currently have the Antec NSK6500 and it's pretty loud.


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## Dent1 (Aug 13, 2010)

Wulfgar said:


> I'll stay with the 930. Even if the socket changes next year I don't see the point in upgrading since games are poorly optimized for multi-core CPUS anyway..



That is changing fast. 




Wulfgar said:


> So how about the PSU ? Will 650W be enough ?
> 
> I've been looking for cases and I came across this one:
> 
> ...



It depends on the PSU, there are only a few trusted brands. Look at the amps per rail as well not just wattage. 

I'd keep your current case to reduce costs, once you switch out the PSU to "silent" one and replace the case's fans with silent fans it will not be as loud as you described.


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## 1nf3rn0x (Aug 13, 2010)

Well, if you want to add another GTX 480 down the line at least 850w will be adequate.  If you are happy with one GTX 480, a Corsair 650w will be fine.


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## BarbaricSoul (Aug 13, 2010)

Wulfgar said:


> So how about the PSU ? Will 650W be enough ?



Personally, I would not build a I7/GTX480 rig with anything less than a Corsair 750 watt PSU. The GTX480 may be the fastest single GPU card, but it's also a electricity hog.


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## pantherx12 (Aug 13, 2010)

1nf3rn0x said:


> IMHO opinion stay with the i7 930, it gets something like 20-30fps over the 1050T in games and it doesn't go so far back in compressing etc, sometimes the i7 beats it. In some tests the i7 920 gets over 50fps higher than the 1050T. So you'd be better off with the i7 930, and it has hyper threading so it should be fast for years to come



Yeah if you leave the x6 at stock speed, they pretty much all do 4ghz with no problems.

Look at gaming results when over-clocked


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## GodsFury (Aug 13, 2010)

Regarding the Corsair TX750... I have the corsair TX750 and if I had to recommend a PSU to run your 480 and possibly adding another in the future... don't get the 750w. Go for a 950 or something similar. My knowledge for PSU's isn't the greatest but I speak from experience in using the 750.

I have 2 GTX460's and when trying to SLI "Optimizing best 3d performance" (enabling SLI) my system locks up and freezes. I'm sure the single + 12v single rail with up to 60a is good enough for most but apparently not enough for my setup for SLI.  Running 1 GPU (as I am now) is no problem whatsoever but I can't SLI my 2 460's without my system crashing and being very unstable. Maybe a watts shortage ? Really, i'm at a lost for words when trying to figure out my problem. I purchased the 750 thinking it was enough to run SLI but apparently it is not. 

My system is as followed..

Intel i7 930
Zalman 9900NT CNPS
Gigabyte X58A-UDR3 (rev 2.0)
12gb Mushkin 1600mhz (6x2gb) 9-9-9-24 
WD Caviar Black 64mb cache 6.0gb/s (soon to be raid)
nvidia GTX 460 768mb stock (FPB firmware update: Clock from 675 to 720mhz, Shader from 1350mhz to 1440mhz and memory from 720mhz?? to 900mhz)
Antec DF30 case

i'm not sure if the problem is due to all the led fans and other hardware I have or if it's a faulty psu but without 2 cards my system runs smooth without any issues whatsoever but when I try to SLI my 2 cards, it's unstable and freezes constantly. So from my experience if you ever plan on runing SLI with 2 480's then I suggest you get a more powerful psu. 950 or more should be good. 

I'll have get another psu to run sli.


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## 1nf3rn0x (Aug 13, 2010)

pantherx12 said:


> Yeah if you leave the x6 at stock speed, they pretty much all do 4ghz with no problems.
> 
> Look at gaming results when over-clocked
> http://tpucdn.com/reviews/AMD/Phenom_II_X6_1090T/images/mw2oc_1024.gif



But look at other games, it trails behind at 20-30fps. Mw2 is the only game where it catches up or beats an i7.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Phenom_II_X6_1090T/10.html

Just have a look at Crysis warhead, the PII x6 trails by 20+ fps.


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## pantherx12 (Aug 13, 2010)

1nf3rn0x said:


> But look at other games, it trails behind at 20-30fps. Mw2 is the only game where it catches up or beats an i7.
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Phenom_II_X6_1090T/10.html
> 
> Just have a look at Crysis warhead, the PII x6 trails by 20+ fps.



And if it was running at 4 ghz, I imagine it will get those 20+ fps back.

Over-clocks are not included in the results you linked to, from other reviews I've read the x6 does fine and dandy at 4ghz.


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## 1nf3rn0x (Aug 13, 2010)

If the i7 was overclocked at 4ghz I imagine it would be a different story and the PIIx6 can't even reach 4ghz on the stock cooler. And when at 4ghz takes more power than the i7.


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## pantherx12 (Aug 13, 2010)

But it has 6 cores!
lol


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## 1nf3rn0x (Aug 13, 2010)

The i7 has 8 with hyper threading


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## pantherx12 (Aug 13, 2010)

It has four threads, not quite the same heh.


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## 1nf3rn0x (Aug 13, 2010)

Still, it equates to 8 cores in total, 4 physical and 4 with hyper threading.


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## pantherx12 (Aug 13, 2010)

A core is a physical CPU only though.

Threads are threads, there's some CPU makers that can push 2 threads or even 3 threads per core.

(sun micro-systems for example) 

It's qhy the i7s etc are still marketed as quad core.

If they advertised as octocore intel would get in a shit ton o trouble XD


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## BarbaricSoul (Aug 13, 2010)

GodsFury said:


> Regarding the Corsair TX750... I have the corsair TX750 and if I had to recommend a PSU to run your 480 and possibly adding another in the future... don't get the 750w. Go for a 950 or something similar. My knowledge for PSU's isn't the greatest but I speak from experience in using the 750.
> 
> I have 2 GTX460's and when trying to SLI "Optimizing best 3d performance" (enabling SLI) my system locks up and freezes. I'm sure the single + 12v single rail with up to 60a is good enough for most but apparently not enough for my setup for SLI.  Running 1 GPU (as I am now) is no problem whatsoever but I can't SLI my 2 460's without my system crashing and being very unstable. Maybe a watts shortage ? Really, i'm at a lost for words when trying to figure out my problem. I purchased the 750 thinking it was enough to run SLI but apparently it is not.
> 
> ...



Man, I find it hard to believe that a corsair 750 isn't enough for SLI'ed GTX460 cards. The EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SuperClocked only requires 24 amps per card. I'd look into other possibilities for your SLI not working before saying it's the PSU. I do agree with needing atleast a 950 to SLI the 480 cards.


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## BarbaricSoul (Aug 13, 2010)

Heh, I curious so I had to check. My turbo cool 860 isn't even close to being enough for SLI'ed GTX480 cards, and that's with a single 62 amp 12v rail. You might need a 1200 watt PSU for the 84 amps you'd need for SLI'ed GTX480 cards


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## GodsFury (Aug 13, 2010)

I'm running the i7 930 (930 was just 10$ more expensive than the 920). I've noticed a significant performance increase from my Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550. Also, big increase from Socket 775 to 1366. I can't complain.


*edit*
I find it hard to believe that my TX750 isn't able to run SLI too. I keep being told that even my old Thermaltake 650 could have handled it. The TX750 is listed as capable of sli'ing 2 460's on the nvidia website. But thing is, I have no idea why it crashes. I've tried both cards to see if one was defective but when I put 1 in they both work fine, no issues. I remember now though... When I had both cards in SLI, when I tried to increase fan speed to 60% the 2nd GPU's temperature was showing as being 250c degrees. I'm not sure if that was just a glitch in the evga precision tool or if the actual gpu went scorching hot. But I guess if it really did go that high, it wouldn't work anymore. perhaps the 2nd pci express slot isn't working anymore because of it ? 

At this point i'm kind of lost as to why I can't do SLI


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## fullinfusion (Aug 13, 2010)

Dude Im in Canada also and I get a lot of my parts from HERE
ncix is a rip off if you ask me....


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## GodsFury (Aug 13, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Dude Im in Canada also and I get a lot of my parts from HERE
> ncix is a rip off if you ask me....



Prices vary for certain things. My local shop (pccyber.com)'s prices are sometimes better than ncix Canada and newegg.ca but some are more expensive. Bu the directcanada.com seems to have awesome prices for everything so I just might look into buying hardware from there now. Thanks ! =)


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## fullinfusion (Aug 13, 2010)

GodsFury said:


> Prices vary for certain things. My local shop (pccyber.com)'s prices are sometimes better than ncix Canada and newegg.ca but some are more expensive. Bu the directcanada.com seems to have awesome prices for everything so I just might look into buying hardware from there now. Thanks ! =)


alot of items they offer 10 dollar air shipping on certain items. also their great to deal with... I never had any problems what so ever with those guys.


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## GodsFury (Aug 13, 2010)

BarbaricSoul said:


> Man, I find it hard to believe that a corsair 750 isn't enough for SLI'ed GTX460 cards. The EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SuperClocked only requires 24 amps per card. I'd look into other possibilities for your SLI not working before saying it's the PSU. I do agree with needing atleast a 950 to SLI the 480 cards.



Could the 2nd pci express slot be defective then ? I remember seeing my 2nd gpu go to 250c when trying to increase the fan speeds of both to 60%. Maybe that was just a glitch...

But even though it may be hard to believe the 750 can't handle it... maybe there's a shortage of watts to power every thing I have hooked up. Then again, i have a limited knowledge when it comes to PSU and their power abilities.


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## Dent1 (Aug 13, 2010)

1nf3rn0x said:


> If the i7 was overclocked at 4ghz I imagine it would be a different story and the PIIx6 can't even reach 4ghz on the stock cooler. And when at 4ghz takes more power than the i7.



If you are spending near $1,000 on the entire why would you be using a stock cooler?


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## Wulfgar (Aug 13, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Dude Im in Canada also and I get a lot of my parts from HERE
> ncix is a rip off if you ask me....



I know that website and their prices are not that good. NCIX is currently the best rated online hardware retailer and you can price match with directcanada.


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## Dent1 (Aug 13, 2010)

1nf3rn0x said:


> But look at other games, it trails behind at 20-30fps. Mw2 is the only game where it catches up or beats an i7.
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Phenom_II_X6_1090T/10.html
> 
> Just have a look at Crysis warhead, the PII x6 trails by 20+ fps.



You're exaggerating, on Crysis Warhead there was a 23FPs difference @ 1024x768, no hardcore gamer aspires to plays at that resolution. 13 FPS difference @ 1680x1050, even that is low resolution these days.

Now look at the trend. The i7 870 drops 15 FPS going from 1024x768 to 1680x1050.

Whereas the Phenom II X6 dropped only 5 FPS going from 1024x768 to 1680x1050.

The fact that the i7 suffers a more dramatic FPS decrease shows that its weaker overall, it also shows that if higher resolutions like 1920x1200+ were benchmarked the i7 would of fell way behind the X6 whilst the X6 would of stabilised. 

Your link basically shows the X6 is better, even for gaming - providing it’s at a high resolution.



1nf3rn0x said:


> Still, it equates to 8 cores in total, 4 physical and 4 with hyper threading.



A core and a thread are seperate things. A core is physical a hyperthreading "appears" logical. Even with hyperthreading it's 8 logical processors but only 4 physical processors still. The i7 is a quadcore.


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## BarbaricSoul (Aug 13, 2010)

GodsFury said:


> Could the 2nd pci express slot be defective then ? I remember seeing my 2nd gpu go to 250c when trying to increase the fan speeds of both to 60%. Maybe that was just a glitch...
> 
> But even though it may be hard to believe the 750 can't handle it... maybe there's a shortage of watts to power every thing I have hooked up. Then again, i have a limited knowledge when it comes to PSU and their power abilities.



could be a problem with the 2nd PCIE slot, could be a problem with one of the cards when trying to run in SLI, could be a problem with your SLI bridge for all I know. All I can say is from I've read on the specifications of both the 750 watt corsair and the GTX460, the corsair should be able to power the SLI'ed GTX460 cards. Got a friend with a SLI compatable system you could try them in?

BTW, if your card actually hit 250'c, your whole computer would have melted. That's almost 500'f


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## fullinfusion (Aug 14, 2010)

Wulfgar said:


> I know that website and their prices are not that good. NCIX is currently the best rated online hardware retailer and you can price match with directcanada.


Mabey there top rated but I do penny pinch and often check both sites out. But like I said I've had better prices with them... there prices change daily and usually for the better.


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## GodsFury (Aug 14, 2010)

BarbaricSoul said:


> could be a problem with the 2nd PCIE slot, could be a problem with one of the cards when trying to run in SLI, could be a problem with your SLI bridge for all I know. All I can say is from I've read on the specifications of both the 750 watt corsair and the GTX460, the corsair should be able to power the SLI'ed GTX460 cards. Got a friend with a SLI compatable system you could try them in?
> 
> BTW, if your card actually hit 250'c, your whole computer would have melted. That's almost 500'f



Thanks for your reply! Actually, I do have a friend that could run SLI so I think that's what I'll try. He has the HX750 from corsair too so I guess that's a good build to try it in since it's nearly the same psu. 

Thanks again


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## Wulfgar (Aug 17, 2010)

I heard they're gonna drop the prices on the Core I7 950 by the end of the month so I guess I'm gonna wait a little longer.


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## Dent1 (Aug 17, 2010)

Wulfgar said:


> I heard they're gonna drop the prices on the Core I7 950 by the end of the month so I guess I'm gonna wait a little longer.



I can not see the price dropping any time soon, the i7 950 is a $600 CPU, even if they drop the price a few dollars its still going to be way overpriced. 

If you seriously need that much power get AMD's hexacore its less than half as much.


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## WarEagleAU (Aug 18, 2010)

well newegg.com is usually pretty darn cheap so I imagine the newegg.ca is just as cheap. NZXT Hades is pretty good, its a midtower and around 100 to 130 bucks US. Otherwise if you like Antec, their new DarkFleet cases are very cool. PRoc is good. I'd go with a bit cheaper motherboard from Asus, Gigabyte or MSI if possible. for the video card, try that HX 850 from Corsair. It is rated as a silver psu, but really pulls gold certifications. Sound card, if you want one Auzentech is pretty good but expensive. For ram, I love the GSkill series or Kingston or Corsair.


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## bpgt64 (Aug 18, 2010)

pantherx12 said:


> Yeah if you leave the x6 at stock speed, they pretty much all do 4ghz with no problems.
> 
> Look at gaming results when over-clocked
> http://tpucdn.com/reviews/AMD/Phenom_II_X6_1090T/images/mw2oc_1024.gif



Who plays at that resolution?

I have had a i7 920 paired with GTX 470s, and a 1090T paired with HD 5870s.  The i7 rig does better performance wise.


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## DaMulta (Aug 18, 2010)

Just think

You could have 12 real cores, and 12 fake cores for a total of 24 cores!!!

http://www.evga.com/articles/00537/

Just think about that a bit lol


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## GodsFury (Aug 19, 2010)

DaMulta said:


> Just think
> 
> You could have 12 real cores, and 12 fake cores for a total of 24 cores!!!
> 
> ...



Now that is just rediculous! Imagine the technology in 2-5 years... We're going to be up to 100 cores!


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