Thread: $16,338.89 PC

What kind of hardware does $16,338.89 buy you? 32GB of memory, four quad-core Opteron processors, two 300GB VelociRaptor hard drives, six 1TB drives and a GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. They claim the cooling is nearly silent.

http://www.tomshardware.com/pictures...s-extreme.html

I want two.

You know what that also buys you? My soul. Any offers?

16 processing cores, 32gb ram, 6tb of data storage and a crappy 880GTS ??? Huh?

...There was no more room for the clock?

I'm suprised it's only fed by a 1000W PSU.

Originally Posted by leohopkins

16 processing cores, 32gb ram, 6tb of data storage and a crappy 880GTS ??? Huh?

The buyer evidently isn't a gamer. I'm interested to know what application this might be for. Any guesses?

It's for the same purpose as it always is, Pinky. TO TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Originally Posted by Kukhri

I'm suprised it's only fed by a 1000W PSU.

Originally Posted by leohopkins

16 processing cores, 32gb ram, 6tb of data storage and a crappy 880GTS ??? Huh?

The buyer evidently isn't a gamer. I'm interested to know what application this might be for. Any guesses?

Erm, possibly cryptography / code breaking?

I'm really not very impressed by the specs, would have expected at least quad video cards for that price. The 16 processors is nice, I work with an 8 core server all day long and it really does make a nice improvement over say a dual or quad. I prefer ATI video cards these days as well, had far too many nVidia cards just flat out die. I even had one that actually melted the entire fan all over the heatsink.

Incidentally, the 8800 series is the best graphics card in cost, efficiency, stability, and BENCHMARKS today. Those traits put together equal a card that is actually ON my "to buy" list. I've looked at the more expensive cards and you know what I see? FAILURE. That and the 8800 has the best architecture of all of them.

Incidentally, if you look at benchmarks the ATI does perform considerably better, but only due to the HUGE number of processor cores. I mean holy crap. Unfortunately Cataylst drivers are absolute shit, and people repeatedly report problems with them (I even have problems with mine!). Incidentally, I also chose the 8800 due to the amount of processor cores.

Hmm, I've been running Crysis on my ATI 4850 with the latest catalyst drivers without issue. I overclock everything as well. I so use to be a big fan of nVidia, the hardware failures have just turned me against them. Might just be my bad luck. I've not had any ATI cards melt down as of yet.

Nvidia is by no means perfect, and in fact fucks around a lot with their hardware. The 8800 is absolutely perfect in all ways, though, AND runs Crysis better than the ATI card you're using (check benchmarks, it's amazing). Also? It's cheap. I believe it's $80 on newegg.

Originally Posted by Darius

Nvidia is by no means perfect, and in fact fucks around a lot with their hardware. The 8800 is absolutely perfect in all ways, though, AND runs Crysis better than the ATI card you're using (check benchmarks, it's amazing). Also? It's cheap. I believe it's $80 on newegg.

I had a typo in my card type. I'm actually using an ATI 4850. I can put up to 4 of them on the Asus board I'm running. The price on the 8800 is very nice, and I love to buy stuff from newegg

According to benchmarks that exact card is just a LEETLE better than the 8800GT. Also, the 8800GT is cheaper. You would have done better going with NV in this case.

LINKS TIME!

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...re,2098-7.html

This doesn't show your exact card but it's hard to find a benchmark with the 8800 vs. yours.

http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-50...X2-Crysis.html

This shows to STAY THE FUCK AWAY from the 9800 series. The 9 series in general is a fucked up overpriced version of the 8800 series, and the 8800 series performs much better.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140

According to ANandtech the 8800 is the "only card that matters"

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_4850/8.html

And what you have all been waiting for: The ultimate Crysis comparison of AWESOMENESS. The 4850 actually performs /SLIGHTLY/ better than the 8800GT 512MB, but when you look at price comparison...8800GT really IS the only card that matters. The obvious winner is the GTX 280, but the cost of one of those fuckers is insane.

EDIT: actually upon closer inspection the 8800GTX is better than the 8800GT. In fact it's better than the 4850, and also maintains a VERY low price.

EDIT2: NEvermind all of the above. Know why? Nvidia saw fit to CANCEL the 8800 series for no other APPARENT reason than everyone was buying it rather than their crazy expensive shitty graphics cards. Great. Just FUCKING great. IF any of you can find an 8800GTX you had BETTER lay your claws on it with a death grip. It's FUNNY how the 8600 series is still on the market but not the 8800 series. Yeah. FUNNY. I'm willing to call conspiracy here.

I actually didn't know the 4850 was faster then the 8800GT. I was just pointing out what I had and the reason why I bought it. The 4850 had some thermal issues with the older drivers. They never bothered to spin the fan up fast enough. It was pretty easy to fix even back then. I've had bad luck with nVidia for reliability, I never had too many problems with their drivers. I would not say they were and or are perfect at this time either.

You know what I've noticed? Nvidia knows their audience. They're repeatedly discontinuing lines that perform better than their more expensive graphics cards to trap gamers into buying them (and they do). Two 9800GTX's perform better than a 280. Yeah. So what happened? 9800GTX was discontinued. I'm willing to call conspiracy here.

Also? The 9800GTX was cheaper than the 280. You could buy THREE for the price of a 280, when two outperform the 280 with maximum Crysis settings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0b1GlBGJgw this URL shows a comparison near the end.

Well then, let's talk graphics cards.

First off, the 8800gt (G92 core) and 9800gt are the exact same architecture and only differ in minor details, like tri-sli support. In fact, when the 9800gt was released, partners were given the ok to release left over 8800gt stock with 9800gt labelling and board layout. The 9800GTX was discontinued, but the replacement card, the 9800GTX+, is faster.

Secondly, it does not work to compare cards based only on one game. Crysis is much more NVidia friendly and has been specifically optimised for it (not to mention having a buggy and inefficient graphics engine). Some other titles might show ATI preference. The most prudent criteria to look at are overall performance versus price point. In this regard ATI has a pretty good thing going, with NVidia pulling up its socks as of late.

The fastest card on average at the moment is the NVidia GTX295, which is a dual GPU setup. Second to that is the ATI 4870 X2, which is also a dual GPU setup.

Cards that are comparable to each other price/performance wise (I'll give their prices in US dollars as they are priced over here. I think it should be similar elsewhere):

ATI 4870 1Gig and GTX260 core 216 @ $300 - $450

They alternate between beating each other, but the ATI handles anti aliasing a bit better.

ATI 4850 and 9800GTX+ @ $200 - $300

Same story as above, but both are a bit slower.

ATI 4830 and 9800GT @ $160 - $200

Same as above, but both are a bit slower still.

A bunch of cards that are loosely comparable to each other and give adequate performance in most games on a 22" monitor are (all less than $160):

NVidia 9600GT
ATI 3870
ATI 4670

Cards that are still popular today include the 8800gts series and the legendary 8800 ultra.

I think I paid around $185 for my 512 ATI 4850 and it had a $30 mail in rebate that I got back. I notice however that Asus appears to have stopped producing that model. I'm still fat and happy with the card. I can add up to 4 of them with the Asus Mobo that I have. I'm running an AMD processor as it was much cheaper then the intel ones at the time and performs well. I got a black box version with the unlocked multiplier. I'm running @ 3.2 Ghz.

I overclock everything Never had a failure due to overclocking. Matter of fact the nVidia cards that failed on me so far were not even overclocked. Hmm.

Man we are overpriced over here! Not sure what model you have, but those cards tend to run pretty hot with stock cooling compared to older cards. It is still well within their operating limit, so no problem. Does your card exhaust hot air out the back (duel slot design)? Those cards are great overclockers! I am jealous.

Do you have one of the Phenom's? Maybe 9850 Black Box edition? Those are not the best, but far from useless, especially with 4 cores to play with.

I am planning an upgrade some time this year, hopefully one of the new Phenom II's, with 4850 and good Asus mobo.

At the moment I have AMD64 3500+, Asus 8600GTS Silencer, 2Gig OCZ DDR2 800 CL4 Sli ram, crappy Asus mobo. Far from proper, but I can at least play Crysis at reasonable settings (for me).

Originally Posted by KALSTER

Man we are overpriced over here! Not sure what model you have, but those cards tend to run pretty hot with stock cooling compared to older cards. It is still well within their operating limit, so no problem. Does your card exhaust hot air out the back (duel slot design)? Those cards are great overclockers! I am jealous.

Do you have one of the Phenom's? Maybe 9850 Black Box edition? Those are not the best, but far from useless, especially with 4 cores to play with.

I am planning an upgrade some time this year, hopefully one of the new Phenom II's, with 4850 and good Asus mobo.

At the moment I have AMD64 3500+, Asus 8600GTS Silencer, 2Gig OCZ DDR2 800 CL4 Sli ram, crappy Asus mobo. Far from proper, but I can at least play Crysis at reasonable settings (for me).

I'm running my 4850 @ 700 Mhz core and 1175 Mhz memory clock and it runs about 55C. I had to do some tweaks to the driver settings to get the fan to speed up. It was no big deal. I don't have the card that vents out the back, but I do have two 120mm fans just above it sucking air out and a couple up front pushing air in. Not running a Phenom yet, just running what I guess would be 6400+ x2 AMD64. It does what I need.