Part 2: Building A Balanced Gaming PC

[cnox]

Monday Checkin for week of 1/11/2010. Been 6 weeks since part 2 posted...please let us know when to expect Part 3. You must have the article publishing schedule somewhere, just let us know please.

 

[dark41]

Um.. unless Gigabyte has typos on their website, you might want to rethink your previous post. The X58 is the only chipset that I'm aware of that does 2 full x16 slots:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=2986&ProductName=GA-EX58-UD4P

2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2) (Note 2)
1 x PCI Express x8 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1) (Note 3)
(The PCIEX16_1, PCIE16_2 and PCIEX8_1 slots support 2-Way/3-Way NVIDIA SLI/ATI CrossFireX technology and conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
1 x PCI Express x4 slot
1 x PCI Express x1 slot
2 x PCI slots

Both your selection and mine are P55 chipset, which only supports 1 x x16 and 1 x x16 running at x8. All P55/P55A specs say the same thing for expansion slots:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=3160

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=3239

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=3161

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) (The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
3 x PCI Express x1 slots
2 x PCI slots

Also not sure where you get your prices from, but my Gigabyte supplier only listed the P55 series for a few weeks, which are long gone now. Only the P55A series remains. So you selected a motherboard that's already being phased out.

Still think you made a well thought out choice? I don't.

 

[cnox]

This is a recording...please enter the date of the release of Parts 3 and 4 of this series after the tone....

*BEEEP*

 

[cnox]

Monday Checkin for week of 1/18.

Let's get some notifications about the next article release, please!

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

Like the thread and more,But dont like the way of showing fps in charts!Difficult to read and understand!

 

[Guest]

I am another user expecting part 3...

Even if it looks like we were waiting for duke nukem....

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

Waited for this !!

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

Will help many! Sure!!!!!

 

[aethm]

Hmmm... part 3 seems to be lost forever. It's going on 3 months.

 

[cnox]

Yes, I think this series was a failed experiment.

 

[raghwendra123]

Dear Paul Henningsen, may I suggest a charting scheme.Keeep one variable(price) instead of two(cpu +gpu). Charts can be made out for every cpu+gpu price on one axis and fps on other.say on x axis we have all the price points marked as no 1,2 3 but to scale, on the y axis we have fps.Charts be made separately for all resolutions tested.sure the combination will have many points but it can also be split into more graphs of different price range if need be.The no. used in x axis will identify its price and cpu+gpu combination used. Thus even if price change it will only need shifting the price point nos. viz. 1,2,3 on x axis.for costlier combination achieving lesser fps the points can be greyed. Seven games will need 7 lines on this chart(though can be closely spaced ones),plus add in a reference line at 40 fps.And finally we can have (average fps of all games)/price histogram for all price points.thus for each resolution we have two charts(normal+histogram). It will be very easy to suggest a combination for a given resolution which will also be easy for viewers to see. Hope this finds favour.
Thanks
Raghwendra

 

[airgreek]

part 3?

 

[Guest]

Darn... I am still waiting for part 3. Is it the advertisers/sponsor rebelled?

 

[pauldh]

Part 3 is in the works, but still a few weeks from completion. It's a bit of a monster and ran into numerous delays. The series will continue with parts 4-6, and likely a part 7 also.

We do apologize for the delay and thank you for your continued interest in the series.

 

[bongobrain]

As I understand, the idea of parts 3 and 4 was about overclocking the cards in parts one and two. Problem is that several graphic cards used in part 1 and 2 are hardly for sale anymore (at least where I live). So, at the risk of creating more delay, might I suggest to focus on currently available cards in parts 3 and more (or at least to give an indication of how the currently available cards would probably have done in parts one and two)?
Or are these exactly the delays mentioned by Mr. Henderson?

 

[Guest]

So is this thing officially dead? I come back every week hoping part 3 was done.

 

[pauldh]

So is this thing officially dead? I come back every week hoping part 3 was done.

Valid question.
No, it's not dead. Hang in there a little longer... coming soon.

 

[yo_yo2400]

"What effect does having a motherboard that unlocks the 4th core on the X2 and X3 have? In power consumption and overall performance? I'm not asking a redo of all the data, just asking for speculation by someone more knowledgeable, if I can get it."

All it does is turn it into a higher type. X2 with 2 cores unlocked is an X4 to make it stable you sometimes have to make it higher voltage not always though. Hope that answered it.