What kind of CPU should I buy/build for games?

[dhlucke]

First off, don't get an optical mouse. They are extremely annoying,jumpy, and not precise at all. At the very least try one out for a couple days and make your own decision. I couldn't use one for the life of me for anything. It was a gamble: We were taking bets to see where the pointer would end up next.

Second, I have seen one of the new boards that Tom reviewed that did support a wider range of voltages for newer processors, so just keep your eyes open.

"I think I brained my damage"

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Yeah, but THG almost always reviews preproduction engineering samples. So good luck actually finding any of those motherboards now. **L** It's a good thing that this system isn't being built until the summer.

Now to poke fun at AMD and see what kind of poor reasoning people like Connie will try to defend AMD.

Sure, in the future it'll be easy to get these motherboards that support the varying voltages. The same occured when Intel released the P3 on the same chips and slots that the Celerons used. And Intel quickly learned how bad of an idea it was to do things this way.

All those poor AMD users out there now who want to use the new .13 micron chips will STILL have to go with a new motherboard to properly support their chip, just like any Intel user will to use Intel's new .13micron chips. It's just plain fact.

A different socket ensures that a customer won't shove a .13micron chip into a motherboard that doesn't support it.

While just a change in voltage regulators ensures that there will be idiots out there who fry their chip by putting it into an older motherboard. But it allows a customer to take an old chip and use it in a new system.

Forgive me for being confused on how there's any advantage to putting an old chip into a new system. Intel obviously went the smarter route to ensure that half-informed customers don't do something that they will come to regret. AMD just took the method that cost them the least amount of money to implement without a single care for any customers.

Big surprise there.

- Sanity is purely based on point-of-view.

 

[Guest]

I dont know too much about harware tech terms, but in simple english, (or tech terms with lil explination) what is the difference between class A,B,&C AMD Athalon's? Do they run faster slower, or do they have differnent features, what would be the best class to buy if I was builing my system? Thanks again for the help.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

A = crap
B = 100MHz FSB
C = 133MHZ FSB

The C in a system that fully supports a 133MHz FSB (chip, motherboard, and memory) will outperform a 100MHz FSB system with the same CPU overall MHz/GHz rating.

- Sanity is purely based on point-of-view.

 

[crapple0]

Athlon A: 500-1000 MHz. 512K off-die cache, running at 1/2 clock speed for slower models, 2/5 and 1/3 clock speed for the faster ones (so the cache of a 500Mhz runs at 250, while the cache of a 1000 runs at 333). 100MHz DDR bus speed.

Athlon B: Thunderbird. 700-1300+MHz. 256K on-die, full clockspeed cache. Performs better than the Athlon A. 100MHz DDR bus speed.

Athlon C: Identical to B, except 133MHz DDR bus speed. In fact, a C is so identical to B, that you can take a 1200MHz B...which is running at 12x100, close the L1 jumpers and make it run at 9x133...just like a 1200MHz Athlon C would.

~Crapple0

"intel inside, idiot outside"

 

[wapaaga]

i don't know which optical mouse you used bu the one i have is smoother than my ball mouse
it dosen't jump or skip at all and it is nice have the browsing buttonson it

 

[Nikko]

Hehehe....you are the epitomy of an Intel droid. You are more fanatical in your devotion to the great satan of chipmakers than any fan of AMD in these forums. And what's with the comment about Connie? I see nothing wrong with his/her reasoning. I do see lot's wrong with yours.

 

[dhlucke]

I was using the microsoft optical with the wheel. It was a nightmare. I tried every surface, but it was just a royal pain in the..

Maybe I just had bad luck, but either way I wouldn't recommend someone buying one just because they are the newest thing. Make sure you try one out first...

"I think I brained my damage"

 

[AmdMELTDOWN]

oh, come on now! learn to read, he backs up Amd more than you or connie does! I know the truth is hurting you bad.


"Amd cpu...Gone in -60 secs!"

 

[Teikoshen]

i love my optical mouse.. it's microsoft intelli explorer...
i had to click like 5 hours of clicking on point click to get some internet cash.. oh well.. it's free anyway except for the shipping and handling..
that mouse has like 5 buttons 2 on thumb, left click, right click and middle button.. pretty nifty
good for playing fps games like TFC (thumb buttons for throwing grenades ) hehe..

but for builing a system for game and .. i'm researching that now too.. i'll agree with the few previous post... Athlon all the way..
i'm not as techinical as them sad to say.. not enough research done yet..
but if you're playing games.. graphics card and sound card comes pretty important too.. to me that is..

besides that.. not to mention your cable connection.. if you're playing multiplayer games.. hmm don't forget cable or DSL (i'd go for cable )

 

[Atolsammeek]

I have a crazy setup but hay. Descent and other games that you need to use a keyboard and joystick or mouse at the same time. I use dual Joysticks wingman force and wingman extream or dual wingman extreams. And I piss people off when I play games on line. For the controls I have.

 

[phsstpok]

Don't know about any others but the Abit KT7As and KT7s support voltages down to 1.1 volts. However, the KT7As only support speeds up to 1.667 ghz and the KT7s only 1.25 ghz without overclocking FSB.

On the other hand, it may be that the 'Thoroughbreds' and 'Appaloosas' will use multipliers other than the current 5X-12.5X range.

Memory bandwidth would be an issue on the older motherboards but someone was planning ahead for .13 micron compatibility

 

[mjdunn]

My first optical mouse sucked but I had used one that was nice so I gave the crap one to my father inlaw and bought a new one. It is wonderful! As far as a pad I didn't use one at first now I have a func industries pad. They are not cheap for a mouse pad but they ship in a nice case. (Charge less and throw it in some plastic $30 for a mouse pad! What was I thinking?)

If you get a good one you will be happy.

 

[Guest]

There is a ton of good information in these replies. One thing to keep in mind is that if you go AMD you should plan on spending some extra time getting it running perfectly. You will, at the very least, have to carefully read some faqs and make sure you have the latest drivers installed and in the correct order. Most of the mobos for the athlons are not very forgiving of any kind of error. This is the price you pay for a cheaper chip.

On the other hand, I have a 1gz athlon system that runs like a dream. I did, as expected, encounter some obsticals but now its been running for over 2 mos straight without a single crash or freeze and I install a ton of games and demos.

 

[Booky]

How much was that monitor? I need a new one!

Someday I will stop asking all the questions!

 

[Booky]

Did you say more info on RAID? I need it, the pro's and cons. The board I want looks like it has RAID 0 but I havent totally decided on a board yet. I know nothing of what RAID does or how it affects your system, or even if a deckstar 75GXP 46.1 HD 7200rpm ata 100 will work with it. That is the HD im buying. booky@327th.com is my email if you don't mind sending me info.

Someday I will stop asking all the questions!

 

[Xerin]

Raid-0 (striping) requires 2 hard drives of equal size. It will give you a slight speed increase but at the cost of reliability. If one of your drives goes down, you lose everything. Also, Raid-0 eats up some of your CPU processing time.

Raid-1 (mirroring) also requires 2 hard drives of equal size. It will give you much greater stability but at the cost of disk space. Since one of the drives is used as a mirror, you only get to use half your potential disk space.

Raid 0-1 (striping and mirroring) requires 4 hard drives of equal size. This gives you the best of both worlds, but is expensive because you need 4 drives to make it work.
For most gamers, Raid is not a reasonable solution. I looked into it and ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the risk/cost involved.

 

[mjdunn]

I don't use a motherboard with built in raid (I use a promise controller card), I have 3 drives running on a Raid 0 No use of my cpu (like I said I don't use an onboard raid) My controller was $60 dollars but well worth it. The speed that I have noticed is amazing! As far as one drive dies you lose everything, well there is always a price to pay. But if you only have one drive and it fails you lose everything! If you want fast and failsafe there are some Raid 5 cards but the cheapest you can get your hands on a IDE Raid 5 card is about $375 and you have to have atleast 3 drives. If you have the money for a raid it is well worth. Just my opinion

Opinion are like assholes everyone has one, and most of them stink!