New computer

Hi folks, like the subject says I will be buying a new computer within the next week or so.

Read somewhere that games can have issues with running more than one card...also read you are better off getting one top rated card instead of two lower rated...may have been here somewhere.

64 bit cpu means its registers l 1,l 2,l 3 are 64 bits in length and to use all 64 bits you need a 64 bit os. a 64 bit cpu can run a 32 bit os if thats what you want but the max usage on 32 bit for ram is 3.0 gb plus your video cards vram.

64 bit os can hold obscene amount of ram i think it is close to 1tb or ram. would i get 644 bit or 32 bit? most people are still usign 2.0 ghz computers, 1-2gb of ram  and 32 bit os so there wont be a extreme need for it now, but in the next few years things are going to change. so it would be best tog et the 64 bit now especially since now at days you can find pretty much any driver in 64 bit unlike when vista was introduced.

how ever even 32 bit os are getting ram heavy (xp) starting off only requiring 512gb of ram to be sufficiant now your closer to the 1gb mark after all the updates and service packs. then comes the games you need 1-2 for them as well, plus what ever you may not notice that is running in the backround.

sli is great for boostign avg and max fps however it has lower min fps due to latency from the sli bridge. some games scale poorly with sli/cf son't scale well up to tri some don't support it. if the game does not support it it will just be running idle. a single fast gpu is better then two smaller/slower ones mainly for cost and bottom line performance. adding 2 cheaper one for example will beat 1 more expensive one. ex 2x 460 vs 480 hands down the sli wins in perforamnce but the 480 will have higher min fps. what counts the most is not really your max fps it is your min fps. this is when your under full load and struggling to keep up. it doesn't matter if you can hit 40 fps for ex with a min of 15. since at times it will appear choppy you want 20-30 min fps depending on the game at your desired settings and resolution.

LC costs bucks if your room temp is not high and well ventilated all year round it is not needed unless you want seriously power that you wont have a use for. yeah it looks cool and has lower temps. the asetek is lclc which stands for low cost liquid cooling it is marginal performance. how ever the frost chill and subzero lines are real lc and have much better temps. keep in mind this requires maintenance lclc or lc. you need to check to see if the fluid is flowing and not blocked. monitor fluid levels and your std air maintainence procedures.

air: a noctua u12p which is the air cooler you want dual 120mm fankit for your cpu will cool almost as well (within a few c) of the lclc how ever due to motherboard layout the ram sits nex to the cpu and it doubles as a ram cooler which is something you lose out on in lc unless you get the ram fankit.

if you plan on players any games that require 1.5gb of vram (gpu ram) to run at their highest settings you can not combine 2gpus to get it. it hsa to be off of one. a game like this would be gta 4 for ex.


Edited by Raif - 03 Oct 2010 at 12:13pm

have you ever bought 4 gb with a 32 bit os  ambientchong11? it will show in bios you haev 4gb and Windows will only recognize 3gb of it not 4.

the only way you can achieve 4 gb of ram is to not have a gpu. how it works with 32 bit os is.... you get a max of 4 gb including the gpu. so if you have a 896 mb gpu with 4 gb of ram whast the answer in usuable ram? here is the math.

1024 x 4 = 4096
4096 - 896= 3200
3200 / 1024= 3.125 gb / 3.029 max readable

max readable is calculated with 4000 mb of ram instead of ram face value. this is my actual computer as well

my computer is  perfect example, it wa cheaper to buy 2x 2gb dims then 3x 1 gb so you will often find 4 gb as a standard even in 32 bit os configs but they will never be able to use more then 3. reason being is most gpus now at days are 896 mb and above.

most problems that people encounter with a 64 bit os are now gone. the reason why there were problems is that when vista came out no one had 64 bit drivets. and ms told manufacturers to go shove it and write it. if they want to use widnoes they ened to have 64 bit drivers. the hardware people did not want to write it b/c it would cost oo much to support old hardware. so now at days with a couple of generations of new tech and implementation of 64 bit drivers things are 95% smoother then they were with the vista fiasco. 7 is vista with new features, annoying ones removed and a new sexy red dress.

is it worth getting a 32 bit os system with todays top end gpu? heck no if you get a 480 (1.5gb vram) that leaves 2.5 gb or ram. the os will take 1 gb, so that leaves 1 gb for game and .5 gb for random background prgs.  ram is your virtual desktop the more you have the more you can have on your desk. great for multitasking ect.


Edited by Raif - 03 Oct 2010 at 11:33pm

anytime, hey we are all here to help each other 

lol nice sig btw have u tried right clicking the word? it should give you a drop down menu of word choices if not use fire fox www.modzilla.org


Edited by Raif - 04 Oct 2010 at 10:58pm

for some reason chrome doesn't sit right with me, i can't explain it. ever since i got turned onto firefox in 2004 i haven't liked anything else. everyone to each their own

Thanks everyone for the input  Even learned a bit about browsers:)