Take a peek inside

1.no 108 should be fine

2. will answer that after I see your ticket number

3. LQ is the way to go for oc or not, its the most, quiet, cooler, stable and fast.

4. depends.

now where is your ticket number? budget? and monitor resolution?

Edited by DST4ME - 21 Sep 2008 at 4:15pm

-LCD Display: Acer 22 inch (Widescreen) (Black) (High-Performance Gaming Display)

OK got your ticket looking at it now.

but what is your monitor's resolution?

Edited by DST4ME - 21 Sep 2008 at 5:37pm

ok then. be right back

-I would prefer to save 1000 dollars on that processor.  that is a big cost for such a 'small' upgrade.     because of that cost i would not be allowed to upgrade the ram to 8 gigs.   I would atleast like 6 but i dont think you all offer that option.

$4015

Edited by Tyler Lowe - 21 Sep 2008 at 7:03pm

well, small was a relative team.    I work with cars a lot and when we modify them a good value is dollar per horsepower.             thats basicly the way im looking at this.        

With respect DST, you're comparing a system without a monitor that goes over budget to one that makes budget (alright, I'm over by $15...) with a 24" monitor included, as well as a sound card. When it comes to gaming on the two systems, no, I don't believe there will be a noticeable difference in performance at any resolution that makes sense for these GPU's. The only time you would see a difference is when running benchmarks at lower resolutions intentionally selected to show inflated results.

Edited by Tyler Lowe - 21 Sep 2008 at 7:51pm

I've provided an example of a system built with a QX9770 and agreed with the range you provided for the 9550. If you have another example you wish to provide, please do so.

But not within budget. If the OP wants to flex on the budget, I will agree 100% that in a build where $4k does not have to include a monitor, the extreme chip makes perfect sense. Otherwise, I think the build you offered rheil here was closer to the mark for this price range.

Edited by Tyler Lowe - 21 Sep 2008 at 8:26pm

well i appreciate both of your help here :)   the point i made with the 6000 dollar comment is that having the money is no issue.. but convincing myself it is worth it is :).

well everything you say is right with the exception of the qx9770 being a small increase, if you had them next to each-other and saw the difference for yourself you would not say that.

also if you choose to upgrade to the qx9770 say in year, you will have ended up paying way more then what it would cost now in total.

also the QX9770 as I said before is an extreme chip made for over clocking, its a better/newer chip then the q95550, to begin with the qx9770 is an Xeon chip made to work, the q9550 is not.

I just want to be clear, that the q9550 is a good chip but lets not mislead ourselves into believing that the qx9770 is not a huge improvement over the q9550.

Its no mistake that everybody that wants the most out of their OC and has the budget, goes for the qx9770, if the difference was that minimal, everybody would have gone with the q9550 or even the qx9650.

for example why did this review go with QX9770? cause they want the most power from OC possible, the high-end, the top of the line, the one with the biggest difference.



so again the q9550 is a great processor but I'm not gonna say it contends with qx9770, cause its simply can't, by a big margin.

If anybody here wants to think that a mainstream desktop chip can hang with an Xeon, they are more then welcome to do so but the facts are that they are sadly mistaken.

Xeons are made to work like crazy and last a long time.

Edited by DST4ME - 21 Sep 2008 at 9:04pm

hows this?

 

185337

 

Specifications:
Chassis: Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair HX (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz (1333MHz FSB) (12MB Cache)
Motherboard: nVidia 790i Ultra Core 2 Quad (nForce 790i Ultra SLI) (DDR3 Only)
System Memory: 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair DHX (High-Performance)
Card Reader: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 1: 74GB Western Digital Raptor (10K RPM) (8MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Hard Drive 2: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Raid Option: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) (LightScribe Edition)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Wireless Access: D-Link Wireless-G 108Mbps (Supports 802.11g/b)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 1GB) (Includes PhysX Technology)
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Razer Barracuda AC-1 (Recommended)
Extreme Cooling: Liquid Chilled FrostBite CPU Only
Internal Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Red Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
Modifications: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Yes, Overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: Yes, Overclock memory timings (Includes Memory Fan Kit Installed)
Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: APC 650VA Uninterruptible Backup Surge Conditioner (Recommended)
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks my keyboard comes with a mouse
External Storage: - No Thanks
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

ooo i can cut out that sound card too to knock me down to around 3600 dollars.   I think id be pleased with that.    Ram, ok 4 gb. i went with the "high preformance" vs the one you had in your build tyler.. it was 20 dollars more, i dont know if its worth it but well its 20 bucks....  I will be able to expand on that later IF i need.. but those 4 gb will not choke down the rest of what i have selected correct?

Originally posted by Tyler Lowe Parapdrapa, I think you have a fair idea of what you want and why. I agree that it is a meager speed increase for gaming relative to the price. I believe this is particularly true given your stated budget. The extreme CPU based builds I have seen come out of DSO based on the Penryn quads and a 790i motherboard have overclocked to between 3.8 and 4.0 GHZ. The Q9550 builds I have seen come out of DSO based on the same motherboard have overclocked to between 3.6GHz and 3.8GHz. There are a few very CPU intensive games where that 200-400 MHz could make some impact on performance, but more visually demanding titles tend to make those demands on the graphics cards, not the CPU. Now, it is possible you would get a "cherry" that would OC higher than that, in which case you might be looking at more than a 400Mhz difference, but I want to stress that this is a matter of pure chance, and does not change the fact that most titles end up being GPU bound. This is why I advise going with the Q9550. I would advise against 8GB of RAM in a gaming build, particularly if you plan on overclocking. 4GB is still more than most titles need, and is plenty of future proofing  IMO. Remember, developers create games with the mainstream gamer in mind, and 2GB is still very commonplace. Min specs will probably reflect this for the next few years. Installing 8GB of RAM will also all but garantee a lower overclock. As the stress on the memory controller increases, the ability to maintain a higher OC speed is going to go down. Adding additional RAM increases that stress.   Any of the builds offered will meet min specs for the next 4 years, based on what min spec is now vs what was available 4 years ago. If you really want to not have to upgrade anything, my advice would be to find room in the build for SLI GTX280 before you worry about the extreme edition quad. Games seem to be headed in a direction where they will increasingly benefit from frame buffer size and memory bandwidth. The GTX280 represents the highest level for both currently, and will show, IMO, the greatest longevity of any current GPU. This is speculation on my part, but do remember that the 8800Ultra was released in December of 2006, and represented at the time, the largest framebuffer, and greatest memory bandwidth of any GPU available. A pair of Ultras will still more than meet min spec today, providing a very good play experience at resolutions up to 1920x1200, and in some cases, beyond.     The CPU's function, is to feed the GPU's with frames to render, deal with AI, and sometimes, to deal with things like physics (if, like crysis, the develop opts not to go with Phys-x). In most cases, games really don't need much more than a 3GHz clock from the CPU to place the bottleneck squarely on the graphics cards. While it was once true that the CPU was the single most important thing in a gaming PC, this is no longer true. The GPU is at the least as important, and more often than not, more important for gaming at this point. More and more functions are being taken up by the GPU.   It's always good to get multiple views. DST4ME is a wiz on the software side of things, and not too shabby with the hardware either. I'm glad our sometimes uh "spirited" discussion has been useful to you in forming your own opinions.

TL we have not seen one q9550 that has come out at 3.8 except for the harlyman's pc, you can go and serch the forum and see the regular oc for q9550 in this forum has been 3.4 max 3.6 with one 3.8.

so lets get our numbers right.

so the number is not 400MHz, altho I do like how you are going up now, half an hour ago it was only a couple of MHz but now its 400MHz, keep going up you may get closer to the truth.

and again the qx9770 has more life span and I dont' see how yoru system is suppose to be good for 4 years when its a mainstream desktop, it 2 years it will be what the E8200 of now. and to buy a qx9770 in 2 year and the q9550 now will more then just going with qx9770.

last but not least, the qx9770 being an xeon chip will last longer then the q9550 while working harder the whole time.

having said all that, as for the ram, graphic cards and etc., I agree with TL.

as for your ticket, few changes, also match your ram speed with your cpu's fsb otherwise when not in oc or if anything happens you have a ram which is a waste cause all its speed can't be used.

here you go Ticket# 185343 --- Price: $3277 (To see this build click here)

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis: Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair HX (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz (1333MHz FSB) (12MB Cache)
Motherboard: nVidia 790i Ultra Core 2 Quad (nForce 790i Ultra SLI) (DDR3 Only)
System Memory: 4GB DDR3 1333MHz OCZ
Card Reader: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 1: 74GB Western Digital Raptor (10K RPM) (8MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Hard Drive 2: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Raid Option: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) (LightScribe Edition)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Wireless Access: D-Link Wireless-G 108Mbps (Supports 802.11g/b)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB (Includes PhysX Technology)
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Razer Barracuda AC-1 (Recommended)
Extreme Cooling: Liquid Chilled FrostBite CPU Only
Internal Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Red Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
Modifications: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Yes, Overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: Yes, Overclock memory timings (Includes Memory Fan Kit Installed)
Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: APC 650VA Uninterruptible Backup Surge Conditioner (Recommended)
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks my keyboard comes with a mouse
External Storage: - No Thanks
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

TL first you keep talking about the little difference between the Q9550 and qx9770, which its not but now you want him to drop $200 on a velociraptor vs a digital Raptor where the difference is in this case actually minuscule?

man one second you are running left and saying that is right way, the next second you are running right and saying that is the right way.

this is like saying don't spend your money on the engine but spend it on the tire?

Edited by DST4ME - 21 Sep 2008 at 10:19pm