Calling all Hardware Tweaking Gamers!!! I need help.

Hi guys,

I am building a computer.

So, before we start, take the following into account.

This needs to be the ultimate in gaming. I know that I can save 100 dollars, here and there by downgrading from a 3.4 to 3.3, etc. The thing is its not for me. I am looking for the ultimate in performance, and money is not an object. I wish I could say this is for me, but its not. =(

So.... now that we have that out of MhzMhz (gaming performace)way, and you guys understand what we're doing, absolutly top of the line. This is the second generation of this machine. Last year when the 3.4Mhx Extreme came out, i build a water cooled 3.4 overclocked with an ATI 9800XT Pro, 4 GB of Corsair RAM for this guy. He isn't happy with that any more, so I am thinking of the following:

2 Dual Core - Opteron 280 - Italy 1Ghz. Socket 940 $1250 /each

2 SONY 16X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW, Model DRU800A - Retail

1 MITSUMI Black USB2.0 & FDD Digital Card Reader/Writer W/FD (Black)INTERNAL

2 Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

1 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Elite Pro 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

3 CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) ECC Registered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWINX2048RE-3200 - Retail

TYAN S2895UA2NRF Dual Socket 940 NVIDIA nForce4 Professional Extended ATX Server Motherboard - Retail

2 AMD Dual-Core Opteron 280 Italy 1GHz FSB Socket 940 Processor Model OSA280FAA6CB - OEM

2 ATI 100-435705 Radeon X1800XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card

Here is the case I like: http://www.thermaltake.com/xasercase/armor/va8000swa/va8000swa.htm







So.... On to the questions.

1.) Does Windows XP Support 2 CPU's that are each 2 Core's? I mean since it is a gaming machine Linux is out of the question.

2.) How much multi-threading happens in games? Or... will games use these to make it even someone worth it?

3.) SLI is needed to run the Dual Video cards, is this correct? Will this motherboard support these video cards?

4.) Is there some performace increases anywhere that you can see?



Please let me know, any advise or help is appreciated.



-Nick

 

AMD X2 4800+ Toledo 939pin
1GB x 4 XMS Extreme Expert low latency memory - non ecc
Asus A8N32 motherboard
2x 7800GTX 512MB
2x 74gb Raptors SATA raid'ed
2x 300GB 7200rpm SATA raided
X-FI Fatality
Tsunami dream case
Whatever dual layer dvd-rw x 2
OCZ 600W Limited edition SLI Ready PSU

My dream setup (till there is something better). SLI is for NVIDIA only, ATI will have crossfire by the end of the year but nvidia is rocking them right now. ECC ram is for servers mainly, they arent as high performance as non ecc ones.

 

1) Windows Xp does support 2 cores. You can see with Hyper-Threading that it is shown as 2 cores. My computer has HT and shows 2 processors.

2) Most games don't take advantage of that. Actually, I don't know any game specifically that does that. I know that winamp visualizations can be multi-threaded. Thats about as much as I know.

3) I don't know.

4) None that I know of.

 

Fertyop,

I am very aware that Windows XP supports 2 core and showing as 2 logical processors. The problem is that I am going to have 2 processors, therefore, 4 cores, and I am unaware if windows supports this.

Omegamerc, your right, thank you... Here is some information to support the ECC is not as high performace:

ECC will detect (but not correct) errors of 2, 3 or even 4 bits, in addition to detecting (and correcting) single-bit errors. ECC memory handles these multi-bit errors similarly to how parity handles single-bit errors: a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) that instructs the system to shut down to avoid data corruption. Multi-bit errors are extremely rare in memory.

Unlike parity checking, ECC will cause a slight slowdown in system operation. The reason is that the ECC algorithm is more complicated, and a bit of time must be allowed for ECC to correct any detected errors. The penalty is usually one extra wait state per memory read. This translates in most cases to a real world decrease in performance of approximately 2-3%.


Okay, so I need SLI and 2 NVIDIA cards, what is top of the line NVIDIA right now?

Why the dual AMD X2 4800+ Toledo 939pin and not the new italy's?

If its truly a dream machine why not drop more than 1GB in? My opnion. =)

-Nick

 

re-read it, i said 1GB x 4, all the info I gave you is basically top of the line, 7800GTX 512mb is highest possible type of 7800GTX you can buy, in terms of performance.

 

Okay, and why not the Italy processors? Will windows support the 4 cores? Anyone know?

 

Personally, I would stay away from RAID for a gaming system because it offers no performance increase in terms of loading times. It also doubles your chances of data failure. I'd just go with a UltraWide SCSI Hard drive to install Windows on and some high capacity IDE drives for backup.

 

Italy is a 940 pin , that can only use ECC memory, which means less performance. On the other hand toledo is the same stats as the italy but you dont need to use ECC ram. Of course diffrence in performance here will not be felt in any application for the next 2+yrs.

 

afaik only XP pro supports dual CPUs

 

I recently entered a competition with the Raptor pit,here are the final standings,it was an overall computer performance competition but keep in mind these are all used for gaming.

See if you can spot the pattern,its a tough one though !

http://www.theraptorpit.com/html/forum_wars.htm

 

Hint look at the CPU type column

 

My eyes burn looking at all those colors.