yea but you'd only have to replace them in 6 months/1 year when multi-threaded games come out might aswell get it right first time
No, I don't believe that the FX-57 is a viable alternative to anyone who is a heavy computer user right now. If I was building a gaming system right now, I'd buy an X2 4800+ if my budget was bottomless. I'd much rather have an extra CPU than have an extra 400MHz. If you're really bothered about that 400MHz, you'll probably get quite a bit of it back with some overclocking. The specs of the high end system are looking something like this: Athlon 64 X2 4800+ DFI nF4-SLI DR & DFI RDX200 CF-DR (I think... depending on how good it is) 2GB Memory (when its arranged/arrived) Western Digital Raptor 74GB OCZ PowerStream 520W PSU 16x LG DVD-ROM drive (don't need anything more) plus whatever video cards land on my desk. As for the mid-range system, I'll probably downclock the X2 4800+ to 2GHz to represent something reasonably close to the X2 3800+ (probably about 4000+ by my reckoning) and move down to 1GB memory.
You reckon multi-threaded games are going to be that soon? Quake4 is out soon, and thats not multithreaded is it? I don't believe it is, but its ID so I guess it could be. Anyway, I imagine that engine will be used for a few games. Unreal Engine 3 is out soon too, and so far as I know it also doesn't use Multithreading, which means at least 8-12 months I'd guess before an engine big enough to actually be decent and have multi-threading comes out. Maybe I'm wrong, its possible ID's Q4 is multi'd, Q3 was. Still, the FX is the pwn for now. EDIT: Just noticed a response Yeah, I would too tbh, but I was just thinking since I assume its going to be a benching machine, a 57 would be less of a bottleneck when testing things other then the CPU then the 4800 might be. For a personal home machine though, X2 every single last time
Was just about to join in with a comment like that.. but I held back. First of all.. it depends on budget. If you are bothered about being at all futureproof, then I suppose the X2 is a safer bet, as sooner or later, games that support dual cores will be the norm... and then the X2s will have the upper hand... however.. if you can afford to upgrade again if and when that happens, then the top end FX chips will be the best gaming machines. In fact, that's what I opeted for myself. I was all for buying a X2 until I realised that I actually do very little multi-taslking, and play a great deal of games. The FX57 will pwn pretty much anything with pretty much any game right now, so if you want the very best gaming performance right NOW, then get the FX instead. Let's be honest, if you can afford to buy the FX57 in the first place, you can probably afford to change to the fastest X2 chip when games start to appear that are written with dual cores in mind.
Yeah, sorry, I think I've misunderstood here. I'm knackered(must not post when exhausted) but I thought bigz was talking about putting together a high end spec for benchies and stuff like that, and I still think a 57 would be better for benchies then any X2, but for anything expect a benchmark machine I'd think the X2 would be the only logical option. Anyway, sorry for derailment
why dun u wait till windows vista comes out? thats what iam doin since the recommended specs for it are quite crazy and upon the arrival more hardware will come out and the price of the rig u wann build will surely drop
The X2 4800+ is just a better processor than the FX57 IMHO. If enough people think I am wrong to use the X2 4800+ over the FX57, I'll consider changing back. But, as I say, I feel that more people are buying the lower-clocked X2's simply because they are looking for a better all-round computing experience. Remember, the way that I do video card reviews is to look at how each video card performs in real games, not time demos. So, I am wanting to use a CPU (speed) that most people would relate to if they were purchasing a high-end gaming system. Since I'd currently recommend the X2 as a CPU for everything right now, I've plumped for that. If you think I'm off the mark and should be using the FX57 please say, as it will be sitting on my shelf for the time being. I want to spec the system up as realistically as possible. I guess this deserves a thread of its own.
Ah, well, I guess you're right in that people will more likely be buying X2's then FX's, so its more relevent to them, and on that, I agree fully Real world tests as opposed to pie in the sky tests. Sounds good, sorry for all the questions, but I'm a nosey wee sod
