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Reply 40 of 84, by Mau1wurf1977

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simbin wrote:
obobskivich wrote:

Pretty sure you're gonna lose PATA and Floppy no matter where you go - PATA drives haven't been made in a while, and who uses floppies? 😜

Did you seriously ask who uses floppies on the vogons forums!? HahaHaha!!

Haha 😀

My motherboard died in my capture PC last year and I had to get a new board with FDD. The only place that had one with FDD port was eBay (new though). I use it with my Floppy Emulator for quick exchange of files with 386 / 486 / Pentium machines.

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Reply 41 of 84, by obobskivich

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simbin wrote:
obobskivich wrote:

Pretty sure you're gonna lose PATA and Floppy no matter where you go - PATA drives haven't been made in a while, and who uses floppies? 😜

Did you seriously ask who uses floppies on the vogons forums!? HahaHaha!!

Guess so. 😊 🤣

There are always USB devices for very new machines, otherwise use an older box that supports it. 😀

Reply 43 of 84, by simbin

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After careful consideration, I'm going with my original choice on the mobo. The 970 shares most features the 990 has - everything I need.
GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

I'm stepping up the CPU to the FX-8320, as suggested.
AMD FX-8320 Vishera 3.5GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Desktop Processor FD8320FRHKBOX

I'm just going to use my existing RAM.
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model (2 pairs @ 8GB)

I'm not ordering until the first of May - so there's still time to change my mind. HahaHaha

I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to weigh in with their advice and help answer my questions. You rock!

Last edited by simbin on 2014-04-25, 11:33. Edited 1 time in total.

WIP: 486DX2/66, 16MB FastPage RAM, TsengLabs ET4000 VLB
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Reply 44 of 84, by F2bnp

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Nice! I think you'll really like the 8320 😀. Just to get things straight, you already have 8GB RAM? If so, no need for a change. If you have 4GB, just consider adding 2 more sticks and going to 8GB, 1600MHz is just as good as 1866MHz because it has lower timings. Not much of a difference really 😀.

Reply 45 of 84, by simbin

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F2bnp wrote:

Nice! I think you'll really like the 8320 😀. Just to get things straight, you already have 8GB RAM? If so, no need for a change. If you have 4GB, just consider adding 2 more sticks and going to 8GB, 1600MHz is just as good as 1866MHz because it has lower timings. Not much of a difference really 😀.

Yea, I have 8GB. Going to "borrow" 4GB to get everything setup, then take the rest once I make the full switchover.

I'm pretty stoked. Only bummer is that UEFI SPYOS!

WIP: 486DX2/66, 16MB FastPage RAM, TsengLabs ET4000 VLB
Check out my Retro-Ghetto build (2016 Update) 😀
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Reply 46 of 84, by simbin

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Do you all think this cooler would be any better than the stock FX-8320 cooler?
ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2, CPU Cooler - Intel & AMD, Multi-Directional Mount, 92mm PWM Fan

I already have it, but not sure it's worth messing with.

WIP: 486DX2/66, 16MB FastPage RAM, TsengLabs ET4000 VLB
Check out my Retro-Ghetto build (2016 Update) 😀
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Reply 48 of 84, by simbin

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F2bnp wrote:

It should be quieter, but not much, if at all better.
Wouldn't hurt to try though, AMD platforms have super easy mounting clips. 😀

Maybe I should save the effort for a better cooler down the road - when/if I decide to overclock.

WIP: 486DX2/66, 16MB FastPage RAM, TsengLabs ET4000 VLB
Check out my Retro-Ghetto build (2016 Update) 😀
Commodore 128D, iBook G3 "Clamshell"
3DO M2, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, NES, SNES, N64, GBC

Reply 49 of 84, by d1stortion

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You really want a good tower cooler for that FX. I'd recommend the Scythe Mugen 3, but it's EOL and its successor has inferior cooling performance... there should be plenty of other good choices though.

Reply 50 of 84, by simbin

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d1stortion wrote:

You really want a good tower cooler for that FX. I'd recommend the Scythe Mugen 3, but it's EOL and its successor has inferior cooling performance... there should be plenty of other good choices though.

That actually looks very similar to the Arctic cooler I linked. Maybe I should try it.

WIP: 486DX2/66, 16MB FastPage RAM, TsengLabs ET4000 VLB
Check out my Retro-Ghetto build (2016 Update) 😀
Commodore 128D, iBook G3 "Clamshell"
3DO M2, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, NES, SNES, N64, GBC

Reply 51 of 84, by obobskivich

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I have had nothing but positive experiences with Arctic on GPUs; I'd say give it a shot - if you already have it it won't take more than a few minutes to test it out, and see if it helps anything. Arctic does make more robust models as well, and few of them are very expensive. I think the parts you've settled on are a good combination - should be a nice upgrade.

The only thing the 970 -> 990 would get you is proper 2x16 PCIe support, if you care about multiple graphics cards.

Reply 52 of 84, by d1stortion

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simbin wrote:
d1stortion wrote:

You really want a good tower cooler for that FX. I'd recommend the Scythe Mugen 3, but it's EOL and its successor has inferior cooling performance... there should be plenty of other good choices though.

That actually looks very similar to the Arctic cooler I linked. Maybe I should try it.

That Arctic cooler looks a bit more toy-like, IMO... 😉 you are looking at a 120mm fan vs. 92mm on yours, and six heatpipes vs. three. It is also probably a lot bigger in overall size, and it comes with its own retention bracket for mounting the cooler.

I guess you can get by with your cooler, but I would expect it to be loud... FX CPUs are rather well known for their insane power draw. I doubt this cooler has sufficient reserves for overclocking. For reference I know how a (probably very similar) Katana 3 sounds like on a stock Phenom II X4@1.4V, and it's way too loud for my taste unless significant undervolting is done - which fortunately works very well on those chips.

Reply 53 of 84, by ratfink

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I had one of those arctic freezers, looked exactly like that one. Cheaply made, the fan died within a year. I replaced it with an alpenfohn matterhorn - pricey but well made and performs a lot better.

Reply 54 of 84, by ih8registrations

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Intel is months away from releasing their next chip, broadwell, I would hold off until those come out. There's cheap unlocked dual cores, six and eight cores, and of course 4 cores. 14nm, vrm off die onto the motherboard again, and much faster integrated gpu, less power usage and heat, expectation to overclock better than haswell from offboard vrm and 14nm.

Reply 55 of 84, by obobskivich

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ih8registrations wrote:

Intel is months away from releasing their next chip, broadwell, I would hold off until those come out. There's cheap unlocked dual cores, six and eight cores, and of course 4 cores. 14nm, vrm off die onto the motherboard again, and much faster integrated gpu, less power usage and heat, expectation to overclock better than haswell from offboard vrm and 14nm.

FWIR Intel has stated that Broadwell is unlikely to appear until (at earliest) Q4 2014, if not into 2015. They're supposed to be launching a consumer Haswell refresh (Devil's Canyon) mid-year which isn't a "new" chip (it isn't 14nm). As far as I'm aware we aren't going to be seeing <20nm until 2015.

More:
http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/intel_devils … e_2nd_2014.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarc ... ll_refresh
http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/no_20nm_prod … ear_either.html

Of course rumors/conjecture are all we're dealing with here - at the end of the day there's always "something new just a few months away; just hold out!" and eventually you have to get off the treadmill and get parts that work for what you need. 😀

Reply 57 of 84, by obobskivich

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ih8registrations wrote:

Most recent grape vine is haswell refresh is Q2, non-k broadwells Q3, k varient broadwells Q4.

And that'll probably change tomorrow. 🤣 Yes, in general, "just hold out a few months" will always mean newer and better stuff - but after a point I think it makes more sense to just address what's actually available. There's an old saying: one in the hand beats two in the bush; I think it very much applies to these kinds of situations. 😀

Reply 58 of 84, by Holering

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simbin wrote:

UPDATE:
I'm not ordering until the first of May - so there's still time to change my mind. HahaHaha

Consider one 1866 8GB stick of ram, or two. GSkill usually gives great bang for the dollar. Unless you think you'll upgrade sooner rather than later.

BTW I just found out a few days ago this mobo will not support, both mouse+keyboard via ps2 and a y splitter. Only one device can be connected to ps2 port... 😠

Reply 59 of 84, by simbin

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Holering wrote:
simbin wrote:

UPDATE:
I'm not ordering until the first of May - so there's still time to change my mind. HahaHaha

Consider one 1866 8GB stick of ram, or two. GSkill usually gives great bang for the dollar. Unless you think you'll upgrade sooner rather than later.

BTW I just found out a few days ago this mobo will not support, both mouse+keyboard via ps2 and a y splitter. Only one device can be connected to ps2 port... 😠

Will the jump from 1600 to 1866 really be anything noticeable? Not a fan of the single ps2 port, but I guess it isn't a game changer.

WIP: 486DX2/66, 16MB FastPage RAM, TsengLabs ET4000 VLB
Check out my Retro-Ghetto build (2016 Update) 😀
Commodore 128D, iBook G3 "Clamshell"
3DO M2, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, NES, SNES, N64, GBC