Time for an upgrade... (And I'm back)

[the_autopilot]

Haven't been on this forum for a while. Been very busy. My school's finals were last week. Plus, I was technical director for my school's performing arts center/theater and they had a huge production going and so the last 2 month have kept me completely busy and off this forum (as well as most of my computers).

Now that summer is here and I have a lot of free time. It time for me to catch up with the times, and upgrade my computer.

My plans:
-2 Nvidia 7800 GTX's have just arrived at my door. Time to put them in SLI.
-An FX-55 with a San Diego core also arrived, unfortuately, I have no mobo for it yet...a Asus A8N-SLi Premium is on its way.
-I have also have a A64 X2 4800 is also on its way here. For those that do not know what it is, its a dual core.
-I also have 2 dual core opteron 270 (italy cores) waiting to placed in my uber computer (specs below).

So, how are the rest of you doing?

[ctjoyce]

HOLEY COW!!!!!! and where do you get the money for that??? Hell the two graphics cards together cost more than my graphics card and processer combined!

Anyway have fun upgrading your uber computers, and let us know how FS is running with those new specs.

[the_autopilot]

HOLEY COW!!!!!! and where do you get the money for that??? Hell the two graphics cards together cost more than my graphics card and processer combined!

Well, my job paided for some of it. The other, well, I have nice parents.

As for costing more than your gfx card & CPU, here's an interesting slide:

on the number of transisters in a 7800 (302 million).

I'll do benchmarks later. I've been busy installing and coniguring these cards. Plus, my asus mobo arrived today. So I'm also building a new comp with an X2 4800 as well.

[the_autopilot]

Ok, I just got everything running. Standard gfx benchmark 3dmark05 is 15142 everything at stock speeds on an older fx-55 system i have. I will put the cards in my newer computers now.

Just updated my sig below. It was a quick paint job. I'll make look nice later, right now, I have a dual core system to build.

[the_autopilot]

OK, I just finished building my second uber computer.

It is currently installing windows. I've updated my sig to reflect the changes.

[Mehdi]

I'm sorry if I come accross as being rude, but I deem it impossible for you to spend such ridiculous amounts on computers. If I'm not wrong, you had many other computers similar to these. Upgrading in huge steps at such little regular intervals is, in my eyes, a massive waste of money and thus I come to the conclusion that you are in fact fibbing about your specs...

Sorry.

[4_Series_Scania]

Spending money,lots of it, on a hobby is no bad thing.

I could save myself a fortune on my next car, instead, I want a BMW 7 Series! Why? I've earned it, its been a damn hard year, and, I'd get a kick out of running a car like that!

To me, spending

[the_autopilot]

I'm sorry if I come accross as being rude, but I deem it impossible for you to spend such ridiculous amounts on computers. If I'm not wrong, you had many other computers similar to these. Upgrading in huge steps at such little regular intervals is, in my eyes, a massive waste of money and thus I come to the conclusion that you are in fact fibbing about your specs...

Sorry.

Well, I'm sorry you feel that way. I think money spent on making me happy is a good investment.

As for my other computers, yes, I have other computers, but they're not even close in performence and I don't upgrade all my computers at once. In fact, just 4 of them have ever been upgraded by me (including the ones in my specs).

Most of my other computers are still running trashy components like a 5950ultra or an athlon XP.

[MWISimmer]

Well, I'm sorry you feel that way. I think money spent on making me happy is a good investment.

Indeed it is a good investment! You obviously enjoy what you do, so why not.
Out of cusiosity, autopilot, what do you use them for? I can do everything i want on my measly PC  ;)  (see specs below) even FS runs quite nicely. I presume from some of your older posts you design addons for  games, but anything else?
Rob.

[the_autopilot]

Currently, I am also learning 3d animation with XSI and Maya as well special effects with lightwave 3d. Believe it or not, but these products do really put my systems to the test. Especially Mental Ray, which uses CPU and memory to render (very little dependence on video cards).

I also do software engineering, but that hardly requires any of the specs i have, but it certainly does speed up compiling.

[GunnerMan]

Hey ahh AP will you be a good lad and remove all but 1 7800 and 1 gig of ram on your X2 system and run some benches :3dmark 05, 01, Super Pi etc?
Might be getting a X2 and 7800 but want to see if they are reallly worth my money.

[the_autopilot]

Sure, I'll get on it and get you some scores by tommrow.

BTW, all I have is 3dmark05. I'm not really too big on benchmarks.

[congo]

Welcome back Autopilot.

I think it's wonderful that you (and your very nice parents) can afford to spend as much as you do on PC's.

You are an asset to these forums with your knowledge so please don't let anyone ( .....  :-/ ) put you off contributing here.

Happiness in life is what it's all about, and purchasing power in a consumer society will definitely buy it, or at least make misery a whole lotta fun!  

Good on ya!

[the_autopilot]

Hey ahh AP will you be a good lad and remove all but 1 7800 and 1 gig of ram on your X2 system and run some benches :3dmark 05, 01, Super Pi etc?
Might be getting a X2 and 7800 but want to see if they are reallly worth my money.

3dmark 05 results:
7983 with single card and 1 gig ram. Ram doesn't make much of a difference
7991 with single card and 2 gig ram.
This is the standard benchmark 1024 by 768 with no AA or FSAA.

But I don't like benchmarks. I like to consider real performence and here is my advice:
Just one of these cards will handle ANY game out right now at 1600 by 1200 with full 8x AA and 16 FSAA.

The AMD x2 DC's are actually behind in gaming when compared to the fx-55 and fx-57due to the "single threadness" of games today. Expect leaps and bounds when they become multithread.