[Justin1238]

the specs are:

MotherBoard: M4A785-M asus

Processor: AMD Phenom ii x4 b55 processor, 3200Mhz,

OperationgSystem: Windows 7 Professional

Ram: 4Gb

PowerSupplyUnit: Raidmax Rx 580

GraphicsCard: Geforce 8800Gt,OC,512Mb

[coastie65]

Justin1238, on 29 November 2011 - 04:30 AM, said:

the specs are:

MotherBoard: M4A785-M asus

Processor: AMD Phenom ii x4 b55 processor, 3200Mhz,

OperatingSystem: Windows 7 Professional

Ram: 4Gb

PowerSupplyUnit: Raidmax Rx 580

GraphicsCard: Geforce 8800Gt,OC,512Mb

If that processor is the Phenom II x4 955 BE then upgrade your video card to a GTX 460 and you should be fine. Not real sure of that Power Supply either. Should be at least 80plus certified. That is the shortest route to a bit more gaming performance. Course, I guess you could opt for a complete new build, but by upgrading the graphics card, you should see some uptick in performance.

This post has been edited by coastie65: 29 November 2011 - 06:44 AM

[compnovo]

coastie65, on 29 November 2011 - 06:13 AM, said:

Justin1238, on 29 November 2011 - 04:30 AM, said:

the specs are:

MotherBoard: M4A785-M asus

Processor: AMD Phenom ii x4 b55 processor, 3200Mhz,

OperatingSystem: Windows 7 Professional

Ram: 4Gb

PowerSupplyUnit: Raidmax Rx 580

GraphicsCard: Geforce 8800Gt,OC,512Mb

If that processor is the Phenom II x4 955 BE then upgrade your video card to a GTX 460 and you should be fine. Not real sure of that Power Supply either. Should be at least 80plus certified. That is the shortest route to a bit more gaming performance. Course, I guess you could opt for a complete new build, but by upgrading the graphics card, you should see some uptick in performance.

Completely agree with coastie (see sig )

[waldojim]

I wouldn't trust that PSU for anything more demanding than the 8800GT. I had a raidmax 530 for a short while (friend has it now), for what it is worth, the thing still hasn't died. I just don't trust it with my gaming machine.

The 8800GT will still play most games on the market. Maybe not on ultra-high quality settings, but certainly more than the minimum. The processor/motherboard/ram combo will do fine for most things, though as mentioned above, an upgrade can never hurt. Just remember, if you are going to upgrade, no sense in staying AMD, move on to Intel Sandy Bridge processors. If you want to stick with AMD, that is fine, I just wouldn't bother upgrading right now. Not from the chip you have.

[LiveBrianD]

Justin1238, on 29 November 2011 - 04:30 AM, said:

the specs are:

MotherBoard: M4A785-M asus

Processor: AMD Phenom ii x4 b55 processor, 3200Mhz,

OperationgSystem: Windows 7 Professional

Ram: 4Gb

PowerSupplyUnit: Raidmax Rx 580

GraphicsCard: Geforce 8800Gt,OC,512Mb

The amd cpu is probably ok on a budget, though not great for gaming, the gpu is an older model that's low-end nowadays and probably similar to Intel integrated graphics (which have improved quite a bit recently) or so nowdays, and I wouldn't trust Raidmax PSUs.

[LiveBrianD]

Come to think of it, waldojim, what do you think his "580 watt" Raidmax can actually provide? Is it likely to kill the motherboard when it dies (think bestec)?

[compnovo]

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 05:03 PM, said:

The amd cpu is probably ok on a budget, though not great for gaming

I have to disagree with you on this one LiveB, and so does Tom's Hardware:
http://www.tomshardw...ing,3077-3.html

I'm not saying it's at the same level as the new Intels, but it's a great CPU nonetheless.

[LiveBrianD]

compnovo, on 29 November 2011 - 05:23 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 05:03 PM, said:

The amd cpu is probably ok on a budget, though not great for gaming

I have to disagree with you on this one LiveB, and so does Tom's Hardware:
http://www.tomshardw...ing,3077-3.html

I'm not saying it's at the same level as the new Intels, but it's a great CPU nonetheless.

Well, waldojim doesn't seem to think as highly of it.

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 05:31 PM, said:

compnovo, on 29 November 2011 - 05:23 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 05:03 PM, said:

The amd cpu is probably ok on a budget, though not great for gaming

I have to disagree with you on this one LiveB, and so does Tom's Hardware:
http://www.tomshardw...ing,3077-3.html

I'm not saying it's at the same level as the new Intels, but it's a great CPU nonetheless.

Well, waldojim doesn't seem to think as highly of it.

If you noticed, Compnovo IS running an AMD 955 BE w/ Nvidia GTX 460 and he says it does well for gaming form first hand experience. You are just parroting someone else and have no actual firsthand knowledge and that is not helpful. I also know someone else that is running pretty near the same identical specs and also having a good gaming experience. It isn't Nvidia or nothing, you do have a choice if you have a tight budget and as far as i'm concerned the AMD Black Edition processors form the 955 to the 980 are good budget choices ( I'm still on the fence as far as the Liano & Bulldozer go, but have recommended them ). Nuff said.

This post has been edited by coastie65: 29 November 2011 - 06:12 PM

[SnyperTodd]

That processor is an unlocked x2 555. That machine is fine for older games. You probably overpaid somewhat for it though. I'm with WJ, I wouldn't bother upgrading individual components on that rig. It's all matched pretty well as is, and you'd have to upgrade everything to really be worthwhile. As far as the PSU, yeah, it's not great, but I've used Raidmax PSUs before (that I've gotten free) and they have held up fine. As far as the PSU going stars and stripes forever and taking out other components, that's extremely unusual. Not unheard of, but not at all likely. Even with a Bestec PSU. Use the machine as is until you can't stand it anymore (or have the money for a new one) then build a new one.

[LiveBrianD]

SnyperTodd, on 29 November 2011 - 06:53 PM, said:

That processor is an unlocked x2 555. That machine is fine for older games. You probably overpaid somewhat for it though. I'm with WJ, I wouldn't bother upgrading individual components on that rig. It's all matched pretty well as is, and you'd have to upgrade everything to really be worthwhile. As far as the PSU, yeah, it's not great, but I've used Raidmax PSUs before (that I've gotten free) and they have held up fine. As far as the PSU going stars and stripes forever and taking out other components, that's extremely unusual. Not unheard of, but not at all likely. Even with a Bestec PSU. Use the machine as is until you can't stand it anymore (or have the money for a new one) then build a new one.

Well, I have heard of Bestecs failing after about 4 years and taking out the motherboard. On the other hand, some raidmax models have fairly good reviews. I have to wonder what the voltages are like on those though, and how that affects the components' lifespan. Sometime I should try that with my seasonic, though the professional reviews said it had very little ripple and such.

[OpSec39]

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 08:35 PM, said:

SnyperTodd, on 29 November 2011 - 06:53 PM, said:

That processor is an unlocked x2 555. That machine is fine for older games. You probably overpaid somewhat for it though. I'm with WJ, I wouldn't bother upgrading individual components on that rig. It's all matched pretty well as is, and you'd have to upgrade everything to really be worthwhile. As far as the PSU, yeah, it's not great, but I've used Raidmax PSUs before (that I've gotten free) and they have held up fine. As far as the PSU going stars and stripes forever and taking out other components, that's extremely unusual. Not unheard of, but not at all likely. Even with a Bestec PSU. Use the machine as is until you can't stand it anymore (or have the money for a new one) then build a new one.

Well, I have heard of Bestecs failing after about 4 years and taking out the motherboard. On the other hand, some raidmax models have fairly good reviews. I have to wonder what the voltages are like on those though, and how that affects the components' lifespan. Sometime I should try that with my seasonic, though the professional reviews said it had very little ripple and such.

CPU wise 64 bit AMD - x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets.

Sun Microsystems had one of the first implementations of 64 bit in the SPARC family of CPU's.

Geared more towards Servers than Desktops, not so you would notice on Windows 7 (sorry but Microsoft deserve a bashing for an OS that just eats all your available RAM)

The real question is have you opened it up yet? Took a look inside and seen what make of Motherboard you have, does it support NV-Raid, 12 PATA disks via PCI Bus, How many PCI slots, does it have SATA connectors, last thing I would be concerned about would be the PSU, I built my own computer from scratch with naught but a tube of Silver Seating compound and two sticks of Ram and was happy to discover it supports all of the above, 2 x SATA, 12 x PATA with Raid Mirroring.

With AMD 4GB of RAM is the Maximum you can have anyway due to the way the CPU handles the 64 bit instruction set, you could have more if you wanted, but it would be a wasted and fruitless exercise.

This post has been edited by OpSec39: 30 November 2011 - 01:57 AM

[OpSec39]

OpSec39, on 30 November 2011 - 01:57 AM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 08:35 PM, said:

SnyperTodd, on 29 November 2011 - 06:53 PM, said:

That processor is an unlocked x2 555. That machine is fine for older games. You probably overpaid somewhat for it though. I'm with WJ, I wouldn't bother upgrading individual components on that rig. It's all matched pretty well as is, and you'd have to upgrade everything to really be worthwhile. As far as the PSU, yeah, it's not great, but I've used Raidmax PSUs before (that I've gotten free) and they have held up fine. As far as the PSU going stars and stripes forever and taking out other components, that's extremely unusual. Not unheard of, but not at all likely. Even with a Bestec PSU. Use the machine as is until you can't stand it anymore (or have the money for a new one) then build a new one.

Well, I have heard of Bestecs failing after about 4 years and taking out the motherboard. On the other hand, some raidmax models have fairly good reviews. I have to wonder what the voltages are like on those though, and how that affects the components' lifespan. Sometime I should try that with my seasonic, though the professional reviews said it had very little ripple and such.

CPU wise 64 bit AMD - x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets.

Sun Microsystems had one of the first implementations of 64 bit in the SPARC family of CPU's.

Geared more towards Servers than Desktops, not so you would notice on Windows 7 (sorry but Microsoft deserve a bashing for an OS that just eats all your available RAM)

The real question is have you opened it up yet? Took a look inside and seen what make of Motherboard you have, does it support NV-Raid, 12 PATA disks via PCI Bus, How many PCI slots, does it have SATA connectors, last thing I would be concerned about would be the PSU, I built my own computer from scratch with naught but a tube of Silver Seating compound and two sticks of Ram and was happy to discover it supports all of the above, 2 x SATA, 12 x PATA with Raid Mirroring.

With AMD 4GB of RAM is the Maximum you can have anyway due to the way the CPU handles the 64 bit instruction set, you could have more if you wanted, but it would be a wasted and fruitless exercise.

So in answer to do I have a good computer, yes you do, do you have a good OS that supports scaling and can load the whole desktop with as little as 148MB of Ram with hot swappable SATA disks via Firewire & USB into one of the 13 available USB slots. Eh, no, sadly you do not. That's why it's important to look into how many spare PCI slot's you have available, because there are a whole host of peripheral devices that plug straight into them, like SCSI controllers, USB & Firewire Controllers, Professional Editing Chip-sets, On demand digital television and not forgetting wireless.

Whenever you buy a PC they always sell you what they call a bare-bones piece of kit, ie: Open it up and count the blanking plates.

This post has been edited by OpSec39: 30 November 2011 - 03:45 AM

[coastie65]

SnyperTodd, on 29 November 2011 - 06:53 PM, said:

That processor is an unlocked x2 555. That machine is fine for older games. You probably overpaid somewhat for it though. I'm with WJ, I wouldn't bother upgrading individual components on that rig. It's all matched pretty well as is, and you'd have to upgrade everything to really be worthwhile. As far as the PSU, yeah, it's not great, but I've used Raidmax PSUs before (that I've gotten free) and they have held up fine. As far as the PSU going stars and stripes forever and taking out other components, that's extremely unusual. Not unheard of, but not at all likely. Even with a Bestec PSU. Use the machine as is until you can't stand it anymore (or have the money for a new one) then build a new one.

Okay, I wasn't sure if that was a typo or what on that CPU. Anyway, with DDR2 and a maximum speed of 1066 Mhz on that MOBO, a 955 BE would probably get bottlenecked.

This post has been edited by coastie65: 30 November 2011 - 07:06 AM

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 05:04 PM, said:

Come to think of it, waldojim, what do you think his "580 watt" Raidmax can actually provide? Is it likely to kill the motherboard when it dies (think bestec)?

Hard to say, Raidmax is all over the place... I used to power an AMD Athlon X2 and an 8800GT off one of them though. Now it powers a friends machine, A second generation X2 (socket AM2) with a 9800GT. It still works, though to be honest, that machine barely yanks 250~300watts from the wall.

[waldojim]

OpSec39, on 30 November 2011 - 01:57 AM, said:

CPU wise 64 bit AMD - x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets.

Sun Microsystems had one of the first implementations of 64 bit in the SPARC family of CPU's.

Geared more towards Servers than Desktops, not so you would notice on Windows 7 (sorry but Microsoft deserve a bashing for an OS that just eats all your available RAM)

The real question is have you opened it up yet? Took a look inside and seen what make of Motherboard you have, does it support NV-Raid, 12 PATA disks via PCI Bus, How many PCI slots, does it have SATA connectors, last thing I would be concerned about would be the PSU, I built my own computer from scratch with naught but a tube of Silver Seating compound and two sticks of Ram and was happy to discover it supports all of the above, 2 x SATA, 12 x PATA with Raid Mirroring.

With AMD 4GB of RAM is the Maximum you can have anyway due to the way the CPU handles the 64 bit instruction set, you could have more if you wanted, but it would be a wasted and fruitless exercise.

A little contradictory today aren't we?

Yes, the X64 instruction set expands usable address ranges. No the chip isn't in ANY way limited to 4GB of ram. Most AMD boards are designed to handle either 16 or 32GB, and depending on what you do, it can come in handy.

Secondly, I would worry about the PSU long before worrying about useless features that most people don't use - like NV Raid (why do you specify Nvidia raid specifically btw - knowing that 95% of the AMD motherboards are AMD Chipset?) Useless features don't make a better machine. Quality components do.

[LiveBrianD]

waldojim, on 30 November 2011 - 11:13 AM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 05:04 PM, said:

Come to think of it, waldojim, what do you think his "580 watt" Raidmax can actually provide? Is it likely to kill the motherboard when it dies (think bestec)?

Hard to say, Raidmax is all over the place... I used to power an AMD Athlon X2 and an 8800GT off one of them though. Now it powers a friends machine, A second generation X2 (socket AM2) with a 9800GT. It still works, though to be honest, that machine barely yanks 250~300watts from the wall.

Come to think of it, since I don't want to take this thread off topic, I started a new thread here: http://forums.pcworl...83-cheapo-psus/

[SnyperTodd]

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 08:35 PM, said:

Well, I have heard of Bestecs failing after about 4 years and taking out the motherboard. On the other hand, some raidmax models have fairly good reviews. I have to wonder what the voltages are like on those though, and how that affects the components' lifespan. Sometime I should try that with my seasonic, though the professional reviews said it had very little ripple and such.

I've heard of meteorites falling through people's houses before....... Any power supply CAN take out other components if/when it fails (yes, even a Seasonic can). Not only Bestecs. It's more likely with a cheap PSU like a Bestec, but by more likely I still mean extremely unlikely. I've replaced many dead Bestec PSUs (and others of like quality) over the years, and none had done any damage to any other components. Again, I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it's incredibly rare.

This post has been edited by SnyperTodd: 30 November 2011 - 07:03 PM

[LiveBrianD]

SnyperTodd, on 30 November 2011 - 07:02 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 08:35 PM, said:

Well, I have heard of Bestecs failing after about 4 years and taking out the motherboard. On the other hand, some raidmax models have fairly good reviews. I have to wonder what the voltages are like on those though, and how that affects the components' lifespan. Sometime I should try that with my seasonic, though the professional reviews said it had very little ripple and such.

I've heard of meteorites falling through people's houses before....... Any power supply CAN take out other components if/when it fails (yes, even a Seasonic can). Not only Bestecs. It's more likely with a cheap PSU like a Bestec, but by more likely I still mean extremely unlikely. I've replaced many dead Bestec PSUs (and others of like quality) over the years, and none had done any damage to any other components. Again, I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it's incredibly rare.

How much more likely is a Bestec or Raidmax or whatever to fail compared to a Corsair or Seasonic? Second, how are the product lifespans in comparison? I've heard of people with a 9 year old Seasonic PSU that has yet to fail, but I doubt you can say that about a Bestec. (note: I'm not sure how much it was used - for instance, I use my desktop mainly and my laptop maybe every other day or so, not a ton, so the laptop will likely last more than 5 years even though the CPU runs at 60C idle)

[SnyperTodd]

There are a lot of 9+ year old machines out there that have their original "junk" power supplies working just fine. It's a given that a cheap PSU is more likely to fail than a high quality one, but they all can fail. My point is that the odds of a PSU- any PSU- failing in such a way as to damage other components is exceedingly rare. It does happen, it just doesn't happen very often at all. Not often enough to worry about.