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[Snall]

Build your own PC yourself, you'll save a few grand (Although the PC building companies can build the mid-level PCs cheaper).  I haven't done much CPU research since I built my current desktop, but grab the best dual/quad core you can get.  Pretty simple really for DF.  Probably just want a high clocked dual since multithreading isn't in and that should be fine as long as ur not doing a lot of other stuff at the same time. (I have waayyy too much stuff running when I play, but I have a nice over-c'd Q6600...first gen! lol)

[Thief^]

Don't overclock if you're planning on having the computer for a long time. Trust me, it causes the overclocked component (be it cpu, gfx, ram or even motherboard) to burn out much sooner. It may initially be stable at +1GHz, but in 6 months you'll start having random crashes, and by 1 year it won't be stable at even the original stock speed.
EDIT: It also instantly voids the warranty. Of course.

Very few overclocks are actually stable either. They may pass a 5-minute benchmark or stress test without crashing, but if your favourite game crashes randomly for you and not for your non-overclocking friend...

Turbo-boost is actually backwards from what it looks like. It's not overclocking when you're only using a single core, it is actually underclocking when using all of them. If you have adequate cooling (e.g. water) you should be able to run a turbo boost chip at its turbo speed on all cores.


If you build your own pc, I'd recommend getting a cpu heatsink whose fan blows across the heatsink (towards the back of the case) instead of one which blows down onto it (towards the cpu) and sends the hot air in all directions (like most (all?) stock coolers). The same goes for the graphics card, get one that exhausts hot air out the back of the pc instead of inside your case.
Your system will run much cooler and last longer and be more reliable as a result.

[Snall]

I have overclocked Q6600 that I've had for 3ish years?  Since they came out anyway- with only air, although a nice huge heatsink- runs at 34c or so- 41c when doing stuff, and it would be lower if I didn't have a huge GPU right next to it.

[KaelGotDwarves]

Something not to be forgotten, DF also is also much happier if you have liquid cooling on your CPU - especially if you have masterwork or artifact components - and you'll need a big beard to go on the front.

Only if you're overclockin'. But anyone who's going to spend the cash for liquid cooling is going to be overclocking.

Still, Even just replacing the stock cooling fan will let you clock it up atleast 100 MHZ safely.

Sorry. A nice $30 aftermarket cooler can get a $200 i7 920 d0 stepping to 4ghz easily, faster than Intel's $1000 extreme edition stock.

That's the best performance for price ratio you can currently get, and what I'm running in my self-built home system. Should add I've been stable over a year, no BSOD unless I try running at 4.8ghz.



To quote my earlier posts on this subject:

As I mentioned earlier, not sure on your prices but i7 920 can be had for $200 USD (Got mine from Microcenter for $199. Fry's sells for $219) and easily overclocked to beyond those 975/980 ghz levels (minus the bonus cache you'd get from shelling out 3x or 4x the price) with proper cooling. Make sure to request d0 over c0 stepping though, as that affects cooling.

EDIT: Actually, the 920 and 975 ARE practically the same chip, just QPI speed, higher unlocked max turbo, bus. Seriously, the smartest highest performance bang for your buck is to buy a 920 and overclock. The 980 is a 6 core beast of a totally different level. Even if you had the money to blow on $1000 cpus, it's never worth it to spend that much on new tech for personal use unless you have free $ to blow.

I heard intel is phasing out the 920. When it first came out, heck, even now - it's an overclocker's dream. Pay relatively cheap money and receive nigh unbeatable performance. It's probably why it's being phased out   No reason to pay more money than it. The new i7s and i5s have limits on their overclock, which pisses me off.
______________________________________________________________________________
Actually, now is a good time since 920s are on firesale and you simply can't get anything near the performance of an overclocked i7 for $200. Closest would be the amd phenom IIs. The i5s are remarkably hardware gimped while being more affordable 1156 socket, but I can't stand when a company puposely disables a product to maintain their insane pricing scheme ala intel. Jumps from $200 to $500+ for a simple unlock? A performance tweak I can get better than for a $30 aftermarket cpu cooler? And the new generations of i7s are made to run hotter on purpose to hurt overclocking.

Seriously?

Now I'm a consumer looking out for my own monetary interests so that's why I went the 920 route. But I'm liable to completely give intel the finger and buy AMD out of principle if this shit keeps up.

And in case you were wondering about my DF speed, this is unpaused embark:

[Snall]

Here's a pic of my, weirdly angled here, heatsink/cooler for my CPU/mobo, air cooling is fine- of course liquid is better, but I'm lazy.

[KaelGotDwarves]

Also: I'm running my machine with a modified version of: http://www.amazon.com/Xigmatek-HDT-S1283-120mm-Bearing-Cooler/dp/B0013EMKXC which I got on sale, similar to the Dark Knight series.

I spent less than $1000 buying from newegg and Fry's Electronics for that performance.

[Thief^]

That's the kind of cooler I mean. For my PC I used the Arctic Cooling "Freezer", which is the same kind of thing. The only downside is that they're quite big, but they're a damn sight better and quieter than a stock cooler.

Though if you want to compare custom systems, the other side of my desk has this:
AMD chipset dual-cpu motherboard with replacement passive northbridge heatsink (had to glue it on with thermal epoxy in the end)
Two AMD Athlon XP 2400+ cpus unlocked for MP use using conductive paint
Two modified coolers (they originally didn't both fit, I actually lost a cpu due to one pushing the other up slightly off the cpu. doh!)
Sii 3114 sata raid card flashed with the firmware of the raid-5 version
Four 500GB sata hard-disks in raid-5 (originally only 160GBs, but I've upgraded it)
1.5GB of registered ECC DDR ram

It was more powerful than any other desktop I saw around for a good few years, until dual-core cpus started coming out and I got an Athlon 64 X2 3800+...
Even now, it gives most pcs a run for their money. Graphics leave a little to be desired though, it's only got a geforce 2 in it at the moment

EDIT: Going to add a caveat to what I was saying about overclocking before. Some chips are just rebinned (due to supply/demand) high-performance chips, and so when you "overclock" them, you're really just restoring their real clock speed. As long as you don't go too far, they'll last as long as they always would have. I used to have an XP 2500+ (Barton core) that was really a rebinned 3200+, when you changed the FSB to 200MHz it actually renamed itself to a 3200+

[archivis]

Something not to be forgotten, DF also is also much happier if you have liquid cooling on your CPU - especially if you have masterwork or artifact components - and you'll need a big beard to go on the front.

Only if you're overclockin'. But anyone who's going to spend the cash for liquid cooling is going to be overclocking.

Still, Even just replacing the stock cooling fan will let you clock it up atleast 100 MHZ safely.

I was trying to allude to Fortress happiness-guaranteeing waterfalls actually, what with the beard on the computer and liquid cooling, not making a case for overclocking, which I have zero experience with.

[idunno]

Thanks for the sound advice, all - you've encouraged me to take the plunge and try building my own.

[Calhoun]

Awesome. You'll be happier, more satisfied and have more of a connection to your new computer.

Plus, The savings, oh the savings.

The hardest part: What to name it?

[immibis]

Awesome. You'll be happier, more satisfied and have more of a connection to your new computer.

Plus, The savings, oh the savings.

The hardest part: What to name it?

Entanglerape the Raw Justified Attic-Basement of Sockets.

[Greiger]

Remember to engrave images of cheese into the CPU.  And make sure the case is covered in spikes.  Maybe put a few hanging rings of copper off of the expansion cards too. 

Couldn't hurt...well, couldn't explode spectacularly anyway.  Might spark a little.

[Umi]

Is this laptop good for DF if I spring for the liquid cooling for $35 more?

http://www.xoticpc.com/gx640098us-order-p-2766.html?wconfigure=yes

[Snall]

Liquid cool'd laptop?  I have never heard of such a thing!  Weird.

[Thief^]

I don't see any mention of watercooling, let alone for only $35 (tip: it's a lot more expensive than that).

Plus gaming laptops are ridiculous. They've left battery life off of the specs sheet for a reason. If it can't run more than half an hour on batteries, it might as well not be a laptop.