When AMD released the Spider platform I could not wait to build one, even though I hesitated in doing so. The first release Phenoms (xx00) had a bug that I was hoping AMD would fix, before I would take on my first Spider. When the second generation Phenoms were released (xx50) I read up on the reviews and saw that it was a better CPU. So I decided to proceed with building my Spider. The specs are as follows:

Phenom X4 9850
ASUS M3A32-MVP DELUXE/WIFI-AP Motherboard (790FX NB 600SB)
4 GB DDR2 1066 Crucial Ballistix Tracers (4x1GB Matched Set)
2 512MB 3870 Toxics (Sapphire)
750W Rosewell Power-supply
Thermaltake Xasier 6 Case
and an assortment of fans, HDDs ODD, to complete the build.

I still wanted more GPU power so after saving a bit more money I got two more 3970s, This time I got the 1GB version Toxics from Sapphire.

I spent alot of time struggling to over clock the 9850, and 3.0 seemed to be its max on an air cooler (Nirvana 120). I didn't want to break into the liquid cooling yet, and to this day I still haven't. So as AMD released faster CPUs I followed with each one in turn.

When WD released the 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor I had to have a pair of them in RAID 0 ........ so the motherboard got an upgrade to the ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe, (790FX NB 750 SB) The CPU was the 9950 and I put a Thermaltake Tough Power 1200W Power-supply in at the same time.

I ran this for a while until the release of the Phenom II 940. This was a direct drop and what a difference in performance that made. I was blown away with its benchmarks, and I was able to overclock this one to 3.7 stable, but it was way to hot with the current CPU cooler, so I went to the Ultra Chill TEC.

This didn't go as well as I had hoped, it did drop the CPU temps a lot, but it wasn't long before the TEC burned up trying to keep the Phenom II cool, so I have to go back down to stock clocks.

Finally I made the last upgrade that truly pushes the limits on the Spider platform, and had brought up the question, is it even a Spider anymore?

I left the AM2+ and moved to AM3 and DDR3 memory, put aside the Phenom II 940 and went to the 965. I also moved from the ASUS motherboard, and went with an MSI designed board, because the PCIE slots were better spaced (790FX-GD70 790FX NB 750 SB)

So the final specs to date:

AMD Phenom II x4 965,
8 Gigabytes, DDR3 16000 G.Skill Memory,
4x Sapphire Toxic HD3870,
MSI 790FX-GD70 Motherboard,
ProlimaTech Megahalems CPU cooler sporting one Scythe Slipstream 120mm fan and one (Scythe) 140 mm (1900 RPM) fan (110 CFM),
2x WD VelociRaptor 300GB drives (Operating Systems)
2x Seagate Barracuda 1TB drives (storage)
1x Hitachi Deskstar 1TB Drive (storage)
2x DVD combo drives
1500W SilverStone power supply
4x 140mm Scythe (1900 RPM) case fans (110 CFM)
1x 140mm Areo cool case fans (38 CFM)
1x 120mm Thermaltake case fans (who knows)
2x Logisys Liquid Neon lights.

So I put the question to the AMD forums:
Has the "Black Widow" Morphed into a Dragon?

What do you think? and at what stage in her development did she cross that line?

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure,

[L=http://i287.photobucket.com/al...ftheBlackWidow051.jpg
]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll129/XTremdreamer/Rebuild%20and%20Mod%20of%20the%20Black%20Widow/RebuildandModoftheBlackWidow051.jpg
[/L]

[L=http://i287.photobucket.com/al...ftheBlackWidow036.jpg
]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll129/XTremdreamer/RebuildandModoftheBlackWidow036.jpg
[/L]

[L=http://i287.photobucket.com/al...ckWidowsPhotos065.jpg
]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll129/XTremdreamer/Rebuild%20and%20Mod%20of%20the%20Black%20Widow/TheBlackWidowsPhotos065.jpg
[/L]

[L=http://i287.photobucket.com/al...heBlackWidow042-1.jpg
]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll129/XTremdreamer/Rebuild%20and%20Mod%20of%20the%20Black%20Widow/RebuildandModoftheBlackWidow042-1.jpg
[/L]

Here is a few results of benchmarks of the final build

[L=http://i287.photobucket.com/al...hots/216893DMarks.jpg
]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll129/XTremdreamer/screen%20shots/216893DMarks.jpg
[/L]

[L=http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll129/XTremdreamer/screen%20shots/VantageP14077.jpg
[/L]

Thanks and if you have any other questions I would love to answer them.

I Edited the Second link, Sorry I just realize I has two of the same.

Edited: 11/03/2009 at 10:02 AM by X-tremedreamer

It's neither, Dragon requires that an HD48xx series card be in the system, your still on the 38xx series


but I never understood why people put so much credence inthe "platform" thing. it's a merketing gimmick, one I thought people would never be crazy enough to follow....I've been way wrong.


Anyway, upgrade the card, and you'll have the current platform until it gets upgraded again.


also, you should consider putting that rig in the ROTM competition.

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PCnMotion
Answers are the easy part, Questions raise the doubt. - J. Buffett
I don't want that much organziation in my life. I don't want other people thinking for me. -J. Buffett

Im sorry ROTM? I dont understand

Rig of the Month: http://forums.amd.com/forum/me...=121312&enterthread=y




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PCnMotion
Answers are the easy part, Questions raise the doubt. - J. Buffett
I don't want that much organziation in my life. I don't want other people thinking for me. -J. Buffett

Ok this got all messed up. I don't know why so I am going to try to post the links again. Maybe this time they will work.
Cable Management

Motherboard side with panel on

Back and side view

Front and Side

Inside

And a few screen shots of 3DMark 06 and Vantage

3DMark06

Vantage

So I hope that you all enjoy the pics, and I welcome all comments.

Nice rig!

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(Main rig) Phenom II 955 be @3.9Ghz,Asus M4A78T-E 790GX, 2x1Gb Crucial 1333Mhz DDR3, 2x 4870's, ,Corsair tx750w PSU, Thermaltake V9 case.
(2nd rig)Phenom 9850 BE@2.8Ghz, Asus M3A78, 2x2Gb Crucial Ballistix 800Mhz DDR2,Radeon 4650,Creative extreme audio,Sparkle 550w PSU

NICE SYSTEM
My system is a wyvern a hybird dragon LOL
MSI DKA 790GX
AMD PHENOM 11x4 940BE
NVIDIA gtx 285

i was building the dragon when i was told it means nothing and that its marketing or a guideline to follow the nvidia gtx 260 was better choice value over hd 4870 cant crossfire but i up to gtx285

i would go with the HD5xxx series DX11 but you still wouldnt have a dragon but a new hybird

a three headed dragon anyone? or would you prefer the six headed version?

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AMD PhenomII 955
MSI 790FX-GD70
2X2GB Kingston KHX 1625MHz
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870
xigmatek nepartak s983

With the performance of this rig at the moment it may be the 6xxx series before I see the need to upgrade. At the moment I am at the limit of the CPU, not the GPU. One day I may ger the money to liguid cool the CPU and push it past the 4.2Ghz mark and get more performance yet. From what bmarks I have seen, I feel I can make a bold statement ( I welcome someone to show me wrong ) but thies four 3870s out perform anything that nVidia has, and curent ATI single GPUs and the 4870 x 2 ant the GTX 295. (SLI or Crossfire on a single card) This is however speculation, because I havent seen any benchmarks of the above mentioned GPUs on a 3.8 Ghz CPU. If anyone has seen suck or has any benchmarks to compair, please link.

Here is one I have seen compairing the 5870, 4870x2, and 4890
Radion HD

I think the only one that would beat my scores is the 4870 x2 or any of the above GPUs in Crossfire. What I am waiting on is a single GPU that can put up the same score. Then I will see a substantual performance gain with a GPU upgrade.

hummmmmm maybe I better duck ..........

Hate to burst your bubble,but 4.2ghz on a 940 is a bit of a pipe dream,on water anyway,maybe with DI or LN2,you would be trying to achieve an 1.2ghz overclock,not going to happen on water,lol!!!!!

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AMD 965BE @4.032GHZ 24/7 VCORE 1.528v TEMPS 32C/52C
MSI 790FX GD70
3 X SAPPHIRE 4890 OC's 991/1100
4 GIG G-SKILL RIPJAWS 1600 @ 7 7 7 24 1.65v RUNNING @1680MHZ
4 SAMSUNG F1 750 GIG SATA II HDD's 2X RAID 0
THERMALTAKE ARMOR+ FULL TOWER CASE
THERMALTAKE TOUGHPOWER MODULAR 850W
THERMALTAKE BIGWATER 760IS WC
28" HANNS-G LCD 1920X1200 3ms
WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE 32bit OS

its a 965 BE. yes your 4 3870 do beat me 285 in benchmarks. i had two hd3850 and i didnt like them problems with games mybe it was drivers, and warhammer wouldnt work with dual gpu i returned them quickly and went to single gpu nvidia
and been happy. i was making a comment because you talk about dragon platform
and in a year who knows dx11 5870 well some day will be useful myabe then i will switch to 5800 ok i wont waiting on nvidia to release there 300 sereis. there i took a side NVIDIA! benchmarks are fun but gaming to me were it counts and i belive in single gpus works best for me in gaming

http://service.futuremark.com/...1569254&resultType=19

and yes i have seen single gtx 295 out bench your 4 3870
dont know about ATI gpus

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=5611

Thanks for your post. I two noticed a few bugs when the 3xxx series came out, and Windows XP turned out to be the biggest factor. Vista I saw some marked improvements, but stability was a bigger issue. With Windows 7 I get the best of both worlds. I just saw a post by Immortal Lobster that has a slew of Vantage and 3DMark benches that are much higher then mine. (I like to know that I can be wrong sometimes.) Maybe I have hit the limit of these GPUs, maybe a pair of 5870x2s is what I need to blast bast the competition.
hummmmmmmm

lets see what happens during their release.

Yeah, I gotcha pretty easily bud....





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Nice post Buckshot,
To put this in perspective however 2x 4870x2 is near = to 4x 4870 (19k overall)
4x 3870 (14k over all)
That's roughly 5k and some change difference
So at the moment I am glad I waited on the upgrade for the GPUs. The cost would have been ridicules for the performance difference I would have seen.

Good information,thank you very much.

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