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Topic: The 'Build Me A PC' Thread (Read 869393 times)
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Trippy
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Posts: 23626
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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Good heavens, a 53 page thread on a single monitor. I thought I got excited about monitors...
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110
l33t kiddie
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I me some hardocp. You think that is crazy try reading some of their psu threads.
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A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation. -William Gibson
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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« Last Edit: February 24, 2010, 08:57:04 PM by schild »
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Kageh
Terracotta Army
Posts: 359
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That monitor is supposedly very good for the price and well suited for gaming. I looked at it myself, but it sadly lacks HDMI, which was a deal-breaker for me.
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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« Last Edit: February 25, 2010, 07:23:37 AM by Engels »
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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rrazcueta
Terracotta Army
Posts: 92
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The NEC monitor supports DisplayPort which is like HDMI but free to use, and it isn't regulated as heavily.
And, yeah, as far as I can tell you can use HDMI > DVI converters. It's like stripping away the audio jacks in an RCA connection - you end up with just the video. I'm going to be hooking up my PS3 to this monitor with a DVI cable, and I'm looking to see what are the specific audio inputs on the monitor so I can get the right cables. Either that or get a proper audio system instead of the in-monitor speakers.
This computer shit is getting expensive. And I haven't even bought my keyboard yet.
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Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110
l33t kiddie
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What are you trying to do with audio exactly? It took me some doing to get my ps3 audio to run through my computer's powered monitors.
I have a 24" monitor w/ my ps3 on HDMI and my computer gpu on AVI. For Audio I have a M-Audio 2496 with my speakers plugged into output and my ps3 plugged into input. I can only run ps3 or pc audio, not both and in order to switch I need to open up the soundcard's controls and switch one dropdown menu, like 5 clicks total. Its not the perfect setup but since I didn't want an amp, 2 sets of speakers, a tv etc. it seemed to be the best I could figure out within my budget at the time.
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A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation. -William Gibson
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rrazcueta
Terracotta Army
Posts: 92
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Right now both my PS3 and computer are in the living room. My GPU on my PC has 2x DVI, DisplayPort, and an HDMI output. I've been swapping the HDMI (and the ethernet cord :-\ I have one of those building wi-fis with 1 ethernet jack in each room. And no router) between the PS3 and the PC. It's super ghetto and stupid. I cannot wait till this monitor comes in.
The current plan is to put the monitor + PC in my bedroom. The reason why I want to hook up a PS3 to the monitor is for when my friends and I play multiple PS3 at my house.
I'm not exactly sure how I want to handle the audio. The best case scenario would be a surround sound headset for each PS3 that isn't so loud that you can still yell at your body (couch co-op!), but that's probably not going to happen. We have a really sweet 5.1 audio setup for the big Plasma, so the first option would just annoy my friend who comes over to LAN/online-coop it.
Also, I use a PlaystationEye for my mic. In addition to being totally underused as a peripheral, it's also like a WiiSpeak for your PS3. It does a good job on its own getting rid of feedback (there is none). But the last time I tried doing that with 2 audio sources (at my friend's house he has a TV + Monitor setup each with separate speakers) there was really horrible feedback.
So! Headset probably would be best. But maybe I'd move the PS3 in the room for movie watching? I dunno. It's up in the air.
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Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474
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Here is a challenge.
I have a friend who wants a new computer for gaming but doesn't want to spend any money. What is a build for the cheapest top-to-bottom replacement (incl monitor and OS) that can still be considered adequate for gaming into the near future? Easy Mode < $500, Winrar is < $400, hard mode is < $300.
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"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23626
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Tell your friend to save up more money. The monitor and OS is going to take at least half the budget so you are talking about building the "box" for ~$250 - $300.
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Kageh
Terracotta Army
Posts: 359
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The NEC monitor supports DisplayPort which is like HDMI but free to use, and it isn't regulated as heavily.
And, yeah, as far as I can tell you can use HDMI > DVI converters.
What Engels linked would work, and there are pretty cheap HDMI > DVI cables available which work too, as long as the DVI input is HDCP capable. Unless you're getting unprotected stuff out of HDMI of course. Sadly, I need to connect both a PS3 and a computer to it. There are HDMI to DVI cables for consoles available which are cheaper than buing a HDMI one and a HDMI>DVI adapter but DVI>DisplayPort (to connect the computer to a digital input) costs a lot so I'm not buying one of those. There are plenty of adequate TN monitors which are great for gaming at about half the price and without the need to spend additional money on cabling, as my wife is already glowering at me dubiously whenever I talk of purchasing new digital gadgets. Since I'm not doing any picture work that would require 100% Adobe RGB color space or anything the like, I'm still searching for something good. In the end, I was looking at Samsung 2450 or 2494 or a LG 2361. OTOH, 3D Vision capable displays in 1080p and 24" are getting launched, so I'm back to scheming and planing.
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Here is a challenge.
I have a friend who wants a new computer for gaming but doesn't want to spend any money. What is a build for the cheapest top-to-bottom replacement (incl monitor and OS) that can still be considered adequate for gaming into the near future? Easy Mode < $500, Winrar is < $400, hard mode is < $300.
A PS3 and a 21" Monitor with HDMI.
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Pennilenko
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3472
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Here is a challenge.
I have a friend who wants a new computer for gaming but doesn't want to spend any money. What is a build for the cheapest top-to-bottom replacement (incl monitor and OS) that can still be considered adequate for gaming into the near future? Easy Mode < $500, Winrar is < $400, hard mode is < $300.
A PS3 and a 21" Monitor with HDMI. Barely even that on his budget.
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"See? All of you are unique. And special. Like fucking snowflakes." -- Signe
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Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474
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$500 isn't that unreasonable for a bargin basement PC.
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"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
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Goreschach
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1546
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$500 isn't that unreasonable for a bargin basement PC.
Regardless, at that point a console is the correct answer. Unless he's interested in MMO's, FPS's, RPG's, or RTS's Blizzard or Valve, a console is pretty much the correct answer anyway. These days, we're mostly just getting console ports with higher res textures and shitty gui's.
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Torinak
Terracotta Army
Posts: 847
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I need to replace a GT 7950 (one of its DVI ports no longer works reliably, and lack of dual monitors induces stabbiness in those accustomed to them). What's the roughly-equivalent nVidia card these days? GT 240? GTS 250? The system only has a 500W power supply, and we'll be building new systems later this year, so I'm not looking for a major step up in video cards.
We're still very leery of ATI cards due to driver-related nightmares.
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23626
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$500 isn't that unreasonable for a bargin basement PC.
It is if you want to game on it.
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Sheepherder
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5192
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We're still very leery of ATI cards due to driver-related nightmares. nVidia currently eats shit with a spoon. I actually really want to try one of their cards someday, but not any time soon I don't think.
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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We're still very leery of ATI cards due to driver-related nightmares. nVidia currently eats shit with a spoon. I actually really want to try one of their cards someday, but not any time soon I don't think. Uhm, based on what, exactly? Sure, Nvidia hasn't come out with real new hardware since the 295, but I wouldn't call it shit when you look at the benchmarks. Sure, its overpriced considering a high end 5000 series card does all the 295 does and has DX11 support, but I wouldn't call it crap. The sad truth of the matter is that Nvidia has always seemed a better card because developers have always made damned sure their game works on Nvidia drivers, while sometimes leaving ATI in the lurch. This is probably going to change, since the more Nvidia is delayed in launching Fermi (the new card line), the more market share ATI is going to get, forcing developers to really work with ATI as much as Nvidia.
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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Sheepherder
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5192
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Uhm, based on what, exactly? Sure, Nvidia hasn't come out with real new hardware since the 295, but I wouldn't call it shit when you look at the benchmarks. Sure, its overpriced considering a high end 5000 series card does all the 295 does and has DX11 support, but I wouldn't call it crap. Their entire line of cards is underpowered compared to the equivalent dollar value ATi card, forgive the hyperbole. That, and production shortages messing with prices and availability.
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Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848
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Since ATI's drivers always suck, it doesn't matter that their hardware is better for the price.
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Hahahaha! I'm really good at this!
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rattran
Moderator
Posts: 4257
Unreasonable
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I switched back to ATI with the 4870, and have had no issues with the drivers. I'm now running a 5870, still no driver issues.
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rrazcueta
Terracotta Army
Posts: 92
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That NEC monitor I linked above... it's awesome.
Also, portrait mode on 23" 16:9s is absurd.
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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grats!
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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Aez
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1369
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I'd like some advise on an upgrade.
I'm wondering if I can get away with a video card and GPU upgrade or simply buy a new computer. If an upgrade is possible, any suggestion?
Here's my system :
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.21 Ghz, 3.50 GB of RAM Nvidia 7900GT/GTO Mother board : Asus M2N-SLI deluxe Window xp
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« Last Edit: June 05, 2010, 05:06:35 PM by Aez »
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brellium
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1296
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I'd like some advise on an upgrade.
I'm wondering if I can get away with a video card and GPU upgrade or simply buy a new computer. If an upgrade is possible, any suggestion?
Here's my system :
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.21 Ghz, 3.50 GB of RAM Nvidia 7900GT/GTO Mother board : Asus M2N-SLI deluxe Window xp
You're replacing the system, the processor is weak 90mm 1mb l2 cache On my system I went Intel for the first time, locked myself out of an upgrade path, but picked up a MB and a yorkfield 9550 for 400$ (a quad core Xeon that I can OC to 4gz ), I would have to gone into a i7 for something significantly better. The i7's are awesome.
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"One must see in every human being only that which is worthy of praise. When this is done, one can be a friend to the whole human race. If, however, we look at people from the standpoint of their faults, then being a friend to them is a formidable task." —‘Abdu’l-Bahá
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23626
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I'd like some advise on an upgrade.
I'm wondering if I can get away with a video card and GPU upgrade or simply buy a new computer. If an upgrade is possible, any suggestion?
Here's my system :
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.21 Ghz, 3.50 GB of RAM Nvidia 7900GT/GTO Mother board : Asus M2N-SLI deluxe Window xp
What's your budget?
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Aez
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1369
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Not much, I was hoping for a 300$ upgrade. If it's not possible, I'll finance a new computer. It's just bad timing because my GF is on maternity leave.
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Pennilenko
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3472
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I'd like some advise on an upgrade.
I'm wondering if I can get away with a video card and GPU upgrade or simply buy a new computer. If an upgrade is possible, any suggestion?
Here's my system :
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.21 Ghz, 3.50 GB of RAM Nvidia 7900GT/GTO Mother board : Asus M2N-SLI deluxe Window xp
Overclock that puppy a little bit and add a nice mid level budget graphics card. That would easily give you a nice performance boost for 300 dollars.
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"See? All of you are unique. And special. Like fucking snowflakes." -- Signe
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Goreschach
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1546
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If you want to put off getting a new computer, you could pick up a 4850 for around a hundred bucks, and a tower heatsink(or whatever will fit in your case) of the proper socket mount for around 35. With shipping that would come out to around 150. The 4850 is still perfectly capable of running all games as long as you don't max them out or try running them in some multi monitor setup. You'll lose dx10, however. And the x2 overclocks well, and does alright for feeding gpu's, since it was one of the earlier chips to have an imc.
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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The 4850 is..... You'll lose dx10, however. .
wait, what?
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23626
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XP.
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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XP.
Oh. Well. I don't think he had DX10 to lose in the first place :)
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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Sheepherder
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5192
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If you want to put off getting a new computer, you could pick up a 4850 for around a hundred bucks, and a tower heatsink(or whatever will fit in your case) of the proper socket mount for around 35. With shipping that would come out to around 150. The 4850 is still perfectly capable of running all games as long as you don't max them out or try running them in some multi monitor setup. You'll lose dx10, however. And the x2 overclocks well, and does alright for feeding gpu's, since it was one of the earlier chips to have an imc. The 5770 is roughly the same speed if he wants to be forward-compatible with DX11. It's also at a pretty good point price/performance wise, though the 4850 / 4870 are beasts that way.
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« Last Edit: June 06, 2010, 03:07:17 PM by Sheepherder »
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