The 'Build Me A PC' Thread

[Morat20]

That was it. 1600x900. Figured out why it looked weird -- that's widescreen TV, not widescreen monitor. I think I'll accept it, especially once I priced the monitors with the resolutions I wanted. :)

And yep, it did come with an adaptor. Remembered it the next day -- monitor shipped two weeks after everything else, so I'd packed the adapter away two weeks ago.

[Goreschach]

That was it. 1600x900. Figured out why it looked weird -- that's widescreen TV, not widescreen monitor. I think I'll accept it, especially once I priced the monitors with the resolutions I wanted. :)

And yep, it did come with an adaptor. Remembered it the next day -- monitor shipped two weeks after everything else, so I'd packed the adapter away two weeks ago.

You're talking about 1.6:1? That was something of an abortion. PC's quickly moved on to 1.78:1 to match tv's years ago.

[Chimpy]

16:10 is a far superior aspect ratio for computing to 16:9. They moved because the fab companies decided they only wanted to make one panel size.

[MisterNoisy]

16:10 is a far superior aspect ratio for computing to 16:9. They moved because the fab companies decided they only wanted to make one panel size.

I prefer 16:10 but 'far superior' may be overselling it just a little.

[Lantyssa]

I disagree.  16:10 is vastly superior.  I hate working on any 10:9 monitor.

[Salamok]

I disagree.  16:10 is vastly superior.  I hate working on any 10:9 monitor.

I don't think anyone is arguing that 16:10 isn't vastly superior to 5:4 

[Cyrrex]

Wouldn't that technically be 5:4.5 ?

[Lantyssa]

Bah!  16:9.

[Salamok]

I realized Lantyssa's mistake but I was busy being amused by all of the ratios getting thrown around so had to add another.  And I rarely see decimals used in monitor aspect ratio's even though it probably would be less confusing to just adopt a 1.xx:1 naming convention.  I still can't figure out why 16:10 isn't 8:5 when 4:3 isn't 16:12. I suppose it has to do with timing 4:3 came out before the 16's entered the picture and possibly 16:9 was around before 16:10 to establish some sort of precedent. 

Of course this mess is trivial to keep straight when compared to the friggen acronyms they assign to these resolutions WQXGA , WQHD , QWXGA , WUXGA , FHD , WSXGA+ , UXGA , HD+ , WXGA+ , SXGA+ , HD , SXGA , SXGA– (UVGA) , WXGA , WXGA , WXGA , XGA+ , XGA , WSVGA , SVGA , VGA.

[Special J]

With a combination of hand me downs, spare parts, barter or people just showing pity, I've managed to cobble together a better system than the Core 2 laptop I've been surviving on.  So now I've got me an i5 box with an old shitty video card.

Problem is I'm low on dough so I'm l need a cheaper option.  What's good card for under $100?  What about say the $70?  Is there even a reasonable option?

I'm in Canada so it's probably from tigerdirect.ca for me.

EDIT: How about this?
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=051216

My problem is can't keep track of which chip is faster than which. nVidia and ATI just seem to tack numbers at the end these days and I can't keep track of how they stack up anymore.

I should also add MB is an Asus P7P55D-E LX.  PCI-E 2.0

[Trippy]

Get a NVIDIA 550 ti or AMD 7750. NCIX CA has some of each. Do not get that 610. You will be miserable with that card.

[Hoax]

As far as Newegg/USA goes I can't get away from this card seeming like my best option:

EVGA 560 ti 1GB

Anyone got a sense of if its worth the bother to wait for black friday or just pull trigger now? Need a new card badly, put it off for a long time but damn if I don't hate the fuck out of mail in rebates.

[Trippy]

What resolution do you run at?

[Sheepherder]

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=051216

Same card, $50.  It's still a piece of shit.

NVIDIA's budget gaming cards are _50 and up, ATI's are _550 and up.

Ask Trippy's opinion on this: Radeon 7770 OC.  Or this 550 TI.

[Special J]

Thanks for the advice guys.  I'll wait a couple weeks and I'll have the dough to pick up a 550Ti.

[Hoax]

What resolution do you run at?

1920x1200

[Trippy]

What resolution do you run at?

1920x1200

The Radeon 7850 will probably give you slightly better performance at about the same price as the 560 Ti. Or if you wanted to spend some extra bucks (or wait for a sale/rebate) there's the 660 (not the Ti).

[Special J]

Any reason this couldn't do the job?

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=050424

I can grab one of those on the way home and be up and running tonight.

[Trippy]

Should be fine.

[Threash]

Not sure if this goes here or not but is this a decent computer for 999?

[Trippy]

Not for gaming. The default GPU is not good.

[Sheepherder]

Beat me to it.

The 640 is still beaten handily by the 460, the 630 isn't even listed on AnandTech.

[Trippy]

Not for gaming. The default GPU is not good.

I didn't see the special promotion. With the 560 Ti it's a better deal, though still not great.The motherboard isn't that good. Way too many legacy PCI slots and the audio outputs are limited (which may not affect you). Default power supply is only 300 watts.

If you really want to get it from them I would downgrade to the 3570K CPU (-$100. unless you really need hyperthreading), get the Corsair Hydro H60 CPU cooler (+$25, they don't specify the default liquid CPU cooler which could be kind of dodgy), upgrade to the P8Z77-V LK motherboard (+$12) and upgrade to the Corsair CX500 V2 power supply (+$40).

[cmlancas]

I have an ASUS G31j gaming laptop (the one prone to terrible video card fuckups) and my 5680 in it takes a dirtnap every time I watch Netflix now.  Any thoughts on what I should be replacing it with?  In a perfect world I'd like to go to my laptop repair place with a video card in hand.

[Trippy]

I have an ASUS G31j gaming laptop (the one prone to terrible video card fuckups) and my 5680 in it takes a dirtnap every time I watch Netflix now.  Any thoughts on what I should be replacing it with?  In a perfect world I'd like to go to my laptop repair place with a video card in hand.

Umm what's a G31j (G51j?) and a 5680 (AMD?)? It's probably going to be tough finding a replacement mobile GPU for that system but I would try and put something comparable in TDP to what you have now. Your system might not have enough power and cooling for a GPU that's more powerful. I'm only guessing cause I don't know your GPU but I would say try to find something like a 560M or 660M as a replacement. My ASUS G51 has a 560M.

[Threash]

I'm trying to find a good gaming computer sale for black friday/cyber monday, but i really have no clue what's good anymore.  How does this look for the price?

[Sheepherder]

Motherboard cannot be overclocked. This might not be a problem for you, I still don't bother overclocking my i5 750 and haven't really felt the need.
Power source is sight unseen, this has the potential to be a problem.  If you can recycle an old one of reputable make, or don't mind buying a new one, this isn't a problem.

[Threash]

Yeah, not looking to overclock i just want something i can play games on for the next 3-4 years without worrying about upgrading.  Why would the powersupply be a problem?

[Sheepherder]

Why would the powersupply be a problem?

Absolute worst case scenario is it starts a fire. (which is not as infrequent as one would hope)  Best case scenario is that it's indistinguishable from a high end model.  In between are varying degrees of unclean power damaging or lessening the life expectancy of components and peripherals depending on how bad or good a unit you get.

[Trippy]

I'm trying to find a good gaming computer sale for black friday/cyber monday, but i really have no clue what's good anymore.  How does this look for the price?

I wouldn't get it. The motherboard is a very low end business-oriented board. iBuypower is having their own sale on their site if you are willing to order something directly from them:

http://www.ibuypower.com/2012/thanksgiving/desktopspecials.html

[Threash]

Ok, how does this one look then?

[Trippy]

Ok, how does this one look then?

I'd downgrade to 3570K (-$100), upgrade to Corsair H60 cooler (+$25), upgrade to Corsair CX500 V2 ($+15)

If you run at >=1080p res you  might want to upgrade to 660ti (+$54)

[Zetor]

I have ~$500 remaining from my yearly tech allowance at my workplace, been thinking about spending it to upgrade my rig. I'm not sure this is enough to do a full mb/cpu upgrade, but maybe upgrading the vidcard or getting more RAM could work? Halp.

My current setup is
mb: Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H
cpu: AMD Phenom II X4 945 3GHz
ram: 4G Kingston DDR3 1333MHz
vidcard: Gigabyte GV-R685OC-1GD Radeon HD6850 1GB
psu: Chieftec CFT-650-14CS 650W
HDs: OCZ 64GB Onyx2, Samsung 1TB 7200RPM
Monitor: don't have the specs offhand, but it's a 22" 2ms latency Samsung LCD

I typically run stuff at 1680x1050.

(unfortunately Newegg and similar sites aren't an option - I don't think they ship to Hungary, and even if they did, I'd probably get screwed by the stupid Hungarian import / customs fees. However, I think prices are roughly the same over here for most things.)

[Cyrrex]

If it isn't enough for a good mb/cpu upgrade, then just go get one of the higher end bang-for-buck cards that will do you for a couple of years (like a 660 Ti).  Use the extra money for a RAM upgrade, isn't RAM super cheap these days?  Anyway, although that 6850 is not a terrible card, you will still get a pretty significant upgrade.  You'd tear right through most stuff, even with that CPU.

[Trippy]

I have ~$500 remaining from my yearly tech allowance at my workplace, been thinking about spending it to upgrade my rig. I'm not sure this is enough to do a full mb/cpu upgrade, but maybe upgrading the vidcard or getting more RAM could work? Halp.

My current setup is
mb: Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H
cpu: AMD Phenom II X4 945 3GHz
ram: 4G Kingston DDR3 1333MHz
vidcard: Gigabyte GV-R685OC-1GD Radeon HD6850 1GB
psu: Chieftec CFT-650-14CS 650W
HDs: OCZ 64GB Onyx2, Samsung 1TB 7200RPM
Monitor: don't have the specs offhand, but it's a 22" 2ms latency Samsung LCD

I typically run stuff at 1680x1050.

(unfortunately Newegg and similar sites aren't an option - I don't think they ship to Hungary, and even if they did, I'd probably get screwed by the stupid Hungarian import / customs fees. However, I think prices are roughly the same over here for most things.)

Upgrading MB+CPU & Video Card would be tight with that budget. You could get a slightly faster AMD Phenom II (3.4 or 3.6 GHz), more RAM and a better video card with that money, though.