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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  Topic: The 'Build Me A PC' Thread 0 Members and 4 Guests are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: The 'Build Me A PC' Thread  (Read 853618 times)
Trouble
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Posts: 689


Reply #280 on: September 16, 2010, 07:56:02 PM

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_to_set_up_Windows_on_a_VERTEX at the bottom under "Drive maintenance".

OCZ has a program called wiper.exe which essentially does a manual TRIM and will work on Vista. The downside is you do have to run it manually. I read somewhere that it'll work with any SSD that supports TRIM but I'm not sure if that's true or not and I forget the source.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2010, 08:02:34 PM by Trouble »
Engels
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inflicts shingles.


Reply #281 on: September 16, 2010, 11:05:38 PM

Actually, that's kinda cool, and if it works, I change my mind   awesome, for real

Looks like although they're talking about vertex, it also works with the agility line.

The more you know...

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
Cyrrex
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Reply #282 on: September 17, 2010, 07:04:35 AM

Does anyone have experience with or knowledge of ATI's 5870 mobile graphics card?  It should be monstrously powerful for a laptop, but...I've never owned an ATI card, and I am afraid of the drivers.  I always end up with Nvidia cards, and often because the driver issues scare me off.  Do I have reason to be worried?

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
Numtini
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Posts: 7675


Reply #283 on: September 17, 2010, 08:00:47 AM

No idea about that particularly card, but I've had my ATIs for about the last two years and have had no problem at all with drivers.

If you can read this, you're on a board populated by misogynist assholes.
Engels
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inflicts shingles.


Reply #284 on: September 17, 2010, 08:54:07 AM

I've had a ATI 5870 desktop version and have had no issues for the last 7 months. No point of real comparison tho, one is desktop, the other is a laptop.

Here's a comprehensive review, along with comparison charts:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5870.23073.0.html

Bottom line is it compares in performance to the desktop 5770.

Small editorial: The fear of ATI dates back to the freakin' 90s. ATI hasn't been particularly bad for a long long time. No worse than Nvidia. Some stuff comes out half baked, such as their eyefinity tech, but for basic stuff, its fine. People have loooong memories, is all.

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
Shrike
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Posts: 939


Reply #285 on: September 17, 2010, 09:29:48 AM

Very long memories mostly because the experiences were so horrific. And it was somewhat later than the '90s, too.

Regardless, ATi/AMD/whoever still isn't quite in the same league as nVidia when it comes to drivers. I still see myriad compatiability and performance complaints...much more than with nVidia. On the good side, they're more in neighborhood of quibble issues, but there it is. It's not the horror show it once was, but I personally still stick with nVidia.

On the subjects of notebooks, there's some very hot stuff coming down the pike from both AMD and Intel. If you're in the market but can hold off a bit, I'd wait and see what the Sandybridge and the new AMD goodies bring to the table. Preliminary reports look to be very favorable indeed. VERY favorable.
Sky
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I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.


Reply #286 on: September 17, 2010, 09:59:24 AM

Speaking of historical gpus, I found this list on maybe my twelfth post here:
Quote
Diamond Stealth 3d
Creative 3d Blaster
3dfx Voodoo 1
3dfx Voodoo 3
Nvidia TNT Ultra
Nvidia Geforce 2 Ultra
Nvidia Geforce 4 ti4400
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
I don't remember what was in my last machine, was there one between the 9800 Pro and the current 8800 GTX? Can't remember. All but the first two were really great cards.
Tarami
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Posts: 1980


Reply #287 on: September 19, 2010, 06:36:46 PM

Nice list. Makes me want to share my own:

Matrox Millenium 4MB (ran Quake 1 and Ultima 7 I believe)
Righteous Orchid 3D, Voodoo 1, 6MB (ran Quake 2, burnt up)
Artic Rage, Voodoo 1, 8MB (ran Quake 2 briefly)
Matrox G200, 8MB (ran Quake 2, good Lord that card was slow but looked fantastic.)
Righteous Orchid II, Voodoo 2, 16MB (Quake 2)
?, Riva TNT 2 Pro, 32MB (Quake 2, 3)
Hercules 3D Prophet II, Geforce 2 64MB (Quake 3, vrooooooom!)
Club Radeon 9600 SE (worst purchase of my life. Luckily, the piece of shit burnt up.)
Club Radeon 9800 Pro (ran nothing specific)
BFG GeForce 6800 GTO, factory overclocked, 256 MB (ran WoW until it melted.)
Leadtek GeForce 7800 GTX, 256 MB (ran WoW until I quit, then some LotRO)
Leadtek GeForce 8800 GT, 512 MB (ran LotRO, still in my office computer)
XFX GeForce 280 GTX, 1024 MB (now running)

Looking back... the first Voodoo 1 was still my favourite card because it's so formative for my childhood. After having pushed my greasy nose against the counter glass of a local electronics market for a couple of weeks, my dad finally gave in and bought it for me as an early birthday present. I don't think I will ever get an as profound graphics experience ever again as the first few seconds after I had booted up Quake 2 in OpenGL for the first time. A year later my parents had to install a seperate ISDN connection in the house to be able to receive calls, as I was hogging the phone line for hours every night to play Quake 2 CTF. Going from the USRobotics 33.6K modem to 64K ISDN was pure steroids for the railgun accuracy. Though I'm still not sure how I managed to configure the Cisco adapter at age 14 - but no config meant no Quake, so I guess I was motivated beyond belief to penetrate the obscure Telnet interface.

Quite frankly, my parents were the best and most enabling parents a kid who loved games could have had. They got me computers, Internet connections and video cards and drove me and my friends all over the country for LAN parties. A weekend without fragging people over a LAN was a boring weekend indeed. I guess they thought it better than me being out drinking and they were probably right.

I guess that's my boring gaming history in so many words.

Edit:
Sorry for the derail, but I was in a cool-story-bro'-sharing mode.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2010, 06:38:27 PM by Tarami »

- I'm giving you this one for free.
- Nothing's free in the waterworld.
Cyrrex
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Posts: 10603


Reply #288 on: September 20, 2010, 08:57:08 AM

So I decided to take the plunge with that ATI card.  Well, more of a plunge on the whole laptop:

http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?cid=6&id=255

Should be fast as balls.

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
Sheepherder
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Posts: 5192


Reply #289 on: September 21, 2010, 09:16:47 PM

Very long memories mostly because the experiences were so horrific. And it was somewhat later than the '90s, too.

Regardless, ATi/AMD/whoever still isn't quite in the same league as nVidia when it comes to drivers.

Yes, they haven't damaged or killed a shitton of cards by disabling automatic fan control in the last year.
Murgos
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Posts: 7474


Reply #290 on: September 22, 2010, 04:22:06 AM

I interviewed with a group at ATI/AMD that was in the process of rewriting the entire back-end suite of software used by the driver team (also most of the pre-silicon testing teams) but their time line was ~2 years out for the full change over.  So, they are working on it but it won't be soon.

"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
Sky
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Posts: 32117

I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.


Reply #291 on: September 22, 2010, 07:35:13 AM

I managed to resist buying it until trying the demo, which is now available if anyone is interested.

Also, I just noticed being able to grab AMD Catalyst video card updates through Steam.  Pretty nice.  InfoMore info.

I clicked this, thinking "yay, driver updates made easier!"

two and a half goddamned hours later, my display is fixed.

No, it's not steam's fault, it's that ATI can't write a goddamned installer to save their fucking lives, and the 10.8 and 10.9 also wound up with known issues where the overscan settings (that are wrong by default) reset to defaults every reboot. Oh, and you have a 10% chance of opening the control panel to reset them.

*rant* I love ATI's hardware, but they need to hire a tools programmer.
why so serious?
sinij
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WWW
Reply #292 on: September 22, 2010, 08:27:22 PM

One memory of computer gaming that stands out for me was of original sound blaster. Someone hooked up big speakers via amp to it and played original Dune RTS. It was shiny, it went BOOOM!!! ... I couldn't afford such setup until much later, but in all my setups I try not to neglect sound. It makes tons of difference in your gaming experience.

Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.
Ironwood
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Posts: 28240


Reply #293 on: September 23, 2010, 03:01:15 AM

So I decided to take the plunge with that ATI card.  Well, more of a plunge on the whole laptop:

http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?cid=6&id=255

Should be fast as balls.

That looks rather nice.

"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
Cyrrex
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Reply #294 on: September 23, 2010, 07:42:20 AM

I have it now in my possession.  I can confirm that it is balls fast (for a notebook) and can manage Crysis on High settings.  That's with stock drivers, which I'm afraid to touch at this point.

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
Azazel
Contributor
Posts: 7735


Reply #295 on: September 23, 2010, 04:08:38 PM

So my wife's computer died yesterday, so it's time to try and get it fixed (might need a new mobo) but it's also brought up the time to get a new box from December to now, since my as-built-by-Trippy box is getting past 3 years. I'll get the new one, she'll get the old one. Everyone wins!

We'll be getting it from here, since it's local and actually has very good prices for Australia. Newegg etc won't cut it, I'm afraid.
http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/build.php?page=1&systype=intel

Budget is AU$2000, though if it can be cheaper that's a bonus. Monitor seperate. Going not for bleeding edge, but best power-bang-buck. A solid 80% machine that plays games gud.

Wants:
Intel CPU
NVIDIA Video Card
2TB HDD. Or maybe 2 of them.
The cheaper Samsung/Lite-On/LG SATA DVD rewriters are good enough. No need for BRD at this stage.
A good case with tool-less enclosures and good cooling. Maybe a 2nd choice/backup case in case they're out of stock.
LMK if I need to buy additional fans or request a PSU upgrade.
4GB RAM? 6GB RAM? 8GB RAM? I want to have a good solid amount, so I never have to upgrade, but I still can if I need to. And RAM to complement the Mobo as best possible.

Not bothered about sound cards. Onboard sound with stereo is usually good enough, since we often have 2 machines going in here anyway. I don't need 5.1 or anything.

I'm also going to pay them to glue it together for me, since it's just easier for warranty purposes etc. And that way I know it'll work when I get it.
I can get a cheap Win7 upgrade kit - either one of these. So I'll get the cheapest qualifying OEM version they have available.
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Upgrade (media only) - WAH, Student - Campus, School - DVD - 32-bit - English - Microsoft
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Upgrade (media only) - WAH, Student - Campus, School - DVD - 64-bit - English - Microsoft


No speakers/modems/keyboards/mice

Advice on monitors is also welcome, but will be seperate from the box budget. HDMI worthwhile? Will it play all my video files?
I'm partial to Samsungs and since I have a 22" at the moment, I'd like to go bigger. 24" or even 27"
« Last Edit: September 23, 2010, 04:29:36 PM by Azazel »

http://azazelx.wordpress.com/ - My Miniatures and Hobby Blog.
Morfiend
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wants a greif tittle


Reply #296 on: September 23, 2010, 05:14:58 PM

Wants:
Intel CPU - i7 950 (around $300)

EVGA 1366 motherboard that supports SLi for upgradeability. Between $200 and $280.

NVIDIA Video Card - EVGA 460gtx 1gb (easy to add another for big graphics boost) (around $200)

2TB HDD. Or maybe 2 of them. - (Look for a western digital or seagate on sale. Newegg has them for like $100)

The cheaper Samsung/Lite-On/LG SATA DVD rewriters are good enough. No need for BRD at this stage. - Any cheap sata dvd-burner is good.

A good case with tool-less enclosures and good cooling. Maybe a 2nd choice/backup case in case they're out of stock. - Pick one? I like Antec 900-2.

4GB RAM? 6GB RAM? 8GB RAM? Corsair XMS3, ether 3x2gb or 6x2gb sticks. About $150 each 6gb kit.



Added notes above. That place doesnt seem to have any of the midrange EVGA motherboards. Which is a pain. Other than that the rest of the stuff seems to be on that list.

Oh yeah, make sure you get a 64bit OS.

Ultimate is mostly just a pointless prince gouge though.
Azazel
Contributor
Posts: 7735


Reply #297 on: September 23, 2010, 05:22:30 PM

The educational upgrade to ultimate will cost me $20, so I'm not too worried about that part.

http://azazelx.wordpress.com/ - My Miniatures and Hobby Blog.
Chimpy
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Reply #298 on: September 23, 2010, 06:25:19 PM

I really like my CoolerMaster case. http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?sort=2a&products_id=42375 looks like that site has them.

Airflow is really pretty good, it is easy to add fans (I added 2 blue LED ones to the top), all drive bays are tooless and easy to use(HDD bays are great because the back side is accessible as well when the back cover is off for cabling etc.) Also has a ton of power connectors for graphics cards/sata drives/old school numex nicely wrapped in black mesh tube.

'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
Sky
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Posts: 32117

I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.


Reply #299 on: September 24, 2010, 07:09:06 AM

Why wouldn't you go for the i5 750? Also, if it's for your gaming rig, don't skimp on the gpu. Get the best you can afford. I don't like SLI, though. Here's my wishlist from a couple pages back.

i5 750
4GB Crucial DDR3 1600
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro
ASUS 480 GTX 1.5GB

Since most games are still 32 bit I wouldn't worry too much about the RAM, you can drop another 4GB in down the line if needed. I'm re-using case/drives/sound card/etc, so that's all I have for quick recommends.

That cpu (well, the i5 760 at your site), some 4GB pc1600, 2TB WD Black (I'd go for the 1TB for better cache, but eh), Lite-On cheap optical, the P7P55d-E Pro mobo, the Asus 480 GTX and shop assembly totals about $1450, leaving you $550 for a case and OS.
Quote
Custom Built Computer
- Intel CPU:   Intel Core i5-760 / 2.80GHz / 8MB Cache / LGA1156
- Intel Motherboards:   Asus P7P55D-E-PRO Intel Mainboard - 4x DDR3 / 6x Sata Raid / 1x IDE / Gigabit Lan / LGA 1156
- Desktop Hard Drives:   Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 7200RPM 32MB SATA 3Gbs
- Optical Drives:   Lite-On Super AllWrite SATA DVD Re-Writer (24x - Black)
- Desktop Memory:   Corsair DDR3 4GB PC-12800/1600 (2x XMS3 2GB) CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 Ram
- Graphics Cards:   Asus NVIDIA ENGTX480-2DI-1536-MD5 GTX480, 1536MB, 384bit, DDR5, 2DVI, mHDMI, FAN, PCIE, ATX
- Assembly:   Built By Centre Com
- Custom Quote Date:   Saturday, 25 September, 2010
Sub-Total: $1,449.40
« Last Edit: September 24, 2010, 07:20:51 AM by Sky »
Morfiend
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wants a greif tittle


Reply #300 on: September 24, 2010, 05:43:59 PM

If you want to get your DDR3 to run triple channel, you need it to be install in sets of 3. Which is why I said get 3x2gb. You could get 3x1gb or 6x1gb, but thats going to be a lot hard to upgrade in the future.

Also, I still think going with 1x460gtx will be fine, and then just add another later if you need more power. 2x460s is pretty much the same as 1x480, but produces less heat in most instances.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/

Go there to see.

Before this generation of cards, I also disliked SLI and not a good deal, but with how these 460s work, it has suddenly become a great way to upgrade or even run a new system.
Chinchilla
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Posts: 573


Reply #301 on: September 24, 2010, 06:42:00 PM

Didn't want to hijack someone's thread, but appartently this is the one thread for all (I didn't know that).

I'm building this PC for Darkfall.  I really enjoy the game and my laptop isn't cutting it.  What do you guys think?  I'm buying a monitor and other little things from newegg.  The bulk is from IBuyPower because I don't feel like doing my own tech support and such for problems.  They include it for 3 years.

Think this case is good enough?  Price is $1,300.  I can get a dual card setup fro another $230, but I didn't think I needed all that.

Back2School Intel X58 Special Case ( NZXT Tempest EVO Gaming Case - Black )

Case Lighting ( None )

iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction ( None )

iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion ( None )

Processor ( Intel® Core™ i7 950 Processor (4x 3.06GHz/8MB L3 Cache) )
iBUYPOWER PowerDrive ( None )

Processor Cooling ( Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1366] - [Free Upgrade] Standard 120mm Fan )

Memory ( 6 GB [2 GB X3] DDR3-1600 - A-DATA Gaming Series )

Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 - 1GB - Single Card )

Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA )

Motherboard ( [SLI] ASUS P6X58D-E )

Motherboard USB / SATA Interface ( Motherboard default USB / SATA Interface )

Power Supply ( 750 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-750TX )

Primary Hard Drive ( 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
Data Hard Drive ( None )

Optical Drive ( 24X Sony Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )

2nd Optical Drive ( None )

Flash Media Reader/Writer ( 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer - Black )

Meter Display ( None )

Sound Card ( Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE )

Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )

Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit )

Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard - Black )

Monitor ( None )

2nd Monitor ( None )

Speaker System ( None )

Power Protection ( None )

Headset ( None )

Video Camera ( None )

Advanced Build Options ( Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound - The best interface between your CPU and the heatsinks )

Warranty ( Standard Warranty Service - Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )

Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )

Chinchila - LaRoche Server, APB
Drahcir - 50 Captain/GM Weaponsmith, LoTRO Silverlode (Retired)
St Drahcir - 7xMage, UO Chesapeake (Retired)
Chinchilla Dakilla - Barbarian R50, Shadowbane (Retired)
Sheepherder
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Posts: 5192


Reply #302 on: September 24, 2010, 08:55:15 PM

i5: For people who don't give a fuck for how many seconds faster they can decompress archives as long as their games run faster.
Morfiend
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wants a greif tittle


Reply #303 on: September 24, 2010, 09:41:45 PM

i5: For people who don't give a fuck for how many seconds faster they can decompress archives as long as their games run faster.

Care to elaborate on that?
Chimpy
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Posts: 10618


WWW
Reply #304 on: September 24, 2010, 10:19:38 PM

i5 in tests for gaming have been performing pretty much the same as an i7 since they announced the part. i7 you pay a price premium for.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2010, 10:21:14 PM by Chimpy »

'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23611


Reply #305 on: September 24, 2010, 10:37:37 PM

So my wife's computer died yesterday, so it's time to try and get it fixed (might need a new mobo) but it's also brought up the time to get a new box from December to now, since my as-built-by-Trippy box is getting past 3 years. I'll get the new one, she'll get the old one. Everyone wins!

We'll be getting it from here, since it's local and actually has very good prices for Australia. Newegg etc won't cut it, I'm afraid.
http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/build.php?page=1&systype=intel

Budget is AU$2000, though if it can be cheaper that's a bonus. Monitor seperate. Going not for bleeding edge, but best power-bang-buck. A solid 80% machine that plays games gud.

Wants:
Intel CPU
NVIDIA Video Card
2TB HDD. Or maybe 2 of them.
The cheaper Samsung/Lite-On/LG SATA DVD rewriters are good enough. No need for BRD at this stage.
A good case with tool-less enclosures and good cooling. Maybe a 2nd choice/backup case in case they're out of stock.
LMK if I need to buy additional fans or request a PSU upgrade.
4GB RAM? 6GB RAM? 8GB RAM? I want to have a good solid amount, so I never have to upgrade, but I still can if I need to. And RAM to complement the Mobo as best possible.

Not bothered about sound cards. Onboard sound with stereo is usually good enough, since we often have 2 machines going in here anyway. I don't need 5.1 or anything.

I'm also going to pay them to glue it together for me, since it's just easier for warranty purposes etc. And that way I know it'll work when I get it.
I can get a cheap Win7 upgrade kit - either one of these. So I'll get the cheapest qualifying OEM version they have available.
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Upgrade (media only) - WAH, Student - Campus, School - DVD - 32-bit - English - Microsoft
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Upgrade (media only) - WAH, Student - Campus, School - DVD - 64-bit - English - Microsoft


No speakers/modems/keyboards/mice

Advice on monitors is also welcome, but will be seperate from the box budget. HDMI worthwhile? Will it play all my video files?
I'm partial to Samsungs and since I have a 22" at the moment, I'd like to go bigger. 24" or even 27"

You have a pretty big budget for just the box so you have lot a flexibility in the configuration.

Some comments on the earlier recommendations. The i5-760 that Sky recommended is still the price/performance king for "enthusiast" gaming rigs. If you wanted to save some money that would be the way to go. However if you wanted to use up your budget you can spend extra on the CPU. I wouldn't recommend the i7-950 cause the max turbo speed (3.33 GHz) is lower than some of the other CPUs in that price range. My pick for CPU for you is the i7-870. It has a slightly slower base clock speed than the i7-950 but higher max turbo speed (3.6 GHz, also faster than i5-760 which is 3.46 GHz). The i7-870 also puts you on the (generally) cheaper 1156 platform.

However if you do want to go SLI you might want to go with 1366 since you'll get easier support for full dual PCIe x 16.

For memory I'd go to either 6 GB if you go with 1366 or 8 GB with 1156 and just forget about 4 GB.

For video card(s) it depends on how much noise and heat you are willing to put up with. The GTX 460 is the sweet spot right now for NVIDIA enthusiast GPUs. You do have the budget for a GTX 480 if you do need that much GPU power, though.

I don't like how the cases have included power supplies so I would order the power supply and case (w/o PS) separately.

Here's what I would recommend. It's a little below your budget so there's room to upgrade the components you care most about:

Intel i7-870   $344.00
Asus P7P55D-E PRO  $204.00
WD Caviar Black 2 TB  $206.00
Corsair DDR3 8 GB PC-10600/1333 (4x 2GB)  $221.00
EVGA NVIDIA GTX460 SC (01G-P2-1373-KR)  $284.90
Corsair ATX-750 750W  $236.50  (rebranded Seasonic)
Case (whatever you like)
DVD burner (whatever you like)

$1496.50


Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23611


Reply #306 on: September 24, 2010, 10:42:24 PM

i5: For people who don't give a fuck for how many seconds faster they can decompress archives as long as their games run faster.
Care to elaborate on that?
The i5s don't have Hyper-Threading like the i7s do. HT doesn't help with gaming (yet). If gaming is what you care about i5s are the better value. If you regularly run CPU-intensive multi-threaded apps, though, the i7s may give you better performance overall.
Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23611


Reply #307 on: September 24, 2010, 11:19:12 PM

Didn't want to hijack someone's thread, but appartently this is the one thread for all (I didn't know that).

I'm building this PC for Darkfall.  I really enjoy the game and my laptop isn't cutting it.  What do you guys think?  I'm buying a monitor and other little things from newegg.  The bulk is from IBuyPower because I don't feel like doing my own tech support and such for problems.  They include it for 3 years.

Think this case is good enough?  Price is $1,300.  I can get a dual card setup fro another $230, but I didn't think I needed all that.
If you don't plan on going to SLI you might be able to save some money switching to the 1156 platform.
Morfiend
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Posts: 6009

wants a greif tittle


Reply #308 on: September 24, 2010, 11:28:43 PM

i5: For people who don't give a fuck for how many seconds faster they can decompress archives as long as their games run faster.
Care to elaborate on that?
The i5s don't have Hyper-Threading like the i7s do. HT doesn't help with gaming (yet). If gaming is what you care about i5s are the better value. If you regularly run CPU-intensive multi-threaded apps, though, the i7s may give you better performance overall.


Most of the current benches have the i7 beating out the i5 at medium and high resolutions. Not by a huge margin but still beating them, also, isnt i5 all 1156? Going 1366 should give you a sligh boost in almost all areas. Also, if you want to overclock, I heard the x58 OCs much better.
Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23611


Reply #309 on: September 24, 2010, 11:52:51 PM

Yes there are faster CPUs but you pay more for them. The point about the i5-760 is the excellent performance you get at the $200 price point. You can pay 50%, 100%, 400% more for 10%, 20%, 30% frame rate improvement.
Azazel
Contributor
Posts: 7735


Reply #310 on: September 25, 2010, 04:00:51 AM

Thanks guys, I'm more after the "sweet spot" of the moment with the components rather than paying 50% or 100% more for 10-20% performance bump. Won't be overclocking. With the last machine I bought there I got them to pull the included PSU and give me a slight discount on a better (higher voltage) one, so it shouldn't be a problem hopefully. If I can spend $1500 or $1800 rather than 2k I won't be upset. The monitor is probably going top set me back an extra $500 on top of the box, so hey. I ballparked the $2k budget from the last box that I wanted to spend $1200 on but ended up spending $1800 on instead.

Now: the stupid questions:

What is SLI and why do I (not?) want it?
2 Video cards? How does this work? (and if I got 2x of the $2-300-range vid cards, which ones would be the best to get? And would it be better than 1 $600 card (I'm not keen on spending $600 on one vid card for some reason.. probably after my last uber card melted down and cost me $300 to rep it.)
1156/1366? Motherboard type?
Triple channel RAM? um...?



thanks again,

http://azazelx.wordpress.com/ - My Miniatures and Hobby Blog.
Chimpy
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Posts: 10618


WWW
Reply #311 on: September 25, 2010, 08:39:36 AM

SLI is "scan line interlacing", what it does is separate the screen into alternating rows of horizontal pixels and has 1 card draw every other (or every 3rd or 4th in a 3 or 4 board setup).


'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
Sky
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Posts: 32117

I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.


Reply #312 on: September 25, 2010, 08:47:27 AM

Quote from: Trippy
For memory I'd go to either 6 GB if you go with 1366 or 8 GB with 1156 and just forget about 4 GB.
I'm curious about this. I get the 6GB for triple channel, but why would you need more than 4GB for a gaming box? The 64 bit games just aren't there yet, and you can slap in another 4GB when they are. Slapping in a ton of memory has always been one of my traditions in building pcs, but I don't really see much reason for it right now.

About the SLI thing, it's my own preference. I always buy the very best video card on the market when I build a computer, I find I need to upgrade gpus less and my computers last a long time. This 8800GTX is still a great card, while most cards of its generation are long dead. I guess you could buy a lower end card and then double it later, but then you're doubling an old card...I'd probably spend $250-300 on a new card entirely at that point, since you'd get about the same performance as the old card in SLI without any hassles of SLI.
Shrike
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Posts: 939


Reply #313 on: September 25, 2010, 09:33:29 AM

Yes there are faster CPUs but you pay more for them. The point about the i5-760 is the excellent performance you get at the $200 price point. You can pay 50%, 100%, 400% more for 10%, 20%, 30% frame rate improvement.


The i5 750/760 is probably the best bang-for-your-buck CPU out there for high end gaming. The i7 does seem to scale better with high-end SLI systems, but then we're talking megabuck multi-GPU systems where price really is no object (think 2-3 470 or 480GTXs). Both OC like crazy, even on air.

The new Sandybridge stuff seems like it'll continue this trend with a bullet. AMDs new stuff is looking pretty interesting, too, but nothing concrete yet on how it will perform compared to the Intel offerings.
Salamok
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2803


Reply #314 on: September 25, 2010, 12:45:29 PM

I'm curious about this. I get the 6GB for triple channel, but why would you need more than 4GB for a gaming box? The 64 bit games just aren't there yet, and you can slap in another 4GB when they are. Slapping in a ton of memory has always been one of my traditions in building pcs, but I don't really see much reason for it right now.

The game may not be 64bit but the OS is, I am sitting here with only Firefox open (with only a single tab) and according to task manager my machine is using 1.62gb of memory.  While the minimalists out there are probably yukking it up about how bloated windows is, I actually love that Windows 7 sees all these "excess" resources and uses them if they are there. 

On a side note after a brief moment of clarity when Intel introduced the core i series of processors, they have managed to once again quickly muddy the waters for me on what I get for the different series.  At launch it seemed the i3 was the next gen core 2 duo, the i5 was the quad core and the i7 was the quad core with hyper-threading.  After recently taking a deeper look I'm either reading things wrong or they have changed things so that the core i5 is now 2 cores instead of 4 making it more of a high end i3.  Am I the only one who feels like they are playing 3 card monty with their cpu branding?
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