Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here! [Archive] - Page 7

Cagerrin

January 11th, 2011, 09:58 PM

My laptop's graphics card has given me reason to believe that it's going(8600M GS, so it's not unexpected), so I figure it's high time to build myself a proper desktop. Not really going high-end, just something I can upgrade in the future without "buy a new one; e.g. the laptop method". So far this is what I've come up with:

Processor:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=48957&vpn=BX80616I3540
Motherboard:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=48967&vpn=BOXDH55TC
Power supply:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=55789&vpn=CMPSU-600CX
Graphics card:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129150
RAM:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144
or
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311
Case:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=49224&vpn=RC-692-KKN3
(it's cheaper on newegg but I think I can price-match it down)

HDD, DVD drive I've got lying around, monitor/mouse/keyboard I'll pick up at future shop, probably 17" 1440x900, MX518 to replace my aging MX500, dunno what keyboard, I'd buy online but I want to be sure I like the feel of it.

Anyone with more build experience see problems with this setup?

Rook

January 12th, 2011, 12:43 AM

If you're going for price/performance get a AMD AM3 quad.

Cagerrin

January 12th, 2011, 01:11 AM

Ehhhh. Vastly prefer Intel to AMD, and the i3's enough of a leap up from my 2.16 Core 2 Duo as it is.

Warsaw

January 12th, 2011, 02:16 AM

Why the fuck are you even considering buying an LGA 1156 CPU? That socket is now officially dead, because socket 1155 came out just several days ago. Horrible investment. Like I've been saying all along, the only Intel socket worth dumping money into is 1366. It still out-performs the new Sandy Bridge chips. Intel, innovation? Ha!

Now, unlike Intel sockets, AMD plans to keep AM3 around for a long time. Three years from now, you'll be able to install the newest AMD CPU with not more than a BIOS flash to your motherboard. You won't have to buy an entirely new system to get another CPU.

Amit

January 16th, 2011, 10:31 AM

Warsaw

January 16th, 2011, 02:48 PM

Amit

January 16th, 2011, 06:23 PM

ThePlague

January 16th, 2011, 08:12 PM

I'm now the proud owner of 300 US dollars (worked this weekend, finally), and feel the need to make my desktop a current gaming computer. I am thinking about buying a new motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157176), CPU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103916), and some new gaming RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211409). That would make my computer way better, except for my graphics card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102843&cm_re=hd_4650-_-14-102-843-_-Product). With the parts i'm thinking of buying, it'll leave me with 62.19. That isn't enough to get a decent graphics card. What also troubles me is that I think it is dying, because this is the second new monitor i've gotten (HP S2031, first was an Acer) that is showing dead pixels on things such as games.

So the questions arise; should I buy a new graphics card, and have all of my other parts bog it down? Or should I buy the parts and have my graphics card bog them down?

Cagerrin

January 16th, 2011, 09:07 PM

You missed the point. I'm not talking about performance. I'm talking about longevity. Socket 1156 has always been an evolutionary dead end and doesn't provide any of the benefits that 1366 does apart from supporting Hyperthreading in its CPUs. Socket 1366, however, is going to be gone in a few months as Socket 2011 takes its place.

My point is that he won't be able to upgrade later for a reasonably (well, as reasonable as Intel gets) unless he uses Socket 1155, 2011, maybe 1366, or AM3. I don't know about you, but when I build a PC I make sure that I can upgrade it in the future for as little as possible.
I don't see the need to upgrade past an i5 or whatever for a long time honestly, and by that point it's not likely that Socket 1155 or 2011 will still be a viable choice. As far as Intel vs. AMD, what I've been told every time I talk to people about this is that AMD is only viable if I'm just going to do gaming, which I'm not.

It's going to take me another three months at least to get the parts anyway, only making $100 or so a month off this shitty paper route.

Warsaw

January 17th, 2011, 12:14 AM

Do you really expect the 1156 i5s and i7 to be outperformed by over 35% in the next 4 years? He'll be fine with the 1156.

You might be surprised. In one year? No. In Two years? No. In three years? Maybe. Four years? Probably.

Also, remember that gaming is one of the most intensive applications, too. Unless you intend to fold, decode/encode tons of ripped video, or otherwise do some serious simulation, you aren't going to see the benefits. Your feeble human reflexes can't tell the difference between one nanosecond and three. As far as using 3D modeling applications and 2D graphics software, that's GPU-accelerated anyways.

It doesn't matter if you don't intend to upgrade for a good long while. If you don't have to drop the extra $150 on a motherboard later, why do so?

Cagerrin

January 17th, 2011, 03:36 AM

You might be surprised. In one year? No. In Two years? No. In three years? Maybe. Four years? Probably.

Also, remember that gaming is one of the most intensive applications, too. Unless you intend to fold, decode/encode tons of ripped video, or otherwise do some serious simulation, you aren't going to see the benefits. Your feeble human reflexes can't tell the difference between one nanosecond and three. As far as using 3D modeling applications and 2D graphics software, that's GPU-accelerated anyways.

It doesn't matter if you don't intend to upgrade for a good long while. If you don't have to drop the extra $150 on a motherboard later, why do so?
Except it's likely that I will have to, since I doubt I'll be upgrading until at least two steps after 1155/2011

Warsaw

January 17th, 2011, 04:15 AM

Well, you asked for opinions, and you got mine. I wouldn't want to blow my cash on a socket that was obsolete before it was even released. 1156 is and has always been the wrong way to go for anyone serious about his computer's longevity.

=sw=warlord

January 17th, 2011, 10:15 AM

So the questions arise; should I buy a new graphics card, and have all of my other parts bog it down? Or should I buy the parts and have my graphics card bog them down?
Get the parts and upgrade the video card at a later point.
They might be bogged down but replacing a video card is alot cheaper than buying new parts you'll want to upgrade at a later date anyway.

ThePlague

January 17th, 2011, 11:58 AM

Mr Buckshot

January 22nd, 2011, 01:34 AM

Alright, thanks.

e: What's people's opinions on gaming mice? The one I currently have is making my hand cramp lately, so I just bought this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826102064), along with those PC parts I previously linked to. What really got me into buying that was the precision aim and the adjustable back.

To be honest you don't actually need all those high DPI and ergonomics and so on to be good in an FPS - I know a guy who uses a cheap 3 button Microsoft mouse and gets a 2:1 k/d ratio in COD4.

Nevertheless, I love the way these mice just fit my palm perfectly and are quite comfortable to hold for hours at a time. I find the on-the-fly adjustable precision and all that to be a bit of a gimmick, have yet to see it really affect my actual skill in game, but you can't beat the ergonomics of these. I use a Steelseries Ikari Laser, bought it at almost $30 off, pretty happy with it apart from its lack of side-to-side scrolling. It's actually quite difficult to feel comfortable with normal mice again once you've used a Steelseries Ikari Laser.

Oh, and there's the showing-off aspect, as is the case with the rest of the PC assuming it's a custom build. Yes, that $60+ Logitech or Steelseries or Saitek is ultimately doing the same damn thing as a $5 surplus store mouse, but hey, if bragging about your CPU and video card isn't enough, there's the mouse!

Warsaw

January 22nd, 2011, 02:16 AM

I use a Razer Plasma Diamondback, but Razer doesn't make mice like they used to. They've gone from dense, high-quality plastics to light, chintzy shit that breaks in three months unless you are willing to drop more than $80. That said, I do like the Mamba and current iteration of Lachesis. Both felt good in my hand, and had decent weight. The Lachesis has customizable lighting. :D As for the R.A.T., I've never really fancied it. Too many greeblies. The Logitech G5x is pretty good.

Bodzilla

January 22nd, 2011, 03:20 AM

You missed the point. I'm not talking about performance. I'm talking about longevity. Socket 1156 has always been an evolutionary dead end and doesn't provide any of the benefits that 1366 does apart from supporting Hyperthreading in its CPUs. Socket 1366, however, is going to be gone in a few months as Socket 2011 takes its place.

My point is that he won't be able to upgrade later for a reasonably (well, as reasonable as Intel gets) unless he uses Socket 1155, 2011, maybe 1366, or AM3. I don't know about you, but when I build a PC I make sure that I can upgrade it in the future for as little as possible.
With my experience of upgrading and i and alot of people i know have done it for a long, long time. Is that most upgrades are done in chunks.

For instance i bouht my q6600 so it would last me for a long long time and i'd be able to upgrade ect when i needed to, however when it came down to it, the chipsets had changed and it was useless, by buying mid range or high end shit most people are expecting 2-3 years outta their PC these days, which isn't as big an ask as it used to be. i know i got a hell of alot of miles outta my old 8800GTX. so much that even when i upgraded the main shit (CPU, Ram Mo board) in a single upgrade i kept the 8800 for another year afterwards before moving on.

Things like GPU's and HD's get upgraded sporadically, But as for Motherboard, CPU and ram Dont, they tend to be tied together pretty much.

Warsaw

January 23rd, 2011, 02:41 AM

Again, unlike 1156, LGA 775 was a very long-lived platform. With the 1156, you can't upgrade in chunks because by the time you've finished going around, it's not supported anymore. 1366 has had a somewhat longer life, but it's going out the door in a few months, too. I'm just saying if you are going to be building a new rig, then make the base components (CPU and motherboard) be the ones you can keep around for awhile.

Bodzilla

January 23rd, 2011, 04:46 AM

By chunks i mean, CPU, motherboard and Ram is all done at the same time.

90% of all upgrades to these parts i've seen are done like that.

Case in point, the plague who posted just a little while ago is doing that exact upgrade

ThePlague

January 23rd, 2011, 12:49 PM

And it worked for me, except I bought a regular motherboard(not micro ATX) and had to buy a new case (Antec 300). In the end it was a good decision anyway. Now all I need to do is save up for a new graphics card.

RedBaron

January 23rd, 2011, 01:18 PM

In case any of you are interested in notebook RAM, there is a ridiculous deal (http://www.jr.com/crucial/pe/CRT_51264BC1339/) going on for 4GB sticks, DDR3 1333 mhz, 204 pin SODIMM. I made sure I picked up two for myself before posting this, they're almost never instock.

Donut

January 23rd, 2011, 02:16 PM

if iv got an old hp laptop from 2007, would that ram work in it? if so i think i might buy some
E: better question: if there are two sticks of 1GB DDR2 ram in this, and i remove one of them for one of those 4GB DDR3 ones, will that work?

RedBaron

January 23rd, 2011, 02:39 PM

I don't think your motherboard would support DDR3 at all, especially the higher clocks associated with it. And it definitely would not work using a stick of DDR3 in combination with a stick of DDR2. Not sure about laptops, but DDR3 for desktops physically do not fit into DDR2 sockets.

Warsaw

January 23rd, 2011, 03:39 PM

Amit

February 1st, 2011, 06:30 AM

There are flaws with the Sandy Bridge series of CPUs from Intel. Well, that's what happens when you don't double check the move of the chipset from the motherboard to the cpu. Good thing ThePlague didn't jump the gun and grab a 1155 series board.

=sw=warlord

February 1st, 2011, 03:57 PM

I've recently made the jump from Intel to AMD after having my E6750 serve me well for several years and currently looking for a motherboard which will suit the AMD Phenom X4 9950 BE that I have in the post/mail.
I can't really spend a awful lot of money on computer parts due to current circumstances and currently looking at a Asrock board. (http://www.dabs.com/products/asrock-n68c-s-ucc-am2--amd-geforce-7025-ddr3-matx-748H.html)
Due to previous experiences with a certain brand [Asus] my motherboard choices are pretty limited and my current limit is around the £50 mark, I don't need a very flashy board all I need is a board which:
A: Isn't Asus
B: Supports the phenom X4 9950
C: is under £60
D: supports atleast one PCI-E x16 slot and has room for one PCI slot.
E: supports either DDR2 or DDR3 [prefer DDR2 due to having several memory sticks for that already.]

If anyone knows of any reliable UK hardware sites which have a good list that I could go through that would be appreciated, I've already gone through:
PCworld
Maplin
Dabs
Novatech

Warsaw

February 1st, 2011, 04:29 PM

Timo

February 1st, 2011, 04:34 PM

I've got an ASRock AM3/DDR2 motherboard, works great.

Warsaw

February 1st, 2011, 04:38 PM

Actually, as of the latest sales figure reports, ASRock is now the No. 3 manufacturer of motherboards with 8 million sales. It has pushed MSI down to fourth place. Gigabyte is second with 18 million, and ASUS is in the lead with ~21 million. Can't see the attraction, though. ASUS is kinda pricey for not much more in features.

=sw=warlord

February 1st, 2011, 04:44 PM

Wait, you bought a Gen I Phenom processor? Why? You do know that they had a TLB error and that the fix reduced their performance by as much as 15%, right?

Any motherboard with an AM2 or AM2+ socket will support that processor, though. Should be easy enough to find, it isn't as ancient as Socket 939. As for that ASRock board, I can't fault it. I have an ASRock, and it's been nothing but awesome so far.
I got the chip for a price I couldn't really argue with which was around £50 including P&P.
I've looked it up and saw about the TLB error and the fix but considering the set up I currently have is on it's last legs I figured I would update the chipset instead of spending another 5 hours scouring the local town looking for a shop that still stocks LGA775 boards.
The first Asrock I had was pretty awesome and was in fact the first motherboard I ever had, even supported the then new 939 chip type.

As long as I know this board lives up to my nostalgia of Asrock and won't follow suit of my previous Asus boards then I'm perfectly happy to go with it, I just wanted to ask here before I put the money where my mouth is.
Reason I avoid Asus is that I've had 3 completely different model motherboards from them and all three have died of a north bridge chipset failure within 6 months of each other.
To make matters worse the first motherboard was sent off via RMA and subsequently lost in Prague untill 7 months later I was given a different board by them which died from the exact same problem as the first.

Warsaw

February 1st, 2011, 04:50 PM

Fair is fair, can't argue with a $50 quad core CPU ($50 because electronics are usually converted 1:1 before taxes). I'm just not sure a 9950 BE will outperform a Core 2 Duo.

=sw=warlord

February 1st, 2011, 05:02 PM

Fair is fair, can't argue with a $50 quad core CPU ($50 because electronics are usually converted 1:1 before taxes). I'm just not sure a 9950 BE will outperform a Core 2 Duo.
I'm not entirely sure myself but if it at least matches the performance of my current Core 2 Duo then it's good enough for me, the clock speeds are the same and I would guess having the extra cores should allow some leeway.
I don't exactly plan on overclocking so that won't be a issue either.

The motherboard I currently have is a old Biostar G41-M7 (http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/content.php?S_ID=421) and that was the only motherboard in town that supported the LGA775 chipset.

Warsaw

February 1st, 2011, 05:08 PM

Eh, clock for clock C2Ds and C2Qs were more efficient than Phenom Is. You might have to overclock to get the performance on par. Multithreading should be better, though.

Sasc

March 1st, 2011, 10:48 PM

Right then chaps, I'm looking to build my first computer. I've done a bit of researching and here are the items that I'm looking to buy:

ASUS P7P55 LX motherboard ATX iP55 (http://www.crescentelectronics.co.uk/asus-p7p55-lx-motherboard-atx-ip55-1.html)

Intel i5-760 Core i5 Quad Core Processor (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-i5-760-Processor-2-80GHz-Warranty/dp/B003V1O01A/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1299037311&sr=8-3)

Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 2 x 2GB DDR3 SDRAM (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMX4GX3M2A1600C9-DDR3-SDRAM-Memory/dp/B002LE8D2A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299037511&sr=8-1)

Sapphire ATi Radeon HD6870 (http://www.advancetec.co.uk/acatalog/Sapphire_HD6870_1GB_GDDR5_PCI_e_Graphics_Card.html )

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-Cooling-Freezer-Rev-2-Cooler/dp/B002G392ZI/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1299039392&sr=1-1)

What are you guysus opinions of these items? Are all of these items compatible with each other? I'm fairly certain that the motherboard and processor are, but I can't tell if the RAM is. Motherboard and RAM are DDR3, but I don't know if the motherboard is fast enough for the RAM. Once I build my new comp I'm not looking to upgrade for a few years, so I'm not too concerned about upgrading.

Cortexian

March 1st, 2011, 10:59 PM

Everything there is compatible, though the Arctic Cooling heat-sink-fans (HSF) are only generally better than the stock ones in most cases. Look at a Zalman or a Thermalright / Thermaltake if you can spend some extra money on the HSF. I can personally vouch for Thermalright Ultra-120 being awesome.

Warsaw

March 2nd, 2011, 02:17 AM

If you aren't looking to upgrade for a few years then you should probably wait a couple more weeks and get a Sandy Bridge CPU...that's socket 1155. That socket, 1156, is dead. That said, everything you have there is compatible.

king_nothing_

March 4th, 2011, 06:17 PM

I wish Asus would put out the revised 1155s boards already. I think I'm gonna put together a 2600k build. :)

StankBacon

March 4th, 2011, 06:52 PM

gimme your old comp when you get a new one :)

king_nothing_

March 4th, 2011, 10:12 PM

I'll sell it to you. :realsmug:

Dwood

March 11th, 2011, 03:21 AM

I'll sell it to you. :realsmug:

$100.

Cortexian

March 21st, 2011, 02:17 AM

So for my next build I've wanted to do a dual-loop water-cooling setup and I'm thinking this is the case for me:
http://freelancer.modacity.net/pics/mountain_mods_case.gif

Warsaw

March 21st, 2011, 03:14 AM

On your own here, I don't know anything about water cooling setups. That said, it's a box. Not even a slick-looking box. It's a box with stamped cutouts. Unless it's made out of titanium or maybe even stainless steel, I can't honestly see how you justify dropping $335 on it.

Cortexian

March 21st, 2011, 05:15 AM

It's a purely functional water-cooling case design with plenty of room for custom reservoirs and a good sized pump. The two 3x120mm mounting holes would be perfect for two 360 (triple) radiators so I can cool the water before it hits the CPU in addition to before it hits the GPU(s). For example:

Pump
Reservoir
360 Radiator
CPU
Chipset (optional, might not do this since it costs quite a lot more)
360 Radiator
GPU(s)
Pump

I'd probably get some neon green lighting going on and call it "My Little Borg Cube". You're completely right though, it's crazy expensive, but that's because these are made to order in the U.S. out of fairly thick Aluminum.

It's really a toss up between the Mountain Mods and getting a Corsair Obsidian 800D, because they're just damn sexy and very water-cooling friendly...
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/5629/800dthreequarterview.png
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/7656/800dnewdoorwcovers.png
http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/5430/800dsidedetails.png
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/1456/800dinside.png

Obviously a lot less space to work with, only room for one 360 radiator in the top but you can get a 480 quadruple radiator in the top with some modification to the case top and sacrifice of one or two 5.25" bays. That said, I really like those cylinder style reservoirs and have always wanted to build a rig that included one of these (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10277/ex-res-164/FrozenQ_PC_Mods_250mm_Liquid_Fusion_V_Series_2nd_G eneration_Reservoir_-_UV_Cathode_-_UV_Blue_Helix.html?tl=g30c97s1110). And I could always stick a 120 radiator in the PSU compartment at the bottom under the existing 120mm fan in the 'shelf'.

hobojoe

March 21st, 2011, 12:14 PM

I'd go Corsair, Really regret not getting it when I had the chance.

Sasc

March 21st, 2011, 12:19 PM

So is that setup designed mainly for overclocking? Or is it just for more powerful components?

Warsaw

March 21st, 2011, 04:00 PM

Get the Corsair. With the other one, you are overpaying and getting literally nothing in return for it; you'd be better off building your own with some sheet metal stock.

Rook

March 21st, 2011, 04:13 PM

Hey all looking for a performance drive in the ~$150 range. Had the WD 300GB Raptor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136322) in mind for decent storage space and good loading times. The main question is that would spending $150 on a 60GB-80GB SSD instead for the performance gain (if there is some?) be worth losing out on more than double the space.

annihilation

March 21st, 2011, 05:44 PM

I would get the Raptor. I don't think the decreased load times would be significant enough to loose out on half the storage space. Even more so if you have a lot of games or large programs installed.

Warsaw

March 23rd, 2011, 12:49 AM

The load times are night and day when you have an SSD, actually. Everything is so much snappier. That said, if you don't want to jump on the SSD bandwagon just yet, look at Seagate's hybrid drives.

Rook

March 23rd, 2011, 01:59 PM

The load times are night and day when you have an SSD, actually. Everything is so much snappier. That said, if you don't want to jump on the SSD bandwagon just yet, look at Seagate's hybrid drives.
Those appear to have only 4GB of SSD space, should have stated when I meant loading times it's for the OS + games I play frequently. L4D2 alone is 16.4GB for me.

Cortexian

March 23rd, 2011, 02:27 PM

You don't choose what gets put in the SSD part of the hybrid drive. It automatically puts the most accessed files in there (OS components and such) if I'm not mistaken. Not to mention you don't actually load the entire installed file size of the program you're using, your computer just loads the components it needs from the drive when they're called on into RAM.

Mostly.

Rook

March 23rd, 2011, 04:17 PM

Cortexian

March 23rd, 2011, 04:34 PM

arbiter901

March 23rd, 2011, 07:16 PM

Going to build a mid range micro atx machine preferably AMD based. I already have everything in place except the Motherboard, CPU and ram. Any advice?

Futzy

March 23rd, 2011, 07:46 PM

Eh looked up some HD Tune benches comparing regular 7200RPM drives of today to the raptor and then some SSD. Raptor doesn't seem to be that much better than standard drives but SSD is much better. Didn't see any benches for the hybrid drives you have any videos or benches I don't know about showing it in action?
I have the Momentus XT Hybrid 500gb. I can open Firefox in under a minute.
The loading times for photoshop and other commonly used programs are immensely increased. It saves most used files to the SSD portion (startup files, commonly used programs) + the speed of a 7200 rpm drive for everything else.

Cortexian

March 23rd, 2011, 08:48 PM

I have the Momentus XT Hybrid 500gb. I can open Firefox in under a minute.
The loading times for photoshop and other commonly used programs are immensely increased. It saves most used files to the SSD portion (startup files, commonly used programs) + the speed of a 7200 rpm drive for everything else.
I would sure hope you can open firefox in under a minute, it opens in under 5 seconds on both my pc's lol... Also I think you meant greatly DEcreased load times haha.

Amit

March 24th, 2011, 07:31 AM

Yeah lol. Not a single thing in that post pointed towards increased performance hahaha.

Futzy

March 24th, 2011, 02:55 PM

Yeah lol. Not a single thing in that post pointed towards increased performance hahaha.
40 seconds from after pressing the power button. Compared to ~4 minutes after pressing the power button on my old 5400 rpm drive with no other changes. I tried a 7200 rpm drive while I was waiting for the hybrid to arrive and it was still over a minute to open firefox.

Cortexian

March 24th, 2011, 05:26 PM

Oh, you're talking about from start up - opening Firefox.

We all thought it was taking you minutes to launch Firefox from the desktop.

Futzy

March 24th, 2011, 07:32 PM

Oh, you're talking about from start up - opening Firefox.

We all thought it was taking you minutes to launch Firefox from the desktop.
I obviously wasn't. What kind of modern hardware would take that long to do anything, let alone an HDD/SDD drive.

e: 1337 posts you say? Looks like this will be my last post on this forum unless Bungie's next game is released on PC.

TeeKup

March 25th, 2011, 02:49 AM

All I have is a personal testimonial from some guy on Notebook Review that put one in his Alienware M15x with the same specs as mine. His boots 10 seconds faster give or take a few seconds. He also says it does load most commonly used programs a lot faster than the 7,200 rpm drives that the laptop ships with.

We're running different software configurations though, so it's not the best benchmark.

And this is the laptop version of the drive obviously, the desktop one probably performs even better.

Did he have to send it it 3 times for software errors and motherboard malfunctions? My friend Derek did with his M15X and they told him it was common problems with that model. I'm looking to build a PC soon myself or buy a high end laptop, so I'm a bit skeptical about alienware.

Cortexian

March 25th, 2011, 03:00 AM

Nope his was fine, so is mine. Best laptop I've seen on that hardware level, build quality is amazing.

I'm also looking for feedback on a build I have planned for this summer if everything goes well... My current rig is about 6 years old now and upgraded to its maximum potential, it's time to start a new 'core-system' for the next 6 years! Now I'm looking to future-proof this system as much as I possibly can, when I say future-proof I basically mean buying the best and most powerful components I can at the time and going from there.

The system will primarily be used for triple-monitor gaming at 5760x1200, video editing, photoshop, overclocking (of course!), occasional folding if I get back into it, and general computer use (browsing the web, emails, etc).

Here's what I have slotted so far:
http://secure.newegg.ca/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=13247985

And for those of you that are lazy:
Intel Core i7-990X 3.46GHz LGA 1366 Six-Core Desktop Processor
EVGA X58 4-WAY SLI Classified XL ATX Motherboard
G.SKILL PI+ Turbulence 12GB (6 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 Memory
2 x EVGA GTX 590 CLASSIFIED 3GB GPU's
Intel X25-M SSD
CORSAIR AX1200 1200W PSU
Corsair Obsidian 800D Case

I plan to do a custom water-cooling loop in the future, but will most likely start the build air-cooled to keep the initial starting cost a bit lower. That said, should I go with the Megahalems or a Corsair H70?

Bodzilla

March 28th, 2011, 08:42 PM

1 of my Bro's 24 inch 16:10 screens just died.

is there ANY 16:10 screens left on the market, or are they all "designer graphics screens" shit now, with ells and whistles attached..

InnerGoat

March 28th, 2011, 09:43 PM

Figure out what died! If it made a pop or hiss you may have lost a capacitor or two and its an easy fix~ Or give it to me :)

Freelancer get the cube case, everyone is building with that corsair thing already. Also enjoy your dead video cards. Hopefully nVidia does something about 590 before you buy them. :v:

hobojoe

March 28th, 2011, 10:08 PM

OMG 2 X GTX 590's??? Are you Bill Gates??

Warsaw

March 28th, 2011, 10:27 PM

Freelancer, you best be using triple 2560x1600 monitors if you have two.

I would say that 6990s are better, but you do compute tasks and the 590 is much, much quieter, so I'll leave it.

Cortexian

March 28th, 2011, 10:59 PM

annihilation

March 29th, 2011, 12:50 AM

If you do want a dedicated Physx card I would get an older, less expensive card.
But, hey. It's up to you. Nice build btw.

Bodzilla

March 29th, 2011, 12:55 AM

Warsaw

March 29th, 2011, 01:31 AM

I'm sure there will be new GPU's out when I can afford this rig, there might even be a new Intel processor I'd be interested in at the time. Probably going to build sometime in August if I can afford it then. And yeah Warsaw, I need the Nvidia GPU's for Adobe stuff + Badaboom, CUDA, etc... PhysX is fun as well. Not to mention the last 5 rigs I've built for other people using AMD/ATI GPU's have had driver related problems.

And Warsaw, I'm sure one would cut it, but as a hardware enthusiast it would be awesome to have two. Having the ability to dedicate one of the two cards cores to PhysX while gaming would be awesome.

Fingers crossed for Intel to release the Socket LGA2011 by then. What will you do if 2011 is not out yet but is right around the corner?

As for better cards: not likely. Maybe the Radeon HD7000 series (wow, full circle for me...have an old Radeon 7000) will be out in September or October, but the dual version would still be four months off at least. Nvidia will be behind that.

Cortexian

March 29th, 2011, 02:28 AM

Well I was thinking of waiting for Ivy Bridge honestly, if I do that I'd be able to save up and get all the stuff I'd need for the dual-loop water-cooling setup as well most likely... I'm actually debating if I should do a custom loop this build, changing out the water every few months sounds like a lot of effort that I wouldn't want to do.

Warsaw

March 29th, 2011, 01:51 PM

If I were in your shoes, I would hold off for Ivy Bridge unless I was to build it right now. I hate buying something and then having it made obsolete one month later. Buy the best when it gets released, then coast while the mainstream catches up.

As for changing the water: why? If it's a closed loop, what is the need? You should run some alcohol/antibacterial fluid through the loop first to sterilize it and then use distilled water. Actually, I think there are additives you can mix into the water to prevent growth of bacteria.

Cortexian

March 29th, 2011, 04:16 PM

Oh yeah, for an H70 or other closed loop system there's no maintenance required. I'm talking about when I go with a completely custom loop like below, this would require maintenance every 6 months to 1 year. Just draining the loop and cleaning components, then adding some more distilled water and PT Nuke or other additives.

This is the plan I've come up with for cooling the 800D:
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6654/singleloopobsidian.jpg

Alternatively a dual-radiator configuration:
http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/6416/dualloopobsidian.jpg

I know most of you here haven't water-cooler before but if you have any suggestions on a res/pump that would maintain decent flow rate through those rads I'd love to hear about it. I'm thinking of the XSPC X20 750 (http://www.xs-pc.com/products/pumps/x2o-750-dual-5-25%E2%80%9D-bay-reservoir-pump/) or the Koolance RP-452X2 (http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=2025) which are 12.5L/min and 17.4L/min respectively. The neat thing about the RP-452X2 is that you can install two 17.4L/min pumps in series or even run a parallel loop since the res can function as two separate res's by itself... I like the clean look of the XSPC res a lot more though.

EDIT - So to clarify, the current list of water cooling components I'm looking at is as follows:

Radiator(s):
• XSPC RX480 (http://www.xs-pc.com/products/radiators/rx-series/rx480-quad-fan-radiator/) or RX360 (http://www.xs-pc.com/products/radiators/rx-series/rx360-triple-fan-radiator/) Radiators (depending on the space I have to work with/how hard modding would be to do cleanly).
• XSPC RX120 (http://www.xs-pc.com/products/radiators/rx-series/rx120-single-fan-radiator/) or RS120 (http://www.xs-pc.com/products/radiators/rs-series/rs120-single-fan-radiator/) Radiators (for the dual radiator setup, RX120 if I have the space, RS120 if not).

Pump/Reservoir:
• XSPC X20 750 (http://www.xs-pc.com/products/pumps/x2o-750-dual-5-25%E2%80%9D-bay-reservoir-pump/) (prefer the clean look to this res).
or
• Koolance RP-452X2 (http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=2025) w/Koolance PMP-450S Pump (http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=858) (seems to be the better choice for performance, can use two pumps in series for awesome flow rate if needed).

ThePlague

April 1st, 2011, 08:36 PM

I'm thinking about purchasing a joystick. I found this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826102059&cm_re=saitek-_-26-102-059-_-Product) one to be pretty interesting, and it's made by the same company that made my RAT 5. I'm not looking for anything expensive, because i'm also going to buy a keyboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109191) and 1tb HDD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136534). I just want something that'll last, and fly helicopters in BC2 and such with.

Cortexian

April 1st, 2011, 11:26 PM

Yeah Saitek makes pretty good joysticks, the one I have does the job.

Amit

April 2nd, 2011, 08:30 AM

I believe there was a fix for the ST90 on the EA forums. I guess that might help with your joystick if the throttle isn't picked up by default. I think the Cyborg V.1 should work properly though. My Cyborg 3D Gold USB's throttle won't be picked up at all. While I can do everything with the stick, I need to keep my hand on the keyboard for the throttle :ugh: My thinkpad had a trackpoint in the middle of the keyboard though and that works great as a joystick without yaw, but that's not a problem since the WASD keys are close to it. It feels better than using a mouse, but works better than using my joystick.

Warsaw

April 2nd, 2011, 02:39 PM

I bought the Saitek AV8R joystick for its styling, but it also has turned out to be a solid device. It works 100% in Bad Company 2. I would recommend the brand.

Amit

April 2nd, 2011, 05:33 PM

I got my Cyborg 3D Gold USB about a decade ago and it's worked great so far. I don't think I'll need to replace it in the next ten years either. I've had my Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital 3D even longer. I upgraded to the Cyborg 3D because it has a better throttle, more buttons, and a 3D spring. I want to buy the Cyborg X (otherwise known as the FLY 5) at $50 US, but I don't have any real reason to. My current joysticks work great (except with BC2). Damn you, Saitek, for making long lasting, quality products!

Cortexian

April 2nd, 2011, 06:18 PM

Updated plan:
http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/9210/dualwaterlooprevision.jpg

Would allow me to stick a 240 or 360 radiator on the rear of the case using radiator standoffs if I wanted to. Will most likely use a 240 radiator back there if I decide the 480 radiator isn't enough to cool CPU + GPU + GPU or I decide to add a motherboard water block as well.

Something like this (http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=693) will go on the top of the case so the fans sitting above the top of the case aren't completely exposed most likely. However I'll need to use a radiator grill on the top of the 800D to allow for a 480 quad radiator, will use this one (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_362_973&products_id=26043). If it causes the Koolance shroud to sit to high off the case and it's not flush then I'll sell the shroud probably and just let the fans sit 'naked' on the top of the case.

Cortexian

April 2nd, 2011, 11:24 PM

And then there's my cheap rig with $2,000~ worth of storage space in it:

Case:
Antec Nine Hundred II ----------------- $109.99
ThermalTake iCage --------------------- $29.99

1156:
Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz ------------- $99.99
Asus P7H55-M PRO ---------------------- $99.99
Kingston HyperX Genesis 4GB (2x2GB) --- $54.99
--------------------------------------- $254.97

1155:
Intel Core i3 2100 3.10GHz ------------ $119.99
Asus P8H67-M LX Rev 3.0 --------------- $96.99
Patriot PC3-10666 4GB (2x2GB) --------- $49.99
--------------------------------------- $239.97

RAID Card:
Areca 1220 ---------------------------- $525.61

Hard Drives:
Western Digital 500GB Caviar Black ---- $56.99
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black ------ $179.99
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black ------ $179.99
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black ------ $179.99
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black ------ $179.99
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black ------ $179.99
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black ------ $179.99
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black ------ $179.99
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black ------ $179.99
--------------------------------------- $1,496.91

Optical Drive:
LG Super-Multi 22x -------------------- $22.99

Power Supply:
Corsair AX 750W ----------------------- $179.99

Totals:
1156 Total ---------------------------- $2,620.45
GST ----------------------------------- $131.02
Total --------------------------------- $2,751.47

1155 Total ---------------------------- $2,605.45
GST ----------------------------------- $130.27
Total --------------------------------- $2,735.72

Cortexian

April 3rd, 2011, 04:33 AM

And I'll drop this in here for the sake of adding more knowledge and experience to this thread:

So I've been running a RAID-0 that most of you know of for my OS/Programs drive. In addition to that I used to be running two separate RAID-1 (mirror) arrays using a total of four WD Caviar Black 1TB drives. That gave me a total storage space of 2TB because that's how two arrays with two HDD's in each array mirroring each other works.

I recently filled that 2TB of space and needed more, so instead of running out and spending money on more HDD's I just distributed the 2TB to other computers I have access to and combined the two RAID-1's into a single RAID-5. This gives me 3TB of storage and I still have data protection if one of the drives fails for some reason.

Read statistics:
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/5526/3tbraid5readbenchmark.jpg

I can't get write statistics because HD Tune only allows you to do a write benchmark when there are no partitions setup on the drive in question. I was eager to get my data back onto this new RAID-5 so I never performed the write test. However I can tell you this, a software RAID-5 is not the way to go. I only get about 13MB/s sustained write speeds for large file transfers, it bursts at around 110MB/s to start with but decreases to 13MB/s within 30 seconds.

In the future I won't both running RAID-5 or RAID-6 on a software RAID solution. There's a reason actual hardware RAID cards cost upwards of $200 when the support RAID-5 and RAID-6, they have their own processor to handle all the data striping and parity calculations. As a matter of fact I'm looking into setting up a 12TB RAID-6 using eight 2TB WD Caviar Black drives in the future here. I'm going to build a cheap system and then put in a quality hardware RAID card for the eight drives.

Amit

April 3rd, 2011, 12:01 PM

Might as well just invest in dedicated server, then.

Warsaw

April 3rd, 2011, 01:38 PM

I have three quad-CPU Pentium III servers for this kind of shit...

Cortexian

April 3rd, 2011, 04:22 PM

Haha yeah... When I originally built this rig though I planned for everything to be internal. This was because I wanted to be able to take everything with me to LAN parties and such. However I failed to realize that HD video really adds up in the storage department.

I just realized that I may be able to save some money by getting a PCI RAID card for the 12TB RAID-6 I mentioned in my second last post. Then I can use my Pentium 4 system that I have lying around instead of spending an extra $750 on a new system just for that.

Cortexian

April 5th, 2011, 04:14 AM

Wait no, the above is silly. I'm going to wait to buy the good RAID card and 8 2TB hard drives until after I build my water cooled system early next year with Ivy Bridge! Then I can convert my current system into the file server as well as a practically-everything-else-home-server-related server! Genius! Can also sell off one of my GTX 285's if it's just going to be a home server, will help cover some of these costs:

Water cooling components I'm thinking of grabbing from Frozen CPU when the time comes:

3 x 2.5 Meter (8 feet) Feser Tube Active UV Hose - Retail Packed - 1/2" ID (3/4"OD) Anti-Kink Tubing - UV Acid Green (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8676/ex-tub-466/25_Meter_8_feet_Feser_Tube_Active_UV_Hose_-_Retail_Packed_-_12_ID_34OD_Anti-Kink_Tubing_-_UV_Acid_Green.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17952)
Black Ice GTX Xtreme 480 Radiator - Black (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5327/ex-rad-110/Black_Ice_GTX_Xtreme_480_Radiator_-_Black.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17950)

2 x 1/2 x 3/4 Compression Fittings-Black (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10037/ex-tub-606/Bitspower_Ultimate_G_14_Thread_12_ID_x_34_OD_Compr ession_Fitting_-_Matte_Black_BP-MBCPF-CC5.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17133)

Black Ice GTX Xtreme 240 Radiator - Black (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5325/ex-rad-108/Black_Ice_GTX_Xtreme_240_Radiator_-_Black.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17951)

2 x 1/2 x 3/4 Compression Fittings-Black (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10037/ex-tub-606/Bitspower_Ultimate_G_14_Thread_12_ID_x_34_OD_Compr ession_Fitting_-_Matte_Black_BP-MBCPF-CC5.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17133)

Swiftech MCB-120 Revision 2 "Radbox" (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/2156/ex-rad-35/Swiftech_MCB-120_Revision_2_Radbox_RadiatorFan_Housing_-_Black.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=22481)
12 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm x 25mm Fan - 1850 RPM (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10323/fan-674/Scythe_Gentle_Typhoon_120mm_x_25mm_Fan_-_1850_RPM_D1225C12B5AP-15.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17957)
EK Supreme HF Universal CPU Liquid Cooling Block - Rev 2 - Acetal (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8525/ex-blc-569/EK_Supreme_HF_Universal_CPU_Liquid_Cooling_Block_-_Rev_2_-_Acetal_Sockets_775_1156_1366_939_940_754_AM2_AM2_ AM3.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17953)

2 x 1/2 x 3/4 Compression Fittings-Black (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10037/ex-tub-606/Bitspower_Ultimate_G_14_Thread_12_ID_x_34_OD_Compr ession_Fitting_-_Matte_Black_BP-MBCPF-CC5.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17133)

2 x EK GeForce 590 GTX VGA Liquid Cooling Block - Nickel (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12733/ex-blc-884/EK_GeForce_590_GTX_VGA_Liquid_Cooling_Block_-_Nickel_EK-FC590_GTX_-_Nickel.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17956)
EK FC Bridge Dual Parallel - SLI Connection (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10969/ex-blc-756/EK_FC_Bridge_Dual_Parallel_-_SLI_Connection_EK-FC_Bridge_DUAL_Parallel.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17954)

2 x EK FC Link GeForce (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10966/ex-blc-753/EK_FC_Link_GeForce_-_SLI_Connection_EK-FC_Link_GeForce.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17523)
2 x 1/2 x 3/4 Compression Fittings-Black (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10037/ex-tub-606/Bitspower_Ultimate_G_14_Thread_12_ID_x_34_OD_Compr ession_Fitting_-_Matte_Black_BP-MBCPF-CC5.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17133)

Koolance 4-Fan Radiator Shroud - Black (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7621/ex-rad-134/Koolance_4-Fan_Radiator_Shroud_-_Black_SHR-1320BK.html?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=17955)
Swiftech MCP355 12 VDC Pump (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5125/ex-pmp-47/Swiftech_MCP355_12v_Water_Pump_Native_38_120_GPH.h tml?id=fy6Ax6ba&mv_pc=19618)

Total: $1,158.56
(I'm probably missing a few things like extra fittings/barbs but I'll figure all that out closer to the build)

And then I guess I'll order the XSPC Dual 5.25" Bay Reservoir for Single Laing DDC (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_318_665&products_id=3542) from performance-pcs.com since they don't seem to have them at Frozen CPU (only the dual/split res version).

Obviously if the CPU/GPU plan changes when I'm ready to build the blocks will change as well. But the rest of the water cooling components will likely stay the same.

Pooky

April 5th, 2011, 06:24 AM

Cortexian

April 5th, 2011, 06:27 AM

As long as your motherboard supports it and it's better than what you have I don't see any issues with that CPU.

Pooky

April 5th, 2011, 06:32 AM

It's the same socket AM2+ as the other one, so it should work, right? Also, is there anything I'd need to do when installing it other than plug it in? Like, any software?

Cortexian

April 5th, 2011, 06:34 AM

The CPU you linked to is socket AM3.

Warsaw

April 5th, 2011, 01:15 PM

Socket AM3 CPUs can work in an AM2+ socket (with slower HT speeds), but the reverse is not true. AM3 has one less pin. Just check your motherboard to make sure it supports AM3 CPUs.

Cortexian

April 5th, 2011, 06:52 PM

I did not know that, good to know.

/Doesn't use AMD.

Warsaw

April 5th, 2011, 10:14 PM

I know they are not the most powerful, but they are always a better long-term investment than Intel. Their platforms stick around longer and are less costly than Intel, and you get as much performance as you could need barring special requirements.

Cortexian

April 5th, 2011, 10:28 PM

Just because Intel releases new chipsets more often doesn't make the older ones any less viable than their AMD counterparts though. My Socket 775 is two chipsets and 6 years old and still running strong and powerful.

Warsaw

April 5th, 2011, 11:40 PM

I know. But I like to know I have the best that my chosen platform has to offer and that I can always update it as needed. When Intel changes sockets every other year, they throw a wrench in that plan because now I have to get a new motherboard, too. I can't just slap in a new CPU and be done.

Cortexian

April 5th, 2011, 11:51 PM

That's why you do what I do and build a system with the best of the best every 6-7 years. Doesn't matter if the sockets change because you've already got a setup that will last that long at least.

Rook

April 6th, 2011, 05:17 AM

Dear Modacity:

I'm looking for a new dual core CPU to put in this PC in order to speed up gamecube emulation (I miss Metroid Prime since I sold my wii :saddowns:) but I only want to spend about 100 dollars. I found this one (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5719246&csid=ITD&body=REVIEWS#) here, and it seems like exactly what I want. Thoughts, advice?

I've got a 600 watt power supply with nothing overclocked, and I don't plan to do any overclocking. Is that enough? I'm kind of a newb at this stuff.

I own the 550 since 2009 and it's pretty much the same thing cept mine has 0.1GHz less of a clock. Runs L4D2, ME2, Dragon Age, number of things all on high on stock w/ good frames and if you want to get into it these chips can get ~3.8GGHz OC real easy with a decent cooler. Only thing it's really chugged on is BC2 at 1080p which is a CPU intensive game that supports quads.

Warsaw

April 6th, 2011, 04:54 PM

I do believe AMD has a $100 Athlon II X4 quad core part...

@Freelancer: I like to update more often than that. If I get a new GPU, chances are a new CPU will follow soon to limit bottlenecking. =þ

Cortexian

April 6th, 2011, 04:57 PM

@Freelancer: I like to update more often than that. If I get a new GPU, chances are a new CPU will follow soon to limit bottlenecking. =þ
Extreme Edition Core 2 Quads still don't bottleneck iirc, not very much if they do. :)

Warsaw

April 7th, 2011, 12:57 AM

They do. Even the newest i5s bottleneck. The only way to get out of it is to use an i7. I refuse to drop money on second-tier platforms (1156, 1155).

Anandtech does some very thorough testing.

EagerYoungSpaceCadet

April 24th, 2011, 03:53 PM

I've decided to upgrade my CPU, and I don't need anything flashy or expensive, so I found this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Phenom-Black-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B00275G0VE), what do you think? Should I change my mind? Does it have good stock cooling, overclockable etc.

How well would it run newer games?

Warsaw

April 24th, 2011, 09:33 PM

It can handle the newest games easily, even if it bottlenecks the most powerful GPU. You have a Socket AM3 motherboard, yes? It's also pretty good at overclocking with its unlocked multiplier. I've read that it can reach 3.5GHz on air, easy.

Cortexian

May 27th, 2011, 01:02 AM

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 w/ Dual DDR3 2133, CrossFireX/SLI ------------------------------------ $194.99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX32637%28ME%29.aspx

Processor:
Intel Core™ i5-2500K Processor, 3.30GHz w/ 6MB Cache ----------------------------------------- $229.99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX31557%28ME%29.aspx

Memory:
Patriot Viper Xtreme Series, Division Viper 2 Edition DDR3 8GB (2x4GB) ----------------------- $109.99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX32038%28ME%29.aspx

OS Hard Drives:
(RAID 0) 2 x Western Digital 500GB Caviar Black 7200rpm SATA III w/32MB Cache ---------------- $54.99 X 2 = $109.98
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX31503%28ME%29.aspx

Storage Hard Drives:
(RAID 1) 2 x Western Digital 1TB Caviar Blue 7200rpm SATA II w/32MB Cache -------------------- $69.99 x 2 = $139.98
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX28195%28ME%29.aspx

DVD Drive:
LG Super-Multi 22x DVD Writer, SATA w/ Lightscribe, Black ------------------------------------ $24.99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX25363%28ME%29.aspx

Graphics Card:
eVGA GeForce GTX 460 2GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI --------------------------------------------- $239.99 X 2 = $479.98
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX32633%28ME%29.aspx

Power Supply:
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850 V2 850 Watt -------------------------------------------------- $144.99
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX32589%28ME%29.aspx

Case:
?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ------------------------------------------- $???.??
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-???????????????.aspx

Sub-Total - $1,434.89
Total - $1,506.63
Savings - $120
Final - $1,386.63

Build for a friend, suggestions? All products must be from Memory Express. Probably not going to go with the RAID stuff, except maybe for the OS since SATA III RAID is oh-so-fun.

Bodzilla

May 27th, 2011, 04:04 AM

personally i'd go for an ATI card.

mines brilliant.

Cortexian

May 27th, 2011, 04:17 AM

Only things that beat 460's in SLI are 5850's/5870's in Crossfire (would cost more) or a 5970. The 5870's would cost more and the 5970 isn't available, the 5850's would be the same price but my friend and I both prefer Nvidia. I'm not sure if the 5850's are better than the 460 2GB models either, only the 768MB and 1GB models are shown on Toms Hardware.

3DMark06 v1.1.0:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2010-gaming-graphics-charts-high-quality/3DMark06-v1.1.0,2484.html

Sum of FPS Benchmarks Totals:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2010-gaming-graphics-charts-high-quality/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-Totals,2485.html

We are kinda already over his budget a little, but it's lenient. The goal was $1,300 for tower + monitor + keyboard. That's the main reason we will probably ditch some HDD's and probably down it to 4GB of Memory instead of 8GB. There's always the possibility that we might get some kind of deal on a monitor with purchase of a system at the same time.

Warsaw

May 27th, 2011, 05:11 AM

Forgetting the HD6000 series much? Unless he's gaming on 2560x1600 (which 460s won't be swell at anyways with certain titles), there is no need for 2GB VRAM. If you are going to spend a premium, spend it on a card that actually has more shader muscle.

Cortexian

May 27th, 2011, 05:29 AM

He'll be on a 22" monitor most likely unless I can convince him that an extra 2" for 24" is worth it.

Warsaw

May 27th, 2011, 05:47 AM

Then in that case you should definitels scrap the 2GB 460s. That's wasted VRAM.

Also, going from 22" to 24" is not worth it if he's already at 1080p or 1200p. It's barely worth it going from 1680x1050 to 1920x1080.

Bodzilla

May 27th, 2011, 05:51 AM

1920x1200 is gods true monitor size.

all who say nay shall die.

Cortexian

May 27th, 2011, 05:52 AM

Mk, I'll save some money and go with the 1GB versions. Unless you can recommend a better performing single or dual card solution for the current price or cheaper.

Amit

May 27th, 2011, 06:37 PM

1920x1200 is gods true monitor size.

all who say nay shall die.

I can't find any more monitors at that size for a good price. THEY STOPPED PRODUCTION for that res :gonk:

Cortexian

May 27th, 2011, 06:39 PM

Samsung still makes the 2443 model, $339 or so.

I think we're going to go with this:
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX24092%28ME%29.aspx

Or this:
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX33597%28ME%29.aspx

Amit

May 28th, 2011, 09:38 AM

True, but those are ugly monitors with gay bezels. I want a plain matte black, thin/regular size bezel with rotation capability such as your monitors. Like you said, though, that shipping company destroyed the two of the last remaining of that other type you ordered. That was truly a loss.

The 2443BW HAS (http://www.samsung.com/ca/consumer/office/monitors/lcd/LS24MYKRBQ/XAA/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail) (1920x1200) is still available which would suit me fine if each monitor didn't cost $340. With the price of LCDs these days, I wouldn't pay more than $280 for a monitor like that.

Cortexian

May 28th, 2011, 01:53 PM

The 2443's are superior, that's why they're expensive!.. Right? Actually no, they're just non-standard size and not many were produced so they cost more.

I don't like intrusive bezels, and the first monitor I linked to isn't bad. I doubt my friend will care though since he probably won't ever go multi-monitor.

Warsaw

May 28th, 2011, 04:15 PM

Mk, I'll save some money and go with the 1GB versions. Unless you can recommend a better performing single or dual card solution for the current price or cheaper.

If you aren't averse to rebates, I would look at the HD6950. If not, then just stick with the 1GB GTX 460s. The HD6870 performs identically for all intents and purposes, though if you overclock the 6870 it scales better than the GTX460.

Also, at $344, you might as well splurge on a fancy IPS panel.

Cortexian

May 28th, 2011, 05:24 PM

Going for a single GTX 560 Ti instead of two 460's. Can add another in the future but want to stay under budget more.

Warsaw

May 28th, 2011, 05:59 PM

Again, why that card? Do you have such a hard-on for nVidia that you'll take what is easily one of their crappier cards over a superior AMD offering? That thing is basically like a slightly faster GTX460 1GB. I don't know about you, but I'd seriously rather have the 6950 over the 560 Ti or 460.

Unless you do compute or 3D, there is actually no advantage to staying with Nvidia at all right now at all price ranges (Crossfire scales better) and card combinations save the GTX590...and even then only because of noise produced by the HD6990.

Cortexian

May 28th, 2011, 08:35 PM

Can't deal with AMD/ATI drivers shit sorry.

Rook

May 28th, 2011, 09:40 PM

The drivers are perfect, I've used ATI for like... 6 years now. They never released drivers that blew up cards like Nvidia that one time lol. I'd definitely go with what Amit said, choosing Nvidia over AMD in this situation is needless brand whoring.

You've probably spent so much time reading about Nvidia fanboys bitch about ATI that you've never actually used or tried one of their cards for any extended amount of time.

BOOM ROASTED

Warsaw

May 28th, 2011, 10:33 PM

Can't deal with AMD/ATI drivers shit sorry.

On what do you base this argument? I have never ever had an issue with the drivers and I've been using ATI cards since the Rage Pro. And I'm not biased either. I've also used GeForce since MX4. I am running a GeForce 7800 GT right now (fantastic card, even today). Use what gives the most bang for buck. The GeForce GTX560 Ti is not it. I have no quarrel with Nvidia other than them having a premium on their products for no tangible benefit.

Cortexian

May 28th, 2011, 11:54 PM

In the past 8 years of building computers for friends/family I've built at least 4 AMD/ATI systems and the graphics drivers are always causing problems. Not to mention people hate the Catalyst interface and almost always thank me when I finally convince them to switch over to Nvidia. I've gone through 3 ATI cards personally that also had driver issues and an All-In-Wonder card that simply stopped providing TV Tuner capabilities one day for no reason at all.

Maybe I've had a bad run of cards or models, or just shitty versions of graphics drivers but AMD/ATI has almost always failed on me. I think two of all the AMD/ATI systems I've built worked properly. Due to this I can't bring my self to use anything from that company when it comes to GPU's, and I only use AMD CPU's when people are building extremely low budget systems.

Warsaw

May 29th, 2011, 12:05 AM

Or something you put on the system that doesn't need to be there is causing problems. You should think back and try and find another common factor other than the ATI graphics card.

I've never had an issue with Nvidia either, other than one card just up and dying one day and EVGA overclocking my current GPU too far out of the box (so I have to use RivaTuner to underclock it), but neither of those reflects on Nvidia's design. Your AIW card dying is just something that happens. No chip from any company for any component has a 100% reliability rating, and certainly not after being used for awhile. You just need to do your homework on which particular OEM you buy from. Some are better than others. And the drivers are generally a non-issue, especially today.

Bodzilla

May 29th, 2011, 12:23 AM

i have a 6950, brilliant card works perfect.

get it.

Amit

May 29th, 2011, 12:25 AM

Yeah there is definitely something wrong with the other components or even the software of the systems Freelancer built. The only horror stories that I've heard about ATi drivers are from Linux users. Never had much of a problem with nVidia, either, but after that one GPU breaking driver set I always wait at least a week after new nVidia drivers are released before updating.

Also, there is nothing wrong with the Catalyst Control Center. It is much the same as the nVidia Control Panel. It's just flashier. And has more options.

Bodzilla

May 29th, 2011, 12:27 AM

well i've had a hole heap of cards.

I've gone from ATI 9600? cant remembe a LONG time ago to a 6800, to a 8800GTX and now i have 6950.
never had much of a drama with either manufacturers, i just went with was was a better deal at the time. And as long as you stay away from shitty manufacturers and go with say Asus or gigabyte you'll be fine.

the 6950 is a better card. so get it.

Cortexian

May 29th, 2011, 12:48 AM

Def nothing wrong with the systems I've built, they had nothing in common with each other except for the graphics drivers. They've all had various sockets, AMD/Intel processors, diff brand motherboards, different types of RAM, etc... Nothing in common with eachother except the ATI stuff. All the ATI cards I've bought were either direct from ATI or Asus.

I've read A LOT of ATI horror stories and the general consensus that I've read on unbiased sites like Overclock.net is that Nvidia has better drivers and support than AMD/ATI.

Warsaw

May 29th, 2011, 12:50 AM

Lol. ASUS? A good manufacturer? Ha ha ha!

I stay away from their motherboards like the plague; the features for the price is crap and their reliability is no better than any other manufacturer. Their laptops have problems with heat (they either overheat or they clock the parts below spec to maintain a safe level). Their graphics cards have all these gimmicks that jack the price up with little actual benefit to the user. Stay simple. If you want Nvidia, you get eVGA. If you want ATI, get XFX, Sapphire, or PowerColor. MSI is passable. Gigabyte does some actually useful things with their coolers (that aren't ridiculous like this 3-slot ASUS crap), so they are good, too.

Like I said, though. Do your homework and you will be rewarded.

Also, Freelancer, I'm also talking about software. What did they have in common there?

Cortexian

May 29th, 2011, 12:55 AM

XFX wasn't available at the time and Sapphire and TrueColor wouldn't deal with warranties properly here in Canada when I was building those systems so Asus was basically the only solution.

Software wise, Windows, AVG Free, and Graphics Drivers were the only things in common. The individuals who commissioned me to build the systems then took over after that point and did their own shit.

Warsaw

May 29th, 2011, 12:59 AM

And Diamond? They are usually solid. HIS is temperamental.

Yeah, sounds like your luck just blows. The overwhelming majority are fine with ATI. But now you've got Newegg in Canada, so your selection is better and easier.

Cortexian

May 29th, 2011, 01:03 AM

Newegg still requires shipping, why use Newegg when I can use Memory Express and get the same prices without shipping charges and waiting for stuff to arrive? Memory Express has a more limited selection, but they have way better customer service and are local.

I don't remember Diamond being available here either, in fact I don't recall the name much at all really (vaguely from some hardware reviews). HIS was available here and I think I did actually get one of their cards now that I think back. Also, the Asus card I bought was 4+ years ago I think. Back when they were less shitty about offering dumb extra features and tacking on more $$$.

Warsaw

May 29th, 2011, 01:57 AM

Why use Newegg? Because you need quality components that you apparently have a hard time finding otherwise. Shipping is worth a little peace of mind, no?

Cortexian

May 29th, 2011, 11:30 AM

Didn't have Newegg 4 years ago though. So yeah, also not needing anything from them now lol.

Bodzilla

May 29th, 2011, 12:44 PM

If you want ATI, get XFX, Sapphire, or PowerColor. MSI
woah, all of those brands are the shitty "i sure hope this works and i dont have problems..." type of brands in australia.

lol.

Amit

May 29th, 2011, 12:56 PM

Are you for real? Sapphire is the top brand for ATi brand video cards in North America. I have personally owned four Sapphire, two XFX and one Powercolor video card. They all work excellent. I gave the the XFX ones to my cousins and replaced them with the two Sapphire Atomic HD 3870 that I sold a good couple years ago. I currently have a Sapphire HD 5750 Vapor-X that's overclocked higher than a stock HD 5770 and it runs beautifully. The Powercolor card is a Radeon X1600PRO that I bought in April 2006 and it's still kicking in one of my old PCs. Oh, and with the Sapphire Select Club, I get free stuff forever just for buying and registering a video card with them.

MSI...I couldn't say. My friend has had his Gigabyte HD 4890 for a long while now and it seems fine so far.

Rook

May 29th, 2011, 01:27 PM

Yeah XFX is probably the best AMD brand right now... my system is running a Sapphire at the moment though.

Bodzilla

May 29th, 2011, 05:41 PM

my bro burnt out like 3 sapphires and power colour brand ATI cards, after that he went the freelancer path and went a bit nividia AT ALL COSTS, I think he runs a gigabyte 5870 now and is perfectly content with it.

Could be something like both our country's fruits.
all our best fruit goes to america so make it look like australia has the best fruit in the world, and you guys do the same to us with your fruit.
:shrugs:

Cortexian

May 29th, 2011, 07:31 PM

K so his system is running:

Intel Core i5-2500k @ 3.40 GHz (will OC more when he gets a not-stock cooler).
eVGA GeForce GTX 570 1GB SuperClocked Edition
8GB Corsair XMS 3 RAM
500GB Western Digital Caviar Black SATA III
Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced Case
Samsung 225BW 22" Monitor (1680x1050).

Warsaw

May 29th, 2011, 11:03 PM

The GTX570 is a great choice of card.

@Amit: My GeForce 6600GT is an MSI (rebranded as Apollo) and it has bee running amazing for seven years now. The first one I had was better though. The current one has a plastic heatsink cover where the old one had this massive aluminum heat sink with a large fan. Something on that one got torched, though.

Cortexian

May 29th, 2011, 11:33 PM

Here's what his WEI looks like:
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6987/weil.jpg

CodeBrain

May 30th, 2011, 03:06 AM

This is my computer

http://codebrainshideout.net/too_awesome_for_pb/mycomputer.png

For a more detailed description, see this: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01570954&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3816187

It's about time that I get an upgrade, seeing that I have a computer that was made in 2008...

Now, I want to get an entirely new computer, seeing as this computer refuses to accept any changes to it (for example, I attempted to put three different kinds of graphics cards in the computer, and by that I mean only one graphics card, but having to try three different times. And all of them resulted in the computer unable to produce anything 3D. If it tried to, the computer would crash.) and I know the hardware is outdated.

I have set my eyes on this:

http://www.circuitcity.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=281624&csid=_22#

Why CircuitCity you ask? Newegg doesn't have it, and Amazon, CircuitCity and CompUSA all get it from the same place for the same price. Other than that I like CircuitCity, I used to go to it after school (when they had those computer lobbies that let you play games)

If you don't want to click the link, here is what it is:

Intel 2nd Gen Core i7 4.6GHZ Overclocked Barebone PC
This Bundle Includes:

ASUS P8P67 Pro B3 Motherboard
2nd generation Intel Core i7-2600K Unlocked Quad-Core Processor
8GB DDR3 1600MHz System Memory (4 x 2048MB)
Cooler Master HAF 922 Chassis
750W Power Supply
CoolIT ECO A.L.C Liquid Cooling System
4 Free Game Coupons (Mafia 2, Just Cause 2, Total Shogun, and I think Singularity)

I understand what barebone means, it only comes with the parts listed above, and I have to provide the other parts. I already have bought another graphics card (got this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102932) for a really good price before it was deactivated) and I was planning on using every thing else my computer had (hard drives, keyboard, mouse, monitor, and other stuff) and I am willing to spend this much for something like this.

However, I am wondering, is it a good deal or not? Granted all the parts by them self give a total of $870.93 (without tax) however the bundle has all the parts already installed (which is good because I am stupid at building computers) and it includes 4 "free" games (which, along with the parts being already put together, probably would make it $999.99)

Again, I am willing to spend this much, however I am curious if it is truly a good deal, or if there is something better out there.

Warsaw

May 30th, 2011, 03:20 AM

Lol, I have a computer that was made in 2004. Funny part? I can still play most games at maximum settings. Mass Effect? No problem. STALKER? Got that (DX9). BC2 Campaign? Yup. HAWX? That too. AvP? Runs like a charm. FEAR series? Heh.

Build as good as you possibly can. If you can get the general best (bleeding edge is unnecessary), you won't have to upgrade for at least six years. The i7 is pretty damn good. The RAM is more than sufficient. Which graphics card did you get? If it ain't a GTX570, GTX580, HD6950, or HD6970, you will have to upgrade before too long.

Cortexian

May 30th, 2011, 04:09 AM

He said he already had an HD 5850 1GB from a previous purchase.

I think that's a pretty awesome system, the CoolIT coolers are awesome and were developed locally here in my city. They were demoed at Fragapalooza and are pretty awesome alternatives to Corsair H50/H60/H70's. I'm in love with the 1155 processors since building the system for my friend, unlocked core multipliers are processors that aren't $1,200 alone? Hell yes!

Warsaw

May 30th, 2011, 04:25 AM

I missed the hyperlink; the blue is so dark it almost looks black.

That said, the 5850 is looking long in the tooth now and will need replacing within a year.

The 1155 platform is powerful, but like its 1156 predecessor it is an evolutionary dead-end. They call it "i7" but it still lacks some of the features which made the original i7 desirable, like triple-channel RAM. That extra memory throughput is indispensable in demanding games. But, since it's the best right now and because 1366 is dying, I have to back it.

Cortexian

May 30th, 2011, 04:30 AM

CodeBrain

May 30th, 2011, 06:28 AM

Perhaps maybe the card I chose was a bad decision, when I look at a 6950 for example I see that it beats the 5850 (however there have not been any game tests done so far, the comparisons seem to be only based on the product specs for right now) and if thats the case, the 6970 would obviously beat the 5850 as well.

The reason why I have that Sapphire card is because at the time before I bought it, I had around $150 in spare money. With the 6950 being $274.99 and the 6970 being 374.99, I was not able to buy those cards. Also at that time the 5850 cards were being sold for $184 to around $240 dollars. This Sapphire Card on the other hand was $142.98 and seemed to be exactly the same as the other cards, only less expensive. At first the card was out of stock, so I had to wait until Newegg notified me of it returned. Instantly bought it when it was available. And of course, this computer I am on now would not work with it, still unable to produce 3D effects. I knew at that moment that it was the computer at fault (because honestly I don't think three graphics cards in a row would have the same issues.) so that's why I am up for a new computer.

Warsaw

May 30th, 2011, 03:09 PM

I have to also say that I'm really liking the Gigabyte board I installed today, the GA-P67A-UD3-B3 (the revised version that fixes the problems with 1155 Sandy Bridge launch motherboards that were all recalled). Lots of awesome features, but interestingly enough I thought the 3x USB power was neat. It provides triple the power to every USB port so you can power three times the devices connected to a hub! :)

Had never really used Gigabyte much in the past but I was REALLY impressed by this board and I'll probably feature Gigabyte if I can't get my hands on an eVGA one when Ivy Bridge comes out.

See what happens when you play brand favourites? Just use what has the features you want and meets your minimum review rating/number of reviews ratio.

Bad decision at the time, probably not. The HD5850 is still quite capable (lol, certainly beats my card hands down), but since we are on the edge of what I am perceiving as a generational evolution in software's graphical quality, it is going to be outclassed. Now, the 5850 and 6870 are practically the same card. Stay away from the 6800 series if you have a 5800. Only the 6900s would be worth your consideration; that or Nvidia's GTX570 or 580.

Cortexian

May 30th, 2011, 03:30 PM

Overclocked 570's perform extremely closely to 580's from what I've been reading. So long as they don't explode and stop working like a lot do apparently... *Makes note to tell friend to not OC GPU*

eVGA motherboards usually have the best performance features I want, but we'll see what's out when early 2012 rolls around. You know, if the world doesn't end.

Warsaw

May 30th, 2011, 04:05 PM

570s perform very well until you hit 2560x1600. Then games like Metro 2033 kill them even in SLI.

Cortexian

May 30th, 2011, 04:07 PM

Yeah but if you're using a 2560x1600 monitor and not running a top-end card from either Nvida or ATI's latest few series of cards you're doing it wrong.

Ex: GTX 580/590 or HD 6990.

Warsaw

May 30th, 2011, 04:11 PM

HD6970s in Crossfire > HD 6990 > GTX590.

HD6970s in Crossfire are also pretty much the same as GTX580s in SLI. Superior Crossfire scaling and all that. It becomes even more apparent if you start doing three-card setups.

Speaking of SLI: AMD and company have released the 990FX motherboard chipset. The draw? It supports both SLI and Crossfire, so now you don't have to go all AMD if you want an AMD CPU. This is good news for me, since now I can choose 580s for my build this September. Oh, these are also AM3b (also called AM3+) motherboards, so they support the full featureset of upcoming AMD FX line of CPUs (Bulldozer/Zambezi). If you are rocking an AM3 board, you can still use the new CPUs, you just don't get the power and frequency management features or the HT 3.1 capability.

Cortexian

May 30th, 2011, 04:38 PM

Yeah, the GA-P67A-UDX series all seem to support both SLI and CrossfireX. I think Intel has allowed SLI and CrossfireX on the same boards for a few generations though, no?

And yeah, of course 6970's in Crossfire are better than a single 6990/GTX590. I was just saying that if you're running 2560x1600 you better be using the best available single card or a at least a dual-card configuration. I think GTX 460's in SLI would be better than a single HD 6990 or GTX 590 as well. I guess I should have just said that you should use at least a dual-card configuration or a top-of-the-line single card for 2560x1600.

I'm wondering what we're going to see early 2012 for Ivy Bridge and PCI-E 3.0 for graphics cards...

Warsaw

May 30th, 2011, 04:56 PM

I don't think GTX460s would be better. I haven't seen any benchmarks that suggest they outperform GTX570s in SLI, which means they can't possibly outperform the HD6990. But yeah, Intel has. When you went AMD, you either had to pick an nForce board or an AMD chipset board, so it has been either or but never both. Finally we have a unified solution. I don't like being stuck with just one company for my peripherals.

April is when Ivy Bridge hits us according to Intel's roadmap (http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/intels-ivy-bridge-coming-q1-2012-growing-festive-moss-while-yo/). I suspect we will see the usual industry-dominating performance and a hefty price tag to go with it.

Cortexian

May 30th, 2011, 05:30 PM

I heard that some Ivy Bridge stuff may actually start late 2011, not sure if that's accurate at all though.

Warsaw

May 31st, 2011, 05:06 AM

Naw. What you're thinking of is the E series Sandy Bridge. Supposedly similar performance, but on a larger process and not as many features on the motherboard chipsets.

Cortexian

May 31st, 2011, 10:15 AM

Ah, yeah you're right.

The Sandy Bridge E series is supposed to be the replacements for the top-end "Extreme" series style CPU's right? IMO Extreme's were never worth the $1,000+ price tag just for unlocked multipliers, so these newer gen 2 Core i chips are awesome.

Warsaw

May 31st, 2011, 02:13 PM

E-series will fill an approximate role to the 1366 i7s right now, including the Extreme. And you are right, nobody in their right mind would buy one of those Extreme CPUs. Even for bleeding edge. The performance of an i7 980X is barely above that of the i7 930. Just OC the cheaper part. It's easy and reliable and not at all risky for such a low level overclock.

Cortexian

May 31st, 2011, 05:54 PM

I'm pretty sure that if I were to build right now I'd just buy an i7-2600k based system. If it's anything like the 2500k I just put together it would be wizard.

Yeah, I went there and said "wizard".

Warsaw

May 31st, 2011, 10:39 PM

I don't think the performance gain over the original LGA1366 is worth it. We've progressed in efficiency, but the Nehalems overclock almost as well as the Sandy Bridge, and they have more useful features on desktop than Sandy Bridge. Dead socket? Maybe, but so is LGA1155.

Cortexian

May 31st, 2011, 10:51 PM

But 1155 processors come in k variants that have unlocked cores.

Warsaw

June 1st, 2011, 04:35 AM

So? Without an impractical setup, you aren't going to get appreciably higher clocks than you can with any old 1366 i7. 1366 also has the advantage of triple channel memory and more PCI Express lanes. QuickSync is irrelevant. Turbo cores is irrelevant.

Cortexian

June 1st, 2011, 09:14 AM

Except triple-channel memory is only useful for preventing you from attaching most large CPU coolers. It doesn't give you any kind of performance boost, and it's dumb because it's TRIPLE channel as opposed to a multiple of two.

Warsaw

June 1st, 2011, 02:36 PM

Multiple of two doesn't matter for something like that. If it did, AMD's triple core CPUs wouldn't be worth anything but the tests show that they are actually doing exactly what you think they would: performing smack in the middle between dual and quad core CPUs that have similar single-threaded performance.

All the benchmarks I have seen with 1366 point out that the triple channel memory helps it in benchmarks where you have to shove a lot of things into and out of RAM. That means things like SysMark and Crysis at 2560x1600. Assuming you have an SSD, load times should decrease for everything as well since there's more throughput available, allowing all that data to be stashed away into memory faster. That's why even the original 1156 "i7" CPUs couldn't keep pace when matched on clocks, and that's why I have never ever recommended them. Sandy Bridge 1155 closed the gap mostly, but why would you want the crappy one-off when the real deal is right around the corner? That would be like me buying an AMD 1100T CPU right now because it's good enough for what I need. However, it's already obsolete because the newest is literally a couple of weeks away.

Besides, what do you need a huge cooler for if you are water cooling? And if you want to build bleeding edge performance, why aren't you water cooling?

Cortexian

June 1st, 2011, 02:40 PM

Some of the giant air coolers cool better than your low-mid range water-cooling stuff, and it's a lot cheaper because the low-mid range water-cooling stuff isn't designed to cool, it's designed to be quiet.

Was never a fan of the 3 core CPU's either.

Warsaw

June 1st, 2011, 03:02 PM

Yes, but not being a fan doesn't mean they don't have their place. Three cores for the price of two and performance better than two? I'd buy one if I was in a pinch. The hexa-cores are in a similar position.

Also, which giant coolers are you talking about? Last I read, things like the V8 work on 1366 pretty well.

Cortexian

June 1st, 2011, 03:08 PM

Anything similar to the Thermalright Ultra-120, so things like the Megahalems or however you spell it, and other coolers like the Noctura DH-14.

Warsaw

June 1st, 2011, 03:14 PM

Interesting.

All this is academic, though. People who dropped money for i7 on LGA1366 are resting easy right now knowing that their platform is still king of the hill.

InnerGoat

June 3rd, 2011, 01:38 AM

1366's replacement is drawing near though. Did you see the new lga2011 boards? :D

Can't wait to upgrade. World of Tanks plays like poo.

CodeBrain

June 3rd, 2011, 02:14 AM

A friend pointed out to me that I could get the parts cheaper if I ordered from Newegg (which I knew would be the case), here is the list:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=14044771

The motherboard was switched for this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157253) as it was him who suggested to change it.

Does this look better/is it still compatible? Instead of it being $999.99 it's $879.93, so obviously there's a cheaper price.

Cortexian

June 3rd, 2011, 02:45 AM

• Motherboard is great.
• PSU is great.
• Processor is awesome.
• RAM is great for doing what it needs to, I'd personally find some in black or red to match the motherboard though.
• Antec KUHLER costs more than Corsair H70 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181013&Tpk=H70) and performs approximately the same.
• Case is a Cooler Master = great.

What are you doing for GPU?

CodeBrain

June 3rd, 2011, 02:52 AM

What are you doing for GPU?

I still have this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102932) as I said before, and I can't return it since the time window ran out.

Cortexian

June 3rd, 2011, 03:02 AM

Oh right okay then that looks pretty good. My only issues were Antec vs Corsair for cooler and color of the RAM (important because HAF has side window, and OCD).

Warsaw

June 3rd, 2011, 03:48 AM

1366's replacement is drawing near though. Did you see the new lga2011 boards? :D

Can't wait to upgrade. World of Tanks plays like poo.

Yes and yes.

I can't wait to upgrade to Bulldozer. When I went from AMD 64 3200+ to Phenom II X4 965, it was like an entire new world. Now I get to jump from the same AMD 64 to an FX-8130...o_O

Hunter

June 27th, 2011, 03:41 PM

Okay, I want to build an amazing desktop. Here is a list of the hardware I have chosen, are these the best parts you can get and are they compatible, I believe they are.

Motherboard
Asus Maximus IV Extreme Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-450-AS)

Processor
Intel Core i7-2600 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-359-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1859)

CPU Cooler
Corsair Hydro H60 CPU Cooler with free Akasa Apache Fan (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-035-OP)

CD Drive
Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-140-SA)

Sound Card
Asus Xonar D2 7.1 PCI Sound Card (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-000-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=)

Power
OcUK Crusade 450W Dual-Rail High Efficiency Power Supply (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-042-OK)

Hard Drive
Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache 5900RPM (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-076-HI)

Memory
Corsair Dominator GT 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C9 2000MHz Triple Channel Kit with DHX Airflow Fan (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-306-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1392)

Graphics Card
Asus GeForce GTX 590 OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-253-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1966)

Just need to find a case, I basically want a fucking BEAST computer. :) Comes to £1,793.88 altogether :S - Might have to shop around for cheaper prices or similar parts.

Cortexian

June 27th, 2011, 04:41 PM

I'd get a Z68 based motherboard, they're newer and as such offer newer and better features... Check out the Gigabyte Z68X-UD7 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-338-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990).

For the processor, get an i7-2600k. They have unlocked multipliers thus making them extremely easy to overclock.

CPU Cooler is decent, the H70 is better than the H50 and H60. Some newer air coolers perform just as well also if you want to go that route.

Optical drive, I haven't personally looked into a blu-ray drive for my PC yet really... Do you absolutely need one?

Sound card, well, I'm a fan of just using the integrated sound on your motherboard. It's usually sufficient nowadays, unless you're an audiophile or need the extra inputs/outputs of the sound card then I'd recommend against getting one.

You'll need at least a 750W power supply mostly because of that GTX 590. Corsair makes the best ones and I'd recommend getting one with overhead in-case you want to add an another GTX 590 in the future. I recommend the new Corsair Professional Series AX1200 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-029-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084).

Hard drive, why did you chose anything except a Western Digital? Also, the drive you chose is only 5,900 RPM... Anything below 7,200 RPM is useless unless you're just using it for file storage. Western Digital Black drives offer a 5 year warranty as well instead of just 3 years like most other manufacturers. I also recommend getting a smaller hard drive for Windows+Programs and a large hard drive for file storage and stuff.
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-354-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1953)
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-368-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1953)

Memory looks fine to me, stick with Corsair for that regardless.

Graphics card... There are only a couple reasons to pick a GTX 590 over a GTX 580, here they are:

Get a 590 if:
1) You plan on getting a second 590 for SLI.
2) You're running at a resolution over 1920x1200 (includes the use of multiple monitors for gaming).

Get a 580 if:
1) You only use one monitor at 1920x1200 or less.

This is because the power in the GTX 590's will be wasted at anything less than 1920x1200, I currently favor them over the GTX 580's because I'd buy two for SLI and my resolution for gaming is 5760x1200. If you game at a resolution of 1920x1200 or less most of the time then GTX 580's in SLI will likely give you better performance.

Also, if you're buying an Nvidia card you should ALWAYS ALWAYS buy from EVGA. They have the best warranty and track record.

Hunter

June 27th, 2011, 05:14 PM

Okay, thanks. What you suggested looks MUCH better. They also physically look amazing.

The graphics card is apparently only £456.46 from here: http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=03G-P3-1598-AR&family=GeForce%20500%20Series%20Family&sw=
Although it is £700+ on overclockers, is this right? :S

Cortexian

June 27th, 2011, 06:05 PM

Haha, it probably has something to do with shipping or overclockers supply line.

Since you can't use Newegg (yet, Newegg owns the .co.uk domain name so who knows) I'd recommend checking out Tiger Direct. Play with your prices though, it might be cheaper to get all your core components (motherboard, cpu, memory) from one place and get the GPU's directly from EVGA if they'll ship to you.

What were you planning on using for a case? Some of my personal recommendations:

Mid-tower:
Cooler Master CM 690 II
Antec Nine Hundred II V3
Cooler Master HAF 922
Corsair Obsidian 650D

Full-tower:
Antec Twelve Hundred Gamer Case V3
Cooler Master HAF X
NZXT Phantom
Corsair Obsidian 800D (wicked amazing case, just as wickedly pricy and built for water-cooling)

Hunter

June 27th, 2011, 06:15 PM

Cortexian

June 27th, 2011, 06:53 PM

I added some case suggestions into my last post. For peripherals I'm a huge fan of Logitech, and for your monitor you should get something from Samsung.

Hunter

June 27th, 2011, 07:14 PM

Antec Nine Hundred II V3
Cooler Master HAF 922
NZXT Phantom

REALLY hard decision between them top 3. They all look amazing. I'm really liking the NZXT Phantom for the design and layout, but then I like the other two for the materials used and the mesh infront of the fans. lol

Cortexian

June 27th, 2011, 07:19 PM

The NZXT Phantom in white makes me drool. Have a gander through here (http://www.overclock.net/computer-cases/876350-official-nzxt-phantom-club.html) and your mind will be made up pretty fast!

king_nothing_

June 27th, 2011, 08:14 PM

Hitachis are solid. I have three of them.

Cortexian

June 27th, 2011, 09:17 PM

The ones you have probably aren't 5,900 RPM drives though... And they still don't have the 5 year warranty of WD Black drives.

king_nothing_

June 28th, 2011, 12:27 PM

The last one I bought is. All I use them for is movie storage.

Cortexian

June 28th, 2011, 03:04 PM

Ah, well Hunter's looking for an OS drive. At least, he hasn't said otherwise.

king_nothing_

June 28th, 2011, 03:09 PM

Shouldn't he be getting an SSD for his OS drive? He did say he wanted a "fucking beast computer", after all.

Patrickssj6

June 28th, 2011, 03:17 PM

If he has enough money to shat.

Personally I would just prefer a fast RAID 1 old style HDD OS Drive System over overpriced (but awesome) SSDs.

btw, Linux and SSDs =3

Cortexian

June 28th, 2011, 07:52 PM

You mean a fast RAID-0? RAID-1 is mirror, doesn't really provide much of a performance boost.

And yeah, Hunter if you can afford to buy an Intel SSD for your OS I'd do that + 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black.

Patrickssj6

June 29th, 2011, 02:13 PM

Fast was referring to decent RPM and Raid 1 for security. At this time I wouldn't throw money out the window to buy a whimpy 128GB SSD unless you know you are going to dedicate that computer to a certain task.

Cortexian

June 29th, 2011, 02:28 PM

Buy an OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2.

1.5GBps read and 1.2GBps write.

:cwazy:

Hunter

June 29th, 2011, 03:34 PM

Damn, which is best to get here man? lol. Confusing me now :P I just need a quick hard drive with a good transfer rate for the OS and something good for storage of files.

PopeAK49

July 2nd, 2011, 08:32 PM

Well, I know of several options...
1. Get two 7200 rpm hard drives and RAID 0 them. (if your motherboard supports it).
2. Get one 7200 rpm hard drive with lots of storage for date (media and smaller applications) and a SSD to store the OS and your favorite games and even large programs.
3. Buy a massive solid state drive for $1,000. (highly discourage).

king_nothing_

July 3rd, 2011, 12:15 AM

If you're building a rig that nice, it seems silly to me to not get a small SSD as well for your OS.

Jelly

July 12th, 2011, 04:38 AM

Damn, which is best to get here man? lol. Confusing me now :P I just need a quick hard drive with a good transfer rate for the OS and something good for storage of files.
SSDs are so amazing. i want to kiss my ssd

depending on how your budget stretches, get either a cheap 30GB OCZ drive or a still-pretty-cheap 60GB drive. the second option allows for about 2 games to be installed on it as well, and will have better wear levelling (you dont have to worry about that either way really).

Also, i'd keep important data off the SSD, such as documents or school work or whatever; OCZ drives are considered the least reliable. Just run programs and windows from it.

Cortexian

July 12th, 2011, 09:58 AM

You could buy a Z68 chipset motherboard and use SSD Smart Response with a cheaper smaller sized SSD. It caches all frequently used files onto the SSD for faster access times and such. Not as good for gaming but Windows will benefit.

Donut

July 17th, 2011, 07:02 PM

so i want to build a gaming desktop that i can pretty much max out anything on. i have a $1500 budget, but that includes peripherals. i found this (http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/ar/nwE) build on a reddit build a computer thread, and i want to work off of it. im thinking of a better graphics card, and i dont want to crossfire/SLI them. im also considering possibly moving up to an intel i7, but im not sure if thats really necessary.

iv never built a computer before, so does anyone have any graphics card suggestions, and should i stick with the i5 or move up to an i7. again, $1500 budget WITH peripherals.
E: im also considering a small SSD for the OS.

Cortexian

July 17th, 2011, 10:48 PM

Unless you do a lot of CPU intensive stuff the i5-2500k is plenty fast, especially since you can OC it to 4.8GHz fairly easily on air cooling.

Donut

July 18th, 2011, 08:11 PM

ok, put this one together myself this time, again with a $1500 keeping peripherals in mind. decided against the SSD. now i have some real questions.

the build:
CPU
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80623i52500k)

Motherboard
Asus Sabertooth P67 (REV 3.0) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
(http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-sabertoothp67rev30)
Memory
Corsair XMS3 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-memory-cmx8gx3m4a1600c9)

Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd5002aalx)

Case
Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced ATX Full Tower Case (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc932kkn5gp)

Power Supply
Antec 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-hcp750)

Video Card
this might get a bit confusing, so please bear with me.

this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261109 card has everything i want, and it has 2 GB vram instead of 1. im concerned about this one though because its from a company called palit, and iv been told the company is less heard of, so the quality might not be there. im also curious how many displays it supports, since it has 4 ports on the back. the most i have ever used is 2, so as long as it supports 2 displays with extended desktop, its fine. the concern here is with the "unknown" company.

if the above is not recommended, the other option is this Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-%3Cbr%20/%3E%0A%3Cbr%20/%3E%0Aengtx560tidciitop2di1gd5) card, where i still need to support 2 displays in extended desktop. so which one should i go with?

im also curious if i should go with a different case. i also need a dvd drive / burner if anyone has any suggestions. a card reader for SD cards and such would be nice too.

EDIT: heres the list on pc part picker. http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/ar/quR

Amit

July 18th, 2011, 08:48 PM

Palit isn't as unknown as you think. It's quite well known in eastern Canadian retailer shops and I have a friend who has a Palit 9800GT. He got it about 3 years ago and it's still running, so...

Donut

July 18th, 2011, 08:53 PM

so thats a yes on the palit then. alright. i used newegg's power supply calculator. it says i need about 510W for the stuff i have, but i want to be on the safe side with the fans and usb devices. so should i do 650W or 600W? also do i want "modular" or not, and why?
E: keeping in mind the xbox 360 controller uses 500mA or something stupidly high like that.

Cortexian

July 18th, 2011, 09:17 PM

No Palit, if you're going to buy an Nvidia card you buy EVGA. They have the best warranty (lifetime) and they RMA very quickly and professionally. Worth any extra money you might pay.

Also, all Nvidia cards can use up to two display outputs. If the card has more than two display outputs you can chose any combination of two but no more than two. Does that make sense? If you want to run more than two monitors using Nvidia you need to buy more than one Nvidia GPU.

For your PSU, it depends on if you want to do SLI in the future. If you do you should probably go with something closer to 800W. Yes you want modular, it means that some or all of the cables are removable. This makes cable management a lot easier since you just don't use the cables you don't need on your PSU. I would recommend going Corsair or Silverstone for the PSU, both have good warranties and good quality products.

Donut

July 18th, 2011, 09:51 PM

so possibly this (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu750hx) for the psu?

for the video card, i kind of want 2GB of vram, just to make sure i can handle pretty much everything. the palit has 2GB, but lifetime warranty from EVGA sounds awesome for my luck. i had to send my laptop in for repairs twice, and both times were to replace the video card. so do i need 2GB, or will 1.5 or 1 be fine? also do i need a cooling fan for the cpu, or does the case i listed come with one?
E: oh hey that processor i selected says it has integrated graphics. thats not a problem as long as i have a graphics card, right?

Cortexian

July 18th, 2011, 10:49 PM

The AX series of PSU's are a little old now, I'd get this TX version (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu750ax). Honestly, if I had to pick one component in my system to buy the best of it would be the PSU. A faulty PSU can destroy the rest of your system if it has a catastrophic breakdown.

Video memory only matters depending on the resolution you're running really. What resolution do you plan to run at? I wouldn't bother with the 2GB unless you're at 2560x1600 or greater.

CPU's come with their own fans that you install onto the motherboard, this is probably the trickiest thing to install when doing a PC build. The one that Intel will supply is decent, if you want to overclock or just prolong the life of your CPU I'd get a better third-party cooler though. This Noctua NH-D14 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018) is one of the best air coolers on the market right now.

Integrated graphics are basically disabled if you have a dedicated graphics card installed in your system, so it doesn't matter.

Donut

July 20th, 2011, 06:43 PM

im approaching the point where i actually order this stuff now. i found this monitor deal on newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254055. the fact that its on sale makes it even more desirable. thoughts on monitors other than this? the details say it is not LED backlit. is that a problem?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236099
this one is about $50 more, but it seems pretty much superior to the first one.

E: should i mess with RAID arrays at all, or is just one hard drive ok?

Cortexian

July 21st, 2011, 12:35 AM

Get a Samsung monitor, they are the best IMO. I have one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001409) and it's amazing.

Get a single Intel SSD around 200GB - 300GB for your OS/Programs/Games if you can afford it.

For file storage you can then get a couple 2TB 5,200/5,900 RPM storage drives and put them in RAID 1 (mirror). That way if one drive goes you won't lose any data, just replace the drive and rebuild and you'll be saved.

That would be the best solution.

ThePlague

July 23rd, 2011, 06:48 PM

Hey guys should this be like it is?:

http://k.min.us/ieu8PA.JPG

It's the thermal pad from my GPU.

Cortexian

July 23rd, 2011, 07:57 PM

post pic of your GPU with cooling shit off of it

ThePlague

July 23rd, 2011, 08:06 PM

the gpu looks fine, perfectly clean and doesn't look burnt. My camera is dead atm :\

e:
This card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150521), or this card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102913)? (no i'm not getting an Nvidia (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130610), these are going above my price range as it is.)

InnerGoat

July 25th, 2011, 09:37 AM

Plague that's probably a protector to keep thermal paste off everything else besides the gpu core

Amit

July 25th, 2011, 02:56 PM

Wait, so why did you take the HSF off to begin with?

Amit

July 25th, 2011, 09:22 PM

Buying this stuff this week because I wanna get some actual high-res video for BF3:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - $119.00 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808)
MB: ASUS M5A97 AM3+ ATX - $95.00 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767)
RAM: Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 2x2G 1600Mhz DDR3 - $38.00 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260&Tpk=CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)

The RAM timings are slow, but I don't give a fuck, this is a budget build. The prices written into the hyperlinks are different than newegg because those are the prices I'm getting these items for at my local computer shop.

I'm pairing the above items with these things that I already have:

GPU: Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 5750 Vapor-X 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102865)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Mid Tower ATX (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066)

ThePlague recommended this CPU cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065). It's cheap and it gets unreal reviews. I think I'll use that to OC the 955 Black, after all, that's what the Black edition is for. My only concern is that coolermaster doesn't say that it's compatible with AM3+ motherboards, but I'm sure it'll work no problem since the mounting hasn't changed for AMD boards since the AM2 socket I think.

What do you guys think?

ThePlague

July 25th, 2011, 11:42 PM

Can people donate money to help me get a new graphics card? :C This thing is seriously fucked.

Amit

July 26th, 2011, 01:27 AM

It's your own fault for gutting it and screwing it up. You should have RMA'd that thing. It'd still be under warranty.

Cortexian

July 26th, 2011, 01:59 AM

He didn't register it with XFX within 30 days, so no warranty for him.

Amit

July 26th, 2011, 02:37 AM

He told me he did.

ThePlague

July 26th, 2011, 03:29 AM

I said I did the other day, not within the time :\

Amit

July 26th, 2011, 09:20 AM

InnerGoat

July 26th, 2011, 10:09 AM

He didn't register it with XFX within 30 days, so no warranty for him.

... you can register it any time.... I did this for a 7900GT lol

Cortexian

July 26th, 2011, 03:39 PM

... you can register it any time.... I did this for a 7900GT lol
Nope. (http://xfxforce.com/en-us/Help/Support/WarrantyInformation.aspx?ispreview=true)

Select North America / Radeon HD and you'll see the following for yourself:

If you register the product online at http://www.xfxforce.com/ within 30 days of purchase, your limited warranty will be EXTENDED for the duration of your life. Registration within 30 days of the date of purchase is a condition precedent to receiving the lifetime warranty.*** Speaking of warranties and how awesome lifetime ones are when you actually register... Awhile ago one of my GTX 285's failed and I sent it in for RMA, I got a GTX 285 back which failed in just shy of a month. I sent the replacement back for RMA as well and now they're sending me a GTX 470 1.2GB version. I called them up today and explained my situation (I use SLI to power three monitors using Nvidia Surround etc...) and now they are going to take my other GTX 285 and replace it with another GTX 470 1.2GB!

So since one of my cards failed, and the replacement they sent me failed, now I'm' getting a free upgrade from GTX 285's to GTX 470's.

Now, here's a question for you guys... My motherboard only support PCI-E 1.0, it didn't bottleneck my SLI GTX 285's. Do you think it will bottleneck my GTX 470's in SLI? If it does I will be on the hunt for a 780i chipset motherboard, they support PCI-E 2.0 and DDR2 + my 775 socket processor.

Patrickssj6

July 26th, 2011, 03:41 PM

***Batteries not included

Cortexian

July 26th, 2011, 03:53 PM

*** The limited warranty for XFX Limited Edition graphics cards lasts for a period of two years and is non-transferable.

But yeah.

Amit

July 26th, 2011, 07:38 PM

so nobody's going to comment on my build?

ThePlague

July 26th, 2011, 08:53 PM

Nope.

Cortexian

July 26th, 2011, 09:05 PM

Amit

July 26th, 2011, 09:11 PM

I'm Intel all the way, but their cheap offerings are bullshit. I don't have $200 to spend on a CPU. SO i'm venturing into unknown territory of AMD with a relatively safe build. I don't plan to overclock the RAM, so voltage should be fine. Or is it just general stability that is the issue?

Cortexian

July 27th, 2011, 12:02 AM

Only really matters if you're overclocking.

Patrickssj6

July 27th, 2011, 04:38 AM

That CPU will downclock your RAM to 1333.

Cortexian

July 27th, 2011, 02:15 PM

That CPU will downclock your RAM to 1333.
Only if you leave the BIOS controlled ratio for that at Auto... Haven't seen many motherboards lately that don't let you unlink the CPU and Memory ratio.

Amit

July 27th, 2011, 02:35 PM

Only if you leave the BIOS controlled ratio for that at Auto... Haven't seen many motherboards lately that don't let you unlink the CPU and Memory ratio.

This. I don't have to overclock the RAM just to get the manufacturer tested speeds.

InnerGoat

July 27th, 2011, 11:20 PM

Nope. (http://xfxforce.com/en-us/Help/Support/WarrantyInformation.aspx?ispreview=true)

Select North America / Radeon HD and you'll see the following for yourself:
Speaking of warranties and how awesome lifetime ones are when you actually register... Awhile ago one of my GTX 285's failed and I sent it in for RMA, I got a GTX 285 back which failed in just shy of a month. I sent the replacement back for RMA as well and now they're sending me a GTX 470 1.2GB version. I called them up today and explained my situation (I use SLI to power three monitors using Nvidia Surround etc...) and now they are going to take my other GTX 285 and replace it with another GTX 470 1.2GB!

So since one of my cards failed, and the replacement they sent me failed, now I'm' getting a free upgrade from GTX 285's to GTX 470's.

Now, here's a question for you guys... My motherboard only support PCI-E 1.0, it didn't bottleneck my SLI GTX 285's. Do you think it will bottleneck my GTX 470's in SLI? If it does I will be on the hunt for a 780i chipset motherboard, they support PCI-E 2.0 and DDR2 + my 775 socket processor.

Oh so maybe they changed something around since then. Also nice to see how that RMA turned out. Can't say that I've seen a situation like that ~ grats on your cards!

Also your CPU is old, why not upgrade everything else at once

Amit

July 27th, 2011, 11:22 PM

Oh so maybe they changed something around since then. Also nice to see how that RMA turned out. Can't say that I've seen a situation like that ~ grats on your cards!

I've seen it many times, but only with EVGA. Seriously, I wish they made Radeon cards. Sapphire cards just work, though. No need to RMA those babies.

Cortexian

July 28th, 2011, 12:36 AM

Oh so maybe they changed something around since then. Also nice to see how that RMA turned out. Can't say that I've seen a situation like that ~ grats on your cards!

Also your CPU is old, why not upgrade everything else at once
Thanks heh. EVGA is now my most favorite PC related company, followed by Logitech.

Not upgrading cause the system I plan to build in April next year will probably be like $4,800 - $5,000 just for the tower... I'm slowly upgrading some of my peripherals right now that I can get from Best Buy for staff price though. Keyboard will be next, I was going to get a Razer Black Widow Ultimate but then I tried it... I really don't like mechanical keyboards apparently, so I'm going with a Logitech G110 instead.

Amit

July 28th, 2011, 01:09 AM

I've got a G110 Keyboard. It'd pretty rad. I had to get used to the spacing of the keys. They are smaller due to the addition of the macro keys on the left. I don't really use them. I wish I didn't spend $100 on this thing, mainly because I don't use it for what it was created for. I use it a lot in LOTRO, but I hardly play that anymore. Backlighting LUA scripts are cool, but I dunno. I still prefer my Thinkpad keyboard. I might purchase the separate keyboard+touch from lenovo later.

Cortexian

July 28th, 2011, 02:00 AM

How extensive is the backlighting? Can you do anything like on my Alienware (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKOQrmnt4Mc)? I know there's only red/blue LED's so you can only do those and the shade combinations in between but I liked how you can hit MR, G1-12, record the macro you want, then MR again and you're done. That's awesome for some things I do, administrative and game wise.

Amit

July 28th, 2011, 02:17 PM

The backlighting isn't very bright. You can turn it off and it looks just like a normal black keyboard with white letters, but the only way to tweak brightness is by the shade of the colour. Since you only get red and blue and the shades between, the full red is the brightest and most clear colour you get out of it. Full blue is similar, but it feels like the light is physically lower in the keys than the red. The red pops out almost like 3D when compared to the blue. But that's the nature of the colour red, isn't it? It's also hard to see the keys clearly with the blue lighting with room lights turned off, but it's not piercing like the red (which you do get used to in the dark). The best and my favourite shade would be the brightest Purple/Violet. It's easy on the eyes in the dark, easy to see, and it's just a nice colour. For my M1 setting I use full red, for M2 I use full blue, and for my M3 setting I use a wave mod that fades through most of the shades in increments of 4. The higher you set the increment the faster the wave will go through the shades. I think it was set to 10 originally or something. I changed it to 4 because it's not too fast and not to slow. You can tell it's changing, but it's not distracting. Also, the USB port on the keyboard works great, I have my mouse plugged into that, but the USB headset features of the G110 kind of suck. Note that the USB port does not provide power, but flash drives and input devices work fine. My WD MyBook External HDD doesn't work with it for some reason. The MyBook has it's own power source and everything. The Mic input is fine, but the low quality sound OUTput is pretty bad. You can actually hear the degradation of quality. It sounds crackled. Thankfully my AX 180 headset allows USB (since fucking lenovo removed mic inputs on the T series of thinkpads).

For the past month and a half I've seen the G510 for just $10 at best buy in this area. When I saw that I grudged my purchase even more. I would suggest you get that keyboard instead since it's got the screen and it has green and yellow added to the backlighting for the full rainbow mods. Since you're a Best Buy employee, I'd think you'd get it for around $100.

Cortexian

July 28th, 2011, 05:44 PM

I was looking at the G510 today but decided to go with the G110 anyway. I honestly hate the gimmicky screen that Logitech has been putting on some of its keyboards and I think the G110 is wide enough as is without the extra G-keys that the G510 would of provided. I've got it home and setup now and I see what you mean about the red vs blue lighting, though you're absolutely correct in saying that it's the nature of red to "pop" more to the eye. I'll be using red during the day (M1) and blue during the night (M2). Send me that script key for your transitioning and I'll set it to my M3 as well, or even the link to the place you found the transitioning script.

ThePlague

July 28th, 2011, 11:28 PM

Hey, how good would this card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102941) do in BC2/BF3?

Because it's either I get something like that next week, or wait a long while longer to get a 6870.

Amit

July 29th, 2011, 12:11 AM

Wait a while longer. That thing is basically the same as my HD 5750 (cuz mine performs like a HD 5770 :D). The HD 6700 series is pretty much a rebranded HD 5700 series, except with newer tech and an added 6790 model. So, basically, you're be going in the opposite direction. And from what I've seen from benchmarks, the HD 6870 is about the same level as the HD 5850. So you'd still be going backwards with that. Get this Sapphire HD 6870 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948) and give me the Dirt 3 code as a referral :D everyone wins.

ThePlague

August 2nd, 2011, 05:07 PM

I think i'm going to get this card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131374). The price is right, and it's got great reviews. It also seems to perform pretty good with the Battlefield 3 Alpha (http://gamegpu.ru/plugins/content/jumultithumb/img.php?src=Li4vLi4vLi4vaW1hZ2VzL3N0b3JpZXMvVGVzdF 9HUFUvQWN0aW9uL0JhdHRsZWZpZWxkXzNfQWxwaGFfL0JBVF8z X0RYMTEucG5nJmFtcDt3PTkzMCZhbXA7aD0wJmFtcDtxPTIwMC ZhbXA7emM9MCZhbXA7Zmx0cltdPXdtaXx3YXRlcm1hcmsvd3Mu cG5nfEJSfDMw). I'll only be running it at 1600x900 though, so mine will probably do better than that.

ThePlague

August 3rd, 2011, 05:33 PM

XFX support ticket reply, as of 3 hours ago:

Hi John, We are more than happy to RMA the card and test it out, and then if repair or replacement is necessary we can arrange it. Be sure your online account information has a full first and last name, best shipping address for signature delivery (no PO boxes), and an up to date phone number filled out in the Account Details Section. All that information will be needed to proceed with warranty servicing. Let us know when thats confirmed. - Erik

:-3

Zeph

August 8th, 2011, 11:43 PM

Anyone have any idea when the next refresh on CPUs and video cards is going to be? Looking to build a dedicated workstation the next couple of months to last me at least four years. Would hate to buy and have new stuff out a month later.

Considering AMD/nVidia have crammed two cards into one, I'm guessing we're up for a new gen next release. Never been too fond of having to buy at this point in the cycle :\.

Cortexian

August 9th, 2011, 12:27 AM

April 2012 for Intel's Ivy Bridge/Socket 2011 with PCI-E 3.0. Since PCI-E 3.0 is coming with socket 2011 I would assume new GPU series will be as well.

Zeph

August 9th, 2011, 01:20 AM

Bleh, not really in a position to wait six months. Anything stupid here? Whenever grant money comes in, I'm thinkin that this is along the lines of what I'll pick up.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070 2600k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131702 long warranty mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233184 (two of these for 16GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136803 (thinking about two of these for RAID)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145493 (storage)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130655 GTX 580
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153131 (last time I bought a PSU, 500 watts was super duper high end and CPUs were 120nm process)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133192 (99% won't get this because of the price but my room is next to the laundry and there's a stupid amount of dust and lint that floats in. Filters are very appealing to me.)

I'll nab an OEM copy of Win7 64bit and cannibalize an optical drive from somewhere. Come January, I'll pick up a pair of 24" Ultrasharps and put them on the DVIs and HDMI to my current 24". It'll go on the left for start menu and icons while the other two are for productivity software on the center and right.

Would a 6970 be a better deal? It's loads cheaper for 10-20% less performance. While that wouldn't be much of a deal now, would the 580 be worth buying for say three or four years from now? You say PCI 3.0 is coming so I'm wondering if the increase in bandwidth will leave what's here now in the dust. Not like I could cheaply upgrade a few components when the time comes though.

Also, whatever happened to Creative's stranglehold on the sound card market? Did the switch to digital output kill them off or something? The buzz from onboard sound always bugged the hell out of me when I had my last desktop. Is that a problem anymore?

Amit

August 9th, 2011, 01:46 AM

Man somebody's got money to blow.

Cortexian

August 9th, 2011, 01:57 AM

A couple 2,000MHz 4GB memory DIMMs would probably give you all the performance you need, and then some.

An SSD would give you better performance but less storage space for that cost.

Personally, I'd RAID-1 or RAID-5 two or three storage drives instead of running a RAID-0 for the OS/Programs performance.

GTX 580 is an amazing card, when running single card I think I'd rather take the CUDA+PhysX benefits instead of the slightly faster AMD offerings.

Get a Corsair PSU, they have legendary customer service and generally make great products.

Zeph

August 9th, 2011, 02:57 AM

Do the raptors even saturate a sata 2 pipe? I know most solid states can, but where do the Raptors line up alongside that? Just wondering if the sata 3 on them is really necessary. Even if they aren't, the price point on the sata 3 drives are very close over their supposedly less potent siblings.

Was planning on RAID-1 for the raptors, but apparently their reliability has gone way up over the past 8 years; I could probably RAID-0 them and be fine really (lawl). The raptors are so fucking big now I'd probably never fill one. Unless I decide to make an .iso for everything I can grab, the largest file I'd work with would be a couple gigabyte photoshop file I'd be sending off to a 60" wide printer. The 3TB drive is only gonna be for weekly archives of dev projects.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136697
RAID-5 on that with 4d1p would be overkill in terms of storage for me while being cheaper. I'm really more interested in the drives speed than its storage potential. SSDs have come a long way, but I'm still not ready to hop on the bandwagon yet; might be something I'd upgrade more than a year from now perhaps.

Man somebody's got money to blow.
Yes, I've finally become so poor, they're paying me to go to school. It's a welcome change.