Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here!

[Cortexian]

hate those camera angles xD

also, it's all black. some green (cables?) matching the titans would have been nice :P

My plan is green cables, but I'm not going to worry about cable management until I get may water cooling stuff.

[InnerGoat]

be sure to get two more titans so you can play games faster

[=sw=warlord]

Only 770?

I may be wrong but I don't think SLI is supported by some older games which results in less than fantastic results.

[Warsaw]

I get more frames per second in Halo than that, though. Went over 900 last time I played a non-Sauce game.

[Cortexian]

I may be wrong but I don't think SLI is supported by some older games which results in less than fantastic results.

The Halo stats I posted were with one Titan.

I get more frames per second in Halo than that, though. Went over 900 last time I played a non-Sauce game.

I thought it was a well known fact that Nvidia and Halo PC/CE don't mesh as well as AMD does with Halo. Think about it, the camo doesn't even work properly on Nvidia cards.

[Warsaw]

Is that even still true? I mean, Source favoured ATI officially but it runs better on Nvidia...and now it endorses Nvidia.

[Zeph]

Is that even still true? I mean, Source favoured ATI officially but it runs better on Nvidia...and now it endorses Nvidia.

Probably. The whole cammo thing was from the way DX9 drivers worked with the API on shader models. ATI had something similar to what was used on the xbox and nVidia did not.

[Cortexian]

2013-07-21 00:18:10 - haloce
Frames: 162074 - Time: 141790ms - Avg: 1143.057 - Min: 572 - Max: 2102

Is that better?

[Dwood]

Hey guys, I know the front page of the thread hasn't been updated in ages, and I've been out of the loop for two years (le gasp!) and my only computer worth anything is in California and it's about 6 years old. I'd probably just upgrade the mobo and CPU if I had it with me, but that's not an option right now.

I wanted to pool in the tech resources we've got, and take a look at some good computer options. I've got about 4-6 months to have the computer parts shipped in and built, here we go:

Goals:
I'm looking at the $1,000 to $1,500 dollar range. This is going to come out of my own pocket, so either you can talk me up in terms of quality, or down considering I don't need much.

I already have a (cheap) keyboard and mouse, and old computer case + power supply. Seeing as how the usb 3.0/ Thunderbolt war currently going on I'm looking for either a dual purpose mo-bo OR just using the PCI slots to add expanders if the mobo is only one or the other.

OS - Windows 7. Not going to deal with Win 8. I have an iso of my own legal Win 7 I can use.

If I go cheap, I plan on upgrading, FO' SHO'

What will it do? I plan on doing light, light gaming and development for the Oculus rift which is planning on shipping /eventually/
I'm thinking:

$75-125 for PS,
$300 for a single video card,
$100-200 for a motherboard (I'm an AMD Fanboy tbh and I'm not going high-end, CPU so it fits imho) i'm curious of server motherboards, as long as things like multiple CPUS are optional to use - i'm interested because server mobo's seem to be more upgradeable. -what high-end desktop mobo options are there that would be compatible with a medium CPU? (I plan on upgrading at one point)
~$150 is as high as I think is reasonable for ram
I'm planning on the highest single stick of RAM possible within my price range. The minimum is 8 GB of RAM per stick, I'd like 16 gigs but from my searching, within my price range, 8 GB GDDR3 is likely...
http://www.pcnation.com/web/details.asp?item=DW4934
so far we're at ~$775.

So far, thoughts? Ideas on parts I can pick up? the first decision, imo, is the MoBo, because that decides the type of graphics card and CPU I can use.

I'm looking at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113287 or:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113327 for the CPU

(I'm an AMD fanboy, deal with it)

Edit:
This actually looks like a fairly decent combo... Or am I hallucinating?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1400908

[Warsaw]

The combo is pretty decent, but I would definitely want to get the FX-8350 if you want to consider they 8-core models. 4.0 GHz base clock, a slightly more efficient pipeline, still unlocked, and only $30 more. Might as well get the best, no? (FX-9-series doesn't count...unlike their Intel Extreme counterparts, they are simply overclocked versions of the more mainstream items).

I would also go with this motherboard because ratings and it does everything you need. I also have had good experiences with Gigabyte in the past. If you plan on overclocking, you want Asus, even if I think they are a load of over-hyped shit. Maybe the Sabertooth. They just have the best UEFI implementation around.

Also, I think your memory link is broken. It's taking me to a single-stick of 32 GB server memory priced at $1355. I don't think that's what you wanted. That said, wow has RAM gotten expensive since they shut down some of the manufacturing. I got 16 GB (4x4 GB) for $94. The same set is now almost $190. Fucking insane. Anyways, you can get the 8 GB version for about the same price I paid for 16 GB, and I do recommend them because they are small enough to fit under most cooling solutions and they have nary a hiccup in sight. AMD also likes faster RAM more than Intel, so if you want to push up to 2133 that would be a wise move.