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[rohlfinator]

In regards to upgrading, how can you tell when your system is CPU bottlenecked?

The easiest test would be to lower your graphics settings to their minimum, and if the framerate doesn't improve, you're CPU is causing a bottleneck.

It'll likely only drag the framerate down in certain parts of a game, though -- areas with lots of physics or AI, for example.

 

[Terrordactyl]

I'm buying a new desktop pretty soon, I haven't put together a PC in about 6 years and fell out of the tech side of things. I'd like to have some graphics card recommendations the cheaper the better (but I'm willing to spend 50-100). Also my monitor is 1080 native so something that can support that would be nice too. I just don't know where to start looking. thanks in advance for any advice/help.

 

[Gio_CoD]

Is it possible to get a good motherboard AND processor for $150 combined? Any suggestions? This isn't really for gaming either; more for media playback. Thanks.

 

[Firestorm]

Is it possible to get a good motherboard AND processor for $150 combined? Any suggestions? This isn't really for gaming either; more for media playback. Thanks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128376

A little bit over $150 though. $100 + $75 = $175 - $10 MIR.

 

[Omar Ismail]

I know you can always get stuck in the "waiting for something better" loop of hell. But if I'm going to buy a PC in the next week want to make sure there's nothing coming in the immediate horizon that'll shake things up.

There are times when products go under a refresh, or there's a big step up in price/performance that changes things around. With the 4850/9800GT line of things, the industry seems to have been stable for a year or two now. I don't want to buy something right before the cusp of a new higher level stable period.

 

[Firestorm]

I know you can always get stuck in the "waiting for something better" loop of hell. But if I'm going to buy a PC in the next week want to make sure there's nothing coming in the immediate horizon that'll shake things up.

There are times when products go under a refresh, or there's a big step up in price/performance that changes things around. With the 4850/9800GT line of things, the industry seems to have been stable for a year or two now. I don't want to buy something right before the cusp of a new higher level stable period.

If you're asking if you should wait on your build, yes you should. Intel will have their i5 CPUs next month. AMD will have their ATi Radeon 5850 and 5870 GPUs next month. We'll also probably learn about what nVidia has in store for their GeForce GTX 300 line although it'll probably be too far off to care about.

 

[Dr. Light]

Skipping the XFX version?
I'd take that one easily over the HIS because I know it has a good warranty and resale value is increased because of the double lifetime.

And the HIS comes with a free game (Stormrise). Yeah, it's shitty, but so what.

Seriously, a 2-year warranty isn't enough for you?

http://www.hisdigital.com/us/support-71.shtml

 

[Firestorm]

I recommended the two I did because:
1) GAF seems like like Sapphire for their cooling + noise level
2) XFX has a double lifetime warranty (carries over even if you resell) + warranties even if you overclock

 

[Danne-Danger]

So I'm planning to put this together:

AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition

ASUS GeForce GTX 275 896MB PhysX CUDA

Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P, Socket-AM3

Cooler Master Real Power M520, 520W PSU (ATX 12V Ver. 2.3, 80 plus, 1x 6+2pin + 1x 6pin PCIe, 6x SATA, 120mm Fan)

Corsair TWIN2X PC8500 DDR2 4GB KIT CL5 (Kit w/2x 2GB XMS2-8500 dimm's, CL5-5-5-15, 1066MHz, E.P.P)

Should work fine, no? Any glaring flaws? Suggestions?

I have pretty much no idea what I'm doing here, especially with the PSU and memory.

I'm taking out my old AMD X2 5000+, 7900GTX and ~400-450 watt PSU.

 

[Shouta]

So, need some opinions on this.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x256/ShoutaShura/buildv1.png

Looking to save a little more but don't mind too much because I figure this thing will last me quite awhile anyway. Any thoughts?

 

[Firestorm]

I'd definitely just double up on RAM now rather than later.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227269
$47.99 vs your $36.99 for 4GB instead of 2GB.

 

[jey_16]

Terrible for gaming really, the 9500gt is such an awful value card. A Q9550 is a very high end CPU, you sure you need as much processor grunt? Worth sacrificing a little in that area for a useful GPU.

what would be the best value card then?

 

[lowlylowlycook]

So, need some opinions on this.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x256/ShoutaShura/buildv1.png

Looking to save a little more but don't mind too much because I figure this thing will last me quite awhile anyway. Any thoughts?

No point in spending $200 on a quad core CPU just days before i5s hit the stores.

 

[Dr. Light]

No point in spending $200 on a quad core CPU just days before i5s hit the stores.

Uh huh, and how much do those cost? You make it sound like it's a better deal, which is not the case. If the i5 is just an slower i7 920, then it's not particularly great for gaming compared to a higher-clocked processor.

 

[Shouta]

I'd definitely just double up on RAM now rather than later.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227269
$47.99 vs your $36.99 for 4GB instead of 2GB.

That might be an option. I was thinking of going 4GB of DDR2 1066 instead though.

How much would an i5 cost anyway?

 

[Dr. Light]

That might be an option. I was thinking of going 4GB of DDR2 1066 instead though.

How much would an i5 cost anyway?

Well, compare this:

Core i5 720
4 cores
4mb cache
2.66ghz
"$192" listed price (apparently that's only for bulk purchases though, so it might be considerably higher)

Phenom 2 x4 955
4 cores
6mb cache
3.2ghz
$189
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674

You make the call.

 

[Shouta]

Well, compare this:

Core i5 720
4 cores
4mb cache
2.66ghz
"$192" listed price (apparently that's only for bulk purchases though, so it might be considerably higher)

Phenom 2 x4 955
4 cores
6mb cache
3.2ghz
$189
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674

You make the call.

Interesting. How good is the Phenom?

 

[lowlylowlycook]

Uh huh, and how much do those cost? You make it sound like it's a better deal, which is not the case. If the i5 is just an slower i7 920, then it's not particularly great for gaming compared to a higher-clocked processor.

Hardocp bought one for $205 from Fry's and for gaming it's every bit as fast as an i7 clock for clock. And it will smoke any Core2 of Phenom II.

On the other hand, while motherboards should be cheaper than the ones needed for an i7 they might not be quite as cheap as AM3 or 775 boards.

Then again, if all you need CPU power is for games then you could ust get a Phenom II X2 or something for $90 or whatever. But if you are going to pay something near $200 you might as well wait.

 

[Shouta]

Hardocp bought one for $205 from Fry's and for gaming it's every bit as fast as an i7 clock for clock. And it will smoke any Core2 of Phenom II.

On the other hand, while motherboards should be cheaper than the ones needed for an i7 they might not be quite as cheap as AM3 or 775 boards.

Then again, if all you need CPU power is for games then you could ust get a Phenom II X2 or something for $90 or whatever. But if you are going to pay something near $200 you might as well wait.

Might be a good idea if it actually comes out cheap. I'm not in a big rush to make this computer so waiting a bit so I get the perfect balance of power and cost for myself is ok.

 

[snack]

I plan to make a build during XMAS 2010. Do you guys think that the builds will be updated on this thread by that time? Thanks!

 

[PopcornMegaphone]

Oh, and I don't plan to update this thread until the new hardware releases are all sorted out, its a iffy time to be recommending upgrades when so much could change in the next month.

I appreciate this. Because of this fracking thread I'm going to buy a gaming PC in Nov. Many thanks!

 

[Firestorm]

I plan to make a build during XMAS 2010. Do you guys think that the builds will be updated on this thread by that time? Thanks!

Definitely? Computer prices change every month or two. There will be new builds by then.

 

[snack]

Definitely? Computer prices change every month or two. There will be new builds by then.

Cool! Thanks broseph.

 

[jey_16]

if i am not going to be gaming much, is it worth waiting for the i5? i can get a really good deal on a Q9550 based PC but everything i read online is saying wait for the i5

 

[Firestorm]

Depends on how good the deal is I guess... I went with a Q9550 build last month because I didn't feel like waiting and for maximum OSX compatibility. Most games are not CPU bottlenecked so you should be fine. The problem is more for upgrading down the line as the LGA775 socket the Core 2 processors use is just about done now. The i5 won't fit in the same motherboard so next time you upgrade you'll need to redo both.

 

[jey_16]

Depends on how good the deal is I guess... I went with a Q9550 build last month because I didn't feel like waiting and for maximum OSX compatibility. Most games are not CPU bottlenecked so you should be fine. The problem is more for upgrading down the line as the LGA775 socket the Core 2 processors use is just about done now. The i5 won't fit in the same motherboard so next time you upgrade you'll need to redo both.

i dont think i will be upgrading the CPU....at most it will be more RAM and a new graphics card

looks like i might go for it then

 

[mclem]

Oh, and I don't plan to update this thread until the new hardware releases are all sorted out, its a iffy time to be recommending upgrades when so much could change in the next month.

I know there's a Radeon announcement due in a little over a week, what else is expected to appear beyond that? I'm planning to treat myself to a hefty upgrade/rebuild in November so I'm hoping the silly season clears out by mid-October or so!

 

[No45]

Right, I've decided to take the plunge. I've budgeted myself at around £700 and this is what I've come up with:

CPU - £146.18
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

MOBO - £92.99
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P 790X Socket AM3 DDR3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

RAM - £57.00
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Gold Memory

GPU - £164.26
XFX GTX275 896MB DDR3 640Mhz Dual DVI Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card

HDD - £51.79
Western Digital WD6401AALS 640GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Caviar Black

DVD - £16.28
Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD?RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM

CASE - £44.94
Antec 300 Three Hundred Black Case - No PSU

PSU - £89.84
Corsair 620W HX Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC

COOLER - £24.29
Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Socket 775, AM2, AM2+, 939 Processor Cooler

PASTE - £5.50
Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram

TOTAL - £693.07

Now I've built before so that's not a problem, but I am horribly out of touch with PC hardware so just wanted to make sure that I haven't made any silly mistakes in there. If anyone has any tips for helping to keep the noise down on this I'd appreciate it, it will be on almost constantly. Same goes for cost if anyone thinks I'm wasting monies unnecessarily on any components?

Am I wasting money on a modular PSU? I hear them praised a lot but I'm not sure what the benefit is over a standard PSU

Thanks in advance.

 

[brain_stew]

I'm buying a new desktop pretty soon, I haven't put together a PC in about 6 years and fell out of the tech side of things. I'd like to have some graphics card recommendations the cheaper the better (but I'm willing to spend 50-100). Also my monitor is 1080 native so something that can support that would be nice too. I just don't know where to start looking. thanks in advance for any advice/help.

4850.

 

[brain_stew]

Right, I've decided to take the plunge. I've budgeted myself at around £700 and this is what I've come up with:

CPU - £146.18
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

MOBO - £92.99
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P 790X Socket AM3 DDR3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

RAM - £57.00
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Gold Memory

GPU - £164.26
XFX GTX275 896MB DDR3 640Mhz Dual DVI Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card

HDD - £51.79
Western Digital WD6401AALS 640GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Caviar Black

DVD - £16.28
Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD?RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM

CASE - £44.94
Antec 300 Three Hundred Black Case - No PSU

PSU - £89.84
Corsair 620W HX Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC

COOLER - £24.29
Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Socket 775, AM2, AM2+, 939 Processor Cooler

PASTE - £5.50
Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram

TOTAL - £693.07

Now I've built before so that's not a problem, but I am horribly out of touch with PC hardware so just wanted to make sure that I haven't made any silly mistakes in there. If anyone has any tips for helping to keep the noise down on this I'd appreciate it, it will be on almost constantly. Same goes for cost if anyone thinks I'm wasting monies unnecessarily on any components?

Am I wasting money on a modular PSU? I hear them praised a lot but I'm not sure what the benefit is over a standard PSU

Thanks in advance.

Get your XFX GTX 275 from here:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...s-Nvidia/NvidiaGTX275Series/GX-275X-AHQF.html

Save £5 and get two free games and some 3D glasses, delivery is still free and Novatech are great.

Having said that, I'd personally recommend saving yourself £45 (you still get the two free games) and just getting this GTX 260 instead:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...vidiaGTX260Series/GTX260SONIC55NM216Core.html

Its factory overclocked and should be within 5-10% (at most) of a stock GTX 275. Its also got a much better custom cooler, so it'll run cooler and will clock quite nicely as well. My card uses the same design (its just branded differently) and I can't recommend it enough.

 

[No45]

Ooh, awesome. They're also just down the road from me here.

 

[brain_stew]

Ooh, awesome. They're also just down the road from me here.

Well you might be better off just ordering all your parts from them then, all the parts I've ordered from Novatech have come next day with the free delivery option. Can't beat that level of service really.

 

[Yazus]

Guys for a 19" 1440x900 no 1080p screen Acer X193W is a Sapphire 4850 512MB going to last 3 years?

 

[brain_stew]

Guys for a 19" 1440x900 no 1080p screen Acer X193W is a Sapphire 4850 512MB going to last 3 years?

Statements like that are really pointless. A GPU will "last" as long as you want it to. It'll absolutely play any game released in the next 3 years, its upto you whether you're happy with its graphical output for that amount of time.


A GPU's graphical output doesn't really get any worse over time, you just have to lower settings to get the same level of output as older games. If you'll be happy with ~3x console level graphics for the next 3 years then a 4850 will "last" you 3 years just fine.

 

[No45]

Well I ordered. Also added a GPU cooler to it, which took it to £730 (Novatech worked out too expensive overall and I wanted to order everything from the same place if possible), but should help the noise. I know what I'll be doing this weekend. ^_^

 

[brain_stew]

Well I ordered. Also added a GPU cooler to it, which took it to £730 (Novatech worked out too expensive overall and I wanted to order everything from the same place if possible), but should help the noise. I know what I'll be doing this weekend. ^_^

If you can cancel, switch the GPU out to this and ditch the cooler:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161668

That stock cooler's excellent and you'll save cash and not forfeit your warranty either.

 

[No45]

That's out of stock.

Never mind anyway, I'm not averse to getting my hands dirty. It's been a while (Last built a PC for the original HL2 release) but I've done a few in the past.

 

[drakesfortune]

I'm very happy with my PC build so far. Many thanks again.

The one thing that bugs me is the fan noise. I opened it up and stopped each fan for a second, and the two loudest fans are on the CPU and GPU. Go figure. The worst is the CPU fan though. Any suggestions on how to quiet it down? Is it possible? It doesn't seem like the fan just screws off of there unfortunately.

My CPU is an AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDX945FBGIBOX

Any ideas?

 

[Firestorm]

You could install and aftermarket fan. The Noctuas are supposed to be amazing for cooling and noise reduction:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608001

That's an option if your motherboard is AM2.

 

[No45]

So I've ordered the wrong memory. :lol

I need to order replacement DDR3 memory. I was going to get this (DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10666), but then I noticed this (DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800) is actually cheaper.

Any reason I shouldn't go with the 12800? This will be my Mobo (GA-MA790XT-UD4P) which says it supports up to DDR3 1666+, but I obviously don't want to screw up the order again. Thanks.

 

[Abubakr]

So, I just ordered this:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=42988&promoid=1055

Would this power supply work well with the current Canadian build? With the HD 4870?

Or should I cancel my order? Also, I got it for $39.99.

Thanks!

 

[Rentahamster]

How the hell is Microcenter selling the i7 920 for $200 when it's at least $270 everywhere else, even online?

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727

 

[Abubakr]

Is this fine? Will everything work out? Or are there any new parts which are cheaper?

Total: $550.46

Links:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35105

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=34286&promoid=1055

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=20935

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35762

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=36295&promoid=1055

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=41501

I already have this power supply. Will this work or should I cancel the order for it?

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=42988&vpn=S47X&manufacture=PC Power & Cooling (Got it for $39.99)

 

[rollingstart]

this is a bit of a random question, so it may not fit this thread purpose, but anyway:

Is there a way to prevent my GTX 275 card from sending audio out via HDMI? I didn't do the audio step in the manual on purpose since I have an alternate solution. I'm currently connecting my PC to my TV through a DVI to HDMI cable, and I've always had an audio cable going with it. Now my TV thinks it should be getting audio through the HDMI, so it ignores the audio cables I have plugged into it. I need a way to stop HDMI audio signal.

 

[ACE 1991]

I have a quick question. Sorry to derail the thread here, but I have a friend coming over tomorrow night with his mac for some hot and steamy diablo 2 action, and we plan on playing over lan due to the fact that we're playing a modded version of D2. Should I run into any problems with this, seeing as I'm on a PC?

EDIT: Also, does one really gain that much more performance building a $1000 gaming PC than buying one of similar price for ibuypower.com?

 

[KAL2006]

I have a situation, I have the XFX 4870 1GB graphics card, but I get no display. I have it connected to a 1080p LCDTV using a DVI to HDMI cable. I am also using ASUS M4A78 motherboard.

 

[MoFuzz]

Is this fine? Will everything work out? Or are there any new parts which are cheaper?

Not sure if you've already gone ahead with this, but just some random thoughts:

For about $15 - $20 more, you can pickup a 1TB version of the Western Digital Black. Might be worth considering. Fills up fast if you download a lot.

The price match link for the motherboard doesn't seem to be working, but from the title I think you are mixing two different boards up. I don't think they will approve the match. The UD3 typically retails for $75 - $80 CAD.

Might I suggest 4GB of DDR2 from Corsair or G.Skill? You should be able to find some for $45-$60 on sale. As long as they are somewhat close to 5-5-5-15 timings and clocked at 800-1066 MHz I really don't think you'll notice the difference in performance between those and the Patriot Extreme model.

It looks like you got great prices on everything else though. PSU looks like it should do the trick.

 

[KAL2006]

I have a situation, I have the XFX 4870 1GB graphics card, but I get no display. I have it connected to a 1080p LCDTV using a DVI to HDMI cable. I am also using ASUS M4A78 motherboard.

OK someone told me I need to connect with VGA first, so I went and ordered a DVI to VGA cable, is that true

 

[ACE 1991]

Hmmm.... I'm leaving for college next summer, and will be building myself a nice rig. (spending around $800-$1000) Will it really pay to wait until next June or so to buy this? From what I've been reading, software is playing major catchup with hardware, so the technology required for today's cutting edge games isn't really advancing.

 

[Shouta]

So, got a new build. Anyone have any thoughts on it or perhaps oversights that I made?

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/5391/buildv2.png