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[Tonza]

Im in need of some advice.

I just bought a new pc. Yesterday when I put it together I couldn't get past POST.

Now I tried it by taking out one component at a time and trying to get those beeps. After I took out one of the 2 gb ddr2's, the pc got past POST. (with 5 beeps if I remember correctly)

The mobo is Asus M4N78 and memory is OCZ PC6400 Titanium edition 4gb dual channel kit. I had the memories in the yellow slots. The processor is Phenom II X3 720.

I really doubt that the memory is busted... I mean it's brand new so it's hard to believe. What do you guys think? How should I test it?

 

[dark_preacher]

it's quite easy to get some bad sticks of ram. try running memtest overnite and see what happens.

 

[pseudocaesar]

Your mobo has four slots, in 2 pairs. Dont put both ram sticks in one, you have to put one stick per pair of slots. Maybe thats it?

 

[Tonza]

The mobo has pairs so that the yellow slots have A1 and B1 which are different channels.

But yeah it seems that the memory is busted. It wouldn't get past POST with only the broken one in. Now I need to figure out how the warranty works. Can I just walk into the store I bought the pair from and get a new? And I suppose I have to take the working one with me too since it's a kit.

EDIT: also was I stupid in getting a GTS 250 (which I know is just renamed 9800) rather than HD4770? Those were the 2 that they had in stock for the price. (the gts was 7 euros more expensive)

 

[Concept17]

brain_stew,

You helped me order some parts for a new rig I was piecing together and just now (like 3 months later) I've finally got it all together. Just wanted to say thanks again for the help.

Anyway, my brother is now also looking to put together a similar build, if maybe a bit better.

What I put together:

ASUS M4A78T-E Mobo
AMD Phenom II X3 720
4G OCX DDR 1600/12800
ATI RADEON HD 4870 Sapphire
Rosewill Case/600w PSU
WD HDD 500GB 7200 RPM 16cache

What he has:

His comp isn't terribly old, I'm still waiting to get the full specs. I know he has:
GTX 260
4GB DDR3
AMD Athlon Dual Core 4400+ (?)

Again, not sure on the rest, but I told him he can probably stick with the video card, and possibly the ram, and to get a new motherboard, cpu, case, psu, and I'm not sure on his HDD.

Anyway, he wants to look at this as what it would be to replace everything, and would like to keep it under 700$ (for gaming). He obviously has monitor, dvd/cd, mouse, kb, etc.

Any suggestions, anyone?

 

[brain_stew]

brain_stew,

You helped me order some parts for a new rig I was piecing together and just now (like 3 months later) I've finally got it all together. Just wanted to say thanks again for the help.

Anyway, my brother is now also looking to put together a similar build, if maybe a bit better.

What I put together:

ASUS M4A78T-E Mobo
AMD Phenom II X3 720
4G OCX DDR 1600/12800
ATI RADEON HD 4870 Sapphire
Rosewill Case/600w PSU
WD HDD 500GB 7200 RPM 16cache

What he has:

His comp isn't terribly old, I'm still waiting to get the full specs. I know he has:
GTX 260
4GB DDR3
AMD Athlon Dual Core 4400+ (?)

Again, not sure on the rest, but I told him he can probably stick with the video card, and possibly the ram, and to get a new motherboard, cpu, case, psu, and I'm not sure on his HDD.

Anyway, he wants to look at this as what it would be to replace everything, and would like to keep it under 700$ (for gaming). He obviously has monitor, dvd/cd, mouse, kb, etc.

Any suggestions?

Check, but there's a very good chance his board will take a Phenom ii especially since its a DDR3 board. Just snap up a Phenom ii 945/940/955 for less tahn $200 and he'll be laughing. The rest of the parts are fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103696&cm_re=945-_-19-103-696-_-Product

$170 for a fast 95w 3ghz quad core with decent OCing potential, can't be bad.

 

[Mr Cola]

question, has anyone used a sapphire radeon 4890 with Vapor-X cooling?

How quiet is it in comparison to standard 4890s which area beast

 

[Concept17]

Check, but there's a very good chance his board will take a Phenom ii especially since its a DDR3 board. Just snap up a Phenom ii 945/940/955 for less tahn $200 and he'll be laughing. The rest of the parts are fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103696&cm_re=945-_-19-103-696-_-Product

$170 for a fast 95w 3ghz quad core with decent OCing potential, can't be bad.

I was thinking the same, so I asked him. I guess he wants to buy a whole new computer and only use the GTX 260. (gonna use the old one for school, new one for gaming.

 

[Technosteve]

i got the vapor x at idle is not very loud moderate in a quite room. Full Blast is pretty loud, to be honest any fan system is going to be loud because it draws significant watts. if you have money get a water cooling set up if sound is a problem or if your case doesn't dampen sound that well. My case has a grill on the side so it doesn't muffle sound (or controls dust) but helps with cooling.

 

[Mr Cola]

i dont mind noise that much i just dont want to wake the house up when playing games at night

 

[Sysgen]

question, has anyone used a sapphire radeon 4890 with Vapor-X cooling?

How quiet is it in comparison to standard 4890s which area beast

I have the HIS 4890 in a Cooler Master Cosmos case which comes with sound proofing. I have the fan speed at default and I think it's relatively quiet.

 

[Bob Coffee]

So i decided since my current rig , hasn't been giving me the 60fps locked performance in sf4 i desire, with some left over store credit and some cold hard cash i grabbed the following

new hotness:
Phenom II X2 550
4 gigs DDR2 800
Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P mb
Xfx radeon 4850 1 gig.

my old rig:
athlon 64 3500+
3 gigs ddr400
evga geforce 8600 gts

with the above upgrades should i be able to run most stuff in 1440x900 closed to maxed out with little or no hiccups, crisis withstanding? i know its no i5 or i7 rig, but im not looking to spend shitloads of cash and ddr3 is too rich for my blood right now. i think it should get the job done, gonna play the quad core lottery when i pick up a better cooler next month.

 

[Fredescu]

question, has anyone used a sapphire radeon 4890 with Vapor-X cooling?

How quiet is it in comparison to standard 4890s which area beast

I have one. It's much quieter than my Asus Dark Knight 4870 was. I think they're about the same at 100% though, so I think possibly it can keep it cooler at lower speed.

 

[Cheeto]

So i decided since my current rig , hasn't been giving me the 60fps locked performance in sf4 i desire, with some left over store credit and some cold hard cash i grabbed the following

new hotness:
Phenom II X2 550
4 gigs DDR2 800
Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P mb
Xfx radeon 4850 1 gig.

my old rig:
athlon 64 3500+
3 gigs ddr400
evga geforce 8600 gts

with the above upgrades should i be able to run most stuff in 1440x900 closed to maxed out with little or no hiccups, crisis withstanding? i know its no i5 or i7 rig, but im not looking to spend shitloads of cash and ddr3 is too rich for my blood right now. i think it should get the job done, gonna play the quad core lottery when i pick up a better cooler next month.

I have a similar rig to that and it handle crysis alright...you should be fine with that.

 

[Tobiasboon]

I've just fallen back in love with playing games on my PC. I still love my PS3 but I think after setting everything up so nicely on my gaming PC I will be sticking with that for a while.

Originally my gaming rig consisted of the following bought back in March 2007:

- E6400 CPU @ 3.2GHz
- 2GB DDR800 memory
- Shuttle SD37P2 v2 chassis
- GeForce 8800GTS 320MB graphics card
- Windows XP (x86)

I recently upgraded the system slightly and moved it into my "entertainment" room from the study and hooked it up to my Sony 32" LCD TV. The upgrades are as follows:

- Q6600 (G0) CPU @ 3.2GHz (free upgrade)
- 4GB DDR800 memory (£30 or thereabouts iirc)
- Radeon HD 4770 512MB (ASUS TOP BIOS mod) graphics card (£70 or thereabouts)
- Windows 7 RC (x64)

I was limited with the graphics card upgrade for two reasons, the first being the small confines of a Shuttle chassis so I needed a card with a relatively good cooling solution and the other factor was a limit of a 400w Silent X PSU. The Radeon 4770 with its 80 ish watt TDP was the perfect choice (nearly went with the 4850 or "Green" GTS 250 as other options). Grabbed myself a wired 360 pad (which I will replace with a wireless pad when I grab the PC adapter) and I'm relaly enjoying playing some of the latest games with all the bells and whistles turned on at 720p. As the Shuttle uses the old 975 chipset it doesn't support the newer 45nm CPUs so I was a bit stuck there as well but the Q6600 has performed admirably so far.

All I needed was a decent front end so I tried out XBMC and the Aeon skin (gorgeous btw) but I struggled in the setting up of my Media Centre Remote to control it all (more hassle than I can be bothered with these days) and I didn't want to be forced to constantly use a wireless keyboard and mouse. In the end I looked into adding my games to the Windows Media Centre 7 frontend and with the help of a program call Media Center Studio I managed to customise it to exactly how I wanted it. All my folder art is decent (at least for my movies/rips) after some reshuffling and I can easily launch games using the Media Centre remote with minimal keyboard input required (Street Fighter 4 has a launcher for example, probably a way round it by linking to the game exe rather than the launcher but not too bothered right now).

I slapped a custom skin in there based on some artwork from Deviant Art which is quite nice looking and I'm left with:

Apologies for the poor quality screenshots, I'm at work and these are taken remotely!

This is what my little black box looks like for the record:

Controlled primarily with the Official Media Centre Remote and a bluetooth Keysonic keyboard and touchpad for anything else. Got my PS3 MadCatz Street Fighter 4 pad dongle plugged in for Street Fighter and any other fighting games I might fancy playing and my 360 wired pad for pretty much everything else. Was tempted to use the PS3 pad via bluetooth but again, after a quick look at the instructions I was put off by the seeming complexity when I had a workable solution already.

This thread was the inspiration for getting it all up and running and while Windows Media Centre may not be the best solution it's doing me proud at the moment and I am very happy sitting back on my settee playing a few games with oodles of AA and AF enabled (compared to the console versions for the most part anyhow).

As I said, I love my PS3 to bits still, and before the weekend it was my go to entertainment and media device, using PS3 Media Server on my server, but with how well WMC7 is working for me at the moment there has been no real need to turn the PS3 on for media tasks at all. Again, thanks for the inspiration OP.

 

[Tonza]

So now I finally have my PC up and running. The memory was broken and I got a new pair from the store I bought them from.

I ran 3dmark06 and I got 14292 marks.
The system is:

Phenom II X3 720 @ 3200 MHz (overclocked by changing multiplier to 16. I don't think I can go higher without better cooler and chaning the voltage. Im using the stock one.)
ASUS M4N78
4GB OCZ PC-6400 Titanium Edition
Asus Geforce GTS250 (overclocked the core by 40, shaders by 60 and memory by 40)

So what games should I try with this? What games are playable at 1080p? I have the Samsung monitor linked in OP. I haven't owned a desktop PC in 4 years.

 

[Nobodyspatzy]

Hello, I am interested in getting back into gaming computers again. but I would like to know a bit about building a new rig (was interested in the something around like the $550 one described in the OP). Any other combos on newegg similar to that one?

Looking forward to seeing more information, and will read up on the newest things computer news in the meantime.

 

[Linkhero1]

I want to build a good pc, but I don't know what's good today. A lot of the deals in the OP are dead. Any help? My limit is around $500.

 

[Foofaraw]

I believe the OP is waiting for a new card or board or some such before making another post because it is way more powerful and will be out in a month or so.

I'm waiting with you. : )

 

[Hazaro]

I believe the OP is waiting for a new card or board or some such before making another post because it is way more powerful and will be out in a month or so.

I'm waiting with you. : )

Some cards came out today, but stock is extremely limited.

 

[Firestorm]

Updated the $1000 Canada build now that i5 is out. To stay under the budget a 4890 is used but if you can go $70 over, there's the 5850 option!

$1000 Build (Updated September 25th, 2009)

Antec Three Hundred Mini ATX Case - $53.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=29812&promoid=1015

NCIX P55 Bundle Deal Core I5 750 2.66GHZ CPU G.SKILL 4GB DDR3-1600 C7 Gigabyte P55-UD3R Motherboard - $449.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=43260&promoid=1008

Seasonic M12 II 500W EPS12V 20/24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply Active PFC 80PLUS 6PIN PCI-W 120MM Fan : $69.99
This is listed as a combo deal with the above NCIX P55 Bundle Deal. Add it on that page as a combo deal by scrolling down.

Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22X DVD+-RW SATA DVD Writer Black OEM - after Price Match it's $26.59
http://www.xpresscanada.ca/xce.php/main/Product/DVSS000393

Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB - $68.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=34286&promoid=1008

Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X - after Price Match it's $206.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=43037
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102848
Upgrade (XFX Radeon HD 5850): http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=44142

PC Assembly and Testing with 1 Year Limited NCIX System Warranty (PRE-CONFIG WIN. OS If Purchased) - $50.00
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=7842

Total
$926.54 with Radeon 4890
$1069.54 with Radeon 5850

Dump assembly option if you build yourself and save $50!

Edit: Thought about it and can't really call the 5850 a "recommended upgrade" considering it's $140 more than the 4890. US it's only around $80 difference =/

 

[Zoc]

What about the $650 Canadian option? Not a good moment for price/performance?

 

[Firestorm]

What about the $650 Canadian option? Not a good moment for price/performance?

Not much has changed in that space. $1000 update was more for the new Intel chips and ATI cards. I'll see if prices have dropped on the lower end.

Edit: Meh, it's basically the same parts but some lower prices on them. Change our PSU for something closer to original $60 price. Or even change out case + PSU for the Antec Sonata III on sale for $110 right now.

Video card would need to be the Radeon 4870 as that's the only one in the $150 range.

 

[Red]

I have a question to propose for those who feel like answering:
I'm currently using an Asus G1S. I've brought it to 4 GB RAM and added a 500 GB HDD. I've heard that the GPU is soldered to the main board, so it's not practical to upgrade. I have very little room for a desktop, so I'm stuck with my laptop for the time being. I'd like to have something a little more up to date, but laptops are so damn expensive. My question is: how practical would it be to upgrade the CPU for this thing? Right now I have a T7500 2.2 GHz dual core. I can easily swap it out for anything in the penryn line of intel processors. Not too versed on the differences between dual and quad cores, but I've seen one 2.0 GHz quad that's an option. It's a little bit expensive, though. This is the processor I'm leaning most towards, as it seems a good value for the money. I'd like something faster, but I'm not sure how bottlenecked I'll be by the GPU (8600GT). I do some video editing and gaming.

In short, how practical would a CPU upgrade be? Would I see any real world results/notable increases in performances?

 

[PacoDG]

What is the update on the processor/motherboard for the gaming rigs? Any good deals at the moment?

(first newegg link is gone/down)

 

[AndersTheSwede]

Shuttle stuff

I, too, recently built a Shuttle (A SX38P2).

Intel E5300 2.6Ghz (overclocked to 3.0 no problem)
2GB PC1066 DDR
Radeon 3870 512MB GDDR4
500GB Seagate
DVD burner etc.

Got it all for $517.

Took a couple hours to put together and posted on the first try. Well designed cooling, nicely run cables, and capable of supporting three HDD and a dual slot video card (which I didn't due to budget).

Playing Crysis at 1680x1050 with every setting on High and getting smooth (~30fps average) fps. Jesus what an amazing video game that I'm just now getting to play. Fuck. It might single handedly spoil my 360.

 

[ACH1LL3US]

What type of rig would I need to play the following games at 1080p with at least 4-6 AA and 8-16 AF with a steady 60 fps???

Need For Speed Shift
Mirrors Edge
Battlefield 2
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Need for Speed Undercover
Call of Duty 4
Resident Evil 5
SF4

I'm sick of consoles games IQ quality and I am going to make the jump to PC gaming so I can still enjoy these games with much better IQ , any system suggestions would be VERY welcome!!!!

 

[brain_stew]

What type of rig would I need to play the following games at 1080p with at least 4-6 AA and 8-16 AF with a steady 60 fps???

Need For Speed Shift
Mirrors Edge
Battlefield 2
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Need for Speed Undercover
Call of Duty 4
Resident Evil 5
SF4

I'm sick of consoles games IQ quality and I am going to make the jump to PC gaming so I can still enjoy these games with much better IQ , any system suggestions would be VERY welcome!!!!

A GTX 260-216 should manage that just fine really (its what I use for 1080p gaming and I get very good results, I've persoanlly played/benchmarked 5 of those games at similar IQ settings and got a steady 60fps in all of them) but you might as well get a 5850 once stock becomes available, to make sure.

Can't beat a i5 750 +4GB DDR3 + P55 mobo in terms of price/performance.

At 1080p I wouldn't really recommend using anything more than 4xmsaa really, use any excess power to clean up transparency aliasing, transparency supersampling gives a huge IQ boost in a lot of games if your rig can manage it, but transparency multisampling is a nice enough fall back and comes with a miniscule performance hit on modern hardware.


On, a budget these GPU is all you need for your demands really:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127426&cm_re=gtx_260-_-14-127-426-_-Product

Waiting and stumping up an extra $100+ for a 5850 isn't a bad investment either though.

The i5 combo I mentioned earlier will deliver great bang for your buck but on a budget this sort of setup will be more than sufficient for your needs:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.259850

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0227346&cm_re=ddr3_4gb-_-20-227-346-_-Product

 

[Technosteve]

I didn't know that Windows Media Center 7 could be used to launch games..... i think my next build when i get a better job would be 40" tv with a htpc using that as my front end.

 

[ACH1LL3US]

A GTX 260-216 should manage that just fine really (its what I use for 1080p gaming and I get very good results, I've persoanlly played/benchmarked 5 of those games at similar IQ settings and got a steady 60fps in all of them) but you might as well get a 5850 once stock becomes available, to make sure.

Can't beat a i5 750 +4GB DDR3 + P55 mobo in terms of price/performance.

At 1080p I wouldn't really recommend using anything more than 4xmsaa really, use any excess power to clean up transparency aliasing, transparency supersampling gives a huge IQ boost in a lot of games if your rig can manage it, but transparency multisampling is a nice enough fall back and comes with a miniscule performance hit on modern hardware.


On, a budget these GPU is all you need for your demands really:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127426&cm_re=gtx_260-_-14-127-426-_-Product

Waiting and stumping up an extra $100+ for a 5850 isn't a bad investment either though.

The i5 combo I mentioned earlier will deliver great bang for your buck but on a budget this sort of setup will be more than sufficient for your needs:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.259850

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0227346&cm_re=ddr3_4gb-_-20-227-346-_-Product

Thank you soo much for the reply! So this 5850 ATI, is it more powerful then the Nvidia gtx 290/300?? And you say an Intel i5 750 is the one to get for a processor. So if you were to build the ideal 1080p rig running 4x aa, plus that transparency supersampling (not sure what this is??) and 16 x af at 60FPS, the system would be:

Ati 5850 ( how much memory? should it be gddr3?)
Intel i5 or i7 (what speed?)
P55 mobo
6 or 8 gig of ram ( should it be ddr3 or 2, and what speeds?)
I also wanted to use a Solid state drive for my gaming hard drive
would 450 w power supply be enough? I want a quite or silent psu if possible

Hope you could answer these questions, I would REALLY appreciate it!!

 

[Firestorm]

You want 4GB DDR3 RAM. For the SSD, look at the new Intel ones. The PSU depends on brand. I'm sure a good 450W by Corsair, Seasonic, or Antec would handle your build just fine. I think 500W is more common though.

 

[ACH1LL3US]

Ok, so here's my tentative build, let me know how you guys think it will be:

ATI 5870
Intel i7 920 quad core
6 gb of Corsair ddr3
SSD Intel 160 gb
Silverstone Nimiz case
Some type of water cooling ( not sure what one yet)
Silverstone fanless PSU 450W
gigabyte X58 mobo with sli and crossfire available

I plan to overclock the 920 from 2.66ghx to 3.6ghz

Also trying to make as quite of rig as possible so water cooling for gpu and cpu is a must and radiator with 120mm fans (2 prob)

Any other ideas for my build?? I think it should play all current stuff at 1080p with IQ settings (4xaa, 16 af etc)

 

[Firestorm]

If you're building a system that's ready for Crossfire, you should probably step up the PSU. If you need it silent, silentpcreview.com seems to like the Antec Signature 650W and Seasonic M12D 850W.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html

Canada $650 Build
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB - $68.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=34286&promoid=1008

Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22X DVD+-RW SATA DVD Writer Black OEM - $26.59
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=41501
http://www.xpresscanada.ca/xce.php/main/Product/DVSS000393

Antec Sonata III Black ATX 16IN Mid Tower w/ 500W Antec Earthwatt PSU - $109.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=24294&promoid=1008

Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 ATX AM2+/AM3 AMD770 PCI-E16 2PCI SATA2 RAID 1394 HD Sound GBLAN Motherboard - $87.47 - $10 MIR = $77.47
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35762

AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Triple Core Processor AM3 2.8GHZ 7.5MB Cache 95W 45NM Retail Box - $139.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=36295&promoid=1008

OCZ XTC Platinum Edition PC2-8500 DDR2 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1066 CL5-5-5-18 Dual Channel EPP Memory Kit - $74.99 - $20 MIR = $54.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=29623&promoid=1008

EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Video Card - 896MB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0 x16, SLI Ready, FREE Batman: Arkham Asylum Game Download - $189.99 - $30 MIR = $159.99
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicati...tails.asp?EdpNo=5214247&csid=ITD&body=REBATES

Total: $698.01 -$30 -$20 -$10
$638.01 after rebates. $608.01 if you sell Batman on eBay.

Sadly you can't use the build option due to the video card being from Tiger Direct.

 

[mclem]

I had a go at pricing up a UK version of the above, and I got this:


Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB - £49.39
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150247


Samsung SH-S223 22X DVD±RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM - £16.21
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450
OR
Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM - £16.42
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Sams...DR-12x-DVDR-DVDplusRW-x8-RW-x6-SATA-Black-OEM


Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower Case - With 500W EarthWatts PSU - £115.33
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128045


Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 770 Socket AM2+ 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £55.11
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159073


AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 6MB L3 Cache Black Edition Retail Boxed Processor - £104.22
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159071
OR
HDZ720WFGIBOX - AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition, Sok AM3, 2.8GHz, 7.5MB Total Cache, 95W, Retail - £91.97
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-...ion-Sok-AM3-28GHz-75MB-Total-Cache-95W-Retail



OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Gold Memory - £64.99
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149202
OR
OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Reaper Memory HPC Edition - £75
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141930


Gainward GTX260 Golden Sample 896MB GDDR3 DVI VGA HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card Includes Batman Arkham Asylum Download & 3D Discover - £132.61
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173774
OR
896-P3-1268-ER - 896MB EVGA GTX 260 SSC 55nm, 2304MHz GDDR3, GPU 670 MHz, Shader 1242 MHz, 216 Cores, + 3D/Batman - £217.35
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/896M...U670MHz-216Cores-2xDL-DVI-I-HDTV-with-FarCry2


I'm not sure what the difference is between the two DVD drives I listed; the latter seems to be a direct match for the one in the previous post. Also, I think the graphics card situation is poor. I found one on eBuyer that sounded the same for a correct-looking price, but I've no idea if it's actually any good - I'm sure I've heard a bit about Golden Sample editions before, but I don't recall if it was in the context of "Great!" or "AVOID". On the other hand, the one I found on Scan looked identical to the one posted above, but *look* at that *price*.

Is there a better choice of graphics card for people in Europe? What about the case (since that's a bit pricier than I'd hoped, too)? And finally, if I was willing to spend a little more, where would be a good place to upgrade to the tune of a few hundred pounds extra?

Or should I wait a bit longer?

 

[Eric WK]

Posting to subscribe. I'll probably be looking to put together a rig over the course of the next few months.

 

[Senior Lurker]

What's up everyone. I'd like to seek the advice of fellow gamers here. I intend to build my first PC ever and I'm clueless, but started to read a few things here and there whenever I got the time.

The machine I want to build would be intended for gaming and some video editing (not much but would still like to have it capable of that). My budget is $1500 without the monitor. I'm also getting Windows 7 separately so that's outside the budget too.

The little reading I did led me to choose the first 3 components (motherboard, processor, and graphics card), and I dropped them in my shopping cart at Newegg.com , but I just logged in now to see that my items were deleted from the cart (probably cuz I deleted browser history, though I thought it was saved at the site).

So I'm trying to remember what I chose, and thought I save me some time by getting recommendations from you guys here if anybody can help.

The following was what I started with:

Processor: Intel i7 920
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

Motherboard: ASUS P6T Deluxe V2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131365

Graphics Card: GIGABYTE GV-R587D5-1GD-B Radeon HD 5870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125299

I know I'll be needing HDD, DVD-RW, a power supply, memory (6 GB preferably), case/cooler, etc, so would appreciate if you guys can recommend some good combination of those that would go with the 3 components above.

Actually, feel free to recommend anything else if you think it would work better or if the chosen items don't work together or something.

Thanks in advance!

 

[kurahadol]

Any Canadian GAF members looking for a Intel Core i7 920 processor? I recently changed my mind on the type of computer I'm going to get and I'm looking to sell this. I'll let it go for a good price, basically what I paid for it. I paid 199.99 USD plus shipping and taxes, which came to a total of 230 USD. At the time that worked out to 275. So for $275 CDN, including shipping, I'll let this go to a Canadian GAF.

The box is unopened and sealed. Send me a PM if you're interested.

I'm open to offers as well and shipping to the US as well.

 

[ianswoody]

Keeping my fingers crossed for a new $500 GAF-approved rig being posted soon. Hoping to add a couple things to my X-mas list.

 

[Foofaraw]

I agree with Ianswoody. I really want to play Dragon Age on a PC the way, I assume, it was meant to be played.

Thanks to all who are keeping this thread alive.

 

[JohnsonUT]

It has been about three months since the American specs were updated. I don't know if they will be updated again.

The I need a PC thread may be your best bet.

 

[ianswoody]

Just got an email on this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...IM&cm_mmc=Email-_-Main-_-WEM2062-_-components

Looks almost too good to pass up. Thoughts?

Edit: Crap, already sold out!

 

[brain_stew]

New UK config!

UK GAF'S ULTIMATE £400 GAMING RIG.

Just like the rig for US posters, I've put together a config that uses the absolute best "bang for buck" components whilst sticking to a strict £400 budget. The basic components are similar but I've used parts that are better priced at Ebuyer in order in come in on budget.

[Motherboard (MSI 770 AM3 DDR3)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/165438 (£49.66)
[CPU (Athlon ii X3 435 2.9ghz)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176043 (65.67)
[RAM (Corsair 4GB DDR3 1333mhz)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166463 (£80.79)
[GPU (XFX HD 4870 512MB)]:http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169206 (£91.20)
[DVD (22X Sony DVDRW)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170014 (£15.89)
[Case/PSU (Coolermaster Elite 330 and Coolermaster eXtreme Power Plus 460w PSU)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135101 (£54.99)
[HDD (Samsung F3 500GB)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252 (£42.54)

Total cost = £400.74 delivered

 

[brain_stew]

*****NEW US CONFIG*****

US GAF's ULTIMATE $550 GAMING RIG.

[Motherboard (MSI 770 DDR3) + Processor (Phenom ii X3 720) Combo]: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.272066 ($179 AR)
[GPU (Sapphire 5770 1GB DX11 GPU) ]: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102858 ($160)
[HDD (Samsung F3 500GB)]: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181 ($55)
[DVD (Samsung 22X DVDRW)]: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151187 ($27)
[Case (Gigabyte Luxo X140)]: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811233058 ($30)
[PSU (OCZ 500W Modular 80+)]: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341016 ($29 AR + discount code: OZSAVEOCT)
[RAM (OCZ 4GB DDR3 1333)]: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227495 ($59 AR)

Total: $592.93 + $55 MIR =$537.93

DX11 graphics, DDR3 RAM, a triple core CPU that doesn't sacrifice gaming performance, modular PSU and one of the fastest traditional HDDs on the market. Bargain.

 

[Azure J]

That's a goddamned steal right there.

 

[brain_stew]

That's a goddamned steal right there.

Should be prime for plenty of upgrades in the future as well. That PSU can accommodate a much more power hungry GPU (pretty much any single GPU config will always be fine), you're on AMD's latest socket, DDR3 RAM should be good for several upgrades and the case is roomy enough to fit much larger GPUs and several more HDDS and DVD drives.

That CPU is also a really excellent (and easy due to its unlocked multi) overclocker, so you've got a free/$20 upgrade there waiting there for you, if it starts to struggle. Something like this should be good for a clock in the 3.6ghz range:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200036 and 3.2ghz or so should be doable with stock cooling/volts.

A DX11 GPU means that you'll be able to support all settings in any major release for several years. Its a really good starting point for a PC gamer imo.

 

[Kev-loc]

nvm
Thanks for the update

 

[brain_stew]

Will the case accommodate a 58xx series card?

Shouldn't be a problem, there's substantial room between the HDD cage and the end of the ATX motherboard hookups. At worst you may lose usage of a couple of HDD bays, but you'll still have use of at least 3 which is more than enough for most anyway.

Its pretty smart looking for a $30 case as well.

 

[Kev-loc]

Shouldn't be a problem, there's substantial room between the HDD cage and the end of the ATX motherboard hookups. At worst you may lose usage of a couple of HDD bays, but you'll still have use of at least 3 which is more than enough for most anyway.

Its pretty smart looking for a $30 case as well.

Cool. Thanks for staying up so late doing the update!!

 

[Mariner]

Ugh, never built a PC before but that new $550 rig is extremely tempting. I'm just concerned that I wouldn't put it together right and I'd burn down my house. :lol

I might give it a whirl though. That is an excellent deal.

 

[mrklaw]

Couple of quick questions

- brain stew, will you be posting a new UK higher performance setup with 5850/i5 or similar?

- how small and quiet can a performance system get? I have a mac mini as a media centre and I'm curious whether it could be replaced with something that can also do games. Doesn't need to be silent for gaming but does need to be silent when in idle (running sabnzbd) and when playing media

if not doable I can just set it up on my bedroom