"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition
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brain_stew
Member
claviertekky said:
A 9800GT Eco is worth considering:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500113&cm_re=9800gt-_-14-500-113-_-Product
TouchMyBox
Member
So reviews are coming out for the new intel Arrandale processors and it looks like the core i5 750 and the phenom II x4 965 outperforms them by a wide margin despite the arrandale being close to $100 more expensive.
Come back when you have $600 to spend. The difference between a $400 PC and a $600 PC is night and day despite only costing a little bit more. (though a $400 build would serve WoW just fine, but I don't see the point in spending money on a new computer that would struggle in some modern games)
LAUGHTREY said:
Come back when you have $600 to spend. The difference between a $400 PC and a $600 PC is night and day despite only costing a little bit more. (though a $400 build would serve WoW just fine, but I don't see the point in spending money on a new computer that would struggle in some modern games)
Minsc
Gold Member
TouchMyBox said:
Does alright in Valve's test:
Looks like it can hold it's own alright on average, thanks to the 3.33ghz clock, but nothing to write home about really I think.
Edit: Looks like it also score significantly better than a X4 965 w/ 785G in 3D Vantage too.
TouchMyBox
Member
Minsc said:
Integrated graphics solutions running 3d mark vantage... Kind of reminds me of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKaR5nJg-qo&feature=related
JRW
Member
I had a question on soundcards.. I recently built an i7 920 rig and im using the onboard audio for sound (Realtek audio, Gigabyte EX58-UD3R motherboard) but I also have an older X-Fi XtremeMusic PCI soundcard in my previous PC.
Would there be any advantage of using the X-Fi in my i7 setup? Any difference in performance? people are telling me the x-fi has hardware acceleration and the realtek doesn't, not sure if there's any truth there.
Thanks.
Would there be any advantage of using the X-Fi in my i7 setup? Any difference in performance? people are telling me the x-fi has hardware acceleration and the realtek doesn't, not sure if there's any truth there.
Thanks.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
I'm probably going to build a new one in the summer... I'm not sure yet though.
An 80GB X-25E drive for $200 is an insane deal. The X-25E is both faster and more reliable than the X-25M.
Since X-25E uses SLC memory, it also gives you 10x the amount of writes compared to regular MLC drives. This won't really affect home users so much though since you won't be writing to the HDD nearly as much as a server would.
Let me tell you, now that I've been using an SSD, I never want to be without one again. It's so awesome to load up Windows in 10 seconds (from the Windows loading screen) and have everything working right away. Even with MSN, Steam, and other startup utilities booting up, my PC loads up faster than my router can assign me an IP address.
Since X-25E uses SLC memory, it also gives you 10x the amount of writes compared to regular MLC drives. This won't really affect home users so much though since you won't be writing to the HDD nearly as much as a server would.
Let me tell you, now that I've been using an SSD, I never want to be without one again. It's so awesome to load up Windows in 10 seconds (from the Windows loading screen) and have everything working right away. Even with MSN, Steam, and other startup utilities booting up, my PC loads up faster than my router can assign me an IP address.
Minsc said:
Ahh, but it is so worth it outside of gaming. This thing is going to pay for itself in no time flat in energy bills cause I actually turn off my computer every time I step away from it. As long as you got a HDD too of course. And you could put a few loading screen intensive games on it to speed performance.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
Minsc said:
You sure? Everyone in the old thread said it helps a little bit having ssd due to faster seek times.
dionysus said:
Haha yeah I actually started turning my PC off now that I have an SSD. Windows shutdown takes around 1-2 seconds now, when it used to take around 20-30 (when everything is written back to the HDD). Bootup is fast. 40 seconds or so...as soon as my desktop pops up it's ready to use, when I used to have to wait a good 30-40 seconds for my PC to be good to go before.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
beje said:
Where are you seeing x-25e for $200? They're $800 on newegg...
I've been keeping an eye on OCZ Colossus SSD for a price drop.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227473
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227473
evil solrac v3.0
Member
TheExodu5 said:
where do you keep your games though?
MLC should be the X-25M.
I have a 1TB WD Caviar Black drive for games. I also use a 1TB WD Caviar Green for media.
Anyways, I did some rough timings:
Time to shutdown (with Firefox, Steam, MSN open):
5.2 seconds
Time to POST:
22.1 seconds
Time from loading Windows to full desktop:
19.7 seconds
Time to enter this thread:
8.5 seconds (I attribute this to slow router IP address assigning
)
This is with Windows 7 64-bit.
Overclocking takes a good 5 seconds of extra bootup time on my motherboard...I do wish I had a faster POSTing board though.
evil solrac v3.0 said:
I have a 1TB WD Caviar Black drive for games. I also use a 1TB WD Caviar Green for media.
Anyways, I did some rough timings:
Time to shutdown (with Firefox, Steam, MSN open):
5.2 seconds
Time to POST:
22.1 seconds
Time from loading Windows to full desktop:
19.7 seconds
Time to enter this thread:
8.5 seconds (I attribute this to slow router IP address assigning
)This is with Windows 7 64-bit.
Overclocking takes a good 5 seconds of extra bootup time on my motherboard...I do wish I had a faster POSTing board though.
Hey everyone,
I have a $900 budget and am looking to build the best gaming PC I can for that. I am hoping it will be good at running most new games with maximum settings. I have an old steam account with Crysis & GTA 4 so would like something that can handle those.
I don't have any parts to spare from the machine I currently have so this is a start at square one job for me.
Can anyone help with a good list of components and prices and where to get them?
I am in the U.S. by the way.
Thanks and anyones help is much appreciated.
Cy
I have a $900 budget and am looking to build the best gaming PC I can for that. I am hoping it will be good at running most new games with maximum settings. I have an old steam account with Crysis & GTA 4 so would like something that can handle those.
I don't have any parts to spare from the machine I currently have so this is a start at square one job for me.
Can anyone help with a good list of components and prices and where to get them?
I am in the U.S. by the way.
Thanks and anyones help is much appreciated.
Cy
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
vehn said:
As long as you get a good brand it doesn't matter all that much. Do you really need 8GB?
cybropm said:
Newegg is probably the best but there is a bunch of good places in the OP that you should price check for any big savings. Is there anything special you want to do or just gaming? Do you have a windows license you can use or is that part of the $900?
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Guess I don't. Is 8 gb not much of a difference from 4gb for gaming? I had 4 GB but whenever I turned on my computer it would take about 5 minutes, so I took out a stick and it boots up fine now, leaving me with 3GB. Just tired of certain things taking too long / lagging, such as when I'm playing L4D2 and I'm unable to open the steam overlay and chat with people while loading into a map, just freezes and doesn't do anything until the map loads
Wish I looked at one of these threads before I bought my computer from 2.5 years ago. Spent $1,800 on it, granted I did buy Windows Vista for $220, such a rip off! Plus I bought a CPU cooler which didn't come in until the next day so I ended up not trying to isntall it until a year later and it broke as I tried to put it in...
MikeE21286
Member
Ok, I have a machine I built a couple years ago now....I'm really just looking for upgrading my GPU.
Right now I have:
Q6600
4GB DDR2
8800GT 512MB
could I upgrade just my GPU and be able to play like GTAIV and Crysis in 1680x1050 at high settings? If so which one should I go with (seemingly just doing some quick looking around, the Radeon HD 5770 seems to be a good choice? no?)
Right now I have:
Q6600
4GB DDR2
8800GT 512MB
could I upgrade just my GPU and be able to play like GTAIV and Crysis in 1680x1050 at high settings? If so which one should I go with (seemingly just doing some quick looking around, the Radeon HD 5770 seems to be a good choice? no?)
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
vehn said:
8GB isn't going to eliminate that split second lag most likely. Have you tried to fix it running 4gbs at all? If you can't do 4gb you can't do 8gb as it's most likely something wrong with their being 4 physical sticks and not how big they are. Have you tried slightly upping the voltage? It could be the voltage is too low so it has problems or your bios could be really outdated and it won't work because of that or a variety of other reasons.
vehn said:
Your HDD is most likely the limiting factor in cases like this.
Anyways, if you actually do want to get RAM, here's a nice set:
Mushkin 2x2GB PC2-6400 (800MHz) 4-4-4-12 timings:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146726
A pricey $89...but DDR2 really hiked in price.
Also
PQI 2x2GB PC2-5300 (667MHz) 4-4-4-12 timings:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141240
If you're not overclocking, and never plan on it, you can save $14. I'd probably go with Mushkin just to have that option open.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
MikeE21286 said:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=383&Itemid=47&limit=1&limitstart=8
That site has some benchmarks.
MikeE21286
Member
Thanks for the advice....sounds like a 5770 would just be a stop-gap as opposed to a "for real" upgrade.
gonna have to do some more research.
gonna have to do some more research.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
TheExodu5 said:
Why not get a more know brand for that kind of money? I've never heard of PQI or mushkin.
Minsc
Gold Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Yea, I specifically said the fps wouldn't increase and it won't as that 99% dependent on GPU + CPU. Games may load slightly faster (and they may not), keep in mind normal HDDs can read large files very well, which is why I suspect loading times in games don't always benefit with a SSD.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
TheExodu5 said:
Mushkin I've heard of but I haven't heard much either way so I guess they're decent but for the same price you can get a well known brand like OCZ or the like.
Minsc said:
Makes sense, I want to get one eventually just for my normal OS stuff.
I'd take Mushkin over OCZ. Mushkin is supposed to be about the best there is atm.
If you do want to go with a slightly more known brand, here is the most popular one:
G.Skill
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209
edit: actually, that G.Skill is definitely better RAM. Gets those timings at 1.8V, which is damned impressive.
If you do want to go with a slightly more known brand, here is the most popular one:
G.Skill
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209
edit: actually, that G.Skill is definitely better RAM. Gets those timings at 1.8V, which is damned impressive.
blackMamba1187
Member
Does anyone have a recommendation as to which brand of 5870 I should get?
I plan on upgrading from a 9800gx2. Newegg had 2 xfx 5870's in-stock over the weekend; 1 at stock clocks for $404 and another with slight overclock for $427.99.
I was going to get the cheaper one and oc it myself, but it appears to be gone from the site now. Should I just get the other (xfx has dbl warranty) or should I get a cheaper card and OC it?
Also is my CPU going to be a bottleneck with the new card? Its a C2D E8500 OC'd to 3.8ghz.
Any help would be appreciated.
I plan on upgrading from a 9800gx2. Newegg had 2 xfx 5870's in-stock over the weekend; 1 at stock clocks for $404 and another with slight overclock for $427.99.
I was going to get the cheaper one and oc it myself, but it appears to be gone from the site now. Should I just get the other (xfx has dbl warranty) or should I get a cheaper card and OC it?
Also is my CPU going to be a bottleneck with the new card? Its a C2D E8500 OC'd to 3.8ghz.
Any help would be appreciated.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
blackMamba1187 said:
Overclocking is easy to do yourself, I would worry about a good brand over it being overclocked.
Sapphire, HIS, XFX, etc. should all be good brands to look at.
Edit: Your cpu may bottleneck a little bit but it shouldn't matter much at that ghz and It will give you a sizable boost in performance even if you are bottlenecked. Unless you have performance problems I wouldn't worry about it. And obviously it depends on other factors of your pc. It won't be a waste to get the 5870 if that's what you're asking. Maybe get a 5850 instead depending on your needs.
blackMamba1187
Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Could you recommend a good brand?
Is XFX bad?edit: thanks