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[Minsc]

Hey guys, question about ATi graphics cards:

I'm really interested in outputting both audio and video via HDMI so I can feed it right into my receiver. I know the newer Radeon's that come with native HDMI outputs can do this.

My question is, if you don't get a Radeon with an HDMI port (for example, 2 DVI outputs instead) do you loose sound output as well? I know that the cards come with DVI->HDMI adapters, but there's no way to output sound over these right?

Basically my question is... isn't it a no brainer to go with a card that has HDMI out? Why are the cards priced the same if some don't have the audio output?

I know all modern motherboards will do digital surround via Toslink or Coax. I want uncompressed Dolby TrueHD.

Which ATi cards don't have HDMI out? I thought that was basically included in every last card these days.

If you get a 5000 series card you'll get DTS-HD / Dolby True-HD over the HDMI pass-through.

Edit: Found this:

2xxx 5,1 192khz/24bit DTS, DD 192khz/24bit
3xxx 7.1?? 192khz/24bit DTS, DD 192khz/24bit
4xxx 7.1 NO BITSTREAM/DTS-HD(MA) no DD-TrueHD 192khz/24bit
5xxx 7.1 full bitstream/DTS-HD DD-TrueHD 192khz/24bit

 

[Odious Tea]

Installed 5850, installed drivers, overclocked to 900/1200, played a round of Crysis. Highly pleased.

 

[Minsc]

Installed 5850, installed drivers, overclocked to 900/1200, played a round of Crysis. Highly pleased.

You should check out DiRT 2 as well, it's pretty amazing looking, nice subtle tessellation in the flags and water, you may want to leave the tessellation off the crowd though (don't use ultra setting), it's not that apparent and a huge framerate hit, but apparently the most recent patch helped the framerate tremendously, so it may be fine!

People with bad cards have noticed issues in DiRT 2 as well I think, so it'd be a good test of your overclock.

 

[Odious Tea]

You should check out DiRT 2 as well, it's pretty amazing looking, nice subtle tessellation in the flags and water, you may want to leave the tessellation off the crowd though (don't use ultra setting), it's not that apparent and a huge framerate hit, but apparently the most recent patch helped the framerate tremendously, so it may be fine!

People with bad cards have noticed issues in DiRT 2 as well I think, so it'd be a good test of your overclock.

Didn't come with my card, and I'm not much of a racing guy. It seems pretty stable now. If it's not, I'll drop it back some. Metro 2033, which I plan to get, seems to make use of tessellation and other DX11 features. Hopefully it's a good barometer for the card.

 

[Lkr]

Didn't come with my card, and I'm not much of a racing guy. It seems pretty stable now. If it's not, I'll drop it back some. Metro 2033, which I plan to get, seems to make use of tessellation and other DX11 features. Hopefully it's a good barometer for the card.

Not responding to your post, but I played with you yesterday in bfbc2:lol :lol

On a side note, how can I find the CPU VID for my AMD cpu?

 

[Odious Tea]

Not responding to your post, but I played with you yesterday in bfbc2:lol :lol

On a side note, how can I find the CPU VID for my AMD cpu?

You probably got me pretty good. :lol

And, if you can't find it in your BIOS I think Coretemp displays it, if memory serves.

 

[TouchMyBox]

People with bad cards have noticed issues in DiRT 2 as well I think, so it'd be a good test of your overclock.

:O

Dude, could you please elaborate? I had major issues in dirt 2 (it seems to be helped greatly after the patch, but it doesn't seem perfect yet) with my 5870 performance-wise. Now the same shit is happening in Just Cause 2. The action will be 60fps and then everything will slow down to a crawl what seems to be randomly. Not only the framerate will slow down, but the entire game will slow down, it's really freaking annoying.

 

[Lkr]

You probably got me pretty good. :lol

And, if you can't find it in your BIOS I think Coretemp displays it, if memory serves.

I probably did, I just noticed your name from the GAF server yesterday. I've never checked in BIOS, but a friend was wondering what it was to help me with something so I'll look there

 

[TheKurgan]

Installed 5850, installed drivers, overclocked to 900/1200, played a round of Crysis. Highly pleased.

I am thinking of getting the XFX 5850 Black Edition so just wondering... Stock cooling or did you buy a third party VGA cooler? If so which one?

 

[Burger]

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/how_to_connect_your_pc_your_surroundsound_audio_system: A good article about how to get surround sound from your PC to your 5.1 reciever.

I personally strongly recommend using discrete analogues, which should work fine even with your onboard system.

ATI cards an output surround sound using HDMI. So with that, you also wouldn't need another sound card. But I'm pretty sure they don't do any encoding.

If you really want it to be encoded, you will have to get a sound card (it seems like most Creatives can do this, either out of the box or with an additiona $5 fee, just make sure to research) that can do either Dolby Digital Live or DTS connect. From there you have to output it using the toslink cable. With this you will get 5.1 out of everything you play on your PC because it is being encoded as such by the sound card. I personally had a very bad experience with this, as the encoding introduced a significant delay between the audio and video.

You also have to make sure your PC is set up to be outputting to a 5.1 system.

Thanks, I ended up getting an Auzentech X-Forte 7.1 card, which was more money than I wanted to spend, but works a treat....

 

[Easy_D]

Yeah my cooler only came with the LGA 775 bracket, but you can pick up one of these to attach it to other sockets http://www.xigmatek.com/product/accessory-crossbow-ack-i5361.php
you could look at the arctic cooler freezer 7 pro ver.2 as another cooler that can attach to the 775 and i core boards. That worked fine for me, but it covered one of my ram slots due to my board layout.

Also you picked thermal epoxy which is used to glue small ram heatsinks to vid cards, or north bridge coolers. And you can use cleaning alcohol to remove the old paste of your cpu ifyou have that at home already.

I was looking in the Q9400 at one stage but pretty sure it doesn't OC as high due to the limited multipliers, and games love high ghz. Plus you would have to buy the ram and heatsink if you want to OC that chip too.

So basically, higher clockrates gives you more gain than a higher ammount of cores, got it.

Well if you can buy addons to the cooler to attach it to newer CPU's then it's all gravy .

What do you mean about the thermal paste, however? Descriptions on every site I check say it's just paste, not adhesive at all.

Thanks for all the help

 

[Lkr]

So basically, higher clockrates gives you more gain than a higher ammount of cores, got it.

Well if you can buy addons to the cooler to attach it to newer CPU's then it's all gravy .

What do you mean about the thermal paste, however? Descriptions on every site I check say it's just paste, not adhesive at all.

Thanks for all the help

some games will prefer more cores at slower speeds than high speed dual core. a great example is bfbc2. at this point, do NOT buy dual if you were considering it over a quad. my phenom ii x3 720 at 3.3GHz gets about 20 fps less than I do with an unlocked 4th core at 2.8GHz

 

[Minsc]

:O

Dude, could you please elaborate? I had major issues in dirt 2 (it seems to be helped greatly after the patch, but it doesn't seem perfect yet) with my 5870 performance-wise. Now the same shit is happening in Just Cause 2. The action will be 60fps and then everything will slow down to a crawl what seems to be randomly. Not only the framerate will slow down, but the entire game will slow down, it's really freaking annoying.

Nothing to elaborate, sorry... just noticed that a few posters in the past with 58XX cards who commented on having issues in DiRT 2 had issues with other games, meanwhile, people who didn't have any issues had no problems with DiRT 2. So it seems it's a decent test of the card, if the game runs fine maxed out then your card is likely fine.

A 5870 should get around 52ish fps average on the benchmark test on ultra w/ FSAA, before the patch... by the sounds of it now, it should be well over. I'll give it a test and see if it made a difference for me, I used to average right on target for DiRT 2's benchmark.

Edit: I'm not noticing any improvement in performance w/ the new patch, but I realized I still haven't gotten around to upgrading my drivers from 9.12, I'm just going to wait until 10.3 now, so hopefully I'll get some improvement then.

 

[TouchMyBox]

Thanks, I ended up getting an Auzentech X-Forte 7.1 card, which was more money than I wanted to spend, but works a treat....

And a treat it is, I picked one up for $79 CDN and I couldn't be happier with it.

Nothing to elaborate, sorry... just noticed that a few posters in the past with 58XX cards who commented on having issues in DiRT 2 had issues with other games, meanwhile, people who didn't have any issues had no problems with DiRT 2. So it seems it's a decent test of the card, if the game runs fine maxed out then your card is likely fine.

A 5870 should get around 52ish fps average on the benchmark test on ultra w/ FSAA, before the patch... by the sounds of it now, it should be well over. I'll give it a test and see if it made a difference for me, I used to average right on target for DiRT 2's benchmark.

Well thanks anyways. It's only been those two games out of hundreds of games, but I guess I'll keep it in mind for the future. Gotta love the XFX double lifetime warranty.

But yeah, i scored in the high 30s in that benchmark @ 1080p. :\

 

[Easy_D]

some games will prefer more cores at slower speeds than high speed dual core. a great example is bfbc2. at this point, do NOT buy dual if you were considering it over a quad. my phenom ii x3 720 at 3.3GHz gets about 20 fps less than I do with an unlocked 4th core at 2.8GHz

Oh no, lol. I'm running on a E8500 already.

And Bad Company 2 ran pretty damn well on max settings on this rig so yeah, some slowdown here and there but nothing that made me go "ew it's so slow ". In fact I get more slowdown in TF2 (in certain levels) than I did in the BFBC2 beta.

Edit: I just want to upgrade my CPU one way or the other, but going beyond the Core2 series would require a brand new mobo, so that could turn out be quite an expensive upgrade, so overclocking will do for now.

 

[Kukumalu]

After a couple hours of research I've put this build together:

Case - SilverStone Grandia GD05 Black (€94)
MB - Gigabyte H55M-USB3 (€104)
CPU - Intel Core i3 540 (€140)
GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD5770 Vapor-X 1GB (€156)
RAM - GSkill 2x2GB DDR3 Eco (€118)
PSU - Corsair HX-450W Modular (€70)
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB 64MB (€104)
DVD - Samsung SH-S223L (€30)

Total - ~700€

The main point of the PC is to be my HTPC capable of some light gaming (League of Legends, Torchlight, Machinarium, etc) while being low power and silent as possible.
I'll probably be putting it together over the next week or two but wanted some final advice on the build.
PS - Newegg was just used for pics and specs since I'm from Europe.

Bumping my post from a few pages back.
Just wanted some final input since I'll be ordering the parts this weekend.
Thanks.

 

[vocab]

But yeah, i scored in the high 30s in that benchmark @ 1080p. :\

What card? 5870? That's low as shit.

 

[JudgeN]

Installed 5850, installed drivers, overclocked to 900/1200, played a round of Crysis. Highly pleased.

Mind if I asked what your voltage setting at? My sapphire 5850 is at 1.30v for 950/1150, and its kind of on the high side (but still safe). Either way 5850 is an overclocking beast, can finally play Stalker complete 2009 at lock 60 with max everything :lol

 

[Romance Pie]

So basically, higher clockrates gives you more gain than a higher ammount of cores, got it.

Well if you can buy addons to the cooler to attach it to newer CPU's then it's all gravy .

What do you mean about the thermal paste, however? Descriptions on every site I check say it's just paste, not adhesive at all.

Thanks for all the help

The future of games will like more cores, but no need to rush off and get one now when you have a perfectly capable CPU

My mistake with the thermal compound. The first one I found on the egg was based on the Alumina compound, but was a two part epoxy :I

But that stuff sounds fine.
You get drops in TF2? I did you tick the multicore rendering option?

 

[Lkr]

57C under 100% load scares me for some reason.

Also, is there are areason to overclock the north bridge if i have an unlocked multiplier?

 

[Easy_D]

The future of games will like more cores, but no need to rush off and get one now when you have a perfectly capable CPU

My mistake with the thermal compound. The first one I found on the egg was based on the Alumina compound, but was a two part epoxy :I

But that stuff sounds fine.
You get drops in TF2? I did you tick the multicore rendering option?

Sweet, ordering tomorrow then.

And yeah, tried multicore on, multicore off, it's weird, the E8500 should be perfectly capable of running TF2 so it's quite weird.

It all depends on the level though, not the ammount of on screen action, like Goldrush runs much better than 2fort, even though 2fort is a much smaller map, or Viaduct, which is the map that peforms the worst of all, doesn't matter if weather effects are on or not.

But I've worked this problem to death so I'm just going to ignore it, the game's still playable, it was much worse before, but I found a semi-fix, namely defragging the cache files with GCDefrag, but yeah.

 

[Odious Tea]

Mind if I asked what your voltage setting at? My sapphire 5850 is at 1.30v for 950/1150, and its kind of on the high side (but still safe). Either way 5850 is an overclocking beast, can finally play Stalker complete 2009 at lock 60 with max everything :lol

1.125. Have you tried dropping yours back down some? At 1.3v, you should be able to hit 1000/1250, I haven't tried that. Saving it for when I actually need it.

 

[Odious Tea]

After a couple hours of research I've put this build together:

Case - SilverStone Grandia GD05 Black (€94)
MB - Gigabyte H55M-USB3 (€104)
CPU - Intel Core i3 540 (€140)
GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD5770 Vapor-X 1GB (€156)
RAM - GSkill 2x2GB DDR3 Eco (€118)
PSU - Corsair HX-450W Modular (€70)
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB 64MB (€104)
DVD - Samsung SH-S223L (€30)

Total - ~700€

The main point of the PC is to be my HTPC capable of some light gaming (League of Legends, Torchlight, Machinarium, etc) while being low power and silent as possible.
I'll probably be putting it together over the next week or two but wanted some final advice on the build.
PS - Newegg was just used for pics and specs since I'm from Europe.

Not an HTPC guy, but everything seems to be in order.

 

[JudgeN]

1.125. Have you tried dropping yours back down some? At 1.3v, you should be able to hit 1000/1250, I haven't tried that. Saving it for when I actually need it.

I think I might have a bad card, furmark artifacts/BOSD with Driver failed to reset errors on if I got lower then 1.30v. I just got the card last Friday, trying to decide if I should RMA it for another one.

 

[Javaman]

I think I found a decent deal at Walmart of all places...

$800
AMD Athlon II X4 630
6GB DDR3
23" 1920 x 1080 monitor
Ati 4200 onboard video. Lolz
300 watt PS. Lolz

I'm not worried about the last two since I can just use an existing power supply (500watt) and a 9800GT

A couple of questions though.

Is there much of a performance difference between the 630 and and equivalent speed phenom II? Will this power supply work with the AMD 785G chipset?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148027

Two +12V rails (12V1, 12V2), will support most of your components under any load. It has one main connector (20 + 4 pin), one 12V (P4), two SATA, two Floppy, and six peripheral connectors. This state-of-the-art power supply also features universal input and ATX12V v2.03 compliance, so you can use it in a variety of situations and almost everywhere, with confidence.

Also is there much of a future upgrade path with the 785G? I'm not sure of the specific MB and am still trying to figure it out through Dell.

Thanks!

 

[Cosmonaut X]

Posting from my newly-built PC!

It's sat open at the moment as I've yet to install my old 500GB HDD, or my DVD-RW and CD-RW, and there's a bit of cable tidying to do, but so far I've got my OS installed, my 5850 set up, my 1TB HDD up and running and my internet access back up.

The BenQ screen is gorgeous, and the Gentle Typhoon fans are incredibly quiet, even with the case sides off. Time to shut this beastie down then back to work tomorrow stripping software and components off my old machine and putting on to this one.

My one and only cock-up - necessitating a strip-down before realising my stupid mistake - was to forget to connect the 12V connector from the PSU to the mobo. Everything else went like a dream, even if it took a bit longer than I expected!

 

[BreakyBoy]

So I finally got time to build my new PC today.

Got everything together, and everything came on and booted. Went into the BIOS to take a look around and noticed my i5 was idling at 78º C. I know that's way too fucking high.

So now, I have to see if it's an air flow issue, if the graphics card is too close to the CPU (and if so, I think it's dropping to a lower slot, where it might not work), or even the possibility that the thermal grease wasn't applied properly and I have to take the sumbitch apart and do it all over.

HTPCs are nice and all, but fuck they're a bitch to squeeze everything in.

 

[Odious Tea]

So I finally got time to build my new PC today.

Got everything together, and everything came on and booted. Went into the BIOS to take a look around and noticed my i5 was idling at 78º C. I know that's way too fucking high.

So now, I have to see if it's an air flow issue, if the graphics card is too close to the CPU (and if so, I think it's dropping to a lower slot, where it might not work), or even the possibility that the thermal grease wasn't applied properly and I have to take the sumbitch apart and do it all over.

HTPCs are nice and all, but fuck they're a bitch to squeeze everything in.

Heatsink isn't making proper contact. Only reason I can think of that would cause such a high idle reading.

I think I might have a bad card, furmark artifacts/BOSD with Driver failed to reset errors on if I got lower then 1.30v. I just got the card last Friday, trying to decide if I should RMA it for another one.

If it works fine at stock values on stock voltage, then there's no real reason to. Some cards overclock better than others. If it goes wonky on stock values, then you should definitely consider an RMA.

 

[Lostconfused]

My 7 month old OCZ power supply just failed on me. I probably didn't notice it, but it happened over night, something burned/shorted out inside it and now it simply cant turn on. I guess I should consider my self lucky that it was the only thing that went down on me and that my pc/house didn't go with it.

I probably don't have the receipt for it anymore so I have no idea if I can get OCZ to do an RMA for me. Anyone have any suggestions? For the moment I guess I am stuck without my desktop, but cutting corners and getting a $25 power supply is probably not the best way to handle it.

 

[Hazaro]

My 7 month old OCZ power supply just failed on me. I probably didn't notice it, but it happened over night, something burned/shorted out inside it and now it simply cant turn on. I guess I should consider my self lucky that it was the only thing that went down on me and that my pc/house didn't go with it.

I probably don't have the receipt for it anymore so I have no idea if I can get OCZ to do an RMA for me. Anyone have any suggestions? For the moment I guess I am stuck without my desktop, but cutting corners and getting a $25 power supply is probably not the best way to handle it.

Did you buy it online? Get an invoice if you can. Try RMA with the place you bought it first, then go for OCZ RMA. Just give them a call.

*Check your thermal paste and if the HS is seated properly.

 

[jlchoi]

My 7 month old OCZ power supply just failed on me. I probably didn't notice it, but it happened over night, something burned/shorted out inside it and now it simply cant turn on. I guess I should consider my self lucky that it was the only thing that went down on me and that my pc/house didn't go with it.

I probably don't have the receipt for it anymore so I have no idea if I can get OCZ to do an RMA for me. Anyone have any suggestions? For the moment I guess I am stuck without my desktop, but cutting corners and getting a $25 power supply is probably not the best way to handle it.

If it's 7 months old, then you should be able to send it back to OCZ for a replacement. The OCZ website doesn't say anything about needing the invoice or receipt for an RMA.

If you'd rather go with something else, Corsair and Antec are pretty popular right now. What kind of hardware are you running?

 

[big black woman]

I kinda want the p183 but how do I know if the cables will reach the righter motherboard connections? Can I just use the antec earthwatts 500? My system will be single 5770 with an x4 955.

 

[SupraDarky]

Hey guys, I have a pretty simple question. Basically, I had a GeForce 8800GT for a while now but I only just realised that I had a 350W power supply, which I've been told is not enough. I know all this now because it's basically too late and I think my 8800GT fried: when I turn my PC on, after about 10 mins tons of little graphic glitches appear on my screen and it freezes. I bought a 550W power supply and the problem's still there.

So now I have to buy a new video card. How much would another 8800GT cost nowadays (I can't seem to find it in any of my stores anymore)? Because I was pretty satisfied with it. If I can't find it in stores, which video card would you recommend that's about the equivalent? It's just that I don't want to pay too much while still having a pretty good video card that can run most games decently, which the 8800GT was providing.

 

[Devil Theory]

Ugh my desktop has been out of commission for months, I haven't been on Steam in ages, I have hundreds of games I haven't touched, and now all my saves are lost. I miss mouse precision.

Oh god.

I need a job.

 

[Lkr]

I think I found a decent deal at Walmart of all places...

$800
AMD Athlon II X4 630
6GB DDR3
23" 1920 x 1080 monitor
Ati 4200 onboard video. Lolz
300 watt PS. Lolz

I'm not worried about the last two since I can just use an existing power supply (500watt) and a 9800GT

A couple of questions though.

Is there much of a performance difference between the 630 and and equivalent speed phenom II? Will this power supply work with the AMD 785G chipset?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148027


Also is there much of a future upgrade path with the 785G? I'm not sure of the specific MB and am still trying to figure it out through Dell.

Thanks!

You can get that at $528.92 without a case/psu/video card. if you need a case, it will still save you close to $200

 

[brain_stew]

Hey guys, I have a pretty simple question. Basically, I had a GeForce 8800GT for a while now but I only just realised that I had a 350W power supply, which I've been told is not enough. I know all this now because it's basically too late and I think my 8800GT fried: when I turn my PC on, after about 10 mins tons of little graphic glitches appear on my screen and it freezes. I bought a 550W power supply and the problem's still there.

So now I have to buy a new video card. How much would another 8800GT cost nowadays (I can't seem to find it in any of my stores anymore)? Because I was pretty satisfied with it. If I can't find it in stores, which video card would you recommend that's about the equivalent? It's just that I don't want to pay too much while still having a pretty good video card that can run most games decently, which the 8800GT was providing.

I'd get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130539&cm_re=gts_250-_-14-130-539-_-Product

Only $100 (after $10 rebate), provides a nice 25% upgrade, comes with decent custom cooling solution, a decent warranty from a top tier brand and a free Capcom game of your choice from either Street Fighter IV, Resi 5 or Dark Void. Heck of a deal.

 

[Lkr]

Hey guys, I have a pretty simple question. Basically, I had a GeForce 8800GT for a while now but I only just realised that I had a 350W power supply, which I've been told is not enough. I know all this now because it's basically too late and I think my 8800GT fried: when I turn my PC on, after about 10 mins tons of little graphic glitches appear on my screen and it freezes. I bought a 550W power supply and the problem's still there.

So now I have to buy a new video card. How much would another 8800GT cost nowadays (I can't seem to find it in any of my stores anymore)? Because I was pretty satisfied with it. If I can't find it in stores, which video card would you recommend that's about the equivalent? It's just that I don't want to pay too much while still having a pretty good video card that can run most games decently, which the 8800GT was providing.

9800GT is basically the same card at $85 after MIR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121352&cm_re=9800gt-_-14-121-352-_-Product

or

a GTS 250 is a bit of an increase(just a tad better than the 9800GTX+) at $110 after MIR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261062&cm_re=gts_250-_-14-261-062-_-Product

edit: brainstew beat me. Depending on your res, 1GB of memory for $10 more could be an improvement. 9800GT is the exact same card as the 8800GT though if you want to save $15-25

 

[zedge]

Bumping my post from a few pages back.
Just wanted some final input since I'll be ordering the parts this weekend.
Thanks.

Thats very close to what I recently built. Love it. Playing everything I have 1920x1080 full detail no problem. Battle Field Bad Company 2 is just great on this. Dirt 2 is georgeous and runs smooth as hell. I have the Core i3 530 with same Video card as you. I'm sure it will be a great HTPC too. :lol

 

[Lostconfused]

If you'd rather go with something else, Corsair and Antec are pretty popular right now. What kind of hardware are you running?

Well I got some response from OCZ, so they might be willing to do an RMA. Going to look through my bank records to find the name of the place and the date I bought since they are asking for it as well.

If I can't get replaced I am considering getting a modular corsair, due to frequent mention in this thread. Currently running a core i5 and a GTX 280, with 2 hard drives. Different calculators put me at 500-650 wats range. Since this was a bit un expected don't really have the money on hand though to buy one right now, so going to wait and see if the RMA comes through.

 

[Lkr]

SDZeta, look at this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...-high-quality-update-3/compare,1675.html?prod[3210]=on&prod[3235]=on&prod[3225]=on

 

[brain_stew]

9800GT is basically the same card at $85 after MIR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121352&cm_re=9800gt-_-14-121-352-_-Product

or

a GTS 250 is a bit of an increase(just a tad better than the 9800GTX+) at $110 after MIR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261062&cm_re=gts_250-_-14-261-062-_-Product

edit: brainstew beat me. Depending on your res, 1GB of memory for $10 more could be an improvement. 9800GT is the exact same card as the 8800GT though if you want to save $15-25

Shit, didn't consider the memory, yeah spend the $10 for the extra memory, you still get the free game. The 9800GT really isn't worth considering imo. If he wants to go cheap, he might as well just pick up a 5670 and get DX11, a lower power draw and better multi monitor support thrown in. They perform damn near the same anyway.

 

[SupraDarky]

Alright so a 1GB GTS250 is what I should get! That deal is indeed pretty tempting. I really appreciate it, thanks for the help. I'll get back to you guys if there are any updates/new questions.

Oh and Lkr, your link doesn't work!

 

[MiniDitka]

Gigabyte MA890GPA UD3H
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3

All the flavors

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...A=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=890GX&x=0&y=0


Users test:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=58


FromTheFuture
For gaming, HD5850 is the only thing that you really need to buy. HD4870 is a decent card but with only 512MB it can get bottlenecked with recent games at 1080p.

HD5850 need two pci-e 6 pin connector, verify that in the PSU. If not just a good PSU should be the OCZ Modstream 500-600w.


When the X4 965BE 3.4Ghz 125w gets cheapo, it would be a sweet upgrade. If the X6 Thuban is not backwards compatible with AM2+ mobos, 965 should be the most powerful option for your 770.

Thanks for the info. My HIS HD4670 has 1GB of ram and hopefully will get the job done for now. I cant wait to get my new PC done so I can finally capture gaming video in HD.

 

[Javaman]

You can get that at $528.92 without a case/psu/video card. if you need a case, it will still save you close to $200

Yeah, I forgot to mention that I also need a copy of win7 which will add an extra $100 or so. Also with shipping it'll probably add another $50 bringing it within $50. My big concern is if the 785G chipset has much of a life.

 

[Emonk]

I am looking to build a new PC, so here's my template:

Budget: $1,000
Main Use(s): Gaming
Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Starcraft II, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, Civilization V

It's been about four years since I built my last PC, and I kept that thing going long past its natural life, but it's time to start over.

 

[number1jagsfan]

Can anyone point me in the direction of the cheapest place to get a new hard drive.

I'm UK-based and am looking for a new SATA 3.5" drive in the 500gb-1tb range.

The cheapest I could find online was around £50, is that my best bet?

Cheers in advance

 

[asdad123]

Im thinking of picking up one of the Alienware M11x (Theres an offer for a Dell Mini 10 for $150 with the purchase of a laptop and I was planning on getting a Mini 10 as a present for my nephew, so I have an excuse for to get me something :lol ) but I just have one question.

I am planning to upgrade to a SSD in the future when they come down in price a little, but for now, will the 160gb 5400 RPM drive suffice? The space will be enough, but will I notice any slow down from a 7200 RPM drive?

edit: Actually, another question. Is it worth it to upgrade to the SU7300 over the SU4100? Theyre both able to be overclocked to 1.73ghz and the only difference I see it that the 7300 has 1mb more cache. Is that worth an extra $100 dollars?

Anyone?

 

[Minsc]

Anyone?

I read more cache = more fps in StarCraft 2, I imagine that would hold true in other games. As to whether it's worth it or not I guess depends on your budget, most people would probably not find it worthwhile. Here's a benchmark from the beta that paints a pretty dire picture, performance should be improved a bit now though, and more in the release hopefully.

5400 vs 7200rpm, 7200rpm is faster though there won't be any "slowdown" with the 5400, just things taking longer to start. If you have enough RAM it shouldn't be a huge issue once things are loaded, but the initial boot time will be a little more painful. Both will pale in comparison to an SSD, even the fastest 7200rpm (or 100k) drive can't hold a match to a good SSD.

 

[nitewulf]

ok, so everything has arrived, but the Asrock boards system panel pins don't match the power/reset switch plugs from my antec sonata case, some of the plugs have three holes, whereas the panel doesn't seem to have three pins. i am pretty confused, and while i tried to connect by some trial and error, i plugged in the computer and turned it on, but nothing happened.

at least the power supply should be turned on regardless of the motherboard, right?

 

[Odious Tea]

ok, so everything has arrived, but the Asrock boards system panel pins don't match the power/reset switch plugs from my antec sonata case, some of the plugs have three holes, whereas the panel doesn't seem to have three pins. i am pretty confused, and while i tried to connect by some trial and error, i plugged in the computer and turned it on, but nothing happened.

at least the power supply should be turned on regardless of the motherboard, right?

Which one did you get? Does it have an onboard power button? Did you try looking through the manual?