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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

Zefah said:
What the shit! That is insane.

You have that thing running faster than my 5870 which is at stock (850mhz clock, 1200mhz memory) and it sounds like yours runs cooler! Mine runs around 38 - 40c idle and goes into the mid-60s with a heavy load. I haven't tried overclocking it at all, but damn if I am not jealous of you. The only difference between the 5850 and 5870 is clock speed, right?

Also, what resolution are you playing Crysis in?
Click to expand...

Less shaders and TMUs on the 5850s but at them clocks it won't matter, its absolutely beating out a stock 5870.
 
Zefah said:
What the shit! That is insane.

You have that thing running faster than my 5870 which is at stock (850mhz clock, 1200mhz memory) and it sounds like yours runs cooler! Mine runs around 38 - 40c idle and goes into the mid-60s with a heavy load. I haven't tried overclocking it at all, but damn if I am not jealous of you. The only difference between the 5850 and 5870 is clock speed, right?

Also, what resolution are you playing Crysis in?
Click to expand...

5850 and 5870 differ in clockspeeds and shadercount 1440 vs 1600

so clock for clock , the 5870 has an advantage

im running my 5870 at 1 ghz btw , and i dont think that is too uncommon

edit : aH forgot about the tmu's 72 vs 80 .
 
YuriLowell said:
Thinking about ditching this shitty ass X-Fi and picking up an HD Omega Claro with the built in Headphone amp.

Also thanks for the link on that Samsung Spinpoint f3.

Im going to buy one and stick it in for a main drive.

Is there any easy way to clone my drive from my old 250gb Samsung to this new drive?
Click to expand...

Anyone?
 
Also, what app did you use to overclock the 5850 to 1000+ mhz? Messing with settings in the CCC only allows me to bring my 5870 up to 900mhz.
 
YuriLowell : there are programs that can clone drives , probably not that hard , but i havn't tried it.


Zefah said:
Also, what app did you use to overclock the 5850 to 1000+ mhz? Messing with settings in the CCC only allows me to bring my 5870 up to 900mhz.
Click to expand...


i think the most popular app to oc 5000 series cards is the msi afterburner
thats what i used , and you usually cant just crank the clock up to 1 ghz and hit apply , you are probably going to have to increase the voltage.
 
Devildoll said:
YuriLowell : there are programs that can clone drives , probably not that hard , but i havn't tried it.





i think the most popular app to oc 5000 series cards is the msi afterburner
thats what i used , and you usually cant just crank the clock up to 1 ghz and hit apply , you are probably going to have to increase the voltage.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Thanks much.

I think I might just keep it my 5870 at 900mhz / 1300mhz for now until I learn more about voltage and what not. I don't want to fry my card.

I should probably look into overclocking my Core 2 Duo E8500 which is currently running at stock 3.2ghz. I wonder if it would be safe to crank it up to 3.8ghz without investing in additional cooling.

I'm really curious what resolution Mr. Potato Head is playing in to get 60fps on Crysis at max settings. With my E8500 3.2ghz, Radeon 5870 at 900mhz / 1300mhz and 4GB DDR2 800mhz ram I get around 25 - 35 FPS in Crysis at maximum settings, 8x AA and 16x AF at 1920x1200 resolution. That number increases to around 30 - 45ish FPS if I reduce it to 2x AA, but that still is a long ways away from a stable 60fps with dips into the 50s. I suppose his processor running at 4.6ghz definitely provides a decent advantage.
 
Zefah said:
Interesting. Thanks much.

I think I might just keep it my 5870 at 900mhz / 1300mhz for now until I learn more about voltage and what not. I don't want to fry my card.

I should probably look into overclocking my Core 2 Duo E8500 which is currently running at stock 3.2ghz. I wonder if it would be safe to crank it up to 3.8ghz without investing in additional cooling.

I'm really curious what resolution Mr. Potato Head is playing in to get 60fps on Crysis at max settings. With my E8500 3.2ghz, Radeon 5870 at 900mhz / 1300mhz and 4GB DDR2 800mhz ram I get around 25 - 35 FPS in Crysis at maximum settings, 8x AA and 16x AF at 1920x1200 resolution. That number increases to around 30 - 45ish FPS if I reduce it to 2x AA, but that still is a long ways away from a stable 60fps with dips into the 50s. I suppose his processor running at 4.6ghz definitely provides a decent advantage.
Click to expand...
my guess is he doesn't concider aa to be part of "max settings"

either that or he is running 640x480 :P

and about the e8500 , just keep the temp in check and see how far you can go untill you reach too high ones. i'd stop around 60-70 , even if it doesnt get dangerous untill 100+ celcius
 
Devildoll said:
my guess is he doesn't concider aa to be part of "max settings"

either that or he is running 640x480 :P

and about the e8500 , just keep the temp in check and see how far you can go untill you reach too high ones. i'd stop around 60-70 , even if it doesnt get dangerous untill 100+ celcius
Click to expand...

He said he was running with 2x AA and 16x AF.

Anyway, I went ahead and changed the FSB to 400mhz bringing my clock speed up to 3.8ghz. I noticed some small performance games with Crysis and GTAIV (I haven't tried anything else yet) and the temperature maxed out at 51c for my CPU and 75c for my GPU. Is 75c something I should worry about for the 5870?
 
Zefah said:
He said he was running with 2x AA and 16x AF.

Anyway, I went ahead and changed the FSB to 400mhz bringing my clock speed up to 3.8ghz. I noticed some small performance games with Crysis and GTAIV (I haven't tried anything else yet) and the temperature maxed out at 51c for my CPU and 75c for my GPU. Is 75c something I should worry about for the 5870?
Click to expand...

no they run pretty hot , with reason. 70 is nothing to worry about , i get around 84 c while stressing it with games like crysis. (5870 @ 1 ghz 1.31 volts)

off to bed i go!
 
Devildoll said:
no they run pretty hot , with reason. 70 is nothing to worry about , i get around 84 c while stressing it with games like crysis.
Click to expand...

Great! Seems like things are pretty stable then. I will try running at these settings for a bit and see how it goes. Thanks for the help!
 
Second try:

I want to spend 600€, but I don't know what I should get. I don't need OS, keys, mouse or screen. Could you give me a hand with a good build for that price (maybe slightly above)?

Thank you GAF.
 
 
I'm currently trying to build a PC for my living room. I have a list of parts picked out, but I'm not sure if they'll work together or not (I'm a novice at PC building).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138111
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154052
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161172
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500148

Also, can someone recommend a cheap HDCP-compliant monitor? I don't want anything too big, just big enough to handle a PS3 running at 720p
 
scitek said:
brain_stew, should I still go with this rig? I'm gonna place my order today.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I'm not a fan of that hard drive, just because it has a 16mb cache. If you can up it to a 32mb cache.
 
scitek said:
@confused: because search is disabled.



How about this case? The one brain_stew recommended is sold out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...id_Tower_Computer_Case-_-11-233-062-_-Product
Click to expand...

I don't want you too spend more. But your parts are as good as your case. Having good circulation, and a good sturdy case vs a flimsy one where the drive bays are hard to open, because the springs are bad....well you get the point.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066&cm_re=antec_300-_-11-129-066-_-Product

Could you afford this? I'm not sure what your budget is. Will you be using this for gaming?

Investing in a better case will be better for the parts you put in it. Of course if you can't, I'll try finding a cheaper case.
 
Smash88 said:
I don't want you too spend more. But your parts are as good as your case. Having good circulation, and a good sturdy case vs a flimsy one where the drive bays are hard to open, because the springs are bad....well you get the point.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066&cm_re=antec_300-_-11-129-066-_-Product

Could you afford this? I'm not sure what your budget is. Will you be using this for gaming?

Investing in a better case will be better for the parts you put in it. Of course if you can't, I'll try finding a cheaper case.
Click to expand...

I'll be using it for gaming, yeah, but I'm not picky about having the best system possible. If I can run most games at just 720p with high settings I'll be happy.

My budget is ~$600 before shipping, which is looking to be about another $50. A smidge cheaper would be good, but I like the fans on the front of that thing.

EDIT: Do I really need the SATA burner? I already have two IDE ones I could probably recycle. Is there any advantage to the new one?
 
I'm building my friends dad a computer, he is an old fella and doesnt really need much more than a general internet surfing machine.

I have picked this gear out; I'm 99% sure its compatible and will work, just want to get it double checked before I go ahead and order parts with someone elses money.

Mobo + Integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=12126

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=12140

HDD: WD Caviar Black 500GB
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=11863

Case + 450W PSU. Yeh its a no name brand, but he wont be gaming on it so im not fussed.
http://www.principalcomputers.com.au/index.php?q=item&id=6389

Ram: 2gb DDR 667MHz
http://www.principalcomputers.com.au/index.php?q=item&id=3608

I have a OS and DVD Rom drive +Monitor etc, is there anything else you can think of?
 
Well I finally bit the bullet and put my order in.


1 x ($89.99) HD 1T|SAMSUNG HD103SJ 32M 7K % - OEM
$89.99

1 x ($93.99) MEM 2Gx2|GSKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - Retail
$93.99

1 x ($95.99) CPU AMD|ATH II X4 620 AM3 R - Retail
$95.99

1 x ($79.99) MB GIGABYTE | GA-MA770T-UD3P AMD770 - Retail
$79.99

1 x ($109.99) CASE ANTEC|SONATA III 500 BK RT - Retail
$109.99

Here's to hoping I remember hardware as well as I think I should. Thanks for the help Gaf. I still have to get a decent video card and somehow find a way to get the extra money for windows 7 but those are minor issues atm.
 
brain_stew said:
Your CPU is fine, you just need to unleash it by OCing it a little, at 3ghz it can mix it up with the best of them. I just upgraded to a Q6600 this week ffs! :lol

I'd get:

A CPU cooler
2GB RAM
5850

Should come in right on budget and absolutely deliver the best performance for the money.
Click to expand...
Haha, okay. Sounds good. Are there big differences between the various 5850 models? (Asus, MSI etc)
 
scitek said:
I'll be using it for gaming, yeah, but I'm not picky about having the best system possible. If I can run most games at just 720p with high settings I'll be happy.

My budget is ~$600 before shipping, which is looking to be about another $50. A smidge cheaper would be good, but I like the fans on the front of that thing.

EDIT: Do I really need the SATA burner? I already have two IDE ones I could probably recycle. Is there any advantage to the new one?
Click to expand...

None really, if you already have a dvd drive, there is really no point in getting one.
 
put together my 5770, Gigabyte P55 UD4P, and intel Core i5-750.... god damn you have to love it when shit just "works". I even went into the bios very first thing and switched sata over to AHCI and when I booted up windows 7, it gave me "installing new hardware" which went off beautifully, rebooted, installed more hardware, installed 5770, rebooted, and away we went. It did yell at me needing to activate after the mass hardware change, but just went online, said I was good and kept trucking.

Only things I needed to install were the Marvell RAID driver and the USB3.0 chipset driver (and the Catalyst drivers).

<3 Gigabyte... my last board was a Foxconn... NEVER fucking again... their fucking instructions are what trashed my BIOS. Still a big Asus fan, but with the excellent reviews of the Gigabyte P55 boards, especially the '333' ones, I couldn't pass them up.
 
close to the edge said:
Haha, okay. Sounds good. Are there big differences between the various 5850 models? (Asus, MSI etc)
Click to expand...

They are all reference boards, so they should be the same. I bought the sapphire one, and I'm completely happy with it. Not all of them come with Dirt 2, so if you want i, make sure you get a card that has it.
 
fresquito said:
Second try:

I want to spend 600€, but I don't know what I should get. I don't need OS, keys, mouse or screen. Could you give me a hand with a good build for that price (maybe slightly above)?

Thank you GAF.
Click to expand...

You can use the $600 US build as a base, maybe switch the 5770 for a 5850 if it comes in budget. Its hard to recommend specific parts without knowing the prices charged at your local etailer.
 
Smash88 said:
Honestly, I'm not a fan of that hard drive, just because it has a 16mb cache. If you can up it to a 32mb cache.
Click to expand...

Don't listen to this, its the second fastest mechanical drive on the market (behind its 1TB brother). Its quiet to boot.


Smash88 said:
None really, if you already have a dvd drive, there is really no point in getting one.
Click to expand...

Of course there is. P-ATA cables are a huge pain in the arse and restrict airflow.
 
close to the edge said:
Haha, okay. Sounds good. Are there big differences between the various 5850 models? (Asus, MSI etc)
Click to expand...

Only difference is the warranty and support between the companies, which is why a lot of people go with XFX now that they make ATI cards. They offer a double lifetime warranty. Only other difference would be if a game is bundled.
 
AstroMan said:
I'm currently trying to build a PC for my living room. I have a list of parts picked out, but I'm not sure if they'll work together or not (I'm a novice at PC building).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138111
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154052
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161172
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500148

Also, can someone recommend a cheap HDCP-compliant monitor? I don't want anything too big, just big enough to handle a PS3 running at 720p
Click to expand...

Well they're all shit parts, and definitely don't come recommended. There's buying "bang for buck" components and sticking to a budget and then there's just buying trash, that build would fall into the latter category. At those sorts of prices, you're usually better off with an off the shelf machine.
 
Mr.Potato Head said:
I just upgraded my graphics card to a Sapphire HD 5850 and boy does this sucker overclock like mad!! Wow..

This is what im getting in the pic below and its VERY stable and VERY reasonable temps for idle (38c) and load (56c max) when i give it a good hardcore beating for a few hours playing crysis at a time.. never went above 56-57c.

Im getting around 60fps in Crysis in dx10 with AA x2 and AF x16 and all settings extra high in Crysis. It does dip to around 50fps once in a great while but over all its pretty steady in the high 50s/lower 60s. Im aware Crysis is more gpu dependent then cpu dependent but regardless.. im sure my Intel Quad Core QX9650 @ 4.6ghz helps a bit with the stable frames.

EDIT: Forgot to mention.. its amazing how much a good quality case helps with air flow though.. i just picked up a Antec Three Hundred case.. i had the card in my old case at first.. a smaller case and not nearly as much air flow.. my antec three hundred has three 120mm fans and 3 other case fans as well and i adjust the air flow of the fans to sweep out the hot air towards the back end of the case.. on my old case..the card was around 7c hotter all around.. 7c's cooler because of a case upgrade is quite satisfying to me. 60 bucks at the egg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

moemoe.jpg
Click to expand...
WTF? What voltage are you running the core at? I thought my Sapphire 5850 was a beast at 900/1250 with 1.1V. I've got an Antec 902 with excellent airflow and I doubt I could push it much farther. Do me a favour and try these few things:
- Windows Experience Index (Windows 7) with your overclock as mine crashes at 'Tuning Windows Media Encoding' when overclocked
- Furmark - extreme testing to see what your temperatures go up to
- Unigine Heaven Benchmark to see if you get any artifacts.

I can actually run Crysis for ages without seeing problems, but these tests seems to find weaknesses. Cheers.

Oh and I've found that you don't need Overdrive to be enabled (ticked) in CCC for overclocking to work under MSI Afterburner.
 
Mr.Potato Head said:
You gotta use AMD GPU Clock Tool and MSIAfterburner. This AMD tools unlocks the ability to OC further..so what you gotta do is go into CCC and turn on ATI Overdrive, click apply but just leave clocks at default there..then fire up the AMD GPU Clock Tool..set the core and mem to what you want to OC too.. then close it out and open MSI Afterburner.. reset those same clocks in there that you had just set in AMD GPU CLock Tools.. and also then set the fan speed and any voltage bumps.

Here is a shot of the MSI Afterburner on my pc
Click to expand...
Thanks for the links. I'll probably get around to it this weekend since ME2 is taking up my nights.

Speaking of which, anyone know of a way to force AA for Steam versions? The usual method of renaming the exe to ut3.exe will obviously fail.
 
Doytch said:
Thanks for the links. I'll probably get around to it this weekend since ME2 is taking up my nights.

Speaking of which, anyone know of a way to force AA for Steam versions? The usual method of renaming the exe to ut3.exe will obviously fail.
Click to expand...

tried forcing trough ccc or nvidia CP?



brain_stew said:
Don't listen to this, its the second fastest mechanical drive on the market (behind its 1TB brother). Its quiet to boot.




Of course there is. P-ATA cables are a huge pain in the arse and restrict airflow.
Click to expand...

id say the wd blacks are a bit better suited for os drive duty than the samsung ones.
the samsung has better read/write speeds , but the blacks responsetime is a tad better and the io/s are in the blacks favor .


imo, use the wd blacks for os drives and the samsung as storage
 
Hi Guys,

Noob question. I haven't played a PC game in years until I recently bought an Asus Laptop which I love. I bought a few games off of the Steam Holiday sale and generally all are older games. My question is with the following specs can I play some of the newer games on low settings?(Bioshock 2 etc) Or should I not even bother?

# Intel Platform: Intel Core2 Duo processor SU7300 (1.3GHz)
# Graphics: Switchable: Intel GMA 4500MHD and ASUS DGE powered by NVidia GeForce G210M with 512MB VRAM
# Memory: 4GB DDR3 DRAM, 2GB x 2 (upgradable to 8GB)
# Storage: 320GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive
Click to expand...
 
Devildoll said:
tried forcing trough ccc or nvidia CP?
Click to expand...
CCC. Yup. The only way I've seen to get it working for ATI cards is with a retail copy and by forcing it in CCC along with the filename change.
 
Jesse Jane said:
Hi Guys,

Noob question. I haven't played a PC game in years until I recently bought an Asus Laptop which I love. I bought a few games off of the Steam Holiday sale and generally all are older games. My question is with the following specs can I play some of the newer games on low settings?(Bioshock 2 etc) Or should I not even bother?
Click to expand...

its always going to be "fortune telling" when people ask if their computer can run a game that isn't out yet.
the best thing you can do is to try the demo. since that isnt out yet , you could try the original bioshock demo.
the games seem to be running on the same engine , so playing the first demo should atleast point you in the right direction


Doytch said:
CCC. Yup. The only way I've seen to get it working for ATI cards is with a retail copy and by forcing it in CCC along with the filename change.
Click to expand...
ME2 is pretty new , might get support for that in the 10.1 catalyst driver
 
After 6 years of laptop only gaming, I finally have the room to go back to true desktop PC power.

I've built PCs before but I think I should rather avoid the hassle of putting everything together only to find out a part isn't working, then having to go through the trouble of finding out what it is.

So I went to CyberPower.com and spec'd this machine:

# Case: Apevia X-Dreamer 3 Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ Side-Panel Window & Temperature Display
# Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Default case fans
# Noise Reduction Technology: None
# Power Supply Upgrade: 600 Watts Power Supplies [+26] (XtremeGear SLI/CrossFireX Ready Power Supply)
# CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-860 2.80 GHz 8M L2 Cache LGA1156
# Cooling Fan: Asetek LCLC 120 Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
# Motherboard: [CrossFireX] GigaByte GA-P55A-UD3 Intel P55 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 2 x SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 2 PCIe X1, & 3 PCI
# Memory: 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module [+49] (Corsair or Major Brand)
# Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5850 PCI-E 16X 1GB Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] (Major Brand Powered by ATI)
# Hard Drive: Single Hard Drive (128 GB Kingston 2.5 inch SATA Gaming MLC Solid State Disk (Nearly Instant Data Access Technology))
# Data Hard Drive: Single Hard Drive (1.5TB (1TBx1) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
# Optical Drive: LG CH08-LS10K 8X Blu-Ray Player & DVDRW Combo Drive
Click to expand...

The total comes out to $1555 which is higher then the GAF 'bang for the buck' build but then this build 1) has some bigger & faster parts like the 120Gb solid state drive with 1.5TB additional HDD , blu-ray player, & i7 CPU, 2) includes Windows 7, keyboard/mouse, 3) I really like not having to mess with thermal paste, heat sinks and 4) hopefully they test it so that it runs great on day one.

Is this a good idea? Am I wasting some money on upgrades like i7 or should I avoid cyberpower entirely?
 
The only SSDs I'd buy atm are the OCZ and Intel drives. There's a lot of dodgy SSDs out there. I suggest you read up on the technology (at Anandteh) before committing.
 
brain_stew said:
The only SSDs I'd buy atm are the OCZ and Intel drives. There's a lot of dodgy SSDs out there. I suggest you read up on the technology (at Anandteh) before committing.
Click to expand...

Hmm.. well they offer an 80 GB Intel X25-M 2.5 inch SATA Gaming MLC Solid State Disk for $10 more but then I lose nearly 50Gb. I thought Kingston would be a good name brand.
 
Oni Jazar said:
After 6 years of laptop only gaming, I finally have the room to go back to true desktop PC power.

I've built PCs before but I think I should rather avoid the hassle of putting everything together only to find out a part isn't working, then having to go through the trouble of finding out what it is.

So I went to CyberPower.com and spec'd this machine:



The total comes out to $1555 which is higher then the GAF 'bang for the buck' build but then this build 1) has some bigger & faster parts like the 120Gb solid state drive with 1.5TB additional HDD , blu-ray player, & i7 CPU, 2) includes Windows 7, keyboard/mouse, 3) I really like not having to mess with thermal paste, heat sinks and 4) hopefully they test it so that it runs great on day one.

Is this a good idea? Am I wasting some money on upgrades like i7 or should I avoid cyberpower entirely?
Click to expand...

since you spec'd that machine im guessing you want the watercooling and bluray player , otherwise im guessing you could cut the price quite a bit without those parts.
i would pick the intel X25-M 80 or 160 gb ssd instead of that kingston

you should look into if you really want hyperthreading or not , at the moment , it doesnt really help in games so you could pick the i5 750 instead if gaming is all you are going to do. i7 860 has a slight clock advantage stock , 2,8 GHz vs 2,66 GHz

ive never heard of cyberpower.com so i have no opinion on them.
 
Oni Jazar said:
Hmm.. well they offer an 80 GB Intel X25-M 2.5 inch SATA Gaming MLC Solid State Disk for $10 more but then I lose nearly 50Gb. I thought Kingston would be a good name brand.
Click to expand...

Take the Intel. 80GB is more than enough for an SSD, its only for your OS and essential programs afterall. You're asking for trouble by going with a low end SSD, lowering capacities, stuttering and slowing speeds over time are all potential problems.
 
Devildoll said:
since you spec'd that machine im guessing you want the watercooling and bluray player , otherwise im guessing you could cut the price quite a bit without those parts.
i would pick the intel X25-M 80 or 160 gb ssd instead of that kingston

you should look into if you really want hyperthreading or not , at the moment , it doesnt really help in games so you could pick the i5 750 instead if gaming is all you are going to do. i7 860 has a slight clock advantage stock , 2,8 GHz vs 2,66 GHz

ive never heard of cyberpower.com so i have no opinion on them.
Click to expand...

The water cooling is a free upgrade so I went with it. Is there a reason to avoid water cooling other then cost? Blu-ray is something I thought I would want... but now I'm not so sure. That's an $80 expense. Going from i7 to i5 750 saves me $84 so I might drop that if it won't be of any use any time soon.
 
Oni Jazar said:
The water cooling is a free upgrade so I went with it. Is there a reason to avoid water cooling other then cost? Blu-ray is something I thought I would want... but now I'm not so sure. That's an $80 expense. Going from i7 to i5 750 saves me $84 so I might drop that if it won't be of any use any time soon.
Click to expand...

Unless you've got a specific use for it (i.e. you're heavy into encoding/3D rendering) then the i5-750 is more than sufficient. Budget water cooling tends to be worse than high end air so look into how that specific water setup fares, it may be worth it for the b"bling" factor alone though, heh.

BD drives are cheap nowadays, no reason not to get one, and the PC will always be the ultimate media player, go ahead and get one. I wouldn't bother with a burner, just get more storage.
 
Oni Jazar said:
The water cooling is a free upgrade so I went with it. Is there a reason to avoid water cooling other then cost? Blu-ray is something I thought I would want... but now I'm not so sure. That's an $80 expense. Going from i7 to i5 750 saves me $84 so I might drop that if it won't be of any use any time soon.
Click to expand...
definitely get the BD drive. With the Radeon 5000s supporting Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA bitstreaming over HDMI, you are basically adding a full fledged forwards compatible high-end blu-ray player to your system for the cost of a BD combo drive (i.e. usually less than or comparable to a current budget BD player)

FWIW I just installed my i5-750 last night and really couldn't be happier with it. It's fucking fast and outside of some work in photoshop or premiere (both of which I do on occasion) I can't think of a single time I'm going to regret not having those 4 extra threads.
 
borghe said:
definitely get the BD drive. With the Radeon 5000s supporting Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA bitstreaming over HDMI, you are basically adding a full fledged forwards compatible high-end blu-ray player to your system for the cost of a BD combo drive (i.e. usually less than or comparable to a current budget BD player)

FWIW I just installed my i5-750 last night and really couldn't be happier with it. It's fucking fast and outside of some work in photoshop or premiere (both of which I do on occasion) I can't think of a single time I'm going to regret not having those 4 extra threads.
Click to expand...

ATI have already promised 3D BD support at launch as well. That's the great thing about the PC as a media player, it never gets outdated.
 
brain_stew said:
ATI have already promised 3D BD support at launch as well. That's the great thing about the PC as a media player, it never gets outdated.
Click to expand...

That's good to know. It's a shame that 3D ready TVs are still too pricey. I was hoping to jump on the bandwagon now since I'm getting a new system but it still seems way too early for that.
 
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