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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

Shambles said:
Save yourself the 45$. (70$ if the rebate doesn't come back)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102824&cm_re=4850-_-14-102-824-_-Product
Click to expand...

Damn. That's a hot deal.

Also...very lightweight cooler and I don't notice any extra PCI-E power connectors there. I assume that's a low power revision. Unless it's that thing on the top right...hard to tell.

edit: yeah nevermind it requires an extra PCI-E connector. Still a hot deal regardless.

edit2: that GTS 250 is a bit faster, has 1GB of memory, and has a better cooler though. I still wouldn't rule it out.
 
Hey guys, could someone recommend me a good Laptop for gaming on the cheapside. Around 500 dlrs. I am only going to to use to play world of warcraft. It must also have wifi.
Edit: is wireless okay for gaming?
 
I'm having some problems with my fans. In my BIOS, it says that the fan speed of any fan besides the CPU fan is 0 rpm, but the fans are all working. I'm trying to get SpeedFan configured and it can get an accurate reading of my fan speed because my bios doesn't detect. NCIX built the system, so I'm not sure at all what's wrong. My motherboard is a Gigabyte EX58-UD3R.


I have 7 fans total:
2 fans on my heatsink (Noctua UH12P)
1 fan on my PSU
1 fan in the rear
2 fans on the top
1 120mm fan on the side

My BIOS lists a CPU fan, a power fan, and two system fans. As I said, all of those except the CPU fan don't show an RPM.

Would the 2 heatsink fans just show up as one (CPU fan)? Are all my fans showing up?
 
Hey on the quick, could someone recommend me a second choice for a 5770 and AM3 chipset motherboard: I planned on ordering my parts tonight, and it turns out the Powercolor 5770 and the Asus M4A77TD are both out of stock.
 
I need an i5 compatible motherboard that can get a decent overclock as well as being Crossfire capable. Looking for a good price/performance ratio.

Thanks, GAF.
 
Is there anyone here who wants to help me figure out how far my rig can be overclocked safely?

As I said before it is the Acer Aspire M7720, so a i7 920 running at 2.66ghz. My one worry is that I don't know what kind of cooling unit is inside it. I would open it up but I know that voids the warranty that the store gave me...
 
CENOBITE said:
Single GPU 5770

System with GPU in FULL Stress = 321 Watts
Difference (GPU load) = 93 Watt

The card requires you to have a 500 Watt power supply unit at minimum. That power supply needs to have (in total accumulated) at least 40 Amps available on the +12 volts rails.
Click to expand...
Granted I'm not a power supply master, and don't know a ton about how all those magic electricity holes in the wall work. But stuff about the amps needed for video cards have always confused me.

The video card under load uses 93 watts right? Shouldn't it only be using around ~8 amps in that case because P = V x I? Why would you need a power supply to be able to supply 480W on the 12 volt rails to power a card that appears to only use 93 watts under load?

I wouldn't even just get a psu with just 10 amps on the 12v rail anyway, but I also wouldn't get a psu that has 40 amps because I don't see a need for it.
 
BudokaiMR2 said:
Is there anyone here who wants to help me figure out how far my rig can be overclocked safely?

As I said before it is the Acer Aspire M7720, so a i7 920 running at 2.66ghz. My one worry is that I don't know what kind of cooling unit is inside it. I would open it up but I know that voids the warranty that the store gave me...
Click to expand...

Do you even have the option to overclock in your bios? Honestly pre-built systems do not usually make for the best overclocks unless specifically built for that purpose. What are you current CPU temps?
 
Another question about power supplies here:

I've just bought a 700w PSU from my local maplin, and it has a 12cm fan on it's underside.

Considering the case I want to buy has the PSU mounting on the bottom of the back of the case, is this going to be a problem? Unless I can mount the PSU upside-down, the fan is going to be barely above the flooring inside.

edit: it's this case - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854

Looks like it has the fittings so I can mount the PSU upside down actually, which is great.
 
BravoSuperStar said:
Do you even have the option to overclock in your bios? Honestly pre-built systems do not usually make for the best overclocks unless specifically built for that purpose. What are you current CPU temps?
Click to expand...

Huh I just assumed they would still be there. Will check after lunch i suppose.

Well it idles around 30-35, and the highest I have seen it get is about 45-50 when I was trying to stress test it myself(running 2-3 games and several other things).

I guess the first test would be to run a proper benchmark/stress test program.
 
I know this isn't the give stuff away thread, but I figured I'd ask here anyway. Does anyone that has switched to intel have an amd cooler they no longer need and are willing to part ways with, without any compensation?
 
I finally assembled my new PC (core i7 920, hd 5770, P6T, 2GB RAM [getting more asap]) and decided to download the new ati drivers.

Problem is that every now and then my screen will freeze for a good 5 seconds (during which the game keeps running as I'm able to hear the in-game sound). Then, it will "refresh" (same animation as when you change the monitor resolution) and everything will be back to normal. Until the next freezing.

What could be causing this? The driver? Or is there a possibility that the card is defective (I bought it today and prior to the driver installation, it was running just fine).
 
Violater said:
Checkdisk has found bad clusters :/

Should I go ahead and just load the new drive?
Click to expand...

Ya. If you have bad sectors, nothing is gonna fix them. Try the new drive, and everything works like it should, just get your money back or get the RMA, and keep the new drive and use it for storage.
 
vocab said:
Ya. If you have bad sectors, nothing is gonna fix them. Try the new drive, and everything works like it should, just get your money back or get the RMA, and keep the new drive and use it for storage.
Click to expand...

Are bad clusters the same as bad sectors though?
 
luiztfc said:
I finally assembled my new PC (core i7 920, hd 5770, P6T, 2GB RAM [getting more asap]) and decided to download the new ati drivers.

Problem is that every now and then my screen will freeze for a good 5 seconds (during which the game keeps running as I'm able to hear the in-game sound). Then, it will "refresh" (same animation as when you change the monitor resolution) and everything will be back to normal. Until the next freezing.

What could be causing this? The driver? Or is there a possibility that the card is defective (I bought it today and prior to the driver installation, it was running just fine).
Click to expand...

Just an update, I reinstalled the last driver and everything seems to be fine for now.

Is there a way to run a stress test in GPU?
 
vocab said:
Clusters are essentially groupings of sectors.

Same thing really, and neither of them are good things.
Click to expand...

Have not had these probs in years, and to spend this much cash and go through is is frustrating.
 
In the past few months, my computer has started to sort of brainfart for a few seconds (and therefore freeze momentarily), hummmmmmmm, and then *beep* and regain consciousness at random intervals. Sometimes it's very frequent, sometimes hardly at all. While playing Left 4 Dead, in campaign mode, I noticed my game would completely crash.

I thought maybe my PSU wasn't sufficient enough after I upgraded my graphics card to something that needed more voltage. It worked fine for the past year, but maybe just now it's decided enough is enough?

I decided to buy a new PSU (my graphics card is a 512MB ATI All-in-Wonder HD), it's 650 watts. Is that sufficient for my card? Do you think the PSU might be the problem with my computer? I'm also running low on HDD space, though.
 
Affeinvasion said:
Deciding between these two video cards:
GTS250
Radeon HD 4850

This means I will also have to upgrade my PSU as well...since its stock and 300W, etc.

Would either of these be alright?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817822003

I don't want to spend too much on a PSU...but my knowledge of PSUs is woefully lacking.
Click to expand...

They both perform about the same so save your cash and get the 4850. The only PSU I'd recommend on that sort of budget is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...m_re=coolermaster_460w-_-17-171-046-_-Product

Spending more isn't a bad idea though. Avoid the two you linked to.
 
Affeinvasion said:
Deciding between these two video cards:
GTS250
Radeon HD 4850

This means I will also have to upgrade my PSU as well...since its stock and 300W, etc.

Would either of these be alright?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817822003

I don't want to spend too much on a PSU...but my knowledge of PSUs is woefully lacking.
Click to expand...

I would really not recommend either of those to be honest. A bad PSU can fuck your whole system pretty quickly so go with a known brand: OCZ, Antec, and Corsair are a couple of top-tier manufacturers. As far as wattage is concerned you are definitely in the right ballpark.
 
Orellio said:
I would really not recommend either of those to be honest. A bad PSU can fuck your whole system pretty quickly so go with a known brand: OCZ, Antec, and Corsair are a couple of top-tier manufacturers. As far as wattage is concerned you are definitely in the right ballpark.
Click to expand...

I was worried about this, and I was shelf-shopping. I noticed there were a lot of Antec products on the shelf, so I picked one that was 650W. Hopefully that prevents my system from frying from a cheap off-brand.
 
Affeinvasion said:
Okay...so I struck out on the last two PSUs.

This one is rated at 400W...Corsair PSU but the 12V is 30A...which seems good from what I've learned so far?

Would this work with no overclocking?
Click to expand...

That's a great little PSU, super reliable and efficient and more than enough for any "modest" single GPU rig.
 
Heidalloon said:
I'm having some problems with my fans. In my BIOS, it says that the fan speed of any fan besides the CPU fan is 0 rpm, but the fans are all working. I'm trying to get SpeedFan configured and it can get an accurate reading of my fan speed because my bios doesn't detect. NCIX built the system, so I'm not sure at all what's wrong. My motherboard is a Gigabyte EX58-UD3R.


I have 7 fans total:
2 fans on my heatsink (Noctua UH12P)
1 fan on my PSU
1 fan in the rear
2 fans on the top
1 120mm fan on the side

My BIOS lists a CPU fan, a power fan, and two system fans. As I said, all of those except the CPU fan don't show an RPM.

Would the 2 heatsink fans just show up as one (CPU fan)? Are all my fans showing up?
Click to expand...


It all depends how you have connected the power to your fans. If you have plugged them into your motherboard with a 3 pin plug, it should show up in speed fan. If you connect it to your PSU with the big four pins, speed fan can not monitor it. Check to see if you have plugged the 3 pin connectors into the right spots on your motherboard.
 
Okay, so after doing a bit of reading (including the beginning of this thread), I've started putting together the parts to my first DIY computer. So, any advice would be appreciated.

My Goals: A desktop computer coming in at about $500-550 that will allow me to do video editing and encoding. I am upgrading from a soon-to-be-dead laptop. :)

My Progress So Far:

Motherboard:
ASUS M4A77TD AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard (84.99) Newegg Link

Hard Drive:
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (69.99) - Newegg Link

Video Card:
SAPPHIRE 100289L Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity (109.99) Newegg Link

Memory (RAM):
A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600GB2G9-AG (98.99) Newegg Link

Case:
COOLER MASTER Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (26.99) Newegg Link (The price is low because it's part of a combo with the memory)

Processor:
AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor (139.99) Newegg Link

Optical Drive:
LG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 22X DVD-R 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner (22.99) Newegg Link

Power Supply:
BFG Tech GS-550 550W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.8 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply (49.99) Newegg Link

Total so far: $603.92

Okay, so here are my questions:

1. I have no clue what I need in terms of cooling. How do I know what to look for?
2. Are there any components above that I can afford to scale back on?
3. I have similarly no clue when it comes to video cards. I'm mainly looking to be able to edit video, playing video from my comp on my tv, etc.
4. Any other feedback based on what I've listed so far?
5. Am I going overboard on the processor?

Thanks guys - it's exciting to put all of this together!
 
crisdecuba said:
Okay, so here are my questions:

1. I have no clue what I need in terms of cooling. How do I know what to look for?
2. Are there any components above that I can afford to scale back on?
3. I have similarly no clue when it comes to video cards. I'm mainly looking to be able to edit video, playing video from my comp on my tv, etc.
4. Any other feedback based on what I've listed so far?

Thanks guys - it's exciting to put all of this together!
Click to expand...

You should be fine on cooling. Cases, video cards CPU's etc all come with fans and unless you are overclocking you won't need any extra.

I don't know how tight of a budget you are on, but if you're not going to do any gaming you might consider scaling the video card down to a 4670 (or this one maybe) and save yourself $35-50. Video encoding is all done on the CPU isn't it?
 
Orellio said:
You should be fine on cooling. Cases, video cards CPU's etc all come with fans and unless you are overclocking you won't need any extra.

I don't know how tight of a budget you are on, but if you're not going to do any gaming you might consider scaling the video card down to a 4670 (or this one maybe) and save yourself $35-50. Video encoding is all done on the CPU isn't it?
Click to expand...
Thanks. One thing I forgot to mention (not sure why) is that I also do a lot of Photoshop work, sometimes with rather large images / PSD files with lots of layers. Would the graphics card impact that at all?
 
crisdecuba said:
Thanks. One thing I forgot to mention (not sure why) is that I also do a lot of Photoshop work, sometimes with rather large images / PSD files with lots of layers. Would the graphics card impact that at all?
Click to expand...

Doing a quick search, GPU acceleration is only in CS4 but is still heavily CPU dependent. Dunno if that's the version of Photoshop you have but if not than no worries. After some quick looking around though I'm sort of regretting my suggestion of the 4670. ATI numbering scheme always confuses me and I was thinking it was a bit more powerful than it is (Sorry >_<). I think you've made a good choice of GPU with price/performance in mind honestly.
 
crisdecuba said:
Okay, so after doing a bit of reading (including the beginning of this thread), I've started putting together the parts to my first DIY computer. So, any advice would be appreciated.

My Goals: A desktop computer coming in at about $500-550 that will allow me to do video editing and encoding. I am upgrading from a soon-to-be-dead laptop. :)

My Progress So Far:

Motherboard:
ASUS M4A77TD AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard (84.99) Newegg Link

Hard Drive:
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (69.99) - Newegg Link

Video Card:
SAPPHIRE 100289L Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity (109.99) Newegg Link

Memory (RAM):
A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600GB2G9-AG (98.99) Newegg Link

Case:
COOLER MASTER Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (26.99) Newegg Link (The price is low because it's part of a combo with the memory)

Processor:
AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor (139.99) Newegg Link

Optical Drive:
LG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 22X DVD-R 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner (22.99) Newegg Link

Total so far: $553.93

Okay, so here are my questions:

1. I have no clue what I need in terms of cooling. How do I know what to look for?
2. Are there any components above that I can afford to scale back on?
3. I have similarly no clue when it comes to video cards. I'm mainly looking to be able to edit video, playing video from my comp on my tv, etc.
4. Any other feedback based on what I've listed so far?

Thanks guys - it's exciting to put all of this together!
Click to expand...

Everything's looking pretty much top notch to me. Good, yet cheap quad-core should give you great bang-for-buck when it comes to video encoding. Videocard is low power, yet performant enough to actually be able to run some games or other GPU accelerated applications if you need it.

Am I missing something, or do you not have a PSU in there?

Anyways, few thoughts:

1) If you're sure you'll never, ever play games on it, then you can scale back on the GPU. Otherwise, if you want to keep the option open, I think you made a great choice.

2) Is that really enough hard drive space? Videos take up a lot of space.
 
TheExodu5 said:
Everything's looking pretty much top notch to me. Good, yet cheap quad-core should give you great bang-for-buck when it comes to video encoding. Videocard is low power, yet performant enough to actually be able to run some games or other GPU accelerated applications if you need it.

Am I missing something, or do you not have a PSU in there?

Anyways, few thoughts:

1) If you're sure you'll never, ever play games on it, then you can scale back on the GPU. Otherwise, if you want to keep the option open, I think you made a great choice.

2) Is that really enough hard drive space? Videos take up a lot of space.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback. I hadn't finished looking for the power supply - I've updated my post with it.

I'm pretty certain I won't play games on it. Do you think the video cards that Orellio suggested are sufficient?

Re: HD space, my plan is to add HDs as time goes on. The same goes for RAM, actually.
 
Actually poking around on Newegg I found this 4850 for the same price as the 5650 but free shipping. The 4850 is 256bit and has faster clock speeds, whereas the 5670 has twice as much RAM, and its GDDR5 but only 128bit and slower clocks (Edit: er the memory clock is faster on the 4850 but the core clock is faster on the 5650. Maybe I should stop replying I'm just embarrassing myself). It's way beyond my know-how to have an idea which would be better suited to your needs, but maybe someone else could chime in?
 
Gully State said:
4850 is a gaming beast for resolutions under 1920x1080.
Click to expand...
Interesting! I wish I knew more about how the various specs on a video card impact actual performance. :)

Thanks for all the research everyone!
 
Orellio said:
Actually poking around on Newegg I found this 4850 for the same price as the 5650 but free shipping. The 4850 is 256bit and has faster clock speeds, whereas the 5670 has twice as much RAM, and its GDDR5 but only 128bit and slower clocks (Edit: er the memory clock is faster on the 4850 but the core clock is faster on the 5650. Maybe I should stop replying I'm just embarrassing myself). It's way beyond my know-how to have an idea which would be better suited to your needs, but maybe someone else could chime in?
Click to expand...

The 4850 will eat the 5650 alive. You don't need 1gig of ram on either card. The 4850 would benefit somewhat with larger memory but unless you're using a 24-30 inch monitor you won't even know the difference. The 4850 is most comparable between the 5770 and 5750, which cost far more and offer no performance gains other than triple monitor and DX11 support which isn't all that beneficial with a mid-end card anyways. Hopefully nVidia will release something of merit, even if for no reason than to push 5000 series prices down to something reasonable. At the moment the 4000 series is still the best bang for your buck.
 
luiztfc said:
Just an update, I reinstalled the last driver and everything seems to be fine for now.

Is there a way to run a stress test in GPU?
Click to expand...

Apart from 3dMark 06/ Vantage, try Unigine Heaven Benchmark. The DX11 test with Tessellation will stress the shit out of your GPU. This is also a good place where you can see some good overclocking results. The o/c option is built right into the ATI drivers :D
 
crisdecuba said:
Crap. One thing I'm noticing is that the mobo doesn't have a firewire port...
Click to expand...

Looking at your above post i see you're going with a Phenom II and want to do a lot of photoshop/encoding. While you might not have the budget for it, depending on your usage it might be worth saving up longer to move up to an i5 750. PII's are more than enough for most people but for encoding type work the i5/i7 series is a class above. The below link is comparing the 750 to the PII 945 which is a little faster than the CPU you spec'd. Note these are stock speed comparisons and both chips will see greater performance with overclocking.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts-update-1/compare,1387.html?prod[2884]=on&prod[2608]=on
 
Still getting this wishy washy performance with my 5850. Even put my 5770 back in and I'm getting near identical performance give or take a few frames. I've even overclocked my q8300 a bit further up to 3.4ghz still no real performance increase. Someone suggested it might be my power supply only being 550w. 4gb ram too.
 
Orellio said:
You should be fine on cooling. Cases, video cards CPU's etc all come with fans and unless you are overclocking you won't need any extra.
Click to expand...
The problem is that stock CPU fans don't cool all that well, such that you need to run them fast and loud.
 
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