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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

That confirms it. I'm just gonna get a 5850 and use my old 8600GTS for Physx when needed. Screw all this waiting around. Reminds me of the whole PS3 wait. Live for today. DX11 is now, someone needs to get the memo to Nvidia or ATI are seriously going to clean up.
 
GHG said:
That confirms it. I'm just gonna get a 5850 and use my old 8600GTS for Physx when needed. Screw all this waiting around. Reminds me of the whole PS3 wait. Live for today. DX11 is now, someone needs to get the memo to Nvidia or ATI are seriously going to clean up.
Click to expand...
They already are. nVidia are gonna have to do some ungodly, satanic shit with Fermi. And then price it right. That's the only way they'll get back in the good graces of (sensible) PC gamers.

Edit: It's like they're trying to lose: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=19920785&postcount=99
 
Buying a new PC. Had a few looks at components...

Budget: £350 (including new 1080p monitor, but not mouse and keyboard)

Main Use(s): Snappy web browsing, smooth HD video streaming, snappy overall OS performance, some older gaming.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Just old RTSs are all I care for. Nothing to see here, but newish games on lower settings would be a plus.

Other requirements: I want a quiet PC. I'd like virtually silent, but that costs, but nice and quiet is a big plus. I'd prefer a well build case, but I don't care for the really busy ones with weird cheap designs and lots of failed attempts to make it look cool. They look awful. I prefer clean and simple, and not made of tin foil. No current PC components can, or are worth, going in this new PC, not even the case. Low power usage is a big plus too, but willing to overclock.
 
Quick question. How do I know if I'm getting a powerful enough PSU?

I'm looking at 550W and I have the following components:

BIOSTAR T5 XE CFX-SLI LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz CPU
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM HDD
POWERCOLOR AX4650 512MD2-H Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit DDR2 Video Card
G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
SAMSUNG 24X DVD+R SATA 24x DVD Burner
Rosewill 2+1 Port Firewire/1394a Low-Profile PCI Card
ASUS USB-N13 IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter

Is this enough?
 
crisdecuba said:
Quick question. How do I know if I'm getting a powerful enough PSU?

I'm looking at 550W and I have the following components:

BIOSTAR T5 XE CFX-SLI LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz CPU
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM HDD
POWERCOLOR AX4650 512MD2-H Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit DDR2 Video Card
G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
SAMSUNG 24X DVD+R SATA 24x DVD Burner
Rosewill 2+1 Port Firewire/1394a Low-Profile PCI Card
ASUS USB-N13 IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter

Is this enough?
Click to expand...

Depends on the brand. 550 OCZ watts != 550 Corsair watts.
 
Lkr said:
is there any reason for me to get a 'gaming' mouse, if i play at low res and don't need extra buttons?
Click to expand...

I didn't think I'd need the side buttons either.

Now, I'll never crouch with ctrl or c ever again.

Get a Razer Death Adder. Ignore the name, enjoy the quality.
 
Parl said:
Buying a new PC. Had a few looks at components...

Budget: £350 (including new 1080p monitor, but not mouse and keyboard)

Main Use(s): Snappy web browsing, smooth HD video streaming, snappy overall OS performance, some older gaming.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Just old RTSs are all I care for. Nothing to see here, but newish games on lower settings would be a plus.

Other requirements: I want a quiet PC. I'd like virtually silent, but that costs, but nice and quiet is a big plus. I'd prefer a well build case, but I don't care for the really busy ones with weird cheap designs and lots of failed attempts to make it look cool. They look awful. I prefer clean and simple, and not made of tin foil. No current PC components can, or are worth, going in this new PC, no even the case.
Click to expand...

I like the look of the Coolermaster 690II Advanced. Classy and functional looking.

top2.jpg

http://www.coolermaster.com/upload/360/690II_360.swf

People say it's perfect for silent running because of its nice airflow and huge amount possibilities to mount fans.
 
PjotrStroganov said:
I like the look of the Coolermaster 690II Advanced. Classy and functional looking.

People say it's perfect for silent running because of its nice airflow and huge amount possibilities to mount fans.
Click to expand...
I liked it too until I saw it was 90 quid. Screw that.
 
How good or crap is the integrated Intel GMA X4500 video? I mean in terms of running Windows 7 in 1080p with Aero effects, and also streaming HD video smoothly?

And will it play old stuff like UT2k4 well?
 
Parl said:
How good or crap is the integrated Intel GMA X4500 video? I mean in terms of running Windows 7 in 1080p with Aero effects, and also streaming HD video smoothly?

And will it play old stuff like UT2k4 well?
Click to expand...


It's not all that bad, but the 4500HD is version is preferred for smooth HD video playback and aero support. It should work ok on older games as well. You can get an idea of the type of performance to expect from this chart:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
 
Seasonics and Corsairs are pretty much equivalent...they're both made by Seasonic.

As for the Intel X4500...1600 on 3DMark03...I'm not sure how well that will play UT2k4 but I'm pretty sure it would be considered behind the times in 2004. The Mobility Radeon 9800 scores 6000 and the mobility 6800 (the GeForce 6 series came out 1 month after 2k4) scores 11000.

It will be playable, but not that well I'd think.
 
TheExodu5 said:
Seasonics and Corsairs are pretty much equivalent...they're both made by Seasonic.

As for the Intel X4500...1600 on 3DMark03...I'm not sure how well that will play UT2k4 but I'm pretty sure it would be considered behind the times in 2004.
Click to expand...
The Corsair 520 and 620w are made by seasonic. The 450,550,650,750,850w are made by Channel Well Technologies iirc.
Might be wrong on the 400/450w

All are fine and rated at 50C for 5 years so no worries.
 
Hazaro said:
The Corsair 520 and 620w are made by seasonic. The 450,550,650,750,850w are made by Channel Well Technologies iirc.
Might be wrong on the 400/450w
Click to expand...

Ah my bad. I guess I only read reviews on their Seasonic PSUs.

In any case, crisdecuba is on a budget and isn't running a system requiring lots of power. I'm sure his BFG 550W will do just fine. They might not be up to the standard of Seasonic/Corsair/Enermax/Antec, but I'd take a BFG/OCZ/Rosewill over the shit put in store bought computers by a very wide margin.
 
So I finally ordered everything! It was a bit overwhelming sometimes due to the sheer number of options available, but I have to say that the design of Newegg's website really helped. Everyone's help in this thread was even more valuable. Thank you to everyone who responded.

So here's the final summary:

I. PC Purposes:
  • Video editting
  • Photoshop
  • Watching HD content

II. Limitations:
  • $1,000 budget

III. Considerations:
  • I have little need for "high-end" gaming
  • A monitor was needed as well
  • Windows 7 was needed

IV. Final Components! (whoo hoo!):

V. Pictures of Everything (cuz I'm happy about it):

11-119-202-TS
24-009-179-TS
19-115-215-TS
13-138-162-TS
20-231-277-TS
14-131-178-TS
22-136-218-S01
17-702-010-S01
15-265-002-S01
33-320-040-TS


VI. Grand Total, Including Shipping: $953.15

Whoo hoo! Now to wait for the stuff to arrive... :)
 
Looking great. Hope you enjoy the new build.

Tips on building it yourself:

Be slow and methodical. Follow the Motherboard instructions and you should be okay. Try to stay away from carpet while doing the work since you want to minimize the risk that static electricity poses.

Once your first build is done, you should be much more familiar with the process and you'll be able to do any work on your PC yourself in the future. Very useful skill to have.
 
TheExodu5 said:
Looking great. Hope you enjoy the new build.

Tips on building it yourself:

Be slow and methodical. Follow the Motherboard instructions and you should be okay. Try to stay away from carpet while doing the work since you want to minimize the risk that static electricity poses.

Once your first build is done, you should be much more familiar with the process and you'll be able to do any work on your PC yourself in the future. Very useful skill to have.
Click to expand...

Thank you! And thanks for the earlier responses.

I'll be doing this in the basement - wide open space, dry, no carpet, etc. :)
 
If you must work on carpet, make sure to ground, reground, and reground some more with each action you take. Become OCD regarding touching large bodies of metal.

Oh, and vacuum first.
 
So I'm looking for some recommendations for an upcoming upgrade I'm planning. I'm trying to decide mainly on what processor to get, my thoughts being a PII 945, PII 955 BE, or an i5 720. My plans are to use the PC for some reasonable game playing and to rip a good chunk of my DVD collection for fast access (I connect my PC to a 32" LCD HDTV for a comfy-couch setup).

Pros and Cons that I'm aware of:

i5: Fastest on the market without breaking the price/performance curve; still ~$50 more expensive, most of it's high-end features likely unused.

955 BE: Easy overclocking, cheaper; 125W TDP makes me wary of the coming Texas summer.

945: Value 3.0 GHz at a cheap price (Newegg combo currently available), 95 W TDP; falls behind others, will likely be replaced sooner.

MoBo recommendations for any/all would be appreciated. I'll pick up a pair of 500 GB HDs to run in RAID (hopefully so I'll only have to rip DVDs once), and a 5850 when prices come down a bit more in a few months.
 
I think I'm finally going to build a gaming PC. Finally! Having to game on a Dell laptop for 1.5 years has been horrific. I want to 1) keep the budget under $700, 2) play 95% of PC games maxed out with a minimum framerate of 30 FPS (preferably an average of 40-60 FPS), and 3) overclock the CPU and GPU a bit. The PSU and cooling are good enough for that, right? Is the 4770 the best $100 GPU out now? Is the Athlon II X2 250 enough for most games? The computer below is just over $500 after rebates, but I need an OS (I have XP 32-bit, but who wants that anymore?), a keyboard, a monitor, and speakers. I think I'll have to rely on eBay for the OS and monitor. It'll be 20" and have a 1600 x 900 resolution.

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj107/ChoklitReign/kemputr.png

Am I all set?
 
My computer is quite a few years old at this point

Current PC:
Processor: Core2Duo E6400 2.13Ghz
Video Card: Geforce 8800GT 512MB
Memory: 4GB DDR2 800 RAM
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-S3

My motherboard is only revision 1.0 of that model so it doesn't have a 1333Mhz FSB. So most of the 45nm Intel processors won't work in it. Which means the best I could upgrade to would be something like the C2D E7600. Obviously, besides that, my video card is pretty outdated - it's a fucking amazing card but it's not keeping up anymore. My question is, is my current processor bottlenecking my video card upgrade options? If I bought a better video card will my performance still be significantly hindered by my CPU? If so, is it worth it to upgrade to something like the E7600 or should I wait until I buy a new motherboard and basically replace the entire computer... which would be a ways off unfortunately.

Specifically, I'm thinking about video games here, games like Battlefield Bad Company 2 for example if anyone has experience with that specifically. I know games are video card dependent these days but I'm not sure to what extent with my measly 2.13Ghz dual core.
 
Help please.

Over the weekend I got a couple BSOD's with the message "memory management". After researching I found that it was a problem with one or both of my ram sticks (2x 2GB). Today I opened up my pc to attempt to remove a ram stick one a time to figure out which is faulty, only after removing one ram stick I boot up my PC and the monitor just stays on standby. I've tried using an adapter for the vgi input into my monitor and even into my older monitor, they both sit on standby. I went out and bought a different DVI cord which didn't help. Now what I'm wondering is if this is a problem with my mobo, gpu, or monitor now? All I wanted to do is figure out which ram stick was faulty and now this happens.
 
We want to apologize for the confusion around our most recent GF100 update. To clarify, the launch date for GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 is March 26, 2010. This date also coincides with the GeForce LAN event NVIDIA is hosting at PAX 2010. Hope you can attend the show. For more info, please visit: www.nvidia.com/paxeast

was on the nvidia facebook
 
I apologize for quoting myself, but I've got money to burn and an itch to scratch. :D Again, this will be a bang for your buck type of gaming PC box.

Kintaro said:
So, I'm looking for a set up to work with this case. LIAN LI PC-V351B Black Aluminum MicroATX Desktop Computer Case Budget is around $400-600 or so. Probably on the higher end since I need a copy of Win 7.

Here's what I see so far.

AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Combo deal for $155.98

If this mobo is good, I have an extra 4 GB of DDR2 ram to use with it. If DDR3 Ram is that much of a step up, I'm open for options for better mobo/ram.

Throw in a 5770 HD (usually around $170 or so?) as well.

I have a HDD and DVD drive of my own of course.

Thoughts? Improvements?
Click to expand...
 
Just placed my order for components that will be used to replace stuff that I currently have in my CM 690 II Advanced (which is absolutely amazing, btw). At this point I'll have replaced pretty much every significant component of my computer.

Motherboard: ASRock P55 Extreme
CPU: Intel Core i5-750
CPU Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212+
GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon 5770 (Plan to Crossfire in the relatively near future)
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB

Here's hoping that I don't encounter any problem along my build. Also, what kind of overclock should I expect from my i5? Thanks everyone. :D
 
my friend wants low price, high res monitor, widescreen. i don't know what inch, but i guess 22-24 will be perfect for him.
 
Kintaro said:
I apologize for quoting myself, but I've got money to burn and an itch to scratch. :D Again, this will be a bang for your buck type of gaming PC box.
Click to expand...
that is an EXCELLENT value. unless you want to try to unlock cores on a phenom ii x2, this is the best you will do at this price range. of course, then you won't get a combo

it also overclocks well, make sure you grab a good heatsink
 
Lkr said:
that is an EXCELLENT value. unless you want to try to unlock cores on a phenom ii x2, this is the best you will do at this price range. of course, then you won't get a combo

it also overclocks well, make sure you grab a good heatsink
Click to expand...

Thanks. Any suggestions?
 
so i just upgraded to an Athlon II X4 620 processor and Win7 64bit. My CPU score went from 4.7 to 7.1, and my memory went from 5.1 to 7.2, even though i kept the same 4gb of PC800 DDR2 ram.

scorei.jpg


the problem is that photoshop cs4 still runs hell of slow. I mean, it was virtually unusable before (I stayed with CS2) but it's still kinda slow now.

What can I do to make it faster? I'm using this motherboard, so I'm limited to PC1066 DDR2 ram or slower.
 
sarcastor said:
so i just upgraded to an Athlon II X4 620 processor and Win7 64bit. My CPU score went from 4.7 to 7.1, and my memory went from 5.1 to 7.2, even though i kept the same 4gb of PC800 DDR2 ram.

the problem is that photoshop cs4 still runs hell of slow. I mean, it was virtually unusable before (I stayed with CS2) but it's still kinda slow now.

What can I do to make it faster? I'm using this motherboard, so I'm limited to PC1066 DDR2 ram or slower.
Click to expand...

have you patched CS4 to 11.0.1? there were a few bugs with the GPU acceleration, and also change the scratch disk to another quick drive other than your C:

Increasing the amount of ram PS can use up to 60%-65% could help as well.

What are the actual slow downs are you getting? and are you running the 64 version of CS4? I noticed that it installs two versions of CS4
 
GamePnoy74 said:
I have this for my new build, kinda on the heavy side since it's a steel case but I'm lovin' it...good times =)
Click to expand...

If things go well, this and most of the other parts will arrive. :D


Then, the long wait until the 5850 is in stock again.:S



I think I'll put in an old card to get the system running until then.
 
Just got my upgrade parts in (apart from the fan, can't sus that one yet) and wow, running benchmarks on what seem like different games.

Now to spend some money on steam.
 
Gowans007 said:
Just got my upgrade parts in (apart from the fan, can't sus that one yet) and wow, running benchmarks on what seem like different games.

Now to spend some money on steam.
Click to expand...

Glad to see it went well, you're not at the bleeding edge but I think you spent your money well. You've now got a fully capable gaming rig and as long as you don't go crazy on the settings you should get pretty decent performance. That little 5670 is great considering how little power it sucks and as more games include a DX11/10.1 renderpath its performance should actually get better over time.

Edit: Ah, Steam tells me you just booted up Trackmania! That game can look insanely nice on your new level of hardware. Btw, what resolution are your running at, I'm sure I asked before but I've forgotten.
 
evil solrac v3.0 said:
how much can i get for my GTX 260 216s if i sell them? they are slightly overclocekd and run flawless.
Click to expand...

Well new ones are selling for $200 these days, so you might be able to get the best part of $150 each. I know here in the UK they cost more than I paid for mine about a year ago, and that came with a copy of Vantage and Mirror's Edge. Pretty smart investment that was.
 
So, I'm in the market for a cheaper LCD for PC gaming and console gaming over HDMI. I have no clue where else to ask this, so I thought this was a good a place as any.

So anyway, I've narrowed it down to the ASUS VW246H and the BENQ G2412HD, since they both have 2ms response time and HDMI input. Does anybody have any experience with either of these monitors/brands? I'm leaning toward the BENQ because it seems like they have better quality control.

So, does anybody have any opinions or these two monitors, or any suggestions for other HDMI monitors around a $200-$300 price point? I don't need anything amazing, just one that will tide me over until newer technologies start improving. I'd appreciate any input. Thanks.
 
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