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[spazzfish]

$30 is worth a 10-20% framerate increase (sometimes you have to pay $100 for that w/ a single card)

Yikes dude please have a read through this review. The site is one of the better ones (one of only two I trust) and look at the performance charts.
It will give you a better understanding on how the higher range Nvidia and Ati cards compare.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/26/nvidia_fermi_gtx_470_480_sli_review/1

If you get lazy and don't want to read it all at least just look at the benchmark results especially the apples to apples comparisons.

 

[Minsc]

Yikes dude please have a read through this review. The site is one of the better ones (one of only two I trust) and look at the performance charts.
It will give you a better understanding on how the higher range Nvidia and Ati cards compare.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/26/nvidia_fermi_gtx_470_480_sli_review/1

If you get lazy and don't want to read it all at least just look at the benchmark results especially the apples to apples comparisons.

Depends on the game and drivers used, his words not mine.

Far Cry 2, the GTX 470 scores 30% more than the 5850 at 1920x1200 for instance.

Why doesn't HardOCP have a Far Cry 2 bench in their review? Also, much like ATi, nVidia just had some big driver release out, so if at all possible, we should be looking at benchmarks from like just yesterday, or at least ones that says what driver version they are.

 

[Calantus]

gah, debating if i should get the 5770 or 5850. I'm leaning towards the 5770, since i don't play too many graphic intensive games.

I've been living with a 9800 GT and i didn't even think about upgrading or feel the need to, until it started overheating.

 

[Oreoleo]

What res are you playing at? If you're worried about overheating I would tend towards the 5770 over 5850.

 

[Calantus]

1680x1050

What caused the overheating in my 9800gt was a SC2 beta patch

 

[Oreoleo]

At that res I would definitely recommend the 5770. Short of playing Crysis or Metro on Ultra with 8xAA there isn't a whole lot it can't do.

 

[Red]

I'm having an overclocking issue and am curious if anyone's ever seen a similar situation. I finally got my i7 920 to a "stable" 4GHz. Vcore is at 1.28. CPU multiplier is at 21, BCLK is 191. I can run prime95 for hours without issue and temps peak around 70-73C. Idles at 35-41C. Seems everything is great, except that the entire system will suddenly freeze and hang, usually after four to six hours of use. Doesn't crash while CPU-intensive applications are running. So far it's only been while idling or during minimal use (using winamp or IE). I can't figure it out. My temps are under control and I have no issues loading the CPU, but my entire PC freezes while basically nothing is happening.

 

[Calantus]

At that res I would definitely recommend the 5770. Short of playing Crysis or Metro on Ultra with 8xAA there isn't a whole lot it can't do.

thanks

 

[Smash88]

I'm having an overclocking issue and am curious if anyone's ever seen a similar situation. I finally got my i7 920 to a "stable" 4GHz. Vcore is at 1.28. CPU multiplier is at 21, BCLK is 191. I can run prime95 for hours without issue and temps peak around 70-73C. Idles at 35-41C. Seems everything is great, except that the entire system will suddenly freeze and hang, usually after four to six hours of use. Doesn't crash while CPU-intensive applications are running. So far it's only been while idling or during minimal use (using winamp or IE). I can't figure it out. My temps are under control and I have no issues loading the CPU, but my entire PC freezes while basically nothing is happening.

If it freezes or hangs after four to six hours it is not stable then

You may need to up your Vcore. It seems you almost got it to a sweet spot, but that doesn't mean it is completely stable, raising the Vcore may fix this, of course you will need to retest again until you find this "sweet spot".

 

[Fitz]

I'm having an overclocking issue and am curious if anyone's ever seen a similar situation. I finally got my i7 920 to a "stable" 4GHz. Vcore is at 1.28. CPU multiplier is at 21, BCLK is 191. I can run prime95 for hours without issue and temps peak around 70-73C. Idles at 35-41C. Seems everything is great, except that the entire system will suddenly freeze and hang, usually after four to six hours of use. Doesn't crash while CPU-intensive applications are running. So far it's only been while idling or during minimal use (using winamp or IE). I can't figure it out. My temps are under control and I have no issues loading the CPU, but my entire PC freezes while basically nothing is happening.

Odd that it only crashes when running non stressful applications, only thing I could say is that 1.28V seems quite low for a 920 at 4GHz, a friend of mine with the same processor and overclock is running at closer to 1.4V. But you said that you can run Prime for hours without issue, so I'm doubtful how much a voltage increase would help, but it wouldn't hurt to try of course, unless you already have, you've got reasonable headroom, temperature wise. You'd need to run Prime for like a day+ to be really sure of stability, and even then it's not 100%.

 

[asdad123]

Anyone here have a Kingston 128gb SNV425-S2BD SSD?

I was looking for a SSD and managed to snag this one for $180 shipped brand new. At the price I didnt think of it much before ordering it in fear of someone else buying it. I looked at reviews on some site and it seems pretty good.

Anyone on here have one care to shed some light on if its good? Or did I make a mistake buying it lol. I wanted over 100gb but didnt want to spend $400 on an Intel G2.

 

[spazzfish]

Depends on the game and drivers used, his words not mine.

Far Cry 2, the GTX 470 scores 30% more than the 5850 at 1920x1200 for instance.

Why doesn't HardOCP have a Far Cry 2 bench in their review? Also, much like ATi, nVidia just had some big driver release out, so if at all possible, we should be looking at benchmarks from like just yesterday, or at least ones that says what driver version they are.

'We are using the latest drivers provided by NVIDIA, which are ForceWare 197.17. For all AMD video cards we are using latest Catalyst 10.3a Preview driver plus the latest Profile Update.'

Oh there will be differences that benefit either ATI or Nvidia depending on the game, but when all is said and done the cards are on a very level playing field.
I just saw the mention of 10%-20% increase for the money and was just pointing out that it isn't like that across the board.
As for why HardOCP don't have a Farcry 2 bench, it looks like they went with only DX11 games or ones with some DX11 features, which makes sense as they are the new DX11 cards.
I'm waiting for their GTX 465 review, which i'm assuming will have comparisons between that and the 5850,5830 and 470 and also be using the latest drivers.

 

[Bossniak]

I am looking at the GTS 250 seeing as its cheaper than the HD5770, should I stil go with the HD5770?

 

[Brannon]

Meant to add:

My current CPU is...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition
Socket AM2

What quad-core processor would be a decent upgrade from that for around $120-$150?

 

[Goron2000]

incase you hadn't already ordered, might be worth taking a look at this http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/T-Rex-i7-Roar-94p773.htm - i7 930, 5850, 6gb ddr for a grand. pre-built too (though i'd recommend dissembling/reassembling complete with the traditional DOA heart attack on first attempted boot) if that appeals?

Thanks a lot dude, i am now paying way more than i said i would. I'm a sucker for good deals :lol

 

[BloodySinner]

gah, debating if i should get the 5770 or 5850. I'm leaning towards the 5770, since i don't play too many graphic intensive games.

I've been living with a 9800 GT and i didn't even think about upgrading or feel the need to, until it started overheating.

I'm still rocking my 9800GT. I really don't believe in paying $200+ for a video card. They need to come down in price some more.

 

[BloodySinner]

TigerDirect has one for $60 after a $30 mail-in. Reviews seem kind of middling, though, which always scares me when it comes to storage.

I'll avoid. Chances are that hard drive is used and being resold as new. TigerDirect is so sketchy at times.

 

[Wallach]

Does anyone think it would be wiser to pick up a reference 5850 over the HIS iCooler V 5850? BestBuy has almost the exact same price as Newegg on the combination of 5850 and PSU I want, though they are offering the VisionTek 5850 which is the reference unit. I like the lifetime limited warrant on the VisionTek over HIS' 2-year warranty, though again not having really messed with ATI much since "Rage II" was a relevant piece of hardware I'm not real sure about either company. I heard VisionTek was bought by AMD/ATI at some point.

Software voltage control does not appear to be possible with the non-reference PCB HIS is using in their iCooler V 5000 cards. How undervolted is the reference 5850 exactly? Would I be unable to get into the 800s without additional voltage or is that only required for OCs looking to get in the 850-900 range?

Temps still look pretty good on the reference 5850s from what I've seen so I'm actually leaning towards buying from BB over Newegg for once.

Edit - I just noticed the OP is now banned. What happened?

 

[rohlfinator]

Meant to add:

My current CPU is...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition
Socket AM2

What quad-core processor would be a decent upgrade from that for around $120-$150?

I'd say the Phenom II 925 or 945 are your best bets in that price range.

If you went Intel, only their Core 2 Quads would fit your budget, and those are discouraged in new builds at this point.

 

[Red]

Odd that it only crashes when running non stressful applications, only thing I could say is that 1.28V seems quite low for a 920 at 4GHz, a friend of mine with the same processor and overclock is running at closer to 1.4V. But you said that you can run Prime for hours without issue, so I'm doubtful how much a voltage increase would help, but it wouldn't hurt to try of course, unless you already have, you've got reasonable headroom, temperature wise. You'd need to run Prime for like a day+ to be really sure of stability, and even then it's not 100%.

Yeah, what's strange about this problem is the CPU crashes when it isn't sucking up voltage. HWMonitor typically reads 1.27 vcore when the system hangs. I've turned off speedstep, turbo, and all the intel power saving features so I can run at a constant clock speed. Problem persists. I've tried raising the voltage and am still getting much the same results (stable in prime, freezing at minimal load). Mainly I'm curious to see if anyone else has run into this issue, and if so, was there a solution?

Might be worth noting I've gone up to 1.33 volts, any higher and my system crashes while booting Windows or soon after. Same thing happens if I try pushing my BCLK over 191, regardless of what setting my voltages are at.

 

[Brannon]

I'd say the Phenom II 925 or 945 are your best bets in that price range.

If you went Intel, only their Core 2 Quads would fit your budget, and those are discouraged in new builds at this point.

I see. Time to stop being cheap for once and go all out on this CPU.

 

[derder]

Man I was pretty close to buying the PowerDVD 10 Ultra and a 5770 for my HTPC. I currently have PowerDVD 9 Basic and a 4770.

Then I realized for $50 more I could just buy a PS3.

 

[Wallach]

Yeah, what's strange about this problem is the CPU crashes when it isn't sucking up voltage. HWMonitor typically reads 1.27 vcore when the system hangs. I've turned off speedstep, turbo, and all the intel power saving features so I can run at a constant clock speed. Problem persists. I've tried raising the voltage and am still getting much the same results (stable in prime, freezing at minimal load). Mainly I'm curious to see if anyone else has run into this issue, and if so, was there a solution?

Might be worth noting I've gone up to 1.33 volts, any higher and my system crashes while booting Windows or soon after. Same thing happens if I try pushing my BCLK over 191, regardless of what setting my voltages are at.

See if your BIOS has a loadline calibration setting (LLC), if so check to see that it's enabled. If it's happening at idle it sounds like something weird is going on with your VDrop.

 

[Zakkath]

I looked into it some more and this should be close to final build:

CPU : AMD PH-II X4 955 3.2GHZ
MB : ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX
RAM : 2x2GB (dunno which brand yet, any advice ?)
HDD : WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB
GPU : GTX 260 (**I already have it**)
PSU : CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V
Blu-ray : LITE-ON ihes108-29


I would like to know what you guys think of it. As mentionned above, I already have the GTX260. It seems to be still quite good and there's always the option to use it in SLI with another card. I would need advice for that though.
I'm building this PC to play games and also for general purpose. Dawn of War 2 didn't run so well on my current machine, so I would like to play it on this one. Other games I wanna play : The Witcher and Starcraft 2.

 

[rohlfinator]

I see. Time to stop being cheap for once and go all out on this CPU.

If you can stretch up to $200, the i5-750 is a pretty damn nice gaming CPU and one of the best performance/$ values. And at that price you can get the Phenom II X6 1055T, which is pretty nice too (I think I might be springing for one of them in the near future).

But the Phenom II quads are still really solid buys, at least in the sub-$150 price range (once you get too much higher than that you might as well jump to an i5 or X6). Even the ~$100 Athlon II X4's are a really nice bang for the buck, especially if you overclock.

 

[snack]

I looked into it some more and this should be close to final build:

CPU : AMD PH-II X4 955 3.2GHZ
MB : ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX
RAM : 2x2GB (dunno which brand yet, any advice ?)
HDD : WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB
GPU : GTX 260 (**I already have it**)
PSU : CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V
Blu-ray : LITE-ON ihes108-29


I would like to know what you guys think of it. As mentionned above, I already have the GTX260. It seems to be still quite good and there's always the option to use it in SLI with another card. I would need advice for that though.
I'm building this PC to play games and also for general purpose. Dawn of War 2 didn't run so well on my current machine, so I would like to play it on this one. Other games I wanna play : The Witcher and Starcraft 2.

You'll run those two games listed above just fine.

 

[Wallach]

Alright, trigger officially pulled. Opted for the reference VisionTek 5850, though I've never ordered from Best Buy so we'll see if they can match Newegg's shipping (I have my doubts). They had the 650TX that I wanted on sale as well though, so for once they actually had a competitive price.

Now the hard part...

 

[BrassMonkey1010]

Okay, I think I may have got my final build ready...Can you guys check to make sure everything is compatible?(this is my first time...)

Anyways, my goal was to be under $1000, but also purchasing a monitor with this money. This is what I put together. (I am editing it as I go)

Case and PSU:Antec Sonata III
CPU:AMD Phenom II X4 945
VideoCard:Radeon HD 5770
Motherboard:MSI 870A-G54 AM3
Ram:G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)
Drive:Samsung Black 22x
HDD:Western Digital Caviar Black
OS:Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Monitor:AsusVW224U Black 22" 2ms 1680 x 1050
Mouse:MS one

I do have an extra keyboard at home.

Total Cost:$1010.90


Now couple questions..
1. Does this all this work together, and are there any dumb choices up there? I am most confused about the Motherboard, and Case/PSU.

2. Do you think the 1680x1050 monitor was a good choice considering I am going with sort of a more budget build?

3. Will this play Crysis on Med/High settings at a good frame rate?
Sorry for being such a noob.

 

[Jangaroo]

So GAF, I haven't been able to use my desktop for more then a week now. It started when I tried playing Sam & Max 302. My computer froze sometime into the opening cinematic. I thought it was just a random crash so I rebooted and tried again. It ended up freezing at that spot too. The next day, about a minute into browsing the web, lines of horizontal artifacts started appearing on my screen. My desktop then froze and I wasn't able to alt-tab or anything. I thought maybe I needed to clean my computer so I used compressed air to clean it out but the problem still remained. I even checked my fan speed and my computer doesn't seem to be overheating. I think my graphics card is dying so I'm going to replace it with a GTX 260, but I'd like to hear some opinions before I plunk down a good $200.

 

[rohlfinator]

And at that price you can get the Phenom II X6 1055T, which is pretty nice too (I think I might be springing for one of them in the near future).

Welp, that future was nearer than I thought, I just bit on the X6 + new mobo and memory tonight. :lol Now to play the waiting game...

1. Does this all this work together, and are there any dumb choices up there? I am most confused about the Motherboard, and Case/PSU.

Looks like it should all work together just fine. The Sonata is a really good budget case/PSU option. One note with the motherboard: that one has an onboard GPU, which you won't need because of your 5770. You might be better off going with one of these, which are about the same price but have a newer chipset and support USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s (at the cost of losing the onboard GPU).

2. Do you think the 1680x1050 monitor was a good choice considering I am going with sort of a more budget build?

It's entirely up to your personal preference, really. The 5770 handles games pretty well at 1680x1050, so that's a good fit.

3. Will this play Crysis on Med/High settings at a good frame rate?

It'll do Warhead at ~30fps at Gamer settings with 4X AA. Your GPU will be more limiting than your CPU at that res, so you should be able to hit those framerates.

 

[BrassMonkey1010]

One note with the motherboard: that one has an onboard GPU, which you won't need because of your 5770. You might be better off going with one of these, which are about the same price but have a newer chipset and support USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s (at the cost of losing the onboard GPU).

Okay, thanks for the help. Is one of those motherboard brands better then the other(Asus,Gigabeat, or MSI?) They are all $99.

 

[teacupcopter]

Hey guys I'm from Australia, looking to build a new PC soon.

Been looking at prices from these stores
MSY
Scorpion
Umart
PC Case gear

But if anyone knows other ones worth it please tell me (around Melbourne if you're Aussie)

Want it for- gaming mostly.

Have been thinking
CPU- INtel i5 750
4GB DDR3 RAM
1GB 5850 Radeon
1TB HD (Samsung)
case- Antec p183
Windows 7 64 bit home OEM
Mouse- g5 logitech

Things I am stuck on
Motherboard- going through this thread and some others I can't seem to find the same ones on a lot of the aussie part lists. giving what I have already listed, and using any of my links what would be a good motherboard available to me at a decent price?

RAM- http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf this list has 'g skill' ddr 1600 4gb of ram ranging from 152 aud to a lot more than that. What is the difference here, should I just go for the cheapest available? Does this also go for the video card?

Power Supply- any specific brand (again that pdf link has a few) I should go near/avoid, and looking at that setup what wattage would be necessary?

Keyboard- I'm not looking for a super duper light up display ultra macro keyboard but any cool ones (I seem to like logitech, they've been good to me) that provide a bit more functionality/comfort than the standard windows keyboard for not much cost? Think the g5 mouse of keyboards (I only know of this mouse since my mate who will be building the computer has it)

Thank you for any help guys

 

[Nobodyspatzy]

Hey all, thanks to this thread, I got my PC via UPS ready to be built and played with... The problem is I haven't done this in a while, and am a bit lost currently. The cpu, RAM and motherboard are all in, but for some reason, my old IDEE drive isn't being recognized. I thought the drive was faulty, but it seems any device (including the DVD-rom I am using) are not showing up.

I am currently trying to get help from friends, but would also appreciate a site that guides how to do this as well. Thanks for your time.

 

[rohlfinator]

Okay, thanks for the help. Is one of those motherboard brands better then the other(Asus,Gigabeat, or MSI?) They are all $99.

They're all three pretty well respected, I think. I'm personally using a Gigabyte, but I've heard good things about the other two as well.

 

[BrassMonkey1010]

They're all three pretty well respected, I think. I'm personally using a Gigabyte, but I've heard good things about the other two as well.

One more question. I was reading some of the newegg reviews on the CPU I picked, and people say that it is not DDR3 compatible or something like that...Is this true? Do I need to pick a different one?

 

[Wallach]

One more question. I was reading some of the newegg reviews on the CPU I picked, and people say that it is not DDR3 compatible or something like that...Is this true? Do I need to pick a different one?

An i5-750 is definitely compatible with DDR3 (I know, I'm using one). Not sure what the comments meant, I'd have to look at them to get some context.

Edit - If you are not doing any OC'ing though just get 1333MHz DDR3.

 

[BrassMonkey1010]

An i5-750 is definitely compatible with DDR3 (I know, I'm using one). Not sure what the comments meant, I'd have to look at them to get some context.

Edit - If you are not doing any OC'ing though just get 1333MHz DDR3.

The CPU I picked is the AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition . Not the i5.

 

[Wallach]

The CPU I picked is the AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition . Not the i5.

Sorry duder, I mixed you up with the Aussie there.

They are right, there is no DDR3 support on the 940s. You need a 945/955 for the DDR3 controller. Will need DDR2 RAM for that CPU.

Edit - Or bump up to the 945, which has a $15 gift card deal right now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...809&cm_re=Phenom_II_X4-_-19-103-809-_-Product

 

[BrassMonkey1010]

Sorry duder, I mixed you up with the Aussie there.

They are right, there is no DDR3 support on the 940s. You need a 945/955 for the DDR3 controller. Will need DDR2 RAM for that CPU.

I just went up to the 945. It is $25 more then the 940, but it should be worth it right?

EDIT. Thanks!

 

[Lafiel]

Hey guys I'm from Australia, looking to build a new PC soon.

Been looking at prices from these stores
MSY
Scorpion
Umart
PC Case gear

But if anyone knows other ones worth it please tell me (around Melbourne if you're Aussie)

Want it for- gaming mostly.

Have been thinking
CPU- INtel i5 750
4GB DDR3 RAM
1GB 5850 Radeon
1TB HD (Samsung) Don't buy the samsung 1tb drives at msy. As they're eco-green drives, you can get a spinpoint F3 at http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=12711 for like $99. Which will be much better for your OS
case- Antec p183
Windows 7 64 bit home OEM
Mouse- g5 logitech

Things I am stuck on
Motherboard- going through this thread and some others I can't seem to find the same ones on a lot of the aussie part lists. giving what I have already listed, and using any of my links what would be a good motherboard available to me at a decent price? Gigabyte P55A-UD3R at $162 should be more then enough for your needs. If you want to go cheaper Gigabyte P55A-UD3 is good too

RAM- http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf this list has 'g skill' ddr 1600 4gb of ram ranging from 152 aud to a lot more than that. What is the difference here, should I just go for the cheapest available? Does this also go for the video card? There's such a small difference in price you might as well go with the 1600 IMO. But there's really not much of a difference between 1333 & 1600.

Power Supply- any specific brand (again that pdf link has a few) I should go near/avoid, and looking at that setup what wattage would be necessary? Either the antec earthwatts 650 or corsair vx 550 would be a good choice at $105.

Keyboard- I'm not looking for a super duper light up display ultra macro keyboard but any cool ones (I seem to like logitech, they've been good to me) that provide a bit more functionality/comfort than the standard windows keyboard for not much cost? Think the g5 mouse of keyboards (I only know of this mouse since my mate who will be building the computer has it) Logitech illuminated for $66. Excellent price, excellent keyboard.

Thank you for any help guys

,

 

[Kintaro]

Well, I finally picked up a OCZ Modular Power Supply for about $89 locally. Got my PC back up and running for now. Hopefully, it keeps running but we'll see.

 

[half a moon]

Oh god. The Corsair 600t is sexy.

I'll be waiting for this $150 case that's releasing this summer. Anyone got an exact date?

CPU backplate cutout for easy CPU cooling replacement. Slot made for the Hydro H50.

 

[kamil]

Meant to add:

My current CPU is...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition
Socket AM2

What quad-core processor would be a decent upgrade from that for around $120-$150?

Check your motherboard producer's site on what CPUs your mobo support. I also have AM2 mobo and it supports all Athlons X4 but only Phenoms X4 with lower TDPs (I think up to 95W). Unless you want to change motherboard also but than you probably won't stay in 120-150$ range.

 

[Wallach]

http://i46.tinypic.com/dqheso.png
Oh god. The Corsair 600t is sexy.

I'll be waiting for this $150 case that's releasing this summer. Anyone got an exact date?

CPU backplate cutout for easy CPU cooling replacement. Slot made for the Hydro H50.

Ugh, so good. I'm sorry Antec 300 but I think it might be time for you to retire this summer...

 

[Red]

See if your BIOS has a loadline calibration setting (LLC), if so check to see that it's enabled. If it's happening at idle it sounds like something weird is going on with your VDrop.

My LLC was on auto, just switched it to enabled. Gonna leave my PC running while I'm at work and hopefully it'll still be responsive when I get home. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Caesar III]

I did a search and the only apperance was in the mac thread so I'll give it a shot in here.

I read about the seagate momentus xt series few days agon and I'm really tempted. I want to put one in my Notebook to replace my 80GB SATA drive.

just in case you haven't heard of it already:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/seagate-momentus-xt-hybrid-hard-drive-ssd,review-31903-2.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3734/seagates-momentus-xt-review-finally-a-good-hybrid-hdd

sounds so awesome and 130€ for a 500gb harddisk is great as well. I think the 4GB are enough for all I do with my notebook most of the time (firefox, thunderbird, win7, office)


What's Gafs opinion on those?

 

[Krauser Kat]

Does the AMD Phenom II X2 555BE have more or less oc head room against the i5-650 to make it worth dropping the extra 90 for the i5. this would be for mostly emulating and mame games.

 

[Minsc]

I did a search and the only apperance was in the mac thread so I'll give it a shot in here.

I read about the seagate momentus xt series few days agon and I'm really tempted. I want to put one in my Notebook to replace my 80GB SATA drive.

just in case you haven't heard of it already:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/seagate-momentus-xt-hybrid-hard-drive-ssd,review-31903-2.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3734/seagates-momentus-xt-review-finally-a-good-hybrid-hdd

sounds so awesome and 130€ for a 500gb harddisk is great as well. I think the 4GB are enough for all I do with my notebook most of the time (firefox, thunderbird, win7, office)


What's Gafs opinion on those?

Didn't perform very well in tests from what I read, 35x-60x slower than a normal SSD, right in line, if not worse than 5400RPM drives. Pass.

 

[Caesar III]

The random acces is over the whole disc, right? Did you read the text or just scan through the results? The realworld tests are what is relevant with this one IMHO.

I mostly use the above mentioned applications on my notebook which could easily fit into the 4GB after some time. So I think those are more relevant:

AND it is significant cheaper than a SSD.

 

[JudgeN]

Oh god. The Corsair 600t is sexy.

I'll be waiting for this $150 case that's releasing this summer. Anyone got an exact date?

CPU backplate cutout for easy CPU cooling replacement. Slot made for the Hydro H50.

Holy fucking shit, this is awesome. My only problem is the price, $150 for a mid size case seems really steep I would have liked it to be around $100. Still will probably buy to replace my Antec 300, that case has zero room for cable management.