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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

GullyJuice said:
i'm in the u.s. shopping Newegg. i would be assembling myself. here's my build:

$280 CPU: Intel Core i7-920
$300 Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D
$070 CPU cooler: COOLER MASTER 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
$140 PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W
$100 Case: COOLER MASTER CM690 Mid Tower
$440 GPU: Radeon HD 5870 1GB
$220 Memory: 2 x G.SKILL 4GB
$344 Hard drive: OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD
$027 Optical drive: Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD RW

about $1920 or $1700 if I opted for a 1TB HDD

a $1700 Dell XPS would have a worse power supply, but include a BD drive and a monitor.

other than increased upgradeability, i don't see a reason to build.?
Click to expand...

To chime in with Minsc, I would go with this motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131641&Tpk=p6x58d e

Its the same board without the premium price.

This Ram

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0231247&cm_re=DDR3_ram-_-20-231-247-_-Product
 
Any suggestions on a cheap wireless card/adapter that supports windows 7 on 802.11g? I've searched the usual suspects but some of the PCI cards have reader reviews that claim they don't work on 7.
 
mernst23 said:
Any suggestions on a cheap wireless card/adapter that supports windows 7 on 802.11g? I've searched the usual suspects but some of the PCI cards have reader reviews that claim they don't work on 7.
Click to expand...

I'd just pick up a cheap USB stick based one... I think you can find them around $10-20 (there's even one there for $5 w/ free shipping). Unless you need to get a signal from somewhere unusual or far far away. Even then, the convenience of plug n play, and being able to move them to other computers instantly is nice.
 
JudgeN said:
Gigabyte boards are cheaper but I prefer ASUS quality, being an owner of a P6X58D Premium.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423

It seems like a decent board though.
Click to expand...
I actually have had an Asus mobo for 5 years that's been great. I just thought I read that X58 Gigabyte board's in that price range were the best. No problem with paying 20 bucks more for the Asus.

Speaking of Asus, people seem to go with them for video cards even though XFX has lifetime warranty? Trying to decide on a 5850 manufacturer.
 
BrassMonkey1010 said:
Whats a better brand (generally) for AMD3 motherboards. Asus, MSI, or Gigabyte?
Click to expand...

You just named three of my favourite motherboard brands. Choose the one with the features you want... If they have feature-parity, pick the one that looks cooler.

MSI usually has great budget boards, ASUS has great high-end boards, and Gigabyte is somewhere in the middle.
 
Just got the official word that my asus g73jh is moving into production phase and should be in my hands in about 2-3 weeks. Does anyone have any experience with this beast? And if so, any pointers for it?

Also, for everyone else out there. I've been out of pc gaming for a LONG time. what should I be looking out for in the near past or future?

Also would love some tips on how well this will perform when hooked up to my tv, if it will at all. I have a 46" samsung lcd. I'm kind of looking forward to sitting on the couch and getting through mass effect 2 and some other games i've missed out on.

key specs:
Display 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080)-
Processor - Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache) - Standard
Ram 8,192MB (8GB) DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2GBx4) - Standard
Graphics Video Card ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5870 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
Primary Hard Drive - 80GB Intel G2 X25-M Solid State Drive (SSD Serial-ATA II)
Second Hard Drive - 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Default
Wireless Network -Intel® Advanced-N 6200 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
 
I'm willing to spend $700-$800 on a new box-

I already have a 9800GT and a 1TB hard drive.

What would be my best bet for a PSU, case, CPU, RAM, and a small HD to run the OS off of?

I'd like the PSU to be able to eventually handle a better video card as well...

Also, what are the benefits of getting 64 bit as opposed to 32 bit? I'm mainly planning on doing gaming on the system. Is there a lot of incompatibility with older games on 64 bit CPUs?
 
FlyinJ said:
I'm willing to spend $700-$800 on a new box-

I already have a 9800GT and a 1TB hard drive.

What would be my best bet for a PSU, case, CPU, RAM, and a small HD to run the OS off of?

I'd like the PSU to be able to eventually handle a better video card as well...

Also, what are the benefits of getting 64 bit as opposed to 32 bit? I'm mainly planning on doing gaming on the system. Is there a lot of incompatibility with older games on 64 bit CPUs?
Click to expand...

Your 9800GT will be the limiting factor if you hold on to it. For that price you'd want to go for an X6 or i7.

If you want the best small HDD a money can buy practically, get a Intel 80GB SSD X-25M G2. Otherwise a $40/$70 500GB/1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 for the HDD.

64-bit windows 7 will run 99.9% of older games, I have a couple hundred and they all work great, ATI drivers to boot! So you should have no problems, that can't be fixed! Occasionally there are newer engines to download or patches, but they are there when you need them, and that's what counts!
 
Minsc said:
Your 9800GT will be the limiting factor if you hold on to it. For that price you'd want to go for an X6 or i7.

If you want the best small HDD a money can buy practically, get a Intel 80GB SSD X-25M G2. Otherwise a $40/$70 500GB/1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 for the HDD.

64-bit windows 7 will run 99.9% of older games, I have a couple hundred and they all work great, ATI drivers to boot! So you should have no problems, that can't be fixed! Occasionally there are newer engines to download or patches, but they are there when you need them, and that's what counts!
Click to expand...

Ok, I'm looking at getting this so far:

Intel Core i7 Quad 860 2.8Ghz

Asus P6T SE Intel X58/ICH10 Core i7 LGA1366 DDR3 A

C614-9CM Corsair CMV4GX3M2A1333C9 4GB(2x2G) DDR3 1


What kind of a PSU and case should I get for this? Like I said, I'd like to eventually put a better video card in so I don't want to be PSU limited, but I don't want to get some crazy overpowered PSU either.

As for the case, as no-frills as possible. Big enough to hold 2-3 hard drives and a decent video card. Preferably zero bright lights on it other than small HD and power lights.

EDIT: This should be fine, right?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...CmtB5ObkkzCjCVqHCjCdwwp&cpncode=22-61781767-2


Thanks for the advice so far...
 
GullyJuice said:
i'm in the u.s. shopping Newegg. i would be assembling myself. here's my build:

$280 CPU: Intel Core i7-920
$300 Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D
$070 CPU cooler: COOLER MASTER 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
$140 PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W
$100 Case: COOLER MASTER CM690 Mid Tower
$440 GPU: Radeon HD 5870 1GB
$220 Memory: 2 x G.SKILL 4GB
$344 Hard drive: OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD
$027 Optical drive: Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD RW

about $1920 or $1700 if I opted for a 1TB HDD

a $1700 Dell XPS would have a worse power supply, but include a BD drive and a monitor.

other than increased upgradeability, i don't see a reason to build.?
Click to expand...

Good lord, why do you have a $300 motherboard in there? Or a $344 SSD, you think those are cheap at Dell either? No idea why you have spent $440 on a 5870 when the HIS is $399. Another $30 off would come from the RAM, and that would include moving up to 6GB (Corsair XMS3). I could probably cut $400 before MIR off that build and the only downgrade you're looking at is moving to a 1TB SpinPoint or something rather than the still rather expensive and fledgling SSD drives (which I don't even think Dell offers).

Seriously dude, if you're thinking of spending this much money you need to put some more effort into this. Otherwise you should go straight to Dell and have them take care of it for you.
 
Wallach said:
Another $30 off would come from the RAM, and that would include moving up to 6GB (Corsair XMS3).
Click to expand...
Do this. 920 has improved performance with tri-channel

Most people don't need that large of an SSD. Look at getting ~60gb OCZ and a HDD for storage if you need it.
 
johnnylineup said:
Just got the official word that my asus g73jh is moving into production phase and should be in my hands in about 2-3 weeks. Does anyone have any experience with this beast? And if so, any pointers for it?
Click to expand...
Pointers?

Pray you don't get a lemon.

Update the GPU drivers to Catalyst 10.5

Also would love some tips on how well this will perform when hooked up to my tv, if it will at all. I have a 46" samsung lcd. I'm kind of looking forward to sitting on the couch and getting through mass effect 2 and some other games i've missed out on.
Click to expand...
Well, the Mobility 5870 is a downclocked 5770, so overclocking it back up to reference speeds should be your 1st goal, especially for 1080p gaming.

It's at 700/1000, but can easily rest at 900/1100.
 
Jack!

Friend is having a bit of trouble with his MSI GT627.

After a while in TF2 the laptop will start getting around 2 fps. Temps are in check but the PCI-E bandwidth is 1x instead of 16x.
Even though it is a laptop it should still be running at 16x correct?

If so do you know how to try and get it to update back to 16x?
 
Hazaro said:
Jack!

Friend is having a bit of trouble with his MSI GT627.

After a while in TF2 the laptop will start getting around 2 fps. Temps are in check but the PCI-E bandwidth is 1x instead of 16x.
Even though it is a laptop it should still be running at 16x correct?

If so do you know how to try and get it to update back to 16x?
Click to expand...

Definitely a motherboard issue. What should be happening is that it should idle at 1x and go up to 16x during gameplay. My guess is that if it's happening after playing for a while, the northbridge is overheating and forcing voltages down to reduce heat, which will send it back to 1x until the heat is dissipated.

Edit - Note that this could mean that there is a problem with the hardware, so if it's still under warranty it may be worth just replacing. Shouldn't be such an issue with heat that this is occurring honestly.
 
johnnylineup said:
Just got the official word that my asus g73jh is moving into production phase and should be in my hands in about 2-3 weeks. Does anyone have any experience with this beast? And if so, any pointers for it?

Also, for everyone else out there. I've been out of pc gaming for a LONG time. what should I be looking out for in the near past or future?

Also would love some tips on how well this will perform when hooked up to my tv, if it will at all. I have a 46" samsung lcd. I'm kind of looking forward to sitting on the couch and getting through mass effect 2 and some other games i've missed out on.

key specs:
Display 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080)-
Processor - Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache) - Standard
Ram 8,192MB (8GB) DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2GBx4) - Standard
Graphics Video Card ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5870 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
Primary Hard Drive - 80GB Intel G2 X25-M Solid State Drive (SSD Serial-ATA II)
Second Hard Drive - 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Default
Wireless Network -Intel® Advanced-N 6200 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
Click to expand...
Nice, where did you order yours? I've been looking at the g73's
 
Hazaro said:
Jack!

Friend is having a bit of trouble with his MSI GT627.

After a while in TF2 the laptop will start getting around 2 fps. Temps are in check but the PCI-E bandwidth is 1x instead of 16x.
Even though it is a laptop it should still be running at 16x correct?

If so do you know how to try and get it to update back to 16x?
Click to expand...
Couple preliminary questions, while I make some inquiries:

- Does he have the 9600M GT, or 9800M GS?
- What Nvidia driver is he using?
- It it always in x1, or does it start off at x16?
- Does MSI have any power management software installed?

MSI does carry a 3 year warranty, fortunately.
 
FlyinJ said:
Ok, I'm looking at getting this so far:

Intel Core i7 Quad 860 2.8Ghz

Asus P6T SE Intel X58/ICH10 Core i7 LGA1366 DDR3 A

C614-9CM Corsair CMV4GX3M2A1333C9 4GB(2x2G) DDR3 1


What kind of a PSU and case should I get for this? Like I said, I'd like to eventually put a better video card in so I don't want to be PSU limited, but I don't want to get some crazy overpowered PSU either.

As for the case, as no-frills as possible. Big enough to hold 2-3 hard drives and a decent video card. Preferably zero bright lights on it other than small HD and power lights.

EDIT: This should be fine, right?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...CmtB5ObkkzCjCVqHCjCdwwp&cpncode=22-61781767-2


Thanks for the advice so far...
Click to expand...

I helped with what I could, hopefully someone else will pick up the slack for the rest!

I can point out that the i7 860 is not X58 compatible that is the LGA1156 line of motherboards.

You'd be looking at the ~$250-$300 i7 920/930 for the X58 boards, all the way up to the $1000 12-core (6 are real 6 are from hyper-threading) 980X chip.

All the rest of i7s are 8 cores with 4 from hyper-threading, which is basically splitting the 4 real cores to 8 cores, it actually improves performance by around 20% when utilized correctly.

The AMD X6 chips are 6 cores with no hyper-threading, so they're just 6 cores, but 6 real cores! They're much much cheaper than the 980X too, about 4x cheaper!
 
Wallach said:
My concern is that your CPU has some sort of VDrop problem and your idle voltage variation is crashing it somehow. Does this happen at stock clocks/voltages?
Click to expand...
It has happened at stock settings actually, but not consistently (maybe twice in six months). Honestly, I've been having some strange problems with this PC for a while now, and the freezing just seems to be a continuation of its moodiness. It won't boot from my SSD, for example; I need to set my 1TB Caviar Black as my boot drive, even though I have Windows installed on my Intel X-25M. Windows has been misreading my SSD as an HDD in WEI for a few weeks, even though it was detected properly for months following its installation. I've also seen a huge jump in shutdown times (from five to ten seconds to twenty or more). At first I thought the freezing was due to a problem with my SSD, following the trend of the issues listed above, but since it only happens consistently when I tinker with my CPU settings, I'm pretty sure it's a voltage/CPU related issue.

Anyway, I knocked my vcore/DRAM voltages up to 1.3 and my pll voltage up to 1.92. Left LLC enabled. It's been holding pretty steady so far, so I'm hoping these settings last.

What's been bugging me about the crashing is that the PC simply freezes. I'd prefer a BSOD in a situation like this, some kind of error code so I know generally what it is I need to fix.
 
Minsc said:
I helped with what I could, hopefully someone else will pick up the slack for the rest!

I can point out that the i7 860 is not X58 compatible that is the LGA1156 line of motherboards.

You'd be looking at the ~$250-$300 i7 920/930 for the X58 boards, all the way up to the $1000 12-core (6 are real 6 are from hyper-threading) 980X chip.

All the rest of i7s are 8 cores with 4 from hyper-threading, which is basically splitting the 4 real cores to 8 cores, it actually improves performance by around 20% when utilized correctly.

The AMD X6 chips are 6 cores with no hyper-threading, so they're just 6 cores, but 6 real cores! They're much much cheaper than the 980X too, about 4x cheaper!
Click to expand...

Wow... well thanks for the help, but now I'm even more confused.

Can anyone just outright recommend a good CPU, MB, PSU, memory and case combo for a gaming rig... for $900 or under?
 
FlyinJ said:
Awesome! Thanks

EDIT: only question, will that 650/12v PSU be enough for a better graphics card down the line or should I go higher?
Click to expand...

Should be able to handle plenty. It could handle any of the single-GPU cards on the market right now including the GTX 480, and quite frankly if they start getting more power hungry than that frankenstein of a card we are going to have bigger problems. It wouldn't be ideal for SLI/Crossfire setups, though, especially when using higher-end cards.
 
Okay, now I just have a general question about computer components(i'm trying). Are all cases, power supplies, and motherboards compatible with each other? Is it possible to buy a case that doesn't support a certain power supply or motherboard?
 
Shambles said:
The X6 is a poor choice for gaming. You'll likely want the i7 920/930 and if that stretches your budget a bit too far there are chips like the i5 750.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it a poor choice, as it may not beat the i5 750 in every game, but it does great with apps, sorta a toss up. I actually half-expect the next Tech Report system guide to pick it over the i5 750, for the value of having 6 cores at such a low price, hard call.
 
Hazaro said:
Jack!

Friend is having a bit of trouble with his MSI GT627.

After a while in TF2 the laptop will start getting around 2 fps. Temps are in check but the PCI-E bandwidth is 1x instead of 16x.
Even though it is a laptop it should still be running at 16x correct?

If so do you know how to try and get it to update back to 16x?
Click to expand...
check your PM and get back to me.
 
Minsc said:
I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it a poor choice, as it may not beat the i5 750 in every game, but it does great with apps, sorta a toss up. I actually half-expect the next Tech Report system guide to pick it over the i5 750, for the value of having 6 cores at such a low price, hard call.
Click to expand...
Even still, it will improve with gaming over time as games start using more than 4 cores. Although that's unlikely to happen anytime soon.
 
Minsc said:
I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it a poor choice, as it may not beat the i5 750 in every game, but it does great with apps, sorta a toss up. I actually half-expect the next Tech Report system guide to pick it over the i5 750, for the value of having 6 cores at such a low price, hard call.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'd agree with that, it's hard to call it a poor choice just because not all games have strong multi-core support. It's also just not that far off the i5-750 in those older games (and even then you're talking about 120+ frames to 180+ frames) to warrant calling it a bad decision.

I personally went with the i5-750 but I wouldn't be wary of recommending the hexacores to people.
 
K.Jack said:
Pointers?

Pray you don't get a lemon.

Update the GPU drivers to Catalyst 10.5


Well, the Mobility 5870 is a downclocked 5770, so overclocking it back up to reference speeds should be your 1st goal, especially for 1080p gaming.

It's at 700/1000, but can easily rest at 900/1100.
Click to expand...

I've heard about the PSOD and I'm praying I don't end up with one. I'll definitely update the drivers when I get it, even thinking about doing a clean install of windows once it comes. Would you not recommend this for any reason?

As far as the advice on the 1080p gaming, thanks, I don't know much about overclocking but now that I have some hardware that can actually take advantage of it I'll do my research.

celcius said:
Nice, where did you order yours? I've been looking at the g73's
Click to expand...

I ordered it from xoticpc. ended up being about $1800, which I think is a pretty decent price considering whats under the hood. I'll gladly post impressions and pictures once its in my hands and I'm done playing with it for a bit. Only thing that sucked was that it took almost 2 months for my order to go through due to all the back orders. That was rough, but my wait is almost over.
 
johnnylineup said:
I've heard about the PSOD and I'm praying I don't end up with one. I'll definitely update the drivers when I get it, even thinking about doing a clean install of windows once it comes. Would you not recommend this for any reason?

As far as the advice on the 1080p gaming, thanks, I don't know much about overclocking but now that I have some hardware that can actually take advantage of it I'll do my research.



I ordered it from xoticpc. ended up being about $1800, which I think is a pretty decent price considering whats under the hood. I'll gladly post impressions and pictures once its in my hands and I'm done playing with it for a bit. Only thing that sucked was that it took almost 2 months for my order to go through due to all the back orders. That was rough, but my wait is almost over.
Click to expand...
PSOD? I was referring to the GSOD. :lol

Sign up on NotebookReview, if you haven't already. There's a dedicated Asus forum.


I'm actually eying the G73W, which will have a 120Hz LED and Nvidia's GTX 480M. We're just waiting for the pricing to be revealed.
 
Minsc said:
I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it a poor choice, as it may not beat the i5 750 in every game, but it does great with apps, sorta a toss up. I actually half-expect the next Tech Report system guide to pick it over the i5 750, for the value of having 6 cores at such a low price, hard call.
Click to expand...

Poor as in a pure gaming build as the i5 750 outperforms it with games at the same price point. Getting the X6 will decrease your framerates. We're still struggling to find games that use quad cores to their best potential. Future proofing is also fairly meaningless as by the time we reach the level where the higher core, lower clocked X6 proves itself better than the i5 you'll be long overdue for an upgrade anyways. Remember he's building it as a gaming rig not a multi-threaded monster encoding machine. And as such the X6 is no contest for the i5 for him.
 
Minsc said:
I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it a poor choice, as it may not beat the i5 750 in every game, but it does great with apps, sorta a toss up. I actually half-expect the next Tech Report system guide to pick it over the i5 750, for the value of having 6 cores at such a low price, hard call.
Click to expand...
I bet they'll stick with the 750, if only for its better gaming performance, but I expect the 1055T will be top pick in their alternatives list.

Lafiel said:
Even still, it will improve with gaming over time as games start using more than 4 cores. Although that's unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Click to expand...
The i5/i7s still beat the X6s on a lot of heavily threaded workloads... you really have to fully max all 6 cores to give the X6 an advantage. Even if games move towards more threads, it's nearly impossible that they'll be optimized to the extent that the X6 requires. And like Shambles said, by the time that future happens, they'll both be obsolete.

Neither of them are bad processors by any means, and for the majority of games there won't be any noticeable difference between the two, but if gaming performance is your top priority there's really no good reason to go with the X6. (And I say this as someone whose 1055T is in the mail. :D )
 
K.Jack said:
PSOD? I was referring to the GSOD. :lol

Sign up on NotebookReview, if you haven't already. There's a dedicated Asus forum.


I'm actually eying the G73W, which will have a 120Hz LED and Nvidia's GTX 480M. We're just waiting for the pricing to be revealed.
Click to expand...

PSOD = Psychedelic screen of death haha. Thats a "common" issue i've heard coming up in forums. Some systems are having to be RMA'd after a screen resolution change, and apparently its trippy as it occurs. Who knows.

And dont tempt me with the G73W. I've waited long enough for this damn thing that i'm sticking with it. I keep trying to tell myself that if I wait for the next one a new one will be out that I'll want even more, and I need a replacement soon.
/I want to wait so bad
 
rohlfinator said:
I bet they'll stick with the 750, if only for its better gaming performance, but I expect the 1055T will be top pick in their alternatives list.


The i5/i7s still beat the X6s on a lot of heavily threaded workloads... you really have to fully max all 6 cores to give the X6 an advantage. Even if games move towards more threads, it's nearly impossible that they'll be optimized to the extent that the X6 requires. And like Shambles said, by the time that future happens, they'll both be obsolete.

Neither of them are bad processors by any means, and for the majority of games there won't be any noticeable difference between the two, but if gaming performance is your top priority there's really no good reason to go with the X6. (And I say this as someone whose 1055T is in the mail. :D )
Click to expand...

In that case, I think I will go with the i5 750. What is a good processor/MB combo for that one? And will a 650W/12v PSU still work well with it?
 
FlyinJ said:
In that case, I think I will go with the i5 750. What is a good processor/MB combo for that one? And will a 650W/12v PSU still work well with it?
Click to expand...

How much do you want to spend on the motherboard? And yes, the PSU is fine.
 
Wallach said:
How much do you want to spend on the motherboard? And yes, the PSU is fine.
Click to expand...

I don't really understand the benefits of the MB in modern systems.

The previous one recommended to me was around 160, is that mid range? What would be a comparable MB for this new processor?
 
johnnylineup said:
Just got the official word that my asus g73jh is moving into production phase and should be in my hands in about 2-3 weeks. Does anyone have any experience with this beast? And if so, any pointers for it?

Also, for everyone else out there. I've been out of pc gaming for a LONG time. what should I be looking out for in the near past or future?

Also would love some tips on how well this will perform when hooked up to my tv, if it will at all. I have a 46" samsung lcd. I'm kind of looking forward to sitting on the couch and getting through mass effect 2 and some other games i've missed out on.

key specs:
Display 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080)-
Processor - Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache) - Standard
Ram 8,192MB (8GB) DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2GBx4) - Standard
Graphics Video Card ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5870 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
Primary Hard Drive - 80GB Intel G2 X25-M Solid State Drive (SSD Serial-ATA II)
Second Hard Drive - 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Default
Wireless Network -Intel® Advanced-N 6200 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
Click to expand...
I have the G73jh and love the thing... Plays everything that I'm into at the moment with decent frames no sweat. I also often hook it up to my 50" Plasma in the living room through HDMI and play from the couch to get the best of both worlds :D If you can get a non lemon one (with no annoying problems) it's a very nice laptop. The only real negative I have with it are the lack of connectivity options (No express port, no Usb 3.0, no esata) but since I bought it strictly for gaming I can over look that issue.
 
FlyinJ said:
I don't really understand the benefits of the MB in modern systems.
Click to expand...
Most motherboards these days are pretty solid. If you want to seriously overclock or run multiple GPUs you'll want a higher-end one, but otherwise you'll be just fine with a lower- or mid-range board. One thing you might want to watch for right now is USB 3.0 -- it's pretty new, so if that's something you want you'll have to make sure your board supports it.
 
Wallach said:
Maybe a little lower than mid-range... LGA1156 boards tend to run a bit more than their AMD counterparts.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.408486

This is a pretty good combo.
Click to expand...

Could you recommend a few others?

Is this one good?

http://www.centralcomputers.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp?product_id=72544&czuid=1275624209984

Also, with that processor, do I need to buy a separate heat sink/CPU fan? I don't plan to do any overclocking...
 
FlyinJ said:
Could you recommend a few others?

Is this one good?

http://www.centralcomputers.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp?product_id=72544&czuid=1275624209984

Also, with that processor, do I need to buy a separate heat sink/CPU fan? I don't plan to do any overclocking...
Click to expand...

That is also a good board. I'm not going to present you with a bunch of options because there are just a lot of motherboards out there for this chip. For my money, I stick to Gigabyte, eVGA or ASUS.

If you aren't going to OC, then you don't need an aftermarket cooler. The stock Intel cooler on the i5-750s is actually kind of lame but for stock clocks you have nothing to worry about. It may not have great thermals, but is actually one of the quietest coolers available.
 
FlyinJ said:
Could you recommend a few others?

Is this one good?

http://www.centralcomputers.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp?product_id=72544&czuid=1275624209984

Also, with that processor, do I need to buy a separate heat sink/CPU fan? I don't plan to do any overclocking...
Click to expand...

It comes with the heatsink. Only CPUs labelled as "OEM" do not. However I would recommend eventually looking at overclocking the 750. It can turn into a real beast even without pushing it very hard. On stock voltage it should go up to around 3.4-3.6. With some serious effort you could probably push it over 4.0Ghz. Not that i'm saying it needs to be done, but it's definitely something worth looking at.
 
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