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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

Mr_Brit said:
You badly need a bigger, better case, airflow in that thing will be terrible.

70C load on my cpu @4.2ghz using 1.375vcore. The temps are fine. Using the Intel stock you get with the 6core cpu is BEAST, I got it free too.

darthbob said:
Dat cable management...

:lol

Stuck with this PSU until my 620HX modular corsair gets back from RMA and hopefully that will make it better then it currently is.
 
Sanjay said:
70C load on my cpu @4.2ghz using 1.375vcore. The temps are fine. Using the Intel stock you get with the 6core cpu is BEAST, I got it free too.



Stuck with this PSU until my 620HX modular corsair gets back from RMA and hopefully that will make it better then it currently is.

That isn't going to change anything with the cables going to the parts:lol
 
got the same Silverstone LC17 case for my parents' HTPC , running my old Athlon X2 3800+ (939!)

yeah cable management is impossible without a modular PSU :D

cpu cooling is OKish with the twin fans in the back (Panaflos @ 5V for me), but I would be kinda interested in seeing your GPU/VRM temps :lol

did you put in any extra fans in the front? Never bothered with mine, but would've done so if I had a decent graphics card in there ...
 
n0n44m said:
got the same Silverstone LC17 case for my parents' HTPC , running my old Athlon X2 3800+ (939!)

yeah cable management is impossible without a modular PSU :D

cpu cooling is OKish with the twin fans in the back (Panaflos @ 5V for me), but I would be kinda interested in seeing your GPU/VRM temps :lol

did you put in any extra fans in the front? Never bothered with mine, but would've done so if I had a decent graphics card in there ...
I've got the same PSU and an Antec 300, don't blame the PSU when the case he has is simply terrible and there is no way anyone should ever place that kind of hardware in that case.
 
Does anyone here have a 470? I was planning on getting a 460 for the build I'm getting in a few weeks, but now that the 470 is only $70 more it's pretty tempting. However, I'm hesitant because of the noise complaints. The heat I'm not worried about, but if it's going to be annoyingly loud I'd much rather just get a 460 and forget about the performance difference.

I'm not sure though if noise is still a concern though, I assume that newer models have better coolers than the initial ones that were complained about when the card was first launched. It's hard to find good reviews for specific cards though.
 
dr3upmushroom said:
Does anyone here have a 470? I was planning on getting a 460 for the build I'm getting in a few weeks, but now that the 470 is only $70 more it's pretty tempting. However, I'm hesitant because of the noise complaints. The heat I'm not worried about, but if it's going to be annoyingly loud I'd much rather just get a 460 and forget about the performance difference.

I'm not sure though if noise is still a concern though, I assume that newer models have better coolers than the initial ones that were complained about when the card was first launched. It's hard to find good reviews for specific cards though.

The noise isn't that out of the norm on the GTX 470 TBH. Its the GTX 480 that had less desirable noise levels (which is sorted by getting the Zotac AMP edition).
 
Mr_Brit said:
I've got the same PSU and an Antec 300, don't blame the PSU when the case he has is simply terrible and there is no way anyone should ever place that kind of hardware in that case.

He bought the case with a specific shelf and setting in mind. His temps won't kill his parts too much but maybe a little tidying up is in order. He doesn't need a modern case if his current one serves him well I guess.
 
Hey guys. I'm not here looking for PC help for myself, but for a friend. I want to build him something nice. He mainly plays WoW, but he wants to be able to play other PC titles. Can you guys recommend me where to start? I've heard that the GTX 460 is a great card for price to performance ratio. I also want to go with AMD if possible since they are usually cheaper and not much of a performance difference from Intel.

EDIT: He already has a good enough power supply I think(750w)and a case.
 
n0n44m said:
but I would be kinda interested in seeing your GPU/VRM temps :lol

did you put in any extra fans in the front? Never bothered with mine, but would've done so if I had a decent graphics card in there ...

According to GPU-Z log max it reached was 64, the GTX 460 runs really low compared to my previous GTX 260 which was running round 80C

Don't have the two extra fans that you can put at the front.

Mr_Brit said:
I've got the same PSU and an Antec 300, don't blame the PSU when the case he has is simply terrible and there is no way anyone should ever place that kind of hardware in that case.

You should like really read my posts, the temps I get are great. I could run this at stock and get amazing low temps, its really a lot to do with having a good heat-sink, you don't need 100 fans.
 
brain_stew said:
Oh there definitely is a difference. The 768MB card is a really poor buy imo.
uld I
There's been some issues with EVGA's 460's get the one from Gigabyte instead.

The x4 945 is a good buy.

Ok. I switched it to a Gigabyte card. What about the motherboard and memory. I'm guessing since the processor is AM3, I'd go for DDR3, but 4GB is enough but knowing him he'd rather have more even though there probably isn't a lot to gain and since I know AMD doesn't support triple channel memory yet(I think), then there's no point for 6GB. What should we go for?
 
Aurarian said:
Ok. I switched it to a Gigabyte card. What about the motherboard and memory. I'm guessing since the processor is AM3, I'd go for DDR3, but 4GB is enough but knowing him he'd rather have more even though there probably isn't a lot to gain and since I know AMD doesn't support triple channel memory yet(I think), then there's no point for 6GB. What should we go for?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=22751630&postcount=11655

No point in triple channel. 4GB is fine.
 
Good thru August 19, 2010 only.

Newegg.com has the same set up sans the 20" monitor, for $869.99.



Gateway DX4320-17

AMD Phenom™ II X4 Quad-Core Processor 945 (3.0GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

8GB DDR3 Dual Channel 1333MHz Memory (4 x 2048MB) (Maximum 8GB)

1TB SATA hard drive (Green Product - variable RPM)

ATI Radeon™ HD5570 Graphics card with 1024MB of Dedicated DDR3 VRAM

Blu-ray Disc™ 4X BD-ROM / DVD-SuperMulti Drive and 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti Drive

300W Power Supply

VGA, DVI, HDMI™

AMD® 880G Chipset

10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)

1 Year Parts and Labor Limited Warranty with Toll-Free Tech Support

802.11b/g/n Wireless

20" LCD




About a month ago my in-laws asked me to order them a replacement for their 6 year old HP which bit the dust. I got them this set up but with a 23" monitor thru Costco online. Theirs came out to $900+ after shipping... but it's a very solid little machine. I got rid if the free 60-day Norton crap and installed Kaspersky for them. Theey're good to go.

Thought the deal above was pretty good and maybe someone would be interested in buying one.
 
brain_stew said:
Oh there definitely is a difference. The 768MB card is a really poor buy imo.

There's been some issues with EVGA's 460's get the one from Gigabyte instead.

The x4 945 is a good buy.
Then show it. All I've seen is a 5 FPS difference even at 1080p.
 
Nice build Gary. 2 hours but pretty interesting. Wooo you're going to be Ultra-ing out SC2 (PC gamers don't max out, they ULTRA).
 
ChoklitReign said:
Then show it. All I've seen is a 5 FPS difference even at 1080p.

Check out benchmarks of RAM heavy games like Metro 2033 and GTA 4. Its a sign of things to come.

768MB was the amount of VRAM introduced by the 8800GTX back in 2006, its silly to gimp a high end GPU with a 2006 era amount of memory. Especially when you're already getting a nice boost in games that don't use that extra memory anyway. Its incredibly shortsighted, oh and 1080p isn't a high resolution anymore.
 
Is there any fat to trim off of this build I'm looking at?

if73o0.png
 
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Is there any fat to trim off of this build I'm looking at?

if73o0.png

I'm not superman, bigger pictures please.

Edit: Bloody stealth edit! :lol

Eh, get the Gigabyte GTX 460, widely regarded as the best one around. Think you might even be able to get it in a combo with that PSU IIRC.

I'd get something other than that OCZ RAM personally, if you're going with OCZ RAM they've got some other sticks for cheaper and if not G.Skill's stuff is better.
 
brain_stew said:
I'm not superman, bigger pictures please.

Edit: Bloody stealth edit! :lol

I'm so used to having tinypic downsize pics to message board size I did it my default then I reloaded the page and went o shit. :lol


brain_stew said:
I'm not superman, bigger pictures please.

Edit: Bloody stealth edit! :lol

Eh, get the Gigabyte GTX 460, widely regarded as the best one around.

I'd get something other than that OCZ RAM personally, if you're going with OCZ RAM they've got some other sticks for cheaper and if not G.Skill's stuff is better.

I was thinking g skill but they were $20 more than those but maybe I'll just get g skill then, I've always really liked them. And way to increase the price by trimming the fat. :P I didn't hear about the EVGA thing, I just know they have good warranties so it was a blind guess with them. So besides those two eveything looks kosher? Is there a big speed difference between usb 2 and usb 3?
 
brain_stew said:
Check out benchmarks of RAM heavy games like Metro 2033 and GTA 4. Its a sign of things to come.

768MB was the amount of VRAM introduced by the 8800GTX back in 2006, its silly to gimp a high end GPU with a 2006 era amount of memory. Especially when you're already getting a nice boost in games that don't use that extra memory anyway. Its incredibly shortsighted, oh and 1080p isn't a high resolution anymore.
Your crystal ball sounds amazing. "In 2015, everyone will have 2048x1440 monitors! PC games will use 4GB of video ram!" Cut the crap, you're not an analyst.
 
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Is there any fat to trim off of this build I'm looking at?
No HDD?

You can probably combo the RAM/PSU
CPU/Mobo

save you $35-$45

Antec 300 non illusion is $10 cheaper.
 
Hazaro said:
No HDD?

You can probably combo the RAM/PSU
CPU/Mobo

save you $35-$45

Antec 300 non illusion is $10 cheaper.

Non illusion doesn't come with the front fans though. I've got a solid state and a 1TB drive from my old pc I can keep but everything else I have to get rid of since I'm giving it to my mom. I can recycle a dvd drive from it too but that's it.
 
ChoklitReign said:
Your crystal ball sounds amazing. "In 2015, everyone will have 2048x1440 monitors! PC games will use 4GB of video ram!" Cut the crap, you're not an analyst.

Don't be such a snot. Load up GTA IV. It tracks your memory in the settings. You're not allowed to exceed what your video card has. Believe me, I'm playing the game right now @1280*960 and I'm exceeding 768MB. He's just trying to prevent people from making a boneheaded decision. Spent the extra 30 dollars or wait until you have the money.
 
Ill ask here as well since it seems this thread is a bit more popular lol. So, my 460 came today, and got driver sweeper to take care of the old drivers, have the new drivers downloaded but not installed. When I run driver sweeper there's 3 separate nvidia drivers, chipset, display, and physX. Do I clean all 3, or just a certain driver? I assume its the display drivers but im not positive.
 
If you want a quick answer, delete everything. But don't do that if you have an Nvidia chipset for your motherboard. Wait for someone else to answer.

EDIT: I do that because I uninstall everything Nvidia related to begin with.
 
ChoklitReign said:
Your crystal ball sounds amazing. "In 2015, everyone will have 2048x1440 monitors! PC games will use 4GB of video ram!" Cut the crap, you're not an analyst.

You're the same jackass that was randomly attacking me in this thread the other day aren't you? The fuck is your problem?

Edit:

Yep, it was him:


ChoklitReign said:
Shut up. Toms Hardware (here found that games use three cores as efficiently as four cores. You're just a smug prick who can't spend less than $100 on a CPU. How the hell is he gonna cheapen the HDD? I wouldn't go lower than 500GB. $600 with combos can build a great PC; he doesn't need to spend any further. If he added a quad-core he might as well downgrade the GPU to a 5770; at least that's what I would do. It's a great build.


·feist· said:
brain_stew, you really shouldn't bother.

I'm not going to just wanted to check it was the same guy.
 
ChoklitReign said:
Your crystal ball sounds amazing. "In 2015, everyone will have 2048x1440 monitors! PC games will use 4GB of video ram!" Cut the crap, you're not an analyst.

Yeah hes not Michael Pachter, hes actually a PC gamer and seems to know his history.

"Toms Hardware (here found that games use three cores as efficiently as four cores"

Maybe they should benchmark games that utilize 4 cores like GTA4 and BC2. What a stupid ass benchmark.
 
I'll bite. The 460 is the current darling mid-range card that most anyone building a PC for gaming can easily afford. Once a person gets the bug to upgrade or starts running multiple monitors or generally just wanting better performance over their current 460, they'll probably look to purchasing a second one for SLI. This is both good value and great performance, and numerous SLI reviews confirm its bang for the buck. At the point that you step into considering an SLI solution, you become exactly the same person that will need that larger amount of memory to drive the latest games at the highest settings possible. While it's true that a 768mb 460 running a 1080p monitor today will give great performance for most people, it's tough to give a recommendation to buy just that when the extra $20-30 will better serve him/her in the long run. Once someone goes SLI, unless they're rolling in money, that's pretty much going to be the upper limit for them for a while without a massive upgrade. And having only that 768 MB to work with in a system you won't be realistically upgrading soon will be disappointing.

It doesn't help that nearly every review out there will recommend getting the 1GB over the 768, and being a PC gamer that has access to all these reviews it would just feel terrible to stumble upon a review and find out that you got the "gimp" version of a card (whether you would have noticed the performance difference anyway) when you could have easily stretched your budget to accomodate 1 GB in the first place.

team brain_stew
 
Aurarian said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...31&cm_re=asus_m4a89gtd-_-13-131-631-_-Product
This is able to use DDR3 1600 ram right? I'm asking only cause I don't see it listed in the specifications.

Also, I wanted to make sure that his power supply could make due with this. Even though it's 750w, I'm worried about the connections because it's in a PC that was bought in early 07'.

Here it is.
http://www.newpowersupply.com/dell_...r_dell_xps_700__710__720-pr-744-c-18-p-1.html
Yes.
 
What do people here think of the CyberpowerPC brand?

Brain_stew recommend me this build and it looks perfect for me, but I've never had any experience with the brand before. I've heard a lot of bad things about them, but then I've heard they've cleaned up their act in the past 6 months?

Help please.
 
SamuraiX- said:
What do people here think of the CyberpowerPC brand?

Brain_stew recommend me this build and it looks perfect for me, but I've never had any experience with the brand before. I've heard a lot of bad things about them, but then I've heard they've cleaned up their act in the past 6 months?

Help please.

I've heard their tech support is horrible.
 
I'm getting as pissed off as you guys. My God, what is it going to take for you to realize using GTA 4, BC2, and Metro 2033 as benchmarks is misleading? These ludicrously unoptimized games are the exceptions, not the rule. It's going to be years before most PC games utilize video memory and CPU cores as well as Photoshop. They are meant to be future proof games. Three years ago, were you telling potential builders they had to run Crysis on Very High settings or else it wasn't a gaming PC? I don't give a fuck about having as many cores or virtual ram as possible. I and most PC gamers care about what components offer the best bang for the buck.

Why do I continue to argue about this shit? I don't know when the hell I'll be able to afford a gaming PC (hopefully Christmas), but it's been on my mind for over a year. I've done shitloads of research and I know as much information as you do (except for the actual building process). I'm pissed off that the price for an entry-level gaming PC is getting higher every month. At first my budget was $500-$600. You said game performance would be too bad. So now it's somewhere between $600 and $700. You're just going to complain in a few months that that's not enough either. I know that the PC hardware market is vicious, but can't you hypothesize a budget gaming PC that will be up to date for 6 months?

I'm also pissed off at the elitism of some PC gamers, especially the head honchos brain_stew and hazaro ITT. Their definition of an entry-level gaming PC is $700 with 4GB of RAM, an Athlon II quad-core CPU, and a GTX 460. Holy fuck, don't you realize that kind of computer is plenty for gaming? Surely you can cut back $50-$100 without critically reducing performance. But that's exactly what you believe. You also believe that PC gaming is only for mature adults who have jobs. I'm a college kid who's never had a job before and I just joined a program that strictly manages your money. I'll be lucky to save up to $600 by the end of the year. You don't give a fuck about hardware or sofware sales. The more restrictive your definition of a gaming PC is, the lower the sales. I want PC gaming to survive and it needs to access a larger audience to. You just want the best parts money can buy and have no interest in software sales. You know that PC games generally sell the least out of all the platforms and you don't care. I hate that.

I don't want to insult your intelligence or anything that would get me banned. I can concede that you know more than me (it's not easy admitting that; I guess I sort of have a superiority complex) after I've read what you think about my thoughts. I really want to know what this thread is all about: 1) how much money does an entry-level gaming PC cost, and 2) how popular is PC gaming?
 
Okay, more laptop questions. I've narrowed it down to the:

$1100 MSI GX640 - Core i5-450M 2.4 GHz 1066 MHz 3MB L2 Cache Processor, ATI Radeon HD5850 1GB DDR5 VRAM, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB 7200rpm Hard Drive, 1680x1050

and
$1000 (on sale I guess...) Asus G51jx-X3 - Intel Core i5-430M Processor 2.26 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.53 GHz, 4GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM, 500GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM), NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB GDDR5 VRAM, 1920x1080

Which do I go for? My gut tells me I should just shell out the extra 100 for the MSI, but I do like the Asus' higher resolution and 1 year accident warranty... What does GAF recommend?

(also, budget is around $1000 - will not pay more than $1100)
 
ChoklitReign said:
Your crystal ball sounds amazing. "In 2015, everyone will have 2048x1440 monitors! PC games will use 4GB of video ram!" Cut the crap, you're not an analyst.
Since you would advise people to get the 768mb 460 and stick to a dual core processor, are we to assume that the crystal ball you're employing to see that the higher end part brain stew advocates are needlessly expensive is of a higher make?

All he's doing is reading patterns, and when people contradict him he usually explains in great detail why he's saying what he's saying, it's pretty obvious to anyone with a hint of reading comprehension that he's not just telling people to get more expensive parts just for the heck of it.

You remind me of the people who "boycotted" the tournament Kadey put together in the Street Fighter thread. I guess some people will always try to shit it up when someone is doing something cool for a community.

Anyway, the reason I started posting was just to say that I can see how someone could get frustrated at the attention that brain stew gets in this thread if they think they know more about PCs, but instead of asinine contradictory claims and name calling, how's about you actually back up what you're saying like stew does?
 
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