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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

Finally, all issues with my build this weekend have been fixed!

It started as a mild upgrade... I'll just get an MSI GTX 460 Cyclone because my GT8800 is overheating. Then I thought that it would be great to upgrade my motherboard and processor from a Core 2 Duo 2.2 to an i5-760 2.8. Oh, but I need new memory for that! 4 Gigs should do it! Why not upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 64-bit while I'm at it? Let's begin... the motherboard won't fit in my case? I'll just drive up the road and get a bigger one. OK... wait... my power supply fan isn't spinning. That would explain the overheating. All together now... let's turn it on! 6 hours later, I discover that the reason it would turn on and off after a few seconds was a shorted out "reset" switch on the case and not the motherboard I just drove 40 minutes to exchange. Try again... success! Except for the whole "shutting down randomly" thing. That was either a bad hard drive (I needed an extra terabyte anyway) or the seating / thermal pasting of the CPU. Replaced drive, reseated CPU and it works! Then last night, I finally got my virus protection to install, where it was hanging up each attempt.

Frustrating and a good deal more money than I was planning to spend, but the 4 hours I spent with Crysis at nearly maxed settings last night made it all worth while.
 
Slightly updated parts list for new page:

For CPU/Mobo I have a Microcenter near and was going to pick him up:
i5 760 - $179
H55-G43 LGA 1156 H55 ATX -$89 After Rebate

Parts7c7.jpg
 
rogue74 said:
Before you come to any conclusions, check your RAM. Run memtest86+ or HCI memtest and see if it returns any errors.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's the 460, been running with an old Radeon fine for a while now. Plus I've found numerous people online with the same problem.
 
Vigilant Walrus said:
Does anyone have the Lian-Li B25F chassis? It's the one with the Blue LED Ring. I think it's really pretty: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112248

it says it supports Graphics cards up to 290mm but I don't know if thats if you remove the hard drive cage or not... the problem is that it has a hard drive cage for 8 drives, but if you remove the cage, you have no room for hard drive, so it's like, - you dont have anywhere to put a hard drive cage, if you want a big graphivs card!

is it possible to buy hard drive cages that will work in most systems? I just need room for 2 or 3 HDDs...


I really like the feedback the case has gotten. Great reviews, people talk about good airflow, and I love, love the way it looks. I also found a nice 2,5'' fan controller that I think will look sexy(a touch screen fan controller!). I don't want to OC my system, but I would like to keep the components very cool! I wonder if I should buy some high quality fans!? People recommend Noctura, but then again, if I am not going to OC will it be needed?



I also think I found the Mouse I want. The RAT 7 is the nicest and most awesome looking gaming mouse I have ever seen. I heard the software is stupid, but I hope I will cope with it, because it looks fucking genius. I cant believe that MadCatz of all fucking horrible companies managed to bring this to market, even if they just bought Saitek, or whatever; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826102062&Tpk=rat 7

Epic looking fucking mouse. Jesus christ. This is the most bad ass looking input device I have seen since... forever. God dammit, I just want to buy one and carry it around my neck or strap it with gaffa tape to my face, so everyone can bask in its awesome.
I've had a Razer Mamba, and I think it's been okay, but I am getting tired of their designs TBH. I've had enough of their styles of logos, and their software. I want them to reinvent themselves now, because a lot of their products look and feel to much the same!



What I still need: I need to find and try a mechanical keyboard. I must have been looking under a rock, for I have never heard about these before until a few days ago, but from what I have read they are supposed to improve your speed of typing, and should feel really good. I want one with backlighting, so I can type in the dark, but not to big physically. I don't need a gaming set up with unneeded keys.

I had a razer kyeboard that had media buttons on the left side of the keyboard, which fucked up my typing a lot. And I never used them.
The Apple aluminium keyboard I have now is pretty fantastic, and it's overall dimensions are even smaller than a 13'' inch notebook, which means it takes up very little desktop space. The keyboard has also been living on 3 AA batteries for what feels like 2 months of intensive use.
It just needs backlighting, but it's a very very nice keyboard. Very beautiful, and fits into any desk, thanks to no stupid logos or some shirt strapped over it. Other manufacs should take a hint.
People dont want your stupid ass logos, and many people dont take pride in displaying them. the product should speak for itself, look nice. When you buy a nice piece of furniture you dont like to have the manufacturer slapped all over it. Like if you went to Ikea to buy a shelf, and it said "IKEA IKEA IKEA" five fucking places. It's stupid.

so yeah... The filco ones look cool. I see lots of people who replace the WASD buttons with a different color for gaming 1337 ness! Nice! But I still want one with backlighting! The search continues...
Click to expand...
You have quite a few options for HDD mounting solutions (and high quality fans, if you feel you really need to change your stock ones).

First, what country do you live in?

Since that Lian Li limits you to only 3 5.25" bays, are you planning on running an internal optical drive?

Can you run an external one, or do without optical altogether?
 
·feist· said:
You have quite a few options for HDD mounting solutions (and high quality fans, if you feel you really need to change your stock ones).

First, what country do you live in?

Since that Lian Li limits you to only 3 5.25" bays, are you planning on running an internal optical drive?

Can you run an external one, or do without optical altogether?
Click to expand...

I live in Scandinavia(all over, sweden/norway/denmark) - uhm, I think I would like to have one Blu-Ray Drive, as my main, and I would like that to be internal. I would also like to have a Blu-Ray Burner, and use the last 5.25 bay for the fan controller, so yeah I think I want to use all three.

And as far as Hard Drives goes, I was thinking of having 1 SSD, as main drive. Perhaps 80 GB, and then two 3,5 HDDs, both 2 TB, so it would be: 2 optical drive, 1 fan controller with lots of 4 pin connectors, 1 SSD and 2 Hard drives -

Even if I get a modular PSU, it would get pretty crazy with cable management right? I don't think I will go CF/SLI. I would rather just have a great single card, that can put out to 2 2560x1440 monitors!

That's my goal but I need to think about the budget. Main purpose of machine is HD Video editing and gaming. I am hoping I can get the parts for the computer for around 1000-1200 but I might be over my budget with all these things!?

If I take the 25% VAT away from buying the 2 U2711 displays, I can get those 2 for around 1000-1500(you can take the vat away if you have a computer company... And I might no someone who can buy me these two for me!).

But here is my question: If I buy a 2560x1440 screen I need 2 DVI inputs? or 1 HDMI? Won't that mean, that there is no single graphics card that can fuel two 2560x1440 displays? and that means I am forced to do SLI or Crossfire?

I always wanted to try SLI or Crossfire, but people tell me that its a headache to install(and im a relative noob.. I have put one system together 5-6 years) and that performance might be worse in some games and it will take lots of time to manage, and possibly watercooling and it fills space and and and -
 
Ok, this is the setup

Already purchased

ASUS VH236H Black 23" 2ms(GTG) -149.99

NCIX Value Bundle Deal AMD Phenom II X6 1090T & MSI 890FXA-GD70 890FX ATX DDR3 CrossFire Motherboard -469.99

In the list, you guys can comment

newegg's cart=

COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Advanced Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - 89.99

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM - 79.99 (-15$ promo code)

G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 cas7 - 104.99

Zalman CNPS 10x performa - 36.99

OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II SSD - 169$ (from 199) and 20$ MIR


NCIX's cart

MSI GeForce GTX 460 Fermi Hawk OC 780MHZ 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini-HDMI DX11 PCI-E Video Card with Just cause 2, metro 2033 an RE5. - 269.99

OCZ FATAL1TY 550W ATX12V 20/24PIN Active PFC ATX Modular Power Supply 120MM Fan 80PLUS Black - 59.99 from 79.99 and 20$ MIR for 39.99.


Sounds good no? the MSI hawk has some initial impressions today on guru3d, it got to 1000 mhz

1375,92 after MIR
 
GAF! I'm about to press the checkout button... Is everything compatible? Can I save a couple bucks on this build (i'm ordering from ncix canada)?

2h2f9cn.jpg

2j281oo.jpg
 
Vigilant Walrus said:
I live in Scandinavia(all over, sweden/norway/denmark) - uhm, I think I would like to have one Blu-Ray Drive, as my main, and I would like that to be internal. I would also like to have a Blu-Ray Burner, and use the last 5.25 bay for the fan controller, so yeah I think I want to use all three.

And as far as Hard Drives goes, I was thinking of having 1 SSD, as main drive. Perhaps 80 GB, and then two 3,5 HDDs, both 2 TB, so it would be: 2 optical drive, 1 fan controller with lots of 4 pin connectors, 1 SSD and 2 Hard drives -

Even if I get a modular PSU, it would get pretty crazy with cable management right? I don't think I will go CF/SLI. I would rather just have a great single card, that can put out to 2 2560x1440 monitors!

That's my goal but I need to think about the budget. Main purpose of machine is HD Video editing and gaming. I am hoping I can get the parts for the computer for around 1000-1200 but I might be over my budget with all these things!?

If I take the 25% VAT away from buying the 2 U2711 displays, I can get those 2 for around 1000-1500(you can take the vat away if you have a computer company... And I might no someone who can buy me these two for me!).

But here is my question: If I buy a 2560x1440 screen I need 2 DVI inputs? or 1 HDMI? Won't that mean, that there is no single graphics card that can fuel two 2560x1440 displays? and that means I am forced to do SLI or Crossfire?

I always wanted to try SLI or Crossfire, but people tell me that its a headache to install(and im a relative noob.. I have put one system together 5-6 years) and that performance might be worse in some games and it will take lots of time to manage, and possibly watercooling and it fills space and and and -
Click to expand...
Since you intend to populate all the 5.25" bays, that would seriously limit your ability to mount the SSD/HDD anywhere else but the primary drive cage (unless you would mod another mounting point in the case).

Then again, I don't see why you would even need to remove the drive cage. With it in place, that Lian Li can still fit a GTX480/5870 size card with some room to spare. You would only need to remove the cage if you wanted to run something the size of a 5970. I was going to recommend some 5.25" bay converters for you, but since you should be able to fit the majority of GPUs in that case, you can just mount any SSD/HDD normally.

As for running multiple hi-res monitors, you don't have to use an SLI/X-fire set-up to make it work. For instance, something like a GTX 480 can drive two 2560x1600 displays because each of its DVI outputs are dual-link DVI-D.

Also, which fan controller are you looking at?
 
Wasn't sure how many people knew this but you can get Mafia 2 (Steam) for free if you bought a EVGA GTX 400 series card (minus the 460, Dont know why) between 3/26/10 to 8/23/10 ,I applied for a code last night and received it via email this morning :D

http://www.evga.com/articles/00574/
 
Midas said:
Corsair it is then. What about size? How much would one need as a system drive? 60 GB minimum?
Click to expand...
Depending on your use, you may be able to get by with 40GB, but 64-80GB is a nice comfortable sweetspot for a moderately priced OS drive that you can still install a few games to.
 
squicken said:
So the 635 won't unbalance the system? I just want to make sure I'm not paying for a gfx card that will go underutilized b/c I'm CPU bound.
Click to expand...
It will probably be fine, especially if you plan on overclocking.

I think the important thing to note is that the 460 will last you longer than the 5770 and by then it will most likely be cheaper to get a better CPU than it would be if you were to get the latter and have to upgrade your video card down the line.
 
I went with a 60GB Vertex 2E, and with Windows 7 64bit, browsers, IM apps, media players, variours system monitors and benchmark related apps plus Starcraft 2 installed there's 26GB free space. So there's a rough guide, just think about all the apps that you definitely want on an SSD.
 
OK. I'll see how much money I have left to spend after buying the CPU, which I'm still not sure what to get (:lol ), and the GPU which should come next week.
 
·feist· said:
Since you intend to populate all the 5.25" bays, that would seriously limit your ability to mount the SSD/HDD anywhere else but the primary drive cage (unless you would mod another mounting point in the case).

Then again, I don't see why you would even need to remove the drive cage. With it in place, that Lian Li can still fit a GTX480/5870 size card with some room to spare. You would only need to remove the cage if you wanted to run something the size of a 5970. I was going to recommend some 5.25" bay converters for you, but since you should be able to fit the majority of GPUs in that case, you can just mount any SSD/HDD normally.

As for running multiple hi-res monitors, you don't have to use an SLI/X-fire set-up to make it work. For instance, something like a GTX 480 can drive two 2560x1600 displays because each of its DVI outputs are dual-link DVI-D.

Also, which fan controller are you looking at?
Click to expand...

ok, thanks for the info mate:)

This is the fan controller... A NZX Sentry-2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811992005


So do you think I got the chance at a build with these things?
 
MDSLKTR said:
GAF! I'm about to press the checkout button... Is everything compatible? Can I save a couple bucks on this build (i'm ordering from ncix canada)?

2h2f9cn.jpg
Click to expand...
Looks good.
If you don't plan on SLi down the line you can probably save $50 on your motherboard + get a nice 550W (Corsair/Seasonic/OCZ (Budget) for $30 or so less.
Buggy Loop said:
Preferaby a SSD based on SandForce controller. Corsair force & OCZ agility 2
Click to expand...
C300 is a nice buy as well. More so at the 128GB point.
The read speed of it is not totally needed, but it's just another good option. :D
 
sd1ztl.jpg



So guys, what do you think?


The reason why I choose:

Chassis: I just think this chassis looks awesome. Reviews says its easy to work with(good cause I consider myself a computer building noob.. I dont even know what thermal paste is!) I dont care if its premium.. I want the chassis to look nice, so this is it!

Graphics Card: I checked some charts at tom hardware, and from what I could see the gains of this factory-overclocked card was not extreme, but I want this Zotac pre-overclocked card 2GB Fermi 480, because it reduces the heat and noise significantly.
Besides that I might have need for CUDA, as I also want to do video editing!

CPU: The i7 930 looks like the pimping sweetspot. Expenssive, but from what I can see it looks to be worth every penny.

Seagate XT: They have build in flash to help make it faster than other 7200 drives. I dont feel like I can afford an SSD. Instead I want to focus on large amount of storage as fast as possible. I was thinking that two of these 2 TB in Raid 0 would be a cool combo. That would be 4 TB of power!

Fan Controller: It's sexy!!!


PSU, Ram, Motherboard, Optical Drive(I dunno know) and Win 7 ultimate giving better performance than home premium?



Any advice on how I could decrease price without sacrificing performance? I love the sound of the performance of the i7 930/fermi 480, and I love the Chassis, so it's more about the other stuff!
 
You i7 is not compatible with that motherboard.
Also i5/i7 difference is not that great, and with new tech coming around I'd get an i5. That motherboard is fine.

PSU 1200W is super overkill.
SLi high end cards needs 850W tops.

Get 1.5TB drives or 1TB drives instead.
Better value. Samsung F3 / WD Black 1.5TB

Buying a GTX 480 now is iffy with news of the 6 series + benches.
Personally I'd get a 460/465, save the money, and buy a better card in a few months.
However if you want horsepower now the GTX 480 is ok.

4GB of RAM is fine for multitasking. Unless you run video encoding and photoshop and 2 instances of WoW at a time, it's enough. It's also the easiest thing to upgrade if 4GB (for some reason) is not enough.

Lastly get a Heatsink (Socket 1156) that you like the looks of and some MX-2/TX-2/ICD7 thermal paste.
____
That's $500 saved.
 
I'm about to order my CPU. But should I get the i5 750 or 760? And what about thermal paste, should I get something special or will most of the types do the job just fine?
 
Midas said:
I'm about to order my CPU. But should I get the i5 750 or 760? And what about thermal paste, should I get something special or will most of the types do the job just fine?
Click to expand...
Overclocking, 750
Save some money.

Most types fine, but since almost everything is $10 for some reason...
ICD7, MX-2, TX-2, AS5 are all good.
 
Hazaro said:
Overclocking, 750
Save some money.

Most types fine, but since almost everything is $10 for some reason...
ICD7, MX-2, TX-2, AS5 are all good.
Click to expand...

760 is like $10 more. So I guess I can go with that then? :)
 
Going to pull the trigger tomorrow. DDR2 6GB on Vista 64 is good for a quad core? My HDD is nothing special. 7200 rpm 3.0. Been focused so much on cpu/gpu didn't think to ask bout memory and storage affecting gaming.
 
squicken said:
Going to pull the trigger tomorrow. DDR2 6GB on Vista 64 is good for a quad core? My HDD is nothing special. 7200 rpm 3.0. Been focused so much on cpu/gpu didn't think to ask bout memory and storage affecting gaming.
Click to expand...
RAM is fine if you are on an i7 / x58 board.
Otherwise 4GB is fine.

HDD should preferably be recent. 1TB drives are nice and fast and good value to boot.
 
Hazaro said:
RAM is fine if you are on an i7 / x58 board.
Otherwise 4GB is fine.

HDD should preferably be recent. 1TB drives are nice and fast and good value to boot.
Click to expand...

My board is AM3, but is one of the few that takes DDR2 memory. SATA 3.0GB/s. HDD is less than 18 mos old.

Also, what GPU manufacturer had been causing some people problems with 460/465??
 
squicken said:
My board is AM3, but is one of the few that takes DDR2 memory. SATA 3.0GB/s. HDD is less than 18 mos old.

Also, what GPU manufacturer had been causing some people problems with 460/465??
Click to expand...
Saw 6GB and auto assumed i7 because of triple channel.

A new HDD might not be a bad idea if you need some more space. It will certainly be a little bit faster as well.

No manf. that I can think of. Some of eVGA's didn't do so well with their EE, or something other, but they all should be fine.
 
Hazaro said:
Saw 6GB and auto assumed i7 because of triple channel.

A new HDD might not be a bad idea if you need some more space. It will certainly be a little bit faster as well.

No manf. that I can think of. Some of eVGA's didn't do so well with their EE, or something other, but they all should be fine.
Click to expand...

Reusing the HDD was part of my plan to save money. I'll find a way to get one if need be, but the current one is 750 GB and isn't even holding 200 GB at present. I don't really save a lot of stuff.
 
Milpool said:
I'm pretty sure it's the 460, been running with an old Radeon fine for a while now. Plus I've found numerous people online with the same problem.
Click to expand...

Hey Milpool, sorry to hear about your 460. I had the EXACT same thing happened. I pulled it out and put my old 9800GT in and my system was stable. However, in the process of starting up an RMA with Gigabyte, I had to get the bios version for my 460. And there are no places on the packaging or the card itself that mentions it. I put my 460 back in and BAM the damn thing is stable as hell and I stop filling out the RMA form.

Try pulling the card out and make sure you have those 2 PCI-Express power connectors are connected properly and reseat the card.

Hopefully, it works for you as well. Other than that, then it's time for that refund/exchange.
 
Nos_G said:
Hey Milpool, sorry to hear about your 460. I had the EXACT same thing happened. I pulled it out and put my old 9800GT in and my system was stable. However, in the process of starting up an RMA with Gigabyte, I had to get the bios version for my 460. And there are no places on the packaging or the card itself that mentions it. I put my 460 back in and BAM the damn thing is stable as hell and I stop filling out the RMA form.

Try pulling the card out and make sure you have those 2 PCI-Express power connectors are connected properly and reseat the card.

Hopefully, it works for you as well. Other than that, then it's time for that refund/exchange.
Click to expand...

I'll give it a try, did you have the random system lock ups as well?

edit- Tried re-seating, still hangs on the welcome screen. Thanks for the suggestion though.
 
My gigabyte 770 motherboard shorted from touching the case somehow. The thing wouldn't POST while it was in the case but I've taken apart the entire machine and got it up running on a bench. Will a short like this kill my motherboard and should I look into RMAing it? Or will it function ok once I've made sure there's no way for it to touch the case again? The board is under warranty until 2013 or so.
 
Hazaro said:
You i7 is not compatible with that motherboard.
Also i5/i7 difference is not that great, and with new tech coming around I'd get an i5. That motherboard is fine.

PSU 1200W is super overkill.
SLi high end cards needs 850W tops.

Get 1.5TB drives or 1TB drives instead.
Better value. Samsung F3 / WD Black 1.5TB

Buying a GTX 480 now is iffy with news of the 6 series + benches.
Personally I'd get a 460/465, save the money, and buy a better card in a few months.
However if you want horsepower now the GTX 480 is ok.

4GB of RAM is fine for multitasking. Unless you run video encoding and photoshop and 2 instances of WoW at a time, it's enough. It's also the easiest thing to upgrade if 4GB (for some reason) is not enough.

Lastly get a Heatsink (Socket 1156) that you like the looks of and some MX-2/TX-2/ICD7 thermal paste.
____
That's $500 saved.
Click to expand...

Ok. I think I will go with two 460 1 GB in SLI, then! I saw a toms hardware chart that showed that a lot of games scaled really, really well. I know some don't, but I was a bit impressed by their numbers of gains! I thought SLI only gained 10-20% extra in most games! Can a 460 card output to two 2560x1440 displays like the 480?

I was told by someone else that the i7 950 had just had its price reduced. I saw it for a really nice price, so I think I will go with that!

I'm defintely going to need more than 4 GB, as I want heavy multi tasking(two 2560x1440 displays)! But some of the corsair ram looks really expenssive. Is there anyway to get some good 1333 4 x 2 GB ram bloocks?
 
Hey guys,

currently have a q9550 and 4gb of ram for editing photos/photoshopping and i've come across this apparently good deal on a bundle. Thoughts??? I don't do much pc gaming as my x1950 pro just doesn't cut it, but this new machine would certainly pair well with a new card.

thoughts on this?

ASUS P6X58D-E Motherboard
Core i7 930 Quad Core
OCZ 12GB DDR3 1333MHZ RAM

all for 749...CAD
 
Was 550W PSU enough for my setup?

X6 1090T
g-skill eco 4 GB 1600
MSI GTX 460 hawk
OCZ agility 2 SSD
samsung F3 1TB
Lite-on 24x dvd-cd burner
MSI GD-70 890FX mobo

?

Was expecting to overclock it too.
 
I was still waffling on a PC purchase, but my current desktop has done enough to tick me off in the last few days that I think I may go ahead and put in an order tomorrow. Current cart at Newegg -

jubxfn.jpg


Will buy processor at Microcenter to save $80 or so, but I'm also considering adding on a CPU cooler. Everything look decent? Anywhere obvious I can save some money? I'll probably end up getting a cheaper case, like the Antec 300, but for some reason I feel like splurging on a case this time. Also, usually when I make a build I end up overspending on the mobo because I barely do any research on that part, so recommendations there are welcome.

Buying 2 copies of Windows 7 so I can install it on both this desktop and my current laptop.
 
Buy the i7 950, it has to be the best gamer cpu for awhile. Same price as 930 but with lower TDP for higher stock volts overclock! in fact i7/x58 mobo is coming down so fast, i7/x58 is THE PC Gamer platform.
 
longdi said:
Buy the i7 950, it has to be the best gamer cpu for awhile. Same price as 930 but with lower TDP for higher stock volts overclock! in fact i7/x58 mobo is coming down so fast, i7/x58 is THE PC Gamer platform.
Click to expand...
Only 10 bucks more than the 930 at Newegg, but it's about $100 more on Newegg than the 930 is in-store at Microcenter. The 950 doesn't show up on a product search on the Microcenter website.
 
Vigilant Walrus said:
Ok. I think I will go with two 460 1 GB in SLI, then! I saw a toms hardware chart that showed that a lot of games scaled really, really well. I know some don't, but I was a bit impressed by their numbers of gains! I thought SLI only gained 10-20% extra in most games! Can a 460 card output to two 2560x1440 displays like the 480?

I was told by someone else that the i7 950 had just had its price reduced. I saw it for a really nice price, so I think I will go with that!

I'm defintely going to need more than 4 GB, as I want heavy multi tasking(two 2560x1440 displays)! But some of the corsair ram looks really expenssive. Is there anyway to get some good 1333 4 x 2 GB ram bloocks?
Click to expand...

Don't forgot your MB isn't compatible with i7930/950, I would suggest this board

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131641

Also the i7 930/950 support triple channel ram, so I would suggest this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144449
 
I'm getting my first laptop for college soon. At first I started looking at Dell, HP, and Gateway and thought of customizing one, but the configs I wanted we're way too expensive even with student/employee discounts (my budget is $700-$800). I wanted a semi-gaming laptop, but I don't really plan on playing Crysis on the thing (and if I was, low-med settings would be fine). I will probably end up playing Source engine games the most.

So I go over to Newegg and see that they have more of the kinda stuff I want and cheaper of course. I've narrowed it down to about 3 laptops:

Gateway NV59C57U NoteBook Intel Core i5 450M(2.40GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 This has good battery life and an i5-450M so I'm thinking this one, but the 5470 is a concern.


Acer Aspire AS7551G-5821 NoteBook AMD Phenom II Quad-Core N930(2.0GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 Quad-core and 5650 at the expense of battery life and some portability (7+ lbs). After researching a bit, people have been saying that the N930 is comparable to i5, but the N930 trumps it in multi-threaded apps.

HP Pavilion DV6-3050US NoteBook AMD Phenom II Quad-Core N930(2.0GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 Now this one has the same CPU and GPU as the Acer, but battery life might be a problem with the 6-cell battery (Man I wish it was 9-cell!).

So yeah those 3 are my choices. I might just narrow it down to 2 and take out the Acer. Any advice and suggestions for other laptops is appreciated.
 
Not sure what to do here :(
My motherboard won't detect my hardrive all of the sudden
Just waking up this morning to boot my system and nothing
Ive got an F3 spinmaster and a gigabyte x58 UD3
Whats weird is that it detects my cd rom drive, but wont detect it when I plug in the hardrive right next to it, any ideas?
 
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Men_in_Boxes replied
GAF - I need your help!
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stn replied
Do we even need a new consoles so soon?
Opinion  2
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Three replied
Speedball (2026) | PC, PS5, Xbox, by Rebellion (...there's a new Speedball?)
Trailer 
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Windle Poons replied
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