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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

Wow. The difference between 'on paper' and 'in practice' for OEM licensing is huge. I mean, going on the letter of the license, technically places like Newegg aren't allowed to sell OEM copies to the general public. I've always had Technet, so I've never used an OEM license myself.
 
PC GAF I turn to you again (you built me a great desktop in April).

I am currently in need of a laptop for work/school, and I've narrowed it all down except for one element; the hard drive. These are the specs (Sony Vaio EB):

Intel® Core™ i5-460M processor (2.53GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.80GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
Matte Black
320GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm)
4GB (2GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1066
15.5" Full HD VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080)
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5650 GPU (1GB VRAM)
DVD +/- R DL / DVD +/- RW / DVD-RAM Drive
Fresh Start
Adobe Bundle (Free - $448 value)
Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
No additional AntiVirus Software


My question is: Do I take the standard 320GB HD 5400rpm or do I fork out an extra $50 for a 320GB 7200rpm HD? This will mostly be used for excel/access work with a little WoW, SC2, and TF2 thrown in on the side (although I have a monster desktop, so very much on the side).

Am I bottlenecking this system with a 5400rpm harddrive? I'm not sure how much of a benefit the 7200rpm would be also given that it probably sucks up more power.

If anyone has experience with the trade-off of the harddrive speed, I would LOVE to hear from you.

Thanks!
 
I need a video card. I've been rolling with the integrated shit on my mobo for a few months now and it's time to upgrade. My budget's around $250; what can I get that's good and will work with my mobo? (I don't know how this shit works >_>)
 
Jokey665 said:
I need a video card. I've been rolling with the integrated shit on my mobo for a few months now and it's time to upgrade. My budget's around $250; what can I get that's good and will work with my mobo? (I don't know how this shit works >_>)

Pretty much any modern video card will work with your motherboard.

What's your PSU? So long as it's not too weak or anything I'd go with a GTX 460 1GB.
 
So I caught the bug. I really want to build another PC now.

I won't be starting completely from scratch. My current rig has some good salvage like....

EVGA SC 460GTX 1GB
OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU
Antec Three Hundred Case
Generic DVD drivers (will never want or need more)
Generic Creative sound card (not interested in anything better at the moment).

The big things to buy are the MB, CPU and HDs. I'm looking at...

Core i7 930 Bloomfield
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115225

Seems really expensive, but I don't want to cheap out on a CPU ever again. It always comes back to bite me in the ass.

ASUS P7P55D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131405

Looks like a really solid buy. Affordable, fully featured (I really like the idea behind OC testing software it has) and it will be able to sustain any future upgrades I might want to do.

Samsung Spinpoint F3 x 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181

Plan to set up two 500GB in Raid.

Only leaves ram now... I will have to do some research on the whole DDR3 crap. Not really understanding it yet.

Anyone have experience with any of this hardware?
 
Wallach said:
Pretty much any modern video card will work with your motherboard.

What's your PSU? So long as it's not too weak or anything I'd go with a GTX 460 1GB.
PSU is a Corsair 750w >_> I made sure I didn't skimp on it.

My friend mentioned (and seemed to regard highly) the GTX 465 when we were talking the other day. What are the main differences between the two cards/which is better?

I guess there are two things really holding me up aside from that^

1. I'm pretty sure my motherboard isn't SLI compatible, but it is Crossfire compatible so I feel as though I should be getting an Crossfire compatible gpu in the event the I eventually decide to go that route. Is that worth worrying over?

2. What the hell is the difference between the different manufacturers? Is a Gigabyte GTX 460 much/any different from an msi/zotac/asus/etc. GTX 460? (or any other card, it's just the ready example).
 
Jokey665 said:
2. What the hell is the difference between the different manufacturers? Is a Gigabyte GTX 460 much/any different from an msi/zotac/asus/etc. GTX 460? (or any other card, it's just the ready example).

It could be. They are all making the same product, but that does not mean it will be of the same quality. Some might have better cooling, some manufacturers like to released cards that are OC'd out of the box. Some have exclusive software like EVGA Precision (which is awesome).
 
Varna said:
Anyone have experience with any of this hardware?
The motherboard and CPU don't match. You need a socket 1366 board for the i7-930. Those boards are fairly expensive, so you could always drop the CPU to an i5-760 and keep the board you've listed.

Memory wise, the socket 1366 boards support triple channel RAM so if you go with that you might as well get a 3x2GB kit. Otherwise, a 2x2GB kit will be fine. Get something with a heatsink so they don't hold you back when overclocking.

Speaking of overclocking, while you're upgrading you should throw in a cooler. The Hyper 212+ gets recommended fairly constantly in this thread: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...03065&cm_re=hyper_212+-_-35-103-065-_-Product . Looks like you'll some thermal compound with that too, which should only set you back $10 or so.
 
Jokey665 said:
PSU is a Corsair 750w >_> I made sure I didn't skimp on it.

My friend mentioned (and seemed to regard highly) the GTX 465 when we were talking the other day. What are the main differences between the two cards/which is better?

I guess there are two things really holding me up aside from that^

1. I'm pretty sure my motherboard isn't SLI compatible, but it is Crossfire compatible so I feel as though I should be getting an Crossfire compatible gpu in the event the I eventually decide to go that route. Is that worth worrying over?

2. What the hell is the difference between the different manufacturers? Is a Gigabyte GTX 460 much/any different from an msi/zotac/asus/etc. GTX 460? (or any other card, it's just the ready example).

Edit - I'm tripping balls, I'll fix this part in a few. But really I would not recommend SLI/Crossfire right now.

As for the different manufacturers, you should mainly be looking at price and warranty options. When it comes to reference cards, the build quality is not going to really be different between them. If it's a non-reference card (for example the manufacturer puts their own cooling system on there, or even changes the PCB design) then build quality becomes more of a concern. Generally, I always recommend eVGA on the NVIDIA side of things because they have great build quality and one of the best warranties, plus the trade-in program if you decide to upgrade within a few months of purchase for whatever reason.

As for the GTX 465, don't even worry about that card. There is no reason to buy one over a GTX 460 1GB really. At your budget that's really the only NVIDIA card you should be considering IMO. Were the 5850s in the same range (which they should be pretty close) I would pick up one of those instead, but I don't see any that are competitive enough in price with a 460 1GB (which even eVGAs is around $225).
 
PatzCU said:
PC GAF I turn to you again (you built me a great desktop in April).

I am currently in need of a laptop for work/school, and I've narrowed it all down except for one element; the hard drive. These are the specs (Sony Vaio EB):

Intel® Core™ i5-460M processor (2.53GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.80GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
Matte Black
320GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm)
4GB (2GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1066
15.5" Full HD VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080)
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5650 GPU (1GB VRAM)
DVD +/- R DL / DVD +/- RW / DVD-RAM Drive
Fresh Start
Adobe Bundle (Free - $448 value)
Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
No additional AntiVirus Software


My question is: Do I take the standard 320GB HD 5400rpm or do I fork out an extra $50 for a 320GB 7200rpm HD? This will mostly be used for excel/access work with a little WoW, SC2, and TF2 thrown in on the side (although I have a monster desktop, so very much on the side).

Am I bottlenecking this system with a 5400rpm harddrive? I'm not sure how much of a benefit the 7200rpm would be also given that it probably sucks up more power.

If anyone has experience with the trade-off of the harddrive speed, I would LOVE to hear from you.

Thanks!

Depends on how often your gonna play those games, for everyday uses like internet, microsoft word or whatever it wont affect it much, if you care about loading times in games then get the 7200rpm.


Also, my Laptop is very similar to that one (Same CPU, GPU, Ram), i went with the slower 5400rpm hardrive and yes, it is a bottleneck if you care about loading times in games.

Also, TF2 takes about 40 secs to load a map on the lappy, compared to like 10 secs on my desktop.
 
Jokey665 said:
My friend mentioned (and seemed to regard highly) the GTX 465 when we were talking the other day. What are the main differences between the two cards/which is better?
The GTX460 is better and costs the same. Go for the 1GB version.

Jokey665 said:
1. I'm pretty sure my motherboard isn't SLI compatible, but it is Crossfire compatible so I feel as though I should be getting an Crossfire compatible gpu in the event the I eventually decide to go that route. Is that worth worrying over?
I wouldn't bother unless you're the kind that likes to upgrade every six months.

Jokey665 said:
2. What the hell is the difference between the different manufacturers? Is a Gigabyte GTX 460 much/any different from an msi/zotac/asus/etc. GTX 460? (or any other card, it's just the ready example).
In your specific example, I believe there are some bad batches of Gigabyte GTX460 cards out there. Quite a few neg reviews on Newegg, and an Ausgaffer got a brand new one that was freezing his system etc and has to get it replaced. Generally though, no. Some of the manufactures might put different coolers or factory overclock them or throw in a free game or have different connectors. Once you've settled on the chipset, just pick out whatever looks good to you.
 
Ok, thanks for all the help so far! I have one question and I think it'll be the last one. I'm looking at the 460's by EVGA on newegg and I'm seeing two (this and this) and, aside from model number, the only difference (that I can see) is that the first is "superclocked" and has higher numbers. I assume this just means factory overclocked? Any downsides I should be aware of? If not, I think that's what I'm going with.
 
Fredescu said:
The motherboard and CPU don't match. You need a socket 1366 board for the i7-930. Those boards are fairly expensive, so you could always drop the CPU to an i5-760 and keep the board you've listed.

Memory wise, the socket 1366 boards support triple channel RAM so if you go with that you might as well get a 3x2GB kit. Otherwise, a 2x2GB kit will be fine. Get something with a heatsink so they don't hold you back when overclocking.

Speaking of overclocking, while you're upgrading you should throw in a cooler. The Hyper 212+ gets recommended fairly constantly in this thread: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...03065&cm_re=hyper_212+-_-35-103-065-_-Product . Looks like you'll some thermal compound with that too, which should only set you back $10 or so.

Wow. Such a stupid thing to overlook. Thanks.

That CPU looks very impressive for that price... I think I will take your advice. Cooler seems to be a must too since the stock cooler isn't all that great (are they ever?).
 
Fredescu said:
The motherboard and CPU don't match. You need a socket 1366 board for the i7-930. Those boards are fairly expensive, so you could always drop the CPU to an i5-760 and keep the board you've listed.

Memory wise, the socket 1366 boards support triple channel RAM so if you go with that you might as well get a 3x2GB kit. Otherwise, a 2x2GB kit will be fine. Get something with a heatsink so they don't hold you back when overclocking.

Speaking of overclocking, while you're upgrading you should throw in a cooler. The Hyper 212+ gets recommended fairly constantly in this thread: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...03065&cm_re=hyper_212+-_-35-103-065-_-Product . Looks like you'll some thermal compound with that too, which should only set you back $10 or so.
the 212 comes with, what i hear is decent, thermal compound.
 
·feist· said:
Further proof why a lot of people would be better off upgrading their stock cooling even if they aren't overclocking.

Congrats on the temps.
Yea was getting worried about my high temps, was reaching damn near 70 celsius under load, lol. Tonight I have been playing bad company 2, and highest temp reached was 47, the best 50 bucks I have spent in a while.
 
Mr Nightman said:
Yea was getting worried about my high temps, was reaching damn near 70 celsius under load, lol. Tonight I have been playing bad company 2, and highest temp reached was 47, the best 50 bucks I have spent in a while.

70C under full load is not a problem at all. Lower the better of course, but if you were hitting 68-ish running Prime95 or something that is totally fine.
 
Wallach said:
70C under full load is not a problem at all. Lower the better of course, but if you were hitting 68-ish running Prime95 or something that is totally fine.
Was hitting that playing bad co lol, when it was idling at 55 I was like fuck that, and bought the cooler soon after
 
I haven't shopped around too much. I just put them all through scan so all the items were in one checkout and with more details listed.

FC28m.jpg


Windows 7 retail from Amazon is £95.


How does this look? Main thing I'm concerned about is compatibility, clearance (will everything fit inside that case?) and futureproofing ( to some extent ie. will that chipset still be supported a year or so down the line...).

Any/All advice most welcome!
 
Wes said:
How does this look? Main thing I'm concerned about is compatibility, clearance (will everything fit inside that case?) and futureproofing ( to some extent ie. will that chipset still be supported a year or so down the line...).

Any/All advice most welcome!

Well, compatibility looks fine and with an Antec 300 you will have zero clearance problems. As for futureproofing... I don't think there's a lot on the market right now that is particularly futureproof in the sense that 12-24 months for now there will be a S1156 CPU upgrade besides what is already visible.
 
Wallach said:
Well, compatibility looks fine and with an Antec 300 you will have zero clearance problems. As for futureproofing... I don't think there's a lot on the market right now that is particularly futureproof in the sense that 12-24 months for now there will be a S1156 CPU upgrade besides what is already visible.

I should've said, my immediate consideration is am I going to be able to add in another 2x2 sticks of memory, sometime early next year, without any problems?
 
Wes said:
I should've said, my immediate consideration is am I going to be able to add in another 2x2 sticks of memory, sometime early next year, without any problems?

You mean physically? Yeah, I see no reason why not. I will say some boards just don't always play nice running all four slots when you're OCing.

If you're just worried about physical space, don't. I use a 300 myself and there's more than enough space in one to do whatever you want.
 
Wallach said:
You mean physically? Yeah, I see no reason why not. I will say some boards just don't always play nice running all four slots when you're OCing.

If you're just worried about physical space, don't. I use a 300 myself and there's more than enough space in one to do whatever you want.

Ok cool. I wasn't sure if it was worth stumping up an extra £40 for a different case now to save me any hassle later on (if I changed mobo etc a few years down the line). But I guess I could always get a new case for that £40 in a couple of years time if needed!

Apart from that are those components looking ok? Are there cheaper alternatives with similiar performance I should consider?

The HDD in particular I kind of picked at random. It was between the WD Caviar Black and the Samsung one from the ones I looked up and the Samsung one just seemed a chunk cheaper for neglible perfomance difference. If someone knows of a decent 500GB HDD, for a similiar price (sub£50) I'd go for that as capacity isn't as much as a worry for me as read/write speeds. I'd never use up 1TB.
 
Wes said:
Ok cool. I wasn't sure if it was worth stumping up an extra £40 for a different case now to save me any hassle later on (if I changed mobo etc a few years down the line). But I guess I could always get a new case for that £40 in a couple of years time if needed!

Apart from that are those components looking ok? Are there cheaper alternatives with similiar performance I should consider?

The HDD in particular I kind of picked at random. It was between the WD Caviar Black and the Samsung one from the ones I looked up and the Samsung one just seemed a chunk cheaper for neglible perfomance difference. If someone knows of a decent 500GB HDD, for a similiar price (sub£50) I'd go for that as capacity isn't as much as a worry for me as read/write speeds. I'd never use up 1TB.
Samsung F3 also comes in a 500GB flavor.

Though honestly I'd get the 1TB. I mean it's probably like $8 more for double the space.
 
mrklaw said:
Wes, will scan build that and install Win7 for you?

Hadn't looked to be honest because I'm going to be putting it together myself, probably buying the parts from a couple of different places. Whislt not a part, Win7 is £30 cheaper on Amazon than on Scan for example.

Hazaro said:
Samsung F3 also comes in a 500GB flavor.

Though honestly I'd get the 1TB. I mean it's probably like $8 more for double the space.

Ah I thought there could be some smaller capacity - higher read/write speed dealio going on.
 
Wes said:
Ah I thought there could be some smaller capacity - higher read/write speed dealio going on.

in general, for non-ssd hdd's a higher capacity (at equal rpm) results in higher (non-random) read/write speed due to higher data density

(not looking at stuff like number of platters etc, so if the 500gig is the same drive with just less platters it *might* be equally fast instead of slower, but it will never be faster)


cough up some bucks for an SSD if you want a fast drive ;) although they make for a nice upgrade early next year =]
 
oh man, I finally got my stupid copy of crysis warhead to install! For some reason I couldn't install from the dvd so I had to copy all the files to the desktop and run them from there.

I feel dirty playing this game, it looks soo silly good that I'm positive that I'm commiting somekind of sin just by looking at it. :[
 
Corky said:
oh man, I finally got my stupid copy of crysis warhead to install! For some reason I couldn't install from the dvd so I had to copy all the files to the desktop and run them from there.

I feel dirty playing this game, it looks soo silly good that I'm positive that I'm commiting somekind of sin just by looking at it. :[

Crysis is also pretty damn fun. I feel like the fuckin predator :D

check out Metro 2033 for more eye candy
 
Wes said:
Hadn't looked to be honest because I'm going to be putting it together myself, probably buying the parts from a couple of different places. Whislt not a part, Win7 is £30 cheaper on Amazon than on Scan for example.


fair enough - build one for me and I'll give you a tenner :P
 
BotoxAgent said:
Crysis is also pretty damn fun. I feel like the fuckin predator :D

check out Metro 2033 for more eye candy

oh man it sure does actually, the animation of your suit enabling stealth and you stalking your prey as the sunlight that passes the foilage dances on the ground, soo good.

Also I love the fact that no matter what fps the game is running at ( within reasonable intervals that is ) the game still feels fluid. I turned on the fpscounter in the console and was surprised that it was "only" hovering around 50 in avg, I could've sworn it felt like a rocksolid 60 :3


I will definitely give metro 2033 a go, I bought it on the 360 and only got to play a short amount of time before selling it because of reaons not pertaining to the game itself.
 
mrklaw said:
fair enough - build one for me and I'll give you a tenner :P

if tenner is a euphemism for a bmw z4m then I'd build you anything....aaaaaaanythiiiing
 
god damn , overclocking stimulates my brain in a wierd way. Almost feel a rush for some bloody reason xD

Been hammering at my cpu OC now for a day. Been going to lower and lower voltages and on the other hand going higher on the baseclock.

currently it looks like :

20x 190mhz @ 3800mhz
vcore : 1.27 in bios, 1.2v showing in cpu-z during full load in prime95.
maxtemperatures across the cores are 67-65-64-65 C
 
Anyone know where I can find a 4 pin extension cord for my cpu? My PSU is on the bottom, and the wire just makes it to the motherboard. I'd like to route the wire around the board, not over my gpu.
 
The Big Rig said:
Anyone know where I can find a 4 pin extension cord for my cpu? My PSU is on the bottom, and the wire just makes it to the motherboard. I'd like to route the wire around the board, not over my gpu.

Maybe I picture is in order?

I can't help you either way, but a picture would probably be good in this situation :D
 
My 5850 is getting up to 88c on Furmark but the fan never goes past 44%. Is this a problem or does the 5850 just like to run hot? My airflow could be better but to be fair my computer room is probably like 90f. My CPU and case temps seem normal though.
 
SapientWolf said:
My 5850 is getting up to 88c on Furmark but the fan never goes past 44%. Is this a problem or does the 5850 just like to run hot? My airflow could be better but to be fair my computer room is probably like 90f. My CPU and case temps seem normal though.

The temp is ok but the fan speed doesn't seem right. I know my 4870 on idle the fan runs around 50-60%. Do you have an application modifying the fan usage?

How To: Adjust your Fan-Curve in MSI Afterburner
 
SapientWolf said:
My 5850 is getting up to 88c on Furmark but the fan never goes past 44%. Is this a problem or does the 5850 just like to run hot? My airflow could be better but to be fair my computer room is probably like 90f. My CPU and case temps seem normal though.

You can do what I do and grab MSI Afterburner. You can set it to crank up your fan speeds when your card gets hot. Just click on Settings > Fan and enable user defined fan speeds. My fan starts at about 30, and really begins to speed up between 40-70c. It usually sits at 55c in game.
 
Shambles said:
The temp is ok but the fan speed doesn't seem right. I know my 4870 on idle the fan runs around 50-60%. Do you have an application modifying the fan usage?

How To: Adjust your Fan-Curve in MSI Afterburner
Not yet but it looks like I need one. Thanks for the link.

Nabs said:
You can do what I do and grab MSI Afterburner. You can set it to crank up your fan speeds when your card gets hot. Just click on Settings > Fan and enable user defined fan speeds. My fan starts at about 30, and really begins to speed up between 40-70c. It usually sits at 55c in game.
I'll give this a try. I really want to keep it under 90c because it starts to throttle itself after that.
 
Does anyone have experience with the ASUS P7P55?

Definitely going for the Intel Core i5-760 and I do want the MB, but there are like 10 different versions of it. Would I be doing myself hard by going for the cheapest one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...3131620R&cm_re=p7p55d-_-13-131-620R-_-Product

Is there another board which might be a much better option? I do plan to do some OC'ing.

Also, what exactly do I have to do to use my spare 9800GTX+ as a physx device?
 
So since doing that draft earlier 3 components are now out of stock :(

Would've preferred getting them all from one place in the end, to save hassle. Looks like that wont be happening.
 
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