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[Philthy]

A few years back I picked up a Radeon 4670 with an Arctic Cooling Accelero S2 (MASSIVE heat sink takes up a whole slot and then some) and it's been a great card and SILENT for my gaming PC. I have a 1920x1080 LCD and play all my games in that resolution without much slowdown at all unless I crank AA up. I usually leave it off because at that res it doesn't make much visual difference to me anyways.

Has anything come out since that is quiet, or can be modded to be quiet via a huge ass heat sink that would be a substantial improvement? A crazy expensive watercooling whatever isn't what I'm looking for. I'm still looking for affordable for the most part.

Any suggestions? I'd really like it to be fanless. Machine is a quad core 6GB crazy thing.

 

[sestrugen]

I've gone nuts looking review after review and I cant decide on what computer to buy, I have $600 and I want my computer to play World of Warcraft. I have a monitor (1680x1050), OS, mouse and keyboard. Can't believe this is so complicated.

 

[·feist·]

A few years back I picked up a Radeon 4670 with an Arctic Cooling Accelero S2 (MASSIVE heat sink takes up a whole slot and then some) and it's been a great card and SILENT for my gaming PC. I have a 1920x1080 LCD and play all my games in that resolution without much slowdown at all unless I crank AA up. I usually leave it off because at that res it doesn't make much visual difference to me anyways.

Has anything come out since that is quiet, or can be modded to be quiet via a huge ass heat sink that would be a substantial improvement? A crazy expensive watercooling whatever isn't what I'm looking for. I'm still looking for affordable for the most part.

Any suggestions? I'd really like it to be fanless. Machine is a quad core 6GB crazy thing.

Between your resolution and the fact that you don't often use AA, it seems like a GTX 460 768MB may be what you're looking for. Most brands can be found either on sale or with a rebate so you should look to pay no more than ~$135-150.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...r=BESTMATCH&Description=gtx+460+768mb&x=0&y=0

Apart from that, you have the AMD 6850 for $180 and the 1GB GTX 460 for $200. The AMD 68xx cards sell out quickly so you aren't likely to find much, if anything, off from the standard price, but the 1GB GTX 460 comes in at ~$175-190 with a rebate/sale. The 6850 and 460 both run fairly cool and have a good deal more power than your current card. You can always cap the fan speed if you find either card to be too noisy. Otherwise, you could use the savings toward a stout aftermarket cooler and run it passively if you have enough airflow.

Hmm, I was about to build a PC but maybe I'll wait until dem Sandy Bridge CPUs come out.

This is what I was getting at earlier.

 

[Dr.Acula]

A few years back I picked up a Radeon 4670 with an Arctic Cooling Accelero S2 (MASSIVE heat sink takes up a whole slot and then some) and it's been a great card and SILENT for my gaming PC. I have a 1920x1080 LCD and play all my games in that resolution without much slowdown at all unless I crank AA up. I usually leave it off because at that res it doesn't make much visual difference to me anyways.

Has anything come out since that is quiet, or can be modded to be quiet via a huge ass heat sink that would be a substantial improvement? A crazy expensive watercooling whatever isn't what I'm looking for. I'm still looking for affordable for the most part.

Any suggestions? I'd really like it to be fanless. Machine is a quad core 6GB crazy thing.

Check out Seasonic. They have fanless PSUs in the 400/460 watt range, and higher rated ones where the fan only kicks in under load.

Link.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Hmm, I was about to build a PC but maybe I'll wait until dem Sandy Bridge CPUs come out.

But then again, early sockets are never a good thing, i heard the 1155 will be linked to one frequency (USB, SATA, CPU), and overclocking will be terrible. Waiting for the enthusiast socket in 2011 seems a better idea.

 

[Dr.Acula]

I had similar issues with my GTX 460 (artifacting, game crashes) and it was a bad card. I had just buiilt the PC so I am RMAd it and the new card is working fine.

I had that issue too, and Gigabyte asked me to upgrade the firmware, and it seems to have solved it.

 

[Hazaro]

Ive had it for about 2 years now, but the problems seems to have just started in the past couple of months. I thought I could live with it, but I cant.

I dont think I can get anything from anyone.

After looking it to further it does have a 3 year warranty.

Also I have had a couple of crashes with IRQL not less or equal, and some crashes with page fault in non-paged area.

Have you tried reverting back to older graphics drivers?
For nVidia I suggest 169.69 and 185.85.

Also check to see if your HDD might be dying.

I've gone nuts looking review after review and I cant decide on what computer to buy, I have $600 and I want my computer to play World of Warcraft. I have a monitor (1680x1050), OS, mouse and keyboard. Can't believe this is so complicated.

Most combos are dead, but the parts are still valid and a solid deal.
Step up to a 955 BE and a GTX 460 768MB.

Additionally:

The deals are still available, here are the links to the combos:

Athlon II x4 640 $99 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103871
Cheap Mobo + gtx460 768mb $223 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.534591
4GB(2x2GB) 1600 Ram + 600W 80+ Modular PSU $130 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.549138
Cooler Master HAF 912 + 1TB Samsung F3 HD $120 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.543371
Asus 24x DVD Burner $19 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

I presume you are only looking at the featured combo on the overview tab of the item. If you click "Browse More Combos" you will see that the item you are looking at may have more than 100 combos available to look through.

 

[sestrugen]

How does this look?

Asus M4A87TD/USB3 - AM3 - AMD 870GX
AMD PhenoM II x2 555 BE 3.2GHZ (should I go for the unlock or should I stick with an AMD X4?)
Corsair 4gb DDR3-1600
EVGA GTX 460 768mb Superclocked
Corsair 650TX

have yet to decide on Hard drive and optical drive

 

[Mr Sandman]

Looking at new boards for Physx. I would like to use my 460 + 9800GT.

Some boards I am interested in have two PCI-E @ either "16x/0x or 8x/8x." Is that not good?

 

[AceBandage]

Looking at new boards for Physx. I would like to use my 460 + 9800GT.

Some boards I am interested in have two PCI-E @ either "16x/0x or 8x/8x." Is that not good?

From what I've seen, if you want to XFire cards, you want at least a 16x/4x, though a 16x/8x is preferred.

 

[brain_stew]

Looking at new boards for Physx. I would like to use my 460 + 9800GT.

Some boards I am interested in have two PCI-E @ either "16x/0x or 8x/8x." Is that not good?

A 4x slot is fine for a PhysX card. So anything with two full size PCIex16 slots will be fine for your needs.

 

[Hazaro]

How does this look?

Asus M4A87TD/USB3 - AM3 - AMD 870GX
AMD PhenoM II x2 555 BE 3.2GHZ (should I go for the unlock or should I stick with an AMD X4?)
Corsair 4gb DDR3-1600
EVGA GTX 460 768mb Superclocked
Corsair 650TX

have yet to decide on Hard drive and optical drive

Quad, quad, quad. Get a QUAD.

Besides that your parts are fine but I'd really go with these in combos:
Athlon II x4 640
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 (Can get the MSI 870 if you have no plans for USB 3 / SSD)
4GB(2x2GB) 1333/1600 G.sKill Ram + 600W 80+ Modular PSU
Cooler Master HAF 912 + 1TB Samsung F3 HD $120
Asus 24x DVD Burner $19

Everything on that list is ROCK solid and a damn good deal. Links are in my last post.

Looking at new boards for Physx. I would like to use my 460 + 9800GT.

Some boards I am interested in have two PCI-E @ either "16x/0x or 8x/8x." Is that not good?

8x/8x is fine.

 

[YuriLowell]

Have you tried reverting back to older graphics drivers?
For nVidia I suggest 169.69 and 185.85.

Also check to see if your HDD might be dying.

Havent tried the older drivers yet.

I tested my HDD's in HDTach and got 245mb reads from my X-25M, and got 110mb from my Samsung Spinpoint F1.

 

[Mr Sandman]

Maybe I should ditch my micro ATX case, even though I love the size. Not many options for Physx compatible micro ATX boards it seems.

 

[Hazaro]

Havent tried the older drivers yet.

I tested my HDD's in HDTach and got 245mb reads from my X-25M, and got 110mb from my Samsung Spinpoint F1.

Reads seem fine, but that probably isn't where the problem is. Give Samsung's HDD utility a try and run SMART a try as well.

I had a lot of blue screens that went away when I changed drivers to 185.85.
Still on them.

 

[YuriLowell]

Reads seem fine, but that probably isn't where the problem is. Give Samsung's HDD utility a try and run SMART a try as well.

I had a lot of blue screens that went away when I changed drivers to 185.85.
Still on them.

Okay I just noticed something odd. 90% of the time my CPU is running at 3.5ghz, and then randomly it jumps to 800mhz, and my multiplier drops down to 4x.

I have cool and quiet off so I have no idea what is causing it.

 

[Seagoon]

Can someone critique this build:

Motherboard: ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 AMD870 AM3 DDR3 USB3 SATA3 PCI-E
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1075T Black Edition 3.0GHz 9MB Cache Socket AM3
RAM: OCZ AMD Black Edition 2x2GB DDR3-1600 CL8
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 32MB 7200rpm SATAII
GFX: EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX460 Superclocked 1GB EE GDDR5 PCI-E
Case: Antec P183 Performance One Black ATX Mid Tower New SSD Mounting - NO PSU

The machine is to replace my existing gaming PC - I have an existing DVD drive, Creative X-Fi card and Corsair 550W power supply and Windows 7 64.

My current PC is quite noisy, so I'm hoping this new one will solve that problem - it will be connected to a 1920x1200 monitor and I hope to play games like Duke Nukem Forever, Dead Rising 2 among other games.

Is 4GB of RAM enough in this day and age? Is there a better board I should be going for? Is OCZ RAM any good (I'm used to Corsair RAM).

 

[Mairu]

My Gigabyte GTX 460 has been giving me issues

Getting artifacts & graphics glitches occasionally in game, and this is after putting my card back down to stock voltage & clocks (it was only VERY SLIGHTLY raised before)

Guess I'm going to Frys tonight to buy another one so I can have something in my computer while I RMA this

 

[Darkatomz]

Tell that to my dad. :lol

His speakers...$25,000.

WTF. I love music and everything, but what the hell. Is there a link for information on those things somewhere?

 

[TheExodu5]

WTF. I love music and everything, but what the hell. Is there a link for information on those things somewhere?

http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Speakers/Home_Audio/800_Series_Diamond/800-Diamond.html

 

[ColonelColon]

I've been having some weird texture problems with my XFX 4770. I was recently trying to create a custom fan speed profile in ATI Tray Tools, but I forgot to click the fucking redundant unnecessary check box that confirms I want to save the fan settings to the overclocking profile. Shortly after, I started to notice that textures looked awful. Here's a picture from FEAR 2 that shows one of the corrupt textures:

Textures have looked sort of like this in any 3D game I've played. Obviously, my first suspicion was that I permanently damaged the graphics card. But the issues have persisted even when using the motherboard's integrated GPU. I've tested the 4770 in Furmark, and there weren't any artifacts. I also tested the card with passmark, and there weren't any errors. Has anyone here seen something like this before? Should I just RMA the 4770 and hope that solves the problem?

 

[morningbus]

Alright, I'm finally taking the plunge into building my own PC from scratch! Before I go any further, would anyone like to look over my build to see if I could reasonably save money anywhere/increase performance significantly?

I'm splitting it between Newegg and Amazon because I have about 260 dollars worth of free money on Amazon. So, for instance, I could get the graphics card for 10 dollars cheaper on Newegg, but then I wouldn't really be anywhere near my free $260. Also, I'd like to stick with Nvidia. Those are my only biases though!

Here we go:

• Power Supply (CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W) & Ram (CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600) | Bundled $125 (after rebates) [ http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.553657]

• Motherboard (ASUS P7P55D Deluxe LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard) & Windows 7 Pro OEM | Bundled $230 (after rebates) [ http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.552862.13-131-400]

• Fan (Cooler Master RR-910-HTX3-G1) $20.00 [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0028Y4S9K/?tag=neogaf0e-20]

• Hard drive (Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB) $87 [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C271MA/?tag=neogaf0e-20]

• Case (Cooler Master Elite 310 ATX, MATX Mid Tower Case) $40 [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XIST2I/?tag=neogaf0e-20]

• Graphics Card (MSI N460GTX Cyclone 1GB) $185 (after rebates) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VWW4AI/?tag=neogaf0e-20]

• Processor (Intel Core i5 760) $170 (from a local store) [http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0341729]

Total: $857.00
Total after free Amazon money: $597.00

 

[Hazaro]

Alright, I'm finally taking the plunge into building my own PC from scratch! Before I go any further, would anyone like to look over my build to see if I could reasonably save money anywhere/increase performance significantly?

• Fan (Cooler Master RR-910-HTX3-G1) $20.00 [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0028Y4S9K/?tag=neogaf0e-20]

• Case (Cooler Master Elite 310 ATX, MATX Mid Tower Case) $40 [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XIST2I/?tag=neogaf0e-20]

Change your Heatsink to this. Hyper 212 Plus.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G1YPH0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Apart from that, maybe look around at some other cases you'd like?
HAF 912/922, Antec 300, CM 690, Antec P183, etc.
310 is more budget-y.

 

[theshizzle]

Anywhere to get a cheap copy of Windows 7? Im a student if that helps, but I already looked at the microsoft's student discount and $65 still seems a bit high. If there is nothing better than that, i guess i will have to go with ubuntu, but I'd prefer not to because I will be using the computer mainly for gaming.

 

[foobarry81]

Can someone critique this build:

Motherboard: ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 AMD870 AM3 DDR3 USB3 SATA3 PCI-E
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1075T Black Edition 3.0GHz 9MB Cache Socket AM3
RAM: OCZ AMD Black Edition 2x2GB DDR3-1600 CL8
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 32MB 7200rpm SATAII
GFX: EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX460 Superclocked 1GB EE GDDR5 PCI-E
Case: Antec P183 Performance One Black ATX Mid Tower New SSD Mounting - NO PSU

The machine is to replace my existing gaming PC - I have an existing DVD drive, Creative X-Fi card and Corsair 550W power supply and Windows 7 64.

My current PC is quite noisy, so I'm hoping this new one will solve that problem - it will be connected to a 1920x1200 monitor and I hope to play games like Duke Nukem Forever, Dead Rising 2 among other games.

Is 4GB of RAM enough in this day and age? Is there a better board I should be going for? Is OCZ RAM any good (I'm used to Corsair RAM).

I have the same motherboard and also a Phenom II X6, albeit the 1055T edition, and also 4 Gigs of RAM. Running on Win 7 64bit. I can't comment on the noise, I have an ATI GPU which does make a lot of noise. But I'm pretty satisfied about the overall performance. The only thing I found troublesome is that the BIOS didn't recognize my CPU even though the ASUS site said that the version I had installed does. So you might to have to flash your BIOS.

 

[AceBandage]

So, I was reading on the Gigabyte website, that the MB I ordered allowed me to CrossFire the onboard GPU with one I install.
Is this really possible and would it give me a good boost in performance?

 

[dragonlife]

Change your Heatsink to this. Hyper 212 Plus.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G1YPH0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Would that be ideal with this case and mobo, space-wise?

 

[Smo21]

I've been having some weird texture problems with my XFX 4770. I was recently trying to create a custom fan speed profile in ATI Tray Tools, but I forgot to click the fucking redundant unnecessary check box that confirms I want to save the fan settings to the overclocking profile. Shortly after, I started to notice that textures looked awful. Here's a picture from FEAR 2 that shows one of the corrupt textures:

Textures have looked sort of like this in any 3D game I've played. Obviously, my first suspicion was that I permanently damaged the graphics card. But the issues have persisted even when using the motherboard's integrated GPU. I've tested the 4770 in Furmark, and there weren't any artifacts. I also tested the card with passmark, and there weren't any errors. Has anyone here seen something like this before? Should I just RMA the 4770 and hope that solves the problem?

This might not help but i remember this happening to me a while ago on my old pc. I think it was something with the ram cuz when i took the stick out and put it back it was fine.

 

[Baron Aloha]

GAF, which of these is better (and why)?

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 Yorkfield 3.0GHz (overclocked to 4.0GHz)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...115130&cm_re=quad_core-_-19-115-130-_-Product

or

Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...115214&cm_re=quad_core-_-19-115-214-_-Product

or

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...115211&cm_re=quad_core-_-19-115-211-_-Product

or

Is there an even better one in that price range?

 

[Felix Lighter]

GAF, which of these is better (and why)?

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 Yorkfield 3.0GHz (overclocked to 4.0GHz)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...115130&cm_re=quad_core-_-19-115-130-_-Product

or

Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...115214&cm_re=quad_core-_-19-115-214-_-Product

or

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...115211&cm_re=quad_core-_-19-115-211-_-Product

or

Is there an even better one in that price range?

The i7 950 is the best of those 3 but since its LGA 1366, the motherboard will be more expensive. i7 860 is LGA 1156 and would save you some money when it's time to purchase a motherboard but you would save even more money and get very similar performance, gaming-wise, from an i5 760.

 

[Lumine]

This is a re-post from a topic I started, which is closed by now, because I missed this topic.

My PC all of a sudden decided not to start up anymore yesterday. I've already returned it to the shop I bought it (and seperate parts later on) all those years ago from. At this point it's unsure what broke. Could be power supply, could be my mobo, I have no idea.

So while it's in repair I'm thinking this might just be the right time to upgrade it. Currently it has a MSI K9N nforce 570 AM2 motherboard in it with a AMD athlon X2 3800+ cpu. Both more than 4 years old. The graphics card is a nvidia 8800 GTS 768mb, about 3 years old I think. I added more than a year ago 2GB memory to the 1 it already had.

My maximum budget would probably be around 300-400 euro's give or take. I'm thinking of buying a Phenom II X4 955 as the cpu for around 140 euro/dollar. And a GeForce GTX 460 768 MB as a new graphics card for 160. Those seem like decent choices for the prices as I'm looking around the net, but honestly I'm very much out of the loop. I'm unsure if I need to get a new motherboard for those (probably) and what mobo I should be looking for. The same goes for the memory, I probably have to buy new ram.

If the power supply is broken it might ruin these plans anyway. Then again, my current power supply might be too weak for these new cards. I have no idea if they went up much in power over the last few years.

So yeah I guess I'm asking if people can tell me if I'm looking at the right stuff and if not, what would be better choices? Especially when it comes to motherboards I seem to be quite clueless. I used to think I was on top of these things, but years fly by so quickly and clearly I'm not anymore.

Thanks for any help.

 

[ColonelColon]

This might not help but i remember this happening to me a while ago on my old pc. I think it was something with the ram cuz when i took the stick out and put it back it was fine.

I just tried reseating the RAM, but nothing changed. Thanks anyway though. I would greatly appreciate any other suggestions. I'm probably going to RMA the graphics card today, but I feel like some other part might be causing this issue, since I'm seeing these glitches with the onboard GPU as well. Could the motherboard have been damaged?

 

[Baron Aloha]

The i7 950 is the best of those 3 but since its LGA 1366, the motherboard will be more expensive. i7 860 is LGA 1156 and would save you some money when it's time to purchase a motherboard but you would save even more money and get very similar performance, gaming-wise, from an i5 760.

OK. Mind explaining why the i7 is better than the very overclockable Core 2 Quad? I really don't know much about this stuff.

 

[TheExodu5]

OK. Mind explaining why the i7 is better than the very overclockable Core 2 Quad? I really don't know much about this stuff.

Better clock for clock performance.

Now, a 4.0GHz quad is better than a 3GHz i7, but you can bring that i7 to 4.0GHz as well.

I probably wouldn't consider an i7 860 though. Either go i5 760, or the i7 950. The i5 760 will be about $200 cheaper, but doesn't have hyper threading or triple channel memory support. Gaming wise though, it will be roughly equivalent.

 

[Felix Lighter]

OK. Mind explaining why the i7 is better than the very overclockable Core 2 Quad? I really don't know much about this stuff.

The i7s can typically be overclocked to near 4.0 Ghz relatively easily and the i7 should outperform the Q9650 clock for clock as well. Also, you'll gain the benefits of the newer LGA1156 or LGA1366 platforms.

 

[·feist·]

OK. Mind explaining why the i7 is better than the very overclockable Core 2 Quad? I really don't know much about this stuff.

A 3.0Ghz i7 950 is faster clock for clock than a 3.0Ghz Q9650 and you can achieve a 1Ghz overclock, or higher, on both. In addition, paying full price for an upper end C2Q like the Q9650 is a complete waste of money right now. You can even argue that spending $300+ on any of Intel and AMD's current crop of CPUs is a bad buy at the moment as both companies will be releasing their improved, next gen chips fairly soon, but that's on the buyer to decide.

The i5 750/760 are faster than comparable Phenom II x4s that have higher stock clocks. They also don't lose out much to their more expensive i7 counterparts.

If you have a 775 build that needs a CPU upgrade, look to buy a used C2Q and overclock it. If you must build a new system and can't wait another 2-8 months (2 for Intel, 8 for AMD) for the next round of CPUs to be released, then an i5 750/760 would be your most powerful and cost-effective CPU choice that still has a great deal of overclocking potential.

Edit: Must.. hit.. refresh...

 

[Felix Lighter]

A 3.0Ghz i7 950 is faster clock for clock than a 3.0Ghz Q9650 and you can achieve a 1Ghz overclock, or higher, on both. In addition, paying full price for an upper end C2Q like the Q9650 is a complete waste of money right now. You can even argue that spending $300+ on any of Intel and AMD's current crop of CPUs is a bad buy at the moment as both companies will be releasing their improved, next gen chips fairly soon, but that's on the buyer to decide.

The i5 750/760 are faster than comparable Phenom II x4s that have higher stock clocks. They also don't lose out much to their more expensive i7 counterparts.

If you have a 775 build that needs a CPU upgrade, look to buy a used C2Q and overclock it. If you must build a new system and can't wait another 2-8 months (2 for Intel, 8 for AMD) for the next round of CPUs to be released, then an i5 750/760 would be your most powerful and cost-effective CPU choice that still has a great deal of overclocking potential.

Edit: Must.. hit.. refresh...

The consensus just really drives the point home.

 

[·feist·]

The consensus just really drives the point home.

You're right. It's just funny that we all said nearly the same thing in our first sentences.

Would that be ideal with this case and mobo, space-wise?

Depends on what you consider ideal, but yes the two do fit together.

Here's a Hyper 212 inside an Elite 310:

 

[Roche]

Hey guys, I've decided to finally go for it and build my computer and I'd like Gafs suggestions/approval. I've put together a somewhat preliminary list from suggestions I've gotten elsewhere, the parts I've gathered are from a German site called hardwareversand which I've been told is good for buying computer parts. I also live in Ireland so I figure shipping wouldn't be too pricey.

Athlon II X3 445 €68

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=37139&agid=1242

Asus M4A77T/USB3 €70

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=34887&agid=1232

Sapphire HD 5770 €120

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28979&agid=1004

Spinpoint F4 320GB €35

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=37082&agid=689

DVD RW €18

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=29466&agid=699

Antec 300 €54

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=23029&agid=631

OCZ StealthXStream 500W €46

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=20684&agid=240

4GB A-Data Ram €65

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28428&agid=1192

Altogether that comes to about €500 which happens to be my max budget. Also since this is my first build I'm quite new to the PC gaming master race so I apologize if some terminology is lost on me. Anyways, all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[morningbus]

Change your Heatsink to this. Hyper 212 Plus.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G1YPH0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Apart from that, maybe look around at some other cases you'd like?
HAF 912/922, Antec 300, CM 690, Antec P183, etc.
310 is more budget-y.

Thanks!

I'll definitely get the bigger fan. I'll probably go for the Antec 300, too (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GQMHBI/?tag=neogaf0e-20.

Thanks again!

 

[TheExodu5]

Hey guys, I've decided to finally go for it and build my computer and I'd like Gafs suggestions/approval. I've put together a somewhat preliminary list from suggestions I've gotten elsewhere, the parts I've gathered are from a German site called hardwareversand which I've been told is good for buying computer parts. I also live in Ireland so I figure shipping wouldn't be too pricey.




Altogether that comes to about €500 which happens to be my max budget. Also since this is my first build I'm quite new to the PC gaming master race so I apologize if some terminology is lost on me. Anyways, all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

How set is your budget?

My tips for improving the build:

Change the CPU to to an Athlon 640:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=37141&agid=1242

And the GPU to a GTX 460 768MB:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=36450&agid=554

320GB of space is also a very small amount.

 

[Baron Aloha]

If you must build a new system and can't wait another 2-8 months (2 for Intel, 8 for AMD) for the next round of CPUs to be released, then an i5 750/760 would be your most powerful and cost-effective CPU choice that still has a great deal of overclocking potential.

I can wait. This is to replace my current desktop...an Athlon 64(?) from 2002-2003 with Radeon 9600 (LOL).

Will the new chips be around $300 or more expensive? Will the current $300 chips drop significantly in price?

 

[TheExodu5]

The current chips are unlikely to drop in price.

What's your budget?

 

[Baron Aloha]

The current chips are unlikely to drop in price.

What's your budget?

I hesitate to say "the skies the limit" but basically I'm comfortable spending whatever it costs to get a great computer before things start to get ridiculous and the performance gained is no longer worth the additional money spent (there are hexacore chips for $1000 for example).

For a graphics card I'm comfortable spending anywhere between $400-$600. Would I be better off getting 2 lower spec cards (like 2 GTX 470s) or 1 GTX 580? Also, if I go with an Intel CPU is Nvidia a better choice for a graphics card or AMD? Does it matter?

In general what's the best graphics card in the $200-300 range right now that I could double up on?

 

[Roche]

How set is your budget?

My tips for improving the build:

Change the CPU to to an Athlon 640:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=37141&agid=1242

And the GPU to a GTX 460 768MB:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=36450&agid=554

320GB of space is also a very small amount.

I'm fairly stuck in my budget I could go €30 over at most, I'll take your changes they seem like good choices.
I've also got a 1TB external hard drive and a couple of old spares lying around the place so I'm good as far as space goes.

Thanks for your suggestions they're much appreciated.

 

[TheExodu5]

I hesitate to say "the skies the limit" but basically I'm comfortable spending whatever it costs to get a great computer before things start to get ridiculous and the performance gained is no longer worth the additional money spent (there are hexacore chips for $1000 for example).

For a graphics card I'm comfortable spending anywhere between $400-$600. Would I be better off getting 2 lower spec cards (like 2 GTX 470s) or 1 GTX 580? Also, if I go with an Intel CPU is Nvidia a better choice for a graphics card or AMD? Does it matter?

In general what's the best graphics card in the $200-300 range right now that I could double up on?

Two 470s do beat a GTX 580 by a little bit, but only in games that properly support SLI. Honestly, since GPU solutions are so fast now that I'd hesitate to recommend an SLI setup unless you really need that extra performance.

Spending $400-600 on a GPU, you'd currently be looking at a GTX 580. You'll at least want to wait 2 weeks though, because AMD is also bringing out their new cards (6970). We'll see how they stack up.

As a preliminary build, I'd recommend something along the lines of:

Core i7 930 (or 950, depending on price)
Asus/Gigabyte 1366 board
GTX 580 / AMD 6970
6GB Triple Channel DDR3
Corsair 650/750/850/1000 PSU
Crucial Real SSD C300 128GB
2TB Samsung Spinpoint F4

You have several case options...it depends on what you're going for. Is there anything you like in a case? Do you plan on building it yourself?

If ever you plan on going SLI GTX 580 for example, you'll want a beefy PSU. If you plan on sticking with a single card setup, 650/750 is more than enough.

Anyways, this is top of the line stuff, and a system like that would run you nearly $2000.

 

[TheExodu5]

Radeon HD5850 $200 after MIR

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=54265&vpn=HD585XZAFC&manufacture=XFX&promoid=1259

Radeon HD5870 $300 after MIR

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=52233&vpn=HD587XZNFC&manufacture=XFX&promoid=1259

 

[Baron Aloha]

Two 470s do beat a GTX 580 by a little bit, but only in games that properly support SLI. Honestly, since GPU solutions are so fast now that I'd hesitate to recommend an SLI setup unless you really need that extra performance.

Spending $400-600 on a GPU, you'd currently be looking at a GTX 580. You'll at least want to wait 2 weeks though, because AMD is also bringing out their new cards (6970). We'll see how they stack up.

As a preliminary build, I'd recommend something along the lines of:

Core i7 930 (or 950, depending on price)
Asus/Gigabyte 1366 board
GTX 580 / AMD 6970
6GB Triple Channel DDR3
Corsair 650/750/850/1000 PSU
Crucial Real SSD C300 128GB
2TB Samsung Spinpoint F4

You have several case options...it depends on what you're going for. Is there anything you like in a case? Do you plan on building it yourself?

If ever you plan on going SLI GTX 580 for example, you'll want a beefy PSU. If you plan on sticking with a single card setup, 650/750 is more than enough.

Anyways, this is top of the line stuff, and a system like that would run you nearly $2000.

Thanks for the recommendations. I plan on building it myself. I like my existing case because it has USB connections and multiple card readers built into the front of it but I don't know if the ventilation would be good enough for this setup. I'm certainly open to any recommendations you may have.

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

A 4x slot is fine for a PhysX card. So anything with two full size PCIex16 slots will be fine for your needs.

If one were thinking of purchasing a physx card what would one purchase exactly?

 

[TheExodu5]

Thanks for the recommendations. I plan on building it myself. I like my existing case because it has USB connections and multiple card readers built into the front of it but I don't know if the ventilation would be good enough for this setup. I'm certainly open to any recommendations you may have.

Well I'll just show off an example here.

Coolermaster HAF X:

Now, this is a full tower, so it's a massive case. Not saying you should go with this...just giving you a feel for what's out there. What do you get with this?

- Insane airflow. 230mm intake fan in the front, 2x 200mm top exhaust, 140mm rear exhaust. If you want a fairly quiet system, you can run these at low speeds and still have your system run very cool.
- Tool-less installation. No need to screw in your HDDs into the cage. The plastic HDD mounting systems pull out, and you can just pop the HDD in and you're good to go. Same goes for the 5 1/2 inch drives.
- Cable management. See those robber grommets? You put your cables in there, and have all your cables routed through the back. That way, your build looks nice and clean, and it maximized airflow.

Now, there are lots of other option, depending on what you're looking for. A few more:

Antec P183:

- Extremely quiet, sound insulated panels, solid build. Build and cable management options are limited though, since it doesn't have that much room inside.

Antec Nine Hundred Two:

- Basic, yet good looking mid level case with good airflow.

Coolermaster Storm Sniper:

- All around great case, though with questionable looks.

Corsair 800D:

- Expensive, not the best airflow, but otherwise a case with extremely high build quality, and incredible cable management. Also offers hot swappable drive bays in the front. Probably the best case to house a water cooling setup.

Corsair 600T:

- Very well built, and with great airflow. Lots of cable management options.