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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

opticalmace said:
It's pretty good. If you're playing on that 1600x1024 monitor you'll be able to max all new games, save for Crysis/Metro 2033. I would probably personally go Intel/Nvidia and change around a couple things, but it's a good build.
(Also you should be able to build it cheaper than what he has listed... definitely sub-700 if you shop around. But then again, Sandy Bridge is looming and the prices seem pretty good. Only unknown is the cost of a motherboard.)
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I meant to ask this, but what are good Intel/Nvidia substitutes?
 
You can find those parts anywhere. When it comes to Intel CPUs, Microcenter almost always has the best prices, sometimes $30-100 lower than other sources. The catch is that unlike coolers, HDDs and other deals that you can order from their site, the CPU deals are in-store only (the majority of the time).
 
·feist· said:
You can find those parts anywhere. When it comes to Intel CPUs, Microcenter almost always has the best prices, sometimes $30-100 lower than other sources. The catch is that unlike coolers, HDDs and other deals that you can order from their site, the CPU deals are in-store only (the majority of the time).
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He should befriend a bestbuy employee. They apparently have a special store. Friend of mine got a i7 960 for $80.
 
·feist· said:
You can find those parts anywhere. When it comes to Intel CPUs, Microcenter almost always has the best prices, sometimes $30-100 lower than other sources. The catch is that unlike coolers, HDDs and other deals that you can order from their site, the CPU deals are in-store only (the majority of the time).
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Got it.

Is this the card?:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261075&Tpk=NE5X460SF1102

Is this the CPU?(I know it's sold out, I'm just using it for reference):http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067&Tpk=Intel Core i5 760

I am also curious about what Windows 7 edition to get. This one looks all right:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...Windows_7_Home_Premium-_-32-116-752-_-Product
 
Situation: I'm not going to have the 1TB HDD I wanted by the time my remaining parts arrive. It's been hard for me to save up for everything so getting the remaining funds will take a little longer...but in the meantime, I was planning on using my five-year-old HDD (has 100GB out of 150GB). If I install/partition/whatever the OS on the old one, can I then transfer such info to new HDD when I get it? I'm mainly going to have just two Steam games for the moment.

joseph1594 said:
I am also curious about what Windows 7 edition to get. This one looks all right:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...Windows_7_Home_Premium-_-32-116-752-_-Product
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That's 32-bit. You want 64-bit. And yes, that's one of the different GTX 460 GPUs.
 
My question fell by the wayside a couple pages back so I'll rephrase it. What's the best socket 775 CPU for the money these days if I'm looking mainly for a dual core in the realm of 3.0GHz stock? I have an E5200 and I've been looking at the E8400, but the price hasn't dropped in ages.
 
DarthWoo said:
My question fell by the wayside a couple pages back so I'll rephrase it. What's the best socket 775 CPU for the money these days if I'm looking mainly for a dual core in the realm of 3.0GHz stock? I have an E5200 and I've been looking at the E8400, but the price hasn't dropped in ages.
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Elaborate on what you have and what you want.
 
Hazaro said:
Elaborate on what you have and what you want.
Click to expand...

Well, here was my original post:

DarthWoo said:
I'm pretty satisfied with the PC I built back in 2008, although I could probably use a new CPU one of these days, as I cheaped out back then. Since I found out recently that I wouldn't have to reinstall my OS after a CPU upgrade, I'd be more willing to do this. I currently have a Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5GHz, using a socket 775. I know most people will suggest to upgrade to an i7 or something, but I'm perfectly happy with what I otherwise have, and don't want to switch motherboards. I'd been looking at a C2D E8400, as that seemed to be among the most popular C2Ds, but it seems they haven't dropped in price at all since 2008. Is there any chance they will in the near future?
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I'm mainly looking to reduce the horrible bottleneck that is my current CPU. It plays pretty much everything I've thrown at it so far, from Crysis to Fallout New Vegas to Battlefield Bad Company 2. The recent release of Black Ops kind of annoyed me with its supposed 3.0GHz dual core minimum requirement, and so I hadn't gotten it when I could have for about $10.
 
I'm considering upgrading my desktop over the next few months/year, and I'm not exactly sure where to start. I'll post my current specs (PC is a few years old now).. it was kinda crappy to begin with, I bought it from ibuypower.com, what a mistake that was.. I realized that about a week after I had it.. :lol I've upgraded a few things over the years, but not much..

Windows 7 64 bit

Raidmax O2 Gaming Tower Case w/400W Power Supply

GigaByte GA-M55SLI-S4 nForce4-SLI Chipset w/7.1 Audio, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB

AMD AthlonT64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology

Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS 256 MB

4 GB of DDR2 RAM (I think DDR2-800)

250 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache]


Is it worth it for me to upgrade the components, or should I just scrap it and start fresh? I'm guessing my processor and motherboard are the weakest components, but I really don't know for sure.

Also, for right now, can this processor be overclocked, and if so, what's a good guide for doing so?

Let's say for like $100 right now, what would be the best upgrade for me? A somewhat small SSD? Better video card?

I'd like to be able to use the Dolphin emulator. I've tried a few games on this setup.. and well.. it can run with the settings way down, so they pretty much look like it's on the actual Wii itself... therefore, no point in running it on here.. :lol
 
Biglesworth23 said:
I'm considering upgrading my desktop over the next few months/year, and I'm not exactly sure where to start. I'll post my current specs (PC is a few years old now).. it was kinda crappy to begin with, I bought it from ibuypower.com, what a mistake that was.. I realized that about a week after I had it.. :lol I've upgraded a few things over the years, but not much..

Windows 7 64 bit

Raidmax O2 Gaming Tower Case w/400W Power Supply

GigaByte GA-M55SLI-S4 nForce4-SLI Chipset w/7.1 Audio, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB

AMD AthlonT64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology

Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS 256 MB

4 GB of DDR2 RAM (I think DDR2-800)

250 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache]


Is it worth it for me to upgrade the components, or should I just scrap it and start fresh? I'm guessing my processor and motherboard are the weakest components, but I really don't know for sure.

Also, for right now, can this processor be overclocked, and if so, what's a good guide for doing so?

Let's say for like $100 right now, what would be the best upgrade for me? A somewhat small SSD? Better video card?

I'd like to be able to use the Dolphin emulator. I've tried a few games on this setup.. and well.. it can run with the settings way down, so they pretty much look like it's on the actual Wii itself... therefore, no point in running it on here.. :lol
Click to expand...

It really depends if you want to game on it or not.

EDIT: damn just saw your mobo on newegg, didnt realize it was only am2, with that, I would just say save your money up for an entire new rig, no point in upgrading with such an outdated motherboard cpu socket. Also consider using stuff in the new build such as hdd and dvd drive so you can save as much money as possible
 
Mr Nightman said:
It really depends if you want to game on it or not.
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I do, but nothing crazy heavy. Don't have Crysis/Metro 2033/etc. I have StarCraft 2 and some Source games, would like those to look nice.. also would like to be able to use Dolphin relatively well, but I'm thinking that's probably out of my price range right now..

I currently use it on a few year old 17 inch Samsung LCD monitor that does 1440 x 900 and a few year old HDTV (Sharp 42inch Aquos) that does 1080p as well.
 
Just saw your edit.. yeah, I figured my motherboard would be a problem. I would definitely reuse my monitors, hard drive (I would like to get a SSD for cheap though :) ), power supply, and case if at all possible.
 
Biglesworth23 said:
I do, but nothing crazy heavy. Don't have Crysis/Metro 2033/etc. I have StarCraft 2 and some Source games, would like those to look nice.. also would like to be able to use Dolphin relatively well, but I'm thinking that's probably out of my price range right now..

I currently use it on a few year old 17 inch Samsung LCD monitor that does 1440 x 900 and a few year old HDTV (Sharp 42inch Aquos) that does 1080p as well.
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Well as I said previously, you should really consider a newer motherboard as the first item to replace, you can get an am2 am2+ and am3 compatible motherboard for around 50 bucks, that way you could still use your current cpu and ram, until you can upgrade the cpu to one more capable of running dolphin. If you did this, you wouldn't have to worry about buying a case and the other components I mentioned
 
Mr Nightman said:
Well as I said previously, you should really consider a newer motherboard as the first item to replace, you can get an am2 am2+ and am3 compatible motherboard for around 50 bucks, that way you could still use your current cpu and ram, until you can upgrade the cpu to one more capable of running dolphin. If you did this, you wouldn't have to worry about buying a case and the other components I mentioned
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Alright thanks. Motherboards are something I have never been knowledgeable in. Could you link a decent $50ish one from Newegg or Amazon or something?
 
Biglesworth23 said:
Alright thanks. Motherboards are something I have never been knowledgeable in. Could you link a decent $50ish one from Newegg or Amazon or something?
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131613

Heres a decent one, and asus is a great quality brand. Also something to keep in mind is, since this motherboard is am2/+ am3, chances are you will end up buying an am3 processor, so it wont run full am3 speed, but for your needs it really isn't that much of a performance hit. I use a phenom quad, with a similar mobo and its still fast as hell. But this board I linked should work fine with your ram as well. Oh and definitely think about upgrading that video card as soon as you can, pretty sure dolphin requires more graphics horsepower than that 8600. :lol
 
You don't want to game on the pc, just play Dolphin. Funny thing is Dolphin can be more intensive than a PC game :lol

You can just get a $100 Athlon II X4 and a GTX460/Radeon 6850 for PC gaming, but for Dolphin you need FAR more CPU power. You need the fastest per core cpu's and those are Intel cpus. In fact Sandy Bridge will make likely make no difference for pc games when they come out unless you have SLIed 580s or something of that sort, but it should make a big difference for Dolphin.
 
DarthWoo said:
Well, here was my original post:

I'm mainly looking to reduce the horrible bottleneck that is my current CPU. It plays pretty much everything I've thrown at it so far, from Crysis to Fallout New Vegas to Battlefield Bad Company 2. The recent release of Black Ops kind of annoyed me with its supposed 3.0GHz dual core minimum requirement, and so I hadn't gotten it when I could have for about $10.
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Just overclock your CPU. There's no point in buying a new CPU unless it is a quad core.
2.5->3Ghz will barely provide any benefits.
darthbob said:
I put this build together for a friend.

Make it better, because I know you can, lol.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=11170214
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Get an 8__ board with sata/usb 3. Should be the same price.
 
Jin34 said:
You don't want to game on the pc, just play Dolphin. Funny thing is Dolphin can be more intensive than a PC game :lol

You can just get a $100 Athlon II X4 and a GTX460/Radeon 6850 for PC gaming, but for Dolphin you need FAR more CPU power. You need the fastest per core cpu's and those are Intel cpus. In fact Sandy Bridge will make likely make no difference for pc games when they come out unless you have SLIed 580s or something of that sort, but it should make a big difference for Dolphin.
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He'd more than get away with a Phenom X4 clocked at 3.2ghz+ for Dolphin.
 
I decided I want a kickass pc game. What do you think about it:

Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
Phenom II X6 1090T
2x HD6870 - R$850 (Sapphire)
G.SKILL Ripjaws + Turbulence II Series 6GB (3 x 2GB)
2x Caviar Black (640GB - 7200 RPM - 64MB - SATA 600)
XFX 750W Black Edition
HAF 932

Good? Bad? Any input? I'd rather have a Intel based CPU.

Regards,
 
A lot of the links in the "best bang for the buck" (US) section of the OP are deactivated - as in the item is no longer available. Is there a current build out there that I can use?
 
1)Basic Desktop Questions
Budget: Price Range + Country
Main Use: Light Gaming, Gaming, Video editing, 3D work, general usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback)
Monitor Resolution: What resolution will you be looking to play your games at? Are you going to upgrade later?
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Self Explanatory

2)General Guide on what to buy
$500-$600 Budget build: http://imgur.com/gdc1C.png
1k build: To be updated

3)15 minute video how-to
http://vimeo.com/5685229
40 minute how-to
http://www.tested.com/news/video-how-to-build-the-best-1500-gaming-pc-step-by-step/152/

4)Prospective laptop buyers please fill this out and ask their forum as well.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...ould-i-buy-form-must-read-before-posting.html
GAF notebook / laptop thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=386622

gdc1C.png
 
I asked this in another thread, but got no replies. Guess I'll try here since you guys helped with my last situation (the CPU heatsink one :lol ):

Just built me a computer with W7 on an SSD (NEVER going back). Stupid question: How do I make it to where nothing saves to the SSD automatically? (program files; etc) I don't want anything else on it (it's only a 64 GB), I actually wish there were a way for my computer to not even realize it's there. -_-

I have a 2 TB HDD that I want to basically be my "C" drive for all intents and purposes...

I actually can't even see the RAID 0 config I just set up (two 2TB HDDs). I set it up AFTER installing W7 on my SSD tho, was this a huge no-no? AHHH I wanna start installing crap but I can't do that on my freakin 64 GB SSD. HELP GAF.
 
ZeroFate said:
I asked this in another thread, but got no replies. Guess I'll try here since you guys helped with my last situation (the CPU heatsink one :lol ):

Just built me a computer with W7 on an SSD (NEVER going back). Stupid question: How do I make it to where nothing saves to the SSD automatically? (program files; etc) I don't want anything else on it (it's only a 64 GB), I actually wish there were a way for my computer to not even realize it's there. -_-

I have a 2 TB HDD that I want to basically be my "C" drive for all intents and purposes...

I actually can't even see the RAID 0 config I just set up (two 2TB HDDs). I set it up AFTER installing W7 on my SSD tho, was this a huge no-no? AHHH I wanna start installing crap but I can't do that on my freakin 64 GB SSD. HELP GAF.
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You should be fine as long as you don't go crazy installing shit on the ssd, 64GB is plenty for the os and small programs, and just use the 2tb drive for all your games and stuff.
 
Mr Nightman said:
You should be fine as long as you don't go crazy installing shit on the ssd, 64GB is plenty for the os and small programs, and just use the 2tb drive for all your games and stuff.
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Errr guess I wasn't clear enough. My computer won't recognize my other HDDs at all. I have them set up in RAID 0 and I can see them from my bios. =(

Sorry if I sound like a complete moron, this is my first build...

EDIT: Blond moment # 2 in this thread, I just needed to partition the bastards. Move along now. :lol
 
So I've read the OP and am trying to become informed about the ins and outs of PC Gaming, but I'm having a hard time.

I'm new to high end PC Gaming (I used to do it before the PS1 came along), and I'm trying to find the best and cheapest PC for gaming. I don't really care about squeezing the best graphics out of it, as long as it's 360 or PS3 quality.

Is it reasonable to be able to get one for $600 CND?

As a novice, is it feasible to build it myself? Is it easy to screw up. I'm not comfortable with soldering, so I'm hoping you can just snap things into place.

Any tips/links to guide me?
 
canadian crowe said:
So I've read the OP and am trying to become informed about the ins and outs of PC Gaming, but I'm having a hard time.

I'm new to high end PC Gaming (I used to do it before the PS1 came along), and I'm trying to find the best and cheapest PC for gaming. I don't really care about squeezing the best graphics out of it, as long as it's 360 or PS3 quality.

Is it reasonable to be able to get one for $600 CND?

As a novice, is it feasible to build it myself? Is it easy to screw up. I'm not comfortable with soldering, so I'm hoping you can just snap things into place.

Any tips/links to guide me?
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Look up
 
Jin34 said:
That's what I have, it's not enough for some games.
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...any particular examples? ordered a rig with an i5-760, which i'm reading can be taken (somewhat?) comfortably up to about 4ghz, really hoping that should suffice for any game i like.

that said: i know i asked before about OCing, and it's apparently a lot more stable than it was in years past, yeah? like, if the voltage/temps are ok, you're not shedding life off your chip? i was only thinking of clocking it to 3.5 but hearing that it's not enough, plus some googling, has me thinking i should try for 4.0, the SG07 i ordered is small but brings water cooling so i figure it might be worth it for Dolphin. thoughts?
 
IrishNinja said:
...any particular examples? ordered a rig with an i5-760, which i'm reading can be taken (somewhat?) comfortably up to about 4ghz, really hoping that should suffice for any game i like.

that said: i know i asked before about OCing, and it's apparently a lot more stable than it was in years past, yeah? like, if the voltage/temps are ok, you're not shedding life off your chip? i was only thinking of clocking it to 3.5 but hearing that it's not enough, plus some googling, has me thinking i should try for 4.0, the SG07 i ordered is small but brings water cooling so i figure it might be worth it for Dolphin. thoughts?
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Intel runs a lot better than AMD for Dolphin. It's also faster clock for clock (3Ghz Intel faster than 3Ghz AMD).
Voltage is what takes the life off your chip. Just run it at a reasonable level and you'll be fine for quite a long time.
 
that's good to hear, man...im still looking for good guides on that i5-760 + * GigaByte GA-H55N-USB3 combo (first time trying this), but is there a ballpark of what a reasonable level of voltage is/isn't? i've been reading up on temps (idle vs load) and think i know about what it should look like with prime95 + speedfan going, no idea about that end though. thanks again, as always.
 
ZeroFate said:
Errr guess I wasn't clear enough. My computer won't recognize my other HDDs at all. I have them set up in RAID 0 and I can see them from my bios. =(

Sorry if I sound like a complete moron, this is my first build...

EDIT: Blond moment # 2 in this thread, I just needed to partition the bastards. Move along now. :lol
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Lol had the same problem when I installed my second drive :lol Glad your all good to go now
 
Well, I tried my hand at overclocking today.

First off was the 6850, which was a cinch. Have it at 920 MHz on stock voltage right now, and happy with it where it is. I have temps at around 55 C on idle though, not sure if that's all that good, but it is keeping under 80 C on load. That's with fans set to auto, which has them on around 50% or less when stressed. Could get it cooler by manually setting it, but I like how quiet it is.

The i5-760 hasn't gone quite as well just yet. I have it at 3.8 GHz at 1.288V and it's stable after an hour of Prime 95 (large FFTs test) and some 15 minutes of that and FurMark together, but temperatures max at 80 C (usually hover around 78-79 C for the hottest core). I wanted to keep it under 73 C, but considering this is maximum load. . .

I tried lower clocks (3.6 GHz) and voltages too initially, but they returned errors eventually in Prime 95. However, I later realized my VRAM was clocked too high when testing at 3.6 GHz (1720 vs 1600 MHz - didn't notice that me changing my BCLK changed that too), so I chose the lower clock option (1440 vs 1800) when trying 3.8GHz.

So because I'm pretty much new at all this, could anyone answer some questions for me? First of all, is having RAM clocked higher than what its stock is a possible cause for the original instability (I hadn't changed VDIMM Voltage from its stock 1.65V either)? If so, perhaps I can keep trying to lower my CPU voltage to achieve a lower temp, knowing that may not have been the cause of the Prime 95 error.

And second, if I can't get temps lower, is a max of 80 C under load acceptable or a bit too high? If too high, I think I'd just have to settle for 3.6 GHz, and perhaps later I can consider remounting my cooler, as it was my first time doing it and I'm not 100% confident I did it as good as I could.

Whatever the case, tomorrow will be the day for longer stress testing to try to ensure things are stable. Definitely a learning experience for me, doing all this for the first time, but it's been fun. BTW, I'm not sure if I'm measuring CPU temp right, but I'm personally using both Real Temp and Speed Fan. Real Temp's individual core temps and Speed Fan's single CPU temperature more or less match up to each other, but the individual core temps under Speed Fan are far less (usually in the low to mid 60s under full load). I'm ignoring these low ones for my testing, as I think should probably be the case, but correct me if I'm wrong!
 
IrishNinja said:
that's good to hear, man...im still looking for good guides on that i5-760 + * GigaByte GA-H55N-USB3 combo (first time trying this), but is there a ballpark of what a reasonable level of voltage is/isn't? i've been reading up on temps (idle vs load) and think i know about what it should look like with prime95 + speedfan going, no idea about that end though. thanks again, as always.
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10-15% of your chip VID if you want to play safe. (Check box / coretemp / realtemp)
Kurashima said:
Well, I tried my hand at overclocking today.

The i5-760 hasn't gone quite as well just yet. I have it at 3.8 GHz at 2.88V and it's stable after an hour of Prime 95 (large FFTs test) and some 15 minutes of that and FurMark together, but temperatures max at 80 C (usually hover around 78-79 C for the hottest core). I wanted to keep it under 73 C, but considering this is maximum load. . .

So because I'm pretty much new at all this, could anyone answer some questions for me? First of all, is having RAM clocked higher than what its stock is a possible cause for the original instability (I hadn't changed VDIMM Voltage from its stock 1.65V either)? If so, perhaps I can keep trying to lower my CPU voltage to achieve a lower temp, knowing that may not have been the cause of the Prime 95 error.

And second, if I can't get temps lower, is a max of 80 C under load acceptable or a bit too high? If too high, I think I'd just have to settle for 3.6 GHz, and perhaps later I can consider remounting my cooler, as it was my first time doing it and I'm not 100% confident I did it as good as I could.

Whatever the case, tomorrow will be the day for longer stress testing to try to ensure things are stable. Definitely a learning experience for me, doing all this for the first time, but it's been fun.
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Ok that voltage certainly can't be correct. 2.88V would kill it. 1.88V would probably hurt it but not have it boot either. I highly doubt your motherboard even lets you go above 1.7V

- RAM overclocked on stock can cause problems yes
- Keep RAM on 1.65V and just lower the multiplier for now
- Did you bump up NB / PLL voltage? Just 1 or 2 steps can help stability.
 
Oops, my bad, I meant 1.288 (though I set it to 1.28, it goes to this when tested). I did turn off Turbo mode and Speedstep, and C1E and C-States were off by default.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I'll try lowering the CPU voltage and give the lower RAM multiplier a try. I haven't touched those settings, but if it's unstable after that, I'll definitely give those a whirl. If all else fails though, are those temps ok? I would prefer them lower, of course, and will be trying for that.
 
GHG said:
He'd more than get away with a Phenom X4 clocked at 3.2ghz+ for Dolphin.
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Eh? Not really. I mean, lots of games will run, but if you want 60fps in the majority of titles, you need to go i7. DKCR is really only doable with a 3.6-4GHz i5/i7, for example. Dolphin and PCSX2 are probably the most demanding gaming applications, CPU wise.
 
Kurashima said:
Oops, my bad, I meant 1.288 (though I set it to 1.28, it goes to this when tested).

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I'll try lowering the CPU voltage and give the lower RAM multiplier a try. I haven't touched those settings, but if it's unstable after that, I'll definitely give those a whirl.
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CPU voltage is the main thing. If that only gets you so far then try bumping NB/PLL.

What I generally do is work my way up on a voltage, say 1.3, and see how high I get. Then when I hit a problem I'll bump NB/PLL and see if its stable there.

RAM speeds are to just keep your RAM in spec, that's all.
 
luiztfc said:
I decided I want a kickass pc game. What do you think about it:

Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
Phenom II X6 1090T
2x HD6870 - R$850 (Sapphire)
G.SKILL Ripjaws + Turbulence II Series 6GB (3 x 2GB)
2x Caviar Black (640GB - 7200 RPM - 64MB - SATA 600)
XFX 750W Black Edition
HAF 932

Good? Bad? Any input? I'd rather have a Intel based CPU.

Regards,
Click to expand...

Are you sure you want to go Crossfire? While it will offer better max performance than a good single card in many games, there still are Crossfire issues such as microstuttering, and several games don't properly support Crossfire. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it...rather that you shouldn't do it if you don't want to mess with these issues.

Personally, going for a higher end build like that, I'd want an Intel i5 760 and an NVidia GTX 580 (or wait 2 weeks to see the Radeon 6970). Also, get the HAF X if it isn't much more than the HAF 932. You're also better off getting a Corsair 750W PSU as they are relatively cheap and the best PSUs out there.
 
Hazaro said:
CPU voltage is the main thing. If that only gets you so far then try bumping NB/PLL.

What I generally do is work my way up on a voltage, say 1.3, and see how high I get. Then when I hit a problem I'll bump NB/PLL and see if its stable there.

RAM speeds are to just keep your RAM in spec, that's all.
Click to expand...

That sounds good. And yeah, I phrased that wrong, I meant while keeping the RAM within spec this time. It was higher than its rating when I tested lower CPU voltages, so I was thinking that could have been a source of error rather than a lack of power by itself, and perhaps I don't need the voltage as high as it is right now after all.
 
.nimrod said:
I need your opinion pcGAF, here is what i have in mind so far:

Code: 
Core i7 950	                               249,43€

ASRock x58 Extreme 		               148,07€

Gigabyte SOC GTX 470 1280MB	               249,52€

3*2GB Kingston CL9 ValueRam PC3-10666 KIT 	71,26€

OCZ Vertex 2 60GB		                99,00€

Hitachi 1000GB HDS721010CLA332 7200rpm		44,60€

700W Cooler Master Silent Pro M700		89,54€
----------------------------------------------------------
                	                       951,42€
I just picked the cheapest mainboard/RAM/HDD available since i don't actually know what to look for.
Which boards are generally good and by what criteria do i choose the right RAM?

Any suggestions on what to buy instead would be very helpful.

I'm also looking for an inexpensive Mid tower and cpu cooler, but keep in mind i'm in germany, so i can't take advantage of any newegg prices/rebates.
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Anyone?

Also, is the 700W power supply enough if i plan on overclocking the cpu and graphics card a bit?
 
Get a 6870 instead.
RAM is ok
Get a different 1TB drive (Western Digital / Samsung)
Get a Seasonic or Corsair PSU if you can. XFX 750W is also decent.
HAF 912
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
 
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