"I need a New PC!" 2011 Thread of reading the OP. Seriously. [Part 2]
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Moundir&Tony>you
Member
I plan on updating my rig once again at the end of the year , by getting a new motherboard along with a new processor . I don't plan on playing any modern games on ultra settings , except maybe for Metro 2033 (bought long time ago , still haven't played it) .Tallshortman said:
Thing is , I just don't want to buy a cheap card now , and have to upgrade again when I get my new processor .
IIRC , my current build is :
E8400
4GB RAM
HD 4850
gigabyte p35 ds4
Antec sonata III 500W
Tallshortman
Member
NullPointer said:
Sorry if you posted this before but can you post your system specs? Also what is your budget range? I want to make sure my recommendations are within your budget range and isn't bottlenecked by anything else.
NullPointer
Member
Here's my original post:Tallshortman said:
I give a budget but no current specs as I'm planning on building a new system from scratch, tailored to this setup, with all new peripherals. (I'm going to give my current PC to a family member)NullPointer said:
Helping a fellow GAF member out with a build and came across this:
Core i7 2600k Sandy Bridge processor
Zotac GTX480
Gigabyte P67A-UD4 B3 motherboard
4 gb G.Skill Ripjaws X 1600 DDR3 RAM
Corsair 800D case
Corsair F120gb SSD
Corsair H50 watercooling with 2 Enermax fans in push/pull
OCZ Fatality 550W PSU
DLink DWA-542 Wireless N Card
Asus Xonar DG sound card
NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller
DVD reader/writer
For about $1100 CAD.
He's looking forward to RO2, BF3, D3, etc. So I'm thinking that's a fairly good deal and only things he'd have to change are the PSU and GPU later on when BF3 comes out and it doesn't hold up to his graphical standards.
Having said that, he'd be missing the usual stuff like a KBM/monitor and another HDD.
If given the choice to change some of the things: swap the 480 for a 560ti/6950, the PSU to something beefier and maybe the mobo + 2x4 ram instead of 2x2.
The 480 to 560ti might not be a huge jump though, so it's probably better to wait until BF is out.
Core i7 2600k Sandy Bridge processor
Zotac GTX480
Gigabyte P67A-UD4 B3 motherboard
4 gb G.Skill Ripjaws X 1600 DDR3 RAM
Corsair 800D case
Corsair F120gb SSD
Corsair H50 watercooling with 2 Enermax fans in push/pull
OCZ Fatality 550W PSU
DLink DWA-542 Wireless N Card
Asus Xonar DG sound card
NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller
DVD reader/writer
For about $1100 CAD.
He's looking forward to RO2, BF3, D3, etc. So I'm thinking that's a fairly good deal and only things he'd have to change are the PSU and GPU later on when BF3 comes out and it doesn't hold up to his graphical standards.
Having said that, he'd be missing the usual stuff like a KBM/monitor and another HDD.
If given the choice to change some of the things: swap the 480 for a 560ti/6950, the PSU to something beefier and maybe the mobo + 2x4 ram instead of 2x2.
The 480 to 560ti might not be a huge jump though, so it's probably better to wait until BF is out.
Sorry if this has been asked before but I'd like to overclock my Phenom II x4 965 from 3.4 to 3.8 GHz. I'm a complete noob though when it comes to overclocking though. Does anyone know of any tutorials for a beginner? Would I be better off using Overdrive? The stock CPU fan has been replaced by a Cooler Mater 212 btw.
Tallshortman
Member
Moundir&Tony>you said:
Okay since you are open to upgrading your whole rig then I would recommend first purchase the 6950 with a new PSU (6950 requires 450W-500W minimum depending on manufacturer so that's cutting it too close for my comfort), the GPU will last you for a while so no need to worry about having to do baby step upgrades which are both inefficient and overall more expensive.
When getting the PSU a 600W will be just fine unless you plan on running 2 GPU's. A solid 550W will work too but the 600W+ will give you more comfortable room to grow for upgrades.
You will be bottlenecked by your CPU in some games but you should still see a dramatic performance increase since quite a lot of modern games still don't run much better on quad core CPUs. The E8400 is a pretty capable dual core so overall you won't see too much bottlenecking at the 60+ fps on all high/ultra level.
Since you plan on upgrading the rest of your rig at the end of the year you will probably want to look at the new bulldozer AMD CPUs that will be out then or even wait a little longer for the Ivy Bridge CPUs from Intel.
Moundir&Tony>you
Member
Thanks a lot for your help ! Now all I have to do is find a new PSU and I'll be done !Tallshortman said:
Tallshortman
Member
NullPointer said:
Well just speaking of the GPU, with a $1500 overall rig budget you could afford to get 2x 6950s which will blow through games at max settings, 1080p, 60+fps (except for metro 2033 and Witcher 2 with ubersampling on, the only thing that can run metro 2033 at 1080p at 60fps is dual GTX 580s for $1000 and maybe 3-way SLi for Witcher 2 + ubersampling). At stock speed you'll be getting roughly a single GTX 580 + 25%-30% more performance for the same price ($500). The 6950 scales very well in CF and have even shown 2x scaling in some instances.
NullPointer
Member
Holy crap. Two? Of these?Tallshortman said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129171
I'm hoping this is overkill. The idea of almost $600 of the budget going only to the video card(s) seems like a bit much. If I just want to play games at native resolution at 60fps for the next few years is this what I'm looking for?
ColonelColon
Member
NullPointer said:
If you're spending $1500 on a computer, then it's probably not overkill.
NullPointer
Member
OK, well I just wanted to make sure I was reading that right ;pColonelColon said:
So at this point I'd have those two cards as the centerpoint, and I should pick a MOBO and RAM around it? I'm guessing these will require a monster power supply too.
Tallshortman
Member
NullPointer said:
That model is the 2GB version. The 1GB versions are as low as $210 after rebate. Most games won't show noticeable performance difference between the 1GB version and the 2 GB version because modern game simply rarely need the extra VRAM at that level. If you're not adverse to using rebates, I would recommend this version
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102945
because you have the option to unlock the card into a psuedo 6970 and it comes with some extra cooling. I've always preferred sapphire after using them, XFX, and MSI due to reliability and silence/quality of the cooling. Please note I have not used that specific card, it's just one I know personally has the BIOS switch.
The one I listed is $245 after rebates. Don't pay for the more expensive $270 options, they're simply not any better than some of the cheaper 2GB versions.
EDIT:
NullPointer said:
Just make sure the mobo you get has 2 PCIe 2.0 x 16 slots. Don't get a mobo that has only 1 PCIe 2.0 x 16 and one x8, otherwise you could be losing performance in high stress situations (60fps gaming). There won't be any noticeable price difference between such boards as long as you shop smart (~$150).
PSU I'd get a solid 800W PSU. It won't be as power hungry as dual 580s which require about 900-1000W. A real solid 800W will be around ~$150.
So, $500 GPU + $150 mobo + $150 PSU = $800. That leaves you $700 which is a ton a money for what you need left (i7, 4-8 GB RAM, 1-2TB 7200 RPM HDD, smaller SSD for OS). i7 is just an example if you want to spring for a different high end CPU. Extra cooling would be a good investment too, especially if it's hot where you live. I feel like you have underestimated just how much performance you can get out of $1500
NullPointer
Member
Hopefully I'm not pushing my luck, but while I'm here, do you think you could recommend CPU and RAM for this?Tallshortman said:So, $500 GPU + $150 mobo + $150 PSU = $800. That leaves you $700 which is a ton a money for what you need left (i7, 4-8 GB RAM, 1-2TB 7200 RPM HDD, smaller SSD for OS). i7 is just an example if you want to spring for a different high end CPU. Extra cooling would be a good investment too, especially if it's hot where you live. I feel like you have underestimated just how much performance you can get out of $1500
I've still got to pick up peripherals, including a monitor, wireless KB/Mouse, wireless xbox gamepad, disk drives (do I need bluray?), hard drives, sound card(?) etc.
(Our IT guy here is balking at the two video cards, but he's no gamer. Haha.)
So I'm thinking of building a new PC for gaming/Wii emulation but I'm completely new at this. Thinking of going with something like this.
i5 2500k
GTX 560 Ti
4GB DDR3
2TB HDD
XFX Core Edition PRO550W
ASRock P67 EXTREME4
If I was to mostly use it either 1366x768 or 1680x1050, would it be overkill to get a GTX 560? I'm also completely lost when it comes to motherboards, proper cases, cooling solutions and power supplies, especially if wade into the world of overclocking.
i5 2500k
GTX 560 Ti
4GB DDR3
2TB HDD
XFX Core Edition PRO550W
ASRock P67 EXTREME4
If I was to mostly use it either 1366x768 or 1680x1050, would it be overkill to get a GTX 560? I'm also completely lost when it comes to motherboards, proper cases, cooling solutions and power supplies, especially if wade into the world of overclocking.
HarryHengst
Member
Got home from work tonight and my new pc was waiting for me, but the shop forgot to include the dvi-vga connector so i cant connect my monitor (samsung 206bw) to it. Apparently a vga-connection is outdated. :lol
I spent the entire day yesterday putting all my components together. Ran into quite a few issues that didn't happen the first time I built a pc (this is my second).
First, I forgot that the mobo I bought didn't have an IDE connector, so my current carryover dvd drive wouldn't work. Had to drive out and buy a SATA drive. Then, I stripped a screw trying to remove my mobo from the case to breadboard the build due to it not booting at all. That was a nightmare. When it finally did post, it wouldn't boot to the mobo startup screen, so after a lot of trial and error I eventually cleared CMOS, which worked for the most part. It turns out that the cpu voltage and vcore was terribly off (1.15 vcore seemed really low to me). I don't know if it was an error on Gigabyte's part because the mobo didn't want to play nice with my 2500k. Oddly, loading fail-safe or optimal settings would cause the pc to not post. So I had to figure all that out. Luckily, it doesn't seem like any of my components are faulty (though it may be too early to tell).
Eventually, I got the OS installed and now I'm updating drivers and trying to fix a lot of buggy jank (W7 is glitchy as hell right now).
But, it was worth it. A lot of learning on my part.
First, I forgot that the mobo I bought didn't have an IDE connector, so my current carryover dvd drive wouldn't work. Had to drive out and buy a SATA drive. Then, I stripped a screw trying to remove my mobo from the case to breadboard the build due to it not booting at all. That was a nightmare. When it finally did post, it wouldn't boot to the mobo startup screen, so after a lot of trial and error I eventually cleared CMOS, which worked for the most part. It turns out that the cpu voltage and vcore was terribly off (1.15 vcore seemed really low to me). I don't know if it was an error on Gigabyte's part because the mobo didn't want to play nice with my 2500k. Oddly, loading fail-safe or optimal settings would cause the pc to not post. So I had to figure all that out. Luckily, it doesn't seem like any of my components are faulty (though it may be too early to tell).
Eventually, I got the OS installed and now I'm updating drivers and trying to fix a lot of buggy jank (W7 is glitchy as hell right now).
But, it was worth it. A lot of learning on my part.
Tallshortman
Member
NullPointer said:
I'd honestly recommend an i5 2500k right now. I personally prefer AMD but they simply don't have great value on the high end currently (at least until bulldozer comes out). So that's $210. There's actually a combo sale that has this and a blu ray burner on newegg right now if you want to spring for a blu ray player. There's no need for one unless you plan on watching blu-rays on your PC or need to burn them for work. I have a PS3 so I don't have a use for one.
G.Skill, corsair, and kingston are all good. The ones recommended in the OP are good so that's $80 if you want 8 GB for future proofing. 4GB ($40) or 6GB ($60) are perfectly fine.
I don't believe wireless xbox controllers work on the PC since they use a proprietary signal. Also concerning sound cards I actually never buy them because testing them on a friends computer I didn't find it to be worth the money to be honest. I'm not the kind of person who needs the most amazing effects coming out of my sound system, I'm much more graphically and performance focused. It's all preference of course.
For a monitor what screen size are you looking for? Also, are you fine with native and max 1080p resolution or do you need higher?
Has there been any talk from either AMD or Nvidia about the next generation of cards?
I've been doing a little looking around at parts, just seeing what's out there. I'm going to build a new PC, but probably not for another 6-8 months, so I was just curious if there was any info on what either company is working on right now.
I've been doing a little looking around at parts, just seeing what's out there. I'm going to build a new PC, but probably not for another 6-8 months, so I was just curious if there was any info on what either company is working on right now.
NullPointer
Member
i5 instead of an i7?Tallshortman said:
Nice tips on the RAM. I had no idea it was that cheap (its been a long while since I specced out a new machine. Like before Doom 3 released).
On the audio front I only ask because I'm looking to output both audio and video via HDMI to my TV. My current PC video card can't do that without jumping through flaming hoops so I was hoping to get that taken care of from the get-go. I'd also like 5.1 output if at all possible, but I'm not sure how to guarantee this - and whether it requires a dedicated sound card or some kind of tweaking of the motherboard (crossover cabling).
On the monitor front I don't remember the exact resolution of my monitor at home, but I'm pretty sure its a 23 inch, 1920 x ???. And the HDTV is a 60 inch Bravia with 1080p native.
Thanks again for your advice, it definitely helps.
KarmaCow said:
Seems like you're on your way
Looks like a good build.For cases, it all depends on how much you wanna spend on them and what your priorities are. Do you want good airflow, cooling or maybe a real silent build...
You can always PM a budget for your case and I can reccommend you one if you want.
Same goes for cooling.
Your PSU is fine (I'm buying the same one)
Tallshortman
Member
theRizzle said:
Next gen AMD (southern islands) is supposed to be latter half 2011 and Nvidia will probably be either same time or a little after. Though keep in mind GPUs get routinely pushed back especially when there's not even a hard target launch date yet.
TheNatural
My Member!
A little off topic, but anyone know where to find some quality long ass precision screwdrivers for screwing in the motherboard into the case? I have a big ass heatsink with a small motherboard and it's a huge pain in the ass to unscrew or do anything with small screwdrivers.
RumblingRosco
Member
Detox said:
That's in Celsius right? If so, yes, you need to be worried. 95 C is way way too hot. You want to try for 70-75 C or below while in Prime 95.
TheNatural said:
Sears has a precision set with a longer phillips:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00941633000P?prdNo=15&blockNo=15&blockType=G15
Personally though I just use a normal craftsman #2 phillips when working on my computers, it seems to fit all of the screws ok. I do use a screwdriver magentizer for inserting some of the mobo screws that tend to be hard to reach for my fat fingers.
TheNatural
My Member!
larvi said:
Thanks. Yeah I wish I had a magnetized long Phillips myself. Nothing is more frustrating than a screw falling onto the mobo when you're trying to screw it in, in a really tight spot. I'm installing a TV Tuner and doing some general cleanup and a heatsink reseat in the next couple weeks and I'm dreading it remembering how much of a pain in the ass it was to do in the first place.
TheNatural
My Member!
Detox said:
You put thermal paste on it right? Or maybe it doesn't need it with the factory fan, I don't know what those processors use. You probably need to reseat it though like the other guy said.
TheNatural said:
I don't actually have a magnetized screwdrive, I use this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/magnetizer-demagnetizer-5932.html
to magnetize and demagnetize my tools when needed. Works well for me.
TheNatural
My Member!
larvi said:
Nice. Harbor Freight has some good prices although I've never been to one. I always see coupons and shit in various flyers and ads.
Laurentius
Member
Well, it's started. Ordered my first part for my build today:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231417
Will probably be ordering over the next few weeks. Haven't set in stone all the parts I'm looking for, and trying to shop around for good deals. That 8GB of RAM was on sale for $52, so I really couldn't resist (also because it comes with a USB drive, which I've been needing).
No turning back now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231417
Will probably be ordering over the next few weeks. Haven't set in stone all the parts I'm looking for, and trying to shop around for good deals. That 8GB of RAM was on sale for $52, so I really couldn't resist (also because it comes with a USB drive, which I've been needing).
No turning back now.
Laurentius
Member
Would anyone recommed any of these motherboards to be paired with an i5 2500k?
http://promotions.newegg.com/Intel/...romotions.newegg.com/Intel/073111/980x130.jpg
http://promotions.newegg.com/Intel/...romotions.newegg.com/Intel/073111/980x130.jpg
Long Post Warning:
I've been trying to research GPUs hardcore, I will be buying at least one next week (If my PC isn't a pile of rubble from the PSU accident). I stumbled across a forum post with something about Phenom IIs bottlenecking most of the newer cards, especially in crossfire. I think they said it was something to do with the CPU/NB and that you could solve it by overclocking that or something. Anyways, I have the 925 at 3.6 ghz stable and haven't touched the CPU/NB because I don't want to break anything (Ironic, because I blew up my psu...).
Would this heavily bottleneck say, a 6950/6970 or two 6870s? If so, would overclocking the CPU/NB help to alleviate? And if that's a yes, any tips?
I realize I'm probably going to get bottlenecking on my current processor with most any card I put in, and I know for a fact I'll be moving up to Dozer when they drop, so, it's not a big deal if I can't do anything about it. I think I've come close to settling on the 6950, a reference if I can find one on Amazon (I have 80 bucks store credit!), would it be better to go with a single 6870 for now then crossfire in a few weeks? I'm at 1680 x 1050, occasionally at 1920 x 1080 when I hook up to the TV.
Thanks for any help, I know I'm needy when it comes to this thread. Eventually I hope I can help out as much as you guys have helped me.
I've been trying to research GPUs hardcore, I will be buying at least one next week (If my PC isn't a pile of rubble from the PSU accident). I stumbled across a forum post with something about Phenom IIs bottlenecking most of the newer cards, especially in crossfire. I think they said it was something to do with the CPU/NB and that you could solve it by overclocking that or something. Anyways, I have the 925 at 3.6 ghz stable and haven't touched the CPU/NB because I don't want to break anything (Ironic, because I blew up my psu...).
Would this heavily bottleneck say, a 6950/6970 or two 6870s? If so, would overclocking the CPU/NB help to alleviate? And if that's a yes, any tips?
I realize I'm probably going to get bottlenecking on my current processor with most any card I put in, and I know for a fact I'll be moving up to Dozer when they drop, so, it's not a big deal if I can't do anything about it. I think I've come close to settling on the 6950, a reference if I can find one on Amazon (I have 80 bucks store credit!), would it be better to go with a single 6870 for now then crossfire in a few weeks? I'm at 1680 x 1050, occasionally at 1920 x 1080 when I hook up to the TV.
Thanks for any help, I know I'm needy when it comes to this thread. Eventually I hope I can help out as much as you guys have helped me.
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