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[Hazaro]

I would love to make the thread. However, I think Hazaro would be better for it.

Thanks

It would totally be biased towards what I think :lol

Budget minded with mid-cards. But then again that's kind of what is needed to bring people back. $700 Crysis PC helped that.

Yeah, I never really get that excited about these. However, the FarCry 2 boost is real. It is basically the FraCry 2 hotfix for Cat 8.11 now included in a real driver. :lol

GTA: IV nVidia driver said it fixed a bunch of stuff, but it seems like it gives 0-10 fps boost and adds some graphical issues occasionally.

Spoiler

Too bad I don't even want to play FC2

 

[rc213]

Anyone here know how I can make my mouse move faster within games? It doesn't matter if I turn up the sensitivity to the highest setting, It's just too slow. It's a old ass MX500 so I have no drivers I can install in Vista64. =(

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Okay so my new PC is going to have an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor, an nVidia 9800GTX+, 4 gigs of ram and Windows Vista Home 64-Bit.

Will I be able to run the game in DX10 on all high settings with at least 2xAA at the standard 16:10 resolution (I can't remember the exact numbers, but they're the only on L4D let me choose) at a stable 30FPS (60 even?)?

Excuse my extreme ignorance.

 

[Hazaro]

Okay so my new PC is going to have an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor, an nVidia 9800GTX+, 4 gigs of ram and Windows Vista Home 64-Bit.

Will I be able to run the game in DX10 on all high settings with at least 2xAA at the standard 16:10 resolution (I can't remember the exact numbers, but they're the only on L4D let me choose) at a stable 30FPS (60 even?)?

Excuse my extreme ignorance.

L4D you'll get like 80 fps. With 8xAA and 16xAF. Also lol Source.

Where are you buying from? List your prices.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

L4D you'll get like 80 fps. With 8xAA and 16xAF. Also lol Source.

Where are you buying from? List your prices.

Sorry I was talking about Crysis. I mentioned that but it was in a sentence I edited out, whoops. :lol

My prices are all in AU dollars, so I'm not sure how great they'd be for you. But I'm getting wholesale prices (I know a guy ), and they're very reasonable.

$300AU for the Q6600
$80AU for 4 gigs of RAM
$90 for a 500GB hard drive
$85 for the motherboard (brand escapes me at the moment)
$30 bucks for the case

And I already own the card, which set me back just under $300AU, and a Samsung 16:10 monitor, as well as a decent 5.1 set-up.

 

[apocalidiot]

I have an AGP slot on my motherboard (this things from four years ago) and I'm running an ATI Radeon x800 PRO card. This seems to be the only AGP card that Best Buy carries. The reason I'm interested in getting it from there is the employee discount, it'll hopefully be about half price. Is that worth picking up? Anything should be better than what I have, right?

 

[Hazaro]

Nice prices, what is the PSU/mobo?

Also for a person with a username like yours you never have posted the resolution of your LCD.

Crysis I'd wager 30fps on high. AA is a no-no, unless you want to run a lower res + AA (Which actually looks better imo, but I'm a sucker for view space so I don't run it).

I have an AGP slot on my motherboard (this things from four years ago) and I'm running an ATI Radeon x800 PRO card.

The only card I'd consider looking at for AGP is the 3850.

That 2400 is about the same. It's a media card really.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Nice prices, what is the PSU/mobo?

Also for a person with a username like yours you never have posted the resolution of your LCD.

Crysis I'd wager 30fps on high. AA is a no-no, unless you want to run a lower res + AA (Which actually looks better imo, but I'm a sucker for view space so I don't run it).

Ah good, I was hoping as much. AA isn't that big of a deal for me anyway.

The resolution of my monitor is 1680x1050 I believe, I'm not actually at home at the moment, so I can't check, but I'm fairly certain that's it.

Is there a way to run the game in a lower resolution, but unstretched with a black background taking up the un-used space?

My powersupply is something around 500V I believe. I can't remember the specifications of the mobo at the moment.

Thanks for the insight. Much appreciated.

 

[Puck]

Here is what i bought very recently'

CPU: Intel E8400 S775 $265
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q $139
RAM: 2x2GB 4GB Kit Generic DDR2 800 $75
HDD: Western Digital 640GB 16MB SATAII $95
GPU: 512M 4870 sapphire $350
Case cm690 $120
PSU: corsair hx520 $140
Optical Drive: ASUS 20x BLT-2014 Lightscribe SATA $35
CPU HSF: Noctua NH-U12P Performance CPU Cooler $77

Total: ~$1250

imo, those (especially the case, and psu) are the best parts around the range.

www.staticeice.com.au is your friend

 

[Hazaro]

Is there a way to run the game in a lower resolution, but unstretched with a black background taking up the un-used space?

My powersupply is something around 500V I believe. I can't remember the specifications of the mobo at the moment.

Thanks for the insight. Much appreciated.

20/22" - 1680 mostly
24" - You start encroaching 1920 territory.

A good 500W will be fine for everything.

Puck has a very solid build

 

[apocalidiot]

The only card I'd consider looking at for AGP is the 3850.

That 2400 is about the same. It's a media card really.

So something like this?

That sucks for it being primarily a media card. Thanks for the heads up

 

[Hazaro]

So something like this?

That sucks for it being primarily a media card. Thanks for the heads up

Yup, that's the one.

 

[SRG01]

So does anyone have a good reference for buying LCD monitors? Like the difference between TN screens and so forth?

 

[Hazaro]

So does anyone have a good reference for buying LCD monitors? Like the difference between TN screens and so forth?

Can you spend $500 on a montitor?
Yes: Do it
No: Buy TN

I had a kickass bookmark for explaining, but once I bought my LCD I got rid of it.

TN - Cheap + Good response time, but not so good colors (Looks great to me though)

90% of what you'll find are TN panels anyway.

Newegg is very nice to just browse through now. Almost all the top products have those trophies next to them. Just select the size and resolution you want.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020&bop=And&Order=RATING

 

[SRG01]

Can you spend $500 on a montitor?
Yes: Do it
No: Buy TN

I had a kickass bookmark for explaining, but once I bought my LCD I got rid of it.

TN - Cheap + Good response time, but not so good colors (Looks great to me though)

90% of what you'll find are TN panels anyway.

Newegg is very nice to just browse through now. Almost all the top products have those trophies next to them. Just select the size and resolution you want.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020&bop=And&Order=RATING

Thanks Hazaro! I'll probably get an ACER one. Are there any TN screens that are slightly glossy? I don't like the appearance of matte ones...

And I may have that much money to spend on a monitor, depending on how much I'll get paid (after income tax ) from this field assignment!

edit: Oh, and I guess my second question is... the typical price difference between a 8800GT and 4850 512MB is around $50-70 CDN. Is it worth the extra cost if I'll never game above 720p? I'm guessing no, but the 8800GT doesn't have DX10. The 9600GT does and I've heard that it actually has the same performance as the 8800GT.

 

[Hazaro]

Thanks Hazaro! I'll probably get an ACER one. Are there any TN screens that are slightly glossy? I don't like the appearance of matte ones...

And I may have that much money to spend on a monitor, depending on how much I'll get paid (after income tax ) from this field assignment!

edit: Oh, and I guess my second question is... the typical price difference between a 8800GT and 4850 512MB is around $50-70 CDN. Is it worth the extra cost if I'll never game above 720p? I'm guessing no, but the 8800GT doesn't have DX10. The 9600GT does and I've heard that it actually has the same performance as the 8800GT.

I'm pretty damn sure it does DX10, but not 10.1 (Which is just marketing IMO)

And not it's not worth it at all if you don't go over 768 :lol

A 9600GT is fine, go for it if it's cheaper. A 3870 should do well also.

 

[godhandiscen]

I swear, this thread should get stickied.

Thanks Hazaro! I'll probably get an ACER one. Are there any TN screens that are slightly glossy? I don't like the appearance of matte ones...

And I may have that much money to spend on a monitor, depending on how much I'll get paid (after income tax ) from this field assignment!

edit: Oh, and I guess my second question is... the typical price difference between a 8800GT and 4850 512MB is around $50-70 CDN. Is it worth the extra cost if I'll never game above 720p? I'm guessing no, but the 8800GT doesn't have DX10. The 9600GT does and I've heard that it actually has the same performance as the 8800GT.

The newly released 4830 is ideal for you. It has 8800 performance and price, and it offers DX10 support. Also, it is fairly new so drivers will improce its performance. Also, if you have an intel mobo with another PCI port, you could easily get another one down the road for cheap CrossFire.

 

[SRG01]

I swear, this thread should get stickied.

The newly released 4830 is ideal for you. It has 8800 performance and price, and it offers DX10 support. Also, it is fairly new so drivers will improce its performance. Also, if you have an intel mobo with another PCI port, you could easily get another one down the road for cheap CrossFire.

Every video card I've ever known has been less than a *500/**50. :lol I would like to get something in the 6-8 ranges for once! :lol

I'm pretty damn sure it does DX10, but not 10.1 (Which is just marketing IMO)

And not it's not worth it at all if you don't go over 768 :lol

A 9600GT is fine, go for it if it's cheaper. A 3870 should do well also.

I also frequently game at 800x600 window mode for the sole advantage of alt-tabbing to my MSN conversations seamlessly. My monitor is 1440x900 and any larger resolution hurts my eyes (and turning up DPI/font size doesn't help that much...)

 

[godhandiscen]

A 3870 or 9600 then.

 

[Blizzard]

It looks like my reply ended up on the end of a page, or else the Vista Force (tm) was out, so I'll ask again:

I guess I'll ask this here since it was here I got the advice to use Vista. ;p

Vista so far hasn't given me too many problems, but I just spent maybe 10-15 minutes trying to figure out how to do something that was very easy in XP. I want to search a specific directory. I want to search all files in that directory, and all files contained in any subfolders of that directory.

I want to do a "grep -i mystring `find .`", or something like that, to put it another way.

Anyway, in XP I could simply quickly navigate the directory structure and tell it where to search. Then I could click the file contents box or whatnot, and type in my string. In XP, the only way you can apparently search is by using the search box at the upper right. "Advanced search" doesn't give me any additional options besides searching in non-indexed files, which I want to do, so I turned that on. Search options doesn't give me anything useful besides the option to always search in file contents AND file names (and I'd prefer to only search file names, or only search file contents, depending on my current needs, anyway). Anyway, that would still work, though it would be annoyingly painful due to the directory structure navigation and window popup interface Vista uses on it...except the search still apparently fails to consider any file contents and only searches file names.

So is there some easy way to search file contents without actually getting a decent text editor and using that to search? Am I missing something?

 

[DeadTrees]

I want to search a specific directory. I want to search all files in that directory, and all files contained in any subfolders of that directory.

I want to do a "grep -i mystring `find .`", or something like that, to put it another way.

Cygwin and Windows Services for Unix both include grep.

If you want to search via GUI, Agent Ransack is a huge improvement over the stock Windows search, and can be run from a right-click menu in Explorer.

 

[Blizzard]

Cygwin and Windows Services for Unix both include grep.

If you want to search via GUI, Agent Ransack is a huge improvement over the stock Windows search, and can be run from a right-click menu in Explorer.

Yep, and I've used Cygwin and heard of Windows Services for Unix (is that a Vista Ultimate only thing?). I was just hoping that Windows Vista had the same built-in search capability as XP.

 

[SRG01]

:lol, so I thought the 4830 was some kind of lower-tiered card, but it's actually on the same 4800 class! Not bad, not bad.

Would I need a 380W or 430W Earthwatts PSU, if I were to purchase a second card in the future?

 

[Hazaro]

:lol, so I thought the 4830 was some kind of lower-tiered card, but it's actually on the same 4800 class! Not bad, not bad.

Would I need a 380W or 430W Earthwatts PSU, if I were to purchase a second card in the future?

What do you have now? A 380w EA is fine.

Also I think is the best for you right now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130424

9600GT eVGA and just $80 (Free shippin to boot) after a rebate that will come through. Good company.

*That 4830 is one powerful little card though, it doesn't deserve the **30 marking :lol .
If ATi price drops on that thing, that will be crazy.

 

[SRG01]

What do you have now? A 380w EA is fine.

Also I think is the best for you right now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130424

9600GT eVGA and just $80 (Free shippin to boot) after a rebate that will come through. Good company.

*That 4830 is one powerful little card though, it doesn't deserve the **30 marking :lol .
If ATi price drops on that thing, that will be crazy.

Oh, I don't have a system yet. This is the one that I keep waffling about for around a year or more now. :lol

But yeah, I can get the 9600GT for approximately the same CDN price as a Sapphire 4830. I'm also reconsidering Crossfire, since I can just do a single-card solution sometime in the future and not bother with a CF-enabled motherboard and a larger PSU.

The PSU that also jumped out at me is the Sparkle 400W. Less efficient, but puts out one more amp on the 12 rail compared to the Earthwatts 430W, surprisingly.

 

[Esperado]

I dunno about paying 80 for a 9600 when you can get a 9800 for like 100.

 

[SRG01]

I dunno about paying 80 for a 9600 when you can get a 9800 for like 100.

Are we talking about the 9800GT or GTX here?

 

[Esperado]

GT. 4830 looks to be the choice.

 

[DeadTrees]

Yep, and I've used Cygwin and heard of Windows Services for Unix (is that a Vista Ultimate only thing?).

Bleh, you're right--the downloadable version doesn't support Vista at all.

 

[Sanjay]

Anti-aliasing, which is better? MSAA or CSAA.

 

[CAVE343]

As posted in the pick-up thread:

New PC, my first self build one. Had it for 2 months now but didn't post it yet.

As you can see I'm not good at hiding the wires, but I'm happy with the results for a first timer.
Fortunately you can't see the inside with this case
Spec:
Asus p182 case
E8400
Asus P5Q
Seagate 1TB
Kingston HyperX DDR2
Ati 4870X2
Corsair TX-650

The case is very good, I think the airflow is great. The fans have 3 adjustable speeds, which can be switched on the back of the case. It's also very easy to remove the side panel.

I haven't clocked anything yet, so far it's running everything to my liking. I'l clocl it when I get a aftermarket cpu cooler. The 4870X2 is quit noisy though, when turning up the fan speed above the 40/50% it gets really annoying. That's the only drawback I can think off (plus the energy bill ;-)

 

[brain_stew]

I have an AGP slot on my motherboard (this things from four years ago) and I'm running an ATI Radeon x800 PRO card. This seems to be the only AGP card that Best Buy carries. The reason I'm interested in getting it from there is the employee discount, it'll hopefully be about half price. Is that worth picking up? Anything should be better than what I have, right?

Not worth the upgrade. Anything above and beyond your current card will be bottlenecked anyway. Just put the money towards a new system.

Anti-aliasing, which is better? MSAA or CSAA.

MSAA but CSAA can be very efficient. If you can tell a difference above 4xAA then 16xCSAA offers similar (arguably better) antialiasing to 8xMSAA but with a lower performance penalty. Personally I've never seen a real need to go above 4xAA so I just stay there, making sure transparency AA is turned on, will give a much bigger IQ boost, and should be turned on before thinking about any higher FSAA modes imo.

 

[Hazaro]

I dunno about paying 80 for a 9600 when you can get a 9800 for like 100.

Same thing. Save $20. He's running low res so it doesn't matter anyway.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I'm still debating on what video card I should pick up.

I'm considering getting either a HD 4870 512MB or a GTX 260 896MB. Has anyone here had any experience with both cards? Is there much of a difference in performance between the two? How are the drivers on the two cards? I have heard stories about problems with ATI drivers.

I have two LCDs right now, one of them is a 1280x768 display and the other is a 1900x1200 display. I will probably be playing PC games on the 1280x768 display because I doubt I will be able to get really good performance with my intended setup on extremely high resolutions.


Here is the setup I am planning on getting:

Motherboard: Intel DG43NB
Processor: Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz)
Memory: PC2-6400 / DDR2-800 2GB x 2 (4GB Total)
Video Card: Sapphire 11133-03-204 Radeon HD 4870 512MB PCI-Express 16 (2.0)
Hard Drive: Western Digital SATA 500GB
Optical Media: DVR-216D DVD RW/R Drive
Case: AC500-030 [ATX Case / 500W]
Operating System: Vista Ultimate SP1 64 Bit OEM

The total comes to around 110,000 Yen (which is something like 1000 USD or less right now). I have a copy of XP Professional (32 Bit) at home, but I like Vista and want to upgrade to it. If I drop Vista the price drops around $250 or so. Are there any problems with using the 64 Bit version of Vista?

Also, how are the new Intel Core i7 CPUs? I was thinking about going all out (spending around $1500 or so) and getting a new LGA1366 Motherboard with a i7 920 CPU and 6GB of DDR3 RAM. Would I be bottlenecking myself with the Radeon HD 4870 if I went for the new i7 processor and DDR3 Ram? On games like Farcry 2, Crysis and other high end games that are currently on sale, do you think I would notice much of a difference if I just changed my motherboard / processor and RAM?

Sorry for all of the questions, but any help and advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Also, is a 500W power supply going to be enough for the setup I listed in the above post? What about if I decide to go with the Intel Core i7?

 

[Sanjay]

Whats your PSU budget?

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Whats your PSU budget?

I don't really have a set budget for anything. I'm just trying to find the best performance I can for a low price, so I am definitely looking for cheap stuff as long as it isn't really poor in quality / performance.

 

[Hazaro]

I have two LCDs right now, one of them is a 1280x768 display and the other is a 1900x1200 display. I will probably be playing PC games on the 1280x768 display because I doubt I will be able to get really good performance with my intended setup on extremely high resolutions.

You'd be surprised. I'm also sure that even scaled would look better on the 1920x display since it's probably a much better monitor. I wouldn't worry about it.


Here is the setup I am planning on getting:

Motherboard: Intel DG43NB - Probably won't OC well, but Intel makes solid boards.
Processor: Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz) - E8400 is cheaper, that 160Mhz is going to do nothing
Memory: PC2-6400 / DDR2-800 2GB x 2 (4GB Total)
Video Card: Sapphire 11133-03-204 Radeon HD 4870 512MB PCI-Express 16 (2.0)
Hard Drive: Western Digital SATA 500GB The 640GB version is faster and only a tiny bit more expensive
Optical Media: DVR-216D DVD RW/R Drive
Case: AC500-030 [ATX Case / 500W] - Just get a good brand of PSU (Corsair, Sparkle, EarthWatts
Operating System: Vista Ultimate SP1 64 Bit OEM

On games like Farcry 2, Crysis and other high end games that are currently on sale, do you think I would notice much of a difference if I just changed my motherboard / processor and RAM? - None at all

I'd personally go for a cheap GTX 260 as I like having the extra memory. Both cards are very close in performance and price. At 1920x1200 it is good to have since AA eats up a lot. I know the RAM on the 4870 is no slouch, but still...

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I'd personally go for a cheap GTX 260 as I like having the extra memory. Both cards are very close in performance and price. At 1920x1200 it is good to have since AA eats up a lot. I know the RAM on the 4870 is no slouch, but still...

Thanks for the suggestions!

So the only benefit of going with the Intel Core i7 processors would be to semi-future proof one's PC for games and applications that will support more than 2 cores? I'll probably just pass on it for now if that is the case considering the price difference.

I was going to go for an E8400, but the price difference is only around $10, so even if I won't notice the 160MHz much at all, I figure I may as well go for it. I don't plan on doing any overclocking either.

I'll see if I can find that 640GB Hard Drive, too and I'll make sure I pick up a good PSU.

I'm still not sure what I should do about the video card. On paper it looks like the 4870 outclasses the GTX 260 in almost every way (other than the amount of memory), but there is still a lot of debate going on abotu which card is better. I might just go with a 260 so I don't have to worry about driver support... but if anyone has had experience with both cards, please post your opinions!

Also, is there any reason to go for the 32 Bit version of Vista instead of the 64 Bit version?

 

[Hazaro]

So the only benefit of going with the Intel Core i7 processors would be to semi-future proof one's PC for games and applications that will support more than 2 cores?

Only if you have $500 in graphics cards.

I was going to go for an E8400, but the price difference is only around $10.

If you are shopping retail find one with the code marked "SLBJ9" This indicates the new E0 stepping. Both E8400 and E8500 recent shipments have this.

I'll see if I can find that 640GB Hard Drive, too and I'll make sure I pick up a good PSU.

Also, is there any reason to go for the 32 Bit version of Vista instead of the 64 Bit version? - Nope, 64bit is the reason you should be Vista to get that Supercache usage of 4GB

After going over about 5 sites, the 4870 does edge on top, the memory bandwidth of GDDR5 does infact override the 512MB it has. Go with whichever one you fancy.

I've personally only used nVidia for the past 19 months, save for a week of using a 3870x2. At school I run Source on a 1950xt. In both cases I've never had any problems with either, but you always see stuff pop-up in threads about driver stuff.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Thanks again for the help. I'll probably end up getting a 4870 and Vista 64.

Is Arctic Silver 5 still some of the best thermal paste out there?

 

[Deleted member 17706]

What about sound cards? I just have two decent desktop speakers so its not like I have some surround sound setup going on, but is it worth it to get a dedicated sound card or is it generally sufficient to just use the motherboard's onboard sound?

 

[rc213]

GPU Transcoding Throwdown: Elemental's Badaboom vs. AMD's Avivo Video Converter

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3475&p=1


Damn, Some really nice improvements to the Badaboom app. Just my luck that my Ram goes belly up. =(

 

[IronicallyTwisted]

Thanks again for the help. I'll probably end up getting a 4870 and Vista 64.

Is Arctic Silver 5 still some of the best thermal paste out there?

Arctic Silver is indeed very good, but its has metal in it which can lead to problems if you use too much. MX-2 is just as good and is metal free.

What about sound cards? I just have two decent desktop speakers so its not like I have some surround sound setup going on, but is it worth it to get a dedicated sound card or is it generally sufficient to just use the motherboard's onboard sound?

Depends on your speakers. Good motherboards have good enough audio capabilities, but if you have high end speakers you might want one. Just get a good motherboard, from what you are describing you won't need a sound card.

Thanks for the suggestions!

So the only benefit of going with the Intel Core i7 processors would be to semi-future proof one's PC for games and applications that will support more than 2 cores? I'll probably just pass on it for now if that is the case considering the price difference.

I was going to go for an E8400, but the price difference is only around $10, so even if I won't notice the 160MHz much at all, I figure I may as well go for it. I don't plan on doing any overclocking either.

I'll see if I can find that 640GB Hard Drive, too and I'll make sure I pick up a good PSU.

I'm still not sure what I should do about the video card. On paper it looks like the 4870 outclasses the GTX 260 in almost every way (other than the amount of memory), but there is still a lot of debate going on abotu which card is better. I might just go with a 260 so I don't have to worry about driver support... but if anyone has had experience with both cards, please post your opinions!

Also, is there any reason to go for the 32 Bit version of Vista instead of the 64 Bit version?

If you aren't overclocking it won't make a difference which one you pick, but the E8500 is a better overclocker. Also note that if you are interested in overclocking a Q6600 clocked to 3.0 ghz has 1.5x the processing power of an E8400. The dual cores are a good choice if you want to stick to stock speeds, but then why are you worried about thermal paste?

Get 64 bit vista, theres no reason to use 32 bit.

As for the GPU's they are much the same. I'd get a 260 Core 216, but thats just me. Keep in mind Nvidia has superior drivers in Linux and superior drivers generally.

Also, is a 500W power supply going to be enough for the setup I listed in the above post? What about if I decide to go with the Intel Core i7?

Yes. More than enough. Get a Seasonic or Antec (a lot of Antecs are rebranded Seasonics).

 

[Hazaro]

Thanks again for the help. I'll probably end up getting a 4870 and Vista 64.

Is Arctic Silver 5 still some of the best thermal paste out there?

Difference between it and top paste is about 2-3C tops. My favorite is ICD7 if you can get some. Better heat transfer (2-3C better than AS5), non-conductive/capacitive, plus it MADE OF DIAMONDS. Oh it can polish stuff too. It's the best paste, second only to some mercury stuff that can kill you and comes in a medical syringe. :lol
*Ceramique and MX-1/2 are great as well.

What about sound cards? I just have two decent desktop speakers so its not like I have some surround sound setup going on, but is it worth it to get a dedicated sound card or is it generally sufficient to just use the motherboard's onboard sound?

Onboard is generally fine, although a soundcard of almost any variety will be better. It really depends on you though, since it's not necessary I'd suggest hooking everything up and seeing if you need it.
For desktop speakers you are probably fine without one. I have a AV-710 myself. It's a trooper.

GPU Transcoding Throwdown: Elemental's Badaboom vs. AMD's Avivo Video Converter

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3475&p=1

Anandtech article . I'll read it later, it's only 8 pages though :lol

 

[SapientWolf]

What about sound cards? I just have two decent desktop speakers so its not like I have some surround sound setup going on, but is it worth it to get a dedicated sound card or is it generally sufficient to just use the motherboard's onboard sound?

It's hit or miss, depending on the mobo. But most of the time you'll be fine with onboard. Just make sure you test it out before you drop the cash on a soundcard you may not need. I've found that the biggest difference between onboard and dedicated sound isn't what, but where. Dedicated wins for positional surround sound.

 

[The On Timers]

I'm so new to this. I don't know if I want to build a PC or not, but I was thinking about getting a pre-built and then buying a few simple add-ons like a wireless card and a few more GB of ram. (newegg sells 1gb for $10)

Basically I'm on a strict budget of about 500-800 bucks.

I'm looking for a PC that will be able to handle high task programs (i.e. adobe production premium)

The things I think I need/want are as follows:

Core 2 quad
2.4 ghz and up processor

320-500 GB HD

Vista Premium

Flat Panel Monitor

good video card

upgradeable to at least 6+ GB ram

That's about as much as I know. I found a computer but I think it has a poor video card What should I do? Is this good? Neogaf, I need your help!

 

[Hazaro]

Toss in a 3850/3870/4830(Check the power draw on this one) or 8800GT/9800GT/9600GT. and you'll be set. Dell PSU are pretty good and rated up to 8800GT. (Should fine with a Quad)
The 3100 is onboard and won't play anything.

 

[bee]

well i couldn't justify the cost of core i7, so i bought a q9550, gigabyte ep45-ud3r and a true black cooler. the cpu was one of the biggest pc bargains i've ever bought, a brand new retail sealed Q9550 E0 for £160 ($250) delivered

haven't bothered clocking it yet or even adjusted memory timing etc but 2 games have already received a huge boost, far cry 2 and gta 4. going from a e6600@3.6 to a q9550 @2.83 gained about 14fps (34avg - 48) in far cry 2 (1080p,4xaa,dx10,ultra) and gta 4 which i just bought a day before my upgrade i actually get double the fps in places, i would go as far as to say that game actually requires a quad core, night and day difference, averaging around 45fps @ 1080p (in game not the shitty benchmark), medium textures, highest renderer etc. having a lot of fun online with that, has it got dedicated servers? cos the 32 player games are lag free

whilst i was building it i actually found my receipt for my e6600, bought it in july 2006 so it lasted pretty damn well

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Well I went out last night and purchased all of the parts... or so I thought. When I got home I noticed the 640GB Western Digital hard drive that I asked for at the register was not in my bags. Upon checking my receipt I discovered that the clerk didn't even ring it up! Oh well, it was my fault for not checking that everything was there before leaving the store. I'll have to go back later tonight and pick up the hard drive.

This is what I ended up getting:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P [LGA775/Intel P45/ATX]
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 E0
Memory: 4GB (2GB x 2) DDR2 800 RAM from some generic brand called "UMAX".
Video Card: Radeon HD 4870 512MB (750Mhz clock speed, 3.6Ghz RAM clock speed)
Optical Drive: Some crazy cheap LG drive that can write Blu-Ray / DVD / CD and read Blu-Ray/ HD-DVD / DVD / CD.
Case: A reasonably priced case from a maker called "AQTIS". It came with a 500W PSU.
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit DSP

The motherboard was a tad more expensive than I wanted to pay (it was around $150), but the "Ultra Cool -50C" line and the dual bios convinced me to go with it. Here is the webpage for the board: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2919
It looks like it has a ton of cool features that I will probably never use!

I will be picking up the 640GB Western Digital drive later tonight. I also saw it mentioned a few times that I shouldn't skimp on the power supply and get a good one. I have always been using budget power supplies and haven't really had too many problems. What is the benefit to getting a brandname PSU (Corsair, EarthWatts, Antec, etc...) over a generic one? I want to know what makes the price difference so huge.

Also, I went ahead and put everything together last night even though I didn't have my hard drive, and thankfully my system POSTed on the first attempt so I went in to check on the BIOS settings. I noticed a few things that cause me some concern. First was that my CPU's clock speed was listed at 2.88Ghz even though I am using an E8500 that should have 3.16Ghz. Also, I went into the temperature monitor screen and my CPU temperature jumped from 30C when I first turned it on to around 38-40C after I left it on for 10 minutes. It seemed to stable out around 38C, but isn't that a little high for when it is idling at the BIOS screen? I am using the stock heatsink and the thermal paste that was already applied to the heatsink when I opened the box (three small strips of paste). I screwed up on attaching the heatsink the first time so I took it off once and reattached it. One of the bolts still didn't give me the "clicking" sound, but it seems firmly attached. Should I take off the heatsink, remove the current paste and apply some Arctic Silver 5 or some other thermal paste and then reattach the heatsink, or is a 38C when idle at the BIOS screen not something I should worry about too much? I'm not too sure on what kind of temperatures the E8500s run at normally.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any help, information and suggestions!