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Official 2008 "I Need A New PC" Thread

E

Epix

Member
aznpxdd said:
If you plan to play modern games at 3007WFP's native resolution, you're gonna need SLI.
Click to expand...
mr stroke said:
go to a 24' monitor and upgrade the video card. As said above, you wont be able to even use that monitor to its full potential with that card(for anything new or coming out in the near future)
Click to expand...
As far as gaming I'm really only interested in Source games and Starcraft 2. I mostly use the PC for digital photography processing. Anyway, the 8800GTS 512 seems to get decent numbers at 2560x1600 for HL2 (60fps average).
 
D

Davidion

Member
eznark said:
Thanks, I'll check it out. How big is that, and how big is your case?
Click to expand...

Massive, five and a half inches and change tall. You'll definitely need a full tower for it. I forgot what you have.
 
S

SIP YEK NOD

Banned
Mr. Hyde said:
Tuniq Tower 120 P4 & K8 CPU Cooler
$49.99


Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$119.99

I chose that case due to it going underneath my desk, plus I like the airflow and button placement (even though I hear it's annoying installing everything in this case)
Click to expand...

If that is your final config, you are going to have to mount your motherboard before you put the power supply in. I just built a rig with the same case/cooler, and it barely barely barely barely barely fits under the top rail of the case.


computer.jpg


Just built.

CPU: Intel C2Q 9300 2.5ghz, 6MB L2 cache(currently running a stable 2.8 on stock voltage :eek:)
MOBO: eVGA Nforce 780i
Memory: 8 gigs Patriot PC2-6400 (currently running at 900mhz)
Video: XFX Geforce 9800GTX 512mb
HDD: Seagate 7200.11 1tb(plus 6 HDs out of last computer totalling 3Tb, eventually replacing the 250 giggers with a single Tb drive)
PSU: Antec Truepower 1000watt
Case: Antec nine hundred gamers case.(fanalicious)
Cpu cooler: Tuniq tower 120
 
M

Mr. Hyde

Member
I went with the Lian Li Ao5b instead of the antec. I will be mounting the tuniq first. Thanks for the heads up, though.
 
A

aznpxdd

Member
If you're going to spend $60+ on a heatsink...there's nothing better than TRUE, though you do have to buy a fan yourself.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109125&Tpk=thermalright+extreme

Oh and Hyde, if you are interested, there is a HUGE thread on the PC-A05B at [H]ardforum you can look through.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1133290

BTW, remember to mount the Tuniq first before installing the mobo into the case, its near impossible to do it the other way since Tuniq is so massive. And be sure to plug in the 4 pin motherboard power on DS3L before installing the Tuniq...I learned it the hard way.
 
V

VictimOfGrief

Banned
Kintaro said:
So which is the better card to go with? Ugh, building this stuff is so fun and confusing. =(
Click to expand...
Kint ~ "It Depends" is usually the answer I give people at work all day and it depends when building a system for yourself.

For me, the 9600GT is a better value to me since the drivers are getting to be as good if not better than stock 8800GT numbers for less money.
There's always a bell curve in when one card (usually the newer) surpasses the older card even if the stream processors are less.

Also, one thing worth of note is the 8800 series is going to be surpassed (just with drivers) by mid summer by the 9XXX series plus the 9600GT is a great for someone with a budget that is sub $200 bucks for a graphics card.

The reason I bought it was the factory OC, warranty and price. Most of the benchmarks (and they are just that... benchmarks) show a difference of 10-15 FPS. Realworld--- Having seen the 8800GT and 8800GTS in action, I'd say my 9600GT hangs with them as I'm playing all the games I own on the highest settings without any hiccups in performance.
 
K

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
VictimOfGrief said:
Kint ~ "It Depends" is usually the answer I give people at work all day and it depends when building a system for yourself.

For me, the 9600GT is a better value to me since the drivers are getting to be as good if not better than stock 8800GT numbers for less money.
There's always a bell curve in when one card (usually the newer) surpasses the older card even if the stream processors are less.

Also, one thing worth of note is the 8800 series is going to be surpassed (just with drivers) by mid summer by the 9XXX series plus the 9600GT is a great for someone with a budget that is sub $200 bucks for a graphics card.

The reason I bought it was the factory OC, warranty and price. Most of the benchmarks (and they are just that... benchmarks) show a difference of 10-15 FPS. Realworld--- Having seen the 8800GT and 8800GTS in action, I'd say my 9600GT hangs with them as I'm playing all the games I own on the highest settings without any hiccups in performance.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm looking to try out Crysis, Company of Heroes, Sins of the Solar Empire and others when I upgrade. Will I be able to play these games at good resolutions with a 9600 GT with perdy effects on? I think the max this monitor does is 1680 x 1050 (native res I think). If I can play these games and my older games (Bioshock, Orange Box) and save some scratch, this may be the choice for me.
 
E

eznark

Banned
I'm doing some googling and came across the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro. Good reviews at newegg, inexpensive, and has the same 4 post mounting method as the Inel stock cooler.

Anyone know anything about it?
 
V

VictimOfGrief

Banned
Kintaro said:
Well, I'm looking to try out Crysis, Company of Heroes, Sins of the Solar Empire and others when I upgrade. Will I be able to play these games at good resolutions with a 9600 GT with perdy effects on? I think the max this monitor does is 1680 x 1050 (native res I think). If I can play these games and my older games (Bioshock, Orange Box) and save some scratch, this may be the choice for me.
Click to expand...

Orange Box looks AWESOME with this card. Haven't gotten Bioshock yet (played it on my 360) but from what I hear it looks awesome maxed on the card.

I would say that CoH and Sins along with Crysis will do quite nicely. I would expect this card to last me a good 18-24 months before I upgrade to a DX11 card whenever that might be. :D
 
L

lastendconductor

Put your snobby liquids into my mouth!
Hey guys! I've been told to build a PC for my brother. Its main purpose would be digital design, tablet drawing and that kind of shit. I'm completely out of the loop now, so what would be a nice box for that?

PS: Budget =~ 400$
 
K

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
VictimOfGrief said:
Orange Box looks AWESOME with this card. Haven't gotten Bioshock yet (played it on my 360) but from what I hear it looks awesome maxed on the card.

I would say that CoH and Sins along with Crysis will do quite nicely. I would expect this card to last me a good 18-24 months before I upgrade to a DX11 card whenever that might be. :D
Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130334

This card sticks out to me for $149. Is there another 9600 card worth a look?
 
V

VictimOfGrief

Banned
Kintaro said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130334

This card sticks out to me for $149. Is there another 9600 card worth a look?
Click to expand...

That's not a bad price for that eVGA card. I had my 6800GT through eVGA and it stood up quite well.

I looked primarily at the clock speed and memory speed. The eVGA is a lower core clock and memory clock. Now some don't care about that--- I just took into consideration double-lifetime warranty, factory overclocked, Call of Duty 4. To me, those are features I like about the card and don't mind spending $40 bucks more up front for.
 
C

Cheeto

Member
DKnight said:
Hey guys! I've been told to build a PC for my brother. Its main purpose would be digital design, tablet drawing and that kind of shit. I'm completely out of the loop now, so what would be a nice box for that?

PS: Budget =~ 400$
Click to expand...
Kosma's $400 Crysis box.
 
K

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
VictimOfGrief said:
That's not a bad price for that eVGA card. I had my 6800GT through eVGA and it stood up quite well.

I looked primarily at the clock speed and memory speed. The eVGA is a lower core clock and memory clock. Now some don't care about that--- I just took into consideration double-lifetime warranty, factory overclocked, Call of Duty 4. To me, those are features I like about the card and don't mind spending $40 bucks more up front for.
Click to expand...

Ah, well there's that card and this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130329

700 Mhz Core Clock and 1900 Mhz Memory Clock. $40 more (30 with rebate).
 
V

VictimOfGrief

Banned
There you go then. Some people say it's not worth it to buy a pre-factory overclocked card but I really don't see any harm. I'm not going to be overclocking for a while since I want to make sure the system is nice and stable. :D

EDIT : However for the same price you can get my GPU faster memory clock, CoD4 and a $20 rebate. ;)
 
K

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
VictimOfGrief said:
There you go then. Some people say it's not worth it to buy a pre-factory overclocked card but I really don't see any harm. I'm not going to be overclocking for a while since I want to make sure the system is nice and stable. :D

EDIT : However for the same price you can get my GPU faster memory clock, CoD4 and a $20 rebate. ;)
Click to expand...

Which one is that? I missed the link or the card. =/
 
A

aznpxdd

Member
8800GT/GTS or bust. Probably need an aftermarket cooler for GT though, the reference cooler is crap.

Oh yeah, if anyone here just built a new rig and doesn't have HL2/Ep 1, PM me your steam account and I'll gift one to you over Steam.
 
S

Sandman7

Member
OK GAF, laptop's graphics card has died and will cost about £400 to repair according to people who have the same problems my particular brand of laptop does so I was thinking of going for a desktop (at least if a desktop component goes bust, I can salvage something).

Anyway the death of my graphics card means I have to type this on a 4-bit colour screen - is there any way I can fix this - some magical software solution, maybe?

Back to building a PC - I am looking at buying a 1920x1200 monitor so I can connect my PS3 to it so I basically need a desktop powerful enough to run at that resolution - but not powerful enough to run games (since I am not a PC gamer). What sort of processor, motherboard, graphics card and RAM should I be looking at? Upgradability is also important because I don't want to be stuck with a motherboard incompatible with upcoming stuff.

Also, in the UK, where is the best place to buy custom PC's? Online? Tottenham Court Road?
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Hi, I am getting a score of 13236 on 3DMark, 06, is that good, bad or normal for today's games?

Also, these are my temperatures,

53* C at 0% load for GPU.
43* C at at only a couple browsers for CPU
32* C for the Mobo. Are these ok? Should I be worrying about my system overheating, help me plz, I am a noob when it comes to temperatures.

are they ok?


BTW I couldn't resist, I got Crysis, but I wont play it until tomorrow.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
SIP YEK NOD said:
computer.jpg


Just built.
Click to expand...

Thats my case, but my cable management skills let me down and it looks way more messy. also my GPU is bigger, so that doesn't help either.

Plz guys help, I am a total noob with this matters, I am just good with software.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
I might be getting annoying for bumping this thread ever freaking time, but I have the same question about CPU temperatures. I have a temp monitor and it shows me that my CPU temp during 3D mark went up to 45* C, and it started making a beeping sound and told me it wasnt safe. Is 45*C that bad for the CPU?
 
Z

zoku88

Member
godhandiscen said:
I might be getting annoying for bumping this thread ever freaking time, but I have the same question about CPU temperatures. I have a temp monitor and it shows me that my CPU temp during 3D mark went up to 45* C, and it started making a beeping sound and told me it wasnt safe. Is 45*C that bad for the CPU?
Click to expand...
That's not even close to bad....
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
SRG01 said:
Either a) your temp sensor is broken or b) some other thing is happening.

Is your heat sink warm?
Click to expand...
It didnt seem to be bad at all. I ran AMD overdrive and according to it, my system was stable was stable at those settings so I guess my temp sensor just overreacted because all my cores were being used at 100% while the stability test in AMD overdrive was being run.
 
A

Archon

Member
OK, I've been studying this thread since it's inception as I've been planning on getting new twin PCs for my wife and I. I think I know what I want for just about everything but the video cards are still a big ? to me--specifically if we plan on staying with XP will I ever get the most out of the shiny new 9600GT cards? Or should I just give up and go with the 8800GT? We're not huge PC gamers (no Crysis love here, sorry), but I dont' want to screw myself over with a card that really won't work too well on ol' XP.

I'm eventually willing to move up to Vista once a "Must Have Game" arrives that requires it. Right now I just want to be able to play Supreme Commander, C&C 3, and, ah...WoW at blazing speeds. If StarCraft 2 arrives and demands Vista, consider me upgraded.
 
M

Mr. Hyde

Member
All the parts for my PC are on there way! I'm excited that the choosing part is done, but now I keep getting ideas on how to mod my case for the best ventilation. I'm only going to have one hard drive inside it so I might remove the hard drive cage in my case (the Lian Li Ao5b) and maybe design one blow hole on top for a fan. That mostly depends on how hot my video card gets while stressing it.

I'm anxious.
 
A

aznpxdd

Member
Don't remove the HD cage, the way Lian Li designed it is ingenious. You slide in the HD's using rubber feet to kill all vibration and noise from the HD.
 
S

Slo

Member
godhandiscen said:
I might be getting annoying for bumping this thread ever freaking time, but I have the same question about CPU temperatures. I have a temp monitor and it shows me that my CPU temp during 3D mark went up to 45* C, and it started making a beeping sound and told me it wasnt safe. Is 45*C that bad for the CPU?
Click to expand...

Change the bounds on your temp monitor.
 
M

Mr. Hyde

Member
aznpxdd said:
Don't remove the HD cage, the way Lian Li designed it is ingenious. You slide in the HD's using rubber feet to kill all vibration and noise from the HD.
Click to expand...

Oh alright. Should I replace the two stock fans with yate loons? Or are people on hardforum just addicted to modding every little detail?
 
V

VictimOfGrief

Banned
Mr. Hyde said:
Oh alright. Should I replace the two stock fans with yate loons? Or are people on hardforum just addicted to modding every little detail?
Click to expand...
I've had no issues with my Lian-Li stock case fans and I've owned the case now for 5+ yrs. The [H] forums are full of people obsessed with modding everything including the power button I bet. :lol
 
B

bigmakstudios

Banned
bigmakstudios said:
I can't at the moment, since this computer isn't really plugged in or connected to the internet. It's really just a standard configuration though, as far as I know. This is the information I got from entering its serial number at dell.com:

0 4X388 INSTRUCTION..., PREP-MTL, DEVIATION..., DIMENSION..., INCREASE..., NUMBER...
1 C1431 PROCESSOR..., 80532, 2.8G, 512K, 533, SOCKET N..., DECISION ONE...
1 4N454 KEYBOARD..., 104, UNITED STATES..., NMB..., LOW COST..., MIDNIGHT GRAY...
1 F2854 KIT..., MOUSE..., PERSONAL SYSTEM 2..., 2BTN, WHEEL..., PRIMAX ELECTRONICS LTD...
1 X0956 PRINTER/PRINTER ACCESSORIES..., CABLE..., USBD4B-10, LIGHT..., BLACK...
1 F0598 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE..., 256, 333M, 32X64, 8K, 184
1 F5463 COMPACT DISK DRIVE..., 48X, I, 5.25" FORM FACTOR..., SAMSUNG..., SC148A, MIDNIGHT GRAY..., V2
1 D3431 KIT..., SPEAKER..., 120V, NMB..., A215, SHIP IN BOX...
1 C3776 MODEM..., V.92, DATA FAX..., INTERNAL..., PC INTERFACE..., DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION...
1 Y6575 COMPACT DISK READ WRITE..., 48X32, IDE (INTEGRATED DRIVE ELECTRONICS) ..., SAMSUNG..., MIDNIGHT GRAY..., V2
1 P0151 DISPLAY..., CATHODE-RAY TUBE..., 17, DUAL..., E773C, MIDNIGHT GRAY..., DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION...
1 U4700 HARD DRIVE..., 80GB, I, 7.2K, 2MEGB, WD-XL80SD
1 N2999 KIT..., SOFTWARE..., MNY-2K4, STANDARD..., ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MFGR...., ENGLAND/ENGLISH...
1 P2643 KIT..., SOFTWARE..., MSENC-2K4, ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MFGR...., ENGLAND/ENGLISH...
1 M6143 KIT..., SOFTWARE..., WP-PRDCT-STE12, ENGLAND/ENGLISH...
1 R2527 KIT..., SOFTWARE..., OVERPACK..., WXPPSP1A, COMPACT DISKETTE W/DOCUMENTATION..., ENGLAND/ENGLISH...

]It seems like it has a 2.8 GHZ Pentium 4 processor. Other than that, I guess it's 333 MHZ DDR with 256 MB of RAM.
Click to expand...

bigmakstudios said:
I was wondering what I could buy to improve this computer's game playing performance. It just has a standard, integrated graphics card right now.
Click to expand...

.
 
A

aznpxdd

Member
Mr. Hyde said:
Oh alright. Should I replace the two stock fans with yate loons? Or are people on hardforum just addicted to modding every little detail?
Click to expand...

Yup. Reading through that thread really made me want to buy new everything too, but the stock ones are fine.
 
S

SRG01

Member
godhandiscen said:
It didnt seem to be bad at all. I ran AMD overdrive and according to it, my system was stable was stable at those settings so I guess my temp sensor just overreacted because all my cores were being used at 100% while the stability test in AMD overdrive was being run.
Click to expand...

The reason why I'm asking is because your heat sink should be warm. If it's not "warm", then it's not conducting heat.

aznpxdd said:
Yup. Reading through that thread really made me want to buy new everything too, but the stock ones are fine.
Click to expand...

You have no idea how many times [H] almost persuaded me to buy the HP slimline to mod. :lol
 
M

Mr. Hyde

Member
aznpxdd said:
Yup. Reading through that thread really made me want to buy new everything too, but the stock ones are fine.
Click to expand...

Hah! Alright, thanks. I'm still tempted to design a small grill on the top of it, but I'll wait and see how much heat gets stored at the top from my video card. No need to rush into playing doctor before even setting it up.
 
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