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Official 2008 "I Need A New PC" Thread

S

SRG01

Member
avaya said:
Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9650 3.00GHz Quad Core CPU @ 3.66GHz+
EVGA nForce 790 Ultra SLi (Socket LGA775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
4GB PC3-12800 CAS7 (2x2GB) Dual Channel Kit (Overclocked at 1600MHz+)
2x Asus NVIDIA 9800 GTX 512MB
2x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 32MB Cache SATA-2 Hard Drive (Configured in RAID 0)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty 7.1 Champion Series Sound Card - Retail
Enermax Galaxy 1000W Next Generation Power Supply


Crysis at 1920x1200 on this, what framerate on max settings?
Click to expand...

Crysis doesn't like dual GPUs, I thought?
 
A

Antagon

Member
Drkirby said:
Ok, what would you suggest?
Click to expand...

I'd say something like this:

Hanns·G HW-173DBB Black 17" 8ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail

COOLER MASTER Elite RC-330-KKR1 Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply - Retail

SAMSUNG HD250HJ 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

ZOTAC ZT-86TEG2P-FSR GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

LITE-ON Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DH-16D2S-04 - OEM

Transcend 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model JM800QLU-2G - Retail

Open Box: Intel BOXD945GCNL LGA 775 Intel 945GC Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 Allendale 2.4GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E4600 - Retail

Total: $535.92, $520.92 with mail-in rebates.

Tried to build a system that is all-right for general use and should be usefull for some gaming as well. Don't expect to play new or future games at max settings though.
 
C

Cheeto

Member
If you didn't need a monitor you could upgrade the GPU to a 9600GT for an extra $80 or so then that 8600GT for a monster difference.
 
D

DarkAngelYuna

Banned
Oh for fucks sake I hate Newegg. Instead of sending me an open box Q6600 + 8800Gt I boot up the system and its a fucking AMD 64 x2 6400+ with duel 8600GT cards.. I thought I was gonna cry. Now I gotta ship it back for a full refund.. Anyone found any good deals lately for about $800? I really can't build my own right now =\ God damn newegg.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
DarkAngelYuna said:
Oh for fucks sake I hate Newegg. Instead of sending me an open box Q6600 + 8800Gt I boot up the system and its a fucking AMD 64 x2 6400+ with duel 8600GT cards.. I thought I was gonna cry. Now I gotta ship it back for a full refund.. Anyone found any good deals lately for about $800? I really can't build my own right now =\ God damn newegg.
Click to expand...
Dude, whats the problem with building your own? If you really really need it, I volunteer to help you. Just have another person installing the parts in the proper order and send me pics of how it looks every step of the way. It will take hours but I will be patient. Building my system was uber hard, I am pretty sure that I can help you build your system as long as we make sure that the mobo manuals are online.
 
B

brain_stew

Member
Epix said:
Okay, bought a X38 motherboard and just found out that X38 doesn't support nVidia SLI. Should I sell the motherboard in favor of an SLI supported one, or is SLI overrated and with a strong GPU (I bought the 8800GTS 512 OC) I'd be better served by keeping the new X38 chipset?
Click to expand...

Only go SLI if you've got plenty money to burn, the performance to price ratio is very poor. Then you've got to take into consideration the heat and power requirements and the fact that very soon a single card will probably outperform them. Oh, and the drivers can be a nightmare, remember SLI only works if Nvidia spends time to optimise their drivers for your favourite game. Crysis is the only thing that will test that card at th moment on resolutions of 1680x1050 and lower and even then you should get a smooth framerate with high settings.

At stock my 8800GT will run Unreal Tournament 3 at a constant 60FPS with 8xcsaa and 16xaf at 1360x768, the GTS is even more powerful than that. Oh, and Nvidia chipsets are not a patch on Intel's latest.


Antagon said:
I'd say something like this:

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 Allendale 2.4GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E4600 - Retail

Tried to build a system that is all-right for general use and should be usefull for some gaming as well. Don't expect to play new or future games at max settings though.
Click to expand...

Save yourself $50 on the processor and pick up an E2180. They're known for being excellent clockers and the 1MB less cache only makes a minute difference in the real world. I just put together my first ever build yesterday and my E2180 clocked to 3ghz easily and that's at stock volts and low temperatures. I could push the thing a lot more if I wanted to but a 3ghz Core Duo based CPU will handle anything its given just fine.

That $50 should be enough to get a proper graphics solution, an 3850 or 9600GT would be a good budget bet.
 
D

DarkAngelYuna

Banned
godhandiscen said:
Dude, whats the problem with building your own? If you really really need it, I volunteer to help you. Just have another person installing the parts in the proper order and send me pics of how it looks every step of the way. It will take hours but I will be patient. Building my system was uber hard, I am pretty sure that I can help you build your system as long as we make sure that the mobo manuals are online.
Click to expand...
I just can't be bothered to do it right now because of my crohns disease and other issues people wouldn't understand.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
DarkAngelYuna said:
I just can't be bothered to do it right now because of my crohns disease and other issues people wouldn't understand.
Click to expand...
You could also try dell. If you are willing to hunt for coupons in forums, you could get lucky and get some sick deals.
brain_stew said:
No friends who could do it for a few bucks and a beer?
Click to expand...
Thats what I was suggesting at the beggining.
 
E

eznark

Banned
I'm having a ton of trouble getting my xbox 360 wireless head set to work with the PC adapter I picked up yesterday. When it is plugged in, I can get audio through the headset but not the speakers. When i'm just on the desktop I can get voice. However, when I am in TF2 voice does not work.

Any clue?
 
Korranator

Korranator

Member
Just built a new Vista system myself. Only problem I'm having is my X-FI Extreme Music card doesn't work with Vista even with Creative Lab's newest Vista drivers. Any recommendations on a good Vista Certified sound card? Right now I just running onboard sound off my EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775, which is actually doing a good job so far.
 
D

DaCocoBrova

Finally bought a new PSP, but then pushed the demon onto someone else. Jesus.
This thread should be stickied.

Here's the deal. I need a link to a barebones PC. My Dell is cool w/ the 8800GT and all that, but my CPU is a bottleneck and I have no upgrade options as-is.

So I need a nice, sub $400 package that has the following:

* Best Dual or Quad core CPU along w/ the best motherboard (SLI-able)
*Quiet exhaust/heatsink
* Great PSU to power it all.

Everything else I can cannibalize from my existing setup.

Any recommendations?
 
M

momolicious

Member
Just bought a Antec true power 650watt power supply. I dont really understand how power supplies work, does it output 650w constantly? or is it just available if needed, because if so, 500w would be more power saving.
 
Z

zoku88

Member
Korranator said:
Just built a new Vista system myself. Only problem I'm having is my X-FI Extreme Music card doesn't work with Vista even with Creative Lab's newest Vista drivers. Any recommendations on a good Vista Certified sound card? Right now I just running onboard sound off my EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775, which is actually doing a good job so far.
Click to expand...
Any option to just not get a soundcard?
 
S

sutom

Member
Just wanted an opinion as I don't keep up with hardware that much - I've read Ati/Nvidia are possibly releasing new GPUs in a month or two. If I was planning an upgrade soon to say, an 8800 GT(S), is it worth waiting for the new ones and a pricedrop for the mid-range cards, or will it take a while for prices to settle?

I know there's never the perfect time to upgrade, but my system is pretty old (A64 3200+, 1GB DDR, x800XL)! I'm in the UK btw, if that makes a difference.
 
GHG

GHG

Member
I also want to know that. More specifically... anyone know when the ATI 4800 series will be coming out? Is it in the next month or so?
 
bee

bee

Member
semifinalist said:
Just wanted an opinion as I don't keep up with hardware that much - I've read Ati/Nvidia are possibly releasing new GPUs in a month or two. If I was planning an upgrade soon to say, an 8800 GT(S), is it worth waiting for the new ones and a pricedrop for the mid-range cards, or will it take a while for prices to settle?

I know there's never the perfect time to upgrade, but my system is pretty old (A64 3200+, 1GB DDR, x800XL)! I'm in the UK btw, if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...

an a64 3200 is gonna be a huge bottleneck on even a 8800gt so there's no point in waiting for the new cards, probably best going with a 3850

4800 cards are supposed to be out in june probably towards the month i guess, your more likely to actually be able to buy one in july though
 
S

sutom

Member
bee said:
an a64 3200 is gonna be a huge bottleneck on even a 8800gt so there's no point in waiting for the new cards, probably best going with a 3850
Click to expand...
Ah well I meant upgrading the GPU along with everything else, probably a C2D E8400, 4GB DDR2, 8800GT, Vista64 etc. As I heard about the new cards coming I wondered if it's best to wait for prices to drop, but if that will only happen by July or so maybe waiting won't bring much difference. My budget isn't huge so I'm not bothered about bleeding edge. Thanks!
 
GHG

GHG

Member
·feist· said:
Why?????????
If only I had been home to have seen this.

Please tell me "no longer" is just another way to say "just for now".


Yes.
Click to expand...

The console diehards would cry though. Has anyone seen the Gears 2 thread? Its a clusterfuck. Didn't even bother posting how good I thought it looked because of the war going on in there.
 
S

SRG01

Member
DaCocoBrova said:
This thread should be stickied.

Here's the deal. I need a link to a barebones PC. My Dell is cool w/ the 8800GT and all that, but my CPU is a bottleneck and I have no upgrade options as-is.

So I need a nice, sub $400 package that has the following:

* Best Dual or Quad core CPU along w/ the best motherboard (SLI-able)
*Quiet exhaust/heatsink
* Great PSU to power it all.

Everything else I can cannibalize from my existing setup.

Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

You're not going to find a barebones with a SLI-able motherboard, I think. :( The cost of putting together a system with a decent SLI motherboard and good PSU would be over $400 already.

semifinalist said:
Ah well I meant upgrading the GPU along with everything else, probably a C2D E8400, 4GB DDR2, 8800GT, Vista64 etc. As I heard about the new cards coming I wondered if it's best to wait for prices to drop, but if that will only happen by July or so maybe waiting won't bring much difference. My budget isn't huge so I'm not bothered about bleeding edge. Thanks!
Click to expand...

But... that system is bleeding edge. O_O
 
GHG

GHG

Member
I've just seen a 3870 512 gddr3 for cheap (~£25 cheaper than I can get a 9600GT OC for and about the same amount cheaper than a regular gddr4 3870). Is gdd4 that much better than gdd3 or is the difference not enough to notice?

Ahhh... I'm so confused with this GPU malarky. I need to bite the bullet soon or I'll be waiting around and watching forever.
 
A

Antagon

Member
semifinalist said:
Cool. Well it's not the VERY best, surely? :D
As long as it's a big step up from what I currently have it should be great.
Click to expand...

No, but that stuff right now is the best bang for your buck you can get. Other cpus will only make a small difference for gaming (the only real step up is quad core, but not a lot of games support that well.) and unless you go for SLI or x2 cards the difference in speed will be fairly small as well. Hell, I've seen benchmarks where the 8800gt hits 50 fps on average in Bioshock, 1920x1200 res and max settings.
This setup will max out pretty much anything outside of crysis, but even that should run decently at high to very high in dx9.
 
I

IronicallyTwisted

Banned
GHG said:
I've just seen a 3870 512 gddr3 for cheap (~£25 cheaper than I can get a 9600GT OC for and about the same amount cheaper than a regular gddr4 3870). Is gdd4 that much better than gdd3 or is the difference not enough to notice?

Ahhh... I'm so confused with this GPU malarky. I need to bite the bullet soon or I'll be waiting around and watching forever.
Click to expand...

Its really hard to say. Its pretty similar to the DDR2 - DDR3 of the Motherboard world, in that DDR3 is a lot faster than DDR 2, but with higher latency's. The GDD4 card should be the better performer with more memory bandwidth but the difference is probably a few percentiles.
 
I

IronicallyTwisted

Banned
semifinalist said:
Cool. Well it's not the VERY best, surely? :D
As long as it's a big step up from what I currently have it should be great.
Click to expand...

A lot of people around here have massive hard ons for the 8800 GT but the 9800 GTX has something like a 25% performance gain over it and the 9800X2 is much, much better and handling Anti Aliasing and higher resolutions. Is it a good card, hell, an amazing card? Absolutely, but there are plenty of steps up from it.
 
I

IronicallyTwisted

Banned
GHG said:
Ok, I've narrowed it down to 2 cards...

This one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....m=230250378727&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=013

Or this one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....m=130221206465&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=003

Help me decide GAF! (Please only pick one out of those 2 cards, my motherboard in incompatible with the G92 series because nvidia fucked up with VIA chipsets on that line).
Click to expand...

Do you have SLi or Crossfire support? If you have SLi support get the 9600GT, if you have Crossfire support get the 3870. Both cards work very well in pairs which you could buy later down the line.

I'd get the 9600 GT because I prefer Nvidia's driver support though in terms of raw performance they are almost identical, the 3870 is the ever so slightly better performer generally though the 9600GT handles Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering a little better. You could flip and coin and to be honest I doubt any individual could tell the difference between the cards with the naked eye.
 
GHG

GHG

Member
IronicallyTwisted said:
Do you have SLi or Crossfire support? If you have SLi support get the 9600GT, if you have Crossfire support get the 3870. Both cards work very well in pairs which you could buy later down the line.

I'd get the 9600 GT because I prefer Nvidia's driver support though in terms of raw performance they are almost identical, the 3870 is the ever so slightly better performer generally though the 9600GT handles Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering a little better. You could flip and coin and to be honest I doubt any individual could tell the difference between the cards with the naked eye.
Click to expand...

No SLI or Crossfire support, just a single x16 slot on my mobo (the other is the crappy useless 4x PCI-E slot).
 
I

IronicallyTwisted

Banned
GHG said:
No SLI or Crossfire support, just a single x16 slot on my mobo (the other is the crappy useless 4x PCI-E slot).
Click to expand...

Well then i'd follow your wallet and get the cheaper card. The factory overclocked 9600GT's are pretty good though, if you can find one in your price range.
 
GHG

GHG

Member
IronicallyTwisted said:
Well then i'd follow your wallet and get the cheaper card. The factory overclocked 9600GT's are pretty good though, if you can find one in your price range.
Click to expand...

The 9600GT I linked is a factory overclocked one. Its only £5 more expensive than the 3870, but it should outperform it right?
 
I

IronicallyTwisted

Banned
GHG said:
The 9600GT I linked is a factory overclocked one. Its only £5 more expensive than the 3870, but it should outperform it right?
Click to expand...

My bad, yes definitely get the 9600GT then. Its core is overlocked to 720Mhz from the 650Mhz reference which is really significant. Of course you could always just overclock the 3870 but doing stability tests are really annoying and it can be a little scary if you aren't experienced. This way you'll be covered under warranty and all that jazz.
 
GHG

GHG

Member
IronicallyTwisted said:
My bad, yes definitely get the 9600GT then. Its core is overlocked to 720Mhz from the 650Mhz reference which is really significant. Of course you could always just overclock the 3870 but doing stability tests are really annoying and it can be a little scary if you aren't experienced. This way you'll be covered under warranty and all that jazz.
Click to expand...

Thanks. 9600GT it is then. Crysis here I come :D !
 
B

brain_stew

Member
GHG said:
Ok, I've narrowed it down to 2 cards...

This one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....m=230250378727&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=013

Or this one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....m=130221206465&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=003

Help me decide GAF! (Please only pick one out of those 2 cards, my motherboard in incompatible with the G92 series because nvidia fucked up with VIA chipsets on that line).
Click to expand...

Neither. You can get an 8800GT for that sort of money.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135258

For example.

Edit: Its incompatible? I guess that's an PCIe 2.0 problem right? If the 8800GT doesn't work, I doubt the 9600GT (which is based on the same architecture) would. Either way, don't pay those sorts of prices, you shouldn't be paying more than £100 for an 9600GT.
 
GHG

GHG

Member
brain_stew said:
Neither. You can get an 8800GT for that sort of money.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135258

For example.

Edit: Its incompatible? I guess that's an PCIe 2.0 problem right? If the 8800GT doesn't work, I doubt the 9600GT (which is based on the same architecture) would. Either way, don't pay those sorts of prices, you shouldn't be paying more than £100 for an 9600GT.
Click to expand...

No the 9600GT works. Its nothing to do with PCI-E 2.0 since its backwards compatible. As I said, its just that its incompatible with VIA chipsets because Nvidia fucked up during testing and forgot to make the chips work on VIA motherboards. Its all been fixed with the G94 though.
 
C

commissar

Member
momolicious said:
Just bought a Antec true power 650watt power supply. I dont really understand how power supplies work, does it output 650w constantly? or is it just available if needed, because if so, 500w would be more power saving.
Click to expand...
It'll only draw what you actually use.
The thing to look for is efficiency though, because you want as little power wasted as heat as possible.
 
B

brain_stew

Member
Epix said:
(X38 + 8800GTS 512) vs (P35 + 2x8800gt 512 SLI)? Which one?
Click to expand...

Neither of those chipsets support SLI. Personally I'd get a P35 based board, theres some excellent boards based on the chipset that really clock well and won't break the bank either.

I have a Gigabyte P35 DS3 and its a stunning bit of kit, all solid capicators, ample chipset cooling, plenty of connections and it clocks like a dream. The DS3L which is the same board minus a couple of USB and SATA connections I believe is currently going for a bargain price on Newegg.
 
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