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[Yoshichan]

Get any $80 DDR3 from G.Skill instead, it's $50 cheaper than the one you linked.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231188

I'm buying this PC in Sweden and I can't find anything like that here :/ Is the performance quality different in any way or is it just the price?

 

[Firestorm]

So I'm buying a laptop instead of building a pc, but I figure this thread is filled with the best people to ask.

I've narrowed down my choices to these two
-http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9366651&type=product&id=1218092150636
- http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827
and I'm having trouble deciding. The Asus has the better video card with the gtx 260m, but a slower processor. As far as I can tell, they both can support two HDD's so eventually a put a SSD in there as well. Would the processor in the asus negate the better gpu, or will I be fine with what's in there?

I'm leaning towards the asus since it also smaller (the gateway weighs 9lbs) and better looking in my opinion, but I'd put up with more weight if it's worth it.

Asus. Never ever go 17" and GPU > CPU.

 

[Hazaro]

I'm buying this PC in Sweden and I can't find anything like that here :/ Is the performance quality different in any way or is it just the price?

Just price, barring any terrible reviews you can find on the internet of some kind of terrible RAM (e.g. it dies on everyone) the performance is going to be the same.

Grab the cheapest DDR3 with heatspreaders you can find from a good name (List them or give me a site). Maybe Corsair is the only option for you, or the same price as the other, I don't know.

 

[EL Beefo]

They're notebooks people.

The GTX 260M kills the 9800M GTS, while the P8600 is only 11% faster than the P7350.

The ASUS at just $100 more is the proper choice. How soon are you buying?

I might actually get it tomorrow since it's in stock at my local BB. So on top of what you two said, and the fact that the asus gets the windows 7 upgrade, that looks to be my choice notebook . Thanks for the help!

 

[Yoshichan]

Grab the cheapest DDR3 with heatspreaders you can find from a good name (List them or give me a site). Maybe Corsair is the only option for you, or the same price as the other, I don't know.

I can pretty much choose between these:

Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 4GB KIT, CL9, Kit w/two matched DDR3 2GB, 240pin
Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 2GB KIT, CL9 Kit w/two matched DDR3 1GB, 240pin
Corsair Value S. DDR3 1333MHz 2GB CL9 Unbuffered, CL9-9-9-24, 240pin, 1.5V

 

[Hazaro]

I can pretty much choose between these:

Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 4GB KIT, CL9, Kit w/two matched DDR3 2GB, 240pin
Crucial DDR3 1333MHz 2GB KIT, CL9 Kit w/two matched DDR3 1GB, 240pin
Corsair Value S. DDR3 1333MHz 2GB CL9 Unbuffered, CL9-9-9-24, 240pin, 1.5V

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148262
Is that it?

If it's considerably cheaper you can buy your own heatspreaders. :lol
Just make sure you get a 4GB kit that is not server RAM.

 

[butts]

Bad luck of the draw, eVGA buys the cards from the same place XFX gets them. Just RMA.

Not so sure about that: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=91073

Could be a bad bunch, who knows. Sucks either way.

 

[Hazaro]

Saw a thread on eVGA with the same issue, but it is surprising to have a couple people chime in real quick in the link you posted.

Did you send it in yet?
What PSU do you have?
Drivers you are running? (Try 178.24 or 185.85, these have worked best for me)
Temps on load?
Try running memtest too, just in case.

It possibly could of been a bad batch, I don't believe the manufacturers bin the cards themselves [e.g. it is up to eVGA/XFX/BFG, etc] (and in which case to save money XFX could of bought all the lower end onces and clocked them up to top speed anyway). If that was the case then underclocking would probably help... does it?

 

[NIN90]

My current setup:

AMD Phenom X4 9550

AMD Radeon HD 4850 512 MByte

4,0 GByte DDR2 RAM

MSI 780G-Mainboard

What should I upgrade? CPU or GPU? I feel like I'm not getting everything out of my rig so I think something's bottlenecking me.

Quoted for the new page.

 

[Hazaro]

Quoted for the new page.

What do you mean you aren't feeling you are getting your monies worth?

What exactly is slow or wrong about it?
You could use a CPU refresh, but that's about it.

 

[godhandiscen]

Quoted for the new page.

CPU. Slap a Phenom X2 in there.

What do you mean you aren't feeling you are getting your monies worth?

What exactly is slow or wrong about it?
You could use a CPU refresh, but that's about it.

The Phenom 9550 is a slow as fuck processor. It is bottlenecking everything else.

 

[NIN90]

What do you mean you aren't feeling you are getting your monies worth?

What exactly is slow or wrong about it?
You could use a CPU refresh, but that's about it.

See, I'm not up to the snuff on this stuff so I bought a pre-made 700€ PC in February.´I just wanted to know if there's some pretty old parts in my rig that I could upgrade to get a little boost,

Crysis (demo) basically runs pretty crappy on mid-high settings.
Well, actually pretty much everything runs fine except the odd unoptimized ones like ArmA2 or Bully (keep in mind that I'm still playing in 1280x1024) .
See, I actually don't need any upgrades.

I'm dumb.

CPU. Slap a Phenom X2 in there.

Thanks!

 

[Hazaro]

See, I'm not up to the snuff on this stuff so I bought a pre-made 700€ PC in February.´I just wanted to know if there's some pretty old parts in my rig that I could upgrade to get a little boost,

Crysis (demo) basically runs pretty crappy on mid-high settings.
Well, actually pretty much everything runs fine except the odd unoptimized ones like ArmA2 or Bully (keep in mind that I'm still playing in 1280x1024) .
See, I actually don't need any upgrades.

I'm dumb.

If you are looking to upgrade the choice would have be to a Phenom II, the original Phenoms did not do so well. (Which is what you have)

But for gaming it is not going to make that much of a difference and you are already playing on a low res...
If you do CPU intensive things such as video encoding, etc, then yes your CPU will certainly be holding you back.

Try a custom config for Crysis, makes it play and look much better.

*Take a look these benchmarks for the Phenom vs Phenom II
http://www.bcchardware.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=6707&Itemid=81&limit=1&limitstart=6

 

[brain_stew]

You guys remember how the 8800GT was the best card for the money a while ago? What would be its equivalent now?

Its almost certain to be the 5850 once its launched.

holy shit, i guess it's stime to go ATI route? when do we hear anything on NVIDIA offerings?

They've almost definitely got nothing of note to launch this year. Its going to be a rough few months.

and to confirm, the new i5 and 1156 motherboards use DDR2 RAM?

No, dual channel DDR3.

So when can we expect the 5xxx series of cards to be released, much later on this year? About to build a rig cause my current GPU is dying, don't wanna buy an HD 4890 then find out the 5xxx series is coming out in a few weeks.

There should be cards hitting retail by the end of the month.

 

[John]

I'm trying to make my computer relatively silent, since I'm going to start mic'ing things in the same room and need to get rid of the noise. This rig is as loud as all the tortured souls in hell combined.

First step is the processor. Here's my processor. Reading the reviews, it seems that everyone who gets this (and knows what they're doing) gets a different heatsink along with it. Will this heatsink make it less noisy? It's $10. All the newegg reviewers cite better cooling as the reason not to use the standard CPU fan, but noise is much more of my concern. Intel told me this CPU would be fine at up to 71*C, and ever since I applied extra grease to it it's stayed under 60*C.

I've been reading a lot of silentpcreview.com, but they haven't reviewed a Q9400.

Does better cooling usually equate to a quieter fan? Is there any software that can tell me the primary source of noise?

Oh, and I've got a GTX 260 in here as well, I'm sure that's a culprit.

 

[Hazaro]

I'm trying to make my computer relatively silent, since I'm going to start mic'ing things in the same room and need to get rid of the noise. This rig is as loud as all the tortured souls in hell combined.

First step is the processor. Here's my processor. Reading the reviews, it seems that everyone who gets this (and knows what they're doing) gets a different heatsink along with it. Will this heatsink make it less noisy? It's $10. All the newegg reviewers cite better cooling as the reason not to use the standard CPU fan, but noise is much more of my concern. Intel told me this CPU would be fine at up to 71*C, and ever since I applied extra grease to it it's stayed under 60*C.

I've been reading a lot of silentpcreview.com, but they haven't reviewed a Q9400.

Does better cooling usually equate to a quieter fan? Is there any software that can tell me the primary source of noise?
Nope cooling relies on the fan, with that

Oh, and I've got a GTX 260 in here as well, I'm sure that's a culprit.

Grab a nice recommended fan like a low speed Yate Loon (If made in 92mm) or a Noctua fan.

An after market cooler for the GTX 260 will cost be bit steeper, although you can lower the fan speed using RivaTuner (and eVGA precision?) while you record.

*Fans make noise

 

[letsbereasonable]

Has anyone that bought the now-unavailable PC building thread combo (Phenom II 945, MSI mobo, 4890) had any luck overclocking?

I tried going for a modest 3.4 OC without touching the voltages, but it'll BSOD on Windows 7 randomly within the first half hour of use. I'm running Prime 95 and one of the cores always drops out when the first strenous test kicks in. It looks and works fine if I leave it at the stock 3.0.

Do I need to up the voltages to stabilize it a bit, or mess with the memory timings at all? I've been reading up on AMD OC'ing, but I just feel like I'm missing something obvious.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

ok, so really bottom line is the new 860 and 870, are cheaper, less wattage and equal and/or better performance than i7? and maybe bottlenecks on SLI/Crossfire configs?
i just want to understand that...

 

[Mr. Spinnington]

FINALLY I CAN REST

Got snow leopard up and running 100% this evening! It's got the whole 320gb drive I put it on to itself, too :] Damn it's fast... especially on an i7 rig

 

[Mobius1B7R]

I'm looking to upgrade my computer a little bit. Currently I have an E8400 and a GTX 260. Flight simulator can get kind of laggy at times and plus the GTX 260 is just a little long in the tooth. I was thinking about overclocking the processor, maybe up to 3.4 or 3.6. I have an Arctic Freezer 7 on it right now, I assume that should be good enough air cooling. I'm really just looking for tips on overclocking the processor.

As for the GTX 260, is a good replacement out now, or should I be looking at the new 5 series Radeons?

 

[Hazaro]

ok, so really bottom line is the new 860 and 870, are cheaper, less wattage and equal and/or better performance than i7? and maybe bottlenecks on SLI/Crossfire configs?
i just want to understand that...

Slight impact on a 2 card configuration (For current cards now), Major impact on a 3/4 card config. Almost as fast as 920, and better in some areas, cheaper.

I'm looking to upgrade my computer a little bit. Currently I have an E8400 and a GTX 260. Flight simulator can get kind of laggy at times and plus the GTX 260 is just a little long in the tooth. I was thinking about overclocking the processor, maybe up to 3.4 or 3.6. I have an Arctic Freezer 7 on it right now, I assume that should be good enough air cooling. I'm really just looking for tips on overclocking the processor.

As for the GTX 260, is a good replacement out now, or should I be looking at the new 5 series Radeons?

Overclocking to 3.8 would certainly help (That is usually the sweetspot for OC (e.g. if you can do 3.6 you can do around 3.8 on the same voltage))

Otherwise plunking down $300-$400 on the new 5 series might be worth it, still need mroe reviews to come in.

 

[Nemo]

Halp me GAF! My PC seems to be... weak. Usually when I bumped into my PC (it's under my desk and I have a very small room) the PC would still be a-ok, I remember even doing it so hard the whole thing moved. Nowadays a small nudge can make the thing go beserk, it either

restarts
BSOD
freezes

What's the cause for this? Some component that is over sensitive? Maybe the mobo isn't right or do I need a new case? I'm seriously baffled here.

I'm looking to upgrade my computer a little bit. Currently I have an E8400 and a GTX 260. Flight simulator can get kind of laggy at times and plus the GTX 260 is just a little long in the tooth. I was thinking about overclocking the processor, maybe up to 3.4 or 3.6. I have an Arctic Freezer 7 on it right now, I assume that should be good enough air cooling. I'm really just looking for tips on overclocking the processor.

As for the GTX 260, is a good replacement out now, or should I be looking at the new 5 series Radeons?

I was also looking into overclocking my 8400 and read of it going easy to 4.0 for a lot of people. I dunno about cooling and stuff but this processor seems to be pretty damn good with overclocking so that shouldn't be a problem. I decided against it though since I didn't really need it, dunno how the situation is with flight simulator.

As for the videocard, wait for the new cards to hit before deciding!

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Slight impact on a 2 card configuration (For current cards now), Major impact on a 3/4 card config. Almost as fast as 920, and better in some areas, cheaper.

Overclocking to 3.8 would certainly help (That is usually the sweetspot for OC (e.g. if you can do 3.6 you can do around 3.8 on the same voltage))

Otherwise plunking down $300-$400 on the new 5 series might be worth it, still need mroe reviews to come in.

shoot, only the richest kings of europe have a 4 way SLI anyway.

 

[FreezeSSC]

Okay!! so for this weekend i finally decided to order all the parts to build my pc!

decided on building a intel core i5 processor and i not so sure as to what GPU i should get, i do plan on gaming on this but i was thinking of getting something cheaper now since the new GPU's will be coming out soon and i would be upgrading again probably in december. so if anyone can recommend a good GPU in the $100-$150 range i would like to hear any suggestions!!

 

[TheFightingFish]

Kinda of a noobish audio question here. If a motherboard doesn't have optical out (HDMI only) and my receiver only takes optical and not HDMI I'm pretty much out of luck for hooking the two up together, right? This seems obvious, but I'm just trying to make sure that there isn't some type of simple converter to take one format to the other.

 

[Stop It]

I'm trying to make my computer relatively silent, since I'm going to start mic'ing things in the same room and need to get rid of the noise. This rig is as loud as all the tortured souls in hell combined.

First step is the processor. Here's my processor. Reading the reviews, it seems that everyone who gets this (and knows what they're doing) gets a different heatsink along with it. Will this heatsink make it less noisy? It's $10. All the newegg reviewers cite better cooling as the reason not to use the standard CPU fan, but noise is much more of my concern. Intel told me this CPU would be fine at up to 71*C, and ever since I applied extra grease to it it's stayed under 60*C.

I've been reading a lot of silentpcreview.com, but they haven't reviewed a Q9400.

Does better cooling usually equate to a quieter fan? Is there any software that can tell me the primary source of noise?

Oh, and I've got a GTX 260 in here as well, I'm sure that's a culprit.

Well, I have a Q9400, currently cooled by a Zalman CNPS 9500A LED And at 3.6Ghz it tops out at 45-50c at OCCT load and if I leave it at stock doesn't go past 40c.

Anyway, sources of noise can come from everywhere, for example I had a 80mm case fan pointing at my CPU (Which was fine with a Gigabyte NeonCooler 775). The moment I installed this new HSF, the fan became loud as hell because of the change of airflow. It is now set as an exhaust fan, it is much quieter and cooling has not been compromised.

Basically, fan noise varies from case to case, cooling system to cooling system and change of components can affect others, so you need to literally go by ear to source the point of noise.

Also, use EVGA Precision to control your GPU fan speed, you'll notice the difference.

Edit: On that note my PC is as quiet as it has ever been (with 7 fans in total spinning away!), and is still mighty cool even when overclocked. I think I have at least 12 months now where I actually do not need to replace a single component, I am happy!

More edit: That Asus Lion Sqaure got a pretty average review at Frostytech, maybe you should consider an alternative.

 

[NinjaFridge]

I have a 4850 that came with a Glaciator Fansink and was just wondering what temperatures can this thing handle before i should start worrying?

 

[Stop It]

I have a 4850 that came with a Glaciator Fansink and was just wondering what temperatures can this thing handle before i should start worrying?

Those HD4xxx series are known to get hot, so on load I would say anything up to around 80c would be acceptable.

 

[NinjaFridge]

Those HD4xxx series are known to get hot, so on load I would say anything up to around 80c would be acceptable.

Thanks!

 

[brain_stew]

Those HD4xxx series are known to get hot, so on load I would say anything up to around 80c would be acceptable.

They're specified to handle temperatures in excess of 100C (as are most modern GPUs). Unless you're looking into OCing or you're having hardware faults, its not something people should be at all concerned with really.

 

[Stop It]

They're specified to handle temperatures in excess of 100C (as are most modern GPUs). Unless you're looking into OCing or you're having hardware faults, its not something people should be at all concerned with really.

While very true, I personally wouldn't be able to stand it if I saw my GPU temp reach 100degrees!

I personally used a HD4870 for a while, and it peaked at 80-85 degrees, while officially acceptable I didn't like the temps one bit, that said, my GTX275 has hit 80degrees too, darn GPUs being much hotter than CPUs.

 

[jakonovski]

I put my new rig together yesterday (with the help of a friend, I was behind the times so to speak):

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955BE
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P
RAM: 2x2Gb Kingston 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
HD: 1Tb Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD4890 1Gb
Case: Akasa Zen Silent White

I installed Crysis last night, and hoooo boy. I can't believe these graphics! 1680x1050, 4xAA, High/Very High mix. After that, I've got Crysis Warhead waiting in the wings. After that, it's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. time, using the hd texture mod! In October, it's going to be Fallout 3 GOTY with everything and their mother on ultra.

 

[FreezeSSC]

Okay soo i tried to do a build by myself for now but before i press the trigger i wanted to make sure that i didnt screw anything up, going to dump my newegg cart

Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA Model AD-7240S-0B - OEM

RAIDMAX AZTEC ATX-619WB Black/ Silver 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case - Retail - $79.99

Western Digital Caviar Green WD6400AACS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (bare drive) - OEM -$64.69

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100273L Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail - $129.99

OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC ... - Retail - $59.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBRH - Retail - $94.99

ASUS P7P55D LE LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail -$134.99

Intel Core i5 750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750 - Retail -$209.99

two notes however, come december-january i plan to upgrade to a SSD and and much better GPU so should i go cheaper in those two categories now? just curious because i was trying to see if i could shave any more money off this build. any input is greatly appreciated!!!

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

Which do you recommend? I am also looking for a PSU that will be there when I upgrade my PC.
Right now I have
2 gigs of ram
8800GTS 325mb
dual core 6400

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015

 

[DeadTrees]

Which do you recommend? I am also looking for a PSU that will be there when I upgrade my PC.
Right now I have
2 gigs of ram
8800GTS 325mb
dual core 6400

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015

The Corsair, easily.

 

[sestrugen]

good information on this thread, might build a new PC in the next couple of weeks.

 

[grap3fruitman]

Okay, so my four year old pc busted. I'm thinking about building one for my brother who games a lot and taking his (Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8GHz/Radeon HD 3870 512MB) since I'll be mainly browsing the web.

This is the build I'm thinking of putting together for him: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWi...Number=11825172

Trying to decide between the two types of ram on there and forgetting the Hauppage thing because this is not money I wanted to have to be spending right now. Kind of pissed that my shit broke since I'm trying to be buying a god damn car.

Anyway, breakdown of http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWi...Number=11825172
Rosewill Card Reader $19.99
OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $149.99 (same exact ram I used in my last build a few months ago for $99.99, fffuck)
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz $279.99
EVGA 141-BL-E757-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX X58 SLI LE Intel Motherboard $234.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB $119.99
Antec Three Hundred Mid Tower Case $54.95
EVGA 896-P3-1171-AR GeForce GTX 275 Superclocked Edition 896MB $259.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W Power Supply $99.99
And a PS3 slim and remote for another $299.99 and $19.99 (12 months no interest, might as well)

for a total of... $1539.86 or $1219.88 without the PS3/remote

And I realize that I've forgotten any sort of DVD/Blu-ray drive. Kind of annoyed there too because they had an HD-DVD/Blu-ray LG combo drive for like $120 a few months ago but now they have the same drive minus the HD-DVD capabilites for the same price. Boo!

...Crap. Just realized I don't have a monitor in there either. =\

Thoughts?

 

[jakonovski]

The GTX275 there is a bit overpriced, considering ATI's new Dx11 offerings. Even compared to a HD4890, you're never going to get 60-80 dollars worth of performance difference.

 

[jey_16]

I'm trying to make my computer relatively silent, since I'm going to start mic'ing things in the same room and need to get rid of the noise. This rig is as loud as all the tortured souls in hell combined.

First step is the processor. Here's my processor. Reading the reviews, it seems that everyone who gets this (and knows what they're doing) gets a different heatsink along with it. Will this heatsink make it less noisy? It's $10. All the newegg reviewers cite better cooling as the reason not to use the standard CPU fan, but noise is much more of my concern. Intel told me this CPU would be fine at up to 71*C, and ever since I applied extra grease to it it's stayed under 60*C.

I've been reading a lot of silentpcreview.com, but they haven't reviewed a Q9400.

Does better cooling usually equate to a quieter fan? Is there any software that can tell me the primary source of noise?

Oh, and I've got a GTX 260 in here as well, I'm sure that's a culprit.

i would just check to see what is the culprit of the noise....my PC is so loud and initially i thought it was something to do with the CPU (Q9550) but i just opened it up and HSF is actually quiet

its the PSU that is creating all the noise....its some cheap chinese crap and it is ridiculously loud, another $100+ to get a good one

 

[rohlfinator]

Thoughts?

Unless you have a specific reason to go with the i7 920, one of the new Lynnfield chips (i7 860 or i5 750) would give you a better value, but you'd need to switch to an LGA 1156 motherboard and 4 or 8GB of RAM.

And like jakonovski suggested, it'd probably be worth either waiting for the Radeon 5850 @ $300, or switch down to a cheaper 275 or 4890. The 5850 would be a very significant upgrade for an extra $40.

 

[brain_stew]

Which do you recommend? I am also looking for a PSU that will be there when I upgrade my PC.
Right now I have
2 gigs of ram
8800GTS 325mb
dual core 6400

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015

The Corsair's the better model for sure, though personally I'd drop down to the 520w modular unit. It'll still offer more than enough power for any single GPU rig but make cable management so much easier and probably save you a little money as well.

 

[brain_stew]

Okay, so my four year old pc busted. I'm thinking about building one for my brother who games a lot and taking his (Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8GHz/Radeon HD 3870 512MB) since I'll be mainly browsing the web.

This is the build I'm thinking of putting together for him: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWi...Number=11825172

Trying to decide between the two types of ram on there and forgetting the Hauppage thing because this is not money I wanted to have to be spending right now. Kind of pissed that my shit broke since I'm trying to be buying a god damn car.

Anyway, breakdown of http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWi...Number=11825172
Rosewill Card Reader $19.99
OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $149.99 (same exact ram I used in my last build a few months ago for $99.99, fffuck)
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz $279.99
EVGA 141-BL-E757-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX X58 SLI LE Intel Motherboard $234.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB $119.99
Antec Three Hundred Mid Tower Case $54.95
EVGA 896-P3-1171-AR GeForce GTX 275 Superclocked Edition 896MB $259.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W Power Supply $99.99
And a PS3 slim and remote for another $299.99 and $19.99 (12 months no interest, might as well)

for a total of... $1539.86 or $1219.88 without the PS3/remote

And I realize that I've forgotten any sort of DVD/Blu-ray drive. Kind of annoyed there too because they had an HD-DVD/Blu-ray LG combo drive for like $120 a few months ago but now they have the same drive minus the HD-DVD capabilites for the same price. Boo!

...Crap. Just realized I don't have a monitor in there either. =\

Thoughts?

P55 and i5 750 is the way to go. Better gaming performance and much cheaper.

No way I'd throw down $260 on a GPU with the HD58xx series set to hit in a few weeks. Go with a 5850 once you can get hold of one.

Seagate HDDs are a big no-no these days, get a WD Caviar Black or Samsung F1.

No need for a 650w PSU. Get a decent branded 500w+ PSU and be done with it, unless you plan to go multi GPU (I don't recommend it).

You only need two RAM dimms with the P55 platform.

That bunch of changes should save you a decent amount of cash and net you much better performance.

Whilst I know very little about HD tuners, is there any real reason you need that pricey USB unit? Surely a PCI card would be a much better solution, and about a 1/4 of the price as well. If you were planning on using those component inputs with a game console or something then give up that dream, the lag will be unbearable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...i&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&Order=PRICE

 

[grap3fruitman]

P55 and i5 750 is the way to go. Better gaming performance and much cheaper.

No way I'd throw down $260 on a GPU with the HD58xx series set to hit in a few weeks. Go with a 5850 once you can get hold of one.[/url]

In all the benchmarks I saw for the new i5 it was outperformed by the i7 920. Isn't the i5 supposed to be a more budgeted version with less features?

I wasn't aware of any new graphics cards on the horizon, when are they supposed to hit? As a personal pref I'd want to go with Nvidia (physx or whatever they're calling it), do they have anything around the corner?

 

[rohlfinator]

In all the benchmarks I saw for the new i5 it was outperformed by the i7 920. Isn't the i5 supposed to be a more budgeted version with less features?

The 920 is a little better at some things, but in general they're about even and the i5 750 usually outperforms the i7 920 in games. The 750 is also roughly $200 cheaper than the 920 when you account for the motherboard cost, so if gaming is your main priority it's by far the better deal.

I wasn't aware of any new graphics cards on the horizon, when are they supposed to hit? As a personal pref I'd want to go with Nvidia (physx or whatever they're calling it), do they have anything around the corner?

AMD's cards are hitting in October or so, Nvidia's are sometime in 2010 and are pretty much unknown at this point. Physx alone wouldn't be worth the longer wait, IMO, since it's going to be somewhat replaced by DX11.

 

[brain_stew]

In all the benchmarks I saw for the new i5 it was outperformed by the i7 920. Isn't the i5 supposed to be a more budgeted version with less features?

I wasn't aware of any new graphics cards on the horizon, when are they supposed to hit? As a personal pref I'd want to go with Nvidia (physx or whatever they're calling it), do they have anything around the corner?

What benchmarks are those then? In games an i5 750 will come out on top 9 times out of 10 due to turbo mode. An i7 920 only makes sense if you make very heavy use of truly multithreaded applications, otherwise its a complete waste and performance will actually be lower in most situations.

Nvidia launches are way out, but in a couple of weeks you'll be able to get around 50% more performance for an extra $40 by getting a 5850, PhysX is a non issue now compute shader and OpenCL are available. There'll be a lot more games shipping in 2010 with DX11 exclusive features than there are games shipping with hardware PhysX (which usually cuts your framerate in half, btw).

 

[grap3fruitman]

What's a good mobo for the i7 860 and hd58**? I'm browsing with my iPod at the moment so it's kind of hard to look for myself. The thread on those Ati cards said they come out the 10th but that's passed, is there a more accurate release date? I don't want to wait long since I'm currently computer-less.

Edit: What about the upcoming i9s? When are those supposed to hit? My computer did certainly pick the right time to crap out, right in between all this new tech. Argh!

 

[grap3fruitman]

Completely forgot there was a laptop in the house I could use in the mean time... Okay, I'm looking at the i7 860 like someone suggested but I'm having trouble picking out a motherboard for the build.

I'm looking at the GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD4P and the ASUS P7P55D PRO. The Gigabyte has a lot of nice features but with that I'm limited to really good expensive ram or crappy ram, no middle road where as with the Asus I can use 1600mhz ram but it has less USB ports and other stuff. Price is the same between the two. Suggestions on mobos?

Edit: HardOCP likes the MSI P55-GD80 but it's a bit more and I'm not familiar with them but the specs look decent.

Edit2: So summed up the parts and... http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=9448614

MSI P55-GD80 $209.99
i7 860 2.8GHz $289.99
2x OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $229.98
Rosewill Card Reader $19.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB $119.99
Antec Three Hundred Mid Tower Case $54.95
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W Power Supply $99.99
no GPU yet

That comes to... $1024.88 without a graphics card. Assuming the 5850 will be $300 that puts me at slightly more than the i7 920 build. WTF, I thought this was supposed to be cheaper? Used the same non-important parts just for an easy comparison.

I have no idea what to do...

 

[Kobe]

Im looking to upgrade my GPU. Im currently running a 7900GS on windows XP. I was wondering if I should go with the 8 series or 9 series with Nvidia. Since Im not getting DirectX 10. Which one would be the best card with my current setup? I have a Dual-core A64 X2 2.2Ghz, 2GB ram, and Windows XP SP3. I want to play Champions online and I dont want to deal with my 7900 runing everything at low settings.

I was looking into something like this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125286

 

[brain_stew]

What heavily multithreaded apps are you making daily use of?

If there aren't any then just get the i5 750 and save $90, you won't notice any difference at all, trust me on this one.

If you need any extra CPU power (you won't for a long time) then just go ahead and OC.

I wouldn't get an MSI motherboard, and especially one that's over $200, that's a terrible buy if you ask me. One of the main reason to go with the LGA1156 platform is the fact that the baords are affordable, so it makes no sence buying something so overpriced. Buy one of these two, they're probably better anyway and $70 cheaper to boot:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128401

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131410

$260 on memory!? The hell, just get this and be done with it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0231180&cm_re=ddr3_4gb-_-20-231-180-_-Product

There'll be literally zero noticable difference at all, even in benchmarks I doubt you'll manage anything near a 1% difference either.

Again, don't get that Seagate HDD, its prone to failure and overpriced, choose from these two:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...36284&cm_re=caviar_1tb-_-22-136-284-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2102&cm_re=1tb_samsung-_-22-152-102-_-Product

Edit: You were specifying 8GB of RAM I see now. Any real reason? 4GB is more than enough for pretty much anything apart from a few specialised tasks, unless you know you'll be using a super RAM hungry program regularly just get the 4GB. You can always upgrade later if you want to. No games benefit from more than 4GB of RAM fwiw.

 

[brain_stew]

Im looking to upgrade my GPU. Im currently running a 7900GS on windows XP. I was wondering if I should go with the 8 series or 9 series with Nvidia. Since Im not getting DirectX 10. Which one would be the best card with my current setup? I have a Dual-core A64 X2 2.2Ghz, 2GB ram, and Windows XP SP3. I want to play Champions online and I dont want to deal with my 7900 runing everything at low settings.

I was looking into something like this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125286

Get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102835&cm_re=4770-_-14-102-835-_-Product

Cheaper, faster and a lower power draw.

Make sure you OC that CPU, it'll make a huge difference. Pick up a cheap aftermarket cooler if you need to.