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[brain_stew]

But everything else jumps in price because of this. I was planing on getting more ram either way but still it along with the motherboard are going to be more expensive. Well maybe, but its still going to cost about $80 more and I will only be able to get 4GB of ram.

Edit: I guess i just don't handle a change of plans that well. Well great now that i figured out what i generally wanted out of a core2 CPU, time to start thinking of how i am going to get an i5 system together.

The difference in cost between a P55 and AM3 platform is very small, the i5 750 is only $200, they both take dual channel DDR3 and there's a bunch of great motherboards in the $100-$150 price range. With that its impossible to recommend a Phenom ii quad any more imo, you get a huge leap in performance for very little outlay.

 

[brain_stew]

I've finally got a bit of spare cash, and I had hoped to pick up a new graphics card for my PC. Basic question, but not only am I not sure what's best, I'm not sure what the top end is for my PC, since it's a little older.

Specs are here: http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/VGCRA820G_mksp.pdf, the only major difference being an extra gig of memory I added. It's still Windows XP, still same motherboard, etc. It says I have a PCI Express 16x slot, that's hopefully the same as a PCI Express 2.0 x16, right?

My budget's around $200, leaning on the cheaper side is preferable, but I'll go over a bit if the trade-off is worth it. I'd like to go with NVidia primarily for PhysX, but if ATI is just that much better for the same price, I'll relent.

So far I've been looking at the GeForce GTX 275 the most, partially because of the Batman AA deal, but I can always just buy that game later if I'm not getting one of the better cards I can squeeze out for the price.

Am I on the right track?

Any money spent on that PC is money wasted. Save up for a new rig.

Your PSU wouldn't be able to handle them cards anyway.

 

[brain_stew]

I want to build a new PC. I always reach the point where I collect all the information and do the research but fail on buying. Buying a MacBook made me forget about PC gaming for couple of months, but I miss PC gaming SO much. So, this time, I'm gonna make a PC for real.

Since it's been a long time since I last did research, I'm literally lost. I just want something good, that can run The Witcher and Sins of a Solar Empire (to name but a few) with no hiccups. Could somebody with enough experience build me something quick?

Edit: Early this year, this is what I came up with: Intel i7 920, ASUS P6T Deluxe, Corsair 4GB DDR3 RAM, eVGA e-GeForce GTX280 1GB DDR3, WD 1 TB HDD. Good enough? I know I chatted a lot with some of you guys but I lost all my abilities into comprehending anything now :lol

For less than that would have cost when you specified you can get:

Gigabyte P55 motherboard
Core i5 750
4GB branded DDR3 (1333/1600)
HD 5850
1TB WD Caviar Black.

And you'll get much more performance in games. Heck you'll probably be able to afford a 5870.

 

[Coen]

I'm also looking into buying a new desktop since I will be moving this fall and I figured it's a good time to finally replace my five-year-old Pentium 3 rig. That Tech Report system guide is really useful and I'm pretty much aping its Sweeter Spot build. Already set on the following:

Intel Core i7-860
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4
2x Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB
Corsair 4 GB DDR3-1333
ATI Radeon HD 5850
Some cheap Samsung DVD drive
Windows 7 or a Vista with a free Windows 7 upgrade

Now for the questions that I have:
- Casing and power. TR's system guide recommends an Antec 183 and a Corsair TX650W combo at a whopping 250 dollars. Their Utility Player build has an Antec Sonata III with a 500W PSU at half of that. I prefer the clean look of the Antec 183, and I don't mind investing a little if the case is significantly better, but the price difference seems huge. Any thought/suggestions?
- I've been reading about SSDs but they seem pretty controversial. Most seem to think they're pretty useless, while others can't do without them. What do you think? Fancy equipment for high-end users or an under appreciated option for regular users like me?
- Should I invest in a sound card? And what kind of speakers should I go for? I'd prefer a decent 2.1 set-up over a bloated 5.1 set.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Azure Dream]

Any money spent on that PC is money wasted. Save up for a new rig.

Your PSU wouldn't be able to handle them cards anyway.

My cash is tight at the moment, I'm really not at the point where I can do a whole rig. Even it I could, I doubt I could trust myself with installing components I couldn't afford to break. I know everything works on my current PC, and I'm a little worried about screwing that up, and having weeks or months of no PC at all.

Could you point me toward the cards my PSU can manage? There's still got to be plenty that are a step up over my Radeon X300.

I did neglect to mention I have a second HD in there, and am thinking about a third, so if I have to replace the PSU and can do it for relatively cheap, that might happen.

 

[Kagami]

- I've been reading about SSDs but they seem pretty controversial. Most seem to think they're pretty useless, while others can't do without them. What do you think? Fancy equipment for high-end users or an under appreciated option for regular users like me?

SSDs are wonderful on low-RAM systems (i.e. netbooks) that have to page to/from disk constantly, but on a desktop, I'd just up the RAM instead and let the OS cache & superfetch everything.

I'm getting an SSD for my 1GB RAM Fujitsu U820 to replace its slow 4200RPM 1.8" drive, but I've never felt a need for one on my 8GB RAM desktop machine. (And that motherboard you listed supports up to 16GB.)

 

[Hazaro]

Could you point me toward the cards my PSU can manage? There's still got to be plenty that are a step up over my Radeon X300.

I did neglect to mention I have a second HD in there, and am thinking about a third, so if I have to replace the PSU and can do it for relatively cheap, that might happen.

Sorry mate, tossing anything at the rig isn't going to help a lot.

New rig time

 

[SapientWolf]

My cash is tight at the moment, I'm really not at the point where I can do a whole rig. Even it I could, I doubt I could trust myself with installing components I couldn't afford to break. I know everything works on my current PC, and I'm a little worried about screwing that up, and having weeks or months of no PC at all.

Could you point me toward the cards my PSU can manage? There's still got to be plenty that are a step up over my Radeon X300.

I did neglect to mention I have a second HD in there, and am thinking about a third, so if I have to replace the PSU and can do it for relatively cheap, that might happen.

Get a 4770 or a 4830. I have ran a 4830 with a 350w PSU with zero issues and it would be a huge upgrade over the x300. You'll still be very CPU limited though. You may want to consider a Pentium D just to have dual core.

 

[brain_stew]

My cash is tight at the moment, I'm really not at the point where I can do a whole rig. Even it I could, I doubt I could trust myself with installing components I couldn't afford to break. I know everything works on my current PC, and I'm a little worried about screwing that up, and having weeks or months of no PC at all.

Could you point me toward the cards my PSU can manage? There's still got to be plenty that are a step up over my Radeon X300.

I did neglect to mention I have a second HD in there, and am thinking about a third, so if I have to replace the PSU and can do it for relatively cheap, that might happen.

The problem is that your CPU is so terrible that its going to be a bottleneck in any modern game. The absolute most I'd recommend spending is this, should work fine with your PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121329&cm_re=4670-_-14-121-329-_-Product

Its probably more than 10x as capable as a X300 at least, just be aware that your CPU isn't really enough for modern games. I'd still recommend saving up for a new rig, $500 can go a long, long way these days.

 

[ChoklitReign]

What is the best processor ATM for under $120?

 

[brain_stew]

What is the best processor ATM for under $120?

x3 720, easily.

 

[TheFightingFish]

So I've finally got my core i5 parts in from newegg (GFX card excepted, I'm going to borrow one from a friend until 58XX prices are out) and I'm getting ready to put it all together this weekend if I can swing the time.

I did want to ask if anyone here had any specific PC builder guides that they would recommend? I've built before, but it was a long, long time ago and I'm thinking that it would be nice to have a basic assembly guide next to me while I'm working to make sure that I'm not doing anything too stupid. A Lynnfield guide in particular would be nice, although I'm guessing that's a little unlikely with it being so new.

edit: That looks great brain_stew. Thanks.

 

[brain_stew]

So I've finally got my core i5 parts in from newegg (GFX card excepted, I'm going to borrow one from a friend until 58XX prices are out) and I'm getting ready to put it all together this weekend if I can swing the time.

I did want to ask if anyone here had any specific PC builder guides that they would recommend? I've built before, but it was a long, long time ago and I'm thinking that it would be nice to have a basic assembly guide next to me while I'm working to make sure that I'm not doing anything too stupid. A Lynnfield guide in particular would be nice, although I'm guessing that's a little unlikely with it being so new.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/13671/2

 

[Minsc]

SSDs are wonderful on low-RAM systems (i.e. netbooks) that have to page to/from disk constantly, but on a desktop, I'd just up the RAM instead and let the OS cache & superfetch everything.

I'm getting an SSD for my 1GB RAM Fujitsu U820 to replace its slow 4200RPM 1.8" drive, but I've never felt a need for one on my 8GB RAM desktop machine. (And that motherboard you listed supports up to 16GB.)

Still, nothing can compare to the speed of an SSD. Even superfetch has it's flaws.

From here:

The Fresh Test, as I like to call it, involves booting up your PC and timing how long it takes to run a handful of applications. I always mix up the applications and this time I’m actually going with a lighter lineup: World of Warcraft, Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Firefox 3.5.1.

Other than those three applications, the system was a clean install - I didn’t even have any anti-virus running. This is easily the best case scenario for a hard drive and on the world’s fastest desktop hard drive, a Western Digital VelociRaptor, the whole process took 31 seconds.



And on Intel’s X25-M SSD? Just 6.6 seconds.

A difference of 24 seconds hardly seems like much, until you actually think about it in terms of PC response time. We expect our computers to react immediately to input; even waiting 6.6 seconds is an eternity. Waiting 31 seconds is agony in the PC world. Worst of all? This is on a Core i7 system. To have the world’s fastest CPU and to have to wait half a minute for a couple of apps to launch is just wrong

It's all but guaranteed that the weakest link for any casual or high-end user's computer experience these days is HDD access speed.

I don’t know how else to say this: it’s an order of magnitude faster than a hard drive. It’s the difference between a hang glider and the space shuttle; both will fly, it’s just that one takes you to space. And I don’t care that you can buy a super fast or high flying hang glider either.

:lol

 

[Echoes]

P55 chipset + Core i5 750 or i7 860 will save you $100s and is better for gaming in some cases thanks to the turbo mode. Doesn't make sense to buy a 920 now. You couldn't get 4GB of RAM with the 920 anyway, those need ram in multiples of 3GB. GTX 280s aren't the hot new thing now either, the new 5800 line due out in a few weeks (there's a huge thread hovering around the first few pages) from ATI will be significantly faster and better priced.

For less than that would have cost when you specified you can get:

Gigabyte P55 motherboard
Core i5 750
4GB branded DDR3 (1333/1600)
HD 5850
1TB WD Caviar Black.

And you'll get much more performance in games. Heck you'll probably be able to afford a 5870.

Thanks a lot guys. I'll get the some of parts right now from Amazon. I have a 9600GT, it should be working fine with the above, right? Until the new ATI cards gets shipped, that is.

 

[Echoes]

Hmm, there are a lot of "Gigabyte P55 motherboard" at Amazon. Which one should I get?

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag...abyte P55 motherboard&sourceid=Mozilla-search

 

[rohlfinator]

Hmm, there are a lot of "Gigabyte P55 motherboard" at Amazon. Which one should I get?

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag...abyte P55 motherboard&sourceid=Mozilla-search

They're all pretty comparable in terms of quality, so it kind of depends on what kind of features you want and how much you're willing to spend.

The UD3R looks like a solid starting point. The more expensive boards add things like more PCI Express slots, dual LAN adapters, more eSATA ports, etc, but if you don't need any of those things, the UD3R would be fine.

Here's a link to a comparison at Newegg. The UD3R is a bit cheaper there, btw.

 

[Wray]

About to pull the trigger on a new PC and trying to decide on which Case and Power Supply Combo to get. I'm planning on getting the Antec P183 case for sure, and I would like to go with the Cool Master Silent Pro 700 PS. But I have a cause for concern.

If you notice the Antec Case, the Power Supply Area is in the bottom of the case, as opposed to the top.


Antec P183


Cool Master

Where as the Cool Master Pro looks to have an intake fan on the bottom, which means the fan would be like an inch off the bottom of the case inside an Antec 183. How concerned should I be about that? How much would that effect cooling?

Is this still a good fit, or should I go with another power supply?

 

[Wray]

Also, any suggestions on what the best AM3 Motherboard to get is?

I'm planning to go with the ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX as of now, but Im certainly open to other suggestions.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131366&cm_re=Asus_M4A78T-E-_-13-131-366-_-Product

I'm going to plopping a Phenom II X4 955 into that sucker.

 

[rohlfinator]

Where as the Cool Master Pro looks to have an intake fan on the bottom, which means the fan would be like an inch off the bottom of the case inside an Antec 183. How concerned should I be about that? How much would that effect cooling?

Is this still a good fit, or should I go with another power supply?

I think you'll mount the power supply upside-down, so the fan is facing up into the case. That's how the Antec 300 works, so I assume the 183 does the same thing.

 

[Wray]

Ya, I didn't think about that. I've never done that before though. Is that perfectly ok to do? I mean, there aren't any negative effects to the power supply by mounting it upside side down is there? I would think not.

 

[brain_stew]

Also, any suggestions on what the best AM3 Motherboard to get is?

I'm planning to go with the ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX as of now, but Im certainly open to other suggestions.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131366&cm_re=Asus_M4A78T-E-_-13-131-366-_-Product

I'm going to plopping a Phenom II X4 955 into that sucker.

I know ita late but I'd seriously recommend switching to a i5 750 + P55 rig. You'll be getting a load more performance for less than a $50 increase in price.

 

[equap]

i want to get this GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD4 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard for my an i7 860, recommend me some good micro atx cases???

that's a good board? should i get full atx or micro atx? i picked micro because the system will be smaller.

 

[Minsc]

I know ita late but I'd seriously recommend switching to a i5 750 + P55 rig. You'll be getting a load more performance for less than a $50 increase in price.

I think it's been said before, but it didn't really hit me, but I just read a bunch of articles, and it's been stated that the P55 route actually has no future, not a better one like I thought.

It's the X58 architecture that will have a future. Seems the P55 ends with the just released i7 870s.

The X58s will see 32nm 6-core (12 threaded) cpus... but at what cost I wonder? $1000+ for a cpu? It is the high-performance enthusiast line. And will games really benefit at all from 6 cores any time soon? Probably not I'm thinking.

So the P55 is pretty enticing, but it's a little scary that there's basically no room with it for upgrading past a i7 870. You'll need a whole new PC if you want a faster CPU.

i want to get this GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD4 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard for my an i7 860, recommend me some good micro atx cases???

that's a good board? should i get full atx or micro atx? i picked micro because the system will be smaller.

This is a pretty nice looking P55 mATX board too... probably a bit pricier, but comes with XiFi audio hardware.

 

[x3sphere]

I think it's been said before, but it didn't really hit me, but I just read a bunch of articles, and it's been stated that the P55 route actually has no future, not a better one like I thought.

It's the X58 architecture that will have a future. Seems the P55 ends with the just released i7 870s.

The X58s will see 32nm 6-core (12 threaded) cpus... but at what cost I wonder? $1000+ for a cpu? It is the high-performance enthusiast line. And will games really benefit at all from 6 cores any time soon? Probably not I'm thinking.

So the P55 is pretty enticing, but it's a little scary that there's basically no room with it for upgrading past a i7 870. You'll need a whole new PC if you want a faster CPU.



This is a pretty nice looking P55 mATX board too... probably a bit pricier, but comes with XiFi audio hardware.

Although Intel's current roadmap shows this, I doubt the i9 will be available only as a extreme edition CPU. Intel has never launched a new CPU line with only an extreme part. Not many people can shell out $1000 for a CPU, even hardcore enthusiasts. I bet there will be another part that is half the price, probably clocked slightly lower with a locked multiplier. It'll still be pricey no doubt, but not something absurd like $1000.

No one knows what is going to happen with P55 yet, but yeah it is only X58 that for sure has a future at this point.

 

[ngower]

I'm presently in (and have been for several months) the market for a gaming PC. I'm not looking to do any competitive multiplayer, just want something to play Steam and Telltale games, and pretty much any singleplayer game worth my time. I don't really care about making a beastly machine, as long as it runs the majority of titles on the market with relative ease. The most graphic-intensive games I'd probably play are PES and FIFA titles.

I've looked in the other thread about specifically-priced rigs, but some of the pricing is obsolete and the farther you go into the thread, the more cluttered it gets with custom rigs.

So, essentially what I'm asking is can you wise and faithful help me in naming the parts required for under $800, obviously the cheaper the better.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

what was the point of releasing the i5 then if it's got no upgradable future?

 

[Minsc]

what was the point of releasing the i5 then if it's got no upgradable future?

Seems it's really, really good for the time being. I agree though, I'm a little drawn back by the lack of any future, at all. But it's just such a good deal, and it seems CPUs have slowed down (especially mobile ones), so maybe a i7 860 will get you a good 4 or so year anyway, before being too outdated.

And then again, what good is a future that only has a $1000 upgrade either? And the other line of CPUs due out later this year, the 32nm Westmere, is a step down (2-core), so no go there either. Right now there is no future for CPUs as far as I can see.

 

[scorcho]

any thoughts here on the new Athlon II X4 chips out? entry-level quad core for just shy of $100 should make a killer secondary PC.

 

[Azure Dream]

The problem is that your CPU is so terrible that its going to be a bottleneck in any modern game. The absolute most I'd recommend spending is this, should work fine with your PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121329&cm_re=4670-_-14-121-329-_-Product

Its probably more than 10x as capable as a X300 at least, just be aware that your CPU isn't really enough for modern games. I'd still recommend saving up for a new rig, $500 can go a long, long way these days.

Funny, I thought the CPU was the best part left. I was under the impression it was dual-core based on what Dxdiag said, and many of the average-priced CPUs were dual-cores of about the same speed. It runs what I've thrown at it reasonably fine, so I didn't realized I was that far behind.

Thanks for the help, I guess I'll stow away most of the cash for another day. I might still go for that card a stop-gap, though. Thanks too, SapientWolf.

 

[Nobby]

Anybody have any experience with the coolit domino or coolit products in general? I'm trying to decide between this

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001LKMU56/?tag=neogaf0e-20

or going with a swiftech kit.

 

[Helmholtz]

Anyone have any heatsink recommendations?
I don't want to spend much more than $40 CAD if possible.
I'm thinking Coolermaster Hyper 212 right now.
btw this is going w/ an i5 750 and gigabyte ud4p

 

[Hazaro]

any thoughts here on the new Athlon II X4 chips out? entry-level quad core for just shy of $100 should make a killer secondary PC.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3638&p=1
Looks great to me.

Anybody have any experience with the coolit domino or coolit products in general? I'm trying to decide between this

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001LKMU56/?tag=neogaf0e-20

or going with a swiftech kit.

I'd recommend air, less hassle and if something goes wrong there's more insurance your stuff will be alright.
CooliT products are ok, but make sure the mounting system is compatible with whatever you are using.
If you are seriously overclocking your system you should probably get a Swiftek though.
Imo water right now is not worth the extra $100 needed for a few Mhz.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/wacoki.html

Ya, I didn't think about that. I've never done that before though. Is that perfectly ok to do? I mean, there aren't any negative effects to the power supply by mounting it upside side down is there? I would think not.

Upside down is fine.

 

[Miroku]

PC experts I need some help.

I built a upper/mid range system about 2 years ago with:

Asus A8N32-SLI deluxe mobo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+ 2 Ghz.
2 GB RAM
Geforce 7900 GT w/256mb ram

My video card has been dying for a while. It renders all kinds of fucked up artifacts, and installing new drivers has never been able to fix it. I want to put a replacement video card in, but not something that would be too powerful and create a CPU bottleneck.

Anyone have any suggestions for what card to get? I haven't been following the technology at all since I built this machine.

 

[DietRob]

Yo GAF. Like the previous poster I want to upgrade my video card. I'm not so much worried about CPU bottlenecks. I just want something with better performance than my BFG 9600 GTOC.

My motherboard does not support SLI (only 1 slot) or I would do that. I'm going to be selling one of my 360's (elite) to give myself a budget to work with. I'll be able to spend around $250 before I get in trouble with the wife.

What does GAF suggest that I buy as an upgrade?

In case it's important here are my current PC specs:
Intel DP35DP Motherboard
Intel Q6600 Quad
Crucial 4GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
BFG 9600 GT OC
550 Cooler Master PSU

 

[zbarron]

Microcenter has the i7 920 for $200 again (In store pick up only)
http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727

 

[Helmholtz]

Yo GAF. Like the previous poster I want to upgrade my video card. I'm not so much worried about CPU bottlenecks. I just want something with better performance than my BFG 9600 GTOC.

My motherboard does not support SLI (only 1 slot) or I would do that. I'm going to be selling one of my 360's (elite) to give myself a budget to work with. I'll be able to spend around $250 before I get in trouble with the wife.

What does GAF suggest that I buy as an upgrade?

In case it's important here are my current PC specs:
Intel DP35DP Motherboard
Intel Q6600 Quad
Crucial 4GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
BFG 9600 GT OC
550 Cooler Master PSU

I'm pretty sure there is a new line of video cards being released within the next few months. I'd probably wait if I were you. However, if you want something now, Id probably go for either a gtx 275 or higher, or a radeon 4890.

 

[DietRob]

I'm pretty sure there is a new line of video cards being released within the next few months. I'd probably wait if I were you. However, if you want something now, Id probably go for either a gtx 275 or higher, or a radeon 4890.

The gtx 275 seems like just what I'm looking for. Would I need to upgrade my 550 Cooler Master PSU to run it though?

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3638&p=1
Looks great to me.

I'd recommend air, less hassle and if something goes wrong there's more insurance your stuff will be alright.
CooliT products are ok, but make sure the mounting system is compatible with whatever you are using.
If you are seriously overclocking your system you should probably get a Swiftek though.
Imo water right now is not worth the extra $100 needed for a few Mhz.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/wacoki.html

Upside down is fine.

yeah but the coolit is only 75 bucks. and its an enclosed system.

 

[spazzfish]

Some good reading here for those who are thinking about upgrading to some of the newer chipsets. Some really interesting results especially if your just going to be using your PC for gaming:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3640

 

[Polk]

x3 720, easily.

Or athlon X2 640 if you OC it.

 

[NG28]

My Dell POS died the other day, so I asked my friend to build one for me. I don't know too much about this kind of thing, so I want to get some thoughts on what he put together.

I do some gaming, but I also have a 360 so a gaming pc is cool but not a huge deal. I do however like to do 3d modeling, and he told me this build would be good for that stuff.

Basically, is this a good pc for the price? Any changes I should tell him to make? Would it be able to play currently released games?

 

[x3sphere]

The gtx 275 seems like just what I'm looking for. Would I need to upgrade my 550 Cooler Master PSU to run it though?

550W meets the requirements of the GTX275. assuming it also has 2 six pin PCI-E connectors, you're good to go.

 

[brain_stew]

You only want two RAM sticks, not 3.

I wouldn't recommend that Rosewill case and PSU tbh.

Get a WD Caviar Black, much faster.

 

[aznpxdd]

The PC components are fine, and will play current release games no problems up to 1920x1200. I highly recommend getting a better case and PSU.

 

[Diablohead]

I really want to get a SSD as my 160gig is fine for now but it's going to overflow in the end (games mostly, but I don't own hundreds and keep them all installed)

UK prices for SSD seem to be way near double the US prices, you think it's a safe thing to just import one?

 

[spazzfish]

I really want to get a SSD as my 160gig is fine for now but it's going to overflow in the end (games mostly, but I don't own hundreds and keep them all installed)

UK prices for SSD seem to be way near double the US prices, you think it's a safe thing to just import one?

If you get a ssd don't bother putting your games on it. You wont get any performance bonus playing games off a solid state drive except loading up. Put your OS and everything else on it and use your 160gig for your game installs.

 

[vanty]

Just thought I'd ask here since I imagine most of you have both games. Is HL2 Ep2 supposed to run worse than L4D which I thought should be the more demanding game? Both games are maxed out with the in-game settings, no driver settings doing anything. With triple-buffering L4D is 60fps and never drops even in totally crazy times, yet Ep2 will often go down to around 50 (with no triple-buffering or v-sync or anything like that) when virtually nothing is going on. I'm just thinking that I must be doing something wrong with my settings for Ep2, how it can go down to such a low framerate compared to all other Source games? I noticed it even at the very start of the game when it was doing 45fps when I was used to at least double that for the most part in Ep1.

 

[brain_stew]

I really want to get a SSD as my 160gig is fine for now but it's going to overflow in the end (games mostly, but I don't own hundreds and keep them all installed)

UK prices for SSD seem to be way near double the US prices, you think it's a safe thing to just import one?

You will get hit by customs which means import duty + VAT + a very hefty admin fee, I doubt you'd actually save very much at all in the end. When I imported a PSP back in 2005 the customs bill worked out at nearly 50% of what I'd shelled out initially, and that's even with the guy trying to hide up what it was and the true value of it. Be prepared to pay a hefty fee (in cash!) once the deliveryman comes to your door.

 

[Diablohead]

If you get a ssd don't bother putting your games on it. You wont get any performance bonus playing games off a solid state drive except loading up. Put your OS and everything else on it and use your 160gig for your game installs.

That's the plan

And if I was to get hit by inport tax I guess that would ruin the savings, so I may as well wait.