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Official "I need a new PC!!" 2009 Edition

H

Hitmeneer

Member
brain_stew said:
A quality P55 board won't hold a major premium over a good high end AM3 board really. Sure you can get a lot of low end boards that support the Phenom iis but then you lose a lot of stuff in the process, making the comparison a little less than fair.
Click to expand...

Why buy a high end board if you are using no high end CPU, are not doing hard core OC'ing & you don't need most of the fancy stuff. Just check what you will use and then chose which mobo you want. The mobo shouldn't cost more than the CPU imo.

I am a big Gigabyte fan. They have excellent mobo's, for all money ranges.
 
Z

Zaraki_Kenpachi

Member
What's the best program to test your overclock is stable? I'm getting 90C without even finishing a stress test but it seems I'm getting that not overclocked too... What is a good temp for it to run at? I'm using Orthos/core temp right now to watch it unless there's something better?
 
S

Sleeker

Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
What's the best program to test your overclock is stable? I'm getting 90C without even finishing a stress test but it seems I'm getting that not overclocked too... What is a good temp for it to run at? I'm using Orthos/core temp right now to watch it unless there's something better?
Click to expand...

:/ that doesnt sound good man

Mine was way too hot initially and i found it was because the heatsink/fan wasnt connected properly
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
So what's a good temperature? :/
Click to expand...

I've usually hear that you don't want to go over 70 C under load to ensure CPU longevity. It might work above 60, but it won't last as long.
 
Z

Zaraki_Kenpachi

Member
ahoyhoy said:
I've usually hear that you don't want to go over 70 C under load to ensure CPU longevity. It might work above 60, but it won't last as long.
Click to expand...

Fuck me :( Seems like everything is running hot all of a sudden. Not sure why. What's a good heatsink for overclocking an e6750? Guess I'll worry about fixing it once I get that...
 
P

Polk

Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Fuck me :( Seems like everything is running hot all of a sudden. Not sure why. What's a good heatsink for overclocking an e6750? Guess I'll worry about fixing it once I get that...
Click to expand...
I'm using Thermalright HR-01 Plus with the same cpu. It's not the cheapest sink I'm afraid.
For i5 I bought Noctua NH-U12P.
 
DietRob

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Fuck me :( Seems like everything is running hot all of a sudden. Not sure why. What's a good heatsink for overclocking an e6750? Guess I'll worry about fixing it once I get that...
Click to expand...

I got an arctic freezer 7 pro. Ordered last week for 30 bucks. Make sure to get some good thermal paste also I'd recommend arctic silver 5. It took my q6600 temps down from 45c idle to around 32c idle. It is kinda big though I'm worried about it fitting once I switch to the asus p5q pro mobo.
 
Z

Zaraki_Kenpachi

Member
Polk said:
I'm using Thermalright HR-01 Plus with the same cpu. It's not the cheapest sink I'm afraid.
Click to expand...

Did it work well? Did you overclock with it? I'm not too worried about price as long as it's good and keeps everything cool like it should. Are fanless as good as ones with fans?
 
P

Polk

Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Did it work well? Did you overclock with it? I'm not too worried about price as long as it's good and keeps everything cool like it should. Are fanless as good as ones with fans?
Click to expand...
Well actually I'm not OC my cpu (I prefer silence over power as my pc is running 24/7). I can check how it works tomorrow. I added fan to this sink, but I don't remember exact model (probably something from Arctic Cooling).
But after watching hour of 720p video it was still in range 30-35°C.
 
B

brain_stew

Member
Binabik15 said:
A i5 750 is 25 euro more than a phenom 945, the cheapest gigabyte mobo is 25 more than the AM2+, the DDR 3 it eats is 15 euro more expensive than the DDR2 for 4 gigs. Unless I buy A-Data Value DDR3 which sounds like a cheap knock-off :lol But I know nothing about RAM brands, so teach me. Corsair, OCZ and Kingstone are more expensive for 4 gigs, in that order.

Worth paying at least 65 euro more for the in-game perfomance boost?

And 500 W or 600 W for i5 plus 5850?

It´s getting expensive :/

i5 total is 660 now, the other was 590.
Click to expand...

Absolutely worth it imo. A decent branded 500w PSU is more than enough.
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
brain_stew said:
Absolutely worth it imo. A decent branded 500w PSU is more than enough.
Click to expand...

All the benchmarks I found put the Phenom II 955 more or less equal to the i5 750 though, why would you say absolutely? I imagine you'd only be getting 2 or 3 fps, at best.
 
L

Lostconfused

Member
I guess i am pretty lucky that i clicked on this thread. Apparently my heat sink wasn't installed correctly. Hopefully I didn't do any serious damage to it.
 
B

beje

Banned
Hi, I'm planning on buying a sound card for my PC and need some advice. I'm not a sound snob but I have good enough hearing, somewhat decent 2.1 speakers and a really good pair of headphones to really tell the difference between integrated sound and a dedicated sound card (hell, most of the times I can even tell when an mp3 is compressed bellow 192k).

So... I've been taking a look and all that and I've seen Creative and Asus Xonar cards, taking into account I mostly use my PC for gaming and some music which is the best choice? Any specific model? Is Creative still delivering buggy drivers full of useless bloatware? Are Asus cards compliant with EAX? Anything else I should know? I'm willing to spend around 50-80€ more or less.
 
T

TouchMyBox

Member
beje said:
Hi, I'm planning on buying a sound card for my PC and need some advice. I'm not a sound snob but I have good enough hearing, somewhat decent 2.1 speakers and a really good pair of headphones to really tell the difference between integrated sound and a dedicated sound card (hell, most of the times I can even tell when an mp3 is compressed bellow 192k).

So... I've been taking a look and all that and I've seen Creative and Asus Xonar cards, taking into account I mostly use my PC for gaming and some music which is the best choice? Any specific model? Is Creative still delivering buggy drivers full of useless bloatware? Are Asus cards compliant with EAX? Anything else I should know? I'm willing to spend around 50-80€ more or less.
Click to expand...

The correct choice is the Auzentech X-Fi Forte. I bought one on sale for $80 CDN and it was a fantastic purchase, the headphone amp really does make a huge difference when using headphones, I bought my headphones on sale for $15 at a futureshop and they sound like expensive headphones hooked up to that thing.
 
B

beje

Banned
TouchMyBox said:
The correct choice is the Auzentech X-Fi Forte. I bought one on sale for $80 CDN and it was a fantastic purchase, the headphone amp really does make a huge difference when using headphones, I bought my headphones on sale for $15 at a futureshop and they sound like expensive headphones hooked up to that thing.
Click to expand...

Well, I'll have to hunt for a good bargain because all the online stores I've seen selling that model are doing it at around 130€, waaaaaaaay over my budget.

Edit: is the Auzentech X-Raider 7.1 any good for around 50€? Because it's not like there's a middle point: either 50 for an X-Raider or 130 for a Forte.
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
MWS Natural said:
Is a WD black drive worth is for steaming movies/music or should I just go green?
Click to expand...

For streaming/storing the green is a better choice, it's slower, but that won't matter for using it for that. It's actually better because it's cooler and uses less watts, but as a system or gaming drive, you want a faster HDD, so the greens aren't the best choice.

They're also cheaper, I think under $200 vs ~$330 for the 2TBs.
 
B

Binabik15

Member
Minsc said:
All the benchmarks I found put the Phenom II 955 more or less equal to the i5 750 though, why would you say absolutely? I imagine you'd only be getting 2 or 3 fps, at best.
Click to expand...


Hmm. More expensive plus DDR3 instead of DDR2 (more expensive again) and newegg has great ratings for both :/ Oh decisions.

And the newegg reviews say the i5 standard cooling sucks, should I buy a new fan right away if I go with the i5? Even without overclocking?

A single 5850 will fit on a mATX mobo without breaking my fingers during install, right?

A S/PDIF Out: Optical on the mobo means that I can plug a normal optical cable into it and connect it to my Logitech right away with no needs for a sound card?

And what are the best ways to get wifi?

Good thing I´m in no rush to make the purchase :D
 
L

Lostconfused

Member
Binabik15 said:
And the newegg reviews say the i5 standard cooling sucks, should I buy a new fan right away if I go with the i5? Even without overclocking?
Click to expand...
After getting the heatsink properly installed the temp on my core i5 doesn't go above 65C under load. Stock sink and stock clocks.

Edit: As for audio it totally depends on what you think sounds better. I spent a few minutes listening to the same track through the on board audio card and an external DAC/AMP and I can't really decide which one sounds better maybe the DAC but i am not sure. Unless you are getting a sound card for specific features it really depends on what you can or can't hear.
 
L

Loxley

Member
My question got lost at the bottom of page 184, so I'll re-post it here.

I have quick question with regards to sound cards; are they relatively easy to install for someone has about zero experience actually installing PC components? I only ask because I bought a pair of headphones that have the option of 5.1 surround sound, but my current sound card doesn't have the proper ports to use the surround sound, and so I was thinking of picking up this guy.

These are the headphones I'm currently using, in case you're curious (or if it should matter at all with regards to the type of sound card I get).
 
Z

Zaraki_Kenpachi

Member
Loxley said:
My question got lost at the bottom of page 184, so I'll re-post it here.

I have quick question with regards to sound cards; are they relatively easy to install for someone has about zero experience actually installing PC components? I only ask because I bought a pair of headphones that have the option of 5.1 surround sound, but my current sound card doesn't have the proper ports to use the surround sound, and so I was thinking of picking up this guy.

These are the headphones I'm currently using, in case you're curious (or if it should matter at all with regards to the type of sound card I get).
Click to expand...

It's a piece of cake. You take out the old card, if it's removable, and put in the new card and obviously uninstall the old drivers and install the drivers for the new card and that's it.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Yes and no- they're not any harder than any PCI card- but if that statement alone didn't really mean anything, it can still be kind of intimidating.

Things to remember are:
-Get a static strip or stay in contact with a metal part of your case while doing any component work
-Don't try to force things- if you're doing it right, things should basically click into place without a whole lot of pushing and straining

Just opening the case and having a look at anything can be kind of scary if you've never installed PC components (sort of how I feel when looking under the hood of my car), but it is also pretty enlightening, and would be good practice for installing other upgrades in the future.
 
L

Lostconfused

Member
Hawkian said:
Things to remember are:
-Get a static strip or stay in contact with a metal part of your case while doing any component work
-Don't try to force things- if you're doing it right, things should basically click into place without a whole lot of pushing and straining
Click to expand...
Well sometimes you might need to apply just a bit of pressure, but yeah usually it shouldn't be difficult and make sure nothing is in the way. There probably won't be any problems with the sound card, but with the modern oversized video cards i actually accidentally scratched the plastic case of mine because it was impossible to connect it to the PCIe port without occupying the same space as the RAM slots.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Yeah there are obviously a lot more things to consider with the HUGE modern videocards, but I was just giving advice in terms of a standard PCI/sound card.
 
F

Firestorm

Member
Loxley said:
My question got lost at the bottom of page 184, so I'll re-post it here.

I have quick question with regards to sound cards; are they relatively easy to install for someone has about zero experience actually installing PC components? I only ask because I bought a pair of headphones that have the option of 5.1 surround sound, but my current sound card doesn't have the proper ports to use the surround sound, and so I was thinking of picking up this guy.

These are the headphones I'm currently using, in case you're curious (or if it should matter at all with regards to the type of sound card I get).
Click to expand...
My dad can do it. I'm sure you'll be fine.
 
B

Binabik15

Member
Hawkian said:
Yeah there are obviously a lot more things to consider with the HUGE modern videocards, but I was just giving advice in terms of a standard PCI/sound card.
Click to expand...

Man, those things need to get smaller again.

I´d need a case that is not taller than 14" to properly fit it under my tv. But how is a 9.5" card supposed to fit into something like this :lol

If I buy a pc it´ll have to be squeezed in somewhere and will look like ass. I can´t excactly put it next to the subwoofer :/
 
S

Salaadin

Member
What do you guys recommend for keyboards/mice? Id prefer a backlit keyboard and a gaming mouse. Wired or wireless. Theres so many options to choose from.
 
B

beje

Banned
Salaadin said:
What do you guys recommend for keyboards/mice? Id prefer a backlit keyboard and a gaming mouse. Wired or wireless. Theres so many options to choose from.
Click to expand...

I always advice to go wired unless you really REALLY don't mind batteries and you just can't have more wires around (for whatever reason). BTW, all gaming mice go wired to avoid any kind of input lag (though I really think this goes into paranoid territory, as we're not talking anymore about those horrible RF wireless controllers from the 90's and early 2000's)

By the way, about the sound card question I made before, taking into account that Auzentech cards are out of my budget are Asus Xonar cards any good?
 
H

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Salaadin said:
What do you guys recommend for keyboards/mice? Id prefer a backlit keyboard and a gaming mouse. Wired or wireless. Theres so many options to choose from.
Click to expand...
Backlit imo doesn't do much, but Saitek Eclipse and MX Revolution. That's what I am rocking anyway.
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
Maybe I've had really good wireless mice in the past, but I've never noticed any input lag from them.

Do you notice lag when using wireless controllers on a console? Does playing a game like SFIV on a wireless controller vs someone on a wired controller give the person on the wired controller an advantage?

I imagine it's no different with mice, if anything I'd think the higher-end mice would be more advanced.
 
S

Slavik81

Member
Salaadin said:
What do you guys recommend for keyboards/mice? Id prefer a backlit keyboard and a gaming mouse. Wired or wireless. Theres so many options to choose from.
Click to expand...
I love my Logitech G5 mouse. I'd bought a G11 keyboard, but I hated the feel of the buttons. Instead, I think I'd buy a Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000.

It's really surprising to me that a $25 keyboard is so much nicer to use than a $100 keyboard, but I guess that's just the way things are.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Binabik15 said:
Man, those things need to get smaller again.

I´d need a case that is not taller than 14" to properly fit it under my tv. But how is a 9.5" card supposed to fit into something like this :lol

If I buy a pc it´ll have to be squeezed in somewhere and will look like ass. I can´t excactly put it next to the subwoofer :/
Click to expand...

If you're really interested, I spent a lot of time considering buying this: http://www.provantage.com/shuttle-computer-sx58-h7-bk-v1~7SHCO06N.htm

It's beyond gorgeous. It can actually fit a fucking GTX 295: http://media.bestofmicro.com/XPC-SX58H7-Images,V-A-207190-13.jpg

Kit comes with mobo and CPU cooler (really impressive one), greats PSU and cables/etc.

It's an x58, so you can actually get an overclocked i7 in there (though it won't reach the potential of a regular case of course). Enough room for 16gb RAM.

It's pricey but when you consider what a regular case + mobo + PSU + extras cost, then factor in the deliciousness and small form factor, it's not a bad deal.

EDIT:
Slavik81 said:
I love my Logitech G5 mouse. I'd bought a G11 keyboard, but I hated the feel of the buttons. Instead, I think I'd buy a Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000.
Click to expand...

O noes, a g11 is coming with my new PC on monday! I was looking forward to it! What's wrong with teh buttons? :(
 
L

Lostconfused

Member
yeah backlit keyboards are not that great. The first generation saitek was so dim that you couldn't see it over the glare of the monitor.

Edit:

Picked up one of these today. Apparently i am a die hard nvidia fanboy or something.

19qzc3.jpg
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
yeah backlit keyboards are not that great. The first generation saitek was so dim that you couldn't see it over the glare of the monitor.




yeah backlit keyboards are not that great. The first generation saitek was so dim that you couldn't see it over the glare of the monitor.
 
M

MWS Natural

Member
yeah backlit keyboards are not that great. The first generation saitek was so dim that you couldn't see it over the glare of the monitor.



Thanks for the replies once I get money for my server I'll grab a few of the slower 2TB's.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
I totally dig that Nvidia case. Though it does kind of look like something my new Predator case would eat as a snack :lol I am going to look at all smaller gaming cases that way now
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
Hawkian said:
yeah backlit keyboards are not that great. The first generation saitek was so dim that you couldn't see it over the glare of the monitor.




yeah backlit keyboards are not that great. The first generation saitek was so dim that you couldn't see it over the glare of the monitor.
Click to expand...

All backlit keyboards aren't adjustable with varying levels of light, from off to bright? That's what I'd want if I got one. I'd also expect the keys to be very legible however they light them up, I don't know if the whole keys light up or just the writing on the keys, but either way, it'd be pointless if it weren't easily legible.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
*shrug* I dig backlit keyboards. I thought we were just playing a game where we posted that as many times as possible.
 
S

Slavik81

Member
Hawkian said:
O noes, a g11 is coming with my new PC on monday! I was looking forward to it! What's wrong with teh buttons? :(
Click to expand...
Most reviewers seemed to like it, so you might be ok. I thought the keys were kind of spongy. Gaming on it wasn't bad, and I did like to have the LED screen for the clock and frame-rate monitoring... But for coding it was... Not what I wanted.
 
S

Salaadin

Member
Ok, Ill put the backlit keyboard on hold for now. Once I get it all set up, who knows. I might not even need it. Thanks.

Its a silly question but do any of you a clue as to how long it typically takes these companies to restock the new graphics cards? I know the 5850 is brand new so it might be a while but Im pretty much ready to buy and the card is the only hold up. Would it be wise to buy everything and assemble it and then just add the graphics card whenever that comes in?

I was originally going to wait for windows 7 but Im starting to think that Id rather have it all ready to go by the 22nd.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Slavik81 said:
Most reviewers seemed to like it, so you might be ok. I thought the keys were kind of spongy. Gaming on it wasn't bad, and I did like to have the LED screen for the clock and frame-rate monitoring... But for coding it was... Not what I wanted.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not going to be coding much from here, and I suppose I can always just push it back and throw on a second keyboard when I have to.

Gaming is what it shall be fooooooor.


Salaadin, nothing wrong with leaving the graphics card til the end. In fact, if the mobo has onboard graphics you could start getting things tweaked (though you'll like me, just have to wipe it all in a few weeks for 7) and then just throw the card in there when it comes.
 
L

Lostconfused

Member
Hawkian said:
*shrug* I dig backlit keyboards. I thought we were just playing a game where we posted that as many times as possible.
Click to expand...
I guess i should apologize for that. But nah i don't think you could adjust the brightness on that first saitek i had.
 
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