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[iam220]

Would that be nice idea to buy those cheap 7500 rpm Samsung but buying 2 of them and put them in Raid 0 ??

Would I gain enough speed? The Raptors 10 000 rpm are fucking too expensive...

You do know that hardrive speed is only going to effect loading times right?

I recall Raid 0 not making all that much of a difference, but I might be wrong. Plus it's horrible for reliability.

If you want to improve your loading times, I suggest creating a partition just for games and make sure you defragment it regularly. (or alternatively, do not uninstall or delete anything from it .. if it's big enough)

 

[cann3dheat]

So GAF, I'm hoping you can answer a weird question for me:

I recently acquired a free computer from a family member. It's not name brand, and the thing is loud as fuck (6 loud-ass fans). So when I get it, they tell me they took the hard drive out to put in their new PC. Understandable. Spend $80, get a new hard drive, and I'm set.

So I open up the box to see what I'm working with, and I see this:

Here.

I had a spare hard drive laying around, so I decided to see if it would fit, but none of the holes line up, they're too close together (either that or the holes on the spare IDE hard drive I had laying around were too far apart:lol )

I'm not computer retarded, but I honestly have no idea what the hell to do. Is my spare drive that's laying around just funky, or is this custom box just have weird casing? What would you suggest to fix the problem? Thanks.

 

[Minsc]

You do know that hardrive speed is only going to effect loading times right?

I recall Raid 0 not making all that much of a difference, but I might be wrong. Plus it's horrible for reliability.

If you want to improve your loading times, I suggest creating a partition just for games and make sure you defragment it regularly. (or alternatively, do not uninstall or delete anything from it .. if it's big enough)

RAID 0 can effectively double your read and write speeds. In reality it may not be quite that much, but it makes a huge difference.

Horrible for reliability is a little exaggerated too, you're just putting your data's dependency on 2 devices instead of 1. So at worst, it is double the risk (which if you think is horrible, then fair enough, but that just means you don't have much faith in the drive normally either).

Nothing will improve load times quite like a SSD. RAID 0 would be the next best thing, but a single of those new intel SSD's would beat the fastest drive in RAID 0, but putting two SSDs in RAID 0 would be faster than all hell, that's the ultimate way to go. And since they have no moving parts, even in RAID 0 there's pretty much no reliability risk, you just need a spare $1K or so

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

Question:

I put together a new computer for a friend. Everything is in, but when I start it up, it doesnt display an image to the monitor. The fan on the MB and videocard both turn on. Any idea whats causing the problem?

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Question:

I put together a new computer for a friend. Everything is in, but when I start it up, it doesnt display an image to the monitor. The fan on the MB and videocard both turn on. Any idea whats causing the problem?

Does it beep? If not, it's possible that the CPU, RAM or motherboard is dead but more likely the back of the motherboard is shorting out against where you mounted it. I'd recommend remounting it and trying again.

 

[SimpleDesign]

GAF, best video card for around $150 CDN?

You could probably get a 4850 for around that price.

 

[iam220]

RAID 0 can effectively double your read and write speeds. In reality it may not be quite that much, but it makes a huge difference.

Horrible for reliability is a little exaggerated too, you're just putting your data's dependency on 2 devices instead of 1. So at worst, it is double the risk (which if you think is horrible, then fair enough, but that just means you don't have much faith in the drive normally either).

Nothing will improve load times quite like a SSD. RAID 0 would be the next best thing, but a single of those new intel SSD's would beat the fastest drive in RAID 0, but putting two SSDs in RAID 0 would be faster than all hell, that's the ultimate way to go. And since they have no moving parts, even in RAID 0 there's pretty much no reliability risk, you just need a spare $1K or so

sure, but it makes VERY little difference when it comes to loading game data. Definitively not worth the double failure rate.

Install times and copying large files on the other hand will get a good boost.


VVVVV : it has 192 processing cores that's why its so cheap . Try http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121291 or some other 1 GiG ati 4870.

 

[desertdroog]

Well I bought my setup with the OCZ Gold ram and the Coolermaster 690 Nvidia case.

I also went with this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127361
MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

 

[SimpleDesign]

Is Nvidia keeping their physics technology GeForce-GPU exclusive, or will the Radeon 4000 series be supported?

 

[rohlfinator]

Question:

I put together a new computer for a friend. Everything is in, but when I start it up, it doesnt display an image to the monitor. The fan on the MB and videocard both turn on. Any idea whats causing the problem?

Does it have an integrated graphics chip? It might be trying to output the video through the onboard video instead of your video card.

 

[FoxSpirit]

Game load speed is by far not as disk dependant as people would guess. Some time ago RAM disks were tested, brutal speeds but game wise, only 10-20% increase. Far more CPU and RAM dependent.

 

[iam220]

Game load speed is by far not as disk dependant as people would guess. Some time ago RAM disks were tested, brutal speeds but game wise, only 10-20% increase. Far more CPU and RAM dependent.

yes, you're right. Definitively very CPU dependent .. but I did notice that when my game files are fragmented it does take quite the toll on the loading times.

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

Does it beep? If not, it's possible that the CPU, RAM or motherboard is dead but more likely the back of the motherboard is shorting out against where you mounted it. I'd recommend remounting it and trying again.

It does beep. I need to pick up a few cables and still install the os, but ill try reseating things.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

It does beep. I need to pick up a few cables and still install the os, but ill try reseating things.

Does it only beep once? If that's the case, you're fine:

Does it have an integrated graphics chip? It might be trying to output the video through the onboard video instead of your video card.

Make sure you check this.

 

[Wired]

Thinking of buying a new comp. Best deal I found so far (sweden) seem to be a Dell, spec as follows,

Picture

Dell Studio XPS
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 920-processor (2,66GHz, 8 MB cache, 4,8 GT/s).
Operating System: Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 (64 bit).
Video Card: 512 MB ATI® Radeon® 4850.
Memory: 4096 MB (4 x 1 024), 1 067MHz DDR3.
Hard Drive: 750GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive.

~1000 euro.

Not sure about motherboard etc as it's not listed. Anyone have experience with Dell and know what kinda stuff they use?

Thankfull for all opinions about the build etc.

Well since Sweden is pretty expensive (I'm trapped there too ;P) that doesn't sound too bad. As for Dell, no idea. The general consensus seem to be that they aren't that bad and a hell of a lot better than what they used to be.

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

Does it only beep once? If that's the case, you're fine:



Make sure you check this.

I took the graphics card out and it booted as far as it could. Thanks for the help/

 

[Clever Pun]

Reposting this since it got stuck at the bottom of the last page. Thanks pc-gaf!

PSU question time:

I'm looking for a good 500W PSU. I won't be running SLI or anything, just a 4830, Q6600, 1066 RAM, one SATA drive and a DVD/RW, some USB components. Though this won't be a 24/7 machine, I would like it to be relatively efficient. After some newegg browsing I found the following PSUs. Any comments on brand reputation or about which would be preferable in respect to price would be appreciated:

Thermaltake
Rosewill
PC Power & Cooling

Edit: I'm also more than open to suggestions, though I'd like to keep it in the price range of those listed above.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

I took the graphics card out and it booted as far as it could. Thanks for the help/

Did you go into the BIOS and change the the primary display adapter to PEG or AGP (whichever type you have)? If not, do that and you can then put the card back in.

 

[Roarer]

Alright guys, I can't decide and I need your help. Looking at a few bundles from an online retailer, currently eyeing three of them but can't decide which to choose. THey all cost the same, but differ in terms of GPU, CPU etc. Here's a simple breakdown:

System 1
# MOBO: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L, P45, Socket-775, ATX, GbLAN, DDR2, PCI-Ex(2.0)x16
# CPU Intel Core™ 2 Quad Q9400 2,66GHz, Socket 775, 6MB, 1333MHz, Boxed w/Fan
# RAM: Corsair Dominator TWIN2X8500C5D 4096MB, DDR2,2x2GB(KIT),
# GPU: Asus GeForce 9800GTX+ 512MB PhysX CUDA,

System 2
# MOBO: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L, P45, Socket-775, ATX, GbLAN, DDR2, PCI-Ex(2.0)x16
# CPU: Intel Core™ 2 Quad Q8200 2,33GHz, Socket 775, 4MB, 1333MHz, Boxed w/Fan
# RAM: Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 4096MB CL5, Kit w/two matched CM2X2048-6400 Dimm's
# GPU: XFX GeForce GTX 260 896MB PhysX CUDAPCI-Express 2.0, 576MHz


System 3
# MOBO: Asus P5Q PRO, P45, Socket-775, DDR2, ATX, GbLAN, Firewire, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)16
# CPU: Intel Core™ 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz, Socket LGA775, 6MB, 1333Mhz, BOXED
# RAM: Corsair TWIN2X 6400C4 DDR2, 2048MB CL4, Kit w/two 1024MB XMS, 800MHz Dimm`s
# GPU: Gigabyte Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0

Any pointers to why I should pick one over the other would be appreciated!

 

[Ranger X]

RAID 0 can effectively double your read and write speeds. In reality it may not be quite that much, but it makes a huge difference.

Horrible for reliability is a little exaggerated too, you're just putting your data's dependency on 2 devices instead of 1. So at worst, it is double the risk (which if you think is horrible, then fair enough, but that just means you don't have much faith in the drive normally either).

Nothing will improve load times quite like a SSD. RAID 0 would be the next best thing, but a single of those new intel SSD's would beat the fastest drive in RAID 0, but putting two SSDs in RAID 0 would be faster than all hell, that's the ultimate way to go. And since they have no moving parts, even in RAID 0 there's pretty much no reliability risk, you just need a spare $1K or so

Right now I REAAAAALLY can't go over 2000$ CAN and that's pretty much what my PC might/will cost. (when you count tax and shipping)

So far I would be going with this (from Newegg):


SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F
$29.99

Antec Three Hundred Black Computer Case
$59.69

Microsoft Black Basic Keyboard and Mouse
$19.49

BFG Tech ES SERIES ES-800 800W Continuous @ 40°C SLI Power Supply
$166.74

ASUS P6T ATX Intel Motherboard
$297.49

G.SKILL 3GB (3 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit
$101.24

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
$359.99

EVGA GeForce 9800 GT 512-P3-N973-TR Video Card
$152.49

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 1TB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (2)
$232.08 (166$ each)

Hanns·G JW-197DPB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor Built in Speakers
$143.19

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders
$149.99


Grand Total: $1,712.38


If I have this shipped it's fucking 290$ in shipping/handling for a total of 2012$. lol
Still this is the cheapest I found so far.

What do you think?

 

[iam220]

Ranger, If I were you .. I would actually ditch the core i7 and get a phenom 2 940. The CPU itself is not as powerful but with the money you save you can put it into a much better video card then a 9800GT (which is basically a 8800GT). This will really balance out your system, since most games are GPU limited you will be getting much better performance this way. You're taking a bit of a gamble on your CPU upgrade path ... but by judging by the phenoms 2's I'm sure the to be released am2+/am3's are going to be competitive with intels offerings.

 

[Minsc]

sure, but it makes VERY little difference when it comes to loading game data. Definitively not worth the double failure rate.

[IMG ]http://i39.tinypic.com/22zvy8.jpg[/IMG]

Install times and copying large files on the other hand will get a good boost.

Well, I guess that's up to the individual. It's easy enough to RAID 0 an OS with just the few games you're currently playing, and have the drives imaged to a larger drive automatically.

I don't feel like inlining a dozen pics, but there's about 30 or so in this extreme tech article that show just how much faster SSDs are (and they will actually get even faster than that), and putting them in RAID 0 can result in over double the performace sometimes. If nothing else they'll substantially reduce loading time, even just one of them, and by a fucking huge amount in most cases.

Note that the PCMark Vantage gaming score was pretty darned high. That's generally true for SSDs. The PCM-V score reflects issues like level loading. Recently, though, we've heard that some games that load lots of textures from the hard drive might actually generate faster frame rates when an SSD is used, as compared to a traditional hard drive. In particular, it's suggested that the Crysis GPU benchmark is faster.

Alas, that wasn't our experience. We dropped an Nvidia 280 GTX into the system, then ran the Crysis GPU test at 1920x1200, with all settings to very high. We ran the benchmark twice, once without anti-aliasing and once with 4x AA and 8x AF. There was no difference.

Still, load times of games and game levels should be far better. Anyone that's waited for Mass Effect to load would be much happier if an SSD were in place.

Now a SSD won't magically increase your framerate as they noted, but level loading should be much shorter. Should really help for games like NWN2, RTS games like DoW where a map has to be loaded before each level, etc.

I just love how sickenly fast they load up applications (~20x faster!) and the OS itself. Also notice that the Raptors don't benefit from RAID 0 as much as SSDs, that's probably because of the hugely slower access time on the Raptors limiting any gains an increased write/read speed would give.

 

[inner-G]

I finally found out what was wrong with my setup. I dropped it off at the local computer shop and it turns out the new video card was bad.

I exchanged it for the PNY 9800GT with 1GB of DDR3 instead of 512. Runs like butter now; Crysis on High at 1680 X 1050

 

[Hazaro]

Here's a simple breakdown:
System 2
Any pointers to why I should pick one over the other would be appreciated!

Quadcore
4GB
Corsair PSU
GTX 260

If you don't plan on upgrading for a bit I'd go this route.

Right now I REAAAAALLY can't go over 2000$ CAN and that's pretty much what my PC might/will cost. (when you count tax and shipping)

So far I would be going with this (from Newegg):

What do you think?

Get at least a 22" monitor. Acer makes some nice cheap ones.
Get 6GB of RAM with Vista.
Get a cheaper PSU, you can knock off $80 at least right there.
Get a better GPU. If you are dropping 2k on a comp you shouldn't spare on that.

I finally found out what was wrong with my setup. I dropped it off at the local computer shop and it turns out the new video card was bad.

I exchanged it for the PNY 9800GT with 1GB of DDR3 instead of 512. Runs like butter now; Crysis on High at 1680 X 1050

Great, sucked you had to go through 2 cards.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

So...is it normal for SATA HDDs to have jumpers on them that limit bandwidth? Because I just figured it out and...wow. I feel like a dope :lol

 

[inner-G]

Great, sucked you had to go through 2 cards.

yeah. The 1st one wasn't bad though, it just sucked. :lol

I'm pretty impressed with the one I've got now though. XP is a lot snappier with the extra RAM too.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Ok, I might not be sending this 9800GT back after all :lol

With my hard drive actually running at full speed, the stuttering in games is much less frequent and noticeable. Crysis Warhead still stutters pretty bad on high settings but only when moving the camera. Everything else is running great. Fallout still recommends I use 800x600 though...no idea what that's about.

 

[Schrade]

So...is it normal for SATA HDDs to have jumpers on them that limit bandwidth? Because I just figured it out and...wow. I feel like a dope :lol

It's not normal but some will come pre-jumperblocked to 1.5. Pretty much any motherboard sold since about 3 years or so ago will not need that jumper on it.

 

[Wired]

Ok, I have a question for all you PC Nerds out there (just joking nerds, calm down). It has to do with my CPU temps, do they seem normal?

CPU: E8400 (E0)
Fan: Stock, changed the included thermal paste to some Artic Cooling MX-2
Idle: Around 26-28 degrees (Celsius)
Load: Around 56-57 degrees (Celsius, again... suck it Fahrenheit)

Core Temp was used to check the temperatures, is it reliable?

Orthos was used to stress the CPU (the "Small FFTs - stress CPU" option), used it for about 15 minutes before I was ready to kill myself and stopped.

Now I imagine this is about as good as it gets with a stock cooler, but do you think buying another fan for the front of the case would result in any tangible results? Not a easy question to answer I suppose, so feel free to skip it :lol

EDIT: AAAAAH, I opened up the case and rearranged some wired to increase airflow, and I guess one of the power wires or its connector is touching the case because I have this fuuuuuucking annoying vibrating sound coming from the case. But I'm too lazy to open it up and fix it now...

 

[Hazaro]

my CPU temps, do they seem normal?

Now I imagine this is about as good as it gets with a stock cooler, but do you think buying another fan for the front of the case would result in any tangible results?

EDIT: AAAAAH, I opened up the case and rearranged some wired to increase airflow, and I guess one of the power wires or its connector is touching the case because I have this fuuuuuucking annoying vibrating sound coming from the case. But I'm too lazy to open it up and fix it now...

Yes.
No.
Vibes are bad dood. Fix that.

 

[Ranger X]

Get at least a 22" monitor. Acer makes some nice cheap ones.
Get 6GB of RAM with Vista.
Get a cheaper PSU, you can knock off $80 at least right there.
Get a better GPU. If you are dropping 2k on a comp you shouldn't spare on that.

Actually, I've decided to go cheaper on the graphic card, ram and monitor in order to be able to afford the Core i7. Why? It's alot faster for multimedia and rendering. I will not game all that much on my PC. I will buy better ram and/or better graphic card down the road.

 

[Hazaro]

Actually, I've decided to go cheaper on the graphic card, ram and monitor in order to be able to afford the Core i7. Why? It's alot faster for multimedia and rendering. I will not game all that much on my PC. I will buy better ram and/or better graphic card down the road.

Just making sure you weren't doing something silly.
But spend another $40 to get a 22"
Cut $80 off the PSU, get a 500w (520/550) or so Corsair.
If you can upgrade the RAM, it makes a big difference in Vista although 3GB should hold you fine.

 

[Labombadog]

Ok, I have a question for all you PC Nerds out there (just joking nerds, calm down). It has to do with my CPU temps, do they seem normal?

CPU: E8400 (E0)
Fan: Stock, changed the included thermal paste to some Artic Cooling MX-2
Idle: Around 26-28 degrees (Celsius)
Load: Around 56-57 degrees (Celsius, again... suck it Fahrenheit)

Core Temp was used to check the temperatures, is it reliable?

Orthos was used to stress the CPU (the "Small FFTs - stress CPU" option), used it for about 15 minutes before I was ready to kill myself and stopped.

Now I imagine this is about as good as it gets with a stock cooler, but do you think buying another fan for the front of the case would result in any tangible results? Not a easy question to answer I suppose, so feel free to skip it :lol

EDIT: AAAAAH, I opened up the case and rearranged some wired to increase airflow, and I guess one of the power wires or its connector is touching the case because I have this fuuuuuucking annoying vibrating sound coming from the case. But I'm too lazy to open it up and fix it now...

The idle temps seems fine, but those load temps are REALLY high for being stock clocks (?). Make sure that the fan is correctly seated, and you didnt put too much thermal paste. Remember to only put like a grain of rice size on the CPU.

 

[Hazaro]

The idle temps seems fine, but those load temps are REALLY high for being stock clocks (?). Make sure that the fan is correctly seated, and you didnt put too much thermal paste. Remember to only put like a grain of rice size on the CPU.

Have you seen the 45nm stock coolers? :lol

 

[Ranger X]

Just making sure you weren't doing something silly.
But spend another $40 to get a 22"
Cut $80 off the PSU, get a 500w (520/550) or so Corsair.
If you can upgrade the RAM, it makes a big difference in Vista although 3GB should hold you fine.

Let's not go too fast, i'm behind the times witn computer hardware...

What's the PSU ?
And what is the Corsair thing your talking about? power supply?

I will buy 2gb brakets of DDR3 when they'll drop.

 

[Hazaro]

Let's not go too fast, i'm behind the times witn computer hardware...

What's the PSU ?
And what is the Corsair thing your talking about? power supply?

I will buy 2gb brakets of DDR3 when they'll drop.

Power supply. You are not coming anywhere near 800w. Especially with a 9800GT. More around ~330 ish tops.

This 450w is actually much cheaper.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003

They retain their value and upgrading is very simple, just in case you get a GTX 295 or something down the line:lol

 

[Wired]

The idle temps seems fine, but those load temps are REALLY high for being stock clocks (?). Make sure that the fan is correctly seated, and you didnt put too much thermal paste. Remember to only put like a grain of rice size on the CPU.

Have you seen the 45nm stock coolers? :lol

Yeah, the stock coolers aren't all that, I briefly debated buying a Thermalright Ultra-120 and a fan to go with it. But I was already $250 over my budget so I said "fuck it". Anyway I opened up the stupid computer (again) and reapplied the thermal paste. Now I wouldn't say I got exactly the amount of a grain of rice, the stupid tube is difficult to dose with, but it was less than what I used last time. There's no difference in temps as far as I can tell.

My brother have ordered a system with exactly the same parts, it should arrive on Monday I'll make sure to get fucking EXACTLY the right amount of paste and see what the results are then. I'm not opening the computer again before that damn it

EDIT: Ran the same test but used Real Temp (2.70) for temp readings and got 23 degrees at idle and 52 at full load. I don't know which program to trust more, some say that Real Temp give a more accurate reading for e8400's... who knows... Still, whatever the case these temps aren't going to kill my processor any time soon (*touches wood*, *throws salt over shoulder* and prays to various gods)

 

[rc213]

With a budget of $130 is there anything worth upgrading to from 9600GT SSC 512mb?

 

[Hazaro]

Now I wouldn't say I got exactly the amount of a grain of rice, the stupid tube is difficult to dose with, but it was less than what I used last time. There's no difference in temps as far as I can tell.
EDIT: Ran the same test but used Real Temp (2.70) for temp readings and got 23 degrees at idle and 52 at full load.

If you're not overclocking don't worry about it.
If you are using CoreTemp that is past 0.99 then the load temps should be about the same. I use RealTemp.

Extra paste doesn't hurt more than a few degrees unless you make some kind of cake out of it.

With a budget of $130 is there anything worth upgrading to from 9600GT SSC 512mb?

Not really. (Imo of course)

 

[Nos_G]

Hey guys I need opinions on getting a 2nd evga 9800gt in my rig.
Will my PSU provide enough power?.

The current setup is as follows:

ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe/HDMI AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 780a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

EVGA 512-P3-N973-TR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Antec True Power Trio TP3-550 550W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply with Three 12V Rails - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 3.1GHz Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor Model ADV60000DOBOX - Retail

OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2N1066SR2GK - Retail

Other things that are connected that possibly will draw power is a Logitech receiver for the MX3200.

Audio is onboard Soundmax HD, 1x LG DVD Dual Layer Writer, 1x 120gig IDE WD HDD, 1x floppy drive and 1x 120mm case fan.

All components are inside an Antec Sonata with no over-clocking, running WinXP.

 

[Blast Processing]

Thinking of buying a new comp. Best deal I found so far (sweden) seem to be a Dell, spec as follows,

Dell Studio XPS
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 920-processor (2,66GHz, 8 MB cache, 4,8 GT/s).
Operating System: Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 (64 bit).
Video Card: 512 MB ATI® Radeon® 4850.
Memory: 4096 MB (4 x 1 024), 1 067MHz DDR3.
Hard Drive: 750GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive.

~1000 euro.

Not sure about motherboard etc as it's not listed. Anyone have experience with Dell and know what kinda stuff they use?

Thankfull for all opinions about the build etc.

I just bought one of these, but with 6GB RAM and a 640 GB RAID 0 setup.

I did some looking around and thought about building my own, but trying to assemble a system around the Core i7 and DDR 3 memory on Newegg I was already getting to the price of this (about $1650 American, for the configuration I bought), and that was sans Keyboard & Mouse, Monitor, wifi adapter, etc.

The only thing that makes me wonder is that I read the PSU is only 350W, which might cause some trouble if I want to upgrade the GPU at any point. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. But I think the 4850 here should last me a good while, considering that I'm only just now am getting into PC gaming, and my backlog is the size of the moon.

Can anyone tell me if Dell PCs come with a lot of bloatware pre-installed?

 

[Ranger X]

I just bought one of these, but with 6GB RAM and a 640 GB RAID 0 setup.

I did some looking around and thought about building my own, but trying to assemble a system around the Core i7 and DDR 3 memory on Newegg I was already getting to the price of this (about $1650 American, for the configuration I bought), and that was sans Keyboard & Mouse, Monitor, wifi adapter, etc.

The only thing that makes me wonder is that I read the PSU is only 350W, which might cause some trouble if I want to upgrade the GPU at any point. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. But I think the 4850 here should last me a good while, considering that I'm only just now am getting into PC gaming, and my backlog is the size of the moon.

Can anyone tell me if Dell PCs come with a lot of bloatware pre-installed?

My present PC is Dell kit and there's quite alot of crap they suggest you. The most annoying is their dynamic doctor or whatever you call that thing telling you everything mr. everybody needs to know at every second and everything your do. BUT, you can disable it. They also have a recover and mine is doing some wierd network shit especially when I start Windows Live Messenger it suddendly slows down the whole thing for 2-3 mins. Anyways, it's old and shitty.

I replied to you because I wanted to tell you that it's true that they are fucking cheap with the power supply. It fact, their whole packages are made so it's harder to upgrade, they want you to buy another PC instead.

I'm in the same situation as you right now, it's exactly the package I want to buy but I'm waiting for next Monday so I call them and ask all the details about their motherboard. I don't even know If I have a free PCI Express x16 in there or if the power supply can handle it if I had my capture card and a second hard drive. Anyhow, I will ask them if they can customise my package to my needs.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Ordered the Thermalright Extreme 120 1366 today for $75 bucks from FrozenCPU.com today. After doing a ton of research over the past couple of days and in order to hit my 3.8-4.0GHz mark, I knew I would need some aftermarket cooling.

I'm chomping at the bit for my parts to get here so I can build this rig.

 

[Nif]

Quick question: Is it worth waiting for the i7/LGA1366 combo, or should I just buy the Core 2 Duo or Quad Core with the 775 mobo? I don't really want to spend more than $300-350 on both CPU/Mobo, but it seems late in the game to upgrade to a different dual core right now.

I currently have an AMD X2 3800+ 2GHz, so I'm not exactly desperate. Think i7 prices will come down before or around summer?

 

[Hazaro]

My present PC is Dell kit and there's quite alot of crap they suggest you. The most annoying is their dynamic doctor or whatever you call that thing telling you everything mr. everybody needs to know at every second and everything your do. BUT, you can disable it. They also have a recover and mine is doing some wierd network shit especially when I start Windows Live Messenger it suddendly slows down the whole thing for 2-3 mins. Anyways, it's old and shitty.

I replied to you because I wanted to tell you that it's true that they are fucking cheap with the power supply. It fact, their whole packages are made so it's harder to upgrade, they want you to buy another PC instead.

I'm in the same situation as you right now, it's exactly the package I want to buy but I'm waiting for next Monday so I call them and ask all the details about their motherboard. I don't even know If I have a free PCI Express x16 in there or if the power supply can handle it if I had my capture card and a second hard drive. Anyhow, I will ask them if they can customise my package to my needs.

Reformat.
Dell's mostly come with a 8800GT as top, which the PSU is rated for. I believe Dell actually has solid PSU's.

 

[Blast Processing]

I'm in the same situation as you right now, it's exactly the package I want to buy but I'm waiting for next Monday so I call them and ask all the details about their motherboard. I don't even know If I have a free PCI Express x16 in there or if the power supply can handle it if I had my capture card and a second hard drive. Anyhow, I will ask them if they can customise my package to my needs.

From this review:

Dell has long contracted its own motherboards, and here it opted for three PCI Express 1X slots in addition to the single 3D card slot. Our suspicion is that Dell decided against the second graphics card slot so that it wouldn't have to upgrade the 350-watt power supplies it already had lined up for its Studio desktop line. We don't require multigraphics card support in mainstream desktops, but we have a hunch you might find it hard to make use of all three 1x PCI Express slots. You should at least find a compatible wireless networking card.

I'm guessing the computer will come with the OS on a disc with whatever other junk they have on there to begin with, and even if you do a re-install (using that disc) you'll get all that crap back no matter what. It shouldn't be too much trouble to neutralize most of it, though, I wouldn't think.

 

[rc213]

If you're not overclocking don't worry about it.
If you are using CoreTemp that is past 0.99 then the load temps should be about the same. I use RealTemp.

Extra paste doesn't hurt more than a few degrees unless you make some kind of cake out of it.

Not really. (Imo of course)

Is it because it comes with the insane clocks already set? Thanks by the way, I guess I might look into replacing the Stock Intel Heatsink and try ocing the Q6600.

 

[Hazaro]

Is it because it comes with the insane clocks already set? Thanks by the way, I guess I might look into replacing the Stock Intel Heatsink and try ocing the Q6600.

Well it's not that much of an upgrade. Prices should drop relatively soon.
Imo it only makes sense to upgrade when you run into something unbearable or a really good deal. (I got bit by the upgrade bug however and it seems whenever a new good $200 ish card comes out I buy it) :lol

 

[rc213]

Well it's not that much of an upgrade. Prices should drop relatively soon.
Imo it only makes sense to upgrade when you run into something unbearable or a really good deal. (I got bit by the upgrade bug however and it seems whenever a new good $200 ish card comes out I buy it) :lol

Oh alright, I guess I should be happy with my $55 eVGA 9600GT SSC(<3 Anandtech Forums @3am). Also, Finally sold the 8800GT locally. 2x

Games are blazing fast going from 256mb to 512mb. Also the 181.20 Dets are shite.

 

[Hazaro]

Oh alright, I guess I should be happy with my $55 eVGA 9600GT SSC(<3 Anandtech Forums @3am). Also, Finally sold the 8800GT locally. 2x

Games are blazing fast going from 256mb to 512mb. Also the 181.20 Dets are shite.

So it was you who bumped my thread :lol
I mean I planned to stick with my 8800GTS (320) for a bit, but then I did a big upgrade to a 8800GT on launch day. 2 day air from Canada for $260 :lol Arrived the next day and couldn't of been happier. Then I got a nice deal on a GTX 260 so no doubt I'll bite on the new GPU when it comes out in time.