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[Rufus]

As far as I can see there shouldn't be any problem. Your mobo has a PCIe slot (the horizontal, blue slot one with the tab at the end) and your card seems to be PCIe as well. One thing though: the fan should be pointing down...
This is your card, right? http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/09/powercolor-radeon-hd-4850-pcs/5.jpg

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

Whoops, thanks for sorting that out :lol .

 

[SundaySounds]

Whoops, thanks for sorting that out :lol .

wait, so what happened?

 

[Rufus]

wait, so what happened?

I'm assuming he smacked his forehead really hard.

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

I had a stupid moment I guess :lol . My mobo only came with one SATA cable, and I have a SATA HDD and DVD drive, so I have to pick up another one tomorrow. I did supposedly finish it up, but it won't power on, guess I did something wrong with cabling. I'll look into it tomorrow and possibly take a picture when I get the other SATA cable.

 

[Dash]

I'm so torn whether to get a 5850 now, or wait and see what Nvidia comes out with in Q1. I've only had my 8800GT for two years, and I think for 1680x1050 resolution it should be able to play most games on max at 30FPS with the exception of Crysis/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Yet it's hard to resist the hype for the 5850. Erg, decisions!

 

[Minsc]

I'm so torn whether to get a 5850 now, or wait and see what Nvidia comes out with in Q1. I've only had my 8800GT for two years, and I think for 1680x1050 resolution it should be able to play most games on max at 30FPS with the exception of Crysis/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Yet it's hard to resist the hype for the 5850. Erg, decisions!

I think one should never upgrade a video card unless they are playing a game they are unhappy with the performance of, or it's a damned incredible deal that can't be missed, which is about the exact opposite of the 5800 cards with the inventory problems.

Simply buying a video card because of the hype (even if it is well deserved) is probably not much different than buying a console when there's no games you want to play on it. Sure, it's nice to have, but you're almost always better off waiting until there's things you actually need it for.

That said, a 5850/5870 will smoke a 8800GT

 

[blehh]

i caved and bought a 4770. the 4650 just wasn't cutting it for me. i guess the black friday steam sales transformed me into a pc gamer. one problem though, my wifi pci card is blocking my 4770's fan. not touching, but maybe 2cm away. will that affect my card?

 

[Dash]

I think one should never upgrade a video card unless they are playing a game they are unhappy with the performance of, or it's a damned incredible deal that can't be missed, which is about the exact opposite of the 5800 cards with the inventory problems.

Simply buying a video card because of the hype (even if it is well deserved) is probably not much different than buying a console when there's no games you want to play on it. Sure, it's nice to have, but you're almost always better off waiting until there's things you actually need it for.

That said, a 5850/5870 will smoke a 8800GT

Thanks for the advice. It makes me feel a bit better about not rushing out and getting a 5850 at these inflated prices.

 

[JRW]

I just finished building my new pc and with a new Caviar Black, I have a 5.9. I don't think you can get that up into the 7's without an SSD. I'd imagine a Velociraptor drive would be low 6's.

Ah thanks so guess ill stick with this one for now, Everything loads much quicker than previous PC anyhow lol. Ill upgrade to SSD eventually.

 

[Dash]

Ah thanks so guess ill stick with this one for now, Everything loads much quicker than previous PC anyhow lol. Ill upgrade to SSD eventually.

I like how it gives your processor a 0.2 higher score than the i5 750 at the same speed. I highly doubt whatever test its using to calculate the score is using the i7's hyperthreading, but you never know.

 

[JayDub]

I know GAF frowns upon laziness; but I would really appreciate some help. My MBP has just been stolen; so I need a new PC pronto. Im looking for expandability; so a good motherboard is a must. Also, yes; I am looking through brainstew's thread.

Primary Use: Gaming

My Budget: $500 (could change depending on what you advise)

These are the things Im looking for:

Case w/ good fan (it will be in an enclosed space)
PSU
decent DVD-RW drive
Good motherboard
decent CPU
decent GPU
decent RAM
wifi card

Im planning to update these in the coming months (in this order):

CPU
RAM
GPU

I already have:

Seagate 500GB 5200RPM HDD
Decent Dell Monitor

Usually, I'd do this myself but Im in need of a good computer by this weekend; so I would love to hear what you individually prefer given the criteria.

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

Got my PC running, I'm installing Windows now. The only thing that may be a problem is that there is a constant clicking sound coming from either the CPU heatsink or the PSU. Is the sound normal and just the consequence of having a stock heatsink?

 

[birdchili]

Got my PC running, I'm installing Windows now. The only thing that may be a problem is that there is a constant clicking sound coming from either the CPU heatsink or the PSU. Is the sound normal and just the consequence of having a stock heatsink?

clicking isn't good - probably a bad fan? my i5 stock fan is definitely the loudest thing in my case (easly more audible than a 5850 at idle), but it definitely doesn't make a clicking noise.

open your case and see if you can figure out what's making the noise.

 

[SundaySounds]

*sigh* okay. So I got my new build up and running and it's fucking tits. But my wireless card (Belkin F5D7000) doesn't run on windows 7 64bit. I've tried all the drivers on the belkin site, and I've tried like, a bazillion of W7's pre-installed drivers. all to no avail.

Any suggestions?

 

[Wallach]

Got my PC running, I'm installing Windows now. The only thing that may be a problem is that there is a constant clicking sound coming from either the CPU heatsink or the PSU. Is the sound normal and just the consequence of having a stock heatsink?

Sounds like either got a bad fan or you let a fan get caught up on a wire somewhere. Either way you need to check it out, make sure that "clicking" isn't actually "popping" coming out of the PSU.

 

[brain_stew]

*sigh* okay. So I got my new build up and running and it's fucking tits. But my wireless card (Belkin F5D7000) doesn't run on windows 7 64bit. I've tried all the drivers on the belkin site, and I've tried like, a bazillion of W7's pre-installed drivers. all to no avail.

Any suggestions?

Try and find what chipset it uses and download them drivers directly instead? I know my two wireless cards use Atheros chipsets despite totally different branding, the drivers for which can be downloaded from here:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/to...wlan-drivers-for-windows-7-and-vista-x86-x64/

Actually, that forum hosts drivers for all the popular wireless chipsets, worth trying them each individually.

 

[Wallach]

*sigh* okay. So I got my new build up and running and it's fucking tits. But my wireless card (Belkin F5D7000) doesn't run on windows 7 64bit. I've tried all the drivers on the belkin site, and I've tried like, a bazillion of W7's pre-installed drivers. all to no avail.

Any suggestions?

Un-install any of the Belkin drivers. Go back into the device manager and manually update the driver for the device. Choose the "Atheros Wireless Network Adapter driver". It will work with that card under Win 7.

 

[SundaySounds]

Brain_stew, you are a godsend. After tinkering around with the link you sent me I got it working. I needed the 5002G driver, but it had to be loaded from the 4th .ini file. THANKS!

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

Sounds like either got a bad fan or you let a fan get caught up on a wire somewhere. Either way you need to check it out, make sure that "clicking" isn't actually "popping" coming out of the PSU.

Well there isn't a caught wire as it was making the same sound when I had the back panel off and could see the insides. My CPU temperature is fine too (40 Celsius), so how can I tell if my PSU is the culprit? They're right next to each other and I can't tell which the sound is coming from, although I do think it is the heatsink.

 

[Wallach]

Well there isn't a caught wire as it was making the same sound when I had the back panel off and could see the insides. My CPU temperature is fine too (40 Celsius), so how can I tell if my PSU is the culprit? They're right next to each other and I can't tell which the sound is coming from, although I do think it is the heatsink.

Pull the CPU fan cable and turn the system on. You shouldn't need to run it long to figure out if the PSU is making the noise or not.

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

Pull the CPU fan cable and turn the system on. You shouldn't need to run it long to figure out if the PSU is making the noise or not.

Ok thanks, I'll try it after my brother finishes installing Crysis.

 

[TouchMyBox]

*sigh* okay. So I got my new build up and running and it's fucking tits. But my wireless card (Belkin F5D7000) doesn't run on windows 7 64bit. I've tried all the drivers on the belkin site, and I've tried like, a bazillion of W7's pre-installed drivers. all to no avail.

Any suggestions?

If you buy a new card, I reccommend the D-Link WDA-2320, I use it in the machines I build and it's a fantastic card, works out of the box with zero set-up in windows 7 32bit and 64bit, works great in XP and is well supported in major linux distributions. Great reception and minimal lag too.

 

[MoFuzz]

Primary Use: Gaming

My Budget: $500 (could change depending on what you advise)

These are the things Im looking for:

Case w/ good fan (it will be in an enclosed space)
PSU
decent DVD-RW drive
Good motherboard
decent CPU
decent GPU
decent RAM
wifi card

Im planning to update these in the coming months (in this order):

CPU
RAM
GPU

I already have:

Seagate 500GB 5200RPM HDD
Decent Dell Monitor

-What resolution will you be gaming at? You'll ideally want to match your LCD mon's native resolution.

-Where are you located? Need to know so that we can choose parts from the appropriate online retailers.

-That Seagate HDD sounds kind of old and a bit slow, is it a SATAII drive? If not, I'd suggest picking one up to replace it. They're pretty affordable nowadays.

 

[MoFuzz]

i caved and bought a 4770. the 4650 just wasn't cutting it for me. i guess the black friday steam sales transformed me into a pc gamer. one problem though, my wifi pci card is blocking my 4770's fan. not touching, but maybe 2cm away. will that affect my card?

The 4770 is pretty energy efficient as it is a newer card, but it still generates heat like any other GPU.

Are you not able to move the wifi card a few slots down, or are all the PCI slots full?

 

[thuway]

Alright GAF,

I have $600. Can I get a good idea of what type of performance to expect from that price range?

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

Pull the CPU fan cable and turn the system on. You shouldn't need to run it long to figure out if the PSU is making the noise or not.

Quiet as a whisper without the CPU fan. I'm quite sure its functioning properly as I checked stuff in the BIOS. Guess I'll get a new heatsink then.

 

[Wallach]

Quiet as a whisper without the CPU fan. I'm quite sure its functioning properly as I checked stuff in the BIOS. Guess I'll get a new heatsink then.

Could be a few things. Are you positive you have your HSF clips in properly? It could be "clicking" because one of the pins is not properly seated into the motherboard slots and the fan rotation is causing it to shift repeatedly. I can't think of much else that would cause a clicking noise in a HSF using lubed bearings...

 

[Wallach]

Alright GAF,

I have $600. Can I get a good idea of what type of performance to expect from that price range?

Do you have any components (KB/M, case, any drives) that are going to be re-utilized or are you buying everything?

 

[brain_stew]

Alright GAF,

I have $600. Can I get a good idea of what type of performance to expect from that price range?

Very good I'd say. A whole bunch of titles will run at 1080p/60fps if you go with say a Athlon ii X3 and a 5770 and you'll get decent settings/frames out of any game on the market. Expect around ~4x the performance you get with a console.

Edit: Try this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136167

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161317

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.304805

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103724

$590 + $10 MIR

If you can afford an extra $50 switch the CPU to this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103656

It'll be an excellent rig either way though.

 

[Wallach]

Very good I'd say. A whole bunch of titles will run at 1080p/60fps if you go with say a Athlon ii X3 and a 5770 and you'll get decent settings/frames out of any game on the market.

Now, the 5770 is the 128-bit re-brand of the 4870? Or do I have that mixed up with something else? Their numbering scheme got weird on me since I last paid attention to ATI.

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

Could be a few things. Are you positive you have your HSF clips in properly? It could be "clicking" because one of the pins is not properly seated into the motherboard slots and the fan rotation is causing it to shift repeatedly. I can't think of much else that would cause a clicking noise in a HSF using lubed bearings...

I made sure everything was tight and I didn't see anything shaking when it was on with the panel open. It's not too loud (Just annoying :lol ), so I do think its meant to be like that.

 

[Minsc]

Now, the 5770 is the 128-bit re-brand of the 4870? Or do I have that mixed up with something else? Their numbering scheme got weird on me since I last paid attention to ATI.

5770 performs not too far off, but it is a big makeover, DX11, new improved lower power usage, lower temps etc.

It's a little confusing with the numbers as a higher number doesn't necessarily mean a faster card, but they seemed to carry the same numbering schemes from the 4000 series to the 5000 ones, so a 5870 is a little faster than a 5850 similar to how a 4870 is a little faster than a 4850.

 

[Wallach]

5770 performs not too far off, but it is a big makeover, DX11, new improved lower power usage, lower temps etc.

It's a little confusing with the numbers as a higher number doesn't necessarily mean a faster card, but they seemed to carry the same numbering schemes from the 4000 series to the 5000 ones, so a 5870 is a little faster than a 5850 similar to how a 4870 is a little faster than a 4850.

I'll have to look into it more. I have just not wanted to actually run an ATI card in my own rigs for some time now. I built a 4850 rig for someone about a year ago, and I still can't stand their damn drivers. At the moment though I am not particularly impressed with nVidia's spread (still using my 9800 GTX+), but I will probably wait until after the new year.

 

[thuway]

Very good I'd say. A whole bunch of titles will run at 1080p/60fps if you go with say a Athlon ii X3 and a 5770 and you'll get decent settings/frames out of any game on the market. Expect around ~4x the performance you get with a console.

For my $600 build I currently have:

1. A 1080p 27 inch Monitor w/ HDMI
2. Wireless Key board and Mouse
3. External Webcam
4. External 1.5 TB drive

Now for my PC, I am hoping I can get some of these goals met:

1. Play PC games until the next gen, while besting current gen ports.

2. Emulate PS2 / Saturn games and play that Final Fantasy XII and ICO at those blistering resolutions and framerates.

3. Have the bells and whistles like bluetooth, USB 3.0, AND DECENT audio out. Nothing too fancy, but enough to satisfy myself.

---

Also one last thing, should I up my budget and go for a 5870 and opposed to a 5770? Is the performance increase worth the extra bucks? I'm trying to go for middle of the road bang for your buck PC here .

 

[brain_stew]

I was thinking I'd go with a 5870 and up the price just a bit. Is there difference between the 5870 and the 5770 that much?

I have a wireless keyboard and mouse than be reused as well as a Windows 7 cd, and I also have a extern 1tb harddrive.

I was thinking I'd want something thats somewhat future proof that will last me a few years so I can upgrade atleast once without changing the mobo around and maybe getting a better gfx card somewhere in the future in the next two years.

Definitely get the faster CPU (the Phenom ii X4) if you get a 5870 or you may bottleneck it. AM3 is the platform with the best range of possible future upgrades so it suits your needs quite well imo. That PSU specified will run either card just fine.

When it comes to priceerformance a 5870 is inevitably overpriced for what it is, it comes with the territory of high end GPUs. If you don't have extreme demands on framerates and IQ then a 5770 + money in the kitty for a GPU upgrade in ~two years may be a better use of funds as long as your aren't gaming at resolutions higher than 1080p. It all depends what sort of graphics/frames/IQ/resolution you personally demand.

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

Has there been any news on 5850/5870 stock? I'm looking to get one within about 2 months, but I can only get them at inflated prices on Ebay.

 

[brain_stew]

Has there been any news on 5850/5870 stock? I'm looking to get one within about 2 months, but I can only get them at inflated prices on Ebay.

300k have sold already (plus 500k 57xx series GPUs), so supply hasn't been completely horrible its just that demand is sky high. Supply has increased now but as long as demand remains higher than supply, the price premium will remain. They're pretty easy to find now (Newegg has half a dozen different models of both 5850s and 5870s for sale for instance) but you'll have to pay above RRP.

 

[thuway]

Definitely get the faster CPU (the Phenom ii X4) if you get a 5870 or you may bottleneck it. AM3 is the platform with the best range of possible future upgrades so it suits your needs quite well imo. That PSU specified will run either card just fine.

When it comes to priceerformance a 5870 is inevitably overpriced for what it is, it comes with the territory of high end GPUs. If you don't have extreme demands on framerates and IQ then a 5770 + money in the kitty for a GPU upgrade in ~two years may be a better use of funds as long as your aren't gaming at resolutions higher than 1080p. It all depends what sort of graphics/frames/IQ/resolution you personally demand.

I edited my post, can you read it again . Thank you for your help, I'm a total n00b (on a netbook here), and I saw Street Fighter IV on my friends ATI 4550 and was blown away .

 

[Minsc]

I'll have to look into it more. I have just not wanted to actually run an ATI card in my own rigs for some time now. I built a 4850 rig for someone about a year ago, and I still can't stand their damn drivers. At the moment though I am not particularly impressed with nVidia's spread (still using my 9800 GTX+), but I will probably wait until after the new year.

Definitely check in to it, their drivers seem better to me now. The Windows 7 CCC isn't nearly as annoying, I successfully uninstalled them completely for a driver upgrade with no issues, and I'm slowly running through my 200+ games, of which 50 or so I've gone through so far have no issues preventing me from playing them on max settings.

The 9.12 drivers which are due out any day have reported improved performance by quite a bit, and the 9.13 drivers will be adding in 3D support in videos (a start anyway). Combined with the extremely low temperatures and idle power usage, it was a simple decision for me to go with ATI, the only real drawback is the whole 3D Vision thing, which who knows, maybe they'll add it in one day, or even if it's not until the 6000-series cards, it wouldn't be the worst thing, since my 24" MVA is quite nice, and I'd hate to by a new 120hz monitor just for a feature that really can't run at 60fps anyway.

Plus I get audio + video over a single cable to my Kuro, which nVidia doesn't allow for.

 

[TaKeRx]

Recently got a bonus from my job, so now I have about $1200 to spend on a gaming PC. I have been wanting to do this for a while, but couldn't. Any recommendations?

 

[Wallach]

Definitely check in to it, their drivers seem better to me now. The Windows 7 CCC isn't nearly as annoying, I successfully uninstalled them completely for a driver upgrade with no issues, and I'm slowly running through my 200+ games, of which 50 or so have no issues preventing me from playing them on max settings.

The 9.12 drivers which are due out any day have reported improved performance by quite a bit, and the 9.13 drivers will be adding in 3D support in videos (a start anyway). Combined with the extremely low temperatures and idle power usage, it was a simple decision for me to go with ATI, the only real drawback is the whole 3D Vision thing, which who knows, maybe they'll add it in one day, or even if it's not until the 6000-series cards, it wouldn't be the worst thing, since my 24" MVA is quite nice, and I'd hate to by a new 120hz monitor just for a feature that really can't run at 60fps anyway.

Plus I get audio + video over a single cable to my Kuro, which nVidia doesn't allow for.

That's actually what's making me look into it, the 5770 power usage, heat and noise levels all look fantastic for the performance. I guess that comes with being able to put out a 40nm chip. I'm just not certain how much of a boost it would be worth over my 9800 GTX+.

Edit - By the way, those 9.12 drivers are out now.

 

[brain_stew]

I edited my post, can you read it again . Thank you for your help, I'm a total n00b (on a netbook here), and I saw Street Fighter IV on my friends ATI 4550 and was blown away .

That's a horrible card! :lol

Even a 5770 should give you ~10x the performance of that so I doubt you'll be disapointed with one if you didn't find the 4550s performance utterly horrible! A 5870 is just way out of budget imo, a 5770 should more than meat your goals.

You're probably going to have to do some OCing to get PCSX 2.0 to a flawless standard, you can invest in an aftermarket cooler and push for ~3.6ghz+ or just try for 3.2ghz on stock volts/cooling which should be enough for what you're after.

720p console ports should generally run at twice the framerate @ 1080p and with a few extra bells and whistles.

 

[brain_stew]

That's actually what's making me look into it, the 5770 power usage, heat and noise levels all look fantastic for the performance. I guess that comes with being able to put out a 40nm chip. I'm just not certain how much of a boost it would be worth over my 9800 GTX+.

Not worth it imo, its faster, sure, but not by any huge margin. Wait for a 6770.

 

[Wallach]

Not worth it imo, its faster, sure, but not by any huge margin. Wait for a 6770.

I think I probably will. I'd like to see nVidia's next offerings as well. I want to see them put out another 8800 GT class card.

 

[Gully State]

It's amazing to think how well the 8800 GT still holds up despite being a 2 year old card. It singlehandedly busts the myth that you have to upgrade every year to play the latest PC games at high quality.

 

[brain_stew]

It's amazing to think how well the 8800 GT still holds up despite being a 2 year old card. It singlehandedly busts the myth that you have to upgrade every year to play the latest PC games at high quality.

Add the E6600 to that list as well, still a great gaming CPU, especially if you're willing to OC, and why wouldn't you be, who doesn't want a 50% performance boost for free?

 

[Dash]

It's amazing to think how well the 8800 GT still holds up despite being a 2 year old card. It singlehandedly busts the myth that you have to upgrade every year to play the latest PC games at high quality.

Yeah it's a great card. It still can't really play Crysis on enthusiast at 1650x1080 at a decent frame rate though .

 

[Wallach]

Add the E6600 to that list as well, still a great gaming CPU, especially if you're willing to OC, and why wouldn't you be, who doesn't want a 50% performance boost for free?

Indeed. How I wish I had not gone with my X2 6000 around that time.

On that note, I'm pretty impressed with the i5 750. Sucker OCs pretty darn well on air, though maybe I'm just used to my X2's definition of "OC". :lol

 

[Gully State]

Yeah it's a great card. It still can't really play Crysis on enthusiast at 1650x1080 at a decent frame rate though .

But you have to remember that the none of the cards that came out at that time could anyways...