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Official "I need a new PC!!" 2009 Edition
- Thread starter VictimOfGrief
- Start date
Re posted from previous page.
I based the following off the spec's valve released in a news post today, it's the parts used for their current computers. I did the numbers for what they're upgrading to, but the total was an extra thousand and seemed a little overboard for my needs.
I just need something which will run the current generation of PC games at a smooth 60fps and will continue to do so for at least a year or 2 more before I need to upgrade. So I'm posting here to see what you all think of the below, any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm not very knowledgeable with the PC innards.
EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW $429.70
http://tinyurl.com/ajh7ng
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz $475.20
http://tinyurl.com/bm5fqd
4GB PC2-8500 DDR2 1066MHz $111.80
http://tinyurl.com/au8n6f
NVidia GTX280 1GB $568.80
http://tinyurl.com/byvnga
2 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA HD $242.80
http://tinyurl.com/dkag7q
Antec Three Hundred Tower $120.60
http://tinyurl.com/ahk5qe
CPU Cooler for Intel LGA775 $65.10
http://tinyurl.com/ahys5v
850W Antec power supply $313.60
http://tinyurl.com/dhseyj
XP Professional 32bit SP3 OEM $252.00
http://tinyurl.com/cprahy
TOTAL $2579.60 (Australian)
I based the following off the spec's valve released in a news post today, it's the parts used for their current computers. I did the numbers for what they're upgrading to, but the total was an extra thousand and seemed a little overboard for my needs.
I just need something which will run the current generation of PC games at a smooth 60fps and will continue to do so for at least a year or 2 more before I need to upgrade. So I'm posting here to see what you all think of the below, any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm not very knowledgeable with the PC innards.
EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW $429.70
http://tinyurl.com/ajh7ng
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz $475.20
http://tinyurl.com/bm5fqd
4GB PC2-8500 DDR2 1066MHz $111.80
http://tinyurl.com/au8n6f
NVidia GTX280 1GB $568.80
http://tinyurl.com/byvnga
2 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA HD $242.80
http://tinyurl.com/dkag7q
Antec Three Hundred Tower $120.60
http://tinyurl.com/ahk5qe
CPU Cooler for Intel LGA775 $65.10
http://tinyurl.com/ahys5v
850W Antec power supply $313.60
http://tinyurl.com/dhseyj
XP Professional 32bit SP3 OEM $252.00
http://tinyurl.com/cprahy
TOTAL $2579.60 (Australian)
spermatic cord
Member
Hey guys, I currently have a Dell Dimension 9100. The current graphics card is a Nvidia Quadro NVS 285. I want to play .mkv files better since when I try to play them on this computer it'll stutter a lot. I'm assuming this is because of my graphics card.
What I want to buy is either a ATI Radeon HD 3650
Or a 3450
I'm leaning towards the 3450 since I want to spend the least amount of money. Would this be a good buy if I wanted to play HD video without stuttering? I have 3.2 GB of RAM and Pentium D CPU 3.00 GHz.
What I want to buy is either a ATI Radeon HD 3650
Or a 3450
I'm leaning towards the 3450 since I want to spend the least amount of money. Would this be a good buy if I wanted to play HD video without stuttering? I have 3.2 GB of RAM and Pentium D CPU 3.00 GHz.
rohlfinator
Member
I think AVIVO can accelerate any h.264 video, so if that's what the MKV is using, the 3450 should be fine.rc213 said:
Labombadog
Member
So I ended up building my friends rig:
Antec 1200
Q9550
ATI 4870
4GB G.Skill RAM
EP45-U3DP
I ended up overclocking his PC to 3.6Ghz without much effort. I could of tried further, but I did not have enough time to try it out. I also did a light overclock to his GPU, but I only increased the core and memory by like 75mhz. I was very impressed with his PC, and he was truly blown away by it. This is the best build I ever built.
Antec 1200
Q9550
ATI 4870
4GB G.Skill RAM
EP45-U3DP
I ended up overclocking his PC to 3.6Ghz without much effort. I could of tried further, but I did not have enough time to try it out. I also did a light overclock to his GPU, but I only increased the core and memory by like 75mhz. I was very impressed with his PC, and he was truly blown away by it. This is the best build I ever built.
Crazymoogle
Member
iain said:
Aussie prices are really unfortunate; The SLI FTW in particular could be had with memory for cheaper than the retail motherboard price you list, and even on US newegg you'd probably save a hundred dollars there (not that either ship international...). In any case, if you're okay with the motherboard price, then it seems like a reasonable system. (Not sure why you want to go double drive though...are you doing RAID0?)
XP is more expensive now because MS has no interest in selling it. Personally, I'd hold out for Windows 7 if I could (or go Vista Premium 64 until it comes out) but nothing really wrong with XP. The 4GB thing mentioned is true - realistically you will only see around ~2.5-3GB depending on how much videocard memory you have, but memory is so cheap at DDR2, and so plentifully available in 2x2GB configs that I wouldn't shy away from 4GB no matter the setup.
can someone explain the difference between P45 and P43? Im stuck between these 2 Asus mobos. The P45 is usually more expensive, but because of a rebate is 7 dollars cheap than the P43.
P43
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=710&l4=0&model=2307&modelmenu=2
P45
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=709&l4=0&model=2429&modelmenu=2
i dont see any major differences. however, the P43 one has this extra little note:
VRM 5000hrs lifespan @105°C, 500,000hrs @65°C
eh????
P43
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=710&l4=0&model=2307&modelmenu=2
P45
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=709&l4=0&model=2429&modelmenu=2
i dont see any major differences. however, the P43 one has this extra little note:
VRM 5000hrs lifespan @105°C, 500,000hrs @65°C
eh????
Metalic Sand
who is Emo-Beas?
Ashhong said:
Mylogo 2? Doesnt do a whole lot but i gotta admit it is pretty cool.
I'm in the market for a laptop to replace my desktop permanently. Ever since I got my netbook I haven't really touched my desktop and I would like something semi-powerful to complement my EeePC. Gaming for the most part will be out of the question. The most I will do is maybe play some TF2 or L4D (and that will most likely be quite rare). Not interested in running Crysis or anything like that. I do definitely want a dedicated graphics card. I will be mostly using it for DJ programs like Torq, Reason 4, and perhaps Ableton Live.
I was thinking about this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117887
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114631
Any suggestions?
I was thinking about this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117887
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114631
Any suggestions?
Metalic Sand said:
more specifically i like the ExpressGate which allows you to turn on some small OS in 5 seconds to check email and other things instead of going into windows. Also they have some kind of system that controls the ram, gpu, cpu, and HD and adjusts their power based on usage. And something called AInap which basically puts the comp to sleep, except not all the way. downloads and stuff still function but it uses like a fraction of the power.
still confused on the P45 vs P43 though..
Ashhong said:
It looks like the P45 board also has the ICH10R chipset which supports raid.
Intel has descriptions of the chipsets on their website:
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/chipsets/index.htm?iid=chipsets_body+dt_all
CurlySaysX
Banned
Hello NeoGaffers. 
I have a question which I have and would much appreciate if it was answered.
Reading thru this thread I have come to the conclusion that xp32 can only detect a maximum amount of 3.5gigs combined b/w the SuperVGA card and the DDR2 ram.
I have 4 giga DDR2 rams and a 1giga rams SuperVGA card and my windows properties shows that my pc is detecting 3.5giga rams.
My Question is;
Does this mean that xp32 is only using 3 giga rams of my DDR2 and only 500mbs of my superVGA card?
If so would upgrading to WindowsX64 provide a performance boost? Is XP64 any good these days?
Many Thanks to anyone that bothers answering/reading my question.
I have a question which I have and would much appreciate if it was answered.
Reading thru this thread I have come to the conclusion that xp32 can only detect a maximum amount of 3.5gigs combined b/w the SuperVGA card and the DDR2 ram.
I have 4 giga DDR2 rams and a 1giga rams SuperVGA card and my windows properties shows that my pc is detecting 3.5giga rams.
My Question is;
Does this mean that xp32 is only using 3 giga rams of my DDR2 and only 500mbs of my superVGA card?
If so would upgrading to WindowsX64 provide a performance boost? Is XP64 any good these days?
Many Thanks to anyone that bothers answering/reading my question.
Minsc
Gold Member
CurlySaysX said:
I would stay far, far away from XP64, and even if you did upgrade to it, other than the 32 -> 64 bit performance increase of a few programs (which would probably be greatly offset by nothing running anymore), the extra RAM would most likely be completely unnoticeable.
You'd just need to check your memory usage now (ctrl+shift+esc), to see if you're even approaching those 3 gigs, I highly doubt it. I'm only around 1 gig of used memory with ~75 processes running from normal usage.
rohlfinator
Member
How does the Core 2 Duo E7400 perform, gaming-wise?
My brother is going to need a PC for college, and I noticed that this Dell Vostro 220 looks like a really nice deal. Seems like it could be a decent budget gaming rig after upgrading it with a 4670 or a 4830.
The E7400 is a bit slower and has less cache than the E8400, but am I correct in assuming that it'll be fast enough to handle most games competently?
My brother is going to need a PC for college, and I noticed that this Dell Vostro 220 looks like a really nice deal. Seems like it could be a decent budget gaming rig after upgrading it with a 4670 or a 4830.
The E7400 is a bit slower and has less cache than the E8400, but am I correct in assuming that it'll be fast enough to handle most games competently?
brain_stew
Member
rohlfinator said:
Yes, it'll perform just fine. The difference between a 3MB and 4MB cache chip is negligible at best.
rohlfinator
Member
Awesome, thanks. I'm kind of blown away at how cheap that machine is.brain_stew said:
This thread reminds me of myself, when I get drunk and stumble through the dark to the kitchen, only to realize I was looking for the bathroom instead. I usually end up pissing in the microwave.
In other words, there's not a lot of PC expertise on GAF, is there?
EDIT: I should have pointed, specifically, to the XP x64 hate.
In other words, there's not a lot of PC expertise on GAF, is there?
EDIT: I should have pointed, specifically, to the XP x64 hate.
brain_stew
Member
jimmypop said:
We're in a minority, but of the few that are here, there's some vastly knowledgeable, helpful and intelligent posters.
Just popping back in this thread to ask whether or not anyone has heard or seen anything new in terms of the Mobility Radeon 4850 & 4870 and whether or not any manufacturers have jumped on and are currently making notebooks with those cards in them. I can't bear looking at laptops with great options and seeing them be crippled with a 9600M GT and I figure playing the waiting game is fun and all, but it doesn't help when I don't have any reliable news coming my way.
XP64 was never widely adopted and it suffered from neglect. If all your programs and devices actually are supported on XP64, it's fine. If not, the problems will never be fixed.jimmypop said:
Hell, it's not even sold anymore. If you're going to upgrade OS's, Vista is and will continue to be better supported. And it's actually for sale.
How could you possibly advise someone to choose XP 64?
brain_stew
Member
jimmypop said:
Well (as I'm sure you'll know) your current rig will cope just fine with anything out there but getting rid of such a huge power hog/room warmer probably isn't a bad idea either.
Slavik81 said:
I cycle through lots of devices, and I installed dozens of games on x64. I began using x64 in late 2004, and while the driver situation was very poor back then, by mid-2006 there weren't many issues. I've yet to run into a program or a piece of contemporary hardware that would refuse to run under XPx64. To say that the driver or hardware support situation on XP x64 is inadequate is to have not used the OS for the better part of three years.
I'm not suggesting that anyone upgrade to it now. But I never understood the animosity, and statements such as "suffered from neglect" are not accurate.
Minsc
Gold Member
jimmypop said:
Probably because it's true. Just reading through reviews and benchmarks shows basically 0 improvements, and plagues of driver issues. Best of all, you don't even get support for a lot of problems running a XP x64.
And the RAM? Unless you do 3D rendering or graphic design, you'd be hard pressed to notice a difference. XP's footprint is half that of Vista. XP doesn't need 4+ gigs of RAM, and games don't benefit from it either.
jimmypop said:
I don't have XP 64 to test every game I own but I suspect out of the 400+ I have I could find a few exception as well as with a lot of the oddball hardware I have laying around. Off the top of my head I don't believe either DosBox or Gametap will work with XP 64 which are pretty major for me. Also my XFX wireless joystick doesn't have XP 64 bit drivers.
Edit - looks like DosBox does have a 64bit version now but Gametap doesn't from what I can tell.
Minsc
Gold Member
larvi said:
How does XP x64 handle Starforce protected games? Wasn't there a rather big issue about getting starforce drivers working correctly for 32-bit games on XP x64? I believe it was a big problem when it comes to older games using starforce, though I suppose you can use a cracked .exe (which will keep you from using the newest updates sometimes & online play).
I still haven't seen any benefits for gaming on x64 mentioned.
Minsc
Gold Member
Here's an interesting site, from microsoft. It's for Vista 64-bit, but I imagine most of those would also apply to XP x64 as well.
Looks to be over 300 games, but a lot of fluff.
Looks to be over 300 games, but a lot of fluff.
Minsc said:
OK, I'll bite. Show me a contemporary list of driver issues.
Minsc said:
Oh, thanks for the info! You'd better fire up your flux capacitor and hit up Xtremesystems and ocforums circa 2005. You could have saved those gamers and benchmarkers thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.
Also, that Vista64 compatibility list? I've played a handful of those games on Vista64, so I'm not sure how they're gauging "incompatible". Could be as simple as not showing up in the Games browser due to how the legacy icon was created, maybe? I'm not sure.
godhandiscen
There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
It is over 2 years old afaik.Darklord said:
Darklord said:
For a new build, yes it is outdated. But I have mine overclocked to 3.2 and it is definitely up to almost all software currently out. The only problem is on older games that really only use one core it is not the best. For example, NWN2 for me doesn't run like it should for a older game.
VictimOfGrief
Banned
I think the Windows shift is happening where now the 32-bit version is truly the "consumer" version of Windows and the 64-bit versions are the "pro-sumer" versions for the people that actually want more than 4GB of RAM and higher end performance available to them.
If you really want a good understanding, there's always Wiki
If you really want a good understanding, there's always Wiki
godhandiscen
There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
It is not that. Old Quads speed per clock is not as high. That is the problem.Darklord said:
What processors are compatible with your mobo?