xenorevlis
Member
Here is my case "in action" and a shot of the CPU through the nifty little CPU/ram window.
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Official "I need a new PC!!" 2009 Edition
- Thread starter VictimOfGrief
- Start date
TouchMyBox
Member
Okay, so I happened upon this post on Fudzilla http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12536&Itemid=1
Now, my question is where are my fellow Canadians buying their videocards? I'm looking at canadacomputers, ncix, newegg.ca, and they are all selling GTX 260s between $250 after MIR, and $350. Is border-hopping the only solution to this?
Now, my question is where are my fellow Canadians buying their videocards? I'm looking at canadacomputers, ncix, newegg.ca, and they are all selling GTX 260s between $250 after MIR, and $350. Is border-hopping the only solution to this?
fatigues_gasolini
Member
xenorevlis said:
Well then, Im quite the jackass then. Carryon.
evil solrac v3.0 said:
The one you quoted me on was my original pc i came up with. I think I just went to the i7 section and started putting the parts together. I don't think it was a particular system.
Thanks for the comments moogle. With regard to monitor size, I was thinking of a 24''. Would A 4870 1GB would still be ok for that size or should I look back into the X2 or a GeForce alternative?
Crazymoogle
Member
TouchMyBox said:
Well, that's a recent price drop so you have to give the canadian dealers some time to price match. :lol
Anyway, you can find the EVGA part on Newegg Canada for $256, which is basically $199 after conversion, and then the $20 MIR puts it in exactly the same ballpark as the article you talked about.
That being said, you can't expect the canadian stores to be very quick in price matching the US since they have to swallow devaluation differences. They typically catch up by using sales; for example, like the one NCIX starts every wednesday night.
rohlfinator
Member
Depends on the resolution and what kind of framerates you want. 24" monitors are generally 1920x1080 or 1920x1200. At those resolutions, the 4870 will be able to handle anything other than Crysis at playable framerates (45-60+). If you want a higher resolution or better framerates, you'll need to look into a faster card (or tweak a few settings below maximum).Smokey said:
For my preferences, the 4870 1GB seems like a fine card for that resolution, but everyone has their own tolerances for framerates and graphical quality.
So I've been measuring my temperatures and while maxing the system out in long intensive gaming systems, I'm seeing a high of:
66C on my cpu
62C on my gpu
62C on my hottest hard drive
Are those temps going to kill the parts? I'm thinking about getting a fan, but I've never used a fan before and I'm not sure where it goes? My case is pretty full with my new power supply and it's billions of cables (which is why I can't close the case):
I know the solution is to get a bigger case, but I can't afford one right now.
66C on my cpu
62C on my gpu
62C on my hottest hard drive
Are those temps going to kill the parts? I'm thinking about getting a fan, but I've never used a fan before and I'm not sure where it goes? My case is pretty full with my new power supply and it's billions of cables (which is why I can't close the case):
I know the solution is to get a bigger case, but I can't afford one right now.
Crazymoogle
Member
Smokey said:
22" = 1680x1050
24" = 1920x1200
27" = 1920x1200
30" = 2560x1600
At 24" you want to take an active interest in the kind of monitor you're buying. The Dell Ultrasharps are among the best, usually. A 4870 is fine, for the moment, but not really a long term solution at high resolution. If you're okay with playing games in a window (or simply scaling down to a lower res) it should be fine for awhile though.
The big advantage of X2 configs is that it takes a lot of burden off processing at higher resolutions or when AA is concerned - at something like 1680x1050 (~1.7m pixels) there's not much difference between a single card and an crossfire config. At 1920x1200 (2.3m pixels) the bar gets blurred. At 2560x1600 (3.0m pixels) the extra power is huge. If you run lower res and turn off AA, single cards get a lot more mileage.
Since it sounds like you are looking for a long term videocard, I think you have to take a serious look at the X2 (or GTX295). The videocard seems to be the one thing that get's out of date the fastest, so you really may want to either go big now or go cheap now and expect an upgrade a year or two down the line.
Crazymoogle
Member
*You encounter a Cable Monster.
[ FIGHT / UPGRADE / FLEE / ITEM ]
You *really* need to deal with those cables. Temps are higher when the case is open because airflow is sort of thrown out the window. And to be honest, unless you're really overclocking, you could just have some sort of temp calibration issue.
As for the fans, you'd have to experiment; I can never keep it straight as to where they should be pointed in or out of a particular section of the case.
[ FIGHT / UPGRADE / FLEE / ITEM ]
Bebpo said:
You *really* need to deal with those cables. Temps are higher when the case is open because airflow is sort of thrown out the window. And to be honest, unless you're really overclocking, you could just have some sort of temp calibration issue.
As for the fans, you'd have to experiment; I can never keep it straight as to where they should be pointed in or out of a particular section of the case.
Yeah, the insides were so nice and pretty until I got my new power supply. The side door of the case has a big scoop thing that lets the motherboard fan directly reach the air outside the case. But this means that entire open area around it is taken up by the scoop so the cables can't go there. There's really nowhere to put the cables in this case. Until I buy a new case I'm just going to have to leave them hanging.
Crazymoogle
Member
Bebpo said:
Are you sure about that? I think if you strip back the mesh and use some twist ties you should be able to nest most of it in the 5.25" drive bay area. May need to rewire a few power cables though.
Another question after using my 9800GT for a week now:
The only snag I have run into when going component out to my CRT HDTV is that if I set my desktop at a 4:3 resolution like 1024x768, the card stretches it to widescreen. My tv doesn't have a squish option to compress it back to 4:3. This is a problem for playing pre-widescreen games on my tv.
I spent a few nights digging around online and it seems like if you are hooked to a monitor through DVI there is a display option called "fixed panel display settings" under which you can select "fixed aspect ratio scaling". But when hooked to my crt hdtv that tab isn't there.
A temporary solution I've done is to just tell the card to output in 480p instead of 720p/1080i. This gives a 4:3 signal. For oooold games that run in 640x480 or less this works fine. But for more modern games that just don't support widescreen, I'm stuck between playing them at 640x480 on my tv (so they look like Xbox1 games), or 1280x1024 on my monitor. The picture quality difference is INCREDIBLE though. It's really near impossible for me to play anything on my old lcd after seeing it on my tv. The black levels and colors just don't compare, and the bigger tv size is nice.
An ideal solution would be for some kind of software to have my stretched desktop squished back to 4:3.
Anyone know anything about this?
The only snag I have run into when going component out to my CRT HDTV is that if I set my desktop at a 4:3 resolution like 1024x768, the card stretches it to widescreen. My tv doesn't have a squish option to compress it back to 4:3. This is a problem for playing pre-widescreen games on my tv.
I spent a few nights digging around online and it seems like if you are hooked to a monitor through DVI there is a display option called "fixed panel display settings" under which you can select "fixed aspect ratio scaling". But when hooked to my crt hdtv that tab isn't there.
A temporary solution I've done is to just tell the card to output in 480p instead of 720p/1080i. This gives a 4:3 signal. For oooold games that run in 640x480 or less this works fine. But for more modern games that just don't support widescreen, I'm stuck between playing them at 640x480 on my tv (so they look like Xbox1 games), or 1280x1024 on my monitor. The picture quality difference is INCREDIBLE though. It's really near impossible for me to play anything on my old lcd after seeing it on my tv. The black levels and colors just don't compare, and the bigger tv size is nice.
An ideal solution would be for some kind of software to have my stretched desktop squished back to 4:3.
Anyone know anything about this?
dasupremeone
Member
I have a 9800 GT, is it worthwhile to upgrade to a GT 260?
xenorevlis
Member
Didn't see it that way when you originally made the comment about ram being overkill. No worries; I'm not the type of poster who gets offended over nothinggamerecks said:
I've never really toyed with overclocking other than the pre-defined controls on my old Asus AI motherboard that automated the process. Read that I can throw the 920 upwards of 3-3.2GHz along with a matching increase in RAM. Still not ready to "touch" the controls to avoid any chance of damaging my brand new rig.
Any suggestions on how to go about it?
VictimOfGrief
Banned
More so to a 285 for the longer run. I just upgraded from a 9800GT to a 285 and it's frankly amazing.dasupremeone said:
dasupremeone
Member
I know, but the 260s are dropping price, right under 200 bucks. Would I get a huge jump from a 9800 gt to a gt 260?VictimOfGrief said:More so to a 285 for the longer run. I just upgraded from a 9800GT to a 285 and it's frankly amazing.
Labombadog
Member
Yes, you will have a big jump, but nothing overly dramatic. I would personally wait for the 4890 to come out (April, I believe) and get that instead.dasupremeone said:
Hmm, so if I was going to do a full upgrade next month when I have some cash again, how does this look performance vs. money?
-AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX - Retail
-GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
=$308 combo
-CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5 - Retail
=$64
Total after tax+shipping = ~$400
I tried this and hey, I got the case back on Will see if my temperatures are any cooler with proper airflow. Idling after turning it back on now I'm seeing:
motherboard cpu - 50
cpu core - 43
gpu - 45
hdd - 48
I don't think the case has particularly good fans. It just has one on the motherboard and one on the back below the power supply.
-AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX - Retail
-GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
=$308 combo
-CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5 - Retail
=$64
Total after tax+shipping = ~$400
Crazymoogle said:
I tried this and hey, I got the case back on
Will see if my temperatures are any cooler with proper airflow. Idling after turning it back on now I'm seeing:motherboard cpu - 50
cpu core - 43
gpu - 45
hdd - 48
I don't think the case has particularly good fans. It just has one on the motherboard and one on the back below the power supply.
fatigues_gasolini
Member
Those poor cable pictures make me want to go back and redo my cables.
Upgrades seem fine, just get the $40 4GB RAM from G.Skill, you won't be running at those speeds unless you are on an overclocked Core 2 and AMD even less than that.Bebpo said:
Idle? That's too high. Blast some air and get the dust off your CPU heatsink for starters.
GPU temps idle and load are fine.
HDD is quite warm, I'd get a fan in front of them if possible ( A thin 10mm )
*Whoops, missed the edit button. :lol
Hazaro said:
Well I already used compressed air and cleaned it out as much as I could. After a gaming session these are my max temps:
motherboard cpu - 62C
cpu - 60C
gpu - 64C
hard drive - 51C
So yeah, probably high. I doubt I have any chance of overclocking unless I buy a new case with more/better fans.
evil solrac v3.0
Member
Smokey said:
well, if you are going to buy from cyberpower, i think these two are their best deals.
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/CyberPower_Gamer_Infinity_8800_Pro_SE/detail
and
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/GAMER_INFINITY_XLC/detail
I have a 8 months old PC and I still need to order a new CPU for it (I took a Intel E2160 so I could wait for the Q9450 ... in the end it took to long (it is still really hard to get), so I kept it quite long).
I want a quad core CPU for a nice price, so it is in line with my whole PC:
- 4 GB Ram
- Nvidia 8800 GT 512
I was thinking of a Q8200, Q8300 and Q9300.
I want a quad core CPU for a nice price, so it is in line with my whole PC:
- 4 GB Ram
- Nvidia 8800 GT 512
I was thinking of a Q8200, Q8300 and Q9300.
Tell me about the Intel Core i7 920. It's only about $80-100 more than the Core Duo 8500 and the Phenom X4 920 and I hear the i7 are the next tier of cpus. But then the i7 940 is like twice the price at $550.
I'd like to buy a good enough cpu/motherboard/ram that in 3 years I can just spend $150-200 on a 3d card 4x more powerful than my current and be DONE and up to date to play Crysis 2 or whatever. I don't want to have to buy videocard + cpu + motherboard + ram all over again in 3 years.
Would getting the cheap i7 920 be futureproofing pretty well? Or should I wait for the 940s to drop to affordable levels if I want to future proof for 3-4 years?
I'd like to buy a good enough cpu/motherboard/ram that in 3 years I can just spend $150-200 on a 3d card 4x more powerful than my current and be DONE and up to date to play Crysis 2 or whatever. I don't want to have to buy videocard + cpu + motherboard + ram all over again in 3 years.
Would getting the cheap i7 920 be futureproofing pretty well? Or should I wait for the 940s to drop to affordable levels if I want to future proof for 3-4 years?
Crazymoogle
Member
Bebpo said:
i7 920 and 940 are the same thing, just one is clocked higher. Since the 920 overclocks pretty easily to 3GHz plus, the 940 is basically the least purchased in the lineup. The 940 is just not worth it, being nearly 2x the price for only ~300MHz more.
The 920 is basically the king for enthusiast upgrades right now. It's ridiculously fast, but unfortunately needs a new motherboard and DDR3 memory.
Budget-minded gamers are going towards the Phenom II line right now, as it provides core 2 comparable performance at good prices.
If you felt you could comfortably afford a 920 with a good board (I recommend the EVGA as the little-fuss option, but it all depends on the spec you need), it's a great buy, but obviously it's not an easy investment compared to some dirt cheap DDR2 and board right now.
Crazymoogle said:
Ah, so it's not really the cpu that's a lot more expensive but the HUGE jump in motherboard price ($300 vs. $120) and more expensive ram that makes the whole package a ton more.
Here I was thinking if the motherboard would cost the same around $120, I wouldn't mind spending $100 more and get an i7 920 and even pay a little higher for ddr3 ram instead of ddr2. But the motherboard prices are just way out of my price range. Guess I will get a core 2 duo or phenom II x4 and hope they still hold up down the line.
I just upgraded to a 260 from a 8800 GTS. Of course that is a bit weaker than your current card, but I'm really happy with the upgrade. It basically doubled my performance in the TLR benchmark (being unable to run that 100% smoothly at 1920*1200 was one of my main reasons for upgrading).dasupremeone said:
I have this list of components ready for my computer and I can't change them since I'm getting the as birthday presents. I've looked at the techreport guide and I'd like your personal opinion.
Antec P-182
BFG-LS 550
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB
Logitech MX 3200
Windows 7 Beta
I'm looking towards overclocking the CPU but I don't know if I should get PC-800 DDR2 or PC-1066 DDR2. I plan to overclock mostly by upping the clock multiplier and I probably won't tinker much with the memory since I've never done it before. I'm going to stick with the stock cooler cuz money's tight.
Also need a Dvd-r drive. Any recommendations for and inexpensive quiet one?
Last but not least I need a video card. I'm looking in the gtx 260 or 4870 1gb area. Again I'm looking for which of the two would be quieter.
Because I've never built a computer before can any list if I'm missing anything critical for the computer. I'm going to be using this in my bedroom connected to and lcd tv and my receiver
Antec P-182
BFG-LS 550
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB
Logitech MX 3200
Windows 7 Beta
I'm looking towards overclocking the CPU but I don't know if I should get PC-800 DDR2 or PC-1066 DDR2. I plan to overclock mostly by upping the clock multiplier and I probably won't tinker much with the memory since I've never done it before. I'm going to stick with the stock cooler cuz money's tight.
Also need a Dvd-r drive. Any recommendations for and inexpensive quiet one?
Last but not least I need a video card. I'm looking in the gtx 260 or 4870 1gb area. Again I'm looking for which of the two would be quieter.
Because I've never built a computer before can any list if I'm missing anything critical for the computer. I'm going to be using this in my bedroom connected to and lcd tv and my receiver
VictimOfGrief
Banned
JoseDFrog said:
If you can't snag a 285--- then the 260 Core 216 is your best choice. Also the 4870 1GB is a compelling choice as well if the price is right. Make sure you've got a philips screw driver, zip ties and some brew n' tunes while you're putting the system together.
That seems like a more extreme case of what my brother had with his Dell laptop, which had a... 8600m? 8400m? I cna't recall. Anyways, in the end, they replaced the graphics card, screen and motherboard to fix the problem. (Replacing only the graphics card and the screen did not fix it.)Zyzyxxz said:
thanks, I was looking at this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434 I think the 285 is too much for me, even the cheapest 285 is more then $100 dollars more that I don't have. I plan on overclocking a bit as long as it doesn't get too loud. I should also let you know that I plan on gaming at 1360x768 because that's the native resolution of my tv.
Btw, I saw the official topic on this but reminding people about this is good.
https://myrewardzone.bestbuy.com/viewDetails.jspx?tc=CPN_20 its the $20 off coupon. I used it to pick up orange box, crysis, crisys warhead, and comman & conquer: read alert 3 for 40 bucks.
Btw, I saw the official topic on this but reminding people about this is good.
https://myrewardzone.bestbuy.com/viewDetails.jspx?tc=CPN_20 its the $20 off coupon. I used it to pick up orange box, crysis, crisys warhead, and comman & conquer: read alert 3 for 40 bucks.
Artofwar420
Member
About to install it, any tips?
How do I do a fresh Windows install when changing motherboards? Do I just take out the old one, put in the new one, stick CPU back in, etc. THEN what? I just turn the PC on? Put Windows DVD in tray, THEN turn on?
Here's a pic of what I got:
How do I do a fresh Windows install when changing motherboards? Do I just take out the old one, put in the new one, stick CPU back in, etc. THEN what? I just turn the PC on? Put Windows DVD in tray, THEN turn on?
Here's a pic of what I got:
Oh man.
I just got my new 22" monitor and it looks fantastic.
My CPU is struggling with 1680x1050 though. Very few games have not taken a pretty noticeable hit in frame-rate (Left 4 Dead thankfully).
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @2.53 was fine at 1280x1024, but not so good now.
Picking up this board for sure pretty soon http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359 since my current one is a piece of shit (ECS P45T-A).
What would be a good CPU that I could get with some longevity?
I just got my new 22" monitor and it looks fantastic.
My CPU is struggling with 1680x1050 though. Very few games have not taken a pretty noticeable hit in frame-rate (Left 4 Dead thankfully).
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @2.53 was fine at 1280x1024, but not so good now.
Picking up this board for sure pretty soon http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359 since my current one is a piece of shit (ECS P45T-A).
What would be a good CPU that I could get with some longevity?
Zyzyxxz said:Help me diagonse my problems guys:
I have a Dell Vostro 1400 w/ Geforce 8400 mobile GPU. Now my LCD is screwed up.
here is what happenend
but when I hook up to a TV/external monitor everything is fine.
So is this exclusively a LCD problem? GPU? Or Both?
It's not a graphics card problem. The problem is with the LCD connector that attaches to the screen. That's why the problem goes away if you use an external monitor (that, and I've encountered this problem before). You can easily get it serviced or do it yourself if it's not under warranty anymore.
brain_stew
Member
JoseDFrog said:
Then anything more than a 4850 is insane overkill. You'd be crazy to buy a 285 for that resolution.
Varna said:
Your CPU is not affected by the resolution you're rendering at, but your GPU is. If your CPU could keep up @ 1280x1024 it can manage just fine @ 1680x1050. An E7200 is still a fine processor for games (GTA 4 excepted), if you want anymore CPU grunt then just overclock. No need to pay for something you already own.
brain_stew
Member
JoseDFrog said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231219
That'd be the memory I'd go for.
brain_stew said:
Hm... It really seems like a CPU bottleneck. In some games like FEAR 2 my frame rate will just get cut in half (straight to 30, no in betweens).
9800GTX+ right here by the way. Didn't think this card could suffer that much at 1680x1050.
Definitely need to get the new MOBO since my current one will not overclock this CPU. So I'll do some testing with it first (though I really was hoping to make the leap to quad cores!).
RepresentJoseDFrog said:
eVGA GTX 260 (Non-216) is $160 AR
XFX 216 for a little less and free flash drive. Double Lifetime warranty helps resale value.
Unsure about MIR, but it's probably good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150329
brain_stew
Member
Varna said:
How are you enabling triple buffering? If there isn't an in game option you need to use D3D Overrider (included as part of RivaTuner) as the seting in your Nvidia drivers only affects OpenGL games.