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[VictimOfGrief]

I need some advice. Best video card for around 350-400 bucks?

Currently....

Either the GTX 285 (eVGA linked for $354.99 @ Newegg) or the 4870 1GB. (Sapphire for $189.99 @ Newegg) Those are the most powerful single card solutions.

If you flavor dual-gpu's......

Powercolor 4870x2 for $400.99 @ Newegg
Sapphire 4870x2 for $394.99 @ Newegg
Sapphire 4850x2 for $339.99 @ Newegg.

Note that with Cross-Fire onboard cards (such as the above [I.E. 4850x2 and 4870x2]) drivers make or break performance along with your other components for the card.

The other thing you could do if you have 2x16 PCI-Express slots, is buy 2 x 4870 1GB cards and run them in Cross-Fire and have those beat out the 4870x2 by a decent percentage. That would run you about $10 bucks less than buying 4870x2 but make sure you have a power supply to handle that much load. Again, depends on what you have.

Rule of thumb.... If you game below at or below 1920x1200--- Single GPU is the best.... if you game higher than 1920x1200 (I.E. 2560x1600) then you need two GPU's or dual-onboard GPU's to support solid framerates at that high of resolution.

Best of luck.

 

[Shinz Kicker]

currrent card: 4850 512mb | 2.4ghzq Q6600 | 4gig pc6400 ram|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Need a new Graphics card for old computer

P4 3.4ghz | 2.5 gigs ddr2 | pci-e x16 slot with X800xt (with over heating issues).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Options

1. Buy a 4870 1 gig for my current rig and hand me down my current 4850 to the older one. Kind of want a bit more kick from my current set up especially if i over clock.

2. Buy either a 4670 or 3850 for my old computer only. No upgrade for me.

1. gets me two decent cards i can use in the future. and 2. gets me a decent card and a lower card for crap machines later on.

 

[MWS Natural]

Yes the TRUE 120-Extreme is what I run and it's one of the best coolers out there. I've got my 920 OC'ed to 3.8GHz right now and my idle temps are around 40C (which is great). Just make sure you have some good fans in your case to help with the cooling. I think in time I'm going to replace my stock Thermalright fan with a Scythe fan just because but it's working great for now, so no need.


As far as the "lapping" goes.... I didn't lap my and it's working perfectly. Lapping is really only for those super picky guys about having "custom" or "the best" of whatever they have. I can honestly say though that it fits squarely on the CPU and cools the thing quite nicely.

Well I do have a SFF case so temps are my priority right now. I will see how it goes, maybe I will setup everything first, monitor temps with everything stock, do a bit of overclocking, then make changes as necessary.

You don't need a fan controller (Per se) but it's quite helpful to have one on my system. I've got the Scythe-K02 which controls up to 4 fans. Just make sure when you buy your fans that they are variable speed. Most of the time people buy fans which aren't, put in the fan controller and are like... "WTF?!?!?!?!" So don't make that mistake.

The fans that come with the case can't be controlled with software so I plan on ordering this on Friday and fit it into the 3.5 slot vertically.

HDD cooler--- just make sure you've got a fan blowing on them in some fashion. As far as the heatsink is concerned, are you talking about getting an aftermarket one? The stock i7 heatsink can handle about 3.4 or so on air but then after that really sucks at cooling the CPU. Checkout either FrozenCPU.com (made 3+ orders from them, very fast and dependable) or Performance-PCs.com for aftermarket coolers.

I went with a Phenom II x3 720 [black edition]and a Biostar motherboard so I can have a chance at unlocking the 4th core. I spent more time looking for the right cooler than fits, is decently quiet and keeps things cool longer than any other part. Finally settled on a Zalman CNPS8700.

Due to the size limitations of the case to fit the larger video cards in you have to remove the HDD bay and use one of the 5.25 bays instead. So instead of just throwing it in there I figured I might as well get a cooler so it will look halfway decent. Yea...pretty ambitious for a first time full builder I know :lol

 

[Kevin]

So what is the fastest card for Crysis these days?

 

[mr stroke]

overclockers.co.uk 4890 benchies and new intel i7 flagship cpu

I'm hoping to pickup another hd4870 512mb on the cheapo in the next few weeks off ebay, for crossfire.

Although I dunno if thats so wise anymore but hey never tried it before.

looks pretty impressive. If those benches are true the 4890 is a steal at $250

 

[VictimOfGrief]

currrent card: 4850 512mb | 2.4ghzq Q6600 | 4gig pc6400 ram|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Need a new Graphics card for old computer

P4 3.4ghz | 2.5 gigs ddr2 | pci-e x16 slot with X800xt (with over heating issues).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Options

1. Buy a 4870 1 gig for my current rig and hand me down my current 4850 to the older one. Kind of want a bit more kick from my current set up especially if i over clock.

2. Buy either a 4670 or 3850 for my old computer only. No upgrade for me.

1. gets me two decent cards i can use in the future. and 2. gets me a decent card and a lower card for crap machines later on.

Wait till April, (price drops) go with option #1, OC your Q6600 to at least 3.0GHz with the 4870 and enjoy gaming on it for a long time to come.

 

[AndyD]

I have been out of the game for a bit but a somewhat new job means its time for a new PC for me and old one goes to my wife.

Budget: I think I want to stay under 600 bucks or so.

Haves:a nice Antec case, a 550watt nice Antec power supply, sata 3.0 hard drive, dvd and the side stuff from here old PC.

Needs: I need mobo, cpu, video card, memory.

Monitor: I will likely get a Samsung 23 inch 1080p monitor to pair it up with, but that's not in the 600 budget, its separate. Any advice on monitors? I am runnign a 1280 19inch one now.

Uses: gaming occasionally, I dont need latest and greatest crysis, but I want it to last a couple years. Video encoding occasionally (streaming to PS3). Otherwise, just a normal box with normal use.

Do I want quadcore? 4gb of ram? What type of video card?

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Wow......

Now I am glad I didn't buy the 295.....

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20090326080114_Nvidia_Readies_New_Version_of_Dual_Chip_Flagship_Product.html

In order to make the GeForce GTX 295 less expensive, Nvidia is reportedly designing a new version of the product with two GPUs with 448-bit memory buses located on a single print circuit board. Potentially, such graphics card should be cheaper to manufacture, but the complexity of a PCB with two 448-bit buses and complex power supply circuitry should be much higher than that of ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card that carries two chips with 256-bit memory buses.

 

[brain_stew]

For any UK GAFer looking to upgrade their GPU, Novatech have Gainward's GTX 260 (core 216) "Golden Sample" for a mere £150 delivered with a free copy of Mirror's Edge.

The "Golden Sample" cards are some of the best around, this has an excellent custom cooling solution is preoverclocked @ 625/2200, with every chance of a good amount more head room.

I bought my 4850 from Novatech and couldn't fault them, so to get pretty much the best GTX 260 (216) around for £150 with an excellent game (worth at least £20) thrown in from an excellent etailer is one heck of a deal in my book.

Edit: Nvdia are finally getting rid of the sandwich, about damn time as well!

 

[brain_stew]

currrent card: 4850 512mb | 2.4ghzq Q6600 | 4gig pc6400 ram|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Need a new Graphics card for old computer

P4 3.4ghz | 2.5 gigs ddr2 | pci-e x16 slot with X800xt (with over heating issues).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Options

1. Buy a 4870 1 gig for my current rig and hand me down my current 4850 to the older one. Kind of want a bit more kick from my current set up especially if i over clock.

2. Buy either a 4670 or 3850 for my old computer only. No upgrade for me.

1. gets me two decent cards i can use in the future. and 2. gets me a decent card and a lower card for crap machines later on.

Pointless upgrading that old P4 rig, I wouldn't be surprised if its already bottlenecking that X800XT nevermind the horrible things it'd do to a 4850. Just pick up a cheapo 7800GT, X1800XT or something like that off eBAY if the current card isn't working, should cost peanuts.

 

[Darklord]

Well, I'm finally back to ordering my new PC. I was sick for a while and couldn't do much.

Anyway, now I'm back I notice the site I'm getting it off no longer has the GPU I wanted. Lame.

It was going to be a HIS HD4870 1GB, what do you think I should replace it with? Just another HD4870? Or is there a better card out?

The rig I'm getting is:

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 (2.66Ghz/ 8MB/ 4.8GT QPI/ Quad Core)
Mobo: Gigabyte EX58-UD5
GPU: ??
RAM: 6GB Corsair Micro
PSU: Corsair Micro CMPSU-620HX
Case: Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1 CM690
DVD: Pioneer DVR-216BK
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit DVD OEM with Service Pack 1


Edit: Also whats the best way to transfer files from my old pc to the new one? Is there a usb to usb cable you can buy or something?

 

[Ryu1999]

Either burn all the important stuff to DVD or put it on a usb key.

Or you could just do like me and stick the old hd in as a secondary drive

Well, I'm finally back to ordering my new PC. I was sick for a while and couldn't do much.

Anyway, now I'm back I notice the site I'm getting it off no longer has the GPU I wanted. Lame.

It was going to be a HIS HD4870 1GB, what do you think I should replace it with? Just another HD4870? Or is there a better card out?

The rig I'm getting is:

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 (2.66Ghz/ 8MB/ 4.8GT QPI/ Quad Core)
Mobo: Gigabyte EX58-UD5
GPU: ??
RAM: 6GB Corsair Micro
PSU: Corsair Micro CMPSU-620HX
Case: Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1 CM690
DVD: Pioneer DVR-216BK
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit DVD OEM with Service Pack 1


Edit: Also whats the best way to transfer files from my old pc to the new one? Is there a usb to usb cable you can buy or something?

 

[brain_stew]

Well, I'm finally back to ordering my new PC. I was sick for a while and couldn't do much.

Anyway, now I'm back I notice the site I'm getting it off no longer has the GPU I wanted. Lame.

It was going to be a HIS HD4870 1GB, what do you think I should replace it with? Just another HD4870? Or is there a better card out?

The rig I'm getting is:

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 (2.66Ghz/ 8MB/ 4.8GT QPI/ Quad Core)
Mobo: Gigabyte EX58-UD5
GPU: ??
RAM: 6GB Corsair Micro
PSU: Corsair Micro CMPSU-620HX
Case: Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1 CM690
DVD: Pioneer DVR-216BK
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit DVD OEM with Service Pack 1


Edit: Also whats the best way to transfer files from my old pc to the new one? Is there a usb to usb cable you can buy or something?

Think of this as a blessing in disguise. Now you can get the 4890 1GB, which offers a good 20% power increase and seemingly quite a large amount of OCing headroom for $250.

As for transferring stuff, I'd just hook up the old drive to the new PC, it'll be by far the quickest method, either that or use a USB caddy if you've got one. Or just transfer it over a LAN.

 

[Darklord]

Think of this as a blessing in disguise. Now you can get the 4890 1GB, which offers a good 20% power increase and seemingly quite a large amount of OCing headroom for $250.

Is it out at the moment? I don't think it's out in Australia.

I found the card again, it was re-listed at a cheaper price. I might just have to get it.

 

[brain_stew]

Is it out at the moment? I don't think it's out in Australia.

I found the card again, it was re-listed at a cheaper price. I might just have to get it.

Its starting to leak all over the place, offficial release is in a week or so anyway. Might be worth hanging on.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Wow......

Now I am glad I didn't buy the 295.....

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20090326080114_Nvidia_Readies_New_Version_of_Dual_Chip_Flagship_Product.html

so it will cost less for sure? what about power draw? will it run cooler?

 

[brain_stew]

so it will cost less for sure? what about power draw? will it run cooler?

Power draw will certainly be down with only the one PCB. It "should" come out cheaper, but there's never any guarantees with these and if anything heat will be more of a concern if there's two dies crammed on a sngle PCB, but again, we won't now till there's units out in the wild.

The whole sandwich design was an ugly solution, so any move away from that is something I can definitely get behind.

 

[Darklord]

Its starting to leak all over the place, offficial release is in a week or so anyway. Might be worth hanging on.

Oh ok. I wonder what it'll cost here? If it's $600 theres no way I'm buying it.

 

[brain_stew]

Oh ok. I wonder what it'll cost here? If it's $600 theres no way I'm buying it.

How much is the 4870 1GB over there? Add 25% to that, and you'll probably be in the ball park.

 

[Darklord]

How much is the 4870 1GB over there? Add 25% to that, and you'll probably be in the ball park.

$399...so $500? That's a fair bit...

 

[Ryoma-Echizen]

Darklord
For 1 graphic card Phenom II are actually better than a corei7. Only with dual configurations the i7 takes the lead.

 

[Fredescu]

$399...so $500? That's a fair bit...

You can get it for a little less than that, IT Estate for eg are listing it for $460 but not selling it yet. $500 is more or less spot on though.

Edit: And having read the rest of yor post, I'd probably suggest checking out the GTX260. Slightly better performance than the 4870 1GB and you can find it fairly cheaply now. IT Estate have one coming in for $289. You should be able to do better than $399 for a 4870 1GB too. What retailers are you looking at?

 

[VictimOfGrief]

so it will cost less for sure? what about power draw? will it run cooler?

Cost less..... for Nvidia..... at retail..... not sure.

The whole point of this was to be competitive with the 4870x2 in terms of design and obviously try and reduce power draw.

Either way.... GTX 295 (a) = Sandvich design (more stable in terms of design)
GTX 295 (b) = Experimental Single PCB

From a consumer stand point----- experience will be the same but it will be interesting to see if they have less failure rates than with the current design.

 

[Costanza]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about just buying this Gateway PC from Best Buy and upgrading the GFX card myself (it has a PCI-Express slot)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...0050002&type=product&childSku=9156478&count=1

is this a decent rig/deal? what card should I go with? I know nothing about PC hardware so I don't think I'll be able to completely build one myself :\

 

[Metalic Sand]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about just buying this Gateway PC from Best Buy and upgrading the GFX card myself (it has a PCI-Express slot)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...0050002&type=product&childSku=9156478&count=1

is this a decent rig/deal? what card should I go with? I know nothing about PC hardware so I don't think I'll be able to completely build one myself :\

You could get so much more building one yourself. I would go as far as saying building one yourself would be 2x better than that rig.

 

[Costanza]

You could get so much more building one yourself. I would go as far as saying building one yourself would be 2x better than that rig.

Yeah, I know. I guess I'll look into it some more. Just seems like such a daunting task...

 

[Fredescu]

Which bit do you find daunting?

If it's choosing the parts, then yeah that can take a bit of research. The Tech Report article linked in the OP is a good place to start. The utility player build there is much more powerful than the one you listed for around the same price.

If it's the actually assembly, don't most hardware stores offer assembly and testing for a small fee? Even the most bargain basement stores here in Aus will build and test a PC for $50.

 

[Minsc]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about just buying this Gateway PC from Best Buy and upgrading the GFX card myself (it has a PCI-Express slot)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...0050002&type=product&childSku=9156478&count=1

is this a decent rig/deal? what card should I go with? I know nothing about PC hardware so I don't think I'll be able to completely build one myself :\

Just go for one of their FX series, that way you don't need to buy anything extra, cause that one will probably need a new power supply if you put in a new 3D card.

I think a few weeks ago someone posted a link to a Gate Core i7 FX PC, with 6 GB of ram, a GTX 285, and all the bells and whistles for under $1500. Whatever the price was, people agreed it was an amazing deal. They have a step down from that too.

 

[mr stroke]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about just buying this Gateway PC from Best Buy and upgrading the GFX card myself (it has a PCI-Express slot)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...0050002&type=product&childSku=9156478&count=1

is this a decent rig/deal? what card should I go with? I know nothing about PC hardware so I don't think I'll be able to completely build one myself :\

not a bad way to go, I did the same thing with a friends PC. He went to BB and picked up the cheapest Acer he could find and we just swapped out the card for a 4850. PC is rock solid and was cheap as hell($500 total w/dual core+4gigs+Vista64 and the upgraded 4850 and this was last Dec)

Only thing you have to make sure is the case size of those pre-built PC's can be small and not all cards will fit in there.

 

[Fredescu]

Only thing you have to make sure is the case size of those pre-built PC's can be small and not all cards will fit in there.

That and whether the power supply is up to task.

 

[Shinz Kicker]

is there something on th xp discs from dell that keep them from being installed on non dell machines. Like if built a new tower and tried to install the xp from an old dell tower thats not being used anymore. I think i have always had problems with this.

 

[Minsc]

is there something on th xp discs from dell that keep them from being installed on non dell machines. Like if built a new tower and tried to install the xp from an old dell tower thats not being used anymore. I think i have always had problems with this.

Yup. I think technically the OS that comes with your dell can legally only be used on that exact machine anyway. But I do think you're correct, and the Dell's use a custom windows install disc.

You can really only install retail copies of windows (non-discounted oem) on to various machines, as XP and Vista tie your copy of windows to your hardware if you get it the cheap way to save money.

 

[Mr. Enigma]

You can install it, but it will require you to activate it if it's not a Dell computer.

 

[MWS Natural]

Fuuuuuuk the cpu fan blocks one of my RAM sinks....I have 4 gigs in there now but would have to get a different fan if I wanted to upgrade to 8GB. I am still waiting to receive my thermal paste (IC7), sandpaper and HDD cooler before I put everything together. Amazing how big the case is and it's SFF, I can't how enormous regular full sized cases are.

With only 4gigs is Vista(32/64) even worth it? Or should I just stick with my 32bit XP?

 

[K.Jack]

Vista is more than fine with 4GB. It's suddenly trendy to go for more, but you'll likely never use it.

 

[Cheeto]

Vista is more than fine with 4GB. It's suddenly trendy to go for more, but you'll likely never use it.

With Vista64 the more ram you throw in, the more it'll use. You're right, your less likely to be "using" 8gbs of memory at a time, but Vista will in a way, cache frequently used programs in ram for quicker load times.

 

[Minsc]

With Vista64 the more ram you throw in, the more it'll use. You're right, your less likely to be "using" 8gbs of memory at a time, but Vista will in a way, cache frequently used programs in ram for quicker load times.

Does anyone really have more than 2 gigs of "frequently used programs"? I mean your web browsers what, 4-500? Then maybe word and an explorer window and a mail client & video player... I don't know what else most people would be running that'd needs caching. That's probably not even 1 gig, let alone 8.

The average user probably uses just a web browser and not a single thing else, except perhaps solitaire. 6 gigs of ram seems excessive, but makes a little more sense in i7 setups since the motherboards seems to use either 3 gigs or 6. With choices of 2, 4 & 8, I'd have trouble justifying 8 gigs.

 

[Cheeto]

Does anyone really have more than 2 gigs of "frequently used programs"? I mean your web browsers what, 4-500? Then maybe word and an explorer window and a mail client & video player... I don't know what else most people would be running that'd needs caching. That's probably not even 1 gig, let alone 8.

The average user probably uses just a web browser and not a single thing else, except perhaps solitaire. 6 gigs of ram seems excessive, but makes a little more sense in i7 setups since the motherboards seems to use either 3 gigs or 6. With choices of 2, 4 & 8, I'd have trouble justifying 8 gigs.

Some people run Adobe studio products which would easily take a lot of this space up. Other people, like myself, run development products like Visual Studio or Eclipse, both of which can take awhile to load large projects. I'm not saying everyone should go out and max out their memory on their motherboards, but its not useless for power users.

 

[Darklord]

You can get it for a little less than that, IT Estate for eg are listing it for $460 but not selling it yet. $500 is more or less spot on though.

Edit: And having read the rest of yor post, I'd probably suggest checking out the GTX260. Slightly better performance than the 4870 1GB and you can find it fairly cheaply now. IT Estate have one coming in for $289. You should be able to do better than $399 for a 4870 1GB too. What retailers are you looking at?

I was looking at scorptec, I want to get the whole thing built from there. Easier than getting the parts all over the place.

So the GTX260 would be better? Weren't they only meant to be 9800's with a slight improvement?

Darklord
For 1 graphic card Phenom II are actually better than a corei7. Only with dual configurations the i7 takes the lead.

Really? The reviews I've seen have been pretty average for the Phenom II. Is it really better for 1 GPU?

 

[Minsc]

I was looking at scorptec, I want to get the whole thing built from there. Easier than getting the parts all over the place.

So the GTX260 would be better? Weren't they only meant to be 9800's with a slight improvement?

The GTX 260 scores almost twice as high as the 9800 in 3DMarks scores (8200 vs 5050).

5000 is kinda low, I guess, considering some of the better cards score around 17,000 or higher.

 

[Fredescu]

I was looking at scorptec, I want to get the whole thing built from there. Easier than getting the parts all over the place.

They seem a little expensive. The GTX260 they're selling for $409 can be had for $333 up the road at MSY. I know MSY can be a shitfight though, so if you'd rather go with Scorptec no problem. If money's tight though, you can save a bit by looking at MSY and http://www.staticice.com.au/

So the GTX260 would be better? Weren't they only meant to be 9800's with a slight improvement?

Isn't everything? As long at it's the GTX260 with 216 shader processors, it will be on average generally slightly faster than a 4870. The old version with 192 SPs was slightly slower than 4870. There's not much in it though I think. A couple of reviews:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-...review--test/1

http://techgage.com/article/ati_hd_4...260216_896mb/1

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3408

Anandtech says they're even and the other two put the 260 slightly ahead.

 

[kinggroin]

'Sup guys! Just recently put together a new gaming rig after a 5 year hiatus, but am running into serious issues here.

Everything works fine, but the CPU is running red hot

When I first installed it with the custom HSF (Rosewill RCX Z775), the BIOS gave me an idle temp of 27C. This was running the CPU stock voltage, no overclocking.

After I determined everything was stable, I went ahead and OC'd to 4ghz no problem (1.31volts). Ran Crysis for a few minutes (played and benched), benched perfectly with 3dmark 05, then decided to check my temps in the task manager (Real Temp).

115C!!

Holy crap that's a hot CPU. So I quickly stopped what I was doing and checked my BIOS to see if the temps had truly risen or if it was simply the software, but sure enough, my idle was 61C! Holy crap.

Fearing the death of my new wolfdale, I dropped everything to defaults (actually underclocked with the 7x mulitplier), and at idle, the system won't drop below 40C (unless I open the case, in which it drops 1, maybe 2C).

What the hell happened?

I've already reseated the HSF multiple times. Removed and reapplied the thermal grease, updated the BIOS, sat the PC on it's side, and even removed the cpu retention bracket. Nothing I do can get the CPU running cool again.

Starting to suspect that I simply have a busted thermal sensor (a known issue with the e8400), so I ran at 4ghz again and primed it. 118C was the max, and recieved 0 warnings and 0 errors. I made sure that thermal throttling and voltage throttling were off in the bios (so as not to skew my results).



So guys, any suggestions? Should I just ignore the temp readouts and game anyway (since it's stable)?

 

[Darklord]

They seem a little expensive. The GTX260 they're selling for $409 can be had for $333 up the road at MSY. I know MSY can be a shitfight though, so if you'd rather go with Scorptec no problem. If money's tight though, you can save a bit by looking at MSY and http://www.staticice.com.au/


Isn't everything? As long at it's the GTX260 with 216 shader processors, it will be on average generally slightly faster than a 4870. The old version with 192 SPs was slightly slower than 4870. There's not much in it though I think. A couple of reviews:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-...review--test/1

http://techgage.com/article/ati_hd_4...260216_896mb/1

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3408

Anandtech says they're even and the other two put the 260 slightly ahead.

I know MSY is cheaper but I know people who've bought PC's from scorptec and they were great, built well with no problems. I'd rather spend a bit more and go with them.

I guess I'll get the GTX260 then, to be honest I prefer Nvidia cards...Ati always seem to have problems.

Any brand I should get?

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Does anyone really have more than 2 gigs of "frequently used programs"? I mean your web browsers what, 4-500? Then maybe word and an explorer window and a mail client & video player... I don't know what else most people would be running that'd needs caching. That's probably not even 1 gig, let alone 8.

The average user probably uses just a web browser and not a single thing else, except perhaps solitaire. 6 gigs of ram seems excessive, but makes a little more sense in i7 setups since the motherboards seems to use either 3 gigs or 6. With choices of 2, 4 & 8, I'd have trouble justifying 8 gigs.

I've got 3GB in my i7 rig and I'm going to get another 3GB to bring it up to 6GB and call it good.

The issue with having more is overclocking. It gets tricky to OC everything with more moving parts. Having 6 sticks of Dominator RAM though should be ok (and I've read people who aren't have a single issue with it) --- or even just good RAM in general but people who have say 12GB of memory are having problems OC'ing because the RAM is the least stable in the overclocking.

I can easily max out my RAM on my system if I'm not careful since I usually have the following open:

Outlook
Chrome (10+ tabs)
iTunes
CS4
Steam
Skype
Anti-Virus

If I go to open Fallout 3, Crysis or TF2, my system peaks to around 2.8-2.9GB of memory used. Efficentcy wise, and for overclocking, the less RAM the better, but I would say most i7 rigs should be running with 6GB minimum because it's most likely going to be used for power users.

 

[brain_stew]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about just buying this Gateway PC from Best Buy and upgrading the GFX card myself (it has a PCI-Express slot)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...0050002&type=product&childSku=9156478&count=1

is this a decent rig/deal? what card should I go with? I know nothing about PC hardware so I don't think I'll be able to completely build one myself :\

That 1.8ghz Phenom is a terrible gaming CPU, avoid that rig like the plague. The sub $500 econobox at Tech Report is a much, much better build, especially if you add a cheap $20 aftermarket cooler and OC to 3.4ghz (which is stupidly easy with that CPU). Putting together the rig really isn't that difficult, just read a few online guides and you're good to go.

If you really don't want to build the rig yourself, then CyberPowerPC might be a decent alternative, as their prices are really quite good and you get to choose the exact componenets you want which is a big step in the right direction as upgrading OEM machines can often be a bitch

 

[Fredescu]

Any brand I should get?

That MSI one they have in stock seems as good as any. Three year warranty is as much as you're going to get and their website confirms that it's the 216 version http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=130&cat2_no=136&prod_no=1489

 

[Hazaro]

Starting to suspect that I simply have a busted thermal sensor (a known issue with the e8400), so I ran at 4ghz again and primed it. 118C was the max, and recieved 0 warnings and 0 errors. I made sure that thermal throttling and voltage throttling were off in the bios (so as not to skew my results).

So guys, any suggestions? Should I just ignore the temp readouts and game anyway (since it's stable)?

I doubt it would be stable at those temps under prime.

Feel the base of the heatsink and see if it is burning (You'll know :lol )

I doubt it's over 100C greatly, I'd say that one of the legs isn't connecting if you didn't reseat it already though.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about just buying this Gateway PC from Best Buy and upgrading the GFX card myself (it has a PCI-Express slot)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...0050002&type=product&childSku=9156478&count=1

is this a decent rig/deal? what card should I go with? I know nothing about PC hardware so I don't think I'll be able to completely build one myself :\

didn't notice this post. nah, this is garbage. I have doubts you'd even be able to fit the graphics card that you would want in the case. :lol you can either build it yourself by buying from newegg, or buy from a place like cyberpower, they are cheap and have all the parts you could want. that's where i got my PC from.

 

[Costanza]

Checking out Cyberpower now, seems good. Which model would be the best to configure considering my budget? (around $600-700 w/o monitor, there's a bunch near that price)

 

[brain_stew]

Checking out Cyberpower now, seems good. Which model would be the best to configure considering my budget? (around $600-700 w/o monitor, there's a bunch near that price)

I'd go with a Phenom ii 720 based rig personally. The GTS 250 512MB looks the best value GPU option and make sure you go for 4GB of RAM and a 780G based motherboard as well.

Go for Vista Home Premium x64 as your OS. Apparently you can send away to get a free wireless N router, 80GB portable USB HDD and some PC migration software. Even if you don't need them you should be able to get most of the cost of the OS back anyway by selling them on. Quite a nice deal. If you're a student though you might want to investigate whether you can get a free/ cut price copy of Vista that way. I managed to get my copy of Vista Ultimate for about half the cost of Home Premium for example.

Oh, and I wouldn't get your monitor from there if you need one, you can do much better by getting one from Newegg or somewhere similar.