bigmit3737
Member
brain_stew said:
Thanks BrainStew. Should I spend a little more on the power supply then?
I don't mind rebates and what not.
Main thing is the motherboard. I will read up on those motherboards...
Thanks for giving me a direction.
-
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Official "I need a new PC!!" 2009 Edition
- Thread starter VictimOfGrief
- Start date
Thanks BrainStew. Should I spend a little more on the power supply then?
I don't mind rebates and what not.
Main thing is the motherboard. I will read up on those motherboards...
Thanks for giving me a direction.
longdi
Banned
B definitely.
if it is oem i guess no heatsink fan. Might as well buy a average to good third party one and do a slight overclock by raising the fsb from 333 to 400. It is that simple. You can still enable Intel power saving features in overclock mode. As a mobile chip it should have a good headroom plus somemore good resale value!
if it is oem i guess no heatsink fan. Might as well buy a average to good third party one and do a slight overclock by raising the fsb from 333 to 400. It is that simple. You can still enable Intel power saving features in overclock mode. As a mobile chip it should have a good headroom plus somemore good resale value!
MWS Natural
Member
VictimOfGrief said:
Thanks I will try when I get home, I was hitting a few of the F keys but forgot which one would initiate safe mode. I was up till 7AM with the PC and had to be at work at 10AM today so I'm sure I was a bit delirious.
brain_stew said:
It boots up enough to show the splash screen then just sits at a black screen with no HDD activity. I would have just installed windows but I used my old HDD and burner not realizing both are IDE and I only have 1 IDE port on the motherboard so I can only use one at a time. I was trying to save money by not buying a new HDD but I may be forced to stop by BestBuy tonight and buy a 1TB.
I made sure disk boot priority had the HDD first.
brain_stew
Member
MWS Natural said:
HDDs are the main bottleneck in a modern rig, you're crazy for staying with an IDE HDD, so yeah, make the plunge. The Samsung F1s are incredible for the price, and will be at least twice as fast as that old IDE drive, mine boots Vista with a fair amount of background programs in 30 seconds flat.
K.Jack said:
Q9100 for sure then
bigmit3737 said:
Well that PSU I linked is more than fine, its just expecting to pay $50 flat was a bit ambitious.
I'm excited, I've got a new HTPC build coming in today. Mostly an experiment for me as I've never done this before, but I'm hoping to do some cool stuff with it. I've got a huge 1.5TB hard drive that I should be able to fit all my DVDs on. Not sure which OS to use for it though. Software probably won't be entirely set up tonight, but I should be able to snap some pics of the build for the thread though.
Specs:
Total: $859.90
Specs:
Code:
Microsoft Z7A-00006S Black USB Wireless Media Desktop 3000[B](Keyboard/Mouse)[/B] - OEM [B] $45.99[/B]
[B]LITE-ON 22X DVD Burner Black SATA[/B] Model iHAS122-04 - OEM [B]$22.99
[/B]
SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum front panel, 0.8 mm SECC body LC17-B ATX Media Center /[B] HTPC Case[/B] - Retail [B]$119.99[/B]
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11[B] ST31500341AS[/B][B] 1.5TB[/B] 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) - OEM [B]$129.99[/B]
[B]OCZ Platinum 4GB[/B] (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P10664GK - Retail [B] $59.99[/B]
[B]GIGABYTE GA-EP45[/B]-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail [B]$98.99[/B]
[B]Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 [/B]Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail [B]$164.99[/B]
[B]CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX[/B] 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail [B]$89.99[/B]
Antec Mult-Station Basic Internal [B]IR receiver[/B] and remote - Retail [B]$36.99[/B]
SAPPHIRE 100265HDMI Radeon [B]HD 4830[/B] 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail [B]$89.99[/B]VictimOfGrief
Banned
*sweeps up the debris*
brain_stew
Member
I'm calling BS on that, sorry.
godhandiscen
There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
April 1st. No way Nvidia is releasing a 4GPU card.
evil solrac v3.0
Member
damn, had me going for a second..
MWS Natural
Member
PC won't even boot up into safe mode. I am just going to go pickup an overpriced WD 1TB drive from bestbuy and install windows XP fresh.
brain_stew
Member
Just a heads up for UK GAFers, novatech.co.uk (an excellent etailer) have both the GTX 275 and ATI 4890 in stock and available for less than £220.
I still think the GTX 260 (216) fro £150 with a free copy of Mirror's Edge is the best buy (and I'm actually tempted to go for it myself) but the premium for the extra performance isn't so huge. The GTX 285 looks rather overpriced to me now, anyway.
A new German review here for the 4890, again showing that a clock to 1ghz core seems to be very doable and at such speeds it beats out the GTX 285, it looks a very promising card:
http://translate.google.com/transla.../1955014/test_radeon_hd_4890.html&sl=de&tl=en
I still think the GTX 260 (216) fro £150 with a free copy of Mirror's Edge is the best buy (and I'm actually tempted to go for it myself) but the premium for the extra performance isn't so huge. The GTX 285 looks rather overpriced to me now, anyway.
A new German review here for the 4890, again showing that a clock to 1ghz core seems to be very doable and at such speeds it beats out the GTX 285, it looks a very promising card:
http://translate.google.com/transla.../1955014/test_radeon_hd_4890.html&sl=de&tl=en
evil solrac v3.0
Member
brain_stew said:
what about stock?
I got a new monitor with a native rez of 2058 x 1156 (Dell S2309W). Coming from 1680 x 1050, there is a noticeable difference between the framerate.
I have $250 to spend on upgrading my PC. Tell me where you guys think it should go. I'm really open to anything, and I do eventually plan on going to i7 (maybe at the end of summer). Keep in mind that I can sell my old equip and "trade up."
My current build:
P35 Motherboard (no SLI)
2x2GB DDR2 800 (4 Slots)
C2D E8400 (not overclocked)
ATI HD4850
500W PSU (not modular)
I think that the money would be best spent on the ATI4890 @ ~$225. I could then sell my current card for atleast $75. That would leave $100 to spend on the rest of the components.
Then I could reduce temps and start OC'ing. I could get a modular(<temp) 600W PSU for $75 with the idea that I can sell mine for $25 and be ready to support the new i7 parts later this year.
That would leave $50 to spend on a CPU heatsink (If there was a choice to have one compatible with the i7 chips, I'd prefer that.)
What do you think?
I have $250 to spend on upgrading my PC. Tell me where you guys think it should go. I'm really open to anything, and I do eventually plan on going to i7 (maybe at the end of summer). Keep in mind that I can sell my old equip and "trade up."
My current build:
P35 Motherboard (no SLI)
2x2GB DDR2 800 (4 Slots)
C2D E8400 (not overclocked)
ATI HD4850
500W PSU (not modular)
I think that the money would be best spent on the ATI4890 @ ~$225. I could then sell my current card for atleast $75. That would leave $100 to spend on the rest of the components.
Then I could reduce temps and start OC'ing. I could get a modular(<temp) 600W PSU for $75 with the idea that I can sell mine for $25 and be ready to support the new i7 parts later this year.
That would leave $50 to spend on a CPU heatsink (If there was a choice to have one compatible with the i7 chips, I'd prefer that.)
What do you think?
brain_stew
Member
Minsc said:
Whilst I'm not sure with regards to that particular monitor, there's definitely panels out there that offer that resolution, its best avoided imo.
derder, yeah a 4890 seems like a decent bet, not sure whether you'd need a PSU really, probably better off investing in a decent CPU cooler first.
I'm actually weighing up a similar conundrum, after moving from 1360x768 to 1920x1080, my 4850 is starting to feel the hurt and as a IQ whore I might just have to splash out. The 4850 is an excellent card but it just wasn't designed for 1080p, its lack of bandwidth and memory can really start to hurt at 1080p. I can get a Gainward 55nm GTX 260 (216) with a copy of Mirror's Edge (which I actually was planning on buying anyway) for £150, so that's effectively £130, considering I should be able to get £75 back for my 4850, its really not such a big investment.
God damnit, why, why, why must we constantly feel the need to upgrade, this'll be my third GPU within 14 months or so. Bugger someone tell me if I'm totally insane or not!!
This is the card btw, has a pretty tasty custom cooling solution going on and its already OCed to 625mhz on the core. What's more Fud managed to get there's to 720mhz!!
Edit: The more I look into it, it seems that 700mhz core and 1500mhz shader is prety much standard for these cards, and that's uing inferior stock cooling. Hmm, looks like I might have to make the jump then.
I'm sorry, its called the SP2309W. Every game I've played so far (even HL1) supports the resolution.
My CRT died and I couldn't stand the difference between 2058x1536 -> 1680 x 1050, so I had to upgrade.
So we know that the 4850 x2 and 4870 x2 perform better than the 4890, but do we know what the temperature and noise level difference is?
Update: It looks like the 4890s are up on newegg!
My CRT died and I couldn't stand the difference between 2058x1536 -> 1680 x 1050, so I had to upgrade.
So we know that the 4850 x2 and 4870 x2 perform better than the 4890, but do we know what the temperature and noise level difference is?
We're both insane. Atleast its cheaper than modifying cars...brain_stew said:
Update: It looks like the 4890s are up on newegg!
godhandiscen
There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Stock benchmarks, and OC'd benchmarks are right now pointless for the 4890 since the driver for it has not been released. Any review out there is showing crippled potential for the 4890.evil solrac v3.0 said:
My Lian Li PC-X500 arrived yesterday, and my TRUE 120 along with the extra fan arrived today. My birthday is tomorrow, and I am getting so many presents, that I don't feel like building right now. I'll build everything later, and take some pics.
Also, I feel like picking up 2 4890s for Xfire (no X2 model comming right?), but I need to find someone to buy my 295 first. If anyone is interested, it is only 1 and a half months old, almost never used (I am dead serious, I've been traveling a lot lately), it is eVGA, and it comes with the $20 cooling backplate. If anybody is interested, I am selling it for $470+S&H. Right now the eVGA 295 is selling for $580 at NewEgg, yeah, it went up in pricing.
Need some opinions here.
I have an HP M7470N Media Center PC.
Sometime this month I plan to upgrade my gpu to an ATI 4870 1 Gig card.
At the moment there's a tv tuner card sitting next to the ATI200 in my PC.
Am I going to be able to fit the 4870 card in my rig? Its a standard case,I really don't know the length of the card I am ordering. I've heard others comment that they were able to fit the card in their exact rigs I own but for peace of mind I wanted to get some opinions here before ordering. I could remove the tv card if the 4870 needs more space,I'd hate to but I'll do it since I only used the card for BattleStar Galactica episodes and thats pretty much done now
Btw-which is the best brand to buy for the card? Diamond,Saphire,which ones? Do some have better fans built in them than others? Keep in my mind my PC fans are all stock,no heat sink or anything special here. I plan to get a card with overclocking on the go,but I know it'll have to have a good fan built on it to cool the rig down some.
I have an HP M7470N Media Center PC.
Sometime this month I plan to upgrade my gpu to an ATI 4870 1 Gig card.
At the moment there's a tv tuner card sitting next to the ATI200 in my PC.
Am I going to be able to fit the 4870 card in my rig? Its a standard case,I really don't know the length of the card I am ordering. I've heard others comment that they were able to fit the card in their exact rigs I own but for peace of mind I wanted to get some opinions here before ordering. I could remove the tv card if the 4870 needs more space,I'd hate to but I'll do it since I only used the card for BattleStar Galactica episodes and thats pretty much done now
Btw-which is the best brand to buy for the card? Diamond,Saphire,which ones? Do some have better fans built in them than others? Keep in my mind my PC fans are all stock,no heat sink or anything special here. I plan to get a card with overclocking on the go,but I know it'll have to have a good fan built on it to cool the rig down some.
brain_stew
Member
Well I went ahead and bought it. The deal was too good to refuse.
Minsc
Gold Member
Interesting article on real world performance (with videos) of SSD vs HDD...
One of the highlights:
yay SSDs
One of the highlights:
yay SSDs
Having serious problems with my PC.
Built my PC last year.
Specs:
I OC'd my CPU to run at a stable 3.0 - I had it that way all year and no problems. As of the last month my computer continually keeps locking up. I figured I possibly had a virus or something so I reformatted my HD and reinstalled Vista. But my computer is still locking up.
I went into the bios and reset everything to defaults but still it locks up after just a few minutes. So my last option was to check and see if my CPU was getting too hot - I checked it after it had been running for a few minutes and it was at around 46 degrees C - 114 F. So that shouldn't be the problem.
So I decided to see if my PC could survive a stress test by running Prime95 and of course it locked up after about 3 minutes.
What are your thoughts? Bad power supply? Bad MB? Bad Processor? I just cant figure this out.
Built my PC last year.
Specs:
I OC'd my CPU to run at a stable 3.0 - I had it that way all year and no problems. As of the last month my computer continually keeps locking up. I figured I possibly had a virus or something so I reformatted my HD and reinstalled Vista. But my computer is still locking up.
I went into the bios and reset everything to defaults but still it locks up after just a few minutes. So my last option was to check and see if my CPU was getting too hot - I checked it after it had been running for a few minutes and it was at around 46 degrees C - 114 F. So that shouldn't be the problem.
So I decided to see if my PC could survive a stress test by running Prime95 and of course it locked up after about 3 minutes.
What are your thoughts? Bad power supply? Bad MB? Bad Processor? I just cant figure this out.
brain_stew
Member
VictimOfGrief
Banned
The Chef said:
I would say Memory Test or possibly your PSU is going bad. You downclock it to 2.4 again and leave it at stock for a while to verify?
according to conclusions, these card won't be worth it when you're loooking at price/perf until they drop down to the $200-range.VictimOfGrief said:
You can get a 260 for $159 on newegg right with rebate. the 4870 1 gig can be had for $169
The 10% increase in perf is not worth a 50% increase in price.
Crazymoogle
Member
Minsc said:
I made this argument awhile back. Certainly, there's a good reason to have a good video card depending on the games you play, but a sturdy value/performance SSD (Vertex 120) is going to affect perceived performance on everything your PC does. Until Windows 7 ships there are going to be quirks, but they are worth considering if you have the budget.
brain_stew
Member
Tideas said:
Yup, over here in the UK, the leap is from £150 (with a free game) to £200 (no game), so I'm quite pleased I went the 260 (216) route, as there's definitely a lot more bang for your buck with that card.
Still, the more options the better, and these cards really show up the 285 to be quite bad value, so hopefully that will force the price of that card to tumble a little.
Crazymoogle said:
Shush you, I can't afford any more upgrades!!
Heh, whilst I defiitely see an SSD in my future, I still think we're not *quite* there yet, but the rate at which the technology is developing s very encouraging.
Edit: Woah, for US GAFers, this is the 260 to go for:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127409
A very significant OC (which will bring its performance damn close to the 275 and 4890), a free copy of Far Cry 2 all for a mere $160 after rebate!! Damn that's some serious bang for buck right there, its impossible to recommend spending an extra $100 for a 4890 when such a card exists.
bigmit3737
Member
Is the Nvidia 260 better in terms of performance than the ATI 4870?
I am looking in the price range of $150 for my next card.
I am looking in the price range of $150 for my next card.
Metalic Sand
who is Emo-Beas?
Anything like Realtemp thatll work with AMD processors?
MWS Natural
Member
Ugh my XP DVD is bonked and loaded with constant errors so I am going to get my buddy's XP disk and try again tonight. I did turn the ACC on in the motherboard which unlocked the 4th core but the OS is so laggy and messed up from the bad install I wasn't able to do anything.
I can't seem to get a resolution that fits my 37inch 1080p monitor coming from my motherboard. All of the mid to lower ones don't fill the screen and the larger one's my monitor can't display. If there is nothing I can do it looks like I will be upgraded my graphics card MUCH sooner than expected =(
I really don't know what to do with the mass PSU cords there are. I have a modular PSU but the cables that you can't unhook take up so much space in my SFF case. I even wire tied them all together but they are so big a bulky it looks horrible. Any ideas or am I pretty much stuck? I can't even image how horrible the cabling is on a non modular PSU.
I can't seem to get a resolution that fits my 37inch 1080p monitor coming from my motherboard. All of the mid to lower ones don't fill the screen and the larger one's my monitor can't display. If there is nothing I can do it looks like I will be upgraded my graphics card MUCH sooner than expected =(
I really don't know what to do with the mass PSU cords there are. I have a modular PSU but the cables that you can't unhook take up so much space in my SFF case. I even wire tied them all together but they are so big a bulky it looks horrible. Any ideas or am I pretty much stuck? I can't even image how horrible the cabling is on a non modular PSU.
bigmit3737
Member
Tideas said:
Thank you. I guess I will just get whichever one I can get on sale first.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
For serious PC usage, the OCZ Vertex, Intel SSDs, and other drives with the Samsung controller are the ones that are good. The Vertex especially, is looking like a really nice budget alternative.Minsc said:Interesting article on real world performance (with videos) of SSD vs HDD...
One of the highlights:
yay SSDs
godhandiscen
There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
The 4890 is full of fail imo. It cannot even surpass the GTX275. The 4870 1GB is still the best card for the money by far. I finished building my rig today in the morning. I will post pics later. LIAN LI so far has dissapointed me. The PC X500 is a bitch of a case. To fit everything in there you need "magic." I haven't powered it yet, but so far I am really frustrated with paying $400 for such a horrible experience. Hopefully it is not a dust collector, which was my main beef with my old case.
brain_stew
Member
DOUBLE POST
brain_stew
Member
bigmit3737 said:
Well as you may notice I've just made the plunge myself, and after reading masses and masses of reviews the 260 (216) does definitely seem to have the edge in more circumstances than the 4870 does. Recent drivers have worked wonders to increase performance, many recent releases have been iffy on ATI hardware (Last Remnant as an example) and the 260 is actually the cheaper card at the moment it seems.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127409
That card right there, is just such insane value, you really shouldn't be looking at anything else.
godhandiscen said:
Sad to hear aout that, you'd have thought everything would be a breeze to install when you're spending that sort of money.
mr stroke
Member
godhandiscen said:
don't think its worth the money?
most of the benches have the 4890 about 5-7 fps higher than the 4870, and considering its about $30-$40 more(after rebate)
don't you think its worth the money?(plus the little bit of "future proofing" you get with the newer card?
I am on the fence on pulling the trigger on one cause there so cheap but am apprehensive considering we may be 2-3 months away from a 5870 announcement..
brain_stew
Member
mr stroke said:don't think its worth the money?
most of the benches have the 4890 about 5-7 fps higher than the 4870, and considering its about $30-$40 more(after rebate)
don't you think its worth the money?(plus the little bit of "future proofing" you get with the newer card?
I am on the fence on pulling the trigger on one cause there so cheap but am apprehensive considering we may be 2-3 months away from a 5870 announcement..
When you can get a GTX 260 (216) with a very healthy factory OC and a copy of Far Cry 2 for $160, no I don't think you can justify an extra $70 for a couple extra frames and no free game. Heck, since that $160 card is running at 655mhz on the core, its performance will be within a whisker of a stock 4890 anyway. Sure, the 4890 should have more headroom but there's no guarantees for that (no matter how likely) and not everyone wants to go this route anyway.
Have a look here for a review of a pre overclocked GTX 260 (216) with very similar clocks (same memory, core just 11mhz faster):
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/xfxgtx260black/2.html
The factory overclock basically brings its performance right in line with the GTX 280 which is less than a frame slower than the 4890 in your graph. So yeah, its upto you whether an extra frame in Crysis plus more OCing headroom is worth $70 and the loss of a free game to you. It wasn't for me.
Minsc
Gold Member
Rentahamster said:
I just want a drive that makes no noise, no heat and basically doesn't break. The fact that they're 3x faster is just icing on the cake. More than likely I'll take the jump when I build a new PC for Windows 7, DoW 2, and all the other stuff out by then. Hopefully with the release of Windows 7, SSDs will drop in price even quicker allowing the higher end ones for ~$2-300.
brain_stew
Member
Has anyone tried out Nvidia's implementation of ambient occlusion that can now be forced in game's through their new driver release. The ability to add such a high end effect to older games is damn cool but I was wondering how performance fares?
Whilst the effect is often subtle it can often give scenes a much greater sense of depth, the above Half Life 2 screenshot, shows a pretty tasty looking improvement anyway. Heh, I might even give it a whirl with Dolphin, it would be pretty insane adding AO to Wii games!!
Whilst the effect is often subtle it can often give scenes a much greater sense of depth, the above Half Life 2 screenshot, shows a pretty tasty looking improvement anyway. Heh, I might even give it a whirl with Dolphin, it would be pretty insane adding AO to Wii games!!
MWS Natural
Member
Finally just finished up with my very first full PC build. I wouldn't say things went smoothly but it was a nice learning experience. Just got done overclocking my Phenom II 720, I was unable to boot into windows with the 4th core unlocked but I was able to overclock it pretty easily which was cool because it was my first time.
I will take pics of the PC and my setup once I get my desk cleared off from the mass of screws, tools and setup DVD's that are all over the place.
I will take pics of the PC and my setup once I get my desk cleared off from the mass of screws, tools and setup DVD's that are all over the place.
I have absolutely no clue on the new Phenoms, but 1.424V seems a bit high for a 45nm chip.MWS Natural said:Finally just finished up with my very first full PC build. I wouldn't say things went smoothly but it was a nice learning experience. Just got done overclocking my Phenom II 720, I was unable to boot into windows with the 4th core unlocked but I was able to overclock it pretty easily which was cool because it was my first time.
I will take pics of the PC and my setup once I get my desk cleared off from the mass of screws, tools and setup DVD's that are all over the place.
Did you manually set the voltage or is it still on AUTO?
Also what temps do you get idle/load using PRIME95 or ORTHOS?