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[K.Jack]

Nice! Thanks dude.

Yo, if you're willing to spend $1200-$1300, why not spend a little bit more on one of Clevo M860TU, or if you want 17", the MSI GT725-04 is the way to go.

The Asus at $899 is a good deal, no doubt, but it's an underclocked 9600 GT, while the Clevo and MSI are a 9800 GT and an underclocked 4850, respectively.

GPU-Z screens:

9800M GS (not a GT... driver issue):

ATi Mobility 4850:

GTX 260M (immature drivers right now... 112 Shaders not recognized):

 

[brain_stew]

Ok, the laptop I was talking about is this one. You cannot let thius deal pass.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat177800050007&type=category

There is a more expensive one that has a 9800+ and a higuer res screen, which goes for ~$1300. Look for it.

That's a damn nice laptop for the price, and not insanely big like most gaming grade laptops. I'm normally not of fan of such machines but at that price, its hard to ignore.

So I think I have AM2+.

Have mercy on a computer noob.

An Phenom X3 720 would be my choice then, great CPU for the money.

 

[Fredescu]

Didn't see it posted, Tech Report have a new system guide for April up: http://techreport.com/articles.x/16721/1

 

[rass]

Didn't see it posted, Tech Report have a new system guide for April up: http://techreport.com/articles.x/16721/1

thanks for that, good reading

 

[Hazaro]

Didn't see it posted, Tech Report have a new system guide for April up: http://techreport.com/articles.x/16721/1

Solid as March was. I've got nothing to say, except GTX 260 should be upgraded on the i7 rig (Which they address in the article and on the next page)

Look there for builds.

 

[Grayman]

Is there any way to instantly convert a newegg.com build to a .ca one? The last econobox was about 750cdn iirc

 

[godhandiscen]

Yo, if you're willing to spend $1200-$1300, why not spend a little bit more on one of Clevo M860TU, or if you want 17", the MSI GT725-04 is the way to go.

The Asus at $899 is a good deal, no doubt, but it's an underclocked 9600 GT, while the Clevo and MSI are a 9800 GT and an underclocked 4850, respectively.

GPU-Z screens:

9800M GS (not a GT... driver issue):
[]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h204/killer-ra/random%20nonimportant%20stuff/d04.png[/]

ATi Mobility 4850:
[]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h204/killer-ra/random%20nonimportant%20stuff/4850M.png[/]

GTX 260M (immature drivers right now... 112 Shaders not recognized):
[]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h204/killer-ra/random%20nonimportant%20stuff/GTX-260M.png[/]

Where can I find a laptop with a 280M?

edit: nvm I just found the 280M is a 9800 die shrink. i will still wait for the 4870 with DDR5.

 

[Hazaro]

Is there any way to instantly convert a newegg.com build to a .ca one? The last econobox was about 750cdn iirc

Just change the LINK from .com to .ca

Seems 2 of the items are sold out though.

 

[Hazaro]

Where can I find a laptop with a 280M?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Hands-On-Clevo-M980NU-Notebook.14554.0.html

It's so...
Wrong :lol

 

[Truespeed]

The i7 920 is 299 CDN on the Dell canada site. I still think it's $100 overpriced, though. Also, the much lauded and sought after eIPS wielding Dell 2209WA was on sale for $189 - sold out quick, though.

 

[brain_stew]

The i7 920 is 299 CDN on the Dell canada site. I still think it's $100 overpriced, though. Also, the much lauded and sought after eIPS wielding Dell 2209WA was on sale for $189 - sold out quick, though.

The i7 920 has always been excellent value, its just the cost of the platform as a whole that's always been the issue.

 

[Slavik81]

The i7 920 is 299 CDN on the Dell canada site.

Where? I see it as $499.
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/pro...l.aspx?c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&sku=A2298167

 

[Grayman]

Just change the LINK from .com to .ca

Seems 2 of the items are sold out though.

Thanks, before I checked back here I manually put it all together, I must have got something slightly different because nothing was out of stock $634, the alternative video card was another ~20.

When I was picking up my repaired laptop a service man told me I could get something for around 600(400ish + $video card$) there. Probably have 2-4 weeks to think about build myself or get the shop service.

 

[Cheeto]

Didn't see it posted, Tech Report have a new system guide for April up: http://techreport.com/articles.x/16721/1

Surprisingly spot on, I usually don't agree with a component or two in these guides, but this one seems perfect. The only thing I would add is, building the econobox with a E8400 or a Q6600 instead for just a smidge more money would make a world of difference.

 

[rohlfinator]

Surprisingly spot on, I usually don't agree with a component or two in these guides, but this one seems perfect. The only thing I would add is, building the econobox with a E8400 or a Q6600 instead for just a smidge more money would make a world of difference.

That would have raised the price by ~$100 though, which is 20% of the econobox's total. Their suggested bump to the Phenom II X3 720 makes more sense for people who want more performance, IMO.

 

[Cheeto]

That would have raised the price by ~$100 though, which is 20% of the econobox's total. Their suggested bump to the Phenom II X3 720 makes more sense for people who want more performance, IMO.

Probably splitting hairs here, but I think the price/performance ratio is better with a ~$600 E8400 box, than a ~$550 X3 720 box.

 

[Kintaro]

I'm ready to pull the trigger on this card.

Shall I fire with no regrets?

 

[brain_stew]

Surprisingly spot on, I usually don't agree with a component or two in these guides, but this one seems perfect. The only thing I would add is, building the econobox with a E8400 or a Q6600 instead for just a smidge more money would make a world of difference.

Can't agree with that at all. The E5200 is still an excellent processor, even at stock it'll perform roughly on par with the Q6600 in single and dual threaded apps which is most everything anyway. They use very little power, run cool and clock like a beast as well, mine's running at 3.5ghz and mops up anything I throw at it with consummate ease.

Probably splitting hairs here, but I think the price/performance ratio is better with a ~$600 E8400 box, than a ~$550 X3 720 box.

Can't agree with that either. The X3 is more than enough for any dual or single threaded app, and then you've got an extra core for a $50 saving.

Honestly, the E8400 is a pretty damn terrible buy if you ask me, a $70 E5200 can give you all the dual threaded performance you'll ever need with 5 minutes work overclocking, so if I'm spending any more money, I sure as hell want an extra core or two out of the bargain.

 

[rohlfinator]

Probably splitting hairs here, but I think the price/performance ratio is better with a ~$600 E8400 box, than a ~$550 X3 720 box.

I dunno if I'd agree with that, but regardless, I think their decision was largely due to the price. They were aiming for a loose $500 budget for the Econobox. Once you bump that up to $600 for the E8400 or $644 for the Q6600, that's starting to get close to the $690 for their Utility Player.

At the budget price range, $100-150 can make a big difference, and E5200 keeps that price low while still delivering quite good performance (especially when OC'd, which is what they suggest).

 

[K.Jack]

Where can I find a laptop with a 280M?

edit: nvm I just found the 280M is a 9800 die shrink. i will still wait for the 4870 with DDR5.

Only in this notebook for now.

The GTX 280M is an underclock desktop 9800 GTX+. The GT200 core won't hit the mobile market until Nvidia goes 40nm at the end of this year.

There's two versions, both with 128 shaders:

The version with 950 memory is in the Clevo D900f (single card with desktop i7 processors) and M980NU (Core 2 Quad Mobile CPUs and SLI 280M), while the 800MHz version is found in the M570ETU.

 

[Cheeto]

Can't agree with that either. The X3 is more than enough for any dual or single threaded app, and then you've got an extra core for a $50 saving.

"More than enough for any dual or single threaded app" depends on what the person is doing with the machine. However, E8400 outperforms the X3 family by an unmistakable margin in every benchmark I've seen. What's the use of having 3 cores when no applications will be built for 3 cores? Most modern apps will assume either 2 or 4 cores, not 3.

 

[brain_stew]

"More than enough for any dual or single threaded app" depends on what the person is doing with the machine. However, E8400 outperforms the X3 family by an unmistakable margin in every benchmark I've seen. What's the use of having 3 cores when no applications will be built for 3 cores? Most modern apps will assume either 2 or 4 cores, not 3.

Well if they're coded for 4 cores then you get the full benefit of the third core. Applications are never built for a specific number of cores anyway, developers just multi thread their apps as best they can and if there's more than two threads then you're going to see a genuine advantage from having more than 2 cores.

What scenarios are there where the X3 720's single or dual threaded performance isn't enough? If a program is going to have serious CPU demands then chances are its going to be multi threaded anyway, so it'll perform better on an X3 720.

 

[Cheeto]

What scenarios are there where the X3 720's single or dual threaded performance isn't enough? If a program is going to have serious CPU demands then chances are its going to be multi threaded anyway, so it'll perform better on an X3 720.

Benchmarks place the E8400 better than the X3s, even in multi-threaded applications. Its ideal to have 2 threads per logical processor, so you need to take into account how many processors you have when building a multi-threaded app.

 

[bigmit3737]

I just bought this Motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358


Looking for a quadcore.

I was thinking of getting the Q8200 processor but with a separate heatsink, since I read that the retail heatsinks are pretty crappy.

Is that pretty much the best bang for it's buck, in terms of intel Quad Core Processors?

 

[brain_stew]

Benchmarks place the E8400 better than the X3s, even in multi-threaded applications. Its ideal to have 2 threads per logical processor, so you need to take into account how many processors you have when building a multi-threaded app.

That's most certainly not true. Any decently multi threaded app flies on the 720. See, for example:

Plus other similar results when the programs use more than two cores:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3512&p=7

 

[brain_stew]

I just bought this Motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358


Looking for a quadcore.

I was thinking of getting the Q8200 processor but with a separate heatsink, since I read that the retail heatsinks are pretty crappy.

Is that pretty much the best bang for it's buck, in terms of intel Quad Core Processors?

Stretch to a Q95500 if you can, the Q8200 is quite a gimped CPU. If you're willing to OC, the Q6600 is still a better buy despite its age.

 

[Cheeto]

That's most certainly not true. Any decently multi threaded app flies on the 720. See, for example:

[IMG.]http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/amdphenomii810_020809180918/18177.png[/IMG]

Plus other similar results when the programs use more than two cores:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3512&p=7

My mistake, I didn't see that there was another generation of X3 processors. All the benchmarks I've seen were for the X3 8xxx series.

 

[Kintaro]

So, with that XFX GTX 260, which monitor should I be looking at? I want 24" but the choice is between 1080p or going up to 1920x1200. Thoughts? Pros/Cons?

 

[matttco]

Case: RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black $99.99 (69.99 after mail-in rebate)
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R $119.99 (104.99 after mail-in rebate)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 $119.99
GPU: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 512MB $144.99
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) $44.99
DVD: LG Black 22X $24.99
HDD: Western Digital 640GB 32MB Cache $79.99
Mouse: Logitech G5 $49.99
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium - $99.99
---------------------------------------
Total: $785 (740 after mail-in rebates)
+ Shipping & Tax.

So I think I'm gonna go for this anything I should change thats a better deal or price? I want to play crsis and left for dead

 

[Shubit]

I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger on this build in the very near future (within a week). Just wanted to get some input and/or suggestions:

LIAN LI PC-65B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower

I've always wanted to try a Lian-li case to, used mainly Antec and Thermaltake the last few years and really like the look of this case and the price is right.

Thanks for any input!

This case is really obsolete by today's standards: 80mm fans around, no sound dampening features like ruberized HD mounts or sprung sidepanels like some of their newer cases feature. It's still typical Lian Li build quality but chances are it's going to be louder than you would have liked so I'd skip it if I were you. Unless you are willing to splurge an extra 30$ on something like the newer PC7 models I'd go the Antec route.

PC7F
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112194

PC7FW (windowed)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112195

Lan cool PC-K1B (same functionality only made of SECC instead of alu, 40$ cheaper)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112192

As a matter of fact in this price range I'd rather take an Antec over a Lian Li any day. Their price/performance (acoustics, airflow, functionality) is simply unmatched.

[personal opinion]The upcoming Antec P183 fixes the last few remaining issues with the P180 line (lower cage layout, top vent cover, overall improved airflow) making the other cases practically irrelevant in my eyes.[/personal opinion].

 

[brain_stew]

So, with that XFX GTX 260, which monitor should I be looking at? I want 24" but the choice is between 1080p or going up to 1920x1200. Thoughts? Pros/Cons?

1080p makes life so much simpler if you want to use it with other devices and its better suited to movies and games as well. Rocking a 23" 1080p monitor here and couldn't be happier. Th GTX 260 eats up that resolution as well.

Be sure to download EVGA Precision (and Furmark/ATI Tool for stability testing) and you should be able to manage a ~20% OC out of it.

 

[brain_stew]

Case: RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black $99.99 (69.99 after mail-in rebate)
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R $119.99 (104.99 after mail-in rebate)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 $119.99
GPU: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 512MB $144.99
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) $44.99
DVD: LG Black 22X $24.99
HDD: Western Digital 640GB 32MB Cache $79.99
Mouse: Logitech G5 $49.99
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium - $99.99
---------------------------------------
Total: $785 (740 after mail-in rebates)
+ Shipping & Tax.

So I think I'm gonna go for this anything I should change thats a better deal or price? I want to play crsis and left for dead

I'd tailor it more towards Tech Report's April "utility player", should come in under $800 including OS and will offer a good leap in performance.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16721/4

Edit: Didn't see that G5 there, well personally I'd switch it out for the cheaper (and more accurate) MX518 to save $10, and still go with the more expensive rig.

Bumping the E7400 down to an E5200 and adding $20 cooler then OCing is also a sensible way to save money without impacting game performance at all.

 

[BravoSuperStar]

As a matter of fact in this price range I'd rather take an Antec over a Lian Li any day. Their price/performance (acoustics, airflow, functionality) is simply unmatched.

[personal opinion]The upcoming Antec P183 fixes the last few remaining issues with the P180 line (lower cage layout, top vent cover, overall improved airflow) making the other cases practically irrelevant in my eyes.[/personal opinion].

That P183 looks very nice. I honestly wanted to go with a bottom PS mounting case, but I just don't like the Antec 900 series cases. Thanks for the info, I will give the P183 some serious consideration. Money isn't the biggest factor in my build, I am not going hog wild with SLI GTX285's and extreme edition CPU, but I will spend what it takes to get quality.

 

[Bebpo]

So while I was banned and didn't have access to this thread for advice I bought all my parts for my new computer I'm building. Now I need a guide/tips what to do next I've built computers before so I generally know how to plug things into each other. But I've never overclocked and I want to overclock my cpu to 4.0ghz and test it and if it's too hot scale it back to 3.6 or 3.4ghz.

Here are the parts that are sitting in my room now waiting to be put together. Please don't make comments like "why did you buy this crappy part!?! You should have bought this!" because it's too late for me to return/change stuff so the parts are what they are. I'm sure I could've bought better stuff, but I don't need it rubbed in my face that I got the wrong things for a new computer. I just need tips on making the best computer for gaming that I can out of these parts I have.

Case: COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137)
Power Supply: OCZ 750W Silencer
Cpu: i7 920
Cpu 3rd party fan: Coolermaster V8 120W cooler (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055&Tpk=v8 cooler)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128362)
Ram: 6 gigs of Corsair Dominator DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Gpu: XFX Geforce 9800GTX+ Black Edition
Hard drive: WD 1tb sata drive for boot drive
Hard drive: WD 640gig drive for 2ndary (already using it in this current computer, moved what I want to keep onto it already)
CD/DVD drive/burner: LG 22x dvd burner w/lightscribe (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136153)
OS: Windows XP (yeah I know it won't recognize the ram. That's fine. Ram is for future-proofing as I will upgrade to Windows 7 in 2-3 years)
Keyboard: Wireless Logitech keyboard (old and kinda sucks, might replace)
Mouse: Wireless Logitech trackball mouse (7-10 years old, but my favorite mouse and will keep using it)
Accessories: Wired X360 controller for PC

Now I have the choice to put in my Chaintech $25 soundcard that's in my current computer. But since this gigabyte motherboard has good on-board sound and I do all my gaming/movie watching, aka. sound related stuff through my receiver through SPDF which is on the motherboard (and video on my hdtv using tv-out from the gpu card) I don't see any need to put a sound card in.

So that's what I bought or took from my current computer. I'm planning on using this computer for 2-3 years and then upgrading the video card to the latest hotness & os to Windows 7 and then try to get another 2-3 years out of it for 5-6 years total.

Any advice on where to start for building this and overclocking it would be appreciated. First question I have is: Do I just toss out the giant fan that came with the i7 920 and put the V8 where it would go?

I'm not going to build this for another few days as I'm kind of busy, so I'll listen to whatever help you guys can give before I jump in and do anything stupid

Thanks!

 

[zbarron]

So...

That's a nice computer. I also have an i7 920, 6GB Corsair DDR3 1600 and 9800gtx+. It runs all of my games at 60fps at 1680x1050 as long as they don't have Crysis in the title. List of my games. Not that I have the most demanding games. This was my first build from scratch and the only thing that gave me trouble was these:

Luckily my Asus board has a little piece of plastic that is clearly labeled so you know which one goes where. Also I put the RAM in the wrong slots so if your computer doesn't boot try putting it in the other three slots. It was relatively painless. Just take an hour or two to do it right.

When I overclocked my CPU to 3.6Ghz on the stock cooler it worked fine but just barely got too hot when running OCCT. I was able to get mine to 4.0 but when it was being fully used the temps were dangerously high so all that is really needed is a good cooler. When games benefit from more than 3.2 I'll buy something like a TRUE 120. You may want to pick up some good thermal compound. I hear people like the Arctic Silver 5. Hopefully you have a store near you that sells it.

 

[Kintaro]

1080p makes life so much simpler if you want to use it with other devices and its better suited to movies and games as well. Rocking a 23" 1080p monitor here and couldn't be happier. Th GTX 260 eats up that resolution as well.

Be sure to download EVGA Precision (and Furmark/ATI Tool for stability testing) and you should be able to manage a ~20% OC out of it.

Which monitor do you have?

 

[brain_stew]

Which monitor do you have?

http://sp.ts.fujitsu.com/dmsp/docs/ds_amilo_display-sl_3230t.pdf

Only cost me around £150 delivered as well, huge bargain.

 

[Bebpo]

That's a nice computer. I also have an i7 920, 6GB Corsair DDR3 1600 and 9800gtx+. It runs all of my games at 60fps at 1680x1050 as long as they don't have Crysis in the title. List of my games. Not that I have the most demanding games. This was my first build from scratch and the only thing that gave me trouble was these:

Luckily my Asus board has a little piece of plastic that is clearly labeled so you know which one goes where. Also I put the RAM in the wrong slots so if your computer doesn't boot try putting it in the other three slots. It was relatively painless. Just take an hour or two to do it right.

When I overclocked my CPU to 3.6Ghz on the stock cooler it worked fine but just barely got too hot when running OCCT. I was able to get mine to 4.0 but when it was being fully used the temps were dangerously high so all that is really needed is a good cooler. When games benefit from more than 3.2 I'll buy something like a TRUE 120. You may want to pick up some good thermal compound. I hear people like the Arctic Silver 5. Hopefully you have a store near you that sells it.

Good point about the ram, thanks. Do you normally put them in the slots closest to the cpu or furthest? Or will the motherboard instructions just tell me? I'm used to just filling all the slots, but I think this motherboard has like 6 slots and I'm only using 3.

Out of curiosity, how does Crysis on your setup? I played through it on my old AMD Athlon 4000 + 9800GTX+ rig and it was around ~20fps with lots of dips and the final boss fight being like 5fps. Hopefully when I replay Crysis with this new rig I can at least have a solid 30fps from start to finish with graphics on high/very high Also I run it at 1280x720p out to a 720p hdtv, which is slightly less demanding then your 1680x1050.

 

[zbarron]

Good point about the ram, thanks. Do you normally put them in the slots closest to the cpu or furthest? Or will the motherboard instructions just tell me? I'm used to just filling all the slots, but I think this motherboard has like 6 slots and I'm only using 3.

Out of curiosity, how does Crysis on your setup? I played through it on my old AMD Athlon 4000 + 9800GTX+ rig and it was around ~20fps with lots of dips and the final boss fight being like 5fps. Hopefully when I replay Crysis with this new rig I can at least have a solid 30fps from start to finish with graphics on high/very high Also I run it at 1280x720p out to a 720p hdtv, which is slightly less demanding then your 1680x1050.

I thought it would be the ones closer to the CPU but I was wrong. It was the farther ones. Of course your motherboard might be different.


Crysis 1.2.1. I used High, 32-bit and DX9 since you will be running XP.

Don't mind the min FPS. it always does that for me where it takes a second to load the area and then counts that as my minimum even though it happens for a split second. It mostly ran at 50-60+.

My GPU is overclocked to 800 and 1200 though so yours might be slightly worse. Also my CPU is at 3.2Ghz but I think my bottleneck is my GPU so that shouldn't have made much of a difference.

 

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I think my GPU is overclocked to about 800 because of the black edition. So hopefully it should be pretty close to that.

Crysis at ~60fps most of the time would be nice indeed Looking forward to building this thing. My Athlon 4000 cpu has really been holding me back. I'm playing Doom3 right now and even with the 9800GTX+ card I'm having a very messy 60fps with drops all the time with v-sync on and tons of tearing with it off.

 

[Hazaro]

Now I have the choice to put in my Chaintech $25 soundcard that's in my current computer. But since this gigabyte motherboard has good on-board sound and I do all my gaming/movie watching, aka. sound related stuff through my receiver through SPDF which is on the motherboard (and video on my hdtv using tv-out from the gpu card) I don't see any need to put a sound card in.

Any advice on where to start for building this and overclocking it would be appreciated. First question I have is: Do I just toss out the giant fan that came with the i7 920 and put the V8 where it would go?

I'd definitely compare the sound quality, I have an AV-710 which is much better than my onboard, but the quality is getting better.

You can keep the stock cooler in a box.

 

[brain_stew]

Yeah, I think my GPU is overclocked to about 800 because of the black edition. So hopefully it should be pretty close to that.

Crysis at ~60fps most of the time would be nice indeed Looking forward to building this thing. My Athlon 4000 cpu has really been holding me back. I'm playing Doom3 right now and even with the 9800GTX+ card I'm having a very messy 60fps with drops all the time with v-sync on and tons of tearing with it off.

Force triple buffering through your drivers, its an OpenGL game so it'll work just fine by using this method to enable it.

If your 9800GTX is the 512MB then you don't really want to be using ultra quality either, the IQ boost is minor but since you may be etching over the 512MB limit of your card occasionally then performance will tank every now and then.

 

[brain_stew]

Well I was going to list it on Ebay but thought I'd see if anyone on GAF wants it before going to the trouble.

I've got a Palit 512MB Radeon 4850 for sale, will let it go for £80 including Paypal fees and postage for any UK GAFers, I could probably get a little more off Ebay but the less hassle the better.

It currently sells for £111.75 + postage (so you're saving around £40) on scan.co.uk here:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512M...R3-GPU-625MHz-800-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV-HDCP

The card is very short and has a very efficient heatsink which keeps temperatures very low (much, much better than the reference design 30C or so better in fact if I remember rightly). I've also added some ramsinks on the bottom of the card to assist with cooling, they cost about £5 or so.

The card has about 7 months left on its warranty or so and if anything goes wrong with it I'd be happy to assist in filing an RMA with Scan.

I can upload a picture if anyone requests it just got to find my camera. The card still has its full retail box, so if you're happy to trust one of the biggest contributors to this thread, then you can save yourself £40 for your troubles.

 

[MWS Natural]

1080p makes life so much simpler if you want to use it with other devices and its better suited to movies and games as well. Rocking a 23" 1080p monitor here and couldn't be happier. Th GTX 260 eats up that resolution as well.

Be sure to download EVGA Precision (and Furmark/ATI Tool for stability testing) and you should be able to manage a ~20% OC out of it.

You can run Crysis at 1080p or do you have to drop it to a lower resolution?

Well I was going to list it on Ebay but thought I'd see if anyone on GAF wants it before going to the trouble.

I've got a Palit 512MB Radeon 4850 for sale, will let it go for £80 including Paypal fees and postage for any UK GAFers, I could probably get a little more off Ebay but the less hassle the better.

It currently sells for £111.75 + postage (so you're saving around £40) on scan.co.uk here:

msinks on the bottom of the card to assist with cooling, they cost about £5 or so.
.

Damn..I might have jumped on that if you were in the US, I need something cheap to hold me over till the DX11 cards and I'm tired of running on onboard graphics.

 

[dmann]

I finally had some time the other day to complete my i7 rig. The specs are:

CPU: Intel Core i7 920
MOBO: DFI LanPARTY UT X58-T3eH8
RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB DDR3 1600
GRAFX: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4890
COOLER: COOLER MASTER V8 CPU COOLER
CASE: COOLER MASTER ATCS 840
PSU: CORSAIR 750W
HDD: Western Digital Caviar 640GB
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit

I did the best I could in cable management.

I put my case on two old college textbooks for the time being to get it off the carpet. Will prob build some kind of platform to place it on in the near future.

My current small desk. It was mainly used for my laptop, but I'm currently looking to purchase a corner desk to have some more deskspace so that I can run a dual monitor setup.

Here are my temps after running Prime95 for 6 hrs. Temps are not that high.

Everything is currently at stock speeds. I will prob overclocked the cpu and graphics card over the weekend.


I am extremely satisfied in this build. I spent close to ~1300 for everything.

 

[Fredescu]

Luckily my Asus board has a little piece of plastic that is clearly labeled so you know which one goes where.

When I built my system a month or so ago I was pleasantly suprised with those little plastic connectors. I always hated plugging in the lights and buttons etc and they make it so much easier. Do other motherboard manufacturers have them too?

 

[dmann]

When I built my system a month or so ago I was pleasantly suprised with those little plastic connectors. I always hated plugging in the lights and buttons etc and they make it so much easier. Do other motherboard manufacturers have them too?

My DFi board came with one those.

 

[Shinz Kicker]

^^^ very awesome. Give us some benchmarks.

also how good of a deal is this,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...41609-_-MonitorsLCDFlatPanel-_-L0B-_-24009163

179 plus free shipping 23" 1080p

 

[K.Jack]

I think I'm going to put my tech illiterate brother onto that Econo box. His wife's cousin will put it together for $50, then he just needs a good monitor.

Will a 1440x900 monitor waste the 4850's potential, and should I bump him up to 1680x1050?

 

[godhandiscen]

I think I'm going to put my tech illiterate brother onto that Econo box. His wife's cousin will put it together for $50, then he just needs a good monitor.

Will a 1440x900 monitor waste the 4850's potential, and should I bump him up to 1680x1050?

Actually a 1440x900 is the recommended resolution for Crysis on a 4850 I would say. Other games run well enough at 1600x1050 as long as he isnt a graphics whore.