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[otake]

so I got the asus p5q3 motherboard for xmas. I have 2 500 Gb's hdd's and I'm debating whether to go raid 0 or 5.

I'm particularly worried about cpu usage in raid 5 and I wonder if I'll see gaming improvements or not.

Forget that. My new motherboard is dead on arrival. =(

The light on the mobo won't light up. I checked the power supply, it's fine. took out every component, made sure the cpu was placed correctly, still dead. I'm going to have to RMA it.


Has anyone else ever seen this before? I've build more than 10 PC's and servers, I had never seen the mobo light fail to come on. I've seen bad ram, failure to post, bad cpu's, bad psu's and bad hdd's. Wat the HELL?

 

[tak]

Forget that. My new motherboard is dead on arrival. =(

The light on the mobo won't light up. I checked the power supply, it's fine. took out every component, made sure the cpu was placed correctly, still dead. I'm going to have to RMA it.


Has anyone else ever seen this before? I've build more than 10 PC's and servers, I had never seen the mobo light fail to come on. I've seen bad ram, failure to post, bad cpu's, bad psu's and bad hdd's. Wat the HELL?

You might want to thumb through the manual and the support page for the motherboard. I've come across a few boards that have little quirky safety features that prevent them from coming on if they're configured incorrectly.

 

[Numbers]

I was thinking about getting an Nvidia 9800 graphics card.. (Something like this or like this) Would I need to upgrade my CPU? I have an Intel Pentium 2140 Dual core that runs at 1.6GHz each.

 

[DangerStepp]

I was thinking about getting an Nvidia 9800 graphics card.. (Something like this or like this) Would I need to upgrade my CPU? I have an Intel Pentium 2140 Dual core that runs at 1.6GHz each.

I chose the 9800 GTX+ to install in my new rig just this Christmas Eve.

i7 920 CPU
ASUS P6T Deluxe LGA 1366 Mobo.
500 GB HDD
EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512 MB
6G (3 x 2 DDR3 ) RAM

It runs most games that I have (STALKER: Clear Sky, The Witcher) at full spec quite nicely, with the exception of Crysis, of course. The cool thing about EVGA is the 90 day upgrade, which allows you to pay the difference to get a better card. Pretty sweet deal if you have cash to burn.

 

[otake]

You might want to thumb through the manual and the support page for the motherboard. I've come across a few boards that have little quirky safety features that prevent them from coming on if they're configured incorrectly.

I did and can't find a damn thing.

 

[Sciz]

Forget that. My new motherboard is dead on arrival. =(

The light on the mobo won't light up. I checked the power supply, it's fine. took out every component, made sure the cpu was placed correctly, still dead. I'm going to have to RMA it.


Has anyone else ever seen this before? I've build more than 10 PC's and servers, I had never seen the mobo light fail to come on. I've seen bad ram, failure to post, bad cpu's, bad psu's and bad hdd's. Wat the HELL?

I had the same problem with this rig (documented in the 2008 topic), and it turned out the problem was that the case itself kept short circuiting it. Tried connecting the PSU to the mobo outside of the case and powering it on yet?

 

[otake]

I had the same problem with this rig (documented in the 2008 topic), and it turned out the problem was that the case itself kept short circuiting it. Tried connecting the PSU to the mobo outside of the case and powering it on yet?

my old mobo powers on fine though.....

if this works I'm going to reach out of your monitor and kill you.


EDIT- YOU WERE RIGHT! what the hell am I supposed to do now? Buy a new case?

 

[Sciz]

my old mobo powers on fine though.....

if this works I'm going to reach out of your monitor and kill you.


EDIT- YOU WERE RIGHT! what the hell am I supposed to do now? Buy a new case?

Good thing the internet doesn't support physical transmission yet. :lol

What worked for me (Cheeto's suggestion, IIRC) was insulating it by placing the static bag the board came in between the board and the case. Line it up carefully, poke holes for the screws, and then go through the tricky process of keeping everything aligned when you try to screw it back into the case. No problems so far, once I finally got everything put together (and replaced the hard drive which turned out to be DOA).

 

[Baloonatic]

Maybe I'd be better off just building my own...

Q6600 2.4GHz
Radeon 4850 1GB
Kingston 4GB DDR2 800MHz
Asus P5KPL-AM iG31 Socket 775 Motherboard
Coolermaster eXtreme Power 650W PSU
ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm
LiteOn IHAS120 20X SATA DVD±RW/DL Black Bare Drive
Mid Tower Case

I really need someone to confirm whether this is all compatible though. Specifically if the PSU and Motherboard are fine to be used with the graphics card an processor. Really would be grateful for the help guys, I'm fairly sure it will all work fine but I NEED confirmation before purchasing.

Also, have I missed any important components? :S

 

[tak]

Maybe I'd be better off just building my own...

Q6600 2.4GHz
Radeon 4850 1GB
Kingston 4GB DDR2 800MHz
Asus P5KPL-AM iG31 Socket 775 Motherboard
Coolermaster eXtreme Power 650W PSU
ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm
LiteOn IHAS120 20X SATA DVD±RW/DL Black Bare Drive
Mid Tower Case

I really need someone to confirm whether this is all compatible though. Specifically if the PSU and Motherboard are fine to be used with the graphics card an processor. Really would be grateful for the help guys, I'm fairly sure it will all work fine but I NEED confirmation before purchasing.

Also, have I missed any important components? :S

Asus has a powersupply calaculator on their website. http://support.asus.com/PowerSupplyCalculator/PowerSupplyCalculator_right.aspx

However, without plugging stuff into the calculator, I'm sure the power supply should be more then fine (assuming it has the correct hookups and you're not attaching 20 different USB devices to your computer). I have dual quad core machine with a newer graphics card and a lot of hard drives. My power supply is only 650watt and works perfectly.

 

[Baloonatic]

Asus has a powersupply calaculator on their website. http://support.asus.com/PowerSupplyCalculator/PowerSupplyCalculator_right.aspx

However, without plugging stuff into the calculator, I'm sure the power supply should be more then fine (assuming it has the correct hookups and you're not attaching 20 different USB devices to your computer). I have dual quad core machine with a newer graphics card and a lot of hard drives. My power supply is only 650watt and works perfectly.

Yeah I think 650W is enough, does the PSU have the right connectors do you know? That's mainly what I'm worried about as I have no idea.

 

[tak]

Yeah I think 650W is enough, does the PSU have the right connectors do you know? That's mainly what I'm worried about as I have no idea.

It looks like it has all the modern connectors that you'll need (ie, 2x PCI-E Power Connectors, 3x SATA Connectors, 4pin +12v CPU Connector, etc...).

Though, you might want to dig through the online manual for the motherboard and video card to make sure it has what you need. If worse comes to worse, adapter are really cheap, so even if the PSU doesn't have a hookup you need you can find an adapter to help you out.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Maybe I'd be better off just building my own...

Q6600 2.4GHz
Radeon 4850 1GB
Kingston 4GB DDR2 800MHz
Asus P5KPL-AM iG31 Socket 775 Motherboard
Coolermaster eXtreme Power 650W PSU
ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm
LiteOn IHAS120 20X SATA DVD±RW/DL Black Bare Drive
Mid Tower Case

I really need someone to confirm whether this is all compatible though. Specifically if the PSU and Motherboard are fine to be used with the graphics card an processor. Really would be grateful for the help guys, I'm fairly sure it will all work fine but I NEED confirmation before purchasing.

Also, have I missed any important components? :S

There's no way a Q6600 and 4850 will use even 500w. Even a pretty significant overclock wouldn't draw that much power.

You could easily get away with 500w, to be honest. Power Supply inflation is FUD. It doesn't mean you dont' need to buy a *quality* supply, but the actual wattage required for a basic system like that is probably somewhere closer to 400w under load.

 

[Baloonatic]

Hmm ok. Well I'll look into a lower wattage PSU. I've looked around and all the connectors that one has seem ok, so I know what to look for.

However, I found a 4870 for 130 pounds?! Is there some of trick there? It's a reliable site and everything, I'm just wondering why it's so cheap.

I just need to look into whether that motherboard is ok, I still find them very confusing.

 

[otake]

Good thing the internet doesn't support physical transmission yet. :lol

What worked for me (Cheeto's suggestion, IIRC) was insulating it by placing the static bag the board came in between the board and the case. Line it up carefully, poke holes for the screws, and then go through the tricky process of keeping everything aligned when you try to screw it back into the case. No problems so far, once I finally got everything put together (and replaced the hard drive which turned out to be DOA).

I got it working now. Thx a lot man. We should play tf2 or something.

 

[ghst]

my old mobo powers on fine though.....

if this works I'm going to reach out of your monitor and kill you.


EDIT- YOU WERE RIGHT! what the hell am I supposed to do now? Buy a new case?

it's insane how often this kind of shorting seems to happen. if remounting doesn't solve it, try the static bag trick.

 

[otake]

it's insane how often this kind of shorting seems to happen. if remounting doesn't solve it, try the static bag trick.

I got it to work. Installing Vista now on my brand new build. Went for a stripe set. I'll overclock tomorrow and post my results. Gto 3.00 Ghz on my last POS mobo so I should be able to achieve a bit more. (crosses fingers)

 

[bardia]

I'm trying to build a budget gaming PC for my brother. The last time i built a PC was over 5 years ago so I am totally out of the loop when it comes to parts etc. but I did some research. My Budget is $900 (Includes monitor) Canadian. Any canadians know of cheap web sites? I was building a PC on ncix.com and this is what I came up with, if anyone has any suggestions of where I can save money if I have unecessary parts etc. I was thinking that maybe the MOBO is too much for the system? Any help would be greatly appreciated

EDIT: Went on newegg.ca and holy hell prices are wayy cheaper...rebuilding a new one will post the parts soon!


Here is the new set up:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail

ASUS P5QL PRO LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664AA800 - Retail

SAPPHIRE 100265L Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

OCZ StealthXStream OCZ500SXS 500W ATX12V / EPS12V Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black SECC / ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DH-20A4P-04 - OEM

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail

Total: $714

 

[Baloonatic]

Decided to go for this case instead:

Coolermaster Centurion 5 w/ 550W PSU

 

[Sciz]

I got it working now. Thx a lot man. We should play tf2 or something.

Ah, congratulations. Weirdest problem I've ever personally run across, but apparently the wisdom of PC GAF knows no bounds.

 

[bee]

Q6600 2.4GHz
Radeon 4850 1GB
Kingston 4GB DDR2 800MHz
Asus P5KPL-AM iG31 Socket 775 Motherboard
Coolermaster eXtreme Power 650W PSU
ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm
LiteOn IHAS120 20X SATA DVD±RW/DL Black Bare Drive
Mid Tower Case

oof, that list is pretty bad, what's the budget?

 

[Baloonatic]

oof, that list is pretty bad, what's the budget?

What's wrong with it? I've decided to change the GPU to this and the case/psu to this.

Budget is 500 pounds. (I can't find the pound sign on this shitty laptop)

 

[GQman2121]

I can't seem to find a driver online that will allow me to use a DS3 with pc games in Vista. I tried a few, but none of them responded when I installed them.

I went ahead picked up a 360 controller with usb dongle, which works fine for current games, but older titles like Max Payne seem to need additional programs to sync up.

I've been using Xpadder, but I'm not getting the precision that I would like and most games don't have tuning in their options.

Anyone got any suggestions? I prefer using a controllers to keyboard/mouse and I don't really want to have to pick up another 360 controller if I can use a DS3.

 

[bee]

What's wrong with it? I've decided to change the GPU to this and the case/psu to this.

Budget is 500 pounds. (I can't find the pound sign on this shitty laptop)

hmm, the graphics card is a return or something and only has a 1month warranty new case/psu seems ok though

the ram is just plain bad you can find some cas 4 4gb for £40 easy, the old gfx card has 256bit/ddr3 1gb which is a no no and the motherboard looks like a piece of shit

depends what you need for that price, you need the main components + mouse/keys + os + monitor? or do you have some things already. £500 gets you a very good pc these days although a few months ago it got you an even better one, grrr weak pound

 

[Baloonatic]

hmm, the graphics card is a return or something and only has a 1month warranty new case/psu seems ok though

the ram is just plain bad you can find some cas 4 4gb for £40 easy, the old gfx card has 256bit/ddr3 1gb which is a no no and the motherboard looks like a piece of shit

depends what you need for that price, you need the main components + mouse/keys + os + monitor? or do you have some things already. £500 gets you a very good pc these days although a few months ago it got you an even better one, grrr weak pound

I have stuff like an OS, monitor etc. I basically just need the actual computer. If you have any suggestions on what to get then I'd be really grateful, I haven't kept up with advancements in components since my last computer 5 years ago.

It's basically for gaming exclusively, along with normal stuff like browsing the web etc. I want to be able to get 30fps out of Crysis if possible. People seem to think that the Q6600 and Radeon 4850 are good though, it's just the other stuff I'm stuck on.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Is this RAM any better?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146049

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Decided to go for this case instead:

Coolermaster Centurion 5 w/ 550W PSU

Great choice man.

 

[Baloonatic]

Great choice man.

That's good then, just sounds like it's everything else I need help with D:

 

[Jamesfrom818]

Whats a good program to use to check stability of an overclock? I finally decided to overclock my Eee PC 1000H and I have the 1.6 Ghz Atom up to 2.0 Ghz. So far, I've just been opening up a whole bunch of videos at once.

 

[bee]

I have stuff like an OS, monitor etc. I basically just need the actual computer. If you have any suggestions on what to get then I'd be really grateful, I haven't kept up with advancements in components since my last computer 5 years ago.

It's basically for gaming exclusively, along with normal stuff like browsing the web etc. I want to be able to get 30fps out of Crysis if possible. People seem to think that the Q6600 and Radeon 4850 are good though, it's just the other stuff I'm stuck on.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Is this RAM any better?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146049

get some of this ram imo http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=21585 hmm prices have gone up quite a lot , although play.com were doing 4gb of cas 6 800mhz the other day for £15

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigabyte-GA-EP43-S3L-Intel-P43-Express-Sok-775-PCI-E-20-(x16)-DDR2-1200-1066-667-SATA-300-ATX
seems ok'ish for a mobo, just going through these prices more and more, damn they've gone up a lot!

 

[avaya]

Current setup

Dell Dimension 8400
3.2GHz 540 Prescott/China Syndrome P4
2GB Kingston DDR2
BFG 7600GT 256MB OR Gainward 7900GTX 512MB (depending on time of year)
160GB Barracuda
74GB Raptor (not main drive)

Which is nothing short of shit at anything other than CS and old school C&C.

Budget is £2.5k

I'm looking at Core i7's, Nehalem's overclock well and I'll be having that done.

GFX cards will have to be mid-range current gen since I wanna go all out for the DX11 parts, since the last batch were nothing short of disappointing.

CPU: Intel Core i7 940 2.93Ghz (Nehalem) - OC'ed to 3.5GHz+ prime stable
Mobo Asus P6T Deluxe "OC Palm Edition" Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
CPU Cooler: Akasa AK-967 Nero Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler
RAM: G.Skill 6GB DDR3 NQ PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (3x2GB) Triple Channel DDR3
Case: Antec 900 Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
GFX: Point of View GeForce GTX 260 "Maxcore" 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Main HDD: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache
Sec. HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Optical: Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
PSU: Corsair HX 1000W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-Bit

~ £2338.96, if I get the Core i7 920 it's £2143.46. This is slightly more than normal because I am having it assembled, I have no time to mess around with the entire computer.

Questions:

Is the 940 worth it over the 920?
Should I get the Extreme Edition Core i7 965?
Is the Extreme Edition worth it considering I will NOT watercool and I will OC at max of 4GHz using air (possible with 940)?
4870 1GB over GTX 260? Before my DX11 GFX upgrade I will only be playing RTS' for the most part....
When will ATi's DX11 parts arrive, since Nvidia's GT300 is rumored for Q1?

 

[bee]

Current setup

Dell Dimension 8400
3.2GHz 540 Prescott/China Syndrome P4
2GB Kingston DDR2
BFG 7600GT 256MB OR Gainward 7900GTX 512MB (depending on time of year)
160GB Barracuda
74GB Raptor (not main drive)

Which is nothing short of shit at anything other than CS and old school C&C.

Budget is £2.5k

I'm looking at Core i7's, Nehalem's overclock well and I'll be having that done.

GFX cards will have to be mid-range current gen since I wanna go all out for the DX11 parts, since the last batch were nothing short of disappointing.

CPU: Intel Core i7 940 2.93Ghz (Nehalem) - OC'ed to 3.5GHz+ prime stable
Mobo Asus P6T Deluxe "OC Palm Edition" Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
CPU Cooler: Akasa AK-967 Nero Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler
RAM: G.Skill 6GB DDR3 NQ PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (3x2GB) Triple Channel DDR3
Case: Antec 900 Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
GFX: Point of View GeForce GTX 260 "Maxcore" 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Main HDD: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache
Sec. HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Optical: Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
PSU: Corsair HX 1000W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-Bit

~ £2338.96, if I get the Core i7 920 it's £2143.46. This is slightly more than normal because I am having it assembled, I have no time to mess around with the entire computer.

Questions:

Is the 940 worth it over the 920?
Should I get the Extreme Edition Core i7 965?
Is the Extreme Edition worth it considering I will NOT watercool and I will OC at max of 4GHz using air (possible with 940)?
4870 1GB over GTX 260? Before my DX11 GFX upgrade I will only be playing RTS' for the most part....
When will ATi's DX11 parts arrive, since Nvidia's GT300 is rumored for Q1?

920 is the one to get, bear in mind when overclocked to 4ghz ish , full load power consumption is an outrageous 430w or so (total system) but with the gfx card idle

gtx 260 216 is the one to get, maybe wait for the 55nm in january

dx11 aint out till q4?

of the stuff you've selected, palm edition seems like a big gimmick normal one is supposed to be great. get the thermalright 120 1366 cooler, £2.5k and your buying a antec 900 oo, and again £2.5k and you've got no soundcard oo

 

[Baloonatic]

get some of this ram imo http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=21585 hmm prices have gone up quite a lot , although play.com were doing 4gb of cas 6 800mhz the other day for £15

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigabyte-GA-EP43-S3L-Intel-P43-Express-Sok-775-PCI-E-20-(x16)-DDR2-1200-1066-667-SATA-300-ATX
seems ok'ish for a mobo, just going through these prices more and more, damn they've gone up a lot!

Man, I'm considering giving up and just buying this stupid thing. I'm finding this whole process of searching for parts really frustrating. There seems to be like 12 variations of everything and I have no idea what's decent.

I really need this computer next week as well.

 

[avaya]

920 is the one to get, bear in mind when overclocked to 4ghz ish , full load power consumption is an outrageous 430w or so (total system) but with the gfx card idle

gtx 260 216 is the one to get, maybe wait for the 55nm in january

dx11 aint out till q4?

of the stuff you've selected, palm edition seems like a big gimmick normal one is supposed to be great. get the thermalright 120 1366 cooler, £2.5k and your buying a antec 900 oo, and again £2.5k and you've got no soundcard oo

Cheers, 920 seems to be the pick then. The Palm Edition is indeed a gimmick, I've just realised that now. :lol

I'm buying in the second week of Jan, after CES.

Any saving on the £2.5k will only add to the budget I've set aside for DX11 SLi or X-Fire insanity.

What case would you recommend? I was gonna opt for the Antec 1200 but it seemed OTT.

Soundcard...is it really necessary these days?

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Is the 940 worth it over the 920?
Should I get the Extreme Edition Core i7 965?
Is the Extreme Edition worth it considering I will NOT watercool and I will OC at max of 4GHz using air (possible with 940)?
4870 1GB over GTX 260? Before my DX11 GFX upgrade I will only be playing RTS' for the most part....
When will ATi's DX11 parts arrive, since Nvidia's GT300 is rumored for Q1?

1.) Nope.
2.) Nope. 920 is really the sweet spot unless you're going to be doing an insane water cooled OC on your CPU.
3.) [H]ardOCP has gotten their 920 stable @ 4.0GHz but I'm not sure how much of an "every day" chip that is. I'd say a 3.6-3.8 overclock is more than enough.
4.) What resolution are going you to be playing at? 4870 1GB vs. a GTX Core 216 260 are virtually the same.
5.) GT300 info be end of Q2 for it's release in Q3/Q4 + ATI's HD5xxx series will make it's debut end of Q1/Q2 timeframe.

 

[avaya]

Cheers!

I'm running at 1920x1200! What's the ATi vs. Nvidia driver situation like?

 

[Chiggs]

Cheers!

I'm running at 1920x1200! What's the ATi vs. Nvidia driver situation like?

Nvidia by a Texas mile. Admittedly, I am a little green, but I do own a 4870 1gb which I love, but sometimes the driver bullshit gets annoying.

 

[Baloonatic]

Ok, so after a bit of tweaking I need someone to tell me if this setup is any good/will work:

Core 2 Duo E8400
Sapphire 4850 512MB
Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L iP31 Motherboard
Crucial 4GB 800MHz DDR2

Coolermaster Centurion 5 All Black Case + 550W eXtreme Power Plus PSU
Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm
LiteOn IHAS120 20X SATA DVD±RW/DL Black Bare Drive - OEM

Will this work? Is it shit? Please, help me out GAF.

 

[Nemo]

Ok, so after a bit of tweaking I need someone to tell me if this setup is any good/will work:

Core 2 Duo E8400
Sapphire 4850 512MB
Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L iP31 Motherboard
Crucial 4GB 800MHz DDR2

Coolermaster Centurion 5 All Black Case + 550W eXtreme Power Plus PSU
Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm
LiteOn IHAS120 20X SATA DVD±RW/DL Black Bare Drive - OEM

Will this work? Is it shit? Please, help me out GAF.

Seems okay. I don't know how the PSU is though, does it have 20+A rails? I only see a 5A.

 

[Baloonatic]

Seems okay. I don't know how the PSU is though, does it have 20+A rails? I only see a 5A.

I don't know what that means D:

 

[bee]

Cheers, 920 seems to be the pick then. The Palm Edition is indeed a gimmick, I've just realised that now. :lol

I'm buying in the second week of Jan, after CES.

Any saving on the £2.5k will only add to the budget I've set aside for DX11 SLi or X-Fire insanity.

What case would you recommend? I was gonna opt for the Antec 1200 but it seemed OTT.

Soundcard...is it really necessary these days?

any case i would recommend would cost way more so i doubt theres any point, lian li/silverstone cost a lot more for a reason and you don't often change case it'll last you maybe 10 years

soundcard is definitely necessary and they only cost £50 ish, x-fi xtreme gamer or asus xonar d1 is all you need and they both sound a LOT better than onboard, ignore anyone who says different

edit: hmm i read that as antec 900, so no they woldn't cost a lot more than a 1200, look at the latest lian li/silverstone as i mentioned above, they're a lot better than anything antec has to offer

Ok, so after a bit of tweaking I need someone to tell me if this setup is any good/will work:

Core 2 Duo E8400
Sapphire 4850 512MB
Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L iP31 Motherboard
Crucial 4GB 800MHz DDR2

Coolermaster Centurion 5 All Black Case + 550W eXtreme Power Plus PSU
Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm
LiteOn IHAS120 20X SATA DVD±RW/DL Black Bare Drive - OEM

Will this work? Is it shit? Please, help me out GAF.

its fine, i personally would go quad core..as i just have, in certain games theres a big difference between dual and quad and the number of games where that happens is only gonna get bigger

no idea on that mobo, i would spend a little more on a ep43 chipset myself, also swap the ram for this now that i spotted it http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154644

 

[Baloonatic]

its fine, i personally would go quad core..as i just have, in certain games theres a big difference between dual and quad and the number of games where that happens is only gonna get bigger

no idea on that mobo, i would spend a little more on a ep43 chipset myself, also swap the ram for this now that i spotted it http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154644

Can't really afford to upgrade both mobo and cpu to be honest. That mobo supports a q6600 though so I guess it must be ok at least. As long as it works...

I'll swap that RAM if you think it's better.

 

[Nemo]

Can't really afford to upgrade both mobo and cpu to be honest. That mobo supports a q6600 though so I guess it must be ok at least. As long as it works...

I'll swap that RAM if you think it's better.

Nah man, you're fine with that E8400 for gaming for at least a year or 3. You don't need to upgrade the mobo unless you're planning on overclocking. The E8400 is supported so no biggie there.

 

[Baloonatic]

Nah man, you're fine with that E8400 for gaming for at least a year or 3. You don't need to upgrade the mobo unless you're planning on overclocking. The E8400 is supported so no biggie there.

Ok then, that sounds ok. Is there any reason why that mobo wouldn't support that RAM? I just want to make sure everything is compatible. The RAM is double sided, right?

 

[_PM]

I'm so against AMD processors, but that 3850 absolutely slaughters the 9650.

I'd take the MSI if this is not a decision based on portability. Unless Best Buy drops the Asus G50vt-X-1 to $999 again, or Newegg drops the A-1 to $1200, the MSI is the best GPU you'll get at that price.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I still have a month of vacations left before I return to school, so I'll just wait to see if something better shows up. Thanks for the help.

 

[SRG01]

I don't know what that means D:

It basically means how many amperes through the rails. You can easily look up that information on the retailer's website or the manufuacturer's website.

 

[isamu]

Has there been any word on when the next series of ATI mobile cards will be coming out? I am holding out on getting a new notebook next year, until the 4870 mobile version is announced. Any rumors on this?

 

[Baloonatic]

Mmm, I might just use my DVD drive and hard drive from my old PC :S The only thing is, I don't know why my old PC stopped working, so my hard drive might be the cause...

 

[K.Jack]

Has there been any word on when the next series of ATI mobile cards will be coming out? I am holding out on getting a new notebook next year, until the 4870 mobile version is announced. Any rumors on this?

I have way more than rumors for you sir. The mobile 4870 is just ready to go into production, so it may be late Q1/Q2 of next year before we start finding out who will carry it. Don't expect any mainstream company (Dell, HP, Sony) to utilize it. It'll possibly (I doubt) use GDDR5 and could equal the desktop 4850. Fuck.gif at that last sentence.

Somehow MSI has the early jump on the 4xxx series notebooks, and they're currently set to be released next month. There's the GX623, with the mobile HD 4670 and the GT725, which holds the mobile 4850.

Preorders are popping up for the GT725, and the prices are well, look here and here. To put things in perspective, understand that Nvidia's current top dog, the 9800M GTX, cannot be had for any less than $2k, and if the 4850m does perform on the level of the 4830, it's beasting the GTX so bad it's just silly. For 4850 equipped notebooks to be hitting the market at less than $1400 puts Nvidia in an even worse situation than it is facing in the desktop race vs. ATI, because the 9800M GTX is a brand new card, there's no new announcements on the horizon, and price cuts at this point aren't even going to solve things.

Nvidia's second strongest card, which is still in production (mobile 9800GT and 8800GTX are done), is the 9800M GTS, and that's barely outpacing the HD3870. Massacre. If things pan out, Nvidia is pretty much fucked in the high enthusiast notebook market.:lol

 

[bee]

Mmm, I might just use my DVD drive and hard drive from my old PC :S The only thing is, I don't know why my old PC stopped working, so my hard drive might be the cause...

i'd phone up your local pc world if i were you, apparently they're selling 8800gt for £50 and if your lucky a 9600gt for £10.85 lol

probably all gone by now, but worth a phone call imo

 

[Baloonatic]

i'd phone up your local pc world if i were you, apparently they're selling 8800gt for £50 and if your lucky a 9600gt for £10.85 lol

probably all gone by now, but worth a phone call imo

All gone D: I just took apart my old PC and reckon I can just use the hard drive and DVD drives it had. I just hope it's all compatible, I think the DVD drives might be IDE? Is that what was used before SATA? If so then they might be too old.