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Official "I need a new PC!!" 2009 Edition
- Thread starter VictimOfGrief
- Start date
rohlfinator
Member
Now that I think about it, I remember reading that Nvidia cards don't handle audio over HDMI as well as ATI cards, so you might want to go with a Radeon 4870 or 4890 instead of the GTX 260. Maybe someone else has more insight on that.mr jones said:
Smaller cases tend to be harder to cool since your components are closer together. You just have to be a little more mindful of cooling -- some cases are designed to cool better than others. I think most mini-ATX towers will fit a full-size video card, but you'll want to make sure to read up on it before you buy anything. Most HTPC cases require low-profile video cards (which won't be powerful enough for good 1080p gaming), but I think there are a few cases that'll support full-height cards.
Minsc
Gold Member
mr jones said:
This one was suggested to me earlier, and it has very nice reviews. Can be modded to take a full sized card with a small adjustment. Good price and nice look too. It comes with or without the window, and perhaps in a different color, I forget. Not quite HTPC size, but you get to fit a full sized card in it!
MWS Natural
Member
rohlfinator said:
Nvidia cards require a separate cable for audio. Only reason I am forced to go with ATI, I wan to run a 30ft HDMI cable to my Kuro. I'm honestly not even sure if I can run it through my AVR which is what I really want to do.
MickeyKnox
Member
Unless you're running a 64bit OS, yes you can have too much ram.Boonoo said:
Gaffers! Don't let me down!!
I'm helping a friend out. He only needs a new tower + components inside. He already has a keyboard/mouse/flatscreen monitor.
His budget: $1500 CAD (~$1,230 USD)
Location: Canada. Prefer to get a place that ships from Canada, or with ease to Canada (ie: www.tigerdirect.ca)
Main use: new gaming PC, his old one can't run anything. He wants to play StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 as best as he can with his budget once those games come out.
Hook me up, pass me a item list and it will be purchased and built!
Thanks gaffers!
I'm helping a friend out. He only needs a new tower + components inside. He already has a keyboard/mouse/flatscreen monitor.
His budget: $1500 CAD (~$1,230 USD)
Location: Canada. Prefer to get a place that ships from Canada, or with ease to Canada (ie: www.tigerdirect.ca)
Main use: new gaming PC, his old one can't run anything. He wants to play StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 as best as he can with his budget once those games come out.
Hook me up, pass me a item list and it will be purchased and built!
Thanks gaffers!
Crazymoogle
Member
YakiSOBA said:Thanks gaffers!
Monitor size? Is that max budget with tax? With assembly? Maybe even just answer the great standard question set in this thread? It's a good budget to work with, just need to know what the money should focus on.
Labombadog
Member
YakiSOBA said:Gaffers! Don't let me down!!
I'm helping a friend out. He only needs a new tower + components inside. He already has a keyboard/mouse/flatscreen monitor.
His budget: $1500 CAD (~$1,230 USD)
Location: Canada. Prefer to get a place that ships from Canada, or with ease to Canada (ie: www.tigerdirect.ca)
Main use: new gaming PC, his old one can't run anything. He wants to play StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 as best as he can with his budget once those games come out.
Hook me up, pass me a item list and it will be purchased and built!
Thanks gaffers!
You can try newegg.ca ??? Also, are you planning to OC his pc?
This is what I got:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129154 - Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130221 - Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161276 - GPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202 - CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006 - PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231223 - RAM
__________________________
Subtotal: $1,054.94
Rebates: -$50.00
Total: $1,004.94
bigmit3737
Member
YakiSOBA said:Gaffers! Don't let me down!!
I'm helping a friend out. He only needs a new tower + components inside. He already has a keyboard/mouse/flatscreen monitor.
His budget: $1500 CAD (~$1,230 USD)
Location: Canada. Prefer to get a place that ships from Canada, or with ease to Canada (ie: www.tigerdirect.ca)
Main use: new gaming PC, his old one can't run anything. He wants to play StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 as best as he can with his budget once those games come out.
Hook me up, pass me a item list and it will be purchased and built!
Thanks gaffers!
If those are the main games he wants to play, he should really wait till they come out.
But then again, they really won't be graphic intensive.
BravoSuperStar
Member
Toby said:
This was on the stock cooler with a slight vcore bump, RAM voltage was pretty much maxed for what I get in the bios, and I had to loosen the timings. The phenomII X4 comes with a half-way decent stock cooler, it has copper pipes but a loooooud fan. It was running 48c+ pretty quickly but it ran a full crysis CPU/GPU test. (it was 3.36ghz technically BTW)
But for a permanent solution I decided on a OCZ vendetta, after looking into good AM2\+ coolers.
MWS Natural
Member
Haeleos said:
They all look identical to reference, you should just go with the best warranty. I wonder why ATI didn't include a larger cooler on it like the 4870.
mastershake
Member
Hey PC-gaf i need some help...
I'm so tired of playing FPS/RTS games with a controller. I need a PC bad.
My problem is i dont know how to put one together myself. In '01 when i was big into CS i just paid dell alot of money to build me one. It was a pretty good pc(for CS atleast lol)
What is the best place to get a PC built for you? I checked dell and HP and both are kinda expenive for what your getting. cyberpowerpc is pretty cheap and you can pick exactly what you want to go in it. Are they any good?
I have about a grand to spend and i dont need a monitor. I still have a 21inch CRT from back in 2001 that will do just fine.
Everyone seems to be saying lately that games are GPU dependant as opposed to CPU. Should i just opt for a Phenom II X3 720 and get a better GPU instead of going with an Inetl i7?
I built this one on cyber power for just over a grand
AMD PhenomII X3 720 Black Edition Triple-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P AMD 790X CrossFire Chipset with PCIe slot DDR2 SATA RAID
8GB (4x2GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX275 896MB 16X PCIe Video Card (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA)
320GB HD
I can upgrade to a Phenom II X4 920 for $30 and a 940 black edition for $60, is it worth it or is the X3 good enough?
I'm so tired of playing FPS/RTS games with a controller. I need a PC bad.
My problem is i dont know how to put one together myself. In '01 when i was big into CS i just paid dell alot of money to build me one. It was a pretty good pc(for CS atleast lol)
What is the best place to get a PC built for you? I checked dell and HP and both are kinda expenive for what your getting. cyberpowerpc is pretty cheap and you can pick exactly what you want to go in it. Are they any good?
I have about a grand to spend and i dont need a monitor. I still have a 21inch CRT from back in 2001 that will do just fine.
Everyone seems to be saying lately that games are GPU dependant as opposed to CPU. Should i just opt for a Phenom II X3 720 and get a better GPU instead of going with an Inetl i7?
I built this one on cyber power for just over a grand
AMD PhenomII X3 720 Black Edition Triple-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P AMD 790X CrossFire Chipset with PCIe slot DDR2 SATA RAID
8GB (4x2GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX275 896MB 16X PCIe Video Card (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA)
320GB HD
I can upgrade to a Phenom II X4 920 for $30 and a 940 black edition for $60, is it worth it or is the X3 good enough?
He has a 24" dell lcd right now. That is budget with tax included. Parts can be ordered separately, and I will build it for him. No overclocking. Thanks!
Labombadog said:
This looks mighty good. Could I just get a couple of opinions on this, if we get a few green lights I am going to mimic that system order! Does he need any additional fans or things like that?
Thanks
edit: out of curiosity, does newegg have an option to pre-assembly your order for you for a price?
TheHeretic
Banned
Cheeto said:
Superfetch doesn't explain away its memory usage.
Zombie James
Banned
The Radeon 4770 sounds pretty awesome, but it's not $99 (it's $109, which probably means at least $139 CDN). And judging by the Xbitlabs review, I don't know why they had to put a power connector on there.
mastershake said:
It really isn't hard to put one together yourself. I built my first rig this past August, and it was a breeze. There wasn't too much prep involved. I just watched a couple tutorials on youtube, and read up on stuff on the tomshardware forums.
And building is kind of a gradual process. The first time I put my computer together it was a mess inside, but I've taken it apart and rebuilt it a couple times, and now I think that I'm really getting a good feel for how things fit together nicely.
It's a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
I understand if you just don't want to bother with the rigmarole, but don't be scared of putting one together; they're a lot less fragile than you'd think.
Diablohead
Member
As handy as it is I always think along the lines of "I hope I have enough ram for my game!" like i'm paranoid!Cheeto said:
How much ram does the win7 beta use, roughly the same as vista?
I moved the entire of one pc into another case one long ago and I get too worried about everything, when I ordered my new pc I went for a build it then send it because I feel much better about it all even if it costs me £70 more overall. Plus if something goes tit's up I can get it covered for free for a year or two without extra costs.Boonoo said:
For my next-next machine I may try building it though, the more I play around with simple HDD and ram upgrades the better I feel and it's been a while now since I played around with the guts of a computer.
Minsc
Gold Member
Diablohead said:
Windows 7 was reported to use as little as half the amount used by Vista, though I guess it's not exactly clear, since the more RAM you have, the more Windows 7 reserve for superfetch or whatever. Here's a thread showing how much memory XP, Vista, and Windows 7 have free after booting, and here's another thread that goes over how much memory you're left with if you only have 512 megs of ram, etc.
Crazymoogle
Member
Labombadog said:
Er...doesn't he need a hard drive too? And possibly the SATA cable for it if the mobo doesn't pack it.
BravoSuperStar
Member
YakiSOBA said:
No. Furthermore I would be offended by such an option.
N
NinjaFridge
Unconfirmed Member
Grayman said:
I remember when i upgraded the RAM in my laptop a while back. I nearly shat myself putting it in, i kept thinking 'there is no way i can push this tiny thing that hard with out breaking it into shit'. :lol
What's the average lifespans of PSUs?
My PSU is dying and no longer giving sufficent power to the CPU (and is making awful noises), so I need a new one. I hate to invest in a good PSU for this shitbox, but I figure it's one less part to buy when I do a full upgrade. I mean, I can count on a new PSU to last long enough for that, right?
Any recommendations? I was thinking one from OCZ. Keep in mind I want to reuse it in a core2 or i7 build down the road.
My PSU is dying and no longer giving sufficent power to the CPU (and is making awful noises), so I need a new one. I hate to invest in a good PSU for this shitbox, but I figure it's one less part to buy when I do a full upgrade. I mean, I can count on a new PSU to last long enough for that, right?
Any recommendations? I was thinking one from OCZ. Keep in mind I want to reuse it in a core2 or i7 build down the road.
TheHeretic
Banned
MoxManiac said:
Seasonics are the best PSU's, and they come with three year warranties. I guess it depends on far along said "full upgrade" really is. If its in a year or so i'd get a quality PSU now and simply transfer it.
bigmit3737
Member
TheHeretic said:
Are they better than Corsair PSUs? I was under the impression those are some of the best and I think they come with a 5 year warranty.
I was looking to purchase a Corsair PSU just because of this.
TheHeretic
Banned
bigmit3737 said:
Seasonic makes a lot of Corsair PSU's : )
The HX *20 series is really, really good. Its got Corsair branding but is made by Seasonic. Very reliable and very quiet. As for the warranty I don't really know, I thought it was 3 years but longer the better.
TheHeretic
Banned
Darklord said:
Its showing the CPU threads. Each core can handle 2 threads.
BravoSuperStar
Member
Darklord said:
4 cores with 2 threads each =)
Upgrade will likely come within a year. Probably within the first six months of 2010. It'll be a modest system (no overclocking, one optical drive, one hard drive) so recommended minimum wattage when thinking of the future? 400? 500?
I'll look into Seasonic. That warranty sounds nice. Holy fuck are corsair PSUs expensive.
I'll look into Seasonic. That warranty sounds nice. Holy fuck are corsair PSUs expensive.
TheHeretic
Banned
MoxManiac said:
Good PSU's are expensive, but you get what you pay for. Single or SLi/Xfire GPU's is the biggest decider on your wattage. With one GPU 500 is pretty safe, with two you'll want to push it to 650-750. I honestly have NFI what the usage will be on the next generation of GPU's, but those should be safe figures.
I'll be going single, not SLI. Probably a core 2 unless i7 dramatically reduces in price by then. Whatever the best nvidia card is for $150-250 range at that time, SATA hard drive, and optical drive...I'll shoot for 500W then.
What about this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151040
Thanks for all the help.
What about this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151040
Thanks for all the help.
dasupremeone
Member
the pricing for the 260 and the 275 are so close, not sure what to get.