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Austin10833 Posts
Note to readers: If you don't know or particularly care much about computers, this thread will undoubtedly be quite boring for you, and there's no point in reading any further. If you do, on the other-hand, then it's your help precisely that I'm looking for.
My dear old desktop, the faithfully departed, e's kicked the bucket, e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible! This is an ex-computer!
Yes, after 6 wonderful years, my poor machine has been forced into retirement. Not with subdued grace, like the last of the space shuttles, but with a violent explosion, like the Challenger. As such, I'm in the market to purchase and assemble a new one for the first time. I'm looking for advice on what components will give me the best bang for the buck as well as resources I can use during the actual building. I've swapped parts out of my old machine before, and I have a rudimentary understanding of the inner workings, but I'd certainly need some type of guide when I'm actually building it.
I've looked through some threads here, browsed newegg, and consulted various benchmarking and computer sites, but they all seem to have varying takes on products, and I don't keep enough of an eye on the tech scene to know what's trustworthy and what's not. I know a few of you guys (someone light the fragkrag signal) are very well versed in this stuff, so I'll tell you what I'm trying to accomplish and maybe you can dispense some advice.
I want a machine that can multi-task well, that won't struggle to run stuff like Photoshop/Illustrator/Flash simultaneously. I'd also like to be able to watch HD content (movies, tv shows etc). I may get a tv tuner but that's a later discussion. I probably won't do much gaming outside of SC2, but I would like it to be able to play games reasonably well.
Is it reasonable to build a machine that can do those things for ~$800? I would probably be willing to go a little over that if doing so meant a decent jump in performance. Thanks for any help.
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
I'd suggest you go on newegg and try to build a system for $800. Then see where you need to go from there.
If your budget's somewhat flexible, I think that'll be the best learning experience for you.
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Braavos36387 Posts
you could use r1ch's build for me as a starting point, its here:
i think chill also bought a new computer with 0 time invested researching (just followed r1ch's recommendations), so you can ask him how it is.
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Canada9720 Posts
$800 on a machine alone will net you a nice computer, with a good graphics card, that can certainly handle the the tasks you want to perform. if you're expecting that price to include a good monitor, then, maybe not so much.
when i buy a new comp, i usually browse a deals forum like red flag deals (http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/main.php/electronics/), and wait until the stuff i want appears on the 'ol cheap. that's mainly for canadian sites though, but i'm sure some american TLers can link you to US equivalents.
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do you need a monitor? that's a huge factor
Also, what components do you already have
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Austin10833 Posts
On April 11 2010 11:02 KOFgokuon wrote:
do you need a monitor? that's a huge factor
Also, what components do you already have
Well, I have a monitor, so I don't need one immediately, although I will certainly be upgrading it in the near future. Most of the components in my old tower are pretty dated, I don't know if there's really anything in there worth saving.
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
At least you'll be able to reuse the case and cd/dvd drive
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Austin10833 Posts
On April 11 2010 11:34 infinity21 wrote:
At least you'll be able to reuse the case and cd/dvd drive
The case is an old gateway case, and I'll need a new cd/dvd drive. The one in my old comp reads but wouldn't write after a while.
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Austin10833 Posts
On April 11 2010 11:33 semantics wrote:
What about OS
I'll have to buy that as well. (windows 7 i guess)
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I'm considering a build as well, so lucky for you. here you go.
forgot the drive, add whatever drive for ~20
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You can definately go without the Antec 900 of you want to save money. (I have one) It is a nice case but it really isn't necessary unless you REALLY want it. other than that looks good ^^
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The 5770 listed is acutlly quite good i'm able to push it to core:1000 mem:1300 at stock and seems stable core:1325 and mem:1425 at 1.325
i could actually bring the core up to 1480 but i think that super out of the ordinary must got a lucky gpu
The fan keeps it at 75c after an hour long burn in test but that is probably due to my case being good and not building up ambient temp
Haven't had the card long enough so i keeping it at stock burning it in slowly but i'll probably push it up to what i listed in a month.
Fans are great silent till 70% and 70% is plenty but 85%+ is ffs loud lol but the normal fan profile never would get to that fanspeed.
A 15 buck diff for a high quality custom pbc and gpu cooler. isn't a bad deal
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3124/msi_radeon_hd_5770_hawk_1gb_video_card/index3.html
The card is great for the ocer, esp their 5870 lighting has had massive ocs MSI quality has grown over the years still wish they kept the motherboards cooler.
But i'd also suggest aganist hotbids build it's not longer a up to date build.
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I doubt he will overclock his GPU if he's making a thread asking about computers
and he isn't going to play much other than SC2 so overclocking the GPU would be a waste in the first place. I would actually suggest the cheaper 512MB GDDR5 5770, but I don't know what resolution he plans to play at.
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Austin10833 Posts
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Get rid of the barracuda imo. It's not terrible, but it isn't very fast at all. If you have that money, just get a 640GB Caviar Blue for better access times. Also, you chose the older Phenom II X4, the HDZ955FBGIBOX. You should get the newer Phenom II X4 which is the HDZ955FBGMBOX. The newer Phenom II X4 is better at overclocking and such.
You can also save some money with this combo which replaces your CPU and GPU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.365667
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That computer looks awesome and is much better than the computer I came up with on newegg just now, but I'm going to post mine anyway because it's cheap!
I took a different approach and tried to build the cheapest possible computer that should still be able to do what you say about multitasking photoshop and flash well, and should probably be able to play SC2 at max (although FragKrag can probably give a better opinion on that)
658.95 w/ shipping minus $70 in MIR minus $5 if you use promo code EMCYRYT26 before 4/12 (for the PSU) = $583.95.
Note that there's no case - I'm assuming you can use your old case. If it's really crappy and you want to get a new one, you could local stores for cases so you won't have to pay for shipping such a bulky item. I'm also assuming you mean it when you say you don't want to play many games aside from SC2... if you change your mind about that, you should be getting a better video card.
It has pretty decent upgradability, I think, in the future you could toss in a newer socket AM3 CPU, a new videocard, and add on 2 more sticks of DDR3 in the free slots, and you'll be up to date again.
But if you're happy with the price of the one in your cart already i'd say go for it. BTW, I agree with Frag about swapping out the barracuda for a Western Digital. Seagate sucks.
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I'm not a big fan of OCZ plats on AMD platforms because GSkill generally has better reliability. The green is great as a storage drive, but as a main drive it is absolutely terrible (worse than the seagate). I'm not a fan of Athlon II X3 series either. The X4 series just seems like a much better buy imo.
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Austin10833 Posts
Alright.. so this is what I'm looking at:
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Austin10833 Posts
PS thanks all you guys for your help; I'd have royally screwed up somehow if I'd tried to do this alone.
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The Gigabyte is cheaper once you take in account the mail in rebate + it has USB 3.0 (which is most likely useless, but whatever) and SATA 6gb/s (which is useless). IGPs are useless anyways, and you wouldn't want to be stuck with using one imo.
The cheaper one uses DDR2 
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for $5 more you get a fairly high end model instead of some second fiddle board and a contingency plan if your video card craps out (gotta be prepared!) but the differences between the two are not that large. though i don't see 1600mhz ram being listed as supported on the gigabyte board even though it can support higher i'd try to find out for sure if it's compatible with the ram you are also ordering.
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huh
how is the 785 high end? It's just the 770 + IGP.
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the 785 is built on a newer design process so i'd imagine it'd be more efficient, however slight. i didn't see that the gigabyte had usb 3 and sata 6gb/s support, however, so i'd actually go with that over what i posted. again, i would check the ram to be sure!
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well, from what I read, the board locks the timings down anyways so there shouldn't be a problem. While the 785 is a newer design process, I doubt there was much changed, and it is like the 790X to 790GX. There really isn't much of a difference at all, and in terms of power efficiency, I think it would be affected more by the designs of the companies themselves.
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the northbridge of the 785g is actually designed differently from the 770 and given equal feature sets and such, this would be something to consider. unfortunately for me, the gigabyte has a superior feature set so any advantages the 785g has (very slight) is negligible when weighing it against new hardware interfaces.
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Austin10833 Posts
On April 11 2010 15:24 mahnini wrote:
i would check the ram to be sure!
how can i check to make sure?
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go to the RAM manufacturer's website and see if that RAM supports that motherboard (or maybe go to the motherboard's manufacturer's website and see if that motherboard supports that RAM).
I think I remember DDR3 Ripjaws being fully compatible with AM3 though.
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http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=3272&ProductName=GA-770TA-UD3
i did some poking around on the manufacturer site but it doesn't list support for 1600. i would just search around and see if people have issues with it on other forums aka just googling "gigabyte 770ta 1600mhz ram" and other similar combos till you get definite results.
by the way, didn't phenom ii's not like 1600mhz ram or have they fixed that with the new revision?
in the board reviews on newegg people are saying they have to manually change it to 1600 through the BIOS and it runs fine so it shouldn't be a big issue.
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They still don't like it. I think your RAM will just end up downclocking to 9-9-9-24 and 1333mhz.
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cough*piratewindows*cough
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