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Ultimate Computer Build Thread - Page 14

Forum Index > Closed
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KOFgokuon
Profile Blog Joined August 2004
United States14899 Posts
June 24 2010 03:34 GMT
#261
On June 23 2010 16:15 haduken wrote:
[image loading]

Just picked up a G.Skill Falcon 2 64GB.
Need to get an extra Cage though or can I just plug it in. SSD don't vibrate like hard drives so I should be fine right?


I used masking tape to strap my ssd down
Some people use double sided tape
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
June 24 2010 04:03 GMT
#262
On June 24 2010 11:28 Craton wrote:
I have been having the damndest time figuring out what UPS to get. Right now I've got a average setup with an amd 6400+/ati 5850 and 600watt Antec, but I'll probably upgrade to a high i5 or low i7 setup (or something in that range) by the end of summer.

I've been reading various articles about UPSes, but nothing really helps me get my head around them. Tips?


APC CS series 750VA or 1000VA if you want longer up time after power is gone. You need to get cable adapters though for the outlets. ES series if you just want something to plug in like a power board.
Rillanon.au
Craton
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
United States17257 Posts
June 27 2010 06:25 GMT
#263
On June 24 2010 11:43 FragKrag wrote:
do you mean PSU?

No, Uninterruptable Power Supply

APC CS series 750VA or 1000VA if you want longer up time after power is gone. You need to get cable adapters though for the outlets. ES series if you just want something to plug in like a power board.


Don't even know what half of that means :|
twitch.tv/cratonz
Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-27 07:13:42
June 27 2010 06:54 GMT
#264
On June 27 2010 15:25 Craton wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 24 2010 11:43 FragKrag wrote:
do you mean PSU?

No, Uninterruptable Power Supply

Show nested quote +
APC CS series 750VA or 1000VA if you want longer up time after power is gone. You need to get cable adapters though for the outlets. ES series if you just want something to plug in like a power board.


Don't even know what half of that means :|


APC is a company that makes UPS devices. The CS series are business class models, while the ES series are home computer class models.

A VA is a volt-ampere (i.e. it's a volt multiplied by an ampere), which is a type of power measurement. In an AC power system, if the voltage and current are not in phase, then the product of the voltage amount and current amount will not equal the Watts drawn. The volt*current product multiplied by something called the power factor (something in the range of 0 to 1) is the Watts drawn. The power factor is just the cosine of the phase difference between the voltage and current.

UPS's are rated for a certain amount of Watts and also volt-amperes. It's not supposed to exceed either value. e.g. a unit might be rated for 450 Watts and 700 VA.

The power factor of a load depends on what type of device it is. In your case, your computer's power supply is drawing power from the APC. Most reasonably high-end power supplies do active power factor correction, meaning that they adjust themselves in an attempt to keep the voltage and current in phase, to get a power factor close to 1. I think 0.98-0.99 or so is typical? In this case, the Watts drawn is just about 1-2% less than the volt-amperes drawn.

Unless my thinking is wrong, you should be concerned more with the Watts rating rather than the VA rating because the max Watts spec rather than the VA spec will be the limiting factor. Find a UPS with a higher Watts spec than what your system PSU draws.* Keep in mind that your PSU is probably overkill, and a single processor+single GPU system like yours does not need close to 600W even while you're playing a game.

whoa important *edit2: and note that how much power your PSU draws is how much it delivers divided by the efficiency--about 0.80 and up for 80 plus PSUs ofc? So that's a somewhat higher figure than how much power your computer components use.

edit: how long the battery backup can power your stuff depends on how much power you're drawing of course. Figure out how long you need and at what power draw. Personally I can vouch for even the cheaper UPS models by APC, as I get power surges every couple months and occasional blackouts where I live.
iPlaY.NettleS
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Australia4349 Posts
June 27 2010 07:18 GMT
#265
i dont really keep up with hardware news
is sata 2 compatible with sata1 slots or is it a whole new slot type
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7PvoI6gvQs
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
June 27 2010 08:39 GMT
#266
It's backward compatible but you are somewhat bottlenecked.
Rillanon.au
G0dly
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
United States450 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-30 00:55:28
June 30 2010 00:55 GMT
#267
Hey what's a good idle cpu temp? Mine's at around 38-45 ish C

dunno if that's good or not
The Emperor - The Genius - The Cheater - The Maestro
FragKrag
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
United States11552 Posts
June 30 2010 04:09 GMT
#268
Should be absolutely fine for any CPU. Load temp is normally what matters anyways.

May be a bit high for the AMD CPUs though.
*TL CJ Entusman #40* "like scissors does anything to paper except MAKE IT MORE NUMEROUS" -paper
semantics
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
10040 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-30 04:13:06
June 30 2010 04:11 GMT
#269
depends on the cpu. 38-45 is nothing for an older cpu haha. i remember my old 6000+ used to idle at like 54c like my old pentium 4's lol idle at 50c load at 70c.

To note though my i5-750 idles at +28c and my E8400 idles at +32c ofc i keep my room cold and use a big air cooler which helps.
CorsairHero
Profile Joined December 2008
Canada9491 Posts
June 30 2010 05:49 GMT
#270
for people in Canada, check out this thread
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/ncix-custom-built-computers-1000-700-gaming-computers-760568/

has people trying to work out cheap builds at the 700-1000$ level and gets updated daily
© Current year.
yakitate304
Profile Joined April 2009
United States655 Posts
June 30 2010 22:04 GMT
#271
So I'm pretty computer-build illiterate... I currently have a Dell Dimension 5150 from 2006. It BARELY runs StarCraft II on the lowest of low settings, but it takes about 45 seconds to load a game, and I almost always have about 4-5 seconds at the very start of the game where my computer is completely unresponsive, so I get 4-5 seconds behind in the economy right off the bat.


I'm planning on building a desktop rather than buying a pre-assembled one, since I'm somewhat tight on money. My budget for this is probably between $650 and $750 (American). I already have a keyboard, mouse, speakers and a monitor. All of the parts from my Dimension are too crappy to re-use in a new build.


The things I want to be able to do:

-Play SC2 on high, smoothly... And also be able to run some more graphically intensive games on respectable (not super low) settings. I don't want/need a supercomputer, just something that will let me play a game like Modern Warfare 2 (just an example) without it looking or performing like crap. I don't need to play Crysis on maxed out settings. As I said, I'm build illiterate, so I really don't know what performance levels correspond with certain price ranges.

-Watch 720p videos. On my current computer, videos with 60 fps at 720p lag and skip like crazy. I'm an avid hockey fan as well as a boxing and MMA fan, and a lot of the games that are released on torrent sites are 720p with 60 fps, and I simply can't watch them.

-Avoid static noise when plugged into the headphone jack. My current computer has a headphone jack in the front, but apparently it is "unshielded" (no idea...) so there is a lot of static noise coming through the headphones.

-Have at least 640 GB.



Are my price range and performance expectation in line with one another?
Yaki's Streaming Madness: twitch.tv/YakiSC ||| FRB Grand Tournament Organizer ||| @YakiStarCraft ||| Youtube.com/YakiStarCraft
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
June 30 2010 22:58 GMT
#272
$810 ($1,070) Best Bang-For-Buck Gaming Config

CPU: AMD AM3 Phenom II X4 955BE $180
Mobo: Asus M4A87TD-USB3 $114
RAM: G.Skill-NT 4GB DDR3-1333 $129
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB $59
GPU: 1GB ATI Radeon HD5770 $170
Case: Antec 300 $66
PSU: Antec Neo Eco 450C $64 (BYO power cord)
ODD: DVD burner $26

^ This build is $810 Australian dollars which is like $750ish USD so that give you some room to move. Add another $40 for a 1TB Harddrive.
Rillanon.au
yakitate304
Profile Joined April 2009
United States655 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-01 21:56:07
July 01 2010 21:44 GMT
#273
On July 01 2010 07:58 haduken wrote:
$810 ($1,070) Best Bang-For-Buck Gaming Config

CPU: AMD AM3 Phenom II X4 955BE $180
Mobo: Asus M4A87TD-USB3 $114
RAM: G.Skill-NT 4GB DDR3-1333 $129
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB $59
GPU: 1GB ATI Radeon HD5770 $170
Case: Antec 300 $66
PSU: Antec Neo Eco 450C $64 (BYO power cord)
ODD: DVD burner $26

^ This build is $810 Australian dollars which is like $750ish USD so that give you some room to move. Add another $40 for a 1TB Harddrive.


Thanks a lot! That was a really good starting point for me - I looked around Newegg to see if I could get any better values or higher rated items, and came up with this:

[image loading]


Links:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor $160

Mobo: MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard $110

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) $99

HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s $80

GPU: MSI R5770 Hawk Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $180

Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $60

PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $65

-------
Total Price: $753.89




Haven't ordered yet. As I said, I'm pretty noobish regarding computer builds, so I want to make sure that everything is compatible.


Also, is there any reason why this version of the 5770 is 20 dollars cheaper?

SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Would it be just as good?
Yaki's Streaming Madness: twitch.tv/YakiSC ||| FRB Grand Tournament Organizer ||| @YakiStarCraft ||| Youtube.com/YakiStarCraft
maareek
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
United States2042 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-02 00:38:59
July 02 2010 00:37 GMT
#274
The Hawk version is overclocked, with better cooling while the Sapphire version is closer to ATI's stock specifications. If the price isn't prohibitive to you, then the Hawk should provide you with (slightly to noticeably, depending on game) better performance, but if the price is prohibitive, you can rest easy with the Sapphire. The increase shouldn't be that big in most situations.

Make sure you have a power cord, as that PSU doesn't come with one.
FrozenArbiter: Obless PvT master
FragKrag
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
United States11552 Posts
July 02 2010 00:42 GMT
#275
That sapphire card has a less potent cooler so it won't overclock as well. If you aren't planning to overclock your card, then you should go with that cheaper sapphire. Spending $20-30 extra on cooling you don't need is a bit of a waste that can go elsewhere.

The stock overclock will get you nothing really. 25MHz is normally unnoticeable (maybe 1 or 2 frames?)
*TL CJ Entusman #40* "like scissors does anything to paper except MAKE IT MORE NUMEROUS" -paper
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-02 00:44:50
July 02 2010 00:43 GMT
#276
Swap the PSU with this:

SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094&cm_re=seasonic-_-17-151-094-_-Product

Only 4 dollars more and Seasonic is one of the best (Antec is okay but seasonic is better).

Personally I would swap the hard drive to WD BLACK 750GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136283&cm_re=WD_Black-_-22-136-283-_-Product

But the samsung F3 is also good.

Rillanon.au
maareek
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
United States2042 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-02 01:01:54
July 02 2010 00:47 GMT
#277
If he's gonna get a Caviar Black, and he plans to buy right away, he should go with the 1TB 3Gb/s model that was a shell shocker this morning. It's the same price as the Spinpoint F3 1TB right now. link

Seasonic 520W is a good model, too. I have the modular version and it's pretty awesome.

Edit at FragKrag, below: wow, yeah, definitely. Modular Seasonic for <$85 is easy to pull the trigger on. In contrast to the first review there (I think the problem is on his end, btw), that PSU is working well for me. Also, there's only one 12V rail, despite it listing two.
FrozenArbiter: Obless PvT master
FragKrag
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
United States11552 Posts
July 02 2010 00:52 GMT
#278
You're better off with a modular power supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151093
*TL CJ Entusman #40* "like scissors does anything to paper except MAKE IT MORE NUMEROUS" -paper
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
July 02 2010 00:56 GMT
#279
Possibly swap the Motherboard to this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128435

If you want another 5770 in the future to do cross fire. only 20 dollars more.
Rillanon.au
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
July 02 2010 00:58 GMT
#280
On July 02 2010 09:47 maareek wrote:
If he's gonna get a Caviar Black, and he plans to buy right away, he should go with the 1TB 3Gb/s model that was a shell shocker this morning. It's the same price as the Spinpoint F3 1TB right now. link

Seasonic 520W is a good model, too. I have the modular version and it's pretty awesome.


Err, didn't see the 1TB on New Egg. Yeah for that price I would go for the WD Black. Samsung F3 have better sequential speed but WD have better access speed.
Rillanon.au
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