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When using this resource, please read FragKrag's opening post. The Tech Support forum regulars have helped create countless of desktop systems without any compensation. The least you can do is provide all of the information required for them to help you properly. |
What is your budget?
$1500
What is your resolution?
1680 x 1050
What are you using it for?
Mostly just SC2 and school
What is your upgrade cycle?
3 - 4 years.
When do you plan on building it?
Around Feb 2011
Do you plan on overclocking?
I will probably OC.
Do you need an Operating System?
I'll use my XP disk for now.
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
Yes, hopefully later on.
Where are you buying your parts from?
Fry's or Amazon.
I will need a SSD, motherboard, processor, monitor, heatsink,memory, mouse, keyboard, case and power supply.
I can use my 512MB geforce 250, my 19 inch monitor and my old HDD for secondary and use the SSD as my main for booting and sc2.
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If you aren't planning on buying until February, then honestly you should ask for a build in late January because prices / parts / whatever will be completely different by then
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Anyone have a good guide on setting up an SSD and configuring what files go there and which go on HDD? Putting my computer together tonight and first time using one.
Looked and read thru google and there are a TON but some have different opinions on things so looking for a solid walkthrough.
Thanks.
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On December 03 2010 00:07 -Solitaire- wrote:
Anyone have a good guide on setting up an SSD and configuring what files go there and which go on HDD? Putting my computer together tonight and first time using one.
Looked and read thru google and there are a TON but some have different opinions on things so looking for a solid walkthrough.
Thanks.
Don't really understand the question. Put your os, games, iTunes, ms office, adobe etc on your sad and put all of your music movies and other random files on your big drive
As for setting it up it really is no different than any other hard drive plug it in boot and install
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On December 03 2010 00:40 KOFgokuon wrote:
Don't really understand the question. Put your os, games, iTunes, ms office, adobe etc on your sad and put all of your music movies and other random files on your big drive
As for setting it up it really is no different than any other hard drive plug it in boot and install
I know for sure thats incorrect because you need to move certain OS Files (temp files, etc) and caches from certain programs (Firefox) to the harddrive then link them to the SSD even though the program itself will be on the SSD.
Also there are many tweeks for optimal performance of an SSD that ive read about so far.
@ skyR:
Thanks looks like a pretty good guide. Will read thru it.
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On December 03 2010 00:40 KOFgokuon wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2010 00:07 -Solitaire- wrote:
Anyone have a good guide on setting up an SSD and configuring what files go there and which go on HDD? Putting my computer together tonight and first time using one.
Looked and read thru google and there are a TON but some have different opinions on things so looking for a solid walkthrough.
Thanks. Don't really understand the question. Put your os, games, iTunes, ms office, adobe etc on your sad and put all of your music movies and other random files on your big drive As for setting it up it really is no different than any other hard drive plug it in boot and install
Actually it's not plug in and install. There's a lot of setup that requires to be done as space is limited and you want to reduce the number of writes to the SSD as much as possible.
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My take on SSDs is this:
From a high-level perspective, you can think of both SSDs and HDDs as the same thing--nonvolatile storage of data, such as OS, applications, or any type of file. You can read and write to it. The data will still be there once you shut down and power back on the computer, unlike for RAM. So from this perspective, it's perfectly valid to treat them the same way.
But of course, the implementation and performance of the two classes of devices is very different. If you want, you can treat them differently according to their strengths and weaknesses. People have two goals in trying to tweak operation of a joint SSD/HDD system: (1) reduce the amount of data "wasted" on the SSD and (2) increase the lifespan on the SSD.
If you put more programs, caches, etc. on the SSD, there will be less space left for everything else. However, if those programs, caches, etc. were on the SSD, those would have higher performance. (1) is all about micromanaging what data should go where. It's simple enough to put frequently-used programs on the SSD and large media files on the HDD, but to what extent is it worth worrying about the finer details? You got an SSD to improve performance (reduce time wasted). If you're spending time micromanaging your drive, aren't you spending more time again?
The flash memory in SSDs eventually wears out after tens of thousands of write operations. So if you (or the OS behind the scenes) writes a lot of data to the SSD a lot of times, then the SSD will wear out and die faster. However, modern controllers are good about spreading out writes throughout a drive so no parts wear out too quickly before others. Also, they have spare memory in reserve, and they use error-control coding to take care of the occasional bit being flipped. So long as you don't have an unreasonable write usage pattern to your SSD, I don't think (2) is a big deal to worry about on a decent SSD. Remember that many users, particularly on laptops, are using an SSD as their only drive.
Write performance declining over time used to be a problem with SSDs, but modern drives all support TRIM and idle garbage collection. If you're running Windows 7 or a fairly recent Linux kernel, the OS will take care of TRIM operations automatically.
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Hey guys, I'm looking for a mobo with a 1156 chipset, two PCI-E x8 slots (or anything else that'll work for SLI), and RAM speed standard at 1600 (or 1333 with the option to OC up to 1600). Preferably in the range of $150.
Also, just wanted to say you guys are great. Even when I haven't asked questions I'm constantly checking this thread for new information. Thanks for all the help!
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On December 03 2010 08:21 penroff4 wrote:
Hey guys, I'm looking for a mobo with a 1156 chipset, two PCI-E x8 slots (or anything else that'll work for SLI), and RAM speed standard at 1600 (or 1333 with the option to OC up to 1600). Preferably in the range of $150.
Nowadays the memory controller is on the CPU die (not up to the mobo design), and 1333 MHz should be the limit set by current processors without overclocking. Every motherboard capable of it should be listed as 1600 needing OC. Anyhow, I didn't look very hard or long, but these seem to fit the criteria:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131601
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130239
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157206
The Asus one looks like the best--at least the voltage regulation looks the best--but I can't say more than that. For a single purchase (are you just getting a mobo?), I'd definitely check places other than newegg to see if there are better prices or options to be found.
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Hey guys
I'm typing this from my new computer 
I played Oblivion on Max Settings and it played a thousand times better than the console versions
At the moment i am downloading tons of games on steam
Thanks for all the help you guys have provided me, and hopefully nothing goes wrong with my comp
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Myrmidon - I asked this question a few pages back, but didn't get any replies. Thought I'd try again.
With regular hard drives, we're generally advised to keep it like 70% empty because otherwise it begins to slow down (right?). With SSDs does that advice still hold true? Or could we fill up the whole thing without any loss of performance?
Thanks, I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into this thread.
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Not really slow down esp in reads which is what it mostly does. But you always want to try to keep the hdd with your os on it with a lot of extra space because that's the drive that does a lot of reads and writes so gets used heavily, so not taking up a ton of space can help keep sectors good for longer periods. It's more about drive longevity then performance, space only becomes an issue when it's near full
SSD there is TRIM support for that, but again for longevity most ppl want to try to be minimalistic on their main drive esp SSD's cuz they are so valuable now of days, but you wont see slow down esp if drive caching is off.
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If you want a wireless connection instead of using the Ethernet cable, get a wireless adapter or card. But why use wireless when you're at home, wired connections are so much more reliable. Everything else seems fine, its similar to all the builds we all recommended.
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Whoops, almost forgot to post my problem...
Antec 300 Illusion
Antec TruePower 650W
Gigabyte P55-USB3
i5 760
Ripjaws DDR3 1600
Spinpoint F3
Sapphire 4770
Built my PC the other day and left it alone. Had free time today to configure but it would not power up/on, I reset/rebuilt the PC again, and swapped out the TruePower with another PSU(EarthWatts 650W). Cant do anything else since I dont have any compatible parts laying around to swap out.
I checked the power switch connections, its plugged correctly but nothing powers on! NOTHING!! Thinking the PSU, mobo, case(switches) or CPU might be DOA? Wish I had spare parts to swap... 
Maybe I'll do bare benchtest again, having to reset and manage the wires in the case is a pain in my ass.
edit: Nevermind, problem resolved. found out it was an issue with the molex that has a 4-pin connector for the case fans.
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The main purpose of the computer will be for entertainment only. I do not have any interest in playing games with it unless this gaming computer of mine suddenly broke down which i doubt....anyways. So i dont know what is better....to buy or to build?? Would like to get some advice on it but if i were to build here is the list
What is your budget?
Cheaper the better. lets say keep it around 300-600
What are you using it for?
Entertainment, movies, korean drama, as long as the HDD have enough space for storing all of those. day[9]...basically everything i can watch on the big tv.
What is your upgrade cycle?
as long as it can handle....
When do you plan on building it?
within this month or next one
Do you plan on overclocking?
I doubt i need unless i am crazy enough to buy more screen
Do you need an Operating System?
Do not have but do need unless i can someone in the entourage who has it?
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
no
Where are you buying your parts from?
trying to buy every single parts from 1 store so it will be canada computer, ncix and maybe tigerdirect... trying to avoid online buying but if the saving is there then why not.
[/spoiler]
thank you for everybody to respond to this
:::)))
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On December 05 2010 05:56 lOstHeaven wrote:
The main purpose of the computer will be for entertainment only. I do not have any interest in playing games with it unless this gaming computer of mine suddenly broke down which i doubt....anyways. So i dont know what is better....to buy or to build?? Would like to get some advice on it but if i were to build here is the list
For this purpose and price, you may be able to find complete systems that are reasonable deals.
But if you were to build it yourself, I think you could go with a pretty minimal build: an Athlon II X2, an AM3 motherboard with integrated Radeon HD 42xx graphics, 2 GB of DDR3 RAM, and whatever hard drives and optical drives you need. Maybe 4 GB of RAM would be better, but with your light intended usage and a pretty minimal install/configuration, you shouldn't need much RAM.
If the graphics performance turns out to be not enough (unlikely I think) or you need some other media feature, you could always throw in some card later like an HD 5450. Likewise, more RAM or whatever would not be hard to add either.
Even terrible PSUs should be able to handle the 100-150W at max power draw or whatever that build uses. If this computer's intended for living room use as an HTPC though, is noise a concern? If so, maybe you'd want to spend a little bit more on a suitable case/PSU.
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Hi, I am posting here from my new computer!!
I assembled the parts with my gf, she had fun helping me haha.
![[image loading]](http://i53.tinypic.com/24655xd.jpg)
There she is.
1) For my Nvidia GTX 460, it lets me download "WHQL certified 258.96 drivers" and "BETA 260.63 drivers".. I installed the 258.96, but wondering if you guys think I should get the other one? I assume the 258.96 is safer but I'm new to this.
2) When I installed Windows 7, I read online that you don't have to create a partition for the Windows 7, so I didn't. I thought it might do that automatically. Does that matter? Should I have?
3) I have an exclam next to the computer name and there's an "unkown device" with no driver. I look into it's properties and it says the location of the device is PCI bus 4, device 0, function 0.
I don't know what it can be because the only PCI thing I used was for the video card, and I installed the GTX 460's driver.
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EPT
