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5930 Posts
On March 29 2011 23:57 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On March 29 2011 18:19 Womwomwom wrote:
With a 15.6" screen, very likely not. Think of the E-350 as a more efficient Intel dual core Atom w/ nVidia Ion that doesn't have to deal with all of the problems you get with a discrete GPU (heat, power, driver issues with nVidia Optimus). I think its also better at doing netbooky stuff (running Aero and videos) and has every output port, like HDMI, you can think of.
On a true ~10" netbook (not a subnetbook), it can probably run fairly decently if you turn literally everything off...not mind blowing but it can probably push barely 30 FPS like it does with a large number of games out there. Its powerful enough that it can easily play HD video (h.262) without problems but has problems with HD Flash because Flash is awful. Is HD (well, 720p; 1080p is pretty much irrelevant unless you're connecting to an external 1080p monitor) Flash even a problem? http://www.anandtech.com/show/4134/the-brazos-review-amds-e350-supplants-ion-for-miniitx/4By 15.6", you mean 1366x768? The HD 6310 should be up for the task at that resolution, at least compared to Arrandale IGP or Radeon HD 4250 or something like that.
Yeah I was talking about 1080P. Brazos is good because it has the ports to actually properly work with TVs and monitors (I think the HP one has Displayport and HDMI) so its something to take into account.
Its more capable than the Arrandale IGP but it still isn't that good. It *can* push 1366x768 like the Ions but it won't be nice to play with, you're probably going to have to play around with non-native resolutions to get it running above 30FPS frequently, as you can see in the game benchmarks Anandtech did.
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Just so you're aware, do you know the Cooler Master 360 is short and has a nonstandard layout? I don't know if it works out well or not--just check out the PSU position and other features yourself to make sure you know what it is.
Thermaltake TR2 at that price is not a good choice. The lower-end TR2 units are fairly bad.
Out of the options available, there's not much good though. Try the Corsair CX430 at least if possible, since that's a decent step up in quality.
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=54842
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC5606
If that doesn't work, try the Cooler Master Elite Power 400W (review). A lot of CM's low end PSUs are actually of similar quality to most TR2 units including this one maybe, but...at $35, you won't find much better sadly. It's a old half-bridge design with no APFC, but the performance is surprisingly decent. It gets the job done unless you actually load it to around the full 400W. (Mysteriously, the label says 3.3V/5V/12V aka practically all power output shouldn't exceed 327.9W--maybe the true intended wattage of the unit?) Your setup would load it no higher than 300W, so it should be okay.
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I have a question. I hope this is the place to ask it. I'm thinking about buying a new computer, and my friend wants to sell me his, and it seems like a pretty good deal.
He's offering to sell it to me for $650, and all the parts individually total to much more than that. I'd like to know if this is a good deal, and what graphics settings in SC2 it can handle and stuff.
I have about $900 to spend, so if I do buy it, should I upgrade anything?
Should I buy it? Thanks in advance!
+ Show Spoiler +
What is your budget?
About $900, so I'll have about $250 to either upgrade stuff, or buy another monitor, or just save for later.
What is your resolution?
I have 2 monitors, and plan to dual-screen. One is 1440x900 and the other is 1980x1080. I'll be playing SC2 on the 1080 one in fullscreen-windowed mode. Will that affect the FPS ingame?
What are you using it for?
I'm mostly using it for school and gaming. I'll be running stuff like matlab, mathematica, etc. I don't think those will be an issue. SC2 will probably be the biggest thing to run for now.
What is your upgrade cycle?
I'm probably not going to upgrade for 2 or more years, since this is a relatively big investment for me.
Do you plan on overclocking?
Maybe. Is it a good idea on this machine?
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 3.5 Ghz
VIDEO: 2x GeForce GTX 260
MOTHERBOARD: (2-Way SLI Support) ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
HeatSink: Noctua DH D-14
MEMORY: CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5
CASE: Antec Twelve Hundred V3 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
CD: Optiarc DVD+-RW ND-3570A
HDD: 1TB SATA-II SAMSUNG HD103UI 7200RPM HDD (Single Hard Drive)
MULTIVIEW: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
OS: Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 7 Ultimate (64-bit Edition)
POWERSUPPLY: Termaltek Power Supply 800 watt- SLI/CrossFireX Ready
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
WNC: PCI Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Interface Card + External 2.4G 5 DBI Antenna
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i think the guide that belial dood made should be added to the list. for real.
actually wait till i really update it. it should be a lot more when finished. plan to make it so it'll be future-proof by discussing how to differentiate parts. Right now it's like that with PSU, case, motherboard, but id like to expand to explain ram, cpu, gpu, hdd specs.
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@Leeto
The computer is about 2 generations old, but it would have been top of line when it came out. You'd be hard pressed to get a better deal than that. As for upgrades, the best investment I can see would be to get an SSD for it, and possibly a 2TB storage drive if you have a lot of movies/audio.
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On March 30 2011 13:19 Myrmidon wrote:Just so you're aware, do you know the Cooler Master 360 is short and has a nonstandard layout? I don't know if it works out well or not--just check out the PSU position and other features yourself to make sure you know what it is. Thermaltake TR2 at that price is not a good choice. The lower-end TR2 units are fairly bad. Out of the options available, there's not much good though. Try the Corsair CX430 at least if possible, since that's a decent step up in quality. http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=54842http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC5606If that doesn't work, try the Cooler Master Elite Power 400W ( review). A lot of CM's low end PSUs are actually of similar quality to most TR2 units including this one maybe, but...at $35, you won't find much better sadly. It's a old half-bridge design with no APFC, but the performance is surprisingly decent. It gets the job done unless you actually load it to around the full 400W. (Mysteriously, the label says 3.3V/5V/12V aka practically all power output shouldn't exceed 327.9W--maybe the true intended wattage of the unit?) Your setup would load it no higher than 300W, so it should be okay.
I like that the 360 is more compact, since I don't have a lot of room for full size towers... It was recommended to me by you guys so I assume the 6850 will fit...? I guess I will have to check the dimensions again.
Assuming that price match is good, I don't mind going another $10 for the CM PSU. Also, having it be cheaper w/o having to mail the rebate is a bonus in my mind.
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On March 30 2011 21:08 deconduo wrote:
@Leeto
The computer is about 2 generations old, but it would have been top of line when it came out. You'd be hard pressed to get a better deal than that. As for upgrades, the best investment I can see would be to get an SSD for it, and possibly a 2TB storage drive if you have a lot of movies/audio.
I dunno...$650 for a computer that's two generations old? If he adds a 128 GB SSd he's looking at a total of around $850 for a computer that is *two generations old*. That's maybe $100 off of buying a new i5-2500k system today, including a much better video card, etc.
I think $500 is about the max I'd pay for that used computer. MAX. I'd like to get it for closer to $400.
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On March 30 2011 23:52 ensign_lee wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2011 21:08 deconduo wrote:
@Leeto
The computer is about 2 generations old, but it would have been top of line when it came out. You'd be hard pressed to get a better deal than that. As for upgrades, the best investment I can see would be to get an SSD for it, and possibly a 2TB storage drive if you have a lot of movies/audio. I dunno...$650 for a computer that's two generations old? If he adds a 128 GB SSd he's looking at a total of around $850 for a computer that is *two generations old*. That's maybe $100 off of buying a new i5-2500k system today, including a much better video card, etc. I think $500 is about the max I'd pay for that used computer. MAX. I'd like to get it for closer to $400.
Regardless, SLI GTX 260 and a Q8300 at 3.5 GHz are pretty powerful. To me, it depends on whether or not the expensive high-performance CPU heatsink and expensive tower case are worth close to their retail price to you. You can build a similar system in performance with modern parts for around $700 (not including OS).
That's a AM2+/AM3 motherboard, so it requires DDR2 RAM. Just get a normal AM3 motherboard that uses DDR3 RAM. To save a little more cost, try to get a $40 2 x 2GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM kit. $55 is too much for 4GB of RAM.
Both of these power supplies is a little cheaper than the Earthwatts Green 500D and would work with the system. In terms of quality, the Corsair CX430 is the worst of the lot by a little bit, though it's still decent. If you want something that could handle a higher-end GPU, stick with the Rosewill Green unit; it has much more capacity on +12V (60W more) than the CX430.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182202
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139017
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On March 30 2011 23:52 ensign_lee wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2011 21:08 deconduo wrote:
@Leeto
The computer is about 2 generations old, but it would have been top of line when it came out. You'd be hard pressed to get a better deal than that. As for upgrades, the best investment I can see would be to get an SSD for it, and possibly a 2TB storage drive if you have a lot of movies/audio. I dunno...$650 for a computer that's two generations old? If he adds a 128 GB SSd he's looking at a total of around $850 for a computer that is *two generations old*. That's maybe $100 off of buying a new i5-2500k system today, including a much better video card, etc. I think $500 is about the max I'd pay for that used computer. MAX. I'd like to get it for closer to $400.
There is no way you could build a more powerful system, including an OS, for that sort of money.
OS: $100 - Home Premium, Ultimate is $180 for the OEM version.
HD: $65 - Spinpoint F3 1TB
RAM: $40 - 4GB DDR3
Case:$100 - Being generous, the Antec 1200 is $160 but overpriced for what you get.
PSU:$60 - Antec EA500D is fine for most computers
GPU:$200 - 6870 roughly equivalent to the 260SLI
Cooler:$30 - Being generous again.
Thats $600 already and no CPU or Mobo.
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Just buy that
MSI P67A-G45 (B3) P67 ATX LGA1155 DDR3 2PCI-E16 3PCI-E 2PCI SLI CrossFireX SATA3 USB3
ASUS Radeon HD 6850 DirectCU 790MHZ 1GB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 2XDVI DisplayPort HDMI PCI-E Video Card
Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan
I know 2x4 it good choise, but i already bust my budget so im looking for 2x2 ram what the best
1333 or 1600
-G.SKILL F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM Ripjaws PC3-12800 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL8-8-8-24 Core i5 Memory Kit
-G.SKILL F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH Ripjaws PC3-10666 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1333 CL7-7-7-21 Core i5 1.5V Memory Kit
tnx
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i'm planning to build a computer entirely dedicated to streaming/recording SC2 games so while i have some limited understanding of what is required of me for gaming itself, i was wondering in what ways would recording videos influence my selection of CPU/GPU/hard drive.
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So I am finally deciding to build a new computer for SC2 but I have no idea what I am doing... I tried to figure out everything on my own but there are so many parts to choose from I just end up getting confused and frustrated :/ So I am hoping the awesome members of TL can help me build a computer that can easily run SC2.
What is your budget?
Less then $1000
What is your resolution?
1920x1080
What are you using it for?
Pretty much only gaming, mainly sc2 and diablo 3 when its released 
What is your upgrade cycle?
3-4 Years
When do you plan on building it?
ASAP
Do you plan on overclocking?
No
Do you need an Operating System?
Yes
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
No
Where are you buying your parts from?
Newegg
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@MontagneBleu
Sorry, I don't understand the post. What are you asking? What have you already bought?
@Sfydjklm
For streaming/recording you playing SC2, you want a modern quad core. Video encoding is pretty heavy on CPU usage. As for recording, it depends what you're storing to the hard drive. It shouldn't really matter since you won't have too much disk access while playing, but if you're going to be recording a lot, it may be good to have a hard drive dedicated to that just to be sure there are no problems. Better yet: have the OS/applications/SC2 on a SSD and record data to a separate mechanical drive.
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What is your budget?
< $AUS1500
What is your resolution?
1366 x 768
What are you using it for?
Gaming in all genres, streaming, office work.
What is your upgrade cycle?
2+ years
When do you plan on building it?
As soon as possible
Do you plan on overclocking?
Yes, and I am willing to go over $AUS1500 for extra cooling
Do you need an Operating System?
I do not.
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
Probably not.
Where are you buying your parts from?
http://www.msy.com.au/
Extra:
I am looking at using 2 monitors in the future, and am willing to blow my $1500 budget to achieve that.
If you want to pm me the build(s) etc that'd be brilliant.
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Do as you please, I can always order from elsewhere as long as you give me a place
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EPT
