EPTwww.pixmania.com
www.komplett.ie
www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.hardwareversand.de
Hardwareversand has the best prices but their shipping is the most expensive. Worth it if you are spending over €250 or so.
Computer Build Resource Thread - Page 2
| Forum Index > Tech Support |
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. | ||
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deconduo
Ireland4122 Posts
www.pixmania.com www.komplett.ie www.ebuyer.co.uk www.hardwareversand.de Hardwareversand has the best prices but their shipping is the most expensive. Worth it if you are spending over €250 or so. | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
pccasegear.com.au ^ The only mob who sell exotic parts and accessories for cases. Great crew ran by hardware lovers. msy.com.au ^ Cheap asian joint dealing below cost prices for parts lol. | ||
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johanngrunt
Hong Kong1555 Posts
I'm from Hong Kong, and I'm going to build a computer to play Starcraft 2 and do video editing. plan to slightly overclock my CPU. (nothing too outrageous, probably to 3 Ghz.) Could you give some opinions on this list? my budget is around 8500 HKD, (about 1100 USD) obviously prices here are different, and slightly more expensive than newegg etc. there are few online price lists in HK, but here is one in case you have a suggestion for me. http://www.jumbo-computer.com/pricelist.asphttp://www.jumbo-computer.com/pricelist.asp CPU: Core i5 750..................................$1539 Mobo: MSI GD 85.................................$1420 GPU: Inno3D GTX 460 1GB OC..............$1799 (1GB stock speed costs $1690) RAM: Gskill Eco 1600 Mhz 4GB C7........$ 950 Cooler: CM Hyper 212+......................... $220 Case: CM HAF 922................................$840 HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB.....$ 512 DVD: Lite-on ihas 124.............................$155 PSU: Corsair TX 750W........................... $899 Total : 8334 HKD Does anyone have any opinions? I also need advice on a decent mouse, keyboard, and a decent 23-24 inch monitor. (preferably with 1920x1200 instead of Full HD) for that i have budgeted about 2000 HKD. about 250 ish USD. P.s. for currency conversion, go to google and type "[value] hkd in usd" or "[value] usd in hkd" simple enough. Thanks, and this was such a long first post! | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
If you a 1920 x 1200 screen, then I guess samsung 2443BW+ would be a good choice. | ||
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johanngrunt
Hong Kong1555 Posts
and they don't have that model on the Samsung HK website, so I'm not sure if they sell it here. Bummer. What do you think of the rest of the build? and Keyboard + mouse recommendations? Thanks. | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
I use a logitech G15 and MX518, it has served me well but I think they are discontinued now. MX5500 was a good combo but it was expensive. The rest of the build looks good. | ||
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city42
1656 Posts
1) Is it a bad idea to run XP 64 bit instead of Vista/7? To be more specific, is XP on its way out the door with regards to PC game system requirements and driver availability? 2) Back in the day, if you wanted a video card, you would go out and buy an actual ATI or Nvidia product. Now it seems like they sell their cards to third parties, who then resell them to the user. When I see someone recommend a "5850" video card, it's quite confusing because there are 20 different manufacturers to buy it from. Do you just look at reviews and pray, or have some brands established themselves as the best? Thanks! | ||
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KOFgokuon
United States14912 Posts
One main problem with XP is that Microsoft is phasing out support for it, so you won't get security patches / updates / that sort of thing. They recently stopped support for people using service pack 2, and probably will stop updating for service pack 3 in not too much time. I don't see why you wouldn't upgrade to 7 | ||
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R04R
United States1631 Posts
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city42
1656 Posts
On July 22 2010 01:18 KOFgokuon wrote: No reason to run vista ever, 7 is better in every way One main problem with XP is that Microsoft is phasing out support for it, so you won't get security patches / updates / that sort of thing. They recently stopped support for people using service pack 2, and probably will stop updating for service pack 3 in not too much time. I don't see why you wouldn't upgrade to 7 Well, 7 is about $150 more than XP. Also, support for XP SP3 doesn't end until April 2014. On July 22 2010 01:22 R04R wrote: The third parties usually perform some tweaks on the graphics cards like overclocking, voltage tweaking, changing of the cooling mechanism, and/or changing of the video ports. Sometimes they don't do anything at all and just brand their logo on the cards. The companies usually pack it with their own software to be used with their card. Look at reviews, find which ones suit your needs at the price you want. There are many reviews and benchmarks comparing the same model video cards from the websites listed in the OP. Anandtech is a good place to start. Thanks buddy! | ||
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ReTr0[p.S]
Argentina1590 Posts
I was afraid to move the slider on the GPU (GTX 480) to overclock it a little since sometimes I see a small drop in FPS while gaming but was afraid of the high temperatures it would get. My GPU is the part that gets the hotter while gaming and it has reached a max of 78 C (BF Bad Company 2/ Starcraft 2, Metro 2033) without overclocking, but you mention 80-90 is not harmful to the GPU, will overclocking it cause it to get much hotter and is it worth the extra heat? Thanks a lot  | ||
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R04R
United States1631 Posts
On July 22 2010 01:28 city42 wrote: Well, 7 is about $150 more than XP. Also, support for XP SP3 doesn't end until April 2014. If you're in college (or know someone who is *wink wink*), you can get Windows 7 Premium for $30 | ||
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johanngrunt
Hong Kong1555 Posts
On July 22 2010 00:07 johanngrunt wrote: Hi, long time lurker, first time poster. I'm from Hong Kong, and I'm going to build a computer to play Starcraft 2 and do video editing. plan to slightly overclock my CPU. (nothing too outrageous, probably to 3 Ghz.) Could you give some opinions on this list? my budget is around 8500 HKD, (about 1100 USD) obviously prices here are different, and slightly more expensive than newegg etc. there are few online price lists in HK, but here is one in case you have a suggestion for me. http://www.jumbo-computer.com/pricelist.asphttp://www.jumbo-computer.com/pricelist.asp CPU: Core i5 750..................................$1539 Mobo: MSI GD 85.................................$1420 GPU: Inno3D GTX 460 1GB OC..............$1799 (1GB stock speed costs $1690) RAM: Gskill Eco 1600 Mhz 4GB C7........$ 950 Cooler: CM Hyper 212+......................... $220 Case: CM HAF 922................................$840 HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB.....$ 512 DVD: Lite-on ihas 124.............................$155 PSU: Corsair TX 750W........................... $899 Total : 8334 HKD Does anyone have any opinions? I also need advice on a decent mouse, keyboard, and a decent 23-24 inch monitor. (preferably with 1920x1200 instead of Full HD) for that i have budgeted about 2000 HKD. about 250 ish USD. P.s. for currency conversion, go to google and type "[value] hkd in usd" or "[value] usd in hkd" simple enough. Thanks, and this was such a long first post! Also pertaining to my list above, Is it worth it to get a factory overclocked GTX 460, compared to a stock speed GTX 460? Inno3D, stock is 675 Mhz, overclocked is 750 Mhz. Factory overclocked costs 1799 HKD Stock costs 1690 HKD . that's about a 12 USD differential. And any suggestions on a 23-24 inch 16:10 monitor? | ||
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KOFgokuon
United States14912 Posts
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
On July 22 2010 01:13 city42 wrote: 2) Back in the day, if you wanted a video card, you would go out and buy an actual ATI or Nvidia product. Now it seems like they sell their cards to third parties, who then resell them to the user. When I see someone recommend a "5850" video card, it's quite confusing because there are 20 different manufacturers to buy it from. Do you just look at reviews and pray, or have some brands established themselves as the best? I'm not sure if this was always the case (I think it is), but both ATI and Nvidia don't do any manufacturing themselves. They do R&D and then have another company make the GPU chips--which is an extremely difficult and expensive process requiring large overhead costs, hence why ATI and Nvidia can't be bothered to make them in house. The different manufacturers of model number XYZ from Nvidia or ATI buy the chips and then put them on PCBs, add the memory, peripheral interfacing, cooling, etc. Board layout, board design, components, etc. is up to the manufacturer, but ATI and Nvidia release standard reference card designs as a guideline that many of the manufacturers end up following. So ATI and Nvidia aren't selling cards to third parties, just chip and GPU designs. The manufacturers are doing a lot more than zero-value-added rebranding, but the actual differences between cards from different manufacturers is up for debate (and reviews, which you can read). | ||
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city42
1656 Posts
On July 22 2010 02:20 Myrmidon wrote: I'm not sure if this was always the case (I think it is), but both ATI and Nvidia don't do any manufacturing themselves. They do R&D and then have another company make the GPU chips--which is an extremely difficult and expensive process requiring large overhead costs, hence why ATI and Nvidia can't be bothered to make them in house. The different manufacturers of model number XYZ from Nvidia or ATI buy the chips and then put them on PCBs, add the memory, peripheral interfacing, cooling, etc. Board layout, board design, components, etc. is up to the manufacturer, but ATI and Nvidia release standard reference card designs as a guideline that many of the manufacturers end up following. So ATI and Nvidia aren't selling cards to third parties, just chip and GPU designs. The manufacturers are doing a lot more than zero-value-added rebranding, but the actual differences between cards from different manufacturers is up for debate (and reviews, which you can read). I'm 100% sure ATI used to directly sell their cards to consumers. Not sure about Nvidia, but my last desktop (a hopelessly crappy athlon 2000+ with 256 mb ram) had an actual ATI brand card. I used a poor choice of words, but my point was that the consumer no longer directly buys a product from ATI. This is what leads to my confusion, since there are a bunch of companies selling seemingly identical products. I'll be sure to check out that anandtech site to figure out which ones match my needs best. | ||
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FragKrag
United States11567 Posts
There are a bunch of companies selling their products which is what makes it interesting on who you buy from. Generally for Nvidia the trusted partners were EVGA, XFX, and BFG, while for ATI they were Sapphire, XFX, and maybe HIS. EVGA still exists for Nvidia (while not as strong), XFX is not selling fermis, and BFG is dead. Sapphire has been falling in quality according to some, XFX still ok, and HIS I'm not too sure about. Generally, there is less trust for the smaller companies, though recently MSI, Gigabyte, and ASUS have been known for some decent cards. What differentiates the different vendors is how they handle customer support/service, warranties (XFX and EVGA known for lifetime warranties), and most importantly (to me), their non-reference designs. ASUS has become quite famous for their non reference like the GTX 295 MARS and recently that HD 5970 ARES Thanks for the sites! Added them | ||
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DaBears57
United States300 Posts
an Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache) vs Intel® Core™ i5-540M, 2.53-3.06GHz, (3MB L3 cache) in terms of power used? | ||
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Zach_Attack
United States13 Posts
I strongly recomend that when you go to buy RAM use a sight like newegg which has user reviews of the products. The RAM you want to look for is: 1. Compatibility with you motherboard. 2. Has a lot of positive reviews about reliability. Edit: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-scaling-i7,2325-7.html Here are some charts from Tom's Hardware. Look at the charts involving video games and frames per second. From the best ram they tested to the lowest end there is a 2 to 3 frame per second difference on average. Memory speed and latency is not critical for gaming so don't get sucked in by it. | ||
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FragKrag
United States11567 Posts
Memory speed and stability has a lot to do with overclocking. If you don't have solid memory that can scale with your processor, you end up being stuck with an unbalanced system. Though as far as anybody normal is concerned, 9-9-9-24 1600MHz or 9-9-9-24 1333MHz is totally fine. | ||
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