|
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. |
Oh, and quickly: what's the problem with CyberPowerPC and IBuyPower and such? Is it only the "they charge for installation but you can do that yourself because it's easy" thing?
I partly ask because, even though I'm paying for my computer (of course), I can get my dad to use his Amex on the initial purchase in order to extend the warranty so that it will eclipse the lifespan (or, rather, upgrade cycle) of the actual computer. This is one of the big reasons I've been looking at sticking with one of those sites unless I find a completely amazing deal on parts when I do more research.
Edit: My pathetic question was partly answered by what skyR just posted: I didn't realize the warranties on individual parts were already so long.
|
@Char711
You'll probably want a 1GB card such as the 6850 or 6950 if you are wanting the card to last you three years of gaming on high-settings. But with the recent trend of PC games just being console ports, I wouldn't fear of the GTX 460 768mb not being able to last three years.
4GB is still the standard because games are 32-bit meaning that most games won't utilize more than 2GB. 8GB of RAM is only going to allow you to alt tab instantly between the desktop and game. It won't help with improving FPS now or anytime in the near future if I were to take a guess. With RAM being so cheap atm, if your budget allows it than there is no reason not to get 8gb.
Brands of RAM isn't all that important because there are very few chip suppliers. Most of GSkill, Corsair, Mushkin, etc all use Micron chips.
The problem with Cyberpower, Ibuypower, and similar places is that you don't know the exact model of a component you are getting. They generally just use generic namings like 600W Cyberpower Certified Power Supply or similar. In addition, you're paying a premium for their assembly, pre/post sale service, and generally their part pricing is sort of expensive. Furthermore you usually don't get all the goodies that come with the brand new in the box components such as free games, mail in rebates, serial number (for warranty registration) etc.
Cyberpower comes with 1 year warranty on parts if I remember correctly which isn't very long at all when you consider that individually purchased parts come with longer warranties.
ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte motherboards all come with a three year warranty. ASUS even offers cross-shipping for their top-end motherboards.
Power supply warranty ranges from two years to seven years based on the series. The Corsair CX series offers a two year warranty, Antec Earthwatts offers a three year warranty, Seasonic / XFX / Corsair TX offers a five year warranty, while the Corsair HX / AX series offers a seven year warranty.
ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, again all offer a three year warranty for their graphic cards. XFX offers lifetime upon registration while EVGA offers it on their parts that end with -AR (upon registration).
All RAM should come with lifetime warranty.
|
thx skyr and myrm..
i think i can setup my comp pretty soon from your advice..getting 1 piece of 4gb ram..
or 2 x 2gb is better again?
|
|
|
Thanks, skyR! I'm a little daunted by finding the time to get all of it working correctly, but the benefits are starting to seem great enough that it's a really attractive option. I guess it wouldn't be too bad to say, "This weekend is computer building weekend. Deal with it." I'm having a pretty damn busy semester, though, so hopefully that time will be open.
I'll make sure to come back when I have most of it hammered out! I think I might even be able to slip a little more money into it, so I'm pretty sure that I'll have the Sandy Bridge i5, a 1 GB graphics card, 8 GB of RAM (hopefully 1600; and, yes, I would love really quick alt-tabs) and a 1 TB hard drive. I don't think I'll be able to fit a SSD in there, but I haven't been sitting at my computer wishing for one; I think that my current load/boot times are pretty decent and not a problem. Maybe a SLI-ready motherboard will help the future-proof for the graphics, too, so I can pop another in if I'm not happy with it by then.
Edit: What exactly is the general calculation for SLI? As in, what I'm a getting an equivalent of with 2 x 1 GB cards?
|
Wow, this sort of sounds too good to be true lol.
So I can buy all the parts through their website, pay $50.00 to have them assemble it for me, and they mail me a ready-to-use computer?
That's awesome
I'm just curious as to how reliable the website is, and if you or anyone you know has had any major issues with the website?
Also, I just want to double check
If i were to purchase all the parts that you told me, and they assembled them all for me.
The only things that I would need to purchase in order to be able to play sc2 would be
-a mouse
-a keyboard
-a monitor
-and an internet connection?
Or do I have to purchase the cables as well?
And when you say I can use any monitor I want, what is the difference between a $90 monitor and a $300 monitor besides size?
|
@MiXyass
A big thing with gaming is response time. You want to look for monitors that have somewhere around 2ms. You can get a really nice ~21 inch one that runs at 1080p/1920x1080 for mid-$200 or so. I'd strongly suggest getting a good monitor: you can really see the difference and it makes all the money you spend on the computer have a more tangible effect.
|
@Char711
Building a PC isn't difficult or time consuming at all. Even for first time builders, it shouldn't take more than two hours of unboxing and plugging stuff in.
The frequency of RAM isn't all that important. You can see it explored in this article: http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377
SLI can offer an improvement of anywhere from a negative percentage to two hundred percent. It would be best to avoid it unless you are playing at 2560x1600 resolution or got the second card for free / at a discounted price. It's not worth the trouble of dealing with the extra heat, games favoring CrossfireX over SLI, or games not working with SLI at all.
Best to just upgrade to the newer cards in three years time. The 8800GT 512mb was released three years ago at $200. The current generation of graphic cards at that pricepoint (Radeon 6850, GTX 460 1GB, GTX 560) would all outperform a 8800GT SLI setup.
@MiXyass
Yes, they'll send you a ready to use computer. NCIX is one of the best retailers for computer components in Canada. They are very involved in the community, quick in resolving issues, and are very understanding. If you want a local retailer, you could try http://www.memoryexpress.com. They offer pricematching and assembly as well but doesn't have as wide of a selection that NCIX has.
All the necessary cables will come with the computer. You would just need a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and an internet connection. A speaker / headset as well if you want sound.
The less expensive monitors (majority of monitors) use TN panels (poor viewing angles and poor colour) while the more expensive monitors use IPS panels (good colour and viewing angles). Here's an article that explain all that: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/specs.htm Dell usually has some sales on their IPS monitors for around $200 so if you're interested in one, you should keep an eye out.
|
I don't know if I should be, but I'm not too worried about the colours or the different angles. BUT, I am looking through the article that you gave me and I'm not too sure if I understand the response time part of the monitor or not.
If I get a monitor with a low response time, will I actually lose game time because of my monitor? Or will I just see more of those ghosting images?
I don't really mind sacrificing graphics or colours for the time being due to budget issues (I'm in university and only work part-time so =\ )
but if it's going to affect my gameplay then that is something I need to take into consideration into my budget.
Also, thanks a lot for your help skyR, I really really appreciate it.
|
On April 04 2011 15:22 MiXyass wrote:
I don't know if I should be, but I'm not too worried about the colours or the different angles. BUT, I am looking through the article that you gave me and I'm not too sure if I understand the response time part of the monitor or not.
If I get a monitor with a low response time, will I actually lose game time because of my monitor? Or will I just see more of those ghosting images?
I don't really mind sacrificing graphics or colours for the time being due to budget issues (I'm in university and only work part-time so =\ )
but if it's going to affect my gameplay then that is something I need to take into consideration into my budget.
Also, thanks a lot for your help skyR, I really really appreciate it.
Generally a monitor with 5ms response rate and below you will not notice a difference at all. Will not affect your gameplay at all
|
@MiXyass
You're not losing anything from a lower response time. A lower response time means less ghosting which in turn will improve your gaming / movie experience.
|
@Legatus Lanius ok then i will try out the silver arrows, thanks for the tips of price as well
@Myrmidon yeh i certainly could look at trimming some cost down for a better gpu or ssd, ssd will come later no matter what tho. Want the cooler tho just due to how hot this place gets, as well as moving on to i7 later on
|
5930 Posts
@blightflesh
Here is a build around $200 cheaper:
Intel Core i5 2500K $259.00
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3-B3 Motherboard $179.00
G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT (2x4GB) DDR3 $99.00
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ $69.00
MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II OC 1GB $279.00
Antec TruePower TP-750 750W $145.00
CoolerMaster HAF 912 Advanced $119.00
ASUS Xonar DG $39.00
Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler $89.00
Sub-Total: $1277.00
This is from pccasegear. This build basically has the same shit, just cheaper. You can probably go even cheaper if you go into MSY/PCDIY/Umart and buy from them.
|
@skyR I read the article from this suggestion of yours:
But I still don't understand exactly at what frequency an overclocked CPU will use the RAM.
My scenarios is this: I am gonna overclock the i5-2500k or i7-2600k at about 4.5 Ghz (or something similar that will be stable). In this case, 1600 Mhz vs 1333 Mhz would make a difference or should I go with 1333 Mhz @ 7 7 7 20?
|
The newer 2nd generation core i5/7 sandy bridge processors like the i5 2500k and i7 2600k do not rely on your motherboard's FSB speed in overclocking. In fact, it's almost impossible to get either of those chips stable if you increase the core FSB speed by even a marginal amount. Instead, those processors overclock by raising the CPU multiplier setting, which simply increases the amount of cycles your processor runs at as opposed to how much data it can handle per clock cycle. RAM FSB speeds matter only if you're looking to overclock via core FSB because it increases stability. This is significant when overclocking older core2duo / i5 750 and most AMD chips, but Sandy Bridge just doesn't care.
It doesn't matter what FSB speed memory you get, your overclocking results will be similar regardless. High end expensive RAM may result in around a 1-2 FPS increase in real world games, which is almost never worth the premium.
Go with the cheaper RAM.
|
|
|
@FrozenSolid Because I was talking about 2500K or 2600K I was actually talking about using a 45 multiplier or some close value that will be stable. And from what I understand, this will also make the CPU choose at which frequency to use the RAM. And my concern is whether at such high multiplier it would want some frequency from the RAM that is higher than 1333 Mhz.
Also, with the 45 multiplier, at what frequency the CPU will try to use the RAM?
|
whats the cooling potential of the haf912 vs the 922/932?
and why does the 912 have more cpu cooler room (170s) than the 922 (160) when the 922 is wider?
|
could i run 2-way crossfirex with 5870s with a 750W PSU??
|
On April 04 2011 21:25 mentallyafk wrote:
could i run 2-way crossfirex with 5870s with a 750W PSU??
Yup pretty sure it would.
Like pretty much 100%
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
