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skyR is pro, answering every question
Ok, i'v been reading and trying to build a computer on a 400-500 budget. I want my computer to be able to play in med-high settings on sc2, (ultra is overkill imo), and i want to be able to stream, and HD movies.
My monitor is 20" hp, 1900x600. I plan on building it this month because there wont be any computer sales for awhile.
Websites i use are http://www.newegg.ca or http://www.canadacomputers.com or kijiji
CPU - ive been looking at this AMD II X3 455
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_64&item_id=035103
Edit - how is AMD PHENOM 2 555 BLACK EDITION, GIGABYTE 870A-UD3 for $220?
Motherboard - i still have trouble understanding how to choose motherboard, gigabyte or asus?
GPU - GTX 460 or Radeon 4850, im reading that Radeon 4850 is better than the 5000 series or i might go with Two Sapphire Radeon HD5750 700MHZ 1GB 4GHZ GDDR5 for $150, not sure though
Power Supply - Antec TP-550 Truepower New 550W Continuous Power Supply or maybe cooler master v8?
Case - antec
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?item_id=018460
HD - 250gb should do
Ram - 2x2gb ddr3
feel free to change around parts, im still not sure what im doing 
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On April 17 2011 02:14 Myrmidon wrote:
My Bulldozer prediction--feel free to disagree a lot:
1) Octo-core (4 modules) beats or ties Core i7-990x in multi-threaded performance, but for much lower cost
2) Hex-core (3 modules) is close to Core i7-2600(k) in multi-threaded performance, but for lower cost
3) Quad-core (2 modules) is cheaper than i5-2500k by a decent bit and can also be overclocked, unlike Intel's cheaper CPUs
4) As an overgeneralization, instructions per clock is not better than Sandy Bridge, since that wasn't the emphasis in the design (many small and cheap to produce cores is)
So for somebody not overclocking at a CPU+motherboard budget of $300, I don't think an i5-2400 + mobo will be beat, or at least not beat badly. Maybe you'll be able to get a hex-core Bulldozer CPU for that kind of money? I don't think you'd get buyer's remorse over having an i5-2400 though.
It's probably worth worth waiting.
Realistically, expect 10-%20 faster quad core chips (around the level of i5-750s probably but hopefully much cheaper) and all higher end chips being built around having 6+ cores
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I just realized I typoed "not worth waiting" -> "worth worth waiting." lol whoops.
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@HCmystic
Any reason why you aren't using NCIX? NCIX has a wider selection of components than Canada Computers, offers pricematching, and weekly sales as well.
The Phenom II X2 555 is a dual core processor, you'll want a quad core processor for streaming. However this processor can be unlocked to a X4 955 with the right motherboard and a bit of luck. But at $220 with a motherboard, it is not a good deal.
An Antec Truepower New 550w would not make sense for your budget as this is quite an expensive unit.
Motherboard selection should be based on your personal needs, ex. how many usb / sata ports do you need? what other features do you need? etc. You will most likely want to pick MSI or ASUS since they have a RMA center in Canada so if you ever need to do an RMA, there is no hassle with cross-border shipping.
The GTS 450 would be the better choice over the Radeon 4850 in Canada. The GTS 450 is overall slightly better than the Radeon 4850 and is only $10 more expensive in Canada. The GTX 460 768mb is in a whole different price range (~$140+ before mail in rebates) but this card can easily handle SC2 on Ultra.
You don't need a SLI or CrossfireX configuration to play SC2 on high. Although 5750 Crossfire @ $150 is a good deal but at the $150 pricepoint, a GTX 460 768mb would make more sense for your purposes. Less heat production, less power consumption, and less noise production.
Here is what I suggest for a total of $496 before promotional offers, mail in rebates, and everything else:
Phenom II X4 955 @ $230 ($220 after promotional gift card, $200 after mail in rebate)
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=47032&promoid=1317
Corsair 2x2GB 1333MHz @ $40
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=40072&promoid=1317
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500G @ $40
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=58402&promoid=1317
Corsair CX 430w @ $40 (pricematched with http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC5606 )
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=54842
Coolermaster Elite 310 @ $36 (pricematched with http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/216705/COOLERMASTER/RC_310_BWN1_GP/ )
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=39592
MSI GTS 450 @ $110
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=57924&promoid=1317
You can also go with a core i5 2300 and an H61 / H67 board if you want to go over budget by ~$30, you can see the performance difference between the various processors here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html
If you can't buy from or prefer not to buy from NCIX for some reason. Most of these components will be available at Canada Computers and you can just pricematch it.
Keep in mind you don't have a DVD drive and since you didn't make mention of it, I'm assuming you already have one.
edit: I forgot to mention, if you are interested in buying used parts from other individuals, http://www.redflagdeals.com/ is also another good option.
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On April 17 2011 03:00 Zeke50100 wrote:
Well, ~30% increase in performance is pretty significant XD
Not sure where you got this figure from. The difference between a core i5 760 and core i5 2500k is around 10% at best in most of the benchmarks I have looked at. It's only fair to compare two processors that are capable of overclocking. There's actually no point in upgrading from a core i5 7xx to a locked core i5 2x00 since overclocking your core i5 7xx will provide you similar performance.
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It's actually ~30% in several cases:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=191
Difference in so-called instructions per clock may be closer to around 10% or less, depending on the sequence of instructions. But the new generation is sold at a higher clock speeds overall and can be correspondingly overclocked to higher clock speeds, so the difference in IPC is more academic (difference in architectures) than practical (difference in products, which is what consumers are interested in).
Upgrading a i5-760 to a i5-2500k is still kind of silly though.
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On April 17 2011 03:43 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On April 17 2011 03:00 Zeke50100 wrote:
Well, ~30% increase in performance is pretty significant XD Not sure where you got this figure from. The difference between a core i5 760 and core i5 2500k is around 10% at best in most of the benchmarks I have looked at. It's only fair to compare two processors that are capable of overclocking. There's actually no point in upgrading from a core i5 7xx to a locked core i5 2x00 since overclocking your core i5 7xx will provide you similar performance.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/191?vs=288
That's where I'm getting the information. Actual in-game performance is about 30% of an increase.
Upgrading from i5-760 is dependent on how much you're willing to spend, though (actually, it's pretty pointless unless you absolutely need the extra performance), so I get what you're saying. I forget: will Ivy Bridge be on a new socket?
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Ivybridge is expected to be on the same LGA1155 socket.
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If that's the case, I guess there's no harm in upgrading temporarily to a Sandy Bridge processor until Ivy Bridge comes out if you need the extra speed XD
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Not good. The x3 455 or x4 640 are good budget chips though, and should fall under $200 between cpu and mobo
GPU - GTX 460 or Radeon 4850, im reading that Radeon 4850 is better than the 5000 series or i might go with Two Sapphire Radeon HD5750 700MHZ 1GB 4GHZ GDDR5 for $150, not sure though
The GTX 460 is significantly faster than the 4850/5750.. For $150 I don't think it's possible to beat the Sapphire Extreme 5850 which was just (re)released. Though it is overkill for SC2.
Power Supply - Antec TP-550 Truepower New 550W Continuous Power Supply or maybe cooler master v8?
Go for a Seasonic, Corsair, or Antec Earthwatts PSU instead. They're reputable and well priced
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thx for the hard work, my post beats 2 days of reading
im looking at ncix and damn they got lota bundle deals
i may just trust u skyr and buy those, i like that cpu + motherboard deal
whats the difference between gts and gtx
Edit @sky, did u use savings code? i can only find the same bundle deal for 379
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@HCmystic
GTS and GTX are just prefixes that Nvidia use for the naming of their cards. GTX usually indicates a performance card.
Some prices are from the current week's sales which can only be accessed through the weekly sales page: http://ncix.com/promo/promosale.php?webid=Screamin2011
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So, I have all of my lovely computer parts sitting on my kitchen table and I'm ready to go.
My only problem is this: what's the best way to make sure that I'm grounded so that I don't short something?
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On April 17 2011 06:02 Char711 wrote:
So, I have all of my lovely computer parts sitting on my kitchen table and I'm ready to go.
My only problem is this: what's the best way to make sure that I'm grounded so that I don't short something?
1. Don't stand on carpet.
2. Don't wear polyester clothing.
3. Make sure the environment you are working in is not extremely dry.
4. Touch doorknob once in a while.
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On April 17 2011 06:07 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On April 17 2011 06:02 Char711 wrote:
So, I have all of my lovely computer parts sitting on my kitchen table and I'm ready to go.
My only problem is this: what's the best way to make sure that I'm grounded so that I don't short something? 1. Don't stand on carpet. 2. Don't wear polyester clothing. 3. Make sure the environment you are working in is not extremely dry. 4. Touch doorknob once in a while.
5. Ground yourself by touching off the metal computer case.
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On April 17 2011 06:08 deconduo wrote:Show nested quote +On April 17 2011 06:07 skyR wrote:On April 17 2011 06:02 Char711 wrote:
So, I have all of my lovely computer parts sitting on my kitchen table and I'm ready to go.
My only problem is this: what's the best way to make sure that I'm grounded so that I don't short something? 1. Don't stand on carpet. 2. Don't wear polyester clothing. 3. Make sure the environment you are working in is not extremely dry. 4. Touch doorknob once in a while. 5. Ground yourself by touching off the metal computer case.
6. Get a shock strap and avoid the hassle with numbers 4 and 5 :D
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DVD writer/burners are commodity items that are cheap and perform mostly the same these days. Unless you read or write a lot of optical media, you're unlikely to notice a difference between models.
Vertex 3 Max IOPS seems to be a different version of the Vertex 3...with higher IOPS (so better random access performance). The normal Vertex 3 is already good at that. There won't really be a difference for somebody not running hardcore server/enterprise workloads. And if you were doing that, you wouldn't want to be using a consumer SSD like a Vertex 3 anyway. It looks like a very niche product for a small market, since the price is a bit higher.
I think the difference in IOPS may come from having different NAND flash chips inside. Either that, or it's a different firmware, because the controller is the same. But a quick look through Google seems to indicate that it's probably different flash, so thus different specs.
NCQ and MLC are features or attributes of every consumer SSD, so nothing special. NCQ is how it sounds: commands are able to be queued up. MLC flash stores two bits of data per cell rather than one bit of data per cell that SLC flash does. MLC flash thus has double the capacity but lower reliability. Because of the cost, SLC flash is only really used in enterprise SSDs.
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so ive gotten this build done on about wednesday and it worked for a while although i havent used it much. Yesterday i left it idling(it went to sleep) and left for the whole day and when i came back it didnt respond to keyboard stroke and when i used the power on it started rebooting without even getting to BIOS screen.
All 4 PSU load LEDs are on and tehre are no sounds coming out from onboard speaker. I would generally assume its PSUs fault but a) it worked for a while and b) disconnecting the graphics card and harddrive yields exact same results.
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On April 17 2011 03:39 skyR wrote:@HCmystic Any reason why you aren't using NCIX? NCIX has a wider selection of components than Canada Computers, offers pricematching, and weekly sales as well. The Phenom II X2 555 is a dual core processor, you'll want a quad core processor for streaming. However this processor can be unlocked to a X4 955 with the right motherboard and a bit of luck. But at $220 with a motherboard, it is not a good deal. An Antec Truepower New 550w would not make sense for your budget as this is quite an expensive unit. Motherboard selection should be based on your personal needs, ex. how many usb / sata ports do you need? what other features do you need? etc. You will most likely want to pick MSI or ASUS since they have a RMA center in Canada so if you ever need to do an RMA, there is no hassle with cross-border shipping. The GTS 450 would be the better choice over the Radeon 4850 in Canada. The GTS 450 is overall slightly better than the Radeon 4850 and is only $10 more expensive in Canada. The GTX 460 768mb is in a whole different price range (~$140+ before mail in rebates) but this card can easily handle SC2 on Ultra. You don't need a SLI or CrossfireX configuration to play SC2 on high. Although 5750 Crossfire @ $150 is a good deal but at the $150 pricepoint, a GTX 460 768mb would make more sense for your purposes. Less heat production, less power consumption, and less noise production. Here is what I suggest for a total of $496 before promotional offers, mail in rebates, and everything else: Phenom II X4 955 @ $230 ($220 after promotional gift card, $200 after mail in rebate) http://ncix.com/products/?sku=47032&promoid=1317Corsair 2x2GB 1333MHz @ $40 http://ncix.com/products/?sku=40072&promoid=1317Western Digital Caviar Blue 500G @ $40 http://ncix.com/products/?sku=58402&promoid=1317Corsair CX 430w @ $40 (pricematched with http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC5606 ) http://ncix.com/products/?sku=54842Coolermaster Elite 310 @ $36 (pricematched with http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/216705/COOLERMASTER/RC_310_BWN1_GP/ ) http://ncix.com/products/?sku=39592MSI GTS 450 @ $110 http://ncix.com/products/?sku=57924&promoid=1317You can also go with a core i5 2300 and an H61 / H67 board if you want to go over budget by ~$30, you can see the performance difference between the various processors here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.htmlIf you can't buy from or prefer not to buy from NCIX for some reason. Most of these components will be available at Canada Computers and you can just pricematch it. Keep in mind you don't have a DVD drive and since you didn't make mention of it, I'm assuming you already have one. edit: I forgot to mention, if you are interested in buying used parts from other individuals, http://www.redflagdeals.com/ is also another good option.
hey guys any other suggestions with this? i think im planning to buy sometime next week after reading some more with a 400-500 budget. Like for my purpose, would i be able to make a similar comp as above except cheaper. Tuition ate my money and so i gota wait longer to buy more expensive parts but i may depending on price:performance ratio. TBH i dont feel like reading after my exams and im not very good at finding good deals online
i thought radeon 4850 in canada was about $80, guess not.
Thanks skyR for this.
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EPT
