Computer Build Resource Thread - Page 541

On September 07 2011 01:14 mojachiee wrote:


I don't include the monitor in the budget.

On September 07 2011 04:53 DONTPANIC wrote:
My thoughts on the RAM were that the voltage and timings are super good? Not worth the $30? I was going 2gig gpu because... ? More is better. 1gig will do I guess. What mobo do you reccomend for 16x16x xfiire?

On September 07 2011 05:00 Wabbit wrote:
Above that, everything is so minimal that even synthetic benchmarks are often the same.

On September 07 2011 05:03 JingleHell wrote:


Come on, did you really need to dive headfirst into the shallow end of pure hyperbole for this?

Synthetic benchmarks exist to show differences that are hard to measure without them, of course they aren't the same. Even stuff like 3DMark can pick up on tighter timings and faster RAM.

On September 06 2011 04:38 skyR wrote:
Every part comes with a warranty of some sort. For example, the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB harddrive, Intel Core i5 2400 processor, and Corsair CX430 V2 power supply all come with a three year warranty while the XFX Radeon HD6850 graphics card comes with a lifetime warranty upon registration (register on their website with your serial number within 30 days of purchase) and the GSkill memory comes with a lifetime warranty. If something breaks than you just contact the manufacturer of the part and send it in for it to be repaired or to get a new one.

Warranties of individual components are much better than the one year warranty you receive from a prebuilt computer. The post-sale support of the manufacturers are also much better than what you would receive at Best Buy or Acer. You would just have to troubleshoot the problem yourself with the help of google.

There's not much to component compatibility these days. All modern graphics cards you're looking at on Newegg are PCI-E x16 which work in all modern motherboards for the modern processors (since they all come with PCI-E x16). PCI-E 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, etc are all backwards and forward compatible.

DDR3 memory is DDR3 memory. Clock speed doesn't matter.

Case is case. A cardboard box would work. Power supply is power supply, all the cables will be there. If there isn't enough, you'll just need an adapter. A quality ~400w unit is more than enough to power such a configuration (a core i5 2400 uses around 55w and a 6850 uses around 100w, both under load). Not all power supplies are of equal quality and some are extremely bad so it might be hard for a novice to determine this... though it's not hard just by looking at the pricing.

Processor goes into one socket and one socket only (not talking about AMD, you don't want AMD currently anyways since their processors just suck in comparison to those of Intels). If it says LGA1155, the motherboard must be LGA1155.

The components that make up a computer is the motherboard, memory, processor, graphics card, harddrive, and power supply. Everything else (including the case and dvd-drive) is optional. The motherboard has integrated sound and ethernet (if you want wireless, you'll need to buy something else) so you don't have to worry about that stuff.

It's not a good idea to trust anyone who posts in online communities. It's best to use your own judgement and do some research yourself, I would advise staying away from tomshardware since it's website is awful and it's community isn't that great either. You don't have any reason to trust me either so take everything I say with a grain of salt (= You can dig through my post history if you really want, many people have been satisfied with the configurations I've provided.

On September 07 2011 07:55 skyR wrote:


We can't tell you whether it can be improved upon if you don't tell us what your goals are for your configuration but since you're posting on TL, I'm assuming it's for Starcraft II and gaming. It's a poorly optimized build if so.

Power supply is overkill. Get a higher quality one of lower wattage such as a Seasonic S12II 520, XFX Core Edition 450 (not V2), Antec High Current Gamer 520 or Antec Neo Eco 520. ~500w provides more than enough power for this configuration and even has the possibility of CrossfireX 6870s.

1600MHz memory is a waste of money when you're on such a tight budget. You're literally paying a a premium for 1 FPS instead of paying a premium for a better graphics card or processor that will provide a greater gain.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/sandy-bridge-ddr3.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3
http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377

A second generation Phenom is garbage. Why build now with a second generation Phenom in an AM3+ socket when Bulldozer is so close to release? Either wait or just build an Intel configuration which is clearly superior to that of AMD and will likely remain so even with Bulldozer's release.