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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. |
On November 27 2011 07:40 skyR wrote:Corsair TX650 for $80 isn't a good deal. Newegg is just getting rid of old stock. Just get the Antec High Current Gamer for 620: http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=56788&promoid=1055GTX 460 isn't a good choice. Radeon HD6850 performs similar and is less expensive. Radeon HD6870 performs better and is about the same price at $170. That motherboard is a 2+1 phase design with no mosfet heatsinks, I'm not sure how far you would get on that thing...
I don't want to throw this free Q9550 to waste, but don't want to sell it either (I don't have a dedicated desktop anymore, just a laptop) so I'd really like to get some use out of it.
I can't find a good mobo that supports DDR3, that fits everything else.
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+ Show Spoiler +What is your budget?
£600-800 not including money for a monitor or any peripherals.
What is your resolution?
Well I want a new monitor as well, at least 1680x1050 but I'd prefer 1920x1080
What are you using it for?
Gaming will be the only activity that really stresses the computer, I wouldn't mind the capability to stream in the future but if it adds a lot of cost that doesn't really matter. Right now just SC2, Skyrim and maybe SWTOR but I'd like to be able to play new games like Diablo 3 on high, if not maxed, graphics.
What is your upgrade cycle?
I'm not really sure, it would be nice if all I needed was a new graphics card when my computer can't run the latest games so well any more.
When do you plan on building it?
I'll be buying the parts within the next week or so.
Do you plan on overclocking?
I'll overclock the CPU, I don't know about anything else though I'm a nub when it comes to hardware.
Do you need an Operating System?
Yes, but I can get a student discount.
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
Probably not, maybe as an upgrade.
Where are you buying your parts from?
The cheapest place. Since I'm in the UK that's probably UK and maybe Europe based sites.
+ Show Spoiler [Here is my current plan] +
So this adds up to £560 excluding a GPU and a case.
It seems like its computer problem time for my whole family at the moment, so while I'm posting this I may as well ask these questions.
My Dad is looking for a new laptop for work, he's currently got some sort of 15" Dell Inspiron with a Core 2 Duo but he needs an upgrade so I said I'd help him so he wouldn't get stuck with another shitty computer for however long (too long) that he decides to put up with it.
He says his 15" is a bit too big so I'm thinking a 13" laptop with an i5 processor, 4GB RAM and at least 500GB of HD space, preferably with at least 8 hours of battery life, but obviously the longer the better. The problem for me is there are so many laptops that fit this description and I have no idea about mobile processors.
I was thinking this or this what do you guys think?
And finally, my sister got a warning on her laptop that her HD is about to fail, is there any way to repair the hard drive, and if not is there any way to copy the hard drive exactly onto a brand new identical one, so the computer is basically the same but without the imminent risk of her losing all her data?
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5930 Posts
On November 27 2011 03:34 FinBenton wrote:
Wowowow gigabyte boards dont suck, they are the most reliable ones i think. UEFI is just a personal preference as I like the traditional look much more.
They do suck.
No uEFI BIOS means they don't boot quite as fast and don't have direct support for 3TB drives without some workarounds. They have awful power management and this is something you can measure with proper hardware. Its telling when the C States haven't worked perfectly in their motherboards since their X58 and P55 motherboards.
Loadline Calibration, in particular, is a problem for them. Now you should just turn it off, no matter what motherboard you have, since it has a tendency to overshoot voltages when jumping up and down from idle/load and thus result in stability problems. Gigabyte's overshoot is so huge that it can exceed 0.1V when idle and at stock settings. With Asus boards, for instance, leaving LLC isn't the best idea but its not horrible since its power management is a lot better.
They have motherboards that pack a lot of ports...because they aren't very good and can't compete with Asus in raw quality.
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I'm upgrading from an older core2duo build. However, these are the parts I plan to re-use from the old system:
Antec 900 Case
Corsair TX 750 Power supply
XFX GTX 260 216 Video card
DVD drive
Western Digital 250GB Hard drive.
Acer GD235HZ 120hz monitor
+ Show Spoiler +What is your budget?
$350-500 for a CPU, MOBO and RAM + possible OS, if needed
What is your resolution?
Not very high. I play FPS games, so I'm accustomed to playing on low resolutions; however, since I will being playing newer games, I may play on a higher res. 1920 x 1080 is my monitor's native resolution, but I don't need to play on a very high res.
What are you using it for?
Mostly gaming; playing games such as Starcraft 2, Counter-strike 1.6, Counter-strike Source.
What is your upgrade cycle?
About 3-4 years.
When do you plan on building it?
As soon as possible.
Do you plan on overclocking?
I do not plan on overclocking.
Do you need an Operating System?
I have a copy of Windows XP, but I'm not sure If I plan to use it or not. I will most likely upgrade to windows 7 and have to purchase an OEM copy. (Can you reformat with an OEM disc?)
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
No, I do not plan to purchase 2 video cards.
Where are you buying your parts from?
I have a MicroCenter about 30 minutes away, so if you feel that it is better to purchase parts from there, I will go there. Otherwise, I've always used Newegg.
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On November 27 2011 12:09 Womwomwom wrote:Show nested quote +On November 27 2011 03:34 FinBenton wrote:
Wowowow gigabyte boards dont suck, they are the most reliable ones i think. UEFI is just a personal preference as I like the traditional look much more. They do suck. No uEFI BIOS means they don't boot quite as fast and don't have direct support for 3TB drives without some workarounds. They have awful power management and this is something you can measure with proper hardware. Its telling when the C States haven't worked perfectly in their motherboards since their X58 and P55 motherboards. Loadline Calibration, in particular, is a problem for them. Now you should just turn it off, no matter what motherboard you have, since it has a tendency to overshoot voltages when jumping up and down from idle/load and thus result in stability problems. Gigabyte's overshoot is so huge that it can exceed 0.1V when idle and at stock settings. With Asus boards, for instance, leaving LLC isn't the best idea but its not horrible since its power management is a lot better. They have motherboards that pack a lot of ports...because they aren't very good and can't compete with Asus in raw quality.
Booting not as fast is more like 3-5 seconds until starting to load Windows? I've seen a Gigabyte socket 1155 mobo system boot before (but I forget exactly since it was a while ago), and it was not slow at all.
The other points are definitely issues though.
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5930 Posts
Yes its around 5 seconds but there's no reason to pick the inferior option when there's alternative boards that are just as cheap that pack uEFI (anyone not Gigabyte). Its not like Windows motherboards have a good history with sleeping (can Asus P67 boards even do this?).
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Hey gigabyte packs the touch bios which can be used if you have a touch screen O_O WHOA
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On November 27 2011 12:13 Jamel wrote:+ Show Spoiler + I'm upgrading from an older core2duo build. However, these are the parts I plan to re-use from the old system: Antec 900 Case Corsair TX 750 Power supply XFX GTX 260 216 Video card DVD drive Western Digital 250GB Hard drive. Acer GD235HZ 120hz monitor + Show Spoiler +What is your budget?
$350-500 for a CPU, MOBO and RAM + possible OS, if needed
What is your resolution?
Not very high. I play FPS games, so I'm accustomed to playing on low resolutions; however, since I will being playing newer games, I may play on a higher res. 1920 x 1080 is my monitor's native resolution, but I don't need to play on a very high res.
What are you using it for?
Mostly gaming; playing games such as Starcraft 2, Counter-strike 1.6, Counter-strike Source.
What is your upgrade cycle?
About 3-4 years.
When do you plan on building it?
As soon as possible.
Do you plan on overclocking?
I do not plan on overclocking.
Do you need an Operating System?
I have a copy of Windows XP, but I'm not sure If I plan to use it or not. I will most likely upgrade to windows 7 and have to purchase an OEM copy. (Can you reformat with an OEM disc?)
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
No, I do not plan to purchase 2 video cards.
Where are you buying your parts from?
I have a MicroCenter about 30 minutes away, so if you feel that it is better to purchase parts from there, I will go there. Otherwise, I've always used Newegg.
i5-2400 - $189
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074
For motherboard, any low price H61 or H67 will do. You don't need the P or Z boards as they are for overclocking.
Biostart H61 Motherboard - $49, $39 after MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138332
For RAM, lotta things on sale now.
8GB RAM for $27. I have these and they work great. Lifetime warranty.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313086
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5930 Posts
If they cost the same and you are worried about the Hitachi drive, why don't you just get the Seagate drive?
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On November 27 2011 20:31 Womwomwom wrote:
If they cost the same and you are worried about the Hitachi drive, why don't you just get the Seagate drive?
And if there's something bad about the seagate drive?
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5930 Posts
Well you're not doing RAID (you haven't mentioned it...) with the hard disks so you'll get a different answer from all people. Some people hate Seagate, some people hate Western Digital. Personally I stick with Western Digital drives but honestly all of these vendors (Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi) all offer drives to enterprise users so their consumer offerings should be more than good enough for basic consumer use.
They're called Deathstars due to poor quality drives...during the time IBM controlled the business and not Hitachi. The buyout happened in 2003, which is like 8 years ago.
Edit:
Basically, just buy one and see how it goes. If it dies early, you can be like everyone else and hate on company X and like companies Y.
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Okay, I'm about to embark on building a computer, and I'd appreciate if someone could point any glaringly obvious mistakes I'm making. Here's what I'm thinking;
budget ~750 e
+ Show Spoiler +Motherboard: Asus M5A78L 760G AM3+ ATX 68.90e Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 250 62.90e GPU: Asus EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5 Radeon HD 6870 185.90e PSU: AeroCool E78-530 530W 54.90e RAM: 2xKingston 1024MB (1GB) PC1066 1066MHz DDR 17.80e Optical drive: Asus DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G/AS 22.90e HDD: Western Digital AV GP 1 TB - 88.90e Processor fan: Cooler Master Vortex Plus 1366/1156/1155 27.90e Case: Antec VSK-2000 44.90e Display: Acer P226HQVbd 21.5" Full HD 119.90e OS: Ubuntu 11.10-desktop-amd6 0.0e (All prices include shipping)
I'm planning on overclocking, and I understand that the X2 responds well to that. Hence the processor fan.
The thing that worries me the most is that the PSU will cut it a bit close with the GPU running at full steam; 12V*25A=300W, GPU maxes out an 270W.
Essentially, I'm hoping to play SCII and Dwarf Fortress with a respectable fps, and to stay in budget.
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I'm not sure where you got the idea that a Radeon HD6870 maxes out at 270w since it consumes around 130w under load and won't ever approach 270w in any situation that does not involve modding.
Your unit you are getting also does not provide 25a on the 12v rail... it provides 37a over two 12v rails - which is more than adequate for a low-end configuration.
And I'm unsure of European pricing but I'm pretty sure an Intel configuration would give you much better value in gaming.
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On November 28 2011 07:27 Hertzy wrote:Okay, I'm about to embark on building a computer, and I'd appreciate if someone could point any glaringly obvious mistakes I'm making. Here's what I'm thinking; budget ~750 e + Show Spoiler +Motherboard: Asus M5A78L 760G AM3+ ATX 68.90e Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 250 62.90e GPU: Asus EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5 Radeon HD 6870 185.90e PSU: AeroCool E78-530 530W 54.90e RAM: 2xKingston 1024MB (1GB) PC1066 1066MHz DDR 17.80e Optical drive: Asus DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G/AS 22.90e HDD: Western Digital AV GP 1 TB - 88.90e Processor fan: Cooler Master Vortex Plus 1366/1156/1155 27.90e Case: Antec VSK-2000 44.90e Display: Acer P226HQVbd 21.5" Full HD 119.90e OS: Ubuntu 11.10-desktop-amd6 0.0e (All prices include shipping) I'm planning on overclocking, and I understand that the X2 responds well to that. Hence the processor fan. The thing that worries me the most is that the PSU will cut it a bit close with the GPU running at full steam; 12V*25A=300W, GPU maxes out an 270W. Essentially, I'm hoping to play SCII and Dwarf Fortress with a respectable fps, and to stay in budget.
6870 is absolutely ridiculously overpriced at 186€, please buy from somewhere where they don't rip you off.
The processor is overpriced as well, just like the mobo. For that price you could get something like G860 which is infinitely better
The RAM is insanely overpriced as well and buying 2 sticks of 1gb is just ridiculous.
That cooler sucks and is overpriced
that case sucks and is overpriced
Why on earth are you buying from some place that's trying to rip you off so horribly?
If you're ordering from finland, this is 666€ including shipping without screen:
http://www.silentrig.com/product/1012/intel-core-i5-2500--4-x-330ghz-95w-boxed
http://www.silentrig.com/product/714/xfx-core-edition-pro-450w
http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/H61M-HVS
http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/KVR1333D3N9/4G
http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/HD753LJ
http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/GH22NS30RBBB
http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/N560GTX-TI-TF-II/OC
http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/FD-CA-CORE-1000-BL-MURO
Note that you can easily cut if that's too much, my first 2 choices would be to cut the graphics card to this:
http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/ENGTX560-DC/2DI/1GD5
and the processor to this:
http://www.silentrig.com/product/683/intel-core-i3-2100-2-x-31ghz-65w-boxed
Also note that the HDD is probably not available so search around <_< Either way even with those cuts it's still going to be way better than what you had in mind
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So microcenter emailed me saying they cancelled that free Dark knight (with rebate) thing. Dumb companies sometimes.
Any stellar CPU cooler deals come about while I was away?
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So I've recently built my new computer, but at the time I wasn't able to afford a new video card. I'll give you information about my spec and if you would be kind enough to help me finding a video card that will allow me to run all the new generation game to their fullest potential:
heres my specs:
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V
Mobo: MSI X58A-GD65 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cpu: Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W
Cpu cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler
Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Hard drive: 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
I will use the card to play some games and almost never video encode.
Current video card: ati radeon hd 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
thanks for taking the time to comment <3
P.S. I was thinking to buy one of the gtx 560ti (FERMI) cards probably this one
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130683
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Why do you think you deserve special attention by duplicating your useless post?
User was warned for this post
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EPT
