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StorrZerg
United States13910 Posts
On April 09 2009 04:40 Zoler wrote: I'm hijacking this thread. What do you think of this computer I'm gonna build? Processor: Intel E8500 dual core 3.19 ghz ram: 4 gb graphic card: geforce GTS 250 don't think its going to boot to be honest. kinda missing a few key parts. | ||
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RawrAnOcean
United States359 Posts
If you want to reduce cost here are my suggestions. Quad core isn't really needed for games as of yet. You can get a 2.5 ghz dual core wolfdale for 70 dollars over clock that to 3.5 and do pretty good for a while. DDR3 is very over priced for what potential you can get out of it right now. If you really want speed just stick to DDR2 with a good speed maybe 1000 or higher. Hard drives...I recommend getting 2 of them instead of just 1 big one. Put the OS on 1 and the games on another, that will speed up the games. That graphic card is huge and powerful, I have the 260 and it runs everything on the highest no problem. If you decide to SLI that's over kill. But if you want a bigger e-penis go ahead but that's not the point in what I'm telling you. I'm a big fan of the p45 motherboards, you can get some good MB that can OC pretty well. Might want a better case if you are going with your build. You can get a cheap reliable DVD drive for 25 bucks, pretty much the the more expensive they get the quieter they get. And a 22 inch monitor is perfect. I got a decent one for only 180 on newegg. I made a gaming PC for a friend that plays every game out right now on high no problem without OCing for 650. | ||
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Zoler
Sweden6339 Posts
On April 09 2009 04:46 StorZerg wrote: don't think its going to boot to be honest. kinda missing a few key parts. rofl | ||
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StorrZerg
United States13910 Posts
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GeneralStan
United States4789 Posts
Unless you've found a great deal, I don't think that the performance of the E8500 over the E8400 comes close to justifying the price difference. You'd probably be better off with an E8400 and a GTX 260. | ||
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VorcePA
United States1102 Posts
That said, I just recently built a new computer myself, but I had $3,500 to blow, and the one I went with has an i7 920 in, and I think it was money well spent. The only part that could be a better choice is your graphics card pick. The GTX 275 is just a hair better than the 280. Don't ask me why, because I don't know, but the 275 has slightly faster clock speeds, the same stream processors, uses newer technology (meaning it's more efficient with the hardware that it has) and costs $60 less than the 280. The only thing the 280 has going for it is it has 128 MB more video memory than the 275, and that's almost negligible. The current best first generation X58 motherboard is the EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard, when it comes to price vs. performance. It's also over $100 cheaper than what you're planning on getting, and highly upgradeable, in case you ever wanted to make use of the triple-SLi it has to offer. Power Supply: with your current set up, you do not need 1,000 watts. 800 max, but you can even go down to 750. Also: go with Antec. They're a reliable brand, and the most infuriating thing is for the PSU to die on you and to take another piece of hardware with it (happened to me -- I had to replace not only the PSU but the motherboard, too, AND had to reinstall windows). Memory: Corsair is a good brand, but check the speed on the memory you're getting. According to newegg, you can get DDR3 1600 for $9 more ($98) than the DDR3 1333 ($89). That's a decent boost for just 9 bucks. Hard Drive: "Caviar"? Who's that? Stick to Western Digital. Maxtor was also a good brand until it was acquired by Seagate in 2006, so who knows, maybe Seagate is better than it used to be, but when I worked in retail selling hard drives, I saw tons and tons of returns on Seagates, and never saw returns on Western Digital (or Maxtor). And with your budget... who cares? Newegg has a WD 1TB HDD for $110. That is incredibly cheap, and don't expect that if you were to go down to 500/250 GB that the price would be cut in half or a quarter, respectively. 1TB of storage is currently the best price vs. performance & space. Later on you'll thank yourself for getting so much space. I purchased a 160 GB hard drive after my 80 GB hard drive died a few years ago, thinking "160 is more than I'll ever need with the video games I play". Dear lord how I was wrong. All the sudden I was opened up to downloading movies and whatnot, and suddenly 160GB was pitiful. After loading my old files from my old 160GB hard drive, and just downloading for the 3 weeks that I've had this computer, I've used almost 300GB already. Keep in mind that Windows Vista 64-bit takes a lot more space than Windows XP. Disc input: Blu-rays are still pricey. You can easily pay $200-$300 for one. Go with DVD-RWs. I picked up 2 off of newegg for my current rig for a total of $60, and even though they're "technically" not much better than my old DVD players from my last rig, they burn discs amazingly fast, and are incredibly cheap. Only company I recommend staying away from is Samsung. They make the best LCD screens you can buy, but they haven't gotten disc drives or hard drives down, yet. Give them a few years, and they'll be #1 in those markets, too. They're a great company, but they're just not there yet. Monitor: Like I said -- go with Samsung. I was originally planning on doing dual-monitors, like you, and once I got my 24" set up and turned on, that idea went completely out the window. Dual monitors is just unnecessary when you have a machine 6GB or more memory in it and a huge monitor. I say the part about memory because I was planning on browsing in a smaller 19" monitor and gaming in the 24", but I can switch windows so quickly thanks to the 12GB of memory I have, which probably never gets fully used, even when I'm playing Crysis at max settings and have 2 firefox windows open. Operating Sytem: Windows Vista 64-bit home premium. Don't let the naysayers fool you -- this is one of the best operating systems ever released by any company. It's fast, easy-to-use, and today I don't run in to problems like people did (who still complain about it) when it was first released. They had merit 18 months ago, but Microsoft has been feeding the girl right, and she's been exercising regularly, and now she's smokin' hot. My only complaint is that Vista uses more memory than I'd care for, but with 6GB or 12GB, that isn't an issue. | ||
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StorrZerg
United States13910 Posts
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errol1001
454 Posts
Just saying, because everyone here seems to have mentioned only nvidia. ATI is leading price/performance at the moment I believe. | ||
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StorrZerg
United States13910 Posts
On April 09 2009 10:41 errol1001 wrote: For video cards, gtx 275 or Radeon 4890 make the most sense. On small monitors (< 30 inch), the 4890 outperforms the gtx. Just saying, because everyone here seems to have mentioned only nvidia. ATI is leading price/performance at the moment I believe. thanks i'll look into them. refreshing to see more than just nvidia | ||
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Spinlock
United States59 Posts
Edit: AnandTech has a guide here for example... let this be some sort of starting point and swap out parts you don't need and swap in parts that you like... | ||
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RawrAnOcean
United States359 Posts
On April 09 2009 11:03 StorZerg wrote: thanks i'll look into them. refreshing to see more than just nvidia IMO ATI is falling behind of Nvidia. Nvidia is better with keeping up with their drivers. And for hard drives some of the older Seagate really had problems, but I like Seagate a lot more than WD. But both are solid brands except for externals but that's a different story. | ||
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Savio
United States1850 Posts
Bought this a few months ago: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Windows Computer ECS G31T-M QUAD CORE 1333FSB DDR2 SATA2 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3Ghz 1333FSB 6MB RECOMMENDED UPGRADE - HEAVY DUTY COOLER 4GB PC2 6400 800Mhz DDR2 Kit 2x2GB Chips 400GB Serial ATA 7200Rpm 16MB Cache SATA INTEL GMA3100 ONBOARD 287MB SHARED VIDEO CARD ADAPTER 20x DVD±R/RW DUAL LAYER INTERNAL DRIVE REALTEK ALC662 HD 6-CHANNEL HIGH DEFINITION SOUND CARD ADAPTER REALTEK RTL8101E 10/100Mbps ETHERNET ADAPTER (LAN) BEIGE ATX MIDTOWER CASE W/ POWER SUPPLY Standard Power Supply With Case Selected High-Speed Case Cooling Fan 80mm MS WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION Standard Assembly Ships Out In 3-7 Days SHIPPING/HANDLING After shipping/taxes and everything it was $485. That was the FINAL cost to me. Now I buy the best video card I can for around $150 off Newegg right before SC2 is released And I have computer that meets all my SC2 and D3 needs for around $630. And I'll be a happy little kid playing SC2 and D3 and have it for other normal computing needs. I recommend you save the extra money and if you wanna spend it, buy a friggin ginormous monitor and/or a sweet, sweet sound system. | ||
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StorrZerg
United States13910 Posts
Min requirements are sc2. but i'm looking to play other games in the future and i have about 2kk saved just to spend on my computer and i want to spend it. So thats the main reason why i'm going for the i7 proccessor and ddr3 memory ect. I do know my mobo is over priced and need something thats cheaper than 400, same with graphics card. | ||
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IzzyCraft
United States4487 Posts
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail XIGMATEK dark knight - s1283 120mm CPU Cooler - Retail OCZ OCZTFRZTC Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound - Retail G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7T-6GBPK - Retail Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM EVGA 896-P3-1171-AR GeForce GTX 275 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q - OEM Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail my2¢s | ||
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errol1001
454 Posts
So that means you know your system is going to be running SC2 on max settings @ > 30-40 fps (with max supply), ie the point where you might conceivably say you're getting equal performance? Where does that come from? As far as I know, pretty much no one knows that kind of information except blizzard internally. StorZerg, based on the recent SSD (Solid-state drive) reviews on Anandtech, I would strongly consider spending part of your budget there. But read the reviews, as some of them are crap. | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
the only SSD worth it is the intel ones and some of the high end ones from other brands. these SSD are double the price of even the scsi drives in servers while giving maybe 5% increase in real life performance? the cheaper ones on the market are plain shit house. Better get a velociraptor for that money. I would cut my dick off if SC2 need any more than a core 2 duo. Any E8* is going to do nicely for the moment for the money. If you are worrying about mobo becoming obsolete, grab something from AMD phenom II. The 720 is awesome. | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
Vista is perfectly fine for everything. Only dumb mom and dads should have trouble with Vista. | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
If you are getting 775 mobos then don't waste your money on crap like 1600 DDR2. You only get that bandwidth if you overclock your CPU to death. Something that i think the OP will have trouble with (Not that the OP is incapable but the time and money invested OC shits is insane). | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
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VorcePA
United States1102 Posts
Sorry for not knowing that Caviar == WD. Brands typically are listed first when you talk about computer hardware (and since caviar is a series from WD, that would mean the brand is -never- listed). SSDs get a much more substantial increase in performance over standard hard disks. They're also a lot more durable, and last a lot longer. That said, they're not worth the price, yet. Also, most people aren't going to notice the difference between a 10,000 RPM drive and a 7,200 RPM drive. I have a single 1TB 7,200 RPM HDD and it's smokin' fast for all my needs. | ||
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