Woo, built that machine you guys helped me pick out. Something odd is going on though. The machine is making an erratic buzz/whine sound somewhere around the back that is just barely audible and incredibly annoying. It's coming from the power supply region. Could my PSU be making a noise like that? It sounds, phonetically, like this: eeeeeeeeeh-eeeh-eeh-eeeeeeh-eeeh-eeeeeh
Vibration is a more likely culprit and easier to rule out. Double-check that the I/O panel and PSU screws are secure, and that none of the extra power cables are rattling against the side of the case. See if the noise stops when you press on various parts of the case.
The side panel of my case vibrates like crazy unless I stick a cardboard shim in one corner. So annoying.
Anyone object to my removing reference to the velociraptor line of drives in the OP? I kind of feel that they don't have an obvious use anymore.
Why would the velociraptors not have an obvious use anymore?
Unless you have a source for a ~300GB SSD for $200 you're not telling us about.
Any other SSD in that price range is only 1/4th the storage space.
Yeah, but even a fast platter drive is very, very slow when compared to a SSD so they don't really make great system drives anymore. I just think that most people will either go with something bigger and slower than a VR or they will go the SSD+data drive route.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
True, but they're still good for added performance on a budget.
I like to have a Windows\Ubuntu dual-boot setup and more than just a couple of games installed at once.
Hell, if someone plays WoW, that game alone will eat up almost all of a budget SSD.
Meh. For around $100 most of the newer 7200 RPM 1TB drives outperform the older 'raptors in all the ways that matter. I think those who can't afford an SSD are better off with a solid 7200 RPM drive and saving some money to get a good 128GB SSD.
So, I put three builds together as suggestions for the OP, the budget comes in at roughly 670 with a Athlon II X3, 5770 and 4GB of RAM. The mid-range is around 950, Phenom II X4 955, 4 GB RAM, 5850. The high-end is around 1300, i5-750, 5870, solid mobo for crossfire, 1TB HDD, nicer case, etc. The price points include Win7.
Hey Alecthar, mind giving me the specs for your $670 build? Building a computer for my parents for around $500 and without the 5770 it would be perfect in price.
Not a brave new world of performance but it will give you a decent bump depending on the game.
This post confuses me. It seems to be implying that my GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB (purchased, easily, 3 years ago) is comparable to the 5770 (released 6 months ago) I'm looking at purchasing.
I feel I'm missing something important.
Tamin on
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
edited April 2010
The 5770 will generally outperform it, but not by a mindboggling delta. The G80 was a motherfucking beast when it released and is still pretty relevant in today's PC games.
Keep in mind that the 8800 was a top-of-the-line card back then. The 5770 is still just a budget card, even though it is newer. The 8800 can hold its own at low resolutions or without AA, but the 5770 is clearly better whenever AA is cranked up.
Not a brave new world of performance but it will give you a decent bump depending on the game.
This post confuses me. It seems to be implying that my GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB (purchased, easily, 3 years ago) is comparable to the 5770 (released 6 months ago) I'm looking at purchasing.
I feel I'm missing something important.
Raw FPS scores like that aren't too useful. You can't easily see which games are CPU limited and I'm not even sure that the testbed is identical. Also is that the 512MB version being benchmarked or the original 320/640 version. According to the wikipedia the former has more processors.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Hmm... given that, I think I'll just put aside the idea of getting a new card right now. Leaving it out drops the price to a much more reasonable sub-$600. Could probably use the extra to get a better CPU.
And then purchase a higher-end card in 3 months or so.
Vibration is a more likely culprit and easier to rule out. Double-check that the I/O panel and PSU screws are secure, and that none of the extra power cables are rattling against the side of the case. See if the noise stops when you press on various parts of the case.
The side panel of my case vibrates like crazy unless I stick a cardboard shim in one corner. So annoying.
Thanks for the advice. Turned out to be a common problem with my PSU. The solution? Turn off all power saving features. Odd.
Capncrunch7 on
XBLA: gogogadgetchris
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AlectharAlan ShoreWe're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered Userregular
Hey Alecthar, mind giving me the specs for your $670 build? Building a computer for my parents for around $500 and without the 5770 it would be perfect in price.
You could probably save some money on the PSU, Antec has a (supposedly) fairly solid 380W PSU for $40, and it even has a 6-pin connector if you ever wanted to add a card to the rig. I went with the Corsair 400W because I knew it would be rock-solid and efficient all the time. Also, your parents might not need a full 4GB of RAM, but I'd recommend sticking with DDR3. It's a little bit more expensive, but it'll save you time and money in the future if you need to add/replace RAM.
We've gone from "more RAM, more megahertz, more storage space" to "more cores, faster ram, faster storage" to "more efficient architecture, less heat, less power usage" to "what candy-coated color would you like you new Mac/Dell to be?"
I'm thinking of upgrading my (not particularly out-of-date) computer, and was wondering if you guys could help me make a decision. According to the windows rating thing, my computer is CPU limited, and playing Crysis at max settings stressed out my CPU, but in general use it seems to be my RAM that fills up first. I have a dual core CPU and DDR2 RAM (details in the spoiler), so upgrading CPU would then require upgrading motherboard and RAM as well, and if I'm going to that much effort I'll probably want to upgrade to Windows 7, and it'd be a waste of all that improved speed to not install windows on an SSD... this is something I just can't afford right now, so it's either another 4Gb of RAM, or save money and upgrade everything in a year or two.
Thoughts? Comments? Upgrading everything will cost around $1000, the RAM would be around $200, but then when I proper upgrade that $200 would be wasted.
(These are Aussie prices, and so will be higher than you expect)
Going from 4 to 8 gigs of DDR2 will do nothing for your gaming performance. If you are filling up 4 gigs of RAM for general use then you should consider changing your multitasking behavior.
I'm not sure how much I believe what Vista tells you. Most games these days are very GPU bound, but a 4870 isn't that old.
Honestly if you are not too keen on a full upgrade then I think your computer is still pretty powerful. Getting distraught over Crysis not running like butter is a little bit futile, the game is a performance black-hole.
Currently it takes around 4k (US dollars & prices) worth of hardware to run Crysis butter smooth.
Uhh, depends on hardware and settings bub because my $1,500 computer that I built in 2008 runs Crysis on medium settings in the upper 40s and usually dip or spike.
Currently it takes around 4k (US dollars & prices) worth of hardware to run Crysis butter smooth.
Uhh, depends on hardware and settings bub because my $1,500 computer that I built in 2008 runs Crysis on medium settings in the upper 40s and usually dip or spike.
Hey Alecthar, mind giving me the specs for your $670 build? Building a computer for my parents for around $500 and without the 5770 it would be perfect in price.
You could probably save some money on the PSU, Antec has a (supposedly) fairly solid 380W PSU for $40, and it even has a 6-pin connector if you ever wanted to add a card to the rig. I went with the Corsair 400W because I knew it would be rock-solid and efficient all the time. Also, your parents might not need a full 4GB of RAM, but I'd recommend sticking with DDR3. It's a little bit more expensive, but it'll save you time and money in the future if you need to add/replace RAM.
Thanks, that is perfect for them. I have a kit I am putting together in next month and would there be much of a performance difference between DDR2 and DDR3? I might swap the two out and I am wondering if it would be worth it. Both will have 4gb and the DDR2 is 800 I think.
There are almost no games that can even use 4 GB of ram so I'd just save your money.
Sorry, I should have mentioned that this isn't just for gaming. For instance, I was using the Unreal Development Kit last night and it crashed twice due to lack of RAM. I'd also like to start playing around with 3D modelling, which I know is meant to be pretty RAM intensive.
Currently it takes around 4k (US dollars & prices) worth of hardware to run Crysis butter smooth.
Uhh, depends on hardware and settings bub because my $1,500 computer that I built in 2008 runs Crysis on medium settings in the upper 40s and usually dip or spike.
He probably means maxed settings @ 1920x1080?
Correct for maxed settings. It takes a triple SLI GTX 480 on the nVidia side I don't remember what it takes on the ATI side atm. But that Nvidia set-up will need at least a 1300W PSU just for the cards.
Has anybody else been following XFX's viral marketing campaign for the 5970? It's actually pretty awesome.
Here's a quick recap:
XFX sends out an email to newsletter subscribers asking for tips on a stolen card. They received the shipment from the manufacturing facility, but one of the cards was missing, #68.
They then receive a bunch of tips from people saying it's on ebay, and XFX then releases two youtube videos depicting a ridiculous plot of two friends being caught in a firefight and being kidnapped or some nonsense.
Then they send out an email tonight explaining that the ebay auction is "a valid auction," and that another card will be given away to a subscriber on the card's release date.
Hey Alecthar, mind giving me the specs for your $670 build? Building a computer for my parents for around $500 and without the 5770 it would be perfect in price.
You could probably save some money on the PSU, Antec has a (supposedly) fairly solid 380W PSU for $40, and it even has a 6-pin connector if you ever wanted to add a card to the rig. I went with the Corsair 400W because I knew it would be rock-solid and efficient all the time. Also, your parents might not need a full 4GB of RAM, but I'd recommend sticking with DDR3. It's a little bit more expensive, but it'll save you time and money in the future if you need to add/replace RAM.
Thanks, that is perfect for them. I have a kit I am putting together in next month and would there be much of a performance difference between DDR2 and DDR3? I might swap the two out and I am wondering if it would be worth it. Both will have 4gb and the DDR2 is 800 I think.
Performance, from my perspective, isn't the issue as much as the ease of upgrading/replacing RAM. If, at some point, you need more RAM in those PCs, or you need to replace a bad stick, etc, it will be better to be on the DDR3 standard. DDR2 is cheaper now, but it's not the standard anymore, which means as availability decreases, prices increase accordingly.
But if you already have the sticks, don't bother buying new RAM.
Time to pick out a case for a microATX mobo. Is it that important to get a good case? What brands should I consider?
Good is relative, what you need to worry about is air flow & materials. Also watch the shipping, costs. A lot of mATX cases come with power supplies, these are usually trash.
That's just stupid. Literally. If any of those bids are serious those people need to be robbed.
Xeddicus on
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The_SpaniardIt's never lupinesIrvine, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
edited April 2010
I got a big fat swollen throbbing tax return, so I'm thinking in the next 3-6 months I'll do a new desktop build. Any ideas how many more centuries before SSD will be affordable at terabyte or half terabyte sizes?
Anyway for shits and giggles since I'm not ready to buy for at least a few months, this is what I have now. What do you guys think I should go for in a new build if I'm going for top end and around 1000 bucks is my price range?
Current PC:
Motherboard: NFORCE 680i LT SLI
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
RAM: 4gigs DDR2
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Superclocked Edition
Sound: Creative SB X-Fi
Power: BFG 650w
Storage: One 1 Terrabyte and one 300GB HDD
Monitors: Dual Samsung 24" and 22"
Speakers: Creative 5.1 Surround
OS: Win7
Incidentals: Razor Tarantula keyboard and Microsoft MX518 mouse
Time to pick out a case for a microATX mobo. Is it that important to get a good case? What brands should I consider?
Good is relative, what you need to worry about is air flow & materials. Also watch the shipping, costs. A lot of mATX cases come with power supplies, these are usually trash.
Pros:
-Fits inside my duffel bag with cables and a weekend of clothes, so it's perfectly sized for LANs.
-Power Supply ran strong for about 2 years with a decent system inside (mess of HDs, EVGA 8800GT SC, Q6600).
-Handle is cool and never gave out on me.
Cons:
-The little ducts on the side would get covered with dust and eventually broke off
-Fitment can be rough, my 8800 fits, but a friends x800 butted up against a support and wouldn't fit. Had to make some "modifications" with my dremel in order to fit my CPU cooler.
-Airflow is pretty poor and the huge cpu cooler in the middle didn't help.
Overall, shortly after the power supply died I decided I wasn't a huge fan of the case and moved everything into an old emachines case I had laying around, it's mATX but has more room and a better layout. Doesn't fit in my duffel bag though, so that's a bit of a disappointment. If you're looking for a portable rig that can still fit some decent components it's a great case, but other than eventually turning it into a mythbuntu box I doubt I'll use it again.
I'm in the process of deciding if I want to go mATX again, and I'm not sure I will. My old EVGA e7150/630i board just died on me, and I'm deciding what I want to do about it, either pick up a new LGA 775 mATX board and plug it in it's place, or go full size in a new case.
Posts
Vibration is a more likely culprit and easier to rule out. Double-check that the I/O panel and PSU screws are secure, and that none of the extra power cables are rattling against the side of the case. See if the noise stops when you press on various parts of the case.
The side panel of my case vibrates like crazy unless I stick a cardboard shim in one corner. So annoying.
This should give you some idea
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-2009-high-quality/compare,1829.html?prod[3653]=on&prod[3631]=on
Not a brave new world of performance but it will give you a decent bump depending on the game.
Why would the velociraptors not have an obvious use anymore?
Unless you have a source for a ~300GB SSD for $200 you're not telling us about.
Any other SSD in that price range is only 1/4th the storage space.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
The Velociraptor line is not solid state.
They're just very fast platter drives.
Though, no longer are they the sole contender in the uber-fast platter drive ring.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Yeah, but even a fast platter drive is very, very slow when compared to a SSD so they don't really make great system drives anymore. I just think that most people will either go with something bigger and slower than a VR or they will go the SSD+data drive route.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I like to have a Windows\Ubuntu dual-boot setup and more than just a couple of games installed at once.
Hell, if someone plays WoW, that game alone will eat up almost all of a budget SSD.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Meh. For around $100 most of the newer 7200 RPM 1TB drives outperform the older 'raptors in all the ways that matter. I think those who can't afford an SSD are better off with a solid 7200 RPM drive and saving some money to get a good 128GB SSD.
So, I put three builds together as suggestions for the OP, the budget comes in at roughly 670 with a Athlon II X3, 5770 and 4GB of RAM. The mid-range is around 950, Phenom II X4 955, 4 GB RAM, 5850. The high-end is around 1300, i5-750, 5870, solid mobo for crossfire, 1TB HDD, nicer case, etc. The price points include Win7.
How reasonable are those?
Battle.net
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
This post confuses me. It seems to be implying that my GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB (purchased, easily, 3 years ago) is comparable to the 5770 (released 6 months ago) I'm looking at purchasing.
I feel I'm missing something important.
Raw FPS scores like that aren't too useful. You can't easily see which games are CPU limited and I'm not even sure that the testbed is identical. Also is that the 512MB version being benchmarked or the original 320/640 version. According to the wikipedia the former has more processors.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
And then purchase a higher-end card in 3 months or so.
Thanks for the advice. Turned out to be a common problem with my PSU. The solution? Turn off all power saving features. Odd.
Rosewill mATX Mid Tower - $25
MSI 785G AM3 Motherboard - $80
4GB (2x2GB) G.Skill RAM - $110
Hitachi 7200 RPM 500 GB HDD - $54
Sony CD/DVD Burner - $22
AMD Athlon II X3 435 - $75
Corsair 400W PSU - $55
You could probably save some money on the PSU, Antec has a (supposedly) fairly solid 380W PSU for $40, and it even has a 6-pin connector if you ever wanted to add a card to the rig. I went with the Corsair 400W because I knew it would be rock-solid and efficient all the time. Also, your parents might not need a full 4GB of RAM, but I'd recommend sticking with DDR3. It's a little bit more expensive, but it'll save you time and money in the future if you need to add/replace RAM.
Battle.net
We've gone from "more RAM, more megahertz, more storage space" to "more cores, faster ram, faster storage" to "more efficient architecture, less heat, less power usage" to "what candy-coated color would you like you new Mac/Dell to be?"
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Thoughts? Comments? Upgrading everything will cost around $1000, the RAM would be around $200, but then when I proper upgrade that $200 would be wasted.
(These are Aussie prices, and so will be higher than you expect)
8x HDD, 8x SATA, 2x FDD, single 12v rail
SO-66I-01939-VISTA MS Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit DVD w/SP1, OEM boxed, for
System Builder
AL-NINE-HUNDRED Antec NINE-HUNDRED V2 Black Tower Case, no PSU, 9 drive bays, side
window, 3x 12cm and top 20cm fan
MB-GA-EP45-DS3P Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3P LGA775 iP45 M/B, 1600FSB, PCI-E x16/x8/x4/x1, 6x
SATA-II RAID, 2x GigaLAN, Audio w/SPDIF, Firewire
CB-T012B HDMI -> HDMI Male->Male cable 2m $17.60 $19.36 2 $38.72
AL-HIS-HD4870-1GB HIS Radeon HD4870 1Gb PCI-E x16 video card w/2x DVI, video out,
750/3600
CP-BX80570E8500 Intel Core2 Duo E8500 3.16Ghz (1333mhz) CPU, Dual core LGA775 45nm
6mb, BX80570E8500
AL-TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX Corsair Twin2X 4096MB 240-pin DDR2 800Mhz PC-6400 Twin Pack (2x
2048mb sticks) w/heat spreader, 4-4-4-12
Thanks.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I'm not sure how much I believe what Vista tells you. Most games these days are very GPU bound, but a 4870 isn't that old.
Honestly if you are not too keen on a full upgrade then I think your computer is still pretty powerful. Getting distraught over Crysis not running like butter is a little bit futile, the game is a performance black-hole.
Uhh, depends on hardware and settings bub because my $1,500 computer that I built in 2008 runs Crysis on medium settings in the upper 40s and usually dip or spike.
I realize my Power Level is still small yet.
Thanks, that is perfect for them. I have a kit I am putting together in next month and would there be much of a performance difference between DDR2 and DDR3? I might swap the two out and I am wondering if it would be worth it. Both will have 4gb and the DDR2 is 800 I think.
Sorry, I should have mentioned that this isn't just for gaming. For instance, I was using the Unreal Development Kit last night and it crashed twice due to lack of RAM. I'd also like to start playing around with 3D modelling, which I know is meant to be pretty RAM intensive.
In terms of gaming though, more than 4 gigs is silly.
Correct for maxed settings. It takes a triple SLI GTX 480 on the nVidia side I don't remember what it takes on the ATI side atm. But that Nvidia set-up will need at least a 1300W PSU just for the cards.
Here's a quick recap:
XFX sends out an email to newsletter subscribers asking for tips on a stolen card. They received the shipment from the manufacturing facility, but one of the cards was missing, #68.
They then receive a bunch of tips from people saying it's on ebay, and XFX then releases two youtube videos depicting a ridiculous plot of two friends being caught in a firefight and being kidnapped or some nonsense.
Then they send out an email tonight explaining that the ebay auction is "a valid auction," and that another card will be given away to a subscriber on the card's release date.
Twitter 3DS: 0860 - 3257 - 2516
Performance, from my perspective, isn't the issue as much as the ease of upgrading/replacing RAM. If, at some point, you need more RAM in those PCs, or you need to replace a bad stick, etc, it will be better to be on the DDR3 standard. DDR2 is cheaper now, but it's not the standard anymore, which means as availability decreases, prices increase accordingly.
But if you already have the sticks, don't bother buying new RAM.
Battle.net
Good is relative, what you need to worry about is air flow & materials. Also watch the shipping, costs. A lot of mATX cases come with power supplies, these are usually trash.
Here are a few raning from plain to pricy:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121071
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147111
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121091
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121035
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163058
Remember to compare the prices at Amazon, they usually have free shipping. On top of that you could always add in Bing Cash Back if possible.
Twitter 3DS: 0860 - 3257 - 2516
Anyway for shits and giggles since I'm not ready to buy for at least a few months, this is what I have now. What do you guys think I should go for in a new build if I'm going for top end and around 1000 bucks is my price range?
Current PC:
Motherboard: NFORCE 680i LT SLI
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
RAM: 4gigs DDR2
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Superclocked Edition
Sound: Creative SB X-Fi
Power: BFG 650w
Storage: One 1 Terrabyte and one 300GB HDD
Monitors: Dual Samsung 24" and 22"
Speakers: Creative 5.1 Surround
OS: Win7
Incidentals: Razor Tarantula keyboard and Microsoft MX518 mouse
I got one of these about 3 years ago on sale, 10 bucks cheaper and free shipping, seems kinda sad.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144140
Pros:
-Fits inside my duffel bag with cables and a weekend of clothes, so it's perfectly sized for LANs.
-Power Supply ran strong for about 2 years with a decent system inside (mess of HDs, EVGA 8800GT SC, Q6600).
-Handle is cool and never gave out on me.
Cons:
-The little ducts on the side would get covered with dust and eventually broke off
-Fitment can be rough, my 8800 fits, but a friends x800 butted up against a support and wouldn't fit. Had to make some "modifications" with my dremel in order to fit my CPU cooler.
-Airflow is pretty poor and the huge cpu cooler in the middle didn't help.
Overall, shortly after the power supply died I decided I wasn't a huge fan of the case and moved everything into an old emachines case I had laying around, it's mATX but has more room and a better layout. Doesn't fit in my duffel bag though, so that's a bit of a disappointment. If you're looking for a portable rig that can still fit some decent components it's a great case, but other than eventually turning it into a mythbuntu box I doubt I'll use it again.
I'm in the process of deciding if I want to go mATX again, and I'm not sure I will. My old EVGA e7150/630i board just died on me, and I'm deciding what I want to do about it, either pick up a new LGA 775 mATX board and plug it in it's place, or go full size in a new case.