I didin't know about that NCIXUS.com site, and how they would just build the thing for you. That sounds like a good deal.
In that case, I just saw your "bang for the buck" update,....I'm assuming that they could build me something along those lines? it would fit the price for me, and it's got better specs than what I would looking at.
Svenska on
Since your name means "swedish" in swedish, I just assumed you were, ya know, swedish.
I didin't know about that NCIXUS.com site, and how they would just build the thing for you. That sounds like a good deal.
In that case, I just saw your "bang for the buck" update,....I'm assuming that they could build me something along those lines? it would fit the price for me, and it's got better specs than what I would looking at.
Something to go for?
It might be $100 or so more. $50 to build it and probably at least $50 more because newegg has better prices.
Give it a try. you could always go with a Phenom II X3 BE if you need to cut costs to stay in budget.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I was looking at a customized i7 860 from Ibuypower. Still debating on I5 750vs I7 860... but kind of want to splurge a little. Hmm... a little overkill for warcraft?
I was looking at a customized i7 860 from Ibuypower. Still debating on I5 750vs I7 860... but kind of want to splurge a little. Hmm... a little overkill for warcraft?
Interesting article, thanks a lot. I suppose then I'm looking at the i5 750 or something comparable. Would an upgrade from a 9600GT also be necessary if I were to get a quad-core processor?
Hello everyone, here's my situation should somebody care to advise me.
I currently am using this rig for gaming:
- Raidmax Sagitta case
- ASUS M2A VM mobo
- AMD Athlon X2 5600 (dual core, 2.9 GHz, 2 x 512KB L2 Cache)
- 3 gigs of DDR2 RAM at a meager 667 MHz
- Nvidia 9800 GTX+
- Two SATA drives, one 150 gigs (Arch Linux) and one 750 gigs (Windows XP)
- 550W PSU
A lot of games run nicely, but it could be better. I also do some 3d stuff on this machine and I know that my render times could be a lot faster with a triple or quad core processor.
The motherboard has been holding me back from a large upgrade for years now and I've decided it's finally time to upgrade board, RAM, and processor. I intend to budget this in the <$450 range, but I'd be willing to go up to around $500 if it's really worth the extra few bucks.
So here's what I'm looking at right now. This will all be going into a new Antec 300 case I have picked up.
$89.99 ----> ASUS M4A77TD Pro AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD motherboard
$189.99 ----> AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 140W Quad-Core Processor
I'm pretty sure this will run well (although I will likely need to get a new PSU, on which I have yet to decide), but I'm not so sure that it's the best plan for the money. Also, should I try to find a motherboard to support SLI, so I can upgrade in the future by adding more 9800s, or just retire the 9800 when it becomes outdated and switch to an ATI setup?
Interesting article, thanks a lot. I suppose then I'm looking at the i5 750 or something comparable. Would an upgrade from a 9600GT also be necessary if I were to get a quad-core processor?
Well I haven't played DA but for a lot of RPGs 30 fps is enough. I'd say if that's the main game you want to play, I'd say a Phenom II X3 720 would be just about right.
_________________
RSP: For those prices I'd be tempted to just go ahead and get a i5 750. Maybe look up so benchmarks for your ray tracer or whatever. Here is something from Anandtech. Maybe with the right combo or just a lower price the Phenom would make more sense.
I'd say your PSU should be fine for any single card unless it came with that case.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Looks like you forgot the link, but I guess this is the article you mentioned.
Before reading that, I didn't think that a 4 core 2.66ghz processor would compare to a 4 core 3.4ghz one, especially with the similar caches sizes, but the stats don't lie. Especially since the reviewers were able to overclock the i5 , which would be more difficult on the already hot and power hungry Phenom.
Thanks for the advice, I'll continue to look into this as I'm in no hurry.
Looks like you forgot the link, but I guess this is the article you mentioned.
Before reading that, I didn't think that a 4 core 2.66ghz processor would compare to a 4 core 3.4ghz one, especially with the similar caches sizes, but the stats don't lie. Especially since the reviewers were able to overclock the i5 , which would be more difficult on the already hot and power hungry Phenom.
Thanks for the advice, I'll continue to look into this as I'm in no hurry.
The clock speed (number of ghz) is essentially meaningless when it comes to how well a processor preforms.
So, my mother in law wants to buy my wife a laptop. My wife plays WoW quite a bit, and dabbles in TF2/L4D2. Im assuming any decent laptop in the 300-700 dollar range will play WoW at high settings just fine. Im also assuming one that plays TF2 or L4D2 is gonna cost around 1,000+
So, my mother in law wants to buy my wife a laptop. My wife plays WoW quite a bit, and dabbles in TF2/L4D2. Im assuming any decent laptop in the 300-700 dollar range will play WoW at high settings just fine. Im also assuming one that plays TF2 or L4D2 is gonna cost around 1,000+
How right am I?
Am I going crazy or did you delete your original, much longer, post and switch to this laptop one? :P
You don't really want a laptop at all to play games. Even if you get a killer one it'll be prone to overheat possibly. If you're dead set on a laptop, well, I'm not going to suggest anything, sorry. I'm not sure you'd get a laptop for $300 that would even play WoW well, though. For $1000 you could. Something in the middle would work I'm sure. But again, I'd get a $600ish Desktop.
Edit: Just so I'm not being totally useless if you do want a laptop: Don't get Windows Starter, do get 4GB of ram, and make sure it has a damn good graphics chip in it. I dunno what that would be off the top of my head for laptops, though, sorry.
Laptops (particularly cheaper ones) are never well-suited to playing games. That said if you do go that route you need to make sure you get one with a dedicated GPU. Looking at the $500-750 laptops on Newegg this seems to mean an Nvidia 130M GT or there's one notebook with a Radeon 4650M at $750.
Either of those two should be able to play the games you want at low-medium settings. I have a laptop that's a couple years old (C2D 1.5ghz, 2gb mem, 8600M GT) and it ran WoW at low settings at 40-60fps in relatively non-populated areas. (Though this was pre-wotlk, Dalaran would have killed it as Shattrath dropped it to the teens and 20s.)
Agreed, it's safe to assume that any laptop with Intel graphics (which is the majority of them) won't play any 3d game that is newer than 5 years at all. Intels driver support is absolutely horrible.
Is there any specific reason it has to be a laptop?
I'd rather buy a cheapish desktop for gaming and a small CULV-based laptop for portability than spend the money neccessary to get a "good" gaming laptop. The desktop/laptop setup requires fewer compromises and will be more useful in the long run.
Ok looking for a New PC I can go up to £450 but out of that I also need a new OS (XP? or Win7?) as well.
What I am looking for is something fairly cheap that is upgradable in future. As long as it can play TF2 and Eve Online I don't particually care what it looks like atm but want to have some room for future upgrades as money permits. So any advice on what to go for?
Looks like you forgot the link, but I guess this is the article you mentioned.
Before reading that, I didn't think that a 4 core 2.66ghz processor would compare to a 4 core 3.4ghz one, especially with the similar caches sizes, but the stats don't lie. Especially since the reviewers were able to overclock the i5 , which would be more difficult on the already hot and power hungry Phenom.
Thanks for the advice, I'll continue to look into this as I'm in no hurry.
The clock speed (number of ghz) is essentially meaningless when it comes to how well a processor preforms.
The only time I've read about the clock speed being super important is for people running emulators. I guess in that case whatever tricks a CPU is able to perform better at a given clock rate don't really apply.
But I don't have any first hand experience with that.
lowlylowlycook on
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I need some help fellow PA'ers. I haven't built a rig since '04 or '05 so I know I'm out of the loop here.
My existing machine is an AMD Athlon 64 3200+, on an MSI K8T NEO2-FIR board, with 1GB of DDR, and a Geforce FX5200 card. The machine has lasted a pretty good while, but it's time to upgrade.
Usage: This will be a work-at-home style rig I guess. I do not play games (the only game I've ever installed is Civ IV, so maybe I might play that), but I am kind of a "power user." The machine will be running Windows 7 (which I have a copy of). It's main duties are going to be running Visual Studio 2k8 (2k10 soon hopefully), VMWare, and doing movie encoding (DVD => H.264/AC3). All of which are fairly hefty tasks.
Parts I've Got: monitor, kb&m. Everything else I've got stays in the existing machine.
Biases: I've always liked AMD stuff, but they're falling behind in the CPU market now, right? Intel's got those Core i5 and Core i7 models out and those seem pretty damn rockin'. I've honestly not heard about AMD's newer stuff. Other than that I don't really have too many loyalties. My Nvidia card has been a trooper, but I've got nothing against an AMD card. I probably wouldn't see any benefit from a really nice video card since Win 7 doesn't hand any data-processing over to it that I know of (i.e. an OpenCL kind of thing).
Upgrade-ability: I don't know how concerned I should be about this. My existing machine never got an upgrade. I meant to throw an X2 and another 2GB or so of memory in it, but that never happened. How upgradeable are things right now? Aren't AMD and Intel both going through new socket designs like a teenager in a growth-spurt goes through food?
Price range: I don't really know. I'd like to stay around $700-$800. I'll probably have to upgrade my monitor sometime soon, so the lower we can go with the machine the better as long as I'm not having to choose inferior components.
I'll try to throw together a build here and see what you guys think:
<reserved for "i dunno what the heck im doing" build>
It sounds like any of the previous posted i5 builds should work good for you. Sad to say AMD doesn't really have anything that competes right now and it should last you a while. You could save some money and get a Phenom tri or quad core, but it will not be the same bang for buck that the i5 would give you.
Depending on what vid card, case and psu you get, it should be quite doable for around $700 I would think. Just do a search for i5 builds and you should be set.
How's that stand up against the rest of the suggested cases?
The Antec 300 is sort of the default budget case. I guess that version just has some blue LEDs.
iTunesIsEvil:
Just try to save $200 for a SSD. That will have a big effect on how fast a computer is for general use. Should be worth it for you.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Upgrade-ability: I don't know how concerned I should be about this. My existing machine never got an upgrade. I meant to throw an X2 and another 2GB or so of memory in it, but that never happened. How upgradeable are things right now? Aren't AMD and Intel both going through new socket designs like a teenager in a growth-spurt goes through food?
Things are pretty shitty right now. Intel has three chipsets. The 775 is the "old" one at this point, for the core 2 Duo stuff. 1156 is the core i5. This is a good chipset right now for saving money over the i7, but all future CPUs for it are pretty much filling out the lower end. Unless something changes, the core i5-750 is pretty much the best CPU this chipset will ever see. Then there is the 1366, which drives the 900-series i7s. This costs more right now, but it is also the chipset that will run the six-core i9 processors when they come out next year. Note that everything I've seen says expect those i9s to cost a bunch too...it won't be one of those releases where the price comes down on everything right afterwards.
I couldn't give a fuck less about AMD CPUs so someone else will have to comment on those.
Then we have the DDR2/DDR3 transition. Just like the 1156 versus the 1366, DDR2 is cheaper but it's also pretty much at the end of the road (meaning if you got an Intel i5 CPU with DDR2, and then later decided to swap out the mobo/cpu for a better pair, you will be looking at DDR3).
All that being said, not knowing how involved your use is but given what you listed, I would strongly think about the i7. This will definitely put you over the budget, but VMWare and video encoding are both tasks that make heavy use of threading when it's available. So while as gamers the benefit of the i7 over the i5 is questionable, for YOU the i7's HyperThreading is hands-down important. Additionally, the i9 processor is already showing massive gains over the i7 in video-encoding, so you may find yourself wanting to upgrade the cpu sometime and not have to get a new mobo and DDR3 at the same time.
There are already i7 chips for the 1156 interface and, AFAIK, the i5 is the slowest cpu for 1156 right now, but it's true that in the future the most powerful chips will come out for the 1366 socket.
I don't think that you can get 1156 boards with DDR2 Ram. Also without gaming there will be no point to the more powerful PCIE setups that 1366 boards typically have so he'll not be getting much besides triple channel memory for his money.
An i7 is a possibility but I'd say it's only worth it if iTunesIsEvil is going to spend a LOT of time encoding video. Otherwise that money will be better spent on a SSD.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Thanks a bunch for the advice so far guys. At the moment I'm leaning toward an i5 setup. It seems like a better buy for me.
I won't be doing a whole lot of video encoding. I *maybe* buy 2 DVD's a month. My biggest thing right now would be re-ripping some stuff in my collection that I did a bad job of in the past (tv seasons, movies from when I first started ripping).
lowly, I had heard that SSD's have a limited number of writes available to them. Is that no longer the case or just no longer something that needs to be worried about?
this is what I am looking at for the moment. Basically I want a computer that is ok for now and upgradable later. I have a pair of spare hard drives so the small size of the HD does not bother me.
Black & Silver ATX Tower Case
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (2 x 1.8 GHZ) 1066FSB - 2 MB
Asus P5KPL-AM (Intel G31)
4GB PC-6400 800 MHZ (2 x 2 GB) (DDR2)
ATI Radeon HD 4650 - 1 GB - 2xDVI/VGA (XFX)
650W PSU
Built & Tested CP
80 GB SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 8MB
Samsung (SH-D162D) 16x DVD-ROM Black (IDE)
Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound
Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)
10 X USB 2.0 Ports
Speeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)
edif noticed the cost to upgrade the HD to 320gb is only another £5 so hard drive size is no problem
Thanks a bunch for the advice so far guys. At the moment I'm leaning toward an i5 setup. It seems like a better buy for me.
I won't be doing a whole lot of video encoding. I *maybe* buy 2 DVD's a month. My biggest thing right now would be re-ripping some stuff in my collection that I did a bad job of in the past (tv seasons, movies from when I first started ripping).
lowly, I had heard that SSD's have a limited number of writes available to them. Is that no longer the case or just no longer something that needs to be worried about?
Just go over to anandtech.com and read up on SSDs under their storage tab.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
My new psu came in from Newegg today after taking a brief side trip to New Jersey. I went a little overkill this time and I'm sure I don't need it now - I might just hold onto it for a while and then use it with my next upgrade.
My usual sop is to purchase based on ~2x the average estimate power consumption. It wasn't that long ago that manufacturers estimate efficiency were at specific consumption and lower or higher draw ended up much less efficient (> heat waste). This was done in the same vein as improperly rating the unit to the highest theoretical wattage instead of the actual usable wattage (fulling adding the wattage from multiple 12v rails, etc...). Old habits die hard. On the plus side, I'll always have plenty of headroom for upgrading.
stigweard on
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
I just bought it after running a 10 year old Inwin full tower case. I am in love. Easiest install of hardware I've ever had and plenty of airflow. Only problem is no fan dust filters.
this is what I am looking at for the moment. Basically I want a computer that is ok for now and upgradable later. I have a pair of spare hard drives so the small size of the HD does not bother me.
Black & Silver ATX Tower Case
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (2 x 1.8 GHZ) 1066FSB - 2 MB
Asus P5KPL-AM (Intel G31)
4GB PC-6400 800 MHZ (2 x 2 GB) (DDR2)
ATI Radeon HD 4650 - 1 GB - 2xDVI/VGA (XFX)
650W PSU
Built & Tested CP
80 GB SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 8MB
Samsung (SH-D162D) 16x DVD-ROM Black (IDE)
Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound
Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)
10 X USB 2.0 Ports
Speeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)
edif noticed the cost to upgrade the HD to 320gb is only another £5 so hard drive size is no problem
Normally unless you go with an i5, a AMD chip will be the best bang for your buck while also being more likely to take a modern replacement later. You also might not need a 650W even to upgrade later but it's hard to say that without more details.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Hey all, I've been looking at new computer builds for a while now and this is what I've come up with. I would really appreciate any suggestions or comments. My budget is <$2000.
I plan on getting a 5870 when I eventually see one in stock, and I'm getting an 850w PSU instead of a 750w in case I get another 5870 for crossfire. Also, in regards to cases I was torn between the ATCS 840 and the HAF 932, but right now I feel like the 840 would last longer than a 932. But the 932 is cheaper and has free shipping, so I'm still not entirely sure on what to do. Also, I was planning on ordering this CPU cooler from newegg, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010
but I recently saw them on sale at my local Best Buy for $60, so I'm going to pick one up there.
Again, suggestions and feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Hey all, I've been looking at new computer builds for a while now and this is what I've come up with. I would really appreciate any suggestions or comments. My budget is <$2000.
I plan on getting a 5870 when I eventually see one in stock, and I'm getting an 850w PSU instead of a 750w in case I get another 5870 for crossfire. Also, in regards to cases I was torn between the ATCS 840 and the HAF 932, but right now I feel like the 840 would last longer than a 932. But the 932 is cheaper and has free shipping, so I'm still not entirely sure on what to do. Also, I was planning on ordering this CPU cooler from newegg, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010
but I recently saw them on sale at my local Best Buy for $60, so I'm going to pick one up there.
Again, suggestions and feedback would be greatly appreciated!
If you are going to spend that much money you need to get a SSD. Otherwise, IMO, you are spending a lot of money for marginal improvements in actual performance.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
What are you going to do with that beast Doctor ? Because personally I would opt for a better monitor (preferably with IPS panel) over some other components.
Hey all, I've been looking at new computer builds for a while now and this is what I've come up with. I would really appreciate any suggestions or comments. My budget is <$2000.
I plan on getting a 5870 when I eventually see one in stock, and I'm getting an 850w PSU instead of a 750w in case I get another 5870 for crossfire. Also, in regards to cases I was torn between the ATCS 840 and the HAF 932, but right now I feel like the 840 would last longer than a 932. But the 932 is cheaper and has free shipping, so I'm still not entirely sure on what to do. Also, I was planning on ordering this CPU cooler from newegg, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010
but I recently saw them on sale at my local Best Buy for $60, so I'm going to pick one up there.
Again, suggestions and feedback would be greatly appreciated!
I was looking at a customized i7 860 from Ibuypower. Still debating on I5 750vs I7 860... but kind of want to splurge a little. Hmm... a little overkill for warcraft?
Toned down a little. I still went overboard on the power supply, as I suspect I'll scavenge that and the case later down the line. The monitor will likely come from newegg, since the shipping on the one from ibuy kind of negates the price difference.
As far as the SSD, I'm hopefully they have the g2s on their site before christmas. I'm not certain I would want to go cheap on that with a kingston 64 for the os. If I can get something around 130-160 gigs for a halfway decent price point (200-300) I'll likely go with that and skip the data hard drive all together.
Anyone out there familiar with the BIOS for the gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2? My issue is my RAM, http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16820227495, which is not running at the advertised frequency/timing/voltage (seems to be a common issue). I can't seem to find the options to change them in the BIOS. Changing "SPD" only lets me get up to 1333mhz, and I can't find a way to change the voltage at all. It's always grayed out.
Probably tells you how in the manual. That said my old Gigabyte board required you to press CTRL+F1 when you entered the BIOS to enable advanced settings.
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Thanks.
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In that case, I just saw your "bang for the buck" update,....I'm assuming that they could build me something along those lines? it would fit the price for me, and it's got better specs than what I would looking at.
eNozN1RVNTYwUDVRNVUzUjOsMVQzRCON1UyApAmYbQZRYwaRBlOqZSYA7ZUOyQ==
It might be $100 or so more. $50 to build it and probably at least $50 more because newegg has better prices.
Give it a try. you could always go with a Phenom II X3 BE if you need to cut costs to stay in budget.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Configurators.aspx?mid=515&t=w&c=7734
If you want to spend $1200 to play WoW then you need to be buying a SSD.
You in no way need that PSU, memory or CPU, just for starters.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I was thinking an intel dual-core (E6300) and tossing up between the 5770, 4890 and GTX260.
I don't really play PC games that often so I want something I won't have to upgrade for a long while, any suggestions?
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I currently am using this rig for gaming:
- Raidmax Sagitta case
- ASUS M2A VM mobo
- AMD Athlon X2 5600 (dual core, 2.9 GHz, 2 x 512KB L2 Cache)
- 3 gigs of DDR2 RAM at a meager 667 MHz
- Nvidia 9800 GTX+
- Two SATA drives, one 150 gigs (Arch Linux) and one 750 gigs (Windows XP)
- 550W PSU
A lot of games run nicely, but it could be better. I also do some 3d stuff on this machine and I know that my render times could be a lot faster with a triple or quad core processor.
The motherboard has been holding me back from a large upgrade for years now and I've decided it's finally time to upgrade board, RAM, and processor. I intend to budget this in the <$450 range, but I'd be willing to go up to around $500 if it's really worth the extra few bucks.
So here's what I'm looking at right now. This will all be going into a new Antec 300 case I have picked up.
$89.99 ----> ASUS M4A77TD Pro AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD motherboard
$189.99 ----> AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 140W Quad-Core Processor
$95.99 ----> G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
I'm pretty sure this will run well (although I will likely need to get a new PSU, on which I have yet to decide), but I'm not so sure that it's the best plan for the money. Also, should I try to find a motherboard to support SLI, so I can upgrade in the future by adding more 9800s, or just retire the 9800 when it becomes outdated and switch to an ATI setup?
Well I haven't played DA but for a lot of RPGs 30 fps is enough. I'd say if that's the main game you want to play, I'd say a Phenom II X3 720 would be just about right.
_________________
RSP: For those prices I'd be tempted to just go ahead and get a i5 750. Maybe look up so benchmarks for your ray tracer or whatever. Here is something from Anandtech. Maybe with the right combo or just a lower price the Phenom would make more sense.
I'd say your PSU should be fine for any single card unless it came with that case.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Before reading that, I didn't think that a 4 core 2.66ghz processor would compare to a 4 core 3.4ghz one, especially with the similar caches sizes, but the stats don't lie. Especially since the reviewers were able to overclock the i5 , which would be more difficult on the already hot and power hungry Phenom.
Thanks for the advice, I'll continue to look into this as I'm in no hurry.
The clock speed (number of ghz) is essentially meaningless when it comes to how well a processor preforms.
How right am I?
Am I going crazy or did you delete your original, much longer, post and switch to this laptop one? :P
You don't really want a laptop at all to play games. Even if you get a killer one it'll be prone to overheat possibly. If you're dead set on a laptop, well, I'm not going to suggest anything, sorry. I'm not sure you'd get a laptop for $300 that would even play WoW well, though. For $1000 you could. Something in the middle would work I'm sure. But again, I'd get a $600ish Desktop.
Edit: Just so I'm not being totally useless if you do want a laptop: Don't get Windows Starter, do get 4GB of ram, and make sure it has a damn good graphics chip in it. I dunno what that would be off the top of my head for laptops, though, sorry.
Either of those two should be able to play the games you want at low-medium settings. I have a laptop that's a couple years old (C2D 1.5ghz, 2gb mem, 8600M GT) and it ran WoW at low settings at 40-60fps in relatively non-populated areas. (Though this was pre-wotlk, Dalaran would have killed it as Shattrath dropped it to the teens and 20s.)
Is there any specific reason it has to be a laptop?
I'd rather buy a cheapish desktop for gaming and a small CULV-based laptop for portability than spend the money neccessary to get a "good" gaming laptop. The desktop/laptop setup requires fewer compromises and will be more useful in the long run.
What I am looking for is something fairly cheap that is upgradable in future. As long as it can play TF2 and Eve Online I don't particually care what it looks like atm but want to have some room for future upgrades as money permits. So any advice on what to go for?
The only time I've read about the clock speed being super important is for people running emulators. I guess in that case whatever tricks a CPU is able to perform better at a given clock rate don't really apply.
But I don't have any first hand experience with that.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
How's that stand up against the rest of the suggested cases?
My existing machine is an AMD Athlon 64 3200+, on an MSI K8T NEO2-FIR board, with 1GB of DDR, and a Geforce FX5200 card. The machine has lasted a pretty good while, but it's time to upgrade.
Usage: This will be a work-at-home style rig I guess. I do not play games (the only game I've ever installed is Civ IV, so maybe I might play that), but I am kind of a "power user." The machine will be running Windows 7 (which I have a copy of). It's main duties are going to be running Visual Studio 2k8 (2k10 soon hopefully), VMWare, and doing movie encoding (DVD => H.264/AC3). All of which are fairly hefty tasks.
Parts I've Got: monitor, kb&m. Everything else I've got stays in the existing machine.
Biases: I've always liked AMD stuff, but they're falling behind in the CPU market now, right? Intel's got those Core i5 and Core i7 models out and those seem pretty damn rockin'. I've honestly not heard about AMD's newer stuff. Other than that I don't really have too many loyalties. My Nvidia card has been a trooper, but I've got nothing against an AMD card. I probably wouldn't see any benefit from a really nice video card since Win 7 doesn't hand any data-processing over to it that I know of (i.e. an OpenCL kind of thing).
Upgrade-ability: I don't know how concerned I should be about this. My existing machine never got an upgrade. I meant to throw an X2 and another 2GB or so of memory in it, but that never happened. How upgradeable are things right now? Aren't AMD and Intel both going through new socket designs like a teenager in a growth-spurt goes through food?
Price range: I don't really know. I'd like to stay around $700-$800. I'll probably have to upgrade my monitor sometime soon, so the lower we can go with the machine the better as long as I'm not having to choose inferior components.
I'll try to throw together a build here and see what you guys think:
<reserved for "i dunno what the heck im doing" build>
Depending on what vid card, case and psu you get, it should be quite doable for around $700 I would think. Just do a search for i5 builds and you should be set.
The Antec 300 is sort of the default budget case. I guess that version just has some blue LEDs.
iTunesIsEvil:
Just try to save $200 for a SSD. That will have a big effect on how fast a computer is for general use. Should be worth it for you.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Things are pretty shitty right now. Intel has three chipsets. The 775 is the "old" one at this point, for the core 2 Duo stuff. 1156 is the core i5. This is a good chipset right now for saving money over the i7, but all future CPUs for it are pretty much filling out the lower end. Unless something changes, the core i5-750 is pretty much the best CPU this chipset will ever see. Then there is the 1366, which drives the 900-series i7s. This costs more right now, but it is also the chipset that will run the six-core i9 processors when they come out next year. Note that everything I've seen says expect those i9s to cost a bunch too...it won't be one of those releases where the price comes down on everything right afterwards.
I couldn't give a fuck less about AMD CPUs so someone else will have to comment on those.
Then we have the DDR2/DDR3 transition. Just like the 1156 versus the 1366, DDR2 is cheaper but it's also pretty much at the end of the road (meaning if you got an Intel i5 CPU with DDR2, and then later decided to swap out the mobo/cpu for a better pair, you will be looking at DDR3).
All that being said, not knowing how involved your use is but given what you listed, I would strongly think about the i7. This will definitely put you over the budget, but VMWare and video encoding are both tasks that make heavy use of threading when it's available. So while as gamers the benefit of the i7 over the i5 is questionable, for YOU the i7's HyperThreading is hands-down important. Additionally, the i9 processor is already showing massive gains over the i7 in video-encoding, so you may find yourself wanting to upgrade the cpu sometime and not have to get a new mobo and DDR3 at the same time.
PSN: TheScrublet
I don't think that you can get 1156 boards with DDR2 Ram. Also without gaming there will be no point to the more powerful PCIE setups that 1366 boards typically have so he'll not be getting much besides triple channel memory for his money.
An i7 is a possibility but I'd say it's only worth it if iTunesIsEvil is going to spend a LOT of time encoding video. Otherwise that money will be better spent on a SSD.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I won't be doing a whole lot of video encoding. I *maybe* buy 2 DVD's a month. My biggest thing right now would be re-ripping some stuff in my collection that I did a bad job of in the past (tv seasons, movies from when I first started ripping).
lowly, I had heard that SSD's have a limited number of writes available to them. Is that no longer the case or just no longer something that needs to be worried about?
Black & Silver ATX Tower Case
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (2 x 1.8 GHZ) 1066FSB - 2 MB
Asus P5KPL-AM (Intel G31)
4GB PC-6400 800 MHZ (2 x 2 GB) (DDR2)
ATI Radeon HD 4650 - 1 GB - 2xDVI/VGA (XFX)
650W PSU
Built & Tested CP
80 GB SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 8MB
Samsung (SH-D162D) 16x DVD-ROM Black (IDE)
Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound
Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)
10 X USB 2.0 Ports
Speeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)
edif noticed the cost to upgrade the HD to 320gb is only another £5 so hard drive size is no problem
Just go over to anandtech.com and read up on SSDs under their storage tab.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
My usual sop is to purchase based on ~2x the average estimate power consumption. It wasn't that long ago that manufacturers estimate efficiency were at specific consumption and lower or higher draw ended up much less efficient (> heat waste). This was done in the same vein as improperly rating the unit to the highest theoretical wattage instead of the actual usable wattage (fulling adding the wattage from multiple 12v rails, etc...). Old habits die hard. On the plus side, I'll always have plenty of headroom for upgrading.
I just bought it after running a 10 year old Inwin full tower case. I am in love. Easiest install of hardware I've ever had and plenty of airflow. Only problem is no fan dust filters.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Normally unless you go with an i5, a AMD chip will be the best bang for your buck while also being more likely to take a modern replacement later. You also might not need a 650W even to upgrade later but it's hard to say that without more details.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
CPU/Memory combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.281718
OS/DVD combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.282290
Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131614
Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.297681
PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009
Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049
Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119187
I plan on getting a 5870 when I eventually see one in stock, and I'm getting an 850w PSU instead of a 750w in case I get another 5870 for crossfire. Also, in regards to cases I was torn between the ATCS 840 and the HAF 932, but right now I feel like the 840 would last longer than a 932. But the 932 is cheaper and has free shipping, so I'm still not entirely sure on what to do. Also, I was planning on ordering this CPU cooler from newegg,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010
but I recently saw them on sale at my local Best Buy for $60, so I'm going to pick one up there.
Again, suggestions and feedback would be greatly appreciated!
If you are going to spend that much money you need to get a SSD. Otherwise, IMO, you are spending a lot of money for marginal improvements in actual performance.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I like Antec stuff:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.298875
Yes, the P193 is listed as a "Mid-Tower" case, but it's only really a couple inches smaller than those other cases. And it looks better IMO.
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Configurators.aspx?mid=515&t=w&c=7893
Toned down a little. I still went overboard on the power supply, as I suspect I'll scavenge that and the case later down the line. The monitor will likely come from newegg, since the shipping on the one from ibuy kind of negates the price difference.
As far as the SSD, I'm hopefully they have the g2s on their site before christmas. I'm not certain I would want to go cheap on that with a kingston 64 for the os. If I can get something around 130-160 gigs for a halfway decent price point (200-300) I'll likely go with that and skip the data hard drive all together.
CPU/PSU combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.281845
Motherboard/Memory combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.291022
SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.295508
Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160
Data HD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320
DVD drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030
Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049
OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. And there will be a 5870 as soon as I see one in stock.
If the 183 is the same size as the 182, they're both enormous. My 182 is like a giant, quiet monolith.