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Computer Build Thread
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Moe Fwacky wrote: »So I've noticed a lot of threads around where people ask for help picking out parts, or for comments on a build they are thinking about buying. Born from those threads is this, the Computer Build Thread. If you have a build you would recommend to others, post the specs here, for those who are looking to build.
The original thread has become too large, it's time for a new one. I'll start it off with a couple of builds just like Moe did, but I intend to keep these builds updated, and will modify them based on suggestions. I also want to include a build guide in the op when I have time to write one or if someone posts one.
These systems are suggestions, if you're ordering from Newegg it's always good to pay attention to the current combo deals and discuss the options here.
The bang-for-the-buck box. 12-14-08
This system is the general recommendation. A great gaming PC keeping value in mind.
$656.88 + tax and shipping.
Spoiler:
This goal of this system is to be the cheapest way to play modern PC games.
$393.90 + Tax and Shipping
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When yours has got to be bigger.
$2042.92 + tax and shipping.
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Gaming isn't a consideration here, this is a PC with just enough horsepower to watch high definition video on your TV
$316.44 plus tax and shipping, no TV tuners included until I can get some advice or do some research
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Transparent on
PAXtrain '10, let's do this!
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How hard is the thermal adhesive to apply?
If you get the adhesive version.
edit: nevermind, they don't make an adhesive version of Ceramique. What the fuck?
The card is a radeon 4850 HD
edit: found it, lemme see if I can POST now
It turns out the Thermalright RAMsinks come with an adhesive pad already attached, so it's coo.
Intel Core 2 quad q6600
ASUS P5K SE/EPU (using the Realtek ALC883 onboard audio from this)
4GB Corsair something RAM
nVidia 9800GTX
I can get the model of HDD too if needed, since I guess it could be an issue if it's slow to loading things off that.
So are there any immediate ideas? I'm suspecting it's to do with the onboard sound maybe not being set up properly, but we've installed the drivers that came with it (didn't solve it) and are now getting a more recent set. Or is it a quad-core issue? I've seen the problem in action on the Crysis demo, but it seems to be around in other games too, so I don't think it's just the one game screwing it up.
AJ2 soundtrack: NAME YOUR PRICE ON BANDCAMP! Album: BANDCAMP! iTunes Spotify Amazon UK
I have a question though, about transferring data between computers. I have all this stuff (mostly music, pictures, documents, but also maybe some programs and games if possible) on my current computer that I'll want to move over to my new one, but I'm not sure how exactly I can do it.
My CD writer right now isn't working, so that's out of the question. I have some portable devices (IPod, USB thumbdrives) that I could use, but the USB port on this PC is extremely slow and it would be a last resort if anything.
One possibility I was thinking about, was putting both computers onto the same network, and then being able to just transfer files through that connection. My question is, will this be possible even though I'm running different operating systems on each machine (XP Home on this one, Vista Home on the new one)?
And actually speaking of different OS's, would it be possible to just put my old hard drive into the new machine, or would it not work properly because of the data already on it?
Hope my post made sense enough for someone to answer it. Thanks in advance, and thanks again for all the help.
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You can do this, but you need to reinstall Windows. You can't just take a Windows install from one computer and try and boot off of it on a different computer. But the rest of the data should be fine.
Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won't, it depends on how similar the hard drive controllers are in each motherboard.
I've been sort of disappointed with their offerings, but the AMD Phenom 9950 2.6GHz caught my eye at $159.99 (since I doubt I'm sticking with a stock HSF no matter what I'm getting). I seen a lot of the caveats from Intel's Q6600 and up line that the extra cores really aren't going to help out in a lot of areas, but at 2.6 GHz I wonder if it's going to hold up considering AMD has never really been able to match clock speeds with Intel but has always made up performance in other areas.
It doesn't overclock well (nominal performance gains up to 3.0-3.1 GHz) and drains an amazingly bad 140W (compared to the E8400's 65W). Does AMD bring anything to the table these days for people that have no problems with the cost of Intel's processors? Can anyone possibly sell me on anything AMD?
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Communications latency between cores is reduced because of the shared L3 cache?
If you aren't doing PDES stuff you probably won't notice. You certainly won't notice for games.
AMD's low-cost stuff is still good, especially motherboards, but the high-end stuff isn't really worth it compared to Intel right now. Maybe that will change in the future. I hope so, anyway.
Edit:
I never got an answer last thread, Im about to build my new pc, and while I want top of the line for gaming, im not going money is no object. I was thinking 300$ for a mobo/processor combo. Seeing the middle of the road choice in the opening post made me question my thoughts on processors though as that was basicly one of my top 3 picks. Any suggestions? Should I go dual or quad core? I was thinking from what I read here I should stick to the dual core.
Quad cores have slower cores and no games need 4 cores yet.
Also the ASUS P5QL Pro mentioned in the OP is an amazing bang for your buck if you don't plan on SLI/RAID.
If you look at it, there are 899 reviews, which is a very large sample rate considering. Out of that, the 95 "1 egg" reviews are almost all DOA drives or very shortly after use. Looking at the 45 "2 egg" ratings, almost all of those are drive failures. Surprisingly enough, lots of the 44 "3 egg" reviews were DOA drives. Why anyone would get multiple dead drives and give a 3-egg review I have no clue about.
While it may be a good bargain on paper, are we really recommending a drive that may have upwards of 20+% failure rate? If it wasn't such a large number of reviews I wouldn't be so leary, but almost 900 is a decent enough sample set that I just don't think I would take that kind of gamble.
Here's a good sample from the reviews:
Heres the full build now:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
EVGA 896-P3-1260-AR GeForce GTX 260
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
$679.94 total. I wont be using a 64 bit operating system, so im sticking with 2 gigs of ram as the video card is almost a gig by itself.
I am not necessarily going against what your saying, as I would be super causious about this product under those circumstances too, but there are several things to keep in mind when reading newegg reviews:
I think the real thing to look at here, is are people more likely to give a review of a product A) if its DoA B)If its good, or C) either way. The people who wouldnt be in C) Would be most likely go with A only. I think this in itself pushes the number of DoA reports high on the product. Other things to consider is batches. Were the date ranges on the product a long time ago where people were saying there getting DoA's? It could be a bad batch of hard drives and recent reviews could be stellar without any problems.
There is also the fact that these reviews include reviews from people that could of bought from another site, or who havent even bought the product at all and are product fanboy's and trolls.
Seriously, it can't be acceptable practice to just ship out whatever garbage you can and make the customer just keep RMA'ing hard drives until they get one that works?
I understand what you're saying, but when you look at the reviews where people ordered multiple hard drives, like 4, and 2 come DOA, that's pretty suspect.
Anyway, the drive from WD that's 640 gigs and ends in AAKS is an awesome fucking drive. Two platters at 320 each, and it's really quiet and fast. I don't have the link right now though.
I have the 750GB Seagate 7200.11 and that WD, and both have been smooth as butter.
I don't think the failure rates are as high as those reviews would indicate.
Just in case you didn't see it, you're not going to be able to go SLI later with that board. It's a Crossfire board. Other than that, I have this board and a similar processor (the E8500), and I'm really happy with the build. The board gets huge points for having that little Q-connector thingy. Took all the hassle out of hooking up the front panel connections.
It also keeps downloads going when it goes into powersave mode.
Seconding this. Daed recommended the drive for my current build, and I <3 it so much. So quiet and fast.
4850 & 4870 for $150 and $250 at Best Buy.
looking for a 24 incher, max i want to spend is 600.
what are the must have these days?
Steam | Fitocracy | leggomypaleo | XBL|PSN|WiiU::ninjafrizz
64-bit isn't really "trouble" at all anymore, unlike XP-64. Go for it.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Yeah I dont intend on ever doing SLI. what I was trying to say is if I end up getting another card in the future, I would keep the other card as dedicated physics. This dosent require the cards to be linked in SLI.
I think i am going to go ahead and order my parts tonight. whooooooooo.
I'm pretty short on cash right now, so I've been wanting to look at putting something together, basically one piece at a time since it's going to take a while to raise all the funds, and I'm looking less at "power" and more at "potential." Since I don't really play PC games that often, blowing a lot of money on a powerful video card/ processor makes little sense at the moment.
To that end, I think I should be focusing on getting a decent case/mobo combination that will still be able to utilize mid-level hardware upgrades 3-4 years from now. Will the ones listed in the OP fill that need? In the meantime, I was looking at trying to keep my HD/processor/video card expenditures to under $200 total, since those are the most likely to get chucked for better hardware in a couple of years anyway. So long as I'll be able to run Diablo III at a decent resolution, I'll be plenty happy.
Hard drive: what was listed seems fine, but this is only $5 more right now. Seems worth it to me.
Processor: probably the first thing I'll upgrade when I have more cash (in March?) so I want to keep this cheap. The Attlon X2 4450e mentioned in the "budget center" build should be fine for now.
Video Card: this is an area where I really want to save some cash. The highest I'm probably willing to go on this right now is $50, so this should do nicely after rebate.
Beyond that I'll probably go ahead and spend a little extra to get 4GB of RAM to start.
Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated, since I haven't looked into this stuff in a loooooong time.
Now it idles at 40 or so, and after 10 minutes of The Witcher the temp maxed at 49. Best of all, with the fans I installed it's blissfully quiet.