I'm just wondering: is it worth going with 2000mHz RAM so I have more overclocking headroom? Also, is the power supply overkill, keeping in mind I'll probably eventually double up on the video card?
That is a good deal though, but after some consideration, I've decided to go with a Kingston 32GB SSD for my OS and pick up a larger drive for storage/applications/gaming later on.
Are you set on Radeon and that price point? The GTX 460 just came out and you'll get better performance than even a 5830 (especially if you opt for the 1GB model), and it costs $199-229. Otherwise the Radeon 5830 itself just had a price drop in response.
Sadly I'm working in Canadian dollars- the cheapest DX11 card is a Gigabyte GTX 460 at $199, and it's only 768MB. To get something comparable to my pick I'm stepping way out of my price range. I think the 5770 is gonna be my most cost effective option, especially considering the Vapor-X cooling.
Now, I haven't built a computer myself since the pre-SLI days. In general, what kind of performance gain can I expect from getting a second card, and how is that gain manifested? Will I see it mostly in FPS or resolution, or will I also be able to use more bells and whistles?
Finally, a couple of my friends have said there is no advantage to having two cards running at PCI-E x16 as opposed to x8. If this is the case, I can probably scale back my motherboard and save a few dollars. With futureproofing being one of my major concerns, is x16 worth it?
Are you set on Radeon and that price point? The GTX 460 just came out and you'll get better performance than even a 5830 (especially if you opt for the 1GB model), and it costs $199-229. Otherwise the Radeon 5830 itself just had a price drop in response.
Sadly I'm working in Canadian dollars- the cheapest DX11 card is a Gigabyte GTX 460 at $199, and it's only 768MB. To get something comparable to my pick I'm stepping way out of my price range. I think the 5770 is gonna be my most cost effective option, especially considering the Vapor-X cooling. Now, if there were a decent sale on a 460 bringing it into the
into the what? O_o
The 768MB card gets better performance than a Radeon 5770. In many benchmarks it out does a 5830 (particularly if overclocked, which it does very well). It can match or outperform the GTX 465 (which is way more expensive). That's why I gave it a nod.
The only time you'll see a drag is if you're running 2560x1600 and using AA. And even then in some current benchmarks the above still holds true. It's okay, I know it's a bit more expensive. I just thought I'd bring it to your attention in case it was still within your range.
So I've been asked by the boss to build a computer for a friend of his, with a budget of $500. It doesn't sound like he'll be gaming so I'm going with integrated video. Here's the build.
So I've been asked by the boss to build a computer for a friend of his, with a budget of $500. It doesn't sound like he'll be gaming so I'm going with integrated video. Here's the build.
Anything I'm forgetting? (Outside of Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers & Monitor) Any reason this would incompatible somehow?
Not gaming and you're going with quad core? Will the machine be doing any cpu heavy stuff do you know? Like raytracing etc. Not that i'm knocking quad core or anything, but if you were to go with a slower dual core and if you had enough for a ssd as the system drive the user would see a more noticeable performance increase.. that said i'm unsure if you could fit say a 100+GB SSD along with the other hard drive into the $500 budget.
GrimReaper on
PSN | Steam
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
I remember awhile ago in the last thread someone posting that SSD prices were set to see a big drop around this oct, any word on if that's still in the pipes?
I remember awhile ago in the last thread someone posting that SSD prices were set to see a big drop around this oct, any word on if that's still in the pipes?
If they can avoid a strike by the SSD miners of Guadalajara, I would imagine this will be a very real possibility. Unless management is willing to make big concessions on mine safety, however, I am not optimistic.
Are you set on Radeon and that price point? The GTX 460 just came out and you'll get better performance than even a 5830 (especially if you opt for the 1GB model), and it costs $199-229. Otherwise the Radeon 5830 itself just had a price drop in response.
Sadly I'm working in Canadian dollars- the cheapest DX11 card is a Gigabyte GTX 460 at $199, and it's only 768MB. To get something comparable to my pick I'm stepping way out of my price range. I think the 5770 is gonna be my most cost effective option, especially considering the Vapor-X cooling. Now, if there were a decent sale on a 460 bringing it into the
into the what? O_o
Hasty posting ftl.
The 768MB card gets better performance than a Radeon 5770. In many benchmarks it out does a 5830 (particularly if overclocked, which it does very well). It can match or outperform the GTX 465 (which is way more expensive). That's why I gave it a nod.
The only time you'll see a drag is if you're running 2560x1600 and using AA. And even then in some current benchmarks the above still holds true. It's okay, I know it's a bit more expensive. I just thought I'd bring it to your attention in case it was still within your range.
Those benchmarks are quite convincing. I'm kind of tempted to reconsider the budget.
I remember awhile ago in the last thread someone posting that SSD prices were set to see a big drop around this oct, any word on if that's still in the pipes?
Intel's should see a price drop as they move to a new smaller chips. So anyone who uses Intel's partner Micron should see these as well.
I've got a spare copy of windows 7 64bit hanging around, so i'll finally upgrade to windows 7 on my main pc.
EDIT: The times they are a'chang'n..
The order for my current pc from 21/04/2006:
Lets see:
Replaced the hard drives multiple times (for larger capacities). The PSU died, so that got replaced. I went through two 7900GTX's within about a week (both died), went to a ATI X1900XTX then onto my current ATI 4870.
Still got the same cpu, motherboard and memory in there when it was first bought.
Yes I paid £370.47 ($470.84.. in 2006 I think it was around $2 to £1 to I guess around $740 for an Athlon X2 4800... actually, with VAT that CPU cost £391!)
That cpu has really lasted me, it still runs a lot of games pretty damn well.
Now that i've got a mortgage etc I can't justify to myself spending that much...
GrimReaper on
PSN | Steam
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
So I've been asked by the boss to build a computer for a friend of his, with a budget of $500. It doesn't sound like he'll be gaming so I'm going with integrated video. Here's the build.
Anything I'm forgetting? (Outside of Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers & Monitor) Any reason this would incompatible somehow?
Not gaming and you're going with quad core? Will the machine be doing any cpu heavy stuff do you know? Like raytracing etc. Not that i'm knocking quad core or anything, but if you were to go with a slower dual core and if you had enough for a ssd as the system drive the user would see a more noticeable performance increase.. that said i'm unsure if you could fit say a 100+GB SSD along with the other hard drive into the $500 budget.
Okay, will likely drop the processor down a level.
I have a friend who is looking at building his own computer, and asked for my help in attempting to price things. The problem is, I have a very different idea about building computers than he does. My last 3 computers have all been gaming machines, and all I spent ~1k on; I expect my gaming rig to work for at least 3 years after I build it (2 is acceptable I guess). However, he wants a gaming rig that can play games like EvE or WoW for $400 bucks or so. I have tried putting one together on newegg, but I still can't seem to get it within the budget. He also hates Dell with the passion of a dying star.
So my question is if you can build a "suitable" gaming rig for $400 bucks or so. Should I push him towards quad-core? Any help in this endeavor would be awesome!
if his main ambition is WoW, I'd be looking at a core i3, though with the $400 price point.. probably something from intel would be more suitable, but I'd stay in dual core city for sure.
I have a friend who is looking at building his own computer, and asked for my help in attempting to price things. The problem is, I have a very different idea about building computers than he does. My last 3 computers have all been gaming machines, and all I spent ~1k on; I expect my gaming rig to work for at least 3 years after I build it (2 is acceptable I guess). However, he wants a gaming rig that can play games like EvE or WoW for $400 bucks or so. I have tried putting one together on newegg, but I still can't seem to get it within the budget. He also hates Dell with the passion of a dying star.
So my question is if you can build a "suitable" gaming rig for $400 bucks or so. Should I push him towards quad-core? Any help in this endeavor would be awesome!
Does he have anything to use/reuse? Like an operating system hopefully?
I have a friend who is looking at building his own computer, and asked for my help in attempting to price things. The problem is, I have a very different idea about building computers than he does. My last 3 computers have all been gaming machines, and all I spent ~1k on; I expect my gaming rig to work for at least 3 years after I build it (2 is acceptable I guess). However, he wants a gaming rig that can play games like EvE or WoW for $400 bucks or so. I have tried putting one together on newegg, but I still can't seem to get it within the budget. He also hates Dell with the passion of a dying star.
So my question is if you can build a "suitable" gaming rig for $400 bucks or so. Should I push him towards quad-core? Any help in this endeavor would be awesome!
Does he have anything to use/reuse? Like an operating system hopefully?
I think he has an OS that he can get, along with a case that should be fine, as well as keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers. Essentially all he needs is a mobo, cpu, memory, graphics, PS.
I have a friend who is looking at building his own computer, and asked for my help in attempting to price things. The problem is, I have a very different idea about building computers than he does. My last 3 computers have all been gaming machines, and all I spent ~1k on; I expect my gaming rig to work for at least 3 years after I build it (2 is acceptable I guess). However, he wants a gaming rig that can play games like EvE or WoW for $400 bucks or so. I have tried putting one together on newegg, but I still can't seem to get it within the budget. He also hates Dell with the passion of a dying star.
So my question is if you can build a "suitable" gaming rig for $400 bucks or so. Should I push him towards quad-core? Any help in this endeavor would be awesome!
Does he have anything to use/reuse? Like an operating system hopefully?
I think he has an OS that he can get, along with a case that should be fine, as well as keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers. Essentially all he needs is a mobo, cpu, memory, graphics, PS.
How about ~$450 (before tax and MIRs)? I guess you could downgrade a component or two to shave off the extra $.
I have a friend who is looking at building his own computer, and asked for my help in attempting to price things. The problem is, I have a very different idea about building computers than he does. My last 3 computers have all been gaming machines, and all I spent ~1k on; I expect my gaming rig to work for at least 3 years after I build it (2 is acceptable I guess). However, he wants a gaming rig that can play games like EvE or WoW for $400 bucks or so. I have tried putting one together on newegg, but I still can't seem to get it within the budget. He also hates Dell with the passion of a dying star.
So my question is if you can build a "suitable" gaming rig for $400 bucks or so. Should I push him towards quad-core? Any help in this endeavor would be awesome!
Does he have anything to use/reuse? Like an operating system hopefully?
I think he has an OS that he can get, along with a case that should be fine, as well as keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers. Essentially all he needs is a mobo, cpu, memory, graphics, PS.
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Wow, at $200 bucks that seems like a pretty slick card. I was going to go with a full blown 5870 to replace my GTX 260/216 Core, but at that price point the 1GB GTX460 is looking pretty nice. It's definitely not a 5870, but it doesn't cost as much either.
From what I can tell the GTX460 would be a pretty good upgrade from my GTX260...am I correct in that thinking?
That's awesome. Are there any AM2/AM2+ processors that can do the dual to quad unlock? I have an Athlon 64 X 6000+, which I don't think is a gimped quad. Are there any good sources or a definitive list of CPUs you can do that on?
After about five passes of prime95 pegging all four cores at 100% the machine powered down, I think using auto voltage etc settings it doesn't give it enough juice. Although I disabled the third core to make it a tri core it has been rock solid stable and ran prime95 without fault for over an hour.
Going to be doing some long stress testing and reading up on vcore and vcpu-nb now. So even if I can't use it as a quad it appears using it as a tri-core is perfectly fine, hopefully a voltage tweak will allow me to run it as a quad.
That's awesome. Are there any AM2/AM2+ processors that can do the dual to quad unlock? I have an Athlon 64 X 6000+, which I don't think is a gimped quad. Are there any good sources or a definitive list of CPUs you can do that on?
I think it's only certain AM3 processors. For example Phenom X2 550 BE, 555, 710, 720..
EDIT3: I'm now back on quad cores and stable so far, tweaked the vcpu-nb value up a tiny bit and everything is fine.. prime95 has been pegging all cores at 100% for about 15 passes now without any errors or problems. Of course going to have to run other tests as well.
EDIT4: Well, been running prime95 about an hour now and no problems whatsoever. Looks like that minor vpuc-nb voltage tweak did it. Bwaha, quad core cpu for £70.
GrimReaper on
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Wow, at $200 bucks that seems like a pretty slick card. I was going to go with a full blown 5870 to replace my GTX 260/216 Core, but at that price point the 1GB GTX460 is looking pretty nice. It's definitely not a 5870, but it doesn't cost as much either.
From what I can tell the GTX460 would be a pretty good upgrade from my GTX260...am I correct in that thinking?
I upgraded to a GTX480 from a 260 216 and i'm not sure i'd be happy with a 460, even that cheap. I don't think you'd notice a significant improvement for most games and even being able to use DX11 isn't that great if you can't turn the options up.
I suspect you'd be happier with a 470 - with about 25% more performance for £100 more.
GrimReaper's unlocking shenanigans have nudged me into action to finally to to see if my 720 BE can be unlocked. I turned on ACC and it was sad news bears at first when CPUZ reported 3 cores still, but then I did a little reading and saw I had to turn on "Unleashing Mode" as well, and
Bam!
Currently solving 7th test pass on prime95 and running stable.
This chip has insane overhead. It runs at 20 degrees at stock speed and has a sleeping core. It's begging me to turn the knobs.
GrimReaper's unlocking shenanigans have nudged me into action to finally to to see if my 720 BE can be unlocked. I turned on ACC and it was sad news bears at first when CPUZ reported 3 cores still, but then I did a little reading and saw I had to turn on "Unleashing Mode" as well, and
Bam!
Currently solving 7th test pass on prime95 and running stable.
This chip has insane overhead. It runs at 20 degrees at stock speed and has a sleeping core. It's begging me to turn the knobs.
You should run prime95 for at least three hours, i've read of failures after 40 minutes or so. I think the big test is to leave prime95 running the stress test for 12 hours. If after 12 hours your computer doesn't power down, restart or prime95 doesn't report errors then you should be totally fine.
I've also had it running a few different programs since prime95 probably only really stresses certain bits of the cores like the fpu, i've tried occt with linpack so far.
I've noted down a list of programs to run to make sure my processor is ok unlocked to four cores:
prime95
linx
occt
orthos
intel burn test
superpi
I've not tried them all yet.
GrimReaper on
PSN | Steam
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
I'm going to test it for stability to see if the 4th core is good, but honestly I will probably go back to x3 because there is a higher overlock potential. It seems for most games right now 3 faster cores is better than 4 cores, but then what do I really know.
I'm going to test it for stability to see if the 4th core is good, but honestly I will probably go back to x3 because there is a higher overlock potential. It seems for most games right now 3 faster cores is better than 4 cores, but then what do I really know.
Yep, very true. Although I'm not touching overclocking for a while, unlocking the cores doesn't affect the processor overall, whereas overclocking can fry it dead. Plus I'm only on the stock cooler here.
GrimReaper on
PSN | Steam
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
0
Monkey Ball WarriorA collection of mediocre hatsSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Has anyone had any experience using ATI cards on nVidia chipsets? In theory it should work fine, but I'm skeptical. My 8800gt is going out, so I am thinking about picking up a 5770 (which would be the most expensive video card I ever bought). When I use my friend's 4670, WoW has a strange jumpiness to it. It's not really reflected in the FPS, and only really happens outside (i.e. long draw distances). But it gives me a headache. I'm wondering if I get a 5770 if the same thing might happen.
Mass Effect, however, runs fine on his 4670.
Monkey Ball Warrior on
"I resent the entire notion of a body as an ante and then raise you a generalized dissatisfaction with physicality itself" -- Tycho
I had a 9800 Pro running on an nforce 2 motherboard ages ago.
I really wouldn't worry about it, there should be no problem.
It would be impossible for us to tele-diagnose your friend's computer hiccup based on "weird jumpyness in WoW". I highly doubt it's a defect inherent in ATi cards.
Has anyone had any experience using ATI cards on nVidia chipsets? In theory it should work fine, but I'm skeptical. My 8800gt is going out, so I am thinking about picking up a 5770 (which would be the most expensive video card I ever bought). When I use my friend's 4670, WoW has a strange jumpiness to it. It's not really reflected in the FPS, and only really happens outside (i.e. long draw distances). But it gives me a headache. I'm wondering if I get a 5770 if the same thing might happen.
Mass Effect, however, runs fine on his 4670.
My previous motherboard before this new one was a DFI Lanparty mobo that used an nforce chipset, I used an ATI X1900XTX and after that my current 4870. Curiously the only graphics cards that had problems in that motherboard were nvidia ones, but those problems were purely manufacturing defects involving the graphics cards themselves.
GrimReaper on
PSN | Steam
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
0
Monkey Ball WarriorA collection of mediocre hatsSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Cool!
Also, to clarify, this is MY computer (AM2+ nForce 720a chipset) and HIS card (Radeon 4670) that is jumpy in WoW. My 8800gt was fine in WoW, but caused random crashes in TF2 and Mass Effect on my box, and in TF2 on his box. His box with his card is perfectly stable. So we know that the 8800gt is going bad.
Monkey Ball Warrior on
"I resent the entire notion of a body as an ante and then raise you a generalized dissatisfaction with physicality itself" -- Tycho
Also, to clarify, this is MY computer (AM2+ nForce 720a chipset) and HIS card (Radeon 4670) that is jumpy in WoW. My 8800gt was fine in WoW, but caused random crashes in TF2 and Mass Effect on my box, and in TF2 on his box. His box with his card is perfectly stable. So we know that the 8800gt is going bad.
Honestly, if I were you I wouldn't go near an nvidia card. I've had two nvidia cards (two 7900GTX's) die and a laptop chipset (8600M GT on a Macbook Pro) die.
ATI in the last few years have gotten their shit together big time, my only complaint is that catalyst control center is a piece of garbage.
GrimReaper on
PSN | Steam
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
First thing I would suggest is doing a complete scrub and re installation of the graphics drivers, if you haven't already, since you are changing from nvidia to ati drivers.
Scosglen on
0
Monkey Ball WarriorA collection of mediocre hatsSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
I'm considering just reinstalling windows from scratch when I get my new card. This install is several years old, on a hard drive that was, for a time, popping up bad sectors. It stopped doing that, but I'm still iffy on it, so it would be a good excuse to start over.
Monkey Ball Warrior on
"I resent the entire notion of a body as an ante and then raise you a generalized dissatisfaction with physicality itself" -- Tycho
I'm considering just reinstalling windows from scratch when I get my new card. This install is several years old, on a hard drive that was, for a time, popping up bad sectors. It stopped doing that, but I'm still iffy on it, so it would be a good excuse to start over.
A windows install that lasted seven years, well.. now I have seen everything.. ;-)
GrimReaper on
PSN | Steam
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
0
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
I'm going to test it for stability to see if the 4th core is good, but honestly I will probably go back to x3 because there is a higher overlock potential. It seems for most games right now 3 faster cores is better than 4 cores, but then what do I really know.
Honestly, most games don't even hit the CPU to any appreciable degree (save for a small handful), that faster tri-core versus slower quad is pretty much a moot issue. Games just simply don't care if you're running a few hundred megahertz faster. The converse of the issue (having 4 versus 3 cores) is also the same.
So basically, a moderate clocked dual core is still more than gaming quality. So think less gaming and more other stuff (encoding or whatever) when deciding if you want quad or triple.
I'm considering just reinstalling windows from scratch when I get my new card. This install is several years old, on a hard drive that was, for a time, popping up bad sectors. It stopped doing that, but I'm still iffy on it, so it would be a good excuse to start over.
Posts
Sadly I'm working in Canadian dollars- the cheapest DX11 card is a Gigabyte GTX 460 at $199, and it's only 768MB. To get something comparable to my pick I'm stepping way out of my price range. I think the 5770 is gonna be my most cost effective option, especially considering the Vapor-X cooling.
Now, I haven't built a computer myself since the pre-SLI days. In general, what kind of performance gain can I expect from getting a second card, and how is that gain manifested? Will I see it mostly in FPS or resolution, or will I also be able to use more bells and whistles?
Finally, a couple of my friends have said there is no advantage to having two cards running at PCI-E x16 as opposed to x8. If this is the case, I can probably scale back my motherboard and save a few dollars. With futureproofing being one of my major concerns, is x16 worth it?
into the what? O_o
The 768MB card gets better performance than a Radeon 5770. In many benchmarks it out does a 5830 (particularly if overclocked, which it does very well). It can match or outperform the GTX 465 (which is way more expensive). That's why I gave it a nod.
The only time you'll see a drag is if you're running 2560x1600 and using AA. And even then in some current benchmarks the above still holds true. It's okay, I know it's a bit more expensive. I just thought I'd bring it to your attention in case it was still within your range.
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
COOLER MASTER Centurion 541 RC-541-SKRJ-GP Black Aluminum bezel, SECC chassis MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case 400W Power ...
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ940XCGIBOX
Anything I'm forgetting? (Outside of Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers & Monitor) Any reason this would incompatible somehow?
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Not gaming and you're going with quad core? Will the machine be doing any cpu heavy stuff do you know? Like raytracing etc. Not that i'm knocking quad core or anything, but if you were to go with a slower dual core and if you had enough for a ssd as the system drive the user would see a more noticeable performance increase.. that said i'm unsure if you could fit say a 100+GB SSD along with the other hard drive into the $500 budget.
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
If they can avoid a strike by the SSD miners of Guadalajara, I would imagine this will be a very real possibility. Unless management is willing to make big concessions on mine safety, however, I am not optimistic.
Robots Will Be Our Superiors (Blog)
http://michaelhermes.com
The 768MB card gets better performance than a Radeon 5770. In many benchmarks it out does a 5830 (particularly if overclocked, which it does very well). It can match or outperform the GTX 465 (which is way more expensive). That's why I gave it a nod.
Those benchmarks are quite convincing. I'm kind of tempted to reconsider the budget.
Intel's should see a price drop as they move to a new smaller chips. So anyone who uses Intel's partner Micron should see these as well.
$30 off LIAN LI Lancool PC-K58W Black Mid Tower Computer Case. $60 w/ free shipping. Use promo code EMCYTZT54.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition 3.2GHz processor (i'm going to try and unlock this to get a 3.2GHz quad core)
Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H motherboard
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) CL7 DDR3 memory
I've got a spare copy of windows 7 64bit hanging around, so i'll finally upgrade to windows 7 on my main pc.
EDIT: The times they are a'chang'n..
The order for my current pc from 21/04/2006:
Lets see:
Replaced the hard drives multiple times (for larger capacities). The PSU died, so that got replaced. I went through two 7900GTX's within about a week (both died), went to a ATI X1900XTX then onto my current ATI 4870.
Still got the same cpu, motherboard and memory in there when it was first bought.
Yes I paid £370.47 ($470.84.. in 2006 I think it was around $2 to £1 to I guess around $740 for an Athlon X2 4800... actually, with VAT that CPU cost £391!)
That cpu has really lasted me, it still runs a lot of games pretty damn well.
Now that i've got a mortgage etc I can't justify to myself spending that much...
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Okay, will likely drop the processor down a level.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
I have a friend who is looking at building his own computer, and asked for my help in attempting to price things. The problem is, I have a very different idea about building computers than he does. My last 3 computers have all been gaming machines, and all I spent ~1k on; I expect my gaming rig to work for at least 3 years after I build it (2 is acceptable I guess). However, he wants a gaming rig that can play games like EvE or WoW for $400 bucks or so. I have tried putting one together on newegg, but I still can't seem to get it within the budget. He also hates Dell with the passion of a dying star.
So my question is if you can build a "suitable" gaming rig for $400 bucks or so. Should I push him towards quad-core? Any help in this endeavor would be awesome!
Does he have anything to use/reuse? Like an operating system hopefully?
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I think he has an OS that he can get, along with a case that should be fine, as well as keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers. Essentially all he needs is a mobo, cpu, memory, graphics, PS.
How about ~$450 (before tax and MIRs)? I guess you could downgrade a component or two to shave off the extra $.
MSI 880G AM3 mATX MoBo ($80)
Athlon II X2 260 3.2GHz Dual Core ($75)
Radeon HD5750 ($125)
GeIL 2x2GB DDR3 1333 ($82)
Antec EarthWatts EA650 ($80)
It's $400 if you believe in mail in rebates...
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
I've been holding out on a 5870 until Nvidia had a piece that was competitive enough to drive the price down a little.
The thread title is referring to the somewhat new GTX 460, which is priced right around the $200 mark.
Robots Will Be Our Superiors (Blog)
http://michaelhermes.com
From what I can tell the GTX460 would be a pretty good upgrade from my GTX260...am I correct in that thinking?
Just went into the bios and enabled the ACC stuff... this is an AMD Phenom X2 555 Black Edition unlocked to quad core:
Guess the big test now is tomorrow do stress testing to see if it works 100% ok.
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Robots Will Be Our Superiors (Blog)
http://michaelhermes.com
Going to be doing some long stress testing and reading up on vcore and vcpu-nb now. So even if I can't use it as a quad it appears using it as a tri-core is perfectly fine, hopefully a voltage tweak will allow me to run it as a quad.
EDIT: This is how it now looks:
EDIT2:
I think it's only certain AM3 processors. For example Phenom X2 550 BE, 555, 710, 720..
EDIT3: I'm now back on quad cores and stable so far, tweaked the vcpu-nb value up a tiny bit and everything is fine.. prime95 has been pegging all cores at 100% for about 15 passes now without any errors or problems. Of course going to have to run other tests as well.
EDIT4: Well, been running prime95 about an hour now and no problems whatsoever. Looks like that minor vpuc-nb voltage tweak did it. Bwaha, quad core cpu for £70.
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
I upgraded to a GTX480 from a 260 216 and i'm not sure i'd be happy with a 460, even that cheap. I don't think you'd notice a significant improvement for most games and even being able to use DX11 isn't that great if you can't turn the options up.
I suspect you'd be happier with a 470 - with about 25% more performance for £100 more.
That's assuming you have a decent CPU of course.
This review has some good comparisons.
Bam!
Currently solving 7th test pass on prime95 and running stable.
This chip has insane overhead. It runs at 20 degrees at stock speed and has a sleeping core. It's begging me to turn the knobs.
You should run prime95 for at least three hours, i've read of failures after 40 minutes or so. I think the big test is to leave prime95 running the stress test for 12 hours. If after 12 hours your computer doesn't power down, restart or prime95 doesn't report errors then you should be totally fine.
I've also had it running a few different programs since prime95 probably only really stresses certain bits of the cores like the fpu, i've tried occt with linpack so far.
I've noted down a list of programs to run to make sure my processor is ok unlocked to four cores:
prime95
linx
occt
orthos
intel burn test
superpi
I've not tried them all yet.
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Yep, very true. Although I'm not touching overclocking for a while, unlocking the cores doesn't affect the processor overall, whereas overclocking can fry it dead. Plus I'm only on the stock cooler here.
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Mass Effect, however, runs fine on his 4670.
I really wouldn't worry about it, there should be no problem.
It would be impossible for us to tele-diagnose your friend's computer hiccup based on "weird jumpyness in WoW". I highly doubt it's a defect inherent in ATi cards.
My previous motherboard before this new one was a DFI Lanparty mobo that used an nforce chipset, I used an ATI X1900XTX and after that my current 4870. Curiously the only graphics cards that had problems in that motherboard were nvidia ones, but those problems were purely manufacturing defects involving the graphics cards themselves.
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Also, to clarify, this is MY computer (AM2+ nForce 720a chipset) and HIS card (Radeon 4670) that is jumpy in WoW. My 8800gt was fine in WoW, but caused random crashes in TF2 and Mass Effect on my box, and in TF2 on his box. His box with his card is perfectly stable. So we know that the 8800gt is going bad.
Honestly, if I were you I wouldn't go near an nvidia card. I've had two nvidia cards (two 7900GTX's) die and a laptop chipset (8600M GT on a Macbook Pro) die.
ATI in the last few years have gotten their shit together big time, my only complaint is that catalyst control center is a piece of garbage.
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
A windows install that lasted seven years, well.. now I have seen everything.. ;-)
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Honestly, most games don't even hit the CPU to any appreciable degree (save for a small handful), that faster tri-core versus slower quad is pretty much a moot issue. Games just simply don't care if you're running a few hundred megahertz faster. The converse of the issue (having 4 versus 3 cores) is also the same.
So basically, a moderate clocked dual core is still more than gaming quality. So think less gaming and more other stuff (encoding or whatever) when deciding if you want quad or triple.
Nuke from orbit is always a good option.