As someone who made the "gaming laptop" compromise while I still needed portability and space savings at school, I would definitely advise you to go with the desktop if you have no compelling need for a laptop.
My MSI gaming laptop fulfilled my needs about as well as anything could have, but now a year and a half later it's reaching the limits of its capabilities with no way to upgrade to extend its lifespan, and of course I spent significantly more on it than I would have spent on a desktop.
I don't regret buying the MSI, there weren't really any better options at the time (I mean, besides gritting my teeth and accepting not being able to do any gaming until I was out of school, but that was never going to happen), but unless you're in a similar situation to the one I was in a gaming laptop is probably just a bad investment. Custom-built gaming desktop + netbook for uility/coffee shop runs/etc is definitely the way to go.
I believe I will heed your advice and that of the previous poster and just go with the desktop, then. Any advice on desktop builds would be greatly appreciated (and hey, if anyone has a netbook recommendation I'd be quite glad to hear it as well).
-intel core i5 760
-Asus P7p55
-kingston 1333 4gb ram
-powercolor hd 5770
-SATA Asus DVD burner
-Thermaltake qfan 500W
-Seagate 500gb
- NZXT M59 case
Honestly, now that Sandybridge is out you should really consider just moving to the new chipset instead of going with Lynnfield. Price wise it will be equivalent but you will get much much better bang for the buck now. Right now even the mobile versions of the Sandybridge chips are outperforming the i5s from the previous generation.
Thing is I need the computer NOW and sandy bridge seems like total overkill for what I need. Unless it gives some sort of performance boost for photoshop and illustrator.
How much would sandy bridge and a compatible motherboard be when it's first released? Does the processor graphics benefit me in anything even though if i have something fairly midrange like a 5770? Also when is it released?
edit: ah fuck it, now I'm reconsiderinng again.
Should I go for a P67 board or a h67 board? I don't think I'll get into SLI. Maybe.
Goddamn I'm fallling further into the rabbit hole.
This board seem perfect for what I want though. P8P67-I.
I'm not all that familiar with ITX boards though, could someone educate me whether i should go for them or not?
I'm thinking about upgrading my graphics. I bought an XFX GeForce 8600 GT 256MB back in 2007 and while I don't plan to play anything particularly recent on it I would definitely like some improved performance and prettiness on my screen. The thing is my PC is getting on a bit, its running an Athlon 64 3500 and I'm wondering, even if I get some better graphics hardware is the rest of my old system going to prove a hindrance? Am I going to get my money's worth out of a new card if I'm putting it in this old rig or should I just save up my pennies and start over on a new system?
Alright, after reading up on the sandy bridge i5 2500k (quite a bit of reading actually :P) can I assume that it requires a lower Watt usage compared to the i5 760?
I guess I can wait for awhile to get my new rig. Faster photoshop processing and lower energy usage is pretty attractive.
Yeah, you'll probably see some gains in photoshop and illustrator by moving up to Sandy Bridge. Although theoretically, I think both Sandybridge and Lynnfield are designed for a TDP of 95 watts, Anandtech's power consumption benchmarks shows it consuming less under load.
You probably won't need to wait long to build your new rig. The parts should be in retail in a few days. They are already selling the chips in Korea now, and that's less than 24 hours after they officially announced them yesterday.
krapst78 on
Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father prepare to die!
Looking for a Hardcore Fantasy Extraction Shooter? - Dark and Darker
Yeah, you'll probably see some gains in photoshop and illustrator by moving up to Sandy Bridge. Although theoretically, I think both Sandybridge and Lynnfield are designed for a TDP of 95 watts, Anandtech's power consumption benchmarks shows it consuming less under load.
You probably won't need to wait long to build your new rig. The parts should be in retail in a few days. They are already selling the chips in Korea now, and that's less than 24 hours after they officially announced them yesterday.
The computer shop I go to actually has some p67 boards and sandy bridge CPUs, but they're the 2300, 2400 and 2600 versions and the motherboards are too expensive.
Does newegg ship to australia? If not I probably have to wait more than 2 weeks for the i5 2500K.
Is there anything that I should look out for that I'm not aware of? Note: I'm probably not aware of a lot.
What are you wanting to do with that? I have a card that is essentially the same and I can play most games at at least 720 resolution on medium or high settings, some games at full 1080 (like any source engine game). If you just want something cheap that can play games on, but not going to be pushing the limit or be really future proof than that seems okay.
kleinfehn on
0
jaziekBad at everythingAnd mad about it.Registered Userregular
edited January 2011
Ugh, one of my ram sticks died last night, and also my software hdd is making very unhealthy noises.
those two samsung drives are exactly the same, any idea why they would show up different in device manager?
Also, under "other devices", I have something called Marvell 91xx config ATA device showing up. I imagine this is related.
So I sort of quit paying attention to graphics cards for a while and now that I'm building a new machine I'm a little lost. I'm not entirely sure how up to date the OP is so I thought I'd ask.
Price wise at least the geforce 450s seem about equivalent to the 5770s so I figured I'd use that as a starting point. But beyond that I'm not entirely sure where to go. I used to go to this site that had recommended cards that updated every month or so but I can't remember what the name of it was.
Essentially I use my computer for graphics work mostly in PS, illustrator and some light video and flash work and gaming. I don't have too many cutting edge graphics games, I think my newest ones would be BC2 or Mass Effect 2 but I have a lot of games from steam and I play wow occasionally and would like to at least be able to crank the settings in that game.
The board I am buying is able to SLI or crossfire and that is an option as long as 2 cards don't go over $350-400.
Also separate question but I was considering getting an SSD just for Windows and wasn't sure if there's a way to take my current main Hard Drive and erase the OS without clearing out the data because that would save a headache and having to get a new drive just to back everything up
I used to go to this site that had recommended cards that updated every month or so but I can't remember what the name of it was.
I'll leave more knowledgeable people to make recommendations, but I wanted to throw out the graphics card approximate hierarchy chart at the end of Tom's Hardware's monthly graphics card roundup. Even if it's not what you used to use, it was enormously helpful plotting my own build. (They do processors too.)
Is there anything that I should look out for that I'm not aware of? Note: I'm probably not aware of a lot.
I got this for $79 before Christmas, and it runs cool and stable overclocked about 15%. Stock it's a bit better than the card you listed, and for an extra $10 (it should probably be cheaper in the US), you can't go wrong. Double the memory, double the memory bandwidth, 33% more stream processors, probably explain why it's three steps higher on the heirarchy chart...
Price wise at least the geforce 450s seem about equivalent to the 5770s so I figured I'd use that as a starting point. But beyond that I'm not entirely sure where to go. I used to go to this site that had recommended cards that updated every month or so but I can't remember what the name of it was.
Also separate question but I was considering getting an SSD just for Windows and wasn't sure if there's a way to take my current main Hard Drive and erase the OS without clearing out the data because that would save a headache and having to get a new drive just to back everything up
You can simply hook up the old HDD drive as a secondary drive and you should be able to access most files. However, you may run into some file access issues if you used a login for your old OS.
krapst78 on
Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father prepare to die!
Looking for a Hardcore Fantasy Extraction Shooter? - Dark and Darker
Hey guys, maybe I should have started a new thread for this but since I was planning my build in here earlier I figured what the heck.
I'm currently in the process of actually building my new rig. All is going relatively well once I overcame a few silly rookie mistakes. My question is this: my case (a Cooler Master HAF922) has a total of three fans. My motherboard instructions seem to be designed for cases with only one fan, and only show one spot on the mobo to plug it in. How do I get the other two running?
Hey guys, maybe I should have started a new thread for this but since I was planning my build in here earlier I figured what the heck.
I'm currently in the process of actually building my new rig. All is going relatively well once I overcame a few silly rookie mistakes. My question is this: my case (a Cooler Master HAF922) has a total of three fans. My motherboard instructions seem to be designed for cases with only one fan, and only show one spot on the mobo to plug it in. How do I get the other two running?
A fan controller. You'd probably have to use extensions if you go that route.
If your looking for a fan controller (and if you have the extra cash to spare you really should over just molet fan adapters) than I recommend the Scythe Kaze KM03
good build quality and 12w per channel so it can handle just about any fan out there.
being able to turn down fans even a little bit can really decrease the noise, and if you really start pushing the system just crank it up temporarily
As nice as a controller is, the fans on the HAF are super-quiet (the only fan I can even hear at this point is the blower on my 6870), and plugging them in using the molex adapters should be fine. I don't know about yours, but my 922 came with the molex adapters already on the fans, so you may not even need to buy them. Just plug them directly into your PSU instead of your motherboard.
What video card or more needs to be upgraded to run stuff like CODBLOPS and newer games on max settings smoothly? Preferably on this mobo so I don't have to get a new copy of Vista too.
That said, you could do a few things: Upgrade your Pentium to a Core 2 Duo, upgrade your graphics card to a 4850/4870, or even one of the lower end 5000 series.
My 922 did indeed come with the adapters already on the fans, I just didn't realize what they were for at first. :oops:
I am typing this at you from my new machine! All systems appear to be nominal aside from the fact that it claims there's no driver for the ethernet controller and the slight problem that the USB ports on the front of my case don't work. I suspect they didn't end up properly connected when I was juggling fans. Going to pop the case open again later and get that resolved, shouldn't be a big deal.
I had a minor freakout after the initial Windows install when it could only detect a generic VGA adapter and not my Radeon 6850. Then I remembered that was what the disc with the drivers was for. Rookie. :P
Going to take a little bit to get files/settings/game saves and so forth transferred over, to say nothing of my Steam library. Crysis is downloading for the rig's true shakedown cruise as we speak! 8-)
Speaking of ethernet drivers, most motherboards come with a disc which (should) have all the drivers you need for those things. If you haven't already, check that, and it may also have drivers for your front panel USB connectors.
What video card or more needs to be upgraded to run stuff like CODBLOPS and newer games on max settings smoothly? Preferably on this mobo so I don't have to get a new copy of Vista too.
I read CODBLOPS was ported badly so you might need more power for your machine than what you really should. I would first update your CPU or GPU if you have the funds, maybe get a 4850 or higher in power GPU wise. CPU you should be okay for a lot of games, but some like GTA4 will want 4 cores. Have any plans for that graphics card? If not I would be interested in it.
What video card or more needs to be upgraded to run stuff like CODBLOPS and newer games on max settings smoothly? Preferably on this mobo so I don't have to get a new copy of Vista too.
450W should be fine for a Core 2 Duo + a HD6850 if you have $200 for it. I'm in a similar situation and seriously considering it myself. If you can find a used 5770 for ~$100-$120 that would also be reasonable.
Zoelef on
0
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
My dad is currently looking for a new computer, as I bought him Railworks 2 for Christmas and he can't play it. Well, that and it is time to upgrade anyways.
He was going eBay diving for equipment, as is his usual way, but I stopped him in order to get him recommendations. Only problem is, I bought my last computer 2 years ago, and used a Core 2 Duo and a Radeon HD 4850.
With a consideration for future-proofing, it looks like an i5 + mobo and a Radeon HD 4850 would be a good starting place, yes? Dad was looking at Asus motherboards, which I also swear by, but he was naming a model that I didn't recognize.
The other options he may be considering is a small form factor setup or a laptop + docking station. Honestly, I think the laptop would be the best solution, given how much he's been travelling lately, but those aren't known to be powerhouses without paying an arm and a leg for them.
I want to keep the budget at $500 for critical parts. A good PSU might be needed as well, but that should be part of the case. He doesn't need anything like SLI or even DX11. Having enough power to do low-end video editing would be a nice touch as well.
Price wise at least the geforce 450s seem about equivalent to the 5770s so I figured I'd use that as a starting point. But beyond that I'm not entirely sure where to go. I used to go to this site that had recommended cards that updated every month or so but I can't remember what the name of it was.
Also separate question but I was considering getting an SSD just for Windows and wasn't sure if there's a way to take my current main Hard Drive and erase the OS without clearing out the data because that would save a headache and having to get a new drive just to back everything up
You can simply hook up the old HDD drive as a secondary drive and you should be able to access most files. However, you may run into some file access issues if you used a login for your old OS.
Thanks that was the site I used as reference last time I built a computer. The hierarchy chart is nice too for a quick comparison.
@ Hard drive: Also, yeah I figured I'd be able to do that. The more I think about it though there's a lot of bloat on that drive from sever years of use as my OS so I might just move my data to another drive and clear that one.
You can get this card for around the same price, maybe cheaper elsewhere, and it will perform a bit better than the 5750. I saw it for around $100 a few weeks ago so keep looking and waiting if you want.
So I need a cheap video card that'll run most games decently at 1680 x 1050 and I'm looking at the ATI 5670, is that good or should I go for the (roughly same price) GT 240?
EDIT: Solved, I decided to take another step down and went for a 5570, I mostly play turn based strategy and will be replacing the card in a few months anyway.
Okay, so the Search function seems to be down. I know this is something that has been asked before here or in another thread. But oh well...
I want a sound card. Yes, yes, I know that on-board audio is generally "good enough" for most. I am an exception. My primary requirement in this sound card, and a primary reason I am getting one, is Dolby Digital Live. Aside from that, I'm hoping for maybe marginally better sound that my on-board? Not garbage?
Cards I'm looking at:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium - These guys are still around? Wow. I remember my first Sound Blaster. It was just called a Sound Blaster. All mono and shit. Times have changed. I can get this for $90 off the shelf locally.
Asus Xonar DX - Hey, these guys made my motherboard. And my monitor. And my fucking toaster. How are their sound cards?
HT Omega Striker - The first PCI (rather than PCIe) card of the bunch. Though that doesn't matter much, I'm pretty sure I can free up a slot. I've heard good things.
Turtle Beach Montego - The cheap-o of the bunch. Also PCI. Reviews are spotty. I'm worried.
Everybody bitches about Creative nowadays. I have no idea if their cards are any good anymore. I also hate supporting patent-hoarding monopolists, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. The ASUS I've seen mixed reviews on. Also, I've heard the minijack->TOSLink adapter is cheesy and likely to break. That seems like a terrible choice, as opposed to just providing TOSLink or RCA. Otherwise, seems solid. The HT Omega is another I hear people swear by. Has RCA as well as optical, which I like (I'd use the RCA if available). The Turtle Beach is just there as a budget option.
My setup is an Astro A40 with Mixamp. Basically, I want to be able to easily output via DDL to the Mixamp and have it do the surround processing. A lot of games have surround built-in, and a lot of cheaper soundcards do too, but some don't. Plus, I'd like to be able to hook up to a receiver if I choose.
Does anybody use DDL? Is it...easy? Like, the game just sees a standard 5.1 sound card, and the DDL layer just automagically turns that into an AC3 stream? Or does the game need to support DDL? That would seem stupid.
What's EAX? Do I care? The HT Omega and TB only do up to EAX 2.0. The SB and ASUS do up to 5.0. But I hear about this ALChemy thing and the fact that Windows Vista and 7 don't even support EAX? Huh?
Somebody here has to still know about sound cards. I can't be the last one.
If this isn't really appropriate for here, I'll make a separate thread.
I had an X-Fi Titanium and it was pretty good, but I wasn't looking for anything amazing, and only had a cheapo Logitech 5.1 system to go with it.
I've heard good things about Asus' soundcards, but if that particular model is having probles, I'm not sure. Mostly I replied to answer your last few questions:
My creative software came with all the stuff that did the DDL processing. In games, I just set it to "use hardware" and left the creative software running in the background. Set it once and forget. Plus, the creative software had profiles, automagical profile switching when plugging in headphones, etc.
EAX is a Creative technology that simulates sound effects, essentially. It's a gaming thing. I would liken it to the PhysX of the gaming-sound world. You may (or may not) notice a difference, it's dependent on whether or not a studio implements it. It WORKS in Vista/7 but only with OpenAL, and not Directsound, because hardware acceleration was dropped for DirectSound/DirectSound 3D in Vista.
Pirusu on
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
The reason that TurtleBeach and Asus only implement EAX 2.0 is because it's all they can implement. Everything past that they would have to license from Creative.
That said, almost nothing uses hardware accelerated 3D sound anymore, and if it does, it does it through OpenAL. Almost all 3D sound is processed in software these days, because the hardware + driver mess is just that...a god damn mess.
e: Oh, and I have an X-Fi XtremeMusic I use as my primary speaker output (the onboard I use for headphones/mic for voice comms), and it works fine. Decent enough card.
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
So... I need to upgrade my processor for Blackops... I currently have a socket am2 board, do I have any options worth going for (in the long run) or should i just grab an am3 board and work from there.
edit: after some research, apparently am3 processors work on am2 boards. Looks like this won't be that painful an upgrade.
I want to replace my PC during the next couple of weeks. I use it for gaming and as a HTPC, it will be connected to a 40" 1080p LCD and a Marantz SR5004 surround receiver with 5.1 speakers. I like my systems to be fairly future-proof because while I like building new systems, I hate having to dispose of old components (which is why my Athlon 600 system from 2000 is still gathering dust in the basement). So far I've used all my systems for at least 3 years with only minor upgrades and would like to keep it that way. So this should be a fairly potent system but not too high-end since it needs to fit into a small case and not be too noisy (doesn't need to be silent).
With Sandy Bridge CPUs becoming available this week, I'm thinking something like this:
CPU: intel core i5 2500
Mainboard: ASRock H67M-GE (µATX)
GPU: AMD HD6950 2GB
RAM: 2 x 4GB A-DATA DDR1333
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W
System drive: OCZ Vertex 2 E 120 GB SSD
Data drive: Samsung HD103UJ 1 TB
Optical drive: LG GH-22NS
Case: Silverstone Grandia GD05B
I was originally going to go with a GTX470 GPU because I have more positive experiences concerning drivers and compatibility with nVidia than with AMD. Then I saw some power consumption and heat / noise figures and thought the HD6950 might be better in that area and more future-proof thanks to the 2GB RAM. Does this make sense?
Another thing that I noticed is that nowadays all the graphics cards have HDMI connectors and supposedly you can use them to stream uncompressed 8 channel audio? Does this work or is there some reason not to do it? My current PC has an X-FI XtremeMusic that connects to my receiver via SPDIF and Dolby Digital Live which works okay, but uncompressed multi channel sound without needing a dedicated sound card sounds pretty sweet to me. However, I don't want to pass the video signal through my receiver because it introduces overscan. Would it be possible to pass the video signal to my TV via a DVI/HDMI cable and pass only the audio via HDMI/HDMI from the graphics card to the receiver?
Posts
I believe I will heed your advice and that of the previous poster and just go with the desktop, then. Any advice on desktop builds would be greatly appreciated (and hey, if anyone has a netbook recommendation I'd be quite glad to hear it as well).
I like my Acer AspireOne a lot. I've got one of the beefier 11.6" models.
Thing is I need the computer NOW and sandy bridge seems like total overkill for what I need. Unless it gives some sort of performance boost for photoshop and illustrator.
How much would sandy bridge and a compatible motherboard be when it's first released? Does the processor graphics benefit me in anything even though if i have something fairly midrange like a 5770? Also when is it released?
edit: ah fuck it, now I'm reconsiderinng again.
Should I go for a P67 board or a h67 board? I don't think I'll get into SLI. Maybe.
Goddamn I'm fallling further into the rabbit hole.
This board seem perfect for what I want though. P8P67-I.
I'm not all that familiar with ITX boards though, could someone educate me whether i should go for them or not?
I guess I can wait for awhile to get my new rig. Faster photoshop processing and lower energy usage is pretty attractive.
You probably won't need to wait long to build your new rig. The parts should be in retail in a few days. They are already selling the chips in Korea now, and that's less than 24 hours after they officially announced them yesterday.
Looking for a Hardcore Fantasy Extraction Shooter? - Dark and Darker
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261059&nm_mc=OTC-Channel&cm_mmc=OTC-channel-_-Video+Cards-_-Palit+Microsystems-_-14261059&srccode=cii_7240466&cpncode=24-14421641&DEPA=0&refer=channel&CMP=OTC-
It's the GeForce GT 240 512 MB PCI card.
Is there anything that I should look out for that I'm not aware of? Note: I'm probably not aware of a lot.
PSN: ChemENGR
The computer shop I go to actually has some p67 boards and sandy bridge CPUs, but they're the 2300, 2400 and 2600 versions and the motherboards are too expensive.
Does newegg ship to australia? If not I probably have to wait more than 2 weeks for the i5 2500K.
What are you wanting to do with that? I have a card that is essentially the same and I can play most games at at least 720 resolution on medium or high settings, some games at full 1080 (like any source engine game). If you just want something cheap that can play games on, but not going to be pushing the limit or be really future proof than that seems okay.
those two samsung drives are exactly the same, any idea why they would show up different in device manager?
Also, under "other devices", I have something called Marvell 91xx config ATA device showing up. I imagine this is related.
Is there anything about the ASUS P8P67 that's going to make me regret buying it? because if not I'll be sticking with that.
Also, haven't gotten my computer yet, but I got a moniter anyway. LG 2353. Pretty happy with it so far. Anyone has any experiences with it?
Price wise at least the geforce 450s seem about equivalent to the 5770s so I figured I'd use that as a starting point. But beyond that I'm not entirely sure where to go. I used to go to this site that had recommended cards that updated every month or so but I can't remember what the name of it was.
Essentially I use my computer for graphics work mostly in PS, illustrator and some light video and flash work and gaming. I don't have too many cutting edge graphics games, I think my newest ones would be BC2 or Mass Effect 2 but I have a lot of games from steam and I play wow occasionally and would like to at least be able to crank the settings in that game.
The board I am buying is able to SLI or crossfire and that is an option as long as 2 cards don't go over $350-400.
Also separate question but I was considering getting an SSD just for Windows and wasn't sure if there's a way to take my current main Hard Drive and erase the OS without clearing out the data because that would save a headache and having to get a new drive just to back everything up
I'll leave more knowledgeable people to make recommendations, but I wanted to throw out the graphics card approximate hierarchy chart at the end of Tom's Hardware's monthly graphics card roundup. Even if it's not what you used to use, it was enormously helpful plotting my own build. (They do processors too.)
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I got this for $79 before Christmas, and it runs cool and stable overclocked about 15%. Stock it's a bit better than the card you listed, and for an extra $10 (it should probably be cheaper in the US), you can't go wrong. Double the memory, double the memory bandwidth, 33% more stream processors, probably explain why it's three steps higher on the heirarchy chart...
I think the site you are talking about is Tom's Hardware's 'Best Graphic Cards for the Money' articles. The hierarchy chart that Iolo lists above actually comes from that article.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-recommendation-upgrade,2803.html
If you have to choose between the two, the 5770 is better than the gts 450 in most situations. If you are looking to SLI cards at under $350 then your best bet is probably to get two of these (GTX 460 1GB for $170 each)
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-PCI-Express-Graphics-01G-P3-1366-TR/dp/B004DKWLB4/ref=sr_1_23?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1294197344&sr=1-23
edit: nix that suggestion. Those gtx 460's are the SE version which are have less shader cores than the normal version.
You can simply hook up the old HDD drive as a secondary drive and you should be able to access most files. However, you may run into some file access issues if you used a login for your old OS.
Looking for a Hardcore Fantasy Extraction Shooter? - Dark and Darker
I'm currently in the process of actually building my new rig. All is going relatively well once I overcame a few silly rookie mistakes. My question is this: my case (a Cooler Master HAF922) has a total of three fans. My motherboard instructions seem to be designed for cases with only one fan, and only show one spot on the mobo to plug it in. How do I get the other two running?
A fan controller. You'd probably have to use extensions if you go that route.
Or a couple adapters.
http://www.amazon.com/Fan-Molex-Pin-MB/dp/B000BSJGL0
A fan controller is nicer because it gives you easy control over fan speed. Using adapters you'll lose that.
edit:
Forgot to say that if you only have one three pin header on your motherboard you'd still need the molex adapters if you used a fan controller.
good build quality and 12w per channel so it can handle just about any fan out there.
being able to turn down fans even a little bit can really decrease the noise, and if you really start pushing the system just crank it up temporarily
power supply- CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
case- Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Video Card-GIGABYTE GV-R467D3-512I Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Mobo- MSI P43 Neo3-F LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
Processor- Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80571E5200
RAM- OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2N800SR4GK
HDD- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
What video card or more needs to be upgraded to run stuff like CODBLOPS and newer games on max settings smoothly? Preferably on this mobo so I don't have to get a new copy of Vista too.
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That said, you could do a few things: Upgrade your Pentium to a Core 2 Duo, upgrade your graphics card to a 4850/4870, or even one of the lower end 5000 series.
I am typing this at you from my new machine! All systems appear to be nominal aside from the fact that it claims there's no driver for the ethernet controller and the slight problem that the USB ports on the front of my case don't work. I suspect they didn't end up properly connected when I was juggling fans. Going to pop the case open again later and get that resolved, shouldn't be a big deal.
I had a minor freakout after the initial Windows install when it could only detect a generic VGA adapter and not my Radeon 6850. Then I remembered that was what the disc with the drivers was for. Rookie. :P
Going to take a little bit to get files/settings/game saves and so forth transferred over, to say nothing of my Steam library. Crysis is downloading for the rig's true shakedown cruise as we speak! 8-)
I read CODBLOPS was ported badly so you might need more power for your machine than what you really should. I would first update your CPU or GPU if you have the funds, maybe get a 4850 or higher in power GPU wise. CPU you should be okay for a lot of games, but some like GTA4 will want 4 cores. Have any plans for that graphics card? If not I would be interested in it.
450W should be fine for a Core 2 Duo + a HD6850 if you have $200 for it. I'm in a similar situation and seriously considering it myself. If you can find a used 5770 for ~$100-$120 that would also be reasonable.
He was going eBay diving for equipment, as is his usual way, but I stopped him in order to get him recommendations. Only problem is, I bought my last computer 2 years ago, and used a Core 2 Duo and a Radeon HD 4850.
With a consideration for future-proofing, it looks like an i5 + mobo and a Radeon HD 4850 would be a good starting place, yes? Dad was looking at Asus motherboards, which I also swear by, but he was naming a model that I didn't recognize.
The other options he may be considering is a small form factor setup or a laptop + docking station. Honestly, I think the laptop would be the best solution, given how much he's been travelling lately, but those aren't known to be powerhouses without paying an arm and a leg for them.
I want to keep the budget at $500 for critical parts. A good PSU might be needed as well, but that should be part of the case. He doesn't need anything like SLI or even DX11. Having enough power to do low-end video editing would be a nice touch as well.
Anyone have recommendations?
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Thanks that was the site I used as reference last time I built a computer. The hierarchy chart is nice too for a quick comparison.
I'm leaning more towards two cards linked together. this seemed like a pretty good option for that, but my knowledge about ATI cards isn't nearly as good as my nvidia
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5599121&CatId=3669
@ Hard drive: Also, yeah I figured I'd be able to do that. The more I think about it though there's a lot of bloat on that drive from sever years of use as my OS so I might just move my data to another drive and clear that one.
As for the card, I need to find something to put it in but I'll probably just sell it.
What about
This card
and this cpu
They look good and reasonably priced.
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You can get this card for around the same price, maybe cheaper elsewhere, and it will perform a bit better than the 5750. I saw it for around $100 a few weeks ago so keep looking and waiting if you want.
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-100283-3L/dp/B0035K6H2C
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873
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I am looking to upgrade my computer, by pretty much replacing everything except hard drives and the GPU.
Here is a list of things I have thought about getting, and I would love some thoughts on this list.
CPU: 1 AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition 3.2GH 95.90€
PSU: 1 Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W ATX-PSU 89.90€
Hard drive:1 Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3.0 G 57.90€
Blu-ray/dvd combo drive: 1 Samsung SH-B083L/BSBP Blu-ray Combo 8X B 67.90€
RAMS: 2 Kingston HyperX 2GB 1600MHz DDR3 CL9 1.6 53.80€
Motherboard 1 Asus M4A79XTD EVO AMD 790X Socket AM3 AT 99.90€
Case 1 Zalman MS1000-HS2 ATX-kotelo ilman virta 149.90€
For a total of 615.20€
So, anything wrong or whatever?
EDIT: Solved, I decided to take another step down and went for a 5570, I mostly play turn based strategy and will be replacing the card in a few months anyway.
I want a sound card. Yes, yes, I know that on-board audio is generally "good enough" for most. I am an exception. My primary requirement in this sound card, and a primary reason I am getting one, is Dolby Digital Live. Aside from that, I'm hoping for maybe marginally better sound that my on-board? Not garbage?
Cards I'm looking at:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium - These guys are still around? Wow. I remember my first Sound Blaster. It was just called a Sound Blaster. All mono and shit. Times have changed. I can get this for $90 off the shelf locally.
Asus Xonar DX - Hey, these guys made my motherboard. And my monitor. And my fucking toaster. How are their sound cards?
HT Omega Striker - The first PCI (rather than PCIe) card of the bunch. Though that doesn't matter much, I'm pretty sure I can free up a slot. I've heard good things.
Turtle Beach Montego - The cheap-o of the bunch. Also PCI. Reviews are spotty. I'm worried.
Everybody bitches about Creative nowadays. I have no idea if their cards are any good anymore. I also hate supporting patent-hoarding monopolists, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. The ASUS I've seen mixed reviews on. Also, I've heard the minijack->TOSLink adapter is cheesy and likely to break. That seems like a terrible choice, as opposed to just providing TOSLink or RCA. Otherwise, seems solid. The HT Omega is another I hear people swear by. Has RCA as well as optical, which I like (I'd use the RCA if available). The Turtle Beach is just there as a budget option.
My setup is an Astro A40 with Mixamp. Basically, I want to be able to easily output via DDL to the Mixamp and have it do the surround processing. A lot of games have surround built-in, and a lot of cheaper soundcards do too, but some don't. Plus, I'd like to be able to hook up to a receiver if I choose.
Does anybody use DDL? Is it...easy? Like, the game just sees a standard 5.1 sound card, and the DDL layer just automagically turns that into an AC3 stream? Or does the game need to support DDL? That would seem stupid.
What's EAX? Do I care? The HT Omega and TB only do up to EAX 2.0. The SB and ASUS do up to 5.0. But I hear about this ALChemy thing and the fact that Windows Vista and 7 don't even support EAX? Huh?
Somebody here has to still know about sound cards. I can't be the last one.
If this isn't really appropriate for here, I'll make a separate thread.
I would push for a Phenom II X4 and 4GB of RAM. Unless I am reading your RAM bit wrong and you are saying 2x2GB.
I'd also wait until AM3+ boards are released, so you have an upgrade path with AMD's Bulldozer next year and beyond.
Should be seeing AM3+ boards coming soon. Everything else looks fine.
I've heard good things about Asus' soundcards, but if that particular model is having probles, I'm not sure. Mostly I replied to answer your last few questions:
My creative software came with all the stuff that did the DDL processing. In games, I just set it to "use hardware" and left the creative software running in the background. Set it once and forget. Plus, the creative software had profiles, automagical profile switching when plugging in headphones, etc.
EAX is a Creative technology that simulates sound effects, essentially. It's a gaming thing. I would liken it to the PhysX of the gaming-sound world. You may (or may not) notice a difference, it's dependent on whether or not a studio implements it. It WORKS in Vista/7 but only with OpenAL, and not Directsound, because hardware acceleration was dropped for DirectSound/DirectSound 3D in Vista.
That said, almost nothing uses hardware accelerated 3D sound anymore, and if it does, it does it through OpenAL. Almost all 3D sound is processed in software these days, because the hardware + driver mess is just that...a god damn mess.
e: Oh, and I have an X-Fi XtremeMusic I use as my primary speaker output (the onboard I use for headphones/mic for voice comms), and it works fine. Decent enough card.
edit: after some research, apparently am3 processors work on am2 boards. Looks like this won't be that painful an upgrade.
I want to replace my PC during the next couple of weeks. I use it for gaming and as a HTPC, it will be connected to a 40" 1080p LCD and a Marantz SR5004 surround receiver with 5.1 speakers. I like my systems to be fairly future-proof because while I like building new systems, I hate having to dispose of old components (which is why my Athlon 600 system from 2000 is still gathering dust in the basement). So far I've used all my systems for at least 3 years with only minor upgrades and would like to keep it that way. So this should be a fairly potent system but not too high-end since it needs to fit into a small case and not be too noisy (doesn't need to be silent).
With Sandy Bridge CPUs becoming available this week, I'm thinking something like this:
CPU: intel core i5 2500
Mainboard: ASRock H67M-GE (µATX)
GPU: AMD HD6950 2GB
RAM: 2 x 4GB A-DATA DDR1333
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W
System drive: OCZ Vertex 2 E 120 GB SSD
Data drive: Samsung HD103UJ 1 TB
Optical drive: LG GH-22NS
Case: Silverstone Grandia GD05B
I was originally going to go with a GTX470 GPU because I have more positive experiences concerning drivers and compatibility with nVidia than with AMD. Then I saw some power consumption and heat / noise figures and thought the HD6950 might be better in that area and more future-proof thanks to the 2GB RAM. Does this make sense?
Another thing that I noticed is that nowadays all the graphics cards have HDMI connectors and supposedly you can use them to stream uncompressed 8 channel audio? Does this work or is there some reason not to do it? My current PC has an X-FI XtremeMusic that connects to my receiver via SPDIF and Dolby Digital Live which works okay, but uncompressed multi channel sound without needing a dedicated sound card sounds pretty sweet to me. However, I don't want to pass the video signal through my receiver because it introduces overscan. Would it be possible to pass the video signal to my TV via a DVI/HDMI cable and pass only the audio via HDMI/HDMI from the graphics card to the receiver?
Thanks for any suggestions, answers and comments