Looks good, though in light of recent SeaGate issues I would recommend going with the similarly-priced Western Digital Caviar Black instead for the hard drive.
As for the Radeon HD 4850, it's good enough for some resolutions, but if you're looking to run games at 1920x1200 or above (24" or bigger widescreen monitors) I would recommend spending a bit more and getting at least a 4870. On the other hand, if you're good with lower resolutions, the 4850 would do fine.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
So I built my new computer on Wednesday night and it has been glorious. No complaints with Win 7 so far except that it updated the NIC driver for my Gigabyte mobo and it didn't work, so had to roll that back.
Let me tell ya, going from playing TF2 on an Athlon64 3200+ with a HD2600 Radeon to this is incredible. Settings maxed, 4xAA, 1920x1080 and smooth as silk. Need new pants.
Since you mentioned Photoshop, I thought I'd also toss out there that a Quad Core might be worthwhile for your purposes, even though they are more expensive. This is the cheapest Core 2 Quad. The other processor I listed would be fine, though, if you don't want to spend more money.
Gear GirlMore class than a state universityRegistered Userregular
edited February 2009
Ok guys my brother is having a computer put together for him by a company called Memory Express in Calgary and I know very little of what is good or not good these days so I am just going to type out what is in the current build and the price and see what you guys think.
Antec Nine Hundred Gamer Case 129.99
Sapphire Radeon HD4850 1GB GDDR3 PCI-E 239.99
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2HP Motherboard 104.99
Kingston 4GB(2*2GB)DR2-800 CL5 Kit 64.99
Vista Home Premium 64bit 159.99
Seagate 500gb 7200.12 16MB SATA II 74.99
AMD Phenom X4 9650 2.3 GHz 4MB 164.99
Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650Watt 120mm Fan 124.99
LG SuperMulti DVDRW 22x SATA BK 29.99
All Canadian prices. With labor, 2 year plan and tax.
Total= 1317.65(Canadian)
Any glaring problems? Things he should consider changing? Ripoff or something?
Also one thing of note is he doesn't know anyone to put it together for him and he is not interested in doing it himself at all so please don't bother suggesting that. Oh and he will be using this computer for gaming though he tends to play older games more but may occasionally play high end games from time to time and also for schoolwork (video editing, photoshop ect).
The 4670 is a pretty bad card, so you'd be pretty limited in resolution/graphics settings, and don't expect to be able to play some newer games at all (mainly Crysis, maybe some others like Far Cry 2).
I would definitely spend less on the CPU and more on the video card if you haven't already built it, and it's for gaming.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
Getting my new computer in this week and I was wondering if there was a way to transfer over all of my firefox bookmarks/settings and all of that.
The FEBE plugin for firefox will back them up for you, and then you can restore them to the new machine.
Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > Import and Backup if you don't want to bother with an addon just yet. Synchronizing bookmarks is great if you have multiple PC's though.
Luq on
FFRK:jWwH RW:Onion Knight's Sage USB
0
TehSlothHit Or MissI Guess They Never Miss, HuhRegistered Userregular
edited February 2009
Hurgh, so I think I may have fried my nic. Last night a million things died on me simultaneously, including my nic and all my USB ports. Weird I thought, well now I guess this is as good a time as any to try w7 instead of just trying to repair vista. Everything was going great and almost all my hardware is back online with the exception of my network adapter. Anyway, I'm going to go pick up a new one and was hoping someone could let me know what they are using that definitely has w7 drivers
Looks good, though in light of recent SeaGate issues I would recommend going with the similarly-priced Western Digital Caviar Black instead for the hard drive.
As for the Radeon HD 4850, it's good enough for some resolutions, but if you're looking to run games at 1920x1200 or above (24" or bigger widescreen monitors) I would recommend spending a bit more and getting at least a 4870. On the other hand, if you're good with lower resolutions, the 4850 would do fine.
Cool, thanks for the tip about the SeaGate thing. I only have a 22-inch widescreen so the 4850 oughta do it. Now to save up some scratch and buy this thing.
The 4670 is a pretty bad card, so you'd be pretty limited in resolution/graphics settings, and don't expect to be able to play some newer games at all (mainly Crysis, maybe some others like Far Cry 2).
I would definitely spend less on the CPU and more on the video card if you haven't already built it, and it's for gaming.
What makes a 'bad card'? I read some reviews tonight were people have said it's run all their games fine (minus Crysis). It's not for gaming, but I just want to know what my limit is for when I do play games. Also, is the card better than a AGP ATI X1600
The 4670 is a pretty bad card, so you'd be pretty limited in resolution/graphics settings, and don't expect to be able to play some newer games at all (mainly Crysis, maybe some others like Far Cry 2).
I would definitely spend less on the CPU and more on the video card if you haven't already built it, and it's for gaming.
What makes a 'bad card'? I read some reviews tonight were people have said it's run all their games fine (minus Crysis). It's not for gaming, but I just want to know what my limit is for when I do play games. Also, is the card better than a AGP ATI X1600
Going by these benchmarks, the 4670 looks pretty decent as long as your resolution isn't too high. Certainly better than the x1600.
Edit: But yes, you should listen to Orem, I havent paid attention to ATI cards since the 9800 Pro.
The 4670 is a pretty bad card, so you'd be pretty limited in resolution/graphics settings, and don't expect to be able to play some newer games at all (mainly Crysis, maybe some others like Far Cry 2).
I would definitely spend less on the CPU and more on the video card if you haven't already built it, and it's for gaming.
What makes a 'bad card'? I read some reviews tonight were people have said it's run all their games fine (minus Crysis). It's not for gaming, but I just want to know what my limit is for when I do play games. Also, is the card better than a AGP ATI X1600
Crysis, Very High, 1680x1050: avg. 12fps. Unplayable.
Mass Effect, Max Settings, 1600x1200: avg. 26fps. Borderline unplayable.
Far Cry 2, High detail, 4x AA, 1680x1050. avg. 22.5fps. Borderline unplayable.
Sources: Guru3D, Bit-Tech, Tom's Hardware.
Granted, these are among the most demanding games today, and much depends on your screen resolution and graphics settings. However, remember that games get more demanding as time goes by--if you can't run the most demanding games today, there will be that many more games you can't run a year or two from now.
But the main reason the 4670 is not a very good buy is not any of these reasons--it's that you can get (in many cases) almost double the performance for about $30 more by going with a 9800GT. Or hell, even a 4830 would be a big improvement, and that's less than $20 more.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
Ok, so as usual I've been tasked with building my friend a computer. He has a budget of $800 all-in, so I'm pushing it with this build. Prices taken from Canada Computers
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 - 164.99
Asus P5QL-EM Socket 775 Intel - 129.99
A-DATA DDR2 800 240pin 4GB Kit - 74.99
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 - 214.99
Cooler Master 690 Case - 95.99
LG SATA DVD-Writer - 29.49
Total $709.44
What do you guys think? Can you help me shave another $50-100 off this? (remember this is in Canadian Dollars)
The 4670 is a pretty bad card, so you'd be pretty limited in resolution/graphics settings, and don't expect to be able to play some newer games at all (mainly Crysis, maybe some others like Far Cry 2).
I would definitely spend less on the CPU and more on the video card if you haven't already built it, and it's for gaming.
What makes a 'bad card'? I read some reviews tonight were people have said it's run all their games fine (minus Crysis). It's not for gaming, but I just want to know what my limit is for when I do play games. Also, is the card better than a AGP ATI X1600
Going by these benchmarks, the 4670 looks pretty decent as long as your resolution isn't too high. Certainly better than the x1600.
Edit: But yes, you should listen to Orem, I havent paid attention to ATI cards since the 9800 Pro.
Read the link and it seems it will do everything I want it to do. So I am satisfied. I noticed I can ?Crossfire? and have 2 of this going at the same time, how much more performance would that grant me?
The 4670 is a pretty bad card, so you'd be pretty limited in resolution/graphics settings, and don't expect to be able to play some newer games at all (mainly Crysis, maybe some others like Far Cry 2).
I would definitely spend less on the CPU and more on the video card if you haven't already built it, and it's for gaming.
What makes a 'bad card'? I read some reviews tonight were people have said it's run all their games fine (minus Crysis). It's not for gaming, but I just want to know what my limit is for when I do play games. Also, is the card better than a AGP ATI X1600
Going by these benchmarks, the 4670 looks pretty decent as long as your resolution isn't too high. Certainly better than the x1600.
Edit: But yes, you should listen to Orem, I havent paid attention to ATI cards since the 9800 Pro.
Read the link and it seems it will do everything I want it to do. So I am satisfied. I noticed I can ?Crossfire? and have 2 of this going at the same time, how much more performance would that grant me?
The only reason to do crossfire/SLI is to have two of the highest-end graphics cards - and only if you have $Texas to burn. For lower-end cards you're much better off just upgrading to something better, since the performance increase is 30% at best.
Now, what next? I've been reading through the motherboard manual trying to get a grasp on all of it. Really I guess, what are the steps that takes me from table full of parts to pressing the power button? My guess is something like:
Put motherboard in case
Put psu in motherboard, then heatsink on psu
um...put in powersupply?
then harddrive/optical drive
ram and video card
plug everything up to the motherboard
turn on?
Ok. Really nervous right now. I am snapping the heatsink into place and it feels like my motherboard will snap if I press down any harder. Is this normal?
Ok. Really nervous right now. I am snapping the heatsink into place and it feels like my motherboard will snap if I press down any harder. Is this normal?
I'm just jumping in without any history, but anyway
What sort of attachment is it? a little lever that flips over after clipping it to the CPU socket, or one that you clip one side, and then use a screwdriver to push down and clip the other side? (are there other types? I generally build AMD boxes).
Also, before you turn it on... you put the motherboard standoffs in before the motherboard right? Motherboards don't like being shorted out by the case
Ok. Really nervous right now. I am snapping the heatsink into place and it feels like my motherboard will snap if I press down any harder. Is this normal?
I'm just jumping in without any history, but anyway
What sort of attachment is it? a little lever that flips over after clipping it to the CPU socket, or one that you clip one side, and then use a screwdriver to push down and clip the other side? (are there other types? I generally build AMD boxes).
Also, before you turn it on... you put the motherboard standoffs in before the motherboard right? Motherboards don't like being shorted out by the case
I got the heatsink in. I just had to take out the motherboard so I could brace it as I was pushing it in.
However, I am trying to put in the power supply and I am starting to think it is to big for the case.
My girlfriend noticed that the top right mounting bracket under the motherboard is bent down ever so slightly which could explain why the PSU is tilted when I put it in. Could I take a set of pliers and just bend it back level or would that be a terrible, terrible idea? It seems that it somehow got bumped or bent and is keeping the PSU from lining up.
you can see what I mean about how it's tilted here.
edit: got it in. My girlfriend is a genius, I am a doofus. Spatially speaking.
Whoah a power supply at the bottom of the case? What devilry is this!? It looked like that little bracket thingy would be what's causing the issue, but if it's an ATX case, an ATX PSU should fit in it. Hammers and pliers, tinsnips oh my! (Some of my cases have been horribly disfigured)
It looks like you're already trying to enter the bios... maybe reseat CPU/mem?
Easy fix. My keyboard was wireless and it wasnt picking it up. I switched it out and now I am in the BIOS. Only thing is, I have no idea what to do from here. Help
Hey guys, my computer's feeling pretty dated (built when WoW was new, AMD 3200+ with a 6600GT). My dad had been pushing for me to get a laptop that I could use for schoolwork and games, but I've come to the conclusion that I can split that gaming laptop into a desktop and a netbook to get better performance and save some money. He just said he was willing to pay for a new comp, I just need to decide what parts I want. He hasn't officially stated a budget, but I've always believed in going with a good mix of price/performance. My last comp cost me about $850 not including my monitor (which I won't be replacing), and I think if I can keep it around that figure then we should be okay.
So here's my facts:
+ Budget of about ~$8-900 including OS
+ My monitor's native resolution is 1280x1024
+ If I OC it will be pretty conservative, I don't want my room to get too hot just by turning my comp on.
+ I've got no preference of AMD/Intel or ATI/NVIDIA
I've already ran around newegg and grabbed some items that were reviewed well, recommended by either tom's hardware or tech report, and weren't terribly expensive for what you get.
All of that comes out to $755.93 + Vista HP64 brings it to $855.92
I went with AMD because that Phenom II AM3 720 BE has been keeping up with the 8400 and outperforming it when that third core can be used. The 4870's price has dropped enough that it's more affordable, and I went with the other stuff based just on newegg deals and reviews. I'm honestly not sure about the quality of the Gigabyte board or G.SKILL RAM, but they're both reputable brands so I'm not too worried.
Since I'm not going to be OCing to ludicrous levels, I didn't get a special CPU heatsink. I also don't know exactly what heatsinks work with an AM3 CPU (I've heard it's the same as the AM2+ ones).
Questions, comments, concerns? That part won't work with that one? Anything I'm forgetting? Boo Vista, Go-Go free Windows 7 beta? Anyone have a build-it-yourself guide they swear by?
Looks like the chassis intrusion thingy is throwing that error. I'm looking through your motherboard's manual (you got the p5q, right?) to see if there's an option to turn it off, but I'm not finding anything. Did you mess with the chassis intrusion header at all (page 2-32 in your manual)? Otherwise, resetting your BIOS might fix it (page 2-20).
If you want to go with a Phenom II I would suggest springing for a 940 X4 instead. An AM2+ motherboard should be cheaper than that AM3, and you'll be able to pick up DDR2 memory instead, which is about half the price. The overall performance should be better.
Do not, I repeat, do not get a case/PSU combo. It's a good rule of thumb to always buy the power supply separate, especially in this day and age where video cards demand so much power. It's also very important that you get a good power supply, which means spending more money than you're talking about here. This is the minimum I would go with--and brand does matter, not just wattage, which is a poor measure.
The video card, hard drive, and DVD burner all look good. Since you'll be playing at 1280x1024 you could go with a cheaper graphics card like the 4850 or even the 9800GT, to save some money, but it's up to you.
Total: $790 before shipping. Please note that while the Phenom II is overall a better processor than the Core 2 Duo and indeed many Core 2 Quads, you'd probably get a little better bang for your buck in gaming performance out of an Intel system.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
Maybe I am crazy but I could have swore vista had an expose type thing. Speaking of vista, I've never used it before today, anything to get/turn off/to know?
Posts
As for the Radeon HD 4850, it's good enough for some resolutions, but if you're looking to run games at 1920x1200 or above (24" or bigger widescreen monitors) I would recommend spending a bit more and getting at least a 4870. On the other hand, if you're good with lower resolutions, the 4850 would do fine.
Let me tell ya, going from playing TF2 on an Athlon64 3200+ with a HD2600 Radeon to this is incredible. Settings maxed, 4xAA, 1920x1080 and smooth as silk. Need new pants.
That crisp new machine feeling is great.
Thank you kind sir, that was a real help.
Antec Nine Hundred Gamer Case 129.99
Sapphire Radeon HD4850 1GB GDDR3 PCI-E 239.99
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2HP Motherboard 104.99
Kingston 4GB(2*2GB)DR2-800 CL5 Kit 64.99
Vista Home Premium 64bit 159.99
Seagate 500gb 7200.12 16MB SATA II 74.99
AMD Phenom X4 9650 2.3 GHz 4MB 164.99
Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650Watt 120mm Fan 124.99
LG SuperMulti DVDRW 22x SATA BK 29.99
All Canadian prices. With labor, 2 year plan and tax.
Total= 1317.65(Canadian)
Any glaring problems? Things he should consider changing? Ripoff or something?
Also one thing of note is he doesn't know anyone to put it together for him and he is not interested in doing it himself at all so please don't bother suggesting that. Oh and he will be using this computer for gaming though he tends to play older games more but may occasionally play high end games from time to time and also for schoolwork (video editing, photoshop ect).
Any input is appreciated. Thanks.
The FEBE plugin for firefox will back them up for you, and then you can restore them to the new machine.
INTEL|C2Q Q8200 2.33G 775 4M
4Gigs Ram
ATI HD4670 512M
I would definitely spend less on the CPU and more on the video card if you haven't already built it, and it's for gaming.
Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > Import and Backup if you don't want to bother with an addon just yet. Synchronizing bookmarks is great if you have multiple PC's though.
twitch.tv/tehsloth
Cool, thanks for the tip about the SeaGate thing. I only have a 22-inch widescreen so the 4850 oughta do it. Now to save up some scratch and buy this thing.
What makes a 'bad card'? I read some reviews tonight were people have said it's run all their games fine (minus Crysis). It's not for gaming, but I just want to know what my limit is for when I do play games. Also, is the card better than a AGP ATI X1600
Going by these benchmarks, the 4670 looks pretty decent as long as your resolution isn't too high. Certainly better than the x1600.
Edit: But yes, you should listen to Orem, I havent paid attention to ATI cards since the 9800 Pro.
Crysis, Very High, 1680x1050: avg. 12fps. Unplayable.
Mass Effect, Max Settings, 1600x1200: avg. 26fps. Borderline unplayable.
Far Cry 2, High detail, 4x AA, 1680x1050. avg. 22.5fps. Borderline unplayable.
Sources: Guru3D, Bit-Tech, Tom's Hardware.
Granted, these are among the most demanding games today, and much depends on your screen resolution and graphics settings. However, remember that games get more demanding as time goes by--if you can't run the most demanding games today, there will be that many more games you can't run a year or two from now.
But the main reason the 4670 is not a very good buy is not any of these reasons--it's that you can get (in many cases) almost double the performance for about $30 more by going with a 9800GT. Or hell, even a 4830 would be a big improvement, and that's less than $20 more.
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 - 164.99
Asus P5QL-EM Socket 775 Intel - 129.99
A-DATA DDR2 800 240pin 4GB Kit - 74.99
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 - 214.99
Cooler Master 690 Case - 95.99
LG SATA DVD-Writer - 29.49
Total $709.44
What do you guys think? Can you help me shave another $50-100 off this? (remember this is in Canadian Dollars)
Read the link and it seems it will do everything I want it to do. So I am satisfied. I noticed I can ?Crossfire? and have 2 of this going at the same time, how much more performance would that grant me?
The only reason to do crossfire/SLI is to have two of the highest-end graphics cards - and only if you have $Texas to burn. For lower-end cards you're much better off just upgrading to something better, since the performance increase is 30% at best.
Is the price difference between the Radeon HD4850 and the 4870 worth it if I'm never going above 1680x1050?
Now, what next? I've been reading through the motherboard manual trying to get a grasp on all of it. Really I guess, what are the steps that takes me from table full of parts to pressing the power button? My guess is something like:
Put motherboard in case
Put psu in motherboard, then heatsink on psu
um...put in powersupply?
then harddrive/optical drive
ram and video card
plug everything up to the motherboard
turn on?
I'm just jumping in without any history, but anyway
What sort of attachment is it? a little lever that flips over after clipping it to the CPU socket, or one that you clip one side, and then use a screwdriver to push down and clip the other side? (are there other types? I generally build AMD boxes).
Also, before you turn it on... you put the motherboard standoffs in before the motherboard right? Motherboards don't like being shorted out by the case
I got the heatsink in. I just had to take out the motherboard so I could brace it as I was pushing it in.
However, I am trying to put in the power supply and I am starting to think it is to big for the case.
I have this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-
And this power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-
I can post some pictures if that helps solve the problem. I've never installed a powers supply before so I could just be doing it wrong.
Yeah I was going by the manual for the case. Ths PSU...I will upload some pictures. Sec.
you can see what I mean about how it's tilted here.
edit: got it in. My girlfriend is a genius, I am a doofus. Spatially speaking.
(waits for phone to send picture)
Any ideas?
Easy fix. My keyboard was wireless and it wasnt picking it up. I switched it out and now I am in the BIOS. Only thing is, I have no idea what to do from here. Help
So here's my facts:
+ Budget of about ~$8-900 including OS
+ My monitor's native resolution is 1280x1024
+ If I OC it will be pretty conservative, I don't want my room to get too hot just by turning my comp on.
+ I've got no preference of AMD/Intel or ATI/NVIDIA
I've already ran around newegg and grabbed some items that were reviewed well, recommended by either tom's hardware or tech report, and weren't terribly expensive for what you get.
That list looks like this:
CPU - AMD Phenom II X3 Socket AM3 +++ $169.99
Motherboard - Gigabyte's cheaper AM3 board (the CPU and Mobo combo for $20 off) +++ $139.99 -$20
RAM - G.SKILL 4GB DDR3 1333 PC3 10666 (the cheapest, best reviewed DDR3 I found) +++ $75.99
VGA - Sapphire's Radeon 4870 512MB +++ $174.99
HDD - WD Cavair Black 640GB 32MB Cache +++ $79.99
Case/PSU - Antec Sonata III w/500w PSU +++ $109.99
DVD-R/CD-R - LG Black 22X +++ $24.99
All of that comes out to $755.93 + Vista HP64 brings it to $855.92
I went with AMD because that Phenom II AM3 720 BE has been keeping up with the 8400 and outperforming it when that third core can be used. The 4870's price has dropped enough that it's more affordable, and I went with the other stuff based just on newegg deals and reviews. I'm honestly not sure about the quality of the Gigabyte board or G.SKILL RAM, but they're both reputable brands so I'm not too worried.
Since I'm not going to be OCing to ludicrous levels, I didn't get a special CPU heatsink. I also don't know exactly what heatsinks work with an AM3 CPU (I've heard it's the same as the AM2+ ones).
Questions, comments, concerns? That part won't work with that one? Anything I'm forgetting? Boo Vista, Go-Go free Windows 7 beta? Anyone have a build-it-yourself guide they swear by?
Looks like the chassis intrusion thingy is throwing that error. I'm looking through your motherboard's manual (you got the p5q, right?) to see if there's an option to turn it off, but I'm not finding anything. Did you mess with the chassis intrusion header at all (page 2-32 in your manual)? Otherwise, resetting your BIOS might fix it (page 2-20).
Do not, I repeat, do not get a case/PSU combo. It's a good rule of thumb to always buy the power supply separate, especially in this day and age where video cards demand so much power. It's also very important that you get a good power supply, which means spending more money than you're talking about here. This is the minimum I would go with--and brand does matter, not just wattage, which is a poor measure.
The video card, hard drive, and DVD burner all look good. Since you'll be playing at 1280x1024 you could go with a cheaper graphics card like the 4850 or even the 9800GT, to save some money, but it's up to you.
Edit: Here's a modified build for you.
Case
HDD
Mobo
Graphics
PSU
Memory
CPU
Total: $790 before shipping. Please note that while the Phenom II is overall a better processor than the Core 2 Duo and indeed many Core 2 Quads, you'd probably get a little better bang for your buck in gaming performance out of an Intel system.
The only thing I dont have is the internet. I have the Ethernet cable plugged in but I dont think its picking it up. Any ideas?
Cool beans. Building a new system always comes with those weird little problems.
And speaking of new systems, I just ordered my Nehalem build. :winky: Going from a P4 to this is going to be like ditching the oxcart for a Corvette.
I still want to get one with an Extreme 965 and 2x GTX260+ cards in SLI.