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I guess this is sort of upgrade related, because I just noticed this after assembling my new computer...
I should've switched to DVI six months ago, this is so much better. I just feel like I have to talk about it somewhere. The colours are just so more vibrant and rich.
Actually to be less of a waste, I have one question.
I have an old harddrive in my old PC that I wouldn't mind using. It's got a lot of data, I was just going to toss it, but could I just plug it in as a slave drive and reformat it without much trouble? Or would it be slower, or gimped in some way?
Edit: And, oh god, Vista is making me feel so retarded.
I just spent five minutes rummaging around, looking for where a game installed to. It's like I'm ten and using Windows 95 for the first time all over again.
Beck on
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
It's a PATA drive and you want to hook it up as a slave I assume? Shouldn't be an issue, it should just show up in My Computer with no real interaction on your part, format it if you want from there.
Performance shouldn't be much different as a slave.
I was wondering if it's better to apply the thermal paste and then smoosh it or spread it with a card.
The Arctic Silver 5's manual says to apply and then smoosh it with your heatsink. Whether that's the case for all compounds, I couldn't tell you.
CmdPrompt on
0
BarcardiAll the WizardsUnder A Rock: AfganistanRegistered Userregular
edited October 2008
I guess this is sort of upgrade related, because I just noticed this after assembling my new computer...
I should've switched to DVI six months ago, this is so much better. I just feel like I have to talk about it somewhere. The colours are just so more vibrant and rich.
Actually to be less of a waste, I have one question.
I have an old harddrive in my old PC that I wouldn't mind using. It's got a lot of data, I was just going to toss it, but could I just plug it in as a slave drive and reformat it without much trouble? Or would it be slower, or gimped in some way?
Edit: And, oh god, Vista is making me feel so retarded.
I just spent five minutes rummaging around, looking for where a game installed to. It's like I'm ten and using Windows 95 for the first time all over again.
seeing as how my pc build is 5 years old i have to ask, what is dvi?
sound card? errr no idea
case is an antec 182P, i already own it
semi total: 985$
anyone see any weaknesses/outright incompatibilities with this setup? i am especially interested in if that pentium chip is worth it or if i should fork over a bit more.
For the heatsink: This is what I bought last September. Works great, overall case noise is fairly low with an extra 120mm fan or two, and it looks a little classier than that red flower. Plus you save $15.
Also that motherboard is absolutely ridiculous. I guess you get Stalker and some sort of sound card with it, but jesus. $288? Any particular reason you feel the need for something that crazy? Not even any built in Wifi or anything. The good news is if you go with that you can forget about picking up a sound card, they provide one for you. I've been running off of my stock $130 mobo's audio slots with no issues, but I'm no audiophile or anything.
I'd also very much recommend a modular power supply unless you know you're going to use all those cables. It is a huge boon to airflow in your case.
I have recently decided to redo my rig thanks to this great post.
I do have a few unique limitations that I hope you guys can help me with. I have a Samsung 46 in LCD TOC that I have been using for a monitor and I love it. Problem is, I have a HUGE tower that really is an eyesore. I want to step into a smaller stylish case while not sacrificing power. The cases I have been looking into all require a microATX motherboard.
Now to my question, are the micro boards as good as the full ATX and do you guys have a recommendation for which one I should consider? Also if you know of a good case please share!
I plan on the basics:
-Dual Core CPU 3.0 or up(plan to over clock if the micro case handles heat well)
-2x2 Gig sticks
-Nvidia 3d card (Don't know the specific one yet but are the 1g memory cards worth the penny?)
Below I have included some pictures of what I am going for, if you have any knowledge that would help me please let me know.
If you currently have a full-tower, why not move to a mid-tower instead? You'll still be able to use ATX, and you won't be sacrificing space, airflow, etc.
The G45 is supposedly exactly the same as the P45, except with an onboard graphics chip (that you'll almost certainly immediately turn off in the BIOS). It's available in MicroATX, and the P45 I have is pretty damn good.
If memory serves 8-8-8-12 is what you're trying to hit with RAM timings, if memory serves. And you want the ghz on your processor to be divisible by your RAM for optimal speeeeeeeed.
DDR-6400 is at 800mhz, so a processor running at 2.4ghz or 3.2ghz would be best, as it's directly divisible by the RAM speed so they'll blah blah technical shit. Basically you're looking for RAM that either has the stock timings with the proper mhz (800 or above is best) ALONG with the good timings (8-8-8-12) or enough leeway (check reviews) for you to be able to manually over/underclock to the settings you're going to be needing. If you get RAM at 800mhz with 9-9-9-15 timings, if it's decent you can either reduce the timings to 8-8-8-12 or increase the mhz to 1066, but increasing both may cause it to become unstable. Again, make sure you're reading through those NewEgg reviews.
Someone else can probably explain it better and give you reasons why, but that's the general idea.
sound card? errr no idea
case is an antec 182P, i already own it
semi total: 985$
anyone see any weaknesses/outright incompatibilities with this setup? i am especially interested in if that pentium chip is worth it or if i should fork over a bit more.
that motherboard is really nice but isn't LGA 775 almost dead anyway? I mean worst case scenario, if your motherboard dies in 3 years wouldn't you rather just upgrade the entire computer anyway? I went with this for that very reason. I've heard really good things about it, I've been enjoying it so far and it's a lot cheaper.
Anyway, I pretty much have the same computer (same processor, PSU). Yes, you'll do Vista 64 fine.
Beck on
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
I just did some googling, and it looks like they use LGA1366 (Socket so I guess I'm not totally crazy.
Man, it feels good to know that. But at the same time, the very prospect of having to upgrade again (I just assembled this PC a couple days ago), even in a few years, seems absolutely terrible.
Beck on
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
If memory serves 8-8-8-12 is what you're trying to hit with RAM timings, if memory serves. And you want the ghz on your processor to be divisible by your RAM for optimal speeeeeeeed.
DDR-6400 is at 800mhz, so a processor running at 2.4ghz or 3.2ghz would be best, as it's directly divisible by the RAM speed so they'll blah blah technical shit. Basically you're looking for RAM that either has the stock timings with the proper mhz (800 or above is best) ALONG with the good timings (8-8-8-12) or enough leeway (check reviews) for you to be able to manually over/underclock to the settings you're going to be needing. If you get RAM at 800mhz with 9-9-9-15 timings, if it's decent you can either reduce the timings to 8-8-8-12 or increase the mhz to 1066, but increasing both may cause it to become unstable. Again, make sure you're reading through those NewEgg reviews.
Someone else can probably explain it better and give you reasons why, but that's the general idea.
You don't want to compare to to core speeds, as different processors will have different multipliers. Instead, you want RAM running twice the speed of your bus as a rule of thumb. Low latency for DDR2 @ 800+ is 4-4-4-12, 5-5-5-15 is what you'll usually see. The first number is the most important, but I doubt you'll see too much of a difference.
Right now, there's no real reason to get DDR3. That will change as Core i2 releases and DDR3 becomes the standard.
You don't want to compare to to core speeds, as different processors will have different multipliers.
So you mean you don't go off of the final number, you go off of the unmultiplied processor clock i.e. 400mhzx8 for a full bore C2D? Or what? It's been over a year since I bothered reading over all of this stuff to upgrade and OC my computer so it may have gotten mixed around in my crazy cupcake filled brain.
Yeah, the LGA 1366s are supposed to come out "soon" (Intel insists the Tylersburg chips are coming out before the end of the year). I know a couple of places have tested the new setups (there's some rumbling about ram running at high voltages killing the processors), but as to when the chips are actually coming out is pretty vague.
These cycles move fast enough nowadays that I think it might be a good idea to time your upgrade to the new processor cycle and buy the top end old chip as the new chips come out. Prices will probably drop, and I imagine your stability will be much higher (since these new chips/sockets/motherboards seem to have picky issues in the beginning).
Of course, if you're a speed enthusiast with cash to burn (oh how I wish I were one), go for it.
Hi, I was wondering if you all could look over my proposed system before I take the dive and let me know if anything is missing and/or would not be compatible/best match for that item. It seems similar to setups some have posted, but just in case. Any suggestions are welcome
Silverstone Kublai Series KL03B-W - Yes, I know its a bit pricey for what you get, but I like the look and everything should fit in there from what I have researched.
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield - Planning to OC to 3.2Ghz
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler
ASUS P5Q Pro
SAPPHIRE HD 4870 1GB - The reviews say this is a decent card, anyone heard anything about it? Seems like most go w/ the Visiontek 512Mb one
mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 - This should work ok w/ my planned OC Speed correct?
CORSAIR 750W PS ATX12V / EPS12V (60 Ampere +12V rail) - A bit overkill I know
Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HD x2
LG DVD-R Drive
Windows Vista Ult. 64 bit
mizujanai on
0
BarcardiAll the WizardsUnder A Rock: AfganistanRegistered Userregular
sound card? errr no idea
case is an antec 182P, i already own it
semi total: 985$
anyone see any weaknesses/outright incompatibilities with this setup? i am especially interested in if that pentium chip is worth it or if i should fork over a bit more.
that motherboard is really nice but isn't LGA 775 almost dead anyway? I mean worst case scenario, if your motherboard dies in 3 years wouldn't you rather just upgrade the entire computer anyway? I went with this for that very reason. I've heard really good things about it, I've been enjoying it so far and it's a lot cheaper.
Anyway, I pretty much have the same computer (same processor, PSU). Yes, you'll do Vista 64 fine.
775 being almost dead to me seems more like its got to be stable because its been around and isnt some new madness
i am kinda against evga
how about this one? the main issue with me being that its got some kind of ati thingy on it, would that mess with an nvidea graphics card if for some reason i didnt go with the saphire toxic 4850?
BarcardiAll the WizardsUnder A Rock: AfganistanRegistered Userregular
edited October 2008
....actually nm
damn is looking for a mobo annoying, for every good review and editors choice there are another ten reviews saying its crap or it wont fit a larger video card
ZimmydoomAccept no substitutesRegistered Userregular
edited October 2008
Well, I didn't get to grab the Antec Sonata III before the price hike, so I'm looking around for possible replacements at a more reasonable price. Problem is I really don't know what the hell I'm doing. :P
Basically I want to see if I can find a case and power supply that won't poop out on me for around $100, preferably less if possible. Quiet is also good, which I'm afraid the case above is not. Don't know. I don't intend to be overclocking or running anything more than a Geforce 9500GT, and otherwise plan on copying the first build listed in the OP (with more RAM, of course).
Although I am considering upgrading to the PSQ SE mobo that was mentioned above. A lot of people in Newegg's reviews claim that the board listed has memory compatibility problems and is a little awkward with its small size. Anyone else experienced this?
Zimmydoom, Zimmydoom
Flew away in a balloon
Had sex with polar bears
While sitting in a reclining chair
Now there are Zim-Bear hybrids
Running around and clawing eyelids
Watch out, a Zim-Bear is about to have sex with yooooooou!
0
ZimmydoomAccept no substitutesRegistered Userregular
Zimmydoom, Zimmydoom
Flew away in a balloon
Had sex with polar bears
While sitting in a reclining chair
Now there are Zim-Bear hybrids
Running around and clawing eyelids
Watch out, a Zim-Bear is about to have sex with yooooooou!
Shopping for a motherboard is basically finding the one with the least potential issues. I usually scan the reviews and look for dealbreaker issues and things that I could deal with or remedy should they pop up (Oh noes it arrived DOA, welcome to electronics. RMA it jackass.) Is it going to have enough connections, do you want Wifi built in, is it overclock friendly?
You're never ever going to find exactly what you want in a motherboard when price is a factor, the trick is getting close..
I usually scan the reviews and look for dealbreaker issues and things that I could deal with or remedy should they pop up (Oh noes it arrived DOA, welcome to electronics. RMA it jackass.)
Dear god is that ever annoying in reviews on NewEgg. One star because it was DOA? Shit happens, wait until the replacement arrives then post a review.
Barrakketh on
Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
building a new rig... let me know what you think and hopefully i didnt make a mistake and everything is compatible. Im going to be on a 1920x1200 monitor.
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL 600W ATX12V v2.01 SLI Ready Power Supply
Switch the PSU out for one of the Corsair models posted in this thread.
There were some posts about Raptors failing quickly, is it too early to tell on the Velociraptors?
Otherwise it should be fine unless you want to do some overclocking, in which case you'll want an aftermarket heatsink.
it says on the western digital site they have 1.4 million hours mean time before fail... but if looking for a 10,000 rpm HD what else is there? also says it comes with a 5 year warranty, but i gotta do some more research to see what that covers
Edit: so i missed that the velociraptors are in the 2.5" form factor. i'm gonna need to find a different case then.
Posts
I should've switched to DVI six months ago, this is so much better. I just feel like I have to talk about it somewhere. The colours are just so more vibrant and rich.
Actually to be less of a waste, I have one question.
I have an old harddrive in my old PC that I wouldn't mind using. It's got a lot of data, I was just going to toss it, but could I just plug it in as a slave drive and reformat it without much trouble? Or would it be slower, or gimped in some way?
Edit: And, oh god, Vista is making me feel so retarded.
I just spent five minutes rummaging around, looking for where a game installed to. It's like I'm ten and using Windows 95 for the first time all over again.
Performance shouldn't be much different as a slave.
The Arctic Silver 5's manual says to apply and then smoosh it with your heatsink. Whether that's the case for all compounds, I couldn't tell you.
seeing as how my pc build is 5 years old i have to ask, what is dvi?
digital monitor connection
also say i upgrade my stuff now and get a HD graphics card... probably the one everyone on here is ranting about, do i need a hd screen as well?
But as "regular old connection" you may be referring to VGA, which looks like this:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017
190$
(this thing do vista 64?)
ZALMAN 9500A 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223
55$
ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131284
288$ (i want the best or near best mobo)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218
74$
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122
59$
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
119$
SAPPHIRE 100242TXSR Radeon Toxic HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102760
200$
sound card? errr no idea
case is an antec 182P, i already own it
semi total: 985$
anyone see any weaknesses/outright incompatibilities with this setup? i am especially interested in if that pentium chip is worth it or if i should fork over a bit more.
Also that motherboard is absolutely ridiculous. I guess you get Stalker and some sort of sound card with it, but jesus. $288? Any particular reason you feel the need for something that crazy? Not even any built in Wifi or anything. The good news is if you go with that you can forget about picking up a sound card, they provide one for you. I've been running off of my stock $130 mobo's audio slots with no issues, but I'm no audiophile or anything.
I'd also very much recommend a modular power supply unless you know you're going to use all those cables. It is a huge boon to airflow in your case.
I have recently decided to redo my rig thanks to this great post.
I do have a few unique limitations that I hope you guys can help me with. I have a Samsung 46 in LCD TOC that I have been using for a monitor and I love it. Problem is, I have a HUGE tower that really is an eyesore. I want to step into a smaller stylish case while not sacrificing power. The cases I have been looking into all require a microATX motherboard.
Now to my question, are the micro boards as good as the full ATX and do you guys have a recommendation for which one I should consider? Also if you know of a good case please share!
I plan on the basics:
-Dual Core CPU 3.0 or up(plan to over clock if the micro case handles heat well)
-2x2 Gig sticks
-Nvidia 3d card (Don't know the specific one yet but are the 1g memory cards worth the penny?)
Below I have included some pictures of what I am going for, if you have any knowledge that would help me please let me know.
Tonka!
what's better
DDR2 of x-x-x latency (fill in the blanks)
or DDR3 with like 9-9-9 or something
DDR-6400 is at 800mhz, so a processor running at 2.4ghz or 3.2ghz would be best, as it's directly divisible by the RAM speed so they'll blah blah technical shit. Basically you're looking for RAM that either has the stock timings with the proper mhz (800 or above is best) ALONG with the good timings (8-8-8-12) or enough leeway (check reviews) for you to be able to manually over/underclock to the settings you're going to be needing. If you get RAM at 800mhz with 9-9-9-15 timings, if it's decent you can either reduce the timings to 8-8-8-12 or increase the mhz to 1066, but increasing both may cause it to become unstable. Again, make sure you're reading through those NewEgg reviews.
Someone else can probably explain it better and give you reasons why, but that's the general idea.
that motherboard is really nice but isn't LGA 775 almost dead anyway? I mean worst case scenario, if your motherboard dies in 3 years wouldn't you rather just upgrade the entire computer anyway? I went with this for that very reason. I've heard really good things about it, I've been enjoying it so far and it's a lot cheaper.
Anyway, I pretty much have the same computer (same processor, PSU). Yes, you'll do Vista 64 fine.
Man, it feels good to know that. But at the same time, the very prospect of having to upgrade again (I just assembled this PC a couple days ago), even in a few years, seems absolutely terrible.
You don't want to compare to to core speeds, as different processors will have different multipliers. Instead, you want RAM running twice the speed of your bus as a rule of thumb. Low latency for DDR2 @ 800+ is 4-4-4-12, 5-5-5-15 is what you'll usually see. The first number is the most important, but I doubt you'll see too much of a difference.
Right now, there's no real reason to get DDR3. That will change as Core i2 releases and DDR3 becomes the standard.
These cycles move fast enough nowadays that I think it might be a good idea to time your upgrade to the new processor cycle and buy the top end old chip as the new chips come out. Prices will probably drop, and I imagine your stability will be much higher (since these new chips/sockets/motherboards seem to have picky issues in the beginning).
Of course, if you're a speed enthusiast with cash to burn (oh how I wish I were one), go for it.
edit: my 360 uses a DVI-sub (I think that's the name) to connect to my PC monitor as it is now
I think that's relevant
Silverstone Kublai Series KL03B-W - Yes, I know its a bit pricey for what you get, but I like the look and everything should fit in there from what I have researched.
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield - Planning to OC to 3.2Ghz
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler
ASUS P5Q Pro
SAPPHIRE HD 4870 1GB - The reviews say this is a decent card, anyone heard anything about it? Seems like most go w/ the Visiontek 512Mb one
mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 - This should work ok w/ my planned OC Speed correct?
CORSAIR 750W PS ATX12V / EPS12V (60 Ampere +12V rail) - A bit overkill I know
Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HD x2
LG DVD-R Drive
Windows Vista Ult. 64 bit
775 being almost dead to me seems more like its got to be stable because its been around and isnt some new madness
i am kinda against evga
how about this one? the main issue with me being that its got some kind of ati thingy on it, would that mess with an nvidea graphics card if for some reason i didnt go with the saphire toxic 4850?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128343
this board looks alright i think, bit expensive but i dont mind price for a good mobo
damn is looking for a mobo annoying, for every good review and editors choice there are another ten reviews saying its crap or it wont fit a larger video card
so frustrating
How does this compare? RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 500W Power Supply - Retail
Basically I want to see if I can find a case and power supply that won't poop out on me for around $100, preferably less if possible. Quiet is also good, which I'm afraid the case above is not. Don't know. I don't intend to be overclocking or running anything more than a Geforce 9500GT, and otherwise plan on copying the first build listed in the OP (with more RAM, of course).
Although I am considering upgrading to the PSQ SE mobo that was mentioned above. A lot of people in Newegg's reviews claim that the board listed has memory compatibility problems and is a little awkward with its small size. Anyone else experienced this?
w/ E7200 Core 2 Duo for $180, but the deal expires in three days. A ~$50 or so power supply would make that a good value too, wouldn't it?
You're never ever going to find exactly what you want in a motherboard when price is a factor, the trick is getting close..
Dear god is that ever annoying in reviews on NewEgg. One star because it was DOA? Shit happens, wait until the replacement arrives then post a review.
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL 600W ATX12V v2.01 SLI Ready Power Supply
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail
ASUS P5QL PRO LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E7200 - Retail
SAPPHIRE 100243-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F
There were some posts about Raptors failing quickly, is it too early to tell on the Velociraptors?
Otherwise it should be fine unless you want to do some overclocking, in which case you'll want an aftermarket heatsink.
it says on the western digital site they have 1.4 million hours mean time before fail... but if looking for a 10,000 rpm HD what else is there? also says it comes with a 5 year warranty, but i gotta do some more research to see what that covers
Edit: so i missed that the velociraptors are in the 2.5" form factor. i'm gonna need to find a different case then.