I had a Sapphire card that worked fine. Except for the fact that the fan was super super loud and grindy. Within about a month of getting it it just started making the most awful noise. I thought it would die, but it ran just fine for about a year until I replaced it. It was just annoying.
Thanks vengy, I'll look and see if I can get any of that tweaked. I'll shuffle the combo deals around a little bit. Video cards are probably my greatest weakness. There's so many different types, with a ton of different stats, I'm always confused trying to find the biggest bang for my buck. The budget on this build is about 500ish. It's bumping right up against that at the moment.
I think all the new cards have incredibly loud fans, my system is really quiet too so it does not help. I have the HIS 4890 and if I turn my fan up to 100% it sounds like a blow dryer. I usually run it at 30 and I can't hear it over my system fans.
I've been running a Sapphire 4850 for like six months now and never noticed any problems with it. Not that I am an expert or anything but yeah. (And now tomorrow it will blow up........)
I've been running a Sapphire 4850 for like six months now and never noticed any problems with it. Not that I am an expert or anything but yeah. (And now tomorrow it will blow up........)
same here, i guess it all depends what we consider loud noise
I had a Sapphire card that worked fine. Except for the fact that the fan was super super loud and grindy. Within about a month of getting it it just started making the most awful noise. I thought it would die, but it ran just fine for about a year until I replaced it. It was just annoying.
Thanks vengy, I'll look and see if I can get any of that tweaked. I'll shuffle the combo deals around a little bit. Video cards are probably my greatest weakness. There's so many different types, with a ton of different stats, I'm always confused trying to find the biggest bang for my buck. The budget on this build is about 500ish. It's bumping right up against that at the moment.
Honestly, fitting it all in WITH a monitor for under $500 is going to be very difficult.
tsmvengy on
0
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
My sapphire's boxed up and on its way back to newegg, and the HIS is on its way out to me.
Such a good feeling to have this sorted out without any more hair-pulling.
I've poked around a bit, and I can't really find any reports of people having the same kind of problem I had with the sapphire. I'm not sure it's worth making any special note of problems. I just got unlucky, which happens with this stuff from time to time. I think maybe it is worth noting that Newegg won't initially provide UPS labels for an RMA (they try to charge you for it), but if you ask their customer service people, they'll send one over. I did it using the online chat and had no problem.
I had a Sapphire card that worked fine. Except for the fact that the fan was super super loud and grindy. Within about a month of getting it it just started making the most awful noise. I thought it would die, but it ran just fine for about a year until I replaced it. It was just annoying.
Thanks vengy, I'll look and see if I can get any of that tweaked. I'll shuffle the combo deals around a little bit. Video cards are probably my greatest weakness. There's so many different types, with a ton of different stats, I'm always confused trying to find the biggest bang for my buck. The budget on this build is about 500ish. It's bumping right up against that at the moment.
Well, after about 6 months of waiting my boss has the budget to let me build a new computer.
I'll be running Illustrator, Photoshop, & CorelDraw, primarily.
Parts soon to follow for your critique:
I wanted to ask: I'm loving Windows 7 thus far on my iMac, but I haven't really used Vista all that much. How much worse is Vista? (Or do you think the Win7 RC is good enough for everyday use? Will I be able to purchase a license and activate the RC without having to reinstall everything like the Beta?)
Well, after about 6 months of waiting my boss has the budget to let me build a new computer.
I'll be running Illustrator, Photoshop, & CorelDraw, primarily.
Parts soon to follow for your critique:
I wanted to ask: I'm loving Windows 7 thus far on my iMac, but I haven't really used Vista all that much. How much worse is Vista? (Or do you think the Win7 RC is good enough for everyday use? Will I be able to purchase a license and activate the RC without having to reinstall everything like the Beta?)
Windows 7 RC is good enough to use day to day. I've been using it day to day since the Beta, and it hasn't crashed, once, ever, for me.
But, you will have to do a re-install when you get the final version.
Well, after about 6 months of waiting my boss has the budget to let me build a new computer.
I'll be running Illustrator, Photoshop, & CorelDraw, primarily.
Parts soon to follow for your critique:
I wanted to ask: I'm loving Windows 7 thus far on my iMac, but I haven't really used Vista all that much. How much worse is Vista? (Or do you think the Win7 RC is good enough for everyday use? Will I be able to purchase a license and activate the RC without having to reinstall everything like the Beta?)
Windows 7 RC is good enough to use day to day. I've been using it day to day since the Beta, and it hasn't crashed, once, ever, for me.
But, you will have to do a re-install when you get the final version.
That's the sticking point. I don't know if I want to go through all the hassle of re-installing the Xenetech drivers when that time comes.
I had a Sapphire card that worked fine. Except for the fact that the fan was super super loud and grindy. Within about a month of getting it it just started making the most awful noise. I thought it would die, but it ran just fine for about a year until I replaced it. It was just annoying.
Thanks vengy, I'll look and see if I can get any of that tweaked. I'll shuffle the combo deals around a little bit. Video cards are probably my greatest weakness. There's so many different types, with a ton of different stats, I'm always confused trying to find the biggest bang for my buck. The budget on this build is about 500ish. It's bumping right up against that at the moment.
Okay, question. I had Win7 RC installed but ended up having to use XP again. I tried to follow some how-to from another forum for installing them backwards, which didn't work (maybe if I knew more about boot records and whatnot I could have gotten it to work, I don't know) but eventually I gave up, formatted the 1TB drive, installed XP on one partition, installed 7 on another, and it seems to work fine now.
Except when I choose "Older version of Windows," it then takes me to a similar screen which lists Windows XP three times. I assume this is a combination of my old 320GB drive still having an old XP install on it and the bootloader-modifying software (VistaBootPRO) I had messed with trying to get 7-then-XP install to work.
My question is, what do I have to delete/rename to get it to only show one Windows XP install instead of three? I don't want to format or disconnect the 320GB drive yet because I still have to get my old files and programs off of it.
Also, does it matter that my new XP install gave the 320GB drive the letter C instead of its own partition, which is D? Win7 has the drives lettered completely differently, too... x_x
Hello, Computer Build Thread. Hope you're having a lovely morning.
I've never built a PC, so this will be quite an adventure for me. I want to have my very first gaming PC. I'm tired of hoping a game might work on my POS.
So, I'm shooting for a budget of about $1200 with no clear biases. The important thing is that I can play future releases such as Diablo 3 and think "wow, that looks pretty good." Also, I'll be doing "casual" things such as listening to and storing music and video, office work, that kind of stuff. Oh, and programming. I'll probably keep a Linux partition for that.
Anyway, now that I've laid that out, I really don't know much -- the OP's example "Powerhouse" build seems to suit me fine. Can anyone confirm or advise otherwise? Any particular suggestions where I can get a significant increase in quality for a minimal increase in price?
For reference, here's the example build in question:
Powerhouse (~$1000)
A quad core CPU and a Solid State drive provide more general computing performance right now. An AM3 socket motherboard and a beefy power supply provides futureproofing through the ability to upgrade the CPU or add a second video card later.
well, the first question is always what is your budget. That PC is a half decent one, but it can be made better/changed depending on your available funds.
You won't need a NIC, as those are built into motherboards now, and same with sound. On board sound is good enough.
And don't sweat too much about putting it together. for the most part it really is like lego. Just make sure you read the instructions for the motherboard, and follow them, and you'll be fine.
well, the first question is always what is your budget. That PC is a half decent one, but it can be made better/changed depending on your available funds.
You won't need a NIC, as those are built into motherboards now, and same with sound. On board sound is good enough.
And don't sweat too much about putting it together. for the most part it really is like lego. Just make sure you read the instructions for the motherboard, and follow them, and you'll be fine.
I'm shooting at capping the budget at $1200. I just don't know the most effective way to spend that extra $200 - $300. Futureproofing is the major concern, but I want to be sure that I'm not throwing my money at something expensive that provides a minimal extra advantage. Does that make sense?
And good to know about NICs and sound. Things have changed since I was a kid, it seems.
well, the first question is always what is your budget. That PC is a half decent one, but it can be made better/changed depending on your available funds.
You won't need a NIC, as those are built into motherboards now, and same with sound. On board sound is good enough.
And don't sweat too much about putting it together. for the most part it really is like lego. Just make sure you read the instructions for the motherboard, and follow them, and you'll be fine.
I'm shooting at capping the budget at $1200. I just don't know the most effective way to spend that extra $200 - $300. Futureproofing is the major concern, but I want to be sure that I'm not throwing my money at something expensive that provides a minimal extra advantage. Does that make sense?
And good to know about NICs and sound. Things have changed since I was a kid, it seems.
Since you have a little extra money, I would spend the extra $20-40 to bump the vidcard up to a 4890. If you are interested in adding a second video card in the future for crossfire, I'd also recommend bumping the mobo up to something that can run pci-e x16 with 2 cards (the gigabyte model there runs 2 card setups in x8). This Asus board for instance also happens to have a $15 combo discount with the Phenom II x4 940.
edit: hooray for more combo deals. If you don't want to xfire or don't care about xfire x8 instead of x16 (there really is little difference from what I've heard), there is this combo with the gigabyte board and the gigabyte hd 4890 that takes $20 off. That card is already $200 with a $20 mir...so you're kind of getting a 4890 for $160 after rebate. Freaking steal.
Random question related to my upcoming build (from two pages back). Can i download the Windows 7 RC and then burn it to a CD or DVD and use it on my new build until the retail comes out, I read the website but it seems worded strangely to me.
Obviously I cant get to the Windows website with no OS installed so I have to do this BEFORE this machine finally collapses (picture of current computer just for everyones amusement, yes its on it side, and yes it works, barely)
Random question related to my upcoming build (from two pages back). Can i download the Windows 7 RC and then burn it to a CD or DVD and use it on my new build until the retail comes out, I read the website but it seems worded strangely to me.
Obviously I cant get to the Windows website with no OS installed so I have to do this BEFORE this machine finally collapses (picture of current computer just for everyones amusement, yes its on it side, and yes it works, barely)
Yes you download it from microsoft it comes in the form of an iso file and its around 3 gigs so has to be burned to a DVD.
edit: hooray for more combo deals. If you don't want to xfire or don't care about xfire x8 instead of x16 (there really is little difference from what I've heard), there is this combo with the gigabyte board and the gigabyte hd 4890 that takes $20 off. That card is already $200 with a $20 mir...so you're kind of getting a 4890 for $160 after rebate. Freaking steal.
Awesome, I'm totally going for this. I even managed to figure out for myself if it was compatible with the Phenom II x4. I'm getting smarter. 8-)
I feel a lot more confident about my purchase. I'm going to sit on it for a day or two, but I think this is it. Thank you for your help.
Hello, Computer Build Thread. Hope you're having a lovely morning.
I've never built a PC, so this will be quite an adventure for me. I want to have my very first gaming PC. I'm tired of hoping a game might work on my POS.
So, I'm shooting for a budget of about $1200 with no clear biases. The important thing is that I can play future releases such as Diablo 3 and think "wow, that looks pretty good." Also, I'll be doing "casual" things such as listening to and storing music and video, office work, that kind of stuff. Oh, and programming. I'll probably keep a Linux partition for that.
Anyway, now that I've laid that out, I really don't know much -- the OP's example "Powerhouse" build seems to suit me fine. Can anyone confirm or advise otherwise? Any particular suggestions where I can get a significant increase in quality for a minimal increase in price?
For reference, here's the example build in question:
Powerhouse (~$1000)
A quad core CPU and a Solid State drive provide more general computing performance right now. An AM3 socket motherboard and a beefy power supply provides futureproofing through the ability to upgrade the CPU or add a second video card later.
Yeah, to me it sounds like your budget is too big for your needs. Much better than the reverse.
The main question is what resolution do you want to be playing games at?
This is going to sound real dumb, but I have no idea. When it comes to PC gaming, I've always kinda worked with whatever I had and focused primarily on consoles.
edit: in case you need a new monitor: here. on sale (80 bucks off, free ship) and has all the cute little features you'd look for (2 ms gtg, 4:3 scaling option, etc)
He just got this and is liking it. It can do automatic scaling from 16:9 to 4:3 for older games.
I also have that monitor, its lovely! 1080p is just damn yummy! Only complaint is that the speakers are amazingly worthless, but most people would never touch them.
What am I forgetting? Any cables I should throw in?
I'm getting a pair of identical hard drives so I can set them up in a mirrored raid so if I happen to have a hard drive crash I don't lose all of my work, and I'll also investigate a backup solution involving a external drive down the road. (If anyone have any recommendation for software for this I'd be grateful)
I'm also going with two packs of 2x2GB ram for a total of 8GB. It may be a bit overkill but the stuff is cheap and I want this computer to last a good 5 years.
Finally, I know the Antec case has a rear fan, but how can I tell if it has the two front 92mm fans? I may need to buy those as well if it doesn't.
What am I forgetting? Any cables I should throw in?
I'm getting a pair of identical hard drives so I can set them up in a mirrored raid so if I happen to have a hard drive crash I don't lose all of my work, and I'll also investigate a backup solution involving a external drive down the road. (If anyone have any recommendation for software for this I'd be grateful)
I'm also going with two packs of 2x2GB ram for a total of 8GB. It may be a bit overkill but the stuff is cheap and I want this computer to last a good 5 years.
Finally, I know the Antec case has a rear fan, but how can I tell if it has the two front 92mm fans? I may need to buy those as well if it doesn't.
you have DDR3 ram with a DDR2 motherboard, that won't work.
I'd also seriously skip windows vista and just grab the RC of Windows 7.
What am I forgetting? Any cables I should throw in?
I'm getting a pair of identical hard drives so I can set them up in a mirrored raid so if I happen to have a hard drive crash I don't lose all of my work, and I'll also investigate a backup solution involving a external drive down the road. (If anyone have any recommendation for software for this I'd be grateful)
I'm also going with two packs of 2x2GB ram for a total of 8GB. It may be a bit overkill but the stuff is cheap and I want this computer to last a good 5 years.
Finally, I know the Antec case has a rear fan, but how can I tell if it has the two front 92mm fans? I may need to buy those as well if it doesn't.
you have DDR3 ram with a DDR2 motherboard, that won't work.
I'd also seriously skip windows vista and just grab the RC of Windows 7.
Oh. Well I was matching the FSB of the CPU, Mobo, and Ram. Apparently I have no fucking clue what I'm doing.
What am I forgetting? Any cables I should throw in?
I'm getting a pair of identical hard drives so I can set them up in a mirrored raid so if I happen to have a hard drive crash I don't lose all of my work, and I'll also investigate a backup solution involving a external drive down the road. (If anyone have any recommendation for software for this I'd be grateful)
I'm also going with two packs of 2x2GB ram for a total of 8GB. It may be a bit overkill but the stuff is cheap and I want this computer to last a good 5 years.
Finally, I know the Antec case has a rear fan, but how can I tell if it has the two front 92mm fans? I may need to buy those as well if it doesn't.
you have DDR3 ram with a DDR2 motherboard, that won't work.
I'd also seriously skip windows vista and just grab the RC of Windows 7.
Oh. Well I was matching the FSB of the CPU, Mobo, and Ram. Apparently I have no fucking clue what I'm doing.
Hey no problem, that's what we're here for
DDR2 and DDR3 are physically incompatable, so look for some DDR2 sets.
As for Hard Drives, I think you'll find more than a few people here who will tell you not to bother with a raid 1 setup. sure, you get data redundancy, but that's only for a physical drive failure. It won't help you in any other way, and imo is not worth it. I'd just worry about a good backup solution for your data, and that's it.
Also, are you planning on doing any gaming with your machine?
What am I forgetting? Any cables I should throw in?
I'm getting a pair of identical hard drives so I can set them up in a mirrored raid so if I happen to have a hard drive crash I don't lose all of my work, and I'll also investigate a backup solution involving a external drive down the road. (If anyone have any recommendation for software for this I'd be grateful)
I'm also going with two packs of 2x2GB ram for a total of 8GB. It may be a bit overkill but the stuff is cheap and I want this computer to last a good 5 years.
Finally, I know the Antec case has a rear fan, but how can I tell if it has the two front 92mm fans? I may need to buy those as well if it doesn't.
you have DDR3 ram with a DDR2 motherboard, that won't work.
I'd also seriously skip windows vista and just grab the RC of Windows 7.
Oh. Well I was matching the FSB of the CPU, Mobo, and Ram. Apparently I have no fucking clue what I'm doing.
Hey no problem, that's what we're here for
DDR2 and DDR3 are physically incompatable, so look for some DDR2 sets.
As for Hard Drives, I think you'll find more than a few people here who will tell you not to bother with a raid 1 setup. sure, you get data redundancy, but that's only for a physical drive failure. It won't help you in any other way, and imo is not worth it. I'd just worry about a good backup solution for your data, and that's it.
Also, are you planning on doing any gaming with your machine?
This is strictly a work machine. I'm outputting to to large laser engravers and a epson printer (For Sublimation printing).
I'm interested in going with the Raid 1 setup simply because a few months back we had a hard drive die on us and we lost years of work. I'm trying to avoid that happening again.
What am I forgetting? Any cables I should throw in?
I'm getting a pair of identical hard drives so I can set them up in a mirrored raid so if I happen to have a hard drive crash I don't lose all of my work, and I'll also investigate a backup solution involving a external drive down the road. (If anyone have any recommendation for software for this I'd be grateful)
I'm also going with two packs of 2x2GB ram for a total of 8GB. It may be a bit overkill but the stuff is cheap and I want this computer to last a good 5 years.
Finally, I know the Antec case has a rear fan, but how can I tell if it has the two front 92mm fans? I may need to buy those as well if it doesn't.
you have DDR3 ram with a DDR2 motherboard, that won't work.
I'd also seriously skip windows vista and just grab the RC of Windows 7.
Oh. Well I was matching the FSB of the CPU, Mobo, and Ram. Apparently I have no fucking clue what I'm doing.
Hey no problem, that's what we're here for
DDR2 and DDR3 are physically incompatable, so look for some DDR2 sets.
As for Hard Drives, I think you'll find more than a few people here who will tell you not to bother with a raid 1 setup. sure, you get data redundancy, but that's only for a physical drive failure. It won't help you in any other way, and imo is not worth it. I'd just worry about a good backup solution for your data, and that's it.
Also, are you planning on doing any gaming with your machine?
Could you recommend me some ram that's the fastest my processor and motherboard will work with on newegg? Preferably two sets of 2GB sticks so I can fill up all the slots and get 8GB total.
So that's the fastest that will work with my motherboard, eh?
Edit: In addition, if Raid 1 isn't a good idea, what backup method does everyone suggest?
And a repost: I know the Antec case has a rear fan, but how can I tell if it has the two front 92mm fans? I may need to buy those as well if it doesn't.
I'm looking at that quoted OP build.. I see a solid state drive. Is that really necessary?
Obviously it isn't necessary. Neither is anything you'd add to a $700 gaming PC since that should handle most games at most resolutions quite nicely.
The case for adding a SSD being the best place for extra money is here.
Maximumzero: A big advantage of Raid 1 or Raid 5 is that you don't get downtime when you lose a drive. To the degree that this isn't an issue then maybe you don't need it.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Max: It says the front fans are "optional" while the rear fan is "installed," so I'm going to assume you need to buy the fans if you want front intake.
And that memory is the fastest that will work and is also reasonably priced. You can look at the DDR2 1200 if you want but it's like twice as much money and you won't notice a bit of difference in performance.
Is it me, or is this a ridiculously good deal for what it comes with, especially since it includes a 64 bit vista install? Pricey yes, but about the same as the build I was looking at and better performance in several areas.
My one reservation is the lack of SLI support but with a GTX 285 would that matter for a few years?
Edit: My one other reservation is that iBuyPower is supposedly a tad sketchy, although not direly so. Buying through NewEgg makes me feel a little better though.
Posts
Thanks vengy, I'll look and see if I can get any of that tweaked. I'll shuffle the combo deals around a little bit. Video cards are probably my greatest weakness. There's so many different types, with a ton of different stats, I'm always confused trying to find the biggest bang for my buck. The budget on this build is about 500ish. It's bumping right up against that at the moment.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.198665
Case+PSU: $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129060
Graphics: $89.99 after MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125238
Hard Drive: $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074
RAM: $19.99 after MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227159
DVD Burner: $23.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152
and then the monitor you wanted.
Build above.
Honestly, fitting it all in WITH a monitor for under $500 is going to be very difficult.
Such a good feeling to have this sorted out without any more hair-pulling.
I've poked around a bit, and I can't really find any reports of people having the same kind of problem I had with the sapphire. I'm not sure it's worth making any special note of problems. I just got unlucky, which happens with this stuff from time to time. I think maybe it is worth noting that Newegg won't initially provide UPS labels for an RMA (they try to charge you for it), but if you ask their customer service people, they'll send one over. I did it using the online chat and had no problem.
I'll be running Illustrator, Photoshop, & CorelDraw, primarily.
Parts soon to follow for your critique:
I wanted to ask: I'm loving Windows 7 thus far on my iMac, but I haven't really used Vista all that much. How much worse is Vista? (Or do you think the Win7 RC is good enough for everyday use? Will I be able to purchase a license and activate the RC without having to reinstall everything like the Beta?)
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Windows 7 RC is good enough to use day to day. I've been using it day to day since the Beta, and it hasn't crashed, once, ever, for me.
But, you will have to do a re-install when you get the final version.
That's the sticking point. I don't know if I want to go through all the hassle of re-installing the Xenetech drivers when that time comes.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
I would REALLY recommend getting 4gigs of memory instead of 2. It's also easy to do this for around $30. Check out this and this and this.
Except when I choose "Older version of Windows," it then takes me to a similar screen which lists Windows XP three times. I assume this is a combination of my old 320GB drive still having an old XP install on it and the bootloader-modifying software (VistaBootPRO) I had messed with trying to get 7-then-XP install to work.
My question is, what do I have to delete/rename to get it to only show one Windows XP install instead of three? I don't want to format or disconnect the 320GB drive yet because I still have to get my old files and programs off of it.
Also, does it matter that my new XP install gave the 320GB drive the letter C instead of its own partition, which is D? Win7 has the drives lettered completely differently, too... x_x
What videocard should I go for if I'm not playing games?
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
I've never built a PC, so this will be quite an adventure for me. I want to have my very first gaming PC. I'm tired of hoping a game might work on my POS.
So, I'm shooting for a budget of about $1200 with no clear biases. The important thing is that I can play future releases such as Diablo 3 and think "wow, that looks pretty good." Also, I'll be doing "casual" things such as listening to and storing music and video, office work, that kind of stuff. Oh, and programming. I'll probably keep a Linux partition for that.
Anyway, now that I've laid that out, I really don't know much -- the OP's example "Powerhouse" build seems to suit me fine. Can anyone confirm or advise otherwise? Any particular suggestions where I can get a significant increase in quality for a minimal increase in price?
For reference, here's the example build in question:
Thanks, guys.
EDIT: Also, what other things will I need? I could use a recommendation for a NIC card. Will I need a soundcard as well? I'm really bad at this.
You won't need a NIC, as those are built into motherboards now, and same with sound. On board sound is good enough.
And don't sweat too much about putting it together. for the most part it really is like lego. Just make sure you read the instructions for the motherboard, and follow them, and you'll be fine.
I'm shooting at capping the budget at $1200. I just don't know the most effective way to spend that extra $200 - $300. Futureproofing is the major concern, but I want to be sure that I'm not throwing my money at something expensive that provides a minimal extra advantage. Does that make sense?
And good to know about NICs and sound. Things have changed since I was a kid, it seems.
Unfortunately nothing is gonna match the white, like the DVD drive.
But goddamn it looks awesome.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Since you have a little extra money, I would spend the extra $20-40 to bump the vidcard up to a 4890. If you are interested in adding a second video card in the future for crossfire, I'd also recommend bumping the mobo up to something that can run pci-e x16 with 2 cards (the gigabyte model there runs 2 card setups in x8). This Asus board for instance also happens to have a $15 combo discount with the Phenom II x4 940.
edit: hooray for more combo deals. If you don't want to xfire or don't care about xfire x8 instead of x16 (there really is little difference from what I've heard), there is this combo with the gigabyte board and the gigabyte hd 4890 that takes $20 off. That card is already $200 with a $20 mir...so you're kind of getting a 4890 for $160 after rebate. Freaking steal.
Obviously I cant get to the Windows website with no OS installed so I have to do this BEFORE this machine finally collapses (picture of current computer just for everyones amusement, yes its on it side, and yes it works, barely)
Yes you download it from microsoft it comes in the form of an iso file and its around 3 gigs so has to be burned to a DVD.
Awesome, I'm totally going for this. I even managed to figure out for myself if it was compatible with the Phenom II x4. I'm getting smarter. 8-)
I feel a lot more confident about my purchase. I'm going to sit on it for a day or two, but I think this is it. Thank you for your help.
Yeah, to me it sounds like your budget is too big for your needs. Much better than the reverse.
The main question is what resolution do you want to be playing games at?
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
This is going to sound real dumb, but I have no idea. When it comes to PC gaming, I've always kinda worked with whatever I had and focused primarily on consoles.
edit: in case you need a new monitor: here. on sale (80 bucks off, free ship) and has all the cute little features you'd look for (2 ms gtg, 4:3 scaling option, etc)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009162&Tpk=h233h
He just got this and is liking it. It can do automatic scaling from 16:9 to 4:3 for older games.
I also have that monitor, its lovely! 1080p is just damn yummy! Only complaint is that the speakers are amazingly worthless, but most people would never touch them.
What am I forgetting? Any cables I should throw in?
I'm getting a pair of identical hard drives so I can set them up in a mirrored raid so if I happen to have a hard drive crash I don't lose all of my work, and I'll also investigate a backup solution involving a external drive down the road. (If anyone have any recommendation for software for this I'd be grateful)
I'm also going with two packs of 2x2GB ram for a total of 8GB. It may be a bit overkill but the stuff is cheap and I want this computer to last a good 5 years.
Finally, I know the Antec case has a rear fan, but how can I tell if it has the two front 92mm fans? I may need to buy those as well if it doesn't.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
you have DDR3 ram with a DDR2 motherboard, that won't work.
I'd also seriously skip windows vista and just grab the RC of Windows 7.
Oh. Well I was matching the FSB of the CPU, Mobo, and Ram. Apparently I have no fucking clue what I'm doing.
Edit: Well, what ram speed should I stick with?
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Hey no problem, that's what we're here for
DDR2 and DDR3 are physically incompatable, so look for some DDR2 sets.
As for Hard Drives, I think you'll find more than a few people here who will tell you not to bother with a raid 1 setup. sure, you get data redundancy, but that's only for a physical drive failure. It won't help you in any other way, and imo is not worth it. I'd just worry about a good backup solution for your data, and that's it.
Also, are you planning on doing any gaming with your machine?
This is strictly a work machine. I'm outputting to to large laser engravers and a epson printer (For Sublimation printing).
I'm interested in going with the Raid 1 setup simply because a few months back we had a hard drive die on us and we lost years of work. I'm trying to avoid that happening again.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Could you recommend me some ram that's the fastest my processor and motherboard will work with on newegg? Preferably two sets of 2GB sticks so I can fill up all the slots and get 8GB total.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
So that's the fastest that will work with my motherboard, eh?
Edit: In addition, if Raid 1 isn't a good idea, what backup method does everyone suggest?
And a repost: I know the Antec case has a rear fan, but how can I tell if it has the two front 92mm fans? I may need to buy those as well if it doesn't.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Obviously it isn't necessary. Neither is anything you'd add to a $700 gaming PC since that should handle most games at most resolutions quite nicely.
The case for adding a SSD being the best place for extra money is here.
Maximumzero: A big advantage of Raid 1 or Raid 5 is that you don't get downtime when you lose a drive. To the degree that this isn't an issue then maybe you don't need it.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
And that memory is the fastest that will work and is also reasonably priced. You can look at the DDR2 1200 if you want but it's like twice as much money and you won't notice a bit of difference in performance.
That being said, think I need one?
Also, anyone have a good backup regime I can follow if I don't decide to use a RAID setup?
Edit: Vista doesn't have anything like Time Machine does it? That shit is fucking awesome.
Edit 2: And no I'm not using the Windows 7 RC because I'm not in the mood to have to reinstall everything once it actually releases.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227146
Is it me, or is this a ridiculously good deal for what it comes with, especially since it includes a 64 bit vista install? Pricey yes, but about the same as the build I was looking at and better performance in several areas.
My one reservation is the lack of SLI support but with a GTX 285 would that matter for a few years?
Edit: My one other reservation is that iBuyPower is supposedly a tad sketchy, although not direly so. Buying through NewEgg makes me feel a little better though.