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Computer Build Thread: Now sublimating the desire for a 5850 into cheap builds!

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    XeddicusXeddicus Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Antithesis wrote: »
    Everything else I'm ordering for my desktop says "Retail", so I was wondering-

    Would this and this come with a SATA cable and everything I'd need to mount/connect it to the the motherboard, etc...? The HDD is labeled a "bare drive" and the DVD burner is OEM.

    And while I'm on it, if I order something "retail" from newegg, could I assume it would come with all the necessary items to connect it/ hook it up?

    I'm afraid I'll order all the components and then find out I need to wait another week for this one little cable.

    Retail most likely will, yes. OEM/Bare will not most likely. OEM comes with just the specific part, nothing extra.

    Xeddicus on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Well my motherboard came with 2 Sata cables. I needed an extra one for the SSD.

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    AntithesisAntithesis Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Well my motherboard came with 2 Sata cables. I needed an extra one for the SSD.

    I think I'll order an extra Sata cable- what would I want to mount an HDD and a DVD drive in my case?

    Also, the monitor that I was looking at is sold out and I don't want to wait for 5770's to be sold out again- could anyone recommend me a good 1080p monitor?

    This is the one I think I'll get.

    Will I notice that much difference between 2ms and 5ms? If not, is this one worth it for the reduction in price?

    Antithesis on
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    LoneIgadzraLoneIgadzra Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Anyone know what a safe temperature on a Radeon HD 4890 might be? Mine currently seems to be running about 56 C after playing EVE Online for a while, wondering if I need to increase the fan speed.

    LoneIgadzra on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Antithesis wrote: »
    Well my motherboard came with 2 Sata cables. I needed an extra one for the SSD.

    I think I'll order an extra Sata cable- what would I want to mount an HDD and a DVD drive in my case?

    Also, the monitor that I was looking at is sold out and I don't want to wait for 5770's to be sold out again- could anyone recommend me a good 1080p monitor?

    This is the one I think I'll get.

    Will I notice that much difference between 2ms and 5ms? If not, is this one worth it for the reduction in price?

    Really good deals seem to pop up on Dell via slickdeals fairly often. Might be worth waiting for on of those.

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    cytorakcytorak Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    I've decided to build the Econobox on TechReport, but the DVD and case they suggest are no longer available.

    I'm thinking of subbing this for the case and this for the DVD drive. They appear to be identical to the ones suggest by TechReport, but is there something glaringly obvious that I'm missing?

    I'm not a hardcore power PC gamer, but I'd like to be able to run Dragon Age (and Diablo 3 when it comes out) and not have to upgrade my graphics card every 8 months.

    cytorak on
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    wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Anyone know what a safe temperature on a Radeon HD 4890 might be? Mine currently seems to be running about 56 C after playing EVE Online for a while, wondering if I need to increase the fan speed.

    thats actually a crazy cold temperature for a 48xx series card. For example, my 4870 idles around 80C, and that's perfectly normal.

    wunderbar on
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    RuddurBallRuddurBall Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Antithesis wrote: »
    Well my motherboard came with 2 Sata cables. I needed an extra one for the SSD.

    I think I'll order an extra Sata cable- what would I want to mount an HDD and a DVD drive in my case?

    Also, the monitor that I was looking at is sold out and I don't want to wait for 5770's to be sold out again- could anyone recommend me a good 1080p monitor?

    This is the one I think I'll get.

    Will I notice that much difference between 2ms and 5ms? If not, is this one worth it for the reduction in price?

    Really good deals seem to pop up on Dell via slickdeals fairly often. Might be worth waiting for on of those.

    Don't forget the Dell outlet store, I got my sp2309w there for $229.

    RuddurBall on
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    LoneIgadzraLoneIgadzra Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    wunderbar wrote: »
    Anyone know what a safe temperature on a Radeon HD 4890 might be? Mine currently seems to be running about 56 C after playing EVE Online for a while, wondering if I need to increase the fan speed.

    thats actually a crazy cold temperature for a 48xx series card. For example, my 4870 idles around 80C, and that's perfectly normal.

    Huh, I wonder if the temp in the catalyst overdrive panel is accurate then. My card is actually a factory-overclocked model from HIS too. Must be my case (which has much better airflow than I'm used to).

    But running cool doesn't stop Mass Effect from being an unstable POS on this. :whatthechrist:

    LoneIgadzra on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    cytorak wrote: »
    I've decided to build the Econobox on TechReport, but the DVD and case they suggest are no longer available.

    I'm thinking of subbing this for the case and this for the DVD drive. They appear to be identical to the ones suggest by TechReport, but is there something glaringly obvious that I'm missing?

    I'm not a hardcore power PC gamer, but I'd like to be able to run Dragon Age (and Diablo 3 when it comes out) and not have to upgrade my graphics card every 8 months.

    Well the TR econobox isn't really optimized for gaming. With prices what they are just at the moment I'd go with a 5770 over an overpriced 5750. Also, looking at this chart. I'd say the Phenom II X3 720 would be the cheap CPU to get for Dragon Age.

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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    I wish I had never read this Anandtech article.

    Damn you ATI/AMD/TMSC!

    Maybe I should go with an cheap 4870 until I need DX11. Hmmmmm. Hmmmm.

    lowlylowlycook on
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    AntithesisAntithesis Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Thanks for your help, everyone!

    Now what should I call her when she arrives....

    Antithesis on
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    fmz65fmz65 Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    So lowly, this is the build I'm currently looking at:

    HIS Radeon 5770... 174.99

    A combo of:
      Cooler Master Case Gigabyte P55 Mobo Cooler Master Power Supply 4GB Corsair Memory
    ... 350.99 (After MIR)

    Sony DVD Burner... 27.99

    And then deciding between these 2 HDs:
    Western Digital 1TB... 84.99
    Seagate 1TB... 79.99

    OS HD:
    Western Digital80 GB... 35.99

    CPU:
    Phenom II X3... 119.00

    OR

    Phenom II X4... 165.99

    Around $788.95 - 840.94

    And holy crap that is a lot more than I wanted to spend... I'd love to be in the $550-650 range. Do you see any places you can help me shave off some of the fat and still have a machine that'll be relevant for the next few years? Sorry for giving you so much trouble lowly! Also, if there's items that are kept, will I need to buy anything for them (such as cables and whatnot)?

    fmz65 on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    I'll take a loot [haha, I've been playing Torchlight can you tell, I'll leave the typo] tomorrow but you need to start with getting a AMD AM3 MB instead of an intel P55 one.

    AFAIK, small drives tend to be slow because the data density is lower so I'd be wary of such a small platter drive for the OS.

    5XXX cards are just being a serious pain in the ass now which I don't want to think about yet again. Now it's coming to raising the price on 5770s which is just blah.

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    Dark ShroudDark Shroud Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    fmz65 wrote: »
    So lowly, this is the build I'm currently looking at:

    HIS Radeon 5770... 174.99

    A combo of:
      Cooler Master Case Gigabyte P55 Mobo
    <-- Intel LGA 1156 socket
    Cooler Master Power Supply
    4GB Corsair Memory
    ... 350.99 (After MIR)

    Sony DVD Burner... 27.99

    And then deciding between these 2 HDs:
    Western Digital 1TB... 84.99
    Seagate 1TB... 79.99

    OS HD:
    Western Digital80 GB... 35.99 <-- Don't bother

    CPU:
    Phenom II X3... 119.00 <-- Won't work with mobo

    OR

    Phenom II X4... 165.99 <-- Won't work with mobo

    Around $788.95 - 840.94

    And holy crap that is a lot more than I wanted to spend... I'd love to be in the $550-650 range. Do you see any places you can help me shave off some of the fat and still have a machine that'll be relevant for the next few years? Sorry for giving you so much trouble lowly! Also, if there's items that are kept, will I need to buy anything for them (such as cables and whatnot)?

    I hate to tell you this but those CPUs won't work with that mobo. That mobo takes Intel LGA 1156 CPUs not AMD and the cheapest is the Core i5 at $200.

    Core i5

    EDIT: My suggestion is to just buy the WD green HD and partition it for now. The Seagate drives haven't had a good reputation as of late for quality & performance. In a few months you can buy either a smaller WD black drive or an SSD for your OS drive.

    Dark Shroud on
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    Dark ShroudDark Shroud Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Sorry for the double post but I don't want a giant wall of text.
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    Gah, the random number vomit of video card numbers is making my head hurt. So I'll ask here. Which of these 1 GB cards will give me the best performance for the least money?

    Radeon 4870
    Radeon 5750
    Radeon 5770

    I agree with lowlylowlycook. Get the 5770 since it is DX11 and on par with or better than the 4870 in every way and is only about $10-20 more.

    Anandtech has the 5770 benching a bit lower (between 5 and 15 fps less) than the 4870 actually, which holds true even in Battleforge, a DX11 game. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3658 To me, that's pretty significant if you have a modern HD monitor and would want to run games at the kinds of resolutions anandtech tests at. Seeing as the 5770 costs ~$20 more than the 4870, I find it hard to recommend.

    For my build I really would have liked to break the bank and get a 5850, but they are hard to get right now, and I found a 4890 for $190, which has performance extremely similar to the $260 5850 sans DX 11. I figured that was the way to go. If DX11 becomes a big deal, I can always upgrade.

    Edit: of course ananadtech's benchmarks are typically done with antialiasing on, which is not necessarily a huge deal on a modern LCD screen.

    Other sites have tested the 5770 as well. It depends on the settings and the game to the point that the 5770 has done better than the 4870 on some games with the same settings. Yes at stock the 4870 is more powerful, however I say just use MSI Afterburner to give the 5770 a 10%-15% performance boost. And honestly if the 5770 had a 256-bit memory bus it would be on par with the 4890.

    Dark Shroud on
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    PracticalProblemSolverPracticalProblemSolver Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    It's time for my quinquennial building of the computer, and about time, my old pc is pretty much useless right now and it's so loud I don't even like turning it on.

    I'm trying to get components so I can make it quiet later, hence the expensive case and power supply.

    Case: Antec P183 - $140
    PS: Nexus value 430 - $80
    MotherB: Asus P43 - $80
    CPU: Core 2 Duo E7500 - $120
    Memory: OCZ Gold DDR2, 2 x 2GB - $80
    Storage: WD Caviar Green - $55
    Video: 5770 - $170
    OS: Windows 7 - $107

    The egg pricing is $832 with windows 7, which, given G&T's glowing review sounds reasonably appealing. I also wanted to get an ssd but I don't think they're a good value quite yet, maybe next summer.

    So does all this look fairly well matched? Anywhere I can trim the price down a bit?

    PracticalProblemSolver on
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    LoneIgadzraLoneIgadzra Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    fmz65 wrote: »
    And holy crap that is a lot more than I wanted to spend... I'd love to be in the $550-650 range. Do you see any places you can help me shave off some of the fat and still have a machine that'll be relevant for the next few years? Sorry for giving you so much trouble lowly! Also, if there's items that are kept, will I need to buy anything for them (such as cables and whatnot)?

    Apart from what others have said about your components being mismatched, I would buy a cheaper CPU. Game performance is more GPU-limited these days, and a quad core phenom is somewhat premium. (Don't go Intel - for some reason all their comparable stuff is at least $50 more right now.)


    Anyway. Who else would really like to install ATI TrayTools and can't due to Windows 7 64-bit requiring all device drivers to be signed? (And for some reason the latest version requires an unsigned device driver.) I particularly would like a way to enable triple buffering in Direct3D games. Tearing is ridiculously noticeable on my monitor and I'm running with vsync wherever possible.

    LoneIgadzra on
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    fmz65fmz65 Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Ah, well the problem with that is the combo deal is based around all those parts. I'd really love to stay with AMD and whatnot, but I don't know if I'll get a discount w/o the mobo.

    fmz65 on
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    asifsidasifsid __BANNED USERS new member
    edited November 2009
    did you looked at Dell XPS? i guess that should fin into your bill, look into specifications like core 2 duo with processor speed of 3 Ghz, 500 GB Hard Disk, 4 GB Ram. I think these are three main component of a computer as far as its performance is concern, rest other multimedia stuff is pretty common in almost all computers. Since you are into gaming then you should go for 17" display with high resolution. In short Dell XPS has it all within your budget

    asifsid on
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    OllibolliOllibolli Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    I'll take a loot [haha, I've been playing Torchlight can you tell, I'll leave the typo] tomorrow but you need to start with getting a AMD AM3 MB instead of an intel P55 one.

    AFAIK, small drives tend to be slow because the data density is lower so I'd be wary of such a small platter drive for the OS.

    5XXX cards are just being a serious pain in the ass now which I don't want to think about yet again. Now it's coming to raising the price on 5770s which is just blah.

    What? I didn't read anything about 5770 prices going up in that article, just that 5850s will get more expensive.

    For those interested, the reasoning behind a price increase on the 5850 is that a 5850 is a harvested 5870 die with some parts disabled. TSMC (supplier of chips to both AMD and NVidia) seem to have yield problems which directly affects the number of potential 5870/5850 chips ATi/AMD can get their hands on. Demand far outweighs supply of these parts at the moment, therefore ATi/AMD want to use as many functioning dies as possible for 5870s which have higher margins, which further reduces the supply of 5850 dies. A situation where demand is far higher than supply, and basically nonexistant competition from NVidia at that price point makes a price increase very reasonable.

    Edit: Anandtech estimates an increased MSRP from $259 to $279 for the 5850.

    Ollibolli on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    lowlylowlycook on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    It's time for my quinquennial building of the computer, and about time, my old pc is pretty much useless right now and it's so loud I don't even like turning it on.

    I'm trying to get components so I can make it quiet later, hence the expensive case and power supply.

    Case: Antec P183 - $140
    PS: Nexus value 430 - $80
    MotherB: Asus P43 - $80
    CPU: Core 2 Duo E7500 - $120
    Memory: OCZ Gold DDR2, 2 x 2GB - $80
    Storage: WD Caviar Green - $55
    Video: 5770 - $170
    OS: Windows 7 - $107

    The egg pricing is $832 with windows 7, which, given G&T's glowing review sounds reasonably appealing. I also wanted to get an ssd but I don't think they're a good value quite yet, maybe next summer.

    So does all this look fairly well matched? Anywhere I can trim the price down a bit?

    How about this:

    AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz + Nexus VALUE 430 430W Active PFC Power Supply
    HIS H577F1GDG Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB + OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
    Antec P183 + Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM
    GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX
    Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB
    DVD drive
    Total: $784 - $55 in MiR = $729

    lowlylowlycook on
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    Golden LegGolden Leg Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    I've been doing a little bit more research before I buy my system, and come to find out the motherboard I picked out does not use 3-pin fan connectors. Someone in a review recommended getting a 3-pin to 4-pin molex adapter. Does this mean I'll be hooking the fans up straight to the power supply rather than into the motherboard?

    Also, if any of you are curious, here is what I have picked out:

    GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
    Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750 - Retail
    SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
    G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ - Retail

    Golden Leg on
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    fmz65fmz65 Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    ^Thanks for the work above, but I forgot to mention I don't need to buy Windows because my university has it for $15. With these slight changes I've made to your suggestion, will everything still work? (I've bolded the "changes")

    AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz + HIS H577F1GDG Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB combo
    ... 330.98 (Same)
    GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard... 74.99 (Just mobo)
    Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB + Cable... 84.99 (Different HD + same cable)
    4 GB DDR3 RAM... 78.99 (Same)
    DVD Drive... 27.99 (Same)

    And for the case I'm deciding between:
    RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 500W Power Supply... 79.99

    and

    Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case + Antec earthwatts EA430 430W... 106.94

    Total = $677.93: $647.93 after MIR ($30 more if choosing the Antec case)

    Also, would you recommend having a separate, way smaller, drive to store your OS on? I would rather avoid a partition if possible.

    fmz65 on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    fmz65 wrote: »

    Also, would you recommend having a separate, way smaller, drive to store your OS on? I would rather avoid a partition if possible.

    Only for SSDs. Otherwise I just don't see the benefit.

    Also it's a bad idea to buy a case with CPU except for Antec cases. Maybe there are some exceptions but I doubt that the Raidmax would be one.

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    fmz65fmz65 Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Hm, so would you recommend then going with the current build plus the Antec case? Or should I just look for a cheap PSU with the other case?

    fmz65 on
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    Tw4winTw4win Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    Gah, the random number vomit of video card numbers is making my head hurt. So I'll ask here. Which of these 1 GB cards will give me the best performance for the least money?

    Radeon 4870
    Radeon 5750
    Radeon 5770

    I agree with lowlylowlycook. Get the 5770 since it is DX11 and on par with or better than the 4870 in every way and is only about $10-20 more.

    Anandtech has the 5770 benching a bit lower (between 5 and 15 fps less) than the 4870 actually, which holds true even in Battleforge, a DX11 game. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3658 To me, that's pretty significant if you have a modern HD monitor and would want to run games at the kinds of resolutions anandtech tests at. Seeing as the 5770 costs ~$20 more than the 4870, I find it hard to recommend.

    For my build I really would have liked to break the bank and get a 5850, but they are hard to get right now, and I found a 4890 for $190, which has performance extremely similar to the $260 5850 sans DX 11. I figured that was the way to go. If DX11 becomes a big deal, I can always upgrade.

    Edit: of course ananadtech's benchmarks are typically done with antialiasing on, which is not necessarily a huge deal on a modern LCD screen.

    I guess my view of the 4890 vs. 5850 argument is that the 5850 is rather expensive and hard to find right now and doesn't really give you that much over the 4890, except for DX 11 support. Since DX 11 isn't really going to be widely supported in games for a year or so I'd say get the 4890 now. By the time DX 11 really makes a difference cards that support it will have dropped in price.

    I just picked up anoter 4890 and plan on crossfiring it....

    Tw4win on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    fmz65 wrote: »
    Hm, so would you recommend then going with the current build plus the Antec case? Or should I just look for a cheap PSU with the other case?

    Well the case+PSU I recommended for you has the advantage of being cheap and letting you upgrade to a higher power Video card later if you want. Otherwise pick a case and PSU as you like, the 5770 only needs one PCI-E connector so any decent PSU should do.

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    fmz65fmz65 Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Thanks! I'll probably buy all the components on Monday or tomorrow! I'll let you know how it goes when it arrives and I have the time to build it!

    fmz65 on
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    Moe FwackyMoe Fwacky Right Here, Right Now Drives a BuickModerator mod
    edited November 2009
    Time for a new one of these. Let me know when it's up and I'll sticky it again.

    Moe Fwacky on
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    LoneIgadzraLoneIgadzra Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Tw4win wrote: »
    I just picked up anoter 4890 and plan on crossfiring it....

    I don't think I'm going to crossfire mine - don't need to really, except to get the very latest games to run at 1920x1080 with AA on and everything maxed with v-sync. (I'll settle for just everything maxed with v-sync on for now.) Not only do I not want to run up an electric bill, I suspect my current 4890 of being the number one loudest component in my new PC, and - to top it off - it seemed to require one more power connector than I expected (a 6 pin and an 8 pin) so now I don't have any PCIE 6-pin plugs for a second, even though my power supply allegedly can do crossfire.

    LoneIgadzra on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Guys, start using the new thread.

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