LancerChronics on 18/5/2009 at 06:00
It's midnight and the wishlist still reads as empty...
:(
Can you post a screenshot with the changes so I can know what you picked?
TBE on 18/5/2009 at 10:49
The i7 is more than 10-20 percent faster than your AMD Phenom II X3 chip. Here are benchmarks versus the X4 chip (which is faster than the X3 chip obviously.)
(
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-phenom-ii,2119-5.html) http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-phenom-ii,2119-5.html
You're getting a whole lot of 2008 in buying an AMD X3 or X4 chip. Embrace technology, and get the latest if you've got $1500 to spend.
Adam Nuhfer on 18/5/2009 at 15:13
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
SLI and Crossfire isnt all its cracked up to be, and not all game make use of both cards. My ethos is to buy one single powerful card (in my case a GTX280) as you know everything will be supported. FYI, thief only supports 1 card.
I agree. Buy one single card. I've gone the SLI route in the past. After doing two previous SLI configurations I strictly go single card builds now.
BD: I think it's great you help out by giving/donating your time and efforts with regards to research/finding--- information/parts to help out fellow members.
Big thumbs up... :thumb:
bikerdude on 18/5/2009 at 17:23
Quote Posted by TBE
The i7 is more than 10-20 percent faster than your AMD Phenom II X3 chip.
I based my remarks on the main-stream segment of the market, which as where most of reside and on the fact that under gaming conditions, Phenom 2 X3 cpu's do better in games than Phenom X2/X4's and Core2Duo/Quads. Yes I agree core i7 Cpu's are the best money can buy, but for most they cant justify spanking that much money on an upgrade, even if they have the spare cash. For example, here is my max amount for the various parts in a pc and I never upgrade more than 2 parts once a year which equate to about £50-150 a year and this lets me play most of the latest games at the highest settings.
Case: £100
PSU: £100
Mobo: £125
Mem: £75
Gfx: £250
HDD: £50
Audio: £75
Quote Posted by Adam Nuhfer
BD: I think it's great you help out by giving/donating your time and efforts with regards to research/finding--- information/parts to help out fellow members.
Big thumbs up... :thumb:
Appreciated, its relatively easy for me to find the info as its a hobby of mine and if others can make use my knowledge to save a few bucks and get good kit at the same time then its all good. :cheeky:
:thumb:
LancerChronics on 18/5/2009 at 17:33
Excellent looking computer, and still only $640. I noticed that you went from a Geforce w/ 896mb to a Radeon w/ 512mb. What was your reasoning for the change?
I like the computer case, but I read through your other thread and the Antec that was posted seems even better, so I may focus on that.
I've decided to lower my budget to $1200. (Seeing as building the best computer you can, you still barely reach over half my budget :cheeky: ). This will leave me some cash to purchase an OS (who knows how much Win7 will be when it first comes out) and maybe even allow me to splurge a bit on a monitor and keyboard.
What I think I'll do is when I get time, I gonna use your system as a base, and slowly upgrade each component 1 step (if possible), until I reach my $1200 limit.
Let me know if I say anything that doesn't make sense or is wrong. Thanks for all the help so far.
Edit: I'll definitely keep the PcP&C silencer type, but may go for a higher wattage. Maybe the 610, in case I decide to upgrade the video card too. Thing is the 750 is only $15 more, but it is apparently hard pressed to fit in some cases.
bikerdude on 18/5/2009 at 20:08
Quote Posted by LancerChronics
* I noticed that you went from a Geforce w/ 896mb to a Radeon w/ 512mb. What was your reasoning for the change?
* I like the computer case, but I read through your other thread and the Antec that was posted seems even better, so I may focus on that.
* What I think I'll do is when I get time, I gonna use your system as a base, and slowly upgrade each component 1 step (if possible), until I reach my $1200 limit.
* I'll definitely keep the PcP&C silencer type, but may go for a higher wattage. Maybe the 750 is only $15 more, but it is apparently hard pressed to fit in some cases.
Its was purely a price issue, the BFG GTX260 was no longer in stock.
The Antec 902 is a good case, I have the original 900. But... the Coolermaster RC-690 is a better case.
* Similar quality case for less money
* Side mounted hard drive bay - more convenent
* More fan vents - CM has 9 vs A9 5
* More dust filtering - Antec has mesh on the fans only
* Tool/Screw less - Antec uses thumbs screws
* Vibration Isolation mounting for the HDD/PSU - antec has none
* Better cable managment - Antec has only 2 cable ties
here is a review of the (
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&number=1&artpage=2846&articID=620) Cm and the (
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2009/02/25/antec-nine-hundred-two-902-review/1) Antec and see for yourself.
They only mean the small mini atx cases, the 750W PcP&C is a standard ATX PSU so it will fit either the CM-690 or A-902. And as your budget is now $1200, I suggest the 750W As above and a Zotac GTX285, its the fast single GPU card currently available - (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500096) BFG GTX285 OC (702/1512/2592 - core/shader/mem) - $339
That still leaves $205 you could spend on a monitor - There are so many out there its hard to choose, but a good place to start is 178/178 viewing angels, 3-5ms response times, 1000:1 contract ratio. But to be honbest your need to go into a shop and look at a monitor before you buy, take a laptop(to plug the monitor into) with thief and a big towel (to put over your head and the monitor, so you can check black levels, back-light uniformity - you laugh, ive done it.)
LancerChronics on 19/5/2009 at 00:18
Make an excellent point, but if I want 9 fans, I need to buy 6 more, as the case only comes with 3.
Here's what I got so far:
-GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
-Geforce GTX285 OC
-CM 690
-PCP&C 750W Silencer series
-AMD Phenom II X3; 2.8 GHz
Current Total: $808.95
Just need Memory and Hard drive
What's interesting about the hard drives is that the Barracuda apparently runs loud. But the other option, "Western Digital", runs hot. Don't suppose that there's anything that is both cool and quiet. (Though maybe the heat is the better option considering I'm getting the coolmaster). Also, 320 GB may not be enough memory, with games like Age of Conan, taking up 80gb in one go, who knows how much space we'll need.
Second, the RAM. 4 is good, 6 is better. Would have liked high performance, but that may be too much money. Not to mention all the gaming ram has "i7" compatible next to it. Anything that is Phenom X3 compatible? (I like the symmetry of X3 and 6GB, 2 gigabytes per processor).
Any extra I end up having may end up going to fans, and I am seriously considering liquid cooling as well.(Though that may be overkill. Is there such a thing as a system running "too cold"?)
bikerdude on 19/5/2009 at 09:56
Quote Posted by LancerChronics
* What's interesting about the hard drives is that the Barracuda apparently runs loud. Also, 320 GB may not be enough memory, with games like Age of Conan, taking up 80gb in one go, who knows how much space we'll need.
* Second, the RAM. 4 is good, 6 is better. Anything that is Phenom X3 compatible? (I like the symmetry of X3 and 6GB, 2 gigabytes per processor).
* Any extra I end up having may end up going to fans, and I am seriously considering liquid cooling as well
* The barracuda I recommended is a both very cool and very quiet. I am running 3 of them in raid-0 - which gives me 900Gb of storage, but blistering 300MB/sec read and write. I have an external 500Gb USB drive for backup.
* You will need to run Vista64 if you want to use more than 4GB, the phenom will only support memory configs of 2, 4, 8, 16 etc, only the i7 supports 3, 6, 9, 12 etc. Also no game out there will use more than 4GB atm.
* liquid is complete overkill at this point, that case will be quite cool running, the only thing i might suggest is replacing he stock fans with some Xilence redwing's - I am running 4 of them in my Antec and they are far quiet at full speed than the stock fans were.
Quote Posted by LancerChronics
Hmm, maybe a monitor won't be so hard to find after all.
The only other thing I can add to my previous requirements is if you can afford it, get and IPS based screen or failing that a MVA. I have an NEC 20wgx2pro which is a S-IPS based, but cost $450.
