critique my hypothetical PC

Sulphur on 27/10/2010 at 07:07

I'm afraid it was.

lost_soul on 28/10/2010 at 18:25

I've been looking at components for a new PC too. I was more inclined to go with the Phenom II X4 965: Quad-core 3.4 GHz and 8MB cache. The CPU and a good DDR3 mobo with 4 slots can be had for $230 on PriceWatch. I think I'll wait until the Bulldozer chips come in next year though. They will consume less power and this G50V laptop does everything I want it to. Besides, the new chips won't fit in AM3+ boards.

I personally would go for an NVidia GPU though. After dealing with ATI's Linux "drivers" in the past and their support policy, I would sooner eat a bag of computer screws and motherboard stand-offs than buy another GPU from them. A wile ago, they dropped support from the binary driver for cards that were only about three years old. This meant we had to use the open-source driver and get less performance. NVidia still supports their 6-year-old cards with drivers that give me the performance I expect (and paid for).

Al_B on 28/10/2010 at 20:22

I've just upgraded my 8800GTS to a 1GB GTX460 after getting frustrated with some newer games. So far I'm very happy with it and from what I've read it's not too much different from a GTX470 in terms of performance but much cheaper, cooler and quieter.

Brian The Dog on 28/10/2010 at 21:11

Quote Posted by lost_soul

I personally would go for an NVidia GPU though. After dealing with ATI's Linux "drivers" in the past and their support policy, I would sooner eat a bag of computer screws and motherboard stand-offs than buy another GPU from them

Yeah, their Linux support is legendarily bad. All our PC's at work are nvidia to enable users to choose Linux if they want it. Anyone even thinking of sneezing in the direction of Linux should make sure they have an nvidia card :)

For Windows, I don't think it matters that much. I personally have only ever had nvidia cards (GeForce 2MX, 5700, 7950 and 9800) and found them all to be ultra-reliable and have had no problems with drivers. But I would expect the same from ATI as that would be by far their main market.

Aja on 29/10/2010 at 02:05

Linux is a non-issue for me.

As for stability, the best graphics card I ever bought was a Radeon 9800 Pro, five or six years ago. Not that it's much of an indicator either way, but the nvidia cards I've owned have blue-screened way more than my ATI ever did.

In any case, I'm waiting for some 6870 vs GTX470 benchmarks, which'll hopefully be coming out soon.

Aja on 29/10/2010 at 02:11

Oh I do have another question: no one's suggested any cases, and I'm not sure what the difference between ATX and Micro ATX is. Is the latter unsuitable for gaming? (ie, does it get too hot?) A smaller, more portable case would be handier for moving around during recording sessions.

nbohr1more on 29/10/2010 at 19:29

Micro-ATX is fine if you choose a lower clocked CPU and GPU. This is presuming that you want the case to be quiet. I believe that most modern Micro-ATX cases dynamically ramp the fan speeds depending on the internal temps. If you don't care about Fan-Noise (isolated from microphone located in a sound booth?) then Micro-ATX should work for even the more muscular hardware...

Aja on 30/10/2010 at 20:30

I don't have a sound booth, we record in our living room :p

I want one of (http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=546&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=63) these. Reviews I've read suggest that cooling shouldn't be an issue, and it's got a fan switch to control the noise when we're recording.

Brian The Dog on 30/10/2010 at 22:47

The only real difference between ATX and micro-ATX is that the number of PCI(-E) slots is reduced. So if you're using lots of the slots, then they're a bad idea. For a standard "graphics plus sound" cards setup, they'll be fine.

The reason they get hotter is nothing to do with ATX motherboards per se, it's because people put them in micro-ATX cases ;) If you're putting case fans in, then they'll be fine in such a case.

By the way, if you're going for micro-atx or even smaller, make sure your CPU cooler is not one of those mammoth things that you can buy. The stock cooler will be small enough, so this is more of an issue if you're buying a replacement, make sure you get a low-profile cooler.

Aja on 30/10/2010 at 23:30

Yeah, I'm going to leave everything stock at first, and if temperatures are looking high, I'll be able to shop for aftermarket coolers knowing exactly how much space I have.