Few quick reccs on tech purchases

Scots Taffer on 3/1/2012 at 02:04

Hi all,

My PC is a bit all over the place. I haven't been gaming for over a year, so I'm totally out of the loop on current tech - ATI vs Nvida, chipsets etc. I had a decent card but it died and have been running a back-up card which doesn't have a lot of grunt. I'll be playing games like Portal 2 and so on, but not aiming to play the super duper latest and greatest on all high settings.

PCI-E is what I'm using and the list of cards I'll be buying from is here:
(http://www.umart.com.au/newindex2.phtml?bid=2)

I'm liking the look of the NVIDIA GTX560/550 series as bang for buck is good - I'm trying to spend around $200. Appreciate any reccs.

I'm also going with a 2TB SATA as my new main and getting Win7... any big advantages on the Pro and Ultimate over the Home Premium? Also any HD manufacturers to avoid like the plague? I'm thinking WD or Seagate as per usual.

Thanks in advance!

SubJeff on 4/1/2012 at 12:00

I can't help with the newer stuff, unfortunately, but I'll say this - I have a GTX460 and there is still nothing that it will not run at 1680x1050 with most, if not all, other settings on high. So that 560 should do you proud.

june gloom on 4/1/2012 at 21:53

Beware. The 560 -- and this spans the entire range, regardless of manufacturer -- is generally problematic, though the worst of it seems to be in the 560 Ti series.

Scots Taffer on 4/1/2012 at 23:11

550Ti was the one I'd narrowed down to.

june gloom on 4/1/2012 at 23:21

It may be prudent to hit up the nvidia forums and look for posts complaining about a 550. There's always going to be a complaint or two for every model, some of them very loud, but if you see a lot of them for a particular model (or make, for that matter) that's usually a sign of a larger issue.

lost_soul on 5/1/2012 at 00:12

As for HDDs, I personally will never buy from Seagate again. I got a drive a couple years ago and it clicked, clicked, clicked from day one. Checking review scores online, tuns (haha dethtoll) of people agree with me. (http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-External-Drive-ST315005FDA2E1-RK/product-reviews/B001FWCB7C/ref=sr_1_6_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1)

Also, I read that WD decreased their warranties by a year now. Make of that what you will. I've had good luck with Hitachi and Maxtor.

Scots Taffer on 5/1/2012 at 00:54

I just had a bad experience with a clicking WD External HD which I lost everything on (most of it was backed up twice but still) and googling the 550ti you can find lots of gripes but dipping into threads a lot of it seems to be retards being retards (how do I installed drivers etc) and (http://kksonakiya.hubpages.com/hub/Nvidia-GTX-550-Ti-Temperature-Problems-and-Solutions) this little article gave me some solace (I'm no gaming demon, you'll be lucky if I get more than 3 hrs at a time to play anything EVER), so I guess I'm less guided by complaints and more guided by recommendations.

june gloom on 5/1/2012 at 01:49

Quote Posted by lost_soul

tuns (haha dethtoll)

(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ton)

Matthew on 5/1/2012 at 09:46

Tun, by comparison, is an archaic measure of liquid capacity and so not quite perhaps what you were looking for.

SubJeff on 5/1/2012 at 09:59

wat he means to say dethtoll is yr mum weighs a tun