Jacked Up PC

[norm]

Thanks Ratix. I tried to pass that point along to Foos, but I don't think I stated as well as you did.

Foos, the best thing about building your PC is planning for the future. Not getting the "best" of everything now, but plan on upgrading once or twice a year at most. Processors and video cards drop in price all the time. I have an AMD 5600 Dual Core processor and when I first started pricing things to when I bought it the price dropped close to a $100. So keep that in mind.


One thing I'm not sure about and I hope Ratix knows is if the ATI video card will work on a SLI board?


ATI's Crossfire and Nvidea's SLI are the same thing for the most part. When you add a second card (for this purpose that is equal to the first) you will see a 30% to 60% increase in your system. The difference in Crossfire and SLI is that in SLI you can't mix cards. They have to be equal to the first one. If not it either won't work or it will pick the slower card and cap the faster card at that speed. In Crossfire it doesn't matter.


Is Crossfire or SLI worth it? It really depends on the use and user. For me I think it is. I can buy a cheaper card now and save $400 and wait a few months and buy another one, that a level or two better then my first still saving me $300 over your one card. I don't personally have to run every game at the max settings and still try to get 40+ FPS though.

[RaTix]

hmmm some reason couldn't see the last page till I posted this. so this is just filler.

* I'm actually not too sure on the Crossfire and SLI stuff as I don't use it at the moment. I know my card is crossfire supported, and I am pretty sure I didn't know that or what it meant when I bought my card. All I know is it was like only $90 or something.

[Capthemfoos]

These are the parts that will be making up my computer.

Monitor:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SyncMaster-226BW-LCD-Monitor/dp/B000NBBWNU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=12142473 62&sr=8-1"]http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SyncMaster-226BW-LCD-Monitor/dp/B000NBBWNU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=12142473 62&sr=8-1[/ame]

Case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

Motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141005

Graphics Card:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121247

Power Supply:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152030

Processor:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115042

RAM:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145

Sound Card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006

If theres anything you didn't see that is essential, I didn't list it probably because I already have it, or I don't know I need it. Speakers, keyboard, and mouse are easy to find so it really doesn't warrant space here, although suggestions are welcome.

On a side not, in Pittsburgh I saw the Seagate headquarters. Nobody besides employees are allowed in obviously, but it was pretty cool.

This PC or "rig" as some people call it will cost around 1800 for the parts alone. Shipping, I'm expecting maybe an added 100 - 200. No doubt that I will be broke for a while and this PC better not die on me.

[Brocman]

OR.. Do what I do. I have only 2GB Physical RAM (512MB on Video Card), but I have a separate partition that holds my 9GB paging file or "Virtual Memory". This makes it so I can have AudoCAD, Photoshop, 50 tabs in FireFox open while playing Civ4 and it still runs like a champ.

The only reason I would think of to upgrade to a 64 bit OS is to be able to use more then 4 gb of ram when playing Oblivion. How did you partition ram? If I could do that I'll just stick with 32 bit XP

[Capthemfoos]

If anybody could give me suggestions on the parts above, then that would be great.

The only thing that may have changed is the monitor. While I am still looking at that Samsung, this Acer looks good to me as well.


Acer 24"

The reason this is taking this long is because my mom is trying to make me change my mid about building my own pc and wanting me to buy a pre made one or get some more money.

More suggestions are welcome.

[Brocman]

Thats a good monitor. Nice price, LCD is always good, 3000:1 is good, and 2ms response time is awesome too. Definitely pull the trigger on that one.

Im not that big of a fan of pre-built PCs. They never give you the software cds and they always install a bunch of stuff on there that you won't need. Plus there is always one part in the PC that just produces a facepalm.

[Brocman]

Ok, checked out your hardware and I would suggest two things.

1. You don't need a sound card, most motherboards (including the one you have up there) have a built in sound card.

2. The motherboard's fan blows right on the back of the Graphics card and I have never heard of the company that makes it. Check out this motherboard, I'm pretty sure it matches your specs. LGA 775, Quad Core support, it's got a nice FSB, and supports PCI-E 2.0

It's also got a built in sound card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157133

I like that case you picked out. Thats the case I got. Very very nice, roomy, and plenty of fans, with an option for a fifth fan.

[Capthemfoos]

Cool. Thanks man. Yeah, I think I may get that motherboard. It seems to have everything that the more expensive one had, but cheaper.

[RaTix]

Ok hold up on the ordering. The Vid Card you have needs a Crossfire mobo, not SLI. Crossfire video cards need Crossfire Mobos and SLI needs SLI.

Also if your main thing is gonna be gaming, I strongly suggest AMD over intel. I took the time today to put together something for you.

CPU - AMD Phenom 9950 (Quad Core). The benchmarks I found seemed better then most Intels and $50 cheaper then the Core Duo you had.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103285

Motherboard - MSI board that can do up to quad Crossfire, probably way beyond what you need. But also in dual mode does both PCIe @ 16x instead of 8x. Also $100 cheaper then the other one. Just as good though with higher memory Mhz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130136

RAM - slightly more expensive, but got great reviews and they have a pretty efficient cooling patented design.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227289

Video Card - You could still use the one you selected, but that thing looked like a beast that would take up way too much space. The first one here is expensive but good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121228

Cheaper Video Card that would work well for Crossfire with two on the Mobo.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121253

Power Supply - 4 12v rails instead of the 2 on the one you stated, plus 850w for that lil extra when you do go Crossfire. Also higher efficiency with >85% opposed to the up to 80% on yours.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152034

And I agree with Brocman, you don't really need the sound card right away as the mobo comes with it built in. I haven't used a sound card in... **** like 10 years.

[Capthemfoos]

Holy ****. Thanks Ratix for taking the time to put this list together. I probably will buy all the parts you just put. I don't know a whole lot about computers, just maybe a little bit more than the average person knows. Thanks again.

The only problem that I have with AMD is that I don't want it to heat up too much. If thats not that big of a problem, then I'll take the AMD because you say its better for gaming. And OEM. Is that anything to be worried about in terms of processors?

Not to be a pain in the ass, but did you see the motherboard that Brocman put up? Does that compare to the one you put up?

And finally, which video card would you recommend that I buy among the two that you listed? The cheaper(x2) or the more expensive one?

[RaTix]

Here's the retail version, I thought I had it listed above.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103273

OEM is basically the ones they send to companies like Dell or HP to build their systems with. The retail is actually cheaper, which makes me want to double check why it's so much more for OEM.

..checked, and I don't know why it's so much more for the OEM which wouldn't come with a heat sink. Although the Retail says no heatsink included, all the reviews says it is, which it should for a retail. So they have a typo on the specs page for that.

Go for the retail, it's cheaper.

[Capthemfoos]

What about AMD phenom's reputation? Does it parallel Intel's quad core?

I did some research and some people say that Phenom is good and others say Intel. Here is a link about people bashing AMD phenom but near the middle/end, some people get up and defend the Phenom.


Phenom Bashers

[RIZZO]

Well Ill post links when I get a chance but Ill basically give you my input.

CPU - Q6600. Enough said. Intels Best Quad Core for the money/performance ratio. If you need ANYTHING beyond that you could future proof the system with either a Q9300 or Q9450 penryn chip. Either of those would be Quad cores as well and work on their new 45nm tech.

Motherboard - First of all most boards come with a x16 pciexpress slot for SINGLE video card performance. Now in the future if you want to think about either Nvidia SLI or ATI Crossfire then the best thing I can recommend is making sure that the motherboard comes with 2 or more pci express slots and that it clearly states it runs both cards in X16 and NOT x8 mode.

The only reason I say this is, yea okay maybe you wont be losing too much bandwidth but with the HUGE performance increase of these new video cards, you always want to be ahead of the game and its basically unanimous you should have 2, 3, 4 video cards running in x16 mode.

RAM - As long as you have 4GB of ram you will be completely fine and anything such as 8GB or more is never really a bad thing but its TOTALLY overkill! Also I would recommend just getting 2 Sticks that give you a 2x2GB configuration as opposed to have 4 individual sticks of ram. It kinda doesn't matter anymore, but it just seems easier to have 2 sticks and its better for cooling in the system. Before it was bad to have 4 sticks of ram because it wasn't really compatible with alot of motherboards but nowadays it doesn't matter.

A good rule of thumb, the less crap you have in your system, the better cooling your going to have plain and simple.

Video Card - Pretty Easy. Nvidia-GTX 260 or GTX 280. ATI-4850 or 4870. But if you wanted to wait for the FASTEST card coming out then you would have to wait till the end of august for ATI to unleash the beast known as the 4870x2 which is a Dual Video Card in 1 such as the 3870x2 that you were thinking about purchasing before. This WILL be the fastest card on the market and will retail for around $450-500, so they say.

But currently the fastest card is the GTX 280. However the ATI 4870 does trade blows with it in many benchmarks and is actually the best card for the money and performance ratio!

Power Supply - Many rails of power are a good rule of thumb but also misleading sometimes. Some companies make PSU that have tons of rails but have shitty power efficiency. If anything take a look and see if you can get a Corsair PSU. Most if not ALL of their Power supplys are freaking beasts and are built with not only the most quality parts inside but are made to last. The best one i can recommend is the Corsair 750TX. It literally has EVERTHING you need, even for SLI or Crossfire.

But if you want a modular power supply then you could also look at the Corsair 550w or 620w that are awesome as well and they let you remove any unnecessary plugs that you don't need.

[Capthemfoos]

Ah shiiiiiiittttt. So much stuff going on. Thanks RiZZO for your input. Maybe I should just build two computers, 1 intel and 1 amd.:)

[RaTix]

The original Phenoms had some major bugs with it, but was completely fixed in the newer series like the 9950 I posted about. So you can ignore those threads as they are outdated since the newer chips hit in July I think.


Here are links to some Benchmarks of the different chips.

http://hothardware.com/Articles/AMD_Phenom_X4_9350e_and_9950_BE_Debut/?page=7

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3344&p=15

The AMD's Phenom 9950 is better then Intel's Q6600 in most areas. Also the Q6600 is 2.4Ghz while the Phenom is 2.6Ghz. You can overclock them both if need be, but don't think you should worry about that at this point.
Of course if money is no problem, then you can go with the higher end Intels Quads for around $500. I think the AMD is the best bang for your buck in the Quad Core chipsets.