Any up to date computer hardware guru's on our boards?

[Reason]

I have been out of the loop on hardware for quite some time now and I am looking to create/buy a new rig again.

This desktop will be oriented towards gaming and needs to stay near/under 1k

I don't know if I feel like building it from scratch with all the parts again like I have in the past, and http://www.ibuypower.com/ (http://www.ibuypower.com/) was recommended to me.

Any thoughts/suggestions on where to start?

Who happens to be the better choice at the moment? AMD or INTEL? Nvidia or ATI?

[Matt Collins]

Torch has some experience.

[Bman]

The Chimera 2-F with the intel i7 looks nice. If you were to assemble the computer from scratch and tried to make sure you were keeping shipping free or very low you could build a similar computer to what they offer with slightly better components and a monitor for the same price. Right around $1350.

I get to use an i7 at a studio and it is by far the fastest processor I've dealt with.

[BenIsForRon]

Dude, you can make a killer rig for under 1k, even if you have to purchase windows 7 (By the way, you can get it super cheap if you're a college student).

Just browse some articles at Tom's Hardware. They talk about how to build good gaming rigs in your price range all the time.

www.tomshardware.com

From what I've read, AMD's generally have the best bang for the buck right now. You can get a triple core AMD for 60 bucks last time I checked.

I think I'm going to stick with ATI for the forseeable future. I don't approve of the strong arm tactics Nvidia is using to force people to buy their products to implement physx.

[Reason]

Yeah, I was looking at this possible setup from that site

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-cpu-gpu,2655.html

[Bman]

Yeah, I was looking at this possible setup from that site

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-cpu-gpu,2655.html

At least make sure if you go with that rig to upgrade to a WD Black hard drive rather than using the blue.

[WaltM]

GunnyFreedom is an expert on hardware.

[eOs]

I'm a software guy myself, but this is where you're going to want to buy your hardware: www.newegg.com

I built my own computer with that entire site. What helps the most are the reviews. Once you have a general idea of what you need, pick the ones with the most reviews, and the highest avg. rating. ;)

[Reason]

I'm a software guy myself, but this is where you're going to want to buy your hardware: www.newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com)

I built my own computer with that entire site. What helps the most are the reviews. Once you have a general idea of what you need, pick the ones with the most reviews, and the highest avg. rating. ;)

Yeah I have built prob 10 or so systems from parts I got on newegg.com

I just haven't done it in about 2 years so I am out of date on which is the best atm

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

I don't know if you typically use raid... if you have check out SSD drives. Like an 80gb SSD for your boot drive. You will be likely be happier going SSD (or SSD raid possibly) versus raid for boot partitions nowadays unless you are going to go full blown raid 5 for the other raid benefits.

[Zippyjuan]

I'm a software guy myself, but this is where you're going to want to buy your hardware: www.newegg.com

I built my own computer with that entire site. What helps the most are the reviews. Once you have a general idea of what you need, pick the ones with the most reviews, and the highest avg. rating. ;)
Newegg rocks. I built both of my computers with gear from them. First one lasted about six or eight years (with update on video card and replacing a dead HD). My latest was an Intel i7 rig when the chips first came out (got it the first day!).
I am a bit old school about RAID though. It may be theoretically faster but do you notice it in real world applications vs the risk of losing everything if one of your drives fails?

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

Newegg rocks. I built both of my computers with gear from them. First one lasted about six or eight years (with update on video card and replacing a dead HD). My latest was an Intel i7 rig when the chips first came out (got it the first day!).
I am a bit old school about RAID though. It may be theoretically faster but do you notice it in real world applications vs the risk of losing everything if one of your drives fails?

I always notice it with any big app. Loss is only a risk if you just use raid for striping. I prefer 0+1 but it requires twice as many drives. Raid 5 is more popular for redundancy because with the same quantity of drives you can get more storage. ie. 300gb of storage out of 4 100gb drives whereas with 0+1 you only get 200gb of storage with better performance. I only consider raid worth it if you are going to invest in a decent adaptor. The integrated controllers on mainboards really aren't true raid controllers with a separate cpu, memory, and caching not to mention a board upgrade is out.

[dannno]

Good thread.. I'll be putting together a system soon as well.

[IPSecure]

I always notice it with any big app. Loss is only a risk if you just use raid for striping. I prefer 0+1 but it requires twice as many drives. Raid 5 is more popular for redundancy because with the same quantity of drives you can get more storage. ie. 300gb of storage out of 4 100gb drives whereas with 0+1 you only get 200gb of storage with better performance. I only consider raid worth it if you are going to invest in a decent adaptor. The integrated controllers on mainboards really aren't true raid controllers with a separate cpu, memory, and caching not to mention a board upgrade is out.

Striping your pagefile also helps...

[Fox McCloud]

currently Intel is tops in the processor department; their core i7s are nigh unbeatable---you could go all out with the 6 core i7, but I don't recommend it; from what I've gathered the performance boost is negligible over the quad-core i7's (thanks, in part to the fact that few applications are tailored towards multiple threads yet).

If you get the core i7, I'd recommend just going for the lowest end one--if it's not enough for you, overclock the sucker (I think the lowest end one is the 930---used to be the 920).

ATI vs NVidia? I'd wait until Tom's hardware comes out with update charts...but if you're not looking into doing anything exotic (ie: SLI/crossfire), it seems one of the better choices for midrange (of the new cards) cards out there is the 1GB GTX 460. Not sure about ATI; perhaps someone else can help you out there.

I'd be more than happy to help you out or answer any questions you may have =3

[LibertyRevolution]

I just upgraded my gaming rig last week. I went AMD/ATi.
I reused my case, case fans, power supply, and dvd-rw drives.

Here are the parts I bought:

Motherboard:
ASUS M4A88TD-M AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s AMD Motherboard = $90 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131649)
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/moboinbox.jpg

Video Card:
SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 = $120 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801)
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/GPU1.jpg
Overclocked to 800Mhz core 1000mhz ram.
I get 60fps solid in need for speed shift with everything on max 1360x768 vsync on. 74fps average with Vsync off.
Crysis on 1360x768, Ultra high settings (XP directX 10 hacked config files), Min fps =26, max fps = 49, avg 40fps (with fraps running).

CPU:
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Desktop Processor - C3 Revision HDZ555WFGMBOX = $99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846)
Well I heard a lot of good things about this chip. Unlockable, overclockable, it is apparently the AMD dual core to have.
And I would have to agree seeing this kicked the crap out of my x2 5600+ by 2518 CPU marks in 3Dmark06!

Old System:
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/3dmarkscore.jpg

New System:
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/3dmark.jpg
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/CPUnew.jpg

Not to shabby for $100 chip.

CPU HSF:
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler = $30 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185125)
Well, I am oveclocking. Overclocking on a Stock HSF is not going to get me very far.
I Love this thing. 39ºC idle (900rpm), 52ºC 100% load (1500rpm) (hours of prime95).


RAM:
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 996782 = $109 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226103)
I read so many good reviews from all over the web on this brand and line.
It seemed to be very good specs, and at a reasonable price.
I have had no issue running these sticks at 1736mhz 7-9-7-24.
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/ramspeed.jpg

HDD:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive = $54each x2 = $108 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319)
They are 640GB AALS Drives, 2x 320 platters. This is one of the fastest reasonably priced drives.
When I say faster, I mean smack around a raptor on everything but access time fast:
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/Raptorvsaals-1.jpg

BTW, I bought 2 because I am running them in RAID-0. Check out these transfer rates!
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/HDTune_Benchmark_ATI_____20_Stripe_RAID02WD640GB.j pg
Load times? whats a load time? :cool:

Well that is my new rig.
It runs every game and app I have thrown at it.
The 6500 point jump in 3dmark06 was a major improvement.
Sony Vegas showed a nice decrease in encoding times also.
So I am very happy with my new setup.
Total price of upgrades:$560

If your starting from scratch:
Add in the case $40, power supply $50, DVD-RW $20, some fans $15
Total = $685

A price I feel is quite reasonable for the amount of computer I have built.

[LibertyRevolution]

This is how it all came together:
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/New01.jpg
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/New02.jpg
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/New03.jpg
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/New04.jpg
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/New05.jpg

[paulpwns]

450 watt PS?

It takes 400 watt just to power that card.

Use cyberpowerPC

I got an intel i7 860, asus p55 board, 1 GB ATI 5770, 4g ram and windows 7 for like 900 bucks.

amazing machine!

[WaltM]

so sexy all the blue!

[Danke]

Anyone know if this is legit?


You can download a copy of Windows 7 here (http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/04/28/download-windows-7-iso-official-32-bit-and-64-bit-direct-download-links/comment-page-1/) and buy a product key for $13 here (http://www.ecrater.com/p/8184655/windows-7-home-premium-genuine-retail). You have to create a Windows 7 installation disk by burning the downloaded ISO image to a DVD.

[brandon]

This thread is relevant to my interests. I've been using a laptop for the past 6 years but am planning on building a gaming desktop PC soon. I'm a firmware engineer, but work in the world of small low power embedded processors so I'm really not up to date at all on the latest cutting edge high performance stuff.

[WaltM]

This thread is relevant to my interests. I've been using a laptop for the past 6 years but am planning on building a gaming desktop PC soon. I'm a firmware engineer, but work in the world of small low power embedded processors so I'm really not up to date at all on the latest cutting edge high performance stuff.

let us know when you do.

i'm always interested in learning.

and yes, building a good computer is a good way to invest money.

high performance= saved time = more time to chill, relax, = more productivity, profits

[LibertyRevolution]

The 4870 only uses 160w MAX under load.
I think your thinking 4870x2 which draws 300+watts.

My PSU is fine, corsair power supplies are not over rated like cheap power supplies.
It is 33amps on the +12v. Plenty of amps, plenty of watts.

[paulpwns]

The 4870 only uses 160w MAX under load.
I think your thinking 4870x2 which draws 300+watts.

My PSU is fine, corsair power supplies are not over rated like cheap power supplies.
It is 33amps on the +12v. Plenty of amps, plenty of watts.

You are correct! My mistake, thought you were running crossfire for some reason.

[LibertyRevolution]

And my old mobo, X2 5600+, and ram?
That ended up in this old HP case along with a cheap $20 antec power supply I bought for it.
The power supply in the HP case was a 200 watt 20pin, no way I was plugging that into my my mobo.
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/Asus01.jpg
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/Asus02.jpg

These new guts were a major upgrade to the girlfriends celeron based computer.

That's why I buy microATX boards, I can upgrade friends and families store bought systems with my old parts. :-)

---

I debated buying a full size mobo with 2 pci-e slots to do crossfire, but I decided that I would just buy an x2 card and bigger power supply as the next major upgrade. For now I can run any game smooth, so no need for x2 card. I use a 32" 720p TV connected using VGA as my monitor. So I don't game at anything higher that native 1360x768 resolution.

[LibertyRevolution]

This is what I found when I opened up her old computer.
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/HerOldDirtyComputer01.jpg
And she wonders why her computer fan seems loud and the computer keeps choking up on her...
This stuff is not dust anymore, its like fur now.
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/dirtyfan.jpg

Well 1 10oz can of compressed air later...
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/HeroldDirtyComputer02.jpg
What do you know, its all quiet again, and it no longer has that laggy I'm going to overheat and melt soon feeling...
Well I guess this can be a basic email station now..

[LibertyRevolution]

Here is my Media Center PC:

Foxconn A74MX-K mobo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.7GHz AM2 dual core CPU
2GB Gskill DDR2 800
WinTV (hooked to digital cable box)
4 - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB SATA 3.0Gb
2 - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKB 500GB 7200 RPM IDE
1 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
1 - Sony 24x DVDRW

http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/media-1.jpg
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/media-2.jpg
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/media-4.jpg
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/Lookin4SVX/media-5.jpg

[DamianTV]

Should have went with a Mineral Oil Aquarium PC

http://www.pugetsystems.com/aquarium-computer.php

http://cdn.pugetsystems.com/images/headers/aquarium/a3.jpg

[Mini-Me]

Just FYI, Micro Center has had a FANTASTIC deal on i7-930 processors for a long while now (for $199.99): http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0331303

They had that deal going when Newegg was still selling it for well over $300 (like ~$350?), IIRC. Newegg is currently selling it for $289.99, so it's still a great deal at Micro Center if you want a real powerhouse processor today.

Of course, if you can wait for next gen architectures like intel's Sandy Bridge or AMD's Bulldozer, they're coming out late 2010/early 2011, respectively.

Personally, I'm excited about buying my first ever laptop and going mobile, once the coupon stars align for the model I'm considering...

[BenIsForRon]

I'm still running a pentium 4 rig, though it does have most powerful AGP card possible. Starcraft 2 is the only new game I'm interested in right now, and my computer could run that at 30fps on high settings.

So I'm just keeping a close eye on the new technologies, so that a year or three down the road whenever my PC is unable to play the games I want, I'll know what to look for.

[Fox McCloud]

Just FYI, Micro Center has had a FANTASTIC deal on i7-930 processors for a long while now (for $199.99): http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0331303

They had that deal going when Newegg was still selling it for well over $300 (like ~$350?), IIRC. Newegg is currently selling it for $289.99, so it's still a great deal at Micro Center if you want a real powerhouse processor today.


I built my i7 really cheaply for the time; the i7 went on sale for $199.99 on April Fool's day back in 2009--it was only there for a day or two; most of the people there were stopping in just to pick one up.

In any event $199.99 is a really good deal for the 930 (basically an ever so slightly updated 920).