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Mad Cow! Holiday Computer building (1 Viewer)

'Mad Cow said:
'Iron_Far said:
Anyone know if :Intel Core i5-2400 processor (2.5GHz,6MB Cache) is 'better' than Intel Core i3-2120 Processor (3.3GHz,3MB Cache) for a gaming rig?

Assume I won't be overclocking at all.
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Generally for gaming, it comes down to the L2 and now L3 cache. The bigger that is, the better for gaming.
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Had my eye on this Inspiron Touch from Dell.Wondering what the "1 GB" graphics means on this as they don't specify a named graphics card.

 
'Mad Cow said:
I really want to build a new rig, but my home is currently an i7-950 overclocked with 12 GB of RAM and a 6970 and my office is an i5-750, 8GB of RAM and a 5850. :kicksrock:
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I had a very long and expensive lapse in judgement, and now I'm running an i7 3820 (o/c to 4.3) with 32GB of RAM and a 7970. 256GB Samsung 830 SSD. I put SW:TOR into a 24GB RAMDrive and still have 8GB to spare. Even had to splurge on the case (Corsair 600TM).:bag:Now I have a perfectly good i5 750 / 5850 setup I don't know what to do with. Guess I'll head for eBay.
 
'Zasada said:
'Mad Cow said:
I really want to build a new rig, but my home is currently an i7-950 overclocked with 12 GB of RAM and a 6970 and my office is an i5-750, 8GB of RAM and a 5850. :kicksrock:
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I had a very long and expensive lapse in judgement, and now I'm running an i7 3820 (o/c to 4.3) with 32GB of RAM and a 7970. 256GB Samsung 830 SSD. I put SW:TOR into a 24GB RAMDrive and still have 8GB to spare. Even had to splurge on the case (Corsair 600TM).:bag:Now I have a perfectly good i5 750 / 5850 setup I don't know what to do with. Guess I'll head for eBay.
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RAMDrive? I'm intrigued - tell me more. . .
 
'Mad Cow said:
RAMDrive? I'm intrigued - tell me more. . .
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Yup. I started fiddling around with them when I had 8GB of RAM. Just small ones. It's like an SSD on steroids -- basically all of your I/O becomes CPU-bound instead of interface-bound.Cheap 2x4GB RAM sticks are plentiful these days, but getting a mobo with 8 DIMM slots requires going to the LGA2011 platform. So I got the cheapest LGA2011 CPU I could (i7 3820) and a cheap(er) 2011 mobo (most are still pretty expensive), and 16GB more RAM to run 8x4GB total.

The RAMDrive is volatile in that it only keeps its contents until you reboot your PC. SW:TOR is a game that doesn't need to stay installed in the same location (you can move the whole folder around, like WoW, SC2, and some other games), so when I boot up my PC for a long gaming session, it takes a minute to copy TOR from my SSD to my RAMDrive, and then I get the benefit of fast level-load times as well as whenever a texture needs to be pulled from the SSD, it's actually just being moved from RAM to my vidcard at a much faster rate.

Do I see a night-and-day benefit from all this? Not really. But I got a nice bonus this year and decided that the new rig would be my new toy.

Definitely NOT in the "value" scale on any way. I'm paying way more to eke out levels of performance that just don't matter any more. But I get a kick out of it.

Back to the RAMDrive, I plan to try some more stuff like putting oft-used programs on it right at boot. The software I use for it is free (IMDisk) but not terribly full-featured. There is RAMDrive software out there that can image the whole drive, save it to non-volatile media at shutdown, and then load the image back to the RAMDrive at boot. That way one could actually put things like Office on it. I hear WinRAR really screams on a RAMDrive because it is so I/O intensive.

 
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Still rockin a Q6600, 8800 GTS, and 4 gigs of ram so I'm thinking it's time for an upgrade so I can play Guild Wars 2 with a much better FPS than I'm getting now. I was looking at SharkyExtreme's April Budget PC guide and here is what they came up with:

Case: Antec Three Hundred Mid Tower - $50

Power Supply: Antec Basic BP550 Plus 550W - $65

Processor: Intel CPU: Core i5-2300 Sandy Bridge 2.8GHz - $180

CPU Cooling: Stock Cooling - $0

Motherboard: MSI P67A-G43 (P67) - $115

Memory: Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB KHX1600C9D3B1K2/4GX 2 x 2GB kit - $28

Hard Drive: Hitachi HDS721050CLA362 500GB - $80

Optical Drive: LG 22X Super-Multi DVD Burner GH22NS90B - $16

Video Card: XFX HD-677X-ZNLC Radeon HD 6770 - $110 * NEW

Sound Card: Integrated Sound - $0

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - $100

Total Price: $704

My budget is around a $1000 so I have some wiggle room. I probably want an SSD and maybe double that RAM? Any other thoughts?

 
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Any advice on an affordable graphics card. Not looking to break the bank but i'd like to be able to play some games on the pc on decent settings.

 
Had an issue where my monitor wasn't going on standby and I was out of patience and wanted to go to bed so instead of shutting down the computer, I put it to sleep for the first time. Issue was, it didn't want to wake up - for some reason, upon resuming, the overclocking became unstable despite running for 6 months with not a single crash. Anyway, I had to reset the CMOS to get it going again. However, once I did that, the CPU fan seems to have lost it's dynamic control and only runs full speed regardless of what the CPU is doing. Setting in the BIOS is right, but it only runs at 2800 RPM. I had to reinstall the manual controller to get to reasonble levels when the CPU wasn't working hard.

 
My wife has our older business MacPro with dual Xeons 2.66 and buffered ram, x1900 and a mac 23" monitor.

This thing has held its value really well because of the business (and true color-graphic) side of things.

So it sells really well for the right use... but we no longer use it for publishing.

So Im going to sell it. And Build her a cheap PC that can run everything just as well and often times better.

Question for you guys.

Will a motherboard that can run the cheapest LGA 1155 cpu, also typically be able top run the top end LGA 1155s (like an i5/i7 quad that takes more watts)?

 
'BigSteelThrill said:
My wife has our older business MacPro with dual Xeons 2.66 and buffered ram, x1900 and a mac 23" monitor.

This thing has held its value really well because of the business (and true color-graphic) side of things.

So it sells really well for the right use... but we no longer use it for publishing.

So Im going to sell it. And Build her a cheap PC that can run everything just as well and often times better.

Question for you guys.

Will a motherboard that can run the cheapest LGA 1155 cpu, also typically be able top run the top end LGA 1155s (like an i5/i7 quad that takes more watts)?
Click to expand...
Yes, typically. But, each motherboard should have documentation that states which specific chips it's designed to work with.ETA - If I can assume where you're going with this (you'd like to buy a cheaper i3 and get a cheap upgrade in a few years by simply buying a powerful i7), generally I've found that by the time you're ready to simply upgrade the chip, there are other factors that have changed where you need to upgrade your motherboard anyway. The only main component I've successfully "upgraded" was RAM and even that doesn't work so well (DDR2 was expensive, DDR3 is very cheap).

 
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'Dragons said:
'BigSteelThrill said:
My wife has our older business MacPro with dual Xeons 2.66 and buffered ram, x1900 and a mac 23" monitor.

This thing has held its value really well because of the business (and true color-graphic) side of things.

So it sells really well for the right use... but we no longer use it for publishing.

So Im going to sell it. And Build her a cheap PC that can run everything just as well and often times better.

Question for you guys.

Will a motherboard that can run the cheapest LGA 1155 cpu, also typically be able top run the top end LGA 1155s (like an i5/i7 quad that takes more watts)?
Click to expand...
Yes, typically. But, each motherboard should have documentation that states which specific chips it's designed to work with.ETA - If I can assume where you're going with this (you'd like to buy a cheaper i3 and get a cheap upgrade in a few years by simply buying a powerful i7), generally I've found that by the time you're ready to simply upgrade the chip, there are other factors that have changed where you need to upgrade your motherboard anyway. The only main component I've successfully "upgraded" was RAM and even that doesn't work so well (DDR2 was expensive, DDR3 is very cheap).
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know the CPUs never drop too dramatically in price, as they just eventually sell out before they get too cheap.But if I get her one of the the cheapest chip set now (to toodle around on) and eventually shes wants to start playing a more intense game or using more graphical heavy software, I'd like to be able to drop some cash and have her able to do so at that time (which may never come).

So the answer is "it should be able to"?

 
I'd like to replace my old machine and think building one would be a fun experience. Can someone fill me in on what I should be looking for? I don't want a top of the line monster, but I'd like to be able to play the Star Wars MMORPG. So I guess a gaming machine on a budget?

 
'MikeIke said:
I'd like to replace my old machine and think building one would be a fun experience. Can someone fill me in on what I should be looking for? I don't want a top of the line monster, but I'd like to be able to play the Star Wars MMORPG. So I guess a gaming machine on a budget?
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What is the budget?
 
'MikeIke said:
'Mad Cow said:
'MikeIke said:
I'd like to replace my old machine and think building one would be a fun experience. Can someone fill me in on what I should be looking for? I don't want a top of the line monster, but I'd like to be able to play the Star Wars MMORPG. So I guess a gaming machine on a budget?
Click to expand...
What is the budget?
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Definitely under $1,000 I'd like to be closer to $800.
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Is that including the OS and monitor? Do you have any parts that can be used in a new build?
 
'Mad Cow said:
'MikeIke said:
'Mad Cow said:
'MikeIke said:
I'd like to replace my old machine and think building one would be a fun experience. Can someone fill me in on what I should be looking for? I don't want a top of the line monster, but I'd like to be able to play the Star Wars MMORPG. So I guess a gaming machine on a budget?
Click to expand...
What is the budget?
Click to expand...
Definitely under $1,000 I'd like to be closer to $800.
Click to expand...
Is that including the OS and monitor? Do you have any parts that can be used in a new build?
Click to expand...
Gonna have to start from scratch. Not much on my old machine worth keeping and I don't have a Windows 7 install disk. Maybe the DVD writer can stay but that's about it. The old hard drive can be moved but it's only 250 GB so not sure that's big enough to use as primary on a new build.Don't need a new monitor.
 
'Sundays Rule said:
Any advice on an affordable graphics card. Not looking to break the bank but i'd like to be able to play some games on the pc on decent settings.
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Recently built a rig for my mother-in-law that included this one:EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Works well. My only complaint would be, that for HD, it uses a format that I didn't even know existed: mini HDMI. I ordered her a HDMI cable from Monoprice, didn't fit the card. So, I had to go with a HDMI to mini HDMI adapter, which worked, but not well. Being that it was for my mother-in-law and not me, I knew the monitor being in "not HD" versus HD wouldn't matter, so I just went with a DVI cable. If you get that one, maybe look for a cable that is HDMI on one end, and mini HDMI on the other, to avoid having to use the adapter.

On a side note, I used the Corsair 300R case for her new build, and I'm sold on Corsair cases. It was so easy to manage the cables, and get them out of sight. In my previous builds, cable management has always been one of the hardest things, but that case coupled with a completely modular PSU, made the inside the cleanest and best looking build I have ever done.

 
Haven't been watching prices but went to see what the EVGA 560 TI Superclocked was selling at these days so that I could SLI with my existing card. Looks like the price is more expensive than it was back in December? How is that possible?

 
I have an itch to upgrade now. Currently running with a 6970. Worth upgrading now or just waiting another year?

Eta: what is the best way to upgrade a PC? Would I be able to get away with just upgrading the video card for a year or 2?

 
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nVidia's GTX 970 is pretty awesome in terms of price/performance/power. If you're a gamer with a reasonably good CPU (even one from a generation or two ago), usually a vidcard upgrade is all you need.

That, and an SSD. SSDs make everything snappier.

 
Zasada said:
nVidia's GTX 970 is pretty awesome in terms of price/performance/power. If you're a gamer with a reasonably good CPU (even one from a generation or two ago), usually a vidcard upgrade is all you need.

That, and an SSD. SSDs make everything snappier.
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Thanks bud. You were a huge help on my first build 3 years ago. Switching from an amd 6970 to nvidia pretty simple in terms of setting up?
 
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jamil said:
Zasada said:
nVidia's GTX 970 is pretty awesome in terms of price/performance/power. If you're a gamer with a reasonably good CPU (even one from a generation or two ago), usually a vidcard upgrade is all you need.

That, and an SSD. SSDs make everything snappier.
Click to expand...
Thanks bud. You were a huge help on my first build 3 years ago. Switching from an amd 6970 to nvidia pretty simply in terms of setting up?
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Yea. Uninstall old drivers. Download Nvidia ones but don't install. Turn off computer and swap cards. Turn on, install new drivers.

 
My son's computer crapped out, lots of salvagable parts, here's what I'm looking at. I'd like to keep it right at $500, and this does the trick. What do you think? Have you seen better parts for equal value, perhaps a cyber monday deal?

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXLIron Egg Guarantee Return Policy
IN STOCK
LIMIT 5
  • $84.99
  • $54.99
  • Save: 35.30%

MSI Z97 PC Mate LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel MotherboardStandard Return Policy
Protect Your Investment View Details
IN STOCK
LIMIT 1

Intel Core i5-4590 Haswell Quad-Core 3.3GHz LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600 BX80646I54590CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
Protect Your Investment View Details
IN STOCK
  • $199.99

MSI R9 270X GAMING 2G ITX 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video CardIron Egg Guarantee Return Policy
Protect Your Investment View Details
IN STOCK
LIMIT 5
 
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Corporation, that looks like a good value. The only way you could do meaningfully better is if you have a Microcenter nearby. They have the best CPU prices and will tack-on $40 off a mono if purchased at the same time.

Just FYI you can't overclock that CPU but that's only important to some.

 
Corporation said:
My son's computer crapped out, lots of salvagable parts, here's what I'm looking at. I'd like to keep it right at $500, and this does the trick. What do you think? Have you seen better parts for equal value, perhaps a cyber monday deal?

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXLIron Egg Guarantee Return Policy
IN STOCK
LIMIT 5
  • $84.99
  • $54.99
  • Save: 35.30%

MSI Z97 PC Mate LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel MotherboardStandard Return Policy
Protect Your Investment View Details
IN STOCK
LIMIT 1

Intel Core i5-4590 Haswell Quad-Core 3.3GHz LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600 BX80646I54590CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
Protect Your Investment View Details
IN STOCK
  • $199.99

MSI R9 270X GAMING 2G ITX 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video CardIron Egg Guarantee Return Policy
Protect Your Investment View Details
IN STOCK
LIMIT 5
Click to expand...
Nice deal on the ram would get that asap. Have the same set and paid 70 in September and that was actually a good deal. I would by a devil's canyon I5. Nice bang for buck. Easy overclock which is simple to do. 210 on newegg right now so that is a good deal. Never get great deals on Intel chip by themselves. Look for combo deal however.

 
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So just got a new Sony 4K tv. I have an Xbox One and a PS4 already but I think I would like to build a cheaper gaming computer to also hook to the tv just to have the option of playing games on PC vs console. And I would like to go back and play some of the oldies like Fallout 3 and NV.

I see all the youtube videos for how to build computers under $400.00 and so, but one of the biggest things none of them build in to the final price is the OS.

Thinking i5. Would like a 4k supported video card.

Doesn't need to be top of the line, but would like something that isn't obsolete out of the box.

 
Courtjester said:
So just got a new Sony 4K tv. I have an Xbox One and a PS4 already but I think I would like to build a cheaper gaming computer to also hook to the tv just to have the option of playing games on PC vs console. And I would like to go back and play some of the oldies like Fallout 3 and NV.

I see all the youtube videos for how to build computers under $400.00 and so, but one of the biggest things none of them build in to the final price is the OS.

Thinking i5. Would like a 4k supported video card.

Doesn't need to be top of the line, but would like something that isn't obsolete out of the box.
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As much as I like to build a smokin-value PC, you're not going to be able to game at 4K for $400.

An nVidia GeForce GTX 960 is probably the best card out there for supporting 4K (HTPC/desktop-type stuff) but if you actually want to game at 4K, you're going to need a $600+ video card. And even then you'll have to turn some settings down.

One option would be to game at 50% resolution (1080p is exactly half of 4K), which the 960 will be good for. But you're still in the $200+ range for just the video card. CPU and mobo will be at least another $300 on top of that, plus case, PSU, HDD, OS, etc. Off the top of my head you're probably in the $800 range.

The 960 is one of the only video cards to support 4K @ 60hz over HDMI, and the only one to support H.265 hardware decoding (codec of the future). Otherwise the 970 and 980 are better gaming cards, but you give-up H.265 decoding then.

Still interested?

 
Went to a local shop to get a quote on 7-10 PCs with the following min specs:

8GM RAM

Core i5

250GB SSD

Windows 10

Price came back at $700

Good or Bad?

 
Buddy Ball 2K3 said:
Went to a local shop to get a quote on 7-10 PCs with the following min specs:

8GM RAM

Core i5

250GB SSD

Windows 10

Price came back at $700

Good or Bad?
Click to expand...
Probably not bad, but it really depends. If you are talking that many systems, you have to pay a little to not have to build them and then you also get their support. I would say good for that many, bad for a single system if that makes sense?

 
Mad Cow said:
Buddy Ball 2K3 said:
Went to a local shop to get a quote on 7-10 PCs with the following min specs:

8GM RAM

Core i5

250GB SSD

Windows 10

Price came back at $700

Good or Bad?
Click to expand...
Probably not bad, but it really depends. If you are talking that many systems, you have to pay a little to not have to build them and then you also get their support. I would say good for that many, bad for a single system if that makes sense?
Click to expand...
Gotcha, my thinking had it the other way around. Thanks!

 
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