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can you guys gimme an estimate?
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Posted by: rabidgecko
Hey ots'ers, i've had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind lately that i need to get a new rig.... my old one just isn't up to snuff in terms of gaming anymore. my current rig is pretty outdated as you'll see:
Athlon XP 3200+ @ 2.20GHz
Some random asus mobo (my rig was a store bought HP, with added minor upgrades)
1GB Kingston pc3200 ram
Geforce 6800 GS 256 MB
200 GB hdd (probably again some random one)
Windows XP SP2
Yea, as you can see, it's not a beast in any regards. It is good for word-processing and the like, so if I get a new rig i'll likely give this one to my sister who could use it.
What I'd look for in a new rig is something that'd hold through for the next 4-5 years. I'm not a hardcore gamer, so I don't need a beastly rig, but something that'll get the job done well. I'd probably hold preference to AMD and ATI for cpu and graphics card, but i'm open to suggestions. Could you guys take a look to see what kind of a rig I could put together for under $800? (but i'm willing to go $1000 if necessary)
Oh and it's worth mentioning that I live in Canada, so I usually use www.ncix.com and www.tigerdirect.ca
Thanks gurus
Posted by: rabidgecko
ok so after some looking, this is what i've come up with:
cpu
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....manufacture=AMD
mobo
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....anufacture=ASUS
ram
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....facture=CORSAIR
gpu
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....manufacture=HIS
or http://www.ncix.com/products/index....anufacture=eVGA
case
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....re=COOLERMASTER
psu
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....ure=THERMALTAKE
hdd
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....facture=Hitachi
dvd burner
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....facture=Samsung
dvd drive
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....G%20Electronics
monitor
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....facture=Samsung
I'm wondering if I should get 3 GB ram, i'll be running vista, and if I should crank out a little more for a better cpu, or gpu, or whatever else. I doubt i'll be overclocking yet so no new heatsink required yet. So yea, can you guys give that a read over and let me know whatcha think? I'm open to suggestions.
And i haven't been on the site for a while, has the site's server been going down randomly for periods of time?
Posted by: goranpaa
Hi!
There are better stuff out there for about the same price.
The Psu is too weak to be future proof. Especially the +12V rails that feeds the video card. CoolerMaster, have a better case for the same price about etc. The monitor is o.k.
The cpu, is too slow to be future proof for any longer time. Any of the low end Intel Core 2 Duos, dances circles around it.
But why do you need a dvd burner and reader? The burner can do both.
Building a rig that will be good for 4-5 years is impossible with the hardware developement pace of today. Even if you did get the "latest and greatest" hardware. It's more realistic to say, that the mobo, cpu and RAM is good for max 2 1/2 to 3 years at its best. The video card, providing you get a good and pretty powerful one? Maybe 2 years.
Here is my suggestion:
Psu:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....CZ%20Technology
Case:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....re=COOLERMASTER
This is probably the best bang for buck midtower on the market. And have good enough cooling to cool the hotter, mid and high end DX 10 cards. You will get even better cooling in this case, by moving the side, intake fan to the rear case, exhaust fan mount. And seal up the side fan hole.
Or, if you wanna keep the CoolerMaster fans as they are? Get this silent 120mm for exhaust:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....ure=Yate%20Loon
Mobo:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....acture=Gigabyte
This mobo got the customer choise award at newegg 2007. From 489 customers, 314 people gave it 5 stars and 104 gave it 4 stars.
Cpu:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....manufacture=AMD
RAM:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....CZ%20Technology
Video card:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....manufacture=HIS
The Radeon HD 3850 512mb is the best bang for buck, midrange DX 10 card. About as fast as the GF 8800GTS 320mb / 640mb. But for a noticeable lower cost. The HIS card comes with a very nice Arctic Cooling vga cooler too. 512mb, is what you are going to need to play games in DX 10 at higher resoloutions / quality settings.
HDD:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....facture=Hitachi
DVD burner:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....G%20Electronics
LG, makes the most silent CD and DVD burners / readers on the market. Good quality too.
This is a SATA DVD combo. So you will get rid of the broad IDE cable in the case. SATA DVD drives are faster too.
Monitor:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....facture=Samsung
This rig should be able to get you gooing in a good way for some time.
As it seems now, I would'nt run Vista. XP is soon getting the Service pac 3 ( final service pac). And tests have shown, that it will give a 10% performance increase. And even without the upcoming SP3, XP is faster in games than Vista.
M$, wont admit it. But it seems that XP, is still selling better than Vista for the moment lol.
I did run Vista 32 Home for about a month. But went back to XP.
Wait at least til SP 1 is out for Vista before you get it. And get the Vista home edt 32 bit then. The eye candy that the other Vista versions have is just a resource hog. Vista, eats RAM as it is anyway.
And by the time you get Vista. Get the 3:rd gig of RAM.
The DX 10 games like Crysis, looks great even in DX 9.0 with a good DX 10 card.
Total cost for the rig: 987 CAD (997 CAD with the Yate Loon fan) And then I have'nt counted in the in mail rebates.
Yeah, this site have had mayor problems for quite some time now. Will work for a couple of days at it's best, and then be down up to 2 days.
Posted by: rabidgecko
Thanks for all that goranpaa,
I was actually taking a second look at the gpus, and i had my eye on that one linked too, as well as a geforce 8800 gt, i think. Is there any difference between those two thats worth buying one over the other?
Here's the thing, Goranpaa, I don't have XP. I have it on my HP right now, but this computer is going to my sister. I have the recovery discs with the OS on it, but if I recovered those to my new computer, wouldn't M$ flag it as unauthentic? On the other hand I do have Vista, I was given it was a rather odd Christmas present from an aunt who probably meant well. So that puts me in a difficult situation as far as OS goes. I myself would much much rather use XP.
I may end up having to pick up that 3rd GB ram then. Eventually I'll get a proper heatsink/fan aswell so I can OC that a little bit. But that rig does look pretty good.... I'll just have to take the hit and squeeze out the extra money, but hey it's worth it.
Thanks Goranpaa, I'll let ya know how it goes. I'll probably be purchasing all this within the week.
Posted by: Mathias
If you're going to go with an AMD mobo/cpu, I would highly reccommend the Athlon X2 5000+ Black Edition. Last I saw, it was $99 on NewEgg (not sure about other places) and the processor runs very cool, low voltage, and overclocks very nicely without needing an FSB increase. Simply up the multiplier by a couple ticks, give it a stress test, maybe up the voltage by 0.5 and you've got yourself a 3.2 GHz Athlon X2, almost doubling the value of the processor for nothing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...on%2bx2%2bblack
Posted by: rabidgecko
the store where i'd buy it, ncix, it's $114 compared to the $126 for the X2 5200+. Is the cpu you recommended greatly better for OC'ing than the 5200? could you also recommend a good heatsink/fan to go along with that?
Posted by: goranpaa
 Quote:
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Originally Posted by rabidgecko
Thanks for all that goranpaa,
I was actually taking a second look at the gpus, and i had my eye on that one linked too, as well as a geforce 8800 gt, i think. Is there any difference between those two thats worth buying one over the other?
Here's the thing, Goranpaa, I don't have XP. I have it on my HP right now, but this computer is going to my sister. I have the recovery discs with the OS on it, but if I recovered those to my new computer, wouldn't M$ flag it as unauthentic? On the other hand I do have Vista, I was given it was a rather odd Christmas present from an aunt who probably meant well. So that puts me in a difficult situation as far as OS goes. I myself would much much rather use XP.
I may end up having to pick up that 3rd GB ram then. Eventually I'll get a proper heatsink/fan aswell so I can OC that a little bit. But that rig does look pretty good.... I'll just have to take the hit and squeeze out the extra money, but hey it's worth it.
Thanks Goranpaa, I'll let ya know how it goes. I'll probably be purchasing all this within the week.
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I see.
Yeah, the 8800GT 512mb is the best bang for buck high midrange end DX 10 card you can get for now. Just be aware of the up to this day, Nvidia have a bug in the NV control panel in their 8800GT compatible drivers that makes AA work more or less good. But hopefully they will solve this soon.
If you think that is too much money? look at Radeon HD 3870 512mb then. A bit slower than the 8800GT but still a great card.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....facture=Diamond
Here is a Palit 8800GT with a big and nice cooler for less noise, better cooling and good oc headroom.
Palit, may not be one of the mayor brands. But seems to be good anyway. I'm a member of a Swedish pc forum too. And there are 3 or 4 guys there, who bought the Palit 8800GT. And they seem to be very satisfied with it.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....ultimedia%20Inc.
Cpu cooler:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....ufacture=Scythe
Yeah, get the X2 5000+. Runs a bit cooler and will overclock better. I seemed to have missed that one when I made the rig list before. Sorry.
You're welcome man.
Posted by: rabidgecko
Ok, here's what I got:
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 5000+ Black Box 2.6GHz (plan to OC to 3.0GHz)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-M61P-S3
Ram: OCZ Platinum XTC PC@-6400 2GB CL4-4-4-15
GPU: HIS Radeon HD 3850 IceQ3 Turbox 512 MB 1.96GHz
heatsink: Scythe Katana 2 heatsink w/100mm fan
Case: Coolermaster Centurion 534
PSU: Stealthxstream 600W ATX 12V 120mm fan
HDD: Hitachi 320 GB SATA2 16mb 7200rpm
DVD Writer: LG one that you said
and an LG 19" Widescreen 8ms. It's not from NCIX but it's on sale for $169 at the big box store, futureshop.
Decided I'd stay with the HIS hd3850, because it does have the good cooling, incase i decide to OC the GPU (if needed). And after all the digging I've done, Mathias seems to be right in that the X2 5000+ can be Oc'ed to 3.0GHz at stock voltage, and with low temps.
I'm pretty excited, can't wait to get it warmed up and ready to go, I've been saving world in conflict to play on my new rig.
So yea, I'll let you guys know how it goes, so that you know in the future what's worth it and what is maybe not. Thanks again.
Posted by: goranpaa
Nice!
World in conflict should run nicely on that rig and look amazing. And also, just wait until Far Cry II is out in mars or april! That should be a nice test game for your rig if the game maker, continues the good work they did on Far Cry (1).
Yeah, you must tell us what your thoughts are when you have finished the rig and you have done some gaming.
Posted by: rabidgecko
allrighty, i've had it up and running for about a week now and i am thoroughly impressed and satisfied with my new rig. temps are great and everything works flawlessly, i even managed to get xp on my rig instead of that nasty thing called vista (just not for me, too buggy, slow).
my next step is to OC my CPU to 3.0 GHz. I've read that it's capable of that speed on stock voltage, and that all you need to do is increase the multiplier (no FSB fiddling required). Can any of you guys recommend the best way to OC? Is it in the BIOS or is there a program i can get for it?
And thanks to all for helping with the choices, it's a solid rig.
Posted by: Alchemist
Dont OC your cpu with a program.. half of the time it doesnt work and it only works if you run the program.. just go into your bios and do it that way.
If you dont know how to OC here is a couple of Guide's:
http://www.overclock.net/overclock....cking-guide.htm
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cp...y/oc-guide.html
This is just for your cpu you have:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10...et_overclocker/
Posted by: rabidgecko
its just that when i've looked in bios it doesn't seem to be particularly detailed as far as OC'ing options. i'll take another look as i suspected that BIOS is the best way, and i'll see what it's like.
Posted by: goranpaa
Very nice!
Congrats to the new rig. I agree with Alchemist. Do the oc in bios. Oc programs like Ntune and stuff is just crap and causes more BSOD's than good oc results.
Posted by: goranpaa
Try to find the FSB, Ram speed and RAM timings. You need to lower the RAM speed when oc'ing. Can be good to up the RAM timings if you are going for a high oc.
See if you can find the setting for the multiplier too. Lower this a notch or 2 if high oc.
You need memtest and Prime 95, Torture test. for testing the stability. CPU Z can be handy to check oc results.
Run memtest for 30 minutes and Prime for 1 1/2 hour in between oc attempts.
Do the oc in small incements at the time (25Mhz steps)
If your pc refuses to boot at a point? Just pull the mobo battery for a couple of minutes. This resets bios.
And make sure "Cool n' Quiet" is disabled before oc'ing!
Posted by: rabidgecko
ok nvm i looked in BIOS and it has the stuff i need to OC properly. but goranpaa, i thought my CPU doesn't require any fiddling other than raising the multiplier... am i wrong?
Posted by: goranpaa
You must lower the RAM speed a notch or 2 at least ( how much, depends on how high oc you do). This as the RAM gets oc'ed at the same time as the cpu. Your RAM probably can't take to run stock speeds when oc'ing. And you may wanna keep the multiplier down a notch at least, to not getting the mobo fsb too high.
Check with CPU Z now and then.
Also disable "Cool n' Quiet" in bios. Othervice, you will get strange behaviours from the fans and cpu when oc'ing. Probably the fans rpm and the cpu's speed will go roller coasting on you if you don't.
Posted by: goranpaa
For a 400MHz oc from 2.6 GHz to 3.0 GHz. It should be enough to lower the RAM speed 1 notch and leave the multiplier as it is. If you lower the RAM speed 1 notch and do a 400MHz oc that is? Then you will get the RAM back to stock speeds.
But do the Memtest and run Prime 95 at the tuffest setting anyway to make sure. Also have a temp monitor program at hand when running Prime. "Nextsensor", is a good one. There, you can even see the chipset temp.
Be aware of that Prime 95, heats up the cpu more than any normal software. And do not let the cpu go over 65C! This is the danger treshold for AMD cpu's.
But with the Katana 2 cooler. I hardly belive you will see any temp over 55 C max running Prime. Probably just 50 C or lower.
Posted by: rabidgecko
Well as of now, I've cranked it up to a stable 3.0 GHz. I've read it is capable of reaching 3.30GHz, but I really don't think I need that much speed for now, at least not at the sake of putting more juice through the CPU and shortening its lifespan.
All's well for now 
Posted by: Alchemist
i think Go - Orthos Beta might be the best tool for CPU Stress test...
but i can be wrong..
Posted by: goranpaa
Quote:
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Originally Posted by rabidgecko
Well as of now, I've cranked it up to a stable 3.0 GHz. I've read it is capable of reaching 3.30GHz, but I really don't think I need that much speed for now, at least not at the sake of putting more juice through the CPU and shortening its lifespan.
All's well for now |
Good!
And another 300Mhz oc wont do that much more for the performance really. Noticeable performance steps are 400MHz ones.
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