Building a PC, do I have everything I need?
Thursday, September 4th, 2008 - 4:14pm
I'm building my first PC from Newegg and I'm just posting before I make a purchase to see if I have anything dead wrong.
Quote:
Qty. Product Description Savings Total Price
RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB530P Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 530W Modular LED Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16811156209
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy
-$30.00 Instant
$30.00 Mail-in Rebate
$139.99
$109.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3750640AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822148134
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy
$99.99
LINKSYS WMP300N 32-bit PCI Interface High-speed Wireless-N Wireless Adapter - Retail
Item #: N82E16833124069
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy
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$69.99
EVGA 896-P3-1260-AR GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814130370
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy
-$20.00 Instant
$40.00 Mail-in Rebate
$299.99
$279.99
Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PVS34G1333LLKN - Retail
Item #: N82E16820220333
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
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-$5.00 Instant
$15.00 Mail-in Rebate
$209.99
$204.99
Foxconn BlackOps X48 LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813186144
Return Policy: Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy
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-$50.00 Instant
$359.99
$309.99
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9450 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115042
Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy
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I'm mainly buying this PC for WAR and STEAM stuff (TF2, CoH) and I'm trying to get back more into PC gaming.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
4870 > GTX260
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
http://www.myspace.com/armyofthepharaohs
Monitor?
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Can I just swap out the graphics cards, or should I go AMD if I go Ati?
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
I'm getting an Acer 24" 1900x1200 Monitor from Amazon. My friend has an acer monitor and he really likes it. It's only like $300.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
Sure.. not an issue running Intel CPU's and ATI cards.
I have this motherboard with my current setup.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131284
Been fabulous.
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
http://www.myspace.com/armyofthepharaohs
Cool. Thanks for the info, how is this card:
There is another 4870 I saw, but it's $599 which is bumping me out of my price range but I don't mind doing it, if it is a much better card.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
Yeah the 4870 X2's are more money.. (essentially 2 4870's stuck together) but the Sapphire is a nice card.. thats the same as what I have right now.
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
http://www.myspace.com/armyofthepharaohs
As good as that card is, I have to warn you that customer support from Sapphire is (maybe was) pretty awful.
As long as you don't have to deal with them directly you are fine though.
Decisions are just decisions, there are neither "good" or "bad"
LobsterMobster wrote:
Yeah, I'd do the 4870 too. They run really hot, though, so many people are apparently using Riva Tuner 2.0, which lets you manually set the fan speed. You could also look into an aftermarket cooler.
I'd probably buy this one from VisionTek; it's $9 cheaper, and I'm pretty sure I've had a Visiontek card before. It has the standard Newegg warranty, so Newegg doesn't have major problems with that card or manufacturer. When they have different return policies, that's generally a sign that the reliability isn't so hot.
The one you picked also has the standard policy, so my link's just $9 cheaper, and you're avoiding Sapphire. I don't know anything about Sapphire, but I'll trust lethial's voice of experience up there.
Seconded on the 4870 or 4870x2, I've been following all the card wars the past few months, and it looks so far like ATI has an amazing lineup - but the good news is Nvidia had to quickly slash prices on their 260/280 so either way it's a win win situation.
If you can get the 4870x2, do it, it literally is the fastest kid on the block right now. Especially at 1920x1200, that's where it starts to really shine. It can run Crysis completely maxed out at just under 30fps @ 1920x1200, so you know it will pretty much chew up any game you throw at it for quite a while.
XBL/PSN/STEAM/WAR/SPORE/RAPTR
Yeah get a 4870.
Also I don't think you need to spend that much on the RAM or the MB. Overkill imo unless you specifically selected those parts for a special need.
And I'd rather get a 4870x2 with a good Gigabyte ~$100 motherboard and $80 of pc6400 RAM (4gigs) than a 4870 with a $300 board and 4 gigs of $200 1066 RAM.
Last I'd probably get a different power supply although I really don't know about the one you selected. Just most of those that come with cases aren't the greatest.
I'd go with PPC or perhaps Corsair which have nice gaming specs at least. There's other good choices there as well.
Yup, PC Power and Cooling seems to be the highest rated Power Supply you can get. And I'm going to echo what you said, the performance gains you get from going 4870x2 over slightly faster RAM or slightly more featured motherboard is going to be phenomenal. Spend your budget on the card and make sure the rest of the PC fits around it (with adequate cooling of course).
XBL/PSN/STEAM/WAR/SPORE/RAPTR
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
You'll want one of these if you're actually assembling it yourself.
Actually I wouldn't get 4870 X2, not with that power supply. Please consider getting a better power supply. At least get something with 650+ Watts from a reputible company like OCZ, Corsair, Antec, PC Power & Cooling, BFG.
There are other good PSUs out there, but I have actually personally owned and 100% satisfied with the PSUs from the companies that I listed above.
Also, get a PSU that is "80 Plus" Certified, since that will save you money on electricity in the long run.
Oh yeah, I have heard good things about VisionTek. I think they are one of the few ATI vendors that actually offers Lifetime warranty too.
Couple things though, for gaming, you really don't need quad core, but it is nice to have. Also, you might want to take a look at the new HDD from Western Digital (since you are not getting a separate raptor drive for games and OS you'll want a fast and big HDD)
Caviar Black HDDs, the 1TB version is faster than the 150GB Raptors for the most part!
One last thing, NV is coming out with a 260GTX+ this september, basically it has 24 more shaders enabled than the original 260s. So expect more price war
Decisions are just decisions, there are neither "good" or "bad"
LobsterMobster wrote:
It might sound stupid... but do you have an OS? I don't see that on your list. You're not going to get very far without that. You'd want the OEM Version as its cheaper if you don't have one already.
WOW: Bounce
I swapped out the card for a visiontek, got an 850 watt 80-plus PSU, went to 8 GB of DDR2 ram (saved money), and the 1TB drive lethial posted.
I am super excited about this machine.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
Whoah, say whaaaat? I'm still planning my uber-upgrade in the next month or so, and the 150 Raptor was on my list.
Oh man, I love this Nvidia/ATI competition. The consumer is definitely going to win this round if they keep bumping the tech and slashing the prices.
XBL/PSN/STEAM/WAR/SPORE/RAPTR
Yep, if I didn't buy Velociraptor I'd jump on the 1TB Caviar Black ASAP.
A review from Techreport
Decisions are just decisions, there are neither "good" or "bad"
LobsterMobster wrote:
and I have to say I am very jealous right now of you
Decisions are just decisions, there are neither "good" or "bad"
LobsterMobster wrote:
I wouldnt do 8GB of ram..
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
http://www.myspace.com/armyofthepharaohs
I'm having that dilemma myself. I'm a big multi-tasker so I want to build a rig that can play games but also chew through a bunch of other things when need be. I was going to go Vista64/8GB/Quad because I know Vista can be a bit of a memory pig. I'm mostly interested in having my machine pretty responsive even if I'm transcoding HD movies on the fly for streaming, etc, that kind of stuff, when I'm not gaming.
I understand Vista32/4GB/Duo is the preferred setup if the primary use is gaming though, the rest would be overkill.
XBL/PSN/STEAM/WAR/SPORE/RAPTR
I was reading an article online that said if I went 64-bit, I should go for the 8 GB of RAM, and it was cheap enough, I thought I might as well....
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
Unless you're doing something with your computer like recording uncompressed audio through an 8-track, anything above 4 gigs is probably going to be overkill.
I would think the first rule of PR is to ignore forum people, because they vacillate between crazy and liar. - Elysium
If noise is an issue, the Samsung Spinpoints are only a hair slower than the Caviar Blacks (and much faster at dealing with large files), and are much quieter. I'm running two of them in the Mac Pro, which magnifies drive noise a great deal because of the direct coupling of the drive to the aluminum case, and I can barely hear them. Very fond of those drives.
64bit/8GB+/Quad is good for gaming if you run VMs to play classic games
You could play two games at once, maybe three!
Also watch out for 64bit OS if you have to connect to work through a VPN. There's a dearth of clients out there.
Somebody told me how frightening it was how much topsoil we are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire and nobody got scared.
XBL/PSN: Big Hoppa | Steam: bighoppa
Oh definitely, and they are cheaper too! I one of the 1TB spinpoint (333GB/platter) and am very happy with it. The only caveat is that I wouldn't recommend running the drive in "performance" mode in windows. You'll have higher chance of data corruption.
Decisions are just decisions, there are neither "good" or "bad"
LobsterMobster wrote:
I just find most motherboards are picky enough about 4GB of ram.. granted if you stay away from any sort of PCI cards your probably in the clear (PCI cards especially sound cards seem to be the most finicky) but I've had lots of headaches with 4GB and 64bit Vista. I'm in the clear now though.. moving to Intel X48 platform and non creative PCI Sound Cards.
8 GB's which I assume is fully populating the board with 4 2GB Dimms seems like your just asking for trouble.
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
http://www.myspace.com/armyofthepharaohs
Yeah 8GB is tricky. But since you have a really nice mobo, I think you can pull it off. Just don't expect to run above the spec for the Ram.
A friend of mine here at work got a ASUS X48 mobo with 8GB of DDR2 and he had no problems with that setup. While you really don't benefit much for gaming with 8GB, it is nice to just not have swamp files at all, and 8GB does help a lot with rendering related stuff (which my friend does as a hobby).
Also, having experienced all sort of memory related problems in my recent PC builds, I definitely see the value of having extra set of ram on standby in case something bad happens. But you could just save some money (albeit not much) and get some cheaper ram for "insurance" purposes.
Btw, which 850W PSU did you get? The Antec one?
Decisions are just decisions, there are neither "good" or "bad"
LobsterMobster wrote:
GG, I've never had a problem with fully populating an Intel board; they use outboard memory controllers. AMD chips, with their integrated memory controllers, are far more chancy in that way.
I haven't, however, tried any serious overclocking on a heavily populated board.