Building a new computer

[EkireiTheNecro]

I **STRONGLY** suggest getting an 80-120 GB SSD as your main drive.

Install your OS on that drive, and the games you play most. Buy a cheap 1TB HDD for additional backup.

You won't regret it when you PC boots up / shuts down in literally 10 seconds.....and any games you have on the SSD will have virtually non existent loading times.

[EkireiTheNecro]

Originally Posted by Atmas [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Maybe you didn't get my post. I think it's not really worth it to build something with the intent of playing P99. I gave an example of a machine I built that was pretty good 2 years ago being way overpowered for playing P99. I have machines 6 or more years old that I have EQEmu functional on.

I think in 6 months if a really cool game comes out that would be the time to build the PC. Until then you just have resources going to waste and could be spending the same amount of cash when you actually need it and get something better.

I have like an 10 year old P3 Compaq that still runs EQ and diablo 2 just fine...lawls.

[Skope]

Originally Posted by Feachie [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

regardless if he plays p99 or not, it's silly to build a pc with the present and the past in mind. what are you going to do in 6 months if a really cool game comes out that you want to play?

imho don't settle for less than a socket 1156 board with a sandy bridge processor. ivy bridge is due out late this year, and it's possible the current 1156's will support it with a bios flash.

1156 = last gen core i3 i5's, meaning sandy bridge won't fit into those motherboads. don't go recommending incompatible parts, friend. he'll be stuck with a motherboard and a processor that won't go together and then the hassle of refunds...

If i were to build a new system I would wait a month and see what bulldozer does for the price of systems. but let's narrow things down some and see exactly what you'd benefit from most:

what'll be the primary use for the PC? what will you be doing with it?

Will you be gaming on it? if so, what games?

what's the resolution of your monitor? will you be using more than 1 monitor? tv?

any addons? sound cards?

do you need an operating system as well?

do you need a new monitor?

what's the budget?

and how long are you looking to use it for? upgrade piece by piece or hand down the whole thing for a new PC?

[Deadmantis]

Friend of mine just bought this gaming PC and while it isn't the best of the best, it's still pretty sweet for around $1k. Everything he has thrown at it runs very well.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...2_Desktop.html

[kalzin]

Im going to weigh in here as an IT professional that has built many a computer and has yet to have a complaint on speed.

I recommend the following:
Case: Thermaltake V3 Black Edition VL80001W2Z

Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Video Card: (select from)
>Going Big: ASUS ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5 GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support

>Mid-range: ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support

>Budget: ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support

> Broke: ASUS ENGT520 Silent/DI/1GD3(LP) GeForce GT 520 (Fermi) 1GB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card


Ram: Kingston Model KVR1066D3N7/4G (at least 3 for 12GB or max of 24GB)

Processor: Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80601930

HDD: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX 600GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Power Supply: XION AXP Lan-Party Edition AXP-1000R14HE 1000W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS 12V 2.92 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

CD/DVD: ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM


shop newegg for chance to really save when combo'ing these things together...

[Skope]

Kalzin, you're recommending a core i7 930, which is on 1366 and it's a dead platform. the velociraptors offer a minimal speed increase when compared to SSDs (laughable, in fact).

If you're thinking about buying a videocard for all around gaming performance you'll get a better bang for your buck with AMD right now. most hardware sites will rank them at the top or near the top for every price category and unless you only play a specific game that suits nvidia better (like WoW or any blizzard game) then you'll be better off with an AMD videocard.

[kalzin]

Originally Posted by Skope [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Kalzin, you're recommending a core i7 930, which is on 1366 and it's a dead platform.

It is by far a dead platform, in fact the reason i chose this was that he does not need to be bleeding edge of everything. I chose this because ASUS recommends this processor line for their Military Certified TUF board also listed... if money where of no issue and the asus board recommended it in the QVL(qualified vendor list) I'd say go with nehalem...

Originally Posted by Skope [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

the velociraptors offer a minimal speed increase when compared to SSDs (laughable, in fact).

SSD's are starting to show rather sad performance, I currently have 6 of them, 2 were purchased about 8 months ago and already im starting to see a sharp drop in speed, SSD's (until the enterprise class was released) show a burn-out rate that make them unreliable long-term... see the following link:
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blo...ctor/?cs=36187

Originally Posted by Skope [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If you're thinking about buying a videocard for all around gaming performance you'll get a better bang for your buck with AMD right now. most hardware sites will rank them at the top or near the top for every price category and unless you only play a specific game that suits nvidia better (like WoW or any blizzard game) then you'll be better off with an AMD videocard

the only reason I suggest Nvidia here (I usually opt for ATI/AMD myself) is that we are using an Intel Board. Again I reference the QVL and do see some of the recommended video cards are in the ATI category... I suppose if you wanted to use an ATI card you could substitute for one of the following:

ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

or

ASUS EAH6670/DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

again though either ati or nvidia will suit whichever needs are required; I tend to stick with ATI is for AMD's Nvidia is for Intel's I don't really know why that has gotten into my head, but that is a bias on my behalf.

[Feachie]

Originally Posted by Skope [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

1156 = last gen core i3 i5's, meaning sandy bridge won't fit into those motherboads. don't go recommending incompatible parts, friend. he'll be stuck with a motherboard and a processor that won't go together and then the hassle of refunds...

Sorry, meant 1155. I've been away from pc's for a bit, mostly caught back up but I get the two sockets confused.

I'm less concerned with Sandy as I am with Ivy Bridge. 1155 is the socket they're sticking with, and current boards *could* be compatible with a bios flash.

Originally Posted by Kalzin

SSD's are starting to show rather sad performance, I currently have 6 of them, 2 were purchased about 8 months ago and already im starting to see a sharp drop in speed, SSD's (until the enterprise class was released) show a burn-out rate that make them unreliable long-term... see the following link:
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blo...ctor/?cs=36187

haha i've been saying this for years. solid state memory generally has a lifespan of 1,000,000 writes. It can read infinitely, but begins to degrade after too many writes. I had a thumb stick that I was running a copy of linux for work from so I could literally take my work home with me, died after about a month of use. That's assuming solid state memory is relatively equal. Regardless, this experience is what shied my away from ssd's. viva platters.

[EkireiTheNecro]

If that's really true I might not even get one....

My friend has had his PC for about 8 months with an SSD and it still works great. I dunno if it's slowed but I'll ask him tomorrow.

Have you been torrenting alot of large files to the SSD or anything?

[Skope]

generally speaking, you will never get anywhere close to the approximate # of writes to fail sectors, and it always fails in sectors and not completely.

There are certain SSDs that have had issues, but those were Intel and some of the OCZ's (new intel drivers and the new OCZ's), but the longterm reliability of SSDs in comparison to regular ol' plated hard drives is actually about equal. The worst part of SSDs is getting thru that initial install and the first couple of weeks (when they usually die), but after that it's smooth sailing. Mind you, the speed increase is mindblowingly faster.

1366 is in fact a dead platform, dude. The processor you're suggesting as well is inflated in price and actually 30-40% slower than equally priced current-gen sandy bridge CPUs. The asus mobo was a badass mobo, unfortunately Intel needlessly changes sockets so fast it'll make your head spin. It's not about getting the bleeding-edge computer, it's about getting the best computer you can get for the money, and 1366 is very high priced and it's a dead platform. There is literally no reason to buy 1366 unless you're getting handed down a 1366 CPU or 1366 mobo, but buying both is a very very veerrry poor investment. same goes with 1156 and 775. Intel very rarely drops prices on their last-gen hardware so buying the newer stuff actually saves you money and boosts performance.

Intel chipset doesn't favor AMD nor Nvidia. Just like AMD chipsets don't favor Nvidia or AMD. the only difference was that Intel chipsets supported both crossfire and SLi, but AM3+ now supports SLi so they're on an even keel here as well (and that issue only came up if you bought 2 video cards anyway). Right now, though, for the most part you can comfortably assume that you should buy an AMD videocard because of the better performance in power consumption, higher resolutions, cheaper price and crossfire scaling whoops nvidia's butt. unless you find a really solid deal on some of the 560Ti or 570Ti video cards, you should probably steer clear of nvidia