New PC building

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ThunderTitan
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New PC building

Unread postby ThunderTitan » 12 Dec 2007, 21:31

So, i'm thinking about buying a new rig, and i was wondering if the moer tech savvy of you guys could recommend some good mid-range motherboards, video cards and processors...
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Unread postby asandir » 12 Dec 2007, 21:54

I thought I already had?

so a 8800GT, 250GB HDD, DVD and monitor down, I recommend ASUS mobo's they're great! really depends again on whether you want FSB800 or FSB1333 .... CPU is easy - pick the one that matches your FSB from the mobo, intel core 2 duo at either 2.13Ghz for 800, 2.33 Ghz
in that case I'd suggest Asus's P5N-E SLI: NVIDIA nForce® 650i SLI™, only drawback is only supports upto DDR2-800, if you need support upto DDR2-1333 go for the more expensive Asus P5K-C S775,QuadCore, P35,FSB1333,DDR2+3,2xPCIEx16,SATA2,F/W.LAN, ATX

for cpu I suggest Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Dual Core Processor - 2.13GHz, 64-Bit, 1066FSB, 4MB Cache, VT, LGA775 BX80557E6420, the FSB 1333 version is another good choice Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Dual Core Processor - 2.33GHz, 64-Bit, 1333FSB, 4MB Cache, VT, LGA775 BX80557E6550
Last edited by asandir on 15 Dec 2007, 00:22, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread postby Pol » 12 Dec 2007, 22:57

Well I suggest to wait a bit less than a two years, but that's probably not what you wanted to hear. ;)

Else I'm not currently watching for one so I will not attempt to heeding you. However keep in mind ... h264 is coming and ati have slight advance yet.
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Unread postby asandir » 12 Dec 2007, 23:44

the problem with the computing world is that you can always wait 2 years more, and there will always be something new around the corner .... at some point ya gotta jump in :)
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Unread postby Pol » 12 Dec 2007, 23:55

I'm not waiting just so but I'm waiting for something. :tonguehands:
No one noticed that ViiV or Live are still crappy? And VIA's too weak.
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Unread postby asandir » 13 Dec 2007, 00:11

I don't like the idea of a company designing my "multimedia" experience, I like to put it together myself, better performance generally and I can pick which bits of their specifications I really need - ie. I don't need a specific south-bridge protocol, nor a remote control, so why pay the price/performance cost?
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Unread postby MistWeaver » 13 Dec 2007, 00:22

Both NVIDIA and ATI(/AMD) recently brought to the market new mid-range video cards with perfomance that just slightly less than in top-range. Its Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 (190$), Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 (250$) and Geforce 8800 GT (280+$)

Im going to do total upgrade soon myself, and Im actually waiting untill 8800 GT price will drop to 220-230. But if you want cheap & now, I would recomend Radeon HD 3850.

Some tests with Crysis demo at 1280x1024 (stolen from one PC magazine):

GeForce 8800 GTX 768 Mb - 75 FPS
GeForce 8800 GT 512 Mb - 73 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512 Mb - 68 FPS
Radeon HD 2900XT 512 Mb - 58 FPS
Radeon HD 3850 256 Mb - 56 FPS
Radeon HD 2900 PRO 512 Mb - 54 FPS

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Unread postby asandir » 13 Dec 2007, 00:32

that's what I said! :D just be sure to check the results on the games you like to play, cause there are differences between games, it's not a linear chart! tomshardware.com is the place to get in-depth info
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Unread postby Pol » 13 Dec 2007, 01:49

I don't need anything powerful just once I hope here will be something from this or that... a useful descendants.

They generally must comply to my specifications.
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Unread postby asandir » 13 Dec 2007, 03:11

They have toyed with that idea for a while, but I think the performance gains of the newer dual core processors outweigh most of the benefits, but that's just me
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Unread postby Pol » 13 Dec 2007, 05:44

asandir wrote:..
Which sums nicely why I'm waiting.
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Unread postby asandir » 13 Dec 2007, 06:06

Pol wrote:
asandir wrote:..
Which sums nicely why I'm waiting.
I don't get it, the price is already pretty low for those things, and they go like the blazes!
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Unread postby Pol » 13 Dec 2007, 06:23

But I quoted the other part of your sentence, not that about core duos. Although core duo is fine my last favourite was Yonah from core duo first generation. Generally it still heating too much and that wide platform is tieing on yourself too many problems usually connected with overheating and noisiness ... > it's not usable like hi-fi (read silent, small and powerful - SFF alternatively) machine. Because such is going without any active coolers and must not induce temperatures over 40 degrees of Celsia. Ideally even less.
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Unread postby asandir » 13 Dec 2007, 06:35

ahhhh, hence the Pentium M comments, you are a heat/noise hater .... well, I consider them a necessary tradeoff, not to be enjoyed, but to be tolerated due to the benefits, plus my kids make more noise than a PC ever could :D
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Unread postby Paulus1 » 13 Dec 2007, 21:13

You can make your PC virtually silent by choosing the right components.

The noisemakers in general are:
- power supply fan. Seasonic and Corsair make some good and very quite PSUs.
- fans (both case and heatsink). Scythe S-flex and Noctua are good choices here. Undervolting is an option.
- video card (fan). I've read that the ATI HD 3850 is very quite.
- harddisk. Samsung Spinpoint T166 series is pretty quite.

When putting together a system meant to be quite/silent, heat is your enemy. The more heat, the more - noisy - cooling is required.

An AMD BE-2350 processor has a TDP of 45W, and thus generates very little heat, making it easy to cool. Some of Intels Core2Duo processors are also heat-friendly, but I honestly don't know much about them.
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Unread postby Pol » 13 Dec 2007, 21:22

Here was one AMD with 35W only, but it's sold off and no new ones are planned. Now, that's of course a logical course. :devious:

Seriously no fan no problems, and real problems can arise in period of half to two years. So new computer can be silent, no prob, but it will not last - due to inefficent conception.
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Unread postby Paulus1 » 13 Dec 2007, 21:43

Pol wrote:Seriously no fan no problems
Harddisk seeking noise can be quite annoying as well.

You are right, the fans can wear out, but they are relatively cheap and easy to replace. Yate Loon fans cost about 5 $ per fan, and are of decent quality.

Going totally fan less with your PC is not a good choice unless you are watercooling it instead. Even with very low power units, they will heat up, and efficiency and lifetime will decrease.
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Unread postby Paulus1 » 13 Dec 2007, 21:50

As for the original question, choice of compenents really depends on your intended use. Should it be able to play Crysis at decent framerates or just Heroes V? :devious:

What about Direct X 10 compliance?
How much do you intend to spend on the thing?
Is noise a factor?
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Unread postby Pol » 13 Dec 2007, 22:00

Not in case of VIA, that's because the temperatures doesn't overcomes 40°C. This is a key. When use as a multimedia device hdd spins sporadically it's all goes into RAM. And here are silencers as well. It's quite possible to create a totally silent pc nowadays. But I would like if companies would return to some more bearable philosophy to bring back more choices(now you have one-two solutions), some competition is always good.

PS I have P3 system and this one also never overreach 40°C it's barely heaten up, having one big (and silent) fan in whole case. It's very silent but it's lacking power.

PSS Well, Vista - powereater. All windows systems are designed to not to run others rt priority processes than itselves. Old stats says DOS 200mmx = early P4 w98 and worse with nt systems, that's a sacrifice for dilettantish multitasking. (that's a priority test not overall performance)
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The Archives | Collection of H3&WoG files | Older albeit still useful | CH Downloads
PC Specs: A10-7850K, FM2A88X+K, 16GB-1600, SSD-MLC-G3, 1TB-HDD-G3, MAYA44, SP10 500W Be Quiet

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Unread postby ThunderTitan » 13 Dec 2007, 22:18

I've been an Intel man since the beginning... more power lasts longer... i save money that way.

And i've got around 1000 euro's to spend, and no need for a monitor. Also not really in a hurry to buy... i just figure i ought to start getting informed about hardware again...

Don't care about noises and i keep my case opened nowadays, so heating isn't that much of a problem.

Now stop bickering and start presenting pros and cons for components pls. DX10 would probably be needed too i guess... it needs to last.


So far i like this one: GeForce 8800 GT 512 Mb (of course it's more expensive over here... most likely cause the $ got weaker but they kept the prices the same...)
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