Building new PC

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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3,814
Ok, so my graphics card has been failing for about 3 months now; ever since i wacked Oblivion up to full settings (probably shouldn't have done that >.>) it's been giving me texture and polygon artifacts all over the place.

Check out sweet polygon artifacts here and here.

It worked fine for the most part if i kept the cards extra cool like only playing around an hour a day, once a week, with the case off and a house fan on them. Yea right....

My card(s) finally choked it properly at some point during the past week when 3 moths decided to take shelter in the GPU heat sink. I wish i had photo's of this.. unfortunately they fell out as soon as i touched the graphics cards when attempting to test which card was the most damaged by heat, and if i could salvage one to make my system at least last until summer.

Anyway, life story out of the way: I'm looking at new components for basically an entirely new system (other than my PSU), and realised in the past 2-3 years of hardware 'content-ness', my knowledge of hardware technology is apparently ancient. I have near enough no idea what's compatable with what, and what's the best value for money.

My current system sported twin gFroce 7900's with SLi, dual core 2.8GHz AMD 64 Athlon 5600+, 2GB RAM. My system wasn't exactly designed with gaming in mind since i used it for much more, but since i never bothered with the last generation of console's i'm figuring i can afford to chip out for a proper gaming PC with a decent coolent system. (Since after heat damage my cards were consistantly running at 70 degrees).

Anyone able to lend some component suggestions my way?

This is my regular hardware supplier: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/home.html

edit: budget between £800 and a grand. I don't need a monitor or mouse or speakers or anything, i got that covered. Maybe need a new keyboard though..
 
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TheDarkerSideofYourShadow

L10: Glamorous Member
Apr 12, 2008
792
286
If there is anyway you can hang on for a while, the directx 11 cards will be hitting soon (hd 5xxx and gtx 3xx from ati and nvidia, respectively), though at ibuypower you could already get your hands on some ati models.

I just built a computer in July, and some of the components have already been surpassed (as noted by the increased cost in items). I've got an Intel i7 950 in mine, and its great (quad core, but 2 threads per core). My compiles are 8 times faster! a 920 is cheaper, and with proper cooling, you could overclock it pretty far (from what I've heard, haven't tried it yet myself). That socket type will bump the price of the motherboard a bit, but its worth it. Just make sure you get yourself plenty of ram (6gb) so you're set far into the future.


Actually...
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BB-I5754G

Just a little more ram and a video card, and that wouldn't be too bad. The Antec 900 is supposed to be pretty good for cooling, though not as good as the 1200 (which has enough fans in it that it sounds like an airplane taking off, according to reviews).

Another thing to consider is this helpful bit MrAlBobo pointed out to be before.

1st find someone you know that works retail, make them sign up for intel retail edge and make them buy the big deal for you:
Mega Bundle – $289 (USD)

* Intel® Core™ i7 920 processor
* Intel® Desktop Board DX58SO
* Windows Vista Ultimate*
* Upgrade voucher to receive Windows 7*
upon its release

Every item on this list is alone worth the total cost, so its quite impressive

Not sure if that still applies, but if you know someone, its well worth it.


Hope some of that rambling helps. Just trying to avoid mapping.
 

Dr. ROCKZO

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Jul 25, 2009
580
159
Yeah, I'd wait for some of the next gen cards to come out. Best thing you could get in your price range currently is probably the HD5870. But we have to wait for GeForces rebuttal to see who makes the more cost effective card..
 

fubarFX

The "raw" in "nodraw"
aa
Jun 1, 2009
1,720
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remember what happened with dx10 at its release? not a single game supporting it and it took quite a while before we saw one. buying a dx11 card at its release will be both expensive and useless imho. however, there will be some big price drops on dx10 card when dx11 will come around. (so you might want to wait a bit, whatever dx version you're going for).

also. you mentionned you wanted to get yourself some proper cooling. BUT DO NOT BUY WATER COOLING. water cooling is for noobs imho (no offence). in fact, it depends a lot on the hardware you buy. I recently bought a videocard myself and the fan on it was absolute crap. while toturing my computer, the video card exceeded 100'c (pretty fuckin hot). I bought a new fan and now the temp just can't go above 45'c. see? cost me 70$ dollars and the temp went about 55 degree down. no need for water cooling (unless you like wasting money of course).

but again, that'll depend on the hardware you buy. install it and monitor the temps for a while. change some fans where needed. for any air cooling, I highly recommend Zalman.
http://www.zalman.co.kr
low noise and very efficient but yeah, you do need a case with decent airflow
 
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grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
Hm, i can't really hold on. Right now my computer struggles to even run firefox. I need to get it sorted within the week.

Thanks for the advice. I'll check out the store asap and talk about that Bundle recommendation.