Lets discuss computers!

Narkissus

L5: Dapper Member
Jan 22, 2008
228
9
So im contemplating buying some new computer parts, updating my old crappy computer. Tell me what you think about these.

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059

Video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130319

Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817701004&Tpk=TURBOSTREAM%2b600w

Memory (4gigs perhaps of this?): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145175&Tpk=TWIN2X2048-6400C5DHX

So thats all I got for now, perhaps all ill need.
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
not bad, before im sure anyone will really jump in, the first and most important is...

Whats your price sweet spot?
 

MacNetron

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 12, 2007
203
47
and of course, what do you want to do with it? Just mapping, emailing and browsing? Or do you want to play games at the highest settings for the next 2 years?

I can post my uber-hardware if you would like...
 

drp

aa
Oct 25, 2007
2,273
2,628
get a quad core.
will you be running 64bit vista or xp? if not just get 2 or 3 gigs of ram. vista and xp 32 cant see more than 3 gigs.

other than that, not bad.
 

roninmodern

L3: Member
Feb 5, 2008
124
5
32 bit windows tops out at 4, not 3.

64 bit OS's, however, can see 128 gb ram....
 

drp

aa
Oct 25, 2007
2,273
2,628
i stand corrected.
*orders another 2gb*
 

Narkissus

L5: Dapper Member
Jan 22, 2008
228
9
Right now, pricing is like 800 bucks i can handle. And im going to be using xp. Im not gonna spend an extra 200 dollars on vista. and i heard quad core arent even being utilized as of right now so i thought that the 45nm dual core would be much better.
 

roninmodern

L3: Member
Feb 5, 2008
124
5
Vista may be a little more (although its not if you buy an OEM instead of retail), but it supports dx10, and pretty soon you'll need it anway.
 

ryodoan

Resident Bum
Nov 2, 2007
409
117
OK, let me hop in here.

First, I would say a dual core, especially that one, should be perfect. A quad core at this point I feel is overkill unless you are going to be trying to run photoshop, Hammer, TF2 all at the same time.

Most games, and most programs even, cant properly utilize two cores at this point, let alone 4. The only game that I know of at this point that does a good job utilizing all your cores is Call of Duty 4, and with my lowly 1.86 Ghz Core 2 Duo, it only uses 65% of my processor.

The reason this is (as I see it), is because it your computer assigns certain threads to certain processors. (sorta) so if the game / program runs in a single thread, it will only use that one process. What game developers / programmers are starting to do is for intensive tasks splitting off to multiple processes / threads. This way you can utilize all the cores on a computer. The problem is then you have to worry about how to transfer data between those threads / processes which is not a trivial task.

If you are going to be doing a lot of stuff other than gaming on this computer (My cousin for instance does a lot of video stuff, so he was able to run I think 8 video transcoding programs in the background re-encoding movie files before his CPU maxed out)

Also, the cheapest Core2Quad is around $270 for 2.66 ghz, while you can get a Core2Duo @ ~3Ghz for less.

As for the motherboard, I have had a pretty bad experience with Gigabyte. I think I have a P35-SP3, similar to that board and it has little to no overclockability and if I turn on the built in overclocking settings the board hard locks up (yes the board, it refuses to boot even to the bios screen), and i need to reset the CMOS. While it could just be Igot a faulting product, I dont think my next mobo is going to be a Gigabyte.

Next point.

4 Gigs of memory should be awesome, if not overkill at this point. I have 3 Gigs and it is glorious. One thing you should know is that if you want XP to actually use all 4 gigs of memory you need to specifically tell it to not use your hard drive as a Paging File (allocate the Hard Drive space for Paging File to 0 mb's). If you dont do that it will only show you as using 2 Gigs of your RAM.

I have heard some debate over whether it actually only uses 2 Gigs of your RAM, or if it just only shows you useing 2 Gigs of RAM, but I figured it was safer to just turn off the Hard drive based paging file since it all fits in my memory anyway.

The video card is perfect, dont change it.

If you do change the PSU stick with sleeved cables, I didnt and it has pissed me off to this day.
 
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roninmodern

L3: Member
Feb 5, 2008
124
5
Or buy a modular power supply. Whomever it was that invented those is a genius.
 

Narkissus

L5: Dapper Member
Jan 22, 2008
228
9
I saw that the processor was actually in stock today so i actually just ordered everything.
I was lucky to get that processor it seems, because its out of stock again already.
I hope i dont get any faulty pieces but from everything ive heard newegg is good about returning items and all that. lets just see how my motherboard works out... :blink:
and yeah, i got 4gigs, i thought why the hell not, so i went for it.
 

ryodoan

Resident Bum
Nov 2, 2007
409
117
I saw that the processor was actually in stock today so i actually just ordered everything.
I was lucky to get that processor it seems, because its out of stock again already.
I hope i dont get any faulty pieces but from everything ive heard newegg is good about returning items and all that. lets just see how my motherboard works out... :blink:
and yeah, i got 4gigs, i thought why the hell not, so i went for it.

Yes, newegg is good about replacing faulty parts, but it is still a pain, and you still have to pay return shipping.

When I built my computer:
Core2Duo 1.86 Ghz
2 Gigs of Corsair
7900GS 256 mb

One of the sticks of RAM was bad (and it was a 2x 1 gig pack) so I had to RMA them. You get 30 days to ship back the dead hardware, and since only one stick was bad, I played with my computer for about a week before sending the stick back. Then I lived with my dead computer for about 5 days while they waited for my stick of ram, then shipped me the replacement.

Overall it was pretty painless, just a little frustrating. Good luck with the build. I get to build my Mom's computer tonight:

AMD 4200+ X2
Micro-ATX board w/ onboard graphics (Nvidia 6100 onboard)
2x 512 MB DDR2 800 Kingston
160 Gig Western Digital Hard drive
SATA DvD burner (was actually the cheapest DVD burner)
Mini Tower case (4 inches x 16 inches x 12 inches) w/ 275 Watt PSU

Total cost after shipping: $280

Not the most powerful computer but she is not going to be playing any computer games, mostly just an excel / internet / windows media player / Photoshop computer. And if at some point we decide to use it as a media center computer the mobo has a PCI-ex 16x sized slot (runs at 8x)
 

roninmodern

L3: Member
Feb 5, 2008
124
5
Ugh, that's not a minitower, that's a shuttle.

As a computer salesperson/tech, I can tell you....I hate shuttle cases, they're impossible to work on.
:(
 

ryodoan

Resident Bum
Nov 2, 2007
409
117
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roninmodern

L3: Member
Feb 5, 2008
124
5
You're right...I was thinking mini ATX, while that is micro.

On shuttle, not only is it a brand name, but it is also a style of case that basically looks like a cube.

:(
 

ryodoan

Resident Bum
Nov 2, 2007
409
117
Well, built it last night, and it did get pretty tight towards the end. I am really, really glad I got a SATA DVD-Burner, I can not imagine trying to feed an IDE cable around inside the case.

The second hard part was the fact that the case only came with one SATA cable, luckily, I had a spare, but it is a really crappy SATA cable, it has all the flexibility of a brick. I think its because it has been held together by a rubber band for about 2 years now... In any case, Small case + tight spaces + SATA cable that refused to flex, was annoying, but overall worked out.

I have experienced one problem that I can not figure out. The Mobo says its front panel audio follows the Intel standard. The case says its front panel audio follows the Intel standard. The front panel audio instead of having individual plugs has one of those block plugs. Since the standards are the same, I breathed a sigh of relief, and put the plug into the mobo, however, the front audio is still not working...

I looked at the mobo vs. Case manual and did notice a small discrepancy between the two pin-outs, when I get home in about 6-7 hours I will try to remember to make another post with more details.
 

Kirko

L2: Junior Member
Jan 16, 2008
58
0
glad it went well. yeah i just bought a 160gb portable HD for school and for when i go to europe this summer so i can have steam, games, and music with me when i go to the computer cafes and to save all my photos and videos i am going to be taking. i dont think they have very good video cards in them though so i dont think ill be able to play any source games. i hope hammer still runs well though.
 
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ryodoan

Resident Bum
Nov 2, 2007
409
117
source games tend to not be as demanding as other games. I know HL2 is one of the few "modern" games that mouse laptops with integrated graphics can play, and that info comes from about 2 years ago, so I think you will be alright. (unless the computers have something like a Pentium 3 w/ onboard graphics, then there could be issues)
 

Kirko

L2: Junior Member
Jan 16, 2008
58
0
well. its just a computer cafe. i doubt they put a video card in them. i think its just onboard video. i havent been to europe for about 4 years so i dont know. wish i could take mine and all that great stuff but stuff tends to be missing out of suit cases all the time(best job to get free stuff be a suit case checker person) ive had my ps2 stolen, gameboy sp, and all my games stolen out of my suit case. i reported it and i still have yet to ever get them back. i am already taking my ps3 with me in my carry on. and my cousins house over there has dial up. but yeah i think the computers just have like a dual core(maybe) or a pentium 4 and 1gb ram or something to just do some web browsing. i means its good enough for CS because i played that at the library last time i was there.