Reasons to buy a new PC

Originally Posted by Hylander_1314

Careful dude. The power company squeals when I fire my rig up, and that one looks even more powerful than mine

EvGA 780i mobo

Intel Core2 Extreme QX9650 Quadcore 4 cores @ ~3.00 ghz

2 Toshiba DVD /CD RW optical drives

2 EVGA 260 GTX vidcards in SLi

2 WD 500 Gb harddrives SATA

8 Gigs of OCZ SLi ram

Toughpower 1000 watt psu

All packed into an Antec 900 series case

And between the case and the components, there are 9 fans blasting away at high rpm.s

Also an Altec Lansing Dolby 5.1 surround speaker system that pumps 140 watts

And last of all a HannsG HG281D 28in monitor / HDTV

The neighbor's lights dim when this thing fires up.

I have a couple vids of WWII bombers and fighters doing fly-bys, and if I crank the volume, the house and surrounding ground shakes.

you guys forgot the most important hardware for those systems, remove the side window and install a small window a/c unit for all that heat you guys are making.

it must be like a small space heater running lol.

and monitors are putting out as much heat as pc's are nowadays

[ps249]

Just got my custom rig last weekend, here is what I got:

AMD Athlon X2 duo core 6000 3 GHZ processor
1,000 GB hard drive
4 GB RAM memory
Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT (1 GB memory)
Windows 7
Apevia tower

This is my first custom machine. I am really enjoying the games I have been missing out on. (Left 4 dead is awesome)

[IanC]

Originally Posted by ps249

Just got my custom rig last weekend, here is what I got:

AMD Athlon X2 duo core 6000 3 GHZ processor
1,000 GB hard drive
4 GB RAM memory
Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT (1 GB memory)
Windows 7
Apevia tower

This is my first custom machine. I am really enjoying the games I have been missing out on. (Left 4 dead is awesome)

Your hard drive seems a little weak. You sure you have enough space?

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Its actually pretty simple.

Go to tomshardware and take a look at the benchmarks. They test everything.

Choose each part on separate, comparing it on the benchmarks. I always go for the best cost/performance.

After that, buy those parts individually in a store, or online, like amazon.com, where you can get the best possible prices. Free shipping for those in US.

Then you can either mount it yourself, its pretty easy. Comes with manuals and everything. I always mounted myself all my rigs in the past. Theres nothing like the sensation of unwrapping your brand new parts and putting it together, you feel like 12 years old, mounting up your new toy.

After that, throw some windows 7 64bits, cos its the best SO at the moment, and you wont have to worry about drivers (it installs everything by its own), and get ready to play some games.

IMHO, so far the best buy is:

I7 920
6gb ddr3 corsair 1333mhz (3x2gb)
Asus P6T
Corsair 600w PSU
GeForce 250gts 1gb
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm 32mb cache

You can get this rig for near 700 dollars.

For your screen, any 22" LCD is good enough. If you have money to spare, go bigger, but the 22" is at the moment the best cost/performance.

When buying a case, go large, as large as you can. Best airflow will make sure your parts lasts longer before collapsing. New games requires a lot from the parts, making a lot of heat. You'll have more room for the cables and parts, more room to move your hand around when changing something inside. Nowday's VGA cards are quite huge, so if you buy a small case you might have problems installing your memory or hdd.

Originally Posted by Philipp_Thomsen

Its actually pretty simple.

When buying a case, go large, as large as you can. Best airflow will make sure your parts lasts longer before collapsing. New games requires a lot from the parts, making a lot of heat. You'll have more room for the cables and parts, more room to move your hand around when changing something inside. Nowday's VGA cards are quite huge, so if you buy a small case you might have problems installing your memory or hdd.

i would add one note to what PT said and that is to be cautious when choosing a PSU because sometimes you find some brands have shorter wires then others and if you get a full tower case its even more critical you check the customer reviews of that PSU for ANY comments of tight or short wires.

with a "modest" amount of skill you can extend wires yourself but it voids warranty and i doubt you want to buy something that you need to modify.

myself i stick to mid-tower cases and for me i find coolermaster cases have very good ventilation.

something PT didnt cover was "fans" i would recommend carefull shopping for "quiet" fans but check the dbl (decible) sound levels because many fans put "quiet" or "silent" in the name but they are just as noisey as a regular inexpensive fan. i consider anything below 20 dbls as quiet and anything below 15 decibles as silent, anything over 25 decibles and you WILL hear it.

also pay close attention to the cfms a fan puts out, some fans drop cfms way down to reduce noise but it also reduces cooling and circulation in your case. fans are getting quieter all the time but the general rule is high cfms mean high noise so when comparing "quiet" fans you have to use cfms as a usefull guide to picking the quietest fan that still has the most cfms. i would never get any fan that puts out less than 35cfms absolute minimum and 45 cfms is what i prefer to use as a minimum.

myself i like the "sythe" brand fans because you hardly hear them running. you can find them here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...538&name=120mm

fans that are truely "quiet" or "silent" are more expensive but not that bad, maybe $12 to $15 for most 120mm size where the regular "noisey" case fans run like $5

Originally Posted by ps249

Just got my custom rig last weekend, here is what I got:

AMD Athlon X2 duo core 6000 3 GHZ processor
1,000 GB hard drive
4 GB RAM memory
Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT (1 GB memory)
Windows 7
Apevia tower

This is my first custom machine. I am really enjoying the games I have been missing out on. (Left 4 dead is awesome)

just curious why you chose to go with a 9500 card when its a few generations old?

if it was to save money then a 9800 would have been very little price difference and is a better card IMO

whats done is done but im wondering if theres something about a 9500 i didnt know about?

ps - that 1000 GB HDD is called a 1 TB (terra bite) it sounds cooler to say it that way too

[ps249]

Originally Posted by WEBSTER

just curious why you chose to go with a 9500 card when its a few generations old?

if it was to save money then a 9800 would have been very little price difference and is a better card IMO

whats done is done but im wondering if theres something about a 9500 i didnt know about?

ps - that 1000 GB HDD is called a 1 TB (terra bite) it sounds cooler to say it that way too

Webster- I left the video card up to my computer tech. I told him what I wanted ( I told him I wanted a good gamer that would not be obsolete within a year and something that did not break the bank) so I left it up to him. My old card was a Geforce 6150 LE so it was very choppy on SH3 and could not even play the Grey Wolves expansion. I could not even play SH4, and there was no way it was going to play SH5- so it was time to upgrade. The 9500 GT has been around for a while and is very highly reviewed (4 stars average out of 5) . I do not like paying the higher premium for the newer cards. I also wanted to stay in the Nvidia family. I know about the 1 terabyte but since most people dont have one- most never heard of that term yet. My PC tech said it was only a matter of about $25 to go from a 500 GB to a 1 TB hard drive. With the ever increasing larger files like pc games, music and video- it don't take much to eat up all that space nowadays. A 1 TB hardrive goes for around $80. My new rig cost me $700 with labor included.

PS I can remember my first computer was a HP I bought in 1998. It had a 333 MHZ Intel Celeron processor, 64 MB RAM, 4 GB hard drive and Windows 98 2nd edition. It cost me $850 for the tower alone. It didnt even have a video card worth mentioning. Of all the computers I bought- I had to replace the video card within the first year. That was one of my decisions to have one custom built.

Originally Posted by ps249

Webster- I left the video card up to my computer tech.

well i think he could have done better by you to choose the 1gb 9800 because it was only $50 or less price difference but it would have been a major improvement over the 9500.

i agree with your logic, i never buy the top line #1 stuff either and i also choose the 2nd best stuff to save money.

9500 is still "sorta" new tech but the choice he made was to get you the 4th or 5th best card and while it was still "good" it wasnt what i would call a very good card which is what you look for to future proof your system.

the difference in a 9500 to a 9800 is BIG, that extra $50 to get the 9800 would have given you a very big improvement for a little bit of money so that is why it struck me as an odd choice to make when building a system.

[ps249]

Originally Posted by WEBSTER

well i think he could have done better by you to choose the 1gb 9800 because it was only $50 or less price difference but it would have been a major improvement over the 9500.

i agree with your logic, i never buy the top line #1 stuff either and i also choose the 2nd best stuff to save money.

9500 is still "sorta" new tech but the choice he made was to get you the 4th or 5th best card and while it was still "good" it wasnt what i would call a very good card which is what you look for to future proof your system.

the difference in a 9500 to a 9800 is BIG, that extra $50 to get the 9800 would have given you a very big improvement for a little bit of money so that is why it struck me as an odd choice to make when building a system.

Webster= what is your reasoning for the 9800 over the 9500?

[PL_Andrev]

The advantage of model 9500 card is the only one: is very cheap (hmmm... and more silent).

I compare Gigabyte cards 9500GT and 9800GT with 512MB RAM DDR3 both:

Efficiency of 9800GT is two-three times better than 9500GT with results:
3D Mark: 2x more than 9500GT
GPU score: 3x more than 9500GT

On hi-res games:
9800GT has 2x better result with FPS (no FSAA/no AF)
... and 2x / 3x better result with FPS (FSAA/AF)
2x for high res more than 1680x1050 / 3x for 1280x1024

PT Boats: Knight of the Sea 1280x1024
FSAA 4x / AF 16x:
9500GT - 11.7 FPS
9800GT - 28.6 FPS

(all data: non-english source)

Summary:
On my market 9800GT is only 1.5 more expensive than 9500GT.
But 9800GT is 2x / 3x more efficient than 9500GT.

So, this is reason than 9800GT is better than 9500GT (Gigabyte with 512MB both)

* * *

When I compare RAM (DDR3), card with 1024MB is only 10-20% more efficient than this same model with 512MB (but I think that it depends from game requirements and code's optimalization - SH5 bases on SH4 engine, so it will be small profit form 1MB card)

[Hylander_1314]

Originally Posted by WEBSTER

you guys forgot the most important hardware for those systems, remove the side window and install a small window a/c unit for all that heat you guys are making.

it must be like a small space heater running lol.

and monitors are putting out as much heat as pc's are nowadays

Tried that, the power pole transformer toasted from the added power requirement