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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

K

kamorra

Fuck Cancer
JoeBoy101 said:
Depending on what you want to do with it, you really need pretty much everything. Upgrade the memory first, but that will probably need a mobo upgrade, but then your CPU could use a kick in the add, and then a more modern graphics card as well. Work out a budget and go window shopping. If you use newegg, then just pay attention to the specs. CPUs will only take a certain socket type on the mobo, which then will dictate your memory type, and from there, you just need to choose video card.
Click to expand...

What I want is a way to replace my Xbox 360 with my PC. I would be happy with 720p and 60 frames. I don't need ultra high graphics.
I just bought another 2Gb of RAM. Is 4GB RAM really the maximum for a 32 bit system?

New stats
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
2x Kingston 1024 MBytes PC2-5300 (333 MHz)
1x Kingston 2GB PC2-5300
Realtek HD Audio
Windows XP (32 bit)

Is this enough for what I want? Please keep in mind that I'm really new to PC gaming and while I don't have a problem with exchanging videocards or RAM I'm a little scared to put a new CPU in.
 
2

2San

Member
So I'm building a (gaming) PC from 4launch.nl (since I'm dutch). With the following parts.


Asus P5P41T/USB3 iG41, SATA300, GLAN
Asus Videokaart PCI-e GeForce GTX460 1GB DirectCU TOP HDMI
Corsair 2x4GB, DDR3, PC12800, CL9, XMS3
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66GHz FSB1333 4MB Box

My question is the GTX460 uses a PSI-e2.0(x16) slot and the motherboard does have a PSI-e(x16) slot. Afaik they are compatible, but will it take a noteble dip in performance? Is it essential to have PSI-E2.0 slot on the motherboard and if so which do you recommend?

Feel free to criticize my choices as well. It's been a while since I've bothered with PC's.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
Hey guys, so I finally setup my parents computer but a few issues. Is it possible to delete the a driver already installed in Windows? It keeps recognizing their printer as a USB storage device instead of a printer whenever I plug it in. I cant seem to fix it. (Canon i900D)

And if you are using 2 monitors in clone mode, is it possible to have them at different resolutions? I only ask because the stupid Theater Mode in extended mode doesnt seem to be working. So much hassle..

edit: I was gonna put this in the techsupport thread, but since this gets more traffic and its the end of 2010, I figured why not :)
 
L

Lime

Member
kamorra said:
What I want is a way to replace my Xbox 360 with my PC. I would be happy with 720p and 60 frames. I don't need ultra high graphics.
I just bought another 2Gb of RAM. Is 4GB RAM really the maximum for a 32 bit system?

New stats
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
2x Kingston 1024 MBytes PC2-5300 (333 MHz)
1x Kingston 2GB PC2-5300
Realtek HD Audio
Windows XP (32 bit)

Is this enough for what I want? Please keep in mind that I'm really new to PC gaming and while I don't have a problem with exchanging videocards or RAM I'm a little scared to put a new CPU in.
Click to expand...

I would buy a new computer if I were you. CPU, RAM, GPU, OS should be replaced immediately.

But if you really have to hold on to that old rig of yours, all you need to upgrade is the GPU. The 8800 GTS is not a feasible solution to current PC games, imo. The CPU and RAM might carry you for a year or two at max.

2San said:
So I'm building a (gaming) PC from 4launch.nl (since I'm dutch). With the following parts.


Asus P5P41T/USB3 iG41, SATA300, GLAN
Asus Videokaart PCI-e GeForce GTX460 1GB DirectCU TOP HDMI
Corsair 2x4GB, DDR3, PC12800, CL9, XMS3
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66GHz FSB1333 4MB Box

My question is the GTX460 uses a PSI-e2.0(x16) slot and the motherboard does have a PSI-e(x16) slot. Afaik they are compatible, but will it take a noteble dip in performance? Is it essential to have PSI-E2.0 slot on the motherboard and if so which do you recommend?

Feel free to criticize my choices as well. It's been a while since I've bothered with PC's.
Click to expand...

Your RAM and GPU choices are excellent. Can't say the same thing for your motherboard and CPU. Those two components are too old to spend money on. Instead of pondering about PCI-Express 2.0 and 1.0 (I assume that's what you're talking about, because otherwise your post doesn't make sense), wait some months for Intel's new Sandy Bridge, which will dethrone their current CPUs (i3, i5, i7).
 
A

artist

Banned
2San said:
So I'm building a (gaming) PC from 4launch.nl (since I'm dutch). With the following parts.


Asus P5P41T/USB3 iG41, SATA300, GLAN
Asus Videokaart PCI-e GeForce GTX460 1GB DirectCU TOP HDMI
Corsair 2x4GB, DDR3, PC12800, CL9, XMS3
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66GHz FSB1333 4MB Box

My question is the GTX460 uses a PSI-e2.0(x16) slot and the motherboard does have a PSI-e(x16) slot. Afaik they are compatible, but will it take a noteble dip in performance? Is it essential to have PSI-E2.0 slot on the motherboard and if so which do you recommend?

Feel free to criticize my choices as well. It's been a while since I've bothered with PC's.
Click to expand...
Why are you buying a Core 2 now? Ditch that whole platform altogether and get on the Sandy Bridge goodness ..


Ashhong said:
Hey guys, so I finally setup my parents computer but a few issues. Is it possible to delete the a driver already installed in Windows? It keeps recognizing their printer as a USB storage device instead of a printer whenever I plug it in. I cant seem to fix it. (Canon i900D)
Click to expand...
Should be simple enough. Go to Device Manager, select the device (expand USB, it should be under there) and double click the printer, go to the Driver tab and click Uninstall.

Ashhong said:
And if you are using 2 monitors in clone mode, is it possible to have them at different resolutions? I only ask because the stupid Theater Mode in extended mode doesnt seem to be working. So much hassle..

edit: I was gonna put this in the techsupport thread, but since this gets more traffic and its the end of 2010, I figured why not :)
Click to expand...
Yes, I have this setup at work. Whats your videocard, drivers etc?
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
", wait some months for Intel's new Sandy Bridge, which will dethrone their current CPUs (i3, i5, i7)."


More like wait a week, isn't it? Launch on the 5th?
 
K

kamorra

Fuck Cancer
Lime said:
But if you really have to hold on to that old rig of yours, all you need to upgrade is the GPU. The 8800 GTS is not a feasible solution to current PC games, imo. The CPU and RAM might carry you for a year or two at max.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can't replace it. Which GPU would be my best choice?
 
L

Lime

Member
Teknopathetic said:
", wait some months for Intel's new Sandy Bridge, which will dethrone their current CPUs (i3, i5, i7)."


More like wait a week, isn't it? Launch on the 5th?
Click to expand...

Yes, more like a week, depending on where you live.

kamorra said:
Yeah, I can't replace it. Which GPU would be my best choice?
Click to expand...

I could imagine you will not be using that GPU for an eventual future rig, so you might as well go with something at a low price. A 5770 might do the trick, since you probably want something cheap, which does not have any untapped potential that is bottlenecked by your CPU. Otherwise, the 6870 and the 460 are great cards, but they will probably be limited by your CPU.
 
2

2San

Member
Lime said:
Your RAM and GPU choices are excellent. Can't say the same thing for your motherboard and CPU. Those two components are too old to spend money on. Instead of pondering about PCI-Express 2.0 and 1.0 (I assume that's what you're talking about, because otherwise your post doesn't make sense),
Click to expand...
Yeah talking about the difference of PCI-Express 1.0 and PCI-Express 2.
Lime said:
wait some months for Intel's new Sandy Bridge, which will dethrone their current CPUs (i3, i5, i7).
Click to expand...
irfan said:
Why are you buying a Core 2 now? Ditch that whole platform altogether and get on the Sandy Bridge goodness ..
Click to expand...
I'll do that then. Does anyone know how much the Netherlands lags behind with pc hardware(if at all)?

So If I would buy a Sandy Bridge compatible motherboard I won't have to care about the whole PCI-e1.0/2.0 thing?

Patiently w8ing then, which I wouldn't mind haven't been PC gaming for a while now anyway. A month or two wouldn't hurt.
 
K

kamorra

Fuck Cancer
Lime said:
I could imagine you will not be using that GPU for an eventual future rig, so you might as well go with something at a low price. A 5770 might do the trick, since you probably want something cheap, which does not have any untapped potential that is bottlenecked by your CPU. Otherwise, the 6870 and the 460 are great cards, but they will probably be limited by your CPU.
Click to expand...

hmm... I would pay the price for the 460. Let's say we ignore the fact that a 460 could have some untapped potential because of my CPU. Would it still be faster/better than a 5770?
I really just want 720p with a solid framerate.

edit
Although I said that I'm not sure if I could replace the CPU on my own. Is a CPU worth it or do I really have to buy a new motherboard + CPU?
 
L

Lime

Member
kamorra said:
hmm... I would pay the price for the 460. Let's say we ignore the fact that a 460 could have some untapped potential because of my CPU. Would it still be faster/better than a 5770?
I really just want 720p with a solid framerate.

edit
Although I said that I'm not sure if I could replace the CPU on my own. Is a CPU worth it or do I really have to buy a new motherboard + CPU?
Click to expand...

If you're willing to spend the money on a 460, go for it. It's definitely a very good card for the price and you'll be able to play at much higher resolutions than 1280x720 with it. Furthermore, you can definitely use it again whenever you decide to upgrade the rest of your computer. Be aware that Nvidia might do a refresh (560 version) some time next year, but you can always say 'wait' whenever buying hardware: there will always be something newer and better.

Regarding the CPU, it depends on what you consider to be important: money or performance. To me, it sounds like you'll be satisfied with a stable framerate and medium-high settings, so I don't think you want to spend more money on new hardware until you feel unsatisfied with the performance of your machine. You can always start out with buying the graphics card and then see whether or not you need to upgrade even further.

Installing CPU's to their sockets is *very* easy. It's almost fool-proof.
 
L

Lime

Member
2San said:
I'll do that then. Does anyone know how much the Netherlands lags behind with pc hardware(if at all)?

So If I would buy a Sandy Bridge compatible motherboard I won't have to care about the whole PCI-e1.0/2.0 thing?

Patiently w8ing then, which I wouldn't mind haven't been PC gaming for a while now anyway. A month or two wouldn't hurt.
Click to expand...

Netherlands is probably just like the rest of Europe. You'll get the hardware almost at the same time as the US (in most cases), if not, then a couple of days or a week or two.

Sandybridge is top of the line, so you shouldn't worry about PCIe standards. The 1.0/2.0 thing is a 3-years old question, and irrelevant now.

You won't have to wait more than a week to buy Sandybridge, as Teknopathic mentioned.
 
K

kamorra

Fuck Cancer
Lime said:
If you're willing to spend the money on a 460, go for it. It's definitely a very good card for the price and you'll be able to play at much higher resolutions than 1280x720 with it. Furthermore, you can definitely use it again whenever you decide to upgrade the rest of your computer. Be aware that Nvidia might do a refresh (560 version) some time next year, but you can always say 'wait' whenever buying hardware: there will always be something newer and better.

Regarding the CPU, it depends on what you consider to be important: money or performance. To me, it sounds like you'll be satisfied with a stable framerate and medium-high settings, so I don't think you want to spend more money on new hardware until you feel unsatisfied with the performance of your machine. You can always start out with buying the graphics card and then see whether or not you need to upgrade even further.

Installing CPU's to their sockets is *very* easy. It's almost fool-proof.
Click to expand...

Ok, thank you very much. You helped me a lot. :)
 
F

FromTheFuture

Member
Hey guys, I've run into some extra money and I've been thinking about upgrading my rig. I currently have:

Phenom II X3 @ 3.4 GHz
Radeon HD4870 512MB
4GB DDR2-1066 RAM

I was wondering if there is anything worth upgrading / what the bottleneck in my rig is / what I should upgrade to? Just for reference, my mobo is GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3, I wouldn't really mind upgrading all of it if there are some good deals or some new hardware I should really get. Actually I'm not too sure how my rig stacks up; it seems like new hardware is being released constantly.
 
F

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
A short question:
To Velociraptor or not Velociraptor

I want to replace my main HDD to something that at least can be considered modern. SSD is out of the question for price and reliability.
So it's gonna be a regular drive and the Raptor seems to be the king. But will I proit that much? What other good drives with good random acess times can you recommend? What would you consider the champion in price-value?
 
A

a.wd

Member
I know it's crap to ask like this and not do all the research but I am ill :lol . Anyway, I am looking for a simple £500 build that will get me Crysis 2 at really decent performance.

I will also be slinging in around 5TB of storage (seperate to the main build) but the main build should have one SSD and a TB storage drive.

UK based, is there an up to date £500 Crysis build?
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
"To Velociraptor or not Velociraptor"

I've actually been looking at this myself. I ended up looking at the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, which was a bit slower (one particular bench was like 115 MB/s read/write throughput compared to 130 for the Velociraptor), but it's currently 70$ on newegg and obviously has 1TB of space.


As an update to those I was talking to cases about, I decided to say fuck it and swing the extra cash for a Silverstone FT02.
 
I

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
I got a Spinpoint recently to replace a broken drive and I got this in HDTune

FkxM8.png
 
M

matmanx1

Member
Teknopathetic said:
"To Velociraptor or not Velociraptor"

I've actually been looking at this myself. I ended up looking at the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, which was a bit slower (one particular bench was like 115 MB/s read/write throughput compared to 130 for the Velociraptor), but it's currently 70$ on newegg and obviously has 1TB of space.


As an update to those I was talking to cases about, I decided to say fuck it and swing the extra cash for a Silverstone FT02.
Click to expand...

I'm jealous! Those Silverstone cases are awesome although sadly not in my budget at this time. I do have cash set aside for a new CPU, RAM, and Mobo using Sandy Bridge though!
 
O

Old Gimlet Eyes

Member
Teknopathetic said:
"To Velociraptor or not Velociraptor"

I've actually been looking at this myself. I ended up looking at the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, which was a bit slower (one particular bench was like 115 MB/s read/write throughput compared to 130 for the Velociraptor), but it's currently 70$ on newegg and obviously has 1TB of space.


As an update to those I was talking to cases about, I decided to say fuck it and swing the extra cash for a Silverstone FT02.
Click to expand...
You are not going to be disappointed. Everything about that case is awesome. Lots of space for everything you need, great cable management, lots of fans, quiet and looks good too. Should be a case that lasts you a long, long time.
 
K

kpeezy

Banned
I want to upgrade my GPU. What are my best options at various price points? I have a 512MB ATI 4870 and I'm not sure how much I want to spend.
 
G

gogojira

Member
Posted this in the new 2011 thread but figured I'd toss it in here, too.

I'll be building a PC in January and unlike the past two of I've built, no friends are around to help me pick and choose.

I'm looking to build a rather nice rig, something that'll last a while so I'm definitely looking to toss a chunk of money at this thing. $1500 or so should build a nice PC I'd assume, right?

Any recommendations on motherboards or how much ram I should get? The videocard is what I'm really wondering about, it seems like "next gen" is always right around the corner, is there something I should hold out for?

I hate coming off like a helpless bastard, but I'll be throwing a chunk of change at this thing so any help given on any parts would be excellent.
 
A

artist

Banned
Help me decide "case gurus"

Antec 600T - $99.99

CoolerMaster CM690-II Advanced - $79.99

I need to pull the trigger tomorrow.
 
W

Wallach

Member
irfan said:
Help me decide "case gurus"

Antec 600T - $99.99

CoolerMaster CM690-II Advanced - $79.99

I need to pull the trigger tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Get the Cooler Master.

Also, I think this thread should be locked as there is a new 2011 PC thread in progress.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
irfan said:
Why are you buying a Core 2 now? Ditch that whole platform altogether and get on the Sandy Bridge goodness ..



Should be simple enough. Go to Device Manager, select the device (expand USB, it should be under there) and double click the printer, go to the Driver tab and click Uninstall.


Yes, I have this setup at work. Whats your videocard, drivers etc?
Click to expand...

Wasnt that simple for the printer, but I eventually got it working.

I have an ATi 4650, newest drivers, on Windows 7 64bit. I will get the specific drivers if that will help.

1 monitor is a regular dell 1280x1024 LCD, and the other is a 720p Panasonic Plasma hooked up via HDMI. I looked around catalyst and couldnt find any option to change only the plasma resolution.

I need the monitor to be 1024x768 and the plasma to be 720p at 60hz
 
S

suffah

Does maths and stuff
I picked up a couple of games from the Steam sale ... The Witcher EE + Titan Quest Gold.

I don't have a video card, I'm running an i7 860 + 8GB of ram.

What video card should I grab for $200? Also, are there any fans/cooling solutions for the video card that are silent? I don't mind if the fans kick on during games, but I really want it to be silent the rest of the time.

Thanks all, love this thread.
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
irfan said:
Help me decide "case gurus"

Antec 600T - $99.99

CoolerMaster CM690-II Advanced - $79.99

I need to pull the trigger tomorrow.
Click to expand...

You mean Corsair 600T? The Corsair, easily.

The CM690 is a great case, but the Corsair is definitely better. It normally goes for $160, so $100 is a great deal.
 
M

Max

I am not Max
Hey PCGAF watch my video and tell me what the shit is wrong with my graphics and how I can fix it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QsPf1n9ZmA

Notice the skies looking all blotchy and muddy. I only notice this in games when its during a night time level or in the shade inside buildings, the problem has actually hindered me from enjoying Deus Ex.
 
A

artist

Banned
Wallach said:
Wait, is it actually a Corsair 600T? Where are you getting one for $100?
Click to expand...
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX30870(ME).aspx

Teknopathetic said:
"To Velociraptor or not Velociraptor"

I've actually been looking at this myself. I ended up looking at the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, which was a bit slower (one particular bench was like 115 MB/s read/write throughput compared to 130 for the Velociraptor), but it's currently 70$ on newegg and obviously has 1TB of space.


As an update to those I was talking to cases about, I decided to say fuck it and swing the extra cash for a Silverstone FT02.
Click to expand...
I just read up a bit and it seems like Momentus XT rips the Velociraptor a new one. Its almost as good as an SSD in most general tasks.
 
C

cartman414

Member
FoxSpirit said:
A short question:
To Velociraptor or not Velociraptor

I want to replace my main HDD to something that at least can be considered modern. SSD is out of the question for price and reliability.
So it's gonna be a regular drive and the Raptor seems to be the king. But will I proit that much? What other good drives with good random acess times can you recommend? What would you consider the champion in price-value?
Click to expand...

SSDs today are great in terms of reliability. Just go for a good 80-128 GB one for apps and OS.
 
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