• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

"I need a New PC!" 2012 Thread. 22nm+28nm, Tri-Gate, and reading the OP. [Part 1]

Status
Not open for further replies.
Work got me a new computer and since I haven't kept up in ages, I'm wondering what I can expect out of this for gaming:

Intel i7-2600 @ 3.4GHz
8 GB RAM
Asus Radeon HD 6850 w/ 1GB RAM
 

Rufus

Member
Work got me a new computer and since I haven't kept up in ages, I'm wondering what I can expect out of this for gaming:

Intel i7-2600 @ 3.4GHz
8 GB RAM
Asus Radeon HD 6850 w/ 1GB RAM
Good things. The GPU is the weakest component, relatively. It's still a capable card though. What resolution do you play at?
 
Good things. The GPU is the weakest component, relatively. It's still a capable card though. What resolution do you play at?

By default I'm at 1920 x 1200 on a 24" monitor for native resolution, but I don't mind scaling down the resolution if the framerate is taking a hit.
 
Ok I have a problem that no one will probably be able to help me with but I'll ask anyway because it's annoying the hell out of me. I have my pc connected to my 7.1 receiver via HDMI. Everything seems fine except the audio. When I test my speaker configuration the sound comes out of the wrong speakers. I'm using the HDMI connection from my HD 7970. It's incredibly frustrating because I have no idea what to do and I can't seem to find any information.

If miraculously someone was able to help me I would greatly appreciate it.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Ok I have a problem that no one will probably be able to help me with but I'll ask anyway because it's annoying the hell out of me. I have my pc connected to my 7.1 receiver via HDMI. Everything seems fine except the audio. When I test my speaker configuration the sound comes out of the wrong speakers. I'm using the HDMI connection from my HD 7970. It's incredibly frustrating because I have no idea what to do and I can't seem to find any information.

If miraculously someone was able to help me I would greatly appreciate it.
Right click your volume icon in the bottom right of the screen, select playback devices.
Select AMD HDMI Output. Or whatever makes it work.
 
It's defaulting to the right playback device but when I test my speakers using the configure speakers option (right click the playback device->configure speakers) the sound doesn't come out of the speaker it is supposed to.

Now after some additional testing, sound actually comes out of all speakers no matter which speaker it's supposed to be sending the sound to, just at varying volumes.

It's likely something weird with the way my receiver is setup but none of my other devices have this problem. It's probably something specific with my setup.

Edit: I just unplugged my PS3 and plugged the PC into the HDMI port and its working properly. That at least gives me someplace to start and I believe that proves that the PC is fine but that input on the receiver is probably configured incorrectly.
 

DarkFlow

Banned
So I finally got my tax monies and ordered all my parts, should have them Tuesday. Thanks everyone in the thread for helping me find the best stuff for the best price. I stuck with Amazon mainly because I have Prime and no taxes. Without this, I'm sure I would have been overspending like crazy. Anyway on to what I got.

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower

Graphics: SAPPHIRE AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB

Mobo: ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM

CPU: Intel Core i3-2120

PSU: Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus Series 500W ATX12V V2.3 Power Supply

RAM: Kingston Technology HyperX 8 GB (2x4 GB Modules) 1600 MHz

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200 500 GB

Monitor: ASUS VH202T-P 20' Widescreen LCD

Grand Total: Around $700 for everything.

I'm pretty happy with it, should work well for me for awhile. I'll try and post some pics of the build when I get everything. Again, Thanks guys!
 

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
Ran into a weird issue: setup a pc, E6600, HD 4850, everything works. Works the way glaciers are moving :-\

I don't get it. What's a good program to quickly check parts for performance? Somewhere, somehow there is a huge bottleneck in that system. Any help welcome
 

sk3tch

Member
Are SSD's really worth it seriously?, even for someone like myself that leaves their machine on 24/7?, that being the case start-up times aren't really and issue and most actions within windows have been cached.

Anyone ungraded to an SSD that leaves their machine on 24/7 notice a marked improvement in windows?

I've replaced all of my HDDs with SSDs (except my work PCs, since they do not support SSD yet, grrr) - going all in with the Samsung 830 series (3x256,1x512). I think they're great. I can't go back. My gaming PC is SSD for OS/apps and an SSD for games. My MacBook Pro is two SSDs, one OS, one Virtual Machines/storage/games/etc.

It's super nice for games. But definitely a luxury and not a requirement. No bottlenecks...just smooooth.

However, it IS expensive. I would definitely do it for your main OS drive, especially considering prices for HDDs today. SSD prices are dropping constantly. Mine have already gone down $5-$10 in like a week. Don't forget to look at the performance difference between smaller drives (128GB and lower) and larger ones. Typically 180GB or higher drives perform considerably better than the smaller ones. Use that as a consideration when you're buying for your main OS SSD.
 

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
Everything is running slow as molasses, the install of W7/64 took forever and booting is 3 minutes on a vanilla install. Ugh.
 

sk3tch

Member
I'd talked myself into waiting till Ivy Bridge launched and doing it right with the i5 2500k replacement. This despite the fact the cheapo method I was considering was probably smarter (since I've stopped putting my computer to sleep due to mobo issues and the fact I severely doubt a 2012 build is going to flawlessly execute next gen console ports. It hasn't been the case the last two gens and if they go too many threads, it doesn't matter how superior Ivy Bridge is, it'll have issues with sloppy ports.)

You're going to replace your i5 2500k with an Ivy Bridge CPU? I don't think you're going to get much bang/buck there. Especially considering how difficult it is to get a good return on investment on components like processors/motherboard. If you're unhappy with your build, why not just replace what you don't like versus waiting all this time to get a "perfect" build? Make it perfect over time. That's what I did. My build started out as a $900 jobbie about a year ago. Now it has like $2k+ of components inside because I bought the right CPU (i5 2500k), mobo (MSI P67A-GD53), and case (CM 690 II Adv).

You're not going to gain much from a gaming perspective between Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, assuming you're OC'd and 4 cores on Sandy Bridge...
 

1-D_FTW

Member
You're going to replace your i5 2500k with an Ivy Bridge CPU? I don't think you're going to get much bang/buck there. Especially considering how difficult it is to get a good return on investment on components like processors/motherboard. If you're unhappy with your build, why not just replace what you don't like versus waiting all this time to get a "perfect" build? Make it perfect over time. That's what I did. My build started out as a $900 jobbie about a year ago. Now it has like $2k+ of components inside because I bought the right CPU (i5 2500k), mobo (MSI P67A-GD53), and case (CM 690 II Adv).

You're not going to gain much from a gaming perspective between Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, assuming you're OC'd and 4 cores on Sandy Bridge...

No. I have a Q9400 with a motherboard that's going to choke out fairly soon. But I could sell the Q9400 for about 150 on ebay right now. So I could do a cheapo upgrade with the 2120 if I don't feel like putting much into the system (cheap mobo and 40 bucks for 8GB RAM).

Or I can wait till Ivy Bridge hits if I want to do it properly with a quad core CPU(which obviously is the more expensive route because then I need aftermarket cooler and quality mobo since I'd want the ability to overclock.)

EDIT: Your were confused by my wording. I was too lazy to find out what the Ivy Bridge equivalent was numbered, so I just said i5 2500k replacement (as in that price range/performance equivalent.) Sorry.
 

DarkFlow

Banned
No. I have a Q9400 with a motherboard that's going to choke out fairly soon. But I could sell the Q9400 for about 150 on ebay right now. So I could do a cheapo upgrade with the 2120 if I don't feel like putting much into the system (cheap mobo and 40 bucks for 8GB RAM).

Or I can wait till Ivy Bridge hits if I want to do it properly with a quad core CPU(which obviously is the more expensive route because then I need aftermarket cooler and quality mobo since I'd want the ability to overclock.)

EDIT: Your were confused by my wording. I was too lazy to find out what the Ivy Bridge equivalent was numbered, so I just said i5 2500k replacement (as in that price range/performance equivalent.) Sorry.
Buy a good mobo, and get a i3. You can just slap a IB in later because they use the same socket. Might be your best bet for now.
 
After months of accumulating components I'm finally ready to assemble my new PC. I have everything but a GPU (the part I originally set out to replace, of course) because I'll be reusing my GTS 250 while I wait for Kepler. Here's what I'll be building:

Case: Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W
Motherboard: ASRock P67 Extreme 4 GEN3
CPU: Intel i7 2600k
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Low Voltage 8GB 1600
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast TX850 850W V2
Storage: 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive (from current PC, will upgrade to 2TB RAID1 eventually)
SSD: Intel 320 Series 120 GB SSD
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DG
Optical Drive: Lite-On LightScribe 24X DVD+/-RW

I'll be building it tonight. I watched the Tested.com Jeff Gerstmann video in the OP to get myself acquainted with the process, and I'll have some other walkthroughs open while I do it, along with PCitYourself.

Does anyone have any other helpful links/advice for a slightly nervous first timer?

Should I be able to connect the front audio ports on my case to the Xonar DG? My M-Audio AV 40s have a headphone jack so I'm assuming I'll be able to get the Xonar DG audio via both the speakers and the headphone jack on the speakers, but I'm just curious.

Also, is there anything I should be careful of regarding the SSD? I saved a link to SSD Tweaker but I'm not sure if I'll need it. I also have this Steam library manager bookmarked because I want to install some games on my SSD and others on a different hard drive.
 

theRizzle

Member
After months of accumulating components I'm finally ready to assemble my new PC. I have everything but a GPU (the part I originally set out to replace, of course) because I'll be reusing my GTS 250 while I wait for Kepler. Here's what I'll be building:

Case: Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W
Motherboard: ASRock P67 Extreme 4 GEN3
CPU: Intel i7 2600k
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Low Voltage 8GB 1600
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast TX850 850W V2
Storage: 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive (from current PC, will upgrade to 2TB RAID1 eventually)
SSD: Intel 320 Series 120 GB SSD
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DG
Optical Drive: Lite-On LightScribe 24X DVD+/-RW

I'll be building it tonight. I watched the Tested.com Jeff Gerstmann video in the OP to get myself acquainted with the process, and I'll have some other walkthroughs open while I do it, along with PCitYourself.

Does anyone have any other helpful links/advice for a slightly nervous first timer?

Should I be able to connect the front audio ports on my case to the Xonar DG? My M-Audio AV 40s have a headphone jack so I'm assuming I'll be able to get the Xonar DG audio via both the speakers and the headphone jack on the speakers, but I'm just curious.

Also, is there anything I should be careful of regarding the SSD? I saved a link to SSD Tweaker but I'm not sure if I'll need it. I also have this Steam library manager bookmarked because I want to install some games on my SSD and others on a different hard drive.

You might want to pick up a different SSD, because that one is only SATA 2 and you have a SATA 3 capable motherboard there. You may not find a huge difference, but you'd be better off getting the "current" thing instead of the thing that's already replaced.

I'd suggest either Samsung 830 or Crucial M4

Also, unless you are doing stuff like video encoding on the regular, the i5-2500k is much more worth your money than the i7-2600k.
 

border

Member
The PSU in my HTPC has died. The repair shop has offered to replace and install it for $140. That's way too much, right?

I'm probably just going to take the box to CompUSA, since IIRC they will install any component you buy for free. What are some decent brands I should look for? I checked the OP, but the brands listed there don't seem to be carried in CompUSA retail locations. I probably don't need anything above 400W....once I get a new videocard for my main PC this one will get my old Radeon 5670.
 

FourDoor

Member
I took some quick pics right after I finished wiring up my build in the NZXT Phantom :D

I’ll take some more pics with the panels installed (hopefully after I’m able to do a little carbon fiber wrapping and painting). :D

Let me know what you think. I think I did ok for my first build on a modern system since my last build was a 486DX with a match co-processor! LOL tongue.gif


Phantom (04) by Roque Images, on Flickr


Phantom (05) by Roque Images, on Flickr


Phantom (02) by Roque Images, on Flickr


Phantom (10) by Roque Images, on Flickr


Phantom (13) by Roque Images, on Flickr


Phantom (15) by Roque Images, on Flickr

The rest can be found here:
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyNjWnz

Now I just need to learn oh to OC and wait for the NVidia Kepler cards to be released!!!

Thanks again PCGaf for helping me pick out the parts and the great OP!
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
Since I first built my current rig in early December, I've been using the Asus DRW-24B1ST from the op. Maybe mine's defective, but it's the loudest optical drive I've ever owned. Every time I would turn on my pc, I'd hear a loud BEEP-BOP, hiss, hissssssss. Well, today after about 3 months of hearing it, I went to my local frys and bought a Samsung dvd burner that was used in one of their demo machines. After getting home and installing it, I boot up the pc and any boot noise is almost non-existent. When writing/reading it makes the typical sounds (which I'm fine with), but almost no noise upon booting :). It's also slightly faster than the old one as well. This week after doing this swap and then replacing/slowing down some fans, my rig is significantly quieter than before. :)

Also, while I was at frys today I saw a Cosmos II for the first time in real life. The build quality was excellent and it looked gorgeous, but the only thing I didn't like was the size. I was actually a little taller than the 800D right next to it lol. It would be nice if they release a smaller & less expensive "mini" version. *drool*

@FourDoor: Very nice wiring and color matching. Are you running on the integrated graphics for now?
 

Sethos

Banned
You should censor some of that stuff FourDoor, kids might be watching :p

Pure hardware porn right there, excellent stuff man.

Mine looks a mess compared to that

 

theRizzle

Member
FourDoor, that is NICE.

I am also looking to get a white case, and I was originally going to get the Level 10 GT Snow Edition, but you have me considering the Phantom now.
 

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
How are your temps? Is the HDD new? Might wanna double check your HDD cables.
It's not the HDD which works fine, alas cables are either properly plugged in or it won't work at all.

I am betting something weird with either CPU or RAM, will have to try and check, got the trial version of Sandra now. Other tips are welcome.
 

FourDoor

Member
Thanks everyone! It was fun geeking out the last couple of weeks finding sales on the parts and researching them. Then my hate of tangled wires got the better of me and I had to make sure the wires were cleaned up during the install so I only needed to do it once. LOL

@celcius, yup! I'm running the integrated graphics now (which is why I primarily went with the Pro board vs the Deluxe board) and using both the HDMI and DVI outputs to push 2 24" Dell monitors.

@Isaccard. If I remember correctly, I'm at about $1,500 in towards my original $2k budget. I ended up splurging on the M4 and the AX1200...

@theRizzle: Do it! The white just makes the components pop so much more inside the case! I actually have black panels also that I plan on doing some external esthetic mods to (or just make the Phantom look like it's a black one on the outside) but I'm really happy with how the white came out overall!
 
You might want to pick up a different SSD, because that one is only SATA 2 and you have a SATA 3 capable motherboard there. You may not find a huge difference, but you'd be better off getting the "current" thing instead of the thing that's already replaced.

I'd suggest either Samsung 830 or Crucial M4

Also, unless you are doing stuff like video encoding on the regular, the i5-2500k is much more worth your money than the i7-2600k.
I will be doing a lot of video work which is why I chose the 2600k, but I didn't realize the SATA II/III difference when I bought that SSD. It's too late for me to return it, but from what I'm reading it doesn't sound like I'll be losing out on much speed. I'll be sure to go SATA III if I get a 2nd SSD though.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
@celcius, yup! I'm running the integrated graphics now (which is why I primarily went with the Pro board vs the Deluxe board) and using both the HDMI and DVI outputs to push 2 24" Dell monitors.

@Isaccard. If I remember correctly, I'm at about $1,500 in towards my original $2k budget. I ended up splurging on the M4 and the AX1200...
AX1200 is so ridiculously overkill unless you get a quad GPU setup.

Waiting for black and blue Kepler cards or what now?
 
I will be doing a lot of video work which is why I chose the 2600k, but I didn't realize the SATA II/III difference when I bought that SSD. It's too late for me to return it, but from what I'm reading it doesn't sound like I'll be losing out on much speed. I'll be sure to go SATA III if I get a 2nd SSD though.

You might also want to read up on other specs, such as NAND type (synchronous is preferable to asynchronous), as well as benchmarks. IIRC it's the random 4k reads that count for OS.

Work got me a new computer and since I haven't kept up in ages, I'm wondering what I can expect out of this for gaming:

Intel i7-2600 @ 3.4GHz
8 GB RAM
Asus Radeon HD 6850 w/ 1GB RAM

For gaming? Just go with the 2500k (or 2550k if you don't need the iGPU for QuickSync). You'll save $100 and get easy overclocking to boot. You won't be missing out on no Hyperthreading unless you're into video encoding.

Or just wait a couple months (hopefully the delay rumors are false) for Ivy Bridge, for the native USB 3.0, and on some boards, Thunderbolt.

BTW, what do you guys think of transactional memory, which Intel is supporting with Haswell? Could mean nothing but good things if it helps with multithreaded programming.
 

FourDoor

Member
AX1200 is so ridiculously overkill unless you get a quad GPU setup.

Waiting for black and blue Kepler cards or what now?

:D

I told myself that I was leaving it open to the possibility of running dual 680's in the future but in reality, it was because the AX1200 went on sale at $230 while it was in my cart and it ended up being more of an impulse buy... ;)
 
It's 2012 and I just bought a PCI video card. I had an Atom 330 mini-ITX PC just sitting around not being used so I bought a GT 520 in the hopes of turning it into an acceptable HTPC.
So, they cancelled the order and put the item on backorder. The card was a ZOTAC ZT-50610-10L which is still showing as in stock on Newegg.ca for some reason. Anyone have any suggestions for another cheap PCI card I could throw in this thing? Or ideas for something else I can put this computer to use as that isn't a NAS/file server?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
I'm almost inclined to disagree since my 2x GTX 570 may have killed my AX850. :( (though maybe it just died due to bad luck)

Damn FourDoor, that is an immaculate job. Good shit.
Doubt it. My 880MHz 6950's and OC'd 2500K draws <500W artificial load iirc.
Your system should easily be under 700W load and the AX850 can be overloaded
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
How much are sli bridges worth? I've still got the sli, tri-sli, and crossfire bridges from my old rampage iii extreme just sitting in my closet with a bunch of other accessories...
 
I just picked up a Core™ i5-2500K and Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 motherboard together for $270 for my new PC (Memory Express http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_2500K_Z68AD3H).

My old one is getting up to 8 years old with minor upgrades so I thought I was due. I was looking for a decent bargain and probably wouldn't have picked up any higher end stuff. But.. will I regret my decision in one or two months when Ivy Bridge comes out?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
I just picked up a Core™ i5-2500K and Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 motherboard together for $270 for my new PC (Memory Express http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_2500K_Z68AD3H).

My old one is getting up to 8 years old with minor upgrades so I thought I was due. I was looking for a decent bargain and probably wouldn't have picked up any higher end stuff. But.. will I regret my decision in one or two months when Ivy Bridge comes out?
Looking at a 10-15% speed increase per clock so probably not.

Depends how much you value slightly lower power consumption and if tri-gate is some incredible thing for overclocking.
 

Mr. Robot

Member
So I finally got my tax monies and ordered all my parts, should have them Tuesday. Thanks everyone in the thread for helping me find the best stuff for the best price. I stuck with Amazon mainly because I have Prime and no taxes. Without this, I'm sure I would have been overspending like crazy. Anyway on to what I got.

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower

Graphics: SAPPHIRE AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB

Mobo: ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM

CPU: Intel Core i3-2120

PSU: Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus Series 500W ATX12V V2.3 Power Supply

RAM: Kingston Technology HyperX 8 GB (2x4 GB Modules) 1600 MHz

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200 500 GB

Monitor: ASUS VH202T-P 20' Widescreen LCD

Grand Total: Around $700 for everything.

I'm pretty happy with it, should work well for me for awhile. I'll try and post some pics of the build when I get everything. Again, Thanks guys!

I built pretty much the same setup a month ago, i was going to get an i5 2500k, but then i would have had to spend on a better motherboard and a heatsink, so i went for the budget build, and i must say that i'm really satisfied since it runs everything i throw at it at high settings, but im not on a 1080p monitor/tv though...

The total came about $500 without a monitor, but i was hunting bargains on newegg and other sites.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Digitimes isn't rubbish right? I forget these things.

AMD to launch Radeon HD 7800 series GPUs in March; Nvidia to launch Kepler in April
Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Thursday 16 February 2012]

AMD is set to launch performance-level Radeon HD 7870 and 7850 GPUs in the first half of March, while Nvidia is set to launch 28nm Kepler in April, according to sources from graphics card makers.

Although AMD is also set to launch its highest-end Radeon HD 7990 (New Zealand), there is still no firm launch schedule.

Nvidia is expected to have at least eight models of graphics cards in April including GTX690, GTX660 and GTX640 with GK110, GK104 and GK106 cores.

Since Intel will not introduce Ivy Bridge until after April, when PC replacement may start, Nvidia's trailing behind will not affect the company much and the two players should see their 28nm competition at the fiercest in April.

Couple days ago people were asking about what motherboards will support Ivy Bridge. Anyway the asus board in the budget build, the h61 does support it.
http://event.asus.com/2011/mb/PCIe3_Ready/
Might be helpful for some.
So basically everything. Supporting Ivy should be standard for most as I would think.
 

1-D_FTW

Member
So basically everything. Supporting Ivy should be standard for most as I would think.

I wasn't really worried about that. My current motherboard had support for the next die process, but not out of the box. It needed a BIOS flash past a certain point build. I was worried about getting a motherboard that had an old BIOS and needed a Sandy Bridge seated in order to flash it to an Ivy Bridge compatible BIOS.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom