Buying New Comp Parts...

Post by **odditude** » Sat May 09, 2009 5:30 am

Deathlike2 wrote:Hmmm.. the mobo suggested doesn't have Firewire (although, I don't have any Firewire products)..

Aren't there other mobos on the market that have a 2-BIOS protection, or do you think that's overrated?

Also, what do you think about the limited lifetime warrenties? Good, bad or meh?

FireWire can always be added later via a PCI or PCIe card, so if you don't currently have any FireWire hardware (or anything in the immediate pipeline) that shouldn't be a blocking issue for you.

DualBIOS is nice if you're doing risky things, like overclocking the royal shit out of your hardware. Outside of overclocking and the (extremely rare) BIOS flash gone bad, I've never seen a corrupt BIOS in the wild.

As for warranties... manufacturer's warranties are generally decent, although there are definitely bad experiences to be had. Third-party warranties are generally provided by insurance companies, who often will do everything they can to avoid spending money on you. Your luck with them depends on how decent a human being the person who gets your claim is.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat May 09, 2009 6:24 am

I should have something decided by Sunday...

Is there no AMD (CPU) or ATI (video card) recommendation this generation)? I should bother investigating AMD's side (I've done a bit more research on ATI's offerings this generation), so I'm ultimately on the fence for now...

Post by **odditude** » Sat May 09, 2009 7:26 am

Deathlike2 wrote:I should have something decided by Sunday...

Is there no AMD (CPU) or ATI (video card) recommendation this generation)? I should bother investigating AMD's side (I've done a bit more research on ATI's offerings this generation), so I'm ultimately on the fence for now...

AMD has no dual-core offering to match the E8400. The current Athlon X2s (Kuma core) are based off the original Phenom, not the much-improved Phenom II; they have performance (and pricing) more in line with the Pentium Dual-Core. The real competition against the E8000-series lies in the tri-core Phenom X3 700 series - where you run into the core count vs. clock speed battle (and in your case, a faster dual-core is the better choice).

Several of us have piped up with ATI recommendations, including the 4850 deal I mentioned on slickdeals. A 4870 or 4850X2 would be an excellent higher-end choice (the 4850X2 is a pair of 4850 GPUs on a single card, and it's one hell of a performer in its price range).

Personally, I'm going with ATI this generation, and my 4770 (ATI's 4830 replacement) is going to be arriving on Wednesday. (I'm running a budget 720p LCD, so it only needs to push 1360x768 - I don't need the same graphical muscle you do to run games with full bells and whistles. I could have gotten a 4850 for a little cheaper, but the lower power draw and heat output of the 4770 are very important for this build.)

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Sat May 09, 2009 7:54 am

the 4 series of ATI Radeon is nice.

I have a 4670

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat May 09, 2009 10:46 pm

I love the video card options.. the only actual concern is if that's gonna fit in my current case (I'd have to measure it though), and the only apparent theme for any of the hardware suggested is the length of the cards (occupying 2 slots is less of an issue since that's kinda expected with higher end video cards).

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Sat May 09, 2009 11:07 pm

AMD's lower end CPU options this gen aren't all that good unless you need more than 2 cores. In that case a Phenom II X3 will be better than a Core 2 Duo.

If you do, don't hesitate to get one.

I am unknowledgable about their motherboards, sadly. Read http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/ for motherboard reviews.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Sun May 10, 2009 2:55 pm

most current AMD cards are pretty small, not like the size of a nvidia GTX card.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sun May 10, 2009 5:38 pm

So far, I've come to the same the following options... for now.

PSU: TBD

RAM:
Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) CAS4 DDR2-800 (already linked by I.S.T)

Mobo:
Gigabyte
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128358
This mobo solves my case issue... with it having 2 PCI-E x16 slots

CPU (tossup):
Intel 3GHz Dual Core E8400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115037
Intel 3.16GHz Dual Core E8500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115036

Video Card (undecided):
Sapphire 1GB 4870 (I.S.T linked to that already)
eVGA 896MB GTX 260 Core 216 OC version
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130433
I'm comfortable with eVGA after buying a Geforce 6 6600 from them before... (plus the nicer warrenty)

I'll update this later...

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Sun May 10, 2009 5:43 pm

A less than 200 mhz difference isn't worth the price. I wouldn't buy the E8500.

I'm gonna google that video card.

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Sun May 10, 2009 5:54 pm

OK, seems like that card is roughly the same speed as the 4870, depending on which game you play.

My advice is to then rely on the drivers and whatnot. Will AMD's drivers interfere with the various things you do? Will nVidia's? I would look this up.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sun May 10, 2009 5:58 pm

I own both NVidia and ATI products (older system was running a ATI Radeon 9800 Pro).. each have their differences and quirks... so I really don't see a major issue as far as I'm concerned regarding the video card.

Oh yes, try the Edit button.

EDIT:
This overclocked XFX version looks better (it gets better overclocks by default).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150330

Gee, how many heat-plagued initially OC cards can there be?

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Sun May 10, 2009 6:23 pm

I double posted on purpose. >:(

Well, I'd google the card and see if its' temp problems are more than just stupid people posting on newegg. That can and has happened in the past, present and future. ;_;

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sun May 10, 2009 6:30 pm

I've found a slightly better deal on the ATI 4870...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814125256

Gigabyte brand, same price, plus rebate option and slightly better warrenty.

Post by **odditude** » Mon May 11, 2009 2:45 pm

Deathlike2 wrote:CPU (tossup):
Intel 3GHz Dual Core E8400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115037
Intel 3.16GHz Dual Core E8500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115036

To expand on I.S.T.'s opinion... Keep in mind that the E8500 commands a 13% price premium for a 5% (at best) performance improvement.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue May 12, 2009 12:08 am

You don't have to rain on my 3GHz.

Post by **odditude** » Tue May 12, 2009 12:35 am

Deathlike2 wrote:You don't have to rain on my 3GHz.

lol, i'm telling you to take the 3GHz and run with it... i'm just pissing on that .16 trying to hitch a ride

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue May 12, 2009 12:39 am

odditude wrote:stuff

I was looking for

I AM STEALING YOUR MEGAHURTZ

Post by **odditude** » Tue May 12, 2009 5:46 am

Deathlike2 wrote:
odditude wrote:stuff
I was looking for

I AM STEALING YOUR MEGAHURTZ

I AM ERROR

Post by **grinvader** » Tue May 12, 2009 7:54 pm

The correct wording is "h4x0r5 stoeling megahurtz from teh yu0r comput4r".

Post by **odditude** » Tue May 12, 2009 8:22 pm

grinvader wrote:The correct wording is "h4x0r5 stoeling megahurtz from teh yu0r comput4r".

h0 h0 h0... 3y3 w1ll bl0x0r5 j00r 3v1l h4x0r5 4nd k33p teh megahurtz saf3!
my brain hurts after typing that.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Wed May 13, 2009 3:16 am

Having ACTUALLY been threatened with MHz theft(and media player theft as well!), I can assure you that NEITHER of you is aware of the proper protocol.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Wed May 13, 2009 5:19 am

I'm having second thoughts while exploring through the AMD (CPU) options...

Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128387

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103471

Major plus being quad core and 3GHz
Only minuses being probably power usage..

I'm definately going to post the PSU I'm planning on selecting though...

Edit: My other concern is about memory.. if I have to use faster ones or not (it shouldn't impact me significantly cost-wise to get DDR2-1066)

Que · Post by **Que** » Wed May 13, 2009 6:02 am

Much better board. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131331

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Wed May 13, 2009 5:36 pm

I'm certainly not for ASUS this time (stated those reasons earlier in this thread).

dfreer · Post by **dfreer** » Wed May 13, 2009 7:41 pm

Deathlike2 wrote: Mobo:
Gigabyte
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128358
This mobo solves my case issue... with it having 2 PCI-E x16 slots

According to the Reviews (and tricky worded specs), there's only one PCIe x16 slot just FYI.