Official Building/Upgrading thread

[Cman333]

Originally Posted by Hehe

You don't really feel all the much in gaming (more like none)

When you have a lot of memory, you could start experimenting stuff... like running a little server off your machine, Photo editing, model building (CAD)... etc.

And 16GB allows you to pretty much do all that simultaneously with no noticeable decrease in performance because moving all that data on HDD/SSD is slow... but memory have GB/s of transfer rate, so everything just flow better.

LOL thanks for the clear up. I almost went to buy more ram.

I only maybe have like a few browsers/tabs open at a time. I don't really notice a slow down.

Maybe will just upgrade later so down the road it's not a pain in the ass to find. I think buying the SSD would be more beneficial first. Decisions decisions.

[Canadian Rider]

not really sure where to ask this other then here but what are some good tech sites that'll give up to the minute(ish) news as to when the new and or updated laptops are released with ivy bridge?
already know of notebookcheck and notebookreview ... but those aren't really news sights.

[Lomac]

So I'm looking to upgrade my film editing rig. I'm currently running a Q6600 that's been OC'ed to 2.9. Have 4gb of ram (no idea what kind... lol). Video card is a Radeon HD 2600 Pro. The hard drives are 3x 2tb spinners of no real note.

I'm looking to spend up to roughly $1500, provided it will last me a long time. Ideally I'd like a SSD for the OS and a video card that can handle two monitors (though I think my current 2600 should theoretically be good for my future needs). Apart from that, I've been so long out of the computer building game that everytime I try to read up on what's new, my eyes glaze over and I lose interest. Any help would be nice.

[SkinnyPupp]

Core i7 3770K
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H
16 GB Kingston DDR3
Integrated video
OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
3TB WD Black (or keep your current HDDs)
Define R3 case
Corsair 500W PSU
Blu-Ray reader/DVD Burner

DONE. That will probably be under $1000

[freakshow]

Originally Posted by Canadian Rider

not really sure where to ask this other then here but what are some good tech sites that'll give up to the minute(ish) news as to when the new and or updated laptops are released with ivy bridge?
already know of notebookcheck and notebookreview ... but those aren't really news sights.

When I was tracking notebooks with an ivy bridge/GTX 660m combo, i just bookmarked the search 'ivy bridge 660m' on google news. worked out pretty well for me..

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by Canadian Rider

not really sure where to ask this other then here but what are some good tech sites that'll give up to the minute(ish) news as to when the new and or updated laptops are released with ivy bridge?
already know of notebookcheck and notebookreview ... but those aren't really news sights.

the verge
not a new site but overclock.net hardware news forum is pretty damn fast too

so the benches for GTX 690 are out
i guess this is what happens when you overclock a $1000 card running three 1920x1200 monitors


but still can't do 60fps crysis dx11 maxed out on three 1920x1080

[Canadian Rider]

cheers for all the info guys

But

Originally Posted by freakshow

I got it from xoticpc.

How was your experience with xotic? Did you get it shipped directly to your house? or P/U from the states?

I was just browsing their site again tonight and to my astonishment they have my fucking computer I've been waiting for! well at least available for preorder.

ASUS N56VZ-DS71 - XOTIC PC - Asus 15.6" Notebook

[asian_XL]

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp

Core i7 3770K
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H
16 GB Kingston DDR3
Integrated video
OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
3TB WD Black (or keep your current HDDs)
Define R3 case
Corsair 500W PSU
Blu-Ray reader/DVD Burner

DONE. That will probably be under $1000

If I go 3570K + the same ingredients + HD7850 or 660Ti, what kind of psu do I need?

[SkinnyPupp]

A system like that will probably use no more than 100-200W at load, so 500W is more than enough, just make sure to get something that is 80% efficient or more. It's better to get a high quality low wattage PSU than a low quality one with high wattage capacity you don't need.

[freakshow]

Originally Posted by Canadian Rider

How was your experience with xotic? Did you get it shipped directly to your house? or P/U from the states?

it's been good.. so far. They assign a support rep to you throughout the entire process so you have a specific person to email regarding updates.

i say its been good so far because there really hasn't been much communication. I ordered, they said it's delayed by Asus till mid may (which I knew already), so I'm still just painfully waiting around.

I'm getting it shipped to the states because there is no duty on notebooks, so i'll only need to pay tax (which i have to do in canada anyways)

[jmvdesign]

Originally Posted by Lomac

So I'm looking to upgrade my film editing rig. I'm currently running a Q6600 that's been OC'ed to 2.9. Have 4gb of ram (no idea what kind... lol). Video card is a Radeon HD 2600 Pro. The hard drives are 3x 2tb spinners of no real note.

I'm looking to spend up to roughly $1500, provided it will last me a long time. Ideally I'd like a SSD for the OS and a video card that can handle two monitors (though I think my current 2600 should theoretically be good for my future needs). Apart from that, I've been so long out of the computer building game that everytime I try to read up on what's new, my eyes glaze over and I lose interest. Any help would be nice.

Your specs might be the same as mine:

i7 920 @ 2.67Ghz CPU
Windows 7 Enterprise 64Bit
12GB Ram
Asus P6T
650W Corsair PSU
NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GTS
Samsung 500GB 7200RPM
Antec 900 Case
Dell 2410

But I just bought a 120GB Intel SSD for $140 and a EVGA GTX 580 3GB for $450 off ebay to upgrade my C: and vid card. Except I'll be handling multiple CAD software simultaneously when I'm rendering designs.

[Canadian Rider]

Originally Posted by freakshow

it's been good.. so far. They assign a support rep to you throughout the entire process so you have a specific person to email regarding updates.

i say its been good so far because there really hasn't been much communication. I ordered, they said it's delayed by Asus till mid may (which I knew already), so I'm still just painfully waiting around.

I'm getting it shipped to the states because there is no duty on notebooks, so i'll only need to pay tax (which i have to do in canada anyways)

cheers man

[tegz]

Yo guys, haven't built a PC in a while. Could any of you guys review my build?

Purpose: building a budget gaming rig for a friend of mine, she is going to be playing things like LoL, D3, SC2, and such. Also kind of want to future proof the rig so that it can play some games coming out in the next couple of years without too much lag.

Price comes out to $509

1) CPU: AMD X6 1045T - AMD Phenom II X6 1045T Six Core Processor AM3 2.7GHZ 6MB Cache 95W 45NM Retail Box - AMD - HDT45TWFGRBOX

2) MOBO: ASUS AM3 - ASUS M5A97 AMD970/SB950 ATX AM3+ DDR3 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 SATA3 USB3.0 Audio CrossFireX Motherboard - ASUS - M5A97

3) GPU: Radeon 6850 - Powercolor Radeon HD 6850 775MHZ 1GB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 2XDVI DisplayPort HDMI PCI-E Video Card - PowerColor - AX6850 1GBD5-DH

4) Case + PSU: Coolermaster Elite 350 (w/ 500W psu) - Coolermaster Elite 350 Black ATX Mid Tower Case 500W 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT - COOLERMASTER - RC-350-KKR500

5) RAM: Patriot G2 4gb - Patriot G2 Series Division 4GB 1X4GB PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 1.5V XMP Memory Module - Patriot - PG34G1600EL

6) HDD: WD blue 500GB - Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 16MB Cache 7200RPM 3.5IN SATA Internal Hard Drive OEM - Western Digital WD - WD5000AAKX

So yeah that totals to a pretty reasonable $509 before and $570 after taxes.

Am I forgetting anything or are there better/more significant deals to be had?

[twitchyzero]

Lomac and anyone else..get this before it runs out.

$200 for a reliable, well-reviewed 256GB SSD
best SSD deal i've seen thus far

Buy the Crucial m4 256GB 2.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s SSD at TigerDirect.ca

[SkinnyPupp]

Originally Posted by tegz

Yo guys, haven't built a PC in a while. Could any of you guys review my build?

Purpose: building a budget gaming rig for a friend of mine, she is going to be playing things like LoL, D3, SC2, and such. Also kind of want to future proof the rig so that it can play some games coming out in the next couple of years without too much lag.

Price comes out to $509

1) CPU: AMD X6 1045T - AMD Phenom II X6 1045T Six Core Processor AM3 2.7GHZ 6MB Cache 95W 45NM Retail Box - AMD - HDT45TWFGRBOX

2) MOBO: ASUS AM3 - ASUS M5A97 AMD970/SB950 ATX AM3+ DDR3 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 SATA3 USB3.0 Audio CrossFireX Motherboard - ASUS - M5A97

3) GPU: Radeon 6850 - Powercolor Radeon HD 6850 775MHZ 1GB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 2XDVI DisplayPort HDMI PCI-E Video Card - PowerColor - AX6850 1GBD5-DH

4) Case + PSU: Coolermaster Elite 350 (w/ 500W psu) - Coolermaster Elite 350 Black ATX Mid Tower Case 500W 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT - COOLERMASTER - RC-350-KKR500

5) RAM: Patriot G2 4gb - Patriot G2 Series Division 4GB 1X4GB PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 1.5V XMP Memory Module - Patriot - PG34G1600EL

6) HDD: WD blue 500GB - Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 16MB Cache 7200RPM 3.5IN SATA Internal Hard Drive OEM - Western Digital WD - WD5000AAKX

So yeah that totals to a pretty reasonable $509 before and $570 after taxes.

Am I forgetting anything or are there better/more significant deals to be had?

Do not get an AMD processor.

[tegz]

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp

Do not get an AMD processor.

The cpu/mobo is about $220 combined. I'm running a slighter (0.1 ghz) faster 1055T OC'd to 4.0 ghz on my current rig and it seems to be doing just fine, although I do miss my old 4.2 OC'd i7 920, the thing was about 2x in price back in the day.

What would be a good intel counterpart to my choice?

[SkinnyPupp]

Actually I thought that was an FX.. For $220 combined it should be decent once OC'd

[SkinnyPupp]

BTW if anyone in HK needs to buy performance DDR3 PM me

[asian_XL]

you can get us awesome deal? what type? will need a pair of good 1600 in mid June

[DC5-S]

Scored a 256GB crucial M4 ssd for $183 at ME

[twitchyzero]

if anyone cares, i posted another crucial m4 deal
US only for $99 shipped

[Comp] Newegg.COM Crucial M4 128GB SSD SATA III $99 Shipped - RedFlagDeals.com Forums

[SkinnyPupp]

Just reviewing the 256GB M4 right now... It may have a low write speed on paper, but when you take the compression hit into account, it's actually just about as fast as any Sandforce drive. Not quite there in terms of performance, but if you consider the potential reliability issues of Sandforce...

[Hondaracer]

i think i paid closer to like $189 for the 128gb M4 when i got mine like 5 months ago

[DC5-S]

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp

Just reviewing the 256GB M4 right now... It may have a low write speed on paper, but when you take the compression hit into account, it's actually just about as fast as any Sandforce drive. Not quite there in terms of performance, but if you consider the potential reliability issues of Sandforce...

Did you installed the latest firmware? It's suppose to increase speeds by a considerable amount

[Hondaracer]

that reminds me.. i still need to update my M4 due to that firmware problem.. uhg