[Shun Izaki]

Looking at a new build...

haven't built a PC since the athlon 2600+, and radeon 9700pro days, so i'm a bit out of it when it comes to new stuff

Theory:
When it comes down to it, I like slightly higher than mid-high end PC's, so that they're futureproof for at least a couple years, my athlon 2600+ (333, barton core) + 9700 pro duo has lasted me a whopping 6 years before I start to feel some strain now by todays apps etc... Plus the mid-high market is cheap enough from the massive price drop from flagship products, but still decent in comparison

Requirements:
I don't game VERY much, but was thinking about getting into WoW/Whatevernewgame with a couple of buddies who already play, and none of my current PC's could possibly do it. I am an FPS asshole, so when it comes to games, I don't need max AA (i don't even use AA honestly), but no lag would be pretty nice

I also don't do a huge number of cpu/gpu intensive apps, but with new-gen OS's, and the newer apps and all, they just tend to require more than what I have at moments time. But more processing power is always welcome...

I don't need a giant hdd, because I have a 2TB enclosure, 800GB in my desktop, and 100GB on my laptop at my disposal already

As for RAM, same as CPU, the more the better, so was thinking of whatever 6GB of 2gbx2gbx2gb i could throwin there, as DDR3 is triple channel anyways

Mobo, don't really plan on OC or anything, maybe in the future, but for now, something that's stable, and doesn't fuck up everyday works well

The rest of it is asthetics anyways, like a case (i've already picked), but suggestions are welcome

Budget:
I'm looking at a for sure $1000+tax, but willing to go up to $1300+tax or so as an absolute max. I know stuff is cheaper these days with the influx of gamers on the market, i mean, my athlon system cost me $3300 back in the day!

Possible Build:

- CPU: Corei7 920 (a bit pricey, but horendously powerful on the charts)
- GPU: ATi RadeonHD 5770 (at $200, it's a super nice card with DX11, and 3 simultaneous outputs, inc HDMI for my TV as well)
- Mobo: ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution (supposedly one of the more high end boards, that, and there's not too much selection on NCIX, need suggestions on this one, as it's the most procey part of my build)
- RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600 3X2GB (a solid 6GB is well over enough for future proofing)
- PSU: Antec Truepower New 750W (always have used antec, never had a problem, hence the truepower, which is also quite cheap too)
- HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB (these drives are cheap as well, and it definitely needs something, was planning SSD, but not worth it still)
- Case: Antec Nine Hundred (if you've ever played with this case, you'll love it's airflow, 2x120mm up front, and a giant monstrous 270mm up top)

Price:
The bad part comes in here, the total comes out to more than my max budget, and i'm pretty screwed when it comes down to it. I'm wanting to sacrifice the mobo, as you can see below, it's stupid expensive, and I just don't need it for the OC options, I just want stability.

Keep in mind, these are REGULAR pricing from NCIX, and i might not even be ordering from them, might get off a diff supplier of mine.

CPU: $341.17
GPU: $194.99
Mobo: $383.64
RAM: $163.49
PSU: $130.76
HDD: $109.25
Case: $116.16
Assembly of PC/Testing: $50

Sub-Total: $1489.46
Total: $1668.20

All in all, i've been looking at this for sometime now... and I think it's the right time with all these monstrous parts coming out, so everything got slightly cheaper... I know I could go C2D (core2Duo) right now, but in future-proofing interests, I don't know if i want to or not... or if it's worth the $$ dfference.

TIA for any valid suggestions!

*EDIT* okay, here's rev2 from a-power

Corei7 860 $325.99
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 $296.96
eVGA P55 FTW $251.99
OCZ Gold DDR3-16000 2X2GB $103.13
Antec Truepower New 750W $135.43
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB $89.99
Antec Nine Hundred 2 $128.96
LG GH22NS50 DVD Writer $27.99
Assembly + Test by A-Power $50
Sub-Total $1,410.44
Tax @ 12% $169.25
Total $1,579.69

and even cheaper rev3 from a-power as well

Corei7 860 $325.99
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 $179.99
eVGA P55 FTW $251.99
OCZ Gold DDR3-16000 2X2GB $103.13
Antec Truepower New 750W $135.43
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB $89.99
Antec Nine Hundred $106.79
Assembly + Test by A-Power $50
Sub-Total $1,243.31
Tax @ 12% $149.20
Total $1,392.51

[SkinnyPupp]

Get a Core i7 8xx and a P55 motherboard.

Either that or go Phenom II X4.

Not Core 2 Quad or Core 2 Duo.

[Shun Izaki]

Get a Core i7 8xx and a P55 motherboard.

Either that or go Phenom II X4.

Not Core 2 Quad or Core 2 Duo.

like a corei7 860 + P55 = DDR2 only? Last time I went with DDR1 as DDR2 was coming out... and I got shafted cuz DDR1 prices went up through the roof, and it was slow as shit...

how do Phenom II X4's compare to the crazy power that is i7's? according to this chart (hahahah)

it does poorly http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html though the 940 black edition sounds tempting... stupid ncix builder thing doesn't have options... i'll have to go through another build

[.Renn.Sport]

Phenom II x2 545 or 550 is better :p

i7 860 + P55 is what i would recommended too. you are not gonna feel the difference between dual channel and triple channel ram

[SkinnyPupp]

like a corei7 860 + P55 = DDR2 only? Last time I went with DDR1 as DDR2 was coming out... and I got shafted cuz DDR1 prices went up through the roof, and it was slow as shit...

how do Phenom II X4's compare to the crazy power that is i7's? according to this chart (hahahah)

it does poorly http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html though the 940 black edition sounds tempting... stupid ncix builder thing doesn't have options... i'll have to go through another build
It's still DDR3 - but it runs dual channel rather than triple channel. However, it supports faster memory anyway, so bandwidth ends up being roughly the same.

Going 8xx is cheaper, and leaves you more upgrade options in your price range later on.

Read this review of Core i7 (http://www.hardcoreware.net/intel-core-i7-core-i5-lynnfield/) to see how they compare to Athlon II.

[Shun Izaki]

I just ran a similar setup, replacing only

CPU: Phenom II X4 955 black edition
Mobo: ASUS M4A79T Deluxe

*EDIT*just saw your reply, about dual channel instead of triple

the sub-total was $1,074.75 and the total was $1,203.72

now that's much more livable... but i wonder if it'll work just as nicely, and same with the compatibility...

[Shun Izaki]

after reading that article, it seems the i7 8xx is the way to go...

let me price out this 860 + P55

[.Renn.Sport]

i7-860 - 325
evga P55 FTW - 251
OCZ DDR3 1600 2x2GB - 100
5850 - 300
enermax 500w - 100
HDD: $109
Case: $116
DIY install? u have so much time on your hands LOL

1301 + tax

i'm sure its faster then your setup :P

[Shun Izaki]

i7-860 - 325
evga P55 FTW - 251
OCZ DDR3 1600 2x2GB - 100
5850 - 300
enermax 500w - 100
HDD: $109
Case: $116
DIY install? u have so much time on your hands LOL

1301 + tax

i'm sure its faster then your setup :P

my setup is retarded atm... i want new setup!!!

shit... 1301 + tax... it's JUST megerly within my budget hahaha

this is really acceptable, but i did make a few changes to your list

Corei7 860
Radeon HD 5770
eVGA P55 FTW (i lol'd wen i saw the name)
OCZ Gold DDR3-1600 2X2GB
Antec Truepower New 750W (i happen to plug a lot of shit into my comp, either USB etc...)
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Antec 900
Assembly+testing

Wow, building this at NCIX is $1376.13 + applicable taxes...

[SkinnyPupp]

You don't need a $250 motherboard. Get something like a Gigabyte for $150

And just get a 5770 for $170

And save money on ram, get a 1333 kit for $75

That brings you down to just over $1000

[Shun Izaki]

You don't need a $250 motherboard. Get something like a Gigabyte for $150

And just get a 5770 for $170

And save money on ram, get a 1333 kit for $75

Thing is, I have an affinity to ASUS after building so many PC's.... gigabyte just strikes me as a brand problem lol

I'm def going for the 5770

but the ram... i mean $89.99 for the OCZ gold is cheap... and it's a 1600 kit

[SkinnyPupp]

Then get a ASUS P7P55D LE for $150 if you prefer that brand.

[Shun Izaki]

Then get a ASUS P7P55D LE for $150 if you prefer that brand.

I saw that board, the the lack of front-usb is quite retarded... considering that I want to make full use of my antec 900 :P

Since i'm leaving room for future proofing, i can't cheap out that bad on the mobo, plus the eVGA ftw has roots from epox no? I trust them too

*EDIT* juss saw the pro @ $188... not a bad board at all/nevermind i'm an idiot, i was reading the specs for the non LE... now that becomes even better @ 150

[.Renn.Sport]

well, P55 FTW is guarantee to oc that 860 to 3.8ghz or 4ghz with a nice heatsink ;)
the DFI P55 board is really good too apparently


gigabyte boards are awesome nowadays... nth to worry about

[Shun Izaki]

well, P55 FTW is guarantee to oc that 860 to 3.8ghz or 4ghz with a nice heatsink ;)
the DFI P55 board is really good too apparently


gigabyte boards are awesome nowadays... nth to worry about

i rmb buying a gigabyte dual-bios board, and it fucking destroying itself, my cpu, and killing my ram all in one go... worse day of my life... but it does sound really nice too

hmm... I guess OC sounds nice... but i need a new heatsink/fan then eh?

*EDIT* update with new price quotes @ top

[John]

If you aren't going to OC then the stock fan is OK. There are a lot of HSF out there for $25 so they aren't expensive. I would probably get one anyways. The only downside to them is their size could make it difficult to access the 12v connector and RAM, and you may want/need to remove the MB when you want to swap them. This is same for a stock fan as well, since I can't see the white prongs on the stock HSF during insertion.

I am now a Gigabyte fan. Sticking to Asus is old school. Things have changed with time. The last few Gigabyte MB I have used have had less bugs than Asus.

[Shun Izaki]

If you aren't going to OC then the stock fan is OK. There are a lot of HSF out there for $25 so they aren't expensive. I would probably get one anyways. The only downside to them is their size could make it difficult to access the 12v connector and RAM, and you may want/need to remove the MB when you want to swap them. This is same for a stock fan as well, since I can't see the white prongs on the stock HSF during insertion.

I am now a Gigabyte fan. Sticking to Asus is old school. Things have changed with time. The last few Gigabyte MB I have used have had less bugs than Asus.

hmm, another gigabyte fan... they were soooo crappy back in the day, maybe it's pulling a honda hahahaha

I guess my ult plan is to go stock right off the bat without any OC, and then futureproof later i suppose, so the fan can wait.

[Jmac]

I usually build 1-2 computers/month (for about the last 6 years) and use Gigabyte boards in 2/3 of them and have had very few issues. I've had 1 die after about 5 years (purchased in 2003, died last year), 1 came w/ a loose heatsink, 1 came w/ a capacitor that had fallen off (Sent it back to Newegg, new one was fine), and 1 DOA. 4 boards having issues out of approximately 70 over a 6-year time frame isn't bad (about 5%).

Asus usually goes in about 30% of my builds and the other 3% is miscellaneous (MSI, Foxconn, etc. that I don't recommend, but people insist on) and I've had at least 3 Asus boards that have had issues (2 died, though 1 was a bad BIOS flash by my friend, 1 was DOA). About 6% failure if you don't count my friend's screw-up.

If Gigabyte's boards are getting poor reviews for my application, I'll go w/ Asus (assuming they're getting better reviews). If they're both getting poor reviews, I'll look at different chipset.

[kchan]

I usually build 1-2 computers/month (for about the last 6 years) and use Gigabyte boards in 2/3 of them and have had very few issues. I've had 1 die after about 5 years (purchased in 2003, died last year), 1 came w/ a loose heatsink, 1 came w/ a capacitor that had fallen off (Sent it back to Newegg, new one was fine), and 1 DOA. 4 boards having issues out of approximately 70 over a 6-year time frame isn't bad (about 5%).

Asus usually goes in about 30% of my builds and the other 3% is miscellaneous (MSI, Foxconn, etc. that I don't recommend, but people insist on) and I've had at least 3 Asus boards that have had issues (2 died, though 1 was a bad BIOS flash by my friend, 1 was DOA). About 6% failure if you don't count my friend's screw-up.

If Gigabyte's boards are getting poor reviews for my application, I'll go w/ Asus (assuming they're getting better reviews). If they're both getting poor reviews, I'll look at different chipset.

i use to go with asus for my builds too, but i made the switch to gigabyte.. and i think they are a lot better than asus

[Shun Izaki]

i use to go with asus for my builds too, but i made the switch to gigabyte.. and i think they are a lot better than asus

I hope everyone knows where i'm coming from. It's like touching the genesis, everyone says it's awesome... but who knows... ahhahaha

I'll be making my decision within the week, more suggestions on builds?>

[tgill]

I've used DFI and ASUS boards up until my p35 asus died last year. Gigabyte now a days has a much better rep.

seagate 1tb :(- again another used forever situation with seagate, but swap that 1tb .12 series for a western digital BLACK 1tb (not blue or green) it should be nearly the same price or less. 2 reasons the black is nearly as fast as the velociraptor (fastest consumer mechanical drive) and faster than that 12 series barracuda, plus a few years ago seagate switched to 3 year warranties and wd is now 5 years not to mention lately seagate firmware has been flaky

sapphire cards :cry: - one more suggestion avoid sapphire, get xfx if you can. XFX recently switched over to ATI from nvidia and well their warranty and support is 10x better than sapphire or any ati partner.

750w truepower :thumbsup: - normally I'd recommend the PC Power&Cooling silencer 750w over anything antec has been making lately, but that 750w truepower is way better than antecs usual stuff its a solid psu.

edit: can't believe you still game on a athlon xp! system, i've gone through atleast 6 builds since my good old 2500+, anything will be a giant leap from that system.
back to my point: any particular res you game at? anything less than 1650x1080 and you're really dependent on cpu power for mostly anything.

[DragonChi]

if you plan on upgrading your processor in the future, socket 1366 is the way to go.
gulftown (intels up comming 6 core) is going to be on that.

another reason not to get a p55 foxconn board
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3661

and you'll be able to get away with a quality 550w psu, even if you crossfire it.

[Shun Izaki]

I've used DFI and ASUS boards up until my p35 asus died last year. Gigabyte now a days has a much better rep.

seagate 1tb :(- again another used forever situation with seagate, but swap that 1tb .12 series for a western digital BLACK 1tb (not blue or green) it should be nearly the same price or less. 2 reasons the black is nearly as fast as the velociraptor (fastest consumer mechanical drive) and faster than that 12 series barracuda, plus a few years ago seagate switched to 3 year warranties and wd is now 5 years not to mention lately seagate firmware has been flaky

sapphire cards :cry: - one more suggestion avoid sapphire, get xfx if you can. XFX recently switched over to ATI from nvidia and well their warranty and support is 10x better than sapphire or any ati partner.

750w truepower :thumbsup: - normally I'd recommend the PC Power&Cooling silencer 750w over anything antec has been making lately, but that 750w truepower is way better than antecs usual stuff its a solid psu.

edit: can't believe you still game on a athlon xp! system, i've gone through atleast 6 builds since my good old 2500+, anything will be a giant leap from that system.
back to my point: any particular res you game at? anything less than 1650x1080 and you're really dependent on cpu power for mostly anything.

I knew something was always wrong with sapphire and high clockspeeds + cheap... thanks for all the helpful advice! all the brand I hate people fully support now :)

if you plan on upgrading your processor in the future, socket 1366 is the way to go.
gulftown (intels up comming 6 core) is going to be on that.

another reason not to get a p55 foxconn board
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3661

and you'll be able to get away with a quality 550w psu, even if you crossfire it.

Problem with 1366 instead of the other one is a cost basis at the moment

I took a look at my finances again, and it's not looking good, plus most people say coming from an athlon2600+ i should be blown out of the water with even a phenom II x2

[kchan]

reason for XFX is their double lifetime warranty
and for HDD go for WDD, Seagate has a higher failure rate than WDD and WDD has a better RMA service (from personal experience)

[Eclypz]

I took a look at my finances again, and it's not looking good, plus most people say coming from an athlon2600+ i should be blown out of the water with even a phenom II x2

If you're trying to keep costs down, go with a Core2Duo build and pair it with a decent video card.
For what you're using it for, you don't need a i7 or i5 setup.
Posted via RS Mobile (http://www.revscene.net/forums/announcement.php?a=228)

[SkinnyPupp]

If you do want to go for a <$300 CPU, remember: Athlon II and Phenom II are better than Core 2 Duo/Quad.

[John]

If you are considering going with AMD, I find this chart very useful for comparing them with Intel.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-gaming-cpu,review-31696-6.html

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

if you want an i7 9XX and you don't have the money, just save up for another month or two.

[DragonChi]

I agree SP with the AMD suggestion, with an AM3 board and a Phenom II.

I actually have a s939 2600 barton, and recently built a Phenom II machine. It's a big improvement. Even with launching a web browser doesn't take nearly as long.

I should mention that with the i5/i7 processors on the p55 boards have felt "snappier" than anything else on the market today. Mainly because it's got a more optimized turbo boost feature. The only caveat is that the tolerances for the pins are really high (when you make the pins on the board they have to be very precise in length) and some manufactures didn't follow spec. This may lead to some damage to your CPU. From what I can understand anyways.

[Shun Izaki]

if you want an i7 9XX and you don't have the money, just save up for another month or two.

can't save when you're not making jack... hahah im not working till i come back from vacation in dec 9th-jan9th

[Shun Izaki]

can anyone recommend a good tower build for phenomII x 2 (unlocked) or x4?

like what pairs well with it, etc?

[flameboy54]

Like you, I'm looking to build a new rig. From a price perspective, why don't you wait til boxing to get all your parts? I could be wrong since I haven't build a new rig in that last 6+ years. Can others chime in with your experience with boxing day deals?

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

can't save when you're not making jack... hahah im not working till i come back from vacation in dec 9th-jan9th

lol trust me they're WELL WORTH IT.

Like you, I'm looking to build a new rig. From a price perspective, why don't you wait til boxing to get all your parts? I could be wrong since I haven't build a new rig in that last 6+ years. Can others chime in with your experience with boxing day deals?

6+ years?! holy, none of my computers have went more than 4.5 years, and the ones that did were cuz I was a poor highschool kid that kept playing starcraft and or diablo II, even though warcraft 3 was out. hahaha

[tgill]

I actually have a s939 2600 barton, and recently built a Phenom II machine. It's a big improvement.
d00d socket 939 is two sockets past socket A, and a whole generation of cpus ahead of the barton cores. :thumbsup:

lol trust me they're WELL WORTH IT.

yea i would just hold off until you can pick up a corei7 hell those core i5's are looking pretty damn good right now.

Like you, I'm looking to build a new rig. From a price perspective, why don't you wait til boxing to get all your parts? I could be wrong since I haven't build a new rig in that last 6+ years. Can others chime in with your experience with boxing day deals?
boxing day sales have been fail the past couple of years, ncix and the like will have a few OMGWTFBBQ 2-3 video cards per store, otherwise sales are like every other sale (margins are slim already)

except for notebooks i got lucky and found a 14" HP core2 w/ geforce 8400 notebook for $500 at the seymour st location while i was wandering through downtown during last boxing week

[VooDood]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRwC8mg2_Wg&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div

[bobola]

If your not in a rush, try and collect parts from NICX sale each weds night.
I did that and save myself alot of $$!

[SpuGen]

Note that the X58 boards will run i9 when it comes out.

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

Note that the X58 boards will run i9 when it comes out.

yeah so u can keep upgrading!

[tgill]

this new ati eyefinity setup on the new 5xxx series is fucking sweet, it treats the three monitors like one ultrawide monitor 5760x1200

(fastforward to 3:25 in)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkWsVBpApOY#t=3m25s

[.Renn.Sport]

yeah so u can keep upgrading!


no point....
by the time i9 are out , the current X58 will probably wont support it and requires rev 2.0 or some shit.... other then skinnypupp, i dont think i know anyone that upgrades cpu every once in a while....
:haha:

the core i7 -860 system will last a while, by the time its not enough, diggy will have to buy a whole new system again anyways....

[Hehe]

Source some of your main components (cpu and VGA) from CL or second hand market. This can save you some serious money.

I built an i7 920 rig with 6GB OCZ, 64GB SSD*2, 1TB WDC Green, GTX260, PCP&C 750W along with a lian-li aluminum case all for under 1500. And that was back in june. The CPU I got it for 300 when NCIX was selling for close to 400. And the guy's CPU was brand new, never opened.

It might be some extra work dealing with private parties here and there to obtain all the parts, but the saving was totally worth the work.

[.Renn.Sport]

but the saving was totally worth the work.

err.... no its not

have fun when you find out your components DOA :haha:

[Shun Izaki]

1) no waiting every week for sales etc, i do know of thisprocess, but then it becomes a hassell trackign down paperwork for RMA etc... and then the multiple trips probably are going to equal the gas cost/time cost anyways.

2) i NEVER go used electronics... a front strut tower bar... cool, but electronics, you never know if it's on it's last legs, or operating prematurely etc... plus DOA = even with receipt, some won't do unless it's in ur name (as per mailing cheques and shit)

I'm still on the fence, but the water thing isn't playing out too nicely
http://www.revscene.net/forums/warning-marine-way-t592942.html?p=6647644&posted=1

so i'll have to see in the coming weeks

[tegz]

Hey guys, I'd start my own thread but since I've already learned alot from this thread might as well post my own build.. I'm a computer noob, but basically I already have a nice Antec case and hard drive.

Here's what I'm planning to put in the case.. All looked through NCIX.

G.SKILL F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Triple Channel Memory Kit (6gigs of ram)

Gigabyte P55-UD3R ATX LGA1156 P55 DDR3 2PCI-E 4PCI SATA2 RAID Sound GLAN Motherboard (Gigabyte mobo)
-Does this work well with my CPU i7 860?
-Does it work well with my GPU HD 5870?

Intel Core i7 860 Quad Core Processor Lynnfield LGA1156 2.8GHZ Hyperthreading 8MB Cache Retail Box (i7 860)

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI Display Port DirectX 11 Full Retail Video Card (Radeon 5870)

Antec Earthwatts 650W Power Supply ATX12V V2.2 EPS12V Active PFC 80PLUS 120MM Fan (650W PSU)

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE PCI 7.1 Surround Sound Card (OEM)
-Cheap sound card I'm getting to support 5.1 speakers

Anyways, just wondering if this is a good build, it only comes out to sub $1200, good price for pretty good looking specs, IMO. I don't want to cheap out on a graphics card because my belief is 'what you pay is what you get' in the department. Also am I missing any essentials other than the case and HDD?

Some critique would be very appreciated, sorry Jun Kitami for semi-hijacking your thread, I just thought it'd be no big deal because our builds are so similar. If you want me to make my own thread about this just drop a PM.

[.Renn.Sport]

any on board sound support 5.1 nowadays

[Audi-Quattro]

I'm looking to build a gaming system around the $1000 region too and I was thinking about going with the i5 750 instead

[tegz]

any on board sound support 5.1 nowadays

so no use for sound blaster i guess?

[tgill]

so no use for sound blaster i guess?
creative never made good cards in the first place :thumbsup:
unless you have a highend $700 reciever any modern onboard will sound as good as other card.

companies like auzentech and HT Omega who take the creative soundblaster/x-fi processor chips put them on their own cards and use quality home theater components along with their own drivers are much better alternative to anything creative, but in the long run any PC 5.1 setup will be absolutely fine with a onboard realtek hd chip. asus xonar are also good cards.

swap out the sapphire card for a XFX 5870 as already stated in the thread XFX has a much better warrenty/support and frankly sapphire cards are shit.

i'd also swap out the antec earthwatts unless your going with the Antec Truepower New series there are better alternatives to antec psu's these days. the corsair tx750 is $90 in the ncix sale, as well as the seasonic m12 is on sale. (they make the majority of corsair and pc power&cooling psus)

[UnDeadMage]

hmm i was wondering what RAM i should get i originally got a 2x2gb corsair TWIN ddr2 ram but then one was broken shortly after the exchange date expired so now im looking at add 4 more gigs of RAM to my comp. any suggestions to pair up the 2gb i have now?

[tegz]

creative never made good cards in the first place :thumbsup:
unless you have a highend $700 reciever any modern onboard will sound as good as other card.

companies like auzentech and HT Omega who take the creative soundblaster/x-fi processor chips put them on their own cards and use quality home theater components along with their own drivers are much better alternative to anything creative, but in the long run any PC 5.1 setup will be absolutely fine with a onboard realtek hd chip. asus xonar are also good cards.

swap out the sapphire card for a XFX 5870 as already stated in the thread XFX has a much better warrenty/support and frankly sapphire cards are shit.

i'd also swap out the antec earthwatts unless your going with the Antec Truepower New series there are better alternatives to antec psu's these days. the corsair tx750 is $90 in the ncix sale, as well as the seasonic m12 is on sale. (they make the majority of corsair and pc power&cooling psus)

Thanks for the thorough reply. Oh shit, just realized my LAPTOP has realtec HD sound! :D never knew what it was for... hahaha

BTW, how important are PSU's to a computer's performance and why?

[underscore]

if you dont have enough power, your computer will crash when the demand spikes. if you have a cheap supply, it will die quicker, and can potentially take out other parts.

[tegz]

if you dont have enough power, your computer will crash when the demand spikes. if you have a cheap supply, it will die quicker, and can potentially take out other parts.

So in other words, an "average" one with enough power should do right?

[underscore]

well the main thing is to check what power your graphics card requires. then go a bit above that.

[tgill]

a lot of cheap power supplies dont even provide what they state, when looking for powersupplies amperage/rail, efficeny, wattage, and just general build quality (components used) are all important factors

check out http://www.jonnyguru.com/ his power supplies are top notch and he even disassembles the units. chances are that if he hasn't reviewed it or a similar model in the same series then its not worth even looking at.

in general PC power & cooling (Silencer) Enermax (Galaxy, Infinity, Liberty), OCZ (GameXStream, EvoStream), Antec (they vary), Seasonic, Corsair, and Silverstone are all going to be good psus.

[Cman333]

use www.shopbot.ca and www.pricebat.ca to search the items you want, then price match online @ ncix.

I saved a good 10% off the total bill even with NCIX sale pricing.

[Shun Izaki]

a lot of cheap power supplies dont even provide what they state, when looking for powersupplies amperage/rail, efficeny, wattage, and just general build quality (components used) are all important factors

check out http://www.jonnyguru.com/ his power supplies are top notch and he even disassembles the units. chances are that if he hasn't reviewed it or a similar model in the same series then its not worth even looking at.

in general PC power & cooling (Silencer) Enermax (Galaxy, Infinity, Liberty), OCZ (GameXStream, EvoStream), Antec (they vary), Seasonic, Corsair, and Silverstone are all going to be good psus.

in addition

more psu doesn't cost that much more IMO and usually higher quality ones have more shit inside of it to protect it from blowing up, i remember opening up some enermax, and opening up some antec, adn you could see the diff purely in components and how it was all put together...

[ZenZa]

bump

i was interested in what OP ended up building but he's banned?

anyone else in here ended up building i7 system? what did you end up with and how much did you spend?