First off, thanks to Katarina and her support, $100 of this computer is on her. I'll try to make it just as amazing as she is, too bad I'll fail.
Now then, let's move onto the topic purpose.
(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/01/black-mamba-pc_small.jpg)
The purpose of this topic is because I'm going to be building a Computer this summer, one most people would call a PC. As I have little experience with these types of systems, I might require help from the gracious OSC members.
The current parts I have decided on are as follows:
-AMD Phenom II X6 2.8 Ghz /w 6 MB L3
-ASRock 870iCafe AMD SATA 6GB/s ATX "Mother"board.
-Team Elite 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333 Dual Channel Kit
-Seagate Barracuda 250 GB 7,200 RPM SATA 6GB/s HDD
-Radeon HD 5750 1GB DDR5 GFX Card
-DVD X8 RW Drive
Case and Power Supply have yet to be decided, but Katarina's gracious gift should pay for, or greatly help pay for, a very nice set.
Current price of parts is
$543 with shipping included.
Well, savvy? Feel free to give any pointers or recommend parts.
>AMD
Wait for Bulldozer.
With the graphics card, I'd suggest avoiding the Radeon HD 5000 series if you can; I've heard nothing but bad things about them. The 4000 series would be a cheaper alternative that's regarded as being more reliable; after all, 2k-tan the Desktop originally had a 4350 when I built her, which worked well for lighter gaming until I could afford the 6850 I wanted.
As for Nejin's suggestion to wait for AMD Bulldozer to be released, I haven't seen anything giving a solid date as to when they're supposed to be out, so I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you don't mind delaying the project.
ssd are still new technology; just get a good hard drive.
(oh, you didnt mention one....NM)
Quote from: NejinOniwa on June 04, 2011, 09:22:40 PM
>AMD
Wait for Bulldozer.
I'm kinda on the fence about it, this 6 core processor is extremely cheap at the moment probably BECAUSE of Bulldozer supposedly coming out soon and it's not like it's a weak processor.
Is Bulldozer really drastically superior?
@Alex; ...this doesn't have an SSD
@Pentium: could you give me a link to a good 4,000 series card? The 5,000 card I chose has good reviews and is similar (slighter lesser than) to the one used in the Mac Pro. Looking at the 4,000 cards, I don't really see anything that stands out performance wise. This one stands out review-wise, though
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161315
go for a bigger hard drive, 2tb hard drives are pretty cheap now a days.
as for a videocard
visiontek 4850.
I can't find the exact 4350 I used, so scrap that idea. Besides, maybe the issues with the 5000 series where just with the first batch, and the one you chose will be fine.
Now, if you're willing to pay more, this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908&cm_re=radeon_hd_6850-_-14-102-908-_-Product) is what I'm using currently, and it's frigging awesome.
Newegg doesn't appear to have a 4850, I also saved money on the hardrive by buying a size I need. All my stuff, including my gigabytes upon gigabytes of garageband stuff, like 8 HD movies and tons of programs this rig won't have is on here and I'm using only 80 gigabyes. I shaved half the price off by purchasing a smaller HDD :)
also, as unfortunate as it is, the only 6,000 card that fits that motherboard is sold out.
@Pentium; unfortunately, that card doesn't match up with the PCI slot from what I can tell :( (2.1 instead of 2.0) if I am wrong though, I'd by happy to spend a bit more for that beast of a card.
Don't buy any of the 4000's. True, they're good, but noisy as FUCK.
Go 6000 instead.
And another reason to wait for Bulldozer, that you get PCI3.0 AND AM3+. No worries about upgrading for years to come.
PCI Express is backward compatible; a card designed with a 2.1 slot will work fine on a 2.0 port, so you have nothing to lose
@Pentium, oh, that's good to know, will it take a major performance hit or anything, though?
@Aurora; lol, Katarina says she's going to stalk me because she wants to learn this stuff.
@Nej: a 6,000 is what I'd want, yes and now that I know they'll work, definitely getting one. I was practically only paying $40 out of pocket for this whole thing anyway, parents owe me money and I have un-cashed checks. I also kind've wanted to get the system built soon, plus, I doubt this system would ever reaaaaly be upgraded, so I'm still on the fence about a Bulldozer.
I just did further checking, and discovered that the motherboard I used in 2k doesn't support 2.1, but the card works very well; so you don't have anything to lose
Well then, it's a serious consideration.
Any other quirks about this card?
Watt usage? (it is not listed)
and do those features mean anything... meaningful? I know sometimes they put junk there to make it look impressive.
i would go for a 4850, they run hot, but it was made to do so.
it pays all new games on max, takes up one slot, and scores a 7.4 on the Windows ratting system.
their are 2 models, the ddr3 512mb, and the 1gb model.
for the 512mb mb model, it is about 50.00 on ebay, the 1gb is about 80.00 to 100.00
it does require a 500+ PSU and a 6 pin connecter, but you will not be disappointed with it.
here is a link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ATI-AMD-Radeon-4850-1GB-DDR3-PCIe-video-VGA-card-/320707849749?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item4aabad6e15
The features are stuff that's going to be fully implemented with 3.0, but it doesn't make much of a difference now.
Also, I'll have to dig out the box to figure out how big of a power supply it needs. According to a PSU calculator I used, under a unrealistic load that I'll likely never use (That graphics card and the Core i7 with 4 SIMMs of RAM, an internal HDD, an SSD, a BluRay drive, and all 14 USB ports being used to charge several MP3 players), it only needed a minimum of a 475W power supply.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150516&cm_sp=Cat_Video_Cards_%26%2338%3b_Video_Devices-_-Daily_Deals-_-14-150-516
Here you go, a graphics card that will run for a min of 5-7 years and keep up with the times!
9.25" x 4.4" x 1.5"
I'm not even sure if that'll fit in most cases!
Also, a lot of people are saying http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129146 is the best overall deal for performance vs price. It's similar to the card I had picked, but not the same one. It's got a low 425w requirement, apparently cools well and is almost as fast as the 6,000 series cards according to multiple reviews on multiple cards where they compare it to this one.
Either way, even if I choose a sapphire, a 600 watt constant PS will handle it too.
edit; Price is now $543 because shipping is 3 dollars higher. I think this is the card I will stick with as it's cheap, runs cool, only 425w, has good reviews (when not DOA) and has performance that can fight a 6,000 series.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152042
700 watt continuous, bronze rated for efficiently at 82% AND a blue LED? with over 70% 5 star rating? Heck yes?
This powers it with room to spare if I in-fact do upgrade it to something more power intensive. (don't really want to go with an on the dot 550... as that's exactly what the system needs)
Kriz, considering Katerina won't be gaming on this, you could save massive amounts of cash on it by buying lesser parts.
She's not going to need that quad core or 8GBs of RAM, hell even I don't need that much RAM.
Only 8x on that DVD-RW drive? That's slooooow. Look for a 22x one at least, they're all cheap these days anyway.
She won't even need that HD5750, I'd say she'd be happy with onboard graphics (provided it was robust enough) or a GeForce GT210 or GT220.
You could save yourself a few hundred dollars by downgrading your current plans a bit.
Red has a point, unless you really want to build her something that won't be obsolete for a very long time for what she'd use it for.
It'll be at my house, so I'm going to be using it for stuff too, mostly STO probably.
And yeah, I do want it to last a while, I probably won't ever do this again.
I also said I wanted to build her an amazing computer, not one that just gets by :)
Money isn't an issue at all unless this thing gets much more expensive, I'm still only paying maybe $40 from my pocket.
A good point on the DVD RW drive, I'll try to find a faster one, it probably won't add much money.
Remember, Krizo - when in doubt, MORE DAKKA always helps.
Row row. -w-
That's what I thought with the processor...
is a Phenom X4 fast enough?
No... quads are widely on the market now...
MORE DAKKA! Phenom X6!
A Phenom II x4 would be plenty. It's what I'm using right now.
I got the x6 for $20 more than an x4 due to a sale. Thought there was no reason not to :)
If you want to go complete overkill on the disc drive, this is the BluRay drive I'm using (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151222). Since it's an OEM drive (No cables; just the bare drive with some software), you get a nice discount on it over the price of a retail version.
Not sure I need Bluray... Never even seen a disc of it.
As for parts, I bought an awesome case at best buy with her money and a 5670 card they had on sale. All were very competitively priced, in fact, they matched newegg on the price of the case.
Also bought a 20' monitor for it. It has begun!
What case did you get?
A soprano RS 101
(http://www.overclock.net/attachments/computer-cases/124848d1254510463-lol-soprano-case-mod-vg7000bws.jpg)
Cool.
I would have laughed if it had been an Antec Three Hundred (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042&cm_re=antec_three_hundred_case-_-11-129-042-_-Product); because then it'd be like you're building a clone of my PC
They had one of those there too, but it didn't match the newegg price.
I'll have pictures of me with the case when I get home.
for a cooler, get a coolermaster aquagate. they run for about 50.00 and kept my old system at a cool 13c.
Ordered all the other parts from newegg and payed for them.
They'll arrive when me and Katarina are in Hawaii though, which will be this Thursday to next week.
Then we get to build it when we get back.
H...
HAWAII!?
Wait what. O_O
You're going to Hawaii? Good; one should take a journey of self-enlightenment before they begin building their own PC, like how I meditated in the shower under a waterfall before building Frankenstein Classic
Quote from: PentiumMMX on June 06, 2011, 05:59:49 AM
You're going to Hawaii? Good; one should take a journey of self-enlightenment before they begin building their own PC, like how I meditated in the shower under a waterfall before building Frankenstein Classic
I think it'd be counter-productive.
Seeing her in a bathing suit on the beach just enlightens me to take the fans out of the computer and try to make it really hot, too.
/hit on head with Mario hammer