PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

[Murtok 0]

...why choose an nvidia motherboard to use with an AMD card?  

It is a gamble.

I have had good experiences with my last Nvidia boards. If I am careful, I might not have any issues.

I will post again and let you guys in on how it goes Tuesday.

[Shashman 0]

Well I've only heard good things about ASUS motherboards, and my current P5K-C has performed flawlessly. The only problem I've heard of them having is compatibility issues with OCZ RAM.

I'll be upgrading to a P5Q Deluxe

[CameronMcDonald 146]

+1... I've had about 4 ASUS motherboards in a row and have nothing but the highest praise for 'em. Though I'm gonna wait until later this year before I upgrade.

[Shashman 0]

Hey CamCamMan, long time

You waiting for Nehalem to hit the shelves then? I've had enough of putting my upgrade off, it's a never ending wait really lol. There's always gonna be something released the week after you upgrade to some uber l337 omgz0rz component

[billybob2002 0]

Also, why are you getting an 80GB and a 160GB drive? 500GB is pretty much the standard these days, and wouldnt be much more expensive that getting two smaller drives. I agree with the graphics card recomendation btw.

Because I want to use one hard drive for system files and non-gaming programs. For the other larger drive, I will use for gaming only.

[Shashman 0]

It's called disk partitioning

[echo1 0]

Exactly, my 500GB disk is partitioned up into... *counts fingers* 5 seperate partitions and it works great. Easy to set up too. Believe me, its a much better idea that getting two small discs. See if you can get one of these.

[Lepardi 0]

Exactly, my 500GB disk is partitioned up into...  *counts fingers* 5 seperate partitions and it works great. Easy to set up too. Believe me, its a much better idea that getting two small discs. See if you can get one of these.

But it's not as fast as it would be if OS was on it's own HDD.

[billybob2002 0]

Exactly, my 500GB disk is partitioned up into...  *counts fingers* 5 seperate partitions and it works great. Easy to set up too. Believe me, its a much better idea that getting two small discs. See if you can get one of these.

It is called longevity and safety. Currently on my computer, I have two hard drives but one of them crapped out. Luckily, it was the gaming drive and not my system program drive. If the 80 GB drive dies before the 160 GB drive, I can just install my OS onto the 160 GB while I wait for a new hard drive. 500GB is overkill for me anyways.

I went "budget" on my card and I got a 9600 GT for $120 (instead of the other card). After the rebate, it will go down to $99. Also, I got the Antec Sonata III 500 instead of the other case. Plus, I got the E7200 instead of the E8400. Why? Because it gets good marks for being a "budget" processor (better than the x6400) and I'm not exactly a gfx whore after I think about it. The price went down to $558.

[kmossco 9]

Finally I made my final config:

Quote[/b] ]CPU: Intel Core2 QuadCore Q6600 G0 Box - 147€

MBO: Asus P5Q3 Deluxe WiFi-AP - 179€

RAM: OCZ PC12800 2GB Gold Edition DDR3 (2x1GB) - 108€

GPU: Asus EN9800GTX+ HTDI/512MB - 166€

HDD: Seagate 320GB 7200RPM SATA 16MB - 50€

DVD: Asus DVD-RW 2014L1T Black 20x SATA - 25€

PSU: Corsair TX-650W - 76€

ATX: NOX Coolbay Side Window Black - 55€

MON: LG TFT 19" W1942S Black 8000:1 - 160€

Price: 966€

Only doubt I have is if the PSU can handle everything and is reliable. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for the input throughout this whole process hehe

[echo1 0]

Exactly, my 500GB disk is partitioned up into...  *counts fingers* 5 seperate partitions and it works great. Easy to set up too. Believe me, its a much better idea that getting two small discs. See if you can get one of these.

But it's not as fast as it would be if OS was on it's own HDD.

Really? I noticed no difference, and I notice these kinda things. (Admittedly I'm kinda cheating because 3 of those 5 are Linux related). But having my data backed up onto a seperate partition from Windows means that if I have to reinstall (used to have to do it alot due to dodgy hardware) I don't have to back up, which used to take an awful lot of time and effort.

@NBSVieiraPT: 650W should be more than enough for most setups (you'd want to have dual CPUs or Dual graphics or lots of hard drives before you need more). Corsair make good units, so reliability isnt an issue. I'd say its perfect for your requirements.

Btw, are you buying those off an online retailer, if so, which one, and where do you live?

[kmossco 9]

@NBSVieiraPT: 650W should be more than enough for most setups (you'd want to have dual CPUs or Dual graphics or lots of hard drives before you need more). Corsair make good units, so reliability isnt an issue. I'd say its perfect for your requirements.

Btw, are you buying those off an online retailer, if so, which one, and where do you live?

Cool, then it's a wrap. Corsair it is. I even like the name hehe.

Well I live in Portugal. I am going to buy the processor, mb and ram from an online store with physical store 70km away (it is cheaper by postal service yeah) and the rest from a physical store 300m from home. They are the ones who will built it. This way I have a well built PC (it is trustworthy) and from there I can learn how to build it for when I need an update.

[Lepardi 0]

Finally I made my final config:

Quote[/b] ]CPU: Intel Core2 QuadCore Q6600 G0 Box - 147€

MBO: Asus P5Q3 Deluxe WiFi-AP - 179€

RAM: OCZ PC12800 2GB Gold Edition DDR3 (2x1GB) - 108€

GPU: Asus EN9800GTX+ HTDI/512MB - 166€

HDD: Seagate 320GB 7200RPM SATA 16MB - 50€

DVD: Asus DVD-RW 2014L1T Black 20x SATA - 25€

PSU: Corsair TX-650W - 76€

ATX: NOX Coolbay Side Window Black - 55€

MON: LG TFT 19" W1942S Black 8000:1 - 160€

Price: 966€

Only doubt I have is if the PSU can handle everything and is reliable. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for the input throughout this whole process hehe

A Samsung T166 320/500GB HDD should be more quiet, cooler, and faster than that Seagate. The 320GB model is a little bit cheaper also.

[Shadow NX 1]

One more question for the experts here:

As expected the new PSU still didnt change my problem so saddly we move to the next step.

A new Mainboard and new Ram because old one is DDR-1 and wont work on the new board.

Choices:

Board: Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H RS780G ( 70Eur )

Ram: 2048MB Corsair PC2-1066 DHX Dominator CL5 KIT ( 57Eur )

And: Arctic Cooling paste 4gr ( 5Eur )

The Board was choosen because it seems rather cheap and still offers upgrade to Phenoms ( X3, X4 ) and yet my old Athlon 64 x2 ( 4200+ ) should also work with it.

The Ram, well, could have used cheaper ones but for 10Eurs more i rather take some with good cooling and these seem to be good in that direction.

In the end we have the cooling paste, this will be needed to put the old cpu cooler on again after we put the CPU in the new board.

---

So, choices ok, bad, better things to get?

Feel free to give me some ideas

But please lets not get things much more pricier

---

[SHWiiNG 0]

Hey Lepardi, how is that 9800GTX?

I am thinking of getting one when i come to upgrading.

[echo1 0]

Shadow:

If your old Athlon 64 used DDR1 RAM, it will NOT work in a Socket AM2/AM2+ board. If you upgrade to a different motherboard, you will need a new CPU too. At this moment in time, there arent many reasons to buy into AMD.

[Lepardi 0]

Hey Lepardi, how is that 9800GTX?

I am thinking of getting one when i come to upgrading.

When you can get a HD 4850 for cheaper price than a 9800GTX, it's just not worth getting one, since it's more expensive and does not perform as good as a HD 4850.

If you're ready to invest a little more, the HD 4870 outperforms everything under 350€ with a price of ~230€.

[Shadow NX 1]

Shadow:

If your old Athlon 64 used DDR1 RAM, it will NOT work in a Socket AM2/AM2+ board. If you upgrade to a different motherboard, you will need a new CPU too. At this moment in time, there arent many reasons to buy into AMD.

What? wtf, thats just great, damn :/

And i was thinking that ram only is affected by the mainboard... great...

[SHWiiNG 0]

Im in the same boat as you Shadow,

Heres me think yeah £200 upgrade this summer, lovely jubley

But Bumped up to £450 once i realised i needed to Get a new Motherboard, PSU, CPU and ram..

Gah i hate having so much choice  

Im not sure about using another ATi card, just i have heard that Nvidia had better Drivers, Customer support and overclocking ability on their new 9800 GTX(+) But the performance to price ratio on the 4870 is just amazing

[Shadow NX 1]

Some people said it would be no prob while others say it wont work.

To be on the safe side i cancelled the order for now and inform myself a bit more.

If i really have to exchange the CPU aswell then indeed Intel is the way to go, any recommended combos that wont burn a hole in the wallet ( bit like what i posted above price wise )?

[Lepardi 0]

Im in the same boat as you Shadow,

Heres me think yeah £200 upgrade this summer, lovely jubley

But Bumped up to £450 once i realised i needed to Get a new Motherboard, PSU, CPU and ram..

Gah i hate having so much choice  

Im not sure about using another ATi card, just i have heard that Nvidia had better Drivers, Customer support and overclocking ability on their new 9800 GTX(+) But the performance to price ratio on the 4870 is just amazing

Not so sure about customer support as I've never needed it, but what goes to drivers, I think AMD's are better. At least everything works as it should, no performance slowdowns/lock ups on games because of bad drivers. ArmA would lock up every now and then when I had a 8800, but with 4870 everything has worked fine. There was also something adding a noticeable mouselag on ArmA with 8800, but it was gone too with 4870.

Some people keep saying that nvidia drivers are better, but they have nothing to back up that saying.

[echo1 0]

And i was thinking that ram only is affected by the mainboard... great...

Nope, the RAM controller is located on the CPU in the case of AMD chips. For Intel; Q6600 + Gigabyte EP35-DS3. About €80-90 on the website I use (komplett). Doesnt have dual PCI-E or RAID, but most people never use either, so what you get is a good cheap board.

[kmossco 9]

A Samsung T166 320/500GB HDD should be more quiet, cooler, and faster than that Seagate. The 320GB model is a little bit cheaper also.

The 320GB is almost the same price. But it is not faster, not from what I've heard. And I like this Seagate HDD.

[echo1 0]

It is a very good drive, unless you have experience with that particular drive, I'd recommend the Samsung one, if theyre the same price, you might as well get the one with more capacity. And if you don't might spending a bit extra, the Samsung F1 is better (750GB/1TB)

[kmossco 9]

It is a very good drive, unless you have experience with that particular drive, I'd recommend the Samsung one, if they're the same price, you might as well get the one with more capacity. And if you don't might spending a bit extra, the Samsung F1 is better (750GB/1TB)

320GB is fine hehe, it's all I want. Seagate has priority though, as I like their drives and the supplier is right 300m from my place hehe.

Some people keep saying that nvidia drivers are better, but they have nothing to back up that saying.

I do, but nevermind.