The (new) Official PC building thread!

That's very weird Sam. On COD4(a straight 4 hours gaming) it was nothing but butter smooth framerate with not even one drop even in the most intense battles. The area before you go to the TV station to get Al-Asad had even my Mum jaw dropping(she said the £1100 was worth it)The graphics are just......WOW!(i could also bump up the AA and no effect on framerate). If you want to risk another 3870, the HIS ICEQ3 is bang on the money.

Oh and more ranting on the 3870 X2,



I would have expected 26,000 or something with that processor at 4.7Ghz! (unless im mistaken on that )

 

On xcase the CPU is £98.16 on aria it is £105.69 - never knew over £7 cheaper was expensive

@Greensman - The Geil is 4-4-4-12, the corsair is 5-5-5-15, which is the specs you mentioned earlier, Ive not found a review of the Black Dragon (cool name), but general Geil reviews have been favourable.

 

My standing on it is that Asus make good top end boards, but that's all their good at. Their lower end boards leave a lot to be desired in the quality standpoint. With Gigabyte you don't have to spend a fortune to get a board that won't fall apart on you. I'm still happy to recommend the top end Asus boards to people who've got a big budget, but on the value side of things, gigabyte boards are simply better options.

@Greg: I pretty much fixed my 3870 (hooray!) The lag went away by setting my memory settings back to CAS4 (they'd gone back to CAS5 for some reason) and the corrupt 2D text went after I installed Omega drivers rather than the crummy Catalyst ones. So now I'm back to playing Crysis at 2560x1600! You really start to appreciate how good some of the game's textures are when running at this resolution. Shame the last 10% of them look dump...

 

Really? You guys have something called VAT. After that it's 10 pounds cheaper.

 

greg, most ati cards do better in 3dmark, but pale in comparison when it comes to games vs the nvidias. dont go by 3dmark, go by TRUSTED review sites, liek anantech, or hexus...etc

oh and azubar, you only pay top price for Asus, when u want there TOP TOP mobos, liek the ROG series, etc. even their mainstreme serires are competiitively priced, and offer brilliant Ocing. (obviously not as good as the high end mobos)

oh and hu ever chose those xclio cases should be shot . THEY SUXORZ!!!!21"11!!111 end off.

get the akasa zen, for under £30, if u gonna budget that. but i would stick withthe Cm-690, for any budget or even high end rigs.

 

I never really looked closely enough at the Coolermaster 690, it's a stunning case, exceptionally well cooled and discretely styled, I'll be recommending it more often in future.

 

Here a good site for those who like to use conversion software
http://www.rlslog.net/category/movies/

Alien vs Predator Rrequim is excellent
Rambo is Directos cut
OR JUST WATCH AS as AVI

 

Well thank you sam!!! I have one.

Be aware tho..... the expansion slot retention "clips" are a little to be desired. I used a screw with my GPU. Didn't trust the "clip". AND the P/S is mounted on the bottom of the case NOT the upper rear portion. I actually like the HDD mounts, pretty simple really.... There's more pros/cons but that covers most people wouldn't be able to see.

.....gm

 

Damn - I was working on the assumption the prices included VAT.

Now I need to rethink again LOL

 

Greensman: It's funny, the retention clip on my NZXT Lexa is the only naff part about it. I ripped it off, you still get the screw holes underneath so I just use those!
As for the PSU being on the bottom, it's not a bad idea as long as you're careful and drop any screws down there!

 

As for the P/S being on the bottom, the case allows for the supply to sit in a conventional way; fan facing downward... If you have something like a PC Power & Cooling unit it blows out the back of the case.

....gm

@Pepp77,
Sorry about that VAT.....

 

I lost my copy of XP so I downloaded a copy with SP3 installed. None of my drivers are working now. Do you guys know of a good edition of XP possibly with performance tweaks? I could just get the normal XP SP2 but i was hoping for a version with some tweaks and such.

 

well the CM RC-690 is back in my site's. microcenter has it on sale for 59.99 and a 30.00 MIB 19.99 for that case i cant pass on it..


are we watching the biggest upset in the making????? GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!

 

Rob for that price HOW can you PASS it up?? lol.

Can you BELIEVE this sorry game??? SuperBowl that is.......

...gm

 

19 seconds left... we ARE watching the biggest upset in the history of sports!!!!!!!!!


sorry to be off topic

EDIT to add::

oh this is the best game i have ever seen, but it thought it would be the worst.
(well next to the raiders smokin washington 39-9...lol)

EDIT to add again:

guess Eli can quote Ali 'WE shook up the world!!'

 

Josh DARN IT! The Pats lost!!!

It was a great game, but disappointing.

EDIT: There, it's cleaner now.

 

Mort81,

As you know, I used Asus motherboards exclusively for many years. My last two were the P4P800 SE and the P5P800 SE and both were excellent motherboards. My disenchantment with Asus started when they tried to nick me $40 for a damaged 775 socket on the P5P800SE, when the pictures I took of it while packing clearly showed that it didn't leave my home damaged. That was followed by 29 days without my computer while they repaired the P5P800 SE, only to get it back not fixed! The fiasco with the P5N-E was just the icing on the cake, yet you personally know that in spite of all of that I was still going to use one for my E4300 build. You are the person who changed my mind about doing that.

Both gigabyte and Asus make good products, but it seems to me that GigaByte gives you more value for your dollar across the board. Asus does make some very fine high end motherboards, slightly better than the GigaByte, but they also cost a bit more. The fiasco with the P5N-E coupled with their terrible customer and technical service convinced me to look elsewhere. The few problems I have had with gigabyte and my dealings with both customer and tech service has made quite an impression on me. The speed with which they handles things and the extent they were willing to go to keep me happy as a customer has more than convinced me that I made the right choice. I think the main difference between the two companies products is in their approach to how far they are willing to go is based more on the cost of the product you purchased for Asus, while Gigabyte seems to be more concerned with you as a customer. They staff their technical service with knowledgeable people who know what they are talking about, so phone time is kept to a minimum They want your business, and by the way they do things, it shows!

That being said, I do apologize for saying Brand X. I shouldn't have said that and I'm sorry for it. It was childish on my part!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Russ,

I know you've been burned a time or two with asus but you have also had some problems with gigabyte mobos only gigabyte was much more eager to resolve your problems than asus was. that is why I wrote the last sentence of my previous post.

I wasn't pointing any fingers so please don't take it personal. I was only standing up for another mobo manufacturer that has served me very well. I haven't used gigabyte for some time but I was not impressed with the last one I had (it was for socket 478 but forgot the model). I know they have greatly improved since then and who knows, I might give one a try one of these days.

 

Mort81,
I didn't take it to mean me personally, but realizing what I had said a couple of posts back after I read your post made me see that I wasn't being fair or objective, that's all.

Best Regards,
Russ