The (new) Official PC building thread!

@fasfrank
Did you look at this board...MA790FX-DQ6...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...3r-_-Motherboards+-+AMD-_-GIGABYTE-_-13128070

I was just wondering about the possible video display configuration that it could handle with (4) video cards...It could make an insane HTCP build...theoretically...you could have (8) HD/DVI outputs to different TV's through out the house...from one...relatively inexpensive...low power consuming...media server...This could be the future for HTCP builds...

 

hydro x86,

I listed some good prices on cooler master cases back on page 118 if you live in the states.

jtan189,

I agree with Lp531 and would go with PC-6400 memory.

abuzar1

once again what do you have against the corsair p/s's? if you want one that is modular like the ultras, go with a corsair HX series.

frank,

nice build buddy. is that a zalman 9500 or 9700?

 

The more I look at the Spider platform...the more I like it...This could be how AMD and ATI can get back in the game...It seems tailor made for HTCP whole House Media Servers...I am excited and can now see the potential of this whole platform...

Look like this is going to be my next build...once I find one at a reasonable price...looks like they have just about doubled in price since being released...

MSI K9A2 Platinum AMD Phenom Socket AM2+ PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) ATX Motherboard Retail...$175.99 out of Stock
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10007273

 

Hi Lp,
I suppose if one is good then four must be four times as good... Hehe. Being a non-gamer (other than M$ Flight Simulator), I don't know how I could justify it. As far as the Phenom goes, AMD has some work to do. It's like having a E6700 that doesn't like to overclock. So far I've been able to get the Phenom from 2.2 Ghz up to 2.3 Ghz. Part of the problem is simply monitoring the temperature. Everest doesn't recognize it. CoreTemp says all four cores are at 206C and SpeedFan doesn't seem to recognize four cores. I don't want to push the voltage very much. This CPU does need more to remain stable at even minor overclocks.

 

Nothing against the Corsairs, I'm just trying to keep it under a 100 dollars is all.

Also I doubt your friend has dead Ultra XVS PSUs. I've used these and also overclocked and overvolted on them. In fact the PC in my sig uses one. I have heard the older ones were crap, but these seem alright.

This seems nice, tell me what you guys think. I recieved another 100 today so I can spend 900 on it. Also do you think I should wait a little more before ordering parts. Seems like a lot of new technology is about to come crashing down on us, and this PC might get outdated faster than usual.

EDIT: I didn't explain what "this" is lol.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341010

 

@abuzar1
I do not know if they were the XVS series...they do have the silver flat ribbon style cables...but not modular...I believe he was picking them up at frys...(4) out of (5) have died in under a year...he was using them in all his builds because they were cheap and he liked the cables...

@frank
They are saying (4) cards at 3.2 times the results...What has me excited is the HD/Playback opportunities...The Home Media Center expandability opportunities...My brother is getting a Linksys Media Center Extender next week looks promising as well...

Media Center Extender Link...
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/features/extender.mspx

 

Frank:

I have the exact same PSU and I hear mine, oh boy do I hear mine. For reference the PSU produces around 25-26dB of noise at idle. The Corsair HX series produces only 22dB. Those things are quiet. Besides, how could you hear a PSU over the stock cooler of an X1950 pro. I know the fan speed's low at idle, but the horrible noise it makes hides anything remotely quiet.
Interestingly enough, a lot of cases don't include a beep speaker any more. Annoying, huh?
Jtan: The 8600GT is a slow graphics card these days, at least get an 8600GTS if you can. It all depends how much gaming you do, really. The rest of the parts are alright, except for the RAM. If you don't mind rebates, get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145034

Hydro: The Zalman 9500 / 9700 are large cooler, but their coolign performance is very poor compared to this behemoth:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109140
I use the standard (not extreme) version of this cooler which newegg unfortunately don't sell, it's far cheaper and has almost identical cooling performance. it has a few milimetres clearance from my case's side window.

If I', honest, Asus boards aren't as good as Gigabyte boards. This is my first gigabyte board and it's worked far better than any of the three Asus boards I've had before it, two of which have since failed after less than a year of use (and we're not talking minor issues either, PC-unusable kind of failures). The P35C-DS3R is one of the best boards around, and I strongly recommend it, as does everyody else I know who has one.
The X38 chipset is a high end offering, versus the midrange of the P35. I'd stick with the P35, it's still a good chipset.

Abuzar: I think you'd be small minded to doubt anyone had issues with any PC component frankly. We all get DOAs from time to time, and most of Ultra's products in the past have been absolute @£&*!
The stealthxstream is a nice PSU, but it's cheap here in the UK. It's not what I'd call 'cheap' at newegg. It'd be simpler and better to get a Corsair VX for that kind of money.

 

Double post. Grr

 

Ok so on the Corsair, how many watts do you think I need? Is there such a big difference in efficency between the Corsair and OCZ?

 

No realistic gaming PC would ever max any Corsair PSU, not even the VX450. However, the HX520 is a better unit imo, so if you can stretch to that, go for it.

 

Hey thanks for the reply Sam. I read up some more on the X38, it doesn't seem to offer anything right now that the P35 doesn't. Plus the technologies it does offer aren't really in mainstream use right now...for instance I really doubt I'll need PCIE 2.0 for the next 18 months.

I also have been reading up like crazy on the motherboards. I think the ASUS ones have been fairly problematic for people, so like you recommended I am going with Gigabyte. I think I am going up to the next revision of the exact board you recommended though. You mentioned the P35-DS3R, which def seems adequate, but I wanted some extra USB/SATA without having to add cards. I'm about 90% sure I am purchasing the P35-DS4, mainly because it has more SATA and USB ports. It won some customer choice thing, so I am guessing it can't be too bad.

Is that Corsair 550VX modular? I think I might pick that one up too, they have a nice little rebate at ZipZoomFly.

One last Q, haha, did you have any problems with fan clips or something like that on your Thermalright U120? Thats the only problem I keep hearing about with those. I was gonna stick one of those on the Q6600 I just bought, hopefully overclock it to 2.8 or 3.0.

Thanks for the help everybody.

 

On the contrary, the P35C-DS3R has more S-ATA and USB ports than any board I've owned. You just need headers for them. One of them is included with the board, and any decent case also has another header for two on the front, that makes 10 with the 6 that are on the back with the latest version. There's another header if you have another means of putting USB ports on the front for a total of 12.
The board also has 8 S-ATA ports on it, I don't know of any board that has more than that onboard as standard.
The Corsair VX 550W is not modular, but the HX 520W which I recommend to everyone is.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001
As for the fan clips on my Ultra 120, yes, they're a pain in the backside. I can one on, but the other is so fiddly I used a cable-tie instead. It gets the job done! lol

 

At first i was unsure about the P35C-DS3R and was gonna go ASUS, but after reading great reviews im now in love with it. The only thing stopping me from buying PC components is basically, my mum aint got enough dosh in her account to afford all at once(which i don't believe), so im gonna buy the psu, mobo first and wait till later December to purchase the gpu(Amazon has an OC BFG ver for £163.19, which will be available in 1-2 months)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BFG-nVidia-...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1196710338&sr=8-1

 

Heh, or there's this:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=707471

 

That's a fusking beast!!!!!!

Just gotta look for how it stacks up against that BFG etc. If im gonna make such a big saving, i may go for this beast!

P.S - What cooling do i need for that 3870? Oh and will that 520w corsair PSU im getting have the necessary connectors?

 

The Corsair HX can handle that GPU fine. On the whole what you'll find is that the HD3870 performs a little bit slower than the 8800GT. However, before you're sold on the 8800, bear in mind the HD3870 supports SM4.1 and Directx10.1, two technologies the 8800 series doesn't have (not even the GTX/Ultra) and consequently, with the better image quality the 3870 provides, you're looking at a far more futureproof card.

 

Yeah, and i think i just convinced myself to get the 3870, the 8800gt may be faster atm, but it's just ATI's first driver, ill let updated drivers level out the performance bridge.

 

Interestingly enough, the HD3870 already performs about the same in Crysis. The benchmarks only show otherwise because the drivers for the 8800GT can recognise Crysis.exe and force down the quality of the output, giving an artificually higher frame rate. Rename Crysis.exe to anything else and the fps will go down, but the image quality will go up.

 

So you're saying this is good?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003

I might be getting some more money and I will try to stretch for the better PSU. Just in case I have to get that though, will it work?

 

Yep that PSU should do fine.