The (new) Official PC building thread!

mrk44,

Getting something as important as memory should be done through a reputable dealer like Newegg, Zipzoomfly and places like that. Buying from eBay could wind up costing you more than you bargained for. You would be surprised at how many fakes I've seen when it comes to high Quality memory. I work on a lot of computers and I'll bet I've seen a couple of Dominators, a couple of OCZ Platinums and a pair of XMS2s in the last 6 months with cheap memory chips replacing the good ones. Lets face it, no one is going to pull their heatshields off and look at the chips when it dies! There's usually no warranty either! Plead your case with Corsair or any company and they may well have you send them in, only for them to tell you you've been had! $64 for the Dominators is well worth laying out to have the warranty and the security that you got what you paid for!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

theonejrs..Can U suggest a card on todays market that will do what I'm looking 4.. or 1 that can be reliably modified, as I have about 100 VHS Tapes, that U can't find on DVD.

 

To answer the question about the quietness of Corsair power supplies:
The HX units run at 22dB up to a load (from the electricity socket) of about 400W. My PC at full load using both graphics cards and a heavily overclocked CPU uses 350W. As far as I'm concerned nobody should really need to use dual graphics (don't ask why I did, long story), and with a single card my PC uses a maximum of 220W at full load. Allow an extra 50W if you're going to use a Quad core CPU that's overclocked, you're still miles from 400W. Note that other PSUs run in excess of 30dB after as little as 160W...

 

sammorris.. How important are the Amps in accordance to Watts..
EXAMPLE: A 400 watt PSU with 28 amps, against a 400 watt W/40 amps.
Yes I know the 40 is better, My concern is strain and overload at lower amps being delivered to other components

 

No, not really. It's not better binned, it's the exact same CPU. Also the 3870 is not nearly as fast as a 8800GTS if he is looking to game.

I was talking about the Q6600.

As for the Cooler, I would stick with the Xigamatek. It's not the cooler that's loud, it's the fan that comes with the cooler. So why don't you just replace the fan it comes with with a quieter fan?

 

Unless it's a poor brand, any good PSU will be balanced correctly for a typical gaming PC with regard to Amps. A high end graphics card will use between 8 and 15 amps on the 12V rail - The HD3870, 8800GT and the like (not the GTS/GTX) use about 10 I think. An overclocked dual core will use up to about 7 amps, an overclocked up to about 10 (unless you go nuts with the volts).

Creaky: Under full load your PC is probably making about 220W or so if all the HDDs are active - well within the 'idle' boundaries of the HX.

 

LP
I think the Rampage would really go over my budget. What do you guys think of buying an open box P5E X38 from newegg for $190?

Creaky
On my current PC, I have been doing a lot of encoding on a Pentium 3.0GHz and it's actually pretty fast. I really want a quad core if it will go as fast as you say it will.

abuzar
What fan should I replace it with, and how? Is the fan already separated when you buy it? And isn't also really hard to install it onto the mobo?

I guess I won't be going with eBay then, but Buy.com has a couple of the parts cheaper than on newegg, and the google checkout will only save my more money.

If the Xeon X3550 and the Q9450 are the exact same thing, what's the difference between buying one over the other?

 

getting the open box wont give you the I/O panel for the back of the case.nor any cables you will. not sure if you even get the install disc with all the drivers and such. if you allready have this stuff then sure the Open box would be fine.

the Xeon CPU's are "server" cpu's so they say.


well ive tried installing the drivers from realtek shows them being installed but still no sound and the new founf hardware icon keeps popping up. guess im gonna have to format the hdd and try a complete reinstall.

 

I would pay the extra 30 bucks and get a new one. Or buy an open box Maximus Formula. The only difference is that it wont come with the accessories(back plate, sound card, cables, etc).

The Heatsink is as hard to install as the regular Intel heatsink, but I would recommend getting this for it. In fact I would get this for any heatsink with the stock intel push pins.
http://www.jab-tech.com/Thermalright-LGA775-Bolt-Thru-Kit-pr-3605.html

Ask others about Quiet fans, you will get quite the list. Like I said before, I'm not the person to ask about silence. Also there is no difference between the Xeon or the Q9450. It just depends on availability and whichever you get cheaper. They are the exact same thing.

 

mrk44,

I know of a couple of ppl that have bought open box mobos. they didn't have any problems but there is no guarantee you won't.

what encoding software do you use? when I upgraded from a P4 3.4ghz cpu to my E6600 C2D, my encode times were nearly cut in half using RB/CCE. I can now encode a complete dvd less previews, warning screens and adverts with 3 passes, including building an ISO and burning, in under an hour with my E3110. if I only run 2 passes don't build an ISO and don't include burning, it only takes around 30 min.

 

What's with the Lord of War video there? It's a really good movie, but I don't get your reference to it...

Mort: Those are insane times with a C2D. To do what you said would take well over an hour and a half on my computer.
Actually I just mostly, rip DVD's for backup. Occasional encoding to DVD. I have never heard of DVD-RB or CCE until now. I looked them up and they look amazing. Before I was using AutoGK for ripping, and some REALLY crappy software like DVDSanta and WINAVI to encode to DVD. I also use CloneDVD as well.

 

lol totally posted the wrong crap there. I'll edit it out. I was just emailing that link to a buddy and it got mixed in with something else.

 

I shouldn't blow my own trumpet, but I like to think I know where it's at with quiet PCs, as my own gaming PC runs below 25dB.

I'll probably hang back on that until I know for sure what you're getting though. I missed a few pages of this thread so I lose track of how much progress has been made... ;-)

What I can say though is you should avoid refurbished or openbox motherboards.

 

mrk44,

your talking about transcoding where as I'm talking about encoding. big difference. to do what I'm talking about with any single core cpu would take at least 3 hours.

creaky,

how many passes and does that include building an ISO and burning?

 

sammorris
If your PC is quiet, can you tell me what cooler fan you are using?

Mort
My mistake. Feel pretty stupid right now.

I need to save some money, so can anyone tell me if this motherboard is good:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128082