The (new) Official PC building thread!

mrk44,

To date, not ever! Most components have at least a year replacement from Newegg, CPUs are 3 years unless you buy an OEM, most memory is lifetime and lots of stuff has longer warranties! An AF7-Pro has a 6 year warranty, for example. Chances are very good that if it lasts for a few months, it will last a lot longer! I frankly don't think it's worth the extra money!

rick5446,
To answer your question about the AD7200 drives, they do not bitset natively. You may be able to flash the drive to make it work but in spite of my drive meeting all the criteria needed to be flashed, the flash was not successful! I followed Optiarc's instructions to the letter and it won't work! I can send it in and have it done, but that costs more than the damn drive! LOL!! Personally, I'm sorry I ever messed with it. Out of my last 5 burns, 3 of them have been coasters! I haven't gotten coasters in the past, and I'm using the good Verbs, so I guess I messed up the drive trying to flash it. It's out of warranty so I guess I'll have to add an AD7200A to my list of things to but, when I have money! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Yup, never bought an extended plan here either(any kind, from anywhere). I've found that as long as you buy quality parts then they have excellent manufacturers warranty.

 

Guess I don't need one then...

And do cases or motherboards come with screws for mounting?? Never bought either one before now...

 

mrk44,

Usually most cases come with screws and MB standoffs when needed!

Russ

 

Yay! Thought I would need to find my own screws....

And I found this GPU, just not sure about the brand: HERE
Its either this brand or MSI, except this one comes out cheaper after rebate.

 

XFX makes good gpu's too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150254

 

I don't have experience of their graphics cards, but ECS have made a lot of poor quality stuff in their time. An XFX or BFG card will be far better.

 

mrk44,

No offense but I wouldn't buy anything ECS! Not even if it was free, with a rebate. I've replaced over 25 of their motherboards in customer machines, and they are the cheapest of the cheap!

From what I've seen and read, the GT would be a better choice than the GTS. Here's an MSI I found for about the same money as the GTS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127329

I noticed in the 260-280 tests, the GTS was almost always behind the GT in performance. This card has an Amazing rating on Newegg. Between Excellent and good, both total an amazing 95%! and that's with 483 reviews! Given the very small amount of complaints, it seems pretty good. I know it's the older G80 chip. But it did beat up on the G92 pretty bad in most of the tests in that 260-280 review! Ask Sam what he thinks. He knows more than I do about video cards and gaming.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I've not seen the GTS behind the GT ever, but I don't see it very far above the GT in any test either - the GT is typically better value for money, but if you can find a GTS for the same price as a GT, it's still your better option. However, this is all rendered near meaningless because of this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102747

As it stands right now, other than the dual cards, this is the fastest thing out there that isn't a GTX200 series. For the price, it's incredible.

 

Hey mrk44,

All the parts should have all the screws you will need for assembly...I am assuming this is the MSI card you are talking about...

MSI NX8800GTS 512M OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Free Witcher PC game w/ purchase, while supplies last $206.99 ($176.99 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate) 3 Business Day Shipping $7.59
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127325

and the ECS

ECS N8800GTS-512MX GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $209.99 ($159.99 after $50.00 Mail-In Rebate) 3 Business Day Shipping $7.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134037

Go with the ECS...I believe most of the 8800GT's are outsourced to Foxconn for manufacturing...so they are basically the same...I know that was the case with the 8800GTS 640MB cards

Don't the cards go like this...
8800GTS 512MB G92>8800GT 512MB G92>8800GTS 640MB G80...

 

Everyone knows what I mean by "Idiot Factor", I'm sure. It's the reviews like on newegg. The ones that are so stupid, you just ignore! Search the Forests no more! We have a "Champion"! The hands down winner of the Idiot Factor Award! Absolutely has to be a Blonde. This from Cindy!


Pros: I got this card as an upgrade from a 6800 so I could play Age of Conan. I can run the game on high now and it's beautiful! Buy the card. It ROCKS and Newegg's price is great!

Cons: Great big card, as everyone's mentioned. I have a Dell XPS 400 and it had plenty of room for it, so it wasn't a problem for me. Also, in addition to seating it into your mb, you have to plug it in to your power supply...cord provided but instructions are not (hence the con)...and it took me a few minutes to figure that out.

Other Thoughts: I LOVE this card! I wish I could marry it!

She gave this card "1" Egg!
I think she has won the Award Fair and Square, don't you? ROFLTIPIMP!

Russ

 

Really?? The GTS has faster clock speeds in every category than the GT. I thought it would be better. I guess I could ask my cousin that works for nVidia (and maybe pick up an employee discount on the way)....

I don't wanna upgrade anything for a while so I wanna buy whichever one is truly better. What about the 9800 GTX?? Or should I get an ATI. That 4850 sounds amazing.

 

The HD4850 beats all the mainstream cards, it beats the 9600GT, 8800GS, 8800GT, 8800GTS, 8800GTX, 9800GTX and 8800 Ultra (though it's a close fight with the latter). The only cards it can't take on are the 9800GX2 and GTX260/280. It's not even that far behind the 260, and yet only costs 200 dollars. It's the new 'card of the month'!

 

mrk44,
I would ask Sam! It's just that I had noticed that the g80's performance in most of the tests was better than the G92 in most of the games tested. There were a couple of games where the G92 GTS was considerably better, but overall the GT was the better card!

Russ

 

Well I see Sam is highly recommending the HD 4850. Just one problem I see with that card: The temps run extremely f***ing high! I think I read 76C after a couple mins idle time!! WTF?!?!

I read it on this review: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=579&type=expert&pid=1

It doesn't exactly show the card as great. It pretty much matched the 9800 GTX (probably cuz of the high temps).

 

ATI have had problems with strange fan speed control issues for a long time. You can either wait for a non-standard cooler version, such as the excellent Asus goldflower, fit your own, wait for rivatuner to support the card (so you can raise the fan speed), wait for the HD4870 which will have a better cooler and be faster still, or elect to go with an 8800 card. Decision's yours.

 

mrk44,
Looky what I found! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127325

Two slot cooling instead of blowing into the case, and for around the same money! It's one sweet card!

Check it out!

Russ

 

sammorris: The question is, when will 4870 come out and how much will it cost? For now, the 8800 card looks pretty good for me, at least until ATI improves its fans.

theonejrs: lol. That's exactly the same card I've had in my wishlist for about a month. And probably the one I'll be getting, since the 4850 is so hot (literally).

 

I think ALL the 8800GTS with the stock cooler are two slots and blow air out of the case.

I would honestly recommend waiting a bit until the 4870 comes out. Maybe by then the 4850 will some in two slot solutions, because I used to have a 3850, and that fan is a BITCH when you turn up the speed.

 

since stock coolers rarely make a remotely pleasant noise, I usually aim to replace them, but that obviously isn't everyone's bag. For reliability purposes if you're building the system right now, you're safer sticking with the 8800GTS.

Abuzar: ever heard the 3870 fan? It doesn't even make a nice noise at 20%...