The (new) Official PC building thread!

caucano , it just depends on your budget .right now the AMDs are the better buy and the top Intels will out perform the AMDs .

i got the top AMD chip Opteron 185 939 socket for 349.00 last week.

bottom line both chips will give you great performance

 

forumcrew and aabbccdd thanks for the replies. I am leaning towards the intel due to the power effeciency as compared to the AMD's. I don't know where I read this but is it true that the large L2 cache on the EE6600 is not as impressive since it uses most of it to understand its own 64 bit architecture? I don't even know if this makes sense.

The next thing I guess would be too find a motherboard...any suggestions? I don't want a super kick as mobo, but would like it to support SATA ( I guess all new ones already do ), IDE drives, usb2, ieee1394, PCIExpress...is there anything else that should be a *must* have feature?

Oh yes, I also read that the fan on the EE6600 is not too good, any comments?

Many thanks

 

@caucano

if you can afford a good e6600 build, it is the way to go, it will out perform the equivelent(and above) amd cpu everyday of the week.

@forumcrew

i had a card that did that after i overclocked too far. have you just updated the driver perhaps? can you check the card in another board or the screen on another machine?

if your looking to buy a new one this will let you compare lots of cards with different games and benchmarks. its not got the very latest but most you will want to look at. it might be a wise move to wait till after the new year and see what midrange dx10 cards come out.

 

@caucano
I havnt really looked at any AM2 boards but one of the things that sold me on my MSI board over its ASUS counterpart was the nice Creative Sound Blaster audio chipset it used. If you already have a nice soundcard this isnt an issue.


Yea I have been going through the DX10 debate in my head. I think I may just upgrade to a BFG 7950 because the dx10 cards arnt going to drop enough soon enough for me to be able to justify getting one. And I dont wanna just let more come out and buy a dumbed down version of a DX10 card.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on the matter of 2gigs vs 4gigs of ram, in the future I plan on using 4 monitors to increase productivity in research that I do... and running multi graphic programs... what would be the performance gain? where would I see it, please give me exsamples- thanks for your time and effert

 

i am quite new to the pc building stuff and i would like to ask you some questions.
can someone give me all the right parts to make a PC (without a monitor)?, i have a budget of $1000,it has to be fast and play games with very good graphics!
The pc has to last long as i will not be upgrading it frequently!
Can you tell me the graphic cards which are equal to XBOX 360 and a PS3?
thanx

 

dx10 is all or nothing, your card will be dx10 and do all its things or it wont, they cant release a half way card that only does some bits and not the others. thats why it wont be on xp, its a whole new system.

not based on fact, only rumours

ati are bringing 3 out in march, around the same time nvidia are bringing upto 7 to steal their thunder.

personaly i cant wait to see how the 8600 performs and what kind of power reqs it has.

@herrick

i have nothing to prove it at hand but for most people 4gb of ram is over kill. now you running 4 screens(i thought 3 was the current max, but i have been known to be wrong and always like to be shown if that is the case) with multiple apps all at the same time should be able to use all 4gb, it will save you using the pagefile portion of you hard disk which will keep you running at full speed.

@kayum
try the last few pages of the budget building thread for some componants.

for the gcard, any of the higher dx9 cards (7800gt 1800xt and above) will give you around the same graphics as those consoles. the thing to remmember is the higher the resolution of your screen the better your card needs to be.

check this chart as it compare individual cards in a number of benchmarks and games

 

i don't know anything about graphic cards they are so confusing!
which graphic card will be good for 130 british pounds(ebay pricing)?
what is a AGP and a PCI?
is this the best graphics card for it's price?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-SAPPHIRE-...ryZ90710QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
OR THIS ONE:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GAINWARD-7800...ryZ90710QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
OR THIS ONE:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gainward-Ultr...ryZ96879QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

what is a cache? is it important?
why do you need a heatsink and a fan?
What Power Supply(watts)do you need for a gaming pc?
sorry for asking a lot of questions!
thanx

 

@marsey99

I was going to try to use 4 monitors. still hoping?

 

kayum pci and agp are very outdated even tho i use them myself i dont game that hardcore just ut2004 and some startegeys like command and conquer but anyways..
1.go with a pci express 16x
2.as of now Nvidia is better
3.no graphics card is equal to a 360 or ps3 the reason there graphics and speed is so good is because there is no OS or backround apps. so there is only 1 thread for the CPU to handle. altho the ps3 CAN handle up to 10 threads making it MUCH more powerful than the 360 and just to shed some light on the advantages of consoles
a REGULAR xbox specs are
833 mhz CPU
64MB ram
no idea what kind of video but i know its just as bad
4.heatsink and fans are VERY important they keep the GPU and other compents cool. if they gett too hot the card will overheat locking ur computer(ull have to restart) and maybee even some damage to the video card and maybee other nearby compents.
5.im not too familar with pounds but im almost sure there worth more than us dollars so i cant give u a card
6.i have a ati radeon 9250 256mb REGULAR PCI runs pretty good ut2004 all maxed settings 32 bots biggest level NO lag
7. AGP(Advance Graphics Port) is a slot desinged for video cards but has been replaced with the pci express 16x
PCI(dont know it stands for) is a slot commonly used for addition slots like
sound cards
network cards
modems
tv tuners
etc.
its pretty weak for video cards tho but not bad cause i use it for my radeon

hope that helped!

 

130 pounds is like 260 US

i dont know about ATI, maybe a X1950 pro 256mb, but on nivida side that should get you like a 7900gs ko to maybe a 7950 gt. Dont really know what the video card market is like in europe.

 

on the dollars/pounds front. yes it is about $2(its just under but you get the idea) to £1 but we get screwed over here so we pay just less in numbers but more if you convert it back to dollars. eg, my local pc shop charges £130 for a 7600gt which can be had in the states for around $150. great britan eh dont you just love it ?

@kayum

cache is the memery inside your cpu that it uses to make all the calculations it does. you dont need alot as it runs at the same speed as the cpu but in most cases more is better (more tends to hinder overclocking, but thats another story). as for you mate saying the conroe is bad at using it, hes wrong its because of they clever way it uses it that it performs so well(one of the reasons anyway).

the heatsink and fan assembly is there just to remove the heat from the cpu. the electrons running thru the cpu at such high speeds cause a lot of heat. with out the hsf and some thermal paste in between you cpu would only last a matter of hours (minutes if you realy stressed the cpu) before it got too hot and shut its self down(if your lucky it will come back on). not recomened.

psu, it depends more on the other componants, if your running a mid range machine it wont need as much to power it as a bleeding edge one, this will help you do all the math (in fact it does it all for you) for any parts you might be thinking of using.


the 7800gtx is the better of those cards, this chart allows you to compare all the most recent grapics cards out in games and some benchmarks. the only thing i would say to you is, can your psu take it? it needs a constant 400w+ psu with its own pcie power line, check the link above for how much power your whole system is using

 

does the make matter for graphic card?(e.g.gainward,Geforce,Dell etc)
can you tell me a good motherboard that will be compatiable for the Core 2 duo processor and overclocking etc..?
when you buy DDR Ram is 2x512mb(667mhz) the same as 1x1gb(667mhz)?as there is a price difference.

 

the main bit is the gpu and ram, all the top brands use the same stuff (samsung ram chips) so the main difference is the rest of the stuff you get in the box. as for the clock speeds they advertise most are around the same, and all will overclock to around the same too.

ask in the overclocking thread as thats the place for that realy speaking (tho id say an asus p5w deluxe or evga nf68i).

it depends on what you want for the future to be honest. 2 512 sticks in dual channle will give you about 7%ish extra performance over one 1gb stick. on the flip side to that you can add another 1gb later and then run them in dual channle(if they have the same timings) and then you will still(mobo permitting) have 2 slots left to add more ram when you need to. if you are going to add more later get the 1gb stick now to save the space.

 

is there any cheap but good motherboards for the core 2 duo?, as the ones you told me are very expensive and top of the range.

 

thats the thing, good overclocking boards tend to be the topend products.

Gigabyte GA-945PL-S3 is a cheap mobo(£60ish) but you will only get a small over clock from it.

Abit AB9 comes in around £90 and would be my choice, it will oc as well as most mobos but it lacks some extras that the top end boards have.

the thing to remmember is, this is the back bone of your pc, everything goes thru it. you can have the best ram, cpu and graphics card but if you put it in a poor mobo and you will not be getting the best out of them.

 

is this motherboard good:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intel-Core-2-...oryZ3674QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

7600's are much cheaper than 150 in the US. I just saw one for i believe 80 at newegg.

 

@forumcrew

thats probably a 7600gs, if its a gt buy it as for that price thats a steal.

@kayum

ecs tend to make low end products, this has all the more recent parts on it (chipsets and cpu compatabilitys) how it will over clock i cant tell you, but i bet its not that good at it. that board only has one ide port if thats of any interest for you.

right boys and girls i will be back in the new year, so untill then, have a safe one.