The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Hi! Could anybody suggest me a computer which is meant for gaming? I only need the computer without the operating system. The budget would be somewhere between 2000-3000€.

 

What games will you be playing? What size monitor do you use?

 

I play games like Crysis and other demanding games. I have BenQ FP241VW which is 24"

 

Core i7 920 CPU (940 if affordable)
Thermalright Ultra120-1366-RT cooler
Gigabyte EX58-UD5
3x2GB Corsair XMS3 1.6Ghz DDR3 RAM
Sapphire Radeon HD4870X2
WD VelociRaptor 150GB WD1500HLFS
WD Caviar Black 1000GB WD1001FALS
LG GH22NS30 22x DVD-RW
Corsair HX 620W PSU
Coolermaster HAF932 Case

 

Something to note about the Gskill modules. They seem to be ideal for Intel systems??? Are they not compatible with my system???

I would like some opinions about some Ram. Im looking into 1066 Ram. This is quite the opposite of the PSU! I want good quality RAM!
These are the ones im looking at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16820231166,N82E16820146785,N82E16820104073
@Kingston - Kingston has NEVER given me a problem, in about 12-16 Modules. They're the cheapest. Free shipping!
@Gskill - Ive bought them once. No problems with them. Free shipping
@Mushkin - I WANT to buy them. But is their most expensive price justified? Are they one of, if not the best? I guess ive already decided on Mushkin. But is this a wise choice? Is there better than these, WITHOUT going larger in physical parameters!!!

 

I had a pair of GSkill and they worked as advertised, but my 2x2GB Dominators were accidentally overclocked over 1100MHz, and I didn't even know it until I happened to look in CPUZ. They are also some of the coolest running memory I've ever seen, barely warm to the touch! I raised the CPU frequency, not realizing that the memory would overclock too! LOL!!

Russ

 

They're mighty good looking, thats for sure. But im afraid they're too big for the Freezer. And i'll be filling all four slots for a total of 8gb.

 

I wouldn't neglect to consider these either:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145215

However, for four sticks, memory without a big heatspreader will run very hot. Why are you using 8GB? I can't even fill 4GB running a 64-bit OS and maxing out games at their highest detail level.

Russ, was that your AMD build that the memory became overclocked? Not having built an AMD for a while, I was curious to know how the memory multipliers worked.

 

Im seeing a lot of bad reviews for corsair memory. I did however see their lifetime warranty in the spec! That's quite impressive. However, ive heard a lot of good things about Mushkin, and wanted to give them a shot. Sam, have you tried Mushkin before?

Oh...and one more time:
Something to note about the Gskill modules. They seem to be ideal for Intel systems??? Are they not compatible with my system???

 

I haven't, though they get a lot of good press. Where have you been seeing bad reports of Corsair? I've had 12 sticks of Corsair RAM in total, and not one has come DOA or gone bad in its life.

 

Most of the batches ive came across, ive read of DOA, ran for short time, but now im seeing EXTREMELY good reviews on say this one ---> HERE
Perhaps they're like asus, where you have to buy their more expensive stuff to get anything decent? That is a question, not an insult.

 

Nope, I've paid less than £40 for some of my stick pairs, still no problems. Likewise with their USB sticks, the £8 ones work as well as the £40 ones. Due to the cooling especially, Dominator memory is now my RAM of choice. In the minefield of dodgy brands like Crucial, Elixir and OCZ, Corsair, G-Skill and Mushkin seem to be three brands you can rely on. Some people are partial to Patriot memory, but not enough seem to buy it to get a clear idea of whether it's any good or not.

 

Ok. I guess they're also a name to hold in high regard then

Now, this. What does this mean. In the "Features" Section about all the Intel Chipsets. Will these modules not work on an AMD board???

 

They will, but AMD boards don't have memory controllers like Intels do, they're in the CPU instead. You can't, however, use PC8500 with basic AMD chips like the X2 LEs. The Kuma X2s, Phenoms and Phenom IIs are fine with them though.

 

Ahhh! Thanks for the lesson there I was unaware of that. Though ive never built an intel. One day, One day!

And the reason the 8Gigs is because, I like to plan ahead, plus I LOVE to experiment. Twice the money on Ram isnt TOO extreme LOL. Now 16Gb would be extreme LOL!

 

OM7

now this is some fanboyism coming from me(if you call it that cause i like something cause it works great without any problems) go with the Mushkin. you have a gigabyte board a kinda top quality board at that. in my opinion and from what i have seen and used the mushkin mem runs great on gigabyte boards.. i know its not logical it my reasons but just from my own experience ive had crucial,corsair and now the mushkin mem and the mushkin has preformed the best. im have the ddr2 800 (pc6400)i can run them and am right now at 1066 with just bumping the volts up to the 2.1v(which i should have done last week when i had my little problem..lol)
as Sam stated and has others the dominators are a good set of mem sticks and preform well,and like sam i myself havent seen to many if any bad things about them. heck $63 for 4gb of ram is a nice price.when i had my dominators i paid $88 for just 2gb. and that wasnt even a year ago maybe 8 months back.

now thats just my 2c worth. now you said your going to run 8gb are you buying 2 sets or mixing them with another 4gb set?

so has anyone else gotten hit with the conficker virus today?

 

I am currently running with 4 sticks in my computer and have had no trouble with heat at all. I have a 2x2gb and a 1x2gb gskill kits running at ddr2 800 and are barely warm to the touch. I dont think going for 8gb is crazy. I would like to upgrade to that myself. I have used over 4gb while playing games and running a few things in the background. If you want 8gb I say go for it. right now memory is so cheap it doesn't matter that much.

 

Sam,
Yes it was, much to my surprise. When you plug in an AM2+ CPU, it displays a different set of multipliers which as near as I can figure will let the memory run at 1066 from stock 2.70GHz to 3.2GHz. The multipliers are a little different than what we are used to as well. 2.00, 2.66, 3.33, 4.00 and 5.33, which I guess covers the various Ram speeds, 400, 533, 666, 800 and 1066. It certainly has a much higher memory bandwidth than previous AMDs had.

Russ

 

Sounds almost identical to Intel boards, but with a 5.33x added as all the CPUs are 200FSB.

 

Im just gonna double up the order. Just because there not in the same batch, doesnt mean they wont perform identically, Right? Im sure if there is a difference, it would be minimal! If mushkin is as good as I hear, im sure there wont be a problem