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The (new) Official PC building thread!
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AfterDawn Addict
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28. January 2008 @ 13:03 |
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£300 is a good price. just over two 3870s, but it is on ONE card, therfore harder to make, as internal xfire, uses more circuitry, etc.
and you dont need an xfire board to do it.
ill most likely be getting these :)
MGR (Micro Gaming Rig) .|. Intel Q6600 @ 3.45GHz .|. Asus P35 P5K-E/WiFi .|. 4GB 1066MHz Geil Black Dragon RAM .|. Samsung F60 SSD .|. Corsair H50-1 Cooler .|. Sapphire 4870 512MB .|. Lian Li PC-A70B .|. Be Queit P7 Dark Power Pro 850W PSU .|. 24" 1920x1200 DGM (MVA Panel) .|. 24" 1920x1080 Dell (TN Panel) .|.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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28. January 2008 @ 13:19 |
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If the single board improves the reliability of crossfire, they're worth having. Otherwise, not interested.
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GregI6
Member
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28. January 2008 @ 13:36 |
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Does this mean the one card(with 2 gpu's) will utilise the full 16x speed?
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AfterDawn Addict
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28. January 2008 @ 21:16 |
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Finally got the new series cards in at the EGG. link to HD3450 and HD3650 cards....
I'm looking at the specs of the HD3650 and I might just go with the HD2600XT.... hhhmmmmmmmmmm any input there sam??
....gm
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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28. January 2008 @ 21:21 |
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I've no personal experience with either, but benchmarks indicate that the performance of the HD3650 is very poor, it may be inferior early drivers, but either way, right now the HD2600XT is faster, and potentially cheaper.
Quantifiably, the 3650 is a bit slower than the 8600GT.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 28. January 2008 @ 21:23
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AfterDawn Addict
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28. January 2008 @ 23:04 |
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greensman,
I would opt to go this direction, seeing that it has a 256 bit memory interface and 320 vs 120 on the Stream Processing units. There are cheaper brands, but I'm not comfortable with anything but Sapphire for an ATi video card!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102715
At $189 it's a bit more expensive than the HD 2600XT but the larger memory interface and the additional 200 Stream Processing Units would make it a better deal for me!
Best Regards,
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor

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AfterDawn Addict
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28. January 2008 @ 23:35 |
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Yeh I'm NOT impressed with the HD3650 at this point either... hhhmmmmmmm.....and the HD3850 is a good card for the money.... Why do I get pushed into spending more money than I want to???? I guess quality would be the answer!! lol.
I'm lost on which thread we were going on about the Enzotech heatsinks but since it's a part of PC building I'll enter some more info here. :P
Russ I saw the posted info on the Enzotech thread, I just get a little "worried" when the e-tailer doesn't say the same thing. :P I'll look at my situation more closely and see if it's really worth messing with. I run in the mid 30's right now so it may not be of real importance for me anyway. ;)
....gm
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pcusergod
Newbie
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28. January 2008 @ 23:46 |
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I installed crysis on my brand new compaq sr5210nx presario with windows vista premium, and one megabite of ram, and it runs like crap.
Arn't compaqs supposted to be like the best?
The sales man told me it would do anything I wanted.
Did I brake it?
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ddp
Moderator
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28. January 2008 @ 23:51 |
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This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 28. January 2008 @ 23:55
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AfterDawn Addict
2 product reviews
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28. January 2008 @ 23:52 |
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Haha Compaqs are far from the best. The "Best" can only be what you build yourself.
Compaq PCs don't come with good enough video cards to run Doom 3 much less Crysis! Also you're gonna need more RAM than that!
EDIT: Turns out you don't even HAVE a graphics card. lol at integrated graphics. How much did you pay for this bud? I'm sure if you return it we can supply you with a parts list to build something better for less.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 28. January 2008 @ 23:53
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pcusergod
Newbie
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28. January 2008 @ 23:56 |
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The sales man told me it was a grate computer, you mean it isn't?
compaqs arn't good for games?
Will Fry's take it back so I can bye a better one?
DP4ME
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ddp
Moderator
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29. January 2008 @ 00:00 |
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you need a seperate videocard not intergrated like you have now & you need more ram because of vista. talk to fry & see what they say.
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pcusergod
Newbie
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29. January 2008 @ 00:02 |
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Oh, and I payed a lot for it, it was 249 dollars.
I can built a better one?
I thought you had to bye compaqs, you can make your own?
DP4ME
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ddp
Moderator
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29. January 2008 @ 00:06 |
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$249 is not alot which explains what you have for that price. yes you can build your own as that is what this forum "building a new pc" is about.
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pcusergod
Newbie
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29. January 2008 @ 00:14 |
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I never built anything before, what would I have to bye?
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AfterDawn Addict
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29. January 2008 @ 00:19 |
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pcusergod,
Quote: The sales man told me it would do anything I wanted.
Did I brake it?
Now that's funny! LOL!! The salesman forgot to mention that as long as you didn't expect too much out of it to begin with, he was right! If you can get Fry's to take it back, do so!
A decent video card, capable of playing the good games costs almost as much as you paid for the whole computer. The salesman lied, and it was "Broken" before you even bought it! Let me guess! On-Board video, No PCI-e, 350 Watt power supply, 256 megs of 533 Ram, no Sata and Slow!! Good enough to do "homework" on, but not much else!
You might have noticed that no one here is bragging about their HP, Compaq or Dell computer. Now you know why!
Best Regards,
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor

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ddp
Moderator
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29. January 2008 @ 00:21 |
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1st, state your budget as how much you can spend. 2nd, state what the computer is going to be used for such as gaming, browsing the net & so on. 3rd, state whether amd or intel but be flexible on that.
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pcusergod
Newbie
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29. January 2008 @ 00:25 |
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DP4ME
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AfterDawn Addict
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29. January 2008 @ 00:27 |
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Originally posted by pcusergod: Oh, and I payed a lot for it, it was 249 dollars.
I can built a better one?
I thought you had to bye compaqs, you can make your own?
You have to buy Compaqs, BUT you can make your own computer. NOT to seem rude but $249 for a computer is NOT a lot of money even if it's for the tower its self. PLEASE understand that you've stepped into an arena that will require a VERY large learning curve and we are ALL learning every day. Even the gurus. I'm NOT one so don't even ask. lol. NOW on ODD's I might have an opinion or two but building goes to the smarter than me. ;)
Yes you can build a better one BUT you won't get much for $249. I think you'll have to spend somewhere around $550 or so just to build something that will play some of the games you're wanting to play. Your main "outflow" will be the cpu, mobo, RAM, p/s, and gpu. BUY quality components and you'll be happier in the end. TRUST me here... I've learned the hard way on that one. :P
good luck to you........ :D
....gm
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pcusergod
Newbie
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29. January 2008 @ 00:29 |
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I don't know, 300 or 400 dollars.
my mom is going to be mad than my new computer isn't any good.
can she tell the difference opf the old one and another by looking at it?
DP4ME
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ddp
Moderator
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29. January 2008 @ 00:34 |
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that pc won't play crysis as the cpu is to slow. check the link i posted for game system requirements. you are dead in the water for that game with that pc.
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AfterDawn Addict
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29. January 2008 @ 01:14 |
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pcusergod,
Quote: I don't know, 300 or 400 dollars.
my mom is going to be mad than my new computer isn't any good. can she tell the difference opf the old one and another by looking at it?
Why should she be mad at you? The Salesman lied to you! He knew it when he was doing it! Be grateful if Fry's will allow you to return it for a full refund! I haven't shopped Fry's since I returned a defective hard drive, only to see it repackaged and going out the door with another customer, about 1/2 hour later! The guy didn't even want to believe me until I showed him the paperwork and the Ser. # matched. Pretty good, 1/2 hour after I bring it back because it didn't work, they sell it again to some other "sucker"! I'll do my buying from reputable dealers like Newegg and Tiger Direct and be very happy for it!
As far as your budget goes, it's totally un-realistic, at least if you want to game with it! If it's for homework, keep the one you got but don't expect to play any decent games with it! Being a 1.6GHz Celeron, it just doesn't offer that much to begin with! You could build a decent computer console for about $800 that will run rings around any Compaq, HP or Dell you could afford! At least I see that they have improved in the last year or so. Yours has Sata, a PCI-e 16x slot and 1GB of memory (single stick of 1GB), so that's a marked improvement over what they used to offer. The only problem is that the rest of the computer doesn't come close to living up to the improvements they have made, as it's all pretty worthless with a 1.6GHz Celeron!
The big problem price wise is quality! Motherboard, Power Supply, Memory and video card are all places that will bite you if you buy cheap junk! Most of us have been there before! LOL!!
Best Regards,
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor

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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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29. January 2008 @ 04:03 |
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Theone: A wise choice, the exact video card I'd recommend in that price range. As for Sapphire, i've certainly found them to be excellent in the past. HIS are supposed to be pretty good too, but apart from those two, I'm also apprehensive.
PCusergod: You have much to learn, my friend. First of all, gaming PCs that work properly cost a lot. $250 is not a lot for a PC, you are looking at a minimum of $500 to get a gaming PC< nearly $1000 for a really good one, and a really good one is what you'll need to play Crysis.
Next, Prebuilt PCs are almost always useless for gaming unless you spend LOADS. For this reason it's often better to build your own PC, but only if you're happy to do so.
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AfterDawn Addict
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29. January 2008 @ 04:23 |
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pcusergod,
Originally quoted by sammorris:
Quote: Next, Prebuilt PCs are almost always useless for gaming unless you spend LOADS. For this reason it's often better to build your own PC, but only if you're happy to do so.
Good point on Sam's part! building a modern computer is not difficult at all. It's very hard today to make a meaningful mistake where something can get hurt or go up in smoke. Today's active bios just don't allow that to happen. If you try to do something stupid, it just shuts down and re-sets the bios back to the default settings. If you think you might like to do that, you will have plenty of help here! besides which you will have learned something about computers that you wouldn't be able to learn any other way. nothing beats hands on! Besides, nothing beats hand selecting the components to give you the most bang for your bucks! You wind up with what you want, rather than what someone else thinks you might want, and you don't pay for extras that you don't need!
Best Regards,
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor

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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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29. January 2008 @ 04:30 |
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and here's the best bit:
A typical PC you'd buy from a shop for $1500 will perform as well as a PC you build yourself for c. $900...
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