thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

I don't really keep on the ball about gaming hardware anymore, but here is what I have tentatively assembled. I don't really need a case or case fans, as I was just planning on re-using the case that I currently use as my media center. It already has 1 120mm fan attached, with another ready to go on if/when it is needed.

Let me know what you think. Things I am not sure about: mobo (but its an open box, so seems like a steal), GPU (no preference between nvidia or AMD, so idgaf, which ever is the best for the money. Also I usually buy a cheap GPU because it is such an easy upgrade, in 1 year I can get another one for $125 that will be 5x better than this one), I'm pretty sure that's a baller SSD, but if you know a better one let me know.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...2cWtXQlE#gid=0

Thanks for any feedback.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Describe your level of need concerning gaming performance:

A: I play farmville.

B: I enjoy a game of Portal or Team Fortress 2 in the evenings. I was the inspiration for this comic.

C: I'll probably pick up a copy of (name of some upcoming new game) when it's released in December.

D: I 4M 133T G4M3RZ!

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

Probably somewhere between B and C. But my recent gaming has been DayZ and Arma, which take quite a bit of power to run. Then of course Arma 3 and the DayZ standalone will be coming out soon. So we will say about 80% C, 20% B.

Oh, forgot to mention in the OP that I already have a 1TB HDD in the media center PC that I will be using (also the case from that box because why not). So that saves me a bit of money.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

My standard recommendation for an I5-k goes here. Joe and I have both had extremely good luck with Intel motherboards as well - YMMV.

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

Good call. I only saw the i5 k that was sandy bridge, so I didn't pick it. But they do have an Ivy Bridge one (like $40 more than the one I picked out) so I will probably go with that.

Anyone have any GPU opinions? What's the best one for under $150 or so? Again I am not too worried because I plan on picking up a new one if (lets be honest, when) this one will no longer cut it. I bought a GT 520 or something for $30 a few months ago for that media center PC, and on paper it outperforms the current GPU I am using in my laptop (ATI 5730).

I looked at the Intel motherboards they have available. They seem to be very competitively priced. This one doesn't have the bells and whistles of that open-box one, but I will probably go with it instead. Any thoughts on that? Otherwise I will be getting this soon.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Honestly, the performance difference between otherwise equivalent processors of Sandy Bridge vs. Ivy Bridge just isn't all that meaningful if you operate both at the same clock speed.

As an example, the i5-3350P (Ivy Bridge, 3.10 Ghz) scores a combined Passmark rating of 6431. The i5-2380P (Sandy Bridge, 3.10 ghz) gets a Passmark score of 6358. They are functionally identical in terms of computational performance.

Yes, there are some differences between them, but I can't see these being of great importance to you. Just steer clear of the old Clarkdale processors (or anything else with an LGA1156 footprint) and you'll be fine. (For what it's worth, my big gaming PC has a Clarkdale i5 in it, and it runs just fine.)




For the most part, see my video card thread from a few months ago: https://www.miataturbo.net/gaming-91...-thread-66850/

Folks offered lots of useful advice in that thread. I wound up ignoring all of it, as the video card fairy fluttered by and dropped a used GTX 280 in my lap for free, but up until that point all of the advice was solid and useful.

Don't cheap out here, and don't buy something with the intention of throwing it away and replacing it with something else a year from now. Why waste money buying a video card twice? Just man up and plunk down the money for a card that'll rock your world today, and still be perfectly adequate 2 or 3 years down the road.

In other words, buy this: Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX560 DC/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $170 outright, $150 after rebate. If you don't want to screw with rebates, buy it from here for $155: FRYS.com-|-ASUS


Looks good to me. That one supports 32GB of RAM, and has more awesome in it than you're likely to ever need. It really is hard to go wrong with an Intel board. And I don't mean that figuratively. Intel has an official policy that if you are dissatisfied with the performance of any retail-boxed Intel motherboard during the warranty period, not only will they fix it, but they will send a local college cheerleader to your house, dressed as the videogame character of your choice, to give you a ******* WHILE they are fixing it.

What other manufacturer makes that kind of commitment to quality and customer satisfaction?

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

lol, **** it, I will just go with 1 2 4 of these: Newegg.com - ASUS GTX690-4GD5 GeForce GTX 690 4GB 512-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Ok, list updated. New badder-*** GPU:

XFX Core Edition FX-785A-ZNFC Radeon HD 7850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - $179 (the Asus version of the 7850 is ~$40 more and has 2GB onboard ram, which IMO is overkill but I want to make sure)

New mobo:
Intel BOXDH67BLB3 LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - $89

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K - $229

I totally forgot about something, though. I was planning on using the coolest benefit in the world, which is that we can spend up to $2500 a year on personal PC equipment and have it taken out of our checks tax-free and interest free for 12 months. The problem is, I am also trying to buy a house. And this will surely **** up my chances of an easy process, so I will have to call my mortgage broker before I pull the trigger. Goddammit, if it wasn't for this stupid house I would already have a new cell phone (can't cancel my contract, it would hurt my credit) and maybe a new PC. I need a house soon (with a garage of course).

Thanks for the help Joe, I am basically dealing with what you did a few months ago. "WTF is a cuda core and why do I need 1000 of them?"

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Probably fine. Radeon (AMD) vs. GeForce (nVidia) is kind of Ford vs. Chevy.


Also fine. Overkill, in fact, unless you feel that you're likely to expand beyond 8GB of RAM.



Overkill, although we're only talking about $30-$40 difference.


How the hell does that work? I mean, regardless of whether you're receiving money or computer hardware, you still need to pay tax on it. If you win a new computer as a door prize you have to pay tax on it.


I am totally confused by this concept.

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

That's what I figured. I can't say I am happy with the AMD catalyst control center, it takes me about 15 minutes to find the overscan setting, and it took about 2 hours to just upgrade the damn driver. But this is a pretty unanimous pick for best deal in the ~$220 range, so if I can get one for $180 then its a win.

I will definitely expand beyond 8GB of ram. It's so cheap that it was tempting to go for 16GB right off the bat. I play around with VMs enough that it does make it worth it. Gotta be able to have 100 tabs of google chrome open at once right?

I will pay a bit for the smaller core size, which usually means AT LEAST cooler and less power usage than the equivalent larger core size, if not an increase in performance.

lol, I will explain it once I figure it out.

I probably need to figure out how to pay state sales tax on it (something that I have never done on a online computer purchase, come at me IRS). But I think the way that it works is that my work gets to count it as a benefit instead of part of my salary, so they can probably get away with not paying the payrol tax on it, which means that interest free loan becomes a pretty good deal for them. I probably have to pay federal income tax on it in April like it is a bonus, but I have no idea. That's what I am trying to figure out.

Well, I am already pre-approved. So conventional knowledge says don't take (or even pay off) any debt until everything is done, as buying a home is a difficult enough process without messing with your credit history. I asked if it would be OK to cancel my cell phone contract and move to a pay-as-you-go plan (tmobile $30 unlimited internet plan FTW), and my broker said not to. I don't understand this crazy financial ****. I am a computer scientist, just show me the computer model used to calculate my credit score and then I can figure it out on my own. We need a FOSS movement in the financial industry.

ssublime

thats a pretty nice set up you have planned. I built my pc right before the sockets came out and i went with 1336 i7 760. it was such over kill. i used it for WoW at the time and now i just use it to **** around on inventor and 3ds max once in a blue moon. also i am jealous of how much prices have dropped.

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

So, update time.

I got everything together last night, and it boots, but it gets stuck before I can get into the BIOS setup screen.

Apperantly the DH67 needs to be updated before it can handle my Ivy Bridge awesomeness, so I get to ***** myself out for a Sandy Bridge 1155 proc so I can update it.

I was really hoping to have this thing running by tomorrow, but it looks like that probably won't happen. Unless one of my workmates has an extra Sandy Bridge CPU lying around (which is actually quite possible).

G3RG

Should've bought a z77 chipset motherboard(or h77 if you're going to be a ***** and not overclock).

Also Intel motherboards suck.

In the short term, pick up one of these to update your bios: Celeron G530

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, that's what I am thinking. But first I am going to spam everyone at work to see if I can borrow one from them.

Looks like Fry's has that for $50 also, I can pick one up during lunch.

But there are so many things I need to try before that, I haven't tried it without the video card plugged in, I haven't tried it after unplugging the SSD and only running an HDD.

Now I have to decide if I want to just throw $50 at it and hope that fixes it...

G3RG

It's a pretty common issue that a H67, P67, or z68 board won't work without an update with IB cpus. I wouldn't be surprised at all if that's the issue.

718 of 4000

+1

95% guaranteed that that is your problem

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

So rather than spend $50 on a one-time-use Celeron, I just bought a new mobo.

MSI Z77: FRYS.com | MSI

Live and learn.

No offense guys, but next time I am going to r/buildapc rather than miataturbo.net next time I need to build a computer

G3RG

Now you need to overclock it

I have a 3570k myself, overclocked to 4.8ghz.

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

Jesus. I might just do that, since I bought a badass CPU cooler not knowing that I got a Retail chip rather than an OEM one. So rather than send that back/sell it, I should just throw it on there and shoot for the stars.

Eventually. For now I just want to get it running/get ArmaII installed to play a mission this weekend.

718 of 4000

Now that I'm here (and active), you don't have to visit that horrible site

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

Holy **** this thing is fast.

**** me, now I am going to hate my life at work using a slow *** HDD.

It seriously is at the login screen by the time my monitor realizes that the HDMI is active again and comes out of sleep mode. This is gonna be fun.

One thing I forgot, I was using my laptop mic for teamspeak and ingame chat and such, now I have to go get another mic.