The inevitable 'build me a computer' advice thread >_<

Ferrari2007 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Perhaps a silly question but would I be able to
> run GP4 with this PC, or could there be potential
> problems?


It doesn't run on mine. It runs for about 30 seconds then CTD when you try to view a replay. It has done this with every version of Windows since Vista. I currently have 64-bit Win 7 and it doesn't work with that.

I'm sure there may be a patch or something to fix that but I moved on and like Gav haven't bothered with it for years.

Actually since November last year I've only been playing one game, which is Skyrim.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2012 03:18PM by loque.

Cheers for the advice guys

Fortunately I have a ac.uk address so that sounds good

I'll have to ask in the GP4 section in regards to whether I would be able to run it or not

---

Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

GP4 works for me on W7 64-bit (it's a little unstable but not much more so than it's always been)

---

Batracer - the online racing manager game - join here [batracer.com]

I don't think anything can beat this when it comes to value for the money:

[www.bestbuy.com]

[www.bestbuy.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2012 08:47AM by Guimengo.

Ok, now I am posting here with serious purpose. I would like to get a very good gaming rig and I'll need a monitor (between 20-23" should do it). I've sold games and other things I own for about $500 total on Amazon and e-Bay, so my budget will be $700-900. I don't need Office as my laptop will be the work place for anything Word/Powerpoint related so I don't need to spend another $190. What I am looking for:

- 320-500 GB of HDD space
- Very good motherboard
- I've never played any games in a higher than 1440x900 resolution (and to be honest, except for GPL and maybe default RBR nothing has run on anything higher than medium settings at 1024x768) so I'd like to change that to something that can run full or very high settings in very high resolution. I may not be getting Battlefield or the such but I'd like to be able to run directX11 games and future games in excellent eye candy settings.
- Basic keyboard and mouse will be fine
- Case can be as basic as possible, I just would like something that would allow me to upgrade parts and provide proper cooling

The main purchasing sources can be [www.newegg.com] , [www.amazon.com] , [www.frys.com] , and [www.bestbuy.com] , listed from most likely to have item in stock/better price to least likely.

I can't think of much more at the moment other than to thank any possible helpers for your time. I saw a monster setup online by some guy but it would come to about $1,675... and if I purchased all bits separately it would have come to the same as he was charging. Anyway, terrible month of December and January for me .



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2012 03:50AM by Guimengo.

I'd like to add an HDMI output and a wifi if possible.

I play Gp4 on Win 7 64 bit. I do not remember having one ctd on it ever. XP, yes, a Lot. Maybe I'm just lucky, but win7 is not the source of the issue when unable to play gp4.

Gui, seeing your posts here and on the VT forums, I will come up with something eventually. You've caught me at the wrong time. I've been setting up the photo studio at work, I've got a @#$%&-load of stuff to do this weekend and I've got the actual studio shoot next week (and all the associated stuff that goes with it, and my bread and butter job, and then all the editing of photos of 100 people which will last a couple of weeks). If I find time this weekend I'll cook something up, but other than that, what Dave suggested on VT looked good (PSU excepted, see below) if it fits in your budget - though he's right - you'll not get ultra graphics settings in a recent game on your budget - the top graphics cards alone cost some $900.

You'll want to change the PSU to something better though. The one Dave included is little better than the one that set fire to his house.

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gui, seeing your posts here and on the VT forums,
> I will come up with something eventually. You've
> caught me at the wrong time. I've been setting up
> the photo studio at work, I've got a @#$%&-load of
> stuff to do this weekend and I've got the actual
> studio shoot next week (and all the associated
> stuff that goes with it, and my bread and butter
> job, and then all the editing of photos of 100
> people which will last a couple of weeks). If I
> find time this weekend I'll cook something up, but
> other than that, what Dave suggested on VT looked
> good (PSU excepted, see below) if it fits in your
> budget - though he's right - you'll not get ultra
> graphics settings in a recent game on your budget
> - the top graphics cards alone cost some $900.
>
> You'll want to change the PSU to something better
> though. The one Dave included is little better
> than the one that set fire to his house.


Thanks Gav. Setting fire to my place wouldn't be too bad, inside my apartment can get to around 0 Celsius without heating.

So this is the 1st draft, obviously your edits and suggestions will be very welcome!

Amazon
Mobo - Asus M5A78-M (AM3+/DDR3) - $59.99
RAM - Corsair 2x4GB DDR3 - $55.24 - though there were apparently the same models that were a little more expensive
GFX - Asus GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB - $199 - though there were several models that looked the same but were $249 so I am a bit confused
CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 960T - $114.99
HDD SATA - Werstern Digital 320 WD3200AAKX - $59.99
DVD-RW SATA - Asus 24xDVD±RW Drive - $22.88
PSU - Corsair Builder Series CX600 - $69.99
Windows - Home Premium - $99.99

Price so far without Case/Monitor/Keyboard - $683.06

Monitor - ASUS VS Series VS247H-P Black 23.6" - $159.99 with a discount until Jan. 26. Don't know much about monitors though. On Amazon it's for $184.99 and the total goes to $868.05 but still missing a case.


NewEgg is offering this combo [www.newegg.com]
Case - Rosewill DESTROYER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower $49.99
Motherboard - ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX $64.99
CPU - AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ $199.99
RAM - [www.newegg.com] $49.99
HDD - Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $84.99 (what does this bare drive mean?)
PSU - CORSAIR CX600 V2 $69.99
Anti-virus Kaspersky 2012 (part of package) - [www.newegg.com] $39.99

Total is $520 (excluding A-V) but the combo price is $460.99, so adding the monitor, GFX card, CD/DVD, and Windows 7 ($99.99) it would be $985.95 though it does have a bigger HDD and a more expensive CPU (more $ doesn't mean better though). I haven't checked these different items (Mobo, CPU, HDD) on Amazon yet.


Edit:
Had the same setup on Amazon (except for CPU) and the very total with shipping would be $1,059.38 vs $976.62 at Newegg but of course this will change with revisions, especially when it comes to the monitor.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2012 06:23AM by Guimengo.

Copy/paste from VT for reference:

Don't bother with the Zambezi processor. If you're going to spend that much on the CPU then go for an Intel Sandy Bridge setup, otherwise stick with the Phenom II X4.

The Zambezi will find its place eventually, but currently it's a bit rubbish.

Regarding the Nvidia product line, there are three 560s. The basic 560, the 560 Ti and the 560 Ti 448. Check out some reviews to find out which offers you the best value for money as there's quite a difference between the three. In the meantime, send some hate mail to whichever PR guru at Nvidia who thought three completely different cards carrying the same product name was a good idea.

Parts have been ordered, thank you Gav!

- ACER 23" LED monitor
- Intel Core i5-2310 Sandy Bridge 3.2GHz Turbo Boost
- MSI H61M-E23 HDMI Motherboard
- Western Digital Caviar Blue 500Gb HDD
- Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB DDR3 SDRAM
- SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W PSU
- SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner SH-222AL/BSBS
- GIGABYTE GV-N560UD-1G GeForce GTX 560 Ti
- WiFi adapter TP-LINK TL-WN822N
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Slight chance of it all arriving this Friday!

:D

Here's my latest thoughts, Gav. A little over my budget at £850 but hey... I'm not going on holiday this year.....

Coolermaster Elite 430 All Black Interior Mid Tower Case with Side Window 233740 10 in stock £38.54 £38.54
Sony Multicard Reader/Writer - SD and Memory Stick 239567 9 in stock £4.91 £4.91
Corsair 600W CX Series V2 PSU - 6x SATA 2x PCI-E 269259 60 in stock £52.74 £52.74
80mm Black Case Fan - 3pin Connector - Screws Included 023880 444 in stock £1.32 £1.32
LG BH10LS38 10x BD-RW with DVD±RW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA Blu-Ray Drive - Retail Black 290171 48 in stock £67.98 £67.98
Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard 276562 94 in stock £78.80 £78.80
Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 252535 12 in stock £246.87 £246.87
Be Quiet Shadow Rock Pro Socket Intel 775 1155 1156 1366 AMD AM2 AM2+ AM3 754 939 940 Processor Cooler 285868 44 in stock £32.99 £32.99
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1866Mhz Memory Kit CL9 262585 55 in stock £64.00 £64.00
Microsoft Arc Keyboard 189927 10 in stock £30.26 £30.26
WD 500GB Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s - 7200RPM 16MB Cache 241715 25 in stock £61.00 £61.00
Gigabyte Super GTX 560 Ti 448 Core 1280MB DDR5 DVI HDMI DP PCI-E Graphics Card 320707 35 in stock £222.86 £222.86

Cart total inc vat: £902.27

That was no holds barred, though.

Nice balanced set up. I'd tweak a few things, but that's a solid build.

One thing to note about Sandy Bridge - it's due to be replaced by Ivy Bridge at the end of the month, and it should be a like-for-like replacement, some even saying that Ivy Bridge will come in a little cheaper.

Assuming the 80mm fan is for the case, swap it for a 120mm one. An 80mm fan will make far more noise to push the same amount of air. The case has a front 120mm fan, and plenty of places for exhaust fans - though a single exhaust above the motherboard would probably be fine.

Basing the following on the Sandy Bridge processors, drop the 2600K down to a 2500K, and don't bother going for the K versions if you don't intend overclocking. The 2600 and 2500 are basically the same processor (the 2600 has a touch more cache than the 2500), but I'll guarantee you won't notice the difference in 0.1GHz. It'll save you £60. The 2400 is still a fantastic processor if you want to save another £15-20.

Save a few quid and get another graphics card too. Same chip, but different brand - the monstrously thick but apparently fantastic ASUS DirectCU II. Of course, the bigger it is, the more cooling performance you can drag out of it, and this seems to be about as good as it gets without water.

Personally, for the PSU I'd for for the Seasonic-based Antec HCG-520. Or push the budget another £20-30 and get a modular PSU, such as the cracking value XFX XXX Edition 650w, also Seasonic-based.

It's just a shame hard drive prices are still sky-high. This time last year that hard drive would have been half that price.

Wow, I haven't been here in ages!

Unfortunately for Gav, I've got a tiny-winy question regarding my current setup. I've got a Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 motherboard which currently has 2x1GB OCZ PC2 6400 DDR2 (4-4-4-15) RAM on it. I'm upgrading to Win7 32Bit (PC is for parents so 64bit isn't big on the agenda), which of the RAM sticks from scan (http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/memory-ram/ddr2-pc6400-(800mhz)) would you recommend for a max ram of 4GB?

Hope you can help,

Thanks,

Monil.

Edit: Won't be overclocking.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2012 08:27PM by Monza972.

The speed won't really won't make much difference, as the motherboard should adjust the timings and the speed down to that of the slowest stick (which would be your current OCZ RAM), and Intel processors don't ramp well with tighter timings or speed increases - AMD processors do, especially the A series if you're using the built-in graphics, but it makes little difference with recent Intel chips. You could have happily used the 533MHz RAM and not noticed a difference.

Just get the Corsair 2x1GB kit. The other stuff (the 'branded' stick) would likely be fine if you really wanted to save £4 (chances are the memory chips themselves come from one of 2 manufacturers, both of which are highly reputable), but Corsair apparently have a decent RMA procedure should you need to send them back to them and they have a "lifetime warranty".

Ideally you'd have matching RAM, as some old boards tended to be picky if you mixed double-sided and single-sided RAM, but they're generally a lot more compatible now, and as Scan's RAM selection is primitive at best and OCZ have finished manufacturing RAM, you'd have to be seriously unlucky for the Corsair stuff not to work fine with your existing OCZ.

Hi, thanks for getting back to me

I don't mind paying a little extra just so that both the sticks are of the same brand. I did compare the one that you suggested and this. Both of them look different but spec wise are exactly the same so don't mind paying the £50 so that I can get both as the same brand (since OCZ have stopped making ram) and timings so that it doesn't cause any issues.

What is your opinion on that?

You won't ever know which sort of sticks you're buying unless you can find the exact model of OCZ memory that you currently have (the series number is usually on the sticks).

Seriously, the chances of them not playing along nicely is next to zero these days. If you've got doubts, stick the new sticks in and run Memtest86+ from a CD or USB stick for a few hours. If no errors occur, then you're good to go. If you want to be really, really sure, leave it to run for a day, but that's bordering on OCD.

Platinum Revision 2 is the series that I've got installed in my system atm. I've compared the one I posted, you posted and what I have in my system and again are just similar.

I'll go with the one you suggest. If it doesn't want to work, I'll RMA it and get these to make life simpler for me.