Computer Q's

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July 3, 2010 - 2:51am

Skitter302

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Computer Q's

I'm Building a computer and I have Qs

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz
CORSAIR 750W Power Supply
LITE-ON Super Drive
GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
PNY GeForce GTS 250
Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB
Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB)

I'm just looking for a good gaming computer around a $1000

Through out the form you will find computer parts list that I have Qs about. All helping hands are welcome to join in.

July 3, 2010 - 3:48am

NathanJ79

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DIY

Do it yourself. Or, do you want a warranty? Newegg and Tiger Direct both sell computers that are pre-built.

If you build it yourself you can get way under $1000, and that includes case, monitor (flat panel widescreen LCD with 1080p, too), keyboard and mouse, and good enough gaming performance.

I heard the Athlon II X4 line is comparable to the Phenom IIs. I know that 955 will set you back about $170. There's an Athlon II with comparable specs for about $100. The biggest difference is, the Athlon II lacks an L3 cache. Do some research, if you can save a bit on your CPU, and put it into your graphics card, it'll do a ton for your gaming.

July 3, 2010 - 4:00pm

(Reply to #2) #3

Skitter302

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Money Saver

>Got the Flat screen
>Got the key board
>Need a new mouse for GamingWould love to stick with the Phenom II x4 955 or 965 for the L3 size

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July 5, 2010 - 2:14am

(Reply to #3) #4

Skitter302

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Last seen: 10 years 2 weeks ago

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Parts List

Gigtabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128416&cm_re=gi...
$140

AMD Phenom ii X4 965BL 3.4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727
$180

Western Digital VelociRaptor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136322
$190

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
$110

Rosewill Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147023
$40

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145278
$100

EVGA 01G-P3-N988-TR GeForce 9800 GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130534
$110

LITE-ON Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106276
$20

LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335
$26

Any tips or other recommendations are welcome.

Load the App and Play :evil:

July 5, 2010 - 3:13am

(Reply to #4) #5

NathanJ79

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Joined: 2007-07-31 15:07

Good job

Generally you have a pretty good build there. Nothing wrong, but a few thoughts:

1. Why a DVD-ROM drive? For $6 more you could have two burners. Burning the same thing twice at once is pretty cool. For the same price, even, you could have two other burners. I got a Samsung (TSSTCorp) burner for about $21 and it's fine, so far. If I bought two I'd be ahead of you in value and functionality (but that rig doesn't need two burners -- mine, I mean -- so it's a moot point).

2. You may want more RAM, for certain games. Then again, that mobo does have four slots. So you can go up to 8GB later.

3. Hard drive is expensive as hell, but it's a tricky time to buy storage. The VelociRaptor is a cool drive, but in real-world tests isn't worth its cost for the improvement it offers over a 7200RPM drives. Ditto for SSDs, but those will come down over time.

4. Video card may be a bit small. 1GB is impressive. Video card uses slow(er) RAM. Look for one with GDDR4 or GDDR5 (I'm assuming DDR3 is a typo). GDDR 5 cards are limited some way I can't remember, look at GDDR4. Might cost a bit more, but I don't think so. I was looking at a GDDR4 1GB card for about $120.

Overall, I'd drop the Phenom II for an Athlon II X4, drop the VelociRaptor for a nice 80GB 7200RPM drive and a 2TB drive (former for your OS, latter for everything else), and the DVD-ROM for another burner (or no second optical drive, but I assume you have a reason for wanting one). Also don't forget a memory card reader (they're like $15), those come in handy. But, that's just me, and what I'd do. But if you want best of the best and aren't willing to come down on the CPU or HDD, at least look into what I said about the video cards.

July 11, 2010 - 2:41am

(Reply to #5) #6

Skitter302

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Joined: 2009-01-30 22:51

Oh ya.

"1. Why a DVD-ROM drive? For $6 more you could have two burners. Burning the same thing twice at once is pretty cool. For the same price, even, you could have two other burners. I got a Samsung (TSSTCorp) burner for about $21 and it's fine, so far. If I bought two I'd be ahead of you in value and functionality (but that rig doesn't need two burners -- mine, I mean -- so it's a moot point)."

Good point I think I'll just ditch the the DVD-ROM drive and save a little now.

"3. Hard drive is expensive as hell, but it's a tricky time to buy storage. The VelociRaptor is a cool drive, but in real-world tests isn't worth its cost for the improvement it offers over a 7200RPM drives. Ditto for SSDs, but those will come down over time."

Good Point.

"4. Video card may be a bit small. 1GB is impressive. Video card uses slow(er) RAM. Look for one with GDDR4 or GDDR5 (I'm assuming DDR3 is a typo). GDDR 5 cards are limited some way I can't remember, look at GDDR4. Might cost a bit more, but I don't think so. I was looking at a GDDR4 1GB card for about $120."

* Thanks for the pointer I'll want to look in to the faster speed.

"Overall, I'd drop the Phenom II for an Athlon II X4, drop the VelociRaptor for a nice 80GB 7200RPM drive and a 2TB drive (former for your OS, latter for everything else), and the DVD-ROM for another burner (or no second optical drive, but I assume you have a reason for wanting one). Also don't forget a memory card reader (they're like $15), those come in handy. But, that's just me, and what I'd do. But if you want best of the best and aren't willing to come down on the CPU or HDD, at least look into what I said about the video cards."

The Phenom ii and Athlon ii are very comparable but i want the Phenom ii.

THKS

Load the App and Play :evil:

July 11, 2010 - 3:42pm

(Reply to #6) #7

3k000

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Joined: 2010-07-11 15:35

Build your self a custom PC

Build your self a custom PC It's not that hard...You have the freedom of using any components you like and you might even save some money.

For the video card, I choose anything thats on sale and costs about 200-300$ at tigerdirect.

July 11, 2010 - 8:28pm

(Reply to #7) #8

Skitter302

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Last seen: 10 years 2 weeks ago

Joined: 2009-01-30 22:51

I have a parts list on the way

I have a revized parts list on the way that is $1016.43 after shipping and combo deals. Also $45 mail in rebate.

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July 13, 2010 - 1:51am

(Reply to #8) #9

Skitter302

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Last seen: 10 years 2 weeks ago

Joined: 2009-01-30 22:51

The Parts

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727
$180

Rosewill Blackbone ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147023
$35

CORSAIR 750W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
$110

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145278
$96

LITE-ON Super Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335
$24

GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128416
$140

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116758
$140

PNY GeForce GTS 250
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133266
$130

OKGEAR 18" SATA 6 Gbps Cable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812123111
$2.50 ea (need 3)

Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074
$50

Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136161
$48

Rosewill RCR-IC001 40-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820223103
$8

Fellowes 99091 6 Feet 8 Outlets 1460 joules Mighty Surge Protector
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812132003
$14

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007
$10

Microsoft C8G-00004 Xbox 360 Common Controller
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826105082
$33

6 ft. HDMI TO HDMI A/V Cable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189053
$5

Am I missing any thing or need to exchange anything? Help/Tips Welcome

Load the App and Play :evil:

July 13, 2010 - 8:01am

(Reply to #9) #10

Vandrvekn

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Joined: 2009-01-17 19:30

Hard drives.

Is there a specific reason for the two Caviar Blue HDs? From both a performance and max storage standpoint, you would be better off getting a newer terabyte drive.

July 13, 2010 - 1:40pm

(Reply to #10) #11

Skitter302

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I do Have a Point

I use two Small hard drives because I don't need a TB. And two is faster than one.

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July 14, 2010 - 12:22am

(Reply to #11) #12

Skitter302

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OOps.

Edit: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145278
$96

Now: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231190
$92

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July 14, 2010 - 8:24am

(Reply to #12) #13

Vandrvekn

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Hard drive speeds.

I thought that two was only faster than one if they're in a RAID 0 array.

July 14, 2010 - 12:56pm

(Reply to #13) #14

Skitter302

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:| Raid Array

I don't remember right now but I think they are.

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July 15, 2010 - 9:09am

(Reply to #14) #15

Vandrvekn

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Hard drives.

I wouldn't think so. Most of the time, your computer is usually writing and reading from your c: drive. You can put programs on other drives, but a lot of windows programs write their settings back to the windows drive regardless.

When I build a PC, I generally use a single fast hard drive. I always partition it with a relatively small primary partition for windows and a large secondary partition for data. That way, if windows eats itself, I can reformat and reload without losing my data.

July 15, 2010 - 7:24pm

(Reply to #15) #16

Skitter302

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I'm Doing that Right now

I find that i can do more faster when I'm not running two partitions at the same time.

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July 16, 2010 - 11:38am

(Reply to #16) #17

Darkbee

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Virtual Memory

What about a dedicated drive for swap space? That's what I have... there's no virtual memory on any of the partitions on the disk that Windows is installed on, instead I have a dedicated drive just for virtual memory.

Probably not vastly faster but still every little helps I guess.

July 18, 2010 - 2:42pm

(Reply to #17) #18

Skitter302

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Vitrtual Memory

Windows 7 uses some space of your Hard Drive(s) already. And I need to install more RAM later any way.

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July 18, 2010 - 7:08pm

(Reply to #18) #19

NathanJ79

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Virtual memory = "swap space"

That's what he means. And you can configure which drive(s) are used for virtual memory. ("Swap" may be a Linux term; Windows calls it virtual memory, used to call it "the paging file" or "pagefile". All the same AFAIK.) You can also disable it if you have 2GB or more RAM, at least that was the standard in XP. It may/should be higher in Win7.

And yes, moving the pagefile to a drive other than C (drive, not partition) will improve read/write performance on the C drive, though noticeable results may vary.

July 19, 2010 - 8:15am

(Reply to #19) #20

Darkbee

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Probably not that significant, never tested

In all honesty I can't say I've ever benchmarked performance, logic just tells me that I should get better performance but I don't know if that performance increase would be noticeable. I suppose it depends on hardware, perhaps on older hardware it might be more noticiably obvious, although the bottleneck is still the disk IO bus. Although, in my case I'm using SATA for Windows and data, and PATA for Virtual Memory.

AFAIK, swap space, virtual memory and page file are basically interchangeable; they all amount to the same thing, using disk space in place of RAM. In addition, I don't think you necessarily need to be out of memory for your operating system to use virtual memory. I've never tried turning it off completely but I get the feeling that would not be the best choice for optimal performance even if you have a significant amount of RAM.

July 19, 2010 - 5:36pm

(Reply to #20) #21

Mir

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i have turned off SWAP on a

i have turned off SWAP on a linux box and had no issues. what caused massive headaches was moving the partition or moving it to a different drive.

July 20, 2010 - 8:25am

(Reply to #21) #22

Darkbee

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Windoze

I was thinking mainly about Windows... Linux is a different beast altogether. That doesn't mean that Linux can't benefit from using swap space though.

July 20, 2010 - 4:01pm

(Reply to #22) #23

Mir

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Joined: 2007-12-03 16:07

MACs

In my experience Mac suffered greatly in perfomance when Virtual Memory was turned off. this was highly noticable back when they where using the 68k and early PPC processors. Turning off Virtual Memory or not having the option to have Virtual Memory had a large impact on work.

July 21, 2010 - 2:38am

(Reply to #23) #24

Skitter302

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Great News

Looks like I'll be building mid September with spending some money to fix my TRX Rustler in the next week. woot. Or I could go down to the used car dealer and buy a 1991 F-150 4x4 for $900.
!$?!$
/ \
O O
^
_______ I hate choices.

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July 21, 2010 - 8:19am

#25

Darkbee

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Don't Do It!

You might be able to play MP3s on a Ford F-150, but I bet you can't play portable games! It's a no brainer dude... PCs get much better MPGs.

July 21, 2010 - 1:40pm

(Reply to #25) #26

Skitter302

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PC this year, Truck next year

I've wanted a PC longer than that truck so its a no brainier what to buy.

Load the App and Play :evil:

July 21, 2010 - 2:57pm

(Reply to #26) #27

Mir

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i'd go truck

but thats because i am saving up for a Cray and i need a truck to transport that :3

July 22, 2010 - 1:32am

(Reply to #27) #28

Skitter302

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Cray

You could wire you home w/ one of those. (OR get two and go Bill Gates)

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July 22, 2010 - 4:54pm

(Reply to #28) #29

Mir

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it could BE my home :3

and i would die a happy man!

August 3, 2010 - 1:49am

(Reply to #29) #30

Skitter302

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LAg Time

I'll Have a Update soon.

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August 3, 2010 - 4:12pm

(Reply to #30) #31

Mir

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Holy smakers!

One could get a Cray! Serious i just checked and one could order a Cray HPC for 15000USD. i kid you not! they also are selling a HPC though Dell. *o* Affordability for a deskside supercomputer has arrived!

August 4, 2010 - 2:23am

(Reply to #31) #32

Skitter302

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O_O

dude.

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August 4, 2010 - 3:04pm

(Reply to #32) #33

Mir

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Joined: 2007-12-03 16:07

WHOOO HOOOO

http://www.cray.com/Products/CX/Systems.aspx

 ______  _______            _______ _      __________ 
(  __  \(  ___  )  |\     /|  ___  ) (    /|__   __/ )
| (  \  ) (   ) |  | )   ( | (   ) |  \  ( |  ) (  | |
| |   ) | |   | |  | | _ | | (___) |   \ | |  | |  | |
| |   | | |   | |  | |( )| |  ___  | (\ \) |  | |  | |
| |   ) | |   | |  | || || | (   ) | | \   |  | |  (_)
| (__/  ) (___) |  | () () | )   ( | )  \  |  | |   _ 
(______/(_______)  (_______)/     \|/    )_)  )_(  (_)

August 4, 2010 - 8:36pm

(Reply to #33) #34

Skitter302

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Last seen: 10 years 2 weeks ago

Joined: 2009-01-30 22:51

(^)

POWER lots of power.

Load the App and Play :evil:

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