Looking for advice on computer build
- Thread starter WeedCali
- Start date
seems like that's always how it happens, aint it? one brand either just doesn't or is the only one that does work for a person with hdd's. oh, well.
p.s. ... my last brand new seagate lasted 3 months... rarely used and external... i was so frustrated to lose a tb of info i didn't even bother calling seagate or the seller.
email address with the school...
for another $50 the radeon 5770 will be more than worth the investment. the card you're looking at now will be outdated very soon... and almost useless... http://www.google.com/products/cata...efLqbs2wTKm8zZBA&sa=title&ved=0CAcQ8wIwADgA#p
board looks fine... ddr3 for board memory is perfect.
nice processor
windows 7... seller is new... i might pass...
no used hdd... ever in my pc's
there should be a trick or two with getting your wireless working. first step is to wire up and do all your updates. then you check your drivers. usually there is something in the list that will work. you might have to turn your restricted extras on as well as accept third party drivers and protected software on to get them. if not it's a manual install most likely through the terminal.
i don't mind lucid... karmic was the best so far imo, but compiz is nice once it's functional... ahhh, multitasking. :headbang2:
Dont really feel like spending that much on a video card. plus that 4850 i posted might work. plus you have to understand, i dont need the latest and greatest. That 4670 is easily 5x better than what i have and will suit me just fine for plenty long.
The used HDD has been ruled out. and windows 7 from ebay ended. however, theres still time left on the 1TB drive for 40.11 plus 6.99 shipping.
The used HDD has been ruled out. and windows 7 from ebay ended. however, theres still time left on the 1TB drive for 40.11 plus 6.99 shipping.
my point is gddr3 is bordering on legacy... and the 5770 is a phenomenal upgrade at a very reasonable price that most likely will add 2 yrs of use to your purchase right out of the box. i still see the 4800 series cards going for ~$500 which, imo is ridiculous. i must say, though the performance on them is absolutely astounding and would be appreciated by any aficionado be he into gaming, image or music editing. when you can't click fast enough to keep the thing working you'll never want to go back!
at any rate, a while back i built a system for a buddy of mine. stats:
cooler master storm sniper case
prudent way superior plus 1000 watt psu with active pfc
amd phenom II quad core 3.2gb 965 black box
his 4890 radeon
4gb kingston ram (he chose a 32 bit os)
msi 790fx gd70 board
lite on blu ray player/lightscribe/dvd burner 52X's LG cd burner (to save on wear on the bluray drive)
2 - 1tb western digital green drives (one for windows, one for linux)
wireless card from walmart (best price, and local) (plus he already had it)
24" samsung 1920x1200 resolution flat screen ($300 cheaper than the competition, great detail and the pc already had more peripheral connections than one would ever need)
bose pc speakers... $60 at sams club and a great alternative to his 2000watt stereo unit he uses most of the time... the bose speakers afford him the ability to hear sound from his pc past 10
m while still not having the cops knock on his door for disturbing the peace.
ati tv wonder 650hd pcie
and his other peripherals... card reader, gaming controllers, etc., etc..
vista ultimate (windows 7 was released like 2 weeks later, argh... dummy... oh, err...)
i can click all day on this thing... and never slow it down. i don't agree with some of the purchases because almost nothing was more than a week or two on the market... which only costs 5x's as much while giving maybe a 2% increase in total performance.
either way... it's your pc. if you want to go with a lesser graphics card it surely should work for you. one thing that bothers me is even the 4800 series ati cards still aren't up to date as they don't support direct-x11. the 5770 is the first ati card that does... so, unless you're going with that or newer from ati you're already getting somewhat outdated hardware. my buddy was kind of peeved immediately when we got his pc together because his card was outdated the day it hit the market (the day he bought it)... and he was already looking to upgrade, but there was nothing to upgrade to.
there's nothing wrong with only getting what you need but i see no reason to spend $70 now and again every 2 years or so when you can get a card that's 2 years newer now for the same overall price. if anything i would get it together and check again on prices for graphics cards. it might just be worth it.
keep in mind... i'm not really trying to push you to buy a more expensive card... just sharing my opinion (maybe i shouldn't come off so pushy then, i know... but that's just how i communicate... it seems that way usually, sorry).
either way, enjoy your new pc... you've made some great choices performance and price wise. starting that bad boy up the first time (once you've installed your os) should be a great experience... i know i'm geeked just thinking about it. all the while i'm typing on my xps m1530... nice system, but getting to be a dinosaur imo.
at any rate, a while back i built a system for a buddy of mine. stats:
cooler master storm sniper case
prudent way superior plus 1000 watt psu with active pfc
amd phenom II quad core 3.2gb 965 black box
his 4890 radeon
4gb kingston ram (he chose a 32 bit os)
msi 790fx gd70 board
lite on blu ray player/lightscribe/dvd burner 52X's LG cd burner (to save on wear on the bluray drive)
2 - 1tb western digital green drives (one for windows, one for linux)
wireless card from walmart (best price, and local) (plus he already had it)
24" samsung 1920x1200 resolution flat screen ($300 cheaper than the competition, great detail and the pc already had more peripheral connections than one would ever need)
bose pc speakers... $60 at sams club and a great alternative to his 2000watt stereo unit he uses most of the time... the bose speakers afford him the ability to hear sound from his pc past 10
m while still not having the cops knock on his door for disturbing the peace.ati tv wonder 650hd pcie
and his other peripherals... card reader, gaming controllers, etc., etc..
vista ultimate (windows 7 was released like 2 weeks later, argh... dummy... oh, err...)
i can click all day on this thing... and never slow it down. i don't agree with some of the purchases because almost nothing was more than a week or two on the market... which only costs 5x's as much while giving maybe a 2% increase in total performance.
either way... it's your pc. if you want to go with a lesser graphics card it surely should work for you. one thing that bothers me is even the 4800 series ati cards still aren't up to date as they don't support direct-x11. the 5770 is the first ati card that does... so, unless you're going with that or newer from ati you're already getting somewhat outdated hardware. my buddy was kind of peeved immediately when we got his pc together because his card was outdated the day it hit the market (the day he bought it)... and he was already looking to upgrade, but there was nothing to upgrade to.
there's nothing wrong with only getting what you need but i see no reason to spend $70 now and again every 2 years or so when you can get a card that's 2 years newer now for the same overall price. if anything i would get it together and check again on prices for graphics cards. it might just be worth it.
keep in mind... i'm not really trying to push you to buy a more expensive card... just sharing my opinion (maybe i shouldn't come off so pushy then, i know... but that's just how i communicate... it seems that way usually, sorry).
either way, enjoy your new pc... you've made some great choices performance and price wise. starting that bad boy up the first time (once you've installed your os) should be a great experience... i know i'm geeked just thinking about it. all the while i'm typing on my xps m1530... nice system, but getting to be a dinosaur imo.
Little late to the party, but... couple things.
1. OCZ's power supplies are crap. I could go into detail about why (and if anyone is curious, I will) but the cliff's notes version is that the sticker that says "500w" on a power supply isn't worth its weight in horse manure. There are no laws governing how power supply output is rated, and manufacturers can and do stretch the truth and outright lie about what their units can do. You can do worse than OCZ, but you can do a LOT better. Pick up a Corsair, XFX, or Seasonic unit. 550-650w will be more than sufficient (overkill, actually) for that system if the PS in question is actually capable of doing that wattage, which won't be a problem for any Corsair (preferably the HX series), XFX or Seasonic unit you get.
2. Forget about the Radeon 4xxx series. dun is right, the 5770 is the card to get. If you don't want to spend that kind of money, pick up a 5750, 5670 or 5650. The 56xxs will likely be slower than a 4850, but you just said you don't need that much speed and there are other advantages to getting a 5xxx card-mainly power consumption, dx11 support and eyefinity.
3. Dump the POS Seagate drive. After the whole 7200.11/ES.2 firmware issue a few years back I refuse to use them. I've found Western Digital's drives to be considerably more reliable; in fact, I won't use anything but WD or Hitachi (and I only use Hitachi's server drives), either at home or in the machines on my network at work. Specifically, pick up a 1TB Caviar Blue instead, and don't buy a used drive. That's just asking for trouble.
4. Case fans. The Tt case you're looking at is nice enough, but it comes with only one fan, and the fan it comes with is a piece of crap. I can make specific recommendations for fans if you can give me an idea of how quiet you want this machine to be, but at the very least you need to put a 120mm fan in the front of the machine as an intake for the hard drive, and not filling out the two 120mm mounts in the top of the case with a couple more exhaust fans would be a foolish thing to do.
5. Throw a decent CPU heatsink at it too; I built a system for one of our optical CMMs a few weeks ago with a 1055T in it. The stock heatsink belongs in the round file, not in a computer. Expect to spend $30-40 for a decent replacement; this occasionally comes up for sale at $20 at Fry's and it can't be beat at that price. This was very popular a few years back and will still handle an X6 with no problem. It's not the best hsf on the market anymore but it'll be a huge improvement over the stock heatsink. These are good as well; I have one on the X6 on the CMM. The included fan is awful (I replaced it), but it'll be good enough if you don't want to spend the money for a decent fan. This or this would work fine, too. Just don't use the stock heatsink.
1. OCZ's power supplies are crap. I could go into detail about why (and if anyone is curious, I will) but the cliff's notes version is that the sticker that says "500w" on a power supply isn't worth its weight in horse manure. There are no laws governing how power supply output is rated, and manufacturers can and do stretch the truth and outright lie about what their units can do. You can do worse than OCZ, but you can do a LOT better. Pick up a Corsair, XFX, or Seasonic unit. 550-650w will be more than sufficient (overkill, actually) for that system if the PS in question is actually capable of doing that wattage, which won't be a problem for any Corsair (preferably the HX series), XFX or Seasonic unit you get.
2. Forget about the Radeon 4xxx series. dun is right, the 5770 is the card to get. If you don't want to spend that kind of money, pick up a 5750, 5670 or 5650. The 56xxs will likely be slower than a 4850, but you just said you don't need that much speed and there are other advantages to getting a 5xxx card-mainly power consumption, dx11 support and eyefinity.
3. Dump the POS Seagate drive. After the whole 7200.11/ES.2 firmware issue a few years back I refuse to use them. I've found Western Digital's drives to be considerably more reliable; in fact, I won't use anything but WD or Hitachi (and I only use Hitachi's server drives), either at home or in the machines on my network at work. Specifically, pick up a 1TB Caviar Blue instead, and don't buy a used drive. That's just asking for trouble.
4. Case fans. The Tt case you're looking at is nice enough, but it comes with only one fan, and the fan it comes with is a piece of crap. I can make specific recommendations for fans if you can give me an idea of how quiet you want this machine to be, but at the very least you need to put a 120mm fan in the front of the machine as an intake for the hard drive, and not filling out the two 120mm mounts in the top of the case with a couple more exhaust fans would be a foolish thing to do.
5. Throw a decent CPU heatsink at it too; I built a system for one of our optical CMMs a few weeks ago with a 1055T in it. The stock heatsink belongs in the round file, not in a computer. Expect to spend $30-40 for a decent replacement; this occasionally comes up for sale at $20 at Fry's and it can't be beat at that price. This was very popular a few years back and will still handle an X6 with no problem. It's not the best hsf on the market anymore but it'll be a huge improvement over the stock heatsink. These are good as well; I have one on the X6 on the CMM. The included fan is awful (I replaced it), but it'll be good enough if you don't want to spend the money for a decent fan. This or this would work fine, too. Just don't use the stock heatsink.
not for $81 with 15 mins left. not for $81, period. you can get a coolermaster 750 for $70 new....
lol i let that auction slip right by me! and it was new. i did see coolermaster PSUs but wasnt sure how reliable they are.
