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Spring 2006, in anticipation for a deployment which didn't happen for me, I spit out $3500 for a gaming laptop. (feel free to ridicule at this point -- keep in mind that was a jolly-good-time to deploy to Iraq and I might as well have come back dead)

Anyway, of course, those things are just not good values. But what I got was a beast nonetheless. 17" 1920x1200 screen (it's STILL good, unlike everything else ), Core 2 Duo 2.16 ghz CPU 2mb cache, nVidia's 7900 Go, just about the fastest laptop GPU out there, 2 gig DDR Corsair RAM, a DVD/RW of so much speed (i forget) and a 100 gig, 7200 rpm HD, which believe it or not wasn't BAD for laptops back then. It could've been better but I had to account for another $1000 in shipping in taxes. (yes, this thing cost $4500 all told)

This was just a bad time to get into technology in retrospect. This kind've system pretty much muscled around CoD 1 (to include frapping at decent framerates and resolutions) but with the advent of Direct x 9 and CoD2, the next wave of games from the industry quickly outstripped this things ability to put out a product at that native resolution.

Long story short, I had to resort to using a monitor cause playing a windowed-game at 1920x1200 on a 17" gets to be eye-squintingly distant. I had to jack down the resolution for newer games and if I wanted to frap, jack it down some more and basically eliminate any extra graphical features. Also, it got to a point last year where I was patching CoD:WaW after a period of 5 months at Ft. Sam Houston without a landline connection and... ran out of space on my HD, through patches. I've uninstalled a bunch of games, and drivers and bought a 1TB external HD just to cope. Plus I got into (and out of, thankfully) a financial hole in 2009. This deployment's been gravy so far though and I can finally think about a replacement, 4 long years later. (I'm going on R&R in the middle of June, volcano's willing)

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So my questions, comments:

I'm going for a AMD Phenom-II X6-1090T Black Edition Processor, because I don't want to skimp on CPU on my 1st new desktop since 2005. (it turned into a hand-me-down to my buddy; I couldn't bring a desktop on a plane to Iraq and wouldn't want to mess with one anyway, hence the laptop) Since I'm not made of money, I don't plan on touching Intel, since their comparable products cost $200 more. Before someone screeches about so many cores, I do FRAP, (obviously while gaming) so I want some extra overhead and, really, fuck it, at a $300 price range, does it hurt to just have more?

After seeing some benchmarks to gauge the GTX 465... I've found it wanting, hot, and slow, so I plan to get an ATI 5870, probably from XFX, but that's based in part on what I heard of their warranties, I'm still researching this bit. I'm settling for 1 for now but plan on getting the 2nd with my tax break in 2011. (I'd ship it here but the internet's too damn slow to be of use)

I'll need Windows 7, preferably 64 bit. I'm not a super-high-speed-user so I probably don't need the... sexiest version, by any stretch. Newegg seems to have good prices but I'm open to suggestions.

Stuff like HD, RAM and disc drive are so ubiquitous I'm basically wiring my brother back in California cash to go out and buy this and a MoBo / case compatible with the aforementioned CPU. I really don't have to order those and I'm not trying to break the bank on peripherals, I just want to build a system in a quick manner so CoD4 looks like more than shit and I can think about buying better looking stuff than that. (hell, my laptop starts to clug on Defcon with all it's settings on at native resolution... it's that anemic 2.16 ghz cpu I imagine)

In it's current state (I'm thinking 4gig ram), an ATI 5870, and the Phenom 6-core CPU, what kind've PSU would be adequate, keeping in mind I plan to Crossfire later? Really my biggest concerns are PSU and a case (I trust my brother's experience in the latter) because this computer's temporary operational environment's gonna be a room back in the states which is on the sunny-side of an apartment and has no AC. It gets a touch warm back there and I need something stable and reliable... only so much can be done about ambient temperature.

(I prefer not to liquid cool, besides just not having any experience in it) I'm open to comments, will probably post real-world results in this same thread sometime in June (hopefully not July) and will bask in the glory for about a day, at which point I'll settle back into the countdown towards obsolescence.

(edit: put in date in opening, to avoid confusion. Added cpu in specs, fixed typo)

I'm not sure I actually see any questions in there. Though just to add insult to injury I feel compelled to point out I was able to buy a somewhat superior, but similarly configured gaming laptop two years ago for $1,200.

SPC Brungardt wrote:I'm going for a AMD Phenom-II X6-1090T Black Edition Processor, because I don't want to skimp on CPU on my 1st new desktop since 2005. (it turned into a hand-me-down to my buddy; I couldn't bring a desktop on a plane to Iraq and wouldn't want to mess with one anyway, hence the laptop) Since I'm not made of money, I don't plan on touching Intel, since their comparable products cost $200 more. Before someone screeches about so many cores, I do FRAP, (obviously while gaming) so I want some extra overhead and, really, fuck it, at a $300 price range, does it hurt to just have more?

The Core i7 860 might also be worth considering, as it's priced pretty similarly to the Phenom X6 1090T and will probably outperform the Phenom in all but a few specific usage cases.

In it's current state (I'm thinking 4gig ram), an ATI 5870, and the Phenom 6-core CPU, what kind've PSU would be adequate, keeping in mind I plan to Crossfire later? Really my biggest concerns are PSU and a case (I trust my brother's experience in the latter) because this computer's temporary operational environment's gonna be a room back in the states which is on the sunny-side of an apartment and has no AC. It gets a touch warm back there and I need something stable and reliable... only so much can be done about ambient temperature.

Two 5870s would require a LOT of power, and the Phenom is pretty power hungry itself. Probably best to play it safe and get one in the 1000W range, and make sure it has the proper PCIe power connectors (which I'm guessing would be 2x 8-pin and 2x 6-pin).

As for the OS, Windows 7 Home Premium should get the job done - unless you need the extra security features and Windows XP emulation, in which case you should go with Windows 7 Professional. Or if you just have more money than sense, in which case go with Windows 7 Ultimate.

If you are in the $300 CPU range, why not get an i7 920? It's almost identical in performance to a 1090T, even in threaded applications, and costs $30 less on Newegg. You'll need to get 3/6gig of memory for triple-channel though.

Nehalem/Lynnfield chips have a per-clock/per-core advantage over the latest phenoms, so performance wise the comparison is not really between a 1090T and a 960, say. For 1156, an i7 860 might be a good contender.

Also, a Radeon 5850 might be a better bet, price/performance wise.

Based on the 5850, 5870, & 5970's specs and price point, I already decided to go backwards to a 5850. I plan to just use that for a while... and hand it down to my brother after a future upgrade, probably to the big one. (I'll be getting a $1000 tax return next year cause I put aside that much this year -- there's only so much I could do with my tax return while in Iraq, I'd rather see it back stateside)

The one thing I really like about the AMD is potentially not having to worry about mobo incompatibilities in the future. Intel's all over the map on socket types but AMD's been somewhat sensible in retaining a socket so every new system isn't a ground-up project. I could blow more money than this but I don't want to (or need, really, it is a desktop) and I'm not looking to donate Microsoft $200. Are there any glaring shortcomings with just Home 64-bit Windows 7?

SPC Brungardt wrote: Are there any glaring shortcomings with just Home 64-bit Windows 7?

I use that at home and haven't noticed any significant issues at all; unless you use some weird legacy software it should be fine. If anything it's everything Vista should have been at launch.

General Zod wrote:

SPC Brungardt wrote: Are there any glaring shortcomings with just Home 64-bit Windows 7?

I use that at home and haven't noticed any significant issues at all; unless you use some weird legacy software it should be fine. If anything it's everything Vista should have been at launch.

That's very much the gist I've gotten from Windows 7 reviews and just mucking around on Vista on friends' machines. I've got a lot of miscellaneous mod programs for Starcraft but that's as much a hobby as anything else, it wouldn't break my heart to separate myself from that. The only real motivation to keep going with it was my system had so much trouble handling the newest stuff.

Oh and no offense taken, that's why I'm avoiding gaming laptops until WWIII. So hell and highwater basically.

If Chrome OS ever comes to fruition or whenever Android starts to saturate the tablet market, I might get a tablet if they fall in price enough. That'll be the most mobile computer I plan to get, and mostly for travel, perhaps GPS.

edit: stupid errors...

So I enlisted my brother ultimately to buy everything because of issues with my bank -- issues which will result in me banking with someone else probably -- and he did something both he and I supposed was a risk but couldn't be too bad.

He ordered from tigerdirect. I favored a vapor-x, sapphire card 5870, so of course, they ship a stock, reference 5870.... AND they remove the card he ordered from their displayed inventory, online. Any guess what they're gonna claim when we try to get that refund? Fucking assholes.

If someone posts a DEATHSTAR rolling eyes I'd be obliged to PayPal them some pocket change, I can't be arsed to google it and I fly out of this joint in 12 hours, I need sleep. And when I get to San Diego, a stiff drink.

But yeah, everything else is complete, Thuban (stuck to that largely due to a potentially forward-compatible socket type, if AMD obliges), 4gb ram, a back-wrenching 29lbs case for growth and cooling, a 128gb ssd boot- and 1tb 7200 rpm data-drive, plain-jane dvd drive, 850W PSU...and nominally a vapor-x 5870, 1gb, but yeah, that didn't work out too well. And Windows 7 Home Premium. Moving on to NewEgg!


PS - I've also gotten a broke-out-the-box GPU and MoBo from TigerDirect ... fucking years ago, late 2005. Nice to know their already sterling-reputation for fuckups in my mind hasn't changed one bit.