"Rate my Rig" thread

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-10-05 10:56am

Is that really what RAM costs in Australia? I can get 4 GB for about half that at Newegg. Can't you just have it shipped? Even if int'l shipping costs $50, you'd still be spending about half for 2 GB instead of 1. Everything else looks OK, although I don't know why people pay so much for motherboards when you can get a perfectly good one for less, but I'm sure you have your reasons. I'd try to get OEM versions of the MS software, though.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-10-05 11:00am

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:Is that really what RAM costs in Australia? I can get 4 GB for about half that at Newegg. Can't you just have it shipped? Even if int'l shipping costs $50, you'd still be spending about half for 2 GB instead of 1. Everything else looks OK, although I don't know why people pay so much for motherboards when you can get a perfectly good one for less, but I'm sure you have your reasons. I'd try to get OEM versions of the MS software, though.

Uh...this isn't me, this is for Stofsk.

I currently suggested he try looking for a cheaper motherboard with DDR2 RAM(notice he mentioned DDR3) but the rest looks fine. Thanks for the suggestion about OEM, I'll pass that on.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-05 07:07pm

I've talked to Ace about this, but that pricelist is just nuts for AU prices. 2GB of DDR is about AU$100-120. An 8600GTS is about AU$250. A 320GB drive is AU$100.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-10-13 04:17pm

Another question to the aussie members, stark, etc.

Stofsk: What is your recomondation for a " mid-range mother board to support DDR 2 RAM and if you can write more about "CPU" function ,purpose .

Ignoring the latter part, so find Stofsk a mobo.

DesertFly · Post by **DesertFly** » 2007-10-23 04:21am

Alright, I'm going from

Custom built PC

* Windows XP Pro (32-bit)
* Unknow[sic] Processor (1.4GHz)
* 256MB DDR SDRAM (1x256 (Supposedly paired, but one memory slot doesn't work))
* GeForce, 128MB something-er-other
* 30GB and 160GB hard drives
* DVD Drive and DVD-RW Drive
* Integrated sound

to

HP Pavilion d4995t customizable Desktop PC

* Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
* Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q6600 (2.4GHz)
* 3GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024,2x512)
* 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT, TV-out, DVI-I, HDMI
* 400GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
* LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
* 15-in-1 memory card reader, 3 USB, 1394, audio
* Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
* Norton Internet Security(TM) 2007 - 15 Months
* Microsoft(R) Office Home and Student Edition 2007
* HP keyboard and HP scroller mouse
* HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
* HP w1907 19-inch Widescreen Flat-Panel Monitor

I'm not super happy about the Vista, but I'm sure it will get better, and I'll get used to it eventually. As for the rest, it's obviously ridiculously more powerful than my current system.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-10-23 06:13pm

If you're planning on doing any gaming, I'd bump up the video card a notch or three, even if it means a dual-core proc instead of quad. 8600 GTS is the minimum I would consider for a new system that was going to be playing games. 8800 GTS would be a lot better, but I don't know what your budget is like.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-23 06:38pm

Wouldn't the straight 6600s be more expensive than a 6650 or a 6750? As Arthur says, that 8500 is a piece of shit, you want at least the highend 8600 or a lowend 8800.

DesertFly · Post by **DesertFly** » 2007-10-24 04:46am

That sucks. The higher option was a 640MB 8800GTS, but it was $420 more--not exactly in my price range. Looking on Newegg I've found some 512MB 8600GTSs for under $200, but they are by different manufacturers: EVGA, Biostar, XFX. Does the company branding matter? The 8800s are currently out of my price range altogether.

On a related note, I've gotten the monitor, and it's nice. Unfortunately, the computer I currently am running doesn't have a graphics card that can support it, so I'm stuck with lower performance and a stretched screen until my new one is built and delivered.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-10-24 05:27am

Get EVGA for the warrenty I suppose. You don't need 512MB for a fucking mid range card though.

DesertFly · Post by **DesertFly** » 2007-10-24 05:48am

Why not? I figure the more the merrier. And this whole thing is kind of a moot point anyway. I'll be perfectly happy playing Oblivion and The Orange Box and Dawn of War through the end of the year, plus some older stuff that I have and wasn't able to have at full settings. I'll upgrade sometime next year, when something comes along that will require it. And no, Crysis ain't it.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-10-24 11:17am

DesertFly wrote:Why not? I figure the more the merrier. And this whole thing is kind of a moot point anyway. I'll be perfectly happy playing Oblivion and The Orange Box and Dawn of War through the end of the year, plus some older stuff that I have and wasn't able to have at full settings. I'll upgrade sometime next year, when something comes along that will require it. And no, Crysis ain't it.

More RAM only helps if the card is powerful enough to feed all that memory. In this case, there is no difference whatsoever between 512 and 256 MB for an 8600 GTS except price. They only produce the 512 MB version to trap unsuspecting buyers into giving them extra money. This will not change for future games, either, because the 8600 won't be able to run them well at settings that benefit from more than 256 MB. 512 MB on an 8500 GT is like a gigantic spoiler on a stock Honda Civic DX (something we've all seen a few times). The car could scarcely go fast enough to use the thing if you pushed it off a cliff.

Anyway, the three games you mentioned will not run all that well on an 8500 GT, and I really don't see the point of getting a system with 3 gigs of RAM and a fast processor only to slap on a card that can't even run Oblivion, more than a year and a half old, at high settings. With a quality card, you might not even feel the need to upgrade again next year. I certainly don't upgrade every year.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2007-10-24 12:45pm

Actually, a gigantic spoiler on a Civic is never useful, no matter the speed, because it's pushing down on the wrong part of the car. But I digress. I'd suggest getting whatever card is the absolute cheapest, and replacing it with an 8800 of some variety.

DesertFly · Post by **DesertFly** » 2007-10-24 03:51pm

Well dang, the thing shipped today. I'll just have to save more of my pennies and upgrade to a new card, probably around Christmastime. I'm guessing a 640MB 8800GT is what I'll be wanting, right?

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-10-24 05:02pm

DesertFly wrote:Well dang, the thing shipped today. I'll just have to save more of my pennies and upgrade to a new card, probably around Christmastime. I'm guessing a 640MB 8800GT is what I'll be wanting, right?

It's 512 MB, and yes. That seems like it will be quite the sweet spot between performance and price when it hits shelves in a couple of weeks. Anyway, don't despair too much. 8500 GT's are dirt cheap, and at least this way you'll have a backup card if something goes wrong with your primary. $420 extra for an 8800 GTS is robbery, so just be glad you didn't pay that.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2007-11-01 04:14pm

Well, after having 3 AMD systems, I've decided to finally go with Intel. I was thinking about going with this:

New hardware:
Antec P180B case
Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0 GHz
EVGA 122-CK-NF63-TR
2x1GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 1066
EVGA 8800GT 512MB, factory-overclocked to 700MHz

Existing hardware that will be reused:
650W Antec TruePower Trio PSU
Lite-On 16x DVD±RW DL drive
Lite-On 16x DVD-ROM drive
6-in-1 Card Reader/Floppy Drive
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA 3.0
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty
Belkin Wireless 54g card
ViewSonic VX922 monitor
Razer Copperhead mouse
Logitech G15 keyboard
Logitech X-540 speakers

I'm going for something that can run Crysis at a decent framerate at decent-looking settings at my monitor's native res, 1280x1024. I usually worry about texture/geometry/effects quality before things like AA, but 8xAF is a must. I'm just going for 1 video card for now, but I kept SLI in mind for the future. I also needed at least 2 PCI slots for my sound card and wireless card. Thoughts?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-11-01 04:26pm

If you're buying right now, switch the GTS to a GT, though OCed, the GTS might win, the GT is far cheaper.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-11-01 09:51pm

You'd have to OC a GTS pretty high to beat a GT, even disregarding that GT's OC better than GTS's anyway. The GTS is 100% obsolete now.

Anyway, the rig looks great, but I doubt you'll see any real difference between an E6850 and E6750. Seeing as how the former is $100 more, I'd personally either save the money or get a Q6600 for the same price as the E6850.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2007-11-02 02:30am

According to the power supply calculator on Antec's website, assuming a 90% PSU load and 30% capacitor aging (since I'll probably keep this PSU for a while), my system would draw 611 watts with two 8800 Ultras in SLI (they don't have the 8800GT in the drop-down list yet). If I decide to go SLI in the future, it should be able to handle 2 8800GTs, right?

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2007-11-02 03:13am

Executor32 wrote:According to the power supply calculator on Antec's website, assuming a 90% PSU load and 30% capacitor aging (since I'll probably keep this PSU for a while), my system would draw 611 watts with two 8800 Ultras in SLI (they don't have the 8800GT in the drop-down list yet). If I decide to go SLI in the future, it should be able to handle 2 8800GTs, right?

Yes.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2007-11-08 04:38pm

All right, here's the real kicker then: is it possible, with Easy Transfer or some other means, to keep all of my programs and files while only using one hard drive?

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2007-11-21 02:55am

Executor32 wrote:Well, after having 3 AMD systems, I've decided to finally go with Intel.

Ditto

Ordered my upgrades yesterday which consist of

Intel Core 2 Duo processor E6750 2.66 4M 1333 MHz LGA775
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P- P35 QC 1333FSB 4DDRII1066 2Pe16 3Pe1 2P 8S2 8CA GL 1394 12
Team Xtreem DARK DDR2 800 Mhz PC6400, C4-4-4-12, 2 x 1Gb DC kit
XFX GF 8800GT 600M 512MB DDR3 PCI-E TV/DUAL DVI
Samsung 500GB 7200 SATAII SAMSUNG SPINPOINT T166 16MB 8.9MS
Samsung DVD-RW S203D 20X SATA BLACK + NERO7 OEM
Coolermaster RC-690-KKN1-GP DOMINATOR
BE QUIET! STRAIGHT POWER 650W RETAIL

(My early adopter friends all have a Geforce GTS or GTX ultra. I'm glad I've waited. Still need to wait for at least 10 days probably for it to arrive)

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2007-11-21 03:01am

Due to my pc's GPU kerploding, I'm in the market for a new pc and got this beaut of an offer a company we work with, comments?

Thermaltek case - VC3000
Thermaltek power supply - 600W
Gigabyte motherboard - P35-DS3P (Socket775 Dual PCI-E, 4 DDr2 slots with up to 1333MHZ supported)
Quad CORE Q6600
4 gigs of Kingston 1066 DDR2 RAM
A 8800GTS 640MB, 32 bit GPU! (In about a month he'll have 8800GT available, 512 MB. I'm thinking of waiting for it, but I'm not sure if i should if I'm getting such a beast of a rig anyway, it'll cut costs by by 1-2 hundred dollars, probably, maybe).
A DVDrw drive and a 320 GB 7,200 RPM HD. (There's room for 4 HDs , so I'll be able to keep my two old hd's with room for a new one in the future).

Total price including a 3 Year warranty is 1,835 US dollars/ 7,300 shekels, Tax included.

Looks pretty sweet (to put it mildly) but I wanted to ask your advice on technical compatability, and whether I should wait for a 8800 GT instead of the GTS. (I know there are rumours of a redesigned GTS in the future?)..

I didn't ask if the OS is included, it probably is, but I can get a vista OEM for dirt cheap anyway, I just need to decide which vista version.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2007-11-21 04:14am

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:If you're planning on doing any gaming, I'd bump up the video card a notch or three, even if it means a dual-core proc instead of quad.

Isn't a dual-core better suited than a quad-core for gaming anyway?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-11-21 06:38am

wautd wrote:
Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:If you're planning on doing any gaming, I'd bump up the video card a notch or three, even if it means a dual-core proc instead of quad.
Isn't a dual-core better suited than a quad-core for gaming anyway?

Not percise. It's more that currently very few games utilise more then two cores if that.
However, I'm personally a fan of more cores, mostly because of usability advantage.
You're an MMO player right? Eve?
If it's running, windowed or such, and it's taking up two cores, having atleast another core for browsing, music and such is alot more comfortable.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2007-11-21 09:13am

Ace Pace wrote:
wautd wrote:
Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:If you're planning on doing any gaming, I'd bump up the video card a notch or three, even if it means a dual-core proc instead of quad.
Isn't a dual-core better suited than a quad-core for gaming anyway?

If it's running, windowed or such, and it's taking up two cores, having atleast another core for browsing, music and such is alot more comfortable.

Oh I bet yeah. I currently still have an AMD Athlon 3000+ and I regulary play with 2 clients at the same time so I'm pretty used to dire circumstances. Can't wait for my new rig