"Rate my Rig" thread

[Zixinus]

My hard drives? I don't think they have a fan, but it is true that I have two and both of them are rather tighly packed together. Could that be the problem?

[Uraniun235]

They don't have to be tightly packed together to make noises they shouldn't.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

My hard drives? I don't think they have a fan, but it is true that I have two and both of them are rather tighly packed together. Could that be the problem?

Your hard drives are mechanical devices with a spinning disk and read/write head. Yes, they do make noises. It might also be that the hard drives you bought aren't exactly top notch. Typical noises include click noises.

[Darth Nostril]

As long as it's not the click death of a Zip drive
All the parts finally delivered, two days late in some cases (I already got a complete refund on the delivery charges for everything though ) and don't 1 Tb drives take an awfully long time to format, nevertheless it's all done and I got Vue 7 Infinite installed without tripping the reactivation limit.
Now the important stuff is all up and running time to install the secondary 500 gig drive and import stuff from the external 1 Tb drive.

Once the new beastie is finalised to my satisfaction I'll start stripping down the dual core, get rid of all the antiquated IDE crap and run it from a single 500 gig SATA, install a Vue Hypernode so I'll wind up with the equivelant of six processors when rendering a really complex dynamic infinite terrain Ecosystem.

Once that's done this seriously antiquated clunker will be stripped down for parts with the dual core getting bumped down the tech ladder and taking it's place.

[Zixinus]

Well after tightening some of the connectors on my HDDs I don't hear any distressing clicking.
Now, only to finally get my Audigy SE card to work in surround...
Thanks for the helps everyone.

[Ace Pace]

Anyone with experiance of building SFF boxs? What should i look out for, etc.?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Anyone with experiance of building SFF boxs? What should i look out for, etc.?

I have never really built one, but you ought to check that everything inside there fits, and that cooling is excellent. A small tight cramped space is a recipe for meltdown disasters.

[[R_H]]

How is Acer's quality?

[Dralan]

Acer is sort of mid range in quality. Their computers are good enough for regular use but not built to withstand rough treatment at all.

I'd say they are on par with Toshiba computers these days..

If you have money and alot of other options in the same price range as you are thinking of I would rather consider Lenovo or HP or something like that

(btw: Im writing this with an old Acer 7520 laptop It does the job but not much more )

[Artemas]

I am thinking of getting a new computer soonish, but I don't really want to build it myself. While looking about, I found this listed on a local store's website:
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/P ... 0(ME).aspx (specs near the bottom)

As far as my research has gone, it is pretty much exactly what I want. But I was wondering what your opinions might be, areas that seem weaker, etc. Especially interested in opinions on power supply, case and the mobo (though the website doesn't really say which one).

Thanks.

[Ace Pace]

Looks pretty good. The one area that is abit shady is the PSU, I assume it's enough for the load, but not sure about quality.

[Artemas]

Thanks by the way. Ended getting it, and should have it in a few days. We'll see as to PSU quality i guess.

[Tolya]

Okay, I will be replacing my computer in January (in January because right now I have lots of other expenses, including car insurance, christmas gifts and new year's eve trip).

Im on a tight budget and I don't want to throw cash away for the newest technology. I was thinking something along the lines of Intel Core Duo E5300 and some sort of older but still good graphic card (like a GeForce 9800 pro which can fetch really good prices right now).

I have a few questions tho: what make of mobo to buy? Right now I have an Asus (which I think is just superb, its the old A7N8X) but I have fondness of gigabytes. I've had bad experiences with Abit many years ago although my good friends who really knows his way around this stuff has one and loves it. I never had an MSI or something like that. Im not interested in heavy overclocking (although bumping up the CPU would be nice) but I would like to retain my ATA drive, so ATA connector is a must. I don't need RAID since a 1TB hdd that I plan to buy later in 2010 will fit my needs just fine.

2GB of RAM.

Also, NVIDIA suggests that one should have a 680Watt PSU but I read that somewhere that 400-450Watt PSU's will work perfectly fine. Right now I have an ATX2.0 compliant Chieftec that has the output of 400Watts. PSU's are quite cheap but I still don't want to buy a new one if I can still use the old one.


Basically I want to run games - and the newest ones too. But Im not bent on graphical galore: 1024x768 or 1280x1024 is just fine for me and I have no problems with tuning down graphics a bit if needed.

So, what say you? I have my doubts about the choice of the graphic card, but my friend has one and is able to play everything just fine. Of course no DX11 support but I don't have the money for that anyways.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

How tight is your budget? There are some things you shouldn't skimp on since it will end up costing more down the line when you have to upgrade again, with other components you can pay very little and still be able to play new games for years. Here are a few general suggestions, though:

CPU: C2D E6300. Only a few bucks more than the E5300 you mentioned.

GPU: ATI Radeon 4850. These are about $100 right now and will play brand new games at very high settings. It will likely be years before you have to resort to low settings at 1280 x 1024 with this card. A GeForce GTS 250 is a similar choice, although the price / performance is slightly less.

RAM: DDR2 is cheaper than dirt right now. There is no reason to hamstring your system by going with only 2 GB. 4 is the current standard.

Mobo: All of the brands you mentioned are good. Find the cheapest one that has good reviews and all of the features you are looking for.

PSU: Wattage recommendations from nVidia and ATI are total bullshit. They have to cover their asses against shitty OEM PSU's that don't even put out half the claimed power. A high-end gaming machine typically pulls no more than 250-300 Watts. However, Chieftec is not on the short list of good names AFAIK, so you might want to look a little deeper into that model to see if it's really good for 400W.

You should be able to come in around $300-$350 total for all this, and it should last you several years.

[Tolya]

Thanks Arthur. Funny thing about E5300 and E6300 - the price difference in Poland is about 10$. Is the difference in performance that significant?

Question about ATI tho: I had two ATI cards: one 7800 and one 9800. Both fried after about a year and a half. One of my friends has a similar

But those cards were something entirely different.

My Chieftec PSU is from the times when Chieftec actually was considered a good brand so I think I'll stick with it.

[Tolya]

Oh and another thing: graphic card: go with 512 or 1024 mb of ram?

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

Small difference in both price and performance between the two.

If you prefer nVidia, the GTS 250 is probably the way to go.

Thanks Arthur. Funny thing about E5300 and E6300 - the price difference in Poland is about 10$. Is the difference in performance that significant?

Question about ATI tho: I had two ATI cards: one 7800 and one 9800. Both fried after about a year and a half. One of my friends has a similar

But those cards were something entirely different.

My Chieftec PSU is from the times when Chieftec actually was considered a good brand so I think I'll stick with it.

[Xisiqomelir]

Is there a particularly good time of year to buy parts? Currently have:

Image

which I made in October '07.

I'd like to maybe buy:

Other Image

while keeping my current case, kb, drives, displays and input devices but if awesome things are coming, I wouldn't mind waiting another 6 months or so for them.

[Xon]

Hell, with how cheap DDR2 is go for 8GB.

My Chieftec PSU is from the times when Chieftec actually was considered a good brand so I think I'll stick with it.

Old PSU's tend not to handle modern power loads well. Too much wasted ampage/wattage on the 5v rail and not enough power on the 12v rail.

Plus, it might not even have a PCIe power connector.

[Napoleon the Clown]

I'm wondering if my current rig could smoothly play GTA IV, as I'd like to play the game and no longer am living in the same house as an XBox 360.

AMD 64 X2 6000+
EVGA NVidia 9800GT
2 gig ram


I've heard that a lot of people have issues with being able to run it, so I was wondering if my current setup could run it, and if not what I'd have to upgrade to make it run smoothly. (Also, my case would kick your case's ass )

[Napoleon the Clown]

Ghetto edit: Should have probably given the stats of the parts...

3.0 ghz dual core for the processor, and 512 meg graphics card. I'm running 32bit XP.


Teach me to post while half asleep and distracted...

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I'm wondering if my current rig could smoothly play GTA IV, as I'd like to play the game and no longer am living in the same house as an XBox 360.

AMD 64 X2 6000+
EVGA NVidia 9800GT
2 gig ram


I've heard that a lot of people have issues with being able to run it, so I was wondering if my current setup could run it, and if not what I'd have to upgrade to make it run smoothly. (Also, my case would kick your case's ass )

Probably could run it but without some or most of the bells and whistles.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

That's still a decent system, but GTA IV is a notorious system hog. It will run, but don't expect to crank up the settings.

[phongn]

I'm wondering if my current rig could smoothly play GTA IV, as I'd like to play the game and no longer am living in the same house as an XBox 360.

AMD 64 X2 6000+
EVGA NVidia 9800GT
2 gig ram

I've heard that a lot of people have issues with being able to run it, so I was wondering if my current setup could run it, and if not what I'd have to upgrade to make it run smoothly. (Also, my case would kick your case's ass )

More RAM would be useful; don't expect it to run with all the graphical features cranked up.

[Darth Quorthon]

It has been awhile since I've upgraded, and now that I've got a bit of disposable income, I've been thinking about it.
My budget would be $400 US, although if something was $420 or $430 I'd go for it.

My current video card is a Geforce GTX 260. Would a Radeon 5870 or 5850 be a significant upgrade?

My current CPU is a Core 2 Duo E8500. Is it worth it going to quad core? I admit that I haven't really kept up with the advances in CPU technology, and, correct me if I'm wrong, upgrading to i7 would put me over budget since I'd have to get a new CPU, RAM, and Motherboard. Some quick looking around shows that a Core 2 Quad 9650 or 9550 would fit my budget.