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It appears that I now need a desktop too . . .

Discussion in 'Techno-Magic' started by dmc, Jan 17, 2011.

Page 6 of 6
  1. Taza

    Taza Weird Modmaker Veteran

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    Remove all ads!
    Relevant news: Bug found in Sandy Bridge motherboards. Most of 'em.

    That affects the SATA drives. This is fairly major, but will likely have a fix in a month.
     
    Taza, Feb 3, 2011
    #101
  2. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Affects the four 3Gbps SATA interfaces, not the first two 6Gbps SATA interfaces. And it is all Cougar Point chipsets (P67 and H67)
     
    Blackthorne TA, Feb 3, 2011
    #102
  3. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    I'm revisiting this issue as well.

    Went back to the site CtR listed and configured something with monitor (taking into consideration Tal's chastisement over my temerity for even thinking about a 19" monitor) and software.

    http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1D4WTA

    Thoughts on this?
     
    dmc, Mar 31, 2011
    #103
  4. Chandos the Red

    Chandos the Red This Wheel's on Fire

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    It looks good, except for the nVidia 430, at least IMO. I'd probably go with at least a GTS450. I just upgraded to a 27" monitor and I'm currently looking at the GTX 460, but I'm waiting on TES: Skyrim and the Witcher 2. :)
     
    Chandos the Red, Mar 31, 2011
    #104
  5. Splunge

    Splunge Bhaal’s financial advisor Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Or even better on the video card - get an ATI Radeon HD 5770 for $70, which the site says you can then get a free upgrade (today only) to a 6850. That's a huge step up from the 430. (Although you might need a better power supply, but 700W is only $14, which should be enough. You might want to look at the cooling fans too, but dual fans are only $9; I'm not really too familiar with this though.)

    Edit: I also noticed that all your components are OC certified, so you might want to consider one of the overclocking options; for example, 10% boost is only $19. Probably a waste of money without upgrading the video, but if you go with the 6850, you might find you're sometimes CPU limited, so a 10% boost could be useful.
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2011
    Splunge, Mar 31, 2011
    #105
  6. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    dmc, Mar 31, 2011
    #106
  7. Splunge

    Splunge Bhaal’s financial advisor Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Not that it's a big deal, but when I take the cost of your original system ($1,083), and add the costs of my suggested changes (which you did), it comes to $1,195, while the new cost is $1,213. I'm sure the extra $18 won't break the bank, but did you change something else as well?

    Anyway, that looks good to me, subject to anyone else weighing in (i.e. Chandos). I'm somewhat re-thinking the o/c upgrade, since generally machines are GPU-limited anyway, and your CPU is higher end than the 6850, but for $19, it probably can't hurt. Of course, if you know what you're doing, you can o/c yourself, but I suspect you're like me and wouldn't be comfortable messing around with stuff like that.

    Remember the 6850 free upgrade is supposedly today only.

    Edit: OK, 2 more things. It seems the recommended power supply is only 600W, so you could save $10 going with that (700W can't hurt (more is better), but it will run a bit hotter). Also, I notice you're not getting a wireless card (page 2); do you not need one, or are you going with USB wireless?
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2011
    Splunge, Mar 31, 2011
    #107
  8. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    I think I tweaked the cooling options (which you didn't specifically say) based on the increased PS and OC issue.

    As for wireless, my office, for some reason, has difficulty getting a signal from the wireless router (in the garage), so I plug in my laptop when it's in the office. Given that this desktop would be permanently put in the office, I can't see a reason to get a wireless card.
     
    dmc, Mar 31, 2011
    #108
  9. Chandos the Red

    Chandos the Red This Wheel's on Fire

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    DMC - That system looks fine. I think you will get more use out of it with the upgraded video card and power supply that you have selected in the current configuration.
     
    Chandos the Red, Mar 31, 2011
    #109
  10. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    It looks good to me too. My only issue is whether to pull the trigger or not. I'm basically using my laptop right now and am not sure when I am going to get something that would require me to have that system. If I really tread water for 2 or 3 months, presumably I can spend less on the same (or similar) machine.

    What do you think?
     
    dmc, Mar 31, 2011
    #110
  11. Splunge

    Splunge Bhaal’s financial advisor Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Well, that would depend on what hardware is coming out in the next while that would drive down current prices, and I don’t know that answer to that; of course, waiting never really hurts, since prices don’t go up.

    One comment, though. If you do decide to buy now, but don’t actually do it today, and the free upgrade to the 6850 is really only for today, then you’d need to re-look at the GPU choice; my suggestions above were based on an upgrade from a 430 to a 6850 for $70, which is a steal.

    ---------- Added 0 hours, 44 minutes and 12 seconds later... ----------

    One more thing to consider - since you're not in a hurry, you could go with "no rush" shipping, and you'd get a 5% discount, or ~$60. Between that, and the free 6850 upgrade (probably worth another $75 or so), it might be worth doing today.

    No, I don't work for CyberPower. :p
     
    Splunge, Mar 31, 2011
    #111
  12. Taza

    Taza Weird Modmaker Veteran

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    You're way overpaying for what power you're getting.

    To clarify on that: Final price comes in just slightly increased, but you're skimping on the very wrong parts (PSU being the big one*) and exaggerating on the cooling. And paying for a factory overclock is one of those things you simply never do.

    * PSU-wise, you want a big brand 80Plus PSU. Nexus and Fortron being my favorite big brands, but Antec does ok too.

    Tread water for now. Things are about to change. Actually, things have already changed, but even the guys on the nerve are still trying to figure out what exactly it means.

    EDIT: And I wouldn't buy from CyberPowerPC because I can't see the exact parts. I generally prefer finding small, long-surviving comp shops to do my builds.

    EDIT: And for comparison, lemme share what I've been looking at lately. Not for myself, my upgrade cycle ain't in months yet, but for a budget system for other people. It'd not do horribly in your case, despite having a slowish CPU.

    Processor: Phenom X2 555 Black Edition
    Motherboard: Asus M4A77T
    Memory: 2x Kingston ValueRAM 2gb DDR3 1333mhz
    Graphics card: Asus GeForce GTX 460 1GB DirectCU
    Case and PSU: Antec Sonata III and bundled 500W 80Plus power
    Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB
    DVD drive: Bulk LG DVD+/-RW
    OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

    The memory and mobo compatibility is a bit of a weird point that I've been studying, so. The exact parts are a bit of a work in progress.

    ... EDIT the third: Just noticed those links have monitors. Price seems to be ok, you just are concentrating on the wrong aspects. I highly recommend you get the monitor separately. Something like the Eizo EV2303WH.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2011
    Taza, Apr 2, 2011
    #112
  13. Chandos the Red

    Chandos the Red This Wheel's on Fire

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    DMC - Sorry it took me so long to respond. I've been working on my own PC. I dropped a new hard drive into my main PC [replacing my Win 7 HD] and I made a backup my 15000+ collection of Flacs onto an external drive and then made a duplicate onto my new HD.

    If there is no rush then there is no need to pull the trigger at the moment. That's your call. The computer itself looks fine to me. I've had Gigabyte boards in my last two builds and have been pretty happy with them. The last one I had for a full 3 years and it gave me no problems. The only thing, that in all that time, I didn't bother with the onboard audio much, but I remember it as sounding OK. I've been using a Creative X-Fi which is quite good, and I got on sale from NE for something like 70.00 [they want 100+ so you may want to upgrade the card yourself]. I noticed that they sell the Asus Xonar as well, which sounds even better than the Creative but is more $$$$.

    It's a personal choice though, since there will ALWAYS be something better coming out. If everyone waited for the day that there would no longer be "something better" coming down the pike we would all still be using Commodore 64s:

    [​IMG]

    My advice: buy when you need it and be happy. ;)
     
    Chandos the Red, Apr 2, 2011
    #113
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