New Compy Advice

[bicostp]

Yes, all the competition (Intel vs AMD and Nvidia vs ATI) is great for consumers. $900 will put together a pretty decent computer. Here's what I'm looking at to replace my 90nm single-core Celeron HTPC:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 $275
MSI P7N SLI Platinum $125 ($80 open box)
OCZ PC6400 DDR2 4 GB (x2 for 8 gigs total) $50
Corsair TX750W $90
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 $250

Total $790 ($745 with open-box motherboard.)

OR same as above but with an XFX nForce 780i motherboard ($190) Total: $855

Still not sure about the motherboard. It's gotten some iffy reviews because some don't have the updated BIOS needed for the 45nm processors, but that's not an issue because I have an LGA775 Celery I could throw in there to do the update with.

Don't need hard drives, an optical drive (recycling the ones I have), or a case (making one).

The i7 processors spank pretty much everything else out there in certain applications, but all the motherboards for them cost $300 and they require expensive DDR3 RAM. (The cheapest decent 3 gig triple-channel set I could find was about $90.)

it was running at 15 FPS all the time. I'm like "How the hell can you play WoW like this!?" because I'm so used to my constant 60-75 FPS with max settings.

Hey if I can play TF2 at 15 max FPS, he should be able to play World of Warcraft that way.

[XPCportables]

The best cases for the price are Lian-Li cases. I have a PC-7b case that I paid $70 for.

They don't have all that gaudy plastic and big Led strips, They are simple, elegant, absolutely gorgeous, and most importantly, built like a tank. They are all aluminum, and not just some thin cheap aluminum either, they are made out of thick aircraft aluminum. If you are building a new rig, get one of these!

[Jongamer]

All about personal Opinion.

While you may think it looks gaudy, it doesn't to other people.

That is a pretty nice case, but no where near gorgeous IMHO, it just looks like a 10+ year old computer case painted black.

Now those completely crystal clear cases, those are Hideous.

[Jongamer]

oops double post

[XPCportables]

you have to see one in person man. It's beautiful. The brushed aluminum looks great, but the most important thing I was trying to note was the build quality. These are absolutely rock solid, and tons of little details make this case great. The front bezel pops off effortlessly for working on drive bays and the 120mm fan, all of the outer panels including the top are removable which makes working on the machine a joy, and there are zero sharp edges in the case. Evey edge is rolled over or covered with U-channel, and you get all of this for $70.

BTW this, my friend is a ten year old computer


Yeah I think Lian-Li cases look a bit better than that

[Jongamer]

you have to see one in person man. It's beautiful. The brushed aluminum looks great, but the most important thing I was trying to note was the build quality. These are absolutely rock solid, and tons of little details make this case great. The front bezel pops off effortlessly for working on drive bays and the 120mm fan, all of the outer panels including the top are removable which makes working on the machine a joy, and there are zero sharp edges in the case. Evey edge is rolled over or covered with U-channel, and you get all of this for $70.

BTW this, my friend is a ten year old computer


Yeah I think Lian-Li cases look a bit better than that

More like this

yeah it is still nice, but just real bland and boring.

[Harshboy]

I just purchased a new silent case fan, anyone know of a cheap, quiet, and better than stock Intel CPU cooler? I was thinking of an Artic Freezer, but I've never used their products.

The CPU fan is the only audible fan now, eliminating all noise is my final task

[Jongamer]

Could go for this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835200024

I JUST ordered that same cooler, although mine is meant for AMD sockets.

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

I just purchased a new silent case fan, anyone know of a cheap, quiet, and better than stock Intel CPU cooler? I was thinking of an Artic Freezer, but I've never used their products.

The CPU fan is the only audible fan now, eliminating all noise is my final task

I'm using this with the included 120mm fan, and it's inaudible.

[Jongamer]

I just purchased a new silent case fan, anyone know of a cheap, quiet, and better than stock Intel CPU cooler? I was thinking of an Artic Freezer, but I've never used their products.

The CPU fan is the only audible fan now, eliminating all noise is my final task

I'm using this with the included 120mm fan, and it's inaudible.

According to the specs. That has a noise level of 20 - 32 dBA
The one I picked out was 21-27 dBA, both are pretty close.

[madc0w]

The artic seven freezer is great. My other fans are much louder. Its great cooling, I'm overclocking to 3.6 ghz, and never get more than 40c or so

[ian2120]

Rest of my parts should be here tomorrow. Got my CPU, the cooler looks sufficient, so i will be RMA'n the aftermarket one I bought asap, bringing the price to around $700. Also got my GPU, sound card, RAM, and disk drives. I figured out why that stuff came so quick, and the rest so slow though; I'm in NY, and the stuff I got same-day came from the NJ warehouse! The rest of the stuff is coming from CA and TN. I'll take plenty of pics, and like I said, I may do a How-to video at a l8r date (for those n00bs out there).

[bicostp]

I have that case, or at least the Ultra version of it. It's a good little case, but there are a few catches to working with it.

It's best to not put 2 hard drives in the hard drive cage; there's absolutely no airflow around them.

Unscrew the power supply from the back plate and put it to the side while you hook things up. Makes things 100x easier.

Depending on how tall the video card is, you might have to make a notch over the PCI bracket to clear it. My Radeon HD 2600 was about half a centimeter too tall, and making a notch fixed it. If Apevia didn't fix this problem on their version of this reference design, you'll have to do the same. Otherwise, that 4850 should fit no problem.

Make sure whatever CPU cooler you get is only about 3" tall at the most. There's a big support bracket right over the CPU socket. (At least, on most LGA775 motherboards, and definitely on my PC Chips P23G turd.)

Also, don't trust the handle to lift it once you get it filled with parts.

Don't get me wrong, once it's put together it's a nice little package. It's just not the easiest thing in the world to work on.

[Jongamer]

Same goes with my Apollo case, put more than 1 HDD in the cage, completely blocks the Intake fan, but with just 1 HDD there, that intake fan does a nice job at cooling the HDD.

HDD is the coldest thing in my case. Gotta love Western Digital.

[ian2120]

Well, got a problem. Parts came, put everything together, seemed great. some connectors for the front, i didnt quite figure out, but I will eventually, but the rear connections on the Mobo are dead. My GPU fit fine, as well as the heatsink. Ha, at first, I plugged the fan power into the wrong slot, and I powered the machine up for a bit, then I saw the temp display blinking. THE CPU WAS AT 100 DEGREES CELSIUS!!!!! So, i realized the heatsink fan wasn't going, and plugged it into the correct pins. Anyway, so i get a keyboard/input (whatever) error, and i think it's something i did. So, I try my old PS/2 stuff, and my nice new USB, but none of it worked, then I painfully though that maybe the ports on the mobo are dead. So I plug the VGA port into the board instead of the graphics card, and I get nothing. So, it looks like I'll have to RMA it, for a new one. So, I have a few new q's;
1. Do I have to do anything to the cpu to prepare it for a re-application of thermal paste?
2. Is there any other solution to this, besides getting a new one?
3. Why does God hate me??