Interested in Building a PC

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#21

btw, why not buying the OCZ RAM of the Platinum series with 7-7-7-20 timing?

EDIT: a pretty good CPU Cooler is the Scythe Mugen 2, I have one and it has great cooling!

#22

800 Watts is by far too much and also very expensive. 600W was OK and will always be.

#23

800W is good and more “future safe”(if you upgrade etc…)

#24

This. I mentioned it before. Don’t forget Kaddo, it’s not good to have your PSU running at full power every time you play a game.

Also, about those 7-7-7 timings, they could be possible if you stay with 1333 MHz.

#25

yeah, in his list he has the 1333MHz RAM from OCZ but only the gold series ones

#26

You’re going to notice zero performance difference with 8 gigs of ram. By the time 8 gigs is necessary, you’ll have a new machine, RAM will be much cheaper, and/or DDR3 will be obsolete.

Also, that mobo only has one PCIe x16 slot on it. That’s fine if you’re only using one GPU, but you may want another one. It’s up to you.

BTW, what’s it like working at Microcenter? I need a job and there’s one near me…

#27

8GB is pretty useful for rendering or high poly modelling

#28

Useful? A must have! Render with a few subdivisions and those 8 Gb will fill up faster than you can imagine. :slight_smile: If you’re not going to model, it might be overkill, but 4 Gb isn’t enough for todays standards especially at 1920x1200

#29

I agree with pretty much every reply made in this thread so far (and those of you that have seen my PC-related posts should know that I have a pretty good idea what I’m talking about).

In short, here are my $.02:

  • Get the ATI 5870 instead of the nVidia - MUCH less heat and power for about 90% of the performance
  • Get the i7-930, at Microcenter it’s only $199 (that’s what I paid, which means you get it for less and it beats the piss out of the 750)
  • Get 6GB of RAM (I prefer G.SKiLL, but Corsair+OCZ are good too)
  • Get at least an 800W PSU (I have the Corsair 950TX, my machine idles at around 185W and hits 450ish while gaming based on my best guesses [based on my UPS’ power log])

@Jeannotvb = I haven’t tinkered with modeling software in years, but I was under the assumption that it makes fair use of the GPU and its dedicated VRAM. Thus, why would it matter if he had 4GB or 8GB while running at 1920x1200? Unless the increased screen display size increases the size of the models in system memory?

For just gaming, 6GB is plenty.

Let us know if you have other questions :smiley:

#30

I was referring to gaming. Also, I believe the GPU is used for the real-time stuff in the viewports. When rendering (studio models, tens of millions or hundreds of millions of polygons) with all kinds of fancy stuff turned on will eat away your memory. I’d say 50 million polygons take up roughly 6 Gb of memory without any fancy lighting and stuff.

Just make a simple model, start subdividing it, while you increase the iterations you can see the memory usage increasing untill you’ve hit the max.

#31

Eh… I think I’ll stick with what I’ve got. Price is pretty good and it should run well enough for me.

I actually work in a warehouse used by the parent company Redemtech, I don’t actually work in the store. And I’m only a seasonal as far as I’m aware so I’m not sure if I myself can get the discount. My mom’s worked as an IT professional there for a few years, though :stuck_out_tongue: .

If you can find it on the store I’d be glad to give it a look.

And thanks for the fan suggestion. Lets see…

CPU Fan:
ScytheMugen2 Rev. B Universal CPU Cooler $44.99

And this comes with a heatsink as well it looks like. Are the fans on the video card and power supply good or should I get better ones for those as well?

#32

You don’t know what you are talking about.

It’s impossible to run the PS at full power with that system. You get the best efficiency with 50% and most of the time your pc is in idle which consumes less than 100W. A 800W PS would be understressed with just 12,5% Load. That would decrease the efficiency and lifetime a lot. Your system will use approx. 350W ±50W while you play games. That is perfect for a 600W PS.
Speaking of future: Hardware is not going to use more power in the future. Nvidia graphics maybe will but Ati showed that it is not the case.
You shouldn’t change the fan on your PS.

#33

How would using less power less efficient and lower the life expectancy of it :tired: ?

#34

better don’t listen to him

#35

Okay, drive time.

SonyInternal SATA DVD+/-RW Drive w/ LightScribe technology $34.99

And I don’t think Microcenter has any monitors with resolution higher than 1900 x 1080. Guess I’ll have to look somewhere else. I need a wireless card as well.

#36

16:10 monitors are getting hard to come by. It’s a lot easier to find 16:9 monitors now.

#37

That’s wierd, any idea why? I love my 1920x1200 resolution.

edit:

Just checked a local computer store in my country (website) and it has a huge variety of 1920x1200 monitors…

#38

So, I’ll most likely get this monitor:

ViewsonicVA2431 wm 24" Full HD Widescreen LCD $189.99

Edit: I’d say pretty much my final setup. Might look for another case, though. Maybe try to find W7 on eBay or someplace similar for cheaper.

      Processor:[url='https://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0337971']'https://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0337971'[/url][url='https://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0341729']Core i5 760[/url] $169.99

RAM:
url=‘https://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0317772’[/url]Gold Series XTC Cooler 4GB DDR3-1333 (PC3-10666) Dual Channel Memory Kit (Two 2GB Memory Modules) 2 x $69.99 after rebate $140

Graphics Card:
Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX470 $330 after rebate

Motherboard:
AsusP7H55-M PRO Socket 1156 H55 mATX Motherboard $94.99

Power Supply:
Corsair Gaming Series 800 Watt High Performance ATX Power Supply$129.99 after rebate

Hard Drive:
Hitachi Deskstar 0S02860 1TB 7200 RPM 3.5" Internal Hard Drive $59.99

Case:
V9 BlacX Edition Gaming Mid Tower ATX Case with build in USB 3.0 $79.99 after rebate

CPU Fan:
ScytheMugen2 Rev. B Universal CPU Cooler $44.99

Disc Drive:
SonyInternal SATA DVD+/-RW Drive w/ LightScribe technology $34.99

Monitor:
ViewsonicVA2431 wm 24" Full HD Widescreen LCD $189.99

OS:
Windows 7 Home Premium $199.99

Total Cost: $1475 before employee discount

Edit 2: Eh, I guess I’ll wait until I see the discount on the cases to decide. Would you guys recommend a mid tower or full tower?

#39

Get the OEM version of W7 for $110. It’s the same, it’s just missing the pretty box. You might need to go to newegg for that one though.

#40

I would still suggest you to buy an ATI card, the risk of causing a nuclear fission is much lower

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