Usually, but drivers never, ever work. Those god damn drivers.
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Broken post, sorry!
You can get way better for about the same price if you make a custom one. I’ll gladly help you choosing the components, but rather later. (It’s about 3 AM in France and I’m being tired.)
Sorry to hijack the thread a little, but it was probably better than starting a new one. I’d also like some advice on building a computer.
I’ve sorted out all the parts to a new computer that I’m planning to buy and build over the summer. It’s really my first attempt at building a computer and, although I have some idea of what I’m doing, I’m by no means certain.
So basically I’m asking whether these parts can work together and whether there are some massive steps that I’ve overlooked and whether I’m heading to a big disaster. I was also wondering whether I’ve spent money in the right places, whether I can afford to cut down in price in any areas, or whether you’d recommend any other parts? Here’s what I’ve got so far:
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Abit IP35 Pro XE (My sister’s boyfriend sold this to me for £40 so I’m not so fussed about this one)
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Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 - £115
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Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 - £34
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Western Digital 500GB SATA II 7200RPM - £40
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XFX 9800GT 512MB DDR3 - £75
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OCZ Stealth XStream 700W PSU - £70
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Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-Express Soundcard - £50
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Antec 300 Three Hundred Black Case - £45
That all comes to a total of about £470. The last two are ones that I’m not so sure about. Do I really need to splash out on a sound card? Also, will the Antec 300 be large enough and provide enough cooling? There are just lots of smaller details that I’m not sure on. Any help would be awesome.
lolwut?
I never ever have a problem with drivers.
I also want to hijack this thread quick if you don’t mind. My display driver has been total crap ever since I bought it, and I as wondering if anyone could answer a question about that. I’ve heard from some people that having an ATI graphics card and an NVIDIA Motherboard together is just asking for trouble, is it true trying to have them together won’t work right or is that just someone speculating? And would replacing the ATI card with an NVIDIA card possibly fix my problems?
Some Specs:
Motherboard: NVIDIA NFORCE 760i Ultra SLI Motherboard
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD3870 2x
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E8500 3.16GHz
Possibly replace the graphics card with:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295
So, does having the ATI card with the NVIDIA and Intel setup have any effect on the poor quality of my graphics card, (Which is bad to the point I’ve had 3 blue screens in one day and can’t get DX10 to work without crashing) or is it just my bad luck with buying a computer from Alienware that none of the parts work right?
If you told us the problem, we might be able to help…
One of the mods/admins should delete his post… I don’t know how it got here. I think for some odd reason a mod/admin put the post below this one into this post after moving it from another thread… I dunno it’s justa guess…
I’m not sure how to find out what the specific problem is, that’s why I asked about the NVIDIA-ATI relationship, since I’ve heard that could cause problems.
I can tell you when games crash a little bubble pops-up saying “Display Driver atiumdag.dll failed and has recovered successfully.” and that’s pretty frequently.
If you can give me a specific way to pinpoint what is actually going on, that would be great, but otherwise all I know is it has never worked like it’s suppose to and crashes a lot more than I would expect.
I do mind you hijacking the thread, and am now going to assasinate you anally.
But I don’t think an ATI-Nvidia relashionship would cause the crashes, I’m sure that the companies are aware that people will use both. If you can, send it to a repair center.
I think I would just buy a new one at this point, this card is actually the replacement to the first one Alienware sent us that wouldn’t even install.
There’s your problem.
Kidding, you should email alienware to send you proper drivers. (or a link to them)
Don’t worry, I know that’s my problem. Let’s see… Of everything they sent us, the graphics card, the monitor, and the guitar that came with Guitar Hero III were all broken.
Look I have a XFX 780i.
And the Nforce 7 range have a major heating problem on the northbridge.
All you have to do is stick a 90mm fan blowing onto it and its fine.
All thanks go to Ram for this, because he helped me solve my issues with it when I first got this mobo.
The intel Core 2 Quad is a bit unnesacery. I’d say you’re better of with an Intel Core 2 Duo E7400. It’s quite a bit cheaper, and it doesn’t perform any less in games. There are barelly any games that make use of all 4 (Or 8 with multithreading] cores.
And then you got some extra money to spend on perhaps a different videocard. Maybe an ATI 4890?
Oh, and throw out the soundcard. Unless you buy a 200 pound one it doesn’t matter squat.
Waste of money really. Better spend that on a better videocard or a better cpu. Or just save some money
Also, since everyone is posting their pc question here, might be an idea to pin this and turn it into a general pc advice topic?
Most motherboards support at least 5.1 audio, an a sound card does improve the audio output of the system, but you also need some fantastic speakers to notice the difference.
Superb answers to my queries, thanks. That’s eased my mind a bit. Okay, so I’ve got rid of the sound card, gone for an E7400 Processor and a XFX GTS250 GPU, which brings it down to £381.34… Fuck yeah. Dudes, I’m indebted.
I’d go for an ATI 4870 instead of that GTS250. It’s slightly faster, it should cost around 10 pounds more, but it’s a slightly better bang for your buck.
Unless you’re an nvidia fanboy, hehe.
Yeah, but not really. You see most motherbords that claim to have HD or 5.1 and above audio capability are usually just those crap realtek onboard audio chips. Those little crap chips don’t really do very well at all. In fact they don’t really do 5.1 at all. They simply emulate that ability.
Even if you don’t have a great set of speakers, you will notice a difference moving away from onboard like that, so long as you go for something decent.
EDIT: also GTS 250 is overpriced.
If you have fantastic 5.1 speakers, maybe. But honestly, if you have a normal 2 boxes set, or a 2.1 you won’t notice a soundcard.
I use the one built in on my motherboard and I’ve never had to complain about my sound.
It’s a fun extra, a sound card, but not by far as important as a cpu or a videocard.
So unless he has money to spare, which he appearantly doesn’t, I wouldn’t buy it.
Also, I agree about the GTS 250. Do still recommend an 4870 myself.