Computer Build Questions/Help

Go with something else other than a Rosewill P/S stick with a Antec/OCZ/Silverstone/Corsair/Sparkle or PC Power & Cooling and Biostar is a lower end board go with a Asus/Gigabyte or EVGA
 
Okay again the only reason I recommended the 9600GT is because it uses very little power in SLI, meaning you would not need a new power supply, and 9600GT's are pretty close to 8800GT's in terms of performance. I also chose the 9600GT because it is one of the best/cheapest NVidia cards. Yes, Crossfire is like NVidia's SLI thing but you cannot crossfire on an SLI mobo. The mobo in the promotion in an SLI mobo. And Crossfire mobos are only for AMD CPU's. Go ahead with the 4850 if you want it, but you won't be able to add another one later. And the dual-core quad-core is a matter of preference. You pay more, you get more.
 
And Crossfire mobos are only for AMD CPU's
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Not true. Crossfire is available on a variety of chipsets for both AMD and Intel CPUs - and there's no catch like worse performance when pairing up Intel on a Xfire mobo or anything like that. As for SLIing 9600GTs, I doubt dual cards here would give a significant performance boost and ain't a good choice considering that there are single-card solutions that beat 2x9600GTs in terms of both performance/price ratio and absolute performance. For medium-weight gaming where a single 9600GT would suffice, it's a great choice but I really don't think it's a wise move to go and SLI two of them. I'm still recommending the 4850.
 
Well I was talking about the mobo that comes with the combo. It is an SLI ready mobo, and for a single card solution I would still agree on the 4850. I mean if you wanted to go for a better NVidia like the 9800GTX+ you could but it's twice as much money as the 9600GT. I'm just trying to keep the budget down.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

Unfortunately I do have to go by my budget. This is what I have going right now...

Dvd drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16827106263

Video Card: 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814102747

Memory: OCZ gold 4gb (2gb x2)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820227199

OS: Vista 64bit

Processor: Intel Q6600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819115017

Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813138122

Case: Antec 900
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811129021

HDD: Seagate 7200rpm 500gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?items=N82E16822148288

PSU: 600w Rosewill
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?items=N82E16817182032

its going to be $929.55 after rebates, tax(which is killing me on what I can get) & shipping.

will the performance of this be worth the price increase over my first build? And is there any thing bad in that build or anything that wont be compatible with one another?
 
I think thats going to be perfect. This might be a better mobo, with the PCIe 2.0. 4850 is a good card, evenly matched with the 9800GTX+. It's sometimes better not to go SLI or Crossfire because, well for SLI, you won't be able to use dual monitors. I would say stick with that build. Considering the performance you will get, that is a great price.
 
Vista is the infernal spawn of Satan. Even the almighty Compatibility Modes are powerless to help with most programs. Stick with XP Pro.

For gaming purposes, faster-clocked dual-core chips are much better than slower-clocked quad-core chips, and faster memory is better than more memory. An E8400 and 1 GB of DDR2-1066 will serve you well.

A 600W PSU is obscene unless you're using four graphics cards and a 150W CPU. You can easily cut down to a 430W PSU if it's 80+ certified.

When it comes to 7200RPM hard drives, Excelstor is the company to buy from. They're aggressively making a name for themselves in terms of both price and quality.
 
The dual core he was going to get was 2.5GHz. The quad core is 2.4GHz. Since some games now utilize two cores, the dual core would be pointless. Now he will have two extra cores to run system processes that would otherwise run on the cores that would also be running the games. Losing two cores is not worth 0.2GHz. And faster RAM is not always better than more RAM. The difference between PC-5300 RAM and PC-6400 RAM in game performance is maybe 0.5fps. And yes, I looked it up in a benchmark. Faster RAM is better I guess, but it comes at a much bigger price. And you could use that money to buy a better card which would give much better performance. 600W is not obscene. An 8600GT requires a 400W PSU, and that video card is junk. 450W is recommended for an 4850 and it's always good to have extra. Stick with your build. It's a very good system and won't burn a hole in your wallet.
 
Vista is the infernal spawn of Satan. Even the almighty Compatibility Modes are powerless to help with most programs. Stick with XP Pro.
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For gaming, Vista is the way to go (DX 10). In addition to that, XP's losing supports, getting old blah blah... and most of the problems I've had with vista I have had because thing is blppdy slow but I was running it on a AUD$400 machine, with his hardware Vista should run well. Chances are he ain't going to play games like Duke Nukem, DooM and Terminal Velocity, so software compatibility ain't much of an issue here.


For gaming purposes, faster-clocked dual-core chips are much better than slower-clocked quad-core chips, and faster memory is better than more memory. An E8400 and 1 GB of DDR2-1066 will serve you well.
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Just like shortman said... performance-wise, memory speed is of minor importance, the difference will at most be a few FPS. As for the CPU, he said that he wants a quad...

A 600W PSU is obscene unless you're using four graphics cards and a 150W CPU. You can easily cut down to a 430W PSU if it's 80+ certified.
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430W? Easily? I wouldn't think so. I really don't know a lot about PSUs and such, but 430W sounds a little low...

When it comes to 7200RPM hard drives, Excelstor is the company to buy from.
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No it's not. Sure they're not bad, but it sounds as if you were saying that they're better than everything else... I wouldn't trust them, simply because I'm not familiar with their products, never heard a thing of them.
 
Thanks for all your replies everyone, especially kookoo! It has helped out a lot. Here my final selection, already paid for and everything.

Case & PSU: Cooler Master w/ 550w psu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119142

HD: Seagate 7200rpm 500gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288

Vid Card: MSI HD 4850 (comes with a free game, The Witcher, never heard of it)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127359

DVD drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151171

Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138122

RAM: OCZ Gold 4gb (2 x 2gb)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227199

CPU: Q6600 2.4GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

OS: Vista x64

Keyboard/Mouse: Iogear GKM541RA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823176004

Comes to about $970 after rebates and everything.

It is almost the same set up, I just changed the case and psu because I found that combo deal for only $99. I also just changed the maker of the 4850 because the deal ended for the first one I chose and the MSI one I picked ends up being cheaper after rebate and comes with a free game. I decided to go with the quard core (kookoo's post above me helped with that decision). I skipped out on a monitor because my cousin said I can have his old 19" LCD, which will work for the time being.
 
Wow that PSU is really good. For $970 I would say you scored yourself a deal. Now the only problem is putting it together and making sure nothing arrived DOA. Haha.
 
kookooshortman55 said:
The dual core he was going to get was 2.5GHz. The quad core is 2.4GHz.
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It's also 58% more expensive.

kookooshortman55 said:
Since some games now utilize two cores
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The keyword has been pointed out.

kookooshortman55 said:
Now he will have two extra cores to run system processes that would otherwise run on the cores that would also be running the games.
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System processes account for, at most, 1-2% of what your CPU is doing at any given time, unless you're running Vista, which you shouldn't be doing in the first place.

kookooshortman55 said:
Losing two cores is not worth 0.2GHz.
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No, but it's worth 0.1 ghz, $70, and whatever money you save on the power supply because of running a 65W CPU instead of a 150W one.

kookooshortman55 said:
And faster RAM is not always better than more RAM.
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Not always, just for gaming.

kookooshortman55 said:
And you could use that money to buy a better card which would give much better performance.
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True. Both faster memory and a better GPU will improve gaming performance more than the extra 2 gb of memory would.

kookooshortman55 said:
600W is not obscene. An 8600GT requires a 400W PSU, and that video card is junk. 450W is recommended for an 4850 and it's always good to have extra.
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Okay, so we're dealing with 500W at standard efficiency. Still less than 600W.

hackapelite said:
For gaming, Vista is the way to go (DX 10).
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The advantages of DirectX 10 are not enough to justify the innumerable problems with Vista, which range in severity from aggravating to crippling.

hackapelite said:
In addition to that, XP's losing supports, getting old blah blah... and most of the problems I've had with vista I have had because thing is blppdy slow but I was running it on a AUD$400 machine, with his hardware Vista should run well.
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Vista doesn't run well on anything, and never will. Its problems go far beyond speed.

hackapelite said:
Chances are he ain't going to play games like Duke Nukem, DooM and Terminal Velocity, so software compatibility ain't much of an issue here.
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You've apparently never heard of Diablo 2, Quake 4, Final Fantasy Online, or many of these programs.

hackapelite said:
Just like shortman said... performance-wise, memory speed is of minor importance, the difference will at most be a few FPS.
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And how much difference would the extra 2 gb have made?

hackapelite said:
As for the CPU, he said that he wants a quad...
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And I was trying to convince him otherwise.

hackapelite said:
430W? Easily? I wouldn't think so. I really don't know a lot about PSUs and such, but 430W sounds a little low...
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430W at 80+ efficiency is like 480W at standard efficiency.

hackapelite said:
No it's not. Sure they're not bad, but it sounds as if you were saying that they're better than everything else... I wouldn't trust them, simply because I'm not familiar with their products, never heard a thing of them.
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In terms of reliability, they are easily on par with WD or Seagate. The only difference is that Jupiters give you more for the money. They're like the "next Corsair" or "next Asus" of hard drives.
 
Holy cow dude he already bought the computer settle down. I don't have time to address every little issue that you have. The quad core was 58% more expensive but around 190% better in terms of processing power. I said some games run on 2 cores because dual core processors are still very popular. But since technology is moving in a forward direction and more games will utilize this technology. System processes count for 5% of my CPU, but that doesn't mean I've never maxed out both cores. And maybe he wants to run iTunes in the background, with a quad core you can. What else, that PSU had 3 12V rails at 19A meaning it would support his video card and his processor very well. It's not always about overall wattage. The only problem with Vista I have ever had is a BSOD when I first ran it, it recovered, I installed SP1 and now I'm very happy with Vista. If you have 2GB of RAM, it's better to have 4GB. If you have 4GB of PC-5300 and you want 4GB PC-6400. Say you even want PC-1066. Spend the money and you will maybe get 1 fps higher in your gaming. I can guarantee you won't notice it.
 
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Nigouki said:
In terms of reliability, they are easily on par with WD or Seagate. The only difference is that Jupiters give you more for the money. They're like the "next Corsair" or "next Asus" of hard drives.
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You do know they are a (Chinese owned) and operated company. I,m not talking about just made in China. I would not give them a nickel. Lets all just feed the beast more than we are already.
 
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