Buying a new rig

[Lare Kikkeli]

Alright, so here's what i've been thinking of getting:

 

CORE 2 QUAD Q9450 2.66GHz Tray

Ati Radeon HD 4870 512MB, PCI-E, GDDR5, Dual DVI

P5Q, ATX, s775, IP45, DDR2, GBLan, 8-ch audio

Xigmatek HDT-S1283 Processor cooler

A-Data 4GT DDR2 800MHz

WD 640 GB, Caviar SE, 3.5", SATAII/300, 16MB, 7200RPM

Antec ATX-tower case, P182B, 4x5.25, 7x3.5, Gun Metal

Enermax 525W power

 

 

A friend of mine chose the parts, I don't really know anything about modern components so I'd appreciate feedback. Does everything look alright? the goal, which this rig according to my friend will be abled to do, is to handle any game on the market atm, on at least high graphics, with room for upgrades (crossfire?) in the future.

 

 

Thanks in advance.

[Gorgon]

I think the power supply may be inadequate for HD 4870 in crossfire, the requirements are listed here

 

http://game.amd.com/us-en/crossfirex_components.aspx?p=3

Edited July 20, 2008 by Gorgon

[Lare Kikkeli]

The way I see it it's smarter to buy a smaller power supply now, and sell it when I need a bigger one. I'll save money in electric bills, and who knows I might not even get crossfire. What I'm more interested in is that the best rig for that price right now.

[Gorgon]

A larger power supply has a larger capacity, it doesn't automatically use more power, and I don't think you will be able to get much out of the sale of a used PS, but you do have a point. These things cost a lot and if you can find just the sweet spot of what you need it's money saved.

[samm]

Looks alright. Crossfire could potentially be faster on a board with two true x16-PCI-Express slots (this one uses "only" 8 lanes per slot, even if they are x16 in length so graphics cards fit), but such boards are very expensive. Also I assume that just right now a faster C2D for the money of the C2Q would give you a better gaming experience, but this is likely to change in the future when games do take more advantage of multiple processing units.

[WITHTEETH]

id spendthe extra hundred and get a nice powersupply. corsair or something equally as good. also i would get the core 2 duo since the quad hasn't showed any performance advantages especially for the price. All the quad is is 2 duos slapped together hastily. Everything besides the powersupplu seems righty tighty though! I hope youenjoy your new system to be!

[Lare Kikkeli]

id spendthe extra hundred and get a nice powersupply. corsair or something equally as good.

Any examples? As I said I know next to nothing about this stuff, so names would be cool

 

also i would get the core 2 duo since the quad hasn't showed any performance advantages especially for the price. All the quad is is 2 duos slapped together hastily. Everything besides the powersupplu seems righty tighty though! I hope youenjoy your new system to be!

 

So quadcores are basically useless, then? I'll be doing some video editing, DVD ripping and graphics design on this comp as well, would a quad be more useful than a duo for those?

[WITHTEETH]

hmmm for those purposes it might be practical actually. Sometimes i forget people use PCs for other things then gaming lol. I personally have stopped gaming recently. From what i checked out quadcores are very effecient at video editing. So you had the right right idea all along!

 

If you want to graphic cards I would get a 1,000 give or take powersupply from respectable company. I choked and got a antec 650watt powersupply and the cable quality is so poor sometimes i have to open up my case and play withthe main power cable. PC power and cooling is another great brand name. dont have to get the bery best, just make sure it has good wattage and a respectable brandname.

[Bokishi]

That PSU is way too weak. You'd be on the borderline with that thing and a 4870. I recommend 1kw or higher for any shot at upgrading your graphics down the line

[samm]

First, the new Enermax (modu and pro series) are very good PSUs according to reviews. Corsair is new to the market (they only did RAM before afaik), but their current lineup is ok, too, but they're certainly not a better known brand in the PSU market than Enermax

Secondly, 525W are enough for the system as it is, even if it may not be enough to upgrade it, and certainly isn't for two 4870s. If you install a 1kW PSU and don't play games, your system will use about 150W max. when idling, surfing the internet, using MS Office, and the 1kW supply isn't efficient at this 15% load (which is likely, max. efficiency usually is at 60% load+, about 85% effiency for current PSUs), so your PSU will suck say 200W of power for the 150W needed, while a lower rated PSU like the 525W will be much more efficent.

It's your choice however.

[Gorgon]

Thats certainly interesting, and a convincing case for finding that golden niche PS that gives you exactly what you need, not more and not less.

[mkreku]

That's a pretty good list of parts. I would suggest, though, that you looked at another brand of memory sticks. A-data is a brand that's sold in supermarkets and in Dell computers. I'd switch to a more well-known brand, like Corsair, Crucial, OZC or something. Not a huge problem or anything, but just for safety.

 

I have that computer case and I'm very happy with it. It's a great choice.

[WITHTEETH]

geeze Bok, you have no room in your case for anything lol. better lube it up for your next graphic card you shove in. Maybe you can mod some external rockets on it.

[Lare Kikkeli]

So will the 525w be enough? According to my friend it is, and he says I'll be saving the money a new PSU will cost in electric bills. Oh and Mkreku, I'll get some better ram. Sometimes it's not worth it to be a cheapskate

 

This baby's going to get ordered on thursday, I'm going to a festival for the weekend so pics next monday!

[Deraldin]

So will the 525w be enough? According to my friend it is, and he says I'll be saving the money a new PSU will cost in electric bills. Oh and Mkreku, I'll get some better ram. Sometimes it's not worth it to be a cheapskate

 

This baby's going to get ordered on thursday, I'm going to a festival for the weekend so pics next monday!

 

The 525W PSU should be just fine for what you are putting in that system. It won't have enough power for crossfire and it may run into problems in the future with more power hungry single cards, however for the time being it should do. Unless you plan on running another 9 hard drives or something similar.

[CoM_Solaufein]

If you are going to have Crossfire the minimum requirements for the PSU is 550W. I have a Corsair 650W with this hardware:

 

CPU INTEL E8400

ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA X38

2 MSI OC HD3870 Graphics Card in Crossfire. Factory over clocked.

2G OCZ 800MHz RAM

CPUCOOLER|ARCTIC P4

Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA hard drive.

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer

DVD player

CD/RW player

 

It handles everything just fine, with room for expansion if you decide to get other types of hardware for your system.

[Lare Kikkeli]

Does the manufacturer of the GPU matter a lot? I see at least 5 different companies make HD 4870's, are there any differences between them?

[CoM_Solaufein]

Browse Newegg. Find a video card brand you may be interested in and read the reviews from people who have purchased that product. That is what I did when I was looking for hardware for my recent build. I have the brand Diamond in one computer and MSI in the other. I have had not any problems with their video cards.

[Deraldin]

Does the manufacturer of the GPU matter a lot? I see at least 5 different companies make HD 4870's, are there any differences between them?

 

At this point in the life of the cards there is pretty much no difference between any of the manufacturers as they are all offering the same card. In a few months or so we should start seeing models with custom cooling solutions or factory overclocked models, but until then the only difference is the warranty offered by the manufacturer and to be brutally honest, they all have crappy warranties compared to several of their Nvidia counterparts.

Edited July 22, 2008 by Deraldin

[Lare Kikkeli]

It is bought and assembled. I had to get a Corsair 520w PSU because they were out of Enermaxes, and a different, ugly a fook case with blue leds and a window but otherwise it's all good. I bought some weird special ram with passive coolers, it cost a ****load but will hopefully have some use.

 

It can run both NWN2 and Team Fortress 2 (only games I've tried so far) on full settings with FPS in a comfortable 70+. It did drop to low 40's in TF2 when I had 30ish players all shooting in my FOV, but never got choppy. I will try STALKER and Witcher tonight, and I have Bioshock and Crysis as well. Now I just need to get 64bit XP to utilize all of my 4 gb of ram... Thanks for help everyone!

[taks]

At this point in the life of the cards there is pretty much no difference between any of the manufacturers as they are all offering the same card.

overall, i agree, but there are quality differences between manufacturers, which really do make a difference with multi-GHz signals running around on the board. cut a few corners on any one of a number of board design issues and it might not work as well. i think the takeaway that i'm getting at is that someone should at least pick a known high-quality manufacturer, i.e., a manufacturer you've had good luck with previously.

 

taks

[dblade]

You can always research the wattage needs either manually or using an online PSU calculator. You can't go wrong with a deal like this though: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817139005

[Gorgon]

Check out this handy PSU calculator courtesy of Corsair, it has all the newest hardware data. Of course it will only point to corsair products, but it should give you a good idea.

 

http://www.corsairmemory.com/psufinder/default.aspx

[Lare Kikkeli]

Check out this handy PSU calculator courtesy of Corsair, it has all the newest hardware data. Of course it will only point to corsair products, but it should give you a good idea.

 

http://www.corsairmemory.com/psufinder/default.aspx

 

According to that link my PSU is perfect for my needs. Thanks for the link!

[wesley2]

Check out this handy PSU calculator courtesy of Corsair, it has all the newest hardware data. Of course it will only point to corsair products, but it should give you a good idea.

 

http://www.corsairmemory.com/psufinder/default.aspx

Oh awesome, I've been needing something like this. i'm hoping within 3 months to get around to upgrading my computer too. Perfect...