Alright so I've decided, considering your guys advice, to build my own computer. I've chosen the case I want to get but I'm having trouble deciding which motherboard I should get and how processors and all that are compatible with certain motherboards. I guess what I want to know is which motherboard would suit an Nvidia geforce gtx 460 or 480 and what sort of processor would suit that as well.

Here's the case I'm getting.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

No. I highly doubt any (decent) builder will help you if you insist on an Antec case.

You will receive no help from me so long as you are using an Antec case. If you also insist on any Fermi based GPU, not only will I not help you, but I hope you enjoy your power consumption and heat levels being equivalent to that of the sun.

I believe http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137&cm_re=coolermaster-_-11-119-137-_-Product would be a good start on a path to achieving Excal's help. I think that's the case, at least.

Translation:

Bad case. Airflow and thermal design are more important than looks. Not sure if this is why Ex hates the antec case, but its probably a good guess.
2ndly, Nvidia cards arent that good, they just appear good because they're "newer" than the competition currently. Fermi = core name of new Nvidia cards (400's). Apparently, or at least according to Ex who I'm inclined to believe, the power consumption is ridiculously high and they run extremely hot, which can often lead to disasters, like melting your motherboard. (this has happened to me... ) An ATI card probably will perform just as well for you as an Nvidia, at lower costs and with less problems.

GTX 460 is the only fermi worth getting. 10% more power consumption than a 5850. runs somewhat warm for 5000 standards (it's a cool breeze compared to 4000 standards). There's another problem inherent in both the GTX 400 series and the Radeon 5000 series. The GTX 400 series has significantly better game performance per flop than the radeon 5000 series (but it has a severely limited double precision calculation due to nvidia wanting you to buy workstation graphics. Don't worry, gaming has nothing to do with double precision). The Radeon 5000 series completely decimated the GTX 400 series in flops, but still manages to barely keep up with the fermis in terms of performance. To display this, let's compare the GTX 480 and the 5870:

we can see that the GTX 480 is a better card, costs more, but strangely the 5870 is better in every aspect except for gaming (more powerful, less transistors=less heat and power). There's also other things that fermi does much better, like tesselation, and any dx11 in general. It's somewhat strange that on paper the 5870 should be a better card but doesn't come out that way. I don't really understand the mechanics behind it all though, just the end result.

You are crazy if you buy from newegg.ca. Prices are way too high on most items. That case is $80 on newegg, and $62 on ncix.



If you look around the forum for all the help threads, you'll see a lot of good advice from me and many others.

Start here. Ask questions after you have a build ready (ie, is this good, is there anything better I can get for the same price?) That way we know how much money you want to spend, what the general performance you're looking for, etc...

If you have specific questions, I can try to explain why I think X is better than Y, or why X is a good deal, or what sort of performance X is. The problem is I'm biased, especially when it comes to cases and power supplies (though I'm getting better with the power supply). If there is no clear performance advantage for an item (ram, motherboard, case), it's very difficult to recommend something based on looks and functionality, since you have to say X is good because it looks like it would do Z well. That's really where you need to step up and say "I want this, it looks good". I know you already did this with the antec 300, but I can't stress enough that you are wrong, and anyone who builds computers frequently knows that antec cases are shit.

wow I thought that case was good, and I'll be sure to check out those links. I don't really care about looks I just want the computer to be as efficient as possible.

I purchased that exact case, sam, don't let Ex's bias stop you from finding the best deal, it's worked out perfectly for me, and I'm pretty heavy on hardware. My CPU, GPU, and HDDs(all 5 of them) have stayed at extremely low temperatures; 86 degrees(30 C) Fahrenheit for my CPU, HDDs, and Mobo, and while I don't have my GPUs specs handy, last I checked they were also extremely low for a GPU. Ex is simply black-listing an entire brand, even though the 300 case is a great design and great price.

What are you planning on using this computer for? Specific application and game names, plus the OS you want to use are probably the most vital information you need before building. If this case is the best deal, which when I bought it it certainly was, go with it, while it may not have all the fancy features of other cases, it clearly cools just fine, and like most people, you'll probably build this system, close it up, and never worry about it again, so just put in the extra effort in building it, and you're set afterwords.

When making a build, you start with picking out what sort of class your want your PC to be in, like how expensive it is. I'm assuming you want an i7 core, so you would then pick out a mobo that is i7 compatible. Once you find the right mobo the rest falls into place. I'm sure that Ex or someone similar will do serious help with actually picking out the parts, however.

Motherboard socket type determines what sort of CPU it is compatible with. LGA 775 was the core 2 duo and core 2quad. LGA 1366 is for i7 cores. For example, you could choose one of these motherboards if you want to choose one of these processors; they both have the socket type LGA 1336.

To clarify: Antec's P193 and Lanboy/Lanboy Air cases are stunning examples of amazing case work. Any Antec hundred series case is an example of an overpriced hunk of LED toting garbage.

The 690 is nice but after owning one for awhile and seeing both the good and bad of it I'm disinclined to recommend it at its current price. If it was on sale for say 65$ I'd say sure. Currently there are better options for the price.

Funny. The Antec case linked has less LED's in the picture than the coolermaster.

He's just a fanboi. Or the opposite of one. "I HATE IT SO MUCH THAT IF YOU PICK IT ILL NEVER EVER HELP YOU".

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 3 2010, 3:48 am by Centreri.

I'm planning on getting windows 7... dunno if I should get 32 bit or 64 bit or what edition for that matter. I basically just want it to run newer games at medium to high settings smoothly.

OS doesn't matter for running games. Except you need Win7 for Direct X 11 special effects.

32 Bit OSes won't be able to use more than 3.5GB RAM, so you waste 0.5GB if you have 4GB, which is not a big deal.
64 Bit OSes practically have no limit on RAM size but often have trouble running older applications that were written for 32 BIt. Some won't run at all while others will have limited functionality.

I've had one compatibility issue with 64-bit, which was with peerguardian, which I replaced with peerblock. SC and anything else I've tried worked perfectly.

If you're gaming, I have to recommend an i5 processor, the TurboBoot feature is undeniably sexy, and there aren't any games out right now that come even close to efficiently using all the cores on an i7.


Yeah, the case actually only has 2: the LEDs for the power and HDD, both of which are tiny, it's actually an extremely conservative case.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Oct 3 2010, 2:17 am by Falkoner.

>peer*
lol tinfoil hat.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112238
this is what the antec 300 should have been. The antec 200 is a much better case than the 300.

As far as the lanboy goes, it's still 3 pounds heavier than my case, and the lanboy is nothing but mesh and costs 3x as much. After reading about the FT02 by silverstone, I'm convinced it's pretty much the best case as far as efficiency and cooling are concerned. It's got the motherboard with the expansion slots facing up, rather than back, so your CPU cooler can expel the hot air up faster, and your GPU cooler as well. Unfortunately, it's way expensive, big, and weighs 33 lbs.

Get a 64 bit OS. 32 bit OSes are legacy now, and the more people we get adopting 64 bit, the better. The advantage is more ram. The disadvantage is terrible driver support and a number of limited programs. That disadvantage has dropped significantly since 2004. Back when I tried XP x64, a lot of crap wouldn't work, and I was appalled to see that my 16 bit games no longer worked either. Soon I'll install 7 x64 (from my current x86 XP install), but I have to backup everything first, and I'm lazy.

Depending on your price range, you can get anywhere from a dual core phenom, quad core phenom, quad core i5, or quad core i7. The dual core phenom will be slow, but worth it if you need to save money. The phenom x4 is the best of the "cheap stuff", and will net you a pretty good price/performance, and can hit 4 GHz with ease. i5 750/760 isn't much of a step up from the phenom x4, but is slightly, but noticeably better, and costs a fair amount more. The problem with the 1156 platform is that it is truly dead. A mistake on Intel's part. They released 2 series on it and replaced it with the 1155 socket for no good reason. the 1366 socket is still up in the air as to whether or not you can upgrade it, but honestly, if you get an i7, there's no point in upgrading just the processor, ever. The i7 comes with a hefty price tag: significantly more expensive processor, ram, and motherboard. We're talking ~$200 more from the i5 setup.

Actually I'd recommend both (Win XP 32 Bit and Win7 64 Bit - best of both worlds) since right now you're actually limited with a 64 Bit OS (to newer stuff, but newer isn't always better) and my personal computer experience definitely has priority over helping to create a better IT world.

Srsly, what limits. I haven't had any problems with 64-bit. What didn't work for you?

Rockz, I'm an internet ninja. If I'm not silent, then I'm not a real ninja.

Total copy, Tera copy, generally any program that adds a context menu to explorer, 16 bit applications, SB Live! driver.
There are more, but I can't remember them all.

If you're not using old applications you won't notice it.