It's about time I go out and buy a new computer. My gf and I need something newer anyways.

We have about 1,200 dollars that we're willing to spend.

The only place we can think of buying a good computer is Best Buy.

We're not sure if we can use our 32" Panasonic Television as a monitor for the new computer, but if we can, then we don't need something with a monitor.

I obviously need it to run sc2/Diablo/WoW.

We're going to need a lot of memory too, probably 1tb.

The programs that It's going to be running are: Blizzard Games, AutoCad Programs/Tools, Photoshop CS5, Dream Weaver, Riot Gear, and a couple others.

BluRay is optional. If it's going to have a monitor, then something from 17 to 25 inches.


I also want to ask if it will be cheaper to build this comp, or buy it.

Please help me out, I need this computer by the end of the week.

It will always be cheaper to build a PC than to buy one, your parts will be of higher quality and you can always upgrade. You do not have such luxuries with most pre-builts.

Yes you can use your TV as a monitor, however for gaming, that may not be the best idea because of latency and input lag. I can find you a nice monitor if you so choose.

You cannot have 1TB of memory, that is impossible. If you mean 1TB of harddrive space, that's easily do-able. Please watch your terminology. Memory =/= hard disk space.

Say the word and I'll design you a 1,200 build, however, my usual rules apply:
1. No fanboy bullshit. The brand is the last consideration for each part.
2. My say is my say, whatever other idiot you're talking to is an idiot, and I'm not here to compete with him.
3. No Antec cases. Ever.

Yes, this.

I'll need a monitor then.

Alright Excalibur, please design something for me.
I'm not a fanboy of anything, so idc what the brands are.

However, I don't think I want anything Dell... that's about as much as I know.

How much latency/lag are we talking here approximately? Isn't the input lag caused by cheap HDMI cables and isn't it possible to make it negligible by getting an expensive one?

BluEditor, you say you have $1200 to spend but you can fulfill your needs for much less money, even with a monitor.
Now the question is are you willing to spend all your money so the computer will be useful for more than 2-3 years and don't have to bother with upgrades or will you go the cheaper route and buy a cost efficient system that you'll upgrade in a few years? And don't worry saving money won't mean you are buying a slow computer, it just means you have to upgrade it more often. But since in time parts always get cheaper you'll eventually end up with a better computer than initially on the high cost route and still have saved money.
It comes down to how often you're willing to invest time into upgrading your computer.

The day Ex recommends a Dell shall be my final.

Done.
-Case: NZXT Beta Evo Classic, despite the name its a CoolerMaster RC590 copy. The RC590 is one of the best mid tower designs on the market, and this clone is competitively priced. It also has a nice mail in rebate. Definitely a good call, and the fact that they went the extra step of giving it a black interior gives it a leg up on my favorite RC690.
-Case Fans: CM 4x 120mm pack a pack of 4 fans to throw in your case. You can never have enough fans. Never.
-DVD: Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner, cheap, simple, effective. Blu-ray costs too much right now for me to call it a good idea. Stream/download, nobody uses physical media anymore.
-CPU: Intel Corei5 750, a quad core monster that will not hold back your beastly 5850 in the slightest. It also overclocks well, should you have the need to do so. But somehow, I doubt you'll need to throw any extra juice into it.
-CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212, stock cooling is something I hate on CPUs, because to me, stock is never enough, never cool enough, never sufficient. So, throw this on top of your CPU and enjoy some nice low temps.
-Motherboard: Gigabyte P55 USB3, Gigabyte makes high quality boards, and this is no exception. Its very well laid out and has more BIOS options than I think you'll need. USB 3.0 / SATA III are a gimmick right now, so ignore them, but this has USB 3.0 anyway, just in case for some inexplicable reason you need it.
-RAM: 2x2GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1333, great frequency, timing, and voltage. The Ripjaws line has been reviewed time and again since the start of DDR3 and has received nothing but praise. These kits are an excellent value, and 4GB is plenty for this system.
-GFX: XFX HD 5850 1GB the behemoth, the destroyer, the all powerful 5850 with a double lifetime warranty from XFX. Enjoy the power.
-Monitor: ASUS 22", a nice monitor with a nice resolution and a nice response time. It isn't the biggest/best/most responsive but its more than suitable for the gaming you're going to be doing.
-HDD: Samsung F3 1TB, Rockz will be happy, I was sorting by lowest price and encountered this before the WD CB 1TB, so it wins. I don't like Samsung personally but after doing my homework I really can't deny that the F3s really shine.
-PSU: SeaSonic 550w, SeaSonic units are built like tanks. They've got a long warranty but with how few of them ever manage to be used long enough to actually fail, I'm not sure they need it.

Final (simplified) specifications: (Because I have a feeling this will be easier for you to understand.)
Case: Mid tower w/5 120mm fans.
DVD: DVD/CD combo burner.
CPU: 2.66GHz Quad Core w/Hyper 212 cooler.
Motherboard: Gigabyte P55
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1333
GFX: XFX HD5850 1GB
Monitor: ASUS 22"
HDD: Samsung F3 1TB
PSU: SeaSonic 550w

So whats the damage? Slightly over:
$1,307.64 after tax and shipping based on my zipcode.

However

I live in NJ which throws tax on my Newegg order. You may not have that in your state, so add everything to cart, and see what it costs. If its still too far over our 1,200$ target, let me know, and I'll try and slim it down.

If you have any questions/comments/concerns, nows the time.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Apr 29 2010, 12:14 am by Excalibur.

If I remove the monitor, the total comes to $1,028.90 including the 3 day shipping service.
I forgot to mention that I want windows 7, but I guess I can pawn some stuff laying around for the monitor and windows 7.

So does that sound good? Buying this stuff now, and waiting for the rest later? I could just use my 32" for now, or the 17" Dell Monitor I have laying around somewhere.

Um, I don't pay for software/Windows, I 'acquire' it, and I recommend you do the same.

And yeah do whatever in terms of the monitor, should be fine.

So building the computer, is it going to be straight forward? I have never opened up a PC. I don't have the chance at the moment either, I own a laptop.

Knowing I'm a newb at this, about how long do you suppose it will take me to build it?

Wow that looks like an excellent build Ex.

Although, why an i5 instead of an i7? Was his price range just a bit too shallow? If he removes the monitor, would it be worth switching out the i5 for an i7 core?

The i7 would be with more expensive RAM, a more expensive motherboard, and is a more expensive chip (This is if you mean an actual i7 ((1366) rather than just a by-name i7 ((the other 1156 chips))). It just isn't feasible without another 100-200$, and quite frankly, its a gaming machine not encoding/benchmarking, so he'll be fine. I'm the first to say my i7 is absolutely overkill, I should've saved and gotten a 5850.

I despise my Radeon card. It's glitchy as hell. I recommend a nvidia card. Quite possibly something that supports Nvidia 3D Vision.
I gave Radeon a try sololy because of Ex's recommendation and I hate it. Maybe it was just a bad card but I tend to not give 2nd chances very easily.

Whatever glitches you're having are due to one of three things:
1. Your chipset
2. Not updating your drivers
3. QC/manufacturing error, which can happen to any card made by anyone.

Don't bring this shit up in here IP. You'll scare the nubs because you had bad luck, which is wrong.

My card was made out of 'not perfectly working' chips for another brand of radeon cards. I read that after I saw that problems it has.
But hey, you were the one that recommended it to me ^_^

I know my card is probably just fucked up and maybe it's indeed a very rare occurrence, but it happened to *me* and it's way too much of an inconvenience to send it back to the manufacturer.

Regardless, I stand by nvidia hardcore now and it would take a lot for me to try another radeon card. And blah blah PhysX and crap. I'm not sure what radeon is doing for gaming but almost all games are branded by nvidia and focus primarily on nvidia technologies.

This is what I see in galaxy edit with high settings:

What you read is irrelevant. If your card has a defect and you're too lazy to send it back for RMA who's the jackass, you or the manufac?

Considering that same card is working fine for anyone else I know that has one, I'd have to say my recommendation was fine. You just have bad luck.

BAWWW I CAN'T NOT GAME FOR A FEW DAYS WHILE I WAIT

So you blatantly admit you're a biased fanboy. Good. Glad we got that out there.

What about it?

Okay, lets break down the ignorance of this sentence because right now its containing about 500% and I can't take that much in one dosage.
1. What is AMD/ATI doing in terms of gaming right now?
Well, the HD5970 is currently the most powerful card money can buy, comes in an even more powerful 4GB variant, and the entire HD 5000 lineup beats its only competitors, the GTX 470 and 480 in every price segment. Not to mention that the GTX 470 and 480 consume more power and produce more heat than their intended competiton. So, the NV cards run hotter, consume more power, and cost more. You know what? I really can't see how NV is winning anything right now, but go ahead and try and fanboy your way to a false conclusion. Meanwhile I'll be jumping headfirst into a woodchipper.

Some power consumption charts:
http://media.bestofmicro.com/1/O/242412/original/Power Consumption.png" style="max-width:500px; max-height:500px;" onclick="javascript:show_image(155857613)" id="image_clickable_155857613" class="image_clickable">
Here you can see a SINGLE GTX 480 drawing more power than a dual-GPU HD 5970.


Here you can see a SINGLE GTX 480 having higher idle and load temps than a dual-GPU HD 5970.

Finally, prices:
The cheapest GTX 480 on newegg: About 510$
The cheapest HD 5870 on newegg: About 385$

So the GTX 480 runs hotter and consumes more power than the dual GPU HD 5970 yet performance wise competes with the HD 5870, which undercuts it by about 120$.

2. NV 'branded' games are few and far in between.

3. NV 'technologies'? Next you're going to tell me LOL ATI CAN'T USE ANTI ALIASING, ONLY NV CAN CAUSE THEY IS SO COOL. Look, you can take your physx and shove them, the only reason physx is even a big deal right now is because NV threatened the developers of Batman: AA with a lawsuit for both the Anti Aliasing and physx technologies in the game. Let me repeat that:
They knew how badly they were getting beat and used illegal methods to make their cards look better in benchmarking. Are you catching on yet? You're supporting a company that puts locks in their chipsets and code in their drivers to specifically hamper the performance of the competition. When I buy a graphics card I want a graphics card not a Radeon Anti-Performance Device.

Gee that game wouldn't happen to be in beta or anything would it? A bug in a beta? Man I can't see how that could happen.


IP you are the UnholyUrine of technology, your ignorance knows no bounds, you are completely uninformed and you are willfully ignorant because you know you don't like the truth. If you want to be blind to how bad NV is doing, between the low yields, high prices, power consumption, heat, and illegal dealings they've engaged in to try and desperately hold on at this point, then you go right ahead. But you do it somewhere else, because this is SEN's tech section, and Ex don't let that shit fly here.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Apr 29 2010, 3:34 am by Excalibur.

Because I stated that's the only instance where games/video glitch, right?

A fanboy wouldn't have tried a radeon card in the first place, given that fact I stated I already had Radeon experience at the time I needed a new card, didn't really care for it, and yet, tried another(!) Radeon card.

I'm not saying the 5850 isn't a great card, the reviews are great and etc. No current nvidia card can compare head to head at this time, sure.
However, I still stand behind nvidia and all it's glory. So I would, also, take a slightly lesser card even if that meant I couldn't put games that came out this year on 64x AA. Yeah, I went there. 64AA.

Or use the computer at all. And a few days? Really?

From what I read and speculate, Batman's AA relied on nvidia technology, because it wasn't native to the U3 engine. Even if nvidia demanded their code not to work with ati cards, I could care less, as it is their code.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Apr 29 2010, 4:10 am by isolatedpurity.

I found a way to pay for everything. I was going to do Bill Me Later, but the Interest was pretty high.

Note: I know you two are debating, but please don't close this topic, I still might have some questions regarding the items at a later time.

This all boils down to the fact that you're too lazy to send your card in for an RMA. It may take a couple of weeks at the worst, or a few days at best. You won't do it, so you shouldn't be complaining.

What glory? Did I not just outline their illegal practices and evil lies?

A slightly lesser card that consumes more power and generates more heat? Wow, you're a real sport. Can I sell you a lesser car with worse gas mileage and a shorter warranty for the same price as a far superior one? I'd love to be the salesman that deals with you.

Lol don't mind us. Sorry for derailing your topic.
His card is indeed a solid buy for that price point. However, I do mean it when I say I personally favor and recommend nvidia.
ATM, nvidia has yet to release their next gen cards though. So Ex might as well as be comparing i7 to... quad cores or something.

Though, I'm questioning if you really need that epic of a card and could move down JUST A LITTLE to a price point where nvidia cards shine more. I mean, my card just shies away from running SC2 with everything on ultra/extreme and this is me just testing it now with starcraft 1 open, galaxy edit, adobe photoshop, sen tools...

Again, not a lesser card, moving to a different category all together here. Forget 5850 vs GTX 9000.

GTX 400 is fermi which is their 'next gen'. NV is not a generation behind, their new tech can't compete. Or was that unclear before?

NV doesn't have a win down till the sub 100$ sector.

Apparently I was reading old news then.