New Computer

[Tyyr]

Sorry, dude. I'm having a shite week.

No, I am a jackass so don't bother appologizing for stating the obvious.

That said I am at least pricing components out right now to look into the possibility. The thing about ibp is that you can often get an assembled computer from them for less than you can buy the parts individually.

[Nickswitz]

I would honestly say not to knock down the processor too much if you plan on gaming because the i7 is an amazing CPU and makes gaming a lot faster as you get to more intense games, otherwise I would say go with a dualcore i7 instead of the quadcore, you'll get the i7's "smart computing" which IMO is worth it, with a lower price tag.

[Reliant121]

I can understand the antagonism toward ATI cards, a lot of people seem to have them. I just don't understand it, the Radeon cards we've had have always worked miles better than the Nvidea cards.

However, i'd agree on the AMD thing. Strangely enough, we downloaded a program for two of out computers with virtually identical AMD/Intel processors (at least, equal in the range) and the AMD came out on top just about.


maybe my family just better suits alternative equipment.

[Nickswitz]

I can understand the antagonism toward ATI cards, a lot of people seem to have them. I just don't understand it, the Radeon cards we've had have always worked miles better than the Nvidea cards.

However, i'd agree on the AMD thing. Strangely enough, we downloaded a program for two of out computers with virtually identical AMD/Intel processors (at least, equal in the range) and the AMD came out on top just about.


maybe my family just better suits alternative equipment.

Yeah, the difference is there currently isn't an AMD equivalent of the i series, they are a lot better at working hardcore games and generally better for running multiple things at once.

[Reliant121]

I've got an AMD Phenom quadcore and it handles multitasking and mega high end games perfectly fine. i'm just sayin.

[Nickswitz]

I've got an AMD Phenom quadcore and it handles multitasking and mega high end games perfectly fine. i'm just sayin.

I won't argue that, just that the i7 will do it better...

[Reliant121]

The temptation to slap you boy!

To be fair, Tyyr seems a much higher echelon gamer than I am. For a start, he is looking at liquid cooling. My dad almost had a heart attack when I proposed it for mine.

[Nickswitz]

What I would do to have a liquid cooled computer for gaming..

[Reliant121]

I think my father would kill me. His mind is the basis of water near electricity = bad idea.

No matter how protected it is.

to be fair, he thought a straightener would burn the house into oblivion and it hasn't yet.

[Nickswitz]

Well for the most part water near electricity is a bad thing, however they have so much protection on them to prevent damage, that I would actually trust it.

[Tyyr]

It's processor only on the cooling. Water cooling back in the day used to be really iffy but it's really coming around as a technology and the reliability is up.

Most of the testing I've seen gives AMD's a slight edge over the i5 series of Pentiums when it comes to gaming but the AMD's lagging in non-gaming applications. The i7's are top of the line but you've also got that price tag. Right now I'm seriously looking at a AMD Phenom II X4 965 as my processor. Everything else is largely equivalent to the i7 powered rig but $200 less. While I'd love to get the top of the line processor $200 is a good chunk of money and I'm not anticipating any issues gaming with a GTX 460 as my video card.

[Nickswitz]

It's processor only on the cooling. Water cooling back in the day used to be really iffy but it's really coming around as a technology and the reliability is up.

Most of the testing I've seen gives AMD's a slight edge over the i5 series of Pentiums when it comes to gaming but the AMD's lagging in non-gaming applications. The i7's are top of the line but you've also got that price tag. Right now I'm seriously looking at a AMD Phenom II X4 965 as my processor. Everything else is largely equivalent to the i7 powered rig but $200 less. While I'd love to get the top of the line processor $200 is a good chunk of money and I'm not anticipating any issues gaming with a GTX 460 as my video card.

Very very true, if you push the processor down you'll want to find a really really good graphics card though.

[Tyyr]

A GTX 460 is a top end NVidia card. Not all the way at the top with their 480's with 2 gig of memory but still pretty high end.

[Nickswitz]

Ok, Video cards aren't aren't my thing honestly, for me its processors and mobo that I'm good with. And RAM to an extent.

[Tyyr]

Alright, just out of curiosity I started to price things out a bit and see what my options were.

First off, I'm about 90% certain at this point that I'm not going to limit myself to $1,000. I wind up making some comprimises I'd rather not, leaving me with some details I know I'm going to have to fix later like getting a bigger HD, more RAM, or a new vid card. Saving myself two weeks isn't worth it. I can choke it down and deal with it to get a computer I can run with for a while.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-890XA-UD3 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Video Card: ASUS GeForce GTX 460 1GB
Hard Drive: Western Digital 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
Power Supply: Thermaltake 650W
Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 932

This is what I have to have. I can migrate over my optical drives, card reader, sound card, two older hard drives, and probably a fan or two from my existing, dead, rig. I'm getting a new case because I'm not 100% happy with the airflow in my current one, especially with me moving up in video card and processor heat load. It would get me back going again. It's also just about everything I could hope for. Total cost before shipping is $1,025.93.

Now getting pretty much the equivalent rig from ibuypower: http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Gamer_Mage_D275/w/35872

Downside is the case is slightly smaller, upside is a liquid system for the CPU, I don't build it, and a fresh optical drive. Price tag is $1,176 before shipping.

I dunno. It has been a while since I built one on my own, could be fun to do it again.