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Pagan's Mind
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 Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 1:10 am Post subject: |
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| ZeroX03 wrote: | If all goes well, this shall be mine soon. I just need to decide on a motherboard, HELP.
-MSI Nvidia GTX580 |
Two 6950s in crossfire would give you much more GPU power and it costs the same amount  .
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thebigm
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| Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 11:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Pagan's Mind wrote: | | ZeroX03 wrote: | If all goes well, this shall be mine soon. I just need to decide on a motherboard, HELP.
-MSI Nvidia GTX580 |
Two 6950s in crossfire would give you much more GPU power and it costs the same amount . |
Will also produce more heat/noise though. It depends on what resolution/monitor size you're playing on also, as well as the specific games and what level of crossfire support there is for them.
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Pagan's Mind
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| Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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If you buy aftermarket then noise and heat is negligible especially if you're buying a case with lots of fans and good air flow. Even crossfire/SLI is advantageous at 1080p with games like BF3 for example and crossfire is supported in most games that will actually benefit from it.
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thebigm
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| Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:39 am Post subject: |
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| Pagan's Mind wrote: | | If you buy aftermarket then noise and heat is negligible especially if you're buying a case with lots of fans and good air flow. Even crossfire/SLI is advantageous at 1080p with games like BF3 for example and crossfire is supported in most games that will actually benefit from it. |
Unfortunately, going after market for GPU heatsinks will actually end up costing a lot, negating any benefit of saving money. On a crossfire rig, you'll also need to be careful, as the top coolers/quiet ones are pushing 2.5 to 3 slots, meaning that in most motherboards, the spacing will be such that you may not be able to fit them in properly. There's also the whole warranty void with a lot of manufacturers for removing the cooler.
The GPU is the one area that I still need to quiet in my system, although might just wait it out till the 79xx series is out and figure out what to do after that.
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Pagan's Mind
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| Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 1:12 am Post subject: |
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That's true but I meant aftermarket as in the coolers manufacturers put on the cards themselves such as Sapphire's Vapor-X or Asus's DirectCU II. I know the 6950 barely pushes 60C with the DirectCU II.
I don't think noise is an issue for GPUs in my opinion. The only time they produce any considerable noise is under load and you'll probably have your speakers cranked up or headphones on at that point. I can't hear my video card over my fans while it's idle.
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Newland
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| Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 5:01 pm Post subject: |
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Need advice on which 580 I should grab.
EVGA
Gigabyte
Gainward
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Appel
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| Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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I've got 2 of the Gainwards GTX580 3GB Phantoms running in SLI and am pretty happy with them.
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somedude34
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 2:10 pm Post subject: |
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My budget is AUD$2.5k, I already have a 24" asus ve246 monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, headset, so basically I need a new box and potentially another monitor for dual monitors.
This is what I'm thinking so far:
Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($339.00 @ Scorptec)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($269.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($119.00 @ Scorptec)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($159.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Hard Drive: Corsair Force Series GT 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($235.00 @ Scorptec)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB Video Card ($599.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Thermaltake VN300M1W2N ATX Full Tower Case ($159.00 @ Scorptec)
Power Supply: Silverstone 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($159.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($91.30 @ Mwave Australia)
Monitor: Asus VE248H 24.0" Monitor ($215.00 @ Scorptec)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 3-Pack (64-bit) ($99.00 @ Scorptec)
Total: $2443.30
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2011-11-23 14:08 EST+1100)
On top of this I also plan to buy any extra optional fans for the case that I might need, a multicard reader and anti static wristbracelet.
I've helped build some friends PCs before, but we only grounded ourselfs by touching the case itself, should I invest in an antistatic wristbracelet and/or antistatic mat when I build my own pc for the first time?
For SSD I'm thinking Corsair Force GT VS OCZ Vertex 3, your opinions?
Also I picked the mobo because it has firewire and two internal usb 3.0 headers because the case has 2 x USB 3.0, is there a better mobo I should use that still caters for my case and one firewire at the back.
I'd love to here your advice, cheers.
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Pagan's Mind
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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You'll want a 7200rpm drive if you plan to install your games on the hard drive.
I would get a Crucial M4 120GB SSD. It can be had for about $200 posted directly from the manufacturer. It's the most popular SSD today in terms of speed and reliability and it uses its own firmware.
Also the 7970 video card is literally just around the corner (should be out Jan 2012) so it might be a good idea to wait until that's released. It's rumored to retail for $500US so I'd expect around $650AU here. It will undoubtedly beat the GTX580 in performance.
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somedude34
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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I'd really prefer to get this ASAP (i wanna play skyrim, bf3 etc), So ill probs just get the 580, which brand though? coz usually id lean towards gigabyte but they have a few different versions, is there any need to get the SOC instead of the UD. I've heard people saying the vertex 3 is the best ssd, others say cosair force gt and now the crucial M4, whats the difference? Can you link a comparison in terms of speed etc, coz i havent heard of the crucial m4.
The price jumps up for the 7200rpm drive, i hope its worth it, i'll be installing most of my games and my huge steam folder on there. 1TB won't be enough unfortunately.
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grim-one
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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Hard drives are ridiculously expensive right now (thank Thailand and its floods). If you can make do with your existing drive, it's probably a good idea until they come down in price. Otherwise I guess buy a smaller 7200rpm and get an extra, larger drive later.
7200rpm has been the standard for desktop drives for years, 5400rpm is typically used for laptops and low-performance (and cost) enterprise workstations. I recommend WD Caviar Black drives 
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Jellyfish
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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2TB at 5400 rpm is still quite quick. Just to give you an idea, a 2TB 7200 rpm is faster than my 600 GB 10000 rpm drive.
As someone's who just spent 4 months building enterprise grade images (and ironing out bugs with them) for OS on SSD and Data on mechanical HDD. Just getting a 3TB with another largish drive for backups is the way to go until you're getting 512+ GB SSDs or someone releases an OS (and FS) that can handle multiple drives with different sizes and IO/lag speeds that's invisible to the user. Windows 7 and 8 (unless it changes radically from the current builds) just aren't there yet to have hassle free computing with multiple drives. Mind you I work at a Helpdesk so my opinion may be biased at little as to what constitutes hassle free.
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grim-one
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| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:25 am Post subject: |
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^ Not happy with Just a Bunch Of Disk (JBOD) RAID arrays?
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Pagan's Mind
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| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 2:39 am Post subject: |
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| somedude34 wrote: | | I'd really prefer to get this ASAP (i wanna play skyrim, bf3 etc), So ill probs just get the 580, which brand though? coz usually id lean towards gigabyte but they have a few different versions, is there any need to get the SOC instead of the UD. I've heard people saying the vertex 3 is the best ssd, others say cosair force gt and now the crucial M4, whats the difference? Can you link a comparison in terms of speed etc, coz i havent heard of the crucial m4. |
The Vertex 3 is generally considered the best in terms of raw speed but when are you ever going to need 500MB/s reads and writes? The Crucial M4 is still very fast with 500MB/s reads and 175MB/s writes. The reason the Crucial M4 is so popular right now is because it's a reliable drive. The Vertex 3 and Corsair Force drives use the Sandforce controller whereas the Crucial M4 uses a completely different controller called Marvel. I've found Vertex drives tend to fail quite a lot.
I also recommend the Western Digital Black 7200rpm drive. It would be unfortunate to bottleneck your system with a 5400rpm drive when it's such a great gaming machine. I know Seagate are phasing out 5400rpm drives because the power savings (it's literally only $1 a year) over a 7200rpm drive is not worth it and they tend to cost more to manufacture.
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somedude34
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| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 3:32 am Post subject: |
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I've been specing all day, and I'm closer to a finished build, heres what I've got:
Everything is from PCCASEGEAR btw
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K - $339
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 - $289
Memory: Corsair CMX16GX3M4A1600C9 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 - $119
Solid State Drive: Crucial M4 SSD 128GB - $249
Hard Disk Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB WD2002FAEX - $299
Video Card: 1.5GB EVGA GeForce GTX 580 - $569
Case: CoolerMaster HAF X - $209
Power Supply: Corsair HX-750 - $189
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-206 Blu-Ray Disc Writer OEM - $115
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit with SP1 OEM - $99
Card Reader: Shintaro Internal Card Reader 3.5" OEM - $19
Total: $2495
So what do you think? Am I set to buy this beast?
Also what's the significance of the 'OEM' on the last 3 items?
Thanks for the advice aswell guys!
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Pagan's Mind
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| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 3:50 am Post subject: |
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It looks awesome to me.
$299 is bloody ridiculous for the hard drive but I guess it could take months for prices to stabilize again.
OEM usually just means it doesn't come with a bunch of useless stuff like manuals, cables, etc. The optical drive will be standalone but your motherboard will have 4+ SATA connectors. Windows 7 OEM is just a cheaper way to buy the OS. It should come in a case with the serial and DVD inside.
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Island_Wolf
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| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 9:23 am Post subject: |
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| Pagan's Mind wrote: | | The Vertex 3 and Corsair Force drives use the Sandforce controller whereas the Crucial M4 uses a completely different controller called Marvel. I've found Vertex drives tend to fail quite a lot. |
| Pagan's Mind wrote: | | I also recommend the Western Digital Black 7200rpm drive. It would be unfortunate to bottleneck your system with a 5400rpm drive when it's such a great gaming machine. I know Seagate are phasing out 5400rpm drives because the power savings (it's literally only $1 a year) over a 7200rpm drive is not worth it and they tend to cost more to manufacture. |
Edit - sorry, getting my computer build mixed up, I got a Hitachi not a WD.
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grim-one
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| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 11:51 am Post subject: |
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somedude: Be aware that with the OEM Windows license, that if you change a number of components (e.g. the motherboard, CPU and hard drive) at once you may need to buy a new Windows license. It's not transferable between computers unlike a boxed retail version. Mind you it costs like 1/3 to 1/4 of the boxed license =P
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Jellyfish
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| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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| grim-one wrote: | | ^ Not happy with Just a Bunch Of Disk (JBOD) RAID arrays? |
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Pagan's Mind
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| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 6:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Island_Wolf wrote: | | Personally, I think Black is overkill. I got Hitachi 1TB 7,200rpm which I am still currently use and it is doing very well and keeps the cost of a Gaming PC down. All the computer I've built only had the cheap 7,2000rpm HDD range, no one ever got upset with the HDD. |
The WD Black is fairly expensive and they don't really beat other 7200rpm drives by much if at all. I use 2x Samsung F3 1TB for my Steam folder and games. They only cost $59 each when I bought them and now they're at about $170 so it's a really bad time to buy.
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somedude34
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| Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 8:14 pm Post subject: |
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Well I placed the order and chucked on a 3D monitor and 3D vision kit, hopefully pick it up 2moz.
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mikezilla2
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| Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 4:57 am Post subject: |
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that reminds me , im still seeking an internal drive for storage as well as an external for the same purpose
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grim-one
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| Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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| mikezilla2 wrote: | | that reminds me , im still seeking an internal drive for storage as well as an external for the same purpose |
I'm interested in what else you could do with the drives. Paperweight? 
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mikezilla2
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| Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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| grim-one wrote: | | mikezilla2 wrote: | | that reminds me , im still seeking an internal drive for storage as well as an external for the same purpose |
I'm interested in what else you could do with the drives. Paperweight? |
 hah - grim you sly dog you
this is for my computer by the way
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ZeroX03
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| Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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CPU: Intel Core i7 3930K
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme4 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill 16GB DDR3
Solid State Drive: OCZ 60GB
Hard Disk Drive: 2TB HDD
Video Card: 2x Palit GTX570's in SLi
Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Black USB 3.0
Power Supply: Corsair HX-850
Cooler: Corsair H100
Optical Drive: Random DVD Drive
Getting all this from work, the CPU, Mobo, Cooler and PSU are arriving on Monday, everything else is here, in my room, staring at me. O_O
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