My wife has given me permission to buy a new computer. As I haven't kept up with all of the latest inovations and specifications I am wondering what kind of things I should be looking for and some of the better performing aspects. I know that I want memory, lots of memory but power supplies, graphics cards and other esoteric considerations is a lot of info to sift through.
So, where do I start, looking at an upper limit of $3KUS.
Unless I'm missing something, which is possible, the changes I've suggested bring you down to $1850ish, with an arguably better system. (I'm not counting a change in video card, though-I left the GTX285 in my configuration.)
The CPU is debateable, of course, but the i7 series is more than powerful enough, and since you're not getting a pure prebuilt, you have a decent enough motherboard and BIOS to overclock it if you so desire. (Sidenote: overclocking is >99% safe if you don't exceed maximum specifications for the series, so in this case that would be the 965 at 3.2. A great many i7's as well as C2D/C2Q's have been known to hit 4.0+, but there's really no need for that.)
But, again, if you'd rather spend an extra $280 to not have to deal with that, it's your call.
I'm still looking at the data since that post and yours. I need to take some time to look at the specs and decipher their meanings. but your suggestion have made me think about what I ameventually going to do, as well as other suggestions from others. I mean this is why I posted this here to get this feedback.
IWAS (nice re-entrance by the way) companion 2's but my wife (works out of the home) makes me wear my earphones most of the time.
Mine is still better.
I have to agree with Sole Soul in reply #41. he recommended moving up to an 850W PSU.
with spec like this you'll be much safer.
A 750 should run it but not with a lot of room to spare.
the core i7 cpu is a 130W cpu and the GTX 285 is spec'd at max 183w according to nVidia, if you ever get them both running full load that is almost half your power supply right there.
read my reply to this post it will explain why Sole Soul and I recommend larger than a 750W.
Personally I would recommend just go with the basic Standard Power supply that ibuy offers, and replace it with a PC Power and Cooling 860 this page has a crossfire and an SLI edition. take your pick.
or at least the Coolermaster or Ikonic 850s that ibuy power offers. however I trust PC Power WAY MORE that I do either on of them, partly because PC Power are single +12v rail PSU vs multirail and PC Power has proven themselves to be among the top 3 PSUs on the market. another reason I would suggest the PC Power over those that ibuy offer is the fact that it's going to cost you about $160 to upgrade to them with ibuy, I would much rather pay a little extra and get the $200-250 fro PC Power because I know the quality is worth it.
please and thank you but remember that I will be purchasing this compluter "ready made". so there are some limitations to components available.
so the question here is; why not just go with the original thought and include the 1000W PSU.
Replacing a PSU is easier than it looks (much easier), and it's very hard to mess it up. But it's of course not quite as simple as installing RAM or a hard drive.
That said, in your circumstances I'd simply recommend getting what you want/need the first time.
The 850W Cooler Master is more than sufficient for your needs, and the 750W Corsair will work as well; I just recommended the CM because it's actually marginally cheaper and has more room for expansion.
I personally wouldn't be able to justify spending an extra $80 over what I was already spending to move up from an 850W to a 1000W, but if your plans include or may include SLI/CF in the future, particularly with the GTX285 and up, then it may not be a bad idea. (After all, if I were building such a system, I'd only be putting a 4870 in it.)
Question for Sole: my "not that good of a deal" computer seems to have some heating/cooling issues, namely its temp readout for the system temp gets up as high as 45 degrees celsius (113 degrees farenheight) which is...well its really hot. Part of that has to do with the environment, I'm in a dorm room and its under my desk so it naturally has some airflow issues (I'm planning on changing where it sits) but needless to say its still too hot. It came stock with like four fans (a motherboard/cpu fan and three case fans but it seems they cant keep up. What kind of cooling apparatus or whatever would help the situation?
That's not all that hot. Really. System temp is usually around 37 with taht setup and core temp is 43-45...in personal experience. My quad is even hotter than that, idles 46 goes up hotter.
Motherboard temp?
That's...a little high, but nothing to really be worried about. 35-40 is about the best you're going to get, in my experience. What's the CPU temp?
And you don't need to worry about it frying your hard drive, either-most hard drives that are even close to modern work fine up until around 55C, and then only start having issues beyond 60C.
That said, replacing the stock fans, which are probably ~30CFM, might not be a bad idea. (I can't find specs on the fans in the case, so I'm assuming the worst.)
I use one of these as my CPU fan, even though it's a case fan. Slightly cheaper options are Scythe, Masscool, and Rosewill. The Kingwin ~79CFM fans I have in my case aren't available anymore, apparently, or I'd recommend them, as they were $5 a piece.
And yes, all three spots your case has a fan for are 120mm, presumably 120mm x 120mm x 25mm, so don't get a 120mm x 120mm x 32mm like this one, as it may not quite fit in all of the spots.
Thats good to know, thanks. 'Nother question. Eventually im going to upgrade the video card (I hope) to a 285 gtx, but (as I've so aptly demonstrated) I have little computer knowledge or experience. My comp has an M3A78-CM Asus motherboard in it, can it handle that card or am I dreaming too big. Also, I'm sure I'd have to increase the power supply or something but have no idea what that entails. I know I just bought the silly thing but is it just better to wait a few years and buy something better or would upgrading be worthwhile?
It's compatible, but I don't know if it'll physically fit in either the board or the case. (This used to be a concern with some of the higher end cards; ask someone else to be positive-not really my department.) It should fit, but it'll probably hang off the end of the board some.
You won't of course have the option of running SLI but I assume you're aware of that, and I doubt you'd dump that much cash on it anyway.
You will almost certainly need to replace the PSU, since I can't find hard specs on that, either.
Why would you want to upgrade now, though? Can't run Crysis high enough?
What reason would you have to invest more into that system at present?
wow, a highjacked thread, entertaining, glad the info was relevant.
So, I think I know where I'm going with this and I have incorporated many of your suggestions, thanks all, it has been much appreciated.
greg
Yeah, we have a habit of going offtopic...
Sorry bout that. Haha well I guess I'd want to upgrade eventually because I'm sure the 9600 GT will be very obsolete...I mean its become a notebook graphics card (albeit not the 1 gig version I have). I think it would fit in the case unless its much, much bigger but I dont actually know the size of it and SLI...well...maybe one day . *begs gmc2 for forgiveness for jacking his thread*
guys, like I said, it was entertaining and relevent. with all of your help, I wouldn't really complain, thanks again
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