Post your PC's specs here! + Discussion about hardware

[NAzu]

Did you try upping the fanspeed on the videocards fan? I heard it spins at pretty low rpm's at stock settings.

[LaJon]

Updates

Allied 450W PSU
GIGABYTE P35-DS3L Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3Ghz
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 800
ASUS GeForce 7800GTX 256MB
2x500GB Western Digital SATA HDDs
Sound Blaster Audigy SE
HP DVD1040 DVD-RW DL Drive

[nox_xie]

^woots 2*500gb.. wow..

hurm.. now my psu (thermaltake butterfly 480W) starting making funny noise.. i think the fan is the culprit.. so loud and annoying..

Y_Y dont have money to purchase a new psu (st56F maybe)..

[Rick-e]

Hey guys.. I'm planning to build a new computer for multimedia purposes (3d animation, image, video & audio editing, etc) and I need some advice >_< this is the general specs I think I need:

1.Processor
   I'm thinking a core 2 duo 3ghz would do nice. what about quad cores? are they worth the extra bucks?

2. Motherboard
   I'm lost here >_< What do I need to look for in a motherboard? in the past I used Asus motherboards, and are quite satisfied with them. Please advise on a motherboard type & brand..

3. Memory
   I'm planning to get a Corsair twin 2x2048mb DDR2

4. Harddisk
   Seagate.. at least 500gb.

5. Graphic Card
   Definitely a GeForce 8 series... which 8 series is the most efficient to buy (best performance for the price) ? I think 8600GT would be strong enough.

6. Monitor
   At least 19" LCD, but If possible I'd love to have a 22" monitor, what do you need to look for in an LCD monitor? I usually use a CRT monitor

7. Cooling
   Is watercooling good? I'm pondering whether to try it or not.. Does it work better than fan cooling?


I think that's all... What do you think of this build? anything to add? anything to replace? any suggestion will be appreciated, thanks guys ^_^

[ebc]

hmmm tricky time to buy stuff atm lol
New gen of CPU's is JUST coming out. So if you bought a current model Core 2 Duo, you will kick yourself in a month or so when the rest of the 45nm chips are released.
Some shops are already selling C2D 8400 and 8500's though, 8400's are pretty good value and they're 3ghz so maybe look at getting one of those.
For the work you wanna do, you would definitely benefit from a quadcore though, but this is the tricky bit. Q6600's are the going bang for buck quadcore cpu's atm but they're about to be replaced by the Q9300 which runs slightly faster and will be around $80 cheaper, there's also the Q9450 which I'm thinking of picking up when it comes out. But yeah you'd have to wait a month or two for these cpu's to come out yet.

As for motherboard, you should be fine with whatever Intel based chipset board you get. Just make sure it supports 45nm cpu's. A chipset to look for is probably P35. There's a newer X35 but you would not notice any benefit from paying the extra money to buy it.

Videocard, 8600gt's are pretty crap and it's a tricky decision at the moment what to go for in the budget gamer range cause the cards are about 400% slower than the model up. If you can I recommend going for a 8800gt (even just the 256mb model) it will last you a lot longer than an 8600gt.

I'm still not a huge fan of LCD monitors cause I'm a pretty fussy FPS gamer. But you might find no problem with whatever LCD you get, I like Samsung the best and I'd get a Samsung if I had to buy an LCD.

Don't bother with watercooling lol, you can get cheap kits but they don't perform any better than a good Heatsink/Fan, it's just not worth the money you spend, you could buy a better cpu instead. If you're not overclocking then just stick with the stock heatsink.

[Rick-e]

I Just read some info about Q9450, and yeah It's looking good O_o so maybe I'll wait for a month or something, since I'm in that much of a rush to buy this. The 8800gt is kinda out of my budget is there a possibility the price will go down soon? thanks ebc

Now to check the prices at the local store ^_^

Edit: I found some 8800GTS models that's not too expensive, are those any good? is there a big difference between GT, GTS, and GTX models?

thanks again ^_^

[ebc]

The 8800gt should come down more, and by the time you buy your computer the price might be just right.
There's 2 versions of the 8800gts. The older verison which came in 320mb and 640mb versions and it runs everything really well, but it is an old card and compared to the 8800gt, you should really consider saving for it cause price difference is worth it. The other version of the 8800gts is 512mb and it has slightly better performance than an 8800gt.

I'm not entirely sure but there is meant be an 8800gs which is meant to fill in a gap in the market. But I'm not sure of the actual release date for it.

[Rick-e]

I see... cool! so I think I'll hold off the purchasing for next month, then I'll check the prices again ^_^ thanks 4 the suggestion.

[frozenthrone]

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 OC to 3.24ghz
MOBO: ASUS P5B-Deluxe
RAM: OCZ 2GB DDR2 800 dual channel
GFX: Evga GeForce 8800GT PCI-E 2.0 512mb Super Overclock
AUD: Sound Blaster Audigy 2
HDs: 2x500GB Seagate / 250GB External
PSU: Antec 620 WATT
CASE: Antec ninehundred
CD: LG dvd burner + dvd rom

MOUSE: Logitech mx518
KEYBOARD: Saitek Ecilpse II
MONITOR: Samsung 226BW 22" widescreen

[Katchoo]

my ghetto ass mac:

Hardware Overview:

Machine Name: iBook G4
Machine Model: PowerBook6,5
CPU Type: PowerPC G4  (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.07 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory:   512 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.8.5f0
 

[sh15uya]

update since my AM2 4800+ died -___-

mobo: ASUS  P5E
cpu:  Intel Core™ 2 Duo E6750
+
one more Seagate 7200.11 500Go

[chokkan 2]

PC #1
CPU: Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.5GHz
Mobo: Nvidia 780i SLI (will upgrade soon)
RAM: 4GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)  (will upgrade to DDR3 if I got $$)
Display: GeForce 9600GT 512MB Core 740MHz Memory 1950MHz (will upgrade soon)
Monitors: 24" widescreen & 17" widescreen
Harddisks: 1TB + 1TB + 500GB + 500GB + 320GB + 200GB
PSU: 650W (will upgrade soon)

PC # 2
Notebook .....
Core duo 1.6GHz
120GB HD
17" Monitor
I don't know and I don't care ^_^

PC#3 (I don't really use this PC, so the parts are for sale ^_^ 95% new (light use) ... pm me if interested)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz
Mobo: EVGA Nvidia 680i SLI
RAM: Corsair 1 GB x2 DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 4-4-4-12  +  OCZ 1 GB x2 DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 4-4-4-15
Display: EVGA GeForce 7300GT
PSU: Thermaltake 430W

[Datalanche]

^ I like your PC #1! Awesome spec and one hell of an overclock. What OS do you use on it?

I am thinking of building a new PC. I am still on my Athlon XP that a posted last page, and while it does still get the job done, the geek in me wants shiny new things! I'd probably go for the quad core and other nice specs, but I can't decide what OS to use. Linux is so interesting, yet so frustrating. I guess if nothing else, Windows XP will be supported until 2014. 

[Datalanche]

Well I'm double posting, but it's been a while and I want to share what I've been busy with the past few days: getting this thing together!

-Western Digital Caviar 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive x 2
-CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 Power Supply
-EVGA GeForce 8800 GS 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
-OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2N800SR4GK
-GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
-ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
-Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400
-Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
(and of course, fans, thermal paste, and other little things)

But uh... yeah. I love it. It's pretty damn fast. Building it was mostly easy. Some things in the case were a tight fit, but it all worked out in the end. The only hard part was the Zalman 9700. I wish I would have went for the smaller 9500. Installing the bracket to keep it in place for vertical orientation(cuz so many towers, you know, SIT ON THEIR SIDE >_> ) was obscene. You can barely get a screwdriver down there to get it in. Hopefully it won't pop out. I think I got it in well enough. If me banging it around didn't pop it out, it should be okay. I am glad I got it though. The cooler that came with the E8400 is VERY small.  As for OS, I opted to stick with Windows XP. I have nothing to gain by getting Vista, which I may just skip entirely. XP works fine.

So... yeah. I rather love it. I think I may love it more when I'm done copying stuff over and actually start using it more.

[frblckstr1]

^ W'll I just bought me a new Videoplayer system, much easier

ACER L5100:
- AMD X2 5000+
- 2GB RAM
- 500GB SATA disk
- ATI X1250 (DVI+HDMI)
- lots of USB/Firewire ports
- Wireless Keybord/mouse + VMC remote
- Analog cable TV tuner (but otherwise you do not get the digital out for some reason)

Its gets a Vista performance index upto 5.9 (but lower 3.x for the game graphics)

Could have waited for the Quad core, but this will keep me busy for the next year (it replaces a laptop as media player)

And its very low-noise: 26dB

[NAzu]

Datalanche, have you considered overclocking the cpu? 8400's are pretty good overclockers. 3.6-3.8GHz is pretty average 

[Datalanche]

Datalanche, have you considered overclocking the cpu? 8400's are pretty good overclockers. 3.6-3.8GHz is pretty average 

This is the first computer I've had that is overclocking-friendly, so I have no experience with it. I'll probably wait a while. I'm in awe of how fast it is just stock. We'll see, though.

[NAzu]

Run 3Dmark06. It's a pretty good benchmark for the videocard.

[sh15uya]

need advice here; I'm quite lost with new GC.
I'm not a hardcore gamer but I like new games like Crysis, Assassin's Creed or DoW
PNY GeForce9600 OC ( the black+gold design is cool lol ) / GeForce9800 GTX ( 260 & 280 are a bit expensive lol )
or
Radeon HD4850 / Radeon HD4870
 

current conf. :
mobo: ASUS  P5E ( no SLI, only Crossfire available )
cpu:  Intel Core™ 2 Duo E6750
gc: XFX 7600GT XXX ed.
ram: G.Skill 3Go DDRII PC6400pk
psu: Silverstone Zeus ST52F 520W

I've never checked ATI's cards and I thought I will always choose nVidia, but it seems that the 48xx serie is nice ?

[NAzu]

I wouldn't even consider 9600GT as there are faster cards that don't cost much more. Between 9800GTX and HD4850, I would choose HD4850 cos it has better multimedia features and fares better in almost every new game. HD4870 is obviously going to be faster than the HD4850 but it hasn't hitted the retail market yet and the price is bit unclear atm. nVidia will launch 9800GTX+ (=overclocked 9800GTX) later on which is going to be a direct competitor for the HD4850. If you're not in a hurry I recommend waiting for the GTX+ as it has some nice features like support for the PhysX physics engine (boosts fps in games that support PhysX. Mainly games using Unreal 3 engine, like Gears of War). Also the 55nm manufacturing process means that it will overclock better than the original 65nm based GTX. Here are few articles that you might want to read before you make the choice:

http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=5814

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/732/1/

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/731/1/