Buyer's Guide II: Extreme, High-End, Mid-Range, Budget, and Entry Level Systems

[temasekcity]

Got my PC. In the end spent about 1k. Think I made a mistake buying the Sapphire HD 4850 1gb...I rushed down after work and was lazy, so I decided to get everything at Tradepac instead. They are out of stock for the Team Elite ram.

Think they cheated me of a casing fan though, realised I was short of one when I got home haha.

But thanks for the advice!

hope you got 4G DDR3 ram running at 1333.

 

[Kadaj34]

any recommendation for a gaming/hd movie rig under $800?
OS and monitor not needed, thanks

 

[batuchka]

But thanks for the advice!

You are welcomed ^^

 

[batuchka]

any recommendation for a gaming/hd movie rig under $800?
OS and monitor not needed, thanks

Elaborate on main usage?

 

[Kadaj34]

Elaborate on main usage?

mainly use for gaming and watching movies

 

[batuchka]

CM 341 $53 Tradepac
Samsung DVDRW $30
Seagate 7200.12 $72
CM real Power Pro 460 $79
MSI HD 5770 $254
2 x 2 Team Elite 1333 $146 MyNextCom
A2X3 425 $104
Biostar A780L3 $84 Classic Dynasty
$822

 

[chriser1982]

If you can afford it go for i7 LGA 1366 and just ease off in GPU ok liao

Hi Thanks!
Sorry to bother, but i have more questions

1) Are all the i7 processors okay to buy? Any problems, issues?

2) Which is enough? 5850 or 5870?

3) Which Mobo is good for this config?

Thanks alot for your help Batuchka.

 

[batuchka]

DOTA and IIRC D3 game engine not GPU intensive so what resolution LCD u used to for gaming?

 

[chriser1982]

DOTA and IIRC D3 game engine not GPU intensive so what resolution LCD u used to for gaming?

I'm using the samsung 2333HD DTV.
Cause i'm just wondering if the 3D editing softwares(3Ds MAX, Blender) and Adobe Suite will need those GPU power, sorry to sound abit noob on these.

And how about these 2? Any advice bro?

1) Are all the i7 processors okay to buy? Any problems, issues?

3) Which Mobo is good for this config?

Thanks Batuchka!

 

[SgtHunter]

hope you got 4G DDR3 ram running at 1333.

Yep I got the kingston rams that were a few dollars cheaper than team elite. Though the biostar motherboard is a little small and light on on board audio jacks. Had to buy a Creative T3 to replace my original 4yr old 5.1 since I had no idea how to plug in so many cables with just 3.

The printer i/o being inside is a little pain as well, and after plugging in my 4850, I basically had no room for another PCI card.

Next stop: experiment with OCing with just stock fans. I wonder how far can the 500w PSU bring me, my original was a Trupac 550w.

 

[temasekcity]

Yep I got the kingston rams that were a few dollars cheaper than team elite. Though the biostar motherboard is a little small and light on on board audio jacks. Had to buy a Creative T3 to replace my original 4yr old 5.1 since I had no idea how to plug in so many cables with just 3.

The printer i/o being inside is a little pain as well, and after plugging in my 4850, I basically had no room for another PCI card.

Next stop: experiment with OCing with just stock fans. I wonder how far can the 500w PSU bring me, my original was a Trupac 550w.

My advice is NOT to overclock. Though you may have minor perks in performance, long term use may cripple it. If you overheat once, it will never be the same cpu again. It is meant to run at that frequency - $ for $.

don't mistaken, i overclocked cpu till I saw fire on the motherboard before. If I were to overclock, it is definitely after the warranty period.

 

[batuchka]

Hi Thanks!
Sorry to bother, but i have more questions

1) Are all the i7 processors okay to buy? Any problems, issues?

2) Which is enough? 5850 or 5870?

3) Which Mobo is good for this config?

Thanks alot for your help Batuchka.

1. Mobo - as per budget/features needed
2.After CPU/Mobo check balance ler hehe

You are welcomed

 

[FinalTidus]

Hi.. If going for i5 750 rig should i go for P55 Gigabyte or ECS mobo?? The ecs mobo really damn cheap and value

 

[temasekcity]

Hi.. If going for i5 750 rig should i go for P55 Gigabyte or ECS mobo?? The ecs mobo really damn cheap and value

ECS quality is a doubt. Few of my boards die within 2-3 years.

 

[Zeltos]

Hi.. If going for i5 750 rig should i go for P55 Gigabyte or ECS mobo?? The ecs mobo really damn cheap and value

If budget is an issue. Get gigabyte p55a-ud3! It is the cheapest p55 from the big 2

 

[andykok]

Need new PC

Asking All Senior,

Pls help, my PC going down soon, should be mother board problem.

Will get new PC when down. What should I get?

C2D or i3 or i5 ???

Purpose
1. Internet / HD youtube
2. My photos
3. Music (Must be good, now using Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme)
4. No playing games (So no overclock)

The problem is I cannot wait, what I press My Document, I want it fast. Whatever I open, it must be there in 3sec.

Intend to place 2pc 500GB n 2pc 1TB HDD. (Use to it lah)

What spec should I get??? Intel pls

So many kinds of motherboard, which should I get?
How much Ram? Should be more the better, right.
Power?

Thinking of getting a graphic card with HDMI output so that I can connect it to my 32" LCD TV. Most of the time will be 19' LCD monitor.
graphic card, 512MB or 1GB.

Total budget $800 without monitor, sound card, dvd rom, Hdd.
I want a better one, not the best PC in the world.

Pls help to list down in basic terms, I don't understand some of the terms in this forum, too hard for me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[FinalTidus]

If budget is an issue. Get gigabyte p55a-ud3! It is the cheapest p55 from the big 2

yeah was thinking of this damn godly board!!!! USB 3.0 too.

 

[temasekcity]

Asking All Senior,

Pls help, my PC going down soon, should be mother board problem.

Will get new PC when down. What should I get?

C2D or i3 or i5 ???

Purpose
1. Internet / HD youtube
2. My photos
3. Music (Must be good, now using Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme)
4. No playing games (So no overclock)

The problem is I cannot wait, what I press My Document, I want it fast. Whatever I open, it must be there in 3sec.

Intend to place 2pc 500GB n 2pc 1TB HDD. (Use to it lah)

What spec should I get??? Intel pls

So many kinds of motherboard, which should I get?
How much Ram? Should be more the better, right.
Power?

Thinking of getting a graphic card with HDMI output so that I can connect it to my 32" LCD TV. Most of the time will be 19' LCD monitor.
graphic card, 512MB or 1GB.

Total budget $800 without monitor, sound card, dvd rom, Hdd.
I want a better one, not the best PC in the world.

Pls help to list down in basic terms, I don't understand some of the terms in this forum, too hard for me.

Thanks in advance.

Looking at your budget, i3-530 is suitable for you.

For under 3 sec to open office file, you need a good hdd. Samsung F3 SATA 1TB is fast. Suggest throw away your old 500MHz if over still using PATA. Since you like 4 HDDs, why not get all 1TB and run raid?

FYI, SSD is better. Start windows 7 under 30 sec INCLUDING your office file!

1333MHz 2x2GB ram enough.

No overclock is good.

For 32" external display to watch HD movies, get Nvidia GTS250 512MB. Resolution is the concern here.

Use back the old Creative sound card.

For power, 500W is more than enough. Get 80+ certified.

 

[batuchka]

If budget is an issue. Get gigabyte p55a-ud3! It is the cheapest p55 from the big 2

yeah was thinking of this damn godly board!!!! USB 3.0 too.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-sata-6gb,2583.html

Negative - no current chipset natively supports USB 3.0 and NEC chip provides only 2 x USB 3.0 slot and we all know that is far from enough so we shall have to solve this by the good ole' PCI-to-USB add on card (in this case USB 3.0) and here is the problem

NEC was first to release a full-blown USB 3.0 controller (µPD720200)
As long as USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s aren’t built into Intel's and AMD's core logic, those controllers remain add-on devices that require an interface with ample throughput. The interface of choice, naturally, is typically PCI Express, which currently spans two generations of technology. PCI Express 2.0 offers 500 MB/s throughput per lane, while PCI Express 1.x is limited to 250 MB/s. Rated at up to 500 MB/s, a second-gen PCIe x1 interface is considered adequate.

For some reason, all Intel chipsets available today only support PCI Express 2.0 on the primary links that are used for graphics. This applies to the 4- and 5-series chipsets employing the ICH10 southbridge. While Intel claims PCI Express 2.0 support on those links, it limits throughput to PCI Express 1.1-class performance. This is naturally a problem when we start looking at the latest high-speed motherboard-down controllers.

AMD, on the other hand, upgraded the link speeds on its 700- and 800-series chipsets, which means that current AMD mainstream and enthusiast chipsets don’t create bandwidth bottlenecks for high-speed add-on devices.

 

[temasekcity]

New batch of AMD Athlon x2 5000+ can be unlocked to 4 cores with L3 cache with 790 motherboard. Near to i3 performance. Selling price is S$65.

Any one successful?