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Back from the dead,building another pc. Updates?

K

K3Fallout

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 27, 2007
Messages
317
Hey guys, I've been away from the pc building scene for quite awhile now and now I have the task of building my brother a computer. I'm just wondering if there have been any major updates that have happened or will happen that I should take into consideration as I make up a list, since I haven't really been that active here since maybe last july. All I can recall of was DDR3, and Geforce PhysX.

If any of you can assist in making a list then that'd be dandy. In terms of his budget, he's aiming for low as possible, taking advantage of any bargains(rebates,etc). He will be using this primarily for schoolwork but he wants it also to be starcraft II ready, so would getting an 8 series card still be wise? Last I saw they all costed an arm and a leg. Should I even consider things like DDR3 and the new cool in thing for this build? Thank you.
 
Don't bother with DDR3 RAM. Not worth it.

Major updates:
- ATI's new 4800 series video cards are now the best bang for the bucks cards now
- Intel is switching to a new socket and CPU architecture called Nehalem in either Sept or Dec. But it will be expensive.
- AMD is still losing the high performance and overclocking areas. But their CPUs are dirt cheap now.
- Vista is now a very stable OS and worth the purchase, if you don't have a spare XP key lying around

And some questions that needs to be answered:
- What size monitor does your bro have?
- Will he be overclocking?
- What features does he need in motherboard?

If you check around this part of the forum here, you'll see that dozens of build lists gets posted every day. Just look through them, read why those parts were chosen, and choose the parts. Then post the build list in this thread and we'll critique it. Believe, there's dozens of these threads weekly if not daily so you should be able to find at least one thread that matches your requirements
 
Wow, nice. Thanks for the little bullet points there. My brother is now considering getting that Hot Deal on the Dell 24 inch LCD. He's aiming for a 22-24. He won't be OCing so he won't be tinkering. I've been thinking whether or not to just use stock cooling for this pc. I went a little crazy on mine and have 4-5 120mm Yate Loons, a Thermaltake Ultra with a Scythe and I'm not even ocing yet or plan to.

Since Vista is stable now and I plan to reformat, should I consider purchasing that? I also heard there was a SP3 for XP? And is the 4800 series comparable to the 8 series or 9 series Geforce? Sorry for bombarding you with questions.

In terms of what he wants from his mobo.. I really don't know. Most of the features on the mobo are usually used for ocing no? I'm just going to assume all he wants is stability and simplicity. I wanted those two things as well so I went with a LGA 775 Intel Bad Axe 2. Not sure if I should just get him the same mobo since I have a familiarity with it or look for a new one. Researching a mobo took me the longest to do anyways. Thanks again for the speedy and helpful response.
 
There is SP3 for XP out. But no reason to get or use XP now, if you don't already have a copy of it. So yes, get Vista.

And the 4800 series is faster than many of the 8 series and most of the 9 series Nvidia cards. The HD4850 can be found as low as $170 before rebates and is enough for playing games at 1920x1200.

And by motherboard features, I meant RAID, Firewire, large number of SATA ports, etc. Here's a list of some recommended motherboards:
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 Motherboard - $90
MSI P45 Neo3-FR Intel P45 Motherboard - $112
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R Intel P45 Motherboard - $128
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 Motherboard - $140
Biostar TPower I45 Intel P45 Motherboard - $150
DFI Lanparty DK X38-T2R Intel X38 Motherboard - $180
Asus P5E Deluxe Intel X48 Motherboard - $220
DFI Lanparty DK X48-T2R Intel X48 Motherboard - $220
Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Intel X48 Motherboard - $225

Just to help you out: All of these motherboards have PCI-E 2.0 which may be useful for future GPU upgrades. If you don't need RAID, more than 6 SATA ports and only need semi-decent overclocking, check out the DS3L. If you need 8 SATA ports, RAID, 4 PCI slots, and legacy ports, then get the Neo3-Fr. If you don't need more than 6 SATA ports but want RAID, firewire, a second PCI-E x16 port, a second gigabit port, support for 16GB of RAM, optional eSATA, x8/x8 Crossfire, and great overclocks, then get the DS3R. If you like the DS3R but need 8 SATA ports, want an onboard pre-installed fast booting Linux setup, just support for 8GB of RAM, and don't need a second gigabit port, get the Asus P5Q Pro. If you want a motherboard with excellent overclocking capabilities above all else (feature wise), go with the I45. If you want Crossfire with full x16/x16 bandwidth, get the Lanparty DK X38. If you have cash to burn, need x16/x16 Crossfire, and don't give a damn about getting the most value for your money, get the Asus, DFI, or Gigabyte X48 motherboards. Do note that the Asus website can be slow sometimes.
 
Thanks, that will definately help me get started. I doubt he'll use RAID(hell, even I still don't really know what it is) or need 6 SATA ports. Is PCI-E 2.0 very new? fairly? Or do the little older 775 mobos like mine support that? And since Vista is pretty stable now, are the majority of the applications and programs compatible with it now? I recall that was a major issue. I'll try not to give a damn about the bang for the buck value, but I'm just trying to spend as least as possible. Thank you again. I'm pretty sure you were one of the people who helped me build my pc last year! Oh and since Q6600 is dirt cheap now ( I spent 230$ on a regular e6600..), I should go for that? If it helps, he does do some multi-tasking with some hefty programs like photoshop.
 
The Q6600 is a good choice if it's within budget, yes.

Vista Home Premium 64bit is what we generally recommend around here, as it saves you some money over Ultimate without sacrificing features important to most people and allows you to use 4+GB of RAM fully, unlike the 32bit editions. Compatibility problems are rare anymore, but some scanner and printer manufacturers (and the occasional wireless card) do lack Vista 64bit drivers. Make sure they're available for your hardware.

Your board does not support PCIe 2.0, but PCIe 2.0 devices are backwards compatible with PCIe 1.0 bus, so new graphics cards and the like will still work on your board without issue. Only the Radeon HD 4870X2 might have bandwidth problems over PCIe 1.0, from what I understand.
 
Thanks for answering my questions. As long as they are backwards compatible then I'm happy. Also, for Vista I heard there was a x86 version? Any differences between that and x64? And how do I find out if my system is compatible with either? I'm sorry to ask these since I don't really have a familiarity with them since I've been using 32 for the longest time, if thats what you call it. For the mobo, is there anything new or popular? Last I remember, 975x has matured at that time when I was building my pc, and 680i just came out. Or, should I not even bother going into that since he's not ocing.
 
Your system is compatible if it has a Pentium 4 or newer CPU that support 64bit addressing... so it's compatible. Vista 64bit is notably faster than 32bit on my hardware and it allows addressing more than 4GB total memory space, so that's a plus as RAM requirements keep getting larger. Almost all 32bit software runs under Vista 64bit without issue, too, so don't worry about that too much. If you have any very old software that you /must/ use, however, make sure you do a few google searches and confirm it's working fine.

You're going to want a P43 or P45 based board for your new build; check out Danny Bui's list above for some high quality options across the price range and buy what has the featureset you want/need.
 
K3Fallout said:
Thanks for answering my questions. As long as they are backwards compatible then I'm happy. Also, for Vista I heard there was a x86 version? Any differences between that and x64? And how do I find out if my system is compatible with either? I'm sorry to ask these since I don't really have a familiarity with them since I've been using 32 for the longest time, if thats what you call it. For the mobo, is there anything new or popular? Last I remember, 975x has matured at that time when I was building my pc, and 680i just came out. Or, should I not even bother going into that since he's not ocing.
Click to expand...

x86 is often another name for 32bit. Just check the manufacturer's webpage for your parts to see if 64bit drivers are available. But just about any PC built today is 64bit compatible.

The P43, P45, X38 and X48 chipsets are the more popular chipsets out. All three chipsets actually overclock about the same. Nvidia's chipsets are not as stable, reliable or cooler running as their Intel counterparts. Unless one needs SLI, there is no reason whatsoever to go with a Nvidia chipset like the 680i, 780i, 750i, etc.
 
So those motherboards listed is what's generally used by most and recommended here? Thank you for clearing that x64 question for me, I've been meaning to find that out. Thank you silent-circuit.

EDIT: So P45,43 and whatnot are all Intel based? So if I were to move to x64 I'd have to make sure the drivers are compatible, other wise I may run into problems? All of this is kind of a lot for me to take in right now for some reason, hehe.
 
K3Fallout said:
So those motherboards listed is what's generally used by most and recommended here? Thank you for clearing that x64 question for me, I've been meaning to find that out. Thank you silent-circuit.

EDIT: So P45,43 and whatnot are all Intel based? So if I were to move to x64 I'd have to make sure the drivers are compatible, other wise I may run into problems? All of this is kind of a lot for me to take in right now for some reason, hehe.
Click to expand...

Yes those motherboards are the most recommended motherboards around these parts.

Yes the P43, P45, X38, and X48 are all Intel based. Yes you have to make sure that there are 64bit drivers available for your hardware as well as printers, cameras, etc.
 
Thank you. Err.. is there any shortcut or method to ensure that all necessary drivers are 64it ready?
 
K3Fallout said:
Thank you. Err.. is there any shortcut or method to ensure that all necessary drivers are 64it ready?
Click to expand...

Nope. You have to check each and manufacturer's website to see if 64bit drivers are available.
 
Ouch. Well that kind of sucks. If you kind of forget what you have in your system, is there a way to check through a program or something, or is that something that's not used by many people here? Like say, you totally forgot what sound drivers you need and through some application you magically find out you need realtek for so and so and voila. Anything like that?

..that should answer most of my questions for now, I'll try to figure the rest out myself to save you some trouble. If anything I'll bump this back up. Thank you again Danny and silent circuit for the help, I very much appreciate it. I can't really give much back to you, unless you want a Demonoid invite. If so, PM me. Thanks guys.


EDIT: Gargh, another question. Ok since these parts will be a lot more powerful like a Q6600 and a 4800 series card, should I necessarily up the wattage of the psu? I'm really hoping to just stick with the Corsair 520HX since it's cheaper. I wouldn't want anything to go kablooie.
 
SIW (System Info for Windows), Everest and CPU-Z can all be used to find out what hardware you have.

The 520HX is more than enough for that build. So no need to go with a larger PSU.

EDIT: Looks like this isn't the first build I've helped you with:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1168403 :D
 
Alright thanks. Haha, it looks like you did indeed help me. You never did disappoint Danny. Things seem to be rolling along now. Looks like right now I'm leaning towards the Asus P5Q since the P5E seems..unnecessary. Based on the reviews of the P5Q it looks very suitable and I can't argue against the price.

For the video card it seems that I should might as well go straight towards the 4850. RAM, I don't have an idea since there's so much to choose from now since it's so freakin cheap..and I'm not sure whether to go 2gbx2 or 1gbx4. I was also intending on just going for DDR800 but now I see things like 1200 and whatnot so again, no clue! For CPU cooling.. which I'm not sure if whether or not the stock cooler will suffice or not; I've been thinking of getting a Tuniq tower unless there's something newer and better out for around the same price.

Kind of amazing that I've got this much done now. It took me 6 months to get everything together in terms of searching on that last build.
 
Yes, I am talking about the same P5Q. Well hopefully I am, lol. Looks like I'll get exactly what you just listed. I'm a little jealous since I spent maybe 1200-1300 on the last build you helped me out with when this will probably be 3x better for maybe even half the price. Well, hopefully the Xigmatek will fit in a mid tower chassis. Doesn't seem like it will though.
 
K3Fallout said:
Well, hopefully the Xigmatek will fit in a mid tower chassis. Doesn't seem like it will though.
Click to expand...

It will.

Yeah I know what you mean about the jealousy. I've been tempted a few times to replace a friend's or family's new and faster rig with my old rig :D
 
Well I was actually thinking about doing that just now,haha. and it turns out I was reading about the P5Q Deluxe rather than the P5Q Pro. I didn't see any distinctive details that would affect me either way. I'm still not clear about how well this mobo controls the fans so I may have to consider a separate fan controller.
 
Bump and rant. So I just recently received all my parts and started putting it together but so many things went awry and for some reason it always revolved around the case(P182 Antec). The first one was, it only came with 3 motherboard standoffs. So, I had to scavenge them from my older computers and then reassemble and wire the majority of things again.

Now, the video card (Asus 4850) isn't flush with the case, the metal part where you screw it on. It's really high up and I'm trying to budge it a little more but to no avail and I don't think that would be a wise choice. Two, it won't even turn on. I doubt it's the power supply since I jump started it to see if it would work(Corsair 520hx) with a paperclip and it did. I thought it could've been the Q Connector as well so I took that off too. The only other thing I can think of is it's the case. Yes, I plugged in the 20 pin and 8 pin psu cables. I'm saying 20 because I'm assuming it is since I have this 4 pin doing nothing but hanging out. When I turn on the switch on the psu, it shows that little green light lit on the mobo. Please, for the love of god help me. I and my thumbs and fingers will thank you.
 
Thanks for that helpful post. Seriously, I don't understand this video card. I managed to fix all my other problems so I managed to POST but the bios read my cpu running at 99 degrees celcius, so I need to figure that out as well. I don't quite understand how to mount this stock intel heatsink.
 
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