A Comeback

[MaSonZ]

I can't speak for the GTX 550Ti. I have an ATI 6850 and run AH 59-60 steady. My shadow settings are modest but everything else is maxed out. Running on an i7 2600k.

Whatever you get, first do a search on Newegg to determine the latest/best spec on the card. Make sure you're getting the best clock rate and memory situation for the money.

not to hijack, and hopefully i dont, but what cokpany are you using for the card? MSI, HIS, Asus? looking at an msi r6850. only 3 bucks more then a HIS 6850 but its op. frequency is 40 MHz more or something. more appealing to my eye too. looking to cut corners, with the msi im .30 over my budget, but how likely would it be im going to notive the difference? some reviews said with minor OC'ing itll run with 6870'S. Thughts?

[cattb]

Mason,
I was looking at the 6850 and the 460. Awhile back I was thinking of buying a new card. (Still am) For a 6850, the best in my opinion is the asus. Asus has the voltage adjustment tweak and a good cooler.Its a well balanced card from my reading.(my opinion)
From what I have read, a person can overclock most the 6850 cards towards the 6870 and above in some cases. This depends on software or game, system, etc.

The 460 is about equal to the 6850 and visa versa. Both cards are very close to each other, but yet offer their strength's and weakness compared to each other. Yet again depends on system and application software, etc, etc.

A different article had the evga 460 ftw in comparison to the 6850 while both overclocked. The 460ftw overclocked beat the 6850 overclocked and in some cases beat a 470.

The 6850 is somewhere between a 5830 and a 5850, but of course in some cases better then a 5850.

I read so many articles and have to also wonder if some them are biased.

I was hoping for a price drop on the asus. instead it went up 10.00. Now I am starting to look at the 550ti or a 6950, maybe. See how the christmas sales go.

Good Luck Cattb

[Easyscor]

Prices on this stuff can change hourly, it's nuts. The 27" LED back-lite monitor I wanted was $299 for a couple of weeks, then bam, $400+ for a few days, then to down $350 where it held steady. I bought a competitors at $329. Same thing happened for my target power supply. Keep checking, and when it falls to what you think is a good price point, pull the trigger. I would expect some good pricing around Christmas.

I bought the XFX. It looked like the best deal at the time and the card seems to run well even though it's underclocked compared to the new ones. XFX hardware may be good (a friend likes them and they have good reviews) but dealing with the company is a PITA. Don't bother trying to download the newest drivers from the card vendors, go direct to AMD or nVidia.

The biggest problem I had was trying to hook up two 1 TB - 6GB/sec hard drives to the two 6GB SATA ports on the ASUS MB. Big mistake. A mechanical drive can't keep up with the port and the ASUS firmware still won't support 2 HDs on those ports. They did patch/fix the BIOS so it will support one, but not two mechanical HDs the last time I checked. A lot of people simply RMA those MBs because of it. I blame the sales departments at the HD mfgs for mislabeling drives that can't possibly keep the buffers full, and ASUS et al for not making the requirements clearer.

Oh, and does anyone know if MS is offering the family pack deal on Win7 again this year? It was only the Home edition, but hey, maybe you know folks who'd like to go in with you to reduce your cost.

[skribetm]

camelegg.com helps tracking the price history on newegg parts.

[Pannono]

Ok, here's the situation. I got cold feet with custom building a PC. My parents are going to buy the following PC:
Operating system:   Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium [64-bit]
Processor:                   Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 quad-core processor [3.1GHz, 6MB cache]
Memory:                   FREE UPGRADE to 6GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs] from 4GB   
Hard drive:                   FREE UPGRADE to 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 500GB   
Graphics card:           512MB DDR3 AMD Radeon HD 6450 [DVI, HDMI. VGA adapter]
Sound Card:           Integrated sound

I will replace the Graphics card and PSU.

I plan on buying the following video card:
HIS H675F1GD Radeon HD 6750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161379
I have never heard of HIS before, are they reputable?

This PSU: SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094

Will the PSU support everything? AMD's website recommends a 450W PSU so I thought I would go a bit higher just to be safe.

I have considered everyone's advice and I came to this decision, and I thought I'd run it by you guys to see what you think.
And how difficult would it be to replace the PSU and GPU?

[guncrasher]

a couple of years ago a wise man told me never to use less than 600w on a build and that was 2 years ago on components that used a lot less power.


few things you have to research before as it looks like you are getting a brand name puter.

-will the computer you buying be able to use a different brand power supply.
-will you be able to install the ps it as it is the hardest part of actually doing a build. rerouting all the wires so they dont stop the airflow.
-will the vc you are buying fit into the case.

you should post a link to the computer you are buying and maybe some people can help you more.

semp

[Bizman]

a couple of years ago a wise man told me never to use less than 600w on a build and that was 2 years ago on components that used a lot less power.

That was good advice, but if you're saying that a high end gaming rig used less power a few years ago than now, think again. Let's take GPU's as an example: A Radeon HD4870 drains more wattage than a HD 6870, and a GF8800 GTX is about par to a 560Ti. Same goes for processors.

A good starting point might be the Extreme Power Supply Calculator by Outervision. They have almost every component covered. By selecting "High End" in the motherboard section and "50%" in capacitor aging, maybe also "100%" in CPU Utilization and System Load, you'd have some headroom for future needs.

[guncrasher]

That was good advice, but if you're saying that a high end gaming rig used less power a few years ago than now, think again. Let's take GPU's as an example: A Radeon HD4870 drains more wattage than a HD 6870, and a GF8800 GTX is about par to a 560Ti. Same goes for processors.

A good starting point might be the Extreme Power Supply Calculator by Outervision. They have almost every component covered. By selecting "High End" in the motherboard section and "50%" in capacitor aging, maybe also "100%" in CPU Utilization and System Load, you'd have some headroom for future needs.

not saying that, i saying dont use less than 600w.  but my electrical bill did go down about 50 cents when i switched to a sandy bridge from an e8400.  dont make it more than what it was  .


semp

[Bizman]

  semp. Not trying to put words in your mouth, sorry if it seemed that way. It is sometimes difficult to understand nuances in a foreign language, isn't it?

Anyway, min. 600w sounds good to me too, but IMO those 1000w heaters that came around some years ago are mostly overkill with an 85+ efficiency rate of a modern psu.

[Pannono]

Ok, I will look at better PSUs. How do you guys think the GPU would perform?
I am buying the computer from HP.

How difficult would it be to change out the GPU and PSU?

Here is link to the PC I am buying:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=desktops&a1=Category&v1=Everyday+computing&series_name=p7qe_series&jumpid=in_R329_prodexp/hhoslp/psg/desktops/Everyday_computing/p7qe_series

Edit:
New PSU?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095

[Bizman]

Changing them is not difficult at all. Just unscrew and unplug the old ones and put the new ones in. Reminder: Be careful with static charges.

There might be problems with the HP, though. HP have often had tailor made PSU's with nonstandard cases, making it difficult to change to a standard one. The cables and plugs fit OK, but the outside measures and screw placing necessarily don't. Check before you buy. Also check that the computer has enough space for changing a GPU, if you're planning to change that, too. The choices given in your link aren't too high end and you'd soon want a replacement.

If you plan to change those components, I'm wondering why you should pay for the package components in the first hand. For the same money you can get what you want without risking the warranty with changed parts. If you like the HP specs, copy them and add your modifications, go to the local builder and ask if they can beat the price. I'm not saying HP makes poor computers, but they definitely aren't dedicated to gaming. They also tend to have a whole lot of unnecessary preinstalled programs eating resources. Not to mention that the micro-ATX form doesn't give you the opportunity of using crossfire or sli.

Just thinking...

[Pannono]

Next issue: I will need a new joystick also. Are X52s still the way to go or has something better/cheaper come out since? Right now my joystick is a Logitech Attack 3 with about 15 buttons and no hat switch. Anything would be an improvement. I really appreciate all of the help you guys have given me over the past few months. <S>!

[Saito]

Check out this site.
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/category/intel_pc/

  Saito

[Bizman]

Next issue: I will need a new joystick also. Are X52s still the way to go or has something better/cheaper come out since? Right now my joystick is a Logitech Attack 3 with about 15 buttons and no hat switch. Anything would be an improvement. I really appreciate all of the help you guys have given me over the past few months. <S>!

X52's are still relatively cheap, CH still is relatively durable. If you're happy with your Attack3 but would like a hat, Logitech has hatted models. If you'd like something for your left hand, a Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas is the cheapest choice. IMO it is about the same quality with Logitechs, also pretty much equally shaped and sized as the Wingman Extreme 3d. TM's T.16000M might be a good choice concerning accuracy with its Hall Effect sensors.

There have been many threads lately about the more expensive sticks and hotases on this board. Choose by your budget.

[BaldEagl]

Pannono, you're still going to be better off by building yourself.  An HP is going to have limitations by using components just good enough to get by with.  They also aren't going to let you make changes to your hardware in the BIOS to get more performance from it as you grow more comfortable.  If you're going to replace the PSU anyway then just build.

Here's a rough breakdown of the steps:

1.  Drop the CPU in the slot and lock it in.
2.  Apply thermal paste and mount the CPU fan (this might be the hardest part.  A thin line of thermal pase is all you need).
3.  Screw the motherboard into the case.
4.  Mount the PSU and plug in the CPU, fan and motherboard wiring.
5.  Mount the hard drive(s) and optical drive(s).
6.  Lock the RAM into it's slots.
7.  Lock the GPU into it's slot.
8.  Run the wires from the motherboard to the drives.
9.  Plug the wires from the PSU into the drives and GPU.
10.  Close the case and set up the BIOS.
11.  Install the OS.
12.  Install apps.
13.  Transfer data.

3 hours to build, 2-3 hours to install OS and apps and transfer data depending on how much you have.

Satisfaction vs a pre-built system 10:1

Future upgrade possibilities without spending another dime:  Overclock your CPU, RAM and GPU. for a 20% or more gain.

Knowledge gained:  You'll never consider another pre-built system.