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| Levels-4-You : Lounge : Speccing an average PC |
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Beatonator  |
  Posted 28th Apr 2010 9:13am |
Post 3399 / 3716
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Ok, im not planning on spending a huge amount. Im just interested to see what I can get for what money... Its useless me contemplating an upgrade as my Machine is currently:
Intel P4 2.8Ghz (w/H-T)
1.5GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 128MB
250GB HDD
320GB HDD
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I was looking at getting another ATI and an Intel CPU, However seeing as AMD have bought ATI, is it better to pair Intel/Nvidia and ATI/AMD?
I liked the look of this GFX Card:
HIS HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
Seems pretty good?
I also saw this CPU that seemed good money for its size...
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 Socket 775 2.66GHz 1333FSB 6MB Cache
Any suggestions?  |
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| RED-FROG |
Posted 28th Apr 2010 11:44am |  |
L4Y Resident
Post 5123 / 5258
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The AMD Phenom II 955 Black edition is cheaper and has roughly 4x 600Mhz higher clock speeds. It can also be overclocked to 4x3,8ghz very easily with air cooling. (IF really needed...which isn't -except you want to do some rendering or something....then those extra Mhz do some serious boost) Or just grab the 965 which is around the same price as the intel Quad, but it goes at 3,4Ghz.
Then go with a AM2+ mainboard and use DDR2 RAM.
The 5770 looks right. It all really only depends on your pocket. I wouldn't go lower than that on the HD5 series because then you suffer on Dx11 effects. (and you will want to enable them when you have the hardware for it)
But it should be a very silent and efficient hardware. (I could look up some comparisons later on)
Cheap powerful setup. |
| ¤ MARS WARS 3! - Red Faction revamped on the unreal engine. Superiority ¤ |
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| Beatonator |
Posted 28th Apr 2010 11:49am |
Post 3400 / 3716
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Cheers for the reply Frog.
Sounds like that AMD CPu is a better bet then. Will have a quick spec up and see what I come back with.  |
Trying to find old players. Anyone about? Drop me a PM or reply to this thread:
>Link< (or head over to RFrun.net's comment section!) |
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| RED-FROG |
Posted 28th Apr 2010 4:26pm | |
L4Y Resident
Post 5124 / 5258
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The mainboard you have listed will require you to buy DDR3 memory.
Maybe you can keep it like that if the DDR3 is not much higher priced than DDR2. (the 4G
If it is much higher, I would keep my fingers from it. You will not require to upgrade to DDR3 anytime soon. AMDs next generation CPUs (6 cores) will run on the DDR2 interface just the same. Also with DDR3 you get no real advantage other than a minimum of power saving..yay. (enthusiasms will tell you to get DDR3 of course. But they will also tell you that the CPU, HD and graphics card is wrong. So don't be picky with the RAM.)
My board is the ASUS M4A78-E. Maybe this can guide you a little.
It's a Crossfire (QuadCrossfire) board with a 8+1Phase power design. You can put two graphics cards in (if you wanted....you could get another 5770 later on if you save the money...and then you can get some more serious power for even less money) . ASUS uses high quality capacitors (VRM 57 years at 65°C). It allows socket AM3 CPUs such as the 955 because of the AM2+ design. (and it will allow the 6core CPUs as told of now)
I don't know much about the PSU, looks like it's 25$? I think you should not go that low with it. I bought myself a rather expensive one because the hardware demanding it, especially with overclocking.
Really don't rush with it if you can't afford a good PSU in the end. It can lead to an unstable system and may damage the hardware if it's not getting enough power.
Maybe take a peek at PSUs such as the Corsair 400 CX (80Plus certification) or stuff like OCZ Fatal1ty 400 Watts (80Plus certification) or Be Quiet PURE POWER BQT L7 - 530 Watts (80Plus certification).
The 80Plus certification ensures a decent efficiency...because 400Watts 83% != 400Watts 50%..
Future proof would be the mainboard (SocketAM3)...but as said, a AM2+ does well for the next 1-4years. (depending on your preferences.. either gaming or rendering/video editing). For gaming I see the 955 doing it's job for a pretty long time. Most games are barely CPU demaning...they are pure jokes to this CPU. (in games such as Dirt2, Batman or especially CoDMW2 the CPU laughs loud at the game..some cores are often not even used and generate heat for nothing - unless you use some tools)
The RAM is just right. Can always be upgraded if you want to switch to a 64bit system, which is not recommended as for now for gaming anyway. (it's useless)
The 1TB HD is huge, but go with it, a 500MB HD shouldn't be that much cheaper and maybe one day you will run out of space (my 500MB drive is full, but I also have 60+ (big) games on it. NOT the ISOs...).
I don't know about the EcoGreen. It may be slower because of the green technology. (it spins slower on idle and may not seek as fast because of the wake ups) You will want performance, and not saving another 1-5Watts or whatever it saves. Grab a normal Spinpoint, Seagate Barracuda or similar.
Case and drive is your user preference I'd say. Not much to do wrong with it in this price segment.
Just check that there is some good cooling layout. (preferably fans from the side of the case for CPU and/or GPU, a fan at the HD bay in front and a fan at the backside under the PSU - look if they are silent (if labled at all) and nicely sized 100/120mm)
Perhaps somebody has some case recommendations... I have only one, but that is a 113£ BP one. |
| ¤ MARS WARS 3! - Red Faction revamped on the unreal engine. Superiority ¤ |
Modified Apr 28th, 04:31pm by RED-FROG |
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| goober |
Posted 28th Apr 2010 7:39pm | |
L4Y Member
Post 8040 / 265
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| Quoting RED-FROG | | my 500MB drive is full, but I also have 60+ (big) games on it. |
How in the hell did you fit 60+ big games on a 500MB drive? |
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| Beatonator |
Posted 28th Apr 2010 9:16pm |
Post 3403 / 3716
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Well even if he had 70 Games, that would mean 7.4GB each on average, thats pretty hefty.
Especially as he knows I mainly play my older games. |
Trying to find old players. Anyone about? Drop me a PM or reply to this thread:
>Link< (or head over to RFrun.net's comment section!) |
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| Beatonator |
Posted 28th Apr 2010 9:17pm |
Post 3404 / 3716
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cheers for all the help Red-Frog, will keep you posted. Hopefully someone else like Sobe will post |
Trying to find old players. Anyone about? Drop me a PM or reply to this thread:
>Link< (or head over to RFrun.net's comment section!) |
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| RED-FROG |
Posted 28th Apr 2010 9:44pm | |
L4Y Resident
Post 5125 / 5258
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| Quoting Beatonator | Well even if he had 70 Games, that would mean 7.4GB each on average, thats pretty hefty.
Especially as he knows I mainly play my older games. |
Few examples:
Clutch 750MB, Gothic3 3GB SWForceUnleashed 28GB SpellForce2 3,4GB Turok 15,6GB Risen 2,2GB.
As you can see. Sizes vary a lot...
500MB drive is huuuge.  I've recently gotten another 1TB drive..now the problem with this one is...there is only 540free already. (346h / 14days runtime so far)
So if you get more, you use more. Get what I mean?  So 1TB still isn't a bad idea even if you play older games. (I've just played Freespace2 ^^) And you will change your preferences once you've gotten a better PC, I think.
I think with 1TB you get the best GB per $.
Perhaps you are fan of movies which I'm not really...then you will need space (the only movies I have are on the external 640gb)
Yea, I'm too waiting for sobe. ^^ He usually comes up with expensive stuffs, but let's see. 
He can give you some insight into an intel/nvidia setup I guess.
It sounds bad to cross intel and AMD, but actually if you get an intel CPU, and an AMD graphics card such as the HD4 or 5 series...it shouldnt really matter. (well at least AMD Athlon 64 CPU and Nvidia graphics 8800 worked fine) |
| ¤ MARS WARS 3! - Red Faction revamped on the unreal engine. Superiority ¤ |
Modified Apr 28th, 09:46pm by RED-FROG |
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| goober |
Posted 28th Apr 2010 9:56pm | |
L4Y Member
Post 8041 / 265
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| Quoting RED-FROG |
500MB drive is huuuge. |
What? |
For anyone reading this in 2019 or later: The RF community is alive on the Community Discord
[Faction Files] |
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