Forum: Off-topic

Well, do we have anyone who is experienced in building computers, components and brands? I am going to attempt to refurbish my current system and I need some help, drop a line and I can explain further what I want to do... Thanks...

F-16.net Sponsor

Send me a PM with system specs and I will help out as best I can. Or if you want, just lay it out here on the forum...

Best Regards,

Thank you Joe.

I painfully realized what a noob I am when it comes PC upgrades. I want to upgrade my ancient system, Sony VAIO RC-210G, with what I want to do I need some but not a huge performance upgrade. My main concern is to be able to play some simulation games, mainly the new version of Falcon 4.0 that is coming out supposedly, which is based on DX9. Here are a few shots that leaked;

I am not a serious gamer, (I prefer to play games on PS3 nowadays) so as long as I have a system that would run this above sim decent, I am game. At first I thought about getting a All-in-one like Gateway, HP or Sony, as I don't do much gaming, I said "well if all I am going to play just a few sims, and since I am in military flight school I don't get to do much other than streaming a movie to my PS3 here and there or surfing the net, go with an all-in-one" ... All in ones seemed cool and neat, quiet, less desk space what not. But then they are expensive. The model that I looked had a QuadC2D Q8400S and a GT240M chip in it at around 1.8K... So I decided to upgrade what I have in hand with top of the nudge stuff, so I would not have to upgrade for a long time. I now think that would be overkill also...

I found a guy who had the same computer I currently have and did a similar upgrade project and seems happy with the results.

http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=85935

I currently have a Antec 550W Neo Power and SB X-Fi XtremeMusic I am happy with, I don't think I need to replace those, I am happy with the HDDs. So forget SLI/Crossfire and all, keeping it simple, if you would suggest a proc, decent ATI card, mobo, what would you recommend?

PS. Everyone says to replace the case but I don't want to replace the case, just mobo, proc, ram and graphics card. I am keeping the rest same.

Bushmaster,

Make sure the warranties for the upgrade parts you get will cover you if you get stationed in Germany or Korea.

Planning to be the top of class so I can pick where I am going... Smile

side note, off topic, 58s looking very attractive to me lately...

Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM Posts: 1496

About the only reason you'd NEED to replace the case is if you have one where the length of current-gen video card becomes an issue. With my current monster gaming rig (I highly recommend the i7-860 for gaming BTW) I had to do a little tin snip surgery on the hard drive bays to get the video card to fit because the power connectors are on the back edge of the card and there was exactly 0.0" to spare with the stock case.

Yep, I know, I have a 9.5" limit, however, I am planning ATI Radeon this time and ASUS has great 5770s and 5850s at 9 or less... You say 860? I thought best rated one was 920 which is around $260, isn't it?

Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM Posts: 1496

They're both priced the same. The difference between the 860 and 920 is the 860 has a dual channel memory controller and is faster clocked (2.8 GHz). The 920 has a triple channel memory controller but is clocked slower (2.66 GHz). Also the 860 uses the LGA 1156 socket while the 920 uses the LGA 1366 socket (a result of the different memory controllers).

For gaming, the faster clock speed beats the triple channel memory, which you'd need 3 sticks of RAM to take advantage of. The 860 is also a little less of a power hog, so you don't need as crazy of a power supply.

For memory intensive applications like video editing or professional Photoshop work, or if you want to go with multiple SLI/Crossfire cards I'd say go with the 920 and 6GB of RAM (3x2GB sticks). For a gaming rig I'd say take the 860's faster clock speed with 4GB of RAM, 2x2GB sticks.

Here are some benchmarks from Anandtech, which is a tech site that's been around since the Pentium II days. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2839/7

Hmmm, the results are not much different... I will use a 550W since this is a microATX case so 860 should be the way to go... I will be back with a list of the parts I am planning to get...

This is the graphics card;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121370

This is the MoBo;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131625

Let's go with 860 then... I think it will handle the gaming, I don't do much of video editing, PS stuff but 860 should handle it somewhat anyways, compared to what I have right now Razz

... This PentiumD I have struggles trying to stream 720p over the home network to my PS3. Need some advice on the memory... Corsair? G.Skill? Why only 4 not 6 for gaming?

Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM Posts: 1496

Those links don't work, looks like they got truncated.

All I'm saying is don't be fooled by the marketing name. 920 doesn't mean "60 better" than the 860. In car terms, the 860 has a little more horsepower but a little less torque than the 920, if that makes sense. And for Photoshop or video editing it's no slouch, I can encode a 110 minute movie in 720p h.264 in about 12 minutes. My old Core 2 Duo took about 50 minutes(!) to do that.

Why 4 v 6 GB for the 860 v 920? For the best RAM performance you want to have matched sets. The 860 needs pairs of sticks, the 920 needs triple sticks. 4GB is the sweet spot for RAM with Windows 7 in my opinion, so with the 860 it's easy, 2x2GB sticks. But with the 920's triple channel you can't do 4GB with 3 matched sticks, so you have to do either 3GB (3x1) or 6GB (3x2).

I went with some Mushkin Blackline DDR3 1600 RAM, but I found out it was very finicky with the clock speed and voltage settings, I had to tweak it for a while to get it to run stable.

Ok, let me try again, the mobo I picked is this one;

ASUS P7H55D-M EVO LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131625

Graphics card;

ASUS EAH5850 DirectCU TOP/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121370

Sound card;

ASUS Xonar D2 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Ultra Fidelity Sound Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132001

TV tuner card; (which I like to have, I watch TV quite a bit on the computer and record shows)

ASUS My Cinema EHD3-100 Dual Hybrid TV Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815293007

With an Antec 550W Neo Power, the PSU calculator says it should be enough.

I am convinced to go with a i7 860 processor. It has very good reviews on Newegg too... Like you said though memory is tricky, I tried a couple of vendor websites to find a configuration that would work but could not find any that mentions this specific mobo.

With the Newegg elimination I found this,

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145218

Question is, on the mobo reviews guys mention G.Skill. However the type they picked is a higher speed mem, that would not matter right? The mobo has ASUS's MemOK! feature which I believe automatically adjusts the best configuration...

Ok I got a little problem, I didn't measure the video card, it is 10.5" too big for my case, I need a video card that is 9" at the PCB. I am scaling back to 5770, any opinions on that?

58's? Are you serious? You're going to miss that air conditioning.

discofishing wrote:

58's? Are you serious? You're going to miss that air conditioning.

They don't have doors man LOL!!! I think I am just fretting... 58 is a viable option, because I am not sure if I will make it to 64 at selection. I have a 64 heavy class and out of all, I think I am the worst when it comes to PT. But I just found out that PT is only 30 points out of a possible 550 or something. So you get 30 full points if you score a 300 on your PT test. Whoop de doo. If I can't pick the 64 because I suck at PT, so be it Razz

Forum: Off-topic

Computer Upgrade...