The People Speak Week 10: Building a PC

Oh, I was just being a knob. Problem for me is that we mostly buy laptops and has making a laptop ever been worth it for anyone?

I'm lobbying for a PC...but we'll see. Afterall, married guy with kids just spent his money on a washer, dryer and bunkbeds. :|
 
I'd like to add that it depends on where you live; I'm lucky enough to have a Microcenter not 5 minutes away from my home, and it's gods gift to PC gamers. They have great deals, which allowed me to upgrade my PC from a dual core 3.16ghz and 4gb of RAM to a Intel I7 950 3.06 and 12gb of RAM for under 400 bucks. This is serious power, as there is only one other I7 processor under 500 dollars that is better than the 950. It was 169 dollars off the list price at the time, and was a total steal. Throw in holiday sales on newegg, and you get a great deal.

The difference, I believe, is very similar to car culture; sure you can buy a Ford Focus (Xbox) on the cheap and it'll get you from A to B, but there is a certain joy to the construction and control over what you get with a Mustang (PC), that has room for endless modification, at a somewhat higher cost, it all depends on what you want.

Currently, after an upgrade that was about 550 dollars (plus bits from the older machine), I'm running this:

Coolermaster Cosmos Case
Gigabyte Motherboard (169)
Intel i7 950 3.06ghz processor (200)
12gb DDR3 1666 Gskill RAM (120)
EVGA Geforce GTX 280
1100w Antec PS
3 120mm fans (front, bottom, back)
2 140mm fans (top)
Standard DVD drive

And enough power to run any modern game at full power on a 24 inch monitor.
 
I honestly wish I'd bought myself a desktop and a netbook instead of my laptop. While this thing is a beast, it's quickly becoming outdated and its impossible to upgrade. Someday I'll buy myself a desktop to keep and upgrade.
 
Green_Lantern said:
Talk about Power Supply overkill eyebrows :p
Click to expand...

It was cheaper than several 700w and 800w at the time. It was a good deal, some 170 dollars off with rebates and such.

It's going on 3 years old alongside my graphics card, so I'm quite happy with it. The Geforce 280, in my opinion, was one of the best graphics cards ever made, it's fairly old (3 years!) in terms of a computer, and to still run Crysis 2 on max is quite good.
 
NickKmet said:
I honestly wish I'd bought myself a desktop and a netbook instead of my laptop. While this thing is a beast, it's quickly becoming outdated and its impossible to upgrade. Someday I'll buy myself a desktop to keep and upgrade.
Click to expand...
You'll wise up pretty quickly like me.

I just today bought another cheap laptop to replace my 2 more expensive ones that died, and as soon as the insurance comes through, i'm going to be building up a very highly powered desktop either on Sandybridge or Bulldozer, depending on which offers the best performance to energy/heat. By the time the insurance is through, both should be either released or just released. (Waiting for my local retailers to get new sandybridge mobos in).

Cheap laptop for portable use and audio, desktop for hardcore gaming and combined torrent rig.


Dan,
I'd go G_L's setup and just replace the HIS card with whatever HD6870 has a non-reference cooler for cheap.
That would give you the best mix or performance and reliability, and if you can't come close to maxing out most current games, you're doing it wrong and/or need to stop using a 2560x1600 monitor for gaming.
 
I have an Alienware so it's a really nice laptop, and still can run just about any game at top specs. But i know it won't in the future. I really need a desktop though, for gaming and for my chosen profession - music rigs need a lot of ram, a fast processor, and a good audio card. Might as well throw in a good GPU and play games on it too.
 
I've been looking at the i5 2500K Sandybridge and it looks awesome...Might have to get one sometime this summer when I get into the full time workforce and have some extra disposable income - and when the LGA1155 motherboards are actually restocked again...
 
NickKmet said:
I have an Alienware so it's a really nice laptop, and still can run just about any game at top specs. But i know it won't in the future. I really need a desktop though, for gaming and for my chosen profession - music rigs need a lot of ram, a fast processor, and a good audio card. Might as well throw in a good GPU and play games on it too.
Click to expand...
Exactly. 8gb of DDR3 is cheap and easy to get these days, and just add a decent soundcard and it's set to be perfect for just about everything you want.

Might as well just spend 2/3rd the money on an insanely high powered desktop you can upgrade instead of a gaming laptop. Way too much hassle, especially when you actually need to have battery life.


The laptop i bought today (Samsung) thinks it can get 4.5hrs of battery life - with decent brightness, and the wireless/bluetooth activated.
If i put in my reading mode (low brightness, everything else off) i think there's a good chance it will do 5hrs of battery before going critical.

Combined with it's 1.5kg weight, and this thing is properly portable.
It's weird to have something so easy to use everywhere after my monolith 18.4" gaming laptop which you could not carry with one hand. Sure, it could max out a stack of modern games, but a desktop for half its cost can do that too.


G_L, i'm waiting for the new mobos too. Still think i should wait for the benchmarks of bulldozer, but i might just get impatient and end up going for a 2500K and pump it up to 4ghz. Surely i wouldn't need more power than a 4ghz dual core, with what is meant to be surprisingly capable built in graphics.

How much is 2500K setup in the US?
Maybe dan would be better off going for something like that with, say, a non-refernce 5850 with a decent overclock?
 
The 2500K is on newegg for $230, with the cheapest MSI ATX mobo at $180.

While the 5850 on newegg isn't all that much cheaper than the 6870


So it would be around another $100...Although it would be a much better set up...
 
Green_Lantern said:
So it would be around another $100...Although it would be a much better set up...
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Exactly, and it would end up being more future proofed. 2500Ks are already developing a reputation for being insane overclockers.
5ghz is realistic if you have water cooling and the right set up.

I'm not familiar with operating newegg, can you build up a decent 2500K setup for the budget?


Dan, do you need a new case? Because that could take a decent chunk out of the costs and make it easier to build a 2500K setup, which would be more power than you will need for 2-3 years.
Also, tell me if you don't want me calling you dan.
 
Going with what madster said...I took out the computer case (Assuming you can use yours) and a sandybridge does work under $800...Although I had to go with a microATX mobo...

In the build I have on the first page you could just take out the case, AMD CPU, and the 790x mobo, and add:

i5 2500k

ASUS H67 microATX

And the total would then be $796 before rebates.
 
Why not just get the interl i7 950? it's 20 bucks cheaper, and as Dan lives in Cali I'm sure he can get it at a microcenter; also I understand from my cali friends that the tax levied on newegg in that state is horrific.
 
Because the i5 2500 is all around faster than any of the 9xx series i7s...Except maybe the $1000 980x

The i5 2500 is $10 cheaper than the 2500K, but the K offers easier overclocking.
 
I see, twas still a good deal.

Hey dan, mind adding something your cart on newegg.com and telling us what the tax is? I'm curious to see how bad it is.
 
Eyebrowsbv31 said:
Why not just get the interl i7 950? it's 20 bucks cheaper, and as Dan lives in Cali I'm sure he can get it at a microcenter; also I understand from my cali friends that the tax levied on newegg in that state is horrific.
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Because it's $20 cheaper and 20% slower.


My vote is for the 2500K modified setup.
A 2500K, 6gb of ram and 6870 for $800?
Excellent.

Be prepared to max out games for the next 2 years, and only then need an overclock.
 
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