The Computer Thread

Come to this thread to discuss current technology, your current computer builds, iPod, AMD vs. Intel, etc.

edited 7th Oct '12 8:56:14 PM by Shaggy

I don't use desktops anymore for me (I found a laptop to be just too convenient and worth the tradeoff, and I use a Mac) but I've built a lot of P Cs over the years. I built my housemate's system, which has dual crossfire ATI Radeon HD 6970s, 8G memory, I forget which processor now, a boot 128G solid-state drive plus 4x2TB drives. Nice gaming system for a year and a half ago's stuff.

I currently have a Q6600 processor, 4GB of DDR 2 RAM and a Ge Force 260 GTX which I built in January 2009. Is it getting old and needing replacement, or should I just overclock it?

In Arizona, my computer is a Gateway FX model with an Intel i7-2600 (four cores), an Nvidia GeForce GT 440 (apparently not that great, but not that bad, in my experience), 8 GB of DDR3 RAM and around 950 GB of storage on the hard drive, with the ability to slot in two extra SATA drives via plastic carriers and Intel Rapid Storage Technology, bringing total storage capacity to at least 2 TB.

In Florida, I got rid of my crappy HP Pavilion for an iBuyPower Source 210 with an Intel i3 with what I'm pretty sure is an integrated chipset for graphics, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, and 465 GB of storage (no extra hard drives, sadly). Hopefully, though, I can change that.

^I'd only recommend overclocking if you know what you're doing.

edited 8th Jun '12 1:19:36 PM by RocketDude

@Exploder: Expand your RAM to 8GB if you can, since things are using more and more of it and running out of RAM is a brick wall when it comes to performance. Aside from that, you'll be up to doing most things; what are you finding lacking about your current performance?

In general, replace when you are having problems, but 3 years old means you should start saving up some money for when the time comes.

edited 6th Jun '12 1:11:24 PM by Morven

• Processor: Intel Core i7 3930K|Intel Core i7 2600K|Intel Core i5 2500K|Intel Core i5 2500K
• Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme|Asus Z68 Maximus IV Extreme-Z|MSI P 67 A-GD 65 (B3)|MSI Z 68 MA-ED 55
• Cooling: Corsair H100|Corsair H80|Corsair H60|Noctua NH-U 9 B SE 2
• Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z 32GB (8x4GB) DDR 3-1866|G.Skill Ripjaws X (4x4GB) DDR 3-1600|G.Skill Ripjaws X (2x4GB) DDR 3-1600|Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2x4GB) DDR 3-1600
• Video Card: 3x MSI GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition|2x Palit GTX 580 + Inno 3 D GTX 580|MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozr II/OC|Inno 3 D GTX 570
• Hard Disk: OCZ Vertex 3 240GB, 4x 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black|Corsair Force GT 120GB, 2x 1TB Samsung F3, 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12|OCZ Agility 3 120GB + 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green|OCZ Agility 3 120GB + 1TB Seagate SV 35.5 Series
• Optical Drive: LG 24x DVD-RW+/- with Lightscribe|Lite-on 24x DVD-RW+/-|Samsung 24x DVD-RW+/-|LG 24x DVD-RW+/- with Lightscribe
• CRT/LCD Model: 3x 23" Chimei CMV-23LH LED|LG 27" E 2750 V, LG 23" E 2360 V|Acer 23" X 233 H|KTC 23" 23L11
• Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D|Thermaltake Chaser MK-I|Corsair Carbide 400R|Lian Li PC-V 600 FB
• PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower 1350W 80PLUS SILVER|Corsair AX 1200 1200W 80PLUS GOLD|Corsair AX 1200 1200W 80PLUS GOLD|Seasonic X660 660W 80PLUS GOLD

edited 6th Jun '12 7:47:28 PM by entropy13

I disagree with expansion to 8 GB of RAM. 4 GB is still standard. The difference between 4 GB and 8 GB is minimal unless you're using specialized programs.

Exploder, I suggest keeping everything besides upgrading the graphics card. The GTX 670 is great for Nvidia, while the 7870 is optimal for Radeon. Overclocking is scary, so I suggest not doing it unless you want to take it to a professional store to get it done, where they will have to replace everything if they accidentally fry it.

I'm currently using the 6770, but I want to use the 6870, due to being more efficient and running cooler than the 6770. Both can run all games on high at ~30 to ~50 FPS.

edited 6th Jun '12 8:59:12 PM by Shaggy

My build is as follows:

• 1 AMD Phenom II six-core processor
• 1 ATI Radeon 6850 series graphics card
• 8 GB DDR 3 RAM
• 1 Terabyte hard drive

Really need to get a cooling system for this one though, because Crysis 2 on the highest settings can cause the system to overheat and freeze up. Problem is the tower casing is small, so there isn't much space to add in anything, and the idea of having to disassemble everything then reassemble it properly is rather... daunting.

edited 6th Jun '12 9:06:46 PM by SgtRicko

Minecraft makes my PC run hotter than Team Fortress 2. -.-

And my favorite AMD processor is Phenom II X4 965 Black. This here lets you compare processors/GPUs/etc. and this CPU can beat or compare with a lot of higher end processors.

Hmm, my rig is a bit weak compared to some of those. Anyway, it has the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, otherwise known as the Antec Nine Hundred Two case, six Gbs of OCZ DDR 3 RAM, a 1GB AMD HD 6870, a Hitachi 1TB 7200rpm harddisk, another 320Gb harddisk for the system, a Foxconn Flaming Blade X58 motherboard and finally a Core i7 920 HT processor.

As for cooling, it has more fans than a thing that has a lot of fans. Two front, one rear, one side and a huge 20cm thing on top.

edited 7th Jun '12 3:28:59 AM by TamH70

@Morven: I think it has held up surprisingly well, all things considered. I could run Crysis2 at max settings at 1680x1080p properly. OTOH Battlefield3 only runs well at low settings and same resolution, though that may just be the game being an anomalously demanding one.

@Shaggy: I'm open to upgrading the video card. I'm looking at a Ge Force 560 Ti since it's priced pretty well for me, but I am concerned it may bottleneck due to the age of the processor. That's why I considered overclocking.

@Shaggy: Now, granted, that may be my experience on the Mac talking; 32-bit Windows appears to not use memory above 4G as well. MMORPG games tend to use all the RAM you can throw at them to cache stuff, I know that.

Bone stock Asus G50V - stupid Core Duo processor, 4 gigs of RAM, 512 MB nVidia 9800M graphics card. I've had it for three years now. Still going strong, although the GPU runs awfully not on graphic-intensive games. EVE was almost unplayable when the GPU would hit 105 celsius and down-clock itself, which reduced the frame rate to crap. I'm thinking I need to redo the thermal grease, a friend of mine is going to see if he can dig up his half-tube of Arctic Silver. I use it to run a Minecraft server.

I'd like an Asus G73 or G74 to replace it, eventually.

The missus runs a bone-stock Dell Studio 17 (not an XPS version) with a dual core whatever, 4 gigs of RAM and some flavor of integrated graphics that happens to run Minecraft (not all Intel integrated chipsets will do that). Her left monitor hinge has destroyed itself, her wireless card died and the battery is worthless, so she has it rigged up as a desktop.

We plan on building a budget desktop machine that will run a Minecraft Server.

I also happen to have a ten-year-old Dell Inspiron 4100 that will actually run Minecraft, if I dial back graphic options to the bare minimum. 576 megs of RAM (one of the RAM slots will cause a BSOD if I install a 512MB card for some reason, so I'm limited to a 512 and a 64), 1GHz processor, 32 meg video card, 20GB 5400 RPM hard drive that according to the SMART data file, is about ready to quit.

I use it as a casual internet surfer in our bedroom because... well, it still works, so why not? Might tinker with a barebones Linux setup for giggles. When I replace my G50, it will become the bedroom casual machine, relegating the 4100 to... iunno. Sitting somewhere.

edited 7th Jun '12 11:43:00 AM by pvtnum11

Let's see... I got this machine from my Ex-Boss. It has...

An Intel Core i5 CPU. Says something about 750 @ 2.67 G Hz 2.67 G Hz

6 GB of installed RAM

64-bit operating system

Are these okay stats?

The RAM and processor are alright, but what about the graphics processor and motherboard?

Motherboard is a P 7 P 55 LX, whatever da fuq that is.

I think what you're asking for is my graphics card? Maybe? I believe I have an nVidia Ge Force 8800 GT. I've never really been good with hardware.

Oh, yeah, what about peripherals (inspired by a phone call I just had with my dad about keyboards)?:

In Phoenix, I use a Razer (?) Lycosa Mirror Edition keyboard (black gaming keyboard with anti-ghosting, pre-programmable macros and such, all with blue-backlit keys), a Mionix Naos 3200 mouse (a gaming mouse capable of, you guessed it, 3200 DPI, not that I ever use it), and some Westinghouse monitor with a native resolution of 1920x1400 (or was it 1920x1200?).

On the Florida computer, I'm using an iBuyPower keyboard (to be replaced with the above Lycosa), a CM Storm (CoolerMaster sub-brand, I guess) Xornet gaming mouse, and a Samsung monitor with a native resolution of 1360x768.

edited 8th Jun '12 1:31:20 PM by RocketDude

I use a Microsoft Explorer trackball.

This doohicky

Speaking of PC building:

Have you guys ever seen this? It's a guide for building a gaming PC, ranging from cheap destitute builds to something that can max out Crysis 2 a few dozen times over.

Anyway, I think I should sticky this to the top, that way if anyone asks "What should I put in my gaming PC?" we can refer them to the top post.

Thoughts?

Prehipherals: I had a Razer Mirror Lycosa, but fluids killed it. Replaced with a standard Lycosa. The missus liked the Lycosa for the short keytravel, but didn't really care for the lights. Might get her an Arctosa.

Then I went mechanical and picked up a Das Keyboard Ultimate S. Love it. To the point in which I blanked out my work keyboard with sandpaper (carefully).

Razer Deathadder mouse for both home and work. Megaladon headset, also.

I would love to get a decent mouse/keyboard, but I have no clue what to get. I'm using a mouse I bought at a thrift store and a keyboard from 1999.

^^^Oh, yeah, that list is probably invaluable to have.

^^You had a Lycosa too? High-five, I guess!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention headphones: I have AKG K99 headphones in Phoenix and Grado SR80 Prestige headphones in Florida. I don't like the Grado phones, though.

edited 8th Jun '12 8:15:20 PM by RocketDude

1TB HDD for $100? That list must be made before last year.

You ready to be so jelly?

2.16 G Hz dual core, 2.00 GB ram, 32 bit system.

HOLY CRAP IT'S SO POWERFUL IT'S THE FUTURE

It was made during the hard drive shortage last February.