Computer Build & Upgrade MegaThead

[Colt .45 killer]

Aight. With all of the people who have recently posted individual posts asking for help with computer builds I figured we could use a centralized post to get the information out better & to reduce retyping. If you have any recommendations for builds / or points to note go ahead and leave them here. Feel free to add the price tag to a build as well if you have that info.



CPU

Spoiler!

The more cores the better. I remember mates laughing at me for buying my slower per core quad core while they purchased speedy dual cores. They've all upgraded three years ago, while my Q6600 is still rocking strong ( albeit slated for upgrade in the few months). As game engines progress they are constantly taking advantage of more cores & threads, so investing in more cores now will extend the life of your computer dramatically.

Intel:

Spoiler!

Right now the best bang for your buck from Intel ( an odd thing for intel ) is a sandy bridge CPU. namely being the i5 2500K & then i7 2600K. Intel has discovered a glitch in the design of these cpu's to do with the sata 3 controller, which they managed to recreate once in a lab. I mention this not as a warning, as it is VERY unlikely to plague you, but as the reason why these i7 cpu's can be had in the 300$ price range instead of the 1200$ price range as their other cpu's can.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
Looking at that Passmark CPU list there, the i7 2600K has a whopping CPU score of 9,800.
One other thing to note about this particular CPU line is that these motherboards sockets are end of life, there is no upgrade possibility if you buy a sandy bridge rig now.
Note that the K on the end of these signifies that they are unlocked versions, a rarity for intel to unlock their cpu's and not charge another arm and leg extra.

AMD:

Spoiler!

AMD is on the brink of releasing their first major redesign of their CPU architecture in 10 years. As such their current Phenom CPU's are very nicely performance/dollar priced, and are also quite good over clockers. The "black edition" signifies that these are unlocked for overclocking, and usually only costs an extra 10 - 20 $, if you buy an AMD, get a black edition. The next generation of AMD's for desktops is called the Bulldozer, those are 4 - 8 cores on release, with server editions going up to 12 or 16 cores. All leaked performance info on these so far makes them look like very good performers, but I'd take any leaks with a grain of salt.
Tech wise these CPU's put two cores together into a "module" these modules share most of the cpu's resources, the cache, floating point, and a few others. What is significant about this is that in single core applications one core has access to all of those resources, giving you more floating point crunching power than any other cpu available today.
If you do run with an AMD rig, get yourself an AM3+ motherboard so that you can upgrade to the bulldozer series if you choose to do so.
Currently I would advise buying a 1090T black edition, this is a 6 core phenom. The 1100T BE is another 20 or 30 $ for only 100mhz more, something you can easily achieve with overclocks. The 1090T has a passmark rating of 6053.

AMD Fusion: (APU)

Spoiler!

All info released by AMD states their future direction is towards the APU, a gpu core and cpu core on one chip. Their strategy is to start this with their lower end cpu's and slowly move the capability upwards into mid then high range products. Nevertheless the current range of "llano" APU's are actually decently powerfull. The highest ranking of these is the A8-3850 is priced around 140$ CDN. For those unaware, AMD video cards ( ATI ) can crossfire across series. So this built in video card can be crossfired with a dedicated video card for quite good performance boost.

Just take a look at this blurb here copied out of http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc...md-a8-3850-fusion-apu-972788/review?artc_pg=3
--------------------------------

DirectX 11 gaming performance

DiRT 3 (Ultra, 4xAA)

 

[u-s-e-r]

Amd Llano APU's have been already released

There should probably be a notion of the new AMD APU stuff too (e.g. exclusive features)

When choosing a PSU go always for quality, and be sure about that by reading trustworthy reviews, they can be found e.g. on

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/
http://www.jonnyguru.com/
http://realhardtechx.com/

Also general PSU form factors info: http://www.formfactors.org/

 

[Colt .45 killer]

Good point, I'll add that. As of now though the llano is more of a laptop to low end cpu. Later renditions of it are supposed to hit the mid - high range market, I personally cant wait for that.

I threw everything into spoiler tags so it doesnt look as cluttered.

 

[Kenza]

A short comment on CPUs...

It's worth noting that the supposedly leaked AMD Bulldozer (8 cores, 3.2GHz IIRC) performed similar to Intels 2600K. So if you want a new CPU now or in the next two months you should go for Sandy Bridge. Zambezi/Bulldozer is rumored to be out on the 19th of September so after that (if the performance is as rumored) you might want to start comparing prices and features for the best CPU/motherboard combo.

A bit later you are going to start seeing Sandy Bridge-E (Q4 2011) with better performance then the current Sandy Bridge line and replace the current i7 9xx Gulftown line as Intels "extreme performance" and "premium performance" line. So unless Bulldozer performs better then rumored or AMD got something more going they are going have problems keeping up with Intel.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

True, AMD has not been aiming for the top performance bracket in a while, rather performance / $ which is a territory they mostly control.

Anyways something is corrupted on my computer, re installing windows now. No 32bit applications would run.

 

[pæmøer]

As for GPU and CF...

CF for the 69xx has been greatly enhanced, now as far as I can tell, with an almost 100% performance scaling.

[url]http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/13175-amd-radeon-hd-6970-och-hd-6950/13#pagehead[/URL]

Green is average FPS, red is lowest.

Not too sure about the state of SLI with newer cards, but it doesn't look like it's scaling badly either. My tip, for what it's worth, would be quite similar to yours though: get the best single card you can. But be sure to get a mobo that supports SLI/CF, makes for a cheap upgrade x amount of months down the line.

 

[Ender]

Have always liked the PC Perspective HW Leaderboard
Seems like the Midrage should kick ***.

 

[Zennousha]

What about HDDs and SSDs? I really think my slow, ancient HDD is the primary bottleneck to this rig, with the GPUs being the second. As much as I'd like an SSD, I've heard quite a few things about them.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

Zenn I did write a smattering about HDD's and SSD's throughout that, Ive got to go back and add more as well as some builds. You're quite right in the hdd being the slowest thing in a box these days. ( other then io to external devices )



Those builds are all intel? Surprisingly even the "low priced" one is an intel over amd...

 

[Floyd]

Have always liked the PC Perspective HW Leaderboard
Seems like the Midrage should kick ***.

Wow. Coincidently I've just ordered the parts for my new build and they're in between the high and midrange build of that article.

I was torn between M/B's. It was between the AsRock Z68 Extreme4 and the Asus p8z68 v pro. All my other builds have been Asus so I stuck with what has worked. The only things I agonized over were the case and the power supply. My old case is 4 builds old, but its roomy and I love it. The front panel I/O's are dated however and I need another case to house the old m/b anyway so I bought a case as well. I'll probably use my current power supply in the new build and power the old M/B with the new power supply.

The cpu I chose was the i5 2500k. = $220
GPU is one of the GeForce 560 Ti overclocked cards. = $250
Memory is 16Gb of CORSAIR Vengeance SDRAM DDR3 1600 CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8 = $160
Samsung’s 470-series 128 GB SSD = $225
2 WD 759GB Black Caviar HDD's = $128
Corsair 850 watt P/S = $165
Asus DVD = $20
X-Fi sound card from old build
Cooler Master HAF 932 case = $150
Win 7 64bit Pro OEM = $149

Total Cost: $1467 <ouch, I didn't really want to know that.>

I could've gone with a cheaper P/S, cheaper card, no SSD, one HDD, and 8Gb mem. That would've cost about: $950.

I'll be busy with work over the next few weeks, but I'll post some pics of the build if I can.

 

[Shadrach]

I think if you want to create a "general" thread to help people build their own PC (a lot are still wary of this for some reason), it's important to stay away from the discussions about the (frankly quite small) differences between high-end CPUs. Usually these are too expensive anyway for those who are not among the "bleeding edge" of HW-enthusiasts, and the discussion might scare people away

Keep it simple and accessible. Personally I read the great "Coding Horror" blog, and while he doesn't build a new rig very often, he really makes it look simple and finds the best stuff without going all out on the price.
[url]http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/07/building-a-pc-part-vii-rebooting.html[/URL]

 

[Mahnsikir]

Wow. Coincidently I've just ordered the parts for my new build and they're in between the high and midrange build of that article.

I was torn between M/B's. It was between the AsRock Z68 Extreme4 and the Asus p8z68 v pro. All my other builds have been Asus so I stuck with what has worked. The only things I agonized over were the case and the power supply. My old case is 4 builds old, but its roomy and I love it. The front panel I/O's are dated however and I need another case to house the old m/b anyway so I bought a case as well. I'll probably use my current power supply in the new build and power the old M/B with the new power supply.

The cpu I chose was the i5 2500k. = $220
GPU is one of the GeForce 560 Ti overclocked cards. = $250
Memory is 16Gb of CORSAIR Vengeance SDRAM DDR3 1600 CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8 = $160
Samsung’s 470-series 128 GB SSD = $225
2 WD 759GB Black Caviar HDD's = $128
Corsair 850 watt P/S = $165
Asus DVD = $20
X-Fi sound card from old build
Cooler Master HAF 932 case = $150
Win 7 64bit Pro OEM = $149

Planning on ordering a pretty similar build this weekend actually. My mobo has started going iffy, and initially I was just going to replace it but I was looking at costs of replacing 'old' tech compared with new stuff and thought nah for only a bit more I can have a 'brand new' up-to-date setup.

Definitely going for the i5 2500k and probably going with a 560ti after the driver issues with my existing 4870 and an Asus p8z68 v. (Whats the difference between that and the Pro version?).

Only big difference is that I'm only going for a OCZ Agility 3 60GB for SSD as I don't care much for the total space and its great speed for price over here now and only 8gig of ram, plus im reusing case, psu, soundcard & drives.

Came up to about

 

[Colt .45 killer]

yeah shadrach, I wanted to post some current info on what is what for each brand so people could read and catch up, I hope its not too hard to decipher for the non tech.

 

[REZ]

Is the cheaper 2GB card actually better than the higher priced 1GB card?

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) vs. EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi)
[URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%2050001402%20600007323%20600062521%20600007782&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=48%7C14-130-610%5E14-130-610-TS%2C14-130-611%5E14-130-611-TS"][URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%2050001402%20600007323%20600062521%20600007782&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=48%7C14-130-610%5E14-130-610-TS%2C14-130-611%5E14-130-611-TS"][URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%2050001402%20600007323%20600062521%20600007782&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=48%7C14-130-610%5E14-130-610-TS%2C14-130-611%5E14-130-611-TS"][URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%2050001402%20600007323%20600062521%20600007782&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=48%7C14-130-610%5E14-130-610-TS%2C14-130-611%5E14-130-611-TS"][url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%2050001402%20600007323%20600062521%20600007782&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=48%7C14-130-610%5E14-130-610-TS%2C14-130-611%5E14-130-611-TS[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]


..and how do both of these compare to this?
[URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150512"][URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150512"][URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150512"][URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150512"][url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150512[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]

 

[Colt .45 killer]

more Vram is always a BIG +. I just recently discovered that ARMA 2 has Vram settings on how much Vram you want it to use, well lo and behold going from the ~512MB setting to the 2Gig setting gave me about an extra 20 fps...

A great tool to check cards against other cards is the passmark website, they also have video card tests. Those tests however do not show the difference between different ram variants of the same card.

Also if you google around you can find unlock procedures to unlock your 6950 to a 6970.

boom: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

[REZ]

more Vram is always a BIG +.

See, that's what I was tripping on.. would the whole extra GB on the GTX 460 actually make up for the slightly faster Mhz speeds of the more expensive 1GB 560 Ti?


..and that link you posted (videobenchmark.net) just confuses me even more. First it doesnt differentiate whether these are the 1GB or 2GB versions of these cards, and how does a $200 card outperform an almost $4000 dollar card??

The 6850 ranks right at the top for value and supposedly performs better than the 460 according to that website (but is it the 2GB version of the 460?) so I find that kind of interesting too. I was initially going for the 6850 in my new build, but then I found the 2GB 460.. now I'm on the fence about which one between the two

 

[Colt .45 killer]

Yeah the website lists a star beside the price if that was the last known price. The 'Fire Pro' Series and a few other types there are professional development video cards, not exactly the gaming type. I read something a while ago on the differentiation, the gist of it being that video cards for gaming do not make as exact calculations, or make some small errors that don't interfere with video gaming. They do interfere with professional CAD Development & the like...

Hovering your mouse over the bar shows the information behind that ranking, namely how many samples it is taken from, so that score is based ( AFAIK ) on all versions of any one card.

If you would like more specific data on those cards sometimes it helps to just google something like 6950 1gb vs 6950 2gb...

le edit, just did just what I said to do. Seems that the 2gb edition is the one you can unlock to the 6970 ( depending on the mfr version, some have lines cut, some are set through bios ).
Also as expected the extra gig is supposed to help in larger resolutions & with higher res textures.

wowza, contrary to what I would have believed it looks like the 560 ti has a higher memory bandwidth than a 2gb 460.

http://www.hwcompare.com/8870/geforce-gtx-460-2gb-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti/#bandwidthExplain

3rd edit: given that info, and that the passmark of the 6950 is 200 higher than the 560 ti, unless you plan on doing something with physx or have your nvidia e-peen on, I'd grab the 6950. Heck giver a try and see if you can unlock it to a 6970 ( the cards have dual bios so from what I've read so far if it ****s up, you shut everything down, switch to bios 2, boot up, switch to bios 1 and try again or flash back to the original bios...)

 

[Colt .45 killer]

added a lot under rohos build just adding a you pick section thingy now...

 

[LightsabeR]

Colt, REZ was talking about the 6850, not the 6950.

But great thread. I'll be sure to link to this when someone makes a "what PC do I need to run RO well" thread.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

*facepalm*

Thanks light saber, I've been up all night; had a bit too much coffee last night and decided not to bother sleeping. Looks like there's already been on casualty to lack of sleep

Checking the charts again for the 6870 & 6850 those are both really good performers, and somehow really close to the 6970 & 6950. That may be a bit of an error due to this being a synthetic test.

Hmm TO THE GOOGLE!

is possible, seems like the 6000 series differentiate themselves best from eachother & the 5000 series when in dx11. I doubt those synthetic tests stress that much.

I'd say search around for some Ue3 engine based benchmarks that use all 3 of those video cards in similar systems ( good luck ). Or just ones that use 2 of them so you can eliminate them one at a time...