Official Building/Upgrading thread

[TOPEC]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

if my second HD fails, [i have a crucial M4 SSD as my main OS drive] and caviar black as my secondary, will it fuck up anything else?

it's clicking more often now

ur OS is on the SSD, so if ur 2nd hdd fails, itll just take what ever u stored in there with it, OS will still be operational as its on the SSD

[Hondaracer]

yea was just worried about a domino effect happening, if it was possible

[SkinnyPupp]

1 GB/s data transfer here I come

Intel adds TRIM capability to SSD RAID to 7-series Motherboards – We test it!

[Razor Ramon HG]

Anyone got HDDs and GPUs for sale? Building a budget desktop for my cousin.

[SkinnyPupp]

How budget? I might have an SSD and maybe a GPU

[Razor Ramon HG]

Looking to get a 500GB HDD and a decent video card for about $150.

Aren't you in HK ATM though?

[SkinnyPupp]

Ah nothing that cheap sorry

I am but shipping isn't that much, well it might be for that price range lol

[Razor Ramon HG]

Haha, yeah.. trying to snag a 500GB for $50-60 and a 6850 for $80 off CL.

Thanks though.

[twitchyzero]

GTX 660 Ti midrange Kepler officially out
just a tad behind the 7950..but closer to 7870 with higher resolutions
same specs as the 670 but significantly lower memory bandwidth = 12% slower while being 25% cheaper
$300

AnandTech - The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte

[bakasam]

Edit: Ended up getting the 660ti and it works great.

260 had some major dust i needed to clean but it was worth the upgrade

[twitchyzero]

..for anyone that wants a good deal...7870 for 240 AR
[Comp] ME: XFX Radeon HD 7870 Double D GHz Edition 2GB GDDR5 - $237 AR

[SkinnyPupp]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

GTX 660 Ti midrange Kepler officially out
just a tad behind the 7950..but closer to 7870 with higher resolutions
same specs as the 670 but significantly lower memory bandwidth = 12% slower while being 25% cheaper
$300

AnandTech - The GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte

No offense but you should link to someone who knows how to review GPUs properly

Nvidia's GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics card reviewed - The Tech Report - Page 1

[DragonChi]

I like the tech reports novel methodology of looking at performance, but I wouldn't go as far to imply that Anandtech doesn't review properly. They've been a good resource until I saw that tech report review. The Anand review is more technical (not that I read that shit anyways, ), in depth in regards with including older cards and inclusive of other settings, like MSAA and different resolutions.

I like tech review's frame latency idea and the performance for dollar chart. Although, in the performance per price chart would have been better with more data on it. In other words, some of the older cards would have been nice to see in there. That way it's easy to extrapolate different performance per price points (create a line between two points to find what would be an equivalent card for a certain price).

I'd like to point out too that when the 560 ti came out at $250 it took about 6 months for the price to drop. I think due to something AMD came out with. So I would expect the 660 TI top drop $50 to $250 by Christmas if history is going to repeat itself.

[SkinnyPupp]

Any site that simply runs some canned benchmarks is not reviewing properly, IMO. The information they are giving you is relatively worthless

[DragonChi]

canned benchmarks?

[SkinnyPupp]

Yeah instead of recording actual gameplay

[bobola]

Looking to upgrade my cpu setup..

Current

Q9550
P5Q pro
4gb Ram

Looking into getting a i5 3570k ..
Just seeing which mobo to pick up!!
And any reason to go over 8 gb of ram?

Should be around $400 or less.. !
Thanks!!

[twitchyzero]

Asrock Z77 extreme 6
MSI Z77-GD65
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H
Asus P8Z77V Pro

To skinny, I usually like to read Anand because it gets pretty technical and I pretend like I know what it's saying...but from a consumer perspective I personally get more out of Tech Power-Up.

what makes you say an Anand doesn't use actual gameplay? Does it say that somewhere in its reviews?

[SkinnyPupp]

Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD Review

[Cman333]

Anyone recommend me a BUDGET GAMING LGA1155 CPU? Originally was thinking i5 2500k but my buddy hoping for something cheaper. Basically want to be able to run Guild Wars 2, Diablo 3, etc on higher settings.

[Manic!]

Originally Posted by Cman333

Anyone recommend me a BUDGET GAMING LGA1155 CPU? Originally was thinking i5 2500k but my buddy hoping for something cheaper. Basically want to be able to run Guild Wars 2, Diablo 3, etc on higher settings.

I3

AMD FX Vs. Intel Core i3: Exploring Game Performance With Cheap GPUs : FX-4100 And Core i3-2100 Go Head-To-Head

[G-spec]

hey fellas, lookin to upgrade to an 120gb SSD and an intel CPU, also Z77 motherboard..

No expert on these things I know only the key points about these parts, after few days of research, I know enough to avoid OCZ ssd's, and to go with a Z77 mobo because it's the newest chipset or whatever ?

also, I see the intel i7's are the top of the line cpus, i was gonna get one of the ones in the $350 range, but would you guys recommend any of the cheaper i5 cpu's that could possibly offer similar performance to an i7 after being overclocked a little bit ? no point me spending an extra $100-$150 on an i7 if there's something similar in the i5 lineup

I was thinking if you guys make a good recommendation and I do go with an i5 and overclock, I would then pick up a Corsair H100 liquid cooler as well to keep it nice and cool

thanks, sorry i'm a bit of a noob, appreciate the advice i get

[bobola]

^^

Got myself a i5 3570k + MSI GD65
Cost $340 all together.

I used the auto overclock function..
with 1 button, it auto OC to 3.8 GHZ!

You can get 4.0 - 4.5 with a bit a tweaking and such,

[twitchyzero]

3570K + Asrock extreme 4 mobo + samsung 830 ssd

should be in the $450 ballpark

it'll be a good value and solid build

[Hondaracer]

anytime i used that OC button on my MB my computer just crashed