what to do to my pc and how...

[jacobia jacob]

If you're doing a first/budget build AVOID INTEL AND NVIDIA LIKE THE PLAGUE. AMD Processors and ATI cards are 90% Performance 60% Price. Go for a 5000 series DX11 card because that is what you'll need for gaming.

while i strongly agree with this, he did mention having an interest in linux. i'm thinking an AMD and NVIDIA build for better driver support in linux.

[Ennon]

If you're doing a first/budget build AVOID INTEL AND NVIDIA LIKE THE PLAGUE. AMD Processors and ATI cards are 90% Performance 60% Price. Go for a 5000 series DX11 card because that is what you'll need for gaming.

Don't buy Gigabyte or Asrock. ASUS is a good brand (M4A87TD is one of them). Don't worry too much about RAM branding.

Windows 7 definitely.

OCZ Coolers are good for air-cooling.

Um, excuse me? First off, you can't read.
He is getting an AMD. I have nothing against AMD. But no, ATI sucks. Like a plague. Have you ever heard of something called a driver? (And Jacobia, you are correct, nVidia has much much better Linux support.)
And he also said that he isn't going to be using this for gaming anyway.
Also, clearly you have never bought a recent Gigabyte board. They're the most solid boards I've ever used (heavy too), and their customer service is great. (Though I do agree that ASUS is quite good too, but you're paying more for that.)

Please entertain me with a more solid argument next time.

[jacobia jacob]

ATI has actually been getting their act together windows drivers lately. My 5770 has been running perfectly stable for months now.

[Ennon]

ATI has actually been getting their act together windows drivers lately. My 5770 has been running perfectly stable for months now.

Lol, the reason I don't like ATI is because I had a customer that wanted a fast computer for $1100. So, I figured I would go with AMD and try an ATI card for once. I used a Gigabyte 790XTA-UD4, AMD Phenom II X6 1055T, and an Diamond ATI Radeon 5770. It was hooked up to a new LED-LCD LG E2250V (22") Monitor, using HDMI as a connection. This monitor supports 1080p. Once I had everything setup, Windows 7 installed and everything, the display still would not show correctly. It wouldn't display full-screen like you would expect, instead the image was shrunk so there was an ugly black border on the screen. There was absolutely no option for scaling in the ATI control panel. So, I figured, maybe it's just the screen. I plugged it into my personal PC, and bam, full-screen, no scaling issues what-so-ever. For the hell of it, I went into my nVidia Control Panel, and sure enough, there was an option for scaling. I don't understand why ATI does not have such a basic feature on their cards. And I didn't like the ATI Control Panel anyways, not enough customization options for me :P

[jacobia jacob]

ati does have an option for that, it's called overscan... right click on the display you are trying to fix and click configure.

[HiddenVenom]

Sorry if I was 'illiterate' but I'm afraid I was very tired at the time of writing. True, I haven't bought gigabyte in a while but I know people that have had issues with them, and I've not liked machines that have used them in the past (though there may be other factors surrounding my dislike of said machines). If they are good now, I apologise.

The asus and his ati cards are the best to get... They are easy to set up and easy to OC.

And for the scaling thing... My 5670 only does that with no driver or too low resolution.

[Ennon]

Hmm the Catalyst I installed didn't look like that. lol. and it did that before a driver was installed too, so i dunno.

[RyanF]

thanks everyone i guess i might go with a nvidia if there arent any ati's that have linux support.  sorry for not replying for a while. i was in dc.

ATI has actually been getting their act together windows drivers lately. My 5770 has been running perfectly stable for months now.

try running linux on a partition of your hdd. just curious if it will work with an ati.   

[Ennon]

Well no, ATI has Linux support. It just, isn't good. nVidia drivers will install right away with Ubuntu, I know that. ATI not so much, you'll be doing a LOT of tinkering to get it to work the way you want it to. Save yourself a headache haha.

[jacobia jacob]

thanks everyone i guess i might go with a nvidia if there arent any ati's that have linux support.  sorry for not replying for a while. i was in dc. try running linux on a partition of your hdd. just curious if it will work with an ati.   

i dual booted windows 7 and ubuntu for a while on this machine. it took a good bit of work to get everything graphics related set up properly, but i was able to do it. there was a ton of screen tearing though, i never managed to get around that.

Hmm the Catalyst I installed didn't look like that. lol. and it did that before a driver was installed too, so i dunno.

it's a bit hard to find, the layout isn't the greatest. in ccc, it's under desktops and displays>(right click the display you want)>configure>scaling

[RyanF]

i dual booted windows 7 and ubuntu for a while on this machine. it took a good bit of work to get everything graphics related set up properly, but i was able to do it. there was a ton of screen tearing though, i never managed to get around that.

it's a bit hard to find, the layout isn't the greatest. in ccc, it's under desktops and displays>(right click the display you want)>configure>scaling

ok did you install windows before linux? also what does the "screen tearing" mean?  is it where it blurs in one spot but not the other? and what are the specs of your pc?  just curious.
lol im breaking the pattern with the pcs we have around my house.  all the things we have are nvidia and intels running single boot.  and the highest ram is 4gb.  Im going with 8gb.  the best windows we have is a core 2 duo.  and since the mobo is clock it wont oc anything.   im building a better pc than my parents have   pretty much a server with a 2 tb and 3.4 ghz stock speed cpu with 8gb ram. 

[Ennon]

ok did you install windows before linux? also what does the "screen tearing" mean?  is it where it blurs in one spot but not the other? and what are the specs of your pc?  just curious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_tearing

lol im breaking the pattern with the pcs we have around my house.  all the things we have are nvidia and intels running single boot.  and the highest ram is 4gb.  Im going with 8gb.  the best windows we have is a core 2 duo.  and since the mobo is clock it wont oc anything.   im building a better pc than my parents have   pretty much a server with a 2 tb and 3.4 ghz stock speed cpu with 8gb ram. 

Go for it   Let us know how it turns out

[jacobia jacob]

ok did you install windows before linux? also what does the "screen tearing" mean?  is it where it blurs in one spot but not the other? and what are the specs of your pc?  just curious.
lol im breaking the pattern with the pcs we have around my house.  all the things we have are nvidia and intels running single boot.  and the highest ram is 4gb.  Im going with 8gb.  the best windows we have is a core 2 duo.  and since the mobo is clock it wont oc anything.   im building a better pc than my parents have   pretty much a server with a 2 tb and 3.4 ghz stock speed cpu with 8gb ram. 

yea i installed windows before ubuntu, then i used ubuntu's partition editor to resize my windows partition and make a smaller partition to install ubuntu onto.

phenom 2 945@ 3.0 ghz
4gb ddr3 1600
500gb caviar green
sapphire radeon hd 5770
asus m4a78t-e mobo
500w psu
lg dvd drive
^my system specs, not including monitors, keyboard and mouse, audio setup, etc.

i build it last november, i'll probably keep it for around another year before i build a new one. maxes out most games at 1080p while watching movies on my secondary monitor.

i love having the fastest pc in my house, but be prepared to become the local tech support guy. don't offer help for free to anyone but close friends and family, you'd be surprised how many computer related issues your neighbors can get themselves into every day.

[RyanF]

yea i installed windows before ubuntu, then i used ubuntu's partition editor to resize my windows partition and make a smaller partition to install ubuntu onto.

phenom 2 945@ 3.0 ghz
4gb ddr3 1600
500gb caviar green
sapphire radeon hd 5770
asus m4a78t-e mobo
500w psu
lg dvd drive
^my system specs, not including monitors, keyboard and mouse, audio setup, etc.

i build it last november, i'll probably keep it for around another year before i build a new one. maxes out most games at 1080p while watching movies on my secondary monitor.

i love having the fastest pc in my house, but be prepared to become the local tech support guy. don't offer help for free to anyone but close friends and family, you'd be surprised how many computer related issues your neighbors can get themselves into every day.

lol i could go around my friends houses and make their router turn off wifi then make 5 bucks off them to turn it on lol  btw im going to need 1 more parts check before i buy the stuff ive changed some of the parts out.

[jacobia jacob]

you'd be amazed how many people use the routers factory default username and password, allowing you easy access to their settings once you crack the wep key. its funner if you just block sites like facebook and myspace or google. theres also the option of sniffing their packets for passwords, but thats probably not legal and therefore won't be discussed here 

[HiddenVenom]

I suggest looking at the palicomp website (it's a uk site, but they list all the parts in their prebuilt pcs, and just remember you can always make it 5-15% cheaper by building it yourself).

The mid-to-midhigh range intel pcs are probably what you'll want, seeing as you seem to be leaning towards intel and nvidia.

Also who said 22fps on crysis with gtx240? What was the resolution you used?

[Ennon]

I suggest looking at the palicomp website (it's a uk site, but they list all the parts in their prebuilt pcs, and just remember you can always make it 5-15% cheaper by building it yourself).

The mid-to-midhigh range intel pcs are probably what you'll want, seeing as you seem to be leaning towards intel and nvidia.

Also who said 22fps on crysis with gtx240? What was the resolution you used?

Lol, that would be me. And I'm running 1920*1080 (DVI-I) on my GT 240.

Specifically, this is my setup if you're interested: (Which will be updated in a couple months due to it being old and being a POS recently)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz OC'd to 3.2 GHz
MSI P6N Diamond, with nVidia nForce 680i and onboard X-Fi Xtreme Audio (This board is such a piece of , I can't wait to upgrade soon)
EVGA nVidia GeForce GT 240 OC 512MB GDDR5 (black PCB)
XFX nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 (Used for PhysX, otherwise not used (such as in Crysis))
Mushkin 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz RAM
Creative X-Fi Titanium PCI-e

This is what I will be upgrading to in the near future:
Intel Core i7 930 2.8 GHz
Gigabyte X58A-U3DR
nVidia GeForce GTX 275 (when it is released)
EVGA nVidia GeForce GT 240 OC 512MB GDDR5 (Will become my PhysX card)
G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz RAM
Creative X-Fi Titanium PCI-e (Again, transferred over)
And maybe a Killer 2100 if I find a need and the money for it.

[HiddenVenom]

Cool. This is my current rig which gets about 16fps on Very High (1920*1080) in Crysis:

500W PSU (Dedicated)
MSI K9N Neo (MS-7260)
Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (2 Cores at about 2.4Ghz)
2GB DDR2 RAM (not sure of the speed... probably mid-rangish)
ASUS EAH5670 1GB GDDR5 (w/ sound through HDMI, DX11)
200GB SATA Hard Drive (Not the fastest of things...)
40GB IDE Hard Drive (Definitely not the fastest of things...)
DVD-RW Drive
USB Hub/Multi-Card Reader

Logitech K300 Keyboard
Generic PCLine Mouse
Wacom Bamboo Fun G-Tablet
Creative Speakers (Stereo, cheap)
Wifi-N Dongle
LG W2261VP 1080p DVI VGA HDMI Monitor

PROBLEM: I'm getting a nasty bottleneck where the processor and ram can't keep up with the graphics card (seriously... the thing has never gone over 40C, and overclocking makes no difference... heck even underclocking makes no difference), which is slowing my frame rate A LOT

SOLUTION: Replace CPU and RAM. (And some other stuff for compatability and good measure.)

Well this is what I want to have within the next half a year:

500W PSU (Same one)
Phenom II X2 1055T (will be OC'd to maybe 3.2-3.5Ghz)
ASUS M4A87TD EVO 870 Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM (Haven't decided on make yet, and if the price is down, ill get 8GB or 6GB)
ASUS EAH5670 (Same one)
500GB SATA-II Hard drive (Have not decided on make, will be in RAID)
200GB SATA Hard Drive (Same one, will be running Ubuntu)
DVD-RW Drive (Same One)
USB Hub/Multi-Card Reader (Same One)
Full Set of OCZ/Other Make CPU and Case fans.
RS232 PCI(-e?) Card (I need some serial ports after dumping the last mobo)

Logitech K300 Keyboard (Same one)
New Gaming Mouse (I still have to find one that is big enough for my hands)
Wacom Bamboo Fun G-Tablet (Same One)
Creative Speakers (Same Ones)
Wifi-N Dongle (Same One)
LG W2261VP 1080p DVI VGA HDMI Monitor (Same One)

And a Nice New ATX Case


And Later I hope to add

ATI HD6xxx card
5.1 Speaker System
2560x1600 DisplayPort Monitor
More DDR3 1600 RAM (Taking up the other two slots on the mobo hopefully brining it to 8GB or 12GB, but this will only be when i see the need for it.)

[jacobia jacob]

instead of 8gigs of ram, jump up to a quad core cpu?

[Ennon]

Yeah, for the price of an AMD, why not just get a Phenom II X4? They're not that much more expensive.

And I was getting 22fps on just High settings :P

[HiddenVenom]

Oh crap I just realised what I typed yeah I meant Phenom II X6 lol.

And the 8 is purely dependent on the price (it will mist likely be 4 gig)

[Ennon]

Oh ok lol, I was thinking, why only dual-core? :P

And for 4 vs 8GB of RAM. It depends on how much you will use it. For instance, I recommend 4, simply because whenever I check my usage, it's never close to being full :P

[HiddenVenom]

I do run some pretty heavy rendering sometimes, but for the sake of it taking a little linger I think I can manage.

[RyanF]

hey ive really changed some things to get more bang for my buck. heres the list and im guessing its messed up again:
Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive[/]Item #: N82E16822148506Return Policy: Standard Return Policy-$10.00 Instant
[/]

[]$199.99$189.99[/]

[][/]

[][/c]
GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD MotherboardItem #: N82E16813128435Return Policy: Standard Return PolicyProtect Your Investment (expand for options)Service Net Replacement Extended Warranty[/][/font]

[]
2 year: $25.99(remove)[/][/list][]-$5.00 Instant
$139.99$134.99
LevelOne WNC-0600 32-bit PCI Wireless PCI Card AdapterItem #: N82E16833118133Return Policy: Standard Return PolicyProtect Your Investment (expand for options)Service Net Replacement Extended Warranty Plan[/]

[]
1 year: $6.99(remove)[/][/list][]-$30.00 Instant
$54.99$24.99
ECS NGTS250-512QX-F GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video CardItem #: N82E16814134094Return Policy: VGA Standard Return Policy$109.99
RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-730SS 730W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power SupplyItem #: N82E16817152036Return Policy: Standard Return PolicyProtect Your Investment (expand for options)Service Net Replacement Extended Warranty Plan[/]

[]
1 year: $9.99(remove)[/][/list][]-$20.00 Instant
$79.99$59.99
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEMItem #: N82E16835100007Return Policy: Consumable Item Refund Only Return Policy$9.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRLItem #: N82E16820231308Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy$169.99
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOXItem #: N82E16819103727Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return PolicyProtect Your Investment (expand for options)Service Net Replacement Extended Warranty[/]

[]
2 year: $36.99(remove)[/][/list][]$164.99
Rosewill RCW-616 Laptop 2.5" to Desktop 3.5" IDE Hard Drive Adapter ConverterItem #: N82E16812119245Return Policy: Standard Return PolicyProtect Your Investment (expand for options)-$7.00 Instant
$11.99$4.99
SYBA SY-ADA40011 SATA to IDE Adapter, Convert PATA Devices to SATA Port, RoHS.Item #: N82E16812186095Return Policy: Standard Return PolicyProtect Your Investment (expand for options)$8.49
NORCO C-P1T7 4Pin Molex 1 Male to 7 Female Power Extension Splitter Cable - OEMItem #: N82E16816133040Return Policy: Standard Return Policy$6.99Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEMItem #: N82E16832116754Return Policy: Software Standard Return PolicySunbeam Transformer IC-TR-US-BA-WOPSU Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer CaseItem #: N82E16811166004Return Policy: Standard Return Policy[/]

[HiddenVenom]

Don't bother with black edition processors just oc them yourself.

[Ennon]

FFS quit copying and pasting from NewEgg. I can't read that.

[jacobia jacob]

just take a screenshot of your shopping cart or post the links individually. makes it easier to read and sort through and all that

[RyanF]

sorry for the mess. im using the mac and it apparently doesnt like newegg.  here are some links. screenshots wont work.
GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare DriveLevelOne WNC-0600 32-bit PCI Wireless PCI Card AdapterECS NGTS250-512QX-F GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video CardRAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-730SS 730W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power SupplyArctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEMG.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRLAMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOXRosewill RCW-616 Laptop 2.5" to Desktop 3.5" IDE Hard Drive Adapter ConverterSYBA SY-ADA40011 SATA to IDE Adapter, Convert PATA Devices to SATA Port, RoHS.NORCO C-P1T7 4Pin Molex 1 Male to 7 Female Power Extension Splitter Cable - OEMSunbeam Transformer IC-TR-US-BA-WOPSU Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer CaseMicrosoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

[HiddenVenom]

GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6GB/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0GB/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

LevelOne WNC-0600 32-bit PCI Wireless PCI Card Adapter

ECS NGTS250-512QX-F GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-730SS 730W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power Supply

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX

Rosewill RCW-616 Laptop 2.5" to Desktop 3.5" IDE Hard Drive Adapter Converter

SYBA SY-ADA40011 SATA to IDE Adapter, Convert PATA Devices to SATA Port, RoHS.

NORCO C-P1T7 4Pin Molex 1 Male to 7 Female Power Extension Splitter Cable - OEM

Sunbeam Transformer IC-TR-US-BA-WOPSU Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

[RyanF]

why did you quote me me but not say anything?