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Old 03-26-2012, 09:26 PM
  #241  
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Originally Posted by imj0257
^ I already bought the PC, now I just need a graphics card. I don't think I will need more RAM anyways.
What power supply do you have? Wattage? Modular? Dedicated rail for video card?

Reason I'm asking this is that $150-200 is actually a nice video card, those usually require juice.
Old 03-26-2012, 09:29 PM
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lol which is better? All I see is a shitload of letters and numbers
Old 03-26-2012, 09:30 PM
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Now you get me thinking about building a system for myself
Old 03-26-2012, 09:32 PM
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Originally Posted by imj0257
lol which is better? All I see is a shitload of letters and numbers
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
Old 03-26-2012, 09:38 PM
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I don't know the power supply info. Doesn't say on the summary. :/
Old 03-26-2012, 09:41 PM
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if you don't have your PC yet, I'd wait, so you can open it up and see the power supply. I can't recommend you a video card without knowing the wattage. I don't want to screw you with something :/

And I'm a huge fan of EVGA cards, they give you more plus a nice tuning app. But now it's a battle between ATI and Nvidia
Old 03-26-2012, 09:46 PM
  #247  
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The HD 7750 I posted gets it's juice from PCIe. No need for additional power.
Old 03-26-2012, 09:48 PM
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Some other guy I talked to also said he recommends anything Nvidia. He showed me a card on newegg but one of the reviews said it takes up quite a lot of space.

Also, remember I got the slim case so there will probably be even less space than a normal case so I need to make sure the card isn't huge.
Old 03-26-2012, 09:51 PM
  #249  
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^For slimcase you may need to remove the 'cover'. But yes, I'd wait to see exactly how is the spacing and stuff. Newegg delivers the next day, so don't rush =]
Old 03-26-2012, 10:08 PM
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But I'm so excited!

Btw, I found some info on Dell's site. The 620 Slim Tower has a 250 Watt TFX12V Power Supply so I am pretty limited to graphics cards.

And it's dimensions are
Height: 37.79cm (14.9")
Width: 10.6cm (4.2")
Depth: 43.31cm (17.01")
Old 03-26-2012, 10:30 PM
  #251  
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H,mm... I used to be an nvidia fan, but I like ATI...eer AMD more...
Old 03-26-2012, 11:35 PM
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If it's a slim case you're going to probably need a half height (low profile) video card. No real powerful GPU comes in that form, so probably not worth it, IMO.

Choose from this list if you want, though....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...NG&PageSize=20
Old 03-26-2012, 11:40 PM
  #253  
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Originally Posted by imj0257
But I'm so excited!

Btw, I found some info on Dell's site. The 620 Slim Tower has a 250 Watt TFX12V Power Supply so I am pretty limited to graphics cards.

And it's dimensions are
Height: 37.79cm (14.9")
Width: 10.6cm (4.2")
Depth: 43.31cm (17.01")
250 watt?

250 watt for an i5 processor is kinda pushing it already. Dell's really cheapening out on the PSU now. No way will that be enough for a good GPU.
Old 03-26-2012, 11:57 PM
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His case can't handle a good gpu either....
Old 03-27-2012, 07:07 AM
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So you are saying it probably isn't worth it to spend money on a graphics card since the best graphics card my computer could handle won't be that good anyways?

I could just try and see how everything goes with the integrated card and then if need be get one that fits. I asked on tomshardware.com and they said that since I'm not using it for any special games and that the one game I do play isn't a demanding game, I should just try using the integrated card. They also recommended http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814127611 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=1qksb3mkhez7h
Old 03-27-2012, 08:21 AM
  #256  
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tomshardware is pulling your leg your rig is perfect as a work horse. Work, play, browse. It is not a gaming system, but you will have all the joys of using it. See how it does with the internal card, I'm sure you'd like it.

Enjoy!

P.S. for slims they usually go between 150-180-250.. 250 you got the high end one Your system will use every watt of it...and 250, probably produces a clean stable 180-200, this is why you see Corsair PSU of same wattage costing twice as much as the rest, reliable, uninterrupted as advertized wattage.

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Old 03-27-2012, 09:54 AM
  #257  
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Originally Posted by imj0257
So you are saying it probably isn't worth it to spend money on a graphics card since the best graphics card my computer could handle won't be that good anyways?

I could just try and see how everything goes with the integrated card and then if need be get one that fits. I asked on tomshardware.com and they said that since I'm not using it for any special games and that the one game I do play isn't a demanding game, I should just try using the integrated card. They also recommended http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814127611 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=1qksb3mkhez7h
Yeah like I said you don't NEED a discrete GPU, you have 8GB of RAM, more than plenty to share between the CPU and GPU. But if you decide you want one, the one they picked out looks fine.
Old 03-27-2012, 10:41 AM
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Thanks a bunch for the info guys!

I will test it out as it is and IF I find out I want a discrete GPU I will just buy one of the recommended ones.
Old 03-27-2012, 12:54 PM
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Sorry, one last question lol.

Do you think the Intel® HD Graphics IHD2000 integrated card would be fine to play Counter-Strike? That is the only game I still play and I figure since it is an old game it wouldn't demand a good graphics card.
Old 03-27-2012, 12:58 PM
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Originally Posted by imj0257
Sorry, one last question lol.

Do you think the Intel® HD Graphics IHD2000 integrated card would be fine to play Counter-Strike? That is the only game I still play and I figure since it is an old game it wouldn't demand a good graphics card.
It will work perfectly fine with Counterstrike.
Old 03-27-2012, 01:47 PM
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Thanks
Old 03-27-2012, 04:21 PM
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I don't think I will ever run out of questions

The monitor I'm getting has HDMI, DVI, and VGA ports, but comes only with the VGA cable. I think using an HDMI cable would be pointless in my case but based on my specs, should I just use the VGA cable or get a DVI cable cable? I also noticed there are 3 or 4 different types of DVI cables.
Old 03-27-2012, 06:15 PM
  #263  
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DVI-D to be specific, but any "common" dvi cable should do the trick. The other pins determine dual link capability and an analog signal. Your video card DVI port will probably have analog pins (to allow a DVI to VGA adapter). You can ignore those pins and just get a DVI-D cable.

Amazon Amazon

my 2-3 year old build:
-Cooler Master 922
-Corsair TX750
-Phenom II x2 550 (Unlocked to X4 B50) overclocked to 3.71GHz
-8GB DDR2 RAM
-Sapphire reference 5850
-Gigabyte 790X-UD4P
-Corsair H50 w/ push/pull Gentle Typhoon AP-15s

an old pic:


still plays the latest games bf3, diablo 3 (of course), ME3 without a hitch.

Last edited by ez12a; 03-27-2012 at 06:25 PM.
Old 03-30-2012, 12:31 AM
  #264  
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[QUOTE=ez12a;13657864]DVI-D to be specific, but any "common" dvi cable should do the trick. The other pins determine dual link capability and an analog signal. Your video card DVI port will probably have analog pins (to allow a DVI to VGA adapter). You can ignore those pins and just get a DVI-D cable.

Amazon Amazon

my 2-3 year old build:
-Cooler Master 922
-Corsair TX750
-Phenom II x2 550 (Unlocked to X4 B50) overclocked to 3.71GHz
-8GB DDR2 RAM
-Sapphire reference 5850
-Gigabyte 790X-UD4P
-Corsair H50 w/ push/pull Gentle Typhoon AP-15s

an old pic:

still plays the latest games bf3, diablo 3 (of course), ME3 without a hitch.[/QUOTE

How do you like your Corsair H50?

It's really hot in my room and air cooling doesn't seem to be cutting it any more. My (stock) i7 920 is idling at about 60 C and gets dangerously hot during gaming.

I haven't looked too much into it but I'm thinking of picking up a H60. From what I hear it can be a pain to install and the stock thermal paste sucks. Can you confirm?

Last edited by Lightus; 03-30-2012 at 12:46 AM.
Old 03-30-2012, 12:37 AM
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waiting for Ivy Bridge..... should be here by end of April/early May



Probably going with the i5-3570K
Old 03-30-2012, 12:47 AM
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Ugh, forgot my "]" on the last edit and ran out of editing time by a few seconds.
Old 03-30-2012, 01:32 AM
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Originally Posted by Lightus
How do you like your Corsair H50?

It's really hot in my room and air cooling doesn't seem to be cutting it any more. My (stock) i7 920 is idling at about 60 C and gets dangerously hot during gaming.

I haven't looked too much into it but I'm thinking of picking up a H60. From what I hear it can be a pain to install and the stock thermal paste sucks. Can you confirm?
H50 is alright, it only matches a higher end air cooler. It is quiet though and kind of novel. If you put two fans on it in a push/pull configuration it can further increase its effectiveness. The low profile of the Hxx series is awesome for slim cases.

I havent read too much about a H60 (i know there's an H80 and H100 or something), but for a 920 you should be OK. my friend is running a H50 on his i7 920 rig without problems.

I've read differently about the included thermal paste. It's shin etsu which is considered to be one of the better ones (at least on the H50).

installation isnt too bad, just remember to torque down the bolts in an alternating pattern a bit at a time, just like working on a car. It helps if your case has a cutout in the mobo tray under the CPU for a bracket. Otherwise you'll have to pull the mother board out to get the bracket installed. This was a pain on my friend's Antec 900 case.

but in terms of ambient temp, i'm not sure an H series cooler can help. Every degree higher the ambient temp is, it will take away a degree of effectiveness. What also helps is making sure you have positive pressure inside hte case. basically, you're intake is greater than your exhaust. This will also help keep the dust from building up inside.

Last edited by ez12a; 03-30-2012 at 01:35 AM.
Old 03-30-2012, 01:54 AM
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Thanks for all the info!

I'll have to do more research before I buy one. My case is an Antec p183. It only has two exhaust fans in the rear, no intake. I may end up getting a few intake fans and install them in the front instead.
Old 03-31-2012, 04:38 PM
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Well I got all my stuff already and only took 5 days, 9 days ahead of the estimated delivery date.

Already installed my programs and transferred my data.

OMFG insanely fast. Now I really now how slow and old my computer was before this. What an upgrade. An so far the Intel HD card is working just fine. I'm so



Now I want to donate my old computer to goodwill or something, but I don't feel like reinstallin WinXP because it takes about an hour. Would deleting my files and then the partitions be enough? Maybe use a program like eraser to get rid of the data?
Old 03-31-2012, 05:20 PM
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I always take my old HDDs to a recycling center and watch them shred it in front of me for $10.

I hadn't seen this thread before... I just built a new HTPC a few weeks ago:
And I scavenged the PSU, BD/DVD player and TV tuner card (Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250) from my previous computer which had its SSD fail.

I wanted to build a new HTPC under $500 and I pretty much hit that with great specials on the CPU and SSD at a local store (Microcenter) and specials/rebates from Newegg.

No video card - only using onboard video. No fans except the PSU and OEM heatsink/fan on the CPU. The thing runs very cool, which was a must for me since I'm pretty sure the heat was what killed the other HTPC after 4 years inside an entertainment cabinet with little ventilation. You open the cabinet door with this one and no heat can be felt. With the previous one it felt like you were opening the oven door

Last edited by einsatz; 03-31-2012 at 05:32 PM.
Old 03-31-2012, 07:35 PM
  #271  
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So I'm building a system, in the range of 2K tops.

CPU:Intel® Core™ i7-3820 Quad-Core 3.60 GHz 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011
still can't decide if I should spend more on the 3930K
(4 cores vs 6 cores.. both can be overclocked on x79 to stable 4.6-4.7Ghz)

MOTHERBOARD:* (3-Way SLI Support) Gigabyte X79-UD5 Intel X79 Chipset Quad Channel DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ UEFI DualBIOS, Dolby Home Theater 7.1 Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 1 PCI

POWERSUPPLY:* 850 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-850TXV2 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready

MEMORY:32GB (4GBx8) DDR3/1600MHz Quad Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)

VIDEO:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card (EVGA Superclocked

HDD:120GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 555MB/s Read & 515MB/s Write

HDD2:2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

I'm hoping this sytem will last me for 3+ years of moderate modern gaming and mostly Adobe workload. What do you guys think?
Old 03-31-2012, 07:39 PM
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That's a beast. And pretty close to one I have in mind.
Old 03-31-2012, 07:44 PM
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Please share what you've in mind. I haven't system build in quite some time for my self personally. Didnt' want to spend the money, but my current one died..so why not finally upgrade.
Old 03-31-2012, 07:57 PM
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Very similar to your system except it has an AMD 6870. I wanted it to be OS X (Hackintosh) compatible
Old 03-31-2012, 08:21 PM
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Originally Posted by TeknoKing
So I'm building a system, in the range of 2K tops.

CPU:Intel® Core™ i7-3820 Quad-Core 3.60 GHz 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011
still can't decide if I should spend more on the 3930K
(4 cores vs 6 cores.. both can be overclocked on x79 to stable 4.6-4.7Ghz)

MOTHERBOARD:* (3-Way SLI Support) Gigabyte X79-UD5 Intel X79 Chipset Quad Channel DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ UEFI DualBIOS, Dolby Home Theater 7.1 Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 1 PCI

POWERSUPPLY:* 850 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-850TXV2 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready

MEMORY:32GB (4GBx8) DDR3/1600MHz Quad Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)

VIDEO:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card (EVGA Superclocked

HDD:120GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 555MB/s Read & 515MB/s Write

HDD2:2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

I'm hoping this sytem will last me for 3+ years of moderate modern gaming and mostly Adobe workload. What do you guys think?
Why not wait a month for Ivy Bridge to come out?
Old 03-31-2012, 08:24 PM
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Originally Posted by #1 STUNNA
Why not wait a month for Ivy Bridge to come out?
That's my reason for not building anything. The benchmarks are quite impressive. But I can wait, maybe he can't.
Old 03-31-2012, 08:29 PM
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because Ivy Bridge will be expensive, I want to spend the least but squeeze the most for under 2K
Old 03-31-2012, 08:32 PM
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Originally Posted by imj0257
Would deleting my files and then the partitions be enough? Maybe use a program like eraser to get rid of the data?
I wouldnt trust just a simple delete and partition wipe. You can still recover data from that.

Download and run DBAN : http://www.dban.org/
Old 03-31-2012, 08:35 PM
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Originally Posted by TeknoKing
because Ivy Bridge will be expensive, I want to spend the least but squeeze the most for under 2K
Did you see these prices? Most expensive desktop one is $332


I paid almost $300 for my i7 860 in 09 and it was middle of the road quad core.

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Old 03-31-2012, 08:41 PM
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those prices are not real, especially with the demand and first few waves will be hard to get... why should I chase Ivy?


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