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turtlefu Wrote:Okay, hm. Does Dual gigabit LAN means faster speeds for internet?
No. It means that you can daisy chain more than two computers in a wired LAN configuration. Which is useful for LAN parties.
turtlefu Wrote:Also, it seems like even some motherboards with two PCIe ports don't support dual 16x, just dual 8x, because the second PCIe slot shares bandwith with the first one. Is dual 16x ideal when using SLI/Crossfire?
It is but the performance difference is a few percent at most.
turtlefu Wrote:If so, then maybe it isn't worth getting a motherboard that has dual 8x and I should just forget about SLI/Crossfire. In which case I don't need two PCIe ports. Or does that not actually matter?
If you're not going to use SLI/Crossfire you don't need two pci-e x16 slots.
turtlefu Wrote:So then 4.3 GHz is not "heavy" overclocking therefore I shouldn't need one of the high end boards?
Correct.
turtlefu Wrote:I don't think my TV or A/V receiver support audio return channel. The HDTV is a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A and the A/V receiver is a Sony DAV-HDX277WC. I haven't been able to find anything online and there is no ARC next to the HDMI ports on the TV
Neither of them support it. I checked both product manuals. I guess this is the best you can do with your setup.
Also I didn't realize that the DVD player and A/V receiver were integrated into one unit.
turtlefu Wrote:It wouldn't always be hooked up to the HDTV, more often it would just be on my desk, and I would be using headphones. So I just have to weigh whether I want to get something like the G45 or get the G41 and then buy a low-end soundcard.
In that case I recommend getting an audio card.
You're planning to carry this thing back and forth between those two locations on a regular basis? That's nuts.
Well, I wouldn't be doing it often but every once in a while if I wanted to game in HD with 7.1 surround sound... but my room is actually on the 2nd floor and the TV is on the 1st, so it would be pretty ridiculous to carry it...
Now, I just really need to decide whether or not to SLI. My thought process is this: buy a GTX 760 now for $260. The GTX 660 is currently ~$170 but originally sold for $230. The GTX 760 is about 16% better than a single GTX 660. SLI is about a 40-45% increase as opposed to a single card. When the 860 or 960 cards come out, do you think they will be more than 45% more powerful than a single 760? And at the rate that the 660 decreased in cost, the 760 should go down in price (maybe ~$190-200?) by the time that series comes out.
But seeing that the GTX 560 is 72% WORSE than the GTX 760, I can see between two generations there actually is a pretty big gap, especially because the 800/900 series will be built off a new architecture...
turtlefu Wrote:When the 860 or 960 cards come out, do you think they will be more than 45% more powerful than a single 760?
Without question.
New architectures generally double performance over the previous architecture. In my opinion SLI is far too much of a pain in the ass to be worth it.
Ah, I see. So then the point of SLI is if you really need something like a Titan you can get 2x 760 in SLI right away. It's not really for upgrades.
In that case, a second PCIe 16x port is not important. That helps narrow it down considerably: MSI G41, ASRock Pro4, Gigabyte D3HP, MSI G45, ASRock Extreme4. The MSI is the cheapest, but I'm not sure if I trust them. Gigabyte and ASRock have good reputations. The G45 and Extreme4 have good audio chipsets, which is useful if I don't want to spend $100+ on a really good soundcard right away (or ever). As far as I'm concerned, there isn't really a point in buying a cheap sound card for $40 when if I spend $40 more I get a better all-around board that has an audio chipset equal to just that soundcard.
The Extreme4 is really the most appealing, and that BIOS issue does seem to be mostly fixed according to NewEgg reviews, but it is such a gamble. Unless I want to buy something like the Creative SB X-Fi Titanium HD, in which case I might as well get the G41 or Pro4...
Who knew deciding the motherboard would be the hardest part?
Also, since I'm not going to SLI I wouldn't really need an 8th expansion slot on the case, so would it be a good idea to downgrade to the Carbide 300R?
You might find this interesting:
http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/asus_haswell_processor_overclocking_for_h87_and_b85.html
According to that you might be able to get away with a cheaper H87 or B85 motherboard and still overclock as long as it's an asus motherboard.
turtlefu Wrote:Also, since I'm not going to SLI I wouldn't really need an 8th expansion slot on the case, so would it be a good idea to downgrade to the Carbide 300R?
Keep the carbide 400R in the build.
turtlefu Wrote:Ah, I see. So then the point of SLI is if you really need something like a Titan you can get 2x 760 in SLI right away. It's not really for upgrades.
It's for both.
It's often a cheaper and/or faster option than single card configurations if you have a very high budget. It can also provide some nice room for short term upgrading. I don't think it's worth the hassle unless you're trying to do a triple monitor and/or 3D vision setup (or possibly an UHD monitor).
turtlefu Wrote:The G45 and Extreme4 have good audio chipsets, which is useful if I don't want to spend $100+ on a really good soundcard right away (or ever). As far as I'm concerned, there isn't really a point in buying a cheap sound card for $40 when if I spend $40 more I get a better all-around board that has an audio chipset equal to just that soundcard.
I would indeed recommend doing this.
turtlefu Wrote:The Extreme4 is really the most appealing, and that BIOS issue does seem to be mostly fixed according to NewEgg reviews, but it is such a gamble.
If it doesn't work you can always return it.
turtlefu Wrote:Unless I want to buy something like the Creative SB X-Fi Titanium HD, in which case I might as well get the G41 or Pro4...
If you have the room in your budget I would recommend having a high end audio card instead of high end integrated audio. However that's more of a high budget option. And for the love of god don't get that card. Creative has much better offerings these days and other brands have even better offerings.
turtlefu Wrote:Who knew deciding the motherboard would be the hardest part?
Only because you're overthinking it.
My friend offered to sell me his old gaming computer (he recently build a new one from scratch). The specs (according to him):
CPU: Phenom II X6 1100T
Cooler: Corsair H60 (he says there is also an arctic liquid GPU cooler, but I don't know what that means)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FX-UD3 (one USB and one e-sata port doesn't work)
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB
RAM: 8GB Corsair Dominator GT 2133 MHz
PSU: Corsair GS800 800W Bronze
Storage: Corsair GT 120GB, 3 x 500 GB 7200 rpm HDD (he didn't say the brand)
He says he'd sell it to me for $450 since we're friends... do you think this is a good idea?
I know the 1100T is rather weak for Dolphin, but I figured even if I add a Haswell processor and motherboard it would still cost less than if I built it myself. Would the 1100T be able to play any games at full speed, such as the less demanding ones?
Did I ever respond to your PM? I remember doing it but I don't see it in my sent box.
Quote:He says he'd sell it to me for $450 since we're friends... do you think this is a good idea?
It seems like a very good deal to me (water cooling , true 6 core CPU unlike those FX 6xxx , high-end GPU/PSU , SSD) . If you overclock it to 3.8GHz , most game will run well (except demanding games)
Overclock it to 4.0GHz , you will have the same performance as FX 8350 @ 4.0GHz in Dolphin
I personally don't like second hand PC no matter how cheap it is but that's my 2 cents ( No warranty = not safe )
@NaturalViolence
No, but I understand you're busy so I didn't want to bother you
@admin89
Yeah, the lack of warranty is what makes me worry. The parts most likely to break would be the PSU, GPU, CPU, whereas the RAM and storage should be OK. The way I see it, I spend $450 and everything works great, or some things break that I have to replace (new CPU, motherboard, GPU, psu = $500, depending on which GPU I get), which is how much it would have costed me to build it from scratch anyways. But from my understanding rarely does every component in a computer system break, it's usually only one or two things at a time.
Well that's annoying. I wrote out a very long and well written response to that PM and could swear that I sent it. Yet I see no trace of it in my sent box or browser history.
Long story short: Buy it. For $450 it's a steal even if you replace half the components in it.
I'll get working on rewriting that PM at some point, ugh. No wonder I didn't hear back from you which I thought was strange.
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