Getting a new computer. Need advice.

[Fast Fingered Fiend]

Actually, I could get this instead

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220695&cm_re=asus_g73jh-_-34-220-695-_-Product

[ninjaKIWI]

I would never advocate getting a laptop for gaming. I can understand the allure of a portable gaming machine, but you're paying a lot more for a lot less.

I don't know much about the mobile version of the 5870, but I would think that having Crossfire 5870s in a laptop would cause some heating problems as well.

[darkshark]

I've been building up a 48 core machine for the last few months, piece by piece.
None of you probably do the kind of work I do, so having so many cores in an octosocket platform probably would never benefit you in a billion years.

For the normal user, 6gb of ram is more than enough for anything they would ever want to do. I find myself running out of ram even at 24gb on some animations I do for the company I work for.

Overall I've spent roughly the same as Rubix, $2k, but I still need more ram, more fans, and a gtx480 or three, that's still not including monitors/soundsystem etc, already have those.

[ninjaKIWI]

I've been building up a 48 core machine for the last few months, piece by piece.
None of you probably do the kind of work I do, so having so many cores in an octosocket platform probably would never benefit you in a billion years.

For the normal user, 6gb of ram is more than enough for anything they would ever want to do. I find myself running out of ram even at 24gb on some animations I do for the company I work for.

Overall I've spent roughly the same as Rubix, $2k, but I still need more ram, more fans, and a gtx480 or three, that's still not including monitors/soundsystem etc, already have those.

I don't know much about GPUs outside the gaming aspect, but wouldn't you be more in need of a workstation card than a few 480s?

[darkshark]

Workstation cards are pretty much just overpriced and overhyped when it comes to openGL performance, and with VRay's new GPU based RT engine coming out, it takes advantage of sheer number of gpu processors, as opposed to workstation cards which are meant for dealing with 4D simulations and such, which I don't do, and have no plans on doing any time soon, so the D3D based gaming cards are the better choice due to the sheer number of cuda processors.

[MrGiggles]

I would never advocate getting a laptop for gaming. I can understand the allure of a portable gaming machine, but you're paying a lot more for a lot less.

I don't know much about the mobile version of the 5870, but I would think that having Crossfire 5870s in a laptop would cause some heating problems as well.
Every single one of my friends opted for a gaming laptop. Alienware, Dell XPS, etc. All of them overheat after a few hours, require cooling pads underneath, and average 30 minutes of battery life, so they're pretty much overpriced*4 desktops.

Don't ****ing do it.

What I would do is put together a gaming desktop and then just get a netbook or macbook.

[MrRubix]

Back in college, the people I knew who had gaming laptops pretty much only played them in their rooms anyway. They just liked having one computer for gaming AND for portability when it came to doing schoolwork/studying elsewhere.

Personally, I think it's a waste (gaming laptops are steeeeeeep in price for what you get, not to mention other obvious limitations). You're better off getting a nice gaming desktop and a reasonably priced netbook/macbook aka agreed with Giggles.

[Fast Fingered Fiend]

I mean supposedly it has like a whole buncha vents for the overheating problem but idk. I wanna get the desktop, but I'm still unsure of what to get :/

[MrRubix]

Just go for an i5 or i7

[Zageron]

I've been building up a 48 core machine for the last few months, piece by piece.
None of you probably do the kind of work I do, so having so many cores in an octosocket platform probably would never benefit you in a billion years.

For the normal user, 6gb of ram is more than enough for anything they would ever want to do. I find myself running out of ram even at 24gb on some animations I do for the company I work for.

Overall I've spent roughly the same as Rubix, $2k, but I still need more ram, more fans, and a gtx480 or three, that's still not including monitors/soundsystem etc, already have those.

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=270-WS-W555-A1&family=Motherboard%20Family&series=Intel%205520%20Series%20Family&sw=5

If you aren't already using this, this baby is amazing!! Push two mega processors, four nvidia cards of your choice, and 48GB of RAM! Mix that with some SSD Raid 0 array, and you'll be set.

[Red_Comet]

words of wisdom: focus on what you want the machine to do and build around that. If you want something that runs smooth, get parts that are less power demanding and have stable overclocks for when you want to bump up stuff. If you want something fast that will blaze through anything without hesitation, get parts that have a lot of overclocking potential and have great cooling power. I3's and Phenom/Phenom II dual cores will be the smooth-runners while I5's, I7's, and Phenom II quad/hexa core will be the backbone of your powerhouse. And don't scimp on power supplies or the motherboard as those will bottleneck what you can do with your machine (and possibly ruin them after intense tweaking goes 'haywire')


as a side note, stay away from notebooks if you plan on doing gaming or anything that will take it for a mile in a minute. They're meant to be portable utilities, not a gaming pc replacement on the go.

[Fast Fingered Fiend]

hmm, that AMD hexacore looks tempting and with my 5970 it'll be better because AMD and ATI work together to make the computer more powerful

[Red_Comet]

it is really new so there are some issues with it before updating the mobo to recognize all 6 cores, unless you get the newest boards from either Asus or gigabyte, I myself got the gigabyte one so I can slap one in there in a few weeks.

[Fast Fingered Fiend]

I haven't even gotten any computer parts yet lol and yes I am getting a good mobo

[Fast Fingered Fiend]

Actually, I'll just get a decent computer and play my **** on ps3 LoL

[NFD]

I get 90 frames on my laptop, good job loser.

[ninjaKIWI]

hmm, that AMD hexacore looks tempting and with my 5970 it'll be better because AMD and ATI work together to make the computer more powerful

ATI = AMD

As far as I know there are no games that use six cores, and you certainly aren't going to be doing any serious multitasking or anything. askdjfhasdhjflkjhasdfjlkhasdlkfjjhsaldkjfhalsjkdhf lkjashdflkjhasdlfkjhafgkhbruawgfbouxvbniouhzioshdf oiwehrhguwhsafahoerfiwehfraikwhefhsdfkhasre GIGGLES

As for your PS3 have fun gaming on an inferior platform.

[MrGiggles]

GIGGLESword

I can count 4-core games on one hand. Core2Duo is still powerful enough to run train on any game for a while.

Actually, I'll just get a decent computer and play my **** on ps3 LoLFine, don't be part of the superior PC gaming master race we don't want you anyway. :P

[Fast Fingered Fiend]

ATI = AMD

No **** sherlock, I know that. I was just stating that they both work together to make the computer faster....

Fine, don't be part of the superior PC gaming master race we don't want you anyway. :P

I want to, but idk anybody that's a PC gamer lol. They're all on either 360 or ps3 :/


Edit:

As far as I know there are no games that use six cores, and you certainly aren't going to be doing any serious multitasking or anything.

Actually yes, I'm to be dl'ing a LOT of stuff simultaneously so yeah, Imma need something that runs smooth enough for me to do so

[ninjaKIWI]

No **** sherlock, I know that. I was just stating that they both work together to make the computer faster....

"They both" implies that they're separate. Now it's just AMD.


Actually yes, I'm to be dl'ing a LOT of stuff simultaneously so yeah, Imma need something that runs smooth enough for me to do so
Six cores isn't going to help you here lmfao.

[Fast Fingered Fiend]

Bottlenecks is what I'm trying to avoid, which is why I'm aiming for the six core, along with the multi tasking etc.

[darkshark]

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=270-WS-W555-A1&family=Motherboard%20Family&series=Intel%205520%20Series%20Family&sw=5

If you aren't already using this, this baby is amazing!! Push two mega processors, four nvidia cards of your choice, and 48GB of RAM! Mix that with some SSD Raid 0 array, and you'll be set.

This is only dual socket >_>

Mine is 8 socket, and capable of 72gb ram. That mobo is not that amazing aside from it's 4 pcie x16 slots.

[fido123]

Bottlenecks is what I'm trying to avoid, which is why I'm aiming for the six core, along with the multi tasking etc.

Unless you're swimming in cash you would have to be retarded to "invest" in a 6-core processor if you think you know what you're talking about. Downloading takes up very, very little CPU power no matter how much you're downloading at a time. Besides for the client using up some processing power, the data is just going from the Network Adapter, to the North Bridge, to your storage. Unless you're doing some hardcore rendering, just stick with a Quad-Core and it'll be plenty of an investment.

[MrRubix]

you do not need a six core processor lmfao

[Fast Fingered Fiend]

Unless you're swimming in cash you would have to be retarded to "invest" in a 6-core processor if you think you know what you're talking about. Downloading takes up very, very little CPU power no matter how much you're downloading at a time. Besides for the client using up some processing power, the data is just going from the Network Adapter, to the North Bridge, to your storage. Unless you're doing some hardcore rendering, just stick with a Quad-Core and it'll be plenty of an investment.

I'm trying to future proof my computer but yeah I guess you're right.

[MrGiggles]

6 cores probably won't be in style until 2042

For downloads, I'd worry more about read/write hard drive speed.

[Fast Fingered Fiend]

Does the hard drive cache have anything to do with it as well?

[MrGiggles]

Potentially. I don't know enough about how hard drives work and what specs matter to help you much there, sorry.

[Fast Fingered Fiend]

No worries, I'll get one with a high Cache jic :p

[fido123]

I would say bandwidth would be what you want to worry about with downloading lol. Your hardrive will be able to keep up with pretty much any amount of bandwidth you give it. Also you'll only go as fast as people upload.

[who_cares973]

fast fingers is yaboy he doesnt know **** about **** lmao

[DAD1]

so MrRubix how can you afford to do this stuff with the unbelievably crippling cost of living in new york

serious question

cause this was before you had the nicer job right

[MrRubix]

so MrRubix how can you afford to do this stuff with the unbelievably crippling cost of living in new york

serious question

cause this was before you had the nicer job right

Yes, it was before the new job, but I spent my undergrad years working (in addition to classes) for all four years plus each summer, so I had a bit left over. I've been self-sufficient since an early age. It was initially supposed to be a gift but that wound up not happening.

NY costs blow. Rent is like $1400, and then layer on tons of student loans, phone bills, utilities, Internet, clothing, food, monthly unlimited Metrocard, etc.

But I make enough to cover those costs with enough left over to spend on whatever I want, really. I just can't go crazy and go out drinking every night because those kind of bills add up fast. My girlfriend and I spend a fair bit of our disposable incomes trying out famous restaurants in Manhattan because we're both big on gastronomy/design/etc, so that's where most of our money ultimately goes. NY is freaking expensive and it's really hard to live decently unless you're making good money here.

Even so, NY apartments aren't big enough to justify getting multiple desktops or anything. I don't really want to upgrade my computer on a consistent basis, either, because I like having everything work together at once at maximum quality (as opposed to having parts fail out here and there through wear and tear). I just prefer buying an uber-computer once every few years or so. It's only a few thousand dollars for something you use quite often, and at maximum performance.

[Phynx]

I would LOVE to see NVidia partner with Intel.

That'd be classic.

I'm skeptical of ATI's new products, raving about 4GB memory this, huge upgrade that. Again it's just that, ATI has for the most part had higher "specs" of hardware but had lower specs in performance to NVidia's cards.

I personally think NVidia is just biding time for itself. That or the 480 Fermi cards are again, as always, better than ATI's top of the line.

Plus I've never had an ATI card that didn't burn itself out within a 6 month period of time. So just based on past failures I will keep myself on NVidias loyalty listing.

[fido123]

Only ATI card I've had burnt out in 2 years. I've never heard anything of actual value about them other than fanboys who don't exactly know how **** works in a computer spamming specs. Too bad the way NVidea does things, offer better performance IMO. It's the same deal with Intel and AMD. Yes the specs are higher in AMDs, and for certain types of computing the chips are better, but for day to day use/the more important and noticeable parts of video game processing is done better with Intel.

[MrGiggles]

protip: brand loyalty is kind of stupid and fermi is awful

I mentioned this earlier, but brand superiority tends to run in a cycle, and right now a lot of people are busy laughing at NVidia cards setting houses on fire. ATI is finally getting their **** together. How long will this last? Iunno.

You're right though, fido. ATI's drivers are a total joek and cost the cards a fair amount of performance. They tend to be cheaper to compensate.

[Phynx]

ATI has kept a steady pace, this I admit. They've had very successful cards that made me question my choices when building my new systems.

BUT as for the current, I don't want to hear anyone say "Well... Well in benchmarks the 5970 smoked the 480!"

Cause I'm sure some people don't know that the 5970 is JUST like(in build design) as the NVidia GeForce 9800 GX2 (http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_9800_gx2_us.html) in that it has TWO GPU processors and hardware to scale. The GTX 480 is a single GPU unit.

Now knowing this, yeah the 5970 landed high benchmarks on a lot of tests but even though it is overstacked with hardware compared to the 480, it still lost on several tests to the 480. Consult tomshardware for the data on it.

In ATI's defense again though, their cards have been known(lately anyway) to be quieter, use less energy, and are cooler than NVidia's cards while still performing a solid throughput of performance. As well they are always cheaper than NVidia's cards.

So all in all, I think ATI is progressing in a lot of good areas though they seem to "out-perform" in order to "out-brag" Nvidia from time to time, while NVidia has some hardware changes they need to make to offer a more economical solution with better ratings for a cheaper price.

[MrRubix]

a more valid comparison will be the 5970 vs the 485 (or whatever the dual gpu card is here)

[Phynx]

a more valid comparison will be the 5970 vs the 485 (or whatever the dual gpu card is here)

The 485 or "gf100" is still a single-gpu.

As far as I've seen, the only "newest" dual-GPU, single card NVidia has released is the GTX 295.

Corrected - I guess there is speculation? about a dual-gpu GTX 495

[MrRubix]

like i said i wasn't sure which card was dual GPU (I just assumed the 485 -- but it might be labeled a 490 or 495).

The GTX 295 is what I currently own -- it's a dual-GPU card that's about the same as having two GTX 260's in SLI.

[ninjaKIWI]

protip: brand loyalty is kind of stupid and fermi is awful

I mentioned this earlier, but brand superiority tends to run in a cycle, and right now a lot of people are busy laughing at NVidia cards setting houses on fire. ATI is finally getting their **** together. How long will this last? Iunno.

You're right though, fido. ATI's drivers are a total joek and cost the cards a fair amount of performance. They tend to be cheaper to compensate.

Nothing wrong with Fermi so long as you stay away from the 480. My 460 is amazing, never goes above 55 degrees.

I realize that brand loyalty is pretty silly but the only worth while cards that ATI has out right now are the 5850 and the 5870, and even then they're no match in price or performance for cards like the 460.


I'm skeptical of ATI's new products, raving about 4GB memory this, huge upgrade that. Again it's just that, ATI has for the most part had higher "specs" of hardware but had lower specs in performance to NVidia's cards.

I personally think NVidia is just biding time for itself. That or the 480 Fermi cards are again, as always, better than ATI's top of the line.

ATI's cards always get bottlenecked thanks to their terrible drivers. That and dual GPU cards are stupid until PCI-e 3.0 comes out.

The 485 or "gf100" is still a single-gpu.

The GTX480 runs on the gf100 core as well. The 485 isn't synonymous with the gf100.

[MrRubix]

Almost forgot about the driver issues -- I generally find that both ATI and NVidia suck at writing new drivers, lol.

[fido123]

protip: brand loyalty is kind of stupid and fermi is awful

I mentioned this earlier, but brand superiority tends to run in a cycle, and right now a lot of people are busy laughing at NVidia cards setting houses on fire. ATI is finally getting their **** together. How long will this last? Iunno.

I'm not so much loyal to a brand rather than I stick with the brand doing the best at the time. Perhaps I should look into ATI again since it's been quite a while since I've looked into them. I expect AMD to even pull ahead of Intel in the next 4 years cause they're doing work involving putting mobo components on the chip so I've heard.


Almost forgot about the driver issues -- I generally find that both ATI and NVidia suck at writing new drivers, lol.

I've honestly never had a problem with an NVidea driver, and I have a 460GTX which is a fairly new card. Also I know this doesn't matter to most people but the fact NVidea releases Linux drivers personally pushes me towards them cause I don't want to loose functionality to a whole OS.

[MrRubix]

I'm not so much loyal to a brand rather than I stick with the brand doing the best at the time. Perhaps I should look into ATI again since it's been quite a while since I've looked into them. I expect AMD to even pull ahead of Intel in the next 4 years cause they're doing work involving putting mobo components on the chip so I've heard.




I've honestly never had a problem with an NVidea driver, and I have a 460GTX which is a fairly new card. Also I know this doesn't matter to most people but the fact NVidea releases Linux drivers personally pushes me towards them cause I don't want to loose functionality to a whole OS.

I've had a couple issues with the NVidia drivers for my 295's. There was a driver a while back (the 195's? I can't remember the name) -- a WHQL-- that caused some pretty serious damage to people's cards. Luckily I wait to see how a driver affects others before I install, but in general, NVidia's drivers are not without error, either. I find sometimes that my benchmarks start to suck or I experience other issues with graphics, etc. For the most part, though, upgrades are decent.

[ninjaKIWI]

I'm not so much loyal to a brand rather than I stick with the brand doing the best at the time. Perhaps I should look into ATI again since it's been quite a while since I've looked into them. I expect AMD to even pull ahead of Intel in the next 4 years cause they're doing work involving putting mobo components on the chip so I've heard.

LGA 1156 processors already take the responsibilities of the northbridge chipset. To be honest I'm kind of against doing this with CPUs. Let the motherboard be the motherboard and the processor be the processor.

I've honestly never had a problem with an NVidea driver, and I have a 460GTX which is a fairly new card. Also I know this doesn't matter to most people but the fact NVidea releases Linux drivers personally pushes me towards them cause I don't want to loose functionality to a whole OS.

Download MSi Afterburner and overclock your 460 if you haven't already. You should be able to get around the performance of a 470 out of it.

I've had a couple issues with the NVidia drivers for my 295's. There was a driver a while back (the 195's? I can't remember the name) -- a WHQL-- that caused some pretty serious damage to people's cards. Luckily I wait to see how a driver affects others before I install, but in general, NVidia's drivers are not without error, either. I find sometimes that my benchmarks start to suck or I experience other issues with graphics, etc. For the most part, though, upgrades are decent.

I have a feeling that the drivers for dual GPU cards are a bit more complex (Pulling this out of my ass now). Everything's going to have some problems.