Getting a new computer. Need advice.

[Solid Dreams]

no such thing as enough in hard drive, Bandit.

[Zageron]

Rubix that PC is awesome.
But I would get another GTX 295, and then a Physics card, like a GTX 260.
I would also make sure you get liquid cooling.

[ninjaKIWI]

lol Banditcom, it wasn't a Maxtor was it?

[MrGiggles]

Originally Posted by MrRubix

Mostly people asking if their specs will handle Crysis maxed out.

What those people don't realize is that "running Crysis at max settings" is a silly goal and a sillier benchmark. If it runs it at max settings, great, but there are better benchmarks.

Originally Posted by banditcom

$1500 for the computer (excluding monitor, speakers, mouse, keyboard, external backup HD).

I spent about $900 dollars on a computer (the case and everything in it, no monitor or antyhing) that runs Fallout 3, L4D, and Farcry 2 at maximum settings. Granted, the monitor attatched is only 19", but I think 11-12 grand is more than enough for a computer operating on a larger monitor if you purchase the parts on Newegg. They usually have deals you can take advantage of, too. 1.5k is okay, it's not great cost-efficiency-wise but you don't have to upgrade quite so often which is pleasant and worth it to many. $2000 is just rofl (for gaming) and will get you laughed out of most technology oriented communities.

Originally Posted by Zageron

Rubix that PC is awesome.
But I would get another GTX 295, and then a Physics card, like a GTX 260.
I would also make sure you get liquid cooling.

NO

BAD

PhysX cards are stupid and not worth the cost. It's like buying a car and then sticking a forty foot spoiler made of pure money on it. It's just emptying your wallet for minimal performance gains.

Besides, there are like, 2 games that support PhysX cards enough to matter.

Liquid cooling is also stupid and ricer and COMPLETELY unnecessary. Air cooling is more than adequate for cooling almost 99% of the computers on the planet, and it's much cheaper and less hassle.

[MrRubix]

Originally Posted by MrGiggles

PhysX cards are stupid and not worth the cost. It's like buying a car and then sticking a forty foot spoiler made of pure money on it. It's just emptying your wallet for minimal performance gains.

This made me LOL.

Can I SLI two totally different cards?

[MrGiggles]

Originally Posted by MrRubix

This made me LOL.

Can I SLI two totally different cards?

Nope. SLI only works with 2 IDENTICAL cards. And, most likely, a more powerful PSU, in the 1000 watt range. GPUs eat tons of electricity and spew about as much heat.

[MrRubix]

I hope 400W is enough to handle that system.

Would SLI'ing two of those GeForce 295's or whatever pack a pretty good punch in a few years?

[fido123]

RAM overkill. Also something you might want to consider for speed is having both a normal hardrive, and then an SSHD (Solid State Hard Drive). Will decrease load times by a ton. They're quite expensive so I suggest you get like a 100-250G one and simply put your OS, and games you play often in it. Stuff like music doesn't take much time to load up anyway.

EDIT: Woah 400W will not do that...get AT LEAST 800W

[MrGiggles]

Originally Posted by MrRubix

I hope 400W is enough to handle that system.

Would SLI'ing two of those GeForce 295's or whatever pack a pretty good punch in a few years?

whoa whoa whoa wait

400 watts? For your computer? Absolutely not. A GTX 260 requires 550W MINIMUM. I'm pretty sure your specs said that it had an 800W PSU though, which should be about enough.

One GTX 295 will last you at least half a decade or more before you have to start turning down the default graphics settings. SLIing 295's will buy you another few years, and tri-SLIing another one or two years beyond that, maybe. Unfortunately, they'll also require you to build a case made entirely out of fans or submerged in mineral oil. I'd just replace it entirely after mid-range cards become as powerful as the 295. Then it will be cooler and more friendly towards SLI with the same amount of processing power.

Additionally, one card is more powerful than 2 cards half as powerful in SLI. It's not a perfect system, and you lose a bit of efficiency.

EDIT: An SSD could be helpful. Personally, I'm divided on them because load times don't bother me a ton and they're quite expensive per gigabyte. However, they have been proven to last longer and have SIGNIFICANTLY faster speeds than conventional drives. They'll probably become the market standard in the future, once the technology has advanced some more.

[Zageron]

It all depends on what brand the 400W power supply is.

http://www.seasonic.com/product/pc_atx.jsp

And yeah 400W is too low.
I would go for an 800 personally, but a 650 sounds fine.

And for Liquid cooling vs Air cooling.
It's all preference and knowledge. If you know what you're doing Air cooling will work, but Liquid cooling is way more efficient most of the time... and it's hardly a hassle.

[MrRubix]

Sorry, yes, 800W, my mistake!

And yeah, I figure in the future, if I wanted to get a boost in graphics, I'd just replace the 295 with a better card. It seems like SLI is a good option if I can link two cheaper cards together such that it's of comparable performance to a more expensive card for a cheaper price, but I don't know if this is true or not.

[MrGiggles]

Originally Posted by MrRubix

Sorry, yes, 800W, my mistake!

And yeah, I figure in the future, if I wanted to get a boost in graphics, I'd just replace the 295 with a better card. It seems like SLI is a good option if I can link two cheaper cards together such that it's of comparable performance to a more expensive card for a cheaper price, but I don't know if this is true or not.

Right, it really depends on the way the cards are priced.

As for liquid cooling, it can be fun to experiment with, especially if your case is built to handle water cooling. Additionally, you're almost guaranteed to never overheat unless you spring a leak or something and don't notice, which would make you a Class A retard. Unfortunately, it's still cumbersome and unnecessary since air cooling can cover all of your needs, cheaper and with less extraneous equipment. Plus, you don't really need to know what you're doing since most cases come with sufficient fans already installed.

[fido123]

Originally Posted by MrGiggles

Right, it really depends on the way the cards are priced.

As for liquid cooling, it can be fun to experiment with, especially if your case is built to handle water cooling. Additionally, you're almost guaranteed to never overheat unless you spring a leak or something and don't notice, which would make you a Class A retard. Unfortunately, it's still cumbersome and unnecessary since air cooling can cover all of your needs, cheaper and with less extraneous equipment. Plus, you don't really need to know what you're doing since most cases come with sufficient fans already installed.

First of all they don't leak, you don't even fill them yourself. Also the cooler something runs, the longer it lasts, and water cooling keeps it much better. My high school computer teacher was playing around with it and it runs about 7C colder, which increase longevity of the parts by a couple years.

[MrGiggles]

Originally Posted by fido123

First of all they don't leak, you don't even fill them yourself. Also the cooler something runs, the longer it lasts, and water cooling keeps it much better. My high school computer teacher was playing around with it and it runs about 7C colder, which increase longevity of the parts by a couple years.

Water cooling can leak. Especially if you buy crummy systems with ceramic blocks, those are almost guaranteed to leak eventually. Even if you buy good quality water cooling, **** happens. I've heard a bunch of anecdotes of varying believability on /g/ and Tom's Hardware. 90% of accidents happen because so and so forgot to tighten this or that and then turned their computer on repeatedly after the components got wet. You do have to fill the system up yourself. You need to replace the coolant every year, at the very least.

Luckily, I've heard some water cooling setups doesn't actually use water anymore. They use another fluid that won't wreck all your parts if it does go haywire.

Longevity is increased with water cooling, but if you're planning to maintain the computer, you'll never keep a part for longer than a couple of years anyway. Hard drives, maybe, but air cooling will keep your other parts alive well until after you've replaced them.

[Zageron]

Air cooling is especially effective if you know how to shape air.
If you can get the airflow to be perfect then it's way more efficient.

[MrGiggles]

Originally Posted by Zageron

Air cooling is especially effective if you know how to shape air.
If you can get the airflow to be perfect then it's way more efficient.

Unfortunately, the way my computer is set up some fans (most notably my GPU fan) blow in the opposite direction of the general airflow, which keeps me from playing games with the fans set on anything less than high and raise my idling temps a good couple of degrees. Oops.

But I'd heard that watercooling will bend air cooling over and rape it silly, without exception, in terms of straight up efficiency.

EDIT: Oh wait you meant way more efficient than air cooling where the airflow is ****ed. Like mine. Yeah, if you can manage to turn your case into a wind tunnel you're set.

[MrRubix]

What would the weak points in that system be, if any?

[MrGiggles]

Originally Posted by MrRubix

What would the weak points in that system be, if any?

In terms of cooling? It could be better, but the company that designs and builds that premade will have made sure that it can handle the heat.

If I had to pick out specifics? It looks like it has a 120mm outtake fan in the rear. I can't really see the what's right in front of the HDD's, but it appears to have another 120mm intake fan in the front there. Hopefully it has a dust catching mechanism in front, my last computer died of a dust overdose. That arrangement seems pretty solid for a case that size. The issue that jumps out at me are the side vents. Side vents just plain suck and I don't know why any case has them. They collect dust like hookers collect diseases and they hurt the overall front-to-back airflow.

EDIT: Uh, it looks kind of like the side vents are outtake vents for the CPU fan. That removes the dust issue but it still interrupts airflow. Not as much as if they were intakes, but still.

In terms of bottlenecks, I don't see any. The HDD, maybe? But that's minor. I don't think there's many things out there that will redline any of your components yet, so it's tough to tell.

[Zageron]

If your into fast then you could get a SSD. That would improve your speeds by a lot.
(Faster load times, faster windows bootup, faster file access etc...)

[Solid Dreams]

Water cooling also gets algae in it.