Me. I do game recording at 60 fps. It comes out to 3.95 GB for each 1:30-2:00 (thats min:sec). I have 2x 2TB hdd in my case and regularly clean them out to free up spaceultrabiome said:free upgrade from 1 TB. figured it couldn't hurtDirty Hipsters said:.
Mid-range gaming computer specs
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I'd rather have a larger power supply running lower as well for the same reasons.DrOswald said:
It was a free upgrade on the site I was building this off of. That makes total sense. I'll just get a 1 TB, and I already have an external 1.5 TB, so not a big deal.
I'll keep it in mind.
What Nvidia card would you recommend for equivalent performance?
I have a good HD TV. I also have an old CRT monitor that still works fairly well, and I'll pick up a small HD monitor at some point, but I'm also an optical engineer, so your point is understood.
I do, thanks for the tip.
I guess its not the taking apart and rebuilding, its figuring out all of the compatibility and drivers and whatnot. I'm at the point in my life that I'd rather pay to have someone do it right than spend the time to get all of the details right. And I've had issues in the past, which is why I'm going through ibuypower.com (major league gaming's official source). If you can recommend another place to have it built, I'll check it out.
Anyone know the lifetime of the current SSDs? A co-worker of mine (who is a computer engineer) recommended against it for longevity. Is this something that I could easily upgrade into later (even if it means reinstalling windows)?Wolfram23 said:
two that i randomly picked where the chimera and the NZXT guardian. any suggestions?DrOswald said:
This interests me also. Manufacturers tend to be pretty tight-lipped about this part.ultrabiome said:
I wouldn't worry about for an application drive though. The games and the OS usually stay where they are installed.
For enterprise applications where stability (and speed) is more important, engineers have been known to replace cheaper Intel MLC SSDs every 6 to 12 months to be on the safe side. Apparently this is sometimes still considered to be more cost effective than buying the expensive SLCs that last much longer than the consumer hardware.
If it is a free upgrade then it is almost certainly worth it to go for the 2 TB drive. The larger drive slowdown thing really isn't that significant, it might add 5% on to load times compared to a similar smaller drive. I only noticed it because I work with lots of programmers and when they are building our software it takes a long time. 21 or 22 minutes compared to 20 minutes in an otherwise identical computer, for example. You figure 15 programmers, all being paid around $50 an hour or more and waiting an average of 15 extra minutes a day from all the builds they do and you are losing around $50,000 worth in man hours a year to this difference. Not really that significant, but notable.ultrabiome said:
Well, the last gaming PC I designed was a year and a half ago and I haven't looked at gaming quality video cards since so I can't tell you specific parts. Sorry.
madster11 said:
Yeah but not having to deal with catalyst drivers = worth it, imo.
ultrabiome said:
NZXT Switch 810 For The Win.
How so?DrOswald said:
If the OP doesn't overclock his system, he's looking at ~200 watts AT THE WALL in maximum power draw during gaming, i.e. realistic load. He might hit 250 if he does stupid "enthusiast" shit like running 4 instances of Prime95 and Furmark.
The last generation of Radeons has a feature called powertune, which aggressively limits the power draw of the card. In the case of the 7850, that limit is 155w. The Core i5-3870k is rated by Intel as a 77w part, it's common knowledge that Intel is way too conservative with this. A single hard disk, the mainboard/RAM and some fans are maybe adding another 50w of theoretical peak. This system couldn't break 300w in theory.
If he overclocks the i5, he might get it up to 100w. Increasing the powertune limit of the Radeon 7850 might get it up to 200w. So if he primes/furmarks it then, he'd see 350w at worst. We're still looking at power usage where a good 500w PSU will start reach it's peak efficiency.
PSUs are one of those voodoo components where people go all Tim Taylor.
If only there were tools to counteract the effects of hard disk fragmentation...
I've used nVidia and AMD interchangeable, whichever was better priced at the time. Never had a video card fail on me.
So ... maybe the problem is you?
madster11 said:
I figured as much but I wouldn't mind knowing which Nvidia card it is so I can decide for myself.ResonanceSD said:
I've been using Radeon - 5850s in crossfire mind you - for over 2 years and had no issues. AMD drivers are not bad. In fact, I see pretty much as many Nvidia people bitching as I do AMD people on the hardware forums I frequent. They're both putting out good quality stuff. At worst I'd fault AMD for sometimes being slow on updating crossfire support for new games.
As far as a 2TB drive being slower... that's just not true. In fact, the 2TB should be faster as it has high density (less head movement) and more platters (kind of like RAID0). However, it's very important to properly maintain a drive like that. This includes making partitions (Windows/Programs ~100GB, Games ~500GB, Media 1.5TB for example) which keeps programs and important things in the faster part of the drive.
As for a competing Nvidia card to a 7850, you'd be looking at a GTX 570 or maybe a very overclocked GTX 560 Ti. The 7850 is in the same price range as a 560 Ti, and cheaper than the 570, so it is a much better value. Plus, it consumes less power.
As far as a 2TB drive being slower... that's just not true. In fact, the 2TB should be faster as it has high density (less head movement) and more platters (kind of like RAID0). However, it's very important to properly maintain a drive like that. This includes making partitions (Windows/Programs ~100GB, Games ~500GB, Media 1.5TB for example) which keeps programs and important things in the faster part of the drive.
As for a competing Nvidia card to a 7850, you'd be looking at a GTX 570 or maybe a very overclocked GTX 560 Ti. The 7850 is in the same price range as a 560 Ti, and cheaper than the 570, so it is a much better value. Plus, it consumes less power.
I'll tell you what i was told.
Reconsider Building or Buying a new computer until Late-September/Early-October.
DDR4 is supposedly slated to hit commercial markets in September this year.
And when that happens, everything that runs DDR3 technology is going to take a nose dive in price.
by waiting a month or two and keeping up on the DDR4 trends...
you could easily get what we now consider a High-grade computer for generious mid-grade price.
Reconsider Building or Buying a new computer until Late-September/Early-October.
DDR4 is supposedly slated to hit commercial markets in September this year.
And when that happens, everything that runs DDR3 technology is going to take a nose dive in price.
by waiting a month or two and keeping up on the DDR4 trends...
you could easily get what we now consider a High-grade computer for generious mid-grade price.
okay, we'll say it like this thenBENZOOKA said:
DDR4 is a new generation of technology.
It is incompatable with older versions of RAM because it has diffrent timings, size, pins, etc.
this means...
ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard with 3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support and UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131735
That is a AMD MoBo built for gaming.
PCI express 2.0 sockets
SLI/Crossfire compatable
AM3+ socket
3.0 USB sockets.
And it shows as this Motherboard alone costs $240.
... Come september, that motherboard is outdated.
That is because it only utilizes the DDR3 RAM chips, and is incompatable with DDR4.
it goes from a $240 motherboard to a $140 motherboard in the course of a few Weeks.
All because it is no longer 'top of the line'...
It happens all the time, Next generation comes out... you see a huge drop in price on the previous generation. I have seen Nvidia cards go from $200 bucks to less then $100 in less then a week because the Next generation of nvidia came out that week.
I have no idea where you're getting at, changing the subject...Pyro Paul said:
What I meant was, RAM, DDR3 at that, is subjectively cheap right now. There's no reason to wait buying a computer for couple of months only because DDR4 is supposedly coming in. DDR3 prices shouldn't drastically drop right away, and as its price does not play a major part in the budget, it doesn't really matter.
Choosing a socket, then again, is a whole another matter, and should be decided on pretty much right after budget and personal requirements. Naturally it's not wise to jump on a socket that won't offer a solid value for price or is completely outdated. Waiting for the DDR4 wave is worth consideration if you're willing to wait for about three years.
This rig is going to be better than mid-range, and it's still a good choice to go with LGA1155 (i3, i5, i7). LGA1366 (i7, i7extreme, +) has been out for over a year, which could also be the go to socket, as well as the newest, LGA2011 (i7, +) but it's still quite pricey.
It's not smart to buy flagship products, or new tech right away, as their prices are pinnacling. Calling non-DDR4 compatible MOBOs now as already outdated is silly though. And frankly, if you buy and build a very good computer at a given time, it will last for the few years, with perhaps minor (mainly peripheral) upgrades, that it needs to last. Then most of the parts should be changed anyways; mobo, cpu, ram, gpu... So you might as well wait for that point. Then you can build a new one, without in the meanwhile investing on parts that would become obsolete'ish with the new build.
Prices dropping and technology becoming outdated are perhaps some of the most natural phenomenons with computers. And oh, prices don't just drop with varying speeds, they can also increase. Last winter there were some problems with HDD's, manufacturing or deliveries, so their prices increased. Global and national economic situations affect as well. And as a personal example, I bought a 4GB DDR2 kit for a previous build, on a tighter budget. DDR3 had been on retail for few months already. It cost 90 ?. Three or so months later it cost 120 ?, and that didn't drop for a good while.