PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Senji]

btw whenever 2600s come up in builds it's usually noted that they aren't all that worthwhile over an i5-2500k unless you're doing a lot of video editing if you weren't aware

e-peen/psychological problems/keeping with the jones'/its only money/etc

Same with ram/psu wattage

[Boyiee]

e-peen/psychological problems/keeping with the jones'/its only money/etc

Same with ram/psu wattage

pretty much. You'll see a lot of people mention the "2600" club on this forum, even though sandybridge is a sidegrade and for gaming not much of a gain if any over the i7-900 series.

[Arkanna]

Sandy Bridge made gains over Bloomfield in ways other than just performance, though. I will agree with Caiyuo, favoring i7-2600k over i5-2500k is mostly an e-peen thing.

[avelle]

But I totally needed that 2600k to speed up my compiler! Or something. I don't know how I ended up justifying it in the end, but either way I am immensely enjoying the new build.

As far as Bloomfield vs Sandy, I think it's hilarious that my Noctua cooled 2600k @ 4.5ghz runs cooler than my old i7 920 @ stock. Granted my 920 rig was using the stock cooler, but still. I really expected the new chip to run far hotter than it does.

[Arkanna]

I didn't justify my 2600k at all, I bought it because I wanted it. And much like you Avelle, I'm enjoying it immensely.

[jmc]

Throwing this out there for those that are building new PC's.

Guess microcenter is having a "not advertised" sale on processors and motherboards. Was building a new desktop for a friend, with a i5 2500k and a $180 MSI board (forgot model number). Checked out, and got 50% off the motherboard, because I bought the processor with it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk

[madpersian]

Damn. That would have been a nice sale. I ended up spending $140 on a gigabyte MB with tr i5 2500k.

[tyven]

Throwing this out there for those that are building new PC's.

Guess microcenter is having a "not advertised" sale on processors and motherboards. Was building a new desktop for a friend, with a i5 2500k and a $180 MSI board (forgot model number). Checked out, and got 50% off the motherboard, because I bought the processor with it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk

gdi i bought an i5 from them last friday and still need a mobo. OH NOOOOO. maybe i will go holler at them today and ask if i can still get the deal.

[Misuicide]

Anyone know about upgrading a Laptop video card? Mine has an Radeon HD4200 in it, I just want something a little stronger, I'm not really sure what my laptop can handle. That way when I travel or whatever I can actually play a game on my laptop. lol. I've looked on newegg and stuff, and i can't find just laptop video cards.

[Arkanna]

Anyone know about upgrading a Laptop video card? Mine has an Radeon HD4200 in it, I just want something a little stronger, I'm not really sure what my laptop can handle. That way when I travel or whatever I can actually play a game on my laptop. lol. I've looked on newegg and stuff, and i can't find just laptop video cards.

That's because you typically can't upgrade them.

[TacoTaru]

I'm sure the answer to this is yes, but I'm just making sure. When running a Crossfire/SLI setup, do you have to use the same card twice? I'm probably going to end up doing an SLI setup on both mine and my wife's computer once FFXIV is reoptimized so we can guarantee the best performance with highest settings.

[Misuicide]

That's because you typically can't upgrade them.

Oh really? that's a shame, thanks for the info though :D

[Arkanna]

If it was at one point a premium "gamer" laptop, it's possible that you can upgrade it. But, don't count on it otherwise.

[Purrrfect]

Actually, no it doesn't. The H67 chipset itself does not, it's not just the motherboard. You'll need either a P67 or a Z68 motherboard for overclocking.

If I were looking at a 2500k, what would be the reason to pick a z68 over a p67?

[Asai]

I'm sure the answer to this is yes, but I'm just making sure. When running a Crossfire/SLI setup, do you have to use the same card twice? I'm probably going to end up doing an SLI setup on both mine and my wife's computer once FFXIV is reoptimized so we can guarantee the best performance with highest settings.

Not always. Some radeon cards can crossfire with different radeon cards. Also some radeon cards can hybrid crossfire with the on-board graphics.

[Arkanna]

If I were looking at a 2500k, what would be the reason to pick a z68 over a p67?

Nothing really. Z68 incorporates features that used to be separated (H67 could use onboard video while P67 could not, and P67 could overclock while H67 could not) and has other features simply due to being newer. Those features are;

Quick Sync - a video transcoding technology that leverages strengths of the Sandy Bridge architecture to encode video faster.

Lucid Virtu - a technology that allows you to make use of both the onboard video and a discrete graphics card at the same time. Goes hand-in-hand with Quick Sync, because you cannot use Quick Sync with a discrete card without also using Lucid Virtu. IMO, this tech had potential because I assumed it would be able to switch off the discrete graphics card when it's not needed to save on electricity, but this is NOT currently the case. Maybe in the future, but not now.

Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) - this tech allows you to install an SSD in your machine and use it, along with a hard drive, in a hybrid setup where your PC will cache frequently-used data on the SSD. Not a terribly great technology because number 1, the cache size is limited to 60GB no matter how big the SSD is, and number 2, chances are if you own a nice SSD, you're going to want to use it to its fullest as a main boot drive.

Long story short, you're not going to lose much if you choose a P67 board over a Z68 board (unless you want to use Sandy Bridge's integrated graphics, which P67 cannot do).

[warbandit]

Think im posting on right spot, need help since i never build 1 pc but from various store friends etc this what i got, tks for help

CPU INTEL I7 3,4 (8cores)-(check amd phenom II X6 1090T black edition thuban. 3.2 ghz socket am3 125w )
Box ATX NOX BLAZE(check full tower)
Motherboard ASUS P8H67-M
Hard drive SATA 500gb
Memory RAM 4GB DDR3 1333 (check 8 ram single)
Grafic Card Nvidia GTX5600
FONTE DE ALIMENTAÇÃO XFX 650W
SISTEMA OPERATIVO WINDOWS 7 ultimate edition 64BITS
DRIVE OPTICA DVDRW

[Asai]

I see you guys talking about motherboards and I have to ask, whats the best deal on a mobo for a 2600k? I've found a good one but it's 200 bucks: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...935&CatId=7212

However, I see way cheaper boards and am wondering what's the "cut-off" point where I start losing too much performance for it to not be worth the cheaper price?

Two cheaper examples, one 132 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131706 and one 89 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131713

[Jojimbo]

Best to look up reviews for them I think. Generally cheaper boards will have less features (SATA/USB3 ports, BIOS features), will attain lower stable OCs, not support as fast RAM, have less/slower PCI-e slots, be made out of cheaper components, have less/worse heatsinks on those components etc

[Arkanna]

My top pick for a motherboard for a 2600k is the ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z. It's a Z68 board with all the bells and whistles and is made by one of the top manufacturers. It can do SLI/CrossfireX with two cards, but no more than two because the board itself is MicroATX (that is its ONLY drawback). This board has gotten some of the best overclocking results as well, and it's $170 on Newegg. I'm pretty sure it has been on sale for less a few times and has been a part of some CPU/mobo combos and whatnot also.

Oh I should mention, the onboard X-Fi audio is NOT a Creative chip, it's just a Realtek chip with some Creative X-Fi software. So yeah, that's a drawback, but not really because other boards only have Realtek also, so it's more an issue of false advertising than an actual drawback.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131759