Building a new computer

Toiletduck · Oct 28, 2009

This is my proposed build for a my PC. Gonna be gaming, watching movies, and blasting music.
Aiming to put this all on a mATX and look for a smaller and clean designed case to place this in my living room. Rig is gonna be hooked up to my TV as well as a monitor

Intel i7 920
X58 Mobo
2x ATI HD 4870 1gb
6gb DDR3

30gb OCZ SSD for loading OS & programs
and some other HDD for my movies/music/photos & stuff

How much power do you think this machine will need and does anyone have any case recommendations for me?

Rambo · Oct 28, 2009

Check out AVSforums and silentpcreview for recommendations and advice. Beware noisy parts. Nothing kills a HTPC like a loud ass fan.

Alias · Oct 28, 2009

I was under the impression that the money spent on SSD's can be better spent elsewhere for more performance gains.

coldarchon · Oct 28, 2009

Originally Posted by Toiletduck

30gb OCZ SSD for loading OS & programs
why build a computer if it's just for media and gaming? get a console then. there's no combination in computer parts that will provide the performance of a 7th generation console. and if you still want to use a computer, you will very soon find out less is more. you will laugh on this, but every serious gamer with a lot experience will tell you win98se is the best version for gaming and watching videos. if people tell you you need more, they have been tought by a sales person from a cheap mega-store ..

Originally Posted by Toiletduck

How much power do you think this machine will need and does anyone have any case recommendations for me?
too much. putting it into a cupboard would give it much more style than any case could provide, except an alienware one ..

milosh · Oct 28, 2009

Originally Posted by coldarchon

why build a computer if it's just for media and gaming? get a console then. there's no combination in computer parts that will provide the performance of a 7th generation console. and if you still want to use a computer, you will very soon find out less is more. you will laugh on this, but every serious gamer with a lot experience will tell you win98se is the best version for gaming and watching videos. if people tell you you need more, they have been tought by a sales person from a cheap mega-store ..

chobochobo · Oct 28, 2009

Are you making that up in HK? I'm tempted by the 27" Imac, I saw it the other day, and it's very nice indeedy. It was setup in a shop, right next to the 24" that is my current machine and the monitor is an amazing improvement....

Kent Wang · Oct 28, 2009

Yeah, I was wondering if it was possible to get cheap parts in Hong Kong or the Mainland. Here in the US, there's Newegg and a ton of cheap internet retailers. Though of course most of the stuff is actually made in China to begin with.

Ace Rimmer · Oct 28, 2009

Originally Posted by Toiletduck

Intel i7 920
X58 Mobo
2x ATI HD 4870 1gb
6gb DDR3

Good choice on the CPU; the 920 is probably the best bang for the buck & rich upgrade path CPU in the Intel Core i5/i7 family right now. Also very cheap at $199. Caution: if you intend to overclock it most of the "skyscraper" type CPU coolers for the LGA1366 will be far too large for a microATX case.

Instead of the 4870 series cards, have you considered going with the new HD 5870/5850/5770 cards? They are DX11 compatible (perfect complement to Windows 7) although no games are out yet with DX11.

constant struggle · Oct 28, 2009

Windows 98SE is not good for gaming, it is unstable, and after a few days it needs a restart

Windows XP is best to date

GQgeek · Oct 28, 2009

Originally Posted by Toiletduck

This is my proposed build for a my PC. Gonna be gaming, watching movies, and blasting music.
Aiming to put this all on a mATX and look for a smaller and clean designed case to place this in my living room. Rig is gonna be hooked up to my TV as well as a monitor

Intel i7 920
X58 Mobo
2x ATI HD 4870 1gb
6gb DDR3

30gb OCZ SSD for loading OS & programs
and some other HDD for my movies/music/photos & stuff

How much power do you think this machine will need and does anyone have any case recommendations for me?

Don't get an OCZ SSD, get the Intel X25-M. There is a huge difference in performance. It's also 80GB instead of 32, and can be had for a good price these days. Make sure you get the 34nm version as it's apparently seen significant improvements over the first gen devices (which are still better than ocz).

coldarchon · Oct 28, 2009

Originally Posted by milosh

turboman808 · Oct 28, 2009

Why build a computer at all?

Just get a Popcorn Hour, Xbox360 or PS3. The new popcorn hours functions as a server as well so I have officially gotten rid of all the computers in my house.

Tokyo Slim · Oct 28, 2009

Win 98 for gaming and media? You are kidding right? Win 98 will not play any recent games well, if at all. It will also not support any current hardware. It doesn't have codecs available for most modern digital media, and it will make you partition whatever the max storage space of FAT 32 was on most average HDD's today. So uh. why?

Tokyo Slim · Oct 28, 2009

As to the OP... the HD 4800 series cards run loud and hot. I'd tell you to look at the previously mentioned 4770's they are nearly on par performance wise, about 15-25db quieter, and you might even be able to find some that will fit in a mATX case, which you will struggle to do with the 48XX series; as they usually are double wide cards.

Also, trying to cram all that into a small case will be a real pain. You might consider a single card with passive cooling for that reason alone. If you must have a 48XX card, I'd recommend the HSI 4850 ICEQ. It comes in std and factory oc'ed versions and has a *relatively* quiet fan that works better to dissipate heat than most other 4800 series cards I've seen.

A Y · Oct 28, 2009

I've always found this page on AVS useful:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2#post14239742

Also, a big no on Win98. Get Windows 7 for movie watching and media stuff. Depending on what games you play, you may need a fairly up-to-date OS as well.

--Andre

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