The Desktop PC Building Thread

Thought my HDD failed and was getting ready to pull the trigger on an SSD but then tried changing some BIOS settings along with switching the SATA port and that seems to have done the trick.

It's been 2.5 years since I built this rig. Will probably be looking to upgrade come Dec/Jan and move this system into an HTPC case, underclock and undervolt it, along with a TB or two of HDD space. Will need a new video card with HDMI out and will just give this 8800gts 512 to my brother. He will need something to play Diablo 3 decently.

Honestly, the HD 5850 prices haven't moved in 9 months; either a new card will come out at the same price point or it will be discounted due to increased competition from nVidia sometime in the near future. But then you may always be waiting for the "right time"...

Fair point. I could always get something cheaper now and grab a 5850 when the price drops and stick it into crossfire, though?

Originally Posted by JD_May

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Fair point. I could always get something cheaper now and grab a 5850 when the price drops and stick it into crossfire, though?

I wouldn't want to crossfire different cards...

Originally Posted by whiteslashasian

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Honestly, the HD 5850 prices haven't moved in 9 months; either a new card will come out at the same price point or it will be discounted due to increased competition from nVidia sometime in the near future. But then you may always be waiting for the "right time"...

Yeah, what gives? I figured prices would start dropping on the HD5850 once the nVidia Fermi cards hit the market but nothing has really moved on the 5850. I was hoping to get a second one sometime down the road but it's been 10 months since I bought my 5850 and no price movement at all.

If anything, it looks like nVidia have been dropping prices like mad. GTX 465 can be had for less than $200 USD after rebates.

I got a 5750 recently but it doesn't cut it for me in bad company 2 so i'm thinking of getting a 5850. I usually buy radeon but if there are better nvidia options will anyone care to share? btw, anyone interested in a near new HIS 5750?

Originally Posted by Althis

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I got a 5750 recently but it doesn't cut it for me in bad company 2 so i'm thinking of getting a 5850. I usually buy radeon but if there are better nvidia options will anyone care to share?


btw, anyone interested in a near new HIS 5750?

Tom's Hardware does monthly reviews of video cards at different price points. I tend to check there first.

Are you sure the 5750 is holding your performance back on BFBC2? I'm running an 8800gts 512 and get 40-60 fps at 1680x1050 Resolution.

Generally the CPU is the bottleneck for that game. Won't help if you jump up to a 5850 and you're running an e5200...

maybe you're right, i have it at 1600x900 with low settings and it runs passably. maybe it's time to upgrade some other parts i've never really done a lot of upgrading on my computer besides vid card/ram/power supply so i'm a complete noob at picking motherboards and cpus. currently from looking at my system info i have an e5300 and i'm using 4gb of ddr2, is it possible to find a decent motherboard that i can reuse my ram in or should i suck it up and buy new ram would this be a good deal? http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.466068 ideally i'd like to stay under 300$ for the board/cpu but my friend keeps saying that to future proof it i should go with the i5

http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/31...ndows-7-a.html http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/512078.page I did both of these and my lag problems (which were horrendous, and my laptop is more than capable of handling the game on medium settings) disappeared. Haven't been bothered to go back and see which one actually fixed it

Originally Posted by Althis

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maybe you're right, i have it at 1600x900 with low settings and it runs passably. maybe it's time to upgrade some other parts

i've never really done a lot of upgrading on my computer besides vid card/ram/power supply so i'm a complete noob at picking motherboards and cpus. currently from looking at my system info i have an e5300 and i'm using 4gb of ddr2, is it possible to find a decent motherboard that i can reuse my ram in or should i suck it up and buy new ram

would this be a good deal? http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.466068

ideally i'd like to stay under 300$ for the board/cpu but my friend keeps saying that to future proof it i should go with the i5

If you REALLY want to stick with intel, you'd need to go i5-750 at least. At that you can barely afford the chip and mobo, ram will be an extra $80-100 over budget.

Going with AMD you can get a Phenom II 955 (quad), AM3 motherboard, and DDR3 ram for around $300. Forgoing the DDR3 ram you can get an older AM3/AM2+ motherboard which will support both an AM3 CPU (955) and DDR2 ram which will save you $80-100. This will cost you some future-proofing however.

On either system BFBC2 will run beautifully with your 5750. Like 50-60fps solid with all the eye candy turned on.

so basically get this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-808-_-Product

and this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-180-_-Product

and i can reuse my old ram?

That works... or get this for an extra 25 bucks and get DDR3 ram. Slightly more longevity. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131366

i was considering it but when i looked at the prices for the ram i was like

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231311

That is on its way to me, seems fair price. You could just get one stick and it'd be under 100.