Posting my PC, but I have questions too

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CQQLGUY
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Posting my PC, but I have questions too

Post by CQQLGUY »

So awhile back I was talking about a new computer. Paralyzed with indecision I finally picked my build. Hopefully it doesn't catch too much scrutiny here, but I have a question afterwards. I am still waiting on a few parts, but they're in transit.

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE 3.2GHz
Mobo - MSI NF750-G55
RAM - G Skill Ripjaw Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (UPS will deliver 1/13)
Video - EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Superclocked Edition (UPS will deliver 1/13)
PSU - Rosewill RBR1000-M 1000w
Case - RAIDMAX Smilodon ATX-612WEB
CPU Fan - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro

Hopefully I did well. I had a lot of people pushing me to go Intel but A) I like AMD a lot and B)The prices skyrocketed for a quad core Intel (like the i7s). I also was told to go Radeon, but again I really like NVidia. I had a Radeon years ago and hated it every damn day and it just left a sour taste in my mouth. I've had 2 different NVidia cards and loved them.

Anyways, my question is: Are these "gaming hard drives" I see really worth it? I saw a 150g Velociraptor "gaming hard drive" for 170 when I can get a TB for $50 bucks less than that! I mean I game, but how much difference will that make? I have quite a media collection on my computer between movies, games, music etc so lots of storage for a good price is very attractive. Is there an "in-between"? My understanding of drives is that they load the info and then they're done. On a game like TF2 it may buy me a few seconds of loading time, but not really affect the gameplay ... true?

SLI. My mobo says it does hybrid SLI, but I can't find anywhere if I can SLI it with the GTX 260 or if it has to be the same GPU. I was told it did, but saw online the a 9800 GTX and a GTS 250 could be SLI'ed so I don't think that's true. Anyone know for sure?

Last thing. I could only go 4gb of RAM or else I may not have been able to pay my car insurance (half-lol). Is 8 going to do me any good? I have 3 in the system I'm using now and don't think it's ever gotten maxed out.
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Das Forscher
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Re: Posting my PC, but I have questions too

Post by Das Forscher »

CQQLGUY wrote:Anyways, my question is: Are these "gaming hard drives" I see really worth it? I saw a 150g Velociraptor "gaming hard drive" for 170 when I can get a TB for $50 bucks less than that! I mean I game, but how much difference will that make? I have quite a media collection on my computer between movies, games, music etc so lots of storage for a good price is very attractive. Is there an "in-between"? My understanding of drives is that they load the info and then they're done. On a game like TF2 it may buy me a few seconds of loading time, but not really affect the gameplay ... true?
I have used both and it didn't seem to make any difference to me, although I don't really play any games that are total system hogs. The only thing I noticed sped up by running a velociraptor is install times and boot time. But who really gives a shit about that. I am not an expert on hardware but my experience has been that the 10000RPM drives do not give any advantage in gaming.
Last thing. I could only go 4gb of RAM or else I may not have been able to pay my car insurance (half-lol). Is 8 going to do me any good? I have 3 in the system I'm using now and don't think it's ever gotten maxed out.
As far as I know if you are running a 32-bit OS your system will only use a max of 3GB for running applications while the remaining 1GB is reserved for system purposes. If you have a 64-bit OS I think it will recognize and use more than that. Anyway 4GB of high-end RAM is probably all you will need to run current-gen games well. Any gain you would make by having 6GB or 8GB running on 64-bit would probably be negligible and not worth the extra price you pay.

As for SLI - to run Nvidia cards in SLI I believe you are right, they need to be the same GPU. It shouldn't matter if you are running 1 superclocked 260 and 1 regular 260 since the superclocked version just comes overclocked. They are still the same GPU. But I don't think you can run a 9800 with a 250. Never tried SLI personally though.
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CQQLGUY
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Re: Posting my PC, but I have questions too

Post by CQQLGUY »

Das Forscher wrote:
CQQLGUY wrote:Anyways, my question is: Are these "gaming hard drives" I see really worth it? I saw a 150g Velociraptor "gaming hard drive" for 170 when I can get a TB for $50 bucks less than that! I mean I game, but how much difference will that make? I have quite a media collection on my computer between movies, games, music etc so lots of storage for a good price is very attractive. Is there an "in-between"? My understanding of drives is that they load the info and then they're done. On a game like TF2 it may buy me a few seconds of loading time, but not really affect the gameplay ... true?
I have used both and it didn't seem to make any difference to me, although I don't really play any games that are total system hogs. The only thing I noticed sped up by running a velociraptor is install times and boot time. But who really gives a shit about that. I am not an expert on hardware but my experience has been that the 10000RPM drives do not give any advantage in gaming.
Last thing. I could only go 4gb of RAM or else I may not have been able to pay my car insurance (half-lol). Is 8 going to do me any good? I have 3 in the system I'm using now and don't think it's ever gotten maxed out.
As far as I know if you are running a 32-bit OS your system will only use a max of 3GB for running applications while the remaining 1GB is reserved for system purposes. If you have a 64-bit OS I think it will recognize and use more than that. Anyway 4GB of high-end RAM is probably all you will need to run current-gen games well. Any gain you would make by having 6GB or 8GB running on 64-bit would probably be negligible and not worth the extra price you pay.

As for SLI - to run Nvidia cards in SLI I believe you are right, they need to be the same GPU. It shouldn't matter if you are running 1 superclocked 260 and 1 regular 260 since the superclocked version just comes overclocked. They are still the same GPU. But I don't think you can run a 9800 with a 250. Never tried SLI personally though.

Cool cool. Thanks for the feedback!
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Re: Posting my PC, but I have questions too

Post by madmattd »

Looks like a solid system to me. Should run great for you.

RE: 4GB vs. 8GB RAM. I have been running 64-bit Win & since July (RC and then Pro). I started off with 4GB because that is what I put in when I built this comp last Nov (similar reason to yours). I had no issues running everything with 4GB, it never really topped 3GB used despite being an x64 OS. I have the full 8 now as I hit a sale on the RAM a few months back, and honestly, I have noticed no real difference in performance. 4GB is fine for now, wait for a sale down the road to add more, DDR3 RAM is only going to come down more in price.

RE: 10k HDD's. Don't bother. The basic 7200s are just fine unless you are a really extreme gamer. If you want some extra speed, get 2 and stripe them for roughly 2x the R/W speed. The 10ks are insanely expensive as you noted, and don't have the greatest capacity. 1TB drives (7200RPM) are easily found for under $100. I also recently upgraded my RAID array from a mirror to a mirror+stripe, doubling the write speed, but I only notice a performance difference when copying large amounts of data (i.e. backing up the 20-some GB SteamApps folder) or installing a program. Don't think it really even improved TF2's launch time, maybe 2-3 seconds at best.

RE: SLI. What Das said. I don't have SLI running (actually my mobo only does x-Fire, and I have a 9800GT :mrgreen: ), but everything I have seen says they have to be the same GPU, and preferably the same memory size, maybe it is required, I don't recall. Overclocking should not affect it though, again, as Das said. Honestly, I have no issues with the 1 GPU at 1GB, running TF2 at 1680x1050 in windowed mode with most settings maxed, the rest nearly maxed, and I get a solid 40-50 fps in battle. Upwards of 180 in spawn :mrgreen: Yours should perform way better than that even, I would expect.
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Stephen
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Re: Posting my PC, but I have questions too

Post by Stephen »

i didnt feel like reading all the other long posts so. for HDD velcoraptor is nice thats what my previous hdd was its definatly faster then standard 7200rpm hdd but i went from raid0 7200rpm to the velcoripator 10000 there is a gain in performance but not to to much.

Now i went to a intel 80gb gen 2 SSD and theres even more perfomance increase but not like omg fast but definatly fast. Now if i went from a single 7200 to a SSD im sure it would be balls fast but its been awhile for me since i used a 7200RPM drive but i definatly suggest SSD if you have the cash.

BUT if all ur doing is gaming on your pc you would not need a fast hard drive, as your game will be running 95% of the time off your RAM.



Oh i suggest a different case if you havent already bought it, i had that case and i hated it after awhile. the Mobo tray door is usless because your heatsink is gonna hit your psu, so you have to take psu out to even use it. then my front end lights all shorted out because the door cut them on some metal
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Re: Posting my PC, but I have questions too

Post by CQQLGUY »

madmattd wrote:Looks like a solid system to me. Should run great for you.

RE: 4GB vs. 8GB RAM. I have been running 64-bit Win & since July (RC and then Pro). I started off with 4GB because that is what I put in when I built this comp last Nov (similar reason to yours). I had no issues running everything with 4GB, it never really topped 3GB used despite being an x64 OS. I have the full 8 now as I hit a sale on the RAM a few months back, and honestly, I have noticed no real difference in performance. 4GB is fine for now, wait for a sale down the road to add more, DDR3 RAM is only going to come down more in price.

RE: 10k HDD's. Don't bother. The basic 7200s are just fine unless you are a really extreme gamer. If you want some extra speed, get 2 and stripe them for roughly 2x the R/W speed. The 10ks are insanely expensive as you noted, and don't have the greatest capacity. 1TB drives (7200RPM) are easily found for under $100. I also recently upgraded my RAID array from a mirror to a mirror+stripe, doubling the write speed, but I only notice a performance difference when copying large amounts of data (i.e. backing up the 20-some GB SteamApps folder) or installing a program. Don't think it really even improved TF2's launch time, maybe 2-3 seconds at best.

RE: SLI. What Das said. I don't have SLI running (actually my mobo only does x-Fire, and I have a 9800GT :mrgreen: ), but everything I have seen says they have to be the same GPU, and preferably the same memory size, maybe it is required, I don't recall. Overclocking should not affect it though, again, as Das said. Honestly, I have no issues with the 1 GPU at 1GB, running TF2 at 1680x1050 in windowed mode with most settings maxed, the rest nearly maxed, and I get a solid 40-50 fps in battle. Upwards of 180 in spawn :mrgreen: Yours should perform way better than that even, I would expect.
Sounds like what I expected to hear. My knowledge of hard drives isn't the best. I understand the basic concept of RAID, but don't know what mirror/stripe or any of that is, but I expect I will shortly after I Google it. And yeah, I read SLI had to be the same GPU, but I was just thrown off my reading multiple comments saying the 9800GT(X) and the GTS250 would SLI together. Must be similar enough or the people saying it are mistaken. Either way, that's why I went the single, good GPU route.
Stephen wrote: Oh i suggest a different case if you havent already bought it, i had that case and i hated it after awhile. the Mobo tray door is usless because your heatsink is gonna hit your psu, so you have to take psu out to even use it. then my front end lights all shorted out because the door cut them on some metal
=/ I DID already buy the case. Honestly, my heat sink clears the case with about a half inch to spare. I was worried I wouldn't be able to when I first pulled the beast out of the box. As far as the door goes, ... I guess I'll have to be careful. Newegg had it on sale for like $60 after MIR, so if the only issue I have is the lights go out I guess I'll be ok. Thanks for the heads up though. Maybe I can wrap some electrical tape around them so the door doesn't slice them as easily. If not tape, then an adamantium-vibranium alloy.
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