new PC - home build

[Bender]

Got my case, PS, and video card yesterday. Cooler Master Gladiator 600 case, Cooler Master 500w PS, and a 9500 GT video card (I'm not much of a gamer).

can't decide what mobo and processor to get.

Thinking about making it a ubuntu machine too. Save some $ compared to shelling out $105 for win7.

Already know what dvd burner and H-D I want. Just need some help on the mobo/processor choice. I was leaning towards AMD since they seem to be cheaper than Intel combos.

Also, even though I'm not much of a gamer, I sometimes play some older games - HL2, CS source, etc. How do you play them on a linux machine? Haven't ever used wine.

I recently did a build for my son. Total cost around $800 (includes windows 7 OEM). He's a big gamer, so I got him a better video card (9800 GT). He's really happy with it. I want mine to be a lot cheaper. His build was intel.

And how does DVD ripping work under linux? haven't done that either. Have used dvd shrink, dvd decrypter, and a few other under winblows, but never done it under linux.

[popshark86]

it works pretty good on linux

and they have free software to do all that stuff

windows 7 > linux (ubuntu)

linux (ubuntu) > vista

[Bender]

I had vista on a used laptop I bought, but I hated it. so I put ubuntu on it, and I really like it now. Haven't ever used win 7, but I put it on my son's build, and he really likes (so far).

I just hate microsoft, the company...

[baseline bum]

Got my case, PS, and video card yesterday. Cooler Master Gladiator 600 case, Cooler Master 500w PS, and a 9500 GT video card (I'm not much of a gamer).

can't decide what mobo and processor to get.

Thinking about making it a ubuntu machine too. Save some $ compared to shelling out $105 for win7.

Already know what dvd burner and H-D I want. Just need some help on the mobo/processor choice. I was leaning towards AMD since they seem to be cheaper than Intel combos.

Also, even though I'm not much of a gamer, I sometimes play some older games - HL2, CS source, etc. How do you play them on a linux machine? Haven't ever used wine.

I recently did a build for my son. Total cost around $800 (includes windows 7 OEM). He's a big gamer, so I got him a better video card (9800 GT). He's really happy with it. I want mine to be a lot cheaper. His build was intel.

And how does DVD ripping work under linux? haven't done that either. Have used dvd shrink, dvd decrypter, and a few other under winblows, but never done it under linux.

dvdshrink works perfectly for me under WINE in Karmic. You can encode anything to anything using ffmpeg, but it's not the most user-friendly tool. One word of caution though; if you like playing old 8-bit Nintendo games, go for Jaunty instead of Karmic, because the two best NES emulators have a bug that crashes them if you don't mute their sound. Otherwise, Karmic is way better though.

If you do go Linux, make sure to setup VDPAU (hardware-accelerated H.264, XViD, MPEG-2, and a couple of other video formats) if you plan on watching any HD video.

[Bender]

after I get the thing put together, if I put ubuntu on it without windows, I'll probably have a bunch of questions regarding game play and dvd ripping.

I was hoping for some mobo/processor recommendations here. Besides my son's machine that we just did, I haven't put anything together in 6 or 7 years, so I haven't really kept up with the processor technology.

In my son's machine, I put an ASUS P7H55-M Pro board and an intel core i3 530 (total $250 locally) but that's more than I want to pay for my build.

[spursncowboys]

jolicloud is a new os. it's based on ubuntu but i don't think uses sudo. it was rated the most used os for laptops. You should check it out.

[jacobdrj]

I'd go with AMD and Gigabyte. Gigabyte ues SATA6 and USB3... I'd go either with the UD3 or UD4. The UD5 is overkill. 4 gigs of DDR3, and you are golden.

[Cry Havoc]

The Intel I7 core is by far the fastest processor around, if you want speed. AMD is a solid proc but they aren't competing with Intel very well right now. And personally, I'd suggest 8 Gigs of RAM, for future proofing purposes.

[Bender]

yeah, jacobdrj, I'm basically only looking at gigabyte boards...

so far I'm looking at:

GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3

GIGABYTE GA-785GMT-USB3

and at first I was looking at: GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H

I guess I want usb 3, sata 3, e-sata, ddr3

maybe a dumb question, but the case I bought has an e-sata port on front. Does that mean I need an on-board e-sata port? These boards have e-sata ports on the rear, and sata ports on-board...

I'm looking at this processor: newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706)

(only mid-level, I know)


havoc - yeah I was looking at some processor camparos, and the i7 kicked butt on everything else. Over my budget though. I'm coming from an old athlon XP 2800 (this machine) so...

[jacobdrj]

The Intel I7 core is by far the fastest processor around, if you want speed. AMD is a solid proc but they aren't competing with Intel very well right now. And personally, I'd suggest 8 Gigs of RAM, for future proofing purposes.

QFT.

It just seems like Bender is looking to build on a budget. i7 would increase the cost by an order of magnitude and not see tangible gains in his situation. 8gb of RAM is ideal, and does do something for 'future proofing' but if you have to cut costs, buying 4gb now and buying the other 4 later is just fine.

I mean, if you really need raw speed, you should probably put a bunch of cash into Intel SSDs and get at least a motherboard with an Intel ICH10R controller... But that's major major major overkill...

[jacobdrj]

yeah, jacobdrj, I'm basically only looking at gigabyte boards...

so far I'm looking at:

GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3

GIGABYTE GA-785GMT-USB3

and at first I was looking at: GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H

I guess I want usb 3, sata 3, e-sata, ddr3

maybe a dumb question, but the case I bought has an e-sata port on front. Does that mean I need an on-board e-sata port? These boards have e-sata ports on the rear, and sata ports on-board...

I'm looking at this processor: newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706)

(only mid-level, I know)


havoc - yeah I was looking at some processor camparos, and the i7 kicked butt on everything else. Over my budget though. I'm coming from an old athlon XP 2800 (this machine) so...




That processor is excellent at that price point. You don't need the eSATA port to be populated, but if you wanted it to be, you simply plug in the eSATA wire from the case into an unpopulated internal SATA port. The thing is, the eSATA ports have little value unless you have a way to power the external drive. Its great if you are just using a traditional external hard drive with it's own power source, but it gets a bit more tricky if you use something intended to be inside a computer case...

Athlon XP was a hell of a chip back in the day, but pair a brand new 1tb hard drive with an Athlon X4, and you are gonna be shocked at the performance improvement.

[Bender]

yeah that was my question. I wasn't sure if the case's e-sata port gets connected to a regular sata port on the mobo.

maybe with usb3 coming out, I won't really care about e-sata. Will existing usb devices work with usb 3?

[jacobdrj]

They will work, not any better, but they will work. Advantage is that some external devices will be more easily powered. Also, the new usb3 devices have the potential to work faster. sata is still better for data connections. Hopefully, 1 day, we will only need 1 or the other...

[Bender]

I think I may cough up the dough for win 7 on this new machine. My current old machine is XP, so I think I may make that one a linux box - ubuntu.

pros & cons of win7 32 vs 64 bit? I don't care about the RAM limits of 64, I'm only going to have 4GB anyway. I don't use very many windows programs at all anyway, so probably should get 64-bit, since they are the same price.

[DarkReign]

...I am so out of the game....reading this thread just puts that home for me.

[Bender]

for some reason, I've been reminiscing about the first PC I bought. 1985, IBM PC, 2 floppy drives, no hard drive, 64k memory. And a 12" monochrome monitor, and also an Okidata dot-matrix printer. Only $3500.

[TDMVPDPOY]

why dont u just get a use laptop or someshit

how much has this system upgrade cost you already?

[duhoh]

grab an am3 athlon x4. newegg has a 2.6GHz for $100. you could get a phenom II around $50 more

[Bender]

why dont u just get a use laptop or someshit

I've got a nice laptop.

I want to put together a new desktop. It's something I like doing every so often. So, I'm gonna do it.

[jacobdrj]

64 is the OS system of the present and the future. It will allow you to take advantage of some speed gains in some programs, like Photoshop, winrar and some DVD encoders. By no means is it a big deal. There is some issue with compatibility with older hardware and some programs (Microsoft OneNote 2007 is not fully functional in x64 mode, but OneNote 2010 solved that problem).
Just get a retail upgrade and you will have both disks and can switch or install both if you need them. But all my computers are now x64 and all I am waiting for is the official release of Office 2010 so I can use my OneNote+Tablet PC to its full potential.
Also x64 is a bit more secure in terms of password security and virus resistance, for much the same reason Macs have less viruses... At least for now, x64 is the more safe OS...

[Bender]

I have Office 2003 at home, but it's not that important. I just use it for personal crap - mostly excel. However, I use Open Office more.

Guess I'll get the 64-bit OEM disk.

[jacobdrj]

OEM key, I believe, 'mates' to your motherboard. You would not be able to migrate W7 should you change computers. Retail upgrade keys don't have this restriction. If you already own a WXP disk, all you need to do is insert it when prompted in the installation process to let you do a new W7 install. It is only 3 dollars more on Newegg.

[duhoh]

OEM key, I believe, 'mates' to your motherboard. You would not be able to migrate W7 should you change computers. Retail upgrade keys don't have this restriction. If you already own a WXP disk, all you need to do is insert it when prompted in the installation process to let you do a new W7 install. It is only 3 dollars more on Newegg.

true, but as a loophole, you could call MS and say that you had to replace the motherboard. they'll activate an OEM install. :toast

[jacobdrj]

true, but as a loophole, you could call MS and say that you had to replace the motherboard. they'll activate an OEM install. :toast

Good to know. Thanks for the heads up.

[Bender]

OEM key, I believe, 'mates' to your motherboard. You would not be able to migrate W7 should you change computers. Retail upgrade keys don't have this restriction. If you already own a WXP disk, all you need to do is insert it when prompted in the installation process to let you do a new W7 install. It is only 3 dollars more on Newegg.I didn't know that, thanks. hmmm... I didn't even check the price of the retail box for the upgrade edition, you're right - only a few dollars more.

Also, I thought upgrade windows editions check for the previous windows release to exist on the H-D...

If these items are ok I'm going to go ahead and order them:

mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128419)

proc (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706)

ram (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193)

[jacobdrj]

I didn't know that, thanks. hmmm... I didn't even check the price of the retail box for the upgrade edition, you're right - only a few dollars more.

Also, I thought upgrade windows editions check for the previous windows release to exist on the H-D...

If these items are ok I'm going to go ahead and order them:

mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128419)

proc (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706)

ram (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193)
looks good! enjoy your new powerhouse :)

[duhoh]

I didn't know that, thanks. hmmm... I didn't even check the price of the retail box for the upgrade edition, you're right - only a few dollars more.

Also, I thought upgrade windows editions check for the previous windows release to exist on the H-D...

If these items are ok I'm going to go ahead and order them:

mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128419)

proc (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706)

ram (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193)

good luck, and hope you have fun with that. looks solid.