Need help from Computer geeks

[leemajors]

32 bit vista and 32 bit XP cannot recognize more than 3GB RAM. Go 64 bit. Sheeit, if you got a Mac Pro you could run both MacOSX and Vista/XP if you were so inclined.

[Cartman]

Here's the situation. I study cinematography so video editing is bound to be a part of my professional life

A smart person like yourself should know how to buy a PC already.

my 2 cents

[TDMVPDPOY]

Anybody know what is better, one nVidia gtx 280 or two 8800 GT in SLI?

gtx280 is the later model
there is a gtx280+ model coming out soon, its on a new pcb i think...then a gtx380 or some is in the works atm.

[pickle girl]

I hope when your done you post some pics!

[MaNuMaNiAc]

Alright, I've been doing some research and this is the system I plan to buy:

CPU - Intel Q9400 @ stock 2.6ghz
MOBO - Asus Striker II Formula nForce 780i Motherboard
RAM - 2 x 2048 DD2 800 Corsair
GPU - BFG GeForce GTX 280 Video Card - OC Edition, 1GB GDDR3
HardDrive - 2 SATA II 7200 500gb 16mb (Western Digital)
PSU - Silverstone SST-ST70F 700W
CASE - Thermaltake Armor Jr


I figure the CPU + MOBO + GPU will run me around $1000. The RAM will be an extra $120, the two harddrives an extra $140, the Silverstone PSU around $145, and the Thermaltake case around $150. All in all a very acceptable $1555.

[Lance]

I hope your graphics look better than the ones from my 400.00 dollar POS HP

[Horn Tooter]

Alright, I've been doing some research and this is the system I plan to buy:

CPU - Intel Q9400 @ stock 2.6ghz
MOBO - Asus Striker II Formula nForce 780i Motherboard
RAM - 2 x 2048 DD2 800 Corsair
GPU - BFG GeForce GTX 280 Video Card - OC Edition, 1GB GDDR3
HardDrive - 2 SATA II 7200 500gb 16mb (Western Digital)
PSU - Silverstone SST-ST70F 700W
CASE - Thermaltake Armor Jr


I figure the CPU + MOBO + GPU will run me around $1000. The RAM will be an extra $120, the two harddrives an extra $140, the Silverstone PSU around $145, and the Thermaltake case around $150. All in all a very acceptable $1555.

[TDMVPDPOY]

Hey dude if you want some cheap dusts filters, i suggest stealin your gfs/moms stockings and sticky tape it to the air vents mesh

[MaNuMaNiAc]

actually mouse, I was sort of hoping people would comment on the setup I posted and perhaps give one or two ways I could improve on it. Wasn't really trying to toot my horn. Although with the amount of time it took me to save up the money to buy this bad boy I might as well toot away

[Xolotl]

Absolutely do not buy AMD and do buy Core2Duo/Quad/etc if you want to do lots of video editing.

Can you explain why not to purchase an AMD? I usually stick with AMD CPU's but I'm back in the market for a gaming machine, and I haven't been paying too much attention to the AMD vs. Intel. Has AMD falled off when compared to the Intel chips?

[MaNuMaNiAc]

Can you explain why not to purchase an AMD? I usually stick with AMD CPU's but I'm back in the market for a gaming machine, and I haven't been paying too much attention to the AMD vs. Intel. Has AMD falled off when compared to the Intel chips?

From what I've gathered AMD has never been on the same level as intel. Sure you can rationalize cost vs performance and come to the conclusion that AMD offers a better ratio, but if you have the money to spend Intel is the one to buy.

[Xolotl]

From what I've gathered AMD has never been on the same level as intel. Sure you can rationalize cost vs performance and come to the conclusion that AMD offers a better ratio, but if you have the money to spend Intel is the one to buy.

Ok that does make sense b/c the last time I've paid attention to the debate was back when the dual cores first came out, so it's been a while

[MaNuMaNiAc]

Ok that does make sense b/c the last time I've paid attention to the debate was back when the dual cores first came out, so it's been a while

I have heard that AMD responds better to overclocking than Intel though. I do think there are quite a lot of more knowledgeable posters in here than can paint you a much more accurate and informed picture of the difference between the two than I ever could.

[baseline bum]

From what I've gathered AMD has never been on the same level as intel. Sure you can rationalize cost vs performance and come to the conclusion that AMD offers a better ratio, but if you have the money to spend Intel is the one to buy.

AMD for a long time was far better than Intel. From about 2001 until the release of the Core2 architecture, AMD was not only the better buy, but the better CPU too.

I think I jumped the gun a bit on saying that, as I haven't spent much time researching the AMD Phenom CPUs. However, Tom's Hardware's benchmarks have shown Intel's CPUs to be pretty superior to AMDs. When I made that statement above though, I was contrasting Core2Duo to AMD64x2; Core2Duo has much much better integer operations performance, and does not generate nearly as much heat as the AMD64x2.

Anyways, here are a few benchmarks from Tom's Hardware related to video compression and gaming:

time to encode 2 minutes of a Terminator2 DVD using the XViD codec

Unreal Tournament 3 FPS @ 1680x1050

Crysis FPS @ 1680x1050

They all seem to point to Intel's CPUs being pretty superior to AMD's.

Here's another benchmark showing how badly Intel is still killing AMD for performance on integer operations
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/d...media,804.html

[TDMVPDPOY]

I have heard that AMD responds better to overclocking than Intel though. I do think there are quite a lot of more knowledgeable posters in here than can paint you a much more accurate and informed picture of the difference between the two than I ever could.

No man, amd doesnt overclock as well like the intel duo cores or quads.

The only benefit of the amd chips is that its current platform motherboards dont need a new board in case you wanna upgrade to the next amd chips thats coming out soon base on a new architecture but uses the same socket AM2. Unlike intel, where the new chips (nehelam, larrabee or wtf its called) coming out will need new motherboard and ddr3 ram, which will cost you nearly $1000 for 3 components (mobo, ram, cpu).

[TDMVPDPOY]

They all seem to point to Intel's CPUs being pretty superior to AMD's.

Here's another benchmark showing how badly Intel is still killing AMD for performance on integer operations
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/d...media,804.html

I goto tomshardware also for news, but sometimes when you look at there benchmarks its a bit inconsistent, sometimes when they compared both platforms whether its amd + intel or nvidia + ati/amd, one has updated drivers and one has old drivers.

[Ricardo Romo]

actually mouse, I was sort of hoping people would comment on the setup I posted and perhaps give one or two ways I could improve on it. Wasn't really trying to toot my horn. Although with the amount of time it took me to save up the money to buy this bad boy I might as well toot away

Horn is BigZax

[MaNuMaNiAc]

Horn is BigZax

My bad then

[MaNuMaNiAc]

Question, anybody know some good places to buy computer equipment in Houston?

[Cry Havoc]

Alright, I've been doing some research and this is the system I plan to buy:

CPU - Intel Q9400 @ stock 2.6ghz
MOBO - Asus Striker II Formula nForce 780i Motherboard
RAM - 2 x 2048 DD2 800 Corsair
GPU - BFG GeForce GTX 280 Video Card - OC Edition, 1GB GDDR3
HardDrive - 2 SATA II 7200 500gb 16mb (Western Digital)
PSU - Silverstone SST-ST70F 700W
CASE - Thermaltake Armor Jr


I figure the CPU + MOBO + GPU will run me around $1000. The RAM will be an extra $120, the two harddrives an extra $140, the Silverstone PSU around $145, and the Thermaltake case around $150. All in all a very acceptable $1555.

Great system. 1 GTX 280 will destroy twin 8800s. DO NOT BUY 8800s! They have a serious fault in them (up to 60% of the units) that causes them to fail. NVidia has stayed quiet about this, but it's extremely common about 1-2 years after buying the chip.

Just a thought, you might want to change the hard drives. Newegg.com has a 500 GB hard drive with 32 mb of cache for $77.

I'm jealous of that setup! Computers are just crazy powerful these days.

No man, amd doesnt overclock as well like the intel duo cores or quads.

No CPU has EVER overclocked like the Core 2 Duos. A friend of mine took his water cooled 3.0 Ghz Quad Core up to 4.6 Ghz. Insane.

[Xolotl]

Sorry to take you guys off topic in here but thanks for all the info and the link to Tomshardware, I've never heard of it

[TDMVPDPOY]

if ur going for the high end card 280gtx or 4870x2

then your monitor better be a +24inch screen, you will not regret 1900x1200 resolution

[DannyT]

I havent tried to bypass my kvm switch but for some ed up reason my keyboard that I juat replaced last night is having issues with the 1QAZ row of letters....all others work except for that one row. I will plug it stright into the pc tonight to make sure its not something with my kvm but has anyone ever had this issue before or know what its happening...is the keyboard out the box already full of ?

[mouse]

Any updates on this topic?

[TDMVPDPOY]

Any updates on this topic?

hey mouse, i just bought 3x LED 80mm fans 2300rpms for 2buck each...120mm leds are damn expensive....and bought a 4pack cm 120mm generic fans 25buck, and one sob HSF THERMALTAKE ultra 120 fukn enjoying the temps on the cpu and vid going down....

already installed the hsf with 2 120mm (1300rpms) generic fans pushing air into hsf and a 1 120mm generic as an exhausts takin hot air out in the back....got 2 120mm fans waiting to be plugged + 1 80mm led fan also (didnt have any 3pin to 4pin cables, so i can use the 4pin inputs on the motherboard which detects temps, rpm etc....all im using atm is the 4pin connectors from the PSU.... these generic fans suck, but do the job on a budget....need it since summer is just a month away down here....fukn

im overclocking my comp sometime this week.....comp is similar to manus, but i pwned him with the 4870x2 vid card , still on 17inch monitor though ....

with the ty dollar atm? prices for comp parts have gone up, and the new intel chips argggg n nice but damn expensive.....

comp atm
q6600 stock @ 2.4ghz,
sapphire 4870x2,
gb45-ds3 mobo
4gb dd2 6400 ram
vista64
case cm690 + ultra120 hsf

ps. i shouldve bought 1066 ram, wouldve been better if i knew i was going to overclock....aimin for 3.6-3.8ghz system....