I bought a new computer!
By
Call Me Awesome,
Posted on: 2010-07-23 18:04 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
I'm not super tech-savvy, but I can tell you what some of the terms mean.
Quote:
SATA stands for Serial ATA. ATA is Advanced Technology Attachment. Sometimes, it's better to keep things as initials. |
Originally Posted by Toe_Tagger
Hard Drive: WD 1TB (32Mb) Sata 2 HDD 7200rpm (<--no idea what that means)
|
Anyway, it lets you transfer data faster, with less wires needed.
The RPM in 7200 RPM is Revolutions Per Minute. The Hard Disk Drive (HDD) contains a stack of platters, and electromagnents read and write the data from and to the platters. In 60 seconds, the platters rotate 360 degress 7,200 times.
Someone waaaaay smarter than I should be around shortly to explain more.
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Biggest Troll on the forums? I'll give you a hint:
See your new video card - that can drive up to six monitors at once.
I'm reasonably sure you're getting 12 gb as 3 4Gb sticks. The I7-960 should be using triple channel memory.
Hard Drive: WD 1TB (32Mb) Sata 2 HDD 7200rpm (<--no idea what that means)
Translation:
WD - Western Digital, the manufacturer.
1TB - 1 Terabyte capacity. 1024 Gigabytes. 1048576 Mb. Lots of room.
32 Mb - Current drives typically have a bit of cache memory set aside to speed things up a bit. You have 32 Mb of it.
SATA 2 - Interface (SATA, the alternates being ATA (or PATA) or SCSI - don't worry about it.)
7200 RPM - Rotation speed. Pretty typical speed. Notebooks tend to run slower (preserving battery life, etc, etc - 5600, IIRC,) and some higher end drives run faster (10,000 RPM.) But this isn't bad at all.
DVR: LG 22X Sata DVD Burner (<--once again nadda clue.)
Translation:
LG - Manufacturer
22x - Speed. Highest they go, IIRC, is 24x.
SATA - same, interface.
DVD - Shiny round disc thing. 
Regular DVD, not Blu-Ray, which would show as BD, typically.
Burner - Can write to said disk.
And yes, a 1000 w power supply should last you. Thermaltake's been around.
1. "Sapphire 5870 Eyeinfinity 6 edition 2GB GDDR5 PCI-e ( apparently this is a pre-built crossfire card, meaning it is like having 2 Radeon HD 5870's from what I'm told?<--comments are more than welcome on this I don't actually know. I told them I wanted the x2 though.."
sorry to say that the 5870 is a single gpu card. the 5970 is the dual gpu. the 2GB GDDR5 is the memory size which should help out on gaming but not as much as if you had the 5970 which costs an arm and a leg if you can find one.
2. "Ram: Corsair dominator 12Gb DDR3 ( I'm pretty sure it's 2 sticks of 6GB but it might be 3 sticks of 4GB)"
if you have a core i7 processor, then you should be running it in triple channel mode which means you need 3 sticks of 4GB for 12GB -or- 6 sticks of 2GB for 12GB which are usually sold in 6GB kits(3 sticks of 2GB). if you have 2 sticks of 6GB, then are running in the slower dual channel mode which core i7 chips can run in but are not optimized for.
3. WD 1TB (32Mb) Sata 2 HDD 7200rpm
"WD" means Western Digital which is the brand name
"1TB" means 1 Terabyte or 1 Billion Bytes. This is hard drive space for your movies, pictures, and music.
"32MB" is the cache memory. Cache is a component that improves performance by transparently storing data such that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere. If requested data is contained in the cache (cache hit), this request can be served by simply reading the cache, which is comparably faster. (wikipedia)
A MILD WARNING - chances are you bought the system from a boutique or other electronic store. They almost never supply computers with dual hard drives. This means that if your hard drive fails you may lose everything you put on it. If you get the chance, install a smaller hard drive, preferably an SSD around 80GB, to hold your operating system, program installs, and pc games then use the 1TB for saves and storage so if anything goes wrong, you wont have to worry about losing any music, pics, vids, or documents saves.
Graphic/Performance wise though will this computer hold up for a couple years? I mean I realize everything seems to be going 3d, at which point I'll give up gaming, but for now I'm hoping to really make this system last. As far as the single graphics card goes, I'm not sure if it's a 2 in 1 sort of deal because I'm pretty sure I read that there was a radeon 5870 x2 crossfire model that was a single card but had the power of 2...but once again I'm not 100% so don't quote me on that >.<
Thank you all for the explanations I'm thinking I'll be buying another hard drive as back up like advised, and possibly a blue ray reading drive. I'm only guessing that within the next year or so computer games will be stored on blu rays, but who knows! I know in about a year or so I'll be buying a new graphics card and processor.
While I got you here to could anyone suggest a reasonably priced HD monitor? between 17-22" if those are even sizes >.>
Quote:
I've never heard of a 6GB stick. Also, your CPU can use triple channel RAM so I would expect 3 identical sticks of 4GB each.|
Originally Posted by Toe_Tagger
Ram: Corsair dominator 12Gb DDR3 ( I'm pretty sure it's 2 sticks of 6GB but it might be 3 sticks of 4GB)
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Overall, that systems looks really good.
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Quote:
I'm using a Samsung XL2370. My Samsung 226BW died while under warranty. Since I would die if I was without a computer, I bought a new monitor while the first one was being repaired.|
Originally Posted by Toe_Tagger
While I got you here to could anyone suggest a reasonably priced HD monitor? between 17-22" if those are even sizes >.>
|
The XL2370 is 23", 16x9 widescreen, full HD (1920x1080). It has LED backlight, 2ms response. It draws 28 watts (vs 55 for my old monitor) and weighs under 8 lbs. It's less than half the thickness of my old monitor and it's beautiful (acrylic frame and base). Also, compared to my old monitor, the view angle is shockingly wide. If you can see the face of the monitor, you can see the image clearly.
I got mine at Best Buy. The model was brand new at the time and not widely available. It's $310 at Best Buy at the moment.
P.S. My old monitor was fixed under warranty at no charge. They even paid the freight both ways. At my office, everyone has a Samsung 19" widescreen.
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Quote:
Sure looks like it. |
Originally Posted by Toe_Tagger
Graphic/Performance wise though will this computer hold up for a couple years?
|
Quote:
| I mean I realize everything seems to be going 3d, at which point I'll give up gaming, |
Quote:
| Thank you all for the explanations I'm thinking I'll be buying another hard drive as back up like advised, and possibly a blue ray reading drive. I'm only guessing that within the next year or so computer games will be stored on blu rays, but who knows! I know in about a year or so I'll be buying a new graphics card and processor. |
(For instance, I didn't buy a CD ROM drive - a blazing fast 2x one >.< - until OS/2 2.1 came out on 30+ floppy disks. Made for a long install. I didn't bother with a DVD drive until more games started coming on DVD as opposed to multiple CDs. I won't put a Blu-ray drive in until either Blu-ray burners (and media!) cost less or games start coming out on it with regularity. I can't think of any that do now, and I'm not buying Blu-ray movies ATM.)
Also, I'd be surprised if you actually bought a new CPU or GPU in a year - two, sure, but even then I'd be surprised if these didn't handle the games and whatnot you're throwing at it.... save needing six cores/twelve threads for something.
Well I'm not the greatest forum jockey so I don't really know how to quote with this new system >.> but thank you ironblade for the suggestion on the monitors and the re-assurance, memphis I laughed pretty hard when you said I had to worry about 3d less than pink tutus in Diablo 3 :P I really hope you're right though! 3d kills my eyes, and I'm pretty sure it does everyone elses to >.>
one thing about the hd monitors, if you want a blu ray movie to have that smooth motion like you see in the stores, you need it to have 120hz refresh rate. that might get expensive for a computer monitor but would be more cost effective in a hd tv.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...879&CatId=5988
for hd gaming these monitors have hdmi inputs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e=&srchInDesc=
Quote:
I've been using a pair of Asus VE-245 24" monitors on my personal machine, one of them replaced a failed Samsung a couple months ago and the other replaced the other (but not failed yet) Samsung a couple days ago.|
Originally Posted by Toe_Tagger
While I got you here to could anyone suggest a reasonably priced HD monitor? between 17-22" if those are even sizes >.>
|
They're $250 at Best Buy, 1920x1080 resolution and look fantastic. If that's a bit rich for you (although from the looks of your new machine it doesn't look like price was a priority consideration) I also have an Asus VE-205 20" monitor that's basically a smaller copy of the 245 for around $150.
I really recommend dual monitors... it doesn't take any time at all to get used to having one program on one monitor while another is on the second.
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i might suggest a external usb hd for backing up, 500 gig is less that 100.00 copy to your drive unhook drive and store ina safe place,if the second drive is internal,if say yougot a nasty virus or power surge it would go bam with the rest of the computer/
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Quote:
Another recommendation for ASUS...I just bought this 20" ASUS monitor from Newegg for $130 and I love it:|
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
I've been using a pair of Asus VE-245 24" monitors on my personal machine, one of them replaced a failed Samsung a couple months ago and the other replaced the other (but not failed yet) Samsung a couple days ago.
They're $250 at Best Buy, 1920x1080 resolution and look fantastic. If that's a bit rich for you (although from the looks of your new machine it doesn't look like price was a priority consideration) I also have an Asus VE-205 20" monitor that's basically a smaller copy of the 245 for around $150. I really recommend dual monitors... it doesn't take any time at all to get used to having one program on one monitor while another is on the second. |
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236073
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Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
Quote:
A slightly older, but still very decent CPU.|
Originally Posted by Toe_Tagger
Processor: Intel i7-930 (2.8GHZ) Socket 1366
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One downside. Socket 1366 is obsolete. That means you don't have much of an upgrade path.
The currently supported socket architecture is Socket 1156
Quote:
| Mother Board: Asus Rampage 3 Extreme Socket 1366 |
Decent board. But, it's an early implementation of SATA3 and USB3. If you use them as such, you'll wind up stealing bandwidth from your video card.
Quote:
| Video Card: Sapphire 5870 Eyeinfinity 6 edition 2GB GDDR5 PCI-e ( apparently this is a pre-built crossfire card, meaning it is like having 2 Radeon HD 5870's from what I'm told?<--comments are more than welcome on this I don't actually know. I told them I wanted the x2 though..) |
However, it's one of the fastest single GPU cards available right now.
What you've got is set for Eyefinity.
Go here to look at your card.
Look at the second picture. You'll notice it doesn't have the conventional "monitor" plugs on the back. It's set up for Mini Display Port.
If you have Display Port-ready monitors, you can drive up to 6 of them at a time. Moreover you could "combine" them into a single display unit.
Here's a link to a video review of Eyefinity.
Don't worry if you don't though. The card you're getting comes with adapters.
2x Mini Display Port to DVI (conventional monitor digital connection)
2x Mini Display Port to Display Port
1x Mini Display Port to HDMI (HD connector you usually find on big screen HDTVs)
Quote:
| Ram: Corsair dominator 12Gb DDR3 ( I'm pretty sure it's 2 sticks of 6GB but it might be 3 sticks of 4GB) |
So you're either 6x 2 Gigabyte sticks or 3x 4 Gigabyte sticks.
Quote:
| Hard Drive: WD 1TB (32Mb) Sata 2 HDD 7200rpm (<--no idea what that means) |
1TB: 1 Terabyte (technically less (909 Gigabytes) because hard drive manufacturers classify 1TB as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes (10 to the 12th). Technically a TB is 1,099,511,627,776 bytes (2 to the 40th).
More info here.
32Mb: (This is wrong, Mb is Megabits). Technically it's MB (Megabytes). That's how much on-drive cache memory the drive has. This cache memory is used to intelligently pre-fetch information from the spinning platters. The reason for this is, the retrieving data directly from the platters is several orders of magnitude slower than the cache memory, which is slower than system memory, which is slower than the memory on the processor or the processor itself. So if the data the CPU needs isn't available in one of these memory locations, it winds up (metaphorically) twiddling it's thumbs for "long" (nanoseconds) periods waiting for the data request to be filled.
SATA2: 2nd Generation SATA.
What's SATA? Ever look into an older computer? Remember the fat ribbon cables? Thats' Parallel ATA (PATA).
It used to be, when they wanted to up the speed of a drive interface, they'd usually opt to increase the number of connectors available to the drive. They did it this way because increasing the signaling speed was tough. They had to keep everything coming across the connector timed just so.
PATA used to come in 40 and 80 lead varieties. Actually the 80-lead variety simply had 40 dead connectors in it to isolate the actual "live" lines from one another and prevent "crosstalk".
SATA got around this by moving to a single set of wires and signalling at very high speed.
PATA is a 40 lane road with everyone going 33, 66, 100, or 133 mph. Sometimes it's an 80 lane road of the same speed, but 40 of the lanes are permanently blocked off for safety.
SATA is a 2 lane road where people are zinging by at 1500 (SATA1), 3000 (SATA2) or 6000 (SATA3) mph.
7200 rpm. This is how fast the platters (spindle) of the hard drive turn (rotations per minute). 7200 rpm is fairly standard now for most hard drives. Older drives, and low-power drives will spin slower. Very high performance drives will spin at 10,000 rpm for SATA or SCSI and 15,000 rpm for SCSI.
Realistically, with the obscenely large caches (up until a few years ago, 8MB of cache was an outrageous amount), the actual spindle speed of a drive is of less importance nowadays unless the drive is heavily taxed.
Quote:
| DVR: LG 22X Sata DVD Burner (<--once again nadda clue.) |
22x: How fast the drive recovers data from the disk compared to the original 1x standard.
DVD 1x = 10.8 Megabits/sec.
DVD 22x = 237.6 Megabits/sec.
Also note that that's 22x only with certain preferred type of media (DVD+ vs DVD-, etc)
Also, the drive will probably read CDs at 48x (vs the original 1x CD standard.
CD 1x = 1.23 Megabits/Sec
CD 48x is actually variable. It reads fastest towards the outer edges of the disk and always spins at a constant velocity.
CD 48x can be up to 59 Megabits/sec. Certain drives used to go up to 72x, but they spun at very low velocities and actually used multiple lasers to retrieve data.
The drive is also a burner. This means you can author your own DVDs (either just data dumps or, with the right software, video).
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| Audio Card: Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI |
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| PowerSupply: Thermaltake TRX-1200M TR2 1000W PSU (<---Word. Sounds cool? ) |
1000 Watt Power Supply Unit (PSU).
Nice big fan in the thing. 140mm. Spins slow but moves LOTS of air fairly quietly.
The PSU is also modular. This means you can hook up ONLY the connectors you need and leave the rest in a box. This cuts down on cable clutter in the case and helps maintain decent airflow throught the case.
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| Case: Cooler Master-Sniper-Mid Tower Case |
That said, Cooler Masters' cases are usually VERY nice. They're a mostly tool-less design. So you can mount the hard drives in shock-resistant trays and put the DVD burner into it's bay and use the bay locks instead of screws. Saves lots of time and aggravation.
The case itself is roomy as heck. So you shouldn't have a problem mounting your video card.
Also, it's got THREE gargantuan 200mm fans for great ventilation and low noise.
Make sure to keep the case clean though. The 200mm fans aren't always easy to come by as replacement parts.
Quote:
| Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
I'm not completely enamoured of Win7. But it's not bad. Should work just fine for you.
Hope this helped clear some things up for you.
Also, if you're looking for decent monitors, give Dell and the Dell Outlet (if you're looking to pick them up in multiples on the cheap) a look-see. Dell's screens aren't "spectacular", but they're not horrific.
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Socket 1366 isn't obsolete. It's not like Intel has released any hex core CPUs on the Socket 1156 platform, it's just a more upscale platform. Both Socket 1156 and Socket 1366 are being phased out over the next 12-18 months by Socket 1155 for mainstream and Socket 2011 for the high end. By then Socket 775 and the Core 2 should be either a memory or the super value platform.
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well if the new socket is released in about 12 months, at first it will cost quite a bit to purchase. right now i would say the computer has enough horsepower for at least 2 years, being on the bleeding edge sometimes is not a good thing. Windows 8 should be out about that time also.
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Early today I made a thread in the players questions guide asking for some help, the general response was that it was a good build. BUT I was told that the -real- tech savy people hang out in these shadowy parts of the forums :P. Anyways I'm posting my specs in hopes of saving future trouble or just to find out things that could help improve this computer....I literally only bought it for Going Rogue and seeing as they switched to ATI I figured I would to
. Also note I'm not very tech savy myself, however I did all the research for my own parts and everything on this list was selected by me -except- the hard drive, dvr, sound card, and power supply. My not so local computer shop that happens to be 8 hours away in the nearest large city helped me out with those...ANYWAYS here are the specs!
. Try and keep it in "average people talk" to save any confusion, but hey if you can't offer a link with an explanation or give one yourself and I'll most likely read it!
Toe Tagger's New Computer:
Processor: Intel i7-930 (2.8GHZ) Socket 1366
Mother Board: Asus Rampage 3 Extreme Socket 1366
Video Card: Sapphire 5870 Eyeinfinity 6 edition 2GB GDDR5 PCI-e ( apparently this is a pre-built crossfire card, meaning it is like having 2 Radeon HD 5870's from what I'm told?<--comments are more than welcome on this I don't actually know. I told them I wanted the x2 though..)
Ram: Corsair dominator 12Gb DDR3 ( I'm pretty sure it's 2 sticks of 6GB but it might be 3 sticks of 4GB)
Hard Drive: WD 1TB (32Mb) Sata 2 HDD 7200rpm (<--no idea what that means)
DVR: LG 22X Sata DVD Burner (<--once again nadda clue.)
Audio Card: Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI
PowerSupply: Thermaltake TRX-1200M TR2 1000W PSU (<---Word. Sounds cool? )
Case: Cooler Master-Sniper-Mid Tower Case
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
That about covers it...So yeah suggestions on what I should be ready for, things I should be looking for, basically any advice to a new owner of a gaming pc