Buying new computer - looking for guidance
By
BlackArua,
Posted on: 2011-03-01 10:26 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
No offense taken, HotFlash. I think, I really hope, it was mostly non-ideal setups without exploring upgrades. (This time I'm pretty sure the growing errors are system-wide, or I might explore upgrades instead of new.) The only time before now I tried to do a "custom build" was ages ago when a local store had a program on-site to pick your requirements (how much RAM, what size HD, etc), and I just selected what sounded good without knowing a thing about the individual parts. That's why I'm putting in so much effort this time as I'm aiming for smooth compatibility. So much so that I've started dreaming about computer stats, even though I still am the ignorant novice. If it lasts just three years, then I'll need to look at my user habits. If it lasts longer, then I'll know for certain my problem was bad planning. That is why I am so very grateful for all the help on these forums. I couldn't imagine better knowledge and patience than everyone here!
newchemicals and Father_Xmas, a big Thank You for the articles! That was exactly what I needed to convince myself and start narrowing down a CPU. I get the message "Sandy Bridge is the best in its class" loud and clear.
Currently the i5-2400 looks the most appealing. But I still don't understand most of the numbers to feel confident. Without overclocking the out-of-box settings would the i5-2500 or i5-2500X maybe be a better match for the GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics card and City Of Heroes Ultra mode? Or is that more of a motherboard issue?
Okay, if you're NEVER planning to overclock, don't burn the extra $30-something bucks on K-marked processors (actually don't burn cash on any of the i5 processors with a letter following the part designation).
On Newegg right now, you can get an i5 2400 (3.1-3.4Ghz) for $194
On Newegg right now, you can get an i5 2500 (3.3-3.7Ghz) for $209
While the speed bump is relatively tiny in comparison, I'd be inclined towards the 2500 if you have an extra $15 rattling around.
Also, check if you have a Microcenter around you. Seriously. Their prices are lower than Newegg by about $15-$20.
You can actually get an i5 2500K (yeah, the K variant) for $199! That's a total no-brainer right there.
Now, some of that price will be made up in tax (the 2500K would come out to about $213 by me). But still.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
I agree, a PC can give many years of useable life, as long as you maintain it and apply upgrades as necessary (and possible). That, and have reasonable expectations of what you can use it for.|
Originally Posted by HotFlash
3 years.....i have gotten my last 2 PC's to give me almost 10 years of life each, thou with major upgrades to ram, video cards and power supplies. I am now on year 2 of my first custom built PC and this one will also go thru upgrades in the future and get me at least 5 more years as the only thing I do not replace is the motherboard, to much of a pain in the butt. Not to be rude, but if a basic PC guy like me can get 10 years out of a PC then you must not be taking good care of your rig or you never got the right setup to begin with and that is why they did not last for you.
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My old PC was built (by me) around 2003, and despite its lowly Athlon XP processor, it served my purposes until fairly recently. In the seven years it served as my primary system, I've upgraded the CPU (from 1900+ to 2600+), sound card (onboard to Audigy 2), DVD burner (several times), memory (several times), video card (several times), and hard drives (multiple times). By the time I was finished with it, it had 2GB of memory, 1TB of disk space (across three drives), and GeForce 7600GT video.
Granted, by today's standards it was hardly a powerhouse. But it was more than adequate for most of what I used it for, including video editing and moderate gaming. About the only thing I wished it did better was games; no way it was going to run the likes of Crysis, for example. But it was great for City of Heroes, pre-Ultra-Mode, anyway.
It wasn't until mid-2010 that I finally broke down and built a new system... and even then, I held on to the old one, running them side-by-side through a KVM switch. I really was in no hurry to transfer everything over to the new PC, since the old one was still useable for most daily tasks. In fact, I only sold the old PC just last week... and considering the shape it was in, it could well run another eight years.
So, yes, a decent PC can be made to last a good, long time.
TargetOne
"If you two don't work this out RIGHT NOW, I'm turning this invasion around and going home!" - Emperor Cole
Congratulations on have a long-lived computer, TargetOne.
What components did you use in your new system built mid-2010? If you had held out to build your new computer until today what, if any, parts would be different?
Thank you for the thoughts on the CPU, Hyperstrike. Sadly there is not a Microcenter around my location. I triple-checked. Pity.
If the Core i5-2500 is a small speed bump for non-overclockers like myself, then the Core i5-2500 it is! (Yes, I got talked into it.)
Next, the Sandy Bridge CPU requires a LGA-1155 motherboard equipped with a 6-series chipset. If I read the guides correctly, the difference between P67 and H67 is the H67 does support processor graphics and only a single x16 slot but no processor overclocking - which seems to line up with my needs so far. I think the MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) fits the requirements for the Core i5-2400 and GeForce GTX 560 Ti, right? Or have I got myself turned around and need to be evaluating P67 options instead?
Also, would the COOLER MASTER RR-B10-212P-G1 CPU cooler from Father_Xmas's $1350 Rig be an ideal match for the Core i5-2400? It looked like it from the description and the huge number of positive reviews.
Thank you everyone for continuing to help me nail down this critical area of CPU/motherboard! I appreciate it so much!
~Yydr
The CPU cooler would be a good match for your cpu. Cooler tempraturers are better and even if you don't really "need" it it should be quieter than the stock cooler..
Quote:
My new PC sports a Phenom II X4 955BE (overclocked to 3.6GHz), Gigabyte motherboard, GeForce GTX 460 1GB video (also overclocked), onboard audio (Realtek), three SATA hard drives (total of 2TB), ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 750W modular power supply, and assorted odds-and-ends in a Cooler Master Elite mid-tower case. Added a Microsoft Comfort Curve keyboard and Razer Deathadder gaming mouse just recently. Still using my old 19-inch Viewsonic CRT for a monitor, hopefully upgrading to a 24-inch LED panel this year.|
Originally Posted by Yydr
Congratulations on have a long-lived computer, TargetOne.
What components did you use in your new system built mid-2010? If you had held out to build your new computer until today what, if any, parts would be different? |
And if I had to do it THIS year instead, I'd probably have gone for one of the new Sandy Bridge Intel CPUs, albiet not a high-end model, and a GTX 560Ti videocard.
Ahh, technology... the perfect moving target, huh?
TargetOne
"If you two don't work this out RIGHT NOW, I'm turning this invasion around and going home!" - Emperor Cole
Thank you very much for the confirmation, Dissolution!
And thank you, TargetOne, for taking the time to describe your current system and what you would do differently. From your choices it reassures that I am still in the right ballpark on trying to figure out the components for a new system.
I've been researching drives, and am currently leaning towards:
SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB (plenty of room for Windows 7 64-bit and City Of Heroes)
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB (many, many times larger than my current memory usage)
Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST (just fine for a CD/DVD player and the occasional backup disk)
Any opinions or suggestions for or against these three?
*** I especially need some help from those who know how to translate all the numbers and features of motherboards to guide my decision of a motherboard, please! I would really, really hate to get good parts only to have them be incompatible or perform poorly because of the motherboard.
Would the MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) fits the requirements for the above three drives plus the Core i5-2400 CPU and GeForce GTX 560 Ti?
I am concerned that the MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) motherboard is either not compatible or not strong enough because the $99.99 price seems too low.
It's inexpensive because its;
A microATX motherboard so no CrossfireX or SLi, only has 4 card slots;
Based around the H67 chipset so no support for the unlocked Sandy Bridge CPUs or additional memory speeds;
Doesn't have premium ports like IEEE 1394. eSATA or digital audio out;
Only allows two sticks of memory;
Only 4 USB 2.0 ports out the back, needed the space for all the video out options (D-Sub, HDMI, DVI);
Doesn't have any extra SATA III ports.
$100 seems about right.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Yydr
Thank you very much for the confirmation, Dissolution!
And thank you, TargetOne, for taking the time to describe your current system and what you would do differently. From your choices it reassures that I am still in the right ballpark on trying to figure out the components for a new system. I've been researching drives, and am currently leaning towards: SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB (plenty of room for Windows 7 64-bit and City Of Heroes) Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB (many, many times larger than my current memory usage) Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST (just fine for a CD/DVD player and the occasional backup disk) Any opinions or suggestions for or against these three? *** I especially need some help from those who know how to translate all the numbers and features of motherboards to guide my decision of a motherboard, please! I would really, really hate to get good parts only to have them be incompatible or perform poorly because of the motherboard. Would the MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) fits the requirements for the above three drives plus the Core i5-2400 CPU and GeForce GTX 560 Ti? I am concerned that the MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) motherboard is either not compatible or not strong enough because the $99.99 price seems too low. |
One question, are you going to be watching any movies on this machine?
If so, I'd suggest spending the extra couple bucks (if that) and get yourself a Blu-Ray drive. Will do all the burning a DVD burner will, will play DVDs, and will play Blu-Ray disks.
As to the board, do yourself a BIG favor, DO NOT buy a Micro-ATX board.
They're VERY cramped and not always the best for putting high-end graphics cards into.
I have a machine with an mATX board that wouldn't accept my old GTX 260 because of the SATA slots in the way. It's now one of my work machines and my home machine is built on a regular ATX board with more space.
If you were going for a compact HTPC or media server I'd say "go ahead". But not for a box you're going to be putting together for any kind of gaming.
As such, that sort of scuttles plans to use an H67 board for the most part, as every H67 board I know of is mATX.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
If you look at that MB Hyper you will see that the SATA ports that would be blocked by a video card are pointing sideways, not up. Only the two that aren't likely to be blocked are pointing up. Manufacturers may be slow but they do eventually learn. Unless they are doing really low end uATX motherboards you find in store PCs, then all bets are off.
Almost convinced my folks yesterday to buy a new "inexpensive" store system so they can finally turn their Pentium II 450MHz PC into a boat anchor. Sadly they didn't go for it. Still rocking Firefox 2 and Windows 98 SE on that beast.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Thank you so very much for your reply, Father_Xmas! Good to know the price is correct for its features. Now to figure out if the features are enough for what I need.
First, more terminology I needed to look up. (Yes, I am that much a beginner.)
Okay, let's see...
No CrossfireX/SLi - That's okay, I will only be using the one GeForce N560GTX-TI graphics card.
No unlocked Sandy Bridge CPUs - Which translates to overclocking, right? Great! Exactly what I wanted! If not, would someone please point me to a webpage I can learn about what locked vs unlocked CPUs are?
No IEEE 1394 - Google makes this sound like something used for TV Tuner cards and the like, correct? If so, I'm good. If not, I might be in trouble because I do like watching lots of online/streamed movies...
No eSATA - Google says this is an external SATA unavailable? I'm okay with that, as long as it can support the internal SSD, HD, and DVD drives.
Only two sticks of memory - Limited, but not a deal-breaker.
Only 4 USB 2.0 ports - Only four in the back is limiting, but again not a deal-breaker.
No extra SATA III ports - Like the eSATA, I'm okay without extras as long as it can support the three SSD, HD, and DVD internal drives.,,
Which... is all secondary if a Micro-ATX board translates to a too-cramped motherboard like you say, Hyperstrike.
But you think the board could still work, Father_Xmas? Even with the large GeForce GTX 560 Ti? And if SATA ports are blocked by the GPU, does that mean the SATA III/Sata 6BG SSD, the SATA 3GB HD, and/or the SATA DVD drives will not be able to connect to their correct slots on the motherboard?
My apologies for the continued questions, but I'm so confused!
Quote:
Nevertheless, I still don't recommend the boards for gaming-oriented systems. If the budget DEMANDS lowest-price then maybe. As a compromise. But not before. Such a board also severely limits his future expansion capabilities which stands in opposition of his desire for system longevity.|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
If you look at that MB Hyper you will see that the SATA ports that would be blocked by a video card are pointing sideways, not up. Only the two that aren't likely to be blocked are pointing up. Manufacturers may be slow but they do eventually learn. Unless they are doing really low end uATX motherboards you find in store PCs, then all bets are off.
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Quote:
| Almost convinced my folks yesterday to buy a new "inexpensive" store system so they can finally turn their Pentium II 450MHz PC into a boat anchor. Sadly they didn't go for it. Still rocking Firefox 2 and Windows 98 SE on that beast. |
She now is the somewhat dubious owner of a 17" Inspiron. She probably should have gotten a 15", since the 17" is a BIT big for her to be lugging around (she's a WHOPPING 4'11" and has some loss of strength in her arms due to decades of RSI in her job as a medical transcriptionist for the entirety of a VERY busy neurosurgery department).
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Don't argue with "Santa"
Its inexpensive because it has to be profitable for them to sell at $100. So unless you have a MB expert look over what was sacrificed to make it $100 its hard to say if its a good buy or not.
The board itself is so small, it only has 6 mounting points. Its not just a micro ATX board, its a small micro ATX board. Most micro ATX boards are the max size to still be called micro ATX. This board is smaller. As was pointed out, Sata ports are poorly placed.
Personally, unless its for a websurfing machine, HTPC or home server I would avoid this MB. Since you plan to stuff a 560 to it, I would highly suggest you consider a full sized board.
The most common mistake by rookie system builders is being cheap with the motherboard and PSU. Those are the most likely parts to break and often the case of, you get what you pay for.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Yydr
Thank you so very much for your reply, Father_Xmas! Good to know the price is correct for its features. Now to figure out if the features are enough for what I need.
First, more terminology I needed to look up. (Yes, I am that much a beginner.) Okay, let's see... No CrossfireX/SLi - That's okay, I will only be using the one GeForce N560GTX-TI graphics card. No unlocked Sandy Bridge CPUs - Which translates to overclocking, right? Great! Exactly what I wanted! If not, would someone please point me to a webpage I can learn about what locked vs unlocked CPUs are? No IEEE 1394 - Google makes this sound like something used for TV Tuner cards and the like, correct? If so, I'm good. If not, I might be in trouble because I do like watching lots of online/streamed movies... No eSATA - Google says this is an external SATA unavailable? I'm okay with that, as long as it can support the internal SSD, HD, and DVD drives. Only two sticks of memory - Limited, but not a deal-breaker. Only 4 USB 2.0 ports - Only four in the back is limiting, but again not a deal-breaker. No extra SATA III ports - Like the eSATA, I'm okay without extras as long as it can support the three SSD, HD, and DVD internal drives.,, Which... is all secondary if a Micro-ATX board translates to a too-cramped motherboard like you say, Hyperstrike. But you think the board could still work, Father_Xmas? Even with the large GeForce GTX 560 Ti? And if SATA ports are blocked by the GPU, does that mean the SATA III/Sata 6BG SSD, the SATA 3GB HD, and/or the SATA DVD drives will not be able to connect to their correct slots on the motherboard? My apologies for the continued questions, but I'm so confused! |
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
Thank you so much, newchemicals. The graphics card not fitting was a big worry.
Okay, avoid H67 motherboards because they are too small. Back to looking at P67 options!
Anyone have a good web article I could review? I'll try re-reading the P67 roundup at tom's hardware, but the conclusions page didn't have a clear favorite, and the rest was pretty over my head.
It is not that they are to small. Your situation is no different than a person with a full size atx motherboard purchasing a 10 inch or longer graphics card. You just need to make sure it fits... not in length but rather if anything is going to be in the way. Just because your card is longer than your motherboard is no reason to purchase a different form/size.
From my phone it is difficult to see but plenty LAN party machines are built the same way. You don't need a super motherboard that gets great reviews for your needs. You need a dependable board.
Sorry side thought remember your case needs enough width to accommodate that cooler also.
Thank you for the motherboard thoughts and reminder to get a big enough case, Dissolution!
After re-reading the Tech Report conclusions, going to go with the Asus P8P67 PRO... as soon as it is in stock again, of course.
Next up... power supply.
Since you're not SLI'ing, something in the 550-600W range should suffice. It's not as if you were overclocking or running SLI. So your power consumption should be relatively modest.
My preference is for the Thermaltake ToughPower line, though Coolermaster makes decent PSUs.
Silverstone are DAMN fine powerplants, but they tend to be on the expendysive side.
Antec is a name a lot of people swear by too.
Note: Stay away from units with 80mm fans. If the fan is ramped up enough to be useful cooling, it's going to be loud as hell. If it's quiet, likely you're slow-cooking your PSU.
Recommend something with either a 120mm or 140mm fan.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Thank you, Hyperstrike. I especially kept an eye out on the fan mm size thanks to your heads-up.
PSU = Math time. I started by manually looking up the power usage of the individual parts (with lots of referencing to Tech Report)...
Processor/CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 (95W-133W)
CPU cooler: COOLER MASTER RR-B10-212P-G1 (????W)
Motherboard: Asus P8P67 PRO (B3) (77W-226W)
Memory: Kingston 8GB DDR3-1333 (NA)
Video Card: GeForce N560GTX-TI (113W-303W)
SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB (0.7W-1.6W)
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB (5.2W-7.5W)
Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST (???W)
... put me in the 300Wmin-675Wmax ballpark.
Next went to the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite as recommended by Father_Xmas. Filling in the options as best I could, it recommended 525W.
Something 750W sounds good with plenty of wiggle room. Time for reviews from AnandTech and Tech Report.
I strongly considered Father_Xmas' Antec TP-750.
However the CORSAIR HX750W has my vote, for its Silver certification and Editor's Choice award.
Any others specific PSU I had better consider (or re-consider) before locking in my choice of CORSAIR HX750W?
(munch, munch, munch) sound of large post being eaten 
I was contrasting that MSI microATX mother board to it's P67 big brother the P67A-GD65.
I'll disagree with the others and say it's not a bad motherboard. It's just very limited in what and how you can upgrade and for a DIYer it's not something they would choose.
Sorry about the over abundance of acronyms. I'll try to turn my difficulty setting down to novice. 
I ran your parts like through the calculator and only got a minimum of 333 watts.
The CPU is rated at 95 watts, the video card at 170 watts so that's 265 watts of primarily 12 volt power. So lets be generous and double that to 530 watts or about 45 amps at 12 volts. Toss in another 75 watts to cover all the other voltages and we are about 600ish watts.
I'm not trying to dissuade you from your choice of PSU, the Corsair is a fine choice, just that 750 watts is far more than what's needed. Actually if push came to shove a very high quality 450 watt PSU could do the deed, 500 watt easily, 550 watt comfortably. But considering the small delta in price, due to all the sales up at NewEgg, there's nothing wrong with your choice.
Oh, and I hate your choice of memory. CAS 9 DDR3-1333, yuck. CAS 7 DDR3-1333 or CAS 9 DDR3-1600 better but more expensive choice. But if you insist on not paying a lot for memory then get something with heat spreaders like this.
This leaves the case and the Microsoft tax (ie a copy of Win 7 64-bit).
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Om-Nom-Nom. The forums eat at least one post/PM a day. Thus why Notepad get such heavy use. Then when the written thoughts go *POOF*, a quick copy-paste gets me on my way again. Thank you very much for writing it out again in novice-speak, Father_Xmas!
Ah, knowing it was a comparison between boards makes much more sense now. Side note: Found a 1394 port on my current computer, so I know what that is now though I can't remember the last time I had something which used that kind of connector. Thank you very much for your thoughts.
When I first started, I wanted something I could go get from Costco that night or the be-all-end-all of mid-priced computers if DIY. Then I scaled back to what would work good now. I think I've ended up at a comfortable midpoint between the two.
And yes, I looked long and hard at the MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) as a larger alternative to the MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) for easier DIY. Especially as (at the time) it was in stock. What tipped the balance was that the technical reviews said it was pretty much like the Asus P8P67 PRO (B3), but Asus did everything a bit better. For me, that was enough to choose Asus over MSI, even though it means another wait for parts to come back in stock.
On the calculator I must have double-entered info. Thanks for taking the time to correct my math. I had almost talked myself into a 850W. Now I'm happier with my selection of the abundant 750W (and its 7-year warranty).
A huge THANK YOU for the memory catch. After looking through the G.SKILL DDR3-1600, I corrected my selection to the G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL.
And finally... a case! Unless I really missing something obvious they are basically about being big enough for the components with good air flow for cooling. Otherwise choices are personal style.
The current components that need to fit inside are...
Processor/CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K
CPU cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 PRO (B3)
Sound Card: (integrated into Motherboard)
Network Card: (integrated into Motherboard)
Memory: G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
Video Card: MSI GeForce N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC
SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB
Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST
Power Supply: CORSAIR HX750W
The choices for a case were narrowed down to three.
In third place is Antec 900. Its main attractors are four cooling fans and all the hugely favorable reviews. Over 4300 happy customers says a lot. Downsides: No air filters; smallest of the three at 18.40" x 8.10" x 19.40".
I confess, the Corsair 600T is VERY appealing, even with the higher price tag. I'm a neat-freak, so all that cable organizing is attractive. I expect the 23.30" x 10.40" x 20.00" size is plenty of room for everything, maybe even a touch too much. And four USB 2.0 up front next to an audio out? Yes, please! I can gladly use all those so I don't have to swap out mobile peripherals. The Tech Report Editor's Choice doesn't hurt, either.
However... once the case is closed on a COOLER MASTER CM 690 II Advanced, I probably wouldn't care about what the inside looked like. I can live with only two USB 2.0 ports up front. But is 20.80" x 8.40" x 20.10" big enough for the large MSI GeForce N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC and COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus on the ASUS P8P67 PRO (B3) as well as all the cabling to still allow healthy airflow?
I'm stuck. (Surprise, surprise.) Especially between the Corsair 600T and COOLER MASTER CM 690 II Advanced.
Any pros, cons, and/or opinions on these three cases?
Your guidance on this last decision would be very appreciated!
For me the Corsair 600T is the way to go. But like you said it is a personal choice... as long as your gear fits and its not a hot box. (and your budget allows) The flexibility of the case is fantastic and should last you through all your future needs.
OK... one more thing as long as its not a noise maker either, you may be surprised how different cases are when it comes to construction.
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I have this case and I love it. While it may be the smallest of the three, it's not too small. I have a relatively tall heatsink (this Zalman) to clear my RAM modules (which are kind of tall) and it fits fine. No clearance issues with my video card (Radeon HD 5850 Toxic edition) either. One of the big selling points of this case is the 220MM fan in the roof of the case. It's very quiet and keeps the system very cool. (I run a quad core at 100% utilization 24/7.)|
Originally Posted by Yydr
In third place is Antec 900. Its main attractors are four cooling fans and all the hugely favorable reviews. Over 4300 happy customers says a lot. Downsides: No air filters; smallest of the three at 18.40" x 8.10" x 19.40".
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The only possible negative for some people might be all those blue LED's. I have the computer in my bedroom and I leave it running 24/7. If it's not going to be in a room where people sleep, or it won't be on during the night, no problem. My solution was to cut the leads on 6 of the 9 LED's. This gives the case a nice blue glow.
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
I've been learning more about the Ultra Mode settings in re-reading je_saist's guide (for the fifth time in two weeks). From the screenshots and info there, it looks like maxing out all the settings is not needed, or even desired.
Mostly I wanted to be able to crank up all the settings without stretching the system because, in theory, then the system would hold up better and longer to the future City Of Hero graphic updates.
But I've come to the conclusion that if I can even get a computer to last three years I'll be lucky. That's how old my last computer was, and, now that I really think about it, the average life span of those before it, too.
So instead of building a leave-everything-in-the-dust computer, I think I'll be a touch more reserved and aim for a box in the ballpark of $1200 US, using the remainder towards another box in three years.
For the next three years the MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti OC 1GB will be my choice. (Yes, it is partly because if I start second guessing that decision now, I'll be lucky to have a new computer by 2012.)
Enough rambling!
Thank you again, everyone! I'm going to combine these new thoughts with what I looked up last night and next tackle the motherboard/CPU.
I humbly request your further input, especially as I'm treading deep water without swimming lessons on this next part. Will you please continue guiding me with your wisdom?
Keeping it Brutal !!!!!!!!