Scratch

Yeah It takes a while to build a computer, 2 days at the max. Me and my dad built one over the summer in 2012. We purchased a AMD product for the computer to build it and it came with a free download for DiRT 3 on steam.

Last edited by Shadow36821 (2013-01-19 21:48:56)

Shadow36821 wrote:

Yeah It takes a while to build a computer, 2 days at the max. Me and my dad built one over the summer in 2012. We purchased a AMD product for the computer to build it and it came with a free download for DiRT 3 on steam.

I got parts for Christmas, and it only took me an hour and a half to take the old parts out a a case, put the new parts in, and bootup.

Though it probably helped that I some how got everything hooked up right on the first try (something that you should never expect when building a computer). 

No offense, but how much use are you going to get out of that GPU on Linux? Most intensive games, the most common use for graphics cards, are windows/mac only.   

While I'm here with some BYOPC crowd, can I ask a question? I'm short on funds but want a decent computer. By "short on funds" my budget is approximately $150. For the time being, that's obviously not good enough for a computer; however, I think I could upgrade our broken desktop. Would a somewhat old Core2Quad be suitable for gaming, when combined with a relatively cheap GPU? The HDD crashed and the system is currently gathering dust. If I could possibly replace the HDD and get a relatively cheap GPU (and maybe, if I have enough funds, a RAM upgrade) I could have a decent machine until I have enough money to replace the Motherboard and CPU.

fire219 wrote:

16Skittles wrote:

No offense, but how much use are you going to get out of that GPU on Linux? Most intensive games, the most common use for graphics cards, are windows/mac only.   

While I'm here with some BYOPC crowd, can I ask a question? I'm short on funds but want a decent computer. By "short on funds" my budget is approximately $150. For the time being, that's obviously not good enough for a computer; however, I think I could upgrade our broken desktop. Would a somewhat old Core2Quad be suitable for gaming, when combined with a relatively cheap GPU? The HDD crashed and the system is currently gathering dust. If I could possibly replace the HDD and get a relatively cheap GPU (and maybe, if I have enough funds, a RAM upgrade) I could have a decent machine until I have enough money to replace the Motherboard and CPU.

A Core 2 Quad would be ok for gaming (assuming you don't want to play Far Cry 3). Whether or not you could get a decent GPU for a good price depends on the motherboard. If you can get the make and model of it, I can help you further with that.

And old computer like that probably has an IDE HDD connection, which means you're stuck with outdated drives. It may also have an outdated PCI connection.

Core2Quad is pretty good, but I'm pretty sure an i3 would be faster, although you might not have the right cpu socket.

jji7skyline wrote:

fire219 wrote:

16Skittles wrote:

No offense, but how much use are you going to get out of that GPU on Linux? Most intensive games, the most common use for graphics cards, are windows/mac only.   

While I'm here with some BYOPC crowd, can I ask a question? I'm short on funds but want a decent computer. By "short on funds" my budget is approximately $150. For the time being, that's obviously not good enough for a computer; however, I think I could upgrade our broken desktop. Would a somewhat old Core2Quad be suitable for gaming, when combined with a relatively cheap GPU? The HDD crashed and the system is currently gathering dust. If I could possibly replace the HDD and get a relatively cheap GPU (and maybe, if I have enough funds, a RAM upgrade) I could have a decent machine until I have enough money to replace the Motherboard and CPU.

A Core 2 Quad would be ok for gaming (assuming you don't want to play Far Cry 3). Whether or not you could get a decent GPU for a good price depends on the motherboard. If you can get the make and model of it, I can help you further with that.

And old computer like that probably has an IDE HDD connection, which means you're stuck with outdated drives. It may also have an outdated PCI connection.

Core2Quad is pretty good, but I'm pretty sure an i3 would be faster, although you might not have the right cpu socket.

My Athlon X2 system (the one that had liquid cooling) was from about 2006 (early Core 2 Duo/Quad era). It had IDE connections, but it also had SATA II and PCI-e 1.0 (2.1 with a beta BIOS version).

Harakou's right, there are not any i3/5/7 CPUs that will fit in the Core 2 Quad socket (LGA775).

16Skittles wrote:

Thanks for the help, guys. I'm pretty sure there are SATA connectors on the motherboard, so that shouldn't be a problem. As for CPU upgrades, I can't afford one right now but even if I could I'd wait until the release of Haswell. As for my needs, nearly all of my gaming is based on the source engine, which is far from state-of-the-art now in 2013. All of these have been playable with Intel HD 4000 (Ivy Bridge Integrated Graphics) but the ability to squeeze out more performance is always a good thing. 

@harakou: looks like the 6770 should definitely be sufficient, but in order to fit into my budget an HDD I am drop back a generation to the 6670.

That's not exactly a gaming GPU, but it can probably do a few hundred FPS on anything Source-based. 

So... I'm looking around, and I think it's quite possible that I'll be able to put this together with my funds. On Newegg there's a deal for a $15 rebate on the MSI Radeon 6670 bringing it down to $50, a HDD for $65, and 8GB of RAM for $45. This fits into my budget for upgrade of $150. I will have to ensure compatibility before a purchase though. I'll see if I can find a disc laying around, there should be Vista reinstall discs I can use until I can afford a Windows 7 upgrade. Not my first preference, but 64-bit instead of the known 32-bit XP Pro install discs. Of course it will probably also be dual-booted with multiple forms of Linux.

16Skittles wrote:

So... I'm looking around, and I think it's quite possible that I'll be able to put this together with my funds. On Newegg there's a deal for a $15 rebate on the MSI Radeon 6670 bringing it down to $50, a HDD for $65, and 8GB of RAM for $45. This fits into my budget for upgrade of $150. I will have to ensure compatibility before a purchase though. I'll see if I can find a disc laying around, there should be Vista reinstall discs I can use until I can afford a Windows 7 upgrade. Not my first preference, but 64-bit instead of the known 32-bit XP Pro install discs. Of course it will probably also be dual-booted with multiple forms of Linux.

You could save another $5 (and an extra $5 on the rebate) with this. There are some people that will tell you horror stories about Seagate drives, but in reality they aren't really any less reliable than any other brand.

fire219 wrote:

16Skittles wrote:

Thanks for the help, guys. I'm pretty sure there are SATA connectors on the motherboard, so that shouldn't be a problem. As for CPU upgrades, I can't afford one right now but even if I could I'd wait until the release of Haswell. As for my needs, nearly all of my gaming is based on the source engine, which is far from state-of-the-art now in 2013. All of these have been playable with Intel HD 4000 (Ivy Bridge Integrated Graphics) but the ability to squeeze out more performance is always a good thing. 

@harakou: looks like the 6770 should definitely be sufficient, but in order to fit into my budget an HDD I am drop back a generation to the 6670.

That's not exactly a gaming GPU, but it can probably do a few hundred FPS on anything Source-based. 

Honestly, does anybody really notice FPS changes beyond, say, 60? In the movies they film at 24!

fire219 wrote:

Usually not, because normal monitors and TVs can't do higher than 85Hz/FPS refresh. Some high-end ones can though.

16Skittles wrote:

So... I'm looking around, and I think it's quite possible that I'll be able to put this together with my funds. On Newegg there's a deal for a $15 rebate on the MSI Radeon 6670 bringing it down to $50, a HDD for $65, and 8GB of RAM for $45. This fits into my budget for upgrade of $150. I will have to ensure compatibility before a purchase though. I'll see if I can find a disc laying around, there should be Vista reinstall discs I can use until I can afford a Windows 7 upgrade. Not my first preference, but 64-bit instead of the known 32-bit XP Pro install discs. Of course it will probably also be dual-booted with multiple forms of Linux.

Nice! I'd say that if you're just playing Source games, that should suit you just fine. 

Snowdrift wrote:

fire219 wrote:

Snowdrift wrote:

That falls under the high-end category. The NTSC standard (standard for american TVs) says 60Hz, and manufacturers rarely go above what is expected of them.


Though NTSC is only 640x480, most HDTVs are 60Hz too (tho they are slowly switching to 120 and 240).

that may be true for tv's but not really monitors, I had an old Gateway CRT that could do 85

Oh right, PC CRTs were 85. Modern LCD and LED monitors are 60 for the most part though.