DPM77's New Bragging Rights... PC Gaming Rig ; )

[DarkPacMan77]

dude. great job. i have ALOT better idea now of what im getting thanks!

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Dude..thats good thinking. I didn't know about that 90-day step-up program. The only problem is coming up with $60 more dollars. I'll think about it though, that's a really good suggestion. That would be sweet. That means if I did all that, as an estimate, I would only need $130 to get that psu you mentioned a while back and a 8800gt. Thats less then the 8800gt if I got that $20 card instead!

Lemme see what I can sell to gamestop friday...mmm....

What can I say guys? I know my stuff when it comes to computer logic. At first glance you'd probably never think I knew anything about computers, but I know the in's and out's of most everything involving computers. You're both welcome for the suggestions. Let me know what kind of price your upgrade would cost you light_alistor. I knew it was inexpensive for high quality, but I didn't put parts in a cart and check the price... I'm interested in how low it is.

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

I don't feel like finding out all the details myself, so I figured I'd ask, what's the point of the 8-pin cpu power connector on my mobo? I didn't check to see if yours has it (I'm guessing it does since they are pretty close to each other), but is that for like quad core processors or something? Because the only connector I see on the stock psu & the one you suggested to me (I really like that one btw) is a 4-pin :p

My bet is it's for quad cores, but I'm just wondering will I have to worry about inserting a misaligned 4-pin in it?

[DarkPacMan77]

The ATX form factor has had five main power supply designs throughout its lifetime:

* ATX — 20 pin connector (Used through Pentium III and early Athlon XP)
* WTX — 24 pin connector (Pentium II and III, Xeon and Athlon MP)
* AMD GES — 24 pin main connector, 8 pin secondary connector (some dual-processor Athlon)
* EPS12V — 24 pin main connector, 8 pin secondary connector, optional 4 pin tertiary connector (Xeon and Opteron) defined in SSI specification
* ATX12V — 20 pin main connector, 4 pin secondary connector, 8 pin tertiary connector (Pentium 4 and mid/late Athlon XP & Athlon 64)
o ATX12V 1.3 — guidance for the −5 volt feed was removed. This was only used by legacy ISA add-in cards
o ATX12V 2.0 — 20 pin main connector, 4 pin secondary connector (Pentium 4, Core 2 Duo, and Athlon 64 with PCI Express)
o ATX12V 2.1 — One 20-pin connector, one ATX12V 4 pin connector. Many power supply manufacturers include a 4 plus 4 pin, or 8 to 4 pin secondary connector instead, which can also be used as the secondary EPS12V connector.
o ATX12V 2.2 — One 24-pin connector, one ATX12V 4 pin connector. Main Power Connector changed from 20 pin to 24 pin to support PCI-Express requirements.

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

Sooooo.....whats it do? I already knew that atx has had several changes.

Also, I'll ask again, do you know whether or not i will have to worry about a misaligned 4pin connector in an 8pin connector on the board?

[DarkPacMan77]

It will have a clip on one side of the power supply connector. It can only go in one way smoothly. The CPU needs power just as any other parts do. That's what the 8-pin is for.



-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

Dagumit nevermind lol. No sh!T the cpu needs power :p I was just wondering, I've never really noticed many dual cores running off of 8pins instead of 4pins. But if a 4pin is compatible with an 8pin and you don't have to worry about the orientation of the plug then I have no worries.

Anyways I've pretty much opted for this 8400 GS w/ 512mb ram.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814134045

It's not as good as an 8600 but in the end I will still not waste $20 on the ati, and will still be able to use the step-up program. So yea, in the long run I will be spending 20 bucks less And that card isn't to shaby. You think it's a good card for $40?

[DarkPacMan77]

The step-up program is only applicable for graphics cards that are the EVGA brand. This is the EVGA variant of the 8400GS 512mb. It's a little more expensive, but it's better quality. ECS (Elitegroup) isn't known for outstanding quality. That's not to say that they don't make good products, but I wouldn't buy them until I read better things about the company.

I'd personally open up the piggy bank and get $30 more dollars out, and buy this 8600gt instead. Not only is it a good card capable of playing any game (with perhaps lower resolution or medium settings for newer, higher-end titles), it will also be a good $80 effective coupon, allowing you only to need to raise $70-100 for the 8800gt 512mb step-up program within three months.

If you're planning to game on the 8400GS, even something like Bioshock will be a real drag on the system. Screen resolutions would have to be quite low and the effective use as a "gamer card" in a "gamer rig" would be thrown out the window for the most part. For $30 more, the capabilities of your system would dramatically increase. It's worth it.

-DarkPacMan77-

istening to this make me feel like a tota; noob the most ive ever done was upgrade the ram on my laptop but i do plan on getting into more technical stuff

[DarkPacMan77]

lol, don't feel like a noob. For the most part, understanding the evolution of computer parts and technology is as simple as understanding Math, or English etc. It just takes some time understanding things.

-DarkPacMan77-

thx for the clasic " u r not a noob speech" but, if its anything like math then..... forget it

[ace]

Oops. Didn't notice this thread all the way down here. I supposed it's a little to late dpm lol.
But I'm not technically making a "gamer rig" per say, but the 8800GT was just a want of mine that will be bought by the end of the summer (not to say it won't be bought until the end, hey I could find a way to get the money in full for the 8800GT and psu tomorrow for all I know), but playing high end video games is a real plus. I thought of the 8400GS just as a plus, and I really liked the 512mb on board ram. I had the money, but not the money for anything more.

But my supplies are in the mail. I know ecs isn't know very well, but I mean all the comments seemed excellent, so when I receive the card I will let yall know how it is. For all we know, it could be quite a good card for the price and the architecture. But here it is, not to bad for under $400. I plan on upgrading it further throughout the summer though when I actually have a job

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wi ... ID=6624565

The only change to the previous list is the video card. It's a possibility that I will receive the pieces by friday, or not. But from the products I have ordered newegg is great on shipping Also, what you think of this card dpm?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150304
I was like wow a 9600GT for only $140? Bleh, what do I know about video cards though.

@DracoDarco
At least your willing to learn :p Like dpm said, it's really simple. Just read a lot, and well it should be simple. But like anything else, if you don't enjoy it then you will probably have a hard time learning. Your not a noob because if you were you would've posted something like "Well I have a 100000GT with 10gb of ram! and 5 pci-e 5.0 slots!".

[DarkPacMan77]

The 9600gt is cheaper than the 8800gt b/c it's worse, but it's still a very nice card. There was a video review on youtube done by "TigerDirectReview" or something like that... they have a ton of videos, anyways, it was a very descriptive review of the card... and the box.

That card should work fine though. I wouldn't try overclocking it, just because it's ECS. Also, you can't use the 90-day step-up program, so if you wanted to get a 8800gt, you need to come up with the money in-full now. It would be interesting to compare the 512mb 8400gs to the 256mb 7600gt of last generation. I think the 7600gt might have an edge on it... but the 8400 offers direct x 10. Definitely let me know how it performs. What kinds of games do you have to play on the computer right now? Using fraps (or sometimes there's a debug or system console to see this) you can see the frames per second in-game.

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

I did some research on it during school, and the 9600gt really disappointed me.

Right now I mostly just play simple games like WoW (haven't a while), BF2, Halo pc, FF XI, UT2004, and a few others. They aren't resource intensive games by far, but I plan to get more into pc gaming eventually. I occasionally play oblivion (believe it or not, I can play it on pretty low settings on my computer without much lag other then cutscenes), but I guess because of the computer I have now I just haven't really gotten into pc gaming. More into consoles.

I also have already had fraps installed since I got this computer Mostly for easy screenshots of my "famous" halo pc mods. But I will definitely let you know how it performs. I also looked for a short period at the 7600gt's, and decided to go with the 8400gs for the dx10. Meh, even if I have to pay for the 800GT in full I don't care, I need to work more often anyways. I can also download the cod4 demo, and demos of other fps's like that and see how it at least performs on the demos for simplicity.

It will have a clip on one side of the power supply connector. It can only go in one way smoothly. The CPU needs power just as any other parts do. That's what the 8-pin is for.



-DarkPacMan77-

rofl looks like pacman is eetin a d1k

[BKFraiders7]

Rofl.......It does actually. Thats DPM for ya tho.