The PC Snobbery Thread

[Favelle]

According to the benchmarks I have seen, it is a tad slower than the i7-2600k to about the same speed (differing from one software to the other). It has the added benefit of having 8 physical cores, though.

My new blog just went online, btw.

http://www.gamepodunk.com/blog/112/e...cing-revealed/

I can't see it debuting @ $320 and being slower than a 2600K which is only $289....AMD would be crazy...!

[Favelle]

Are there any good places one can find physical copies of used PC games in reasonable abundance? I know of one store in my state that does just that (Bookman's), but I'd like to find more places. I know gamestop sells some used PC games, but they're more discriminatory about what they sell, thus their selection sux.

I'd like to find some Silent Hill PC games on the cheap, for example.

I've had luck with eBay for old games with boxes and booklets and stuff....if you hunt, you will find.

[Badger3920]

I can't see it debuting @ $320 and being slower than a 2600K which is only $289....AMD would be crazy...!

Yeah, I've seen a lot of speculation and discussion about benchmarks similar to what Blinx is quoting. What merits those results have is anyone's guess. AMD either needs a chip that easily outdoes the 2600k, or they're going to have to compete on price. I think most people would think Bulldozer = fail if, after all this time, it basically just equals the 2600k and barely competes on price. That would be a lot of wasted excitement.

Personally, I hope bulldozer comes out swinging and does a great job in the benchmarks. This sort of competition would benefit all of us.

[brandoshido]

I built my first pc. Is mainly for PC games and cpu heavy emulators. I must say, it was exciting to see my work come to fruition and I really want to build another. Too bad the ones I wanna build are all pricey beast machines.

[Badger3920]

Missed the parentheses? I said it's small compared to the Raven and the ATCS 840. Which it most definitely is.

Personally, I'd like to go for a really big case. One that can house multiple HDDs (3-4), SSDs (1 or 2), one or two Blu-Ray drives (one set to Region 1 and the other set to Region 2), an E-ATX mainboard, 2-4 graphics cards and a giant cooler, alongside a whole bunch of dampening matts and stuff.

I can see you'd need a huge case for that. I cant stand having one the size of a minifridge though lol. I never need THAT much hdd space as I'm a rather tidy person (i delete things im not using; especially large files or installs). As it is, you can get cheap 2TB drives, or a bit more for 3 TB drives - so unless you're ridiculously media intensive (like copying hundreds of blu-rays to your hdd for the fun of it) you'd never really need "3-4 HDDS, and 1-2 SSD's." The tower I went with (a mid-tower) has:
External 5.25" Drive Bays: 4
External 3.5" Drive Bays: 1
Internal 3.5" Drive Bays: 6
Internal 2.5" Drive Bays: 2

So, it seems pretty ample. You can do a BD drive, SDD drive, a couple HDD's etc. I think the HAF X is definitely a nicer case though. It's just massive.

The 2500K has integrated graphics, as well. Depending on your mainboard's chipset (the P67 you mention) you might not be able to utilize it though.

You're right, and yes, you cannot utilize this unless you're running an H67 chipset

Good luck and happy hunting then

Thanks, hope to have it up soon. Not sure what games I should test it out with. I have Starcraft 2 - but that's not going to be too much in the way of eye candy. I'm more excited to see the improvement 8gb of RAM provides in huge battles in SC2 - along with a much better processor (not getting bogged down) and no low framerates during huge battles thanks to the gtx 570.

I'm thinking maybe I'll pick up Metro 2033? Any other suggestions for major eye candy to test out the new rig next week?

[Kenshiro]

I've just downgraded slightly from SLI GTX 470's to a single GTX 580. Price wise it ended up being an about an even swap, but the 580 runs much cooler, quieter, and overclocks well enough to equal the SLI 470's at stock settings. I just ordered an EVGA backplate for the 580, will post a pic after it arrives and I get it installed.

[Badger3920]

I built my first pc. Is mainly for PC games and cpu heavy emulators. I must say, it was exciting to see my work come to fruition and I really want to build another. Too bad the ones I wanna build are all pricey beast machines.

Your new rig specs look awesome. What all games have you tried on it so far? How are you enjoying crossfire?

[Badger3920]

I've just downgraded slightly from SLI GTX 470's to a single GTX 580. Price wise it ended up being an about an even swap, but the 580 runs much cooler, quieter, and overclocks well enough to equal the SLI 470's at stock settings. I just ordered an EVGA backplate for the 580, will post a pic after it arrives and I get it installed.

Wow you took the plunge. You'll be rockin SLI'd GTX 580's in a couple years time eh? Iirc, you had that really clean looking sli gaming rig

[Bane]

Any other suggestions for major eye candy to test out the new rig next week?

Batman: AA looks gorgeous on PC.

[Badger3920]

Batman: AA looks gorgeous on PC.

Rofl. Oh man. (offtopic but I should say) I'm actually feeling bad for that game. I gave it a bit more of a chance, and then left my primary ps3 in New York for the summer. So I got back to San Francisco and fired up the slim, and realized that - AGAIN I would be restarting Batman AA (for the 3rd time) because I didn't have my game save. I put it on easy and am working back up to where i was. In any case, LA Noire and LittleBigPlanet 2 showed up, and I'm right in the middle of putting together a gaming PC.

Batman AA is pissing me off lmao. I feel like I should play the second 3/4s of the game now out of spite.

[Kenshiro]

Wow you took the plunge. You'll be rockin SLI'd GTX 580's in a couple years time eh? Iirc, you had that really clean looking sli gaming rig

Thats the plan, when the 580's eventually go down in price I'll pick up a second one. Rig looks kinda dull right now with just one GPU

Nice choice on components, btw. Would like to see some pics when you got the beast put together.

[Badger3920]

Thats the plan, when the 580's eventually go down in price I'll pick up a second one. Rig looks kinda dull right now with just one GPU

Nice choice on components, btw. Would like to see some pics when you got the beast put together.

Thanks! I'm not sure how nice it will look since a total amateur (me) will be doing the cable management

[CorruptedDragon]

Thanks! I'm not sure how nice it will look since a total amateur (me) will be doing the cable management

Cable management isn't as hard as it seems. Once you have everything in, you can pretty much come up with ways to alter it to get it to how you want to look. I love the cases where you can run the wires through the back behind the motherboard tray and then back in. Makes it real easy.

[brandoshido]

Your new rig specs look awesome. What all games have you tried on it so far? How are you enjoying crossfire?

I've done red faction guerrilla, crysis 1 and 2, witcher, bulletstorm, fallout 3. All 1080p, completely maxed settings, all play with no lag and buttery smooth. The games look miles away from console counterparts.
As far as crossfire goes, I've never had sli before so I can't make any comparisons to that. It was easy to setup though, plugged in both cards, attached the bridge, and everything just worked flawlessly.

[Kenshiro]

Thanks! I'm not sure how nice it will look since a total amateur (me) will be doing the cable management

I used to have the original CM 690 and it has some good cable management. But if this is your first build, you get a pass with the cables. You probably just want to get everything up an running for starters. Then down the road you can always take it apart and redo the cables.