I might have to go back to the dark side..

[todd51]

Good parts all. I would suggest looking at EVGA cards. IMO, they have the best warranty and usually use very good cooling. Not all that familiar with XFX. I also don't care for Cooler Master cases. I'd suggest looking at Antec on the low end and Silverstone on the high end. Unless you like your PC looking like a Transformer

Thanks for the suggestions, cwa. I don't mind the Transformer look . Main reasons I went for this case was because the HDDs can be pulled straight out from the side of the case. All the previous cases I have had, the hard drives would have to slide out into the rest of the components and after throwing in more PCI cards, I would always have to take those out too if I wanted to get at the HDD. This case also has a switch for the fan LED lights, which I think will be nice for when going to bed.

Basically, I've always had really plain looking cases, I think it's time for me to get one that isn't so plain. Like I said, I really appreciate all the input though! I might go ahead and put the order through tonight and slap it on the old credit card. If I remember when I get it put together, I'll take some pics for ya! I'm pretty excited, I haven't built a personal computer for myself in YEARS!

 

[pigoo3]

I had the 256 MB model and GTA4 needs at least 512 MB VRam.

Seems almost insane to say that a game/application needs at least 512 MB of VRam.

I remember when having 4meg of vram ...and being able to run a 21" CRT monitor at 1152 x 864 (or something like that) in millions of colors made you feel like "king of the hill"!

- Nick

 

[dtravis7]

Seems almost insane to say that a game/application needs at least 512 MB of VRam.

I remember when having 4meg of vram ...and being able to run a 21" CRT monitor at 1152 x 864 (or something like that) in millions of colors made you feel like "king of the hill"!

- Nick

Then this will even make you more freaked!

I bought a ATI Chipset (XFX) card with 1GB Vram. With some things maxed and the rest one notch from Max, it's taking 700+ MB VRAM! No joke. GTA4 has a settings panel that shows how much System RAM and VRam it's taking.

With this new card I went from 12FPS or less to 30FPS+! Not bad for under $100.

 

[pigoo3]

With this new card I went from 12FPS or less to 30FPS+! Not bad for under $100.

Was that 12fps to 30+fps on the same video settings? That is quite an increase...and I'm sure makes the game MUCH more playable!

Yeah...I knew there were 1gig vram cards out there. Just seems to be a little insane to think that if someone has 2-4 gigs of ram & a 1gig vram video card...that the vram on the video card is 25-50% of the total installed ram.

Definitely a great purchase for under $100! It sure would be nice to be able to buy video cards like that for a Mac!

- Nick

 

[todd51]

Well I just took the plunge and ordered everything. Thankfully, I remembered the Arctic Silver thermal compound. The only thing I don't have is a WiFi card for the computer. Since I have a gift certificate to Best Buy, I might just see if I can pick one up there for a decent price.

Anyone have any good experience with some USB WiFi adapters? I have an N router so that would be preferred.

 

[Village Idiot]

I have a 1.8GB Nvidia GTX 295 and can't run crysis with full settings at 2560x1600 resolution.

 

[vansmith]

There was a time many years back when I remember people literally cussing out ATI for their drivers! They have gotten very good since then at least I have never had issues with them!

Last I heard, the Linux community despises ATI for their lack of decent drivers. Always used integrated graphics here (for me, GPUs are the least most important part of my machine - if it can power two displays, it works) so I can't actually confirm that but a quick search will show that nVidia is the preferred GPU of choice for Linux users.

 

[dtravis7]

Van, ATI drivers for Windows are quite good of late. The ones for OSX work.

Interesting on the whole Linux thing. Maybe that is why my Power PC Ubuntu has issues booting on my iMac G5 as it has an ATI Radeon. Will have to check into that.

 

[todd51]

Last I heard, the Linux community despises ATI for their lack of decent drivers. Always used integrated graphics here (for me, GPUs are the least most important part of my machine - if it can power two displays, it works) so I can't actually confirm that but a quick search will show that nVidia is the preferred GPU of choice for Linux users.

You're definitely right on that. nVidia drivers are much better on Linux machines than ATI. ATI has been getting better, but still not as good as nVidia on Linux.

 

[cwa107]

Van, ATI drivers for Windows are quite good of late. The ones for OSX work.

Interesting on the whole Linux thing. Maybe that is why my Power PC Ubuntu has issues booting on my iMac G5 as it has an ATI Radeon. Will have to check into that.

That's funny. Amongst my geek friends, we've always considered ATI to have the better driver package for Windows. NVIDIA's drivers seem to be in perpetual beta by comparison.

 

[todd51]

Is it bad that I would rather have these parts arrive today and spend my Friday night building a new computer, instead of going out to see my friends' new house?

 

[cwa107]

Nope. Putting everything together and looking forward to it POSTing on the first try is like the highlight of my geek year. It's nerdvana, I'm telling you!

 

[dtravis7]

Nope. Putting everything together and looking forward to it POSTing on the first try is like the highlight of my geek year. It's nerdvana, I'm telling you!

Yeah same here. I just love it when it's all put together and I hear that POST Beep and see the Bios come up! Yep, I am a geek/nerd for sure but enjoy it!

It was even more fun when I modded that G4 of mine with a PC Power Supply which required me to totally rewire it. I also had to make a Voltage Doubler to power the SB voltage which on that G4 is 28 VDC!

I was amazed when I heard that Apple POST sound and the screen lit up!

I wish Apple would make one Mid Range line of Desktops that you could at least mod. Would be so much fun.

To the OP: Let us know when your parts arrive and how it works when you get it all together.

 

[Village Idiot]

One word of caution; check the pins on the mobo before you put the CPU chip down. I know it's happened a lot with certain ASUS boards, so I'm assuming that it can happen with any board that has a ton of small tiny pins.

Grab a magnifying glass and make sure they're all pointing up and aligned straight. I've put together two myself where it's posted with 2GB-4GB of RAM when it was actually 6GB-12GB installed. a few pins connecting to the CPU were bent. I had to take a tiny screw driver and magnifying glass and put the back in order for the system to see the right amount of memory.

 

[todd51]

Oh I will definitely enjoy putting this one together. First one I would have built since 2004! I will probably put some pics up when I get it all up and running.

 

[todd51]

Well this stinks. Stupid UPS is sending all the parts about 4 hours in the OPPOSITE direction of me, or else I would have it today. I don't get it either, we have a shipping distribution about 20 minutes away from my town. Looks like I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow evening.