Computer Q&A

[BigBear]

Rgr Tfog, not worried about that. Just trying for a basic gaming/music writing/edting rig that I won't "have" to update within the year, lol.

Was trying to keep at $2K and below including periphials.... so I did:

890x MOBO
AMD 955 Phenom IIx4 CPU
8GB 1600hz DDR3 Ram
750w PSU
Radeon 5870 1 GB video
Creative sound card
1 500GB HD
1 CD/R-DVD/R
22 inch moniter
basic keyboard/mouse/speakers/headset
upgraded air cooling
Win 7 OS

Which all came out at about $1900...
Then I was looking at 2010 MS office which would add another $130... but I know there is a compatible free version of the office suite somewhere online I've seen before. Anyways....




In a non-ghey way: Do I ever mention that I love this board and the folks on it. Y'all are great.

[Byte Stryke]

Which Win7 OS did you get?

please say OEM,
Please say OEM,

[BigBear]

Don't have anything yet, just dream building as I won't have teh physical money until late August (been working my #%^& #$%& off to save just $20 a month for a LOOOOONG time now [close to 5 years since I've had a real gaming/music rig]... and I keep screwing it up by going to the range.... but I'm almost there).

But to answer your question, yes it will be an OEM version. 64 bit.

[Byte Stryke]

Then I was looking at 2010 MS office which would add another $130... but I know there is a compatible free version of the office suite somewhere online I've seen before. Anyways....




In a non-ghey way: Do I ever mention that I love this board and the folks on it. Y'all are great.

openoffice.org

and if you are so inclined as to learn a little *Nix... you can run all of your games under "WINE" and save a few hundred on the OS and anti-virus too!

[BigBear]

Openoffice! That's what it was... For some reason I kept thinking "Sun Suite" or something to that effect.

Is "*nix" shorthand for Linux? Unfortunately, as far as I know, the music software I use MUST be on Windows... as far as I know...

[mutt]

as Much as I hate to say this... you folks are looking at half of the picture

How many CD/DVD drives?
Hard Drives, what Kind, how big, how fast?
how many external dives?
fan controllers?
Fans?
PCI Cards?


I could get away with running a 600w PSU...
except for the 4TB 0=1 on SATA2, the 500GB R1 and the 260 R0 on Velociraptors... then there are the twin 8800 GTX OC 768s...




then Fans...
it all adds up.


Here is a tool I like to use.
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
it will get you reasonably close.. then you should round up. (Good call Hoosier)

and if I might suggest an Un-interuptable power supply... nothing fancy but clean power is extremely important to your MB

Before I Added the Velociraptors

Impressive , but hardly a typical configuration for a home user. You may 'need' that 1200 watt space heater, but Bear doesn't. The 750 (a quality one) will be more than enough. His biggest power draw is the GPU closely followed by his CPU. 1 HD, 1 optical drive, RAM and mobo aren't going to eat significantly into the overhead left after cpu/gpu. He's not going to have a fan controller (only us nerds even know what that is) or more than 2 fans (not counting PSU fans). A typical 120mm fan will eat 2.5W, maybe? While a 500 watt do it? Not with his choice of GPU, but anything above the 750 watt is a waste of dollars in both component expense and electric bill.

I'd surprised at max load if his system power consumption reached the 600 watt range. And that would require his cpu and gpu to be both 100% utilized. A rare condition unless one is doing heavy duty graphics rendering (and I don't mean gaming, I mean rendering CGI video) or artificially loading the box with prime95 and furmark simultaneously.

PS: Don't you think it's time to upgrade those video cards? The venerable 8800gtx is getting long in the tooth. I remember when I had those way back when.

[mutt]

Openoffice! That's what it was... For some reason I kept thinking "Sun Suite" or something to that effect.

Is "*nix" shorthand for Linux? Unfortunately, as far as I know, the music software I use MUST be on Windows... as far as I know...

As much as I love UNIX as it's variants and loathe windows, don't do the linux thing. Unless your willing to jump into this head first and start a new career in IT, you're gonna pull your hair out.

[Byte Stryke]

open office is developed and supported by Sun microsystems
which was recently acquired by Oracle.

as far as your music...
I run all of my Windows Games on a Linux Box and they run just as well as if they were running on my Windows box. "WINE" is a windows Emulator. it essentially allows you to run Windows applications as if you were on a windows OS.

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop <free checkitout

you can go here, download the live CD.ISO and run it from the CD without installing it.
who knows... you might want to install it on your current system after you do your new build and add a few more years of performance. Linux is renown for using fewer system resources as compared to a comparable Windows OS.

I know a guy rebuilding old PII laptops and installing a linux ver called DSL on them... then shipping them to the troops.

[BigBear]

Hey, hey, I know what a "fan controller" is... I'm not a nerd but I do know some stuff... albeit, very little... HAHA.

Yeah, I think for my peace of mind I'll stick with windows. Although it was nice to be reminded of the name of hte free MS Office type software. I'll look at the Linux stuff, but no garuntees.

[Byte Stryke]

Impressive , but hardly a typical configuration for a home user. You may 'need' that 1200 watt space heater, but Bear doesn't. The 750 (a quality one) will be more than enough. His biggest power draw is the GPU closely followed by his CPU. 1 HD, 1 optical drive, RAM and mobo aren't going to eat significantly into the overhead left after cpu/gpu. He's not going to have a fan controller (only us nerds even know what that is) or more than 2 fans (not counting PSU fans). A typical 120mm fan will eat 2.5W, maybe? While a 500 watt do it? Not with his choice of GPU, but anything above the 750 watt is a waste of dollars in both component expense and electric bill.

I'd surprised at max load if his system power consumption reached the 600 watt range. And that would require his cpu and gpu to be both 100% utilized. A rare condition unless one is doing heavy duty graphics rendering (and I don't mean gaming, I mean rendering CGI video) or artificially loading the box with prime95 and furmark simultaneously.

PS: Don't you think it's time to upgrade those video cards? The venerable 8800gtx is getting long in the tooth. I remember when I had those way back when.

well, at the time I posted that we didnt have a full build list...
he Might have "needed" a larger PSU if he had listed a large disc array and multiple video cards etc...
kinda why I handed him the link to the calc.
I know my system isn't typical.
most systems don't typically run a multiple boot platform, or store RAID arrays for that matter.

and the 8800s are running fine...
plays APB, LOTRO(MMO) and most of the newer releases at or about High detail and high draw.
I don't have to have 400million FPS... the human eye only see ~60

Not really sure what your experience is with the newer Linux releases... might want to check them out.
My DAD uses Ubuntu 10.04 with WINE (he has a remote control flight sim)
and this is the guy that had to call me over to pair his Phone to his truck.