The Computer Megathread

[Uncle Bengs]

How do you tell how good a graphics card is? Is the higher the number better?

listen to people who knows what they are talking about, that's how you find out if it's any good.

the numbers are usually just how new they are, but newer doesnt always mean better in terms of price to power

[Ad Bot]

[LordCutlerBeckett]

Is there any reason why my computer takes forever to start up? I defragment and clear internet stuff all of the time and it still starts up slow. I only have 1 startup process minus AV.

[Flush535]

listen to people who knows what they are talking about, that's how you find out if it's any good.

the numbers are usually just how new they are, but newer doesnt always mean better in terms of price to power

okay, so I'll ask about them here.

[Becquerel]

Whats a Chipset and whats the difference between Southbridge and Northbridge?

[HerpaDerp]

Two options:

Stock 6870

GTX 560, with BIOS flashed to 950 core/1900 memory. Faster than a GTX 560 Ti.

[Sulfate]

My realtek integrated sound has 7.1 surround and beyond, plus all the features you could ever need.

mine is from like 2003. guess I'm still living in the past 

[Ethan]

How do you tell how good a graphics card is? Is the higher the number better?

Nope.
Each manufacturer has a series that comes out, and each series has different cards.
For example, the HD5 series from AMD had 5450, 5650, 5750, 5770, 5850, 5870 and 5970, and probably some I forgot.
The larger the card number (the bit AFTER the 5), the more powerful the card.

Sometimes a card that replaces an older one isn't as powerful, although this is rare and usually equivalent cards from a new series are better. For example the 5850 was replaced by the 6850, but the 5850 is still more powerful. But, the nVidia GTX460 was replaced by the nVidia GTX560, and the 560 is more powerful.
Hope that made sense.

How good is a radeon hd 6770?

Pretty decent. Would run most games on high at 720p.

[Ethan]

Is there any reason why my computer takes forever to start up? I defragment and clear internet stuff all of the time and it still starts up slow. I only have 1 startup process minus AV.

You could back everything up and reformat windows.
I usually do it once every 2 years to keep things running nicely. Windows naturally bogs down too much and the only real way to fix this is to reformat. Sucks.

Two options:

Stock 6870

GTX 560, with BIOS flashed to 950 core/1900 memory. Faster than a GTX 560 Ti.

6870.
Don't count on that to work definitely, as well as the stability issues.

Whats a Chipset and whats the difference between Southbridge and Northbridge?

Quite hard to explain.
Set of chips (obviously lol) that is designed to work with a CPU family.
RAM and CPU etc all join to the northbridge, which in turn takes the info to the southbridge, which distributes it.
Try google if you want more in-depth as that could take a while.

[Rusty]

If the $600 will let me play the latest games on high graphics I'm going to build it.

[Ethan]

If the $600 will let me play the latest games on high graphics I'm going to build it.

Depends on your resolution. You might have to tone down games like Crysis or Metro 2033 on higher resolutions.

[Ethan]

Here's a build I sorted out for an Australian friend from Steam:

Case: http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-16010561-Antec_Three_Hundred_Tower_Gaming_Case_Mid_ATX_Tower_Black_Steel_9x_Drive_Bays_SS
PSU: http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-34040466-OCZ_ModXStream_Pro_600W_80_PLUS_Certified_135mm_Cooling_Fan_SLI_Certified_Ready_
Mobo: http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-28023552-ASRock_Z68_Pro3_Motherboard_Intel_LGA1155_Intel_Z68_Chipset_4x_DDR3_2133_1x_PCIe
CPU: http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-19010218-Intel_Core_i5_2500K_3_30GHz_Quad_Core_Socket_LGA1155_95W_TDP_4x256KB_L2_6MB_L3_C
RAM: http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-37140549-G_Skill_8GB_%282x_4GB%29_RipJaws_Dual_Channel_Memory_PC3_12800_%281600MHz%29_DDR3_240_pi
HDD: http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-22040155-Samsung_Spinpoint_F3_HD103SJ_1TB_7200_RPM_32MB_Cache_SATA_3_0Gb_s_3_5%22_Inte
GPU: http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-42060694-Sapphire_Radeon_HD_6870_Video_Card_GDDR5_1024MB_256Bit_VRAM_900_4200MHz_Clock_PC
DVD: http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-17040380-LG_GH22NS70_Internal_SATA_22x_Super_Multi_DVD_Rewriter_OEM_Black

Total: $822

[Teneksi]

I've opened my gateway, and I can identify everything, but replacing the power source worries me. It just seems like such a mess of cables that I'm worried I won't get it all together properly. With the new power source, would I be replacing all those cables as well? Given how the back of this PSU looks, I presume so... (as a note, I haven't purchased anything yet. Didn't want to spend 260 without at least looking in here)

hmph. If I was simply replacing the card itself, this would be no problem ;-;

Also, of course, there's quite a bit of dust. Would it help to remove it, and how should I do that best?


Edit: I unplugged a few things to get a better idea of where all the power-related cables are going, and I'm typing this from my desktop so I guess that means I'm capable of touching it without destroying it. For now I'll watch a tutorial or two about building just to see more tips and such. I'm a little hesitant to buy the parts, not because of choice, but from being somewhat nervous about using them. Any more advice?

[Ethan]

Fair enough. Replacing a PSU is daunting the first time. But it's not actually as bad as it seems.

There's 2 cables in to the motherboard:
The main 24-pin connector on the side
The 4 or 8-pin that goes in beside the CPU

Then you have the two 6-pins that would go in to your GPU, that's pretty straight forward.

Then that just pretty much leaves the DVD drive and hard drive.

[Fredulus]

its really not bad putting in a new psu. dont worry bout it.

[Teneksi]

Fair enough. Replacing a PSU is daunting the first time. But it's not actually as bad as it seems.

There's 2 cables in to the motherboard:
The main 24-pin connector on the side
The 4 or 8-pin that goes in beside the CPU

Then you have the two 6-pins that would go in to your GPU, that's pretty straight forward.

Then that just pretty much leaves the DVD drive and hard drive.

I saw the 24-pin and 4-pin, and the one in the hard drive, I didn't look too hard for the optical, but I didn't see any going to the GPU.