kll131

I need a couple of sites/youtube channels where i can read reveiws of hardware and software for computer components. So far the only site i (think i can) trust is tomshardware.
The amount of bullshit on the web regarding computer components is amazing, i need sites/channels that do real tests, have good information ect.
What do you guys recommend?

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abc

Generally, if it's in a user-comments or user-review section (such as where you can review a product you've just bought - say on newegg) do not poke it with a lightyear-long disinfected self-destructing barge pole. Only trust proper full websites that ONLY review tech stuff (e.g. CIAO or w/e it is is useless because they don't specialise in anything)

hardwaresecrets is unrivalled for power supply reviews.
guru3d is usually the most useful for GFX cards because they have loads of data and test cards on 15 games, not 5.
fudzilla.com is brilliant for just keeping up to date. Not much substance, and some turns out to be false speculation, but it's nice to just go there for 5 mins and learn that a new CPU is coming out in two months that should be good, or that someone has discontinued a product etc.

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kll131

A bit of topic, gtx460 768MB worth 20£ to upgrade to 1gb?

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abc

I heard it was more like £40 (which would make the answer "lolwtflmfao£40?rofllololololwtfNiceJokeNvidia no wai") But anyway: The higher the res, the bigger the difference more memory makes. The more complex the game (e.g. DiRT 2 DX11 vs MW2 DX9) the bigger the difference more memory makes.

At 1680*1050 £20 gets you literally 1 or 2 FPS more. IMO, "hell no" is the answer to your Q. At higher resolutions than the above, the gap increases to +5% more FPS which still isn't much for the 12.5%+ difference in price. Besides, if you do have a huge res then the fact you spent £300 on a monitor suggests you're probably more interested in 5870s and above etc

GTX 460 786MB, 1GB, GTX 465 1GB review

AnAndTech are reputable for reviews etc. This one is good because it has GTX 460 786, GTX 460 1GB and GTX 465 1GB so you can compare all three. However it lacks the 10+ game benchmarks of guru3d etc (but unfortunately they didn't have 786mb, 1gb and 465 in same review)

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kll131

Ok, I checked some prices and gtx460 costs 200£
HD5870 costs 400£
Gtx480 costs 420£

Would SLI 460 be a good choice? or should i go with one big graphic card or possibly Crossfire something?

EDIT: Just checked the link, seems like SLI 460 would blow away the others
If i were to order today, it would be something like this:
Graphic card: MSI GeForce GTX 460 1GB PhysX CUDA SLI - 470£
Case: Antec Three Hundred - 59£
Cpu: i5-760 - 200£
Harddrive: Samsung spinpoint f3 1tb - 70£
Power: Corsair TX850w - 128£
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4, P55, Socket-1156 (This is the part where i have no idea what i'm looking at) - 138£
RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz 6GB CL9 - 133£

TOTAL: 1200£

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abc

That all seems rather expensive, but I'll assume that's just exchange rates etc. SLI/CF is a pretty big decision tbh.


Reasons for SLI/CF:

more FPS for your money
novelty value
could buy one card now, one in 4 months (thus saving £000s initially - and hopefully the RRP may have dropped £20 by the time you get the second one)
some of the monster GFX cards don't fit in non-monsterous cases

Reasons for one big card:

uses less power
quieter
less risky (a single card will always give 100% FPS. 2 cards will give 125% FPS if the software is badly designed and the resolution low BUT upto 199% FPS if the software is very well designed and the resolution high, namely 1680*1050 or above)
usually generates less heat


1GB vs 786MB is a difficult choice. Personally (and I have a resolution of 1920*1080) i'd go for a 786MB SINGLE or 1GB SLI (basically even though you stick two cards together you can only use one lot of memory. So SLI of 786MB means one card's 786MB isn't used at all but the other card's 786MB is split into two, card 1 gets 393MB and card 2 gets 393MB. 393MB on such a high end card MAY be a bottleneck on some games, therefore for SLI you'd want to start with as much memory as possible, i.e. 1GB cards, so that each card gets the most memory possible, in this case 512MB each) HOWEVER given your budget, the £20 difference between 786MB or 1GB probably isn't much to you.


If you can find one, get an I5 750. It is virtually as fast (literally a few % slower on video editting, but just as fast in games) but it should be about £160 - saving you £40.


The case, HDD and PSU are all excellent choices.


The MOBO won't work with SLI. The standard P55 (which you need for I5 and I7 8xx series) only do crossfire (2x ATI) Even though they have two PCIe lanes, you need a special microchip to enable SLI (2x nvidia) Some "special" P55 support SLI. It will probably say in the title/description. (IIRC) all X58 mobos do SLI AND CF - HOWEVER you'd have to by an I7, so again the cost spirals. IMO I'd stick with I5 (I5 is a perfect CPU. plenty of performance, but not so much that you'll never ever even come close to using even half of it. Not too expensive, not too hot.) and get a more expensive P55 that can do SLI too. It's worth sticking with nVidia for the GTX 4650 price point - same price (1GB) or cheaper (786MB) but faster than the ATI HD5830.


Some people may... errm... tut at using 6GB (3x2GB) on an I5. Reason being I5 has dual channel RAM ability. This means RAM works best in pairs (e.g. 2x2GB or 4x1GB or 4x2GB etc) By running 3 sticks of RAM it will default to "single channel." This will make the RAM perform about 1% slower. If you overclock the RAM, dual channel RAM setups may get 50MHz further. Purests would go for dual channel, but to be honest... 1% slower RAM but you benefit from extra 50% capacity (over 4GB) you save £40 from buying 8GB AND 8GB probably causes bigger problems for OC'ing (if you're ever interested) than single channel. Otherwise, corsair XMS3 is a reliable brand/model and at a good price.


Everything will come with all the cables etc that you need. I guess sort the mobo and then that's a perfectly good set of parts which will not only be compatible (I think this is what worries people the most?) but offer the best performance for your money.

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

kll131

Would power be an issue with a 750w or should i be safe and go 850w?

Do you think the hardware I currently think of would be 'well designed' enough to make use of SLI?

The gtx 460 cyclone has a colling system that works very well iirc. Also i am thinking of upgrading to a bigger case and getting 1-3 extra fans to ensure that the system does not overheat (planning to OC using MSI afterburner if you know about that?), or would getting extra fans in the antec 300 be enough?

ASUS P7P55D-E PRO, seems nice, according to the website it has SLI - support

EDIT: Update-
Graphic card: MSI GeForce GTX 460 1GB PhysX CUDA SLI - 470£
Case: Antec Three Hundred - 59£
Cpu: i5-760 - 200£ --------The 750 costs 10£ less, but i would have to order from another site adding shipping costs, so until they get it in stock (IF) im going to stick with 760
Harddrive: Samsung spinpoint f3 1tb - 70£
Power: Corsair TX850w - 128£ ----------The 750w costs 5£ less, so i think im gonna stick with the 850w
Motherboard: ASUS P7P55D-E PRO 175£
RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz 4GB CL9 90£ ---seems like a steal to me

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Schosch

You should overclock your CPU to 4 GHz and play in at least 1920x1080 if possible to be able to use all the power these cards can offer. They beat a single GTX480 in every game they tested.



Oh, and for the power consumption:

kll131

3DGAMEMAN‬‎
LinusTechTips‬‎
TigerDirectBlog‬‎
trubritar‬‎

Are these guys any good? (youtube)

EDIT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywl6L...os=Ow6bmXg7rrU This motherboard seems good and cheap in comparison to others

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abc

Think you'll find it's roughly the same price per GB as the 6GB kit. I'd want more than 4GB tbh these days. 6GB is a great amount for price/performance, but it's up to you. Make sure you use/get a 64bit OS.

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

kll131

screen is probs going to be around 1920x1080
Sorry about the miss-read about software. I play alot of games, wow/oblivion/bfbc2/startcraft 2 ect, pretty much all big titles.

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abc

SLI isn't as perfect as crossfire, but in a game which I'd assume is rubbish for SLI/CF (BC2) you still get a 50% to 60% boost by adding a second card. Having two cards REALLY has improved over the last year or two so all modern games are definitely worth it if you play at 1920*1080 sort of size.

As I said, the drivers for two cards have got a lot better in the last year and game developers have got much better too, but here is an example of "rubbish" (or old) software and low(ish) resolution: World Of Warcraft @ 1680*1050 on a single GTX285 - 40 FPS. SLI GTX 285 - 45 FPS. £300 for 12% more FPS doesn't make much sense here lol...

Remember though, that is an old game, with low res, 9 months old drivers. I'm just showing you what the worst outcome would be.


I'd still say definitely go for SLI.



R.E. Mobo, it's pretty clear that SLI bumps up the price. Reportedly for the X58 (the next mobo up from the P55) an SLI chip and license costs intel £20 per mobo, which works out as £40 for the consumer. Sucks. Given how much you're paying you'd hope any £150+ P55 is packed full of fast memory support, good components for high OC'ing etc. It's tempting to just say "pick the cheapest one that does SLI"



One important lesson is to not fuss too much over motherboards. If you were being extremely pedantic for example, you could say that if an SLI mobo is £40 more than a CF mobo, then you may as well use that £20 times two to upgrade from a roughly £180 1GB GTX 460 to the much-faster roughly £200 ATI HD5850. Not only is a 5850 a fair bit faster in the first place (maybe 10% or more) but you've got two of them so that's an even bigger increase AND ATI crossfire is more efficient than SLI so you'd be looking at maybe 160% to 199% increases in gaming performance as opposed to SLI's 150% to 180% increase. So many things to think about. This is becoming stupid. I suspect the above maths doesn't actually work out as perfectly as I made it sound since your prices (once you convert to GBP) seem to be 5 - 10% more expensive than the UK (which is odd as we pay 17.5% tax (soon to be 20% lololololWTFnoWaiWe'reFudgedLOLOLOLtheUKgotPWNd)

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

kll131

My friend got a new computer today, it's very nice =P
case: corsair obsidian 800d
PSU: corsair 850w
Gpu: GTX480 OC
Cpu: I7 930
MOtherboard: Asus deluxe v2
Ram: Corsair 6gb 1600mhz
Hardrive: Western digital 500gb 7200rpm
A h50 psu cooler, 3 Led fan at the top, and a blue neon light =P

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oneinchwunda

For £2000!!??

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abc

I think he's in northen Europe (scandanavian region) and I think they have EVEN worse prices than the UK, but still - spec for spec:

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

oneinchwunda

You have too much spare time.

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kll131

forgot to add, screen LG flatron w2363d

Still need opinion on MSI P55A-G55.
According to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywl6L...os=Ow6bmXg7rrU It is one of the best SLI ready motherboards in it's price area. For me it would cost £130.

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