Computers And Video Games

[sarbanoxley]

My seagate 500GB 7200.11(SD15) developed bad sector recently(even after flashing to the latest firmware)---Heard 7200.12 drives are reliable---that exp. with seagate forced me to go for WD just bought 3 WD BLUE 500GB drives .

[abhichotu.abhi]

My seagate 500GB 7200.11(SD15) developed bad sector recently(even after flashing to the latest firmware)---Heard 7200.12 drives are reliable---that exp. with seagate forced me to go for WD just bought 3 WD BLUE 500GB drives .

Was it under warranty? If not then utter crap seagate. I have faced the issue once hoping not to face it again.

[sarbanoxley]

Was it under warranty? If not then utter crap seagate. I have faced the issue once hoping not to face it again.

The drive is still under warrant(3 more years to go).The drive is currently sleeping in a cupboard in my room---seagate does not offer warranty support like WD where they send someone to your house to pick the faulty drive---i am kinda lazy to go all the way to Accel frontline's office in chennai---The only silver lining is afte the drive went "missing" in the bios i was able to recover all the data and clear my track with DBAN .

[abhichotu.abhi]

Hello,

It's being a long time that my PC Dual core is struggling to play latest games at recommended specs. And instead of just upgrading the PCI-E card, I am going for a new configuration.

Basically, I want a gaming PC under 40,000Rs. It's less but I can'nt stretch any further not even a penny. Please suggest me a good PC configuration. The config. that I made-up in my mind is:

i7 Core CPU, Compatible Mobo.(Please suggest), 4-6GB RAM, 7.1 Sound card, 160GB HDD (for XP only) + 1-2 TB (seperate for other drives.), 700-1000watt PSU, A PCI-E or AGP (depending on mobo.) upto 1GB.

I have a DVD WR, Monitor, 5.1 Channel Creative sorround, Wireless Keyboard and mouse, Steering wheel (genius), gaming remote. so no need for these items.

Please suggest your corrections in the configuration I have mentioned or a complete new configuration.

If anyone can tell me a pre-assembled gaming PC like one from HCL Beanstalk then I can think of shelling out some 50K Rs.

[tanay]

^ A Core i7 build will most likely not fit into that budget.
The cheapest i7, the 930, is 15K. 10K for the board, 6K for RAM and 7K for PSU leave you with about 2K for everything else like Gfx, sound cards etc.

This is equally good:

Core i5-750 : 10K
Some board for it: 5-6K - The P55 chipset boards
RAM : 4GB DDR3 at 5K
GFX : 10K - Perhaps a HD 5770 or a GTX 275
PSU : 6K for a good PSU. Can be cheaper depending on your PC's power draw. 6K will get you a Corsair VX550 which is good enough for this config.
HDD : 5K for 1 TB WD/Sg

You don't really need a 5.1 sound card as the board usually comes with one included. But keep some cash for it if you want one. (2-3K ?)

160 gig HDD is ~2K


Now you notice that the total is around 50K. Buying a pre-built system is always more expensive. You might need to save cash on some components.

[riazmomin]

Its been few years that I am not up with current trends in computer market! And I am about to purchase a computer for my sister!

So, it would be of great help for me if some one can update me with following details....Dont require a high end system!

1. Proccessors:
what are latest in AMD and INTEL, have been a satistied AMD user which is still working even after 7 years! Price ranges information would be also helpfull, though they change daily.

2. Mother boards:
Again..what is the trend now, i mean BUS Speeds, Graphics cards, Sound cards etc. Again I have been a very satisfied user of ASUS and MSI mother boards which are also going good even after 7 and 5 years respectively. Price ranges are appreciated.

3. LCD Monitors: Which are good and price range!

Rest other details..I have fair idea.

[abhichotu.abhi]

@tanay
The configuration you have mentioned is good, No doubt. But, I strictly want a i7 processor and if that demands a wait of 2-3 months for the drop in proce then I am ready to do so. A 4GB DDR3 seems adequate and 10K for PCI-e is good enough. Anyway, I am going to sell off my old PC so hope that it can extract some 4-5K for me and then might I extend budget? may be!. Thanks

[tanay]

Okay an i7 setup:

Proc: i7-930 : 15K
Board : x58 chipset for ~15K
RAM : triple channel kit of 2gbX3 is 7-8K

Remaining components stay the same. Keep some cash for a good cabinet for ~2K.

Intel does not lower its prices much, even the older Core2Quad lineup has fixed prices. So I don't think a newly-introduced i7-930 will become cheaper.

So totally you will be spending around 15K more than an i5 setup.
But note this: If you are purely into gaming then an i7-930 and an i5-750 will be very close, so close that it will feel the same. An i7 is great for threaded apps like video encoding etc. Current games hardly use more than 2-3 threads or cores.

Its been few years that I am not up with current trends in computer market! And I am about to purchase a computer for my sister!

So, it would be of great help for me if some one can update me with following details....Dont require a high end system!

1. Proccessors:
what are latest in AMD and INTEL, have been a satistied AMD user which is still working even after 7 years! Price ranges information would be also helpfull, though they change daily.

2. Mother boards:
Again..what is the trend now, i mean BUS Speeds, Graphics cards, Sound cards etc. Again I have been a very satisfied user of ASUS and MSI mother boards which are also going good even after 7 and 5 years respectively. Price ranges are appreciated.

3. LCD Monitors: Which are good and price range!

Take this AMD setup :

AMD Athlon II X2 240/250 with a cheap AM3 board and 4 gb of DDR3. Should cost you 3K + 4K + 4K respectively for it.
The motherboards come with onboard graphics, they do the job fine.

A basic Intel setup with a Core 2 Duo will be costing the same, but a basic i3 setup is more expensive.

No idea about LCD monitors.

[abhichotu.abhi]

@tanay:
I am working into the matter of CPU. One question does i7 and i5 share a similar mobo. under any category. I am a hardcore gamer have a Genius steering wheel specifically for NFS.

Are the PC's that are offered by Nvidia as gaming PC's and other companies worth spending 80K-90K INR. I looked into the nvidia website and they are offering a 3D gaming PC for 85-9K INR. Check below link:

3D Computers, PCs, Desktops

Thanks.

[tanay]

There are cheaper i7's that fit into the P55 motherboards which are used by the i5's. The P55 is the 1156-pin socket.

All i7-9 series use the 1366-pin socket on the X58 chipset.

Since the number of pins is different for the 2 categories, the same board cannot be used. But the i7-8 series: the i7-860, 870: these use the 1156-pin socket and so can be used in place of i5 cpu's on the P55 motherboards.

I looked at that link, that is for a USA-based co which will not ship to India, and if it does then you will have a lot of customs duties to pay. But the same components can be bought by you here and assembled for far cheaper.

[shadez]

Abhi:
basic gamer PC - 30k
mid range - 60k
pro - 90k+
decide on your budget mate.

i would recomment AMD. forget phenoms. just buy an athlon x4 630 or something. with the coming of their 32 nm hexacores, all current gen processors would be outdated. i suggest you put your money in a good GPU, PSU, cabby and RAM.
and yeah, RAM - use 4GB max for 32bit system. 2^32=~4GB. so thats the max your system will use. anything more is sheer waste.
and as Tanay said, i7 is not VFM for a gamer. you dont need much multitasking here. if not overclocking, i5 750 would be a good choice. or amd x4... overclocked x6 is better.

anyways, budget is everything... so let know.

[shadez]

Its been few years that I am not up with current trends in computer market! And I am about to purchase a computer for my sister!

So, it would be of great help for me if some one can update me with following details....Dont require a high end system!

1. Proccessors:
what are latest in AMD and INTEL, have been a satistied AMD user which is still working even after 7 years! Price ranges information would be also helpfull, though they change daily.

2. Mother boards:
Again..what is the trend now, i mean BUS Speeds, Graphics cards, Sound cards etc. Again I have been a very satisfied user of ASUS and MSI mother boards which are also going good even after 7 and 5 years respectively. Price ranges are appreciated.

3. LCD Monitors: Which are good and price range!

Rest other details..I have fair idea.

thats too much to explain mate. anyways, now things depend on what kinda PC user you are. gamer, graphics developer(maya, etc), pure multimedia or programing or something else...

usual chice for mid-range pc's:
proccy: intel i5 or i7, amd phenom or athlon x4 and x6... there are loads of variants in these.
mobo: 'dont' buy asus. there are lots of problems reported for that mobo. better stick to msi or biostar or something. a mobo with sata3, usb3, 5-7.1 channel audio, ddr3, etc etc would cost about 9k. drop some of these fancy stuffs like usb3 and you get a decent one for 5k.
gpu: there are hell a lot of variants. since you are an amd fan, would suggest hd5870 for 23k, or hd5850 for 15k or hd5770 for 9.5k. a 2 x 5770 would beat 5870 wrt gaming. most games are now crossfire optimized.
psu: corsair maybe...
cabby: again, loads of them. some good looking ones are from zebronics and nzxt.
ram: ddr3 is in and must - value ram, kingston, corsair blah blah blah
hdd: i suggest wd - blue, green, black, whatever. seagate has got problems and intenal news is, they had shut down production for one of the hdd variants (11.1 or something) coz of that.

so... type of usage and budget is a must for assembling your rig.
good luck...

[shadez]

bumped in to check on diablo 3 release. any of you guys got updates? is it in the market now? black obviously...

[thmh201]

guys please help me out ....
i had plans of getting a Xbox 360...now i have decided to get a good graphic card bcoz of tight financials!
my system config is this....
AMD athlon 64 X2 5200+
Asus M2N68AM mobo
1gb ddr 2 ram 800 mhz...planning to buy 2gb ram...so total 3gb
frontech twinkle cabinet (that would give u guys a fair idea about smps!)
samsung 17"crt monitor...no plans of buying a tft.
currently using Xp service pack 3 32 bit
I want to play games like crysis, assassin creed, gears of war, COD MW2, Farcry 2, just cause2,
I have decided to go for 9800gt or ati 4770...
will I be able to play the above mentioned games? should i buy any xtra smps to power the graphic card.?

[chicane1879]

guys please help me out ....
i had plans of getting a Xbox 360...now i have decided to get a good graphic card bcoz of tight financials!
my system config is this....
AMD athlon 64 X2 5200+
Asus M2N68AM mobo
1gb ddr 2 ram 800 mhz...planning to buy 2gb ram...so total 3gb
frontech twinkle cabinet (that would give u guys a fair idea about smps!)
samsung 17"crt monitor...no plans of buying a tft.
currently using Xp service pack 3 32 bit
I want to play games like crysis, assassin creed, gears of war, COD MW2, Farcry 2, just cause2,
I have decided to go for 9800gt or ati 4770...
will I be able to play the above mentioned games? should i buy any xtra smps to power the graphic card.?

What's the wattage of the power supply.

Go for ATi Radeon HD 4830/4850. I have the HD4830 and it plays the above mentioned games easily on full settings.