Official "System Builders" Thread

[Cranky]

My antec also takes a while. IF you are switching it off at the back. give your psu a few seconds to send power through to all the caps etc etc then turn your pc on.

[DaveSlab]

Just wanna know how much did it cost??

[charly]

What is the best GPU around R4500 that is good quality?

[Blue-IcE]

Thanks Toxxy!

It also shuts down and restarts straight after power on, but then it runs good, i am suspecting the ram voltage 1.65 is not going to well with the standard setting on the motherboard which is 1.5 even tried upping voltage on the board but still does the same.

The whole setup cost me R42 000

[Toxxyc]

What is the best GPU around R4500 that is good quality?

Well, the MSI HD6970 for R4,389.00 is a pretty good deal. Excellent manufacturer as well. Otherwise, look at the other HD6970's, the higher memory HD6950's and also look at the GTX570's from NVidia.

Thanks Toxxy!

It also shuts down and restarts straight after power on, but then it runs good, i am suspecting the ram voltage 1.65 is not going to well with the standard setting on the motherboard which is 1.5 even tried upping voltage on the board but still does the same.

The whole setup cost me R42 000

If you can, attempt to exchange that RAM for a set of Kingston HyperX BLU or Mushkin Silverline RAM. They run better at 1.5V and can support stability a little. The restarting isn't too good.

[Cranky]

What is the best GPU around R4500 that is good quality?

you can get a POV 580GTX for that price and i will really really suggest it.

[Blue-IcE]

Well, the MSI HD6970 for R4,389.00 is a pretty good deal. Excellent manufacturer as well. Otherwise, look at the other HD6970's, the higher memory HD6950's and also look at the GTX570's from NVidia.



If you can, attempt to exchange that RAM for a set of Kingston HyperX BLU or Mushkin Silverline RAM. They run better at 1.5V and can support stability a little. The restarting isn't too good.

Seems like MSI has a Eup 2013 option The European EuP 2013 mode, aka use-less-than-1W-of-power mode, which prevents USB devices from waking the machine in power management in bios, disabling this feature seems to sovle the problem. comp boots straight away with no restarting

[charly]

you can get a POV 580GTX for that price and i will really really suggest it.

Investing in future is not always an easy decision to make, especially if the ‘future’ costs €540 here. PoV/TGT GTX 580 UC card with 1.5GB goes for about €90 less.

Seems a bit expensive^^

Well, the MSI HD6970 for R4,389.00 is a pretty good deal. Excellent manufacturer as well. Otherwise, look at the other HD6970's, the higher memory HD6950's and also look at the GTX570's from NVidia.

^^Looks like a great card^^

Is the MSI AMD Radeon HD 6970 LIGHTNING 2GB GDDR5 256-Bit Graphics Card better than the MSI twin frozr GTX 570?

[DaveSlab]

I would think so as it had 2gb of video ram

[Toxxyc]

Memory size doesn't define the actual performance of the card in all cases. Bus width and memory clock also plays a huge role. In terms of raw power, the GTX570 seems to beat the 6970, but I'd still buy the 6970. MSI's Lightning 6970 is clocked at a massive 940MHz, with a 5500MHz memory clock. Combine that with the 2GB memory available and the 256-bit memory bandwidth, and you've got a seriously good card. It also costs a spot more, mind you.

[charly]

want to order my PC tomorrow but i first need to find out if there are enough PCi, PCi-e slots etc. etc.
How Does It Look?
And i just wanted to know if SSDs are fragile?


The GPU says it needs X2 8-pin power connecters but the PSU doesn't have that. Will X2 6+2-pin work the same and will it fit exactly the same as an 8-pin?

There is gold sputtering on the video connectors. Another external difference from the reference Radeon HD 6970 is that there are two 8-pin power connectors here instead of one 8-pin and one 6-pin connector. The R6970 Lightning also has two standard CrossFireX connectors.

[Toxxyc]

SSD's are like memory sticks. And if my history with them is anything to go by, they're ****ing immortal. Toss them in the wash, swim with them, they don't break.

I wouldn't recommend doing it with your SSD though. Still, it's a highly secure method of storage. No moving parts, nothing that can shake loose and flash-based memory means that your data is as safe as it can possibly be.

[Wesley]

And i just wanted to know if SSDs are fragile?

Depending on how you use it, a good SSD with 22nm NAND chips should last you an average of 3.5years with a lot of daily abuse. So, just about the same as a good quality mechanical drive. SSDs also fail into read-only mode on some of the more expensive drives with better drive controllers, so you can always retrieve your data if there is a hardware issue.

The GPU says it needs X2 8-pin power connecters but the PSU doesn't have that. Will X2 6+2-pin work the same and will it fit exactly the same as an 8-pin?

Yes, it will.

[charly]

Will there be enough PCI, PCI-E etc. Slots

[Toxxyc]

Will there be enough PCI, PCI-E etc. Slots

Yes. You should get 2 PCI-E slots, 2~3 PCI slots and about the same amount of PCI 1x slots.

[Cranky]

Charly... i dont wnat to sound liek a down now .. but if you are going over seas i would stop and halt all upgrades.

You cna pick up the entry level sandy - e for R3500K odd overseas. That would be a way better upgrade than the one you doing now.

[charly]

Does This PSU have enough cables for my rig?

[Toxxyc]

^ Yes, it does. All you're worried about nowadays is the PCI-E 6+2 pin connectors, and that one has 4 of them to SLI even the biggest cards on the market.

[charly]

What do you guys think? I have started ordering the parts.
Should I change anything before I order the rest?
If you don't know what it is then Google the product code or search it on www.comx.co.za

[Toxxyc]

Drop the HyperX Genesis RAM and buy the 2x4GB HyperX Blu kit instead. You can get it for cheap-cheap here and here and even at ComX here. Reason for this is that the Blu series work better with the lower power consumption of Sandy Bridge, as the 1.5V operating voltage of the RAM indicates. 1.65V RAM kits and others will work as well, but the motherboard has to slightly increase it's power delivery to the RAM, which is unnecessary and can be avoided. Also, 1600MHz isn't going to make a difference, thus the 1333MHz kit instead. 2x4GB RAM sticks will also use a lot less power than 4x2GB sticks and allows for future upgrades and add-ons, as well as less population on the motherboard, resulting in less heat and better airflow.