The Gaming PC Building/Upgrade Thread

[Garcian Smith]

Twistedpixel said:

Graphics cards quality do definately depend on how they are made. They are hot products and it really does make a difference in terms of fan noise because typically a GPU fan on a low end card will use a two wire single speed fan. The board I gave as an example was a referrence boardwhich means it was manufactured by Saphire and then had another companies label slapped on it.

You can see significant differences in quality between motherboards too. The number of DOA or DSA (dead soon after) motherboards are significantly higher. Just read the Newegg reviews for boards which have low ratings. ECS is in this group.

That PSU+Case example had 5 stars on Newegg. If there was a reliability problem it would have been rated down to 4-3 stars as people generally do come back to the same review after the fact to report their problems. Since it has excellent reviews over a couple of years its pretty safe to say its not a bad design. The PSU you gave as an example a 350W PSU with no feedback was a risk, more so than the PSU+Case example. He can take out the 80mm fans if he doesn't like them. He does have to have a screw-driver to build the computer in the first place. That would leave two 120mm fans which is perfectly fine.

He will not be using the card above 1440 by 900 resolution. Since the monitor he chose was this resolution. The HD 5750 would have to push 27% fewer pixels at that resolution which does make a significant difference and would allow both games which are more efficient under the DX11 path and games which offer more I.Q. to run on the DX11 path.

As for RAM. The Xbox 360 has no trouble using 512MB of RAM with 25GB/S memory bandwidth, so I see no reason why this card couldn't use 1GB of RAM, especially with 3* the memory bandwidth. Since 1GB of ram is defaulting as the typical enthusiast ram quantity, I wouldn't suggest anyone get anything less. In addition he can get the card for $135 from saphire with a different cooler design. Thats only a $30 difference in that case.

 

Do not rely upon Newegg reviews - or any other user-aggregate reviews, for that matter - for accurate reports of failure rates. The plural of "anecdote" is not "data." For what it's worth, though: Most ECS mobos have a 4-egg or higher rating on Newegg.

If your GPU fan makes a lot of noise, then it's probably the result of poor cabling/airflow in your case. Even the cheapest GPU fans should not produce enough noise to be heard over your CPU/case/PSU fans, unless you're specifically building a cool'n'quiet system. Check out that chart that I linked in my last post for more info.

Also, every PC power supply buying guide in existence will tell you to avoid purchasing cheap PSUs. The PSU is the one component in your PC that can severely damage, or even nuke entirely, every single other component in the box. In addition, cheap PSUs usually do not provide the power that they are rated to provide, are likely horribly inefficient, and may cause long boot times, memory errors, or random shutdowns. This is a well-documented fact and I don't know why you're arguing otherwise.

If the OP is really concerned about the PSU that I recommended, I could easily recommend one at a higher wattage that's not too much more money. However, he shouldn't be: an entire system sporting a Radeon 4850, running at full 3D load, only draws 231 watts of power. A quality 350W PSU can handle that with one arm (cable?) tied behind its back.

Putting aside for the moment that you don't cite a source for this claim: Why, exactly, does the OP need to push 27% fewer pixels, especially given that he's on a tight budget and isn't running at a GPU-intensive resolution?

As for the RAM issue: After scouring Google, I finally came across some benchmarks comparing a 512mb vs 1gb Radeon 4850. This chart shows a performance gain of less than 1 FPS for that extra 512 MB on Mass Effect. This chart shows about a 1-2 FPS gain, on average, for Call of Duty 4. And finally, again, only about 1-2 FPS on Frontlines: Fuel of War. The only game that shows any significant difference (about 4-5 FPS) is Crysis, and that's the exception rather than the rule due to the unique way that the engine is programmed (if you need any more proof that this is unusual, the 1 GB 4850 actually outperforms the 512mb 4870 - which is a more powerful card overall - at most resolutions in Crysis.) So if you want to pay extra money for a 1 FPS gain on most games, then go ahead, but in this thread I'm in the business of advising people to not waste their money.

In conclusion: Either please start citing some sources or take your misinformed opinions elsewhere.