Need help choosing the right motherboard

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Hi Xthe

Man those vidia cards are blasting Radeon to smithers. Besting them by a good 10-15 frames a second. What does SLI stand for?????

I thought my pick was not a SLI, with it being a GTX.

In order for me to make it above the low rating of 26 I have to get two of those cards just to make one from Vidia, the way it is sounding now.

At 26fps, I am barely going to just be ahead of the studdering and jitter and hang delay on that FS9 scenery using only one card. Currently my PNY card 4200 Ti DDR AGP 8X still cannot make it.

The only good 4850 is from Asus, and don't that beat all huh??? Hmmm, this definitely means I have to crossfire now without a doubt. Now will have to look at the 4870 series. Hmm, ATI says for the crossfire use, minimum is 850 watts PSU and not less. So there you go. Sigh

I am surprised that they don't make any ATI cards to top Vidia at all or even match them head to head. Every Radeon card out there is getting blown up and beaten so bad, performance wise in fps compared to other makers, it makes me wonder why they are still in business. They haven't got a card out there to hit the 30-35 marks against Fs 9. The 4870 is about the best I can get tops. They have a ATI 8800 so will need to do more searching on it.

Other than that all plum worn out now.

Hitting the sack.

Talk to you later.

Daveyo





 
Hi Xthe

Here is the question I want to ask you

I seem to notice this and is just guessing on my part. The 1000 watts units have come on to the mainstream probably recently. The 850 been around maybe tops a year. The 750 more than 2 years and so on.

So what we have here concerning the 850 basically not proven to date.

I need two 8 pin connectors to be on the safe side.

ATI-AMD is claiming those graphics pull a lot of power 24 amps, and they are basically recommending 750 watts on up. Room for argument here as general means you know.

Since I am in Thailand, I hate to have a PSU come dead or go dead in 2 days, or 3 months etc. Heck I have a PSU that lasted 10 years???? Still going strong.

That is why I am in shock. Many today are not having a PSU to last beyond 3 so go figure.

So take away this overclocking as any manufacture will not warrant their product due to excessive power demands outside its scope.

Amps have everything to do with your system regardless it being the graphics, mobo memory and other dittos installed. The total amps is the key. So one has to take all their items out, look at the label per item and write down what volts it takes, and the amps it takes and what pins are involved. Then one can put a PSU together by looking to find the exact spec setup.

I am amazed many are doing the kill so to speak and a system made is not made for the killing.

Example. Say a lawnmower is rated to have an rpm for slow idle speed and rated for a high rpm full max speed. Now say I over clock my rpm and go from the rated max like 2500 rpm and pop it to 3500 rpm. Something has to give, and more likely it will fail on you or literally blow the piston out of the head of your lawnmower. Same for a car. Say it runs on gasoline, and then you juice it with some nitro, and want that power. Well that nitro is going to blow your pistons out from the oil pan literally if such was not made to take it (stock) in the first place.

What I am seeing here is the same thing on puters. You have a design and people are stepping it up to where things begin to happen, or fry out or simply kill your machine.

I trust the mannie who made the product in the first place and if they say it pops 24 then believe it.

So this is what I am going to do today. Shut down my puter and pull out my dittos and write it all down of what I have and any other information from past data sheets. Then I will put it all back and then give you my report. A pain in the neck but need to be safe as well and I will also see what kind of PSU I have here since the part was made in Thailand.

From there then we both can figure things out. The additions I have not seen yet from the mannie is the LCD, the memory, and the graphics and that Quad. I have to find out those answers and the mobo as well and add those to my existing set up. I guess this is said and done so to avoid a problem.

Since I am in Thailand, I cannot afford damaged goods, and the delay as well. The shipping alone will take a long time.

Will report back shortly

Daveyo

 
I'll get back to you tomorrow, right now im out of town and don't really have time time advise you, im visitng freinds right now.

From what I know, the 850tx is one of the best PSU's on the market. It would be my first pick for a gaming rig if i where to build one right now.
 
Hi Xthe

Ok I am done and did all of it. Took the system down completely and put everything back and here I am.

Get ready for this surprise cause it might shock you.

The PSU is a 330 watt baby, and it has the output as follows:
+5 - 28 amps
+12 - 18 amps
+5V5B - 1.2 amps
-12 - 0.3 amps
+3.3 - 18 amps

The unit uses 6.0 amps, 120-240 power source.

Total amps of all my hardware here is 63.3 amps. This PSU puts out max 65.3 amps. So I only have 2.2 amps to spare as it stands right now. Basically I am maxed out believe it or not. Wow!!!!!!

On one of the hard drives it says 24 amps from Maxtor the old style, and the Diamond 10 the new one I got in 2006 uses 1.5 amps. So something odd here and both are Maxtor products.

I inadvertendly hooked up my old drive and got a screen saying the drive is out of specs and to back up the data and I said whaaaaa, and then shut it down. Turns out I had the drives reversed. Hooked it to the current, and then powered it back up, black screen kiss of death. No ***. Then I took it apart found a power cable barely together, solder that back to the pin socket, and then removed the memory slots, cleaned it and re-insert it back in.

Presto system back up and running fine as I type here. PSU was pretty dusty, so used the air compressed air to blow it out. Found out the Fan must have died some time ago. But running a fan here next to the case anyway. It is all opened to keep the excess heat down to a minimum. Hate it but got no choice.1`

Man this blew my mind, 330 watts lasting almost 9 years and popping a cool over 60 amps all this time.

Ok tell you what Xthe, I will send the money out to you, and you order this PSU that you have confidence on and then test it to make sure it is not DOA.

Run it for minimum of 3-5 days no overclock, just normal power to see if nothing smokes on it as I am seeing from a few custies on newegg.

If it works out fine, then you can ship it straight out to me as I trust you to package it good because going via Air, and FED EX, the package will be bumpy as all hell. The same for the mobo, the memory and my tsk tsk tower and perhaps the LCD which I might be able to get here. Not sure if newegg will send overseas.

My hard drives I will get from my partner in CDW as I have an account with them and will get the CD-RW from him that last one around and anything else I need as he is reliable with the goodies too.

Oh by the way this is what the PSU I have here cable wise. I have 7 4 pin connectors one audio channel, and a small power connector 4 pin for the ol floppy.

Two white connectors to the mobo I have here. One is 24 pin and the other 16 pin but not all filled up as it staggerates etc.

The PSU is a NPS 330 Watts made from TREND. Amazing huh, and the part is built definitely in Thailand courtesy of Dell themselves.

Date of MFG April 11, 2001. How nice. So I was a year off so to speak, and got this unit as I now officially confirm in April of 2001. Saw the date written in the tower itself. Whewwwwwwwww

So its now 8 years going on 9.

Ok oh I see ya out playing the field with friends. Yea time for some golfing huh. Ok will wait for your return. So when this gets posted and the time recorded subtract 1.5 hours from that and this will tell you the time it took me to extract the entire tower and every part and put it all back and troubleshoot as well. For me this is a record indeed.

Talk to you later.

Daveyo



 
Ah Xthe

Forgot one thing, I got 3 IDEE cables running here. So that means 4 Idee to SATA converters will be needed to be safe. I don't know on that mobo how many IDEE slots it has but hopefully it has at least 3 for certain. Can you check it out.

With you involved I cannot wait to see how my system will respond but from what I can gather it will blow this current one out by a mile and be somewhat close to being up to date. Being a couple of steps down is not bad, so to speak. I fear the final tally is going to be close to 1 k. Have not done the tabbing as of yet since nothing is fully firmed at the moment.

Daveyo
 
Heh ummm I'm not so sure I'm comforable handling your money and buying stuff for you. Maybe I'll just take it and run 😛 j/k

Anyways...on a more serious note as I said before I think you are rather overestimating your power needs, and a Corsair 650tx would be plenty for your system with two 4830's in crossfire, but if you really want to be careful and possibly down the road if you want a better more expensive GPU then going with the 750tx or 850tx is fine. I think the fact that your 330w PSU has been running your system is good evidence of this...

For the motherboard, it only has 1 IDE connector, the rest are all SATA connectors, but that is why you are getting the IDE to SATA converters so you can hook your IDE devices up to a SATA port. I'm pretty sure its got plenty of Sata connectors...like 8 ports I think, so you are fine on that front, and you got plenty of room to add more drives if you want.

Since you have had a lot of time to tinker around with the internals of your current computer, it sounds like you are fairly comfortable with putting a PC together so sounds like you should be set there.

ATI actually has some very good offerings for performance/price ratios right now, its just that in terms of absoute performance, Nvidia has the best out there right now. About 6 months ago though, ATI had the best GPU, the 4870x2. Nvidia only got back on top recently with the release of the GTX 295. In general though, ATI cards offer more performance for the money.

Ok so as far as PSU requirements go...it varies where you get the info from for minimum requirements. Remember that manufacturers are liable if you go by there info and damage your components. The Manufacturers will almost always overestimate the requirements of a system, and will assume that the other components are running at max as well (in reality, you never have everything in your PC maxed out and using its maximum amount of power at the same time). They also do this in case you decide to go with a cheapo PSU. Some manufacturers will overestimate how well their PSU will perform. CoolerMaster PSU's for example had an instance where they rated a PSU for 460w, but if you looked at the combined amperages and voltages on all the rails of the PSU, it only equalled like 430w. The better PSU manufacturers will under estimate the amount of performance their PSU will put out...my recommendation the 850tx is a great example of this. If you look at all the combined voltages on each rail, the PSU can actually deliver much more than 850w. Take a look here: (look under the resources tab at the 850tx specifications, the 650tx an 750tx are there as well) http://www.corsair.com/products/tx/default.aspx . As you can see the combined output from all the rails of the PSU are 180w+840w+9.6w+15w= 1044.6w so it can actually put out much more than what it is advertised for, in case some poor ignorant sap hooks up more to his PSU than he is aware of.
 
Morning Xthe

Wow, that is exactly what I was looking for to compare everything and those pics definitely told me a lot.

How did you again know I was looking for that????? Damn Xthe, your very good and extremely clever and savvy with a lot of wisdom behind your thinking. This is very good as there is not very many out there today.

By the way the description of what I gave you on my old PSU help you out a lot??? at least to give you some idea of what my system had here???

In looking at those specs, all 3 you gave me exceeds my current PSU specs. I am most particular of the third column from the left which is the +12 column. Right now I am at 63.3 with only 2.2 amps to spare. Definitely the red zone. All the rest given exceeds the other old specs and I am fine with that part.

The only main difference in that third column is the amp part. Hmmm, a 650 is undercutting it, and it has just one PCI-E 8 pin less than the other two. The 750 is giving 60 whereas the 850 is giving 70. A toss up here but the 850 gives me about an extra 9 amps to spare doing max load. That is if (if) I run everything maxed out all the same time. Very rare to do so as you well know.

So right now I think if you agree the 750 is the start point and the 850 is the chosen one of which you think etc. Granted I am over estimating this but better to over estimate than under estimate as you said some poor ignorant sap hooking more to the PSU can fry out the system literally.

Since I have to add extra converter cards here to handle all this IDEE set up in saving me some money, I have to make a trade somewhere involved this set up to free up funds etc.

If I can get 750 for about like near 100 less than the 850 cost, I can use the converters to that spare amount. I believe you sort of know what I am doing here, and also if any future GPU comes down the 750 can handle it for a spell so to speak.

The 60 vs 70 amp between the two 3rd column again is a toss up, which racks my brain here. It is a far cry compared to my old PSU which only gives a minicle 18 amps. Since I don't do any over clocking like you techies do, I would think the 750 would be sufficient to meet my needs and its been around awhile and the bugs pertaining to the device is all but worked out by now. I can deal being just 3.3 amps below my current amp system now. Not a big deal.

I agree the 850 is tempting me a lot Xthe, but I got to watch that budget as well. And I have to free funds to get the extra IDEE converters like it or not. My CD-RW DVD needs one, the floppy needs one, the ASUS DVD R/W dual layer needs one, and the biggie is choosing the HDD. My maxtor storage uses a firewire here and its connected as well. Separate power stand alone (an external deal) but I stuck it inside the tower where the DVD and CD-RW go and it worked. The firewire is hooked up to my monitor card.

The next biggie is the LCD and does it have a monitor card or not. I need that to use the storage back up here.

My Scanner here uses a USB and my Printer is a port (no USB) I have the Deskjet 970 Cse. An old one. If the scanner (Scanjet 4300C) should break down I can buy another one over here no problem. Today they have both combined as one unit (All in One) and I don't like that at all. Prefer it to be separated in case of a breakdown.

Last but not the least the big debate is coming which is the Hard drives. What to choose here. Well I have to get the ATA for my current system since it is almost due and this is critical now. So for the moment I will get the ATA version hard drive and use the converters for those when I get the new system. Sound about right on this part ??????

The only thing I don't know if it can handle a 350 gig since this motherboard has its limitations. I know it can handle the 120, and the 160 with no problem and more likely can handle the 200 to 250. Any further is just guessing. I want to get two 350 gigs here making it a total of 700 gigs which should handle everything I have here for quite a spell. I doubt I will ever top it since these drives last only 3-4 years anyway. Having two of them I can make 8 partitions and my storage have 4 partitions. This is a lot of partitions but necessary in case one partition hits the bricks. The more I spread out the load on the partitions the less work the drive has to do extending its life span. As time goes on if that case can handle another 2 more hard drives I can stick those in and leave them there and program those with everything and have it handy so the swap from one to the other is not that bad. Backups so to speak and those will be pure SATA drives all by itself. So when the last IDEE drives conk out on me, I can simply switch to the SATA drives and I am done.

Right now my current case can handle only 2 hard drives. Not bad for an oldie here. If the new tower has 4 hard drive slots I am in business.

What are your thoughts here. Did I choose the right tower?????

How about finding some washable filters that can be installed to that new case I plan to buy??? This is a essential item indeed. I don't know if they have a washable filter kit for their tower.

Ok keep it coming XTHE!!!!!!

As of paying you we will make the arrangements one way or the other so you can get the stuff and check them out and then if possible send it down to me via FED EX. At least I will have an expert such as you to check everything before I get it.

Any damage or marks or rebuilt parts, and if you see this, send it right back and demand original OEM period. I know companies like to send out rebuilt items and not replace it due to cost and profit intentions.

Daveyo











 
Daveyo,
I'm really sorry but I really don't feel comfortable buying things for you and handling your money. My hobby is reading up and learning about computers and then helping people build them, but I don't order things for people. I realize that it would be a hassle for you to get a bad item that needed returning and would be nice if you could have someone to take care of that for you, but I really think that you should be the one to do this, its just part of building a PC (besides I have never had to RMA an item because it was defective, and I have bought quite a few parts, chances are it won't happen to you). I mean for all you know I might just take the money and never get back to you and you would be totally screwed. I definitely cannot spot you the money and wait for you to pay me back, since I am a college student and fairly poor at this point and I have no assurance you would be able to pay me anyways, even if you wanted to. I'm really sorry, but I cannot do this for you, although I am flattered that you would trust me that much to do this. I think you should be just a little more cautious, someone else might take advantage of how trusting you are.

Ok so back to components...Now you say that your system will need 63.3amps. While I do not doubt that to be true, you need to realize something. That 63.3A is spread out among all your rails, and not all 63.3A will be coming from the 12v rail, more than likely you will not need more than 35A or so from the 12v rail, but its always nice to be safe. Only your CPU and Graphics cards run off of the 12v rail, the rest of your components run off the 3.3v rail (drives) and 5v rail (fans/accessories). So yes 63.3A you may need, but that is split up over the rails, and I am 99.9% positive that if you decided to go with the 650tx, you would have absolutely no problem running everything in your system off of this power supply, in fact if you were to make a new thread (and it wouldn't hurt to get some other people's opinions...) and asked them how much you would need for two 4830's in crossfire and all your drives, many people (as equally knowledgable as myself or more so) would tell you that the 650tx is just fine, and some would consider it overkill. 750tx is definitely overkill, but it does have the 8pin PCIE connectors, which can be useful if you decided to upgrade the GPU. However the 4830's only require 1 6pin connector, so you would be fine for that.

As far as your case goes, it will easily hold all of your drives and more...it has 6 internal 3.5" drive bays (the ones your HDD's go in) and 5 external drive bays (the ones your CD/DVD drives go in) and 3 3.5" external drive bays (for a media card reader, or I think a floppy drive can fit in there too). So you could get twice as many devices as you currently have and be OK. The Motherboard has 8 sata ports, 1 IDE port, and firewire ports. I think all your connection and drive space needs are satisfied with the IDE to SATA converters 😉


Alright I'm not sure what you mean by this...the graphics card is hooked up to your monitor and is what creates the display for your monitor. Are you looking for an lcd screen that you can use with your hard-drives? I'm really not quite sure what you are after here...


I'm not quite sure what you mean here...are you trying to figure out if the current motherboard you have will be able to support a larger Hard Drive? I am pretty sure (like 98% sure) that any motherboard can handle any hard drive size...the motherboard you are looking into getting for your new setup can handle any drive for sure, I guarantee it. I don't think the size of the hard drive has any bearing on the motherboard, although the speed of its transfer rate might (since IDE is a slower interface). But in that case, your motherboard connections would just slow down the transfer rate of the hard-disk, not be incompatible with it.
 
Hi Xthe

I am writing this down on a word pad here in advance to save time as my thoughts go asunder all over the place.

I have decided on the following

Xclio wind tunnel advance which is a $140 puppy. The standard is a $100 puppy. Not much price wise here.

Been reading the reviews here. Some problems can be fixed and adjusted before you send such over to me after checking it out.

First the feet that holds this monster is woefully inadequate and will bust like crackers if mishandled. So I was thinking of making two aluminum feet balancers same like the originals that came with the tower but take those out and install the aluminum feet and have some adjusting rubber wheels to keep it level etc. The thickness of the aluminum stand legs should be no less than 1/4 inch thick. These legs are holding 50 pounds plus and when you include all your hardware in the guts it will put the weight closer to near 100. So that design by the mfg sucks indeed.

Secondly, in concern of the fan speed adjustment deal. Nice to have to adjust these as you not want them running full speed all the time, but then again that is ok but I would rather adjust the fans for all concern depending where all that heat is coming from. So with this in mind see if some bracket black in color can be put on this tower opposite of the side fans, in the front area not obstructing the doors etc, and have the adjusters there with the LED Lights. One color green to indicate it is on the other Red to indicate off. Total maybe 6 as there will be a fan for the MOBO cooler, and one or two for the graphics puppy. Along with this I would like to have these LED lights that come with the OEM fans to have a button to turn them off without it affecting the fan. Seems they hotwired the LED straight to the fan and out to the connector thereby causing them to stay on constantly. Understand. Especially bringing the rear fan adjustment to the front.

Thirdly, I know I am going to need additional wiring to avoid the wires going tight or being stretched so to speak. This is not a problem but I need the wires from USA as here in Thailand it is bullshit. Make sure these wires are solder compatible. A small reel of different colors to match the OEM wires will suffice. I can then cut the wire and add the extra wire to it to extend it and solder it and then cap it to ensure no short and back in business. Viola. Also I might need extension SATA or IDEE cables if not long enough especially.

Fourthly as of the tool less latch for the PCI and ATI cards it is bullshit. You need a bracket to hold them in place and a screw to lock them in. So if necessary find me a bracket with this description and the screws for my graphics and other cards here.

Fifth of all the temp reader. I understand it is extremely very sensitive. Hmmmm, so hopefully you can place this sensor away from major components. The objective is to know the total temp of the interior as the rest being the mobo and others will be taken care of by the other additions. The other is to know your outside temps surrounding the case. Nice to have but not critical here either way.

Last of all the filters that I need to capture all the dust. Hmmmm, do you or can you find me some filters for this gizmo that is washable. I have some idea here which they use for the A/C units and it will also do just as good. I will have to cut them to fit right but it will be a pain in the neck.

Now to make sure the PSU fits just right. Did you see Xclio PSU's. They got huge fans on them and its designed for their cases. Understandably so, but check it out anyway.

My mobo is a 12 X 10 so it will fit this tower not a problem.

Oh man in concern of the LCD. That was two parts put into one question as my brain was going. What I was referring to was the LCD as the next item to tackle, and the other was a question of whether or not the new motherboard has a firewire connection or not, since on my old motherboard here has the firewire connected to the monitor card but none on the motherboard. I have a monitor card here believe it or not which has to work for my Dell 991 Analog monitor..

Nice to know about your honesty involved, and really I don’t trust people very much literally except myself if you know what I mean. However I am forced to depend on others here and there to help me make it and get things sometimes because of several factors which is understandable.

#1 No family or relatives in USA

#2 Need to have good friends, but all mine are now dead, and I am nearing 60 in age.

#3 I can use paypal or other means to ensure proper use to get the item. Another way is to pay Newegg direct and have them send it to you for you to check everything out and then you can simply call FED EX and I will pay for the shipping here when it arrives. The key is trusting you to send my items rather than up and run with it. So……… ???????????????

Your candor in not dealing with other peoples money impresses me a lot, and of course I am not rich either. The bottom line is finding good friends around is hard as many eventually will kick you out if some gritty action takes place.

So it’s a chance I will have to take if they ship it direct but I don’t think they have international shipping. I would be surprised if Newegg does have it.

As of the Graphics I am going 4850 or 4870 as it being a bit better card to get the FPS stable on the FS 9.

I agree with you on the PSU overall. I think 750 is the one I better get and be right in the middle of the pack so to speak. It might be an overkill but again, yea the 650 will do, but the mfg says go 750 for those graphic cards. They must know something that you and I do not know at present time. You told me not to go cheap on that unit so……….

As of the current mobo in dealing with bigger hard drives, if I remember correctly they too have a limitation on it. How much I cannot remember. Courtesy of Dell. This mobo that I have now will not even take non-ecc memory at all. Absolutely none. I already tried it once after I bought Kingston. A no go and those memory cards were fine. If it did I would have increased my memory long time ago to handle the graphics better and got those much cheaper indeed price wise. So I got stuck. Spent nearly 3 G’s and piff . Up in smoke and gone.

Not going to buy from a company direct again for a puter lest they do that to me again, and fix me to a certain point. I want some flexibility you know, so I can adapt to changes over the course of time.

Will wait for your response.

Daveyo




 
Hi Xthe

I check on the site concerning the psu calculator link you gave me. I put down what I only knew and what I have or intend to get. This thing is telling me a whopping 1242 watts needed.

Man who to believe here????? and what to believe here????

650 750 850 or 1200??????? fancy that huh

That calculator gave me a nice question ? mark inside my head

Daveyo
 
Xthe

This is absolutely insane. I looked at the Dell site, and got this as follows:

650 $90.00
750 $160.00
850 $130.00

Why pay more on the 750 where the 850 will be cheaper as both are nearly identical . That is why I am saying this is insane. The difference price wise from 650 to 850 is only 30 bucks.

I am bouncing over here like a basketball. Care to tell me where I should shoot this?????

Daveyo

Go figure. Now why would the 750 be higher price wise. I don't understand this at all.

Daveyo
 
Ok Xthe

Looking at the Dell site, this is also insane. They are selling top of the line ATI cards at around 100 such as ATI 9250 and popping the 4850 near 300 bucks.

What gives here. I look at this hardware site, and the 9250 is way near the top whereas the 4850 is down. Again not understand Unless these ATI numbers are reversed meaning the lower numbers are higher and the later cards and the higher numbers are the older cards, which is completely opposite of Nvidia Sli deals.

Daveyo
 
Hi Xthe

In concern of the monitor I have settled for a 22 inch or a 24 inch.

What specs should I look for concerning these two different monitors??

I believe I am going to buy it here in Thailand as Asus and Acer and HP flood the market here quite a bit, and I am almost certain the prices are half of what it is in USA. I can probably also get the Intel P45 Quad 9550 over here. As of the motherboard, it is questionable if they sell it in Thailand, but if Gigabyte does sell here in Thailand, wow, I know the price will drop as well.

Also I can view these here and get a good idea on how the picture will look. Funny tho the Samsung LCD T.V screens of 40 inch sells nearly the same price as in USA so there is not much difference. I did look when I was there last year, so I was kinda disappointed thinking Thailand was cheaper. It was but not by much unless you buy it on sale over here which can be a real steal so to speak. One of the foreigners that I talk to all the time here, got one for only 27,000 baht fully equipt too, with a surround sound. Translated this means $770.000 Whereas in USA they were selling the same thing at 1,200 dollars without surround sound. Big difference.

In Thailand this place is swamped with huge amounts of computer stuff left and right. Shopping here is not that bad, and if I have to I can always take a trip to Bangkok at the Pantip Plaza and find deals unheard of and never will be found in USA.

This is how good the Thais are in repair of equipment. My lawnmower lost its starter since the windings fried out after over 20 years of service. Tried to find a replacement from USA and was told nothing was available. So I talked to a Thai cop over here whom I got to know the past 5 years, and he took me to a person who knew what to do. Heck this guy stripped my old starter and rebuilt it and it was done in two days. Went to him and he charged me only 600 Baht for the entire deal. This means only 17 bucks. When I put it back on my lawnmower it had so much power it busted my plastic gear to some extent but man did it spin the engine like I have never seen before. So that plastic needed a bit of fixing still but I got it to work ok for now. No problem with it at all. Wow. The even fix furniture over here. Did my sofa bed and got a completely new leather covering with foam in it and all, and it was done in three days and rock solid too. Cost just 1,500 baht labor and the most expensive leather they have here in this country. Wow talk about being impressed. This translate to only 42 dollars complete.

You will never find a furniture repair man in USA who can completely refurbish a sofa bed and give you the best leather around and labor included for only 42 dollars!!!!!!!!

Now don't you envy me over here????? Hahahahahhaa. The other day I went to a furniture store, and spotted a Recliner so plush and soft yet firm and it had an accessory that caught my eye. Hidden phone and eating tray and a place to put your remote controls. I sat on this and nearly fell asleep cause it felt so good. Checked on the price 6,500 Baht. Translate means 185 dollars. Full leather feel and snappy and easy steps for recline and also a super deal was included. A vibration massage unit relaxer!!!!!!!!!! I was told it was very popular in Thailand so I need not worry of it going out anytime soon. Saving that for now and will purchase it before I leave. I understand this same item is sold in USA but the cost hit the ceiling and the sticker shock was 585 dollars. Wow.

I got a pair of blue jeans over here the top quality one by Levi (genuine) and it cost me just 600 baht, and got the second pair for just another 50 baht extra. Translate to USA is 18 dollars. Did look in USA when I was there the same jeans were going 45 bucks on up. Whew.

You should come to Thailand to buy the good clothes and computer hardware my friend. You can also save hundreds if not thousands of dollars compared to buying in USA.

Now things like cars, almost the same in USA just a bit lower, T.V monitors about the same, gasoline prices about the same etc. Some things are the same in USA and some things far cheaper in Thailand. I suppose it goes with the territory.

My friend in Hong Kong just told me he got stuff from China dirt cheap which I envy him. Even more cheaper in Taiwan or from Japan if you buy it there. Sigh If you go to Europe those prices will kill you. So ............

Will await word from you on my questions

Daveyo



Daveyo
 
The site I gave you used the same calculator and I only came up with 450w for your setup, so I think you must have entered something wrong...did you say quad processors or a quad core processor? quad processors means you have 4 q9550's in one PC, 16 cores. My PC is FAR more consumptive than yours will be, as I have 2 better GPU's and CPU which is overclocked and I use an 850w PSU, your PC will absolutely not need 1200w.

The Radeon 9250 was an ok GPU...at one point in time. Now it is a very basic graphics chip and the 4850 is far superior, I think you got the two mixed up. The 4850 is ATI's 3rd best card, the 4870 and 4870x2 are the only ones they make that are better. Do not buy anything from dell, they are massively overpriced there.

The 750tx is a fine PSU, you will be just dandy with it. Don't get an Xclio PSU, they are not very high quality PSU's, they fail often and the voltage regulation is not very good. I use this site a lot to get an idea of how good PSU's are: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Review_Cat&recatnum=13

I think the only reason you should consider buying parts from the US is if you are going to still be building this PC when you move back...If I were to have things shipped to me and then shipped to you, the shipping charges would be massive, and it would have to go through customs ect to get to you. It would also have to travel farther, and have a greater chance of being damaged in transit. If you plan on having this PC built before you make your trip home, and it certainly sounds like you do, then the best plan of action would be to buy it from a place in Thailand. I am sure you will be able to find all of these components, they are available everywhere in the US, AUS, CAD, UK, EU and South America too I think. Asia is a fairly technology savvy place, I am sure you can find everything there, if not then you can find something that will fill the place of that component very well. I think it will be far more expensive and you will have a greater chance of getting a dead peice of hardware if you buy from the US, have it shipped to someone here and then have them ship it to you. The Case and PSU in particular are heavy components and shipping for those items can be very expensive, I don't want to think about how expensive international shipping is. I really think its a much better idea for you to buy locally than through someone else in another country,especially if things are as cheap as you say they are in Thailand.
 
Hi Xthe

Well I have to buy the hard drives from usa because here in Thailand they are swamped and firm believers in Seagate!!!!!! Why I have no idea in spite of the horrible rep they now have the past 2 years in a row.

I will report back to you once I find out if the case and others are here in Thailand of which I will do right now. Be back in a half hour.

Daveyo
 
Ok Xthe

Struck gold again, AMD is located in Thailand for the graphics being Radeon, and at Soi Phraya Limpini area. Wow, I happen to know that area cause I have been there a few time. Super.

This is also close to Pantip Plaza. Man, it cannot get any better than this. Asus and Acer, AMD, and more likely the Intel Quad 9550.

Secondly Xclio is in smack Taiwan, which I am betting they have a business partner in Bangkok as well. Wrote to them and also to Gigabyte hoping they have the motherboard sold in Thailand and a dealer here.

The thing with these Thai people is you can negotiate the price. But the key is you must know first hand the real price of the item or they can catch you off guard. Tsk Tsk. The other problem is when they see a foreigner the price really goes up. When they see their local Thai, the price really comes down. Typical here. So I do have some Thai friends and viola, things can work out for me. After the item is purchased and then they see me, you should see their faces being unhappy cause I being a foreigner outsmarted them.

Ok so now I have to wait from Xclio and from Gigabyte.

Here is the address of AMD in Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand
AMD - Thailand
36th Floor CRC Tower
All Seasons Place
87/2 Wireless Road
Limpini, Pathumwan
Bangkok 10330, Thailand

By the way this is very close to where the King and Queen reside in Thailand.

Will report more as things develop

Please tell me just precisely what I should look for on a monitor like contrast etc and the specs to be on the watch for concerning the 22 inch and 24 inch LCD Monitor. I want to make sure I get the right one for my system here.

Next stop is Corsair to see if they have a outlet here in Thailand.

Daveyo
View Map
Tel: (662) 625 3121/3123
Fax🙁662) 625 3129

Sales Office

 
Hi Xthe

Struck gold again. Must be my lucky night. Corsair is in thailand and they have two distributors. Just fabulous.

Name Website Telephone
Com7 www.comseven.com +66 2627 5777
D Computer Co. Ltd. www.dyna-online.com +662 697-5550 Ext. 2422

So this means most of the heavy shipping will be avoided, and I can get most of it here.

Tower (maybe), LCD, Graphics, PSU, Intel Quad, and maybe mobo from Gigabyte and their ram as well.

So only USA will be the hard drives.

Just two question remaining. Is there any washable filters around for these towers and or fans?????? The other > Is there any stronger converters (quality wise) from IDEE to SATA available besides what you told me.

I will have to check on the cooler for the CPU if they have such or a distributor in Thailand. That is coming up next.

Daveyo
 
Hi Xthe

They have the Thermalright over here too in Bangkok as well as the Xigmatek HDT – S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler but I don't see the retention bracket being Xigmatek ACK – I7751

They might have it but not listed here. The price is 1250 baht. USA 35 dollars. Probably can get it for maybe 30 bucks if lucky.

Again struck gold.

Here is the website http://www.jedicool.com/list.php?cate=3&key=&parent=&page=2

on page 3 is the thermalright. page 2 has the Xigmatek one.

Nice huh

Only problem is their fan filters are 7 bucks a pop for a 120mm fan. 250 Baht. Wow, that is expensive. Typical Thai bullshit. I do not see anything for the 250mm size. Wish I can find those for the Xclio towers.

Daveyo
 
Hi Xthe

Struck gold again. Giga-byte is in Bangkok right smack dab at the Pantip Plaza. Got their phone and addy too

Amazing for this night of the stars!!!!!!

Here it is

Thailand


COMSEVEN CO.,LTD. (Distributor)
‧ Product(s) : Motherboard
‧ Address : 2545 New Petchburi Rd. Suanluang Bangkok 10250 Thailand

‧ TEL : +66 2714 5777
‧ FAX : +66 2714 5842
‧ WEB Address : http://www.comseven.com


SCANNER CO., LTD. (Distributor)
‧ Product(s) : Motherboard, Graphics Accelerator, Barebone, Keyboard, Mouse, Others, Chassis, Air Cooling, Optical

Device
‧ Address : 604/3 Pantip Plaza, 2nd Floor, Room 2104, Petchburi Road, Bangkok, Thailand

‧ TEL : +66-2255-0634-5
‧ FAX : +66-2254-9764
‧ WEB Address : http://www.inc.co.th/

The only thing left now is Xclio

We have the ASUS here and Acer as well. So this pretty much locks me in and can get most of the stuff in Thailand.

Wow.

Oops still have to get the rams. Any suggestions yet which ones I need again.

Daveyo
 
So I was looking at that site you posted for coolers: http://www.jedicool.com/list.php?cate=3&key=&parent=&page=3 and the price they have on the Thermaltake V1 Copper is pretty good. That is one of the better coolers out there, and 1,790 is a good price for that (I think...it retails for $58 here in the US). I usually don't recommend it because its price is so high for the performance it gives, but that price actually looks pretty good to me, and I think you should consider it. You won't need a backplate for it, its shorter and doesn't stick out as far from your mobo as the S1283 so the strain on your mobo isn't as much, and it cools very well. Since I don't think you will be doing a huge overclock, that cooler would actually do quite well for you.

This is the Harddrive That I think you should look at, its the WD3200AAKS: http://www.comseven.com/products/product_info.php?products_id=1142 Its their best 320gb drive out. They don't make 350gb drives anymore, or they haven't made a new one recently at least so it won't be as fast as that one. If you want a larger drive, then maybe look at the WD6400AAKS or WD6401AALS (a little faster) for 640gb drives.
 
Ok so for LCD's, you want high contrast ratio (like 1000:1 or better, dynamic contrast ratio is meaningless, look at the typical contrast ratio for monitors), and low response time (5ms or less). Now when it comes to resolution there are a few things to consider. If you have a smaller resolution on the monitor (1680x1050 is kinda the typical res for 22" monitors) then your GPU won't need as much power as it would if you had a larger resolution (24" monitors are typically 1920x1200 or 1920x1080) because the GPU has less pixels to render to make an image, so a smaller resolution will give you better gaming frame rates. Items will also be larger on the screen, as the pixel pitch will be larger than if it had a higher resolution. If your eyes are really good and you have really good vision, then you would probably want a higher resolution so you can fit more things onto the screen, but if your eyes aren't as good, you probably want to have a lower resolution so things are bigger and easier to see. You can also adjust a monitors resolution to display resolutions smaller than its native resolution, but the image can sometimes become distorted if you do this.

So getting a monitor with lower resolution is cheaper because 1. you don't need as powerful a GPU to power it for good framerates in games and 2. bigger monitors and larger resolutions cost more. But bigger monitors are cooler too....so you have to decided what is important to you. When picking the monitor it is really important to see it in person I think, so go to a store and look at them in person and find what you like best.

For fan filters you are on your own, I don't know where to get them or if they make them in 250mm sizes, although I do know that they exist...I just don't use them and don't know anything about them.
 
Hi Xthe

Just something on the monitor. Ok I am going to go for the 22 if available.

I understand the contrast ratio and understand getting it 5ns or less is best for games. And the pixels as you have described.

What is the refresh rate I should be looking for since my eyes are not that good for a LCD. On my analog Dell 991 monitor here I have it set at 100 refresh rate which is comfortable for me. I am not seeing this option on the LCD or do they have that option available when I buy the LCD.

Still no word from Xclio yet in Taiwan. Might have to call those buzzards. Maybe the company does not have people writing out or something. Depends since they are new in the market now.

Ok as of the hard drives, I will go for those. As of the CPU cooler I will get what you suggested.

They also have coolers for the Hard drives, and for the graphic cards and for the ram. Can you tell me which one is best for my build up system. I am going to rely on you for this, and what paste I should get. How about Silver 5???? or is there any other kinds out there.

On the RAM , please tell me which ones to get for my mobo >>>is it the 6 gb or the 8 gb and which brand RAM is most reliable.

Other than that, I roger on the filter issue and will do something on that.

Last of all the converters from IDEE to SATA. Is that the only brand and outfit that makes these or is there any others out there that I can look at????

Keep it coming Xthe

I really do appreciate your input here and now we are very close to having a system for me that I can put together. Once you tell me the remaining questions here I will compile the list and have you check it carefully and await for your approval.

Sound good.

Again thanks for your expertise.

Daveyo
 
You don't need HDD coolers, just space them out so that you don't have one on top of the other and the air circulation around them should be fine. The cooler than comes on the graphics card should be alright too, as long as you don't overclock it. Arctic silver 5 is good thermal paste, as is MX-2, either one will be good.

As far as ram goes, Corsair, G. Skill, Mushkin, and OCZ are my favorites, Kingston is a good brand too. Make sure the Ram you get has heatspreaders, and the ram chips aren't just exposed, the heatspreaders will prolong the life of your ram. Something like this: http://www.comseven.com/products/product_info.php?cPath=73_74_107&products_id=1144 look for DDR3-1333, or DDR3-1600, either would be fine...1600 is supposed to be faster, but performance gains seen in actual benchmarks are not that much. Try to get DDR3 Ram at lower voltages, like 1.8v or lower if you can with 8-8-8-24 timings or lower. The Ram on the sites that you showed me is very limited, those ones are the best I could find. Maybe you will find more at stores. Get 4gb for now, if you can afford 8gb then get 8, but 4gb is usually enough.

On the IDE to SATA, many brands make them. If you go to the local computer store they are bound to have them. I don't really know if there is any difference between brands or not, as I haven't ever used them before.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom