Another computer advice thread

[Limewater]

response time is how frequently the screen can update. lower values are better because it means the screen refreshes that much sooner.

Think of it like framerate... just written instead in duration as opposed to frequency. Higher framerate is better, well if we recorded that framerate as a duration (how long a single frame persists) you'd get response time.

The reasoning for describing it in response time is that the LCD doesn't refresh consistantly. It's like a hard drive and seek times, it CAN seek this quickly, doesn't mean it's going to, because some times it doesn't have to. Unlike with framerates which are forced, a frame MUST update consistantly, and thusly we describe it as a frequency.

This is very close, but not quite accurate-- though that may just be a communication issue. Response time tells how quickly a pixel can change values. This is the reason, for example, that the original gameboy got really blurry when there was on-screen movement. The screen updated at a constant frequency, but the pixels on the screen actually weren't quite quick enough to go from white to black as quickly as the screen updated.

I could draw a graph. I love graphs, but most people don't.

Bottom line, if you have a really fast refresh rate you'll see less blurring when things move on your screen.

[lordofduct]

I am thinking about building it my self but I have never built one before so it feels a bit daunting. Is Newegg the best place to buy parts?

Best is subjective. They're trustworthy, tend to have good deals... I have always used them because they tend to be one of the cheapest and most trustworthy. They are also good about warranties and returns.

I've found that when buying multiple products, even if 1 of them is more expensive then another site. 2 other products on my list are cheaper and balance it out. So it's a good place to go if you want to buy all parts from one dealer... obviously this means if you buy from multiple people you can get it even cheaper... but then you end up paying inflated shipping costs.

The thing that seems the most confusing to me is getting a case that is compatible with the motherboard and getting a motherboard that is compatible with everything else.

Home computers tend to use one of a couple motherboard form factors:

ATX
micro-ATX
mini-ATX
extended-ATX

ITX
mini-ITX

a couple random others.

That and sub categories of a sub format resemble their parent in some way. For instance a mini-ATX will fit in a standard ATX, just because the mini is smaller it won't use up all the screw holes. Of course standard ATX won't fit in mini-ATX because the mini-ATX is a smaller space!

Cases are marked with what sizes they fit, places like newegg makes it easy to search for cases that support your motherboard 'form factor'. Most tend to support ranges of them.

I figure I will stick with the Core i7 860 as I have read a few things that state it is better than the 920 and both are pretty much $275. I was thinking maybe a Core 2 instead but they are almost the same price as the i7s.

Processor tends to be the best place to start when selecting a computer because it usually is what dictates what other stuff it supports. It's the processor that says what RAM you can use, what chipset to use, etc etc.

The i7 is a great chip and if you were eyeing a core2 of the same price, you can be pretty sure the i7 will at least match it in most situations.

Is Western Digital a good company for hard drives?

Personally I use WD quite frequently. They are one of the most trusted along with Seagate and Samsung. When it comes to harddrives, sticking with the big guy is good because most people already do and you can expect longevity from it... and if not the reviews would say so.

Is a 650w Corsair PSU good enough?

The power you need for your machine is probably the hardest if you want to be specific about it. Most people just over estimate and buy uber powerful PSUs. Personally I use a little algorithm for it.

Really though it all comes down to your power needs. Do you have several hard drives and cd-roms? You need more 12v rail power. Do you have multiple GPUs or a power hungry CPU? You need more 3.3v and 5v power... and some even demand special 12v rails.

As I said though, most people just over guestimate, and if you were building a normal machine 650W is well over what you'd need. I'd guess a 1HDD, 1GPU, i7 chip set up would need a 500W set up... 550W to be safe.

I thought people say RAM is cheap, why is 8 GB of Corsair DDR3 RAM $245?

DDR2 is cheap, it's the most popular at the moment. This is one of the downsides to the i7 chip though... it REQUIRES DDR3, which is the new guy on the main street (the technology actually has been around awhile, but not really in use in the main stream). It's more expensive and to get full capability you have to buy it in triplets as opposed to duplets like with DDR2 (DDR2 can run in dual-channel mode, well DDR3 is capable of running in triple-channel mode as well as dual channel... but the i7 doesn't support the dual channel mode).

Just like most new technologies, it's costlier. Of course you can hunt for deals, I got 12 gigs for what I consider cheap (240 dollars), but think about that... that's 20 bucks a gig. That's actually pretty good.

Thing is would you need 8 or 12 gigs of RAM? What do you expect to do? Are you a multi-tasker or use applications that state they need large quantities of RAM.

Also consider that 32-bit OS's cap off at 4 gigs of memory (and Windows 32-bit has that lower at 3.5 gigs with .5 gigs of pagefile). So anything above 4 gigs will require a 64-bit operating system.

How the hell do I know what version of the GTX graphic card to get with so many versions of the same damn card? Should I even get a GTX 260? Will this build play older games alright?

Video cards probably come with the most debate attached to them, though personally I don't think they warrant such debate. But it boils out of the main buyers of consumer videocards.

Until recently videocards were really only needed for playing top of the line 3D games, and onboard video handlers could handle most stuff. Now a days some more main stream visual features ask for a vid card, but even then they don't really have to be all that special. Windows Aero requests a video card, but you could easily get away with a pretty cheap video card.

That and the quality of video card depends on what you expect to do, and the frequency of doing it. An emulator of old DOS games and consoles, shit you don't need crap for that. An Nvidia 8 series (older) could handle all that like a breeze. But if you wanted to play the newest videogame coming out next month, think twice.

But even then the 7 or 8 series will 'play' the game... it just won't play it as well as the newer games. Lower resolution, or lower framerate, or smaller textures... and most PC games let you control that.

As for knowing what all the damn names mean. Well it depends on the company you buy from. First and foremost Nvidia and ATI are the big dogs... you wouldn't buy anyone else (unless you were like some engineer who required weird graphics capabilities Nvidia and ATI don't supply). Then you can just go to that companies website and they break down what each card is and what it does... and which are rated higher and more capable of. You just select one that is in your price range, does what you want, and all that crap.

My biggest suggestion though, unless your some FREAK for 120fps solid... go with affordable. Something that can play games but doesn't pinch the wallet. Video cards are CAKE WALK to upgrade, if in 2 years you wanted a new one... the next step up is 90 dollars away.

Is anyone willing to answer these questions for me?

I know you just went with buying a dell from Best Buy... but yeah, I was up to answering the questions. Maybe you'll find it helpful in the future.

[lordofduct]

response time is how frequently the screen can update. lower values are better because it means the screen refreshes that much sooner.

Think of it like framerate... just written instead in duration as opposed to frequency. Higher framerate is better, well if we recorded that framerate as a duration (how long a single frame persists) you'd get response time.

The reasoning for describing it in response time is that the LCD doesn't refresh consistantly. It's like a hard drive and seek times, it CAN seek this quickly, doesn't mean it's going to, because some times it doesn't have to. Unlike with framerates which are forced, a frame MUST update consistantly, and thusly we describe it as a frequency.

This is very close, but not quite accurate-- though that may just be a communication issue. Response time tells how quickly a pixel can change values. This is the reason, for example, that the original gameboy got really blurry when there was on-screen movement. The screen updated at a constant frequency, but the pixels on the screen actually weren't quite quick enough to go from white to black as quickly as the screen updated.

I could draw a graph. I love graphs, but most people don't.

Bottom line, if you have a really fast refresh rate you'll see less blurring when things move on your screen.

It's a misunderstanding of verbage.

I should have clarified that a monitor doesn't have a framerate... I was make an analogue to framerate because most people know what framerate is.

LCD panels have to display images over and over and have to 'refresh' or display new data each time the video card enters a new frame. Response time is how quickly it can respond since the last time it refreshed. The persistance of which isn't constant, because a given pixel on an LCD doesn't refresh always... for instance if it's continuousily black... the response time is completely negligeable.


This is opposed to a CRT display which records its refresh rate as a frequency (60 hz, 75 hz, etc). This is because its refresh IS persistent. If the CRT doesn't scan the screen repeatedly, the phosphors will not remain luminescent. And the screen would go dark. (this is also because there is no persistent backlight in a CRT either).

[Niode]

Anything stated on the box as far as response time is absolute bullshit. 2ms my ass. No budget LCD can achieve 5000:1 let alone 50000:1 (50000:1 is something that Plasmas and CRT's are capable of, not LCD).

The ms is the response time (aka the time it takes to go from black to black through the colour spectrum, however these companies cheat and do it from grey to grey) generally a sub 10ms display denotes that it is tn+film which is a much inferior technology to PVA screens (the better quality panel used in better screens), it is lightening fast though. They achieve sub 5ms response times by overdriving the screens, this causes inversion with fast moving scenes. This is a bad thing and depending on the screen, can be very noticeable and makes these screens unwatchable for me. The other problem is inversion of colours at angles other than 90 degrees. They also cause whites to be crushed (you see it a lot on cheapest of the cheap screen where white actually looks blue). It also means that less detail can be seen in the extreme of the colour spectrum, blacks/whites are crushed and less detail can be seen.

The 50000:1 is the contrast ratio of the screen. Denoting how many different shades of contrast from black to whitest of white the screen can achieve. Anything above 1000:1 on an LCD denotes that it is using dynamic contrast, which if you do any sort of gaming/video editing/photo editing you should turn it off because it won't give you consistent colours. So unless you're using your screen for just watching movies (even then, I find it distracting, but some don't) or internet/word processing then you need to turn the dynamic contrast shit off. Dynamic contrast is achieved by altering the contrast of the display depending on what type of scene is depicted on the screen. So a dark scene will turn the contrast up to see more details in the blacks, and a light scene will turn the contrast down as to not saturate the scene.

If you do decide to build your own system in the future you should use something like the Bit-Tech Hardware Buyer's Guide or Tom's Hardware Buyer's Guide for reference on what parts work well together and what gets you the best bang for buck.

[Octopod]

Thanks for all the info and advice guys. Always good to know this stuff.