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red_devil
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Location: Korea
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 Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 4:41 am Post subject: PC Gamer Discussion Topic |
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I notice there are quite a few of us "hardcore" PC gamers on this forum who also talk a lot about building computers and components, etc. Instead of a billion topics i figured maybe we could all consolidate in this topic and get it made a sticky.
Anyways, i'm finally looking to get my gaming rig. I don't have time to put it together so i'm checking out some places. I like the looks of http://www.icoda.co.kr/n_product/ so i might go there in person and see what it'll cost me. Also, there's the multi-level tech plaza at the Nambu Bus Terminal (closer to me than going to Yongsan) that i might check out but all those small shops there can be unreliable and nightmare to deal with so i might skip it.
This is the core components:
- Intel� Core� i7 960
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480
- 6GB Triple Channel 1600MHz DDR3
- 2TB RAID 0 (2x 1TB SATA-II, 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache HDDs)
- Liquid Cooling system
Totally excited to play upcoming Medal of Honor, Call of Duty: Black Ops. |
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8 years down
Joined: 16 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 5:12 pm Post subject: |
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Should be good. Although if I was spending that much on a new system right now I'd get 2 x 460 instead of the single 480. Around the same price (even a bit cheaper) and the sli 460s destroy the single 480 by a fair amount in every benchmark.
My system :p
i7 920 d0 @4.0GHz
GTX 460 1gb
6gb ddr3 1333
Antec 902 |
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red_devil
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 3:44 am Post subject: |
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| Oh really? I didn't know that about the 460s. What did you end up paying? I need to do some research on SLi. |
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8 years down
Joined: 16 Dec 2009
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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Wouldn't any savings gained in buying two GTX460's for SLI be lost in the cost of the bigger and better PSU you would need to run two GPU's? As well as the higher power bills?
I'm not sure myself. Just asking.
If I was going the SLI/Crossfire route then I'd want two GPU's that have really low power consumption when idle. The thought of two power-hungry GPU's constantly burning away juice in my systems, even if I'm just surfing the net, would put me off. |
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red_devil
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
Wouldn't any savings gained in buying two GTX460's for SLI be lost in the cost of the bigger and better PSU you would need to run two GPU's? As well as the higher power bills?
I'm not sure myself. Just asking.
If I was going the SLI/Crossfire route then I'd want two GPU's that have really low power consumption when idle. The thought of two power-hungry GPU's constantly burning away juice in my systems, even if I'm just surfing the net, would put me off. |
Isn't there a video option in Windows 7 to "Allow Windows to manage graphics acceleration"? Which means your graphics cards should only kick in when gaming or doing heavy video stuff. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:54 pm Post subject: |
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| I don't know if Windows can control GPU wattage.......I do know that the ATI 5000 series has seriously low power consumption at idle....like 25w or something......I'm wondering if Nvidia cards can do the same thing. |
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red_devil
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:52 am Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
| I don't know if Windows can control GPU wattage.......I do know that the ATI 5000 series has seriously low power consumption at idle....like 25w or something......I'm wondering if Nvidia cards can do the same thing. |
Not wattage, but you can control fan and when the graphics card actually kicks in. |
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8 years down
Joined: 16 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 1:39 am Post subject: |
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460s are built on a different Fermi chip and consume far less power than its 465, 470, and 480 brothers.
For SLi 460s, a 650 - 750w PSU is recommended. That's very average for a gaming rig.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-sli-review/15
That wattage shown is total system watts by the way (on an i7 system), not just the cards. The reason a 650-750PSU is recommended is because they run most efficiently at 50% - 60% of their load. |
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noky
Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Location: Yeongcheon
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| Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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| 8 years down wrote: |
| 460s are built on a different Fermi chip and consume far less power than its 465, 470, and 480 brothers. |
True but that doesn't offset for the fact that you are powering two GPUs. Under load we're looking at a difference of about 60w (408 vs 470). If you have a monster rig, you might very well have excellent airflow but more power will be required and more heat will be generated. When idling, the two 460s end up taking LESS power though (which is expected but not what we care about -- I never heard of an unstable GPU crashing while running Windows Explorer).
Also of note is that the idle temps of the SLI rig will be considerly higher (about 20 degrees) while the load temps will only be a little higher. This means while you're not gaming, you're CPU and RAM are still suffering from excess heat. Heat causes wear.
In the end, this all may be negligible. There's a good chance if you're willing you drop this much cash on a rig then you're willing to replace it in another year or two anyway. Also, there's no need to over-clock a system with this much power.
The 460 SLis scale really well. Even so, I wouldn't do it. It seems most of the engines tested are designed for nVidia and DX11 and therefore biased. Not to say the 460s wouldn't continue to win I just doubt the margin would be that great. In addition, SLI in Linux still isn't complete (but then again that could be said about graphic performance as a whole). |
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8 years down
Joined: 16 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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| noky wrote: |
True but that doesn't offset for the fact that you are powering two GPUs. Under load we're looking at a difference of about 60w (408 vs 470). If you have a monster rig, you might very well have excellent airflow but more power will be required and more heat will be generated. When idling, the two 460s end up taking LESS power though (which is expected but not what we care about -- I never heard of an unstable GPU crashing while running Windows Explorer).
Also of note is that the idle temps of the SLI rig will be considerly higher (about 20 degrees) while the load temps will only be a little higher. This means while you're not gaming, you're CPU and RAM are still suffering from excess heat. Heat causes wear.
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The OP is on liquid cooling. There is no way in a million years adding a 2nd 460 (which idle at 28-30c) will raise his idle case temps 20 degrees.
Anyways, I don't use sli at the moment myself so I'll shut up. Good luck with your rig OP! |
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noky
Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Location: Yeongcheon
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| Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:30 pm Post subject: |
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| I sadly admit to only really thinking about the default 460 SLI vs 480 and did not consider the OP's specific setup. In a liquid cooling situation, temps are not going to be a problem. |
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sheriffadam
Joined: 10 May 2010
Location: Busan
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 6:56 am Post subject: |
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| what kind of liquid cooling setup? Is it easy to obtain from within Korea? Or lots of orders from the US? |
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Morticae
Joined: 06 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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Red Devil, could you link to that PC? I couldn't find it on the site.. then again, I can barely navigate it or find anything.
I was trying to determine if I should buy a gaming laptop from the U.S., or a desktop within Korea. The laptop could travel around with me, the desktop I don't know. I do plan on being here a couple years, though, so maybe. |
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lalartu
Joined: 29 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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I made the best gaming decision of my life and bought a Gateway Gaming Laptop while in Canada during the boxing day sale.
It was 700$ and totally awesome
I used to be one of those people thinking that laptops would never be able to catch up to desktops in terms of gaming, but I think modern technology had developed to the point when laptops are becoming superior to desktops.
The reason why it is particularly good to get this as an ESL teacher is because you're expected to move a lot and may even go to another country and all you need for this laptop to work is a 20$ adaptor that I bought in Lotte department store.
So i would definitely suggest skipping on buying an oversized desktop (i did so my first year and had to sell it off because i moved back home for a while and shipping it is too expensive) and get a versatile gaming machine instead.
PRO
versatility - gaming in the public library/school during break/
very powerful
cheap (relative to a desktop with same specs)
play all games...ALL games. i played crysis on highest settings and obviously starcraft 2 as well. the few games that gave me trouble would work fine with medium settings
great for pc gamer outings/lan games
CON
gets hot, so need a cooling pad (30$), although usually i just place it on an inclined box and it runs just as well
hard to clean the insides. taking it apart isnt as convinient as PC
harder to upgrade (not nearly as hard as it used to be though)
easy to destroy (im especially scared of spilling something on it, as i often used to spill shit on my keyboard)
potentially stealable if you dont keep a good eye on it
screen size is fixed, but in my case it's 17.5" which is pretty damn big for a laptop. |
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