TE PC Buying Guide March 2010

I think buying guide would be more useful, if you exclude monitor, speakers, monitor, keyboard and mouse from them. You could provide suggestion for these separately.
 
dark angel thanks for the guide as usual keep up the good work.

@harakiri if ppl do want to buy the monitor, cabby, speakers of their choice they are free to do so..
 
Can you post comparative specs for the below budgets with Intel processors and compatible mobos?

General Purpose Home Machine(Budget 21k)
General Purpose Home Machine + Casual Gamer (Budget 28k)
Low End Gaming Rig (Budget 35k)
Med End Gaming Rig (Budget 45k)
Med End Gaming Rig (Budget 65k)
Home Theater Enthusiast
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I also saw that for home theater enthusiast you have taken only onboard graphics chip instead of dedicated card. Will that suffice for 1080p playback?
 
6pack said:
Can you post comparative specs for the below budgets with Intel processors and compatible mobos?

I also saw that for home theater enthusiast you have taken only onboard graphics chip instead of dedicated card. Will that suffice for 1080p playback?
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+1
That would be sweet, though i wonder if its asking too much :ashamed: .

And yes, the HD4200 won't have problems with 1080p/HD playback.
 
PoBoy said:
Where can one find a review for PSU/SMPS FSP SAGAII 350w 1450 ? Or any SAGA II ?
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Not able to find any comprehensive review. Just went with the Brand name and few user opinions in TE. PPl run similar configs with generic PSU's. This is certainly much better. The load on that system with 5670 will be typically around 150-170w in full load. Mostly the idle/ normal power usage will be 70-100w. So the FSP SAGAII should be able to handle it with ease :)

6pack said:
Can you post comparative specs for the below budgets with Intel processors and compatible mobos?

I also saw that for home theater enthusiast you have taken only onboard graphics chip instead of dedicated card. Will that suffice for 1080p playback?
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Will try posting alternate intel ones in a day or two. Went with AMD as they were more VFM at those price points for gaming rigs.

talsilo said:
Any particular reason why u have chosen Gigabyte GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H for the Home Theatre enthusiast instead of Biostar TA785G3 which is 2k cheaper?
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This Gigabyte's quality is very good according to few reviews. Wasnt able to find Biostar reviews of that particular model. So went with the Gigabyte as didnt consider a particular budget for the home theater. If ppl are on a low budget they can consider the Biostar ones too.

j1n M@tt said:
Nice work Dark Angel. Keep it up :)

btw I agree with your suggestion on 1 TB WD with 5 yrs of warranty, but Seagate 7200.12 1TB beats WD 1TB in performance. so it's better for people going for performance rigs. They won't be using those HDDs for their new rigs after 3yrs from now.
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Wasnt able to find any reviews comparing Seagate 7200.12 and the WD Black. Just went through few benchmarks and it seems the WD 1TB Black is not as good as the 2TB Black and only only faster than the Seagate in few benchmarks. Will try to search for reviews and then make the changes. Thanks for pointing it out :)
 
thx for the guide! After going through it, I had gone to buy the components on saturday in Mysore. I was quoted the price of 2000 for CM Elite 310. Has the price gone up so much or am I being taken for the Elite ride :D

Also, VX450 was not be found. Hence had my purchase has been postponed by couple of days :(
 
askids said:
thx for the guide! After going through it, I had gone to buy the components on saturday in Mysore. I was quoted the price of 2000 for CM Elite 310. Has the price gone up so much or am I being taken for the Elite ride :D
Also, VX450 was not be found. Hence had my purchase has been postponed by couple of days :(
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These are metro city prices. Most things may not be available in Tier-II cities and prices are also little higher.

You can check the Dealer's paradise section and get the items shipped to your place. Even shipped prices of most items will work out to be cheaper than local prices in places like Mysore.
 
Amien said:
Better binned server grade silicon that will likely OC better at lower voltage with the same base architecture as the desktop counterparts.
1156 = X3440 (HT for just a bit more than the i5 750)
1366 = W3520
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Yes agreed they are binned higher and have certain additional features then a desktop CPU which make them more reliable, other then that there is no difference but that still doesnt make sense for a gaming rig to spend bomb.

We have to also think about the motherboard, chipset and the memory for it?

A Xeon workstation for Cad/Cam, graphics designing other workstation tasks and multitasking would be money spend well.

After all who requires additional features of ECC that will never let you top the gaming benchmarks.

So if you are also doing the above related tasks then yes you might consider a Xeon.

Again these are all my thoughts.:)
 
that is a very good guide....

but in ur mid end gaming rig( 45k), why one wud go for 5770 and not 4870, when its better than that...

i know 5770 is DX11 card...but 4870 dx10 wud be dominant factor over dx11

and as for high end ( 116k), better xfire 2 4870's, or 4890's...but that wud be 25k on cards

and yes...nowhere, at least on the internet, was i able to find 5850 for 16k....minimum i saw was 17k
 
One optional change I would suggest is an Athlon II X4 620 Quad Core instead of the 240 in the General Purpose home machine. From personal observation, I noticed that adding 2K for an extra couple of cores seriously increases desklife of a home computer. Its an investment worth making.
 
draglord said:
that is a very good guide....

but in ur mid end gaming rig( 45k), why one wud go for 5770 and not 4870, when its better than that...

i know 5770 is DX11 card...but 4870 dx10 wud be dominant factor over dx11

and as for high end ( 116k), better xfire 2 4870's, or 4890's...but that wud be 25k on cards

and yes...nowhere, at least on the internet, was i able to find 5850 for 16k....minimum i saw was 17k
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It you are not able to find then it means you have not searched properly. Why search all over the net. Chk TE first. Chk dealers paradise section. Sapphire HD5850 is selling for Rs.15750 now.:)

http://www.techenclave.com/dealers-paradise/deal-week-sapphire-hd5850-15750-happy-160827.html

Main reason is DX11 and power consumption. The HD4870 and HD5770 has similar performance. The HD5770 is about ~5-10% slower/faster in most games. Also when going for a newer rig it is sensible to go for DX11 card. Plus it has amazingly lower max power consumption of 108w at max load(very low idle power too). Lets your rig run on a cheper PSU.

Power Consumption

Far Cry-2

Resident Evil-5

IMO when going for a new rig it is better to go for a single faster card and go for Crossfire later when performance is needed. This increases the longevity of the rig and also saves ppl few bucks.
 
the power consumption is definitely low....but the performance is not 5% less....also, if i were to buy a new pc, i'd got for a high quality PSU, so that i dont have to worry in case i overclock or add a little upgrade later

but waiting for prices of 5xxx series card so that to crossfire them later, when the prices drop, doesnt seems bad

and as for crossfire, if i go for a single card so that i can xfire it in the later stages, i can always wait....cant i?>
 
draglord said:
the power consumption is definitely low....but the performance is not 5% less....also, if i were to buy a new pc, i'd got for a high quality PSU, so that i dont have to worry in case i overclock or add a little upgrade later

but waiting for prices of 5xxx series card so that to crossfire them later, when the prices drop, doesnt seems bad

and as for crossfire, if i go for a single card so that i can xfire it in the later stages, i can always wait....cant i?>
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Well there is a budget constraint when i am making a reference guide. I had to fit in all the components with in a particular budget. All the price points i have considered are rather sweet spots. Mostly ppl who ask for rig advice in TE have these budgets. Say Gaming rig for 30-35k, 45-50k etc...

If you have the budget then plz go for it. You may already own a competent gaming rig. So if someone already own a HD4870 then it definitely doesnt make sense to upgrade now to a HD5770. But for one who is going for a new rig its sensible IMO. If someone is looking to upgrade their GPU within a year then it is better to go for the HD4870. If not i would advice them to go for the DX11 card.

I had suggested what i felt is the best within a certain budget. I give importance to few aspects of a card and someone else can give importance to some other aspects of the card. Its up to the buyer whether he takes the advice or not.

hector19 said:
Y no Nvidia Cards ? :(
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Lacks DX11, higher power consumption in the in the higher end. Not VFM in the lower end. For example the HD5670 is better performer than a GT240 and is cheaper too. Hope Nvidia comes back with a bang through Fermi as that will cause lowered prices of ATI DX11 cards :) Better for us.
 
from ur point of view, its absolutely right to give out the best possible and latest choices...
wat i was trying to say was, u can always give out options, if not this, then this

like for a mid end system, 5830 wudnt be a bad choice either
and a 4890 is also competant
 
Personally I don't care about Dx11 on ati cards ......... Almost nothing uses it and Hd5xxx series has a bug which limits its performance a lot at high resolutions due to Dx11 ....... I would rather go for a HD4850 for 1.5k less than HD5750 .......
 
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