# Christmas Rig for My Son



## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

I am giving my son some of my old gear with some new gear for XMas this year and just wanted to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything.  Here is the list so far:

MB: Asus M4A79 Deluxe (Used)
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 940 AM2+ (Used)
VGA: ATI HD4850 512MB XFire (Used)
RAM: Patriot Extreme 1066Mhz 5/5/5/15 (Used)
Sound: Razer Barracuda AC-1 Soundcard (Used)
Case: NZXT Gamma Series (New)
HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 750GB (New)
PSU: Rosewill Hybrid 2 730W (New)
Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Evo (New)
Fans: 4x CM R4 2000rpm Blue LED fans (New)
Fan Controller: Scythe Kaze Master (Used)
DVD: Samsung SATA Burner (New)
CCFL: Logisys Dual 12" Blue CCFL (New)

I keep all my old boxes/accessories, so everything is boxed/packaged in its original boxes with all of the accessories (except RAM, which is already installed).  

This will be his first "true" rig and he will be gaming on a 20" 1680x1050 monitor.  Think this will be sufficient for his gaming needs (Minecraft, BFBC2, BF3)  on Medium/High settings?  I know the components are a little dated, but $$ was a little tight this year, and all he wanted was a rig to game on. 

Anything you guys see that I am missing or forgetting?

Thanks!!!


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 14, 2011)

The video cards I would worry about, have you thought of getting him a 6870?


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## Athlon2K15 (Dec 14, 2011)

2 4850's should play about everything @ 1680 x 1050 the performace is equivalent to a 5850


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

Yea, that is my concern too, but a new card wasn't in the budget this year.  Maybe after the 1st of the year I can swing one for him.  I was afraid that was the response I was going to get though.  If they were 1GB cards I wouldn't be as concerned, but 512Mb might struggle with BF3.


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## BarbaricSoul (Dec 14, 2011)

512mb will struggle with BF3, but it is what it is. Just get him a better card when you can.


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 14, 2011)

AthlonX2 said:


> 2 4850's should play about everything @ 1680 x 1050 the performace is equivalent to a 5850



It will do decent son some games but high Vram using games such as BF3 will eat them up quick! a 1GB card would be better even if its a 5770 or 5850


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

BarbaricSoul said:


> 512mb will struggle with BF3, but it is what it is. Just get him a better card when you can.



Yea, this was the best I could do with the budget this year.  I tried to talk his mom (ex-wife) into chipping in with me to grab this used 5870, but she isn't up for it.  She thinks he spends too much time on his XBox as is, so no help there. :shadedshu

Other than the cards not quite being up to par, anything else I am missing?


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 14, 2011)

JATownes said:


> Yea, this was the best I could do with the budget this year.  I tried to talk his mom (ex-wife) into chipping in with me to grab this used 5870, but she isn't up for it.  She thinks he spends too much time on his XBox as is, so no help there. :shadedshu



Maybe sell the 4850s and then purchased a used 5850/70? Hell there was a guy on either hardforums or anandtech selling 5850s for 100$ or below.


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

brandonwh64 said:


> Maybe sell the 4850s and then purchased a used 5850/70? Hell there was a guy on either hardforums or anandtech selling 5850s for 100$ or below.



Yea, I think this is what I am going to do after Christmas, since I am out of time.  Thanks for the heads-up! I will keep an eye out for $100 5850s.


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## qubit (Dec 14, 2011)

I'm sorry JA, all I can see are those beautiful boobies and I can't tell what you've written at all...


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## BarbaricSoul (Dec 14, 2011)

I love boobies


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

qubit said:


> I'm sorry JA, all I can see are those beautiful boobies and I can't tell what you've written at all...





BarbaricSoul said:


> I love boobies



I'm here to do what I can to help the community.


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## entropy13 (Dec 14, 2011)

The cards are a worry as well, especially with just 512MB of vRAM.

You think you can get a relatively newer card, with some more RAM? Do you think you can spare some money? 


This HD 5870 looks a good deal at its price ($165)...if you can afford it.

There are GTX 465s (you can say they are GTX 470s) for $150 here and here.

A GTX 460 for $125.

HD 5830 at $75.


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 14, 2011)

5830 would be a great card as well!


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## Lazzer408 (Dec 14, 2011)

Your gfx choice is fine considering the CPU.  As for crossfire 5850s?  Your better off with a single 6850/70 then you are with 2 5850s that were suggested.  I quit using CF personally.  A single card gives me much better reliable, stability, compatibility, and performance.  Also, your using an AMD so giving it more driver overhead to deal with won't do you any favors in the FPS department anyways.

$.02


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

Lazzer408 said:


> Your gfx choice is fine considering the CPU.  As for crossfire 5850s?  Your better off with a single 6850/70 then you are with 2 5850s that were suggested.  I quit using CF personally.  A single card gives me much better reliable, stability, compatibility, and performance.  Also, your using an AMD so giving it more driver overhead to deal with won't do you any favors in the FPS department anyways.
> 
> $.02



The CPU is pretty sufficient.  I ran this setup until last February when I jumped over to a 965 for cheap.  The 940 will do 3.9Ghz in that board with 1.52v, which gave the cards some breathing room.  I just hope the 212 Evo will keep it cool enough to do it, like my Mugen did.


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 14, 2011)

AthlonX2 said:


> 2 4850's should play about everything @ 1680 x 1050 the performace is equivalent to a 5850



as a guy who had 4870s in crossfire and went to a single 5850 when one of them got eaten by a failing PSU.

its the *4870's* that are equivalent to a single 5850 - Both my 4870s were overclocked to to 800|1000Mhz and my 5850 was in at 920|1200.

Ive still got the benchmarks to prove it.


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## entropy13 (Dec 14, 2011)

There is also an HD 6950 1GB for $175 (thread title "FS: XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB") over at [H]ardocp. Then there's an HD 5850 for $135 (thread title "FS: Radeon 5850. Dell U2311H for Cols OH pickup").

A 5770 1GB (card only) is available for $80 (thread title "FS: Tons of stuff. CPU's, SSD's, GPU's, LCD's, iPhones, PS3, MBP, RAM, Galaxies +More"). Another 5770 from the same seller is at $85 (with box). There is also an HD 5870 at $160. Prices does not include shipping however.


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, but I won't be able to spend anymore (big) $$$ until after Christmas.  I just hope this will hold him over for a month or so.  I got laid off at the beginning of December, so the budget has been really tight this Christmas.  I got a new (better) job starting on January 2, so I will replace the cards at the end of January.  Thanks for all the help though.  You guys are the reason I love this community!


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 14, 2011)

Well those cards will do good until you are ready for upgrade


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## DOM (Dec 14, 2011)

Boobs


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## user25 (Dec 14, 2011)

Best Gaming Video Card ($179.99)
SAPPHIRE HD 6870 1GB

Core Clock 900MHz

1120 Stream Processing Units

Effective Memory Clock 1050MHz (4.2Gbps)

Memory Size 1GB

Memory Interface 256-bit

Memory Type GDDR5

DirectX 11

OpenGL 3.2

1 x HDMI

2 x Mini DisplayPort

2 x DVI

RAMDAC 400 MHz

Max Resolution 2560 x 1600

Eyefinity Support

CrossFireX Support

Fan Cooler

Dual-Link DVI Supported

HDCP Ready

ATI Eyefinity Technology

AMD HD3D Technology

AMD Advanced Parallel Processing Technology

3rd Generation TeraScale Engine

HDMI 1.4a support with Deep Color, 7.1 High Bitrate Audio and 3D Stereoscopic support

On chip HDCP Support

ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU support for highly scalable performance. (Use up to four discrete cards with an AMD 790FX based motherboard)

Enhanced Unified Video Decoder(UVD 3)

Dynamic power management with ATI PowerPlay technology including memory clocks

Dolby TrueHD and DTSHD Master Audio TM Support

Enhanced Internet Brower Applications


Best Gaming Motherboard ($186.97)
ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z

- LGA 1155 socket
- Supports 2nd Generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3
- Intel Z68 Chipset
- Real-time memory tuning
- ROG Connect / ROG iDirect
- Easy and direct OC control
- SupremeFX X-Fi built-in 8-Ch. HD audio
- 1 x Intel Gigabit LAN
- Intel Smart Response Technology
- Experience the Benefits of both SSD and HDD
- LucidLogix Virtu


Best Gaming Processor ($188.99)
Intel Core i5-2400

Specs: Quad-core 3.1GHz (3.4GHz max turbo frequency), 6M Cache, Intel HD Graphics 2000, 95 watt max TDP, Dual-channel DDR3 memory support, socket LGA1155

Quad-core processor delivers four-way multicore processing via parallelism resulting in more efficient use of processor

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also delivery power-conservation.

6 MB Intel Smart Cache is dynamically shared to each processor core, based on workload

All Core i5 processors have Intel Turbo Boost Technology


Best Gaming Memory ($84.99)
Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB DDR3

Designed for Sandy Bridge Platform and AMD Platforms

16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 for AMD, Intel Dual Channel processors and Sandy Bridge 2nd Generation Intel Core platforms

Intel XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) Support

Speed: 1600mhz

Timing: 9-9-9-24

Lifetime Warranty

Pin Out: 240-pin

Voltage: 1.5v


Best Gaming Power Supply ($89.95)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W

OCZ PowerWhisper Technology

Internal 135mm fan

SLI Certified

3 year warranty backed by OCZ's exclusive


Best Gaming Case ($79.99)
Cooler Master Storm Enforcer Mid Tower

Front I/O Panel with USB 3.0 (internal)
Tool-free for 5.25" device

Dust Filters on bottom and front intakes

Cable management for better cable routing

Reinforced front door protects your vital devices

Removable & Rotatable HDD cage for convenient installation

Support high-end graphics cards including AMD Radeon HD 6990 and NVIDIA GTX 590

Supports rear internal 120mm water cooling radiator


Best Gaming Hard Drive ($169.99)
Western Digital Caviar Green 2 TB

IntelliSeek - Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration.

And caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance.

And offer best-in-class acoustics and operating temperature and 3rd generation SATA interface.

WD Caviar Green hard drives reduce power consumption by up to 40%.

IntelliPower - A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate.


Best Gaming Monitor ($94.99)
ASUS VH197D 18.5-Inch LED Monitor

18.5" Wide(16:9)

5 ms Response Time

LED 10,000,000:1 (ASCR)

Splendid Video Enhancement Technology

10,000,000:1 (ASCR)

Source:
http://www.squidoo.com/best-gaming-computers-2012


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## THRiLL KiLL (Dec 14, 2011)

user25 said:


> Best Gaming Video Card ($179.99)
> SAPPHIRE HD 6870 1GB
> 
> 
> ...



meh, he could do a 5870 that would be a much better of a card  at cheaper price point. 

back on topic
For what you put into the system, he should be fine and at a later point upgrade the card. Im sure after xmas, you will see a bunch of new cards posted in the fs section.

as far as missing parts. internally you are good, externally, you still need mouse, keyboard, network cable, surge protector and speakers.


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

THRiLL KiLL said:


> meh, he could do a 5870 that would be a much better of a card  at cheaper price point.
> 
> back on topic
> For what you put into the system, he should be fine and at a later point upgrade the card. Im sure after xmas, you will see a bunch of new cards posted in the fs section.
> ...



Good Eye!  I got him this Logitech Combo.  It isn't the greatest, but budget was tight, so it works for now.  I have plenty of network cables & surge protectors, and he has a speaker set I got him for his Xbox.  Thanks for the reminder though about the Network Cable & Surge Protector.  I need to put those in a box!


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 14, 2011)

I wished you would have posted something about this, I could have sent you a dell KB/Mouse combo for the price of shipping.


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

Thanks for the thought man!  I appreciate it a lot.  Hindsight is always 20/20.


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## Irony (Dec 14, 2011)

qubit said:


> I'm sorry JA, all I can see are those beautiful boobies and I can't tell what you've written at all...



This is becoming an epidemic.....


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## Mr McC (Dec 14, 2011)

I would sell the 2 4850's and buy a single 5850, or similar, it is Christmas, after all.


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## Benetanegia (Dec 14, 2011)

Mr McC said:


> it is Christmas, after all.



Dude, this guy is making a gaming rig for his son without his ex-wife's approval. He's risking his life, that's a hell of a Christmas present!!


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 14, 2011)

I bet someone has a spare card they wouldn't mind trading him for the 4850's? Like the men said! ITS CHRISTMAS! Someone has to have a spare 5770/5830


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## Jstn7477 (Dec 14, 2011)

How much RAM are you putting in the system? BF3 and Minecraft (to an extent) love RAM, and I would try to have 4GB or more in there. Seeing that it's probably DDR2 1066 (from the CL5 listed) 4GB is probably the most I would go since DDR2 is so expensive versus DDR3.

512MB 4850s will probably struggle with BF3 as well. I would just save up and try to swing a 2GB card if you can. 4850s will probably be decent enough to hold him over for a while, though.


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

yea, It is 4x1GB Patriot Extreme 1066Mhz.  I have custom coolers on the 4850s (1 MSI 4890 Heatpipe cooler & 1 Zalman VF1000).  They are nice cards, they are just getting a little aged.  I think most of his time will be spent playing Minecraft so it should be OK for a month or two 'til I can grab him a 6870 or something.  I know BF3 is going to be a stretch for him to play with them, but we will make due.


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## Mr McC (Dec 14, 2011)

Benetanegia said:


> Dude, this guy is making a gaming rig for his son without his ex-wife's approval. He's risking his life, that's a hell of a Christmas present!!



Precisely, if her opinion is to be ignored, on this occasion, we may as well do it right. I owned two 4850's prior to my 5870 and I believe that he will notice the lack of memory in the latest titles, nor am I an advocate of Crossfire. I believe that at that resolution a 5850 will allow him to run everything at a more than reasonable level for the foreseeable future without any hassle. I was not at any point evaluating the generosity of the present.


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## Peter1986C (Dec 14, 2011)

Is BF3 such a card eater then? I now that I can play play Metro 2033 on a high settings with decent framerates (30-40 fps avarage in the Frontline benchmark, which simultates the most "busy" scene of the whole game (the rest being much calmer, and I think that my cpu bottlenecks me in the bench)) @1280x1024 @75Hz. Currently I am playing Clear Sky with the Complete mod installed and most sliders at ~85% (stuff like SSAO enabled, not sure about DoF though (if that is actually available for Direct3D 10)) and it is playable. Although I am not familiar with the frame rates because I did not measure them (might still do so though, b/c I will optimise looks and performance later on I think).
Minecraft performs @ ~70 fps even in balanced mode (thus with an artificial fps ceiling) and therefore should not be an issue.

Yes I know the res will be 16xx*xxxx and not 1280*1024 as in my case. But I use one HD 4850 and you will use two. The only real concern is power draw (with 2 4850s in CFX), but the other cards you have in mind are likewise thirsty.


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## itoxiczzhd (Dec 14, 2011)

If your waiting till the end of January you might want to check out the 7000 series cards, they appear to offer better performance than the 6000 and 5000 series cards for a lower price.


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

Mr McC said:


> Precisely, if her opinion is to be ignored, on this occasion, we may as well do it right. I owned two 4850's prior to my 5870 and I believe that he will notice the lack of memory in the latest titles, nor am I an advocate of Crossfire. I believe that at that resolution a 5850 will allow him to run everything at a more than reasonable level for the foreseeable future without any hassle. I was not at any point evaluating the generosity of the present.



Believe me I wish I could grab a 5870 for him, but unfortunately I was laid off from work at the beginning of this month, so I have to make due with what I have.  I start a new job on January 2nd, so I will be able to grab him a different card in a month or two, but right now this is all I can afford to do.  Thanks to all of you guys for the suggestions, but the budget is limited right now, and it is too late for me to try and sell these and grab a new one before Xmas arrives.



Chevalr1c said:


> Is BF3 such a card eater then?



Yes.  BF3 eats cards for breakfast and loves a lot of VRAM.  But I think since he will be playing DX10 on Medium settings, it will be "playable" for a month or two until I can replace them with current generation cards.


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## Mr McC (Dec 14, 2011)

JATownes said:


> Believe me I wish I could grab a 5870 for him, but unfortunately I was laid off from work at the beginning of this month, so I have to make due with what I have.  I start a new job on January 2nd, so I will be able to grab him a different card in a month or two, but right now this is all I can afford to do.  Thanks to all of you guys for the suggestions, but the budget is limited right now, and it is too late for me to try and sell these and grab a new one before Xmas arrives.



You have no worries, the present is fine as it stands and Epiphany appears to be a more logical time to provide gifts.


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## Iceni (Dec 14, 2011)

this thread reminds me of our son's computer 

We started him off with an X2 athlon about 2 years ago. Since then it's been upgraded a few times.

X2 athlon 939 DDR1 (X1950xtx)
P4 core 2 duo DDR2 (free upgrade at the time) (X1950xtx)
X4 Athlon BE DDR3! (x1950xtx)

This year for Christmas he's getting 4gb more system ram and An HD6870. 

It's hard work with kids machines, They don't understand why something doesn't always just work. You will also have a massive learning curve with your little man and keeping his system clean and running.

It took about 1 year of pretty much on tap system administration with our lad to keep him on top of his system. Now he's much much better, The next time he kills windows he's installing it himself tho!



If you were been a really cool dad you could always pick up some budget titles to have pre installed on the machine. Also build the PC before christmas, Get everything in and all the drivers on and working. That way your not having to sit for 8 hours on christmas day while you build a rig!!! Just wrap the boxes Chances are he will not look in them anyway.


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## JATownes (Dec 14, 2011)

Iceni said:


> If you were been a really cool dad you could always pick up some budget titles to have pre installed on the machine. Also build the PC before christmas, Get everything in and all the drivers on and working. That way your not having to sit for 8 hours on christmas day while you build a rig!!! Just wrap the boxes Chances are he will not look in them anyway.



I actually am going the other way with it.  I am planning on he and I spending the day after Xmas building the rig together (good bonding time).  I am going to let him do all the building, I am just going to supervise.  Then we have a week to tweak and tune it together (I don't start work til the 2nd).  I am going to teach him the appropriate steps to overclocking a machine through the BIOS, going one step at a time, stress testing, then bumping it another notch, stress testing again, etc.  None of that auto-overclock crap in my house.    He is 15 so this is the time for him to learn the hobby so he can tweak on his own.  

I already have him BFBC2, BF3, Minecraft, and both of the Bioshocks for him to play.  Plus he has access to my Steam account that has LOADS of games on it.  Should be a pretty badass Christmas for us both!!!


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## Iceni (Dec 14, 2011)

JATownes said:


> I actually am going the other way with it. I am planning on he and I spending the day after Xmas building the rig together (good bonding time). I am going to let him do all the building, I am just going to supervise. Then we have a week to tweak and tune it together (I don't start work til the 2nd). I am going to teach him the appropriate steps to overclocking a machine through the BIOS, going one step at a time, stress testing, then bumping it another notch, stress testing again, etc. None of that auto-overclock crap in my house. He is 15 so this is the time for him to learn the hobby so he can tweak on his own.



Damn that sounds like a lot of fun  I'd probably have done something like that with my boy, but he's got ASD, and it makes him very hyper. he gets bored easily, and would have probably spend a day moaning at me because it wasn't ready yet!

Our lad was only 12 when he got the first rig as well. 

I'm adamant he's sticking in his own GFX card tho  It'll be fun to watch him do it as he treats all computer gear like the crown jewels!!!



Ohhh just noticed your running 2x 6870's in crossfire... Why not pull one out of your machine and lend it to the rig till you can afford another at the end of Jan? That way you still get good performance on your machine all be it a little reduced, But your lad gets a huge GFx boost from the off. Then when you get the new cards you may be able to pick up a good deal on a 6950 or another 6870 cheap. In the UK i've seen the 6950 1gb at only £20 more than the 6870.


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## JATownes (Dec 28, 2011)

Thanks for all of the advice/suggestions.  The rig is up and running and I just wanted to let you guys know that the 4850s are enough to run medium @ 1680x1050 with about ~30-40 fps.  He is stoked and it was an awesome experience getting to watch him build his first rig.  THANKS AGAIN GUYS!!!


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## THRiLL KiLL (Dec 28, 2011)

glad to hear that he liked everything!!!


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## JATownes (Dec 28, 2011)

Here is a pic of him putting it all together:


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## BarbaricSoul (Dec 28, 2011)

Sweet deal man. I remember when the people here helped me build a computer for a ex-girlfirend's son. Even though it didn't work out between his mom and I, I'm still glad I was able to do that for him, with TPU's comunity's help. It was great.


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## R_1 (Dec 28, 2011)

BF3 is playable at High settings on your config. Also you got to turn off Antialiasing or set it to 2X. Actually the game is not so demanding. Sadly it is populated with bugs - notably memory leaks, affecting both VRAM and system RAM. For some comfort on Ultra you got to have 2GB VRAM and +8GB system RAM. Hopefully DICE will fix the bugs. Also all eye candies are in the Single player. Multiplayer is pretty lame on visual site. Some credit can be given when everything is set to Ultra , but it is not much.


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 28, 2011)

JATownes said:


> Here is a pic of him putting it all together:
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/111228/Tyler Building.jpg



He'll be sure to get the girls screamin more then justin bleiber when hes older


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## JATownes (Dec 28, 2011)

He already has to beat them away with a stick.  I already told him that I will kick his little jJstin Beiber looking ass if he gets one preggo!


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## entropy13 (Dec 29, 2011)

Justin Bieber with a deadmau5 hoodie?


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## Widjaja (Dec 29, 2011)

Lots of young guys are doing the 'swished to the side fringe' even though it's still close or is covering their eye sight even if they are not Bieber fans.

Either way I am sure he is pleased with his Christmas setup.

Did you watch over him like a hawk while he built that rig, telling him what to do like a back seat driver?


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## JATownes (Dec 29, 2011)

Widjaja said:


> Lots of young guys are doing the 'swished to the side fringe' even though it's still close or is covering their eye sight even if they are not Bieber fans.
> 
> Either way I am sure he is pleased with his Christmas setup.
> 
> Did you watch over him like a hawk while he built that rig, telling him what to do like a back seat driver?



He hates Justin Bieber!  But he damn sure looks like him.   Yes, I kept a very close eye on him.  He did really good though.  The only thing I did for him was apply the TIM & mount the cooler for him.  He was pretty nervous about that.


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## Kantastic (Dec 29, 2011)

You sure your kid doesn't hate Bieber because he's bagging Selena Gomez? I know I do! (Probably not an appropriate joke for most of you, but I'm only 18. )


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## entropy13 (Dec 29, 2011)

LOL I remember the Selena Gomez-Vanessa Hudgens-Mila Kunis "evolution chart".


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## Widjaja (Dec 29, 2011)

JATownes said:


> He hates Justin Bieber!  But he damn sure looks like him.   Yes, I kept a very close eye on him.  He did really good though.  The only thing I did for him was apply the TIM & mount the cooler for him.  He was pretty nervous about that.



I say better to be a bit nervous than not nervous at all when installing something for the first time.

Being a bit nervous make people more careful when installing things.

I still remember the first time I installed the Twin Turbo on my 4850.
I think installing the GPU cooler was up there with installing a 775 stock cooler for the first time.
Never liked the push pin setup.


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