I've come into the means of getting a desktop. I have a laptop already that can play most games but I'd rather finally build a desktop. I would like to keep it around $800 but could easily get to $1000.

It's foremost gaming PC but I'd like to use it as a media center to watch movies as well.

I know that many of you have gaming desktops and have some kind of expertise in this manner, any help would be appreciated.

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(23:27:48) PalmerTech: Just because you like it
(23:27:51) PalmerTech: Does not mean you are good at it
(23:28:09) Ampersand: I mean, Palmer likes being an admin here at MR

(21:53:13) PalmerTech: On one hand, I think I could be a good dad
(21:53:24) PalmerTech: On the other hand, most personality tests say my type makes a flax dad
(21:53:31) Zero: food...tomorrow

Put this together for a friend with the same budget, but it's for newegg.ca and the prices are probably better on newegg.com.
http://i.imgur.com/cP7bm.png
As far as a monitor goes, I'd recommend just getting something locally/from craigslist, it's a Sega to RMA a monitor because it broke during shipping or due to bad pixels, easier just to go to a tiger direct and get it replaced. It's also cheaper to get them used, a lot cheaper.

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I'll toss some stuff together perhaps. Do you have any parts on hand? Need monitor, mouse, keyboard?

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I need everything but a mouse. I'd like to find a super-nice monitor with more than one HDMI port because I'm going to use it for watching movies(Blu-rays via PS3).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... S%20VG23AH

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824236052

Both are good.

_________________
(23:27:48) PalmerTech: Just because you like it
(23:27:51) PalmerTech: Does not mean you are good at it
(23:28:09) Ampersand: I mean, Palmer likes being an admin here at MR

(21:53:13) PalmerTech: On one hand, I think I could be a good dad
(21:53:24) PalmerTech: On the other hand, most personality tests say my type makes a flax dad
(21:53:31) Zero: food...tomorrow

What's better about AMD than Nvidia? I have a i7 and 460m in my laptop. Nvidia hasn't let me down yet, same with the i7.

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(23:27:48) PalmerTech: Just because you like it
(23:27:51) PalmerTech: Does not mean you are good at it
(23:28:09) Ampersand: I mean, Palmer likes being an admin here at MR

(21:53:13) PalmerTech: On one hand, I think I could be a good dad
(21:53:24) PalmerTech: On the other hand, most personality tests say my type makes a flax dad
(21:53:31) Zero: food...tomorrow

Not a Dang thing. Per performance its more expensive, their drivers are flax, and their colour scheme isn't as cool.

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Since when is price/performance better with Nvidia?

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Since 500/600 series. The midrange 6xx cards are going to devastate ati, and the top of the line 6xx are a much better price point. Though, I will say, my main reason for not ever using ati, if I can help it, is because of their drivers. I mean, dear God, talk about horrid software.

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500 series was blown out of the water by the HD6000 series in price/performance, while the 600 series is hugely expensive compared to the 7000 series.(See: 7970s at ~$450 and 680s at ~$550 for the same performance, with the 7970 having a larger overhead for OCing) Driver wise, for daily use I've found Nvidia's drivers giving me a lot more hassle than AMD's, although you need third party programs to do application-specific video configs.

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So far as I recall, only through the hit or miss unlocking of 6850's into 6870's did ATI beat nvidia in price/performance. And with the advent of the quite affordable factory overclocked 560ti's, that advantage has been gone for awhile. And quite frankly, I have several Nvidia based rigs (8600gt, 9500gt, ion, 335m, 460m, 560m, 560ti, quadro 6000), and I've never, ever had driver issues, even with beta drivers. The ati systems I have dealt with (e-350 apu, 4610, 5870m and some old x1600) have been fraught with issues. The e-350's were pretty painless, but I never could get the 4610 to take a driver update without fritzing out and crashing. And the 5870 in the g73, well, 11 restarts, 2 BSODs and more than a few non fatal crashes was all it took to update drivers successfully. Which actually decreased render performance in solidworks, all said and done. Never did get the 4610 working; just replaced with an old 8600gt, which dropped in and worked fine.


For overclocking, I can honestly say I've never tried overclocking an ati chip, since its enough of a pain in the ass to get the things run normally. My 560ti has been nothing but a pleasure to overclock. Sitting happy at 975mhz since november with no trouble. And a 4xsli gtx 680 rig just took the performance crown in the 3dmark 11 hall of fame.

For current pricing, yeah, nvidia is more expensive, because they cant keep up with production. The 7970 has a $50 higher msrp, so when nvidia gets production ramped up, the ati is gonna cost more.

All said and done, I firmly believe nvidia to be better. I suppose when 80% of your experience with a company has been a complete pain in your ass, you tend to dislike their product. Stack on that all of nvidia's goodies, like physx, cuda, and better 3d support, and it pretty much follows that Nvidia is better.

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