Be sure to buy the highest quality hdmi cables too!

This was addressed by subsequent posters, but this is really not even close to true. Also, lol hard drives.

Thanks for missing the point completely. There is very little difference between monster hdmi cables and other hdmi cables.

I know but they are sold with the same kind of totally bogus logic you are using.

Just wanted to pop back in and say that I'm quite happy with how the build turned out with this purchase and would recommend it.

I recently build my first pc using the Zalman Z9 plus. I'm pretty happy with it, it comes with 4 fans, a fan controller and an LED temperature indicator. The fan at the back only has a molex connector though, which means it's quite loud.

I actually went with this PSU which is only 60$ and has some pretty good reviews

I'd say without a doubt the 7950 is the best 'bang for your buck'. It's only 5-10% slower than the 7970 at the same clocks and if you get the Sapphire version like the one linked below, you can get a pretty nice overclock without much difficulty. At $280 including rebate, I doubt there's a better deal around.

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DV...words=amd+7950

The 760 is a very good choice as well and is slightly cheaper from what I can tell. From the few reviews it actually appears to be slightly faster at stock clocks than than 7950. I would imagine the 7950 to have more overclocking headroom on average however due to it being voltage unlocked (for select manufacturers anyways, Sapphire and MSI among them), and the 7950 comes with a bigger memory bus and an extra GB of VRAM which may come in handy soon as games continue to become more and more demanding. If you don't want to have to upgrade your card for a while, I think the 7950 is more 'future proof' than the 760. I personally have a 690 and am thinking of selling in the near future and getting a 780 for just this reason, though I'll probably hold off on that for a while.

Good post, agree with all of it. Things like RAM and hard drives don't really have a noticeable impact on performance in most cases, even SSDs. What matters more than anything is your CPU and GPU, as they can easily bottleneck one another if one is way better than the other. PSU's and motherboards are fairly random in terms of reliability, just pick one that's well reviewed and by a decent manufacturer and you should be fine. Of course in the case of the mobo you also need to make sure it has all of the features you're looking for, and is compatible with the rest of your setup. This shouldn't be too hard, just ask around if you're not sure.

I'm looking at buying a new ~256GB SSD. What I have trouble with is deciding if I should go with a top end or more "value" line drive. For example, comparing the Samsung 840 pro to non pro versions, the pro is obviously faster, but is it really worth a 40% price premium? I play games and browse the internet, so I am thinking it isn't, but yet I am still talking myself into buying the pro. It is hard to know when most reviews focus on synthetic benchmarks that really mean nothing to me.

I ended up going with the 256 840 pro over the non-pro after doing some research back in December, but I don't remember what sold me I think if you're just playing games you'll be ok but if you do a lot of like video or audio encoding and copying large files back and forth it might justify it for you.

It doesn't matter

In terms of performance, there really won't be much difference in real-world applications for somebody who just wants to load their OS on and play the occasional game. The difference between the 840 and the 840 pro comes down to the memory they use and it's general longevity. The regular 840 uses TLC memory which isn't considered to be very reliable, failure rates are more common, etc. where as the 840 pro uses MLC memory. Like any newer product, neither have been out long enough to see their true failure rates from standard use, but the 840 pro had much better reliability when faced with 'torture tests' that stress the read and write capabilities of the drive. Take that for what it's worth. I chose the pro version for my rig - don't want to kick myself later on if something should go wrong that I cheaped out for a less reliable model.

Would anyone be so kind as to recommend me a mouse?

Use a Mac (lol?), play poker and WoW/CSS.

Have a SteelSeries Sensei raw atm. Don't really like it, it's too flat. I used to have a Logitech Performance M950 and I much prefer the shape of that, I HATE the fact that its a wireless mouse though - it makes it easier for me to throw across the room.

Was thinking of Razer - Imperenator or Steel Seeries Ikari.

If anyone has any recommendations though, I'm more then willing to listen!

Thanks guys

How long have you been using the mouse? You'll get used to the different shapes in a week or two. You might remember how much better the old one was until you try it again and then the reality strikes.

Just saying that SteelSeries Sensei RAW Rubberized is by far the best mouse I've ever used.

Who makes good gaming laptops these days?

I just got a new desktop with pretty decent specs, but I'm quite disappointed with the performance and there have been a couple hard freezes in the 2 weeks I've had it. What diagnostics programs can I use to figure out if something is wrong with it? Ran a RAM and processor test already.

Did you build it or buy it? Try listing the specs and something might jump out. What performance problems were you seeing and where did the freezes happen (BSOD or black screen)?

Get something like CPUID Hardware Monitor and check your CPU/GPU temps after running a game for a bit. If it's not a RAM problem, it's usually either something overheating (CPU/NB/GPU), a bad PSU, or bad MOBO.

I just bought a Asus HD 7870 for $250. First question, was this a fish move? Second question, a friend said I can get free games for registering the card, does anyone know if this is true and how do you do it?

For $250 you could have bought a 7950 or a 760, both of which would give you a good bit more performance than the 7870 you purchased. I see them going online for around $200-220, so it's not the end of the world or anything. As for whether you get free games, it depends. Where did you buy it from and what does the product page say? If there's any kind of bundle involved it will say on there assuming it's a fairly reputable place to buy video cards - or did you buy it at an actual store? If that's the case you'd have to call them up and ask.

My hunch would be that no, you don't get any games. AMD ended the 'never settle reloaded' game bundle promotion a while back, around the time when Nvidia released the 700 series, and that's probably what he was referring to.

Had it for about a year I think, and it's exactly the same mouse as you have. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

I should have stated that I'm in Australia and prices are a little higher here. For example a 7950 averages around 315. Shipping from anywhere apart from Asia is usually expensive as well.

Will it be a decent card for a few years at least?

I think you're right about the promotion. They said nothing about it at the store and there's nothing written on the box.

Thanks for the help.

I got Thermaltake Level 10 M for my birthday. Expensive but very very good imho. Read some reviews online.

Pro: Wired, very nice laser, decent software.

Razer Deathadder is only 35 bucks on amazon. Get the matte black one.

Bump

I see alienware was purchased by dell. Wtf?

I believe Alienware was purchased by Dell 4-5 years ago. I wasn't terribly surprised at the time, economies of scale being what they are. Re: gaming laptops- I would check out Razer's offerings. I have no firsthand experience, and I believe they are generally very expensive, but everything I read and hear is positive. I've never been in the market myself, but it sounds like you can effectively get a desktop capable machine in a laptop body if you are willing to pay for it. They are sometimes referred to as DTRs (desktop replacements). These types of machines have zero batter life however. If you are looking for something less expensive, maybe something that is more of an actual laptop that can do some gaming on the side, I would look into Intel's new HD5000 graphics. This is the integrated mobile graphics chipset in the newly released Haswell processor line. The performance is starting to get comparable to a bottom end discrete graphics cards. It will be more than capable of playing "indie-type" steam games and probably capable of getting by at lower settings of typical desktop type pc games.

These look very sharp.