Video card

Build update – HIS Radeon 7850 is in!

My HIS Radeon 7850 came in a day after I had ordered it from Newegg, and the reviews on the site were right.  I tried Metro2033 on 1920×1080 and on on max settings, as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic, again on all max settings, and it ran without a a hitch.  As of now, I am totally pleased with how this build has come together, and how it’s running.  I might upgrade my sound card soon, and maybe go water cooling, just because the fan on the Cooler Master heatsink/fan is noisy.  Will pick up another 2 TB of HDD storage (to replace an aging 750 GB and a 1 TB drive) as well as a BD burner optical drive to round off and complete the build as is.  But as of now, the core components are in, and running smoothly.  Time to install Photoshop and Lightroom to see how they do.

 

My new HIS Radeon HD 9850 next to my old XFX ONE Radeon HD 5xxx

My new HIS Radeon HD 9850 next to my old XFX ONE Radeon HD 5xxx

And the build continues….

I picked a case finally! I went with Fractal Design’s Define R4, and it is such a nice solid case.  very minimal in design, yet it stands out.  I was very pleased with the quality, and the like, and just the overall attention to detail on the case.  I have photos I will post up soon, as well as nice little write up.  I also purchased PC Power and Cooling’s Silencer MK III.  It matches up perfectly with the interior of the case, w/ it’s white paint scheme, going well with the Defines white drive cages, and slot covers.  It also helps that the case was on sale at Microcenter, which I was able to pick up, and the PSU was also on sale.  Saved a good $60.00 or so.

And lastly, I picked out a video card.  My new rig will be visually powered by an HIS H785F2G2M Radeon 7850, with 2 GB of GDDR5 RAM.  It has a perfect 5 eggs in it’s user ratings, and for under $200.00, it’s a great value.  I cannot wait to get it all fully up and running.  I will list down my full specs on this rig, as well as thoughts on performance.  Maybe some benchmarks.

 

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My new video card!

 

 

My PC build continues…

So I may have mentioned before, I just recently built a new PC. I went from an Intel Core2Quad Processor to a 3rd generation i5, and at the core, it’s plenty quick. I had to upgrade my motherboard for obvious reasons, and doubled up my RAM. (from 8 to 16GB, although, the guy at Microcenter gave me PC1333, I can live with it for now) For financial reasons, I held out on a new case, and video card. I think I have narrowed my case to either the Fractal Design  Define R4, and the Antec P280.

Fractal Design Define R4

Fractal Design Define R4

Both have very minimalistic design, and it’s more geared toward’s quietness.  Tom’s Hardware recently had a quite case round up, and the Define came up on top.  I just can’t forget Antec though, as I had an SX1030B in the past, and I absolutely loved it.  I had to let it go since I received a Thermaltake Xaser III courtesy of    Thermaltake.  I looked at some of their (Thermaltake) offering’s and it was too loud in style.

Antec P280

Antec P280

In any ‘case’, I hope to pick up either one of the above listed cased on my short list, and then move on to picking out a video card.

My current case - Thermaltake Xaser III

My current case – Thermaltake Xaser III

My old favorite - Antec SX1030B

My old favorite – Antec SX1030B

 

 

Links –

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/antec-p280-azza-silentium-920-cooler-master-silencio-650,3325.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/corsair-obsidian-550d-fractal-design-define-r4-gigabyte-luxo-m10,3356.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/lian-li-pc-b12-nanoxia-deep-silence-1-silverstone-ft-02s-usb3,3378.html

 

 

New rig -update-

Well, I finally sorted out my Windows 8 mess, and I am finally up and running, and slowly start re-installing programs and what not.  That should take another week or so.  So far, I am loving it.  The system is nice and quick, and as we speak, I am downloading and installing Metro2033 from my Steam, as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic to see what this system can do.  Sure it’s not exactly the latest games out there, but at least I’ll know what’s what, and see what I need to fix, tweak, or what not.  I do know my current video card, an AMD Radeon HD 5xxxx series card (XFX ONE +Edition) is quite old.  I still need to get a new case, and sort out my other HDD‘s.  I most probably will get a 2 TB HDD for storage and programs.

As far as Windows 8 goes, it’s nice and shiny, and so far I like the new things they have added (Metro UI).  I still need to dive deeper into it, and see what other goodies they have.  I will keep you guys updated for sure.

And I do have some ideas to implement in terms of this site.  This will be an exciting year for sure.

Update: Metro 2033 played pretty crappy, and it’s a clear indication I need a new video card.  It was very choppy at best, not slide show bad, but unplayable bad.  Company of Heroes played very well.  SWTOR, well, I still can’t install it.