Computer Forums - View Single Post - An Extensive Guide: Maximizing Performance, Minimizing Budget

Sora · 09-29-2007, 02:27 AM

RAM (continued from last post)
Some people don't even realize RAM can be overclocked as well. The process is quite a bit more complex than video cards but overclocking ram is also safe as long as you don't run it at too high voltage which will slowly deteriorate the memory. You can save yourself some money by buying ram that is cheaper but known to overclock. I favorite for the longest time was G.Skill, and it still is. This memory was incredibly cheap compared to other ram and overclock very well. There are always cheap ram that can overclock well and this could save you money. RAM can reach higher speeds by increasing the voltage in the BIOS. A safe voltage to run DDR2 is around 2.2v with heatspreaders and quality ram. For instance if you want to hit around lets say 3.0ghz with your E6320 then you will a lot of time need ram that can run at DDR2-857 speeds. since DDR2-857 and around there is quite an odd number and you wont find ram that is stock like that you will either have to buy higher rated memory such as DDR2-1000 or just simply up the volts and overclock your DDR-800 or so to those speeds and beyond. This really isn't that hard of a process to do but it can be complicated to explain. Look around and ask around and research which ram overclocks the best for cheap, times change and memory is always a product that the best bang for your buck is ever changing.

Part V: Cutting Costs Further

Since this is an extensive guide on cutting costs we have to go further than just the average. Here are some tips to further cut cost but keep performance high.

Choose the Right Case for you and your Budget

When you choose a case for your build you know what your tastes are if you like a side panel window, it has a certain color, or buy a certain company. While the case you choose should always appeal to you don't go overboard with your money if you are on a tighter budget. There are many good budget cases that give great cooling, are of high quality materials, and have a certain appeal to them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with putting a $1500 build in a case such as a CM Centurion 532 which is cheap, has a polish look to it, and has excellent cooling and durability. While it may not be the stylish there is it is definitely just about the best quality case you are going to get for around $50. You will hear people recommend cases such as the Antec 900 all the time becuase of its great cooling yet stylish look but yet much much more than the Centurion 532 without too much better cooling. Now regardless of what I say a lot of people still want a stylish case which is fine because I myself have a very flashy case. When looking to buy a case it should ALWAYS have front intake and back exhaust slots, and the slots both should usually be able to hold 120mm fans however there are good cases with only 80mm as one such as the Centurion 5. I may have a flashy case but I payed $70 for it aftershipping and it came with 2x120mm fans and a side 80mm. You want to check and see when purchasing a case how many fans it comes with because a decent 120mm fan is going to costs at least 6 or 7 bucks while a decent side one will be around 3 or so. A case may look like a good deal but come with no fans therefore upping the costs 15-20 bucks depending on which you choose, so that is always something you want to be aware of when purchasing the case. Pay attention to when buying your case too if a certain one has free shipping or not as well. I have seen cheaper cases such as the CM Elite which is a decent case go on sale for 29.99 with free shipping. Cases take $15 to ship on newegg and at least 9 or 10 on other sites I know of. if your budget is very tight then even $50 really is too much to spend on a case In my opinion. There are budget cases that can be had for around $30 with decent cooling and decent quality, most likely if your budget is low then you won't be buying any parts anytime soon that need extreme airflow such as a Quad-Core and Crossfire HD 2900XT's heh. Regardless of what I am suggestion, the case should be something you like and it is still entirely up to you. If looks really are important to you just make sure you aren't spending too much for a good looking and good airflow case either.

Monitors

I already touched on in Part I on how monitors effect performance and play a huge role on how powerful of a rig your computer is with your monitor depending on the size. You will find many different monitors the same size at all different price ranges, just as with everything. The specs on the most expensive monitors are usually very impressive however some of the cheaper monitors have great output quality and specs comparable to the more expensive ones for a significant amount less. Specs you should be aware of when choosing a monitor are of coarse it's size, contrast ratio, display colors, and response time. Depending on what your computer is going to be used for the specs you will want are different. If you are just using your computer for general surfing then the monitor does not matter much as long as it doesn't die on you. For gaming however you want a lower response time, when I say lower I mean such as 5ms response time. The expensive monitors come with 2ms which is very nice but think of how fast a millisecond really is... and 3 of them won't really matter too much. If you look at it that way 8ms wouldn't matter too much either really. Another thing you should look for is the Contrast ratio, this is mainly what makes an LCD look better than others. The ratio is usually a number such as a 500:1, 700:1, 1000:1, or above. The higher the first number in a contrast ratio usually will result in a more vibrant screen. When your looking to save some money you can buy a cheaper monitor such as the Hanns G line of monitors which look very good without spending too much. A budget 19inch now days will usually have a contrast ratio of 700:1 which is what I own. This ratio is plenty good enough for me and I still think my games and everything looks really good. You don't need a 2000:1 contrast ratio on a monitor for it to look excellent, or a 2ms response time to perform well. You have to decide what is good enough for you.

Hard Drives

Even though I didn't call an HDD a main component it still really is to get any kind of OS running and should take consideration as well. When you go to purchase an HDD you should have an idea on what size you will be using and or needing. Hard drives run at different RPM's and this usually decides on how fast a hard drive can access stores files on it. The most common are 7200RPM drives which have easily the best Price: Performance : Size ratio. A good 7200 drive such as a Seagate 7200.10 is usually plenty fast enough for most people. There are the 10,000RPM drives such as the WD Raptors, however their size is very small in comparison to the 7200's. They may be slightly faster in things but it's not really a huge difference, noticeable but not overly faster. It may take the time of load for something down from 10 seconds to 6 or 7 instead for about 3 times the amount of money, not really a very good Price: Performance : Size ratio if you ask me. RAID however can be used to combine multiple drives such as 7200's for increase speed while as well as doubling usually the space, some people regardless still want drives like Raptors but if you really want to cut cost then stick with a good 7200RPm drive and it will be fast enough most likely for you, and if you choose a single 7200RPm drive you can always set up a RAID configuration later down the road by buying another drive.

Thanks for reading this very long guide and I hope it helped you out in some way if you got this far. There will be more to come but this is what I have for now. There are always ways to cut cost and maximize performance if you look and try hard enough. Hard work and patience pays off well in the computer world.

09-29-2007, 02:27 AM	#4 (permalink)
Sora Renowned Budgeting Master Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Uniontown, PA Posts: 4,122	Re: An Extensive Guide: Maximizing Performance, Minimizing Budget RAM (continued from last post) Some people don't even realize RAM can be overclocked as well. The process is quite a bit more complex than video cards but overclocking ram is also safe as long as you don't run it at too high voltage which will slowly deteriorate the memory. You can save yourself some money by buying ram that is cheaper but known to overclock. I favorite for the longest time was G.Skill, and it still is. This memory was incredibly cheap compared to other ram and overclock very well. There are always cheap ram that can overclock well and this could save you money. RAM can reach higher speeds by increasing the voltage in the BIOS. A safe voltage to run DDR2 is around 2.2v with heatspreaders and quality ram. For instance if you want to hit around lets say 3.0ghz with your E6320 then you will a lot of time need ram that can run at DDR2-857 speeds. since DDR2-857 and around there is quite an odd number and you wont find ram that is stock like that you will either have to buy higher rated memory such as DDR2-1000 or just simply up the volts and overclock your DDR-800 or so to those speeds and beyond. This really isn't that hard of a process to do but it can be complicated to explain. Look around and ask around and research which ram overclocks the best for cheap, times change and memory is always a product that the best bang for your buck is ever changing. Part V: Cutting Costs Further Since this is an extensive guide on cutting costs we have to go further than just the average. Here are some tips to further cut cost but keep performance high. Choose the Right Case for you and your Budget When you choose a case for your build you know what your tastes are if you like a side panel window, it has a certain color, or buy a certain company. While the case you choose should always appeal to you don't go overboard with your money if you are on a tighter budget. There are many good budget cases that give great cooling, are of high quality materials, and have a certain appeal to them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with putting a $1500 build in a case such as a CM Centurion 532 which is cheap, has a polish look to it, and has excellent cooling and durability. While it may not be the stylish there is it is definitely just about the best quality case you are going to get for around $50. You will hear people recommend cases such as the Antec 900 all the time becuase of its great cooling yet stylish look but yet much much more than the Centurion 532 without too much better cooling. Now regardless of what I say a lot of people still want a stylish case which is fine because I myself have a very flashy case. When looking to buy a case it should ALWAYS have front intake and back exhaust slots, and the slots both should usually be able to hold 120mm fans however there are good cases with only 80mm as one such as the Centurion 5. I may have a flashy case but I payed $70 for it aftershipping and it came with 2x120mm fans and a side 80mm. You want to check and see when purchasing a case how many fans it comes with because a decent 120mm fan is going to costs at least 6 or 7 bucks while a decent side one will be around 3 or so. A case may look like a good deal but come with no fans therefore upping the costs 15-20 bucks depending on which you choose, so that is always something you want to be aware of when purchasing the case. Pay attention to when buying your case too if a certain one has free shipping or not as well. I have seen cheaper cases such as the CM Elite which is a decent case go on sale for 29.99 with free shipping. Cases take $15 to ship on newegg and at least 9 or 10 on other sites I know of. if your budget is very tight then even $50 really is too much to spend on a case In my opinion. There are budget cases that can be had for around $30 with decent cooling and decent quality, most likely if your budget is low then you won't be buying any parts anytime soon that need extreme airflow such as a Quad-Core and Crossfire HD 2900XT's heh. Regardless of what I am suggestion, the case should be something you like and it is still entirely up to you. If looks really are important to you just make sure you aren't spending too much for a good looking and good airflow case either. Monitors I already touched on in Part I on how monitors effect performance and play a huge role on how powerful of a rig your computer is with your monitor depending on the size. You will find many different monitors the same size at all different price ranges, just as with everything. The specs on the most expensive monitors are usually very impressive however some of the cheaper monitors have great output quality and specs comparable to the more expensive ones for a significant amount less. Specs you should be aware of when choosing a monitor are of coarse it's size, contrast ratio, display colors, and response time. Depending on what your computer is going to be used for the specs you will want are different. If you are just using your computer for general surfing then the monitor does not matter much as long as it doesn't die on you. For gaming however you want a lower response time, when I say lower I mean such as 5ms response time. The expensive monitors come with 2ms which is very nice but think of how fast a millisecond really is... and 3 of them won't really matter too much. If you look at it that way 8ms wouldn't matter too much either really. Another thing you should look for is the Contrast ratio, this is mainly what makes an LCD look better than others. The ratio is usually a number such as a 500:1, 700:1, 1000:1, or above. The higher the first number in a contrast ratio usually will result in a more vibrant screen. When your looking to save some money you can buy a cheaper monitor such as the Hanns G line of monitors which look very good without spending too much. A budget 19inch now days will usually have a contrast ratio of 700:1 which is what I own. This ratio is plenty good enough for me and I still think my games and everything looks really good. You don't need a 2000:1 contrast ratio on a monitor for it to look excellent, or a 2ms response time to perform well. You have to decide what is good enough for you. Hard Drives Even though I didn't call an HDD a main component it still really is to get any kind of OS running and should take consideration as well. When you go to purchase an HDD you should have an idea on what size you will be using and or needing. Hard drives run at different RPM's and this usually decides on how fast a hard drive can access stores files on it. The most common are 7200RPM drives which have easily the best Price: Performance : Size ratio. A good 7200 drive such as a Seagate 7200.10 is usually plenty fast enough for most people. There are the 10,000RPM drives such as the WD Raptors, however their size is very small in comparison to the 7200's. They may be slightly faster in things but it's not really a huge difference, noticeable but not overly faster. It may take the time of load for something down from 10 seconds to 6 or 7 instead for about 3 times the amount of money, not really a very good Price: Performance : Size ratio if you ask me. RAID however can be used to combine multiple drives such as 7200's for increase speed while as well as doubling usually the space, some people regardless still want drives like Raptors but if you really want to cut cost then stick with a good 7200RPm drive and it will be fast enough most likely for you, and if you choose a single 7200RPm drive you can always set up a RAID configuration later down the road by buying another drive. Thanks for reading this very long guide and I hope it helped you out in some way if you got this far. There will be more to come but this is what I have for now. There are always ways to cut cost and maximize performance if you look and try hard enough. Hard work and patience pays off well in the computer world. __________________ E6300 w/ Arctic Freezer Pro 7 @ 3.6ghz 1.4Vcore Antec 900 Case EVGA 750i FTW Mobo 2x1GB of DDR2-533 D9GMH Team Xtreme 4-4-4-12 @ 1030mhz 2.2v Gigabyte 8800GT 720/1800/1050 (eventually will SLI when they go down in price) Hanns G 19" Wide 5MS LCD 1 250GB WD and 1 Seagate 7200.10 in RAID 0 Corsair 520HX 3DMark06 Score: 13900 Last edited by Sora; 09-29-2007 at 12:38 PM.