[teknicsand]

Originally Posted by cranky

Yup.

The issue you will face is that there are no cables that ship standard with TRS on one end and RCA male on the other.

A very cheap way of solving this problem is to use two headphone adapters, these have TRS 6mm male and a hole for a 3.5mm headphone jack. You will need two 3.5mm-RCA male cables, these should be about 150 bucks or so for a decent one. You plug the headphone jacks into the adapters and the adapters into the soundcard. The red male plugs from both cables then plug into the female of the adapter provided by MX. Trouble is, there are too many metal-to-metal contacts with this method.

You should just get a custom cable made that has two TRS 6mm plugs on one end and a 3.5mm stereo on the other. Any soldering-capable repairman will make it for you with the right plugs and a length of 'headphone' cable, essentially two shielded cables in figure 8 form.

I did just that (cheap method)!! I went out and bought 2 TRS plugs and 2 RCA cables. I agree, too many contacts to my liking as well. Lets see if the quality suffers or if there is any disturbance.

Do you use the 192 as well?

[cranky]

No. I have a Delta 66, a few generations behind but I modded it enough so analog performance is much better than it was. It has a pseudo-balanced out (no harm in shorting the cold end). I also have a E-mu 1212m on another computer with a heavily modded analog daughter board, though that feeds a DAC from its digital out. Don't use the analog section any more.

Edit: I make all my cables by myself No problems at all.

[PatienceWins]

My desktop has been giving issues and I want to go for a new one. It is a 7 year old Intel P4 system with upgraded RAM (1.5 gb DDR), hard disk, lan card, LCD monitor etc.

I am not a guy who changes items easily - I have been using my digital camera for the last 8 years, bike for 11 years etc . So, I want to go for a medium end, value for money system that can serve me for atleast 4-5 years.

My usage will be browsing, movies, downloading (heavy usage) and occassional gaming. This machine will be mainly used by my children (for games, cartoons etc). I mostly use my laptop, so I am not in a hurry to get this system and ready to wait for some time (if required).

I am thinking about going for the following configuration.

Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) Desktop Processor
Gigabyte H67 UD2H B3 rev 1.1
Corsair 1*4GB DDR3 1333 MHz C9 Desktop Memory (will add one more later, if required)
Corsair 550W Power Supply
Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced Computer Case or NZXT Gamma Case
Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA Hard Drive (will use my current 500 GB, new one, as slave)
LG DVD

I got this configuration based on my limited research. So, please give your recommendations.

I understand that intel SandyBridge comes with integrated graphics card. Will I be able to play medium games like FIFA, Mafia2, NFS etc on this? If not, I will get a dedicated graphics card later. Any recommendations here?

[reignofchaos]

You won't be able to play any new games with intel onboard. Also the sandybridge cpu has a dual channel memory controller. As a result you must put two DIMMs for best performance. Otherwise it'll be slower than what it should be.

[mercedised]

@patiencewins: Core i7 2600k is what you should also look for. It is one of the best till now I have ran of the lot of Intels. Has a good gaming performance.

Otherwise, you could also wait for AMD Bulldozer, the release date is near.

[ByDesign]

I opened page one of this thread, saw all the specs and I was pretty shocked haha! Then I realized those posts were from 2004!

My specs are as follows -

1. CPU - AMD Athlon II X3 435 (2.9 Ghz stock)
2. Mobo - Biostar TA790GX A3+ (Got it for the dual PCIE slots)
3. Graphics - MSI R5770-PMD1G 1GB DDR5 (AKA ATi Radeon 5770, I have a slot for another one, when I feel the need)
4. RAM - G-Skill Ripjaw DDR3 4GB
5. Power - CoolerMaster GX 750W
6. Monitor - 24" BenQ 2420HD LCD @ 1920x1080
7. HDD - [500GB WD]+[250GB Seagate]+[1TB Seagate]+[2TB WD] = 3.75 TB

This is my first desktop PC, which I bought myself of course. Handles every recent game at 1920x1080 resolution, all settings turned up UP UP! Though I'm starting to feel the pressure on games like NFS Shift 2, and Black Ops. That's why I've got room for another 5770! Plus I'll probably be upgrading to a hexa core soon. Movies are tv shows are beautiful on a 24 inch monitor.

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

I am thinking about going for the following configuration.

Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) Desktop Processor
Gigabyte H67 UD2H B3 rev 1.1
Corsair 1*4GB DDR3 1333 MHz C9 Desktop Memory (will add one more later, if required)
Corsair 550W Power Supply
Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced Computer Case or NZXT Gamma Case
Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA Hard Drive (will use my current 500 GB, new one, as slave)
LG DVD

I got this configuration based on my limited research. So, please give your recommendations.

I understand that intel SandyBridge comes with integrated graphics card. Will I be able to play medium games like FIFA, Mafia2, NFS etc on this? If not, I will get a dedicated graphics card later. Any recommendations here?

I'd suggest you get two 2 GB RAM sticks instead of a single 4GB. Dual channel advantages etc. Also, I'd suggest you go AMD instead of intel, way more bang for buck. Get a 1090T processor. Can't go wrong with 6 cores. Also, as mercedised said, you could wait for the new 8 cores from AMD! No way you'd be able to play decent games without a dedicated graphics card. My vote goes for ATi. Look at the new 6 series line.

[mercedised]

Originally Posted by ByDesign

This is my first desktop PC, which I bought myself of course. Handles every recent game at 1920x1080 resolution, all settings turned up UP UP! Though I'm starting to feel the pressure on games like NFS Shift 2, and Black Ops. That's why I've got room for another 5770! Plus I'll probably be upgrading to a hexa core soon. Movies are tv shows are beautiful on a 24 inch monitor.

Hello, Could you explain how the use of 2 graphics card will help, Is there any provision of interfaced graphics cards which could use each others memory and yet the output is single. (to the monitor)?

Also which graphics card will be good under 7K Rs? I am a Nvidia fan, but would'nt mind trying ATI either.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by mercedised

Hello, Could you explain how the use of 2 graphics card will help, Is there any provision of interfaced graphics cards which could use each others memory and yet the output is single. (to the monitor)?

Also which graphics card will be good under 7K Rs? I am a Nvidia fan, but would'nt mind trying ATI either.

. First of all your motherboard should have slots for two graphics cards. The current graphics cards use PCI-X16 for fast rendering.
. Your power supply should have connectors to power the graphics cards. Many of the mid level onwards cards require at least 150W, so your power supply should be at least 600W, preferably 1000W.y card consumes 200W+ at full use.
. Many graphics cards support two monitors at full HD resolution, and some at higher resolution. I have an NVidia GeForce 8800 GT, which can support 2 monitors at 2500 x 1600, so if you do not need more monitors one card is sufficient. I use two 1920x1200 monitors on this card and one 1600x1280 on the motherboard graphics card.
. In some older cards you had to link two cards to get higher resolution and/or faster refresh rate. Modern cards rarely need it.

Though I am contended with NVidia, AMD cards are much better buy today and have no software bugs, my one has, though there are work around on the net.

If you need more than two monitors, then you are entering the realm of very high end cards which can support upto 4 very high resolution monitors Matrox Graphics - Products - Graphics Cards - M-Series - M9148 LP PCIe x16 or even better DisplayPort Graphics Card for Eight Monitors – Matrox M9188, this is a $2000 card. In case you have two such cards you can use 8 or 16 monitors! Believe me three monitors are a pain at times, I only have them as for my Design Work I need two high resolution screens and one normal one for text and other OS related jobs.

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

You won't be able to play any new games with intel onboard. Also the sandybridge cpu has a dual channel memory controller. As a result you must put two DIMMs for best performance. Otherwise it'll be slower than what it should be.

I will add one more 4GB stick. Thanks

Originally Posted by mercedised

@patiencewins: Core i7 2600k is what you should also look for. It is one of the best till now I have ran of the lot of Intels. Has a good gaming performance.

Otherwise, you could also wait for AMD Bulldozer, the release date is near.

I will keep an eye on that. I usually do not go for the latest in market as it takes some time for the prices to stabilize.

Also, I had an AMD in 1999. I decided not to go for an AMD again as I faced many issues. It seems to be reliable after so many years.

Thanks for your inputs.

Originally Posted by ByDesign

I'd suggest you get two 2 GB RAM sticks instead of a single 4GB. Dual channel advantages etc. Also, I'd suggest you go AMD instead of intel, way more bang for buck. Get a 1090T processor. Can't go wrong with 6 cores. Also, as mercedised said, you could wait for the new 8 cores from AMD! No way you'd be able to play decent games without a dedicated graphics card. My vote goes for ATi. Look at the new 6 series line.

I will add a graphics card. Thanks

The latest config:
Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) Desktop Processor
Gigabyte H67 UD2H B3 rev 1.1
Corsair 2*4GB DDR3 1333 MHz C9 Desktop Memory
ATI Radeon HD6850
Corsair 550W Power Supply
Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced Computer Case
Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA Hard Drive (will use my current 500 GB, new one, as slave)
LG DVD

[anku94]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

The latest config:
Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) Desktop Processor
Gigabyte H67 UD2H B3 rev 1.1
Corsair 2*4GB DDR3 1333 MHz C9 Desktop Memory
ATI Radeon HD6850
Corsair 550W Power Supply
Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced Computer Case
Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA Hard Drive (will use my current 500 GB, new one, as slave)
LG DVD

This is almost the perfect configuration. However, a few suggestions.

1. The i5-2500 does not offer much over the i5 2400. The performance difference is insignificant compared to the price difference.

AMD's 1090T is not the solution for you as it is based on a two generations old architecture, and Intel's much more powerful Sandy Bridge architecture more than compensates for the lack of two cores, and i5 2400/2500 will beat 1090T any day, in any situation. You can wait for AMD's upcoming Bulldozer, but AMD is two generations behind Intel, and it's unlikely it can cover the performance difference with one product launch.

Or you could go for i5 2500K. Overclocking it is incredibly easy, and you can easily enjoy a clock of 4.5 GHz. However, in that case, you'll have to go for a P67 based motherboard, which is comparatively expensive, and does not support the integrated graphics. That won't be an issue for you as you're already going for a discrete card.

Bottom line : I'd suggest i5 2400 or 2500K.

2. Dual channel memory configuration does offer performance benefits, but it isn't very significant. 4GB of RAM is more than what you'll need for a long time. So I'd suggest stick to 4GBx1, and add another 4GB later, unless budget isn't an issue. You could opt for premium CAS8 memory.

3. Consider going for better performing hard drives like Samsung Spinpoint F3 (might be hard to procure in India) or WD Caviar Black.

Originally Posted by Aroy

In some older cards you had to link two cards to get higher resolution and/or faster refresh rate. Modern cards rarely need it.

That's news to me. Are you sure about that ? From what I've read, using SLI/CrossFire bridge is the standard practice.

[StrangeWizard]

My 2.5 yrs old PC configuration: AMD Athlon 64 x2 2 GB RAM Seagate 500 GB Logitech 2.1 channel speakers ASUS M2N-MX SE Motherboard Windows 7 Enterprise

[mercedised]

Originally Posted by Aroy

. First of all your motherboard should have slots for two graphics cards. The current graphics cards use PCI-X16 for fast rendering.
. Many graphics cards support two monitors at full HD resolution, and some at higher resolution. I have an NVidia GeForce 8800 GT, which can support 2 monitors at 2500 x 1600, so if you do not need more monitors one card is sufficient. I use two 1920x1200 monitors on this card and one 1600x1280 on the motherboard graphics card.

I understand that, but how come using 2 graphics card help in increasing gaming performance when one wants to play on single screen? Also, what's the advantage of connecting 2 or more monitors to the same PC??

[PatienceWins]

Thanks Anku. I was waiting for your reply.

2500K is a good suggestion as I am going for seperate graphics. Let me see the price difference.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by mercedised

I understand that, but how come using 2 graphics card help in increasing gaming performance when one wants to play on single screen? Also, what's the advantage of connecting 2 or more monitors to the same PC??

1. When you connect two cards you get the power of the graphics engines of both the cards. If your 3D rendering at desired refresh rate is saturating one card, then two will be the only way to go for higher refresh rate (more computations of graphics primitives)

2. You connect two or more monitors to a PC when
. You have more than one open applications at one time. If you see stock trader's configurations you will see dedicated windows for each stock's real time performance. If on one monitor you can have two windows open (for clarity you do not have a lot of small windows but a few large windows), then with 4 monitors you can monitor 8 stocks, with 8 it becomes 16. If your lively hood is tied to the fluctuations of these stocks you better have them visible all the time.
. You are into CAD, GIS or image processing, you require multiple windows with as much real estate as possible, so that you can see different views without continuously switching between windows.
. You want to use your PC for security surveillance. All video feed come to one PC and you can see all of them at a glance.

[mercedised]

Originally Posted by Aroy

1. When you connect two cards you get the power of the graphics engines of both the cards. If your 3D rendering at desired refresh rate is saturating one card, then two will be the only way to go for higher refresh rate (more computations of graphics primitives)

Thanks for that information. So, the summary is without taking the output from the 2nd card too I could use it (?). This means, for e.g:

I want a 2GB graphics card, and my current graphics card is only 1 GB, then instead of buying a new 2GB, I could go for 2*1GB? (ofcourse there will be difference due to hardware limitations of different cards). But, talking roughly in both the cases the outputs should be very similar. (for say both have DDr3 or DDr5)