A few questions before I build my own?

concon

Solid State Member
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I have been toying around with the idea of building a computer soon and so I have been looking at different parts and brands and now I am trying to clear up a few things.

1. What is the difference between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0? and what is FireWire and how does it fit in with USB?

2. Which brands are better? Is Western Digital better than Seagate for example with Harddrives? I think the most demanding things my comuter would be required to do would be games, so which harddrive is better for that?

3. The ATI cards I was looking at support eye-finity for multiple monitors, does nVidia offer anything like that?

4. What is the difference in the PCI express slots on a motherboard? PCIe 1x, PCIe 16x?

5. how big should the case be so that I would not have trouble fitting even large graphics cards in it?

I really do appreciate any help that can be offered, thank you so much!
 
1.USB 3 is faster then USB 2
2.Does not matter but western digital caviar blacks are supa fast
3.yes but you have to have 2 bummer. ATI is better right now
4.i think it has something to do with the graphic card i forgot
5. full tower

Buts your building price range
 
1. USB 3.0 is a huge ton faster than USB 2.0, realistically you will only see a difference if using an external harddrive
2. seagate hardrives had quality issues before the .12 series, WD blacks are really fast but I'd recommend buying them locally with a warranty(I've had 1 fail on me and another one may be dying and paying shipping is not fun)
3. nvidia does have an equivalent to eyefinity but you have to have 2 cards, I'd get 2x GTX 460s. When in SLI then they're nearly as fast as a 5970.
4. PCIE x16 is the slot that modern graphics cards use. Sound cards and tuners and stuff like that use the x1 slot
5. A full tower case is capable of fitting pretty much everything. I'd go for a HAF X, Silverstone RV02 or Cosmos S (the cases that I wish I'd gotten)
 
1. USB 3.0 is a huge ton faster than USB 2.0, realistically you will only see a difference if using an external harddrive
2. seagate hardrives had quality issues before the .12 series, WD blacks are really fast but I'd recommend buying them locally with a warranty(I've had 1 fail on me and another one may be dying and paying shipping is not fun)
3. nvidia does have an equivalent to eyefinity but you have to have 2 cards, I'd get 2x GTX 460s. When in SLI then they're nearly as fast as a 5970.
4. PCIE x16 is the slot that modern graphics cards use. Sound cards and tuners and stuff like that use the x1 slot
5. A full tower case is capable of fitting pretty much everything. I'd go for a HAF X, Silverstone RV02 or Cosmos S (the cases that I wish I'd gotten)

ati is better
 
ati is better

have you read anything about the gtx 460? Its based on the GF104 chipset so it consumes less power than the 5850 while performing nearly equally to it for $100 less. 2 of them perform pretty much equally to a 5970 for $460, which is $200-$300 less than the 5970. You also get physx for that price. I personally like nvidia's implementation of eyefinity because you anyways need 2 cards to get playable framerates when using 3 monitors so they ensure that you get a good experience from it.

Nvidia may be late to the dx11 party but so far I'm liking their way of doing it. ATi cant make drivers at all, I'm still on 10.4a because anything else messes up crossfire
 
High end cards = fail did you see a 98 degrees card lol
Learn to read.
have you read anything about the gtx 460? Its based on the GF104 chipset so it consumes less power than the 5850 while performing nearly equally to it for $100 less. 2 of them perform pretty much equally to a 5970 for $460, which is $200-$300 less than the 5970. You also get physx for that price. I personally like nvidia's implementation of eyefinity because you anyways need 2 cards to get playable framerates when using 3 monitors so they ensure that you get a good experience from it.

Nvidia may be late to the dx11 party but so far I'm liking their way of doing it. ATi cant make drivers at all, I'm still on 10.4a because anything else messes up crossfire
The other Nvidia cards were trash in my opinion though. But the GTX460 does look nice. I don't like how you need an Nvidia chipset to SLI though, and Nvidias version of eyefinity stinks. What if you don't plan on gaming with your cards?
 
High end cards = fail did you see a 98 degrees card lol

that was the pre-production cards that were sent out to reviewers. Right now they're a ton cooler although still need quite a bit of power, at least I won't have micro-stuttering after I upgrade from my ATi cards
 
that was the pre-production cards that were sent out to reviewers. Right now they're a ton cooler although still need quite a bit of power, at least I won't have micro-stuttering after I upgrade from my ATi cards

I still think they're way too hot for their own good, and their pricing isn't competitive with ATi's. The GTX460 seems to be an exception however.
 
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