Update: PC Cyber canceled my order. No new PC for me.

This may seem out of the blue after I’ve denounced my intentions of getting a new PC any time soon. But drastic sales is a great motivator.

The Intel Core i5 750 went on sale for $150 (~$60 off). At that price? I couldn’t delay the purchase. I purchased it along with a case, motherboard and power supply. For the curious, I’m going to lay out some component details and the reasoning behind each choice.

Processor: Intel Core i5 750 – $149.77
Info/Review(s): AnandTech & TechReport

A quad-core Intel CPU running at 2.67 GHz for $150 cannot be beat. It was already one of the most attractive quad-cores at $210, but the $60 price cut makes it an absolute steal. Great price/performance/power consumption ratio!

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 – $119.77
Info/Review(s): Gigabyte, HardOCP

It performs well, it sports the latest Intel chipset, it has decent overclocking potential and it has USB 3.0. What more can you want? A low price? It’s got that too. It’s my first Gigabyte board. Hopefully, it won’t disappoint me.

Case: Antec Mini P180 – $97.77
Info/Review(s): Antec & SilentPC

Silence, style and cooling performance under $100? That’s what this case supposedly has and I look forward to it. It has two optional 120 mm fans which I may or may not use depending on how hot things get.

Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts EA 650 – $79.99
Info/Review(s): Antec

It’s quiet, efficient and affordable. Three qualities I look for. I also hear that it’s reliable and knowing Antec, I don’t doubt it.

Those are the confirmed parts. The video card will be a AMD Radeon HD 5770, but I’m still looking for the right one. The same goes for the RAM. I know it’ll be 4 GB DDR3, but I’m still looking.

As for cooling? I’m looking for quiet and efficient operation, so I’ll most likely look for an after market CPU cooler as well.

Hard drive will most likely be my 36 GB Raptor as an OS drive and possibly another 150 GB Raptor as the secondary. Or perhaps a Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB? I don’t need Terabyte hard drives for storage — I have NAS for that.  Needless to say, I still need to ponder this one over.

I didn’t think I’d be buying my new PC so quickly, but all it took was an enticing CPU sale to spur me into a purchasing frenzy. After it’s all said and done, I’m hoping this rig will cost less than $800. So far the running total is $505.45.

I’ll post updates on this build next week, so stay tuned.

Announcements

Insomniac Games joins the EA Partners Program (via Ted Price video & blog)

• New IP with EA Partners program
• Will have complete control and own the IP
• Will continue to work with Sony with the Resistance & Ratchet & Clank franchise
• Will invest more time polishing up their games in the future

Intel officially axes their discrete GPU, Larrabee (via Anandtech)

Robbie Bach & J Allard leaving Microsoft (via Engadget)

Steve Jobs to keynote WWDC 2010 (via Engadget)

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Congratulations to Insomniac Games on their new publishing deal with EA. But that’s not the piece of news which I was pleased to hear. I’m excited about the prospects of their games getting more development time. A Crack in Time was their last game under the old “one game per year” way of developing games and that was excellent. Just imagine what more time could yield?

Intel axing their Larrabee GPU wasn’t that big of a surprise. They’re promising to continue work on their integrated graphics processors which I think is a great idea — especially when you consider their work with the Atom platform.

So the remaining “fathers of the Xbox” are leaving Microsoft. It’s been such a long time since both Mr. Bach and Mr. Allard were part of the core Xbox team, so I doubt this will impact things very much on that front. It’s still a bit sad to see them leave the company after contributing so much.

Having purchased Torchlight and looking ahead towards Mass Effect 2, I began contemplating building my PC once again.

The last time I thought this over, I was looking for a Micro ATX PC for the sake of downsizing, but now I want this PC to be small enough for the home theater set up. I want to turn this PC into a console if it needs to be; playing PC games with the Xbox 360 controller if I can. The Antec Mini P180 can still achieve this sitting beside the HDTV; that’s not a problem. The problem, as always, is the amount I wish to spend on a video card.

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 (~$114)
• Processor: Intel Core i5 750 2.66 GHz (~$220)
• Video Card: AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5850 (~$320)
• Case: Antec Mini P180 in White (~$90)
• PSU: Antec EarthWatts 650W (~$90)
• Memory: 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 (~$100)
• Hard Drive: 500GB – 1TB SATA HDD (~$60 – $100)
• Optical Drive: Most likely none

The Radeon HD 5850 costs approximately $320. That’s more than a console and while the video card can mop the floor with this generation’s console, from a purely entertainment standpoint, I cannot justify that price. I do have a solution to this problem though. I either wait for price drops or I settle for a AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5770 which I can get for about $175.

Decisions. Decisions.

What is it that I wish to play though? Mass Effect 2? It’s coming to the Xbox 360 as well and by the time I’m finished with that there’s a whole lot of other games coming out to consoles. Was this all for nothing then? Nah. If I keep going through this exercise enough times, I’ll eventually find enough reasons to pull the trigger. But for now, I will go play Torchlight. If only more games ran on older hardware like this game.

With the release of the Intel Core i5 & i7 (Lynnfields) and AMD/ATI’s Radeon HD 5870 video cards, it’s now time to plan my next rig. Not all the pieces are in place though. I’m still waiting on how well the Radeon HD 5850 performs along with its Canadian price tag. Nevertheless, I do have an idea of what I want my next rig will be.

It will be smaller, quieter and faster.

(more…)

AnandTech and TechReport reviews for the new Intel Core i5 and Core i7 are out now!

I was kinda bummed by the lack of HyperThreading for Core i5, but after reading these reviews, it’s not enough of a deterrent to warrant the price difference. What would I do with 8 threads?

Take a look at this:

That $88 price difference enables 4 virtual threads, additional overclocking headroom and higher stock clockspeed. Do I want it? I wouldn’t mind it, but I like the idea of on-die PCI-E controller on the Core i5 and the attractive price tag of just under $200 USD.

These new processors are making my wait for a new computer a little tougher. However, I think I can hold out until the new video cards are unveiled in the coming months. That way it could be a completely new PC from top to bottom.

Announcements

• Punisher: No Mercy Hitting PSN July 2, 2009 (via PlayStation.Blog)
  • First person shooter
  • online arena-style multiplayer w/ solo and team-based missions for up to eight players
  • Single player mode as well
  • Powered by Unreal Engine 3.0
  • Price: $9.99
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Coming to PSP (via CVG)
  • Via Retail UMD and PSN download
  • Will have additional content and cater to the PSP hardware

Miscellaneous

• Sonic the Hedgehog Turns 18 Today (via NeoGAF)
• PSN Release of Final Fantasy VII Passes 100, 000 Downloads (via Kotaku)
• Max Payne 3 Screenshots (via Official Website)

Technology

• Intel To Power Some Nokia Phones (via TechReport)

(more…)

Announcements

• Bionic Commando: Rearmed PSN Trophy Patch Coming (via PlayStation.Blog)
  • Trophy Support
  • New “Normal” difficulty setting with the following changes:
    • When you die, you respawn at the last solid ground or checkpoint
    • Albatross B level removed
    • Added ability to reel out the cable when hanging or swinging to its full length
    • If the player swings into a wall, they will no longer disconnect and be thrown away from the wall. Instead, they will keep connected and reel in
    • Unlimited lives
  • Super Joe Machine Gun bug fix:
    • When upgraded, the weapon also becomes more powerful in addition to the larger clip
    • Fixed for all difficulty levels.

Technology

• Intel’s Confusing Naming Scheme Revealed? (via AnandTech)
  • Core i5, Corei3 and Core i7
  • Most confusing part is the fact that there will be Core i7 for both LGA-1156 (new) and LGA-1366 (current)
  • Core 2 Duo & Core 2 Quad naming scheme disappearing along with Centrino

Miscellaneous

• “New Xbox 360″ for 2010 “Confirmed” By Steve Ballmer (via TGDaily)
  • Confirmed at “The Executive’s Club of Chicago” while discussing “the role of innovation in changing economic times.”
  • Most likely “slim” Xbox 360 with Project Natal camera bundled

New Xbox 360 with Project Natal in 2010? Not surprised.