Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here! [Archive] - Page 8

Cortexian

August 27th, 2011, 07:26 PM

Yeah well if I were to upgrade now I'd try and keep all three components below $400... So that's not going to happen. Would there be much of a visible performance difference running both my GTX 470's at 8x instead of 16x speeds?

This is what I was thinking of getting:
• Intel Core™ i5-2500K Processor, 3.30GHz w/ 6MB Cache (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX31557(ME).aspx)
• Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX32637(ME).aspx)
• GSKILL Sniper Series 8GB PC3-12800 Dual Channel DDR3 Kit (2 x 4GB) (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX33414(ME).aspx)

It comes out to $399.97 or $419.97 with tax. Does anyone have any suggestions that could make that better (products available on Memory Express please) while keeping the price under $420 without tax? Just so you know, I try and match my RAM to my motherboard colors. Obviously it's not the primary choice but it's something to consider, if another set of RAM will get me a tiny performance increase but it's red or something silly I probably won't go for it.

I really wish I could get my hands on a quality socket 775 board that would take DDR2 but include PCI-E 2.0 spec.

Warsaw

August 27th, 2011, 09:09 PM

There would be little to no performance difference running your GTX 470s at x8/x8 instead of x16/x16 assuming the PCIe spec is 2.0 or 3.0 and not 1.0 or 1.1. Only the highest end cards can approach saturating the bandwidth available.

Cortexian

August 28th, 2011, 04:13 PM

What 1155 boards do you know of that will allow me to run at least PCI-E slots at x8 speeds? My RAID card also needs a PCI-E x8 slot, and I'm reading that if I move up to the UD5 the two for my GPU's will run at x8 but the third will only run at x1.

It looks like the UD7 does what I want, but it's A LOT more money... I'd also have to stick my 470's right next to each other. Curse this stupid 1155 design with bad PCI-E management!

Zeph

August 28th, 2011, 04:31 PM

From what I've seen, generally all the boards with four pcie slots are 1x16 or 3x8+1x1. Newegg is a good way to find boards due to its search parameters. Look for a model that does, then see if your web shop carries it.

Cortexian

August 28th, 2011, 04:49 PM

Yeah, looking at the EVGA P67 boards that they recently released. They have 6 PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots but will only operate 1 at x16, otherwise you get limited to 5 at x8.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188082

It's a nice board but it's also Extended ATX, which I'm not sure will fit well in my mid-tower.

Oh well, I just sorted out my latest issue so I think I'll attempt to stick with this system until Ivy Bridge comes out and I can run x16/x16/x8. Having a system that has problems that require a day of diagnosis every two weeks isn't getting on my good side though.

king_nothing_

August 30th, 2011, 05:50 PM

Question: is there still no Nvidia card that allows you to run three monitors simultaneously (with one card)? If not, are there any planned?

InnerGoat

August 30th, 2011, 10:01 PM

There are specialty cards that can run more than 2, but they're either low end crap or high end workstation cards. Gamers are stuck with using the dual-gpu cards like the gtx590 still.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130693

There is also this gimmick that has weird resolution limits (please don't buy this)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500174

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500174)

TeeKup

September 1st, 2011, 08:43 AM

So I finally got my state tax return back, and I'm now looking at getting a new laptop. These are my choices:

Option one is considerably cheaper.
Drawbacks:Windows Vista,processor isn't up to par.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220822

Option two is a bit more expensive.
It's bigger, runs Windows 7, processor is significantly better.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158017

I'm slightly wary about both being re-certified, however my budget is 500$. Advice and suggestions?

Zeph

September 1st, 2011, 08:50 AM

For three hundred bucks, I'd go with that. Not like you'd be doing anything intensive with either for sub 500 dollars.

or you could go with this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230108

TeeKup

September 1st, 2011, 08:58 AM

I'm looking for something with a Dedicated card. I'm going to be doing SOME gaming, and I doubt integrated graphics will go for it.

Warsaw

September 1st, 2011, 08:03 PM

Second-gen Core i-series integrated graphics is better than that G105M for sure. The 5470 stomps all over both, though.

Cortexian

September 2nd, 2011, 01:03 AM

So here's what's been happening for the last week with my system... I'll be using my computer for the complete variety of tasks I use it for, gaming, IM'ing, video editing, browsing, etc... My GPU drivers will suddenly up and quit on me and leave all three of my monitors black. It seems to be completely random and after a few days of this I started diagnosing last week.

First thing I did was boot to safe mode, uninstall the GPU drivers, reboot to safe mode again, run driver sweeper, reboot normally and install a different driver. I tried this with the last FIVE WHQL certified Nvidia drivers and they were all blacking out. I tried reseating the graphics cards, tried one at a time, tried both without and SLI bridge, etc, etc... Nothing gave me a good result. Since I have pretty much all the things I need to keep on my 6TB RAID I just backed up a few things and reformatted my C: drive with a fresh copy of Windows last night.

Now, I did what I normally do which is install all the Windows updates first, install AVG, chipset drivers, and then display drivers. I tried 275.33 and it seemed to work initially, but then suddenly my PC rebooted... After the reboot the drivers appeared to have just vanished. I was back to 800x600 default resolution and right-clicking on the desktop didn't show the NVIDIA Control Panel like it should have. So I wonder over to the Device Manager and low and behold, one of my GPU's is displaying an error code.

Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)

*takes a look online*

One of the drivers controlling the device notified the operating system that the device failed in some manner. For more information about how to diagnose the problem, see the hardware documentation.

Well what the fuck. I try reseating the GPU's again and that seems to fix the Code 43, so I do a safe mode uninstall/driver sweeper session and then decide to try the 270.61 drivers. Everything seems to be working now, I've installed a few things, run a few stress tests on the CPU and GPU... So I decide to try some CPU overclocking since I always reset to stock when installing Windows to increase the chances of it working properly...

So I set my BIOS to its saved 2.4GHz - 3.0GHz overclock that I know is stable. POST goes like it should, Windows logo starts up, nvlddmkm.sys BSOD right off the bat. This now prevents me from booting into Windows unless I go the safe mode route. So now I'm sitting here after a safe mode uninstall/driver sweeper session with the 270.61 drivers and NO overclock because I think my 6 year old Asus Striker Extreme motherboard has just gave up on trying to deal with PCI-E 2.0 graphics cards.

What else do you guys think it could be? I've researched every solution I can find online about this issue and tried a few different fixes but I'm stumped. If you can think of something, let me know and I'll try it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All that aside, my birthday is coming up here and my grandparents heard about this PC issue (as I'm lucky [sometimes unlucky] enough to have them live near to me) and they sent me some money for new components since I may have vaguely said that I probably need new stuff over the phone. So here's what I'm thinking of upgrading to:

EVGA P67 FTW - $279.99 ($10 mail in rebate after this, special order from my local parts wholesaler)
Intel Core i5 2500k - $209.99
GSKILL Sniper Series 8GB PC3-12800 Dual Channel DDR3 Kit (2 x 4GB) (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX33414(ME).aspx) - $59.99

However I'm a little stumped on the memory, I went with that stuff because it's 1.5v (good for Sandy Bridge) and has good timings. It's also low-profile and shouldn't interfere with my Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme CPU cooler (getting a kit to let me use it on the 1155 mobo). It looks like this RAM (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX33234(ME).aspx) is exactly the same but has larger heat-spreaders and may interfere with the CPU cooler, however it's $10 cheaper cause it's on sale... If it'll fit I'll get that instead. Then there's a third option, I could get this 1866MHz RAM (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX35119(ME).aspx) but I'm not sure if the increased cost and slightly worse timings are worth it. If someone can vouch for the 1866MHz stuff I'll get that instead.

Suggestions on the RAM or comments on other components would be appreciated!

I'm also debating between the EVGA P67 FTW or the Gigabyte P67 UD7. The UD7 is $319.99 vs the P67 FTW at $279.99...

InnerGoat

September 2nd, 2011, 05:53 AM

Cortexian

September 2nd, 2011, 11:22 AM

AVG? Problem found lol. The hardware's aged a bit by now so you might need some extra voltage to run what was once stable. What are you using to stress test? Maybe it's too light of a load to bring out any problems? LinX is quite rough on the CPU and memory, and furmark would point out any GPU cooling or power issues (by frying a card, usually) ... :)

SB loves fast ram. It doesn't care too much for tight timings, just high clockspeed. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/1 Also your motherboard is expensive as fuck. Guess you're stuck with it if you want to SLI though...
I was using Intel Burn Test (based on LinX or something I think, I remember reading something like that), Prime95, and many runs of Heaven 2.5 to test the GPU's. I used to use Furmark to test the GPU's but I find that running a benchmark like Heaven gets you better "real world" results.

I'll look into some 1866MHz memory then. The Sniper Series has some of the same style stuff that I had selected in 1866MHz for $30 more, maybe I can cheapen it out a little by bargaining.

You can't believe how pissed off I was when I realized that a Gigabyte P67A-UD4 wouldn't do what I needed, I was pumped to get a motherboard for $129.99!! Fuck PCI-E requirements.

Cortexian

September 2nd, 2011, 02:18 PM

Update!

So I ended up going with the following:
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX32725%28ME%29.aspx) - $239.99
and
GSKILL Sniper Series 8GB PC3-14900 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (2 x 4GB) (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX34254%28ME%29.aspx) - $84.99

I got the motherboard for $239.99 instead of $319.99 because apparently Gigabyte discontinued their P67 line already in favor of Z68... So The UD7 was on clearance and they even had it in-stock! Unfortunately the memory I ordered is special order, and they were out of the i5 2500k's but have more coming in next week sometime. The memory should come in around the same time as the processor.

Memory Express offers a free "quick mount" service where they install your memory and processor onto a motherboard and do a quick test to make sure everything is running, but only if you purchase a motherboard/memory/processor within 7 days of each other. So to take advantage of this I just left the motherboard with them after putting a deposit on it.

I done good?

Warsaw

September 2nd, 2011, 02:34 PM

No point in building an Ivy Bridge system when it comes out; the performance gain over that build will be negligible in any practical application.

Cortexian

September 2nd, 2011, 02:49 PM

I was going to go with the unannounced Octocore Ivy Bridge Extreme processor when that happens, and dedicate it to gaming (none of this hybrid server/gaming system I have now) by going with Triple or Quadruple SLI/Crossfire depending on what gets the best performance. I was also going to go with 2133MHz or faster memory on the Ivy Bridge build, depending on what's available of course.

I still think I'll sell off my 470's when Ivy Bridge comes out, get a $20 graphics card for this system, and retire it to the home server role.

EDIT: Big question, can someone please confirm if the following means what I think it means?

2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1, PCIEX16_2)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_1 slot; if you are installing two PCI Express graphics cards, it is recommended that you install them in the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots.
2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1, PCIEX8_2)
* The PCIEX8_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 slot and the PCIEX8_2 slot with PCIEX16_2. The PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode when the PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2 is populated.
1 x PCI Express x1 slot
(All PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
2 x PCI slots

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/2172/ud7expansionslots.jpg

Based on the above image you get:
PCI-E X1_1
PCI-E X16_1
PCI-E X8_1
PCI-E X16_2
PCI
PCI-E X8_2
PCI

It means that if I put my graphics cards in PCI-E X16_1 and PCI-E X16_2 and my RAID card in PCI-E X8_2 then the graphics cards will both run at x16 and the RAID card at x8? Or will the graphics cards be reduced to x8 speed regardless because I install my RAID card in the x8 slot?

If the graphics cards are going to be reduced to x8 speeds because I plug in the RAID card then I'll put my first GPU in PCI-E X16_1, the RAID card in PCI-E X16_2, and the second GPU in PCI-E X8_2. That will give me better cooling potential on the GTX 470's since they aren't mashed together.

InnerGoat

September 2nd, 2011, 04:52 PM

Sounds like you'll get a full 16x on 16x_1, but 16x_2 will share it's bandwidth with the bottom 8x_2 slot. Fuck computers!

Cortexian

September 2nd, 2011, 05:34 PM

But if x16_2 gets knocked down to x8 and x16_2 is in SLI with x16_1, won't both cards run at x8?

InnerGoat

September 2nd, 2011, 05:38 PM

No one should stay at 16x and the other at 8x afaik

Zeph

September 3rd, 2011, 02:35 PM

LED:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=320-2676

LCD:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=320-8277

Is there any particular reason why I'd want an LCD ultrasharp over an LED one other than the LED having 25% less maximum brightness? We're talking basement dwelling usage here.

Cortexian

September 3rd, 2011, 04:38 PM

LED will give you better contrast ratio and better color in general, at least that's the case with the two LED's I have.

TeeKup

September 4th, 2011, 03:25 PM

Still looking at this Laptop.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158017

Would it be sufficient to play me some BF3 or should I save up for this one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127452

Cortexian

September 4th, 2011, 03:51 PM

The 5470 is a slightly better card, I'd go with the first one.

That said, neither will run BF3 at high settings.

TeeKup

September 4th, 2011, 04:32 PM

The processor is what's killing it, will keep looking.

EDIT: This one would probably be my ideal bet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158016

Warsaw

September 4th, 2011, 09:10 PM

6370M is not as good as the 5470M, I don't think. Remember the AMD GPU number shift went downward, i.e. x800-class is now the x900-class.

TeeKup

September 4th, 2011, 11:10 PM

Disregard whats been posted. I'm building a desktop at the moment. So far I'm at 536.76 without the OS. Here's what I've got:
CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103921

Graphics Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231253

Computer Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811815004

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138318

Wireless Adapter:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320048

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094

CD Drive and Hard Drive Bundle:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.696137

Any recommends on what I can do to make it cheaper or have I hit the nail on the head?

Warsaw

September 4th, 2011, 11:28 PM

You've basically hit the nail on the head, but I'd probably find a motherboard that can do Crossfire. ASRock makes a good one.

Cortexian

September 4th, 2011, 11:41 PM

Yeah that looks good to me at the price point, I'm so out of date on AMD stuff that I don't even know if that's a decent processor or not tbh. I'd like to recommend that you not cheap out on the PSU though, you'll just end up replacing it in 2 or 3 years. Get a good Corsair, Silverstone, etc...

Warsaw

September 5th, 2011, 01:11 AM

Cortexian

September 5th, 2011, 01:47 AM

To be honest, I've found that all these recommendations to "not cheap out" on PSUs to be bogus. I had a Rosewill in this machine that lasted me six years under heavy load and sparse cleaning, and I have had no-name ones last me longer. Just read the reviews and you'll do fine.
How many systems have you built using cheaper PSU's? I've built 8 or 9 systems with cheaper PSU's because the client I was building them for wanted to keep costs down as much as possible, 3 or maybe 4 of those have crapped out in 2-4 years of usage. Out of the other PC's I've built, admittedly only 6 or so, with good quality PSU's none have crapped out (again though, two of them are only a year or two old).

The PSU is a very critical component, it's never happened out of the ones I've had that have failed but a failed PSU can fry the rest of your components as well. It's also something that you can't really replace with a cheaper version when it goes out either, so better to spend an extra $30-$50 initially.

Amit

September 5th, 2011, 11:52 AM

As for the CPU, it's solid as far as AMD CPUs go, but obviously any Black Edition would be better. Ideally, a Phenom II X4 955, since after that point you are paying for nothing.

Yeah, for $20 more, the 955 Black is very overclockable if you get a decent aftermarket HSF for it. I'm still looking at it for my BF3/RO2 build (Yeah, my iMac barely runs RO2 Beta at 35 FPS on high settings).

The PSU is a very critical component, it's never happened out of the ones I've had that have failed but a failed PSU can fry the rest of your components as well. It's also something that you can't really replace with a cheaper version when it goes out either, so better to spend an extra $30-$50 initially.

Yeah, it's really not good to skimp on the PSU. I've used lower end brands like Raidmax and Rosewill before and they are quite decent. I doubt you'll have much trouble with either of those. It's worth noting that even higher end PSU's like OCZ have been known to fail, as well and you can't really avoid it. I would say the sweet spot for a PSU is a Coolermaster 500W - 550W. If you want Crossfire-X you'll probably need a 650W PSU and SLI you should have 750W or higher. (depending on what cards you have).

Warsaw

September 5th, 2011, 12:37 PM

How many systems have you built using cheaper PSU's? I've built 8 or 9 systems with cheaper PSU's because the client I was building them for wanted to keep costs down as much as possible, 3 or maybe 4 of those have crapped out in 2-4 years of usage. Out of the other PC's I've built, admittedly only 6 or so, with good quality PSU's none have crapped out (again though, two of them are only a year or two old).

The PSU is a very critical component, it's never happened out of the ones I've had that have failed but a failed PSU can fry the rest of your components as well. It's also something that you can't really replace with a cheaper version when it goes out either, so better to spend an extra $30-$50 initially.

I've built 6 or 7 computers, all using the PSUs that came with the case (because I don't usually buy a separate PSU). Mine is the only one with an expensive after-market PSU. The problem is that it's usually not an extra $30-$50, it's an extra $50-$80 for a desirable PSU. As long as it has a high comment to egg ratio with five eggs, it's fine.

Like I said, he could just buy a Rosewill and save money. They are good PSUs and they have generally excellent reviews.

TeeKup

September 5th, 2011, 02:02 PM

I could go for these.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152028

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339001

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817822003

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817101048

This one has great reviews while still being cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339022

The Hec Orion has gotten great reviews while still being dirt cheap. If I go with that it will put my grand total at 510.71.

ThePlague

September 5th, 2011, 02:16 PM

Freelancer just doesn't like buying anything under $100.

This is the PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021) I bought, but with the promo code it went down to $99. Or you could go with this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028) one, which was my fallback.

Spending a lot on a PSU is worth it, because that's one of the crucial parts you can keep when you upgrade in a few years.

TeeKup

September 5th, 2011, 02:18 PM

I stand corrected.

My grand total would be 492.41 before shipping. I think I'm going to go with this.

Cortexian

September 5th, 2011, 03:14 PM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027
(free shipping, $49.99 after $10 rebate)

If you don't do this I'll come and do something to you TeeKup!! Something very very not-gay!!

TeeKup

September 5th, 2011, 03:25 PM

Potentially using this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152035

Cortexian

September 6th, 2011, 08:26 PM

Cleaning off thermal paste.

Isopropanol.

It's 99% Isopropyl Alcohol and the rest is water.

Is this appropriate?

Warsaw

September 6th, 2011, 08:51 PM

Rubbing alcohol works just fine. I do it all the time.

Cortexian

September 6th, 2011, 10:39 PM

I ran out of rubbing alcohol but I have this stuff.

Since most rubbing alcohol is 70 - 90% this 99% should be fine as well?

Donut

September 6th, 2011, 11:20 PM

i think thats what i used. alcohol evaporates pretty quickly anyway, and a concentration change from 90% to 99% isnt going to hurt anything

you know, unless fire gets involved.

Warsaw

September 7th, 2011, 01:10 AM

I ran out of rubbing alcohol but I have this stuff.

Since most rubbing alcohol is 70 - 90% this 99% should be fine as well?

Yes. Even water would be fine, if water had any effect whatsoever at removing the paste (it doesn't). I assume you already know not to over-saturate the cloth.

Cortexian

September 7th, 2011, 04:25 AM

I use qtips usually since I don't have a lint-free cloth or whatever they are.

Warsaw

September 7th, 2011, 11:59 AM

Coffee filter.

:aaaaa:

Cortexian

September 7th, 2011, 07:12 PM

No one in this house drinks the crap.

ThePlague

September 7th, 2011, 08:47 PM

:like:

Warsaw

September 7th, 2011, 11:09 PM

No one in this house drinks the crap.

Doesn't mean you can't go off to buy a small box for use as a lint-less cloth. I don't drink coffee myself.

ThePlague

September 8th, 2011, 01:20 AM

Use a glasses cloth?

Warsaw

September 8th, 2011, 01:22 AM

Heh, I never thought of that. Probably because I never wear my glasses.

Amit

September 8th, 2011, 01:34 AM

A nice, silky glasses cloth does the job for me.

Cortexian

September 8th, 2011, 02:08 PM

I tried that once and it ended up being a one-time-use cloth cause I couldn't wash the paste off of it, and those cloths are expensive. I'll just use my qtips, takes longer but it works.

Cortexian

September 8th, 2011, 07:12 PM

Everything is in (kinda)!!!

Check here for most recent updates:
http://www.overclock.net/intel-build-logs/1109767-build-bridge-update-project.html

Warsaw

September 8th, 2011, 09:23 PM

In separate news, AMD has started shipping the Opteron line of Bulldozer chips. That means the consumer parts should show up any day now.

Zeph

September 8th, 2011, 09:56 PM

There are rumors that the server chips are going to precede the desktop chips by a good while due to yield issues.

Hell, even if they do take a while to hit the shelves, my balance of aid check still might not make it before then. Not sure why, but a shitload of peoples loan/grant money still hasn't come in yet. I was worried that it might push me ever closer to buying a 2600k based system with the Sandy Bridge enthusiast chips being released shortly after, but Intel just shat out another wave of Sandy Bridge with lower TDP. I don't see Intel doing that then having another socket come around for a couple more months.

Bad part about it though is that it seems the 2600k rose 30 bucks in price to accommodate the new stuff.

Warsaw

September 8th, 2011, 11:18 PM

There are also rumors that AMD can't get Bulldozer to clock high enough to demolish i7. I just want it because A.) it will inevitably be better than Phenom IIs, B.) be more than enough for my needs, C.) 8-core FX-series bragging rights, and D.) because I still only have one core right now.

I refuse to sell out to Intel, they get more than enough support. Deserved support, but somebody has to keep the competition running. :)

Fake E: Fuck that new smiley.

Cortexian

September 9th, 2011, 05:24 AM

Intel? Don't you mean Chipzilla? ;)

It's unfortunate that Bulldozer has taken so long actually, it's supposed to be the competitor for Sandy Bridge. Sandy Bridge has pretty much lived out its life already and people are already looking towards Ivy Bridge, and what has AMD done? Not even release a competitor chip yet. That means while Bulldozer chips are finalized and the kinks are worked out of motherboard designs, Intel got over that B3 revision SATA 2/3 fiasco and many other revisions to B3 have already been made.

EDIT: First post from upgraded system btw, trying to figure out why enabling SLI causes my system to reboot... Read it was a BIOS issue so I updated but that's not it. Still haven't installed all Windows Updates yet though (installing SP1 now), so hopefully that sorts it. I did (stupidly) install a driver version that I had trouble with pre-upgrade, so this might just be my fault for being ignorant of the signs...

Cortexian

September 9th, 2011, 01:14 PM

Whoop whoop whoop!

My replacement GTX 470 that replaced my replacement GTX 285 that replaced my original GTX 285 needs to be replaced! It's defective, as tested by me over the course of 6 straight hours, 6+ driver versions, as many expansions slots combinations as I could manage, and confirmation by EVGA.

They're sending me a pre-paid shipping label again since this is the second replacement that lasted a month before kicking the bucket.

Warsaw

September 9th, 2011, 01:54 PM

Time to try ATI again mb? That's three blown cards now.

Patrickssj6

September 9th, 2011, 02:05 PM

Since Nvidia and ATI just provide the GPU which is very unlikely to break, you should just try another company that actually builds the card itself. Though EVGA should be one of the best :D

I use Zotac...a chinese company which never broke down on me so I'm fine xD

ThePlague

September 9th, 2011, 02:08 PM

Time to try ATI again mb? That's three blown cards now.:like:

My cards seem fine :3

TeeKup

September 9th, 2011, 02:11 PM

You're enjoying that new emot way to much.

Warsaw

September 9th, 2011, 03:44 PM

Cortexian

September 9th, 2011, 04:09 PM

Not really an opportunity since I still have another GTX 470. Since I run SLI I wouldn't change unless both cards conked out at the same time.

EVGA does manufacture its own cards btw, so I don't see how switching to another brand (with inferior customer service) would help.

Patrickssj6

September 9th, 2011, 04:26 PM

EVGA does manufacture its own cards btw, so I don't see how switching to another brand (with inferior customer service) would help.
Sorry wrong sentence structure. I meant: You should try another company that builds graphic cards (and not switch from NVIDIA to ATI who just provide the GPU).

Cortexian

September 9th, 2011, 04:33 PM

I understood, Nvidia does the same thing really. They provide the GPU and a reference design and then license it out to manufactures like MSI, EVGA, GIGABYTE, ETC... I don't know why I would WANT to try another brand of Nvidia card besides EVGA though. With the exception of the hassle of waiting for an RMA there has been minimal disruption to me, and they get back to your support requests very fast. Not to mention the awesome phone support they have.

Patrickssj6

September 9th, 2011, 05:29 PM

Not telling anyone what to do that but I never had an RMA in my life thus I never had to call support :D It just seems you get a lot of broken stuff.

Warsaw

September 9th, 2011, 06:00 PM

^That.

eVGA is only king because XFX left for ATI and BFG quit the business altogether. I just buy what meets my performance needs and budget constraints while taking into account user reviews after those constraints are met. I am running a broken eVGA card right now, actually. Broken out of the box, the entire line.

Cortexian

September 10th, 2011, 02:18 AM

Well here's the thing, the cards I have been getting back are all "re-certified" cards. I don't know EXACTLY what than entails but according to EVGA they're not refurbished cards, apparently re-certification means they usually go back to the factory testing facilities and run all the QA tests again.

That said, when I inquired about getting a new factory-fresh card they said that it would of been possible except that GTX 470's are no longer in production. They said that if the new replacement is a lemon as well, or the one that I still have does the way of the dodo, then I'm well within my warranty coverage to ask them for a pair of factory-fresh GTX 560 ti's or 570's depending on what their stock is like at the time.

So I'd rather stick with EVGA and their questionable re-certified stock and get free upgrades every few months than switch to another manufacturer.

Also, how's this?
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/1058/linx.jpg

Keep in mind that LinX is one of the most intensive stress testing applications. My point being that; yes I hit 73 degrees while running LinX but that means almost nothing else in normal usage will get that high.

I didn't really run it 100% properly either, I still had a few useless background applications running and I didn't kill off the recommended Windows Services.

Cortexian

September 11th, 2011, 01:30 AM

Better results after enabling C1E and C3/C6 States, I know it doesn't make sense but whatever. With these Enabled it will cut down power usage and temps when it's not working hard.

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/3238/linx2.jpg

InnerGoat

September 11th, 2011, 04:03 AM

You should be getting close to 100Gflop. Please install W7 SP 1 ...

Cortexian

September 11th, 2011, 04:16 AM

SP1 is installed lol, we seem to be having this discussion on OCN as well... Take a gander at this thread (http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/1114683-how-my-2500k-3.html), since you and some of the people there seem to be confused as how to properly run LinX/IntelBurnTest.

ow to test CPU and RAM stability (summarized):
Pre. You need to extract everything from the archive to a single folder, while
maintaining the original directory structure.
1. It is best to use a 64-bit OS with the 64-bit mode for the most accurate
test result.
2. Use the most available RAM possible (IntelBurnTest can now do this on
its own automatically). The more memory it uses, the more accurate.
However, most people can use "Standard" mode as it should be sufficient.

EDIT: Okay yeah... LinX fails, to anyone I recommended it to, use IntelBurnTest instead.

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/6815/intelburntest46ghz134vc.jpg

InnerGoat

September 11th, 2011, 01:25 PM

rude

InnerGoat

September 14th, 2011, 11:02 AM

Hold onto you're dicks gentlemen http://www.anandtech.com/show/4793/x79-motherboards-from-gigabyte-msi-at-idf-2011

Coming soon™ :haw:

Zeph

September 14th, 2011, 12:38 PM

Still waiting on student loan money to show up. Wondering if the 2700k will show up or the consumer bulldozers appear before I get my money. Supposedly, we'll start getting bulldozer benchmarks later this week or so.

Amit

September 14th, 2011, 12:48 PM

I love how it says ATi Crossfire-X on the Gigabyte motherboard. FUCK AMD BRANDING!

Cortexian

September 14th, 2011, 05:18 PM

Extremely dislike the color-schemes they used... MSI picked up Gigabytes blue and white shit and Gigabyte chose to go with orange instead of red for some weird reason... RAM on either side of the processor socket is gay unless you've got slots for 8 DIMM's instead of 4.

InnerGoat

September 14th, 2011, 08:26 PM

Waiting for one of the 8 slot ones to come out so I can cram 32GB of super cheap 4GB sticks into it :D

e: and SB-e as well

Zeph

September 14th, 2011, 08:46 PM

Warsaw

September 14th, 2011, 09:45 PM

Postin' dis. (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-HD-7900-XDR2-Rambus-Memory,13408.html)

InnerGoat

September 14th, 2011, 10:31 PM

Rambus talked someone into buying their stuff whoa~!

Hopefully that choice leads to some epic GPUs because bulldozer is a flop :ohdear:

Bodzilla

September 14th, 2011, 10:42 PM

Sup guys, i'm currently contemplating the possibility of maybe, but maybe not, i'm torn between indecision of getting a new keyboard.

(i'm thinking about a new keyboard)
This is my current one
http://www.brillcom.com/product_images/r/999/saitek_EclipseII_main_image_lit__36252_zoom.jpg

I've got a Saitek eclipse II at the moment and it's been awesome for about 4 years but i've just started to have some buttons die on me.
my f8, f9 key are dead and so is my "next song" and left windows key.

i cant do quick loads in Deus ex HR because i cant rebind the keys (seriously wtf) and it's a little frustrating not being able to go to the next song.
I've done the big cleanout pulled it all apart soaked it but to no avail, the pathway from these buttons to the receiver or controller or what ever is just dead which is a shame.

So i'm looking for something thats a backlit keyboard, has some buttons for music and just looks and feels like a good solid standard keyboard. Basically the same dael as what i've got now.

What do you recommend?

Warsaw

September 14th, 2011, 11:12 PM

@InnerGoat: Possibly. AMD better have a compelling reason to price the FX-8150 in Core i7 930 territory. As for the HD 7970, that is one sick card. Looks like I'll be waiting on that one as well as a Bulldozer CPU.

Bodie, check out the Logitech Slim Illuminated. It has music buttons, is back-lit, and is a VERY solid keyboard.

Cortexian

September 14th, 2011, 11:41 PM

Where is 7990 infos :(

Bodzilla

September 15th, 2011, 09:03 AM

been looking around a little bit.... i've got a Razer Carc headset, but being a 3.5 jack headset i cant choose between having vent come out my headset and everything else through my speakers like i could on my old USB headset.

Some of the keyboards i've seen have inbuild sound cards and USB ports for headsets exactly for this reason, to allow me to separate my sound.
What do you guys recommend in this range thats still wired, illuminated and has inputs at the back.

does anybody else in the forum use a keyboard this way?

Zeph

September 16th, 2011, 10:09 AM

Looks like the check for my grant is in the mail. Here's a last minute run through of what I'm planning to get. Anything horribly wrong?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070 2600k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118003 CPU cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131702 5 year warranty mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233142 2x2x4GB RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136929 HDD (looking to make a file server later for render output this will do for now)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130655 GTX 580 (lawl 3gb)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153131 650 watt psu

Picking up a full tower case, optical, keyboard, and an OEM Win7 copy to go with my already owned mouse.

Cortexian

September 16th, 2011, 01:53 PM

I forget, why do you think you need the 2600k instead of the 2500k again? 2600k is better for rendering, video editing, large photo editing, 3D models and such, etc... 2500k will be better for gaming and normal use with a bit of the previous stuff mixed in occasionally.

You would probably make use of the extra cores/threads so I'd say you can stick with the 2600k, but if you got the 2500k you could also get a better cooler (like a Corsair H100 or Noctua DH-D14) and clock the 2500k at 4.6GHz easily. If you like overclocking, the 2500k handles it a lot better than the 2600k as well... Most people need to disable HT on the 2600k to get it stable at decent temperatures.

Also, the GTX 580 3GB will draw about 400 watts at load... That leaves you with 250 for the rest of the system, if you ever add another graphics card or a bunch of hard drives you will need a more powerful PSU most likely.

Zeph

September 16th, 2011, 02:33 PM

Because I will be doing a lot of rendering, video compositing, large photo editing (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Pro/SeriesStylusProGS6000/Overview.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@0811296956.1316201760 @@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdiadfejeiiihfcfngcfkmdhjidfmh.0&cookies=no), modeling, etc.
Kinda wanting a bit of both worlds here. The 3GB version won't give me anything more in games, but it will hopefully be put to use in rendering. Would much rather have a 590 for the cores to go with the extra 1.5GB, but I dont see it in stock anywhere.

I knew I was pushing the PSU, but I'm planning on a file server build next semester, so I was kinda letting it be. There's a sale on the same brand/rating PSU but 100w stronger putting it 10 bucks cheaper. Gonna go for that just for a bit more padding to go with the unit as it ages.

I'll be staying at stock clocks for the time being.

Cortexian

September 16th, 2011, 02:57 PM

I'd stick with the 2600k then, Tiger Direct has some GTX 590's in stock:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=849362&SRCCODE=LSCAN&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC1bELltzywCjC-d2CjCdwwp&AffiliateID=SyIrj13jmG8-OTj0gkYtGW1kAobNWccVWQ

Not sure what shipping would be like though.

Zeph

September 16th, 2011, 03:02 PM

Hmm, actually, Tiger Direct doesn't have a warehouse in my state, so I dont have to pay sales tax. If they have all the components, it'd be cheaper for me to get it through there.

edit: meh, they dont and mixing non-snail shipping would basically make the price the same.

edit again: lawl, even though the 590 is more expensive, getting it through Tiger Direct still makes both orders combined cheaper. Gonna play around and look for a sweet spot. I'm guessing the light weight stuff will keep the quick shipping costs down.

Cortexian

September 16th, 2011, 04:14 PM

That 590 Classified is one bad ass card, you should get it hehe.

Zeph

September 16th, 2011, 04:27 PM

Yep. As long as they don't sell out between now and tomorrow I'll be able to nab it at just under my budget. I can't even begin to imagine how awesome Max will run with it.

Cortexian

September 16th, 2011, 05:35 PM

Just make sure you give it the active cooling it needs. You said you're getting a full-tower case, see if you can get one with included or open fan grilles on the side.

Zeph

September 16th, 2011, 07:54 PM

Yeah, there's a 200mm intake on the side panel.

Zeph

September 19th, 2011, 10:46 AM

:( They sold out of 590s over the weekend. Know any other place that sells them?

Cortexian

September 19th, 2011, 11:45 AM

They are discontinued so, good luck with that!

Call (don't email) EVGA customer support directly and ask them. You never know, maybe there's some B-STOCK.

Other than that, Ebay. I saw one starting at like $530 on there the other day, auction seemed legit.

Zeph

September 19th, 2011, 12:22 PM

you mean they've literally stopped making them?

what

the

fuck

Amit

September 19th, 2011, 03:47 PM

Yeah, fuck nVidia.

InnerGoat

September 19th, 2011, 06:06 PM

if the 590 is gone get the 6990...

Zeph

September 19th, 2011, 07:11 PM

There are some things I love about ATI, but fuck catalyst. I'd rather buy a 460 and wait for the 600 series.

Amit

September 19th, 2011, 09:02 PM

What's wrong with CCC? Have you tried CCC2?

Cortexian

September 19th, 2011, 09:39 PM

Yeah they literally stopped making them, the production run on the Nvidia dual processor Nvidia cards is always short. That said, the 6990 is the more powerful of the two right now. Tri-SLI 580's still rape SLI 590's or Crossfire 6990's though...

If the 6990 will do the rendering stuff you want I'd go with it, it's louder but more powerful. CCC is a lot better as well, I have to admit it.

When I next build a whole new monster gaming system I'll just be getting whichever GPU solution is fastest, regardless of Nvidia vs AMD. Meaning if Tri-SLI single GPU Nvidia cards offer the best performance, I'll do that. If Crossfrire dual processor cards from AMD offer the best performance, I'll do that instead, etc...

Bodzilla

September 20th, 2011, 09:18 AM

we've been telling you to do that from the start lol.

oh well glad to see you've dropped the fanboyism

Cortexian

September 20th, 2011, 02:41 PM

Nvidia is still better if you're planning on using CUDA, GPU Acceleration, PhysX, or 3D. I don't use CUDA as much anymore but we'll see what the GTX 600 and HD 7000 series look like.

Zeph

September 20th, 2011, 11:00 PM

Well, looks like TD has them "back in stock" but it says they will ship 7-21 days from the order getting placed since it's handled through a third party. Hope it won't take too long and they won't sell out overnight before I can get to the bank and deposit my grant.

this is going to suck, btw, if it takes too long because the mobo I got doesn't have a vga adapter.

Cortexian

September 21st, 2011, 12:10 AM

Tell them that. TD is usually decent about customer service.

Maybe call Memory Express, they show the Asus GTX 590 as "backordered" on this page (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/Default.aspx?SearchPhrase=GTX 590). They may be able to get you one quicker. I'd call them up and ask them to call their suppliers to see whats up on that front.

Zeph

September 21st, 2011, 08:50 AM

Ordered everything. Luckily, I got an evga GTX 590 from TD, but it could take a month to get here? Bought a cheap 550ti off newegg to get me started and serve as a backup should anything happen to the 590. Case that I ordered through free snail should arrive sometime today and next day shipping should put everything here friday at the latest. I only have one class thursday, so I may just skip it and put the thing together then. Sucks that the 550 put me about 100 bucks over my planned budget, but I can deal with that.

Cortexian

September 21st, 2011, 10:08 AM

You should of just grabbed a GTX 210 or something. Or used your existing GPU temporarily if you have one. Will the 550ti even provide much of a dedicated PhysX card capability once you get the GTX 590?

Zeph

September 21st, 2011, 12:37 PM

not sure and don't really care at this point. Took 6 hours fighting with Visa to get the payment authorized.

Cheapest thing they really had that could still provide basic function in either a game or 3ds Max was the 550. Would have just bought a 15 dollar adaptor to let me see the screen, but I'd at least like to use the thing should the 590 take a full month to get here.

Cortexian

September 21st, 2011, 12:48 PM

Yeah, that works I guess. Might as well leave the 550 in the system after the 590 arrives so you can dedicate it to PhysX.

Zeph

September 21st, 2011, 02:28 PM

Don't know of any PhysX titles I'd be interested in playing. Had a good long chat with those guys back in March at Raleigh though when East Coast Conference was going on.

Cortexian

September 21st, 2011, 06:37 PM

Yeah but if you still have the 550 after you get the 590, why not? You could run 6 monitors (albeit only 3 in Nvidia Surround mode) as well.

Also, you got the EVGA GTX 590 right? When it comes in, please talk to me and I'll give you my referral code for the EVGA affiliate program for when you register it. It earns me 2 EVGA Bucks that I can redeem in their store eventually, as well as an entry to win a "huge" prize that month.

Amit

September 21st, 2011, 07:49 PM

Where's the incentive for him? lol

Zeph

September 21st, 2011, 09:19 PM

550 is evga too if you can get stuff off it as well.

Cortexian

September 21st, 2011, 09:50 PM

I'll just post my affiliate code here, if anyone gets an EVGA product in the future, I'd love for you guys to use my code!

5U6XPP77ZN (http://www.evga.com/register/default.asp?affiliatecode=5U6XPP77ZN)

Click the above to register an EVGA product with my affiliation code. You need to upload a copy of the invoice within 30 days to your account for affiliations to go through successfully I think. You'll need to do this for a Step-Up program or RMA anyway, so you might as well do it while you have everything on hand!

Zeph

September 23rd, 2011, 02:29 AM

Got the thing put together this evening. Took five hours because cable management was a bitch. Still not sure what the fuck Thermaltake is doing with their fan wiring. The single bit of documentation on it is stupidly vague and doesn't even describe what's going on. Win7 installed onto the Raptor in like ten minutes. Was pretty crazy. Kinda worried about how well the HSF is covering the processor with paste. Was completely off the mark on the first seating and had to give it another go after repasting. There was very little sliding to secure the bracket, but I'm gonna have to keep an eye on temps tomorrow when I start loading drivers, software, and stress it a bit. Got plenty of pictures I'll put in the other thread as well.

Cortexian

September 23rd, 2011, 02:49 AM

I always go with the "grain-of-rice" style pasting. Seems to always work pretty well. Even if you need to twist the cooler around a bit you should be fine.

Also, grats on your nice rig man. I'm trying to figure out what I want to replace my 500GB mediocre Seagate drives with. And SSD under 200GB or a couple 300GB Raptors in RAID-0.

Zeph

September 23rd, 2011, 12:32 PM

I would have a pair of 300gb raptors right now, but when the guy packaging one of them put on the bumpers for shipping, he mashed down on the SATA power header causing it to break. Got one of them running right now and it's loud as fuck. Sounds like my hard drive from 1995 at some times. Gonna be a bit interesting when the other gets back from RMA and I pair it into RAID-0. This is definitely incentive for a SSD though. I'll probably go for a 100ish GB SSD for the OS and commonly used productivity and dump everything else on platters. Will have to wait till mid January though :(.

The only two fans working in the case right now are the CPU and rear exhaust. Can't quite figure out why the other three aren't being detected. It's probably some shitty wire job from TT >_<. Even so, my CPU is idling between 17c and 30c depending on what's going on in the background right now.

Drivers and such are pretty much installed. Can't do much graphical stuff with the 550, but I can push the CPU a little to see how it does.

edit: Running a super huge render on max. All 8 threads are running full 100% and my CPU temp has seemingly stabilzed at 75-76c and vcores at 60c. I've left it at stock, but it's current clock is at 4.4GHz. This is the boosting the chip does, right? From the couple of bits I've read, these temps are inline with other air cooling solutions. Guess the HSF turned out okay. Looking forward to seeing how it cures.

Cortexian

September 23rd, 2011, 03:15 PM

Those temps look normal and the 4.4GHz is the Turbo-Boost that Intel includes.

Narida

September 30th, 2011, 12:02 PM

Hi...
I need a new PC and i was considering building my own...
Otherwise its pretty much this (http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pc+systeme/nbb+computer+systeme+pc+systeme/neu+preismacher/nbb+preismacher+iii+amd+phenom+ii+x6+1055t+ati+687 0+gddr5)
Basically it's:
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 6 x 2.8 GHz (automatic overclocking to 3.3 GHz)
Mainboard: ASUS M4A79T
Graphics: 1024 MB ATI Radeon HD 6870 GDDR5 (overclocked)
8 GB RAM
1 TB HDD

for 580€/$770

I was wondering if I can get an equivalent rig cheaper / something more powerful for the same amount if I build it myself. Also it seems kinda stupid to get something without usb 3.0 (although I might be mistaken)

Anyone who knows more about this stuff than I do have any suggestions? ;-)

Thanks in advance

Cortexian

September 30th, 2011, 06:02 PM

There aren't many devices out there that use USB 3.0 right now, so no big loss on that front yet. They will be starting to flourish though, all new devices should be designed for USB 3.0 so keep that in mind.

The price looks decent, but even with the same components you could probably build it yourself a little cheaper.

TeeKup

September 30th, 2011, 07:18 PM

You could probably safely shave off AT LEAST $150 (maybe 200) off that. But it is a decent price.

Amit

September 30th, 2011, 09:48 PM

Any one know when Intel CPU prices will drop? I can't play BF3 on shit PCs forever. I'm tempted to go out and build the following rig if prices don't come down by November :/

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - $119.00 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808)
MB: ASUS M5A97 AM3+ ATX - $95.00 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767)
RAM: Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 2x2G 1600Mhz DDR3 - $38.00 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260&Tpk=CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)

The RAM timings are slow, but I don't give a fuck, this is a budget build. The prices written into the hyperlinks are different than newegg because those are the prices I'm getting these items for at my local computer shop.

I'm pairing the above items with these things that I already have:

GPU: Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 5750 Vapor-X 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102865)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Mid Tower ATX (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066)

ThePlague recommended this CPU cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065). It's cheap and it gets unreal reviews. I think I'll use that to OC the 955 Black, after all, that's what the Black edition is for. My only concern is that coolermaster doesn't say that it's compatible with AM3+ motherboards, but I'm sure it'll work no problem since the mounting hasn't changed for AMD boards since the AM2 socket I think.

Narida

October 1st, 2011, 05:30 AM

MB: Asus M4A87TD EVO AMD 870 Sockel AM3 (http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pc+hardware/mainboards+pc+hardware/sockel+am3/asus/asus+m4a87td+evo+amd+870+sockel+am3)84 eur/113 usd
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1075T 6x 3.00GHz boxed 125 Watt (http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pc+hardware/prozessoren+pc+hardware/amd+sockel+am3/amd+phenom+ii+x6+1075t+6x+300ghz+boxed+125+watt) 137 eur/183 usd
GPU: PowerColor 1024MB 6870 PCIe 2.1 (http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pc+hardware/grafikkarten+pc+hardware/gaming+high+end/powercolor+1024mb+6870+pcie+21)152 eur/205 usd
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS3 Kit PC3-12800U (DDR3-1600) (http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pc+hardware/arbeitsspeicher+pc+hardware/desktop+ddr3/ddr3+1600/4gb+corsair+xms3+kit+pc3+12800u+ddr3+1600)28 eur/ 38 usd
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 6Gb/s ST500DM002 (http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pc+hardware/grafikkarten+pc+hardware/gaming+high+end/seagate+barracuda+500gb+6gbs+st500dm002)35 eur/ 47 usd
Disk drive: Samsung SH-B123L Blu-ray SATA (http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pc+hardware/dvd+laufwerke+pc+hardware/blu+ray+intern/samsung+sh+b123l+blu+ray+sata)56 eur/75 usd

adds up to 519 eur/700 usd

Did I miss any incompatibilities? I picked a mainboard with AM3 socket/USB 3.0 kind of at random so if anyone has a better idea I welcome it... Also I still need a power unit, does anyone have any suggestions for that or about my configuration in general? What kind of wattage am I going to need? The stock CPU cooler should be enough if I don't plan on doing any overclocking?
Thanks in advance :downs:

EDIT:
For the power supply I'm guessing this: be quiet! Pure Power L7 530W (http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pc+hardware/netzteile+pc+hardware/be+quiet/be+quiet+pure+power+l7+530w)55 eur/ 75 usd
price seems to be alright and it seems to be one of the few with 2 PCIe cables which seem to be required for the 6870^^ and 530 watts should be enough.
The phenom ii 6x3 ghz seems a bit overkill, an athlon ii 645 x4 (4x3.1ghz) (http://www.amazon.de/AMD-ADX645WFGMBOX-CPU-AM3-Athlon/dp/B003YV0F66/ref=sr_1_6?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1317495113&sr=1-6) 90 eur/ 120 usd seems more appropriate; it's a good bit cheaper too. What exactly is the difference between the phenoms and athlons?

EDIT 2:
Apparently the Athlons/Phenoms only support RAM at 1333Mhz, so 4GB Corsair XMS3 2x2GB Kit PC3-10666 (DDR3-1333) (http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pc+hardware/arbeitsspeicher+pc+hardware/desktop+ddr3/ddr3+1333/4gb+corsair+xms3+2x2gb+kit+pc3+10666+ddr3+1333) same price and is it just me or is AMD Phenom II X4 980 Prozessor 3,7GHz Black Edition Box (http://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listing/B004Z1F7CQ/ref=wl_it_of_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I9SFUMCXYA2HV&colid=1VUCRMFJD6FJ2&condition=all)95eur/125usd too cheap?

Zeph

October 1st, 2011, 12:25 PM

Any one know when Intel CPU prices will drop? I can't play BF3 on shit PCs forever. I'm tempted to go out and build the following rig if prices don't come down by November :/

AMD is seemingly delaying Bulldozer due to yield issues. I doubt Intel will drop prices to compete with AMD until it makes a consumer launch. Intel is supposed to be refreshing the 2600k spot with a 2700k sometime before Holiday though. Other than that, you'll probably find yourself waiting till February for SandyBridge-E for the next price change.

Amit

October 2nd, 2011, 08:55 PM

Ugh. I'm not willing to wait till the holidays. My iMac can play BF3 @ 30FPS on low settings and at a severely reduced res of 1280x720, but I need a PC that will play it proper at 1680x1050 on medium at the least. AMD setup it is. At least I'll be ready for bulldozer with my AM3+ MB.

Zeph

October 2nd, 2011, 10:20 PM

My GTX 590 will be here tomorrow. I have a question about using the 550ti as a dedicated PPU. My motherboard has two PCI express slots (1x16 or 2x8). If I use the 550ti I have as a placeholder, would it cut the 590 down to x8 speeds?

Cortexian

October 2nd, 2011, 10:49 PM

Depends on how the motherboard handles PCI-E lane bandwidth.

Also, did you use my referral code above? I don't have a referral for the 550 yet.

Zeph

October 2nd, 2011, 10:52 PM

No, haven't done any of that stuff yet. Gonna wait till I get a hard drive back from RMA before I do all my warranty stuff.

Cortexian

October 3rd, 2011, 09:32 AM

KK, post pics of 550 beside 590 when it comes in today!

EDIT: Just looked into your motherboard PCIe layout. According to the specs on Newegg you'll get:

"2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode)"

So if you use the 550 as a PPU in the second PCIe slot then the GTX 590 will run at x8 speeds. I'm not sure how much bandwidth a 590 will actually use, but keep in mind that your board has PCIe 2.0 slots (probably 2.1). PCIe 2.0 x16 is 8GB/s, so PCIe 2.0 x8 is going to be 4GB/s which is still quite a bit...

Zeph

October 3rd, 2011, 10:41 AM

Seems that on 8x it should be alright. Now, I'm concerned about power consumption. If the 550ti and 590 both eat their full amount of power, it'd overload my PSU.

Cortexian

October 3rd, 2011, 11:22 AM

If the 550 is running as a dedicated PPU I really doubt it would exceed 50% power usage. The 590 likely won't ever draw FULL load for an extended period, benchmarking and such is really the only thing that stresses GPU's that much.

Zeph

October 3rd, 2011, 02:42 PM

From what I've found, it really depends on how much the application stresses the PPU side of rendering. If the physics scale to whatever amount of power is available, it will use the PPU to 100%.

590 showed up right before I headed out to campus. I was expecting the large box like what the SLI comes in, but with only one card. It's a different box and packaging. Worst of all, it didn't come with a free shirt and mouse pad :(.

Since the 550 and 590 both use the same driver, do I need to uninstall the current drivers before putting the 590 in?

Cortexian

October 3rd, 2011, 03:13 PM

No need to uninstall the driver, but I'd swap cards, boot, make sure everything is working, then shutdown, install 550 again.

FYI, you have 30 days to register your cards for lifetime warranty. So do it in that time frame (while using my referral code).

Cortexian

October 7th, 2011, 07:59 PM

ZEPH WHERE ARE THE PICTURES!!

Cortexian

October 10th, 2011, 04:23 PM

So I was actually getting low memory warnings editing 1080p Fraps video in Premiere from Battlefield 3... "ERROR: Fraps codec could not allocate enough memory", in addition to the standard Windows warnings.

Think I should upgrade to 16GB?

Warsaw

October 10th, 2011, 04:33 PM

And you have 8GB? What is taking up so much memory?

Cortexian

October 10th, 2011, 06:32 PM

I was watching resource monitor as I was editing, seemed like whenever I scrolled/tracked through the footage it just ate memory. Tracking back and forth would just cause the memory usage to keep climbing.

InnerGoat

October 12th, 2011, 07:54 AM

knock knock

who's there

bulldozer ............. :ehhh:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/the-bulldozer-review-amd-fx8150-tested

Cortexian

October 12th, 2011, 09:45 AM

AMD:
1) Hype new processor.
2) Delay release.
3) Release product.
4) Benchmarks are underwhelming.
5) Goto 1.

InnerGoat

October 12th, 2011, 11:20 AM

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007670 600213781&IsNodeId=1&name=Socket AM3%2b&AID=10592396&PID=3332167&SID=u00000687&nm_mc=AFC-C8junctionCA

Oh god AMD what are you doing these prices are way too high :ugh:

Cortexian

October 12th, 2011, 11:47 AM

I wasn't surprised actually, for some reason I knew that the Bulldozer consumer chips were just going to suck hard. At the price point there is NO REASON not to go Intel and get better all-around performance.

Zeph

October 12th, 2011, 11:48 AM

Glad I didn't wait for Bulldozer. I miss the days when FX 64 raped everything Intel had.

Patrickssj6

October 12th, 2011, 11:49 AM

Proud owner of an Athlon X2 and Phenom X4..but now AMD, RIP.

Cortexian

October 12th, 2011, 11:59 AM

I think the biggest problem is that an i5-2500k, which isn't a flagship processor, beats out all the new flagship 8150 Bulldozer chips... Then there's the flagship i7-2600k and i7-980x which both just completely destroy the Bulldozer 8150's.

On top of that Intel is going to be releasing the i7-2700k or whatever the replacements are going to be soon. Plus Ivy-Bridge with 22nm processors.

At this point, Intel has pretty much proclaimed that "resistance is futile" to AMD.

Warsaw

October 12th, 2011, 09:05 PM

Proud owner of an Athlon X2 and Phenom X4..but now AMD, RIP.

Quoted for truth. I'm still rocking my Socket 939 Athlon 64 3200+.

Freelancer, AMD not doing well here is also bad for Intel. If AMD goes under, Intel may face scrutiny and a possible split. It's also bad for us. Intel now knows for sure that AMD can't compete, and so they are free to hike prices on the high end parts.

All the same, looks like my new rig will be sporting a blue sticker instead of a red one.

Cortexian

October 12th, 2011, 09:08 PM

AMD has more to work with than Intel, they still have their GPU line.

Warsaw

October 12th, 2011, 09:13 PM

Except that Intel also has a hand in the GPU market and, in fact, has the majority share of it thanks their long history of integrated graphics.

Intel is already being watched thanks to their scandal early last decade with AMD. They should be wary of a weak AMD.

Cortexian

October 12th, 2011, 09:15 PM

One failing will only make the other stronger, there's no other competition.

Caboos001

October 12th, 2011, 10:17 PM

So I'm having a bit of a heat issue with my current machine. The issue is most prevalent when I'm playing more demanding games, such as, Crysis, BC2, and BF3. the problem seems to be with my CPU temperature. On average it's temperature reads at around 40c. When gaming for a lengthier amount of time the temperature shoots up to about 49c. It's at about this point that without warning my entire machine will completely shut off; One second everything is all hunky dory, and then, all power shuts off. The only thing I can do to stop it at the moment is shove a big box fan next to my tower; that usually keeps it at around 45c.

does anyone have any recommendations on a new cooling system that may solve this problem? my current system specs are as follows:

Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E
CPU: Intel Core i7 950 (4x 3.06GHz/8MB L3 cache)
CPU cooling: Liquid cooling system, with 120mm 2800 rpm fan
Case cooling: Two standard 120 mm fans at 1600 rpm
GPU: GTX 460 1GB soon to be GTX 570
Memory: 6 GB DDR3-1600
Power supply: 700 Watt (no cooling)

Cortexian

October 12th, 2011, 10:28 PM

50 degrees isn't anything to worry about. My 2500k hits 80 degrees when I' benchmarking... Got to be something else.

Warsaw

October 12th, 2011, 10:29 PM

One failing will only make the other stronger, there's no other competition.

There is no other consumer x86 competition in the world apart from AMD, and AMD is only able to compete now because they used to work for Intel and because of a technicality back in 1994. If AMD goes bankrupt and isn't bought by another company with the intention of producing x86 parts, then Intel has a monopoly. Because the entire home computing industry relies on x86, customers have no choice and have to pay whatever Intel wants them to for a new computer. Unless ARM takes the home and business PC markets by storm (and it might), Intel will be split into two smaller companies.

Caboos001: First, is your system clean? Second, do you have adequate airflow for the fans? Even on liquid, it helps. Third, are your coolant levels OK? I might suggest removing the heat sink on the CPU, cleaning off the old thermal paste, and applying new paste. Oh, and what are your GPU temperatures? Also, 'Lancer, he's not running a Sandy Bridge Core series, he's on Nehalem. Different tolerances.

Cortexian

October 12th, 2011, 10:37 PM

Also, 'Lancer, he's not running a Sandy Bridge Core series, he's on Nehalem. Different tolerances.
Yeah but 50 degrees is still nothing, at least it should be.

Caboos001

October 12th, 2011, 10:46 PM

Caboos001: First, is your system clean? Second, do you have adequate airflow for the fans? Even on liquid, it helps. Third, are your coolant levels OK? I might suggest removing the heat sink on the CPU, cleaning off the old thermal paste, and applying new paste. Oh, and what are your GPU temperatures? Also, 'Lancer, he's not running a Sandy Bridge Core series, he's on Nehalem. Different tolerances.

My GPU runs at 40c on average, I have yet to take a reading while gaming. My machine is very clean at the moment, nothing serious that could cause heat problems. My air flow seems alright. the systems seems to be ventilating ok; I am however considering picking up a PCI slot case cooler such as this,Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835888309), to improve it some. Lastly, I honestly have no idea what my coolant levels are at, I'll have to check.

Edit: Ok so I took a look and my coolant levels are fine. I did manage to take off my heat sink, however, this is my first time doing so, and I have no idea weather or not I need to apply new thermal paste. I imagine doing it regardless can't hurt. I did snap a couple of pictures and from the looks of it I may need to do just that.

24162417

I'll be running some stress tests over night to see if the issue may be something besides heat problem. Though the fact that cooling the machine with an epic box fan seems to keep it from crashing keeps me leaning towards a heat problem.

Warsaw

October 13th, 2011, 12:45 AM

If you take off the heat sink, you MUST clean off the old paste and put new paste on. I recommend using a coffee filter with rubbing alcohol to clean of the paste, as it will not leave residue.

Cortexian

October 13th, 2011, 01:44 AM

I really hope that once you took that off you didn't just slap it back on to use the PC. You need to re-apply paste every time you remove your waterblock/HSF like Warsaw said.

Caboos001

October 13th, 2011, 02:38 AM

I really hope that once you took that off you didn't just slap it back on to use the PC.

Nope, it's all stripped down and waiting for its new graphics card right now. Just ordered a new fan and some more thermal paste as well, so once it all arrives I should be in business.

Zeph

October 13th, 2011, 07:42 PM

Zeph

October 13th, 2011, 08:13 PM

ZEPH WHERE ARE THE PICTURES!!http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?3657-Post-your-PC-pics&p=597948&viewfull=1#post597948

Caboos001

October 18th, 2011, 09:48 PM

Mkay, so a little update here. My graphics card came in just yesterday, along with a tube of Arctic Silver 5, and another case exhaust fan. I'm having some mixed results here. The overall temperature of my CPU has dropped to 101F while idle and the temperature usually maxes out at about 138F while gaming; an overall improvement from what it ran at last. Then, my new GPU (GTX 570) idles at 113F and maxes at around 183F.

Now my system has shut down on me on at least 2 different occasion while playing BC2, with the same max temperature readings you see above. however, now instead of just completely shutting off, the system just restarts itself. I have tried looking at my BIOS for my heat threshold but it does not seem as though I have anything indicating what it is, nor do I have an option to change it. It seems odd to me that my system now crashes at a lower heat level than it did before. Could this problem be related to my power supply perhaps? over the past hour I've been putting my system under some more stress while gaming, I have yet to crash as of yet, so here's hoping the issue has somehow resolved itself.

EDIT: Well damn, guess what, it was a problem with my PSU after all. I was just casually gaming early when out of nowhere my computer shut down. I figured it was just another random shutdown and attempted to boot it back up. Well with a push of the power button all that turned on were the LED case light for a split second followed up with a faint, "PST" sound from the PSU. So how many other components do you guys think the PSU took with it?

=sw=warlord

October 19th, 2011, 02:17 PM

Do you hear or feel any other fans moving at all?
The GPU should still have a slight movement of the fan if only for a second, depending on your card there may be a red LED saying if the card is damaged or not.
It can go either way, either the PSU only took it self out or wiped the entire system with it, it's happened to me before now.

Caboos001

October 19th, 2011, 04:56 PM

Yeah, no fan movement whatsoever. It just does the same thing as before. Now there is one little red light just under my PCI slot that turns on and stays on when the power switch is in the on position, but the computer is not booted up. Looks just like this ( not my computer though)
2435

Also, a couple of USB peripherals like my wireless adapter show a power light indicating they do have some kind of power. as for my GPU, I have nothing more than the fan to indicate if it has any power.

=sw=warlord

October 19th, 2011, 05:02 PM

It looks like your motherboard may have taken the clout as well then.
Try testing with another PSU if possible if you're still getting nothing then it's safe to assume the board has died as well.
I just hope you don't have an Asus motherboard, I sent one of those for a repair and it got lost in Russia for 8 months.

Cortexian

October 19th, 2011, 06:22 PM

Sounds like PSU to me.

Caboos001

October 19th, 2011, 08:08 PM

Alright, everything turned out better than expected. Bought a new PSU and have everything hooked up. There is no damage to my motherboard, no damage to the CPU, no damage to anything but the old PSU itself, which upon further inspection is completely fried. from the looks of it, the guys who built it installed it in such a way that it was getting next to nothing for ventilation; leading to the heat problem which of course lead to its inevitable death. Thanks for the help guys, I now have an even better idea on what I'm doing thanks to this past week. Though, while it's an overall improvement, I still can't computer; so I'll of course have more questions in the future.

=sw=warlord

October 21st, 2011, 07:42 PM

Just ordered one of these (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-P195HQL-18-5-inch-Monitor/dp/B0032B3LLO/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top).
Price I paid was around £40 give or take a few pennys to replace my old Belnea screen (http://www.tlt-uk.co.uk/shop/belineamon.jpg) from back in early 05.
Anyone had experience with Acer screens before?

Warsaw

October 21st, 2011, 08:12 PM

Pick me, pick me!

I have a 22" 1680x1050 Acer monitor. It's attached to my kitchen PC. I believe the model is the X223w. Good colours, no dead pixels, even light distribution and best of all: 16:10 aspect ratio. Have not had a single issue with it. Build quality is solid, but nothing special.

=sw=warlord

October 21st, 2011, 08:38 PM

I thought someone here might have used an Acer display, wasn't sure who though.
I've been checking up some details and if the spec's I've been given are correct, then it seems this monitor may have been a bargain.
According to several sites this display has a contrast of "8000000:1 (ACM) Contrast Ratio".
Usually I'm well kept up to date on computer hardware but I must admit, I don't keep myself up to date on displays, on your display are the range of colours any good?
Reason I ask is my current display is starting to fade in terms of the colours displayed, even with messing with the options plus there's faint "static" like fuzz on the screen if you look hard enough.
All I'm really looking for is whether Acer are a good reputable maker of monitors like they seem to be for laptops.

Amit

October 21st, 2011, 10:33 PM

Good news and bad news.

Good news: Acer makes monitors better today than they did 5 years ago. I don't hear more dead pixel complaints on their monitors than the competitors these days. The problem is that they are still low spec monitors, but they are cheap. You're not gonna get good contrast ratios with most Acer monitors.

Bad news: Acer is the worst possible company to buy a laptop from (and their Gateway and eMachines divisions). Their stuff is just absolutely junk. It falls apart within 4 months from regular use. Acer is in no way possible a reputable laptop manufacturer. They use cheap components to keep prices low on laptops that have many more features than well made laptops that are from better manufacturers (Toshiba, Samsung, Lenovo). My sister got a Gateway laptop in early April against my warnings. The thing is basically falling apart and she's kicking herself now. My friend in Ottawa bought a Gateway last August before heading off to university. Before a month even ended since he got the thing, the bordering around the trackpad and buttons came off and the buttons became loose. All plastic too. Just really shoddy components all around.

The only type of laptop that Acer makes very well are their netbooks. Those little guys are made of fucking brushed metal. How is it that they don't do that for mid-range price laptops?

Warsaw

October 22nd, 2011, 12:07 AM

Warsaw

October 22nd, 2011, 07:50 PM

Double post, because it's necessary.

So, I need a new computer. Again. My last build went up in blue smoke; that was partly my fault, and partly the motherboard's fault. Now, it's irrelevant. I have no idea which parts are salvageable apart from the hard drive and the DVD drive. CPU and RAM might be, but I have no way of testing them. I'm not inclined to buy a bunch of expensive parts on the assumption that I can reuse those components. So? I am building a new rig.

I intend to build an X58 system. Sandy Bridge doesn't offer any features that I care to take advantage of, and Nehalem's performance is almost at clock-for-clock parity with it. I want the full 36 lanes of PCI Express, which is why I am choosing it over the Z68 platform. I also want the triple-channel memory. Know that I've done my homework. What I want is a second opinion on my choice of parts, rather than an opinion on the platform.

So, here's the build:

CPU - i7 950 3.06GHz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211)

Motherboard - ASUS Rampage III Formula X58 LGA 1366 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131666)

RAM - G.Skill Ripjaws 12GB (3 x 4GB) DDR3 1333: CAS 7-7-7-21 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231405)

GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD6970 2GB x2 (using in Crossfire) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102918)

HDD - 1TB WD Caviar Black 7200rpm 32MB Cache (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284)

And a maybe buy:

SSD - SanDisk Ultra SDSSDH-G25 120GB

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171545)The SSD is not a high priority. I require a machine that can play BF3. I bought it, but I cannot play it with my current computer.

Thoughts?

Amit

October 22nd, 2011, 09:33 PM

Have fun.

Zeph

October 22nd, 2011, 10:00 PM

You could afford a 6990 for the price of those two 6970s. Also, you may be getting 50% more memory bandwidth with triple channel, but it's not like your processor will make up for it and give you par performance now that Sandy Bridge is around. Two 6990s barely saturate 16 PCIe lanes so it's not like you'll need that many lanes with two 6970s. The i7 950, and even the 960, would be the bottleneck.

If you're still set on TRIPPAHL CHANNAHL memory, just stick with a single 6970 and consider this a decent mid range machine to keep you going till whatever comes out to replace LGA 2011 and the Sandy Bridge Enthusiast chips due in 5 or so months. You say you've done your research and looking for concerns about the parts. Keep in mind that only the enthusiast level of hardware can make full use of the chipset (i7 990x, dual 6990s, RAID, etc.). You'd get much better performance per dollar out of Sandy Bridge.

Warsaw

October 22nd, 2011, 10:47 PM

Except the equivalent SB CPU (i7 2600K) is $315 where as this CPU is $260. I don't call $55 chump change. The only 1155 boards worth buying are those sporting Z68, and none of them have the full PCIe support. I can also get RAM at a better price/quantity ratio than with a dual-channel setup. When you say the 950 is the bottle-neck, you have to remember that this is one very high bottleneck. All the benchmarks I've read conclude that any CPU you buy, whether it's a Sempron or an Intel Extreme, is a bottleneck to the best GPUs out today.

Performance per dollar lies with Nehalem on the i7 and Sandy Bridge on the i5.

If I were building a mid-range machine, then I'd be sticking with AMD on the AM3. Performance per dollar on those Phenom II X4s and X6s is really hard to beat right now. This machine I build now is going to last me for another six years with only one intermittent RAM and/or GPU upgrade around its mid-life (expansion to 24GB and dual HD7990). Like it has with my current machine, the console market will allow me to get away with that.

I appreciate the input, so thank you. I had considered most of those points before choosing. I just really do not like the Sandy Bridge platform; it reeks of LGA1156 shenanigans. On the LGA 1366 front, the i7-990X is a money sink for little real-world advantage. I cannot afford two HD6990s right now, and as they are likely to disappear and be found only at exhorbitant prices later, I won't be able to later add a second for Crossfire. Thus, dual 6970s are optimal (I'm going to be running 2560x1600...I'm not wasting power here).

P.S. I am going to be overclocking this.

P.P.S. Also interested in hearing any thoughts on a full-on Bulldozer build. I know it's not good now, but what about the possible future using heavily threaded applications and the fact that AM3+ is still sticking around for one more generation? Benches show that FX-8150 = i7 2600K when it can be fully loaded, so there's hope.

Zeph

October 23rd, 2011, 12:32 AM

No, the equivalent SB CPU is the 2500k and it's 219 dollars. The 2600k shames the 950.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/100?vs=288

Anyways, have fun with your PCI express 2.0 mobo with PCIe3 around the corner.

And oh, you still have some research to do. There are 1155 boards out there that can give you dual 16x slots for your video cards.

Then again, you seem to be confused that you can't afford something that's less expensive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102927) than what you're trying to get (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102918). Wasn't telling you to get two of them. You're overclocking so you can easily overcome the 5-10% difference between a 6990 and 6970cf.

Not like I'm trying to lead you to the best in your price range, deals with what you put in it instead of what you could put in it, and is generally cheaper than what you've suggested considering you're at the end of a cycle and all. That would be silly.

Warsaw

October 23rd, 2011, 04:48 AM

Ok, I'll play:

I've actually had the 2600K vs. 950 CPU comparison up all day. That's not what I call shaming, especially when they aren't clocked the same. Shaming is what the i5 2500K does to the FX-8150. If you want a slightly more accurate picture, compare the 975 Extreme and the 2600K. Even then, it's still not clock-for-clock.

On the graphics front, the last time I checked $700 is not less expensive than 2 x $320. Look at the rebate; I do rebates. Benches then show two 6970s as outperforming a single 6990 (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4209/amds-radeon-hd-6990-the-new-single-card-king). I already stated why I wouldn't get an HD6990, and it's a perfectly valid set of reasons. I said I can't afford two, and the only reason to get the 6990 over two 6970s is if I plan on getting two. I can't get another one later within reason, since I don't exactly have a steady income. Oh, and then there's the fact that two 6990s is barely better than one (http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Powercolor/Radeon_HD_6990_CrossFire/images/perfrel.gif). Not worth an extra $700.

PCE Express 3.0 is irrelevant when none of the CPUs can activate it. None of the motherboards sporting both Z68 and PCI Express 3.0 have x16/x16. There are plenty of P67 boards, but then you lose the entire advantage of getting a Sandy Bridge system. I haven't been able to find a PCIe 3.0 Z68 board that also does x16/x16. Here's the best Z68 board (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157263) that supports PCIe 3.0. None of the planned Ivy Bridge chipsets (the 7 series) support x16/x16, either.

I'm coming from a single-core AMD Athlon 64 3200+. ANYTHING is a step up. I don't give a rat's ass about power consumption, noise, or boot times. I don't foresee any major graphical revolution happening within three years with the current consoles sticking around (whelp, new Xbox to be possibly revealed in 2013 (http://www.tomsguide.com/us/xbox-next-xbox-720-console-jeff-faulkner-Fable-Next,news-12958.html)). Most games are also not CPU-limited when it comes to using an Intel CPU with all the settings cranked up. I've seen the performance boost of the Socket 2011, and it's not much over the i7 990X, let alone the i7 2600K (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-3960x-x79-performance,3026.html). Considering that those benches are with the most powerful SKU, it makes it clear that Sandy Bridge-E will be just as underwhelming compared to Sandy Bridge as Bulldozer was to the Phenom II. X79 lacks the staying power of X58.

Bottom line: since I seem to be unable to, find me a PCI-E 3.0 board with 16x/16x on the PCI-E 3.0 lanes, and I'll bite for the 1155.

Donut

October 28th, 2011, 02:46 PM

so yesterday i noticed when i was looking at the bios readout thing that flashes on the screen when you boot up a computer that my ram speed was DDR3 - 1333. i was like, "no. that is not right, i paid for more than that." my ram is ddr3 and rated at 1600. idk if youd call that rating but thats the speed its designed to work with. so i went into the bios and changed the ram speed from 1333 to 1600.

doesnt seem to be a problem, but is there anything else i need to do to take advantage of the full 1600 mhz, or is that fine?
E: unrelated, im pretty sure im running the newest nvidea drivers on my GTX 560Ti (285.62), and just now my screen went black for a second or two, came back on, and said the drivers recovered from a crash or something. this is the second time this has happened. is that just a new driver issue?

=sw=warlord

October 28th, 2011, 03:30 PM

if you have mixed memory speeds for the RAM, the entire set will be clocked to the speed of the lowest denominator.

Warsaw

October 29th, 2011, 12:34 AM

It's not a driver issue, it's a feature! Yay Nvidia! :downs:

Also, there is a good portion of RAM that is advertised at a certain speed, but runs slower by default. It's like some sort of safety net, according to reviews I've read on Newegg.

Amit

October 29th, 2011, 12:16 PM

Well, you can just put it up to speed in the BIOS right?

Higuy

October 29th, 2011, 04:04 PM

The insides of your guys computers look really nice.

...you should see mine :smith:

Donut

October 29th, 2011, 04:27 PM

Well, you can just put it up to speed in the BIOS right?
yeah thats exactly what i did. just changed the ram speed from 1333 to 1600. my question was whether or not this is all i had to do. i was thinking i might also have to do something like reset the voltage or something. idfk. it works just fine now so i guess not. also it was 4 identical sticks of 2gb ram that all came in the same box, so theres no mixed speeds there.

also, i clean installed the nvidea drivers again and i havent had a problem since, so i guess we're good

Cortexian

October 29th, 2011, 05:35 PM

Usually when it comes to RAM you're supposed to adjust your voltage to get the advertised speed and timings. Adjusting the speed and timings first is like unnecessary overclocking.

Pooky

November 8th, 2011, 06:06 PM

Okay guys, I'm having a bit of a problem I'm hoping you can help with. I finally got my new graphics card in the mail. I uninstalled the drivers for the old one, even going as far as to remove it from the device manager. I install the new card, plug in the 6 pin power cord, and turn everything on. The monitor takes a while to come on, and when it does all I get is a gray box that says "Input not supported". I tried it several times but still the same issue. One of those times the picture did come up for a split second, then it just went to the box again. Old GPU works fine. Is there something I could have done wrong or should I just go ahead and RMA it as defective?

This is the GPU I bought: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-161-317&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=5#scrollFullInfo

And this is my motherboard: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01701270

As far as I can tell, it should be compatible.

=sw=warlord

November 8th, 2011, 06:10 PM

Your resolution is either too high or the refresh is too high or both.
Boot in safemode and set the adjustments there and then reboot.

Pooky

November 8th, 2011, 06:19 PM

I'm not sure what you mean. I'm still using the same monitor and software video works fine. When I plug the new GPU in I can't get it to show a picture at all. Just the gray box.

=sw=warlord

November 8th, 2011, 06:55 PM

I'm not sure what you mean. I'm still using the same monitor and software video works fine. When I plug the new GPU in I can't get it to show a picture at all. Just the gray box.
You say you're using a new GPU.
With me if I install a new GPU windows changes the resolution to max resolution and refresh.
Do what i said above and see how it goes.

Pooky

November 9th, 2011, 05:06 AM

Yeah but, that assumes I can get into Windows at all. I haven't even made it that far. I just get a black screen as soon as I turn the power on.

Amit

November 9th, 2011, 05:58 PM

Guys, he can't even see the POST.

Yo, just plug the card into another PC and turn it on. If you get the grey screen again, you know the GPU is borked.

Pooky

November 9th, 2011, 08:54 PM

I would if I had one :\

Zeph

November 9th, 2011, 11:12 PM

Plug the old card back in and start from the beginning. Before shutting down to take the card out, make sure you set the resolution to something low.

cheezdue

November 12th, 2011, 12:29 AM

I'm looking for some advice on building my first rig. My budget is $1000 and I'll be using GTX 560 SLI later when I have more money saved for a second card. This is my current build so far.

Mobo: Gigabyte Intel Z68

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128523)Graphics: EVGA GTX 560 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130660) (Planning on buying a second one for SLI)

PSU: Corsair 750W

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006)Processor: Intel i5-2300 Sandy Bridge

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115076)RAM: G.Skill Ripjaw Series 8GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311) (I'm contemplating if I should go 6GB just to save a few bucks :P)

HDD: Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769)Monitor: Hannspree 21.5"
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824262011)
Optical Drive: Sony CD/DVD burner (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118040) (I'm a Sony whore)

Case: Sentey Optimus Extreme Division Tower (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811322016) (Not sure if I should with this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196) instead)

That's pretty much it. I'm open to any suggestions as long it stays within my budget. :)

Rook

November 12th, 2011, 06:23 AM

Last edited by Xetsuei; September 4th, 2009 at 03:05 AM.

You should make a new thread freelancer and keep it updated!

Cortexian

November 13th, 2011, 10:02 PM

To much technology not enough time!!

Warsaw

November 14th, 2011, 12:25 AM

You should make a new thread freelancer and keep it updated!

Why Freelancer? I'm in here just as often and am usually on the ball faster.

Besides, we don't need a new thread. The OP with the "builds for price segment" is a waste of space, especially when all decent builds point to Intel platforms these days.

Amit

November 14th, 2011, 01:35 AM

Decent builds under $400 point to AMD, still.

Warsaw

November 14th, 2011, 02:00 AM

Honestly, it depends on what parts you are scrounging, but AMD is good only if you are going to buy an AMD A-series APU and actually use its integrated graphics. Do not scoff at the i3, it will ravage the equivalent AMD.

Oh, and with the massive disappointment that was Bulldozer, I can't recommend AMD anymore. Intel just has too much of a performance-per-watt lead. And I'm no fanboy, all of my computers have been AMD.

E: So, Sandy Bridge-E is a goddamn waste of time and money (http://www.anandtech.com/show/5091/intel-core-i7-3960x-sandy-bridge-e-review-keeping-the-high-end-alive). The performance isn't there, you're better off buying Sandy Bridge for performance or even Gulftown if you want to save money.

Zeph

November 16th, 2011, 08:48 PM

I was dissapointed with Sandy Bridge E as well. Ultimately, about 10% higher performance overall with amazing boosts upwards of 30% on things heavily memory intensive. Not an impressive leap from a 2600k at all, but I'd love a pair of these Xeon flavor on a server.

InnerGoat

November 16th, 2011, 08:54 PM

SB-e is as expected... Fastest thing out there even if it's twice as expensive for little gain :iamafag:

My new hardware shipped this morning :)

Amit

November 16th, 2011, 09:56 PM

Honestly, it depends on what parts you are scrounging, but AMD is good only if you are going to buy an AMD A-series APU and actually use its integrated graphics. Do not scoff at the i3, it will ravage the equivalent AMD.

Not necessarily. The X4 and X6 Phenom II's still get the job done and do it better than an APU can. The graphics on the APU can't match a $100 graphics card for a budget gaming PC. And I think the X4 955 Black Edition goes directly against the i3-2100. While the i3 is faster at stock speeds for gaming, I can overclock my X4 955 BE to smoke it in gaming. You can overlock i3's properly so they are stuck with stock gaming performance while the AMD Phenom II's destroy it when it comes to multi-threaded applications and general productivity. I value that over extra gaming performance. Performance I know I don't need.

Warsaw

November 16th, 2011, 10:35 PM

Yeah, and that's the catch. You have to choose what really suits your needs, and that's why the templates in the original post are a waste of time (which is the real point I was making). It's actually better to help people here on a case-by-case basis. And believe me, I know about the Intel vs. AMD subtleties, I did build a Phenom II X4 955-based system last year for the same reason. Contrary to what you just stated, though, the i3 2100 and Phenom II X4 955 at base clocks are so neck and neck in every department (even multitasking and general productivity) that it makes a hard sell for either and you you have to really go with personal preference. Remember that most people do not overclock.

Oh, and the GPU in the A8-3850 is equivalent to an HD3850 (modern form on 32nm, HD6550D), hence the name. While it was never exactly the greatest GPU in the world from any angle, it certainly was no slouch either. It is without equal if you want to make a budget game machine; you can play just about any title out there today with decent results using it. If you ask me, it's currently AMD's crown jewel, with the FX looking at it in envy.

Patrickssj6

November 17th, 2011, 07:39 AM

tbh whoever proposed the idea of i3, i5 and i7 should get a medal. Each processor fitting its niche perfectly.

(owner of Phenom II X4 955)

Zeph

November 17th, 2011, 09:35 AM

Well, for the first time, they actually have an architecture that can scale to the various niches. The idea has been around since Pentium D.

Warsaw

November 17th, 2011, 10:08 AM

I think they do more feature crippling than actual power scaling. The i3 is a monster for mundane tasks, but both it and the i5 lack hyper-threading on the desktop. The i5 also has a better GPU.

Cortexian

November 22nd, 2011, 10:04 PM

So a friend of mine has given me a $5,000 budget to build him a PC. Here is what I'm thinking:

Case and Cooling:
NZXT Phantom Full Tower, Red - $159.99 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX31740)
3 x Cooler Master 200mm Red LED Fan (two top, one side) - $59.97 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX27121)
Noctua NF-P14 FLX 140mm Fan (front) - $19.99 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34319)
Corsair Hydro H80 CPU cooler - $99.99 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX33764)
2 x Noctua NF-S12B FLX 120mm Fan (for the H80) - $39.98 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34322)

Core Components:
Intel Core i7-3930K Processor, 3.20GHz w/ 12MB Cache - $629.99 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX36729)
Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5 - $349.99 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX36743)
Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 - $99.99 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX31394)
2 x eVGA GeForce GTX 580 3GB - $1,199.98 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX33294)
Corsair Professional Series HX1050 Modular Power Supply - $219.99 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX33769)

Drives:
Crucial M4 2.5in SATA III Solid State Drive, 256GB - $399.99 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX33418)
2 x Seagate 2TB Barracuda Green SATA III w/ 64MB Cache - $379.98 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX32060)
Samsung 12x Internal Blu-Ray Combo, SATA, Black - $89.99 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX30665)

Other Stuff:
Windows 7 Pro - $149.99
Samsung S24A450UW 24in Widescreen LED LCD, Black w/ HAS, USB - $349.99 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX36355)

Sub-Total: $4,249.80
GST: $212.49
Total: $4,462.29

He would still need a keyboard, mouse, and speakers (he wants surround sound ones) after this and inside the budget.

In addition, he was the one that picked out the case from a few suggestions I made. The Phantom is really nice as long as you maximize its cooling potential, hence all the fans.

We're still debating what he wants to do for graphics cards. It's going to be dual GTX 580's or a single GTX 590. If he goes the GTX 590 route he wants to add a second one later (which is the only reason to get a 590 over two 580's). I told him that two 580's are insanely good and will easily last for 6 years worth of games at 1920x1200 and that GTX 590's are already getting hard to find on the market. I also mentioned the fact that two GTX 590's = quad SLI which doesn't have the greatest driver support yet. I think he's leaning towards the GTX 580's now because he kinda wants to water cool them in the future and maybe add a third to the system.

Suggestions?

leorimolo

November 22nd, 2011, 10:11 PM

Shit for that amount of money you might as well liquid cool it.

Cortexian

November 22nd, 2011, 10:12 PM

Note how the cost of those components kind negates that fact right now. Can't water cool it now. Doing a custom water-loop for the CPU and two GPU's will run you at least another $1,000.

Amit

November 22nd, 2011, 10:15 PM

He should recycle a HDD and use that rather than blowing $800+ on HDDs that would be half the price usually. He should wait until HDD prices come back down. Who knows. SSD prices will probably drop by then, too.

EDIT: Okay, maybe the SSD he can get, just to have something nice and fast, with a bit of space on it. However, the Hard Drives he should wait for. With 256GB, I think that's enough to last 5 months easy if you don't download too much stuff.

Cortexian

November 22nd, 2011, 10:28 PM

I'm not sure if he has one to recycle, but that's a good idea. I'll remind him that he can do that. Thanks for reminding me.

Donut

November 22nd, 2011, 11:53 PM

you know, you might also throw a little card reader in there. i added one to my build for 15 bucks and im surprised at how often ive used it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820223109

this is the one i bought. it has a black and a gray faceplate, so i guess you could use the black to go with the red case.
E: it does have a blue LED on the front though. idk if hes gonna get upset about that, but i figure i should mention it anyway

Cortexian

November 23rd, 2011, 12:09 AM

All the bays on the phantom are covered anyway, not a big deal. I'll ask if he's interested in a card reader.

Phantom for reference:
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/9484/nzxtphantom2l.jpg

You can see how all the bays are covered up, that front panel cutout you see is a door. The handle is the larger gap in the near-side of the front panel.

Warsaw

November 24th, 2011, 12:26 PM

If you haven't, you should ask him what kind of looks he wants in a case. I myself would rather buy a Fractal Design XL, as I believe it's a better case and that it looks better. M $0.02.

Cortexian

November 24th, 2011, 03:17 PM

If you haven't, you should ask him what kind of looks he wants in a case. I myself would rather buy a Fractal Design XL, as I believe it's a better case and that it looks better. M $0.02.
Yeah, said I did that in the first post regarding this. He's been looking through cases constantly and hasn't found anything better than the Red Phantom to his liking. He actually bought all three of the in-stock Phantom colors (black, white, and red) and tried them out where he wanted them. Than he returned the black and white ones since the red works best according to him.

I'd take a Fractal Design XL over the Phantom myself, and I recommended the Corsair Obsidian series to him which has a similar look to the Fractal Design XL. He didn't like how plain it looked.

As this is his first gaming PC he's at the stage where he wants it to look really cool as well as run really cool. I find that when people get their first gaming PC's they usually go with something extravagant like the Phantom and then as they mature on the technological front they move towards the minimalistic look.

Amit

November 24th, 2011, 04:15 PM

As this is his first gaming PC he's at the stage where he wants it to look really cool as well as run really cool. I find that when people get their first gaming PC's they usually go with something extravagant like the Phantom and then as they mature on the technological front they move towards the minimalistic look.

I was the same way. I'm lucky I was too poor to afford a gaming case back then. That was back when I was 14/15. My stance has changed since. Otherwise, I would have ended up with some ridiculous looking piece of crap. Minimalistic ftw.

Bodzilla

November 25th, 2011, 05:49 AM

i'm thinking about a new keyboard
This is my current one
http://www.brillcom.com/product_images/r/999/saitek_EclipseII_main_image_lit__36252_zoom.jpg

I've got a Saitek eclipse II at the moment and it's been awesome for about 4 years but i've just started to have some buttons die on me.
my f8, f9 key are dead and so is my "next song" and left windows key.

i cant do quick loads in Deus ex HR because i cant rebind the keys (seriously wtf) and it's a little frustrating not being able to go to the next song.
I've done the big cleanout pulled it all apart soaked it but to no avail, the pathway from these buttons to the receiver or controller or what ever is just dead which is a shame.

So i'm looking for something thats a backlit keyboard, has some buttons for music and just looks and feels like a good solid standard keyboard. Basically the same deal as what i've got now.

What do you recommend?

been looking around a little bit.... i've got a Razer Carc headset, but being a 3.5 jack headset i cant choose between having vent come out my headset and everything else through my speakers like i could on my old USB headset.

Some of the keyboards i've seen have inbuilt sound cards and USB ports for headsets exactly for this reason, to allow me to separate my sound.
What do you guys recommend in this range thats still wired, illuminated and has inputs at the back.

does anybody else in the forum use a keyboard this way?
*KEyboarD*DEAD*senD*heLP·charaCtEr*MAP*typInG*·p lEAsE

n00b1n8R

November 25th, 2011, 06:05 AM

bleach

November 25th, 2011, 11:31 AM

Should I think about upgrading my RAM?

System Specs:
Antec Three Hundred Mid-Tower Case
Intel Core i5 750 Lynnfield 2.66 GHz LGA 1156 95W (B1) @ 2.66 GHz
Asus P7P55D Pro (Intel P55 Chipset) LGA 1156 ATX Motherboard
OCZ OCZ3P1333LV2G 4 GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 PC3-10666 7-7-7-21
Western Digital Caviar Green 750 GB WD7500AADS Hard Drive
XFX Radeon HD 5850 1 GB GDDR5 256-bit PCI-E 2.0 HD-585A-ZNFC
Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 600 W
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)

Also, I don't know if my RAM timings at the moment are a bit off or something and Halo gives me a not enough memory message

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/5743/mem1t.th.jpg (http://img577.imageshack.us/i/mem1t.jpg/)
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/9250/mem2z.th.jpg (http://img267.imageshack.us/i/mem2z.jpg/)
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3084/halomem.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/i/halomem.jpg/)
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9887/memusage.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/72/memusage.jpg/)

Newegg seems to have great prices for 8 GB RAM kits and most of them are for DDR3-1600. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611 600006050 4025 4802 4808 600006069&IsNodeId=1&name=8GB (2 x 4GB))
Fry's also has some stuff (after rebate) like this (http://shop2.frys.com/product/6686664?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG)
will 8 GB or more make a noticeable impact?

So, I don't know if I should buy more memory and what kind/brand of memory from Newegg/Fry's and I don't know if all DDR3-1066, 1333, and 1600 are compatible with my computer.

Patrickssj6

November 25th, 2011, 12:14 PM

Should I think about upgrading my RAM?
Also, I don't know if my RAM timings at the moment are a bit off or something and Halo gives me a not enough memory message

Has nothing to do with RAM. More than 4GB is unnecessary.

Amit

November 25th, 2011, 01:03 PM

Zilla's keyboard is shot. he's typing using character map (start - program - ease of access -etc). He wants to know what keyboard to get. I know phobias got this and it's cheap and p good apparently and he wants your thoughts
http://steelseries.com/products/keyboards/steelseries-6gv2

You call 80 Euros = $111 CAD cheap? Jesus Christ. Especially for a keyboard with next to no features other than "durability"

ThePlague

November 25th, 2011, 02:35 PM

Right now i'm using a Microsoft Sidewinder X4 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109191), and I highly recommend it. It has a bunch of keys on it, from music control to 6 buttons to assign anything from macros to clicks to. It do0esn't have the mic inputs you're looking for, but for the price it's an amazing keyboard.

Phobias

November 25th, 2011, 03:58 PM

You call 80 Euros = $111 CAD cheap? Jesus Christ. Especially for a keyboard with next to no features other than "durability"

lmao, you've never used this keyboard.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=113_1276&products_id=17723

Cortexian

November 25th, 2011, 05:24 PM

Zilla's keyboard is shot. he's typing using character map (start - program - ease of access -etc)
That's On-Screen Keyboard.

Also, the Steel Series mechanical is pretty nice.

n00b1n8R

November 25th, 2011, 05:38 PM

You call 80 Euros = $111 CAD cheap? Jesus Christ. Especially for a keyboard with next to no features other than "durability"
It's cool, you don't know what you're talking about. I get that :allears:

Amit

November 25th, 2011, 05:42 PM

lmao, you've never used this keyboard.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=113_1276&products_id=17723

I haven't used that specific model, but my friend is big up on overpriced steel series shit for WoW and I used the Shift: Cataclysm that he has. It was nothing special. However, that model does not have the mechanical switches. I don't think Bod will care about that, though.

Phobias

November 25th, 2011, 10:43 PM

Amit

November 25th, 2011, 11:27 PM

If you're into keyboards that are more about lighting and fancy shit, yes this keyboard is not for you. It is however a great cheap mechanical keyboard and it is also quite strong. Great to type on, very strange at first but well worth switching over.

Keyword: mechanical. Heh, so you were right. A cheap mechanical one it is. I have no doubt it'll do a great job of retaining its quality. Still, the rubber used on regular keyboards do a good enough job. No need to needlessly spend that much on such a basic keyboard when I cheaper one can do the same job. Well, if Bod wants his keyboard to last 5+ years, I guess it's the logical option. I couldn't imagine not replacing one every five years.

Zeph

November 26th, 2011, 03:24 PM

Has nothing to do with RAM. More than 4GB is unnecessary.
With Halo perhaps, but yesterday I took a look and saw I was using about 11GB.

Patrickssj6

November 26th, 2011, 04:09 PM

With Halo perhaps, but yesterday I took a look and saw I was using about 11GB.
When I am going to do Genome calculations, I will take 1TB RAM into consideration :P

king_nothing_

November 26th, 2011, 05:29 PM

As this is his first gaming PC he's at the stage where he wants it to look really cool as well as run really cool. I find that when people get their first gaming PC's they usually go with something extravagant like the Phantom and then as they mature on the technological front they move towards the minimalistic look.
I've never cared about the aesthetics of a computer case. Never saw the point. It's a box that holds my computer parts, for fuck's sake.

EDIT: Maybe I should rephrase that, though. I care about the aesthetics insofar as I actively avoid flashy cases, and choose relatively boring-looking cases. "I'm a huge fucking nerd" is a message I would rather not be sending with my computer case.

Rook

December 1st, 2011, 07:19 AM

It's cool, you don't know what you're talking about. I get that :allears:
I use a dell standard 101 key keyboard I got so many years ago. No problems here.

Amit

December 1st, 2011, 02:10 PM

I use a dell standard 101 key keyboard I got so many years ago. No problems here.

Yeah, most keyboards will work no problem for 6 years+. He's sort of right, though. I didn't realize what he was talking about until I read it was mechanical based.

Patrickssj6

December 2nd, 2011, 06:17 AM

I always spill stuff over my keyboard...so I wanted to buy a machine-washable one...but they are expensive :S

InnerGoat

December 2nd, 2011, 11:45 PM

You can wash almost all of them if you open the thing up. I did that with an old Logitech and it took 6 years of blood and sweat off it :D

Amit

December 2nd, 2011, 11:53 PM

I cleaned my 6 year old Microsoft Basic Keyboard 1.0 last weekend. So easy. I spilled soup in there early last year, so it had crusted over a lot and some keys stuck. So I was reading this thread and decided I needed to clean that shit out. I don't use it anymore, but if I ever need to use it again, I'd rather not have it be disgusting. I flipped the keys off using a small flat screw driver, soaked the keys in lukewarm dish washing soap + water overnight. Strained them out, washed them two more times to make sure not of the gunk is still on them. Laid them out with the hollow section facing down to let the water come out. Let them dry for a day. To clean the inside surface of the board itself, I had to take it apart, but it was just a few simple screws to release on the back and the thing comes right off. Had to use an aluminum dishwashing scrubber to get all that crazy shit off. It was disgusting. I gagged a few times. By the end, though, everything looked brand new again. I should have done this right after the soup fell on the keyboard, but whatevs.

Cortexian

December 4th, 2011, 07:07 PM

I'm sure I posted this before, but this is fucking awesome:
http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/

67 Terabytes (1.5TB single drives) for $7,867
90 Terabytes (2TB single 5,900rpm drives) for $5,617 - I would likely build this, I came up with this price based on the 2TB drives I've been using priced at their normal price of $70 each.

Warsaw

December 4th, 2011, 08:04 PM

Cost savings are likely through the lower RPM, that's the only way I can see 67 TB costing more than 90 TB. Had I a need for such large storage, I would probably do the same thing; lower RPM means less wear which further translates to longer life.

Cortexian

December 4th, 2011, 08:11 PM

Yeah, those 1.5TB drives are 7,200rpm ones. They use them because they're a backup solution company so they need the performance. For a home user that just wants to store petabytes of movies it's not needed.

Cortexian

December 8th, 2011, 04:49 PM

So I recently tried updating to the F6 BIOS from F5 on my P67A-UD7-B3, the update went fine except whatever changes they made didn't agree with my setup. If I enabled the XHD RAID (which I need to do because my boot drive is two drives in RAID-0) the BIOS couldn't seem to find a boot drive and Windows would never load. If I stuck the Windows install CD in and tried repairs it couldn't find any problems, and if I tried a custom install it said it couldn't install to the RAID-0 because the system couldn't boot from it.

Anyway, I flashed back to F5 and now I'm getting different issues. I can boot to Windows fine but my BIOS is acting really weird. If I restart my PC it will actually shut off for a few seconds (like it does when you finish a BIOS flash). It automatically starts again and proceeds to boot with some weird non-default BIOS settings.

The same issue happens if I shut down the PC. When I manually start it, it starts and then shuts down for a few seconds before proceeding to boot and give me weird BIOS settings.

If I change the BIOS settings and save, the system restarts normally without shutting down and starting again, and proceeds to Windows. However it is VERY unstable, even at default BIOS settings. I've tried overclocking, underclocking, and manually inputting values similar to what this CPU should be running at (3.3GHz).

UZ6a6x3_izw

EDIT: Just flashed the BIOS again to F5 and it's not doing the weird start or shutting down when restarting. Playing with BIOS again now, was able set my memories XMP profile (1866MHz) which also set my CPU multiplier to 37. So running 3.7GHz stable now (just ran IntelBurnTest). Going to start upping it again.

EDIT EDIT: Just got 4.4GHz stable. I'll work on getting that extra 200MHz again tomorrow.

EDIT EDIT: Stable at 4.6GHz again, yay!