Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here!

[Cortexian]

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]

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]

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...82E16813188082

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_]

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]

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/Produc...82E16814130693

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

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

[TeeKup]

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/Produc...82E16834220822

Option two is a bit more expensive.
It's bigger, runs Windows 7, processor is significantly better.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834158017

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

[Zeph]

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/Produc...82E16834230108

[TeeKup]

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]

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

[Cortexian]

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.

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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) - $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 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 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...