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[DodgyGeezerFella]

After buying my brother a second hand case (so he can have a proper sized gaming PC), i actually quite liked what i got him :lol Have now bought my own (Xigmatek Asgard) with a couple of red led 120mm fans, i really like it, cheap, simple and effective

 

[TheExodu5]

^ Pretty impressive looking case considering the cost. First time I see it...looks like it's a damned nice alternative to the Cooler Master CM 690 II, at half the price.

That Silverstone case is pretty interesting. Makes me wonder why someone didn't think of rotating all that stuff 90 degrees long before now. I got so interested I had to go do some looking at those cases (and others by Silverstone) on Newegg and Amazon and although I really like what I see I don't know if I could justify spending $200-$250 on just a case.

It's not needed. It's just a luxury.

I can justify spending a lot on a case because I know I can use it for several upgrades and builds.

 

[Ashhong]

So I just finished making my moms PC but have a question about screen resolution, hope its OK that I post in here, you guys are a lot more helpful.

I am connected to a 42" Panasonic Plasma 1080p via HDMI with a 512mb 4350. The setting is set to 1080p but it doesnt take up the entire screen on my TV. The screen has black border all around. Is there a manual setting somewhere where I can manually adjust the screen? I could have sworn I did that before but I cant find it..thanks

 

[Le-mo]

You might have 1-4mm of sway. Usually I use a case screw and tighten the card into the case. As long as the card is clicked in you are fine.

Before you boot it up, manually trace all power connections and make sure they are plugged into snugly.
http://vimeo.com/5685229
Watch that as well to make sure you covered everything.

Make sure your 20+4 pin mobo is plugged in. MAKE SURE YOUR OTHER 2x2 power connector is attached to the motherboard (usually near CPU socket), and make sure your GPU is plugged in as well. Last thing is to make sure the power / Reset switches are in right.

*Computer needs an OS to do stuff, so Windows install -> install motherboard drivers on CD -> download GPU drivers from website

Theres a cable named Speaker with a round hole at the end do I need to install that?

 

[Metalic Sand]

Can you buy the dust blocking mesh that's put into cases somewhere?

The case i just bought doesn't have them for the side/windowed fans

Was thinking i could just put it between the window and the fan so the fans screws would hold it there.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Just finished installing my new SSD and windows 7, updates, drivers and what not. I'm glad I moved my Steam installation before I did it. Now I have to decide what apps will get the honor of being installed on the SSD.

 

[matmanx1]

Just finished installing my new SSD and windows 7, updates, drivers and what not. I'm glad I moved my Steam installation before I did it. Now I have to decide what apps will get the honor of being installed on the SSD.

Yeah that will be the kicker for me as well. Got a 120GB SSD coming in tomorrow (the Intel from the Black Friday Newegg sale) so I will have some decisions to make. Luckily I don't keep a whole bunch of games installed at one time anyway but I'm still going to need to trim some fat.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Yeah that will be the kicker for me as well. Got a 120GB SSD coming in tomorrow (the Intel from the Black Friday Newegg sale) so I will have some decisions to make. Luckily I don't keep a whole bunch of games installed at one time anyway but I'm still going to need to trim some fat.

StarCraft 2's in. I don't know if it will do much for performance but it's the main reason I built my machine so it earned it's spot. Dragon Age didn't make the cut. I'm considering Mass Effect 2 but it's a huge game with all the DLC.

 

[TouchMyBox]

The guy bought it since it's cheaper than buying it from Apple...but didn't realize he could buy it for cheaper on ebay for what, 50$? :lol

Almost makes me want to get an 8800 and have a go haha

Yeah, all you have to do to have a "mac" version of a videocard is flash the BIOS on a supported card. But then everything mac related is at least 5x cheaper when you do it yourself. My hackintosh would cost me $5245 if I had bought it from apple. :lol

StarCraft 2's in. I don't know if it will do much for performance but it's the main reason I built my machine so it earned it's spot. Dragon Age didn't make the cut. I'm considering Mass Effect 2 but it's a huge game with all the DLC.

Starcraft II on an SSD has to be the biggest waste of that premium space, I mean, you can't play the game until everybody who's using slow ass hard drives are done loading anyway.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Starcraft II on an SSD has to be the biggest waste of that premium space, I mean, you can't play the game until everybody who's using slow ass hard drives are done loading anyway.

You know I actually thought about that specifically and also all of the Battle.Net stuff that needs to load on start up prevents it from loading quickly anyway but I'm going to leave it on there for now, single player should missions and comps stomps should load quickly, I guess.

Also, I spoke too soon about the moving of my steam folder. Something glitched out all of the sudden and all my installed games sudden showed up as not installed and they all need redownloaded, apparently. Damn.

Sorry about all the posts. I'm just excited about my new toy and I'm stuck in front of my computer watching progress bars, installing software.

 

[ChoklitReign]

Does Newegg reset their combos immediately on the first day of the month? I need more time before I order.

 

[Norfair]

So is there a good link for HTPCs?

I know how to build a pc (built this one) but I'm not sure which parts I should be using for a home theater aplication

 

[M°°nblade]

I'm currently assembling a HTPC although it's more of a gaming PC in function.

Case: Zalman HD503 black (comes with a remote and all)
http://zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=370
CPU cooler: Gelid Tranquillo CPU cooler AMD/Intel
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1075T BE 3.0Ghz 9MB socket AM3
Motherboard: ASRock 870 Extreme3 socket AM3
DVD drive: Samsung SH-S223C 22x DVD-RW Dual Layer SATA
Memory: Kingston 2 x 2Gb DDR3 1333Mhz CL9
GFX card: ATI HD6870 1Gb DDR5 PCI-express
GFX card 2:ATI HD6870 1Gb DDR5 PCI-express
Harddisk 1: Samsung F3 HD103SJ 1 Terabyte 32mb 7200rpm SATA2
Power: Antec TruePower New TP-650W Modular.

What you should doublecheck is the space available for your VGA card.

 

[Veal]

So I'm building my first gaming pc and I'm so very excite! I've got the case, mobo, and PSU. I have question on processors though. For gaming, would getting a Phenom II X6 over a Black Edition X4 yield any appreciable difference? Intel is out of the question right now, so advice on AMD's higher end chips would be much appreciated!

 

[vocab]

Can anyone find me a simplified Overclocking guide for an I5-750, w/ a MSI - GD65? I just want to hit like 3.2/3.3, and I'm a complete noob to processing OC.

 

[Mr Nightman]

Sorry to be an annoyance, but was just wondering if someone could give me some insight on a problem I am experiencing. I installed a GTX 460 yesterday, and upon trying to boot into windows, I am greeted with a blue screen stop message, mentioning that my system bios wasnt acpi compliant. Weird thing is I was able to fully boot into ubuntu with the card, which leads me to believe something is messed up on the windows side. After reinstalling my 9800gt the problem went away. Help me out please I want to love this gtx :lol

 

[Darkatomz]

Alright... I'm in need of some serious help.

I finished building my new rig (I did a messy wire and booted it to see if it posted, and it did), so I went back and rewired everything all nice. Long story short, this alone took me about 7 hours, even though it wasn't my first time.

About an hour into reinstalling applications and just setting everything up, I realize that my system is only detecting 4gb out of 6gb. So I swap some ram modules around, same thing. I try booting with just a single DIMM at a time, and they all work, as long as they aren't in slot A1.

I dig around, and find out that my problem is supposedly a common problem for x58 boards. WTF? I eventually come to this checklist.
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...1&model=P6X58D+Premium&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

It's doubt it's a poorly fitted cpu cooler. I have a 212+, and I've tried it with and without (only for a few seconds) it on, and both times the system only detects 4gb. If it's a bent cpu pin, then I certainly can't tell from what I saw with a naked eye when reseating it. I doubt that it's ram, for reasons above. It's not Windows (running Win7 Home 64bit). I'm fairly sure that my mounting plate isn't shorting anything in the back. And there's no way to really test if it's the mobo. I'm really, REALLY praying it's not a bad mobo or a mounting plate issue, since I'd have to redo all of my fucking wires, and after ~16 hours of working on this shit today, I really am not in the mood.

When it comes to bios settings (what I think may be the culprit??), it can be a little complicated. I haven't figured it out completely, but the only settings that I've fiddled around with are with ram overclocking (to set to the manufacture's speeds by using the XMP setting, which auto configures the ram), and setting devices to ACHI. Some combination result in the inability to even boot past the bios, and sometime the same thing happens, but with a BSOD. Oh, and trying to boot from a different hard drive with already has Win7 on it results in a BSOD no matter what, even if the primary hd right now works.

I should mention that CPU-Z detects all 6gb of the ram.

The specs that matter:
i7 950
Asus p6x58d-e mobo
Corsair 3x2gb ddr3 1600 8/8/8/24 TR3X6G1600C8D

Somebody please help... I can't take much more of this. If I had known there was going to be this problem, I would have just went with an i5 or waited for SB.

 

[darthbob]

Sorry to be an annoyance, but was just wondering if someone could give me some insight on a problem I am experiencing. I installed a GTX 460 yesterday, and upon trying to boot into windows, I am greeted with a blue screen stop message, mentioning that my system bios wasnt acpi compliant. Weird thing is I was able to fully boot into ubuntu with the card, which leads me to believe something is messed up on the windows side. After reinstalling my 9800gt the problem went away. Help me out please I want to love this gtx :lol

Did you uninstall the previous drivers? Remove the old video card device from device manager?

I always do the previous when upgrading a GPU when not reinstalling Windows, and I've never had a problem before.

 

[Mr Nightman]

Did you uninstall the previous drivers? Remove the old video card device from device manager?

I always do the previous when upgrading a GPU when not reinstalling Windows, and I've never had a problem before.

Could it really have been caused by not uninstalling from device manager? If soo jesus I am retarded :lol

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

I plan (hope) to go GTX 580 SLI soon, and I have a i5 750 overclocked to 3.8ghz, willt his bottelneck or am i fine?

 

[Mr Nightman]

I plan (hope) to go GTX 580 SLI soon, and I have a i5 750 overclocked to 3.8ghz, willt his bottelneck or am i fine?

Honestly, I think you will be fine, thats a decent cpu, and overclocked to that should make it perfect

 

[Big Baybee]

I was dead set on getting two gtx 460's, but now I don't know.

 

[koji]

I'ld steer clear of multi-gpu setups. A single fast GPU > sli/xfire in terms of compatibility and gameperformance.

Nothing like SLI glitches and artifacting in 50% of your games. Kickass vantage score though!

 

[Le-mo]

I think I finished building my first computer, but I'm scared to turn it on thinking I might have done something wrong and burn the whole thing.

 

[Ashhong]

I think I finished building my first computer, but I'm scared to turn it on thinking I might have done something wrong and burn the whole thing.

:lol

check connections on the motherboard. only thing to be wary about

 

[Big Baybee]

I'ld steer clear of multi-gpu setups. A single fast GPU > sli/xfire in terms of compatibility and gameperformance.

Nothing like SLI glitches and artifacting in 50% of your games. Kickass vantage score though!

What's the best card I could get for the equivalent of two 460's? As far as around that price I mean. Whats coming out?

 

[koji]

What's the best card I could get for the equivalent of two 460's? As far as around that price I mean. Whats coming out?

GTX580

Will cost you "a bit" more though, 460 is around €200 here in Belgium, 580 around €529.

 

[Double D]

I'm a bit of a moron when it comes to all this stuff. I've got a pre-built PC that I got about a year and a half ago, and I'd like to make some upgrades. The only one that really sticks out to me are my graphics card, but I had mentioned this in the Steam thread and the reply I got indicated I would need to do a bit more. Anyways, I figure this is a better spot for it, so if you guys could help me out, I'd appreciate it.

Processor: Q9300 Quad Core 2.5Ghz
Video Card: 8800 GT
Ram: 4GB DDR2

 

[Jinaar]

Going to bite a bullet sometime in the next month here, maybe this week, maybe the next. Anyways, as per the norm, I have a build that would like to get comments on. I am pretty flexible to suggestions and criticism.

I know the case can be alot cheaper, if someone can suggest a good/great gaming case.
Sticking with the processor and MB combo due to a overclocking article I read, which with little ease, can get the i5 from 2.66 to 3.8+ without error.
RAM reason for 1 stick of 4GB is to have the other slots free for another 1x4GB stick later on.
The eVGA GTX 460 again is OC'able, but thinking of the 580 due to the above suggestion in this thread.
HDD wise, how are the Hybrid Solid State SATA drives and are they worth it?

Other then that, I am pretty confident with it. I cannot seem to get it under $1000, unless I change the case.

In the end, this rig is looking for March to play DOWII expansion and Space Marine. I needs this. ^_^

Prices: In Canadian Funny Money
Will Purchase from: Memory Express. There is a local ME here in Edmonton and they price match online pricing.

 

[TouchMyBox]

You know I actually thought about that specifically and also all of the Battle.Net stuff that needs to load on start up prevents it from loading quickly anyway but I'm going to leave it on there for now, single player should missions and comps stomps should load quickly, I guess.

Also, I spoke too soon about the moving of my steam folder. Something glitched out all of the sudden and all my installed games sudden showed up as not installed and they all need redownloaded, apparently. Damn.

Sorry about all the posts. I'm just excited about my new toy and I'm stuck in front of my computer watching progress bars, installing software.

What I do is I have my steam install on my SSD, and then I have the steamapps folder on a dedicated 1TB hard drive. You can make a directory junction in your command line by typing mklink /J "PATHTOSTEAMFOLDER\steamapps" "DRIVESTEAMAPPSFOLDERISON\steamapps"

 

[Felix Lighter]

What I do is I have my steam install on my SSD, and then I have the steamapps folder on a dedicated 1TB hard drive. You can make a directory junction in your command line by typing mklink /J "PATHTOSTEAMFOLDER\steamapps" "DRIVESTEAMAPPSFOLDERISON\steamapps"

I was kind of planning on doing it the other way. I have steam installed on my 1TB HDD and I was going to create individual directory junctions for the games I want on my SSD.

 

[LaserBuddha]

Might as well ask this here too. Looking for video card advice.

Right now I'm running a Dell Studip XPS 7100. It has a Phenom II X6 1075T @3.0ghz, 8gb RAM, Radeon 5770, and a 460w power supply.

I'd like a little better performance. Is there a video card upgrade out there thats worth it that won't require me to upgrade the power supply? I ask because if I'm going to have to upgrade the power supply then I'll just wait until I'm ready to swap out the motherboard and case as well. Looking at the requirements for the cards doesn't make me certain since Dell offers a 5870 for this system using the same power supply, despite the 500w requirement for the 5870.


I guess I could upgrade the power supply, I'm just kind of anxious about not getting the right thing or messing it up.

 

[Eteric Rice]

A buddy of mine wants to get a PC. He mainly wants to use it for WoW, Starcraft II, and maybe a few other games.

What would be around the right specs for him to be able to do this without issue?

He wants it to last for like 5 years or so, though I've told him that, that's not how technology works.

Any ideas? Any idea of what the price will be around? He wants to spend like $700.

 

[vocab]

A buddy of mine wants to get a PC. He mainly wants to use it for WoW, Starcraft II, and maybe a few other games.

What would be around the right specs for him to be able to do this without issue?

He wants it to last for like 5 years or so, though I've told him that, that's not how technology works.

Any ideas? Any idea of what the price will be around? He wants to spend like $700.

Actually 5 years might be possible this time around the way consoles are lasting. $700 would build him a comp that would max almost everything out at 1080p for at least 2-3 years.

 

[Azzurri]

What's the best card I could get for the equivalent of two 460's? As far as around that price I mean. Whats coming out?

AMD is releasing their 6900 series I think next week, or the week after. Wait and see.

 

[darthbob]

Could it really have been caused by not uninstalling from device manager? If soo jesus I am retarded :lol

Possibly, but no, you're not retarded, or at least, you're not super retarded. I mean, we're all pretty dum when building our first PC. :lol

 

[LaserBuddha]

Might as well ask this here too. Looking for video card advice.

Right now I'm running a Dell Studip XPS 7100. It has a Phenom II X6 1075T @3.0ghz, 8gb RAM, Radeon 5770, and a 460w power supply.

I'd like a little better performance. Is there a video card upgrade out there thats worth it that won't require me to upgrade the power supply? I ask because if I'm going to have to upgrade the power supply then I'll just wait until I'm ready to swap out the motherboard and case as well. Looking at the requirements for the cards doesn't make me certain since Dell offers a 5870 for this system using the same power supply, despite the 500w requirement for the 5870.


I guess I could upgrade the power supply, I'm just kind of anxious about not getting the right thing or messing it up.

bumpin

 

[Felix Lighter]

bumpin

I'd think you'd be fine with a GTX 460, HD 6850 or a HD 6870, all of which would increase performance but I don't know by how much.

 

[Shambles]

Going to bite a bullet sometime in the next month here, maybe this week, maybe the next. Anyways, as per the norm, I have a build that would like to get comments on. I am pretty flexible to suggestions and criticism.

I know the case can be alot cheaper, if someone can suggest a good/great gaming case.
Sticking with the processor and MB combo due to a overclocking article I read, which with little ease, can get the i5 from 2.66 to 3.8+ without error.
RAM reason for 1 stick of 4GB is to have the other slots free for another 1x4GB stick later on.
The eVGA GTX 460 again is OC'able, but thinking of the 580 due to the above suggestion in this thread.
HDD wise, how are the Hybrid Solid State SATA drives and are they worth it?

Other then that, I am pretty confident with it. I cannot seem to get it under $1000, unless I change the case.

In the end, this rig is looking for March to play DOWII expansion and Space Marine. I needs this. ^_^

Prices: In Canadian Funny Money
Will Purchase from: Memory Express. There is a local ME here in Edmonton and they price match online pricing.

Good to see a fellow Edmontonian on here. I like ME but their PM has gotten more lame lately. Expect to run into resistance if the sites your are matching state there are limited quantities, I ended up doing my entire build from NCIX because of this. ME Also has a 21.5" 1080P monitor on sale for 99$ if you need a monitor. Using just 1 stick of ram will not allow you to make use of the dual channel memory, it will operate on a single channel. However buying a 2x2 kit and another 2x2 kit down the road can make overclocking a little more difficult if you're trying to push clocks to the absolute max. Hybrid drives are a waste, you're better off waiting for a SSD. The OS will already use your memory as a temporary cache and do it a lot faster than a hybrid drive. For an Air cooler the MUX seems overpriced. You're not going to see much of a difference between that and say a 30$ Hyper 212 Plus. I know ME carries the 212+, someone a page or two ago suggested an air cooler that cools a tiny bit better than the 212 for 5-10$ less. I see a 212 at bestdirect for 25$ too.

I see an i5 760 for 194.99. or the same price from NCIX. Also that power supply is overkill. A solid 550W will give you more headroom than you'd ever need for less money. If you want to see if there are any lower prices I use shopbot.ca, pricegrabber.ca, pricecanada.com.

 

[LaserBuddha]

I'd think you'd be fine with a GTX 460, HD 6850 or a HD 6870, all of which would increase performance but I don't know by how much.

Cool. You think that 460w would be able to handle those?

 

[DaBuddaDa]

HDD wise, how are the Hybrid Solid State SATA drives and are they worth it?

SSD drives are great but absolutely not worth the cost at the moment IMO. Replace the WD drive with a Samsung Spinpoint 1TB drive. Same/lower price as the WD and slightly faster.

 

[Shambles]

Cool. You think that 460w would be able to handle those?

Yes. I'm running an OC'd Phenom II/GTX 460 on some crappy old Sparkle 400W PSU at this very moment stress testing it. Also the GPU with come with a 2x molex to 6 pin PCIE adapter. You only need to make sure your PSU has 1 6 pin PCIE connector.

 

[DaBuddaDa]

Cool. You think that 460w would be able to handle those?

The 6870 and 460 both require two 6-pin PCIe power connectors if I remember correctly, make sure your power supply has two before biting. The 6850 only requires one (I think, double check me on this). 460w should be enough for the 6850 but it might be pushing it for the 460 or 6870. I'm hesitant because the X6 processor uses a little more juice than your average LGA 1156 i5 or i7.

 

[Mr Nightman]

Possibly, but no, you're not retarded, or at least, you're not super retarded. I mean, we're all pretty dum when building our first PC. :lol

Yea, lol prolly happened since I haven't upgraded my video card at all previously, so wasn't fully sure what steps had to be taken :lol

 

[Salaadin]

How do Nvidias driver updates compare to AMDs? Ive read about both companies running into issues with them but I only ask because Im having yet another issue that seems to be due to driver updates and Im a little more than fed up with AMD now because of it. I was wondering if Id be better off with Nvidia.

I think brain stew told me once before but I forget....when is Nvidias next generation of cards supposed to drop. I know itll be a rough estimate but Ill at least have a date to look forward to.

 

[TheExodu5]

How do Nvidias driver updates compare to AMDs? Ive read about both companies running into issues with them but I only ask because Im having yet another issue that seems to be due to driver updates and Im a little more than fed up with AMD now because of it. I was wondering if Id be better off with Nvidia.

I think brain stew told me once before but I forget....when is Nvidias next generation of cards supposed to drop. I know itll be a rough estimate but Ill at least have a date to look forward to.

NVidia is a lot more cautious with their updates, though they've had some bad ones in the past few years (overheating cards, causing freezes in King's Bounty/STO). Overall, they're pretty stable though. I think they've stepped up their QA recently, since releases are much farther apart.

 

[darthbob]

Quick question dudes, I bought a GTX 470 recently, and I've got an older 8800GTS 512 lying around, and I wouldn't mind using it for PhysX; however, my PSU is an OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W, and it has two PCI-E 6 pins (one is also a 6+2), and I need to use two for the 470, so would it be alright to use a twin Molex to 6 Pin adapter for the 8800 in a PCI-E x16 (electrical x4) slot?

Also, do I need to use an SLI bridge, and does the motherboard need to support SLI? (mine is Crossfire, AMD AM2+/AM3 board)

Thanks bros.

 

[TheExodu5]

SSD drives are great but absolutely not worth the cost at the moment IMO. Replace the WD drive with a Samsung Spinpoint 1TB drive. Same/lower price as the WD and slightly faster.

Maybe hybrid drives, but SSD's are absolutely worth the money. Best $200 I've ever spent on my PC. You can get a cheap OS SSD for around $100 no problem now.

 

[TheExodu5]

Quick question dudes, I bought a GTX 470 recently, and I've got an older 8800GTS 512 lying around, and I wouldn't mind using it for PhysX; however, my PSU is an OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W, and it has two PCI-E 6 pins (one is also a 6+2), and I need to use two for the 470, so would it be alright to use a twin Molex to 6 Pin adapter for the 8800 in a PCI-E x16 (electrical x4) slot?

Also, do I need to use an SLI bridge, and does the motherboard need to support SLI? (mine is Crossfire, AMD AM2+/AM3 board)

Thanks bros.

I believe a molex connector should work. Hopefully the OCZ has the available amperage on its 12V rail. You don't need an SLI bridge.

 

[darthbob]

I believe a molex connector should work. Hopefully the OCZ has the available amperage on its 12V rail. You don't need an SLI bridge.

It's got 50A on twin 12Vs.

So that may be a problem, however...I can't see the 8800 utilizing too much power.

Also, I've read that the 470 needs ~35A, and the 8800 needs ~28A, so I might be out of luck.