• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

Kintaro said:
Uh, I need a little help.

I got my system working very nicely. New Athlon Pehnom II Quad, mobo, RAM and 600 W power supply. For once, everything was smooth. Booted right up, smooth windows install and I've been playing games on it all day...

Until about fifteen minutes ago. The PC just cut off and now it won't turn back on. Pressing the power button results in fans starting and stopping (with blue lights coming on and off) with no post. Doesn't boot up. I've checked loose connections, and nothing inside of the case of touching the motherboard itself. No funny smell or smoke either.

Am I screwed? :lol I don't have another power supply to test with (as the older one wouldn't work with this mobo). =/ Unsure what's up.

Update: I've tried booting with one stick of RAM (alternating), trying to get a post without HDDs, without DVD room, without video card, switched to turning everything on with the reset switch just in case. Nothing has worked.
Click to expand...

Sounds like PSU or mobo.

What brand of PSU is it?
 
switch-it said:
What do you guys think about this PC for gaming?

PC Nordic Advanced Gaming PCNI7-2
Price: 5,799 DKK ~ 1000 USD

Specs
  • CPU: Intel Core I7 860 2,8Ghz
  • Cooler: Intel Box Cooler, Low Noise
  • Moterboard: Asrock P55M Pro Motherboard
  • Ram: 2x2GB PC10600 1333Mhz DDR3 Ram
  • HDD: 500GB 7200 RPM 16mb Sata2
  • Drev: 22x +/-RW DVD Burner
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX260+ 898MB GDDR3
Click to expand...

Either, spend less on the CPU and more on the GPU, or upgrade the GPU outright. Its too imbalanced in favour of the CPU otherwise.
 
switch-it said:
I'll cost me at least another 100 USD but i can live with that. Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

From what I looked at yesterday, the 5770 outperforms the GTX 260 (especially at power draw and idle/load temperature), and is 3/4s the price (150 vs 200). So if you don't think you need all that gaming power, the 5770 may be a better purchase.

Depends on what games you want to play... if you're just after Civ, StarCraft 2, and some other lighter games, you may be just as well served with a $150 GPU.
 
Last night I started getting these BSODs saying something about memory management and that the PC will have to shut down to prevent damage. After troubleshooting, I ran memtest and it looks one stick of my RAM went bad. The other had 16 passes thru memtest overnight with 0 errors.

This will be the 3rd time since October 26th that I had a stick of RAM go bad on me. Is there something going on with my system thats killing my RAM? The first time, my issues came practically out of the box so I thought Gskill just gave me bad ram right out the package but now that I had another stick go bad on me that previously passed memtest with flying colors, Im a little worried. All of my timings and voltages are correct.

Antec EA650W PSU
Gigabyte P55 Ud4P
Intel i5 750
Sapphire Radeon HD5850
4GBs Gskill Ripjaws F3-10666CL8D RAM
 
I hope I am right here, but I am looking for a notebook which is better than my current PC.

My specs:
AMD Athlon 64, 2200 MHZ 3500+
2 gigs of pc 3200 ram
geforce 9600 GT with 1024 mb vram
Motherboard is a asrock dual sata 939

the budget i have is around 700€. But as I am not very fond of notebook technology i came here to ask. What are good brands? how good is a notebook i5? and especially with mobile graphic cards i have no clue..Hopefully you can help me.

As I also want to play some games(i.e. Dota, HoN, lotro, l4d 2 etc) the notebook should have a decent gaming performance.

Thanks in advance.
 
Goron2000 said:
Ok GAF i need your help, i messed up. My laptop is currently out of action and i need it back as soon as possible. It's a Dell studio laptop that came with vista, i have been having trouble as of late due mainly to what i assume is vista (stuttering graphics, bad performance and multiple sound issues) I realise that it could be a hardware issue (dying hdd or gpu) but i cant afford to replace anything at the moment. So i dug out and old xp disc and installed it and that went fine. Untill i booted it up. The windows logo came up briefly and then it flashed the blue screen of death momentarily and rebooted. I've tried several guides on how to resolve the issue but to no avail. I have tried re-installing vista but it gets and error whilst unpacking, some missing .dll. So computer GAF do you have a diagnosis or better yet a solution? Thank you p.s. I'm typing this on my iphone so sorry for mistakes.
Click to expand...

You'll probably get a better answer here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377301
 
Lol Clevo debuted a new 17.3" notebook, which houses the i7 980X.

six-core.png
 
GHG said:
Sounds like PSU or mobo.

What brand of PSU is it?
Click to expand...

/zumax X3 Special Edition 600 W. I picked it up locally because I needed one in a hurry. The local PC shop here has never let me down before, but there's a first time for everything. Today I'll try the power supply with my other mobo and test it out.
 
hm for some strange reason Coretemp says my core i7 930 goes from 1600 mhz to 2800 mhz depending on load, i tried turning speedstep on and in power management set it to 100% minimal but same story, and same with speedstepping off.

guess i shouldnt worry about it since its blazing fast
 
Easy_D said:
Only thing I can think of is going from the second February RC release of the ATI drivers to the final release.

Not sure if it has stopped or not because it usually happens once a week, but yeah, it was probably caused by the RC's.

Edit: Anyway, in this day and age, would I benefit much at all going from my E8500 to a Q9950? My mobo only supports Socket 775, or should I save some money and get a new mobo with comptability with newer CPU's?
Click to expand...

I have the same cpu as you and have been wondering the same, but it is only worth it if you can find a Q9550 really cheap.
Otherwise OC your E8500 and leave it for another year since it will run anything at a satisfactory level.
Save some cash and wait for the next round of tech.
 
brain_stew said:
Honestly it really doesn't, under certain circumstances and in lower resolutions, sure, but at anything approaching decent image quality its usually not even close.

See Tech Report's recent review of the 5830 where their GTX 260 model outperforms the 5770, 4870 and 5830.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18521/10
Click to expand...

Yea, I guess it was an exception, though I wouldn't have thought dawn of discovery @ 1920x1200 all options max to be slanted towards ATI. Well, that explains the price differences a bit better! Weird that Dawn of Discovery does so well on a 5770.
 
brain_stew said:
Honestly it really doesn't, under certain circumstances and in lower resolutions, sure, but at anything approaching decent image quality its usually not even close.

See Tech Report's recent review of the 5830 where their GTX 260 model outperforms the 5770, 4870 and 5830.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18521/10
Click to expand...
Tech report is the best. I'm so glad he threw in the venerable 7900GS to see how far I've come.

Love my GTX 260.
 
Hazaro said:
Tech report is the best. I'm so glad he threw in the venerable 7900GS to see how far I've come.

Love my GTX 260.
Click to expand...


Ditto. Only had it a couple of days (albeit a highly overclocked version) but its a BEAST :lol . Would totally recommend it over a 5770 after the experience I had. ATI are a nightmare with drivers aswell. As uch as people say things have changed, from my experience they haven't. I had issues with my 4770 in certain games (*cough*farcry2*cough*) and nothing but problems right off the bat with the 5770. Its a faster card as well, don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

I'd guess it depends on how much DX11 matters to you. Based on whats out there thus far the decision was easy for me.
 
And I can tell you of a lot of friends from real and virtual world that are happy with their 5770.

No one in their right mind as far as I know go for a 260/4870. Just taking in consideration the low power and temps make it an easy choice.

Taking about "Ati drivers and the eternal problems" is like talking about fairy tales right now.


If you had an nvidia card:
Uninstall nvidia drivers
Reboot
Run driver Sweeper
Take out the nvidia card

Install Ati card and drivers (catalyst 10.2)


In some rare cases reinstall the SO (can happen going from nvidia to ati / ati to nvidia)


And the latest windows/linux nvidia drivers killed many cards, funny.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=33
 
Looks like the problem is the PSU. =/ I tried it on the motherboard I replaced and no go. What a bummer. Luckily, I got it locally though so I'll get a replacement tomorrow.
 
brain_stew said:
Honestly it really doesn't, under certain circumstances and in lower resolutions, sure, but at anything approaching decent image quality its usually not even close.

See Tech Report's recent review of the 5830 where their GTX 260 model outperforms the 5770, 4870 and 5830.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18521/10
Click to expand...
What are they talking about here:
Borderlands
We tested Gearbox's post-apocalyptic role-playing shooter by using the game's built-in performance test.
Click to expand...
?
 
Kintaro said:
Looks like the problem is the PSU. =/ I tried it on the motherboard I replaced and no go. What a bummer. Luckily, I got it locally though so I'll get a replacement tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Now hope it didn't fry your mobo in the process of going down. Test your other components if you can.

Ryoma-Echizen said:
And I can tell you of a lot of friends from real and virtual world that are happy with their 5770.

No one in their right mind as far as I know go for a 260/4870. Just taking in consideration the low power and temps make it an easy choice.

Taking about "Ati drivers and the eternal problems" is like talking about fairy tales right now.


If you had an nvidia card:
Uninstall nvidia drivers
Reboot
Run driver Sweeper
Take out the nvidia card

Install Ati card and drivers (catalyst 10.2)


In some rare cases reinstall the SO (can happen going from nvidia to ati / ati to nvidia)


And the latest windows/linux nvidia drivers killed many cards, funny.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=33
Click to expand...

I had a brand new build and I had problems with the lastest ATI drivers with a 5770 on Win7 64. So go figure.
 
GHG said:
Now hope it didn't fry your mobo in the process of going down. Test your other components if you can.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how short of rebuilding my old PC all over again. I didn't have anything else to do today I guess. I'm concerned about installing my copy of Win7 over again so soon though.
 
Ryoma-Echizen said:
Did you try more than one driver?

PC specs?

RMA?
No one is safe from a defective GPU.
Click to expand...

Both my old and new specs are on the previous page.

Too late to RMA, I made my decision to go back to Nvidia after roughly 6 months with ATI. I was sick of flickering in Far Cry 2, random shadow pop-in in Crysis amoung other issues.
 
Ryoma-Echizen said:
And I can tell you of a lot of friends from real and virtual world that are happy with their 5770.

No one in their right mind as far as I know go for a 260/4870. Just taking in consideration the low power and temps make it an easy choice.
Click to expand...
I'm not harping on the other cards, but since I got my GTX 260 for less than $150 months ago I'd say that is a darn good deal considering it has gone up in price.
 
Hey Guys.

I was wondering what the cheapest sound card that I can get 5.1 audio out of. I have onboard 7.1 AC97' whatever, but I want to output it either via HDMI or Toslink.

I can get 5.1 from movies, dvd, XBMC, whatever, but not games, where the audio needs to be encoded on the fly. What is the best/cheapest solution for this ?
 
Budget: 900-1000$ (American)
Main Use(s): Gaming
Monitor Resolution: 1280x1024 Fairly sure that's the resolution model is a Princeton VL1918
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Modern Warfare 2, Bad Company 2 and games of that nature that are going to come out in the next 2 years.

Thanks for the help.
 
HabDawg90 said:
Budget: 900-1000$ (American)
Main Use(s): Gaming
Monitor Resolution: 1280x1024 Fairly sure that's the resolution model is a Princeton VL1918
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Modern Warfare 2, Bad Company 2 and games of that nature that are going to come out in the next 2 years.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
CPU - Intel i5/i7
GPU - ATI 5870
RAM - 4GB+
PSU - 600+W, to be safe.
Motherboard - Research to find what features you want, in what pricepoint.
Case - Super personal preference, but I've been singing the praises of CM 690 II Advanced since I got it.

Also, you may want to part with ~$250 to get yourself a decent 1080p monitor.
 
GHG said:
Both my old and new specs are on the previous page.

Too late to RMA, I made my decision to go back to Nvidia after roughly 6 months with ATI. I was sick of flickering in Far Cry 2, random shadow pop-in in Crysis amoung other issues.
Click to expand...

I had issues with the last two nVidia cards I owned. Nothing but problems. Both I had to replace, and both were replaced with ATI cards, both of which worked fine.

I actually have nothing against nVidia, and thought I'd be buying a GTX 260 or GTX 275 for a while; it just so happens that at the time I ordered my PC, I needed a GPU, I found the GTX 275s performance too slow in comparison to the 5850/5870.
 
Hm - just waiting on my PC components arriving and just had a thought. Am I going to be able to hook up a USB keyboard during the build and setup to access system menus etc. or will I need to track down an old PS/2 keyboard?
 
Cosmonaut X said:
Hm - just waiting on my PC components arriving and just had a thought. Am I going to be able to hook up a USB keyboard during the build and setup to access system menus etc. or will I need to track down an old PS/2 keyboard?
Click to expand...
Should be fine.

I :lol at the thought of having to use a PS/2 input in this day and age.
 
Cosmonaut X said:
I know - can't quite believe that the ports are still there, but I suppose it's a useful fallback.
Click to expand...
A failsafe, I suppose. Not a bad one to have either. Worst case scenario and such.

HabDawg90 said:
What do you guys think of this one?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5376870&CatId=4928

Have you guys heard of IBuyPower? If so, were you satisfied with what you got?
Click to expand...
Too much money, not enough oomph. Terrible GPU in there, as well. Spec one out and put it together yourself and you'll come out ahead.
 
Odious Tea said:
A failsafe, I suppose. Not a bad one to have either. Worst case scenario and such.


Too much money, not enough oomph. Terrible GPU in there, as well. Spec one out and put it together yourself and you'll come out ahead.
Click to expand...

Problem is... I'm not to good when it comes to putting a computer together. I can always get a friend of mine to put it together. Do you prefer AMD or Intel? Would you recommend getting a barebone kit or starting for scratch?
 
HabDawg90 said:
Problem is... I'm not to good when it comes to putting a computer together. I can always get a friend of mine to put it together. Do you prefer AMD or Intel? Would you recommend getting a barebone kit or starting for scratch?
Click to expand...
It's really not that hard and a great skill set to have, but if you just don't wanna do it, it would be best to have your friend do it, if he's willing.

I'm not too familiar with AMD processors but, I'm in love with my i5. I've pushed her to 4ghz and she's holding strong. If you can afford an i7, it'll absolutely decimate anything you put in front of it. And I really prefer buying all the components and putting them all together.
 
Odious Tea said:
It's really not that hard and a great skill set to have, but if you just don't wanna do it, it would be best to have your friend do it, if he's willing.

I'm not too familiar with AMD processors but, I'm in love with my i5. I've pushed her to 4ghz and she's holding strong. If you can afford an i7, it'll absolutely decimate anything you put in front of it. And I really prefer buying all the components and putting them all together.
Click to expand...

I'll probably go that route and maybe have my friend teach me how to put a computer together (if he's willing). Thanks for all the help. It's appreciated.
 
MWAVE GZA micro ATX Barebone system - MSI K9N6PGM2-V2 nVidia 6150 chipset motherboard / AMD Athlon II 245 CPU / Kingston 2GB memory / nVidia GeForce 6150 VGA / GIGABYTE GZ-PH2A3 ATX case w/480 Watt PS (Retail)

KINGSTON KVR800D2N6/2G ValueRAM 2GB 2048MB 240-pin pc2-6400 DDR2 800mhz DIMM desktop memory module (Retail)

XFX HD-477A-YDFC Radeon HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 pci-e 2.0 hdcp ready video card Double Lifetime Manufacturer Warranty (Retail)

LG GH22NS50 Black SATA 22X DVD RW Burner (OEM)

HITACHI HDS721010CLA332 / 0F10383 Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" internal hard drive (Bare Drive) (OEM)=0.5m UV-BLUE SATA CABLE

Do you think I could use the stock coolers of these components, or should I supplement them with more fans?
 
Hello, first time posting here on GAF. :)

So I'am gonna order some new parts later today but I thought that it might be a good idea to get some advice on the parts I've picked.

XFX Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
Intel Core™ i7 Quad Processor i7-920
ASUS P6T SE, X58, Socket-1366
Corsair Dominator DHX+ DDR3 1600MHz 6GB
Kingston SSDNow V Series V GEN 2 64GB
WD Caviar® Black 1TB 3,5", SATA,

Is there something that looks out of place or are there better alternatives? My native resolution is 1650x1050 and I hope that this setup will be able to play all the new games in their highest settings. My reason for the 6GB RAM is that I usually like to have a some programs open while I'am playing WoW and that I'am now gonna be able to have two WoW up at the same time. But maybe I'am just way off with how much performance you need for that. :lol
 
Burger said:
Hey Guys.

I was wondering what the cheapest sound card that I can get 5.1 audio out of. I have onboard 7.1 AC97' whatever, but I want to output it either via HDMI or Toslink.

I can get 5.1 from movies, dvd, XBMC, whatever, but not games, where the audio needs to be encoded on the fly. What is the best/cheapest solution for this ?
Click to expand...

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/how_to_connect_your_pc_your_surroundsound_audio_system: A good article about how to get surround sound from your PC to your 5.1 reciever.

I personally strongly recommend using discrete analogues, which should work fine even with your onboard system.

ATI cards an output surround sound using HDMI. So with that, you also wouldn't need another sound card. But I'm pretty sure they don't do any encoding.

If you really want it to be encoded, you will have to get a sound card (it seems like most Creatives can do this, either out of the box or with an additiona $5 fee, just make sure to research) that can do either Dolby Digital Live or DTS connect. From there you have to output it using the toslink cable. With this you will get 5.1 out of everything you play on your PC because it is being encoded as such by the sound card. I personally had a very bad experience with this, as the encoding introduced a significant delay between the audio and video.

You also have to make sure your PC is set up to be outputting to a 5.1 system.
 
So now I go and do something stupid and look at overclockers.co.uk and see that on the 5th they were selling the EVGA GeForce GTX 280 1GB Superclocked for £159.99...

£159.99 for an overclocked GTX 280. Just £20 more than I payed for my overclocked GTX 260. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/news.php

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF...

I could cry right now. Sad thing is, if they were still in stock I'd send this 260 back and order that. If only I'd seen it on Friday :(

I HATE the price fluctuations that are going on right now.
 
Can anybody tell me how to play point and click adventure games with the Wii remote? I'm on Win 7 64 bit.

I successfully connected my remote and used the program WiinRemote to control the cursor and click stuff on the Windows desktop. But when I start up the game Jack Keane, I can only move the cursor, while button inputs don't work anymore. I also tried GlovePie, but can't get that to work properly even on the desktop.

It might be an issue with that particular game, but just in case: are there any other programs I could try?
 
Maladict said:
Hello, first time posting here on GAF. :)

So I'am gonna order some new parts later today but I thought that it might be a good idea to get some advice on the parts I've picked.

XFX Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
Intel Core™ i7 Quad Processor i7-920
ASUS P6T SE, X58, Socket-1366
Corsair Dominator DHX+ DDR3 1600MHz 6GB
Kingston SSDNow V Series V GEN 2 64GB
WD Caviar® Black 1TB 3,5", SATA,

Is there something that looks out of place or are there better alternatives? My native resolution is 1650x1050 and I hope that this setup will be able to play all the new games in their highest settings. My reason for the 6GB RAM is that I usually like to have a some programs open while I'am playing WoW and that I'am now gonna be able to have two WoW up at the same time. But maybe I'am just way off with how much performance you need for that. :lol
Click to expand...

You're buying the X58 board, you'll want 6 GB either way to take advantage of triple channel.
 
Hello PC Gaf,

I'm considering picking up a new desktop computer to replace my old gaming laptop. Here's the template from the front page:

1) Budget: $1,000 would be the highest I'd be willing to go; preferably closer to $700-$800.

2) Main uses: Gaming, web browsing, watching DVDs and Blurays; no video or photo editing or programming of any kind.

3) Monitor Resolution: I already have a monitor (which I've been using with my Xbox 360); 1920 x 1080p resolution, the specific monitor I'm using is http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UHOX2I/?tag=neogaf0e-20

4) Specific Games: Starcraft II, Civilization IV, World of Warcraft (and its expansions), Team Fortress 2, Mirrors Edge, Fallout 3, many older games via Steam; I don't want to attempt to "future proof" the machine, but it'd be nice to play most high profile games coming out in the next year or so as well (but not Crysis at max settings or anything). It'd also be nice to have the capacity to keep a browser with a few tabs and iTunes going in the background without slowing the games down, but nothing super taxing.

Any advice on what kinds of parts this would require, or any links to premade machines that could handle this for $1,000 or less would be great; I know that buying anything premade will cost significantly more, but I'm willing to pay somewhat of a premium because I have zero confidence in my own ability to construct a machine.

Thanks in advance for any reply.
 
Nert said:
Hello PC Gaf,
I'm considering picking up a new desktop computer to replace my old gaming laptop. Here's the template from the front page:
1) Budget: $1,000 would be the highest I'd be willing to go; preferably closer to $700-$800.
2) Main uses: Gaming, web browsing, watching DVDs and Blurays; no video or photo editing or programming of any kind.
3) Monitor Resolution: I already have a monitor (which I've been using with my Xbox 360); 1920 x 1080p resolution, the specific monitor I'm using is http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product
4) Specific Games: Starcraft II, Civilization IV, World of Warcraft (and its expansions), Team Fortress 2, Mirrors Edge, Fallout 3, many older games via Steam; I don't want to attempt to "future proof" the machine, but it'd be nice to play most high profile games coming out in the next year or so as well (but not Crysis at max settings or anything). It'd also be nice to have the capacity to keep a browser with a few tabs and iTunes going in the background without slowing the games down, but nothing super taxing.
Any advice on what kinds of parts this would require, or any links to premade machines that could handle this for $1,000 or less would be great; I know that buying anything premade will cost significantly more, but I'm willing to pay somewhat of a premium because I have zero confidence in my own ability to construct a machine.
Thanks in advance for any reply.
Click to expand...
Somebody asked for a similar build a few posts ago. I told them:

Odious Tea said:
CPU - Intel i5/i7
GPU - ATI 5870
RAM - 4GB+
PSU - 600+W, to be safe.
Motherboard - Research to find what features you want, in what pricepoint.
Case - Super personal preference, but I've been singing the praises of CM 690 II Advanced since I got it.
Also, you may want to part with ~$250 to get yourself a decent 1080p monitor.
Click to expand...
It would be best if you spec out a build yourself and then post it here for tweaking. Makes it easier for everyone to help you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

PC games that are ONLY in a borderless window need to stop.
2
53
915
RoboFu replied
Do we even need a new consoles so soon?
Opinion  2
80
460
Three replied
Fallout New Vegas 15th Anniversary Edition Announced - $155
News  2 3
100
1K
KungFucius replied
FusionFix 4.0 Turns GTA IV on PC Into the Definitive Edition
2 3
100
7K
Windom Earle replied
PC Master Race, I need your help!
37
2K
lachesis replied
Top Bottom