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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

Hellsing321 said:
Since this is an ATI card I'd say this is the most likely culprit.
Click to expand...

If he just installed new drivers I would agree, but it would seem weird for the drivers to work fine and then those same drivers to all of the sudden have issues.

Sounds like heat issue, I would monitor you GPU and case temps, also make sure GPU fan and case fans are working properly.

Hopefully you get it figured out zedge, nothing sucks more than getting amped up for that new piece of hardware (especially a graphics card) just to find out its not working properly.
 
need some advise on a partial upgrade, The boss has authorized $350 for upgrades with my next paycheck on Friday, and my gaming rig is in dire need, current rig:

AMD Athlon X2 5200+ AM2
MSI mobo (not AM2+/AM3, dammit)
2GB DDR2-800
MSI ATI Radeon 4670
XP Pro

Here is what I am thinking:

CPU:
AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana=$74.99

Mobo: (has to be Micro ATX)
MSI AM3 Motherboard=$69.99

Memory:
Patriot Gaming Series 4GB DDR3-1333=$94.99

Windows 7:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit=$104.99

This equals $344.96 plus shipping. I should be able to upgrade to a ~$150 graphics card in a month or so, and then a quad-core process later, but this what I was think for right now.......thoughts?
 
this might not be teh right thread to ask but what the hell

I have the GTX 260 in SLI and when i play stalker shadow of chernobyl with everything maxed out, i'm only getting 30 or most times lower frame rates (at least according to fraps. all other games seem to run well. any help?
 
Hey guys, I have an HD 4570 in my laptop and it supports a PCI-e link width of x16 but it's running at x8. There's no option to change this in the BIOS.

Can I do it in Windows? And why would it be running at x8 instead of x16?
 
Repost from the stupid questions OT thread.

I haven't played a PC game since Windows 98 and I don't know much about hardware so please excuse my general ignorance on the topic.

I just bought a Dell Inspiron 545 and was thinking of picking up Left 4 Dead. I know it won't run well on the Intel G33/G31 integrated video card that the pc came with.

Here are my specs:

* Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor E5300 (2.60GHz, 2MB cache, 800MHz FSB)
* 6GB Memory (800-MHz DDR2 DIMM); 640GB Hard Drive; DVD+/-RW Optical Drive; 6 USB Ports
* Includes 22-Inch HD monitor with HDMI port; Max Resolution 1920 x 1080; Integrated Intel Media Accelerator 3100 Graphics
* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio and Dell Speakers
* Processor: 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core
* RAM: 6 GB
* RAM Type: SDRAM
* Hard drive Size: 640 GB

I don't plan on getting into PC gaming; I'd probably play it for a few weekends and quit. I don't want to spend much, although I'd be willing to spend around $100 if it makes a significant difference.

I read through this long article testing 23 graphics cards with Left 4 Dead, but a lot of this is beyond my understanding, and there are too many options.

Can someone just point me to a purchase? Any other considerations besides the graphics card? Compatibility issues?

I'm looking at these as possibilities:

EVGA 512-P2-N738-LR GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI-Express Graphics Card

PNY VCGFX522PEB GeForce FX 5200 256MB VGA + VGA PCI Graphics Card

EVGA 256-P1-N400-LR GeForce 6200 256 MB DDR2 PCI Graphics Card

EVGA 512-P3-N973-TR GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB DDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card

Thanks!
 
Rabid Wolverine said:
Most likely hardware, but have you downloaded any windows updates recently?.

My 5850 which was working like a dream had Grey Screen issues which alot of other users had, turns out what was causing it was a conflict in a Windows Update.

ATI have now fixed the issue with Cat 10.1 Hotfix.

www.rage3d.com is a good place to post problems.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I had the gray screen of death early this morning, first timer!:lol

I just did their update and see if that works.
 
A year and a half ago, I built a system and have had great fun with it.

Might want to upgrade later this year hence my question to you, PC thread:

I have a Q9550 OC'ed to 3GHz on a ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard and a Powercolor 4870x2 running on 8GB of G.Skill DDR2 800 RAM.

If I want to upgrade these 3 components, what should I be looking at (or waiting for) this summer?

Any idea how much this'll cost?
 
xero273 said:
I need new 120mm case fans. If possible, I'm looking for good airflow and somewhat silent fans. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...
Anything from either Noctua, Nexus or Scythe should be good. I personally avoid anything else.
 
Rabid Wolverine said:
Most likely hardware, but have you downloaded any windows updates recently?.

My 5850 which was working like a dream had Grey Screen issues which alot of other users had, turns out what was causing it was a conflict in a Windows Update.

ATI have now fixed the issue with Cat 10.1 Hotfix.

www.rage3d.com is a good place to post problems.
Click to expand...
This hotfix did not fix my 5850 grey screen crashing problem.
 
I'm looking to get a cheap computer after my recent Alienware finally died. Man I love Alienware but the price tag just kills my wallet these days.

I'm primaryily buying it for photshop work. My primary gaming has shifted to consoles (shields raised).

How are these specs? The price is $800 which is right about where I want to be. I also have a spare Radeon 1900 and spare ram salvaged from the imploded Alienware.

Processor:

AMD Athlon II X4 620 CPU (Maximize your gaming and multitasking!)
CPU Speed: 2.6Ghz
CPU Cores: 4
L2 Cache size: 4x512KB
Processor Cooling:

Liquid Cooled
Entirely Sealed
Zero Maintenance
Memory:

DDR3-1333
8GB (2GB x 4) Dual Channel (Run more, with no more slowdowns!)
Upgradable up to 16GB
Motherboard:

AMD 770
Socket AM3
Graphics:

ATI Radeon HD4350 512MB
Hard Drive:

Capacity: 1TB
Speed: 7,200 RPM
Interface: SATA II
Optical Drive:

24x DVDRW
Double Layer Support
Network:

10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet Port
Audio:

Realtek High Definition 8 Channels
Keyboard & Mouse:

iBUYPOWER Keyboard (104 Standard Keys and 18 Multimedia Keys)
iBUYPOWER Optical Mouse (Includes Scroll, Forward, Backwards buttons)
Expandability:

4 x 5.25" drive bays (external) (3 available)
2 x 3.5" drive bays (external) (1 available)
4 x 3.5" drive bays (internal for hard drive) (3 available)
1 x PCIe x16
4 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI

Ports:

8 x USB 2.0
2 x Front Audio Jacks
1 x PS/2 keyboard port
1 x PS/2 mouse port
6 x Rear Audio Jacks
1 x Optical S/PDIF Audio
1 x PS/2 (keyboard or mouse)
2 x IEEE 1394a (FireWire)
1 x RJ-45 (Ethernet)

Operating System and Software:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Additional Information:

450-watt power supply
Dimensions: 17.75" H x 20.5" D x 8" W
 
KittyKittyBangBang said:
If he just installed new drivers I would agree, but it would seem weird for the drivers to work fine and then those same drivers to all of the sudden have issues.

Sounds like heat issue, I would monitor you GPU and case temps, also make sure GPU fan and case fans are working properly.

Hopefully you get it figured out zedge, nothing sucks more than getting amped up for that new piece of hardware (especially a graphics card) just to find out its not working properly.
Click to expand...

Went and got it swapped today. So far so good. Thanks.
 
chespace said:
A year and a half ago, I built a system and have had great fun with it.

Might want to upgrade later this year hence my question to you, PC thread:

I have a Q9550 OC'ed to 3GHz on a ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard and a Powercolor 4870x2 running on 8GB of G.Skill DDR2 800 RAM.

If I want to upgrade these 3 components, what should I be looking at (or waiting for) this summer?

Any idea how much this'll cost?
Click to expand...

Sucks in a way cause you're locked into the LGA775 socket with that mobo. To be honest, might as get a whole new motherboard/cpu and ram. The 6 core intel and AMD chips will be out this year, thats pretty much the big new thing on the CPU front. Video card should still serve you well, but if you want DX11 eye candy you could look into a 58XX card and wait for Nvidia's new cards. Thats still a great setup though, I wouldn't be in a rush to replace anything in it. If it's a performance boost you're after, check into SSD's. Best single upgrade I can recommend these days.
 
SuperEnemyCrab said:
Sucks in a way cause you're locked into the LGA775 socket with that mobo. To be honest, might as get a whole new motherboard/cpu and ram. The 6 core intel and AMD chips will be out this year, thats pretty much the big new thing on the CPU front. Video card should still serve you well, but if you want DX11 eye candy you could look into a 58XX card and wait for Nvidia's new cards. Thats still a great setup though, I wouldn't be in a rush to replace anything in it. If it's a performance boost you're after, check into SSD's. Best single upgrade I can recommend these days.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I pretty know that I'd need to replace CPU/mobo/RAM. Which is okay. If I did, I should wait for 6 core CPUs later this year?

Don't really care about DX11 yet, but I'm sure I will care more and more by the end of the year. GPUs are still pretty expensive though so I can sit on the 4870x2 for a while. Question is, do you think my CPU/RAM setup is bottlenecking the 4870x2?

As for the SSD, how much of a perf boost are we talking about here?
 
SSD's are one of the biggest performance boosts you can get these days. You may not see it strictly in fps in gaming, but the whole computing experience just feels so much faster. I have the intel x25 80gb gen2 drive and it is blazing fast. 80Gb is more than enough as a primary drive for the OS and a few select games and programs. The rest of the games I run of an older SATA hard drive.

Also +1 for Noctua for fans. My case is full of them and it makes a big difference on the noise level.
 
SuperEnemyCrab said:
Sucks in a way cause you're locked into the LGA775 socket with that mobo. To be honest, might as get a whole new motherboard/cpu and ram. The 6 core intel and AMD chips will be out this year, thats pretty much the big new thing on the CPU front. Video card should still serve you well, but if you want DX11 eye candy you could look into a 58XX card and wait for Nvidia's new cards. Thats still a great setup though, I wouldn't be in a rush to replace anything in it. If it's a performance boost you're after, check into SSD's. Best single upgrade I can recommend these days.
Click to expand...

It's seriously not worth it for him to upgrade anything at the moment. He's still likely got tons of overclocking headroom.

3.4GHz if he's got 800MHz DDR2.
3.8-4GHz (upper limit) if he can overclock the RAM

He really won't see any appreciable difference going to an i7. Games are generally not CPU limited enough for it to make that much of a difference, if any at all.

On the videocard front, a 5870 would only offer a small performance increase (if at all) where Crossfire is supported.

I think he should be waiting for the next generation of cards, or at least the new NVidia cards and a 6-core CPUs before doing anything.

oktarb said:
I'm looking to get a cheap computer after my recent Alienware finally died. Man I love Alienware but the price tag just kills my wallet these days.

I'm primaryily buying it for photshop work. My primary gaming has shifted to consoles (shields raised).

How are these specs? The price is $800 which is right about where I want to be. I also have a spare Radeon 1900 and spare ram salvaged from the imploded Alienware.

Processor:

AMD Athlon II X4 620 CPU (Maximize your gaming and multitasking!)
CPU Speed: 2.6Ghz
CPU Cores: 4
L2 Cache size: 4x512KB
Processor Cooling:

Liquid Cooled
Entirely Sealed
Zero Maintenance
Memory:

DDR3-1333
8GB (2GB x 4) Dual Channel (Run more, with no more slowdowns!)
Upgradable up to 16GB
Motherboard:

AMD 770
Socket AM3
Graphics:

ATI Radeon HD4350 512MB
Hard Drive:

Capacity: 1TB
Speed: 7,200 RPM
Interface: SATA II
Optical Drive:

24x DVDRW
Double Layer Support
Network:

10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet Port
Audio:

Realtek High Definition 8 Channels
Keyboard & Mouse:

iBUYPOWER Keyboard (104 Standard Keys and 18 Multimedia Keys)
iBUYPOWER Optical Mouse (Includes Scroll, Forward, Backwards buttons)
Expandability:

4 x 5.25" drive bays (external) (3 available)
2 x 3.5" drive bays (external) (1 available)
4 x 3.5" drive bays (internal for hard drive) (3 available)
1 x PCIe x16
4 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI

Ports:

8 x USB 2.0
2 x Front Audio Jacks
1 x PS/2 keyboard port
1 x PS/2 mouse port
6 x Rear Audio Jacks
1 x Optical S/PDIF Audio
1 x PS/2 (keyboard or mouse)
2 x IEEE 1394a (FireWire)
1 x RJ-45 (Ethernet)

Operating System and Software:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Additional Information:

450-watt power supply
Dimensions: 17.75" H x 20.5" D x 8" W
Click to expand...

Avoid liquid cooling. It's not needed, it's expensive, and cheap solutions don't beat out proper air cooling.

If you want a Photoshop workhorse, you want to go with an i7 860 or an i7 920.
 
TheExodu5 said:
It's seriously not worth it for him to upgrade anything at the moment. He's still likely got tons of overclocking headroom.

3.4GHz if he's got 800MHz DDR2.
3.8-4GHz (upper limit) if he can overclock the RAM

He really won't see any appreciable difference going to an i7. Games are generally not CPU limited enough for it to make that much of a difference, if any at all.

On the videocard front, a 5870 would only offer a small performance increase (if at all) where Crossfire is supported.

I think he should be waiting for the next generation of cards, or at least the new NVidia cards and a 6-core CPUs before doing anything.
Click to expand...

Hey, I'm sitting RIGHT HERE! :lol

But okay. As for OC, I've tried going higher than 3.0GHz and couldn't sustain. Granted, I'm only cooling via very standard means (Coolermaster and Antec case) but I don't think I'm going to invest too much into crazy OC. Or maybe I should.
 
parrotbeak said:
Ok, thanks, I'll take a look at both of those options.
Click to expand...
9800 GT > 5670, by a good bit.


The Mobility 5850 is here....

Mobility_5850_GPU-Z.jpg


So, it's the 5750 in mobile form.
 
chespace said:
As for the SSD, how much of a perf boost are we talking about here?
Click to expand...


Significant. I don't know what your storage setup is currently, but even raptors in raid 0 can't perform to the level of a high end SSD. Check out the intel x-25m or OCZ vertex or agility series.
 
chespace said:
Hey, I'm sitting RIGHT HERE! :lol

But okay. As for OC, I've tried going higher than 3.0GHz and couldn't sustain. Granted, I'm only cooling via very standard means (Coolermaster and Antec case) but I don't think I'm going to invest too much into crazy OC. Or maybe I should.
Click to expand...
3GHz should be fine for any game. I guess if you're trying to push Dolphin or PCSX2 you could go higher. I have the same processor but it's at 3.4GHz now. Was running it at stock for a while with no issues.

oktarb said:
I'm looking to get a cheap computer after my recent Alienware finally died. Man I love Alienware but the price tag just kills my wallet these days.

I'm primaryily buying it for photshop work. My primary gaming has shifted to consoles (shields raised).

How are these specs? The price is $800 which is right about where I want to be. I also have a spare Radeon 1900 and spare ram salvaged from the imploded Alienware.

Processor:

AMD Athlon II X4 620 CPU (Maximize your gaming and multitasking!)
CPU Speed: 2.6Ghz
CPU Cores: 4
L2 Cache size: 4x512KB
Processor Cooling:

Liquid Cooled
Entirely Sealed
Zero Maintenance
Memory:

DDR3-1333
8GB (2GB x 4) Dual Channel (Run more, with no more slowdowns!)
Upgradable up to 16GB
Motherboard:

AMD 770
Socket AM3
Graphics:

ATI Radeon HD4350 512MB
Hard Drive:
Click to expand...
Ok, $800 for that PoS is just wrong. Why are they liquid cooling your Athlon II X4 620? If you're an American, you can get a much better processor and video card with that type of money. If you're doing heavy photoshop work, you want a much better processor. Look into the i5 750 at least.

For $800 you can get a damn good gaming computer in the US.
 
Firestorm said:
3GHz should be fine for any game. I guess if you're trying to push Dolphin or PCSX2 you could go higher. I have the same processor but it's at 3.4GHz now. Was running it at stock for a while with no issues.


Ok, $800 for that PoS is just wrong. Why are they liquid cooling your Athlon II X4 620? If you're an American, you can get a much better processor and video card with that type of money. If you're doing heavy photoshop work, you want a much better processor. Look into the i5 750 at least.

For $800 you can get a damn good gaming computer in the US.
Click to expand...

This.
 
chespace said:
A year and a half ago, I built a system and have had great fun with it.

Might want to upgrade later this year hence my question to you, PC thread:

I have a Q9550 OC'ed to 3GHz on a ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard and a Powercolor 4870x2 running on 8GB of G.Skill DDR2 800 RAM.

If I want to upgrade these 3 components, what should I be looking at (or waiting for) this summer?

Any idea how much this'll cost?
Click to expand...

Just OC that Q9550 some more? Can't see what it'd be causing you an issue with? You'd need to buy a new motherboard/RAM/CPU to upgrade on the CPU side, and honestly it wouldn't be much of an upgrade imo. 4ghz isn't uncommon on a Q9550 with decent cooling, and at that speed it'll beat out any stock clocked CPU sold today. If you've got the cash to blow at least wait for the 6 core 32nm Intel chips, they'll be pricey, but at least you're getting something tangible over your current CPU.

GPU wise I'd wait for Fermi and see how that performs, the current ATI cards aren't really much of an upgrade for you (outside of DX11 support) but Fermi could be.


Edit: The SSD suggestion is a very good idea actually. You'll notice the benefts straight away, no other upgrade you can do is going to manage that.

If you want an awesome cooler on a budget have a look at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207004&Tpk=sunbeam 120mm

Should allow you to OC that Q9550 much higher.
 
K.Jack said:
Take the 9800 GT, but that same card is $99.99 on Newegg. It's your best bang at $100 or below.
Click to expand...

Nah, 5670 is the way to go. Damn near exact same performance, a fraction of the power usage, cheaper, cooler, DX11 support and three display outputs.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131334&cm_re=5670-_-14-131-334-_-Product


K.Jack said:
9800 GT > 5670, by a good bit.
Click to expand...

Its within 10% (and actually outperforms it in shader heavy stuff like Crysis and Far Cry 2), not worth paying extra and giving up a whole load of niceties for that imo.
 
Soulstar said:
Browsing around for a Laptop for my sister that she can play some sims 3 and probably left 4 dead 2.

Came across this one:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220699
Is this a good laptop or is there a better alternative in this price range?
Click to expand...

The GPU is a 80 stream processor part, so no, its complete trash for gaming, you can do much better.

This is much better for games and cheaper to boot:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220694

For a little more this looks like a really good option:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146719
 
In another thread brain_stew mentioned that I should post my current specs here to see if anyone could recommend some upgrades to make my PC useable. I bought it from a local store that build PCs about two years ago for about £400 to play Oblivion, but it has never been able to run Oblivion at a decent framerate on anything other than average settings at 1024x768 with numerous mods to help the performance. It also barely hits 50-60fps in Phantasy Star Universe at medium settings.

2yl235d.jpg

Edit: The 8600GT is the 512mb version BTW.

According to my receipt it also says the motherboard is an Asrock 4Core 1333-eSATA2 sk7 and the RAM is 2x Adapta 1gb DDR2 667. I've also got a full retail version of Windows 7 in the cupboard (from the £50 pre-orders) but I don't see any point wasting it on this PC unless I can get a large performance boost from it first. As for the monitor, it's just a 10-12 year old Compaq one which can't run anything higher than 1024x768.
 
Azure Phoenix said:
In another thread brain_stew mentioned that I should post my current specs here to see if anyone could recommend some upgrades to make my PC useable. I bought it from a local store that build PCs about two years ago for about £400 to play Oblivion, but it has never been able to run Oblivion at a decent framerate on anything other than average settings at 1024x768 with numerous mods to help the performance. It also barely hits 50-60fps in Phantasy Star Universe at medium settings.

2yl235d.jpg

Edit: The 8600GT is the 512mb version BTW.

According to my receipt it also says the motherboard is an Asrock 4Core 1333-eSATA2 sk7 and the RAM is 2x Adapta 1gb DDR2 667. I've also got a full retail version of Windows 7 in the cupboard (from the £50 pre-orders) but I don't see any point wasting it on this PC unless I can get a large performance boost from it first. As for the monitor, it's just a 10-12 year old Compaq one which can't run anything higher than 1024x768.
Click to expand...

That's not bad at all really. Plenty of potential there.

First off GPU, yup the 8600GT was a major letdown, so I'd recommend replacing that. Do you mind looking inside the case, and at the PSU (big square thing in top left hand corner) and it should have a a label on it telling you what its capable of. Could you come back and either post a picture of it, or list what it says under either "12v" "12v1" or "12v2" itll probably be xa where x is a number. While I can be pretty it'll take a decent GPU considering it already has a dedicated card, its always best to be sure.

Whilst you're looking inside, let me know how many RAM slots it has.

So depending on budget/PSU, if you're sticking at 1024x768, this is probably a good option for cheap:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Graphics-ATI/ATIHD5600Series/NOV-5670.html

It'll have no problem running on your current PSU, is a DX11 card and has a really low idle power usage. If you stick with 1024x768 it should have no trouble running multiplats at 60fps so long as you're not CPU bound (which will only be the case in rare exceptions.

If you want a bit more GPU power (especially useful if you plan to get a new ~1080p monitor) then a 5770 is the next best bang for buck card imo, should give you similar performance at 1080p as the 5670 does at 1024x768:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Graphics-ATI/ATIHD5700Series/57701GB.html

Now, as it happens, I'm actually in the process of listing my old 4850 on Ebay, if you're interested you could save me the hassle and I'd sell it to you for a cut down £50 delivered? Performance will be right in between the 5670 and 5770, no DX11 mind (nnot a big deal though really) and I'm not willing to sell it until you've checked that your PSU can handle it, I don't want to see you screwed over. Now, I usually don't do this sort of thing, and apologies if its coming off the wrong way but I'm sure the other guys in this thread can vouch for what a good deal that is, and if you check this thread you'll see I've helped a load of others out without ever trying to use this thread to sell my own gear. Still it might suit both me and you, so the offer is there if you want it, it'll utterly cream your old 8600gt, I can't really stress how much of a step up it'd be.

CPU wise you're actually sitting quite well, most modern games don't stress the CPU all that much so it should be fine on the whole. Since you've got a "generic" board, chances are you'll be able to OC that chip, now whilst the idea of OCing might seem scary it is highly recommended for a chip like the one you have. You're literally passing up a free performance upgrade if you don't. If you're interested, let me know and I'll point you in the direction of where to get more info about it. With stock cooling, you can just look into what your chip can manage without touching the voltage, it'll probably get 2.6ghz-3ghz, since you're not touching there's literally no risk in damaging your chip at all so there's no reason not to do it imo. With a budget cooler you'll be able to get as much as 3-3.6ghz! I'm sure you'll agree a 50% faster CPU for a £15 investment and a couple hours reading up is a pretty good deal. This cooler would be a good choice:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Cooling/CPUCoolers/Xigmatek/HDT-S963.html

Check up on ASRock's website and see what CPU upgrades are compatible with your board. Chances are quite a lot, some may require a BIOS flash but that's easy enough to do. If you're happy to spend a bit more cash for a major upgrade a quad is an option (though hardly required), look out for the Q6600, Q9400 and Q9550 as they're the best value socket 775 quads and worth considering if you've got the cash for it. Let me stress though, even without an OC or upgrade, your CPU is still pretty damn capable, and still great for the vast majority of modern games at excellent framerates. So its fine if you leave it but good to know you can get some serious extra performance for very little.

2GB RAM is fine really, but 4GB certainly wouldn't hurt either. If you use that W7 upgrade (make sure you install the 64 bit version) then it definitely makes sense, as W7 is great with memory management and as its 64 bit it won't be capped at ~3GB. Like I say check to see if you've got two spare RAM slots, if you have a RAM upgrade makes even more sense, this pack will do:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...aptop/DDR2-PC2-5300/667MHz/VS2GBKIT667D2.html
 
Cosmonaut X said:
brain_stew - any further advice on my earlier posts? Cheers :-)
Click to expand...

The reason you can't have upgrade options is because none of Intel's platform's have any definite mainstream upgrade path, its just the way it is with Intel hardware.

Ideally, i7-860, 5850, would be the way to go but since you seem to be struggling budget wise, and since AMD platform's do have upgrade potential it may be the right option for you. You'll sacrifice power in the here and now but it'll be cheaper and you'll have a better potential for future upgrades, so its not a terrible option perhaps.

If that was the case, I'd say a 770 board + 955 BE offer a good combination at a low cost.
 
Having some trouble installing windows 7.
Just got a new pc, so this is a fresh install. Since I have no dvd drive, I am installing the 64 version through usb.
The installation goes perfectly fine but after it asks to reboot, it goes back to the same installation screen like nothing was installed.
Anybody had the same issue?
Hopefully not too off topic.
Edit: Problem solved, found out I had to remove the usb device after it restarted
 
Fuck PCI Wifi adapters to hell. A couple of these things just gave me a world of hell today with my bros PC. The issue is sorted now...............I think.
 
Ysiadmihi said:
Hey guys, I have an HD 4570 in my laptop and it supports a PCI-e link width of x16 but it's running at x8. There's no option to change this in the BIOS.

Can I do it in Windows? And why would it be running at x8 instead of x16?
Click to expand...

Sorry to quote myself here, but no one has any ideas? Here's what I'm talking about specifically.

2v85z77.png
 
Question, Thinking of Getting a SSD just for my OS partition but i have OS X and Windows 7. So I am thinking two 40 gig SSD in Raid 0 does Raid 0 pool the space to 80 gig or just 40 gigs total? I was looking in to getting another 1TB WD Black and do that in Raid 0 but according to Internets it's not a great drive for raid striping.

So which way to go Two 40 gig ssd in raid 0 with my current 1tb as storage?

Or one 40 gig ssd boot drive and raid 0 the 1tb disks?

What performance boost do i get if i go with Raid 0 with the 1tb disk drives?
 
Ysiadmihi said:
Sorry to quote myself here, but no one has any ideas? Here's what I'm talking about specifically.

2v85z77.png
Click to expand...

It won't make a jot of difference to performance anyway, so don't worry about it. Your laptop probably just uses the extra PCIe lanes for other peripherals/ports.
 
Technosteve said:
Question, Thinking of Getting a SSD just for my OS partition but i have OS X and Windows 7. So I am thinking two 40 gig SSD in Raid 0 does Raid 0 pool the space to 80 gig or just 40 gigs total? I was looking in to getting another 1TB WD Black and do that in Raid 0 but according to Internets it's not a great drive for raid striping.

So which way to go Two 40 gig ssd in raid 0 with my current 1tb as storage?

Or one 40 gig ssd boot drive and raid 0 the 1tb disks?

What performance boost do i get if i go with Raid 0 with the 1tb disk drives?
Click to expand...

I'd probably just get Intel's 80GB drive and dedicate 40GB to each OS.
 
zedge said:
Picked up a Sapphire Radeon 5770 Vapor X edition yesterday. Working fine all day yesterday and today. Well tonight while playing BF BC2 beta I started seeing these flickering black lines. Tried a few other games and the same thing is occuring.. Is this a bad card?

Intel Core i3
4GB Kingston DDR3
400W Corsair Power Supply
Sapphire 5770 Vapor X
Click to expand...

problem is with the 5 series cards they have ECC Ram on the cards, so the dithering/pixel poping you would normally see as card overheating will be corrected with the ram but your performance drops because of all the errors it has to correct. I would suggest you run a benchmark at different loads and see if it happens in all cases.
 
brain_stew said:
It won't make a jot of difference to performance anyway, so don't worry about it. Your laptop probably just uses the extra PCIe lanes for other peripherals/ports.
Click to expand...

I'd like to take your word for it, but on my last desktop motherboard I saw a huge increase in performance when I realized the default link width was x8 and changed it to x16 :p

Not saying it'll be the same here but it's just bothersome since most games run at about 25 fps and a little boost might push that up to a nice 30.
 
Question, what would be a better choice.

I'm stuck between these two options:

- core i3-530
- Decent motherboard
- decent case

all for $220, with a $13 mail in rebate

OR

- AMD Phenom II X4 945 95W
- slightly better motherboard (negligible difference than other one tho)
- no case

$218, with $10 mail in rebate.

the i3 has a better chance for upgrades down the road, i guess.
 
projekt84 said:
the i3 has a better chance for upgrades down the road, i guess.
Click to expand...

Well, except for the fact that it doesn't (assuming you're talking about an am3 board, as nobody should be buying an am2+ board these days).
 
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