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

"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

SuperEnemyCrab said:
Can anyone recommend a good wireless notebook mouse? Like a mini wireless mouse...

Thanks!

The only one I find playable for FPS games is the one Razer makes. I had a mid range (non 'gaming') Logitech and the latency was unbearable. Even in SP. The Razer isn't without fault, and I wouldn't get into any hardcore competitive MP gaming with it, but it got my through Mass Effect 2 on my big screen just fine.

http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.169419000/categoryId.35208800

You can find it for a bit less than the RRP on the website. It's basically a mini death adder.
 
kamspy said:
The only one I find playable for FPS games is the one Razer makes. I had a mid range (non 'gaming') Logitech and the latency was unbearable. Even in SP. The Razer isn't without fault, and I wouldn't get into any hardcore competitive MP gaming with it, but it got my through Mass Effect 2 on my big screen just fine.

http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.169419000/categoryId.35208800

You can find it for a bit less than the RRP on the website. It's basically a mini death adder.

MS's Sidewinder X8 wireless gaming mouse has basically no lag at all... works great for gaming (it actually sports better specs than that razor I think). It takes some getting used to though, it's a larger fit.

If it's just for general use any mid-range logitech wireless mouse should do fine though.
 
kamspy said:
The only one I find playable for FPS games is the one Razer makes. I had a mid range (non 'gaming') Logitech and the latency was unbearable. Even in SP. The Razer isn't without fault, and I wouldn't get into any hardcore competitive MP gaming with it, but it got my through Mass Effect 2 on my big screen just fine.

http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.169419000/categoryId.35208800

You can find it for a bit less than the RRP on the website. It's basically a mini death adder.


Damn that looks nice, but I think it would be overkill. I probably should have mentioned it's for a 60+ year old and his netbook, lol. I would prefer a bluetooth over wireless RF for sure though. But thanks, I'll remember this link when I'm in the market for a notebook mouse.

Probably just end up with a basic MS or logitech mouse.

It's kind of funny, but he wanted to play it cheap and got a pinetrail netbook with a 2gb ram upgrade for $350. But it has windows 7 starter, which is horribly crippled, and now he wants to upgrade to full windows 7 premium for $80. So in the end he will be spending as much or more than he would have if he just bought a celeron or dual atom netbook with better hardware that had win 7 premium and 2gb of ram already installed. Not to mention getting a better screen resolution. The lower end pinetrail netbooks with Win 7 starter are just not a very good value...
 
Linkzg said:
I posted a few days ago about a new cpu and a few other questions, well, I have a few more.

First off, I got the q9550 cpu. Reading about the potential it had made me think it would be great even if I got a new motherboard. That's what I'm thinking of doing now. So, that means most components in my computer are fairly new except for the case, motherboard, and ram (important parts anyway).

GTX 275
Seagate 1tb hd
750w psu
q9550 cpu
4 gigs of ram (will most likely replace)
(+DVD drive/burner, blu-ray drive, etc.)

My updated question is now, considering those parts, what is a good motherboard to get and what is some good ram to go with it? since I'll install Window 7 64 this time, I'm looking to get 8 gigs of ram (depends on the motherboard).

The other small question is: if I want to do a fresh install of Windows 7 64, but I only have the upgrade dvd, would I need to install vista first?

And as for the case, I'm looking into that. I know it's hard to recommend, but anything that can keep cool and look fine (plain, black, sleek, not a bunch of flashing lights and see through).

edit: I plan to overclock the cpu, so that may factor into the motherboard choice.
Linkzg said:
anyone have the Antec P183 case? it seems pretty much what I'd like.

Bumping these few question to see if anyone can help out.
 
So I finalized my computer build, it's the following

Intel Core i7 950 (4x 3.06GHz/8Cores Threaded,8MB Cache,LGA 1366)
Asus Radeon 5970 2GB GDDR5
2 x OCZ OCZ3OB1600LV6GK Obsidian Series DDR3-1600 PC12800 6GB Kit (3x2GB)
Xonar DX Soundcard
Asus P6T-Deluxe Motherboard
Scyth 850W PSU
Corsair Obsidian 800d Case
OCZ SSD 60 GB - Which seems like it's been changed now but I am still getting an SSD just not sure of the model.
2 x Western Digital 2TB hard drive
I also threw in a LG blu-ray Rewriter

SteelSeries 5H v2 Gaming Headset - I needed a headset and i've heard really good things about this one.

I can't wait to get it, it's been way to long since i've had a really good gaming PC

What do you all think?
 
If a game (Crysis) tends to crash in Windows 7 64-bit, would it make sense to attempt a dual-boot with Windows XP and install it there?
 
toasty_T said:
Guys, I think there is something wrong with my Q6600. It idles at in the high 60s where before it would be in the low 30s and maybe hit the high 60s during a high load. Could I fix this by reapplying some thermal paste? It's still on stock clocks so this makes very little sense.

I bought a Xigmatek S1283 heat sink but I need to find somewhere that sells the bracket since I broke the one it came with. I tried to take out my mobo but I couldn't get the 6-pin connector out of my gpu. Is there a particular way to do it or am I being thick?

Is your CPU cooler really dusty? If it is, that might be the reason for the high temps. Try using a can of compressed air to clean out the dust.
 
Aesius said:
If a game (Crysis) tends to crash in Windows 7 64-bit, would it make sense to attempt a dual-boot with Windows XP and install it there?

Do other games crash? Have you tried reinstalling crysis? Video card drivers? I would only dual boot for a game as a last resort type situation.

Edit: Oh, looks like my name change went through. Say goodbye to SuperEnemyCrab and hello to BravoSuperStar. Should make things easier for everyone since that is my XBLA, PSN, and Steam name, email address, etc. Like anyone cares anyway, but ya...:D
 
deim0s said:
Should I go with the i7-860 or i5-750? (Same mobo platform, yeah?)

No overclocking, two to 3 years normal gaming usage.

If you have a MicroCenter near you, I would go for the i7 860. MC just dropped the price of the i7 860 down to $199.99 from its usual $229.99.

They have the i5 750 at $179.99.

So for just $20 more with the i7 860, you will get a slightly higher stock clock speed, and you will get Hyper-Threading on each core for 8 simultaneous processing threads.

i7 860
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0317378

i5 750
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0317379
 
Well, boo. I wasn't able to unlock the 4th core on my X3 Rana. I tried increntally increasing voltages on the CPU VID and CPU NB VID, but all I got were BSODs and couldn't even get into Windows.
 
Linkzg said:
Bumping these few question to see if anyone can help out.

The P183 is a great case, I just bought it. The side panels make it quietER. You will need to get two intake fans.

Let's see, cable management is kind of hard if you don't have super long cables from your PSU to route behind the mobo. It is also hard to close the back panel if any thick wire is not by itself laying against the back. It is hard to do this because you have to connect a lot of wires for the front (LEDs, USB, headphone jacks, etc...)which I routed behind. If they added more indents so you can place wires in different slots it would've been a lot easier. You can route it through the bottom, but it could make it less neat.

If you have the patience and time to sit there and try to route it from behind, then its great. If you don't you can always stick it through the adjustable plastic slider cover provided. Oh and the matte finish at the top of the case scratches easily so be careful.

I know most of my comments are negative (mostly about cable management), but I felt it is something you need to know if you are a neat freak like me. :D
 
Lothars said:
So I finalized my computer build, it's the following

Intel Core i7 950 (4x 3.06GHz/8Cores Threaded,8MB Cache,LGA 1366)
Asus Radeon 5970 2GB GDDR5
2 x OCZ OCZ3OB1600LV6GK Obsidian Series DDR3-1600 PC12800 6GB Kit (3x2GB)
Xonar DX Soundcard
Asus P6T-Deluxe Motherboard
Scyth 850W PSU
Corsair Obsidian 800d Case
OCZ SSD 60 GB - Which seems like it's been changed now but I am still getting an SSD just not sure of the model.
2 x Western Digital 2TB hard drive
I also threw in a LG blu-ray Rewriter

SteelSeries 5H v2 Gaming Headset - I needed a headset and i've heard really good things about this one.

I can't wait to get it, it's been way to long since i've had a really good gaming PC

What do you all think?
You're spending waaay too much. Aren't the 5970 and i7 950 like $1200 alone?
 
Stupid question: Do video cards ever go down in price significantly? I'm thinking about going after a 5770 and getting a motherboard capable of crossfiring another one at some point if it were to go down in price, but I'm getting the impression that that's not going to happen, so I'd probably be better off not spending the extra money on a mobo.
 
Smash88 said:
The P183 is a great case, I just bought it. The side panels make it quietER. You will need to get two intake fans.
P18x cases do a great deal to enable a quiet computer such as providing a great deal of airflow with few fan RPMs required and keeping the PSU in its own air pathway, but you'll still need to plan out your components appropriately because it only dampens sound. It's not going to magically silence an orchestra of fans screaming at 40-50 dB.

As such, I would say that if you see the mounts for two intake fans and think "I need to put fans here", you're doing it wrong. I know this runs counter to the typical noise-naive overclock-ho PC gaming mindset, but perhaps peace of mind is worth not pushing an extra GHz.

Oh yeah, and P18x cases are really big and really heavy. Hopefully that's not an issue.
 
Lothars said:
So I finalized my computer build, it's the following

Intel Core i7 950 (4x 3.06GHz/8Cores Threaded,8MB Cache,LGA 1366)
Asus Radeon 5970 2GB GDDR5
2 x OCZ OCZ3OB1600LV6GK Obsidian Series DDR3-1600 PC12800 6GB Kit (3x2GB)
Xonar DX Soundcard
Asus P6T-Deluxe Motherboard
Scyth 850W PSU
Corsair Obsidian 800d Case
OCZ SSD 60 GB - Which seems like it's been changed now but I am still getting an SSD just not sure of the model.
2 x Western Digital 2TB hard drive
I also threw in a LG blu-ray Rewriter

SteelSeries 5H v2 Gaming Headset - I needed a headset and i've heard really good things about this one.

I can't wait to get it, it's been way to long since i've had a really good gaming PC

What do you all think?

If you really ned any more CPU grunt than what a 920 offers then just OC, don't give Intel money for something you could do yourself in 5 minutes.
 
Well I pulled the trigger yesterday and bought all the parts for my first build *yikes*
Hopefully I will be able to gt some help from you guys when I inevitably run into issues.
 
Lothars said:
So I finalized my computer build, it's the following

Intel Core i7 950 (4x 3.06GHz/8Cores Threaded,8MB Cache,LGA 1366)
Asus Radeon 5970 2GB GDDR5
2 x OCZ OCZ3OB1600LV6GK Obsidian Series DDR3-1600 PC12800 6GB Kit (3x2GB)
Xonar DX Soundcard
Asus P6T-Deluxe Motherboard
Scyth 850W PSU
Corsair Obsidian 800d Case
OCZ SSD 60 GB - Which seems like it's been changed now but I am still getting an SSD just not sure of the model.
2 x Western Digital 2TB hard drive
I also threw in a LG blu-ray Rewriter

SteelSeries 5H v2 Gaming Headset - I needed a headset and i've heard really good things about this one.

I can't wait to get it, it's been way to long since i've had a really good gaming PC

What do you all think?
This is a beast, but if you plan to spend this much, might be better to just wait for new motherboards with PCI Express 3.0 already. I think they're coming Q2 this year. And even the i7 920 is overkill unless you do tons of video encoding and are super-impatient.
 
I've been stressing most of today and yesterday and ran into my first problem. I've been incrementally increasing the reference clock on my x3 Rana by 5-10 and running prime95/OCCT for about 30 mins at a time. No problems up until about 3.4GHZ, good temps never exceeding 39C. When I bumped up to 3.5GHZ (little less) I get an error in both PRime 95 which says Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4. OCCT kicks out a generic error on Core 1. Should I bump back to 3.4GHz or does this mean I need to start bumping voltages?
 
mikespit1200 said:
I've been stressing most of today and yesterday and ran into my first problem. I've been incrementally increasing the reference clock on my x3 Rana by 5-10 and running prime95/OCCT for about 30 mins at a time. No problems up until about 3.4GHZ, good temps never exceeding 39C. When I bumped up to 3.5GHZ (little less) I get an error in both PRime 95 which says Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4. OCCT kicks out a generic error on Core 1. Should I bump back to 3.4GHz or does this mean I need to start bumping voltages?

Depends on what you're after. If you want to go for your maximum OC, start bumping up the voltage, if you're only after a stock volts OC then dial back the OC and do some more testing.
 
Just got a new case - a Coolermaster 355 Elite. At only £30, it's a steal. Looks fantastic, made of high quality materials, acres of space inside, more drive bays than you'll ever need, AND it includes a free fan so the airflow is excellent. 8/10 - highly recommended.

So now my holy triforce of cooling is complete - GPU, CPU and case. Anyone considering jumping into aftermarket cooling, DO IT. Some final stats to convert unbelievers:

Radeon 4890 w/ stock cooler: 64C idle, 78C load, fans sound like a jet engine

Radeon 4890 w/ Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo, Thermalright VRM-1 heatsink and MX-2 applied: 45C idle, 64C load, can't hear the fans at all.. only at 50% speed too, so temps CAN go even lower

CPU w/ stock cooler: 33C idle, 50C load, deafening noise

CPU w/ Scythe Shuriken Rev. B and MX-2 applied: 20C idle, 38C load, completely silent
 
I NEED SCISSORS said:
Just got a new case - a Coolermaster 355 Elite. At only £30, it's a steal. Looks fantastic, made of high quality materials, acres of space inside, more drive bays than you'll ever need, AND it includes a free fan so the airflow is excellent. 8/10 - highly recommended.

So now my holy triforce of cooling is complete - GPU, CPU and case. Anyone considering jumping into aftermarket cooling, DO IT. Some final stats to convert unbelievers:

Radeon 4890 w/ stock cooler: 64C idle, 78C load, fans sound like a jet engine

Radeon 4890 w/ Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo, Thermalright VRM-1 heatsink and MX-2 applied: 45C idle, 64C load, can't hear the fans at all.. only at 50% speed too, so temps CAN go even lower

CPU w/ stock cooler: 33C idle, 50C load, deafening noise

CPU w/ Scythe Shuriken Rev. B and MX-2 applied: 20C idle, 38C load, completely silent

If you want to add an exhaust fan and/or a quieter intake look into buying some Yate loons. Super quiet yet really cheap.
 
brain_stew said:
If you want to add an exhaust fan and/or a quieter intake look into buying some Yate loons. Super quiet yet really cheap.

Thanks for the tip but I think i'm good. I can't imagine it getting any quieter than it already is :lol

I looked them up anyway just out of curiosity. The free fan that comes with the 355 Elite is a 120mm rear fan, and if Coolermaster are to be believed it only emits 19dB of noise. It certainly sounds like it. Those Yate fans seem to be noisier at around 30dB, so I am actually really surprised if this free one does a better job.
 
Okay, why did I ever bother, it was bound to be a fuck up.

GAF, I just installed the dvd drive and figured I should just turn my (thanks to GAF help) self-built pc on for the first time to install windows.

Put in the external cables, like power cord, mouse etc, flicked the psu on (the power swithc starts glowing blue) and push the power button. Nothing happens. Nada. Nix. Rien. No mobo beep, no fans spinning.

System:

-bog standard i5 750 with stock cooler, none of the extreme stuff

-Gigabyte UD3 (the first one without all those fancy letters)

-Radeon 5850 from XFX

- OCZ StealthXStream 500W psu that should easily be able to pump enough juice into the pc

-4 GB Geil DDR3 RAM

So I figured I´d just link to my photobucket with pics of my mobo as it looks like right now and if remote repair via GAF can´t place the fault, I´ll literally throw it through my balcony door. I had a university test this morning, finished in the top 10% percent, etc, I should be hammered right now, but instead I get confirmation that I´m just too dense to connect a few pieces of metal and plastics in addition to the feeling that I have wasted/destroyed more than 600€.

The only stuff I haven´t used that was included with all those parts is a 2x4 pin power to a 3 pin wide (with 2 pins inside the plastic casing) converter, another 2x4 to 6 converter from the 5850 and a crossfire thing.

I´m off to play with my retard-friendly consoles.
 
You don't have the ATX power connector properly plugged in. From the first picture, you only have a 4-pin connector in an 8-pin slot. IIRC it won't boot unless this is properly plugged in, to avoid damage. I am not sure how to solve this problem though without knowing all the connectors your PSU has.
 
I'm thinking of building a rig similar to the one in the OP, using the Core I5 Lynnfield. I was just wondering why the Gigabyte motherboard would be recommended over an Intel mobo in the same price range?
 
DanDeschain said:
I'm thinking of building a rig similar to the one in the OP, using the Core I5 Lynnfield. I was just wondering why the Gigabyte motherboard would be recommended over an Intel mobo in the same price range?

Intel's boards are completely locked down and don't use high end cooling/components like Gigabyte tend to do.
 
Smash88 said:
The P183 is a great case, I just bought it. The side panels make it quietER. You will need to get two intake fans.

Let's see, cable management is kind of hard if you don't have super long cables from your PSU to route behind the mobo. It is also hard to close the back panel if any thick wire is not by itself laying against the back. It is hard to do this because you have to connect a lot of wires for the front (LEDs, USB, headphone jacks, etc...)which I routed behind. If they added more indents so you can place wires in different slots it would've been a lot easier. You can route it through the bottom, but it could make it less neat.

If you have the patience and time to sit there and try to route it from behind, then its great. If you don't you can always stick it through the adjustable plastic slider cover provided. Oh and the matte finish at the top of the case scratches easily so be careful.

I know most of my comments are negative (mostly about cable management), but I felt it is something you need to know if you are a neat freak like me. :D
Hitokage said:
P18x cases do a great deal to enable a quiet computer such as providing a great deal of airflow with few fan RPMs required and keeping the PSU in its own air pathway, but you'll still need to plan out your components appropriately because it only dampens sound. It's not going to magically silence an orchestra of fans screaming at 40-50 dB.

As such, I would say that if you see the mounts for two intake fans and think "I need to put fans here", you're doing it wrong. I know this runs counter to the typical noise-naive overclock-ho PC gaming mindset, but perhaps peace of mind is worth not pushing an extra GHz.

Oh yeah, and P18x cases are really big and really heavy. Hopefully that's not an issue.

Thanks.

A heavy case isn't a problem. A few years back and I had a monolith cooler master case with heavy metal on the front. That shit would have shattered my foot if I dropped it from waist height. I keep it on the the bottom of my desk, which is wood, so I don't think it's a problem.

As for the extra fans, I've read that it comes with two stock in the back, and I have considered putting an extra one in the front. I don't think that is as essential right now, so I'm not worrying too much about it.

About the organizating, I do like how everything is essentially hidden if you do it right. I don't think the cables from my psu are long though, though, but we'll see.

Firestorm said:
I use the Gigabyte EP45-UD3P. If you use it, you could get a hackintosh pretty easily if you ever felt like it =P I have a Q9550 and GTX 275 as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358


I'll look into it. Thanks for the link.

btw, since you're also a q9550 owner, do you use just use the stock intel heatsink with the q9550 or did you get a better one? I'm only going to bump it up to 3.4, not 4 or anything (not yet) so I wonder if it gets that hot that I'd need to worry about it.

quick reading up on it, sounds like the motherboard is what I need. thanks.
 
For all you Q9550 owners out there, what's the fastest OC you've gotten, and how did you get there? Multipliers and cooling solution please.

As I start thinking about an upgrade late this year or early next, I might as well max my CPU out and let it burn itself in a fireball of glory.

Also, what's the deal with RAM these days? I know DDR3 is the standard now but can Windows 7 recognize more physical RAM than 4 gigs? I've got 8 gigs of DDR2 right now on Vista 64 (have Windows 7 ready to go here and will pull the trigger soon) but I'm only really using 4 gigs with 64-bit applications right?
 
I've built dozens of PCs over the years for myself, friends, family even work. I really like the Antec P18x cases, especially for the price, but they do have some downsides, especially when compared to the competition. Some of it is personal preference, but I'll just list it out:

- Looks: not my favorite. The gun metal case sides looks OK in person, but the non-metal surfaces are just cheap looking, IMHO. Overall you don't get the same quality feel on the outside as some of the nicer cases. I love simple elegant case aesthetics (like the best Lian Li designs, some Silverstone cases, the original XPS 700 case, etc.), so I'm not one for useless lights and windows, and in that aspect this case delivers, but it is dowdy looking.

- Door: just waiting to break. 2 out of 2 of the Antec P18x cases I built have have had the door hinge break (PCs built for others). I am very careful with my own stuff, I doubt I would have broken it, but I got negative feedback from family members for choosing this case.

- Cooling / Fans: These fans are pretty poor, IMHO. If you need good cooling and turn it up, they are quite loud, compared to quieter fans you could choose that move equivalent amounts of air. If you keep them quiet, heat builds up if you have a lot of hot components like quad core CPUs and high end video cards. I recommend supplementing and / or replacing the fans.

Lack of removable mobo trays is more of a personal thing again, and not something I particularly expect in a case this size and price. Still I will never again buy a PC for myself without this feature because it is really great for people who swap components often as I do. There are couple of other niggling things too like the inability to fit some heatsink fan combos without mods, same with long video cards requiring the removal of the hard drive cage etc.

It may sound like I'm bashing this case but that's totally not true - it is a very solid blend of features for the price (and often on sale), and all competing cases that I like more cost more. If the listed downsides are not critical to you, I'd say go for it.
 
chespace said:
For all you Q9550 owners out there, what's the fastest OC you've gotten, and how did you get there? Multipliers and cooling solution please.

As I start thinking about an upgrade late this year or early next, I might as well max my CPU out and let it burn itself in a fireball of glory.

Also, what's the deal with RAM these days? I know DDR3 is the standard now but can Windows 7 recognize more physical RAM than 4 gigs? I've got 8 gigs of DDR2 right now on Vista 64 (have Windows 7 ready to go here and will pull the trigger soon) but I'm only really using 4 gigs with 64-bit applications right?

As long as you're running 64bit windows, you're good to go as far as memory allocation goes. A single process can use more than 4GB of ram, though I can't think of any that do at the moment.
 
So I just spend the day assembling my new rig, and everything works fine. Everything save one thing, that is: I've got black bars all around my 1920x1080 screen. I use a Radeon HD 5770 and an HDMI cable. Google tells me that I should disable the underscan/scaling option in my Catalyst Control Center. I would, but there is no such option!

All I can change is Desktop Area, Color Quality, Refresh Rate and Rotation. The AMD driver page seems to be down, but I got the newest CCC from somewhere else and it didn't help.

The "Basic" resolutions show up without underscan, but as soon as I select one of the HDTV ones, the bars are back. Does anyone know a solution?
 
mhayze said:
I've built dozens of PCs over the years for myself, friends, family even work. I really like the Antec P18x cases, especially for the price, but they do have some downsides, especially when compared to the competition. Some of it is personal preference, but I'll just list it out:

- Looks: not my favorite. The gun metal case sides looks OK in person, but the non-metal surfaces are just cheap looking, IMHO. Overall you don't get the same quality feel on the outside as some of the nicer cases. I love simple elegant case aesthetics (like the best Lian Li designs, some Silverstone cases, the original XPS 700 case, etc.), so I'm not one for useless lights and windows, and in that aspect this case delivers, but it is dowdy looking.

- Door: just waiting to break. 2 out of 2 of the Antec P18x cases I built have have had the door hinge break (PCs built for others). I am very careful with my own stuff, I doubt I would have broken it, but I got negative feedback from family members for choosing this case.

- Cooling / Fans: These fans are pretty poor, IMHO. If you need good cooling and turn it up, they are quite loud, compared to quieter fans you could choose that move equivalent amounts of air. If you keep them quiet, heat builds up if you have a lot of hot components like quad core CPUs and high end video cards. I recommend supplementing and / or replacing the fans.

Lack of removable mobo trays is more of a personal thing again, and not something I particularly expect in a case this size and price. Still I will never again buy a PC for myself without this feature because it is really great for people who swap components often as I do. There are couple of other niggling things too like the inability to fit some heatsink fan combos without mods, same with long video cards requiring the removal of the hard drive cage etc.

It may sound like I'm bashing this case but that's totally not true - it is a very solid blend of features for the price (and often on sale), and all competing cases that I like more cost more. If the listed downsides are not critical to you, I'd say go for it.

for the looks I think it looks plain and fine. I agree that it isn't the best looking case I've seen, but as you said, it goes on sale often and for the price it seems like a good option.

I also don't swap components that often, and the parts I do change don't really require the motherboard to be taken out (in the foreseeable future, a new graphics card and addition ram, since I'm only going with 4 gigs right now, are the only major changes I'll make). I did have the size concern after seeing that the upper hard drive bay could interfere with my graphics card, but I only have one hard drive in my computer, and if I got another, it would be an SSD. Considering all that, there doesn't seem to be an issue there. I mentioned earlier that I'll get a single fan for the front but I don't think I'll be replacing the two stock fans unless they're really bad for my uses.

If reading my posts doesn't give it away, I'm not that big into the building/OC aspect of a PC. Last time I got very involved in this stuff was when the Jedi Outcast demo came out. My current PC is certainly capable but my reasoning for upgrading is because I feel like over the past year I've been changing and adding parts little by little, and I might as well get a better case and motherboard that would last me a good while.
 
Schlomo said:
So I just spend the day assembling my new rig, and everything works fine. Everything save one thing, that is: I've got black bars all around my 1920x1080 screen. I use a Radeon HD 5770 and an HDMI cable. Google tells me that I should disable the underscan/scaling option in my Catalyst Control Center. I would, but there is no such option!

All I can change is Desktop Area, Color Quality, Refresh Rate and Rotation. The AMD driver page seems to be down, but I got the newest CCC from somewhere else and it didn't help.

The "Basic" resolutions show up without underscan, but as soon as I select one of the HDTV ones, the bars are back. Does anyone know a solution?

Ughhh I just ordered the same card, say its not so.
 
Schlomo said:
So I just spend the day assembling my new rig, and everything works fine. Everything save one thing, that is: I've got black bars all around my 1920x1080 screen. I use a Radeon HD 5770 and an HDMI cable. Google tells me that I should disable the underscan/scaling option in my Catalyst Control Center. I would, but there is no such option!

All I can change is Desktop Area, Color Quality, Refresh Rate and Rotation. The AMD driver page seems to be down, but I got the newest CCC from somewhere else and it didn't help.

The "Basic" resolutions show up without underscan, but as soon as I select one of the HDTV ones, the bars are back. Does anyone know a solution?

I had this same problem, I think. I was using my Panasonic Plasma. You should see a configure option that will take you to a screen that lets you change overscan.



If you don't see it when you right-click change to a non-native resolution first (720p) and then see if it's there. I think that's what worked for me. Make sure you enable the GPU scaling option as well or you get the black bars in certain games.
 
I just upgraded my notebook from a 2.93Ghz Core 2 Duo -> 2.4Ghz Core 2 Quad.

Now I'm trying to decide what games will let me see an immediate difference. I guess I'll reinstall Risen, or Dragon Age. Hmm.

It does run a bit warm though. :lol
 
TheExodu5 said:
I really think the Coolermaster HAF 932 seems like an amazing case.

3292208812_3be21bb35c.jpg


Love their tool-less design. Very easy to swap HDDs and PCI components.

The airflow in this thing must be insane, with 3x 230mm fans and 1x 140mm fan. The fans are rated at 75cfm @ 19dbA...nice.

Red LED at the front...but I find their front LEDs very unobnoxious as they're low intensite and the front grate stops the light from reaching you where you're sitting.

BTW, the open back-plate area is awesome. If you've ever installed a back-plate HSF, you know how much that would help.
Yeah that's the case I got for my latest build. Awesome, tons of room, easy brackets, pretty quiet. Watch out with SSD's tho, the 3.25" brackets intel packages won't work with the case's brackets.
 
chespace said:
For all you Q9550 owners out there, what's the fastest OC you've gotten, and how did you get there? Multipliers and cooling solution please.

As I start thinking about an upgrade late this year or early next, I might as well max my CPU out and let it burn itself in a fireball of glory.

Also, what's the deal with RAM these days? I know DDR3 is the standard now but can Windows 7 recognize more physical RAM than 4 gigs? I've got 8 gigs of DDR2 right now on Vista 64 (have Windows 7 ready to go here and will pull the trigger soon) but I'm only really using 4 gigs with 64-bit applications right?

You'd probably find a lot more details regarding top overclocks on a forum like XtremeSystems but on my Q9450 (lower multiplier than the 9550 by .5x) I can hit about 3.4Ghz stable with a Xigmatek air cooler. Because this is hot, I use an ASUS utility to lower the speed when things are idle (it does it seamlessly). This is not a high mark by any stretch, but it is stable and didn't require a lot of work. I have 4GB DDR2 Dominator RAM. This is my old PC, I am running 12GB on a i7 920 on my other PC.

Regarding 64bit and RAM usage, there are limits on 32bit Windows that make even 4GB more effective on a 64bit system than on a 32bit system. With more RAM you're never thinking, "Oh maybe I should close down all my browser windows, and quit some of these background apps" like you might with some games on a 32bit system. You can also run Virtual Machines (VMs) like the "XP Mode" option on Windows 7, which is very cool, allowing for a non-persistent browser or other non-compatible apps running seamlessly mixed in with your Win7/64bit apps, without having to explicitly run them in the VM - it can be running all the time in the background and can launch individual apps in Windows that interact seamlessly with your real Win7 apps. If you run apps like Outlook or other memory hogs in addition to browsers and games, crossing 4GB is easy - at any given time my RAM usage is close to 5-6GB and higher when I'm running multiple virtual machines for development use.

Depending on the amount of available memory, Windows starts unloading background processes to the swap file sooner, making lower memory systems feel a little bit laggier, even if you are not quite running out of RAM yet, especially if you don't have an SSD. Hope that helps.
 
What do you guys think is the minimum processor/gpu required to be able to reliably play 1080p blu-ray ripped content without any stuttering?

I'm thinking about building a cheapo HTPC. All it has to do is play the video, I'll rip it and do any processing on my main pc.
 
Hi guys I need an advice. I have an old and underpowered pc, ca. 2002-2003 IIRC. Core 2 Duo E6600, Nvidia 7600GT, 2GB of DDR2 (533), and an Asus P5B deluxe as topping. I'd like to put some life in this corpse, but I'm also running a small budget. Thus, I was thinking to upping the ram to 4GB and spending the most on a good GPU. Could somebody shed some light on what would be the best choice for my system? I would go with a 5850 but I'm not sure my poor Conroe would be the best match for the beast. Wouldn't it be CPU bound at 1680*1050? Should I go with something lesser?
 
zallaaa said:
Hi guys I need an advice. I have an old and underpowered pc, ca. 2002-2003 IIRC. Core 2 Duo E6600, Nvidia 7600GT, 2GB of DDR2 (533), and an Asus P5B deluxe as topping. I'd like to put some life in this corpse, but I'm also running a small budget. Thus, I was thinking to upping the ram to 4GB and spending the most on a good GPU. Could somebody shed some light on what would be the best choice for my system? I would go with a 5850 but I'm not sure my poor Conroe would be the best match for the beast. Wouldn't it be CPU bound at 1680*1050? Should I go with something lesser?

Are you sure it is an E6600? I would double check that, because the E6600 came out in 2006ish and is not that underpowered a CPU. It's just that the answer to your question may be entirely different if you're rocking an E6600 or something actually from 2002.
 
K.Jack said:
I just upgraded my notebook from a 2.93Ghz Core 2 Duo -> 2.4Ghz Core 2 Quad.

Now I'm trying to decide what games will let me see an immediate difference. I guess I'll reinstall Risen, or Dragon Age. Hmm.

It does run a bit warm though. :lol

GTA4, L4D2, SR2, ARMA2, BC2, Ghostbusters, Fuel.....
 
zallaaa said:
Hi guys I need an advice. I have an old and underpowered pc, ca. 2002-2003 IIRC. Core 2 Duo E6600, Nvidia 7600GT, 2GB of DDR2 (533), and an Asus P5B deluxe as topping. I'd like to put some life in this corpse, but I'm also running a small budget. Thus, I was thinking to upping the ram to 4GB and spending the most on a good GPU. Could somebody shed some light on what would be the best choice for my system? I would go with a 5850 but I'm not sure my poor Conroe would be the best match for the beast. Wouldn't it be CPU bound at 1680*1050? Should I go with something lesser?

OC CPU to 3ghz

Add 2GB RAM

Buy a 5770.

That should do the job and remain fairly balanced.
 
Got a new Dell Inspiron 15 i5 laptop. It's a beast. Blazing fast, well designed, light, compact, great battery and well priced. Love that it has a numerical keypad, flush flat buttons and very loud (albeit pretty tinny) speakers.

Unlike my my old Dell XPS Gen 2, it doesn't overheat like a mother either. Even if you lay it on a bed, the way the base curvatures slightly still allows for ventilation and the fan does a good job of keeping the rest of the heat out.

Overall, for anyone looking for a decent high performance (not necessarily for gaming mind) laptop, I highly recommend the Dell. My only real negative is that the stupid glossy finish is a huge dust and finger print magnet. I would have preferred matt.
 
Paging Brain_stew, Exodu5 or SuperEnemyCrab.

Here's the recent build I put together for my father :

Intel I3-530
MSI H55M-E33
4GB Team Elite DDR 3 1333
Codegen Miditower 420 Watt case.

When putting it together everything went fine, but pressing the powerswitch didn't give me the expected result. Instead of posting the fans start up, motherbard led lights up and the system seems to run but only for a few seconds befre restarting. During this time I get nothing on-screen and the monitor stays standby waiting for input.

Reading through the manual it says that it needs 18ampsthrough the 12V line, looking at the PSU it says the 12Vline gives 16amps. Is the mobo simply not getting enugh juice?

Edit : Forgot to add my RAM isn't in the mobo's supported list but that shouldnt be a problem, right?
 
confused said:
Paging Brain_stew, Exodu5 or SuperEnemyCrab.

Here's the recent build I put together for my father :

Intel I3-530
MSI H55M-E33
4GB Team Elite DDR 3 1333
Codegen Miditower 420 Watt case.

When putting it together everything went fine, but pressing the powerswitch didn't give me the expected result. Instead of posting the fans start up, motherbard led lights up and the system seems to run but only for a few seconds befre restarting. During this time I get nothing on-screen and the monitor stays standby waiting for input.

Reading through the manual it says that it needs 18ampsthrough the 12V line, looking at the PSU it says the 12Vline gives 16amps. Is the mobo simply not getting enugh juice?

Edit : Forgot to add my RAM isn't in the mobo's supported list but that shouldnt be a problem, right?

That PSU should be more than fine considering you don't have a discrete GPU. Check and re-check every connection.

Try booting with the minimum amount of stuff connected, no DVD drive, no system fans, only one RAM stick (and try them both), that sort of thing.
 
I've re-checked everything thrice already. Even booting it with only mobo,ram and CPU does nothing, I'm stuck in an endless loop of restarting with no output on screen.

To add I'm wanting to use the I3's onboard graphics. Acording to te mobo manual it should work.
 
Top Bottom