Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I find most blizzard games, cinematics aside, tend to be graphically unimpressive and far behind the curve when they are finally released. Company of Heroes came out in 2006 and it looks miles better than SC2, and according to your anecdote, runs better too.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition
- Thread starter Spy
- Start date
Hey guys, I need some quick tech support.
I have a 5770 and am getting flashing artifacts in several games, but only BF:BC2 is unplayable. Which sucks, because I just bought it. I've tried various drivers, blowing out the old ones with driver sweeper, but the problem persists. Stock clocks. Time to RMA, or should I try something else?
I have a 5770 and am getting flashing artifacts in several games, but only BF:BC2 is unplayable. Which sucks, because I just bought it. I've tried various drivers, blowing out the old ones with driver sweeper, but the problem persists. Stock clocks. Time to RMA, or should I try something else?
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...CPU-benchmarks-x-Core-i5/i7-leading/Practice/slamskank said:
Aint no internet cafe crapboxes running it if that performance is representative of the release version. Which it likely is since, as has been pointed out, the beta is mostly for balancing.
Hey gang,
I'm looking for some feedback on this build I pieced together from info in this thread.
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - $200
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - $135 + $8 shipping
XFX HD-585A-ZNDC Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) XXX Edition 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire - $325
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory - $105
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - $90
Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply $115 + 15 shipping
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - $28 + $3 shipping
LITE-ON Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive - $20
Total: ~$1050
As far as this goes:
I'm looking for suggestions on monitors.
Here's what I'm considering:
ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1)
Thanks for your help, and continued work in this thread!
PS- the $1,000 suggested rig in the OP has outdated deals in it.
I'm looking for some feedback on this build I pieced together from info in this thread.
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - $200
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - $135 + $8 shipping
XFX HD-585A-ZNDC Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) XXX Edition 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire - $325
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory - $105
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - $90
Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply $115 + 15 shipping
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - $28 + $3 shipping
LITE-ON Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive - $20
Total: ~$1050
As far as this goes:
I'm looking for suggestions on monitors.
Here's what I'm considering:
ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1)
Thanks for your help, and continued work in this thread!
PS- the $1,000 suggested rig in the OP has outdated deals in it.
brain_stew
Member
slamskank said:
It doesn't matter how appealing the visuals are to you, the issue at hand is performance, and as has been shown, Blizzard's games aren't anywhere near as forgiving on hardware as you alluded to. They're honestly some of the most demanding games around, and, although they scale well (downwards), something like Starcraft 2 looks like complete shit at lower settings, they're not really an option for someone who actually plans on enjoying the game.
brain_stew
Member
chuckddd said:
Sounds like it to me.
Amazon has a decent deal on 4GB DDR3 RAM for $85 shipped.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=cs_top_nav_gb27
It has good reviews on both Amazon and Newegg.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=cs_top_nav_gb27
It has good reviews on both Amazon and Newegg.
brain_stew said:
My current board is the Gigabyte MA770-UD3 (rev 1.0)
Here is a list of the supported processors:
http://www.giga-byte.ca/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2978#anchor_os
Again, I am looking to spend somewhere in the neighbourhood of $150CDN
Well, it's the only one they have that's the exact same size (My case is kinda shit space-wise and I don't want to risk a new unit not fitting) and the only step up from 550w.Romance Pie said:
It's a Corsair VX 550W PSU.
I really can't think of anything else that could be failing as I have tested my other hardware.
TouchMyBox
Member
Just ordered the parts to build a supreme budget PC for my buddy.
Athlon II x3 435
MSI 770-c45
powercolor 5750 512mb
corsair ddr3-1333 cl9 2x2gb
coolermaster USP 100 case/psu combo
western digital caviar blue 500GB
came to $570 CDN with tax and shipping on NCIX.com using shopbot for three pricematches.
That's what I would call incredible. He's upgrading from a 2.0GHz P4 with 128MB ram and a radeon 9200
If anyone was curious as to what finally gave him the desire to come into the foray of PC gaming once again, it was Mount and Blade, oddly enough.
Athlon II x3 435
MSI 770-c45
powercolor 5750 512mb
corsair ddr3-1333 cl9 2x2gb
coolermaster USP 100 case/psu combo
western digital caviar blue 500GB
came to $570 CDN with tax and shipping on NCIX.com using shopbot for three pricematches.
That's what I would call incredible. He's upgrading from a 2.0GHz P4 with 128MB ram and a radeon 9200
If anyone was curious as to what finally gave him the desire to come into the foray of PC gaming once again, it was Mount and Blade, oddly enough.
gregor7777
Banned
brain_stew said:
I remember Diablo 2 kicking the shit out of my computers back in the day. It barely ran. :lol
TouchMyBox
Member
gregor7777 said:
Diablo 2 kicks the shit out of my macbook. What a shitty computer.
I finally got my new system built, but I've got a question.
I grabbed a a core i7 920 for my new system, since I plan to do some video conversion (Converting old home movies to DVD for archival). Did a modest overclock to 3.4ghz according to BIOS, 3.57 according to CPU-Z.
Now, is it normal to have a core temperature spread of 6-8 degrees? I'm coming from a P4 3ghz, so this is my first multi-core CPU.
Right now my temperatures at idle are: 36, 37, 37, 32
Under full load with Prime95: 73, 72, 72, 66
I just wanted to make sure I didn't mess up the thermal paste when I was installing the heatsink.
I grabbed a a core i7 920 for my new system, since I plan to do some video conversion (Converting old home movies to DVD for archival). Did a modest overclock to 3.4ghz according to BIOS, 3.57 according to CPU-Z.
Now, is it normal to have a core temperature spread of 6-8 degrees? I'm coming from a P4 3ghz, so this is my first multi-core CPU.
Right now my temperatures at idle are: 36, 37, 37, 32
Under full load with Prime95: 73, 72, 72, 66
I just wanted to make sure I didn't mess up the thermal paste when I was installing the heatsink.
ZombieSupaStar
Member
Budget: ($500)
Main Use(s): (Gaming)
Monitor Resolution: (1920x1080)
I already have:
Vid card: 280 gtx, PSU: 700w (antec? at work right now cant remember),sata drives, case, opitcal drive, wireless card, sound card (lol).
basically I need around 500 for mobo/ram/cpu
im coming from a c2d e6850 (3ghz, 775 socket) and 4 gigs ddr2 1066 ram
I would like a quad core 3ghz, the mobo, and the ram
i was looking at this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115130 since my mobo supports it, but if Im wondering if I should just spend 200 extra and redo the mobo and ram and get a new cpu line? I wouldnt be building this till this fall/xmas anyway
Main Use(s): (Gaming)
Monitor Resolution: (1920x1080)
I already have:
Vid card: 280 gtx, PSU: 700w (antec? at work right now cant remember),sata drives, case, opitcal drive, wireless card, sound card (lol).
basically I need around 500 for mobo/ram/cpu
im coming from a c2d e6850 (3ghz, 775 socket) and 4 gigs ddr2 1066 ram
I would like a quad core 3ghz, the mobo, and the ram
i was looking at this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115130 since my mobo supports it, but if Im wondering if I should just spend 200 extra and redo the mobo and ram and get a new cpu line? I wouldnt be building this till this fall/xmas anyway
TouchMyBox
Member
ZombieSupaStar said:
$19 over budget, but whatever.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131404&cm_re=lga_1156-_-13-131-404-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214&cm_re=core_i7_860-_-19-115-214-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277&cm_re=ddr3_1600_4gb-_-20-231-277-_-Product
SundaySounds
Banned
why would you get DDR2?ZombieSupaStar said:
TouchMyBox
Member
SundaySounds said:
most LGA 775 boards are DDR2? DDR3 offered no performance advantages when conroe chips were the shit?
Neckbeard said:
Hey Neckbeard,
I am actually looking at building a PC very similar to yours. Couple of things I will point out.
- The GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 is a 6GB sata board so you should look at a 6GB HD to take advantage of it. 6GB WD 1TB HD
- Not sure the Sonata III has a good enough power supply for the XFX Radeon HD 5850 XXX. Antec makes good power supplies so you may be okay but I would double check.
Other than that it looks like a solid gaming build.
As for monitors I would check out the ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ASCR 20000:1. It's a little more expensive but increase in response time would be worth it.
ZombieSupaStar
Member
SundaySounds said:
my board only takes ddr2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131219
when i built it ddr 3 was new, and most of the reviews on newegg of ddr3 boards for 775 were bad
Manp said:it's a pretty good monitor but there's at least 2 issues with it.
ASCR which is basically backlight auto dimming can get annoying but you can disable it iirc.
audio over HDMI is somewhat broken but the integrated speakers suck anyway.
Excellent, thanks. I wasn't planning on using that sound, anyhoo. I'm a headset guy. :lol
TheKurgan said:
Thanks for the feedback!
I used the newegg power supply calculator and it suggested a 460w. And judging from what other users have suggested for similar builds, it looks OK. I've had to upgrade PSUs before though, so I may opt for a ~650w just to be on the safe side.
Honestly, I came here looking to cheapen the build, but You've talked me into spending more
TouchMyBox
Member
TheKurgan said:
The PSU is 6 amps short on the accumulated 12v rails of AMD's recommended specs. So while it is getting close to the fringe, it should be fine especially since the 5850 should only consume 170w max and that PSU is rated to deliver 204w per 12v rail.
Can't hurt to go with something nicer, but it should be fine.
gregor7777
Banned
Colkate said:
You don't *need* to.
I'd use it as an excuse to reload my OS. I want a clean slate every 6 months or so anyway.
ZombieSupaStar said:
TouchMyBox said:
For gaming save yourself the money and go with the i5 750 instead. It will give you the same performance. Even if you plan on using it for other tasks besides gaming I don't see how the slight benefit is worth the extra 80$. Looking around I find it interesting how the 860 outperforms the i7 920 at stock clocks. It makes me wonder what the overclocking potential is like between the 860 and the 920.
Another option you could consider is upgrading around the Phenom II 955. It's clearly not as fast as the i5/i7's when it comes to gaming but it does do quite well when overclocked and has two benefits. It is quite a bit cheaper, and you can build it around an AM2+ motherboard and not have to buy new memory. With the cost difference you could afford to buy a 2nd monitor, or a SSD which combined with the CPU upgrade might provide a greater experience than simply upgrading to a slightly faster CPU.
gregor7777 said:
You will want to make sure that you uninstall any games with DRM that might be affected. For example Sacred 2 DRM checks against the system components and I believe if you change more than 2 major pieces it will lock you out thinking it's a different computer.
BuddhaRockstar
Member
Been contemplating an upgrade for my system, would this make sense?
Current-
E8400 Dual Core @ 3.00GHz
ASUS 4850 512MB
Earthwatts 500W Antec PSU
Antec Sonata III Case
Asus P5Q Pro Motherboard
Would replacing the CPU/GPU with-
Q8400 Quad @ 2.66GHz
and
HIS 5850 1GB
be advantageous? There's a combo deal on Newegg, $475 for both. Have GPUs gone up a lot or am I just crazy? I paid $190 for my 4850 and that was pretty soon after they came out I think. Doesn't seem like a lot of bang for my buck but this seems the most obvious upgrade route.
Current-
E8400 Dual Core @ 3.00GHz
ASUS 4850 512MB
Earthwatts 500W Antec PSU
Antec Sonata III Case
Asus P5Q Pro Motherboard
Would replacing the CPU/GPU with-
Q8400 Quad @ 2.66GHz
and
HIS 5850 1GB
be advantageous? There's a combo deal on Newegg, $475 for both. Have GPUs gone up a lot or am I just crazy? I paid $190 for my 4850 and that was pretty soon after they came out I think. Doesn't seem like a lot of bang for my buck but this seems the most obvious upgrade route.
BuddhaRockstar said:
I have basically an identical system, same CPU, same GPU. Are there games you are running into that aren't performing well enough? I can still play any game out there that I've tried at 1080p with solid 30fps with most settings at high. With the prices of GPUs inflated so much, I just can't imagine it being worth it atm.
Then again, we might be very different types of consumers. I am more then okay being a little behind the cutting edge, you might not be, and that's completely okay. You'll certainly see an appreciable boost with the 5850, I doubt you'll get much from the processor upgrade except in a few games like GTA4 and Saints Row 2. Again, imho neither would be worth the money. If I really had the cash burning a hole in my pocket, I'd probably forgo the CPU and just go all out for the GPU, like maybe a 5970 (or a 5870). Or wait for new nvidia cards.
You could also OC the e8400 if you really wanted a CPU boost. With a hyper 212 ultra ($30 cooler), you could probably get it close to 4ghz no problem.
Thanks for the replies. I'd have no problem with reinstalling my OS, it's just that I had to do it recently due to purchasing a new HDD and would like to avoid having to do it again if possible. I guess the safest route will be to just backup my data, try running the system without reinstalling and then just format if a problem arises.
TouchMyBox
Member
teh said:
Eh, not really. Load times might be a little faster. DDR3 isn't a reason to upgrade your PC, but if you're upgrading your PC make sure to get DDR3.
Shambles said:
This is very true as well. I just recommended an i7 because his budget allows it.
gregor7777
Banned
Baker said:
Yeah, YMMV. I've done it a few times before for other people, but on my own system, no way.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if the new system didn't boot.
After a couple hours of research I've put this build together:
Case - SilverStone Grandia GD05 Black (94)
MB - Gigabyte H55M-USB3 (104)
CPU - Intel Core i3 540 (140)
GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD5770 Vapor-X 1GB (156)
RAM - GSkill 2x2GB DDR3 Eco (118)
PSU - Corsair HX-450W Modular (70)
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB 64MB (104)
DVD - Samsung SH-S223L (30)
Total - ~700
The main point of the PC is to be my HTPC capable of some light gaming (League of Legends, Torchlight, Machinarium, etc) while being low power and silent as possible.
I'll probably be putting it together over the next week or two but wanted some final advice on the build.
PS - Newegg was just used for pics and specs since I'm from Europe.
Case - SilverStone Grandia GD05 Black (94)
MB - Gigabyte H55M-USB3 (104)
CPU - Intel Core i3 540 (140)
GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD5770 Vapor-X 1GB (156)
RAM - GSkill 2x2GB DDR3 Eco (118)
PSU - Corsair HX-450W Modular (70)
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB 64MB (104)
DVD - Samsung SH-S223L (30)
Total - ~700
The main point of the PC is to be my HTPC capable of some light gaming (League of Legends, Torchlight, Machinarium, etc) while being low power and silent as possible.
I'll probably be putting it together over the next week or two but wanted some final advice on the build.
PS - Newegg was just used for pics and specs since I'm from Europe.
Romance Pie
Member
Easy_D said:
That is a good PSU and still plenty of power for your system.
Is anything OCed in your compy? I've found that my rig doesn't like running at 3.8 and would do random shut downs. The same would happened with a friends PC.
Or it could possibly be a overheating issue. Try running realtemp or speed fan and see what your thermals are if your case is cramped.
Odious Tea
Member
Budget?Smokey said:
I NEED SCISSORS
Banned
How would a Phenom X4 955 compare with one of the newer Intel i7 processors? I am looking at upgrading to a quad core if Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and a few other games convince me that their performance would be better. I have an AM3 socket motherboard so I don't really want to go Intel right now.
The 955 compares well enough with the i5, especially with its ease of overclocking, but it isn't going to hold up against an i7. If you've already got an AM3 board, though, the 955 seems like far and away the better option unless you really want to spend an extra $350-600 on an i7 and board (going off of Newegg combo prices). You'd be better served OC'ing the 955 and grabbing a new GPU and SSD for the same price if you wanted to spend that much.