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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

The Lamonster said:
So what's the best video card out there these days?
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GTX 480, for the time being (excluding the 5970 / SLI)! They just came out a few weeks ago, should stay #1 for quite a while, I'm not aware of anything upcoming that will be beating it.
 
Ok, so I'm starting to finalize my system and I just wanted to run it by here in case anyone else had some suggestions. I haven't started to look for a hard drive/dvd drive etc. because I'm not that worried about those components.

Processor: i7-930 (purchased)
Video card: Sapphire 5870
Motherboard: ASRock
RAM: Corsair 4 gbs

6 GBs of RAM would be desirable, but for double the cost of 4 GBs it doesn't seem worth it when I can buy two sets of 4 GBs for around the same price. Let me know if there's something wrong with this line of thinking. :D

Edit: Thinking of going with this as the case, it seems quite huge though...which I guess I'll need for the large graphics card. I would really like a smaller case though.

Edit 2: 6 GBs of RAM is probably worth it.
 
Scythesurge said:
Ok, so I'm starting to finalize my system and I just wanted to run it by here in case anyone else had some suggestions. I haven't started to look for a hard drive/dvd drive etc. because I'm not that worried about those components.

Processor: i7-930 (purchased)
Video card: Sapphire 5870
Motherboard: ASRock
RAM: Corsair 4 gbs

6 GBs of RAM would be desirable, but for double the cost of 4 GBs it doesn't seem worth it when I can buy two sets of 4 GBs for around the same price. Let me know if there's something wrong with this line of thinking. :D
Click to expand...
If you're getting an i7-930, you should really have at least 3 sticks because it's tri-channel. It still works with dual channel but optimally works best with 3 sticks or 6
 
WalkMan said:
If you're getting an i7-930, you should really have at least 3 sticks because it's tri-channel. It still works with dual channel but optimally works best with 3 sticks or 6
Click to expand...
Ok thanks, that would help justify the 6 GBs.
 
devilchicken said:
Just an update, I ran furmark again today and the artifacting on this post is still happening.. argh.
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Surprised that no one's commented on this or your previous post by now, but that most certainly looks like your graphics card is overheating/dying. I had a Radeon 9800 that died in much the way: Artifacts/odd textures in 3D apps at first followed by the same glitches in Windows/2D apps.

Furmark will stress the GPU harder than most games, which is why you don't see it very often during actual games, especially if you're primarily a heathen console gamer. It's only gonna get worse as time goes on. If it's still under warranty, I'd look at RMA'ing it.
 
Hi guys, I decided to buy Shattered Horizon from Steam while it was on sale only to find that I don't run it as well as I'd like. I thought maybe now was the time to have a look at this ATI Overdrive thing the card came with.
I have the ATI HD5670. These are the default settings:
Initial.png


Now I don't know the first thing about overclocking a GPU, is it safe for me to just push the sliders to the top like so?:
after.png


I played the game with it set like that for a while and it ran perfectly. Stopped after one match as I didn't know whether I'd fry the card or not. :lol

Advice please. :D
 
Tisan said:
Hey I've been having crashes to desktop recently with TF2, so I reinstalled it, updated my drivers etc. but it's still been freezing every now and then.
But just in the last hour I've had the video go black for a few seconds before coming back on. My sounds/shooting input is still running away so the game hasn't frozen.

Because it happened quite a few times I'm concerned it may be my video card dying :(
does that sound like a memory error or something?

I'm running a 4850 with a 3.0 dual core, 4gb ram, Win764 and nothing has been overclocked. My room is quite cool, so it's shouldn't be a general heat issue.

It seems like my video card is dying, but I'd like a second opinion before I look into RMAing it.
Cheers
Click to expand...
What mobo are you using? Do you get BSODs?
 
Kamaki said:
Hi guys, I decided to buy Shattered Horizon from Steam while it was on sale only to find that I don't run it as well as I'd like. I thought maybe now was the time to have a look at this ATI Overdrive thing the card came with.
I have the ATI HD5670. These are the default settings:
Initial.png


Now I don't know the first thing about overclocking a GPU, is it safe for me to just push the sliders to the top like so?:
after.png


I played the game with it set like that for a while and it ran perfectly. Stopped after one match as I didn't know whether I'd fry the card or not. :lol

Advice please. :D
Click to expand...
Should be safe to use (says the official page:http://ati.amd.com/products/catalyst/overdrive.html)

I'd just recommend keeping the fan on automatic and not locking it to 67% like in the screenshot. Just have a look at the temperature occasionally whilst in-game. If there are any strange graphical issues or crashing that starts occurring then you should put it back to defaults and work your way up with clocks gradually.
 
Kamaki said:
Hi guys, I decided to buy Shattered Horizon from Steam while it was on sale only to find that I don't run it as well as I'd like.
Click to expand...
FWIW, the game has apparently suffered quite a large performance hit as of the most recent firepower add-on pack. I assume they are actively working on fixing the issue.

Check some review sites for some modest settings to try. Just be sure to reduce the clock settings if you start getting crashes/errors/etc. Even then, I wouldn't expect the game to run at a blister 60+ fps. It was always a big of a system hog I think.
 
Kamaki said:
I played the game with it set like that for a while and it ran perfectly. Stopped after one match as I didn't know whether I'd fry the card or not. :lol
Click to expand...
Yes, it's safe. They limit you to such a puny overclock that it's pretty inconceivable that it could do damage over just running at stock speed. If your card dies at those settings, it was going to die anyways.
 
OgTheClever said:
I'd just recommend keeping the fan on automatic and not locking it to 67% like in the screenshot. Just have a look at the temperature occasionally whilst in-game. If there are any strange graphical issues or crashing that starts occurring then you should put it back to defaults and work your way up with clocks gradually.
Click to expand...
Is it at a bad thing to leave it at 60%? I just tried it on auto for a while and it only sat at 26% fan and let the temp rise to 55 degrees. I know that's not hot for a card but you know.

MoFuzz said:
FWIW, the game has apparently suffered quite a large performance hit as of the most recent firepower add-on pack. I assume they are actively working on fixing the issue.

Check some review sites for some modest settings to try. Just be sure to reduce the clock settings if you start getting crashes/errors/etc. Even then, I wouldn't expect the game to run at a blister 60+ fps. It was always a big of a system hog I think.
Click to expand...
That's good to know! Thanks :D Since I've got the go ahead on this overclock it's running just fine on settings I like now anyway :P At least between 30 and 60 somewhere.

slidewinder said:
Yes, it's safe. They limit you to such a puny overclock that it's pretty inconceivable that it could do damage over just running at stock speed. If your card dies at those settings, it was going to die anyways.
Click to expand...
Yeah I thought it was going to be something like that.

Thanks for the advice guys :D
 
I have an older EVGA Superclocked GTX 260, and since a shop near me has a new shipment of 260s I'm considering grabbing a second one for SLI purposes. First off, will I need a second Superclocked EVGA card, or will a stock one work just as well? Also, are there any other important SLI tips that I really need to know before making the purchase? Thanks in advance!
 
Gravijah said:
I was looking for a video card to throw in my shitty system that's cheap and can handle WoW/other games at modest settings and resolution. Not looking to blow my socks off, I just want to be able to play them at a decent framerate with a few bells and whistles.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102829

How is that card?
Click to expand...


If you can spare a few more bucks I would go with this instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150485
 
You can probably push the clocks harder if you want by unlocking them with a Graphics Card BIOS hack, ATI locks them quite low, my 5850 runs at 900/1200 with stock cooling and voltages so there's definitely some extra juice there.
 
esc said:
What mobo are you using? Do you get BSODs?
Click to expand...
It's a shuttle case, so it's their custom mobo. No BSODs just a black screen for about a second and then back to the game. It's weird, but it happened quite a few times last night :/
 
Kamaki said:
Is it at a bad thing to leave it at 60%? I just tried it on auto for a while and it only sat at 26% fan and let the temp rise to 55 degrees. I know that's not hot for a card but you know.
Click to expand...

GPUs generally can run at 90C+ fine.
 
Tisan said:
It's a shuttle case, so it's their custom mobo. No BSODs just a black screen for about a second and then back to the game. It's weird, but it happened quite a few times last night :/
Click to expand...
Could be a GPU problem. Did you run memtest86+ to rule out a memory problem?

Also, if your mobo has a second PCIe slot, plug your GPU into that and see if that resolves the issue.
 
Newegg has the 60GB OCZ Vertex for $129 after rebate. It's not the fastest SSD on the market, but it's still a pretty damn good drive, and this is the cheapest I've ever seen it.

Scythesurge said:
Ok thanks, that would help justify the 6 GBs.
Click to expand...
From what I've heard, triple-channel only gives you about 1-3% performance boost in real-world apps and makes pretty much no difference in games. It's probably not worth it unless you need the extra 2GB.
 
rohlfinator said:
From what I've heard, triple-channel only gives you about 1-3% performance boost in real-world apps and makes pretty much no difference in games. It's probably not worth it unless you need the extra 2GB.
Click to expand...

Quite right. 6GB is very much a generational 'up sell'. 4GB will do just fine.

However if you want that extra 5% then 6GB will get you it.

Here is a nice short article that shows it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/corsair-triple-channel-ddr3,6614.html
 
so what's the consensus about the GTX 480 and 470? are problems with the temperature blown out of proportion?
and number two, what would perform better right now? GTX 260 overclocked in SLI mode or a GTX 470 or 480?
 
AkIRA_22 said:
Quite right. 6GB is very much a generational 'up sell'. 4GB will do just fine.

However if you want that extra 5% then 6GB will get you it.

Here is a nice short article that shows it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/corsair-triple-channel-ddr3,6614.html
Click to expand...

That article is not really a good one, it is done by Corsair and incredibly biased testing conditions from what I read. There's other articles that show basically no difference between 3 & 6GB in most games..

evil solrac v3.0 said:
so what's the consensus about the GTX 480 and 470? are problems with the temperature blown out of proportion?
and number two, what would perform better right now? GTX 260 overclocked in SLI mode or a GTX 470 or 480?
Click to expand...

A GTX 260 in SLI should be faster than a GTX 480, temperatures are what they are. The card will hit the upper 80s all the time (at load), unless you use custom cooling. That's not really a problem, unless it is for you.
 
Minsc said:
That article is not really a good one, it is done by Corsair and incredibly biased testing conditions from what I read. There's other articles that show basically no difference between 3 & 6GB in most games...
Click to expand...

Well I didn't even see that, thanks for the heads up. I don't think they did a very good job selling the extra 2GB.

The biggest waste of money these days is RAM at speeds beyond 1600MHz.
 
Minsc said:
A GTX 260 in SLI should be faster than a GTX 480, temperatures are what they are. The card will hit the upper 80s all the time (at load), unless you use custom cooling. That's not really a problem, unless it is for you.
Click to expand...

What about microstutter, this is the main reason I didnt buy a 2nd GTX 260 and instead went with a single GTX 480. Plus it supports DX11

Ive seen my GTX480 hit 88C when playing Crysis and usually around 80-83C with other games. Not a big deal to me especially considering my GTX 260 ran around 81C under load.
 
I got an extension cable (cheers ·feist·) and rerouted the EPS cable around the back. I can't get the 24 pin to do the same as the HDD caddy gets in the way.

Regardless, I think the whole thing looks much better.

before;

DSC00299.jpg


After;

DSC00324.jpg
 
AkIRA_22 said:
I got an extension cable (cheers ·feist·) and rerouted the EPS cable around the back. I can't get the 24 pin to do the same as the HDD caddy gets in the way.

Regardless, I think the whole thing looks much better.

before;

DSC00299.jpg


After;

DSC00324.jpg
Click to expand...


Excellent job Akira, you got good airflow going there.

A GTX 260 in SLI should be faster than a GTX 480, temperatures are what they are. The card will hit the upper 80s all the time (at load), unless you use custom cooling. That's not really a problem, unless it is for you.
Click to expand...

even under load and lots of playtime, i've never reached temperatures that high, but i do have an antec 1200 with all the fans going and decently ventilated room.

What about microstutter, this is the main reason I didnt buy a 2nd GTX 260 and instead went with a single GTX 480. Plus it supports DX11

Ive seen my GTX480 hit 88C when playing Crysis and usually around 80-83C with other games. Not a big deal to me especially considering my GTX 260 ran around 81C under load
Click to expand...


microstutter is a good point too(and DX11) and i notice the most in crysis. but what i wanted to ask was, will i actually see enough of an increase, say maybe 5-10% improvements in FPS and other things, on games over what i have right now?
 
MoFuzz said:
Surprised that no one's commented on this or your previous post by now, but that most certainly looks like your graphics card is overheating/dying. I had a Radeon 9800 that died in much the way: Artifacts/odd textures in 3D apps at first followed by the same glitches in Windows/2D apps.

Furmark will stress the GPU harder than most games, which is why you don't see it very often during actual games, especially if you're primarily a heathen console gamer. It's only gonna get worse as time goes on. If it's still under warranty, I'd look at RMA'ing it.
Click to expand...
Yeah ill try the rma route if possible but I think I'm gonna upgrade regardless and just sell the 4870 if/when it gets fixed.
I was looking at a 5770 as a replacement/upgrade for it. Its under $200 and it seems to be a solid performer. Anyone has an Msi 5770 here? I want it to not be crazy loud.
 
JRW said:
What about microstutter, this is the main reason I didnt buy a 2nd GTX 260 and instead went with a single GTX 480. Plus it supports DX11

Ive seen my GTX480 hit 88C when playing Crysis and usually around 80-83C with other games. Not a big deal to me especially considering my GTX 260 ran around 81C under load.
Click to expand...

Yup, there is more than just merely being faster, the microstutter from daisy chaining two cards can be a deal breaker for people, myself included. Much like a 5770 x2 is faster than a 5870 for less money, a 260 x2 is slightly faster than a 480 for less money. A single card system won't have the issues the SLI/XFire cards will though - from profile issues, does physx even work in SLI, to compatibility to micro-stutter and more.

evil solrac v3.0 said:
microstutter is a good point too(and DX11) and i notice the most in crysis. but what i wanted to ask was, will i actually see enough of an increase, say maybe 5-10% improvements in FPS and other things, on games over what i have right now?
Click to expand...

I forget who, I think godhansein (I'm butchering the name, haven't seen him post in a while) said they went from SLI to a single card, and got lower framerates with the single card which felt smoother/higher than the higher framerates from the SLI configuration.

even under load and lots of playtime, i've never reached temperatures that high, but i do have an antec 1200 with all the fans going and decently ventilated room.
Click to expand...

Run Crysis in a window for 10 minutes with the fan set to auto in the drivers, and see what temps you get. Obviously if you manually configure the fan, you can hit lower temps, hell my 5870 flatlines to 75C in Crysis after 10 minutes at just 30% fanspeed. If I raise the fan to like 80 or 90%, besides going deaf, I'd probably be able to play with the temps in the 50s or maybe less.
 
New keyboard

DSC00327.jpg


DSC00328.jpg


Much better than the old one, which had no letters on it (my touch typing went through the roof though).

Does anyone know any good drivers for it though? I want to activate the media and eject buttons. Google has given me love, they are all for boot camp. I just want good old vanilla Windows 7 drivers for the hotkeys.
 
Minsc said:
Yup, there is more than just merely being faster, the microstutter from daisy chaining two cards can be a deal breaker for people, myself included. Much like a 5770 x2 is faster than a 5870 for less money, a 260 x2 is slightly faster than a 480 for less money. A single card system won't have the issues the SLI/XFire cards will though - from profile issues, does physx even work in SLI, to compatibility to micro-stutter and more.



I forget who, I think godhansein (I'm butchering the name, haven't seen him post in a while) said they went from SLI to a single card, and got lower framerates with the single card which felt smoother/higher than the higher framerates from the SLI configuration.



Run Crysis in a window for 10 minutes with the fan set to auto in the drivers, and see what temps you get. Obviously if you manually configure the fan, you can hit lower temps, hell my 5870 flatlines to 75C in Crysis after 10 minutes at just 30% fanspeed. If I raise the fan to like 80 or 90%, besides going deaf, I'd probably be able to play with the temps in the 50s or maybe less.
Click to expand...


:D yeah, i did forget to mention i put the fans to 60%
so i guess i don't need to upgrade yet if i push the cards a little harder,but no DX11 :(
 
So... uhh... I couldnt resist and just went out and bought a 5770 from fry's. Ran furmark on it and so far no artifacting is present, and on top of that it seems I'll be able to get my 4870 rma'd. Now the problem is I'm afraid upgradeitis has hit once again after buying a 1tb hd and a 60gb ssd this week. [OH GOD HELP ME]. The ssd should make win7 stupid fast on bootup though, heh.
 
devilchicken said:
So... uhh... I couldnt resist and just went out and bought a 5770 from fry's. Ran furmark on it and so far no artifacting is present, and on top of that it seems I'll be able to get my 4870 rma'd. Now the problem is I'm afraid upgradeitis has hit once again after buying a 1tb hd and a 60gb ssd this week. [OH GOD HELP ME]. The ssd should make win7 stupid fast on bootup though, heh.
Click to expand...

Why did you go from a 4870 to a 5770 that's hardly an upgrade at all.
 
Mr_Brit said:
Why did you go from a 4870 to a 5770 that's hardly an upgrade at all.
Click to expand...
Mostly because that was within my budget and my 4870 was/is busted. Like i said earlier I dont really game much on my pc so this is more than adequate for the time being (also DX 11 and blahblah), if anything I'd get a 2nd card in the future and have them both on a crossfire configuration, but that wont happen anytime soon that I can see. As much as a better card was tempting me, i wasn't about to spend $250-$300 on a new card. Id rather get a new cpu first, my x3 720 is starting to look not that great.
 
I am getting ready to pull the trigger within a week or so and I was wondering if I could get my potential build critiqued. My budget is hard capped at $1100, including shipping and Win7.

This is the proposed build. It is basically TechReport's Utility player with a smaller hard drive and a 5850. I was going to get a Phenom II X6, but the reviews make it seem like it is inferior to the Core i5 for gaming and I missed out on TigerDirect's $150 sale of it. :(
 
devilchicken said:
Mostly because that was within my budget and my 4870 was/is busted. Like i said earlier I dont really game much on my pc so this is more than adequate for the time being (also DX 11 and blahblah), if anything I'd get a 2nd card in the future and have them both on a crossfire configuration, but that wont happen anytime soon that I can see. As much as a better card was tempting me, i wasn't about to spend $250-$300 on a new card. Id rather get a new cpu first, my x3 720 is starting to look not that great.
Click to expand...
Ehhh, not to rain on the parade, but the 5770's kind of a waste of money if the 4870 is still under warranty.

Are you sure you won't consider returning the Fry's purchase and just go with the replaced 4870? Performance-wise you really aren't going to see a huge difference and it just seems like you're spending $150 when you don't need to. My point is, it's not really an upgrade if you're spending money for very little performance gain. Especially if you feel you are in the market for a CPU upgrade.
 
Archie said:
I am getting ready to pull the trigger within a week or so and I was wondering if I could get my potential build critiqued. My budget is hard capped at $1100, including shipping and Win7.

This is the proposed build. It is basically TechReport's Utility player with a smaller hard drive and a 5850. I was going to get a Phenom II X6, but the reviews make it seem like it is inferior to the Core i5 for gaming and I missed out on TigerDirect's $150 sale of it. :(
Click to expand...

Pretty good mate. Actually, very good. Only thing is maybe 1600MHz RAM so you can Overclock if you want. Of course if you don't plan on OCing then the 1333 is perfect. You'd be paying for something you won't use. 5850 is a good choice and the i5-750 is a trooper.

The x6 is only good in highly threaded applications such as encoding and such. A quad core is in fact a little overkill for most things as even games don't really use the four cores. Unless you play games in window mode whilst browsing the web and transcoding video.

On another note, I have noticed in the US you get a lot of mail in rebates and discounts. I wish we got that in Australia, we get squat, except 20% tax. Crap.
 
I'm in the market for a large mouse pad and not a standard size one. What recommendations do you guys have (I'm in the US)? I have a Logitech G5 Laser Wired Mouse if that matters.
 
MoFuzz said:
Ehhh, not to rain on the parade, but the 5770's kind of a waste of money if the 4870 is still under warranty.

Are you sure you won't consider returning the Fry's purchase and just go with the replaced 4870? Performance-wise you really aren't going to see a huge difference and it just seems like you're spending $150 when you don't need to. My point is, it's not really an upgrade if you're spending money for very little performance gain. Especially if you feel you are in the market for a CPU upgrade.
Click to expand...
I've thought about it actually, getting the 5770 was more of an impulse buy than anything , to tell you the truth. Another thing I thought about was just selling the 4870 when it comes back and keep the 5770. What would you consider a good upgrade from the 4870 that its not crazy expensive? Something around the $250 range.
 
Bii said:
I'm in the market for a large mouse pad and not a standard size one. What recommendations do you guys have (I'm in the US)? I have a Logitech G5 Laser Wired Mouse if that matters.
Click to expand...

I like Steelpad QcK series, you can get the Qck Heavy (18"x16") if you want something huuuge. Or QPAD CT if you can get those in the US.
 
devilchicken said:
Mostly because that was within my budget and my 4870 was/is busted. Like i said earlier I dont really game much on my pc so this is more than adequate for the time being (also DX 11 and blahblah), if anything I'd get a 2nd card in the future and have them both on a crossfire configuration, but that wont happen anytime soon that I can see. As much as a better card was tempting me, i wasn't about to spend $250-$300 on a new card. Id rather get a new cpu first, my x3 720 is starting to look not that great.
Click to expand...
have you unlocked your 720?
 
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