Support NeoGAF

[Hazaro]

I think I want to go back to playing WoW but my netbook obviously cannot cut it. I have a monitor (22" 1680x1050), mouse and keyboard. I am in the need of everything else, I do most of my gaming on the ps3, so I just need this computer to run WoW properly. anyone have any recommendations? My budget is around $500-$600.

Cooler is optional but recommended (if you do get one, get a Hyper 212+ from Amazon for $30)
If you can stretch your budget to get a GTX460 ($230) that is the best value and will last the longest out of any card in its price range. Alternatively you can look around or buy a used card in the $100 range if you really must stay within your budget. (GTS 250, 4850 around $80). (5770 around $130)

I plan on building a new computer soon. It's been a few years since my last one, and I'm planning on building one that will last me for a few years with minimal upgrades.
I'll be running it with my 1680x1050 monitor. I already have a 1 TB hard drive I bought a few months ago that I'll be using.
As for the other parts I'm planning on using an Phenon 2 X6 and a Radeon 5870.

My current plan:
ASUS M4A89TD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

XFX HD-587A-CNF9 Radeon HD 5870 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Eyefinity 6 (Comes with 850 Watt PSU, though if anyone has any recommendations for a separate 5870 and PSU at around the same price please tell me)

I haven't decided on a case yet, if anyone has a decent full tower case in the $100 to 150 range that can fit the 5870 please let me know.
As I said I want to build with the the 5870 and the Phenom II X6. Pretty much everything else is up in the air right now, if anyone has any better suggestions please let me know. I'm also thinking about getting a Blu Ray reader if I can get one cheap enough, if not I'll just use the DVD Drive from my old computer.

That 5870 is $100 more than other 5870's. I suggest you buy a $400 one instead of a $500 one and get a Corsair 650w.
To save some money get a board that has 16x and 8x or 4x on the second PCI-E lane, or just a single PCI-E if you don't plan on xFire.

Will a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ fit inside an Antec Sonata III?

Internet post says yes.

 

[WEGGLES]

My monitor and vid card have DVI on them
So I went to best buy to get a cable to hook it up (Currently using VGA)

Find an "open box" cable. 2m for $11. Awesome.
At the check out I double check "DVI is all the same, right? there's not 3 different versions to watch out for or anything right?" "Oh yeah, that'll be fine"

Get home, it's a DVI-D cable :\

Will that work with a normal DVI vid card? It looks like DVI except it has 2 sets of nine pins, not a full rectangle of them.

 

[·feist·]

Will a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ fit inside an Antec Sonata III?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=22311953&postcount=8678

FFFFFFFFFF

I'm guessing Newegg doesn't do a price match for someone that bought it a week ago? -_-;

I've only ever done purchases from Newegg so I don't know how they handle returns, adjustments and the like.
Shell Shocker items may not fall under normal sales policy, but it wouldn't hurt to give their customer service a call and try to get the difference. Just checked the link and the case is still going for $70 as of this moment.

Dear PC GAF...

I've been upgrading my system and the last step is adding 2 more 80mm fans (intake/outtake) but the issue I've run into is that my case uses these plastic pieces to hold the fans. (Can't directly attach to case for some bizarre reason)

I don't know what they're called or where to buy them, so I took some pictures.

http://i25.tinypic.com/23htv9e.jpg
http://i25.tinypic.com/op7n06.jpg

Any help is greatly appreciated

Just a fan bracket? It could be brand or case specific. What model case do you have?

 

[kinggroin]

I take it that your next PC hardware purchase will be a new keyboard.

Hahahaha


That was typed on my shitty windows mobile phone. The resistive touch screen on my omnia is horrible; the letter "A" can't be tapped on.

 

[·feist·]

Will that work with a normal DVI vid card? It looks like DVI except it has 2 sets of nine pins, not a full rectangle of them.

You mean the cable is DVI-D single link

while the other components are DVI-D dual link?

Yes.

 

[atomsk]

Just a fan bracket? It could be brand or case specific. What model case do you have?

After some more research I found it was a "snap-in fan mount" that Antec was using 2001-2003

And nobody sells them, so I might as well use zip-ties and foam :lol

 

[WEGGLES]

Here's the cable



And here's the card. Port on the monitor looks the same.



Just being extra super sure they'll work fine. Don't want to get everything all set up and have to wait a week-ish on cables. :lol

 

[Toki767]

So I'm kind of at a crossroads with my computer build. How long will an Athlon X4 635 last me compared to a Phenom X4 955?

 

[Amneisac]

Well, I have my computer completely assembled. I'm going to put my HD4850 in there until Thursday when my GTX 460 arrives... but I'm kind of scared to see if it all works. I used to be a PC technician and I've built plenty of computers before, but I always get nervous I've fucked something up. Of course the fear of the dreaded DOA part also looms quite large. I hate putting a PC together just to have to take it all apart and troubleshoot shit.

I think I'm going to take the plunge and go ahead and try it out.

I'll post pics later tonight or tomorrow if it all works.

Oh and to the earlier post, I put the 212 plus in my Sonata III about 3 hours ago and it worked fine. It was kind of annoying to put together, but nothing too awful. Again, I just worry about stuff like that.

 

[NarcissisticJay]

You mean the cable is DVI-D single link

while the other components are DVI-D dual link?

Yes.

Depends. Single link won't work @ 2560x1600

 

[NarcissisticJay]

Here's the cable



And here's the card. Port on the monitor looks the same.



Just being extra super sure they'll work fine. Don't want to get everything all set up and have to wait a week-ish on cables. :lol

They make most female the Dual link. As long as you're not playing on a 30 inch monitor you're fine.

 

[·feist·]

Like NarcissisticJay said, you're good to go since it's DVI-D male to DVI-I female.

Depends. Single link won't work @ 2560x1600

I should have been more specific.

 

[Kintaro]

Looking to upgrade my girls Dell Inspirion 530 a bit for FF XIV. She is running a Radeon HD 3850 I believe. What is a good step up from there in the $150 range? 4750? 4850? Also, what kind of power supply would I need? I doubt hers is any higher than a 300W. =/

 

[WEGGLES]

Like NarcissisticJay said, you're good to go since it's DVI-D male to DVI-I female.


I should have been more specific.

Excellent, thanks for the help

I don't have a such a high res monitor, so that's not an issue currently.

 

[Amneisac]

Just in case anyone is building a new rig with a Gigabyte mobo, I was having a VERY slow windows 7 install, couldn't figure it out. Checked around and apparently disabling the floppy drive in the BIOS fixes the problem. Sure enough it did. Just thought I's share in case anyone else is getting ready to build with Gigabyte.

 

[Suburban_Nooblet]

Alright GAF, FFXIV is upon us and i need a graphics card. I purchased a ready to buy ASUS from BestBuy back in January for basic needs not anticipating much pc gaming in my future. That all changed when I found out that FFXIV would be releasing on PC way ahead of PS3.

So I will give you a link to the exact specs and please let me know some good options for cards. The card has to have 1 DVI input and one HDMi input. The biggest obstacle I'm going to have is that I would really like to get away without changing out the power supply and for some reason this thing only has a 400watt PSU.

Link to my exact pc specs:

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/as...4/4507-3118_7-33777273.html?tag=mncolBtm;rnav

 

[Amneisac]

Also, this Hyper 212 Plus is a little noisy, I was trying to go as quiet as possible with this build. Can anyone recommend a good 120mm CPU fan to throw on this heat sink to replace the stock cooler master one?

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

Ok, this may not be the right thread but im hoping to get help.

A few months ago my computer started crapping out. It would hang repeatedly which require me to restart the computer a few times before booting Windows. I have two 4870 1gb in crossfire. When it did boot, Windows never showed or allowed my cards into crossfire. Both cards showed up but it still wouldnt let me do crossfire. At one point both showed 3 red lights on and the computer not booting. I removed one of the cards and the computer started working just fine.

Tonight I started testing the Crossfire again. I put both cards in and was surprised to see Crossfire was available and supposedly working. I started The Witcher and started seeing alot of graphical issues. I reinstalled the drivers but still no fix. I ended up noticing I didnt have the power supply hooked to the second card. I hooked it up and it ended up the way before, both cards recognized but not letting me crossfire.

Any suggestions on whats going on?

 

[Amneisac]

Ok, this may not be the right thread but im hoping to get help.

A few months ago my computer started crapping out. It would hang repeatedly which require me to restart the computer a few times before booting Windows. I have two 4870 1gb in crossfire. When it did boot, Windows never showed or allowed my cards into crossfire. Both cards showed up but it still wouldnt let me do crossfire. At one point both showed 3 red lights on and the computer not booting. I removed one of the cards and the computer started working just fine.

Tonight I started testing the Crossfire again. I put both cards in and was surprised to see Crossfire was available and supposedly working. I started The Witcher and started seeing alot of graphical issues. I reinstalled the drivers but still no fix. I ended up noticing I didnt have the power supply hooked to the second card. I hooked it up and it ended up the way before, both cards recognized but not letting me crossfire.

Any suggestions on whats going on?

Any possible way you could test with a different power supply?

 

[WEGGLES]

Just in case anyone is building a new rig with a Gigabyte mobo, I was having a VERY slow windows 7 install, couldn't figure it out. Checked around and apparently disabling the floppy drive in the BIOS fixes the problem. Sure enough it did. Just thought I's share in case anyone else is getting ready to build with Gigabyte.

Thanks for the heads up

My mobo is a Gigabyte.

What is the floppy drive labelled as in the BIOS?

 

[Amneisac]

Thanks for the heads up

My mobo is a Gigabyte.

What is the floppy drive labelled as in the BIOS?

I think it said 1.44mb Floppy when you go to the integrated deviced. I just switched it to NONE. I also took it out somewhere else also but I can't remember where.

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

Any possible way you could test with a different power supply?

Unfortunately no. I dont have a spare one.

Also, When they were in crossfire, they both got extremely hot, like burning hot, under normal load. I wasnt playing anything, just loaded windows. Having one in is hot but normal heat.

 

[Grayman]

Unfortunately no. I dont have a spare one.

Also, When they were in crossfire, they both got extremely hot, like burning hot, under normal load. I wasnt playing anything, just loaded windows. Having one in is hot but normal heat.

I am in the same pickle of not having a power supply to test with, it sucks.

 

[Amneisac]

It sounds like it's either cooler or PSU related to me, but those are two tough things to test.

Speaking of tests.. How long should I stress test with Prime 95 to get a temp reading on my cpu? It's idling around 20-25c and It's been doing Prime 95 for 10 minutes and I'm staying around here:

Pic's too big, they're 45-49c. I really wanted to overclock the CPU a little bit, how hot is too hot?

Also, Core 2 seems to be running a little hotter than the rest (the greatest difference was 10c), I thought I did a good job with the thermal grease, does that just sort of happen sometimes or did I jack something up? (They're mostly balanced out now, I think it might have just been a fluke thing).

 

[Mr Nash]

It looks like my laptop finally decided to crap out on me. When looking for a new one, one of the things I want to avoid is heat, and I heard the Asus G1 has issues with this (I've also heard that popping it open and reapplying thermal gel can fix this, but not to comfortable with doing that myself). Any recommendation for laptops in that range hardware-wise that run reasonably cool?

 

[Hazaro]

Speaking of tests.. How long should I stress test with Prime 95 to get a temp reading on my cpu? It's idling around 20-25c and It's been doing Prime 95 for 10 minutes and I'm staying around here:

Also, Core 2 seems to be running a little hotter than the rest (the greatest difference was 10c), I thought I did a good job with the thermal grease, does that just sort of happen sometimes or did I jack something up? (They're mostly balanced out now, I think it might have just been a fluke thing).

Don't worry about the core being different temps, nothing you can do about that. Usually they are off by 2-4C.
Temp wise I like keeping in the 65-70C load range.
I'd also recommend using RealTemp and Coretemp to doubly be sure those temps are correct.
Ideally for a true 'solid' overclock that you'll be using for over a year overnight is what the go by is. I personally let it run 1-2 hours. If you really don't have much time use a time of around 15 minutes. (I've seen errors pop up at 12/18 minutes before, but is is rare).

It looks like my laptop finally decided to crap out on me. When looking for a new one, one of the things I want to avoid is heat, and I heard the Asus G1 has issues with this (I've also heard that popping it open and reapplying thermal gel can fix this, but not to comfortable with doing that myself). Any recommendation for laptops in that range hardware-wise that run reasonably cool?

4) Prospective laptop buyers please fill this out (and maybe even ask their forum):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...ould-i-buy-form-must-read-before-posting.html

 

[Toki767]

I'm having trouble deciding on whether to go with an Athlon X4 635 + GTX 460 or a Phenom X4 955 + 5770. Budget won't let me go for the 955 + 460. Any thoughts?

 

[Hazaro]

I'm having trouble deciding on whether to go with an Athlon X4 635 + GTX 460 or a Phenom X4 955 + 5770. Budget won't let me go for the 955 + 460. Any thoughts?

635 + 460 for gaming for sure. Both chips overclock decently, the 955 is just a black edition so you can fool with it a bit more.
Expect around 3.3Ghz on a stock cooler, up to 3.6Ghz ish with aftermarket.
Stretch for the 1GB version of the 460.

 

[Toki767]

635 + 460 for gaming for sure. Both chips overclock decently, the 955 is just a black edition so you can fool with it a bit more.
Expect around 3.3Ghz on a stock cooler, up to 3.6Ghz ish with aftermarket.
Stretch for the 1GB version of the 460.

I'm not sure if I plan on overclocking or not though if that changes anything. Will the 635 be a bottleneck in a year or so?

 

[Hazaro]

I'm not sure if I plan on overclocking or not though if that changes anything. Will the 635 be a bottleneck in a year or so?

You really should plan on it. It's simple and is 100% the most cost effective thing you can do for upgrading your PC power.

With the 635 being only $99 and new AM3 chips coming next year the upgrade path looks nice. A 3Ghz quad should serve plenty well for a while.

 

[Toki767]

You really should plan on it. It's simple and is 100% the most cost effective thing you can do for upgrading your PC power.

With the 635 being only $99 and new AM3 chips coming next year the upgrade path looks nice. A 3Ghz quad should serve plenty well for a while.

I know it's simple, but I think it left a bad taste in my mouth when I used to do it during my Athlon XP 1900+ days and overclocking always forced me to continuously change my motherboard. I just kind of want to play it safe this time around.

 

[Hazaro]

I know it's simple, but I think it left a bad taste in my mouth when I used to do it during my Athlon XP 1900+ days and overclocking always forced me to continuously change my motherboard. I just kind of want to play it safe this time around.

Overclocking today is built into any non intel board. Safe guards of all kinds make it near impossible for you to break or damage anything (Unless you pump a stupid amount of voltage into your CPU/RAM, but it will even warn you and change color to RED now).

All you have to do is google your CPU + overclock guide, possibly with your motherboard.
At stock both are still good processors, but why not get another 20% performance for free?

 

[vazel]

I know it's simple, but I think it left a bad taste in my mouth when I used to do it during my Athlon XP 1900+ days and overclocking always forced me to continuously change my motherboard. I just kind of want to play it safe this time around.

Hey, it's ok. I've had horrible experiences with oc'ing on two systems. I would run Prime95 for 12+ hours and yet the weirdest shit would still happen. I'm done with it too. It does kind of make you feel odd man out when even reviews take into account oc'ing. It's become such an accepted practice. But never again will I relive those horrible experiences of trying to get stable overclocks.

 

[Toki767]

Overclocking today is built into any non intel board. Safe guards of all kinds make it near impossible for you to break or damage anything (Unless you pump a stupid amount of voltage into your CPU/RAM, but it will even warn you and change color to RED now).

All you have to do is google your CPU + overclock guide, possibly with your motherboard.
At stock both are still good processors, but why not get another 20% performance for free?

I'll think it over on the overclocking front. At the least, the money I'd save on the 635 instead of the 955 allows me to get the 1gb 460 which I'd hope is probably a more important component on the gaming front.

 

[Diablohead]

I dropped my 15% OC down to 10% as yesterday I just had a weird feeling about something, prine95 was fine but there was something I just can't put my finger on so I dropped it to be safe. At least going by the FFXIV benchmark test I am still getting around 2970's (3112 at 15%) which beats the stock scores of 2685 by a few hundred.

My c2d idles at 32 but heats up to 50-55 on load, gpu idles now at 45 and heats to 65ish as I leave my gpu fan at a higher rate now, I noticed once it was hitting the 72+ mark I was getting minor snow in TF2 but no other game so again I am playing safe keeping it below 65C

 

[Hazaro]

Hey, it's ok. I've had horrible experiences with oc'ing on two systems. I would run Prime95 for 12+ hours and yet the weirdest shit would still happen. I'm done with it too. It does kind of make you feel odd man out when even reviews take into account oc'ing. It's become such an accepted practice. But never again will I relive those horrible experiences of trying to get stable overclocks.

That's unfortunate. I haven't run into any stability problems on the 8 or so systems I've personally overclocked. I did have one C2D that wouldn't go past 3.0Ghz for anything which was bothersome, but no mishaps.

I've been running an E6600 (2.40Ghz -> 3.40Ghz) then did a side upgrade to an E7200 (2.53Ghz -> 3.8Ghz) for...over 2 years now rock solid. Running a solid 50% overclock is pretty nice.

 

[shigsy]

Would like some feedback on the following please

Current system:
Intel Core2 Duo E4500
Foxconn OEM (Dell) Motherboard
4Gb standard Crucial RAM
XFX Nvidia 8800GT 512Mb
Corsair HX520 PSU
Coolermaster Elite Case

I'm looking to upgrade mainly to run WoW nice and smooth at Ultra settings at 1680x1050 with 4xAA. I'm not looking to run Crysis or Fallout 3 or any other as intensive game.

I've come up with the following 2 options (http://www.ebuyer.com - UK):

Intel:

or

AMD:

I'd be keeping my case and PSU and initially sticking with the 8800GT (although looking to replace with either a 5770 or a GTX 460 in 1-2 months time).

I'm not too worried about USB3/Sata6 (unless I should be?) hence why the Intel mobo is the LX version. I dont really have an overall budget but I'm trying to keep the costs as reasonable as possible.

Any help/feedback on the differences between the 2 options, as well as any glaring mistakes with either greatly appreciated!

 

[Smash88]

It sounds like it's either cooler or PSU related to me, but those are two tough things to test.

Speaking of tests.. How long should I stress test with Prime 95 to get a temp reading on my cpu? It's idling around 20-25c and It's been doing Prime 95 for 10 minutes and I'm staying around here:

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm240/amneisac/stress.png[IMG]

Pic's too big, they're 45-49c. I really wanted to overclock the CPU a little bit, how hot is too hot?

Also, Core 2 seems to be running a little hotter than the rest (the greatest difference was 10c), I thought I did a good job with the thermal grease, does that just sort of happen sometimes or did I jack something up? (They're mostly balanced out now, I think it might have just been a fluke thing).[/QUOTE]

I suggest CoreTemp, those temps in SpeedFan can be very misleading. I honestly don't understand why people use speedfan in the first place. If you overclock your cpu, you should be running Prime95 anywhere from 12hours - 24hours to see if it is stable and doesn't lock up. Also if you are on air, there is no way your CPU could idle at 20C, I'm sure the average room temperature is around 24C, and higher in the summer.

Sometimes you may need to reseat your HS, it happens. Either bad paste job, or it didn't properly contact the first time, etc... I reseated my HS recently and got about 5C cooler, which is great. Also it takes a bit for the thermal paste to settle in.

On a side note, I just flashed my BIOS to the latest version. Hopefully now my 3.4GHZ OC on my Q6600 will be stable and doesn't freeze up if my computer is on more than 6 hours. *crosses fingers*

I'm definitely going to buy a Q9550 or Q9650 when the price drop comes in August. Can't wait!

 

[Hazaro]

Would like some feedback on the following please

I'm looking to upgrade mainly to run WoW nice and smooth at Ultra settings at 1680x1050 with 4xAA. I'm not looking to run Crysis or Fallout 3 or any other as intensive game.

I've come up with the following 2 options (http://www.ebuyer.com - UK):

Intel:

or
AMD:

I'd be keeping my case and PSU and initially sticking with the 8800GT (although looking to replace with either a 5770 or a GTX 460 in 1-2 months time).
I'm not too worried about USB3/Sata6 (unless I should be?) hence why the Intel mobo is the LX version. I dont really have an overall budget but I'm trying to keep the costs as reasonable as possible.

Both look good. For future upgradability I'd nab the AMD system. I'd also look at getting USB 3/SATA 3 as both should be important down the line (USB devices / SSD read speed) even 3-5 years later if you stay on the same system. New CPUs will come out as well on AM3 so I suggest putting down an extra 10-20 bones to get a mobo with those features.

 

[Smash88]

Both look good. For future upgradability I'd nab the AMD system. I'd also look at getting USB 3/SATA 3 as both should be important down the line (USB devices / SSD read speed) even 3-5 years later if you stay on the same system. New CPUs will come out as well on AM3 so I suggest putting down an extra 10-20 bones to get a mobo with those features.

I dunno man, I would recommend the i5. It beats it quite a bit in all the tests done.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2923/6

Also if you want to run WoW at higher quality with AA, you will need a new graphics card, adding a new CPU and RAM will change very little.

 

[shigsy]

Both look good. For future upgradability I'd nab the AMD system. I'd also look at getting USB 3/SATA 3 as both should be important down the line (USB devices / SSD read speed) even 3-5 years later if you stay on the same system. New CPUs will come out as well on AM3 so I suggest putting down an extra 10-20 bones to get a mobo with those features.

Awesome thanks. Does the Gigabyte mobo I listed on the AMD option have those features? Additionally, will sticking with the 8800GT make it a choke point in the system or will it compliment it fairly well at my resolution?

 

[Hazaro]

I dunno man, I would recommend the i5. It beats it quite a bit in all the tests done.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2923/6

Also if you want to run WoW at higher quality with AA, you will need a new graphics card, adding a new CPU and RAM will change very little.

Believe me when I say I know that the i5 is a better chip for gaming. I even argued for it many times (see a few pages back), but thinking about it slightly more unless the person has a clear need for the i5 (Emulation, CPU intensive gaming, heavy CS4 work) AM3 is the way to go. The problem with the i5 is that it is probably a dead socket. And with the 635, 955, and new 1055 (95w) out for AM3 that's a lot of comparable value for most.

It's also important to note that whether WoW is running at 90fps or 110fps is irrelevant.

That much said, I'm not that clear on how WoW runs. I do know it is very heavy CPU heavy, but not sure exactly how CPU heavy it is. I would think any recent 3Ghz CPU would be fine for it. An 8800GT should power it fine on High settings with 4xAA, not so sure about Ultra.

 

[Amneisac]

In my experience, WoW has an unreasonable leap in system requirements on Ultra.

 

[shigsy]

Believe me when I say I know that the i5 is a better chip for gaming. I even argued for it many times (see a few pages back), but thinking about it slightly more unless the person has a clear need for the i5 (Emulation, CPU intensive gaming, heavy CS4 work) AM3 is the way to go. The problem is that it is probably a dead socket. And with the 635, 955, and new 1055 (95w) out that's a lot of comparable value for most.

It's also important to note that whether WoW is running at 90fps or 110fps is irrelevant.

That much said, I'm not that clear on how WoW runs. I do know it is very heavy CPU heavy, but not sure exactly how CPU heavy it is. I would think any recent 3Ghz CPU would be fine for it. An 8800GT should power it fine on High settings with 4xAA, not so sure about Ultra.

Understood. I cap WoW at 60fps (vsync) anyway. I've heard that WoW is more CPU than GPU intensive, and I'm quite sure my E4500 is the choke point at present (up to 50% fps drop in high geometry/asset areas).

Overall then it sounds like I'm going to be pretty happy with either option, then its just a case of suck it and see on the 8800GT and upgrade to a 5770 or more likely a GTX 460 if I want a bit more grunt.

Appreciate the feedback guys.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Don't worry about the core being different temps, nothing you can do about that. Usually they are off by 2-4C.
Temp wise I like keeping in the 65-70C load range.
I'd also recommend using RealTemp and Coretemp to doubly be sure those temps are correct.

Just to back that up, Speedfan reads my Core temperatures about 10C cooler than RealTemp. I've checked with a few other pieces of monitoring software and they all point to RealTemp being correct.

Speaking of tests.. How long should I stress test with Prime 95 to get a temp reading on my cpu? It's idling around 20-25c and It's been doing Prime 95 for 10 minutes and I'm staying around here:

I've read and in my own personal experience found OCCT to be a better CPU stress test than Prime 95. All errors occurred in OCCT within 15 minutes and, from what I gathered while researching, a 2 hour test with OCCT will tell just as much as an overnight test with Prime 95. Also, OCCT includes another CPU stress test called Linpack, which appears to be even more brutal. On my machine in it's current state, while running Prime 95, my temperatures seem to stabilize right around 70C, while running OCCT my core temperatures are pushed up to 73-74C and Linpack pushes it a few degrees hotter. I don't know if that means a whole lot, but it does match well with what I've been reading.

 

[Amneisac]

What are the GAF recommendations for 120mm fans? I'm thinking about replacing the 120mm that came with the Hyper 212 plus and maybe even putting two 120mm's on it (since it can do that).

I'll be sure to check out those other stress test programs and realtemp, thanks guys!

 

[anonymousAversa]

Hey guys,

thought this was interesting:

Intel's latest microprocessor family, code-named Sandy Bridge, will start rolling off production lines faster than expected due to rave reviews by customers, the company's CEO said Tuesday.

The world's largest chip maker even plans to spend more money on new factory equipment to speed up the rollout of the chips.

"I am more excited by Sandy Bridge than I have been in any product that the company has launched in a number of years," said Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO, during the company's second quarter conference call. "Due to the very strong reception of Sandy Bridge, we have accelerated our 32-nanometer factory ramp and have raised our capex guidance to enable us to meet the anticipated demand."

The company raised its capital expenditures guidance to US$5.2 billion from $4.8 billion previously.

Intel started sending sample chips from the Sandy Bridge family to customers last quarter, giving them a chance to see what the chips can do, he said. Strong feedback prompted the company to speed up the factory ramp up.

More at the full article here:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/201041/intel_to_ramp_up_sandy_bridge_faster_than_expected.html

looks like we may get Sandy Bridge procs earlier than expected.

 

[asdad123]

So I'm thinking of building a PC but I have no idea where to start except that I already have windows 7 from the student deal :lol

Last desktop PC I owned was a dell I bought in 2004. Im mostly gonna be gaming on it on 1366x768 resolution (Gonna be hooked up to the LCD in my bedroom). I would love to have in a as small case as possible. Main use is going to be Final Fantasy 14 and would love to have it as cheap as it could be. Ill probably be buying it over the course of the next two months as I find deals on parts that you guys point out.

Any help would be great

 

[SeriousNanook]

So it's finally time to go from a 6 year old Dell Dimension 4400 to a pc built by me.

Budget: $1400 with some wiggle room
Main Use: Adobe Creative Suite, video Editing, Gaming
Monitor Resolution: 1900x1200
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Starcraft 2, Witcher, Crysis

I've thought about parts I'm interested in, but I don't know what PSU/case/mobo is best for me.

i7 930 - i have a microcenter near me so woo
Radeon 5850 (or maybe the GTX 460 now, i'm not sure)
6gb of ram? would that be something I'd need for all the video stuff?

Help would be completely awesome PC GAF!

 

[FLEABttn]

In my experience, WoW has an unreasonable leap in system requirements on Ultra.

Just because of the shadows. Ultra with the shadows turned down to the minimum plus 1 notch is easily doable with an 8800GT.