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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
The sound would play simultaneously just like every other time you have 2 programs open...
Click to expand...

So should I get a monitor with built in speakers or buy some more speakers and attach them to the monitor.

Thanks for responding
 
sorry brain_stew, i wasn't aware. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Basically Im looking for something that will be able to handle most games on high. I know the nature of PC gaming is steady upgrading but im hoping for something i wont need to break the bank to upgrade 2 years down the line. My price range is about 1400-1600 Canadian before taxes. I dont know very much about building a pc so thats why im asking.
 
brain_stew said:
If you want an ultra high end rig and to really spend most of that budget, this is what I'd suggest:

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=54105&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=35456&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=44398&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=50895&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=49016&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=50913&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=34719&promoid=1008

I've left off the case (since that's a personal choice) and an OS but add OEM X64 HP if you need it. Comes to $1600 after rebates and discounts but that;s with the best single GPU solution on the market today, a ridiculously fast processor with craploads of OCing headroom in the i7-930, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, an Intel SSD, 1TB HDD, a 700w modular PSU, water cooling and an excellent high end motherboard.

Now, not everyone needs all those high end niceties but its not as if you're throwing away money here, you're definitely getting something extra by paying that premium. If you'd rather something that just plays games at high/max settings @ 1080p with little bother but costs less than $1000 then I can spec something like that up for you.
Click to expand...
Appreciated, thanks, think I'll go with that setup then. I like kevin phillips a bit more now. :D
 
Im in the market for a new PC. Price range about $1500

What is the best Processor & graphics card I should get? I am hoping to be able to play Starcraft II, Diablo 3, Alice 2, Rage, The Witcher 1-2, Crysis, and The Old Republic at Max Settings and have them run smoothly. Also how much Ram would I need?
 
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
The sound would play simultaneously just like every other time you have 2 programs open... I'm going to assume this was a joke post.




Those are all pretty good choices so no matter what you chose I don't think you'll notice much difference. Nothing can take advantage of the i7 1366 socket extra 4 threads so that's why people have been recommending i5s since they were stereotypically cheaper but i7 prices have been coming down. The AMD are nice processors also and have a known upgrade path in the future so it's cheaper now and you have a known upgrade path for the future. AFAIK the intels still have not declared upgrade path so it's hard to future proof those a little more. If you already have the AMD processor I don't think you'll be disappointed or be worth the effort to exchange but someone else may have a different preference.
Click to expand...


well the reason iv not made my descision yet is because if i go for the i5 or the i7 i have to get a new motherboard so thats 150 more and because the 480 needs almost 140W more load than the 5870 Load it means i need at least a 1000W power supply if i wanna SLI the 480 but i could settle with a 850 or 800W if i go for crossfire 5870.
im the guy that loves to upgrade every now and than like once in the 2 years, so would it realy be worth it to spend 100 euro more on a i7 860 than getting a 1055 x6..?

and again i cant decide between the 5870 and 480 which is 100 euro cheaper than the 480
 
So for some reason, after making a hackintosh for somebody, I've decided to build my own. Went with a gigabyte x58 board, a core i7 930 and will be taking a radeon 5770 and corsair tx750w from another computer since i'm a cheap bastard. I decided on a cooler master case of all things since ncix had no stock of the lian-li I wanted. I shall post an update on how sweet it is if any of you should care.
 
Alright, just put together my new rig and I have to say it is freaking glorious. I'll post pics later but now I have a question:

The keyboard/mouse plugin on the P55 mobo is some sort of future-y combined dongle thingy that I've never seen. Means I can only use either my mouse of my keyboard at one time. Can anyone recomend any good cheap wireless keyboard/mouse combos? Preferably usb, if possible.
 
Being that I just built my rig and being a noob, I am a bit paronoid about ensuring what I got is really good. Some of you have commented that most of the parts of my rig are pretty good, some suggesting stuff like SSD etc. The one area that really concerns me is the mother board my friend chose for me. He has no issue buying it off of me if I need to get something else, but I wanted to ask you guys your thoughts.

I have Dual eVga 460's
AMD Phenom 2 Black Edition 965 processor
8 gigs of Ram
Win 64bit
Seagate 1TB HDD
850W Corsair PSU

What is the BEST board I can get that is AM3 socket, SLI Ready? I currently have the ASUS M4N75TD Mother Board is that good enough or my system be compromised by using this board? I know that the 2 PCI Express slots go x16 in single card and x8/x8 when running dual (if I have my numbers right).

Is the board good enough or should I upgrade knowing that i can sell the M4N75TD to my friend and he will buy it for what I paid for it.

Thanks again and sorry for being such a noob..just want the best rig I can get and I only suspect the motherboard.
 
Hawk269 said:
Being that I just built my rig and being a noob, I am a bit paronoid about ensuring what I got is really good. Some of you have commented that most of the parts of my rig are pretty good, some suggesting stuff like SSD etc. The one area that really concerns me is the mother board my friend chose for me. He has no issue buying it off of me if I need to get something else, but I wanted to ask you guys your thoughts.

I have Dual eVga 460's
AMD Phenom 2 Black Edition 965 processor
8 gigs of Ram
Win 64bit
Seagate 1TB HDD
850W Corsair PSU

What is the BEST board I can get that is AM3 socket, SLI Ready? I currently have the ASUS M4N75TD Mother Board is that good enough or my system be compromised by using this board? I know that the 2 PCI Express slots go x16 in single card and x8/x8 when running dual (if I have my numbers right).

Is the board good enough or should I upgrade knowing that i can sell the M4N75TD to my friend and he will buy it for what I paid for it.

Thanks again and sorry for being such a noob..just want the best rig I can get and I only suspect the motherboard.
Click to expand...

This AM3 board I'm looking at does dual pci-e 16x

I'm trying to find out if it's SLI compatible or whatever. Just found out this could be an issue with newer AMD boards:/
 
Smokey said:
This AM3 board I'm looking at does dual pci-e 16x

I'm trying to find out if it's SLI compatible or whatever. Just found out this could be an issue with newer AMD boards:/
Click to expand...

It does not say in the specs, but I think it might be..reason I say that is one of the pictures that shows all the stuff it comes with, I see that it comes with the SLI ribbon which allows you to connect each card together. It looks like the same one that came with my SLI motherboard. But, them including that does not mean that it "for" certain is SLI.

I think the board I have should be ok...I posted at the SLI boards on Nvidia to see if the FPS I am getting in the Mafia 2 demo are about right and they confirmed that my FPS are where most others are at that have dual 460's going.
 
So, I'm back after more wackiness from my motherboard. Turns out the 28*C temps I was getting for the CPU were incorrect. After checking the BIOS and then checking with OpenHardwareMonitor in windows I'm sitting at about 38*C Idle for the CPU reading, the cores do read 28*C though.

I'm now downloading all the drivers I can for the motherboard because whenever I try to OC the processor at all, even when I set everything stock
(HB & NB @ 2000 & ram at 333) and I only alter the processor speed by changing the multiplier, and the idle temps stay reletavely the same, I get absolutely no crossfire. Actually, the slave card doesn't even show up in system properties, not even a device code error, nothing at all. However, if I revert everything in the BIOS back to stock the card shows up and I can activate crossfire with no issues.

So, if the chipset drivers don't solve the issue should I even be concerned?
Is a 2.6Ghz Quad going to run out of juice to push two 5770's?
 
Big Baybee said:
So.......do you guys recommend two gtx 460's or one 480?
Click to expand...

You know, I am just a noob, but I have learned from reading here and other places that you are going to get a various degrees of opinions. Here are mine, though limited since I am learning as well.

Going SLI for some is a hassle. While some people find it easy to deal with the issues that are presented with SLI, others feels that it is a good way to use lesser powerfull cards/less expensive and get the benefits of using SLI to get more muscle for less money.

Single cards from what I understand would seem to be easier to use, less issues since you are dealing wiht only 1 card. The 480 from what i hear runs very hot and you would need to have a very good enviroment (case) that provides great cooling. I looked into the 480 and there are some that come with good cooling solutions.

I personally have dual 460's and I have not had much issues, though testing has been limited to Mafia 2 demo and 3dmark (which my rig scored pretty good). So, I guess it really is up to what you want, how much you want to spend etc.

Reminder, I am a noob at this stuff, so I leave it to the mroe experienced users here to correct anything I may have said (no offense to me..lol). But, this is stuff I have gathered from reading this thread for the last 2-3 weeks.
 
Dear PC GAF: I'm so pissed, I don't know what to do. Got my PC a month ago and it's driving me nuts:

1. So here I am... bought Kane&Lynch: DM in anticipation of catching up with the story since I'm getting K&L2. That game doesn't run for SHIT! Even at complete LOW settings, more than one enemy and the game fucks up (I blame the game for this one since it was known to have issues with AMD processors).

2. When I was playing MOH Beta, the explosion i.e. aerial/mortal strikes were white bloom/artifacts instead of proper explosions (I blame the beta... or do I?).

3. Starcraft 2: After a couple of games, if I minimize the game window and maximize it later, it freezes on me and I have to restart the game (I blame the game... or do I?)

4. Whenever I install something new and restart my computer, I get BSOD 3 or 4 times with different error each time. That's definitely a messed up hard drive or a bad windows installation.

5. Since I don't own alot of PC games, I decided to try Quake Live. After a couple of rounds, everything on screen is super bright. (Can I blame the web-based game? Maybe not).

6. When I send my PC to standby and if I revive it, there is no video output. I don't know whether to blame the monitor for not picking up a signal or blame my graphic card for being an asshole.

Long story short: I decided to put up and buy dozen of cheap games in Steam to see what exactly is the problem. I tried performance benchmark softwares and I downloaded SF4/RE5 benchmark softwares and they all run perfectly fine. I don't know whether my hard drive is fucked up or my graphic card is fucked up, or both are fucked up; or I am missing certain windows specific drivers/dlls or if my entire PC built is a disaster! :/

P.S. Which demo should I download from Steam to properly test my dilemma i.e. something that requires medium/high specifications and has all the explosions and effects that I need?

EDIT: AMD Quad-Core 3.2Ghz + ATI HD 5770.
 
What hardware do you have? What OS?

Edit: Did windows come pre-installed? Do you have the latest drivers?

Downloading a demo isn't gonna do any good, cuz you KNOW already that something's wrong.
 
perryfarrell said:
What hardware do you have? What OS?

Edit: Did windows come pre-installed? Do you have the latest drivers?

Downloading a demo isn't gonna do any good, cuz you KNOW already that something's wrong.
Click to expand...

Windows XP 32bit. I installed it myself and I have installed the same copy in previous PCs of mine with no failure so I know that it's not a bad copy. I need to move to Windows 7 real soon... :/

Hard Drive = 1TB. Some people don't recommend using anything higher than 500GB as primary HDD but I've yet to notice any hiccups in my previous builts other than a second or two of slow scan. I've done FDISK checks or whatever the fuck that is, I've used other performance softwares to check my hard drive and graphic card and they reveal no error in scanning/reading... :(

Nabs said:
What kind of parts are you working with?

What kind of BSODs do you get when you install new games?

edit: your quake live problem is an issue with old ati drivers. grab the new ones here. uninstall the current ones, and restart into safe mode and remove all ati drivers using driver sweeper. restart and install the new ones, and that should be ok. sadly, quake live is the least of your problems.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had outdated drivers before but I updated it. Didn't use driversweeper though so I'll do that. BSOD ranges from weird numbers to BAD_HEADER_POOL (which I think is hard drive problem) to DLL files not being found. BSOD shows up during system bootup i.e. Windows logo. After a couple of restarts, it goes away.

EDIT: Hardware:

wX58b.jpg
 
L0st Id3ntity said:
Appreciated, thanks, think I'll go with that setup then. I like kevin phillips a bit more now. :D
Click to expand...
Actually, after hours of browsing and reading through beginner's experiences, I decided I'll build the thing myself, fuck it. :lol

I'll post all the parts I'm going to buy (including your recommendations) within a week for your verification if possible, I want this to be as smooth a ride as it can be. I'll definitely make a purchase in a month max.
 
Hey guys,

Just looking for some help in picking a Network Adapter.

For future proofing I'm looking at a Wireless-N card but have no idea past that. Should I just get a USB Dongle or a actual card?

Something from this page would be nice since they are building my rig.

Thanks for any and all help :D
 
Ok, I guess that's it.

I have confirmed that under no circumstance can you overclock a processor on this board (A785GXH/128M) without loosing crossfire support, the slave card doesn't even show up.

However, I also learned that you need to reboot the PC after you enable crossfire or it won't work, even if it shows up in GPU-Z. I confirmed this with BIA:HH since it was a game I've had since the 4770 card I upgraded from. When I enabled xfire and played the game the framerate was no different but once I did a reboot the framerate doubled.

I guess that proves that not only do you need to reboot after enabling xfire support, but that a PCI-E x16 @ x4 is not a limiting factor for these cards when in xfire mode.

I also noticed that if you do any overclocking you need to OC both cards exactly the same because not only does xfire default to the lowest speed card it also can cause some strange anomolies if one is faster than the other. However, when you OC it seems to exponentially increase your overall fps in games, I guess this makes sense because if you increase 1 card by 100mhz you get the benefit of increasing the other card as well, so for every 1% increase you essentially get 2%, but not really, depending on how you look at it. It's neat because if you could OC a 5770 from 860 -> 1075, or a 25% increase you actually achieve 50% increase in xfire. That's like adding half a card to your system.

In the end though, Crossfire and/or SLI is only as good as the support for it. So, I think for the majority of people a single card is the best solution. It's going to be the easiest to support and offer you the least problems.

It just sucks I ordered all this stuff, even thought it was at nice discounts, for an upgrade just days before the GTX460 came on everyone's faces. I'd have went with a 460 and been done with it. No new PSU, Mobo, or anything.

I guess that's life when you play games on the PC though, no matter what something's going to screw you in the ass one way or another.
 
So I gone and ended up with a silly large tax rebate (£600) so looking to give my PC a swift kick up the arse. I've got my self a 5870 but I'm undecided on whether to go AMD or Intel for the CPU. I also don't have a clue what mobos are currently 'best buy' either.

I've been looking at a i5 760 / Asus P7P55D-Deluxe combo at the moment. I'd just like someone to reassure me before I blow a few hundred quid! :lol

Can anyone help? :(

Edit: I'm stuck deciding on a decent monitor too. Have about £150 left to blow on that. Any ideas (Pref 22")?
 
MidgarBlowedUp said:
Ok, I guess that's it.

I have confirmed that under no circumstance can you overclock a processor on this board (A785GXH/128M) without loosing crossfire support, the slave card doesn't even show up.

However, I also learned that you need to reboot the PC after you enable crossfire or it won't work, even if it shows up in GPU-Z. I confirmed this with BIA:HH since it was a game I've had since the 4770 card I upgraded from. When I enabled xfire and played the game the framerate was no different but once I did a reboot the framerate doubled.

I guess that proves that not only do you need to reboot after enabling xfire support, but that a PCI-E x16 @ x4 is not a limiting factor for these cards when in xfire mode.

I also noticed that if you do any overclocking you need to OC both cards exactly the same because not only does xfire default to the lowest speed card it also can cause some strange anomolies if one is faster than the other. However, when you OC it seems to exponentially increase your overall fps in games, I guess this makes sense because if you increase 1 card by 100mhz you get the benefit of increasing the other card as well, so for every 1% increase you essentially get 2%, but not really, depending on how you look at it. It's neat because if you could OC a 5770 from 860 -> 1075, or a 25% increase you actually achieve 50% increase in xfire. That's like adding half a card to your system.

In the end though, Crossfire and/or SLI is only as good as the support for it. So, I think for the majority of people a single card is the best solution. It's going to be the easiest to support and offer you the least problems.

It just sucks I ordered all this stuff, even thought it was at nice discounts, for an upgrade just days before the GTX460 came on everyone's faces. I'd have went with a 460 and been done with it. No new PSU, Mobo, or anything.

I guess that's life when you play games on the PC though, no matter what something's going to screw you in the ass one way or another.
Click to expand...

edit: Try updating your BIOS.


Had a smilar issue with my older intel based Gigabyte. Whenever I attempted to overclock with my 5970 (which is a crossfie card), I'd get no picture and my 5970 would blow its fan at max speed (power issue).

If I pulled the card out, I could get my e8400 over 4ghz with the on board video or any other single card adapter.

Turns out my revision motherboard did not supply the proper PCI-E voltage for the card whenever I OC'd. Of course, the next revision of the board worked absolutely perfect, but by then I had already moved to a phenom based setup, which other than the motherboard defaulting to the wrong memory voltage, I LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOVE!
 
Shambles said:
RickA238 said:
Yes, all Primary IDE and Secondary IDE channels are running in DMA mode.

Would the fact that I'm currently using Windows XP Service Pack 2 make a difference?
Click to expand...

As a last resort you could try throwing it into another machine and run the benchmark there. It does seem that your drive is bad and needs to be RMA
Click to expand...

Alright, I have an update on this situation. First of all, it is a Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ on an AMD 890 GX chipset board, the Asus M4A89GTD Pro. The drive does in fact revert to PIO mode after reconnecting the SATA cable, giving transfer rates of ~2MB/s. This usually happens after something hard drive intensive, such as transferring large files (>5GB).

Now I've discovered that Spinpoint F3 drives have compatibility issues with the SB850 on the AMD 890 chipset. Would this incompatibility cause the Primary IDE channel to revert to PIO mode after uninstalling the IDE channel? Does anyone here use a Spinpoint F3 hard drive on an AMD 890 chipset motherboard? Do similar issues occur?

What are the chances it would be a hard drive failure, motherboard failure, SATA port? Is a hard drive repeatedly reverting to PIO mode indicative of hard drive failure? It is definitely not a faulty SATA cable, as I've tried 4 different cables. I have updated all my motherboard drivers and chipset drivers. The motherboard seems to work perfectly otherwise. I don't have other SATA hard drives to test on this motherboard, but I have used IDE ribbon connected drives and USB drives and they have run perfectly. I also don't have another computer with SATA ports on the motherboard to test the F3 on. Any advice would help. Thanks.
 
RickA238 said:
Is a hard drive repeatedly reverting to PIO mode indicative of hard drive failure?
Click to expand...
I used to have this problem on my dvd-writers thanks to Securom (or was it starforce? I'm sure it was some shitty DRM though...) It reverted to PIO mode because it kept receiving reading error thanks to the Securom (or starforce) driver.

In your case it's most likely the drive... (S.M.A.R.T. could probaly tell you more, if you have a way of reading the data)
 
Spookie said:
So I gone and ended up with a silly large tax rebate (£600) so looking to give my PC a swift kick up the arse. I've got my self a 5870 but I'm undecided on whether to go AMD or Intel for the CPU. I also don't have a clue what mobos are currently 'best buy' either.

I've been looking at a i5 760 / Asus P7P55D-Deluxe combo at the moment. I'd just like someone to reassure me before I blow a few hundred quid! :lol

Can anyone help? :(

Edit: I'm stuck deciding on a decent monitor too. Have about £150 left to blow on that. Any ideas (Pref 22")?
Click to expand...

I've got a 23" 1080P HDMI monitor from Fujitsu I can let go for about £100 as I need the money quickly and its in good nick. Its a TN panel of course but then evething at that price range is going to be, Amazon sell it for £180, fwiw:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002K6BVZU/
 
kinggroin said:
edit: Try updating your BIOS.


Had a smilar issue with my older intel based Gigabyte. Whenever I attempted to overclock with my 5970 (which is a crossfie card), I'd get no picture and my 5970 would blow its fan at max speed (power issue).

If I pulled the card out, I could get my e8400 over 4ghz with the on board video or any other single card adapter.

Turns out my revision motherboard did not supply the proper PCI-E voltage for the card whenever I OC'd. Of course, the next revision of the board worked absolutely perfect, but by then I had already moved to a phenom based setup, which other than the motherboard defaulting to the wrong memory voltage, I LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOVE!
Click to expand...

I've got the latest BIOS and no go, but I could look around and see if there is a modded one or a beta somewhere like at rebels haven computer forums. I'll also look into the BIOS and see if there is a setting that lets me adjust the PCI-E voltages, but I'm pretty sure there isn't.

Good news is the BIOS supports 3 user modes I can save, so what I did was save one standard and named it Crossfire2.6, and saved another one overclocked and labeled it NonXfire3.25. So at least I can switch to a faster CPU, if I'm running an emulator or a game that doesn't xfire very well, without having to reconfigure the whole BIOS.
 
Guys I need an answer asap.

If OCCT shows errors while doing the OCCT GPU stresstest, how conclusive is this that the GPU is in fact broken?

I think I read just a couple of pages ago about that software can cause these errors and artifacts, does there lie any weight in this?

thanks again.

( reason I'm asking this is because I'm having huge troubles with the store the gpu is bought from. I already sent it in once and got it returned to me and they stated they couldn't find any problems with furmark/3dmark/unigine. )
 
DrForester said:
So going with ATI and going for broke with the 5870.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0037YMWXO/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Any problems with this?
Click to expand...

Any reason you have to go with ATI?


MidgarBlowedUp said:
Well, this looks nice and is $100 cheaper
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=GA-585GBOC&title=GIGABYTE-ATI-Radeon-HD5850-OC-1GB-DDR5-2DVI-HDMI-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-Video-Card

Still, if you want raw power go with the 5870 just know it's loooong
Click to expand...

That's a lower end card than the 5870... Of course it's cheaper.
 
Finally put my rig together last night and installed Windows 7. Haven't tried any games out yet but have a few questions.

I downloaded CPU-Z and took a look. I'm wondering if the memory info I am seeing is what it should be.

I am on an MSI 870-G45 motherboard and I have G-Skill DDR3 1600 sticks and this is what CPU-Z is giving me:

DRAM Frequency: 666.7
FSB : DRAM: 3.10
CL: 9
RCD: 9
RP: 9
RAS: 24
RC: 33
CR: 1TB

Does this look right? I didn't touch the BIOS memory settings, just left it at what it detected. Is the RAM running at its full potential? Should I even bother worrying about it?

Also: I got the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB drive that was recommended by brain_stew and co. Seems to work great. But I did notice that when running that Windows 7 Performance utility, the drive was scored at 5.9. It was the lowest score amongst my components and so my computer was rated at 5.9. All other subsystems scored 7.9.

Is this normal or should the drive have scored higher? Or perhaps there is a better test (never quite trusted that Microsoft benchmark).

Final question: The last driver I installed was the Nvidia reference drivers for my GTX 460. Everything is fine on the visual front. Prior to this install, when looking at device manager I and looking under "Sound", there were like 5 entries. 4 of them had a generic HD audio description and the last entry had the VIA driver that was installed from the CD that came with the motherboard. Sound seemed OK. After I installed the video card drivers, the four generic sound entries were replaced by "Nvidia HD Audio" (or something along those lines). The VIA driver was still listed. However, I no longer had sound. I tried everything and finally gave up and reinstalled the VIA drivers that came with the motherboard. After a reboot, the sound returned. Device manager still lists Nvidia HD Audio in a bunch of entries.

Why did Nvidia mess with the sound drivers? Is this because it is supposed to stream HD codecs via the HDMI? Is it normal to have the same thing listed multiple times in device manager?

Sorry for all the questions. Last computer I put together was in 2001 and I am very rusty.
 
For those interested, my results from an X2 240 to an X4 460 -

X2 240 -

GTA IV

Statistics
Average FPS: 37.62
Duration: 37.38 sec
CPU Usage: 92%
System memory usage: 69%
Video memory usage: 77%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: High
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: Very High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x4
Night Shadows: Off
View Distance: 22
Detail Distance: 11

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional

Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.29
Audio Adapter: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 Processor
Click to expand...

The Ballad of Gay Tony

Statistics
Average FPS: 21.10
Duration: 32.94 sec
CPU Usage: 96%
System memory usage: 69%
Video memory usage: 77%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: High
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: Very High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x4
Night Shadows: Off
View Distance: 22
Detail Distance: 11

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional

Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.29
Audio Adapter: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 Processor
Click to expand...

Mafia 2

http://www.abload.de/img/mafia22010-08-1608-55-s22o.jpg

Resident Evil 5

Variable - http://www.abload.de/img/re5dx92010-08-1608-09-43db.jpg
Fixed - http://www.abload.de/img/re5dx92010-08-1608-11-00eu.jpg

X4 640 -

GTA IV

Statistics
Average FPS: 46.58
Duration: 37.29 sec
CPU Usage: 64%
System memory usage: 67%
Video memory usage: 77%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: High
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: Very High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x4
Night Shadows: Off
View Distance: 22
Detail Distance: 11

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional

Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.29
Audio Adapter: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor
Click to expand...

The Ballad of Gay Tony

Statistics
Average FPS: 29.96
Duration: 32.88 sec
CPU Usage: 73%
System memory usage: 63%
Video memory usage: 77%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: High
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: Very High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x4
Night Shadows: Off
View Distance: 22
Detail Distance: 11

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional

Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.29
Audio Adapter: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor
Click to expand...

Mafia 2

http://www.abload.de/img/mafia22010-08-1614-41-z2l7.jpg

Resident Evil 5

Variable - http://www.abload.de/img/re5dx92010-08-1614-11-o0k6.jpg
Fixed - http://www.abload.de/img/re5dx92010-08-1614-12-i27y.jpg

Dont think Bad Company 2 has a benchmark, but i played alot on the X2, and gave it a whirl on the X4. The most obvious difference is just how much more stable the frame rate is now, constantly smooth, and 32 player matches are now completely playable (on the X2, i stuck with 24 player games because 32 would bog it down). Similar with GTA IV, the frame rate just stays smooth, no horrible dips. Pretty pleased with the upgrade, although ive noticed its far far more noisy than the X2, but then i use a shitty case so its my fault ;)
 
this is what I'm talking about :

2pynor8.png


What are the odds that those 10k+ errors are anything else than a faulty GPU?
 
Corky said:
this is what I'm talking about :

http://i38.tinypic.com/2pynor8.png

What are the odds that those 10k+ errors are anything else than a faulty GPU?
Click to expand...


10,000 seems really, really high. I read the same thing about software causing errors in OCCT but 10,000 errors? Id be worried.

How did you get it to generate a GPU report though? Mine only does CPU reports and I couldnt find it in the options anywhere.
 
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Any reason you have to go with ATI?
Click to expand...


Nvida doesn't support FFXI anymore. They claim they are working on it, but have been "working on it" for over 4 months so I'm returning by GTX 460 before the return policy runs out. I know the 5870 is considerably more card than the 460 and the comparable card would have been the 5850 but I figured what the heck :D
 
rogue74 said:
Finally put my rig together last night and installed Windows 7. Haven't tried any games out yet but have a few questions.

I downloaded CPU-Z and took a look. I'm wondering if the memory info I am seeing is what it should be.

I am on an MSI 870-G45 motherboard and I have G-Skill DDR3 1600 sticks and this is what CPU-Z is giving me:

DRAM Frequency: 666.7
FSB : DRAM: 3.10
CL: 9
RCD: 9
RP: 9
RAS: 24
RC: 33
CR: 1TB

Does this look right? I didn't touch the BIOS memory settings, just left it at what it detected. Is the RAM running at its full potential? Should I even bother worrying about it?
Click to expand...

Your memory is currently running at 1333(666.7 x 2) by default, which is correct. If you want it to run at 1600 MHz you'll need to overclock it in the bios but I personally wouldn't bother until you're ready to overclock the CPU as well.

Also: I got the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB drive that was recommended by brain_stew and co. Seems to work great. But I did notice that when running that Windows 7 Performance utility, the drive was scored at 5.9. It was the lowest score amongst my components and so my computer was rated at 5.9. All other subsystems scored 7.9.

Is this normal or should the drive have scored higher? Or perhaps there is a better test (never quite trusted that Microsoft benchmark).
Click to expand...

That's normal and it's the same score I get with the same drive. Don't worry about that at all.
 
RickA238 said:
Is a hard drive repeatedly reverting to PIO mode indicative of hard drive failure?
Click to expand...

I used to have this problem on my dvd-writers thanks to Securom (or was it starforce? I'm sure it was some shitty DRM though...) It reverted to PIO mode because it kept receiving reading error thanks to the Securom (or starforce) driver.

In your case it's most likely the drive... (S.M.A.R.T. could probaly tell you more, if you have a way of reading the data)
Click to expand...

So I've decided to RMA the hard drive back to Newegg. I'm hoping that a working replacement will resolve the issue, however I'm still wary of the purported compatibility issues between the Spinpoint F3 and the AMD 890 chipset. When the HD actually works properly, it's blazing fast.
 
Salaadin said:
10,000 seems really, really high. I read the same thing about software causing errors in OCCT but 10,000 errors? Id be worried.

How did you get it to generate a GPU report though? Mine only does CPU reports and I couldnt find it in the options anywhere.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not that I'm worried rather that I refuse to accept that this is not valid proof of my GPU being broken.( obviously that's why I'm asking gaf to help me out, am I wrong?)

The gpu-report is automatically generated after the occt-stress test is over. You should have a folder with 7-10 different logs that are generated after each run.
 
Thinking about building a cheapo htpc whose sole responsibilities will be...
1. Playing Blu-ray rips from external HDD
2. Streaming HD content from netflix, hulu, abc.com, etc.
3. general pc stuff like surfing the web, word processing, excel, etc.

Since Amazon has this deal on this mobo, I'm thinking of this combo...
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002NN5M0U/?tag=neogaf0e-20
BIOSTAR AM3/AM2+/AM2 DDR2 AMD 785G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard TA785GE 128M

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103687
AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX245OCGQBOX

Case+PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...10&cm_re=rosewill_case-_-11-147-010-_-Product
Rosewill R103A Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 350W 20+4 pin connector Power Supply

and 2gb of ddr2 ram, figure $50.

What do you guys think? I figure I can build it for ~$200. My biggest concern is whether or not it will be able to stream HD stuff from netflix, abc, etc. I really have NO clue how intense that is. All I know is my old old pc, a pentium 3ghz + 6600 could not handle it, but this should be much more powerful I presume.

If I go with a case + built in PSU that is 400W, do you think I could throw in an old 4850? Would it help with the internet streaming? Probably not right?

Edit: I already have an hdd, disc drive, and os (win 7)
 
DrForester said:
Nvida doesn't support FFXI anymore. They claim they are working on it, but have been "working on it" for over 4 months so I'm returning by GTX 460 before the return policy runs out. I know the 5870 is considerably more card than the 460 and the comparable card would have been the 5850 but I figured what the heck :D
Click to expand...

I hope you don't want to play FFXIV since apparently ATI cards don't play nice with that. Man what a clusterfuck. :lol
 
Ok I'm going to pull the trigger on these headphones by the end of the day unless someone gives me a reason not to or can recommend a better pair for around the same price or cheaper. I researched it quite a bit and they seem to be great.

SENNHEISER HD555

They are $130 at Newegg and they come with a $20 giftcard. Thanks in advanced for any suggestions.
 
Felix Lighter said:
Ok I'm going to pull the trigger on these headphones by the end of the day unless someone gives me a reason not to or can recommend a better pair for around the same price or cheaper. I researched it quite a bit and they seem to be great.

SENNHEISER HD555

They are $130 at Newegg and they come with a $20 giftcard. Thanks in advanced for any suggestions.
Click to expand...


I own those headphones. I use them for Xbox 360 and PS3 gaming and Blu-ray watching late at night when kids are asleep.

I have no complaints on sound quality and they are comfortable for extended sessions.

Thanks for the help on my questions, BTW.
 
Felix Lighter said:
Ok I'm going to pull the trigger on these headphones by the end of the day unless someone gives me a reason not to or can recommend a better pair for around the same price or cheaper. I researched it quite a bit and they seem to be great.

SENNHEISER HD555

They are $130 at Newegg and they come with a $20 giftcard. Thanks in advanced for any suggestions.
Click to expand...

They're fantastic.
 
rogue74 said:
Also: I got the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB drive that was recommended by brain_stew and co. Seems to work great. But I did notice that when running that Windows 7 Performance utility, the drive was scored at 5.9. It was the lowest score amongst my components and so my computer was rated at 5.9. All other subsystems scored 7.9.
Click to expand...
The only way you're going to see higher scores for the HD is by using a SSD
 
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