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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition
- Thread starter Spy
- Start date
brain_stew
Member
dr3upmushroom said:
The cooler on the Zotac is the best stock cooler around. Makes it a 3 slot card though.
MyOtherBike
Member
XenoRaven said:
I'd probably suggest waiting until they at least release the system requirements for the game before putting a rig together, so you have a better idea of what will make it really "pop".
rocK` said:
With more info:
Hey guys,
I attempted to build a new HTPC last weekend and have had nothing but troubles. I've built about 10+ computers before, so this is puzzling me.
Basically, on boot, all fans go, the hard drive kicks up and the mobo lights up just fine. Everything looks good, but I get no video. I didn't have an internal speaker (bios speaker), so I bought one, as well as a better PSU because my old one only had 4 out of 8 ATX connector, so I bought one to cover all 8.
Same thing, no video. My monitor says the cpu is in standby and nothing happens.
So, I decided to test the speaker, I pulled a memory stick out and the speaker reported RAM failure.
Put the stick back in, and no noise, perfect boot but still no video.
What gives?
Mobo:
ASUS P7H55D-M EVO LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
case:
Antec Black Aluminum / Steel Fusion Remote Black Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
CPU:
Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I3530
RAM:
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
and a 650w Corsair PSU.
thoughts??
MyOtherBike
Member
XenoRaven said:
You're preaching to the choir. It's taking all my effort to not go out and do the same thing for the same game.
Posted in the Mafia II thread, but I think it's more appropriate here.
Catalyst 10.8 released. Some new Crossfire profiles for Mafia II and FF XIV! Not to mention a couple updates for others.
enjoy
edit: Though I finished it, I'd still like for ATI to give us an official Kane and Lynch crossfire hotfix.
Catalyst 10.8 released. Some new Crossfire profiles for Mafia II and FF XIV! Not to mention a couple updates for others.
enjoy
edit: Though I finished it, I'd still like for ATI to give us an official Kane and Lynch crossfire hotfix.
The_Inquisitor
Member
Has NVIDIA posted a new forceware driver since the 460 launched?
It's crunch time - half an hour to go before (I think) the deal expires. A friend of mine lent me the extra money but, such is banking, it has yet to go through. I COULD exceed my overdraft to buy it and, although this is probably OT, do any UK gaffers know what the charge is for exceeding an overdraft? Is it worth doing it? Should I bite the bullet and wait for another deal from Dell?
rogue74 said:
Actually, once while playing Crysis in the later levels under HEAVY load and all while playing on ULTRA settings, I experienced alot of graphical errors and such...and when I bought my Cooler Master V8 and hooked it up, it was just fine...so I believe it´s the CPU overheating.
brain_stew
Member
Moobabe said:
If you're paying with a Debit/Credit card the transaction should just be blocked and you won't be charged anything. Did your friend not do an instant bank transfer online? That should go through instantly, at least they do for me.
If they do let it go through (unlikely) the charge is usually £20/£30.
What kind of numbers are people getting in Starcraft 2?
I'm running an Asus 460GTX 1GB @ 830mhz core 3800ghz RAM, Q6600 @ 3Ghz and 4GB RAM and to me performance in SC2 seems lacklustre. With everything on Ultra @ 1080p I'm getting a constant 35fps with nothing much happening on screen. Specifically, I'm playing early SP in the mission where theres lava.
Mafia 2 runs at 60fps with everthing maxed, as does DoW 2.
I'm running an Asus 460GTX 1GB @ 830mhz core 3800ghz RAM, Q6600 @ 3Ghz and 4GB RAM and to me performance in SC2 seems lacklustre. With everything on Ultra @ 1080p I'm getting a constant 35fps with nothing much happening on screen. Specifically, I'm playing early SP in the mission where theres lava.
Mafia 2 runs at 60fps with everthing maxed, as does DoW 2.
brain_stew
Member
leng jai said:
Starcraft 2 barely uses more than one CPU thread so a stock Q6600 isn't the best fit. You're CPU bound, OCing would fix that but moving shaders down to high should give you a huge boost as well (I think its shaders). The CPU optimisation is completely terrible.
brain_stew
Member
leng jai said:
There's one graphics setting which puts a lot of strain on the CPU (only blizzard know why) I think its either shadows or shaders, just have a quick mess about.
brain_stew said:
Thanks. Based on my experience with previous Blizzard games I thought my rig would be able to eat SC2 for breakfast. Guess thats not the case this time. Its strange because the game doesn't look good enough to warrant that sort of performance. Hopefully patches can help but I'm not holding my breath.
Update: Ran ATI tool and had it scan for artifacts (which I saw with the naked eye anyway) and the computer went crazy beeping. Also downloaded Furmark and saw some strange artifacts as well. GPU temp got to about 75 under load. This coincides with the temp chart I saw in tomshardware's review. So I don't think overheating is the issue.
I also downloaded the HCI Memtest and ran it in Windows. I ran 4 instances as suggested in the manual and had each instance scan about 850 GB or RAM. No errors yet after 4 passes (400%) Has been running for more than an hour now.
Win 7 Memory Diagnostic completed on Extended with no errors as well. I will run Memtest86+ again overnight. If I don't see any errors there either, I am going to discount RAM even though I got that one error yesterday.
I also downloaded the HCI Memtest and ran it in Windows. I ran 4 instances as suggested in the manual and had each instance scan about 850 GB or RAM. No errors yet after 4 passes (400%) Has been running for more than an hour now.
Win 7 Memory Diagnostic completed on Extended with no errors as well. I will run Memtest86+ again overnight. If I don't see any errors there either, I am going to discount RAM even though I got that one error yesterday.
Rodney McKay
Member
Hello PC GAFers! I have just about got all the components for my new computer, but I have a question about Windows 7.
I'm building my computer from scratch, so there is no OS currently on it. Can I use Windows 7 Upgrade to install it, or will i need to buy the OEM version?
I only ask because I can get the Upgrade edition for essentially free, but I would have to pay $100 for the full copy of it.
I'm building my computer from scratch, so there is no OS currently on it. Can I use Windows 7 Upgrade to install it, or will i need to buy the OEM version?
I only ask because I can get the Upgrade edition for essentially free, but I would have to pay $100 for the full copy of it.
brain_stew
Member
Rodney McKay said:
Its possible, don't think you're supposed to do it though.
wow, it literally takes like 7 minutes to load a single player campaign level in Star Craft II. My drive isn't even that slow:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074
wtf??
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074
wtf??
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
You can, but you'll have to do some registry editing to activate it.Rodney McKay said:
What's the best way to DVR my DirecTV HD progams?
TV Tuner Card?
edit: oh wait, i need this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116030 Hauppauge HD PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder 1212 USB 2.0 Interface
TV Tuner Card?
edit: oh wait, i need this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116030 Hauppauge HD PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder 1212 USB 2.0 Interface
Rodney McKay
Member
Curses. Well at least I can get Office 2010 for free from my college.
I'm also looking at two graphics cards on newegg;
This guy: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873&cm_re=saphire_5770-_-14-102-873-_-Product
And this guy: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102898&cm_re=saphire_5770-_-14-102-898-_-Product
The only discernible difference i can see is that the $15 more one has PCI Express 2.1 x16 instead of the 2.0 that the cheaper on has.
Will this make any kind of noticeable difference while playing games or should I just go with the cheaper one?
I'm also looking at two graphics cards on newegg;
This guy: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873&cm_re=saphire_5770-_-14-102-873-_-Product
And this guy: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102898&cm_re=saphire_5770-_-14-102-898-_-Product
The only discernible difference i can see is that the $15 more one has PCI Express 2.1 x16 instead of the 2.0 that the cheaper on has.
Will this make any kind of noticeable difference while playing games or should I just go with the cheaper one?
brain_stew
Member
Rodney McKay said:
Different coolers/PCB designs is the difference. Can you not afford the step up to a 1GB GTX 460? Its well worth it.
Rodney McKay
Member
brain_stew said:
Unfortunately, I'm already slightly over my fairly tight budget, but the 5770 seems to be able to handle what I'm looking for out of my games. Oblivion and GTA 4 are the highest end games I currently own.
Out of those two 5770's, do you know which have the quieter/better cooler?
brain_stew
Member
Rodney McKay said:
The Vapor-X should be, but tbh all 5770s run pretty cool/quiet so I'd just save the $30.
Rodney McKay
Member
I figured as much. Thanks for your help!
If I get this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...455&cm_re=fan_splitter-_-12-200-455-_-Product
It will allow me to plug 2 fans into one fan header?
SYS_FAN2 seems to regulate the speed of the fan that is plugged into it, but SYS_FAN1 does not, and just maxes the fan out nonstop... kind-of loud. Kind-of overkill. My PC doesn't need to be 16 degrees C. :lol
If I use that, will the fan speed of both fans plugged into it be regulated?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...455&cm_re=fan_splitter-_-12-200-455-_-Product
It will allow me to plug 2 fans into one fan header?
SYS_FAN2 seems to regulate the speed of the fan that is plugged into it, but SYS_FAN1 does not, and just maxes the fan out nonstop... kind-of loud. Kind-of overkill. My PC doesn't need to be 16 degrees C. :lol
If I use that, will the fan speed of both fans plugged into it be regulated?
Hmm, I've been thinking. Not that I have a working pc or anything, it's guts are strewn around like the ashes of a dead hero...
but!
Looking at gaming-benchmarks (cpu) in general it seems its pretty unusual for the performance to differ alot when playing modern games. Talking about anything between like 5-10fps in most cases when the resolution is high and graphical settings turned up to the max.
This leads me to contemplate my next upgrade, wouldn't it be rather useless for me to go from an X3 to an X6 when the gain in fps is negligable? If we stick to the games of today rather than looking towards the future that is.
200$ for a phenom II x6 1055T , gaming-performance gain ~5-10%
200$ for a 2nd 460, gaming-performance gain ~70-95%
Am I missing something here? Or should I go with what the numbers tell me?
but!
Looking at gaming-benchmarks (cpu) in general it seems its pretty unusual for the performance to differ alot when playing modern games. Talking about anything between like 5-10fps in most cases when the resolution is high and graphical settings turned up to the max.
This leads me to contemplate my next upgrade, wouldn't it be rather useless for me to go from an X3 to an X6 when the gain in fps is negligable? If we stick to the games of today rather than looking towards the future that is.
200$ for a phenom II x6 1055T , gaming-performance gain ~5-10%
200$ for a 2nd 460, gaming-performance gain ~70-95%
Am I missing something here? Or should I go with what the numbers tell me?
Good 650W (4x6pin) or a 750W is enough.confused said:
Yes
Should be. The only issue would be if both were EXTREMELY powerful fans, then your mobo probably wouldn't handle the amps needed.WEGGLES said:
Does speedfan or other fan software work on sys_fan1?
More GPU is what you want most of the time for games. Exceptions are some recently released (GTA IV, or RTS's (that aren't StarCraft), and MMO's), but you still need a good GPU in all of those cases.Corky said:
Most GPU benchmarks are run on a 3.2Ghz+ i7 processor so that GPU performance is the most likely limiting factor since their review is of a GPU, not a computer system.
In your case I'd stick with a single GTX 460 and wait for a good upgrade down the line.
Not that I can tell.Hazaro said:
Setting it to Automatic Fan Speed still has the one fan at 1900 rpm, while the others (one being the same model of fan) sit at 900-1100rpm.
This is the fan I have two of that I want to hook up to the Y connector. Should be fine, right?
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=4410&category_id=3554
Should be fine.WEGGLES said:
If you want to get messy you can do a 5V or 7V trick (7V preferred for most)
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/137
Milpool
Member
rocK` said:
What cpu cooler are you using? I've had a certain backplate cause a short on an ASUS P55 motherboard before which caused the exact symptoms you describe. I fixed it with blue tac once I figured that was causing it.
I'm not sure if it's a flaw with the cooler I used or the foxconn socket.
Good to hear.Hazaro said:
And I don't have the spare parts lying around to do that sort of stuff.
At least not yet.
I read somewhere to clip one of the yellow wires on the Y connector, so the bios doesn't get confused by 2 readings from one header? Is that true, or is someone just trying to get people to break their stuff?
Just to confirm. This : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131343 should be able to run a 460 SLI set-up plus a dedicated card for PhysX without bottlenecking, right ?
