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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

confused said:
Even with a 955BE ?
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Well that's an AM3 CPU :)
That's different.

I did a quick look around and didn't find any comparisons, reviews, or tests regarding impacted performance of AM3 on AM2+ boards. Anyone have experience or a link that I can look at?
ChryZ said:
Assembled my new PC last night. First boot successful, very pleased with myself :D
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Pics!
 
Hazaro said:
I did a quick look around and didn't find any comparisons, reviews, or tests regarding impacted performance of AM3 on AM2+ boards. Anyone have experience or a link that I can look at?

Pics!
Click to expand...

What I found is that the main and only difference between the am2+ and the am3 sockets is the use of ddr2/ddr3 ( edit : and the fact that rumours are that bulldozer wont work on am2+ )

http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-7790-view-phenom-II-X3-720-Black-edition-benchmark.html

Most of the tests seem to only differ single digit percents, or even less! scores of 5550ish vs 5570ish , for example ( except that one everest memory read test ) . That is rather negligable it seems. I doubt you'd even be able to measure the difference in fps/gaming.
 
Hazaro said:
Overclock to 3.0Ghz then decide what you want to do from there if you are still not happy.
A 4850 at that res should be great.
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I cant. My PC is pre built (Fujitsu Siemens) and on the BIOS I cant overclock

PS: I'm also thinking to buy aa 22" Asus monitor
Asus 22". Combo with a 5770 is it ok?
 
OK...another update. And now I'm really frustrated.

I followed Hazaro's advice and ran memtest86+ on each individual stick of RAM. I ran each stick for about 4 passes (total of 2 hours). No errors either time. So at this point I'm thinking that I'm clear with the RAM. But it just doesn't seem to me that one error I got from memtest86+ initially was a fluke. That just doesn't sound right to me.

So before I go to bed, I put both sticks of RAM back in and run HCI memtest from Windows. I had done this before, but this time I let it run overnight. Opened four instances (since I have a quad core) and split my unused RAM between all instances (768 each). I woke up to find ERRORS. Three instances had gone through 2000%+ with no errors. But the other one got an error when it got 50%. Dejected, I took out one stick of RAM and left HCI memtest running with one DIMM to finally try to determine what the hell is going on with my RAM.

Here is the thing though. How unlucky do I have to be to get a bad DIMM(s) AND a bad GTX 460. And to have those problems appear after 10 days of use. What do you think GAF? Could something have happened with the motherboard? I already put in an RMA for the GTX 460 but I'm holding off on sending it in until I get a better idea of what is going on.

BTW, this is PC 1600 RAM from G.Skill running at 1333 on an MSI 870-G45. Everything is running at what was auto detected by motherboard. That shouldn't cause an issue should it?

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm starting to feel like Corky 2.0. :D
 
I tired OCing to 4Ghz last night after reading about what some others did on similar setups. The PC booted fine but once I loaded OCCT to test it, i got a BSOD with a "Windows experienced an unrecoverable error and needs to shut down". At this moment, I no longer felt comfortable and bumped my settings back down to my 3.3Ghz OC and everything fine.

Is this basically a sign that my voltage was too low? Should I just slowly increase it little by little and see if that helps? It was already at 1.35000V.

Im so paranoid about breaking something now that I have to mess with voltages.


rogue74 said:
OK...another update. And now I'm really frustrated.

I followed Hazaro's advice and ran memtest86+ on each individual stick of RAM. I ran each stick for about 4 passes (total of 2 hours). No errors either time. So at this point I'm thinking that I'm clear with the RAM. But it just doesn't seem to me that one error I got from memtest86+ initially was a fluke. That just doesn't sound right to me.

So before I go to bed, I put both sticks of RAM back in and run HCI memtest from Windows. I had done this before, but this time I let it run overnight. Opened four instances (since I have a quad core) and split my unused RAM between all instances (768 each). I woke up to find ERRORS. Three instances had gone through 2000%+ with no errors. But the other one got an error when it got 50%. Dejected, I took out one stick of RAM and left HCI memtest running with one DIMM to finally try to determine what the hell is going on with my RAM.

Here is the thing though. How unlucky do I have to be to get a bad DIMM(s) AND a bad GTX 460. And to have those problems appear after 10 days of use. What do you think GAF? Could something have happened with the motherboard? I already put in an RMA for the GTX 460 but I'm holding off on sending it in until I get a better idea of what is going on.

BTW, this is PC 1600 RAM from G.Skill running at 1333 on an MSI 870-G45. Everything is running at what was auto detected by motherboard. That shouldn't cause an issue should it?

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm starting to feel like Corky 2.0. :D
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I have a little bit of a story here so bear with me. Its kinda related to you though.

I got Gskill RAM when I first built and made sure to set up the BIOS correctly. No voltages set to auto, made sure my timings were correct, etc. I didnt let the mobo auto figure anything out.

About 2 weeks later, I started getting a weird issue. It was apparently an issue with my mobo that caused the mouse pointer to enlarge itself. I read up and some people suggested a BIOS update and said it worked for them. I did this and it worked great but did not even consider at the time that a BIOS update also resets your BIOS settings, ram timings and all.

A few weeks after this, Windows Aero was disabling itself, games were crashing. I couldnt replicate it at all. This thread suggested memtest86+ and I did just that. I had one bad stick of ram so i returned it for a new one. I ran with only one stick and it was fine after letting it run for hours in memtest86+.

The new stick comes in and all is peachy for about 4-5 weeks. Suddenly, Im getting the same errors again. I check my ram and see that my other original stick has gone bad. Now Im paranoid because that stick was fine before meaning that it went bad sometime since I started using it.

I start thinking its my mobo too and am getting really irritated at this point. I decide to give it 3 strikes and RMA the other stick of ram. This time, however, I jumped into my BIOS to see if anything was off in there. Thats when I saw that everything was reset back to auto. I started thinking that this was the problem so I changed all of the settings again to what they should be based on Gskills official reccomendations.

I continued to run with one stick and it was fine. I got my other stick back and now run both and its been fine. That was back in December-January so Ive been good for about 8 months now.

It couldve just been a fluke and I just got a bad set of RAM in the beginning but theres also that slight chance that the Auto settings in the BIOS fucked my ram. You might want to rma your RAM and then change the settings and see if that does anything. Though if it is your mobo, you run the risk of ruining your replacement ram.

The good news is that Gskill is incredibly helpful with their rmas. You just fill out a form and email it to them, get an rma number, and mail it out. You can ask on their forums for updates and theyll get back you with the status. It would take a little over a week for me to get a replacement from them.


As another note, I was also experiencing "grey screen of death" errors with my ATI card so its entirely possible to have a few bad components from the get go. I had to return that card as well after being drug thru the mud by ATI for a few months. That replacement has also been fine.
 
Salaadin said:
I tired OCing to 4Ghz last night after reading about what some others did on similar setups. The PC booted fine but once I loaded OCCT to test it, i got a BSOD with a "Windows experienced an unrecoverable error and needs to shut down". At this moment, I no longer felt comfortable and bumped my settings back down to my 3.3Ghz OC and everything fine.

Is this basically a sign that my voltage was too low? Should I just slowly increase it little by little and see if that helps? It was already at 1.35000V.

Im so paranoid about breaking something now that I have to mess with voltages.
Click to expand...

That could be the case. I personally wouldn't want to go too much higher than that with the voltage. Some people seem comfortable going up to 1.40v with a i5 750 (it is an i5 750 right?). I've also seen people go over 1.50v to get over 4Ghz but that just seems risky to me. There are other voltage settings other than just vcore that can effect stablity as well. Did you overclock the memory at the same time?

Also, from my experience and reading guides, it seems like it is pretty common for an i5/i7 to almost effortlessly overclock to 3.8-3.9Ghz but hit stumbling blocks when trying to go beyond that. Most people can usually over come the hurdles but it sometimes means a significant jump in voltage and temperatures. It may not be worth going to 4Ghz, if you can overclock to say 3.8GHz with substantially lower voltage.
 
Felix Lighter said:
That could be the case. I personally wouldn't want to go too much higher than that with the voltage. Some people seem comfortable going up to 1.40v with a i5 750 (it is an i5 750 right?). I've also seen people go over 1.50v to get over 4Ghz but that just seems risky to me. There are other voltage settings other than just vcore that can effect stablity as well. Did you overclock the memory at the same time?

Also, from my experience and reading guides, it seems like it is pretty common for an i5/i7 to almost effortless overclock to 3.8-3.9Ghz but hit stumbling blocks when trying to go beyond that. Most people can usually over come the hurdles but it sometimes means a significant jump in voltage and temperatures. It may not be worth going to 4Ghz, if you can overclock to say 3.8GHz with substantially lower voltage.
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Yes, i5 750.

I didnt overclock the RAM. I actually lowered the multiplier on it so it was running at 1200 instead of 1333. Id rather not get it higher than the rated 1333.

I might just let it go and just stick with the simple 3.3Ghz OC. I dont even really need to OC but am only doing it because everyone I talk to says "oooo i5 750, OC that mofo!!" so I am.
 
Salaadin said:
I start thinking its my mobo too and am getting really irritated at this point. I decide to give it 3 strikes and RMA the other stick of ram. This time, however, I jumped into my BIOS to see if anything was off in there. Thats when I saw that everything was reset back to auto. I started thinking that this was the problem so I changed all of the settings again to what they should be based on Gskills official recommendations.

I continued to run with one stick and it was fine. I got my other stick back and now run both and its been fine. That was back in December-January so Ive been good for about 8 months now.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing. It is an interesting story. But I wonder... You seem to think that leaving the BIOS on Auto messed up your RAM. But could it be that setting the BIOS settings manually would have fixed the issue without RMAing your RAM? Perhaps the auto settings were causing errors and the RAM stick itself never went bad? Just curious, because the HCI Memtest manual states that incorrect BIOS settings may result in errors that disappear once you set things up correctly.
 
rogue74 said:
Thanks for sharing. It is an interesting story. But I wonder... You seem to think that leaving the BIOS on Auto messed up your RAM. But could it be that setting the BIOS settings manually would have fixed the issue without RMAing your RAM? Perhaps the auto settings were causing errors and the RAM stick itself never went bad? Just curious, because the HCI Memtest manual states that incorrect BIOS settings may result in errors that disappear once you set things up correctly.
Click to expand...

I might not be remembering correctly but I dont think I ever tested the ram that showed errors after setting the BIOS correctly.. I guess it wouldnt hurt to try though.
 
The plot thickens, in a totally unexpected way.

This is bit convoluted but please bear with me.

I did a little research on the proper manual BIOS settings on my MSI 870-G45 motherboard. What I discovered was a little disturbing. There is some odd stuff going on over at MSI.

First, a bit of history. That motherboard was recommended here on this thread. It was supposed to be an AM3 motherboard with the 870 chipset for under $70. Seemed like a great deal. The detail specifications at Newegg lists the chipset as the AMD 870. However, after the motherboard was shipped, I was looking around at MSI's website and I downloaded the manual for the MB. I discovered that Newegg was incorrect. The chipset on the motherboard, according to the manual, is the RX780. Weird. It seemed like a juxtaposition of numbers (since the model number is 870, seems like somewhere the 7 and 8 were flipped). Confused, I waited since it had already shipped. The manual in the motherboard box was the same one I found online and stated chipset was RX780. I was a bit disappointed, but since it was already here and it was such a great price I let it go and it did boot up and everything seemed to work well.

So now due to all of my problems I go onto MSI's website today to see if I can find any support info on my motherboard and I see that the info for 870-G45 has changed. Now that model number is listed as "NEW" and the specs say chipset is 870 (as I would have originally expected). No manual available to download from what I can tell. Whats worse, I decide to Google the FX780 chipset and it appears to be a chipset from 2007! WTF?

The version of the manual I have is nowhere on MSI's website. But one of the reviews on Newegg also confirms what I am saying. What the hell is going on? I will double check CPU-Z to see what chipset is in there.

Could all of this be causing my issues? Seems like MSI made some sort of mistake somehwere.

Here are two links to MSI's website. They are two versions of the same 870-G45 motherboard. I ended up with what is in the first link.

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=prodmbspec&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=171&cat3_no=&prod_no=2070

http://us.msi.com/index.php?func=prodmbspec&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=171&cat3_no=&prod_no=2019#menu


Edit: Found the following on Wikipedia. Chipset is from 2008. RX780 is a codename:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_700_chipset_series#770
 
rogue74 said:
pc-problems
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2e6ejqd.jpg
 
I meant to post a link to this a while ago, might surprise some people:

The results are actually a bit shocking to us to be honest. We weren’t so surprised that in the previous evaluation x8/x8 did not cause any differences at 2560x1600 but did at 5760x1200. However, we thought certainly at x4/x4 PCIe 2.0 mode there would be some kind of a bottleneck at 2560x1600, but the results have proven otherwise. Even with all the data that GTX 480 SLI is pushing across the PCIe bus, x4/x4 is NOT a bottleneck in a single display setup at 2560x1600 with AA enabled. The only game to show us any difference was AvP, but it did not affect the gameplay experience. Therefore, if you are on an aging PCIe 1.X system at x8/x8 mode (equivalent to PCIe 2.0 x4/x4) on a single display fear not, you are not holding back the performance of GTX 480 SLI or we guess with any CrossFireX or SLI configuration.
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Finally got all the parts for my pc in the mail, but a quick question/concern:

I bought the crucial 64gb realSSD but it looks like its for notebooks. I was hoping to put wndows on it so it'd boot my comp up fast, but like I said, its for notebooks. Did I get the wrong thing? Is there an adapter so it'll work in my desktop? Return it and get something else?
 
Unicorn said:
Finally got all the parts for my pc in the mail, but a quick question/concern:

I bought the crucial 64gb realSSD but it looks like its for notebooks. I was hoping to put wndows on it so it'd boot my comp up fast, but like I said, its for notebooks. Did I get the wrong thing? Is there an adapter so it'll work in my desktop? Return it and get something else?
Click to expand...

You got the right thing. Its a 2.5inch drive though so you will need an adapter. Theres plenty of options out there if you want to look around but this is what I used:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002OJO4SY/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Fits two 2.5in drives.
 
Salaadin said:
You got the right thing. Its a 2.5inch drive though so you will need an adapter. Theres plenty of options out there if you want to look around but this is what I used:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002OJO4SY/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Fits two 2.5in drives.
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Nice! Thanks.

Another qucik question:
I read that SSD wear out overtime, so to turn file swapping off after I install windows on it, but I was wondering if putting other applications on there, like photoshop would further lessen its life. Is there a place to find the skinny on SSD details?
 
I need hugs and comfort :(...

I need someone to say " Hey corky, I'm sure the problem was a bad psu all along, and as soon as they replace it and send you a new one aaaall your problems will go away, you'll be drowning in pussy and the president will invite you over for some tea and Street fighter the legend of chun li. "
 
Rogue, I have once successfully found a bad RAM "port" on the motherboard. Just take 1 stick, boot, enter Windows. Compress a huge file, about 4,7GB into multiple RARS, then extract afterwards. If all ok, then try out the next one and so on.

I have an old MSI 939 motherboard where I was getting all sorts of errors until I tried this method and found out that DDR_3 was busted.
 
So I just got to work after stopping at home for lunch. Checked up on my PC and sure enough there was an HCI Memtest error with the single stick of RAM inserted.

However, now that I'm not too confident in my motherboard, I checked CPU-Z and it lists the NB chipset as AMD 770, as I suspected. I also noticed something in CPU-Z. The CPU core voltage was at 1.35 or something close to that. Problem is, the AMD X4 635 is rated at .85 - 1.25 volts, as I mentioned several posts above. ( http://products.amd.com/en-gb/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=625 )

Peeking around in the BIOS, I found that the Auto setting for voltage sets it at ~1.35. brain_stew was right! Never trust the Auto voltage settings in your BIOS. I don't know if any damage was done (don't think so), or if this is part of my problem. But I went in and manually set it at 1.12. Funny thing is the BIOS highlighted my change in red, which means "NOT RECOMMENDED". Clearly, the BIOS has no idea as to the true specs of my CPU. I ignored the warning and set voltage at 1.12. I also manually set the DIMM voltage to 1.5v, even though that was what the Auto setting had it on as well. As for NB voltage and other values, I left those on Auto because I didn't know what the correct value should be. Plus I figured if MSI installed that chipset in there itself so they should know what the settings should be.

So, I don't know if that has played a part in what has been happening to me. I left the memtest running again on the same DIMM, just to see if the BIOS changes make the whole system more stable.

Still don't know what to do about the info I discovered about my motherboard not having the chipset I expected.
 
Milpool 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.
Click to expand...


stock cooler, the one that came with my CPU
 
Unicorn said:
Nice! Thanks.

Another qucik question:
I read that SSD wear out overtime, so to turn file swapping off after I install windows on it, but I was wondering if putting other applications on there, like photoshop would further lessen its life. Is there a place to find the skinny on SSD details?
Click to expand...

That's wrong. You want your swap file on your SSD. Abusing an SSD daily would take like 20 years to wear it out, normal use and it'd take nearly a millennium to do it. There's a drawn out explanation here and here:

If I never install another application and just go about my business, my drive has 203.4GB of space to spread out those 7GB of writes per day. That means in roughly 29 days my SSD, if it wear levels perfectly, I will have written to every single available flash block on my drive. Tack on another 7 days if the drive is smart enough to move my static data around to wear level even more properly. So we’re at approximately 36 days before I exhaust one out of my ~10,000 write cycles. Multiply that out and it would take 360,000 days of using my machine the way I have been for the past two weeks for all of my NAND to wear out; once again, assuming perfect wear leveling. That’s 986 years. Your NAND flash cells will actually lose their charge well before that time comes, in about 10 years.
Click to expand...

And about the swap file, MS put info about, you can read here:

Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs?

Yes. Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well.
In looking at telemetry data from thousands of traces and focusing on pagefile reads and writes, we find that:

Pagefile.sys reads outnumber pagefile.sys writes by about 40 to 1,
Pagefile.sys read sizes are typically quite small, with 67% less than or equal to 4 KB, and 88% less than 16 KB.
Pagefile.sys writes are relatively large, with 62% greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% being exactly 1 MB in size.

In fact, given typical pagefile reference patterns and the favorable performance characteristics SSDs have on those patterns, there are few files better than the pagefile to place on an SSD.
Click to expand...
 
rogue74 said:
So I just got to work after stopping at home for lunch. Checked up on my PC and sure enough there was an HCI Memtest error with the single stick of RAM inserted.

However, now that I'm not too confident in my motherboard, I checked CPU-Z and it lists the NB chipset as AMD 770, as I suspected. I also noticed something in CPU-Z. The CPU core voltage was at 1.35 or something close to that. Problem is, the AMD X4 635 is rated at .85 - 1.25 volts, as I mentioned several posts above. ( http://products.amd.com/en-gb/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=625 )

Peeking around in the BIOS, I found that the Auto setting for voltage sets it at ~1.35. brain_stew was right! Never trust the Auto voltage settings in your BIOS. I don't know if any damage was done (don't think so), or if this is part of my problem. But I went in and manually set it at 1.12. Funny thing is the BIOS highlighted my change in red, which means "NOT RECOMMENDED".
Click to expand...

Quoting myself because while brain_stew is still right, I'm now not so sure my voltages were too high. Apparenlty, there are two versions of the Athlon II X4 635 - C2 and C3. The voltage range I quoted was for C2. C3 can go up to 1.4. Now I'm more confused and feel stupid to boot.

http://products.amd.com/en-gb/DesktopCPUSideBySide.aspx?id=701&id=625
 
One question I have trouble finding the answer to. My memory is DDR3 1600. My motherboard won't run at that speed unless you OC it(?). So currently it is running at 1333.

Would this cause instability problems? G.Skill techs keep on responding to user reviews on Newegg and state that you need to set the BIOS to run the memory at 1600 or you may experience instability. This seems off to me because if it is rated at 1600 how could it have trouble running at a lower rate?
 
I was thinking of buying a cheaper nVidia card to run some modified drivers with and get PhysX running.

Problem is, I know my motherboard bottlenecks Cross-Fire setups (Gigabyte P55A-UD3). Would it really effect the nVidia if all I'm using it for is PhysX?
 
Yazus said:
I cant. My PC is pre built (Fujitsu Siemens) and on the BIOS I cant overclock

PS: I'm also thinking to buy aa 22" Asus monitor
Asus 22". Combo with a 5770 is it ok?
Click to expand...
Google Q6600 pad mod :)

A 1920x1080 monitor is fine with a 5770. Won't run everything on max, but with good settings for 60fps.
Corky said:
What I found is that the main and only difference between the am2+ and the am3 sockets is the use of ddr2/ddr3 ( edit : and the fact that rumours are that bulldozer wont work on am2+ )

http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-7790-view-phenom-II-X3-720-Black-edition-benchmark.html

Most of the tests seem to only differ single digit percents, or even less! scores of 5550ish vs 5570ish , for example ( except that one everest memory read test ) . That is rather negligable it seems. I doubt you'd even be able to measure the difference in fps/gaming.
Click to expand...
Those are just mainly memory comparisons of DDR2 and DDR3. The PiFast (one actually worth a comparison) is just with DDR3.
Cinebench looks interesting though, but I'm not sure if that is just the memory part of the test.
rogue74 said:
One question I have trouble finding the answer to. My memory is DDR3 1600. My motherboard won't run at that speed unless you OC it(?). So currently it is running at 1333.

Would this cause instability problems? G.Skill techs keep on responding to user reviews on Newegg and state that you need to set the BIOS to run the memory at 1600 or you may experience instability. This seems off to me because if it is rated at 1600 how could it have trouble running at a lower rate?
Click to expand...
Seems odd. Just run it at the rated settings.
I'd honestly RMA the sticks, it will only take a few days and help figure out what is going wrong.
You've been doing good so far on trouble shooting. I don't agree with the MSI posters on G.Skill and OCZ being bad brands. OCZ PSU's are alright. G.Skill is great.
filipe said:
I was thinking of buying a cheaper nVidia card to run some modified drivers with and get PhysX running.

Problem is, I know my motherboard bottlenecks Cross-Fire setups (Gigabyte P55A-UD3). Would it really effect the nVidia if all I'm using it for is PhysX?
Click to expand...
x4 is fine.
Fredescu said:
What SSD drives would give me the best bang for buck at the moment?
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WD Blue 128GB - $200
*Actually it looks like that is not on sale anymore

So...
Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV425-S2BD/128GB
or
C300 128GB

The Kingston has slightly better write speed and mounting brackets, the C300 has INSANE read speed.
Both are good drives. I'd probably pick the C300.
 
Are there any good, free backup programs out there that will back up everything on my OS drive and D: drive? WIndows 7 built in backup is so slow.
 
i wont be able to buy and assemble it until next friday but im already salivating at the thought of a new pc.

my 1.8ghz dual core laptop is actually still plenty fast for most tasks after 3+ years but ive never had a computer with a really good graphics card before.

i also cant wait to be able read pdfs from bed on 46" tv
 
When I try to play Crysis in fullscreen 1080p on my new PC (Steam version) the image is all shaky and there are weird red lines/bars flickering everywhere. I have the latest GTX460 drivers and the latest directx-- what could be causing this? It only applies to fullscreen apparently-- the game looks normal windowed.

-Core i5 750
-G.skill 4GB DDR3
-Gigabyte GTX460
-EVGA P55 FTW 200 MoBo
-Windows 7 Ultimate x64
 
rogue74 said:
One question I have trouble finding the answer to. My memory is DDR3 1600. My motherboard won't run at that speed unless you OC it(?). So currently it is running at 1333.

Would this cause instability problems? G.Skill techs keep on responding to user reviews on Newegg and state that you need to set the BIOS to run the memory at 1600 or you may experience instability. This seems off to me because if it is rated at 1600 how could it have trouble running at a lower rate?
Click to expand...

a) I'd love to know the answer to this aswell, because when I ran my ram @ 1066mhz I just couldn't get my pc to start. Even when upping the ram voltage. So I ended up running them at 800

b) Rogue, I'd love to know what kind of crashes/errors/instability issues you are running into. Maybe we can cross-reference eachothers problems and hopefully come to a solution
 
Rodney McKay 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?
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I know I'm late, but I have the Vapors and I can say they are very cool and quiet. It's only when you xfire that you will need good case cooling, since the cooling design isn't reference they end up causing heat to sort of settle inside your case.

If you get a Vapor, or any card for that matter, you can get a huge decrease in temps by changing the TIM (Mine temps drastically decreased) although, even with no change I could easily get 960/1360+ stock voltage and stock TIM, however changing the TIM made xfire cooler and with added case fans I'm at 960/1360 xfire. Changing the TIM is very easy to do on the Vapors and does not void the warranty. http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/764434-how-change-tim-gpu.html

I used ACmx-2 since it was cheap as well as being Non-Conductive, Non-Capacitive, doesn't need to cure and lasts for years. Just be sure and spread it with plastic wrap around your finger.
 
rogue74 said:
Quoting myself because while brain_stew is still right, I'm now not so sure my voltages were too high. Apparenlty, there are two versions of the Athlon II X4 635 - C2 and C3. The voltage range I quoted was for C2. C3 can go up to 1.4. Now I'm more confused and feel stupid to boot.

http://products.amd.com/en-gb/DesktopCPUSideBySide.aspx?id=701&id=625
Click to expand...

I got a 635 C3, running at ~1.45v 3.5 ghz

the reason why you see 1.35 in CPU-Z could also be due to inaccurate readings from the sensor

I just assume that the highest vCore on that AMD product page is the needed vCore specified at 100% load according to AMD (so if you have a good chip it might be stable at a lower vCore)

still I would say auto voltage should work, because AFAIK the mobo in that case takes the cpu's hardcoded voltages depending on its current speed; hence the range of voltages (I guess :lol )

the reason why your bios gives a warning with red numbers is probably because 1.12 is so much lower from it's stock 1.4 that it's likely not stable under load =]

first of all I would make sure that your bios is up to date, there might be some incompatibility as the C3 is relatively new and has a quite high stock vCore at full speed (1.4)
 
MomoPufflet said:
When I try to play Crysis in fullscreen 1080p on my new PC (Steam version) the image is all shaky and there are weird red lines/bars flickering everywhere. I have the latest GTX460 drivers and the latest directx-- what could be causing this? It only applies to fullscreen apparently-- the game looks normal windowed.

-Core i5 750
-G.skill 4GB DDR3
-Gigabyte GTX460
-EVGA P55 FTW 200 MoBo
-Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Click to expand...

Even more strange, when I take a screenshot in Fraps the problem doesn't show up in the screenshot. Is it a monitor setting? I'm using an Asus VH236H.
 
Just popped in an XFX HD Radeon 5750 into my Studio XPS from Dell:

Studio Athlon II X4 630 (2.8GHz)
6GB DDR3 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive 7200 RPM

Popped in Crysis and I am running it at 1024x768 with 2x AA on and it looks stunning even on my crappy, 4 year old HP monitor. The system and the card run pretty damn nquiet as well. Im impressed and with a mid range gaming PC I have a whole new world of games open to me.:D
 
I'm to jump in to pc gaming as well as a 3DTV for the monitor. Im most pumped for battlefield 3...should I just wait till the specs are released or is it ok to go ahead and do sometime in the next month or two...if the answer is wait, is there any word as to when that will be.

Obviously im willing to drop the extra cash here, and want to do it right. I don't want the tv to be bigger than 46 inches.
 
Maybe someone can help me, I'm trying to format my slave drive and it keeps saying the drive is in use but I can't imagine what could be using it. There's no programs running in the taskbar. I'm on windows 7 if that's relevant. I can format it fine on my mac but I don't want it to be fat32.
 
Corky said:
a) I'd love to know the answer to this aswell, because when I ran my ram @ 1066mhz I just couldn't get my pc to start. Even when upping the ram voltage. So I ended up running them at 800

b) Rogue, I'd love to know what kind of crashes/errors/instability issues you are running into. Maybe we can cross-reference eachothers problems and hopefully come to a solution
Click to expand...


The only thing I noticed in real world use is that Stalker (with complete 2009 mod) started displaying major artifacts immediately on startup and freezing. After that I noticed some artifacts video/corruption in Windows desktop. GPU then gave me all sorts of errors/artifacts in OCCT, Furmark and ATI Tool.

Other than that, nothing in day to day use. Never had a BSOD. Windows has never crashed. Only other program that crashed once was Firefox near the end of a long download. But Firefox has crashed on me in multiple machines so I didn't worry.

I only noticed memory errors because I just decided to check the memory on a hunch before sending in the GPU. I don't know if I really have bad RAM or what. I might just bite the bullet and send in both the RAM and the GPU.

By the way, the OCCT CPU test gave me an error on core 2. However, if you recall, I had messed with the voltages because I thought the Auto setting in the BIOS was off. Well, I went back and set the voltage to what it was at (not at Auto but at what Auto was setting it to). OCCT CPU errors disappeared. Thank God. If my CPU had shown signs of failing as well I would have just walked outside to my yard and waited for the locusts to overwhelm me.

Moral of the story, careful with voltages. They can have a big impact. Also, don't introduce new variables when you are trying to troubleshoot a problem.
 
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Maybe someone can help me, I'm trying to format my slave drive and it keeps saying the drive is in use but I can't imagine what could be using it. There's no programs running in the taskbar. I'm on windows 7 if that's relevant. I can format it fine on my mac but I don't want it to be fat32.
Click to expand...
Any startup processes installed on it that might be running in the background that you don't see? Type msconfig in the start menu search box and check the startup tab. It'll tell you the drive letter of your startup processes. If there's any turned on for that drive, uncheck them and reboot.

Also check the task manager for any running processes.
 
Hey guys.

So... I'm thinking of not buying a new Imac, as I am afraid I can not afford its graphics capabillities. At 2560x1440, it's some serious resolution you got going on, and it's mobile laptop card, just won't cut it I am afraid of.. years down the road. I just love the small size, and the fantastic IPS display. Games look so good on it!


I have around 2000, bucks, give or take, and I need to get some good components and dual monitors. I would love to try and get two 27'' as 24'' feels to small to me. I need a lot of desktop space! 2000 bucks might not cut it though.



As for Cases, I found one that I really like;

Silverstone FT02: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163161 < 240 bucks

Corsair Obsdian 800D: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139001 < 270 bucks

Lian-Li Q08: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2265&cm_re=lian_li_q08-_-11-112-265-_-Product < 130 bucks.
I know this Lian Li is a Micro-ATX, but I was impressed when I read this reivew... they say they could fit in a i5 and a ATI 5870 in there and it had decent cooling... they think the problem is finding a small enough PSU. here is the review: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/07/20/lian-li-pc-q08-review/1


These are the three cases I have seen that I like in terms of asthetics. Coming from a Imac, I do think it's important. No, I don't think it's shallow, not having a big stupid LED crazy lightshow in my face actually increases my productivity and my enjoyment of the machine.. So it is important to me to have a enclousure that I like! I thought that the Lian-Li would be fun, if my budget was in such a way, that I couldnt really get far with it, and I would be better suited with a fun little Micro-ATX system for a while. A 5870 seems like a decent card?




As for monitors I just don't know. All IPS displays I have seen are crazy expenssive. It's not a requirement, and I've been told that many IPS displays are not good for gaming.. But I would really love two nice 27'' ! Really need it for photo and video editing, and everything else.



Anyway, any suggestions to what to get would be nice! A SSD 80 GB for windows install, + a couple of western digital 1 TB Hard drives, a blu-ray drive, a capable PSU, some good fans, and just the best CPU and GPU I could afford. I have no preferences in ATI/Nvidia.. I have never owned a ATI card!
 
Going to start ordering parts next week, and right now am really just investigating. Budget needs to stay below $900 including the operating sytem I'll need to buy.

I definitely am going to want a smaller form factor. Ideally, I'd like something like those Dell Inspirons that can be laid down on their side instead of a Shuttle. I want to be able to put this in an entertainment center, so the case can't be tall.

Which seems to point to a micro ITX case. It's not so much the price of those that bugs me, but the fact that I also want to put an i7 in there. Can a regular case lay down? Wouldn't that orientation screw up air flow and the DVD drive?
 
Hey, GAF. I'm looking to build my own PC for the first time, and I was curious about a couple things.

1) How does CrossfireX or whatever work exactly? Is it worth it? Like could I get 2 5750s and use them together? Or should I just get a higher end card?

2) What is the difference between the Radeon 5750 and 5770?

3) How do I know how powerful of a PSU I'll need?

4) Got any tips I should know?

5) Are sound cards obsolete now or what? Cuz I see the graphics card supports surround sound and uses HDMI?
 
Salaadin said:
Any startup processes installed on it that might be running in the background that you don't see? Type msconfig in the start menu search box and check the startup tab. It'll tell you the drive letter of your startup processes. If there's any turned on for that drive, uncheck them and reboot.

Also check the task manager for any running processes.
Click to expand...

I can't think of anything and the only things that are in the startup folder is the program for my wireless card, mlb.tv, and logitech which I never used on that drive. It doesn't work in safe mode either where essentially nothing is started up...

I've also ended all processes essentially so only

csrss.exe
dwm.exe
explorer.exe
winlogon.exe

are the only processes running according to task manager.
 
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