Support NeoGAF

[Quadrophenic]

My monitor died this weekend, does anyone have any recommendations? I am looking for something between 200-300 bucks and around 22" if possible.

I was thinking about the Samsung PX2370. Good choice?

Thanks!

 

[Hazaro]

Are we looking at something that can play Call of Duty Black Ops on decent settings? I still might bite at a gaming PC.

60FPS gaming with AA at 1080p son!

 

[The Elite]

:lol

60FPS gaming with AA at 1080p son!

Awesome.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

I downloaded speedfan, but I don't know what temperatures are normal and what are not.

Anybody want to guide with that?

System is:

COOLER MASTER, HAF 922 Black Mid Tower Case, ATX, No PSU, Steel

OCZ, ModXStream Pro Power Supply w/ Modular Cables, 700W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX EPS12V, One 6-pin + One 8-pin PCIe, SLI Ready

ASUS, P7P55D-E PRO, LGA1156, Intel® P55, DDR3-2220 (O.C.) 16GB /4, PCIe x16 SLI CF /2, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /7, 6 Gb/s /2, USB 3.0 /2, HDA, GbLAN, FW /2, ATX, Retail

INTEL, Core™ i5-760 Quad-Core 2.8GHz, LGA1156, 2.5 GT/s, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 95W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail

COOLER MASTER, Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler, Socket 1366/1156/775/AM3/AM2, Copper/Aluminum, Retail

OCZ, 4GB (2 x 2GB) Gold Low Voltage PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz CL8 (8-8-8-24) 1.65V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC

EVGA, GeForce® GTX 460 EE (AR) 763MHz, 1GB GDDR5 3800MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, mini-HDMI, Retail

SAMSUNG, 1TB SpinPoint F3, SATA 3 Gb/s, 7200-RPM, 32MB Cache, Retail

 

[Felix Lighter]

I have this overwhelming urge to upgrade something. I was considering maybe buying a second Samsung F3 and go Raid 0 for a nice cheap upgrade but posts earlier in the thread turned me off from that idea. I really can't think of much else that wouldn't be too costly at this point.

 

[Buggy Loop]

In real world gaming, 6850 is a bit faster than gtx 460

http://www.chiphell.com/thread-130336-1-1.html

Napoleon, a trusful source.

3Dmark vantage = real world gaming?

:lol

 

[Nolimit_SS]

And now back to 2nd part of original question,
MB: ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
VGA: ASUS EAH4870X2/HTDI/2G Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
PSU: COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro1000 RS-A00-EMBA 1000W ATX12V
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz LGA 775
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)
Big XIGMATEK heatsink and cooler.
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA x2

If I'm on a budget, is there anything I can do to make this better conifg or am I still good to go for a while until a point where I'll need to change everything?

I know I'm probably annoying you all but I'd really appreciate an answer
Or am I done with this PC and should look toward new one when I squeeze everything out of it?

 

[Outdoor Miner]

I know I'm probably annoying you all but I'd really appreciate an answer
Or am I done with this PC and should look toward new one when I squeeze everything out of it?

Your PC is fine man. Any upgrade on that system would yield such a poor price/performance ratio. Just wait another year or so. If you're really itching to upgrade something do the video card. I'm a big fan of single GPU setups so I would probably recommend an AMD 69xx when it comes out around December.

 

[Metalic Sand]

3Dmark vantage = real world gaming?

:lol

The chart shows the 460 outscoring the 6850 in 3Dmark. He meant actual gaming, as in playing games you know?

 

[Nolimit_SS]

It's not really that I want to upgrade it's more that I'm seeking confirmation that it's fine :lol
My pc has low self esteem issues, or me, same thing.
But thing is while most games run fine on max WoW is giving me troubles, I know wow isn't optimized that well but when I get low fps there I rage :/

Meh, it's fine then, I'll get friend to help me optimize some things well, clean up inside and make it pretty, then in 1.5 years when I move I'll sell it for whatever and build new PC.

Thanks

 

[Fredescu]

If that q9450 is still running at 2.66 I'd recommend overclocking it, especially as it seems you already have a cooler installed. My q9550 has been running at 3.6 since forever.

 

[THE:MILKMAN]

Right decided now is the time to get a steam account and get me some cheap pc games.

My PC just needs a graphics card. Looking for the most balanced GPU to go with the below.

Intel dual core e5200@3GHZ
4GB OCZ 800MHZ ram.
Win7 pro 64bit
Coolermaster 460watt PSU:Slightly older model to this one http://www.coolermaster.co.uk/product.php?product_id=6615 Specs are identical.

Antec NSK2480 HTPC case.

Will be connected to my Sony Bravia EX503 @1080P but only need the GPU to run games at medium.

My case can easily fit my brothers 20cm long Ati 4650 ultimate with ease, but I couldn't fit the case lid on because of the wraparound heat sink.

Just hope this doesn't limit me too much! Cheers.

 

[Ryoma-Echizen]

THE:MILKMAN
Look for the HD5670 low profile.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127523

Near twice the power of the 4650 (DDR3 version).

 

[filipe]

Right decided now is the time to get a steam account and get me some cheap pc games.

My PC just needs a graphics card. Looking for the most balanced GPU to go with the below.

Intel dual core e5200@3GHZ
4GB OCZ 800MHZ ram.
Win7 pro 64bit
Coolermaster 460watt PSU:Slightly older model to this one http://www.coolermaster.co.uk/product.php?product_id=6615 Specs are identical.

Antec NSK2480 HTPC case.

Will be connected to my Sony Bravia EX503 @1080P but only need the GPU to run games at medium.

My case can easily fit my brothers 20cm long Ati 4650 ultimate with ease, but I couldn't fit the case lid on because of the wraparound heat sink.

Just hope this doesn't limit me too much! Cheers.

I'm an Radeon user myself, but you couldn't go wrong with a 460. Not certain on the size though.

 

[THE:MILKMAN]

^ Thanks guys. I'll go do some research on your suggestions.

 

[Dr. Acid Avatar]

Should this CPU, ram and motherboard work ok together? I just got the i5 for $155 and I tried to find a motherboard that didn't cost too much. I still don't know if I should buy that ram yet, $60-80 is my budget for ram.

 

[·feist·]

It's not really that I want to upgrade it's more that I'm seeking confirmation that it's fine :lol
My pc has low self esteem issues, or me, same thing.
But thing is while most games run fine on max WoW is giving me troubles, I know wow isn't optimized that well but when I get low fps there I rage :/

Meh, it's fine then, I'll get friend to help me optimize some things well, clean up inside and make it pretty, then in 1.5 years when I move I'll sell it for whatever and build new PC.

Thanks

If your CPU is running at stock speed, that would be the culprit. The P5Qs are generally good clocking boards for the money and there are enough similarities between the different variations of the series that you could even read up on what settings someone with a different P5Q iteration has, and see how much of it may apply to you.

Search for what overclock settings owners of your CPU & motherboard are using. Use your findings as a starting point and then see what you can get out of your particular combination of components. You'll likely be able to hit at least 3.2GHz with little effort. If that isn't fast enough for you, just continue to work your way up until you hit a speed that is stable without requiring a great deal of voltage increasing. Of course, you may not even need to raise the voltage at all. My primary system has a basic 1GHz overclock, and the CPU is comfortably under-volted.

If you aren't worried about power consumption, or susceptible to the drawbacks of using dual GPUs, then you can hold on to that card. In another year or so, AMD's next run of 28nm cards should be out and Nvidia will likely have their revised Fermi cards in line too, since they seem to be going with a 2-year cycle.

So you can keep your current CPU and possibly upgrade to a 69xx, or skip this generation of cards and then dive in when the next run of GPUs are out alongside AMD and Intel's next generation of CPUs.

 

[teiresias]

Does anyone have an opinion on running SSD drives in AHCI vs IDE mode?

I've screwed up my user folders on Windows 7 being indecisive with what user accounts I want, so now I have all of these weirdly named user folders that are annoying the hell out of me, and it seems the easiest way to fix it is simply to reinstall. Since I'm going to do it I was wondering if anyone had an opinion between the two modes? I haven't seen anything concrete from reading around and just wondered if anyone on here had any real world experience? I'm running a single SSD as my OS drive with a larger regular HDD, no RAID or anything.

 

[Laekon]

So my PC is starting to get outdated technically but I'm not sure if it's performance is getting outdated. I have a E6600 processor and 8800GTS 640 graphics card running Vista. I'm using a 21" monitor on 1680x1050. For games such as Fallout: New Vegas and Dragon Age 2 am I really going to notice a new i5 processor and GTX460 card?

 

[filipe]

People should use Steam Tool.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...6&postcount=47

This user called Kappaseven from the steam forums made this awesome application called Steamtool which lets you easily install any non Valve game to any hard-drive you want, really good for people with small HD's or SSD.

http://www.steamtool.com/

So what I have, games that I play a lot I keep them on my SSD and games for storage on a large HD. You can easily swap them around when ever you feel like your going to play some other games more often.

I bought an SSD at one point (later returning it) and all I did was install Windows 7 on it with some key programs I needed, and Steam with one or two games I would want to load fast. I didn't bother erasing my original HDD just in case I decided to return it. The cool thing was I could run Steam off that HDD while booted into my SSD. Wouldn't that make that specific program... unnecessary? Why was I able to run games off a slave?

EDIT: Is your wallpaper the one of a turtle with a city on it's back?

 

[Forbiden]

Should this CPU, ram and motherboard work ok together? I just got the i5 for $155 and I tried to find a motherboard that didn't cost too much. I still don't know if I should buy that ram yet, $60-80 is my budget for ram.

Yup, all of those should work nicely with each other.

 

[filipe]

Should this CPU, ram and motherboard work ok together? I just got the i5 for $155 and I tried to find a motherboard that didn't cost too much. I still don't know if I should buy that ram yet, $60-80 is my budget for ram.

I'd go ahead and just grab the 760 for $15 bucks if you can manage it. It's not much of a difference, but for $15 I'd go for it.

 

[Sinatar]

My first GAF post from my new PC:

Antec 900 II Case
Intel Core i7 950 3.06 GHZ Processor
Asus P6X58D-E Motherboard
Sapphire Radeon HD5870 1 GB Graphics Card
12 GB Mushkin Blackline PC-12800 RAM
Western Digital 2 TB Black Hard Drive
Corsair CMPSU-1000HX 1000 watt Power Supply
Zalman CNPS9900 CPU Cooler

Soooo good.

 

[filipe]

Good choice on the 5870. Loving mine.

 

[Felix Lighter]

My first GAF post from my new PC:

Antec 900 II Case
Intel Core i7 950 3.06 GHZ Processor
Asus P6X58D-E Motherboard
Sapphire Radeon HD5870 1 GB Graphics Card
12 GB Mushkin Blackline PC-12800 RAM
Western Digital 2 TB Black Hard Drive
Corsair CMPSU-1000HX 1000 watt Power Supply
Zalman CNPS9900 CPU Cooler

Soooo good.

Any pics?

 

[Nolimit_SS]

If that q9450 is still running at 2.66 I'd recommend overclocking it, especially as it seems you already have a cooler installed. My q9550 has been running at 3.6 since forever.

If your CPU is running at stock speed, that would be the culprit. The P5Qs are generally good clocking boards for the money and there are enough similarities between the different variations of the series that you could even read up on what settings someone with a different P5Q iteration has, and see how much of it may apply to you.

Search for what overclock settings owners of your CPU & motherboard are using. Use your findings as a starting point and then see what you can get out of your particular combination of components. You'll likely be able to hit at least 3.2GHz with little effort. If that isn't fast enough for you, just continue to work your way up until you hit a speed that is stable without requiring a great deal of voltage increasing. Of course, you may not even need to raise the voltage at all. My primary system has a basic 1GHz overclock, and the CPU is comfortably under-volted.

If you aren't worried about power consumption, or susceptible to the drawbacks of using dual GPUs, then you can hold on to that card. In another year or so, AMD's next run of 28nm cards should be out and Nvidia will likely have their revised Fermi cards in line too, since they seem to be going with a 2-year cycle.

So you can keep your current CPU and possibly upgrade to a 69xx, or skip this generation of cards and then dive in when the next run of GPUs are out alongside AMD and Intel's next generation of CPUs.

Thanks guys, this is exactly what I'll do.
My problem atm is that case is cluttered so I'll have someone help me up in tidying it.
Card idles at like 70-80 degrees C so that's worrying a bit(but googled and might be normal hm), case's coolers are making annoying sounds so i turned off some of them so gotta look into that.

So yeah, thank's again.

P.S. I had it overclocked for a while but reset it when I was having some troubles that are long fixed, went to 3.2 np

 

[Brazil]

I now have the money to build my new PC, and the only parts I'm sure about are these:

Intel Core i7-950 3.06 GHz
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 2GB GDDR-5

Do you guys have any RAM, motherboard, etc. recommendations?

This is actually my first time doing this, so please help me. :lol

 

[AstroLad]

I have a 950 but you can OC a 920 about just as much so if you can save a chunk go with the 920.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

how reliable are open box sales from newegg? anyone have any experience?

 

[Kaako]

Got a i7-950 + Asus P6X58D-E for $370.
Big thanks to my boy for the hookup. I know you lurking, you sob!

 

[asdad123]

So Im looking a Shuttle SN78SH7 which states compatible with "AMD® Phenom™ X4/ AM2+/ Athlon™ / Sempron™ Processors", but Im a little confused.

Theres a Phenom X4 and a Phenom II X4. Is there a difference to those two or will either of them fit?

 

[Ryoma-Echizen]

That's an ancient mobo but at least you can put an Athlon II / Phenom II AM3 on it.

http://global.shuttle.com/support_list03.jsp?PI=939

Max support:
Phenom II X4 965 3.4Ghz 125w

 

[Fredescu]

Do you guys have any RAM, motherboard, etc. recommendations?

Are you using a particular online retailer?

 

[ZZMitch]

Hey GAF, my new pc just came in and I got it all hooked up and everything was working ok until a few minutes in when I started having issues.

My screen froze so I rebooted the computer and when I rebooted the computer the resolution was stuck at 800x600. I downloaded some updates and restarted again and the resoultion was back up to normal, but I started getting error messages saying "Display driver stopped responding and has recoved" after each error message my screen would flash and I would maybe get some graphical errors. Eventually my screen froze again and I restarted.

I just installed the latest NVIDIA drivers (I have a GTX 460) and restarted, but I am still stuck at 800x600. Any ideas?

I have been looking around, and I heard this might be related to a feature called TDR?

Thanks

 

[Sinatar]

*oops, double post*

 

[Sinatar]

Any pics?

I don't own a camera, but this is what the case looks like:

Hey GAF, my new pc just came in and I got it all hooked up and everything was working ok until a few minutes in when I started having issues.

My screen froze so I rebooted the computer and when I rebooted the computer the resolution was stuck at 800x600. I downloaded some updates and restarted again and the resoultion was back up to normal, but I started getting error messages saying "Display driver stopped responding and has recoved" after each error message my screen would flash and I would maybe get some graphical errors. Eventually my screen froze again and I restarted.

I just installed the latest NVIDIA drivers (I have a GTX 460) and restarted, but I am still stuck at 800x600. Any ideas?

I have been looking around, and I heard this might be related to a feature called TDR?

Thanks

Last time I had that happen with an nVidia card it was the hardware at fault, had to replace the card.

 

[ZZMitch]

Last time I had that happen with an nVidia card it was the hardware at fault, had to replace the card.

Really? Well that sucks... I just bought this thing and set it up tonight!

 

[Roody]

Sorry for filling up the topic with a potentially "useless" question, but what would be the best route to go for the NCIX PCs? I'd prefer to just order one from them since I have neither the time nor experience to assemble one myself. I've been looking at all the options and it's getting a bit bewildering. My budget is about $800 to 900ish, but I can go over some if needed. The PC would mostly be used for gaming and some graphic design (basically, for work at home) as well. My requests aren't big, as my PC gaming is restricted to mostly TF2, L4D, Fallout, and other stuff I've picked up on Steam over the years. I'd like to be able to play Portal 2 (when it launches) with all the settings turned up, if that's possible on my budget (I know it's not out yet, but, you know, assuming I get something powerful enough). I don't need a screen, keyboard, or any of that. I already have plenty of great peripherals.

I look at the i7s and such and think they'd be great to have. Future-proofing and all that. Basically mid- to high-end PC, I suppose.

If anyone could point me in the right direction as to what to choose or look out for on NCIX, that'd be a huge help. Thanks in advance.

 

[ZZMitch]

Well I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers again and still got the issue... I got the full error message this time though.

Display driver Nvidia Windows Kernal Mode Driver 258.96 stopped working and has recovered.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

My CPU fan for cooling is running at 2000 RPM according to speedfan, a bit noisy. Any way I can reduce that?

Its the COOLER MASTER, Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler

Edit:

Oh cool, I found the ASUS DVD has utilities to help monitor temperature and also set custom configurations. Set Profile to Silent and its down. Awesome.

Advantages of not going Dell, awesome BIOS controlling software :lol

 

[Sinatar]

Well I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers again and still got the issue... I got the full error message this time though.

Display driver Nvidia Windows Kernal Mode Driver 258.96 stopped working and has recovered.

Odds are you got a bum card, it happens.

 

[ZZMitch]

Odds are you got a bum card, it happens.

Yeah I had a feeling this would happen to me... stuff like this always does!

I am gunna call NCIX tomorrow, get it replaced. Unless the problem is elsewhere and I can figure it out before then!

 

[Fredescu]

Out of interest, was it a Gigabyte GTX460 OC?

 

[Hazaro]

Should this CPU, ram and motherboard work ok together? I just got the i5 for $155 and I tried to find a motherboard that didn't cost too much. I still don't know if I should buy that ram yet, $60-80 is my budget for ram.

Get a 500GB F3 drive or 1TB even. It's not much more and it'll be faster + much more value.

So my PC is starting to get outdated technically but I'm not sure if it's performance is getting outdated. I have a E6600 processor and 8800GTS 640 graphics card running Vista. I'm using a 21" monitor on 1680x1050. For games such as Fallout: New Vegas and Dragon Age 2 am I really going to notice a new i5 processor and GTX460 card?

Absolutely. Going from a 8800GTS 640MB to a 460 will be a huge change.

how reliable are open box sales from newegg? anyone have any experience?

Unless it's a really big savings I wouldn't go for it. Might as well buy used online from somewhere. I've heard both good and bad.

I now have the money to build my new PC, and the only parts I'm sure about are these:
Intel Core i7-950 3.06 GHz
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 2GB GDDR-5

Do you guys have any RAM, motherboard, etc. recommendations?

My budget is about $800 to 900ish, but I can go over some if needed. The PC would mostly be used for gaming and some graphic design (basically, for work at home) as well. My requests aren't big, as my PC gaming is restricted to mostly TF2, L4D, Fallout, and other stuff I've picked up on Steam over the years.

If anyone could point me in the right direction as to what to choose or look out for on NCIX, that'd be a huge help. Thanks in advance.

Swap in i5, CM 310/320/330 for case to save a bit, Corsair or Seasonic 500/550W to save some change. Wait for news on the 6850/6870 pricing (3-5 days for benchmarks), but look at the GTX 460 and 6850 for a GPU.

 

[·feist·]

i see - thanks man. is OCing the CPU something that affects this overhead/stress much? i know its hard to say per chip/etc but again, an i5-760 @ say 3.5ghz, would you expect a great deal more heat/voltage/load from this? still trying to get a feel for what to expect.

really want to make peace with the SG07, most of my demands sound best for it, but some of the cases in this thread look lighter/more aesthetically pleasing for my SFF wishes here. for instance: the Lan Li PC-V354, where are you guys even seeing that for sale?



yeah, ive been looking at a few shuttles as well, nothing that seemed to work with my setup just yet, sadly. if you do go with taht thermalite one, post back on it; i was told to be a bit wary since they're not known for quality.

Hazaro pretty much covered the first part of your post, but here's a quick link if you want to delve into it a bit further:

CPU Overclocking vs. Power Consumption
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/power-consumption-overclocking.html


As for where to buy that Lian Li in North America:

Black & Silver = $149
Red = $179
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...Order=BESTMATCH&Description=lian+v354&x=0&y=0

$154
http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...=29117&zenid=c9d87ccce7c7fe3beb3a65c0e094f02a
http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...=29118&zenid=c9d87ccce7c7fe3beb3a65c0e094f02a

$197
http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_parts.asp?PRID=18443


Below is the review link that I mentioned earlier.

http://www.chiphell.com/portal-view-aid-247.html

 

[·feist·]

Thanks guys, this is exactly what I'll do.
My problem atm is that case is cluttered so I'll have someone help me up in tidying it.
Card idles at like 70-80 degrees C so that's worrying a bit(but googled and might be normal hm), case's coolers are making annoying sounds so i turned off some of them so gotta look into that.

So yeah, thank's again.

P.S. I had it overclocked for a while but reset it when I was having some troubles that are long fixed, went to 3.2 np

NP. Glad you could avoid an unnecessary purchase.

Post pics when you get your rig tidied up.

 

[Nolimit_SS]

Here's pic of few months ago, and yes I know how terribly bad it is. I'm ashamed even, but those cables are freaking huge and there's too much of them and not enough space even in big case like this :|
https://sites.google.com/site/nolimitss/20100628_001.jpg

 

[ZZMitch]

Out of interest, was it a Gigabyte GTX460 OC?

It is a Gigabyte GTX460, I don't think it is overclocked unless the people who built it at NCIX overclocked it.

I didnt have time to check last night, I will check that today.

 

[half a moon]

Anyone know a trustworthy place to be used processors? Looking for AMD Athlon 64 X2.

Ebay seems a bad place to deal with. It could work but be quirky, and I'm not the most knowledgeable to test processors.

 

[Shadowhaxor]

Anyone know a trustworthy place to be used processors? Looking for AMD Athlon 64 X2.

Ebay seems a bad place to deal with. It could work but be quirky, and I'm not the most knowledgeable to test processors.

Check out the sales and trade section on Hardocp.com.