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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

caliblue15 said:
Just ran at 65C , and have passed 4 linX tests so far.. so maybe i finally got it right!

vcore at 1.3V

As for Voltage drop it says 1.296 in CPU-Z, passed 10 tests, then linX failed, gonna change some IOH settings and see if it changes anything, or if vcore is the only thing that will stabalize it.
 
Le-mo said:
How about this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131649

Will buying a separate 3.5" SATA harddrive for my OS make it boot up faster? I'm planning to pick one up from Newegg. What are the chances of two harddrives failing on me? :lol

It's a mATX board (It doesn't really come right out and say it on the product page), has a full set of SATA3 connections, has onboard video, no USB3 though, no multi-gpu ability. Everything else about it is fine. Do you care if your board is ATX or mATX? For the same price I'd rather go with the board i suggested earlier. It's fairly similar except it will give you a couple USB3 ports on the back. Are you looking for a board with integrated video even with you having a discrete card?
 
Shambles said:
It's a mATX board (It doesn't really come right out and say it on the product page), has a full set of SATA3 connections, has onboard video, no USB3 though, no multi-gpu ability. Everything else about it is fine. Do you care if your board is ATX or mATX? For the same price I'd rather go with the board i suggested earlier. It's fairly similar except it will give you a couple USB3 ports on the back. Are you looking for a board with integrated video even with you having a discrete card?
I'm not looking for on board video since my video card is more than efficient, but I would like one with multi-gpu capability and is Windows 7 ready. USB ports in the back is a must since I have USB kb/m. I don't know the difference between mATX or ATX just as long as it works with my current build.
 
Le-mo said:
I'm not looking for on board video since my video card is more than efficient, but I would like one with multi-gpu capability and is Windows 7 ready. USB ports in the back is a must since I have USB kb/m. I don't know the difference between mATX or ATX just as long as it works with my current build.

They all have USB2 ports in the back, but only some have the newer, faster USB3 ports (Usually are blue in colour, have the same shape as USB2). mATX is microATX, a smaller form factor for motherboards, usually used in mATX cases. You generally trade a smaller footprint for less features, with an ATX case you'll likely want a full ATX motherboard. Multi-GPU might run you a little over 100$ though.

This one might interest you. The M4A87TD Evo. Has the new SATA/USB connections, supports 2 GPUs (I would assume just Crossfire, not SLI). Some people complain the 2nd GPU blocks some SATA ports but if you really needed that many a simple SATA cable with a 90 degree head on it would fit fine.
 
caliblue15 said:
As for Voltage drop it says 1.296 in CPU-Z, passed 10 tests, then linX failed, gonna change some IOH settings and see if it changes anything, or if vcore is the only thing that will stabalize it.

What program are you using to test stability?

Try these settings.

vcore 1.4 in bios
ram 1.65
20 multi
fsb 200
ram freq auto (will should automatically be given 1600mhz)

and turn off all the cpu features that I mentioned before except the auto over-clocking thing. This in turn will give you 21x200 = 4.2ghz.

Then use OCCT for 30mins if it passes the test, your pc is stable.

What I normally do to find out the lowest vcore I can use is I start from v1.45 then work my self backwards like v1.4250, v1.40, v1.3750 etc. Running OOCT for stability of course before lowering.
 
Shambles said:
They all have USB2 ports in the back, but only some have the newer, faster USB3 ports (Usually are blue in colour, have the same shape as USB2). mATX is microATX, a smaller form factor for motherboards, usually used in mATX cases. You generally trade a smaller footprint for less features, with an ATX case you'll likely want a full ATX motherboard. Multi-GPU might run you a little over 100$ though.

This one might interest you. The M4A87TD Evo. Has the new SATA/USB connections, supports 2 GPUs (I would assume just Crossfire, not SLI). Some people complain the 2nd GPU blocks some SATA ports but if you really needed that many a simple SATA cable with a 90 degree head on it would fit fine.
Ah, that's perfect. Thank you for your help.
 
Guys, I'm wondering if my PC is having some hardware problem or incompatibility as I was playing a starcraft 2 custom game and suddenly my pc started to lag a LOT.

Specs are

i7 720
6gb DDR3 1333
HD5770

and I play SC2 with settings in ultra.

Is there any pc software to test and maybe score my pc?
 
Sanjay said:
What program are you using to test stability?

Try these settings.

vcore 1.4 in bios
ram 1.65
20 multi
fsb 200
ram freq auto (will should automatically be given 1600mhz)

and turn off all the cpu features that I mentioned before except the auto over-clocking thing. This in turn will give you 21x200 = 4.2ghz.

Then use OCCT for 30mins if it passes the test, your pc is stable.

What I normally do to find out the lowest vcore I can use is I start from v1.45 then work my self backwards like v1.4250, v1.40, v1.3750 etc. Running OOCT for stability of course before lowering.

Using LinX to test stability. I think if i just up the vcore a little more I'll have a stable 4ghz clock. I'll change the ram freq to auto and see if that helps, going out drinking since I graduate on saturday so we'll see if i even get around to it tonight.
 
Hazaro said:
Turn down Shaders from Ultra to High. It's some weird bug to due lighting / minerals or something.


Thanks, I was really scared.

But afterwards, my computer wasn't the same. For example, it was struggling to tasks that it should do easily (as reproduce a HD Video).
 
luiztfc said:
Thanks, I was really scared.

But afterwards, my computer wasn't the same. For example, it was struggling to tasks that it should do easily (as reproduce a HD Video).

Sounds like your computer is choking on file access. Is there something running in the background that is hammering your memory or more likely your HDD? Something like indexing, defragging, 3rd party software running in the background. If other tasks are occupying your HDD everything else chokes while it waits for its turn to access the files it needs. Might not be what's affecting you but I do see it come up fairly often on peoples problematic computers.
 
amd.png

MSI Radeon HD 6950 & HD 6970 listed in France
http://www.tcmagazine.com/tcm/news/hardware/32290/msi-radeon-hd-6950-hd-6970-listed-france
 
is it normal for a hsf to make noise? I mean, its not that loud but I can definitely hear a hissing sound coming from my cpu which I dont think its normal, I belive the fan may be causing this problem , my temps look ok:

GyRks.jpg


is there any way I can improve this? should I replace anything? My CPU is a AMD x4 640 with the stock hsf but I really dont want to put apart my computer, it cost me a lot to build it and I dont want to replace anything so early, maybe I can change only the fan or maybe there is a solution that involves not changing the stock bracket on the motherboard?
 
Shambles said:
Sounds like your computer is choking on file access. Is there something running in the background that is hammering your memory or more likely your HDD? Something like indexing, defragging, 3rd party software running in the background. If other tasks are occupying your HDD everything else chokes while it waits for its turn to access the files it needs. Might not be what's affecting you but I do see it come up fairly often on peoples problematic computers.

Now I'm really scared. Today, my CPU shut it down by itself. When I turned it back on, it said it was due to cpu overheating. I download speedfan do measure the temperatures, but I shut down again...

Should I wait a little and boot it and try to measure?
 
luiztfc said:
Now I'm really scared. Today, my CPU shut it down by itself. When I turned it back on, it said it was due to cpu overheating. I download speedfan do measure the temperatures, but I shut down again...

Should I wait a little and boot it and try to measure?
Your CPU is then throttling itself.

Remount your heatsink and make sure the fan is running.
Use realtemp or coretemp for CPU temperature. You can also check CPU temp in the BIOS, but it's usually not that accurate and not under load (although if it is crashing in Windows without load it is pretty bad).

I'd just go ahead and remount the heatsink, make sure you have some thermal paste on it.
 
I think it's a good idea to be running some sort of temperature monitoring software at all times. They typically have a run in system tray mode and the temperature is always there to see.

Edit: I personally use RealTemp, mainly because I like the interface and SpeedFan gives me funky numbers for my machine that are always about 15C less than any other monitoring software. (I think SpeedFan may measure Tcase, while the others measure Tjunction)
 
My CPU hit 71* while gaming last night, so I clocked it back down to 3.25 GHz from 3.5. Needs a new heatsink, I do. Is it worth it to mess with the North Bridge clock speed or any of that other stuff?
 
scitek said:
My CPU hit 71* while gaming last night, so I clocked it back down to 3.25 GHz from 3.5. Needs a new heatsink, I do. Is it worth it to mess with the North Bridge clock speed or any of that other stuff?

You won't really notice a performance increase in real world applications, probably some points in benchmark stuff, not worth the hassle or the heat on your NB.

And yes 71°C during just regular gaming is too hot. What CPU, Vcore and VTT voltage are you using?


Felix Lighter said:
Edit: I personally use RealTemp, mainly because I like the interface and SpeedFan gives me funky numbers for my machine that are always about 15C less than any other monitoring software. (I think SpeedFan may measure Tcase, while the others measure Tjunction)

Yeah for some programs you need to manually input TJmax, or atleast check TJmax is at the correct value for your processor. They'll give dodgy/wrong readings otherwise.

Coretemp = Tjmax - distance to TJmax

Interesting read about temps (and voltages) here.
 
koji said:
You won't really notice a performance increase in real world applications, probably some points in benchmark stuff, not worth the hassle or the heat on your NB.

And yes 71°C during just regular gaming is too hot. What CPU, Vcore and VTT voltage are you using?

I have a Phenom II 925 x4. I currently just have the voltage on Auto and my PC tops out at around 55° when gaming and I have no problems. Should I still tamper with it?
 
scitek said:
I have a Phenom II 925 x4. I currently just have the voltage on Auto and my PC tops out at around 55° when gaming and I have no problems. Should I still tamper with it?

I'm not the biggest fan of auto voltages when you're overclocking but for a modest OC you should be fine. Auto voltages tend to use more voltage than you actually need (when you OC) so that could explain the heat increase. Those Phenoms do get pretty hot though when OC'ed, need a good heatsink on that.

I wouldn't start fooling around when you don't really need to though. :)

You could install CPUz and see what vcore you've got on that Phenom, not that familiar with AMD OC'ing myself.
 
Hazaro said:
Your CPU is then throttling itself.

Remount your heatsink and make sure the fan is running.
Use realtemp or coretemp for CPU temperature. You can also check CPU temp in the BIOS, but it's usually not that accurate and not under load (although if it is crashing in Windows without load it is pretty bad).

I'd just go ahead and remount the heatsink, make sure you have some thermal paste on it.

img00104201012101318.jpg


Thanks guys. I think you are right and it was the heatsink.

img00106201012101319.jpg


Do I need to apply more thermal paste? I have an unused artic silver 5 that might do the trick. Can I apply it over the old one?
 
luiztfc said:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2629/img00104201012101318.jpg

Thanks guys. I think you are right and it was the heatsink.

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9229/img00106201012101319.jpg

Do I need to apply more thermal paste? I have an unused artic silver 5 that might do the trick. Can I apply it over the old one?

Yikes, that was it. I'd clean off the old paste and reapply the artic silver 5.

koji said:
Yeah for some programs you need to manually input TJmax, or atleast check TJmax is at the correct value for your processor. They'll give dodgy/wrong readings otherwise.

Coretemp = Tjmax - distance to TJmax

Interesting read about temps (and voltages) here.

That is a good post. They don't mention Speedfan specifically but all the monitoring software I've used properly sets the TJmax value to 100C for my CPU. I just kind of assumed Speedfan was reporting Tcase because Tcase should be about 15C lower than Tjunction from what little I've read about it.
 
koji said:
I'm not the biggest fan of auto voltages when you're overclocking but for a modest OC you should be fine. Auto voltages tend to use more voltage than you actually need (when you OC) so that could explain the heat increase. Those Phenoms do get pretty hot though when OC'ed, need a good heatsink on that.

I wouldn't start fooling around when you don't really need to though. :)

You could install CPUz and see what vcore you've got on that Phenom, not that familiar with AMD OC'ing myself.

I'm running Core Temp and it says 1.3V
 
luiztfc said:
Do I need to apply more thermal paste? I have an unused artic silver 5 that might do the trick. Can I apply it over the old one?

Clean it off first, some cleaning alcohol should do the trick just fine. Or just try to wipe it clean.

Don't use too much thermal paste though, that actually has the opposite effect, the paste is used to fill tiny scrathes on your heatsink / processor surface, but it's not that good at conducting heat. Metal to Metal = win.


scitek said:
I'm running Core Temp and it says 1.3V

Is that at stock? If so 1.30 sounds about normal. (don't quote me on this don't know anything about those AMD stock voltages)

You could OC it again and see what voltage your bios is auto setting. 1.50 vcore is the highest you should go (again, don't quote me on this :lol ), if your cooling can handle that.

Some dude on OC.net is running a 925@ 3.5ghz with 1.45 vcore.

But I'm not really the ideal person to give OC advise for AMD chips. :-)

Check his thread if you are interested. a lot of info in here as well but that's more for 955 and 965, the basics stay the same though.
 
koji said:
Is that at stock? If so 1.30 sounds about normal. (don't quote me on this don't know anything about those AMD stock voltages)

You could OC it again and see what voltage your bios is auto setting. 1.50 vcore is the highest you should go (again, don't quote me on this :lol ), if your cooling can handle that.

That's with it set to Auto. I'm pretty sure that's stock, though. I've read AMDs should never go above 1.5 and the lower the better, obviously. The guy running at 3.5GHz appears to have aftermarket cooling. I'm on stock cooling and clocked it from 2.8GHz to 3.25GHz. My RAM was clocked at 1333MHz and I've upped it to 1666MHz, would that make any difference?
 
I've got nearly everything together for my new PC besides the mainboard, which should arrive tomorrow, but i'm kinda afraid of installing the Scythe Mugen 2 Rev B

What's the general consensus on applying thermal compound to an i7?

The instructions from Scythe say it should be spread evenly across the cpu, but some people recommend using the line method (ArcticSilver link).
I've only used stock heatsinks so far and never had to apply thermal paste myself. And does anybody have any tips on how to install the Mugen with only two hands?
 
.nimrod said:
I've got nearly everything together for my new PC besides the mainboard, which should arrive tomorrow, but i'm kinda afraid of installing the Scythe Mugen 2 Rev B

What's the general consensus on applying thermal compound to an i7?

The instructions from Scythe say it should be spread evenly across the cpu, but some people recommend using the line method (ArcticSilver link).
I've only used stock heatsinks so far and never had to apply thermal paste myself. And does anybody have any tips on how to install the Mugen with only two hands?

I put a line and evenly spread across the CPU, there is a fine line of too much and too little.
 
Felix Lighter said:
Yikes, that was it. I'd clean off the old paste and reapply the artic silver 5.



That is a good post. They don't mention Speedfan specifically but all the monitoring software I've used properly sets the TJmax value to 100C for my CPU. I just kind of assumed Speedfan was reporting Tcase because Tcase should be about 15C lower than Tjunction from what little I've read about it.

Even after the cleanup and the new thermal past... the same error happen, during the boat. And the cpu cooler is working...

"CPU Overtemperature error".

I'll try to upload a video.
 
Felix Lighter said:
Are you sure that it is seated tight and secure? Hopefully the CPU isn't already permanently damaged.

It seems to be, but what is funny is that the overtemperature message appears after less than 10 seconds.
 
luiztfc said:
It seems to be, but what is funny is that the overtemperature message appears after less than 10 seconds.

Are you sure those screws are on correctly? Yours looks like one of those crappy stock ones with the plastic screws. I remember when I had one I had an overheating problem that shut down the computer until I put the screws in right.

edit: ...though I don't see screws in the picture...


Also, when you cleaned off the old thermal paste, did you clean off the CPU as well?
 
I don't want to speak too soon, but...

Got my replacement GA-870A-UD3 in, and it seems that was ultimately the culprit causing my BSODs. What I want to know is how I got bad memory (G.Skill verified that one stick was bad), a bad hard drive, and a bad motherboard in one go. All of my system's power is routed through a Back-UPS, so any spikes should be mitigated, and I didn't cheap out on a power supply -- a Corsair which happens to be less than a year old. Is it possible for a motherboard to damage both RAM and a hard drive?

I ended up complaining on Newegg and was offered an RMA by Gigabyte. At this point, though, I'm not even sure I want to bother.

Oh, and some advice: When buying a new case and motherboard, check to see if they include a speaker. If neither components do, you can pick up one for a few dollars. It plugs right in and will (hopefully) give you error codes if the hardware goes to shit.
 
OatmealMu said:
I don't want to speak too soon, but...

Got my replacement GA-870A-UD3 in, and it seems that was ultimately the culprit causing my BSODs. What I want to know is how I got bad memory (G.Skill verified that one stick was bad), a bad hard drive, and a bad motherboard in one go. All of my system's power is routed through a Back-UPS, so any spikes should be mitigated, and I didn't cheap out on a power supply -- a Corsair which happens to be less than a year old. Is it possible for a motherboard to damage both RAM and a hard drive?

I ended up complaining on Newegg and was offered an RMA by Gigabyte. At this point, though, I'm not even sure I want to bother.

Oh, and some advice: When buying a new case and motherboard, check to see if they include a speaker. If neither components do, you can pick up one for a few dollars. It plugs right in and will (hopefully) give you error codes if the hardware goes to shit.

Bad luck, and in the case of the HDD, possibly bad shipping.

I've put together 3 systems without having so much as a faulty component, aside from an 8800GT that was unstable at stock clocks (which I exchanged).
 
Clevinger said:
Are you sure those screws are on correctly? Yours looks like one of those crappy stock ones with the plastic screws. I remember when I had one I had an overheating problem that shut down the computer until I put the screws in right.

edit: ...though I don't see screws in the picture...


Also, when you cleaned off the old thermal paste, did you clean off the CPU as well?

You were right, it's one with these awfull plastic screws. I remounted the sink and made sure I screw them in right. And I did remove the old thermalpaste before applying the new one.

I guess there's not much more to do than to buy a new processor. Should I stick with the i7 720? I don't feel like waiting months to the sandy bridge release ...
 
luiztfc said:
You were right, it's one with these awfull plastic screws. I remounted the sink and made sure I screw them in right. And I did remove the old thermalpaste before applying the new one.

I guess there's not much more to do than to buy a new processor. Should I stick with the i7 720? I don't feel like waiting months to the sandy bridge release ...

Do you mean i7 920? If so then you have a LGA 1366 motherboard. An i7 950 might be the most cost effective replacement for you but you would want to be 100% certian that your CPU is destroyed and you can't get a free replacement before you went that route.

Buy.com is selling an i7 950 for $250 right now apparently.
 
Felix Lighter said:
Do you mean i7 920? If so then you have a LGA 1366 motherboard. An i7 950 might be the most cost effective replacement for you but you would want to be 100% certian that your CPU is destroyed and you can't get a free replacement before you went that route.

Buy.com is selling an i7 950 for $250 right now apparently.

Yep, it's the 920. And I completely forgot about the 3 years warranty. Guess I'll try that before buying another one. Thanks!
 
Shambles said:
Good lord how does a heatsink get that dirty after less than 2 years. :lol

Hope a replacement comes through for you though.

My heatsink gets pretty bad as well. Owning animals does that :(

Vacuuming/Dusting once a week doesn't stop it. Its not near as bad as the above though.
 
luiztfc said:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2629/img00104201012101318.jpg[IMG]

Thanks guys. I think you are right and it was the heatsink.

[IMG]http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9229/img00106201012101319.jpg[IMG]

Do I need to apply more thermal paste? I have an unused artic silver 5 that might do the trick. Can I apply it over the old one?[/QUOTE]

That, is disgusting. I have never seen a heatsink look like that.
 
I have this really strange artifact problem that only seems to appear in 3D games. I've actually asked about this earlier in the thread, but I'm hoping that someone here will recognize this problem and have some idea of how to fix it.
Here's an image of a keyboard in F.E.A.R. 2.
dm9q9t.jpg

It looks like the texture didn't load correctly. I have similar problems in every other game I've played. This only became apparent after I accidentally lowered my GPU fan speed, which likely caused the GPU to overheat. I RMA'd the GPU, which should be delivered within the next few days, but the onboard graphics is still showing similar texture corruption or artifacting. I've tried formatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windows, I've reseated the RAM, I've made sure that none of the wires are loose, but nothing I've done so has had any effect. I've also used hardware diagnostic programs to test my CPU, RAM, and VRAM for errors, but no tests have turned up any errors. I feel like I'm running out of options, aside from replacing every potentially defective part of my computer (which I can't afford). :(
 
ColonelColon said:
I have this really strange artifact problem that only seems to appear in 3D games. I've actually asked about this earlier in the thread, but I'm hoping that someone here will recognize this problem and have some idea of how to fix it.
Here's an image of a keyboard in F.E.A.R. 2.
:(


Does this only happen in FEAR 2, or you see it in other games?
 
ColonelColon said:
I have this really strange artifact problem that only seems to appear in 3D games. I've actually asked about this earlier in the thread, but I'm hoping that someone here will recognize this problem and have some idea of how to fix it.
Here's an image of a keyboard in F.E.A.R. 2.
dm9q9t.jpg

It looks like the texture didn't load correctly. I have similar problems in every other game I've played. This only became apparent after I accidentally lowered my GPU fan speed, which likely caused the GPU to overheat. I RMA'd the GPU, which should be delivered within the next few days, but the onboard graphics is still showing similar texture corruption or artifacting. I've tried formatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windows, I've reseated the RAM, I've made sure that none of the wires are loose, but nothing I've done so has had any effect. I've also used hardware diagnostic programs to test my CPU, RAM, and VRAM for errors, but no tests have turned up any errors. I feel like I'm running out of options, aside from replacing every potentially defective part of my computer (which I can't afford). :(

That's a overheated GPU sign. My PS3 did that before it died, and my GTX460 when overclocked wrong.
 
Ashhong said:
That, is disgusting. I have never seen a heatsink look like that.

you must have not seen a lot of em... in the time i worked (little less than 2 years) repairing PCs among other stuff i've seen much much worse :lol

:)
 
For one of you guys that have cash to burn: Sandy Bridge Core i7 2600K on ebay

You can also find some Sandy Bridge mobos supposedly on sale if you do some Google-fu, from those sites most of us have never heard off. So someone take one for the team and run some Dolphin games to see the improvement :D
 
I have been getting quiet a few BSOD and Lockups the last two days, and looking at the reasons for the crash, it seems to be ether the Ram or a driver that is causing a problem. Any way to try and track down which driver it could be, and a good program to find out which Ram stick is causing issues? The system is currently running all stock settings.
 
luiztfc said:
You were right, it's one with these awfull plastic screws. I remounted the sink and made sure I screw them in right. And I did remove the old thermalpaste before applying the new one.

I guess there's not much more to do than to buy a new processor. Should I stick with the i7 720? I don't feel like waiting months to the sandy bridge release ...
The pins are PUSH not screw. (Unless the 920 is not using that push pin mount).
When you screw them 1/4 a turn that is what pops them out.

You might need to clamp / bite / file the damn things to secure properly. Do it with your motherboard outside your case to check that the bottom is snug.

If you didn't feel that your motherboard was about to snap in half it is probably not secured.

I'm just saying all of this because bad CPU's are so incredibly rare.
 
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