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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition

Question about overclocking and memory,
my memory is set at 800mhz and fsb:dram is 1:1, but my memory runs at 1000 naturally, should I bump it up to 1000mhz and then have it 5:6(I think it's that), which one is better for performance?
 
Power supply question:

I have a Corsair 550 watt supply with 41A on +12V rail. I'm running a pretty regular system: 4 case fans, 1 SATA HD, 4 external USB devices, i5 processor, 1 DVD-RW drive, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and that's about it. Do you think this power supply, in this rig, is strong enough to power a GTX 570 video card? It does have 2x PCIe power supply connectors so I'm OK on that front, I'm just wondering if it has enough pure power.
 
ATTN: Hazaro

5GHz is calling you.

p1040735lbdv.jpg


p1040739oytk.jpg


2500k-retail-1bykz.png


Who needs over-priced engineering samples?


Nolimit_SS said:
Question about overclocking and memory,
my memory is set at 800mhz and fsb:dram is 1:1, but my memory runs at 1000 naturally, should I bump it up to 1000mhz and then have it 5:6(I think it's that), which one is better for performance?
Click to expand...
Synchronous vs Asynchronous depends on your system. Normally, you'd want to run the lowest divider necessary as it's best to keep from slowing down your ram too much. If you are going to underclock the ram (especially that much), you should try tightening your timings as much as possible while still being able to maintain a stable overclock. With your ram running at stock or slightly overclocked, you'll need standard/looser timings. You should try it out (you can run benches) and see which divider, timings, etc work best for you.


DaBuddaDa said:
Power supply question:

I have a Corsair 550 watt supply with 41A on +12V rail. I'm running a pretty regular system: 4 case fans, 1 SATA HD, 4 external USB devices, i5 processor, 1 DVD-RW drive, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and that's about it. Do you think this power supply, in this rig, is strong enough to power a GTX 570 video card? It does have 2x PCIe power supply connectors so I'm OK on that front, I'm just wondering if it has enough pure power.
Click to expand...
You could run that rig with less power than that, so you're fine with that 550W PSU.
 
Certainly. I don't recall seeing a 2500K above 4.8GHz and for true 24/7 clocks at "reasonable" voltage, ~4.2-4.4GHZ and ~4.4-4.6GHz (or 4.8 on the high end) look to be the best average speeds for the 2500K and 2600K respectively. But who knows? There are plenty of us running 1GHz or higher overclocks on under-volted CPUs.

Also, 2600Ks don't seem to be hitting a multiplier wall like some ES and retail 2500Ks have.
 
Maybe this isn't the place, but does anyone know what the best AMD drivers are for 4870 crossfire? (Win7 64)

I am on 10.11 now but I've heard some of the earlier ones (10.4? 10.5?) are better for my 4-series cards.

Thanks
 
How much of an improvement over a Radeon 5870 is a GTX 570? I wonder if I couldn't get a 5870 from someone here looking to upgrade or something for less money than a new card. Is a 5870 a big enough step up from a 5770 to consider that option?
 
scitek said:
How much of an improvement over a Radeon 5870 is a GTX 570? I wonder if I couldn't get a 5870 from someone here looking to upgrade or something for less money than a new card. Is a 5870 a big enough step up from a 5770 to consider that option?
Click to expand...
If you want precise numbers there are endless benchmarking websites to look at, but I'll tell you in general, the GTX 570 is a little bit faster than the 5870, while the 5870 smokes the 5770.
 
·feist· said:
ATTN: Hazaro

5GHz is calling you.

[PICS]

Who needs over-priced engineering samples?
Click to expand...

Ah the german pics made it here, well really looking forward to 2500/2600K. Still not decided on which one to take.

Also ~4,5ghz are fine for me, dont really need more than that.
 
scitek said:
How much of an improvement over a Radeon 5870 is a GTX 570? I wonder if I couldn't get a 5870 from someone here looking to upgrade or something for less money than a new card. Is a 5870 a big enough step up from a 5770 to consider that option?
Click to expand...

Not sure how GAF feels about Tom's, but:

Metro%202033%202560.png


Also, first review I've seen this morning:

HD 6970 and 6950 Review
 
Hey guys I'm measuring out the inside of my computer to see if I even have enough room to upgrade from an 8800GT.

The case for my computer is the Dell XPS 420 if any you can look that up. I'm trying to look into a Radeon HD 6850. Here are all the measurements I got:

Official 6850 Measurements:
Length: 9.5"
Width: 4.4"
Thickness" 1.5"

My 8800gt Measurements:
Length: 9"
Width: 4.5"
Thickness" 0.5"

My Case Video Card Space Measurements"
Length: 10"
Width: 4.5"
Thickness: either 1.75" or 4"

I could be wrong though. Some areas are thicker than others and I don't know if other cards maintain the same shape throughout.

My current power supply is 240v max. If I need a new one what are good prices?

I uploaded some pictures on another computer support forum if you want to see them: http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/video-card-support/523776-advice-upgrade-8800gt-needed.html#post3031956
 
RedSwirl said:
Hey guys I'm measuring out the inside of my computer to see if I even have enough room to upgrade from an 8800GT.

The case for my computer is the Dell XPS 420 if any you can look that up. I'm trying to look into a Radeon HD 6850. Here are all the measurements I got:

Official 6850 Measurements:
Length: 9.5"
Width: 4.4"
Thickness" 1.5"

My 8800gt Measurements:
Length: 9"
Width: 4.5"
Thickness" 0.5"

My Case Video Card Space Measurements"
Length: 10"
Width: 4.5"
Thickness: either 1.75" or 4"

I could be wrong though. Some areas are thicker than others and I don't know if other cards maintain the same shape throughout.

My current power supply is 240v max. If I need a new one what are good prices?

I uploaded some pictures on another computer support forum if you want to see them: http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/video-card-support/523776-advice-upgrade-8800gt-needed.html#post3031956
Click to expand...

Is the 8800gt jammed in with no wiggle room? If not, you should be in good shape as length is usually the probably, not thickness (TWSS).
 
JoeBoy101 said:
Is the 8800gt jammed in with no wiggle room? If not, you should be in good shape as length is usually the probably, not thickness (TWSS).
Click to expand...

Unless the 6850 is more than a whole inch longer than the 8800gt then I guess I should be fine.
 
·feist· said:
Synchronous vs Asynchronous depends on your system. Normally, you'd want to run the lowest divider necessary as it's best to keep from slowing down your ram too much. If you are going to underclock the ram (especially that much), you should try tightening your timings as much as possible while still being able to maintain a stable overclock. With your ram running at stock or slightly overclocked, you'll need standard/looser timings. You should try it out (you can run benches) and see which divider, timings, etc work best for you.
Click to expand...
I'm not very good at overclocking so I'm kinda lost in what you said.
I did some research and only changed FSB to 400 from 333. Ram is on auto and it uses 800 instead of 1000 so not sure if I should manually set it at 1000 or leave it like that.
 
Anyone have experience with MSI video cards? How are they? I've found a GTX 580 for under 500$ and it's MSI. I've never used their VC's only Mobo which was a quality product?
 
Nintendo Playstation said:
Thanks for the help Hazaro!

I don't know if I can wait for the 6970. I understand dual-gpu cards might have some kinks, but I'm hoping drivers can sort that out. After reading a bunch of reviews for the 5970, people liked the card (price aside) unless they had heat issues. With a HAF 932, I don't think that'll be a problem. I might try waiting.
Click to expand...

If you are playing at a 2560 resolution then I would recommend the 5970 is a beast of a card and definitely helps at those resolutions but if you are just going to play on 1920x1080 you won't need anything better than a 6970 or even a 6950 equivalent card.
 
So GAF, I have done some tweeking in MSI Afterburner on my Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB and overclocked it to a core/shader clock of 850/1700 and memory clock to 2000. I tested it with the Just Cause 2 Dark Tower benchmark and averaged right around 29fps. According to afterburner, the highest temps seen were 62C.

Does that seem alright to you all? Has anyone else done any overclocking with this card?

And is it ok to have MSI Afterburner apply the overclock at system startup?
 
So I have a Visiontek HD 6870. 2 monitors hooked up through DVI (24" Dell, 22" Acer) and an HDMI cable going to my 42" HDTV.

I can't get all 3 to play nice. I tried VisionTeks forums to no avail, google brings up vague answers that I'm really not sure of ..

In CCC It shows the 3, but I can't get any combination of all 3 to work.

Am I understanding this right? There's 5 video hookups in the back yet you can only have 2?

Halp!
 
scitek said:
My CPU just topped at 64°C while playing GTA4. Too high for a Phenom II x4 925?
Click to expand...
I think its 70°C is when you start running into to high, but you could always get a better heat sink/fan
 
Fredescu said:
You need an Eyefinity dongle (active Displayport) to get more than 2 at once. Check out some of the restrictions at the top of the page and the supported dongles at the bottom of the page: http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx
Click to expand...

Dang, really? What is the point of having all those video connections in the back then? I guess I could setup profiles to just activate different ones at a time? Thanks for the reply BTW.
 
flyinpiranha said:
Dang, really? What is the point of having all those video connections in the back then?
Click to expand...
Just to give you different connectivity options. My 4890 has five video outputs but it can only use two at once. Prior to the 5xxx series you were limited to two per card. They added Eyefinity in the 5xxx series to give you the option of up to six per card.
 
Hey guys, quick laptop question: what is the best performance-to-cost processor of the i5 notebook processors? Currently customizing my HP Envy 14, and want to upgrade the processor to one of the i5's (up from the standard i3) but not spend too much more. I make this upgrade with gaming in mind.
 
Fredescu said:
Just to give you different connectivity options. My 4890 has five video outputs but it can only use two at once. Prior to the 5xxx series you were limited to two per card. They added Eyefinity in the 5xxx series to give you the option of up to six per card.
Click to expand...

Ah, gotcha ... I will look at those dongles (yes, it probably is what she said).
 
ACE 1991 said:
Hey guys, quick laptop question: what is the best performance-to-cost processor of the i5 notebook processors? Currently customizing my HP Envy 14, and want to upgrade the processor to one of the i5's (up from the standard i3) but not spend too much more. I make this upgrade with gaming in mind.
Click to expand...

Wait for Sandy Bridge which will be out in less than a month!
 
For all known information, 1155 Sandy Bridge are actually built for laptops so i expect laptops SB will be out together with the desktop parts.
 
I'm wondering why people are so damn interested in SB right now. Yeah, they look pretty good, but new CPUs are pretty damn dependent on new mobos, and from what I hear (and personal experience), 1st gen motherboards are pretty lousy. Is being an earlier adopter for this stuff really worth it to you? And before you grill me on the early adopter thing, I brought a 60gb PS3 for $600 the first week it was out, and I still play it pretty often.

/rant
 
Gaf, I need some help. last month my old graphic card died due to power outage, in panic, I immediately go and buy a new graphic card, and since I'm in a hurry I bought GTX 460, remembering it got favorable reviews here on Gaf. well can't complaint about it since it work great and all.

anyway, since I've bought a new gpu, I think might as well time to upgrade the whole pc. I keep hearing direct x10 or 11 but I'm stuck with 9 because I still use xp etc. for spec, I'm not sure how capable my new GTX 460 is, but I hope to play Witcher 2 smoothly on at least normal setting, high would be awesome. and for CPU, I want to try ps2 emulation which I heard need more CPU than GPU.

so, any recommendation the spec? I'm ready to spend $400-$500 on it and I already have the gpu. so probably gonna need new Motherboard, CPU, Ram, probably a new casing as well. I think I can keep my old power supply though.
 
Callibretto said:
Gaf, I need some help. last month my old graphic card died due to power outage, in panic, I immediately go and buy a new graphic card, and since I'm in a hurry I bought GTX 460, remembering it got favorable reviews here on Gaf. well can't complaint about it since it work great and all.

anyway, since I've bought a new gpu, I think might as well time to upgrade the whole pc. I keep hearing direct x10 or 11 but I'm stuck with 9 because I still use xp etc. for spec, I'm not sure how capable my new GTX 460 is, but I hope to play Witcher 2 smoothly on at least normal setting, high would be awesome. and for CPU, I want to try ps2 emulation which I heard need more CPU than GPU.

so, any recommendation the spec? I'm ready to spend $400-$500 on it and I already have the gpu. so probably gonna need new Motherboard, CPU, Ram, probably a new casing as well. I think I can keep my old power supply though.
Click to expand...
what resolution?

Darkatomz said:
I'm wondering why people are so damn interested in SB right now. Yeah, they look pretty good, but new CPUs are pretty damn dependent on new mobos, and from what I hear (and personal experience), 1st gen motherboards are pretty lousy. Is being an earlier adopter for this stuff really worth it to you? And before you grill me on the early adopter thing, I brought a 60gb PS3 for $600 the first week it was out, and I still play it pretty often.

/rant
Click to expand...
I don't understand what you're ranting about. You are upset that some people want to buy Sandy Bridge shortly after its release? It's their money, and SB will offer improved performance compared to the current CPUs (at the same price), so what's the problem?
 
Darkatomz said:
I'm wondering why people are so damn interested in SB right now. Yeah, they look pretty good, but new CPUs are pretty damn dependent on new mobos, and from what I hear (and personal experience), 1st gen motherboards are pretty lousy. Is being an earlier adopter for this stuff really worth it to you? And before you grill me on the early adopter thing, I brought a 60gb PS3 for $600 the first week it was out, and I still play it pretty often.

/rant
Click to expand...

They're not limited that much by mobos at all. The only big limitation with 1155 mobos is that SLI setups will only get 8x/8x on the PCIe. Otherwise, people are getting near 5GHz overclocks. What's the problem exactly?

I'm running a first gen Core 2 mobo. No problems here.
 
I have a 4870 1gb, 3.16ghz e8500 and 4gb ddr2 ram, and my question is, is it worth to upgrade to a 6950 or a 6970, and in that case, which one of these 2 would be the best choice?
 
Maffis said:
I have a 4870 1gb, 3.16ghz e8500 and 4gb ddr2 ram, and my question is, is it worth to upgrade to a 6950 or a 6970, and in that case, which one of these 2 would be the best choice?
Click to expand...
Only upgrade your GPU if you are not happy with your current one imo.

You can check the benchmarks to see improvement on the games you play and if it is worth it to you.

I'm still deciding myself on what to pick up.
 
If you going to upgrade to SB later, then you can pick up 6970 now. These days GPU like to appreciate in prices. :lol If not, Core 2 duo will hold back 6970, any i7 at 3.6ghz will have as good gains as the 6970.
 
longdi said:
If you going to upgrade to SB later, then you can pick up 6970 now. These days GPU like to appreciate in prices. :lol If not, Core 2 duo will hold back 6970, any i7 at 3.6ghz will have as good gains as the 6970.
Click to expand...
I would not be surprised if 6850 prices went up $10-$20 in a week or two honestly :/
 
Anyone have experience with the plantronics 367 headset with mic? Yay or nay - recommendations if nay?

Or any experience with the logitech g35 set.
 
New Intel chips are coming out in 4 weeks so I'd save for that.
Your mobo will be a bit pricier, but not much more than a P55 board (You have an H55).
Other than that it looks ok. I think Scythe PSU's are ok? Is there a Seasonic 650W / 620W at that price range?
 
Just an FYI for anyone interested.

I bought a Coolermaster V8 (an another 4 gb of ram, it was cheap!) and the thing is gotta be one of the best cpu fans out there.

I went from having around 55º on idle to 65º on 100% cpu load to be on 28º idle and 40º on 100% cpu load. This thing is a fucking monster, and I can't stress how silent it is compared to a stock fan.
 
itxaka said:
Just an FYI for anyone interested.

I bought a Coolermaster V8 (an another 4 gb of ram, it was cheap!) and the thing is gotta be one of the best cpu fans out there.

I went from having around 55º on idle to 65º on 100% cpu load to be on 28º idle and 40º on 100% cpu load. This thing is a fucking monster, and I can't stress how silent it is compared to a stock fan.
Click to expand...
V8 is ok. Despite all it's pipes, both it an the V10 aren't in the best sections of coolers.
When I saw it and the V10 I expected a lot more. Certainly will allow for some low speed fans though.
 
Hazaro said:
New Intel chips are coming out in 4 weeks so I'd save for that.
Your mobo will be a bit pricier, but not much more than a P55 board (You have an H55).
Other than that it looks ok. I think Scythe PSU's are ok? Is there a Seasonic 650W / 620W at that price range?
Click to expand...

So would you wait until then? Which price are they estimated to be?
 
SuperÑ said:
So would you wait until then? Which price are they estimated to be?
Click to expand...
The i7 2500 should be the same price as an i5 760 now.
The motherboards will be the same price or +$10 as a P55 goes for in your area.

Plus you get SATA 6gbps, USB 3.0, a non dead socket, and an onboard graphics!
 
Hazaro said:
V8 is ok. Despite all it's pipes, both it an the V10 aren't in the best sections of coolers.
When I saw it and the V10 I expected a lot more. Certainly will allow for some low speed fans though.
Click to expand...
I dont know about the best but the thing is silent as fuck. Mind you that its running at 800 rpm so it doesnt make any sound which was my main issue with fans. To be able to cool that much with no sound males it awesome in my eyes. I didnt really expected it to cool that much!
 
Hazaro said:
The i7 2500 should be the same price as an i5 760 now.
The motherboards will be the same price or +$10 as a P55 goes for in your area.

Plus you get SATA 6gbps, USB 3.0, a non dead socket, and an onboard graphics!
Click to expand...

This is honestly no longer a pro to buying a new socket, since Intel has been releasing 1 set of CPUs per socket these days.

1156 and 1366 are as dead now as they were the day they launched.
 
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