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[Mr. Hyde]

I may be overcautious, but I'd be nervous about buying a 2TB drive. 5400 RPM is fine for backups, but I'd be worried about the failure rate.

Well. I keep important files on Dropbox. Most stuff I wouldn't be worried about losing. I might drop it to 1tb, though. It'd be cheaper and make more sense. I am not sure I'd use more than 1TB anytime soon.

 

[K.Jack]

--Software Recommendations--

I did a bunch of research on free anti-virus software and ultimately chose to use avast! because it has solid AV protection without negatively impacting system performance. It even has a "Gamer" option for those who want maximum frame rates.

Download avast!


All CPU Meter is a Gadget for Windows 7 that monitors many of your key system metrics. It just sits quietly on your desktop and it's a good way to see how your hardware is performing. It can also be brought to the forefront with the Windows+G keyboard shortcut.

Download All CPU Meter

Microsoft Security Essentials is all you need.

Cute gadget though. I like it.

So if 0 and 1 are fine, and there are 8 SATA ports on the Asus pro board, that means I should be fine using 0, 1, 6, and 7 for SSD, disk drive, and HD?

I will tentatively say you're right, but you need to contact Asus ASAP, in case there's a repair queue.

 

[Roody]

Okay guys, I've been reading through this topic an it has been a HUGE help, thanks to everyone who's been maintaining it and helping others out. I'm a huge noob when it comes to building a PC and this is my first one I'll be putting together on my own.

I've been slowly piecing together what I want for my new PC. I'm using the "Get a Lot More" Build listed in the OP as my guideline. Been sticking pretty close to it, but with the talk about the Sandy Bridge processors, should I wait on getting one of those, or get a Lynnfield processor instead? Unless I'm misunderstanding things. I'm in no huge hurry, so if the SB processors will be fixed soon I can wait.

I'm also not worried about having a fancy-looking case, so something simple like the Cooler Master 310 should do fine for everything listed under the "Get a Lot More" list, right?

 

[coopolon]

Thanks for the heads up, ordered 2 and returning my coolermaster 500w extreme that cost more before rebate for a very nice power supply.

Np. Saw it on Slickdeals and figured people might be interested here.


Just a heads up in case anyone didn't know, Newegg frequently runs promo codes that you can't use unless you've signed up for their newletter. So sign up for their newsletter.

 

[xero273]

So if 0 and 1 are fine, and there are 8 SATA ports on the Asus pro board, that means I should be fine using 0, 1, 6, and 7 for SSD, disk drive, and HD?

isn't ports 6 and 7 the sata 3 gb ports? For the asus p8p67 board, there should be 4 sata 6 gb ports. I'm pretty sure the pro version is something like that. Two of them use the marvell controller. So you should use those

 

[·feist·]

Just find me the best PSU that's under $70. I'm not buying today so it can't be that one.

??

$65 at check out with the 48hr code. Another $25 rebate on top of that to bring the total to $40.

You will not find a better PSU at that price.

This 520W unit is one of the few that has comparable efficiency, features and build quality.

So you're looking at $80-90 to match the $40 Antec above.

 

[keeblerdrow]

One last check before I put in my order for part 2 of my computer. Is anyone familiar with XIGMATEK and have anything positive or negative to say about them? Specifically their heatsinks? I'm thinking about getting this here model, which looks really similar to the universally recommended Cooler Master 212. It has slight design differences, but looks to be the same to me. Any thoughts?

 

[Velion]

I have this one Here But I don't see the reason to pass up on the 212+ since its similar prices/performance.

 

[ChoklitReign]

??

$65 at check out with the 48hr code. Another $25 rebate on top of that to bring the total to $40.

You will not find a better PSU at that price.

This 520W unit is one of the few that has comparable efficiency, features and build quality.

So you're looking at $80-90 to match the $40 Antec above.

I added the Seasonic one to my wish list but I'll see if I can order the one you recommend during the sale.

 

[keeblerdrow]

I have this one Here But I don't see the reason to pass up on the 212+ since its similar prices/performance.

Eh, it comes with free thermal paste. I consider that a $5 off coupon.

 

[Jin34]

Eh, it comes with free thermal paste.

So does the Hyper 212+. I had a Xigmatek in the past and it was pretty good except I wish it came with it's own bracket instead of using the AMD lever system.

 

[MisterNoisy]

One last check before I put in my order for part 2 of my computer. Is anyone familiar with XIGMATEK and have anything positive or negative to say about them? Specifically their heatsinks? I'm thinking about getting this here model, which looks really similar to the universally recommended Cooler Master 212. It has slight design differences, but looks to be the same to me. Any thoughts?

I just put one of those in my most recent build (got it for 20% off at Newegg). So far, I have no complaints except that the included fan isn't the best - installation was pretty simple and it's worked fine for me so far.

Tom's has a review/comparison up here. Comparing the results to their test of the Hyper 212 here would seem to indicate that there's very little performance difference between the two.

 

[butter_stick]

SO if I want a new PC right now, for something like playing games, should I go AMD? Note that I want it now, I don't want to wait for this to be fixed ^_^

 

[keeblerdrow]

SO if I want a new PC right now, for something like playing games, should I go AMD? Note that I want it now, I don't want to wait for this to be fixed ^_^

The way it sounds right now, this won't effect most users if you just have a 1 hard drive, 1 optical drive set up. I see nothing wrong with just getting a sandy bridge system right now.

 

[Ikuu]

You'd be best waiting for this to be sorted, or the new AMD stuff. The way people are talking you would think machines are exploding or something.

 

[mrklaw]

SO if I want a new PC right now, for something like playing games, should I go AMD? Note that I want it now, I don't want to wait for this to be fixed ^_^

There is a reason that the i5 2500k is getting a lot of recommendations and press plaudits. It's simply the best option for gaming right now. You'd IMO be cutting off your nose to spite your face by choosing not to go that route.

Either buy a P67 board and not use the offending ports, safe in the knowledge that Intel will most likely offer a replacement service if necessary. Or just wait.

Even if you have a ton of SATA stuff, you could just buy a PCI SATA card. You only need one sata drive to boot off (don't know if you can boot from a PCI SATA drive). I think all P67 boards have at least two 6Gb ports which should be fine. ASUS boards have four you can use

This is a fuck up by intel, but don't let it distract you from the simple fact that sandy bridge is still the best option right now

 

[Raistlin]

Damn. That PowerColor dual BIOS 6950 I mentioned last week just got all 10's at HardwareHeaven


http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...6950-pcs-graphics-card-review-conclusion.html

Summary
The perfect 6950 and one of a very small number of products to ever score perfect 10's across the board on HardwareHeaven.

When the hell is it going to hit the US?

 

[mrklaw]

Damn. That PowerColor dual BIOS 6950 I mentioned last week just got all 10's at HardwareHeaven

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...6950-pcs-graphics-card-review-conclusion.html


When the hell is it going to hit the US?

Any real difference from flashing to 6970 bios yourself and optionally adding some extra cooling?

 

[Solo]

Reposting from OT, likely to get more looks here:

So my new computer has 2500k/Asus P8P67Pro. In light of today's recall news/info, I thought Id open my PC and switch everything over to the Intel/Marvell 6GB/s SATA ports.

Originally, NCIX had my HDD hooked into an Intel 6GB/s slot, and my DVD player/SATA-e extensions plugged into 2 Intel 3gb/s slots.

I unplugged both of those DVD player connections, slotted one into the free Intel 6GB/s slot, and one into a Marvell slot. Closed the case back up and fired up the comp. After the ASUS/bios screen, I was getting hung up at a black screen stating only "no operating system". I powered down and tried about 5 different configurations, arriving back at the one I just described. When I powered up again, I entered the bios menu (where I don't like to go as a PC tech idiot). It showed my boot order as DVD player, then a USB stick, then my second USB stick. Nothing else. However, when I hit F8 and enter the boot menu, those three options appear with another option, my HDD. When I select that, Windows loaded right up, and here I am.

My (presumably silly) question is: how can I get my PC to automatically load Windows again? I don't want to continue to have to hit the boot menu to get to it.

Thanks.

 

[vocab]

Any real difference from flashing to 6970 bios yourself and optionally adding some extra cooling?

Not sure if you can even flash the 1GB models.

Reposting from OT, likely to get more looks here:

So my new computer has 2500k/Asus P8P67Pro. In light of today's recall news/info, I thought Id open my PC and switch everything over to the Intel/Marvell 6GB/s SATA ports.

Originally, NCIX had my HDD hooked into an Intel 6GB/s slot, and my DVD player/SATA-e extensions plugged into 2 Intel 3gb/s slots.

I unplugged both of those DVD player connections, slotted one into the free Intel 6GB/s slot, and one into a Marvell slot. Closed the case back up and fired up the comp. After the ASUS/bios screen, I was getting hung up at a black screen stating only "no operating system". I powered down and tried about 5 different configurations, arriving back at the one I just described. When I powered up again, I entered the bios menu (where I don't like to go as a PC tech idiot). It showed my boot order as DVD player, then a USB stick, then my second USB stick. Nothing else. However, when I hit F8 and enter the boot menu, those three options appear with another option, my HDD. When I select that, Windows loaded right up, and here I am.

My (presumably silly) question is: how can I get my PC to automatically load Windows again? I don't want to continue to have to hit the boot menu to get to it.

Thanks.

There should be an actual boot order that you can configure in the bios.

 

[artist]

Can I run a three monitor setup with a 460 and a 7600GT? Probably not ..

 

[Raistlin]

Any real difference from flashing to 6970 bios yourself and optionally adding some extra cooling?

Not really other than it's guaranteed to work, and the fact integrated cooling is less clunky than adding something yourself. That and the convenience of easily being able to toggle between BIOS if power consumption is a concern.

 

[Solo]

There should be an actual boot order that you can configure in the bios.

There is, but my HDD doesn't appear in it.

 

[vocab]

There is, but my HDD doesn't appear in it.

You sure its plugged in?

If it really is, unplug the dvd drives, and start up with just the HD. This problem happens with SSD's as well (well not disappear completely, but more along the lines of telling the computer which HD to boot from even after installing an OS).

If you still don't get anything, clear the cmos, and hope to god it shows it.

 

[mrklaw]

Not really other than it's guaranteed to work, and the fact integrated cooling is less clunky than adding something yourself. That and the convenience of easily being able to toggle between BIOS if power consumption is a concern.

Actually the simple switch is tempting for someone like me that just wants it working with no messing about. I like that the ASUS motherboards have an 'auto overclock' button too

 

[Solo]

You sure its plugged in?

If it really is, unplug the dvd drives, and start up with just the HD. This problem happens with SSD's as well (well not disappear completely, but more along the lines of telling the computer which HD to boot from even after installing an OS).

If you still don't get anything, clear the cmos, and hope to god it shows it.

Its plugged in and Im using it now, and it shows up in the boot menu, but its not an option under boot order, which I why I have to keep entering BIOS to load Windows.

Ill try your suggestion though.

 

[SuperLurker]

There is, but my HDD doesn't appear in it.

I've got a P8P67 Pro and to get my HDD to appear in the boot order menu I had to go into the advanced bios mode, select Boot from the menu, then scroll to the very bottom and select "Hard Drive BBS Priority". Click on that and it should take you to a new screen that lists all your drives. Select the hard drive you want in one of the first two slots and then you should be able to select in from the boot order menu on the previous screen.

 

[Solo]

I've got a P8P67 Pro and to get my HDD to appear in the boot order menu I had to go into the advanced bios mode, select Boot from the menu, then scroll to the very bottom and select "Hard Drive BBS Priority". Click on that and it should take you to a new screen that lists all your drives. Select the hard drive you want in one of the first two slots and then you should be able to select in from the boot order menu on the previous screen.

No joke, I literally just found this, yelled out in joy when I solved the issue, then came in here to see someone had just posted what I did

Working fine now!

 

[CrankyJay]

Wonder if Amazon.com is still shipping these. Willing to take a shot on this.

 

[Raistlin]

Throw it in your cart, check out, and see.

At worst in a day or two it will tell you about a delay. Just cancel then.

 

[mclaren777]

I think there's a good chance that I'm going to ignore this recall.

HDD & SSD on SATA6, DVD drives on Marvell = not worth dismantling my system for a statistically small chance of future failure.

The only thing that could possibly sway my decision is an upgrade option for Z68 so I can finally use Quick Sync.

 

[CrankyJay]

Throw it in your cart, check out, and see.

At worst in a day or two it will tell you about a delay. Just cancel then.

Tempted, but would rather not order in the middle of a country-wide snow storm.

 

[Chiggs]

HDD & SSD on SATA6, DVD drives on Marvell = not worth dismantling my system for a statistically small chance of future failure.

Dollars to donuts the actual risk, in terms of estimated percentages, has been downplayed significantly.

 

[Dynamic3]

I couldn't get my MB order in in time, this sucks.

 

[mclaren777]

For your consideration...

The company said it has shipped 8m of the defective chips, but that it is already working on new versions of the support chips and that they could be shipping as soon as February. Had the problem gone undiscovered, about 5% of PCs using the new chipsets could have failed over a three-year period, said Stephen Smith, vice president and director of PC Client Operations at Intel. "It would be a low and continuing failure rate over the life of the systems," he said.

Jimmy sent us a chat log with an Intel customer service representative indicating that this recall only affects "some desktop boards based on Intel P67 chipset," that the H67 chipset boards appear to not be affected, but that the company doesn't have a comprehensive list yet. We've certainly seen cases where CSRs don't have all the info in this sort of situation, but still we'd advise waiting a bit before tearing your new mobo out and bringing it back to the store.

 

[CrankyJay]

February sounds more like it. That April date bandied about before pissed me off. There's alot at stake in terms of making sure parts work, return policies, and rebates on other parts. Fuckers better be losing sleep to turn this around faster.

 

[Raistlin]

'As soon as February' does not necessarily equal February. And I would suspect initial stock will be devoted to PC OEM's, not standalone MoBo's.

I'd guess March at the earliest for a steady supply of separates. Not trying to be a Negative Nancy, but I wouldn't get too optimistic.

 

[Hazaro]

I think there's a good chance that I'm going to ignore this recall.

HDD & SSD on SATA6, DVD drives on Marvell = not worth dismantling my system for a statistically small chance of future failure.

The only thing that could possibly sway my decision is an upgrade option for Z68 so I can finally use Quick Sync.

Yeah I'm just putting my DVD drives on the marvell ports I have, HDDs are on SATA6 so I'm fine.

 

[TheExodu5]

I'll probably be ignoring it as well...if there's a 5% one or some of my SATA ports stop working in the next three years, I'll take the risk.

 

[peppermints]

Ordered my P67 Asus motherboard today. With the Marvell ports I should have more than enough, even if the Intel ones do fail. Only planning on using three at most.

However, now Newegg no longer has the 2500K in stock.. any other recommendations on where to purchase one for about the same price?

 

[Hazaro]

In the OP

 

[Ecto311]

Ordered my P67 Asus motherboard today. With the Marvell ports I should have more than enough, even if the Intel ones do fail. Only planning on using three at most.

However, now Newegg no longer has the 2500K in stock.. any other recommendations on where to purchase one for about the same price?

Microcenter if you have one close. I didn't know I did but there is one a few miles from my inlaws house in denver..

 

[blackMamba1187]

quick check: this PSU; Corsair 750w is powerful enough to handle crossfire'd 5870s?

 

[Deus Ex Machina]

quick check: this PSU; Corsair 750w is powerful enough to handle crossfire'd 5870s?

Yes, with little headroom.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

so it's a 5-10% failure on 4 SATA ports in 36 months? eh... big ado about nothing (well, it's something but not THAT big of a deal.)

 

[Raistlin]

I'll probably be ignoring it as well...if there's a 5% one or some of my SATA ports stop working in the next three years, I'll take the risk.

The point is that it's actually likely more (possibly quite a bit more).

That said, I'm probably going to chance it as well and just go with what's already on the way.

 

[Raistlin]

quick check: this PSU; Corsair 750w is powerful enough to handle crossfire'd 5870s?

Should be fine.

I actually ordered that one but decided to up things to a 850w gold efficiency model (their 'pro' one), but that's because I'll be running dual OCC'd 6950's when all is said and done. For the 58xx's, you should be golden.

 

[rabhw]

Should be fine.

I actually ordered that one but decided to up things to a 850w gold efficiency model (their 'pro' one), but that's because I'll be running dual OCC'd 6950's when all is said and done. For the 58xx's, you should be golden.

I'm running dual unlocked 6950's on an HX650 without any problems at all. Just thought I'd mention it in case you were wanting / needing to save a little money and still had time to change your order

 

[itxaka]

Microsoft Security Essentials is all you need.

Cute gadget though. I like it.


I will tentatively say you're right, but you need to contact Asus ASAP, in case there's a repair queue.

I don't like MSE because it bundles the virus updates on windows update. That sucks because I disabled automatic installing, it only downloads and advises me of new updates but sometime it takes a while to do it.

Meanwhile, any other antivirus is automatic scheduled to download the updates by itself at least once per day, and normally if more than 24 hours have passed it downloads them as soon as you have an internet connection.

Still, a good antivirus, solid and fast.

I myself use Avira after checking some comparatives between them seems to rank always at the top.

 

[Raistlin]

I'm running dual unlocked 6950's on an HX650 without any problems at all. Just thought I'd mention it in case you were wanting / needing to save a little money and still had time to change your order

Interesting. Neither have arrived so I can chose what to return.


Out of curiosity what else is on your system? CPU? How many HDD's, disc drives, fans, cooling, etc? Just want to make sure I have plenty of headroom for anything I can possibly throw at it.

Considering the 750w I ordered is a TX model though, I wouldn't be surprised if your unit actually generates more power. I think I'd need to move to an HX or AX anyway (the latter is the 850w unit I order - basically the HX series replacement iirc).