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[Jubbly]

Why the two processors and motherboards?

Need to do some comparisons and testing.

All that and you are getting a shitty Thermotake case and air cooling and a 23 inch monitor?

Case is one of few certified for quad SLI and air cooling is a requirement at this time (it wasn't my decision however. I wanted to go with a Silverstone). Watercooling will go in at a later date. Monitor is currently the best for 3D Vision. There's a 27" Acer coming out next month that I'll probably switch to if the quality is any better, but it's still only 1920x1080p - 3DV has a long way to go still.

How are you going to get all that power and then run it through what I assume is a 23" monitor?

I have two Samsung PX2370's already. I am horribly susceptible to ghosting and have gone through so many screens, but with the Samsung I've finally found something that doesn't have any noticeable issues whatsoever, and for me that's better than having a 70" monitor 5 feet away on my desk.

are your projects using CUDA? looking at that website of that monitor makes me curious about what kind of projects you do =]

I'm primarily evaluating 3D performance at this time. We could have gotten a cheaper 3D screen but like I say above I have shitty eyes so wanted to reduce the possibility of issues as much as possible. And frankly, how can you turn down a monitor that has a travel case that costs as much as the screen itself?! ($495) http://www.planaronline.com/product/?id=997-6239-00

 

[rosjos44]

GTX 580, with an Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme (aftermarket cooler). That would be my pick for best.



If you're running 3 screens, then you either need to go AMD, or get SLI, as NVidia only supports 2 screens off 1 video card.

As for your current wishlist, if you're going for the best video card, there's no way you want to go AMD. Wait for Intel motherboards to get back in stock, and get Sandy Bridge.

Can you link me to a good intel board and Sandy Bridge CPU? I appreciate your advice.

I do plan on running 3 screens too and I would like a Six core CPU.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

I'll ask my question in this thread since it appears to be more active than the HTPC thread in the OT.

I am looking at some sound cards and I am wondering what would be best. I am definitely going to use the PC for home theater purposes, but I would also like to get some gaming on it as well.

The cards I have looked at are:

Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3
Asus Xonar D2X
Auzentech X-Fi Home Theater
HT Omega Claro Plus

Any recommendations would be great. Thanks.

I'd recommend the Omega Claro. I myself will be getting the ASUS Xonar (purely aesthetic choices but it's a good performer)

 

[Jubbly]

Can you link me to a good intel board and Sandy Bridge CPU? I appreciate your advice.

I do plan on running 3 screens too and I would like a Six core CPU.

There won't be a six core Sandy Bridge CPU until later this year (likely Q4). You could get a Sandy Bridge 2600 series with 4 cores and 8 threads and then upgrade, but if you really want 6 cores you have to buy a LGA 1366 i7 970, 980X or 990X. That's a dead end now so you'd have to buy an entirely new motherboard if you wanted to upgrade to Sandy Bridge anything at a later date.

 

[TheExodu5]

There's no reason to want six cores. The 4 core Sandy Bridge demolishes all of the AMD CPUs, regardless of the number of cores.

 

[antonz]

There's no reason to want six cores. The 4 core Sandy Bridge demolishes all of the AMD CPUs, regardless of the number of cores.

Yep the 4 Core SB do a solid job matching or exceeding the 6 Core Extreme Processors from the i7 line too.

Ivy Bridge is said to be compatible with the P67 boards so if you are willing to spend the extra cash you can jump to the SB CPUs then jump again later

 

[Jubbly]

There's no reason to want six cores. The 4 core Sandy Bridge demolishes all of the AMD CPUs, regardless of the number of cores.

Shogun 2 is going to make use of 6 cores, but yea, other than that there's no need for 6 cores at this time.

 

[echoshifting]

I have a GeForce 9800 gtx and I'm looking at possibly upgrading for Witcher 2. Am I better off getting the second, less expensive card and taking advantage of sli, or just replacing the card entirely at this point?

Apologies if my terminology/understanding of how this works is a bit off, I don't keep up with this stuff.

edit: let's say I want to spend $250 at most but I'd like to spend under $180. I'll probably buy mid-late spring.

 

[Deus Ex Machina]

Shogun 2 is going to make use of 6 cores, but yea, other than that there's no need for 6 cores at this time.

Some upcoming games will be using 6 cores as well... BFBC2 use 6 right now.

And if you do any video encoding AMD 6 cores will outperform i7 4 cores. Intel virtual cores wont help in this situation.

 

[antonz]

I have a GeForce 9800 gtx and I'm looking at possibly upgrading for Witcher 2. Am I better off getting the second, less expensive card and taking advantage of sli, or just replacing the card entirely at this point?

Apologies if my terminology/understanding of how this works is a bit off, I don't keep up with this stuff.

edit: let's say I want to spend $250 at most but I'd like to spend under $180.

I think you would be far better off getting a 460 or 560 Ti card. The performance wll blow away the sli solution of 9800 GTX. In reality the 9800 GTX was a barely there improvement on the 8800GT. 560 ti offers roughly 300% performance increase over the 8800GT

 

[garath]

I have a GeForce 9800 gtx and I'm looking at possibly upgrading for Witcher 2. Am I better off getting the second, less expensive card and taking advantage of sli, or just replacing the card entirely at this point?

Apologies if my terminology/understanding of how this works is a bit off, I don't keep up with this stuff.

edit: let's say I want to spend $250 at most but I'd like to spend under $180. I'll probably buy mid-late spring.

Personally I would just upgrade to a GTX460 then. One can be had for $130-$150 and be a significant upgrade.

 

[echoshifting]

Thanks very much guys. I'll check those cards out. Appreciate the feedback.

 

[Mr_Brit]

Some upcoming games will be using 6 cores as well... BFBC2 use 6 right now.

And if you do any video encoding AMD 6 cores will outperform i7 4 cores. Intel virtual cores wont help in this situation.

What the? Huh? What is it with GAF and making up facts today?

 

[Darkatomz]

Just picked up this beast. was gonna go GTX 580 but I'm getting a 27" cinema display and needed a card with native mini display support. Will be getting another 6970 since I want to run games natively at 2560x1440

Also have the asus essence ST on the way with a pair of AV40 speakers. needed to step up my audio game.

Nice sound choices! Plan on swapping out some op-amps on the sound card while you're at it?

Oh, and nice video card too.

I'll ask my question in this thread since it appears to be more active than the HTPC thread in the OT.

I am looking at some sound cards and I am wondering what would be best. I am definitely going to use the PC for home theater purposes, but I would also like to get some gaming on it as well.

The cards I have looked at are:

Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3
Asus Xonar D2X
Auzentech X-Fi Home Theater
HT Omega Claro Plus

Any recommendations would be great. Thanks.

I'd recommend the Omega Claro. I myself will be getting the ASUS Xonar (purely aesthetic choices but it's a good performer)

I'd recommend the Asus Xonar Essence ST instead of those choices like BBG above. I'll assume your speakers are adequate, since you put the HT card on your list.

 

[Naked Snake]

And if you do any video encoding AMD 6 cores will outperform i7 4 cores. Intel virtual cores wont help in this situation.

Sandy Bridge beats everything in video encoding, in both quality or speed: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/9

 

[Shambles]

Sandy Bridge beats everything in video encoding, in both quality or speed: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/9

Keep in mind most users in this forum buying K parts and P67 boards won't be able to use quicksync so that number isn't practical unless you're willing to sacrifice overall system performance for encoding performance on an H67 board. (Or however the SNB cryptography goes)

 

[n0n44m]

hold on that chart is about the integrated Quick Sync IGP video processing, which isn't available when using a P67 chipset or when using a discrete (gaming) GPU (graphics card)

but FFS video encoding is one of those situations that show the most gain when using "virtual cores" lol

this is a better representation of SB and the difference between Hyper Threading or not (2500k vs 2600k) ... the AMD 1100T (or any AMD hexacore for that matter) is certainly not bad in video but currently a waste of money considering it's gaming performance vs a 2500K

 

[Enemy Of Fate]

So I just finished my first build (installing a custom CPU cooler is a SERIOUS pain in the ass....especially after you forget to install it until after you've put on a stock cooler and attached the motherboard to the case) and everything seems fine.....except theres no video going to the screen (am using HDMI to an LCD TV). Everything seems fine in the computer, everything (including the GPU, a 6950) powers on no problem....so can someone please help me figure out why I'm not getting any video, because until then my brand new computer is a just a VERY expensive paper weight...

My computer specs are i5 2500k, Zalman CNPSX2 CPU Cooler, 8GB Corsair 1600Mhz RAM, corsair 650w PSU and a 6950. Thanks in advance!

 

[Shambles]

So I just finished my first build (installing a custom CPU cooler is a SERIOUS pain in the ass....especially after you forget to install it until after you've put on a stock cooler and attached the motherboard to the case) and everything seems fine.....except theres no video going to the screen (am using HDMI to an LCD TV). Everything seems fine in the computer, everything (including the GPU, a 6950) powers on no problem....so can someone please help me figure out why I'm not getting any video, because until then my brand new computer is a just a VERY expensive paper weight...

My computer specs are i5 2500k, Zalman CNPSX2 CPU Cooler, 8GB Corsair 1600Mhz RAM, corsair 650w PSU and a 6950. Thanks in advance!

First place I always tells people to look is the 4/8 CPU pin from the PSU to the motherboard CPU connection near the socket itself. Many people remember the 24pin connection but not the 4/8 pin.

 

[MisterNoisy]

First place I always tells people to look is the 4/8 CPU pin from the PSU to the motherboard CPU connection near the socket itself. Many people remember the 24pin connection but not the 4/8 pin.

Same goes for the PCI-E cables to the video card. It could also be an HDMI-related issue, so try using a plain old VGA cable to the TV if those aren't it.

 

[Enemy Of Fate]

First place I always tells people to look is the 4/8 CPU pin from the PSU to the motherboard CPU connection near the socket itself. Many people remember the 24pin connection but not the 4/8 pin.

I've plugged in the 8 pin connector there now, but theres still no display. Also my graphics card no longer seems to be on.

 

[Enemy Of Fate]

Got it working there now, thanks so much!

 

[Swag]

Hey guys, a friend of mine is building a HTPC, I'm not really knowledgeable about HTPC builds, so posting here to see what you guys think of his build.

 

[Slackbladder]

I'm thinking of getting an i7 for my PC but considering it's using an AMD cpu right now I'm assuming I'll need to re-install Windows and re-activate it? Or would it be simpler to get a new OS (I'm thinking of getting windows 7 anyway)? Also what other software/programs on the HDD could be affected by changing mobo and cpu and (possibly) OS?
Thanks in advance.

 

[MisterNoisy]

Got it working there now, thanks so much!

What was the problem?

 

[The Elite]

Grr... NCIX I asked them weeks ago whether my system was affected by this and they said no.

Now I received this in the mail from them today:

Please do not reply to this message directly.

Hello Doctor Who,

Intel Intel recently announced that there is an issue with their P67/H67 chipsets that can cause the SATA 3.0Gb/s controller to fail over time. This has direct impact to the system you have ordered from us. There is detailed post on our forums that outlines what is known at this time. We will continue to update this post as more information becomes available.

The post can be found here: http://forums.ncix.com/forums/?mode...did=2309652&pagenumber=1&msgcount=1&subpage=1

We have placed a hold on your order until we can confirm what you would like to do.

Your options are:

1) Switch to either LGA1156, LGA1366 or an AM3 based system
2) Continue with the order as is with the following concessions

A. Customers who have already purchased their system will be credited with 5000 NCIX Rewards points.
B. Systems that are currently in the assembly phase will have to be approved by the customer before they will be completed & shipped.
C. All systems will be assembled using only the available SATA3 6.0Gb/s ports whenever possible.
D. NCIX will perform complimentary motherboard exchanges once replacements are available from the various manufacturers. Once updated boards are available, please schedule an appointment online or with your local NCIX retail store. If your order was shipped, then NCIX will cover the shipping charges both ways to return the system or motherboard to us for replacement.
E. The 12 month NCIX PC warranty will be extended on ALL Sandy Bridge systems to 18 months to compensate our customers for any inconvenience that is caused by being without their system during a motherboard exchange.

3) Cancel the order for 100% Refund


Please let me know what option you would like to select, or if you have any further questions.

=============================================
Sincerely,
Kevin
Customer Service Representative

NCIX.com
Great Technology, Selection & Service
Unit #105 - 4620 Viking Way
Richmond, BC, V6V 2L5
Tel: 1-877-624-9777
Tel: 604-288-8080 ext:6114, 6113
Fax: 604-288-8022

Any thoughts on what I should do next?

For reference, this is my build:

 

[antonz]

Grr... NCIX I asked them weeks ago whether my system was affected by this and they said no.

Now I received this in the mail from them today:



Any thoughts on what I should do next?

For reference, this is my build:

They were wrong to say it didnt effect you. I would opt for them to continue the order. If you have the tech skills when it comes time for replacement board I would take the board out send it back and let them send the new one. Maybe see if they will do a hold on card so they can preship board before you send yours in. Your board maker may have a program too in place. Asus has a very nice program in place for example

 

[Mairu]

Grr... NCIX I asked them weeks ago whether my system was affected by this and they said no.

Now I received this in the mail from them today:



Any thoughts on what I should do next?

I'd just get them to ship it built without using the affected SATA ports and considering you only have 1 HDD and 1 optical drive you should be fine... I guess if you're uncomfortable with switching the motherboard yourself when they get replacements in you might be conflicted but only using two drives you shouldn't have any issues anyways.

Oh, I see they can do the replacement themselves. Just get them to make & ship it, they seem pretty accommodating.

 

[The Elite]

I'd just get them to ship it built without using the affected SATA ports and considering you only have 1 HDD and 1 optical drive you should be fine... I guess if you're uncomfortable with switching the motherboard yourself when they get replacements in you might be conflicted but only using two drives you shouldn't have any issues anyways.

Oh, I see they can do the replacement themselves. Just get them to make & ship it, they seem pretty accommodating.

I was considering just telling them to ship it when the replacement comes in. When do we expect the replacement boards?

 

[antonz]

I was considering just telling them to ship it when the replacement comes in. When do we expect the replacement boards?

The corrected chipsets went out on monday. Stock will probably start shipping from board makers in a week or two. Full steady supply isnt expected til April. Will be sporadic supply til then.

Another Topic the current King of the Hill on overclocking 2500K

 

[bwtw]

Got this atm:

[Motherboard (MSI 770 AM3 DDR3)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/165438 (£49.66)
[CPU (Athlon ii X3 435 2.9ghz)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176043 (65.67)
[RAM (Corsair 4GB DDR3 1333mhz)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166463 (£80.79)
[GPU (XFX HD 4870 512MB)]:http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169206 (£91.20)
[DVD (22X Sony DVDRW)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170014 (£15.89)
[Case/PSU (Coolermaster Elite 330 and Coolermaster eXtreme Power Plus 460w PSU)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135101 (£54.99)
[HDD (Samsung F3 500GB)]: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252 (£42.54)

In preparation of Crysis 2 + others in the coming months, I'm looking to upgrade. Do I need to upgrade anything except for the graphics card there to keep up or should I be looking at upgrading the other parts as well? Not hardware-savvy at all...any recommendations for graphics cards up to ~£150?

 

[TheExodu5]

Some upcoming games will be using 6 cores as well... BFBC2 use 6 right now.

And if you do any video encoding AMD 6 cores will outperform i7 4 cores. Intel virtual cores wont help in this situation.

No, Sandy Bridge outperforms 6 core AMDs in every application.

The AMD 6 cores beat out old i5/i7 in 6 core specific applications, but not Sandy Bridge.

The 2600K can be overclocked far more than the AMD processor as well. 4.8GHz is pretty easy to hit, and that will widen the gap even more.

There's really no sense in going with AMD 6 cores at this point. If you're spending that much, then you'd be far better off going Sandy Bridge. If you're going budget, then the AMD X4 640 is an attractive option. The Intel 980X is only worth it in the most extreme of cases, and socket 1366 in general is otherwise only worth it if you're going with more than 2 video cards (as 1155 lacks PCI-E bandwidth for 3-4 high end GPUs).

 

[antonz]

Got this atm:



In preparation of Crysis 2 + others in the coming months, I'm looking to upgrade. Do I need to upgrade anything except for the graphics card there to keep up or should I be looking at upgrading the other parts as well? Not hardware-savvy at all...any recommendations for graphics cards up to ~£150?

At that price cap there really isnt anything that would give a huge boost in performance GPU wise.

 

[bwtw]

Fair enough. How much would I be looking at having to pay before a jump is 'significant'? Budget is flexible.

 

[antonz]

Fair enough. How much would I be looking at having to pay before a jump is 'significant'? Budget is flexible.

you should be able to get a 2GB 6950 for around £200. That would give you a good upgrade overall probably double framerate in most cases

 

[DrBaalzamon]

I just loaded up my system with the Samsung drive in the OP. Do I need to upgrade the firmware? Looking on Samsungs website i see no information about it nor do i see an upgraded firmware anywhere. I only ask because i distinctly remember people saying to upgrade it for this specific model ( the HD103SJ ).

Any insight is appreciated, thanks!

 

[Enemy Of Fate]

What was the problem?

Not entirely sure, I didn't have the 8 pin connector in but even when it was in the power wasn't on but I had also changed the power cables running to the GPU as well, so whenever I changed them back it just worked. Really looking forward to getting to spend sometime with my new rig, although it'll be Monday before I get to use it next as I'm away early tomorrow...

 

[Nelo Ice]

so would that $900-$1000 build work with a diferent card?
i want to build a dedicated gaming pc and atm i only have a logitech g5 mouse, a 1608x1050 monitor(hanspree) and a gtx 460 2gb

though pretty much im hoping i can get the power of a $1k build at a cheaper price since i got hooked up with my gpu

also i need to get a copy of windows 7 gah

 

[ExMachina]

I just loaded up my system with the Samsung drive in the OP. Do I need to upgrade the firmware? Looking on Samsungs website i see no information about it nor do i see an upgraded firmware anywhere. I only ask because i distinctly remember people saying to upgrade it for this specific model ( the HD103SJ ).

Any insight is appreciated, thanks!

I thought it was the HD204UI (2tb Spinpoint F4) that needed to be flashed?

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1597038

 

[The Elite]

Damn, NCIX got back to me fast. They are not expecting the new boards until April. I guess I'll tell them to ship me what I ordered. From the sound of it, this shouldn't effect me anyways since I only have one HDD and one optical drive.

What if I decided to pick up an SSD at some point in the future?

NCIX also posted this:

The feedback from Intel's tier 1 motherboard partners is that no one outside of Intel's lab has been able to produce this error yet despite attempts to speed up the process by increasing voltages to the affected components and subjecting them to heavy use. At this time NCIX recommends that customers continue to use the P67/H67 products until replacements are available.

 

[Naked Snake]

NCIX also posted this:

I'm baffled that Intel is swallowing a $1+ billion bill with a smile over an issue that they claim couldn't be triggered outside a testing lab.

 

[iNvid02]

I'm baffled that Intel is swallowing a $1+ billion bill with a smile over an issue that they claim couldn't be triggered outside a testing lab.

they make a lot

 

[DrBaalzamon]

I thought it was the HD204UI (2tb Spinpoint F4) that needed to be flashed?

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1597038

Ah ok! That makes sense, thanks a lot

 

[Teknopathetic]

"they make a lot"

There's also the issue of consumer trust.

 

[bwtw]

you should be able to get a 2GB 6950 for around £200. That would give you a good upgrade overall probably double framerate in most cases

Great. Presumably this would still be compatible with the rest of my setup?

 

[antonz]

Great. Presumably this would still be compatible with the rest of my setup?

Yep and the 2GB 6950 can have its extra shaders unlocked with a bios flash to make it basically a 6970

 

[iNvid02]

990x @ 7.1ghz

Spoiler

liquid nitrogen of course

 

[BigBlackGamer]

Nice sound choices! Plan on swapping out some op-amps on the sound card while you're at it?

Oh, and nice video card too.

I was thinking about it. I'm loving the AV40's paired with the ST though. I was thinking of getting a sub but don't really think I need it. The clarity and "punch" of the speakers with the card is fantastic. I don't think I will ever go back to onboard sound.

 

[CrankyJay]

Damn, NCIX got back to me fast. They are not expecting the new boards until April.

Disappointing if true.

 

[antonz]

Disappointing if true.

Seems to be the schedule Gigabyte is claiming. Even on their site they mention the end of April for replacements depending on when Intel ships parts. Intel shipped parts on monday so there really is no excuse for end of april