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"I need a New PC!" 2011 Edition of SSD's for everyone! |OT|
- Thread starter Hazaro
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Naked Snake
Member
^ I'm gonna try to piggyback on your question with my own: Are there any affordable IPS monitors on the market today (US or UK)? The smaller the size and the higher the resolution the better. Budget $400-500?
Purpose: Photo editing.
Purpose: Photo editing.
whatsinaname
Member
Has anyone else moved to Catalyst 11.2? (I think I am on 10.12). Any issues? Any improvements that I need to upgrade for?
Outdoor Miner
Member
LaserBuddha said:
It absolutely is if you game at 1680 and are probably going to upgrade your video card in 12-18 months anyway.
TouchMyBox
Member
Naked Snake said:
If you can up your budget by $200, the Dell U2711 fits your wants and desires.
ChoklitReign
Member
Is an IPS really necessary for gaming? I thought they appeal mostly to graphics designers.
It's a $1000 on Dell's website...TouchMyBox said:
LaserBuddha
Member
whatsinaname said:
I can't comment on any improvements, just the 2 day battle I had getting CCC to run again. >_<
They're for people that care about color accuracy. TN panels may have fast response times but they can only display 262k colors instead of the full 16 million. The colors a TN panel can't display it tries to fake through dithering. An IPS display also doesn't color shift when viewed off angle.ChoklitReign said:
I don't do any photoshop work but I still prefer IPS displays because I care about color. Until the more affordable e-IPS displays came along I was still using CRTs on my PC because all the LCDs with good color were out of my price range.
Unknown Soldier
Member
pestul said:
S3 (Sleep) is known to have problems when OCed. This is more or less universal across all motherboard brands and it does depend a lot on what other hardware is in the machine as some drivers just don't know what the hell to do when told the machine is assume the S3 position.
I'm able to get Sleep work with my machine, but I used Hybrid Sleep anyways so in the end I just went with Hibernate to save those 5W when in Sleep state. Hybrid Sleep is when the machine writes the contents of memory to disk (like Hibernate) and then goes to Sleep, that way if your desktop which usually doesn't have a battery backup like a notebook loses power, it can still restore gracefully. I just didn't see a lot of use for it, as desktop computers still use anywhere from 3--5W while sleeping anyways.
I have no problems with leaving all of the low power states enabled in the BIOS. The good brands of motherboard should have resolved issues with OCing with low power states enabled some time ago now, I know it used to be quite a problem before.
Naked Snake
Member
TouchMyBox said:
27" is a bit too big for me, and it seems to be going for a grand.
vazel said:
These look much more appealing. I'll look into them, thanks. I just wish higher DPI was more common in desktop monitors (some laptops have 15.6" 1080p screens).
ShyGuy0504
Member
So I've been thinking about getting a second monitor, but I'm worried it might affect my performance in games. I won't be using the second monitor for gaming, just to extend my desktop. I have an HD 5850. The monitor will be the same size as my current one which is a 23" 1080p. Would I see any fps drops in games if I did this?
a friend sent me this link earlier. Thoughts?
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/2011_Paladin_Dr._I
For games like witcher 2 and skyrim. Will get a second monitor sometime in future for it.
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/2011_Paladin_Dr._I
For games like witcher 2 and skyrim. Will get a second monitor sometime in future for it.
I bought an iBuyPower computer about 6 years ago and had a terrible experience. Crappy components and the machine broke after several months. When I called support it was an Indian guy sitting in what sounded like a server room and he was absolutely no help. I have also heard bad things about them from other people. Unless they've upped their quality lately, I would never buy from them again.Kraftwerk said:
That site and form (ibuypower.com) looks like they are trying to confuse you with way too many options.
You are better off spending the time reading through this thread using the recommendations in the first post as a baseline. Look into product reviews and then look at comparable components that might fit your needs/budget.
Since you are about to drop ~ 1K plus it would be worth your while to do the legwork and know what your getting into vs making a blind purchase.
You are better off spending the time reading through this thread using the recommendations in the first post as a baseline. Look into product reviews and then look at comparable components that might fit your needs/budget.
Since you are about to drop ~ 1K plus it would be worth your while to do the legwork and know what your getting into vs making a blind purchase.
ReturnOfTheRAT
Member
Kraftwerk said:
Don't waste money and time with them or CyberPower. If you want a well built PC check out DigitalStormOnline.
Hawk269
Member
I need some of you experts to help me out here....
I am playing the new MMO Rift and the game is so great looking and runs pretty good. But even with a mighty EVGA 580 and the specs listed below, I am still unable to play it with everything maxed out. There are alot of things to tweak in the settings, but they are ones that I want at max settings. Right now in open areas I average around 40-50FPS. In towns with NPCs and other players I can dip to about 30 or so, during Warfronts or Rifts when there are tons of enemies and 20+ other players I dip to about 17fps at it's lowest.
On average it is smooth and looks great, but I want to MAX EVERYTHING. I have about 80% of the things maxed and want to be able to go all the way.
So with the specs below what would allow me to do this? A 2nd 580 and run SLI? Would going to Sandy Brige high end one do it? I cant afford to do both a 2nd SLI and SB right now, perhaps in the future, but in the next month or so I can afford one or the other.
A second 580 I assume would also require an upgraded PSU as well?
System Specs:
AMD Phenom II Black Edition 965 4x@3.4 (OC to 3.8)
Evga GTX - 580 - OC to 900 Core/1800 Shader/2050 Ram 1.10v
Evga Super Clocked 460/dedicated to Physics
8 Gigs of Ram
Windows 7 64Bit
Asus MN475ND Motherboard SLI Ready Motherboard
1TB Seagate HDD
Corsair 850W PSU
Asus 24xDVD Drive
I am playing the new MMO Rift and the game is so great looking and runs pretty good. But even with a mighty EVGA 580 and the specs listed below, I am still unable to play it with everything maxed out. There are alot of things to tweak in the settings, but they are ones that I want at max settings. Right now in open areas I average around 40-50FPS. In towns with NPCs and other players I can dip to about 30 or so, during Warfronts or Rifts when there are tons of enemies and 20+ other players I dip to about 17fps at it's lowest.
On average it is smooth and looks great, but I want to MAX EVERYTHING. I have about 80% of the things maxed and want to be able to go all the way.
So with the specs below what would allow me to do this? A 2nd 580 and run SLI? Would going to Sandy Brige high end one do it? I cant afford to do both a 2nd SLI and SB right now, perhaps in the future, but in the next month or so I can afford one or the other.
A second 580 I assume would also require an upgraded PSU as well?
System Specs:
AMD Phenom II Black Edition 965 4x@3.4 (OC to 3.8)
Evga GTX - 580 - OC to 900 Core/1800 Shader/2050 Ram 1.10v
Evga Super Clocked 460/dedicated to Physics
8 Gigs of Ram
Windows 7 64Bit
Asus MN475ND Motherboard SLI Ready Motherboard
1TB Seagate HDD
Corsair 850W PSU
Asus 24xDVD Drive
Uncle Dukey
Member
Naked Snake said:
The Dell U2410 goes on sale for around $450 every so often. 24" 1920x1200 resolution.
Hawk269
Member
MacAttack said:
Good point. THe original build of my rig started with a 460, but found that it was not good enough, so added a 2nd 460 and while alot better, I still was not able to max out some of the games I wanted to have maxed out. So I sent one away and upgraded to a 480 with the 460 as a Phyx card. I bought the 480 from EVGA so when they announced the 580 I did the step up program and was able to upgrade from a 480 to a 580 for free. But, the 460 always stayed behind.
I do play Mafia 2, Batman and the new Batman that is coming benefit alot for a dedicated Physx card, but those have been the only ones really. So if I do go SLI, I would sell or hand it off to one of my brothers that has a POS system right now.
Kraftwerk said:
That system isn't going to play Witcher 2 very well due to the video card.
And just for kicks, I decided to modify the system to match mine as closely as possible. Even without the i7 2600, your system was $2500. $1000 more than mine, and I had control over parts. I could easily avoid a video card brand/model that 30% of people had reliability issues with for example. You cannot here.
$1000. That's how much I spent on a 50" plasma on Amazon.
I'd recommend learning how to build. Unless you're wicked rich, load up the machine to $3000.
My notebook is old and has acquired the terrible habit of heating itself to a point where I have to turn the AC on and direct the flow to it (granted, I live in Brazil). And yep, I already opened it and cleaned the cooler.
But as I'm off the notebook market, I can't decide which notebook would be best.
Necessary specs:
13' to 15' inches screen
nice keyboard
excellent battery
good processor/ram/hd
blu ray
I already game at my pc.
Budget: not too tight, but I don't want to spend more than the necessary.
I'm not trolling here, but I've been thinking of buying a MB Pro. Problem is that I don't like OSX and would have difficult adapting. However, if I were to run Win 7 natively I could justify the purchase. Is it possible?
But as I'm off the notebook market, I can't decide which notebook would be best.
Necessary specs:
13' to 15' inches screen
nice keyboard
excellent battery
good processor/ram/hd
blu ray
I already game at my pc.
Budget: not too tight, but I don't want to spend more than the necessary.
I'm not trolling here, but I've been thinking of buying a MB Pro. Problem is that I don't like OSX and would have difficult adapting. However, if I were to run Win 7 natively I could justify the purchase. Is it possible?
On the subject of SLI and Rift:
So since my 2500K 4.6GHz and 2x GTX 570 runs this game 'okay', I figured I'd give it a shot on my buddy's 920 @ 3.6GHz and GTX 275 to see how it ran. The framerate was certainly lower (as low as 30 on High), the game just felt so much smoother. So there it is...I think the SLI rendering method for this game is introducing microstuttering, which is making the game feel much choppier than it should when the framerate drops below 60fps.
I wanted to try SLI with my new system just to see how I liked it. It works nicely in Crysis and Metro, where I couldn't push the settings I normally could, but some games just don't play nice with it. I doubt I'll be going with a dual GPU setup in future systems.
So I'm going to give a few thoughts on my build, and how I would change it if I had to redo it over again. That's not to say I'm not happy with my build, however.
Anyways, my build:
Cooler Master HAF X
Corsair AX850
Gigabyte P67 UD4
i5 2500K @ 4.6GHz
Thermalright Ultra 120
8GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1333
2x EVGA GTX 570
2x 2TB Samsung 5400RPM
80GB Intel G2 SSD
Pioneer Blu-Ray Burner
Lamptron FC-6 Fan Controller
The Cooler Master HAF X is a great case. It's solid, and makes it very easy to do a clean build. The size of it makes it ridiculously easy to work with. However, it's very difficult to move around, and bringing it to LANs is a bit of a pain. My biggest issue with it, however, is the sound dampening. The Samsung HDDs make a slight vooming sound, which goes in and out at a period of about 1.5 seconds. Not super noticeable, but once I notice it, I can't unhear it. Having anything on the top of the case (CDs, portable HDDs) is a no-no, as they'll start vibrating. If I stick my ear right up to the case, it's ridiculous the amount of sound vibrations that are going through the side panels, undoubtedly from the hard drives (which are low RPM quiet hard drives). I would go with a quieter case next time. The Fractal R3 is an option. If the Corsair 650D were out though, I'd probably have to give that one a shot (though I would get a version without a window, so I could put my own sound dampening material if needed).
The AX850 is really nice, and sleeved cables look nice, but they're a bit of a pain to work with. I think a non-sleeved alternative might be preferable if I were to go with a mid tower case. Besides look, there doesn't really seem to be any benefit to sleeving...it just makes cable management harder. The stress the sleeves put on the connectors makes me uncomfortable as well (when I try to pull the cables back to make it look clean).
While the RAM is working fine, even the small-ish heat spreaders on them makes it so I can't actually fit RAM in the first slot due to the CPU cooler. I think I would just go with RAM that has no heat spreaders. From the reading I've done, the cheap heat spreaders don't really help performance/cooling anyways.
I doubt I'll ever go SLI again. While it's nice in some games, it's just an added headache, and the microstuttering in Rift has really disappointed me. I couldn't believe that a GTX 275 felt almost as smooth as my 2x GTX 570 due to the microstuttering. I think that if I had to redo it, I might consider a GTX 580 with an Accelero Xtreme Plus instead. Who knows though...maybe my performance would drop a lot more than I think it would in some games.
So since my 2500K 4.6GHz and 2x GTX 570 runs this game 'okay', I figured I'd give it a shot on my buddy's 920 @ 3.6GHz and GTX 275 to see how it ran. The framerate was certainly lower (as low as 30 on High), the game just felt so much smoother. So there it is...I think the SLI rendering method for this game is introducing microstuttering, which is making the game feel much choppier than it should when the framerate drops below 60fps.
I wanted to try SLI with my new system just to see how I liked it. It works nicely in Crysis and Metro, where I couldn't push the settings I normally could, but some games just don't play nice with it. I doubt I'll be going with a dual GPU setup in future systems.
So I'm going to give a few thoughts on my build, and how I would change it if I had to redo it over again. That's not to say I'm not happy with my build, however.
Anyways, my build:
Cooler Master HAF X
Corsair AX850
Gigabyte P67 UD4
i5 2500K @ 4.6GHz
Thermalright Ultra 120
8GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1333
2x EVGA GTX 570
2x 2TB Samsung 5400RPM
80GB Intel G2 SSD
Pioneer Blu-Ray Burner
Lamptron FC-6 Fan Controller
The Cooler Master HAF X is a great case. It's solid, and makes it very easy to do a clean build. The size of it makes it ridiculously easy to work with. However, it's very difficult to move around, and bringing it to LANs is a bit of a pain. My biggest issue with it, however, is the sound dampening. The Samsung HDDs make a slight vooming sound, which goes in and out at a period of about 1.5 seconds. Not super noticeable, but once I notice it, I can't unhear it. Having anything on the top of the case (CDs, portable HDDs) is a no-no, as they'll start vibrating. If I stick my ear right up to the case, it's ridiculous the amount of sound vibrations that are going through the side panels, undoubtedly from the hard drives (which are low RPM quiet hard drives). I would go with a quieter case next time. The Fractal R3 is an option. If the Corsair 650D were out though, I'd probably have to give that one a shot (though I would get a version without a window, so I could put my own sound dampening material if needed).
The AX850 is really nice, and sleeved cables look nice, but they're a bit of a pain to work with. I think a non-sleeved alternative might be preferable if I were to go with a mid tower case. Besides look, there doesn't really seem to be any benefit to sleeving...it just makes cable management harder. The stress the sleeves put on the connectors makes me uncomfortable as well (when I try to pull the cables back to make it look clean).
While the RAM is working fine, even the small-ish heat spreaders on them makes it so I can't actually fit RAM in the first slot due to the CPU cooler. I think I would just go with RAM that has no heat spreaders. From the reading I've done, the cheap heat spreaders don't really help performance/cooling anyways.
I doubt I'll ever go SLI again. While it's nice in some games, it's just an added headache, and the microstuttering in Rift has really disappointed me. I couldn't believe that a GTX 275 felt almost as smooth as my 2x GTX 570 due to the microstuttering. I think that if I had to redo it, I might consider a GTX 580 with an Accelero Xtreme Plus instead. Who knows though...maybe my performance would drop a lot more than I think it would in some games.
Misanthropy
Member
By what fiscal quarter do you think the prices for the 500 series will go down? Fall 2011?
LaserBuddha
Member
Outdoor Miner said:
There is like a $10-$30 difference in price between the 2 cards (depending on manufacturer), and if that wasn't enough, only the 2gb version can be unlocked into a 6970.
This is one of the clearest "bad deals" on the market.
MisterAnderson
Member
pestul said:
Whats your voltage set to? (and alternatively what is your actual voltage as read by cpu-z?) I can get a stable 4 GHz overclock, however I have problems going into sleep/getting out of sleep mode and powering up from the computer being off is a crap shoot; sometimes it gives me a black screen after the motherboard screen with a blinking underscore on the top left...other times it boots to Windows no problem. When I actually get to windows it runs perfectly stable, so I'm not quite sure what to do but to keep trying more voltage but then I risk higher temps.
I may just keep it at 3.7-3.8 GHz.
Also, I totally never knew that CUDA is a premiere pro feature that speeds up video editing... that makes this more difficult as I was 90% sure I was going to buy dual 6950's today to catch that rebate deal that expires the 28th on newegg. Now I'm thinking about maybe waiting to see how much the 590 is when it comes out (think it will be $600-800 range?) and maybe even the 6990. But damn. Two 6950's with those rebates is tempting. But no CUDA
Maybe I should get SLI 560's instead.luiztfc said:
ASUS N53JF-XE1
ASUS N82JQ-B2
Compare the price and specs to a Macbook Pro. I've been there man, its so tempting. It is also probably one of the biggest purchase regrets I have as well. The allure and aesthetics just aren't worth it for a PC guy.
I got this monitor on buy.com deal for $170 and I don't notice any issue with gaming. The 14 ms response time on EA231WMi is based on a black-white-black measurement and the response time on the other monitors, like Dell, are based on a grey-grey measurement which is more realistic. And, it has very low input lag (delay on signal) compare to other monitors.Laekon said:
It's true. Once you go IPS, you can't go back. Only wish, I bought 2-3.
-viper- said:
Supposedly both ASUS and MSI are shipping them to retailers now. So expect them to have spotty availability starting mid-late this week. They are explicitly listed as "B3 stepping" on the boxes, and perhaps in the product code too. So they may be entirely new products on websites while the recalled boards may expire.
They may not be easily available until around March 15th, and "mass volume" until early April. But if you look, I'm sure we'll find one by Crysis 2's release.
There are only a few boards that I'm willing to buy due to PCIe/PCI layout, and Crossfire/SLI support.
MisterNoisy
Member
TheExodu5 said:
You might want to look into the NZXT HALE90 PSUs. They're well-built, have a five year warranty, have received the thumbs up from the usual sites, and I love the flat modular cables - cable management was tons easier in my mATX Vulcan than in my CM Storm Scout solely because of those cables. The 650W unit I used in the Vulcan only had the 24-pin ATX and CPU power cables hardwired, with everything else being optional.
Foliorum Viridum
Banned
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Socket AM3 3.2 GHz 6MB
ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G Socket AM3 DVI VGA Out 8 Channel Audio MATX Motherboard
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1066MHz i5 Memory Kit 1.5V CL7
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB
620W PSU 120mm Fan 20+4pin 2x SATA
This is my current PC. It's doing quite well, but I feel the CPU ad mobo in particular is starting to hold me back. I'm thinking if I upgrade my CPU/Mobo this year it will bump my performance quite a bit, and then maybe I can think of getting a 2gb GPU next year. I've also just bought 8gb of RAM since it was on offer (
OCZ Special OPS 8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit) which I can't use in my mobo so that's another reason to update.
My question is what would you guys reccomend? I was obviously thinking of a Sandy Bridge combo and OCing that to 4ghz+, but is that a more "future proof" way to go than getting a hex core CPU and OCing that to a lesser speed? If the hex core isn't worth it I'm happy to spend £300 on Sandy Bridge!
Thanks
ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G Socket AM3 DVI VGA Out 8 Channel Audio MATX Motherboard
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1066MHz i5 Memory Kit 1.5V CL7
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB
620W PSU 120mm Fan 20+4pin 2x SATA
This is my current PC. It's doing quite well, but I feel the CPU ad mobo in particular is starting to hold me back. I'm thinking if I upgrade my CPU/Mobo this year it will bump my performance quite a bit, and then maybe I can think of getting a 2gb GPU next year. I've also just bought 8gb of RAM since it was on offer (
OCZ Special OPS 8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit) which I can't use in my mobo so that's another reason to update.
My question is what would you guys reccomend? I was obviously thinking of a Sandy Bridge combo and OCing that to 4ghz+, but is that a more "future proof" way to go than getting a hex core CPU and OCing that to a lesser speed? If the hex core isn't worth it I'm happy to spend £300 on Sandy Bridge!
Thanks
Foliorum Viridum said:AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Socket AM3 3.2 GHz 6MB
ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G Socket AM3 DVI VGA Out 8 Channel Audio MATX Motherboard
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1066MHz i5 Memory Kit 1.5V CL7
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB
620W PSU 120mm Fan 20+4pin 2x SATA
This is my current PC. It's doing quite well, but I feel the CPU in particular is starting to hold me back. I'm thinking if I upgrade my CPU/Mobo this year it will bump my performance quite a bit, and then maybe I can think of getting a 2gb GPU next year. I've also just bought 8gb of RAM since it was on offer (
OCZ Special OPS 8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit) which I can't use in my mobo so that's another reason to update.
My question is what would you guys reccomend? I was obviously thinking of a Sandy Bridge combo and OCing that to 4ghz+, but is that a more "future proof" way to go than getting a hex core CPU and OCing that to a lesser speed? If the hex core isn't worth it I'm happy to spend £300 on Sandy Bridge!
Thanks
I don't think either your CPU or GPU alone are holding you back. Both are. They are paired up well for each component's performance. If you got a high end video card, then your CPU probably would be holding you back 20-40%. If you got a new CPU without changing the video card, you probably wouldn't get a big boost. Like 3-4 fps. The vast majority of calculations for gaming take place on the GPU.
Whether or not to upgrade/rebuild really depends on what games/apps you're going to use, the timeframe, how much money you're willing to spend.
In my case I built a system roughly equal to yours last year, but I decided I wanted to build a high end PC for new games, TV/Movie streaming, blu-ray player without the mandatory ads, etc. It's going in my living room.
Personally I don't get overclocking for gaming. I see the GPU is really where most of the performance is determined, and then I get a CPU that keeps up. Overclocking increases heat and can decrease reliability. And for what, 3 fps? I'd focus money/design on the GPU/PSU/airflow-noise.
I mean, just look how little processors matter here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/50
The 2500k actually beats the 2600k here, despite the 2600k being about 40% faster in applications. I bet if you put a larger GPU in here (or 2) and increased the resolution, then you'd see the 2600k beat the 2500k. The GPU is the primary bottleneck.
And how much GPUs and multi-GPUs matter here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/188
Foliorum Viridum
Banned
Those are interesting links - thanks!
I may hold off a new CPU until I decide to upgrade my card, then. I definitely need a new mobo, but you may be right about not getting the performance increase I need by getting a new CPU.
I may hold off a new CPU until I decide to upgrade my card, then. I definitely need a new mobo, but you may be right about not getting the performance increase I need by getting a new CPU.
MisterNoisy
Member
Finally got a 2-panel stand for my monitors. As you may be able to tell, desk space for random crap is at something of a premium, so this is a big improvement over having them each on their own stand.
Does anyone have any experience with 120hz displays? I'm not interested in any of that 3D nonsense, but I am very interested in CRT-like fluidity they can offer. Ever since making the switch to LCDs seven or eight years ago, I have never gotten used to them. The fact that it's taken this long for manufacturers to start making true 120hz LCD displays - and even then they're only made for niche 3D gaming in mind - makes me think I'm just more sensitive to it than most people. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there are many out there to choose from, especially in 1680x1050, which is the resolution I'd prefer because getting decent fps at something like 1920x1080 requires a pretty expensive rig.
teh_pwn said:
While I think you make a lot of really accurate points in here, there's a couple things I'd like to bring into question.
Your 20-40% CPU bottleneck figure is arbitrary. When it comes to gaming, the PhemonII x4 procs are incredibly capable.
Overclocking can range from a 1-X% increase in frequency. To say that it will only provide a 3-4fps improvement is pretty disingenuous. There are a ton of games out there that are quite CPU dependent where that improvement would increase substantially if he took his 955 to the 3.9-4ghz range. On top of that, if you do overclocking right and manage your system, heat becomes a non-issue. It is true that extra voltage decreases the lifespan of the CPU. That might be from 15 years to 8 years, however. Arbitrary figures on my part there, but I've only had one CPU in 14 years of PC building/OC'ing die on me.
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