Support NeoGAF

[IrishNinja]

Don't worry about the pics so much as opening your case to see just what they've built for you, particularly the "custom watercooling." You shouldn't have to buy a new cooler. If you decide to get one anyway look into down-firing HSFs and search around for what other SG07 owners are using.

yeah, i guess i should focus on just seeing if i can fit more fans in there...i'm just concerned the custom kit isn't doing its job so much. i mean, reviews i read going in said it got hot, but 85+ degrees just around 1 hour of a blended prime95 torture test tells me i should be looking into bringing those #'s down.

for posterity, here's the temps right now, just posting, running steam, and downloading:

im not even sure which core/value corresponds to what, to be honest...temp 1 is the one that got 85/86 (i wanna say it mostly stayed around 85), but the others got to the high 70s/low 80s too, except for core 0 (or was it 1?) that sat still at 30 something, so weird.

honestly, im gonna do what i can to improve things (i know its a relatively small/tight case), but if im convinced the water cooling's no doing it, i guess im going to have to look into what coolers work with it.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

that 2500K looks beastly, but I'm going to stay with my i7-920 setup right now. I think it would benefit significantly more from an SSD upgrade than a CPU/mobo upgrade. I think perhaps if I was doing more video transcoding/encoding, I'd be more interested in this CPU, though.

current setup:

i7-920 not OC'd
10GB tri-cannel RAM
AMD 6950
640GB HDD (7200 rpm)
1TB HDD (7200 rpm)
2TB HDD (5400 rpm, i think)

...and a couple of external HDDs.

 

[Rur0ni]

that 2500K looks beastly, but I'm going to stay with my i7-920 setup right now. I think it would benefit significantly more from an SSD upgrade than a CPU/mobo upgrade. I think perhaps if I was doing more video transcoding/encoding, I'd be more interested in this CPU, though.

current setup:

i7-920 not OC'd
10GB tri-cannel RAM
AMD 6950
640GB HDD (7200 rpm)
1TB HDD (7200 rpm)
2TB HDD (5400 rpm, i think)

...and a couple of external HDDs.

Definitely an SSD. You'll never want to go back.

 

[Fallout-NL]

Alright, I've got a question. With my recent discovery of Battlefield Bad Company 2 I've finally found a reason to upgrade my GPU, the game runs fine, but it could be a little better. Right now I've got the following setup:

Q6600 @ the stock 2.4ghz
4g ram
Asus 4870 radeon
On a P5NE Asus motherboard

Both the 6850/70 and the 6950/70 have caught my eye, although the 6970 is a bit steep and I'm wondering whether it would be bottlenecked by the rest of my system. Another element to factor in would be my 500watt power supply. It should be sufficient for even the 6970 but it would be the bare minimum.

What do you guys think would be the best option considering the rest of my rig?

 

[Mr_Brit]

Alright, I've got a question. With my recent discovery of Battlefield Bad Company 2 I've finally found a reason to upgrade my GPU, the game runs fine, but it could be a little better. Right now I've got the following setup:

Q6600 @ the stock 2.4ghz
4g ram
Asus 4870 radeon
On a P5NE Asus motherboard

Both the 6850/70 and the 6950/70 have caught my eye, although the 6970 is a bit steep and I'm wondering whether it would be bottlenecked by the rest of my system. Another element to factor in would be my 500watt power supply. It should be sufficient for even the 6970 but it would be the bare minimum.

What do you guys think would be the best option considering the rest of my rig?

Get a 6950 and unlock it to a 6970 instead of wasting money on a 6970. OC your CPU to 3+GHZ and you should be fine. As long as your power supply is a decent brand you'll be fine PSU wise. The rest of your system won't bottleneck the card at all.

 

[TheExodu5]

Alright, I've got a question. With my recent discovery of Battlefield Bad Company 2 I've finally found a reason to upgrade my GPU, the game runs fine, but it could be a little better. Right now I've got the following setup:

Q6600 @ the stock 2.4ghz
4g ram
Asus 4870 radeon
On a P5NE Asus motherboard

Both the 6850/70 and the 6950/70 have caught my eye, although the 6970 is a bit steep and I'm wondering whether it would be bottlenecked by the rest of my system. Another element to factor in would be my 500watt power supply. It should be sufficient for even the 6970 but it would be the bare minimum.

What do you guys think would be the best option considering the rest of my rig?

You will be bottlenecked by the stock speed Q6600 in BC2. You need to overclock that thing.

 

[archnemesis]

My RAM crapped out on me and I might need to buy a replacement while I return my current RAM for evaluation. What should I get for a Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H? My old RAM was a set of Corsair Dominator TWIN2X PC8500 4GB DDR2 1066MHz.

 

[brain_stew]

Alright, I've got a question. With my recent discovery of Battlefield Bad Company 2 I've finally found a reason to upgrade my GPU, the game runs fine, but it could be a little better. Right now I've got the following setup:

Q6600 @ the stock 2.4ghz
4g ram
Asus 4870 radeon
On a P5NE Asus motherboard

Both the 6850/70 and the 6950/70 have caught my eye, although the 6970 is a bit steep and I'm wondering whether it would be bottlenecked by the rest of my system. Another element to factor in would be my 500watt power supply. It should be sufficient for even the 6970 but it would be the bare minimum.

What do you guys think would be the best option considering the rest of my rig?

You'll want to OC your CPU along with the GPU upgrade. BC2 is very CPU heavy.

 

[MrBelmontvedere]

does anyone have a launch date for Intel's Gen 3 SSDs?

 

[sam27368]

Caved in and ordered

CPU: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz @ 4.00GHz
Motherboard: Asus Rampage II Extreme (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
RAM: Corsair XMS3 (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel
Prolimatech Megahalems Performance CPU Cooler with Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000RPM 120mm Fan
2x (for SLI) EVGA GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
2x Samsung P2450H 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black
Coolermaster HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive
LG BH10LS30 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM)
Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply
Logitech Wireless Desktop Wave (920-000280)
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000528AS)
Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller - PC / Xbox 360

and no money for 3 months as I pay it off

 

[Weenerz]

Why didn't you wait a week to get a sexy ass Sandy Bridge? I've heard nothing but good things and it OC so much.

 

[sam27368]

Why didn't you wait a week to get a sexy ass Sandy Bridge? I've heard nothing but good things and it OC so much.

I make a lot of my income doing photography (cheap plug www.samueljustice.net) and my comp died so I needed something to get back to work. Also I'm a weak human being, this should last me for a few years playing everything at full spec (I hope).

 

[TheExodu5]

That PSU is underpowered for that system. The GTX 570 peaks out at around 290W. Two of them can peak out at 580W, then...leaving you starved.

Otherwise, friggin' nice system.

 

[sam27368]

That PSU is underpowered for that system. The GTX 570 peaks out at around 290W. Two of them can peak out at 580W, then...leaving you starved.

Otherwise, friggin' nice system.

Really? Can you suggest one that would be more suited for the system? I'll need to change the order asap

:EDIT: how about this one? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-042-AK&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

 

[TheExodu5]

Can't say I've ever heard of that brand. Might be fine...I'll try to check reviews. High quality 850W PSU is probably the minimum I'd go with.

edit: It has 6 12V rails. Steer clear.

edit2: well...this review seems to think it's fine:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/709/pg4/akasa-freedom-power-1000w-psu-testing-results.html

 

[Esperado]

So the computer I built for my brother has been having problems with freezing and hard locking. It would run for hours and hours and then suddenly lock up while my brother was playing wow. So today I tried testing each stick and ran into a strange problem. With two sticks at the stock voltage it was stable for a few hours before it crashed, but with one stick it immediately crashed every time. So I started to pump up the voltage and ended up stable at around 1.57 volts. This is at the stock speed and timings.

I have the basic 4GB 2x2 Crucial DDR3 1333mhz kit and I was just wondering whether people here thought I should RMA it and try to get less power hungry RAM or if I should just accept the slight over voltage. I'm not going to try and overclock this computer so that's not a problem, but I feel a little uncomfortable given that it can't run at it's rated specs at stock settings.

 

[sam27368]

edit: It has 6 12V rails. Steer clear.

How about this ? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-023-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

(Sorry to derail the thread and look like a 'tard, last post on this I promise!)

 

[TheExodu5]

How about this ? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-023-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

(Sorry to derail the thread and look like a 'tard, last post on this I promise!)

Should be just fine with that.

Like I said though...review above seemed to indicate the Akasa was fine. You'd be getting a modular PSU, and all black look which would go much nicer with the HAF X...if you care about such things.

 

[TheExodu5]

So the computer I built for my brother has been having problems with freezing and hard locking. It would run for hours and hours and then suddenly lock up while my brother was playing wow. So today I tried testing each stick and ran into a strange problem. With two sticks at the stock voltage it was stable for a few hours before it crashed, but with one stick it immediately crashed every time. So I started to pump up the voltage and ended up stable at around 1.57 volts. This is at the stock speed and timings.

I have the basic 4GB 2x2 Crucial DDR3 1333mhz kit and I was just wondering whether people here thought I should RMA it and try to get less power hungry RAM or if I should just accept the slight over voltage. I'm not going to try and overclock this computer so that's not a problem, but I feel a little uncomfortable given that it can't run at it's rated specs at stock settings.

On an i5/i7, you can run the voltage up to 1.65V. I'd probably just stick with it for convenience's sake, if I weren't planning on overclocking. If I had a backup solution while I waited for the RMA to go through, then I'd probably do it though.

 

[IrishNinja]

(per my last post above) i was thinking - if im idling at 57 degrees, the water cooling kit that came with this SG07 setup clearly isnt doing its job. im gonna look to put in a few small fans if i can, but im not married to the idea of water cooling anyway - this review of an aftermarket cooler was quite praising, should i consider getting this and just swapping it out entirely? its $60 right now on newegg, but if it'd solve all my temperature woes, it might be worth it.

 

[sam27368]

Should be just fine with that.

Like I said though...review above seemed to indicate the Akasa was fine. You'd be getting a modular PSU, and all black look which would go much nicer with the HAF X...if you care about such things.

Thanks for all the help, emailed them to change the order.

 

[·feist·]

yeah, i guess i should focus on just seeing if i can fit more fans in there...i'm just concerned the custom kit isn't doing its job so much. i mean, reviews i read going in said it got hot, but 85+ degrees just around 1 hour of a blended prime95 torture test tells me i should be looking into bringing those #'s down.

for posterity, here's the temps right now, just posting, running steam, and downloading:

http://i51.tinypic.com/jg1ax3.jpg

im not even sure which core/value corresponds to what, to be honest...temp 1 is the one that got 85/86 (i wanna say it mostly stayed around 85), but the others got to the high 70s/low 80s too, except for core 0 (or was it 1?) that sat still at 30 something, so weird.

honestly, im gonna do what i can to improve things (i know its a relatively small/tight case), but if im convinced the water cooling's no doing it, i guess im going to have to look into what coolers work with it.

(per my last post above) i was thinking - if im idling at 57 degrees, the water cooling kit that came with this SG07 setup clearly isnt doing its job. im gonna look to put in a few small fans if i can, but im not married to the idea of water cooling anyway - this review of an aftermarket cooler was quite praising, should i consider getting this and just swapping it out entirely? its $60 right now on newegg, but if it'd solve all my temperature woes, it might be worth it.

Temp 1 is almost certainly your GPU, so 57-85C+ is in line with what you would get in a case like that (even inside of many larger size cases, as well). Before wasting your time looking for other CPU coolers, download HWMonitor and possibly RealTemp as another backup. HWMonitor will give you temp and voltage readings for a range of components in your PC.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp

 

[artist]

does anyone have a launch date for Intel's Gen 3 SSDs?

No dates yet just Q1/2011. Same goes for SF-2000 which has twice as good specs ..

 

[matmanx1]

So I'm sensing the tide has turned in regards to multiple 12v rails on a Power Supply? Is it always better to have 1 large 12v rail than having 2 or 3 with 20+ amps each on them? Power Supply is one of the last items on my shopping list before Sandy Bridge hits so I'm trying to be as educated as possible.

 

[Mr_Brit]

So I'm sensing the tide has turned in regards to multiple 12v rails on a Power Supply? Is it always better to have 1 large 12v rail than having 2 or 3 with 20+ amps each on them? Power Supply is one of the last items on my shopping list before Sandy Bridge hits so I'm trying to be as educated as possible.

The fewer 12V rails the better. A single rail means that you won't have to worry about balancing your components onto different rails.

 

[TheBothersomeMan]

Here's my current specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHZ
4gb DDR3 RAM
Radeon HD4850 1gb

Since I have some post-Christmas money to spare I was wondering if there are any obvious upgrades and how cheaply they could be done?

 

[Odrion]

Go for a AMD 1090T processor, but check to make sure your mobo supports it. AM2+ boards don't all support all AM3 chips. Add in a Samsung F3 1TB HDD Which should put your total at about $200. Then if you want you can upgrade your GPU to a 6950 and you'll have a beast once again.

The AMD 1090T processor I see was Newegg is $270. Where can I get this processor for $150?

 

[FromTheFuture]

So I tried today to unlock the 4th core on my Phenom II X3, as I could not remember why I never did it in the first place. Turns out I now remember why: my mobo, Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 does not have the ACC function in it's bios.

Is there any way to fix this so that I can unlock the 4th core?

 

[Fallout-NL]

Get a 6950 and unlock it to a 6970 instead of wasting money on a 6970. OC your CPU to 3+GHZ and you should be fine. As long as your power supply is a decent brand you'll be fine PSU wise. The rest of your system won't bottleneck the card at all.

You will be bottlenecked by the stock speed Q6600 in BC2. You need to overclock that thing.

You'll want to OC your CPU along with the GPU upgrade. BC2 is very CPU heavy.

Thanks for the replies, looks like I'll need to figure out how the OC'ing works.

 

[Hazaro]

So I'm sensing the tide has turned in regards to multiple 12v rails on a Power Supply? Is it always better to have 1 large 12v rail than having 2 or 3 with 20+ amps each on them? Power Supply is one of the last items on my shopping list before Sandy Bridge hits so I'm trying to be as educated as possible.

jonnyguru.com
Seasonic, Corsair, Antec. Get an 80+ certified.

Most PSU's (last I checked 2 years ago) were listing multiple rails, but in actuality had a single rail so it was a moot point. It was a marketing buzz thing, so I don't know if current PSUs are actually splitting those rails that much. If you have a 1200W or something, than 4 lines would not be uncommon.

Thanks for the replies, looks like I'll need to figure out how the OC'ing works.

333*9 = 3Ghz @ 1.3V or 1.325V or 1.35V

Easiest thing in the world

 

[AkIRA_22]

333*9 = 3Ghz @ 1.3V or 1.325V or 1.35V

Easiest thing in the world

Ahhhhhhh, the great memories of my 6600, truly one of the greatest chips ever created. It lasted me 2 1/2 years, and was still a trooper at 3.4GHz.

 

[msdstc]

Can GAF help me build a 500-750 dollar build? I've made a few posts on other forums, but I'm looking for multiple opinions.

I'm looking to do mostly general browsing, audio/video editing, so on so forth. So far for my other build, I'm looking at the X6, 4 GB of ram, and 1TB hdd, plus the case/psu/etc. What else would gaf reccomend?

 

[Hazaro]

Can GAF help me build a 500-750 dollar build? I've made a few posts on other forums, but I'm looking for multiple opinions.

I'm looking to do mostly general browsing, audio/video editing, so on so forth. So far for my other build, I'm looking at the X6, 4 GB of ram, and 1TB hdd, plus the case/psu/etc. What else would gaf reccomend?

You can drop an x6 into the build in the OP, but you can also squeeze in a 2500K into that $750 budget.

It's all in the OP.

 

[msdstc]

You can drop an x6 into the build in the OP, but you can also squeeze in a 2500K into that $750 budget.

It's all in the OP.

Well the thing is I'm not looking for a graphics card at all, I just want this thing to be able to work for programs like Fruity Loops, Sony Vegas. I'd imagine a setup like this would breeze through those programs.

 

[kuYuri]

Guess I'll ask this here.

Just found out about RadeonPro. I've heard of nHancer for Nvidia cards and wanted something similar for ATI cards, so I decided to download and install it. However, I try to open it and nothing happens. So I open task manager and when I try to open it, I see it briefly in task manager but then it goes away.

Anyone else have this problem? Is it still really buggy?

I'm on Windows XP 64-bit if that matters. I also have Vista 64-bit on this PC and haven't tested it on that yet.

 

[Hazaro]

Well the thing is I'm not looking for a graphics card at all, I just want this thing to be able to work for programs like Fruity Loops, Sony Vegas. I'd imagine a setup like this would breeze through those programs.

Unless you want to wait for those programs to completely utilize 6 cores properly, tmk the Intel would be considerably faster.

I am by no means an expert on core utilization for programs, so thats a questions for their forums.

 

[cartman414]

The AMD 1090T processor I see was Newegg is $270. Where can I get this processor for $150?

Can't find it for anything less than $250. Might as well go for an Intel at the price bracket.

I wonder what the first mainstream performance tier 6 and 8 core CPUs to come this generation of Intel's will be like, looking back on the i5-7xx and i7-8xx series, aka Lynnfield.

 

[FoxSpirit]

Okay, a quickie:
I currently have a 4850, running off a good 400W PSU no problem. So a 6850 should be no problem, right?

One 12V rail 14A, second rail 15A.

 

[Odrion]

This is what I have planned for my computer upgrade, what do you guys think?

My current PC has:
CPU - AMD Phenom X4 9600 Black Edition (four 2.3GHz cores)
Ram - 4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz
Motherboard - ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4N82 DELUXE (has AM2/AM2+/AM3 support)
Graphics Card - 896MB GeForce GTX 260
Harddrive - 195GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG SP2004C ATA Device (SATA)

Thinking about upgrading it to:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (four 3.4GHz cores)
Ram: + 4 more gigs
Motherboard: Keeping it, has support for the CPU I want
Graphics Card: Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB (You can get it for $100 off thanks to newegg deals.)
Harddrive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1T

 

[matmanx1]

Alright, I'm really leaning towards accelerating my video card purchase timetable and am leaning towards Radeon 6950 or 6970. I haven't used an AMD/ATI card since the venerable 9800 Pro (what a card!) and am unsure what the best manufacturers are at this time. I'm guessing XFX is up there as I've owned one of their cards when they made Nvidia stuff and it was a good one. How about the big 3 mobo makers (Gigabyte, MSI & Asus)? I also see HIS has been in this space for a while. How is their stuff?

 

[Slayer-33]

What is the state of new upcoming gen SSD's for those that have kept up with SSD news, please reply for the topic. Further reliability improvements? Size increase? Faster speeds, etc?


I have been too lazy to get info on it since I wanted to wait a year since my current build to drop in an SSD on my Phenom II X6 1050T system.

 

[FoxSpirit]

What is the state of new upcoming gen SSD's for those that have kept up with SSD news, please reply for the topic. Further reliability improvements? Size increase? Faster speeds, etc?

I have been too lazy to get info on it since I wanted to wait a year since my current build to drop in an SSD on my Phenom II X6 1050T system.

More reliable, faster and larger. And we are talking twice the numbers in everything. So yeah, if you can wait, wait.

 

[cartman414]

Won't the 3Gbps cap be broken with the next gen of SSDs?

 

[artist]

Won't the 3Gbps cap be broken with the next gen of SSDs?

Intel's Sandy Bridge boards have 6Gbps.

 

[cartman414]

Intel's Sandy Bridge boards have 6Gbps.

Whoops, I meant SSDs.

Definitely looking forward to SATA6, btw.

 

[artist]

Whoops, I meant SSDs.

Definitely looking forward to SATA6, btw.

I posted this upstream but here goes again;

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3971/...troller-sf2000-capable-of-500mbs-and-60k-iops
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3965/intels-3rd-generation-x25m-ssd-specs-revealed

 

[·feist·]

Unless an upgrade is absolutely necessary, some of you really should wait to see what happens in the market across the next 4-6 weeks, particularly with CPU prices.

Can't find it for anything less than $250. Might as well go for an Intel at the price bracket.

I wonder what the first mainstream performance tier 6 and 8 core CPUs to come this generation of Intel's will be like, looking back on the i5-7xx and i7-8xx series, aka Lynnfield.

It'll be interesting to see if they can get within the $450 or so range. Intel will need incentive on pricing as they're is firmly in the driver's seat with process and architecture.
When you consider how C2Qs compare to X6s, it shouldn't come as a surprise how the new quads match up to X6s (artificial, productivity, and certain games), even when they have lower clocks and no turbo, against the AMDs with higher frequencies and turbo left on. Some of the results are embarrassing.

Bulldozer can't come soon enough.

 

[artist]

It'll be interesting to see if they can get within the $450 or so range. Intel will need incentive on pricing as they're is firmly in the driver's seat with process and architecture.
When you consider how C2Qs compare to X6s, it shouldn't come as a surprise how the new quads match up to X6s (artificial, productivity, and certain games), even when they have lower clocks and no turbo, against the AMDs with higher frequencies and turbo left on. Some of the results are embarrassing.

Bulldozer can't come soon enough.

Linkage please?

 

[Jin34]

Can't wait until the NDA lifts and everyone gets to see a wide range of benchmarks. Some of them have been truly eye opening.

But we won't get benchmarks on what I want to see the most, Dolphin emulator

 

[cartman414]

I posted this upstream but here goes again;

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3971/...troller-sf2000-capable-of-500mbs-and-60k-iops
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3965/intels-3rd-generation-x25m-ssd-specs-revealed

Yeah, I remember that article. Which is why I could already feel that SATA3 would suffice for only so long.

Unless an upgrade is absolutely necessary, some of you really should wait to see what happens in the market across the next 4-6 weeks, particularly with CPU prices.

The way things are looking, the prices for the new CPUs will be at near parity with their current equivalents.

It'll be interesting to see if they can get within the $450 or so range. Intel will need incentive on pricing as they're is firmly in the driver's seat with process and architecture.

True. The difference I forgot is that it's still going to be happening at the enthusiast tier, whereas Lynnfield brought quads to the mainstream performance tier.

When you consider how C2Qs compare to X6s, it shouldn't come as a surprise how the new quads match up to X6s (artificial, productivity, and certain games), even when they have lower clocks and no turbo, against the AMDs with higher frequencies and turbo left on. Some of the results are embarrassing.

Bulldozer can't come soon enough.

AMD still seems to be sticking to the same old CPU architecture, which is getting them results in the budget market, but has been leaving them waaaaaaaaay behind elsewhere. From the looks of it, Bulldozer won't change that.

I love how the pro-AMD camp pimps the superior on-board graphics as a clear advantage over Intel. That only holds water for the lower end, but any serious user is going to go with the stronger CPU, and get a separate GPU, if not two. The clear winner in this situation? Intel.