• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

"I need a New PC!" 2011 Edition of SSD's for everyone! |OT|

Status
Not open for further replies.
knitoe said:
Hopefully, you didn't flash your 6950 with 6970 bios. If you did, the extra voltage use on real 6970 may have bricked your 6950.


Wait what do you mean? I'm kinda computer noob but didn't a lot of people do this?

I also took it apart, put it together, nothing really changed. Is it possible that something got messed up while shipping even though I padded it like crazy?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
ph33nix said:
Wait what do you mean? I'm kinda computer noob but didn't a lot of people do this?

I also took it apart, put it together, nothing really changed. Is it possible that something got messed up while shipping even though I padded it like crazy?
Clear the CMOS/BIOS, check manual. There should be a battery and jumper.
Physically triple check all your connections and hand trace each cable from the PSU. Reseat each connection (unplug,plug).
RAM, 24 pin power, 8 pin power, gpu power, take gpu in and out, etc.

Technically it could be a problem like a micro crack in the motherboard or something, but that is very very rare.
 

knitoe

Member
Pookaki said:
I play at 1920x1080 so even if it still knocks the speed down to 8x you are saying that I will not take a performance hit?

I will throw it down into the 3rd slot when I get home. Altho I am not sure that it is even worth the extra heat and power consumption to have it in there.
If you only play at that res, YES, you won't notice a performance hit.
 

knitoe

Member
ph33nix said:
Wait what do you mean? I'm kinda computer noob but didn't a lot of people do this?

I also took it apart, put it together, nothing really changed. Is it possible that something got messed up while shipping even though I padded it like crazy?
Yes, many people flash their 6950 with 6970 bios and it works just fine for many, but some experience graphic glitches and a unlucky few got their cards bricked due mainly to the memory chips not rated to handle the higher voltages. That's why I always only suggest not flashing with 6970 bios, but instead flash unlocking the shaders only then overclock to 6970 spec and leaving voltages the same.
 
n0n44m said:
did you pad the inside?

graphic cards can be sorta heavy, and they're only fixed at one end ...

No I didn't...which might be my death


Hazaro said:
Clear the CMOS/BIOS, check manual. There should be a battery and jumper.
Physically triple check all your connections and hand trace each cable from the PSU. Reseat each connection (unplug,plug).
RAM, 24 pin power, 8 pin power, gpu power, take gpu in and out, etc.

Technically it could be a problem like a micro crack in the motherboard or something, but that is very very rare.

i'll try this too thanks!
----it failed :(

knitoe said:
Yes, many people flash their 6950 with 6970 bios and it works just fine for many, but some experience graphic glitches and a unlucky few got their cards bricked due mainly to the memory chips not rated to handle the higher voltages. That's why I always only suggest not flashing with 6970 bios, but instead flash unlocking the shaders only then overclock to 6970 spec and leaving voltages the same.

I see what you're saying, but my guess is now that something happened to it during shipping, because it was working perfectly fine for the first 4 months
 
Hi, I'm typo, long-time caller, first-time listener, and I have a question:

I've never used a computer before (huge C64 user here). In the Gregorian year of 2011, is it really worth purchasing a SSD for a new PC over a traditional HDD? I understand that no Welshman can survive on SSD alone and must use "The Magnets" for stagnant storage.

Outside of a faster boot time, I'm having a difficult time pinning down why one would pick a SSD + HDD combo set up versus just having a single/dual HDD set up.
 
typo said:
Hi, I'm typo, long-time caller, first-time listener, and I have a question:

I've never used a computer before (huge C64 user here). In the Gregorian year of 2011, is it really worth purchasing a SSD for a new PC over a traditional HDD? I understand that no Welshman can survive on SSD alone and must use "The Magnets" for stagnant storage.

Outside of a faster boot time, I'm having a difficult time pinning down why one would pick a SSD + HDD combo set up versus just having a single/dual HDD set up.
Makes os interactions near instantaneous. If you don't value that just go 7200RPM. My SSD has really been awesome. I'd love to get one in my MacBook pro.
 
typo said:
Hi, I'm typo, long-time caller, first-time listener, and I have a question:

I've never used a computer before (huge C64 user here). In the Gregorian year of 2011, is it really worth purchasing a SSD for a new PC over a traditional HDD? I understand that no Welshman can survive on SSD alone and must use "The Magnets" for stagnant storage.

Outside of a faster boot time, I'm having a difficult time pinning down why one would pick a SSD + HDD combo set up versus just having a single/dual HDD set up.
Large SSDs are expensive, so a reasonably-sized SSD for boot/programs + a hefty HDD = all the space you need and the benefits of an SSD.

Downside is you need to watch what you put on your SSD.
 
The Teachinator said:
Makes os interactions near instantaneous. If you don't value that just go 7200RPM. My SSD has really been awesome. I'd love to get one in my MacBook pro.

So even in the face of this?

Or is this a case of backing up the backups of the backups you made yesterday of the backups of your ghost images of your backup drives?
 

n0n44m

Member
ph33nix said:
No I didn't...which might be my death

if something happened during shipping it will probably be some minuscule cracks in the card's pcb layers

bad news: can't fix it

good news: they won't see it when you RMA

(check motherboard with another card though ... and I hope you didn't have a very heavy aftermarket CPU cooler installed during shipping either ...)
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
ph33nix said:
i'll try this too thanks!
----it failed :(
Maybe something silly like a bad outlet / PSU is on 230V vs 115V, CPU fan header is loose, check back of mobo for any possible shorts? Blow air over it?

There's probably a few simple things I cant remember on the top of my head.
Hold power button while off, (Flip PSU I/O) then turn back on? Try that 5 times.
 
n0n44m said:
if something happened during shipping it will probably be some minuscule cracks in the card's pcb layers

bad news: can't fix it

good news: they won't see it when you RMA

(check motherboard with another card though ... and I hope you didn't have a very heavy aftermarket CPU cooler installed during shipping either ...)

I did, but that's operating fine...unless....you think that fucked something else up?

I've already set up a support ticket with XFX. Hopefully they'll just give me a new one ASAP.
 

n0n44m

Member
what did you ship it with actually?

your car? a moving company? or something like DHL/UPS/TNT? (that's like OK, sorta OK, really bad in terms of "delicate package handling")


if you are absolutely certain shipping caused damage to your card, you might want to check your motherboard as well using another card (buy a cheapo $25 pci-e card if you have to)

aftermarket cpu coolers do use backplates to distribute their load but I have seen more sturdier things mangled during shipping :x
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
ph33nix said:
I did, but that's operating fine...unless....you think that fucked something else up?

I've already set up a support ticket with XFX. Hopefully they'll just give me a new one ASAP.
Didn't I say to uninstall the HS and GPU before shipping? :[
 
Hazaro said:
Didn't I say to uninstall the HS and GPU before shipping? :[

:(

what is the HS?

and thankfully, I bought insurance when I shipped. I mean, I shipped it and still had all my original packaging/boxes, and i also stuffed the shit out of it with clothes. but fuck me, not careful enough...ugh. not sure what insurance will do for me here
 
The Teachinator said:
Got one two weeks ago. Excellent card! It takes one 6 pin and one 8 pin from the psu.
The cable usually has 2 pins separate from 6 pins right? so i just connect the 2 together for the 8 pin and then use the 6 pin separately without the other 2 pins? It will be a total of 2 cables tough right?
 

epmode

Member
typo said:
So even in the face of this?
This is very disappointing. I might just pass on the SSD this time around.

Still waiting on EVGA's P67 motherboard, sigh. That warranty has saved me in the past but The Witcher 2 is coming out so soon........
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
typo said:
So even in the face of this?

Or is this a case of backing up the backups of the backups you made yesterday of the backups of your ghost images of your backup drives?
I haven't heard too many horror stories.
Intel's failure rate (tmk) is something like 0.5%. To have every single drive fail makes me wonder if there is something that one person has or is running.
 

scogoth

Member
Syphon Filter said:
The cable usually has 2 pins separate from 6 pins right? so i just connect the 2 together for the 8 pin and then use the 6 pin separately without the other 2 pins? It will be a total of 2 cables tough right?

Yes 2 cables should be going to your GTX 580


Kyaw said:
PCI Express bus speeds shouldn't hinder performance if the board is SLI/Crossfire compatible.

Not true at all. All P67 chipsets only have 16 PCIe lanes and usually split them 8x 8x in slots 1 and 2. But some boards use those PCIe lanes to run the chipsets for USB3, more SATA6 ports etc. If you're using those extra lanes or the third slot for a card then slot 2 can drop to 4x speeds and that will hinder fps.

Gotta check your manual to see how your PCIe lane switching works. Quite a few MSI boards do this, some ASRock, some Gigabyte boards and the P8P67 Evo.

Also never use the third slot on a P67 board for your GPU, thats always 4x


Hazaro said:
I haven't heard too many horror stories.
Intel's failure rate (tmk) is something like 0.5%. To have every single drive fail makes me wonder if there is something that one person has or is running.

He could have been running his comp in a steam room. I'm up to 3 ssds and not a problem yet. Anecdotal but we know that failure rates aren't that high.
 

Varna

Member
PCI fans recommended? I want to add a bit more cooling to my card but I'm reading very mixed reviews about most PCI fans... What other things could I do to help with temps?
 
Varna said:
PCI fans recommended? I want to add a bit more cooling to my card but I'm reading very mixed reviews about most PCI fans... What other things could I do to help with temps?
Case, GPU and other components?

As for PCI fans, these two seem to do well when combined with the right components and case layout:

bs-07-01s.jpg


Lian Li BS-07B (Black), BS-07A (Silver), BS-07R (Red)
http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/produc...ex=481&cl_index=2&sc_index=34&ss_index=83&g=f

p01.jpg


Lian Li BS-08A (Silver), BS-08B (Black)
http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/produc...ex=284&cl_index=2&sc_index=34&ss_index=83&g=f
 

Coldsnap

Member
What's up with my Caviar Black? It makes such an annoying noise, the only thing I can hear in my case. Grrrrrrr pause Grrrrrrrr pause Grrrrr pause (repeat)
 

Dosia

Member
So I started building my new comp, and I am already screwed. My intel SSD is an OEM (dumbass me) and I dont have an adapter to install into my case. Any idea where to get an intel 320 adapter, or if new egg will let me exchange the OEm for the normal one that comes with it? DOH!
 
Dosia said:
So I started building my new comp, and I am already screwed. My intel SSD is an OEM (dumbass me) and I dont have an adapter to install into my case. Any idea where to get an intel 320 adapter, or if new egg will let me exchange the OEm for the normal one that comes with it? DOH!
maybe just tape her down in the bottom of the case, lol some people just let them hang. Helps theres no moving parts in them, soo placement wont be much of an issue
 

scogoth

Member
Dosia said:
So I started building my new comp, and I am already screwed. My intel SSD is an OEM (dumbass me) and I dont have an adapter to install into my case. Any idea where to get an intel 320 adapter, or if new egg will let me exchange the OEm for the normal one that comes with it? DOH!

You can buy a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter at any computer store for $5
 
Varna said:
Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 and EVGA 580 SC. I only worry about the card.
Part of the problem might be that with most Antecs, the GPU and PSU are competing for the same air supply. Still, unless you have the HDD cage loaded up, you should have enough airflow that that isn't a big issue.

Have you tried changing the fan profile? You may need to have it spin faster and/or kick in earlier, to improve the cooling. Sacrifice some noise for lower temps.

Aside from that, I'd try placing a fan in the side panel to feed cool air directly to the GPU. Also your card is mostly an EE model, but it still releases some heat within the case that may not be getting exhausted quickly enough. You may want to add some ventilated PCI slots to help push out hot air more quickly.
 

Varna

Member
·feist· said:
Aside from that, I'd try placing a fan in the side panel to feed cool air directly to the GPU. Also your card is mostly an EE model, but it still releases some heat within the case that may not be getting exhausted quickly enough. You may want to add some ventilated PCI slots to help push out hot air more quickly.

Appreciate the suggestions. I'm definitely going to buy side panel fan. I have a few ventilated PCI slots as well. I think I will just buy a simple pci fan to help with pushing air out too.

Changing the fan profiles definitely helped. I was using the same profile I had set up for my 460 and that was simply not working too well. I set a new one and the card doesn't get nearly as hot in the more intensive games (crysis, 3dmark). 75c is the highest it will get now, I want to drop it to 70c. Hopefully the extra fans will help without the noise getting to crazy.
 

Varna

Member
black_vegeta said:
Monitor!! Need to find monitor.

What LED monitors are out there with minimal input lag and look amazing?

Thinking of this ASUS VH236H 23" LCD monitor since it was used for the EVO tournament because of its no input lag. BUT, it's not LED backlight.

I have this monitor. Love it. Everything looks so sharp and clean.
 

Coldsnap

Member
Coldsnap said:
What's up with my Caviar Black? It makes such an annoying noise, the only thing I can hear in my case. Grrrrrrr pause Grrrrrrrr pause Grrrrr pause (repeat)

gah im about to throw this thing out the window
 
typo said:
So even in the face of this?

Or is this a case of backing up the backups of the backups you made yesterday of the backups of your ghost images of your backup drives?
I don't know how scientific that is. I use it purely for my os and some apps. If it fails I reinstall windows. Not the end of the universe.
 

Cheech

Member
Rolled the dice today and ordered a second 6870 from newegg for SLI.

Never, ever done SLI before. This is going to be interesting. I figure if it sucks, I can always cut them both loose and pick up a 6970.

With the Witcher 2 dropping next week, I wanted to run it full monte.
 
Syphon Filter said:
The cable usually has 2 pins separate from 6 pins right? so i just connect the 2 together for the 8 pin and then use the 6 pin separately without the other 2 pins? It will be a total of 2 cables tough right?
Yup this is exactly what I did. The evga came with very specific directions on a bright yellow sheet of Paper.
 

Cheech

Member
Coldsnap said:
gah im about to throw this thing out the window

Western Digital hard drives have always been loud as hell. I've owned/installed hundreds over the years. Generally reliable drives, I have a Caviar Black in my own build, but yeah. Not quiet. I have a bunch of case fans going full tilt plus a Cooler Master 212+, and I can still hear that WD grinding away over that ruckus even when I'm in the next room over with the door closed.

Seagates tend to be quieter. When I'm building for somebody and noise is a concern, I go with one of theirs.
 

TheExodu5

Banned
Coldsnap said:
gah im about to throw this thing out the window

That's hard drives for you. That's why you run your OS off an SSD.

I absolutely can't stand the noise of mechanical hard drives. Even my Samsung 5400RPM drives are far too loud for my taste.
 
Varna said:
Appreciate the suggestions. I'm definitely going to buy side panel fan. I have a few ventilated PCI slots as well. I think I will just buy a simple pci fan to help with pushing air out too.

Changing the fan profiles definitely helped. I was using the same profile I had set up for my 460 and that was simply not working too well. I set a new one and the card doesn't get nearly as hot in the more intensive games (crysis, 3dmark). 75c is the highest it will get now, I want to drop it to 70c. Hopefully the extra fans will help without the noise getting to crazy.
Cool. One of the reasons I was asking about your specific case and GPU were to see if certain solutions would be better tailored to your build.

In your case, I'd skip the PCI fan, or at least, leave it for last. Start off with the side fan (an option that isn't suited to some builds). Looks like it won't be directly feeding the blower, but I'd be surprised if your temps didn't go down about 2-3c or so at least. You'll be cooling the GPU's PCB and some air should reach the CPU and motherboard as well.

Since you have a reference EE card, some of the side fan's cool air may be wasted if you immediately add vented slots. Try the fan alone first, and then see how things go when you add the vented slots to the mix later. Depending on how many SSD and HDD you have, and how warm they are, the vents might help with that as well.

One thing, though, you may want to get some kind of sound dampening mounts for the side fan to reduce the vibrations that it's going to cause.
 

Edgeward

Member
This might not be the appropriate place to ask, but hopefully you can help me all the same. I've been running into freezing issues/instances that popped up two months ago and now it's crept up into my gaming and now I want to fix it.

The computer would freeze and hard lock when playing flash videos on youtube and while I'm downloading files. This never happened before and I'm sure my pc could handle such tasks. And now it hard locked while playing BF2 (may be just game-related but felt I should mention it anyway), and if this creeps up when the witcher 2 is out I'm gonna go insane. I already updated my flash and video codecs just to be sure and did virus/malware scans as well, still getting hard locks when doing the tasks above.



Total amount of system memory 12.0 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2



Graphics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter type ATI Radeon HD 5670
Total available graphics memory 4091 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 1024 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 3067 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.690.0.0
Primary monitor resolution 1920x1080
DirectX version DirectX 10


I don't want to update my video driver as A) it's worked perfectly fine beforehand and b) ATI drivers are ass and cause me nothing but headaches. It always fucks up my resolution after updating it and I always have to rollback.

Is there any other checks I need to do? Or do I just need to a new video card? Please help a pc newbie in all this, thanks.
 

Coldsnap

Member
TheExodu5 said:
That's hard drives for you. That's why you run your OS off an SSD.

I absolutely can't stand the noise of mechanical hard drives. Even my Samsung 5400RPM drives are far too loud for my taste.

Yea, it's really easy to notice when your system is so quiet. Im getting an SSD lol
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom