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

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TheExodu5

Banned
I hope someone can correct me if I'm somehow missing something here. I don't see much reason to get the 955 over the i3 2100 at this point. It's faster in quad-core only applications, but overall it will not be as good for gaming and emulation. It doesn't leave any upgrade possibilities open at all.
 

B-Dex

Member
The price for this after some price matching is hitting $1400 CDN
Good or bad deal?

Case: CM 690 II Advance
Mobo: Gigabyte Z68 UD4
CPU: i5 2500k
Vid Card:msi GTX 560ti Twin Frozr
RAM: 8GB
PSU: Corsair HX750W
HDD: 1TB WD Caviar Black
SSD: Intel 320 80GB
DVD Drive
 

TheExodu5

Banned

Wallach

Member
TheExodu5 said:
I hope someone can correct me if I'm somehow missing something here. I don't see much reason to get the 955 over the i3 2100 at this point. It's faster in quad-core only applications, but overall it will not be as good for gaming and emulation. It doesn't leave any upgrade possibilities open at all.

Well I think the only thing to mention is that you can't overclock the SB i3 at all. Otherwise I think it is a good performance chip for a budget build and leaves you with a full visibility upgrade path. Even if I could buy into a mobo that could slot a Bulldozer and the 955 I'd be concerned about what actually happens with that chip.
 

TheExodu5

Banned
Wallach said:
Well I think the only thing to mention is that you can't overclock the SB i3 at all. Otherwise I think it is a good performance chip for a budget build and leaves you with a full visibility upgrade path. Even if I could buy into a mobo that could slot a Bulldozer and the 955 I'd be concerned about what actually happens with that chip.

It's true that the AM3+ motherboards are out right now...but yeah, that upgrade path isn't quite certain. Even using just currently released CPUs, the upgrade from the i3 2100 to the i5 2500k is pretty massive in terms of performance difference (if using a P67 motherboard), so it already has a very nice upgrade path.

I'm still very skeptical as to the Bulldozer CPUs being better gaming CPUs than the i5 2500k. I guess we'll fine out in a few months.
 

Griffin

Member
B-Dex said:
The price for this after some price matching is hitting $1400 CDN
Good or bad deal?

Case: CM 690 II Advance
Mobo: Gigabyte Z68 UD4
CPU: i5 2500k
Vid Card:msi GTX 560ti Twin Frozr
RAM: 8GB
PSU: Corsair HX750W
HDD: 1TB WD Caviar Black
SSD: Intel 320 80GB
DVD Drive

Go for it.
 
Since Bulldozer isn't looking too impressive from the previews I'll be going for an i5 2500K.

Right now Z68 boards are attracting a small premium here. Are there any compelling reasons to choose it over P67? I don't relly care about using the onboard video.
 

TheExodu5

Banned
toasty_T said:
Since Bulldozer isn't looking too impressive from the previews I'll be going for an i5 2500K.

Right now Z68 boards are attracting a small premium here. Are there any compelling reasons to choose it over P67? I don't relly care about using the onboard video.

Not really. My only reason for going Z68 would be that the Gigabyte Z68 boards look sexy as hell. If you don't care about that, then no. :p

Coldsnap said:
should i download this new nvidia driver?

Only if you see a reason why to do so (performance improvements in a game you're playing, fixes, etc...). If you have no issues with your current drivers, then stick with them.

I always caution against upgrading drivers early. It wouldn't be the first time that nvidia botched a driver release.
 

MMaRsu

Member
Hey guys I have come into a little bit of money and want to upgrade my old system bit by bit. I should get some more money soon so this'll be the first step.

These are my specs :

Intel Celeron D 3.56Ghz
1GB Ram
Onboard videocard ( lol )

Would I really need to upgrade my cpu first? I think I have a pretty recent motherboard although I'm not sure which exactly, how to check that?

Thinking of putting at least 2GB ram extra in and a new Geforce card..

This a good card? "EVGA GeForce GTX550Ti OverClocked"
 

TheExodu5

Banned
MMaRsu said:
Hey guys I have come into a little bit of money and want to upgrade my old system bit by bit. I should get some more money soon so this'll be the first step.

These are my specs :

Intel Celeron D 3.56Ghz
1GB Ram
Onboard videocard ( lol )

Would I really need to upgrade my cpu first? I think I have a pretty recent motherboard although I'm not sure which exactly, how to check that?

Thinking of putting at least 2GB ram extra in and a new Geforce card..

You really shouldn't even think of upgrading that unless you're planning on playing 6+ year old games. That hardware is very outdated. You should be starting from scratch.
 

MMaRsu

Member
TheExodu5 said:
You really shouldn't even think of upgrading that unless you're planning on playing 6+ year old games. That hardware is very outdated. You should be starting from scratch.

So starting with the cpu, where to start? What is a good thing to buy?
 

bwtw

Neo Member
Looks like I am in need of a new processor for TW2. Currently on a x2 550 Phenom, I see the Intel 2500k has been recommended but presumably I would need a new motherboard for that? Ideally I would be upgrading one component rather than two but is it worth it? Budget not a major issue but would rather squeeze more value out of the money if possible. (ignorant about hardware fwiw)
 

knitoe

Member
toasty_T said:
Since Bulldozer isn't looking too impressive from the previews I'll be going for an i5 2500K.

Right now Z68 boards are attracting a small premium here. Are there any compelling reasons to choose it over P67? I don't relly care about using the onboard video.
Major difference are Quick Sync video encoding, SSD caching and onboard video for ~$20 more. If I had the choice back then, I would definitely gone Z68.
 
MMaRsu said:
So starting with the cpu, where to start? What is a good thing to buy?

Just to be clear, he's saying you can't "start with the CPU". You need a whole new computer.

Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Graphics card. Go to the first post if you want to see some price suggestions. Don't waste time or money trying to upgrade the fossil you have.

EDIT: To be a little more helpful. If your case, hard drive, power supply (most likely not to cut it out of these, but maybe), and DVD drive are still good, you can build the suggested $600 range computer in the first post for $500. If you need to go cheaper I'm sure people can help make suggestions.
 

TheExodu5

Banned
bwtw said:
Looks like I am in need of a new processor for TW2. Currently on a x2 550 Phenom, I see the Intel 2500k has been recommended but presumably I would need a new motherboard for that? Ideally I would be upgrading one component rather than two but is it worth it? Budget not a major issue but would rather squeeze more value out of the money if possible. (ignorant about hardware fwiw)

Well your choices would be:

Cheapest option:
AMD x4 955 - $115
---
$115

Middle option:
Core i5 2400 - $190
+
MSI PH67S-C43 - $85
---
$275

Pricey option:
Core i5 2500k - $220
+
MSI P67A-C43 - $115
+
Cooler Master Hyper 212+ - $30
---
$365

The first option would double your CPU performance for games that use 4 cores, but wouldn't do anything for games that don't. The second option is the cheapest way to get a quad-core Sandy Bridge, which is maybe 50% faster than the 955. The last option would allow you to have a Sandy Bridge CPU overclockable to around 4.6GHZ-5.0GHz...which is probably almost double the performance of the stock 955.

Your call, really. 955 is definitely the best value, but the 2500k would have a much longer life.

You could just get the 955 now, and wait on the CPU for a few years...it's not like many games really need more than the 955 offers right now (beyond maybe emulation, and a few standouts like SC2 and BFBC2).
 
Wallach said:
Well I think the only thing to mention is that you can't overclock the SB i3 at all. Otherwise I think it is a good performance chip for a budget build and leaves you with a full visibility upgrade path. Even if I could buy into a mobo that could slot a Bulldozer and the 955 I'd be concerned about what actually happens with that chip.

They are coming out with the 2120K.
 

TheExodu5

Banned
cartman414 said:
They are coming out with the 2120K.

It might make a good emulation CPU, but beyond that, I don't see the point. The cost of overclocking is around $60 (motherboard premium + unlocked premium + CPU cooler). If you're going to spend that much, you could just up the 2100 to a 2400 (or up your budget a bit and go P67 + 2500k + cooler).

If you already have a CPU cooler lying around, then it might be more attractive, though.
 

scy

Member
Isn't the i3 also on sale right now? Pretty sure it's part of Newegg's current promotion ($115 on it, I think).

Edit: Yeah, EMCKEGJ22 for -$10.
 
SneakyStephan said:
Ok what the fuck.
So I noticed my pc has been unusually noisy (normally whisper quiet) ,like... load temp noisy for the last week or so.

It finally starts to really get to me, so I take a look at CCC, and my gpu fan is running at 21 percent fanspeed.
I'm like oh no you don't, I click the manual fan control checkbox, want to turn it down : DERP : the lowest is 20 percent in the new CCC.

So what gives?

I don't know why it happened, but what you can try is to download MSI Afterburner. In this program, you can set up a new automatic fan profile (ie. 10% below 50C, then ramping up as you like it). I found that you can often lower the fan speed in this program more than you can in CCC. The option may not be available though unless you actually create an auto fan profile. My card for example is has a min of 20% in both programs for manual speed, but the auto fan profile (found under Settings) allows for 10%.
 

Ryusei

Neo Member
TheExodu5 said:
If you want to keep the option of getting a better overclockable CPU down the road, you could also get this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130576&cm_re=p67_c43-_-13-130-576-_-Product

If you never want to bother overclocking, then it won't make a difference. Know though, that the 2100 isn't overclockable...this would only be for possible upgrades in the future.

Since it is a good buy at the moment, do you think the 2100 CPU is a good buy at the moment? Since I am more on the unexperienced side (First time builder), I am a but nervous about the overclocking aspect.
 

TheExodu5

Banned
Ryusei said:
Since it is a good buy at the moment, do you think the 2100 CPU is a good buy at the moment? Since I am more on the unexperienced side (First time builder), I am a but nervous about the overclocking aspect.

I think it's a very good choice as it gives you great gaming performance now, and it leaves the door open for significant CPU upgrades in the future.

If Ivy Bridge does indeed come to 1155 as promised, the possibly future CPU upgrades could be even greater.
 

Beaner

Member
I'm running two 8800 GTX's in SLI, and just today one of them seems to have died. Both of them were code 43 in the device manager, so I tried installing the latest drivers. This seems to have sort of worked as now only one of them is code 43.

My question is, is this one that is code 43 dead completely now? Trying to hold off building a new computer till the Fall so if I can get this one working/ensure they won't both die that'd be great. Are chances good that the one that hasn't died will last me until Sept/Oct?
 
HT | Omega Claro

Anyone have thoughts on this sound card? I have Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1s and plan on playing older games, newer games, and the occasional Blu-Ray. I was going to buy a Xonar, but was swayed by the model I wanted being out of stock / great reviews of the Claro. I realize it doesn't support recent versions of EAX, not a huge deal, but are there other issues I'm missing? How is it with HD audio? Please be brutal if necessary, as I can still return it!
 

Ryusei

Neo Member
TheExodu5 said:
I think it's a very good choice as it gives you great gaming performance now, and it leaves the door open for significant CPU upgrades in the future.

If Ivy Bridge does indeed come to 1155 as promised, the possibly future CPU upgrades could be even greater.

Good, once I build it the first time I will feel more comfortable about taking it apart/upgrades. I guess that finalizes it. I went slightly over budget but the mileage should be more than worth it.
 

barnone

Member
Any advice for stopping the screen tearing/flickering on my geforce GTS 250? Bad Company 2 and the original witcher both suffer. I am forcing vsync and triple buffering through d3d and that doesnt help. I am thinking about reverting to a good set of drivers, would that help since the latest ones don't focus on this card?
 
What are some good fans for a push/pull config on a corsair H60? Also what would be some good but quiet exhaust case fans for the top of my 650D. I'm leaning towards the noctuas, but the color is so bad. Or would the stock 200mm be fine for O/C i7 2600k and 460 sli'd.
 

Deadstar

Member
TheExodu5 said:
The refresh rate of the picture should not have an impact on eye strain. The only thing that might is the refresh rate of the backlight...which is usually faster than 60Hz (since flicker is still perceptable at this rate). I have heard of some displays having 60Hz backlighting, though.

This might not effect you, or might not even be a consideration but: you could consider a bigger monitor that you can put further away from you. In my personal experience, the main thing that causes eye strain for me is having a display too close to me. I use a 32" HDTV from a few feet away, which has been much easier on my eyes.

That is possible. I have a 22 inch monitor but thought that getting one with a higher resolution would put even more strain on my eyes. But maybe I could bump the size up to 24 and it would be easier for my eyes? I kind of like the size of my monitor now but maybe I should get a 23 or 24 to see how it is.
 

Ultrabum

Member
Ok, so I was playing starcraft today, and a teal-ish colored vertical line just showed up on my monitor:

r1CSJ.jpg


I tried restarting and turning everything on and off, and my other screen has no defect, so I'm guessing its the monitor going to shit.....

Anything I can do besides buy a new monitor????

Thanks.

(P.S.) I realize now that it was stupid to use SCII in the image, because the line is less obvious, but I think its pretty clear on the left side of the screen....
 

Le-mo

Member
I don't know where to ask or want to make a thread so I'll ask here. My computer would sometimes restart when I unplug a USB drive. Any way to fix this?
 

Van Owen

Banned
Got mine put together today. I had a tough time getting some of the thicker cables behind the motherboard on the R3. Oh well, it will be closed most of the time anyway.

xnveN.jpg
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
TheExodu5 said:
Honestly, after looking at benchmarks, I think I'm feeling the i3 2100 over the AMD 955. The 955 will do a bit better with quad-core enabled games when overclocked...but at stock speeds, it very barely edges out the 2100 (by maybe 5%). When it comes to games that only support 1-2 threads (like Starcraft 2 or emulators), the 2100 will be significantly better. They would run about the same price, but going with the 1155 motherboard leaves a much better upgrade path.

Thoughts?

edit: actually, it probably beats the stock clocked 955 even in quad-core games, judging by the benchmarks here.
I posted my findings on this back a few pages.
I'm sort of in the same boat. But... it's a dual core so it is super off putting even though it is stupid fast. Considering BD has been delayed and the costs are similar I've been on the fence about replacing the x4 955 with it. Sigh.
I do want some more benches at gaming resolutions though, not too many around besides anandtech really. I guess if you think about it as budget rig it is a better upgrade path and better for most games (RTS mainly).

* I relooked at the anand benches again and I remember why I didn't put in a 2100 straight away. The 955 gets above 60FPS in most of those titles. So it is sort of a blind hope that games use quads (Like BF3 or something). Still want another 2 review sites or user reviews before I make that call. At least 1155 should be supported with Ivy.
** http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i3-2100-phenom-ii-x6-1075t,2859.html
Trading blows on most things. I rechecked the specs and the 2100 has HT, which might explain the numbers. HT honestly might just be enough to persuade me over since most games meant for quads just run 60-70% on it.

*** http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1501/13/

Any other thoughts on this?
Van Owen said:
Got mine put together today. I had a tough time getting some of the thicker cables behind the motherboard on the R3. Oh well, it will be closed most of the time anyway.

xnveN.jpg
Looking good!
 

Fredescu

Member
Ultrabum said:
I tried restarting and turning everything on and off, and my other screen has no defect, so I'm guessing its the monitor going to shit.....

Anything I can do besides buy a new monitor????
It's most likely the monitors fault. To be sure, unplug it from your PC and see if the line still appears when you use the monitors OSD. Oh, didn't realise you've tried another monitor. Yep, monitor fault for sure. I had a warranty repair on a monitor recently for the same thing.
 

Van Owen

Banned
is CPU-Z fucked up? I installed my RAM in the light blue slots on the P8P67 Pro mobo and it doesn't say if it's running in dual channel or not.
 

evanft

Member
It seems that for the $300-$350 price range, 2x6850 in CF represents the best performance available. Should I really be looking at this setup over a single 6970? If I buy 2 reference cards, I could actually come in at about $320 after MIR. I'd rather buy a couple non-reference cards with better/quieter cooling, though.

I'm thinking about this one from Sapphire.

Any thoughts?
 
evanft said:
It seems that for the $300-$350 price range, 2x6850 in CF represents the best performance available. Should I really be looking at this setup over a single 6970? If I buy 2 reference cards, I could actually come in at about $320 after MIR. I'd rather buy a couple non-reference cards with better/quieter cooling, though.

I'm thinking about this one from Sapphire.

Any thoughts?
dual GPU can be a real pain in the ass and they waste a lot of Watts (not to mention double noise).

I always prefer single GPU over dual .
 
My suggestion has always been buy the fastest single GPU you can afford. You can always add a second identical GPU later on when prices come down as they inevitably do.

There is no point to SLI/Crossfire using anything other than the top-end cards of the moment, because the choice between 2 midrange cards in SLI/Crossfire compared to 1 top-end card is always, ALWAYS in favor of the single card. In other words, you either buy the best card in pairs for a planned SLI/Crossfire right away, or you buy the best card now and plan to add another one later when it's cheaper, or you just don't go multi-GPU. No other scenario other than these 2 ever makes sense in terms of performance or value.
 

evanft

Member
Unknown Soldier said:
My suggestion has always been buy the fastest single GPU you can afford. You can always add a second identical GPU later on when prices come down as they inevitably do.

There is no point to SLI/Crossfire using anything other than the top-end cards of the moment, because the choice between 2 midrange cards in SLI/Crossfire compared to 1 top-end card is always, ALWAYS in favor of the single card. In other words, you either buy the best card in pairs for a planned SLI/Crossfire right away, or you buy the best card now and plan to add another one later when it's cheaper, or you just don't go multi-GPU. No other scenario other than these 2 ever makes sense in terms of performance or value.

Here's a comparison between dual 6850's and a single 6970.

The 2x6850's win in practically every benchmark with only some added power draw and noise.
 

Fredescu

Member
evanft said:
The 2x6850's win in practically every benchmark with only some added power draw and noise.
It might look good on paper, but its so much more fiddly than a single GPU. You frequently have to wait post release for games to have proper SLI/Crossfire support. If you're the kind of person that needs to play your favourite genres day 1, you will often have to be content with running it at half power until a driver hotfix comes out, or a game patch to improve scaling, or whatever. It's not as simple as looking at performance charts of mature games on mature drivers. If you're prepared for all that, and you generally like to tinker, give it a try I guess. You'll learn from the experience at least.
 

kpx0

Banned
TheExodu5 said:
It might make a good emulation CPU, but beyond that, I don't see the point. The cost of overclocking is around $60 (motherboard premium + unlocked premium + CPU cooler). If you're going to spend that much, you could just up the 2100 to a 2400 (or up your budget a bit and go P67 + 2500k + cooler).

If you already have a CPU cooler lying around, then it might be more attractive, though.


typically a dual core of the same architecture will overclock much better (25%) than a quad core counterpart... ie the C2D wolfdales were hitting 4-5ghz easily while the yorkfields were struggling to even hit 4ghz. even with current games, benchmarks show that clockspeed is king when it comes to gaming so depending on your priorities, a highly clocked dual core sandy bridge would be preferable over a modestly clocked quad.

also on the cooler, one of the best coolers on the market, the coolermaster hyper 212 is under $20 when on sale... so thats a moot point
 

evanft

Member
Fredescu said:
It might look good on paper, but its so much more fiddly than a single GPU. You frequently have to wait post release for games to have proper SLI/Crossfire support. If you're the kind of person that needs to play your favourite genres day 1, you will often have to be content with running it at half power until a driver hotfix comes out, or a game patch to improve scaling, or whatever. It's not as simple as looking at performance charts of mature games on mature drivers. If you're prepared for all that, and you generally like to tinker, give it a try I guess. You'll learn from the experience at least.

Eh, screw that. I'll just get a single 6950 and maybe add on a second one later.

How's this one?

Or should I save money now and get a 1 GB?
 

TheExodu5

Banned
Hazaro said:
Any other thoughts on this?

Well, it's hard to say that one is downright better than the other. I mean, if the buyer says they're only interested in BFBC2, then I'd probably recommend the 955. If they're interested in SC2 or emulation, then I'd recommend the 2100. I think that overall, the 2100 is just more useful to gaming, as it nearly matches the 955 in quad-core applications, but will be significantly faster in games that are limited by clock speed. And again, the upgrade path is clear and the upgrade potential is pretty massive, even today.

kpx0 said:
typically a dual core of the same architecture will overclock much better (25%) than a quad core counterpart... ie the C2D wolfdales were hitting 4-5ghz easily while the yorkfields were struggling to even hit 4ghz. even with current games, benchmarks show that clockspeed is king when it comes to gaming so depending on your priorities, a highly clocked dual core sandy bridge would be preferable over a modestly clocked quad.

also on the cooler, one of the best coolers on the market, the coolermaster hyper 212 is under $20 when on sale... so thats a moot point

Yeah...I guess if it really does overclock better, it might be an attractive buy. If it could reach maybe 5.5GHz, it would make a stupidly good/cheap emulation and gaming cpu.
 
For those looking to get a good midrange card, newegg has Asus gtx 460 1gb for $169.99+shipping. Got an email from newegg today with a promo code EMCKDKH43 to drop the price down to $149.99. Throw in a $30 mail in rebate for $119.99+shipping.
 

TheExodu5

Banned
Fredescu said:
It might look good on paper, but its so much more fiddly than a single GPU. You frequently have to wait post release for games to have proper SLI/Crossfire support. If you're the kind of person that needs to play your favourite genres day 1, you will often have to be content with running it at half power until a driver hotfix comes out, or a game patch to improve scaling, or whatever. It's not as simple as looking at performance charts of mature games on mature drivers. If you're prepared for all that, and you generally like to tinker, give it a try I guess. You'll learn from the experience at least.

Agreed.

Never SLI for value. SLI only if you need performance that is greater than the best single card offers.

Spruchy said:
So I basically want to order the $1000 build in the OP, what case is reccomended?

It's very much personal preference. I am partial to recommending the HAF 922 or CM 690 II Advanced.
 
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