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[derder]

Updated with the 560

 

[Branson]

Got a new card to replace my dead 8800gt, it was only 60 bucks and is a 9800gt 1gb. Just a stop gap till I can build a new one, anyway, I tried upgrading my system once with a gtx460 1gb and new power supply, but the card would never run the games better than my 8800gt, it ran them worse infact. I have a q9400 core 2 quad 2.4 ghz and the motherboard is a Intel (Schroeder Town) G33 Motherboard. Just wondering if there are any incompatibiltys with 1gb cards and slightly older mobos.

 

[Salaadin]

For those looking to buy RAM, Newegg is having a sale on desktop memory until the 27th. Use DM15A0111US at checkout.

If I buy the same RAM I got last year, itll only cost me 40 bucks with that promo code. Thatd give me 8GBs which is overkill for what I do but still tempting.

 

[Arment]

Need some much appreciated help, it's for my step-dad actually.

He has a small budget to build an at-home machine for programming. I guess his company is encouraging it, plus they're moving to SharePoint 2010 and it's just time for a better PC. They're giving him $250 to help, and the rest comes out of his pocket. Any money saved is nice, but he wants to keep it around $350 - $400 if possible. He isn't a gamer, strictly programming.

Anyways, I only know so much about computers and what I did know is from about 3 years ago when I built my current gaming PC. I'm clueless in the realm of programming, but I know PCs in their field have much different standards.

At a minimum he wants a 64 bit quad core, 4 gigs of RAM and about a 250gb HD. Am I safe to assume that if I remove the video card from the equation it's about the same as building a gaming PC? From what I can tell, I can get an 3.0 ghz AMD quad core for about $100. But is it going to cut it? Thanks.

 

[Mr Nightman]

Got a new card to replace my dead 8800gt, it was only 60 bucks and is a 9800gt 1gb. Just a stop gap till I can build a new one, anyway, I tried upgrading my system once with a gtx460 1gb and new power supply, but the card would never run the games better than my 8800gt, it ran them worse infact. I have a q9400 core 2 quad 2.4 ghz and the motherboard is a Intel (Schroeder Town) G33 Motherboard. Just wondering if there are any incompatibiltys with 1gb cards and slightly older mobos.

My first guess is a defective gtx, don't think its a incompatibility issue. How powerful was the power supply?

 

[Branson]

My first guess is a defective gtx, don't think its a incompatibility issue. How powerful was the power supply?

It was 650 watt. I used 2 460s and both did the same. Which was terrible fps and weird resolution problems.

 

[Mr Nightman]

It was 650 watt. I used 2 460s and both did the same. Which was terrible fps and weird resolution problems.

hmmm that is really strange, maybe someone else has some insight?

 

[Velion]

It was 650 watt. I used 2 460s and both did the same. Which was terrible fps and weird resolution problems.

Try uninstalling drivers, running driver sweeper then reinstalling.

 

[·feist·]

After all the Sandy Bridge praise around here and elsewhere on the internet, I've been wondering if it is wise to ditch my old s775 mobo and Q9550 processor and upgrade to an i5 2500K. Will the performance boost be significant in games or should I wait until the prices on the i7 CPUs become more affordable?

Wait.
As long as you have a decent motherboard, there's no rush to upgrade. Try clocking your CPU to at least ~3.6-3.8GHz and ride out the upcoming months. Later this year, you'll know how AMD's new parts perform, have the LGA2011 quads as another option (along with the higher core Intels), motherboard revisions, and possibly new CPU steppings.

Emulators would benefit, but your CPU is still more than capable of handling most tasks you throw at it.

 

[bee]

well i did that same upgrade of q9550 to 2500k and sure there are some programs and games that don't benefit at all but for the most part the difference is like night and day, go for it

 

[Conflict NZ]

So I'm currently running an AX850 Corsair supply, and I'm wondering if I will be able to get a second GTX580 in here without power issues, and if I do put in the second GTX580 will I have room to OC the CPU to ~4Ghz without any power issues? My setup is as follows:

Corsair AX850 PSU
Intel Core i7 950
6gb Corsair Dominator CL8 2000MHz Ram
1 x Corsair 60gb SSD
1 x Samsung F3 Spinpoint 1tb
5 x Samsung Ecogreen F4 2tb
Corsair H70 Cooler
Asus Rampage III Formula
Asus GTX580
LG H20L Combo HD-DVD Blu Ray

 

[Azwethinkweiz]

Man that's a lot of storage space.

 

[Conflict NZ]

Man that's a lot of storage space.

I Have over two hundred HD-DVDs and 50 or so Blu Rays that I have backed up so I can stream them throughout the house.

 

[Mr Nightman]

I Have over two hundred HD-DVDs and 50 or so Blu Rays that I have backed up so I can stream them throughout the house.

I cannot imagine all that used space lol

 

[Branson]

Try uninstalling drivers, running driver sweeper then reinstalling.

Did all of that as well. I don't actually have the cards anymore because they didn't work for me. Sucks.

 

[Raistlin]

I Have over two hundred HD-DVDs and 50 or so Blu Rays that I have backed up so I can stream them throughout the house.

You're using a core i7 950 as a media streamer?

I'd love to see your electric bill.

 

[iNvid02]

You're using a core i7 950 as a media streamer?

I'd love to see your electric bill.

its his gaming rig as well, but yeah best to keep stuff like that seperate

 

[TheExodu5]

You're using a core i7 950 as a media streamer?

I'd love to see your electric bill.

It's probably just using 200-250w while streaming. Electricity isn't that expensive.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

It's probably just using 200-250w while streaming. Electricity isn't that expensive.

Especially if you don't leave it on all the time. What kills an electric bill is when the computer is on 24/7.

 

[TheExodu5]

After all the Sandy Bridge praise around here and elsewhere on the internet, I've been wondering if it is wise to ditch my old s775 mobo and Q9550 processor and upgrade to an i5 2500K. Will the performance boost be significant in games or should I wait until the prices on the i7 CPUs become more affordable?

Overclock your current CPU. There are very few games that might be limited by that CPU.

What GPU are you running? What games do you feel need to run faster?

 

[TheExodu5]

Especially if you don't leave it on all the time. What kills an electric bill is when the computer is on 24/7.

A PC idling at 150w would take a kWh every 6 hours or so. So let's assume 4kWh a day. At $0.10/kWh, that's $0.40 a day. $12 a month. Not so bad.

A power efficient media server might take half that much. So you might save maybe $6/mo in idling costs. It will take quite a while to recoup the investment into an energy efficient media server.

 

[mrklaw]

A NAS should be way less than that rig. Like a tenth of it. Although if you're doing any transcode&stream, that could benefit from the power

 

[TheExodu5]

A NAS should be way less than that rig. Like a tenth of it. Although if you're doing any transcode&stream, that could benefit from the power

I was assuming a server with transcoding needs (PS3 Media Server, AirVideo, etc.). If all he needs is a file server, then yeah, a NAS would be a good option.

 

[TheExodu5]

So I'm currently running an AX850 Corsair supply, and I'm wondering if I will be able to get a second GTX580 in here without power issues, and if I do put in the second GTX580 will I have room to OC the CPU to ~4Ghz without any power issues? My setup is as follows:

Corsair AX850 PSU
Intel Core i7 950
6gb Corsair Dominator CL8 2000MHz Ram
1 x Corsair 60gb SSD
1 x Samsung F3 Spinpoint 1tb
5 x Samsung Ecogreen F4 2tb
Corsair H70 Cooler
Asus Rampage III Formula
Asus GTX580
LG H20L Combo HD-DVD Blu Ray

You'll be fine.

 

[coopolon]

well i did that same upgrade of q9550 to 2500k and sure there are some programs and games that don't benefit at all but for the most part the difference is like night and day, go for it

What games were you getting unsatisfactory performance in with the q9550? And with what GPU?

 

[Dosia]

I will be making myself a new PC this year and Im already getting excited. I will probably wait til the end of the year though when Nvidia releases those new smaller process gpus. Are those for sure coming out this year?

 

[Erebus]

Wait.
As long as you have a decent motherboard, there's no rush to upgrade. Try clocking your CPU to at least ~3.6-3.8GHz and ride out the upcoming months. Later this year, you'll know how AMD's new parts perform, have the LGA2011 quads as another option (along with the higher core Intels), motherboard revisions, and possibly new CPU steppings.

Emulators would benefit, but your CPU is still more than capable of handling most tasks you throw at it.

Overclock your current CPU. There are very few games that might be limited by that CPU.

What GPU are you running? What games do you feel need to run faster?

I've already OCed my processor at 3.16Ghz (originally it was 2.83Ghz). The thing is my current motherboard has a native FSB of 1066 while the Q9550 runs at 1333 (when not OCed), consequently 3.16Ghz is the absolute maximum speed I can squeeze out of the CPU with this mobo. I've tried numerous tweaks to go higher to no avail as my system becomes unstable and crashes when running stability software like Prime 95 and Linx.

GPU is a GTX 460 1GB, which I purchased and installed about a month ago. RAM is 4GB DDR2.

As for games other than Crysis, which runs at 35fps but can dip below that frequently, I'm pretty much satisfied with everything else I've tried (L4D2, Mass Effect 2, Singularity and Batman AA, all run at 60fps vsynced most of the time).

To be honest, I'm more concerned about future titles like Crysis 2 and Mass Effect 3 and by the fact that my current mobo doesn't support SLI meaning that I can't throw in another GTX 460 when it becomes necessary.

well i did that same upgrade of q9550 to 2500k and sure there are some programs and games that don't benefit at all but for the most part the difference is like night and day, go for it

No doubt there will be difference, though I'm more interested in knowing how better it performs in games and if it worths all the trouble (installing windows afresh etc) and money of course.

 

[TheExodu5]

I've already OCed my processor at 3.16Ghz (originally it was 2.83Ghz). The thing is my current motherboard has a native FSB of 1066 while the Q9550 runs at 1333 (when not OCed), consequently 3.16Ghz is the absolute maximum speed I can squeeze out of the CPU with this mobo. I've tried numerous tweaks to go higher to no avail as my system becomes unstable and crashes when running stability software like Prime 95 and Linx.

GPU is a GTX 460 1GB, which I purchased and installed about a month ago. RAM is 4GB DDR2.

As for games other than Crysis, which runs at 35fps but can dip below that frequently, I'm pretty much satisfied with everything else I've tried (L4D2, Mass Effect 2, Singularity and Batman AA, all run at 60fps vsynced most of the time).

To be honest, I'm more concerned about future titles like Crysis 2 and Mass Effect 3 and by the fact that my current mobo doesn't support SLI meaning that I can't throw in another GTX 460 when it becomes necessary.


No doubt there will be difference, though I'm more interested in knowing how better it performs in games and if it worths all the trouble (installing windows afresh etc) and money of course.

Heh, I was running a 1333fsb CPU on my 1066 board as well.

Sandy Bridge is definitely a great upgrade, but don't expect a big difference in a game like Crysis...that game is most likely bound by your GPU.

If you want to have an idea of how taxing a game is to your CPU, alt-tab and open the task manager in windows (ctrl+shift+esc). Set it to the performance tab. Go play for a bit and then check the performance tab to see how stressed each core was. If no core is getting maxed to 100%, then getting a CPU will not increase performance.

 

[LegoDad]

Did DDR3 ram drop in price dramatically in the last month? I was able to order the same 2x3gb kit for half price on newegg today.. Insane.

 

[Twig]

The lowest 6950 1gb on Newegg is $259. Also, there are questions about whether or not they will stay in stock as this is likely an early launch to counter the 560. Should be interesting how pricing shakes out in the next few weeks, though.

So does that mean I should wait even longer? Few pages ago I posted I was looking at the 6870, and was told to wait for the 560 to see how things panned out.

D:

 

[Mr Nightman]

Did DDR3 ram drop in price dramatically in the last month? I was able to order the same 2x3gb kit for half price on newegg today.. Insane.

Seems to have dropped quite recently, plus newegg has a 15% off code for memory for the next 48 hours

 

[vocab]

Did DDR3 ram drop in price dramatically in the last month? I was able to order the same 2x3gb kit for half price on newegg today.. Insane.

Its only going to get cheaper. There's too much ram in the world, and the market has no need for expensive ram.

 

[Raistlin]

So ... memory. What sort of premium would you put on:

Cas Latency: 7
Timing     : 7-8-7-24

versus

Cas Latency: 9
Timing     : 9-9-9-24

(I'm looking at this versus this)

Seems to have dropped quite recently, plus newegg has a 15% off code for memory for the next 48 hours

Sweet thanks.

 

[pestul]

So ... memory. What sort of premium would you put on:

Cas Latency: 7
Timing     : 7-8-7-24

versus

Cas Latency: 9
Timing     : 9-9-9-24

(I'm looking at this versus this)





Sweet thanks.

Not worth the premium at all. Virtually no difference these days. In terms of gaming, it might translate to 1fps.

 

[Mr Nightman]

So ... memory. What sort of premium would you put on:

Cas Latency: 7
Timing     : 7-8-7-24

versus

Cas Latency: 9
Timing     : 9-9-9-24

(I'm looking at this versus this)





Sweet thanks.

Your welcome sir, guess I can post the promo code for others who may be ordering ram from newegg in the next two days
Here it is: DM15A0111US

 

[Arsenic]

Yeah I to noticed you can get 8gb ram for just $48 -_-
2 months ago i paid $70 for 4gb

 

[Mr Nightman]

Yeah I to noticed you can get 8gb ram for just $48 -_-
2 months ago i paid $70 for 4gb

I sure am happy about it too, now my wallet wont be nearly as abused the day I grab an am3 ddr3 mobo lol

 

[Ecto311]

Noticed in the chart above on gpu price vs performance shows a gtx460 for 110.. What card is that, looking to upgrade from a gt240

 

[ChoklitReign]

Noticed in the chart above on gpu price vs performance shows a gtx460 for 110.. What card is that, looking to upgrade from a gt240

It's AR by Galaxy. I would rather read a review before buying from them. MSI has a quality model for $125 AR.

 

[Mr Nightman]

Noticed in the chart above on gpu price vs performance shows a gtx460 for 110.. What card is that, looking to upgrade from a gt240

This is prolly not the one but its a galaxy gtx 460 for 144, and is 104 after a 40 dollar mail in rebate. Even comes with just cause 2 free, damn great deal.

 

[Jin34]

Not worth the premium at all. Virtually no difference these days. In terms of gaming, it might translate to 1fps.

More like 0.2 fps.

Something I don't understand about Ram is how some of them are rated to run at very different voltages. It seems the preferred voltage is 1.5 but my sticks are rated for 1.7-1.8.

 

[Raistlin]

Not worth the premium at all. Virtually no difference these days. In terms of gaming, it might translate to 1fps.

Interesting

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/1

Seems like that's not entirely the case for non-gaming duties (I'm not building a gaming machine per se), though in reality SB is gimped in general until the 2011 boards hit. Dual channel for the fail

 

[Jin34]

Interesting

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/1

Seems like that's not entirely the case for non-gaming duties (I'm not building a gaming machine per se), though in reality SB is gimped in general until the 2011 boards hit. Dual channel for the fail

Does it really? Or are you basing that on synthetic benchmarks?

 

[ZZMitch]

Is there really much of a difference between 4xAA and say.. 32xCSAA(?) on a 1080p monitor?

Just wondering, been playing BC2 and was just interested in it.

 

[Cipherr]

Id buy 6 more GB at this dirt cheap cost and head to 12GB, but......I dont and have not ever used the 6 I have now, never even gone close. I dont think it would ever even get used.

 

[jiien]

Interesting

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/1

Seems like that's not entirely the case for non-gaming duties (I'm not building a gaming machine per se), though in reality SB is gimped in general until the 2011 boards hit. Dual channel for the fail

Wait wait, we're talking about CAS latencies, not memory frequency. According to your link, CAS latencies basically mean nothing, even for synthetic benchmarks and non-gaming applications.

 

[Frostburn]

Corsair 600T Case
Hyper 212+ (Default fan config)
Core i5-2500k
Asus P8P67
Corsair 8GB DDR3
EVGA GTX570 SC
1TB Spinpoint F3 HD
24x DVDRW

BIOS Version: 0701
Temps: (Room Temp is ~70F)

CPU 95.0F / 35.0C
MB 87.8F / 31.0C

CPU Fan speed is reporting around 860RPM


My Question:
Is this temp normal? I have not even installed Windows 7 yet, just powered it up for the first time today since my video card just got here. No error codes or beeps or anything else wrong, the temp just seems high for an aftermarket cooler at idle in the BIOS. Is the temps being reported really off in the Asus P8P67 BIOS? Should I re-seat my cooler? Try less or more thermal paste? Try the stock cooler?

Thanks for any help, let me know if more info on my side would help.

 

[jiien]

My Question:
Is this temp normal? I have not even installed Windows 7 yet, just powered it up for the first time today since my video card just got here. No error codes or beeps or anything else wrong, the temp just seems high for an aftermarket cooler at idle in the BIOS. Is the temps being reported really off in the Asus P8P67 BIOS? Should I re-seat my cooler? Try less or more thermal paste? Try the stock cooler?

Thanks for any help, let me know if more info on my side would help.

Your CPU temp is slightly higher than what most people have been seeing, but not so much higher that I would panic. Most people are seeing around 30 degrees. Reseat if you want.

What I would do, is let it play out for a couple of days. Leave it idle, running for a while, and put it under load for a few hours. See how the temps are then. If they max out at load very high (maybe above 60? depending on your overclock), then I would reseat. Otherwise, don't worry about it.

Edit: Also, keep in mind that your case air flow, and other components, could affect your temperatures as compared to other people.

 

[Hazaro]

Perfectly fine. The temp sensors are worthless at idle too so don't worry about temp differences

 

[Frostburn]

Thanks, yeah that is why I listed my complete build, airflow seems pretty good but the case is sitting on the right of my desk against a wall so the air in front is good but the back is blowing into a corner with about a foot of space behind the case. I've had the PC idle in the BIOS for the past 35 minutes now and the temp hovers between 35 and 36 C

I'll probably load the OS and give it a shot, do a bit of stress testing and see what kind of temps I'm getting. I posted earlier in the thread that I can move my 212+ even though it is as tight as I can make it. I may try to re-seat as the cooler did move around quite a bit as I was trying to install it once it made contact with the CPU. I've normally been using stock HSF combos which I have no problems with.