"I need a New PC!" 2011 Thread of reading the OP. Seriously. [Part 2]

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Definity said:
Going to pull the trigger on this tomorrow...

i5 2500k
MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB
ASRock P67 EXTREME4
CORSAIR 600W PS
COOLER MASTER Storm Enforcer CASE

I don't plan on using SLI on this build anytime so I should hopefully be good on that power supply. Would like to throw a RAID 0 SSD in there but just have not made my mind up on it. I went back and forth on if I should get the i7 or i5 but finally decided on the i5.
Click to expand...
CX powersupply? Nab the XFX Core 550W instead. GS is fine.

Swap RAM to these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231417
Save you some money. Support eSports.
momolicious said:
So with all these scary stories about SSDs, does anyone know about the G.Skill SSDs? How are they compared to others in terms of Reliabilty and speed?
Click to expand...
Check which controller the model of G.Skill you are buying uses.
As of now the major non affected I'd recommend is the M4.
Maaseru said:
What about either of these, would you recommend?:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Core-i7-2600K-Cpu-Asus-P8P67-PRO-Combo-Set-/270768958201?pt=Motherboards&hash=item3f0b166af9


or

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Core-i7-2600K-CPU-GIGABYTE-GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3-combo-/270770108430?pt=Motherboards&hash=item3f0b27f80e


I really want to go the ebay route, because I always see shipping is always better and most of the time I find stuff a bit less expensive. It's either this or tigerdirect.
Click to expand...
Just buy from TigerDirect and pay for 2 day shipping. Save yourself some money.
I've always ran into problems ordering from them though.
 
I've never built a PC before. The most I've done is transfer the parts from one case to another, and occasionally bought new parts (just more RAM and a new video card). Anything different with actually putting new parts together? Applying thermal paste is something I haven't done, ever. Guessing that's simple enough?

Your Current Specs: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+ 2.4GHz, 5GB DDR2, NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT, ASUS M2N-E Mobo.
Budget: $700-800 Canadian
Main Use: Gaming, video editing/processing
Monitor Resolution: Going eventually buy a new monitor, but going to start with a 1680x1050 21" monitor.
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, Skyrim, The Witcher 2, and upcoming PC games.
Are reusing any parts?: No (unless suggested otherwise)
When will you build?: Around September, possibly earlier.
Will you be overclocking?: No

I'm looking to turn my current rig into an HTPC, but I won't be worrying about that until later.
 
Drop by when you are ready to build.

When Bulldozer comes out in a month (New AMD CPUs), check for video editing benchmarks you use and see how it stacks vs. the Intel 2600K.

Otherwise it will look similar to the $1000 build with a cheaper PSU, GPU, etc...
Might be able to drop down to the 2500K (Or say AMD 8100) depending on how often or quick you need video encoding done.
Spend that saved $100 on GPU to bump that up.
 
Maaseru said:
No particular reason, just though it was the next step after my core 2 quad; also they recommended me a 2600k. I'm more of an Intel guy or have always been. Also I just want a recommendation for a decent mobo. They CPUs in the ebay auctions are ok it's just I don't know about the motherboard.
Click to expand...
I ask as the 2500K will get you the same performance in games. If you're more of a power user, rather than just a gamer, by all means get the i7. The only benefit is Hyperthreading, which means each core is split up into to virtual cores, or 'threads'.
 
3D Mark 11 finished... here were the results for the GeForce 560 Ti:

Code: 
                           Your Score     Target Score for Your Hardware
Diagnosis

Overall Score       P4298             P4600

Graphics Score     P4075             P4400

Physics Score       P6212             P6600

Combined Score    P4093            P4300

:\

BUT! There was no driver crash and this same config crashed in BF: BC2... is this pointing more towards the game than the driver/card?
 
How hard is the process of switching over windows 7 and steam games over to an SSD? I'm thinking about doing an upgrade in about a month with an ssd purchase .
 
Coldsnap said:
How hard is the process of switching over windows 7 and steam games over to an SSD? I'm thinking about doing an upgrade in about a month with an ssd purchase .
Click to expand...
You want to do a clean install anyway for an SSD.
Steam utilities are in the OP under utilities. I made a symbolic link and didn't use either.

*Just install Steam and link the steamapps folder
 
Hazaro said:
You want to do a clean install anyway for an SSD.
Steam utilities are in the OP under utilities. I made a symbolic link and didn't use either.

*Just install Steam and link the steamapps folder
Click to expand...

Ahh.. I probably wont be able to do it then. I did a windows 7 upgrade disc install and it was very sketchy, not sure if I want to / could do it again. I also like the programs I have and stuff.
 
mkenyon said:
I ask as the 2500K will get you the same performance in games. If you're more of a power user, rather than just a gamer, by all means get the i7. The only benefit is Hyperthreading, which means each core is split up into to virtual cores, or 'threads'.
Click to expand...
I do some video editing and am also loking to go into Maya, 3dsMAx, that sort of stuff, so I guess the i7 will serve me just right.

I'll probably buy it near September so some prices drops are incoming along the way, I hope...right?
 
Newegg isn't letting me make my wishlist public :/

Wanted to see if you guys could tell me if I picked the correct parts. Hopefully it works tomorrow.
 
Tenck said:
Newegg isn't letting me make my wishlist public :/

Wanted to see if you guys could tell me if I picked the correct parts. Hopefully it works tomorrow.
Click to expand...

If you want, you can:

Push print screen (which puts a screenshot on the clipboard), push Ctrl+V in MSpaint. Crop out any personal details. Post to imgur.
 
LordCanti said:
If you want, you can:

Push print screen (which puts a screenshot on the clipboard), push Ctrl+V in MSpaint. Crop out any personal details. Post to imgur.
Click to expand...

On my iPad right now. My laptop is hanging in there with 2GBs of ram. Problem is that it's running Vista and a 1gb vid card.if I put too much strain on it, it freezes on me :/

Hopefully my RAM from Newegg arrives tomorrow. Then I can push print screen as much as I want tomorrow >:)
 
Tenck said:
On my iPad right now. My laptop is hanging in there with 2GBs of ram. Problem is that it's running Vista and a 1gb vid card.if I put too much strain on it, it freezes on me :/

Hopefully my RAM from Newegg arrives tomorrow. Then I can push print screen as much as I want tomorrow >:)
Click to expand...
just an aside - my comp has 1/3 your vram and 2 gig of ram as well, and it doesn't choke on ms paint, cmon man :D
 
elrechazao said:
just an aside - my comp has 1/3 your vram and 2 gig of ram as well, and it doesn't choke on ms paint, cmon man :D
Click to expand...

Heh, I have a lot of start up programs though. Will definitely fix that problem too when I can. What hits the nail on the coffin is Steam. As soon as that loads up my laptop just can't take it anymore :'(
 
Hey PC-GAF,

Currently choosing all my parts to build in the next week or two, and have been tossing up between graphics cards. Was going to go with a Gigabyte 560ti overclocked for $249AU, but then saw a HIS HD6870 IceQ X for $199. Was wondering how they compare, some reviews for it seemed pretty good (although they were calling it an IceQ X Turbo X?), with close benchmarks to the 560ti. Is it worth saving the $30-50 to get this?
 
Guys, I can't seem to find a good 6950 2GB on Newegg that's been confirmed to be able to unlock. Can you help me out? Which is the best 6950 2 Gig?
 
OK i hit the power button, and the Power LED blinks and so does the Fan LED...but then nothing happens. Both my roommates looked it over and we all think everything is plugged in correctly.

What is the best way to go about trying to find the problem?
 
Sketch_Turntable said:
OK i hit the power button, and the Power LED blinks and so does the Fan LED...but then nothing happens. Both my roommates looked it over and we all think everything is plugged in correctly.

What is the best way to go about trying to find the problem?
Click to expand...
Reseat every component other than CPU, Reconnect each power cable. Usually its just ram not being fully seated.
 
i took everything out except the CPU/Cooler and plugged it back in. Still no power to the Motherboard.

My MoBo (AsRock Extreme4) has a power switch and that does nothing when pushed.

all of the fans start up for a nanosecond before they stop and then nothing.
 
Kalnos said:
Is your motherboard on the standoffs? It isn't touching the case, right?
Click to expand...

This can't be expressed enough. It's most likely this because that's the issue I had and spent hours trying to figure it out. Did you install them motherboard on the standoff/spacers
IMG_6805.jpg
, these above, so the motherboard's surface is not touching the tower case?
 
yeah i put all the spacers in the case before installing the mobo

i guess i'll take everything out of the case and put it back in tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks for your help tonight. Hopefully i wont need more tomorrow.
 
TommyT said:
3D Mark 11 finished... here were the results for the GeForce 560 Ti:

Code: 
                           Your Score     Target Score for Your Hardware
Diagnosis

Overall Score       P4298             P4600

Graphics Score     P4075             P4400

Physics Score       P6212             P6600

Combined Score    P4093            P4300

:\

BUT! There was no driver crash and this same config crashed in BF: BC2... is this pointing more towards the game than the driver/card?
Click to expand...
What problems are you having with bc2 again? I recently fixed mine by
- removing my sound card and drivers
- uninstalled then reinstalled my onboard audio drivers
- updated punkbuster
- went to my bc2 settings.ini and changed this value "speakercount=0" to "speakercount=1"

I actually don't know which one worked, but I figure it was punkbuster. I don't think the speakercount thing matters as "0" is auto detect.

So far my bc2 hasn't hardlocked; didn't have problems playing TF2 or Shogun 2 either.
 
Why is THIS 120Gb Intel SSD so much more expensive than THIS 120Gb SanDisk one?

On top of that, the speeds of the SanDisk one are faster:

Intel:

Sustained Sequential Read - Up to 270 MB/s
Sustained Sequential Write - Up to 130 MB/s

SanDisk:

Sustained Sequential Read - Up to 280 MB/s
Sustained Sequential Write - Up to 270 MB/s

By all account, the SanDisk one is a better buy...
 
ZombieFred said:
This can't be expressed enough. It's most likely this because that's the issue I had and spent hours trying to figure it out. Did you install them motherboard on the standoff/spacers
IMG_6805.jpg
, these above, so the motherboard's surface is not touching the tower case?
Click to expand...

In a small cheap case I've found this problem to be pretty common. I've built quite a few PCs for friends as well as a couple budget ones for myself as second machines and with the tiny steel cases I was getting that issue. The motherboard was very snug in there and if it was settled in a certain way, the machine wouldn't turn on. I had to push on the motherboard in a corner to get it to start up.

Just make sure nothing metal but the spacers is touching the motherboard.
 
DigiMish said:
Why is THIS 120Gb Intel SSD so much more expensive than THIS 120Gb SanDisk one?

On top of that, the speeds of the SanDisk one are faster:

Intel:

Sustained Sequential Read - Up to 270 MB/s
Sustained Sequential Write - Up to 130 MB/s

SanDisk:

Sustained Sequential Read - Up to 280 MB/s
Sustained Sequential Write - Up to 270 MB/s

By all account, the SanDisk one is a better buy...
Click to expand...

There's a lot more to the story than sequential read/write. Random read/write is very important, as is the ability to recover to nearly full speeds after garbage collection. Reliability of the controller is also key.

I'd wait for a review.

I'm pretty anxious to see reviews, because that might be a very promising drive. The fact that it comes with a 10 year warranty is impressive.
 
RS4- said:
What problems are you having with bc2 again? I recently fixed mine by
- removing my sound card and drivers
- uninstalled then reinstalled my onboard audio drivers
- updated punkbuster
- went to my bc2 settings.ini and changed this value "speakercount=0" to "speakercount=1"

I actually don't know which one worked, but I figure it was punkbuster. I don't think the speakercount thing matters as "0" is auto detect.

So far my bc2 hasn't hardlocked; didn't have problems playing TF2 or Shogun 2 either.
Click to expand...

:O I'm not having any sound issues.

Last night I actually had an hour of no problems after using EVGA Precision to up my fan speed to a constant 75% (is there any problem with it running this 'hard' constantly during the game) and using an outside fan blowing onto the card as well. No issues for that hour.

When this was happening though:
As far as what happens:
- Playing game just fine
- Little stutter in video then sound
- Major stutter leading to black screen
- "No DVI connection" coming from monitor
- Windows bubble saying that the driver has stopped responding but has recovered
- BC2 has a completely white screen, if I tab back in, it will just flicker black and white nonstop.
- Check GPU-Z logs to see there is an instance where my GPU has output 0's across the board
Click to expand...
I do note that the sound stutters, but I have a feeling that's related to the underlying issue.
 
When you don't force a constant fan speed, what does it top out at? Maybe the profile just sucks. There is nothing wrong with high fan speeds, it'll just wear the fan out quicker, though it should easily last as long as you have the card.

You can setup fan profiles in Afterburner. I set mine up so anything under 50 degrees is 40% fan speed, and anything over is 70%. Play for awhile with the outside fan blowing. If it doesn't crash, take it away and see if it crashes. If it crashes with you forcing a high fan speed, try underclocking the card 100mhz and see what happens with no outside fan.
 
Rezbit said:
Hey PC-GAF,

Currently choosing all my parts to build in the next week or two, and have been tossing up between graphics cards. Was going to go with a Gigabyte 560ti overclocked for $249AU, but then saw a HIS HD6870 IceQ X for $199. Was wondering how they compare, some reviews for it seemed pretty good (although they were calling it an IceQ X Turbo X?), with close benchmarks to the 560ti. Is it worth saving the $30-50 to get this?
Click to expand...

No, either get the 6870 or gtx 560 (not Ti) at the lower price point or jump up to a 6950 1GB. I'm assuming Australian prices are proportionally consistent with American prices of course. Looking on that site, there are a few 1GB 6950s for the same price as the 560 Ti you listed.
 
mclaren777 said:
Both a widget and CPU-Z, though they display different values.

I've never seen my clock speed go above 3.4/3.5GHz.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure, to get 3.8GHz (38 multi) turbo boost, it can only be on 1 core running a single thread. 2 cores = 3.7 GHz, 3 cores = 3.6GHz and 4 cores = 3.5GHz. Thus, since Handbrake loads all cores, you will only get 3.5GHz boost. Run Prime95 set to only 1 core and you should see the CPU boost higher.

Why are you even bother with turbo boost when you can easily manually overclock all cores to 4.4-4.5GHz?
 
Horsemama1956 said:
When you don't force a constant fan speed, what does it top out at? Maybe the profile just sucks. There is nothing wrong with high fan speeds, it'll just wear the fan out quicker, though it should easily last as long as you have the card.

You can setup fan profiles in Afterburner. I set mine up so anything under 50 degrees is 40% fan speed, and anything over is 70%. Play for awhile with the outside fan blowing. If it doesn't crash, take it away and see if it crashes. If it crashes with you forcing a high fan speed, try underclocking the card 100mhz and see what happens with no outside fan.
Click to expand...

Fan speed, even when it was at 80C would never go over 50%. I'll look into Afterburner (never heard of it or used it).

I really don't want to underclock, I'd rather just buy extra fans (I have 3 mounting places left on the case w/ plenty of power) because I don't really want to gimp performance as I bought the card for performance.
 
TommyT said:
Fan speed, even when it was at 80C would never go over 50%. I'll look into Afterburner (never heard of it or used it).

I really don't want to underclock, I'd rather just buy extra fans (I have 3 mounting places left on the case w/ plenty of power) because I don't really want to gimp performance as I bought the card for performance.
Click to expand...
http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

Check it out. When you install it, go to the settings(button near the bottom) and the Fan section. Set a peg at say 50 degrees with 40% fan speed and then one at 80% for everything else, just for right now.

I think you can do this in Precision as well, and it might be easier since you've used it. Just check the manual for that. Sounds like you are on Automatic fan control and your temps are getting to high on them.
 
I have been tracking the temperature of my graphics card for a while now and it seems that it tops at 70 degrees in my most stressfull game apparently (Dirt3) with everything on. And in a 2+ playing session those 70 degrees are only for a short period.

Still lower is always better, I already took the foam off the gpu vent on my case (Fractal R3) but I'm just wondering whether there's anything else I can do that would help significantly (few degrees lower). I already have 2 fans in the front, would a fan on the side help if not what else?
 
TheExodu5 said:
There's a lot more to the story than sequential read/write. Random read/write is very important, as is the ability to recover to nearly full speeds after garbage collection. Reliability of the controller is also key.

I'd wait for a review.

I'm pretty anxious to see reviews, because that might be a very promising drive. The fact that it comes with a 10 year warranty is impressive.
Click to expand...

I think the wide assumption is that it's a SandForce SF-2200 controller. But it is a little weird and slightly disconcerting that it's apparently already shipped to retailers yet there doesn't seem to be any reviews of it from any major tech websites.
 
JackEtc said:
Guys, HD 6950 (2GB) vs GTX 570 (1280 MB), which is better? Buying for BF3.
Click to expand...

If price isn't a concern get the 570, it's the more powerful card by about 5-10 frames average. Otherwise, the 6950 is the better bang for your buck.
 
blanky said:
I have been tracking the temperature of my graphics card for a while now and it seems that it tops at 70 degrees in my most stressfull game apparently (Dirt3) with everything on. And in a 2+ playing session those 70 degrees are only for a short period.

Still lower is always better, I already took the foam off the gpu vent on my case (Fractal R3) but I'm just wondering whether there's anything else I can do that would help significantly (few degrees lower). I already have 2 fans in the front, would a fan on the side help if not what else?
Click to expand...

what card? my 6950 twin frozr iii hit 70c max in dirt 3 with everything ultra too, i dont think you need to worry about it?
 
Tiduz said:
what card? my 6950 twin frozr iii hit 70c max in dirt 3 with everything ultra too, i dont think you need to worry about it?
Click to expand...

Asus GTX580 DCII I know 70c is far from bad news ;p but if there is anything I can do to lower it some, then why not?
 
WonkersTHEWatilla said:
My card hits max 83c when under heavy load (Crysis 2, Warhead, GTA IV w/mod). I would love a 70c max under stress. :D D:<
Click to expand...

What card do ya got? I have a pair of twin frozr 560 TIs and the hottest card tops at 70c during crazy games like crysis 2 / shogun 2, the cooler card is always 5 c cooler than the card above it.

Whatever my next gpu is gonna be it's gonna be twin frozr cooled. Sure you can go out of your way for liquid / or other aftermarket coolers but the fact that these are this good "out of the box" is amazing imo.
 
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