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[The_Inquisitor]

Hey guys. I am buying a Synology DS211j NAS. I already own a 1.5 TB drive. If I bought a 2 TB hdd, could I use the 1.5 TB HDD as my main, and use my new 2tb hdd to mirror the other drive still? Or do I need to match the drive size for the auto mirror (raid I assume) to work?

 

[LaneDS]

Ended up scooping up a PNY GTX 560 ti for a little over $170 after rebate, which felt like such a solid price I could ignore that it wasn't the brand I'd have gone with normally. Also switched to a Corsair 650W PSU from a cheap Rosewill PSU that amazingly lasted four years.

After installing everything I fired up Just Cause 2 and Arkham Asylum and things were solid but... not great. Switched from an HIS Radeon HD5770, for reference. I was expecting pretty huge leaps but Just Cause 2 almost ran worse in some instances (Batman was an improvement, not a marked one, but the PhysX that game supports made for a few holy shit moments at least). I'm still running a C2D (E6750 clocked at stock speed of 2.67GHz) with 6GB of DDR2 (PC2-6400 I think?). Nothing fancy for hard drives.

Anyway, I'm thinking that my GPU is being held back considerably by the rest of the rig which works, but doesn't really impress. Time to upgrade to an OC'd 2500k/DDR3/SSD setup, or wait it out?

 

[pirata]

Alright, so I'm conflicted about which monitor to get. I was just about to buy this monitor, until I saw this other monitor for twenty dollars more. Is the second one much better than the first? Should I get it instead, or should I go for something else entirely?

 

[Chris R]

DVI to HDMI doesn't always play nice to some TVs. Have you made sure you're running at native resolution?

1080p on my monitor and my tv. Worked fine dvi to vga. Was fun playing stuff on my tv, but the non game stuff looked a little off so if I can't get the pc to boot right into windows the first time I might just stick to playing on my monitor.

 

[sk3tch]

Hey guys. I am buying a Synology DS211j NAS. I already own a 1.5 TB drive. If I bought a 2 TB hdd, could I use the 1.5 TB HDD as my main, and use my new 2tb hdd to mirror the other drive still? Or do I need to match the drive size for the auto mirror (raid I assume) to work?

Nice choice...I own a Synology DS410+ myself...love it.

To answer your question - you can make a RAID1 using the setup you mentioned...but you will "lose" the .5 extra GB from the bigger drive. If there's no huge price difference there is nothing wrong with going about this in that way.

 

[sk3tch]

is an XFX Core Edition 550 Watt sufficient for a GTX 570 ?

Yes. It is a quality PSU so you will be fine. A cheapo 550 and you have a different story.

 

[Draft]

Alright, so I'm conflicted about which monitor to get. I was just about to buy this monitor, until I saw this other monitor for twenty dollars more. Is the second one much better than the first? Should I get it instead, or should I go for something else entirely?

One's LED, one's LCD. LED is a little nicer than LCD.

Every cheap monitor (sub $300) is a TN panel. All the name brands are practically indistinguishable from one another. Spend more than $300 and you can get an IPS panel, which are nicer, but maybe not as responsive as TN panels.

 

[The_Inquisitor]

Nice choice...I own a Synology DS410+ myself...love it.

To answer your question - you can make a RAID1 using the setup you mentioned...but you will "lose" the .5 extra GB from the bigger drive. If there's no huge price difference there is nothing wrong with going about this in that way.

What I thought. Well there goes my frivolous money for August!

 

[pirata]

One's LED, one's LCD. LED is a little nicer than LCD.

Every cheap monitor (sub $300) is a TN panel. All the name brands are practically indistinguishable from one another. Spend more than $300 and you can get an IPS panel, which are nicer, but maybe not as responsive as TN panels.

I think I'll grab the LED, then. OK, I have three really important issues I need to get out of the way before I build my PC, and I need PC-Gaf's expertise:


1. I've had my eyes on the Fractal Design Define R3 case listed in the OP. If I were to get the motherboard listed in the $1000 build, along with the power-source listed there, and also get a 560Ti or 6950 graphics card, would all of this fit in the case? I watched the video in the OP of the Tested.com guys building a PC using the same case, but they used a different video card and motherboard, so I just want to make sure that everything will fit alright when it's time to build.


2. I recently bought the i5 2500K CPU. I'm not going to open the box until it's time to build, but if I'm not mistaken, it should come with a CPU fan in the box, right? I don't plan on overclocking or anything right now, so I don't need to use that coolermaster fan listed in the $1000 "Get a lot more" build chart (as you can tell, I'm using that chart as a general guideline during this whole process), right? Do you think I'll be okay with the fan that comes with the CPU and the fans that are a part of the case as far as cooling goes?


3. The student housing I'm moving into in a few weeks will apparently ONLY have wi-fi internet, no ethernet (it's a really old house). Therefore, I'll need some way for my PC to connect to a wireless network, or it'll be practically useless. How do I do this? Is there some sort of special card I need? Is there any special process I have to use to install it during the building process (I never see wi-fi mentioned in building guides)?

 

[RumblingRosco]

I think I'll grab the LED, then. OK, I have three really important issues I need to get out of the way before I build my PC, and I need PC-Gaf's expertise:


1. I've had my eyes on the Fractal Design Define R3 case listed in the OP. If I were to get the motherboard listed in the $1000 build, along with the power-source listed there, and also get a 560Ti or 6950 graphics card, would all of this fit in the case? I watched the video in the OP of the Tested.com guys building a PC using the same case, but they used a different video card and motherboard, so I just want to make sure that everything will fit alright when it's time to build.


2. I recently bought the i5 2500K CPU. I'm not going to open the box until it's time to build, but if I'm not mistaken, it should come with a CPU fan in the box, right? I don't plan on overclocking or anything right now, so I don't need to use that coolermaster fan listed in the $1000 "Get a lot more" build chart (as you can tell, I'm using that chart as a general guideline during this whole process), right? Do you think I'll be okay with the fan that comes with the CPU and the fans that are a part of the case as far as cooling goes?


3. The student housing I'm moving into in a few weeks will apparently ONLY have wi-fi internet, no ethernet (it's a really old house). Therefore, I'll need some way for my PC to connect to a wireless network, or it'll be practically useless. How do I do this? Is there some sort of special card I need? Is there any special process I have to use to install it during the building process (I never see wi-fi mentioned in building guides)?

1. It should fit without an issue. I don't have that case, but I'm pretty sure I've seen others in this very thread use that case + graphics card without an issue.

2. There is an included fan/heatsink and it will work just fine at stock speeds. If you overclock, it should be fine as well, but if you're wanting to overclock to 4 Ghz or more I'd really suggest the one in the OP, the Coolermaster Hyper 212+. Amazon has it cheaper than Newegg last I checked.

3. I use wifi with my PC. There are several options. You can pickup a motherboard that has built-in wifi, or buy a wifi card that would plug into a pci slot internally, or you can buy a USB adapter/dongle (which is what I did). Most people seem to recommend avoiding the USB adapter method, but I've never had any issues.

 

[pirata]

1. It should fit without an issue. I don't have that case, but I'm pretty sure I've seen others in this very thread use that case + graphics card without an issue.

2. There is an included fan/heatsink and it will work just fine at stock speeds. If you overclock, it should be fine as well, but if you're wanting to overclock to 4 Ghz or more I'd really suggest the one in the OP, the Coolermaster Hyper 212+. Amazon has it cheaper than Newegg last I checked.

3. I use wifi with my PC. There are several options. You can pickup a motherboard that has built-in wifi, or buy a wifi card that would plug into a pci slot internally, or you can buy a USB adapter/dongle (which is what I did). Most people seem to recommend avoiding the USB adapter method, but I've never had any issues.

Thanks for the advise! However, there's one thing I forgot to put in my post: what flavor of Windows 7 should I get, 32-bit or 64-bit? I'm guessing 64-bit is what I should get, but I don't want to make any hasty decisions.

EDIT: Also, anyone have any advise on what to look for in a wi-fi card?

 

[RumblingRosco]

Thanks for the advise! However, there's one thing I forgot to put in my post: what flavor of Windows 7 should I get, 32-bit or 64-bit? I'm guessing 64-bit is what I should get, but I don't want to make any hasty decisions.

32-bit can only utilize up to 4 GB of RAM and I am pretty sure that includes video RAM from your graphics card. So, since you're going to put 4 GB of RAM in there + the extra from your video card, you'll absolutely want to get 64-bit.

 

[pirata]

32-bit can only utilize up to 4 GB of RAM and I am pretty sure that includes video RAM from your graphics card. So, since you're going to put 4 GB of RAM in there + the extra from your video card, you'll absolutely want to get 64-bit.

Thanks! I guess all I need to figure out now is what wi-fi card to get...


EDIT: Is this motherboard listed on amazon the same thing as this one on Newegg? The names are confusing me. If they are the same, I'd rather use Amazon, since I have prime.

 

[catabarez]

Hey guys I need help picking out a motherboard. Could you guys help me?

The CPU I bought is the i5 2500K Intel.

 

[cartman414]

IMO you should go for the I5-2500k instead, you won't see huge improvements right now with the i7 since most games don't support Hyperthreading. It's fine if you want to do lots of video editing and the like however. That should save you $100 right there.

What games do support HT, out of curiosity?

Just read that Ivy Bridge may contain limited adjustable BCLK, btw.

I think I'll spring for the 570 then, it's got impressive reviews.

So what I've got so far:

CPU: Intel i7-2600k Sandy Bridges 3.4 GHz Quad Core
MoBo: ASUS P8Z68-V PRO
GPU: EVEA 570
HDD: Western Digital 1 TB 7200 RPM

For a total of $941 so far.

So what's left is a wireless card, a PSU, RAM (6 GB), and a case, as far as I can tell. Sweet.

Edit: I should note that this is the first computer I've ever attempted to build myself, and my first time computer shopping in 5 years. Hence the many hopeless questions.

6 GB is an odd number for dual-socket RAM.

You might also want an SSD for OS + key apps.

 

[Nekrono]

Ok GAF I need your help, actually my friend does, he's having a weird issue right now, last week I helped him buy and install a new case for his computer. You could say the whole process of installing the parts in the new case went smoothly except for the front I/O connectors as his motherboard was a little tricky about it, we had to plug it in without video card and some stuff to test out the connectors (we did the changes with the PC off of course), to make the story short in the end we assembled the PC and it was up and running.

Here is the issue, in windows we noticed that even after multiple restarts windows did not recognized any audio device, there was the little "X" icon where the sound volume icon is, we downloaded the drivers and everything but still the same issue, no sound at all!, I went into the bios and the on board sound is enabled but yet Windows can't detect it at all!

He is running an Intel DG41RQ motherboard with on board sound through Realtek ALC662 audio codec and Windows 7, like I said we've downloaded the drivers and tried multiple things to even getting it recognized by windows but to no avail, the weird thing is that not only was it working before we moved everything but even after we hooked everything up it was detected through the device manager and it even displayed it as Realtek now he gets this:

He does have an nvidia card (a 560 ti) but he shouldn't be getting that, at least not that many or there should be a "Realtek" or something else that resembles his on board audio, I uninstalled those "NVIDIA High Definition Audio" and restarted and now it said "Intel High Definition Audio" or something like that instead, but still no audio at all.

Please help GAF, I've never seen an issue like this were the hardware is not even recognized by the device manager, not even with a question mark or anything.

Btw he already updated the bios and formatted windows and it's still not recognized :\

 

[n0n44m]

He does have an nvidia card (a 560 ti) but he shouldn't be getting that, at least not that many or there should be a "Realtek" or something else that resembles his on board audio, I uninstalled those "NVIDIA High Definition Audio" and restarted and now it said "Intel High Definition Audio" or something like that instead, but still no audio at all.

yes he should, those are the Nvidia HDMI sound outputs. Why four? Nobody knows I guess but that's the way it is for some reason

Intel HD Audio sounds familiar to me ... it's probably is the onboard audio ... did you check the sound panel / playback devices?

edit : yup Intel HD Audio / AC'97 are just some standards that companies like Realtek make chips for

 

[n0n44m]

guys I need help, recently bought A ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution motherboard, OCZ Vertex 3 120gb SSD and teo Samsung spinpoint F3 1TB HDDs. I was planning to use the SSD as a boot drive, the Samsung spinpoints in RAID for games, and use two other hard drives from my old PC as a storage for movies/music, etc.

the mobo has 4 SATA6gb ports and 4 SATA3gb ports. I placed the SSD and dvd drive on the first two SATA6 ports and the four other hard drives in the SATA3 ports.

but none of the hard drives are being seen or detected in BIOS or windows. only the SSd and dvd drives. any clues? my girlfriend said she claimed she saw a brief spark of smoke and I did smell something but only very briefly, but I'm not sure. I tried different ports as well and cables and still no luck.

if there really was smoke something fried obviously :/ that would be caused by something shorting out, which is not a data cable but power cable issue ... so I would check your power cables(' connections) first to make sure they're fine

Do the other four drives still spin-up when powered? If so, connect them to a SATA 6gb port and check whether they are recognized

your board is a B3 revision right? earlier versions of the chip (like mine..) have a design flaw that can kill the SATA 3gb ports over time

After installing everything I fired up Just Cause 2 and Arkham Asylum and things were solid but... not great. Switched from an HIS Radeon HD5770, for reference. I was expecting pretty huge leaps but Just Cause 2 almost ran worse in some instances (Batman was an improvement, not a marked one, but the PhysX that game supports made for a few holy shit moments at least). I'm still running a C2D (E6750 clocked at stock speed of 2.67GHz) with 6GB of DDR2 (PC2-6400 I think?). Nothing fancy for hard drives.

Anyway, I'm thinking that my GPU is being held back considerably by the rest of the rig which works, but doesn't really impress. Time to upgrade to an OC'd 2500k/DDR3/SSD setup, or wait it out?

Yeah a 2.67 ghz C2D lacks quite a bit of power compared to later quad cores, and is blown away by Sandy Bridge chips

an overclocked 2500K will last you for a long time, the gap to previous cpu's is huge and I can't see developers dropping support for those previous cpu's anytime soon

AMD Bulldozer is coming in September I believe, don't think they're going to be really interesting performance wise but AMD always has nice price/performance ratios ... so if you don't have other games you want to enjoy ASAP you can wait, but personally I think something like a 2500K+Asrock board+CM212 represents the best value/performance combo I've seen in about a decade =]

 

[LordCanti]

Ok GAF I need your help, actually my friend does, he's having a weird issue right now, last week I helped him buy and install a new case for his computer. You could say the whole process of installing the parts in the new case went smoothly except for the front I/O connectors as his motherboard was a little tricky about it, we had to plug it in without video card and some stuff to test out the connectors (we did the changes with the PC off of course), to make the story short in the end we assembled the PC and it was up and running.

I know this may seem degrading, but I take it that you've made sure the audio didn't accidentally get muted?

Go to control panel > sound > playback, and make sure the proper selection is made on that window. Have music playing loudly, so you can see if any audio is being detected as playing.

From there, it's all a matter of turning mute off/ the volume up, if that was the problem.

I'm not kidding when I say that I've spent an hour trying to diagnose an audio problem, when the issue was that a friend had turned the knob on my USB DAC to off.

Spoiler

Depending on how much money you or the friend have, and how lazy either of you are, I would suggest one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102003 The audio on a female friends computer went out once, and I spent hours trying to fix it to no avail. I think it was just broken. Instead of hanging my head in defeat, I bought one of these babies, and stealthily installed it. I looked like a hero, it didn't cost a whole lot of money, and it saved me from having to screw with her computer for additional hours.

 

[Goldrusher]

One's LED LCD, one's CCFL LCD. LED is a little nicer than CCFL.

Fixed.

 

[SmokyDave]

Building a PC nowadays is so cheap. I dropped my laptop about a month ago and it's been getting gradually worse. On Friday it started overheating running Youtube videos. That's no good. I knew I couldn't afford to build a new PC yet so I decided to see what I could cobble together as cheaply as possible. I already had an old ATX case lying around and I salvaged a 500GB hdd from an old NAS. The biggest luck came in the form of a new R5850 Twin Frozr, donated by someone that owed me a favour.

To this I added:

ASUS M4A88T-M 880G/SB710 microATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon II X3 440 Processor

£160 for the pair, and then another £40 to grab 4GB DDR3 1066 (single stick). A further £60 grabbed a 650w power supply.

For £260 (+salvaged HDD/OS/Case + donated card) I managed to build a PC that scores 7.1/7.1/7.7/7.7/5.9 on the Windows Scale Of Useless Numbers.

Real world though, it runs Race07 @ 1080p60 fully maxed out. I played Just Cause 2 @ 720p60 with everything on max and it barely drops below 80FPS.

For a temporary PC, it's a little beasty.

 

[Dibbs]

Im thinking of buying this (note that I already have a sufficient hdd for storage and a 20" Samsung Syncmaster monitor):


*ASRock P67 Pro3 REV B3
*Intel SSD 320 120GB
*Intel Core i5 2500K 3,3GHz
*2x Corsair 4GB (1x4096MB) CL9 1600Mhz VENGEANCE
*Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, fan
*Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti OC 1GB
*Fractal Design Define R3 Black, computer case
*Corsair CX 600W V2 80+
*Samsung SH-222AB


What say you? I just chose some parts and I need some advices on this build, Im not thinking of going SLI / Crossfire.

 

[LordCanti]

Im thinking of buying this (note that I already have a sufficient hdd for storage and a 20" Samsung Syncmaster monitor):


*ASRock P67 Pro3 REV B3
*Intel SSD 320 120GB
*Intel Core i5 2500K 3,3GHz
*2x Corsair 4GB (1x4096MB) CL9 1600Mhz VENGEANCE
*Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, fan
*Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti OC 1GB
*Fractal Design Define R3 Black, computer case
*Corsair CX 600W V2 80+
*Samsung SH-222AB


What say you? I just chose some parts and I need some advices on this build, Im not thinking of going SLI / Crossfire.

Seems fine to me. It's hard to say how good of a deal you are getting without the prices being listed, but all of those parts will work well together, and none of them seem out of place.

You may have an issue with the RAM heat spreader interfering with the fan on the Hyper 212 (I usually suggest low-profile RAM, without fins, for this reason) but that isn't a guarantee. It all depends on the board.

Others might say that you could drop the PSU to a 550w unit without issue, but without knowing how much you are paying, it is hard to make that recommendation (the PSU could be a great deal for all I know).

All things considered, that build should serve you well.

(Just be aware of this when purchasing the SSD: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent..._ssd_320_bug_working_on_firmware_upgrade.html)

 

[Chinner]

Building a PC nowadays is so cheap. I dropped my laptop about a month ago and it's been getting gradually worse. On Friday it started overheating running Youtube videos. That's no good. I knew I couldn't afford to build a new PC yet so I decided to see what I could cobble together as cheaply as possible. I already had an old ATX case lying around and I salvaged a 500GB hdd from an old NAS. The biggest luck came in the form of a new R5850 Twin Frozr, donated by someone that owed me a favour.

To this I added:

ASUS M4A88T-M 880G/SB710 microATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon II X3 440 Processor

£160 for the pair, and then another £40 to grab 4GB DDR3 1066 (single stick). A further £60 grabbed a 650w power supply.

For £260 (+salvaged HDD/OS/Case + donated card) I managed to build a PC that scores 7.1/7.1/7.7/7.7/5.9 on the Windows Scale Of Useless Numbers.

Real world though, it runs Race07 @ 1080p60 fully maxed out. I played Just Cause 2 @ 720p60 with everything on max and it barely drops below 80FPS.

For a temporary PC, it's a little beasty.

welcome to the master race, lets kiss.

 

[SmokyDave]

welcome to the master race, lets kiss.

I was already (kinda) in the master race, the laptop I dropped had an 8600M GT and a decent chunk of RAM. The performance of the new PC is noticeably better though

Next month comes a new case and 4GB more RAM. The month after that I'll deal with more storage and then it's time for a new CPU. The thing that I'm loving about this new machine is that it's as simple as a console. I have Bluetooth for M&KB, a wireless 360 pad adapter and a Wireless N card so there are only 2 cables coming from the PC. One for power and then HDMI carrying audio and video from the 5850 to my Onkyo amp. It's such a clean setup.

Just bought TDU2 on Steam. When it's downloaded and installed, you'll get your kiss. With tongues.

 

[Citizen K]

I'm edging closer and closer to pulling the trigger!

Anyone know the differences in these 2 gtx 580's?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1536...5-gpu-782mhz-shader-1544mhz-512-cores-hdmi-dp

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/15gb...16mhz-shader-1632mhz-512-cores-hdmi-dp-dl-dvi

One is obviously clocked a little higher but is that the only difference? Either one I get I want to overclock as much as feasibly possible!

 

[darksunpr]

Building a PC nowadays is so cheap. I dropped my laptop about a month ago and it's been getting gradually worse. On Friday it started overheating running Youtube videos. That's no good. I knew I couldn't afford to build a new PC yet so I decided to see what I could cobble together as cheaply as possible. I already had an old ATX case lying around and I salvaged a 500GB hdd from an old NAS. The biggest luck came in the form of a new R5850 Twin Frozr, donated by someone that owed me a favour.

To this I added:

ASUS M4A88T-M 880G/SB710 microATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon II X3 440 Processor

£160 for the pair, and then another £40 to grab 4GB DDR3 1066 (single stick). A further £60 grabbed a 650w power supply.

For £260 (+salvaged HDD/OS/Case + donated card) I managed to build a PC that scores 7.1/7.1/7.7/7.7/5.9 on the Windows Scale Of Useless Numbers.

Real world though, it runs Race07 @ 1080p60 fully maxed out. I played Just Cause 2 @ 720p60 with everything on max and it barely drops below 80FPS.

For a temporary PC, it's a little beasty.

Hey you can make that processor into a quad core fairly easy if your motherboard is capable. I did that with mine and for $70 (the price for the processor a lot of months ago) I got a quad core running at 3.5ghz

 

[DodgerSan]

Hey gang,

My new Sandy bridge system should be arriving in the next couple of days, built by Scan in the UK.

One thing of interest I spotted in the confirmation email re overclicked Sandy bridge procs:

NOTE - Sandy Bridge systems will NOT show your overclock value while the system is booting nor will it show in Windows 7. When in Windows you will see three shortcuts on the desktop - CoreTemp, CPU-Z and Prime95. If you run CPU-Z you will see your CPU running at 1600MHz. The overclock will not show until the CPU is under load, you can do this by running 'small FFT's' in Prime95. CPU-Z will then show your overclock value. This is a power saving feature, when the CPU is in use it will use the maximum speed but when idle it will down clock for energy saving. This is only applicable to overclocked systems; please ignore this paragraph if your system is not overclocked.

Is that right? Overclock speed can't be seen in the post or Windows 7? How about in the bios?

 

[TheExodu5]

My overclock speed shows in both the BIOS and POST, but does not show under My Computer in Windows 7. I have to run CPU-Z under load to see it. The POST thing might be motherboard dependent...I'm running a Gigabyte P67-UD4.

 

[Apoc87]

Yesterday, me and my brother bought 2 brand new 25" LCD monitors. Hewlett Packard.

My brother bought a new PC also to go with his monitor. Got to my brothers house and hooked everything up. Monitor looks beautiful, even though it is only hooked up through VGA. He's running 1920x1080 beautifully.

Got home and hooked my monitor to a PC from 2006. Through VGA, like my brother's. I know the monitor isn't defective, but for some reason I am getting static-like interference on my display. The static subsides a tiny bit when the resolution anything below 1280x960, but I am still not getting a crisp picture, like the monitor is meant to display.

My brother lives in a house, I live in an apartment. We both have our power cords hooked to surge protectors.

Why am I not getting a good picture on my monitor? I should get the same quality as my brother's set, right?

 

[DodgerSan]

The mobo is an MSI P67A-G45.

The system is supposed to come pre-overclocked, I just want to make sure it is

 

[mkenyon]

Yesterday, me and my brother bought 2 brand new 25" LCD monitors. Hewlett Packard.

My brother bought a new PC also to go with his monitor. Got to my brothers house and hooked everything up. Monitor looks beautiful, even though it is only hooked up through VGA. He's running 1920x1080 beautifully.

Got home and hooked my monitor to a PC from 2006. Through VGA, like my brother's. I know the monitor isn't defective, but for some reason I am getting static-like interference on my display. The static subsides a tiny bit when the resolution anything below 1280x960, but I am still not getting a crisp picture, like the monitor is meant to display.

My brother lives in a house, I live in an apartment. We both have our power cords hooked to surge protectors.

Why am I not getting a good picture on my monitor? I should get the same quality as my brother's set, right?

I'm actually suprised your brother's looks good. Hooking up monitors through VGA gives me nausea because the signal is always f'd up. Do you not have a DVI port? That seems unlikely even for a 2006 machine.

 

[Apoc87]

I'm actually suprised your brother's looks good. Hooking up monitors through VGA gives me nausea because the signal is always f'd up. Do you not have a DVI port? That seems unlikely even for a 2006 machine.

That's the funny thing.

His model was the store's display model, so it didn't come with a box or manuals. They only gave him a VGA cord, power cord, and the monitor.

Mine was new in box. When I got home, it only had a DVI cord with it. My machine does not put out DVI. I had to dig around in the basement for a spare VGA cord.

edited

 

[knitoe]

That's the funny thing.

His model was the store's display model, so it didn't come with a box or manuals. They only gave him a VGA cord, power cord, and the monitor.

Mine was new in box. When I got home, it only had a DVI cord with it. My machine only puts out DVI. I had to dig around in the basement for a spare VGA cord.

Then, use the DVI cable from computer to monitor instead. It should look better.

 

[Apoc87]

Sorry, made a mistake while typing that. My computer does not put out DVI, only VGA.

 

[LordCanti]

I'm actually suprised your brother's looks good. Hooking up monitors through VGA gives me nausea because the signal is always f'd up. Do you not have a DVI port? That seems unlikely even for a 2006 machine.

F'd up in what way? I've used VGA in the past, and had absolutely no issues at all (on monitors that had dual VGA/DVI).

 

[mkenyon]

F'd up in what way? I've used VGA in the past, and had absolutely no issues at all (on monitors that had dual VGA/DVI).

Refresh rates and pulsing issues. Happened with 3 different monitors.

 

[garath]

F'd up in what way? I've used VGA in the past, and had absolutely no issues at all (on monitors that had dual VGA/DVI).

At work my department has around 30 people. We all got new laptops and new external monitors last year. Originally the external monitors were hooked up via VGA. Easily half looked terrible with lots of grain/static. Switching to DVI solved it.

It was most pronounced in the 1080p resolution.

 

[LordCanti]

Refresh rates and pulsing issues. Happened with 3 different monitors.

Huh...all the same model of monitor? Same brand?

That is very odd to me. I had an old HP LCD monitor that hooked up with VGA, and that never had any issues. After that, I switched to a 46" 1080p LCD, that also never had any problems. I've switched to HDMI to simplify my life, but I wouldn't mind going back to VGA.

There is no reason to use VGA when DVI (or another digital connection) is available, but it shouldn't be a substandard option. Unless the manufacturer has significantly cut corners on that particular circuitry.

 

[Apoc87]

So this interference shouldn't be happening, right?

 

[Apoc87]

Also, my refresh options will only go up to 60mHz, even after installing drivers.

Thought this was kind of odd.

 

[GamePnoy74]

My PCs been hit with the 'Google Redirect Virus' and I'm not able to get rid of it (tried Malwarebytes and ComboFix with no luck =/) so I'm planning to re-format my OS drive and do a fresh Win7 install. But, given that my OS drive is an intel 40GB X25-V SSD, I'm thinking I might use this as an opportunity to upgrade to a lager SSD...maybe 80GB, or if budget permits, maybe 120GB.

That said, what's the most 'reliable' SSD out there right now? Looks like all the SSD companies have some nasty issues among them nowadays...I was thinking getting an intel 320 series SSD, but with the '8MB' issue I'm not so sure...

 

[Citizen K]

Hey guys just need some final input here. I'm pretty much set, just wanna make sure everything is ok.

1. Will the ram fit ok with the coolermaster 212+ (the ram has heatsinks)?

2. The fractal define case comes with 2 fans (1 front, 1 back), I might order more for optimal cooling. Maybe a extra front fan and 1 for the top? Maybe even a side one but not sure if theres room with the cpu cooler?
Any thoughts?

3. I'm not too sure about the PSU, is that gonna be enough given that I plan to overclock the CPU and GPU? I do not plan on sli. Is modular generally the way to go?
Edit Could also go for this Antec 750W one, same price:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750-w-antec-truepower-new-modular-80-plus-bronze-82-eff-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-120mm-fan
Or non modular corsair enthusiast 750W for slightly more:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-corsair-enthusiast-750txv2uk-tx-v2-series-85-eff-sli-eps-12v-80-plus-bronze-140mm-fan

4. Any other thoughts/changes?

 

[mkenyon]

Hey guys just need some final input here. I'm pretty much set, just wanna make sure everything is ok.

1. Will the ram fit ok with the coolermaster 212+ (the ram has heatsinks)?

2. The fractal define case comes with 2 fans (1 front, 1 back), I might order more for optimal cooling. Maybe a extra front fan and 1 for the top? Maybe even a side one but not sure if theres room with the cpu cooler?
Any thoughts?

2. I'm not too sure about the PSU, is that gonna be enough given that I plan to overclock the CPU and GPU? I do not plan on sli. Is modular generally the way to go?

3. Any other thoughts/changes?

1. Maybe. If all else fails, you can always clip the sinks. They don't really do much on those anyway without copper (which the vengeance doesn't have IIRC). It's 90% aesthetics.

2. If you want more cooling, you might want to look at a case designed for it. The R3 is about staying quiet. Additionally, I believe it comes with a 3rd fan for you to install wherever you want. You'll probably want an intake/exhaust right by that vid card since it dumps into the case rather than exhausts.

3. 650w is plenty for what you have.

 

[garath]

Hey guys just need some final input here. I'm pretty much set, just wanna make sure everything is ok.

1. Will the ram fit ok with the coolermaster 212+ (the ram has heatsinks)?

2. The fractal define case comes with 2 fans (1 front, 1 back), I might order more for optimal cooling. Maybe a extra front fan and 1 for the top? Maybe even a side one but not sure if theres room with the cpu cooler?
Any thoughts?

2. I'm not too sure about the PSU, is that gonna be enough given that I plan to overclock the CPU and GPU? I do not plan on sli. Is modular generally the way to go?
Edit Could also go for this Antec 750W one, same price:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750-w-antec-truepower-new-modular-80-plus-bronze-82-eff-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-120mm-fan
Or non modular corsair enthusiast 750W for slightly more:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-corsair-enthusiast-750txv2uk-tx-v2-series-85-eff-sli-eps-12v-80-plus-bronze-140mm-fan

3. Any other thoughts/changes?

I don't have that motherboard so I'm not sure about the RAM clearance for that particular combo but with my MSI P67A-G65 board the CM Hyper 212+ DID block the Corsair Vengeance ram in slot 1. Temporarily I just mounted the fan a little higher on the heatsink but I ended up RMA'ing the normal Vengeance and getting the Corsair Vengeance low profile. It was $5 more but the same RAM with a low profile heatsink. It's been running great for over a week.

Personally I'd weigh on the safe side and go with the low profile. Someone with that exact combo might be able to weigh in.

 

[mkenyon]

The motherboard layouts are exactly the same, doesn't matter if it's MSI or ASUS, it's all to intel's specs. So yeah, that RAM will not fit.

 

[garath]

The motherboard layouts are exactly the same, doesn't matter if it's MSI or ASUS, it's all to intel's specs. So yeah, that RAM will not fit.

Well that answers that Good to know.

 

[Citizen K]

Ok I'm gonna change the ram for low profile sticks. These ok? http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-%282x4gb%29-corsair-ddr3-vengeance-jet-black-lp-pc3-12800-%281600%29-non-ecc-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-15v

I definately want the R3 case though and it does only come with 2 fans (1 front 1 back) so you think 3 extra fractal design fans (1 side intake, 1 more front intake, 1 top exhaust) is a good idea?

 

[Dibbs]

(Just be aware of this when purchasing the SSD: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent..._ssd_320_bug_working_on_firmware_upgrade.html)

Thanks for your input! Haha, I've been thinking and yearning for the Intel 320 SSD for a couple of months and suddenly this bug appears. It seems though that every SSD model from any company has some kind of problems, so what SSD drive should I choose?

 

[Hazaro]

As of now the M4 SSD's look good. At least no reported problems that I know of.