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[nara]

Quick question for those building new computer with xfire. Is it better to install one card at a time? Or put both cards in the mb at once?

 

[TheExodu5]

Why get a 580 instead of 2x 6950s or 2x 6970s which are always way superior to a single 580 and less or same in price?

Though I definitely agree not to spend the extra on the 2600K, the extra you spend on that is a complete waste, the performance bonus can be made up with a tiny little bit of overclocking and that's why you're buying the 'K' model right?

Because SLI/Crossfire has issues that can be annoying to deal with.

 

[PolishQ]

Just pulled the trigger on the last of my components! Over the last few weeks, I've purchased:

cpu: i5 2500k
mb: ASUS P8P67
ram: G.Skill Sniper 8GB DDR3 1600
gpu: EVGA GTX 560 Ti Superclocked 1GB
ssd: Intel 320 120GB SSD
hdd: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
cpu cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+

Bluray drive
Card reader
Windows 7 Home Premium
Acer 24" 1080p monitor

...all for $1185 !

I'll be reusing my current case and PSU, and transferring my current 1TB HDD over as well. This should be quite the upgrade from my e6600 / 8800GTS ! Thanks to everyone who helped, and I'll keep you posted on how the build goes.

 

[TheExodu5]

Nice build. That should do you very well.

 

[ithorien]

Okay, I'm kind of scared posting in this thread because I'm not a big PC person. I do most of my gaming on consoles and I've never built my own PC before. But I have several friends that have and will be able to help me through the process once I figure out what I want. So I'm going to turn to GAF and get some advice on what I should be getting.

I'm looking for a desktop and want to build my own instead of getting a store bought one, mostly because I got a laptop straight from Best Buy in September 2009 and it crapped out on me this past February. I assume building your own from parts is a much better idea than just taking a store model. So here I am.

Basic Desktop Questions:
Your Current Specs: This isn't my computer, it's my parents' and it's pretty old, I'd say six years or so. Gateway GT5028, still running XP (so before Vista even debuted) 1024 MB DDR memory, AMD Athlon 64 processor, 2.0 GHz, nVidia GeForce 6100 graphics card
Budget: $1000ish? In the U.S. My parents have offered to pay for it as a moving out/going away present, but I'd like to stay under $1000 if possible.
Main Use: It'd be mostly gaming, surfing web, writing (I do a lot of writing) and some graphics/photo work, but nothing heavy (I have a Bamboo tablet I use to draw things with sometimes).
Monitor Resolution: Fuck if I know. I've never been a big resolution person. This computer runs at a 1280x1024 resolution, I think my laptop was 1680x1050? The laptop was comfortable for me. I'd check to be 100% sure but it's a brick now. Overall I don't really care about resolution that much.
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Mostly old things I get off of Steam, like Deus Ex, Serious Sam, Half-Life 2 etc. Some new things like Amnesia, Poker Night at the Inventory, I'd like to play RAGE on PC but that's the only upcoming game I definitely want on PC vs. console.
Are reusing any parts?: No, I'm not a big tech guy so I don't plan on taking apart anything or reusing anything.
When will you build?: I plan on moving in August, and my friends are in this area, so I'd like the parts here and it built by the end of July at the latest.
Will you be overclocking?: No.

$600 build in OP + monitor and peripherals (assuming you need them) will put you under $1000

 

[Kyaw]

Hey guys, how much do you think i should sell my XFX 4870 1gb for?

I'm going to put it up on ebay soon. Thinking of putting up a auction and £50 ($80) buy it now?

 

[TheExodu5]

The extra frames he'll get from the GPU won't matter so much when his FPS plummets from recording while BF3 eats his CPU cycles. imo

The F4 and F3 are similar in read/write because the 2TB drive has denser platters which allow about the same rate of data as to the faster 1TB.

...no. CPU's have thermal shutoff points today and a stock heatsink is fine.

It is searching for a hard drive on the extra SATA controller (The extra colored ports). You can disable it in the BIOS options if you like.

I think he's far more likely to be GPU limited than CPU limited. A 2500k @4.8GHz is basically twice the speed of a C2Q or Phenom x4 @ 3.0GHz. FRAPs takes very little CPU power while recording since it records uncompressed video. The really important thing when recording with FRAPS is that you save to a drive other than your games drive, as it takes a good 50MB+ a second.

 

[JAD0109]

With the consideration that I probably won't be doing much recording of BF3 (even if I do, it doesn't need to be absolute max settings while I'm recording), which would be a more important upgrade? At this point I should probably only pick one, but if it's worth it I can get both.

570gtx to 580gtx ($200) or 2500k to 2600k ($90).

Here's a link to my wishlish again (with the 580 and 2500)...

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=17914166

 

[TheExodu5]

GTX 580, easily.

The 25000k, when overclocked (heck, even at stock clocks), is not going to be limiting you in any way. It's a ridiculously fast CPU.

Also, get Arctic MX-4 insteadf of Arctic Silver 5. AS5 has been obsoleted for some time (though still stays popular simply because people don't realize this).

Now, another choice you would have for the same price is 2x 6950 (or 2x GTX 570 if you want to stay with NVidia and spend a bit more). Again, I don't really recommend this for everyone. Crossfire/SLI may have issues. For example, The Witcher 2 still doesn't work properly with dual GPUs, as even with the latest updates, lights shine through walls/objects. Other games don't support SLI period (like Shogun 2...unless it's gotten fixed within the last month or two). When it does work, however, you'll have performance pretty far ahead of a single GTX 580.

I have 2x GTX 570. If I had to do it again, I think I'd get a single GTX 580. Not many games really need the power than my 2x GTX 570 put out. It just adds a bit of headache and frustration that I don't always need. Yesterday I was playing Duke Nukem Forever, and I dropped below 60fps a few times, so I ask myself: is SLI even working? I have to examine GPU usage, and Google a bit to find out if SLI is working for the game, and if there are any special compatibility bits I can use to enforce.

Then again, there are a few times when I really appreciate that extra performance. SLI meant having a solid 60fps in Crysis 2 on Extreme. It means being able to run Metro 2033 with all the bells and whistles (even though it still drops to ~30fps). For the most part, it means being able to game uncompromised. Still...a single GTX 580 can probably provide that for 95% of cases.

Now, no one knows how demanding BF3 will be, and we don't even know if it will properly support SLI/Crossfire out of the box (though I would guess it would, since BF2 does, and since it will have an extended beta where they can work on getting SLI/Crossfire working).

Who knows if the performance will even be needed, though. My 2500k and 2x GTX 570 rig gets about 150-200fps maxed at 1080p in Battlefield Bad Company 2...hugely overkill.

 

[JAD0109]

GTX 580, easily.

The 25000k, when overclocked (heck, even at stock clocks), is not going to be limiting you in any way. It's a ridiculously fast CPU.

Gotcha on which to take, but you don't think the other upgrade is worth getting as well? I'm a little over my budget at this point, but I don't want to regret not getting it. Seems like it's only a 0.1ghz upgrade, but would the hyperthreading support be important? The 2500k doesn't have it.

 

[RS4-]

With the consideration that I probably won't be doing much recording of BF3 (even if I do, it doesn't need to be absolute max settings while I'm recording), which would be a more important upgrade? At this point I should probably only pick one, but if it's worth it I can get both.

570gtx to 580gtx ($200) or 2500k to 2600k ($90).

Here's a link to my wishlish again (with the 580 and 2500)...

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=17914166

There's a chance you might save a bit more money by looking at the combo deals. It's a hassle going through each item, but it might help.

You could still keep the 570, keep the money you were saving from not upgrading to the 580 and 2600k, then use the leftover to upgrade later on when BF3 comes out and see if it's worth it.

 

[TheExodu5]

Gotcha on which to take, but you don't think the other upgrade is worth getting as well? I'm a little over my budget at this point, but I don't want to regret not getting it. Seems like it's only a 0.1ghz upgrade, but would the hyperthreading support be important? The 2500k doesn't have it.

If you're over budget, drop down to the GTX 570. It's about 15-20% slower. The GTX 580 is for those who really want that extra performance. A single GTX 570 is pretty damned fast in the first place.

I'm one of those who doesn't mind spending $150 more for that extra performance. If it means the difference in between 50 and 60+ fps in some titles, then it will have been worth it to me.

The 0.1GHz doesn't matter...you'll be overclocking any way. Hyper Threading is not going to matter when it comes to games. It means that your CPU will show as 8 cores instead of 4, so only applications that make use of 8 cores will benefit (by about 15-25%). Let's just say that the 2500k is so fast that you'll never need that extra performance for gaming, in the first place.

 

[black_vegeta]

I wish I would have known about the differences between the i5 and i7 SB chips before buying the i7. I won't be editing any video...at least I don't think so. Oh well, I'll just disable hyper threading when I don't use it.

 

[RumblingRosco]

Some nice sales on Newegg right now, particularly on RAM.

Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory $49.99 with MIR and promo code EMCKDJF28

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory $83.99 with promo code EMCKDJF26

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory $89.99 with promo code EMCKDJF25

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified $64.99 after MIR and promo code EMCKDJF32

You may have to be subscribed to the Newegg "E-blast insider" newsletter to use the promo codes, though. Just a heads up.

EDIT: Also, Duke Nukem Forever for $39 on PC with promo code EMCKDJF85.

 

[Shadowhaxor]

Anyone ever replace the stock air cooler on a Radeon 69XX series card? I'm thinking about getting a Accelero XTREME Plus II or Zalman VF3000A. Just curious on how well they are vs liquid cooling the card.

Thing is constantly at 47-50 at idle, with decent air flow and I want to drop temps while saving my ear drums.

 

[Yoritomo]

Why is AS5 obsolete? All the tests I've seen still put it near the top.

 

[SRG01]

Good thing I waited on my new rig. Now to see if Llano desktop performance is decent...

 

[RS4-]

Anyone ever replace the stock air cooler on a Radeon 69XX series card? I'm thinking about getting a Accelero XTREME Plus II or Zalman VF3000A. Just curious on how well they are vs liquid cooling the card.

Thing is constantly at 47-50 at idle, with decent air flow and I want to drop temps while saving my ear drums.

I've been thinking about doing it, especially since the 6950 is the loudest thing in my PC at the moment.

Thermalright Shaman: http://www.thermalright.com/products/index.php?act=data&cat_id=30&id=164 but it takes up a huge amount of real estate in the case.

 

[AwesomeSauce]

Why is AS5 obsolete? All the tests I've seen still put it near the top.

What i'm guessing is that there are now products out there now that surpass it for the same money.

 

[TheExodu5]

Anyone ever replace the stock air cooler on a Radeon 69XX series card? I'm thinking about getting a Accelero XTREME Plus II or Zalman VF3000A. Just curious on how well they are vs liquid cooling the card.

Thing is constantly at 47-50 at idle, with decent air flow and I want to drop temps while saving my ear drums.

I had an old Zalman VF900. Loved it. The fans were inaudible and I was getting <60-70C load temps.

If I were to buy now, I'd get the Accelero.

 

[TheExodu5]

Why is AS5 obsolete? All the tests I've seen still put it near the top.

Because there are (slightly) better, cheaper, and non capacitive pastes out there.

Arctic MX-4 runs a bit cooler, has no curing time, does not dry out (at least not as fast as AS5), is cheaper (usually), and does not conduct electricity. If you currently have a tube of AS5, there's no need to 'upgrade'. But if you're buying something now, there's no reason to get AS5 either.

 

[n0n44m]

http://skinneelabs.com/tim-review-v2/4/

AS5 isn't terrible but it is simply outdated ... no need to buy it anymore now that you can get MX-4 everywhere for the same price

 

[Yoritomo]

Because there are (slightly) better, cheaper, and non capacitive pastes out there.

Arctic MX-4 runs a bit cooler, has no curing time, does not dry out (at least not as fast as AS5), is cheaper (usually), and does not conduct electricity. If you currently have a tube of AS5, there's no need to 'upgrade'. But if you're buying something now, there's no reason to get AS5 either.

Yeah I still have a tube. I've had it for a while. It probably won't run out for another 3 mountings.

 

[TheExodu5]

http://skinneelabs.com/tim-review-v2/4/

AS5 isn't terrible but it is simply outdated ... no need to buy it anymore now that you can get MX-4 everywhere for the same price

Damn that's an awesome page. It demonstrates another very nice feature of the MX-4 (or MX-2 in this case): that it's very forgiving. Look at how consistent his results are with the MX-2 compared to the rest of the thermal pastes.

 

[n0n44m]

Anyone ever replace the stock air cooler on a Radeon 69XX series card? I'm thinking about getting a Accelero XTREME Plus II or Zalman VF3000A. Just curious on how well they are vs liquid cooling the card.

Thing is constantly at 47-50 at idle, with decent air flow and I want to drop temps while saving my ear drums.

what watercooling are you thinking of then?

I replaced my GTX480 stock cooler with an Accelero Xtreme+ (1) half a year ago, and a week ago I've replaced that one with a liquid cooling block

AccXtreme was performing very well, keeping temps way down* at very low noise levels without the high pitched whine of most stock coolers
(*except when extremely overvolting, but the GTX480 is the most powerhungry single gpu card ever as far as I know)

at 100% fanspeed the AccXtreme cools any gpu very well and it was only audible when my casefans were running at ~600 rpm , so thats extremely quiet compared to any stock solution

just keep in mind that you do need good airflow in your case as it puts out all the heat inside the case instead of outside like most stock coolers do

liquid cooling is on a whole other level, both in terms of performance and price

 

[Deadstar]

What is the top pick for a 23 inch LED monitor around the $250 range?

Can anyone drop some monitor knowledge for me?

 

[TheExodu5]

Can anyone drop some monitor knowledge for me?

Is there any reason you need to go LED? Regular LCD (CCFL) monitors are better, IMO. LED lighting on low end monitors is extremely poor.

My personal pick for cheap monitors that are great for gaming would be the Asus TN panels (VW series, VH series, VE series...I forget the rest). If you want (much) better color, at the expensive of pixel response (a bit of ghosting) and a tiny bit of input lag, you can take a look at the Dell 23" IPS monitor (Dell U2311H, I think).

liquid cooling is on a whole other level, both in terms of performance and price

And work! I was tempted to go into watercooling for my build this year, but it involved quite a bit of research and the build would have been fairly involved.

Mind posting your watercooling setup? We don't have very many on GAF.

 

[Typhest]

So I'm looking to slowly upgrade throughout the summer/fall. My specs now are:
CPU: Phenom II x4 940 BE @ 3.40 ghz
Cooler: Hyper 212+
GPU: Radeon 4890 1gb
RAM: 4gb DDR2 1066
OS Drive: Kingston 64gb SSD

I'm thinking about starting with the GPU upgrade, but I'm not sure if a GTX 570 would be bottlenecked by the CPU, or even if I should wait for the next set of GPUs to hit the market. Should I upgrade the CPU first to a sandy bridge setup? I was thinking about waiting for ivy bridge later this year/early next year.

 

[black_vegeta]

Can anyone drop some monitor knowledge for me?

I recently bought this ASUS monitor. Cheaper than $200. No input lag and great display as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236059&Tpk=asus vh236

 

[TheExodu5]

Are you upgrading for a specific game in particular? The GPU is going to be the bottleneck in the majority of cases. That CPU is still very capable.

 

[Typhest]

Are you upgrading for a specific game in particular? The GPU is going to be the bottleneck in the majority of cases. That CPU is still very capable.

Waiting for Battlefield 3 . I guess my question really is this... would it be worth upgrading in August/September for BF3, or are the next series of GPUs supposed to come out before October?

 

[TheExodu5]

I recently bought this ASUS monitor. Cheaper than $100. No input lag and great display as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236059&Tpk=asus vh236

Yup. That's one of the monitor's I'd recommend. Asus makes some pretty solid monitors on the cheap. They're pretty well calibrated out of the box (far better than Acer, LG, and Samsung), and they're pretty well built, with very little backlight bleed. My old Samsung (2232BW) had so much backlight bleed. My friend's professional Samsung display has so much backlight bleed it makes me sad. When it comes to cheap TN monitors, I think Asus is very hard to beat.

Waiting for Battlefield 3 . I guess my question really is this... would it be worth upgrading in August/September for BF3, or are the next series of GPUs supposed to come out before October?

No one knows at this point. If you're upgrading for BF3, then I'd wait until a few weeks into the beta to get a good sense of the type of hardware the game will need.

 

[n0n44m]

only pics I have right now

Inside

Front

Bottom

---

loop:

EK Spin Bay reservoir
Aqua Computer Aquastream XT Ultra pump + Shoggy Sandwich mounting
Aqua Computer Filter
Watercool MoRa 3 9*140 radiator with 6 1400 rpm YL & 3 1000 rpm YL + MoRa Case Side Mounting
EK Supreme HF Copper Acetal block
Aqua Computer AquagraFX GTX480 block
Aqua Computer High Flow Meter

Demineralized water + KillCoil
EK Compression fittings
Alphacool 45 (2) & 90 degrees compression fittings
Masterkleer 10/13mm UV Blue hose
Bitspower pass-through for fillport & drainport
Koolance Quick Disconnects for MoRa external radiator
External radiator fans get power from modded molex I/O slot passthrough

Aqua Computer Aquaero 5 PRO monitoring & fan control
=> RGB LED in reservoir is water temperature controlled : 20c blue, 25c green, 30c red
Fan RPM's are controlled by Water-Intake temperature delta
ATX power break in case of pump failure/high temps
Extra 80 mm BeQuiet PWM fan mounted behind Aquaero for cooling when undervolting all 12 fans (9 rad 3 case)

results :

120 liters/hour flowrate
4c water delta in Bad Company 2 with ~800 rpm fans
extremely silent in idle

 

[TheExodu5]

Holy shit...you definitely did your research on that one. 9*140mm RAD....that thing must be a beast!

 

[n0n44m]

yeah the build process was downright masochistic in terms of money and hours spent researching/building

wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is anything less than a hardcore hardware enthusiast

 

[vexvegaz]

only pics I have right now

EK Spin Bay reservoir
Aqua Computer Aquastream XT Ultra pump + Shoggy Sandwich mounting
Aqua Computer Filter
Watercool MoRa 3 9*140 radiator with 6 1400 rpm YL & 3 1000 rpm YL + MoRa Case Side Mounting
EK Supreme HF Copper Acetal block
Aqua Computer AquagraFX GTX480 block
Aqua Computer High Flow Meter

Demineralized water + KillCoil
EK Compression fittings
Alphacool 45 (2) & 90 degrees compression fittings
Masterkleer 10/13mm UV Blue hose
Bitspower pass-through for fillport & drainport
Koolance Quick Disconnects for MoRa external radiator
External radiator fans get power from modded molex I/O slot passthrough

Aqua Computer Aquaero 5 PRO monitoring & fan control
=> RGB LED in reservoir is water temperature controlled : 20c blue, 25c green, 30c red
Fan RPM's are controlled by Water-Intake temperature delta
ATX power break in case of pump failure/high temps
Extra 80 mm BeQuiet PWM fan mounted behind Aquaero for cooling when undervolting all 12 fans (9 rad 3 case)

results :

120 liters/hour flowrate
4c water delta in Bad Company 2 with ~800 rpm fans
extremely silent in idle

sweet build n0n, unfortunatly I have to take down my loop and RMA my two waterblocks due to that EK recall.

 

[Liquid_015]

Dear PC-GAF,

I just downloaded the recommended "Piriform Speecy" program, and the general overview of my newly built desktop is quite decent. As of now the average temperature of my CPU ranges between 39-40 Celsius, the Motherboard is also around 39 Celsius, and the HD is around 33 Celsius.

So PC-GAF,

Is it a bad thing because I have close to zero experience regarding the temperature of a custom built desktop.

Thanks!

 

[ElyrionX]

After disabling the JMicron and Marvell controllers on the P8P67 Pro, my bootup time almost halved.

 

[n0n44m]

sweet build n0n, unfortunatly I have to take down my loop and RMA my two waterblocks due to that EK recall.

yeah thats a bit of a painful situation ... especially with their bullshit blame on silver/PTnuke

shame because it is the biggest company out there with the biggest selection of blocks selling worldwide

luckily living next to Germany I've got plenty of other manufacturers to choose from

I just downloaded the recommended "Piriform Speecy" program, and the general overview of my newly built desktop is quite decent. As of now the average temperature of my CPU ranges between 39-40 Celsius, the Motherboard is also around 39 Celsius, and the HD is around 33 Celsius.

Thanks!

sounds fine, although for the CPU the load temps are more interesting ... run Prime95 in Small FFT mode and see if your cpu stays below ~75c (assuming you have an Intel Sandy Bridge?)

 

[vexvegaz]

yeah thats a bit of a painful situation ... especially with their bullshit blame on silver/PTnuke

shame because it is the biggest company out there with the biggest selection of blocks selling worldwide

luckily living next to Germany I've got plenty of other manufacturers to choose from



sounds fine, although for the CPU the load temps are more interesting ... run Prime95 in Small FFT mode and see if your cpu stays below ~75c (assuming you have an Intel Sandy Bridge?)

yea n0n, it really sad. have gone through several WB in the past, the EK blocks were easily my fav. EK performance and looks are the best (IMHO) in the industry. it doesnt lok like it will get resoveled any time soon so my options are limited and would have to settle for a heatkiller/aqua blocks.

 

[Liquid_015]

yeah thats a bit of a painful situation ... especially with their bullshit blame on silver/PTnuke

shame because it is the biggest company out there with the biggest selection of blocks selling worldwide

luckily living next to Germany I've got plenty of other manufacturers to choose from



sounds fine, although for the CPU the load temps are more interesting ... run Prime95 in Small FFT mode and see if your cpu stays below ~75c (assuming you have an Intel Sandy Bridge?)

Nope, I am currently on an AMD Phenom II X4 965 (3.4Ghz Deneb CPU).

 

[Ultrabum]

I recently bought this ASUS monitor. Cheaper than $100. No input lag and great display as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236059&Tpk=asus vh236

I have the same monitor, its great! Bigger than I thought too

 

[mandiller]

I'm currently trying to decide on what parts I want for me next computer upgrade. My old 8800GT failed and so I just bought a brand new GTX570, but now my old Core 2 Duo cpu is bottlenecking it so I want to do a total upgrade, but I need some help on what is good or not (motherboard/ram help in particular)

Here's some info:

My current PC:

C2D 2.6Ghz
4GB DDR2 RAM
GTX570 (now)
MSI P35 Neo motherboard
Antec 650W power supply

Country: Australia

Money to spend: $1000 give or take.

What I want: A serious gaming PC that's ready by the time Battlefield 3 comes out and is powerful enough to run it smoothly at good settings. I also want a SSD for my OS (unless there's a good reason not to). I will need a new computer case as well and I want my machine to be relatively quiet.

I'm planning to buy most of my stuff from Umart

What I'm looking at buying currently:

i7 2600K
Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 4GB (2x XMS3 2GB)
OCZ 120G Vertex II E Series SSD (to install my OS on - Windows 7)
Nvidia GTX570 (already own, will put into the new system)
Antec 650W power supply (reusing from old system)
Asus P8P67 PRO V3 L1155 P67 (not really sure what motherboard I need/should get)

I'll grab a cheap blu-ray reader/dvd burner and a 1TB or 2TB SATA3 harddrive as well. I'll probably need a good cooling fan for the cpu, but I'm not sure what to get. I have no idea about what case to get either but I'd like it to keep the computer's noise down.

Do you think you guys can help me? I'd say I have intermediate computer skill.

 

[n0n44m]

yea n0n, it really sad. have gone through several WB in the past, the EK blocks were easily my fav. EK performance and looks are the best (IMHO) in the industry. it doesnt lok like it will get resoveled any time soon so my options are limited and would have to settle for a heatkiller/aqua blocks.

well they've got non-nickel blocks as well (like my CPU block) ... but it doesn't feel right buying from them right now until they've improved their quality control

Nope, I am currently on an AMD Phenom II X4 965 (3.4Ghz Deneb CPU).

than you want that temp to be below ~60c on Prime95 load

 

[Deadstar]

After disabling the JMicron and Marvell controllers on the P8P67 Pro, my bootup time almost halved.

I have the same board. What do these things do? Maybe I can disable them too.

 

[black_vegeta]

I have the same monitor, its great! Bigger than I thought too

Yeah, it's great. I meant cheaper than $200, not $100. >_>

 

[Liquid_015]

well they've got non-nickel blocks as well (like my CPU block) ... but it doesn't feel right buying from them right now until they've improved their quality control



than you want that temp to be below ~60c on Prime95 load

Alright! I will test once I finish downloading the file. And hypothetically speaking, if the stress test reads a temperature above 60 Celsius. Is it a bad thing? What can I do to decrease the temperature? Something I did wrong with installation?

 

[Deadstar]

Yeah, it's great. I meant cheaper than $200, not $100. >_>

This looks nice. I would prefer a monitor without speakers. The main reason I was getting LED is because I thought maybe it would be better for my eyes. I have a 22 inch LCD now with 1680 max res. I thought maybe the LED would be better but from what I'm reading the colors are trash. Isn't LCD going to be phased out? I guess if you want LED you have to go high end.

 

[n0n44m]

Do you think you guys can help me? I'd say I have intermediate computer skill.

cpu heatsink : CM Hyper 212+

motherboard : I've got the p8p67pro as well, happy with it. There is a new P8Z68-V PRO too, with some minimal updates, but I don't know if that is more expensive. The Asrock in the builds in the OP is also nice for a lower price

SSD: Personally not that excited about OCZ at the moment, heard too many horror stories online and offline. Got an Intel 80g two years ago and still very happy with it

case: I have a CM 690 II advanced, good airflow and reasonably silent but for true silence you better get a Fractal R3 (if they're available in Australia?) which has more isolation. Just remember that during gaming your 570 is the loudest component anyway

cpu: get a 2500K for gaming, 2600K only when using software where the hyperthreading matters (video editing 'n stuff)

 

[Liquid_015]

Argh. I'm not sure how to utilize Prime95 properly. I ran the program and it stressed my CPU but I am not sure where to check the temperature of the CPU during the stress test. -__-'