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[AkIRA_22]

the fuck at 16GB of ram, get 4 or maybe 6, even 8 is overkill

I agree

The H80 & H100 both require molex connections. That is the only way to supply power to the unit. The fan header will just give rpm data to the motherboard.

Cool, I didn't know that, it's good Corsair realised it was the best way and just made it the only way.

 

[AkIRA_22]

.

 

[Salsa]

welp, who would know


messed with BIOS and got rid of all the whine i believe. edit: most of it


Disabled the USB 3 ports (not using them) and some other usb stuff and now the wireless reciever produces no noise.


Then i disabled C1E, C3 and C6 report and EIST on the cpu settings.


Concern: im i alright disabling this stuff on the CPU side of things?


Idle temps did went up a bit, real temp is showing 50°C idle as opposed to 35-40

 

[cresto]

Does the $700-$800 budget include a monitor, and an OS?

If it does, the $600 build in the OP is right up your alley. Add maybe $130 for a monitor, and $100 for an OEM copy of Windows 7, and we're right against the $800 mark.

If it doesn't, we've got a few more options.

I have the monitor and OS I think. I'd like something that handles dual monitors no problem

 

[LabouredSubterfuge]

Okay GAF, I'm tearing my hair out.

Last night my new PC started to shut off and boot up, shut off and boot up repeatedly every few seconds. Pretty worrying stuff.

So I switched it off. Let it lie and then switch on again.

The power light comes on, the mobo lights come on, the fans come on, as do the fans on my GPU, the heatsink starts to rotate but then stops. No image comes up on my screen at all. There's no BIOS beep either. Just my computer with power lights on and fans running but not the heatsink.

I'm thinking maybe the CPU or the mobo went bad possibly. How do isolate what's gone wrong here?

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

the fuck at 16GB of ram, get 4 or maybe 6, even 8 is overkill

Pfff. 8GB is what I'd put into any high-mid to high-end machine now. I know I multitask a lot and have a tendency to leave multiple Safari windows open with multiple tabs and I can feel the strain sometimes with 4GB on my laptop, so 8GB would be worth it to me in a new machine. Ram is only $50-$70 at most nowadays for 8GB.

Do have to agree though that more than 8GB unless you know what you're doing with it is way more than anyone needs.

 

[Sethos]

Colleagues at work have some Xeon 5670 processors left over since the server upgrades, they are trying to piece together parts to build their own home PCs / Gaming PCs. Now, I know very little about server CPUs other than they are very expensive and tend to be very fast, especially in raw calculations / synthetic tests but how are they for gaming?

 

[Mœbius]

Well I think this will be my final setup, though I'm yet to decide on a GPU... and I probably won't be able to actually order all of this until Oct/Nov anyway - so there's lots of time for tweaks or a complete re-think.

Case
Fractal Design R3

CPU
Intel® Core™i7-2600k (3.40GHz)

Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V PRO

Memory
8GB Kingston Hyper-X Genesis (2 x 4GB KIT)

Drives
- 1st Hard Disk 160GB Intel 320 Series SSD, SATA 3
- 2nd Hard Disk 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 (7200rpm)
- SSD Cache Drive 20GB Intel SSD 311 Series
- DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x Dual Layer DVD Writer

Power Supply
Corsair 750W Pro Series Silver Modular

Processor Cooling
Coolit ECO II A.L.C (Liquid Cooler)

 

[LordCanti]

Colleagues at work have some Xeon 5670 processors left over since the server upgrades, they are trying to piece together parts to build their own home PCs / Gaming PCs. Now, I know very little about server CPUs other than they are very expensive and tend to be very fast, especially in raw calculations / synthetic tests but how are they for gaming?

That processor goes for nearly $1500 on newegg. If they can get half of that on ebay, they can build a very nice gaming PC for themselves.

As for its gaming performance, I can't find any benchmarks. Apparently it's a six core processor, based on Nehalem Westmere (pre-sandy bridge i7's). The extra two cores probably won't go to much use, but it is fairly safe to assume that gaming performance would be somewhere in the neighborhood of a Core i7 950 (which is like...$250) which is itself less impressive for gaming than a 2500k for $220 (it still wouldn't be the bottleneck in a system though).

If they aren't allowed to sell them, I guess they could make themselves a decent gaming PC using them. It would be such a waste though.

 

[The_Squirrel_Menace]

Well I think this will be my final setup, though I'm yet to decide on a GPU... and I probably won't be able to actually order all of this until Oct/Nov anyway - so there's lots of time for tweaks or a complete re-think.

Case
Fractal Design R3

CPU
Intel® Core™i7-2600k (3.40GHz)

Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V PRO

Memory
8GB Kingston Hyper-X Genesis (2 x 4GB KIT)

Drives
- 1st Hard Disk 160GB Intel 320 Series SSD, SATA 3
- 2nd Hard Disk 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 (7200rpm)
- SSD Cache Drive 20GB Intel SSD 311 Series
- DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x Dual Layer DVD Writer

Power Supply
Corsair 750W Pro Series Silver Modular

Processor Cooling
Coolit ECO II A.L.C (Liquid Cooler)

This is my new rig! Minus your liquid cooler (running noctua fan here) and the cache drive other than that is the same. I received all the component this morning, I should be done installing by tomorrow. Will post pic of it, first time fractal case buyer here.


For the GPU I went for a gainward phantom gtx 580 1.5GB. Was not sure If I wanted to go 570 sli or single 580 will let you know how it plays out.

 

[mike23]

the fuck at 16GB of ram, get 4 or maybe 6, even 8 is overkill

6 is ridiculous since that'd be triple channel which is pointless

8+ or bust. It only costs like 20 bucks to go from 4 to 8. I had 8 before and I was constantly running out of memory while playing Civ5. Hell, right now I'm doing nothing special and I'm sitting at 7.8gb in use.

Granted, I'm an above average case and I tend to have a lot of programs open at any given time, but I can't imagine anyone being able to get by on 4gb. Do you close all your normal day-to-day programs every time you want to play a game?

 

[Sethos]

That processor goes for nearly $1500 on newegg. If they can get half of that on ebay, they can build a very nice gaming PC for themselves.

As for its gaming performance, I can't find any benchmarks. Apparently it's a six core processor, based on Nehalem Westmere (pre-sandy bridge i7's). The extra two cores probably won't go to much use, but it is fairly safe to assume that gaming performance would be somewhere in the neighborhood of a Core i7 950 (which is like...$250) which is itself less impressive for gaming than a 2500k for $220 (it still wouldn't be the bottleneck in a system though).

If they aren't allowed to sell them, I guess they could make themselves a decent gaming PC using them. It would be such a waste though.

Exactly what I told them and they can sell them, it's all just a bit dodgy. I mean, not illegal but you know, a bit hush hush. So they are looking into both selling them and parts to build a computer for it, they are just curious about overall gaming performance - Apparently it's pretty hard to dig up benchmarks on Xeon gaming

 

[LordCanti]

Exactly what I told them and they can sell them, it's all just a bit dodgy. I mean, not illegal but you know, a bit hush hush. So they are looking into both selling them and parts to build a computer for it, they are just curious about overall gaming performance - Apparently it's pretty hard to dig up benchmarks on Xeon gaming

It's easier to look at the processors they are based on. Assuming that a Xeon processor doesn't just completely fuck up when a game is started, it's essentially a Core i7 with a lot of fancy technology (and two additional cores) added onto it. It should perform similarly in a game to the quad core i7's it's based on.

I'm not sure how many units we're talking about here, but it's pretty odd for your employer to not be selling the servers whole, since the socket can't really take an upgrade (unless they went for one of the 8 core CPU's...but that wouldn't be much of an upgrade over a 6 core model). What are they doing with the rest of the server hardware?

 

[masterkajo]

Okay GAF, I'm tearing my hair out.

Last night my new PC started to shut off and boot up, shut off and boot up repeatedly every few seconds. Pretty worrying stuff.

So I switched it off. Let it lie and then switch on again.

The power light comes on, the mobo lights come on, the fans come on, as do the fans on my GPU, the heatsink starts to rotate but then stops. No image comes up on my screen at all. There's no BIOS beep either. Just my computer with power lights on and fans running but not the heatsink.

I'm thinking maybe the CPU or the mobo went bad possibly. How do isolate what's gone wrong here?

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

About half a year ago mine did absolutely the same thing. Prior to this I had some random freezes and sometimes it took some multiple starts to boot it up. It turned out that my motherboard went bad (don't know exactly what the problem was but a new one fixed it.)
Best thing try to test all parts seperately, so you can be sure what the problem is.

 

[Foliorum Viridum]

6 is ridiculous since that'd be triple channel which is pointless

8+ or bust. It only costs like 20 bucks to go from 4 to 8. I had 8 before and I was constantly running out of memory while playing Civ5. Hell, right now I'm doing nothing special and I'm sitting at 7.8gb in use.

Granted, I'm an above average case and I tend to have a lot of programs open at any given time, but I can't imagine anyone being able to get by on 4gb. Do you close all your normal day-to-day programs every time you want to play a game?

I have 8gb RAM and I still close nearly everything when I boot up a game, unless it's really old.

Old habits die hard and that, haha.

At least these days I don't close explorer.exe like in the good old days

 

[LordCanti]

I have 8gb RAM and I still close nearly everything when I boot up a game, unless it's really old.

Old habits die hard and that, haha.

At least these days I don't close explorer.exe like in the good old days

I have a separate computer for things that aren't gaming. I'm that OCD.

Sorry, what I mean to say is that I....had a separate computer for things that weren't gaming...


FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU LIGHTNING!


(I'm depressed now)

 

[Sethos]

It's easier to look at the processors they are based on. Assuming that a Xeon processor doesn't just completely fuck up when a game is started, it's essentially a Core i7 with a lot of fancy technology (and two additional cores) added onto it. It should perform similarly in a game to the quad core i7's it's based on.

I'm not sure how many units we're talking about here, but it's pretty odd for your employer to not be selling the servers whole, since the socket can't really take an upgrade (unless they went for one of the 8 core CPU's...but that wouldn't be much of an upgrade over a 6 core model). What are they doing with the rest of the server hardware?

It was meant to go in a client's server setup but apparently, the software going on there was paid licenses per core, which they only found out when everything had been bought. So they opted for quads instead and the Xeons were never used, just sitting on a shelf. Mind you, this is software where each key costs thousands and thousands of dollars. Cheaper just to ditch the Xeons.

 

[bs000]

Thanks for the responses. In the past, whenever I thought I'd bought more than enough ram, I ended up needing more. I knew 16GB was probably overkill, but ram is so cheap now that I thought why the hell not. I'll probably end up bumping it down to 8GB. Will the Ripjaws have any trouble fitting under the 212?

 

[Drazgul]

Will the Ripjaws have any trouble fitting under the 212?

Your best bet is to google thoroughly with that model name - I know some aftermarket coolers do have issues with fitting together with RAM sticks. You could just get the 8GB for now and then if you feel you need more, get the other 8GB later - RAM is the easiest component to install, after all.

 

[LordCanti]

It was meant to go in a client's server setup but apparently, the software going on there was paid licenses per core, which they only found out when everything had been bought. So they opted for quads instead and the Xeons were never used, just sitting on a shelf. Mind you, this is software where each key costs thousands, if not hundred and thousands of dollars.

Granted, I've never worked a day in my life at this point, but I'm envisioning my boss reacting to the shelf full of unsold $1500 processors, and wondering if "you guys can have them, whatever" isn't the reaction I'd get from him.

Actually, no, don't tell me any more. I don't want to know lol.

 

[Mœbius]

This is my new rig! Minus your liquid cooler (running noctua fan here) and the cache drive other than that is the same. I received all the component this morning, I should be done installing by tomorrow. Will post pic of it, first time fractal case buyer here.


For the GPU I went for a gainward phantom gtx 580 1.5GB. Was not sure If I wanted to go 570 sli or single 580 will let you know how it plays out.

Cool!

The liquid cooler is one of the things I'm still wavering on - it seems like a convenient, clean, and fairly cheap solution in general, but it may have problems when the system is overclocked so I may decide to go with a Hyper 212+ or Tuniq contact freezer in the end...(the noctua sounds impressive too!).

Anyone have experience with the Coolit?

 

[zaidr]

welp, who would know


messed with BIOS and got rid of all the whine i believe. edit: most of it


Disabled the USB 3 ports (not using them) and some other usb stuff and now the wireless reciever produces no noise.


Then i disabled C1E, C3 and C6 report and EIST on the cpu settings.


Concern: im i alright disabling this stuff on the CPU side of things?


Idle temps did went up a bit, real temp is showing 50°C idle as opposed to 35-40

Whats the reason you're disabling the C-states? Are you trying to overclock or something?
The reason your idle temps are higher is because you are disabling the CPU's ability to throttle itself at idle. Normally, the CPU will lower its multiplier at idle to reduce heat/temps, and raise it up (instantaneously) when in use. SandyBridge CPU's usually go down to 16x i think. SB chips also have the other benefit of throttling down its vcore as well, to reduce wear on the chip when not in use. This is all C1E i'm talking about. C3 and C6 states refer to the CPU behaviour when you put the system in sleep mode, if I remember correctly...

So, you may want to keep that stuff on, since why wouldn't you want a CPU that runs cooler for most day to day use and lasts longer overall?

 

[LabouredSubterfuge]

About half a year ago mine did absolutely the same thing. Prior to this I had some random freezes and sometimes it took some multiple starts to boot it up. It turned out that my motherboard went bad (don't know exactly what the problem was but a new one fixed it.)
Best thing try to test all parts seperately, so you can be sure what the problem is.

Okay, I see. But how do I check whether it's the CPU or motherboard that's broken? I'm not sure how.

 

[Sethos]

Granted, I've never worked a day in my life at this point, but I'm envisioning my boss reacting to the shelf full of unsold $1500 processors, and wondering if "you guys can have them, whatever" isn't the reaction I'd get from him.

Actually, no, don't tell me any more. I don't want to know lol.

Now you see, that's not how bosses are Most of them don't even know the cost of hardware nor what the hell it does. They are so oblivious to what's actually going on, they go to meetings and just smile a lot. Shit, we could become millionaires by selling all our left-over hardware and not a single soul would be any the wiser.

 

[toastyToast]

Noticed some instability with my 4.9GHz OC even after some pretty rigorous testing (13h prime blend, intel burn test on max 20 runs). Realized after I got a couple of blue screens while playing Street Fighter IV at around a couple of hours in.

I could bump the voltage a bit but I'm wondering, where else could this instabilty be coming from?

 

[Corky]

Noticed some instability with my 4.9GHz OC even after some pretty rigorous testing (13h prime blend, intel burn test on max 20 runs). Realized after I got a couple of blue screens while playing Street Fighter IV at around a couple of hours in.

I could bump the voltage a bit but I'm wondering, where else could this instabilty be coming from?

Nice OC what's your cpu/voltage/cooling/temp?

 

[Izayoi]

Does anyone have any experience with 3D/120hz monitors?

Looking to get one in preparation for BF3, and so far I've seen recommendations for the PLANAR and Samsung, and warnings about the ASUS.

Or is the whole 120hz thing snake oil and I should be looking at a 2560x1600 panel instead?

If it matters, my source will be 2x GTX 580s.

 

[LordCanti]

Now you see, that's not how bosses are Most of them don't even know the cost of hardware nor what the hell it does. They are so oblivious to what's actually going on, they go to meetings and just smile a lot. Shit, we could become millionaires by selling all our left-over hardware and not a single soul would be any the wiser.

La la la, I didn't hear that.

La la la, I know nothing.

Does anyone have any experience with 3D/120hz monitors?

Looking to get one in preparation for BF3, and so far I've seen recommendations for the PLANAR and Samsung, and warnings about the ASUS.

Or is the whole 120hz thing snake oil and I should be looking at a 2560x1600 panel instead?

If it matters, my source will be 2x GTX 580s.

Personally? I think 3D is a technology that is destined to be a fad forever. Apparently it's great on Uncharted 3. The best a lot of podcast hosts have ever seen, from what I'm hearing. It's also on the PS3, and it makes no difference to a PC user. I've yet to hear anyone exclaim about how amazing 3D is on the PC. All I see it as, is a huge performance hit.

Ask Smokey though, because he actually owns a 3D monitor (I think he does anyway). I'm kind of down on 3D all around, so my opinion is kind of skewed.

I did consider a 30" monitor at one point in my planning. I decided to go with a 150" projected screen @ 1080p instead for the same price. I could change my mind though (even if I may need a second GTX 580 to make it worthwhile).

 

[Izayoi]

I don't care about the 3D, I guess I should've been more specific. I'm only interested in what 120hz can bring to the table.

 

[LordCanti]

I don't care about the 3D, I guess I should've been more specific. I'm only interested in what 120hz can bring to the table.

You'd have to ask Smokey, but I'm watching the 60fps trailer again, and it looks pretty damn smooth to me. Any smoother and I think my eyeballs would pop out.

Here is an explanation of what it can technically do http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=960548

Basically it seems like motion panning is going to be considerably better on a 120hz LCD (nowhere near as good as an old CRT though).

 

[M.Bluth]

I have an Asus N53J (i5-460M 2.53Ghz, GeForce GT425M 1GB, 4GB DDR3)
And it's been rather sluggish lately, especially when I open YouTube videos

So, I was considering upgrading the RAM to 8GB, I checked around Newegg and they only cost around $50, but I was wondering if the cause of the problem is the CPU more so than memory..?

I think I'll upgrade it anyway, but I just wanted to know, I guess

 

[toastyToast]

Nice OC what's your cpu/voltage/cooling/temp?

Oh, 2500K @1.336V at load. Cooler is a Thermalright Silver Arrow and my temps from when I did the blend test were 58/60/63/59.

Not sure what's causing the BSODs. I dialed back to 4.8GHz for now which needs 1.312V, I'm assuming that's stable too (did the same tests). 4.9GHz was as far as I can go without having to turn on PLL Overvoltage hence losing the ability to put the computer to sleep so I settled on that. I'll see how I go with 4.8

 

[Izayoi]

I have an Asus N53J (i5-460M 2.53Ghz, GeForce GT425M 1GB, 4GB DDR3)
And it's been rather sluggish lately, especially when I open YouTube videos

So, I was considering upgrading the RAM to 8GB, I checked around Newegg and they only cost around $50, but I was wondering if the cause of the problem is the CPU more so than memory..?

I think I'll upgrade it anyway, but I just wanted to know, I guess

It is more than likely the fault of your processor. 4GB should be more than enough.

Although even then, that processor shouldn't be struggling with YouTube videos.

I would suggest running a sweep with MSE and Malwarebytes.

 

[LabouredSubterfuge]

Sorry to repeat myself on the same page guys but does anyone know how I work out whether it's my CPU or motherboard that is broken?

 

[IonicSnake]

Sorry to repeat myself on the same page guys but does anyone know how I work out whether it's my CPU or motherboard that is broken?

I got this problem when I was building my brothers computer, turned out I had placed the RAM in the wrong slots. I also had 4 stick in and had to remove two. I don't know if you have the same problem but check with two ram sticks and that they are in the right slots.

 

[Drazgul]

Sorry to repeat myself on the same page guys but does anyone know how I work out whether it's my CPU or motherboard that is broken?

What happens when you try to put the power on? Anything?

 

[LabouredSubterfuge]

What happens when you try to put the power on? Anything?

I should note that it's been working fine for 3 weeks with only a handful of crashes up to now.

Here's what happens now:

Power comes on. Fans all start up even on my GPU, light comes on on the case. Lights come on on the mobo. Heat sink fan starts then stops. I get no image coming up on my TV. It's essentially just sitting there powering my mobo and fans but nothing is loading. I don't even get a BIOS beep of any sort.

 

[Izayoi]

Power comes on. Fans all start up even on my GPU, light comes on on the case. Lights come on on the mobo. Heat sink fan starts then stops. I get no image coming up on my TV. It's essentially just sitting there powering my mobo and fans but nothing is loading. I don't even get a BIOS beep of any sort.

Your CPU is shot.

 

[Chinner]

whats the general consensus on what way should PSUs face? up into the case or down?

 

[M.Bluth]

It is more than likely the fault of your processor. 4GB should be more than enough.

Although even then, that processor shouldn't be struggling with YouTube videos.

I would suggest running a sweep with MSE and Malwarebytes.

I do open several YouTube videos at a time, but it does get really sluggish sometimes on one video..

I do scan it regularly, but I'm running one right now just in case..

whats the general consensus on what way should PSUs face? up into the case or down?

I personally put them to suck some air out of the motherboard

 

[LabouredSubterfuge]

Your CPU is shot.

You sure? I mean it's cool if you are, I just want to be sure before I go about getting the part replaced.

Does anyone else with the assessment that my CPU is fucked?

 

[KPunk]

Hey, i currently have an i7 920, that i built 2.5 years ago.. Everything is great but i am looking to upgrade my video card, currently a ati 4950. I've kinda been out of the video card loop. I need to upgrade ASAP for Deus ex, and Battlefield 3. Any recommendations for a good (but affordable) card.

I had a 6950 that i ordered from amazon for $179.99 that they cancelled and was rather upset about

 

[Corky]

Hey, i currently have an i7 920, that i built 2.5 years ago.. Everything is great but i am looking to upgrade my video card, currently a ati 4950. I've kinda been out of the video card loop. I need to upgrade ASAP for Deus ex, and Battlefield 3. Any recommendations for a good (but affordable) card.

I had a 6950 that i ordered from amazon for $179.99 that they cancelled and was rather upset about

Some cards with great price/performance ratio are 560 Ti and your mentioned 6950. You can, if you want a bit more overhead, go for 570 or 6970 but they are more expensive.

edit : on another note. Can someone explain to my why one Asus Mars II costs as much as two GTX 590s ?

 

[Tadale]

New to this thread, and I got the new PC bug.

Are the builds in the OP up to date?

 

[scogoth]

edit : on another note. Can someone explain to my why one Asus Mars II costs as much as two GTX 590s ?

It doesn't? Asus Mars II is $1000(if you can find one) a 590 is $750(if you can find one)

 

[R2D4]

whats the general consensus on what way should PSUs face? up into the case or down?

With the fan down. They are designed to suck air from the bottom and blow it out the back.

 

[scogoth]

With the fan down. They are designed to suck air from the bottom and blow it out the back.

Not necessarily, not all cases have intake vents for the PSU. Heck not even all cases mount PSUs on the bottom. If the vent is there use it and make sure you have enough exhaust fans in the case because the PSU won't be aiding airflow like it normally would.

 

[The Lamonster]

PC-GAF I need help!

Here is my system info:

I think the main bottleneck here is my old ass video card. Any specific recommendations? I want to stick with NVIDIA and don't mind waiting to upgrade if something cool is yet-to-be-released. And once I upgrade my video card, will I be able to max new games like Skyrim?

-PSU Wattage might be a concern with fast cards though ... Dell has decent PSU's AFAIK but total wattage could be low as the 8800GT seems less power hungry than modern cards (1 , 2)
---------

a 560ti is a good Nvidia card that should run Skyrim very nicely at 1200p (as it's probably somewhat console focused anyway and thus not really pushing xtreme graphics) ... faster cards will only be bottlenecked by the CPU I suppose and might require a new PSU as well

So I've decided on the 560 Ti, but I just found out there are a ton of brands out there when I checked on Amazon. Any brand recommendations?

Or other opinions on a good video card for my system that won't be a waste of money when it's bottlenecked?

 

[Coldsnap]

What should an exhaust fan run at? I try to go for a silent setup and my intakes are at 700rpm and my exhaust is at 700rpm.

 

[AuthenticM]

I really like these threads. Thanks OP.