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

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O

Of All Trades

Member
Hazaro said:
I meant OC GPU, although it is about a 20% boost as well. Your parts are fine. It's a good deal especially if you get Professional Win and a 2 or 3 year instead of 1 yr warranty.
Click to expand...
The 560ti at stock is 20% faster than a 6870? Are there more recent benchmarks showing that? Most of what I saw, particularly at 1650 resolution, showed a difference of a few fps at most.

The warranty is 2 year but Windows is Home Premium. After tax it's about $930.

For comparison, without a decent mid-tower case a 2500k/560ti off Amazon (and only Amazon with Prime, Newegg hits me with sales tax and some shipping), hyper 212, Asus p8p67, etc is $965. Some parts will have longer warranties than the Dell but the assembly time savings (not counting the inevitable bloatware-cleaning) are real.
 
V

vaelic

Banned
brotkasten said:
Well, then yes, you'd have to remove the thermal paste and look it up.

Npyhc.jpg


e: Holy Shit. "The mainstream Core 2 Quad Q6600, clocked at 2.4 GHz, was launched on January 8, 2007". It's been that long since the Q6600 was released? Makes me feel better about the upgrade. :lol
Click to expand...

thanks :) any good way to remove the paste?
 
T

theRizzle

Member
I bought my brother a GTX 560 Ti for Christmas, but on the eVGA site they said it requires a minimum of a 500W PSU. He has a Corsair 450W PSU. Am I going to run into any problems?
 
J

jwhit28

Member
My Asrock 870 Extreme3 motherboard got a BIOS update to support AM3+ CPU's. I have a Phenom II x4 955 OCed to 3.7GHz so there aren't any appealing AM3+ CPU's at the current prices/performance, but if one comes out I can just drop it in with no downside compared to a made for AM3+ board?
 
W

Wazzim

Banned
theRizzle said:
I bought my brother a GTX 560 Ti for Christmas, but on the eVGA site they said it requires a minimum of a 500W PSU. He has a Corsair 450W PSU. Am I going to run into any problems?
Click to expand...

Probably not, I am pretty sure that Corsair PSU's can handle enough amperes.
 
C

Clever Pun

Member
This might be a silly question, but I just built my PC and I'm still waiting on the GPU, so I'm just using the HD 3000 graphics in the i5 2500K. My motherboard has an HDMI out, but when I hook it up to my TV (Panasonic GT25) and set the resolution to 1920x1080 it stretches outside of the visible area on the tv.

Is this a driver issue on the PC? or should I try to adjust the TV to handle the signal correctly?
 
B

brotkasten

Member
Great. My tiler called and said he could come on Monday, which is earlier than expected. Well, there goes my hw upgrade and bonus from the last month. :lol New bathroom > new hardware.

Looks like I'll have to wait a week or two for the upgrade. Hope the GEN3 will be available by then and the G5 case should be here on Monday or Tuesday. I really want to finish the project this year!
 
P

perryfarrell

Member
My computer issues are spiraling out of control...

CPU (AMD Phenom II x4 940) was running too hot (70 degrees celcius)... Opened desktop, noticed lots of dust between fan and heatsink... cleaned it out. But now Windows doesn't start!

Bios works fine. All hardware is recognized. I did, however, reset the bios to default settings (but currently settings seem right to me).

When Windows tries to start, it gives me the 'Start Windows Repair' option--but nothing happens. Just starting Windows makes it hang at 'Starting Windows...'

I have stuff from Newegg on the way, so it's not the worst time to have this issue. But I'd still like to see if I damaged something.
 
Celcius

Celcius

°Temp. member
Are you sure you ordered it directly from amazon and not a 3rd party seller? I've always received exceptional customer service from amazon...
 
C

Clever Pun

Member
Just to follow up on my own issue, if you are running HDMI to a Panasonic GT25, use HD type 2 in the aspect ratio menu under display settings.

Edit: it appears with the integrated video the option to set the hdmi/tv as an audio playback doesn't come up until I am outputting video to it. who knew!
 
P

perryfarrell

Member
^ to continue problem above: I can't even boot into Windows 7 from a USB stick! (I kno the stick works, cuz my laptop boots from it). It hangs again at 'Starting Windows'.
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
Soi-Fong said:
How good are the onboards on this motherboard? This is the one I'm planning on going for.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131792
Click to expand...

I haven't heard the 892, but it's pretty standard in current motherboards and should be okay.

The 889 is pretty spectacular for onboard, which is what I have on my motherboard. It's usually only included in the higher end boards though, and for the price difference you're probably better off getting onboard. The SNR rating (just a spec, doesn't mean everything) for the 892 is -95dB and for the 889 is -108dB. That is a pretty siginificant difference, though what that means to the sound I can't say for sure. I'd guess the 889 would have a much lower noise floor.

Honestly, if you're not big into sound quality, you probably won't notice.
 
S

Soi-Fong

Member
TheExodu5 said:
I haven't heard the 892, but it's pretty standard in current motherboards and should be okay.

The 889 is pretty spectacular for onboard, which is what I have on my motherboard. It's usually only included in the higher end boards though, and for the price difference you're probably better off getting onboard. The SNR rating (just a spec, doesn't mean everything) for the 892 is -95dB and for the 889 is -108dB. That is a pretty siginificant difference, though what that means to the sound I can't say for sure. I'd guess the 889 would have a much lower noise floor.

Honestly, if you're not big into sound quality, you probably won't notice.
Click to expand...

Ah cool. Thanks for the input. I'll prolly just save the money for a better mouse or keyboard then.
 
F

Forearm Star

Member
Alright back again.

I did some research and I came up with this set up to replace my current pc, since the only thing worth keeping was the 650 power supply.

intel i5 2500k
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 x16 Video Card
GA-H61M-S2H LGA 1155 H61 mATX Intel Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800)

Not 100% on the motherboard or if the ram is a decent brand.
So any suggestions are welcome. I'm planning to hit microcenter tomorrow, because these items seemed cheaper there, plus the video card comes with a free copy Arkham city.

Any other known deals would be welcomed as well
 
G

Gunmonkey36

Member
Lando Jones said:
Alright back again.

I did some research and I came up with this set up to replace my current pc, since the only thing worth keeping was the 650 power supply.

intel i5 2500k
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 x16 Video Card
GA-H61M-S2H LGA 1155 H61 mATX Intel Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800)

Not 100% on the motherboard or if the ram is a decent brand.
So any suggestions are welcome. I'm planning to hit microcenter tomorrow, because these items seemed cheaper there, plus the video card comes with a free copy Arkham city.

Any other known deals would be welcomed as well
Click to expand...

Change that 550 ti to a 560 ti and you will be a much happier camper
 
F

Forearm Star

Member
Gunmonkey36 said:
Change that 550 ti to a 560 ti and you will be a much happier camper
Click to expand...

Hmm I wonder, that 100 I saved on going for the i5 2500k over the i7 2600k seemed like a good idea. Would spring for the 560 make a tremendous impact? I only ask because I' not sure what else i'm missing and need to add to complete this project. If it really will then i'll bite the bullet
 
M

mug

Member
Lando Jones said:
Hmm I wonder, that 100 I saved on going for the i5 2500k over the i7 2600k seemed like a good idea. Would spring for the 560 make a tremendous impact? I only ask because I' not sure what else i'm missing and need to add to complete this project. If it really will then i'll bite the bullet
Click to expand...

Definitely. The 550ti is your bottleneck at the moment. It's a good card but it's still something for the entry level.
 
C

CSX

Member
Is there a good cpu heatsink/fan for an i7 that doesnt require me to take off my motherboard and install a mounting bracket?

I was recommended a Venemous X a long time ago for my old PC. I definitely dont want to deal with that mounting bracket ever again.
 
K

Kryptonic

Member
Well, I got my MSI GTX580 Lightning XE today but it doesn't seem to work. Not displaying any video on boot. Red VGA light stays on, on my ASUS P8P67 Pro motherboard. Tried the card in both PCI E slots, tried another set of 8pin power connectors, tried both dvi ports, two different monitors and cables. My old video card (GTX460) still works fine when I put it back in. I updated my motherboard's BIOS but that didnt help either. The fans spin on the video card and the blue led fan lights come on, there is also a set of 12 LEDS on the card which 6 are green and 6 are red but from reading on that I think that is normal. I cleared the CMOS as well.

I might be able to piece my old computer back together to test the video card there, but everything seems to be pointing to this card. Anything else you guys can think of to try before I RMA it?
 
C

CSX

Member
Kryptonic said:
Well, I got my MSI GTX580 Lightning XE today but it doesn't seem to work. Not displaying any video on boot. Red VGA light stays on, on my ASUS P8P67 Pro motherboard. Tried the card in both PCI E slots, tried another set of 8pin power connectors, tried both dvi ports, two different monitors and cables. My old video card (GTX460) still works fine when I put it back in. I updated my motherboard's BIOS but that didnt help either. The fans spin on the video card and the blue led fan lights come on, there is also a set of 12 LEDS on the card which 6 are green and 6 are red but from reading on that I think that is normal. I cleared the CMOS as well.

I might be able to piece my old computer back together to test the video card there, but everything seems to be pointing to this card. Anything else you guys can think of to try before I RMA it?
Click to expand...

I ended up having to RMA mine. I had those same problems for a while. I had to keep resetting the comp till i finally saw something on the screen. Then I started getting GPU crashes (green screens, buzzing sounds, etc)
 
R

RS4-

Member
Ugh $300 or so for WC parts. I think I'll wait until after christmas :(

Going for the RX360, Raystorm CPU block for sure. The rest, just going to figure out if I want quick disconnects, compression, the type of pump/res and other stuff.

I could get an MCR320 for like $30 but its used and scratched, so I don't know if I want to deal with that. If I can find a good RX360 second hand, I'll go for it.
 
M

mkenyon

Banned
RS4- said:
Ugh $300 or so for WC parts. I think I'll wait until after christmas :(

Going for the RX360, Raystorm CPU block for sure. The rest, just going to figure out if I want quick disconnects, compression, the type of pump/res and other stuff.

I could get an MCR320 for like $30 but its used and scratched, so I don't know if I want to deal with that. If I can find a good RX360 second hand, I'll go for it.
Click to expand...
Consider the XSPC Rasa kits. Grab some Primochill 7/16's ID tubing, and you're set. No need to worry about many parts unless you need to make some sharp turns with the tubing.
 
A

AwesomeSauce

MagsMoonshine
perryfarrell said:
My computer issues are spiraling out of control...

CPU (AMD Phenom II x4 940) was running too hot (70 degrees celcius)... Opened desktop, noticed lots of dust between fan and heatsink... cleaned it out. But now Windows doesn't start!

Bios works fine. All hardware is recognized. I did, however, reset the bios to default settings (but currently settings seem right to me).

When Windows tries to start, it gives me the 'Start Windows Repair' option--but nothing happens. Just starting Windows makes it hang at 'Starting Windows...'

I have stuff from Newegg on the way, so it's not the worst time to have this issue. But I'd still like to see if I damaged something.
Click to expand...

Try reapplying thermal paste to the cpu and resetting the heatsink. My guess is the computer is shutting down before booting because it is overheating.
 
R

RS4-

Member
mkenyon said:
Consider the XSPC Rasa kits. Grab some Primochill 7/16's ID tubing, and you're set. No need to worry about many parts unless you need to make some sharp turns with the tubing.
Click to expand...

Yup, will do. I've got choices for a few Rasa kits here locally, the following for just a CPU loop and all the parts you need.

Raystorm CPU Block Intel (AMD Braket included)
RX360 Extreme Performance Radiator
Three Fans and Stealth black Grills
5.25" Dual Bay Reservoir Pump Combo
DazMode Storm D5 Strong Pump
Six Black Crome 7/16 Compression fittings
Thermochill Flex 7/16 Tubing (White)
Radiator's (optional) External Mounting Hardware
K2 Thermal Grease and PSU Jumper
$299

Rasa Black (Acetal) CPU Waterblock
- Socket 775, 1366 and 1154 Backplates
- Socket AM2 and AM3 mounting kit
- DazMode STORM D5 (Laing DDC3.25) Performance Pump
- XSPC Dual bay Reservoir for single Laing D5 pump
- 5mm Blue LED with 4Pin Molex
- RX360 Radiator
- 80mm to 120mm Radiator brackets
- 120mm Fan x3
- 120mm Fan Grill x2
- 2 Meters of Clear 7/16" Hose
- G1/4" to 1/2" barbs x6
- Thermal Paste
$239

Rasa Black (Acetal) CPU Waterblock
- Socket 775, 1366 and 1154 Backplates
- Socket AM2 and AM3 mounting kit
- X2O 750 12V Pump/Reservoir
- 5mm Blue LED with 4Pin Molex
- RX360 Radiator
- 80mm to 120mm Radiator brackets
- 120mm Fan x3
- 120mm Fan Grill x2
- 2 Meters of Clear 7/16" Hose
- G1/4" to 1/2" barbs x6
- Thermal Paste
$209

Leaning towards the $300 kit just because it does include the raystorm block; just a little wary of the fans as they're probably some no name stuff. Then again the rx360 does perform great even at low speeds. I don't have a problem with noise, my 6950 idles at 2000rpm lol.

Will try to find some Gentle Typhoon AP15s. I can get some AP30s here but the voltages to get them running are a bit too much and I don't need them to run that fast.

Thoughts?

I like the looks of the Dual Koolance Res and the FrozenQ Helix Res but they're over $100 each and still don't include a pump. Yeah, WC is going to terrorize my wallet. I'll upgrade the res next time.
 
I

Ivan A Nguyen

Member
I've been reading over the OPs, picking out Steam games, and preparing a budget to switch over to the PC master race. My question is about upgrades. I don't want a beast that is better than an Xbox Next or whatever it will be called, but I do want to be able to just pick up a graphics card(s) down the road that will make sure my system will keep up with the latest in consoles. To that end, what parts should I focus on getting that will last for a few years while supporting future graphics/ram/memory upgrades?
 
C

chrisisawesome

Member
Ok so I was looking around for an SSD for my 13'' macbook pro (2010 model) and I found this one that seems to be a pretty decent price/performance one

OCZ Vertex 3

Will it work on a macbook? Can I just install it and then go ahead and put Lion on it?
 
N

n0n44m

Member
RS4- said:
Thoughts?

I like the looks of the Dual Koolance Res and the FrozenQ Helix Res but they're over $100 each and still don't include a pump. Yeah, WC is going to terrorize my wallet. I'll upgrade the res next time.
Click to expand...

Don't worry too much about the block ... difference between the best and "worst" blocks out there is less than 1.5c probably (unless you buy some really vintage stuff :D ) ... although that Raystorm is good looking of course ;)

If the noise from your GPU doesn't bother you then I just assume you're looking for good temps? Just don't expect watercooling to significantly change your overclocking experience on a 2500K or 2600K unless you are willing to pump 1.45+ V in the cpu ... CPU quality and motherboard quality make a bigger difference is my experience ... This is different from hotter CPUs such as the new Socket 2011 stuff and the AMD Bulldozer series, those sure could use some better cooling in most cases :) watercooling the GPU makes more sense imho as those usually run hotter/louder, but people change those more often and fullcover blocks are expensive...

As for the pump ... I'd go for a D5 if you have the space. The smaller DDC series can perform even better and they're smaller, but I feel their build quality/reliability suffers from that. I wouldn't recommend the XSPC pump/reservoir combinations as the pumps in those are not the greatest out there. The XSPC/Koolance reservoirs in which you can put your own DDC/D5 pumps are better, although for any pump/reservoir combo vibration noise can be an issue. The FrozenQ stuff looks fun but I've heard too many horror stories to ever consider them lol, cracking acrylic and stuff :/ (I have an EK Spin Bayres which I like ... tube reservoir are better in terms of faster bleeding but the bay reservoirs are more practical imho)

I like compression fittings myself, pretty easy to install safely. As for the fans, Gentle Typhoons seem hard to find at the moment (Thailand?) ... I like Noiseblockers myself but if you're not going for absolute silence you might as well pick up some cheap Yate-Loons for a couple of bucks :)

and yes money-wise watercooling doesn't make sense unless you only go for the cheapest-of-cheapest stuff ... but then you might as well get a CM212+ and save some more imho :p
 
A

aznpxdd

Member
Galaxy GTX570 is is on Amazon for $289 after a $50 rebate. But no tax for us Californians. Picked one up myself for a new build :)
 
R

RS4-

Member
n0n44m said:
Don't worry too much about the block ... difference between the best and "worst" blocks out there is less than 1.5c probably (unless you buy some really vintage stuff :D ) ... although that Raystorm is good looking of course ;)

If the noise from your GPU doesn't bother you then I just assume you're looking for good temps? Just don't expect watercooling to significantly change your overclocking experience on a 2500K or 2600K unless you are willing to pump 1.45+ V in the cpu ... CPU quality and motherboard quality make a bigger difference is my experience ... This is different from hotter CPUs such as the new Socket 2011 stuff and the AMD Bulldozer series, those sure could use some better cooling in most cases :) watercooling the GPU makes more sense imho as those usually run hotter/louder, but people change those more often and fullcover blocks are expensive...

As for the pump ... I'd go for a D5 if you have the space. The smaller DDC series can perform even better and they're smaller, but I feel their build quality/reliability suffers from that. I wouldn't recommend the XSPC pump/reservoir combinations as the pumps in those are not the greatest out there. The XSPC/Koolance reservoirs in which you can put your own DDC/D5 pumps are better, although for any pump/reservoir combo vibration noise can be an issue. The FrozenQ stuff looks fun but I've heard too many horror stories to ever consider them lol, cracking acrylic and stuff :/ (I have an EK Spin Bayres which I like ... tube reservoir are better in terms of faster bleeding but the bay reservoirs are more practical imho)

I like compression fittings myself, pretty easy to install safely. As for the fans, Gentle Typhoons seem hard to find at the moment (Thailand?) ... I like Noiseblockers myself but if you're not going for absolute silence you might as well pick up some cheap Yate-Loons for a couple of bucks :)

and yes money-wise watercooling doesn't make sense unless you only go for the cheapest-of-cheapest stuff ... but then you might as well get a CM212+ and save some more imho :p
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll keep the pump/res combo and rasa/raystorm block in mind. Yeah about the FrozenQ thing, I was thinking the Dual Bay Res (sorry not the helix like I previously mentioned). I'll look into what you mentioned as well.

I still use the Noctua D14 :( so I could always sell that to offset some of the WC cost.
 
C

cartoon_soldier

Member
Anybody have a recommended/good post Windows 7 install SSD optimization guide?

I have the following done:
AHCI Mode during Windows 7 install was enabled
Checked that the Drivers I have are Intel TRIM capable drivers and ran the CMD command that came back with DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (which I believe means TRIM is enabled)
Disabled Drive Indexing
Write Caching was already turned on
 
E

EphemeralDream

Member
scogoth said:
Use a different VGA cable. If still a problem either the port on your motor (likely) is flaky or the port on your GPU (unlikely) is flaky. Also try to get the VGA cables as far away from any high voltage sources, like power cables, as possible.

But it is most definitely going to be better if you use a digital connection.
Click to expand...
I'm using a friend's VGA and it seemed to have helped (but we'll see tomorrow). I also learned that the Coarse and Fine settings on monitors actually works the clock speeds but only over Analog I think. Pretty interesting. I also found this pretty comprehensive calibration page:
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

I don't ever want to mess with Powerstrip again, that program can do scary things. I tried using one of the other sets of 1680x1050 LCD resolutions, my monitor freaked out while auto-adjusting and the right side of the image moved left and the left side wrapped to the right side! That was a panicky ten minutes trying to fix that.
 
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