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[mkenyon]

Ok, so I'm finally upgrading my PC. Should I get 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7?

64

 

[TheExodu5]

For the side door panel? Mine didn't.

I'm not sure if it does, but in the case that it doesn't, you'd probably want to make sure that you have positive pressure inside the case, which means having more intakes than exhausts. If you do that, then air will only be going out the filterless hole, which means dust won't be coming in by there.

 

[Wallach]

I'm not sure if it does, but in the case that it doesn't, you'd probably want to make sure that you have positive pressure inside the case, which means having more intakes than exhausts. If you do that, then air will only be going out the filterless hole, which means dust won't be coming in by there.

That's how I set it up, yeah. I didn't care since I wasn't putting an intake there.

 

[Terproerg]

ive got something odd going on with my computer. The ram keeps resetting its self to ddr3 800. They are 1600 sticks. Ive only had them run once at 1600 since i bought them 3 weeks ago. Any ideas as to why this is occuring? The motherboard is Asrock 880GM-LE with a Athlon 2 x3 455 in it. The ram is kingston hyper x.

 

[Darkone]

I want to upgrade my video card for upcoming games, Skyrim, BF3, and more.
Now i have 8800GT, i am thinking of upgrading to GTX560 TI, should there be any new models of video cards that should be releasing soon or i should go for it?

 

[comrade]

ive got something odd going on with my computer. The ram keeps resetting its self to ddr3 800. They are 1600 sticks. Ive only had them run once at 1600 since i bought them 3 weeks ago. Any ideas as to why this is occuring? The motherboard is Asrock 880GM-LE with a Athlon 2 x3 455 in it. The ram is kingston hyper x.

Did you set the ram speed to 1600 in the BIOS?

 

[Ultrabum]

I want to upgrade my video card for upcoming games, Skyrim, BF3, and more.
Now i have 8800GT, i am thinking of upgrading to GTX560 TI, should there be any new models of video cards that should be releasing soon or i should go for it?

If it's only to play future games, wait until the last second, if anything, the current cards will be cheaper.

 

[ithorien]

Two months with basically two of the same computer trying to figure out wtf is causing BSODs and still nothing.

Any of you guys ever have a DVD drive that BSODd? I am about to /wrists thinking about it, and being that it's my wife's PC she's about to beat me to the punch and kill me herself.

As long as we're on the subject, anyone have any issues with the Gigabyte P45 series boards, specifically GA-EP45-UD3P/R?

 

[black_vegeta]

Optical drives SATA cables are plugged into the Intel Sata connectors correct?

Same place where the HDD's are plugged into?

 

[FatBaby]

No, it's only suppose to happen the 1 time to verify the settings. Next time, should boot like normally.

Man. :/

Well, if been looking around Google in terms of updating the BIOS. Is it recommended to clear the CMOS as well?

 

[mkenyon]

ive got something odd going on with my computer. The ram keeps resetting its self to ddr3 800. They are 1600 sticks. Ive only had them run once at 1600 since i bought them 3 weeks ago. Any ideas as to why this is occuring? The motherboard is Asrock 880GM-LE with a Athlon 2 x3 455 in it. The ram is kingston hyper x.

If you are seeing that speed in CPU-Z, it's correct. Their speed is shown as half.

 

[ithorien]

Optical drives SATA cables are plugged into the Intel Sata connectors correct?

Same place where the HDD's are plugged into?

Yea I've tried a multitude of things, the only component aside from the case I haven't really gone around has been the DVD drive, hence me asking if anyone's ever had that happen.

 

[black_vegeta]

Yea I've tried a multitude of things, the only component aside from the case I haven't really gone around has been the DVD drive, hence me asking if anyone's ever had that happen.

I just looked at the TESTED 40 min video and he put them in the SATA connectors.

 

[HooYaH]

Thinking of getting a SSD Drive. So is intel 320 or crucial m4 the way to go for drives? Also is there anything coming out in the near future (fall), if so I can wait?

 

[Hazaro]

No, it's only suppose to happen the 1 time to verify the settings. Next time, should boot like normally.

Happened every boot on my old ASUS. No harm done.

Hmm...

So a GTX460 - recommended in the OP for the cheap rig - consumes 140W idle ? Damn.

So if i'm only reading my e-mail, that graphics card will be slurping up over 140W ?
That's such a waste of electricity.

That an older cpu model. The budget OP build will certainly use less. How much less I can't say for sure.

Anyone have this OP build ?
How "noisy" is it ?

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=23734148

PSU ?
CPU stock fan ?
GPU stock fan ?

I'm looking for something decent, but it should be quiet or even silent during everyday use (internet & office stuff).

Idle should be fine because the motherboard will throttle CPU fan and GPU fan should only be running 20/40% at idle as well.
It shouldn't be a problem.

 

[desh]

Microsoft offers Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for $29.99 for Students as an electronic download. In what form is this download, ie, is it an iso that I can burn to a DVD or is it something else?

I don't want to have to install windows XP on my new computer, just to turn around and "upgrade" to Windows 7 with this deal. So, I'm hoping, I can download this Win 7, and then burn it to a bootable DVD.

 

[FatBaby]

Happened every boot on my old ASUS. No harm done.

Well, perhaps I will just leave it alone for now. Like I said other than it turning on, off and back on again, everything seems to be in tip-top shape.

I'd rather avoid updating something that I am not all too familiar with. Still, I'll ask my friend about it and see what he thinks. Seems to be a common problem none the less.

Edit: Or maybe I could just leave it on all the time....

 

[bill0527]

Anyone running a gtx 560ti on a 500w power supply?

I'm not doing sli right now just single card and I ordered it today.

Ive tried 4 different power supply calculators and ended up with numbers between 383w - 600w.

I'm not running a lot on my pc.

Gigabyte z68 board, i5 2500k, 1 USB keyboad, 1 USB mouse, 2 sticks of 2gb DDR 3, currently a radeon 4850 HD which is getting replaced with the 560 ti, and a DVD rewritable drive. I have 1 external USB hdd, and charge my iPhone and zune from my pc occasionally but only as needed.

I've been using an xclio good power 500w for 4 years and it's been rock solid.

 

[Horsemama1956]

As long as it's a decent unit, 500w is enough for almost any single GPU system.

 

[ithorien]

Microsoft offers Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for $29.99 for Students as an electronic download. In what form is this download, ie, is it an iso that I can burn to a DVD or is it something else?

I don't want to have to install windows XP on my new computer, just to turn around and "upgrade" to Windows 7 with this deal. So, I'm hoping, I can download this Win 7, and then burn it to a bootable DVD.

It's an exe that expands into a folder. There are tools you can google for that will convert that folder into a bootable DVD/USB.

 

[Lkr]

so I have a bookmark of an image on my desktop that refreshes every month or so with new parts at different price levels. its a really handy guide. I don't have access to my desktop and don't have the link. does anyone know what I am talking about and can post it for me?

 

[FatBaby]

so I have a bookmark of an image on my desktop that refreshes every month or so with new parts at different price levels. its a really handy guide. I don't have access to my desktop and don't have the link. does anyone know what I am talking about and can post it for me?

This?

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png

 

[Dennis]

Ok, so I'm finally upgrading my PC. Should I get 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7?

64bit

The sooner we put 32bit in the grave the better. Should have died years ago.

 

[bill0527]

As long as it's a decent unit, 500w is enough for almost any single GPU system.

I was pretty sure that was the case, but I'm moving from a much lower power hungry Radeon 4850 HD to a 560ti, and from what I've read, nVidia cards like a big power supply.

 

[Rattles]

Got a question gaf. We built our pc awhile ago but every time on start up it's so noisey and rattly and will eventually blue sceen an keep resetting itself. It will carry on in this cycle untill we shut it down and restart it that way and then everythings fine.

Any help will be great thanks.

 

[Spookie]

nVidia cards like a big power supply.

That's certainly the case for the 400's but I though the 500's weren't as bad. At least the jump between the top models of AMD cards isn't so significant.

 

[black_vegeta]

SHE'S LOADING MOTHERFUCKING WINDOWS!!!!!!!

DDDDDDDDDDD

 

[Corky]

SHE'S LOADING MOTHERFUCKING WINDOWS!!!!!!!

DDDDDDDDDDD

omg finally... now get your ass AE son! :3

 

[black_vegeta]

omg finally... now get your ass AE son! :3

Can't do that just yet. I still haven't got the GPU I want , I'm using an old ass GPU. (

 

[Tashi]

Got 2 shipments in the past week. Here's what I have so far.

Going to order more parts this saturday! Yessssssssss!

Logitech M500 Mouse
Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM HDD
MS Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
ASRock P67 Extreme 4 Motherboard
G Skill 4GB Ram DDR3
ASUS 24x CD/DVD Burner
and that toolkit.

 

[knitoe]

Man. :/

Well, if been looking around Google in terms of updating the BIOS. Is it recommended to clear the CMOS as well?

It's recommended to load default optimize settings before updating the bios. Then, load them again after flashing. You shouldn't need to clear the CMOS unless the problem persist or comes back.

 

[black_vegeta]

SSD, so faasssttt!!

 

[Bucket-o-roadkill]

Hey, I've just put together a pc build for my sister, do you think these readings are decent after putting on an Artic Cooling Freezer 7 pro v.2?

Could anyone give me some insight as to what these readings are and what limits I should be looking out for? Thanks!

 

[nib95]

Got 2 shipments in the past week. Here's what I have so far.

Going to order more parts this saturday! Yessssssssss!

Logitech M500 Mouse
Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM HDD
MS Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
ASRock P67 Extreme 4 Motherboard
G Skill 4GB Ram DDR3
ASUS 24x CD/DVD Burner
and that toolkit.

What an awesome box (the Newegg one) lol.

 

[DigiMish]

I really wanted to pick up a GIGABYTE overclocked GTX 560 ti:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125363&cm_re=nvidia_560_ti-_-14-125-363-_-Product

but too many reviews say that it goes bad really quickly.

I think I'm just going to go with the MSI one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565&cm_re=msi_geforce_GTX_560_ti-_-14-127-565-_-Product

Also, stuck between these 2 mobos as per Hazaro's recommendation:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157229
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130573

 

[black_vegeta]

Is there any particular order that I have to install this drivers in?

Ex. BIOS, Chipset, SATA?

Edit: nvm, got them all downloaded.

 

[Smokey]

Lately games have been freezing on me. Happened in Crysis 2 after the new update and hi res pack, but I chalked that up to the 1.5GB of my card being the culprit. Just played Bad Company 2 and after dying it locked up on me. Played some more, died another time and it locked again?

 

[knitoe]

Is there any particular order that I have to install this drivers in?

Ex. BIOS, Chipset, SATA?

MB drivers then others, sound, USB, 3rd party controllers and etc.

Lately games have been freezing on me. Happened in Crysis 2 after the new update and hi res pack, but I chalked that up to the 1.5GB of my card being the culprit. Just played Bad Company 2 and after dying it locked up on me. Played some more, died another time and it locked again?

If you are overclocking (CPU, GPU, ram or etc.), run at default and test. If the problem persist, try reinstalling drivers.

 

[Terproerg]

If you are seeing that speed in CPU-Z, it's correct. Their speed is shown as half.

no its showing it as 400mhz aka 800. its weird. My bios allways resets to defaults and is getting annoying now. its set to 1433 in bios and the cpu is set to 3600mhz with the fsb oc.

 

[flashbandit16]

I bought my first gaming PC recently but I didn't think to buy any case fans for cooling. I have tried playing Crysis and Hydrophobia at 1080p but the fan on the GPU(I think) goes immediately to it's highest speed; I don't know if that is suppose to happen. The case I have now has only one fan my specs are:

ASUS P8P67 Pro motherboard
Intel Core i5 2500K
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950
G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1600
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus
Corsair TX750 V2 750W
NZXT Gamma Case

Is the GPU fan suppose to go to its highest speed? If not will installing case fans stop this from happening?

 

[knitoe]

I bought my first gaming PC recently but I didn't think to buy any case fans for cooling. I have tried playing Crysis and Hydrophobia at 1080p but the fan on the GPU(I think) goes immediately to it's highest speed; I don't know if that is suppose to happen. The case I have now has only one fan my specs are:

ASUS P8P67 Pro motherboard
Intel Core i5 2500K
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950
G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1600
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus
Corsair TX750 V2 750W
NZXT Gamma Case

Is the GPU fan suppose to go to its highest speed? If not will installing case fans stop this from happening?

What is the video temp? The fan is suppose to slowing increase. If it's around ~90C, the fan gets insanely loud.

 

[ShyGuy0504]

I hope this is the right thread for this. I'm having a weird issue with my cpu. I generally check my temps a few times each day and they are usually fine but every once in a while they will be higher than normal. My idle temps are usually between 21-28 degrees celsius depending on how cold it is in my room. But every once in a while(like maybe twice a month) my temps will be higher with one of the cores sitting at 37-39. It will stay at those temps until I restart my computer. I've checked the task manager and nothing is using the cpu enough for it to get that hot. I also use an antivirus and am very cautious about what I do on the internet so it's very unlikely that a virus is doing it. I see no drop in performance when it happens. It just seems random. I built my computer about a year ago and the cpu is an i5 750. I'm using the stock cooler and have not overclocked it. Any ideas on what could be happening?

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Been gone all day, so I'm just now catching up on the thread.

It's not necessary. You're only looking at a 2-3 degree drop in temps, so it's good for really high overclocks where you need to shave off a few degrees. You also need to use the same fan that ships with it, a Cooler Master Blademaster, or 2 other identical fans for it to function optimally.

It won't hurt if you do though, just don't invest too much on the fans as the main reason you buy a 212+ is for the cost to performance ratio. Increase the cost too much and you could have bought a better cooler.

That's what I was hoping to hear. Thanks.

You might want to consider the CM 690 II Advanced.

I like the CM 690 II Advanced. I've also been looking at the LIAN LI Lancool PC-K62. Either case would probably be fine. I just want to make sure I have a good case for keeping everything cool with as minimal dust build up as possible. The Haff 922 has a lot of open ventilation, which worried me as far as dust is concerned. Maybe dust is not as big of a problem as I'm making it out to be.

Also, reading about adding multiple fans, and flipping fans inside-out, is really confusing. How many fans are necessary? I imagine 3 fans included plus maybe an additional fan for the side of the case would be enough for my needs. Have the front and side fans intake air and the top and rear fans as exhaust fans? And then there is the PSU. Do most people use it as an intake or an exhaust?

 

[Madrical]

there's only one solution, read lots of forums

xtremesystems.org , bit-tech.net , overclock.net , hardwareluxx.de , and many more

I must have spent 4 months reading before starting this (and another 4 modding lol)

edit: this digital magazine here http://www.computerpoweruser.com/DigitalEditions/Default.aspx starting page 58 has a pretty nice n00b guide by the way

Thanks for the heads up, that article in the magazine seems great, definitely going to keep that for reference.

 

[flashbandit16]

What is the video temp? The fan is suppose to slowing increase. If it's around ~90C, the fan gets insanely loud.

Hmm it seems to be staying around 80C with the fan speed going to 75% to 85%; I might be worrying to much about the noise because I am not use to the noise. I am using the Catalyst Control Center to get the stats is there another program I could use to see the temps; I have speedfan but I think it only shows the CPU temps.

Another question, not related to the temp, is there any setting in the Catalyst Control Center that I should change?

 

[knitoe]

Hmm it seems to be staying around 80C with the fan speed going to 75% to 85%; I might be worrying to much about the noise because I am not use to it. I am using the Catalyst Control Center to get the stats is there another program I could use to see the temps; I have speedfan but I think it only shows the CPU temps.

Another question, not related to the temp, is there any setting in the Catalyst Control Center that is should change?

Use MSI Afterburner. You can set it, Settings>Monitoring, so you can see fps, GPU load, temp, fan speed or etc. within the game.

In CCC Performance, you can overclock GPU and memory. Also, upi can reduce Power Control settings to lower allow GPU load => lower temps => lower fan speed => lower noise.

 

[flashbandit16]

Use MSI Afterburner. You can set it, Settings>Monitoring, so you can see fps, GPU load, temp, fan speed or etc. within the game.

In CCC Performance, you can overclock GPU and memory. Also, upi can reduce Power Control settings to lower allow GPU load => lower temps => lower fan speed => lower noise.

Thank you for the help. The Afterburner program is very useful. For the Power Control setting what setting do you recommend, the setting can go from -20 to 20%? The GPU clock speed is at 800MHz which goes from 500 to 840MHz and the Memory clock setting is at 1250 which goes from 1250 to 1325MHz.

 

[Hazaro]

I really wanted to pick up a GIGABYTE overclocked GTX 560 ti:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125363&cm_re=nvidia_560_ti-_-14-125-363-_-Product

but too many reviews say that it goes bad really quickly.

I think I'm just going to go with the MSI one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565&cm_re=msi_geforce_GTX_560_ti-_-14-127-565-_-Product

Also, stuck between these 2 mobos as per Hazaro's recommendation:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157229
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130573

msi gpu + asrock mobo imo

I hope this is the right thread for this. I'm having a weird issue with my cpu. I generally check my temps a few times each day and they are usually fine but every once in a while they will be higher than normal. My idle temps are usually between 21-28 degrees celsius depending on how cold it is in my room. But every once in a while(like maybe twice a month) my temps will be higher with one of the cores sitting at 37-39. It will stay at those temps until I restart my computer. I've checked the task manager and nothing is using the cpu enough for it to get that hot. I also use an antivirus and am very cautious about what I do on the internet so it's very unlikely that a virus is doing it. I see no drop in performance when it happens. It just seems random. I built my computer about a year ago and the cpu is an i5 750. I'm using the stock cooler and have not overclocked it. Any ideas on what could be happening?

Could just be the sensors bugging out at those temps. Those idle temps are really low.

Lately games have been freezing on me. Happened in Crysis 2 after the new update and hi res pack, but I chalked that up to the 1.5GB of my card being the culprit. Just played Bad Company 2 and after dying it locked up on me. Played some more, died another time and it locked again?

Try backing down the clocks and see if it happens

Thank you for the help. The Afterburner program is very useful. For the Power Control setting what setting do you recommend, the setting can go from -20 to 20%? The GPU clock speed is at 800MHz which goes from 500 to 840MHz and the Memory clock setting is at 1250 which goes from 1250 to 1325MHz.

Power Control will actually allow the card to use more power and is different from the overclock.
A 850/875 is a decent bump for a 6950 on stock volts.
Try locking the fan at 64% fan speed or so and see if that is ok with you.

 

[black_vegeta]

Been running Prime95 @4.4Ghz under full load for about 50 minutes. The higgest temp it went was 73c, that's 2 of the 4 cores. They seem to be averaging around 67c or 68c. How's that looking?

Both RealTemp and CoreTemp are giving me about the same readings.

 

[knitoe]

Thank you for the help. The Afterburner program is very useful. For the Power Control setting what setting do you recommend, the setting can go from -20 to 20%? The GPU clock speed is at 800MHz which goes from 500 to 840MHz and the Memory clock setting is at 1250 which goes from 1250 to 1325MHz.

With Power Control, higher the number => better performance => higher temp => more noise. Generally, I like to keep it from going loud, ~90C and auto fan kicking in >40% speed on reference cards, so I keep it at -15%. Play with it and see what performance / noise ratio you prefer.

As for overclocking, I just set it at max 840 / 1325. If you start seeing artifacts / lockups, decrease them.