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[Dennis]

10-cores from AMD in 2012 says the rumors

 

[haberman13]

Just went Z68 with SSD Cache (amazing!)

i7 2600k
8GB Gskill X Ripjaw
6970 2GB
2 X 1.5 Hitachi 7300k
Gigabyte UD3
Crucial M4 64GB (cache)
Lian Li Aluminum

Total Cost: ~$900

 

[Van Owen]

be quiet Dark Rock Advanced. Why, too high?

lol no just wondering. Hit the exlamation point on my iPhone on accident.

 

[Tonner Cyn]

I'm looking pretty good to pick up a new computer in about 3 months. It will in all likelihood be one of the A8 LLano rigs. I have never built one myself and don't really have the time to mess with it, so I will be going pre-built. Currently, the default configuration I have comes with a Radeon 6570. Here are some upgrade options:
6670 +24
6750 +31
6770 +43
6790 +74
6850 +92

Would it be worth it to change the video card to any of those? The main thing I would be playing right away would be Civ V, though Diablo III is a definite whenever it comes out. I might try some of the MMOs that have gone free to play (Champions, COH soon). Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[TheExodu5]

You might be unaware as to how the architecture on these bad boys works, but it's almost the opposite of Hyperthreading. Each two cores share 2MB of L2 Cache, and they convince the OS they are more or less a single core. The chip handles where the work goes from there. So its almost more like a a really beefy quad than it is an octo.

I had no idea.

I'm very interested to see the results, in that case!

After Effects

Premiere Pro

Maya

3ds MAX

Cinema 4d

RealFlow

and they list continues

I meant gaming specific, mostly. I don't doubt that Bulldozer will be the CPU to beat for productivity applications.

 

[Tallshortman]

I'm looking pretty good to pick up a new computer in about 3 months. It will in all likelihood be one of the A8 LLano rigs. I have never built one myself and don't really have the time to mess with it, so I will be going pre-built. Currently, the default configuration I have comes with a Radeon 6570. Here are some upgrade options:
6670 +24
6750 +31
6770 +43
6790 +74
6850 +92

Would it be worth it to change the video card to any of those? The main thing I would be playing right away would be Civ V, though Diablo III is a definite whenever it comes out. I might try some of the MMOs that have gone free to play (Champions, COH soon). Thanks in advance for the advice!

Upgrade to the 6770, breezes through Civ V and will breeze through Diablo III unless Blizzard makes some sort of terrible engine.

 

[Macattk15]

So what is the consensus best Mobo for a i5-2500k now? Should I be aiming for the Z68 chipset instead of the P67?

I really only need to buy the CPU, RAM and Mobo as I have a 700W Corsair PSU and an HD 5870 still going strong.

I'd rather trust you guys in this here thread than the randoms on Newegg giving reviews ... so what Mobo shall I get (~$200).

Time to bury the Q6600 We had some good times my friend. It is more my nForce 680i SLI board that I want to snap in half more than anything.

This is purely a gaming PC.

 

[TheExodu5]

Diablo 3 is probably using the same engine as WoW/SC2...so expect a 6770 to be fine for 60fps without AA. Also, expect to needing a fast dual-core CPU like the 2100 to get the most out of it (while slower quad-cores fall behind).

If I were upgrading from a 6570, I'd go 6850, though. Much bigger performance gain (triple the speed, rather than double).

So what is the consensus best Mobo for a i5-2500k now? Should I be aiming for the Z68 chipset instead of the P67?

I really only need to buy the CPU, RAM and Mobo as I have a 700W Corsair PSU and an HD 5870 still going strong.

I'd rather trust you guys in this here thread than the randoms on Newegg giving reviews ... so what Mobo shall I get (~$200).

Time to bury the Q6600 We had some good times my friend. It is more my nForce 680i SLI board that I want to snap in half more than anything.

This is purely a gaming PC.

There is no best, really. The AsRocks seem hard to beat in terms of price. The Asus are well reputed (though the dual-reboot on overclocking is a deal breaker for me). The Gigabytes look awesome (especially the Z68), but their BIOS is antiquated.

 

[Horsemama1956]

Little point in getting a dual core for gaming at this point imo when devs are promising better quad core optimization and with some major games already proven to run much better on quads. No absolutely proven benchmarks have been released on the BD CPUs though so there's really no telling until we get info on pricing and performance.

I'm sticking it out with my little overclocked i3 540 for a while yet most likely. They can promise better multithreaded CPU support all they want, but the fact is unless you have a decently high-end GPU setup, you will have other limitations before the CPU comes in to play.

If you want to get 100+ fps then by all means go for it, but if you are someone that buys $200-300 GPUs, you will not benefit much with a higher end CPU for gaming. That is most likely the reason Intel didn't hype the i3 like AMD did the Athlon II(the i3 is better in games then a Phenom II X4 for the most part and cheaper). They didn't want to cannibalize sales to their cheapest parts. Also why they haven't release a k series SB i3 yet.

 

[Tonner Cyn]

@Tallshortman - That is good to hear. The 6770 is something I can easily add to the cost. Anything higher, while doable, would be pushing it.

@TheExodu5 - The Llano rigs won't bottleneck or anything with a 6850? I guess I just want to make sure I'm not putting too much video card power into this set up. And while there are better cpu's, the Llano shouldn't be stuttering, right?

 

[Macattk15]

There is no best, really. The AsRocks seem hard to beat in terms of price. The Asus are well reputed (though the dual-reboot on overclocking is a deal breaker for me). The Gigabytes look awesome (especially the Z68), but their BIOS is antiquated.

Yeah I read about that dual-reboot thing ... I wasn't really a fan of that when I glanced over it. Should I definitely be looking at the Z68s and writing off the others?

I'm looking at this one right now though ...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131729

 

[Hazaro]

I'm not budging from the 2100 until Hazaro says there's a better CPU/Mobo combo for $200.

You can listen to other people as long as they support their reasons

Yeah I read about that dual-reboot thing ... I wasn't really a fan of that when I glanced over it. Should I definitely be looking at the Z68s and writing off the others?

Only if you want SSD caching and the other benefits.

 

[Tallshortman]

Diablo 3 is probably using the same engine as WoW/SC2...so expect a 6770 to be fine for 60fps without AA. Also, expect to needing a fast dual-core CPU like the 2100 to get the most out of it (while slower quad-cores fall behind).

If I were upgrading from a 6570, I'd go 6850, though. Much bigger performance gain (triple the speed, rather than double).

He already has the 6570 in the pre-built so he's not replacing a card he's already paid for. But yeah, the 6770 and 6850 are the best mid range cards in the AMD lineup, at least in my opinion. 6770 is obviously cheaper and 6850 more powerful so you're paying for the performance you want.

 

[Horsemama1956]

@Tallshortman - That is good to hear. The 6770 is something I can easily add to the cost. Anything higher, while doable, would be pushing it.

@TheExodu5 - The Llano rigs won't bottleneck or anything with a 6850? I guess I just want to make sure I'm not putting too much video card power into this set up. And while there are better cpu's, the Llano shouldn't be stuttering, right?

Llano is an Athlon II with more l2 cache(1MB per core as opposed to the more common 512k) and a decent integrated GPU. Anything the Athlon II struggles with, so will Llano. Though it consumes less power and runs a bit cooler. They could overclock a bit more.

 

[TheExodu5]

@Tallshortman - That is good to hear. The 6770 is something I can easily add to the cost. Anything higher, while doable, would be pushing it.

@TheExodu5 - The Llano rigs won't bottleneck or anything with a 6850? I guess I just want to make sure I'm not putting too much video card power into this set up. And while there are better cpu's, the Llano shouldn't be stuttering, right?

I didn't notice you were going with an A8. It's going to highly depend on the game, and which particular A8 you have (since they seem to vary from 2.1GHz-2.9GHz...quite a difference). In Blizzard games, I'd expect your CPU to be the bottleneck. In some games, the GPU will be the bottleneck (Crysis, Metro 2033). In others, the CPU will be the bottleneck, but the better GPU will allow for higher overall settings (Battlefield 3).

I'd be concerned about the PSU that will be included in one of those machines, though. You want to make sure it can run a 6770 or 6850.

I question the decision of going with an A8 though...seems like a waste of money, considering you won't be using the onboard GPU. I'd be more interested in seeing a similarly priced i3 2100 solution. Look around and see if you can find a comparably priced Intel 2100 solution, or a cheaper Athlon X4 solution.

edit: it might be fine though...they are really cheap, after all. Just make sure the price is in line with what you're getting.

 

[Hazaro]

He already has the 6570 in the pre-built so he's not replacing a card he's already paid for. But yeah, the 6770 and 6850 are the best mid range cards in the AMD lineup, at least in my opinion. 6770 is obviously cheaper and 6850 more powerful so you're paying for the performance you want.

imo you get a GTX 460 or a 6870. The 6770 just doesn't offer enough performance and the price has never dropped to what it needed to be (lower than 5770).

 

[TommyT]

Still trying to track down/solve the issue with the GeForce 560 Ti freezing/stuttering/crashing in Bad Company 2. I turned it down to lower setting and it seemed to last longer, but still crashed. The temps weren't anywhere near what they were before (max of 71 opposed to 81) with an external fan. All this was on the 270.61 firmware.

I tried reseating, reconnecting the power and no luck. This wasn't an issue in the first 2 hours of playing BC2 for the first time, then it just happened once and now it always happens in the game.

Any thoughts/ideas?

 

[Tallshortman]

I'm sticking it out with my little overclocked i3 540 for a while yet most likely. They can promise better multithreaded CPU support all they want, but the fact is unless you have a decently high-end GPU setup, you will have other limitations before the CPU comes in to play.

If you want to get 100+ fps then by all means go for it, but if you are someone that buys $200-300 GPUs, you will not benefit much with a higher end CPU for gaming. That is most likely the reason Intel didn't hype the i3 like AMD did the Athlon II(the i3 is better in games then a Phenom II X4 for the most part and cheaper). They didn't want to cannibalize sales to their cheapest parts. Also why they haven't release a k series SB i3 yet.

I was speaking in terms of purchasing a CPU now and/or in the near future for future proofing purposes. Obviously if you already have an i3 there's no point in upgrading until you start seeing it getting seriously hampered by games you want to play. Some games are like Witcher 2, Civ5, Dungeon Siege (and BF3 from some alpha rumors), can already bottleneck your GPU from attaining 60 fps because they're so CPU intensive compared to what we've had in the past.

 

[Tallshortman]

imo you get a GTX 460 or a 6870. The 6770 just doesn't offer enough performance and the price has never dropped to what it needed to be (lower than 5770).

Well he's got the prebuilt and listed all his options as AMD cards so I was assuming wherever he was ordering from didn't list nvidia cards as upgrade options, otherwise a 460 would probably be a better choice.

 

[Horsemama1956]

Still trying to track down/solve the issue with the GeForce 560 Ti freezing/stuttering/crashing in Bad Company 2. I turned it down to lower setting and it seemed to last longer, but still crashed. The temps weren't anywhere near what they were before (max of 71 opposed to 81) with an external fan. All this was on the 270.61 firmware.

I tried reseating, reconnecting the power and no luck. This wasn't an issue in the first 2 hours of playing BC2 for the first time, then it just happened once and now it always happens in the game.

Any thoughts/ideas?

Have you reinstalling the game? Do you play anything else that can really stress the GPU to see if that might crash as well? What happens exactly when it crashes? Does it lock up with a black screen then a notification about driver failure appears or anything to suggest it's the drivers or GPU?

BC2 is a finicky game and can crash on things other games might ignore as they don't stress the system as much. Have you run anything like Prime95 to see if it could be something else?

 

[TheExodu5]

I was speaking in terms of purchasing a CPU now and/or in the near future for future proofing purposes. Obviously if you already have an i3 there's no point in upgrading until you start seeing it getting seriously hampered by games you want to play. Some games are like Witcher 2, Civ5, Dungeon Siege (and BF3 from some alpha rumors), can already bottleneck your GPU from attaining 60 fps because they're so CPU intensive compared to what we've had in the past.

It's going to highly depend on what you want to play, and what video hardware you're matching it to.

The Intel 2100 are such fast dual-cores, that I have trouble recommending any AMD quad-cores at the moment. In the worst case scenario, in a game that uses all 4 cores, the AMD CPUs edge out the 2100 by a bit. But other games that only use 2 cores (like SC2, and emulators) run significantly faster on the 2100.

Quad-core is great and all, but not when it accompanies such a huge loss in terms of performance/core.

The 2100 also leaves open a very nice upgrade path to the current 2500/2600 CPUs, and possibly Ivy Bridge. AMD quad-cores may leave open a nice upgrade path to Bulldozer...but we need to see proper benchmarks and lower priced AM3+ CPUs to ensure it's worth it.

 

[Tallshortman]

The 2100 also leaves open a very nice upgrade path to the current 2500/2600 CPUs, and possibly Ivy Bridge. AMD quad-cores may leave open a nice upgrade path to Bulldozer...but we need to see proper benchmarks and lower priced AM3+ CPUs to ensure it's worth it.

This is why I said there's no point in buying one now if you can wait for benchmarks from when BD comes out. Anyways, I'd still argue if you're going to buy a gaming CPU in the near future (and assuming it's not BD) just get the i5 2500k since buying an i3 2100 then upgrading to ivy bridge will more expensive and give less performance gain than the money justifies (assuming intel doesn't pull some glorious magic out of their asses for ivy bridge).

I see your point given that a powerful dual core has proven in the past to be largely equal to quads in gaming but I'm a little more confident in quad optimization in the future.

 

[Tonner Cyn]

Here's a couple of options. Hopefully prices will drop a little in the next couple of months but this is basically the range I am looking at:

AMD
A8-3850 2.90 GHz Llano
8 GB 1600MHz RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5
600 watt power supply
30 GB SSD boot drive
1 TB HDD
Cost: $815

Intel
i3-2100
8 GB 1600 MHz RAM
GTX560 1 GB
700 watt power supply
30 GB SSD
1 TB HDD
Cost: $911

Which would be the better set up? The i3 pushes me back another month probably but that isn't too bad. Going up to an i7 would make that more like 3 months more I'd have to save and I'm not sure I am that patient .

 

[Spectacular Dr Dawg]

Sucks that there won't be any new graphics cards this year.
I was looking forward to getting a pc this year

 

[Tonner Cyn]

delete

 

[Horsemama1956]

This is why I said there's no point in buying one now if you can wait for benchmarks from when BD comes out. Anyways, I'd still argue if you're going to buy a gaming CPU in the near future (and assuming it's not BD) just get the i5 2500k since buying an i3 2100 then upgrading to ivy bridge will more expensive and give less performance gain than the money justifies (assuming intel doesn't pull some glorious magic out of their asses for ivy bridge).

I see your point given that a powerful dual core has proven in the past to be largely equal to quads in gaming but I'm a little more confident in quad optimization in the future.

Of course if someone wants to spend the money(and has it), they should get a 2500k. I wouldn't buy one now because more games in the future will utilize more threads, though.

There really is no future proofing in PC gaming.

Here's a couple of options. Hopefully prices will drop a little in the next couple of months but this is basically the range I am looking at:

AMD
A8-3850 2.90 GHz Llano
8 GB 1600MHz RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5
600 watt power supply
30 GB SSD boot drive
1 TB HDD
Cost: $815

Intel
i3-2100
8 GB 1600 MHz RAM
GTX560 1 GB
700 watt power supply
30 GB SSD
1 TB HDD
Cost: $911

Which would be the better set up? The i3 pushes me back another month probably but that isn't too bad. Going up to an i7 would make that more like 3 months more I'd have to save and I'm not sure I am that patient .

The i3 system is better. You don't need anything more then a quality 500w PSU though if you don't intend on going multi-gpu.. You also don't need 8GB of ram right now. When you do you can just buy another 4 GB set, or sell the old stuff and replace it if you only have 2 ram slots.

If you're on a strict budget, you could also ditch the SSD for now. They are stupid fast, but personally I don't care if my OS bots quickly, or Firefox opens in a split second. It's another thing that could be added in later on.

Get a 6850 or a 460 instead of the 560, or spend the extra 30 or so and get a 560ti.

 

[Tonner Cyn]

Well he's got the prebuilt and listed all his options as AMD cards so I was assuming wherever he was ordering from didn't list nvidia cards as upgrade options, otherwise a 460 would probably be a better choice.

I actually prefer Nvidia but for some reason thought the AMD cards were my only option. A 1 GB 460 is an extra $97 so it is a little more than going with a 6850, but doable.

 

[Tallshortman]

Here's a couple of options. Hopefully prices will drop a little in the next couple of months but this is basically the range I am looking at:

AMD
A8-3850 2.90 GHz Llano
8 GB 1600MHz RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5
600 watt power supply
30 GB SSD boot drive
1 TB HDD
Cost: $815

Intel
i3-2100
8 GB 1600 MHz RAM
GTX560 1 GB
700 watt power supply
30 GB SSD
1 TB HDD
Cost: $911

Which would be the better set up? The i3 pushes me back another month probably but that isn't too bad. Going up to an i7 would make that more like 3 months more I'd have to save and I'm not sure I am that patient .

Get the intel set up with a 460 fermi instead of the 560. Honestly, for $900 you can get a better set up if you're willing to build it yourself.

 

[TommyT]

Have you reinstalling the game? Do you play anything else that can really stress the GPU to see if that might crash as well? What happens exactly when it crashes? Does it lock up with a black screen then a notification about driver failure appears or anything to suggest it's the drivers or GPU?

BC2 is a finicky game and can crash on things other games might ignore as they don't stress the system as much. Have you run anything like Prime95 to see if it could be something else?

I have yet to try reinstalling the game. I play League of Legends, however on max settings that doesn't really 'stress' the card that much. It does push the temps up, but not as high as BC2. I don't have any other game really, maybe the 3D test would push it as well? I haven't used that before but am open to try.

As far as what happens:
- Playing game just fine
- Little stutter in video then sound
- Major stutter leading to black screen
- "No DVI connection" coming from monitor
- Windows bubble saying that the driver has stopped responding but has recovered
- BC2 has a completely white screen, if I tab back in, it will just flicker black and white nonstop.
- Check GPU-Z logs to see there is an instance where my GPU has output 0's across the board

I ran Prime95 after I got the computer put together. It ran for ~30min without issue.

I have been doing some more research. Will try to uninstall the driver, go into safe mood, and use Driver Sweeper ( a tool I've never heard of/used), then install the drivers with a clean install and see how that goes.

 

[Tallshortman]

Of course if someone wants to spend the money(and has it), they should get a 2500k. I wouldn't buy one now because more games in the future will utilize more threads, though.

There really is no future proofing in PC gaming.

Yes there is, it's just on a smaller time scale. For example, getting a slightly larger PSU so you can keep it for future upgrades. It depends on personal upgrade schedules.

 

[jlai]

Thinking about upgrading my RAM from 4GB->12GB since I came across a deal for 37 shipped after rebate.

Is an upgrade of that type overkill? Keep in mind I really only play SSF4:AE PC and plan on playing BF3. I know my vid card is the big bottleneck here, and plan on upgrading right before BF3 hits. I guess my question is would increasing RAM help with streaming while playing AE PC at this point or am I still ultimately limited by the 8800gt?

This is my current setup

AMD Phenom II x4 955
8800GT 512 mb
C300 128GB SSD
4 GB (2x2gb) RAM

Thanks!

 

[Horsemama1956]

Yes there is, it's just on a smaller time scale. For example, getting a slightly larger PSU so you can keep it for future upgrades. It depends on personal upgrade schedules.

The PSU could just as easily die though. Future proofing for games that use 4 threads on a consistent basis is atleast a year or 2 off.

I have yet to try reinstalling the game. I play League of Legends, however on max settings that doesn't really 'stress' the card that much. It does push the temps up, but not as high as BC2. I don't have any other game really, maybe the 3D test would push it as well? I haven't used that before but am open to try.

As far as what happens:
- Playing game just fine
- Little stutter in video then sound
- Major stutter leading to black screen
- "No DVI connection" coming from monitor
- Windows bubble saying that the driver has stopped responding but has recovered
- BC2 has a completely white screen, if I tab back in, it will just flicker black and white nonstop.
- Check GPU-Z logs to see there is an instance where my GPU has output 0's across the board

I ran Prime95 after I got the computer put together. It ran for ~30min without issue.

I have been doing some more research. Will try to uninstall the driver, go into safe mood, and use Driver Sweeper ( a tool I've never heard of/used), then install the drivers with a clean install and see how that goes.

nVidia has a driver sweeper like action now when you uninstall the drivers from the control panel, but doesn't hurt to try driver sweeper. It even comes into play if you install the drivers over top. It should ask for a reboot before the new drivers install.

I would try 3dmark 11 and see what happens. Also you can try the Heaven benchmark and set it to 8xAA, Extreme tessellation and your native resolution.

http://unigine.com/products/heaven/

This should crash if it is a problem not limited to BC2. Run those and see what happens.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

Stupid question...if I replace my motherboard and CPU, and reinstall Windows on a new main drive, will I still be able to access everything on my secondary HDD or will I need to reformat it or something?

 

[Tallshortman]

The PSU could just as easily die though. Future proofing for games that use 4 threads on a consistent basis is atleast a year or 2 off.

I don't know why you'd assume a PSU would die since it's been repeated a hundred times on here to purchase a solid PSU so I doubt people on here are out buying $30 PSUs.

Anyways, there's no point in assuming that when quality PSUs last quite a long time and come with 5ish year warranties.

Games that use 4 threads are already here and becoming more common.

 

[garath]

Stupid question...if I replace my motherboard and CPU, and reinstall Windows on a new main drive, will I still be able to access everything on my secondary HDD or will I need to reformat it or something?

Yes you will still be able to access everything. Just be sure you are booting to the correct drive (set the boot order in the BIOS).

 

[Horsemama1956]

I don't know why you'd assume a PSU would die since it's been repeated a hundred times on here to purchase a solid PSU so I doubt people on here are out buying $30 PSUs.

Anyways, there's no point in assuming that when quality PSUs last quite a long time and come with 5ish year warranties.

Games that use 4 threads are already here and becoming more common.

Not common enough. Any port will most likely not use 4 threads all that well until the next consoles come out. Plenty of games just don't need that kind of power. That's the way it's always been. Only a few games a year really push hardware the way people wish they would.

Quality PSUs die all the time. The point of buying a quality PSU isn't so it doesn't die out of the blue(not preventable) but from stress and being too underpowered since cheap PSUs use shitty components and make false claims on what the unit can handle.

 

[garath]

The PSU could just as easily die though. Future proofing for games that use 4 threads on a consistent basis is atleast a year or 2 off.

Can't use hardware death as an example of being unable to future proof.

Either way, it's more than reasonable to expect to keep a piece of hardware for 4-5 years when you buy right. I'd full expect more games to support 4 cores in the next 5 years.

Quality PSUs die all the time. The point of buying a quality PSU isn't so it doesn't die out of the blue(not preventable) but from stress and being too underpowered since cheap PSUs use shitty components and make false claims on what the unit can handle.

Seriously, what kind of PSUs are you buying that die all the time? I haven't had one die on me yet. My current one is 3 years old, my last one was almost 5. And I replaced to upgrade, not because of death.

 

[number47]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this,advanced begging of forgiveness.
bought a xfx 5770 , after installing,then updating drivers.my computer would either
a)restart on its on
b)video card failure beeps
,so i go out and buy a new cpu fan.and take out the video card to see if its my motherboard.lord and behold,i still get the same problems. why does my computer hate me?

 

[Horsemama1956]

Can't use hardware death as an example of being unable to future proof.

Either way, it's more than reasonable to expect to keep a piece of hardware for 4-5 years when you buy right. I'd full expect more games to support 4 cores in the next 5 years.




Seriously, what kind of PSUs are you buying that die all the time? I haven't had one die on me yet. My current one is 3 years old, my last one was almost 5. And I replaced to upgrade, not because of death.

I didn't say mine die all the time. I'm saying in general. Any grade of electronics can die, that's just the way it is. The best reviewed PSUs have warranties for a reason. They have just as much a chance of dieing as a cheap one. Even still, if someone is going to "future proof" it's not with mid range stuff like a 2500k. Someone with a 990x would have a much brighter future since it handles 12 threads. So in 15 years, they will get better performance then a 2500k in BF8.

The problem is in 2 years 2500k performance is going to be $100 dollars. So buying a $100 dollar chip that will most likely get you through those 2 years would be enough.
another possible problem is in 4 years a 2500k may not be powerful enough, even though it can handle 4 threads.

Games now always use 2 threads, but that doesn't mean the 5 year old Athlon 64 x2's are any good. The Core 2 Duos are on their way out as well. Games are made with current hardware in mind for the most part.

I never suggested people can't buy good shit. But future proofing in the tech world is sort of a joke. It just doesn't really happen because better stuff always comes out and nothing ever gets fully utilized, just passed over eventually.

Adding the PSU into the argument isn't really valid, I was just saying that buying one for a system you might get in 2 years might not even happen if it dies. A PSU isn't like CPU or GPU. They don't progress in the same way.

Chances are if someone wants to future proof performance, they do so because they don't want to spend the money again in the near future. They could instead just buy something cheaper now, and something cheaper again in the future and probably come out ahead. I think people should buy the best PSU they can afford, but not for a future system. Worry about that later.

 

[Tenck]

Here's hoping someone helps me out.

My laptop is in need of RAM right now since one of the stick of RAM I had died on me. I have never bought RAM before, so I'm hoping someone here will help me out.

My laptop uses two 2GB sticks of DDR3 RAM. The sticks have a label that reads like this
"Samsung 2GB 2Rx8 PC3 8500S 07 00 F0"

Can someone link me to a store that sells them? Also looking for speedy delivery. Hope someone helps me out soon :'(

Edit: I would Google the RAM myself, but I don't want to buy something that won't work for me. Really paranoid about that :/

 

[LordCanti]

Here's hoping someone helps me out.

My laptop is in need of RAM right now since one of the stick of RAM I had died on me. I have never bought RAM before, so I'm hoping someone here will help me out.

My laptop uses two 2GB sticks of DDR3 RAM. The sticks have a label that reads like this
"Samsung 2GB 2Rx8 PC3 8500S 07 00 F0"

Can someone link me to a store that sells them? Also looking for speedy delivery. Hope someone helps me out soon :'(

Edit: I would Google the RAM myself, but I don't want to buy something that won't work for me. Really paranoid about that :/

You either need an identical stick of RAM, or you need two new sticks (a mismatched pair won't work). I think this is the same RAM, but it is recertified (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147088). I can't find anyone selling that stick new.

If you want an entirely new set, go to newegg, and pick from their selection of matched 2x2GB laptop DDR3 pairs (consult your manual to figure out which specs you need. If you didn't keep the manual, you should be able to find a digital version online at the manufacturers site)

 

[larvi]

Here's hoping someone helps me out.

My laptop is in need of RAM right now since one of the stick of RAM I had died on me. I have never bought RAM before, so I'm hoping someone here will help me out.

My laptop uses two 2GB sticks of DDR3 RAM. The sticks have a label that reads like this
"Samsung 2GB 2Rx8 PC3 8500S 07 00 F0"

Can someone link me to a store that sells them? Also looking for speedy delivery. Hope someone helps me out soon :'(

Edit: I would Google the RAM myself, but I don't want to buy something that won't work for me. Really paranoid about that :/

Best way I found to know for sure is to go to www.crucial.com and use the memory scanner utility there to find what is compatible. You can either buy directly from them or buy similar memory from amazon/newegg, etc

 

[Tenck]

Best way I found to know for sure is to go to www.crucial.com and use the memory scanner utility there to find what is compatible. You can either buy directly from them or buy similar memory from amazon/newegg, etc

Problem is that my laptop is running on the memory hog Vista, and I have a 1GB vid card, so it can't take too much stress. As soon as Steam opens up, it kills my laptop. I can never close it on time :'(

PM sent to you Lord

 

[Kadey]

Fractal case is 27lbs? o.0 That's like more than my Alienware case.

Should be here Wednesday. Going to order the rest of my parts as time goes on. Newegg seems to have deals all the time.

Isn't a 2500k way more faster and better for computing stuff than an E8400 which is what I have right now?

 

[Definity]

Stupid question - does the GTX 570/580 video cards pass audio with HDMI or just video? I assume yes right out of the box?

 

[Mr Nightman]

just submitted an rma for the first time on newegg,for a faulty dvd drive. just wondering, how do I know if I have to pay to ship it back? heres my request

Does this mean I get the same drive, just replaced??

 

[Velion]

Stupid question - does the GTX 570/580 video cards pass audio with HDMI or just video? I assume yes right out of the box?

Yes they pass audio through the HDMI cable and right out of box assuming you install up to date drivers.

 

[n0n44m]

Stupid question - does the GTX 570/580 video cards pass audio with HDMI or just video? I assume yes right out of the box?

yes but on my 480 it's a mini-HDMI connection and I assume it's the same for the 570/580

I got a 2 meter mini-HDMI male -> HDMI male cable with it, I assume it's the same for all manufacturers

just keep it in mind if you need to cover larger distances

 

[black_vegeta]

Fractal case is 27lbs? o.0 That's like more than my Alienware case.

Should be here Wednesday. Going to order the rest of my parts as time goes on. Newegg seems to have deals all the time.

Isn't a 2500k way more faster and better for computing stuff than an E8400 which is what I have right now?

Yes

 

[wandering goat]

Problem is that my laptop is running on the memory hog Vista, and I have a 1GB vid card, so it can't take too much stress. As soon as Steam opens up, it kills my laptop. I can never close it on time :'(

PM sent to you Lord

That seems pretty strange to me, considering you still have 2 GB. While you're waiting for your new RAM, consider going to MSConfig (in safe mode, if Steam is set to automatically start with Windows) and under the start-up and services tabs, unselect services / programs that you, 1) Know what they are, and 2) don't need them. I'm assuming you have a ton of junk opening up with Windows for 2GB to lead to crashing. That should ease the load.