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

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Septimius said:
Is there any point to this outside of just being a bit of a dunce?

It was a joke. Is there a point, if money is no object though? I guess new maps would load a heck of a lot faster. Not worth the money though, obviously.
 
Foliorum Viridum said:
They're all running at stock and memtest has come up fine for them all, so I'm wondering if something else can cause it? A dodgy motherboard, maybe?
Probably a bad MB. Did you manually set the ram timing and voltage in the bios? Have you tried using only 1 stick in different slots?
 
Kadey said:
I finally built my first PC. Yay! Does the temp look right to you guys? I overclocked my CPU to 4.0ghz. It's so easy with the Asrock Bios thing.

xNqhS.jpg

Grats on the build.

I highly recommend to anyone getting a case like this: buy cable ties. You can pass all your cables through the back and keep your build nice and clean. Makes maintenance easier, and improves airflow.

This is what a Fractal R3 build could look like:

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This will be my first post here!

Just wanted to sense check a new build (I have looked at the OP and done a fair amount of research, but it's always nice to get some friendly opinions!)

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K - £236.39
CPU Fan: Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced - £39.90
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V PRO - £137.99
PSU: 760W SeaSonic X760 - £133.16
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10600 (CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V) - £44.16
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 650D - £119.99
Keyboard: Cherry G85-23100 eVolution STREAM XT - £17.46
SSD: Crucial M4 128Gb - £165

Total - ca. £896 [Budget tops out at £900]
I already have a decent mouse, AMD 5770 (which I'll be upgrading in October to an Nvidia 560ti or AMD 6950), monitor, two HDDs (1.5Tb and 1Tb) and speakers, so these aren't needed.
The main use will be for the Xmas wave of games + steam backlog, but web developing, image editing and general office work will be done on it too.
So...does any one have any suggestions on improvements or changes to the build? I'm looking to order sometime this week.
 
I'd say you can knock the processor down to a 2500K, and knock the motherboard down to a P67 (regular, not pro) to save yourself quite a bit of money.

The 2600K will give you maybe 15-20% extra performance, but only in applications that use 8 cores...not really worth the extra 40-50% investment, IMO. The Z68 motherboard is only worth it if you plan on using QuickSync or SSD caching (doubtful, since you bought a 128GB SSD). Furthermore, the Pro is only really needed for an SLI setup, so no need for that either.

Everything else looks good.
 
TheExodu5 said:
I'd say you can knock the processor down to a 2500K, and knock the motherboard down to a P67 (regular, not pro) to save yourself quite a bit of money.

The 2600K will give you maybe 15-20% extra performance, but only in applications that use 8 cores...not really worth the extra 40-50% investment, IMO. The Z68 motherboard is only worth it if you plan on using QuickSync or SSD caching (doubtful, since you bought a 128GB SSD). Furthermore, the Pro is only really needed for an SLI setup, so no need for that either.

Everything else looks good.

I agree with this. I would add that the PSU is way overpowered and expensive for his needs as well. That 750w is as good as many 900-1000w units, and it's priced accordingly. Pick a 650w unit and save a bundle.
 
Bah, the case fans I ordered are out of stock. I'm looking for 2-3 additional case fans for my incoming fractal define r3. I orginally ordered some fractal design fans (1000rpm, 38cfm, 15db) but now I'm not sure if I wanna wait until they are back in stock so I may as well explore other options. Feist gave some good suggestions on the previous page, anyone else have any good recommendations? Hoping for some efficient yet quiet 120mm fans, preferably in white to match the other fans in the r3!
 
Well, just picked up a pair of Corsair HS1s since they were on sale for $50. I didn't feel like spending twice that for the Logitech G930 (even though wireless is nice).
 
Thinking of upgrading my wireless setup mainly for the X360 and PS3.

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Anyone have experience with the Linksys E4200 or TRENDnet 300 Mbps N 4-Port Bridge?
 
Found out I might have a good bit more disposable income at the end of this month, so I'm still thinking of going ahead with this plan. I've subbed in a 7200rpm HDD and a 560 TI instead of a 6870. I also changed out the RAM, having heard a few bad things about the G.Skill RAM.

The prices are still from ebuyer.com, I'll shop around once I know what I'm going for

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £169.06

Motherboard: Asus P8P67 R3 Socket 1155 USB 3.0 Bluetooth 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £105.88

GPU: Asus GTX 560Ti DirectCU II 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini HDM Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £178.05

RAM: Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 XMS3 i5 Memory Kit CL9(9-9-9-24) 1.65V - £28.94

PSU: Antec TruePower New 650W Modular PSU - £62.98

Case: Antec One Hundred 100 Case - £43.88

HDD: Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - £42.99

Optical Drive: LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW with DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black - £13.98

Comes to about £650 altogether. Any big issues with this potential build?
 
Alright I want to start OC manually. I'm on a p8p67 pro mobo. I've changed the A.I. tweaker to manual. Right now I have turbo ratio at 44 (shows as 4532 mhz). It shows PLL overvoltage at auto, and cpu voltage in offset mode @1.18v.

What do I need to focus on when doing this?
 
Smokey said:
Alright I want to start OC manually. I'm on a p8p67 pro mobo. I've changed the A.I. tweaker to manual. Right now I have turbo ratio at 44 (shows as 4532 mhz). It shows PLL overvoltage at auto, and cpu voltage in offset mode @1.18v.

What do I need to focus on when doing this?
Load up CPUZ and HWmonitor. Run Prime 95 with small fft. Found out what your max voltage is for that speed.

Guide as starting point: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1578110
Note: Not all settings need to be apply.

If you to just want to overclock your CPU and not also the MB, try these minimum settings:
Internal CPU PLL: Disable (also helps with hibernation/sleep issue)
BLK: 100
Turbo Ratio: 44 By all Cores
Memory Freq: Manually set to whatever your ram runs at
Line Calibration: Regular
VR Feq mode: 300
Phase Control: Standard
Duty Control: T-Probe
DRAM voltage: Manually set to whatever your ram needs
Offset +: Manually add to get voltage found while running Prime95. Retest after adding more or less. Afterward, try lowering the voltage since auto overclock software generally uses more voltage than what's needed.

Everything else: Auto / Default
 
Guerrillas in the Mist said:
Found out I might have a good bit more disposable income at the end of this month, so I'm still thinking of going ahead with this plan. I've subbed in a 7200rpm HDD and a 560 TI instead of a 6870. I also changed out the RAM, having heard a few bad things about the G.Skill RAM.

The prices are still from ebuyer.com, I'll shop around once I know what I'm going for

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £169.06

Motherboard: Asus P8P67 R3 Socket 1155 USB 3.0 Bluetooth 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £105.88

GPU: Asus GTX 560Ti DirectCU II 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini HDM Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £178.05

RAM: Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 XMS3 i5 Memory Kit CL9(9-9-9-24) 1.65V - £28.94

PSU: Antec TruePower New 650W Modular PSU - £62.98

Case: Antec One Hundred 100 Case - £43.88

HDD: Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - £42.99

Optical Drive: LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW with DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black - £13.98

Comes to about £650 altogether. Any big issues with this potential build?
The F4 at 5400rpm is just about as fast as the 1TB drive due to platter density.

See if you can get some 1.5V sticks for RAM. What did you hear bad about G.Skill?
 
LordCanti said:
What are you planning for 16GB of RAM? Multiple virtual PC's?

Multiple reasons. I want to mess around with VMs a bit, install Oracle/SQL Server for learning purposes, get rid of paging file, etc etc. That plus in a couple years when I finally upgrade, I'll turn this build into a SQL server and media server and I figured I might as well buy the RAM now instead of waiting and possibly having decent DDR2 RAM disappear completely.
 
I've used G.Skill in every build I've done, and only had problems once. Didn't really concern me since you're bound to have trouble with RAM or an HDD eventually. Was actually more bothered by the fact it was my grandparents computer, and they left town before the RAM got back from the RMA. Ended up sending it to them, and they installed it themselves :lol
 
Hey guys, I’d like to talk SSDs for a bit. I held off buying one for my new build a few months back to save a bit of money at the time but I’m looking to get one now.

Right now I’m looking at the 120-ish GB range ones (or whatever the max is that I can get for a reasonable price). My top priority is a reliable drive as there have been tons of stories of really poor quality control from many of the SSD vendors out there right now. I definitely care about speed too though. As far as I can tell the conventional wisdom said to go with an Intel SSD if you valued reliability over pure raw performance, and that was going to be my original plan. But now with these new stories about issues with Intel’s drives and their rather expensive prices for what you get I’m not so sure anymore. Is that bug in just the 320 models or others as well such as the 510? The 510 was (well I guess still is) my main choice at the moment but I’d like to know what any other good options would be. It’s probably worth noting I have a mobo with 6 Gb/s SATA III and I’d like to take advantage of that with any SSD I get too.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.
 
LordCanti said:
What are you planning for 16GB of RAM? Multiple virtual PC's?
It has been scientifically proven that you can never have too much RAM.

Do you ever hear people say: "My penis is just too big, I wish it was smaller" ?

Likewise, you never hear people say: "I just have too much RAM, I wish I had less"

Same thing.
 
DennisK4 said:
It has been scientifically proven that you can never have too much RAM.

Do you ever hear people say: "My penis is just too big, I wish it was smaller" ?

Likewise, you never hear people say: "I just have too much RAM, I wish I had less"

Same thing.
True, but I think there's a point when RAM doesn't give you any boost or performance increase, especially in games, for example 4GB for gaming right now is just fine, 6GB or 8GB if you want to be more "future proof" any more than that you will hardly see a difference in gaming at least so might as well save the money or buy something else.

That's how it is for most people, nothing wrong buying lots of it though, to each his own.
 
knitoe said:
Probably a bad MB. Did you manually set the ram timing and voltage in the bios? Have you tried using only 1 stick in different slots?
No, I've not just used one stick in each slot. I should try that.

As for the bios stuff, no. I'm not really sure how to that, to be honest. I can overclock a CPU but I just leave RAM as it is :P
 
DennisK4 said:
It has been scientifically proven that you can never have too much RAM.

Do you ever hear people say: "My penis is just too big, I wish it was smaller" ?

Likewise, you never hear people say: "I just have too much RAM, I wish I had less"

Same thing.

Another reason I want 16GB of RAM!
 
DennisK4 said:
It has been scientifically proven that you can never have too much RAM.

Do you ever hear people say: "My penis is just too big, I wish it was smaller" ?

Likewise, you never hear people say: "I just have too much RAM, I wish I had less"

Same thing.

You'll never see more than 8gb of RAM usage, unless you do virtualization.

Also, there is a guy that has a dong as wide as an arm. He wishes it was smaller.
 
Nekrono said:
True, but I think there's a point when RAM doesn't give you any boost or performance increase, especially in games, for example 4GB for gaming right now is just fine, 6GB or 8GB if you want to be more "future proof" any more than that you will hardly see a difference in gaming at least so might as well save the money or buy something else.

That's how it is for most people, nothing wrong buying lots of it though, to each his own.
8gb doesn't future proof anything.

I'm downloading in steam, have mirc open, have two explorer windows open, firefox with 5 tabs open, gamesave manager working, daemon tools (for the linux isos), dropbox is open, coretemp, radeonpro, rainmeter, logitech, fraps, raptr, nod32, cfosspeed, ditto, powerchute, and netmeter all running, and currently I'm like...

oh huh 2.7gb. Well, kill half those programs and go run a game and suddenly it's up over 4.

Anyways question:

If I get this kind of setup:
i5-2500k
8gb ddr3
1.25gb 570gtx

and I want to hook up like 7 or eight hard drives, can I do that? Would I need to get a sata card? Would I need more than 650w? I don't want to do raid or anything.
 
Gvaz said:
8gb doesn't future proof anything.

I'm downloading in steam, have mirc open, have two explorer windows open, firefox with 5 tabs open, gamesave manager working, daemon tools (for the linux isos), dropbox is open, coretemp, radeonpro, rainmeter, logitech, fraps, raptr, nod32, cfosspeed, ditto, powerchute, and netmeter all running, and currently I'm like...

oh huh 2.7gb. Well, kill half those programs and go run a game and suddenly it's up over 4.

Anyways question:

If I get this kind of setup:
i5-2500k
8gb ddr3
1.25gb 570gtx

and I want to hook up like 7 or eight hard drives, can I do that? Would I need to get a sata card? Would I need more than 650w? I don't want to do raid or anything.

Check the board. If it has seven or eight SATA ports, then you can use them. As far as I'm aware, HDD's don't use a whole lot of energy (especially when most of them aren't running at any given time) so a 650w should be fine.
 
DennisK4 said:
It has been scientifically proven that you can never have too much RAM.

Do you ever hear people say: "My penis is just too big, I wish it was smaller" ?

Likewise, you never hear people say: "I just have too much RAM, I wish I had less"

Same thing.
:lol
 
LordCanti said:
Check the board. If it has seven or eight SATA ports, then you can use them. As far as I'm aware, HDD's don't use a whole lot of energy (especially when most of them aren't running at any given time) so a 650w should be fine.

I'm probably going to use this mobo instead of the one in the op

P67A-C43 Unless you can give me a reason I'd use the other one instead.

(I'll probably be overclocking the cpu to the highest that is feasible on air cooling...which is what? Speaking of which, since that one is unlocked, can I just put everything on auto in the bios and increase the multiplier?)

So that board has basically six sata ports, since I assume SATA 6 is backwards compatable (I only have a 64gb ssd and this shit is small, I'm always running out of space)

So I want 8 sata slots and maybe one or two more slots (blu-ray drive and dvd burner), what's the cheapest sata card that could fulfill these requirements?
 
LordCanti said:
You'll never see more than 8gb of RAM usage, unless you do virtualization.
"Never" is the wrong word. I was recently at 9.5 GB.
I was running Photoshop, 2 instances of Blender, Visual Studio, Eclipse, 3 instances with a lot of tabs of Firefox, 2 tools I wrote (no they don't use more memory than they need to), MeshLab and some other things I can't recall. And then I wanted to take a quick break and started New Vegas.

Yes, I could have closed stuff, but that would have slowed me down slightly when going back to work.

Anyway, tons of RAM is also nice to have since you can completely disable the Windows page file without having to worry about ever hitting the limit. Despite what MS might say this greatly speeds up switching back to an application that you had minimized for more than 15 minutes.
 
Gvaz said:
I'm probably going to use this mobo instead of the one in the op

P67A-C43 Unless you can give me a reason I'd use the other one instead.

(I'll probably be overclocking the cpu to the highest that is feasible on air cooling...which is what? Speaking of which, since that one is unlocked, can I just put everything on auto in the bios and increase the multiplier?)

So that board has basically six sata ports, since I assume SATA 6 is backwards compatable (I only have a 64gb ssd and this shit is small, I'm always running out of space)

So I want 8 sata slots and maybe one or two more slots (blu-ray drive and dvd burner), what's the cheapest sata card that could fulfill these requirements?

Board looks fine to me, if you never want to SLI. Every chip is different, but I've heard 4.5 or so is a good air OC benchmark. As for how to get there for that specific board, you'd have to read a guide (auto might take the voltage higher than you'd like).

I have no idea about sata add-on boards. Your guess is as good as mine in terms of which of these is the best product (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...roller card&bop=And&Order=REVIEWS&PageSize=20)


Durante said:
"Never" is the wrong word. I was recently at 9.5 GB.
I was running Photoshop, 2 instances of Blender, Visual Studio, Eclipse, 3 instances with a lot of tabs of Firefox, 2 tools I wrote (no they don't use more memory than they need to), MeshLab and some other things I can't recall. And then I wanted to take a quick break and started New Vegas.

Yes, I could have closed stuff, but that would have slowed me down slightly when going back to work.

Anyway, tons of RAM is also nice to have since you can completely disable the Windows page file without having to worry about ever hitting the limit. Despite what MS might say this greatly speeds up switching back to an application that you had minimized for more than 15 minutes.

I meant to say "never without a specific application in mind". Most people will never have photoshop, blender, visual studio, Eclipse, and Firefox with a lot of tabs open at the same time.

For virtualization, where you need to dedicate a specific chunk of RAM to the virtual machine, 16GB is worth it. The same goes for if you do a lot of media work.

I'm just going to stop here. The rig has two GTX 580 3gb's in it, so an additional $50 in RAM isn't breaking the bank, lol.
 
GPU question...

EVGA makes a GTX 570 that has double the memory than a normal 570; 2560 MB instead of 1280 MB. Is it worth it to purchase the one with more memory or would it not really matter? The price difference between the two is surprisingly not that much.
 
Clydefrog said:
GPU question...

EVGA makes a GTX 570 that has double the memory than a normal 570; 2560 MB instead of 1280 MB. Is it worth it to purchase the one with more memory or would it not really matter? The price difference between the two is surprisingly not that much.

If you're going to be running at a res greater than 1080p or plan to SLI another 570 2.GB for a surround (multi-monitor) setup then yes.

Otherwise no.
 
DennisK4 said:
It has been scientifically proven that you can never have too much RAM.

Do you ever hear people say: "My penis is just too big, I wish it was smaller" ?

Likewise, you never hear people say: "I just have too much RAM, I wish I had less"

Same thing.

Do you know you are a big reason why I started reading gaf? Your posts are like straight from my heart.
 
Smokey said:
If you're going to be running at a res greater than 1080p or plan to SLI another 570 2.GB for a surround (multi-monitor) setup then yes.

Otherwise no.

Thanks. That's what I figured, just wanted to make sure. I'll just go with the normal 570 :)
 
Turns out that the power surge that killed my network switch, also went ahead and murdered one of my computers.

It was on a surge protector, and nothing else on the strip blew, so I'm left to assume that the surge traveled up the ethernet cables and just hit everything on them (which happened to be my switch, and a computer).

Gaming rig is fine, thankfully, but the other one is a total loss. The moral of the story is: Surge protectors with ethernet protection, gentlemen.
 
LordCanti said:
Gaming rig is fine, thankfully, but the other one is a total loss. The moral of the story is: Surge protectors with ethernet protection, gentlemen.
I have one of those, er well I have one with cable protection iirc

edit: has ethernet too
 
Just came back from Microcenter nabbed me an i5 2500k and a fatality p67 motherboard.

So far I got.

Cpu: i5 2500k = 179
mobo: ASROCK P67 PERFORMANCE 1155 AT = 89.99
Ram : 8 gigs of Gskill ripjaws x = 50 newegg sale
Cpu cooler: Cooler master hyper 212 = 28
HD: Samsung spinpoint = 50 newegg sale
= $396.

Just need the following.

Video card
Case
Power Supply

How do you guys think I did. Trying to save money while at the same time building a powerful rig.
 
gibon3z said:
Just came back from Microcenter nabbed me an i5 2500k and a fatality p67 motherboard.

So far I got.

Cpu: i5 2500k = 179
mobo: ASROCK P67 PERFORMANCE 1155 AT = 89.99
Ram : 8 gigs of Gskill ripjaws x = 50 newegg sale
Cpu cooler: Cooler master hyper 212 = 28
HD: Samsung spinpoint = 50 newegg sale
= $396.

Just need the following.

Video card
Case
Power Supply

How do you guys think I did. Trying to save money while at the same time building a powerful rig.

Looks like a good power/budget setup. My only comment is the HD - I initially started with a Spinpoint 5400/5900RPM HD as my main HD, and while it was generally OK and got good reviews, it would ocassionally re-spin up and 'resync' or something, and it would make the whole system stutter or pause for a second, which drove me nuts. I eventually upgraded to a SSD, but a 7200 RPM drive would also have probably done OK.
 
Currently trying to nab a open box gpu from newegg. Ive seen gtx 580s go for as low as 230.

I'm quite patient so I will just stalk the website until I can nab a 6950, 6970, gtx 580 or gtx 570.

They had a 6990 for 400 dollars once too.
 
mhayze said:
Looks like a good power/budget setup. My only comment is the HD - I initially started with a Spinpoint 5400/5900RPM HD as my main HD, and while it was generally OK and got good reviews, it would ocassionally re-spin up and 'resync' or something, and it would make the whole system stutter or pause for a second, which drove me nuts. I eventually upgraded to a SSD, but a 7200 RPM drive would also have probably done OK.
In Power Options, make it so the HDD never turns off. The power on / off causes those issues.
 
Is it correct that the Asus GTX 580 DC II dumps its air downwards and inside the case?

If so would putting a fan next to it to help exhaust it quicker help or not have significant effect?
 
ughhhh made my first mistake. P67 board I bought today does not support Crossfire or Sli.

Will exchange it tomorrow and upgrade to a z68 and pay the difference.
 
DennisK4 said:
Do you ever hear people say: "My penis is just too big, I wish it was smaller" ?

I actually know one person who's said this -- which is one more than I know people who've said they wished they had less RAM.
 
Could use some suggestions. Screwed up my CPU/MOBO (hoping that is all I ruined)


Here is my current build



Ram: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit

PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC

Case: Rosewill Destroyer

Video: ATI HD 4890



Dead and needs to be replaced

CPU:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD




I could get the same board/cpu much cheaper now than when i bought it a year ago. or i can take some suggestions for something better than what I had (at an affordable price).

I would also like to add an aftermarket cpu cooler, the last one was extremely loud. I need piece and quite.

Was hoping to keep it in the $150 for CPU and $100 and under for the motherboard if possible.



Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
blanky said:
Is it correct that the Asus GTX 580 DC II dumps its air downwards and inside the case?

If so would putting a fan next to it to help exhaust it quicker help or not have significant effect?
Technically it just dumps it everywhere. The fans point upward though. You're better off with going for an intake fan right next to it rather than an exhaust. You'll get cool air on the GPU and hopefully get to a positive pressure setup as well which is important for thermals and keeping it clean.
 
I think I'm settled on getting a 570 twinfrozr 3. The temps sound good, the card sounds like it would be quiet (anyone here able to report on that? Hoping quieter than a 4890 @ load) and it's even stock overclocked. One person was able to OC it to like 900/2000mhz @ 1.1 and still be around 60c load which sounds totally worth the extra $70 compared to the cheaper version I was looking at.

The card is around like 20" long, does that fit in the Fractal R3?

I have another question, does anyone know of a good front panel for headphones? I was hoping for something with the "big" headphone jack connector and for it to be directly connected to the sound card sort of thing. Anything like that exist?
 
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