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

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is it worth it to get a $100~ case or a HAF 912 will suffice? I have never really spent over $50 on a case before, I like the look of the fractal design r3 but I've read reviews stating about the difficulty cleaning the fans and some minor quirks overall. The Corsair 400R looks good but not enough reviews that I can check. I dont know which way to go.
 
I think it's worth it if you want to have a good maintainable case you can use over multiple builds. The Corsair 400R/500R looks great to me. There are definitely several advantages to those over the 912:

1) Better cable management
2) Removable dust filters
3) Better cooling
4) Black interior
5) CPU cutout that will actually accommodate current motherboards (the CPU cutouts on current CM cases are useless)

The only real complaints I've seen with regards to Corsair cases are the fans...On the 600T and 650D, they're too fast and generate too much noise. A buddy just got a 650D, and apparently the settings for the 200M fans are 800RPM/1000RPM/1200RPM...a little high for my taste. Nothing that a good fan controller won't fix, though.
 
TheExodu5 said:
I think it's worth it if you want to have a good maintainable case you can use over multiple builds. The Corsair 400R/500R looks great to me. There are definitely several advantages to those over the 912:

1) Better cable management
2) Removable dust filters
3) Better cooling
4) Black interior
5) CPU cutout that will actually accommodate current motherboards (the CPU cutouts on current CM cases are useless)

The only real complaints I've seen with regards to Corsair cases are the fans...On the 600T and 650D, they're too fast and generate too much noise. A buddy just got a 650D, and apparently the settings for the 200M fans are 800RPM/1000RPM/1200RPM...a little high for my taste. Nothing that a good fan controller won't fix, though.

That's my main concern, I dont really like noise and I plan to reuse my case at least one more time for a different build but there are not a lot of options (I think) for cases in the $100 range
 
Are there any fan controller bays that double as a USB 3.0 header too? I've seen a few with at least USB 2.0, maybe this is wishful thinking though...
 
sestrugen said:
That's my main concern, I dont really like noise and I plan to reuse my case at least one more time for a different build but there are not a lot of options (I think) for cases in the $100 range

Honestly, if noise is a concern, you're going to want to invest in some sort of fan control. All the cases I've seen out there are noisier than they need to be, including the Fractal R3.

If you have a full ATX motherboard, you might be able to get away with just motherboard controls for the case fan...maybe.

darkblade77 said:
Are there any fan controller bays that double as a USB 3.0 header too? I've seen a few with at least USB 2.0, maybe this is wishful thinking though...

Heh...I'm guessing you have a Fractal R3? I can't say I've seen any with USB 3.0 headers, but I'll keep a lookout.
 
sestrugen said:
That's my main concern, I dont really like noise and I plan to reuse my case at least one more time for a different build but there are not a lot of options (I think) for cases in the $100 range
Actually $100 is the sweet spot right now, I'd say. You've got the "classic" 690 II Advanced coming in at a little less than that ($80ish), then you have the Fractal R3 and Arc, and the Corsair 400r sounds great.

R3 is supposed to be a good quiet case, lots of people on here have bought it and I don't think anyone has been disappointed.
 
It's pretty depressing to look at Crysis 2 benchmarks and see that even with a 6950 the thing barely runs at 30fps at 1080p with everything maxxed out(and no AA). Is the extra gig on that card good for anything?
 
jett said:
It's pretty depressing to look at Crysis 2 benchmarks and see that even with a 6950 the thing barely runs at 30fps at 1080p with everything maxxed out(and no AA).

It should run better than that...My experience says it should be closer to 40-45fps.

Oh, unless this is counting the DX11 features that were introduced.
 
TheExodu5 said:
It should run better than that...My experience says it should be closer to 40-45fps.

Oh, unless this is counting the DX11 features that were introduced.

Yeah, including all the DX11 stuff.
 
Is the HAF 952 considered the best choice for a case? I have Thermaltake Kandalf right now but it doesn't have removable filters or good cable management. It is however big and roomy.

I want a case with enough room for cable management, SSD mounting, long/flagship video card support, greatly airflow, SATA 3 and quiet.

I saw something about a new LianLi case coming out that's suppose to be awesome?
 
hey pc dudes, little help?


i got my rig a couple years ago thinking "ya, this time i'm gonna join the master race! see what the fuss is all about!"

got portal tried playing it. video card start going crazy and after about 20 min, the whole machine crashes and resets. and that's a 6 year old game. happened a few times. gave up.

recently tried duels of the planeswalkers thinking it's not gonna tax the system all that heavily. same crashiness.

is there something i can do about all this?

setup:
amd phenom II x3 720 triple core
4gb g.skill 10666
xfx radeon 4870 750mhz 1gb
msi 770-c45 mobo
bfg 550w power supply
 
RukusProvider said:
Is the HAF 952 considered the best choice for a case? I have Thermaltake Kandalf right now but it doesn't have removable filters or good cable management. It is however big and roomy.

I want a case with enough room for cable management, SSD mounting, long/flagship video card support, greatly airflow, SATA 3 and quiet.

I saw something about a new LianLi case coming out that's suppose to be awesome?

There is no HAF 952. Do you mean the HAF 932, or the HAF 942 (HAF X)? They will fit most of your needs, but they don't have removable filters. You might want to look at the Corsair 650D (and as I mentioned above, maybe get a fan controller as well).

Actually, even the Corsair 500R might fit your needs just fine...though I'm not 100% sure what size of video card it will accommodate. The addition of side panel cooling will make it louder, however. It's all a bit of a balancing act in between airflow/noise, especially when the airflow might affect the cooling performance of your GPU, which will have a big impact on noise as well.

Quiet is also a very relative term. Many people are used to 2000RPM fans, and these cases with stock fan control could seem very quiet to them.
 
r - b - x said:
hey pc dudes, little help?


i got my rig a couple years ago thinking "ya, this time i'm gonna join the master race! see what the fuss is all about!"

got portal tried playing it. video card start going crazy and after about 20 min, the whole machine crashes and resets. and that's a 6 year old game. happened a few times. gave up.

recently tried duels of the planeswalkers thinking it's not gonna tax the system all that heavily. same crashiness.

is there something i can do about all this?

setup:
amd phenom II x3 720 triple core
4gb g.skill 10666
xfx radeon 4870 750mhz 1gb
msi 770-c45 mobo
bfg 550w power supply

If you're sure it's the GPU overheating (checked with HWmonitor or a similar program) just unplug it and de-dust it. If that doesn't help, reapply thermal paste.
 
TheExodu5 said:
There is no HAF 952. Do you mean the HAF 932, or the HAF 942 (HAF X)? They will fit most of your needs, but they don't have removable filters. You might want to look at the Corsair 650D (and as I mentioned above, maybe get a fan controller as well).

Actually, even the Corsair 500R might fit your needs just fine...though I'm not 100% sure what size of video card it will accommodate. The addition of side panel cooling will make it louder, however. It's all a bit of a balancing act in between airflow/noise, especially when the airflow might affect the cooling performance of your GPU, which will have a big impact on noise as well.

Quiet is also a very relative term. Many people are used to 2000RPM fans, and these cases with stock fan control could seem very quiet to them.

Sorry about the typo. I was looking at this HAF case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

I'm sure most of the new cases will be quieter than what I have. Thanks for the help.
 
I have the 650D, it's awesome and I'm not overly bothered by the fans really since I have ambient sound in my apartment that more or less masks the sound. Plus I'm listening to music all of the time.

I do think I want to add 2 140mm fans to it to replace the 200mm one on top. Any good brands without sleeved bearings and good air movement? Also, would like to add a temp display to one of the 3.5 drive bays, any suggestions on what would be good?
 
RukusProvider said:
Sorry about the typo. I was looking at this HAF case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

I'm sure most of the new cases will be quieter than what I have. Thanks for the help.

I think the Corsair 650D would be a better fit for your needs.

Blackheim said:
I have the 650D, it's awesome and I'm not overly bothered by the fans really since I have ambient sound in my apartment that more or less masks the sound. Plus I'm listening to music all of the time.

I do think I want to add 2 140mm fans to it to replace the 200mm one on top. Any good brands without sleeved bearings and good air movement? Also, would like to add a temp display to one of the 3.5 drive bays, any suggestions on what would be good?

Why do you want to go to 140mm fans? A 200mm fan should be a quieter solution. If you want a temp display, grab yourself a Scythe fan controller with temp display. Something like this:

(nice deal on an open box)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998055R

Here's a shot of the front:
km02-main_400.jpg


I bought one for my HAF X and I liked it a lot. The only problem is the brushed aluminum and silver trim looked weird on the steel/plastic look of the HAF X, so I swapped it for a Lamptron PWM controller. All in all, I preferred the Scythe controller, though. Voltage control is much nicer as it provides fairly linear control. PWM control is erratic.
 
TheExodu5 said:
Why do you want to go to 140mm fans? A 200mm fan should be a quieter solution. If you want a temp display, grab yourself a Scythe fan controller with temp display. Something like this:

(nice deal on an open box)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998055R

The top fan doesn't seem to push a lot of air, and I want that taken care of because it can get hot in my place during the day while I'm at work. Having 2 fans would alleviate that and get my box better air circulation. I'm not troubled by the sound of fans as long as they don't sound like a jet engine prepping for take off.

Thank you for the link, I'll put that in the cart and see if I can put some fans in there with it.
 
Blackheim said:
The top fan doesn't seem to push a lot of air, and I want that taken care of because it can get hot in my place during the day while I'm at work. Having 2 fans would alleviate that and get my box better air circulation. I'm not troubled by the sound of fans and long as they don't sound like a jet engine prepping for take off.

Thank you for the link, I'll put that in the cart and see if I can put some fans in there with it.

There's a low/med/high switch for the Corsair 650D fans. You have them on high? A 200mm fan at 1000RPM should push quite a bit of air. Also, the top fan should be exhausting, not pushing air in.

Do you have a reason for needing more cooling? Are your temps too high and preventing further overclocking? I just want to make sure you're not just adding more cooling for the sake of it.

edit: revised. The Corsair 200mm fans are 1000RPM.

edit2: hmmm...sounds like maybe the Corsair 200mm fans are just not very good. People are reporting CM pushing more air with less RPM. It's a shame there don't seem to be any decent black 200mm fans out there.
 
TheExodu5 said:
There's a low/med/high switch for the Corsair 650D fans. You have them on high? A 200mm fan at 1000RPM should push quite a bit of air. Also, the top fan should be exhausting, not pushing air in.

Do you have a reason for needing more cooling? Are your temps too high and preventing further overclocking? I just want to make sure you're not just adding more cooling for the sake of it.

edit: revised. The Corsair 200mm fans are 1000RPM.

Yep, all switches are set to high. Yeah, it's exhausting, I typed push out of laziness :P

I live in FL, it's summer, don't have central heating and it's prohibitively expensive to run the wall unit all day haha. So, it gets HOT in my place when I'm not there and I generally leave my PC on 24/7.
 
abuC said:
Anyone have a gtx 590? I'm heavily leaning towards that over 580s.

I'd recommend sli 570s over a 590 if the prices correspond, and if you do have the money then by all means go 580s.
 
This is a post I made in the Deus Ex thread, but I think I'll find more help in this one.

How do I make make the HUD look good when playing with a 360 controller on my comphy couch? I have my PC rigged up to my 32" Bravia via a DVI-to-HDMI cable from Monoprice. When I play the game at 1080p the graphics look great but the HUD is terribly scrunched and difficult to read. Switching the resolution to 1366x768 gives me a much better looking HUD, but obviously the graphics take a hit in clarity. Is there any way to have both? Any resolution besides those two results in an absolutely illegible HUD.

I honestly don't understand how my PS360 can output such clean HUD's but my superpowered PC can only give me blurry bullshit. There has to be something I'm doing wrong.

Any tips?
 
Baller said:
Any tips?

I have the same issue, sure I'm only playing on a 24" monitor but the hud is difficult to see, especially the 1-9 item list.


iSurvivedTheOutage said:
dont understand how peoples temps r so high on their CPUs...my cpu idles at 20c

What are your specs?
 
jett said:
It's pretty depressing to look at Crysis 2 benchmarks and see that even with a 6950 the thing barely runs at 30fps at 1080p with everything maxxed out(and no AA). Is the extra gig on that card good for anything?

Barely 30fps, what? Not saying it runs well, but I played through Crysis 2 DX11 at around 25-30fps on a 6970 2560x1600. I imagine at 1080p, your performance would be close to double...
 
luffeN said:
Just tested my Audiotechnia A700 and they leak sound like hell. They are supposed to be closed? What am I missing?

Assuming that they really are closed, the fit to your head is probably lacking. Make them tighter, and less sound will leak.

Do you have the A700's, or the AD700's? The cheaper model (purple plastic I believe) is open.
 
luffeN said:
This is the page I trust the most and it says closed http://geizhals.at/eu/452015 :/ Okey, will try.

Edit: ha... you cannot make them tighter xD

There aren't any pictures on there, but it does seem like you have the A700's and not the AD700's. Is the plastic on the ear cup purple?

If you can't get them tighter, I'm not sure what else you can do. There may be custom earcups you could try, but I wouldn't know without looking (I know people make custom earcups for most of the high end headphones).

I assume these are what you have: http://www.headphone.com/headphones/audio-technica-ath-a700.php

here is the cheaper model (that is open): http://www.headphone.com/headphones/audio-technica-ath-ad700.php

From the reviews I'm reading, it sounds like the a700's do a pretty good job of preventing sound leakage, so I'm not sure what the problem could be.
 
LordCanti said:
If you're sure it's the GPU overheating (checked with HWmonitor or a similar program) just unplug it and de-dust it. If that doesn't help, reapply thermal paste.

from hwmonitor:
video: normal temp 75C, max 98C
cpu: normal temp 27C, max 48C
 
x3sphere said:
Barely 30fps, what? Not saying it runs well, but I played through Crysis 2 DX11 at around 25-30fps on a 6970 2560x1600. I imagine at 1080p, your performance would be close to double...
You are probably not playing at max settings. With 2600K@4.5GHz, CF 6970 and 1080p, my fps can drop to 45.
 
LordCanti said:
There aren't any pictures on there, but it does seem like you have the A700's and not the AD700's. Is the plastic on the ear cup purple?

If you can't get them tighter, I'm not sure what else you can do. There may be custom earcups you could try, but I wouldn't know without looking (I know people make custom earcups for most of the high end headphones).

I assume these are what you have: http://www.headphone.com/headphones/audio-technica-ath-a700.php

here is the cheaper model (that is open): http://www.headphone.com/headphones/audio-technica-ath-ad700.php

From the reviews I'm reading, it sounds like the a700's do a pretty good job of preventing sound leakage, so I'm not sure what the problem could be.

Okey, but don't worry, not the end of the world. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000E9VKUQ/ but why are the AD700 cheaper? http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000CMS0XU/

edit: yeah, those are the ones I have. Will wear them a bit and see in a week if it still happens, thx!
 
r - b - x said:
from hwmonitor:
video: normal temp 75C, max 98C
cpu: normal temp 27C, max 48C

75c idle is way too hot. Your CPU temps are fine though.

Take the card out, and get a nice can of compressed air to clean out the dust. If you can't do it with that, don't be afraid to take the heatsink off and clean it that way. If you want, you could reapply thermal paste (cleaning the old stuff off first) while you're at it, to save an extra step.
 
LordCanti said:
75c idle is way too hot. Your CPU temps are fine though.

Take the card out, and get a nice can of compressed air to clean out the dust. If you can't do it with that, don't be afraid to take the heatsink off and clean it that way. If you want, you could reapply thermal paste (cleaning the old stuff off first) while you're at it, to save an extra step.
not sure what stock gpu compound is like, but could use artic silver 5 or something.
Baller said:
Does anyone know how to increase the voltage on an Asus GTX570 Direct CU II? Afterburner won't let me change anything...
it should do, you been into settings and unlocked volt control?
 
RukusProvider said:
In your opinion, for the same price what makes the 650D better than the Haf X?

Removable dust filters, proper CPU cutout, movable HDD try, nicer side panels (especially with the latches).

The HAF X comes in handy if you want the additional side panel cooling for SLI. I currently am using the HAF X, but once I move to a single card setup, I'm going to be changing to a better case.

iSurvivedTheOutage said:
dont understand how peoples temps r so high on their CPUs...my cpu idles at 20c

Your room would have the be very cold for it to idle at 20C. 23C is more usual for living ambient temps.

r - b - x said:
from hwmonitor:
video: normal temp 75C, max 98C
cpu: normal temp 27C, max 48C

Whoa, yeah, GPU cooling is definitely the issue there.
 
If I am looking to run BF3 at 60fps (1080 res) should I wait until after release to buy a new comp or will that 1k pc listed on OT suffice?

My Q6660 and ati 4870 is starting to show its age on the new games.
 
we don't know what will run bf3 at 1080p. rumour on the street is that a 580 will run ultra at 50fps. so either wait till next line of gpu cards are out or get a sli 570 or something.
 
Chinner said:
it should do, you been into settings and unlocked volt control?

Yeah, first thing I did. Voltage bar is still grayed out.

I'm pulling my hair out trying to up my voltage. I've scoured Google and it seems tons of other people are unable to change the voltage on these cards too. There needs to be some sort of warning for this shit, like "Hey, you're about to buy the weird shit that can't do any of the stuff all the guides on the Internet will tell you to do, maybe you should buy something else." Ugh.
 
luffeN said:
Hmm, could it be because I am wearing glasses? xD

Unless they have a really thick band, it is unlikely. Unless you've got sound leaking out the back (which would be a manufacturing defect), there isn't a whole lot you can do.
 
TheExodu5 said:
Removable dust filters, proper CPU cutout, movable HDD try, nicer side panels (especially with the latches).

The HAF X comes in handy if you want the additional side panel cooling for SLI. I currently am using the HAF X, but once I move to a single card setup, I'm going to be changing to a better case.



Your room would have the be very cold for it to idle at 20C. 23C is more usual for living ambient temps.



Whoa, yeah, GPU cooling is definitely the issue there.

Yeah around 20-23
 
Marco1 said:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/21404/6
Edit: I should read what's been posted more often, sorry.

I just read through this; Wow were some shocking choices made for the DX11 patch. It's almost like the whole game was supposed to be DX11, and they stopped production using DX11 features after having completed some (thus the ridiculously high quality concrete barriers).

Thanks for linking to it.
 
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