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

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n0n44m said:
get a second one like that, or one of the adapters that use twin molex connectors

if you've got a decent PSU using a (decent) adapter shouldn't be an issue =]
Click to expand...

But I don't have a second pair of six pins to convert to 8-pin. My power supply came with two pci connectors total, both six pin.

If I use the single six->eight adapter it'll still only give six pin worth of power so it'd give it 150w instead of 300w and I don't think it's a good idea to not give a card the power it needs. Want to make sure the fans run properly. Just sucks cause now instead of being a $500 card upgrade it'll be a $700+ one. Nothing ever goes right when I do pc upgrades :/
 
For those with an EVGA 570, could you tell me the performance in the following games:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Team Fortress 2
Fallout 3
Stalker: Clear Sky

Thanks!
 
Bought the following. Should be here on Monday. It stated out just wanting to upgrade my CPU, and then obviously escalated!

Got Lost Planet 2 and Batman Arkham City free with the 560 Ti :) Looking forward to setting it up. (upgrading from q6600 / gtx 460)

Kingston 96GB SSD
i5 2500K (OC to ~4.5GHz)
Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 Motherboard
Corsair 8GB Vengeance 1600Mhz RAM
MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 880MHz 1GB Twin Frozr II/OC
 
Finally got my new PC up and running. Currently installing Windows Updates.

So, GAF, what are the crucial benchmark tests to run post-build to make sure everything is working as it should?
 
gibon3z said:
Has this been posted here yet ?

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...-zambezi-scores-worse-than-intel-core-i7.aspx

Good info to know if you are waiting for a Dozer Build.
Click to expand...
Ya it was posted a few days back. I secretly hope those are fake, and that the performance is much better than that, because if those numbers are true, AMD is in for a world of hurt, and in the long run, so are consumers. We need both chip manufactures at the top of their game for good products at cheap prices with new innovations occurring rapidly.
 
Too much work gone into the Bulldozer and the Zambezi got left behind? Those benchmarks are pretty damning if they turn out to be correct and AMD will have just shot themselves in the foot for their next gen desktop processor.
 
Bebpo said:
But I don't have a second pair of six pins to convert to 8-pin. My power supply came with two pci connectors total, both six pin.

If I use the single six->eight adapter it'll still only give six pin worth of power so it'd give it 150w instead of 300w and I don't think it's a good idea to not give a card the power it needs. Want to make sure the fans run properly. Just sucks cause now instead of being a $500 card upgrade it'll be a $700+ one. Nothing ever goes right when I do pc upgrades :/
Click to expand...

all pins and cables and whatnot are all connected to the 12V rail(s) on your PSU, the total amount of Watt the rail(s) can provide is the power rating of the PSU. The different pins/cables are just there to make sure the total amount of power a component like a video card uses is distributed nicely over a set of smaller cables, else you would need 1 really thick cable to cover everything from 50 to 300 watts of power (or it'll overheat).

Just get a two-molex-to-one-8pin-pcie adapter for the other connector then, an 800Watt PSU should have no issue with that. Just make sure it's a good one, I see a couple of "fake" ones on ebay already when Google image searching that use the +5V line of a molex as well, whereas PCI-E spec only calls for +12 (yellow) and ground lines (black)
 
Guys I'm having a serious issue and I need help. It is about my GPU.

I have a 6950 connected via displayport and I am getting seemingly random flashes of artifacts that last a brief moment. The artifacts do not cover the screen, they vary in height, but do stretch all the way horizontally. And this artifact bar is not always in the same spot. It is happening every few minutes. I have also experienced my screen blacking out for 2 seconds or so and then coming back on. I have not played a single game, this is all in windows environment.

More information: I am running Win7 x64. I just put my rig up last night. First I installed my drivers (Catalyst was the last thing I installed, even after doing windows update). At this time, there was NO graphical errors. Windows was running without any display drivers, so it was at its default res, but there was not a single instability in graphics display ( I was on the computer installing various programs for more than an hour before I got to installing catalyst drivers). After installing catalyst drivers, I installed MSI afterburn. I then followed a guide to unlock shaders on my GPU. My clocks were increased and my voltage went up. I don't remember if I saw artifacts when I finished that, because I was barely awake at that point.

Today, I was noticing the artifacts and I thought it my voltage. I put it to stock 6950 voltage and it was not helping. I put my GPU at stock clocks and nada. So I reversed the process, which involved disabling some setting in ASUS SmartDoctor (this program was used in the unlock guide I followed), then flashing my GPU back to my original bios (which I had backed up). This was successful in restoring my GPU, but the problem persisted. So I used driver sweeper to uninstall my AMD display drivers, shut down the computer -> Opened my case to check the GPU connection was fine (it was, but I took it out and put it back in to be sure) -> Booted Windows with no display drivers (I noticed no artifacts, but I was only driver-less for a few minutes) -> installed AMD catalyst drivers (latest stable) and rebooted. It has not helped. What the fuuuuuuuuu

All fans in my case are running btw.
 
Bend spending most of the afternoon and evening playing with my new HPZR24W monitor. It's a pretty incredible step up from the ASUS TN panels I was using before. Having them sit right next to each other, I can't believe how I ever was able to live with them for several years since leaving CRT land. All the colors were just so...ugly.

I don't notice any input lag nor any ghosting. I also bought a LGIPS36V from Best Buy before getting the HPZR24W earlier this week. That also did not have any significant input lag, but without calibration tools I was not able to get it looking as nice as I can the HP and it did have pretty noticeable ghosting in some faster paced games like Burnout Paradise. I'm actually surprised I noticed it, normally I'm not all that sensitive to stuff like that. I think I'm going to take it back to Best Buy next week and just live with the HP as my primary and one of my old lousy TN's as my secondary. Kind of wish I'd purchased two HP's but for just data manipulation which is what I use the secondary for it's not that big of a deal.

For anyone out there thinking about going IPS I really recommend it.
 
Ok, at the computer store the guy explained how power works in simple terms (I am sort of a computer guy, been building them since 286 but I don't understand how things work besides uh PLUG CABLE IN AND MAGIC HAPPENS). So he told me I could use an adapter for the 6 pin PCI-E to become 2 8-pin PCI-E's and power the 580 because he said both 6 pin PCI-E's I currently have are attached to a single rail and that should be enough to power the entire 580.

I took a flashlight and checked exactly what my power supply is. It's a 750W, OCZ with two 12V rails. So yeah, I hooked up one of the rails using a splitter to both power ins on the 580.

My question is two fold:
1) is this going to work?
2) how can I tell if the 580 is not getting the power it needs? If it's just minor sluggish performance here and there I wouldn't notice it. But I don't want the card to MELT or something because the fans aren't getting enough power to spin or something.

PS. I'm currently up and running in safe mode. Going to Nvidia site now to download latest drivers to install.
 
Coldsnap said:
Review of the Antec Solo II
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1218-page1.html
Click to expand...

I was ready to shit all over it, since it's an Antec case, but it actually looked decent. That is, until I saw the price. That is in no way worth anywhere near $129. It would have been a nice case for $50.

Only one fan. Top mounted PSU. Poor cable management.

It would have had a nice place as a cheaply available silent case. As it stands, I have no idea why you'd buy this over the Fractal R3.
 
So out of the blue I was getting some annoying coil whine from the PSU only when I moved the mouse. I shut down the PC and started it back up ad it was still there. Shut it down again and then turned the switch on the PSU off for a few seconds then powered everything back up and now its gone. What may have caused this?
 
Is it reasonable to OC my processor with stock cooling? Its currently running at 3Ghz, would going to 3.2Ghz be okay on stock cooling?

What are some good budget aftermarket coolers?
 
RibbedHero said:
Is it reasonable to OC my processor with stock cooling? Its currently running at 3Ghz, would going to 3.2Ghz be okay on stock cooling?

What are some good budget aftermarket coolers?
Click to expand...

You should look into reviews on Overclocking websites of your specific processor. The Hyper 212+ is a cheap and quite effective cooler that can fit most mobos.
 
There was another topic started on GAF that had the "leaked" benchmarks. Apparently they were comparing Operon vs. Xeon instead of FX 8100 vs. 2600k, however the technical specs are apparently wrong throwing those "leaks" into doubtful territory. I don't think the 8100 would significantly beat my 2600k anyways though.
 
TheExodu5 said:
I was ready to shit all over it, since it's an Antec case, but it actually looked decent. That is, until I saw the price. That is in no way worth anywhere near $129. It would have been a nice case for $50.

Only one fan. Top mounted PSU. Poor cable management.

It would have had a nice place as a cheaply available silent case. As it stands, I have no idea why you'd buy this over the Fractal R3.
Click to expand...

Yea exactly what I was thinking, makes me <3 my R3 even more.. except my right panel buldge because i dont have a modular power supply but at least my cable management looks just as good as a modular one because of the R3
 
YAY

SEEMS WORKING


Wow, this card is silent and runs MUCH cooler than my old card.

9800GTX+ XFX BE = 59C idle, 90C load
580GTX DCII = 31C idle, 59C load

Performance benchmarks on Uniengine Heaven demo @1080p:

No AA, no tesselation 18fps -> 52fps
AA x 2, tesselation normal 13fps -> 40fps
AA x 4, tesselation normal 5fps -> 35fps

What surprises me is how little the FPS drop is going from AAx2 to AAx4. And I think with tesselation normal and no AA it's about 43-44fps. So going from no AA -> 4x AA is only about 25% drop, whereas with my older cards going from no AA -> 4x AA was like 2x FPS drop.

I haven't messed around with tweaking it either. I know asus comes with an overclocking program that I should check out and see if I can get a few more fps.
 
Niblet said:
Guys I'm having a serious issue and I need help. It is about my GPU.

I have a 6950 connected via displayport and I am getting seemingly random flashes of artifacts that last a brief moment. The artifacts do not cover the screen, they vary in height, but do stretch all the way horizontally. And this artifact bar is not always in the same spot. It is happening every few minutes. I have also experienced my screen blacking out for 2 seconds or so and then coming back on. I have not played a single game, this is all in windows environment.

More information: I am running Win7 x64. I just put my rig up last night. First I installed my drivers (Catalyst was the last thing I installed, even after doing windows update). At this time, there was NO graphical errors. Windows was running without any display drivers, so it was at its default res, but there was not a single instability in graphics display ( I was on the computer installing various programs for more than an hour before I got to installing catalyst drivers). After installing catalyst drivers, I installed MSI afterburn. I then followed a guide to unlock shaders on my GPU. My clocks were increased and my voltage went up. I don't remember if I saw artifacts when I finished that, because I was barely awake at that point.

Today, I was noticing the artifacts and I thought it my voltage. I put it to stock 6950 voltage and it was not helping. I put my GPU at stock clocks and nada. So I reversed the process, which involved disabling some setting in ASUS SmartDoctor (this program was used in the unlock guide I followed), then flashing my GPU back to my original bios (which I had backed up). This was successful in restoring my GPU, but the problem persisted. So I used driver sweeper to uninstall my AMD display drivers, shut down the computer -> Opened my case to check the GPU connection was fine (it was, but I took it out and put it back in to be sure) -> Booted Windows with no display drivers (I noticed no artifacts, but I was only driver-less for a few minutes) -> installed AMD catalyst drivers (latest stable) and rebooted. It has not helped. What the fuuuuuuuuu

All fans in my case are running btw.
Click to expand...
How did you unlock the shaders? Hope, you didn't go about it by installing the 6970 bios onto your 6950. By doing so, there's a chance you could have permanently damage the card. The 6950 ram aren't rated for the higher voltage. What you should have done was use a bios that unlock the shaders only leaving memory speed and voltage at stock. Then, you can manually overclock the memory yourself.

It seems like you tried everything so it might be best to try RMA the card.
 
So the wife is buying my GPU so i decided to go either SLi/ crossfire with either 580/ 6970 but don't know which to go with. I want to feel safe for a while so PC~thug-GAF help.
 
Bebpo said:
YAY

SEEMS WORKING


Wow, this card is silent and runs MUCH cooler than my old card.

9800GTX+ XFX BE = 59C idle, 90C load
580GTX DCII = 31C idle, 59C load

Performance benchmarks on Uniengine Heaven demo @1080p:

No AA, no tesselation 18fps -> 52fps
AA x 2, tesselation normal 13fps -> 40fps
AA x 4, tesselation normal 5fps -> 35fps

What surprises me is how little the FPS drop is going from AAx2 to AAx4. And I think with tesselation normal and no AA it's about 43-44fps. So going from no AA -> 4x AA is only about 25% drop, whereas with my older cards going from no AA -> 4x AA was like 2x FPS drop.

I haven't messed around with tweaking it either. I know asus comes with an overclocking program that I should check out and see if I can get a few more fps.
Click to expand...

What's the rest of your specs? The last result you got didn't seem right to me, so I ran Heaven on my machine with 4xAA, tessellation normal, 4x Anisotropy @ 1080p and I get 45.8 fps. This was on stock settings for me (832mhz on the core), and I think your Asus is set at 782mhz, but for a 50mhz difference in clock speed a 10fps increase doesn't sound right.

The 35fps you got is only 3 frames higher than I get when I run the test with tessellation at extreme and AA etc set to highest.


iamvin22 said:
So the wife is buying my GPU so i decided to go either SLi/ crossfire with either 580/ 6970 but don't know which to go with. I want to feel safe for a while so PC~thug-GAF help.
Click to expand...

Dual graphics card = go with Nvidia.
 
Le-mo said:
PC-gaf, what is the best pc gamepad available?
Click to expand...

QWAPB1yod1patm0cgSKWL-2f6E5EvnNblfPhoEbD8DSGtGrTUdi5megWGKO48mCISt0xoh0vMXP8zhtuOFXvDatQLLdQ8z0BtAHgO0kIKu2b-gp7JYOfzxwLQsWJhHQ
 
MrOogieBoogie said:
Finally got my new PC up and running. Currently installing Windows Updates.

So, GAF, what are the crucial benchmark tests to run post-build to make sure everything is working as it should?
Click to expand...
I told you earlier in the thread.

And everyone, I hope those of you who're buying a 580 have a very large screen, because anything less than 1920x1200 (or even that res) is total overkill for the price.
 
ive been diggin around on the process of OCing my i5 2500k and just realized that my p67 board Asus LE edition cant be overclocked by BIOS or something like that? rather you overclock the turbo boost through the Suite software thing? wat :|

is that bad?


also what does disabling C3 and C6 report do on BIOS? since i disabled those to stop the random PSU whining (when usb-conecting a 360 pad reciever) a while back.
 
knitoe said:
How did you unlock the shaders? Hope, you didn't go about it by installing the 6970 bios onto your 6950. By doing so, there's a chance you could have permanently damage the card. The 6950 ram aren't rated for the higher voltage. What you should have done was use a bios that unlock the shaders only leaving memory speed and voltage at stock. Then, you can manually overclock the memory yourself.

It seems like you tried everything so it might be best to try RMA the card.
Click to expand...

No I flashed to unlock the shaders only. the clock and voltage change was overclocking.

I'm doing a fresh windows install as we speak with just essential drivers + windows updates. If it still bugs out, I will RMA.
 
Ok 10 minutes so far on the new partition/ clean install. I am using the ATI display drivers that are downloaded via windows update and not catalyst drivers. Right now my GPU is definitely driving the display. In these 10 minutes I have not seen any instability. Granted it has only been 10 minutes, but I normally see the artifacts quickly after windows loads on my other install. I'm going to reboot and give it 10 more minutes. If nothing happens, I'm going to install catalyst drivers and see if the artifacts pop up. I hope not.

Edit: Just happened. I'm going to test the 2nd PCIEX lane (x8) and confirm it happens there as well.
 
Aguirre said:
For those with an EVGA 570, could you tell me the performance in the following games:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Team Fortress 2
Fallout 3
Stalker: Clear Sky

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I have a 6970, which should have comparable performance and I get perfect/almost always 60fps with deus ex and fallout 3 at max settings 1920x1080. I guess team fortress 2 would be perfect as well. Don't know about Stalker though
 
Aguirre said:
For those with an EVGA 570, could you tell me the performance in the following games:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Team Fortress 2
Fallout 3
Stalker: Clear Sky

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'm not really a frame counter, though one would think I am. That said, you won't hurt for performance in the first 3 for sure - none of them really max/stress a modern card at all. I might reload STALKER from Steam later and see how it goes, though my old i5-760 + 560ti rig was quite happy playing that at 1080p with everything cranked too.
 
Can someone who has used both a Asus DirectCU II GTX580 and MSI Lightning GTX580 (Smokey?) tell me if there's a big noise difference between the two.
Also is there any benefit in going with the same brand mobo and graphics card (e.g Asus GTX 580 and asus p67 mobo)?
 
On a GTX 570

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - perfect 60fps
Team Fortress 2 - perfect 60fps (or ~200fps without vsync)
Fallout 3 - perfect 60 fps
Stalker: Clear Sky - I'd venture a guess at 40-60fps, maxed out. I think that's roughly what I would get in CoP (though mostly 60fps).
 
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