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

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Can anyone recommend the preferable 560ti to pickup? I game at 1920x1200 so I hear that the 2gb one might be my best bet...hoping that that + an i2500k will be substantial for BF3/Skyrim.
 
vaelic said:
Guys, I dont even know where to start ive been out of the mobo/processor game for awhile now.. please assist in what would be the best upgrade for my current setup

Basic Desktop Questions:
Your Current Specs: INTEL Q6600 2.4 / 4GB DDR2 / ASUS P5B / RADEON 5850
Budget: $400 / US
Main Use: Gaaming
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Battlefield 3, Star Wars Old Republic MMO
Are reusing any parts?: custom case / radeon 5850 / coolmax CUG-700B (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159058)
When will you build?: Was hoping to buy parts at newegg before Battlefield 3 but could always wait until December
Will you be overclocking?: No

It appears all I need to buy parts for are a MB,CPU and MEMORY. MY P/S should work with i5 or so, right?
2500K + $110-$160 mobo + $50 for 8GB DDR3 and you are set.
Prodigal said:
Can anyone recommend the preferable 560ti to pickup? I game at 1920x1200 so I hear that the 2gb one might be my best bet...hoping that that + an i2500k will be substantial for BF3/Skyrim.
Only need 2GB if you want to install a giant texture pack I think. Money wise a 6950 would be better if you are ok with AMD. Otherwise it looks like the one eVGA 2GB option is the way to go.
InertiaXr said:
Does anybody know of a free utility that will combine .mp4 files for me? I have about 100 of these but they are all between 10-15 minutes, I'd like to combine them into about 2 hour chunks.
Virtualdub can do that. You need to make sure you compress the video though it will re-encode the whole thing (I think).
Probably a much better way to do this.
 
Hazaro said:
2500K + $110-$160 mobo + $50 for 8GB DDR3 and you are set.

.
Thanks man:

can you recommend a:
MB model
memory type
Also, if I wanted a SSD (cheap in price but still decent) which do you recommend?

Thanks! Looking to use newegg credit
 
Hazaro said:
Only need 2GB if you want to install a giant texture pack I think. Money wise a 6950 would be better if you are ok with AMD. Otherwise it looks like the one eVGA 2GB option is the way to go.

Kinda hesitant to go the AMD route, I also thought I saw someone saying 2gb is helpful at higher resolutions (but maybe not).
 
vaelic said:
Thanks man:

can you recommend a:
MB model
memory type
Also, if I wanted a SSD (cheap in price but still decent) which do you recommend?

Thanks! Looking to use newegg credit
In the OP.
Mobo choice up to you and how much you want to spend.
Prodigal said:
Kinda hesitant to go the AMD route, I also thought I saw someone saying 2gb is helpful at higher resolutions (but maybe not).
2560x1600 sure. 1920x not so much. Plus you need the GPU horsepower to not get terrible frames after you turn on higher than 4xAA with a 25GB texture pack.
 
Grrrr.....

My PC is restarting without warning. After a few minutes of being in Windows, it will restart and then start/restart very quickly, even before booting into Windows.

Tried switching RAM spots. Tried taking one video card out. Reverted overclock.

This is going to be a bitch to troubleshoot...

The fact that it seems to take a few minutes to build up before it starts its retarting sequence makes me think something is overheating...but temps seem fine.
 
Is it irrational to expect steady 60fps in L4D2 at 1280x1024 on an OC E5700 and a 4850 1GB?

On a related note, do you think it would be wise to upgrade to a faster graphics card while keeping the same CPU for now?
 
TheExodu5 said:
Grrrr.....

My PC is restarting without warning. After a few minutes of being in Windows, it will restart and then start/restart very quickly, even before booting into Windows.

Tried switching RAM spots. Tried taking one video card out. Reverted overclock.

This is going to be a bitch to troubleshoot...

The fact that it seems to take a few minutes to build up before it starts its retarting sequence makes me think something is overheating...but temps seem fine.

Fighting a similar issue with mine right now too, put a new motherboard in over a week ago, everything ran great for a week then started getting radom freezes yesterday. I figured it was a OC or thermal problem as well so I reverted to bios defaults and left it sitting on the BIOS health screen and it froze there too, temps never got over 35C. Really at a loss, I just swapped back to my old motherboard and everything is running well again. The only components that are different are the ram and motherboard, so it has to be either a bad mobo, bad or incompatible ram (it's Kingston 1.5v so I don't think incompatible and the problem occured using 2 different single sticks so I don't think I have more than 1 bad ram module), or an installation issue. I think I'm going to try upgrading one of my other systems with the new mobo and ram and see if I encounter the same problems.
 
DarkUSS said:
Is it irrational to expect steady 60fps in L4D2 at 1280x1024 on an OC E5700 and a 4850 1GB?

On a related note, do you think it would be wise to upgrade to a faster graphics card while keeping the same CPU for now?
The Source engine can be finicky for some people. On my e5200 with 4850 I would get framerate dips to 30-40fps in L4D2. The framerate dips were annoying in a game like that. When my 4850 died and I replaced it with a GTS250 which is similar in performance to the 4850 now I have no issue getting a steady 60fps. Makes no sense. Seems to be luck of the draw, just be happy you don't get the stuttering problem that some people get in L4D2.
 
I have a dilemma. Plx assist.

I currently have the following:

-AMD Phenom II X3 720 @ 2.8GHz (Stock)
-Gigabyte MA-770T-UD3P Mobo (AM3, low end)
-Mushkin 2x2gb DDR3-1333
-XFX Radeon HD 4890 1gb

It's been a good gaming rig for the last 2.5 years, especially for the price, but it's beginning to show it's age. I'm thinking I need to upgrade/switch between now and Xmas.

Do I upgrade a bit, and then wait longer to build a new system (Intel)?

-Phenom II X4 965, OC'd to around 4.0GHz
-Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
-MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozr III PE/OC

Or do I build a whole new Intel system now?

I'd re-use the GTX 570 in the future Intel build... I'm just debating if it's worth switching to that X4 or I'm basically flushing $130 down the drain.
 
DarkUSS said:
Is it irrational to expect steady 60fps in L4D2 at 1280x1024 on an OC E5700 and a 4850 1GB?

On a related note, do you think it would be wise to upgrade to a faster graphics card while keeping the same CPU for now?
Overclocked CPU should do it.
Stasis said:
I have a dilemma. Plx assist.

I currently have the following:

-AMD Phenom II X3 720 @ 2.8GHz (Stock)
-Gigabyte MA-770T-UD3P Mobo (AM3, low end)
-Mushkin 2x2gb DDR3-1333
-XFX Radeon HD 4890 1gb

It's been a good gaming rig for the last 2.5 years, especially for the price, but it's beginning to show it's age. I'm thinking I need to upgrade/switch between now and Xmas.

Do I upgrade a bit, and then wait longer to build a new system (Intel)?

-Phenom II X4 965, OC'd to around 4.0GHz
-Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
-MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozr III PE/OC

Or do I build a whole new Intel system now?

I'd re-use the GTX 570 in the future Intel build... I'm just debating if it's worth switching to that X4 or I'm basically flushing $130 down the drain.
I'd just clock up the x3 and plop in a new GPU.
 
Backed off the BCLK on my motherboard (100.2 -> 100) and set the CPU values back to default (speed stepping, etc), even though the clocks and voltages are the same.

Hasn't rebooted in 30 minutes even when stress testing. It must be the BCLK, or at least be motherboard related.
 
Hazaro said:
I'd just clock up the x3 and plop in a new GPU.

I debated that as well... just probably couldn't get it above 3.4GHz. I figured switching to the 965 and OC'ing to 4.0GHz would give me a decent boost for upcoming titles.

You think an X3 @ 3.4 will be able to handle BF3/Skyrim if I'm running a GTX 570?
 
Hazaro said:
Virtualdub can do that. You need to make sure you compress the video though it will re-encode the whole thing (I think).
Probably a much better way to do this.
Virtualdub is the quickest way. Open up a video, scroll to the end, append one, make sure it is on direct copy otherwise it will make a massive file, save as avi, repeat.
 
vaelic said:
Guys, I dont even know where to start ive been out of the mobo/processor game for awhile now.. please assist in what would be the best upgrade for my current setup

Basic Desktop Questions:
Your Current Specs: INTEL Q6600 2.4 / 4GB DDR2 / ASUS P5B / RADEON 5850
Budget: $400 / US
Main Use: Gaaming
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Battlefield 3, Star Wars Old Republic MMO
Are reusing any parts?: custom case / radeon 5850 / coolmax CUG-700B (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159058)
When will you build?: Was hoping to buy parts at newegg before Battlefield 3 but could always wait until December
Will you be overclocking?: No

It appears all I need to buy parts for are a MB,CPU and MEMORY. MY P/S should work with i5 or so, right?
What if u just upgraded the graphics card? I have the same setup and switched my hd4850 for a gtx560Ti and holy crap!
I also over clocked the CPU to 3ghz. Big difference :)
 
TheExodu5 said:
Stress test the computer for 45 minutes. No issues. 15 minutes later when browsing forums, random reboot.

I'm at a loss...
Network related? So something with your ethernet port or drivers?
 
XiaNaphryz said:
Network related? So something with your ethernet port or drivers?

Probably not network related. Just using a wireless USB card at the moment, and when it starts rebooting, it may even reboot during bootup or in the BIOS, at a time when I'm guessing the wireless network card shouldn't be doing anything.

Bringing the BCLK from 100.2 -> 100 may have helped, so I decreased it to 97 now. We'll see how it goes.

I've had to RMA this motherboard for a while anyways, since it was struck by the 1155 SATA 2 issue. I just haven't gotten around to it. Hopefully swapping motherboards will fix the issue. Until I can swap it or get my system stable, no PC gaming for me. Good thing I have Dark Souls to play for now.
 
TheExodu5 said:
Probably not network related. Just using a wireless USB card at the moment, and when it starts rebooting, it may even reboot during bootup or in the BIOS, at a time when I'm guessing the wireless network card shouldn't be doing anything.

Probably bad motherboard. You get reboots outside of windows, so not a virus. Removing a bunch of power hungry hardware didn't fix it, so doubtful it's power.
 
teh_pwn said:
Probably bad motherboard. You get reboots outside of windows, so not a virus. Removing a bunch of power hungry hardware didn't fix it, so doubtful it's power.

Yep, my thoughts exactly. Bringing down the BCLK 'seems' to have helped, which would probably indicate a motherboard issue as well.

Stressing the CPU and GPU (and by association, the PSU) doesn't do anything to speed up the rebooting process, so I'm assuming I can clear those 3 components from possible issues. Well, I suppose it could still be the CPU, but I think I would expect blue screens in that case. Memory issues should result in blue screen as well.

If motherboard doesn't fix it, then I think I'll have to assume it's PSU related. Kind of doubtful with an AX850, though.
 
Got my case (500r) and motherboard (Extreme4 Gen3). Tomorrow I should get my NH-D14, and the replacement fans (TY-140s) and CPU (2500k) should arrive soon after. Had my SSD (128GB M4) since the Buy.com sale.

Reusing everything else. Waiting is the worst part of the whole process :(
 
chrisisawesome said:
What if u just upgraded the graphics card? I have the same setup and switched my hd4850 for a gtx560Ti and holy crap!
I also over clocked the CPU to 3ghz. Big difference :)
really? think just upgrading from 5850 to a new card with current setup is all I need??
 
vaelic said:
really? think just upgrading from 5850 to a new card with current setup is all I need??

I would upgrade CPU before GPU on your setup. 5850 is still a very good card, and not really that far off from a 560 Ti.

perfrel.gif


Go with Hazaro's recommendation.
 
TheExodu5 said:
I would upgrade CPU before GPU on your setup. 5850 is still a very good card, and not really that far off from a 560 Ti.



Go with Hazaro's recommendation.
will do, ty. Ill post back. Also, is there a GAF overclocking your processor/video card forum post anywhere?
 
Can anyone suggest a good left-handed mouse?

chaosblade said:
Got my case (500r) and motherboard (Extreme4 Gen3). Tomorrow I should get my NH-D14, and the replacement fans (TY-140s) and CPU (2500k) should arrive soon after. Had my SSD (128GB M4) since the Buy.com sale.

Reusing everything else. Waiting is the worst part of the whole process :(
If only everything could be as efficient as the Memphis warehouse.
 
vaelic said:
will do, ty. Ill post back. Also, is there a GAF overclocking your processor/video card forum post anywhere?
2500K guide is in OP.
GPU overclocking any guide, procedure is the same with msi afterburner or rivatuner.
 
TheExodu5 said:
Thanks for the link. I haven't heard the greatest things about Razer products but you're probably right about it being tough to beat, if only because there don't seem to be any other left-handed mice.

I researched it a bit and the buttons are switched—I guess as they should be—and since I've used ambidextrous mice all my life, that would be difficult to use. I wonder how much of an annoyance it would be to switch back in Windows.
 
Schmattakopf said:
Thanks for the link. I haven't heard the greatest things about Razer products but you're probably right about it being tough to beat, if only because there don't seem to be any other left-handed mice.

I researched it a bit and the buttons are switched—I guess as they should be—and since I've used ambidextrous mice all my life, that would be difficult to use. I wonder how much of an annoyance it would be to switch back in Windows.

From a NewEgg review:

Cons: A very minor issue - straight out of the box, the default mouse buttons are reversed (instead of a single click being on the left button, it's on the right) - but you can easily change this once you install the drivers. Took me a few minutes to figure this out.

I will warn about one thing: most issues I've seen with Razer products have to do with drivers, so be forewarned if you're forced to use them.
 
Got another restart about an hour ago. Took my 100Mhz BCLK down to 97MHz. No restarts since. I'm getting pretty confident that this is a motherboard issue.

Gvaz said:
Why do usb keyboards only get about 6 keys at once out of usb, but some get n-key rollover out of ps/2?

Likely because the standard keyboard USB protocol is limiting the keyboard. Some keyboards allow for n-key rollover over USB when using custom drivers.
 
TheExodu5 said:
Likely because the standard keyboard USB protocol is limiting the keyboard. Some keyboards allow for n-key rollover over USB when using custom drivers.
Is there one for the DAS? I tried googling and didn't find anything.
 
So I think I'm starting to get all the parts together, just looking for some more ideas or recommendations.

This is the set up I'm looking at

CPU: i5-2500k 219.95
GPU: GTX 570 334.99
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-VPRO 194.99
RAM: CORSAIR Vengance 4GB x2 47.98
Hard Drive: Samsung F4 2TB 79.99
PSU: Seasonic X750 159.99
Case: Corsair 400R 99.99
Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24bist 18.99
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212+ 25.00
SSD: Crucial M4 128GB 197.99

Anything that I should add or change ?
 
littleworm said:
So I think I'm starting to get all the parts together, just looking for some more ideas or recommendations.

This is the set up I'm looking at

CPU: i5-2500k 219.95
GPU: GTX 570 334.99
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-VPRO 194.99
RAM: CORSAIR Vengance 4GB x2 47.98
Hard Drive: Samsung F4 2TB 79.99
PSU: Seasonic X750 159.99
Case: Corsair 400R 99.99
Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24bist 18.99
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212+ 25.00
SSD: Crucial M4 128GB 197.99

Anything that I should add or change ?

Not quite sure, but there might be a price drop on the p8z68 since gen3 is coming out (or in stock) on Tuesday. You can get the 2500k for $180 at microcenter or price matched with ncix.
 
littleworm said:
So I think I'm starting to get all the parts together, just looking for some more ideas or recommendations.

This is the set up I'm looking at

CPU: i5-2500k 219.95
GPU: GTX 570 334.99
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-VPRO 194.99
RAM: CORSAIR Vengance 4GB x2 47.98
Hard Drive: Samsung F4 2TB 79.99
PSU: Seasonic X750 159.99
Case: Corsair 400R 99.99
Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24bist 18.99
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212+ 25.00
SSD: Crucial M4 128GB 197.99

Anything that I should add or change ?
Looks fantastic. Is it the low profile RAM so your fan will fit fine on the PSU?
T-Matt said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030 Antec neo eco 520w
Is this a better buy than the corsair cx430? It's my last decision, about to order.
I would say I think the NEO ECO is a better PSU.
 
Gvaz said:
Is there one for the DAS? I tried googling and didn't find anything.

No, and I don't personally know of any kind of custom drivers that could do this. The issue is with the hardware itself and interactions with USB protocol. Almost no keyboards are capable of full NKRO over USB, though a lot of them can do this over a PS/2 connection because it is much simpler. That said, full NKRO is really not that big of a deal.
 
Wallach said:
No, and I don't personally know of any kind of custom drivers that could do this. The issue is with the hardware itself and interactions with USB protocol. Almost no keyboards are capable of full NKRO over USB, though a lot of them can do this over a PS/2 connection because it is much simpler. That said, full NKRO is really not that big of a deal.
So I guess if I wanted full nkro I'd have to use the ps2 adapter, yeah?
 
Wallach said:
No, and I don't personally know of any kind of custom drivers that could do this. The issue is with the hardware itself and interactions with USB protocol. Almost no keyboards are capable of full NKRO over USB, though a lot of them can do this over a PS/2 connection because it is much simpler. That said, full NKRO is really not that big of a deal.

I can't remember the models, but I did read of a few keyboards that do NKRO over USB. It's simply a matter of using a custom USB protocol. Since USB keyboards are polled and not interrupt based, there's no reason a custom driver can't allow for NKRO.

edit: Noppoo Choc keyboards have NKRO over USB.
 
Great thread you guys have going on here. I've recently came into a little bit of money and have decided that i need to upgrade/get a new rig.

After looking around, i've compiled this list of parts..

Motherboard - Asus M4A87TD/USB3 870 Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX - £71.60
Proccesor - AMD Phenom II X6 Black Edition 1090T 3.2GHz Socket AM3 9MB - £140.10
HDD - Hitachi Deskstar 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - £44.99
RAM - Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V - £39.84
CASE - NZXT Phantom White Full Tower - £104.99
ViewSonic VX2439WM LCD TFT 24" HDMI Monitor - £145.79
For now i'm just going to stick in my 1gb nvid430 and a spare optical drive.

What do you think? This is going to be my first full build, the prices are from ebuyer.com

I'm sure that i am going to be happy with it, the case leaves a lot of room for expansion :D
 
TheExodu5 said:
I can't remember the models, but I did read of a few keyboards that do NKRO over USB. It's simply a matter of using a custom USB protocol. Since USB keyboards are polled and not interrupt based, there's no reason a custom driver can't allow for NKRO.

edit: Noppoo Choc keyboards have NKRO over USB.

They do that because the hardware has a custom switch matrix and thus custom keyboard controller. A custom driver on a different board isn't going to matter.
 
Wallach said:
They do that because the hardware has a custom switch matrix and thus custom keyboard controller. A custom driver on a different board isn't going to matter.

I didn't want to imply that a custom driver could be used for any keyboard. Yeah a custom controller would be needed to implement a different protocol.

I'd be curious to see what the actual default USB keyboard protocol looks like.

edit: considering that USB keyboard support needs to be motherboard level (since USB keyboards work in the BIOS), creating a custom driver for a keyboard is a fair amount of work just for > 6KRO.

edit: easy answer for the 6KRO thing:

http://pjrc.com/teensy/usb_keyboard.html

keyboard_keys[6]
This 6 byte array represents the non-modifier keys that are currently pressed. You can only press 6 of the non-modifier keys at once. Set these to zero when not pressing a key.

Yup. That's a pretty hard limitation.
 
Hazaro said:
Right on the money.

Awesome. It really wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. The guide in the OP helped a lot.

Good recommendation on this Biostar tz68a+ mobo. The bios is really nice and has all the OC options for CPu and ram in one screen called O.N.E. Its's a great buy for the price ($100).

Though if anyone is thinking about buying one, you should be warned that it has a very odd hole placement for the standoffs. It's not in any common configuration so if you want to use them all you should check to see if your case has the right holes. The standard AtX placement only allows 7/9 to go in.
 
Stolen from HardForum, someone's WASD keyboard:

WASDkeyboard003.jpg


WASDkeyboard005.jpg


Looks pretty sharp!

I think I'm going to hold out for the new O-Rings in mid-November. I'll place my order then.
 
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