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[vaelic]

www.overclock.net, or you can PM me any and all questions you have. I'll send you a PM to get an idea of the baseline level of WC'ing you're going for.


You are in luck, as last weekend I upgraded a friend's system that was literally the same setup. We put in a 2500K + 8GB DDR3 + H100 + Maximus IV Gene-Z and it was a complete different experience. OC'd the 2500K to 4.8 stable. 5850 was rocking Skyrim, BF3, and Tribes absolutely fine.

As to your PSU, yes.

first off, thanks for the help!

A few questions:

1: if i dont O/C the 2500k will I still notice speed improvement?

2: Can you recommend a guide/site/video on how to overclock
that 2500k?

3: Never bought a micro-atx board before. Will it line-up/work correctly in a normal sized ATX case?

4: I'll probably just use the stock cpu fan for now. will that be ok for overclocking? If not, what fan do you recommend for the 2500k?

thanks again!

 

[mkenyon]

first off, thanks for the help!

A few questions:

1: if i dont O/C the 2500k will I still notice speed improvement?

2: Can you recommend a guide/site/video on how to overclock
that 2500k?

3: Never bought a micro-atx board before. Will it line-up/work correctly in a normal sized ATX case?

4: I'll probably just use the stock cpu fan for now. will that be ok for overclocking? If not, what fan do you recommend for the 2500k?

thanks again!

1. Yes, but you should anyway. Makes OC'ing your Q6600 look like rocket science. You change core voltage and multiplier, and that's it.

2. Not really necessary, per above. Depending on what cooling situation you have and what you're trying to get out of it, we can guide you through it here.

3. Most ATX cases accept mATX boards.

4. Would not recommend. If you're looking to spend as little as possible, the CM Hyper 212+ is always a favorite.

 

[scitek]

Where do I ask this?

Anyone with an ATI 6950 or higher, can you help me? I'm using the latest version of RadeonPro, and in the drop-down menu under Anti-Aliasing are two options, "Use application settings" and "Override application settings." I opened up CCC for a minute yesterday, and I noticed there should also be an "Enhance application settings" option along with "4xEQ" and "8xEQ" settings on the slider. I closed CCC, and lo and behold, all of this was somehow added to RadeonPro. I restart my PC, and now I can't get it back again. I'd like to make use of the EQAA settings, any idea how to get it in there for good?

 

[vaelic]

1. Yes, but you should anyway. Makes OC'ing your Q6600 look like rocket science. You change core voltage and multiplier, and that's it.

2. Not really necessary, per above. Depending on what cooling situation you have and what you're trying to get out of it, we can guide you through it here.

3. Most ATX cases accept mATX boards.

4. Would not recommend. If you're looking to spend as little as possible, the CM Hyper 212+ is always a favorite.

awesome, ty.

so for #4, this little guy here is the one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

 

[mkenyon]

awesome, ty.

so for #4, this little guy here is the one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Yep!

 

[vaelic]

Yep!

could you link me to DDR3 memory you recommend, on newegg? thats where ill be buying all of this

 

[mkenyon]

could you link me to DDR3 memory you recommend, on newegg? thats where ill be buying all of this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233196

For some reason they are out of the less expensive 8GB kit that's in black. Criteria you want if you can find some other stuff: 1.5V, 8GB, DDR3, and low profile heat spreaders. Gskill Sniper is another popular choice.

 

[vaelic]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233196

For some reason they are out of the less expensive 8GB kit that's in black. Criteria you want if you can find some other stuff: 1.5V, 8GB, DDR3, and low profile heat spreaders. Gskill Sniper is another popular choice.

such as these?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460

 

[Hazaro]

There is also a 2500K OC guide in the OP news section.

Here are approximate targets:
1.25V 4.2Ghz
1.28V 4.4Ghz
1.30V 4.5Ghz+

imo I would keep sub 1.30V, 1.25V if possible.

*
Or 1600Mhz, yes.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231416

 

[vaelic]

There is also a 2500K OC guide in the OP news section.

Here are approximate targets:
1.25V 4.2Ghz
1.28V 4.4Ghz
1.30V 4.5Ghz+

imo I would keep sub 1.30V, 1.25V if possible.

*
Or 1600Mhz, yes.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231416

perfect. ty

Two last questions, then I think I am set

1. could you direct link me to the correct 2500k processor to get, on newegg?

2. I have a PCI x-fi sound card. I imagine with this new MB, the sound quality will be roughly the same, since I will be using that onboard sound instead?

 

[Hazaro]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
I don't think there is an OEM version.

You can use onboard see how it sounds, then put in your x-fi and see how that sounds. Unless you are getting a mobo without a PCI slot of course.

 

[vaelic]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
I don't think there is an OEM version.

You can use onboard see how it sounds, then put in your x-fi and see how that sounds. Unless you are getting a mobo without a PCI slot of course.

yea, unfortunately I dont think the MB recommended above has room for a sound card

two PCI Express x1 slots, one PCI Express x4 slot

 

[mcrae]

well, switched to a hyper 212+ for my i5 750, and went from 66-70 idle to 25 idle. had the stock cooler on it before, something must have been wrong with the pins or i dunno. the thermal paste looked like i didnt put enough on.. but it came pre-coated. shrug, im happy now! off to see what load temperatures are like... before i would hit 96-99 on all 4 cores when playing bf3 on all low settings, and once those temps hit performance would slow to a chug, all after 20 minutes. probably best 30 bucks ive spent in a while..

edit: but apparently i put my sound card back into the wrong slot, or something, since my computer doesnt recognize it. lol, oh boy..

 

[·feist·]

Nvidia GTX 560 Ti 448 rumors & salt time: (not that this wouldn't be expected performance)

http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/733/733036.shtml

*click for 1,126px × 672px

yea, unfortunately I dont think the MB recommended above has room for a sound card

two PCI Express x1 slots, one PCI Express x4 slot

You may want to consider another good P67, or Z68 board. Alternatively, a PCI Express to PCI adapter card may be doable in your case. Cooler wise, you can look into one of these budget options.

 

[vaelic]

Nvidia GTX 560 Ti 448 rumors & salt time: (not that this wouldn't be expected performance)

http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/733/733036.shtml

*click for 1,126px × 672px


You may want to consider another good P67, or Z68 board. Alternatively, a PCI Express to PCI adapter card may be doable in your case. Cooler wise, you can look into one of these budget options.

any suggestion on another good MB? Do you really think losing my X-FI card and using the integrated X-FI would be much different?

 

[·feist·]

any suggestion on another good MB? Do you really think losing my X-FI card and using the integrated X-FI would be much different?

Can't go wrong with any of the models mentioned in the OP, though the Gene-Z is one of the best boards on sale. Also from the OP:

5/28/2011: Best overall i5/i7 2500K/2600K P67 overclocking guide (clunk.org)

 

[TheExecutive]

1. OK, so I am in the middle of a build and was wondering if anyone has heard of any great deals on the asus GTX 570 for black friday or just general deals?


2. I have already bought the ASUS P8Z68 for my motherboard and was looking at this case: Antec Twelve Hundred V3. However, where the hell would I ever plug those fans into? From the looks of it the P8Z68 only has two case fan plugins. I am a complete noob at this stuff so please dont burn me for asking these questions!

 

[·feist·]

1. OK, so I am in the middle of a build and was wondering if anyone has heard of any great deals on the asus GTX 570 for black friday or just general deals?


2. I have already bought the ASUS P8Z68 for my motherboard and was looking at this case: Antec Twelve Hundred V3. However, where the hell would I ever plug those fans into? From the looks of it the P8Z68 only has two case fan plugins. I am a complete noob at this stuff so please dont burn me for asking these questions!

1. Haven't been following any, personally.
2. You'd plug them into the PSU directly. Even in V3 form, the 1200 is past its prime. See if any of these pique your interest.

 

[TheExecutive]

1. Haven't been following any, personally.
2. You'd plug them into the PSU directly. Even in V3 form, the 1200 is past its prime. See if any of these pique your interest.

Ok thanks. I saw those in the OP. What makes the case past its prime? Just wondering what to look for. As for my setup I do not plan to raid my disks. I plan on SLI'ing the 570's down the road and I am looking to overclock the CPU and GPU and want to make sure I will have the room needed and the airflow required to perform all that stuff.

 

[Lain]

I'm building a new PC from scratch and used the "The Get a Lot More Build: ~$1000" build from the OP as a starting point.
A couple items from the list I wasn't able to find on the shop I'm going to use (graphic card, soundcard and optical drive), so I wanted to ask (since many years have gone by from when I followed PC stuff and built my PC), are these good substitutes?
Graphic card
Soundcard
Optical Drive

Also, is this monitor good?
HP ZR24w
Lastly, what's a good router?

 

[Cuban Legend]

Guys I think my only gaming rig died, oh God my baby... I've had her base since I custom built her from a Newegg wishlist from late 2006 with ~$2,000, since then I upgraded her CPU/RAM/GPU & today she plays BF3 in the 30fps+ range on LOW @ 1680x1050.

I was playing LA Noire straight for about 12 hours and she just shutoff, I'm an idiot. Now when I restart her she gets to the Windows 7 OS loading screen the entire screen goes black and the top 10 or to pixels get all glitchty almost resembling my GPU dying or something... I usually tear her down completely & dust her off inch-by-inch and put her back together along with a fresh OS install every six months but It's been a year since I last did that... FUCK MY LAZYNESS.

Here's the rig history:
PC parts purchased @ 9/18/2006:
CPU- AMD Athlon X2 4200+ 2.2GHz - Dual-Core Socket AM2 CPU
MOBO- ASUS Crosshair - Socket AM2/AM2+ Mobo
GPU- 2xASUS NVIDIA 7950GX2 1GB GPU
RAM- Corsair 2x1GB DDR2-800 4-4-4-12
PSU- 600 Watt Kingwin PSU
HDD- 2x250GB SATA Seagate Baracuda
CASE- Coolermaster CM Stacker 830 Full Tower (v1)
-Total Cost: just under $2,000 USD
-3DMark06 score in 2006: ~8,000 (overclcoked cpu/gpu/ram)

Upgrades done to this PC until today:
$120 AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0GHz Black Edition - Quad-Core Socket AM2+ CPU
$80 PNY NVIDIA 9800GT 1GB GPU
FREE 2x2GB of DDR2-667 5-5-5-20
-3DMark06 score in 2011: ~12,000 (all stock)

It could run the BF3 beta fine ALL LOW @1680x1050. lows @ 20's highs at 50's+ 25-45 average.

-Edit: The Quad-Core Phenom 2 CPU is idling at 54c+ idle, it used to idle at 44c when new. I know It's not officially supported CPU by my mobo, but the TDP on the CPU is the best AMD CPU that barely fits it's TDP under what the mobo can handle. It's posting thanks to a custom user-made BIOS built to allow Phenom 2's on this mobo, someone built on the ASUS forums.

Any suggestions to cleaning out the PSU? She POSTs fine but her temps are through the roof in the BIOS on idle. I cracked her open and dustbunnies have taken over her interior circuits/heat-sinks really badly, shit even the PSU has a huge dustbunny all over the capacitors and the coils! I promise I'll never neglect her in her old age for this long ever again, I need help to salvage my baby, GAF!

 

[Hazaro]

I wouldn't bother with a DS since it lacks the amp. I'd give onboard a shot first.
The GPU is fine, but the GB 570's seems to have a higher rate of DOA.
I'm not too well versed in Blu-Ray drives to say, same for IPS monitors. I think there is an IPS variant that is more around $300 though?

Router is anything you can flash DD-WRT / Tomato firmware on.

Guys I think my only gaming rig died, oh God my baby... I've had her base since I custom built her from a Newegg wishlist from late 2006 with ~$2,000, since then I upgraded her CPU/RAM/GPU & today she plays BF3 in the 30fps+ range on LOW @ 1680x1050.

Any suggestions to cleaning out the PSU? She POSTs fine but her temps are through the roof in the BIOS on idle. I cracked her open and dustbunnies have taken over her interior circuits/heat-sinks really badly, shit even the PSU has a huge dustbunny all over the capacitors and the coils! I promise I'll never neglect her in her old age for this long ever again, I need help to salvage my baby, GAF!

Canned air or one of these. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001J4ZOAW/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Then run a SMART test, memtest 86+, reapply thermalpaste/heatsink, check idle/load temps, CPU stress, GPU stress, check 12V/3.3V/5V voltages.

 

[brotkasten]

www.overclock.net, or you can PM me any and all questions you have. I'll send you a PM to get an idea of the baseline level of WC'ing you're going for.


You are in luck, as last weekend I upgraded a friend's system that was literally the same setup. We put in a 2500K + 8GB DDR3 + H100 + Maximus IV Gene-Z and it was a complete different experience. OC'd the 2500K to 4.8 stable. 5850 was rocking Skyrim, BF3, and Tribes absolutely fine.

As to your PSU, yes.

Any reason why I should gt this one over the Asus P8Z68-V/Gen3? Or is it really just for mATX enthusiasts?

 

[Cuban Legend]

Canned air or one of these. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001J4ZOAW/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Then run a SMART test, memtest 86+, reapply thermalpaste/heatsink, check idle/load temps, CPU stress, GPU stress, check 12V/3.3V/5V voltages.

Thanks bro. The first thing I did was run memtest, RAM is fine but everything is running at least 15-20 degrees to high... and the voltges were fucked too according to the BIOS.

So I Ground myself, open her up and disconnect all her wires, pulled out all the components and got everything down to it's bare parts. I've canned-air dusted every component including the case, so far so good. The PSU is left.

I carefully opened the PSU and its got a rapid dust-bunny intertwined into the entire thing, dear god it's like a web of solid dust... it's covering the 2 large capacitors, the inductor coils, the wiring, and the circuitry. It's on cardboard sitting wide open with the 2 internal case fans unscrewed and loosened to the sides. Should I ground myself to this and try the canned air, will the pressure from it be ok? Or how do i check to make sure the PSU is not still charged somehow?

Iv'e never dusted a PSU interior before that was this bad...

 

[vaelic]

Any reason why I should gt this one over the Asus P8Z68-V/Gen3? Or is it really just for mATX enthusiasts?

I'm confused as to what NEGATIVES the mATX brings, other than less PCI slots?

 

[Hazaro]

Thanks bro. The first thing I did was run memtest, RAM is fine but everything is running at least 15-20 degrees to high... and the voltges were fucked too according to the BIOS.

So I Ground myself, open her up and disconnect all her wires, pulled out all the components and got everything down to it's bare parts. I've canned-air dusted every component including the case, so far so good. The PSU is left.

I carefully opened the PSU and its got a rapid dust-bunny intertwined into the entire thing, dear god it's like a web of solid dust... it's covering the 2 large capacitors, the inductor coils, the wiring, and the circuitry. It's on cardboard sitting wide open with the 2 internal case fans unscrewed and loosened to the sides. Should I ground myself to this and try the canned air, will the pressure from it be ok? Or how do i check to make sure the PSU is not still charged somehow?

Iv'e never dusted a PSU interior before that was this bad...

Just let the PSU sit without power (unplugged) for 10 minutes or so. Longer the better.
Stick something in the fan when you dust so the fans don't spin. I think it can hurt the fan.
Post model of PSU as well, might not even be 12V spec and it's degraded too much and overheated cutting cap life / capacity.

*and I gotta run

 

[mkenyon]

I'm confused as to what NEGATIVES the mATX brings, other than less PCI slots?

That's literally it with this board.

Any reason why I should gt this one over the Asus P8Z68-V/Gen3? Or is it really just for mATX enthusiasts?

It's just more feature rich. Voltage regulators and parts are really top notch allowing a more stable OC. The UEFI/BIOS itself is full of options and features you cant find anywhere else as well. There's some really cool stuff you can do with the RoG series motherboards, like change OC settings in BIOS in real time by hooking up a laptop to it. Can be running a stress test or benchmark while fiddling with every small detail.

I'm not kidding when I say you're getting all the features of a $330 motherboard with a few less expansion slots.

 

[WORLDWIDEWII]

curious on what "set up" i need to buy..
will be hooking up the pc to my 40 inch TV, to watch stream videos off the web.

but also want to play games like Star crafts 2 in max setting!

thoughts?

will "enhanced" be sufficient? thanks!

 

[mkenyon]

Not familiar with the exact requirements of SCII, but I know that it's fairly CPU intensive. An OC'd 2500K ought to suit your needs, so enhanced is probably your best choice.

 

[brotkasten]

It's just more feature rich. Voltage regulators and parts are really top notch allowing a more stable OC. The UEFI/BIOS itself is full of options and features you cant find anywhere else as well. There's some really cool stuff you can do with the RoG series motherboards, like change OC settings in BIOS in real time by hooking up a laptop to it. Can be running a stress test or benchmark while fiddling with every small detail.

I'm not kidding when I say you're getting all the features of a $330 motherboard with a few less expansion slots.

Sounds good. Both boards cost the same here.

 

[Cuban Legend]

Just let the PSU sit without power (unplugged) for 10 minutes or so. Longer the better.
Stick something in the fan when you dust so the fans don't spin. I think it can hurt the fan.
Post model of PSU as well, might not even be 12V spec and it's degraded too much and overheated cutting cap life / capacity.

*and I gotta run

Thanks a lot, bro. just checking to make sure all I had to do was wait a bit for it to chill itself out. Alright, done and done. It's all clean now. I swabbed out whatever hard dust the air can didnt blow out. Thing was like a labyrinth of dust...

It's a "KINGWIN Mach 1 ABT-600MA1S 600W ATX 12V Ver.2.2 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply" 2008 revision of my original 2006 unit since I RMA'd it when I made a noob mistake and unplugged an internal PSU cord while the power was still connected and switched on while in a hurry... never made that mistake again.

Click the Image to go to the Newegg page for it:


Edit: After throughly cleaning everything back to near mint dust free-condition, I have a trash can and 2 lungs full of old/hard dust to prove it.

I put it back together and the CPU is now back to idling at 42 from 62 earlier. I also added some negative air pressure to the case by adding 5x140CFM Silverstone 120MM fans as replacement for the stock Collermaster ones. 1 in rear, 1 in front, and 2 on the bottom of the case's side "4-way fan rack", all running at 1,100 RPM, and one on the top running at max 2200+ RPM all with clean new dust filters.

I havent tried booting into windows yet, I've observing all this through the BIOS so far. Should it be safe to boot her up and try some benches (if she doesnt hang like before)?

 

[mkenyon]

Go for it.

 

[Tashi]

I have a quick question. My sister's laptop has all but crashed and I'm having issues backing up her data before I go ahead and reinstall Windows 7. The laptop refuses to read my external HDD and runs soooo slow. So, I'd like to hook the 2.5'' laptop HDD to my desktop PC. I'm looking for an adapter so that I can connect that HDD to my PC.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119245

I'm looking at this product here but it connects through IDE and I don't believe my PC has any IDE ports. This is my MoBo

Could I connect that 2.5'' to IDE wire to something like this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812240012

Or is there another way to do it that I'm not seeing?

Thanks

 

[mkenyon]

Is her HDD an IDE drive?

 

[Tashi]

Is her HDD an IDE drive?

No

 

[mkenyon]

No

Whelp, you can just plug it in with a SATA cable right into your mobo as if you were simply adding another HDD then. No adapter needed.

 

[Mulligan]

So i've built my PC, now trying to install windows 7 with difficulty..

I have a 64GB SSD connected atm. In BIOS it is boot option one and i have enablded ACHI mode. When i reboot out of BIOS i am greeted with 'Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media and press a key'. I put windows 7 disc in rewriter and pressed a key but it just copys the message everytime i press a key. I tried rebooting and get the same screen..

 

[Tashi]

Whelp, you can just plug it in with a SATA cable right into your mobo as if you were simply adding another HDD then. No adapter needed.

That was what I though. I tried that sucked twice now and it just won't plug in.

edit: Ugh, I'm such a dipshit, how could I forget this? There already is a little adapter on the drive so that it can sit in the drive bay on the laptop rather than plugging in straight forward. I had this issue a few years ago with my laptop. I have it now, thanks! lol

 

[mkenyon]

So i've built my PC, now trying to install windows 7 with difficulty..

I have a 64GB SSD connected atm. In BIOS it is boot option one and i have enablded ACHI mode. When i reboot out of BIOS i am greeted with 'Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media and press a key'. I put windows 7 disc in rewriter and pressed a key but it just copys the message everytime i press a key. I tried rebooting and get the same screen..

Set your boot device priority for you optical drive to be #1 and your SSD to #2. Once the windows install is complete, switch that back around. Your computer is looking for something on the SSD to tell it what to do, and it's empty. It won't automatically go to the optical drive if the SSD is empty.

 

[Krauser Kat]

going to see if i can pick up a pair of 6850s for around 230-240 if i can on black friday. Someone has to have gpu discounts somewhere.

 

[mkenyon]

going to see if i can pick up a pair of 6850s for around 230-240 if i can on black friday. Someone has to have gpu discounts somewhere.

Looking to crossfire?

 

[Mulligan]

Set your boot device priority for you optical drive to be #1 and your SSD to #2. Once the windows install is complete, switch that back around. Your computer is looking for something on the SSD to tell it what to do, and it's empty. It won't automatically go to the optical drive if the SSD is empty.

In boot priorities i only have the choice to either select the SSD or disable, nothing about optical drive.

 

[outsidah]

GAF,

I'm looking to buy an AMD 6950 2GB. Which of the many variants do you all recommend?

 

[Cuban Legend]

Go for it.

Did it. Aaand it worked. Shes in windows and idling the CPU at 42 and the mobo at 38. It's like these temps are better than when I first got her in 2006!

-Ran a couple benches and my 3Dmark numbers went up by 5% lol, PRIME95 went up too, HDD's Smart came back great and the PSU is running fine again. She's back to normal, even better than normal I'd say.
-I just cleaned out the room where she sits in, all the dust is gone and I even reinstalled new air filters and bought a suggested HEPA filter thingy for the room to zap any future dust and stuff. I foresee at least a few more years for this old 2006 rig. :')
-Im going to vow to tear-down and clean my PC to near dust free condition every 6 months just like I used to! Now to get rid of my bloated year old Win 7 install to reinstall it fresh so i can feel the maximum newness.

Now all i need to do is max what GPU my current mobo/PSU setup can handle since the CPU is maxed down to the TDP with a custom BIOS on the mobo to handle it.

Here is the current setup, running Win7/Backtrack 5 GNU Dual-Boot:
CPU- AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0GHz Black Edition - Quad-Core Socket AM2+ CPU
MOBO- ASUS Crosshair - Socket AM2/AM2+ Mobo
GPU- PNY NVIDIA 9800GT 1GB GPU
RAM- 2x2GB of DDR2-667 5-5-5-20
PSU- 600 Watt Kingwin Modular PSU
HDDs- 2x250GB SATA Seagate Baracuda
CASE- Coolermaster CM Stacker 830 Full Tower (v1)

Any suggestions fellow PC-GAF? I'd like to see how long I can take this PC for a ride as an enthusiast PC gamer. xD
-I prefer single-GPU cards, as I've been there, done that with dual 7950GX2's) I'm done dealing with relying on SLi driver compatibilities for performance.
-I was thinking the best bang-for-buck GPU that isnt too power hungry so I could possibly not require and PSU upgrade?
-I'm willing to consider suggestions that require a PSU upgrade.

 

[mkenyon]

In boot priorities i only have the choice to either select the SSD or disable, nothing about optical drive.

Is it plugged in to the SATA controller and have power?

GAF,

I'm looking to buy an AMD 6950 2GB. Which of the many variants do you all recommend?

MSI Twin Frozr II or ASUS DCuII for the cooler, Sapphire with the BIOS switch if you want to get crazy with OC'ing.

Any suggestions fellow PC-GAF? I'd like to see how long I can take this PC for a ride as an enthusiast PC gamer. xD
-I prefer single-GPU cards, as I've been there, done that with dual 7950GX2's) I'm done dealing with relying on SLi driver compatibilities for performance.
-I was thinking the best bang-for-buck GPU that isnt too power hungry so I could possibly not require and PSU upgrade?
-I'm willing to consider suggestions that require a PSU upgrade.

I know it is a sad day, but my friend, it's time has come. Not really a lot you can do at this point that will net you significant improvements without a CPU/Mobo/RAM upgrade.

You could try to get one of the most recent GPU's and see if it is livable, but I don't even think that board is PCI-E 2.0. You're bottlenecked everywhere.

 

[Omikaru]

Update on my games crashing: eBuyer are replacing my RAM, should be here on Friday. Hopefully that's the last of my problems, and a month after buying this thing I can finally play some games on it.

 

[Mulligan]

Is it plugged in to the SATA controller and have power?

Ah, got it. I'm trying to do a clean install with windows 7 upgrade using the double install method.. it's installing but i'm not sure if it's correct. Apparently i was meant to format but it didn't give me the option to and now it's installing.. fingers crossed. :s

 

[ChoklitReign]

I need help finishing my PC build. I own everything except for a CPU and motherboard to get a working computer. The only storage I have is a 500GB 7200RPM iOmega HDD - it's very cumbersome and uses both a USB cable and AC adapter to power on. Would using it for everything, plus the OS, be too risky and I would need an SSD?

 

[vaelic]

ok, so the ONLY downside for going with the ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z is I would lose the ability to use my XI-FI sound card, however..... that board has integrated SUPREMEFX X-FI 2 so does it really matter? I imagine audio quality has to be just fine for games, no?

 

[mkenyon]

I need help finishing my PC build. I own everything except for a CPU and motherboard to get a working computer. The only storage I have is a 500GB 7200RPM iOmega HDD - it's very cumbersome and uses both a USB cable and AC adapter to power on. Would using it for everything, plus the OS, be too risky and I would need an SSD?

You can remove the HDD from the enclosure. That'd make everything a lot easier for you. *edit* The idea of running your OS through USB is so very painful. It would be borderline unusable.

ok, so the ONLY downside for going with the ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z is I would lose the ability to use my XI-FI sound card, however..... that board has integrated SUPREMEFX X-FI 2 so does it really matter? I imagine audio quality has to be just fine for games, no?

If it's a soundcard made in the last 5 years, I'd imagine it's PCI-E 1x.