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"I need a New PC!" 2012 Thread. 22nm+28nm, Tri-Gate, and reading the OP. [Part 1]

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sikkinixx

Member
I just bought a Crucial M4 128GB at $180 CAD after 12% tax and 6dollars shipping (without tax and ship = $154.99) . This is going to be my first SSD, how blown away am I gonna be. :D omg so excite~~!!

I bought the same one when Futureshop was PM'ing it at $131. Windows booting in seconds is awesome. Now I've used it for a few weeks it's kinda just "yeah, this is how fast computers run" but when I was using a friends on old school drive.... it hurt. Skyrim loads mucho fast, as does Crysis 2. Totally worth the cash imho.
 

psycrage

Neo Member
2 questions for PC-Gaf:


1) I need a new external hard drive. Is Seagate a good brand? Is Amazon a good retailer pricewise? Thinking about this one.

2) My video card (8800GT represent) is louder than ever. Is this a red flag? I'd rather not purchase a new card if I don't have to because I fear the install process. It's way over my head.


The fan could be getting loud due to dust in the fan. You could open up the case and use a can of compressed air on the video card. Or the fan COULD be dying and you can look into replacing the cooler, however, that's more involved than replacing the card.

As far as fearing the install process of a new card, There is 1 screen holding the 8800GT, if I remember right, in place. Install process would be uninstall drivers, power off, remove card, install new card, power on, install drivers.
 
The fan could be getting loud due to dust in the fan. You could open up the case and use a can of compressed air on the video card. Or the fan COULD be dying and you can look into replacing the cooler, however, that's more involved than replacing the card.

As far as fearing the install process of a new card, There is 1 screen holding the 8800GT, if I remember right, in place. Install process would be uninstall drivers, power off, remove card, install new card, power on, install drivers.

Thank you sir :)

Anybody have any external hard drive recs per my other question?
 

mkenyon

Banned
Some thoughts: I should have looked for a modular PSU, the Silverstone doesn't have much room for cable management, the ASRock doesn't have enough 3-pin connectors for case fans, the 212 EVO is unorthodox (took me longer to figure out how to get the thing attached, then to actually attach it), the HD 7870 might not like the 90 degree motherboard rotation (the cooling solution is not designed to push heat out of the back of the card, which when rotated becomes the top)

Would it be worth it to copy the current Win7 partition from the HDD to the SSD? Or should I just go from scratch and enjoy a fresh Windows install on the SSD?
Is your card reference or non-reference design? Basically, if it works on heatpipes with fans blowing over it like most of the non-reference designs, you're going to have consistently higher temps. Reference works just fine.

Definitely scratch.

Anybody have any external hard drive recs per my other question?
I know this isn't helpful, but it's the most true answer I can give you. Nearly all external HDD's use really crappy and unreliable drives. You might experience zero issues, you might experience tons. I've been lucky, and have two Seagate external 1 TB drives that are both about 3 years old. Never had a single issue with them, but I don't use them often either. Some folks will have had issues with their seagate drives and recommend WD. Some the opposite. Truth being both put bad drives in enclosures.
 

clav

Member

8800 GT is a very hot card. Plus, if it only takes a single slot, the fan must be really small, so it has to spin more rotations per minute. That design is a recipe for loud noise. If you haven't already, clean out your computer with a small vacuum hose and compressed air cans.

As for a hard drive, I like designs that use as little platters as possible (translates to fewer mechanical parts), which is why the Samsung drives are highly recommended here. However, if you're looking for reliability, then drive manufacturer really doesn't matter.
 

Dibbz

Member
Finally I got a case. I originally bought from Overclockers but got messed around really bad with them trying to get a replacement for the broken case they sent me. Case arrived broken and then they strung me along for a week because they were out of stock. When they did get one it was white so I said fuck it and got a refund. Ordered the same case for the same price at Amazon UK and just arrived today.

Finally I've got a working PC again. So happy.

6860026618_6773f94c45_c.jpg


Never going to buy a case from Overclockers any time soon. Shame because I've never had a problem with them before.

Just downloaded steam and about Portal 2 to test out my i5 and 8GB ram. Got a 7600GT that might hold it back but hopefully it's still smooth.
 

SLV

Member
Uhm is anyone having issues with 296.10-desktop-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql drivers ? Coming from 295.73 ones, i noticed that my GTX 570, wont downclock to the idle Mhz on the 3 clocks, anyone having the same issues ? I did a clean install + driver sweeper.

Set to single display performance mode and adaptive :/

EDIT: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU ! it is a fucking bit coin miner >.<, damn it ! And it is not like i experienced any lag in games or whatever as it barely uses 1 % , urgh i am such a tool...
Yep, it downclocked right after removal, Sigh....
 

Iadien

Guarantee I'm going to screw up this post? Yeah.
I do not want to pay $500 for the new Nvidia card, should I just pick up a 560 ti 448 core? Or should I just wait for the lower tier 600 series cards?

I currently have a 260 GTX...
 
I currently have a GeForce 520 GT, and am loooking to get a good upgrade, not great, and without breaking the break. I was looking at the GeForce GTX 550 ti (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0360190) for $129 w/ the $20 rebate.

For about that cost, is that a solid card or should I be looking in another direction? I want the best bang for my buck, and this was on the "High Performance" list of supported video cards for Diablo 3 and seems reasonable enough.
 

1-D_FTW

Member
8800 GT is a very hot card. Plus, if it only takes a single slot, the fan must be really small, so it has to spin more rotations per minute. That design is a recipe for loud noise. If you haven't already, clean out your computer with a small vacuum hose and compressed air cans.

As for a hard drive, I like designs that use as little platters as possible (translates to fewer mechanical parts), which is why the Samsung drives are highly recommended here. However, if you're looking for reliability, then drive manufacturer really doesn't matter.

Yeah. That stock fan was such a tiny thing. Something that old, with years of dust, could easily be an issue.

I remember buying an Accerlero S1 for mine. Not only could I run it fanless, but under load it was only a couple degrees higher than idle (assuming you had good case air flow).
 
Finally I got a case. I originally bought from Overclockers but got messed around really bad with them trying to get a replacement for the broken case they sent me. Case arrived broken and then they strung me along for a week because they were out of stock. When they did get one it was white so I said fuck it and got a refund. Ordered the same case for the same price at Amazon UK and just arrived today.

Finally I've got a working PC again. So happy.

6860026618_6773f94c45_c.jpg


Never going to buy a case from Overclockers any time soon. Shame because I've never had a problem with them before.

Just downloaded steam and about Portal 2 to test out my i5 and 8GB ram. Got a 7600GT that might hold it back but hopefully it's still smooth.

Funny you should say that, a few years ago I got a case from them which was damaged. It wouldn't close fully and obviously had a design fault for that particular item. Was a pain in the ass to sort out.

I tried them again a few years later as a deal for a graphics card was too good to pass up and that had issues too. The guy on the other end of the customer support was basically flat out telling me I had to keep it and there was no way I was getting refunded. It was at that point I quoted their returns policy from their own freaking website, I was then contacted by someone else entirely confirming my refund request. I seriously hope the original guy got the sack, what an absolute moron.

Be VERY wary of Overclockers UK.
 
I recently came to the conclusion that a new desktop would be better than a new laptop, so I've been looking around at some desktops for under $800. I want to use it for some light gaming, light video editing, and using the internet and watching videos occasionally. Resolution isn't too important to me, but I'd like at least 720p, and 1080p would be nice. The only games I have right now are Amnesia (which I hear can run on lower systems) and Portal (from when it was free), though I do want to get the Valve Complete Pack at some point. Trying to buy new so I won't be reusing my old desktop's parts, and I'm not interested in overclocking anything. Most importantly I'd like to be able to play games at a good FPS, like 30, and with some decent effects on, like lighting and shadows. I want to play F.E.A.R. with its intended atmosphere without it being a slideshow. But I don't need to play the latest Crysis on super high or anything.

While researching, I heard that it's a good idea to get a desktop with a better processor than graphics card, and just switch in a nicer graphics card. Someone suggested the following desktop that comes with a monitor and speakers, and a graphics card to replace the existing one. I found another version of the same card, and I can't tell which one would be better to switch in.

DELL Inspiron i570-6111BK 23" Desktop PC
Athlon II X4 645(3.1GHz)
6GB DDR3
500GB HDD Capacity
ATI Radeon HD 4200
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
(Comes w/ 23&#8221; monitor & speakers)
$629.99

EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB
192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$134.99

-OR-

ASUS ENGTX550 TI DC TOP/DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB
192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$139.99

Total cost $765-$770.

Does that sound like a good deal? Would I be getting the most power for my money, or would it be better to go with one of the setups from the charts in the OP? I'm not great with computer hardware beyond plugging stuff in, so I don't know if I could piece everything together myself from scratch. Any suggestions, Tech-GAF?

Many sites can build it for you, just buy single components and add the extra cash for assembly.
 

Ledsen

Member
Finally I got a case. I originally bought from Overclockers but got messed around really bad with them trying to get a replacement for the broken case they sent me. Case arrived broken and then they strung me along for a week because they were out of stock. When they did get one it was white so I said fuck it and got a refund. Ordered the same case for the same price at Amazon UK and just arrived today.

Finally I've got a working PC again. So happy.

6860026618_6773f94c45_c.jpg


Never going to buy a case from Overclockers any time soon. Shame because I've never had a problem with them before.

Just downloaded steam and about Portal 2 to test out my i5 and 8GB ram. Got a 7600GT that might hold it back but hopefully it's still smooth.

Why did you turn down a white case? White case > everything.
 

Dibbz

Member
Why did you turn down a white case? White case > everything.

I was thinking about taking it but I did not want to wait for them to sort it out since they already took an age to even get to that point. I just wanted to get a working PC again and just got the refund so I could sort a case out myself.

Bucket-o-roadkill, yeah from now I'm going to be careful buying anything from them. Seems like they love cutting corners which is a massive pain in the ass for the customer. The case I originally got seemed like a return. Had dents, was broken, front panel didn't work etc. How they thought they'd get away selling it on blows my mind.
 
Hey, guys, my PC's been acting up for the past three days. All of a sudden it would just lock up and I couldn't do anything at all except move the mouse. The first time it happened I just forced a restart, and I got an error at boot-up saying to press ctrl+alt+delete to restart (no matter how many times I did it it would just display the same error). Then the next day it happened again, except this time at boot-up I got a disk read error. Yesterday I got a blue screen.

Every time this happened I would hear my GPU (I think it was the GPU) doing rhythmic noises like it was struggling. If I gave the PC 15 minutes or so it would work again, but the same stuff would happen (I only got the blue screen once, though). What could the problem be?

That said, I was wondering what the OS is tied to in custom PCs. If my HDD dies (it's my only one and I have no external HDD yet), would I have to rebuy the OS? Anyway, just in case, I cleaned the inside of the PC and the area it's in to see if that would help.
 

Dibbz

Member
Sounds like your HDD is not getting power or is just dying on you. Check to make sure the power cable is tightly pushed in. Does sound like you will need a new HDD though.

If you have your serial number for your OS then no you don't need to rebuy. You can download an ISO of it and just enter in your serial and you are fine. Someone here posted a link for me to download from and it worked fine.

-----

GAF I need some advice. Should I just bite the bullet and buy a 560ti 448 or should I wait for nvidia to release some more 6 series cards in hope of a good mid range card that it not way way out of my price range (£200 ish)
 

Dibbz

Member
Ever if new cards are not released at that price do you think 580's will drop down to around there? I really want a new card since mine is at least 5 or so years old by now. Maybe I should go for a 560ti and then upgrade from that in a year or two.

The only thing I really want a card for is to play BF3 and Crysis 2 maxed out. My res is only 1440x900. Looking around the net it seems a 560ti is enough. Is the 580 worth it for BF3 and Crysis 2 alone?
 

Smokey

Member
Ever if new cards are not released at that price do you think 580's will drop down to around there? I really want a new card since mine is at least 5 or so years old by now. Maybe I should go for a 560ti and then upgrade from that in a year or two.

The only thing I really want a card for is to play BF3 and Crysis 2 maxed out. My res is only 1440x900. Looking around the net it seems a 560ti is enough. Is the 580 worth it for BF3 and Crysis 2 alone?

Not at your resolution.
 

Dibbz

Member
That's good news. I'll wait a bit to see if prices drop a little since the new card just hit and then will pick up a 560ti 448.
 

ghostmind

Member
How is the ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 ATX Intel Motherboard? On paper it looks like a winner, but anyone who owns this and will speak on it? I was considering it versus a Z68 Asus board. Is there a better alternative?
 
Sounds like your HDD is not getting power or is just dying on you. Check to make sure the power cable is tightly pushed in. Does sound like you will need a new HDD though.

If you have your serial number for your OS then no you don't need to rebuy. You can download an ISO of it and just enter in your serial and you are fine. Someone here posted a link for me to download from and it worked fine.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's my HDD, too.

Anyway, that's great! And a relief. Thanks for putting me at ease.
 

TaroYamada

Member
mB8No.jpg


Hi guys, off topic but I have a problem, I have a Cooler Master tower and just about an hour ago I had my mic jack plug break off in the front panel's mic jack. I cannot get it out, I've tried prying it out, supergluing it to shit, no luck. I even broke a screwdriver in half trying to pry the tip of the plug out.

So it's looking like I am f'ed on getting out, newegg doesn't appear to carry front panels, where can I order one? If I even can. I've contacted Cooler Master CS but I doubt they just have these laying around to ship off to customers with issues like mine.

I need ideas, give me something PC gaf.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
How is the ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 ATX Intel Motherboard? On paper it looks like a winner, but anyone who owns this and will speak on it? I was considering it versus a Z68 Asus board. Is there a better alternative?
It has better features, but a thinner PCB with possibly not as much QA as an ASUS board would.
Just what I've heard. Overall impressions are good if you get a good board.
mB8No.jpg


Hi guys, off topic but I have a problem, I have a Cooler Master tower and just about an hour ago I had my mic jack plug break off in the front panel's mic jack. I cannot get it out, I've tried prying it out, supergluing it to shit, no luck. I even broke a screwdriver in half trying to pry the tip of the plug out.

So it's looking like I am f'ed on getting out, newegg doesn't appear to carry front panels, where can I order one? If I even can. I've contacted Cooler Master CS but I doubt they just have these laying around to ship off to customers with issues like mine.

I need ideas, give me something PC gaf.
USB -> front port 'adapter'?
 

LordAlu

Member
mB8No.jpg


Hi guys, off topic but I have a problem, I have a Cooler Master tower and just about an hour ago I had my mic jack plug break off in the front panel's mic jack. I cannot get it out, I've tried prying it out, supergluing it to shit, no luck. I even broke a screwdriver in half trying to pry the tip of the plug out.

So it's looking like I am f'ed on getting out, newegg doesn't appear to carry front panels, where can I order one? If I even can. I've contacted Cooler Master CS but I doubt they just have these laying around to ship off to customers with issues like mine.

I need ideas, give me something PC gaf.
Would a magnetic-tipped screwdriver work?
 

TaroYamada

Member
Would a magnetic-tipped screwdriver work?

I've since gotten it out, but the super glue appears to have ruined the interior of the mic jack. Either that or the massive amount of prying I did damaged it. It was lodged in there bad though, I tried a magnetic screw driver. No dice. The rest of the front panel works still, the audio out, and the two usb ports.

I think the mic jack is out of commission, but gonna try scraping the interior clean and we'll see.

So far USB front adapter seems the best solution.

Edit: WOW. Durable shit guys, it works, this literally after I broke the side off the mic jack to get at the tip of the plug stuck in there. It's a bit rough, it appears to only receive audio from the right channel, I am not sure if this is due to the broken mic jack plug or if I ruined the mic jack's ability to receive the left channel of audio. I'll be soldering a new jack plug onto the headset regardless.
 

1-D_FTW

Member
How is the ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 ATX Intel Motherboard? On paper it looks like a winner, but anyone who owns this and will speak on it? I was considering it versus a Z68 Asus board. Is there a better alternative?

It has better features, but a thinner PCB with possibly not as much QA as an ASUS board would.
Just what I've heard. Overall impressions are good if you get a good board.

USB -> front port 'adapter'?

The QA may be true, but I don't know about that. Reading all the horrible user reviews on the Asus is what drove me to the Asrock E3G3.

Now I realize any product can have defects, but seeing Asus Customer Reps go online and defend their position was astonishing. One guy was told the board had to have left the factory in perfect condition and was therefore damaged in transport (and not responsible by Asus). He was rightly pissed in his review. And incredibly, a Asus Customer Rep responded to the review with the same belligerent non-sense. How that factories run blah-blah, and there's no way it could have left the factory damaged and he needs to contact the shipper to address issues.

Why does this offend me so? Because who was more likely to damage it? Asus' shipping company that transported it from factory to ship? The slow boat ride from China to the US? The company who transported it from ship to retailer? Or UPS. To not stand behind that and say file a claim with UPS for hidden mechanical damage or your SOL is unreal to me. And like I said, the belligerence with which it was argued was astonishing.

A couple of these reviews, plus the ungodly awful QA with their new 27 inch 120hz monitor led me to believe Asus QA sucks and I'd prefer to deal with anyone else if at all possible. IMO Asus has turned into all hype. They're now a consumer brand with massive shortcuts living off their old reputation.
 

1-D_FTW

Member
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=466093

And for the record, I just want to throw this into the thread. For anyone on the fence about waiting for Ivy Bridge, this is a heck of an incentive. If the virtual v-sync actually works as claimed, that's an incredible development. Imagine v-sync without any added input lag? Killer product if true.

I would hold off on a new build just for this. To at least see if it's all hype first.
 

GraveHorizon

poop meter feature creep
Did some more research on parts, and found a few graphics cards that look good. I settled on a SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850, but I possibly need to make sure I choose a decent power supply with it. I just can't tell if the CPU and GPU are right for each other. Here's what I have on pcpartpicker right now:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2400 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Intel DP67BAB3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($115.98 @ eCost)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($40.62 @ NCIX US)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Antec 550W ATX12V Power Supply ($55.24 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG WH12LS39 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS228H-P 21.5" Monitor ($126.00 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $950.78

A bit over my initial budget of sub-$800, but I'm considering going all in on this. If I make it good enough, it should be easier to upgrade in the future, right?
I need a copy of Windows, I want to be able to mess with Blu-ray if I want to, and I want a 1080p monitor.
But what I'm not sure about is if the CPU is on level with the graphics card. Will there be bottlenecking on either end? Should I downgrade to the i3-2120, or upgrade to a Radeon HD 6870? Anything else recommended I switch out for better performance or price? Would a ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard be better for upgrade ability?
 

Karmum

Banned
Updated build sheet for 680.
OP for reviews.

**Also anyone planning to build a <$600 system buy this!
GTX 460 1GB for $99 after rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127646

:)
It's funny you post this, pretty sure I asked about GTX 460 prices not too long ago and you answered it for me. This is the best it will probably be for awhile, right? So it's basically buy it now at this price cause it probably won't get any better?

AND free shipping? Gah, just had to live in Jersey with the stupid tax. So tempted to buy this RIGHT NOW and SLI it with my EVGA GTX 460 (1370).

Is it any louder than that?

Edit - I'm actually taking a moment to this this through before I bite the bullet. Are the gains much more significant with two 460s? Then again it may not really matter at $90 once the rebate goes through...

Edit 2 - Fuck it. Bought it, guess most of my paycheck today is going toward that. That new case is gonna have to wait. :(
 

Kambing

Member
So i just finished replacing the motherboard and heatsink on my build and everything seems fine except that i may have cheaped out on the MB. The MB i bought was the asus p8z68-v lv edition. Aside from the fact that i will want to upgrade graphics cards in two years and possibly use ivy bridge, should i return this board and get the p8z68-v pro model? Reason being that my current MB has no pci 3 lane and i dont know if it is forward compatible with ivy bridge?

The overclocking options also suck on this particular board, which is expected given the price. I can not manually set v-core, instead i have to use their obtrusive v-core offset, another incentive to upgrade. Just wondering what those more informed would do

Edit: Forgot to add that it will cost an additional $80 for the upgrade
 

mkenyon

Banned
Some of the good deals today:

600T SE $159.99/$139.99 w/ MIR - Free Shipping. Promo code - EMCNGHG83

690 II Advanced - $69.99/$54.99 w/ MIR - Free Shipping. Promo code - EMCNGHG78

Sapphire 6850 - $134.99/119.99 w/ MIR. Promo code - EMCNGHG75
So i just finished replacing the motherboard and heatsink on my build and everything seems fine except that i may have cheaped out on the MB. The MB i bought was the asus p8z68-v lv edition. Aside from the fact that i will want to upgrade graphics cards in two years and possibly use ivy bridge, should i return this board and get the p8z68-v pro model? Reason being that my current MB has no pci 3 lane and i dont know if it is forward compatible with ivy bridge?

The overclocking options also suck on this particular board, which is expected given the price. I can not manually set v-core, instead i have to use their obtrusive v-core offset, another incentive to upgrade. Just wondering what those more informed would do

Edit: Forgot to add that it will cost an additional $80 for the upgrade
Do you mean LX? It is really limited. You can set your multiplier and it will auto increase voltage IIRC. You can also use AI Suite to manually set voltage once in windows, its just not something that sticks in BIOS. Been working with one of my teammates who has the same board. Got him to a stable 4.4Ghz, which isn't bad.

*edit*
Also, yeah, you do not need PCI-E 3.0. It's all backwards and forwards compatible, and card like the 590/6990 don't even use up half of PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth.
 

clav

Member
MSI GTX 460 is now $90 AR with NBA 2K11.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127646

If you're in the club that believes you should not pay more than $100 for a gaming card, this deal is for you.

It's funny you post this, pretty sure I asked about GTX 460 prices not too long ago and you answered it for me. This is the best it will probably be for awhile, right? So it's basically buy it now at this price cause it probably won't get any better?

AND free shipping? Gah, just had to live in Jersey with the stupid tax. So tempted to buy this RIGHT NOW and SLI it with my EVGA GTX 460 (1370).

Is it any louder than that?

Edit - I'm actually taking a moment to this this through before I bite the bullet. Are the gains much more significant with two 460s? Then again it may not really matter at $90 once the rebate goes through...

Edit 2 - Fuck it. Bought it, guess most of my paycheck today is going toward that. That new case is gonna have to wait. :(

Contact Newegg for a pricematch since your item has probably not shipped as you bought the card for $100 AR.
 

SYNTAX182

Member

Kambing

Member
Some of the good deals today:

600T SE $159.99/$139.99 w/ MIR - Free Shipping. Promo code - EMCNGHG83

690 II Advanced - $69.99/$54.99 w/ MIR - Free Shipping. Promo code - EMCNGHG78

Sapphire 6850 - $134.99/119.99 w/ MIR. Promo code - EMCNGHG75

Do you mean LX? It is really limited. You can set your multiplier and it will auto increase voltage IIRC. You can also use AI Suite to manually set voltage once in windows, its just not something that sticks in BIOS. Been working with one of my teammates who has the same board. Got him to a stable 4.4Ghz, which isn't bad.

*edit*
Also, yeah, you do not need PCI-E 3.0. It's all backwards and forwards compatible, and card like the 590/6990 don't even use up half of PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth.

Ah yes i do mean the LX version. Yeah i was able to tinker with voltage settings by offsetting them incrementally to get a stable OS overclock of 4.5ghz. It was just a pain to do. Yeah, looks like i will not be upgrading the motherboard... Will just wait until Intel's Haswell to do a full computer refresh. Good to know that about PCI 2.0 not getting maxed out, because that was my primary incentive to change Mobo's. Thanks mate!
 

clav

Member
Oh man, I just bought a gtx 550ti, is there any difference here? Should I return it and buy this?

I wouldn't return it if you have to pay for shipping + open box fees.

Otherwise, the 460 is somewhat better than the gtx 550 ti although the 550 ti is less power hungry.
 
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