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[woundedbear]

Very happy to be here at the NeoGAF. I've been following this great thread closely and I have a question for you all. I'm about to buy the components for my new and first PC. I've decided on a 7970 card as my GPU with a view to perhaps buying a second if I ever get the money together (unlikely). But I was wondering what the appropriate PSU would be for a system with two 7970s in crossfire? As far as the other components are concerned I'm considering:

ASUS P8z68-v Pro
Corsair H100
Corsair Vengeance LP 8gb
Samsung F4 2TB

I hear good things about the Antec Signature series and the XFX Pros, and I was thinking about 850w, but is this enough? Am I better off with 1000w? I should mention I intend to take a stab at overclocking. Some advice would be much appreciated.

 

[woundedbear]

Forgot to mention I'll be getting a 2500k to run it...

 

[Gav47]

To those with SSDs, how did you transfer your Steam libraries? Did you install Steam on your SSD or your storage drive. I have all my games backed up on my external HDD, should I wipe my current OS drive, install Steam on it and then transfer my games back over?

But I was wondering what the appropriate PSU would be for a system with two 7970s in crossfire?

The two cards will need about 400-450W alone + 95W for the processor + Hard drives, fans etc. + some leeway for overclocking, I'd say a 700-800W psu would do the job.

 

[woundedbear]

The two cards will need about 400-450W alone + 95W for the processor + Hard drives, fans etc. + some leeway for overclocking, I'd say a 700-800W psu would do the job.

Cool, thank you

 

[TGMIII]

So I'm looking to get a new monitor but it's been a loooong time since I've looked into any. Anyone got any suggestions on a 22"-26" screen with low input lag?

 

[Grayman]

You guys ever use TigerDirect? They have free shipping on so much stuff and are beating NewEgg's prices on the stuff I'm looking at.

shipped me a "new" g27 wheel with a box that was falling apart, looked like it had been thrown down a flight of stairs. took forever to get cleared up.

 

[x3r0123]

So I'm looking to get a new monitor but it's been a loooong time since I've looked into any. Anyone got any suggestions on a 22"-26" screen with low input lag?

i have a vw246h and its pretty good

 

[TGMIII]

i have a vw246h and its pretty good

I've looked at that before but I've been unable to find any ghosting/lag tests on it so I'm hesitant to pull the trigger on it.

 

[Hazaro]

Very happy to be here at the NeoGAF. I've been following this great thread closely and I have a question for you all. I'm about to buy the components for my new and first PC. I've decided on a 7970 card as my GPU with a view to perhaps buying a second if I ever get the money together (unlikely). But I was wondering what the appropriate PSU would be for a system with two 7970s in crossfire? As far as the other components are concerned I'm considering:

ASUS P8z68-v Pro
Corsair H100
Corsair Vengeance LP 8gb
Samsung F4 2TB

I hear good things about the Antec Signature series and the XFX Pros, and I was thinking about 850w, but is this enough? Am I better off with 1000w? I should mention I intend to take a stab at overclocking. Some advice would be much appreciated.

Answer is in the OP and additionally in the PSU section of the part lists.

PSU recommendation would be for a 1000W, because you can spend the extra $30 and have a bit more piece of mind if you decide to overvolt the 7970s.
CM Silent Pro Gold 1000W, HX1050, and probably another worthy 1k PSU I can't think of on hand

 

[woundedbear]

Answer is in the OP and additionally in the PSU section of the part lists.

PSU recommendation would be for a 1000W, because you can spend the extra $30 and have a bit more piece of mind if you decide to overvolt the 7970s.
CM Silent Pro Gold 1000W, HX1050, and probably another worthy 1k PSU I can't think of on hand

Understood, and thanks for the tip.

 

[OriginofHysteria]

I just returned the 550 ti I bought on Friday and purchased a 560 ti instead. However, it's the Nvidia retail version, but can I OC the card to the overclocked versions and still be safe? The reason I opted for the retail is that I've just heard of third party ones breaking and I guess it's more of a peace of mind than anything knowing it came directly from Nvidia

 

[PGamer]

Bumping for new page.

How well do SSDs run with Windows XP? I have a spare one that I want to put in my parents' PC but they still have XP and I don't know if that is going to be a problem or not.

And related to the first question, is there anywhere to buy a cheap upgrade copy of Windows 7 anywhere? The lowest I can find in Canada right now is the student deal which seems to have been bumped up to $95 since the last time I checked.

 

[Hazaro]

Bumping for new page.

How well do SSDs run with Windows XP? I have a spare one that I want to put in my parents' PC but they still have XP and I don't know if that is going to be a problem or not.

And related to the first question, is there anywhere to buy a cheap upgrade copy of Windows 7 anywhere? The lowest I can find in Canada right now is the student deal which seems to have been bumped up to $95 since the last time I checked.

Runs nice. I think you miss out on TRIM though?

I just returned the 550 ti I bought on Friday and purchased a 560 ti instead. However, it's the Nvidia retail version, but can I OC the card to the overclocked versions and still be safe? The reason I opted for the retail is that I've just heard of third party ones breaking and I guess it's more of a peace of mind than anything knowing it came directly from Nvidia

Yes, it's fine. Most cards are very very similar and I would imagine the nVidia one has a worse warranty.

 

[Bubble Metropolis]

Having not updated my PC since around 2004, I was determined to get a new one this year and finally managed to save up a pretty firm budget of $1000 for that purpose. Thanks to everyone who contributes to this thread for helping me through this as my computer knowledge is super outdated!

I didn't want to stray too far from the 'Enhanced' build, but was forced to make a few substitutions due to some things being unavailable at NCIX. I've never built my own computer, so I just wanted to make sure these substitutions were okay as I'm really wary of making any sort of mistake on something I've had to wait so long for:


$111.18 Crucial M4 SSD Micron C400 64GB 2.5IN Solid State Disk Flash Drive SATA3 6Gbps

$79.99 ($49.99 after rebate) OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W ATX 20/24PIN SLI Ready Modular Cables 135mm Fan 80PLUS Power Supply

$59.99 Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B Vengeance Blue 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Dual Channel Memory Kit

$74.99 Coolermaster Haf 922 Mid Tower ATX Case Black 5X5.25 5X3.5INT Front Audio USB eSATA No PSU

$25.98 ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X SATA DVD Writer OEM Black

$236.52 Intel CPU BX80623I52500K Core i5-2500K 3.30 GHz 6MB Level 3 Smart Cache LGA1155 Turbo Boost Retail

$124.04 MSI Motherboard Z68A-G43 (G3) Core i7/i5/i3 Z68 SATA 6Gb/s DDR3 USB 3.0 ATX Retail

$125.55 Samsung HDD HD204UI 2TB SATA 3Gb/s Desktop 5400rpm 32MB Cache Bare Drive

Including my friend selling me his old Powercolor 6850 1GB for $100, that puts the total at:

$938.24

Windows 7 is already covered as I've managed to stay updated to that end with a relatively current laptop.

Are there any modifications anyone would recommend? I'm unfamiliar with the differences between brands, so the wealth of choice is a bit overwhelming at times.

 

[Hazaro]

Swap your RAM for something cheaper like these:
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=55544&vpn=996770&manufacture=Mushkin Enhanced&promoid=1130 or
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=53427&vpn=CMX8GX3M2A1333C9&manufacture=Corsair&promoid=1130

Grab a heatsink:
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=41337&vpn=RR-B10-212P-G1&manufacture=COOLERMASTER&promoid=1130

 

[Jibbed]

Finally getting my act together and ordering the parts I need to finish my build tomorrow, any final tweaks/suggestions?

£172.40
Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004FA8NX2/

£184.30
MSI nVIDIA GTX560Ti TWIN FROZR II
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004K8R8AI/

£116.98
Asus P8P67 PRO REV 3.1*
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZIFWBK/

£38.00
Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 DDR3 XMS3 8GB
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0042A7CAA/

£137.66
Crucial CT128M4SSD2 128GB M4 SSD
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004W2JKZI/

I can't really afford much more..

I already have a Corsair H50 water-cooler, a CM 850W PSU, DVD drive and an NZXT case.

*With the motherboard, are there any cheaper (and reliable) options? I do want the ability to install a second card in the future. I've chosen Asus based on a friends' recommendation.

 

[Bubble Metropolis]

Swap your RAM for something cheaper like these:
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=55544&vpn=996770&manufacture=Mushkin Enhanced&promoid=1130 or
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=53427&vpn=CMX8GX3M2A1333C9&manufacture=Corsair&promoid=1130

Grab a heatsink:
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=41337&vpn=RR-B10-212P-G1&manufacture=COOLERMASTER&promoid=1130

I just swapped in the Corsair RAM you recommended, added the heatsink, and also switched out the 2TB 5400RPM HDD for a 1TB 7200RPM one. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Smokey]

Bloody hell that worked! it's running fine now but i'm too scared to turn it back off again. I'm guessing i have to get a new motherboard now. I certainly won't be getting the same board this time...

Glad it worked for you. The computer will stay on and work fine as long as you don't turn it off and leave it for 5+ minutes. That was my experience at least. It's a strange problem indeed, and the fact that we had the same motherboard makes me wonder if this happens more than we think with the P8P67 Pro. I went out and got Z68 board after I sent mine to Asus.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

For new page

Do any of you have experience with Corsair PSU warranty's? I currently have a 750w Corsair PSU that I purchased about two years ago and it's in my current PC. I would like to exchange it for a new one for my soon to be built PC. The warranty is 5 years but I am wondering how easy it is to get a new one? I know with certain GPU's you can just RMA it back and they will send you a new one no questions asked. Is it the same for the PSU or does the PSU being sent back actually have to not be working?

 

[The Teachinator]

For new page

Do any of you have experience with Corsair PSU warranty's? I currently have a 750w Corsair PSU that I purchased about two years ago and it's in my current PC. I would like to exchange it for a new one for my soon to be built PC. The warranty is 5 years but I am wondering how easy it is to get a new one? I know with certain GPU's you can just RMA it back and they will send you a new one no questions asked. Is it the same for the PSU or does the PSU being sent back actually have to not be working?

If you have one that's working I'd hang on to it. You wouldn't be getting a "new" one but a fixed broken one seems silly if yours is working.

 

[Hazaro]

Glad it worked for you. The computer will stay on and work fine as long as you don't turn it off and leave it for 5+ minutes. That was my experience at least. It's a strange problem indeed, and the fact that we had the same motherboard makes me wonder if this happens more than we think with the P8P67 Pro. I went out and got Z68 board after I sent mine to Asus.

Haven't heard of this before. Mine is still working fine no issues.

For new page

Do any of you have experience with Corsair PSU warranty's? I currently have a 750w Corsair PSU that I purchased about two years ago and it's in my current PC. I would like to exchange it for a new one for my soon to be built PC. The warranty is 5 years but I am wondering how easy it is to get a new one? I know with certain GPU's you can just RMA it back and they will send you a new one no questions asked. Is it the same for the PSU or does the PSU being sent back actually have to not be working?

You mean like Step-Up? I don't think so. RMA is for replacement of a defective product, though you could call and ask anyway.
If you want to upgrade, sell your PSU, then buy a new one.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Yo PC-GAF, what mouse is this? I can't get a better shot, I just happened to see it while watching this movie (The Client)

 

[Wallach]

Yo PC-GAF, what mouse is this? I can't get a better shot, I just happened to see it while watching this movie (The Client)

Cyborg RAT; not sure which, maybe a RAT 7.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Cyborg RAT; not sure which, maybe a RAT 7.

word, thanks kind sir.

 

[mug]

It's the RAT 3.

 

[Swag]

So I recently picked up an SSD and have been fine tuning it by following the guide on Tom's Hardware, but for some reason I am missing about 12 gigs of data somewhere.

I opened up Defraggler to see where the problem was and saw that my Page File in Windows is still present even though I removed the option, in the Virtual Memory interface, is there a way that I can delete it permanently or am I stuck with it?





States I should have 35GB available, but Windows says otherwise.



Anyone know what the issue is?

Edit: Nvm Fixed it, stupid Windows.

 

[TGMIII]

So I'm looking to get a new monitor but it's been a loooong time since I've looked into any. Anyone got any suggestions on a 22"-26" screen with low input lag?

Still looking for any advice for this, thinking about the vw246h right now but any other suggestions are welcome.

 

[Isaccard]

Still looking for any advice for this, thinking about the vw246h right now but any other suggestions are welcome.

Asus VH236H.

 

[TGMIII]

Asus VH236H.

Should have said I'm in the UK and I can only find it on US resellers. I'd rather not have to import a monitor due to the import tax I'll be hit with (£50+). I have used the VH236H and if it wasn't such a hassle I would have already bought one.

 

[Infinity]

Still looking for any advice for this, thinking about the vw246h right now but any other suggestions are welcome.

I can vouch for the VW246H. Great monitor, and nearly no input lag!

 

[GoingGreen]

With the 7950s coming out soon, does anyone have any idea what the price might be on those?

And when those come out, will the 6950s go down in price too?

 

[prettyvacant77]

Hi PC-GAF

Well after reading all 20 pages of this thread, I completed my own build a couple of weeks ago which I detailed a few pages back:

Intel i5 2500K
Asus P8P67 Mobo
Asus GTX560TI 448 Core CUII
Fractal R3 Case
Seagate 1TB
8GB Corsair Vengeance RAM

Having a little bit more disposable cash available, I've got the upgrade bug already!

I've ordered a Crucial M4 128GB SSD, should be here tomorrrow from Amazon.

What's the best way to get Windows installed on it and get it set as my primary boot drive? Can I clone my existing drive across to it (mostly just OS+Steam Library - no media) or is it best to do a full re-install?

If I go the full re-install route, can I simply delete the existing Windows OS libraries on my existing drive once everything is up and running on the SSD?

Also, what about my game saves? I'll re-install my games from Steam, should I just be able to copy across all my saves to the new drive?

Sorry for all the questions, this thread has been an amazing resource and persuaded me to build my own PC vs buying pre-built!

 

[TGMIII]

I can vouch for the VW246H. Great monitor, and nearly no input lag!

You say nearly....

Pretty much I'll be using it as my main monitor but I'll be playing fighting games on it too so it really does need to be as near lag free as possible. I guess I'll look around and see if there's any lag/ghosting tests out there again. Thanks for the input.

EDIT: actually now that I look I can't seem to find the VW246H in the UK either without paying a ton. I see the VE242H and VW248H listed on amazon UK though. Apparently the VW248H has bad ghosting issues.

 

[Corky]

You say nearly....

Pretty much I'll be using it as my main monitor but I'll be playing fighting games on it too so it really does need to be as near lag free as possible. I guess I'll look around and see if there's any lag/ghosting tests out there again. Thanks for the input.

Are there good monitors with less than 1 frame of input lag`?

 

[TGMIII]

Are there good monitors with less than 1 frame of input lag`?

There's a handful listed on the HDTV/monitor thread on the tech section of SRK but that thread hardly ever gets updated and some of the monitors aren't even in production any more. To be honest I don't need sub 1 frame, it would be nice, I could deal with 20ms or a little more I guess since I've played on worse at tournaments but every other screen I look at either has crazy response times or ghosts like a bitch.

The eizo screens are apparently godlike but there's no way in hell I'm paying £350 for a 22" screen.

 

[TheExodu5]

Plenty of TN panels have ultra low input lag. I'm sure the Asus VW246H is one of them.

 

[Arken2121]

Hey guys, i'm looking to buy a new router and found this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124444.

What do you guys think?

 

[mrklaw]

Finally getting my act together and ordering the parts I need to finish my build tomorrow, any final tweaks/suggestions?

£172.40
Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004FA8NX2/

£184.30
MSI nVIDIA GTX560Ti TWIN FROZR II
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004K8R8AI/

£116.98
Asus P8P67 PRO REV 3.1*
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZIFWBK/

£38.00
Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 DDR3 XMS3 8GB
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0042A7CAA/

£137.66
Crucial CT128M4SSD2 128GB M4 SSD
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004W2JKZI/

I can't really afford much more..

I already have a Corsair H50 water-cooler, a CM 850W PSU, DVD drive and an NZXT case.

*With the motherboard, are there any cheaper (and reliable) options? I do want the ability to install a second card in the future. I've chosen Asus based on a friends' recommendation.

yes, buy my PC instead

looks good though. I suppose. Do you have a HDD already you plan to use, or will you hang on with the 128GB until prices come down? 128GB on its own won't last long once you get onto steam

 

[sk3tch]

Hey guys, i'm looking to buy a new router and found this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124444.

What do you guys think?

I have the V1 and LOVE it. I have recommended it to many people. It is solid and fast. Works great. Well worth the $150 I paid for it. I think it is worthwhile to spend a bit to get a nice wireless router...especially one like the E4200.

EDIT: Now I want a V2. Damn you for letting me know it exists. Must have the best...lol.

 

[Shambles]

I have the V1 and LOVE it. I have recommended it to many people. It is solid and fast. Works great. Well worth the $150 I paid for it. I think it is worthwhile to spend a bit to get a nice wireless router...especially one like the E4200.

EDIT: Now I want a V2. Damn you for letting me know it exists. Must have the best...lol.

Just a heads up the V2 does not support DDWRT if that matters to you.

 

[TheExodu5]

Netgear WNDR-3700 is a very nice router for the money and supports DD-WRT.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122326&Tpk=netgear 3700

edit: oh, v3 might not yet be supported by DD-WRT. YMMV. Netgear officially paid for WNDR-3700 support from dd-wrt in the first place, so hopefully v3 will get it as well.

The out of the box firmware is good, though. Very stable. The interface is easy to use as well.

----

I'm liking the look of the reviews on that Linksys, though. While my Netgear is great, judging by the reviews, the QA on them isn't so hot.

Honestly, it's worth spending the money on getting a good router. There's nothing worse than having a router that resets daily.

Linksys has made some pretty terrible products in the past few years (at least in comparison to their former WRT54G glory), but that router seems to be solid.

 

[Manp]

Netgear WNDR-3700 is a very nice router for the money and supports DD-WRT.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122326&Tpk=netgear 3700

3800 is a better option with 128MB of ram. Not sure if it's supported under DDWRT but since it's supported by OpenWRT you would not want to use DDWRT anyway

edit: oh, v3 might not yet be supported by DD-WRT. YMMV. Netgear officially paid for WNDR-3700 support from dd-wrt in the first place, so hopefully v3 will get it as well.

v3 is based on a whole different Broadcom (iirc) SoC than the Atheros used in v1 and v2. id' skip it entirely since it's not any better and it's not clear if it'll ever be supported.
as i said the 3800 is basically a 3700v2 with 128MB of RAM instead of 64.

Reinstalling is a better option though, because you'll want Windows to do things different than with a HDD.

reinstalling is a better option if only to be sure your partition is properly aligned. you can have an aligned partition even with cloning but it depends on the software used to do the cloning.

 

[cilonen]

reinstalling is a better option if only to be sure your partition is properly aligned. you can have an aligned partition even with cloning but it depends on the software used to do the cloning.

I saw some advice on ocztechnology about shrinking the volume size right after a clean install on an SSD...

OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED SHORT STROKE DRIVE 25%: control panel/administrative tools/computer management/storage/disk management/ right click on C drive/ shrink volume follow instructions to shrink volume shrink so you have 25% unallocated space minimum. Helps drive maintain its self at higher performance and helps overall drive life.

any thoughts on if I'll maintain a properly aligned SSD if I do this? I would have thought so or else the guy probably wouldn't be recommending it but any thoughts welcome.

 

[TheExodu5]

3800 is a better option with 128MB of ram. Not sure if it's supported under DDWRT but since it's supported by OpenWRT you would not want to use DDWRT anyway


v3 is based on a whole different Broadcom (iirc) SoC than the Atheros used in v1 and v2. id' skip it entirely since it's not any better and it's not clear if it'll ever be supported.
as i said the 3800 is basically a 3700v2 with 128MB of RAM instead of 64.

Good to know...I wasn't up to speed with the v3 or 3800. I know the 3700 was such a great choice a year ago because it has one of the fastest CPUs out there. First I've heard of OpenWRT as well.

Still, judging by NewEgg reviews, the default WNDR3800 firmware is in early stages and not very stable. Might not be a good recommendation to someone who isn't willing to go with custom firmware.

 

[Shambles]

I saw some advice on ocztechnology about shrinking the volume size right after a clean install on an SSD...



any thoughts on if I'll maintain a properly aligned SSD if I do this? I would have thought so or else the guy probably wouldn't be recommending it but any thoughts welcome.

As far as I can tell there's not much point to short stroking an SSD. Short stroking was typically used to increase performance on spinning disk drivers but forcing data to the outer edges of the platter where data transfers are faster. SSD space is way to valuable to be chopping of entire sections of it and I don't see how you're going to get better life out of your drive. A write cycle is a write cycle to a flash cell, and the drive is going to last far longer than your system is anyways short of any other failures that happen.

It's sounds like he's trying to get people to use their drives less in order to be able to claim the drive will last longer. It's about as useful advice as telling someone not to plug the drive in so it doesn't wear out.

 

[chaosblade]

The goal of short stroking the SSD wouldn't be the same as an HDD. You want to keep 10%+ of your SSD space free anyway.

I couldn't tell you whether or not cutting that off the partition altogether would work as well as just leaving it on and consciously not using it, that article implies it would though.

 

[Manp]

any thoughts on if I'll maintain a properly aligned SSD if I do this? I would have thought so or else the guy probably wouldn't be recommending it but any thoughts welcome.

i'm not entirely sure what's the point with that but i'm positive it has nothing to do with alignment.

http://lifehacker.com/5837769/make-...ned-for-optimal-solid-state-drive-performance

an easy way to check if your partition is aligned is by using AS SSD. if it looks like this then it's good:

 

[Hesemonni]

Fast decisions need to be made regarding the GPU of my upcoming comp. I'm about the press the order button but I'm undecided on GPU.

Asus GTX 570 DCII, Asus Radeon 6950 DCII OR should I wait for Radeon 7950.

Otherwise it's pretty regular build : i5 2500k + Asrock Z68 Gen3 + 2x4 Gb Corsair 1600 DDR3 + Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB + Super Flower 550W Golden Green Pro PSU. I'm also ordering Dell Ultrasharp U2412M 24" TFT since my old Viewsonic 19" CRT is starting to show its age

 

[chaosblade]

Fast decisions need to be made regarding the GPU of my upcoming comp. I'm about the press the order, button but I'm undecided on GPU.

Asus GTX 570 DCII, Asus Radeon 6950 DCII OR should I wait for Radeon 7950?

All of those are in different price ranges (~$320, $250, $400?). It all just depends on how much you want to spend.

But if a 570 is an option, I don't really see any reason to go with the worse 6950 even though it's cheaper. Same goes with the 7950, if you can wait on that and buy it then, not much reason to go with the 570/6950 now.

 

[JJBro One]

I have 580 sli, overclocked my 2500k to 4.5ghz, 8gb of ram, and I STILL get dips in framerate on Battlefield 3. Sometimes (especially on the B2K maps) I'll dip into the 40s! I have the latest drivers and everything, I don't expect to dip below 60 for one second. Anybody know whats going on? I'm playing everything maxed out at 1920X1080.