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[The Frankman]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45182775&postcount=6498



EDIT: just saw the ASUS DRW-24B1ST on NewEgg. Now to find a HD.

 

[Lkr]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45182775&postcount=6498

If its just for the OS, get an SSD. Btw what is wrong with using IDE?

 

[zychi]

You could damage hardware. What do you have running with the system? How many hard drives, optical drives, etc?

Dell XPS 8300 Core i7-2600 3.4GHz Desktop
· General Features:
· Stylish chassis
· Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit pre-installed w/CoA
· Intel Core i7-2600 3.4 GHz quad-core processor w/Intel Hyper-Threading Technology
· Sandy Bridge microarchitecture
· Max Turbo Frequency: 3.8 GHz
· 8 MB Intel Smart Cache, 5 GT/s DMI speed
· Dual-channel DDR3 memory architecture
· 8 GB DDR3 1333 MHz SDRAM (16 GB max.)
· 1,500 GB (1.5 TB) 7200 RPM Serial ATA hard drive
· DVD±RW DL Serial ATA drive
· ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express Dual DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort video card
· Integrated Realtek ALC887 7.1-channel HD audio with THX TruStudio PC
· Integrated Broadcom BCM57788 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
· Dell Wireless DW1501 mini PCI Express IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
· Built-in 19-in-1 digital media card reader
· 460W ATX power supply
· Expansion Slots:
· One (1) PCI Express x16 slot (occupied)
· Three (3) PCI Express x1 slot (one occupied)
· One (1) mini PCI Express slot (occupied)
· Four (4) 240-pin DDR3 DIMM slots
· Four (4) Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
· Rear I/O Ports:
· One (1) S/PDIF out (optical)
· One (1) eSATA port
· Four (4) USB 2.0 ports
· One (1) VGA (disabled)
· One (1) RJ-45 Ethernet jack
· Two (2) dual-link DVI-I ports
· One (1) HDMI port
· One (1) DisplayPort
· Line in, Line out, Microphone jacks (3.5 mm)
· Side, rear, c/sub audio jacks (3.5 mm)
· Case Features:
· Two (2) 5.25-inch external drive bays (one occupied)
· One (1) 3.5-inch external drive bay
· Two (2) 3.5-inch internal drive bay (one occupied)
· Top panel accessory plate
· Two (2) top panel USB 2.0 ports
· One (1) top panel 3.5 mm headphone jack
· One (1) top panel 3.5 mm microphone jack
· Two (2) front panel USB 2.0 ports
· 460-watt power supply (Input: AC 100-240V 50/60 Hz 8A/4A)

just a single Western Digital Caviar Green 2 TB SATA II and an iHAS dvd burner, is all i've added to it so far. its basically all stock from when the original buyer bought it in july of 2010. the hard drive died, he didnt want "the hassle of getting it fixed." sold me it for basically nothing, i was going to sell it, but decided i may as well throw a few hundred into and have myself a decent rig for when my xbox finally dies.

itll be connected to a 1080p hdtv(not that it matters)

 

[mkenyon]

Get an Antec BP550. Plenty of power, not too expensive.

Sorry late to the BF3 party but I its pretty much to only game I play and have spent a ton tweaking it and testing it so I wanted to chime in

BF3 is heavily optimized as mkenyon said for multi core CPUs and extremely intensive on GPUs making it almost irrelevant which CPU you have (like the graph shows). That being said I have found one use case where it is CPU bound, triple screens..... Although its weird that GPU power should be more of an issue pushing more pixels I can run it at low/med/high even some ultra with no difference in fps yet pushing my CPU antoher 100Mhz help be gain an extra 5fps.

Spoiler

x79 time?

I am reading some user reports that the MP is CPU dependent. One of the first tests for ZFZ labs will be MP game performance. The only issue is that hours of BF3 will need to be played in order to get decent results, and that game is terrible!

And yes, X79 time. This socket is going to be alive for a long while.

 

[The Frankman]

If its just for the OS, get an SSD. Btw what is wrong with using IDE?

I only have SATA connectors and I don't see anything on the power supply to connect it to.

HD will be for OS/Installed Programs. Also doesn't SSD have a much shorter life?

EDIT: Any help guys???

 

[ColonelSkills]

Lots of places to trim the budget on this guy.

1) Swap 3770K for 3570K unless you are going to be doing multimedia creation.
2) Swap the RAM you have selected for this, or this.
3) Get a better case. If you want something white, look at the Define R4, CoolerMaster Stryker, NZXT Switch 810, and BitFenix Shinobi XL. The Fractal Arc Midi, Lian Li PC-7HX, HAF XM, and Silverstone TJ04 are all good options too.
4) Swap PSU for this if you get a second 670, or this if you are going to stick with a single 670.

About your requirements, no one knows for sure what those beta titles will require once optimized. Can't give you any guarantees.

UE3 games will require you to clock your processor to the 4.3-4.5 region in order to maintain a good framerate. It's heavily processor bound. The most out there next to Starcraft 2.

Only SLI if you are willing to deal with random patches and workarounds to get it going on newly released titles.

Watercooling is fun, but a very expensive hobby ($500 budget to be safe) and it's only really worth it for people who like to constantly tinker with hardware.

For a heatsink, it's hard to beat the Hyper 212 or Xigmatek Gaia.

Thank you for this. Further questions, if I may.

1) Added issues with streaming, if I am trying to broadcast (or would like to try my hand at it) of my friends and our goofing off bullshit. The extra CPU load for this is a big enough deal to stick with the 3770 or would the 3570 suffice?
2) Is this just a brand/overpaying for the name kind of deal?
3) I really, really dig the aesthetic for the Level 10. I think it's because I have terrible taste in design. And that's fine. I am willing to pay a bit of a premium for it simply for the aesthetic, because it offers no other practical benefits. If you know of any issues it might have versus those other listed cases (other than simply price concerns), I'm all ears, though. (Yeah I'm all about white, too)
4) Much obliged, thank you.

I'm concerned about that degree of OC (because I've not done an OC of that magnitude before) when you're talking about 4.5 for UE3 titles. Hopefully it won't be much of an issue with one of those heat sinks you mentioned.

Don't bother with a 680, the 670 is almost equally as good as it http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/598?vs=555

Yeah, that's actually the exact article I was reading not too long ago. I am glad the second opinion agrees.

w/r/t the 7970. I have had previous bad experiences with radeons, to the point where I've migrated to nvidia pretty much by default with my builds. But then again I haven't done one in four years, hence asking in this thread. Maybe I've just had disproportionately bad luck in the past.

Drop the sound card too. Mkenyon will be able to say whether I'm right on this front or not either but I don't see the need for the 3770k, the 3570K with a good OC will more than suffice imo.

I require the amp, actually. At least with the setup I'm contemplating. For the price, that seems like the right piece of hardware.

I plan on using this to stream a fair bit of content, and I imagine that'll be a potential issue, no?

 

[Piercedveil]

What about looking at a used one? Going by Newegg prices for new 6870s and 7850s there is only $15 in it if you go for the 1GB version of the 7850.

Hmm, you're right. So that and a G850 would be a decent choice together?

 

[mkenyon]

Thank you for this. Further questions, if I may.

1) Added issues with streaming, if I am trying to broadcast (or would like to try my hand at it) of my friends and our goofing off bullshit. The extra CPU load for this is a big enough deal to stick with the 3770 or would the 3570 suffice?
2) Is this just a brand/overpaying for the name kind of deal?
3) I really, really dig the aesthetic for the Level 10. I think it's because I have terrible taste in design. And that's fine. I am willing to pay a bit of a premium for it simply for the aesthetic, because it offers no other practical benefits. If you know of any issues it might have versus those other listed cases (other than simply price concerns), I'm all ears, though. (Yeah I'm all about white, too)
4) Much obliged, thank you.

I'm concerned about that degree of OC (because I've not done an OC of that magnitude before) when you're talking about 4.5 for UE3 titles. Hopefully it won't be much of an issue with one of those heat sinks you mentioned.



Yeah, that's actually the exact article I was reading not too long ago. I am glad the second opinion agrees.

w/r/t the 7970. I have had previous bad experiences with radeons, to the point where I've migrated to nvidia pretty much by default with my builds. But then again I haven't done one in four years, hence asking in this thread. Maybe I've just had disproportionately bad luck in the past.



I require the amp, actually. At least with the setup I'm contemplating. For the price, that seems like the right piece of hardware.

I plan on using this to stream a fair bit of content, and I imagine that'll be a potential issue, no?

If you are broadcasting, you absolutely must have a capture card. They're pricey, but the Black Magic Intensity Pro is pretty fantastic. You basically duplicate your output via your standard monitor as well as HDMI, which then plugs right into the BMIP. This offloads everything about capturing the video and compression. There is almost zero data loss. Check out www.twich.tv/kudochop, we built that system specifically for streaming Tribes: Ascend without any performance loss.

 

[scogoth]

I am reading some user reports that the MP is CPU dependent. One of the first tests for ZFZ labs will be MP game performance. The only issue is that hours of BF3 will need to be played in order to get decent results, and that game is terrible!

And yes, X79 time. This socket is going to be alive for a long while.

Yeah MP 64 player is what I normally play which is mostly likely the cause of the sudden and large drops. 32 player is much more consistent which makes sense less physics and model calculations.

And at least you can play with GAF =3

 

[Mordeccai]

So I booted up Saints Row Three today for the second time (through steam) and after a couple of seconds my rig crashed and immediately rebooted. Should I be worried about this or is it just one of those things that may happen once in a while?

All I have installed on the PC are a few Metro apps, steam, Avast, malware bytes, spotify, and some drivers for my gfx card, so I can't imagine it was caused by any of my installed programs.

When I started the game after reboot the image appeared to be in windowed mode without the borders and showed the live Steam big picture wallpaper chugging in the background. Just had to select fullscreen and 1900x1280 resolution to get the image back to its right size.

 

[mkenyon]

Coolermaster 690II on sale for $50

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216&Tpk=11-119-216

 

[TheD]

If you are broadcasting, you absolutely must have a capture card. They're pricey, but the Black Magic Intensity Pro is pretty fantastic. You basically duplicate your output via your standard monitor as well as HDMI, which then plugs right into the BMIP. This offloads everything about capturing the video and compression. There is almost zero data loss. Check out www.twich.tv/kudochop, we built that system specifically for streaming Tribes: Ascend without any performance loss.

Try OBS and it's new game capture plugin, I can encode 30 FPS, 10000KBs, super fast profile, 1280x800 video with no frame rate problems (compared to the huge framerate hit I took with DXTORY doing the screen capture) on a 4.4Ghz i5 (it also kind of works up to 100000KBs, using what I think is a lossless setting).

 

[Infinite Justice]

Coolermaster 690II on sale for $50

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216&Tpk=11-119-216

buy it people

 

[The Frankman]

soooooo close... just need a 2nd HDD and to buy the Asus DVD burner.

 

[KamikazeTY]

I'm in love with Corsair 400R. Combine this tower with a modular PSU and a blind man could make his cabling look beautiful. Fantastic cable management tower.

 

[Charrettizard]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NHAF06/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Samsung 840s for a little under a $100 on Amazon. I'm thinking about biting, but I heard there were some issues with the 840 when it launched. Anyone have experience with 840 series and how does it compare to the 830s?

 

[clav]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NHAF06/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Samsung 840s for a little under a $100 on Amazon. I'm thinking about biting, but I heard there were some issues with the 840 when it launched. Anyone have experience with 840 series and how does it compare to the 830s?

830 or 840 Pro man. Don't even consider the 840 regular.

I'd take the 830 over the 840 Pro simply because of price.

 

[radjago]

soooooo close... just need a 2nd HDD and to buy the Asus DVD burner.

I'm curious, what's your cost on this build? It looks like a solid budget build.

 

[Infinite Justice]

If its just for the OS, get an SSD. Btw what is wrong with using IDE?

IDE is dead since motherboards are SATA now.


The best he could so with that ide HDD is to find/buy an external enclosure that still has an IDE interface and use the drive as a external drive.

 

[AScotAbroad]

Hey Gaf - longtime lurker here who finally got his new PC build together and aww hell it don't work

Here's my specs (built from scratch): http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/lrOu.

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB
Case: Antec P280 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V
Optical Drive: Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer

Hooked everything up, started out well when I pressed the power button on the case and the BIOS boots up - but it complains that the current CMS settings don't fully support the boot device (the CPU and 16Gb of RAM are correctly displayed on the boot screen). Trawling through the BIOS screens gives me a list of all the potential SATA ports on the mobo, and they all say "Empty".

My DVD drive doesn't eject when I press the button - should that be the first sign that it's likely a problem with the modular PSU? The GFX card is powering up and in fact I tested all this with HDMI from the card to my TV so I know that's functioning at least. My 2Tb HDD doesn't appear to spin up either, and I've tried switching all the SATA power cables around (the PSU came with a bunch).

Any ideas? My mate is bringing his spare Corsair PSU round tonight so we can try testing with that one, but I'm curious if anyone else here has had this problem, since I took most of these parts from Hazaro's awesome build table.

 

[Infinite Justice]

Hey Gaf - longtime lurker here who finally got his new PC build together and aww hell it don't work

Here's my specs (built from scratch): http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/lrOu.



Hooked everything up, started out well when I pressed the power button on the case and the BIOS boots up - but it complains that the current CMS settings don't fully support the boot device (the CPU and 16Gb of RAM are correctly displayed on the boot screen). Trawling through the BIOS screens gives me a list of all the potential SATA ports on the mobo, and they all say "Empty".

My DVD drive doesn't eject when I press the button - should that be the first sign that it's likely a problem with the modular PSU? The GFX card is powering up and in fact I tested all this with HDMI from the card to my TV so I know that's functioning at least. My 2Tb HDD doesn't appear to spin up either, and I've tried switching all the SATA power cables around (the PSU came with a bunch).

Any ideas? My mate is bringing his spare Corsair PSU round tonight so we can try testing with that one, but I'm curious if anyone else here has had this problem, since I took most of these parts from Hazaro's awesome build table.

well its powering everything else so it seems to be working and i would target the sata power cables tbh to see if the issue is there.

you are sure your sata devices are connected firmly (data and power to each device)?

also since its a modular PSU check to see if the cable that has the power connectors is connected firmly to the unit.

 

[Shambles]

Hey Gaf - longtime lurker here who finally got his new PC build together and aww hell it don't work

Here's my specs (built from scratch): http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/lrOu.



Hooked everything up, started out well when I pressed the power button on the case and the BIOS boots up - but it complains that the current CMS settings don't fully support the boot device (the CPU and 16Gb of RAM are correctly displayed on the boot screen). Trawling through the BIOS screens gives me a list of all the potential SATA ports on the mobo, and they all say "Empty".

My DVD drive doesn't eject when I press the button - should that be the first sign that it's likely a problem with the modular PSU? The GFX card is powering up and in fact I tested all this with HDMI from the card to my TV so I know that's functioning at least. My 2Tb HDD doesn't appear to spin up either, and I've tried switching all the SATA power cables around (the PSU came with a bunch).

Any ideas? My mate is bringing his spare Corsair PSU round tonight so we can try testing with that one, but I'm curious if anyone else here has had this problem, since I took most of these parts from Hazaro's awesome build table.

Would an HDD that hasn't been initialized even be shown in the boot list in the BIOS? If you make a bootable USB of windows or linux does it allow you to select the 2TB HDD? Perhaps it's just the optical drive itself that's dead.

Otherwise try alternating SATA power/data cables and try using different SATA ports on the motherboard. I'm kind of leaning towards power though as I would expect an powered optical drive to open up even if there is no SATA connection to it.

Coolermaster 690II on sale for $50

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216&Tpk=11-119-216

Wow. I paid $80-90 for mine and it has been worth every penny. Amazing deal.
Edit: Nevermind, this is the older USB 2.0 version. It's not a bad case but it's not the same as the 690 II Advanced USB 3.0 edition. Going through the pictures it might just be the I/O panel that is different. Everything else inside seems the same.

 

[scogoth]

Would an HDD that hasn't been initialized even be shown in the boot list in the BIOS? If you make a bootable USB of windows or linux does it allow you to select the 2TB HDD? Perhaps it's just the optical drive itself that's dead.

Otherwise try alternating SATA power/data cables and try using different SATA ports on the motherboard. I'm kind of leaning towards power though as I would expect an powered optical drive to open up even if there is no SATA connection to it.

Yes it would showin BIOS. If its not in BIOS it will not show in an OS to initialize.

 

[Brannon]

I have a Radeon 6850 at the moment, and want to upgrade for Farcry 3, also willing to spend up to $320 for the GPU. Any quick suggestions?

Edit: Radeon or Nvidia is okay.

 

[Infinite Justice]

I have a Radeon 6850 at the moment, and want to upgrade for Farcry 3, also willing to spend up to $320 for the GPU. Any quick suggestions?

Edit: Radeon or Nvidia is okay.

since you are not shackled to a team i have seen a few in the thread hyping the 7950 at that price point, plus it comes with some free games (Far Cry 3, Hitman and Sleeping Dogs).

for nvidia the 660 ti is a candidate at that price range but some are concerned about its lower amount of memory bandwidth (especially if you push a high resolution and good high AA and AF. So the recommended choice instead is the 670, but thats $100 more at least

edit this MSI Twin Frozr 4 670 is 389 and comes with free Borderlands 2 and AC3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127685

 

[Lkr]

IDE is dead since motherboards are SATA now.


The best he could so with that ide HDD is to find/buy an external enclosure that still has an IDE interface and use the drive as a external drive.

Motherboards come with no IDE ports?

 

[Infinite Justice]

Motherboards come with no IDE ports?

*i refer to IDE and those PATA connectors as one in the same*

yea, its just SATA connectors now on these new boards to connect hard drives, SSDs and optical drives.

so this thing

and in extension, this thing

gone (at least in regards to general consumer stuff)

 

[Alexios]

Hmm, this no-IDE thing might be a problem when I build the new PC, I think my optical drive is IDE (but could be wrong). How would I install Windows? Actually, do they still require a reinstall for an all new rig or will it work if I just stick my old HDDs in the new rig, just by installing new chipset drivers and what not all over again? I never really understood why the CPU and motherboard and what not can't be configured at will like this and instead everyone recommended an all new Windows install back when I last checked on the issue (pre-XP possibly) even though you could still update the drivers just fine when a new version was coming.

 

[Akkad]

Stupid question but is Arctic Silver 5 still the one people use most, and also is it still good to use after 2 years of no usage? I don't wanna buy a new tube.

 

[The Frankman]

*i refer to IDE and those PATA connectors as one in the same*

yea, its just SATA connectors now on these new boards to connect hard drives, SSDs and optical drives.

so this thing

and in extension, this thing

gone (at least in regards to general consumer stuff)

Yep, I had forgot since I bought my board in 2006 (brain cramp).

Still looking to see if anything else is better preicewise than these, if anyone knows a better drive/deal send it plz:

Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD3000HLHX 300GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive.

The 750 GB one that's SATA I plan to strip all windows stuff out and make it just for my pictures/data, whichever one I buy is the OS drive I guess.

 

[Horsemama1956]

Hmm, this no-IDE thing might be a problem when I build the new PC, I think my optical drive is IDE (but could be wrong). How would I install Windows? Actually, do they still require a reinstall for an all new rig or will it work if I just stick my old HDDs in the new rig, just by installing new chipset drivers and what not all over again? I never really understood why the CPU and motherboard and what not can't be configured at will like this and instead everyone recommended an all new Windows install back when I last checked on the issue (pre-XP possibly) even though you could still update the drivers just fine when a new version was coming.

Just make a USB install with whichever version of windows you are going to use before building your new PC. It's faster as well. MS has pretty straight forward instructions and software to do it.

 

[Lkr]

*i refer to IDE and those PATA connectors as one in the same*

yea, its just SATA connectors now on these new boards to connect hard drives, SSDs and optical drives.

so this thing

and in extension, this thing

gone (at least in regards to general consumer stuff)

I guess I'm already dead. I don't feel like spending money on a sata DVD since I don't know how often I'd use it

 

[kennah]

That is goIng to be the worst part of upgrading - retiring my Pioneer slot load drive

 

[The Frankman]

I guess I'm already dead. I don't feel like spending money on a sata DVD since I don't know how often I'd use it

They're dirt cheap nowadays unless you want Blu-Ray in there, get the ASUS DRW-24B1ST in Hazaro's build. Only $25 on NewEgg.

That is goIng to be the worst part of upgrading - retiring my Pioneer slot load drive

I had a Pioneer 16x DVD+r 8x DVD+RW DVR-109 DVD Burner in my old computer.

Sucker worked for over 8 years with pretty heavy use. No complaints, Hell it's still working and now I have to jettison it. Sad.

 

[saelz8]

Stupid question but is Arctic Silver 5 still the one people use most, and also is it still good to use after 2 years of no usage? I don't wanna buy a new tube.

If its not dried up, its good.

 

[Cannon Goose]

How do I make it so this fun, totally not annoying at all window never pops up again?

Happens during games occasionally.

 

[Infinite Justice]

Hmm, this no-IDE thing might be a problem when I build the new PC, I think my optical drive is IDE (but could be wrong). How would I install Windows? Actually, do they still require a reinstall for an all new rig or will it work if I just stick my old HDDs in the new rig, just by installing new chipset drivers and what not all over again? I never really understood why the CPU and motherboard and what not can't be configured at will like this and instead everyone recommended an all new Windows install back when I last checked on the issue (pre-XP possibly) even though you could still update the drivers just fine when a new version was coming.

you can get a SATA version of the drive for really cheap or instead install via a USB flash drive.

As for moving over i'm not sure since i don't remember myself being in that situation before (i either get a new HDD and install the OS on that or i get a new HDD via a completely separate system i.e getting a laptop)

Yep, I had forgot since I bought my board in 2006 (brain cramp).

Still looking to see if anything else is better preicewise than these, if anyone knows a better drive/deal send it plz:

Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD3000HLHX 300GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive.

The 750 GB one that's SATA I plan to strip all windows stuff out and make it just for my pictures/data, whichever one I buy is the OS drive I guess.

if you need a OS drive get an SSD, i highly recommend it for the crazy low boot time due to the speed. If you feel paranoid about the life expectantcy (i don't think it will die too quickly tbh) just follow the info in the OP about what to enable/disable so it will last longer (iirc constant writes is the main culprit so the info deals with those).

I guess I'm already dead. I don't feel like spending money on a sata DVD since I don't know how often I'd use it

if you really dont see yourself using it much then you dont have to get one and use usb instead (flash drives, external HDDs, etc, install OS with a flash drive if needed). I hardly burn anything anymore so i'm mostly on that path.

oyherwise just buy a SATA one since they are cheap these days ($15 and over) and effectively replaces the ide versions.

That is goIng to be the worst part of upgrading - retiring my Pioneer slot load drive

yea it felt bad man

i was really salty when it finally dawned on me that my HDD and DVD Burner would not make it, plus i was on the "getting new parts" high/bliss just a moment before

How do I make it so this fun, totally not annoying at all window never pops up again?

Happens during games occasionally.

It pops up again after picking the third option?

 

[kharma45]

I have a Radeon 6850 at the moment, and want to upgrade for Farcry 3, also willing to spend up to $320 for the GPU. Any quick suggestions?

Edit: Radeon or Nvidia is okay.

This would be my choice if it were in stock

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414

since it's not then either the MSI Twin Frozr III or Sapphire (there is three different ones for them) variants are your best bet.

It's beyond your budget but just to tempt you in the quote below there is a link to the 7970 for $40 over your budget. This is the rough difference before any overclocking on the old drivers (12.11 brings another performance boost, but it's applicable to all 7xxx cards) http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/645?vs=618

since you are not shackled to a team i have seen a few in the thread hyping the 7950 at that price point, plus it comes with some free games (Far Cry 3, Hitman and Sleeping Dogs).

for nvidia the 660 ti is a candidate at that price range but some are concerned about its lower amount of memory bandwidth (especially if you push a high resolution and good high AA and AF. So the recommended choice instead is the 670, but thats $100 more at least

edit this MSI Twin Frozr 4 670 is 389 and comes with free Borderlands 2 and AC3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127685

7970 is a better buy at less money imo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008

 

[Cannon Goose]

It pops up again after picking the third option?

Yes it does. It came up a few days ago and I selected that option only to have it come up again this evening.

In the performance options for the desktop appearance there's a 'Let Windows Choose the best settings for me' option, but I have that set to custom so I'm not sure why it's even popping up at all.

 

[Echoplx]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but anyway, my memory slots suddenly started screwing up today, ram only works in slot 0 and 1.. 2 and 3 are completely dead which means I am running my ram in single channel mode currently.

Is there any real world performance differences I should be worried about? I'm still on P55 with an 860 and don't really want to waste money on getting a new P55 board and/or CPU depending on where the fault is when I'm planning on upgrading to Haswell later on.

Just had to happen the day after I bought an 8GB ram kit and an SSD ;_;

PS I've tried everything I can think of to fix this; updating BIOS, clearing CMOS etc nothing seems to work.

EDIT: This seems to indicate it's not a big problem: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/PARALLEL-PROCESSING,1705-11.html

 

[dekjo]

I guess I'm already dead. I don't feel like spending money on a sata DVD since I don't know how often I'd use it

I'm in the same boat - have an old IDE optic drive and a new board that doesn't support it. What about getting a IDE to SATA adapter?

 

[scogoth]

Yes it does. It came up a few days ago and I selected that option only to have it come up again this evening.

In the performance options for the desktop appearance there's a 'Let Windows Choose the best settings for me' option, but I have that set to custom so I'm not sure why it's even popping up at all.

Yeah the dont know show me again doesn't actually do anything. It happens when your video card is very low on VRAM. Few things you can do, turn off aero permanently, lower aa usage in your games or get a new GPU with more VRAM. Not very good options but I'm sure if you dig around google there may be a registry edit or something to disable that warning.

 

[Bleether]

I'm in the same boat - have an old IDE optic drive and a new board that doesn't support it. What about getting a IDE to SATA adapter?

I feel like i am back in the year 2001 when dvd-rw drives were like $300+(Actually i think cd-rw were around 300 and dvd was like over 1000!). I don't understand why this is a concern, and why u would go through the trouble of buying an adapter.

Why not spend the extra 10 bucks and just buy a brand newSata drive?

I don't know maybe im missing something here! ;P

 

[The Frankman]

if you need a OS drive get an SSD, i highly recommend it for the crazy low boot time due to the speed. If you feel paranoid about the life expectancy (i don't think it will die too quickly tbh) just follow the info in the OP about what to enable/disable so it will last longer (iirc constant writes is the main culprit so the info deals with those).

The thing is speed of boot isn't too big an issue (it only takes slightly over a minute to boot up right now anyway). Do most SSD's last 5+ years? I know the amount of program read-erase cycles matter, and I'd be looking for anything that lasts awhile that's inexpensive.

I'm really hitting the higher end of my budget, considering I may need a new video card also, and I'd want a fairly sizable drive for the new OS install/a few large programs.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

hey guys! would really appreciate the verdict on this Sony Vaio E Series.
Your configuration

Processor: Intel® CoreTM i5-3210M, 2.5GHz
Operating system: Windows 8
Finishes: White
Keyboard Style: Standard keyboard
Hard drive: 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Optical Drive: Blu-ray Disc(TM) player
Display: 39.5cm LED 1366 x 768 + webcam
Graphics: AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7650M 1GB
Battery: Battery life up to 4 hours

Price = 489pounds

for 20 pounds more i can upgrade to this graphics card if it makes a huge difference:

AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7650M with dedicated Video Memory of 2 GB

gaming isn't my priority with this thing, but would it run dolphin at any decent standards for example?

 

[Bleether]

The thing is speed of boot isn't too big an issue (it only takes slightly over a minute to boot up right now anyway). Do most SSD's last 5+ years? I know the amount of program read-erase cycles matter, and I'd be looking for anything that lasts awhile that's inexpensive.

.

If you have a tight budget, i wouldn't stress about SSD. The boot time is nice and everything, but not at the expense of storage. Id rather have a couple tb of storage vs a 64 gig boot drive and a small storage drive.

 

[dekjo]

I feel like i am back in the year 2001 when dvd-rw drives were like $300+(Actually i think cd-rw were around 300 and dvd was like over 1000!). I don't understand why this is a concern, and why u would go through the trouble of buying an adapter.

Why not spend the extra 10 bucks and just buy a brand newSata drive?

I don't know maybe im missing something here! ;P

I'm hoping to only have to use it once to install Windows and then I want to take it out of my case altogether. I can get a new one for $25 or so, sure. And I may end up doing that, I'm just seeing if there's an alternative.

 

[Bleether]

I'm hoping to only have to use it once to install Windows and then I want to take it out of my case altogether. I can get a new one for $25 or so, sure. And I may end up doing that, I'm just seeing if there's an alternative.

You dont need an optical drive to install windows, Just load it up on a USB stick. There is a guide in this forums somewhere http://www.sevenforums.com/.... I have done it... its really easy.

 

[Ty4on]

for 20 pounds more i can upgrade to this graphics card if it makes a huge difference:

AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7650M with dedicated Video Memory of 2 GB

Nope. There are more powerful GPUs doing well with 1GB RAM. The GPU itself is the same in both.

 

[kittoo]

hey guys! would really appreciate the verdict on this Sony Vaio E Series.
Your configuration

Processor: Intel® CoreTM i5-3210M, 2.5GHz
Operating system: Windows 8
Finishes: White
Keyboard Style: Standard keyboard
Hard drive: 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Optical Drive: Blu-ray Disc(TM) player
Display: 39.5cm LED 1366 x 768 + webcam
Graphics: AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7650M 1GB
Battery: Battery life up to 4 hours

Price = 489pounds

for 20 pounds more i can upgrade to this graphics card if it makes a huge difference:

AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7650M with dedicated Video Memory of 2 GB

gaming isn't my priority with this thing, but would it run dolphin at any decent standards for example?

While I dont think the graphics card update will make huge difference in most cases, it will also depend on the resolution you play on. If its full HD or above, more graphics memory is a good thing. If thats the case, its only 20 pounds, I would say go for it.